My CMS

Category: Uncategorized

  • Stealing Links From Your Competitor

    Here’s the problem. You have an idea for a website. You check the competition and you note how stiff it is. You pick one particular competitor in the field and notice that it has a ton of links. Now you are discouraged. You’ll never get that many links and compete. Might as well just give up.

    Or, you could steal their links. Mwahahaha!

    Ok, before I provide details I want to tell you 2 things. First, this is a horrible idea. I’m not 100% on this, but I’m pretty sure you would be breaking some sort of law. And it’s just really bad form. Second, this isn’t even my idea. It is the result of a satirical discussion at an SMX I attended in 08…maybe 09. I wish I could remember who it was that said this because I like to give credit where credit is due.

    Without any more stalling, I give you the first post in a completely inconsistent series called “SEO Terrorism.”

    So, you run a link analysis of your choosing on your competitor. Get that giant list of links. To save some time, weed out press releases and the like. You may also want to remove links to sub pages. These are usually links to specific items on a site noted in relation to a specific topic. You’ll be doing a lot of work to make it happen without skimming the list to only homepage links.

    Now you should still have a very extensive list of sites that link to your competitor. Sort them by priority. I suggest putting the links to your competitor that have the anchor of terms you want to rank for, and placing anchors of your competitors name at the bottom.

    Now, go register a domain. Any domain really, it doesn’t matter. If you really want to increase your odds of stealing links, try to register at the same place your competitor has.

    Check your competitors nameservers, you will need this. Point your new domain to their nameservers. You’ll know why in just a moment.

    Now comes the work part. Craft an email explaining that your company is re-branding (from your competitor’s name to your new domain name). You have plans to do this in exactly 3 months, and you are trying to get links updated in preparation. Send this email to as many sites on your list of links as you can. Keep doing this until you have exhausted the list, or are tired.

    When someone checks out the new domain, it will resolve at your competitor’s site. Hmmm…seems like this is all “OK.”

    Wait the three months. Spent this time creating your new site with relevant content. You can check the sites on your list to see if anyone took the bait. Wait a little longer if you must, and contact more sites.

    Then BAM! Switch the nameservers to your new site. Now, you have come out of the gate with a number of links that were not only added to your site, they were taken from your competitor.

    We used their nameservers because even a remotely savvy web admin will know a 301 redirect. We want to make this look genuine. We don’t do press releases because they are usually a waste of time. You may also want to be careful with contacting anyone that may have a personal relationship with your competitor.

    You’ll also want to make sure you keep a list of the site’s you’ve contacted because too many emails will look suspicious. You could just go down the list for a full year or longer just to get as many links as you can.

    Now, wait for either your rise to search engine power, or your impending court date. Whichever comes first.

  • Header Tags and SEO

    If you aren’t sure what header tags are, these are tags in HTML used to create…well…headers. They have a range in size, and can be used for header and sub-headers. Header tags are signified by the syntax, ‘x’ being a number from 1 – 6. Example as follows:

    Please note: I used an image instead of actual header tags because the header tags are changed for my blog with CSS.

    As you can see, the largest of the header tags is the H1 tag, and the smallest the H6.

    Normally, we would use these at the top of pages to let our visitors know what the page is all about. And so, the thought is, if we have a header, explaining what a page is all about, then a keyword in said header would count for a lot in our on-page SEO efforts. The debate comes from those that believe that abuse of the headers, much like the keywords tag, has forced the search engines to discount the keywords in them. There are even some who say the use of headers is needless in any fashion. I strongly disagree with this thought due to a little experience.

    Long before I was an SEO, and before I realized I haven’t the talent needed, I aspired to be a writer. I wasn’t sure of what type, but I loved to write. It was common to use a larger header at the top of a paper to signify what the paper was about, and further use the sub-headers to describe the coming paragraph or section. It only seems logical that we should do so for our websites, to help our visitors navigate.

    That being said, SEO isn’t an afterthought for me with regard to headers. But because I believe in quality content, I don’t even have to put much thought into “SEOed” headers. Think about it. If you are writing about a certain subject, and you are creating quality content, and you make use of headers in the way we were taught in school, wouldn’t you end up naturally using keywords in your headers? (the answer to that question is “yes”).

