SEO Today

Twitter - A Passing Fad or Future Tool for Business

2009-10-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

It's funny that so many really think that Twitter only started this year. It was actually founded back in 2006 and most professional internet marketers, search enthusiasts and regular bloggers were playing with it from the start.

Business associates and clients know that I have suggested using Twitter for business starting back in 2007 (I like to play and test things before I recommend it to anyone). And, I still get the question "Is Twitter just a Fad?"

My best answer to that is emphatically "NO"! If we take the hypothetical and suggest that Twitter is, in fact, going to go away, I am willing to bet you big money (cash only, please) that there will be something almost exactly like it that would take its place. Think about it...Twitter is currently one of the best forms of online real-time information available right now. We have all seen the impact of this online form of information, good, bad or ugly and, I believe, we will continue to look for it in some form or another, through means of Twitter or other. If Twitter were to suddenly go away, something else would follow suit immediately and without question.

What that means to the online industry is that we all need to know how this sort of information works, how we can make it better, how we can control it, and, basically, how we continue to use it. This real-time form of communication, made celebrity-status by Twitter, is a fundamental way in which we now communicate online.

Twitter, Twitter applications, the Twitter brand ... who knows what will happen with this independent company, maybe Google or Microsoft will be looking to talk to them (http://www.dbtechno.com/internet/2009/10/08/twitter-in-talks-with-microsoft-and-google/), hmmm?! - But, the way we have learned to interact online in this quick, easy, real-time fashion will never go away. It may change slightly and hopefully it will only get better. My job as an Internet Marketing professional will only be enhanced by this. Allowing me yet another avenue to help businesses and clients learn to communicate online in effective, engaging and appropriate ways. It gives me, and everyone online, additional ways to rank, market products or services, branding options... and make money that pays my bills!

We have gotten used to getting our information "now", updated regularly and always current. I don't see the Twitter bird flying off anytime soon - colors or names may change but the function will not. We should look to continually learn more about real-time functions and tools AND keep on the understanding that this type of real-time information is as an added benefit to business, not just a passing fad!

Here's a great video of stats and other info pertaining to various social channels (it supports my thoughts [wink]) from Socialnomics.net on the Social Media Revolution:

So, bottom line...go get started, get used to using and incorporating some of the real-time tools we now have access to. Twitter, for now, is a really cool one to check out.

No More Meta Keywords Tag, No More Meta Description Tag ... NOT!

2009-09-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the news came out today over at Google about the fact that the Meta Keywords tag is not used for web rankings. Is that news? Not to those who have played a part in good SEO. Google hasn't really used the Meta Keywords tag for rankings for years now. Does this mean we should no longer worry about that tag and can even remove it from all our web pages? Absolutely NOT!

Check the video report from Matt Cutts on this topic:

You can find the write-up at Google's Webmaster Central: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html

For years, my answer to the use of the Meta Keywords tag has always been:
"The keywords tag won't help with your Google rankings but it will help you with your web page information. It's a great tag to use to help remind you of your focus and the keywords you want to be sure to include on a particular page."

Stop using it? Why?!! It doesn't hurt anything but it may actually help YOU. That's the main take away for the Google report. And...there is still question on it's effectiveness in the other search engines such as Yahoo, MSN, Bing, so...!

I also strongly recommend that if you use the Meta Keywords tag that you use it appropriately. Here are the basic guidelines for the Meta Keywords tag that we've used for years and will continue to suggest to our clients.

Meta Keywords tag:

1. Length of content (36 + or – 12, repeat any word only 4 times).
2. Select keywords that are targeted for that specific page.
3. Put keywords in order from largest phrase to smallest, example: 3 word phrases, 2 word phrases, 1 words etc.
4. Again, if branding is important include the brand or website name as the last keyword.

All of the above items will remind you to not go crazy selecting keywords for a page, keep them focused, and be able to see how they may or may not fit together. The last one, on using your brand or website is also a reminder to not always say "We..." or something other than possibly your actual business name! - Again, all good reminders!!

Then, on top of this "news" on the Meta Keywords tag was a little blurb thrown in on the Meta Description tag. It was stated, "Even though we sometimes use the description meta tag for the snippets we show, we still don't use the description meta tag in our ranking."

Ok, there's some dispute on the Meta Description tag's ranking effects but that's mainly because we actually see the Meta Description as part of a search snippet. Again, I say, use it! But, use it appropriately and effectively. You know why? Because whether or not it affects rankings, it is can be seen in the SERPs. Someone searching will see these words if Google picks them up because they were used and setup appropriately by you. The Meta Description tag allows an awesome avenue to add additional info to help clarify why a page exists, how it relates to the search term used to find it and gives a great place for a call-to-action element. So...we say, USE IT!

Here are the basic guidelines for the Meta Description tag that we've used for years and will continue to suggest to our clients too:

Meta Description tag:

1. Length of content (18 + or – 6, repeat any word only twice).
2. Incorporate keywords from the Title tag, plus a few more.
3. Write the description using statements and keywords from the Title and Meta Keywords tag.
4. Make the description a statement about that web page and what the company does related to that page.
5. Use proper grammar as much as possible.
6. Consider incorporating some sort of call-to-action wording.

Use both of these tags, and others too. We've known for a long time that there are tons (Google says they have over 200 ranking factors) of things affecting Google's main core research of website pages and determination for rankings. And, it still remains that if you know your business, write about your business and represent it as it should be that you'll probably be ok. Don't stop doing something just because Google says they don't read or use it - there's no penalty or issue for using something Google doesn't. Just don't use or do things they specifically say you should not. All they said here today was that they don't read the Meta Keywords tag for ranking considerations and they want people to stop thinking about suing people over stupid things just because they don't get it!. You get it, right?! And if you aren't so sure, then, go get yourself a smart SEO! Then there's nothing to worry about and.... you'll be golden!

Social Media - The Art of Socializing Online as relates to Offline

2009-08-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am going to go out on a limb today. Normally, I really try to keep things clean and professional. You'll see that I rarely infuse personal stuff and much less inappropriate stuff on my Twitter or Facebook accounts. But, today, to prove a point, I think my example might push into a slightly more personal or inappropriate space in hopes that the information given will help better understand online social media as it relates to offline socializing, giving two case study scenarios.

I have been asked lately a lot about how certain things around online social media can work and relate to one's website. For today's discussion, the online social media channels I will relate to are Twitter, Facebook and a website's blog. All of these three are really best used as a "voice" in the online world.

How, you ask?? Well that's the question of the day. So, with that, my examples, both a Best Case Scenario and a Worst Case Scenario, will take on analogous ones by using an offline, real-world example to best describe how to formulate these online social media elements to be effective (or not) and to help your website (or not).

Best Case Scenario:

1) Say, you are a guy, healthy, happy and good-looking! You go to a bar one evening to check things out. You're feeling a little lonely. There's a cute girl at the bar who looks healthy and happy too with an empty stool beside her.
= Get Online - sign into your accounts.

2) You gotta think of something cool, interesting and attention grabbing to say. = Twitter

3) If you are lucky, she noticed and at least looks at you, maybe even responds because your initial opening line allowed for all of that! - Your words required attention, were cute or interesting enough to give them attention, and hopefully got the engagement you wanted back - look and/or response from the girl. - So now, you can go a step further and either elaborate on that opening line to require further engagement, meaning conversation.
= Facebook and/or Twitter again.

4) Ahh, she's now spoken to you. You've managed to sit yourself down on that empty stool and she's actually turned toward and facing you. She obviously is ok with your presence. Your next step, start a proper and slightly more engaging and effective conversation. You can tell her a story, show her a picture, describe something that you think she might like, whether it makes her laugh, cry or just gives her a topic she can further discuss with you then all is good.
= Blog

5) With all that is established, this makes it much easier for your end goal (this is where I am hoping that no one under age or easily offended is reading right now) which is to take her home for the evening. (that was gentle, not too offensive, right? - and you get my drift too, right?)
= get them to your Website

Worst Case Scenario:

note: these are the steps I see way too often being used online - and if you do these offline, I am really sorry for you!

