Unfortunately it hasn’t went through to everybody yet so I don’t have any screen shots or usage notes to give you. I can, however, offer you a quick cheat sheet with all the juicy details!

• Automatic integration of your email and chat contacts.
• You can decide whether you want your ideas to be private (secret diary style) or public.
• Comments will be sent right to your inbox so you can have instant access to them.
• You can now see thumbnails for photos or just browse full-screen images that are available from popular photo websites.
• You can import your stuff from Google Reader, Flickr, Picasa and Twitter so you won’t have to personalize everything again.
• Updates will be in real-time. You won’t have to worry about developing an automatic finger twitch from constant manual refreshing.
• In true 21st century style, Buzz will adapt to you, funneling in interesting content and denying the content that will be most likely unappealing to you.

If you’re curious  and want to see a quick preview:

Buzz will also be available for your phone and will allow you to tag your posts with your current location. When available to you, you can access it directly by visiting buzz.google.com from your mobile device.

Please check back soon for a follow up post about my first hand experience.

…Now, do I get bragging rights to say that I’m psychic? I DID just publish that post about their social hub… :)

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Introducing Google Buzz! GMail Social Sharing

The Yellow Brick Road for Google’s Social Hub:

1. Pushing the limits with iGoogle-

There isn’t much that is needed to be said about this. Everybody loves watching funny YouTube videos or seeing a cute picture stream of a new puppy that their best friend adopted. Being able to pick out keywords of videos or images you want to see would also be fantastic and useful. Another example of how content can be personalized on your homepage.

3. Integrating GTalk and video with a web-based application so users can pop out chat (think along the lines of Aim Express…but better! Clearly Google is superior to AOL)-

I use GTalk a lot, but sometimes I’m not always on my computer or even on one that HAS a program with GTalk capabilities. I realize that you can pop out your chat box already, but having a pop-out web-based application that has every feature separate from Gmail or iGoogle would make GTalk easier to access and use to keep in touch.

4. Integrating Yelp-

Yelp is a website that lets you view reviews and recommendations on restaurants, shopping, nightlife and various other fun stuff in your city. Yelp also comes in handy for when you’re visiting a new place and have no idea what’s good or what you should avoid like the plague. Perhaps my iGoogle Social Hub idea could have a small box available that can display a new recommendation or review on places near you every few days.

5. Integrating Google Wave into the link bar with social sharing buttons for wave friends or the public timeline-

I think this is the bread and butter of my Google social hub idea. Google Wave can be used everywhere on the social hub. The share buttons mentioned above can be put around the YouTube and Flickr features, as well as with Yelp. The ability to instantly wave favorite places, videos or pictures can be extremely useful. If you want someone to meet you for dinner at a great restaurant in town, recommended by Yelp, simple wave them the information and they can view it themselves.

6. Google Voice easily accessible-

Even though Google Voice is currently available by invite only, when it becomes available to everybody it would be great to have this integrated into a sidebar so you can keep up with your phone messages along with your email and waves.

7. Integrating a drop-down menu with search features-

I don’t know if most people who don’t use the internet often even realize this, but Google has a plethora of search options available when you look to the left of the search page. You can display results from images, videos or books as well as choose your timeline. You can also choose to show fewer or more shopping sites (which just proves there’s too many out there that leak onto the search page without us wanting them anyway) as well as a “social search”, which narrows results down to your social circle. I think iGoogle should have these in a drop down menu underneath the search bar so people can actually realize that it’s there.

8. Updating the Google smartphone application-

The final step, of course, is to redesign the smartphone application. Having one cohesive application with all these options available (especially the ability to use wave sharing buttons….or wave at all since it’s not really available in an application) would make the redesign all the more valuable.

All in all, I think Google has the assets available to make one heck of a social hub. Having everything available in one place is very appealing and would attract more users… not to mention give their current users a nice treat for being loyal.

PS: I wanted to do a mock-up of the “iGoogle Social Hub” but I’ve decided to not put my viewers through the torture of my unskilled scribbles :) Sorry!

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

8 Ways Google Can Become a Social Hub Overnight

Last week was the kind of week a geek like me dies for. There were a ton of great blog posts, plenty of humour, lots of geeky IR stuff (including an IR post with profanity.. wicked cool!) and even a bunch of interesting patents. Actually, one of the longest search patent names I’ve ever seen. Truly a week that was a blast to follow. On that note…let’s not waste more time with my idle banter, we’re a lot to get to!

