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!

Classification

There are literally millions of websites, each competing for viewers in a particular niche. Reasons for their existence vary across the A to Z spectrum – advertising, entertainment, comedy, educational, humour, informational, music, news, promotional, sports, wine, video, zoos… you get the picture, right?

In the world of books we have the Dewey decimal classification system. Every published work is assigned an ISBN number, and libraries classify all books under a rigid hierarchical subject classification system. It’s not perfect, but it works pretty well because every one uses and understands it! Erudite people write insightful book reviews, which are sometimes included in advertising and promotions. Hold this thought, its relevant to a following section. You want to find a book on a particular topic, or by a specific author, you do a search and Eureka! You’ve found it, there’s a list, even! The best books are reviewed multiple times, and take pride of place in the “best sellers” rack.

Relevancy Ranking

Using different terminology, search engines are trying hard to do the same thing – to give their searchers the most accurate list possible, containing exactly what they want, so they can pick and choose from it! Unfortunately, there is no Dewey classification system on the web. The closest thing to a hierarchical subject listing is the Open Directory, Yahoo, or one of the thousands of other web directories – all of which are inconsistently organised into completely different illogical structures!

So, here we have Google and other search engines trying valiantly to index and categorize the billions of pages on millions of websites, in hundreds of countries in a multiplicity of languages. Then, they have to calculate each page’s relevance to specific search queries…

Are You Helping or Hindering?

That’s where YOU come into the picture… It’s a big, big task – have you made any effort at all to help Google to help you? Or is your website fuzzy and unfocused, with no clear statement of content or purpose? In most cases, sites are constructed with vague intentions to do SEO as an optional extra sometime in the future… What, you want Google to do everything for you?

Done Any Homework?

Do you have any idea how your primary audience searches for the information, products or services you offer? Do the pages on your site describe your content using terms your clients use? Because that’s the only way Google can match searchers with relevant content! What? You actually forgot to do any market research before launching the site? You have no accurate, researched, hard data on the keywords your potential clients would use? You asked your friends at work for ideas? Absolutely incredible!

Let us pretend you’re looking for clients for your small bed & breakfast business in Christchurch, New Zealand. You are optimistic that potential customers in New Zealand, Australia and the UK will be able to find your website amongst the millions of competing B&B pages on the web, be convinced by your persuasive advertising copy and elegant pictures… you’d also like them to come and book directly with you, to avoid hefty commission payments on the dozens of B&B Advertising Directory sites who also want you to pay to advertise! Dream on!

So You Want Google To Work For You?

You’d really like Google et al to help connect your potential clients to your business via Search Engine Results Pages by making your site No.1… And you certainly want “qualified” traffic from Google, visitors who are specifically looking for exactly what you offer!

Anyone who thinks they can survive online without Google, Yahoo and MSN is either a thoroughly well-rounded idiot, or is a household name who does not need to advertise to generate qualified traffic. There is no middle ground.

But here’s where it gets hard! How will Google do that? What solid information have you provided Google in your on-site content, and in the off-site links to your site? Have you got a Domain Name which encapsulates your business type and location; Bed-Breakfast-Christchurch.co.nz? Or a cryptic name, like; BnBChChNZ.com? Of the two, which is most likely to give the SE its first clue as to what your site is about?

What is On-Site SEO

Think about it this way… Does your home page have an explicit and accurate Title that provides a direct and unequivocal statement of the site’s business purpose in 70 characters? Does the Title say “Bed & Breakfast Accommodation, Christchurch New Zealand” or does it say “Welcome to Dusty Lodge” or something equally asinine?

Does your home page have an explicit and accurate Description that provides a brief outline of your business purpose, unique selling proposition, and call to action, encapsulated in 150 – 200 characters? Or does it contain some vague warm and fuzzy drivel about beaches and sunsets?

Keep the book analogy in your mind, and take a look at your Home page, particularly the first heading and first paragraph… “Welcome to my website” is not a productive approach! What does it tell your visitors about you? It tells me that you are at best naïve and both you and your website designer need SEO counselling! And think about that first paragraph… is it an accurate summary of the site’s reason for existence? Eliminate that fruity, cheesy, fluffy verbiage immediately!

If your website is required to deliver a return on investment, particularly by selling products or services, or delivering customer service, informing or entertaining, your really need to accurately describe your website’s content, and allow it to become visible online. What’s that I hear? Oh, you want it to make you rich as well? But you don’t really want to make a serious commitment or effort to do the job properly? Right… good luck with that! And remember that old GIGO acronym – “Garbage In, Garbage Out!”

