I quickly found out that Google recently released a very exciting new feature in Webmaster Tool that enables us to see the number of impressions and clicks for our most popular keywords, together with the rankings of keywords for a defined period. This was interesting, since it was now possible to analyse how the number of impressions and clicks differed based on the different positions of a website in Google search results. In fact, this new Webmaster Tool feature is quite close to the Click-Through-Rate data provided in Google Adwords.

Ranking Report in Google Webmaster Tool

I was delighted to find such detailed and useful information. However, I quickly realised that what Google might be indirectly telling us is quite exceptional and could drastically change the way the 'search industry' reports on results.

The most interesting thing I discovered is the fact that Google is now showing data on rankings across a range of results: detailed information from position 1 to position 5, and combined data for position 6-10 and then combined data for the 2nd page and 3rd page on the Search Engine Results (SERPs). With the recent advent of Google Personalised Search, rankings are no longer the same for every visitor and never before had there been a good way of tracking the impact of this.

Google recently came up with its netbook-centric operating system 'Chromium' but at the same time released its source 'openly' to the public.  Therefore it is available to anyone to download free and furthermore allowing developers to play around and tweak the system as they like.  

I cannot stop thinking that we are going back to the times where the mainframe was actually the computer.  Much like Sun's old assumption that the network is the computer. With the release of Chromium, Google is putting more emphasis on the initiative that browser-based applications are the future and is coming up with their first true cloud-based operating system. 

Several tests have already been performed by leaders in the information technology industry and results were interesting.  One of the main results was that Chromium is a very fast operating system.  At a recent press conference Google claimed that Chrome OS had a boot-time of 7 seconds and this isn't an exaggeration at all.  

Performance of applications running on Chromium browser essentially comes down to the speed of the Chromium browser. That makes us realise that the new rule of thumb for Google could be 'speed'.  

Google certainly have the power to simulate and estimate the amount of time it takes to connect to a page, the way and amount of time a page renders in a browser, and how people react to those times to influence how a page is ranked, classified, and how much of the page is crawled and indexed.  This will also include embedded material on a page such as javascript or flash content.

Therefore pages that are loaded quicker have a better chance to get crawled frequently, indexed and have a better search visibility compared to pages that are loaded more slowly.

Below is a short list of page-loading tips that I thought might be helpful:

• Avoid overloading a website with images since large files take longer to load.

• Javascript has some advantages over Flash.  Flash is overdone and takes longer to load and sometimes makes websites over-complicated.  However, it is recommended to place Javascript files in an external file.

• In case videos are hosted on the website, it is better to host the videos on YouTube and provide a link from your website than hosting it directly on the website.  YouTube is so big that it has the ability to load videos quickly.

• Avoid "Enter Site" introduction pages, they have a high load-in-time and are so 'old-school'. It's better to let visitors go straight to the information.

• Keep the mark-up simple.  Most HTML tags can be styled via an external CSS so there is no need for them to be placed in a nested table for example.

• It is recommended to use XHTML and CSS to start out a website, using tables for layout is not recommended since they can cause a big mess in the mark-up language and finally slows down the loading times.  Storing CSS information in an external file keeps your website neat and ensures a fast page-load time.

• Server side compression software are also very useful, they ensure files are at their optimum size prior to being sent to the client browser, this works particularly well for script (e.g. PHP) and CSS files where the focus is not on semantics.

• Images must be optimised at the correct seize/weight.  This is important because large image files will take a much longer time to load than a lighter image that has already been processed by an image editing software.  However this may implies some compromises on the picture quality.

• Images should ideally be used only for headers or logos and never for large bodies of text.  Static text takes only a few bytes as compared to images that consume thousands of bytes.

The new Google race is now opened, is your website fast enough?

Having gone through a series of SEO evaluations those last few weeks, I was shocked to come across so many cases of websites with bad internal linking structure.   I now think it's essential to stress on good internal linking since I have the impression that web designers often overlook the importance of having a well structured site in terms of internal linking.  The current situation is very sad since a lot of websites are not benefitting of the power of internal linking.  I therefore compiled a short list of factors that one should consider while building the website structure.

Good Navigation - The most important issue here is to make sure that the site navigation is correctly spidered by the search engines.  We can ensure this by either use of anchor text and text based navigation, or an image-based navigation type with significant 'alt attributes' attached to every image link in the navigation.  Avoid Javascript and Flash navigations because they are still not well crawlable and spidered by the search engines.  If you still want to keep your 'flashy' navigation then I'll suggest you include an alternative navigation that would be spidered by major search engines. For example, you could have a text based navigation at the bottom of your page, this will help you inner pages be more spiderable.  

