Is SEO overrated

Some of the customers are getting frustrated and asking: Is SEO overrated? It is probably like asking is recession overrated? It all depends where you live, and how good or bad your finances are. Global economic downturn has caused many companies losing their sales. And many of them are cutting down marketing budgets to increase cash flow. However without their current spending for search engine marketing, the sales numbers could have been even worse. Also search engine optimisation is still one of the best strategy to bring traffic to the website and it deos not requite big marketing budget. SEO is not overrated but in some cases it is misunderstood and poorly executed marketing strategy.

Simple SEO Tips

Some may say - there is nothing simple about search engine optimisation. However, whether SEO is easy or not really depends on the particular website. In most cases SEO is not difficult as long as sufficient time and effort is invested into the project.
1. Create webpage titles related to targeted keywords.
2. Make your meta description unique for each webpage.
3. Use most important keywords in webpage name or URL.
4. Use cascading style sheets (CSS) rather then tables.
5. Add H1 tags preferably towards the top of each webpage.
6. Implement breadcrumbs functionality on your website.
7. Analyze your targeted keywords using Google suggest.
8. Implement the sitemap as text links.
9. Put CSS and JavaScript into external file.
10. Describe your images with the use of the alt tags.
11. Make sure your site logo alt tag contains your keywords.
12. Avoid automatic directory submission.
13. Find quality links to your website. Not easy.
14. Don't use same anchor text in all your inbound links.
15. Use deep linking to many webpages on your website.

Subdomains and SEO

Are there any benefits in using subdomains for the purpose of website search optimisation? The answer is yes, but with a few reservations. Subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain. For example "serivces.seo.com" is a subdomain of the "seo.com". At present, maximum two results can appear for a domain in the top 10. There is one exception that applies only to major portals such as Amazon, Ebay, About.com etc. Search Engine Land advice is to use subdomains when you have very disparate content that you feel searchers would feel relevant. For instance, if you have a travel site, it may make sense to use subdomains to categorize cities. Recommending further that for each search query that you want to list, make sure that you have one or two pages that you most want to rank for those terms and focus on optimizing those with keywords, anchor text, and links. Know that every page on your site won’t rank for each query, so decide which are the most relevant.

Search Events in 2008

If you are looking to learn more about SEO I have a list of upcoming SEO events and search marketing conferences. This year Search Engine Strategies will be held on March 17-20, 2008 in New York City. WebmasterWorld's PubCon will be in Las Vegas Nevada in later months of 2008. Ad Tech online marketing conference is now hosting in 10 cities around the world with the first in Sydney on March 12, 2008. SXSW Interactive Festival will take place from March 7 to March 11 in Austin, Texas. Those are the most important shows, but please leave a comment if there are any other SEO events which could be included on this short list.

Christmas SEO

Things seems to be winding down before holidays so I thought I will do some Googling for Christmas and SEO. It is a very far fetched and unrelated search but few interesting results could be worthwhile to mention. First there is a Christian Web Masters Forum which expresses concern that "Christians should try and get a good explanation of the nativity and what Christianity is all about as the top search result for "Christmas" at Google." Yes I can see that, since Google shows as first result Wikipedia entry for Christmas and just below we can find North Pole Santa Claus website as a second result. But I think it will be hard to dismiss Santa Claus which has become very strong tradition. The other news is that we will be able to track Santa in Google Earth on Christmas Eve in real time.

Harmful Web Content

In order to combat browser malware installations and make Internet safer, Google is displaying a brief message in the search results next to offending website as follows: This site may harm your computer. You may succeed to get your website to top 10 results but if you get this kind of message next to it, you would want to quickly redesign the website in order to avoid further negative publicity. However not everyone is getting the message. This morning when I run a search for "seo consulting" the current # 4 result showed as follows:
SEO Consultant - Shimon Sandler Blog SEO Consultant ...
This site may harm your computer.
The SEO Consultant must start with understanding the clients’ business and marketing goals to develop the strategy and approach for a winning SEO campaign. ...
www.shimonsandler.com/?p=200 - Similar pages
The question is that - if Google is a search engine, should it have a role to pass judgement on the websites?

SEO Consolidation

Recent article in Media section of The Australian has revealed that one of the top SEO companies in Australia - Found Agency is due to complete the sale of its business to specialist marketing services Photon Group Limited for estimated $3 million. Siimon Reynolds is one of the executive directors in Photon Group Limited so it is a definite sign that SEO is taken more seriously and becomes a major strategy for big marketing agencies. It is the second acquisition of SEO business in last few months. In December 2006 Chris Dimmock has sold his search engine marketing company - Cogentis to BlueFreeway Limited. SEO companies consolidation is a new trend in Australia but it should not come as a surprise since in United States, big Madison Avenue marketing agencies have been buying SEO companies for last few years. For more details see the article:
Link kings net rich pickings in The Australian.

