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SEO: To Outsource or Not to Outsource?

Posted on May 30, 2008 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consultant 4 Comments

SEO: To Outsource or Not to Outsource?

A raising number of the businesses are linked one way or another to the Internet, and with it in some way with the search engine optimisation (SEO). Interment marketing plays the more and more important role every day, simply since people use internet more and more in their everyday life. Even if you see something in your local shop, you are quite likely to go online and just check the prices in the other shops, and the user reviews, the manufacturers web site…

Companies know nowadays they need to invest heavily in the Internet Marketing. Pay Per Click (PPC) is where almost everyone starts, just being seduced by the simplicity and the transparency of it. Of and not to forget – the low cost entry to the market. Some take a few days, but the majority of the PPC advertisers require more than a year to realise the real costs of the PPC, and get to the ‘Panic Mode’ looking for anything else but PPC after realising how little they got for their money invested.

A strategically important decision is usually made then, to stop the PPC and get down the organic listing route and optimise the company web site for the search engines. SEO usually then becomes a ‘Hot Potato’ in the company. If there is a separate Marketing Department and the IT Department, they will try to pass it on to each other. IN reality, the likelihood that any of the internal resources knows enough about SEO is fairly slim, since SEO is not what the company has been doing so far. So a new type of task is now within the company, and a new skill is required. The management usually fails to understand the fact that the SEO skills do not exist within the staff of the company. Therefore the majority of the initial SEO efforts are performed ‘in house’. When no results are achieved, or the results have no impact at the bottom line, the question gets raised:

To outsource or not to outsource the SEO, the question is now….?

Management will be guided by the costs of the both options to determine what route to go. Seeing the quotes from the SEO companies, as opposed to the ‘zero’ cost of performing the SEO internally puts them in front of the simple position to decide to keep the SEO in house!

This is the list of questions that should help determining if to outsource or keep the SEO in house:
1. Do we have a resources available to allocate to the SEO?
2. Do we have anyone who knows how to do SEO tasks?
3. Do we know what tasks are actually required to be done at all?
4. Do we know how much will the training cost to get our staff in the position to do SEO tasks?
5. Do we know how much time will be required to get the staff trained, and when will the training be available?
6. Do we know what is our SEO goal (why do we do it actually) in the exact numbers?
7. Can we measure our SEO successes (and failures)?
8. What is the budget for the SEO software and online tools required to perform the SEO tasks?

The above are really just the basic questions. If you cannot answer just one of those, the likelihood of any effect of your internal SEO efforts on your business are very slim.


Irish Google speaks American English

Posted on May 22, 2008 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Blog, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consultant Leave a comment

“Growing up”, Google learned to understand the abbreviations. Today it knows that ‘SEO’ stands for ‘Search Engine Optimization’. You can see it in the search engine results pages where Google highlights the keyword you have made a search for in the text description it displays about your site. So if you make a search for ‘SEO’, it will highlight the text ‘Search Engine Optimization’ as well.

Irish Google speaks American English

What is to be noted here is that this is actually wrong. Why? Because this is a search results page of the Google.ie, so it should have the Irish spelling here. Note that there is also a text there ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ – the way we spell it here in Ireland. The Google.ie didn’t highlight that, meaning it didn’t understand that this means SEO as well.

Someone should teach Google.ie the Irish spelling of the English words…

Until then, watch your META Description Tags. If you want Google to understand you and display and highlight appropriately, you need to spell the full meanings of the abbreviations the American way. Otherwise Google will not recognise them, and will not display / highlight them properly in the search engine results pages.


Google.ie Speed Test Update

Posted on May 7, 2008 by SEO Consultant (admin) in SEO Leave a comment

SEO ConsultantAfter some 2 and a half months, the SeoSonsultant.ie is on the first page in Google for the search keyword ‘SEO’, with the option ‘Pages in Ireland’ selected.

The blog activity statistics in those two months is:

Blog Stats
There are currently 20 posts and 27 comments, contained within 6 categories and 50 tags.

So not really impressive, 20 posts in 2 months? And already on the first page in Google.ie for the keyword SEO?

The next and the last milestone is to get listed on the first page in Google.ie without the ‘Pages in Ireland’ option selected! Any bets? :)


Blogging and Business

Posted on May 2, 2008 by SEO Consultant (admin) in SEO 1 Comment

Blogging is the extension of a company marketing department or a public relations department.
There certainly is a need for a dedicated resource to mange not only the company blog, but the whole plethora of the social media sites and online networks.

