Mystery Solved: Joomla 1.8 renamed to Joomla 2.5

We were a little embarrassed to find out that the mystery with the numbers between Joomla 1.7 and Joomla 2.5 was solved so easily.  Joomla 1.8 was renamed to Joomla 2.5 and voila  - a whole new Joomla. The next version is going to be 3.5 we hear. We look forward to new changes and hope they will be for the better.

In the meantime, I am doing an SEO seminar for the Ottawa Catholic School Board next week. Very excited!

If you need a website, please review website design Ottawa website. Check out our website portfolio section.

Joomla 2.5 Released

It is now Joomla 2.5.1

Our question is - what happened to all the numbers in between version 1.7.5?

We are eager to try this Joomla version, but will be very cautious about using it for large projects. Joomla 1.7 did not make us fall in love with it, and it took a while for all the plugins and components to catch up.

With all that said, we will use Joomla 2.5.1 for one of our small web design projects this month and will report back the results.

Our main search terms are: web design Ottawa and website design Ottawa.

For SEO help, please contact me via my SEO Ottawa website.

SEO for Website Design Ottawa

It is probably not warranted to create a special post for such a small topic, but I couldn't resist the urge to announce that after a few months of arduous SEO efforts, my web design company finally got on the first page on Google.ca for our two main keywords: website design Ottawa and web design Ottawa.

We managed to get on the 2nd page quite quickly, within 4-6 weeks from the start of the original SEO work, but the fight for the 1st page took a few months. Mind you, we are competing with other web design agencies who are constantly monitoring and supporting their SEO standing. And Ottawa has a dozen of web design agencies per square foot.

Now the real battle begins! We need to move up a few links on the 1st page.

Wish us luck!

Google changes: Ten recent algorithm changes

If your site got downgraded by Google in the last couple of days, the announcement below is probably the reason why.

The most important ones for SEO are these five changes in Google's algorithm:

• Snippets with more page content and less header/menu content: This change helps us choose more relevant text to use in snippets. As we improve our understanding of web page structure, we are now more likely to pick text from the actual page content, and less likely to use text that is part of a header or menu.
• Better page titles in search results by de-duplicating boilerplate anchors: We look at a number of signals when generating a page’s title. One signal is the anchor text in links pointing to the page. We found that boilerplate links with duplicated anchor text are not as relevant, so we are putting less emphasis on these. The result is more relevant titles that are specific to the page’s content.
• Fresher, more recent results: As we announced just over a week ago, we’ve made a significant improvement to how we rank fresh content. This change impacts roughly 35 percent of total searches (around 6-10% of search results to a noticeable degree) and better determines the appropriate level of freshness for a given query.
• Refining official page detection: We try hard to give our users the most relevant and authoritative results. With this change, we adjusted how we attempt to determine which pages are official. This will tend to rank official websites even higher in our ranking.
• Retiring a signal in Image search: As the web evolves, we often revisit signals that we launched in the past that no longer appear to have a significant impact. In this case, we decided to retire a signal in Image Search related to images that had references from multiple documents on the web.

The last two are rather vague, but the first three are quite clear: less consideration to Title tags, Headers, menu items and much more consideration to the actual copy/text on the page, so less emphasis on hieararchy - which will make SEO even harder..

This seemed to have affected my website design Ottawa site but has not had any impact to my SEO Ottawa site.

Referrer Data from Signed-in Searches on Google is Now Encrypted

This October Google launched a new SSL-based restriction on search data, "making search more secure". For users who are signed into their Google account (gmail, blogger, analytics, etc.), while searching on Google for certain keywords, their search terms will not be "passed" along to the websites they visit. So the website owners won't know what keywords those users typed to get to their sites. Note, this affects only signed-in users or those who chose to search from Google's encrypted platform: https://www.google.com (note the 's' after 'http').

This is not a great news for online marketers, as many SEOs were quick to point out. Although Google insists that only roughly 1% of all searches will be affected by this restriction, SEOs expect that keyword research and analytics data will be less specific and less accurate. I personally find it hard to believe that 1% of the search value was a good business case justification for Google to undertake this SSL project.

Google is gradually moving towards monopolizing information and, unfortunately, I see a lot more people "signing up" for Google accounts, buying into the teaser of their privacy being "protected". In the future, I won't be surprised to see Google Analytics "selling" some add-on features, for example, keywords from SSL-encrypted searches. What a novel idea, eh?

Ohh, but lets not to forget to mention: this SSL change will NOT affect paid ads on Google AdWords - why am I not surprised?

In hard economic conditions all companies will look for creative ways to increase revenue, i.e. force users into spending more. I think this SSL-encryption for signed users is one such measure by Google to continue to grow revenue: you get more people sign up to your accounts because their "privacy" will be protected and you also get more people buying ads from you to get better analytics data about their websites.

I am waiting for the next announcement..I am guessing, something to do with selling info based on "personalized" or searches: beware of the wolf in sheep's clothing!