    Now, this isn’t to say we won’t tweak header now and then to target the right term with a little more specification, but it is to say we don’t stress over them. As for their SEO benefit?

    Sure, they may not be the number 1 factor in on-page optimization efforts (that I can certainly agree with), but in this field, every point counts. If we are going to be creating quality content, and we will likely be making use of headers anyway, might as well give them an SEO eye real quick.

    The thing to remember is this. Headers (and any other element on your page) will work because they stand out against the rest of the text on that page. If we over-do it, then the headers will mean less.

  • 404 Reports for Link-Building

    Either the stars have aligned, or someone has too many email addresses and too much time on their hands. Either way, I’ve gotten 3 emails in 2 weeks with a very similar question.

    What is the single most-used method for gaining more inbound links?

    I know what sort of answer these queries are looking for, and I’ve replied to each of them with a few ideas/methods we (the SEO community in general) use. But I was talking about these to the other SEO on the team and he said:

    Dude, we totally use the 404 thing the most.

    Aside from his mastery of the English language, he has a point. We do use the 404 thing the most, dude.

    I’m not too sure where I heard this the first time; it’s been so long now, but this method we use to build links is quite simply a gold mine for the majority of our projects.

    The 404 Link-Building Method

    Data Gathering

    First, run any number of reports you have employed on your server/site that will tell you the number of times a 404 error was returned, and the details of the error. Usually you should see what URL was requested and the referring source. That’s all you need for now.

    Turn the Data Into Links

    Now, you know what page was requested and from where that request came. More often than not, these are links pointing to your site. They are sometimes pointing to dead/forgotten pages, or mis-spellings of another URL. Either way, we have a fix for that.

    If these are links to dead pages, then you can consider re-creating relevant content and place it on that old URL. You may also consider 301 redirecting from that old URL to a new one with prepared content, or ask that the referring site update their link for you (the better of the options, but sometimes most difficult).

    If they are mis-spellings, you are usually stuck with the last 2 options as before, usually resulting in a 301 redirect. We don’t suggest accommodating mis-spelled page names for this sake, rather redirecting or attempting an update.

    Bulk Returns

    Though I’ve given this tip in those email responses, I know this isn’t exactly what people are looking for when they ask. They are usually controlling rather small websites, and this method (though still valid) won’t produce the sort of returns we get to see.

    It’s important to note that we usually deal with established, large websites with many pages. The larger, older and more robust the site, the more likely there is to be a decently sized 404 error log.

    But that’s it. A great way to increase inbound links with minimal effort and potentially great returns.

  • Safely Redirecting Your Website to a New Domain Name

    Every once in a while you come across a situation in which you must move your company’s website to a new domain name. But if you move the site to a new domain name, you have to ensure that the search engines can find the new location, and that you hit as few ranking/traffic dips as possible.

    Why You May Need a New Domain Name

    The reasons for your new domain name can vary, ranging from the need to correct file names to create SEO friendly URLs to the need to establish your online identity as a part of your re-branding efforts. Here are a few examples of situations we’ve come across:

    You manage a hotel that was once part of a chaing (Best Western, Marriott, etc.). But now, you’re no longer a part of that chain becoming an independent property. If you old domain was something like city-best-western.com or city-bw.com, then you may feel the need to change the domain name. This is especially the case if you’ve walked away from the chain to pursue a new strategy that involves re-branding yourself.

    There have been a few cases where we’ve had to redirect sites due to the purchase or merging of companies. Once the parent company has established its ownership, it’s time to bring the online presence into the fold.

    We work with a lot of small businesses that have recently moved from a home-made or dated website to something a little more professional. Often times this means they moved to WordPress (or would like to so as to start blogging) or another CMS that creates pages with file names that are not similar to those of the old site.

    Whatever the reason may be (as long as you’re not jumping to a new domain name for SEO reasons) you’ll need to take a few steps to make the redirect go as smoothly as possible.

    Gather Website Information

    First things first, we need to make sure we completlely understand the site(s) in question. It helps to create a spreadsheet containing information on all of the pages of the site with at least:

    • The navigation title of each page
    • The URL to each page
    • The content of the pages
    • The meta information on each page

    Depending on the scope of your redirect, you may need to note additional or less information.

