Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 24 of September , 2008 at 11:10 am Leave a comment
For many businesses, the question is often raised about whether their SEO should be done ‘in house’ or ‘outsourced’. There is no definitive answer to question such as this as there are good points to each. The bottom line is often $$$. How much can we afford?
There are a few pointers that may help to make a decision, but ultimately, it comes down to whether or not you have enough work to employ an SEO professional full time and whether or not the costs associated can be justified.
If you only have enough work to employ someone part time then the financial incentive may be to employ a consultant. If your funds do run to employing someone full time in SEO, the investment can well worth the effort.
Is in house better than outsourced? Different horses for different courses. A full time search engine optimization professional is on hand, in the business and bringing that in house knowledge to your website. On the other hand, in house can be too close to action. They can do things which are for the right reasons, but implement the wrong tactics.
Outsourced search engine optimization professionals bring new ideas and little in the way of ‘baggage’. There are no blind spots caused by too much information. Should outsource, or should you employ an in house professional? It’s your business - what can you afford; how big is your site; and can you justify the expense? You are the only one who can answer those questions.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 23 of September , 2008 at 8:47 pm Leave a comment
The search giant known to us all as Google has once again confounded all SEO experts by changing their views on a particular subject. In the past, the recommendation from all SEO consultants was to ensure that URL’s looked more like a static URL than a dynamic one. Now Google says they prefer the dynamic!
So, after webmasters the world wide have spent hours carefully crafting titles and URL’s for the benefit of the SEO, Google says it would prefer a yoursite.com/?232 instead of a plain English URL? To quote the official Google statement on the subject:
Does that mean I should avoid rewriting dynamic URLs at all?
That’s our recommendation, unless your rewrites are limited to removing unnecessary parameters, or you are very diligent in removing all parameters that could cause problems. If you transform your dynamic URL to make it look static you should be aware that we might not be able to interpret the information correctly in all cases
Should you now change all your static looking URL’s back to dynamic? I suggest not making any changes yet. If your pages have been indexed and they are ranking reasonably well, leave them as is. If your pages are not ranking well then perhaps making a change could help. If the page has been indexed then you will need to redirect. The problem, from an SEO perspective, is that any changes involving a redirect can take quite a while to take effect.
For the future, it is your choice. However, the same applies to future pages, if your pages are being indexed and you’re ranking reasonable well; don’t fix what isn’t broken - business as usual. If your pages are not ranking well, or not being indexed quickly, check that your SEO processes are okay, if they are then perhaps reverting to pure dynamic URL could make a difference.
This will become a major problem in the future. Not the URL’s, but Google’s ability to make drastic changes to the ‘rules’ at will and with little thought to the consequences. In this case, creating for the ‘user’ has definitely gone out the window. As a user myself, I would much rather see a URL that I can read, not a set of meaningless numbers and symbols. I think you can brace yourself for many more major SEO changes as Google tries to produce search results tailored to individuals.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 23 of September , 2008 at 10:29 am Comments (1)
There are so many tools around these days there is no excuse for not knowing what your competitors are up to. More importantly, it is not difficult to see where they rank for particular keywords. Rather than developing a set of keywords that you feel are perfect for your website, find your competitors weaknesses and focus your search engine optimization efforts on those keywords.
You may be fighting a losing race trying to target the same keywords as your competitors, at least the top of the range keywords. Traffic from several less competitive keywords can often outdo the traffic numbers for highly competitive keywords.
Keywords, links and search rankings are on top of every SEO expert’s minds these days. As the internet grows, the competition grows. Rather than trying to compete for the same tired keywords, smart operators are using the information gained from their competitor’s sites to help determine weaknesses that could be exploited.
Websites that have been around for several years are going to be hard beat for their main keywords. Target their secondary keywords in your SEO programs and you may outrank them. Target their primary keywords and you may give yourself a headache.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 22 of September , 2008 at 8:21 pm Leave a comment
There are many website owners that simply don’t have the time, resources or finances to run a blog for their business. It could be argued that from a search engine optimization and social perspective they cannot afford not to have a blog - but that is a different argument. Let’s assume they cannot have a blog yet some of the benefits of a blog are appealing. Is there a solution?
For every problem there is a solution if you look hard enough. In this situation, there are numerous solutions. The first and most obvious is to find a blog in your niche and form a partnership. The blog includes posts on your products or services with links to the relevant pages. In return you pay the blog owner a small ‘retainer’ or perhaps a fee for post. Are these paid post products under the Google guidelines? However, if the blog is regularly writing and linking to your site it would be hard for and search engine to include in the same category as most pay per posts.
