After conducting extensive research I have come to the conclusion that there is a great deal of misunderstanding surrounding the subject of Search Engine Marketing. The greatest misunderstanding is in confusing the terms Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
One would think that those individuals claiming to be SEO experts should be knowledgeable about the subject and recognize the clear distinction. Apparently this is not the case; the internet is full of misguided information, from so called experts. Proving, I suppose that the industry is liberally spattered with cowboys.
To start, let us first define the term Search Engine Optimisation (henceforth referred to as SEO).
SEO
SEO is the process of manipulating the structure and content of a website in such a way that it will perform better in the search engines organic listings. The techniques involved can be sub-structured into several areas of activity, as detailed below.
1) Page readiness Search engines expect to crawl clean HTML code. Every page of a website should be validated to eliminate errors and sloppy coding.
2) Site readiness Search engine web...