1) Same scenario here - You are a guy, health, happy and good-looking! You go to a bar one evening to check things out. You're feeling a little lonely. There's a cute girl at the bar who looks healthy and happy too with an empty stool beside her.
= Get Online - sign into your accounts.

2) You don't think ahead about what you are going to say, you just walk up to her and say something, anything, whatever popped into your mind.
= noise on Twitter

3) She doesn't notice you or even look at you because you didn't say anything that required attention, was cute or of interest. So now, you go a step further and say whatever else comes to mind without much thought as to why you are there or what your goal might be.
= more noise and wasted space on Facebook and/or Twitter

4) Oh boy, she's still not spoken to you. She has either decided to get up and leave or completely turns away from you. However, if you are really lucky because you happened to say something witty or intelligent then maybe she is paying you a little attention. Let's hope! So, now your next step is to try to start up a conversation by telling her a story or showing her a picture.
= Blog

5) But this is your next mistake, your conversation (blog) is infused with nothing more than "let's go home together", "I want to sleep with you", in case you didn't get it the first time "I want to get physical with you". This is the blog that is infused with nothing but sales talk or a pitch for your services, over and over again.

You still didn't manage to say anything worth hearing - or reading in the case of a blog. Why would she now want to go home with you, really?! Well, some might. I know I sure wouldn't! And any time I saw you again, I'd avoid you at all costs.
= Never going to your Website again.

Got it?! Does that make some sense. Set things up socially, online or offline so that you can intelligently, with some fore-thought, participate and actively engage those around you. If you do that, then they will take the next step, and one way or another, if you really set things up correctly can intertwine things to have the end result of getting them home with you, to your Website and do what you want them to do there, like buy your products or services, call you, sign-up for email, whatever.

Learning how to have a positive Presence, be intelligently Engaging and have a decent Call-to-Action will get you far online - and offline too!

Online Search & Social Media Blitz

2009-06-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

Just recently hired as an SEO & Internet Marketing Consultant by Kids Crooked House, I was told that they had worked with a group involved with a TV show and their products would soon show at some point on TV. Ok, I said, and gave them some thoughts on what might occur when this happens as I had worked with another group who was mentioned on Martha Stewart and Oprah last year. No big deal!

We thought we had it all planned out. I thought I had it all planned out! We fixed up and edited some items on the website for pages, keywords, calls-to-action and shopping issues. The IT team set the website up across 10 servers. Added one last post to the blog and let everyone know that no new updates or changes would be allowed during this time – hey, it was only going to be one day and a quick showing – or, so we thought – we didn’t think about the repeat showings occurring right now! I discussed reputation management when the first sign of references were made public online and we decided to make sure we would have someone monitoring blogs, news, Twitter and Facebook. But, then it hit… 6pm PST, 9pm EST Monday night, it’s the first show and the site crashes!

I jump on Twitter – letting Facebook take those updates as well, and start doing something I’ve only ever had to teach clients to do – never actually “doing it” myself. Yikes, here I am suddenly the only online access and voice for this company. No more teaching or suggestions now, doing it was the action to take!

I am normally just fine being a 3rd party - suggesting to clients to do certain things, correcting their mistakes and giving them advice on how to do work better with their online endeavors – and rarely having to get my own hands dirty! This was new to me, having to represent a company and making sure any and all positive or negative issues were carefully and diplomatically dealt with. We also were under strict non-disclosure and the owners hadn’t told me if I could even use the TV show’s name (I think I can now, it was Jon & Kate Plus 8 – but, shhh just in case). There were so many things that I just didn’t know about properly, so, had to wing-it in some cases (shhh to that one too). Their phones began ringing off the hook and there was no way for me to get in touch to find out what I needed.

Oh boy! And wow! Social media can be quite the sneak attack!

I have a spreadsheet a mile long of websites and blogs referencing us and commenting on us. I have TwitterBeeps and Bit.ly helping me along with Google Trends, Alerts and Analytics. I am in fear of leaving my computer in case something comes up or is said that I miss. We were at the top of Yahoo searches and Google trends today [turns out for Monday and Tuesday both]. I noticed others trying to jump on our keyword bandwagon so jumped on a few extra updates & fixes to the site. Thank goodness for dual screens – now I want triple screens! [Can you do that?]

The design and IT team at Dirigo Design & Development [awesome] team worked endlessly last night to bring the site back up – which they did so that we could all finally find a bed somewhere and sleep for a bit. I haven’t dared try to call the sales team to see what actually happened on their end. I did, however, get an nice call from Glen, the owner, whose phone was blitzed too during this time to say that he is just barely back to breathing, and… to tell me that Thursday we are possibly going to be shown on another TV channel. Oh boy – here we go again! I think after this, I will change my title from Internet Marketing Analyst to Social Media Expert! Maybe I’ll ask for a raise too! :)

SEO behind the Blog … or is the Blog behind SEO?

2009-06-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

As an Internet Marketing Specialist, some of the things I work with are blogs and blog posts. I get clients to start blogs, suggest topics for blogs and work with the bloggers and/or writers. I am by no means a writer, I love my life as a techy geek, but I have [cough, cough] been known to write for blogs too – but, you won’t find me because I use an alias! I don’t want to take on that responsibility!!

For the most part, bloggers are writers and not normally (emphasis on “normally”) technically inclined. They are not always aware of how search and the search engines work, they just know that it does work. I am technical – a geek…whatever! I know a lot about what makes the search engines tick. I work in the online space every day and for a variety of clients and help with their websites for better rankings, better traffic, and better sales. That gives me an edge when working with content writers, bloggers and other marketing staff.

So, you ask, if you are a technical person and you can actually write, do you write for the blog or do you write for SEO? Is SEO behind the blog or is the blog behind SEO?

Good question, I say! And, the answer is yes to both and yes to all of it. The best content, for a blog or anything else, is content that says something interesting, is easily understood, makes sense, is creative, uses its words well and brings value to the website.

With all my years in internet marketing, the best information for online use is initially written with a topic in mind. That topic generally comes from keyword research done with SEO in mind. Keyword research you say? Yes, I say! Because if no one is asking for the information then how will they know to go looking for it! And, I say, keyword research is done in many ways, not just with the use of a keyword research tool like Google adwords keyword tool or others, things like news, other blogs, or online trends can play a huge part in picking a topic to write about.

The next best step is to have a creative and talented writer available to do what they do best, and that is write, write about the chosen topic, and… to write what comes naturally for them. About the only thing that should be discussed with the writer at this point is any voice, tone or business requirement that might be necessary to know about along with that main topic.

If the writer understands the strengths of a good internet marketer then they will gladly turn over their work for review and editing by them. This is the time when the SEO elements can be put into place, knowing that there is a science behind the semantics - and that’s not just good English and grammar!

Content Keywords:
SEO items for a blog include things like the use of more than one keyword or keyword phrase if it is appropriate. The keywords used should reflect on the actual topic. Keyword density and distribution can play a part here too. Proportionately, the main keyword phrase should occur more than any other word or word phrase in the post. But, the use of all keywords used should flow nicely and be distributed in the post so they make sense.

Linking:
Linking should be looked at in a strategic fashion for SEO and with good anchor text for those links in place. A good SEO will know how and when to include a link in a blog post and when to have internal and/or external links and how the words used to anchor those links should be incorporated. It really is not just about having a link because you think it might be useful or resourceful. Links, internal and external along with the anchor text used can say a lot to the search engine spiders about what is important for the post and the pages the links reference. Certainly, if a link helps the reader, by all means give it to them. But, don’t be surprised if the SEO changes when and where you decide to put that link.

Meta Data
It is at this point that Meta Data for the blog post should also be created by the SEO. It should work hand in hand with the blog header and its content. If for some reason your blog doesn’t give you control over your meta data try to find a way so that you can have that. Meta Data, especially the Title and Meta Description can be another effective and useful part of a blog post if strategically written.

