But, what is an SEO Campaign you ask….

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the research-based approach of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Search engine optimization targets the free, organic, natural, or left hand side of search and their ranking algorithms.

Differing from a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising program such as Google Adwords, the organic listings targeted by search engine optimization cannot be manipulated by paying a fee for favorable placement.

Web sites which rank on the first page of search engine results are scored based on a wide array of very specific criteria, the secrets of which search engines guard very closely. For this reason, effective search engine optimization is the only way to gain a top placement among the free or natural search engine listings.

With over 3.7 BILLION searches conducted each day, search engines are the most widely used method of attracting traffic to a web site — with research confirming that over 90% of prospective web customers use search engines to find solutions and vendors. Furthermore, only the top 10 search results will generate a majority of search traffic and subsequent conversions. It will not benefit a company or its products to rank below the first page of natural search engine results.

It is very important to understand that the search engines read only the text content of pages; there is no way for them to read graphics, therefore the words used in the text of web pages is critically important to that site’s ranking. The key determinant in how various pages rank in internet searches has to do with the sophisticated algorithms used by search engine databases to determine the relevancy of a page to the word or words that are being searched for…or your keywords!

There are a number factors that are evaluated by these programs which vary from one search engine company to another and are subject to constant change and revision. Some of the consistent factors in relevancy ranking on a given keyword or phrases include the following:

• The frequency of the keyword within the text of the page.
• The use of the keyword in important places within the page, such as the page title, a headline, in an image name or a hyperlink.
• The percentage of that keyword’s use when compared to the total
number of words on the page…NSI now….
• The number of links to that page from other sites on the internet.
• The authority/trust level of those referring IBL sites…

Wikipedia – Search Engine Optimization

(do click here to read the background on SEO and to gain understanding so that you will “get” next weeks blog post where we begin to delve into real SEO!)

Almost 10 months ago, we covered this then popular trend in car dealerships acquiring what can only be labelled then as “phoney” reveiws here…and a quick read of same will show that many many of the sites that we found via a search in Google Places/Maps showed similar or exact copies of reviews appearing for dealerships that were local here to us in Ontario and we updated that blog piece a bit later too…with more dealership names and reviews….and it appears, that things DO change – at least in googl.ca land…and here’s why.

First, we found that local dealerships had obviously used someone – staff maybe, consultants maybe, marketing agencies maybe, SEO firms maybe to “salt” their sites with 5 STAR reviews over a period of a few months. Similar dealerships showed similar phoney reviews from the exact same reviewer for different cars and buys or leases and they made no attempt (at least that we could find) to hide same.

For instance, one of those dealerships was Leggatt Pontiac Buick (note to turn off ALL google personalization/history etc) and they showed then this page of Maps results…

As you can see, and may remember…we then drilled down on that first review — from a “beatrix.misner” who not only reviewed Leggat on July 20/10, but also in Scottsdale, AZ, bankruptcy in Los Vegas and more….obviously all these reviews lacked any kind of credability….and we pointed that out then.

And to be totally honest, we expected not a blessed thing to happen.

No notice from Google. No notice or comment from the dealership. No notice really by anyone but those of you readers who do visit (big tip-O-the-hat!) and comment….and now I have rechecked and low and behold, there are some changes! And here’s a current screenshot of that same Leggat review page in Google Maps…

As you will note, there have been NO updates or reviews posted now in 11 months….and a really nice thing is that the obviously phoney reviews are gone! Disappeared! Vanished….

So, is all ‘well’….well not quite, but I’d have to say better….why that caution though you might ask?

Take a look above at the review posed on July 2/10…but someone called “natureseeker” – and then drill down on all the reviews made by that person by clicking on their name…and yup, what do you see?

41 various reviews, stretching from Bozeman, Montana to Lubbock, Texas…from Las Vegas to Australia…..sigh….yup and all 5 STAR reviews. Somehow, the dealership “missed” this one….or someone at Google did…but it continues to put out favourable review juice to the various sites reviewed…and that’s not a good thing, eh!

Other dealerships noted in my original column on Canadian SEO and Google Maps were also looked at too, in the past week….and here’s some of what I found too!

