The SEO Guys :: Web Design & SEO

File naming is an element of SEO that most people pay little attention to, yet its a crucial issue for two key reasons;

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 

Link building strategies have, for most people for a long time, revolved around reciprocal link exchanges. Whilst most people understand that links are important, they generally don’t understand why this is so. In a nutshell, a link to your site has traditionally been accepted by Search Engines as a vote for your site. A link from a topic or theme-related site to yours is better than a link from a site having a completely different topic. An important site’s link to yours carries more weight - for example from The Open Directory, or Yahoo Directory. All pretty straightforward…

BUT… the rules have changed… significantly! All the thinking webmasters worked diligently to build links - willy-nilly - in order to subvert the search engine rankings and gain an advantage to themselves at the expense of everyone else. For a long time, there have been mutterings about this, and comments from Google staffers about possible penalties from linking to “bad neighbourhoods’” and - heaven forbids it -  buying links! Google et al simply don’t approve of willy-nilly link-building schemes, and have recently tightened the screws a bit more, in two notable ways…

Bad Links 

Some links are bad… for example, if you are a car sales company and you’ve got dozens of completely irrelevant links to international hotel sites… yeah, YOU know the ones! in Prague, Munich, Shanghai  etc! That’s a BAD neighbourhood over there! That IS going to put a world of hurt on you! And as for the Free For All link sites, web rings, and 3 way link schemes… that’s just suicide in cyberspace! Why? Coz its a blatant and completely indefensible attempt at cheating the system!

Reciprocal Links - Almost a Waste of Effort

Reciprocal links are still of some value, providing the link titles are explicit, and if the page they link to you from has a higher Page Rank than the page from which you link to them. The concept of a link to you being a vote for you, and being added to your site’s Total Vote Count has a flip side. A link from you to someone else essentially deducts a vote from your total vote count… meaning its value is minimal when compared to a 1-way incoming back-link!   

1-way Outward Links Are Toxic

Ok, lets assume you are a service provider, maybe a health clinic, and you deal with hospitals, other doctors, specialists, nurses, laboratories. So, as a benefit to your visitors, you place direct links to their web resources on your links page. Is that clever? Most certainly it is NOT! Transfusion time, because you’ll be haemorrhaging Page Rank with nothing in return! Do it, but be smart about it, because there is NOTHING to be gained (by you) from linking to any site that does not link back. So make sure your links include the “nofollow” attribute that tells SE’s that the link is NOT a vote by your site for that site! 

Link Content Is Mission Critical

This is mission critical because Google and other have decided that they can’t trust you to be honest about your site! Basically, it seems like there are two web tribes - those who know not so much about how things work, and those who know more than they should. There should be a flourishing third tribe, who just build great sites with lots of terrific content that automatically ranks highly - but nobody’s seen nuthin’ from those guys for ages! 

The tribe who know more than they should ruthlessly manipulate every available loophole to dominate search engine rankings, at the expense of those who have yet to read SEO For Dummies. Therefore, Google decided that its essential that there is some external correlation between what YOU say your site is about, and what OTHER people say your site is about…  This is done by analysing the words in the Link Title on all links pointing to your site.  Bottom line here is - if a keyword phrases does NOT appear on links to your site, you ain’t gonna rank for that phrase!

For many established sites, this is the main reason they might have experienced a noticeable decline in rankings in the last few months. Most older sites will have a majority of incoming links based on their business name, and NOT on their activities / products / services / location etc. To use the common “widgets” analogy - if you are selling “widgets” and all your incoming link Titles have your only business name e.g. Smiths Manufacturing Co Ltd, its now very difficult for you to rank for “widgets”! 

Backlink analysis reveals this shortcoming rather quickly and, lucky for you, it is possible to remedy this by building 1-way incoming back-links using multiple Title / Description combinations that contain a good spread of relevant keywords. It does require some keyword research, and it is tedious - but if you don’t do it, you are certainly not going forwards! But your competitors might be…

Yet Another SEO Article by;

Ben Kemp, aka The SEO Guy

Web: www.comauth.co.nz

Email: SEO@TheSeoGuy.co.nz

Contact us for a Free SEO Site Review….

Google Supplemental Results Index is NOT a place you want to be! The way you end up in there is if your pages are so badly described or categorised, Google could scarcely decide if there was a difference between them. Bottom line is, if you don’t take the time and effort to make your pages unique, with page URLs, Titles and Descriptions that accurately describe the contents of the page, why on earth should Google even bother indexing them at all? That they do so is a credit to them, even though they no option but to park them in the “Other Crap We Found” bin…

Everyone who bothers to read the Search Engine Guidelines would know that Search Engines loathe duplicate content with a passion bordering on paranoia… Three of the key “uniqueness” indicators on a web page are its URL, Title and Description. If all pages have unfriendly URLs containing “&, = or ?” and not a keyword in sight, that is a very bad start. Compound that with generic Titles and Description meta-tags, and you’ve gone a long way towards obfuscating the reason that the page exists.

