Security: How resilient are forms to special characters?
Accessibility: How compliant is the website with W3C coding standards? Valid HTML/CSS?
Navigation: Call to action on every page, no dead ends
These are great questions and this is a checklist that should not be ignored when designing a website (and then performing QA on it afterwards).
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
This is an absolutely fantastic tool that permits you to study those stories that made the front page of Digg, and understand the metrics of those stories. How many buries? Friend voting percentages? How many votes necessary? Study individual users,
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
A Google Groups thread asks about hiding content using AJAX and CSS. Google Webmaster Central rep, Wysz, said:
If your text is temporarily “hidden” as part of your site’s UI but is still intended for the user to see at some point, you probably don’t need to worry about Google mistakenly viewing it as deceptive.
Yes, so my title was a bit deceiving but this question is a common webmaster question.
Many sites deploy styling techniques that only shows content on a specific click. Heck, even Google deploys this on their help content. For example, take a look at this page. Notice that when you click on the links in the middle of the page, you then notice more content appear. Technically, Google is temporarily hiding text from the user until that user clicks on the link.
This is a form of acceptable hidden text, since a user can get to the content while on the same page.
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
You’ll all be glad to know that following yesterday’s rather disappointing lunch, I went out today and had a calzone at an excellent Italian restaurant. The only negative aspect to this is that I’m feeling rather bloated due to all the carbs, and so really need some great presentations to grab my attention.
Session 4: Video & Podcast SEO
I debated whether or not to attend this session as I felt that it could either be absolutely fascinating or, well, not. One speaker in and I’m worried that it may be the latter. Admittedly, there’s some good stuff on using ID3 tags when creating podcasts, but unfortunately I’m only human and can’t separate a presentation from the way in which it is presented.
I think that the organisers of any conference should be made to sit through every session so that they can get a feel for the varying levels of presentational skills that the visitors have to endure. I actually feel that most of the presentations at SES have been reasonably strong, but there are still too many who simply put their script onto slides and then read them back to an audience (who can probably all read themselves).
There are also often too many sales pitches (again, SES hasn’t been too bad this year*), so when Onil Gunawardana from blinkx stands up, my heart sinks. Apparently they’re the biggest video search engine there is and have indexed over 18 million hours of video. They’ve also produced a guide to video SEO, but Onil isn’t going to take us through it. Why not? That’s what were here for! If you do want to read it, you can find the link to the PDF here.
If you want to read more about blinkx (and you probably should, it’s pretty interesting - I just resent typing up a pitch), then TechCrunch is a good a place as any.
Tim Gibbon from Elemental, who also spoke in this morning’s News SEO session, goes over some of the same points that have already been covered: using keywords in descriptions, titles, & tags; creating individual pages for each piece of content; putting keywords in URLs; ensuring that content is RSS friendly. Any of this sound familiar? Yeah, me too. Tim does use a real-life example, but he does suffer slightly from the fact that the session organiser doesn’t seem to have checked the various presentations to make sure that they don’t overlap too much. I would have loved to have seen an in-depth case study of the work they did on the Adidas campaign, but maybe that’s just me.
I’m afraid that when the final speaker stood up and announced that he was the CEO of an in-video advertising start-up, I seriously felt like walking out. So I did.
Session 5: Images & Search Engines
I was planning to cover the session on searcher behaviour, but it’s standing room only and I haven’t mastered blogging whist standing up yet, so Images & Search Engines it is.
Both Li Evans of KeyRelevance and Scottie Claiborne highlight the reasons that sites should be optimising images, and they’re compelling ones. The numbers of searches are immense and it is, in many ways, still an untapped market. Li shows some great examples of popular consumer products where the only images showing in search results are ones being submitted by the consumers themselves; the retailers are missing out on huge opportunities to attract traffic to products they sell, which the market is interested in. Li also points out, with the help of some compelling case studies using Hilary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani as examples, that with the advent of universal search, image optimisation should also be a consideration in terms of reputation management.
The final speaker is Maile Ohye of Google. (I don’t think you need me to link to their site. Oh, ok then.) The first thing that she points out is that doing a search for, let’s say, "flower images" in the main, blended search and in the image search itself will return different results. There are, apparently, different systems ranking them.
Maile also details the factors that Google takes account of when indexing and ranking images:
Colour, texture, & spatial layout
Information surrounding the image (text, etc.)
Quality of the image
Quality of the site
Layout of the page
Attributes, alt
Hotlinking (where an image is pulled from another site)
One thing that highlights the point Li made is a site called Schmapp; it’s a tourist guide where all the photos are, as far as I know, taken from Flickr. I mention it because they contacted me to ask if they could use a photo I took in Sydney. Obviously I said yes, and it’s just a great example of a place where you might be able to seed content if you have interesting images.
Unfortunately, I had to leave before the final session as I had a prior engagement, which was a real shame as I was definitely looking forward to the session on Social Search. This is the end of my second day at SES London 2008; it’s been a mixed day, but overall a good show.
Tomorrow should be a good day, with site clinics and sessions on brand reputation management & looking at the brave new world of consumer generated & controlled content. And, of course, there’s the promise of free beer to look forward to in the evening.
*I was told that a speaker in the European Case Studies session made a comment about my post from yesterday, where I said that the Mobile session started off with sales pitches. What I of course went on to say is that the discussion which followed was thoroughly interesting, and this is really my point. I have no issue with vendors speaking, I just personally think that they’re more likely to make sales when they concentrate on imparting interesting information in an engaging way.