Taylor Chrysler Dodge, a local dealership had as it’s newest review, one from March 2/11, from someone called “Mag” and when I clicked on that name, I found that this 5 STAR review was joined by others including an Escort service in New York city….not the best of company, eh! There’s more of same for other reviewers too if you care to look yourself.

GeorgeTown KIA, offers up nothing more current than last July/2010…but yup, they too have the same phoney reviews, just click on Troy to see what I found.

KIA of Hamilton offers up something else that I’d not seen before — someone named only “D” reviewed the reviews! And he/she put’s out this comment –

“BEWARE!!! lies and hidden fees!! Every one of the 9 reviews posted are lies. If you click on some of the generic names and check some of the other reviews you will find that they also have had high reviews of the other dealerships in the “Car Nation” family. It looks to me like they are writing their own reviews. (-Troy -Nick -Ralph)…”

<big grin here!>

Looks like others have noticed this too….folks that I’m assuming are not search engine experts nor anyone who’s skilled at “sussing” this kind of review scam out…but as they point out and may be true, these reviews are all “lies”….

How’s that for a real catch! Tip-O-the-Hat – D!

So for serp ranking reports, one must somehow find them all, test them all and then decide which “works” for your business best….which is exactly what we did 6 months ago. We were using at that time WebPositionGold4…which we’d tested and had been using for over 5 years. We liked WP4 and it’s methodology of handling all of the variables that such serp ranking software finds issues with and we were very very sad to learn that the owners of same, decided to deprecate the stand-alone desktop version in favour of an online version. We hate online apps, and that’s even more prevalent IMHO when it comes to ranking a clients SEO Campaign. WP4 worked perfectly for us on the desktop – we ran reports, dozens of same weekly on over two dozen client campaingns and only once or twice in the 5 years we used that software, were there ever any issues with that process….and the WP4 support team provided updates for those items within days.

But as I said, the WP4 folks stopped the app from being updated and all of us desktop users were out of luck. I would offer that I did attempt to buy the app from them…oh, it would’a stretched our cash-flow out dramatically I’m sure, but they were not interested in selling same. So, as of last fall, I was “out” of SEO ranking software. And the search began in earnest to find a replacement.

Google searches of course, led me to a short list of what seemed to be the major serp software, desktop versions only mind you, that were out there, and I worked my way through my short list carefully…and what I was interested in was ONLY ranking software desktop apps….I didn’t want to at that point, even think about as suite of SEO apps, just the one that would show me and my clients how their sites were ranking. This also shortened the list down to the following top three contenders…

• Link-Assistant RankTracker
• WebCEO
• Market Samurai

As you can see, from what must be thousands of these apps out there, I knew enough to check with other SEO peers, and had lots of anecdotal evidence and forums and boards to go and learn what others thought of same to be able to get to the highest rated serp ranking apps out there.

And I tested, after downloading and installing their trial versions, I did what anyone else might do, I used three of my own sites to test for the full serp ranking functionality of each of these three apps. And I was surprised….almost at once…at the speed that only one offered right outta the box. RankTracker kicked ass!

I ran over 300 keywords for one site and the report was done and I was looking at it – i.e. it completed then used those serps to create the report in under 4 minutes. Done. I was looking at thoses rankings in less time than what my older software used to “initialize…” and that was a real eye opener, eh! My older WP4 software took 21 minutes to run that same set….so I was a happy canuck camper for that simple speed increase! The other contenders were still warming up when RankTracker was done. Score 1 for RankTracker, eh!

Okay, so it was much much quicker than the other two apps….but were the rankings true…after all, that’s why you buy an SEO serp ranking app, eh?

Did it report what a simple Bing or Google search would show – with all the various filters and screenings turned off…ie to give complete default rankings? And answer is – yes! Well, a caution here….things don’t “always” work that way anymore, in that what I might find to be a ranking in my hometown might differ from what someone in Las Vegas or Boston or Seattle might find…that’s a fact we’ve learned. But here locally, I can say that after testing I believe almost 100 keywords one by one by one by one….sigh….RankTracker had one variation only, by 3 positions on the second page….it showed the keyword phrase to be #14 and a manual search showed it to be #11….so I’m more than happy with that level of reliable true rankings. I also of course, tested the other two apps, and found that both were about the same, they both reported only 3 or 4 errors against what I’d manually tested….so while they were also very good, score 2 for RankTracker.

