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A June 28th article by Forbes magazine called “The Saboteurs of Search” discusses “negative SEO” which is best described as purposely disrupting competitor rankings. The article has caused waves in the SEO industry as marketers debate the effectiveness of the noted tactics.

From my point of view and experience these tactics are employed and I know there is a serious market for negative SEO because I have personally been asked to offer the service many times in the past. StepForth, however, does not offer negative SEO services with the exception of Google Insulation noted below; which we have previously use to help clients defend themselves against negative publicity appearing in rankings.

What are the Tactics of Negative SEO?
There were several tactics mentioned: Google Bowling, Tattling, Google Insulation, Copyright Takedown Notices, Copied Content, Denial of Service, and Click Fraud.

• Google Bowling: XYZ is dropped off the search engines because their competitor framed them for breaking Google’s guidelines in an extreme manner. An example would be to create, overnight, a 1000% more links for a competitor (than they already have). The key would be to produce so many links at once that Google’s spam trigger would have no choice but to catch it. There are various ways to increase the chances of this happening but I would rather not describe them - after all this is not a tutorial.
• Tattling: Is XYZ (the competitor) doing well because they purchased links? If so, and it is something you can prove, then it is entirely within your right to tell Google using their spam report form.

  But will this work? It is touch and go whether your complaint will actually do anything in the short term because Google often collects these complaints and then upgrades its algorithm (if possible) to clean out other offenders using the same techniques; a more efficient process. That said, as Matt Cutts said in this video about link buying Google is not above occasionally using manual methods to clean out spam so you might get lucky and see an immediate result.

• Google Insulation: Is there negative press in the top 10 about your service? Perhaps you have a competitor that just won’t budge out of a top position? In either case a Google Insulation strategy is designed to raise the rankings of other websites that positively discuss your company/services/products in order to oust competitors out of the top 10 rankings. In its raw concept I believe this tactic is ethical because it is smart competitive marketing and a great tactic for reputation management (a hot topic these days).
• Copyright Takedown Notices: If a person desperately needed to drop a competitor out of a top position it could engage in a legal action that requires Google to drop the ranking for a period of time based on copyright infringement. The problem here, of course, is that this tactic exposes the perpetrator so that they can be sued by the offended company if the accusation is baseless. Here is where you can submit a copyright infringement notice to Google.
• Copied Content: Due to the fallible nature of Google’s algorithm it is possible to ’steal’ away the traffic to a competitor’s particular content (say an article just published) by publishing it on your own site IF your site is more entrenched than the competitor’s.

  You see if Google is presented with two websites which have the same content it will be forced to choose which site is the original creator. The website with the longer history and/or the highest reputation will often win out and the loser will often find their content ranks lower (if at all).

• Denial of Service: This is the most evil and clearly illegal tactic for removing a competitor. Denial of service attacks (DoS) are conducted by sending a large number requests to a competitor’s web server at one time. The result is the competitor’s server will either be too jammed with requests to function properly or it will simply crash from the burden of so many requests - effectively taking the competitor’s website offline. Evil indeed.
• Click Fraud: Click fraud is no different than stealing money from a competitor. This is how it works: people maliciously click on ads to purposely eat away at a competitor’s ad budget; even on a small scale this can be damaging to a competitor. The most aggressive click fraud is when a network of computers with specially created software is used to maliciously click on a competitor’s pay per click advertisements in order to waste their money and destroy their advertising campaign.

Should You Be Worried this is Happening to You?
It is highly unlikely that the negative SEO techniques above have been or ever will be used against you. If, however, it does appear to be happening to you then contact us or another reputable web marketing company. At StepForth we will see what we can do about reversing the effects by contacting the proper people or conducting a negating clean-up campaign.

Additional Notes on Click Fraud
The one issue that you could very likely suffer from is click fraud but not in the way you might imagine. You see click fraud appears to happen indiscriminately so just about anyone can have it happen to them; in my experience it is not often a targeted action. As a result, you should be keeping an eye out for it you are actively using pay per click marketing.

So how can you detect click fraud? The best way for me to answer this is to tell you what we use to monitor campaigns and detect click fraud: ClickTracks Professional. ClickTracks Professional is a website analytics program that (among other amazing things) compares the data it collects from visitors on your website with the data you get from your pay per click campaign and does a pretty good job of identifying suspicious click-through behavior.

If ClickTracks Professional determines there is a high probability of click fraud in your campaign you will be presented with a detailed report you can take to your agent at the search engine you are marketing with. If your search engine agent determines there is validity to the evidence it is likely you will get a refund or credit to your account.

Now for a little plug, I liked ClickTracks Professional so much that in 2003 StepForth purchased our own copy and we offer website accounts for as little as $150 per month which is 50% cheaper than the service that ClickTracks.com provides. If you are interested just check out http://stats.stepforth.com where we provide more detail and a service comparison chart.

NOTE: I had to think long and hard before publishing this post because I find many of the methods of damaging a competitor’s rankings horrifically unethical. That said, I believe that understanding these tactics is important in order to identify their use if they are applied against you.

Author:  Ross Dunn is the founder and CEO of StepForth Placement Inc. Celebrating its tenth year in operation, StepForth is one of the oldest and most trusted names in search engine optimization and web marketing.

I got one of those annoyingly oversized promotional postcards in the mail this week. Usually, I don’t pay much attention to these sorts of things, as I am part of that younger generation that disregards anything that is not immediately pertinent to my life, but this one got my attention.

It was from one of the major cable service providers congratulating me on my recent move and giving me all sorts of discounts and incentives to switch over to their cable company. I appreciated their congratulation (who doesn’t like a nice pat on the back?), but their efforts were somewhat fruitless:

1. I moved in January. That was 7 months ago. I’ve moved on and so should they.
2. I’m already a customer of this cable provider. Clearly we’re not as BFF as I thought we were.
3. Even if I had just moved, they’re already late. Who moves without already making plans to have the cable set up? It’s one of those utilities I like to have as soon as I move in. If it came down to having water or TV/Internet, I’m going with the TV/Internet.

