Thursday, 16 April 2009
Thursday, 15 May 2008
The 4 Big Problems With Outsourcing SEO
Recent years have seen a huge expansion in the number of web pages occupying the internet, with user generated content stepping into the forefront and securing the same search engine rankings once only occupied by established businesses.
With businesses increasingly relying on the reach of the internet to drive sales, it has now become practically impossible to launch any online business activity without having at least some understanding of SEO, and its importance to the success of your online presence.
The real problem here is that the average business owner, or entrepreneur, either just doesn’t understand what SEO is, or just doesn’t have the time to implement the fundamentals. This is understandable of course, given the obvious other pressures and challenges facing any new start up, and the inherent time and mental resource such projects demand.
This is why many businesses seek to outsource there SEO requirements through the use of third parties. There certainly isn’t any shortage of “experienced SEO specialists”, as is evident from any visit to the latest IT, telecoms or online marketing event. Therefore, the problem is not so much how to find such a company, but finding the right company!
For those just starting out with their SEO experience, it is very easy at this point to become overwhelmed with facts and figures from companies competing for your attention, and it is typical to be faced with a myriad of companies all promising No1 position on Google for keyword X and keyword Y. So here’s essential Lesson Number 1 – they say that to everyone!
It’s unfortunate but it’s true. SEO isn’t easy and never will be, it’s based on a plethora of assumptions about how search engines work and what makes them tick (i.e. how to go about getting you to that No1 position). Like any competing market place, your success is also based largely on the amount of competition that you face within the market place (where in this case the market place is the highly competitive world of online search).
So here comes Lesson Number 2 – only you (not the SEO company) truly understands your products, services and your competitive environment. While this means that you should always be sceptical of anyone who promises you amazing positioning just based on an initial conversation, it does also give you enough ammunition to really weed out the good from the bad.
Any SEO company of worth should be able to clearly define exactly what they are going to do in order to really understand you, your market and what you are trying to achieve. Ask them how they are going to ensure that they achieve what you want and not just offer a generic set of steps they follow with any other of their (probably numerous) clients.
So Lesson Number 3 – when you invite SEO companies to tender for your business, make sure you ask clear questions about how exactly they will go about achieving the rankings that you desire. Don’t let them cover this with a generic “oh various things” - ask what specifically they will do, even if you don’t fully understand the answers. From this, it will be evident whether the person you are meeting has really looked into your company background, understands a little about the industry and has a clear strategic plan developed for your business. Typically SEO companies will introduce a generic presentation about “customer focus, commitment etc”, and then attend to the matter of payment as soon as possible!
This brings us to our final general lesson when choosing an SEO company.
A significant factor in your search engine positioning relates to how many sites (or how many quality sites) point to, or ‘link to’ your site and what key phrases they use to link to you.
Lesson Number 4 – always make it clear that you don’t want paid for links or links from sites wholly owned by the SEO company. First of all, Google is no fan of paid links, it will ignore them where it recognises them and often look upon your site negatively. The second scenario is that Google doesn’t notice that you are using paid for links and / or you have other links to your site from websites owned or affiliated to your SEO company. Ok, but this then introduces the problem of dependency.
For instance, assume that you have links from sites owned by the SEO company and do indeed achieve a level of success in the search engine rankings. Based on the notion that you will typically be paying a fixed monthly fee to the SEO company, what happens if you decide to leave them? Well, they remove the links, use the space for new customers and your site falls backwards because its success was wholly dependant on those links.
This is why all links should come from sites where you have reassurance that the link will not be removed if you decide to end the contract – in other words ensure that the work you are paying for is final, not temporary!
With businesses increasingly relying on the reach of the internet to drive sales, it has now become practically impossible to launch any online business activity without having at least some understanding of SEO, and its importance to the success of your online presence.
The real problem here is that the average business owner, or entrepreneur, either just doesn’t understand what SEO is, or just doesn’t have the time to implement the fundamentals. This is understandable of course, given the obvious other pressures and challenges facing any new start up, and the inherent time and mental resource such projects demand.
This is why many businesses seek to outsource there SEO requirements through the use of third parties. There certainly isn’t any shortage of “experienced SEO specialists”, as is evident from any visit to the latest IT, telecoms or online marketing event. Therefore, the problem is not so much how to find such a company, but finding the right company!
For those just starting out with their SEO experience, it is very easy at this point to become overwhelmed with facts and figures from companies competing for your attention, and it is typical to be faced with a myriad of companies all promising No1 position on Google for keyword X and keyword Y. So here’s essential Lesson Number 1 – they say that to everyone!
