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..

Read more

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

An SEO review clearly showed the following serious issues;

• 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.

Read more

The WHY of SEO – A Thermal Lifejacket for the Economic Ice Age!

There are many articles written on the HOW of SEO, covering the many and varied aspects of the art of improving your site’s position in search engine ranking pages (SERPs). Whilst most people have heard the term “search engine optimization” and have a vague appreciation (or apprehension) of the hoped-for outcome, surprisingly few people seem to really understand WHY it is absolutely essential.

That includes a depressing number of website designers, some of whom actually tell their clients that SEO is a waste of time and money, and that it’s quite unnecessary these days because Google is smarter than ever before… Au contraire – it becomes more and more critical every day, as website numbers expand exponentially! Lack of knowledge is not confined to website designers, it also includes a number of wanna-be SEO firms who make outrageous claims about their special relationship and affinity with Google etc, but have little idea of what it takes to consistently succeed in attaining Top 30 rankings.

Be very aware that in most cases website design is taught as an Art, not as a Business discipline. Website designers are rarely taught anything about search engine optimization, and few are interested in mastering the skills required to produce optimal results. That’s all very fine and dandy – but it leaves a lot of website owners desperately disappointed in mediocre results! You’ve probably heard the analogy about building a shop in the middle of a forest too, I bet? Seriously, it really does not matter how beautiful the site is – if no one finds it, then it’s just a gorgeous waste of virtual space.

Content is Still King

Regardless of the various conflicting opinions, Google conspiracy theories and misinformation, it comes down to a very simple concept – content quality, and accurate content classification. Content is where many sites fail dismally! The sites that thrive are those with well written, well organised original, interesting and useful content. Don’t copy other peoples stuff. Aside from being illegal, at best it immediately downgrades you to second best… As a general rule, from an SEO perspective, bear in mind the most fundamental issue – Google loathes duplicate content! Read more

10 Search Engine Optimisation Tips For WordPress Blogs

Search engine optimisation for WordPress is essential if you are to gain maximum traction from your efforts. Many corporate or business blogs are started with the intention of using them to;

• broaden the companies information distribution
• provide an easy way to grow the site
• provide an easy way to create fresh content
• increase the “stickiness” of the site
• generate additional qualified traffic
• increase incoming link count

However, what many people fail to understand is that the default installation of WordPress simply does not include even the most basic SEO functionality. The default WordPress installation generates unintelligible URLs, generic Page Titles and neither Description nor Keyword meta-tags. Thus, the chances of achieving the desired goals is severely compromised! That search engines hate duplicate content is a given – and 3 of the key indicators are page URL, Title and Description!

Fortunately, SEO for WordPress is facilitated by the concept of “plugins” or easily installed mini-applications which provide specific functionality. They do so dynamically – in other words, once installed the applications automate the process of generating accurate outputs, with no manual efforts required by you. Here are ten essential enhancements to WordPress that will make a huge difference in the qualified traffic your blog delivers to you!

1. Page Names or URLs

This is controlled by the Permalinks setting – the default produces garbage URL’s which give no indication of the actual page or post content. However, its not particularly difficult to have every page URL show as a keyword-rich plain-English file name with an HTML extension! This can be based on the post title or Slug, so you have precise control over the page name / URL. Achieving this simply requires the use of the Custom Permalink option.

2. Titles

The Optimal Title plugin provides a quick solution – once installed it dynamically inserts the post title into the pages Title tag, in front of the Weblog title you have set. This facilitates keyword-rich titles specific/unique to the page / post. Accurate titles are the single most important on-site SEO element.

3. Description Meta-tag

There are several plugins that dynamically provides good Description meta-tags. The one I like is Head-Meta-Desc as its a no-brainer to install, and by default uses either the optional excerpt if present, or the first 20 words from the first paragraph of the posting. The only thing I change is to edit the number of words it takes – from 20 to 30, which usually produces a Description tag containing 180 – 200 characters.

4. Keyword Meta-Tag

To produce an accurate page-specific keyword meta-tag, I use Ultimate Tag Warrior – a keyword meta-tag is an on/off option within this plugin, and it dynamically produces keywords based on post category + tags used in the post. That’s not all it does!

