I've created this infographic with 8 tips to help improve your search engine rankings in Adelaide. If you head to the page on my website; Adelaide SEO Tips, you'll find more information about each tip and a video explaining each tip as well. Enjoy!
As you know, I haven't been posting much here lately - there are several reasons, mostly because I've been really busy, but also because I've been writing articles for my Online Marketing business website: Wicked Cow Marketing. I've already built up a pretty good collection of resources, here are some of the most recent:
On-Page Optimisation - A comprehensive guide to on-site SEO, that is search engine optimisation done on the page
Page Title Optimisation - A follow up to the on-page optimisation article above that focuses on just the optimisation of your page's titles
I have been thinking about where I'd like to take this blog now that I have other projects to work on and perhaps not as much time to spend here.
The key areas I'd like the blog to focus on include:
Interviews - With Adelaide based experts in the internet marketing field and the occasional non-Adelaidian when useful or interesting.
Guest Posts - From Adelaide based exerts in the internet marketing field, more details here.
Jobs - Continue to posts to and promote our job board.
Education - Information about internet marketing education and courses in Adelaide and online.
Events - Covering the various networking and internet marketing events in Adelaide and maybe organising some events of our own.
News - Covering internet marketing news in Adelaide.
I have made several posts in the past with my own opinions about SEO strategy and ideas. I will continue these, when I have the time, but they will be posted to my personal site nickmorris.me.
I'm toying with the idea of doing future interviews as recorded audio and putting them together in a kind of podcast. They would also be transcribed and posted to the blog.
Some of the event ideas I've had include networking events for internet marketing professionals in Adelaide, SEO round table discussions, small business networking events and free lectures/workshops from internet marketing professionals for small business owners.
Overall the site has two main focuses - information, news and networking within the internet marketing community in Adelaide and packaging some of the community's knowledge and bringing it to small business owners and managers who can benefit.
If you have any ideas or comments about the direction of the site, please add them below.
There are several different things you can do with an article to aid your SEO and online marketing, including:
Posting it on your main website
Posting it on another website you own with a link back to your main website
Syndicating the article to a large number of relatively low quality article marketing networks
Syndicating the article to fewer higher quality websites
Using the article as a guest post (one location)
This post seeks to explore which use is the most effective way to leverage an article for maximum benefit.
Article Use
Pros
Cons
Main website
The article can rank and attract traffic to your website
There are no guaranteed links generated from the article
Another website you own
Guaranteed link back to your main website and the article can attract traffic to your other website
Have to divide your content over two websites
Low quality syndication
Potentially large number of links from low-medium quality websites and some exposure
Many links are low quality and will produce little traffic
High quality syndication
A small number of medium-high quality links, exposure to a new audience and likely to send some relevant traffic
Limited number of links generated
Guest post
Guaranteed link from a potentially high quality site, exposure to a new audience and likely to send some relevant traffic
Only one link generated
The traditional use would be to post the article straight onto your main website where it can rank in the search engines and attract visitors for years to come. The article can also be shared on social media and linked to from elsewhere to give your website traffic and an SEO boost to lead to better rankings overall. However, there is no guarantee that you will get links, unlike the other article uses mentioned. Earning links simply by writing good quality content is getting harder and harder so perhaps leveraging your article to obtain value exchange links is a better use of your content.
Value Exchange Links
These are links that are gained by giving something of value in exchange for a link back to your website. Money is a common form of value that is exchanged for links but in this case, the 'value' is the right to use a piece of content on a website. The three uses in the diagram above are value exchange links where you grant another website owner the right to use your content on their website in exchange for a link pointing back to your website. These techniques produce guaranteed links which reduces risk and increases the efficiency of your SEO efforts.
The lower quality method at the bottom of the pyramid has the potential to deliver tens - hundreds of links from low-medium quality websites. The links are likely to have a lower life time value so this technique has less long term value but the sheer number of links, with desired anchor text can still have a good effect on your rankings in the short term.
