SEOBY.ORG - Informal Organization for Search Engine Industry Professionals

About SEOBy.org

SEOBy.org was established as an organization for those involved with the search engine industry. The intent is to provide a meeting ground that is free from hype, politics, commercial interests, and egos so that all involved may advance their craft for the betterment of all.

The organization name comes from the SEOBy Meta tag that was created in 2002 by Nielsen Technical Services of Minneapolis, Minnesota USA. The tag is intended to provide a verification system to identify the source of the optimization that has been applied to a specific web site. SEOBy means "Search Engine Optimization By".

The verification is to allow search engine and directory owners some level of assurance that a site containing the SEOBy tag will meet basic standards of good search engine optimization.

There has been some comment that the SEOBy tag is just another pathetic attempt at..what? Something to fool the search engines? Not likely, since at the moment they don't know what it is or how to use it. It is our hope that the situation changes in the near future, since we see a real need to make the SEO and submission process less labor-intensive.

Having a system where the work of SEO firms is "trusted" will result in less work for the SEO companies and the search engines and directories. Does this concept have a snowball's chance in hell? Why not? All it takes is for a large number of people to agree that the idea makes sense and join in. SEO firms can become members at no cost, and have a say in the direction of the organization.

Search engine operators are encouraged to also join for free and have an equal say in the say things are run. If the value of the SEOBy system is not recognized and becomes widespread, then it will be yet another failed attempt to organize and make the web more efficient, but at least we tried...

The SEOBy system is simple and works in this way:

- A SEO company becomes a registered SEOBy member and agrees to follow established guidelines of SEO best practices.

- The member's information is registered on the SEOBy web site, and is available to anyone needing to verify membership.

- When the member optimizes a client web site, they add the SEOBy Meta tag to the pages. The web site URL is also added to the member's SEOBy site list.

- When the site is inspected for inclusion into the index of a search engine or directory, the tag is located and then verified at the SEOBy website.

- Depending on the level of trust given to the SEOBy verification, the site may more easily be accepted for inclusion, or the inclusion may be automatic.

- Any member found not following good SEO practices will have their account terminated and site list file erased. There may be an appeal process, but the rules should be written up so that there is little or no "gray area".

SEOBy Best Practices

We are not going to be cops for the search engines, because they don't pay us enough. However there are a number of things that are not "honest". Some SE have rules about some things and not others. The SEOBy Best Practices may include the following list:

- Nothing should be presented as site content that is not visible to visitors. This does not include comments, HTML code, meta tags, which are not content.

- There should be no connected content not meant to be viewed by site visitors..

- The site content, HTML code use, and Meta tags should be optimized as needed with the results of scored keyword phrase research.

- General Optimization is recommended, but more targeted optimization is allowed, as long as the client is aware of the difference and now more targeted optimization generally requires ongoing maintenance.

- Keyword ranking can be used, but the client should be informed of the difference between ranking and actual traffic to the site, and the meaning of the term, "visitor conversion".

SEOBy.org is designed to be flexible and forgiving. If you hate the SEO Nazis as much as I do, you will appreciate this attitude. SEO is constantly changing and so too should any professional organization. Suggestions and comments are very welcome, but don't get your feelings hurt if that are not adopted. The less ego an organization has, the better.