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
Apr 22, 2009
Quick SEO Audit: How to Check Your Main SEO Metrics
Apr 17, 2009
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
Apr 4, 2009
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!).
- 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!
- 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.
- Run your 'sweet spot" keywords on AdWords for a 2-4 weeks.
- 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)
Oct 31, 2008
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.
Sep 19, 2008
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
Apr 28, 2008
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
Apr 9, 2008
Yahoo Goes to Bed with Google
Another shot has been fired in the bitter battle between Microsoft and Yahoo.
The Internet company plans to announce Wednesday afternoon that it will begin a test advertising partnership with Google, people briefed on the plan told DealBook. In the experiment, expected to last for two weeks and applying only to users in the United States, Yahoo will display Google-provided ads alongside its own search results, these people said.
The move is the latest salvo in the two-month battle for control of Yahoo, as the ailing Internet pioneer seeks to thwart Microsoft’s bid – or at least force the software giant to raise its $42 billion price.
Depending on the results of the experiment, Yahoo hopes that it may be able to use it as proof that it can generate additional revenue that would justify a higher bid.
In recent months, Yahoo has discussed possible partnerships or combinations with Google, Time Warner’s AOL and the News Corporation in attempts to fend off Microsoft. Some of those conversations are continuing, people familiar with the matter previously told The New York Times.
Google has long generated far more revenue for every search than competitors like Yahoo and Microsoft. Last year, Yahoo unveiled a new search advertising system, called Panama, which was intended to close the gap with Google. While the system has helped bolster Yahoo’s search revenues, it is not as effective as Google’s.
Some investors have urged Yahoo to outsource its search and search advertising system to Google for years, as it could help Yahoo increase revenues and cut costs. Yahoo executives, however, have resisted the move, saying that search was an essential piece of the company’s business.
After Microsoft made its offer, Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, called his Yahoo counterpart, Jerry Yang, to offer his help in fending off the Microsoft bid. A search or search advertising partnership has been an important part of their discussion, according to people familiar with the situation. Mr. Yang and Yahoo president Susan Decker visited Google in the past two weeks, said a person briefed on their visit.
While the test is intended to show how much Yahoo could earn from such a partnership, legal experts have warned that a broader search or search advertising pact with Google could pose antitrust issues, as it would expand Google’s already dominant position in those businesses.
Does this mean that Google may actually buy Yahoo in the future?
Mar 31, 2008
Google's Selling SEM and SEO via Performics Angers SEO Community
Companies that provide services for improving Web sites' search-engine rankings and running effective search-engine ad campaigns have a new competitor: Google.
Bundled in the DoubleClick acquisition came Performics, which provides search-engine marketing (SEM) and search-engine optimization (SEO) services.
This has created concern for SEM and SEO service providers, which now face Google, a key partner, also as a rival.
"It puts us in the awkward position of competing with Google's own [SEM/SEO] agency for client accounts," said Lance Loveday, CEO of Closed Loop Marketing, an SEO and SEM firm.
Over the past seven years, as Google's popularity with advertisers and end-users has boomed, so has the SEM and SEO business. Marketers began spending significant amounts to advertise on search engines, primarily Google, and they realized that they needed help from SEM firms to design, fine-tune, and track the effectiveness of those campaigns. At the same time, those marketers recognized that they also had to make sure that their companies' Web sites ranked well on search engines when users entered keywords relevant to their businesses, which is what SEO service providers specialize in.
Before the DoubleClick acquisition, SEM and SEO firms saw themselves as providers of complementary services to Google, but now that Performics is part of Google, things have changed.
For starters, there is a concern that Performics will get special access to inside information about Google's search-engine algorithms, allowing Performics to provide SEO services that are more effective that its competitors'.
Then there is the worry that Google will push its in-house Performics SEM services at highly discounted prices, or maybe even free, in direct competition with SEM service providers.
Due to these and other clash points, SEM and SEO providers say their relationship with Google will inevitably get strained. This will likely be bad for Google, considering that SEM providers have a lot of influence over how their clients allocate their search advertising budget.
But there are other reasons why holding on to Performics could be bad for Google, and they have to do with perceived potential conflicts of interest that could spook Google advertising clients.
