Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Articles - Mr SEO

Consultant, In-House or Firm: Which is best for your SEO needs?

2007-03-29T12:01:00.000-04:00

Businesses that are active on the world wide web, no matter how great or small, are beginning to realize the necessity of search engine optimization. As with almost all things Internet related, however, their are a number of considerations to be made which can affect the level of success they achieve. One of the biggest areas of concern is how to go about finding the best solution for optimizing a web presence.

For small businesses and individuals, there are a number of free resources on the web that, with minimal consulting and a lot of time invested, can help produce effective results. SEO isn't rocket science after all, but one has to be marginally adept at understanding the principles behind it in order to properly optimize even the smallest and simplest of sites. SEO free resources, depending on the source, are generally good primers for the small business owner, though consulting should come into play after the initial optimization effort is underway. Free resources are free for a reason.

The reason is that they seldom offer the finite details necessary to rank well for competitive terms, which makes consulting services a bargain for the small business owner as they put the last pieces of the optimization puzzle into place. This is, at least in theory, how many small business owners achieve decent rankings for their site. The reality, though, is that few have the time to perform the work necessary to rank well. From keyword research, content, Meta tags and back link development to reporting and adjustment of multiple parameters, SEO is a time consuming endeavor. For this reason, most small business owners hire firms to perform their optimization as putting someone on the payroll full time isn't an expenditure that falls within their budget.

For mid-sized companies all the way up to large corporations, there are two options: hire someone in-house or contract with an SEO firm. Companies tend to lean toward hiring in-house SEO's for two main reasons. The first is the reduced cost of services and the second is that they gain the false sense of having better control over their optimization efforts. The first reason is valid, as many SEO firms are really SEM firms in disguise, and want to treat optimization as though it should be a perpetual, ongoing investment like PPC. They want to contract businesses for extended lengths of time with outlandish penalties for opting out early. They also tend to charge exorbitant monthly or bi-weekly fees that might lead some clients to guess if they are paying an expensive Manhattan or downtown L.A. mortgage. Not all SEO firms operate this way, however, and finding one to suit your needs and budget can be accomplished with a little searching.

As for companies having the false sense of better control over their optimization efforts, this is simply a holdout from the traditional business model that doesn’t stand up to the information age we live in. Hiring an SEO in-house because you feel that having him or her at arms length is an advantage is akin to setting up a kitchen in your office so that you can have more access to food preparation than ordering takeout can provide. The problems is that , like large scale food preparation, SEO requires a team effort. A souse chef is not a baker any more than an SEO guru is a content writer, developer, programmer, designer or submission specialist.

This is why competent firms will always be able to provide far better service than an in-house individual. Staying on top of changes to search engine algorithms, setting and adjusting Meta tags, designing search engine friendly navigation, writing well optimized content and building back links through multiple means is simply not possible for one individual working 9 to 5, or 24 hours a day for that matter.

Joe runs Mr SEO an SEO company based in NY. You can download his free SEO e-book or check out his online SEO tutorials

What you can do while you wait for your SEO to kick in...

2007-02-08T11:26:00.000-05:00

It is always hard to launch a new site. Optimization is always the best way to go, and not just for the obvious reasons. Optimizing your pages from the start has other benefits. Your optimized pages, though they are not ranking now, make a great platform for PPC. Watching your conversions on them is important. Use this time to make sure your pages are converting well no matter how large or small your PPC budget is. This will help with your future organic conversions as well.

You can, of course, also use this time to work on your backlinks. Articles are always a good start. They're a great way to make a name for yourself and your company. Articles placed on typical articles sites are good, however, the key to gaining recognition is getting your articles on industry leading sites. Getting your articles into trade publications is a good idea as well. Use this time to work on your image and letting people know who you are. Image is everything and how you represent yourself and your company can help build your reputation and provide natural links.

Starting a blog is a must today. Start building a community. What sort of business you are in will dictate what your blog would be about. It could be on your industry's news. It could be tips, ideas or insights into what you do or offer. Blog tools such as MyBlogLog make it easier to find readers and build a community, not to mention get ideas from other bloggers.

Using social bookmarking in combination with your articles and blog posts can help increase your exposure. There's a lot of great info on the net on how to use social bookmarking to your advantage. Sites such as Digg are a great way to build traffic and links.

You can purchase reviews by other bloggers using services such as payperpost. These will allow you to pay bloggers to write about you while gaining the links you need for SEO. Finding the right bloggers is important. You want to hit readers that will be interested in what you offer with an eye on relevancy for the links you're hoping to get.

A podcast is a great way to gain exposure, build trust and help brand your business. Podcasts aren’t for every industry. It will be up to you to decide if it's right for you. Having a podcast is also another way to gain natural links which will help with your SEO.

There is so much you can do while waiting for your SEO to kick in that will not only help build your company and image but will also help aid you in your SEO efforts. Many of the aforementioned items won't put a dent in your budget, though they can take up quite a bit of time. Still, most business owners just starting out have a lot more time on their hands than money.

So, don’t relax while you're waiting. Get aggressive and watch you’re your business and traffic grow.

