My CMS

Blog

  • SEO Myths

    Posted by admin on Tue, 01/22/2008 – 01:24

    Because SEO is a bit confusing at first, and the need for it can be so great, there are a number of people/companies that take advantage of the SEO idea for personal and monetary gain at the expense of unwary business owners. Well, we will show them now won’t we?

    There are a few myths that you should know before you even consider hiring a person or firm to provide SEO or Internet marketing services.

    Guarantees
    There are none. Plain and simple. I know I know. I must be crazy to say such a thing. After all, I offer SEO services myself. I should be touting huge successes. Well, that’s just not how it works. The search engines change all the time. They are in a constant state of “get better and return better results.” As such, as an SEO, I can only provide to you a promise that I am experienced, have provided successes in the past, and abide to the search engine guidelines. I can also talk to you about some of the methods used to optimize and rank your site, but I can not guarantee any sort of rankings or traffic. As SEOs, we can discuss expectations, but we can’t go too much further than that.

    You might be thinking “well, this doesn’t sound too good for me at all. I need guarantees.” To that I ask you to think about other professionals. Doctors, lawyers, firefighters all have a job that relies heavily on their experience and diligence. SEO is no different. With experience in this field comes a knack for ranking a website and driving traffic.

    SEO Is Tricking The Search Engine
    This is probably by far the most important topic in the industry. Often when typing or speaking, it is perceived that what we do as SEOs is tricking the search engines into ranking a website. This couldn’t be further from the truth (except for those “black hat” guys. We will talk about them in a separate post). This is mostly our fault, as we tend to discuss methods between ourselves, even publicly, more than we talk philosophy. The idea behind optimization is not to trick the search engines, but to promote quality websites effectively by cleaning up the site’s structure, and promoting it by providing more exposure. We don’t want to rank something that isn’t of quality, we want to make sites easier for search engines to see, easier to navigate, and use. This has a lot to do with the users of the site as well. For more reading on this idea, you can refer to another post title ‘Optimize For Eyes, Nots The Bots.’

    SEO Is Witchcraft
    As odd as that sounds, I’ve actually seen this written by a few very popular people. SEO seems pretty tricky at first, and if someone doesn’t understand something, they tend to lable it as something it simply is not. This is due in part to the misleading SEO firms out there, which we will talk about in just a little bit. With time, you will see that we SEOs are all to willing to tell you what it is we do, and how we do it.

    Those are just a few of the myths about SEO, but they are the most common that I’ve seen. While we are talking about topics you want to consider when looking for an SEO service, we might want to read ‘Misleading SEO Services’ for a few of the things to watch out for as well.

  • Bad SEO, Or Black Hat?

    Posted by admin on Tue, 01/22/2008 – 18:46

    We’ve discussed what SEO is, some myths, and some misleading sales pitches, but before we talk more about SEO and your business, there is one more topic we should take a look at. Black Hat SEO.

    What’s The Difference?
    Now that’s a difficult question to answer. I stated a few times that the idea behind SEO is to create and promote quality content. I even stated that an SEO firm should abide by the search engines’ guidelines. But when it comes to black hat SEO, all of that is thrown out the window…sorta.

    Black hat SEOs use tactics that the search engines would greatly frown upon to rank websites. Some examples would include creating a page that would be delivered when a search engine hits it, and a different one if a human visitor hits it. This way, a black hat could rank a site for terms that may not be on the page a person would see. There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the idea.

    The Divide/Gray Hat
    Unfortunately, the definitions of white hat vs. black hat have changed, and really aren’t clear anymore. From first look, one could say that they are completely white hat, abiding by all of the search engines’ rules, but they also submit to directories in a bulk fashion. This is by no means a “bad” practice, but Google tends to think differently depending on the circumstances. Google would like to see links to your site grow in a natural way (with very little, if any push by the webmaster or SEO), and not through mass submission to directories. Ath this point, most SEOs take on the title of “Gray Hat.”

    Because of this, and a large number of arguements pertaining to what is white hat and what is black hat, there really isn’t as clear a line as there used to be.

    All Black
    Though the line between black and white isn’t always clear, the end of the spectrum is still very clear. The professional black hat provides a service to rank and/or drive traffic, by imploying the use of methods which exploit weaknesses in a search engine’s algorithms.