Steve Jobs: The Understood Genius of Our Times

"3 Apples changed the World: 1st one seduced Eve, 2nd fell on Newton and the 3rd was offered to the world half bitten by Steve Jobs".

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

I found myself profoundly saddened by the passing of this remarkable man. May his soul find a deserving dwelling in the next cycle.

SEO Myths (Website Design Ottawa)

Many people believe that if you stop paying monthly fees to an SEO firm, your positioning on Google will drop. If you understand what is involved in an SEO project, you would understand why this is an expensive myth many SEO firms would like you to believe in.

In a nutshell, SEO involves three things:

1. Content of your website (pages and articles containing unique content devoted to the area of expertise that your desired keywords cover)
2. Frequency of repetitions of your desired keywords across various elements of your website (URL, Page title, header tags, link anchor text, copy)
3. Number of links from other websites pointing at your website (preferably, from reputable websites highly specialized in the area of your keywords). 

Here is a more detailed overview of these SEO basics

If you paid an SEO firm to create unique content for you, pepper it with your desired keywords and create back links from other websites, and all this has already been done, then how can they take it away after you stop paying your monthly fees? 

Ask yourself: 

• Can they remove your content from your own website? 
• Can they un-create all the back links that have been created over the course of several months or even years? 
• If the answer to these questions is "No", then they can't do anything to adversely affect your SEO

Once your website has achieved a certain SEO level, there is not much that an SEO firm can do to take it away - except for doing a lot of SEO work for your immediate competitors, perhaps.

In fact, the only real thing that would affect your SEO in the long run is your competition. If they undertake an aggressive SEO campaign by doing a lot of the three things I listed above, then your SEO can get lowered, i.e. your link might drop a few lines down. But an SEO firm cannot lower your positioning on Google. Only Google can.

If is therefore foolish to engage in a forever-monthly-fee contract with any SEO firm.

Yes, SEO takes work and it takes time, but there is a limit to it, and after you've reached a certain level, it does not require a lot of maintenance. 

A savvy business owner would be advised to do the following:

1. Take an SEO seminar or research SEO independently to learn what is involved in SEO. This is not rocket science. SEO is not difficult. It requires leg work and time, but it is not difficult, and anyone who knows how to type and use email can learn how to do SEO quite well - and within a few hours.
2. If you are too scared or too busy, hire an SEO firm do to the bulk of the required work for you for a limited fixed fee.
3. Maintain the achieved SEO results on your own by creating new content every so often and acquiring back links (or by something social media marketing)

On average, this SEO strategy will result in savings of several thousand dollars (anywhere between $5,000 and $7,000 or more, depending on how many keywords you would want to cover) in the course of two years. And in many thousands more - in the long run.

If you need an SEO advice or a new website with SEO implemented from the grounds up, check out this website design Ottawa firm (which is my firm).

Best Quality Links

Everyone knows that SEO entails link building. In fact, link building is the most important part of SEO. But what kind of links? Any links, from any website?

Well, the answer is any link is good to have but links from specialized reputable websites in the field of your desired keywords is what will affect your SEO in the most noticeable way.

Define "related" and "reputable" websites.

"Rebutable" has nothing to do with PR. In fact, a link from a website with PR0 can be quite valuable if this website is specialized in your area of expertise (i.e. in the area of expertise covered by your desired keyword).

"Related" is best understood in terms of specific keywords AND in terms of general specialization of a website. Again, websites specialized in your area of expertise are a much better link material than general websites.

Plus, ideally you'd want to have a link from a page that has a title containing the same keywords that your website is about and include the same keywords as an anchor text of the link that leads to your website.

If all your links come from these type of websites and these type of pages on those websites then you can only have a few links from each, with the total of 200 or so links, and you will be very high on Google, provided your content is unique and is well saturated with the same keywords.

If you have any questions, contact me via my webiste design Ottawa website or via my SEO Ottawa website. We revently launched a new website design ottawa 4u site, check it out and let us know what you think.

SEO Tart is Here!

My SEO Ottawa website is getting old, but I have an emotional attachment to it, so I don't want to redesign or change it. Instead, I created a new search engine optimization site - SEO Tart.

I wanted to free myself from the burden of the business style presentation and have a fun site with tons of useful SEO information.

I still maintain that SEO is easy and fun and anyone can learn how to do it well within a few hours. The level of SEO expertise becomes apparent with numbers: how many sites were optimized, for how many keywords, for what level of competition - things like that.

Every now and then I come across nice SEO articles and even SEO books with a lot of good SEO information, but after a couple of minutes of reading it I can tell that the author has very little hands-on SEO experience.

You can also find me via my website design Ottawa site.

Website Design Ottawa

Yesterday I got a call from a sales person asking if I need help closing on my customers. I politely refused. During the conversation he informed me that one of Ottawa's most prominent website design agencies receives 25 registrations per day. They are on the 1st page on Google for "website design Ottawa".

