Seo Blog | Search Engine Marketing News

I usually don’t go on rants here, but this one has been brewing in my mind for a long time. A recent trip to the Apple store made it that much worse for me too. I was one of the suckers that got the iPhone way back in the day, and own the old school, non 3G one. The one thats a piece of crap now … right?

I hear the commercials about how the new iPhone 3G is half the price, and twice as fast and the only thing I can think of is how I got 100% screwed by Apple. I go into the stores and hear from the Apple “specialists” that I can sell my old iPhone for good money on eBay or Craigslist (average of 400 on eBay) and I even heard of a service that will make it even easier to swap your iPhone (just today).

I have a problem with all this, and wonder why more people don’t. I have to worry about going through all the trouble of getting all my stuff off the old iPhone, make sure its clean and clear, go to drop off spots, figure out the shipping, worry about getting screwed or scammed on eBay or Craigslist (WAY MORE HASSLE THEN I WANT TO DEAL WITH)… especially when I feel I should just be able to go into an Apple store and exchange it right there, and have them take care of the customers that were loyal to them from the beginning.

Besides the iPhone, I own an iPod shuffle, two Mac books, a powerbook, and am about to buy an iMac so I am starting to feel like Apples little bitch with things like this going on with the iPhone. I feel like they should take care of me, let me bring in my iPhone … clear it out for me, get all the files moved over and upgrade me for free - and NOT have to pay 10 bucks more for the unlimited data plan. I mean … COME ON!!!

I just keep thinking about how I paid twice as much for an iPhone that is twice as slow as the new 3G ones and Apple just keeps laughing at suckkers like me (all the way to the bank) that keep doing it and making them even more money. Ok this was a rant, and there is nothing I can do about it, and will probably go and upgrade because the old iPhone is incredibly slow and horrible, but I do feel better now!

So… are you?

According to Urban Dictionary Googlecentric means having a view of the world centered around Google and Googling. In the example given it said that “My wife doesn’t belief that ____ exists because it wasn’t available on Google. She is Googlecentric.”

Of course so far I haven’t really searched for something that existed that I haven’t found on Google. I do believe though that if I sit down to think about it I WILL find something not on Google…or rather I will not find that something in Google.

Anyway the question came to my mind without really knowing that there was already a definition of the term. I was just thinking about how most SEOs are too focused on Google. I have posted the importance of not neglecting to optimise for other search engines before (back when Ask hadn’t changed their strategy yet) and I though that I should reiterate the importance now. I guess we really all know why it is important to give other search engines at least some attention but then again it is good to be reminded every now and then. So here’s a short list on why we shouldn’t be focused on Google alone.

1. Other search engines bring traffic too - I guess this is the most important reason. No traffic should be discounted. So even if you don’t really strive to be on the top of other search engine’s SERPs you should at least make sure that you are indexed there!
2. Just in case scenarios - You should be visible in other search engines for days (rather seconds/minutes) when Google goes down. It may be just a few minutes but not being in other SERPs means automatically saying bye to the few/many users who didn’t bother to wait for Google to go up and simply used another search engine.
3. Targeting specific types of users - While Ask may no longer be a full blown search engine you can bet that if your primary target users are married women then you should make sure you do well in Ask’s SERPs, after all that is their target market too. This doesn’t only apply to ask. Check out the conversion/retention rates of the traffic the different search engines bring although Google will definitely bring more traffic bounce rates may be the highest there. If you find that retention/conversion rates from a certain traffic source (not just search engines) are pretty good then put a bit more effort to ensure that you place well in that search engine’s SERPs.

SEOBOOK’s Aaron Wall, in what will likely be a hot post around the social news and bookmarking universe, serves up candid and insightful thinking on the long term competitive advantage of classic search engine optimization vs. pay per click. His writing style is hungry and tone passionate. Aaron’s got his Mojo on in this delightfully self-effacing comparison of SEO & PPC’s long-term value.

Wall writes, “This is why I like SEO so much more than PPC. Most people are too lazy to spend years researching their topic, years building a brand, years building links, and years building social and customer relationships. We are afraid of failure, afraid of success, and afraid that we are investing too much in one place. But, if someone sees me ranking in the organic results they can’t just clone it unless they know SEO well, and are committed for the long haul.”

