Published by Pete May 12th, 2008
in Google.
If you’re reading this we can pretty-much assume you aren’t Wikipedia, you don’t run a Government ( .gov ) or Education ( .edu ) website, your site wasn’t launched back in 1993, you don’t have 1,470,000 inbound links from decent, relevant websites and over 2 million pages of unique content cached by Google.
If you do fit into any of the categories above - congratulations, Google already loves you.
Otherwise, keep reading…
Make sure your site is crawlable
Continue reading ‘Website traits Google finds freakin’ AWESOME!’
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Published by Pete May 9th, 2008
in Usability.
It’s not uncommon for SEOs to make recommendations which will improve the usability of a client’s website although will have little-to-no impact as far as the search engines are concerned.
I’m not talking about fixing the navigation structure, applying no-follows to certain pages to help sculpt the flow of linkjuice, converting image links to text where possible, tagging and using alt tags on images etc. etc.
I’m talking about things like using meta-description tags. Meta tags haven’t been used to improve search results since the days of Altavista, but having a compelling meta-description can improve click-through rates. Now one could argue that improved click-through rates are one of the many factors that will help increase your ranking, so technically this could still be classed as an SEO technique, but I personally don’t agree that it is. I still tell my clients how important it is to have a meta-description that will make people want to click, but I also tell them that piece of advice isn’t an SEO technique.
Another example was when Gord Hotchkiss commented on an animated banner that spanned the top quarter of a webpage during a ‘website clinic’ on the final day at the recent SMX Sydney. Basically he said that due to the banner changing so frequently, it would detract peoples attention away from the content on the site and that would likely cause an increased bounce-rate.
Continue reading ‘Is onsite SEO simply a usability audit?’
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Published by Pete May 8th, 2008
in Uncategorized.
Over the past couple of months I’ve stepped out of the social media circles, haven’t Twittered, Sphunn, Stumbled and temporarily stopped blogging as a lot has been happening. Things like:
- Purchasing my first house, then spending a couple of weeks moving, another couple of weeks unpacking, assembling furniture and all the other things that happen when you move
- Spent a few days away attending SMX Sydney (here’s a great write-up of the event), not to mention the fantastic people I met, such as Danny, Rand, Jane, Ciaran, Lucas, Andy, Matt, Phil, Kirsten, Mike, Meg, Monte, Mark, Kalena, Jason, Barry… and I’m sure there are a lot of other people I can’t think of right now (so if you’re one of them - sorry… shoot me an email or add a comment and I’ll add you to the list).
So I’ve been in catch-up mode for the last few weeks, and I can’t lie - to unwind from the many stresses of moving house I may have invested a little more time than usual playing my PS3… but now I’m back on track and you can expect to start seeing regular weekly posts as well as my cheesy grinning avatar popping-up in the social media circles once-again. I’m also thinking about doing some short SEO vids which will appear on the blog as well… but that’s a little further down the track.
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Published by Pete March 13th, 2008
in Social Media.
A couple of months ago I had a meeting with a client who had done his Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) research - he knew what keywords were and that it was important to chose the right ones, he understood the value of links, anchor text, title tags etc.
Normally this is great because many of the clients that approach us have no idea of any of these things. This means you end-up spending just as much time (if not more) educating and explaining the SEO process and terminology as you do actually optimising the site.
But for this particular client, it simply confused the matter. See, after reviewing his goals and doing a little research into his industry (the outdoor adventure / travel industry), I felt he would gain greater success through Social Media Marketing (SMM) instead of conventional SEO.
What’s the difference between SEO and SMM?
Continue reading ‘Things that make you go SMM’
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Published by Pete March 4th, 2008
in Blogging.
Throughout history people have always wanted to share their stories. It started with cave paintings, campfire tales, carvings in stone tablets and scrolls which evolved into books. Some of the more artistic and creative people have told their stories through paintings, sculptures, songs and poetry. With Valentine’s day a few weeks ago, I couldn’t hep but remember the old tradition of carving a statement of love into a tree or park bench.
There are many others, but these are just some of the ways that people have shared ideas and left their mark on society.
Why do people do this?
Continue reading ‘Blogging … a natural evolution’
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Published by Pete February 21st, 2008
in SEO.