Here are some of the new websites our designers built:

• Website design Ottawa
• Renovations Ottawa
• Joomla web design
• Search Engine Optimization

If you have any questions, contact me via my SEO Ottawa website.

Website Design for SEO using Joomla

Website design for SEO using Joomla is a bliss - Joomla Bliss!

1. Create 3 levels of your main menu
2. Use 3 column layout
3. Add severla modules on each columns, each with links
4. Use a calendar of events with proper URIs (i.e. search engine friendly)
5. Use aliased with keywords
6. Install a site map component
7. Buy iJoomlaSEO and work your keyword magic into various elements of the site's hierarchy and copy

There are other things you can do, but these alone will take an average site quite far.

That, and you will need to build back links. Focus on relevant links with kywords embedded in the anchor text. Get as many of those links as possible. For your local search, get links from your local websites.

Contact website design Ottawa for more tips.

Website Design Ottawa

How long is too long to close on a customer?

Not sure what other web designers are experiencing in Ottawa, but we certainly noticed an unpleasant trend this summer: it takes much longer to sign a contract. People seem to think much harder before parting with their money than before. And this includes some well off people, like lawyers and dentists. I've had two occasions already when the client took almost three months to sign up, and not for large and expensive web design project; we are talking $1500 web design projects.

With SEO, I also noticed that most clients prefer it if you charge them a certain amount per month. For some reason paying for something for an indefinite period of time gives them confidence. They are afraid to understand that with SEO there is little maintenance required, you don't need to do much to maintain your ranking, once youj've achieved it. Some work might be required, yes, mostly link building (which you can do on your own if you care to spend 45 min once a month, this is all it takes for most small businesses). After the initial investment, the maintenance fees should not be as high and you should definitely not be paying for SEO indefinitely... I guess clients follow the infamous classical logical fallacy "if everyone is charging monthly fees for SEO, they can't all be liers". (wishful thinking). Oh, well, a little research can save them thousands of dollards..but hey, good for my fellow SEO agents, right?

Your Ottawa SEO here..

My new SEO website, just for fun (okay, okay, not just for fun, we are testing some ideas).

Stay Tune: iBible Next!

This is great! iPhone4 has just been released and will start selling tomorrow. iPad has been selling 10 million pieces per months. Lets not forget the darling iPod! Now iPhoneOS morphs into iOS.

Safari5 is coming out. C'mon, what happened here, gotta stay with the brand: iSafari anyone?

I'd say, register domain names: iVodka, iBeer, iBook - oops, it is already a  prodrecognized product!). You'll be rich!

And don't forget iBible, iYoga, iSoul, and heck, iGod too.

How about iSOS?

Enjoy!

Website design from Ottawa and SEO from Ottawa at your service.

CMS for SEO and Web Design

Why Not Use Proprietary Content Management Systems (CMS)
This week I had a meeting with a business owner here in Ottawa who was looking for order SEO for his website. He told me that they are using a proprietary content management system for his website that was provided to him by his web design firm. "Oh, no", I said to myself.

A web content management system (CMS) is a must for any website nowadays. Not having it is like not using email, well, almost. But proprietary CMS would be analogous to buying pipes for your house that were manufactured by your developer who followed their own specifications. So if you want to replace or fix some portion of the pipes you can't just go to Canadian Tire and buy it, you have to go back to your developer. Besides, if you ever want to add some a bathroom or powder room, you will also have to ask your developer to design them all for you FROM SCRATCH - instead of going and buying those pieces ready-made and installing them. This is exactly what you will be doing if you sign up for a proprietary CMS instead of open-source CMS.

But don't listen to me, do your own research. Simply Google "open source content management systems" advantages and disadvantages. Pluses and minuses.  Here is a list of open source web CMS. Focus on the ones based on PHP.

The three most popular open source CMSs based on PHP are Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress. I prefer Joomla because it is much more flexible and scalable than Wordpress and much easier to use then Drupal. Security and load time are virtually identical for all three of these CMSs.

Doing SEO with Joomla or other reputable open-source CMS is much faster. The main reason: there are dozens of plugins and components developed in the last 12 years that make SEO faster. Those plugins and components (i.e. extensions) will not be available to you if you are using a proprietary CMS, so your SEO will need to be done page-by-page by hand.

I had another conversation recently where a company has just built a new website - without any CMS! Using HTML, can you imagine? This was a 800% longer and more expensive project than it needed to be. The reason why they decided not to use Joomla? Someone told them it is not good. Joomla is the most popular CMS on the planet. Does this fact not deserve a little research? How can you rely on one person's opinion without checking it out for yourself? I find it hard to understand. Oh, well, this company paid a huge price tag for this decision. What's most surprising is that the company is in the high-tech field, you'd expect them to be more savvy than an average non-technological business, right? Not so. It is not the first time I encounter this. My coffee business and landscaping clients end up being more clever in web site decisions than many of my high tech clients. Even software development companies - go figure!

I even wrote an article explaining why open-source software is often better than commercial software. Take 10 min to read it and you will understand that using a proprietary CMS would be a very costly mistake.

