•

National Croatian Newspaper Vjesnik

Posted on April 20, 2012 by SEO Consultant (admin) in SEO 3 Comments

Way back in 1998 I was asked to get the National Croatian Newspaper Vjesnik online. No other newspaper was online at that stage in the country that just got out of the war few years ago. I was really proud to do it, I was in my late twenties and I was doing something on the national level. It was the early Internet, and it was cool. Really cool.

Tonight will be the first day after 72 years that the Vjesnik papers will not go to the print. No Vjesnik in the shops tomorrow. Unimaginable. It was printed during wars, crises,… always. But tonight the Vjesnik printers will be silent. Quite likely forever.

VjesnikI have been publishing web sites for the last 15 years. A list of newspapers, classified advertising sites, and different web content aggregators. A long list of really exiting projects. A few of them with truly global reach. But never will I remember neither of them the way I remember Vjesnik. It wasn’t my first web site, but it was that first BIG one.

I hope the company will survive, and the web version keeps on bringing the news and content as Vjesnik did for the last 70 years.


Spectacular SEO

Posted on March 29, 2012 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Blog, internet marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consultant, Twitter Leave a comment

I am naturally not really a sales man. I am a numbers guy. Not colours. I tend to stare into Google Analyses and charts that I generate from the various data – and find it both exciting and amusing. I know, I know,… You are wondering about me. You are asking yourself where am I going with this? Where is this going to end up? Do I want to read further?

I get invited to talk about SEO a lot. National Libraries, universities, online radio shows and various conferences. I enjoy it and do it with passion. I just love analysing the data, patterns and applying science into the ways of the data is displayed to the end users (on the web sites). 10 years of doing it on a daily basis, I guess I have learned something by know. I have been wrong many, many times, and have learned from all my mistakes. That resulted on the other side in some truly spectacular results in SEO.

Clients love it, and their web site successes excite them so that their share their success. Industry experts pick it up and they talk about your successes. It gets viral. It is mentioned in the coffee breaks on conferences. The success is the common topic near the company water fountains (gossip tops the popularity there!).

When the top influencers in their industry & market start recommending you in public, you know you have done something with your life. You have done something outstanding. I work in SEO. I never thought it was that spectacular myself. Here is what how others see it:

When I managed to make other people passionate about what I do, I guess I must be doing something spectacular: The Spectacular SEO!


Social Media Optimisation

Posted on March 12, 2012 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Facebook, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, Twitter Leave a comment

For many years the Google search engine was the most visited web site, and was De Facto standard for searching the web (in most of the Western World). As of last year Google is not the most visited web site any more. Facebook is. And the gap is widening, Facebook is extending its lead.

Historically Google was the site that was bringing the most traffic to any type of the web site (it still is for the most sites). Whatever site or information you have been looking for, you would start your search in Google. Google gave you the best results, and it was always easy to find ANYTHING on the web. Thanks to Google. Then Facebook ‘happened’. We all signed up to it and started sharing information on our Walls called Timelines now. The data in your Facebook account become relevant to you – it is all shared by your friends. It became much more interesting than searching boring black and white Google results.

Facebook started driving traffic, and started driving substantial traffic to some web sites. The amount of traffic Facebook drives is in the direct relation to the activity (the amount and the quality) a Facebook user puts in. The more and the better you are in creating interesting content, sharing it, and contributing to the discussions – the more traffic will you generate on your Facebook profile or page, and the more traffic will you send from your Facebook to your own web site. A new term to define this task is coined as Social Media Optimisation.

Social Media Optimisation

You might ask yourself if that is the good name for what is actually being done? Does it make sense? Well, the short answer is just: No. No there is no one actually ‘optimising’ the social media. What you do really is you make your web site benefit from all the lovely traffic you can receive from the social media. You do it on your web site by publishing great content, easy sharing buttons, etc, and publishing inviting content on the social media web sites – letting people know there is more on your own site.

Will SMO replace SEO?

Well SEO didn’t really work for a list of web sites. The same is true with SMO. The directory listings web site will never have much success with SMO. SEO on the other hand is it’s best friend. Any site can still benefit from both SOE and SMO. Even the directory listing type of a site can benefit from SMO. All that is needed is a separate set of content type on the site –that is SMO friendly. A Blog is of course the easiest to set up and the most likely to succeed in driving SMO traffic. Why? On your blog you can put the content that will easily be shared in social media. Visitors can further contribute to the content generation driving SMO (comments) and SEO (guest blog posts).

