The information contained within many a website SEO audit is a confusing mix of technical jargon and a laundry list of problems with very little information that you, as the small business owner, can take action on. If the audit states the site is suffering from canonical URL issues, poor internal link structure, duplicate content problems, keyword cannibalization, etc., what does all of that mean to you? If you’re like most small business owners, it may as well be written in Chinese. Many SEOs create these audits specifically to result in your hiring them to resolve the issues for you. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this practice, but it’s important that you understand that to be the case.

Let’s face it…not all small business owners are in a position to pay thousands of dollars to optimize their websites. Does that mean they should abandon all hope, throw their hands up in frustration and resign themselves to perpetually poor performance in the organic search results? Absolutely not. What it DOES mean is that where to spend marketing dollars and what to invest in SEO efforts is essential. If you’re among most small business owners, you don’t have a lot of free time, but you have more time to spend these days than money. For you, choosing the right SEO audit – one that will provide you with more than just a laundry list of problems – is very important.

What Will You Do After The SEO Audit – Have A Basic Plan

Have you stopped to think about what you intend to do with the information contained within the SEO audit? If you haven’t, don’t have an audit done – yet. There is a LOT more to consider when deciding who to hire to do your audit than price. Audits can range in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. Before investing a dime of your small business marketing budget on a website audit, you need to have some idea what you intend to do with what you learn from it. If you spend $2,000 on an audit, how much of your budget will then be left to put toward actually fixing the site’s problems? If your answer is, “nothing”, you need to find a more affordable SEO audit.

Is your plan to hire the company that conducted the audit to resolve the issues? Do you intend to have the site’s original designer address the issues? Are you going to fix the problems yourself? Your goals, what you hope to learn and your future plans for resolving problems once they are identified are all important things to take into consideration BEFORE deciding who will audit your site. Not taking these things into consideration can cost you a LOT of time and money. The only thing worse than avoiding SEO audits is choosing the wrong one. If the audit doesn’t ultimately result in the necessary changes being made, it’s a complete waste of money.

Resolving On-Site SEO Issues – Understanding Your Options

You don’t HAVE to hire SEOs or SEO companies to improve your site’s organic SEO performance. If you have the flexibility within your marketing budget to contract a reputable SEO or hire an SEO professional to handle optimization for you in-house, that’s fantastic – and is obviously the optimal solution. I suggest you stop wasting your time reading this and do so immediately. That isn’t, however, a realistic option for many small business owners facing today’s economic challenges and shrinking marketing budgets.

The truth is that there are many on-site SEO tasks that can be tackled by designers, developers, or even by YOU – the small business website owner. While there are numerous things to consider in a comprehensive optimization effort, resolving basic on-site SEO issues is a huge step in the right direction toward improving your site’s search engine friendliness and organic SEO performance. That said, HUGE mistakes can be made if you or your designer aren’t careful or aren’t provided with the right information.

Let’s be clear: if you’re going to rely on whomever designed the site initially to resolve the issues, you should assume they know little to nothing about SEO. Why? If they knew much about building a search engine friendly site, they likely would have done so from the get-go and the site wouldn’t suffer from basic issues like unoptimized titles, poor META tag relevancy, lack of text navigation, etc.

That said, if you intend to rely on your designer or developer to resolve the issues, be prepared to tell them exactly what the issues are and provide them with information about how to go about fixing it. Many designers and developers claim to understand SEO, but more often than not this simply isn’t true. In this case, the usual “laundry list” SEO audits won’t cut the mustard.

Knowing the site doesn’t have an adequate internal link structure won’t be enough for the typical designer or developer to know what to do next. Telling them to fix the keyword cannibalization issues won’t be enough to ensure that it actually gets done. And if YOU don’t have a basic understanding of what keyword cannibalization is, you won’t know where to begin to check to see if the issues have been taken care of.

Not only will they (or you) need to be told what’s wrong, but – more importantly – what is involved in resolving those issues, some of which may be specific to an individual page and some of which may be site-wide issues that will need to be fixed on every page throughout the site. Unless the SEO audit helps create an understanding of not only what must be changed, but how and why it is important, someone who doesn’t already understand SEO will find it useless.

Website Audits Are A First Step – Not “THE” Solution

Think of a website audit as a diagnosis, not a solution to your website’s problems. Just like fatigue, fainting or a fever are indications to your doctor that something is amiss with your health, a site that performs poorly in an organic search is merely a symptom of the website’s underlying problems. An audit is a diagnostic tool. The treatment program, i.e. the overall SEO strategy, begins to take shape once the specific problems have been identified.

The right audit will help you better understand what aspects of the strategy you can carry out yourself and what is best tackled only by an SEO professional. Choosing the right SEO Audit – like choosing the right doctor – is an important first step toward reaching your goals. The most important thing to understand about any SEO effort is that it cannot be approached as a simple, one-time “project”. Successful SEO is an ongoing process. Websites that perform well in the organic search results are constantly monitored and changes continue to be made on an ongoing basis in order to maintain consistent, long-term success.

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• Can SEO Audits Help Small Business Websites?
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• Final Results of NOSNIPPET Testing

This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Choosing The Website Audit That Is Best For YOUR Needs

As many of you may know, I left Jacksonville this morning headed to Nashville to be in the audience for a “CMT Invitation Only” concert with Reba McEntire that will air sometime later this spring or summer.  I was VERY excited when I was chosen to be in the audience, as Reba is (and always has been) one of my favorite people – famous or otherwise.

As soon as I hit the Tennessee state line, it began to rain…no big deal.  It’s just rain.  I’m a road warrior.  I’ve driven thousands of miles in the rain.  That said, I’m not one of those idiots that drives 100 mph on wet pavement.  I’ve seen the results of hydroplaning and I never wanted to experience it for myself.  Alas, the universe had other plans for me today.

I was in the slow lane on I-24 W about 100 miles outside Nashville.  It wasn’t raining much…sprinkling just hard enough to require me to set my windshield wipers on the slowest intermittent setting.  I was in the right hand lane traveling 70 mph – the posted speed limit for that stretch of Interstate.  I was going straight.  There was no standing water on the pavement.

Suddenly, my car began to slide.  The back end of my car began to slide to the right.  I steered into the slide, like I have a million times before – having  grown up in Central Indiana, I am familiar with slick pavement and how to attempt to pull a car out of a slide – though never at 70 mph, which appears to have been the most important variable today.

I quickly realized that there was no way to stop it and despite everything I was doing with my accelerator, brakes and steering wheel, I was merely along for the ride.  As many have said, time literally slows almost to a stop.  I remember thinking to myself as I was spinning in slow motion, “Oh, shit…shit, shit, shit…this is bad.  This is really, really bad…”.

Before I knew it, my car was completely sideways sliding down the Interstate, now taking up both lanes.  My spin continued to complete a full 180 degree turn and I was still sliding – now backwards and in the fast lane – as the cars that were previously behind me, now in front of me, were hurdling toward me at highway speed on wet pavement.  I was pretty sure I was going to die.

I continued to slide backwards for what seemed to be an eternity when my front tires finally grabbed – luckily I’d turned the wheel so that the back end of my car would head toward the guardrail in the median, rather than back across the two lanes of traffic.  The back passenger’s side of the car hit the guardrail first and I proceeded to screetch to a halt as the guardrail grazed the side and then clipped the front passenger’s side of the car.

There was only a half shoulder in the center median, so once I realized I wasn’t dead, I slammed the car into reverse and backed it across into the shoulder on the other side of the slow lane.  Luckily the cars behind me had stopped and I had just enough time to get out of their way without causing a massive pile up of cars behind them that were unaware of my Nascar-like spin into the guardrail.

I hopped out of the car, walked around to the passenger’s side expecting to see two flat tires and an utterly undrivable vehicle.  Astonishingly, despite the damage to the back end, the scrapes down the side and the headlight that was pulled out when the front of the car swiped the guardrail, the tires were fine.  There was no significant damage to either wheel well and nothing that I could see that led me to believe the car wasn’t drivable.

So, I popped the headlight back in, hopped back in the car and started slowly down the shoulder listening for any rub, knock, shake or shimmy…nothing.  It was as if nothing happened.  I took it surprisingly well, to be perfectly honest.  It wasn’t until about 10 miles down the road that it dawned on me what had actually happened…and how unbelievably lucky I am that I’m not dead right now.  I am clearly some sort of cat and today I used up 8 of my 9 lives.

Ironically, it didn’t rain another drop until I pulled into my hotel here in Brentwood.  There are hundreds of songs on my iPod…only a small percentage of which are Reba’s.  And as I pulled into the my parking space, this song began to play (no, I’m not kidding…I kind of wish I were because this REALLY freaked me out):

Now, if you’ll excuse me…I must go shower and get ready for Reba’s concert.  Oh, and I might go ahead and throw up first.  That remains to be seen.

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

My Near Death Experience

I had a great time at IM Spring Break! Mad props for the pimpin’ good time go out to those handsome bad boys of IM Broadcast. Thanks for the good time, fellas. I can’t take credit for that quote…I was momentarily possessed by Van Wilder. I heard a rumor that there is another IM Broadcast event planned in California in July and then ScarySEO in Atlantic City in the fall. More interesting conversations, great sessions, good food and open bars? Um…count me in!

