Article Writing & Dental Self-Extraction

For most of us, writing an article is as much fun as a trip to the dentist, and each word extracted from our pen is as painful as pulling our teeth out one by one… I’ve just been reviewing a client’s article marketing strategy and am depressed at the fundamental shortcomings in both the approach and execution… Often, my depressions are a spur to a story – the painstaking explanation of the error of the client’s ways providing a foundation for an article of my own.

Article Content

Reputable article distribution directories specifically do not permit advertising. Nor will they approve excessive but utterly pointless keyword use in the content. The only thing in the content that matters is that you provide an interesting, authoritative, original, informative and non-commercial article on the specific topic. In this case study, what was required was more along the lines of a travel article, discussing aspects relating respectively to Holiday Homes in New Zealand, Luxury Lodges in New Zealand and Luxury Accommodation in New Zealand. What we had was 3 articles, keyword-stuffed with multiple iterations of both the business name and the targeted keywords

The goal is to get it published – therefore, you need a catchy title, and interesting, topical and/or timely information. You do not need to add multiple iterations of the targeted keywords anywhere in the article itself. In most article repositories, the article body usually won’t generate a direct benefit to your website per se. What you need is an 800 word story that captures people’s interest and makes them want to include it, with attribution (author’s credits) on their website… You should therefore focus on getting the primary keyword phrase/s you want to target in the (maximum of 2) links in the Author’s Bio… Unfortunately, the first of three articles I previewed from this client had;

• 387 words in total
• 11 iterations of the business name
• 7 iterations of the primary keyword phrase (5 complete / 2 partial)
• 5 iterations of the secondary keyword phrase
• no Authors Bio

Article Links

Most article distribution directories do not permit links in the content body, only in the Author’s Bio section. The only link in these articles was in the body of the article. Articles provide you with the absolute best opportunity to generate DEEP LINKS. In this client example, the sole link was;

• in the body text – the wrong place
• to the Home page instead of a relevant internal page (deep link)
• a total waste of the link potential, due to using the Domain Name as the Anchor Text

The goals for an article are usually;

• First of all, to get it accepted for inclusion in the article repository.
• If an editor approves it, then you get a maximum of 2 (deep) links back to your site using your primary keyword phrase as the Anchor Text (link title).
• Secondly, for it to be useful, original and usable enough that other website owners will copy and publish it with attribution of source
• Publication means you get an additional 2 (deep) links back to your site, using your primary keyword phrase as the Anchor Text (link title).
• To establish trust and credibility as an author
• To get people to read your articles, and to come on your website looking for more information
• To build an information resource that expands your own website content

A good article can potentially generate 100’s of keyword-rich links to your site. An exceptionally good article may generate 1000′s of links. Either way, articles can substantially increase the total deep link count and the extent of keywords Google et al will associate with your website. This increases the number of phrases that your website is relevant to, and potentially increases your position in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) as well as increasing overall qualified traffic.

Searching for the Title of the clients article on Google, using an exact-match search, there were 8 links from two domains, both of which were bottom-of-the-barrel Press Release sites.

Obviously, his strategy needs a rethink and refocus because the current approach means the articles will never be approved and accepted by authoritative article distribution directories, let alone picked up by other site owners for inclusion in their content… The really depressing aspect is that the client was paying an SEO company for the article copy-writing and distribution service, partially rewriting the poorly written articles himself, and then expecting them to deliver miracles! So, by and large he has pretty much been wasting time and money on article link-building efforts thus far…

Website Idiosyncrasies & Content Duplication Idiocies

The laziest amongst us, those with an allergy to original thought, and those who hate writing the most are almost always adamant that unique content is over-rated, unnecessary or even pointless.

One of the website content frustrations I frequently endure is the failure, on the part of others, to comprehend the value of accuracy and uniqueness. There is intransigence in that respect, particularly on the part of some designers of e-commerce and content management systems. It is indicative of 3 parts of ignorance, arrogance and stupidity, in almost equal measure…

I personally believe that it’s important that every page expresses its reason for existence clearly. If you cannot achieve that simple task, how on earth could anyone who wants what you have, be expected to find your content?