Social media optimisation is becoming an important factor for all web sites and their traffic, and for some it will become the main factor in driving traffic to the sites. It will not ‘go away’ and you cannot ignore it.


Mobile Search

Posted on March 8, 2012 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Google, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consultant 2 Comments

Search one the mobile is very different than the search on a desktop. Google displays different search results and also a completely different functionality on the two platforms. Here is a sample of the search I have just done on the mobile using Goole today. I have searched for just the word ‘SEO’.

Google being Google, the search results start with the Google AdWords advertisements for the keyword ‘SEO’. Note that the advertisements actually take the first (top) 50% of the screen. Below the ads there is a space for a single natural (organic) listing. Below that is something that is unique for the mobile search results: the inclusion of the Google Places that are relative to your location. I was in Kiltiernan in Dublin South, so I got the following link: Places for seo near Kiltiernan, Co. Dublin.

Scrolling down (2nd page) there is also a pulldown that let you Choose a location or a link to manually enter a location. My pulldown contained only on item Kiltiernan that didn’t make much sense really. Below all this location specific functionality that is unique for the search made on the mobile device the listing of all Google Places starts. Note that there is also a distance to each of those locations displayed. That is again a unique feature of a search made on a mobile device. The order of those registered Google Places is not relative to the position of the mobile device, but I am sure Google will in time show the nearest Place first.

Under the Google Places listing that shows up to 10 listings, the same as on desktop search, there is one more mobile search unique feature. There is a link to the page that displays more local search results. That is even after 10 Google Places already displayed, and 10 is a lot of results to display on the mobile device anyway.

Google mobile search results have a huge emphasis on the location. There is a set of unique functionality that helps you get even further details about the local results. The desktop search results contain only the Google Map and a Google Places listing. The mobile search results contains further functionality like pulldown of locations near you, the form to enter your search location manually and to expand the local search results. The most important local feature is the link that displays after the first organic result, that filters the search results to just local results and nothing else. That is as if Google is telling you – if you didn’t like the 1st search result, why not look at just your local results instead? Being listed 1st in Google search results in the mobile search just become even more important!


WordPress SEO

Posted on March 7, 2012 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, WordPress Leave a comment

WordPress become and established itself as the most popular CMS globally. In fact there is no other CMS that is even close. The amount of developers creating the WordPres Themes and WordPress plugins is purely phenomenal. Never in the short history of the web was there aver such a large group working on the same CMS platform. WordPress drove the cost of web site development and maintenance down. And all those old and new web sites are fighting for the same traffic from the search engines. It is not a surprise that the WordPress SEO is a hot topic!

WordPress consists of the core CMS files, the Theme and the optional Plugins. All three have an impact on the WordPress SEO.

The WordPress CMS is in general good for SEO. At some stage the database becomes too big and it does require manual cleaning. You really do not need the auto-saved versions of your blog post written years ago, do you? Well WordPress by default keeps those in the database forever.

WordPress Theme impacts SEO in the sense that it defines the internal links structure and page templates (Master Pages in the Microsoft .NET world). The Theme also defines what elements get displayed, like Tags and Categories of each post.

WordPress Plugins fine tune the SEO of your site. Plugins like All in One SEO and similar let you control the page elements like Titles and Meta Description of the individual pages on your WordPress web site.

Besides the Plugins and Themes there is a lot of other factors that make a huge difference of the search engine optimisation of the web site. There are ones that you control like choosing the fast web server to host your site and database. There are also ones that you do not control like links to your site from all other web sites – inbound links. The social media with its sharing of your content and links to your pages have ever increasing impact on SEO. Most of SEO specialists would agree that there is no SEO without social media any more.

If you struggle to attract traffic on your WordPress site, be aware that you are not the only one. In fact SEO specialists get more projects on WordPress than on any other CMS platform. Most would be very experienced with it, that gives you more choice than any other CMS. I guess by now you have no doubt that WordPress is great for SEO. This SEOConsultant.ie web site is on WordPress as well, and that I think proves the point I am trying to make.


How to write a blog?

