Since I’ve been busy talking about branding this week I though I’d change tracks a bit and post a few tips. Most are reedited from a less up to date (and less precise list), while some are my additions. So, here we go:

• tip one is that if you want to use drop-down menus, now you can Google just announced progress in crawling those, and Yahoo seems to have too, so use them with no fear
• the most important part of any site is content, so make sure you have lots of it, update it often, and use keywords and alternation of keyword phrases in it so you get most search traffic
• get links with decent titles, preferably from related sites (or sites that have at least a bit of relevance to you)
• PR is not the most important factor, but it is really important in comparing to the competition (if you’re PR3 and there’s a PR7 you’re competing with, you should just buy ads, you’ll never beat him in the short run)
• use different titles for every page, optimize them for keywords and use your name to end them (look at my site) - that helps you rank for your own brand/company name
• use linking within your site, using the keywords you want (this gives you an SEO boost and makes random visitors hang around more)
• target long-tailed keywords rather than words or short phrases (the longer the less competition and the more specific the search)
• design your site with SEO in mind if you can (forget about flash, and use images less and alt tag them all)
• use keywords in your domain name, your URL (even folders matter), and alt tags
• make sure which domain you want (www or non-www) and set a 301 redirect for the other version. For example, I use eydryan.com and I tell Google I prefer it as well
• link to absolute pages rather than relative ones; for example if posting a picture on the website write http://eydryan.com/images/1.png rather than ./images/1.png - this is also useful if others steal your content, to have links pointing back to you.
• frames and ajax make for poor SEO since they don’t update the page when new content arrives - use them less, and if possible not at all (at least frames)
• your URL extension doesn’t normally matter (unless someone is looking for it in Google) so don’t bother thinking if php or asp or whatever should be html instead
• quickest way to get indexed is via links, don’t bother submitting to a gazillion websites
• fresh content is always welcome and if the website can’t have that, make a blog and get that to work for you in this matter. Write at least twice a week for bots and people alike
• try to get good links rather than many links (although, as Lenin said, “quantity has a quality of its own”)
• try to keep keyword density within 3-4% if possible in the page and make the text sound natural (as opposed to spammy)
• try to keep links in context (not only link text is important, neighboring sentences are also important)
• make sure your hosting server is not banned from Google, and make sure there aren’t any spammy or porn sites on the same server (if it’s a smaller one)
• try to be as legit in your domain registration info since blocking info may mean you’re a spammer to Google
• four SEO core values are content, links, popularity and reputation
• try to think usability when designing the site since not only it helps people, it also helps Google crawl better
• link to others and others shall link to you. Also, if you have links in an article, Google will take you more seriously about it
• don’t use a splash page. i mean why? give it functionality at least, because neither Google nor users like to have to go one extra step to get to what they want
• paid links aren’t really that important, why not use that money advertising, one link cannot bring you the glory it once did
• get links from .edu and .gov domains, they are heavy in Google - some may want sponsorships for links
• make linkbaiting but do it as conspicuous as possible. it has a name because it works - just don’t overdo it
• for a blog, try to make each post around one keyword phrase, thus you’ll have a killing in the search engines for that. For example, I’m numero uno for Google crawl rate
• use a call to action. this is a marketing term that basically means use a line of text that makes people do what you want them (the most known is “click here“)
• SEO is not a quick process you do once and then ignore it forever. While you may be done in 6 months with the most of the basics, you should really work on it daily
• try to find influential bloggers or websites, or authorities in the field who will link to you. one link on a big website will bring massive traffic
• gain credibility if you can, try to add your address and contact info in plain sight on every page, and give your website a human face
• use a service like feedburner to manage your rss feed
• caption your images, so people know what they are
• think of context when you optimize images too
• submit a sitemap to Google. then make sure your navigation is as close to the top of the page as possible and it’s simple yet comprehensive
• use SMO and try to get good at it. experiment with posts meant to tease your visitors
• if you use videos, add a video sitemap too
• submit web videos not only to youtube, but also to Google Video, Metacafe, Viddler, and Myspace videos (they’re pretty much the top players)
• do with videos what you do with images: captions and context
• use words like “image”, “photo” and “picture” in your alts since so many people add them in searches
• enable enhanced image searching in webmaster tools (it’s under tools)
• try to make viral materials, they’re fun to create and in time you understand how to make really good ones
• when you get a link, see if the page who’s linking is in the Google cache, so you know whether you’ll get some SEO boost from it
• make sure server headers are good, i had this problem once and the site sent 404’s to Google but otherwise the site seemed fine. I lost all search traffic for two weeks.

These have been the tips, I know that if you count them they may add up to less than fifty-something, but I adapted my list from a 55 quick tips list and I found some were either not true or irrelevant (or repetitive) so I scraped them. However, rest assured, all the content here is written by myself, I do not do dodgy copy-pastes.

Hope you enjoyed it, and HAPPY EASTER to those celebrating this coming weekend

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This is in a way a follow-up to my previous article, how online marketing fails you where I explained some of the major errors that most companies make when entering the web unprepared.

So, this is an article about how you should start up your website and its marketing.

First, do not launch the website without content… If there’s one thing that can make your site go flop, it’s starting it without stuff to see. Think of it as launching a supermarket which only has a box of coke, one tv for sale and a shelf of apples. That’s all. Not many people will revisit. Why? Because maybe they want more than coke and apples. It doesn’t matter to them if you offer the best damn apples and that you’ll stock up on everything else really soon, if there is someone else offering something similar. So make sure you have articles, goodies, press releases, events, everything anyone would want to find so that when you do get visitors you have what they want. Also, to build a blog (and I’ve seen other professionals do this) you need to have some really cool posts in order to make the people who come once or twice come again, expecting that cool stuff.