If you have questions or need help, do not hesitate to contact me via my SEO Ottawa website or Joomla web design website.

Link Building for Top SEO

It has been noted that the anchor text embedded in the hyperlinks adds a lot of SEO value - and it still holds true. It seems now more than ever.

We recently launched Joomla Bliss, our website design Ottawa shop, and we are now doing directory registrations for it. There aren't too many Canadian directories!  And there aren't too many for web design and Internet Marketing.

In my view directory links have a higher impact on your SEO than links from blogs and forums. With directory registrations the focus should be on relevant directories. One link from a relevant directory is worth five general ones. What is important is directory listings need to be indexable, i.e. easily accessible to search engines. And above all, links from websites with high Page Rank (PR) is what matters the most nowadays. Any website with a PR of 5 and above is a great catch. It is not easy to find such igh PR sites which would not have a "nofollow" tag set up for their outgoing links.

So your best choice for top SEO: relevant directories with PR of 5+ and without 'nofollow' tags. And if you can find a category for your geographical target - bonus!

Oh, and should you worry about paying for your links? Google says yes, yes, and yes again. Google talk so mcuh about the danger of paid links that it should make anyone suspicious (why do you need to talk? just get paid links penalties implemented and it won't take a long time for the SEO and web design communit to notice, in fact, those folks are so savvy, it won't take more than a week - and you won't need to talk about those terrible awful paid links.

In my view, paid links work fine, especially directory links. And how would search engines know you paid for your link anyway? Besides, directories need to be maintained, so charging webmasters a fee for the listing is legitimate business if you run a huge directory website.

Then Google is pushing this "nofollow" business. Again, why would you need that if your spiders can distinguish between paid and non-paid links, eh? I suspect, along with some other SEOs, that those nofollow links still count.

I posted a few comments on two websites related to web design with PR8 and PR9, and within a couple of days, my site jumped 30 links up! Google denies that nofollow links matter, of course, but I am not the only one who noticed that they do.

Try it for yourself and you'll see. Just make sure not to do anything else in the meantime, i.e. do not optimize your site, do not register in directories or build any other links. Give yourself a few days, then post a comment on a related website with PR8 or PR9 with a link back to your website (include your keywords in the anchor text). Then wait another few days - and check the results. And then come back and let me know, the more we know about it the better it is for all of us. There is no other way to find out but trying it with different sites, Google is not going to reveal its secrets anytime soon.

And if you need help with link building, contact me via my SEO Ottawa website.

Directory Links for SEO

We just completed a link building package for a client. I was pleasantly surprised to see that directory links now seem to give a faster boost to a website positioning on search engines, especially Google, than other types of links. Registering in Yahoo! directory alone - for $299 per year mind you! - boosts your site's positioning significantly. So much for Google's grudges against paid links. Some paid links are less paid than others, eh?

To get the most value from your directory back links, register your site in related directories with high page rank (PR), which is anything over 4.

If you need help with link building, contact us via our website design Ottawa office or SEO Ottawa office.

Joomla SEO

Over the last two years, at our Ottawa SEO consultancy we began offering website design services. This year, we decided to branch it out into a separate business - Joomla Bliss.

Why Joomla?
There are number of reasons. Some of the most important ones are these:

1) Joomla has the largest support and development community among all other content management systems. There are thousands of free and commercial extensions and add-ons that are available for Joomla. This is not the case with other content management systems. Not yet.

2) Website templates that are designed specifically for Joomla are much better looking than those designed for Wordpress and Drupal, and the sheer number of Joomla websites is impressive.

3) Joomla has an excellent in-built SEO framework. It fas fantastic SEF components, article editing and formatting components, META tags modules and plugins, etc etc.

4) Joomla is very easy to use. And if you have a question, you can find an answer to it within second by Googling it. The amount of information and help tips for Joomla is incredible!

So we are very close to finishing the website, which we already hosted live to start accumulating age and back links. We believe that our background in SEO would allow us to offer a turn-key website marketing solution to clients of all budget size.

Check out our nw site and send us your feedback, but keep in mind, it is not finished yet. We need a few more days..

SEO: Indexed pages

Pages indexed by Google is one of the most important factors in SEO. What's interesting is that Google does "see" all pages on a site but it does not include all of them in its index. Yahoo, on the other hand, seems to index all pages that it sees.

To find what Google has indexed on your site, go to Google and then type in the search bar the following: site:www.yoursite.com . Note, there is no space after "site:"

But note that this will not work with the "link" operator. In fact, the best way to see what Google has on you is to go to their Webmaster Central, signup and add your site. Once you get the ownership of your site confirmed, you can run a lot of vital statistics on your site using Google's tools. And you will get a lot of valuable information.

To find what pages Yahoo has indexed, go to Yahoo site explorer and enter the URL of your site in the very top search bar. The difference between Google and Yahoo is usually quite stunning.

Unfortunately, there is only partial control over how to make Google index more of your pages.