Posted on January 17, 2012 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Blog, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO Leave a comment

1. Write about industry News – whats happening this week, this month

2. Read and develop content on industry Trends – where is the industry going, what are the emerging hot segments

3. Find out about your customers Pain Points – Write posts that provide solutions for your customers problems

4. Write about customers successes – Write up a case study about a clients successful project, they will often let you publish their name

5. Publish content on what not to do! – highlighting where something hasn’t worked (the names shall remain anonymous of course)

6. Create a video blog post by interviewing a successful client – this can a powerful providing authentic evidence of authority and credibility for both you and the client

7. Write articles for the different types of customers that are relevant for each of your vertical markets

8. Brainstorm blog post topics with colleagues and management and create a list for future reference and planning

9. Subscribe to the top industry blogs in your market, both company blogs and personal blogs for ideas

10. Look through your latest news releases for ideas

11. Sign up other staff to write on topics in your industry or market that they are passionate about

12. Develop a series of how to blog posts

13. Turn the “how to” blog posts into short videos

14. When you have a great idea, go straight to your “add new” button and write the headline and save it as a draft or write it down before you forget it.

15. Include a great iconic image at the start of the blog that catches the eye

16. Case Studies are always popular to write about and not just your own

17. Place Powerpoint presentations on your blog by posting and then embedding links from Slideshare

18. Run polls and surveys on your blog

19. Create great headlines that catch people attention and makes them want to read the rest of the article

20. Add credbility banners such as how many subscribers, number of hits, blog grade and any awards

21. Provide “share this” buttons to Facebook and Twitter as a minimum

22. Implement “subscribe” buttons via RSS and Email

23. Write in bite size chunks and use bullet points so readers can quickly and easy consumption

24. Break up large blocks of text with iconic and interesting images

25. Take screen shots to place in your post using Software like Snagit to highlight points .. a picture is worth a 1000 words

26. Be yourself even if it is a company blog.. be authentic.

27. Optimize your blog for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

28. Promote and distribute your posts on to other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

29. Make the blog easy to find on your company’s web page with a large bannner or button

30. Finally, have fun, mix up the types of posts and add some humour occasionally Gini Dietrich from Spinsucks.com contributed to the list with the following eleven additional tips

31. Ask your readers what they want you to write about

32. Let your readers pimp their own blogs in your comments section (we’re going to do this on Thursday of this week)

33. Ask questions

34. Create contests (which goes along with your poll/survey idea)

35. Install the SEO All In One pack on your WordPress blog

36. Use StumbleUpon and AllTop to increase your readership

37. Create content for Associated Content by republishing your blog posts there (it helps with readership and news outlets will republish your content on their sites)

38.Comment on other blogs and news articles to show your thinking/expertise, but also link people back to your blog

39. Make sure, when you use Twitter to promote your blog post, that you’re tweeting about it more than once a day

40. Subscribe to SmartBrief newsletters, RSS feeds, and Google alerts in order to find ideas for new content (that’s how I found this blog!)

41. Post and link your content on the Delicious social bookmarking site. (This will again help spread your content by placing it on a highly trafficked site)

42. Try your hat at a guest blogger or two, this could add credibility to your site , especially if the person is influential in his or her space. Courtney Wiley of iNgage Networks also made this suggestion

43.In the meta tags for your photos, make sure the labels/words are what you want them to be – search engines can’t “read” photos, only the labels/meta tags. Dave Heinrich from WebTechUniverse.com also contributed with this tip which is vital and I do this with every image in my posts

44. When people write a comment actually take the time to email them directly and thank them for the comment and if they ask a question, then answer it. You will find that this will create a WOW factor and spread the word about the blog. If you took 10-15 minutes a day to respond to 5 comments via email you would make great impact on over 1,500 people during a year who would each spread the word to potentially 1000′s more. This could be the making of a tribe!

45. Comment appropriately on the top blogs ranked by Google on the major key word or phrase you are trying to optimize for SEO. This will create a a link back to your site and linking is key to increasing your own rankings with search engines

46. Write a blog post listing some important bloggers in your industry (such as the top 5) and point out how they make their blogs successful and you might find they return the love!

47. Interlink to other posts in your blog when writing a post especially those that are relevant and have been successful (this again is great for SEO)

48. Outsource content development for sections of your blog that are appropriate such as ‘resource’ sections.

49. Update an original post that provides more value to your readers (this post is an example)

50. Take readers comments and include and promote them in your blog (like we have just done)

51. Take a selection of your best blog posts and make an ebook out of it. Then distribute the ebook on the Amazon Kindle Store and Apple iBookStore. This will find you new readers for your blog. And you can monetize it in a whole new way by charging a dollar or two for your ebook. (Thanks to Vikram Narayam )

52. Collaborate with other Twitter users within your niche to promote each others content

53. Make sure that everyone within your company has their own Twitter account and promotes the blog and company social media accounts on that account

54. When speaking or presenting, record it on video and upload it to company YouTube channel. It will be a constant resource for clients as well as adding to your websites SEO

55. Make excerpts of key points on the video and turn them into short blog posts

56. On your YouTube make sure you have optimized the video for search engines through tags, key phrase in the description as well as the link to your blog in the description section

57. The SlideShare account where you have uploaded your PowerPoint presentation should also be optimized for search with your blog or website URL in your public profile

58. The Slideshare account should also have your top keywords and phrases in the ”Public Profile” about section so that search is optimized.

