ask a seo genius anything thread

[WigWam]

Hi,

A handful of generic questions

Hi Clickedon, welcome to acorn domains 8)

- What tips would you give to maximise visibility/click-throughs in the SERPs?

In the serps only two (main) parts of the site are shown. The title and the description, many people overdo these seo wise to a point where it just looks spammy (lower ctr) - remember aim it at the user, not the search engine. Research shows that more user friendly title tags and descriptions command a much higher ctr.

- When generating/optimising content for a site, would you concentrate on directly targeting long-tail phrases or modelling topic clusters?

When doing seo on sites I normally aim for longtail keywords / phrases as they preform better. For example [computers] would get alot of traffic but a low conversion rate if it is an ecommerce site, although if it was a blog or review site it would be more relevant. A terms such as [buy a computer online] or [buy {computer name} online], would gain much higher conversion rates on ecommerce sites.
Also longtail keywords / phrases tend to have considerably less competition so they are easier to rank for (meaning that you could rank for many of them in the same amount of time). Its all about low vs high quality traffic. Don;t just build links to the homepage, do longtail deep linking for the best results.

You advise above only submitting to article sites which are "relevant to your site and well indexed with dofollow links". Would you go out of your way to avoid 'nofollow' links, as it could be a signal of being spammy, or is it just that you wouldn't spend the time pursuing these links?

I would rather have 1 relevant nofollow link than 10 irrelevant dofollow links anyday. Remember sites that implement nofollow tend to scare away the spammers, so they have less low quality / spun content and much lower obls.

Based on your experience, what ranking signals are currently growing in importance, and which do you think are fading away?

Currently methods such as bulk low quality content and low quality links are loosing value (panda update).

Site with high quality links to high quality content are and always will do well.

In the near future I can see google using social tools (such as facebook, twitter, digg or even social signals) as a main ranking factor as it will give people the opportunity to freely vote up the sites they like. (currently this is a low ranking factor on the grand scale of things).

What tips would you give for SERP domination for a brand name search?

Unless your brand name is a generic keyword e.g. "laptops" you should be able to rank for it very easily. Simple add it to the front / end of your title tag (increases se ctr aswell) and add your site to a few directories with your brand name as the title / anchor text.

If it is more competitive just build build build those links and use good onsite seo methods to make it rank

--

Hope this helps.

WW.

 

[denchomsky]

Good questions, Good answers.

 

[clickedon]

Hi Clickedon, welcome to acorn domains 8

Thanks (and right back at you - I've been a member, albeit a lurker, for 2 years longer than you!).

In the serps only two (main) parts of the site are shown. The title and the description, many people overdo these seo wise to a point where it just looks spammy (lower ctr) - remember aim it at the user, not the search engine. Research shows that more user friendly title tags and descriptions command a much higher ctr.

I'd also add human-readable URLs into the mix. Sensible use of keywords in the URL will reinforce the relevance of your SERP snippet when searchers are scanning through results.

How would you maximise the chances of sitelinks being displayed for a site? Also, have you experienced higher click-throughs when SERP snippets include meta information such as reviews or hCards?

When doing seo on sites I normally aim for longtail keywords / phrases as they preform better. For example [computers] would get alot of traffic but a low conversion rate if it is an ecommerce site, although if it was a blog or review site it would be more relevant. A terms such as [buy a computer online] or [buy {computer name} online], would gain much higher conversion rates on ecommerce sites.

Also longtail keywords / phrases tend to have considerably less competition so they are easier to rank for (meaning that you could rank for many of them in the same amount of time). Its all about low vs high quality traffic. Don;t just build links to the homepage, do longtail deep linking for the best results.

I could cope with a low conversion rate if I ranked #1 for [computers]

Do you think that Google et al currently put sufficient algorithmic emphasis on topic modelling to make optimising content around topics (rather than just specific keywords, whether short or long tail) worthwhile?

Currently methods such as bulk low quality content and low quality links are loosing value (panda update).

Site with high quality links to high quality content are and always will do well.

In the near future I can see google using social tools (such as facebook, twitter, digg or even social signals) as a main ranking factor as it will give people the opportunity to freely vote up the sites they like. (currently this is a low ranking factor on the grand scale of things).

Is it more the voting/"+1" factor which will influence ranking, or social mentions?

With SERPs becoming more and more personalised, how would you suggest breaking into or influencing these?