XML Sitemap - I cannot stress enough on having a good XML sitemap on your website.  Sitemaps provide an overview of the site at a single glance but at the same time they help search engines crawl the website.  Submitting a XML sitemap to Google Webmaster Tool for example can be very useful since it gives the search engines a concise format that provides spiders with a super-fast blueprint for indexing a website. Furthermore, sitemaps also improve web usability as they are an alternative form of a site specific search, which brings users to the information they need quicker.  

Breadcrumbs - I believe breadcrumbs are excellent internal linking tools. Being 'links' by nature, they aid with internal linking and consequently increase the search engine visibility. In addition to anchor text differentiation, breadcrumbs are very useful since they increase the general usability of the website by allowing users to know exactly where they are on the website.  

Links in Content - I had the chance to analyse different kind of websites in different industries but it was quite common to see a lack of links in their copy.  It's essential to have in-content links, since not only they are more likely to have higher click through rates (increased confidence path), but they are also capable to add more significance to a link because of the neighbouring text.  Therefore, the rule of thumb here is to have links with anchor text with targeted keywords in the copy of the website.  

Links to Important Pages - It's essential to always ensure that all important pages are well linked to other pages on the website.  I sometimes found it amazing how some of the most important pages of a website are not properly linked to other pages.  It is better to link them directly to the homepage so that they can benefit from the power of link juice passing from the homepage.  But time and again I see websites with important pages buried too deep and ending up with no page-rank at all.  And it's not uncommon to find those pages not indexed by the search engines.  

Cross-check Robot.txt - This may look stupid, but I came across cases where I found important pages of a website not being crawled and spidered because they were found in a section where the robot.txt was preventing spiders to crawl.  This mainly happen by mistake or when new pages are added to the website.  Sometimes webmasters tend to forget to go back to their robot.txt and check whether all crawlable/non-crawlable sections are up-to-date.  In brief, your important pages need to be findable, if not there's no way they'll get crawled and indexed.  

Linking Policy - It is very important to be extremely consistent in your linking behaviour. What I mean is that while linking pages we need to be meticulous about how we are building the links.  I once had to re-build the links of a whole website since links to the homepage were very inconsistent.  Some links were pointing to the .com page whereas others were pointing to the .com/index.php page.  The website also had some major canonicalisation issues where several links were pointing to identical pages but with different URLs.  Cases like this actually decrease all the power of internal linking since the link juice is diluted around the site instead of being intelligently focused on the essential pages.  In brief a link policy should be setup so that everyone building links knows exactly how and where to link them.  

Just to remind, good internal linking ensures that all pages on your website get properly spidered and indexed on search engines.  It increases the relevancy of a page to the targeted keyword phrase.  Allows proper link juice passing to internal pages hence increasing their page-rank. That's it, hope that this helps tuning and enhancing your internal link structure.  

Earlier this month, Seth Godin wrote a blog post entitled 'Lessons from very tiny businesses'. This piece outlined 5 different things we can learn from small businesses, using examples of companies he has encountered. His second point was 'Be micro focused and the search engines will find you'.

Shortly after reading this, I was searching for a carpet cleaning service. I had used one earlier this year, but couldn't remember his number, so I went to his web site. Now bear in mind this is a one-man show, so what you would typically expect is at the most two pages - landing page and contact page. What you get is something else: 9 fully-optimised pages, a blog, and even a Twitter stream!

The thing that impressed me most, however, was the blog, 'My carpet cleaning blog'. Since November 2008, Chris (the carpet cleaner) has been diligently writing up many of his daily jobs as blog posts. Each one is titled with a variation on the phrases 'Carpet cleaning' or 'carpet cleaner', plus the location of the job, either as a postcode (W4, W14) or as the name of the location (Fulham, Wandsworth), and includes some detail on the job in question. In this way he is targeting relevant searches for carpet cleaning all over Greater London. Oh, and he follows these posts up with Tweets as well.

But that's not all. When he came to clean my carpets, Chris also explained how he has managed to get himself placed in Google Local Business ads for not one, but four different postcodes! By asking customers to write reviews, he is managing to come top of the list as well.

Ok, so not everything is rosy with his site from an SEO point of view. URLs need optimising, his blog is one of those 'wysiwyg' ones, and he has literally no incoming links at all. Still, with little technical background and knowledge, Chris has realised the importance of Google as a targeted traffic generator, learnt some of the basic rules of SEO, and applied them assiduously, and with great effect to one set of keyword combinations. Since last November, the site has been appearing on the front page of Google for many local London search related to carpet cleaning, and the number of contacts from his web site has literally doubled!

