Monday, October 18, 2010

5 steps to internet success that need careful planning.

By Reg Charie - Oct 17, 2010

In the brick and mortar world success depends on three things, "Location, Location, and Location".

In the virtual world this translates into "Indexing, Indexing and Indexing".

  1. Domain Name Planning

    Unless you have deep pockets to build and test a PPC, (Pay Per Click),
    marketing program, and/or build a linking program,  you will want to
    get top organic search listings.

    One of the main factors in this process is the domain name.



    A keyword rich domain name goes a long way toward winning a top position
    in the Search Sweepstakes.

    If the same keywords can be incorporated into the logo, so much the better.




    If you are set in having your branded (no keywords), business name as your domain name, buy it as a
    domain name and forward to your keyword rich URL.

     
    1. Buy your domain name yourself.

      Do not trust a hosting company* to buy it and include it in your hosting
      package.

      We will do it as a separate process in your name using our credit card and
      then remove our card, leaving you to do the renewals.

      We charge $25 for the service.
       
    2. Make certain you host* on a fast server.

      Google judges loading time in it's ranking process.

      Our 4 CPU "Carrier Class" server is on multiple optical (OC192 + OC12)
      internet backbones.

      The data center sports biometric login and 72 cameras feed a 3 man security
      center.

       
    3. Host your server in the country* your market segment targets.

      Foreign hosted servers can take a long time to access from another
      country, triggering a slow loading flag for Google.

       
    4. Get a unique IP address* for ecommerce.

      It will cost you a few dollars more but it will guarantee that any activity
      on the IP address is yours, and not generated by the other domains sharing
      the address.

       
    5. Make certain the host* supplies site metrics.

      SEO is all about knowing how you get, keep, and convert.

       
    6. Make certain the host* can handle a sudden jump in interest (traffic)
      as would result from a mention in Yahoo news.

      We have a high overall bandwidth and can give you a choice of paths to
      follow to accommodate the burst of traffic.

      We won't shut you down and you can weather the rush.

    *Ask about our
    hosting packages.


     

  2. Software Considerations

    Considering that a custom developed content management system/shopping cart
    will run you in the thousands of dollars,
    it is worthwhile doing
    evaluations of "boxed" website management products.

    The days of the static website are over.

    For ease of management, efficiency, features, and support consider a product
    developed and released under an Open Source license.

    This will also assure you of copyright. You own the code, you can use it
    anywhere.

    Database driven websites are powerful and incorporate business building
    and management processes*.

    *Ask me about CRELoaded.


     
  3. Layout Choices

    Don't deviate from the results of eye tracking studies.

    There is a definite preferred place for page elements based on numerous eye
    tracking studies.



    Being "creative" and stepping out of the box here can do you more harm than
    good.

    The "Golden Triangle", is the area of a page that people are
    most likely to read is positioned right under the  left aligned logo.

    The
    top of the left column is the hotspot that should contain your primary navigation.

    Off to the right is an area that decreases as you look further to the right.


    This incorporates about  most of the vertical screen, (excluding the
    header), and 1/2 of the space to the right of the primary navigation.

    The red bars are scrolling stops.







    The rest of the page is pretty much dead space UNLESS you capture the
    visitors intention using your relevance hierarchy.

    Just because it "looks pretty" does not mean that it converts.

     
  4. Presenting Relevance,  Images/Flash/Text Content

    Relevance starts in your domain name.

    It continues into the file name, the Title, and in the on page display.


    Get a SEO expert that understands the visual presentation of relevance.
    It is one of the key factors.



    Search is driven by text, not graphics.

    Too much graphic / flash content and the page becomes too slow to load.

    Keep your graphics to illustrate a point and keep them small with a
    thumbnail.

    Some mobile platforms do not play flash content.

    Accessibility standards dictate 100% comprehension in a text only
    environment.



    Content is read differently form a monitor than it is from hard copy.

    Learn to write for the web.

     
  5. Marketing.  -> Start Locally. Build on your physical location.
     Target Organic Search Listings.

    Link on local directories. People often search locally before going
    global.


    SEO -> If the market is strong, with a large number of aged and/or
    authority sites predominating, then pick a keyword phrase that suits your
    service/product and fits between their main categories. Something that they
    are not optimized for. Something that you can anchor text. Something that
    you can promote. Something that is distinctive. Something Branded.

    The primary function of marketing is to build links to boost your views.

    Getting the visitors to your site is the first step.
    Building links falls into a number of categories.

