SEO – Don’t Redesign If It Is Not Necessary

Let’s stop for a moment and look at the real rift that builds in the misunderstanding of website design as it relates to SEO. For the technologically astute, please humor us for a few moments. For the business owner that has hired on, or engaged the services of multiple “website designers” solely for the purpose of attaining better placement or “rank” in the search engine page results, this posting is for you.

It may seem like all the verbiage, even on this website, is too confusing to understand as far as what this gray area, this fuzzy thing called SEO is all about. We have tried really hard to keep the techno-speak down to a minimum on this website for your benefit. We want you to understand so that you don’t spin your wheels.

We do not want you to hook up with another website design firm so that just maybe they have the right stuff to get your site to the top of the search engine page results and that maybe your potential clients can find you and will contact your company for your services. A website design firm is not an SEO firm, necessarily. The two endeavors are related and a company that does one can certainly do the other, but for all the hours of design and painstaking work that goes into a quality website, provisions for SEO need to be in place every step of the way. This is all too often not the case, as if the optimizing part can be done later.

It can be done later but there is always re-hashing of old content, internal structure and pages so it is really better if the whole project can be done at once. Usually, a company specializes in one discipline or the other or if a company is large enough, separate departments can be employed for the desired results.

SEO, short for “search engine optimization” is a separate type of specialty and a certain focus upon current trends in the internet and search engine placement must be in place because of the waves of changes we see daily in the search engine technology. Today, the best method for staging a website roll-out is to have the SEO professional follow the very astute designer in the process of working a website to its fullest potential for search engine placement. The SEO specialist needs to take an SEO optimized website and begin to tweak it and work in the associated back-linking strategies and check for internal linking, etc. Most website designers are familiar with much of the basics and will provide optimized work for the SEO specialist.

Today’s climate requires copywriters to be employed by the SEO practitioner for the full implementation of an SEO campaign. Leveraging content is now a vital part of getting your website to the top in the search engine results pages (SERPS) and a few carefully crafted pages will no longer do for permanent ranking strategies. We have competition in the SEO field and your competitors will be working to overtake your website and push you down to the second page of the SERPS.

A good design form will have an SEO specialist and sometimes you will find a specialist that can deliver on both elements. One without the other is a waste anyway you look at it. If you have a good and functioning website but have been passed by in search engine ranking, an SEO professional is who you need to call. Another website redesign will not work in and of itself. If you want to start over, remember that site structure being changed may hurt you in the loss of the exposure that you already have. If you have had an amateur working old linking schemes, stop right now and contact a professional to take inventory of your current situation. You website could be ruined for the search engines for some time to come and undoing amateur work that is very hard to track down all over the internet can be a disaster and starting over may be a hard choice to that has to be made. Before you redesign however, allow an SEO specialist to take a look and to analyze your particular situation.

A website that cannot be found is no good to anyone. Usually, turning around an existing website and keeping the good elements in place can achieve more than you could imagine. You don’t change your engine in your car if it only needs a tune-up.

We are seeing web designers that are selling complete rebuilds that do not produce any more sales leads than the old website they replaced. We are seeing this quite often. Let us take a look free of charge and offer you what you need, rather than opting for duplication of work already done. Yes, we may have to fix some things, but does not that make more sense than spending money on what you don’t need?

-Bob W

Flash Mobs: Power of Social Media Exemplified in Philadelphia-

April 2, 2010

Social Media is taking off among the youth but also within all communities as the popularity of these sites increases. People frequent these new doorways to the internet. As they share their interests and day-to-day happenings with each other, people are flocking to these sites. One can communicate with hundreds or even thousands of friends in a few keystrokes.

Never has the world seen such a network that literally has the power to engage the human spirit so effectively. We may see entire governments overthrown by these sites one day. When it comes to likes and dislikes, everyone is not the of same vein and debate is natural. Entire communities of folks interested in topics that range the gamut, daily communicate on the internet to share information and links to interesting sites.

The power of this raw force of networking has been seen in the city of Philadelphia of late, as in other parts of the country. So called, “Flash Mobs,” are appearing and causing disruption, damage and problems across the city of Philadelphia. Youth that are looking for action and are able to communicate by way of their hand-held devices on the networking sites and gather in mass to disrupt a given area of the city at will.

This is about the power of these sites and that people can communicate with each other in real time. It is no mystery that the sites more fluid in nature like Facebook and Twitter are more poplar to people looking to engage. How can a business harness the power of these sites to increase sales?