Do a Google search for “site:www.mysite.com” (replace “mysite” with YOUR site’s domain name) for obvious reasons… This will show you what they have found and indexed on your site… You will see the individual page URLs, the Titles and Descriptions… All different, are they? If not, you have a problem! Not only must they be different, they must be accurate!

Bear in mind that in the event that one of those pages actually finds itself thrust into prominence in a Search Engine Results Page, it needs to capture the interest and attention of the viewer… and if they click through to your site, its important that they find what they were looking for! If not, they left already! That is twice as bad as you might think, because Google actually takes note of how long they stayed… and factors this into your sites relevancy for whatever term your page was found for. If people are going to you and staying for a while, the “stickiness” of your site can increase your rankings for that search term! Conversely… if they are leaving immediately, your page will decrease in value as a consequence.

As a general rule, your goal should be to make sure that every page on your site is unique / different. It should focus on 1 - 3 specific keyword phrases that will draw people in via search engine results pages, and it should provide information, entertainment or something of value related to that term or terms. If it does not do that, there seems little point having the page on the site in the first place!

Optimisation of a site is all about accurately describing the contents so that its obvious to both automated Search Engine spiders AND human viewers. That brings the “qualified traffic” flow of visitors who know what they want, and that your site probably has it!

Yet Another SEO Article by;

Ben Kemp, aka The SEO Guy

Web: www.comauth.co.nz

Email: SEO@TheSeoGuy.co.nz

Contact us for a Free SEO Site Review….

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@TheSeoGuy.co.nz

Contact us for a Free SEO Site Review….

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@TheSeoGuy.co.nz

Contact us for a Free SEO Site Review….

Thailand search engine optimisation seekers now have a new option on their doorstep, because The SEO Guy is making the transition to a semi-permanent base in Bangkok, Thailand. We’ve completed company registration, been allocated our tax numbers and received work permits etc in recent weeks.   :-)

Bangkok’s telecommuncations infrastructure is excellent, making for seamless internet communications. Thailand’s convenient time zone location, midway between New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom, means that a part of our working day extends into all those time zones, allowing us same-day communications with clients in many countries! The central South-East Asia location means we can offer native English language SEO services throughout the region…

Major local clients now include;

• TheraVitae Co Ltd, specialists in adult stem cell research & treatment. TheraVitae is a multi-national company with offices in Thailand, Singapore, USa, and works with 3 Bangkok hospitals, as well as hospitals in Singapore and Israel. We’ve commenced search engine optimisation work on their www.TheraVitae.com and www.VesCell.com sites.  
• Siam International Legal Group - a multi-national company, specialists in company registration, purchase of land, house, condominium and/or business in Thailand, and in work permit applications, K1 Fiancee Visa applications and K3 Marriage Visa applications, plus all general legal services. We’re working on site issues and SEO at  www.FastK1.com and www.Siam-Legal.com for them.

We look forwards to building relationships with other local companies in the coming weeks and months, as well as continuing to service both new and existing clients in NZ, Australia and the UK. Growth is good…

Ben Kemp, aka The SEO Guy

SEO: www.comauth.co.nz : www.TheSeoGuy.co.uk : www.TheSeoGuy.us

Web Design: www.websitedesign.comauth.co.nz

E-Commerce: www.osCommerce-Ecommerce.comauth.co.nz 

Email: SEO@TheSeoGuy.co.nz

Contact us for a Free SEO Site Review….

One of the fastest way to minimise your chances of web business success is to use a Content Management System (CMS). There are a number of open-source CMS products, such as phpWS, Mambo, Plone, Drupal, Geeklog, Siteframe, and phpNuke etc and a plethora of proprietary CMS products espoused by individual web design companies as the answer everything from lack of HTML knowledge to rapid shopping cart deployment etc.

Expressing this in simple terms, its said that possibly as high as 80% of online purchases are made from leads generated by search engines. CMS systems place a huge handicap on achievable Search Engine rankings. meaning there is a direct, immediate and practically insurmountable conflict with business aspirations. There are multiple reasons for this.

Duplication of Content

Search engines loathe duplicate content. In the average CMS, there are numerous common design elements, images, HTML and/or JavaScript code blocks etc, which are portrayed across ALL sites using the same system, and this is not a good thing.