This isn’t meant to be an exercise in SES bashing - I’ve really enjoyed it but just feel that, in common with every single conference I’ve ever been to, it could benefit from a bit more quality control. Which probably means that I’ll never be asked to speak at SES, which will well & truly learn me, I guess.
Ciarán heads up the SEO & Social Media team at online marketing agency Altogether Digital. He wishes he didn’t have to leave SES early.
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
Here’s one of those great posts that makes you sit back and think … wow, how can I apply this to my business? Its definitely food for thought, for seos and end clients alike. Do ideal clients have certain traits that tip you off to their true fit
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
Never underestimate the screaming-obsessive lowdown fanaticism of a committed social site user who’s really pissed off. From Digg’s famed Bury Brigade to the vulgar rhetoric of the StumbleTroll Wars, marauding packs of member-vigilantes gang up to violently flame those they consider trespassers.
The engaged are extremely invested in their community, to the point […] More SEO News…. (CLICK HERE) Tags: SEOSearch Engine OptimizationSocial MarketingDiggTechnoratri
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
Being about three weeks deep into my role as Chief Link Maestro at Elixir Systems, I have quickly learned why content is considered king. I’d dabbled in link building previously but had never really taken the reins and planned a link building campaign from scratch. Previously it had … More SEO News…. (CLICK HERE) Tags: SEORedditYahooLivesocial
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
Some may have missed this and I tried to avoid writing about it again, but I figured it might be good to document for the future. Google has pushed out yet another PageRank update for those sites who sell links, reportedly.
A few threads from the weekend have reported downgrades to their PageRank scores. Some of those threads include DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.
What is this penalty? It is supposedly a visible PageRank penalty to avert those that sell links for PageRank and those who buy links for PageRank. It is probably working well to discourage link buyers and sellers on sites that were hit. Here is some history:
All in all, I think this solution has been working for Google - so kudos to them and I really mean that. I must add that some are brave and taking a stance by blocking GoogleBot to make a statement and I respect you as well.
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
I think Lee Odden did an excellent job with his piece on The Fallacy of SEO Celebrity. In the post, he explains why pursuing a goal of recognition without an idea of what you want to do with it can be so dangerous:
An amazing number of people seem to think becoming well known in the search marketing business is an end in and of itself. Not seeing the forest for the trees, these folks put vast amounts of time into link bait ridden blogs, networking up and getting addicted to the rush of ego that comes from being recognized. Is it because they misunderstand reputation marketing or are they really thinking being a “SEO celebrity” is a bankable goal?…
…Establishing a well known brand and reputation in an industry is only worthwhile if there’s something to back it up. Otherwise, all that is achieved is a hollow online existence requiring the constant feeding of “notoriety crack”.
I’d advise a full read (and don’t miss the comments either). I also wanted to add my $0.02 on this subject, since I found it relatively captivating:
There is an intoxication and an inexplicable desire that many have to be recognized or even famous. I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t experience it myself, particularly when I attended my first few conferences in 2004 and 2005 and gaped at the "big names." I think youth plays a big part in that.
You CAN win beneficial fame in the SEO world IF you stick to a singular subject and make yourself a noted expert in that field. It’s precisely what Dan Thies did with keyword research, what Eric Ward did with link building and what Neil Patel did with linkbait.
Fame is a double-edged sword - it takes up an enormous amount of time being "famous" (even in a tiny niche like SEO) and the minute you stop answering all your emails, the negative comments and posts start flowing. Fame also takes a massive emotional toll, because you will have people take potshots at you. Don’t think they won’t get under your skin - just look at Danny Sullivan or Matt Cutts - believe me when I say that they have a tough time getting to sleep sometimes because of somethign an anonymous troll wrote about them on a blog they’ve never heard of.
Getting a post popular on Sphinn will not make you famous. Getting 50 posts popular on Sphinn won’t even make you famous. It takes time, effort, charisma, dedication and talent… That is, unless you want to be famous for being an asshole, in which case, just a couple negative posts will do the trick. I’m not sure what the business model is for this, though.
Getting known for SEO outside the SEO sphere is far more important and far more valuable than getting popular inside the niche. That’s where the ROI on fame comes in, and usually not much before.
The two best paths to fame that I know of are - first, make great content - content so good everyone’s still talking about it 3 months later (homework - what content from November of last year do you still remember?). Second - be a genuinely great human being - someone who cares about your fellow marketers, bloggers and conference attendees. There are so many people I’ve met in this industry who’ve become great friends, and I find that if you’re a friend of a few dozen powerful SEOs, they will bend over backward to help you out.
Once you’re "famous" it’s hard to retreat. Just ask Shawn Hogan, who’s tried to play it under the radar, but still gets mobbed by fanboys (including yours truly) when he shows up at conferences.
Lastly, as far as I know, there is no secret club for famous SEOs that you’ll be inducted into upon achieving a certain number of results for your name in Google blog search. When I started to become better known in search marketing circles, I though for sure there’d be at least a secret temple where we all took private retreats and talked directly to search engineeers, but sorry - no such luck. I guess Homer and the StoneCutters are in some other industry…
I’m guessing that the discussion on this topic is going to be even more worthwhile than the post itself, so please do contribute.
p.s. I’m writing a big piece on algorithms for tomorrow, so I don’t feel too guilty indulging in a little industry-centric banter tonight
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
Rand Fishkin writes, "A long time ago (at least, in web years), search engine optimization required specific targeting practices for each of the engines.
Nowadays, most SEO is done with the same set of search-friendliness and search targeting sta
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. It takes lot’s of work and research. Trial and Error. Read through our posts here and try to learn from our experience. We offer some of our insight… news and comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, and ideas. The site does allow "follows" so post your links.
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