So, speed? Check! True rankings? Check…but what else did that app offer, you might wonder?

Things I’d not much ever thought about reared up quickly. I could simply use HTML to change the look/feel of the reports I wanted to generate. Scheduling reports? Yes, RankTracker allowed me to setup complete scheduling for various clients and their ranking reports to be done. Competitor tracking? Yes, RankTracker allows me to track a client against their top 10 competitors. KEI for keywords and phrases? Yes, RankTracker features that too. Human emulation for search engine timing issues? Yup, once again RankTracker offered up this workaround to solve CAPTCHA issues with the search engines too. FTP of reports/files/folders up to client sites for their review? Yup, RankTracker does that too…and that made the overall score in favour of RankTracker, eh!

Is it any wonder then that I chose this app?

 The other two on my list did some/most of those items that I needed but not all, only RankTracker fitted our needs. So I did what any other SEO practitioner would do, I bought the Enterprise version of same, and it’s been running here daily ever since.

You just can’t beat quality, eh….and RankTracker is just that. A quality SEO ranking desktop based software application!

And Forbes themselves here, asked how-come! Read and bookmark this post to follow along on this, eh! Course as Barry points out, it appears this is NOT the first time they’ve been caught, eh!

And whew….looks like Google has just found out how to tell when the BIG online players are trying to “finagle” the serps, eh! Just like J.C. Penny was too!

WooHoo….I’m in shock but pleasantly….there just may be a trend here, eh lads!

First the article itself was published over at the NYTimes and you can read it here… ably written and well stated by the author David Segal, it points out that J.C. Penny, the huge US based department store with 1100 locations and almost $18 billion dollars in sales, used black hat tactics to climb the google rankings for everything from “dresses” to “bedding” to “area rugs” and more…much much more it appears!

A good read of this article will point out much of what we – and truly all SEO practitioners know. That “black hat SEO” campaigns are by their very intent and procedures, not the way to “go” for an online firm. Rather tho, than reiterate what David has so well written…I would add that as the article wraps up, it is noted that yes, Google was notified; they claimed to already have found some evidence of this black hat campaign and they then instituted penaltys for same. The author goes on after that google update to re-check the serps once agian and yes, J. C. Penny appears to have lost all of it’s ill-gotten gains. DO read this article….please….as it’s about the best look by a major media firm on what goes on when you employ a set of “black hat” tactics. Oh. The actual “answer” from J. C. Penny itself, as to the fact that they were “unaware” that this campaign was going on sounds very very fishy to not only me — but to the rest of the SEO community too! It does appear tho that they did fire their SEO firm….but that’s to be expected I’d guess….this is poignant notice that yes, the biggest SEO campaigns and their huge budgets sometimes fall prey to get-rich-quick results and that’s not a good thing at all. All in all, worrisome to those of us practicing “white hat” Canadian SEO, eh!

So, why’d I post about this? Well, simply put….to let our readers know that this kind of “black hat” SEO campaign get’s “found” even at the very top of the SEO food-chain.

And to put some of the rest of the SEO community’s opinions and comments on same here too, for you all to look at remind yourself that “black hat” is not the way to go….pick a reputable, reliable “white hat” firm each and every time….

And here is what some of the other SEO practitioners had to say about this too….

• Ex-Googler Vanessa Fox offered up a great backstory and comments and URLs too on this whole matter here….
• Doug Pierce here said more and offered up other empirical evidence on simlar “dirty little secrets….”
• Jill Whelan, a true SEO expert offered up more on other Google search engine anchor text spam issues too….
• Andrew Shotland over at Localseoguide offers up a short multiple choice query on this here…I picked (a.) of course….
• And finally Alan Bleiweiss finishes off this debate with solid SEO advice on J. C. Pennys other SEO issues…and there’s a few, eh!

Lastly, what do you think? Is there any space in the SEO landscape for these kind of “black hat” tactics….would love to know what our readers think, eh!

And, yes I’m ready and chomping at the bit to get at some new SEO tactics I’ve been reading about testing; ready to try a new strategy for a non-profit we just added to our pro-bono client listings; ready to get out to network with some of those new MeetUp types of business groups too…in fact, I’m about as ready as one can be, eh!

So….why this post? And the Mountie calendar showing him getting his dog team ready for a sled trip? ….ahh…glad you asked, eh!