5. Tag Management

When you see the word “tag” in the blog context, simply think “keyword.” Tags are the blogger’s version of keywords, which are “pinned” to blog post to help categorise them, and find them, or similar / related posts again. The Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin previously mentioned will manage your tags for you… the ultimate convenience being the drop-down list of tags available on new posts! This speeds up the tagging process, and assists in tag name consistency. UTW provides various options for displaying tags on each post – as a list, as a tag cloud…

6. Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress

A sitemap is a key SEO tool to ensure pages have the best possible chance of being found and indexed by search engine spiders. This plugin creates a Google-compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog, including homepage, posts, static pages, categories and archives. This plugin also notifies Google whenever the sitemap gets regenerated – which happens automatically every time a new post is made!

7. Categories

Use them wisely! take care to use keyword-rich, accurate Category names, these will be used in URLs, and in keyword meta-tags.

8. Post Titles

Use them wisely also! Keyword-rich, accurate post titles can make the world of difference to your SE rankings. Coupled with Optimal Title, the post title is going to be the first section of the Page Title. Each post title should include a relevant keyword / keyword phrase…

9. Maximise Blog & Ping Potential

There are services that scan blogs regularly for updates, and publish the recent updates. To derive the benefit of that, you need to add an expanded ping list to the Options / Writing / Update List. By default, WordPress only pings the Pingomatic service with new posts. There are a growing number of other distribution services that you need to be notifying, to get the best results.

10 Blog Search Engines & Directories

You must manually submit your blog to 100+ top blog search engines and directories to gain maximum traction. Registration on those offering ping services ensures that your blog’s update pings will be accepted and processed by them.

If you implement these 10 simple WordPress search engine optimisation modifications to your blog, I can guarantee you will achieve a huge boost in traffic flows! If you need help, its part of what we do…

Website Business Risk Management

Is placing all the eggs in one basket, in the form of 1-stop shop website design, maintenance & hosting the best option? In my opinion, it most definitely is not! Keeping all website elements separate is sound business risk management practice!

When you are setting out to establish a new venture on the web, its a daunting task. The terminology is complex and confusing. There are multiple aspects to consider – domain registration, website hosting, web site design, maintenance, search engine optimisation etc. There is a temptation to take the easy option of a one-stop shop, where someone else takes care of all the complicated items that you don’t understand. That way, you get one all-inclusive bill per month. There is an old adage – Jack of all Trades, Master of None! A bigger web design company that does everything rarely does individual things as well as a carefully selected group of specialists in their own fields of expertise.

The relationship between you and your website design company will evolve over time. As you become more knowledgeable (and more demanding) the relationship might even deteriorate! It happens… If you are in a 1-Stop Shop environment, you may be unwittingly placing your web business in potential jeopardy.

Domain Registration

Do it yourself, and you ensure that you actually own the site. If you let your web designer do it for you, and he/she puts his/her name as the registrant, its not your site! Most website designers are aware of this, and take care to protect your interests. Some do not! For a company site, make sure the domain is registered in the company name, not an individuals name. If the office girl registers the site in her name, then leaves without a forwarding address, you’ve got a potential disaster in the making!

Website Hosting

Some web designers offer hosting as part of the package. Its usually a re-seller arrangement, where the designer gets a commission on the monthly hosting fees – as opposed to a server owned and operated by the website designer. Realistically, you are better to shop around and find a hosting package that delivers the functionality you require in terms of site management and software. For example, a classic Apache server with cpanel management, and PHP and MySQL databases will meet most needs. Performance can be an issue – and its not in your best interests to be hosted on a server with 600 other sites.

If you’ve chosen a .com domain, make sure you have hosting in the country that your clients are located in… otherwise, you’ll be excluded from country-specific searches! 

Choosing Website Designers

Its best to develop a design brief – specify your goals and objectives, and give some examples of sites that appeal to you. Circulate the brief to a few designers you’ve selected after reviewing multiple web design sites. Build a chart that compares what each designer offers, at what costs. Engage in dialogue with a short list of 2-3 designers and resolve any issues you did not understand in their responses to your brief.

