After 16 years of helping other businesses achieve a greater prominence for their websites, the past 2 years of insanity has given me pause to contemplate the future. Clearly, Google is intent on rendering my chosen vocation irrelevant. The previous ability to attain decent rankings has been eroded as Google eats away at the foundations […]

Over years of operation, websites pick up a lot of baggage in the links department. Google’s Penguin algorithm seems to take no account of links accumulated on your website prior to this becoming an offence against their terms of service. If you innocently built links in the sure and certain knowledge that it was OK […]

Over the past year, Google has pretty much set about eliminating any competitive advantages other than the quality of the on-page content itself. They seem intent on levelling the playing field to the point that those who previously had aces up their sleeves now gain no advantage whatsoever. Moreover, playing an ace from a sleeve […]

Over the past year, Google has really tightened the screws on what they determine to be participation in manipulative link schemes. This has been tackled from both sides of the link equation; he who giveth, and he who taketh away. Those who give out links from a site which was engineered to manipulate search engine […]

Throughout 2012, Google made great strides in trimming the garbage from search results, as it moved towards rewarding good content. Truly excellent outcomes, lots of hearty applause! However, the latest heavy-handed, brutish attack on web directories and those who choose to use to them is both petty and spiteful. It’s unworthy of Google, and is […]

When seeking inspiration for writing web page content, there are several things a writer should bear in mind: • People search for different reasons – for background information on a topic, or to select and purchase a product or book a service. Therefore, your landing pages may need to address more than one potential audience. […]

Flexiscreens.com is an Australia business based in Tasmania, producing flexible insect screens from premium-grade materials and delivering them world-wide. They’ve been plagiarized and targeted by copycat competitors but have always enjoyed good rankings and resoundingly good client testimonials due to exemplary products and services. The past year has been a roller coaster ride. First they […]

Content is King! Now that we have that out of the way, I will set about explaining what I think content means, why it’s so important, and how to ensure your website content bears the stamp of royalty. Feel free to disagree, contest, or add to the definition… The role of search engines is to […]

Security on WordPress has, especially in the past couple of months, become a serious issue. Never before have I seen so many determined and sophisticated hacking attempts directed against the WordPress sites I own or manage. These run the whole gamut of attack variations: * Blackhole Exploit Kit attacks * SQL Injection attempts * Login […]

Recovering from Google Panda penalties requires optimal website content. Rewarding high-quality content is supposedly a primary goal at Google HQ, and is stated as being at the core of both Panda & Penguin and sundry interim algorithm updates. In light of that, perhaps some clarification of the “content quality” concept is in order? What Is […]

In this third article on redesigning a website, we are going to look closely at off-page content issues, such as meta-tags, links, domain names etc. Off-Page Content The page Title tag is the single most important on-site element! There are also other opportunities for increasing the density of key words and phrases – some are […]

Site architecture can make or break a site’s chances of achieving prominence in the search engine results pages. There is usually no one single element at issue, more a combination of items that collectively add up to an overly high impediment to search engines. Improper use of Flash and JavaScript are common culprits, as is […]

Website redesign proposal checklists should take careful account of the current status of the existing website. Rather than just rush headlong into the web redesign / rebuild process, an assessment of the good and bad elements of the original site should be made. Include consideration of SEO aspects. All too often, the website makeover results […]

The laziest amongst us, those with an allergy to original thought, and those who hate writing the most are almost always adamant that unique content is over-rated, unnecessary or even pointless. One of the website content frustrations I frequently endure is the failure, on the part of others, to comprehend the value of accuracy and […]

As part of being an SEO consultant, I’m frequently asked to conduct SEO Audits on potential client’s websites. Amongst sundry other tasks, I always check to see who the legal owner of the site is. With surprising regularity, it turns out NOT to be the guy who commissioned the report, and who mistakenly thinks HE […]