Dokmai Gardens – SEO Case Study
On Jan 13th 2010 I was commissioned to apply a search engine optimisation remedy to www.dokmaigarden.co.th
My initial review showed the site to be deficient in virtually all respects…
1.) On-Site SEO:
Requires optimising of individual pages for specific keyword search phrases; there are 200 plus elements assessed in Google relevancy ranking algorithm, of which the following are among the most important;
- Title: Welcome to Dokmai Garden, a botanical garden in Chiang Mai, Thailand But – the important keywords MUST be first!
- Page URL:www.dokmaigarden.co.th - no keywords used in domain name, few in page names
- Description Tag: <meta name=”description” content=”botanical, nature, vascular plants, including tropical ornamental plants, forest plants, fruit trees, vegetables and weeds.”> only one relevant keyword used in Description!
- 1st Heading: its an image – Zero relevant keywords
- 1st Paragraph: Zero relevant keywords
- Keywords in Internal Links: none
- Image File Names: http://www.dokmaigarden.co.th/images/header.jpg - Zero relevant keywords
- Image Alt Text: Missing – Zero relevant keywords
- Keywords Tag: <meta name=”keywords” content=”botanical, botany, garden, mushroom“> 2 relevant keywords
- Highlighted Words in content: Zero relevant keywords
Score: 0 out of 10
2.) Off-Site SEO:
Requires building links that incorporate relevant search phrases in Anchor Text (link titles) on incoming links TO your website. As you can see in the next illustration, there are ZERO iterations of “botanical garden Chiang Mai” in incoming Anchor Text (link titles). There are 2 instances of “garden” and 2 of “chiang mai”
Score: 0.1 out of 10
Achieving a concurrency between internal website content (what you say the site is about) and external links (what other people say the site is about) is the objective of the search engine optimisation exercise.
There are a variety of way of doing that; optimising page, building links, and advertising on high-traffic websites.
Work commenced 16th Jan;
- Keyword research
- Prepared 4 Title / Description combinations for directory submissions, using multiple primary keyword phrases as anchor text
- 1000 link-building submissions to web directories between 18th – 26th Jan
- On-Site page optimisation completed on 27th Jan
SERP’s 28th Jan: From relative obscurity to demonstrable prominence in a week?
(There are times when I even surprise myself!) 
The results thus far are due to the Link-Building only…data shown below is from 28th Jan 2010
As of 29th Jan, Google still held a cached version of the Home page from 25th Jan 2010.
The expectation being that over the next 2 – 3 weeks, positive results pointer will climb steadily as the individual website pages are progressively re-indexed.
Google NZ shows new results first?
On 29th Jan on Google.co.nz is showing a 2nd place result, up from 6th overnight. Whilst .COM / .COM.AU / .CO.UK / .CO/TH all still show 6th place… as per the report above
Regardless, the client is not unhappy…
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Dear Ben,
Very impressive, we’ll absolutely recommend you!
Cheers, Eric
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Dear Ben,
Thank you so much for your terrific job. We are looking forward to see how high up Google puts us.
Cheers, Eric
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SERP’s 5th Feb 2010:
At this point, Google has just indexed the revised Home page overnight…
The next stage is to await the impact of re-indexing all the internal pages…
SERP’s 12th Feb 2010:
Now we start to see some Top 30 rankings kicking on for the internal pages…
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…
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- 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..
Case Study: Extreme Website Makeover with SEO
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by the nice folks at Flexiscreens® in Tasmania. The site had been live for years and had previously been generating good business. However, things were in a downward spiral, not helped by the global economic downturn. They needed help;
- their HTML website was looking old and tired
- other people had stolen their content and were getting better rankings
- their site’s visibility had slowly diminished
Flexiscreens - the tired old website
- Lack of incoming links
- No relevant keywords / phrases in link anchor Text
- Dduplication of Titles, Descriptions, Keywords
- No use of H1, H2 in page headings, and poor keyword targeting
- 1st paragraphs not targeting specific keywords
- Overly long pages
- Text hidden in DIV’s containing blatant keyword spam
- No sitemaps / robots.txt / 404 Error page handling
- Etc!
The plan put forward included keyword research, link building submissions, rebuild into a WordPress CMS, full Search Engine Optimisation on all pages, and attention to all the serious issues noted in the review.
Does Search Engine Optimisation Work? SEO Case Studies
There is a lot of talk about Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, and its importance in the overall viability – even survival – of a web-based business. In my view it is absolutely crucial to any internet enterprise, because a well-executed SEO campaign addresses numerous potentially fatal issues.