Lead Story

Help stop the madness!!

A few week’s ago some pals and I were joking via Twitter that there should be a dedicated place for ranting and otherwise going off. You see, I tend to keep a certain demeanour when writing this newsletter or even on my blog. Sure, ranting once in a while… but it’s not the same as losing it.

Just for sh*ts and giggle’s I poked around and noticed that SEObulls**t.com was available. The rest as you’ve likely figured out, is history.

Some of the first posts;

1. Stop Offering SEO Services You Bloody Dimwits!
2. SEO Toxin: Directory-like URI Structures
3. Bulls**t Prevails When Good SEOs Do Nothing
4. Confusing acronyms create chaos

We’ve taken to calling it, ‘SEO Group Therapy’ in that it has become a place that is fostering discussions. An unexpected side effect. It is a (reasonably) open door policy for posters and I look forward to it’s continued growth. If you like your SEO stories with a bit of humour (and profanity at times), drop on by. Also be sure to follow us on Twitter and Grab the Badge!

And away…

Talk of the town

Search Geek Central

Search Patents

/end SOSG session

‘7 Days of Search and Social’ is a joint effort from Search Engine Journal and the SEO Training Dojo to bring you the latest in SEO and Social Search news. Each week (on Tuesdays) we’ll be posting the highlights of the most recent (SEO Geeks) newsletter here on Search Engine Journal.

Be sure to grab the SEJ feed for the latest or sign up to the SEO Dojo newsletter to get it straight to your inbox.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Weekly Search & Social News: 02/09/2010

And as much as everyone just loves those cute little 9 steps to blah-de-blah, we all know already that such articles are rare for me to write anyhow.  And this particular topic is one that I think comes to the top of the list as far as importance in our industry.

Fifteen College Credits

This series of articles isn’t going to be a comprehensive how-to covering every single aspect of the process, since that could easily take up an entire fully matriculated college semester.  So what I share here today, and in future follow-up articles,  should be used as a foundation – more like a check-list of tasks with enough detail along the way to be like a nice succulent rack of ribs, slathered in the best seasoning you’ve ever had.

And where I believe it will be beneficial, I’ll also offer some insights into the broader mind-set of why I go about the audit process the way I do, based on the notion that a proper process will lead to a much higher level of success in business, and in turn, personal happiness.  Because the more successful we each are, and the happier we as individuals are, the better we, as an industry will become.  Both from a human perspective and from the added respect we gain from our clients and SEO h8ers.

So once again, I invite you to go get a large cup of your favorite caffeinated beverage, kick back, and enjoy!

The Value of Hands On Audits

Everyone goes about the process of an SEO site audit differently.  Some people rely on various tools or software to do the heavy lifting. Personally, I prefer to do most everything in a hands-on approach.  I charge anywhere from $750 for a small to mid-size site, $2,000 to $3,000 or more for a complex site in a highly competitive field,  and as much as $5,000 if it’s what I consider a “mega-site” -one that’s got (or will need) tens of thousands of pages.  So I figure the client deserves the kind of attention to detail that such a method brings.

Also, when relying on software or someone else’s tool, you may actually miss some very important information, or even be led to conclusions that aren’t necessarily based on real world fact.  This can be especially true when doing the competitive analysis, though it’s just as likely if you get lost in the hype that comes with some of those tools.

You may disagree with me on that concept.  Personally, I think things like keyword density percentages, KPI scores, and competitor intelligence that comes from software (either in a downloaded install or an online service) are only as accurate as the logic that went into it, and more important to me, I’ve never once found such a “solution” that I couldn’t bust wide open as being wildly inaccurate at least some of the time when running tests against some of my biggest clients.  (Sites that have hundreds of thousands or even millions of visitors).

In any case, I’ve consistently found that my hands-on approach gets stellar results, so until someone can show me a reason to do otherwise, I’ll continue to take the path that’s worked so well for me in the past.

Audits Are Useless Without Action Plans

In every audit I perform, I provide details on my findings – what works, what doesn’t.  And I always provide action items – literally laying out the map of how to overcome issues I’ve discovered.  That’s one of the reasons I charge the fees I do for my work.  Before I had the luxury of cherry-picking my clients, I charged my fee because there was no guarantee that the client wouldn’t then turn around and find someone else who would charge a fraction of my rate to execute my plan.