Unless your brand name is a generic keyword e.g. "laptops" you should be able to rank for it very easily. Simple add it to the front / end of your title tag (increases se ctr aswell) and add your site to a few directories with your brand name as the title / anchor text.

If it is more competitive just build build build those links and use good onsite seo methods to make it rank

Sorry, my question was a bit vague - ranking for your own brand should indeed be easy

For a branded search, however (i.e. for [my brand]), my site might only populate the first spot, with the remaining 9 on SERP #1 being other sites (could be directories, review sites, forum discussions and so on).

If I wanted to dominate the SERPs for [my brand] so I have as much control over my online brand, what steps should I take?



Cheers

 

[mally]

Hi,

Can I show you a recent creation Balance Bikes

As I said its brand new, wordpress cms. I've added google sitemaps and submitted it via google webmasters. My plan is to leave it for a few weeks before adding more content.

I've added links to it from Biking Magazines and also this post, so thats 2 links so far only.

Any other suggestions you can share, for a new site?

 

[bensd]

Hi,

Can I show you a recent creation Balance Bikes

As I said its brand new, wordpress cms. I've added google sitemaps and submitted it via google webmasters. My plan is to leave it for a few weeks before adding more content.

I've added links to it from Biking Magazines and also this post, so thats 2 links so far only.

Any other suggestions you can share, for a new site?

Nice looking site Mally, out of interest what plugin/script did you use for the shopping pages?

 

[WigWam]

How would you maximise the chances of sitelinks being displayed for a site? Also, have you experienced higher click-throughs when SERP snippets include meta information such as reviews or hCards?

Many of the sites I have worked on have gained sitelinks, yes you can improve your chances but it is never guaranteed. A good way to improve your chances is to do the following:
Have a simple navigation bar with links to the top 4 / 8 pages on every page.
Give you top 4 / 8 pages higher priority in your .xml sitemap.
Give each of the 4 / 8 target pages a good amount of backlinks with the keyword you want as the sitelink as the anchor.

Do you think that Google et al currently put sufficient algorithmic emphasis on topic modelling to make optimising content around topics (rather than just specific keywords, whether short or long tail) worthwhile?

Could you re-phrase that one, my brain just frazzled reading that lol

Is it more the voting/"+1" factor which will influence ranking, or social mentions?

Odds are that it will be their own +1 system that they use at the start. Although I wouldn't be surprised if they temporarily change ranking (news ranking) depending on the amount of diggs / shares in the near future.

With SERPs becoming more and more personalised, how would you suggest breaking into or influencing these?

Unless you are into black hat seo (where they would create a zillion gmail accounts and hit the +1 button all day - which would be spotted) my main tip would be to write the content for the viewer, not the search engine & have a nice simple designed site.

For a branded search, however (i.e. for [my brand]), my site might only populate the first spot, with the remaining 9 on SERP #1 being other sites (could be directories, review sites, forum discussions and so on).

If I wanted to dominate the SERPs for [my brand] so I have as much control over my online brand, what steps should I take?

Very simple. At the last place I worked we had a small company come to us asking us to do a bit of reputation management in the serps for his business. Unfortunately the top 20 or so results were all negative reviews on strong sites. We had to create around 30 strong, keyword [brand] heavy from many authority sites that are free to edit (such as aboutus.org, freeindex, get satisfaction, a few article sites, a few press release sites, a few dousen directories etc). We then did off page external link building (link building to external pages). A few weeks later his company not only had many links (albeit lower quality than I like to work with) and he dominated the first 3 pages of google, in which he could control what people were saying. It improved his business incredibly as people were less resident to buy from him. Last I heard of him he sold it and lives in Morocco (im in the wrong industry lol).

Hope this helps.

WW.

-----

Hi,

Can I show you a recent creation Balance Bikes

As I said its brand new, wordpress cms. I've added google sitemaps and submitted it via google webmasters. My plan is to leave it for a few weeks before adding more content.

I've added links to it from Biking Magazines and also this post, so thats 2 links so far only.

Any other suggestions you can share, for a new site?

Hi Mally great site.

I would advice that you add a few articles to the site (maybe even a viral one if you think you could do it). Even think about adding some games to the site as a form of link bait (search digital point, they sell flash games for a dime a dousen).

Only use unique content, and don't add the "What are Balance Bikes?" part below all of those product pages.