I really enjoyed meeting everyone. I’m working on a post that will include some of my favorite #IMSB tweets and funny memories from the event. And another one that will actually have some substance from a few of my favorite sessions. Perhaps you should subscribe my RSS feed by clicking the giant RSS button to the right of the screen. Stay tuned for a review of Raven Internet Marketing Tools! I have so much work to do to get caught up. I’m sure I’m not alone…

Without further ado, here is SEOAly’s cookie recipe:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar (preferably dark)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (preferably real – not imitation)
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Ghirardelli Milk or Semi-Sweet Chips (or mix the two…)

OPTIONAL: 1 cup nuts (pecans, walnuts, peanuts, macadamias and cashews all work well – preferably pre-roasted)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Combine flour, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in small bowl.

Beat together butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl – cream well.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Stir in chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 8 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

About that “cool completely” craziness…that’s just part of the original recipe. I don’t condone or encourage such nonsense. Pour a cold glass of milk and enjoy!

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• Who Won the IM Spring Break Contest?

This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

SEOAly’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe from IM Spring Break

photo credit: www.ericcastro.biz

I read a post recently that made me laugh, but not for the right reasons. On the other hand, it also made me think about how easy it is for someone who is new to Twitter and the Social Media sphere in general to make a huge mistake and alienate a lot of people who could have shortened the learning curve for a n00b significantly. In a few keystrokes the potential to build a rapport and some quality online relationships is lost. Not only that, it’s also pretty easy to make yourself look like an ignorant tool.

I’m not picking on people who are new to Twitter. Twitter is so new that it hasn’t been long since EVERYONE was a rookie. That said, there are some who navigate the learning curve really quickly and others that don’t. There’s nothing wrong with being among the latter, provided that you recognize you’re still learning and don’t make the mistake of pretending that you’re not. The blog post that amused, as well as sincerely disappointed me, was entitled “Stop Twitter Spam PLEASE!“.

I detest Twitter spammers, so I was excited that someone decided to take a shot at them. Excited, that is, until I reached sentence 4 of the post and realized this poor, misguided soul had no idea what he was talking about. I hesitated to name the post specifically – but in the end, I had no choice. I can’t really illustrate my point without referencing the original post and giving people the opportunity to read it for themselves. In order to put things into perspective here, let’s take a quick look at what a Twitter spammer’s profile actually looks like:

If you compare that to the screenshot used as an example of a “spammer” at the post on iThoughts, you will see some significant differences. Actually, you’ll see absolutely no similarity whatsoever between the image I have included above and Gerald Weber’s Twitter profile. None. Zip. Zero. Nada. To put it simply, that’s because @the_gman is NOT a Twitter spammer…not by a long shot.

I loathe “Twitter rules” posts. I’ve said it numerous times. There are as many ways to use Twitter as there are Twitter users. There are some common sense approaches to using Twitter effectively – like making sure your profile has a bio and a picture, but if someone is stupid enough to want to keep the ugly default avatar and tell people nothing useful about themselves, who am I to judge? Some people will tell you that “don’t curse” is a Twitter rule. To that I say, “Eat shit – I’ll cuss if I want to…” If you don’t like it, don’t follow me. The end.

No one is a Twitter expert – no one. If they tell you they are it’s because they’ve got an e-book they want to sell you about how to use Twitter to make money. Blah. It’s all a bunch of crap. On the other hand, some people have more experience using Twitter than others. So, if you’ve been using Twitter for a couple weeks and are so unfamiliar with it that you don’t even know there is a setting that allows you to control which @replies appear within your Twitterstream and which don’t, I would encourage you to refrain from writing a rant-like post throwing around accusations of spamming.

You’ll piss off the people who can help you learn. You’ll make yourself seem ignorant. You’ll alienate those who might help you to promote worthwhile content in Social Media circles at some point in the future. You’ll cause people, perhaps inaccurately, to come to the conclusion that you’re not all that bright and don’t understand the very definition of the term “spam”. The moral of the story, don’t be a tool. As in real life, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

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• Reciprocal and Auto-Following on Twitter = Bad Idea

This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Use Twitter As A Tool – Don’t Be One

This seemed like a good time to provide a little bit of history about SEOAly and how it has evolved to its current state. I started this blog merely as an information resource for small business owners. I spent more than two years providing SEO consultation for one of the largest small business marketing companies in the United States. Being that it was such a large company, you can imagine my frustration being repeatedly told that only “approved information” was to be shared with our customers.

The world of search marketing is simply too fast-paced to fit into that kind of corporate structure. By the time the powers that be finally get around to approving changes to our SOP, the winds of change had blown through again. I was equally frustrated by some of the company’s standard operating procedures, which included touting “submission to over 400 search engines…” as a major part of their service offering – a task that we all know is futile and pointless in today’s world of search marketing.

An Outlet For Frustration

During that time, however, I learned an enormous amount about SEO and the search marketing landscape as a whole. I also took advantage of the opportunity to build some online relationships with many of the best minds in the search marketing world today. At the risk of going off on a tangent, I must note that Twitter is an invaluable resource.

I would venture to say that I have learned more and gained more search marketing insight through my interactions on Twitter than through any other single source. I’ve also made some great online friends and I’m excited to meet many of them at IMBroadcast’s upcoming search marketing conference, IM Spring Break.

Now, returning to the topic of my frustration consulting for a large corporation…I may not have been able to share my new-found information with the clients I provided consultation to, but that wasn’t about to stop me from continuing the learning process. I found myself in need of a platform to share the findings of my research and testing…a platform that my employer wasn’t about to provide. Thus, I launched my own blog: SEOAly.

SEOAly’s Evolution

I left the company for an in-house SEO position with a small software company in November, 2008. I was let go from that position just over a month later. While being self-employed was my ultimate goal, being thrust into the ranks of the unemployed with millions of other Americans with the global economy in such a precarious state was certainly never on my to-do list…especially after having been recruited and hired for the in-house SEO position under false pretenses to begin with. At that point, the focus of SEOAly changed.

I elected to not only continue to publish SEOAly as a free source of information for business owners, I decided to provide those small business owners with useful and affordable SEO services that would help them identify the issues currently plaguing their sites and better understand how to build more search engine friendly websites for their businesses.

As our economy continues to struggle, getting the most out of a small business marketing budget is becoming more and more important. Wasting money with companies and services that don’t work is no longer an option in this economic climate. And with the number of scammers and charlatans that exist in the search marketing industry, a small business owner’s best defense against falling victim is information!

I currently provide SEO audits and keyword research services for small business websites. It’s not glamorous and I’ll likely never get rich doing it, but that’s okay – both are essential steps toward all small business websites being able to take full advantage of the opportunity that today’s world of search marketing provides. I am a firm believer that small businesses and an entrepreneurial spirit are truly essential to America’s future. Providing small business owners with affordable services that help them to develop a successful SEO strategy is the least I can do.

I also provide WordPress site and blog development, as well as basic services related to carrying out a Social Media strategy – such as setting up accounts on popular and niche Social Media sources, like Digg, StumbleUpon and Twitter, on the small business owner’s behalf. These services are currently offered on a limited basis, as my schedule permits.

So there you have it – the evolution of SEOAly from a ranty, information blog to a full-fledged small business website. Thanks for stopping by! I hope you find the information here useful…and if not useful, perhaps at least amusing or entertaining. Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed!

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

SEOAly Makes the TopRank “BigList”

So…here I sit in the library trying to get some work done because my Internet connection at home is down. Little did I know, I can’t get access to my hosting accounts’ cPanels from here. DOH! So, instead of working on the projects I intended to work on, I’m writing a blog post about my personal Twitter follow policy.

I’m a born multi-tasker. It isn’t often that I’m not doing 3…4…7…12 things at once. It’s just my nature. I’ve always been that way. That said, I spend all day online tackling a variety of things at once – working on site audits, finishing site designs, doing WordPress installations, writing blog posts…and last, but certainly not least, Tweeting. I am a Twitter addict. There, I admit it – I feel better now. I love it. Twitter is to me what crack is to a junkie. If I’m away from it for too long, I start to get the shakes.

Reciprocal Following and Auto-Follow…I Just Don’t Get It

It seems not a day passes now that I don’t get a crop of new followers. Among them are always some dumbass spammers whose profiles consist of nothing more than a link to some bullshit website and a single update touting their excitement over receiving a free laptop or how they’ve made $100 in ten minutes with the Internet’s latest get rich quick scheme. Does anyone really fall for that crap anymore? I mean, if there were actually a way to “get rich quick”, I’d have jumped all over it already. Therein lies the inspiration for this post.

I follow just under 300 people on Twitter. Most have ties to the search marketing industry, website design, Social Media, etc. Many of them, like Kim Krause Berg, Michael Gray (who actually just started following me TODAY…perhaps partially due to my whining that he still wasn’t following me – but whatever…) and Jill Whalen didn’t follow me back initially. Why would they? They had no idea who I was, what I was about and, frankly, that I wasn’t a complete tool. It wasn’t until after I had interacted with them that I earned a follow back. And that is as it should be.

Alysson…What’s Your Freakin’ Point?

Geez…I’m getting to it. I don’t reciprocal follow. I don’t believe in it. I don’t believe that someone following me on Twitter means that I should also follow them. Let’s take this one step further and address the very concept of the “auto-follow”. It is asinine. Auto-following is absolutely ludicrous, pointless and I can’t imagine a better way to render Twitter absolutely useless. I can’t fathom what my Twitterstream would look like with much more than 300 people in it. I probably miss out on a lot of useful tweets that pertain to search marketing or my other interests as it is. Why would I want to follow someone who sells soap just because they’ve followed me?