One of the most common SEO tips for page indexing is to create a Site Map, put it a link to it on your home page, and ensure that the Site Map contains links to all other pages of your website. The second SEO tip is to have no more than 3 levels in your site's navigational hierarchy.
And the third SEO tip is to interlink your site's internal pages as detailly as possible. Together, these three SEO tips will ensure that more of your site's pages get indexed by Google.

In my experience, I noticed that websites that are using a content management system (CMS) of some sort - such as Joomla or Drupal or Wordpress - get much "deeper" indexing by Google. In addition, using a CMS like Joomla, for example, allows you to install a Site map component which automatically creates a Site Map page and lists links to all your other pages on it. All new pages are added automatically and all archived pages are removed automatically as well - which is very convenient. Both Joomla and many of its components are free and very easy to use.

So, if you want to have more of your pages indexed by Google without too much work, I suggest you use Joomla and install a Site Map component (Xmap is the one I like).

And if you need help, do not hesitate to contact me vi my Ottawa SEO site.

SEO: The Most Important Thing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a set of techniques that one needs to apply to one's website to make it search engine friendly. There is also a set of techniques one needs to do to increase the site's popularity (i.e. back links). All this is done in relation to a particular set of keywords. In other words, you can't SEO-optimize a site in general. You would always SEO-optimize it for specific keywords, for example: "SEO Ottawa", "Ottawa SEO", "Search Engine Optimization Ottawa", and similar related keyword phrases.

It is commonly said that SEO cannot be done well by doing just one thing. For example, you can optimize your META data and copy all you want, but if you have few back links pointing at your site, your SEO will always be poor.

And yet, if you were to do just one thing for best SEO, what would it be? I'd say, clearly, build back links. Quality back links, that is.

How many back links do you need to have a noticeable effect on your SEO?

There is no scientifically proven answer to this question, but in my experience, a site with 3900 back links usually gets PR7 (page rank) on Google, which grants it to be displayed in SERPs (search engine results pages) as one of the very first links for very competitive keywords. But in that, there is always a good number of high quality links, i.e. the ones coming from .edu or .gov domains or large media outlets or other "important" destinations. So the number of back links matters significatnly less than quality of those links, but it does matter. Here is more information on this topic: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-link-command-busting-the-myths

Note that PR7 is a very - very - high rank. For comparison, Yahoo has PR of 8. So, for an average business, PR5 usually guarantees a very good SEO positioning on Google. Anything over that is simply fantastic, if you can get it. In my experience, back links are the most influential factor in Google's ranking decisions.

I did notice, however, that in certain instances sites that have PR0 (zero) still get displayed very high on SERPs, and, in fact, Googlers themselves were open about the fact that the page rank (PR) does not always play the main role (whatever that means!). Since noone really knows exactly how Google makes ranking decisions (it is, indeed, a very well kept secret), we can only form opinions based on our observations. And in this case, my observations are in agreement with the mainstream SEO community: link building is the most important thing for your SEO. And quality links, i.e. the ones coming from reputable outlets, are best.

So get started at it!

And if you need advice on how to build quality back links quickly and cost-effectively, do not hesitate to contact me via my main SEO Ottawa site.

Quick SEO Audit: How to Check Your Main SEO Metrics

To do a quick SEO audit on a site, you need to check the following metrics:

- PageRank (PR) given by Google
- number of pages indexed by major search engines (this metric is called "search engine saturation"): Google, Yahoo, and MSN
- number of back links indexed by major search engines (this metric is called "link popularity").

How to check SEO metrics on Google and Yahoo:

To check indexed pages and links on Google and Yahoo, you can use these sites:

- website.grader.com
- marketleap.com

You can also check directly with Google and Yahoo. Enter the following information into the search bar on these search engines (no spaces):

site:www.yourdomainname.com
link:www.yourdomainname.com

Note that Google never shows the right number of links it had indexed for your site (always considerably fewer). Yahoo, on the other hand, shows all back links it finds.

How to check backlinks on MSN - April 2009

For MSN, the word is that they no longer show backlinks data. But I tried one thing for my client, and I think it worked. I entered this information into the MSN search bar: who links to www.myclientsite.com. I checked the results on every page manually, and they seem to be all valid, i.e. MSN showed me approximatley the same number of links pointing to my client's site from other websites as did Google. One small glitch was that it included two internal links in the results, but this is common for all backlinks checker tools; they are never precise.

If you need help with SEO or SEO training, contact me at http://www.annatulchinsky.com

Free Design Tools: Excellent Open-source Code, Image, Photo Editing Tools

Aptana
Wonderful code editor. Includes remote editing via ftp. Aptana Studio is a complete web development environment that combines powerful authoring tools with a collection of online hosting and collaboration services that help you and your team do more.

Gimp
Excellent photo editor and general bitmap tool. GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages. (more...)