No, I’m not talking about black, white, blue, grey or any other coloured hat you might wear whilst doing SEO, but instead I want to talk about how Search Engines are really very much like fashionista’s.
To explain this a little better, let’s look at how the fashion industry works.
A designer will come-up with a ‘new look’ and then as that look becomes popular, everyone starts wearing it. The problem is that once a particular look becomes mainstream, it’s no longer fashionable, so the designers have to come-up with something totally different.
One of the things to take note of is that a particular look doesn’t get dismissed because it was impractical, had design flaws or simply didn’t work. It simply lost popularity because it was too common.
So why am I talking about fashion on an SEO blog?
Continue reading ‘SEO is like fashion’
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Published by Pete February 13th, 2008
in Marketing, Social Media and Web Development.
I was driving to work this-morning and on the news there was traffic congestion all over the city, and this got me thinking - what causes increased traffic.
In the off-line world, you’ll usually notice traffic increases for a number of reasons:
- It could be because a particular area has become increasingly popular - the ‘cool’ place to live
- It could be due to the area offering ideal living conditions - nice sized yards, friendly neighbors, a great community, low crime rate etc.
- It could be due to excellent facilities - close to shops, public transport, schools and hospitals
- It could be thanks to affordable pricing
There are plenty of other reasons, but the list above gives you a pretty good idea why certain areas are better to live than others and that means that the traffic to those areas increases.
Now, why am I talking about regional economic growth on a SEO blog? Because the exact same concepts apply in the online world.
Continue reading ‘Web traffic - an offline example’
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Published by Pete February 5th, 2008
in Marketing.
If you ever go into an Abercrombie and Fitch store it’s almost like walking into a night club with the music and the lighting, but the thing that stands-out most of all (well at least to me) is the smell. The place is filled with one of their fragrances that makes it unlike most other cloths shops I’ve been in. Even if you mail-order a product, the moment you open the box, there’s that scent.
Some supermarkets in Northern Europe are connected to bakeries by hundreds of meters of pipeline. The pipes carry the aroma of fresh bread to the stores’ entrances. Without even realising it, passers-by are struck with hunger and drawn inside the store.
Another example I heard about is at a major British bank that introduced freshly brewed coffee to its branches with the intention of making customers feel at home. The familiar smell relaxes the bank’s customers, not an emotion you’d normally associate with such an establishment.
All of these are examples of Sensory Marketing. A marketing method that targets your senses - sight, smell, sound, touch and taste to promote a product or service (as opposed to conventional marketing which usually relies on sight and sound alone).
Continue reading ‘Taking Sensory Marketing Online’
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Published by Pete February 1st, 2008
in Keywords and Marketing.
We all know the old adage - “you can’t judge a book by its cover” and it’s true too… but this doesn’t stop us from doing it. Every day we rely on first impressions when making a majority of our decisions - it isn’t the ‘right’ way to make choices, but unfortunately it is how most people operate.
The online world is no different
When we do a web search, we’re presented with a list of possible options and the only thing that we have to help us choose which website is the most relevant is the site’s title and two short lines of text.
For the non-HTML or SEO savvy, the title of a webpage is (appropriately) called the ‘Title Tag’ and the two lines of text below the title is most often stored in ‘Meta Description Tags’ which are usually located at the top of your website code. If your site doesn’t have a Meta Description Tag, then the search engines try their best to sum-up what your site is about from your content. For more info on how this works, you might find Matt Cutts’ video on website snippets useful.
Before Google ever existed the search engines would often use this Meta data to help determine the relevance of a website, but now that the search engines have evolved the Meta data doesn’t have any direct impact on the optimisation of a site - but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important.
Continue reading ‘You can’t judge a site by its Meta’
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Published by Pete January 25th, 2008
in Social Media.
I’ve been playing a lot more with social media lately and although I have read it many times before, it never really hit-home until I had personally experienced it. SEO, Social Media (and unfortunately most things in this world) is very-much a popularity contest.
Celebrity Endorsement
Most major companies will pay good money to have celebrities endorse their products, and as consumers, we’re constantly sucked-in to believing a product is good simply because a sporting star or actor said it was.
Continue reading ‘Social Media Celebrity Endorsements’
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