You see, from my POV, the running of an SEO practice “IS” a team effort….tons of juice and power and enthusiasm from the whole team drives us and our clients forward towards our destination…better serp rankings with increased new traffic that leads to conversions and new revenues, eh! A true dog-team and sled approach, in our mind….and as the guy who get’s to yell MUSH I love what I do….but I never ever forget both the team and how and where we find news and tactics and analytics to test on too, eh!

Well, I wanted to say thanks first of all to the 9 blog guest posts that we had up on our site last year. They were all “spot-on” and aimed at our Canuck readers and every single one of them passed on a new tactic or opinion on our own brand of SEO up here and did so with distinction too, eh!

So thanks one and all who contributed to our Canadian SEO blog!

Next, I also thought that I’d add the following 3 items too…from what we’ve gathered over the past 10 days or so on various “new” happenings and notices about SEO for both us SEO types and clients too, to read and learn from and to try to explain what it is we “find” and get some traction on for all of our SEO Campaigns!

One of the biggest Canadian newspapers, our famous Globe & Mail in Toronto has some very interesting stats and forcasts based on their own surveys about Canadians and our online imprint and usage…..so you might want to drop by this URL here to take a look at just how “wired” we all are, eh! A great read and still some surprising Facebook info there on us Canucks too! And yes, this is the kind of info we find daily to update our own knowledge of what drives a client site “UP” in their SEO Campaign serp rankings….we thought you’d want to know that, eh!

So, what about SPAM? Yup, heard about this too, that our vow for 2011, will be that in September 2011, we will begin to fight SPAM….sigh…at least that’s what our Parliament passed as law just a few days ago, eh! At least that’s what the “Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act” or FISA bill states we’ll be doing then. Of course, there’s a lot of other items listed too….some of which IMHO are far overdue…like prohibiting websites, emails and other offers from installing software, plugins or toolbars without permission. Whether or not the “teeth” for this Bill are going to be used (up to a $1 million dollar fine can be levied it appears) remains to be seen…and for those of us  who “receive” the SPAM emails etc, we can file against the SPAMMERs it appears for up to $200 per infraction – up to a maximum of that $1 million dollars a day! Uh-huh…and this I just gotta sit back and watch, eh….sound’s of thousands of lawyers shoes hitting the floor is what I hear, eh!

Ah….last one today is on Brand Mentions…and what I mean by that is how do you track where your brand is mentionned online? You know the kind of posting that a user — either happy or sad or ranting or raving makes about your brand online at any of the social media sites? We already track same for many clients and provide both reports as well as ORM (online reputation management) for same…but what if you’re just thinking about this for the first time? A fellow blogger, Anne Smarty approached this whole topic over at blueglass.com via a mid December posting you can find here. The ones we use for our clients include two of these, but I should add that we also use a paid service too…but the best part of this blog piece is that all 3 that she outlines for you are FREE! Can’t get a better price than that, eh!

So…to close today, the dogs are all hooked up, the sled’s full of this information and many other tactics for 2011…..and yes…we’re off on a whole New Year of SEO sledding for our clients….if you want to come along, just drop by regularily and we’ll try to help, eh!

Now….dogs…let’s GO….MUSH!

What are the differences between Canadian and Australian SEO?

It has been claimed that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is no longer an option for online marketers. Truthfully, it is an essential feature required to succeed online. Website developers around the world are busy at work designing websites that should bring their customers record revenues, improved sales figures and top rankings with the most popular search engines.

Companies specializing in fields like comprehensive SEO campaigns, Pay Per Click (PPC) , management, Internet marketing solutions, web strategy, link building services, organic search engine ranking, and social media marketing, have their hands full boosting web traffic and achieving their customers’ goals. They generally perform well, as they know their local market, and the practices used in their own country.

SEO companies can provide proven results for local customers, but what happens when they suddenly receive a request from a foreign business owner? What happens when, for example, a Canadian enterprise hires an Australian Search Engine Optimisation firm to spruce up their online visibility? Will they be able to handle the job, or are there just too many differences to deal with?