For example, Performics is supposed to help its clients get the highest ROI from their paid search campaigns by recommending they spend what's necessary -- and not more -- in order to get their desired results. But Google's business is to sell as much advertising as possible, said Scott Buresh, CEO and owner of SEO/SEM firm Medium Blue.
Closed Loop's Loveday also foresees Performics clients worrying whether Performics will now have an incentive to increase their spending on Google advertising for the benefit of its parent company. "Now, the reality is that Google has the dominant [search advertising] platform and in most cases Google probably should get most of a client's search campaign budget, but there's definitely an appearance of a conflict of interest," Loveday said.
FULL ARTICLE
Dec 16, 2007
Goolge to Tackle Wikipedia with New Knowledge Service
Google is to go head-to-head with Wikipedia, the web’s largest reference work, in a clash of two of the internet’s most powerful brands.
A new Google service, dubbed knol, will invite “people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it”, Udi Manber, a Google engineer, said.
Like Wikipedia, articles in knol (the name derives from “knowledge”) will be free to read online. In a departure from the nonprofit Wikipedia model, however, knol’s authors will be able to attach advertising to their work and take a share of revenues.
Another opportunity for Web Marketing and SEO folks!
Oct 5, 2007
SEO Guidelines for the Production of White Papers and Case Studies
If you are responsible for marketing lead generation campaigns at a B2B company, white papers and case studies would always be in the center of your attention.
White papers and case studies is something your site's visitors (aka potential customers) will always read if they are serious about buying your type of product or services. Every purchasing decision is accompanied by research of prospective suppliers and basic price/feature comparison. It does not mean that lower prices always win, companies buy "value", but they do shop around before they pick up the phone or click on the "contact sales" link.
Most companies ask users to provide basic registration information before allowing them to download white papers. Case studies are usually available onclick, without registration, but users take case studies less seriously than white papers. Case studies are often written like infomercials and are therefore perceived as being purely of sales value, whereas white papers are more product oriented and perceived as more neutral.
As a rule, white papers and case studies are produced collaboratively by Engineering or R&D departments and Marketing & Sales. Engineering describes the product whereas Marketing explains why customers love it. Every document undergoes a few revisions and the final version usually gets approved by the company CEO (for companies under 100 people).
Marketing managers participate in the white paper production process by making stylistic edits, providing additional illustrations and examples, obtaining customer and partner quotes, and above all by coordinating activities between all parties involved, including external graphic design firms. Once the final version has been approved, marketing managers seldom have freedom to make even minor changes to the document.
So what does a marketing manager need to do in order to maximize the effectiveness of white papers and case studies for the purposes of high SEO ranking and lead generation?
The good news is that if your company has a narrow specialization, SEO optimization of your marketing collateral should not be difficult or very time consuming. First of all, you need to ensure that all your site's content is SEO optimized. Below is a how-to list. Then, you need to create quite a bit of content, i.e. create many web pages, including your PDFs. Then, you need to earn as many back links pointing at your site form external sites as possible. Then, you need to interlink your internal site's pages as often as possible. And you also need to include outgoing links to relevant large websites in your industry. While doing all this, you need to be sure to repeat your selected keywords in the exact same way everywhere.
Start by typing your company's most important keywords on Google and check to see how many search results your query has generated. Avoid using generic one-word or two-word combinations. Adjust your keywords to reflect your company profile as closely as possible.
If your keywords generated under 1 million (M) results, your company's website has a very good chance of getting on the first page quickly. A few million results - you are looking at a few months of work and need to prepare a project plan. Over 10 million results, you need to dive into a serious SEO project, so if your management is not ready to commission it, focus on paid PPC and keyword ad campaigns.