Finally, pick someone who can talk to you on your level without being condescending. Be firm about separating components such as domain registration, hosting, and design. If the designer is insistent on combining all elements, move them to the bottom of the pile. If they have a particular CMS that they want you to use, ask them if its an open-source system. If not, ask them what happens in the future, if you become unsatisfied with them or the product. All promises should be made in writing, and signed by the CEO… in the form of a legal and binding contract.

Make sure your potential designer is listening to you, and is trying to deliver what you require, rather than what is best for them.

Website Architecture

The web site architecture that you choose can make or break you. In terms of good search engine rankings, the simpler you can make the site, the better. HTML-based sites which allow total control over all page elements will always deliver the best results. If your potential designer is insistent on building the site in Frames, JavaScript, or Flash, or combination thereof, remove them from your list immediately. The rule is “form follows function.” It won’t matter a bit how wonderful your site looks, if no one can find it.  Modest use of JavaScript or Flash is fine… but the search engines can neither read or index anything in either – so it is best to ensure at the outset that your site is not doomed to obscurity!

Website Management

Free-form editing of individual HTML pages is the best option from a search engine optimisation perspective. Its not much more complicated than using a word processor, and uploading the page amendments to the live site is not particularly difficult. However, if you are going to use a Content Management System for maintenance instead, its in your best interests to opt for an Open-Source CMS! With “open source” the software is free, no license fees apply, and anyone can work on it. You own the site content, and can more readily export it to another CMS platform if you don’t like the current one. With an open -source platform, you are not limited to a single designer or developer. If things don’t go the way you want, changing designers or developers is relatively simple.  

Content Management Systems – CMS

Proprietary Content Management Systems (CMS) present a real threat if you become dissatisfied with the developer’s service / performance. “They” own the site, not you, and you are effectively locked in to the package, which usually includes web design, development and hosting. If you want to change suppliers, you may have to abandon your entire development investment and start again from scratch! 

Such an environment usually involves shared hosting on the CMS supplier’s server. This places your site in the midst of multiple other sites all running exactly the same software platform, and often all of the same site type – e.g. e-commerce. This is undesirable from a search engine optimisation point of view.

In my opinion, a CMS system is complete overkill for a site of less than 100 pages – which is most small business sites. This comment applies equally to any totally database-driven solution. Overall, content changes very little – for many pages, it might be an annual revision. Using an HTML editor to make minor page changes requires minimal technical ability, and publishing amended pages via FTP is a trivial exercise. Exceptions to this are e-commerce, dating, portal or similar special purpose site, where you require a pre-designed application such as a shopping cart solution. Even then, combining HTML informational pages with the open-source application is still the best option.

Website Backups

This can be a simple as a monthly download to your PC of the site plus databases. Do not totally rely on your hosting company for site backups! Do not totally rely on your website designer for backups! In the event of a total systems failure, or unresolved dispute, you may be left relying on what data you have at your disposal. As a minimum, you want multiple copies of the site, stored at multiple locations. The live site on your hosting companies server, plus a local copy on your PC, plus a backup copy on your external hard drive, plus a monthly copy on CD or DVD and stored at your Mum’s place should do it! 

Business Resilience

Rule No.1: Do not put all your eggs in one basket! Basically, you need to ensure that you minimise your dependence on any one service supplier. If your web designer goes belly-up, what becomes of your proprietary CMS system? If the hosting company goes out of business, you need to be able to quickly change hosts and servers.  

• use the national domain registrar – more expensive, but they might still be in business next year!

• use open-source software, if you must use a Content Management System! 

• use an independent web designer – if your relationship deteriorates, you can easily switch to another!

• use a independent hosting supplier – if it does not work out, you can change hosting companies!

• use an independent SEO supplier – if it does not work out, pick another!

• use a regular site backup regime – multiple copies in multiple locations!

Doing so substantially insulates you from other’s failings, and ensures you can quickly respond to a change of circumstances. Even in cyberspace, an ounce of prevention is still better than a pound of cure! 