Inkscape
An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

If you need help with SEO, AdWords PPC campaigns, or related issues, contact me via my official website at http://www.annatulchinsky.com

Free Keyword Research

You've probably heard about Wordtracker by now. It is one of the industry's oldest keyword research and analysis tools. I've used them for years and have always been satisfied with the findings. They used to charge $8 per day, which was a perfect option for small business owners who only have one website to look after, and one day was more than sufficient for a simple keyword research. A couple of years ago, however, Wordtracker changed their pricing policy and the $8 option got discontinued. It now costs around $50 for one month to use their tool, which, in times when people cancel their gym memberhsip and discontinue newspaper subscriptions, is a substantial amount. But don't despair, there is a FREE alternative - available for now!

Use Wordtracker's free tool which they call a "keyword suggestion tool" http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/.

I compared the results between their paid and free keyword tools and decided that in a lot of cases I can get by without using the paid tool (even though I have a subsription to use it). Here is a few tips on how to do a basic keyword research sufficient for most small businesses:

1. Type in the most generic word in the Wordtracker free keyword suggestion tool. For example, if you are searching for "searching engine optimization techniques" or "seo techniques", key in "search engine optmization" or "seo". You will receive a list of words related to this query with a correspomding number of searches. The number as such does not mean much, but you can use it in relative terms. Type "health" or "weather" (or some other keyword that is bound to be highly popular) and note the number attached to the first 2-3 keywords returned by the tool. Then type a couple of keywords related to your topic again and note the difference in numbers. This will tell you how popular your topic is on the Internet and how much interest you can potentially expect. This will be your benchmark, so to speak.
2. Then key in a few generic keywords in relation to your subbject matter and scroll through the results, paying attention to singular versus plural, adjective before or after, and similar occurences. Note the smallest number in each case.
3. Then go on Google and key in the same keywords, recording the number of returned search results pages (SERP) in each case. This will tell you how bad your competition is for each keyword.
4. Go back to Wordtracker's free keyword tool, perform 5-7 very generic keyword searches, covering as many important aspects of your business as you can. For each generic query, from the list of keywords that Wordtracker would generate, record those that would relate to your topic as closely as possible and record the corresponding number.
5. Then go back to Google and key in the same keywords, recording the number of SERP pages. Copy all this info, including all keywords returned by Wordtracker, in an Excel file.
6. Look at the Wordtracker numbers (they represent the degree of popularity of your topic among users) and look at the Google numbers (they represent the amount of competition you have). To create a comparison benchmark, type some generic keywords that are bound to be highly popular with users, then type those you expect to be somewhat popular, and then those not popular at all. Note the numbers in all cases, note them on both Google and Wordtracker. This will give you a good approximation of how to interpret all other numbers (note that are over 23,000,000,000 web pages indexed by Google in total, that is 23 billion!).
7. Depending on how competitive your area of business is (travel, for example, is much more competitive, than nursing), scroll through the list of keywords returned by Wordtracker and note the corresponding level of competition (Google's SERPs). If your area is highly competitive, select the keywords that are not as popular with users, i.e. not among the first ones on the Wordtracker list, but which would have as fewer competitive SERP pages returned by Googe. You should get 5-15 keyword phrases in total. This will be your sweet spot for both SEO and SEM!
8. Start Google AdWords campaign and pay for those of your keywords that are most competitive, while trying to optimize your site organically for those keywords that are least competitive. Or, if you have no SEO budget or time, focus on AdWords exclusively.
9. Run your 'sweet spot" keywords on AdWords for a 2-4 weeks.
10. Once you had a chance to test and tweak and optimize your AdWords PPC campaign to correct and exclude your own mistakes, pause those keywords that have been consistently performing poorly (i.e. got no impressions and no clicks) and onvest all your budget in the best performing keywords. Make sure to track all results via Google Analytics (set goals and funnels).

If you need help with SEO, AdWords PPC campaigns, or related issues, contact me via my official website at http://www.annatulchinsky.com

Additional Keyword Research Tools:

Keyword Discovery (free trial with limited capabilities)
WordTracker (free trial with limited capabilities)
Keyword Spy (free trial with limited capabilities)
Spyfu (free trial available)
Yahoo Site Explorer (free)
Yahoo Keyword Suggest Tool (free)
Google Keyword Tool (free)
Google Suggest (free)
Google Sponsored Links (free)
Google Trends (free)
Alexa (free)
Website Grader (free)
Yahoo Site Explorer (free)
Search.Yahoo.Com (free, similar to Google Suggest)
Google Site Analyzer (free)
Who Links 2 Me (free)
ExactFactor (free)
SEO Tools (free)

SEO on a Shoe String

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may be a time consuming project, but it does not need to be expensive. It all depends on how eager you are and whether or not you are prepared to do some homework. In times of economic crisis, I think, we'll find more and more people willing to do their own homework so cut costs and save money.