What's the lesson for me in all this? It's just as Mr Godin says - or as I interpret it anyway: sometimes, as we work on SEO for large organisations in highly competitive markets, we spread ourselves too wide, and look to achieve too much, making it far more difficult to deliver tangible results. Instead we need to identify where we can make a difference, and we need to focus on it. If an inexperienced one man band can do it, we have no excuses.

Looks like Google is trying out some new ways of displaying SERP URLs.  In this image (taken by @robhammond), Google is sharing the location of a results page within a site by including the page's breadcrumb string instead of just using the first 51 URL characters.




The Renault UK results page (#7) has matching breadcrumbs on the destination page:



Today, a search for mobility provides the same results with "normal" URLs:

So what does this mean?  Should we all style out our sites with Hansel and Gretel in mind?  Keeping Google's usability priorities in mind, I think bread crumbs should be a mainstay in any site anyways.  Also, I do believe this is a feasible full time change we may see some time in the future. 

Displaying breadcrumbs in SERPs clearly maps out for searchers what section of the site their query result is located within; this will enable searchers to better read those URLs and have a clearer idea of whether or not that result is appropriate for their query. Also, if this is a going to be a major SERPs change, it's important the breadcrumbs don't go too deep since as always, there is limited character space.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this alteration plays out - if you see any more examples shoot them to me @ChelseaBlacker or chelsea.blacker@baseonegroup.co.uk .

Mid February this year people in the search industry spotted a change in how Google returned search results for certain types of keywords, a change giving "big brands" a push in Google search results. Following discussions on blogs and forums Matt Cutts (head of Google's Webspam team), on March 4th finally confirmed a change had been made. The update was dubbed the "Vince update" (no sorry, not a Vince Neil update)

More on the "Vince update" later on and now a brief history of important updates of Google's search algorithm.

The "Florida Update"

On November 16th 2003 Google made a major update on their search algorithm. Named the "Florida update", it had a major effect for a very large number of websites at the time and came to change the course of search engine optimisation.

Aaron Wall from SEObook says: "The Google Florida update was the first update that made SEO complicated enough to where most people could not figure out how to do it. Before that update all you needed to do was buy and/or trade links with your target keyword in the link anchor text, and after enough repetition you stood a good chance of ranking."

Pre-Florida update prominent search engine ranking could be quite easily achieved by doing basic reciprocal link-building, on-page keyword stuffing, and using repetitive inbound anchor text in links.

Post-Florida update a huge number of pages, many of which had ranked at or near the top of the results for a very long time, simply disappeared from the search engine results altogether.

The "rel=nofollow tag Update"

In January 2005 Google contributed to changing the structure of the Internet when Google proposed a link rel=nofollow tag. Originally it was introduced to only stop blog spamming but was shortly afterwards also affecting link buying. In the eyes of Google you are considered a spammer, and risk getting penalised, if you were buying links without using rel=nofollow on them.

In a URL the tag looks like this: <a href="http://www.baseonesearch.co.uk" rel="nofollow">Base One Search</a>

Plenty of prominent websites have adopted the use of the nofollow tag, sites such as Wikipedia, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and most blog platforms support the tag in the comments section.

"By adding rel="nofollow" to a hyperlink, a page indicates that the destination of that hyperlink SHOULD NOT be afforded any additional weight or ranking by user agents which perform link analysis upon web pages (e.g. search engines)." (http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-nofollow)

The "Universal Search Update"

In May 2007 Google launched their Universal search update. Universal search means that search engine results are blended with selected content from Google's "vertical search databases". The vertical search content is blended directly into the organic search results. Before the "Universal search" update Google gave a list of 10 text-based search engine results.

The "vertical search databases" Google blend into the organic search engine results are: News, Videos, Products, Maps, Images, Books & Blog posts

Today optimising your website for Universal search is important, (e.g. by adding alt-tags and keywords to your images, listing your business of Google Maps, creating videos and optimising title, description, tags etc.), you can increase your chances of achieving prominent search engine rankings.

The "Vince Update"

In October 2008 CEO of Google Eric Schmidt gave a hint of things to come, i.e. the "Vince update". In an interview he talked about "brands", he said:

"The internet is fast becoming a "cesspool" where false information thrives, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday. Speaking with an audience of magazine executives visiting the Google campus here as part of their annual industry conference, he said their brands were increasingly important signals that content can be trusted." He continued: "Brands are the solution, not the problem," Mr. Schmidt said. "Brands are how you sort out the cesspool." "Brand affinity is clearly hard wired," he said. "It is so fundamental to human existence that it's not going away. It must have a genetic component." (http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=131569)

The "Vince update" has caused a bit of outcry in the search community because with the update it's believed (and proven) that Google is now favouring brands/corporations for core category keywords. Aaron Wall from SEObook in his blog post proved changes had been made in the search engine results, evidence big brands getting favoured. An example is in mid-January three major US airlines all of a sudden began getting top rankings for "airline tickets" (see below)
 

(http://www.rankpulse.com/airline-tickets)

Addressing it as a "minor change", Matt Cutts says the change is about factoring trust more into the algorithm for more generic queries rather than pushing major brands to top search engine results.