It’s unfortunate but it’s true. SEO isn’t easy and never will be, it’s based on a plethora of assumptions about how search engines work and what makes them tick (i.e. how to go about getting you to that No1 position). Like any competing market place, your success is also based largely on the amount of competition that you face within the market place (where in this case the market place is the highly competitive world of online search).
So here comes Lesson Number 2 – only you (not the SEO company) truly understands your products, services and your competitive environment. While this means that you should always be sceptical of anyone who promises you amazing positioning just based on an initial conversation, it does also give you enough ammunition to really weed out the good from the bad.
Any SEO company of worth should be able to clearly define exactly what they are going to do in order to really understand you, your market and what you are trying to achieve. Ask them how they are going to ensure that they achieve what you want and not just offer a generic set of steps they follow with any other of their (probably numerous) clients.
So Lesson Number 3 – when you invite SEO companies to tender for your business, make sure you ask clear questions about how exactly they will go about achieving the rankings that you desire. Don’t let them cover this with a generic “oh various things” - ask what specifically they will do, even if you don’t fully understand the answers. From this, it will be evident whether the person you are meeting has really looked into your company background, understands a little about the industry and has a clear strategic plan developed for your business. Typically SEO companies will introduce a generic presentation about “customer focus, commitment etc”, and then attend to the matter of payment as soon as possible!
This brings us to our final general lesson when choosing an SEO company.
A significant factor in your search engine positioning relates to how many sites (or how many quality sites) point to, or ‘link to’ your site and what key phrases they use to link to you.
Lesson Number 4 – always make it clear that you don’t want paid for links or links from sites wholly owned by the SEO company. First of all, Google is no fan of paid links, it will ignore them where it recognises them and often look upon your site negatively. The second scenario is that Google doesn’t notice that you are using paid for links and / or you have other links to your site from websites owned or affiliated to your SEO company. Ok, but this then introduces the problem of dependency.
For instance, assume that you have links from sites owned by the SEO company and do indeed achieve a level of success in the search engine rankings. Based on the notion that you will typically be paying a fixed monthly fee to the SEO company, what happens if you decide to leave them? Well, they remove the links, use the space for new customers and your site falls backwards because its success was wholly dependant on those links.
This is why all links should come from sites where you have reassurance that the link will not be removed if you decide to end the contract – in other words ensure that the work you are paying for is final, not temporary!
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Changing your domain name, redirecting links and SEO implications
So picture the situation – you have an existing website (domain) which you want to completely redevelop, maybe to take on a more professional feel or maybe you just want to develop a common look and feel across all of your websites.
Generally as long as you don’t start wiping out large sections of your page copy, start removing page titles or make sweeping changes to your internal linking, then this shouldn’t be a huge problem.
But what if you also want to change the domain name as well? For instance, maybe your current domain name was good when your company was smaller, and now you need something that better reflects your services or status! However, your current domain has say a PR3 status and a (potentially large) number of links pointing at it from other sites.
Link building and developing PR status can take a considerable amount of time and effort. Therefore, what we need is a successful method of launching a new site, while asking the search engines to associate the page rank and links of the old site, with the new site.
The best way of doing this is to use what is called a 301 redirect, which effectively tells the search engines that all queries to the old site should be directed to the new one, along with all of the links and PR. However, while a 301 redirect will instantly send all queries to the old site to the new site, it is often suggested that the process of transferring PR and links can take up to six months.
A 301 redirect is the best method of effectively shutting down one domain, while keeping the ‘juicy’ bits which will help your new domain. Other redirects such as ‘302’ redirects are frowned upon by the search engines, as they have historically been used by website hackers to redirect web surfers to pages not related to the domain the user requested. We will cover physical implementation of 301 redirects in a later discussion.
Generally as long as you don’t start wiping out large sections of your page copy, start removing page titles or make sweeping changes to your internal linking, then this shouldn’t be a huge problem.
But what if you also want to change the domain name as well? For instance, maybe your current domain name was good when your company was smaller, and now you need something that better reflects your services or status! However, your current domain has say a PR3 status and a (potentially large) number of links pointing at it from other sites.
Link building and developing PR status can take a considerable amount of time and effort. Therefore, what we need is a successful method of launching a new site, while asking the search engines to associate the page rank and links of the old site, with the new site.
The best way of doing this is to use what is called a 301 redirect, which effectively tells the search engines that all queries to the old site should be directed to the new one, along with all of the links and PR. However, while a 301 redirect will instantly send all queries to the old site to the new site, it is often suggested that the process of transferring PR and links can take up to six months.