Blog Search Engine Optimisation

As mentioned in previous posts, using blogs to generate additional traffic for your primary site can pay huge dividends. Just “doing it” can mean significant increases in traffic, but what you really want to do here is – as in your main site – generate qualified traffic.

Content Creation Discipline

By that, I mean you want to draw in people who want exactly what you offer. That requires a disciplined approach to content creation;

• Research and consider carefully what your post is about, and know why you are writing it – the objective!
• Identify the keyword phrase/s that people are using to find information relevant to the topic you will write on
• Ensure you place keywords in the post title, and early in the first paragraph, with some additional emphasis on the words, such as bold / italics
• Include “exact match” keyword phrases throughout the body of the article.
• Add tags/slug i.e. a short list of specific relevant keywords – this may be used in the post page Keyword meta-tag.
• Write a concise Excerpt, loaded with keyword phrases – this may be used in the post page Description meta-tag.
• Use the Spell Checker!!! This article may be the first introduction a potential client has with your business.

Remember that “You NEVER get a second chance to create a first impression!”

Business Blogs Should Inform & Educate

In a business blog, which is there to inform & educate potential clients about aspects of your business, try to provide useful information, without a blatant sales pitch. By all means, encourage readers to “Inquire about Free Personal Advice” or “Contact us for More Information” but don’t overdo the sales pitch. Your goal is to convey your depth of knowledge and experience, and build credibility.

Blog Search Engine Optimisation

To maximise the penetration of your Blog posts, it is not sufficient to just write it and forget it. You need to ensure that your Business Blog is properly “optimised” to produce unique, accurately categorised, and clearly labelled content. This requires a SEO package implementation on your blog to ensure that your Posts, static Pages and Category pages are UNIQUE! We think Wordpress is the fastest and easiest blog platform to customize. It also has a comprehensive array of free SEO options, and following comments are specific to Wordpress.

This is best done dynamically, with installation of plugins that provide automation of;

• HTML Page URLs – using mod_rewrite to generate verbose, keyword-rich page file names.
• Page Title Tags – if you write good post titles, these can be used verbatim in the Title Tag.
• Page Description Meta-Tag – uses the post Excerpt, or the first 20 words of 1st paragraph.
• Page Keyword Meta-Tag – used the post Tag or Slug to generate keywords.

Accurate Content Cataloguing Pays Dividends

The combined impact of attention to detail in posting generation and publishing, plus Search Engine Optimisation finesse on the page production, will deliver dramatic improvements to blog traffic. At the same time, it will ensure that visitors get exactly what they were seeking, due to the resulting accuracy of your blog content cataloguing efforts.

That will encourage them to bookmark the site, or specific page, and to come back looking for additional details.

Yet Another Insightful SEO Article by; 

Ben Kemp, aka The SEO Guy (Co. Ltd)

Web: http://www.comauth.co.nz/ – www.theSeoGuy.co.uk – www.TheSeoGuy.us

Email: SEO

Contact us for a Free SEO Site 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….

Avoid Disaster – 12 Points on Picking an SEO Professional

There has been a flurry of entrants into the Search Engine Optimisation market in the past year or so. Judging by the horrendous rates some are charging, money rather than service seems to be the main motivation. Judging by the horror stories from clients who have arrived on my doorstep after being ripped off by sharp operators, in some instances there is evidence of a serious deficiency in both ethics and skills in some cases. I have a new client who spent almost $30,000 last year, with no work having been done on the actual site, no evidence of link increases, and according to traffic statistics, site visitors have gone DOWN by 60% – so read the following sections carefully.

So, how do you choose an SEO firm to entrust your business to? I believe that there are some simple checks to put in place before committing yourself to any SEO proposal, no matter how attractive it might seem.

The following sections lists a dozen few ways you can identify some potentially good SEO firms, and how to eliminate the dodgy ones, and thus reduce your chances of being disappointed.

1.) How Well Does Their Own SEO Site Rank?