Chief SEO Speaks

On a recent SES London conference Matt Cutts who is a software engineer and the head of the Google's webspam team has shared his vision for Google in a keynote interview. According to Matt the main theme for Google in years to come will be personalization and localization. The ambition is to organize the world information and store data at Google with Gmail and other tools. Matt was also asked about the spam issue: "Matt answers: There was this guy who claimed there is no way his cloaking could be detected because he used “super duper” cloaking. His “super duper” cloaking had pages name “Doorway-Page-Alta-Vista”, my mom could detect that." And more about the definition of spam: Matt: That can be tough. Litmus test: what was the intent and how was it done. Spammy techniques – sneaky java scripts, techniques that are use help to determine the intent. Measuring how happy users are is important. Spam can be defined as noise, noise from your signal. Off topic spam – you type in your name and get porn. That is not in anybody’s interest. Cookie cutter sites that don’t add any value – 50 sites that there’s no diversity. No value add for the customer. There are definitely shades – some are more serious and some less." Matt was also asked about his favorite Non-Google tool. Yahoo site explorer was the answer.

SEO and Public Relations

John Andrews and Todd Malicoat in their recent posts have attempted to describe 16 reasons why people hate SEOs. I think it is very funny insight about what SEOs struggle with on a daily basis. Expert SEO not only makes you feel really stupid but is a Scary Thing too. "Your Expert SEO comes in and immediately everyone can see she knows her stuff. And your stuff. And his stuff. And that guy's stuff. Nobody is safe. This SEO person seems to hold a very broad yet very, very advanced expertise *and* is one of the most creative people you have ever met. This is scary." And about sacred cows "In fact, SEO Experts know that Sacred Cows make the best hamburger. Your SEO Expert says sell the cows and buy a few plastic cows to put out on the lawn at Christmas." Find out more about 16 Reasons People Hate SEOs.

Practical SEO Workshop

We will be presenting an interactive SEO workshop on how to design and update the websites for search engine visibility. During the practical search engine optimisation session we identify opportunities for immediate improvement based on the websites submitted by workshop participants. The date for Sydney workshop is scheduled for December 11. Starting from evaluation of actual websites we will analyse the search term selection, meta tags strategies and linking options. With plenty of personal attention from our SEO tutor you will learn how to increase your branding and competitive advantage on the search engines. At the conclusion the clear SEO strategy will be presented on case by case basis.

SEO Bootcamp Sydney

This year Search Engine Boot camp organized in Sydney on 30 November will be dedicated to SEO and SEM topics. The agenda will cover subjects from intelligent keywords research, SEO site structure, local search and PPC management tools. The afternoon sessions will focus on advanced SEO about optimising for flash and database driven websites. The case study or rather live interactive SEO clinic will have a website analysed for search engine friendliness. For more information visit:
www.searchenginebootcamp.com.au/wordpress

Myths about SEO

In the recent interview Laura Lippay, SEO Program Manager for Yahoo has been expressing concern about lack of education in the area of search engine optimization techniques. Quite often SEO propaganda headlines does not match with good skills and improved search engine results. Those are her words: "There always seems to be a lot of stuff going around that just does not have real proof to back it up. I do not really believe any of it until I can test it for myself. A lot of site owners, seem to think that all they need to do for SEO is slap a couple of keywords in a browser title and an H1 tag on their page and they will see results. The lack of education of SEOs and non - SEOs alike is disheartening sometimes. We still have a lot of work to do on the education front."

SEO Seminar

Advanet is conducting an entry level seminar in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne January 23-26 about search engine optimisation SEO. Subjects covered are:
Brand development online, strategic web marketing plan and how to leverage SEO to build your brand online.
Making your company products and services visible on the Internet searches.

In this one hour seminar you will find out how SEO will improve search engine results for your products and services so you can attract new customers by improving your website visibility.
Who Should Attend?
Those interested in learning how to improve their website in the search engines results.
Marketing directors and sales managers who want to get their websites to be found online.

If you would like more information about how Advanet Pty Ltd can help your company with SEO services and building your brand online please email us at advanet@gmail.com with your most important keywords list. One of our SEO experts will take your keywords list and refine it for better results, evaluate your competition and provide you with the strategic web marketing plan customised to suit the requirements for your business needs. We look forward to hearing from you.