Frankly, I don’t understand why some of the people that are following me, follow me. I’m a sometimes vulgar, wildly opinionated, Buddhist smart ass who couldn’t be further from the right wing of politics – no, really…I couldn’t be. I have nothing in common with the intolerant, radically judgmental, holier-than-thou, neo-conservative, evangelical, right wing hate monger movement. Yet, some of my followers include within their bios things like “God-fearing Conservative” and “Rush Limbaugh Supporter”. Um, okay…welcome, but your likelihood of being offended on a daily basis just went up exponentially – enjoy!

Sometimes the things that lead to my getting a new follower are hilarious. For instance, I tweet back and forth with @kim_cre8pc about her knee injury and before you know it, @TheKneePainGuru starts following me. I talk about beef jerky and low & behold, @ObertoAlpha starts following me. Go figure. By the way, I am now following @ObertoAlpha because they carried on a conversation with me via Twitter – and offered me free jerky, which didn’t hurt their cause. See how that works? Engage me in some way, and I’m likely to follow you back – voila!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for each of my Twitter followers, aside from the spammers that have yet to be identified – I’m coming to block you, I promise. I hope I bring something useful, or at the very least amusing, to your Twittersphere. On the other hand, if you want me to follow you back, give me some sort of reason. Carry on a Twitter conversation with me. Ask me a question. Comment on a post I’ve written. Give me some feedback on a question I pose via Twitter. Something. And no, trying to sell me something or telling me how to get a free laptop won’t cut it. Throw in a free Snuggie, some Mighty Mend-it and a Shamwow…maybe we’ll talk.

So, here’s your chance to tell me how wrong I am about my opposition to reciprocal following. Think you can talk me out of it? Think you can convince me…convert me…coerce me? Leave your comments and see if you’re right.

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Reciprocal and Auto-Following on Twitter = Bad Idea

Seriously, though…my excitement about attending the event isn’t just because I now get to go for free. Don’t get me wrong – for a poor girl, that’s pretty sweet. However, I wanted to go and had every intention of whoring myself…er, uh…I mean scraping together the money to go, even if I hadn’t won. The conference is sure to be three days of learning from some of the best minds in search marketing today. No, really – considering the speakers scheduled to appear, the affordability of the event is mind-boggling, to say the least.

Scheduled to appear:

Jeff Quipp
Chris Winfield
Brent Csutoras
Todd Mailcoat aka Stuntdubl
Rae Hoffman aka Sugarrae
Brian Chappell
Wil Reynolds
Kenny Hyder
Carolyn Shelby
Rhea Drysdale
Michael Streko
Aaron Chronister
David Szetela
Brandy Eddings
Frank Watson
Chris Hart
Pamela Lund
Neal Rodriguez
Loren Baker
Jordan Kasteler
David Snyder

At $1000 this conference would be a bargain. At $500 this conference was insanely affordable. At the recently announced stimulus pricing of just $379…well, anyone even mildly interested in any topic even remotely related to Internet marketing would be completely INSANE to pass this up. I have a feeling that Rae Hoffman’s link building keynote alone is going to be worth the price of admission. It’s gotta be good to warrant having to sign an NDA, right? HELL YEAH!

In short, you’d be a fool to pass up three days of camaraderie and exchanging wicked awesome information that will help you do a better job of marketing on the Internet. That’s right…I said it – A FOOL! Oh, and let’s not forget that it is being held in south Florida in April. Does weather get any more beautiful than Boca Raton in April? I’ll answer that question for you – no, it doesn’t.

Now, go register for IM Spring Break. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Who Won the IM Spring Break Contest?

This company touted their ability to rank well for search engine optimization jacksonville as proof of their SEO prowess. A little research into that term would clue anyone in to the fact that it’s A) not all that competitive and not really something to brag about; and B) not a term that generates a great deal of search volume. Those facts alone were enough to tip me off that something wasn’t quite adding up. Further investigation into the sites they build, both for themselves and for their clients, provided me with every shred of proof that I needed to come to the conclusion that they knew very little about SEO, and a great deal about spamming.

SEO Mistakes vs. Malicious Intent

To target search engine optimization jacksonville isn’t enough to label someone a charlatan. It might not make a great deal of business sense, but it certainly doesn’t mean a company is offering snake oil services under the premise of providing SEO. So, I decided to dig in a little deeper and pick through the on-site SEO – not only of their company site – but the sites they’ve built for their clients and proudly tout as SEO clients on their ill-conceived, poorly designed, usability nightmare of a corporate website. As I picked apart the on-site SEO – and believe me, I hesitate to even refer to it as that – all I could say was “WOW!”

These were perhaps some of the most poorly optimized sites I had come across during my years in the industry. I’ve seen do-it-yourselfers build more search engine friendly sites. While there are certainly no on-site SEO “rules” regarding title and description length, number of keywords targeted by a page, etc., there ARE universally accepted best practices that have been followed by industry experts for quite some time now.

These best practices are the foundation of a solid SEO strategy. This company’s tactics, on the other hand, were simply outdated, asinine and completely ineffective in the long term, to say the least. The issues that I uncovered included:

• Keyword spamming within title tags
• Excessively long title tags
• Keyword cannibalization
• Ridiculously long descriptions
• Heavily spammed keywords META tags that included in excess of 30 terms
• Very poor page content to META tag relevancy
• Extremely high keyword density
• Poorly written and keyword spammed text content
• Heavy use of tables
• Improper use of headings
• Lack of optimization of ALT attributes
• Unresolved canonical URL issues
• Massive duplicate content across multiple pages and multiple URLs

As you can see, literally everything that can be done wrong from an on-site SEO standpoint, they were clearly and obviously doing wrong. It was almost inconceivable to me that this company claimed to know anything about SEO, let alone charged untold amounts of money to their clients for search engine optimization services.

As a small business website owner you may have no idea what the individual issues above refer to, so let me sum it up for you in one easy to understand sentence: ANYONE claiming to know anything about SEO would never build a site with such a lack of attention to the details of on-site SEO.

Jacksonville SEO Clients Beware

Many small businesses opt for a hometown firm to provide search engine optimization because they believe they’re less likely to “get had”. I think I’ve just shattered that myth. That said, don’t fall victim to a scam by typing “search engine optimization jacksonville” in to Google, throwing a dart at the first page of search results and going with whatever company the dart hits within the first page of results.

The fact is that Google is very good at recognizing and eliminating spammers from their index, but they’re not perfect. There are tactics that can be used to manipulate algorithms in the short term – like paying for inbound links – that have disastrous results over time. By disastrous, I mean having your domain banned from the search engines indefinitely – yes, Google takes paying for links THAT seriously.

As many know, I’ve also spent the better part of a year on this blog trying to help small business owners avoid being scammed by SEO charlatans. Most small business owners that fall victim to scammers aren’t stupid, they simply don’t know how to go about checking out an SEO firm before hiring them. That said, here’s a tip. Use Website Grader to assess a company’s site BEFORE you even consider contacting them to discuss optimizing your website.

While the information provided by Website Grader is extremely basic, it does give those outside the search marketing industry some very valuable information – like whether or not the company incorporates basic on-site best practices into the optimization of their own site. I can tell you with a great deal of confidence that if an SEO firm doesn’t know enough about the basics to incorporate them into the optimization of their own site, you should not even consider having them optimize yours!

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Search Engine Optimization Jacksonville – Hometown Scams

The advice he was given, particularly with regard to the permalink structure of the URLs of his blog, was absolutely CORRECT. The problem lies, not with the suggestion his unnamed “SEO Maven” friend offered, but that this individual gave him only part of the information necessary in order to make the changes properly. Mr. Dvorak elected to run with this partial information and tackle the task of changing the URL structure of his blog without fully understanding the appropriate process for doing so, nor the necessary steps required to do it properly.

Therein lies the problem with search engine optimization: do-it-yourselfers armed with partial information and the over-reaching egos that lead them to believe a massive undertaking – like changing the URL structure of an entire site or blog – can be properly carried out based on the limited information provided during an IM conversation. See, part of the problem with many who know something about SEO is that they neglect to understand that sharing tidbits of information, like “…you should be using long URLs…” (which, if quoted by Mr. Dvorak correctly is NOT the appropriate explanation), doesn’t provide whomever they’re speaking to with a realistic picture of what is involved in making such a massive change to an existing site or blog.

What Mr. Dvorak’s SEO pal neglected to mention was that before even considering making such a change, he should think long and hard about what the new URLs should be and that simply changing the URL structure in the permalinks settings of WordPress would not be enough. Nor was he properly advised to use the custom permalink structure /%postname%/, as to include only the title of the post in the URL – not the date.

Furthermore, Mr. Dvorak also neglected to edit the individual permalinks to include only the most pertinent information regarding the post’s topic and the applicable keywords. Like this post, for instance, whose URL is not http://www.seoaly.com/ignorant-do-it-yourselfers-and-their-seo-fiascoes-the-real-trouble-with-search-engine-optimization, but the more search engine friendly and user-friendly http://www.seoaly.com/real-trouble-with-search-engine-optimization instead.

Another thing not taken into account when Mr. Dvorak changed his URLs was: what will happen to any existing links to the old post URLs? You see, when permalinks are changed it will break the existing links to the old URL. Someone who fully understands SEO, rather than thinking they can glean all of the information needed from a brief IM conversation, would have understood that installing a plugin – like Redirection – would be necessary in order create a 301 redirect and to prevent any existing links from breaking as a result of the changes to the post URLs. Immediately creating a new sitemap and submitting it to Google would help to make them aware of the changes to the URL structure of the blog, as well – but I doubt that step was taken into consideration either.

