So, I did a search for “what works” and got some useful results. Skip that link, unless you have some time and an open mind for exploration of global change topics. Well, OK, many are local change topics, but you know what I mean! That is a pretty generic search, so you get some non-specific results.
Next, I searched for “what works in SEO now” and I got results that include many of the usual suspects.
Search Engine Journal, Moz, Copyblogger, etc., they always have something useful to say on this topic. So, now I’m listening to an MP3 that I downloaded from Copyblogger, while I write the rest of this post.
They’re talking about “white hat SEO’s”, with the word SEO used as a noun, meaning people like me, who do the work. And, White Hat means we aren’t doing sneaky things to fool our readers or the search engines. Keyword research is the current topic of discussion, where we learn what search terms people use, which helps us understand how to optimize the content we put on the web, while at the same time complicating the thinking process. It’s easier to just write well, without thinking about how we need to understand (and optimize according to) keyword analysis. See what I mean?
Here’s what I think works and what you’ll find most relevant today (based on your research – not my opinion). Good content on your site, with appropriate links to pages that expand on the search term, is what ranks with the engines. In other words, just write something that makes sense first. Give somebody something useful and then go look at the good content you’ve created and evaluate it for opportunities to link phrases to other pages.

Link to page with MP3 download.
It’s fun (for me) and useful to write while learning. The folks in the MP3 mentioned this link,
By TRACY GOLD, published SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 – A Food Pyramid for Content Marketing – so here it is. This is an example of good content, dedicated to giving you something of value, with the hope that you’ll sign up for their daily email feed, all designed to nudge you toward becoming a paid subscriber. Finally, they get to the money bit.
Palm Desert SEO