Second, establish a brand. there is nothing more important on the web than a brand. It doesn’t mean that has to be a personal brand or a company brand, you need to have a brand. For example, I’m now designing and setting up an academic blog for a management professor and this will aid him to build up his personal brand. This personal brand will grow and help him get more opportunities. Let me explain better. Say you have this awesome website that people just love. Say it’s on a topic that’s very common, like seo. Now think that it’s you who’s visiting. How would you make sure that you find the website again? You could set a bookmark, but odds are you’ll never remember it again. (I know I have hundreds of bookmarks marked important which I haven’t looked at in years) So you need a recognizable brand so people can search you and not have to sift through pages on Google to find you. I’ve created such brands (YouTubr, Googapple, and of course my personal brand eydryan - for seo as well as photography - and more).

Third, make sure people find that brand everywhere. You can find my brand(s) on social networking sites, youtube, facebook, linkedin, twitter, metacafe, slideshare, a bunch of photo forums, a bunch of computer forums, some seo related places, a lot really, Google gives you about 7000 hits for eydryan. Make sure people can connect with you and make sure people can find your stuff.

And fourth, make sure you think up an SMO campaign, make an idea of how you’ll promote your new website (videos, slideshows, images, etc) and start it as soon as you start the website… get viewers visiting, and there will be many who will come again if you provide them with good stuff.

Also, a good idea would be to also include an RSS feed for those who don’t have the time to check regularly. Oh, by the way. Don’t forget to subscribe to the feed or who knows what you’ll miss out on. You can also subscribe by email.

I hope you have enjoyed this, stay tuned today or tomorrow for the April Fool’s SMO experiment and explanations.

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier article about SEO and mobile devices, it’s pretty important to make sure people using mobile devices can view your webpage properly. Also, it would be nice of you to help them conserve some bandwidth. For example 3G on my cell phone costs me 1€ per MB so I’m not so inclined in just throwing that money away on ads and useless images.

So, I have decided to offer an alternate version to this blog, for mobile users, which keeps most of the functionality but making it a bit more lightweight for mobile users. This is done using a great plugin called WordPress Mobile Edition which creates a mobile version of the blog. How this works is it detects mobile browsers and feeds them the modified version. Make sure you read the readme.txt file before you install the plugin.

Basically there’s a different theme for the blog which is loaded whenever the plugin detects a mobile browser. This has raised some concerns for me initially since I didn’t want Google to see the different versions and assume cloaking. However, this plugin works only on the browsers it knows. So basically, there’s no way that if a browser is not in the plugin list it would get the different version. Also, because the plugin is basically a theme, all that happens is the CSS changes, but not the content. So technically, regardless if Google were to get the mobile version, he would not technically see any difference.

Also, there’s a line of code that once added to any page, it makes it always display the mobile version of that page. What this is useful for is when you may want to make a subdomain for mobile users, like I will make mobile.eydryan.com. That would be simpler, although the longer name would be a bit of a problem. And this would give you a nice little linking ground through which to increase your keyword count without it looking like spamming. Just point a link from the main page to the other page and boom, you’re in

So load up your PDAs and smartphones and visit the site to get the mobile version. Enjoy

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There have been some comments from the opposers of SEO that it’s only a trend, that it’s going to fade because it’s artificial. But there are two arguments against those opinions.

The first is that SEO is definitely not artificial. Actually, I’m not sure if you know this but SEO aims to create ORGANIC search results, whereas the artificial way is the old interruption marketing way… SEO aims to build content and make it popular, make websites soar through simple tactics that require lots of skill. In a sense SEO is like a blacksmith in our days. It doesn’t take the most imaginative person to think and even learn how to pound on metal, but only a professional can make a sword… It’s finesse and it’s knowing how to step on a minefield and it’s making sure the people who search for you find you…

As for the second one, that is actually the object of this article. The SEO trend. The phenomenon that has recently picked up momentum and is a web site’s worst enemy and best friend at the same time. Why? Because SEO is the trick up the sleeve of small businesses to outperform millions of dollars of ad campaigns by corporate giants. Some don’t care about their website, some don’t know SEO even exists, but the point is many people are missing out on the web, and there are people like myself who aim to put them on the right track.

But enough advertising, look at the graph below:

You can clearly see how the SEO phenomenon is rising, it’s becoming more and more significant, and you can see that it really picked up in 2008. Also, on the lower part of the graph is the news volume, and you can see that has increased as well. SEO is a field of promise, and the fact that it’s picking up speed is proof that it’s good stuff.

Also, as the field has grown, the number of jobs in that field has also grown. Just take a look at the graph below from indeed.com:

It’s been a long steady growth here as well. And it keeps growing, a trend unbeatable. The market is still young and there are still many many new customers out there just waiting to be asked about SEO.

The truth about SEO is that many customers don’t know what it’s for. There are innumerable firms out there which build a website just for the sake of it… And in a sense it’s ok, have people search for you online… But rather than enter the web without a clue and mess up your brand image I say stay offline and call yourself traditional. The web is an exciting medium, a medium of much promise and potential, but there is also a lot of damage that can be done.

More about this tomorrow

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