Again, having a partial understanding of the process and not being aware of all that occurs when a post URL is changed was your undoing, Mr. Dvorak – not the advice that adjustments to the URLs would increase the optimization of the individual posts on your blog. This is no “trick”, as you claim – this is an accepted and effective SEO strategy that is not only employed by reputable SEOs, but actually recommended by Google and documented at the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog. Here are two of the many posts that give some insight into Google’s recommendations for URL structure: Dynamic URLs vs. Static URLs and Google’s SEO Starter Guide.

A further claim was made that making changes to the URLs “…does nothing” and that “…long URLs are crap and stupid.” Again, I question the use of the term “long URLs” and tend to believe the use of this improper terminology as further proof that he was not provided with the appropriate information initially. Nevertheless, this claim is based purely on ignorance, rather than being based in fact. Creating URLs that contain keywords, rather than simply the domain and “?p=3100″, as is the WordPress default format for URLs, DOES – in fact – have an impact on the ranking of the post in the search results. In much the same way that having a keyword in the domain itself helps to improve ranking, so does having the post’s main keywords in the URL string of the individual page or post. This is a fact and it is undisputed, as illustrated by the aforementioned posts at Google’s official webmaster blog.

You see, Mr. Dvorak, search engine optimization and learning all that is involved with it is a full time undertaking. Those of us involved in the industry do this all day, every day and – unlike you – have a complete understanding of the far-reaching implications and potential problems with changing the URL structure of a blog. Unlike you, we understand the big picture of the overall optimization of a site or blog. SEO is not something that should be tackled by just anyone completing task after task on a universal checklist. Your claim that SEO is snake oil speaks more to your ignorance than to fact. Making such a claim is the imbecilic equivalent of diagnosing someone with Appendicitis and attempting to remove their appendix based on the information available at WebMD, then proceeding to hold WebMD accountable when the patient dies on the table.

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Ignorant Do-It-Yourselfers & Their SEO Fiascoes: The Real Trouble With Search Engine Optimization

Nevertheless, I’ve not given up hope of getting to meet some of my favorite SEO/SEM pals in person. And thanks to IMBroadcast’s contest – you may have heard about it already – that hope is alive and well. I’m totally throwing my hat in the ring to win it! If you aren’t familiar with the contest, read this post: “Go to IM Spring Break, and stay on the IMBroadcast team’s tab“.

Now that you’re up to speed on how it works and know what you need to do, here are the 7 things that I think will happen at IM Spring Break:

1) The $500 spent on the conference will pale in comparison to some attendees’ bar tabs.

So, now what should you do? It’s simple: write a post at your blog highlighting 7 things you think, or wish, or expect, or hope will happen at IM Spring Break. Make sure the post includes a link to Go to IM Spring Break, and stay on the IMBroadcast team’s tab and this post. That’s it! See…it really couldn’t be easier to help me win the contest, eh?

Now, on to who gets tagged to pingback to this post:

Kim Krause Berg
Rae Hoffman
Monica Wright
Josh Garner
Matt Crouch
Tad Chef
Jim Connolly
Debra Mastaler – THANK YOU, DEBRA!
Joe Hall – THANK YOU, JOE!
Claire Hawley
Dave Snyder
Matt Webb
Cat Pickett
Jonathan W Thomas
Donna Fontenot
Eric Werner
Kyle Reddoch
Kevin Eklund
David Leonhardt – THANK YOU, DAVID!
Brian Chappell
Meg Geddes
Eric Lander
Joshua Sciarrino
Geoff Jackson
Eric Gehler – THANK YOU, ERIC!
Mike Tekula
Michael Martine
Levi Wardell
Steve Seeley
Chase Granberry
Jeff Selig
Jack Leblond
Stuart Foster
Badi Jones
Julie Joyce – THANK YOU, JULIE!
Melanie Nathan
Kyle Wegner
Rick Galan
Brent Nau
Sri Nagubandi
Lisa Weinberger
Taylor Pratt
Chris Estes
Ann Smarty – THANK YOU, ANN!
CK Chung
Hjortur Smarason
Michael Gray

I think I may have gone a little overboard with tagging people. Oh well! Can you tell I have no money and REALLY want to go to IM Spring Break??

Now, the rest falls to you – write your own blog post about the 7 things you anticipate will happen at IM Spring Break and DON’T FORGET TO LINK THE POST BACK TO THIS ONE! Come on people…help me out, would ya??

BIG thanks to these guys, who I didn’t tag originally but are awesome enough to help me out anyway!

Frank Watson
Barry Welford
Communibus Locis
Steve Vandergriff
Matt Leonard

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

7 Things That Will Happen At IM Spring Break

For those who aren’t familiar with canonical URL issues, also referred to as url canonicalization (and sometimes “canonical home page issues” – which is technically incorrect as it does not just apply to the home page), put simply it is having the same page show up on multiple URLs inadvertently – not to be confused with purposely having multiple pages that contain the same text content.

If, for instance, your home page is accessible at both www.domain.com and domain.com, your site is suffering from canonical URL issues. In the worst case scenario, some pages are accessible at up to 6 or 7 different URLs…or more.

What URLs Are Being Linked To

While the duplicate content created by canonical URL issues may or may not have a negative impact on ranking, one thing is certain: it DOES have an impact on the link equity of the page. What does that mean? Well, in short, if the same page can be accessed using two, three, four or more URLs, it means each of those URLs could be bookmarked or shared on a variety of social media outlets or linked to by other websites.

Let’s say that 100 sites link to your home page, but your home page is accessible at www.domain.com, domain.com, www.domain.com/index.html and domain.com/index.html – all of which contain the same useful, and clearly popular content, based on 100 sites linking to it. Now, let’s say that 25 of those sites link to the URL www.domain.com, 25 others link to domain.com, another 25 to www.domain.com/index.html, and the last 25 to domain.com/index.html.

All of the links ultimately serve up the same content, so it doesn’t make any difference…right? WRONG! Instead of the home page being given credit for having 100 links, those four separate URLs are considered individual pages by the search engines and each is given credit for having only 25 links – even though the links ultimately lead a user to the same content. DOH! In a world controlled by Google and PageRank, the number of external links pointing to an individual URL can have an enormous impact on ranking.

What About Duplicate Content?

While some were put at ease by Google’s post back in September, entitled “Demystifying the Duplicate Content Penalty“, some in the search marketing industry still remain convinced that duplicate content issues can hurt a page’s ranking in the search results – myself included. I, and many of my search marketing colleagues, have enough experience to understand that leaving Google to figure things out for themselves and determining which URL should be the preferred URL in the search results is like playing Russian roulette – a point that I elaborated on in a previous post, “Duplicate Content – Did Google Do A 180?“.

The Solution: A 301 Redirect

Creating a 301 redirect is somewhat technical and involves making changes to the .htaccess file in the root directory of your domain, so most small business owners aren’t comfortable creating or modifying the file themselves. This is generally something that is best undertaken by an IT professional. That said, here is the redirect code that should be placed within the .htaccess file on (provided your server is running Apache with mod_rewrite enabled):

NOTE: this is the 301 rewrite code for a server running Apache – if your server is not running Apache, the redirect code is likely different from what is included above. This is yet another reason that creating a 301 redirect by modifying the .htaccess file is often tackled by an IT professional.

A 301 redirect points the browser to a single, preferred URL – the typical choice is www.domain.com. That means that if someone were to follow a link that pointed to domain.com, www.domain.com/index.html, or domain.com/index.html it will be redirected to www.domain.com automatically.

The biggest advantage to creating a 301 redirect is that existing links to any of the variations of that URL will continue to pass “link juice” – meaning you don’t have to inform the sites that may have linked to one of the newly redirected URLs of the change and there is no risk of losing the link juice being passed by those links.

Referring back to the previous example, adding a 301 redirect for domain.com, www.domain.com/index.html and domain.com/index.html will result in links to those URLs being recognized as links to www.domain.com, so www.domain.com will receive credit for all 100 links, rather than 25 links being attributed to each of four individual URLs. Problem solved!

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• Duplicate Content – Did Google Do A 180?

This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Canonical URL Issues and Link Equity

Whether you’ve already hired someone to optimize your small business website or you’re just entertaining the notion, SEO audits can help to ensure that your marketing dollars are being spent wisely. Every day it seems as though there are hundreds more companies looking to make a quick buck by charging you for search engine optimization whether they know anything about SEO or not. If they don’t, I’m sure you’d prefer to know now rather than later…right?

SEO Audits Equal Peace of Mind

An SEO audit is a sure-fire way to determine whether your site is following the search engines’ accepted best practices. Unfortunately what you don’t know can really hurt you. SEO audits help to identify the issues that may be causing your site to perform poorly, as well as helping to discover if you’ve been wasting precious marketing dollars on an SEO scam.

The unpleasant truth is that there are an inordinate number of companies out there that sell search engine optimization services with no real understanding of how to properly optimize a website for long term success in the search results. Contrary to the claims of many a search marketing charlatan, there is no “quick & easy” solution for optimizing a website. There is no way to guarantee a #1 ranking in Google. There is no method for achieving a page one ranking in 7 days and keeping that page one ranking for long. Optimizing a site takes time and real work. Simply implementing the on-page SEO basics can be a time consuming endeavor, depending on how well your site your was built initially.