URL – Permalink - Slug
The URL, permalink or slug that some blogs call a page name is an important part of your blog too. Incorporating SEO knowledge in the URL can be very useful in all kinds of ways for your post and for others who might reference it. Some basic standards for a good URL is to have a keyword or keyword-phrase in the name and to keep it as short as possible. No need for dashes between words unless the words can’t be parsed properly or can be parsed incorrectly. My favorite example is this word “mens-exchange”. Take out the dash and put the words together and read it again! Yup…nope, not necessarily what you might want.

Now, it is ready to go live! Wahoo! But, one more thing you might want to make sure about and that is to add it to your XML sitemap file. This makes it easier to alert the spiders to the new post for possibly quicker indexing.

Ok, so if you didn’t quite get it, the best blog has both writers (or bloggers) and SEOs in place, with SEO coming before, during and after to make it the best, most effective blog post your site can have! Don’t forget that you are writing for your readers but if the readers can’t find you then you need the search engines to help! So, let’s get the team together and start writing!

5 NO’s of SEO

2009-05-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

The worst part of my job as an Internet Marketing and SEO Consultant is that I am always having to tell my clients “no”. It always feels like I am the one delivering nothing but bad news. I am the one who finds all the problems with your online activity, whether internal or external to the site and its pages, server problems, content issues, social media guffaws, link building craziness, etc, etc. The good news, however, is that I get to help you fix all those problems, issues, guffaws and craziness! Then everyone is happy!

Anyway, here are a few of the “NOs” of SEO that I dealt with this last week with clients:

No! When it was suggested that it was a good idea to add a blog to your site, it did NOT mean that you could copy content from another site!

A blog is most useful if it set up to enhance the current information of your website. It needs to be unique and well written in the same vain that a static website page would be BUT it has the advantage of a more personal touch, time sensitive info can go here too, and/or things that might change later. Blog comes for the words “web log” and is a log of things going on presently. If the information is valid forever, then you might consider a static webpage to add to the site overall. Go back to your old blogs and see if they are still valid and move them to a static page too if you’d like – but be careful how you make the move and consider a 301 redirect if the information goes to a new page.

No! When it was suggested to set up a Twitter account for your business, it did NOT mean say whatever you want, personal, political, or opinionated.

For business, a Twitter account is best for notification and newly updated information about the business. Alerts to sales, specials or new blog post and pages can be done here. This is also a great area for customer control. People can get to you easily in Twitter. You can correct any misconceptions, problems or issues here. You can strike up conversations with like minded or complimentary businesses here too. Don’t forget to “listen” here to see what others are doing and saying. You can learn a lot from other Twitter voices! There are lots of things to do on Twitter without getting personal, political, or opinionated.

No! When it was suggested to set up a custom 404 error page, it did not mean that it should render as a server response of a 200 code.

There are several types of situations that can cause you (and your site) grief if not set up correctly – we could write pages on ways to set this up incorrectly. The main thing is to make sure that if you do generate a pretty custom page to use when a page-not-found occurs is to have these two things working:

1) Make sure a server response error of a 404 is generated to the spiders if they find a bad link and...

2) As an extra safety precaution, add a Meta Robots tag to the custom error page:
meta name="robots" content="noindex"

No! When it was suggested that it was a good idea to have a separate area for test pages to be viewed online, it did not mean that these pages should be shared with the search engine spiders and made index-able too.

If you set up a test area, whether using a sub-domain or separate test directory area of the site or even a totally separated URL, using an IP address or domain name then you really must disallow these areas to be indexed by the spiders until they are ready to go truly live. Having test pages accessible can cause you and your site grief here too depending on the reasons for testing pages – so be careful and protect your self until all is ready.

There are a couple of ways to keep entire websites and individual pages from being crawled and placed in the search engine indexes:

1) At the top level of your website, you can, and should, have a robots.txt file. This is a Disallow file where you can easily disallow every page of a site from being indexed or individual directories and pages. You can get specifics on how to set up a robots.txt file and how to use it at this site: www.robotstxt.org

Note: This file allows for other functionality too – again, maybe another post!

2) At the individual page level, you can add the following Meta Tag in the head area of your pages:
meta name="robots" content="noindex"

Note: This tag also has additional functionality, email me for more info if you need it.

No! When it was suggested that an online Press Release might be a good idea, it did not mean it was a good idea to have links in the press release linking to other websites.

Having a good reason to write a Press Release is great and once released that news and information is out there and can spread like wildfire. These releases are posted using online PR sites, such as www.prweb.com, www.prnewswire.com – this list goes on. But the main take away is that the content is not yours. It is not on your site. It is given to the PR sites to distribute freely. Since it is online, you want it written so that you, your website, is the main draw. You want to budget for the extra expense it can cost to add a link to your PR information and you want that link to be to your site! If it is really important to send the readers to another site for whatever reason, then do your best to have your web page linked to first in the article and then theirs in the next! Do yourself (and your site) that favor!

Also, good anchor text for the links/links can be invaluable here too – oops, another topic for another time – sorry! Enough for today! Gotta go tell some more clients “no”!!

Update To Twitter Abbreviations – What Does _ Stand for in Twitter

2009-05-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

Lots of people and businesses are using or incorporating the use of Twitter as part of their online routine. Many of you ask "what does this stand for on Twitter", well, here are a few of the commonly asked for Twitter abbreviations and uses that you all have asked about:

RT – ReTweet

One uses this generally to suggest that another username tweeted the comment and you are re-tweeting for your followers to see too.

You can RT your own stuff too. Example:
RT @lydiafabry Twitter Abreviations Update: http://www.searchvisiblewebsites.com/blog/seoblog.html

An RT suggests that there was already a Tweet about this helpful web page. If the URL you point to is too long for the 140 spaces then there are tools to create shortened URLs, like Bit.ly (http://bit.ly/ ) and others.

OH = OverHeard

One uses this to suggest that they are not responsible for a certain comment they are putting on Twitter but that they simply overheard it from someone else. Generally it is overheard from physically hearing it not seeing it posted somewhere.

DM = Direct Message

The format is to use the letters DM then a space then the username instead of the @username to send a message that only the recipient can see. Example:
DM lydiafabry Don’t tell anyone I sent this!

And no one but I will see your message if you tweet that to me! You can also publically ask people to DM you with information that should stay private and not viewable by others.

Expressions used on Twitter and other “short” social media type areas:

LOL = Laugh Out Loud

LMAO = Laugh My Ass Off

OMG = Oh My God
OMFG = Oh My F%^&ing God

BTW = By The Way

Twitter, Verb or Noun, how is the language spoken?

It is official now, Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams publicly cleared up the proper way to speak Twitter. They tell us that Twitter is the noun and Tweet is the verb, so…

You can tweet on Twitter but you cannot, or should not, be twittering a tweet!

Need more Twitter tips, see Twitter Helpful Quick Tips from Search Visible Websites.

Online Branding – big brands vs. little brands vs. any brand

2009-04-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

General Definition:
Brand = Trade Name; A Name given to a Product or Service

Google’s Definition (aka Matt Cutts):
Brand = x + Trust, Authority, Reputation, PR, High Quality
where x = whatever name/names given to a product or service (as above)
Synonym for Brand = Known in your Niche

Reading posts and listening to interviews on the Google “Vince” update/changes released about a month ago has me shaking my head at the concerns of supposed favoritism towards “Big Brands” in the Google search results.

I see and hear things about companies having significant ranking drops after this update. Really?? Why?? Who is doing your SEO??

And, what do you mean by brand? I give some definitions above, but, as examples, to me, Nike is a brand, so is Adidas. Starbucks, Arm & Hammer, Kleenex and Ford are also brand names. But, at the same time, Running Shoes, Coffee, Baking Soda, Facial Tissue, Cars and so on are not brands – these are generic terms otherwise known as broad keywords. If, for example, you are not Nike and you do not own the company, the name or the product, but you sell Nike Shoes, are you one of those that lost some rankings? Did you out-rank www.nike.com for the keyword “Nike Shoes”?

Maybe, just maybe, a few quick logical suggestions will clear the air for those sites that were affected by ranking drops and get them to work at doing what they should have been doing all along and/or correct their misleading rankings.