    Before the changes in PageRank and the calculation of links brought on by
    the Mayday update, it was thought that links improved search positions.
    To this end we were told to not use paid links, watch out for nofollow
    defaults, avoid bad neighborhoods, and not to link to non-relevant topics.


    Mayday changed this.
    For search term ranking, links do not
    affect positions with any degree of importance anymore. They do count for PageRank but the formula has changed.

    PR used to be assigned on a mathematical process. Simplified, the formula
    was .85 x the PR of the site divided by the number of links on the page.
    This is no longer true.

    The new process is that PR assigned is based on the relevance of the linking
    page to the linked page. 

    Google is presenting two different metrics.

    Relevance, (SERPs), and Authority,  (Page Rank)

    In the previous calculations of PR it did not mater if relevance was
    followed, and a link on a high PR website transferred more PR than a low PR
    site, regardless of relevance.
    Understanding that Authority does not necessarily define relevance, Google
    changed the PR rating algo to determine scores based on relevance,
    drastically altering the previous method of calculation.

    This and the separation of PR from SERPs has changed the playing field for
    building links.
    Do not worry if the links are paid, or no follow.

    You are placing them to attract real visitors, not build a search
    metric.
    Some of the paid sites have large audiences and can send you qualified
    traffic.
    One of these I use for one of my Canadian clients promoting his vacation
    cottages is "petfriendly.ca".
    It seems that a lot of people vacation with their pets.


    Build your links for traffic reasons.
    If you want to build your PageRank, place your links on pages that are
    relevant to your page, without consideration of the linking page's PR.


    The 2nd step is the conversion process.
    This can take place immediately or over several visits.

    The site and the content should be presented in a way that leads your
    visitors through the relevance using visual hints and synoptic connections*.


    *Synoptic connections are developed from patterns established in
    core experiences. (Shopping on line is one).
    If we shop at Amazon a lot we are used to seeing products in the hotspot
    with the basic navigation to the left.
    A quick check of major commercial sites shows the same basic layout. (Header
    (Across the top)-> Left Column -> Main Body ->Right Column -> Footer (At the
    bottom)
    As this is exactly the same path a search engine uses in reading your page,
    it determines the importance in the positioning of elements.

    To convert, a site needs to lead the visitors through the relevance
    hierarchy, presenting conversion points, (Action Calls), at
    junctions.

    In summation, a successful site needs to:

    1. Define their market through the use of keyword phrases.
    2. Put these phrases in front of those searching for them by
      using on page SEO and SEO friendly software.
    3. Present these phrases in the form of relevance that both
      human and robotic visitors understand. 
    4. Employ "information silos" to build on relevance.
    5. Market without regard to SERPs.
      1. Focus on building links for PageRank on pages with relevant content.
      2. Focus on building links for traffic purposes. Ignore
        paid/free/follow/nofollow classifications.
    6. Terminate your pages with calls to action for best
      conversions.

More SEO and Business Intelligence articles
on NBS-SEO.com

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Up to date SEO information: Linking for the right reasons.

Up to date SEO information: Linking for the right reasons.: "Are you linking for the right reasons? With the Google update Mayday, the whole landscape of linking changed. Although Google stated that M..."

Linking for the right reasons.

Are you linking for the right reasons?
With the Google update Mayday, the whole landscape of linking changed.
Although Google stated that Mayday was for "higher quality sites to surface for long tail" it was more than that. 
Googler Matt Cutts who said, when asked during Q&A,  ”this is an algorithmic change in Google, looking for higher quality sites to surface for long tail queries. It went through vigorous testing and isn’t going to be rolled back.”
Vanessa Fox pressed for more information and they replied, "it was a rankings change, not a crawling or indexing change"
The 3 categories were named.
  1. Indexing - Your results in the search pages.
  2. Crawling - How often your pages are visited.
  3. Ranking - PageRank
The only thing the algo change affected was PageRank. Only one thing, but it was a huge change.

PageRank used to be based on the linked page getting a percentage of the linking page's pr based on a mathematical formula.
Simplified this is (PR of linked site=.85 x Linking Page PR / (divided by) the number of outgoing links.)
A Link on a PR5 website would give you 4.25 in PR points if you were the only link on the page. If there were 3 links on the page you would get 1.46
This is gone. The PR rating of the page does not enter into the calculations anymore.
PR is calculated according to an unknown formula which factors relevance between linking and linked pages.
From experience I know that low or PR0 pages have the ability to pass on much higher PR.
With 115 links calculated, I went from a PR0 to a PR4 when PR was calculated.
Of the 115 links, one was on a PR5 page, one on a PR3, and 113 on PR0 pages.
However, the PR0 Pages were extremely relevant, all being about SEO and linking to my SEO information website.
This was done on a new site done after Mayday.
Before Mayday, my DCP website achieved a PR3 with over 500 links.
This tells me that picking the best linking places have changed.
Before, it was advisable to find high PR pages, now the PR points awarded are based on the relevance of the 2 pages.
Linking plans now should be based on traffic and no real consideration given for search standings.