How to structure and organise your company blogging?

Create a new position. Call it a ‘Chief Blogger’ or however your companies position titles are structured. Do not make it report to the Marketing manager, but to the same head where the Marketing Manager is reporting. Allocate a percentage of your marketing budget to the Blogging Department.

What should a Chief Blogger do?

Company Business Blog
The first step into the blogging world is to create a company blog under the company domain. Structure your blog based on the type and amount of the content you intend to publish, and the participation (content contribution in the form of comments, etc) you are looking for. Publish your initial ‘static’ articles about your company, services or products. Start blogging!

Social Networking
Search for the blogs related to yours. Leave comments, contribute in discussions. Develop the ‘Trust’ and the feeling of the ‘Authority’, associated with you and your company name. Trust and respect will help you bring visitors to your blog. Some of those visitors are partners and some your future clients! The sales process is far shorter if they see you as an authority in your industry!

Matt Cuts is a good example of a Business Blogging for Google: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/


Dynamic MetaTags, Dynamic Title, URL Rewriting, H1, H2,… are all a MUST HAVE for any CMS today.

Posted on April 11, 2008 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consultant 3 Comments

Is your Content management System (CMS) search engine optimised (SEO)?

Here is a short check list to help you answer the question:

1. URL Rewriting
Long gone are the days where there was gibberish in the web addresses or the URLs. Funnily enough all content management systems still work with those long and complex URLs. The smart CMS-es today have a built in URL Rewriting. What does it do? It changes your URL from the gibberish looking long one to something that looks like http://domain-name/page-title. It is nice to read to both the search engine and to human. It is also memorable as opposed to the long strings of numbers and symbols. When used properly, by placing the search keywords in the parts of the URL like the domain name itself and the title of the page, a great search engine optimisation results are achieved.
2. Dynamic Title Tag
Title is a HTML tag of a huge importance in relation to the search engine optimisation of each of your page. Notice the word ‘each’ here highlighted. Since there is very little sense in having two pages on the same web site with the same title. If your CMS does not let you create the unique title tag to every single page, your web site will not be very well optimised.
3. Dynamic Meta Tags
Meta Keywords and Meta Description are the two met tags important for the search engine optimisation. As well as the title tag, if your CMS should allow the author to define the both Meta Keywords and Meta Description uniquely for each page. Note that search engine often use the Meta Description as a description of your page displayed next to the link in their search engine results pages. Therefore it is vital to write a Meta Description ‘inviting’ the surfer to click on your listing.
4. H1, H2 Styles
Search engines assign ‘higher importance’ to words used in the top highlighted styles on the page. Placing your main keywords in those styles is crucial part of the onsite search engine optimisation. If your CMS does not let you control what text gets displayed in what style your web pages will not be well optimised for the search engines.

The list actually goes on and on. Image names and Alt Tags of the images, link structures of the internal links are also very important. The problem with the content management systems is really in drawing the line between the features that will help the user in using them quickly and easily, and allowing the user to control the code of the web site. That line is hard to place, and the result is that most of the content management system simply fail since they do not find the way how to give a lot of control to the end user, while making the user interface and the usage in general easy to learn and to use day by day. From the SEO perspective, there should be as much control as possible of the final code, but from the usability point it is the opposite. A good user interface for the CMS should be easy to use and let you control the above points easily as well.


Search Keywords Length

Posted on March 27, 2008 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consultant 2 Comments

There are two major approaches when optimising a web site for the search engine:

1. Low hanging fruit
When a web site is being optimised for a search phrase that almost no other web site is optimised for (at least not intentionally) it is usually fairly easy to get super high ranking super fast. Take a 3 or 4 word search phrase and you can rank almost any web site high for it in no time. The approach is called a ‘Low Hanging Fruit’ since you can really easy get the ‘juice’ (traffic) out to the search engine for a very long phrase.

2. Big Boys SEO
Optimising a web site for a highly used single word search phrase like Cars, Jobs, Travel or Insurance, is the other end of the search engine optimisation. It does differ quite a lot from optimising a web site for a multiple words phrases. Usually far more statistical analysis are utilised. A very definite and precise methodologies are required. Why? Simply because you are not the only one in the playing field here. All your competitors will be optimising for the same keyword. The time required for a decent ranking result is very long, and no stellar success is to be expected. Search engine results pages do not change that much for the single word search phrases at all. Some single words when entered in the search engine generate the same search results listed in the same order for many months!