It seems that the “Big Brands” were not affected by the Google “Vince” changes but that the “Small Brands” were affected. Let’s consider why or why not a site might have had ranking changes related to a brand:

1) A “big brand” is probably a “smart brand” because we categorize them as a “big” brand! They wouldn’t be “big” if we had never heard of their name or brand, would they?! A “big brand” is a big brand because they are known in their niche.
2) A “big brand” needs to use their brand so we know that name. If they didn’t then why would we know of that brand?
3) A new brand name is probably going to be the first to use that “new” name before anyone else if they expect it to become that brand. If they don’t use it first then they may lose the opportunity to be that brand as someone else may take that name.
4) To “use” your brand online means you will need to have the text version of your name/brand somewhere online – sorry, graphics are still not actually seen without a text-based alt tag! A smart brand will use that name/brand on their site. If they don’t mention their brand on their site then it’s quite likely no one will know that they are that brand.
5) And if that brand is really smart, they’ll actually own the domain name that has their brand name in it. It might be difficult for a “big brand” to be considered a “big brand” if someone else owned the domain name of that brand!
6) If you do not own that brand but you sell that brand, are you really the authority for that brand? Should you be?
7) Wouldn’t it just be possible that when Google algorithmically sets up certain criteria that affect a page’s rankings that they might be looking at the age of the page, the Page Rank and inbound links referencing that site page by name, notice how many sites or viewers refer to the site page, and see the domain name, word use, and more across the website pages? Do you think Google needs a checklist of sites that should rank over others just because they are a big brand? Should Google have a checklist of all brands? When does a “small” brand cross over to become a “big” brand so they could get on this list? If you really think those are questions that should be answered or discussed then I strongly recommend you start doing a little more research on how rankings are achieved!

The Google “Vince” update/change did not apply to brands specifically. It applied to how you use your words, when you use them, the associations with those words, who points to you using them, and who started using them first. It has been tested time and time again that one can make up a word and rank #1 for that word. Why wouldn’t they, why shouldn’t they. So, start your own brand and see. But you will still need to work hard at developing your information if you want that brand associated with a generic term as well? That’s what trust, authority, reputation, PR, high quality is all about.

I will let you in on a little secret. I did get one client who signed up for SEO Services with me years ago. First thing I noticed is that they didn’t rank for their own name and, their partners, affiliates and resellers all out-ranked them for that name. Well, it wasn’t surprising, they didn’t once mention their own name on their website. They only ever referred to themselves as “we”. Their partners, affiliates and resellers all mentioned them by name. It didn’t take much to turn that one around. They rank #1 for their name and other keywords too now! So, use your name, use the product name you sell or service, use your brand along with the broad keywords describing your product or service, work at becoming an authority, develop the trust, reputation, etc. and you will get your just deserts with rankings and hopefully decent conversions too!! And… you won’t be affected by silly little tweaks made by Google. Also… stop thinking Google is out to play favorites with certain sites when they may not really be deserved! Take your time and get to work rather than complain or blame.

Recalls and Product Safety for Search Engine Shopping Channels

2009-03-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

It’s been interesting setting out to understand how when an item is recalled, like in the case of several Four Paws dog toys, that 3rd party sellers or vendors can’t easily be stopped. Since we spend a lot of time online and after seeing a recent Fox news story update about the sad situation for Chai and Dan regarding the Four Paws pimple ball toy, we decided to see just how many of these toys remained online and through the main search engine shopping channels.

We did find that all three of the top search engines, Google, Yahoo, and MSN (Live Search) had these products still listed in their products databases as of 03/10/2009. We also noticed Amazon had them too. We’ve email friends and connections (we’re lucky because we actually have a few good ones to call) and only one responded. Wait, did I say “good” friends!!! Actually both Yahoo and MSN friends responded back. Yahoo is waiting on the technical team to get back to him so we have to wait. But, MSN made an excellent suggestion. Our friend suggested going to their “webpage removal request” form and see what happens. We gave MSN all the info, links to items listed in their shopping lists and to Four Paws actual dog toys recall page. They wrote us back that help for this was better directed to their shopping FAQ page but we were unable to find anything that would work and no email form or address for this type of request. Nonetheless, all the items we told MSN about miraculously disappeared later that day from their shopping database. Yay!!

Google, well I’m sorry to say that our “friends” seem to respond to other more basic questions but not to ours, not sure why. I don't want to think that they don't care about our dogs?! I know they are currently in travel status so we’ll keep bugging them till we hear. – Actually, we are going to try their “webpage removal request” form too just for the heck of it.

As far as Amazon goes, we did send an email to customer service. Their response back was to go to their "Report a Community Rules Violation" form, which we did but have not heard back yet. We don't have friends there, so maybe that explains it! [tick, tick]

Anyway, we’ll stay on this in hopes of figuring out why there isn’t anything special in place to report official recalled items, dog toys or other! We can easily report malicious or inappropriate web pages, why not dangerous or even deadly recalled products!!

Hey, if you guys know how to request product removals, please shoot us an email or comment! We would love to at least keep our dogs safe here!

SEO/SEM MeetUp Presentation in Los Angeles, CA

2009-02-27T18:19:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow will be my first general audience presentation session on the topic of Search Engine Optimization and Marketing - and I only have an hour. For many years now I have performed many training sessions and presentations but all have been to specific individual clients – business groups and one-on-one – but always very specific to their individual websites and their specific needs to addressing SEO and SEM issues. I also generally spend anywhere from 1/2 a day to multiple days on their training. I don't know how well I'll do given only an hour! I hope to cover everything without having to take the motor-mouth approach!

I also thought that I’d find a need to be more generalized and limited in my topic coverage for tomorrow but kept finding that bringing specific examples to the table can explain things far better. So, I will be interested to see how much this general group will “get” on the topics covered on SEO and SEM as compared to my always happy and complimentary clients of the past [I actually love teaching and training]. I have picked one of my old client sites for examples for tomorrow that I was only able to help for a few short months – company changes, new CEO and economic issues kept me from continuing my work with them. I was sad to loose this company and website because it had so much going for them, they just needed to know how to guide their efforts and where to prioritize items.

I will also try to video tape tomorrow’s session and post it later – so you’ll hopefully see if it is successful!

In the meantime, and for the folks that will be at my SEO/SEM session tomorrow asking for this list, I am pre-posting some helpful websites, tools, services and info all around the topic of SEO and SEM. Know that there are so many useful tools that this list is barely a sampling – but hope you find it useful too.

Keyword Research Tools:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal - Google AdWords
www.keyworddiscovery.com/ - Trellian Keyword Discovery
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ - WordTracker

Google Toolbar:
http://toolbar.google.com – IE and Firefox Toolbar with Google Search

Analytics Tools:
www.google.com/webmasters/tools - Google WebMaster Tools
www.google.com/analytics/ - Google Analytics
www.google.com/alerts – Alerts on your queries for Web, News, etc
www.google.com/trends - Search and compare trends for queries
www.compete.com – Compete – track competition
www.linkdiagnosis.com - Link analysis – Firefox add-on
siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com – Yahoo – pages indexed and inbound links
www.archive.org – Check the age and history of a website.

Ranking Monitors:
http://ranking.thumbshots.com/ - Thumbshots Rankings
http://semrush.com/ - SEMRush
www.seotoolset.com – Bruce Clay SEO Tools
www.webposition.com - Web Position 4 (Gold)
www.seobook.com – Rank Checker - Firefox add-on

Social Media & PR:
www.facebook.com – Facebook – social utility
http://twitter.com – Twitter – social messaging
www.linkedin.com – LinkedIn – networking tool
http://checkusernames.com/ - Social Media check domain ownership

General SEO Tools & Info:
www.google.com/webmasters/ - General SEO Website Info
www.seobook.com – Misc Information and Tool
www.seotoolset.com – Bruce Clay SEO Tools
www.seomoz.org/tools - SEOmoz general SEO Tools

Blog/Website Services:
WordPress
Blogger
Blogsome
Movable Type
Textpattern
B2evolution
LiveJournal
MSN Spaces
Squarespace
TypePad
Yahoo 360

The Good and The Bad of SEO

2009-02-11T10:25:00.000-08:00

Time and time again it seems that SEO consultants are having to help the general public understand the good and the bad of Search Engine Optimization. There is a wealth of website and SEO information out there that the general public simply can’t tell what is good useful information as opposed to silly ignorant and possibly hurtful bits.