And in those situations, if I give away my audit/action plan for free or on the cheap, many clients would freak out reading the last couple pages of it where I detail the costs of implementing that plan. Usually because my “free” or “low cost” audit caused them to think or reinforced their already existing belief that SEO is easy.

These days, I get the rates I do because my audits and action plans are the lion’s share of what I do.  Probably 80% of  my work comes from agencies who hire me either exclusively for this work, or for this work followed by overseeing the team that does implement (either that agencies team or their end client’s team).  It also helps that I wasn’t afraid to charge the rates I do.  I no longer live in fear mentality when it comes to that topic.  Instead, I operate based on value pricing.

A Quality Audit & Action Plan Sets Healthy Expectations

By being as detailed as I am in this, it literally opens peoples eyes to what the causes were if they were in the SERP basement.  It’s also a reality check on what the true competitive landscape consists of, which is usually something most business owners don’t have a clue about.  And it also shows how many things need to be addressed, and the complexity of some of it.

All of which puts them in the “this is more serious than we ever considered” frame of mind that’s critical to their not labeling me as either a wanna-be hack or as someone out to rip them off.  By the time we get through even a fraction of that final document, clients inevitably have a much higher level of respect for my expertise.  They’re much more open to trusting that they hired the right person.  And even if they went into this process with some ridiculously under-inflated expectation as to budgets, they’re then much more capable now of loosening those marketing purse-strings.

Not Everyone Can Afford Executing Every Recommended Action Item

The reality is that I often run into situations where clients have fixed-budget constraints.  Either because the cash-flow just isn’t there, or because their in-house number crunchers are more skilled at arguing against spending than they (usually a marketing department) are at arguing in favor of spending.

Alternately, some businesses are already in deep financial trouble and getting better results from their web presence is a last-ditch effort to salvage an otherwise failing company.  As much as this type of business owner / manager had already pinned their hopes on this process, they often learn it’s going to be impossible to do everything (you can’t take out a business loan for marketing when you’ve already lost all your investors or creditors).

Prioritizing Tasks Sometimes Saves The Day

Because of this, I will quite often assign a priority scale to each action item, with the tasks most likely to get the biggest bang for the buck getting the highest priority.  When I do this, however, I make it crystal clear, in writing, that for each task not acted upon, the results process will take that much longer, and under certain circumstances, may mean focusing on only achieving some of the desired goals at all.

Know The Situation Before You Commit

While we can’t always know when a prospective client is already beyond hope, there are some key things you can do to gauge how solvent a prospective client is or how likely they are to become that proverbial nightmare client.

For example, when first speaking with a prospect, I explain that I’m just so busy with existing work that it could be a month before I can perform the audit, and (depending on the size of the site or the depth of competition) that implementing the plan / seeing real results could take three to six months.

That dialogue is essential, because it’s the easiest way up front to find out if they’re in desperation mode already or not.  If the response you get is something like “is there any way you can do it sooner”, or “Really? That long?” or “We can’t wait that long”, or – “your rate seems too high”, my best advise to you, my industry colleagues, is to immediately ask for an explanation as to why they said that.

Couple that with a fee that is value based rather than desperation based (caving in and saying “I need this client, so I’ll charge them half my normal rate”), and the overwhelming majority of prospective clients who are already in business failure mode will show themselves.

Being Empathetic Without Being Codependent

Now just because I advocate what some might consider high rates, it’s not that I don’t empathize with such people.  In fact, most of us know what it’s like to have, at some point, been struggling in business.  So we can appreciate when someone needs a break.  And from time to time, I do discount my rates.  Yet I don’t discount them by more than 10 or 15% with a new client anymore.  Instead, if I’m in a generous mood, I may even offer to spread my payment structure out an extra payment.  I won’t, however, get lost in my compassion, because every time I have, I’ve paid the price on a stress level.

Remember – we’re not talking about pro-bono work now – which is something I do throughout the year.  Except in those situations, I will seek out the prospective client instead of offering that to someone who contacts me for help.

The Cost Of Failure To Assess

Failure to clarify such statements will, more often than not, result in your taking on a true nightmare client.  Someone who will pepper you with dozens of phone calls or email messages on a daily basis.  Or, in the worst scenario, blame you for every delay.  Even when they themselves fail to get back to you in a timely manner.  And eventually, those quite often turn into clients who start yelling and screaming that you’ve cost them thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars in lost revenue.