    Now, being that these methods are so hated by the search engines, getting caught using these methods could result in a ranking penalty, and even a complete ban of the domain name by the search engines.

    That’s Some Bad SEO
    Nope. Not really. In fact, there are some black hats that not only make a very good living themselves, but can really turn a profit for their clients. Most black hats are up front about their tactics, and explain the risks involved ahead of time (if you’ve ever been through surgery, even a doctor explains the chance of death). This doesn’t make them “bad.” Actually, it makes black hats pretty smart. You see, as a “white hat” it’s easy for me to do a little testing, keep up with Google’s guidelines, and continue my processes accordingly. On the flip side, black hats have to constantly be ahead of the game. Testing, trying, failing, testing, rinsing, repeating. That’s the black hat SEOs life.

    If you run a few sites that you don’t mind getting kicked out, and want to turn a quick profit, the black hat SEO might be just what the doctor ordered. The problem is finding them. They don’t exactly shout about their methods, and most don’t even take on clients. Even once you find one, making sure said black hat is good at what they do is entirely different. After all, how do you know that they will know what they are doing?

    But There Is One Issue Here
    All this writing to make one point. White hats make use of acceptable tactics to provide a good service. Black hats provide a service, but using different methods that a search engine probably won’t like. But there’s an in between “SEO” in there as well. The bad SEO.

    There are some firms or so-called SEOs that will be all too happy to take your money, and attempt rankings making use of “black hat” techniques that they don’t fully understand. This results in the ban of your site, and nothing more to show for it. Sometimes, these bad SEOs won’t even know that they are making use of tactics known as black hat. All the more reason to as questions, and make yourself aware of the various basics of SEO, and choose your service provider accordingly.

    I know this should have been a part of the ‘Misleading SEO Services’ page, but it’s important to understand these concepts in just a little bit more depth. It’s also important to understand that the black hat SEO isn’t necessarily a bad guy, just someone that uses different methods; and to be able to discern the real bad guys. The ones that don’t provide a good service either way.

    Special thanks to XMCP from SlightlyShadySEO.com for looking this over and making sure I don’t look like a jerk.

  • Optimize For The Eyes, Nots The Bots

    I know the title sounds a little weird, but it rhymes, so it must be true.

    This was an article that I wrote for Andy Beal’s contest (PDF) a couple of years ago. Looking back, I would like to re-write it, as there are just a few points I would say differently now. I’m not too sure if I was trying to appeal to the audience, but some of the statements I made don’t really make sense.

    I was looking through some old posts to rehash and repost to appeal to the budding SEO or small business owner looking for information. This was an idea that I had, and still have, about the SEO process. Obviously, we are tasked to gain rankings, but there is a lot more to it; and getting too wrapped up in “rankings” can in fact end in us neglecting the bigger picture (which is creating and having better overall websites). So, I give you the updated version of an old article.

    What does ‘SEO’ mean? Search Engine Optimization, duh. No, no. What does it meeeaaan? It means ‘to optimize a site for search engines.’ Sigh. I guess that’s pretty close, but going with that thought alone can actually land you in a bit of trouble.

    We often talk on SEO and what the searchers are looking for, how they are acting, how to optimize a site, etc. But we often neglect a very important idea. Simply optimizing a site for the search engines isn’t really the best idea. If we do that and that alone, then we won’t likely find success in our business endeavor. We would then neglect our clients’ needs and/or any help that we might provide to the online community.

    Optimizing a site for the sole benefit of the search engines could result in spam or content that sounds too repetitive because we are trying to make sure our keywords are on the homepage a certain number of times to achieve ‘density.’ We may end up getting tons of links to and from areas that are less than acceptable because we keep thinking that ‘Link Popularity’ means ‘get as many as we can.’ We may end up in jail because every time we walk into Albertsons we keep hearing ‘It’s your store.’ So, what should we be doing?

    Yes, SEO means ‘to optimize a site for search engines,’ but we should be thinking of it as ‘optimizing a site, so as to show search engines what the site is about and how it can help the
    online community/consumer.’ If you have relevant copy on your site, you will likely be using your desired search terms sufficiently anyway. If you have relevant and helpful text on your site, you will get quality inbound links from other sites simply on merit. If you just remember that it’s just a jingle, your hands won’t become idle and attempt to steal your favorite candy bar.

