Before I continue with the other blunders that Tad Chef shared in his article titled “7 Weirdest SEO Mistakes Big Companies Make Abroad,” let me acknowledge some readers who left comments in the previous post. gMoney asked for the link to the original article – sorry for my oversight, it has been fixed. Data Entry Service said something about not doing business overseas and it struck me that even if we do not engage in business overseas, perhaps we could gain some insights from the article – we should NOT make these blunders. So here goes some more of these blunders – here’s to NOT making them!

Big foreign clients spend ridiculously limited budgets on SEO, sometimes I work for small ecommerce sites as well as for big brands at the same time and the big brands just spend twice the amount as the tiny online shops with niche audiences.

I think that this can happen – it is probably happening – in domestic soil as well. If the people behind big brands do not know much about SEO, they would probably just leave the responsibility to someone, never mind the cost. This is never a smart move, especially when there are always ways by which you can cut on the cost without sacrificing quality, right?

They insist on outdated SEO practices like directory submission and meta keywords tags. Instead of using methods that work quickly or over time such clients just want me to write meta keyword tags and submit to directories.

I have no problems with directory submission and keywords. My beef arises when they become the sole activities for SEO. That, in my mind, is a surefire way of failing in the long run.

Bookmark to:

If you are based in the United States and you focus all your SEO efforts locally, you might not be able to relate to this post. For those of you who are expanding or thinking of expanding to other countries, however, you might find this information useful. I was reading up on SEO trends when I ran across an article titled “7 Weirdest SEO Mistakes Big Companies Make Abroad.” Let us take a look at some of them.

They have more lawyers than marketers it seems as I always get the NDAs first and am not allowed to even tell my mother who I work for. Imagine a web designer etc. not able to brag about the brands he works for. They (both) lose so much publicity!

This is really weird although I have encountered a lot of situations like these. On the one hand, there is some rationale in NDAs. However, on the other hand, wouldn’t it be better for everyone involved to at least acknowledge each other’s existence? Can anyone shed light on this matter?

I am not allowed to use the simplest and most effective SEO techniques. The corporate structure is sometimes so monolithic, the CI so rigid, the technical limitations so many that basically everything a SEO does usually is not possible or permitted. How do you build links when no press releases, no blog posts, no link baits, no nothing is allowed?

I guess that business practices in other countries limit SEO efforts and if this item is to be believed, they limit SEO effectiveness a LOT. If you cannot create online press releases, you can create blogs, and so on, how are you supposed to be as active as you can in the SEO perspective?

(to be continued)

Bookmark to:

I think I have been watching too much of the Mythbusters lately – I find myself on a mythbusting spree! Then again, this is not necessarily a bad thing, is it? I think that today, I shall go on a web site optimization mythbusting mission. Come take the journey with me!

I am but a regular person. Web site optimization is too complicated for me.
NOT! Web site optimization CAN be hard. However, there are some basic elements to it that any person (with the most rudimentary understanding of technology) can use to optimize his web site. Do not let this way of thinking hinder you from working wonders on your web site. (Perhaps in the future we can look at these basic steps for web site optimization.)

It is too late in the game. I cannot possibly catch up with the web site optimization game.
Again, NOT. More and more people are only starting on their web site optimization journey. Do not belittle yourself so much that you think you cannot do it. There is no such thing as too late. You only have to learn the basics (here is that term again!) and then move on from there.

I just need to submit my site to search engines. Then I have my work done.
NOPE. Submitting to search engines is one step. It does not mean that you cannot do other things to optimize your web site, though. The truth is, merely submitting your site to search engines cannot guarantee any results.

Want to know more? Wait for the next post.

Bookmark to:

I love blogs.  To be honest, though, I used to NOT care about blogs at all.  Yet when I started reading some really good blogs and then I started maintaining my own blog, I realized just how fun they can be.  But have you heard of some web site owners who have turned to blogging merely for SEO purposes?

The truth is that blogging has been touted to help one’s SEO program get started.  I have heard people saying that if you want to be a success in SEO, then your main web site should have a blog.  Now I am not denying it – blogs do play a role in SEO.

The basic premise behind a blog is that you provide fresh, relevant, and timely content on a regular basis.  Your ultimate goal is to help improve your search engine rankings.  What I have noticed, though, is that some blogs do not do this – they do not present well-written, relevant, and timely content.  Indeed, sometimes blogs made SOLELY for SEO purposes are not interesting.

What am I trying to say in this post?  It is really simple.  Jump into the blogging bandwagon NOT ONLY because you are thinking of your SEO strategy.  When you start blogging, think about your readers, how you can entice them to read, keep reading, and stick with your blog.

In the next post, let us look at some types of blogs that are examples of blogging solely for SEO purposes.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Greene

Bookmark to:

We all know how important linking is when it comes to SEO.  We have talked quite a bit about linking and how it can help your web site in many different ways.  For one, the more links you have pointing to your web site, the higher your PageRank would be.  This is simply because the fact implies that your content is good enough for other people to refer to your site.

Another important aspect, however, goes beyond mere linking.  I am talking about the practice of deep linking.  If you have not heard of deep linking, it is the practice of other sites linking to different web pages in your web site aside from the main page.  Why is deep linking more important than linking to the main page only?

David Leonhardt explains it:
Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible. What does it tell a search engine when other web sites are linking to different pages on your site? That you obviously have lots of worthwhile content. What does it tell a search engine that all your links are coming in to the home page? That you have a shallow site of little value, or that your links were generated by automation rather than by the value of your site.

