Our wizard hats are off to Portent for posting this amusing Tolkein-ized SEO parable. Using Middle-Earth metaphors (and imaginative graphics) it's quite a lengthy, involving piece detailing an example step-by-step process of boosting a site's search ranking.
Of course, if you don't feel like going to all that effort yourself, you could always hire a consultant...
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Clear SEO Trouble-Shooting Tips
A minor addition: Rather than going through the hassle of logging out of Google in order to avoid tainting search results, another suggestion is to simply use a different web browser. It's easier that way, rather than forgetting whether you're logged in or not.
Besides, as a web entrepreneur, you should be running multiple web browsers anyway - at least one each of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome - just to test how your site behaves under different browsers.
Improving Page Architecture for Better Searchability
Page layout and design are the key components of a search engine friendly web page and the overall popularity of the web site.
The simple logic behind the search engine robots is the faster loading and analysis of the pages that are scoured for specific content. With advances in technology, web pages are fast becoming difficult to comprehend. The use of faster and larger servers has not considerably reduced the processing time.
Reducing file size
There is a constant clash between the urge to make a page visually attractive and the necessity to keep the pages within manageable limits.
This can be done by looking at the components that are responsible for increasing the page size. The excessive use of images increases file size without a proportional increase in rankings. The use of Flash and Javascript inhibit the ability of the search engines to analyze the real content on the page, and produce a decent ranking for the page. Images should not cover a significant part of the page. Instead, they should be restricted to a respectable size. This enables quick loading and analysis. Flash animation should have certain key words included in them so as to specify their relevance to the page.
Rank Dilution
Often, web pages appear as a frame within a page, with independent scrollbars. This misleads the search engine into believing that there are two pages, instead of one. Thus it proceeds to rank the two frames differently. The overall result is an average lowering of the web ranking.
Search Engine Behaviour
The two factors that determine the page rank offered by the engines are indexation and crawl ability. These two are often misunderstood to be the same. The search engines "crawl" or fetch through the web site analyzing the content on each page. During this process, no ranking takes place. This is followed by the indexation process where the URLs and other content are added to a standard index for further reference. Hence, the page design should keep this sequence of events in mind to enable faster crawling and better indexing.
Offloading Data
Search engines do not have the ability to choose from drop down menus and move accordingly. The longer it takes to index a page, the greater is the chance that the engine will abort the process or lower the rankings. Offloading the CSS and Javascript codes into include files helps to quicken this process. It also improves loading time and feedback from visitors.
Page Depth
Very similar to a first time visitor, search engines have to go through the entire lengthy process of downloading each layer of web pages to reach the content of specific value. Thus, a considerable time and corresponding page rank is lost even though information is of utmost importance. Hence, minimizing the depth at which the key pages are located is a useful way of improving SEO. Easy accessibility is the key to better page rank.
Get a quote today for SEO
The simple logic behind the search engine robots is the faster loading and analysis of the pages that are scoured for specific content. With advances in technology, web pages are fast becoming difficult to comprehend. The use of faster and larger servers has not considerably reduced the processing time.
Reducing file size
There is a constant clash between the urge to make a page visually attractive and the necessity to keep the pages within manageable limits.
This can be done by looking at the components that are responsible for increasing the page size. The excessive use of images increases file size without a proportional increase in rankings. The use of Flash and Javascript inhibit the ability of the search engines to analyze the real content on the page, and produce a decent ranking for the page. Images should not cover a significant part of the page. Instead, they should be restricted to a respectable size. This enables quick loading and analysis. Flash animation should have certain key words included in them so as to specify their relevance to the page.
Rank Dilution
Often, web pages appear as a frame within a page, with independent scrollbars. This misleads the search engine into believing that there are two pages, instead of one. Thus it proceeds to rank the two frames differently. The overall result is an average lowering of the web ranking.
Search Engine Behaviour
The two factors that determine the page rank offered by the engines are indexation and crawl ability. These two are often misunderstood to be the same. The search engines "crawl" or fetch through the web site analyzing the content on each page. During this process, no ranking takes place. This is followed by the indexation process where the URLs and other content are added to a standard index for further reference. Hence, the page design should keep this sequence of events in mind to enable faster crawling and better indexing.
Offloading Data
Search engines do not have the ability to choose from drop down menus and move accordingly. The longer it takes to index a page, the greater is the chance that the engine will abort the process or lower the rankings. Offloading the CSS and Javascript codes into include files helps to quicken this process. It also improves loading time and feedback from visitors.
Page Depth
Very similar to a first time visitor, search engines have to go through the entire lengthy process of downloading each layer of web pages to reach the content of specific value. Thus, a considerable time and corresponding page rank is lost even though information is of utmost importance. Hence, minimizing the depth at which the key pages are located is a useful way of improving SEO. Easy accessibility is the key to better page rank.
Get a quote today for SEO
Thursday, 1 March 2012
Ten Ways To Viral-Market To Anonymous
What? Who has the audacity to suggest that these "hippies of the web" could be used for any good? Anonymous is the online collective which has gotten much press lately for its wacky online stunts and "hacktivism". And while you might consider them a good reason for why napalm was invented, don't dismiss them entirely - they're an influential group and some of their members are very well-heeled. In fact, quite a few of them are the children of millionaires with a Batman complex (I'm rich, so I'll use the money to fight for "justice").