Example 1: Online Gift Shop

This site’s top level pages were beautifully rendered in elegant verbiage, all embedded in delicate, pastel-coloured images… Yes, in its entirety, on all Category pages and the Home page! Not a single word of explanatory, descriptive text! Text embedded in images is such a fundamental error of judgement, I am amazed that the client’s website designers did not vehemently urge it not be done thus… Incredible!

And of course, many pages shared global meta-data… At least the Category pages were possessed of editable titles and meta-tags…The “informational” pages, on the other hand, were bereft of any meta-tag editing facility, as the designer was not of the opinion that this was relevant in the age of Web 2.0! He was eventually disabused of that notion and, after  weeks of prompting, finally deigned to add this most basic but fundamental facility.

Example 2: Prominent City Law Firm.

This site languished below the Google radar, despite their website designers having an “SEO expert” onboard – a Microsoft and Google certified one, allegedly. I built links to expand the keywords associated with the site, and hand-edited 30 of the main pages, out of 100+ pages. That helped a lot at Yahoo and MSN, but it did not get the site out of the doldrums at Google.

The designers were adamant that the site must have been black-listed in some way, and wanted me to identify the problem and tell them how to resolve it. I explained at the outset that duplicated content was an issue but the designers were emphatic that it must be something far more sinister; a legacy of the previous incumbents who had transgressed in some indiscernible, arcane, black-hat clad manner…

So, I instructed the office manager that she’d have to over-ride the objections of the designers and compel them to ensure that every single page had accurate Titles, Descriptions and Keywords. Basically, they had too high a percentage of “cookie-cutter” pages that all shared global meta-tags. In most cases the meta-tags contradicted the on-page content. As soon as that was sorted out, the handbrake went off at Google HQ, and the site popped up into page 1 SERPs for almost all relevant search phrases…

Conclusion

Duplicated content in all forms is (and always has been) a sin as far as search engines are concerned. Every page ought to be accurately described using the meta-data elements provided expressly for that purpose. Each page must contain accessible and unique content in both on-page and off-page elements…

This surely should not be such a hard concept to grasp? If you can’t accurately describe what your site is all about, in your own words, and place accurate information into all the areas Google et al look for clues as to content and purpose, how can you reasonably expect to prosper online?

• If your website software does not allow you to thoroughly and accurately describe your product and services, you should be concerned, fearful even…
• If your website designer does not think that search engines are at all relevant in the 21st century, you should be very, very afraid…

Of course, you should also bear in mind that nothing in the virtual world is set in concrete… Never, ever be afraid to start again… There are good designers out there, ethical men and women with great website software. They approach their task with intelligence, diligence, and an open-minded awareness of the possibilities. You always have the freedom to make an informed choice… so don’t settle for being 2nd best!

So, You Thought YOU Owned Your Website?

As part of being an SEO consultant, I’m frequently asked to conduct SEO Audits on potential client’s websites. Amongst sundry other tasks, I always check to see who the legal owner of the site is. With surprising regularity, it turns out NOT to be the guy who commissioned the report, and who mistakenly thinks HE (or she) is the rightful owner!  There is more than one aspect to this…

Domain Registrant

Each country has rules governing ownership and transfer of domain names. These rules are clear, unequivocal and rigorously enforced.  In all instances, the “registrant” is defined as the legal owner.
Frequently, domains are registered by the website designer on the client’s behalf.  Sometimes they may have been initially registered by the office junior, the wife, girlfriend, business partner, the accountant… Time passes. Things change.  Maybe now, the registrant is the ex-wife, ex-girlfriend, ex-business partner…

If your name is not listed as the registrant, you do not own the website! Best you get this sorted BEFORE the excrement hits the fan, and some one is holding knife to the throat of your valuable corporate website, demanding a 6-figure ransom!

Website Software

If you are using a licensed copy of a proprietary website software application, you certainly don’t own the software. However, if it is on your own domain, under your control, then you’ve got some security of tenure at least, should any differences of opinion arise with your website designers.

If you are using non-proprietary,  Open Source software, on your own domain, hosted on an independent server, you’re in far better shape in the sense of having control over your assets.
If you’re using proprietary software owned by your website design company, hosted on their servers…  you have a massive risk exposure in the event of a difference of opinion over when (or if) you should pay your accounts. If they are also listed as the registrant of the domain, you have placed yourself in an unenviable, vulnerable and potentially devastating position. Silly you…  Oh dear, how sad, never mind!

