Web Marketing Posts | be fused

12 Easy SEO Mistakes

blairski — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:52:46 +0000

There is a lot of theories and "advise" floating around the subject of SEO, much of which is out of date because the search engines change so rapidly. You might try out a technique that might turn out to be a big mistake and do more damage then good. This article on SEOmos is a good list of 12 common and easy to make mistakes.

It is pretty basic and of course only covers 12 mistakes and there are many more that you can make, but still it is a very good read.

New SeoQuake

blairski — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:36:45 +0000

The team at SeoQuake have made this brilliant Firefox addon even better. If you have not used SeoQuake before, it allows you to see vital SEO stats for each site in a Google search. These stats include:

Google PageRank
Number of pages indexed by Google, Yahoo and MSN
Number of inbound links to the page and site as reported by Yahoo
Number of inbound links to the site as reported by Google and MSN
Alexa rank
Age of the site

With the new SeoQuake tool bar, you can view all these stats when visiting a webpage as well as from Google. It has a very cool keyword density button as well. When you click on the button, you will see the keyword density for the current page. It also shows the number of internal links and external links, the sites server IP address and a WHOIS button. All of this is housed in the tool bar, making it possible to get a quick SEO snap shot of websites and webpages as you surf the net.

I am seriously impressed! I loved SeoQuake before. Now I want to marry it.

SeoQuake Toolbar Screengrab

SeoQuake Keyword Density Screengrab

United we stand (Yahoo and Microsoft)

blairski — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:19:42 +0000

News has broke that Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion. Yahoo was once the giant of the Internet but has been struggling since the rise of Google. Microsoft, while dominating the operating system and office software markets, has failed to make any sort of dent in the online world. Microsoft and Yahoo have already been working together in the past few years in an attempt to claw back some market share from Google.

Will Google be worried?

I very much doubt it. Google is so far ahead that Microsoft and Yahoo have got a massive mountain to climb. Not only does Google totally dominate the search market, but they are also extending their reach. Their online applications like Gmail, Google docs, Google Base, Webmaster tools, Google Earth and Google Maps are far superior to anything that Yahoo and Microsoft have achieved of late. The Google products are actually cutting edge and exceptionally good. And they are getting better.

The best chance that Yahoo and Microsoft have is to concentrate on building a better search engine then Google. That is where Google's wealth comes from. Beat Google Search and you beat Google. With close to 90% market share in the UK and 60% in the USA, it is no easy task. But Microsoft at least have made improvements to their search engine. Perhaps with the addition of Yahoo technology and expertise, they just might be able to make it better the Google search, or at least as good.

One thing is for sure, if they do manage it, Internet users and businesses will be the better for it. Google will no longer be able to abuse its near monopoly position by increasing Adwords rates beyond reason. There might actually be healthy competition in the search engine market. We might have some choice. That will be a very welcome day for all of us who rely on search engine traffic.

Boo hoo, I've lost my PageRank!

blairski — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:31:24 +0000

I expressed my delight for holding my PageRank at 4 last week and reasons why I felt it was holding steady. Well, now I have PageRank egg on my face! Google has now dropped my PageRank to 2!

Unlike other webmasters who declare that PageRank does not matter when theirs drops, I do care and it does matter. I am quite confused as to why they have dropped it because I have not done anything that breaks any of their guidelines.

Having said that, as per my post on SEO getting easier, I am not going to waste too much time trying to figure out why the PageRank has dropped, because I want to spend more time making this site and my other sites better.

SEO is getting easier

blairski — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:13:05 +0000

SEO is getting easier. I know your probably thinking that I have lost my marbles. How can anyone say that SEO is getting easier with the ever increasing number of web pages available to the search engines? Because the major search engines are getting better at getting rid of the bad pages, spammers and anyone who has previously ranked using dodgy or even slightly dodgy methods.

So there is more room for web masters who actually produce quality, unique content with users in mind. Gone are the days where the majority of web masters can manipulate the search engines. The day has arrived where the only thing that really matters is the quality of your site and its content.

What you should NOT do:

The follow is my list of things that I feel are a waste of time and may actually hurt you.

Buy inbound links
Sell outbound links
Engage in large scale reciprocal linking
Listing in every directory known to man
Make sites that just contain affiliate deals
Make the type of site that has already been done to death
Duplicate content. That includes duplicating content on your own site
Write pages with just a search engine in mind, trying to always maintain a perfect key word density

What you should do:

Now that we have saved time by not doing things that are pointless, we have more time to do the following:

Make a unique website with unique content
Write content with your users as the primary concern
Engage with your users on your site
Engage with the community that surrounds your niche. Every niche has an online community, even if it is not obvious
Build sites with sound SEO principles in mind. But never try and manipulate search engines, because they will catch up with you

For me, spending more time optimising my websites and content for my users and less time worrying about SEO was the best SEO move I ever made.

Yipee, I've held my PageRank!

blairski — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:27:54 +0000

Google has released another PageRank update and bloggers all over the world are complaining of a drop in PageRank. Even ProBlogger has had a drop to a PageRank of 4. Luckily my little blog has maintained its PageRank of 4. Alright, 4 is not fantastic, but its not bad either.

Why has befused.com not dropped?

The truth is, only Google knows why websites/blogs rise and fall in the wonderful world of PageRank. But here are some reasons as to why I think my PageRank has stayed at 4:

I don't sell links
I don't do planned reciprocal linking
I don't actively try and get artificial inbound links
I link to other websites often. The majority of my posts have a link to another website or blog. This is the natural way of the web and something that I strongly encourage.

So essentially, I ignore the advice of many "SEO experts" and try and be as natural as possible. I never do anything that can be seen as manipulating Google.