So does this latest Google "update" - "minor change" mean that big brands/corporations can take a back seat and receive top search engine rankings in Google by default? I think not, the "Vince update" may well be just a minor change. Google is continually tuning its algorithms to give most relevant results for users.

For navigational-type searches (aka research queries, "going through the front door in the shopping centre") such as cars, airline tickets etc. brand/corporation sites are maybe what searchers are looking for? In the above illustrated example, shouldn't there be a couple of airline companies in the results when you search for airline tickets?

Buy expiring domain names and get link juice and authority. Expired domains are great for SEO. I will try to explain why.

So what are expiring domain names?
Every day thousands of domain names expire but get bought up and changes ownership before they delete and become readily available again for registration. In the domain name industry the domain name aftermarket of buying expiring domain names is big business. Lots of "domainers" and domain name companies are spending hours upon hours sifting through lists of upcoming expiring domain names.

Nowadays buying expired, or pending delete, domain names has become more of a main-stream thing, even outside domaining circles. It takes an expired domain 30 days before it goes back into the pool of masses and become readily available again to register at any domain name registrar. Within this 30 day time period, between expiring and becoming available again, thousands of domain names exchange hands in what is called the 'domain name aftermarket'.

The life cycle of a domain name
The life cycle of a generic domain name (.com, .net, .org etc) explained by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).


(Source: http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/gtld-lifecycle.htm)

I am not going to patronise anyone in this post by saying it is obvious that you need both quality content and links in order to survive the search engines....... The debate here at Base One is between me and a co-worker over what is MORE important as we realise the significance of both for ranking purposes.


The Background

The co-worker  is a link building machine - he could be considered an Arnold Schwarzenegger of the link building world, except his phrase is not "I will be back", it is more like "I am not going anywhere"....

Me?  Well my strengths lie more in on- page optimisation. This major difference is perhaps where this year- long debate has stemmed from...........




 The Arguments

For Content: Whilst acknowledging the co-worker's argument, and the importance of links towards any search marketing effort, I remain in favour of quality, keyword rich content as the more significant element. I am debating for the user whilst the co worker is debating for the search engines. In my opinion, the ultimate objective for any website is to gain user intrigue, navigate throughout the site and hopefully get them to convert.

A website can have a million quality links but, if it has poor or limited content, that is not relevant to the search, it is likely that any user will instantly bounce off the website. What will gain conversions, links or content? And if this is, after all, the objective, should there not then be more importance placed on quality content rather than links? Without great content, link building can prove difficult.....particularly when approaching high authority websites. People are more likely to link to strong, well optimised content with relevance to their own website. Be it a product or a service, quality and interesting content more often than not will have people blogging about it or linking their own websites naturally to yours.

For Links: Without links there is little or no chance of ranking on the first page for any competitive terms. They are vital to off-page optimisation in allowing a website to be found and potentially gain a high volume of traffic. If using logos as links on relevant websites then this also increases online brand awareness, as users will start to recognise the brand. Referring traffic or even direct traffic can increase with this type of link building.

Closing Statement

I put this question to you......User or search engine? Good content MORE important than links? I ask you this: can you, the user, live in a world where websites are revolved around the number of links they have and the importance that Google has placed on these sites, or do you want to create a society where the content is interesting and relevant to your search?

"Let us not despair...

And so, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream, that one day content will reign over the link weight in the Google algorithm, that content will be able to walk the worldwide web with heads held high.... "

VOTE CONTENT!!!!!

We have finally got around to making the sequel to our brilliant/ridiculous series of SEO Wars.   This episode is called "SEO Wars - Planet Link Space" and is about the discovery of an amazing new planet called "Link Space". From this newly discovered planet you can see the link paths that both SEO jedis and the "evil" SEOiths have taken.

Rand LinkWalker and Princess Jane are admiring their discovery of this planet when Darth Cloakmaster suddenly appears, not being best pleased about his link paths being seen by others....what will happen?