A second option is to form a relationship with a group of bloggers from within your niche. You could simply pay for advertising space with an agreement to produce related and linked content, or you could provide product samples for review. Again, the word caution springs to mind when it comes to pay per post and possible search engine penalties.
If you are looking for SEO benefits then you are going to need links from these sites. If you are looking for traffic rather than ranking then the use of nofollow in the links will prevent any possible penalties.
There are many opportunities for businesses to partner with existing blogs to further their own SEO programs while providing extra traffic. The future of links as a sign of authority may dwindle, however the relationships built between web sites, blogs and general internet users may be quite valuable into the future.
For those businesses that have toyed with the idea of a blog and shelved it, perhaps a blog partnership could be your first step. It can certainly give a boost to your SEO strategies along with your brand and reputation building strategies. It may well become the next wave in social marketing.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 21 of September , 2008 at 9:57 am Comments (2)
Many website owners scour the web looking for decent sites that can link back to them. Sometimes, the best links are those right under your nose, or at least, next door. SEO relies on backlinks as a corner stone of search rankings. Backlinks in theory should be relevant - but relevant to what? Keywords? Content? What about location?
If you have a bricks and mortar business then you should be listing in the various local directories. They should also be one of the first places you look at when it comes to link building. There are several non SEO activities may also help you link building strategies.
We talk about being social and getting involved with social media. Sometimes, the key is being active and social in your local community. It could be regularly participating in a local chamber of commerce association. Sponsoring events such as school, church, arts or sporting. These all help to increase your profile within the community.
If you include a blog on your site that broadcasts these activities, you may find a lot of local bloggers linking to you. You will certainly find many of the local organizations linking to your site. Once you have developed a profile within your community, asking other local businesses for a link should become a breeze.
While the links may not be strictly content related, ’support your local community’ type links may deliver the same benefits. SEO relies on links to develop search rankings; your local community may be able to help you.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 20 of September , 2008 at 9:04 am Leave a comment
The rumors are rife that Best Of The Web (BOTW) is considering purchasing DMOZ from AOL. If you can manage to get your site listed on DMOZ then you will have very important link pointed to your site. Since DMOZ is a free directory, all the link juice on offer is sent your pages/site.
BOTW also have a directory, one that costs around $250 for reviewing the site prior to lsiting. If the listing is denied you will still lose your $250. BOTW is similar to Yahoo! as they are both paid directories but have escaped Google’s link selling penalties.
If BOTW does buy DMOZ, what implications are there for SEO? There are two ways to look at this issue. The first is whether or not the buyer can speed up the review process.
The second problem could be the reverse. If BOTW decides to charge to have a site listed on DMOZ , will Google change they way they view the links - will they be considered paid links?
[source]It is unknown whether a sale would change Google’s use of Dmoz for its own directory or would prompt Google to reconsider how much weight it gives the sites linked within Dmoz. For those who don’t know, Google is still relatively cozy with Dmoz in that it maintains a Google Directory that is a duplicate copy of the dmoz.org content. Dmoz also is still considered a great place for your site to be listed to gain premium Google link power that helps your PageRank.
Something has to crack at DMOZ soon. The rate of approval is terribly slow - in excess of 6 months for some categories. If BOTW can speed up that process without compromising the quality of the link, then that can only be a bonus to SEO.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 20 of September , 2008 at 7:54 am Comments (1)
One of the mantra’s of SEO is link building. The real key is to it as quickly as possible, but not too quickly. If you acquire a rush of links, search engines, particularly Google, will quickly smell a rat and brand your site spammy, result, no indexing.
News around the grapevine the last few days has confirmation of Google’s approach to spamming for links and a little bit about to detect them. SERoundTable has a good rundown on what Google has to say on the matter. However the following statement sums up Google’s approach:
A typical, “legitimate” document attracts back links slowly. A large spike in the quantity of back links may signal a topical phenomenon (e.g., the CDC web site may develop many links quickly after an outbreak, such as SARS), or signal attempts to spam a search engine (to obtain a higher ranking and, thus, better placement in search results) by exchanging links, purchasing links, or gaining links from documents without editorial discretion on making links.
Building back links slowly does not always sit with website owners all that well. However, given the choice between a slightly slower indexing and ranking speed and no indexing or ranking, I know which directions I would prefer.
It is hard to impress upon owners the need to slow down on their search engine optimization activities sometimes. It often needs a statement like this one from Google to reinforce ‘the rules’ and reduce some of the aggressive activities.
It does leave me to wonder on aspect of quick link building. The spammers that attack sites, particularly blogs, try to build hundreds of links each day. Perhaps we should leave the comments for a month or two and see if Google then drops them from the index. Then we could remove the offending comments - but then, who has the time.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 18 of September , 2008 at 7:22 pm Leave a comment
No matter where you go in the world, age does matter. In the search engine optimization world, age also matters, however, it’s not the age of the SEO consultant, and it is the age of the various components that go into ranking a page.