Hosting

Hosting is a vexed question, and its damned hard to establish if the hosting company is a real hosting company, or an affiliate reseller of another company’s hosting services. Sometimes, there are multiple tiers… That said, do you know who to call if something bad happens to your website?  The worst aspect of website designer’s hosting service is, its usually in a reseller sub-account, and you cannot have access to the nitty-gritty parts of the site. Things like FTP access, root-level file editing, messing with email accounts, installing other software, or direct access to stats data are usually off-limits. At best, that’s a pain in the bottom… at worst, it prevents you from having a full site backup in the event services are terminated for any reason!

And unrelated bad stuff happens! Last month, my hosting company’s US-based Data Centre operators got locked out of their premises, presumably over a rent or maintenance dispute with the building’s owner. Is your website designer smart enough, and well enough connected in the  data centre world, to seamlessly relocate ALL client sites to  safe environment within a couple of hours?

Website Designers

Al l website designers are not created equal. Most are honest, reliable and decent business people. However, some website designers are control freaks who like to keep cash-cow clients screwed down and locked into systems they cannot easily escape from, and ruthlessly milk them of every possible dollar.  All the while, they deliver a minimum of service, and maximum of awkwardness, and make it as difficult as possible for a client to escape their clutches.

Impartial Advice

A decade of dealing with the aftermath of the cowboys, control freaks, the bloody-minded and the plain ignorant has taught me (and some of my clients) some valuable lessons.

1. Ensure you are the domain registrant, and have access to your domain registration account.
2. Ensure your hosting account is independent of your website designer, and you have the account access details
3. Ensure you keep a written copy of your domain and hosting account details with your lawyer or bank
4. Ensure you have a full site software back up, including all configurations, modules and plugins
5. Ensure you have a full database backup every month.
6. Don’t rely totally on the hosting company’s server backup processes…
7. An oldie but a still-relevant goody – don’t put all your eggs in one basket!

This is rudimentary business risk management. Taking responsibility for your businesses activities is in integral part of management. When things go wrong, as they sometimes do, make sure you have a contingency plan.

WWW Need Not Mean WordPress Website Woes!

I am deeply distraught, depressed and correspondingly enriched by the second example of blatant stupidity this week. The world appears to have an ever-increasing abundance of genii with more enthusiasm than expertise, unleashing themselves on unsuspecting clients. They churn out born-again websites with reckless abandon, and nary a passing thought to the potential for damage in the process…

In the first example, a high-ranking HTML-based photographers site was converted to WordPress. Exactly what I’d have done too, if the job had been given to me. Sadly, whilst the photographer was a previous client, and had long reaped the benefits of top organic SERPs, she did not think to run the site rebuild idea past me. To be fair, the new design is nice – the site looks excellent and showcases her work well. Never mind that search engine rankings have completely gone down the toilet! Why? Well, no one thought to;

1. Add 301 Redirects on old page names to new page names. That meant all indexed and well-ranked internal pages suddenly started generating 404 Page Not Found errors, and were eventually purged from all search engines indexes. All internal Page Rank was lost…
2. Previously optimised on-page content was NOT moved to the corresponding new pages
3. None of the image Alt text was moved to new images
4. None of the meta-tags were moved to the corresponding new pages
5. No XML or HTML Sitemaps provided

Suddenly, Googlebot was left devoid of internal clues as the content and purpose of the site!
In the second example, I have no idea what the original site was like, but it was on a 10 year old domain! The new WordPress site has severely compromised the company’s web-based new business by completely eliminating the search engine traffic potential;

1. No 301 Redirects on old page names to new page names – all pages lost from SE’s indexes, PR set back to zero.
2. Whilst there is an SEO module in the theme, zero meta-tag content was set up on any page!
3. Admin / Privacy settings were set to “I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors”
4. JavaScript main menu that SE’s cannot penetrate to find internal pages!
5. No sitemaps, just to make it even more difficult to find internal content!

So, if you’d deliberately set out to kill off a site, thats a reasonably effective way to do it…

There’s a lesson here! If you are going to rebuild your website yourself, or pay someone else to do it, you’d best ensure that the person responsible for the changes has a plan that includes at least the basics! Failing to plan is planning to fail ,as these two examples clearly show!