SEO Case Study – BabyStuff
In a SEO recent project, we reviewed a PHP-based E-Commerce store called http://www.babystuff.co.nz/ which, oddly enough, sells a range of baby accessories etc. I say “oddly” because of the bizarre propensity for web site owners to choose Domain Names which offer no clues to the site’s purpose. That could of course be likened to cutting off one leg immediately prior to participating in a butt-kicking competition!
The site has a nice visual appeal, soft colours, good graphics – all in all, it was nicely designed and in keeping with its contents.
However, it does not matter how good it looks – its how it performs that counts! The old adage that “Form Follows Function” is particularly true of web sites. First, construct it to generate traffic! Then, and only then, think about making it pretty!
Site Shortcomings Assessed
However, on the downside, the site had;
- Deeply-nested Product Categories which placed actual product content very deep – 4, 5 or 6 levels down from the Home page!
- The site exhibited a serious lack of text content on all pages – Home, category, subcategory and product pages!
- Worse, it had generic Titles, Description and Keywords meta-tags!
- Worst of all, it had ZERO incoming links!
All of this conspires to render the pages to a level where they appear – at best – as poorly constructed doorway pages, and at worse as duplicated pages. Certainly, going to Google and searching for site:www.BabyStuff.co.nz delivered a string of identical results.
With no “identifiers” in key on-page and off page areas, any page that appeared in the search engine results would offer few clues to its actual content – meaning no “qualified traffic” from people who come to the site because it clearly offers exactly what they wanted.
Links Are Crucial
Lack of quality links is now the major issue in addressing search engine indexing and ranking shortcomings. Basically, if no one links to you, then the search engines – quite rightly – assess your site as not being worthy of inclusion in their index. Each “good” link is like a vote of confidence. In contrast, a “bad” link is virtually worthless.
Worse, the SE’s examine link titles and take note of the keywords – or lack thereof – and the keywords found there are what the search engines will “associate” your site with. In that respect, a title that consists of a business name devoid of specific keywords is of minimal value!
The best links are those from “trusted” sites. A common denominator of a trusted site is that it will be mature, classed as either a hub or an authority within its theme, and will have an above average page rank. Examples include The Open Directory, Yahoo Directory, government and educational sites, regional and local directories, and sites which are related to your theme such as your competitors or suppliers.
BabyStuff Links
To address the shortcomings here;
- We first examined the categories and products, and divided them into 5 main groups.
- This was followed by some keyword research to determine the exact keyword phrases searchers are using to find those products.
- Using that information, we wrote 5 sets of Titles and Descriptions containing a broad spread of high-use search phrases.
- We then selected a group of 500 web directories which had relevant categories, and submitted the site for inclusion in their indexes.
Because these directories are “human edited” they have higher trust value, and the links that are achieved contain specific keyword phrases in the link Titles. By submitting to precisely the right category, we achieve very high acceptance rates, usually above 70%. In the case of BabyStuff, we commenced 500+ submissions approx 10th November 2006, spread over a 4 week period. On Yahoo, the 1-Way Back Links have grown from 0 to 386 over a 4 month period. Google Page Rank has gone from PR0 to PR3. (See further details on Advanced Page Rank / Link Building)
Site Optimisation
As part of the implementation of our Intermediate SEO Package, we wrote up a list of recommended changes for 10 main pages, including Home page and primary categories. This included modifications to both on-page and off-page elements, writing new meta-tags, headings and 1st paragraphs. In addition we provided a range of recommendation for the site owner to continue on with, the goal being a progressive process of content expansion, particularly on pages devoid of relevant body text! (See further details on Intermediate SEO)
Like many small business operations, the site owner does a lot of the maintenance, and product additions etc. Small businesses have modest budgets, and we like to provide the necessary guidance and support to facilitate self-sufficiency where possible.
Search Engine Ranking Results
Google rankings are the key indicator of success! From zero, we’ve grown to 49 Top 30 listings on Google.co.nz! Across all the search engines surveyed, the site now has;
This has been achieved in a 4 month period, and is a strong testimony to the value of investing in Search Engine Optimisation. Those benefits will be sustained over the long term, and will deliver a demonstrable return on investment. Further SEO Case Studies
Yet Another Insightful SEO Article by;
Ben Kemp, aka The SEO Guy (Co. Ltd)
Web: http://www.comauth.co.nz/ – http://www.theseoguy.co.uk/ – http://www.theseoguy.us/
Email: SEO
Contact us for a Free SEO Site Review….