Do a search for search engine optimisation, seo rates and/or seo firm on the country-specific version of each of the big 3 major search engines – e.g. Google.co.nz, Yahoo.co.nz or XtraMSN.co.nz. Alternatively, go to the main Google.com etc site, and search for nz seo, seo rates, or new zealand search engine optimisation (or your own country-specific version of those). The SEO market has become very competitive out there, but you should expect the SEO business you are contemplating doing business with to be on Page One on each search engine! If not, drop them from the list of possibles, because how much help could they possibly be to you? A list of 5-10 potential firms should quickly emerge from this process.

2.) Request For Proposal

From your initial research, you should have a list of contenders you are considering entrusting your business to. Contact each, and request a site review. This usually a free service, and will invariably result in a detailed analysis of your site, and a proposal which sets out what remedial action is required and should include an indicative costing to achieve this. Having now received a series of these, apply the following criteria against each one.

3.) Guaranteed Inclusion in Google/Yahoo/MSN

If an SEO firm offers a guarantee of inclusion into any major search engine, or assures you that they have a special relationship with a major search engine, immediately drop them from the list of possibles. Frankly, search engines simply do not enter into such relationships. That would be as likely as a close friendship between a poacher and a gamekeeper!

4.) What Are They Proposing?

There are two key ingredients to web site optimisation, and if both are not assessed and addressed, drop the SEO firm’s proposal from the list of possibilities!

• The first element is on-site optimisation of individual pages to improve organic or natural search engine rankings. This involves keyword research with associated analysis of the business products and services. This is the most important aspect because it delivers ongoing traffic which is essentially free after the initial work is carried out.
• The second key element is link analysis and recommended remedial action. Basically, the more links to your site from trusted sites carrying high Page Rank, the better. Insufficient links can mean your site appears not worth indexing. Proposals to increase your 1-way back-links from web directories and other trusted sites are good. Use of blogs, and article marketing is also current best practice. However, should there be any suggestions for participation in link propagation schemes, or placing main emphasis on reciprocal link strategies etc, drop the SEO firm from your list because they are not up to date with current best practice.

5.) Google Adwords & Yahoo Search Marketing

Some SEO firms boast that they are certified Adwords practitioners etc. That’s all well and good, but what they mean is that with YOUR money, they are real confident of getting you top placing in the keyword bidding warfare! There can be some short term benefits in that, but guarantees along those lines are not overly helpful to your business. If a proposal places primary emphasis on Pay-Per-Click, slip it down to the bottom of the pile!

6.) References

Can your SEO firm provide you with some reference sites they’ve worked on successfully, case studies, and/or some clients or web developers you can contact for comment? Bear in mind that there are likely to be some commercial sensitivities that apply constraints.

7.) Is There Value in 1 Year Contracts?

Frankly, not to you! The hallmark of a professional, ethical operator will be a fixed price contract to carry out the initial remedial action on the site. As a reassurance, they will usually let you know that ongoing support is available if required, because the rules of the SEO game do keep changing. The best SEO practitioners do not attempt to lock you into 1 year contract because they know the initial work will often take 8-12 weeks to deliver full benefits, and the project cost will usually include a built-in monitoring component over that initial period. It is, in my view, a little unethical to double-dip on the project costs!

Not only that, but what if you are not happy with the results of the SEO firm or their level of service? A 1 year contract might just guarantee you receive a full 12 months of unsatisfactory services! My advice – do not lock yourself into a long-term contract until you have grown comfortable with the SEO team you are dealing with.

8.) Fixed Price Contracts

Insist on one! A professional SEO firm will set out exactly what is wrong with your site, and explain the precise remedial action in a coherent and logical fashion. The actual work will be specified and a total cost provided. It is customary to require payment in advance. This is usually 100% for smaller jobs, which I would define as less than $1500. For larger projects, expect to pay a 50% deposit with balance on completion and/or when Top 30 rankings on agreed keyword terms show a demonstrable improvement.

9.) How Much Should It Cost?

Well, each proposal should come down to a judgement by each SEO firm on how many hours of work are going to be involved in the project. However, some seem more inclined to make an assessment of your ability to pay in big chunks! There can be obvious, huge discrepancies – its common to see variations of 1000% e.g. you will see that some firms initial cost proposal can be 10 times that of competing SEO firms! From your point of view, you want to know;

• How many pages are going to be amended
• What will be done by way of increasing incoming links
• Are articles being published, and if so, how many?