Does it matter?

A PageRank is no where near as relevant as it used to be. Some people say that it should be ignored totally.

The PageRank is just an indication of what Google thinks of a website and it does not necessarily effect the traffic levels. However, I do believe that it should be a consideration because it does indicate how much Google trusts your website or blog. The BBC is highly trusted and has a PageRank of 9. It does very well in search results because it is a trusted source. The PageRank of 9 is a strong indication of that trust.

Build one site or many?

blairski — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:17:25 +0000

There is an interesting post on Net Business Blog about why it is better to build one website then building multiple websites. Dee Barizo's (Net Business Blog) centres around the authority of a website and the fact that gaining more quality inbound links on a single websites leads to an exponential growth in search engine traffic. Building too many websites leads to not enough time to build quality content on each of them and not enough quality inbound links. The "authority" factor seems to becoming more and more important in Google's search engine algorithms.

It is hard to argue with the logic of Dee Barizo's article. However, I do believe that it is not a "one size fits all" argument. You can pick a niche, build a single website and go all for nothing to make that the best website on the planet for that niche. But if the niche is too competitive with authority sites already occupying the space, you are going to have a very tough time breaking in. So you are forced to pick less a competitive niche. You are then faced with the prospect of having less potential traffic. Even if you reach number one in Google, you may not gain enough traffic to make enough money. So you are forced to build a second niche website. And a third and a forth. Before long, you are in the domain of the many websites.

In a perfect world, it would be fantastic to concentrate on one single website. The website would be of a higher quality then your many smaller websites. But this is not a perfect world. It comes down to a trade off between competitiveness and potential traffic.

My general strategy is too not shy away from small, highly targeting, niche mini sites. At the same time, I spend more time on my bigger sites. I have 3 or 4 websites that will remain "flag ship" sites and that is where I spend a lot of my time. But have some smaller niche sites can be a valuable addition to any portfolio. It does not have to suck to much time from my main sites. It is possible to build a niche mini-sites in a few hours and do a bit of regular SEO and achieve a high ranking. Just pick your niche wisely.

Google PageRank Checker Added

blairski — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:13:36 +0000

I have added a Google PageRank checker to the tools section.

This tool allows you to check the Google PageRank of up to five websites at a time. I may increase the limit to ten in the near future, but I need to monitor the impact on the server first.

I hope you find the tool useful. Many thanks to José Fernandes who built the checker.

Use the Google PageRank checker

Click throughs by search engine ranking

blairski — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:44:58 +0000

I posted this on the Affiliates4u form yesterday and thought you might be interested if you have not already seen it. It is an approximation of the percentage of click throughs for each particular position in a search engine.

Ranking Number 1 receives 42.1 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 2 receives 11.9 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 3 receives 8.5 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 4 receives 6.1 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 5 receives 4.9 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 6 receives 4.1 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 7 receives 3.4 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 8 receives 3.0 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 9 receives 2.8 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 10 receives 3.0 percent of click throughs.
Ranks 11-1000 = 11.3 percent of click throughs.

so 11.3 % go past the first page.

This data is based on a sample and combining AOL User Search Data, Hitwise Search Engine Market Share and Overture Search Tool. It is almost a year old, so not 100% accurate, but will give you a good idea of what to expect for each position.

The data clearly indicates that the number one ranked site gets the lion share of the traffic and there is a significant drop off to second. So it is quite an achievement to get onto the first page, but don't stop once you get there, because you will be rewarded if you can push up to first position!

Original source of the data

Directory Submissions Do Work!

blairski — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:03:21 +0000

Many "SEO experts" have dismissed the value of directory submissions, claiming that they offer no benefit in the ranking of a website. I think these so called experts are wrong and have often used directory submissions as one way to obtain inbound links. Of course, I could not prove that directory submissions were helped my rankings, because I obtain inbound links from other sources as well.

I now have some proof that directory submissions work. This is not a scientific experiment, and many of you may say the result is pure coincidence. But then you can say that about anything in SEO.

I have one site (no I am not going to name it!) that was launched a few months ago. It is a niche site, but does have a fair amount of competition with 1.6 million results in Google for the main keyword.

My initial strategy was to seek reciprocal links from relevant websites. Unfortunately this was not successful as no one wanted to link to my site! ;(

I then submitted by site to a few social book-marking sites like del.icio.us and Listible. I also listed by site on Craigs List and the Gumtree. My site moved to the second page of Google for my main keyword and ranked 14th. Not bad for a keyword with 1.6 million results. But obviously this was not good enough as I really wanted a top 10 result.

I then submitted by site to a few directories. It often takes several months before a directory submission is accepted, so this was a bit of a waiting game. In the mean time, I submitted an article to just one article site. This article was not picked up and published by anyone. But the single inbound link from the article site was enough to push my site into the top 10. I was sitting happily in number 5 spot. Article directories are also widely dismissed by many SEO experts, but this result indicates that do indeed produce positive results.

Then, a piece of news was reported about my key word by several leading UK newspapers and the BBC and published on their websites. Three of them jumped above me and I was pushed back to number 8.

Three days ago, by site jumped above two of those websites (one was the BBC!) and 3 of my competitors. I am now sitting happily at number 3. The number one site is one of those newspaper sites, so if it wasn't for the recent news story, I would be ranking second.

So what changed? There were no onsite changes made to by site during the period of movement. There was only one additional inbound link. And it was from a directory! Yes, one of those often dismissed directories accepted by site and that was enough to push me up 5 places to number 3 and above authority sites with a much higher page rank than mine.

This could be a pure coincidence, but in the absence of any other changes, I think it is proof enough that directory submissions and article directories do generate positive results.

More info on how to submit to directories