SEO Advice

PPC’s Dirty Little Secret

March 31, 2011, by 4 comments

I’ve worked in a few places now and have touched upon PPC campaigns a fair few times. For the most part a properly formatted and managed PPC campaign can bring lots to the table, validating keywords, quickly determining ROI and exploring opportunities however one particular aspect of PPC does nothing except waste money and skew results in favour of a PPC campaign.

What is this oh so annoying practice?

Brand Terms

Organic SEO can quickly and easily dominate brand term searches which once established I can pretty much guarantee will remain stable. My beef is that PPC companies often add these terms into their campaigns which appear above the organic results usually containing one or more references to the clients branded product page (and in some cases dominated by the brand content). This means that the client is paying for clicks through this link when theres a free one (or more) available just below. Not only is this costing clients loads but it also skews the metrics often quoted by PPC companies, increasing campaign conversion rates and adding an element of smoke and mirrors to the whole process.

Granted in some cases when a competitor is bidding against your brand term you may need a PPC entry… but only for selected phrases.

My advce is to ask your PPC company to split brand and non brand terms in their reports and focus on whats converting for non brnd terms. Also to validate the brand term list against organic results on a regular basis to both pick up where a competitor has inserted an ad, and to trim out the fat of PPC ads where none are required.

The Keyword Research Red Herring

March 29, 2011, by No comments yet

Recently i’ve been working on a review of an SEO campaign for a major high street retailer, reviewing the keywords and measuring them against conversion data from Google Analytics and the awesome Hitwise data that can not only show you what terms people are using to find your sites, but also what term was used 2,3,4,and 5 times before the tracked first click that Analytics records. The results are startling. Some massive ‘clothing’ terms drive huge traffic to the site but they dont convert. Even tracking these terms as repeat visitors using brand terms down the line yields pretty poor traffic volumes for example the biggest term converting to a brand term is less than 0.2%. What this means for SEO’s is that you shouldnt chase and invest your time and clients cash into these red herring keywords as they do nothing but waste your time. The only problem is that to discover a red herring term you need back-data which is where Hitwize comes in.

So my advice is to either seriously scrutinise and review your campaign keywords at say every 3 months throughout the contract or, for sites that already have achieved some success, speak to the Hitwise team and get the reporting done. It may cost you a couple of grand but it will save you and your client that and more in next to no time.

Simple SEO Tip for Driving Traffic from Authority Sites

March 21, 2011, by 6 comments

In my new role I am working closely with some of the UK’s top fashion brands and one of my tasks is to increase qualified traffic in addition to traditional link building. It will sound simple when I say it but the best way of doing this is via Google Alerts. Simply set up alerts for your clients brand and each day visit sites where the brand is mentioned (they rarely link) and where possible add in a comment or contact the site owner requesting a link.

Its a great tip for traffic generation as anyone reading the article and following the link has undergone qualification. it also helps with your backlink profile as although many links are dofollow, they can still contribute to your organic SEO rankings.

Getting a Job in SEO 2011

March 20, 2011, by No comments yet

I recently spend 2 weeks hunting for a new role and through i’d document some of my experiences which i hope will help you in your quest for a new SEO position. In all fairness it took me a total of 4 days to find a new job but i spent the two weeks being thorough and applying/interviewing for everything that came my way.

Contact all of the recruiters you can find

When it comes to looking for a new SEO role don’t be shy. Get on the phone and call as many recruitment companies as you can. Get them all to send you an intro outlining their service and documenting your discussion so you know they’ve taken on board all of your comments. Think about the roles they have discussed and look at tailoring several versions of your CV to cater for each different type of jobs.

Many will tout the same roles

You will have noticed by now that many recruiters will be selling the same roles. Be careful as this can be a problem and it makes it easy to get mixed up with who is referring you to whom. Make a spreadsheet and keep a record of the agent and relevant vacancies. Let them know the state of play at each turn… you will quickly be left with a small pool of recruiters who will work hard to place you.

Know who you want to work for

Take a look through the job spec’s (if you’re lucky to get them) and do your research. Sites like Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook are great at introducing their clients, methods and style whilst a good look through company’s house will tell you more about the company financials.

Use Monster …but don’t expect a quick up-take.

In the 3rd week I was still getting calls from recruiters and at this point I already had several offers in the bag. CV’s on monster can haunt you as people think your info is fresh even months after you’ve found a new role.

Apply direct

Don’t rely on recruiters. Do a search in your field and look at the Jobs pages. Ask around on twitter and Facebook and see what other opportunities come your way.

Keep your options open

You might have a background in SEO but are you suited to other lateral roles? Keep your options open. Roles like Ecommerce Manager and Social Media Consultant are all aligned with SEO and should be easy for you to move into. Also be flexible to where you want to work.

See as many people as you can

In the first instance say no to no one. Get your face out there and see what people are like, what questions they ask, how they respond to your comments etc. It will all make you a stronger candidate.

Be prepared to do a lot of leg work

I arranged my appointments so that I had multiple around the same location in the same day. This meant that I had a lot of walking to do. Arrive early. Pop into the loo and freshen up before each interview. Expect to have 2nd and 3rd interviews which can be exhausting.

…and write a lot of documentation

Many businesses will ask you to present some information or produce a report. Expect to spend at least a day putting one together and order your time accordingly. Focus on what the problem is, and how it can be solved but be careful not to document your process as you will need to…

…be prepared for businesses that are using recruitment to solve their client problems by picking your brain

Many agencies simply want to pick your brains or validate their own processes. Whilst it’s great to show off your skills… don’t give the game away.