The higher quality techniques will produce much fewer links but they will have a greater long term value, greater authority and link value and have other benefits such as increasing your reputation and gaining exposure from a relevant audience.
For more information about the SEO value of 'value exchange links' see my recent post discussing whether article syndication is white hat.
I've been rather busy lately with work and haven't been able to give this blog the attention it deserves. However, this post will continue to make sure that I've posted at least once a month, every month since its inception in early December 2010.
Article Marketing or Syndication is the process of trying to get your content republished on other websites for the purpose of getting exposure and building links.
I've been meaning to write this article ever since the article marketing product 'Article Samurai,' from the same company that makes Market Samurai, came out. More recently, I've been involved in an extensive discussion, in the comments of an article on SEO myths, about whether article syndication is a good way to build links.
There's a range of article marketing techniques that span from the very low quality to the higher quality. A point that was raised in the article and discussion mentioned above is that article syndication on quality sites is a good way to get your content distributed to targeted readers, which I don't dispute.
The focus of this article is with using article syndication as a link building technique for SEO.
There's actually two questions here;
Is article syndication/marketing white hat?
Is article syndication/marketing effective?
While the second question is certainly important, I'm actually more concerned with the first question as I'm looking for long term value and techniques that are not white hat will decrease in value over time as the Search Engines improve their algorithms. Editorial Links My main problem with article syndication is that it doesn't produce truly editorial links but rather value exchange links. Those re-publishing the articles are doing so, at least partly, because they benefit from having the content on their site, not because they think its great content.
However, it's not as straightforward as this. Some low quality sites will publish syndicated articles to their own sites with very little editorial scrutiny - these are certainly at the low quality/spammy end of the spectrum. But what about sites that only pick the very best articles to re-publish? It would seem that this is certainly an editorial process and therefore the links back should be given value by the search engines.
It seems like a difficult issue to make a decision on but I think that while the links produced are editorial to some degree, they are still value exchange links and therefore shouldn't be given as much link value as a true editorial link which makes the technique not entirely white hat. That's not to say that its black hat... I would categorise it as a grey hat technique.
In the following video, Matt Cutts talks about article marketing and syndication and he doesn't come right out and say that its a black hat technique. I think this is because he also recognises that if there's an editorial process and the articles are being published on good quality sites then the links do have some value as an indicator that the original content is authoritative.
He concludes the video by saying that the trend is that article syndication is a bad technique and that the resulting links should be devalued. There's also a great video by Rand from SEOmoz on this subject. Rand's video deals more with the lower quality end of the spectrum, but I think he agrees overall that no article syndication is entirely white hat and he then brings up the subject of opportunity cost.
Opportunity Cost I think there's no doubt that article syndication can be an effective link building technique, especially if done in a higher quality way. But, if you're spending time on a technique that's not white hat then you know that the effectiveness of that technique is probably doing to decrease over time. You could be spending that time on white hat techniques which will have more of a long term value.
Many of the tools in the SEO's arsenal are not strictly white hat. The reason we use them is because they do have some value now so they'll produce positive results in the short term and because they're easier, quicker and cheaper to do than truly white hat techniques.
Do you do Article Syndication? Do you think its white hat?
James Whitrow is the director of Get Seen Online, a business providing SEO and corporate and creative videos. I was lucky enough to sit down with him to discuss his business, their services and a recent viral video that he produced called 'Herbert Wilkes, a Hungry Life.' If you haven't already, read the Herbert Wilkes article and watch the video, it's great stuff. I found James to by an interesting guy with lots of passion for his business and for getting results for their clients.
What is your role in the business? What is your background? How did you come to be doing what you do?
I am the owner of Get Seen Online, we have three employees. I’m responsible for marketing & sales, some of the tech work, research and development, managing accounts, content writing and optimisation. The other two in the business are primarily tech and SEO consultants.