Should you optimise a web site for a single words phrases or for a multiple words search phrases? The following statistics published by OneStat.com will help you:

Search Keywords Length

The 7 most used word phrases in search engines on the web are:

1. - 2 word phrases - 32.58%
2. - 3 word phrase - 25.61%
3. - 1 word phrases - 19.02%
4. - 4 word phrases - 12.83%
5. - 5 word phrases - 5.64%
6. - 6 word phrases - 2.32%
7. - 7 word phrases - 0.98%

Two word phrases are the most used search phrases in the search engines. And now even more surprising to the most of us is the fact that the three word phrases are closely following! Only then do a single word phrases come in the picture with less than one fifth if the overall traffic. Having a insurance web site listed 1st in Google for the word ‘Insurance’ will only bring one fifth of the (possible) traffic for that single word listing. Optimising your pages forthe two and search phrases containing two and three keywords will bring the majority of the traffic to any web site.


Google is showing different search results during weekends!

Posted on February 23, 2008 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consultant 3 Comments

A few times the new page I would be optimising for Google, I would se the new page all of the sudden, completely unexpected, on the first page in Google during the weekend. I would be happy and start the celebrations only to find out that on Monday the web site is nowhere in the SERP as it was last week.

When you are fine tuning the SEO of the web site you end up checking the ranking for the site every day. You check the ranking; you check what version of the page is in the Google cashe. You check when the latest Google XML Sitemap was submitted. You check it all against to your own log of changes of each page. And a zillion other little details in Google WebMaster Tools Console, an a whole list of third party software or services a search engine optimization professional uses.

When you check the rankings ever day you also get the feeling what will Google do and when. The more experience the more precise your predictions get. Until Google does the updates of the way it works, and it sets the quality of your prediction back somewhat.

One thing that I keep on noticing in the last two if not more years is the difference in the Google results that happen during the weekend. How does it manifest? Usually a new site pops out (out of nowhere really) somewhere in the middle of the first page of of the Google search results page. It stays there over the weekend, and on Monday morning, it is nowhere to be seen again. Sometimes it happens for a number of weekends in the row. Usually not more than 4 consecutive weekends. And what happens then? One of the Mondays Google simply does not remove the page from the first page listing. The new page that firstly appeared only during weekends, simply gets its ranking, and usually stays there where it was during the previous weekends fro months before moving up or down in the search engine results page.

You can actually use this strange feature of Google displaying different search results during weekend to check what sites are likely to get to the first page son, of who is catching up with your search engine optimization efforts.


WordPress as a SEO Springboard

Posted on February 20, 2008 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consultant 48 Comments

What is WordPress
WordPress is an free open source blogging platform. There are a quite a few free open source blogging platforms, but WordPress seems like the most popular and the most used. Everyone can contribute to the WordPress code. If there is a new ‘Look & Feel’ developed it is called a WordPress Theme. There are literally thousands of them available on the web today. If there is a functional update to the WordPress code it can be distributed as a WordPress Plugin. Anyone can download WordPress and any theme or plugin freely and use it for both personal and commercial use.

WordPress is easy
WordPress is designed so that no technical knowledge is required to install it and use it. It doesn’t even ask you to many stupid question during the install but what do you want to call your web site and what your email is. And most of us can answer that. The amount of the customization that is available is as well quite impressive, and the interface is intuitive. So really, anyone can use it.

WordPress is constantly upgraded
The last WordPress update made available is about two weeks ago only. It gets better and better every few weeks. The amount of plugins growing exponentially as well, so it is unlikely you will find a web site functionality that is not ‘developed’ before.

WordPress is a SEO Killer!
And here we get to the interesting part now. The applications of WordPress are really numerous even in the business use, not only as a blogging tool. Imagine the following scenario:

You are the used car salesman. You have a garage with 50 to 100 cars in it. 20 to 40 cars are sold each month and the same number of new ones come in. It is 21 century and you know you need to advertise on the Internet. Those lazy white collar people will not just walk in trough the front door. They will use the web to find their new car. What will they search for? What is the keyword they will type?

Car –to many results – all irrelevant.
Used cars – better but I am looking for a Saab!
Used cars Saab – good results, but it is the Automatic I am looking for
Used cars Saab automatic – ah, here we are… but let me try….
Used car Saab Automatic Black Leather 2l low mileage – Got it!