These sites like Facebook and Twitter use a global “nofollow” attribute in their “robots.txt” and generally links are considered dead to the machines that crawl the web. My opinion is that they are picked up and crawled anyway by big search. There is some debate about this. The links on many of these fluid sites that use the global “nofollow” designation do not, however get indexed in the search engines. Some sites linked to these sites are indexed by search engines. Take “Digg,” for instance and sites like it that allow spider crawling. These are prime real estate for well written articles and links to interesting sites. Again content reigns supreme and the same link bait ideas are attractive to the social networking folks that share an interest in your good or service.

As stated before, big search will continue to harness the happenings on these social sites so that the search engines remain valid in the internet experience. The power being wielded by these sites has unleashed an attraction to them by Google, Yahoo and Bing. Although the chaff that is known as spam is always going to be prevalent, the social sites are working hard to prevent it and the human element is heavily employed to cancel out the spam artisans. Take “Slashdot” for an example as it marks articles as spam until they are voted upwards by readers to raise them to a page of higher ranking.

So, we must ask if the social sites are helping the quality of big search or are they becoming entities all their own and threatening big search. I think the latter, but as long as people need a place to search for items on the internet, the search engine will remain viable. Google and Yahoo and Bing may be reduced in their ability to garner revenue from pay-per-click listings as copywriting will take on a role that will empower businesses to convey their messages in other ways. One thing is for sure and that is that the old linking schemes are dying a slow death right before our eyes. Another is that quality in site copy will rise to a level of significance never seen before.

Check Your Backlinks for Penalties

Some see today’s search results as tumultuous and uncertain. New sites can break out of the sandbox or completely avoid it altogether and be listed with the big boys without the site age and backlinks. Page rank is being beaten out by content siloed websites with great internal link structure.

For some it is like a wave that the surfer waits for to ride only to be dumped into the sea. For the many that do everything right and then get slammed in the SERPS, there is a reason. These machines that index the web are running on particular algorithms and even though the SERPS may seem like a result of random placement, they are not like 52 card pick-up at all.

The recent trend of big search has been commented upon often on this website. It seems that all that we knew is in a continuous shake-up, but this is not the case because the big search players are moving to perfect the art of delivering truly organic results. Currently great content and internal linking strategy is being rewarded and old spammy schemes are being penalized.

On one hand you have rewards for good and on the other you have penalties for being linked to a site that has bad marks against it. New site owners that have true professionals working the SEO of their sites are enjoying fantastic results. Some websites however, are experiencing penalties by association. Even with established, aged sites we are seeing them being dumped off the first page and sometimes even far lower.

What is it? What is going on is just what I predicted in big search’s strive for organic results. Backlinks, whether contained in news articles, press releases, or raw incoming links need to be checked. Right now, a new link with anchor text placed on a penalized website will tank your site on any search for that keyword or keyword phrase in the given anchor text. New potential links have to be checked and a page rank check is hardly enough.

It seems page rank is an item that is setting idle for now and while it is a factor in the SERP placement, its value is stagnant. A page with high page rank can be penalized to death and you would never know it. Google and Yahoo are very similar in their algo’s regarding the penalty placement in the SERPS. The bar graphs on tracking software shows parallel movement in these two search engines. Bing is another story and we are still trying to figure them out as they seem more stable but a bit also harder to see movement.

So folks, it is your links! If you track your backlinks, you can begin to undo some damage. Visit the Seopenalty.com site and try out their service. You will be surprised at the sites that are penalized heavily for spam and related tactics that have been allowed on the sites. Focus on Anchor Text both within and outside your site. Remember: If it is too easy to develop a link = RED FLAG. As always, develop quality content and keep it fresh. Use the social networks to prop up your links and pages.

Have fun because without challenge there can be no great achievement. Ride the waves and stay on top with a successful strategy.

Great Tool – Check for Penalties

I am making this a short post because it is late. I found a great tool the allows webmasters to check for penalties against websites. This is a fantastic tool because if you go by Page rank alone, you will find that your hard work with press releases and backlinks could be digging you in a hole.

Check all sites before linking or you will tank your site! Some site are heavily penalized by Google and Yahoo in particular and you will tank your own ranking if you link up with them. I found this site because I was looking for where I caused my own demise when I was sinking in the SERPS. I was able to undo the damage, thankfully.

Check this out: “Seopenalty.com.” Here is a screen-shot:

Make sure you run the check before you link!