Many CMS systems make it hard to impossible to generate unique page Title, Description & Keyword meta-tags, meaning all pages can look identical in search engine results. Many CMS systems do not permit you to assign keyword-rich image names, or apply unique and specific image ALT tags, and the page file names are usually not directly controllable. Few CMS systems allow you to easily add anchors on specific pages, and to link to those anchors from other pages. All of this translates into losing you valuable search engine optimisation opportunities.

Shared IP Addresses vs. Unique IP

Proprietary CMS systems usually go hand in hand with a “total package deal” that includes web design, web hosting and CMS. The hosting is invariable on a “shared server” meaning your site has the same IP Address as all other sites on the server.
Should a situation occur Where another site or sites are offering very similar or identical products and services, there is a potentially serious conflict of interest which the web design & hosting company will probably not advise you of! The first site is highly likely to be given priority rankings and treatment by the search engines, and all subsequent sites are highly likely to be consigned to oblivion as Search Engines will probably regard them as “duplicate content!” So two or more “Christmas gift shops” on the same “shared server,” or two or more “human resource consultants” face a problem they will be blissfully unaware of. Having a unique IP address assigned to your site is far more sensible!

Usability

Open-source CMS systems are written by geeks and nerds, for other geeks and nerds. It is painfully obvious that none are written by people with the faintest understanding of search engine optimisation, or an awareness of the old adage “form follows function.” As for “usability testing” there is no demonstrable evidence that any research and science has been applied to either the user or the administration interfaces! Unfortunately, the same criticisms can be levelled at the commercial CMS systems on offer.

CMS and Being Held To Ransom

In terms of the proprietary CMS systems, you are also seriously at risk of being captured and held hostage by your web design company, because they now “own” your site and you cannot easily escape without sacrificing your total investment. In this respect, use of CMS demonstrates a complete lack of business risk analysis. From that point on, you can also be systematically milked like a cash cow for every amendment, change, edit etc that they carry out on your behalf! Believe me, it happens every day… and I’ve seen people charged $90 for a simple edit that took me less than 2 minutes to implement!

CMS Saves You Money?

Yeah, right!!! The overheads of managing a CMS are usually far in excess of managing a conventional site. Content percentage-wise, most sites actually change very little, and the majority of pages are static and do not change at all. CMS is total overkill for the average business site.

Stand Out from the Crowd, Don’t Join It!

To succeed on the web today, you need to be a clearly unique entity, with original content, properly organised, logically described, and all pages must be optimised for a set of specific keyword phrases that accurately describe your products or services. Anything less is a compromise, and is to YOUR business detriment. A CMS system has a direct, negative impact on almost all desired outcomes - from minimising business risks, improving search engine rankings and prompt return on investment.

Another SEO Article by;

Ben Kemp, aka The SEO Guy (nz)

Web: www.comauth.co.nz

Email: SEO@TheSeoGuy.co.nz

Contact us for a Free SEO Site Review….

 Latent semantic indexing (LSI) is a concept whereby your site is also assessed on content other than the keywords that you are obviously targeting in the on-page and off-page elements of the site. Partly, this is to combat using keywords to draw traffic to content unrelated to the keywords - as porn, gambling and pharmacy spam sites are inclined to do. 

More importantly, its because there is a very high mathematical probability that a site that is genuinely about a specific topic ALSO includes multiple iterations of related words, phrases and terms e.g.;

• nouns, verbs and adjective variations

• word derivations

• synonyms

• hypernyms

• hyponyms

Therefore, the major search engine algorithms’ are now applying the concepts of “latent semantic indexing” and taking into account all word relationships within the site. Whilst an algorithm might lack “intelligence,” the mathematical model is quite robust and delivers extremely accurate relevancy assessments. To apply the concept of LSI to your site, its a matter of NOT over-loading your page with primary keywords (spamming) but instead, using variations to more accurately describe your topic or theme; E.g. using the term “SEARCH” the following options appear;

Variations or derived words; searcher, searched, searching,

Synonyms  - query, queried, querying, seeking, looking, finding

Hypernym: activity, examination, examine, higher cognitive process, investigate, investigating, investigation, look into, operation, scrutiny, see.
> Synonym: explore, hunt, hunting, look, look for, lookup, research, seek.
> Hyponym: angle, beat about, browse, cast about, cast around, comb, cruise, divine, drag, dredge, exploration, feel, finger, fish, forage, foraging, frisk, frisking, fumble, gather, go, go after, grope, grub, hunt, leave no stone unturned, looking, looking for, manhunt, nose, poke, prospect, pry, pursuance, pursue, pursuit, quest, quest after, quest for, raid, ransack, ransacking, re-explore, rifle, rummage, scan, scour, scouring, seek out, seeking, shakedown, shop, strip-search, surf, want.
> Derived: searcher