The best way to start the assignment is by spending a few hours on research. First find out which search engines ranks highest in the customer’s country of origin. Believe it or not, not all search engines that do well in your country, do well in others. According to the ‘Top Search Engines by Volume’ statistics from Experian Hitwise, at the end of July 2010, Google’s Canadian version (Google.ca) took the lead with 77.64%, not Google.com (4.96%).  The same study also concluded that, based on spider activity,  Canadians enjoy AltaVista Canada and AOL Canada, search engines that are nowhere to be found in the list of favorites of the folks Down Under.

Is it important to know which search engines are ranking highest? In many ways it is, in others it is not. Although search engines typically have the same ground rules, they may have subtle differences, which you may have to take into account when planning your SEO strategy.

Another aspect you may have to take into account when ordering content from your copy writers is ‘language.’ Sure, English is dominant in both countries, but do not forget that there are a lot of French Canadians. Incorporating quelques mots en français (a few words in French) may not be a bad idea to grab the attention of all web-browsing Canucks.

While we are still on the subject of language, it may also be to your advantage to hire a writer who is familiar with Canadian expressions and spelling. It would not hurt either if your author would know a thing or two about hockey, maple syrup, Tim Horton’s coffee, Bryan Adams, and other lifestyle curiosities of those folks “living up North!”

Aside from these differences, all Search Engine Optimization strategies should be pretty much the same. Your methods to attract crawlers and bots would be the same, and so would be your techniques to achieve higher visibility for your customer. As long as you are dedicated, meet your deadlines, deliver quality services, and are able to reach your customer’s goals, your customer will come back.

Conclusion:  In principle, SEO techniques are the same all around the world. There may be a few slight differences, but these variations can easily be overcome as long as there is ample communication between the provider and his client.

The quoted statistics came from:

• http://www.seoconsultants.com/search-engines/canada/
• http://www.seoconsultants.com/search-engines/australia/

This blog was guest posted by Michael Jenkins, the director of Shout Web Strategy which is a firm in Melbourne specializing in Search, conversion rate optimization and web usability.

If you do remember same, I wrote intially about this site as they had responded to me about their own first attempts at mounting an SEO Campaign for his site and what he’d done (and not done!) and how they were doing. Suffice it to say, that my original blog piece was more of a “what not to do” piece…but then as explained therein, most folks who’re new to SEO make the same mistakes. But more importantly, Mark Aselstine one of the owners, agreed that they were new to SEO, that they were learning “on the fly” and asked as nicely as possible, if I had a few secs, if I could help. I pointed out in that post, that mostly when you crucify someones newbie attempts at creating an SEO Campaign, you usually get a “F**K YOU* response….but not this time.

So I did just that. I offered up some pretty basic tactics, tried to show the rationale behind same and offered up the chance that if they wanted to stay in touch and “run stuff by me” I’d help. And they did. And I did too….not a lot mind you, but some items that seemed to be missing etc…and I just updated that help with a further email today.

So, how’re they doing? Thought you’d never ask…here’s a quick serp report Summary from just today (click to enlarge)…

Note the Visibility factor of 55+% and the 6 rankings in the top 5…not a top #1 yet…but I know that this is coming for these two wine merchants…and I know because they are doing things right, SEO DIY wise, eh! Drop by their site yourownself and look over the various wines, wine education and videos and tastings too….all in all, a great site to not only learn about wine — but order from too! Cheers!

So, what’s this entail? First, you must ensure that your brand is strong. You simply create the pages as follows and you ALWAYS brand your site with your full brand name and URL too!

Login to your own LinkedIN account on one page and then go here to open up the LinkedIN pages to show you the how-to add your own Company to your Profile page.

Follow that guideline how-to and you’ll end up with your new Company page up and running! We wont go thru that same how-to but we wanted to share this point…

That LinkedIn is the best business social media site out on the web….with somewhere near 65 million users ALL in the business world. That LinkedIn has great Q&A areas, Groups, News, Discussions and even Job areas to spend time on. And, for the best part, LinkedIN also offers it’s users the opportunity to search for leads, for targeted businessses, for contacts and yes for advice and counsel too!

And traffic? Yup, our analytics show that our clients who DO have a LinkedIN Company page profile get direct traffic from their pages….ie people search for companies who provide products or services in your channel, find same on LinkedIn — and then click on the URLs and links after they find on your Company page and prove to themselves that, yup…you’re a valid company to check out like what we cut&pasted here below….