59. Keep most blogs short with no more than 400-500 words as most people don’t have much time and will be only spending a minute or two on your blog (average time on this site according to Google Analytics is 1 minute and 39 seconds)

60. If embedding a video in the post again brevity rules with the rule of thumb now at a 1-2 minute video

61. Take each post and post it on the New Digg (20 million visitors a month), it is quick and easy to do and will take you only a minute or two (it involves copying the URL and pasting it to Digg, add the headline and choose the section then hit

62. Take the results of your polls or survey and turn them into a blog post. A lot of people want know the results as over time the blog post is buried in the archives

63. Use a twitter app such as SocialOomph.com (Professional edition) to schedule tweets your posts on a regular basis

64. Collaborate and communicate with other successful bloggers in your niche especially those that enhance and add to your skill set (they will encourage and support you)

65. Implement an email acquisition strategy that includes a pop over form that hovers over the screen for first time visitors (offer free eBook or video tutorial as an incentive and a gift for people giving you their name and email address) . One platform that provides this is Aweber.

66. Another email subscriber tactic includes a suggestion to refer a friend to join the email list

67. Place a video on your Facebook fan page inviting visitors to subscribe

68. Link to your blog on your Facebook fan page

69. On your email subscriber form don’t ask people for their life history keep it short and only ask for name and email address


Link building is just like getting in shape

Posted on January 10, 2012 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Google, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO Leave a comment

The backlinks that point to your website are still the most important factor that determine the position of your website on Google. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to get good backlinks. Link building can be compared to getting in shape after the holidays:

resolutions1. It takes hard work and there are no shortcuts

It does not matter if you want to lose weight after the holidays or if you want to get high quality links: you have to invest time and effort.

You cannot lose 30 pounds in a month and you also cannot get your website on Google’s first result page for a very competitive keyword in that time.

If you want to get lasting results, you have to work continually on your links and your web page content.

2. You have to be consistent

SEO isn’t a one-shot solution. It doesn’t help your rankings much if you get many links at once and then stop building links. Search engines also consider how many websites link to your site over time.

It’s the same if you want to get in shape: doing a 12 hour workout on a single day and then doing nothing won’t help you to lose weight. It will be bad for your health.

It’s the same with link building: if you get many links at once and then no links at all, search engines might think that you try to cheat them with a linking system.

If you want to get in shape, you have to be consistent. You might not see immediate results but there is a constant change and some day, you’ll find that you’re much thinner.

Link building works exactly like that. Do not try to game search engines by joining link systems or buying links. Get one link at a time, optimize your pages and the rankings of your website will improve steadily.

3. There are a lot of scammers

The SEO industry is full of scammers that promise easy and quick solutions. You should be very careful. If something sounds too good to be true then it’s probably not true. There are no easy and quick solutions and there are no secret tricks that nobody else knows about.

The same applies to weight loss and fitness. There are lots of diet pills and miracle machines that promise easy and quick results. These methods don’t work.

4. It’s possible to trick the system but you won’t get lasting results

There are a lot of diets and diet products that help you to quickly lose weight. Unfortunately, you only lose water weight with these diets and you’ll get your old weight back soon.

Link building is similar. Every now and then, some webmasters find a loophole in Google’s algorithm. These loopholes allow people to get on Google’s first result page without doing the hard work.

This usually works for some weeks but then Google finds out and websites that exploited the loophole are penalized and removed from the index. It’s very risky to use these methods to get high rankings because Google doesn’t like spammers.

5. The result is worth it

People who lose weight usually feel more healthy and happier. Being number one on Google’s result page for the right keyword can mean many more sales for your business.

You have the choice: Don’t fall for rip-off products that promise easy and quick results without much work. These products don’t deliver long term results and they often put your website at risk.


SEO is 12.9% harder than last year

Posted on January 4, 2012 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO 1 Comment

The IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the managed registry for Ireland’s official internet address .ie released the figures today showing the total number of .ie domains grew by 12.9% net in 2011 to 173,145.