I read various articles and posts yesterday about John Dvorak’s comments on The Trouble with Search Engine Optimization and Armando Roggio's survey and findings on website merchants not knowing the difference between good SEO tactics and questionable ones. It seems many are upset with suggestions that SEOs are “modern snake-oil salesmen”. It is very sad when we “good” SEOs see the general public get burned by the “bad” ones. And sadly, we do see it way too often. We see too many out there able to use the correct buzz words or sell themselves well but simply cannot prove themselves when it comes down to the end results – better rankings, better traffic and better conversion rates (purchases, emails, forms, or items affecting ROI in a positive way).

What the general public needs to know, especially like John Dvorak and ecommerce merchants, is that good SEOs are able to find the problems with your site and its surrounding factors. They should be able to explain what is needed to fix those problems and why. The guys (I won’t refer to then as SEOs anymore) who just say “do this and all will be good” are not good enough for anyone to talk to, much less pay for! The “why” something should be done is the most important factor and should be easily understood and also easily verified with the incredible amounts of information online. If you cannot find consistent information to substantiate a claim for fixing an SEO related problem online then it most probably won’t work and may actually hurt your site.

Dvorak said that someone told him to make long URLs (page names) and that this was some special trick. Creating a good, static URL is no “trick”. Knowing how to create a good, static URL is a technique, and there are good techniques and bad techniques - and both can be explained. But what everyone should know is that there are no “tricks” or “magic” in SEO. What there is are clever, smart, good problem solving people who know what is expected of a site to perform well and can intelligently guide and fix things on sites in proper priority and focus and at the right time to a good end. That’s no trick.

The bad ones can sound good – there are definitely plenty of snake-oil salesmen all over - but they don’t know when to do things, where to do things or how to do them effectively and efficiently.

And you know where I see this the most, with those who are busy soliciting business, trying to find website owners who don’t really understand SEO and then using buzz words that sound cool but generally no one knows what is being said. I’ve seen many of the bad guys be the first to put down another SEOs work trying to prove they are better rather than acknowledging items that are good but others that could be done better. A good SEO can see the direction another SEO might have been taking. This doesn’t necessarily make it bad work it’s just a different way to solve the problems. But, then on the other hand, it is very simply to see bad work, bad SEO advice, and/or black-hat tricks going on too. SEO is a constant work-in-progress. Things are never perfect, there is always going to be something that can be done better. As long as your SEO is helping in a positive way, ROI is going up, nothing is going down inappropriately then you have probably hit a good one. I have always suggested to my clients that my job is not to take away but to add to your site and business.

Be careful who you talk to at the SEO conferences or seminars too. I’ve seen plenty flaunting themselves and handing out cards inappropriately. Truly, the good SEO consultants aren’t there to solicit business, they are there to share knowledge. They want as badly as I do to help the general public better understand the good information to be had. They want to help the general public be able to better distinguish between the good and the bad.

SEO Checklist When Renaming URLs

2009-01-22T15:56:00.000-08:00

We have been working tirelessly on a website just purchased by one of our main clients and completely revamped. The subject matter remains the same for the site but the old site was such a mess. Content was skewed all over the place and URLs had weird query strings causing duplicated pages that were out of our control. So, we revamped everything.

What that meant for the page name URLs was they were completely renamed except for the home page. We redesigned and created a beautiful hard directory along with the new static page names that will allow us focus on topics and nice growth for the future.

The old site had some legacy links we wanted to hold on to because they still applied and keyword rankings that we felt related and were of continued importance for the new site and visitors looking for that information.

To be the most effective, we noted rankings and external links and to what old website pages they belonged to. This allowed us to set up a new relationship from old page to new page of the site. With this we created a nice spreadsheet to help create the page-to-page 301 redirects we needed and a nice clean on-site sitemap and a sitemap.xml feed.

It also allowed us to check for any on-page content references so we could make sure all pages on the site referenced the now new pages only.

We also created a nice little custom 404 page-not-found page for any old references we might have missed. We didn’t want to just do the catch-all thing and redirect any bad references to the Home Page. Since we had such a complete outline of every old page and analysis we felt it better to truly deliver a page-not-found error for visitors that mis-type or incorrectly reference a page. Then we could also use the Google Webmaster Tools to help us watch 404’s from external links and 301 redirect more appropriately.

So, if you are moving or renaming website pages, here is a suggested checklist:

1) Perform a Link Analysis for the pages being moved or renamed and note the anchor text used.

2) Run a Ranking Report to note the keywords those individual pages are currently ranking for.

3) Push even more for additional information about old pages being referenced by other websites by using the following command in the Search Box:
"domain.com/oldpagename.html" -site:domain.com

4) Use the above to create a good new URL name (in a good Directory structure) that might help the external anchor text used and/or the keywords the old page was ranking for.

5) If Content is rewritten, consider the anchor text and ranked keywords as well for use in the new content.

6) Don’t forget to consider tying your new URL name with your Meta Data and on-page content.

7) Make sure all on-site page references point to the new page names – check content and navigation.

8) Create an XML sitemap of the old pages. A sample name to call this page is sitemap-old.xml.

9) Update the on-site sitemap page with only the new pages referenced. And update the XML sitemaps page with only the new pages. You’ll have the old pages listed in the sitemap-old.xml mentioned above.

10) Set up your 301 redirects, old individual page to new individual page, however your server and coding environment allows.

11) Have a nice custom 404 page. We like using a format like the on-site sitemap page but the custom 404 page must have a Meta Robots NOINDEX where the sitemap page has INDEX. This will act as a catch-all for any bad or incorrect references.

12) Keep the old pages accessible along with the new pages. Do this until all the new pages are in the Search Engine Indexes and the old pages are out. As well, all external link references have either been updated or changed. This will allow the link juice to get to your new pages properly and allow the search engines to update their indexes easily.

13) Set up your Google Webmaster Tools account and update your sitemaps with the new pages XML feed and the old pages XML feed.

14) Then when you flip the switch just keep an eye out for anything missed.

Hopefully, this checklist will allow the changes to take place smoothly and with minor ranking changes as all your new pages are digested in the SERPs!

Twitter Helpful Quick Tips from @SEOMom2

2008-11-12T19:32:00.000-08:00

The most recent SEO/SEM conference was PubCon in Las Vegas. Because I had clients that actually pay me to visit them and it will be next week, I was unable to have the time to head over to PubCon this year (next year I WILL be there!). But, no matter, I was able to feel like I was right there. I had Twitter.

Twitter is an online social service used to instantly message people all over the globe. What makes Twitter unique is that you “follow” people, friends or those with common interests and info you want and they “follow” others who then “follow” more people (Tweeps or Tweeple). By your mini conversations, or Tweets (nor more than 140 letters/characters), you gather “followers” who have other “followers’ who then have their own “followers”. This allows your messages to travel all over the place in an instant.

Once you are following and have followers you can sit back and simply feel like a fly on the wall for awesome quick and brief bits of news, information and general gossip – and you can contribute to it all at any point.

I was able to attend PubCon with the use of Twitter. I had friends and co-workers Twittering me bits of information, links to web pages with good or new information, blog posts, useful SEO tools and even live video streams to conference sessions. – Rumor had it that the live streaming wasn’t really allowed as the sessions were for “paying” visitors only. But, with Twitter, we were able to confirm that the session speakers were totally cool with the events. Yey for me – and special thanks to Chris Drake (@FirePowered – http://twitter.com/firepowered). I latched on to Chris when I found out what he was doing. I had no idea who he was, never met him before in my life, he just managed to Tweet at the right time when I was paying attention and noticed his message that he had live video streaming from his computer. Every day since Tuesday, I was able to attend some sessions.