-Bob W

SEO Social Media Scares More than CNN

Social Media Scares More than CNN

According to an article from Webpronews.com, “CNN President is really afraid of Social Media.” The article states that the President of CNN feels “far more worried about the 500 million people on Facebook than I am about two million people watching Fox.”

If the President of CNN feels threatened by Social Media, just think for a moment how the President of Google must feel. As I have stated several times before, Social Media is so big that big search may be at a point of transition. Already, Google has endeavored to engage a little social activity of its own with its Buzz offering. All of big search is devoting many recourses catering to Social Media in order to stay current.

I must repeat myself that the old methods of link building are just about dead. Social Media has many choices, some 500 plus and who really knows? These choices are networked for a real and powerful interactive media. Social Media is in and to be harnessed by people who know what they are doing. Content is paramount and necessary. At least in my model to get listed quickly, these are what I currently use. There are other ways to do it, I am sure but for my skill set and to my knowledge, Social Media is the way to succeed.

-Bob W

SEO – Page Rank Fading – Back to the Future – Content

Pie Graph of Search Market Share - link juice provided for SEOmoz.com

The Static Internet was a simpler place where one could enter, search and find information. Back-Links once regarded in this simpler era, as a vote of confidence in a new an emerging internet have been exploited and abused beyond reasonable validity. Links were the way to Page Rank and too easily acquired in the link free-for-all’s all over the web. The majority of the activity was inorganic and sought out by website operators to self-induce better rankings by trading links, etc. This type of self promotion was beginning to pollute the organic results sought for by the search engines. The original back-link idea was predicated upon end users that enjoyed a particular site would vote for it with a back-link. This old idea was all but destroyed by the linked crazed site owners seeking self promotion and the black hat exploiters. The search engines met this challenge with their own methods to filter out these self generated links and the spam that threatened the user experience of the free search engines. The method Google used for tabulating the old link method was called Page Rank.

Page Rank was a system that attributed value to sites based upon the back-linking and popularity as demonstrated by incoming links vs. outbound links. A mathematical equation was used to discern the Page Rank of a given site. This worked for some time but the inorganic use of back-linking was a continuing cancer of which big search spent a lot of resources to control. Page Rank seemed to be the honest vehicle in a dishonest world by which to deliver organic results to the masses.

Big search worked at filtering the junk out of the rankings. Good, unique and fresh content was rewarded not only by the human experience of organic back-linking, but with a higher PR afforded by the search engines. The sites that were deemed “authoritative” received a higher PR. These along with the blogs and forums were positioned by PR higher than sites with less content. The educational sites and non-profits, the respective “.org” and “.edu” sites received higher PR. This was reflected in the SERPS.

A couple of things began to happen with technology and more folks logging onto broadband connections, etc. A more sophisticated end user began to demand a straight doorway to a more personal experience. Blogs were still popular seemingly to spite PR. The natural inclination of free commerce is always for profit. Big search had its eye on pay-per-click advertising and began to feel threatened by building up PR on some websites. Big search did not want anyone selling back-links to the highest bidder. So as the drive for profit rules, some websites that had gained high PR because of great content, being they forums or blog sites with ever-changing content, started selling their links to lower ranking websites. This would have undermined that natural and organic model that propelled Google to the top and made big search the doorway to the internet. Big search wanted to control this selling of links so it moved to devalue the very things it held high, fresh and changing content. Rich content sites & Blogs were downgraded in PR sometime in early ’07 for fear of link selling. Many great sites were whacked in half. I had a few websites that went from PR4 to PR2 in one swoop.

Something else took place of the old PR method however. The results in the SERPS for Google remained for my regional results, but in the national SERPS that are mixed into the results; my authoritative sites fell against some of the larger sites with less content. This had to do with PR and another type of filter or manipulation by the search engines. The end result was a balance for a while until the black hats began to dominate the Adwords and Adsense programs with spam websites and garbage infiltrated the ranks of the SERPS. For quite some time Google’s own model was threatened by the hijacking of its own money making advertising programs. It took some time for Google to get off the profit taking and clean up its act.

Finally, Google policed its results by dumping paid advertisers in order to keep the world of search organic and honest. This had to be done as real people were getting tired of the experience of searching through the SERPS for what should have appeared on top. Black hat paid advertisers were destroying organic search. Thank you Google, even if it was a little late. (I wrote about this before the dumping of advertisers with great angst.) Google’s competitors started to sound off about the actions they were taking to improve their offerings.

In the current state of Googling, PR is outranked by content. What does this say about PR? PR is just an element of the criteria that is weighed for the real ranking, that of the SERPS. PR has its place as it does rule in many areas of search, but when it comes to content and a regional element, PR is not the deciding factor in getting listed in the SERPS.