This is often the problem with traditional advertising: You tend to arrive a day late (or seven months late, in fact), uninvited and at a time when I am more interested in deciding what I want for dinner than setting up my cable. Another problem with traditional advertising staples like the so-big-they-don’t-fit-in-my-apt-mailbox postcards, flyers and brochures is that they’re boring. The only time promotional catalogues are fun is when they cause Jack Jack to violently slide from one side of the coffee table to the other and smack into the sliding glass door on the other end.

If you’re reading this blog, it means you’re probably already experimenting with forms of Internet marketing and search engine optimization, which is good, we like that around here, but are you looking socially as well? Your competition has already begun testing social media optimization, have you? Have you thought about how you’re going to compete in the era of blended search results?

Michael Gray blogged about a YouTube video contest being hosted by Careerbuilder.com and Disney as part of Disney’s Dream Job Contest and reminded me a few of my own favorites I’ve been seeing lately. Here are three user user-generated video campaigns that have caught my eye as of late:

• Heinz’s “Top This”: I hate ketchup but I love Heinz’s “Top This” ad campaign, mostly because it’s just so ridiculous. (And because lots of the commercials feature French fries and I really, really love French fries.) Heinz is doing everything right here. Timing is everything so they’ve launched their light-hearted ad campaign during prime BBQ season, there’s a brand-induced monetary prize ($57,000 for Heinz 57 varieties), and they’re taunting brand evangelists “hungry for fame” with ability to have their ad run not only on YouTube, but on the Heinz site and on national television. The only thing I don’t really like here is the separate contest domain, but that’s a personal choice.Why did this one grab my attention? If they can make ketchup interesting, you should be able to make whatever your company specializes in interesting. Hell, I think ketchup is completely disgusting and even I’m thinking about how I can top Heinz.
• CNN/YouTube Debates: CNN is getting people excited, and more importantly involved, with the upcoming elections by asking them to submit a question to be asked during the July 23 Democratic Debate. According to the contest rules, the CNN political team will choose the most creative and compelling videos and fly the winner to South Carolina to watch the debate live. Once there, the winner will also be able to voice their opinion on the debate (and I suppose comment on the answer given to their question) via YouTube’s political video blog, Citizentube.Why did this one grab my attention? Because it’s getting the YouTube generation involved in the election, while bringing older generations into the YouTube mix. It also doesn’t hurt that when users search for [cnn political debate], which will be a very popular search term when trying to get the latest info on the debate, the video contest ranks fourth. All hail the power of high-ranking YouTube.
• Denver Public Library: This is my absolute favorite because it’s proof that you don’t need a million dollar ad budget to take advantage of social media. The Denver Public Library asked library visitors to submit videos to YouTube telling others how they have fun at the library. I’m sorry, but tell me this isn’t the cutest ad campaign you’ve ever seen. And because participants had to include the phrase “Denver Public Library” in their YouTube description all those videos are now ranking quite nicely.A quick search for [Denver public library] shows that they’re doing a lot of other things right – they’re already showing up in Google’s local business results, they’re using Flickr well, and both their MySpace page for the video contest and their podcast page is ranking on the first page. Who says libraries aren’t hip? Admit it, you’re kind of impressed.

  Why did this one grab my attention? Because it’s the perfect example of the little guy using social media to engage and attract its audience. The Denver Public library is on YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Google Maps, Wikipedia, CafePress, and who knows where else. Because they’re not a giant corporation they’ve been able to embrace social media from all angles. I want to bear hug whoever is in charge of their Internet marketing campaign.

I won’t argue that social media is a perfect fit for each and every type of business; it’s not. However, I think the Heinz and Denver Public Library examples show it is pretty flexible. You just have to use a bit of creativity. In the days of blended search, social media should be part of any well-balanced Internet marketing and search engine optimization campaign. It’s not just about those links anymore, it’s about associating your brand with all different types of content and creating an engaged audience. Those little promotional postcards aren’t going to cut it anymore.

Author:  Lisa Barone is a Sr. Writer at Bruce Clay Inc..

One of the compelling things about paid search marketing is that it’s extremely easy to start and manage a campaign. Search campaigns can be launched in mere minutes on all the top engines. So not only is it easy to do, it’s quick to have your ads up and running. These two factors can be a mixed blessing, however, particularly if you’re new to search marketing.

One of the hard lessons that advertisers learn when they take the plunge and launch a search campaign is that it’s not always easy to get consistent results over the long term. Even if you came out of the gate with a 2 to 1 ROI or greater, it is not uncommon to see your marketing return dwindle for a number of reasons including increased competition, poorly performing ads, quality score penalties or just a poor understanding of what metrics matter.

Here are a few things to look at when triaging a failing search campaign. Most of these things are easy fixes that can help breathe new life into a campaign and get your perfomance metrics back on track.

Evaluate multiple metrics. It’s easy to look at one metric at a time and jump to conclusions about your campaign’s performance. For example, a rising cost per click (CPC) may indicate that your ads are more relevant to searchers while decreased ad positioning could mean more competition. However, you can get even better insights about problem issues with your campaign if you look at how both metrics are behaving side by side.

Here’s an example of a chart that shows the CPC versus the average position. Note the trendlines in blue and yellow (trendlines are a great way to see how a specific metric trends over time, particularly if there are wide fluctations in performance). This graph tells me that even though my CPC has been going up, my overall positioning has trended down - indicative of a poor quality score. Some actionable items I can infer from this are to:

1. Take a look at keywords and how they relate to my ad copy - rewrite as necessary
2. Delete poor-performing keywords or increase their relevance to the ads themselves
3. Delete poor performing ads. Don’t think about it, just do it.
4. Evaluate landing pages against the keywords I’m bidding on and my ad copy - is landing page text relevant to the keywords? Am I sending people to a generic home page when I could be linking them directly to a specific page on the site?

Now let’s see what the trending looks like when I compare the CTR versus the average position.

