Here’s a simple basic SEO overview and description.

What does Google do?
Google lists websites in response to a users request for information. The request is sometimes simple such as “taxi Aberdeen” and sometimes more complex such as “luxury taxi service in Aberdeen”

How does Google do that?
Google’s software trawls the web indexing pages of information. The software tries to ‘understand’ what a page is about so it can list the page in response to a users search.

How does Google decide which page to put first?
Search results, the list of websites you see when you use Google to find something, are listed in order of relevance and importance. Relevance will depend on the content of the page, importance will depend on links to the page.

Why are links important?
Remember, Google’s search results are automated by software. The software measures the number and quality of links to a page and uses this information to ‘decide’ a pages importance. For example, if 100 pages in the Google index match the search “luxury taxi service in Aberdeen” Google’s software will use the number and quality of links to each page to ‘decide’ which is the best page, which page should be first.

What constitutes a good link?
This is a tough question. There’s plenty of empirical evidence to suggest any link is a good link. However, as a rule of thumb the harder a link is to secure, the more value it will bring to your page.

Can you give me an example?
If you participate in an online forum and add links to your pages from your posts and forum signature these may not provide much benefit as they are not merit based links, they are simply self promotion. If on the other hand you create some very useful content and other people link to it this will often bring more search engine benefit as it’s a merit based link.

Is this always the case?
No, you can enjoy search engine success by using one of the many search engine spamming techniques. The downside to this approach is you run the risk of a sudden fall from the search results if your technique is discovered by Google. Here’s some link building advice detailing  the up and downsides of several link building methods.

Can I simply buy links?
Yes, but Google advises against it.

In Conclusion
Trying to rank your site in Google can be frustrating. When we receive requests for SEO Advice or SEO Reviews we are often told by the site owner that they ‘need to be number one in Google when people type ……………… (insert your keyword here)’. A search result is not a right, if your site is new you will struggle to rank for anything worth ranking for. If your site isn’t well structured the search engines won’t be able to ‘understand’ it. If you don’t have any links Google won’t know if it can trust it.

Work methodically and if you’ve got the budget get some help from an SEO specialist.

The latest Pagerank talking shop started with Google’s announcement about removing Pagerank from Google Webmaster Tools. This has been wrongly interpreted as Google no longer using Pagerank to measure the importance of pages. In Google’s own words;

“PageRank Technology: PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.”

So where does most of the confusion surrounding Pagerank come from? In my experience people cite  the simple fact that in a SERP it’s common to see a Pagerank 5 page below a Pagerank 3 page, for example. So is this evidence that Pagerank doesn’t mean anything? Yeah sure, in the same way that a Porsche 911 beating a Range Rover around a race track is proof that in all situations the Porsche is a better car.

Pagerank is ONE metric of many used by Google when ranking pages for a search. How important a metric is anybody’s guess, Google won’t tell you and nobody outside Google, and probably most people inside Google, don’t know the answer.

So let’s look at some examples:

Search Phrase – Car Insurance
Phrase Match Volume* – 3,550,000
Top Ten Results Pagerank** – 6,6,5,5,6,5,5,4,4,5

Search Phrase – Cheap Flights
Phrase Match Volume* – 5,000,000
Top Ten Results Pagerank** – 6,6,5,8,7,6,5,6,6,4

Search Phrase – City Break
Phrase Match Volume* – 74,000
Top Ten Results Pagerank** – 5,5,5,4,5,3,5,4,5,4

Search Phrase – Web Design Software
Phrase Match Volume* – 22,200
Top Ten Results Pagerank** – 9,4,9,5,4,4,5,4,4,4

As discussed above these results show low Pagerank pages performing better than high Pagerank pages. But does this mean Pagerank is dead? Not from where I’m sitting. It suggests to me that some pages Google doesn’t regard as highly as others in absolute terms have both content and a link profile that suggests they match the search criteria. It’s that simple.

By removing the Pagepank measure from WMT I think Google are suggesting website owners stop obsessing about Pagerank and perhaps even more importantly stop buying links from high Pagerank sites.