Anywho, you need more links - as simple as that. Consider article writing and distribution to relevant sites (traffic + relevant links). Even consider free directory submissions, they don't have allot of weight anymore but still should help. Deep link and social bookmark internal product pages with longtail keywords that have high conversion rates.

WW.

Nice looking site Mally, out of interest what plugin/script did you use for the shopping pages?

Dito, would be interested too

WW.

 

[mally]

Its wordpress cms, with pricetapestry as the shopping integrated - thanks for feedback)

 

[clickedon]

Could you re-phrase that one, my brain just frazzled reading that lol

OK, I'll put my cards on the table ;-)

The SEO industry is full of self-professed 'experts' and 'gurus' and 'ninjas' and 'geniuses' with little real-world experience. They promise (or infer) the moon-on-a-stick, but don't back it up.

It's damaging to their clients. It's damaging to the industry.

When anyone professes to be an 'SEO genius', they are asking to be tested That's why my questions are so good - I'm probing whether you really are a 'genius' or if you're likely to be referred to as a 'snake-oil salesman' in a few month's time.

My verdict? You're not bad, but certainly not a genius ;-)

You have a sound awareness of different aspects of SEO. I'm sure you're capable of doing the necessary legwork for a small-to-medium site for it to rank for medium-long tail keywords.

However, I had to give massive hints to get you to even acknowledge some of the more sophisticated aspects of SEO.

• When I mentioned "SERP domination", you should've immediately thought of 'reputation management' techniques. I had to spell this out to you.
  
• I had to tickle out acknowledgment of sitelinks, review/contact meta data and so on. Omitting the page URL when you mentioned titles and descriptions is frankly either careless or shows lack of understanding of what draws searchers to click on results.
  
• Your obsession for long-tail results shows complete disregard for the need for volume. Short-tail optimisation is still achievable and affordable in many industries.
  
• You have scant awareness of social and brand signals and how they are already impacting SERPs. Your assertion that +1 will impact SERPs before social mentions is off the mark - the latter already are having an impact.
  
• Your inability to break down my (deliberately) difficultly-phrased question about topic modelling shows 2 things. Firstly, you have no awareness of IA, which is a fundamental aspect of SEO for sites of even 20+ pages. Secondly, it indicates that you would struggle to grasp working with information which you know nothing about.
  
• Suggesting that influencing personalised search results in any way other than having a 'nice site' is black hat is nonsense. It also shows a lack of imagination, indicating that you work to a 'best practice' formula but struggle to think of your own solutions.

Most damaging of all is perhaps your sloppiness with grammar, spelling and general writing style, both in this thread and on your site - most comically this:

"Weather it be the methods I use to rank sites well or the prices I charge, my reputation for being different out-stands me"

I wouldn't trust you with any site I'm involved with for this reason alone - you just don't have the mastery of language to suggest content changes.


Sorry if all this sounds a bit harsh. As I said though, you've got enough awareness to do some decent work on small sites (provided that you aren't given carte blanche control of content), but you're not up to anything bigger.

Grade?

C+

Could do better.

 

[WigWam]

OK, I'll put my cards on the table ;-)

The SEO industry is full of self-professed 'experts' and 'gurus' and 'ninjas' and 'geniuses' with little real-world experience. They promise (or infer) the moon-on-a-stick, but don't back it up.

It's damaging to their clients. It's damaging to the industry.

When anyone professes to be an 'SEO genius', they are asking to be tested That's why my questions are so good - I'm probing whether you really are a 'genius' or if you're likely to be referred to as a 'snake-oil salesman' in a few month's time.

My verdict? You're not bad, but certainly not a genius ;-)

You have a sound awareness of different aspects of SEO. I'm sure you're capable of doing the necessary legwork for a small-to-medium site for it to rank for medium-long tail keywords.

However, I had to give massive hints to get you to even acknowledge some of the more sophisticated aspects of SEO.

• When I mentioned "SERP domination", you should've immediately thought of 'reputation management' techniques. I had to spell this out to you.
  
• I had to tickle out acknowledgment of sitelinks, review/contact meta data and so on. Omitting the page URL when you mentioned titles and descriptions is frankly either careless or shows lack of understanding of what draws searchers to click on results.
  
• Your obsession for long-tail results shows complete disregard for the need for volume. Short-tail optimisation is still achievable and affordable in many industries.
  