This chart demonstrates that the campaign’s CTR has been going up since April 2006, but the average  position continues to decline. This would indicate that there’s more than quality score at play here - and competition is playing a part in the increased cost of my campaign. The action items I get from this are:

1. Begin monitoring competitors for all major keywords/categories I’m bidding on
2. Review past competitive data if it’s available to glean key changes
3. Focus on keyword expansion and refinement - discontinue terms that are too competitive or expensive to maintain OR make the decision to invest more money per click in order to achieve higher positioning (I would only do the latter if there was a large margin for my client’s product and/or there was wiggle room to increase the current cost per aquisition of the campaign).

Other key features to consider when doing a PPC Triage include:

Landing page analysis and testing. I know this seems like it would be a no brainer, but horrible, conversion-fearing landing pages can sabatage a campaign more than any other single factor. Bad  landing pages are often the fallout of PPC convenience - that is, being able to get a campaign live in one-to-three weeks. My best advice to resolve this is to test, test, TEST your landing pages, Also, read case studies, statistics and anything that you can get your hands on that discusses what makes a good converting landing page and what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to redesign and test your new pages. Did I mention you need to TEST your landing pages? Good. Go do it.

Engine-level analysis and testing. Not all campaigns work out well on all engines. We tend to group our campaigns into one keyword-centric bulk without really considering performance at the engine level. When reviewing how you can improve your campaign, take a look at all the search engines where your ads are running. Don’t just look at top-level data (volume, CTR, cost per click) look at your CPA then figure out how you can expand your campaign on engines that have low volume, but good ROI and vice versa. Don’t discount second tier engines such as Ask.com and LookSmart.

Campaign structure and set up. One of the first things I evaluate when looking at someone else’s paid search campaign is how they’ve set it up on the back end. If I log into Adwords and see that all the ad groups are contained within one campaign called “Campaign #1″ well, I shudder. You have much more control over your budget and targeting criteria if you break up your account into multiple campaigns which contain multiple ad groups. The more ad groups there are in a campaign, the better. Ad groups allow you to customize ad copy for distinct keyword groups and this just makes for a better, more relevant campaign.
Author:  Jackie Dooley is the owner and founder of Jacqueline Dooley Internet Marketing, where she works primarily with agencies large and small as a consultant on a variety of search marketing campaigns. Read more of Jacqueline’s bio here.

Most webmasters are in a constant state of confusion about how to create link popularity and how to rank well in the search engine results. Three of the top four search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN calculate link popularity as one part of their search algorithms. So, for all intent purposes, building link popularity will be an important part of getting recognition and strong placement in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

Link popularity, in essence, is a count of how many web pages point to one of your web pages.

The Google PageRank Version of Link Popularity

PageRank (PR) is a Google tool that expands on the simplest link popularity calculation. PageRank is a value given to every web page on the Internet, with 12 possible rankings.

• The Gray Bar in the PageRank tool indicates that a web page has not been added to the Google PageRank database, or Google has banned the website. (If any page on a particular domain has its own PageRank, or if any pages are shown in the Google search results when someone searches “site:www.yourdomainurl.com”, then the website in question has not been banned by Google.)
• PR0 to PR10. PR0 indicates that the web page has been added to the Google database, but it does not yet have any PageRank assigned to it, generally because there is not any PR value pages that link to it at this time.

If one is tracking PageRank from the Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/), then it needs to be understood that the database that stores PageRank values is only updated about once every 3-4 months.

While Google does use links to a web page to determine the web page’s PR value, it is impossible these days to utilize Google to find what links are directed to your pages. Even the Google webmaster tools (http://www.google.com/webmasters/) interface will not show you all of the links Google is counting towards your own Link Popularity or PR value.

Playing Follow-The-Leader

In earlier years, Yahoo and MSN did not employ a link popularity calculation in their search algorithms. But, when one competitor is thoroughly kicking their competition, then the underdog competitor must respond, if they have any desire to remain relevant.

So, after years of lagging behind the Google powerhouse, Yahoo and MSN decided it was time to work a link popularity calculation into their search algorithms.

Both Yahoo and MSN are still struggling to find a way to retake some market share from Google. Even with Yahoo’s Project Panama rollout and MSN’s Live Search rollout, both are still finding Google to be a difficult 800-pound gorilla to conquer.

Building Link Popularity

In essence, even if search engines did not include link popularity as a portion of their ranking procedures, one would still want to develop links to his or her websites.

Links are the roadways that keep Internet users moving from one website to another. Before the search engines became the all-powerful providers of Internet traffic, the role of Internet promotion was to establish links on pages where a website’s target audience is already going.

The goal of course is to get the person reading the page to click the link to the target website. With every visitor to a website being a potential customer, it makes good sense to get as many visitors to the website as possible, and that requires getting as many links as possible pointing to a website.

Google PageRank 101

Since Google drives the largest portion of search traffic on the Internet, I am only going to focus on their link popularity system.

All web pages on the Internet have been assigned a PageRank value by Google, according to the value of the web pages that link to them. This number is always in flex as links are made, lost or change value.

In short, the pages linking to your pages have their own Google PageRank value, according to who links to them, and the value of the pages that are linking to their web page. As the web pages linking to your web pages gain value, then your pages will also gain value in the Google PageRank algorithms.

As a Webmaster, it should be your goal to create as many links to your website, as you can muster. Eventually, most of the web pages with real value will gain their own PageRank, and they will pass some of their PR value to your web pages.

But, I Tried That Once…

Whatever link building strategy one might recommend, there will be someone else saying, “But, I tried that once and it did not work.” Some may go a bit further and say that they tried it once and received initial good results in Google’s SERP’s, but then those results shortly dissipated and the previous high placement in Google evaporated.

A common story I hear is that “we tried” a specific link building process. Shortly after doing so, our website went from result 300 in Google’s results to page two or three of the search results. Then a month later, our website dropped to around 100 in the search results as the link page slipped into Google’s Supplemental results. These people often conclude that the link building process used was not effective.

They make this statement because they do not understand the inner-workings of what is happening to their link popularity and search engine placements.

SeveralFactors Drive the Roller Coaster

With press releases, it is easy to comprehend the how and why of the climb and fall. Press Releases are treated as news stories, and as such, they are more important in real time than they will be in a month or so. That is why press releases can generate big results quickly, and it also explains why those results quickly fade away.