Let me be explicit on this aspect – WordPress is a totally excellent choice as a Content Management system, and capable of easily achieving 1st page search engine rankings. I personally will use nothing other than WordPress in my business websites. Make no bones about it – I am a raving fan of WordPress!

The examples shown illustrate that its not the tools, its the quality of workmanship that makes the difference.

If you’re a website designer, you owe it to your clients to ensure you do more good than harm! If your stupidity causes the newly rebuilt website to vanish off Google’s radar screen, it does not matter one iota if the site looks stunning! Page redirection is such a fundamental requirement, its verging on criminal negligence to overlook it! Not using freely available, fully automated WordPress sitemap and meta-tags generation tools is quite unprofessional. It confirms the designer’s incompetence, so by all means, add your name to the footer credits to let the world know who to avoid!
Of course, if your underlying objective is to keep people like me in business, feel free to ignore all my well-intended advice…

WordPress STD’s

WordPress STD’s (Security Transgression Defilements) are a common occurrence. WordPress-powered websites are far from being immune to hackers, although the latest release/s address many earlier security issues. WordPress, like other content management systems and forums such as phpBB, vBulletin, is a major target for hackers and spammers. Basic prophylactic measures, or condoms for WordPress STDs, need not be complicated or expensive.

Those involved in hacking WordPress usually want to use the sites as concealed (cloaked) link farms. Its rare that actual damage is done to your site, and often the site owner remains blissfully unaware that there’s been any interference. Some of the link injection systems are extremely sophisticated! Testing for enemy action can be as simple as opening your site and choosing View / Source and reading through the content of the section down to, and including, the tag. The link injections I’ve seen are usually immediately after . Is there a long string of HTML code containing links to dozens of sites you know nothing about? If there is, you’ve been violated, and have a WordPress STD (Security Terminated Deficiency)!

This article is not about fixing security violations. Its about simple prophylactic measures most “non-technician” site owners take. This is not slick and professional security strategy, and there are some who will scoff at using “security by obscurity” as a primary tactic. However, even on a tight budget, the following 12 zero-dollar steps can and should be taken to minimise the possibility of attack.

1 – Always Use the Current Version
Why anyone would persist with an older version is beyond me. Upgrading has always been easy enough, and recent versions reduce the pain to a button click! The community of authors work extremely hard and surprisingly quickly to address known security problems.

2 – Remove Primary Target Identifier
Remove the Powered by WordPress credit details in the footer of your website’s theme – e.g.; /wp-content/themes/the-current-theme/footer.php. This is the fastest way to reduce the chances of the ill-intentioned finding your site in the first place! Try it – do a search on Google for “Powered by WordPress” and you’ll get the picture… At time of writing, there are 106 million competing page opportunities out there for hackers!

By all means give WordPress the credit they deserve – but you could do it on your links page, or make it a graphic / image link instead of text…

3 – Remove Secondary Target Identifier
A lot of WordPress themes come with an giveaway WP version HTML tag in the section. In View / Source it displays as follows;

Obviously, this immediately reveals the WordPress version used on the site. Since some versions are vulnerable to known security flaws, you’ve just told the hackers where they are best to start their evil work…

Removing this giveaway is straightforward enough. Simply open up /wp-content/themes/the-current-theme/header.php and delete the code that’s outputting the Meta Generator tag.

4 – Remove Tertiary Target Identifier
There is another version identifier tag in the RSS Feed output, e.g.: http://wordpress.org/? v=2.8.4 Removing the RSS version identifier can be done by opening /wp-includes/general-template.php and searching for “function the_generator”

The line immediately below that statement commences with: echo apply_filters(‘the_generator’…… Place a # character in front of the word echo, as per: #echo apply_filters(‘the_generator’ etc

5 – Remove Lesser Target Identifiers
Doing the above pretty much gets you out of the spotlight and into the shadows. You could also remove links to “Log In” from the current theme’s footer. There are 3.8 million competing page opportunities for a Google search for “wp-login.php” and its probably a good thing to not be in that list either.

WordPress also adds two easily accessible files in the directory into which it is installed; licence.txt and readme.html. Renaming or removing those is important because they also contain WP version information!