Some of you are nodding your heads in understanding.  You’ve been there, so you know it’s true.  Others of you may think “that wouldn’t happen to me”.

At this point I was going to get all philosophical, but instead, I’ll just say this – if you think you’re invulnerable to it, you’re probably even more vulnerable.

It’s Not Ego, It’s Good Business Sense

For every prospective client who will, from day one, appreciate, respect and value your services, there are many more who won’t.   That’s a result of human nature and the economy we now live in.

So you’re going to need to be able to filter out those who won’t value or respect or appreciate your services.  So you can get to working sooner with those who will.

And if you’re going to show up with your integrity, and your skills, in a way that could potentially help your clients make tons of money by getting them high up in the search engines and through increased conversions from site visits, you will deserve that happiness and that success.  Because you’ll have earned it.

Beyond Psychology – Where To Begin

Okay so let’s say you get it – you understand the importance of doing your best to only take on clients who appreciate the work.  Where do you go from there?  Well, the audit, of course!  Now, every audit is NOT going to be the same.  Auditing a five page web site in a very niche market is going to be a lot less complicated than if it were a site that sells products and has competitors like Amazon.  Yet the fundamentals are the same.  So let’s start with the fundamentals.

The Focused and Methodical Mind-Set

A long time ago, I was in the Military Police.  And in our training, we were taught to be focused and methodical.  Of course that was important when I was facing down a suspect with my .45 in my hand, ready to shoot ( uh, that’s a 45 caliber pistol – ask me some time about what it was like in those situations…).

Yet even though a site audit isn’t that off-the-charts life-on-the-line intense, being focused and methodical always pays off.  During an audit it helps to better ensure you’re not going to be distracted – that you’ll notice patterns more readily, and that you’ll cover more, if not all, of the bases.

Curiosity Killed The Cat But Rewards The Consultant

As someone who ended up in charge of Crime Prevention, I also learned the value of being curious.  If something you’re looking at triggers an intuitive “that’s odd” moment, stop. Right there.  Whatever it is in your mind that you recognize as triggering that feeling, lock it in your mind.  Make a note of it in writing.

Even if it turns out to be nothing, it’s better to stop and check.  And the extra act of writing it down will ensure that you don’t just blow it off or get side-tracked and forget.  Worst case that happens is you scrap that notation afterward.

Curiosity Sometimes Pays Off Big

Later in this series, when I’m talking about evaluating inbound links, I’ll share with you a crime that was being perpetrated against one of my biggest clients, for an extended period.  A crime that potentially involves serious theft of business.  And how, in my beginning of the year audit this past week, I discovered it.  All because I had one of those “that’s odd” moments and locked it into my memory.

Well, maybe I won’t reveal that exact situation, because it’s currently going through the legal process, and I have not been given permission to discuss the exact facts of this case.  At least not yet.

In any case, let’s just say that paying attention to those bumps in the audit process can sometimes pay off in crazy-wow-holy-cannoli ways.

Documenting Your Findings

In order to keep proper records of my findings, I rely on a handful of resources.  Feel free to use whatever record-keeping method and resource that best works for you.  It’s important however, to take notes and gather data in one consistent manner each time. I use:

• MS Word
• Excel
• Photoshop
• ScreenGrab for Firefox

As I’m reviewing various aspects of a site’s optimization or lack thereof, and of competitor sites and keyword lists, by having each of these open from the start, I can quickly cut and paste, build lists, take screen-captures and annotate them.

Break It Into Groups

When I perform an SEO site audit, I don’t stay on one page and record all my findings for that page.  Instead, I split out optimization elements and look at that one element across multiple points.  So for example, if I’m looking at the home page Title tag, I’ll then jump to the next page’s Title, and another after that.

If a site has sub-directories or has funnels of content, I always check the Title on at least one or two pages in each section before I make any broad assumption.

Only after I’ve recorded my findings for that one element across multiple points will I then go back and take on the next element.

No Need to Go Insanely Overboard

Now some people might think that an audit that is thorough has to involve reviewing every single optimization element on every single page of a site.  Or every single inbound link.  Or twenty competitor sites.  And this may be why some people opt to use software or web based tools to do this work.

The fact is though, even at the rates I charge just for my audits, I’m not going to review every single element on every page, or every link or every competitor.  There’s no need to do so.  Well, there’s no need that I’ve personally ever felt.  Maybe because I see patterns better than others, or I’ve just been lucky in making assumptions after seeing what I believe to be a pattern.