Let's assume your keywords are "worth" less than 1M, i.e. the number of search results returned by search engines in response to your query is under one million. Here is what you need to do ensure that your company's site appears on the first pages on major search engines and is found by your prospective customers:
Summary by priorities:
1) Keywords inside file names (i.e. static URLs), inside links, headers and copy (text), keywords must be repeated everywhere identically
2) Number of back links to your site (get as many as you can)
3) Number of pages and number of words per page, with keywords repeated 10-12 times per page
What Not To Do:
1) Do not start working on this project without getting approval from your boss(es)
2) Do not promise specific results to your management at the start of the project, wait until you actually get them (remember, you don't have a budget, so this project is not on your department's road map)
3) Do not try to do everything at once, split your tasks by priorities
4) Do not overdo keyword stuffing, never sacrifice quality of your content for the sake of SEO
5) Do not outsource link building to questionable SEO firms, or else you may find your site listed in adult directories
Good luck and call me if you need help, remember your first 30 minutes is free of charge: http://www.annatulchinsky.com/SEO_Ottawa_Registration.htm
Sep 27, 2007
Free Google Presentation Software Now Available
Finally, free presentation software from Google as part of the Google Docs suite.
The Google Docs service is free but you will have to create a user name and password. Once logged in, click on 'New' and then click on 'Presentation'.
The software is compatible with all popular browsers and can be shared by multiple users, eliminating version control headache. You can upload images, change backgrounds and do other fancy things. Zip it up and save it off line, if you wish. Sweet and simple, but why did it take so long?
Sep 25, 2007
SEO Consulting Rates
In the last couple of weeks I received 12 customer leads via my main website at http://www.annatulchinsky.com . Most of those leads were from small business owners who were trying to find an affordable SEO consultant or service provider.
I know that my rates do not exceed industry average, in some cases they are lower than average SEO consulting rates. I am able to offer lower SEO consulting rates because I have low overhead and don't need to pay account managers. When I have concurrent projects, my SEO consulting rates usually go up, as I need to compensate my freelance account managers and SEO copywriters.
Most small business owners complain that SEO consulting rates are high and SEO services are expensive. I routinely nod, waiting for them to vent out their frustration.
Everything is expensive these days, but everyone's gotta eat. Search engine optimization is business like any other. SEO consultants help you make money via your website, and they do it fast. Just like any other prices, SEO consulting rates are based on the current demands of the market, and the market went up 64% last year: http://www.annatulchinsky.com/Newsletter_Ottawa_SEO_SEM_News.htm .
To stay competitive I periodically do research to see what the current SEO consulting rates are. Here are my recent findings:
1) SEO consulting rates range from $60 to $250 per hour, but most companies charge $100-$125 (up from $75 last year)
2) SEO copywriting services range from $35 to $55 per hour, minimum order charges almost always apply
3) SEO copywriting services per page range from $30 to $200 per page (a page contains roughly 400 words), with most companies charging around $50-$75 per page, minimum order requirements almost always apply
4) SEO training services typically range between $300 - $1000 per hour, some seminars cost $2500 for a couple of hours
5) The lowest SEO consulting rate I saw was $28 per hour, but I did not call to find out the minimum order requirement.
In other words, even you price your project at the lowest SEO rates of $28 per hour, given the minimum order requirements, you will still be looking at $3000 per 100 hours or 2.5 weeks of service, roughly.
In my view, SEO consulting rates are not expensive at all, considering the benefits. An SEO project, once implemented successfully, requires little maintenance over time, so if you are willing to learn how to do your own PPC campaign management, your SEO costs can be finite whereas the benefits long lasting.
If you need a quote on your SEO project, please contact me via my main website: http://www.annatulchinsky.com/SEO_Ottawa_Registration.htm
Sep 20, 2007
Be Found: Adding RSS Feeds to Your Blog
If you have a specialized website or a blog where you publish new content regularly, don't forget to add a feed to it. News feeds come in different standards, with RSS being the most popular one.
Adding a feed to your blog is very easy, especially if you are hosting your blog on large platforms like Blogger or Word Press. In this case, you simply need to check the right box in your management settings.
If, however, you are hosting your blog independently, adding a feed will require a bit of code copying and pasting.