Before we talk about how to conduct a successful SEO project on a shoe string, let's take a look at what a typical cost of an SEO project ran up to now:

Small SEO Project for a Non-specialized Consumer-oriented Website

- keyword analysis - somewhere between $250 and $1000

- 10 pages of new content @ 350 words + 5 outbound links per page = $500 (general consumer topics only!),

- 100 inbound links @ 12 per link = $1200

- 50 additional outbound links @7 per link = $350

- site's folder structure optimization = $250

- 20 existing pages optimization @25 per page = $525

- PPC AdWords campaign (setup and management) = $300 for 6 months

- custom landing pages = $150 per page (one page per campaign)

- blog postings (social media marketing) @ $10 per blog = $200

- PR distribution @ $300 per release distribution plus $200 for release writing (2-3 paragraphs)

TOTAL: roughly $4000

It is also important to consider that it will take 2-3 months for the SEO project to be completed and bring results. It is also important to consider that a typical SEO project would position your site for only a few keyword phrases (1-3 on average) for this price. Furthermore, some of the costs are recurrent, such as PPC campaign management. All this can add up to a handsome sum!

So what can you do to cut costs without sacrificing quality. Here is a plan:

- purchase $80 monthly subscription to WordTracker and check to see whether your keywords are really popular with users. If not, select other keywords. This is the most important step in your entire SEO campaign. Expect to spend 2-3 hours

- set up your own PPC AdWords campaign, just follow Google's instructions. Use Google keyword tool to add more keywords to your list. use Google Suggest tool to see how popular these keywords are (in addition to WordTracker). Use Google Sponsored Links tool to see who else is "buying" these keywords. Expect to spend 2-3 hours on campaing setup and 2-3 hours on additional keyword research.

- Note: the effectiveness of your SEO campaign is indirect correlation to the amount of time and care you devote to your keyword analysis.

- Subscribe to Google Analytics (free) and link your AdWords account to it (follow step-by-step instructions provided by Google)

- Watch your statistics for a couple of weeks and note which keywords generate the most clicks and impressions. If you get enough impressions, but no clicks, then you need to edit your ad, tweak to make it more enticing.

- Find a good foreign-based partner to build one-way back links. Back links are the most important thing for your SEO project. Make sure to partner with a reputable SEO firm. Expect to spend roughly $10 per link. The more links the better.

- Write your own press release. Do not make it too formal. ePR is different from traditional PR in that the style can be simple and conversational. Get it reviewed by your family members and friends. Use free PR distribution services: http://www.annatulchinsky.com/Resources_SEO_Blogs_Social_Media.htm . Use several of them at once. Make sure to include a link back to your site! Create and distribute your press releases every two months, as most sites do not store documents for more than 3-6 months, so you'll use your back links if you don't distribute press releases regularly. Store all your press releases on your own website as well, under a separate section.

- Based on the best performing keywords you've discovered through Google Analytics and Google AdWords, create 5-7 pages of content, 500 words per page, and make sure to repeat those keywords IDENTICALLY as often throughout the page as you can without sacrificing quality of your text.

- Do not worry about META tags, ALT tags, etc.

- If you do want to do some "optimization", the main thing for your home-made SEO project is to re-name all your web pages by including your most important keywords. So, for example, instead of 'Products.html', rename your file to be: 'Products_my_best_keywords.html'

- If you want to be very responsible, change your page Title tag and H1s to include your best keywords as well.

- Include these keywords inside the links you provide as additional resources. For example, instead of saying: for more information, click here. Say: "for more information about products with my keywords, please visit our products keywords page".

- It is very good to use links in the body of all your pages. Just don't forget to use your best keywords

- Focus on press releases and back links. Use your keywords there as well!

- Ask as many people as you can to bookmark your site on Del.icio.us. This alone will boost your ranking! Just don't expect everyone to comply. It might take 2-3 weeks before you get 20 people to bookmark your site. The more bookmarks you have, the better.

- So, in a nutshell: here is the work you'd need to do for your SEO project:


1) run a PPC campaign on Google AdWords, having done a good keyword research
2) create a Google Analytics account and link it with your AdWords account
3) create 10 pages of text for your website containing your most desired keywords, based on what you've observed on Google AdWords. Place outbound links inside those pages leading to reputable sites in your industry. All your links should contain your best keywords as well.
4) write a short press release (350-500 words) and submit it to free press release distribution sources. Submit to a few of them, not just one.
5) get friends to bookmark your website
6) build one-way back links, continuously. Check results: www.marketleap.com

TOTAL: $80 without back links. For back links, even a 100 links would generate great results. So if we assume $12 per link, your total would run to $1280. That's 70% savings compared to $4000. And if you skip link building, but capitalize on PR distribution, your costs will remain under $100.

If you work hard, the whole project can be completed in 2 weeks, as opposed to 2 months. Why? Because you don't have to rely and wait for other people, you don't need to depend on their schedule.

Note that your SEO results might take another couple of weeks to show. And your SEO efforts need to be continuous. However, the bulk of your SEO efforts, 80% of it, will be done in the first 2 weeks. The rest is maintenance: more PR distribution and more back links! Note that by storing your PR releases on your website, you automatically add more content to your site.