Reduce it to a known quantity, compare apples with apples! When you are systematic about it, the choices become more obvious, and a decision becomes easier!

10.) You Need to Know What Will Be Done

An SEO professional will involve you at each step of the process, providing you with a preview of all site changes before implementation. You will be able to measure progress of the work on a page by page basis, and see the results in your site traffic statistics as well as SE ranking reports. As in all aspects of life, failing to plan is planning to fail! If there is no plan, no road map, don’t expect a happy ending or any rights of redress.

11.) Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO

There are other danger signs to be aware of. If your SEO proposal suggests cloaking, redirections, doorway pages, hallway pages, invisible text, multiple domain names for duplicated content etc, immediately drop the company from the list of possibles!

There are many Black Hat SEO operators who prefer to attempt to subvert the Search Engine guidelines, essentially looking for rapid, short-term ranking gains by ANY means, instead of taking a responsible, professional approach. If your site is caught up in any scheme like this, banishment from search engine indexes is assured! Essentially, good White Hat SEO involves thoughtful restructuring of site content, within the SE guidelines and parameters, and taking no risks of any kind.

12.) Who Are You Dealing With?

Does their site have some personal profile information? Are you dealing with a seasoned IT industry professional, a kid fresh out of high school, someone moonlighting from their primary job, or maybe somebody who has English as a second (or third) language? SEO is very much about words, semantics, languages skills and this, plus broad SEO project experience over several years, should be a key indicator to consider!

Your web site is an integral part of your business. The people you work with should have an intuitive understanding of your business, products and services, and should by now have demonstrated that they have given your particular circumstances some personal attention. Some, on the other hand, may have merely used automated site assessment tools. From the initial proposal, and exchange of emails with questions and answers to clarify any issues that have arisen, do you feel a sense of rapport with anyone? The best people to work with are those you are comfortable with.

I hope that this has proven a useful and thought-provoking summary of how to weed out the space cadets, cowboys and make-a-quick-buck operators. I really hope you do find yourself a competent, professional SEO practitioner, because they are out there, toiling away. doing a great job for great people like you!

Good luck!

SEO and Marketing Your Blog

SEO work for your blog is no different to search engine optimisation on your main site – youve got to work at it. Ok, so you’ve created your nice shiny new blog, and you’ve been adding high quality postings containing lots of useful information on a regular basis for a few weeks (or months)… whats next?

Review Your Blog

First, take stock of your blog’s set-up, and make sure its ready for debut;

1. Do your postings have some relevant key word content in the headings? If you’re intending to improve your overall ranking across search engines, remember to “optimise” the pages just as you would any other page of your site. Decide on the keyword phrase you are targeting, make sure its used in the heading. Make sure its highlighted in the body text, particularly in the first and last paragraphs.
2. Do your postings contain a “clickable” link or two back to your site? By this I mean a “proper” link in the format The SEO Guys Blog and not just your plain URL. To build traffic, you want to make it easy for people to get to your site!
3. Does each posting contain your “Author Details Panel” that credits the articles and postings to you, including your (clickable) site URL information? Make your links open in a new window – thats a kind gesture to those who’d like to return and finish reading the original page…
4. Have you made a statement of your copyright constraints, if any? Perhaps you should encourage people to copy and distribute your blog content, providing the Author Panel remains intact? That would be the best way to ensure widest distribution, and the consequent proliferation of valuable 1-way links back to your site!

Blog MarketingYou will probably want other people to read your blog in order that they may appreciate your literary genius, right? But of course, nobody know where its at yet, so you’ve got to give it some publicity. The first step should be to add a prominent link to it on your own web site, or sites – pretty obvious, you’d think? However, in all the excitement, that is sometimes overlooked!

More importantly, if you want it to start generating lots of nice new incoming links, and generating serious traffic increases, you’ve got to actively “market” your blog to the places that blog readers go… and “Where is that, pray tell me do?” I hear you say…

Well, the ping services you’ve added earlier are all well and good, but due to the volume of spam and garbage postings, some discipline had to be installed into the blog process to exert some control. Your site is no doubt “pinging” a variety of servers each time you create an entry. However, before any significant transfer activity takes place, you will have to front up and formally register yourself and your blog with as many of those services as possible.