There five areas where age may have a bearing on your overall search rankings. No one can say for sure what effect they have, however general consensus is that age can be important. These five areas are:
Domain Age:
The longer a domain has been registered and the length of time a domain has before renewing or expiry is taken into account. Search engines, particularly Google, are looking for some validation of the site. If the domain is six months old and only registered for 12 months, it can be hard to treat with any credibility. On the other hand, a site that is five years old and has another two or three years left on registration can appear to be more credible. However;
Site Age:
Site is different to domain age. You can have a domain name registered for a long time, however the site itself may only be six months old.
Page Age:
The longer a page has been around, obviously the more links it should have. Older pages tend to carry more authority than new pages.
Link Age:
The age of a link is also important. A link that has been in place for a long time will naturally carry more weight than a new link.
Link Origin Age:
The age of the page that links in can also be importance. As you move along the link origin page, each reduces in importance, page, site and domain age seem to .
There is no known formula for these age factors; however age does in to calculation when the search engine algorithm assesses your page. Some things cannot be changed. Some can be planned. For example, if you are planning an online involvement in the future, registering a domain name now help may offer some aging point down the track.
The other area that may be influenced by your SEO strategies is in the selection of sites to link into yours. Select domains and pages that have some history and they may add a fraction more to your rankings.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 18 of September , 2008 at 2:38 pm Leave a comment
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Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 18 of September , 2008 at 7:34 am Leave a comment
As time moves along, search engines like Google become more sophisticated. We are told that the future of search will rely more on that searchers history, so, when a search term is entered, Google will match their search term with the searchers history, then find the most appropriate results to display. This may not be bad news for SEO; it will certainly make life tougher - particularly when reporting back to clients.
The recent mini-war between SEO tool producers and Google left many website owners in a spin. They couldn’t use the tools to provide information like search rank. What has been forgotten is that they survived. They found other ways to measure the success of their work.
We often rely too much on this data as it can, and does, affect people’s view of their own websites. If you have worked hard to optimize your pages for search, and you appear near the top in the search pages, you have done your job. There is little else you can do - we certainly cannot influence peoples search habits, at least for now.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 17 of September , 2008 at 9:25 am Comments (2)
If you know how often your pages, and which pages, are crawled by the search engines you may get a fair idea as to which pages are important. This is an important statistic when it comes to assessing the effectiveness of your SEO strategies.
Gray Wolf’s SEO Blog has a post that discusses the issue in some depth. The most difficult part of the concept is getting reliable crawl rate data. It’s not impossible and Gray Wolf’s post details one method.
The comments section offered more advice on how to get these statistics. For those who are serious and are trying to get that little bump up in the search results, they may find crawl rates interesting and worth chasing.
For most website owners, there are for more important tasks that should be done first. On page optimization follows a standard formula these days. From titles, URL’s and content - the SEO concept is fairly standard. Make sure they right before worrying too much about crawl rates.
Off page SEO tasks should be your next task, ensuring every area has been tackled and is working in the right direction. This means building good quality links back into your pages.
Crawl rates are important and if you can gain access to those numbers, you have an indication of which pages need further promoting and which ones are being visited on a regular basis. This information is fine as part of your SEO, however, try not to get bogged down in it until the rest of the on and off page search engine optimization tasks have been completed.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 16 of September , 2008 at 6:12 am Comments (7)
For the second or perhaps third time, Google have published a post on duplicate content and how it effect on SEO. Quite simply, Google does not penalize for duplicate content. In fact, reading the post, they are rather clever in their treatment of duplicate content.
Google’s post really does put the issue beyond doubt. Are there penalties? For sites that scrape content - yes. For sites that get scraped - no! Sites, particularly blogs that have duplicate content because of the structure; for example, categories, archives, and perhaps renamed URL’s. Will it affect your SEO, yes, but not because of penalties. Let’s look at how Google handles duplicate content on a site:
- When we detect duplicate content, such as through variations caused by URL parameters, we group the duplicate URLs into one cluster.
- We select what we think is the “best” URL to represent the cluster in search results.
- We then consolidate properties of the URLs in the cluster, such as link popularity, to the representative URL.
The third point is important. If you have site issues that produce duplicate content including multiple URL’s, Google will group those URL’s together and send any link juice to the group. From and SEO point of view, this is actually beneficial. Links going to URL A and links going to URL B will be combined and sent to the best URL.
Where this can harm your search engine optimization is when Google’s idea of best URL differs to yours. There are other issues, for example, if Google cannot consolidate URL’s they may not be able to select a representative URL.