A 301 redirect is the best method of effectively shutting down one domain, while keeping the ‘juicy’ bits which will help your new domain. Other redirects such as ‘302’ redirects are frowned upon by the search engines, as they have historically been used by website hackers to redirect web surfers to pages not related to the domain the user requested. We will cover physical implementation of 301 redirects in a later discussion.
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Strange SEO Findings - Part 2 (getting Google to quickly index your page)
I think I’ve noticed an interesting way to quickly new new pages or page copy indexed!
As part of my freelance work, I’ve started to manage a PPC campaign for getbiz, a uk business directory site. They are a business directory and are targeting keywords such as ‘pr companies’, ‘printing companies’ etc.
I already know enough about SEO to know how frustrating it can be when you upload new pages or page text and have to wait for ages for the page to be indexed again. Only when its indexed will you see the reward of your hard work in terms of going up (or maybe even down) the search engine rankings.
I seem to have noticed that every time I start a new PPC campaign, and target this to a landing page, then the landing page in question a. gets indexed again almost immediately, and b. seems to move through the search engine rankings!!
I’ve brought this up in a few forums and there seems to be a lot of debate as to whether I’m right. However, for the time being it seems to be working for me.
I’ll keep you posted when I start the next run of PPC for them and see if I get the same results!
As part of my freelance work, I’ve started to manage a PPC campaign for getbiz, a uk business directory site. They are a business directory and are targeting keywords such as ‘pr companies’, ‘printing companies’ etc.
I already know enough about SEO to know how frustrating it can be when you upload new pages or page text and have to wait for ages for the page to be indexed again. Only when its indexed will you see the reward of your hard work in terms of going up (or maybe even down) the search engine rankings.
I seem to have noticed that every time I start a new PPC campaign, and target this to a landing page, then the landing page in question a. gets indexed again almost immediately, and b. seems to move through the search engine rankings!!
I’ve brought this up in a few forums and there seems to be a lot of debate as to whether I’m right. However, for the time being it seems to be working for me.
I’ll keep you posted when I start the next run of PPC for them and see if I get the same results!
Strange SEO Findings - Part 1
So recently I have been spending quite a bit of time preparing a number of “how to” guides for my blog. One of the guides I’m putting together is on developing a website structure that is
a. Good for optimisation, and provides keyword rich urls, and
b. Makes the site easy to manage as it grows.
While researching this, I had a bit of a scare! I noticed while brosing one of the sites that I am working on, that every time I entered the url as www.amstore.co.uk, the browser would automatically add a “/” to the end.
I then noticed that google was indexing the site as www.amstore.co.uk/ in its search results. Baring in mind that I have spent the last few months linking to the site without the end “/” this was a little concerning.
My heart sank at the thought that maybe the two are actually treated as completely separate urls and that all of the links I had done would be completely invalid :-(
So I jumped on a number of forums and luckily the general consensus seems to be that the urls are treated as being exactly ythe same site. Therefore, it seems not to matter which you use.
Still not 100% sure why google adds it though, so have to keep you posted when I find out more!
a. Good for optimisation, and provides keyword rich urls, and
b. Makes the site easy to manage as it grows.
While researching this, I had a bit of a scare! I noticed while brosing one of the sites that I am working on, that every time I entered the url as www.amstore.co.uk, the browser would automatically add a “/” to the end.
I then noticed that google was indexing the site as www.amstore.co.uk/ in its search results. Baring in mind that I have spent the last few months linking to the site without the end “/” this was a little concerning.
My heart sank at the thought that maybe the two are actually treated as completely separate urls and that all of the links I had done would be completely invalid :-(
So I jumped on a number of forums and luckily the general consensus seems to be that the urls are treated as being exactly ythe same site. Therefore, it seems not to matter which you use.
Still not 100% sure why google adds it though, so have to keep you posted when I find out more!
Thursday, 3 April 2008
New SEO Client!
So, the morning has been good to me... I have a new client (doesn’t that sound a bit posh). I had a meeting with the MD of a company yesterday, who was looking for an SEO person to develop new pages (primarily page copy text) for his cd and dvd duplication company in London. It fits in well with my location but I don’t know a lot (in fact anything at all) about dvd duplication.
I can maybe see this as being a bit of an issue to start with i.e. when you work for someone full time you know all about their products and services. When you don't work in that particular industry, then you will have to do a fair bit of research into the clients industry before getting going. Maybe I need to factor this into my charges!??
I can maybe see this as being a bit of an issue to start with i.e. when you work for someone full time you know all about their products and services. When you don't work in that particular industry, then you will have to do a fair bit of research into the clients industry before getting going. Maybe I need to factor this into my charges!??
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