A thought – you cannot really get deep links unless you do it naturally.  This means writing great content spread out through your different pages and encouraging readers to link to those pages.

Bookmark to:

I talked about buying links in the previous post. If that was not enough to convince you that buying links may not be the best option when it comes to improving your PageRank and attracting traffic, here is a list that was written by Brian Chappell. I think, myself, that it sums up the argument against buying links quite neatly.

1. You are buying links through a network
2. You are buying links in chunks, 3-5 at a time on one page.
3. You are buying all your links on sidebar, footer locations.
4. Your entire niche buys links.
5. Your site sucks, as in no one in there right mind would naturally link to you.
6. All of your links have perfectly, articulated anchor text that simply looks fake.
7. You are not a 300+ Million dollar brand name.
8. You are doing really, really well in the SERPS, and rank in the top spot for a majority of the money terms.
9. 70+ % of your sites traffic comes from Google organic results

Furthermore, according to Brian:

The bottom line is if you are buying links you really have to be under the radar. I know this has been said for a while but more so then ever. If your entire niche is buying links then there is a much greater chance your site is going to get checked out in my opinion.

Don’t go overboard, actually buy links that will get you traffic and conversions.

PS. If your link profile is made up of 1/2 to 3/4 paid links you might as well stop now, and start building defensible traffic.

Photo courtesy of amalthya

Bookmark to:

In my quest to learn more about optimizing blogs and web sites, I have noticed many recurring patterns.  One of them is the idea of buying links.  I have received lots of advertisements offering thousands of links for less than a hundred dollars.

On the surface, the idea seems to be a very good one.  You only need to shell out a relatively small amount of money and you will get a lot of links just like that.  You do not have to surf, you do not have to network.  Then again, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, right?

In this case, the “too good to be true” part is highlighted mainly because of how Google treats paid links:

This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results.

Examples of link schemes can include:
•    Links intended to manipulate PageRank
•    Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
•    Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
•    Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

Take note of that last point.  Google does frown upon this practice.  More so, Google looks not only on the quantity of links but on the quality as well.

Have you been tempted to purchase one of those link schemes where they guarantee a thousand links for $50?  If so, then you might want to think about it.  It might not be worth it in the end – especially if Google finds out and penalizes your site.

Bookmark to:

I realize that the title may have a negative connotation for keywords and everything related to it but please do not get me wrong.  Keywords are an inherent part of SEO and will always be important.  Yet is it right to merely throw all your energy in keywords when it comes to your SEO strategy?  I think not.  There is more to SEO than smattering your pages with keywords.

The reason I am going back to this basic concept is this guy I interviewed the other.  I have a day job which is totally unrelated to SEO and web writing but when I went over this guy’s resume, one of the bullet points in the work experience section said “SEO specialist.”  Of course, I could not help but delve deeper into this.

So there I was, checking his command of the English language when I asked him, what exactly is SEO?  He hesitated and said “search engine optimization.”  Okay…and?  It was actually painful really.  I am not sure if he was not sure how to explain it in simple terms but what happened was that he kept on repeating the idea that you have to have a high density of certain keywords in your web pages.  This alone, according to him, would put you at the top of the SERPs.

If all SEO specialists think like this guy does, then we are doomed.  Look through other SEO blogs.  Look through this blog’s archives.  We need more than keywords, don’t we?

Bookmark to:

When it comes to SEO, there is one thing that we can never overlook. That is, content writing. I am a strong believe in SEO techniques and other strategies that help you get on the top of SERPs. However, I also believe that the bottom line is having great content. You can employ all the best SEO tactics there are but if your content is not worth it, then all your best efforts will simply go to the dogs. As such in the next few posts, we will probably be focusing on content writing.

In this post, I want to answer two questions that have been bugging me lately. How often should one post? More so, is it alright to change posting frequency? I think that there is no simply answer to the first question. How often you post really depends on what you have to post. If you have no new (and worthwhile) content, why post at all? Then again, if you want to keep your readers coming back, then you have to have new content up and running as often as you can. I think that a good frequency would be at least a couple of times a week. If you have the time and the content, once a day would be great.

On the second question, what if you wanted to increase or decrease your frequency? Would it matter? I think so. If you post too much – say 3 times a day, it might bug your readers, making it hard for them to catch up. On the other hand, if you post rarely, your readers might get bored waiting for new content. The idea is to be able to maintain a good balance. And remember the bottom line – post when you have something worthwhile to write about.

Photo courtesy of Leo Reynolds

Bookmark to:

In the last post we took a look at some of the things that you should consider when making your web site accessible. Yet we did not really delve into the reasons you should make your web site accessible. Why is it important?

Search engines prefer accessible web sites.
It’s a simple fact. Search engines place a higher premium on accessible web sites over inaccessible web sites. How so? Spiders – or search engine crawlers – browse web sites much like people would. The easier access you provide, the easier it is for search engine spiders. This means that the fewer hindrances you have in your web site for browsing, the better the search engines can index your web site. This includes the proper use of tags and the like.

Accessible web sites makes for stronger branding.
One of the things that you want to do for your blog is to create a strong brand. It is much like that principle that business men employ in marketing their brand. The idea is to create an impact in the minds of their target clients and to maintain that impact. So how does making your web site accessible create a stronger branding?

I suppose the idea is to cater to your audience. Having an accessible web site, of course, gives you the image of wanting to deliver what your audience needs. you offer the image of making it easier for them. That makes for stronger and longer recall.

Bookmark to: