So this morning I woke up and did what I typically do early in the morning - Google searched a variety of search terms to test various keyword phrases. While this is always important to do, there is something especially fulfilling about seeing yourself ranking number one for your key search words over and over again.
Now, imagine my surprise when not only was one of the particular sites not ranking number one, but it wasn't number two, number three, or number four. It wasn't on the first page, nor the second, nor the third. In short, a year of hard work vanished in an instant.
After a few minutes, it all came back. Then it vanished again. It came back. Then vanished again. After a bit, about half of it came back entirely, and the other half was just gone into thin air.
As I am sure you can understand, this led to a large amount of panic, anxiety, and worry as I searched and searched for an answer. I posted on forums. I tried emailing people directly. I read every Google help article there was. In short, it appeared that somehow we had obtained some kind of penalty, but I could not figure out why.
I checked Bing and Yahoo - no issues. This made me think it was something Google specific. More hours pass, as I desperately seek to figure out the problem.
Suddenly, within the space of a few minutes, the site once again jumped back to the front in the number one position. I checked all of the various keywords, and it was the same across each and every one of them - number one yet again.
The question you are likely asking yourself right now is - what happened? And, for the first time in my SEO career, I literally have no idea. This is a mystery that is the nightmare of every SEO professional, when something weird happens unexpectedly in a search engine, and then you cannot figure out what exactly happened.
Thankfully, things are back to normal now, but you can bet that I will be stressed about this and fearful of another surprising recurrence in the future.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Backlinks, Backlinks, Backlinks
If you do any reading on search engine optimization, you will assuredly come across the term 'backlinks' and depending on what you are reading, you may decide that backlinks are the equivalent of the Holy Grail. This is not entirely true as a general matter, but even more importantly, not all backlinks are created equal.
There are basically five types of backlinks. The first is pretty simple, and is simply the URL of your website. You get a little bit of juice from this, but the downside is that it lacks any type of anchor text, so you do not gain any type of keyword bump on Google.
The next type to know is the nofollow link. This is the type of link where your URL is on the site, but the code of the side flags it as nofollow, meaning that search engine crawlers will not head to your site from there. These also have very little juice, and typically are not as strong as the normal URL of your website listed above.
Next are footer links. These are the types of links that appear on the bottom of blogs or websites, and are typically a wee bit stronger than the previous two mentioned.
One of my favorite link types is the sidebar. These are links that appear on the side of a website, normally on blogs, and are stronger than footer links. These can be great for search engine optimization, and also are a nice way to get your site name out there.
The best type of link in my opinion is a contextual link using your keywords of choice. For example, if you were selling yellow bananas at a site called Monkeyingaround.com, then you could create a link whose text reads yellow bananas but clicks directly to Monkeyingaround.com. This type of link is the one that you should go for the most, and has the best potential to help your site rank well.
There are basically five types of backlinks. The first is pretty simple, and is simply the URL of your website. You get a little bit of juice from this, but the downside is that it lacks any type of anchor text, so you do not gain any type of keyword bump on Google.
The next type to know is the nofollow link. This is the type of link where your URL is on the site, but the code of the side flags it as nofollow, meaning that search engine crawlers will not head to your site from there. These also have very little juice, and typically are not as strong as the normal URL of your website listed above.
Next are footer links. These are the types of links that appear on the bottom of blogs or websites, and are typically a wee bit stronger than the previous two mentioned.
One of my favorite link types is the sidebar. These are links that appear on the side of a website, normally on blogs, and are stronger than footer links. These can be great for search engine optimization, and also are a nice way to get your site name out there.
The best type of link in my opinion is a contextual link using your keywords of choice. For example, if you were selling yellow bananas at a site called Monkeyingaround.com, then you could create a link whose text reads yellow bananas but clicks directly to Monkeyingaround.com. This type of link is the one that you should go for the most, and has the best potential to help your site rank well.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Sometimes, SEO Will Drive You Crazy
There is one certainty when it comes to search engine optimization, and that is quite simply that sometimes, SEO will drive you crazy. I do not mean that type of crazy where you are imagining seeing things or hearing voices, but rather the kind of crazy that has you banging your head on your desk and asking questions out loud as you lie in bed late at night trying to figure out what went wrong.
SEO is a funny business, and things change constantly in ways that are hard to keep up with. You can be doing poorly and do nothing, and suddenly you jump way up in the organic results. You can be number one and working hard on a daily basis, and suddenly find yourself dropping without any understanding as to how it happened. Sometimes it seems like you are working magic and are unstoppable, and other times you ponder whether you have any business working on search engine optimization projects at all.
I will give you a prime example. One of our projects was ranking number one for it's top keywords, and of course we were looking to continue that trend across other keywords as well. We were making a couple of tweaks with the H1 tags (page title) and even messing around a bit with meta data (which really should not have any type of effect). I think we got rid of what was considered an irrelevant phrase and added one that we felt was certain to help our work.
The next day, after our page had been crawled, we suddenly experienced a drop, falling from number one to number two. Of course, this set off a bit of a panic as we tried to figure out what we did and why it was happening, and even at this moment we still have not quite figured out the problem. It could be the H1 shift, it could be some change elsewhere in the site, it might be that our competitors are doing something different, or it could just be that there was an algorithm shift.
For awhile, the thoughts just kept running round and round, and tempers were starting to flare. It was at that point that we realized that we will might never know, and that we should focus on what we like best about white-hat SEO- working hard, doing the right things, and trying to achieve that number one position again. So we are going to keep experimenting, try to figure things out, and have a little fun trying to figure out all the complexities of organic search.
The same should go for you if you experience a setback. Do not beat yourself up, keep working hard, and strive to always stay positive. Today's setback can lead to tomorrow's success if you let it.
SEO is a funny business, and things change constantly in ways that are hard to keep up with. You can be doing poorly and do nothing, and suddenly you jump way up in the organic results. You can be number one and working hard on a daily basis, and suddenly find yourself dropping without any understanding as to how it happened. Sometimes it seems like you are working magic and are unstoppable, and other times you ponder whether you have any business working on search engine optimization projects at all.
I will give you a prime example. One of our projects was ranking number one for it's top keywords, and of course we were looking to continue that trend across other keywords as well. We were making a couple of tweaks with the H1 tags (page title) and even messing around a bit with meta data (which really should not have any type of effect). I think we got rid of what was considered an irrelevant phrase and added one that we felt was certain to help our work.
The next day, after our page had been crawled, we suddenly experienced a drop, falling from number one to number two. Of course, this set off a bit of a panic as we tried to figure out what we did and why it was happening, and even at this moment we still have not quite figured out the problem. It could be the H1 shift, it could be some change elsewhere in the site, it might be that our competitors are doing something different, or it could just be that there was an algorithm shift.
For awhile, the thoughts just kept running round and round, and tempers were starting to flare. It was at that point that we realized that we will might never know, and that we should focus on what we like best about white-hat SEO- working hard, doing the right things, and trying to achieve that number one position again. So we are going to keep experimenting, try to figure things out, and have a little fun trying to figure out all the complexities of organic search.
The same should go for you if you experience a setback. Do not beat yourself up, keep working hard, and strive to always stay positive. Today's setback can lead to tomorrow's success if you let it.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
SEO Goals - Part Two
In the prior post, I discussed some of the reasons that you might be interested in search engine optimization, and SEO goals that you might have such as increasing the number of visitors to your site, increasing the number of page views, decreasing the bounce rate, increasing sales, or any other goals that you or your organization might have.
In part 2, I want to discuss the second part of goal setting, which is having Intelligent Search Engine Optimization Goals ('ISEOG'). Understanding what you want to do is only the first step, but if you are truly going to travel down the success path of SEO then you have to make sure that you have obtainable targets to reach. For example, you can be the best rifle marksman in the world, but you will never hit anything if you cannot choose a target. Search engines are the same way, and ISEOG (I say ice-og) is important.
The first thing about your goals is that they have to be specific. It does you no good to say that you want to "increase visitors" without defining what you mean by that. If you want to get one hundred visitors a day, then that has to be your target. Otherwise, you increase by one (from zero even), and you have "success." Set specific goals that you want to achieve.
Next, you have to make certain that your goals are measurable, and then you have to actually measure them. For example, using the previous mentioned goal of hitting 100 visitors a day, you have to make sure that you are counting each day and tracking your progress. If you say you want more visitors without defining it, it is hard to know if your efforts are paying off. Also, once you see success, you will be more motivated, so tracking is very important for this reason as well.
In line with both of the previous two recommendations, you have to make sure that your goals are obtainable. It is great to want to achieve high traffic volumes, but if you make your goal one million visitors a day, and you are currently at ten, you will likely get frustrated at your failure to hit such an unobtainable goal. Be smart in your goal setting, and make certain that they will push you, but are also possible.
The most important component of all three of this goal-setting is that you have to make it time relevant. You want to make certain that not only do you create goals that are specific, measurable, and obtainable, but you also want to make certain that you put a time deadline on getting to where you want to be. If you do not limit the amount of time that you have, or put some kind of pressure on yourself to achieve, then you will find it easy to not take care of business or to constantly re-evaluate where you stand.
Follow the tips outline in Part One and Part Two of this article on SEO Goals and you will be well on your way to success.
In part 2, I want to discuss the second part of goal setting, which is having Intelligent Search Engine Optimization Goals ('ISEOG'). Understanding what you want to do is only the first step, but if you are truly going to travel down the success path of SEO then you have to make sure that you have obtainable targets to reach. For example, you can be the best rifle marksman in the world, but you will never hit anything if you cannot choose a target. Search engines are the same way, and ISEOG (I say ice-og) is important.
The first thing about your goals is that they have to be specific. It does you no good to say that you want to "increase visitors" without defining what you mean by that. If you want to get one hundred visitors a day, then that has to be your target. Otherwise, you increase by one (from zero even), and you have "success." Set specific goals that you want to achieve.
Next, you have to make certain that your goals are measurable, and then you have to actually measure them. For example, using the previous mentioned goal of hitting 100 visitors a day, you have to make sure that you are counting each day and tracking your progress. If you say you want more visitors without defining it, it is hard to know if your efforts are paying off. Also, once you see success, you will be more motivated, so tracking is very important for this reason as well.
In line with both of the previous two recommendations, you have to make sure that your goals are obtainable. It is great to want to achieve high traffic volumes, but if you make your goal one million visitors a day, and you are currently at ten, you will likely get frustrated at your failure to hit such an unobtainable goal. Be smart in your goal setting, and make certain that they will push you, but are also possible.
The most important component of all three of this goal-setting is that you have to make it time relevant. You want to make certain that not only do you create goals that are specific, measurable, and obtainable, but you also want to make certain that you put a time deadline on getting to where you want to be. If you do not limit the amount of time that you have, or put some kind of pressure on yourself to achieve, then you will find it easy to not take care of business or to constantly re-evaluate where you stand.
Follow the tips outline in Part One and Part Two of this article on SEO Goals and you will be well on your way to success.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Should You Change Your Domain Name?
Sometimes I get a question from clients that always catches me a bit off guard. The question is, "Should I change my domain name?" My answer almost always is no, and for several reasons.
For starters, moving to a new domain name is risky and potentially dangerous to your business. The only reasons you should ever consider this is if you have been at the domain a very short time, you have no investment in the old domain name, or if you are moving away from a shared hosting (like Wordpress or Blogger) to your own domain. Even if one these applies, you have to manage the switch very carefully. Why? The reasons are pretty simple.
You should picture your potential domain move like moving a business that has been in the same location for several years. Your customers, clients, readers, etc, are all used to going to the same place, and even though you can let them know about the move, some may simply not come. This is true in the physical world, and on the Internet.
Also, picture everyone that is trying to visit your business relying on old information from the phone book (or for those more tech savvy - Iphone, Google Map, Yelp listing, etc). Search engines are the same way. A move away from your current domain means that all of your hard work for search engine optimization is gone, and you may potentially fall (or even leave) the search engine rankings for a good while. Is this worth it?
In addition, any link popularity that you have built up will also be gone. Say goodbye to that hard work as well. You will have to start from scratch on that as well.
You will also lose the authority from having a new domain in lieu of an older one. Search engines treat websites kind of like we treat people. You wouldn't expect a baby to have a lot of authority, but someone with a few grey hairs - that is someone that you will pay attention to.
Last but not least, and perhaps the most dangerous part of changing your domain name is the decline in traffic associated with such a switch. You may lose anywhere from 40-95% of your traffic due to the time it will take to index, the fall out of search engines, and old clients not knowing your new site name. If you are an online retailer, this can be a dangerous thing indeed.
So think a bit before you change names. Although you can 301 redirect from your old site, you had better absolutely be certain that it is the right long term move for your site, or else the move will result in a lot of headaches and problems that can only be cured with patience, hard work, and time.
For starters, moving to a new domain name is risky and potentially dangerous to your business. The only reasons you should ever consider this is if you have been at the domain a very short time, you have no investment in the old domain name, or if you are moving away from a shared hosting (like Wordpress or Blogger) to your own domain. Even if one these applies, you have to manage the switch very carefully. Why? The reasons are pretty simple.
You should picture your potential domain move like moving a business that has been in the same location for several years. Your customers, clients, readers, etc, are all used to going to the same place, and even though you can let them know about the move, some may simply not come. This is true in the physical world, and on the Internet.
Also, picture everyone that is trying to visit your business relying on old information from the phone book (or for those more tech savvy - Iphone, Google Map, Yelp listing, etc). Search engines are the same way. A move away from your current domain means that all of your hard work for search engine optimization is gone, and you may potentially fall (or even leave) the search engine rankings for a good while. Is this worth it?
In addition, any link popularity that you have built up will also be gone. Say goodbye to that hard work as well. You will have to start from scratch on that as well.
You will also lose the authority from having a new domain in lieu of an older one. Search engines treat websites kind of like we treat people. You wouldn't expect a baby to have a lot of authority, but someone with a few grey hairs - that is someone that you will pay attention to.
Last but not least, and perhaps the most dangerous part of changing your domain name is the decline in traffic associated with such a switch. You may lose anywhere from 40-95% of your traffic due to the time it will take to index, the fall out of search engines, and old clients not knowing your new site name. If you are an online retailer, this can be a dangerous thing indeed.
So think a bit before you change names. Although you can 301 redirect from your old site, you had better absolutely be certain that it is the right long term move for your site, or else the move will result in a lot of headaches and problems that can only be cured with patience, hard work, and time.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
SEO Goals - Part One
I had a client recently who told me his goal was to be number one on the search engines. While this lofty goal makes sense, I shared with this client that such a goal is not enough.
Typically, when a client first approaches me, we sit down and have a discussion about the SEO goals - beyond ranking number one. Typically, I ask questions that are designed to find out if the client is interested in increasing the number of unique visitors to a site, whether they want to increase the number of page views that a visitor has, whether they are interested in decreasing the bounce rate, if they are interested in increasing the number of pages viewed per visit, whether they have any interest in increasing the number of visits to a landing page, if they are interested in converting more visitors to customers, if they are interested in creating long term customer lists, and how concerned they are with increasing sales or leads from their site.
It is not enough to just say that you want to be number one. This is a great place to start, but you also have to understand what you are trying to do, why you are trying to do it, and then work to develop a quality plan to get you where you want to be.
An example may help clarify what I am speaking of. Let's say that your keyword phrase is "chicken pot pie" and that on Google, Bing, and Yahoo you are currently in the first position for your keyword phrase. However, despite this number one ranking, you are facing several problems, such as visitors showing up at your site and then leaving without visiting the various pages, or worse, visiting a few pages but never buying your famous chicken pot pies. Despite being ranked number one, business is terrible, and after reading this article you understand why.
It is not enough to have a goal to be number one. It is merely a starting point to effective search engine optimization and business planning. Think smart, think long term, and being number one may actually mean something to you and your business in terms of success. Rank number one and have a page that generates no business, and you will quickly see how meaningless ranking number one can be.
Typically, when a client first approaches me, we sit down and have a discussion about the SEO goals - beyond ranking number one. Typically, I ask questions that are designed to find out if the client is interested in increasing the number of unique visitors to a site, whether they want to increase the number of page views that a visitor has, whether they are interested in decreasing the bounce rate, if they are interested in increasing the number of pages viewed per visit, whether they have any interest in increasing the number of visits to a landing page, if they are interested in converting more visitors to customers, if they are interested in creating long term customer lists, and how concerned they are with increasing sales or leads from their site.