• You have scant awareness of social and brand signals and how they are already impacting SERPs. Your assertion that +1 will impact SERPs before social mentions is off the mark - the latter already are having an impact.
  
• Your inability to break down my (deliberately) difficultly-phrased question about topic modelling shows 2 things. Firstly, you have no awareness of IA, which is a fundamental aspect of SEO for sites of even 20+ pages. Secondly, it indicates that you would struggle to grasp working with information which you know nothing about.
  
• Suggesting that influencing personalised search results in any way other than having a 'nice site' is black hat is nonsense. It also shows a lack of imagination, indicating that you work to a 'best practice' formula but struggle to think of your own solutions.

Most damaging of all is perhaps your sloppiness with grammar, spelling and general writing style, both in this thread and on your site - most comically this:



I wouldn't trust you with any site I'm involved with for this reason alone - you just don't have the mastery of language to suggest content changes.


Sorry if all this sounds a bit harsh. As I said though, you've got enough awareness to do some decent work on small sites (provided that you aren't given carte blanche control of content), but you're not up to anything bigger.

Grade?

C+

Could do better.

How about you come clean and say who you are then? a competitor by any chance?

Obviously i'm not going to be able to answer questions in this thread in the quality (or length) that I would for clients. The info I have been giving is the basics, im not going to go into server site validation errors or firewalls slowing down servers yet preventing ddos attacks but with a fractional chance of blocking legitimate robots or even preventing and reducing damage from a competitors malicious seo taskings (all three make a difference). There are literally thousands of different ranking factors and if I wrote all of this in a forum it would bore everyone to death, and considering im doing it for free just the basics (that make large differences) make the difference.

I write fast, what can I say. I don't have time to spell check every post I make. We are all human. Now please say who you are then.

Your obsession for long-tail results shows complete disregard for the need for volume. Short-tail optimisation is still achievable and affordable in many industries.

Please tell me you are joking here. You haven't studied into higher converting traffic enough. Aiming for pointless "show off" keywords just to impress your client is just a legalized form of robbery if you ask me. Not only in your seo time, but also server costs.
WW.

 

[JMOT]

ouch.....

 

[boxfish]

I'm surprised it took so long for that post to appear.

I'm not knocking the OP but calling yourself an SEO genius is setting yourself up for a fall.

 

[Ashton]

WW, now is not the time to attack him on his post or a personal level, he clearly knows what he's talking about and not understanding concepts such as topic modelling really shows that. Not to mention you overlooked many points in his posts (Reviews, hCards for example)

Look WW, take the good with the bad, he has pointed out that you aren't suited to large corporate seo but you are right for minisites and small business'

Let me put it this way, your target audience cant afford the genius you are trying to be. They can afford the person you really are and would happily buy that.

My web design studio isn't perfect, we just create nice usable sites which our clients love. We don't spend a year creating different variations to maximise click through, we don't have eye tracking software. Hence why we charge around £1xxxx - whereas the guys that do this all charge £xx,xxxx+

To put it simply: I can afford to hire you, I can't afford to hire a person he would hire.

Thank you for your posts ClickedOn.

 

[WigWam]

Alright.

Just been doing my research into clickedon.co.uk.

Firstly who puts adsense on your website driving your traffic to your competitors?

Secondly, as a web "designer" I am sure you are aware of this rather major seo error on your site. But both http://clickedon.co.uk/ & http://www.clickedon.co.uk/ are different site (a 301 redirect would do the trick).
There is a whole list of errors I could mention, but I wouldn't want to waste my time on a competitor.

Now lets have a loot at some of the "sites" that you have designed.

www.ditrain.co.uk (From what I can see, seo is very poor here)
www.dbtaxis.info (even worse. and all of the title tags are the same)
One of my favorites is Gay owned web design and hosting

and many more that lack even a basic bit of seo use (even what would be expected from a non-seo website developer).


Remember to practice what you preach Clickedon

WW.

 

[Ashton]

WW... Those sites haven't been updated since 2007...

 

[WigWam]

Wtf does sexual preference have to do with this anyway?

Not sure, made me wonder lol , interesting usp though.

WW... Those sites haven't been updated since 2007...

And search engines didn't exist back then?

Not to mention you overlooked many points in his posts (Reviews, hCards for example)

I probably cut them out by accident while writing that thread, notice how each question is in a separate quote box? If you want me to answer it just ask.