If a paid link is going to bring traffic, then use it.
I would still watch out for "bad neighborhoods" as these will not bring you much (any) traffic.
If you are building links to boost your PageRank, concentrate on placing links on pages with content relevant to your website's.
Again, plan your linking for traffic.


best,
Reg
http://NBS-SEO.com

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The NEW SEO

Yup!
Google changed their processing methods and some of their core algos.

Indexing has gained a quantum leap in speed. The time from the Google bot scanning a link to the publishing time of the linked page is measured pretty much in real time.

PageRank is being determined on the basis of relevance.
Instead of being calculated based on the PR of the web page linking Google is now using relevance between linking and linked pages as the primary metric.

PageRank determines crawl order.
  1. The more links you have, the higher your PageRank,
  2. The higher your PageRank, the more often your pages are crawled.
  3. The more often your pages are crawled, the sooner your new information hits the index.
  4. The more information you have indexed, the more chances you have at getting top positions as each page is a new ranking opportunity.
  5. The more on topic pages you have linked in the "silo"*, the higher your relevance.
  6. The higher your relevance, the better chance that your indexing efforts get at a top ranking page.
     
    (Note: From what I can see PR has a minimal effect on indexing position, even with an anchor text link building program linked to a landing page optimized for the keyword phrase.)

    Google used to say that "A page with a higher PageRank is deemed more important and is more likely to be listed above a page with a lower PageRank." Search results tend to make this untrue. There are too many instances of lower PR pages outranking higher.
More -> See The NEW SEO

    Saturday, August 14, 2010

    Page Rank Good for SERPs - Totally BS.

    If you go to Google and search for "Page Rank" the Wickipedia has a lot of info on it.
    They say:

    The SERP (Search Engine Results Page [or Position]) rank of a web page is not only a function of its PageRank, but depends on a relatively large and continuously adjusted set of factors (over 200),[13][14] commonly referred to by internet marketers as "Google Love"[15]. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is aimed at achieving the highest possible SERP rank for a website or a set of web pages.

    If you notice the super script [13] it links to a source which links to " Alleged POSITIVE OFF-Page SEO Google Ranking Factors" 

     My highlighting.
    They offer no proof that PR affects position. They just say it does.

    My stance is that Page rank offers no VISIBLE effect on search engine rankings.
    Page Rank is a separate entity.

    If anyone can prove me wrong, then please do so.

    best,
    Reg

    http://NBS-SEO.com
    eBook Just released. The SEO Fast Track to Internet Profits.
    Guaranteed to put you on Google's page 1.

    The Reason for (It Is) Totally BS.

    I am a SEO Professional and have been working in this market for over 15 years.

    When I first got online in '94 I became interested in how things were indexed and found.

    With the advent of the search engine wars and the "wild west" days of the black hat, Search Marketing has taken some giant steps.

    There is no disputing that Google is clearly the leader in search and much is written and offered in plans, schemes, systems, and opinions on how to get top rankings.


    This is compounded by ruthless analysis of Google's utterances.

    It is not in Google's interests to tell the professionals how to do their SEO.
    It is in their interest to let the public know that there have been improvements but too detailed explanations tend to let the SEOers tip the scales in their favor.

    There are several factors that are held as truth by the majority of the SEO industry and this blog is to address these and deal with industry intelligence.

    Primarily, these factors are money generators and are hyped in order to secure ongoing service fees.

    Please feel at home, feel free to state your opinions.
    If they are in contention, you will need to supply proof.
    This can be in the form of other internet discussions as well as marketing metrics.
    Please do not insult the people, and as I have so recently been on the receiving end of someone calling me a scammer and liar when I disagreed with one of the points in their article.  I pointed out that a linkedin article was out of date in one of the 5 categories and the author came in and called me a scammer and a liar.

    I am a big fan of metrics and utilize about 8 different webstats programs to display the amount and habits of my visitors.

    Welcome to the blog.

    Reg
    http://NBS-SEO.com