    In closing, we shouldn’t be making and optimizing sites for the search engines alone. Consider the site and its visitors. Given proper content and quality, the optimization-for-ranking efforts will get the visitors. Yes, optimize the site for the crawlers. Make sure you aren’t doing anything too spammy. Correct errors. Clean up the code. Make proper use of header tags and meta tags. But do this for your visitors, not just the search engines. The search engines will love you for it.

    With this, and any other post, please read the disclaimer.

  • Advertisements and Reviews

    Before you consider advertising with SEO Factor, you should probably read my disclaimer. Please also note, I don’t sell links. It’s not because Google says it’s bad. It’s because my PR goes to quality. I will gladly link to someone without a nofollow, if I stand by it. But it can not be bought.

    Sidebar Ads – $30 a month

    There are 6 spots for advertising on the right sidebar. Currently, there are 4 open spots. These are the traditional 125 x 125 banner type ads. Animation is OK, but try to keep it conservative.

    Reviews – $50 or $40

    OK. My reviews are a bit different than the rest. Currently, reviews are priced depending on what I’m reviewing. If it’s a good review (I like what I see and will be willing to put my name on it), then it will cost $50, and you get a good old fashioned link. If it’s a bad review (you’re selling template websites with “SEO” for $89 a month), then you get a nofollow, and a $10 refund. You know if you have something good to offer or not. By agreeing to a review, you are agreeing to these terms.

    If you have any questions, I’m all too happy to answer them. Feel free to email me at: josh@

  • Mystery – A Freelance SEO’s Friend?

    Everyone knows about the “elevator speech.” It’s what you give when someone asks “what is it you do for a living?” or some other variation of that chit-chat ice-breaker. The idea is to solidify your answer to that question in a nice, pre-packaged (I like hyphens today) response to share your profession in a way that someone could understand exactly what you do within a matter of moments. Hence the name “elevator speech.” It’s most commonly used by an entrepreneur to gain funding by a venture capitalist or as a pitch to a potential client. But, what if mystery is a better opening than the usual all informative version (what you do, who you are, what the benefits are, etc.)?

    Everyone in the SEO or Internet marketing field knows of the difficulty in explaining what it is we do to a relative or at a class reunion. It confronts us at every real-world conversation turn. But it seems that you can indeed use the mystery of what we do as a great opening.

    I was recently asked what it is I do. I have an elevator speech, and I’ve given it a hundred times, but for whatever reason, I didn’t this time. I was in a hurry, and when asked, I was on my way to something else (I know, this goes against everything a freelance who is always on the lookout for a client is supposed to do), and I responded quickly with a “I’m a freelance SEO.” And that was it. I didn’t expand, I didn’t even continue with eye contact. The conversation was done in my world.

    The gentleman waited a few moments, and the curiosity must have gotten to him, as he asked “I’m sorry, but what is SEO?” I looked at his shoes (note: a man’s shoes can tell you a lot about his professional life. Good business tip), and quickly realized where I was; in the midst of a new negotiation. I expanded greatly on what it is that I do, and a new client is born.

    Lesson? Sometimes that ambiguity of our field can be used in our favor. It could very well have been my apathetic response that won him over, as learning more about said gentleman revealed that he is likely pitched to on a very regular basis, and he could have appreciated my unknowing nonchalance, but I think also that the enigma of my field played a big part in my new clients decision to probe further.

    So, the next time someone asks “what do you do?” just blow them off.

    I’m only kidding. It was really bad form on my part. It was just really interesting how the whole thing played out, and I thought it deserved some attention.

    With this, and any other post, please read the disclaimer.

  • How Long Is This Going to Take?

    Posted by admin on Wed, 02/13/2008 – 21:10

    One more introduction topic to start this SEO eBook, and then we will start to get into the good stuff.

    We know how important an SEO strategy is, and we know what some of the basic ideas are, but how long is this whole ordeal going to take? First, let me say that a question like that means you are likely thinking of SEO or Internet marketing as a plug in for your site, and not as a permanant aspect. Try to get around that as quickly as possible.