Good luck, and if you need help, contact me via http://www.annatulchinsky.com. Your first 30 minutes are free.

SEO Tips for White Papers and Case Studies

If you are responsible for lead generation campaigns at a B2B company, white papers and case studies would always be your best SEO tools.

Assuming that you have already done your keyword analysis, here are some of the things you need to do in order to achieve good SEO results with your white papers and case studies:

1. Try to get your site to contain as many static pages as possible (indexable URLs)
2. Arrange all files in as many directories as you can, do not place them all in the root.
3. Name your directories and your files using your most desired keywords (separate words with underscores)
4. Include your keywords in all Page Titles
5. Include your company name in all Page Titles
6. Do not worry about META tags if you don't know how to add them, your Page Title is your most important tag
7. Include your keywords in H1s, H2, and H3s. Make sure you use these tags!
8. Create a style format where each title of a PDF document is accompanied by a short abstract, as opposed to being a simple link, and use keywords
9. Add both an 'abstract' and a 'summary' component to your white paper template, this will allow you to use your keywords multiple times without annoying your readers
10. Add a 'table of contents' component to your white paper template, this is a great way to repeat your keywords again
11. Add a 'company name' component in the footer of your white paper template and provide your website URL
12. Interlink your site's internal pages as often as you can (e.g. use margins and place "Related Info" boxes with links to other pages on your site)
13. Your links should have your keyword embedded within, do not use “click here”
14. Try to ensure that each page (i.e. each URL) has approximately 500 words on it with your most important keywords repeated 10-12 times per page
15. Make sure all your press releases contain your most important keywords and are published in full on your website
16. Give out your white papers to your partners and customers and try to get them to post it on their websites
17. Add an RSS component to your website and place each white paper there
18. Register your RSS feed in as many RSS directories as possible
19. Convince your management to allow you to distribute your RSS content via PRweb.com or PR.com. Do this in addition to using your company's official PR firm.
20. Use PayPerPost and similar services to earn back links on the cheap (bloggers will publish comments about your company and a link to your website on their blogs; make sure to request permanent links)


Good luck and call me if you need help with your SEO and Internet Marketing projects, remember your first 30 minutes is free of charge: http://www.annatulchinsky.com

http://sites.google.com/site/trainingsitenow/seootttawaannatulchinsky

A Google Prototype for a Precision Image Search

SAN FRANCISCO — Google researchers say they have a software technology intended to do for digital images on the Web what the company’s original PageRank software did for searches of Web pages.

On Thursday at the International World Wide Web Conference in Beijing, two Google scientists presented a paper describing what the researchers call VisualRank, an algorithm for blending image-recognition software methods with techniques for weighting and ranking images that look most similar.

Although image search has become popular on commercial search engines, results are usually generated today by using cues from the text that is associated with each image.

Despite decades of effort, image analysis remains a largely unsolved problem in computer science, the researchers said. For example, while progress has been made in automatic face detection in images, finding other objects such as mountains or tea pots, which are instantly recognizable to humans, has lagged.

“We wanted to incorporate all of the stuff that is happening in computer vision and put it in a Web framework,” said Shumeet Baluja, a senior staff researcher at Google, who made the presentation with Yushi Jing, another Google researcher. The company’s expertise in creating vast graphs that weigh “nodes,” or Web pages, based on their “authority” can be applied to images that are the most representative of a particular query, he said.

The research paper, “PageRank for Product Image Search,” is focused on a subset of the images that the giant search engine has cataloged because of the tremendous computing costs required to analyze and compare digital images. To do this for all of the images indexed by the search engine would be impractical, the researchers said. Google does not disclose how many images it has cataloged, but it asserts that its Google Image Search is the “most comprehensive image search on the Web.”

The company said that in its research it had concentrated on the 2000 most popular product queries on Google’s product search, words such as iPod, Xbox and Zune. It then sorted the top 10 images both from its ranking system and the standard Google Image Search results. With a team of 150 Google employees, it created a scoring system for image “relevance.” The researchers said the retrieval returned 83 percent less irrelevant images.

Google is not the first into the visual product search category. Riya, a Silicon Valley start-up, introduced Like.com in 2006. The service, which refers users to shopping sites, makes it possible for a Web shopper to select a particular visual attribute, such as a certain style of brown shoes or a style of buckle, and then be presented with similar products available from competing Web merchants.

Rather than relying on a text query, the service focuses on the ability to match shapes or objects that might be hard to describe in writing, said Munjal Shah, the chief executive of Riya.

“I think what they’re trying to accomplish is largely impossible,” he said. “Our belief is, there is not large-scale solutions.”

Mr. Shah said there had been a number of technology demonstrations by Google Labs researchers, such as a project in 2005 that used machine learning techniques to recognize the gender of a person in an image. However, the company has been slow to deploy its research, he said.

If you need Internet Marketing or SEO advice, contact me at http://www.annatulchinsky.com