With article marketing, it is common for a new article placement to help any website mentioned within the article and its accompanying resource box (about the author information) to rise in the search rankings early, then to drop away for a time, and perhaps rise in value again later.

Let me explain how this process works, and it will make more sense to you.

Google’s Main Index and Supplemental Listings

In order for the referenced website to get the PageRank it needs to climb in the search results, the web pages linking to it must have their own PageRank. As a single web page gains in link popularity and PageRank, the web page will also improve in the search results.

When a new article is placed for the first time, it is always placed on a “brand new” page on the Internet. New pages on the Internet, by their very nature, do not have any external links pointing to them and therefore, they do not have any established PageRank.

In recognition of this “brand new” status, Google is giving a pass to those new web pages. As far as the Google algorithm is concerned, these “brand new” pages might have value, but that value cannot yet be determined based on the number of links pointing to the page.

At the end of Google’s “pass window”, Google checks to see if this new page has developed any of its own inbound links and PageRank value. If the new web page has not developed any value of its own after a window of 30-45 days, then the new page will be moved from Google’s main index to Google’s Supplemental listings. If the new page has developed PageRank, then the page will remain in Google’s main index.

According to Matt Cutts, the Google Guy, “Having urls in the supplemental results doesn’t mean that you have some sort of penalty at all; the main determinant of whether a url is in our main web index or in the supplemental index is PageRank.” (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/infrastructure-status-january-2007)

Many web pages that have slipped into the Supplement listings will gain their own PageRank over the long term, and as such, those pages may return to Google’s main index in the future. If articles are valuable resources to their readers, then many placements of those articles will be given their own inbound links and therefore PageRank, but it takes time.

As a general rule, it appears that the average web page will gain a measure of PageRank somewhere in the range of 90 to 180 days from the day the web page was created. While not all pages will receive inbound links and PageRank, enough of them do to make the whole process worthwhile.

You Cannot Win If You Do Not Play

As a Webmaster, your website will never gain link popularity if you do not take actions to increase the number of links pointing to your website. If the web page never accrues any link popularity, it will not gain PageRank, and it will not rise in the search engine rankings.

You are in the driver’s seat, so if you fail to accomplish link popularity and search placement, then it will have been the fault of your inaction.

Do you remember my sample scenario above, “Shortly after (completing a link building campaign), our website went from result 300 in Google’s results to page two or three of the search results. Then a month later, our website dropped to around 100 in the search results as the link page slipped into Google’s Supplemental results.”

These people frequently conclude that a specific link building activity produced no results, because they did not stay on page two or three of the results. Surprisingly, these people tell us that they started out at #300 and ended up at #100, and yet they claim that the process did not work in their case. How so? They climbed 200 places in the search results. How is that an ineffective link building campaign? 

So, the next time you hear someone crying about the link popularity roller coaster, think back on this article, and you might be able to help him or her to clear the fog of confusion.

Author:  Bill Platt has offered article marketing services at The Phantom Writers, since 2001. If you are interested in guaranteed link building services, utilizing articles as the foundation for the links, then Bill’s team can help you with that as well. If you have questions that only Bill can answer, give him a call at (405) 780-7745, between 9am-6pm CST, Monday through Friday.

As a Web Developer and SEO consultant I deal with many existing website owners who are looking to modify or improve their website. I also deal with many people who are looking to start their web presence with a new website. Through both of these interactions there is often a common theme; a misunderstanding or an attitude. I call this a misconception of reality, as often the reality of what the Internet can actually do for the person’s business and what they think it can do differ massively.

Often it is presumed that by simply owning a domain and having a website built and published on the Internet, thousands of people will magically find the website, visit it and buy their products. “If you build it, they will come” should be removed from the vocabulary as soon as possible if you are to adjust attitudes to the underlying search technology.

As a businessman in the real World, it is obvious that it would not happen outside of the Internet either, so what is so different online? Maybe it was the Technology boom 10 years ago that caused a rift in understanding or maybe the buzz that caused the meteoric rise in the stock prices of Tech Companies, I can hear the thoughts of the small businessman, “surely this can be replicated for my business” – in answer I would say, “well, it is unlikely, but you should be able to achieve some results over time“.

It is most important when taking on a project like Search Engine Optimization for a website, to know that it is important to be committed for the long haul. It is no small task and sufficient funds need to be allocated to the project. Delivery deadlines need to be correctly scoped against required changes, in order to meet client expectations. The key points of responsibility to the SEO project are in knowing that there are big changes near the start and during setup, but the changes do not stop after setup, there are continuous ongoing refinements to the design and system over time. In this regard I find it important to manage expectations and set realistic long term goals on what a website can be expected to achieve and in what time frames those goals hope to be met.

So what should your goal be when you are delving into SEO for your website? Well, everyone’s goal is exactly the same; improve page rankings, improve page visits and hits and finally gain more sales through the website.

When it comes to SEO and achieving these goals you have to have principles and my main principle is, “Good websites get good ratings and bad websites get bad ratings or none at all.” As time goes on with the improvement of search engine technology and the refinement of search engine results this statement becomes truer and truer. I believe in results through “white hat” principles and methodologies.

What are “white hat” principles? I guess I would compare it to doing things the honest way and the right way without risk. So develop a good site, promote good linking, have good informative content and keep working on it and then you are on the road to good rankings through “White Hat” principles.

So, why should you do things the “white hat” way? Well, search engines do have some kind of understanding, an artificial intelligence. They soon catch on to websites spamming or linking to websites with no relevance and bad cross linking. It’s about being smart, in for the long term and wanting your business to grow organically, naturally.

So how do I go about improving my site and making it optimized for search engines naturally? Well, that’s why you’re here! So let’s run through few of the things you should be doing in your websites from a fundamental level.

Domain names:

When choosing a domain name, choose one that is relevant to the product or service you are going to provide and that is as simple as possible. There are considerations of branding and product/service provided that should go into this choice. Involvement of marketing personal and product understanding is required but also consultation with your SEO professional is advantageous. In this step I would say, take some time and choose wisely. Keep it simple and easy to remember, often saying it out loud will make it clear whether it can be understood by a simple man.

