Not surprisingly, search engines have been reduced to lumping all SEO's into "untrustworthy" basket. On their Webmaster Do's and Don'ts page (http://www.google.com/webmasters/dos.html), Google state: "Be very careful about allowing an individual consultant or company to 'optimize' your web site. Chances are they will engage in some of our "Don'ts" and end up hurting your site". Chances are? Sounds a bit presumptuous if you ask me. Likewise, at a recent search engine conference, a representative from AltaVista declared that "all SEO's could be described using four letter words". The typical Internet user can only come to conclusion that, according to some very reliable sources, SEO's are not to be trusted - now how fair is that?

So main problem is - how do we address this reputation issue? Do we establish and agree on a standard Code of Practise as in development on sites such as World Association of Internet Marketers (http://www.waim.org/ethics.html), SEO Consultants (http://www.seoconsultants.com/seo-code-of-ethics.htm) and SEO Pros (http://www.seopros.org/members/practices.htm)? Do we race around locating and reporting search engine spam in hope of improving our reputation in eyes of search engines? Or do we simply follow our own set of standards and hope potential clients can come to their own untainted conclusions? Personally I'm looking forward to day when I no longer detect immediate suspicion when I tell people I optimize web sites for a living.

A keyword search should give me lots of ideas for related topics for my theme. OK, it threw up some weird, totally unrelated stuff, too, but I'll just ignore that. What I want are keywords that suggest a topic that I can write (or find) valuable content about. For example, my search on "Italian cooking" brought up "lowfat cooking". Hmm, hadn't thought of that, but a lot of Italian recipes are low in fat, so perhaps I'll write a page on this topic. This is called a keyword-focused page, and once I have 10 or 20 of these, I know that anyone searching for these and related keywords is going to find my site.

Great, I've got a site based on a theme that I know about and/or interests me. (If we're talking Italian cooking, we're talking PASSION!) I've packed it with valuable content on topics closely related to my theme. My visitors are going to love it, as are search engines. But, well..... what about me?

Oh, did I forget? I do love Italian cooking, but I'm building this theme-based website to earn income. So, at least some of my pages will offer valuable content that is also designed to presell. Presell what? Any product, program or service that I represent as an affiliate. Of course, product, program or service needs to "fit" with content and theme of my site. My "Italian cooking" site will include a page on "lowfat Italian cooking". Within my valuable content, I will recommend a favorite cookbook on lowfat Italian cooking and provide an in-text link to a bookseller who will then sell that book to my visitor. Content on Italian wine will link to a merchant where my visitor can mail-order Italian wines. Etc, etc.

How do I find products, programs and services I want to represent? That is topic of Part 3 of this series. Trouble coming up with a theme? Maybe I can help. mailto:yourhelpline@mail.com