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People do not change just because they are on the web. They are still the same people they were before the Internet became a popular phenomenon. Some are arrogant. Some are nice. Some are mean. Others are modest. The list of traits is the same for people everywhere.

The above paragraph is true, except for one breed that was specifically created post-Internet. The Search Engine or Webmaster Guru is the Internet's equivalent of Frankenstein's monster.

These are the guys, and in some instances gals, that really believe in their mind that they above all others believe they know everything there is to know about the web and if you ever disagree with them, then you must just be stupid.

You've seen this animal. They lurk in webmaster forums and give everyone advice they themselves never use or follow. They are not millionaires and few are even modestly successful at anything on the web besides telling other website owners what to do.

They build websites that give more advice. They write articles. There is nothing wrong with giving out advice. There is nothing wrong with participating in forums. There is nothing wrong with writing articles like I am doing right now.

The Gurus I am talking about are those that do nothing else. They do not contribute to the overall quality of the web by building websites that have content people want to see. They don't actually run a business, but like to tell others how they should be running theirs.

They make all of their money by charging you to help you run your business. They sell ebooks about how to run an online business, but do not have one themselves, except for selling you their ebook.

They charge you for search engine optimization. I am not saying that there is absolutely no need for search engine optimization. I am telling you that the Gurus simply put way too much emphasis on things like alt tags, metatags, filenames, keyword density percentages, and other things that make them sound smarter than everyone else who doesn't know exactly how to do those things.

However, all of the information you need is out there on the Internet for free. You too can be a search engine optimization Guru. Spend about two days reading all the free information available about search engine optimization and you will probably have your own ebook for sale tomorrow.

Yes, I said two days. That is all that subject is worth in my honest opinion. You build your website, include keywords in your text without spamming them, use a few words in your alt tags if you want, ignore metatags altogether or limit it to title, keywords and description metatags, and you're done with that.

You want to really optimize your website for the search engines? Promotion is the key. Getting link popularity, writing articles, adding content to update your website regularly, commenting on forums and blogs about things related to your website, writing articles, those are the things that will help you be successful on the web.

The next time you see one of these search engine optimization gurus posting in a forum, ask them what else they do besides giving advice to other people. Ask them if they have any websites that are about anything else besides giving advice to others about how to run their business or sell their products and services.

Ask them if they have any business websites that sell products and services like your own. If they say yes, ask for links. Check the PR on their business websites. If they do not have better PR than you for websites that sell products other than search engine optimization Guru drivel, then should you really be listening to them?

In general, they want you to believe it takes a specific talent to understand how search engines work and how to build websites that are properly optimized for the search engines. They want you to believe that you should constantly be optimizing that one website for each little change that google or other search engines make.

Spend your time promoting your website. I tell all my clients, spend 30% of your time and money to build your website and 70% on promoting it when they are first starting out. After the website is built, I tell them to spend 10% of their time optimizing their website, and by that I mean adding content to it, and 90% of their time promoting their website.

If you wanted a magic formula, there it is. It is hard work. There are no magic pills or shortcuts. Promotion is the key. Search Engine Optimization Gurus are the dinosaurs of the Internet and soon to be extinct.