Noun
> Hypernym: activity, examination, higher cognitive process, investigating, investigation, operation, scrutiny.
> Synonym: hunt, hunting, lookup.
> Hyponym: exploration, forage, foraging, frisk, frisking, hunt, looking, looking for, manhunt, pursuance, pursuit, quest, ransacking, rummage, scouring, seeking, shakedown.Verb
> Derived: searcher.
> Synonym: explore, look, look for, research, seek.
> Hypernym: examine, investigate, look into, see.
> Hyponym: angle, beat about, browse, cast about, cast around, comb, cruise, divine, drag, dredge, feel, finger, fish, frisk, fumble, gather, go, go after, grope, grub, hunt, leave no stone unturned, nose, poke, prospect, pry, pursue, quest after, quest for, raid, ransack, re-explore, rifle, rummage, scan, scour, seek out, shop, strip-search, surf, want.The purpose of the example is to show that there are many ways to describe the same activity, product or service. 

How to Apply Latent Semantic Indexing

Implement LSI on your site by thoughtfully including variations, derivations, synonyms, hyponyms and hypernyms of your primary keywords and phrases. You will more effectively convince the Search Engines of your content theme than you would by stuffing multiple iterations of the same primary keywords into those page/s!

Yet Another SEO Article by;

Ben Kemp, aka The SEO Guy (nz)

Web: www.comauth.co.nz

Email: SEO@TheSeoGuy.co.nz

Contact us for a Free SEO Site Review….

Another thing the web hosting company forgot to tell you…  An aspect overlooked by many site owners, and one that gets minimal coverage in web design or SEO articles etc, is the importance of server location to your site rankings, traffic and consequent success. Most articles are written by web design & SEO practitioners in the USA, and are therefore written from “The Inside, Looking Out.” However, if you happen to be like many site owners in the world, “On The Outside, Looking In,” the view is slightly different!

Location,  Localisation & SEO

The problem here is the “decentralisation” of search - the way in which the major search engines have split their indexes up into country-specific search opportunities. Google (and other SE’s) know where you are because of the IP address allocated to your PC. They know this because IP addresses are allocated in numeric blocks or ranges, by country. There are significant impacts on both searchers, and on businesses, of this search decentralisation process. This is both a blessing and a curse, depending on where you are, where your site is, what you offer, where your customers are, and whether you are a searcher, or a site owner. 

Location & Searchers

For a searcher in United Kingdom, Australia, or New Zealand, you will have noticed a while back that your Google sessions automatically default to Google.co.uk, Google.com.au, or Google.co.nz, depending on the respective country in which you reside. Searchers in the USA are blissfully unaware of this phenomenon…  The results of your search will also be biased towards sites physically located within your geographic area.  Therefore, if you were to do the same search on the different country-specific versions of Google, you would usually get different results - sometimes substantially different, depending on the competitiveness of the particular search within those countries, and globally.

Location, Site Owners & SEO

For a business located in the United Kingdom, Australia, or New Zealand, you are effectively competing on far more even terms with sites from your own geographic “web space” than previously. However, if you have a focus on delivering products or services within your own specific geographic region, its essential that your site’s IP address be within the specific Country’s IP Address Range. This means that your site should be physically located in a server in the UK, AU or NZ web space. If you’ve opted for cheap hosting on a server located in the USA, or Asia etc, you have effectively shot yourself in the foot, and severely prejudiced your chances of attaining top search engine rankings in your preferred web space.

Conversely, for a business located in the United Kingdom, Australia, or New Zealand, with a focus on delivering products or services in another specific geographic region, you should have your web site physically located on a server in that country to gain the most traction in your search engine rankings. In so doing, you should also ensure that your offshore site adheres to local language conventions, spellings and usage. E.g. if you are selling paint into the USA, you should use the Americanized “color” and not the Queens English “colour” as would be done in the UK or NZ.

How to Win The Global Localisation Game

If you are a business who has a significant actual or potential client base in more than one country, it makes sound business sense to also register www.yourbiz.co.uk under www.yourbiz.com.au and the country variants you might require. You can then build a global network of mini-sites customised specifically for those markets. By careful linking between those sites, and making them complementary by ensuring that the content is not simply duplicated (and therefore in breach of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines) you should be able to generate significant additional traffic and business.   

Yet Another SEO Article by;

Ben Kemp, aka The SEO Guy (nz)

Web: www.comauth.co.nz

Email: SEO@TheSeoGuy.co.nz

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!