6 – Don’t Use Easy Passwords
Don’t make it easy for the hackers! Use super-difficult passwords that are impossible to guess, and not easy to crack. That applies to the hosting account control panel, FTP access AND the WordPress administration access. Ideally, high-exposure sites should use different password for each of those areas.

Recent versions of WordPress seem to have addressed the issue of directory browsing, by keeping people out of areas they should not be looking. Securing the wp-admin area via SSL is a lot more complicated than it should be. There are no well-written, easy to use plugins available for this – those that do exist appear well past their WP version use-by date. Its also far too easy to end up locked out of your site while trying to make them work!

7 – Don’t Use Default Admin ID
If you recklessly use “admin” as the default user ID, you’ve given the hacker half the pieces of the puzzle and they only have one item left to crack – the password.

8 – Ensure WP File Permissions Are Adequate
File system security is important, to prevent easy unauthorised access. There may be times when you have needed to alter permissions to edit a file, or copy files into a directory. Did you reset permissions to the correct default afterward? If not, you’ve left a door ajar… Pull it shut and lock it again!

9 – Plugin Integrity
As a general rule, only install plugins from the official WordPress Extend / Plugins repository. There at least, they are in the spotlight, and subject to some scrutiny. Installing plugins from anywhere else leaves you wide open to malware exploitation!

10 – Theme Integrity
Ok, you can go anywhere and get free themes and make them work… but can you trust the source? Can you be sure that no malware is included? Can you be sure that no security breaches are opened by insecure coding? Personally, if I want a theme, I’d rather go to a reputable source and buy one that is coded for the latest version of WP, and where some assurance is implied as to suitability for the intended purpose.

11 – Automate Your Backups
There are backup plugins that automate the process of backing up your WordPress database and emailing the file to you daily or weekly. Install and use one of them! They can be a lifesaver, for a variety of other reasons.

12 – Server, Network and PC Vulnerabilities
Be aware of the configuration of your hosting company’s web server. Is it running old versions PHP, MySQL, cpanel in a shared hosting environment? If so, that places you at greater risk than being on a hardened server with up to date tools and services running.

Never access your WP installation from a non-secure networks such as internet cafes, coffee shop or hotel WiFi systems.

Another commonsense measure is to ensure your PC you post from uses current and reputable anti-virus software that also detects malware, spyware and key-loggers.

Select First Motorhomes – UK

Hello Ben

You will be pleased to hear we are having a great year, with sales, sale and buy back, and rental, in fact rental has been a surprise with the motorhomes fully booked to September/October already.

Due to the closure of two large dealerships in our area, we are considering moving in to Caravan sales as well for later this year, or early next year! Would you suggest a new website, majoring on the caravan sales, should we go that route, or updating our existing Buy-Sell-Rent website to incorporate caravans?

Obviously we would not want to jeopardise the excellent number of enquiries we get though the Motorhomes website by changing it significantly, but perhaps we should look at updating it sometime, perhaps to a website I can change more of the content of myself, like the hire website? I would be pleased to hear your thoughts and ideas on the matter.

Regards

Graham

Select First Motorhomes Ltd

Unit 3.4 Wealden Forest Park, Herne Common, Herne Bay, Kent. UK.

CT6 7LQ

Tel: 0845 2606088 (local rate call)

www.motorhomes-buy-sell-rent.com

Regd office: Select First Motorhomes Ltd, 44 Woodside, Dunkirk, Faversham, Kent ME13 9NY

Regd in Cardiff number 5628291

Links 101 – Puritans, The Puerile & Pragmatic

Links, and the acquisition thereof, is a subject which has accumulated vast misunderstandings and no end of illogical pontificating. This is not entirely unusual in SEO circles, where the ill-informed preach to the unenlightened on a daily basis. Conspiracy theories notwithstanding, there is a general lack of comprehension on how to achieve  real value from efforts expended on gaining links.  Everyone agrees they’re needed… but that’s about where consensus ends… There are three main schools of thought – the puritanical, the puerile and the pragmatic…

The Puritanical View

Only GOOD links are good!  All links to your site should be from sites specifically relevant to your site. Links from non-relevant sites will put a world of hurt on you. Quality is crucial! Or Google will disinherit you, banish you, consign your site to galactic oblivion etc. Build wonderful content, and links to it will come as of right… These people are muesli-munchers – vagrant vegetarians who view the world in a mosaic of black and white…