What is Off-Site SEO?

This may surprise you, but some people are dishonest about their site content. Frankly, some people handle the truth in a very awkward fashion indeed… Telling Google that your site is about Pamela Anderson, when its actually selling Bart Simpson comics, is deuced annoying to the people who visit it! Therefore, Google and other SE’s decided long ago that some external verification of every website’s content would assist their efforts to deliver the most relevant SERPs to their clients. Makes perfect sense to me…

How is this achieved, I hear you ask. Well, you’ve heard of links, right? Back to the book analogy – think of good links as being like a series of book reviews! What if lots of people are writing positive things about your site? What if multiple, external, widely distributed sites are all saying that your site is about “Bed & Breakfast Accommodation Christchurch NZ” huh? The balance of probability that your site is relevant to such a search is positively impacted by this external confirmation! A coincidence of keywords in on-site content and off-site links reassures Google immensely! Those keywords in the off-site links are referred to as anchor text, and should form the link title.

No, Its Not Rocket Science

Frankly, search engine optimisation, in the pure sense of the term, is not particularly difficult to understand, or to do. The aim of the search engines is to provide their customers with the content most relevant to the search they are making. Therefore, your salvation lies in making your content relevant to the known searches! Do some thorough keyword research, learn and understand your target audience’s searching behaviour. Plan pages that target specific, high-volume, low competition search phrases.

Don’t be vague, don’t waffle, and help Google to help you!

When the economic gravy pot is bubbling merrily, and there’s ample business gravy slopping over, even the mediocre get a share. But when the economic ice age casts midnight shadows at noon, and credit wolf packs softly pad the empty streets, howling balefully at the waning moon… then, when you’re sucking the last congealed streaks of business gravy off your tarnished website spoon, ask yourself… Can you afford your website to be second rate, disorganised and drifting ever further into the icy wastes of mediocrity? With a better understanding of why  SEO is so important to your website’s success, will you continue to ignore it?

Author’s Bio:

The SEO Guy, Ben Kemp, is a veteran SEO consultant who provides a guaranteed personal service on all projects. Drawing on a decade of SEO experience and website design and 20+ years of work in the IT industry,  THE SEO Guy’s Blog provides advice on SEO and WordPress CMS website design issues.

Web: www.ComAuth.co.nz plus www.Website-Designers.net.nz

Copyright Statement: This article may be copied for use on your site providing its not edited, and the Author’s bio remains intact.

As a general rule, from an SEO perspective, bear in mind the most fundamental issue. Google loathes duplicate content! Google is trying to index and categorize the billions of pages on the web and calculate each page’s relevance to specific search queries. Therefore, to have any chance of attaining appearance in Top 30 SERP’s, pages must be accurately described…

Keep in mind that Google is an entirely automated text indexing system doing its absolute best to deliver the most relevant content to its core users. Those core users are NOT website owners!!! Google’s main focus is on its search customers. If you want your website to get noticed, you’ve got to assist Google et al in every way possible, by accurately describing your own content.

Make it clear and unequivocal what each page is about. Ensure it is original content, properly described, and easily accessible…

Apparently, there are over 200 elements that Google assesses as its trying to calculate a page’s relevance to a specific search query. Individually, some of them are almost insignificant. Collectively they add up to prominence or obscurity! The thinking man understands that the more elements you get right, the higher the probability of appearance in Top 30 SERPs. Here’s a dozen of the primary indicators of unique content to an SE spider;

1.) URLs:

Precise control of every page URL, carefully using primary keywords / phrase. Use Permalinks wisely!

2.)  Title:

70 characters limit. Accurate, carefully using primary keywords / phrase. The single most important element for every page!

3.) Meta Description:

150 chars limit. Accurate, carefully using primary keywords / phrase. By default, its used verbatim in Google SERP’s. Its very important to write a catchy phrase incorporating primary keyword phrase, one that impels viewers to click on it!

I always use All In One SEO because I’m a “content control freak” and want to make sure every word is in the right place. Dynamic meta-tags are better than no meta-tags – but the ability to manually input as many elements as is possible is what makes the overall difference to SE Rankings…

4.) Meta Keywords:

Accurate, carefully using primary / relevant keywords and phrases. This should NOT be vaguely related words!!! It should be a set of long-tailed keyword phrases specifically relevant to the page content. I’d never use more than 8 – 10 phrases separated by commas.