Tools for creating syndication feeds:
http://www.devx.com/xml/Article/10790http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/rss_feeds.htm
http://www.webhero.org/Homepages/newsfeeds.htm
http://www.rss-specifications.com/display-rss.htm
RSS directories (submit your RSS feed):
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm
Tools for creating blogs:
Blogger (by Google)
Fantastic service, loaded with features, ability to streamline AdSense ads and many other perks. Anbsolutely free.Wordpress
Create a nice-looking blog with fancy features in less than 2 minutes, absolutely no technical skills required, everything is free, including hosting. Charges apply for advanced features and additional users.BlogRolling
Add links to your blog as you surf, on the fly, without opening up your HTML template.Drupal
An advanced portal with collaborative book, search engines friendly URLs, online help, roles, full content search, site watching, threaded comments, version control, blogging, news aggregator.BlogPatrol
Track your blog stats free of charge.Sep 19, 2007
SEO Tips for B2B Businesses without SEO Budget
One of the best ways to SEO optimize a B2B website is to focus on the company's marketing collateral.
As rule, B2B companies do not have a flexible infrastructure that would allow for a full-scale SEO optimization project on the fly, because this type of projects requires close collaboration between multiple teams, demanding a fair amount of project management effort. Given that websites are rarely a priority for B2B companies (with the exception of SAAS and web-based businesses), SEO optimization of a website is often pushed to the end of to-do lists by executive management.
To make matters more complicated, marketing managers often do not have access to the website code and cannot make changes easily. Working with third-party website design firms involves budget decisions. It is difficult to conduct proper SEO optimization of a website in this situation.
At the same time, it is expected that marketing departments generate customer leads on a weekly basis, marketing managers are often assigned quotas, and the company website is perceived as a major lead generation resource.
If your role requires you to generate customer leads while not having adequate management support and/or a budget for it, the most cost-effective SEO strategy in this situation would be to focus on existing marketing collateral.
B2B companies spend a fair amount of resources on the production of web-based customer-facing collateral, such as white papers, case studies, success stories, etc. Optimizing these documents can be done by one person, it can be done quickly and in most cases would not require budgetary spending.
Here is what you can do to boost your search engine ranking without diving into a whole SEO project:
- determine your most desired keywords based on your company's sales scripts
- rename all pdfs by adding these keywords to the end of all titles, separate individual words using underscores (your file names will be long)
- assuming that your pdfs are already posted on the company website, check to see that each document title contains your keywords and is presented as a link
- provide a short abstract underneath each pdf link using important keywords (many companies simply have lists of titles)
- if your design guidelines permit, include document links in bold and italics
Example: Top 10 CRM Software Management Benefits for Small Businesses (pdf)
In addition, review your existing web pages and where possible:
- rename files using most desired keywords
- make sure each page has an H1 tag that contains your keywords
- split your texts in chunks add H2 and H3 subheaders with keywords
- add bulleted lists and sprinkle keywords as often as your style permits, do not overdo it
- add links to other pages on your website that contain similar information
- if possible, include keywords inside the link descriptions and make all links bold and italics
- add more paragraphs using keywords (aim at having at least 500 words per page)
- focus on 2-3 keywords and repeat them 10 times per page, 2-3 times in the first and last paragraphs and at least once in headers and subheaders (H1, H2, H3)
- use the same keywords in your file names, page titles, headers and subheaders, links, and copy (text). This should be done without offending users' sense of style, so be careful.
Going forward, make sure that all web documents are produced with the above SEO guidelines in mind. The more documents (pages) you have, the better it is for your SEO.
Having wealth of resources on your website will also create positive affect on your users' perception of your company. This in turn helps generate qualified customer leads - something your sales people would be sure to appreciate greatly.
Google to Sell Web-Page Ads Visible on Mobile Phones
In another step to extend its dominance of online advertising, Google said Monday that it would begin selling ads on Web pages that are viewed on cellphones.
The company said that its new product, AdSense for Mobile, would establish a cellphone advertising network in which Google would match ads with the content of mobile Web pages, much as it does online.
Other Internet giants, including Yahoo and AOLTime Warner, as well as some start-ups, have also created advertising networks tailored for mobile phones.
Dilip Venkatachari, product management director for AdSense, said the ads would provide a new source of revenue for publishers and could encourage more online sites to create mobile-focused Web sites. Like most other Google advertising systems, ad prices will be set through an auction and and advertisers will pay when a user clicks on its ad.