The process is analogous to submitting to a normal search engine or directory, and pretty much for the same reasons. In some cases you may be asked for a reciprocal link – not too much to ask for the favour about to be rendered to you. In other cases, a “donation” might be requested. Before handing over the cash, have the sense to check the Google Page Rank of the site… its got to be high (6+) to be worth it!

The challenge is finding all these blog directories… so we’ve added a category on our Directory especially for links them, see; Blog Directories By the time you’ve spent a day working through the 150+ directories accessible from the various links, you’ll be in good shape to get that traffic counter ticking along. Your postings, and the consequent “ping” to the various services, should now have your content distribution flowing right along!

Good luck!

Web Designers – Why Not Outsource Your SEO Needs

Web design and search engine optimisation are two quite different disciplines, and usually people specialise in either one or the other, but rarely in both.

However, there are synergies and consequent opportunities for strategic partnerships and alliances…

A great many web sites are launched every year, and during site creation, SEO requires extra effort and consequent additional costs. For that reason, many site owners opt to not do SEO at the outset, but will find it necessary to address SEO later – when site traffic and sales revenues do not match initial expectations.

The SEO Reseller Option

Recently, we’ve had a number of approaches from New Zealand & Australian web design companies interested in outsourcing professional SEO services to offer to their existing clients. In each case, they lacked in-house SEO expertise, and preferred to work with an established SEO practitioner instead. They also felt that pricing from some other SEO firms they had contacted was exorbitant and much preferred our more modest search engine optimisation rates!

In response we developed and offered an incremental range of competitively-priced SEO services. This was so successful that we’ve decided to further expand our business by actively marketing our SEO outsourcing service on a commission basis e.g.;

• You quote our price to your clients and you bill them once work is completed
• We supply the webmaster (usually you) with the SEO amendments to insert, meaning there is additional billable work generated for you in the process.
• On completion, we bill you the previously quoted amount, less the commission.

We are willing and able to work cooperatively with any web designer or web site developer seeking to outsource SEO reseller services for their clients.

It’s our preference to offer SEO services on a fixed price basis. This presents clients with a known quantity for budgetary purposes. To review these rates and services [click here] and then contact us to discuss details.

The SEO Imperative…

To any business enterprise hoping for significant Internet-based sales, it’s imperative that prospective clients can actually find the web site. Many business / client relationships commence through contact established via search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.

The prospective client seeks a product by searching for a specific keyword or phrase. If your site doesn’t rank in the Top 30 results, you have minimal chance as barely 10% of searchers will go to (or past) the 3rd page of results. If they don’t find what they want on the 1st or 2nd page, the majority will either refine their search term, or go to a different search engine.

Search Engine Optimisation is all about marketing a web site more effectively, with the goal of improving the site’s exposure to customers and clients on the Internet.

I’ve been practicing SEO since bG (before Google); back when Alta Vista, Excite, Hotbot and Northern Light ruled the search engine world. Additional background information is available at TheSeoGuy’s web site.

SEO Return On Investment…

In terms of the potential results for your clients, reflect a moment on the fact that there is a great deal of competition for rankings on the search engines. Not ensuring that a site is properly optimised dooms to mediocrity. The “return on investment” for SEO is usually very good indeed.

No-Risk Test of our SEO Services!

Pick a “normal” site whose owner thinks it needs a rankings boost, and provide us with the details. We are so confident of success that we will put our money where our mouth is by offering a do a Basic SEO Package project for one of your clients on a “no cure, no pay” basis. E.g. we do a SE ranking report before commencing the job, and again after completion – if there is not a demonstrable improvement in Top 30 rankings in 6 weeks, the job is free! You could document the project, and include the details in your monthly newsletter.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to read this, and I look forwards to hearing from you soon!

Kind regards

Ben Kemp

aka “The SEO Guy”

+64 9 974-3553

bjk

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