Ok, so, now you have a bit of info on this Twitter stuff you should want to check it out. Well, go to Twitter.com and sign up, creating a username or use your own name (do yourself a favor and create an account with your own name no matter what) and start playing. My Twitter name is @SEOMom2. I was dubbed “SEO Mom” at Bruce Clay Inc because I always seem to take people under my wing, sort of a mother hen character. SEOMom was already taken so I added the “2” because of my two kids. – I also am @LydiaMazorol (my name, in case there was a question). This was done for personal branding and to keep my name so no one else could take it!

With a few quick tips on things that will make your Twittering more fun and useful you may get just as hooked on it as I have - I guess it’s safe to admit now to being a social media convert!

Some Twitter Quick Tips:

1)@username - the symbol used when you want another Twitterer to get the message, example, type:
@seomom2 Hi!
This will send me a “hi” from your Twitter account.

2)D username – “D” stands for Direct. Use a D then a space then the username instead of the @username to send a message that only the recipient can see, example, type:
D seomom2 Don’t tell anyone I sent this!
And no one but me will see!

3)# - The pound sign attached to the front of a word is a way to search tweets for a specific reference. You can search for any word but the # symbol in front helps identify that this particular word is worth searching for or referencing when looking for others info when using that word. Example:
I was able to attend #pubcon using Twitter.
I can search on “#pubcon” or even “pubcon” using Twitter search to see who else is talking about things going on at PubCon.

4)RT username – “RT” stands for Re-Twitter. One uses this generally to suggest that another username Tweeted the comment and you are Re-tweeting for your followers to see too. You can RT your own stuff too. Example:
RT @seomom2 Twitter Helpful Quick Tips: http://www.searchvisiblewebsites.com/blog/seoblog.html
Suggests that there was already a Tweet about this helpful web page. If the URL you point to is too long for the 140 spaces then there are tools to create shortened URLs, like TweetBurner and others.

5)Tweets, tweeple, twits, twitterverse – Miscellaneous Twitter vocabulary. You guess what they mean!

6)Twitter on your Phone – You can setup your phone to send and receive Twitter messages. You will send a message to 40404 in the US, 21212 in Canada, and +44 7624 801423 for all other international locations.
OR
Set up your phone with Twitterberry or go to m.twitter.com if you have internet on your phone. Blackberrys and I-Phones like Twitter – any phone with internet access can display Twitter streams.

7)Public verses Protected – You can set up your account for public or private viewing. If it’s private other Twitterers can still request your Tweets but you have to ok for them first.

8)Backgrounds – If you can create a graphic, you can create your own Twitter background. You can set it up to show a special picture, your business name, logo, phone numbers, email, whatever. Do it to help others get to know you better. And don’t forget to add a picture in your profile. It is recommended that you actually use your own photo – but, whatever!

9)Twitter messages show up in Google alerts. They can be set to show automatically in your Facebook. There are applications everywhere for special fun things to do and see in Twitter, like scheduling your Tweets or seeing who ranks highest in Twitter. You name it, it is out there. Search for them or just Twitter that question to your followers. You’ll be amazed at who answers and the answers you can get in a flash.

10)Ok, I am getting tired of writing about all the things you can do and how to use Twitter. I haven’t even suggested the social media aspects or the SEO value. That’ll have to be another post. Anyway, find additional applications, plugins and suggestions here: http://wtips.blogspot.com/2007/04/twitter-tools.html, a fellow Twitterer's, Warren Whitlock's book on the Twitter Revolution and Twitter’s own help here: http://help.twitter.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=26

11)Last tip...now send me a Tweet that you are there: http://twitter.com/seomom2

SEOs are the Legal Advisers to the Online Search World

2008-11-05T18:41:00.000-08:00

I am an SEO consultant, analyst, engineer - yep, that is why I am writing this blog post for this particular website! Anyway, this means I work with websites to determine what they need to be better optimized for search engine rankings. Being able to analyze websites and know exactly what they need to do better online actually requires a fair amount of knowledge and skill! And I’d like to think (at least my clients think) that I am a pretty good consultant. So good, in fact, that I have little time to do much else but help those clients with their websites.

The main reason for the “legal adviser” title above is that I am frequently asked about my services and what and how it is worth the expense of hiring an SEO firm or analyst such as myself. My logic is explained to these questions in this way:

I am much like your legal adviser in that I know all the rules, tools, good things, bad things that it takes for a website to succeed. I can give you this information in the time it takes to snap my finger – well, maybe a little longer. I do also believe that because of the Internet and how things work that there is always a way to perform this service yourself.

By performing the service yourself, as far as SEO goes, you can find a wealth of free information online. There are answers to all of your questions, every one of them. My advice to you at this point is to start reading at Google's Webmaster Central. And don’t stop now, there are blogs and readings to be had all over the place. You can find answers and suggestions on website content development to link building and PR sculpting (if that’s your thing).

The problem you will have is that there is so much information and so many SEO companies to choose from how will you know what’s good, bad, or simply ugly (as in stupid waste of time!). Well, do some research first then you will probably see that finding a good adviser (consultant, analyst, engineer – whatever) will be the key.

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t look at the SEO company because of its price, look at it on reputation and recommendations. How did you find out about that company? Then talk to them. Find out if you understand what they will want to do to help you and your website. If you don’t understand them or don’t get their suggestions then I’d steer clear because you will never know what’s going on. It’s not only your website, it’s your reputation and brand on the line, and online! You should know and understand everything that is taking place and why.

The SEO consultant is the legal adviser whom you can trust to tell you what’s right and what’s not and what will be more worthwhile than anything else for you and your website is what you are looking for. I have spent years understanding and working with websites. This is my livelihood. I live and breathe the Internet, especially the part that relates to websites and what makes effective websites. I can tell you at a moments notice what to do next and what to plan for. I am there so that nothing hurts you or surprises you. I will stick by your website’s side. As my client’s know their websites become my family. I want them to succeed every bit as much as they do. Everything a proper SEO consultant advises should be good, tried and true. It should also always follow online moral and ethical standards.

A good adviser will save you tons of time and money.

SEO and the Recession – Gaining with Search Visibility

2008-10-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

I think the “recession” here might refer more appropriately to my “recessed” attention to this blog! I need to do better!

It can’t have been more than a few weeks ago that I was mentioning to a friend that I didn’t think that the SEO marketplace would hurt from the recession issues related to the economy. I explained that SEO services should be in even more demand based on the fact that website owners will need to expand more to cover more ground because of less spending. It isn’t that no one is spending. It is that there is a definite decline in spending. So if you have a website that ranks on the first page for, say, 10 keywords and now you have a 1/3 decline in spending based on those rankings then how about you cover twice as many keywords and get them to page one. You’ll end up with far more financial gain than loss! Then you can smile when the word “recession” comes up!

But, I must have been wrong with my thinking!! Suddenly one of my favorite clients is making cut-backs. Their investors are suffering so they are cutting back across the board. They are worried about the decrease in spending overall along with the upcoming holidays. Ok, yes, there will be a decrease for the current keywords we’ve gained rankings for but we have a lot more to do guys!!! I just don’t understand the rationale behind worrying that no one will spend when, by cutting back on SEO and marketing, you are making damned sure that no one will spend!! It’s a vicious cycle, it seems, with no one winning on any side.

Another interesting part of what I personally have seen and felt in the industry of SEO is by working with companies as both an internal and external SEO analyst. I work most of my time as an in-house SEO analyst (for the best company ever!) and as an external SEO consultant with the rest of my time! And by “in-house”, I am not actually in their house but in mine accessing their system through remote connection means. It’s great. Working both internally and externally has allowed me the privilege to see how the recession affects both groups. What I am seeing is that the external consultant will suffer more. Mainly because I believe their fees overall are higher. I know my fees are higher as a consultant than as an in-house analyst. But then, my fees are higher as a consultant because those clients don’t sign on for the long haul. They generally are with me anywhere for 3 months to a year. My in-house client signed me on for endless services! I do like that. I actually prefer that. My in-house client gets more out of me... and for less. I can trust that they’ll still pay me whether there are immediate ranking improvements or not. They truly understand the process of SEO, that’s why they’ve signed on to my services for the long term.