5.) 1st On-page Title/Heading:

Headings offer limited space, but ALWAYS try and get at least one primary keyword into the title, and the tag must be H1 or H2, not an ‘imitation’ with large/bold text.

6.) First Paragraph:

Very important to get the primary keyword phrase into the beginning of the first sentence!

7.) Last Heading:

If you use one, reiterate a primary or secondary keyword phrase.

8.) Last Paragraph:

Quite important to get the primary or secondary keyword phrase into the beginning of the first sentence!

9.) Images:

Use keyword-rich image file names! Provide a descriptive and accurate image ALT text that uses a primary keyword phrase. Don’t overdo it – just lightly reinforce the page content descriptions.

10.) Anchor Text:

Provide links to other Internal Pages from primary/secondary keyword phrases within page content. Don’t waste the opportunity available to give clues to content on other pages! Using “Click Here For More” is not productive.

11.) Menu’s:

CSS drop-down menus are good. Text menus are good because they (usually) describe briefly the content of the page at the end of the link, providing an additional clue/reinforcement for the SE spiders. JavaScript menus are a disaster because they are completely invisible to Google et al.

12: Latent Semantic Indexing:

Within the overall content, don’t use excessive primary/secondary keyword repetition. Instead, employ a sprinkle of similar words having the same meaning… and variations of the primary words; e.g. mortgage, mortgaged, mortgagee, mortgagor, lend, lending, lender, financing, funding, loan, loans, loaned etc… Reinforce the primary / secondary keyword phrases with supporting content. LSI is based on a mathematical probability that if a page says its about something, AND general content also contains related words / phrases, then it IS accurately described and IS specifically relevant to related search queries.

13.) USE Google!

They’ve got two absolutely essential items designed to help you! The 1st is the Google sitemap, and there are plugins available which totally automate generation of the sitemap.xml file every time you add or edit page or post content. The 2nd is Feedburner… Create a Feedburner account, and add your RSS Feed to it. That gives you an intravenous pipeline directly into the belly of the beast! I’ve regularly got blog posts and page content appearing in “Google Alert” distributions within 2 – 3 hours of publishing the post or page! Feedburner also offers you a managed email subscription service which routes your new content directly to interested users…

Author’s Bio:

Ben has more than 20 years of experience in the IT industry, including 15 years as a free-lance IT consultant. He is one of Australasia’s longest serving website seo practitioners, with clients throughout NZ, Australia, Thailand, UK & USA. He specialises in implementing CMS websites

The SEO Guy (nz)
Email: bjk
Web: www.comauth.co.nz

Search Engine Page Results

When a reference to one of your pages shows up within a SERP, there are 3 important cues that can entice a visitor to click the link and visit your site. In order, they are Title, Description and URL – or page file name. Why not give yourself every possible advantage when competing for visitors, by providing accurate and readable file names? It might well be the final push that slides the mouse pointer in your favor.

Search Engine Rankings

Equally, when search engine spiders are mapping your site and trying to figure out what on earth its all about, giving them some accurate information in every possible area would seem like a smart move, right? Keywords in file names are important, and they do make a difference. It might only be one of 100-plus elements in a search engine relevancy algorithm, but the more places you can tick off as being perfect, the better!

The Reality Check

Oddly enough, few people actually do this! Most file names are either a model of brevity, acronymic, cryptic or just plain gibberish! That’s a bit like driving with the handbrake on…

Top 10 File Name Factors

1.) Use keywords! Why use “contact.html” when you could use “contact-the-blue-widget-specialists.html”??? Your page names are a good place to slip in an “exact match” high-volume keyword phrase… Do this where appropriate – like every page on your site – to help reinforce the keywords in Title / Description tags.

2.) Use hyphens and not underscores! In a URL, or in a text anchor on a page, the underscore blends with the hyperlink underline, making it difficult to see that it is not a space.

3.) Do NOT use spaces! Aside from the fact that the operating system has to fill the gaps with the awful %20 – there are still some operating systems and browsers in use around the globe that struggle to process spaces in file names.

4.) Do NOT use CAPITALS in file names – Windows does not care, and will treat “Blue-Widgets.html” and “blue-widgets.html” as the same file… However, operating systems such a Linux are case sensitive and see that variation as two completely different filenames! If you’ve typed internal hyperlink file names with case variations, you may well generate broken links for some users.