In this episode Base One had the pleasure of a guest star; Jane (Copland). As Jane was staying with me over the period of SMX London we managed to force....ehm I mean convince Jane to join us in the filming. And since Jane is such a cool SEO Chick she agreed. We had so much fun filming this, hope you enjoy the randomness, if not, at least it made us laugh =)

Rand LinkWalker = Rand Fishkin (if you didn't guess)
Princess Jane = Jane Copland (oh and actually Jane's voice, in fact it was her idea that Princess Jane strips...hmmmm...)
Darth Cloakmaster = Dave Naylor (and fear not, we got Dave's permission although I'm not sure he agreed to the ridiculous Yorkshire accent Beccy puts on!)

SEO Wars - Planet Link Space




Disclaimer: This production is made by the Base One Search team and not Base One designers which means the quality of the sound, picture etc is not super. But we kind of like this proper home made movie feel. It must also be warned that this movie is VERY random, if you are likely to be offended by randomness don't watch this!

Attending a search conference can be a very valuable experience; it can also be a very memorable one. Note: consuming copious amounts of free alcohol will affect memory.
 
This post intends to illustrate and advise how to get the most from a search conference.

Consider it a manual which highlights reasons why you should be attending search conferences.

1.    Read the conference agenda thoroughly. Try to select the sessions that you have a keen interest in and will most likely to improve your skills.
 
2.    Attending a conference can be an excellent opportunity to establish new and develop existing relationships.

3.    Remember it is not only fellow professionals within your industry that attend search conferences.  It is often the case that before a business actively seeks to employ a search marketing company they will attend events such as the upcoming London SMX to get a general feel of the potential benefits a search marketing campaign can offer.  This is an amazing opportunity to network, be the first point of contact and to exchange details with prospective clientele.
 
4.    Don't be afraid to start conversations - always introduce yourself if given the opportunity. You are all in the same boat and share more common interests than you may think so don't be shy.  If it helps here are some SEO Jokes to break the ice or start with the tried and tested lines "is this your first conference?", "What was your favourite session today?" or "What industry are you in?"

5.    Don't overly pitch people - let the conversation grow naturally.  Desperation is a real conversation killer and it smells bad too. A conference should be seen as a method to make contacts not sign contracts.
    
6.    The after party which contains the secret quest of every search marketing professional - Free Beer.  Coincidently here is a drinker's guide to hangover cures.

7.    Never, Never, Never forget your business cards.  If you have made the effort of attending a conference and actively set about networking then you want them to be able to remember that fine young gentleman or lady in the future (that would be you).
 
8.    Take notes on the back of business cards - You will ultimately forget conversations no matter how great and insightful they were at the time. For future reference take notes on the back of cards highlighting what was discussed and how you might work together.

9.    Bring a SWAG bag to fill with all the free items and products from the exhibition stalls. You often find many exhibitors willing to give out free stuff to promote their product or service but be warned only part with your details on two conditions; you are offered a whole treasure trove of goodies or you are actually interested in the product or service.  I was once hounded for weeks by a sales rep who I gave my details to because I felt I had to after taking a cup warmer. Damn that cup warmer.

10.    Working within the dynamic search industry you will know that you are constantly learning new techniques, so what better way than to sit back and listen to highly experienced and knowledgeable speakers.  Debates often arise and many questions can also be asked and answered.  It is like a forum but in REAL time, amazing huh?
 
11.    It is not always the high profile search marketers that have the best tips.  Don't spend all your time trying to harass the session speakers as it is often the case that other more quiet individuals have just as much experience and knowledge. So pull up a stool crack open the Werther's Originals and soak up as much information as you can.

12.    Make it a point to hug a black hat. Although you may not employ black hat techniques it is always very useful to know what they know just to keep you aware of new techniques.  They also have some very good ideas outside of the box which can often be tweaked to fit into an online strategy. Some tips on black-hat spotting include; corner hangouts, soft whispers, secret handshakes and every time you ID me a rabbit dies t-shirts

13.    Not only do you learn from conferences they also inspire future ideas.  Surprisingly you may learn more at the bar as it often acts as fuel for the mouth of many search professionals. This information can turn out to be just as valuable as what you get in the sessions.

14.    A chance to obtain competitor research and trade secrets - If you have passed your stalking grade 1 badge you will undeniably run into employees from competing firms. When you do be friendly and ask lots of questions. Smile, be sociable and engaging. Remember how important it is to be a great listener; this will be important as scribbling annotations into a notepad is not the most subtle of methods.
 
I hope these tips and tricks act as a good resource for search professionals newer to conferences. Ultimately the number one tip would be - don't be shy - it's good to talk. There are so few opportunities to discuss your thoughts, ideas and questions outside of work so grab the opportunity and embrace it.