Ok so...I need to find more in-house clients to work my SEO magic!!
Although, honestly, those out there thinking of cutting back on SEO, consultant or not, you are just fueling your own recession. So stop that! If you have a website and you don’t have an SEO advisor of some kind, then, go get one. And...there is always Search Visible Websites! The more you reach out through increased rankings for your website, the more visitors you’ll get to your website.

Assessing a Web Site and your Client

2008-05-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

To stay current, I just wrote a blog article on:
5 Steps (minutes) to Assessing your Client through their Web Site

It’s useful information for other SEOs and their sales team. But, I think it could also be interesting for a client to use for checking out their own website. Understanding issues related to how the online world can see you (and how they see your site) and evaluate you can be most useful in a variety of ways.

Also, use the information provided in the article to create your 5 step process to not only check and evaluate your site but the websites of your competitors. Use these 5 steps along with our more formal SEO Checklist to do a more thorough site assessment.

Here’s the list of the 5 steps – that should take 5 minutes to perform:

1) PageRank
2) site: command
3) SEODigger.com
4) Archive.org
5) View page source – meta tags, H1, quick coding check

Check out the article and let me know here and/or there if it was helpful. I hope it is!

Best Link Building Techniques

2008-04-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

No time today - and for a while now - sorry! I've been traveling, training, SEOing for several important clients in the US and in Europe. Could things just quiet down for a brief second??!!

But, good news - and good information was collected over at SEOmoz on the "...Best Link Building Techniques". I saw it a bit late but added a few extra link building items myself that you might find interesting.

Read the whole blog - note the higher votes - take notes and off you go to work on this. This was a nice gathering of intelligent and useful link building tips for anyone with a website to look into.

The Silent SEO

2008-02-15T17:49:00.000-08:00

Interestingly, I’ve been reading articles lately on Search Engine Optimization consultants, how to find them and what makes a good one. Today, there was an article by Rhea Drysdale, Death of SEO Transparency, that discusses that the best SEOs seem to keep their mouths shut and "secrets" safe.

Working for several years now as a top SEO (yeah, tooting my own horn here!), the one thing I noticed that makes a great SEO consultant is not the tips or tricks but how and when they use them! It’s a form of logic that is nearly impossible to describe or teach to someone else. It comes from “feeling” the search engines and “playing” with them day in and day out. It’s having each website and each individual industry act and react differently in the search engines because there are so many factors involved. So, telling all your “SEO secrets” will not give any one a real advantage over another if they don’t know how to use it anyway. – Does that make sense?!

I don’t believe in keeping quiet or holding back (ask anyone at Bruce Clay – hi guys!). Sharing information and a willingness to teach all that you know tells me you are secure with your knowledge, secure in what you can do with it and, I think, gains you a lot of respect in this or any other industry you are involved in.

The problem I have is that I spend more time working for my clients and getting their sites optimized for whatever keyword phrases we need than I have time for talking about SEO or blogging about it. I wish I had more time to work on my own website!! Look at it! Look at the Page Rank – yup! - not so optimized is it – not so search visible!!?!! Search Visible Websites site started about 4 months ago when I went solo with my SEO services. My first thoughts were “%@*&!!, Now I have to do my own keyword research, write all this content, I need to start blogging, write press releases, find any and every way to build links to my site, etc, etc.” Needless to say, I was not thrilled, mainly because there was no one to pay me for all that work! And you SEOs out there know it takes work! Lucky for me, enough people knew where I was and how to find me and things started from the get-go. That’s why I just don’t have time for all of this here!! (round and round we go!)

I hope and wish for continued openness and sharing of SEO tactics and ideas. The more we give the more the consumer can get a hold of and judge things so as to make informed, intelligent choices. Read my previous blog posting on How to Find a Decent SEO – Interviewing an SEO Consultant. This will help give those in the “not-know” a better idea on how to distinguish one SEO over another.

Hope this all helps!!

How to Find a Decent SEO – Interviewing an SEO Consultant

2008-02-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

First, “decent” does not pertain to politeness or socially correct. It does, however, pertain here to someone who can “do the job”!!! -- I hope that you will find that this person can also be decently polite and socially correct too!

So, finding someone who will “get the job done” means understanding what that job is! The Search Engine Optimization job means that you will get increased rankings for a variety of good and valuable keywords (defining and understanding good and valuable keywords will come in a later blog post) for your website pages. If your SEO can increase your Page Rank by getting more inbound links pointing to your site and creating a good internal linking structure, then you’ve really hit the right guy (or gal – yup… that would be me!).

Those are the measurable successes that you are looking for, but, finding someone who fits that description and can actually “do” this for your site takes asking the right questions.

1) Are there websites that the SEO can put on their list of “optimized” sites?
An SEO may be able to suggest a website he or she has optimized but how do you really know? You can’t verify that unless the owner/operator of the website will confirm this – sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. There are always confidentiality issues that seem to be present in this industry. Ask anyway and see how far you can push to get this information and get it verified.

2) Do they “guarantee” ranking increases?
If they do – run fast, run very fast!! About the only “guarantee” you can get would, hopefully, be for your website domain name and/or specialized business name – but even then I’ve seen issues of too many similarities in some names. The only other guarantee might be for a very obscure keyword and/or one that really isn’t terribly valuable and simply won’t bring the numbers of visitors that might help to pay for the SEO services.

Now – if they guarantee that they will work hard and describe or show you everything that they are doing or planning on doing then you might want them to stick around!

3) How many clients do they have?
An SEO consultant that restricts the number of clients or businesses that they take on is a good thing. You don’t want them overwhelmed, just trying to bring in the money, and then spending limited time on your site!

Personally, I don’t take on any new clients unless I have a minimum of 6 hours a week I can spend on them – that includes research time, review time, reporting time, competitive analysis time, content review time, link strategy time, communication time, etc, etc. Yes, that limits me, but I have time to do a good job – all the time!

4) Do they incorporate some sort of Linking Strategy that is part of their SEO services?
This relates to inbound (external) link building. This will also bring the most interesting of answers. Many SEOs only perform what is known as on-page optimization. On-page optimization focuses only on a variety of SEO factors that are found on individual pages already on your site. Take a look at our SEO Checklist, you’ll see a variety of elements that can be SEOed. There is actually a lot of work that can help a site that relates to these on-page factors. But, and that is a big BUT, you will want to find out if there are off-page factors that will be addressed during any given SEO project? These off-page factors are ones that can help develop inbound links pointing to your site. The more that an SEO can help you muster up the better – as long as no one is paying for those links! This linking strategy part of any SEO project can easily help pay for those SEO services if done correctly and effectively. Ask for their plan.

5) Will they suggest something that could help right away?
Ask if there is something the SEO would be willing to suggest even if you don’t choose them. There is always something that a good SEO is willing to “give away”. It’s difficult for a decent SEO to not want to help you right away.

I can look at a site and, within minutes, find something that can be done better or at least suggest that a prospective client could begin work on with or without me.

6) What sort of SEO Tools or Reporting do they use? And, will they be giving you access to those tools or reports?
You’ll want to know where your rankings for the keywords are before you start the project and definitely before you cut anyone their final check! Depending on the length of time that will be spent on the project, you should hopefully see some ranking increases for some keyword phrases, if nothing else, you shouldn’t have lost any rankings during the SEO process. There should be some sort of Ranking report that you can understand and have from your SEO consultant.

There may be other tools at your disposal - there are many Analytics tools/reports that are great - that will help with how your content is seen by the search engines, or information on who is linking to your site or even a competitor’s site, and a variety of other items that can help with evaluating and understanding the Search Engine Optimization process.

7) Where does the SEO get his updated information, and/or stay current in the industry?
This can be done through constant and continuous online research, monitoring websites, reading blogs, going to conferences, etc, etc. If there is a “buzz” word you’ve heard about, check and see if the SEO knows about it too.