Mr. Venkatachari said Google had encouraged publishers to have no more than two ads per mobile page, a smaller number than typically appear on a PC’s Web browser.
Google has been testing the system with a limited number of advertisers and publishers this year. On Tuesday, it will open it to all mobile publishers in 13 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, China and India.
Last summer, Google began selling ads that appear next to search results on mobile phones through a program known as AdWords. Last week, it said that all of its online AdWords advertisers, which are said to number in the hundreds of thousands, would be eligible to have their ads appear next to search results on cellphones.
Google’s further inroads into mobile advertising have long been expected. But the market remains relatively small, and analysts do not expect the new service to contribute much soon to Google’s bottom line.
Still, advertisers and publishers appear to be growing increasingly comfortable with mobile advertising. AdMob, a start-up that runs a mobile advertising network, showed 230 million ads in January and expects to show about 1.5 billion this month, said Omar Hamoui, its founder and chief executive.
“The reason that Google and others are getting in is that the market is growing so rapidly, so people are getting very excited,” Mr. Hamoui said. Earlier in the year, AOL acquired Third Screen Media, an AdMob competitor, while Microsoft acquired ScreenTonic, a mobile ad company based in Paris. On Monday, Nokia said it would buy Enpocket, a company in Boston that displays ads on cellphones.
Microsoft said it was expanding a mobile search partnership with Sprint first announced last November. Since then, Microsoft’s search technology allowed Sprint customers to look for ring tones and local Web content, like restaurants and stores. Starting Tuesday, Sprint customers will be able to use Microsoft’s service to search the entire Web on their cellphones.
In addition, customers will be able to choose to have Sprint track their whereabouts, so that when they search for local content, they will not have to type in their location.
Users will also have access to these services through voice-activated technology, allowing them to speak into the device rather than triple-tap or type in a keyword.
Read the full article on NY Times
Sep 18, 2007
Google Program Enlists Mini-Sites as Selling Tool for Advertisers
Google is seizing on the popularity of widgets — small online tools that function like mini-Web sites — for its latest push into advertising.
The online giant will announce today a Gadget Ads program that will provide tools for advertisers to run widget ads in Google’s AdSense network.
Marketers can use space within these display ads on Google’s network to show videos, offer chats with celebrities, play host to games or other activities. If consumers like the widget ad, they can save it onto their desktops or on their profile pages online on sites like Facebook and MySpace.
The new widget ads represent a more aggressive push by Google to attract big brand advertisers who like flashy ad units rather than the simple text ads commonly run in
thin.
Advertisers bid for keywords to place their widget ads in Google’s network in the same way they do other Google ads. Since many users will interact with the ads within the ad units and not click through, Google has developed a new interaction measure to document the interest in the ads.
Google tested its Gadget Ads program this summer with a group of 50 marketers. To encourage more advertisers to make such ads, Google is offering to be host of videos for the ads in YouTube’s servers — a cost-saving for advertising agencies. And Google provides tools for updating the ads, even if marketers do not bid for ads in Google’s network. Marketers pay Google only for the ads that run in its networks and not for any downloading or saving of those ads that consumers may choose to do.
Read the full article on NY Times and on Mashable
SEO Perspective: Why Have a Blog?
If you have a business and a website and wondering whether or not you need a blog, the answer is 'yes'. All other reasons aside, one great reason to have a blog is that it can boost your search engine optimization (SEO), i.e. your positioning on search engines.
Link building is essential for successful SEO. Every link pointing at your site adds value to your site's ranking by search engines. However, building back links is time consuming and mind numbing. I can't imagine anyone really enjoys doing it. But. You can't get away from building back links to your site, if you are interested in getting traffic directed to your site by search engines.
Publishing a blog will allow you to create dozens of back links to your main site instantly. At the end of each post, create a section 'Additional Resources' and provide a few useful links in it, including one pointing to your own site. Make sure to provide links to the most relevant page on your site.