    It’s also a good idea to notate the structure of the site, understanding the hierarchy of pages and sub pages. If you’ve got a particularly large site, then doing this by hand will be a pain. Instead, you can use the Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool to get an exportable list of most of that information.

    While you’re taking notes, log into your traffic analyzer of choice and try to familiarize yourself with the amount of traffic your site receives, where it comes from and where it goes to. This one step will serve several purposes:

    • After the redirect is complete, you’ll want to know if your traffic is moving up or down, and you’ll want to notice as quickly as possible
    • Understanding what pages of your site get the most traffic, and from where will help you plan your redirects appropriately.
    • After all this is done, you’ll want to update as many inbound links to your site as you can, and the best links are the ones that drive traffic to your site.
    • If you’ve been tracking any rankings progress get an updated report for that as well. This way you can keep an eye out for any sudden drops.

    Planning

    Once you’ve gathered as much information as you can (it’s never too much), then it’s time to start planning your redirects. If you’re simply moving your site from one domain to another, then your planning will be minimal, but if you’re doing this to a site or sites with pages that number in the hundreds or thousands, then get your pencil (mouse) and paper pad (spreadsheet application) ready.

    If you’re acquiring a site as a part of a purchase then you’re probably going to redirecting the old site to only certain portions of the parent website. If you’re updating your site as a part of a redesign, you’ll want to map out the old structure and new structure of your site.

    The Redirect

    To learn a little more about the types of redirects you can check out a previous post on the subject. Suffice to say, the grand majority of your redirects are going to be of the 301 type. This basically tells Google and other search engines that the site has permanently moved to a new location and redirect visitors to the new site quickly.

    Depending on the size of your site, you may want to move sections of your site at a time to make sure everything is working properly. We don’t run into situations where this must be done, normally being reserved for sites with hundreds or thousands of pages.

    When you’re moving a website from one domain to another, you don’t want to simply redirect the whole website to the new domain name; rather redirect the pages to pages with similar content. This will help to minimize ranking/traffic dips as well as provide a smooth transition for your visitors.

    Make sure you are constantly testing your redirects. If it’s a small site, you can easily check each page. If it’s larger, you can use the Screaming Fog tool again. It’s a good idea to manually check at least a few pages from each level of the site (including sub folders, categories, etc.). Check for any broken links or 404 errors.

    After The Redirect

    Once your redirects are in place and you’ve ensure that they are working properly, it’s time to keep a vigilant eye on the site’s health. Make sure you have all the proper tracking and reporting tools setup, and check your site’s performance daily for a few days.

    It’s also a good idea to make sure both of the domains are setup in Google Webmaster Tools, with submitted sitemaps. This will help you catch crawl errors that Google may experience. You can also run the Screaming Frog tool to make sure you don’t have any broken links.

    As for the search engine results pages, 301 redirects can take effect within a day, or over the period of a few weeks. Again, this depends on the size of the sites and the and how the old and new site currently rank, etc.

    It’s important to know that redirects only transfer a portion of the link value through them. So, even if you minimize ranking losses as best as you can and implement your 301 redirects flawlessly, you may still see a few dips in rankings.

    Give it a few weeks to make sure you haven’t seen any problems, then begin persuing as many of the best websites that link to you that you can. You’ll want to have them update their link to reflect the new domain name or page.

  • 4 Tips To Choosing The Right SEO Firm For Your Business

    From the moment you realize you need to hire someone to handle your online marketing efforts, you are immediately faced with a very importance matter. Who do you choose, and how do you know it will work for your business?

    You may need to hire on a full time employee to handle your needs internally; or maybe you just need to outsource some specific items to a freelance SEO. Or maybe you need a team of professionals to create and implement a full-scale Internet marketing campaign.

    Following are just a few tips to help you choose the right Internet marketing professional for your company’s website; be it a firm or independent SEO.

    The SEO Package

    A topic of great debate. Most professionals believe that it is impossible to offer an SEO package and still provide a great service. While I do agree to a certain extent (I don’t provide “package” with any of my SEO services either), there is a place for such services.