Mr-SEO is and New York City based SEO company. Visit our site to learn more about our services. Mr-SEO also offers SEO tutorials and many other SEO resources.

Q and A with Mr-SEO

2007-01-01T11:39:00.000-05:00

I read having anchor text is important on a site when describing other pages. Is this correct? What is the best way to do that?

As I have stated before, every page of your site should be optimized for its own term or terms. Your menu should reflect those terms as best as possible.

In most cases, the home page targets the main term of the site. Let's say your site was about "discount shoes". Your menu should also have that page listed as "discount shoes". Don’t worry about having a tab that says home. Just make your logo on every page clickable and go to the homepage. Most people know to do this. If you feel strongly about having a home button, make one out of an image. As for the rest of the menu, your keywords should be in the menu, the pages should support them and vice versa. I understand it isn't possible to do it on every site, but ideally...

I want to put my product descriptions in a pop-up window, is that bad for SEO?

Actually, in some cases putting product descriptions in a pop-up is a great idea. Why? Product descriptions aren’t optimized and usually are exactly the same on every site that offers them. Moving descriptions to a pop-up will allow you to optimize a page a lot easier. E-commerce sites tend to have a lot of production descriptions which can cause a site to be either over or under optimized. It can also bring a better user experience on the site. Cluttered and long pages can be a turn off to visitors. This can be a simple solution to a common problem. What I would do is make sure the pop-ups are in javascript. This way, the engines will not find them.

My company has been doing link exchanges for over a year now, but our rankings have not improved. What are we doing wrong?

I took a look at your site and I see a few problems here. First let me say, link exchanges are fast becoming an extinct practice. Search engines know that the exchange links are an agreement between two sites. The value of those links are greatly depreciated. I would recommended moving away from doing them. The first problem I see is that you are exchanging links with sites that are unrelated to your industry. Not only will this result in your site not being crawled deeply, but it may also cause you to be banned by Google.

Let’s say your site was exchanging links with related sites, as it should be. Your next problem lies in how you are exchanging links. All the links are all going back to your link page. If you notice, your link section has a PR 5 while your site itself has a 3. The other problem is that you are not using anchor text in those links. You should have each page optimized for a specific term or terms and work on driving links with anchor text to support each page's keyterms. I have seen this mistake many times. I cannot tell you how many sites I moved to page one of Google by doing just this.

My rankings are slipping fast. No matter how many times I change my tags, nothing works. What can I do?

If you are changing all your tags at once, you will never know what works. Before tweaking the content, adjust your title tag, wait to get cached and see where you rank. Then move on to the description tags and so on. If you do everything at once, you will never know what made the site move up or down.

I have read that you say there is no need to resubmit my site to the search engines quarterly, why is that? My designer disagrees.

There is no need to submit your site via submission service, once or ever. Once the search engines find a link from another site to yours, which they prefer, they will always come back to your site. There is no need to submit a url once, monthly, quarterly or yearly. Save your money and invest it in some real advertising.

You can hear this questions answered on our Search Engine optimization (SEO) Podcast

You can learn more about SEO by watching our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tutorials

Are you going about link building the wrong way?

2006-12-13T07:28:00.000-05:00

Link building is a big part of SEO. Unfortunately, many new site owners seem to either not fully understand what goes into link building or they have old, outdated information. In either case, not knowing what you are doing can have its drawbacks. It can cause you not to rank well and in extreme cases, it can get you banned.

Many large companies hire people to create a “link campaign”. The problem is that many companies don’t know what they need and the link builder in some cases only has one method of building links.

The most common link building method is link exchanges. Though search engines like Google frown on them, they can be an effective strategy for raising page rank. For some businesses, however, there simply aren’t a whole lot of people to exchange links with. The biggest problem I see on a regular basis is when people just link to whoever. The link may or may not be related and they always seem to link to a “link page” with reciprocals to either their homepage or back to their own link page. This is not the way to go.

You have other pages of your site. Targeting each page’s keywords with those back links will help you in the rankings. If you must exchange links, spread them throughout your site. Have the incoming links support other pages, not just your homepage. Also don’t exchange links with unrelated sites. These can cause your site to be incompletely crawled and in severe cases, get can you banned.

Exchanging links with other low PR and heavily reciprocal linking sites will not do you good in ranking well on the engines. The only exception occurs when you can link to a new site that is related and that you feel will eventually have a high PR. In other words, sometimes getting in on the ground floor is a good idea.

Buying links is great, if you know where and how to buy them. Use the same rules as exchanging links above. Always make sure the site is related to what you offer. Don’t be afraid to buy a link on a site if you feel it will drive in quality traffic.

Article submissions are popular, and for good reason. Just write an article and submit it to article syndication sites. It’s highly effective and can be very useful if done correctly. I see many companies fail to take advantage of the anchor text in the articles and when they do it almost always goes straight to the homepage. I also notice a lot of poorly written articles. If you want your article to be placed on other sites or are planning to build your brand, a poorly written article will not help you.