One of the most important things from the SEO perspective concerns the name of your blog. If you are interested in adding value to your SEO campaign via your blog, include your most desired keywords in the name of your blog. I realize that the name of this blog is not particularly sexy, but I decided to name it this way - SEOMARKETINGOTTAWA - because I want my blog to contribute to my SEO. I live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and I want to ensure that my site is found by people looking for Ottawa-based SEO consultants.
Publish posts to your blog daily. Make sure to create at least 500 words per post, which is roughly one page in Word format. Repeat your main keywords 2-3 times in each paragraph, especially in the first and the last paragraphs. Add relevant links to other blogs (an sites) and embed keywords within.
Note that as opposed to a corporate website, your blog can be written in a free colloquial genre. It should not contain your company or product descriptions. If you have specific interests or hobbies, if you are an expert in a particular field, simply post useful tips, tricks or advice for people who may be new to the field.
Hosting your blog on such platforms as Google's Blogger will make it a part of a massive network of blogs. And from the SEO perspective, there is nothing better than links.
Promoting your blog is also easier and cheaper than promoting your site, as most blog directories are still free.Set aside an hour a day and meticulously submit your blog into 5 directories per day. Aim at registering your blog in 100 blog directories.
Blog Directories
* http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/
* http://dir.yahoo.com/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Weblogs/
* http://www.blogcatalog.com/
* http://blogflux.com/
* http://blogs.botw.org/
* http://www.geekyspeaky.com/links/
* http://www.blogpulse.com/index.html
* http://www.blogdigger.com/index.html
* http://www.blogarama.com/
* http://www.bloghop.com/
* http://www.blogrankings.com/
* http://www.blogtoplist.com/
* http://www.findory.com/blogs/
* http://www.bloggernity.com/
* http://www.bloggeries.com/
* http://www.bloghub.com/
* http://www.lsblogs.com/
* http://www.blogsearch.com/
* http://www.britblog.com/
* http://www.weblogalot.com/
* http://www.globeofblogs.com/
* http://www.top100bloggers.com/
* http://www.getblogs.com/
* http://www.delightfulblogs.com/
* http://www.bloogz.com/
* http://portal.eatonweb.com/
* http://www.readablog.com/default.aspx
* http://www.iblogbusiness.com/
* http://findingblog.com/
* http://www.allblogs.net/
* http://www.bloglisting.com/
* http://www.blogdup.com/
* http://www.blogcode.com/index.php
* http://blogannounce.info/
* http://www.blogdirectory.org/index.php
* http://www.blogsweet.com/
* http://www.blogdirs.com/
* http://www.addurlblog.com/
* http://www.5starblogs.com/
* http://www.blogtagstic.com/
* http://www.blogscanada.ca/directory/
* http://www.industryblogs.com/
* http://www.blogbib.com/
* http://www.kmax.ws/bloglinks.htm
* http://www.blogscollection.com/
* http://www.diarist.net/registry/
* http://www.blogbunch.com/
* http://www.blogwatch.com/
* http://www.photoblogdirectory.net/
* http://blogsforsmallbusiness.com/directory/
* http://www.bloghints.com/
* http://www.search4blogs.com/bloggers/index.php
* http://www.thevital.net/
* http://www.highclassblogs.com/
* http://emarketingblogs.com/listings/index.shtml
* http://www.bestblogs.org/
* http://www.misohoni.com/bba/
* http://www.blogdust.com/blogdirectory/
* http://blogs.tomstopsites.com/
Additional Resources
Top 25 social networking sites by popularity (updated in real time)
Social Media Marketing tools, tips, widgets, and resources
Sep 14, 2007
Blogs: Time to Get Serious
As reported by TechCrunch, blogs are officially media. In two determinations handed down on September 4, 2007, the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) found that political blogs and bloggers are media for the purposes of US Electoral Law.
The blogosphere is shaking its head and giggling, since blogs have been one of the most reliable sources of information for a few years already. Everyone knows that if you want to find good information, use blogs and social networking sites. People rely on other people's opinions and referrals much more eagerly than search engines. It is now commonly known that search engines favor large sites with thousands of pages whereas sites of this size often belong to official "mainstream" organizations and commercial entities - and who can afford to trust these organizations nowadays when oil costs $80 per barrel and most of it has to be imported? I know I can't. Needless to say, there is no such thing as independent media, and I am not interested in infomercials.