I’ve always run my own business since the age of ten, in San Diego, when I folded papers for other kids in the street who were old enough to have their own paper route.
I’ve been in the IT space for about 15 years. Previously I had a full service network management business and our clients started asking for websites and SEO. Initially we outsourced the work but were not happy with the results and we realised we could do better. We started offering SEO as a service and eventually it became a separate business, and that’s how Get Seen Online was born.
What does Get Seen Online do?
We do what it takes to get you on page one of Google using SEO, Online Video, Social Media and other methods.
What are your core services?
SEO, Website development, Online Video
Where does video production fit into those services?
Video adds a great extra element for users. We can show footage of clients’ work, how to's, what its like to experience doing business with them; anything information and story driven.
The videos are mostly made for the client’s website then linked through Youtube and social networks.
How can videos be used for online marketing? What are the advantages of video over text?
People are lazy. Some people don't like reading a screen, videos are much easier on the eyes.
On the down side, written content gets more mileage for SEO than video, so it’s good to have a blend of both.
How does video marketing complement other online marketing techniques?
Adding video to your content provides a more complete package, giving information in many formats for different people's preferences
What should the videos be about?
Think about what people would want to watch
Do research - use Google's keyword research tool, for example type in 'how to ,’ to see if people are searching for ‘how to’ guides on that subject
Try and expose in an engaging way what is unique about your business
Is there a specific formula to make a video go viral? What are the biggest factors?
There's definitely something to having an X factor
Marketing is also important
It has push boundaries and there’s got to be something that makes you want to share
Short - around 1 to 3 minutes
Video and audio quality are important, people need to see and hear clearly what’s going on. Sound extremely obvious, but overlooked by so many videos. For some videos the music can make or break the video.
Are there any Youtube specific tips your can share?
Youtube wants people to be active. Logging into your account, friending, subscribing, commenting and voting are all things that Google/Youtbe likes, so do them.
Getting involved in the community will also help get your videos featured. Featured videos go on the home page and get lots of views.
How do the costs and returns of online video marketing compare to TV advertising?
The ratio of costs of TV ads to cost of online videos is anything up to 10 : 1 for production.
You can use a basic video camera that only costs $300 and both Macs and PC’s come with free editing software (imovie and windows movie maker) or you up the quality and hire a local company to use professional gear and do something slick, either way, the main requirement is to have a good story to tell
On the distribution side, for TV ads you need to pay for each showine
Online videos stay up forever so there's no limit to their potential
Many people, especially the younger generations, already watch more online video than TV.
Can business owners have success by creating videos themselves?
Yes, simple videos can be really easy to create provided you have content that will engage the viewer.
What are five things that small business owners can do to leverage online video for marketing?
The most important thing is to get good quality content. Think about what content might interest your customers, what do you see everyday that they might find interesting?
Steer away from blatant self promotion
Do research. See what kind of videos are popular on Youtube in your niche and use Google’s keyword tool to see what people are searching for
If you don't have much editing skill or software, plan your shot carefully to try and shoot everything in sequence so there's not much editing required.
Ask around, there’s plenty of people involved in film in some way who can help and advise.
How would you describe your SEO philosophy?
Focus on providing great content with the belief that Google will appreciate informative, entertaining and useful website content.
We do lots of research and monitoring of results.
How do you differentiate yourselves from other online marketing businesses?
We work face to face with customers as well as through the net.
We aim to find out what's unique about our clients and portray their uniqueness and reason for existence as a common thread throughout all the marketing material and content on their website
Why is website structure important for SEO?
It enables search engines to easily crawl all the relevant content
Coding is also important, for example you should use CSS for page layout rather than tables nested in tables
Title tags, descriptions, headings (h1,h2,h3 tags) are all important places to put keywords- they should all be matching and consistent and accurately represent and summarise the content.
What are some common mistakes you see in small business website design?
Keyword stuffing, by people who don’t understand keyword density
Using lots of meta keywords- Google have stated they no longer use them in their algorithms
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