Many companies will charge for SEO services with absolutely no understanding of how search marketing has changed over the past couple of years or the direction its continued evolution will likely take. Website designers and development firms are often the worst offenders. Keeping up to date with the search marketing industry requires dedication and ongoing training. In the last year alone search engine optimization strategies have begun to incorporate Social Media campaigns as an integral part of the process of driving traffic to a site. Why? Because that is the direction that search marketing is moving. If you’re working with a firm that isn’t aware of that, you’re at a huge disadvantage and probably wasting your marketing dollars. The fact of the matter is that SEO is incredibly involved. Actually understanding SEO is a full time job in and of itself.

Bad SEO Is Worse Than No SEO

Many small business website owners trust their optimization strategy to a company they know little or nothing about. Are you one of them? What does the company optimizing your site actually know about SEO? Do they even understand the importance of basics – like how title lengths and what should be included within them? What tactics are being used in the optimization of your site? Do you know? When the future of your small business is at stake, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Are You Already the Victim of an SEO Scam?

An SEO audit can help you learn more about how well your site has been optimized and whether or not your SEO firm even understands the basics of on-page SEO. There is a lot more to SEO than the on-page basics – but I can all but guarantee that if they don’t take the time to do the basics, they likely know little or nothing about any of the many other aspects of SEO either. There are no super secret, proprietary or magic tactics that any one company has exclusive access to that can guarantee top rankings in the search engines. There are, however, questionable tactics – such as participating in link farms and purchasing links – that can be used to manipulate the search engines’ algorithms. Those tactics will ultimately result in a domain being banned from the search engines altogether. Many a small business website has suffered that fate due to the negligence and malicious intent of SEO charlatans. Don’t let that happen to you.

If the success of your small business depends upon potential customers finding your site in the search results, nothing is more important than finding a reputable company or individual to optimize your site. The tactics and strategies employed by your SEO can do more harm than good if Google’s Webmaster Guidelines are being violated. And SEO audit can help you to identify these issues before your site is penalized. Even if there is no risk of a ban, simply understanding where your existing site falls short and incorporating SEO best practices can help your site perform better in the organic search results and bring a lot more visitors to your small business website – often resulting in higher sales and greater profits.

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Can SEO Audits Help Small Business Websites?

So, without further ado, here are the WordPress plugins I simply cannot live without.  Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration…but my life with WordPress as I know it would cease to exist without these plugins and the ingenious developers that create them.

I’ll start with some plugins that take care of SEO:

• All-In-One SEO Pack – the name pretty much says it all.  One of the most important functions of this plugin is that it provides you with the ability to create titles, descriptions and keywords for individual pages and posts manually.  It also has a handy feature which allows you to add a NOINDEX tag to category, archive and tag archive pages which helps to alliviate any potential duplicate content concerns.
• Robots Meta – this plugin way more awesome than its simple name would imply.  Of course, it allows you to alter the robots tags on individual pages and posts by providing index, follow; noindex, follow; index, nofollow and noindex, nofollow options.  That’s just the beginning.

  This plugin also provides you with the ability to prevent the indexing of your RSS feeds, search results pages, admin, login and registration pages, author archives and more.  Is that it?  No…that’s not it.  It also provides you with the flexibility to add a nofollow function to a variety of links, including the outbound links on the site’s front page, links to comment sections, login & registration pages, etc.  You can also add NOODP and NOYDIR tags to posts and pages.

It is important to note that I also recommend Platinum SEO Pack, but since changing my blog’s theme recently it no longer works properly – causing a fatal error on the individual pages/posts throughout my site (the only exception being my home page).  This is the first time I have ever had such an issue with that plugin.  I’m a bit of a code plebe, so I have no idea how to resolve the issue.  I elected to simply go back to my original solution, which was to use All-In-One SEO Pack in conjunction with Robots Meta.  Together they provide basically the same features as the Platinum SEO Pack plugin.

• Google XML Sitemaps – while creating a sitemap isn’t necessarily a make or break task with regard to SEO, it is certainly considered a standard best practice.  This plugin not only creates a sitemap for you, it also does so automatically each time you publish a page or post.  Sweet, huh?  Yes…sweet indeed!

  Another great feature of this plugin is that it notifies the search engines when your blog has been updated.  Did I mention you also have the flexibility to determine what posts, categories, etc. are included in the sitemap?  Yeah…you can.  Nice!

Okay…now, on to the stuff that is a little less “behind the scenes”.  Here are my favorite plugins that impact the a user’s experience in some way.

• CommentLuv – why should people take the time to comment on your blog?  If you’re hoping they’ll do so just out of the goodness of their hearts, you’re in for some disappointment.  People these days are busy.  You’re lucky if they take the time to read one of your blog posts, let alone take the time to comment.  Why not give them some incentive to comment by using the CommentLuv plugin?

  This plugin automatically creates a link to their latest blog post based on the URL the provide when commenting.  It’s a small thing that can go a long way to encourage people to comment.  And you really have nothing to lose by using it.

• NoFollow Free – this subject is a source some of controversy for some bloggers, as illustrated by the comments I received on the post Why NOFOLLOW My Comments? in which I announced my use of NoFollow Free back in September.  The plugin allows you to remove the automatically generated NOFOLLOW attribute from your post’s comment links.

  Many advise against this because of the potential for spam.  I, on the other hand, wholeheartedly disagree.  First of all, the plugin provides a lot of options for controlling which comments have the NOFOLLOW removed and which don’t (like the number of comments one must leave, whether registration is required, etc.).

  You can also identify specific words, like…say “viagra” and “cialis”, that if included in the comment section will automatically revert the comment author link back to the default NOFOLLOW.  As is my contention with CommentLuv, there is nothing to lose by using it – provided you properly configure the settings for the plugin.

• Social Profiles – I was instantly hooked on this plugin the day Sugarrae released it.  This is yet another way to say a little “thank you” to those readers who take the time to comment.  The Social Profiles plugin allows your registered users to input their usernames for popular social sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, etc.

  Why would they want to do that?  Because upon doing so there will be links to those profiles added to their comments automatically.  As the blog owner you have the choice of having text links or image links included.  Here are examples of each:

  
  

• WordPress Thread Comment – this provides your users with the option of replying to a specific comment made, rather than simply having their comment added to the bottom of the existing comments.  This is particularly useful for you, as the blog owner, in being able to reply to specific comments left on your posts.  Even if you’re the only one who ever uses the reply feature, this plugin is well worth installing.
• WP-SphinnIt – this plugin is really only useful for bloggers in the search marketing industry, but most of my readership belongs to the search marketing community or are small business owners.  Thus, this is among my favorite plugins.  It allows your readers to easily submit or Sphinn a post on your blog, as well as providing you with the flexibility to decide where the button appears – top left, top right, bottom left or bottom right.

  As with the original Sphinn button, it also displays the number of Sphinns the post has already received.  Why not just input the code provided by Sphinn manually?  I used to do that.  Then I realized that every time I changed my theme, I had to input the code again.  Why do that if you don’t have to?  Exactly.

• AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget – this plugin makes it uber-simple for your readers to submit the post or page to a variety of social media, networking and bookmarking sources like Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, etc.  It also provides you with a large number of customization options for what sources are included in the drop down menu, as well as a “more…” option that opens in a separate window that includes virtually every social media, networking and bookmarking source anyone could desire.  Are user-generated links always preferable to having to build your own?? 

The following plugins fall into a “miscellaneous” category, I suppose.  Some have a bit of a positive impact on users, but their functionality really applies to your ability to more easily and more effectively manage your WordPress site/blog.

• Customize Your Community – this is yet another offering from Sugarrae as a result of her collaboration with Joost de Valk.  It prevents those registered as subscribers from being able to see the default WordPress pages which show the number of posts, pages, comments, etc.  It is great for maintaining design & brand consistency, as well as limiting the amount of information seen by your subscribers on the registration, login, logout, lost password and registered user profile pages.  A must for any blog owner who wants to encourage readers to register, but doesn’t want to allow them to see the default WordPress Dashboard.
• New User E-mail Setup – are you tired of your registered users getting a generic e-mail that includes their registration information?  I sure was.  This plugin allows you to create a custom e-mail to send to your newly registered readers.  Mine looks like this (and you’ll get one of your very own when you register):

  

• Ultimate Google Analytics – this plugin does more than just inputting your personal analytics code into your blog.  It provides a number of options regarding what should be tracked and what should not, including:   external links, mailto links and links to downloads on your own site.  Very useful.
• WordPress Automatic Upgrade – sometimes all you need to know is covered in the name.  Anyone who has manually upgraded WordPress in the past can appreciate the ease of use and reliability of this plugin.  Anyone who has never upgraded WordPress to a new version shouldn’t even bother attempting to do so manually.  This plugin completely automates the process of upgrading and backing up your blog.  I can’t fathom why anyone using WordPress as their CMS wouldn’t use this plugin.
• Widget Locationizer – this is my newest find. I must admit that using the word “find” is a bit misleading. My friend Kevin at at ToMuse sent me an e-mail recently inviting me to check out his latest offering. So, what’s so great about this plugin? The real question is what isn’t so great about it. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been annoyed that the same sidebar widgets appear on virtually every page and/or post throughout my blog. Well, not anymore!