    Should your needs be very basic, or your goals as simple as “better rankings,” then there are a few companies that offer packages to accommodate those needs. For example, if you own one hotel and need to increase your visibility, then a firm with set packages may be what you need.

    But if you are a part of a property management company, with several properties in many different areas in your portfolio, then a package is not what you need. Instead, you will want to hire someone(s) that will analyze your specific needs regarding each piece of your business.

    Who to choose

    In cases where you don’t need too much attention or things are “standard,” then you can pick any type of SEO. An independent or a firm will be able to offer you a service based on your needs, or you can choose to go with a company that sells you a package.

    Remember though, that if you choose a firm with packages, you already know what you’re about to pay, and it’s probably going to be cheaper than the competition. A professional will sometimes lump the time it took him or her to analyze your site and include the fees for that time in your service fees. This may end up giving you the same service as a package out there, with an increased cost.

    So, small hotel in Orange Park, Florida? Pick who you will, you’re probably safe with a package deal. Property Management Group with properties all over or in competitive markets? Choose a little more wisely; you may need to research your custom SEO solution options.

    Niche Professionals

    You’ll also have the option of choosing a professional or firm who specializes in servicing your industry specifically. This too holds its own advantages and disadvantages.

    A niche firm will have an experience in your industry, and likely have on-hand a great set of places from which they can get a link to your site. They will have a better understanding at the types of targets that will produce the highest conversions, and how to get that traffic to your site.

    However, a niche professional will likely fault when it comes time to determine what is actually needed for your site. They will likely have packages, and will most often set you into one blindly, regardless of any factors that would hinder such a campaign.

    This can also have an impact for the whole company when a tactic they had used gets away from them and becomes a main focus of every client. If the effective nature of this tactic was suddenly stopped, then so to will be the site’s rankings and traffic.

    For example, it was a common tactic for real estate SEO firms to link between other real estates site for their clients. After all, a broker in Orlando wouldn’t normally do business in Atlanta? This tactic was used with such indiscretion that when Google decided to negate such types of links, thousands of real estate sites fell off the map completely.

    You’ll also have to worry about the amount of attention your site will receive. Often times, when you receive services from such a provider, your account is viewed as just another in the pile of clients.

    Hiring a general professional will afford you the luxury of having someone with a wider scope of experience to handle your online marketing efforts. They will implement strategies that a niche firm wouldn’t even think about, because it was something learned through years of trying and testing and being exposed to varying environments. This might cost a little more though.

    Where a general SEO is going to “think outside the box,” a niche firm has their strategy planned out before you even call them. This means that on one hand they will be much kinder on your wallet; on the other, the service may not enjoy hidden opportunities and may be lack-luster due to a “quantity of quality” mindset.

    Who to Choose
    Shop around. If price is a main concern, then perhaps someone who specializes in your industry would be the best pick. If quality, then be open to other considerations.

    Transparency

    The reality about Internet marketing is that it is no different than “traditional” marketing. There’s a lot of research, trial and error, and multiple approaches to every campaign. However, there aren’t many “secrets” that we use in order to achieve a goal. There is no mystery.

    It’s a good idea to discuss the methods your potential firm or employee will use to increase rankings and traffic to your site. You don’t have to know the gritty details, an overview will be fine to start with. It’s a good way to see if they will at least tell you, or will they try to hide it.

    If anyone every says “that’s proprietary information,” it better be in regard to some tool they built to report on a metric, not a method used to promote your site.

    If you’re thinking that it’s understandable that a professional wouldn’t want to share his secrets at the risk of losing a client, then I respond with this:

    Anyone can tell you how to paint, but will you be able to? A doctor can tell you exactly what he’s going to do during a brain surgery, but would you be confident enough to perform it yourself? The post we published on Ranking in Google Places is a step-by-step, detailed guide on doing just that. But people will read it and hire us anyway.

    This is because a successful Internet marketing campaign requires time, experience and hard work. None of which will translate into other areas of your business. You could spend hours learning how to optimize your site, but those were hours lost having someone at the front desk or on the phone.