Many A-list SEOs have weighed in to the dialog regarding the Tao of SEO and PPC in tandem and separately. For additional perspective read “PPC vs. Organic,” David Naylor, Lee Odden’s classic 2006 “The Lame PPC and SEO Debate,” and sugerrae’s recent rant, “The Lazy SEO vs. The Lazy Monetizer.” In a street level video interview, Rand Fishkin discusses using PPC to test organic concepts, PPC vs. SEO in China, and other useful concepts.

The first part: Why It Is Important To Choose The Right SEO Company

The search for the right SEO company begins with what you want to look for. Do you want a company that follows black hat SEO tactics and gets your website to the first page and then gets it banned for the rest of life or you want a company that implements legitimate SEO methods and achieves for you long-lasting higher rankings. I’ll safely assume you’ll go for the latter option. So let’s see

How you can find the right SEO company

• Don’t contact an SEO company that sends you spam: If you receive unsolicited overtures from an SEO company you can make out easily on the list of priorities for them the ethical practices appear at the bottom. If they are so callous and ignorant about their own business, how can you expect them to treat your business with respect?
• Take your budget and priorities into account: Some SEO companies are very expensive, some are very cheap, and some are just about affordable: it all depends on what’s your budget and how much you can afford to pay for particular SEO services. The right SEO company should not just fit the bill but it should also not cause you financial and business constraints.
• Do proper research: Once you’ve come across a seemingly suitable SEO company you should do some research on them on Google. See how they have performed or whether they have some negative feedback from their previous customers. You can also ask for references and contact people who might have written testimonials for the SEO company. Ask for a list of websites they have optimised for the client-asked keywords. Remember that your research is very crucial because your SEO company’s efforts are going to decide how successful your online business is going to be.
• Ask them what SEO practices they follow: Do they talk about putting invisible text on your website? Do they advise you to stuff keywords on your pages? Do they tell you that all your content should exist for the sole purpose of drawing traffic from search engines? Do they offer thousands of link-exchange opportunities? Do they recommend doorway pages? All these tactics are really bad for your SEO, and you should stay clear of such offers and companies making such offers. The right SEO company knows what’s right and what’s right in SEO and sticks to that. The right company will never make blind promises. In fact the right SEO company doesn’t promise you guaranteed top search engine rankings; it promises you a completely SEO friendly website.
• What sort of traffic does the SEO company talk about: You don’t want just any traffic on your website; you want traffic that converts, you want those people coming to your website who would like to do business with you, you want to generate qualified leads. The right SEO company perfectly understands this. It knows that 100 targeted visitors are far better than 10000 untargeted visitors.

Keep these things in perspective while looking for an SEO company and there is a great chance that you’ll find the right SEO company for your website.

Blogging about SEO seems to be the “in thing” over the last 12 months. Hundreds of SEO and make money online blogs have sprung up offering tips on how to get more traffic.

The problem is that 90% of them offer very bad tips (the other 10% of them are mostly excellent). Why do people who don’t know much about SEO decide to start blogging about it?

I really can’t understand why somebody would blog about a subject they don’t know much about. Sure they might have read a few threads on a forum but does that make you an expert? You wouldn’t sit down and write and article about baking or fixing cars unless you were a good mechanic or chef so why write about SEO when you don’t know much about it?

Another issue is when people say “I don’t know much about SEO and don’t consider myself an expert but here are my tips on how to optimise your site”. Sometimes these tips are very good but most of the time they have either been said before or are misleading. If something has been said before, by an expert, then why repeat it?

As an industry SEO is full of misinformation and the hundreds of uninformed SEO bloggers who write about the subject just add to the noise.

My advice is to stop blogging about SEO and start doing it.

Exchanging links is decidedly unfashionable in SEO circles and yet it’s the first thing most new sites do when they launch so who’s right? The answer is that getting some decent incoming links from similar sites is a good thing, even if you have to exchange links to get them.

Having a list of 20 or so sites on a links page and getting reciprocal links is going to help your rankings in most industries so don’t be worried about it. The key is to make sure you don’t exchange links with sites that have hundreds of reciprocal links as they won’t be passing link juice.

Once you have done your 20 exchanges you need to stop and think about new ways to generate links from similar sites. One of my favourite methods is to exchange links within news articles or blog posts. Sometimes I write about a blog a few times and they link to me a few weeks later from another post but the process can be more specific. For example the companies could agree that they link to the other site in alternate weeks and always use some helpful anchor text.

Google sees these links as highly valuable and as long as you don’t abuse the system they will count and help your rankings.