If I want to know what's really going on in the US and the world for that matter, I read French, British and Russian news sources. I then browse blogs and specialized forums and contrast and compare information from these news sources with what people are saying.
So thank God for blogs and their innocence, however transitory it may be. It will not be too long before this medium is completely compromised with SEO-optimized content that has been sponsored from A to Z. There is a lot of it happening already, but for the moment, one can still find plenty of interesting, truly independent, blogs offering fantastic content.
Logically then, I feel saddened by the now official status of blogs as media. To me it indicates that from now own mainstream commercial entities will begin taking blogs seriously, hence "spinning" the blogosphere and eventually destroying blogging the way we know it now.
Sep 12, 2007
SEO Experience: Starting a New Business
If you are starting a new business and haven't yet registered a domain name for your future website, here are a few things that you can do to ensure your site is found by visitors:
Purchase a 1-day subscription for WordTracker and do a reality check on the keywords you want to to focus on.
When I source new contracts for my firm, I often visit job boards to see what kind of skills are in demand, and it always surprises me to see that even large companies list among "required skills" things like knowing how to use WordTracker.
WordTracker is a software that literally "tracks" or records the keywords people type when they search via search engines. The tool stores those queries and then displays them to you in various combinations.
- Example: if you are a travel website, you would find that people rarely query 'popular activities' or 'popular attractions' when they use search engines to prepare for travel. Instead, they query 'things to do'. If you type 'popular activities' in WordTracker, the tool will display for you all related keywords that people have actually used in reality and you will see that 'things to do' are used by far more often. So if you are a travel site, you would not want to miss 'things to do'. But you might not necessarily think of this keyword on your own. This is where WordTracker comes very useful.
In my view, checking your prospective keywords via WordTracker is probably the most important thing you should do before you do anything else, before you register your domain name. But! Anyone over 7 can learn how to use WordTracker in less than half an hour. Go to their website, fill out their registration form, provide payment and then type your keywords in question, make selection by clicking a few boxes and then wait to see the results. Be patient, it make take a while for a page to load. After you check the keyword combinations you had in mind, also check (click) all suggested keyword combinations that this tool will have degenerated for you. Be patient and wait for pages to load. Have you been taking notes?
Register a domain name that would contain your most desired keywords.
A message therapist located in Ottawa would want to consider the following name combinations:
- ottawamassagetherapy.com
- massagetherapyottawa.com
- massagetherapydowntownottawa.com
- ottawadowntownmassagetherapy.com
Having your most important keywords as part of your domain name is the best thing you can do for your future SEO. The major drawback is that it is very difficult to find short domain names, so your URL ends up being very long and cumbersome. My advice: never mind this and include your most desired keywords in your URL. A long domain name is a small price to pay for high search engine ranking. If nothing else is available, use hyphen or dots to separate individual words, but remember that search engines are able to distinguish individual words even if they are joined together in a long string.
Create your own network by starting a few websites at once, each having a distinct specialization or focus.
Make sure all "sister" URLs contain the best keywords for their specialized subject matter. You don't necessarily need to have only top domains: www.domain.com. You can work with sub-domains instead: www.sister.domain.com. Many hosting companies provide sub-domain hosting free of charge.
- Example: TripSpot, a company that has implemented a very successful multiple-domain SEO strategy. Take a look at the right-most drop-down box at the top of their home page, it is called 'StartSpot Network'. Each listing is a separate site, all joined together in a network.
If multiple domains or sub-domains are absolutely out of question, focus on creating a clever folder structure, i.e. arrange all your HTML files in folders and sub-folders by categories, naming all of them - your folders, sub-folders, and files -with your most desired keywords. If you prefer,use underscore to separate words. It is also advisable for the names containing more than 3 words - makes it easier for your visitors. The result will look in a browser like this:
http://www.yourwebsite.com/folder1withkeywords/file1withkeywords.html
http://www.ottawamassagetherapy/downtownmassage/massagetherapyschedule.html
http://www.ottawamassagetherapy/downtown/massage_therapy_schedule.html