Shall we consider PR as a fading element of yesterday’s methodology? I think so. I think we are seeing the reemergence of the human element in social media. PR was built upon skewed backlink math and it is not a real measure of a site’s popularity. Social media sites are inundated with garbage and the search engines are easily filtering out the good from the spam. It seems that big search is set-up to do this in an efficient way. So called “NOFOLLOW” links on sites like Twitter are noticed by Google and position well as referred links. The Google machine sees these links and they get into the results in the SERPS. The Google machine also sees content with its artificial intelligence that above all, will reward the true purveyors of interesting information. Real people are beginning to be harnesses to “tweet,” “dig” or “bookmark” their favorites on these social sites.

Google will continue to regard these sites as very important as they represent a threat to big search. As social media continues, it will refine itself into many doorways for many end users on the internet. Big search has positioning itself to not only harness this new media, but to build its own brand of social media. The networking that is currently in place has big search shaking, but there is hope. Search has realized that because it is so big, more leaches can suck its blood (and yours) and it can fall and be hurt terribly if it does not return to the simple organic results of yesterday.

“A hunger for interactivity will prevail…”

Social Media Growing like a weed - link juice provided for wpsmallbusiness.com

Social sites will also continue to refine, but not for the same reasons big search refines. A hunger for interactivity will prevail as real people can interact with each other. This service is unique to social media while search is a more private deal. Social media has its own limits set by its users as to what is visible and what is held back from the public. This is specifically why the social attempts like Google’s own “Buzz,” where the push for one to open their own personal contacts into the open air will not work. People want to keep some areas of their internet experience private and the mix of social with email contacts will be rejected by the masses. For instance: Just about everyone that has a job would want for their personal ramblings and excesses to be kept from public view.

The mix continues and it seems that big search will either rise to the occasion with a truly human experience that attracts people organically, or a new type of social search will enter to assume some of the traffic and to act as a multi-faceted and different kind of doorway to the internet.