Yet the bottom line here is that since this is ONLY an audit, if I’ve reviewed ten page Titles across ten different pages, at least one or two in each section of the site, and I’ve noted that there are flaws in the optimization of all or most of those, then it’s a good enough indicator to me that the whole site has page Title problems.

And THAT is what I need to document.  The fact that I’ve found a consistent issue with less than ideally optimized page Titles.

Record Your Findings In Digestible Chunks

Okay – so lets say I’ve found a flawed page Title issue.  When I record that finding in my audit doc, I’ll provide a brief description, and then the URL for two or maybe three of those, but no more.  Just enough to show the client “hey – I believe this is a problem and here’s the proof”.

With things like Titles, I also like to then show examples of how I would change them, given the opportunity.

So in this situation, the entry might end up like this:

Being Specific Without Teaching SEO

Note in the example above, I don’t bother to explain how I determined that recommended page Title?  That’s because a site Audit isn’t supposed to be an advanced course in SEO.  It’s to point out problems and recommend methods of solution.

If a client is curious to know how I came to my recommendation, we’ll discuss that during the phone or in-person review of the audit, but only in broad terms.  Because I expect my clients to trust that I know what I’m talking about, not teach them my business.  That’s not why they’re hiring me.

Building Your Case, Not Giving Away The Farm

By using these methods, what I’m doing is building my case as to the fact that there are clearly flaws in the existing optimization, and that there is a clearly defined plan of action to resolve these.

And because I show enough depth, and a few actual examples, I then set the scenario for later on, where, at the end of the audit, I drop the line-item proposal on the client.  Like:

• Thorough Keyword Research – 15 hours
• Implementation of Proper Page Title Seeding across all top tier pages – 4 hours
• SEO Category title Automation (CMS Change) – 15 Hours
• Training Client in selecting proper implementation of keywords at the Category and Product Level – 4 hours
• Follow-Up Review of Client implementation – 2 hours
• After-Implementation Evaluation of Action Plan Success – 4 hours
• Etc
• Etc

Only The Beginning

Of course, this is only the start of the SEO Site Audit process that I’ve consistently used to great success for the last few years.  In Part 2, I’ll offer more insight and methods that I use in my audits, but hopefully you’ve found this a great start.   And please – let me know what you think!

Super Extra Special Bonus Revealed

Now for those of you who hadn’t followed the comment thread in my last how-to article, Taking Front End SEO to the Next Level, I need to congratulate Michel Leconte one of the geniuses behind SEO Toaster,  for having discovered the answer to that article’s “Super Extra Special Bonus SEO Technique #739” challenge.

In that article, I included a next-level method I use within the illustrations but hadn’t revealed it as far as a description in the article itself.

Michel guessed “i guess variations of the last sentence qualifying size, resolution is not simply a coincidence, each/all/this depending on nav level.”

He was referring to the fact that in a product catalog online, whenever possible, I like to include one or more sentences within the descriptive content for each category, sub-category and product, where that text is automatically inserted and uses a pre-determined keyword seeding process.  Doing this ensures that even when the client tasks a 10 year old to manually write the product descriptions, we get at least some well-written text that has the keywords in it.  And also, we vary up the writing from category to sub-category to product level as well, to reduce the likelihood of duplicate content.

So kudos to Michel!

Alan Bleiweiss has been an Internet professional since 1995, managing client projects valued at upwards of $2,000,000.00.  Just a few of his most notable clients through the years have included PCH.com, WeightWatchers.com, and Starkist.com.  Follow him on Twitter @AlanBleiweiss , read his blog at Search Marketing Wisdom, and be sure to read his column here at SearchEngineJournal.com the 2nd and 4th Tuesday each month.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Anatomy of a Hands-on SEO Site Audit – Part 1

Although SEO audits detect problems with indexation, canonicalization, navigation and internal linking structure, content optimization, sitemaps, handling advanced functionality like AJAX, etc., there’s another important component that is sometimes overlooked – Domain Strategy.  Understanding all of the domains and subdomains being used by a company is critically important for maximizing SEO strength.  If a company overlooks domain strategy, it just might be missing an opportunity to make a strong impact, and without major development.  The combination of “fast” and “no development” is a great way to show results without signing a declaration of war with your IT department (like the rest of your audit might do.).  :-)

Why Is Domain Strategy Important for SEO?