    You SEO/SEM/Internet Marketing campaign needs to be a part of your long term strategy. There are no quick and easy returns in this environment, and chasing such goals will leave you spinning your wheels. However, the idea of the question is not a bad one, we just need to word it a bit differently. Successful people don’t have all the right answers, they ask all the right questions.

    How long will it be before you see results? This depends on your goals. With strict regard to SEO and rankings, it’s often not as bad as most people might think. When you start looking at conversions, ROI, and profit margins, things get a little thicker. Because I want to try to keep this eBook as beginner oriented as possible, I’ll try to focus on the rankings/traffic aspect. But even with that, there are a few factors.

    Brand New Sites
    If you just started a site (less than a month ago), you’re in a situation where you will see the most waiting time. First, the search engines have to find and index your site. A brand new site can usually be indexed within a week. At the time of my writing this page, I am seeing indexed sites within a few days.

    Once indexed, the site has to rank. With proper optimization and promotion efforts you should see “results” within about 3 weeks. “Results” is in quotes because though you may see something happening, the site’s success is far from fruition. You might see a few more indexed pages, or rankings for your search terms within the first 10 – 15 pages of the results.

    At about 3 months, you should see a few terms within the first 5 pages of a search engines results for desired search terms At 6 months you should see a few page 1 terms, and perhaps a recognizable flow of traffic. By 9 – 12 months, you should see good rankings across the board, large chunks of page 1 rankings, and a steady flow of traffic.

    Aged Sites
    If you have a site that’s been up for a while, and it’s not indexed, then there’s a whole new issue. There may be technical problems with the site, or there may be a ban or penalty in place. Either way, if we have an older site not indexed, the site is going to need some attention. We will be going over these issues later, so don’t worry too much.

    Assuming there are none of the issues above, aged sites that are indexed will see results much sooner than newer ones. A simple title/internal link/keyword research overhaul could indeed do wonders. With proper optimization and promotion efforts, you can usually cut the time it takes to see results for newer sites in half.

    Now, looking at these timeframes, you may be thinking that this is just way too long. To that, I ask you to consider how long you plan on being in business. Do you not plan on running a successful business 5 or 10 years from now? You Internet marketing campaign should be a part of that success the whole time, so the first year will breeze by. It’s a long term process for long term successes.

  • How Do You Pay For SEO?

    Over this past year, I myself have been the sole SEO in a large company, a freelance SEO, and part of a larger team of SEO’s for another large company. In each of these roles, there are vastly different and different degrees of challenges. Having been, and continuing to fill these roles, I thought it a good idea to answer a client’s question on the best SEO-hiring practices. Do you outsource to a freelancer, hire a firm, or hire in-house? It really all depends on your model and resources. Let’s look at the pro’s and con’s of each.

    Hiring a Freelance SEO
    As a freelance SEO, I often say, I am afforded the luxury of extra attention to clients without the need to charge “big company prices.” Freelancers don’t have to pay large light bills, employees, and some even duck taxes (tsk tsk). However, it is very understandable why a business owner would want to stray away from a freelance service. There’s no way to know of my validity or integrity for certain (word of mouth and name-branding is very important for a freelancer). It’s difficult to discern if the freelance in question has the experience needed to complete the job.

    Hiring a Firm
    If you decide to hire a firm for your SEO services, you have access to information to research. You can easily look into the firm’s past, taking note of any complaints. You can also ease your mind that a larger company will likely be there when you call for help when needed. On the flip side, you may be getting a different person every time you call. When it comes to SEO and Internet marketing, the price tags associated can become substantial. As stated above, this is especially so when hiring a firm. Broadly speaking, the larger the company, the higher the costs. They have to pay employees, legal bills, office space, the Indian company they are outsourcing the work to (the last one was a joke….or was it?). Also, firms like to monetize. It’s the nature of business. Unfortunately, we see more and more “SEO companies” that get into a routine that doesn’t allow for its employees to explore new avenues of optimization and expand on their skills. It’s a dead set process that all to often leaves much to be desired with regard to quality.