It is a strongly held belief by many SEO professionals that buying a domain which is older, and that has been around for a while, means it will not be sand boxed by Google. What’s the sandbox effect? Well, it refers to what Google does to a website or domain that is new or is relatively unknown by Google. In many instances Google’s Sandbox effect relegates the new domain to sub-optimal inclusion in search results. Regardless of the site’s optimization it lowers the website’s relevance and ranking to the term searched upon. If you can use your old business domain name, then consider this very important.

If, however, you are buying a new domain name, then keep it relevant to the product or service being sold or offered on the website. Keep it close, relevant and simple. Relevance is primary.

Location specific domain or international domain ( .com or com.au)? Personally I think dot com’s are better, mainly because they appeal internationally, but if you want to you can keep it location specific and to your region, then consider purchasing all similar higher level domains, yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com.au, if you can.

Choosing a Host:

Fast, reliable and gives you all you that you need and want. Preferably gives a unique IP. Again some SEO professionals believe this can also have a detrimental affect in Google rankings but from my experience it sometimes does and it sometimes doesn’t. I have had some sites come in with high PR rankings on shared IP’s and others when I shifted to a new IP the PR of the site jumped, so this is still a bit of a mystery when it comes to Google rankings.

Traffic Considerations:

When choosing your host ensure the plan you are on can be expanded so that any new increases in traffic can be accommodated accordingly.

Site Design:

There are several fundamental things to consider when you are modifying or designing a website.

Flash:

Flash is/has been popular for a few years now and I truly believe it has its place. It is a great way of showing many products or services in a small area, has great visual impact if done properly and can set a good friendly tone to the website visitor. Having said that, I also hate flash; it can be an absolute nightmare when it comes to search engine optimization.

What you should know about flash; it cannot be read by a search engine as the search engine cannot read the text or the images contained within it nor can it interpret what is in the pictures being shown.

When it comes to flash I would suggest, not making your whole website flash. If you are designing a new website and you want to use flash, then use it in high impact areas to capture the attention of your intended audience but use it sparingly. It is important to ensure that as much text content (to a maximum discussed in my next book, generally 300-500 characters) is available on the webpage and in simple HTML.

Frames:

Many older websites were designed with frames. Frames are where the main home page is actually a frameset page that includes several other pages into it. This makes the page hard to index in search engines and should be avoided. While Google does now index framed sites, it is important to note that most of the other top search engines still cannot follow frame links. They only see the frameset page and ignore the rest of the inner frames. This presents an SEO problem to us because it is highly likely those inner pages contain our content keywords.

Nowadays this is not really a huge issue as it is so uncommon for a designer to actually use frames, but the easiest way to resolve the issue would be to enforce a no use policy on frames.

Page Layout:

According to research the Googlebot trawls web pages from left to right and top to bottom. So given this little tidbit of information it is clear that you should be putting your most valuable keywords and information on the left and near the top. Of course this is a blanket statement and does not take into account design principles and beautification. Just keep it in mind during design of page layout. Position your more relevant keywords to the left of the page and near the top.

Good HTML Coding:

A lot of HTML generator programs out there bloat HTML to the point it is 3-4 times larger than what it would be if you hand coded it. Keep it simple, use a text editor, edit your HTML the old school way; until there is a HTML generator tool worthy of use. If you can’t code HTML, then do a search on the Internet and find a decent, free, e-book and learn how to do it.

Javascript:

This is very popular among many web development professionals for menu’s, popups, scrollers etc etc. It would be my suggestion to use simple plain HTML menus or as little javascript as possible in web pages. There are many small javascript menus out there that are slim on javascript code to reduce this issue and make it almost negligible. Don’t over clutter your site with javascript as it increases page size, page load times and the search engines won’t understand it.

Image Sizes:

Keep them small and use only what you need to. This is essential for decreasing page loading times and getting information onto the user’s screen as soon as possible.

Overall Page Size and Loading:

The overall page size is an important factor. It should load quickly and be easily trawled. If you have followed the HTML hand coding, used minimal javascript, used simple table layouts and good image sizing, then you should be fine. There is much evidence that supports the fact that Google and probably the other search engines also, do not like to scan huge files, so keeping your overall HTML page size below 25k is my suggestion.

Dynamic URL’s & Page/File Names:

Dynamic pages are roadblocks to high search engine positioning. Especially those that end in “?” or “&”. In a dynamic site, variables are passed to the URL and the page is generated dynamically, often from information stored in a database as is the case with many e-commerce sites. Normal .html pages are static - they are hard-coded, their information does not change, and there are no “?” or “&” characters in the URL.

Pages with dynamic URLs are present in several engines, notably Google and AltaVista, even though publicly AltaVista claims their spider does not crawl dynamic URLs. To a spider a “?” represents a sea of endless possibilities - some pages can automatically generate a potentially massive number of URLs, trapping the spider in a virtually infinite loop.

As a general rule, search engines will not properly index documents that:

• contain a “?” or “&”
• End in the following document types: .cfm, .asp, .shtml, .php, .stm, .jsp, .cgi, .pl
• Could potentially generate a large number of URLs.

To avoid complications, consider creating static pages whenever possible, perhaps using the database to update the pages, not to generate them on the fly.

Slightly Off Topic Thoughts:

The topics covered here are not considered completely SEO topics but in terms of overall objective – increasing sales, this section is very important. Take these things on board, consider them, consult with your designer and marketing team. Make educated and informed choices on these topics when considering your audience and what your website objectives are.

Screen Size:

Over 65% of all screens in the World are set to run at the 1024×768 resolution. Of the remaining percentage, 13% are running at 800×600, 20% running at larger sizes and 2% are unknown. So this affects the way you design. It would be my suggestion to always design for the smallest user to visit your site, but often I find 800×600 restrictive so I tend to design for slightly larger. Not large enough to make an 800×600 user angry but large enough to make it look good on larger screens also. I size up my target users, my intended amount of content and find some happy medium. I generally design for 1000×620 as this is the perfect amount of real estate for a 1024×768 user when they have the browser top bar and status bar and Windows taskbar.