Works, eh! So hopefully, if you do NOT have a LinkedIN Company page, you will now!

UPDATES:

I have gotten some emails from online marketing friends that there are some “other” places to drop by to learn more about how to both create a new LinkedIN Company page as well as ways to use LinkedIN for further marketing…and those links needed to be added…so here they are, eh!

• Adam Ostrow’s great step-by-step guide to same here…

• Guy Kawasaki’s great 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn here….

• Michael Gray’s post on SearchEngineLand too…

Simple, really….if you want to know how long a new SEO campaign will take to get you rankings on say Google, then the answer is I don’t know without the answers to a few questions first.….and why don’t I know how long your SEO campaign will take right off the bat?

Well, I’ve found over the past 9 years of SEO work for a wide variety of clients in many various channels that any new SEO timeline “depends” on a host of factors, and not a one includes a calendar. Honest. Not a one…but here’s some points to ponder as a prospective new SEO client for any practitioner out there….ie you’ll need to be able to answer these questions to try to craft a campaign timeline.

How Competitive is your Channel?
That is, if you’re in a very competitive channel, say you’re a personal injury lawyer or a new home builder then you should expect to wait longer as these channels are stuffed with eager, hi-budgeted competitors. If you’re a brand new site, then you’re a bit further back from quick rankings too, as the competitive channels see new entrants by the thousands daily….and that can affect the waiting time as well! This kind of competition depends usually on the size of your marketing budgets which is why only the larger, better budgeted sites get to page 1 of Google…but not always as we’ve found that plain hard work sometimes can at least level the playing field! But competition is a big factor to consider first.

What’s your Budget?
Say you’re a financial advisor and you want to challenge everyone else in your province or state for the #1 Google spot for “financial advisors” – that will take months and months and a large budget of sometimes thousands a month….or it will take twice as long at say half that budget as a rule of thumb. The size of the budget you can offer to a campaign then, often determines the timeframe. It takes that long and that much cash to build a site that will be worth the search to your own prospective clients. Big budgets mean better results is the simple truth here. Which is sometimes too bad, as that usually means then that the financial advisors who did invest that kind of budget will then get all those fresh-faced younger demographic customers who will invest with them, and pay them top premiums for their lifetimes….do you hear what I’m saying here? Budgets are important yes, and if you can’t afford a big campaign budget wise, the “saw-off” is that it takes longer. It’s that basic, in our experience!

Are We Your NEW SEO firm?
What I mean by that is, are we following someone else who’s already done this for you and obviously made a mess of things. Is your site in a link farm or web hub or whatever the current clichéd term is this month? Are there keyword stuffings on your pages or footer stuffings or white text on a like colored background? Did you list your site at every free directory you could find? Have you got <divs> that are absolutely positioned at say -10000px to hide them from the user but still rank on Google?  These are only a few of the many non-best-practices tactics that we’ve found that some SEO firms employ….and then get your site penalized or worse, even de-indexed. Goodbye rankings and therefore goodbye revenue streams too….sigh. It’s not that difficult to get around these blackhat tactics, but it too, takes time, eh!

Are you looking for a global SEO campaign or a LOCAL marketplace one?
Depending on what kind of a market you wish to enter in your chosen channel can also affect the time needed to rise to the top. If you’re planning on trying to corral say the #1 Google ranking for “ad agency” you’ll fight long and hard to gain that spot and as we’ve already said, at a big budget too. But if you’re thinking say that you want to be high for your LOCAL city search, something that Google and Bing and Ask and Yahoo all now support, those rankings can be achieved in much less time initially. And as a result you’ll gain traffic and conversions quickly. i.e., LOCAL search rankings can be quicker and take advantage of what at least appears to be much younger developing algorithms from the search engines to rank quickly for SEO clients. Note, of course, your own mileage may vary but for our current client roster, LOCAL is quicker by far right now!

Which brings me back to the original question asked by a prospective SEO client….how long does a campaign take? We always try to get answers to the above questions before we ever can estimate a timeline, like the rest of the SEO world so that you won’t have expectations that just can’t be met over the life of the campaign. Yes, but how long? You could see your rankings improve to the point that you have first page listings in a matter of a few weeks or it could take more than a year, and that’s as honest as we can be, eh!