    Who to choose
    Someone who will be open and honest with the techniques they plan to use. It’s a good idea to learn more about those techniques to ensure they aren’t against a search engine’s guidelines, but for now simply knowing they are willing to share is a good sign.

    Budget

    I saved this for last because it really should be the last, and least important determining factor (I know, so says the guy who sells SEO).

    But it needs to be said that you will indeed get what you pay for. There are firms of all types out there; offering services that range in price from $99 a month to $1000 per hour. Scams aside, you can imagine the difference in services provided by those different providers.

    Consider pricing from a company’s perspective. Whatever the deal is, they have to make a profit on it. So, for $99 a month, what can they provide to you while being able to pay 1 or more employees and still make a profit? Not much. I still haven’t seen a service that was at the same time worth $99 and cost $99 a month. A service that is worth $99 isn’t going to do much for your site anyway, and anything that cost such a price is diluted to mean absolutely nothing.

    I also say that it should be the last consideration because there is a flip-side to the common logic. Choosing a firm simply because of a higher price will not guarantee a better service.

    Most importantly you should shop around and make sure you are comfortable with both the service and the price.

    Who to choose

    There aren’t really any hard rules for this one. Some freelance SEOs will be a conservative pick simply because they don’t have the overhead of a firm. However, perhaps they are highly specialized or have positioned themselves as an authority. In that case, the firm may be more conservative.

    If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. We can either offer a solution for your consideration, or give you some pointers on picking a service provider that’s right for you.

  • 8 Hotel SEO Mistakes and How to Easily Fix Them

    After a few years of providing services to the hotel industry, there are a collection of issues regarding SEO I see on a regular basis that can have a major impact on your online marketing campaign.

    For the most part, these issues arise when either the incorrect mindset is taken when approaching the optimization of your site (trying to trick the search engines or attempting a quick ranking strategy), or they are the result of following bad advice (by hiring the wrong SEO professional, or reading a bit of bad information on a blog somewhere).

    Following is a list of those common issues, as well as some reasoning and common solutions.

    1. Linking to the homepage

    The situation is this. The keywords for each page have been identified, including those for the homepage. Through an internal linking effort, the home page is linked to using the desired keyword.

    The idea is correct in that using the proper keywords to link to pages of your site is a common, beneficial SEO strategy, but the execution is where things drop off.

    The homepage is most often going to be getting the majority of the inbound links from other websites. This happens because when people want to point visitors to your site, or when you issue a press release, the linker usually links to the homepage of their source.

    Of course, there are exceptions. But that’s most often the case.

    The idea is to use that “juice” your homepage is getting from links to increase flow (be it visitors or search engines) to specific pages.

    For example, you would want to point visitors to your “Accommodations” page, so you would link to that page with the appropriate keyword.

    This strategy goes wrong when other pages link to the homepage. In effect, you are transferring what juice a sub page has (mostly provided by the homepage itself), back to the homepage.

    Solution

    Simple enough. Remove internal links to the home page. We aren’t talking about navigation of footer navigation links. Just the ones within the content of your pages. That’ll ensure that the strongest page (the homepage) is providing flow to the sub-pages, and not wasting potential strength by going the other way.

    2. Lack of Address on site

    Often times I take on a client who’s address isn’t even on the site, or if it is, it’s on only the contact page.

    The thing you have to remember about SEO is that every little bit of information you put on your site is going to be read by visitors and search engines. And when a search engine crawls a page on your site, you want to make sure they know exactly where your property is located.

    It’s so important because the major search engines have local services (like Google Places) that rely on being able to associate a property with an address and your website. Being able to associate all this information on your site is a big plus.

    Solution

    Again an easy one. Try to get the address of your property on every page. There are detailed exceptions to this one. For example, a PMG or website built to showcase multiple properties will have to use a different strategy. But if your site caters to one property, it’s best to put your address on every page.

    You can also go a step further by adding the hCard format to your address, accommodating the search and return function used by some search engines and online services.

    3. Images instead of text

    Another major problem I see is putting important information in the form of an image instead of “regular” text. I see this alot with the address, heading information and the phone number.

    Remember, if something is written, but displayed in image form a search engine can not read it.