The Puerile View

You desperately NEED links! Leave no stone unturned. Get links from anyone, anywhere, anytime… infiltrate forums, buy links, babble out blog comments, gush into guest books – use any means to get links back to your site…  Never mind that inserting your links into someone’s website without asking is plain rude… These people are  unshaven vodka-drinkers, viewing the world dimly through fake Raybans… dismal, and bereft of class…

The Pragmatist’s View

The truth lies like a mid-river island emerging from the murky waters, protruding clearly and plainly  mid-stream…

Personally, I think the puritanical view is as relevant to SE rankings as  vegetarianism is to good health.  Many sites selling products or providing services are never going to naturally accumulate links in any significant volume. The puerile view is discourteous, frequently offensive, and in the long term, counter-productive.

So… What to do?

At the outset of a website’s life cycle, the world is unaware of its existence. Incoming links will not happen by a process of osmosis, and the theory of divine intervention is (as yet) unproven. Still, links are crucial. A website cannot achieve any prominence without incoming links or, more to the point, relevant keywords within anchor text in incoming links.

Don’t Spam

My advice is to certainly avoid the blatant spam approach. Don’t begin any journey by alienating anyone. Don’t go and buy a link-builder software program that is guaranteed to streamline the process of building links with similar sites… the conversion ratio is far, far worse than pay-per-click advertising and even more costly! Don’t buy links specifically to increase your Page Rank – Google is deeply offended by that. On the other hand, you could buy into an exorbitant site review that might get you included into a prominent directory (or two)… And, if approved, such a link might inadvertently increase your Page Rank. Apparently, that’s ok… which is why the puritanical can’t get their head around this stuff – there are 256 shades of grey at work in here…

Build 1-Way Incoming Links With Keywords in Anchor Text

Everyone says that’s what you have to do… Applied logic would suggest that what you ought to do is consider who on earth wants or needs links, gives them away for free, and is likely to have pages or sections of content relevant to your site’s focus. Impossible, I hear you say? Simplistic, far too easy, I hear you scoff… Au contraire!

Since the web began life as a few optimistic IP packets seeking to connect intelligent life-forms across vast distances, the very first source of relevancy has been web directories.  By definition, a web directory describes the “Who & What” and tells you the “Where!”  Some of the earliest examples are still in existence – notably Yahoo and Open Directory. Respectively, they are  excessively expensive and virtually impenetrable. They both still wield considerable power with blithe indifference to what’s really required, remaining resolutely devoid of customer focus…  After a decade of observing no discernible improvement in any respect, I think the www would be better off without them. Best render them irrelevant – and if we all ignore them, maybe they’ll go away and re-invent themselves!

There are many other directories – optimistic, welcoming, organised, nurturing and practical, catering for both general and niche areas. Many are desperately in need of good quality listings  as a path to growth, and onwards to fame and fortune.  Seek them out!

Your goal is to get your site listed in a compatible category, nestled comfortably with sites offering similar products and services. Relevancy personified…  A description encapsulating your reason for existence helps – nothing warm and fuzzy! Crisp, to the point, with an “exact match” high-search-volume keyword phrase foremost in the title – but only if its written to make sense.  And don’t settle for one title – by all means, create and use a handful of relevant title & description combinations that expand the keywords the search engines will find pointing to your site.

“Wrong” Links Will Hurt You? Yeah, Right…

Regardless of the opposing views, simple logic should tell you that its quite unlikely for a normal, mainstream link-building strategy to visit harm upon you.

• Lets get real here – this is how links have been garnered since the inception of the Internet. Its a basic, fundamental process of indexing www content. How could it be “bad” to be listed in web directories?
• In the main, a directory assesses site quality before inclusion in their listings. Human-edited listings are the hallmark of a good directory, intended to provide users with the most relevant sources of information, products and services. Why would such a link be a bad thing???

If such links could hurt you, then your shadiest competitors would most certainly spend weeks building directory links in an effort to cause you grievous bodily harm! It would be far easier to shaft you than fix up their own sites…. Don’t for one moment think that some toe-rag has not considered it, tried it and failed…

Frankly, the pointy-heads over at Google are a decidedly smart lot, and are well aware of what the lazy and unscrupulous are capable of… Give the Google-dudes due credit for having the sense to not only be aware of the possibility, but for actually taking some care to protect you from such rancid and distasteful acts.