Duplicate content should be avoided as much as possible. However, if you have a blog for example, and someone insists you install a plugin to avoid this duplicate content, think about it first. Plugins can slow down your blog or make other alterations you may not want. It can become a trade-off. From the SEO perspective, you don’t have to have that plugin - it’s just nice if you do.
Google’s final words on the subject are important:
- You typically don’t need to submit a reconsideration request when you’re cleaning up innocently duplicated content.
- If you’re a webmaster of beginner-to-intermediate savviness, you probably don’t need to put too much energy into worrying about duplicate content, since most search engines have ways of handling it.
- You can help your fellow webmasters by not perpetuating the myth of duplicate content penalties! The remedies for duplicate content are entirely within your control.
I think perhaps Google is sick of hearing about nonexistent duplicate content penalties!
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 15 of September , 2008 at 7:25 pm Comments (2)
Jill Whalen has written a post on SearchEngineLand calling for the correct use of SEO terms. I wholeheartedly agree with the concept behind her thoughts, however, until the SEO industry can agree on a set of standards, you will never get a common use of SEO terms.
The term SEO has so many different meanings these days. Is it search engine optimization (optimisation) or search engine optimizer (optimiser)? Does SEO include SEM, social marketing and/or web design?
Unfortunately we will never get everyone using the correct terminology until there is some agreement on what that terminology means. As an industry, search engine optimization has grown with no controls and certainly little in the way of common standards.
There are no official qualifications so anyone can hang an SEO shingle on their website and start taking money. A simple look at the fly-by-night problems is ample evidence of this. The industry has almost evolved into one which cannot be standardized. The first question that everyone will ask is who is going to set the standards? If you were to set up a standardizing committee, how would you assess the suitability of the members?
If we leave it to the search engines to collectively come to some agreement on a set of standards, they would be accused of self interest (and probably confuse things more). If Jill were asked to set up a committee, who would she select as members and on what basis would she select them? Again, the accusation of self interest and selecting like minded SEO experts would arise.
There is no doubt that a set of standards and a common glossary of terms are required. The big problem will be, who, in the SEO industry, should set those standards?
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 14 of September , 2008 at 8:17 pm Comments (1)
The power of the internet is growing stronger everyday and with it is the growth in software that makes using the internet even easier. Marissa Mayer on her Google blog has an interesting post on the ‘Future of search’ and it had me pondering a few things related to search engine optimization.
Marissa mentions that search queries using voice will be one direction that search engines will need to address into the future, particularly in association with mobile search. If the power of voice recognition software improves over the next few years, it will be interesting to see if any of the search engines start listening to videos and podcasts. Not just listening but also interpreting and indexing based on what the search engine has ‘heard’. Will we then need to ensure that every podcast has its contents passed past the SEO expert before recording?
I don’t think it around the corner yet but into the future? Who knows. The other issue is whether or not podcasts have had their day and we have now moved on. Video is big and MP4 players can now playback videos. I don’t think our SEO skills will be tested just yet, if at all.
We don’t know where search will take us in the future. Our role in the big picture is to try and determine where search is going so we can have sites optimized for those changes. It is an evolving process and those that were involved in SEO many years ago can attest to the number of times websites have had to be tweaked because of changes made by the search engines.
Voice recognition and podcasts. The technology is not far away. In fact, for many podcasts, the technology is already here. Will search engines use it? We don’t know until they tell us, or we notice something strange going on. Until then, podcasts are safe. Video on the other hand, will be the next target. They need to be accurate to the associated keywords and optimized using relevant SEO strategies designed for video.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 14 of September , 2008 at 8:01 am Leave a comment
A previous post referring to the benefits of linking out created a number of comments. What is important in the modern internet world is to realize that we are not in a vacuum. SEO cannot be done entirely alone. By its very nature, link building, one of the essential components of SEO, requires the involvement of many other website owners.
Every website has business or strategic partners. They may not be active partners; in fact they are often partners without even knowing it. If you run affiliate ads, you have formed a partnership. If you sell products, there will be other products that may complement yours. For example, if you sell cleaning detergents, there are other sites that sell cleaning hardware. While there is no formal relationship, there is an informal one. The minute you link to them, or they link to you, you have formed a search engine optimization relationship.
These relationships should be fostered. We are being reminded every day that the new world web is all about socializing and building relationships. Link building strategies now form a part of that relationship building and often the link itself is not just a blogroll type link, it could be in the way of a banner or perhaps even a marketing link promoting one another’s products.
The web is becoming a crowded place yet many website owners feel isolated. They needn’t. Find your partners; build a relationship with them; and let links develop naturally. Overtime you will find you have developed a large network of related websites and your offsite SEO becoming easier every day.
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