  With Widget Locationizer your options are virtually endless. We can finally decide for ourselves what widgets appear on what pages. This happens pretty often with product or service reviews. If it is a worthwhile product or service, we may want to place an affiliate link in the sidebar. In the past doing so meant having to add that affiliate link to the sidebar of every page or post. This plugin changes all of that. Widget Locationizer gives you the flexibility to assign specific widgets to individual posts and pages based on tags, categories or even single page/post ID. FINALLY!

Well, there you have it…the core list of plugins I use on a regular basis. Did I miss anything? Do you have some favorites you’d like to share? Leave a comment! Don’t forget that I don’t just recommend the NoFollow Free and Social Profiles plugins mentioned above – I also use them.

And, if you need a bit of extra incentive to register, perhaps you’d should read my Reasons To Login Before Commenting post. Here’s a hint…the number of comments required to have the NOFOLLOW attribute removed from comment links is far less for registered users than unregistered commenters. I’m just sayin’…

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Hi, I’m Alysson and I Am Addicted to WordPress Plugins

Think about how you use your computer today vs. how you used your computer 15 years ago.  I’d venture to say 15 years ago the vast majority of people who had computers used them for writing letters and business-related presentations, checking e-mail and briefly surfing the Internet for information…and that’s about it.  And that seemed like a big deal.  Ah…remember when a 14.4 modem was “state of the art”?  HAHA!  Now, think about the technological world we live in today.

I can take a picture of something and send it to someone on the other side of the globe literally in a matter of seconds WITH MY PHONE.  Remember address books and those little binders designed to hold business cards?  There’s no doubt those things still exist, but it won’t be long before they’re a distant memory (like 8-track tapes) and something we bore our grandchildren with when we start telling “when I was your age…” stories.  I actually said “8-track tape” once to my niece…she looked at me as if I were speaking a foreign language. 

These days we do EVERYTHING online.  People don’t just USE the Internet anymore – they RELY on the Internet…not just to exchange information with people they know, but for day-to-day tasks like paying bills and scheduling doctor’s appointments.  Just the other day my friend was instant messaging his DOCTOR with questions about the medication he had prescribed.  Hello…that is AWESOME!  10 years ago getting those few questions answered would have involved a phone call (perhaps more than one phone call), leaving a message with the receptionist and then waiting hours (or perhaps days) for a call back.  Instead, my buddy got his questions answered and the information he needed instantly.  In this constantly evolving technological world, there is almost nothing that can’t be accomplished online.  THAT is the evolution of Web 2.0 as it applies to the real world.

Does anyone remember the days of calling “Time & Temperature” or “The Weather Line”?  I do.  How many do you suppose still do that?  I’d say it’s a vastly small percentage of people, if the services even still exist at all.  There are plenty of sources for weather information online and with the advent of WiFi, Blackberry, iPhone and the like, you’re never more than a keystrokes (or screen touches) away from whatever it is you might want to know.  I can pay my cell phone bill FROM MY PHONE.  Who would have imagined that 20 years ago?  And keep in mind, 20 years ago I was the same age my niece is now.  She will never know a world without such technology…and I’ve not yet decided whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

The evolution of the Web 2.0 world has also given people an unprecedented opportunity to take control over their own reputations, whether personal or professional.  For a business, it’s no longer enough to just HAVE a website.  You must have a website, without question.  Once people have found your website, many likely go on to search for the company by name and peruse the results.  Do you know what comes up when someone types your company’s name into the search query?  Have you ever even thought to look?  You might be surprised…

Online reputation management is no less important for an individual.  Have you ever typed your name into a search query?  If you’re actively managing your reputation, as you should be, you should see a variety of results that include your LinkedIn profile, Facebook profile, profiles you have created with well-known sites in your given area of expertise, etc.  Do you know what comes up in the search results when someone searches for you by name?  You have more control over that than you think.

LinkedIn is a perfect example of this theory in action.  LinkedIn profiles are a great source of information regarding a person’s professional experience.  Moreover, LinkedIn recommendations give anyone viewing the profile the opportunity to learn about a person based on others’ experiences with them.  It is much the same premise as website testimonials, but on an individual basis.

This is useful for both the self-employed seeking freelance or contract work, but also for any potential job hunter!  Instead of having to do the whole, “Hey, I put your name down as a reference on when I applied for [this job], so you might be getting a call…”.  People can now leave standing recommendations for you on the LinkedIn profile that will save both you and a potential employer time and resources.

I have been contacted by several recruiters as a result of the resumes they’ve found on CareerBuilder and Monster.com.  Rather than using the standard “References Available Upon Request” statement found at the bottom of the vast majority of resumes, mine states, “References Available at http://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssonfergison”.  Many recruiters have openly stated that the information within my LinkedIn profile set me apart from others who had actually already applied for the position and were actively interviewing.

Let’s say a hiring manager for a company has two seemingly equally qualified applicants.  Both made it through the interview process with flying colors, they have comparable education & experience and each appears more than able to carry out the day-to-day tasks required of the position.  In the past, hiring managers often had no choice but to just flip a coin and take a chance on one or the other.  The evolution of the Web 2.0 world has eliminated the need for such guesswork.

Today, that hiring manager has the opportunity to find information about each candidate online simply by searching for them by name.  Among the top five results for one candidate is her LinkedIn profile, which the hiring manager promptly reviews.  On her profile is a detailed work history, education information, groups and associations she is a member of, recommendations from prior colleagues and clients, etc.  The other candidate, on the other hand, has no such results for her name and, as such, has likely just been beaten out for the position by her competitor – due to nothing more than poor online reputation management.

The world is becoming ever more reliant upon technology.  I can’t tell you the last time I wrote a check for a bill and actually sent it through the mail.  That’s just not the world we live in anymore.  As I look at my 12-year-old niece I realize she may never write a check…she may never pay a bill that she doesn’t pay online…she may never know what it is like to have to actually GO IN to the bank to deposit or withdraw money.  These days you don’t even have to go in to a bank to open an account…or even refinance a house!  Those who learn to ride the Web 2.0 wave will continue to succeed…those who don’t will be crushed by it and bludgeoned by the rocky bottom of the technological ocean.  It is natural selection – simply on a virtual and technological scale.

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

What Does Web 2.0 Mean In The Real World?

First, you should know that I have just installed “Social Profiles“.  It is likely one of several in a series of WordPress Plugins from Sugarrae.com due for release in the coming months.  It was developed as a result of Rae Hoffman and Joost de Valk joining forces again.  Without a doubt, it’s a great plugin! I can’t say enough about it.  And unlike some plugins I’ve tried, I’ve not had any issues with it whatsoever. 

No installation problems.  No functionality issues.  No lack of compatibility with any other plugins.  What does this mean for commenters?  It means that you can now register, input your social profile information and have links to those profiles included along with the link to your website/blog URL each time you leave a comment.  This is, however, only available to registered users that have logged in prior to commenting.  Ah…there’s always a catch!    Hey, you can’t expect just anyone to be able to take advantage this, right? 

Second, I recently wrote a post entitled “Why NOFOLLOW My Comments?” indicating that I had elected to remove the NOFOLLOW commands from the comment links within my blog in an attempt to improve the number of comments left, encourage discussion and build a greater sense of community in general among regular contributors.

I’m not an idiot…I didn’t JUST remove the NOFOLLOW commands.  I did so using the “NoFollow Free” WordPress plugin and have customized the settings to help avoid potential abuse by spammers.  Thus far, it’s working perfectly.  That said, the number of comments a registered and logged in user must leave is considerably less than an unregistered user must leave in order for the plugin to remove the NOFOLLOW command from your comments.  That’s one of many configuration options available with NoFollow Free.

I thought long and hard about whether or not to do it…and then long and hard again whether or not to announce it.  Because one of the primary goals of my blog is to encourage discussion, I ultimately decided that the pros outweigh the cons…especially for me at this point.  Anything I can do to encourage people to visit and/or participate in discussions is certainly worth trying!  The new plugin just released at Sugarrae is yet another step in the right direction.

I see a pattern forming in the plugins that Rae has released thus far.  The first, “Customize Your Community” (a.k.a. “CYC”), was developed to help blog owners create customized login and admin pages that flow seamlessly with the design of a site, rather than having to accept the default WordPress design for user pages.  While I’ve not tested the plugin myself (yet…sorry, Rae), I have reviewed it in all its glory having logged in to my profile at Sugarrae.  Works like a charm!  Would you expect anything less from those two? 

Rae & Joost’s second collaboration is no less dedicated to promoting a blog’s sense of community.  This plugin, on the other hand, has nothing to do with design or aesthetics – it’s about taking advantage of the many popular social networking sources on the web and rewarding those who contribute to your blog’s comments with links to their individual profile pages.  On blogs with a large readership, this plugin could provide individual commenters with a great deal of potential exposure!  It will help blog owners express their dedication to helping visitors build a rapport with other users, as well.

Worried about all that link juice flowing out from your posts?  Don’t be!  If you’re concerned about that, simply select the “nofollow” option in Social Profile’s settings.  I really can’t say enough about how great I think this plugin is.  I believe it will not only create a greater sense of connection and community with commenters, but it also provides some additional exposure and lends greater credibility to the individuals taking the time to comment.  Kudos on both the concept and excecution!  This plugin has officially been added to my “Must Have WordPress Plugins For Newbies“!

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Reasons To Login Before Commenting

News of The Economist’s plagiarism will begin circulating and perhaps taint their reputation in the eyes of like-minded people.  The least they could do was give credit where credit is due.  And why go through the trouble of creating their own app in the first place?  Why not simply do a review of the original and link to it?  The purpose of the original project, I’m guessing, is to get an idea of the world’s consensus on the issue…at least from an Internet user’s perspective, that is.  Nice job, Economist…way to damage your own reputation and accomplish absolutely nothing constructive in the process.