Domains build search power.  For most companies, this involves building as much equity and strength for their core domain as possible (www.domain.com).  If a company ends up having twelve separate domains, all focused on the same vertical or subject matter, then it can be splitting its search strength across those domains. In addition, the excessive use of subdomains could be causing problems or exposing security holes for the company.  Between building search equity and minimizing security concerns, domain strategy can be a very important part of your audit.

For example, let’s say the twelve domains I mentioned above (all focused on the same vertical) each have 5,000 pages indexed and 5,000 inbound links.  They all have low to moderate SEO power and each is struggling to rank for target keywords.  Imagine you were able to combine those domains and organize them in logical subdirectories (where you can silo content by category).  Then you would have 60,000 pages indexed and 60,000 inbound links for one domain.  You can start to build more strength in the core domain and leverage all of your valuable content to build traffic, links, and ultimately more search power (and better rankings).

Splitting SEO Strength Across Domains:

Most website owners should focus on building strength and equity in their core domain (via high quality, unique content and then building topical and relevant inbound links).  If you split those efforts across a number of domains, then you can water down the effect (to say the least).  I’m not saying to always have just one domain (especially if you’re a large company that focuses on several verticals or has multiple brands).  But, don’t have 15 domains per brand, 250 domains for marketing campaigns, or 300 subdomains for random purposes.  More on situations like these soon.

Real-World Examples of When a Domain Strategy Was Needed

Below, I’ve provided several situations that I’ve come across while performing SEO audits where developing a domain strategy was desperately needed.

The Disconnected Blog

Your company is wondering why its blogging hasn’t impacted natural search power for its core site (where all of its products and services are listed).  Upon further investigation, the company has two blogs and both have been set up on separate domains (outside of the core website.) i.e. www.domain.com, www.domain-blog.com, and domain.blogspot.com.  All three domains are building up their own search power, and the two blogs aren’t building strength for the company’s core website.  And of course, the core website has the least strength of all. {I see this often by the way.}

The In-House Domainer

I was in the middle of an SEO audit and I requested a list of all domains actively used by the company.  The CTO dropped a ten page list of domains and subdomains on my desk.  That’s 10 pages of domains and not 10 domains… After being brought back to consciousness via smelling salt, I knew there was a big problem to tackle. :)  Ultimately, the CMS being used forced the company to set up subdomains versus subdirectories when adding specific types of new content to the site.  Don’t ask why… So, the company had hundreds of subdomains, and some only had one or two pages on the entire subdomain.  In addition, requesting the list and reviewing it with my client revealed about a dozen subdomains that shouldn’t have been active in the first place.

LOST – The Disappearing Campaign

You know those killer marketing campaigns that sometimes build thousands of links (like the one you just shared with all of your friends on Facebook and Twitter?)  The domains used for those campaigns can end up having an important impact on your SEO efforts.  Viral content can be great for attracting a lot of links as campaigns take hold.  Unfortunately, some companies (cough, larger brands) tend to use campaign-based domains.  So, if you were launching a campaign for a new golf driver that could add 50 yards to your drive, then you might use a domain like www.cannon-driver.com or something like that.  As you can guess based on what I’ve written above, this new domain won’t help your core website (as it’s on a separate domain) and it also won’t leverage your core domain’s search power.  To makes things worse, many brands that use campaign-based domains turn off those domains when campaigns are over.  This can waste thousands (or tens of thousands) of hard-earned links!  If you are forced to use campaign-based domains, then you could implement 301 redirects after the campaign is over to make sure the pages being taken down point to new pages on your core domain (like the section about a new product).  You would want to do this on a page per page basis.  That said, I almost always recommend setting up campaign landing pages on the core domain.  i.e. www.domain.com/cannon-driver/.  Then you don’t need to worry about the 301 redirection plan down the line.

The Security Risk

I ran across a situation during an audit where I found about a dozen subdomains being used.  In total, there were a few thousand pages indexed and also a few thousand inbound links.  When I presented this to my client, they weren’t aware that some of the subdomains existed, and definitely weren’t aware of the content residing on them. In a nutshell, some of the data indexed on the subdomains could be considered a security risk, and the engines should have been blocked from indexing it.   After dealing with the security risk, we planned to 301 some of the other subdomains to directories and pages on the www subdomain.  So, the company quickly moved to close a security hole and then was able to leverage content they didn’t know existed to help their SEO efforts.