    Hiring In-House
    The trickier of the three is to hire an in-house SEO. It’s not so bad if you’re an SEO company needing to hire another SEO for your team. In that case you’ve probably been through the process before, and know what to look for in a candidate. But if you run a company of a different sort, this can be a tough decision. If you hire an SEO, you get to have someone on sight making last minute meetings and attention to emergencies very convenient. This is also a great route to go if you have an extensive IT department in place, allowing for the SEO to get to know the other members of your team on a more intimate basis, which will help in the months to come as your team members learn to work together. On that same note though, hiring an in-house SEO can get really fun (challenge is always fun for me). You have to make room, so to speak, for the SEO that will be making requests to change processes that you’ve had in place for a while. For some members of your team, this can seem a little threatening. This is also one more employee on the books for which you have to pay taxes, provide coffee to, and give a company car; something sporty and either black or silver, please.

    While we are talking in-house SEO, it can also be a fun time for the SEO him or herself. We are pretty analytical most of the time, and we really like to socialize with other SEO’s for ideas and interesting, nerdy conversations. Putting your SEO into a room all by their lonesome can play a huge role in their success. If you are to hire an SEO, please accommodate for their social networking behaviors, your numbers will thank you for it.

    Mix and Match
    The previous three options are not really the only ones. You can find ways to mix these up. As a freelance SEO, I’ve been known to take on-site contracts for companies, requiring that I make myself physically available to the company a certain amount during a week or month’s time. You can also look into “firms” of independent SEO’s, like Clientside SEM. Though a “firm” on paper, the company is comprised of some of the bigger names in SEO. Then there’s SEOmoz, another “firm of SEO’s.” Again, though they are a company, the whole team has a very real contribution to the SEO industry. The sole downside is going to be the price, but you can rest assured that it’s well worth it.

    In a lump:

    Freelance SEO

    • Pros
      • More cost effective
      • Individualized attention to your needs
      • Better looking (especially the bald ones)
    • Cons
      • A lack of background is common

        • Emergencies can be of extra worry if you can’t reach your SEO

        A freelance SEO’s sexiness can sometimes be too much to handle, even from great distances

    Hiring a Firm

    • Pros
      • Easier to research company history
      • Hopefully easier to contact if the need arises
    • Cons
      • Costs are usually higher
      • Lack of individual attention is prevalent
      • Quality can be a question

    In-House

    • Pros
      • On-sight availability is very convenient
      • Teamwork among your employees can result in very high quality of work
      • The in-house SEO can get a much better feel for your company when working from the inside
    • Cons
      • Gonna have to get that checkbook out
      • Internal differences can have a pretty big impact
      • Lonely SEO’s are lazy SEO’s
      • That company car is going to be expensive

    In the end, it really all depends on the business you run. If you have the availability and are ready for the challenge, I really suggest the in-house SEO. I know I know. I’m a freelancer. But I’m also an in-house SEO…sorta. If you can hire the right person, the in-house SEO can do wonders for you. Whatever you choose, SEOmoz recently opened their marketplace for employers and job-seekers alike.

    With this, and any other post, please read the disclaimer.

  • Aaron Wall Was Right

    Well crap. I read a post by Aaron Wall of SEO Book on putting your ideas to paper (or whatever the appropriate implementation would be in your case) before someone else does last week and thought to myself, “man, that has happened to me a lot.” And I mean a lot. I just came across an example of someone posting their idea, a while after I had thought about it. But really, it was my fault.

    The example is an idea that I’ve been playing around with in my head for a while. Basically, to promote your business to your demographic by placing your business card (I am thinking now that a postcard may be better) into magazines and books that your target audience would read. You could do that at a bookstore, Wal-Mart, the convenience store, wherever. It’s a little spammy, I know, but the idea is still there.

    Well today I found a post by Gyutae Park of Winning The Web, where he outlines this perfectly.

    I made a mistake here that I hope to not repeat. First, as much as I probably will never try the idea, it would still have made a decent post. Second, I let the cat out of the bag before I had actually posted anything with a comment on Freelance Switch about a month before Gyutae’s post. I highly doubt Gyutae stole the idea from me, but I really should have posted on the idea, and then linked to that post within that same comment.

    To be honest though, the post by Gyutae is actually pretty damn good. Maybe better than I would have compiled. So I suggest you at least check it out. In the right market I think it may work for some.

    But the fact remains the same. If you have an idea, at least expand on it. Don’t let someone else get it before you do.

    With this, and any other post, please read the disclaimer.