Spread the word that plagiarism isn’t acceptable…even when the plagiarist is The Economist!  This just serves as further illustration of the importance of the 2008 Presidential election.  Hopefully we can restore the sense of right vs. wrong that used to result in plagiarists being labeled as the bottom-feeders they are.  If you’re as saddened and outraged by this as I am, feel free to cast some votes for the story on Digg and spread the word!  Digg the original.  Don’t forget to Digg the plagiarism story, too!

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

The Economist…Plagiarists?

Calling it a “penalty” vs. a “filter” is nothing more than semantics.  Stating that there is no such thing as a “duplicate content penalty” is Google’s feeble attempt to make it seem as though they aren’t unfairly penalizing individual URLs in their self-appointed role policing the Internet.  The fact of the matter is that it doesn’t matter whether a page suffers from an actual “penalty” or not.  If it is “filtered out” of the results for having content that is too similar to another page already listed in the index, does it really matter if it’s technically referred to as a “penalty” or a “filter”?  The ultimate result is the same – people will be able to more easily find one page than another.  Period.

I completely understand Google’s goal in eliminating duplicate content from their search results.  Imagine what SERPs would look like, taking into consideration the number of cookie-cutter, affiliate websites in existence today, if duplicate content weren’t factored into a site’s ranking?  Part of any search engine’s goal, Google included, is to provide its users with relevant and unique information.  If searching for the term “weight loss supplements” resulted 100 identical Herbalife sites, each with a different URL and the exact same information, how reliable would you believe those results to be?  There is a reason duplicate content is frowned upon…and it should be.

It appears that Google, at least in this latest official post, is referring specifically to inadvertent and non-malicious duplicate content within a given site.  I have suspected for some time that this sort of duplicate content has a low level of impact on a site’s ranking.  Think, for example, about the number of WordPress sites that rank highly for competitive search terms.  Many of those sites contain sidebars that are identical on every page.  If that sort of duplicate content were penalized…or, uh…excuse me, if that sort of duplicate content were to trigger Google’s “filters”, that would likely have a negative impact on the ranking of each page.  That hasn’t been my experience.

What about duplicate content from other sites (i.e. scraped content)?  How does Google determine whether or not a site that scrapes content is malicious?  In my opinion, stealing my intellectual property and regurgitating it on your own site as if you created it IS malicious under any circumstances and should be penalized accordingly.  Google apparently doesn’t agree, as illustrated by a number of documented experiences with scraper sites outranking the original source due in large part to having a higher PR than the site where the information was originally published.

Google doesn’t do as good a job at this as they’d like to believe.  Many a webmaster, SEO and search marketing guru has weighed in on the issue and the consensus, at least from what I’ve read, is pretty clear:  duplicate content, regardless of its source, can have a negative impact on ranking and DON’T LET GOOGLE FIGURE STUFF OUT ON THEIR OWN!  These posts seem to reiterate that it is important to put forth a modicum of effort to address what is within your control when it comes to the issue of duplicate content within your own site:

http://searchengineland.com/080915-121927.php
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-pagerank-play-doh/5504/
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/
http://www.sugarrae.com/be-a-normalizer-a-c14n-exterminator/
http://janeandrobot.com/post/canonical-url-canonicalization-domain.aspx
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/canonicalization-update/

I mean, seriously – are all of these experts full of crap?  Matt Cutts included?  I’d venture to say that they’re not…and preventing duplicate content issues from occuring in the first place is likely the best option for anyone concerned about driving traffic to a site via Google’s organic search results.  As for duplicate content from another site…I think we all know there is little, if anything, that can truly be done about that and we have no choice but to leave it to Google to sort out those issues on their own.

Google likes to toot their own horn and proclaim that they’ve “got it covered”, but the fact of the matter is that the more you leave to Google’s bots to “figure out” the more time must be spent doing so…meaning greater resources and server load.  Why?  Why not just make things as clean and simple as possible?  Does this recent clarification by Google mean that we should no longer concern ourselves with resolving a site’s canonical homepage issues?  Does it mean that it’s no longer necessary to restrict bot access to printer friendly versions of pages?  Does it mean that multiple URLs resolving with the same content will be ignored, but have no negative impact on the ranking of the preferred URL?  No…I don’t think their claim to have a handle on duplicate content issues means any of that.

What it does mean is that Google is, as always, making every effort to improve the experience for its users – with or without consideration for the impact to webmasters.  They will likely always error on the side of caution when it comes to preventing SPAM and other malicious activity within search results.  To a certain extent, that is for the good of all…provided that Google recognizes the disconnect between what they claim to be true vs. the real-world experiences of many SEOs in dealing with duplicate content issues to this point.

If duplicate content wasn’t factored into ranking, the SERPs would be dominated by a large number of identical affiliate sites and little else in some queries.  “Penalty” or not, there is a definitive reason that a search for “Herbalife” doesn’t result in finding Herbalife’s thousands of identical, cookie-cutter affiliate websites…and I believe at least part of that reason to be duplicate content.  Don’t piss on my leg and then tell me it’s raining, Google!  Give me a break!

See what others within the industry are saying on this issue at Search Engine Roundtable and Sphinn.

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Duplicate Content – Did Google Do A 180?

I officially started this test on 09/24, using Rank Checker to run an initial analysis.  Check out the results, should you so desire.  At the time the report was run, the site had one <h1> located within the header.  All other paragraph headings were <h6> and that had been the case for several weeks prior to beginning the “test”.

After running Rank Checker, I adjusted the headings on the site’s home page to include the <h1> in the header (unchanged), remaining paragraph headings were adjusted to include <h2> and <h3>, rather than <h6> as before.  I used CSS to maintain an appropriate font size, style and color within the content of the page.  No other changes were made to the page content and/or site structure.

I will be interested to see if headings have any impact on the ranking of the homepage whatsoever.  Some still believe that headings have an impact on ranking, but some believe headings to be an antiquated aspect of on-site SEO.  Having used an established and indexed domain, as well as a page with content that is relatively static, should ultimately offer some insight as to whether or not headings play into the ranking of a page.

In the meantime, I welcome anyone with similar documented testing on the use of heading tags to share your experiences here!  I’d like to get more feedback on this issue, as there appears to be a great deal of confusion and/or disagreement on the potential impact of headings among search marketing experts these days!

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

The Jury Is Still Out On Headings…

The fact of the matter is that I want to encourage people to leave comments on MY blog.  I also want to offer them something in return for doing so…and all I have to offer is a link back to your website.  Sphinning a post is awesome…submitting it to StumbleUpon is much appreciated…bookmarking on Delicious.com or Digging a post is fantastic, but those things don’t actually get the person taking the time to do it ANYTHING.

Therefore, I’ve decided to remove the NOFOLLOW attribute from my comments section to see if it gives anyone incentive to actually carry on a conversation here.  Oh, and for the record, you have to have left a specific number of comments already before the NOFOLLOW will be removed from the links.  I set it at a purposely low number to weed out those who would initially use it as SPAM. 

UPDATE (09/09)

I started thinking more about my motivation for removing the NOFOLLOW from my comments after I’d gone to bed last night, so I decided to elaborate a bit more.  First of all, I’m kinda new to the game of SEO.  Not “new” as in the sense that I have no experience, but “new” in the sense that until recently “SEOAly” lived only in my head as a persona…a symbol of how I would go about learning more about how to promote a website on the Internet.  She was the anonymous conscience…my guide for learning the ins & outs of SEO and trying to figure out how all of the puzzle pieces fit together to make up the big picture.

Once I decided to turn that conscience into a website, she became more of a muse.  The site has become a place conduct testing of theories, like the internal use of NOFOLLOW to pages that are designated NOINDEX.  It’s also a place to to chronicle some of my experiences based on testing different aspects of on-site SEO…like the use of NOSNIPPET.  In the process, though, SEOAly has also become somewhat known and that loss of anonymity gives me the chance to get some of the best and brightest in the search marketing field to read what I’ve written and comment on it.  For taking your valuable time to comment and participate in the discussion, you get a link – it’s not much, but in this game it’s the only “bonus” I have to give out.

UPDATE (12/03)

Still no SPAM or PageRank issues to report.  The naysayers that claimed removing the NOFOLLOW attribute from my comment links was a stupid idea appear to have been a bit off base.  Aww…too bad.  Looks like some people just don’t know as much as they thought they did about the repercussions of removing NOFOLLOW.  

I’ve also seen this issue discussed on a wide variety of posts since this was originally published.  Many of them have also elected to remove the NOFOLLOW attribute from their blog comments.  Kudos to those of you who followed your instincts and didn’t allow yourself to be swayed by the know-it-alls in the SEO world.  :)

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Why NOFOLLOW My Comments?

At that time, it was my understanding that NOSNIPPET would allow me to better control what appears as the description within Google’s SERPs.  I assumed Google would automatically default back to the description META tag itself.  I was wrong.  Wrong…wrong…wrong.  What NOSNIPPET caused Google to do in my case was to show no description of the page at all – opting instead only to show the page title.  Upon realizing this (on August 15th…shortly before writing the original post) I promptly removed all NOSNIPPET arguments from all pages.  Testing…isn’t that we we SEOs do?  I guess that’s what they mean by “trial & error”. 