Fear Not – Go Ye Forth and Multiply

Seek links in appropriate directory categories, particularly in relevant niche directories if they exist. For example, don’t you dare try and list your cattery in a Business-to-Business software category… That would be stupid, and unlikely to be accepted! And don’t cheat… automated directory link submission schemes are a pointless waste of time.

Work is required – an anathema to many! Do your homework, select good directories and seek placement where it will both do you some good, and increase the possibility of acceptance.

Exchange Links

Don’t be frightened to exchange links with other sites, especially where there is a commonality of interest. Car sales and car insurance – boats and motors – houses and mortgages… obvious relationships are reputedly better, although proving that theory is harder than you might imagine. Prophylactic avoidance of link farms, web rings and FFA link schemes is patently sensible – their glory days are long, long gone the way of hidden text and 1×1 pixel images…

But if Aunty Ethel wants a link to her travel blog – hell, by all means do the old biddy a favour! Maybe your visitors will get a vicarious chuckle over her exploits and thank you for it! Maybe Aunty Ethel will leave you a pile of folding stuff in her will, a fond recompense for your charitable act…

Sure, those reciprocal links might not be quite as valuable as 1-way incoming links from a high-profile directory. But they are natural, useful, and public-spirited. Reach out a helping hand to your fellow man…

Think of links as being more like an investment portfolio! Some items have a higher price coupled with a long-term return – such as expensive review for the Yahoo Directory. Some items are minimal cost, minimal return… reciprocal links fit this group. Some are volatile, capable of good rewards but transient – social bookmarking links being one example. Some are solid, hard work, modest and unexciting – like article marketing…

Any sensible link strategy should include a broadening spread of links – and don’t sweat the small stuff…

Content Management Systems & SEO Revisited

Two years ago, I wrote an article entitled “Content Management Systems Equal Business Suicide.” The basic premise was that at that time, CMS applications were inherently devoid of basic SEO functionality. Building a new site, or converting an existing site to the existing CMS versions of 2 years ago was rapid way of consigning those sites to the oblivion of Google’s supplementary index. Lacking inbuilt search engine friendly URL’s, outputting duplicate titles, descriptions and keywords, no ability to have customised Titles that differed from Headings – all those things were extraordinarily bad elements.

Read the rest of this article…

SEO Guy’s Website Rebuild

Well, regular visitors may have noticed a change of design layout and architecture. After a marathon 3-4 days, during which I’ve been extremely focused and very unsociable, I’ve finally – after a shaky start 5 months ago – now 95% completed the extreme makeover on www.ComAuth.co.nz What a mission!  As an aside, for anyone who’s ever wondered – the domain name goes back many years, when I was a free-lance Computer consultant primarily working for Local Authorities (city / district goverment).

• Search – a part of the “Corporate” theme - using it just generates a blank page…
• Tags – no idea whats up with this – just get a blank page with either Simple Tags or std WordPress tags… but the internal tagging functions all work fine!
• Images: added 255px images in widget areas – they get auto-shrunk to 233px Must be a template function at work there!

Apologies if you encounter any difficulties – its a work in progress, and may take a week or two to fix everything. Content revision is also ongoing…

Case Study: Website Rebuild and Search Engine Rankings

Fasteners Direct is an Auckland-based company specialising in supply of fasteners & hardware to the construction, building & engineering industries. Their old website was static HTML pages originally done in MS Frontpage, but which basically contained a lot of picture and not much text. We were asked to carry out an SEO Review on 24th Feb 2009, and as part of that, pointed out that the old site really would benefit from need updating.

Managing director Andrew Benton agreed and gave us the go-ahead to rebuild the website in a WordPress CMS so they could easily add / edit content as required. The additional ability to use the blog aspects of WordPress to create news, DIY articles, product reviews and distribute newsletters etc is also a consideration…

• We also needed to address the following issues;
• Lack of incoming links / lack of keywords in Anchor Text
• No robots.txt file
• No custom 404 Error Page
• No sitemap.xml
• Duplicate Titles, Descriptions, Keywords
• Etc etc..

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