Search engine optimisation can be helped by simple tactics such as rewriting product descriptions when selling items from another manufacturer, a commentator has suggested. E-consultancy researcher Graham Charlton said in a recent blog post that original content is helpful for both driving search engine traffic and a company’s conversion rate.

Although such recommendations may seem obvious to high-ranking websites, research conducted by Microsoft at the end of last year revealed more than 60 per cent of small and medium businesses in the UK do not invest in search marketing because they fear it is expensive and difficult. This is despite 76 per cent of such firms which do spend time on search engine campaigns being rewarded with an increase in sales.

The software company estimated that businesses are wasting as much as £3 billion investing in websites their potential consumers will never find.

Having had a website hacked in the last few weeks and knowing a few other people who had sites hacked this issue has been playing on my mind.

Countless blogs and personal sites are being edited my malicious hackers every day to include hidden links to unscrupulous websites. The aim of adding these hidden links is that the sites they link to will end up ranking highly on the search engines and sometimes it works very well.

The consequences are that often the hacked site gets a penalty or malware warning on Google and sometimes the owner doesn’t ever figure it out.

My worry is that the people doing the hacking are often classed as SEO’s because they are engaged in the practice of moving their websites up the search engines rankings. To me this tactic is nothing to do with SEO in the form that most people practice the strategy but as hacking becomes more widespread the issue is only going to get worse.

Most webmasters are aware that doorway pages are against the guidelines of the major search engines but recently they appear to be making a comeback on the websites of some extremely well known brands.

The definition of a doorway page is provided in the Google Webmaster Guidelines:

Doorway pages are pages specifically made for search engines. Doorway pages contain many links - often several hundred - that are of little to no use to the visitor, and do not contain valuable content. HTML sitemaps are a valuable resource for your visitors, but ensure that these pages of links are easy for your visitors to navigate. If you have a number of links to include, consider organizing them into categories or into multiple pages. But in doing so, ensure that they are intended for visitors to navigate the sections of your site, and not simply for search engines.

Google’s aim is to give our users the most valuable and relevant search results. Therefore, we frown on practices that are designed to manipulate search engines and deceive users by directing them to sites other than the ones they selected and that provide content solely for the benefit of search engines. Sites making use of these practices may be removed from the Google index, and will not appear in Google search results.

Recently we have come across sites such as propertyfinder.co.uk, reebokstore.co.uk and calendars.com using search engine optimisation methods that we believe amount to doorway page creation. The software they are using crawls the site and creates highly optimised auto generated pages that will rank highly in the search engines.

This method alone is likely to be against the Google guidelines but there is another clever twist to the system. The pages are dynamically cloaked by the referrer keyword so the content the search engines see is different to the content that searchers see when they visit the page from Google. When you visit a page the site will load up content related to whatever you were searching for on Google rather than display the content that it displayed to Google.

Some example queries are below:
Propertyfinder.co.uk
Reebokstore.co.uk
Calendars.com

The above sites appear to be cloaking based on referrer keyword but there are a number of other sites using the auto generated pages system without cloaking. Brands including Thomas Cook, B&Q, Pricerunner, Sony and Sky are some of the larger names listed on the software suppliers website.

It isn’t clear whether Google is turning a blind eye to this but we believe the auto generated pages are being designed purely for search engines rather than users and would therefore be against the guidelines. Sometimes large brands are allowed to break the Google guidelines without getting the same penalties as smaller sites and this might be what’s happening here.

If Google is sanctioning the use of this method then large e-commerce sites could make millions of pounds every year using the system, imagine creating millions of pages that gathered long tail traffic and then listed products depending what the user was searching for.

Global internet information provider comScore has just released research which shows that Google became Canada’s most-visited website for the first time in January, overthrowing the Microsoft destinations which had previously been the most popular.

This is not a terribly surprising development as the search giant has long been one of the most popular websites globally and is the most visited in the UK. In Japan, it is beaten by Yahoo! and closely followed by various Microsoft sites.

As the importance of search engines grows across the worldwide markets, there are more opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to market themselves within an international arena, all they need is visibility.

Recently, Dan Cobley, Google’s director of marketing for UK, Ireland and Benelux, told IT Wales that the internet allows businesses access to customers they could never previously have engaged.

He highlighted: “Even the smallest company operating out of a garage and with a marketing budget of a few pounds a week, can tap into these new opportunities.”