    Solution

    Where you have information that you need to show the search engines, use text instead of images. There are exceptions that I’ve come across (usually due to a desired page heading look), but those are extremely rare. Even in those cases, one should consider the use of Cufon instead of imagery.

    Watch Out

    One more thing to note on this one. You may get the advice that “it’s ok as long as you put the information in the alternate attribute (sometimes called the “alt tags”). While the search engines read that information and take it into consideration, it doesn’t even come close to comparing to the weight of the written word.

    4. A lack of keyword focus

    I could (and will) write a post explaining this topic in more detail. Suffice to say, the issue with a lack of keyword focus can be summed up like this.

    For each of the pages of your site, you should be optimizing for a single set of like-keywords. For example, your “Accommodations” page will focus on “…accommodations…” terms, your location page will focus on location terms (like “things to do in…”). But if you try to include like terms on multiple pages, and optimize those pages following that trend, then you’ll cause problems when Google tries to determine which pages of which sites rank for which terms.

    At best, only one of your pages will rank. At worst, you will have spread your focus too thinly and none of your pages rank for a given term.

    Solution

    Again, if you have someone that can make changes to your site, you may not need to hire someone else. Take a step back and consider the pages of your site, and the message you are trying to convey to your visitors. Group your like terms together and identify the pages that are focused on those.

    When it comes to the details of actually optimizing, it’s probably best to find a professional. In the mean time, just make sure your site flows naturally and isn’t fighting itself for rankings.

    5. Multiple Properties – One Website

    This in itself is not a problem. Rather, the execution can (and most often does) hinder a site’s performance.

    A lot of times I’ll see single sites with multiple addresses at the footer or on a single page to highlight each property. Basically, you’re trying to optimize and relate to multiple locations on a single page.

    This is further compounded when the properties are in different cities.

    Think about it like this. When optimizing and promoting a hotel’s website, a lot goes into ensuring that the content, meta tags, internal links and inbound links are focused in a manner that insinuates relevance to a search term or a few like-terms. And “orlando hotel” is a much different term than “valdosta hotel.”

    This is pretty much the same idea as the “Lack of keyword focus” problem, but with the specific problem relating to location.

    Solution

    Every site is different, and each offers a different opportunity to focus on multiple properties. Usually, the best route is to opt for multiple websites. But, in many cases you can simply segment your site to focus on individual properties; each focusing on a single property’s accommodations and amenities as well as it’s location information.

    Again, there are a ton of solutions for this issue. Talk to your SEO to see what they think.

    6. Multiple Websites – Same Content

    Usually, when the problem of multiple locations arises, we suggest different sites. But that can lead to a different problem itself.

    Obviously, trying to create content for each hotel you manage/own can be difficult and it’s easy to fall into the idea of using the same content for each site; updating only the property name and address.

    Now you run into an issue of duplicate content. Believe it or not, there are cases that make this a non-issue. But not many. Usually you will find that one of your properties seems to excel while the others lack the same progress online.

    Generally speaking, duplicate content causes problems when a search engine must decide what sites to rank for a given search term. If there are multiple candidates with the same content, then it is in a search engines best interest to only rank one of them, leaving room for variety (so their users, the searchers have different sites from which to choose).

    Solution

    Decent copy is pretty easy to come by these days. You just have to make sure you are hiring someone with a little experience with hotels (SEO experience would be a plus).

    Also, remember that each of your hotels are different; each with their prime selling points. You probably have a good enough grasp to write your own content (with editing as needed).

    Every once in a while we hear

    “I read that it only needs to be a difference of X%”

    There aren’t any rules for this one. Instead, just try to approach each of your hotel websites differently and you’ll be fine.

    7. Stuffed URLs

    The situation comes from the idea that keywords in a domain name/URL will have a positive impact on rankings. While the statement itself is true, people often forget that the amount of impact is so small that it is far outweighed by the negative impact a messy domain name will have.

    In fact, if you push it a little too much, your rankings can actually fall because of such tactics. But for now let’s look at a situation:

    Take a look at the following URL from the “Accommodations” page of our fake hotel:

    http://freshpaint-jacksonville-hotel.com/jacksonville-fl-accommodations.html

    Now say that to someone. How does it sound? A little cumbersome to say, let alone trying to remember it.