Colors and Themes:

One important aspect of marketing - selling - is the use of color. Meanings are attached to colors in the same way meanings are attached to words.

• Gold is the color of wealth and prosperity.
• White is the color of pure innocence and cleanliness.
• Pink is the color of femininity and softness.
• Green is the color of natural things and freshness.
• Red is the color of danger and stress.
• Blue is the color the calmness, intelligence. The majority of the World selects blue as a favorite color. It often represents “trust”

Use of color to establish an image or a brand is common in the marketing community, yet when you visit the websites of many search engine optimization professionals, it’s obvious that color significance plays no part in their own web optimization. Some of the colors I found on SEO websites:

• Baby Blue, a color which implies weakness.
• Red, a color which implies risk, or danger.
• Orange a color which implies a cheerful “levity”. Orange is one of Americans’ least favorite colors.

Although color selection is off topic for SEO, I would consider it a very important factor in what SEO is trying to achieve, in the end, for your website – selling more product, creating loyalty to your brand and customer impact. Color research is something you should seriously consider. In summary of color choices, I would suggest studying and learning more about your customers, researching color choices and their relevance to your underlying products and making informed choices on these in collaboration. If in doubt, then I suggest sticking to safe and trusted colors within safe, eye pleasing designs.

Gifs for Logos & jpgs for Pictures:

Ensure you are using gifs for logos and background placements and jpgs for photos on your website. This helps reduce size and improve clarity of the web site overall.

Browser:

It is vitally important to ensure your web page works in both IE, Firefox and Opera. Testing other browsers is also an advantage, but these are the main three in use nowadays (2007). I think quoting stats on the browser breakdown are irrelevant as you need it to work in all browsers. W3C cross browser compliance is great for this.

So, this brings us to the end of Volume 1: Fundamentals of SEO Web Design. There are many things to consider when designing a website or modifying a web site to make it more SEO friendly. Clearly I have a few more volumes left in SEO for websites.

Author:  Chris Diprose is the Manager of Search Engine Optimization Australia firm Kanga Internet. As part of this organization his main goals are the improvement of SEO for websites and dynamic content management systems. SEO is not to be feared but embraced. If you are in doubt then contact a reputable SEO firm to help you with generating more web traffic.

A website is an essential part of any company marketing tool set. If you want to look credible and established in this day and age, a website is a must have, rather than simply a nice bolt on. But if you’ve never had to design a website before, how can you ensure your web project gets going on the right footing? After all, there’s a confusing array of options and you can easily get this wrong, wasting lots of time and money.

Before you get going on your web design project, here are the 10 essential questions you should ask yourself in order to write a good brief. Hiring a web design company is the same as hiring any professional designer, the better the brief you create, the more likely you are to get a finished product you are happy with.

1. What specific objectives do you have for your site? Do you want to sell products, generate sales leads, or simply create an online presence for your business and brand?

It is essential that you know exactly what you want to achieve with your site. The difference in functionality, design and cost between a brochure site and an e-commerce site can be enormous. Think carefully about what your objectives are and how you will measure whether your website meets these goals. Your design agency will need your brief to be clear on this.

Tip: think long term. Will your objectives change in the future? If so you might want to build some flexibility into your site.

2. Do your objectives for the website link to your overall business and marketing plan? i.e. will a website support your business goals?

Any marketing programme needs to be linked to your business goals in order to be worthwhile. This may seem like an obvious point, but it’s surprising how many people jump into building a website, without understanding the wider context or opportunities available to the business.

If you haven’t written a business plan or marketing plan yet, then I strongly recommend doing this first. Putting your ideas on paper and spelling out how everything will work (from banking, to premises, marketing, insurance and more) will help you to decide how important your website is to your broader business activity. It will also help you to create a realistic budget for your project.

Tip: Try to keep your business objectives SMART - Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time bound.

3. Have you reviewed the websites you like and dislike and listed the reasons why?

The best place to look for inspiration in web design is obviously the internet. There are millions upon millions of sites online, with many more being added each and every day. If you take the time to look closely you will easily be able to pick out the styles and functionality you like and importantly, what you don’t like. These ideas should form part of the brief you deliver to your design agency.

Which sites should you look at?

The first step is to look at your main competitors and to critique their sites. Next, look at the broader industry / profession in which you operate and finally inspirational websites. Far example, if you’re an architects practice, look at other architects first, then consider design or construction company sites, before a general trawl of the internet.

Tip: Try to keep in mind that you’re only looking for ideas and not a template to copy.

4. Do you know what content you want to include on your site?

You need to think about both the text and images you want on your website. Not only what you want to include, but how you will create it. For example, do you have photos and images already, or will you need to take some new photos, or write some text. Will you need a professional copy writer to help put this together, or edit your writing?

Also have a think about whether you want to change and update your content regularly, or if it will remain fairly static? If you want to be flexible then you’ll need a content management system (CMS) running at the back end of your site. These range in price from cheap to vastly expensive, depending on the degree of complexity involved with your site. There are also some open source (i.e. free) CMS programmes, but your designer will need to set them up to work on your site.

Tip: Think carefully here as the content and the way it is managed will have a dramatic impact on the cost of building and maintaining your website.

5. How will you manage the site once it has been launched?

Building your site is only the first step in successful website marketing. Once launched, you’ll need to maintain it to get the most value for your outlay. You should think about content updates, hosting, domain name registration, security updates, managing interactions with browsers (blogs, contact forms, forums) and more.

Do you have the skills and time internally to manage this, or will your web design agency be responsible? IF so what ongoing charges will be incurred? If you are going to manage this in-house, do you need to train up a member of staff? If so what costs are associated with this? Can your design agency train your staff, or will they provide a maintenance pack / instruction manual to help? <em></em>

Tip: Choose your web design company carefully if you need ongoing support. If you choose a cheap, small agency, they may not have the capacity to provide ongoing support.