Attract the attention and support of the Anonymous army with these ten tactics:
- Be hip about Warner Brothers and "comic-book"-based films - 300, The Dark Knight, Inception, V for Vendetta. Just slip in a guy Fawkes mask or yell "This is Sparta!" and you've got their love.
- Be Conservative. - Very, very right-wing conservative (think John Birch Society). Sorry, you want these guys, you gotta do it!
- Love cats. - And whatever you do, don't be caught being mean to one on YouTube. Or compose a video about your competitor being mean to cats... Anonymous is a lynch mob that never cares when they're wrong.
- Talk to the young folks. - Anonymous is exclusively in the 14-21 age bracket.
- Be anti-intellectual. - This is another downer, but once again, you want these guys, you gotta do it. Just be careful not to talk over their heads or refer to any books.
- Be radical. - These guys protest a lot. Every day is another day of activism for them. Tap into this by phrasing your marketing blurb as a message of outrage against some minor injustice.
- Be atheist. - Hard, radical, reactionary atheism. Hide all references to faith.
- Stroke their ego. - Anonymous came about from the Generation Y "trophy generation". They generally don't go to the bathroom without seeking the validation of three peers. Give them lots and lots of reasons to like themselves. To you it's a compliment. To them, it's nutrition.
- Call them to action! - These guys never met a command they wouldn't follow, if you phrase it right. They want to belong, they want to conform, they want to be a good little bee. Send them to flowers.
- Tap into the Hivemind. - Do not challenge them with ideas outside their narrow world-view. Never disagree with something Anonymous has said, or your popularity will sink overnight. Sound like them, walk like them, and they'll be loyal to you.
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
A Sour Infographic On SEO Lemons
"Lemons", says the theory on SEO-Book's lemons infographic, are the bogus practices and products passed off on unsuspecting customers whenever there's a knowledge gap between likely buyers and sellers.
Whew! We must say, it's refreshing to see an in-depth treatment of the subject that pulls no punches. The solution to the problem is, naturally, is knowledge-based. The trouble is, the nature of SEO provokes a knowledge gap - between SEOs and search engines. As long as Google and others use "secret sauce" formulas and secrets that are tightly guarded, nobody can really figure out for certain what's a good practice and what isn't. We all have to reverse-engineer everything and see what works.
Just a gentle counter-point...
Whew! We must say, it's refreshing to see an in-depth treatment of the subject that pulls no punches. The solution to the problem is, naturally, is knowledge-based. The trouble is, the nature of SEO provokes a knowledge gap - between SEOs and search engines. As long as Google and others use "secret sauce" formulas and secrets that are tightly guarded, nobody can really figure out for certain what's a good practice and what isn't. We all have to reverse-engineer everything and see what works.
Just a gentle counter-point...
Saturday, 31 December 2011
Wait, People On YouTube Make Money?
We're tantalized by this new post over at Search Engine Watch about making money on YouTube. It seems YouTube advertising partners have expanded to 15,000 worldwide. This thing is taking off, and moreover, it shows that Google was smart to gamble when they bought YouTube.
Highlights include Michael Buckley, of "What the Buck?" fame, giving a webinar about how he got started on the path to making "six figures" (what???) as a YouTube star. And of course, there's "Old Spice Man", who certainly was part of the most saturated social blitz marketing campaign in history, but didn't really get Proctor & Gamble sales to bumpo more than 10% (let's face it, the kids still prefer Axe). "Old Spice" has the word old in the name, hint hint. But anyway, there's dozens of marketing case studies to share here.
Highlights include Michael Buckley, of "What the Buck?" fame, giving a webinar about how he got started on the path to making "six figures" (what???) as a YouTube star. And of course, there's "Old Spice Man", who certainly was part of the most saturated social blitz marketing campaign in history, but didn't really get Proctor & Gamble sales to bumpo more than 10% (let's face it, the kids still prefer Axe). "Old Spice" has the word old in the name, hint hint. But anyway, there's dozens of marketing case studies to share here.
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
It's Always The End Of The Internet As We Know It
ReadWriteWeb is using an unusual dose of satire to make a point when it gives its R.I.P. to the web (again).
Yes, don't we hear this all the time? Funny, we never see a post about a new boom - maybe one about a new bubble slips by - but we always see somebody posting about this or that being over, done for, dead as a doornail. Why so negative?
Foo on all this pessimism! We say we're in the golden age of the web! With blogs and Wikis and Twitter and YouTube and streaming video and interactive games, after AJAX and HTML5 have come to the fore, we are doing things right now that we only dreamed of ten years ago and were only science fiction fifteen years ago.
Lighten up, everybody! There's still lots of the web's golden age yet to go!
Yes, don't we hear this all the time? Funny, we never see a post about a new boom - maybe one about a new bubble slips by - but we always see somebody posting about this or that being over, done for, dead as a doornail. Why so negative?
Foo on all this pessimism! We say we're in the golden age of the web! With blogs and Wikis and Twitter and YouTube and streaming video and interactive games, after AJAX and HTML5 have come to the fore, we are doing things right now that we only dreamed of ten years ago and were only science fiction fifteen years ago.
Lighten up, everybody! There's still lots of the web's golden age yet to go!
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