On a similar note, I’ve also seen situations where test servers were indexed.  Yes, the new content you were planning on launching during the next website release was freely available for all for competitors to browse.  Needless to say, you would want to lock down those test servers by authenticating users and blocking the search engines from indexing any content.  That’s if they needed to be accessible in the first place.

Domain Strategy Recommendations:

If you are working on an SEO audit for your company or client, here are some quick recommendations that can help you identify all of the domains and subdomains being used by the company you are helping.

Ask About Domains

Ask your clients or IT department for a list of all domains and subdomains used by the organization.  Although you can probably find them during your audit, the initial list they provide can be a great place to start.

Dig and Then Dig Some More

I’m an inquisitive guy, which part of the reason I love performing technical audits.   During the process of auditing a site, you will naturally come across several of the domains and subdomains used by the company.  Checking indexation and inbound links typically reveals hidden content, rogue domains, excessive use of subdomains, etc.  Checking the IA and internal navigation can also reveal paths to subdomains and separate domains used.  So dig, document, and create a list of all domains used.

Competitive Tools

There are a number of tools you can utilize to reveal subdomains used by a company.  For example, Compete and Quantcast provide the ability to view subdomains for a given domain.  That said, these tools don’t catch everything.  They can help, but don’t rely on them for the full list.

Google and Yahoo

Using an advanced Google command can show pages indexed without the www subdomain.  For example:

site:http://domain.com –inurl:www

Yahoo Site Explorer can also reveal subdomains indexed.  Just make sure the tab for “show all subdomains” is active and that you don’t enter www when typing the domain.  You’ll have to do some digging here, but you can often find several of the subdomains being used.

Dedicated Tools

Some developers in the security community have built tools to quickly check the subdomains of a given domain.  Here’s a good one:  http://www.magic-net.nl/dns-and-ip-tools.php.  The second field labeled “search subdomains” is the one you want.

Summary

I hope this post helped explain the importance of developing a solid domain strategy for SEO, while providing some real world examples of when one was needed.  After completing your research, you just might find that the company you are assisting doesn’t know all of the domains being used (or the power of each domain).  Developing a strategy for removing, blocking, or leveraging those domains can help build more natural search power, while also decreasing security risks.  At a minimum, it could stop your competitors from checking out your latest content before it’s officially released. :)

Glenn Gabe is an online marketing consultant at G-Squared Interactive and focuses heavily on SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, Viral Marketing and Web Analytics. You can read more of Glenn’s posts on his blog, The Internet Marketing Driver and you can follow him on Twitter to keep up with his latest projects, news, and updates.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Domain Strategy – Why It’s A Critical Component to SEO Technical Audits

Here’s some great news: besides Google Adwords tool, you can also use Wordtracker within your SEJ tools dashboard to have a broader choice of key phrases to analyze and choose from.

To access Wordtracker search, you should hover over “Research” tab and choose WORDTRACKER. The process is quite easy:

1. Enter the keywords you want to research: one phrase per line;
2. Choose the match type:
   1. The Related match returns related keyword matches based on popularity.
   2. The Embedded match returns embedded keyword matches based on popularity.
   3. And the Exact match returns exact keyword matches based on popularity.

The results page provides keywords that match your query:

• The phrase based on the base term you provided;
• The search volumes for each keyword (per Wordtracker).

Now you can add keywords in the SERPs tracker:

• Add words to the SERPs tracker one by one by clicking “Add” in the last column;
• Add words to the tracker in bulk by checking boxes to select each them and then selecting “Track keywords in SERP Tracker” in the drop down;
• Export selected rows to CSV by checking boxes to select each of them and then selecting “Export keywords to CSV file”

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

SEJ Tools: Enhanced Keyword Research via Wordtracker

Pro’s

If like me your company only runs one website you get to dedicate 100% of your time to doing SEO on that one website. In reality I run at 80% with 20% research and catching up on industry news. I get 100% control on the strategies and paths to success.

Being the first SEO in a company and after showing them your worth you can sell the idea of building an SEO team of copywriters, link builders etc. This is, in my opinion, every In House SEO’s idea of bliss, In my position I could bring in people under my wing and really help to develop them in the online marketing world.

Also being an In House SEO does not mean I do just SEO. I, like most digitally minded people, enjoy a whole load of things around the internet. Social Media is something that I brought to my company and now we have a very solid and stable Social Media presence. Also as is the way of an SEO I can find anything on the internet, once a week I will look for negative reviews and issues that our customers have posted on forums and website.