6. How do you want to interact with your browsers / readers?

There are various options for interacting with your readers, from simple email contact forms, to blogs and forums. Each comes with its own pros and cons. For example, a blog is interactive and great for gaining traction in the search engines; however it needs to be updated regularly with relevant content if you are to look professional. A simple contact form is the easiest and lowest maintenance option.

Tip: think about the experience your browsers are looking for. If it’s technical support then potentially a forum is the most appropriate. However if it is a simple question, then an email form is much easier to manage.

7. How will you attract visitors to your site?

There are lots of options for attracting visitors. Think about search engine optimisation (SEO) and ask any design agency you approach what their expertise is in this regard. Other options include paid for search / pay per click campaigns, e-book give-aways, interactive content such as blogs and forums, and crucially offline promotions i.e. where can you promote your domain name, for example on your business cards or in press releases.

Tip: there are literally hundreds of books, videos, courses and programmes you can buy to learn more about generating traffic for your website, but your agency’s experience will also be extremely valuable.

8. What are the wants and needs of your target audience?

Your website will not be much use if you haven’t considered the needs and wants of your target audience. For example, do they typically have a broadband connection or dial-up? Which browsers do they use, Internet Explorer, Safari, FireFox or others? Will some access your site via a mobile phone, iphone or a PDA? How technologically advanced are they? Are they happy to enter their credit card details online, or should you need to use a more trusted e-commerce solution, such as PayPal? Are you promoting a useful resource, likely to attract repeat visitors?

Tip: As with any marketing communications programme, this will be most effective of you consider your customers wants and needs early on in the web design process.

9. What security and accessibility standards do you need to consider?

There are various security considerations to bear in mind when you develop a site. In addition there are laws that mean you have to make your site accessible to people with disabilities. For example in the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act requires websites to be useable for people with bad eye sight. There are ways to overcome this, for example a web browser with sight difficulties may use a text reader which literally reads out the content of a website. Therefore you need to ensure any images are appropriately labelled.

Tip: talk to your web design agency about accessibility and security. It’s likely you will not need the same level of detail here as say a government department, so don’t over do it or be sold too much.

10. And finally, what budget do you have for this project?

If you have lots of money, then you can be more flexible in choosing your design agency. Often the most impressive results are achieved when hiring a specialised web design company. For those of you with a more limited budget, consider an off the shelf package from companies such as Mr Site.

Of course, you can also go the self build route, using Microsoft FrontPage, or by taking a web design course. Alternatively you could use one of the popular blogging packages such as WordPress.

Tip: you can build a great site with a limited budget, but it will take you a lot more time. Ask yourself whether you have more time or more money when making your decision. You should also consider the importance of securing a good domain name, something which is increasingly difficult to achieve.

Author:  Andy Bargery is an internet and small business marketing consultant living in London, England. Andy writes a regular blog on internet marketing strategies and techniques at http://www.marketingblagger.com.

It has become very common to see webmasters posting on popular forums such as WebHostingTalk, angry at their web hosts and demanding a refund. It is not always immediately evident what the cause of the problem is, but it almost always ends up that the problem snow-balled because of a simple misunderstanding between a web host and a client. This article takes a brief look at a few common web host issues and customer responses, in an effort to help you better understand and improve your relationship with your host.

Issue One: “My Site is Not Working”

Perhaps the most common issue is when a client contacts a web host and is too general in their initial contact. For instance, if they can’t access their website from their browser and send a message such as “my site is not working”. Although at first glance one might not see anything wrong with this, consider things from the host’s standpoint: they don’t know what operating system you’re using, whether your Internet connection is working intermittently, etc. There are many things that can cause a website not to load that are completely out of a website host’s control. So if your host answers your question with questions, don’t get mad - they’re only trying to help diagnose your problem, and learn more background information about the situation. Also, if you have time when submitting your support request, be sure to include as much information as you think is relevant, and take the time to ensure it is grammatically correct and worded in an easy-to-understand manner.

Issue Two: No Response From Host

Another common scenario that I see quite often is when someone contacts their web host and does not wait long enough for an answer. Granted, many hosts these days have a response-time guarantee, and if they do not live up to them, by all means, complain. But most often I see situations where a host has a one-hour response guarantee, and a client submits a ticket and waits only about twenty minutes before ranting about how the host doesn’t answer their support tickets. To avoid these sorts of problems, make sure you know whether or not your host has a response-time guarantee for support tickets - and if they do, find out how long it is.

Now, having said that, there are times when you have every right to demand a super-fast response from your host. For instance, if your website is down and you can’t even login, and you have submitted a ticket asking why to your web host, they should answer it ASAP with a genuine reason why and also a realistic estimate of when your site will be available again. Even if their guaranteed response time is twenty-four hours, I think they should make an effort to answer what I’ll term “extra-critical” tickets in a much shorter amount of time than all the rest. Many hosts complain that they cannot fix the problem and communicate with their clients - my answer to that is this: “Get out of the business!” It’s the biggest phony story I’ve ever heard, and you should not accept it as a valid answer from your host.

Issue Three: “Stolen” Domains

The whole issue of web hosts offering free domain names has become a hot topic in the hosting industry lately. I’ll explain:

Many web hosts offer a free domain name to every new hosting account signup. It is usually (but not necessarily always - it depends on the host!) a gimmick, just to get a few more clients. As long as the customer stays with the host, everything is Ok.

The problem arises when a client decides to switch web hosts. Usually, buried in the dark confines of a TOS near you, there is a clause that states something to this effect: “If client receives a free domain name upon account signup and cancels his or her hosting account, he or she must pay a (insert amount here) one-time fee to release the domain name.” Many folks overlook this clause when they signup, and as you can probably guess, this causes alot of trouble when they want their domain name and have to pay a fee to get it.

So what do they do? They sign online and post a complaint! What should they do instead? Pay the fee, and be more careful next time!

What can you as a hosting client do to prevent this from happening to you? As boring as it may sound, it is very important that you read - carefully! - the TOS and AUP agreements for the host you are signing up for. There’s not necessarily anything underhanded and sneaky about these charges (after all, the host has to cover their cost if they pay to register the domain for you and the you only stay on for a month), but if you don’t want to get hit by them, then find another host.