Here is the result of my having removed the NOSNIPPET argument from my robots META tag:

As you can see, the pages are now appearing with the appropriate descriptions as they should have been initially.  And as they likely would have been  if I’d just left it alone in the first place.  My goal to begin with was to control something that hadn’t even become a problem.  I’ve always been the type to attempt to anticipate a problem and prevent it from occurring…I’m very proactive in nature.  At least in this case, my proactivity caused a problem that may never have occurred in the first place.  Lesson learned.

It was important that I test the NOSNIPPET argument at some point, but I likely should have done a bit more research on it’s original intent prior to doing so.  Now that I know what it does, or at least what it did in this case, I can’t imagine a reason for wanting to use it.  I can’t think of a page worth listing in the index that wouldn’t benefit from having a corresponding description.  Why would anyone want a page listed in the index without a description?  And if there is no ultimate goal of increasing click-through rates, why not just NOINDEX the page and keep it out of the SERPs altogether.

I’d love to get some feedback on the legitimate use of NOSNIPPET and any thoughts on the logic behind having a page listed in the SERPs with just a title and no description!  Did I mention that I have removed the nofollow commands from my post comments?  To dissuade spammers, you do have a leave a certain number of comments before the NOFOLLOW is removed…but it is a low number and I know you’ll all understand. 

Please feel free to discuss away! 

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Final Results of NOSNIPPET Testing

There is no bigger waste of money than subscription to a service whose primary “feature” is monthly submissions.  Once a site is in the index, it’s in the index – period.  Resubmitting month after month is as stupid as calling the phone company every month to tell them not to turn off your phone.  Not only that, if those “monthly submissions” are done with automated software it can actually HURT your website’s ranking in the search engines.  Let’s face it, there is no question that if the company offers “automatic monthly submissions” in the first place, you can bet that they’re automated submissions.

Even if I could find hundreds of search engines, who cares?  It’s clear and completely verifiable that more than 97% of searches are done through Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com and AOL (yes…some people out there still search using AOL, though I can’t begin to fathom why…considering the results are pulled from Google’s database anyway).  Why the hell would I care if my website is listed in “Billy Bob’s Search The Web”?  Exactly…I wouldn’t, and neither should you.  Not to mention that even if you happen to find one of the lesser known search engines, you’ll also likely find a small graphic that states “powered by Google” or “enhanced by Google” – you’ll even find that using AOL search, as I eluded to earlier.  That means the information they provide is taken directly from Google’s database, so you may as well be using Google in the first place.

There is no question that touting search engine submissions as a feature or benefit of any search marketing service is ignorant, at best…and fraudulent, intentionally misleading, and malicious, at worst.  Those companies and individuals that offer search engine submissions as a primary feature of their “promotional package” prey on the public’s ignorance of how search engines work – and profit heavily from doing so.  Submitting a URL to the search engines is old school SEO.  Anyone who claims otherwise is either completely ignorant when it comes to the world of search marketing today and/or is attempting to make a potential client feel as though without their “services” the website has no hope of ever being found within the search results for their target terms.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  Submissions mean nothing to the search engines…and haven’t for some time now.  These days, submitting a URL to search engines is like sitting in the nose-bleed section of a 50,000 seat concert venue, jumping up & down screaming, “Ooh, ooh…pick me, pick me…” and actually expecting the artist to pick you out of the crowd and invite you on stage.  Submissions are pointless, stupid and futile.  Any company that touts it as a major feature is a scam.  Period.  Run, don’t walk, away from any company whose “sales pitch” begins or includes “submission to hundreds of search engines…”.  THE END!

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Search Engine Submissions Are A SCAM

Nothing much to read yet…but stay tuned!

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Defining “On A Personal Note”…

Todd Friesen (a.k.a. Oilman) has since informed me that the nosnippet argument instructs Google not to show a description in the SERPs at all…and that appears to be confirmed by at least some of the results above.  It doesn’t, however, explain why some pages/posts appear with the META description and others appear with nothing at all, despite all pages/posts having included the nosnippet argument when they were indexed.

I have since removed all of the nosnippet arguments from all pages of SEOAly to see how long it takes Google to update the info in their index.  I will also be interested to see if they elect to use the description META tags I have created for each page/post or simply choose their own random text to display.  Equally confusing is the fact that ALL pages of SEOAly previously included the nosnippet tag…yet, as you can see in the image above, some results DO include descriptions – and the text is clearly what is included within the description META tags themselves.  A little consistency…that’s all I ask, Google!

On the flip side, before fully understanding the apparent outcome of using a nosnippet tag, I also decided to use it for our Welcome Home Pet Sitting website.  I hoped it would help me better control the information included in the SERPs and thereby increase the click through rates to our site.  As illustrated by the image below, the results of using nosnippet on that site weren’t exactly what I had anticipated…the results are also measurably different than what has occurred with SEOAly.  Nonetheless, nosnippet did function as I believed it would for the other static pages of the site, allowing me to achieve the goal of having a modicum of control over what potential clients learn about us solely from SERPs.

As you can see, despite the use of the nosnippet argument on the home page, Google elected to generate the SERP description for that page automatically based on the page text – much to my dismay!  The second result in the image above, one of two blog articles I have written for that site, shows no description at all.  The second blog entry (result 7 above) shows the actual META description of the post, as do the rest of the static pages of the site – all of which included the nosnippet argument when they were indexed.  Those results are what led me to believe that my theory regarding a nosnippet argument resulting in Google defaulting to the META description to be correct.  It now appears my theory clearly wasn’t correct.  I now don’t have a clue why anyone would want to use nosnippet at all, if the intended result is having no description included in the SERPs…

Prior to my incorporating the nosnippet argument into Welcome Home’s pages, Google was randomly generating the description for all pages of the site, despite the existence of a unique description META tag on each page.  That is what prompted me to test the use of nosnippet in the first place.  Initially I got the results I expected – Google replaced the randomly generated SERP descriptions with the text included within the description META tag itself – they did NOT eliminate the SERP description altogether.  “Sweet…”, I thought…”theory confirmed”.  Uh, yeah…not so much, it appears.  I’ve also since removed the nosnippet tag from Welcome Home’s site to see how things shake out without it.

Despite the issues I’m trying to resolve in fully understanding the purpose of the nosnippet argument, BIG kudos to Danny at SEOmoz for including that on his SEO Cheat Sheet.

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This is a post from Alysson Fergison’s SEO blog, SEOAly.

Unexpected Results Using NOSNIPPET

The biggest difference between kwippy and other microblogging apps is that it integrates IM statuses into the time line.  While I’ve not yet taken the time to play around with this feature because I don’t change im IM status much during the day, that integration appears to be one of the most notable differences between kwippy and the other microblogging platforms like Twitter.  I invited my Twitter following to join the fun at kwippy and look forward to playing around with it more!  You can learn more about kwippy and what sets it apart from other microbloggers by checking out…what else…their blog!

By the way – THANKS, KWIPPY!  Glad you liked my kwip…

08/29 UPDATE: There is also now a Facebook application available that allows you to update your Facebook status through your kwips.  Seems pretty cool.  They’ve got some work to do making it seamless with the Twitter Facebook app’s automatic updating of your Facebook status, but they’re on the right track…

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Kwippy – New Microblogging Platform

Some of the powers that be were supposedly informed by “someone with a great deal more knowledge and experience in the field of SEO…” than I that headings don’t impact ranking and are “an old SEO trick”.  I disagree whole-heartedly, but haven’t really done enough long-term testing on multiple sites to back my claims up with supporting data.  The sad part is that he doesn’t have supporting evidence either, but apparently his “reputation” provides him with enough authority to not have to support his contentions with actual proof.  It certainly made me question his commitment to the aspects of on-page SEO and wonder if he’s mostly a link whore.

Headings Just Make Sense

Just the theory behind paragraph headings themselves speaks to the very core of SEO…usability.  Paragraph headings are a short and sweet summary of the text content below it.  They naturally lend themselves to the inclusion of the search terms targeted by the content that follows.  Since we all know that keyword density itself is a myth and that the positioning of keywords within the content is what is important, but what about headings? It only seems natural that extra “weight” would be given to whatever terms the search engines find within heading tags.

One would also have to assume that to a certain extent LSI would demand that primary terms be identified clearly – based in part on their position within the context of the page content.  Headings seem like a natural, user-friendly way to communicate the focus of the text information included within a website page to algorithms, as well as users.  Just like internal linking improves a user’s ability to navigate to the information they desire, headings improve a user’s ability to scan content and locate the specific information they need within a given page.  Right?

Using Multiple Heading Tags

I’ve used multiple H1, H2 and H3 tags on a single page without any noticible decline in ranking.  On the other hand, I’ve come across a number of sources that indicate using each of them only once on a single page is optimal.  I have decided to let a test page ride for 30 days with multiple headings and determine where the ranking ends up.  I’ll then modify it to include just one H1, H2 and H3 tag to see what impact, if any, it has on the ranking.  I may then remove the headings from the same page altogether to see what, if any, difference that makes.  I guess that will help me answer the question regarding the importance of headings for myself.

In the meantime, I’d love to get some feedback regarding other’s experiences and opinions regarding H1, H2 and H3 tags.  Important?  Not important?  Old SEO Trick?  An essential element of on-page SEO?  You tell me!  My experience lends itself to support the argument that they are “important” and “an essential element of on-page SEO”, but I’m still technically a rookie…I need some industry vets to weigh in here.

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How Important Are Headings These Days?