First there was SEO.

Then came PPC.

Now the latest TLA (three-letter-acronym) in search engine marketing is SMO.

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Today I read a couple of articles about buying text links to increase the Google PageRank of your site. While not totally contradicting each other, they each presented a radically different take on the issue.

This article by Armand Morin highly recommends buying a text ad on a site with a high PageRank in order to improve your search engine rankings.

However, my trusted source, Jill Whalen, writes in her latest newsletter that buying text ads, while a valid strategy now, will probably only work in the short term.

This got me thinking about who I believe when it comes to SEO strategies and why. Because the only people who really know what factors make a high-ranking site are the folks who write the search algorithms at Google, Yahoo, etc. And they aren’t telling.

All the SEO “experts” are just second guessing. So if you’re choosing to take the advice of an expert, the trick is to choose the best second guesser. I put my money on Jill Whalen. Why? Because I think she’s credible, her SEO process is systematic and her tactics pass my test of reasonableness. I’ve followed her advice and it’s worked.

Web copywriters note: Jill has written a very good book on SEO copywriting. It’s a quick read and tells you everything you need to know. There are some useful before and after examples as well.

About the author: Charles Cuninghame is an expert website copywriter and marketing trouble shooter who helps business owners and marketing managers attract more clients.