07.26.06
Search Engine Optimization is bogus.
Maybe not completely, but most of what I hear people saying about search engine optimization is simply snake-oil. Nick Wilson has written a good piece on the topic.
Content is king. If you put information up that people want to read you will be linked. I think this applies to shopping carts and commercial sites as well. The more information about the products that is available the more google has to index and the less meta tags and the filename of your stylesheet matter.
How to generate content? Well, actually think about what you are trying to sell and write about it. Most clients don’t want to hear that. It is not something that the web designer can do well (he likely isn’t intimately familiar with the product), and it is not something he can just pay $100 to be done with. It requires work from the client.
In lieu of that, reviews are one way to help generate content, although if you are selling schlock then that may not work out in your favor. Post purchase information such as online instruction manuals, references, faqs, stories, will also kee people coming back, and maybe more likely to get you into their del.icio.us bookmarks.