Issue Four: Failing Reliability

Here’s one that perhaps all of us have experienced in some way or another - a superb web host, a rising star with the hosting world at its feet, suddenly experiences pitifully low server reliability. Complaints don’t seem to get through to them, their own fixes don’t seem to work - in short, it looks like a complete and total failure of the hosting company, and it leaves one wondering whether or not they’ll even be around in another year.

The good news for the host and the customer: These are common symptoms of the “hyper-growth” condition that affects every web host at some point or another. Usually, it only happens once in a host’s life (and yes, the host does recover!). The host usually spends its time in the doldrums for anywhere from six months to one year, and after that things are fine.

If you’re a webmaster who stuck with your host through times like this, you have experienced firsthand what I’m about to say: You become one of the host’s favorite clients, and they wil bend over backwards to help you out. For those of you who could not stand the anguish of your site being down more often than up and switched hosts (who can blame you, after all!), realize that it did not affect your old host one bit.

As I already said, every host goes through this phase, where they transition from smalltime player to bigtime giant. There are no exact statistics of how many hosts make it through this phase, but I personally have never heard of one failing through this point in its life. It actually seems to benefit the host in that they can really nail down what they’re about and clarify their business processes, and it seems to help the clients who stick with them in that the clients themselves can provide feedback and actually take part in shaping the company as it morphs into a giant.

As hard as it may be to do, my recommendation would be to stick with the host. They have proven themselves to you in the past, and they may be experiencing growing pains right now, but once they pull out - they will again prove that they can meet your every hosting need. Don’t sacrifice a long-term relationship for short-term site uptime, especially when you’ve been with the host for awhile. And if you choose to stay with the host, don’t complain every few days - nobody else cares to hear the same person complaining over and over again, and even if you stay with your host, they’re not going to care for you too much if you are constantly publicly complaining about their services.

(A personal note: I especially know about the growing pains of a web host - we experienced ours this past summer. It was a huge learning experience, we pulled out, and now things are Ok.)

Issue Five: Unlimited Everything

After touching on every hot button in the hosting industry, I knew there had to be at least one more. I only had tot hink for a few short seconds before it came to mind!

The practice of offering unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage space, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited everything else is sweeping the hosting industry in a shockingly stupid wave. Folks, I’ll put it as plainly and simply as I possibly can: there is no such thing as unlimited.

Yes, a host advertises this. And yes, you login to your account, and there are no limits on anything. But have you ever noticed, as soon as you start using alot of something, your account is terminated? Do you know why this is? It’s because the host is not getting unlimited service - and neither will you!

Web hosts have to purchase their bandwidth, servers, operating systems, and other equipment and software from real companies. These real companies do not offer their wares in unlimited increments to the hosting companies - Verizon does not sell unlimited “all-you-can-eat” network access for $500 per month, Dell does not sell unlimited server contracts for $200 per month, and Red Hat does not sell “unlimited support” for its Linux operating system for $10 per month. These Web hosts have to pay real, limited prices for the things they buy, and they are just using one of the cheapest marketing techniques around by advertising unlimited resources to unsuspecting victims.

Do yourself a favor and don’t buy from “unlimited” hosts. The unrealistic features sets combined with the rock-bottom pricing mean that the first time you exceed a limit the host is not comfortable with you exceeding, or the first time you call for support, your account is terminated.

Proceed at your own risk!!! (But if I were you, I’d run the other way!)

Author:  Daniel J. Briere is the CEO of Netpreneur Host, a Web hosting and domain registration company for Webmasters and Internet entrepreneurs.

In this line of work the goal is to do what is best for the client. The client needs better rankings, a more appealing web site, an optimized web site and increased sales. Unfortunately, there are times when the group of people trying to make this happen just cannot get along.

I think there are some things that marketing teams, SEOs, clients and web designers need to keep in mind when working together:

• Everyone in the group specializes in different things
• No one in the group is any less intelligent because they don’t understand what you specialize in. I know about the web, but when I am sitting with doctors and lawyers I know that the people I am dealing with are intelligent, accomplished people. It kills me to see clients talked down to.
  If a client doesn’t know a term our job is to explain it respectfully. I have written 6 law firm’s web sites at this point and there are times I have to ask questions; they don’t talk down to me and I sure is heck am not going to talk down to them.
• Sometimes, there are two people with the exact same job sitting at the table for a certain project. Stepping on one’s toes is a concern. I think the best way to handle this situation is to try to be friendly, not defensive. Work as a team even if it ticks you off a bit. Again, what is best for the client is the most important thing.
• If you are web designer, SEO, advertising/marketing consultant, copywriter or anyone else on a team YOU do not have the right to talk down to the other people on your team. If your company makes a million a year and one of the team members makes $50,000 a year you have no right to feel above that person. One day they could be making more than you and it may be that they choose not work as much as you. Don’t be stuck up or feel almighty. I may be a complete moron, but in my book everyone in the group is equal and deserves respect. You may disagree with them and that is fine, but do it respectfully.
• Web Designers and SEOs know different things, period. Respect each other’s knowledge and get along.
• If you have screwed up and taken too long to do something- own it. Don’t blame members or a member of your team. Don’t stab people in the back, because they always end up finding out and in the end they will not only resent you for it, they will never forget it. Additionally, if the client finds out they will lose all respect for you. They may not matter to you, but word of mouth is crucial in this line of work.
• Lastly, if you are genuine, polite, hard-working and honest you never know what could happen. I started working with a guy doing consultant work and we got along. We didn’t understand each other’s line of work, but we were polite and honest and worked as a team. Now we are doing a lot of work together and we are looking forward to what is coming. We have created a very nice and beneficial working relationship. Sometimes, life can surprise you.

So, there is my blurb. If you have any additional comments or suggestions let me know. I think we should all just try to smile more. Life is short, enjoy it and don’t waste time being angry or irritated.

Author:  Melissa Fach operates Panaca Writing and Design and SRQ Web Design in Florida where she waits patiently for the rest of the world to learn to play nice with each other.