Category: Search Engine Optimization

Posted on

Great Web Design Does Not Equal SEO

A super great looking website does not equal a well optimized website!

I have found from experience that many excellent web designers simply do not understand the nuts and bolts of search engine optimization. An excellent, good looking website does not mean that your new site will place well organically.

Here are several things to ask your web designer to make sure that your are getting a good balance of design versus SEO:

1. State that you do not want text to be incorporated into your website as images. In many cases a web designer (due to control of elements) will create text with images. I particularly see this in titles above content. Search engines cannot read images and so you lose opportunities to include your keywords by a designer using images where they should use text.

2. Do not over use Flash. Flash is pretty, but search engines including Google still do not do a good job indexing all Flash websites. I cannot begin to tell you how many calls I have fielded from clients whose Flash website is not performing organically and who want my help to improve. You cannot search engine optimize Flash. One thing to think about is that Microsoft’s new Silverlight which is like Flash is search engine spiderable, but many browsers do not have Silverlight enabled at this point. Contain Flash only in your banner at this time for best organic performance if you must use it at all.

3. Make sure that your web designer understands how important the source code title tag is and the meta description tag is. If they do not understand your concern, your designer does not understand SEO. Sometimes to get the best of both worlds it is best to hire a super designer and then an SEO consultant who makes sure that the site architecture, images, file folders, and even page names are built around keywords. We do provide consulting services in this area if you have already selected a great web designer, consider using our consulting services to assure that your website has the best possible chance of top organic placement when it is launched.

Posted on

How to Blog For Organic Search Engine Placement

Many of our clients are doing blogging for search engine optimization benefits. So what exactly should you do if you are blogging for search engines?

  1. Make sure you have great well-written interesting content.
  2. Make sure you are using WordPress on your own domain and website server.
  3. Install the WordPress All in One SEO plug-in and configure it.
  4. Write only on topics that are your core businesses and keep posts keyword dense.
  5. Use great post titles that contain your important keywords.

These are just a few things that you should keep in mind as you blog. There are more tips and tricks what do you recommend for best practices?

Just one more from me, try to deep link to your content from your blog post at least once and two to three times depending on the length of the blog is better.

Posted on

Google Speaks Again on Duplicate Content

The Google Search blog posted an excellent post today on duplicate content. If you are running an affiliate website this is a “must read” post for you.

The synopsis is that one – there is no duplicate content penalty for duplicate content, but two – that Google works very hard to give the site with the most authority the full organic capital for the page that they have created. Google has become incredibly smart and with some of their new patents this past year on duplicate content identification, it is nearly impossible to scam them.

What this means specifically for website owners is to not stress out over duplicate content such as print version pages of your website, but for affiliate sites, and spin-off topic websites, just don’t expect them to really be able to place organically. The parent site will place as it has the site authority as well as the original content ownership in Google’s eyes. This also means if other sites are scraping your content, they may be dinged in this brave new world.

The take away from this Google post is that if you are using affiliate website content, better get a part-time job or keep your full-time job you may never be realistically able to get great organic website placement to be able to make a real living from an affiliate based marketing website.

For website owners that are thinking of spinning of topical websites to get better placement on a particular service, don’t waste your time unless your content will all be unique and you will really work hard to get placement on your spin-off site. Your parent site will simply have more authority and content ownership and the spin-off site will always place lower. (I have actually tested this approach for over one year now and find it to be a truth.)

So invest your time and money where it matters – your main website with great authoritative and unique content.

Posted on

The Color of Your Money Does Not Determine Your Organic Placement

This is a truth that you should remember especially when you get contacted by search engine optimization firms from a cold call. You cannot buy organic placement on Google!

Google placement is not for sale! This is not the first time that I have heard this story, a client calls and says for $xxxx a month this firm guarantees top placement on Google and Yahoo because they have a special partnership with the search engines. Just these statements alone should put up a red flag for you and you should not buy into the scam. That is what it is, a scam to separate you from your money.

Google has over 150 different factors that determine organic search placement and the color of your money is not one of them! Google does not partner with SEO firms to provide organic placement. Actually that is one of the best things about Google. A small firm can actually compete with a large firm for great organic placement through great content, regular updates, and slow link building strategies. The playing field is leveled by considering what really matters to readers – targeted and great content.

Now, notice that I have not said the same about Yahoo. This democratic mentality does not apply to Yahoo. You may possibly be able to buy your way on Yahoo. We know that Yahoo preferentially will show websites in organic placement results that have bought into their local non-PPC programs sold through advertising agencies, but Yahoo is closed mouthed to even us, professional webmasters, on the real details here and how to participate. So you may be able to buy your placement on Yahoo, but be very careful over what you buy in to.

The bottom line is, if a firm says we can guarantee top organic placement on Google, you should question the program as they CANNOT guarantee this, Google is not for sale!