    Now consider the following:

    http://freshpaint-inn.com/accommodations

    A little easier to read/say/remember, yeah? Yeah.

    It’s like this. Google knows exactly where your property is. You’ve optimized your content to show them, you’ve gotten listings on other sites to show them, you’ve placed your address on every page of your site to show them. If you try to shove your city to them in every URL you can, they may just swat it away. That, and now it’s impossible to tell someone about your site without running out of breathe.

    Also consider this. Inbound links are a very important factor in your site’s rankings. You want to make your domain name and subsequent pages as easy to remember in case someone wants to link to your site for some reason. If they mis-spell it, then you don’t get the link.

    Solution

    Easy enough. Keep the page names simple, relevant and concise. That’s it. No need to get fancy.

    For a little help on this, you can check a similar post we wrote on choosing your domain name.

    8. Excessive Linking Out

    This issue can usually be found on your “location” page (or one that is similar). It happens when a hotel wants to share places of interest in the area by linking to restaurants, tour guide sites, etc. Too many, and you can run into problems of sharing too much of your site’s value or strength.

    There is a “no more than 100 links per page” rule that even Google uses as a guideline. But we think it best to be a bit more cautious. If you have a large number of links, but not enough to make Google drop your rankings, you are still giving away your valuable juice.

    Solution

    I’m not saying you shouldn’t link out to anyone. In fact, a policy like that will actually hurt you, as other sites will then refuse to link to you. Also, linking to other, relevant sites that may be of interest to your visitors will provide an added benefit to your site, and you can believe Google takes that into consideration.

    Instead, try to be conservative with the sites to which you link, focusing only on the ones that will provide a real value to your visitors or add depth to your hotel’s site.

    You can also institute a few “nofollow” attributes. But again, this may alienate you from the rest of the online world. Don’t want that, do we?

    There You Have It

    That pretty much wraps up the common obstacles I see. Generally, try to approach your website with the visitor in mind. Keep things simple and relevant and you should also reap some benefits of search rankings.

    Also remember that every site is different. If you have a specific question about your site, you should ask your SEO what they think. You can also send me a quick question. I am happy to advise where I can.

  • SEO Factor | Jacksonville Small Business SEO

    Hey, I’m Josh Garner. I’m a freelance SEO from Jacksonville, FL. and the owner of SEO Factor. I provide my SEO services primarily to small businesses that need an affordable solution to their Internet marketing needs.

    With years of experience and countless small business websites of varying sizes, I have the knowledge it takes to optimize your website for more online exposure; through higher search engine rankings and increased relevant traffic.

    Check out just a few of the results I’ve gotten for my small business SEO clients in my portfolio.

    Request Service Information Phone: 904-993-7796

    Email: Josh.G@

    It’s no secret that having a keyword or 2 in your domain name can have …

    During your continued monitoring of your link profile, you may find a few links that …

    Every once in a while you come across a situation in which you must move …

  • Blog | SEO Factor – Part 5

    Here’s the problem. You have an idea for a website. You check the competition and you note how stiff it is. You pick one particular competitor in the field and notice that it has a ton of links. Now you are discouraged. You’ll never get that many links and compete. Might as well just give […]

    If you aren’t sure what header tags are, these are tags in HTML used to create…well…headers. They have a range in size, and can be used for header and sub-headers. Header tags are signified by the syntax, ‘x’ being a number from 1 – 6. Example as follows: Please note: I used an image […]

  • Blog | SEO Factor – Part 4

    Long gone are the days when the debate was whether one was better than the other. Instead, we now find ourselves asking “Under what circumstances do I need SEO, and when should I opt for PPC? Do I need both?” In almost every circumstance I’ve encountered, the use of PPC and SEO in conjunction were […]

    With so many service providers out there, I’m sure you’ve been told several times that you need an Internet marketing service on some level. Check your email. How many times has some SEO company sent you a “free analysis” in the last month? And with all these companies out there telling you how much better […]

    For a relaxing Friday post, I’m going to step away from strictly talking Internet marketing and talk about our thought process and how it relates to the decisions we make with our websites. This post takes a look at a few scenarios in which a general consensus or industry agreement is determined and how that […]