I will try to find the customers details and get our Customer Relation team to help the customer out and turn the negative customer into a positive customer. I am also working on our Mobile strategy too as it is something of interest.

It reminds me of a quote I seen late last year Aaron Bradley’s “Flying Solo: The One-Person In-House SEO Team” post on Search Engine Land. In it he showed the “Fictional In house SEO Job description” quoted below.

SEO specialist required for growing website. Responsibilities include on-page search engine optimization, inbound link development, PPC management, making HTML changes to the main website, developing PHP scripts, writing content for two blogs, creating landing pages and developing marketing campaigns.

Some people would find this a bad point. I however like this and really enjoy the variation of my role.

Last but not least because of the very high monthly rates that some agencies can charge for their services you can usually find yourself on a very good salary package and the company you work for will still make a great saving in its marketing spend. (Its not all about the money though!)

Con’s

If you are a sole SEO in the marketing team it can be quite a challenge to bounce ideas of other members of the team. I am lucky however to work in an area of the UK with a thriving digital scene that meets up once a month for a bit of SEO networking. Twitter is also a good place to bounce ideas and find like minded individuals to share idea.

If something goes bad, your the one that has to take the blame and you are the one that has to fix it (usually ASAP). So remember everything you did, why you did it and when you did it. It will help you greatly if some keyword suddenly falls outside of the top 3 pages for no reason.

You can find some tasks very long winded on your own. Agency side I remember grabbing help from other SEO’s after all 6 heads on one long winded task is better than doing it yourself. Luckily I manage my time well and spread out the really long winded tasks that an SEO strategy can incur.

So there you go, some pro’s and con’s from an In house SEO that is well and truly converted to this way of working. I think this is definitely a “once you try it, you won’t go back to an agency” kind of career.

Shane Jones is an In House SEO working in for a leading Online Travel Agent in Manchester, England.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Pros and Cons of In-House SEO

So, now with the use of Google Maps, the group were able to track down the whereabouts of the Google Street View car in real-time. And what better way of pulling a prank to the controversial Google car than to pull down their pants andplay various gestures as the passes by a pre-determined location?  So, whose more evil now?

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Google Maps Used to Track Down Street View Car

But that’s not after paying Google a $150 termination fee, lower than the previous $350 ETF.  However, what is not clear though is whether you still need to pay the $200 that T-Mobile is charging.  Although the WSJ is reporting that Google is negotiating with T-Mobile to lower its fee which in its case is the recovery cost for the Nexus One unit.

Still, it’s a fair deal, although many of us will probably not be solved with this idea. It’s still is a better deal than getting that Nexus One unlocked for $525. If you get it through a T-Mobile plan, you get to pay only around $125 then cancel it one month after and pay Google’s ETF plus T-Mobile’s equipment recovery fee. Overall, you get a Nexus One unit for only $475.

To think that it cost me around $590 to get an unlocked Nexus One? Oh well, I’ve got no regrets anyway. I’m enjoying my Nexus One as much as I did when I got my iPhone.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Google Lowers Nexus One’s Early Termination Fee to $150

Ever use those voice to text translators? If you say “the fish is in the lake bed” it translates it to text and says something like, “the dish is in the cake head”. What?! The other problem is that the dictionaries are so limited that often times it can’t even keep up with the human language. Throw slang and a foreign language into this and it spells trouble.

I used Babel Fish one time to translate a Japanese message that was saying “I’ll call you tomorrow” and the translation came out to say “tomorrow I will use the telephone on you!!” Something innocent turns into somewhat of a threat when a literal word by word conversion is used without artificial intelligence.

Google has come up with a few solutions to these pesky problems for its up coming Android translator. It will be crawling through various web pages and documents in different languages so that it can get an artificial grasp on the human language. The translator will also be able to view the words as part of a whole; fully understanding the complete sentence rather than each word separately.

This tool is expected to support a 52-language text translation, along with voice recognition and text to speech capabilities.

Communication is a vital part of everything we do. We need it for everything, including sitting down with the CEO of a Japanese company via video conference with your corporation. While the internet allows communication overseas and makes business easier, the language barrier that accompanies this freedom often stands in the way. If all goes well, this tool could be utilized by individuals and businesses to bridge the gap in culture and language.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Google to Break the Language Barrier With Android Translator