-Bob W

Backlinks – More is not better

Backlinks – More is Not Better Backlinks or inbound links are the backbone of external SEO. After the “in page SEO” is complete, external sources of quality, one-way backlinks need to be found. Scouring the internet for backlink prospects is an arduous task. Commercial automated software is available to peruse the internet for relevant sources of linking and backlinking opportunities. Google has blocked computer access to IP addresses that use such software at the user level. If you have never had it done to you, it is rather strange to be blocked from doing any searches on Google. We use separate workstations to do this work for this reason and because of the resources they require along with this new IP blocking by Google. Google should spend more effort in the blocking the abusers of its Adsense and Adwords programs and improve the quality of the SERPS. Backlinks that are offered as an invitation to exchange links or for “reciprocal links” are questionable as to value. Search Engines are adamantly opposed to these arrangements but it is unclear as to the enforcement of this activity. It seems that for now, reciprocals work but they may affect pagerank negatively. A professional SEO expert should stay away from reciprocal links. There are enough opportunities to list a company in directories all over the internet and receive backlinks without offering reciprocal links. Keeping the current backlink methodology in mind and looking forward, backlinks may diminish in viability as the system is old school and it has been abused. Searches for backlink possibilities include the following: add link add site add url suggest link suggest site suggest url submit link submit site submit url exchange link link exchange place your link confirmation email linkback url trade link link partner add a new link webmasters add add a website These individual searches along with a keyword will yield prospective linking opportunities. For the most part however, most of these prospects will not be worth having your backlink posted. Each prospective site must be looked upon for several criteria. Each site’s ranking must be looked upon for viability. There are tools that work with MSIE and Firefox that deliver ranking information in real time. It is important that a prospective backlink be a relatively high ranking. A high ranking site pointing to your site is a good thing as compared to a poorly ranked site pointing to yours. A poorly ranked site can bring your site down in the SERPS. The way links were given weight by the Search Engines has generally been accepted as starting with the ranking of the site where the backlink resides. The ranking of a site is not the only criteria for valuing a possible backlink. Let’s say you find a relevant directory for your backlink, that is one that is relevant to your website. Let’s say the site ranks a number 4 on Google Pagerank and you are looking favorably to request a backlink be placed on the site. The next thing you want to ascertain is the number of outbound links on the page where your backlink will appear. If you can surf through the page of the directory where your backlink will appear, it would be advisable to do so. Count the outbound links on the page or plug the page into your scanning software and then add your site to the outbound number. If your number is above 10, it may be advisable to skip this opportunity for the backlink. The way it is supposed to work is that ranking of a given page is divided by the outbound links and credit of the product is charged to the site where the link is pointing. For instance, you have this site with a 4 Pagerank and with 10 outbound links, including yours. The equation is as follows: 4/11=.4. So make sure you check the Pagerank of the prospective site, the number of outbound links on the page where your backlink will be posted and do the math. Stay away from backlink free-for-alls. These sites are surely ranking poorly and there isn’t a real relevancy to them. Link relevancy has been the main focus over the past couple of years as Google and others let it be known that relevant links will be regarded higher by the indexes. Arguments in the SEO community have been that this is just an attempt to improve the quality of the backlinking SEO efforts in the field. These are frowned upon by Search Engines. It has been said that Google has no relevancy check in place for the relevancy of backlinks. Even if so, Google will, if it wants to survive. Resources will have to be put to the task of checking these backlink schemes in order to keep the SERPS accurate and organic. A backlink from an education institution (“.edu”) or a charitable organization ( “.org”) has always been considered golden. One must look with some suspicion at every site that offers a backlink because Black Hat tricks may be in play in the “.org’s” and possibly the “.edu’s” because domains have be falsely registered in both categories. Always be careful in your backlinking campaign. Site that sell backlinks or listings are frowned upon by the Search Engines. It is perfectly legal and would seem to keep the spammers down, but the Search Engines do not like it. Possibly the end users that have to go through pages in the SERPS that are full of no content and tons of Adsense links may have a say one day on the subject of paid links. Linking strategies encompass more than just the searching and development of backlinks. The Meta Tags come into play on some of the more advanced linking sites. Meta Tag scanners are used to make the link on many of these sites. This is where your title tag comes into play. The text that actually forms the link is very important. If the site uses your site data from the title tag to form the link, your title better have the top keywords showing up for the backlink. This is probably one of the most important details for backlinking. The text in the backlink has to have your desired keywords contained in the 60 character limit. The keyword tag and description tag are sometimes used on these sites also. Many times, you are able to list the text you want listed for your text link. This is known as “anchor text.” Give this some thought as a company name is not always the best thing to list for the backlink. Diversify your anchor text. Do not use the same anchor text on too many backlinks. You have to consider what will be the most searched term by consumers that are looking for your company. It may be advisable to list the keyword (or product or service you offer) and a regional term (like the city and state you service). If your company has brand recognition and uses other types of advertising, where the Search Engine user will probably be looking for your company by name, the text link should include your company name. Quality is better than quantity and this will continue to be even truer in the future as search has to return to organic results. Spamming is the problem, so don’t be a spammer. Don’t lose sight of your objective to raise your site’s ranking in the SERPS. Be patient and watch as your efforts materialize over the long haul. Clearly when you see a site in the top of the SERPS with only 30 backlinks compared to a competitor that has had intense backlinking with 1000 backlinks showing up on page 25 of the SERPS, quality trumps quantity. Google is penalizing sites that develop many backlinks over a short period of time. The “sandbox” effect is debated in SEO circles, but it exists in some form as can be realized by witnessing the SERPS. Along with new sites, these backlinking fanatics are placed in the sandbox, or filtered out of the SERPS for several months. This penalizing period is generally accepted as 6 to 8 months. There is never a guarantee on SEO success, but if you play it conservative you can expect reasonable positive results in the SERPS. Much has to do with the industry, the region and the amount of competition in the SERPS.
Will Search move away from backlinks? Check out postings regarding the damage that can be done by going into a backlink endeavor blindly.

Competitors Analysis

Competitors Analysis SEO is a science of trying to figure out how to present your website in a way that the search engines will index them in the top of the SERPS.  This is the goal and what better way to gather information in real time than to investigate your successful competitors in the SERPS. Information taken from a quick analysis of your target, which is the page landing in the first five in the SERPS, will help our technician to make recommendations to improve your site’s placement. Bigger is not always better.  The quality of the site design is not always indicative of success in the SERPS.  So, to the search engine wars you go but you will travel smarter and leaner.  Take a good look at your competitors.  The ranking sites in the SERPS tell you a lot about what will have to be done to improve your own rankings.

There is a wealth of information available for you on this website. Please keep in mind that while you can start an SEO endeavor on your own, or in house, but you can make your SERPS worse if you are not fully aware of the whole picture relating to the search engines, your site’s ranking and techniques used in the industry. Search engines do react to every measure you take using these techniques.