    I’ve heard this question 4 times this week, and it’s only Tuesday. “How many pages do I need to make my website effective to the search engines?” I’m pushing 7 years in this industry, so I wasn’t there for the beginning. I’m not too sure where this came from, but I can only imagine that […]

    OK, that’s not entirely true. But they are giving us some decent information. I wanted to share a neat little bit of info after I read ‘The value of keyword rankings‘ over at State of Search. There has been (and likely will be for a while) a debate on the need to track keyword rankings. […]

  • SEO Advice from Non-SEO Sites | SEO Factor

    I warn that I’m about to make a very broad generalization in this post. It isn’t meant to degrade the value of any specific forums or sites; rather, to warn against learning from places that aren’t teaching correctly.

    I am in the midst of training someone on the particulars of SEO. Obviously, said person has a ton of questions and curiosity about SEO, where to read more, the who’s who, etc.

    He asked me about a forum he regular reads, and a thread dedicated to SEO. After taking a look at the forum (which focuses primarily on domain buying), and listening to a few tid-bits of knowledge they have bestowed upon him thus far, I instituted a new rule for my team.

    Any information you get from a forum/blog/site not explicitly dedicated to Internet marketing is null and void.

    This might seem a little harsh or even tyrannical, but I have a good reason for such a rule. And my guys know me. There are always exceptions to a rule.

    Good Intentions

    Most of the information we can gleam from sites offering SEO advice on sites that aren’t SEO-centric seem to be of good intentions. Unfortunately, intentions don’t really matter in this game, and neglected a few details can have severe negative impacts on a site.

    So it’s not as if mis-information is spread on purpose. Most of the people pushing their idea of SEO do so with a decent amount of conviction; causing the perceived validity of their opinion to rise. This makes it very difficult to combat when we are consulted.

    Us: “I’m afraid that’s not exactly correct in your case.”

    Client: “Oh, well this guy on this forum sounded pretty sure. Are you sure?”

    In the grand scheme of things, this is only a minor annoyance. Our actions generally speak louder than the words typed on another site. That, and reminding the client that we just cashed their check for an amount that could easily purchase a quality vehicle for 2 of my team members usually does the trick (just kidding…but really).

    Over-Simplification

    Another major problem with taking SEO advice from a non-SEO is the over-simplification they exude. Let’s be honest here, SEO isn’t “difficult” by any means. More appropriately, it just requires a lot of experience, patience, creativity, organizational skills and sometimes a little luck. This doesn’t make it difficult, just too tedious and time-consuming for most people to implement.

    However, there is a very real problem when I see a valid question or concern posed on a forum, only to be answered with a:

    “Just make sure you have XYZ and ABC in order. Then get links. That’s it.”

    I’m sorry, but that’s not it.

    Every single site is different, usually in ways you don’t even understand until you’re neck-deep into the project. So, giving a generic response to a specific question can, and most often does have a negative impact.

    Here’s the thing. At the risk of bragging, I can create a killer process in almost any business situation. Give me 2 months and a little authority, and I’ll shave your man-hours/costs and increase throughput. I was mentored by some of the best minds on that front, and I think I’ve grown that aspect of my strengths rather nicely.

    What I’m saying is, if there were some way I could process an SEO package and keep the quality and integrity we uphold, I would have. There are just too many variables to strictly package SEO services. I’ve seen too many companies try the same thing (still to this very day) and simply fail their clients (often without them even knowing).

    Where Do I Learn/Stay Up To Date

    I’ve been doing this stuff since 2004, and still I find quality SEO blogs jam-packed with awesome information every single day. I can’t really list them all here. Instead, I’ll give you some of the staple sites I read. Check them out. You’ll start to get the hang of the logic behind SEO and will soon be able to separate the BS from the real SEO advice.

    All of the following have a lot of intermediate to advanced posts, so we’ll start with a really good beginner’s guide:

    Local SEO

    General Internet Marketing

    Link Building

    • Link Building Blog – http://wiep.net/

    (Just the one here. You’re simply not going to find a greater resource for learning how not only to build links, but how to think outside the box and find new ways yourself)