[General_C]

Hi everyone,

I have been working for the past two years on a website. I've learned PHP, Javascript, CSS, MySQL, BASH, Java, Apache Server, and so many other things. I've worked on the programming logic, usability, elegance, reducing page size to a minimum, and much more.

Now, I finally feel comfortable about telling the world that it is there, and I can feel good about. The website is

language101.com

One of the things I want to focus on is ethical SEO. I don't want to spam the web with emails and pseudo webs sites. I want to get real links from real people.

I am here just to ask "Where do I start." What are the best techniques? Any advice? Maybe a favorite tutorial or video?

[firebolt]

Maybe have a look here:
http://www.dreaminco...showforum64.htm

[pauldickinson]

I'd start by link building. I think that link building is much more "profitable" than on-site seo stuff.

Get commenting on some popular sites that are related to your site. The comment section of sites normally allows for some website details. Forums are the same.

The more mention you can get of your site the better!

[SixOfEleven]

I have three suggestions.

1) Add a link to your site in your signature on forums related to your site, that allow it. You will have to particpate in the forums actively. Every post you make in the forum will have a link to your site, a big help. I guess that is what pauldickinson was suggesting, I just re-read that suggestion.

2) Start a blog that is related to your site. You will have to update it regularly though for this to work. In the blog, at the end of each post have a link to your site.

3) Contact web masters on other sites that are related to your and ask about link sharing. You will have a link to their site and their site will have a link to yours.

[General_C]

Thank you for your suggestions. I have one specific question.

SixOfEleven, on 26 Jul, 2009 - 10:31 AM, said:

3) Contact web masters on other sites that are related to your and ask about link sharing. You will have a link to their site and their site will have a link to yours.

Should other sites that are somewhat unrelated language learning http://Language101.com link to me?

For example. I got a link from a hotel.

http://www.humehotel...lson/links.php3

According to google this page has a Google rank of 3 (although now Google says it has no data for the page).

The hotel has no direct relation to Language Learning. However, it does have a decent page rank. How much does this help me? Does it hurt me? I know that Google will penalize you for bad neighborhood sites and spammy sites, but this hotel is a legitimate website. Can Google really tell that the two sites are not related?

[sdiggles]

General_C, on 18 Jul, 2009 - 01:21 PM, said:

Hi everyone,

I have been working for the past two years on a website. I've learned PHP, Javascript, CSS, MySQL, BASH, Java, Apache Server, and so many other things. I've worked on the programming logic, usability, elegance, reducing page size to a minimum, and much more.

Now, I finally feel comfortable about telling the world that it is there, and I can feel good about. The website is

language101.com

One of the things I want to focus on is ethical SEO. I don't want to spam the web with emails and pseudo webs sites. I want to get real links from real people.

I am here just to ask "Where do I start." What are the best techniques? Any advice? Maybe a favorite tutorial or video?

Start by going to:
SEOmoz.org and SEOBook.com and learning the basics. SEOmoz has a FREE beginners guide to SEO that will give anyone a solid foundation. From those 2 sites- you will encounter a VERY LARGE amount of resources in the SEO field. They are specifically tailored to -teaching- SEO. A lot of it comes from expierence, but as for onpage and content creation- you should be alright with those sites right there.

You also have the option of Website Marketing and Promotion professional such as myself. My company does this all day every day and it comes like second nature to us.

[SlyRhyno]

General_C, on 18 Jul, 2009 - 01:21 PM, said:

Hi everyone,

I have been working for the past two years on a website. I've learned PHP, Javascript, CSS, MySQL, BASH, Java, Apache Server, and so many other things. I've worked on the programming logic, usability, elegance, reducing page size to a minimum, and much more.

Now, I finally feel comfortable about telling the world that it is there, and I can feel good about. The website is

language101.com

One of the things I want to focus on is ethical SEO. I don't want to spam the web with emails and pseudo webs sites. I want to get real links from real people.

I am here just to ask "Where do I start." What are the best techniques? Any advice? Maybe a favorite tutorial or video?

I have a method that I tend to follow, once the site is ready to go live (clean, standard code, SEO friendly URLS and proper tagging).
1 - submit the url to the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing,DMOZ) - they each have a method to submit if you just search for it or click on their "webmasters" links.
2 - claim your business address (if there is one) in the local directories
3 - get links from other ethical sites that are related to your biz. You'll make better progress if you get linked from sites with higher pagerank (use an SEO ranking tool to find PR - Firefox has a few SEO plugins)
4 - buy a few PPC ads for a while - a 6 month campaign with the right keywords will help to establish your business as more than just a fly-by-night spammer. It doesn't have to be a huge spend, just enough to generate a good clickthrough.

The other books and articles that people mentioned will help you really get into it, but starting with google's webmastertools is a great first step that is easy (crawl before you walk). If you did everything right, Google should crawl it within a couple weeks and provide verification that you are at least indexed in one search engine.