WW.

 

[retired_member13]

Just been doing my research into clickedon.co.uk.

.....Now lets have a loot at some of the "sites" that you have designed.

.....Remember to practice what you preach Clickedon

I have to admit that I've found this thread pretty strange thus far.

Without wanting to get into a bun fight, surely picking on someone's names as an example of why they are not good at something can cut both ways?

Eg, in another thread I asked you about your own BeerHat.co.uk, a site designed and built by you much more recently than 2007 that doesn't even get into the top 100 G results for the exact match phrase [beer hat] - and your reply was

Never tried to rank that one tbh, it was more of a test site. It would only take a few hours work and it would be p1.

But by your own yardstick owning sites as an "SEO Genius" that have bad (or no) SEO isn't a good thing if you do truly believe what you've been posting about others?

Don't get me wrong, personally I've got no issues with you claiming to be an "SEO Genius" if that's how you want to play it, but pots, kettles and black are all words that are springing to mind reading some of the posts that have been made, and surely the proof of the pudding is in the eating when all is said and done?

 

[Edwin]

Just a note as an impartial "observer": you don't refute the flaws in somebody's logic by pointing out that they also fail to follow that logic from time to time (e.g. by pointing out the failings in their own website). You refute the flaws by deconstructing the logic itself, and highlighting where the flaws lie.

WW has put a lot of effort into answering posts, hats off for that. I'm sure it will have helped many people on here, and not necessarily just the people asking the questions.

At the same time, Clickedon made some very valid points, none of which are any less valid because of any failings - real or perceived - with their own website. The points remain true "in isolation" because they ARE true, and they can't be disproven just because they are not applied to any given website.

There are so many aspects to SEO, from on-page and off-page factors through to the URL, inbound link structure and variations, the use of sitemaps (for web pages, videos, images and mobile pages), geotagging and microformats, page load times, ad vs content ratios, spelling and grammar, site architecture and so on, and so on, and so on. The list is near-endless, and changes at the "cutting edge" nearly all the time.

At the same time, there's a "good enough subset" of such techniques that is likely to prove more than adequate for the typical "niche" competitor outside a very highly competitive market, and there's plenty of mileage in working towards satisfying the need to implement this "good enough subset"...

 

[WigWam]

I have to admit that I've found this thread pretty strange thus far.

Without wanting to get into a bun fight, surely picking on someone's names as an example of why they are not good at something can cut both ways?

Eg, in another thread I asked you about your own BeerHat.co.uk, a site designed and built by you much more recently than 2007 that doesn't even get into the top 100 G results for the exact match phrase [beer hat] - and your reply was



But by your own yardstick owning sites as an "SEO Genius" that have bad (or no) SEO isn't a good thing if you do truly believe what you've been posting about others?

Don't get me wrong, personally I've got no issues with you claiming to be an "SEO Genius" if that's how you want to play it, but pots, kettles and black are all words that are springing to mind reading some of the posts that have been made, and surely the proof of the pudding is in the eating when all is said and done?

Im not sure what all of this hostility is for so far. How often do you see a seo consultant offer FREE help & advice on a public forum, and happily put a good amount time into answering any question without any sales pitch? (time that I could be earning on).

Some people just can't be gratefull. This good deed is over then.

WW.

 

[retired_member13]

Im not sure what all of this hostility is for so far. How often do you see a seo consultant offer FREE help & advice on a public forum, and happily put good time into answering any question without any sales pitch? (time that I could be earning on).

Some people just can't be gratefull. This good deed is over then.

WW.

I don't think there was any hostility from my part (or at least I wasn't aiming to be hostile), I was just wondering why all of the mud was being chucked around really. I think that you answering people's question and helping them is a good thing, so maybe I should have said that as well.

 

[Ashton]

Im not sure what all of this hostility is for so far. How often do you see a seo consultant offer FREE help & advice on a public forum, and happily put a good amount time into answering any question without any sales pitch? (time that I could be earning on).

Some people just can't be gratefull. This good deed is over then.

WW.

WW please don't take what (or others) say the wrong way.

You are exactly the kind of person I need to employ, and the free advice you have been giving is of good quality and has helped others significantly. I have a lot of respect for you from that.

You are perfectly suited to 99% of websites, you only won't be suited to very competitive and high profile sites (ie: Discount vouchers)