If you are a car salesman the only thing you need to sell that Saab is to place a link to the YOUR advertisement on the web that will display on top of the search for the exact phrase that describes that car. That is the buyer you want, you do not need his wife who has an idea about the Estate version!

Here is where WordPress comes into play. WordPress is a tool that can if set up properly and used properly place your advertisement on top of the exact search your buyers are looking for. You will get more relevant phone enquiries as well. There will be less:

Do you sell good Volvos?

And will be more like:

That Saab that you have advertised, the automatic 2 litre Petrol one. Do you still have it?

WordPress is a SEO springboard for almost any business.


SEO Strategy

Posted on February 19, 2008 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consultant 2 Comments

The right time to start planning your SEO Strategy is before you start the development of your web site. The SEO Strategy has to be taken into account while developing the site. Applying the SEO to the finished site will take more time and resources. It will waste your money. In some cases it will actually be more cost effective to build the completely new site, but this time with the SEO Strategy aspects in mind.

Your SEO Strategy needs to be based on the type of the site you are building. Some sites are likely to get (inbound) links to them and some are not. If your site is one of those that get the inbound links naturally (directories etc) you should evaluate if the inbound links should point to the main (home) page of your site – or would you be better off with ‘deep’ links that are theme based. If your site is not the natural “link magnet”, you need to think of the way to encourage webmasters to link to you.

The Content
The content is your best bet in the search engine optimisation. The qualities of the content that Google values are:

    quantity
    unique
    fresh
    well formatted – with keywords standing out

To rank your content high in Google it needs to be:

    broken down in the separate pages
    the right keyword density per page
    Each page optimized for one or two keywords only
    The unique TITLE Tag on each page – that contains the keyword the page is optimised for
    The unique set of META Keywords Tags – containing the keywords the page is optimised for and more
    The unique META Description Tags – containing,… you get it by now, don’t you?

Google is a bit like an accountant, it counts the words in various ways. You need to get the words in your web pages to get ranked for them. It is this basic fact that people forget.

The Links
When you have developed your site, filled it with your content, and applied all the on page optimisation, it is the time to tell the Google about it. Or the on page sitemap or the one submitted directly to Google is the starting point only. The key part of your SEO Strategy needs to be the way of obtaining the inbound links. Exchanging the links is a way for some sites, but the most of the sites your content quality will need to act as a link bait from the other web sites. The higher quality of the content the larger likelihood you will attract inbound links.

Diversifying your content is the best way to increase the chances of getting the inbound links. There needs to be something for everyone (in your target market). Naming your articles you have a way of controlling the text the inbound links will link to you with (anchor text), so here your keywords come again.

It is the combination of this onsite search engine optimisation and offsite optimisation, that is building links to your site that generates the results. One alone, even if perfect will not get any site ranked high.

Oh yes, choose your keywords before doing anything else! This is the most common mistake, not to do the proper in depth keywords analysis before you start planning your SEO Strategy.


Google: Search Engine Optimization

Posted on February 17, 2008 by SEO Consultant (admin) in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO Leave a comment

The page where Google describes the Search engine optimization has a nice definition at the start:

SEO is an abbreviation for “search engine optimizer.” Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted.

If you look at the quoted text, you will even notice a typo in it, an unusual occurrence on Google’s pages. It is obvious that this is a very sensitive page on their site, and was not published in the usual way since the editors and proof readers would easily spot the error.

Google obviously has a problem presenting any data about SEO on its web ssite. It is understandable since SEO is in its core the reverse engineering of the search algorithm that Google is hiding vigorously.

But Google’s definition of the SEO does not stop there. It continues with:

However, a few unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results.

Further on the words like used on that page are : Beware, avoid, doubts, trust, illegal, spam, illicit practice, illusion, skeptical,… ad the list goes on an on.

The page where Google explains what SEO is actually ends up with the following text:

If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on “File a Complaint Online,” call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:
Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580
If your complaint is against a company in another country, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.

It really is very obvious that Google wants you to think about SEO as a blasphemy if nothing worse. Are they really so afraid of the people looking into the search engine optimization? Is scare tactics really the best approach here? My opinion is that this is the result of the lack of analysis on how will this reach the reader. It is negative. Negative is not professional (in most cultures). Pointing your visitors to the avenues of placing complaints about companies is just a bit inappropriate from the Google PR people. Search engine optimization should not be their problem unless they make it so themselves.


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