Of course, all the above is speculation, as is everyone else’s mutterings on the subject but to me it makes more sense than declaring Pagerank is dead. Pagerank is central to Google’s whole reason for being, it’s always been misinterpreted and Google are trying to address this.

*Google Keyword Tool, UK results – **Google UK search engine

Sure this quite superb SEO video is long at over 40 minutes but it beats the hell out of the crappy sound bite vids that are generally being pimped about.

Want to know what Pagerank is? It’ll tell you. Need the skinny on keywords, it’s covered, curious about URL’s, not any more. In fact I think this video is an SEO masterclass and if you did nothing else but digest what’s being said and created an SEO action plan from it you’d be well on your way to sorting your current SEO nightmare.

Do yourselves a favour, grab a coffee (or tea), get comfortable and watch this great SEO video from start to finish.

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I’m sure there are other great ways to use Joomla’s power but we know this one works

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I hope they are simple enough to be of use, I’m sure you’ll let me know. Rather than embed them here you can just get them by following the links below. The total running time of both videos is 12 minutes (the clues in the title).

If you haven’t got 12  minutes to spare, give up

The Basics of SEO in 12 Minutes Part 1 of 2 and The Basics of SEO in 12 Minutes Part 2 of 2.

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Websites are living documents that grow and evolve and this means you need to accept owning and running a website is an ongoing activity. Here’s a simple list to help you.

1. Carry out keyword research so you understand what your customers are searching for.
2. Create content that uses these keywords and make sure you build the pages in a search engine friendly way.
3. Look for links to your new content to give it credibility and promote your content through social media channels.
4. Write articles that add value to your website and syndicate them through article publication sites such as Ezinearticles.
5. Look for sites that talk about your line of business, forums, blogs etc, and if possible contribute IN A MEANINGFUL WAY to establish yourself as a credible expert.
6. Keep doing all of the above EVERY WEEK!

Simples…. (sorry Alexander).

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I was helping some people in a forum recently and the tone of the conversation was something like “I’ve built a website but Google still doesn’t show my site when people search for blah blah blah…”

I took a quick look at the site and found:

1. The domain was only a few months old
2. The quality of the links to the site were poor
3. The on page optimisation was poor

I suggested to the guy that he flip this situation on it’s head and tried to see things Google’s way. This might help you if you are experiencing the same thing.

OK, you are Google……..feel good? If not log in to your bank account and check that balance! Now do you feel good?

You are sat enjoying the Seattle sunshine when a search request comes in. Someone’s looking for a financial adviser in Reading. Would you:

1. Serve a page you trust from a website that’s been around for a few years that other sites rate as being worth reading?
2. Serve up a page from a new website with no authority or longevity?

Most likely you’d serve up pages that matched answer 1. Why? Think about how you operate in business. If you are switched on you will network with other business people. Over time you will build relationships with other businesses operating in different areas of expertise to your own.

If someone asked you to recommend a financial adviser would you:

1. Suggest they speak to ‘John Smith’ who you’ve met, whose offices you’ve visited, who’s been in business for 10 years and who’s used by people you know and trust?
2. Jonny Newboy who has just set up in business, who you’ve never met and who you know nothing about?

As the people at NASA don’t say, it’s not rocket science.

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If your SEO is working every page on your site is a potential landing page. This means every page on your site has one chance to make a first impression. Use your analytics software to understand where your visitors are landing and make sure these pages are working for you.

Don’t pamper your home page at the expense of your ‘worker‘ pages, every page on your site is potentially a home page!

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d

Search for any competitive term and you will find sites in the top ten with links that tick every spam indicator box available. Respectable blogs warn of the dangers of buying links and link spamming, I’m warning of the dangers of doing it, the problem is, nobody told the sites dominating the serps that they shouldn’t be doing it!

I know I bang on about link spam but if it’s the dominant metric in the algos then the big G has to reassure us some more that the ethical approach will be rewarded because ethical SEO’s clients want some answers!

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In blogosphere that’s awash with SEO noise this was a breath of fresh air.

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