Be harsh on businesses that don’t live up to their end of the bargain

Many companies may look and sound great but if they don’t take your recruitment seriously then they’re not worth perusing. Job hunting is a two way street. They expect you to be punctual and responsive and you have every right to expect a call when they say they will call you etc.

More to add including…

Be flexible
Its not all about money
Think about a change of scenery
Set a deadline and stick to it
Keep your recruiters up to date
Presenting Yourself

Show Your SEO & Marketing Team Some Love This Valentines Day

February 14, 2011, by 1 comment

Happy Valentines Day!

It’s that time of year again when florists up their charges 300% and the sales of chocolates goes through the roof… But why not take the time today too show your SEO team some valentines day love. Showing your SEO team that you appreciate them is always a good idea as work like link building is pretty repetitive and often unrewarding but that’s not all you can do to show your appreciation. So here’s 5 tips to show your SEO team some love this Valentines day:

1. Give them some content ideas. Chances are that you know about some amazing products and services that are not currently being promoted online. This type of information is gold dust to SEO’s who often get stuck in a rut talking about the same things time after time after time.

2. Look through your standard documentation and see if there’s anything that can be provided online for download. This goes back to the above point. Businesses often have loads of internal documentation, spreadsheets, powerpoint templates, marketing pieces and white papers, all of which add an extra tool to the SEO teams kit and can be a brilliant way of attracting new custom by giving away something for free.

3. Buy them a new marketing tool. There’s loads of brilliant online tools out there, all available for a small fee that can dramatically improve the work-flow and reduce the time it takes to source new links. Think of buying or upgrading your SEOMoz subscription, MajesticSEO, SEMRush, Ontolo, Raven or other tool-set for great results.

4. Think of some genius Valentines day link bait. Sure time is short for this year, but remember today is an annual event and anything produced specifically for valentines day 2011 can continue to deliver benefits for years to come.

5. Organise a mind-share event. Get the team around a big table and ask each member to share an issue they have. This will encourage discussion and can help disseminate information throughout the team and solve any problems that are currently causing issue.

There you go. 5 great tips to help show your SEO team that you value them.

Optimise Google Places – I got it licked!

January 26, 2011, by 1 comment

After much messing around I’ve finally got BC’s Google Places listing to the top when you search for ‘seo in leeds’ (Places doesn’t show up for just ‘seo leeds’). A few things to take away from my experience are:

  • Use the full LTD company name
  • Don’t be restricted by Google’s suggested categories
  • Fill in as much as you can including images and video
  • Get reviews
  • Use getlisted.org to source citations – they’re a pain in the ass as everyone of them will call you trying to up-sell a service
  • Keep your description short
  • Add in your logo

I also hit a load of local directories etc whilst on the train to London last week which i think have helped however none of the citations are showing up in the Places page just yet.

Fingers crossed I retain it :)

In Keyword Research Search Engines Are People

January 18, 2011, by 5 comments

Thought of the day… I’ve often heard that you shouldnt SEO websites for search engines and that with your best ‘white hat’ on you should be SEOing your projects for people… But when it comes to keyword research, the results are generated by people from the Average searches per month column… so in essence, when it comes to keyword research, YOU ARE doing your SEO for people, which just so happens to be what the search engines want too.

I acknowledge that many longer tail searches may be performed by people who have used short tail to research and, having identified their specific requirements, have returned to the search engines to source the best deal or most competative offer.

Repost: My top 10 SEO Predictions for 2011

January 5, 2011, by 1 comment

Ive been ‘encouraged’ to contribute more to the BC blog so today I added in a post outlining my top 10 SEO productions for 2011 based on what was starting to happen towards the end of 2010.

check it and let me know your thoughts (plz retweet)

Thanks

Mark

Google Now Weighting Internal Pages

November 25, 2010, by No comments yet

Nows the time to get your internal anchor text structure honed to a fine T as Google have switched their algo from showing home pages that have been hammered with anchor text, to internal pages from said domains that relate fully to the target term.

For example – The home page for Markrushworth.com ranked #2 for ‘seo leeds’, yet today this has been replaced with one of my internal pages weighted towards this term.

I think page sculpting will be back in fashion in a big way again, only in place of no/dofollow links, it will be all about consistent use of anchors across the site and implimenting the first link rule.

If you’re keen to try this out my advice is to think like wikipedia. Every page on wikipedia is targetted for a particular term (including multiples etc) theres very little overlap or deviation from this rule.

How to Get New Domains Indexed in Hours

November 19, 2010, by 17 comments

I’ve been playing around with various combination’s of tools and techniques looking for a way of getting new domains indexed in Google as quickly as possible and I think I’ve found a great and super-simple solution that you can use to give your brand new website a head start. This technique works in under 6 hours (usually) and has been tried and tested on a number of brand new domains, and uses some of the tools previously posted on this blog!

OK to the ‘tutorial’

Firstly make sure you have some unique content posted to your host and make sure the domain is propogated.

Next use the Bulk Ping tool – just enter your domain (no sub pages needed)

Next use tool 1 and 3 from this list, entering your brand name (not anchor text) in the relevant boxes. This quickly gives you 2500 (ish) branded do and nofollow links form various domain info pages which are in turn automatically pinged.

…that’s all there is to it.