Here’s a simple question that any SEO should know:
Question: About how many factors are involved in Google’s ranking algorithm?
Answer: As of this writing, there are about 200 ranking factors that play a part in the Google algorithm.

8) Last, but not least, the last question is one for you, the client. Ask yourself these questions:
Did you feel comfortable talking to the SEO Consultant?
Did you understand the answers given or was he or she too technical?
Did the consultant seem to pay attention to your questions or concerns?
Did you like spending time talking with this person?

– because this, hopefully, will become a nice long-term and valuable relationship!

Five SEO things to do for your Business in 2008:

2008-01-15T12:08:00.000-08:00

I’ve seen lots of predictions for 2008 with regards to search engine optimization and marketing. Most of these come from SEO firms and consultants. They all focus on what they think Google will do or how Universal Search (blended search), Social Marketing and such will change or affect how we will view search engines and their results on our websites. But I’ve not seen any predictions related to what businesses should do about all of these predictions and changes.

Five things businesses should plan on doing for themselves and their websites in 2008:

1) Create a blog.

I’ve said this before in an earlier blog post. Update your blog when you can but pick a topic to focus on and use that topic to link to a page within your site.

2) Check your anchor text use within your site.

Use consistent terms for individual pages to keep them distinct from one another. Don’t use “click here” or “learn more”. You can say “learn more about xyz”, like “learn more about SEO Services” as we would do. Note the only part highlighted is the link.

3) Create a sitemaps.xml page.

Make sure you have this XML feed of all the pages on your site. See www.sitemaps.org for information on these types of files accepted by Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

4) Get the word out!

Write Press Releases of new and fascination information or offerings you have on your site. Participate in others blogs or forums and add a reference (link) to a specific page of your site that you are responding to. Map your location. Create link magnets, or link bait, and let others know it’s on your site. Maybe add a video to YouTube and your site. And, if it’s not online then make sure you always, always reference your website in any publications, stationary, local news articles, whatever.

5) Hire an internal SEO for your organization.

Full-time is best but part-time is ok too. This will give you better first-hand knowledge and more control over SEO happenings with regards to your website. It also gives a sense of more responsibility to the newly hired SEO for results! – I have first hand knowledge of that one!! Hi, Richard! Hi, David!! (wink)

Note: We do have access to SEO specialists around the globe that will work locally, remotely or on a consultant basis so contact Search Visible Websites if we can help.

Blogging for SEO

2007-12-14T15:26:00.000-08:00

You may be seeing that Blogs are an important addition to your website. I’m seeing news reports on this topic more and more… “Blogging for Business”, “Marketing with Blogs”, “Blogging for SEO” (oh, is that my blog post?!!!), etc… but is it just a trend?? I don’t think this one is.

I see blog posts as a great way to keep bits of information fresh and new for your site. Writing and maintaining an interesting blog can be great for readership and developing inbound links to your blog page. Inbound links developed here or through other link building techniques can only help your website with better search visibility. But, the information written about can also be used as supporting documentation to help strengthen the inter-linking of your website.

Now, don’t forget that you can set up your blog so that you have complete control. You don’t have to allow any and all comments if you don’t want to. I do suggest that when first starting a blog that you just write. Write a few posts before you consider opening any flood gates to comments. Advertise or market the fact that you have this blog for whatever reason. Let fellow bloggers know about your postings. See if there are others that you can comment on and refer to yours for a response. Even if you can’t get an active hyperlink for this you can still spell out your page reference and, hopefully, interest will follow and active hyperlinks will come about.

Pick precise topics or very specific subjects to write about. Don’t think about SEO while writing but do consider re-reading and editing your blog post for possible spelling or grammar issues. Then make sure that you have stayed on topic, add a few extra keywords that might help elaborate on the topic and help SEO then add a link to the page or area of the site that could best use the blog post for support. Know that your blog can spread your voice to others so write in a way that you feel comfortable. It will bring added benefit to your SEO efforts and your website will have better search visibility!

The blog post before this one suggests creating a plan for increasing link popularity, well… here you go!! Setting up you site with a blog directory is a great 1st step towards fulfilling this plan.

A lot of SEO to work with!

2007-11-07T22:54:00.000-08:00

So much SEO to do and so little time to do it in!

I just haven't had the time I've needed or wanted to get this blog really started and focused on SEO and SEM issues that I'd like. So, I'll start tempting you with these topics...

How about Linking Strategies?!?

Or, ways to increase your site's Page Rank?

How about increasing your site's conversions - making more money! (no question mark here!!)
That's really it, isn't it!!! (or here!!)

Today's SEO blog will just start outlining the basics of Linking Strategies. I'll take things step-by-step and elaborate slowly because for those who know, and I mean really know, they don't have to read this! This is for those that have heard some of these things but it's over their heads and they are just trying to understand it all!

To start strategizing on building links to your site, you'll want an understanding of Link Popularity.

Link Popularity relates to the number of links and authority of web sites linking to your web site.

Search engines recognize when a site is popular. They base this determination on other sites that point to your site or any page in your site. Link popularity is factored into search engine algorithms. Increasing quality external links to your site can improve search engine rankings. You gain popularity points with the search engines for quality links. Quality links are defined by their content relevancy to your site as well as their own popularity. Understanding the basics to establishing good links will help increase your site’s popularity.

To gain additional link popularity, it is good to have information on how your site is currently doing. Determining if you have others linking to your site is invaluable information. Knowing if the search engines know about that is what gives you the popularity rankings. Then you can decide if you need to establish more quality links that point to your site. Or maybe, you need to get rid of badly placed links that point to your site, such as those related to link farms. Pay attention to the content and quality of a site linking to yours and the other sites that they link to as well.

Consider formulating a plan of action and goals for your web site, including procedures for a Link Building Campaign related to your site. If you are not sure on how to formulate a plan for increasing link popularity for your web site then consider reeading the next blog entry COMING SOON!

You can always email me with any questions. I don't mind at all!

Maybe it's not a daily routine!

2007-10-05T08:39:00.000-07:00

I know that I said day-to-day routines would be documented here but it seems that my day sometimes just gets too busy to write about SEO goings on rather than just doing the SEO work!

Anyway, since we last chatted, I had to try to get a client to understand that, even though his site had a great amount of content, we still needed to spend time on making that content "valuable". What I mean by that is that he never seemed to actually say what his site was really there for. There were lots of words on pages but he used more analogous wording than actual "real world" terms to understand and describe his business.

You know, I still love the example I use often to help others understand the use of certain terms and the lack of terms used in association for clarification. - Did that sentence make sense??? - The example is "IT". Problem is that "IT" is also "it" which can be considered a stop-word for the search engine spiders when reading website content. - I know IT is not making sense yet but IT will.

So, if I add some clarification terms like "computer" or even "professional" then we have "computer IT" or "IT professional". Now it makes sense! I still strongly recommend actually spelling it out, IT is Information Technology. Say it in your web pages if you use IT. Your readers really won't mind that you've spelled IT out and the search engine spiders will like that you know what you are talking about and your pages will benefit more, especially when you see them with better ranked listings in the indexes and/or with more keywords that your site starts coming up for. IT is a good thing!

... Oh, so much more to talk about but work has got to be done. Remind me to tell you about another issue with website ranking improvements but no real conversion increases. I got to put on my marketing cap for that one! Ok - au revoir for now!

The first day of SEO... NOT!!!

2007-10-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

So... it has been suggested, more times than I can remember, that I should create a blog... an SEO (search engine optimization for those who don't know) blog. I kept trying to decide the best way to do this. What could I write to interest those out there that might actually read this blog??! So (and I say "so" a lot - sorry!), I decided that a day-to-day goings on in my world of SEO might actually be interesting. I can let fellow SEO analysts see what I do for the various clients I deal with and inspire them to do great things for their own clients. And, this can help those that have no clue what search engine optimization is and maybe get a little working knowledge and "free" help for making their own websites more visible in the SERPS.

So... here goes...