5.) Confine yourself to the Alphabet, and numerals, with hyphens between words. Do not commit the heinous crime of adding special characters into your file names! Linux allows pretty much any character except a forward slash (/) – but other operating systems might choke on them!

6.) Remember that SE’s really don’t like all the “&” and “?” and “=” that some CMS systems add. For example, if you are an osCommerce user, its a straightforward task to have Ultimate SEO URL’s installed, and produce plain-English file names.

7.) Don’t use the default file names and hierarchical structures in Wordpress / Joomla / Drupal / or any other Content Management system. For example, is 2007 a good Category heading, or directory name? Its out of date in a few months time! Still, its not uncommon to see sites based on silly, out-of-date directory/file name combinations.

8.) Make sure your CMS site generates keyword-rich file names that reflect page content. This should be the “normal” way to do things, but apparently the people who write this software genre don’t really understand a web business must generate search engine traffic to survive.

9.) Prevent your session ID’s being added to pages served to search engine spiders. Aside from the special character garbage, it means every time they visit, they get a different URL for the same page – resulting in duplicate content indexing! That can get your site removed from the SE indexes!

10.) Before changing a filename, ensure that you first set up a 301 Permanent Redirect from the old file name to the new file name. This will make the transition seamless, and minimise the possibility of 404 page not found errors. Also, those people who had the page bookmarked will still arrive at the correct location in your site.

Yet another SEO article by Ben Kemp, a free-lance website seo consultant and web site designer. He offers free SEO articles & web design tips, see Web Page SEO & Website Design Blog : Web: www.comauth.co.nz

• 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…

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! 

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….

Link – a textual or image link TO another site – usually included for the benefit of your visitors because it contains important information relevant to your product or service. Usually set to open in a new window so visitors don’t “lose” your site when they open the link. Outward links are of minimal value to your search engine rankings – unless you have a lot of them relating to a common “theme” – in which case your site might be perceived as an “Information Hub” for referrals on a specific topic.

For example, it might be appropriate for a medical-related site to provide links to support groups, goverment/health agencies, doctors and pharmacies with whom they work etc.

Affiliate Link

You place a link to a provider in order to make a commission out of selling their product/service to your visitors. There is zero value in terms of search engine rankings. And of course, there is no point linking to them if you are not going to sign up and sell their products!

BACK LINKS:

Reciprocal Links

Where two sites agree to provide LINKS TO EACH OTHER for mutual exchange of visitors, and to increase the relative importance of both sites by increasing total incoming link count. Reciprocal links have value in terms of improving search engine rankings, although this value has diminished in recent times. It is still a “natural” form of linking and should not be avoided – just apply this test – “Will the link lead to relevant information, of value and interest to my site’s visitors?”

If the answer is yes, then by all means exchange links. Done properly, constrained to sites with a similar theme, this may also lead to your site being perceived as an “Information Hub” for referrals on a specific topic.

1-Way Back Link

A link to your site, not requiring a link in return. These are the most valuable form of linking in terms of search engine rankings. Usually these are from clients – e.g. a manufacturer such as Sony/Toyota/Kodak will have a gazillion 1-way back links from retailers, users etc, as will government agencies, airlines, academic institutions etc. This can lead to your site appearing to be an “Authority” on a specific topic.

In most normal web site situations, your main source of good 1-way back links will be Web Directories. In these, a listing in the most relevant category can provide a very valuable “reference” or “testimonial” for your site. Because most directories are human-edited, the search engines place greater value on such links and the well established ones are often regarded by the search engines as “trusted sites.” The more important the directory, the greater the value. In the case of Google, they place huge importance on a site’s inclusion in The Open Directory, and also in the Yahoo Directory… It is important to select the most relevant category in which to have your site included – the content of the page in which the link is contained may also be assessed.

Changes To The Way SE’s Evaluate Links

Google bases approx 50% of its assessment of your site relevancy to a specific search on the site’s that link to you, and on the words contained in the links pointing to your site.

Yahoo has recently filed for patents for technology similar to Google’s Page Rank assessment mechanism, and is expected to gradually implement a similar emphasis on incoming link quality.

It is important to specify HOW the link to you should be implemented on other sites – and to that end I always add a “Link To Us” page on any site I work on, which specifies the exact wording to be used on links TO you.

“site:www.yoursite.co.nz” and of course, replace “yoursite” with the URL or YOUR site!