There has been considerable interest on the impact of the economy, the medical ads issue and the changes in ad layout on Chinese Internet search engine Baidu.com (BIDU).  On the 11th December, the company released a press release that adjusted its revenue expectation for the fourth quarter of 2008 to between CNY890 million and CNY900 million, decreasing CNY100 million compared with its previous estimate.

Every SEO (Search Engine Optimization) effort must be accompanied by a link building campaign to be effective. After all, the incoming links are the entry points into any website besides the links displayed during a search result on Google or any other search engine.

There are different ways of approaching a building link strategy… and undoubtedly the most preferred method must be the natural way of linking that attracts a visitor to your website in search of good content. However this is a slow process and can take much time and effort . I always promote the fact that content is king and good content creation is one of the best SEO techniques ever. However, another common route of developing links for a website has been the reciprocal link building method where two or more websites exchange links with each other or links are purchased via a vendor. This method of search engine optimization is not appreciated any more by Google and such a practice will result in the site being blacklisted or the websites ranking maybe lowered.

Another good practice is having your site listed in Web directories like Dmoz or Yahoo Directory. These Directories are human edited have a prominent element in the search engines ranking algorithms. There are many directories with well categorized listings that are referred by people. While Dmoz is a free directory, there are many other paid directories that can be approached and this process can help in multiplying the incoming links to our website. One thing to note: When submitting to paid directories you must also consider directories that have relevance to your site.

One of the most effective linking strategies is to purchase text link ads from other high ranking websites. It has got a double benefit as the advertisement itself will pay by bringing in traffic and the site will get good ranking on the SERP (search engine results pages). Business websites can also register or place an ad on online yellow pages and this also can generate good traffic besides generating business

So when is the right time to plan SEO? Many people try and SEO their website after it is live and when they find no one has visited…. If you are building a new website then you need to  start planning your search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing strategy. This is the best time to introduce the SEO planning of a website is when the site design is being done and the site is ready to be launched but there is no content yet for the site.

I would strongly recommend you get the advise of an SEO consultant/expert to provide some suggestions about what keywords and key phrases you need to added into the site HTML as Meta tags and where those tags should go. Once the site is tagged and the design and navigation has been tested it’s time to add in content. Having SEO content on your site from the start will give your web site a big advantage in SEO optomization. However, it is important to note that this is not a one size fits all approach- Different engines require different forms of optimization.

Where a website is displayed on the search engine results page is critical to its success. It is well accepted that if your site is not found within the first three pages of results then it is most likely you will not be found. In order for the site to get a high ranking on the search engine results pages it’s imperative that the site is (search engine) optimized content that is ready to be part of a broad search engine marketing campaign.

If you have an existing site that is due for an overhaul or a design revamping then you should also take the time to review SEO requirements. Cosmetic work on the site is important so that your site doesn’t look outdated but changing up the content or using flash on the site will be very important considerations.

Your site is indexed based on the search engine spider ‘discovering’ your site and algorithmically determining your sites information (based on  the sites html information …among other things). Parting thoughts… Limited the use of flash.. text is king. Consider the engine you want to be ‘found’ on and research the ways that positively (and negatively) effect the specific engines .. but most of all avoid SEO consultants and companies that boast quick returns and guarantied positions on the first page….