It is not enough to just say that you want to be number one. This is a great place to start, but you also have to understand what you are trying to do, why you are trying to do it, and then work to develop a quality plan to get you where you want to be.
An example may help clarify what I am speaking of. Let's say that your keyword phrase is "chicken pot pie" and that on Google, Bing, and Yahoo you are currently in the first position for your keyword phrase. However, despite this number one ranking, you are facing several problems, such as visitors showing up at your site and then leaving without visiting the various pages, or worse, visiting a few pages but never buying your famous chicken pot pies. Despite being ranked number one, business is terrible, and after reading this article you understand why.
It is not enough to have a goal to be number one. It is merely a starting point to effective search engine optimization and business planning. Think smart, think long term, and being number one may actually mean something to you and your business in terms of success. Rank number one and have a page that generates no business, and you will quickly see how meaningless ranking number one can be.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Blogging Posts: How Long Should They Be?
In terms of search engine optimization, there is always a lot of discussion and questions surrounding the topic of how long should a blog post be. Most of the advice out there says no less than 300 words, and most advocate between five hundred to a thousand words for optimization purposes, but I do not think this is always best.
The reason for my thinking is simple. Search engine optimization for blogs is designed to get to readers to a site, and the hope is that once they arrive they will become lifelong readers. So, in terms of getting them to find the blog to start with, the aforementioned thoughts about minimums and advice about optimal word counts make perfect sense. However, there is a problem with this that I have seen time and time again.
Often when people start really focusing on their word counts, their blogs begin to suffer. Content quality drops in exchange for content quantity, and the focus shifts towards getting higher search engine results. This shift causes problems for current readers who expect a certain level of quality and organization to a blog. When shifting to quantity focus, many people lose readers because their blog suffers. Keyword stuffing, poor organization, repeated keywords, and mindless drivel are the fastest ways to drive your readers away (besides not ever posting or never posting original content), so while your word count focus may gain you a new reader, you may lose ten.
Also, you have to keep in mind that just because a new reader finds your blog does not mean that they will become a permanent reader. If you sacrifice content for word count, you can be sure that the new reader will notice in the same way that your old readers did before they moved on. So, in the end you not only have lost your following, but new followers will not be inclined to keep reading either. Focusing solely on word count is a lose-lose situation, and it will cost you.
Instead, keep in mind that quality content is king. Word count can be important, but the quality of what you write and how your readers feel about it will have much more of an impact than anything else that you do. If you write quality material that is well-organized, and meets minimal word count requirements, you will be much more successful than someone who write two thousand words of meaningless nonsense.
The reason for my thinking is simple. Search engine optimization for blogs is designed to get to readers to a site, and the hope is that once they arrive they will become lifelong readers. So, in terms of getting them to find the blog to start with, the aforementioned thoughts about minimums and advice about optimal word counts make perfect sense. However, there is a problem with this that I have seen time and time again.
Often when people start really focusing on their word counts, their blogs begin to suffer. Content quality drops in exchange for content quantity, and the focus shifts towards getting higher search engine results. This shift causes problems for current readers who expect a certain level of quality and organization to a blog. When shifting to quantity focus, many people lose readers because their blog suffers. Keyword stuffing, poor organization, repeated keywords, and mindless drivel are the fastest ways to drive your readers away (besides not ever posting or never posting original content), so while your word count focus may gain you a new reader, you may lose ten.
Also, you have to keep in mind that just because a new reader finds your blog does not mean that they will become a permanent reader. If you sacrifice content for word count, you can be sure that the new reader will notice in the same way that your old readers did before they moved on. So, in the end you not only have lost your following, but new followers will not be inclined to keep reading either. Focusing solely on word count is a lose-lose situation, and it will cost you.
Instead, keep in mind that quality content is king. Word count can be important, but the quality of what you write and how your readers feel about it will have much more of an impact than anything else that you do. If you write quality material that is well-organized, and meets minimal word count requirements, you will be much more successful than someone who write two thousand words of meaningless nonsense.
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