So if you do work in ranking the web sites in the Google results, that means that there is 12.9% more competition today than a year ago. That is of course presuming that the same percentage of the domains have been displaying a web sites a year ago and today. And there is nothing suggesting otherwise.

.ie domain space is growing, regardless of the economy shrinking in the last year. That means your SEO budget will have to be bigger for the next year to achieve the same results you have done with it the last year.


Social Media for Business

Posted on November 17, 2011 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Blog, Facebook, Google, Search Engine Marketing, SEO, SEO Consultant, Twitter 4 Comments

During November I am giving presentations in the few Dublin Libraries about the usage of Social Media in Business. The first one I gave was in the Tallaght Library earlier this week. It was an evening session. Ireland football team was playing the qualifying match for the next European championship the same evening so obviously the majority of the audience was female!

Since it was a relatively small group, I asked each person in the audience to tell us 2 sentences about:

Who they are and why are they here
What do they hope to learn and ‘take home’.

Interestingly enough every single person in the audience was either running their own business already, or planning to do so in a very near future. 100% Entrepreneurs in the audience. That completely changed the schedule. As opposed in me talking to them about LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook as social media web sites, and blogs and forums – it was them who lead the discussion based on their exact needs. My fancy slides,,, left unseen!

I realised then that it should be expected from a Social Media presentation – to turn 100% social, and as opposed to a presenter talking to the audience, it was them who took it on. I become just another person in their conversation. One that you can bounce ideas off and see if it would stick in real life.

I was hoping to promote a long list of fantastic books available in the Library on various relevant topics. In case you didn’t know the Dublin Library has books on all latest social media, so you will find a book just about twitter, or a list of those that cover all modern social media sites. 30 Minute Social Media Marketing – is just one example. There are also books on running the Internet Business, Online Sales and all what one needs to succeed in business online today. I took first 10 that I liked the titles of, some time ago, and read most of them by now. I can tell you one thing – if you are wondering how to start using the Social Media for your business, before doing anything else – get into the Library. Get a book that covers exactly what you need to learn about. Social media web sites can have a slow learning curve. With a book or two about it read before – you will march on in the Social Media, and get far more benefit of it far quicker. It is there for you, and it is free…


On site SEO vs off site SEO

Posted on June 30, 2011 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consultant 1 Comment

SEO people divide the work that needs to be done on the web site into the Off Site SEO and On Site SEO. The on Site SEO is usually linked to the improvements of your web site itself. Leaning the code of the site so that Google can index it easy, and publishing content that is relevant to your products or services your site is representing. What SEO professionals call Off Site SEO is actually mostly link building; placing links on other sites towards your site. Google ranks higher the sites with more of those inbound links. That is what SEO gurus call On Site SEO and Off Site SEO.

In recruitment those two phrases mean something completely different. When recruiting a SEO person, an activity I am getting more and more involved in employers are looking for either an employee or a contractor who will work on their web site SEO. The other main difference besides of the employment type is the place where will this person be located. If it is only a single person that is hired to do SEO, in most cases companies look for a person who will work on their premises. Companies with large SEO tasks and higher ambitions hire agencies who usually work in their own offices. So contractors usually work on site where agencies work off site and just do presentations in the clients premises. And that is from a recruitment perspective an On Site SEO and Off Site SEO, since it relates to the place of employment.
Do I need to tell you that when a recruiter is advertising for a Link Ninja or what is essentially an Off Site SEO position, they advertise it as Work From Home SEO position available, simply thinking that Off Site SEO refers to their perspective of the work type performed off the premises of the employer. You cannot even imagine the way the communication goes when a recruiter is headhunting a Link Ninja not realising that he is looking for a person who will work on the SEO of a web site by building links to it, and he thinks he is recruiting for a person who will work from home – doing the SEO for a web site of a client.
Funnily enough I myself actually prefer working from home. It is not easy since it requires a lot of discipline. What I found the most important factor when working from home is to have a space and time allocated to work. Time management was easy for me. I just worked the same hours I would work in the office. The space was, since I took one room that had its own purpose before in my house. Well that did not work that well. A year later I decided I have to do something about it and got the purposely built house extension to be as office only. This changed my life. No commuting time, and a perfect office space that you can walk into in your slippers!

I still do some SEO on site – mostly to meet with clients in the early and final stages on the project, but the rest of my SEO work is – yep from home!


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12   Next »