There are many other ways of getting links, but these are the most common. Hopefully, this will leave you with the correct impression that linking is not all about quantity. It is about the quality of the links, the content around them, the pages they are on and the pages they link to.

Joe runs Mr SEO a New York City based SEO company. Visit his site to read other articles, Search Engine Optimization Podcast, SEO tutorials and much more.

Do we create sites for user or the engines?

2006-10-17T19:11:00.000-04:00

What’s more important? Creating sites for users or the engines? The answer is both.

Primarily a site should be designed for the user, with search engines in mind. Google tends to talk out both sides of their mouth when they say, “Don’t do anything special for the engines”. Yet, they create a webmaster tool center where you can submit a sitemap, and get information about how the engines see your site, errors and what key phrases your site ranks for. That gives new site owners a little bit of confusion.

I like sites that are easy to navigate, pleasing to the eye and that help sell whatever it is you need to. Pages should be set up as landing pages. This way you can give the visitor everything they need to make a purchase or fill out a form. At the same time you can optimize these pages for the engines and use the pages for your PPC campaigns. I believe in doing sites this way. It brings the visitor a much better experience.

The perfect site is not only user friendly, but optimized for the engines. You need to target where people go to in order to provide them with the information or product they need. There is nothing worse than having people landing on a page that is optimized for a phrase but offers no information about it.. It brings the user a bad experience and you a missed sale or lead. Once you have a page optimized, you can streamline the transition from viewing what you have to offer to facilitating a purchase. You can also provide related content and links. This, in turn, will help with you PPC because Google is now checking to see how relevant your landing pages are to the keywords you buy.

In the grand scheme of things, you do need to optimize your site. However, if you do not have usability for the user, your traffic won’t convert. Non-converting traffic is worse than having no traffic at all. It’s a webmasters nightmare.

Join our SEO forum at http://www.mr-seo.com/message_board_SEO.html

To learn about SEO read our SEO articles, SEO podcast and other information resouces on our site. http://www.mr-seo.com

Domain names as low as $3.99, hosting, free emails and much more http://www.mr-seo.net

Linkbaiting. How hard is it?

2006-09-03T18:24:00.000-04:00

Linkbaiting is a big topic for discussion lately. Everyone wants and needs links. We can ask for links, buy links or create articles and submit them for one way links. Linkbaiting is about getting links without doing any of these. Linkbaiting is essentially baiting people in by creating something they want to link to. So, what could we use to bait people into linking to you?

Podcasting: Creating a podcast that discusses news, tips or information on your industry is great baiting tool. Making your podcast unique and consistent is the key to steady stream of new links.

Interviews: These are great. If you could interview someone well known in your industry, that would certainly be worth linking to. For an added boost, do the interview on your podcast and then transcribe it.

Awards: Awards are another way to bring in traffic, though you can't (or at least shouldn't) simply make up an award. It has to have criteria, high standards and most importantly, meaning. If you give awards to everyone who applies, your award will seem insignificant and unimportant. The upside is you can gain a lot of traffic and one way links from award winners.

Tools and games: These will always be popular. Create a new tool for your industry that is legitimately helpful or develop a game related to your industry that is either informative or amusing. Firefox or wordpress plugins will bring steady traffic for a long time.

Content: Content is the easiest of all to create. Articles and blog posts are a great way to go about linkbaiting. You need to use your imagination to make your post compelling. Keeping on top of news and current affairs will help you pick a topic that people are already interested in. There is nothing wrong with piggy backing on some top stories if it relates to what you do.

Video: The is becoming one of the fastest forms of link baiting, in my opinion. Creating a funny or informative video can create quiet a buzz.

Giveaways and contests: These are great for a quick boost in traffic. However, these are also short lived. Giveaways need to have an associated monetary value. Contests, unless they are monthly, will die along with the links after the contest is over.

Blogs and forums: These are usually overlooked as a form of linking baiting, but they are one of the earliest forms of link baiting. Nothing says "link to me" more than a forum or a blog. Proving they have something of interest for the readers.

Guest appearances: This is one I like to use. I like to exchange writings, interviews or ideas with other bloggers and podcasters. Let me post a post on your blog and you can post on mine for a cross promotion. It's a great way to get a link as well. If you have a podcast, exchange advertisements with other casts along with a link on your podcast page.

Lists: List are very popular. Why? Well, because they are a list of something of value that people want, all in one place. I have a list of over 200 article submission sites to submit articles to, directories that you can submit your podcast to for free and free directories to get your site listed on. These are always my most often viewed posts.

Where to set your bait: Press releases and social networks are the best places to cast your line. Make an enticing headline and real in some hefty traffic.
If you try once a week to do some form of linkbaiting, by at least writing a topical post or putting together a lengthy list that readers will find useful, you will see a steady increase of traffic and hopefully links.

Mr SEO is a full service SEO company. We also offer seo consulting. Have a site designed and optimized for you. Request a free Web Design Quote You can also read our SEO articles. Visit our site for more of our services and free resources at http://www.mr-seo.com

Using SEO and other methods to help Brand and Market your business online

2006-08-07T21:44:00.000-04:00

by: Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

With so many new busineses hitting the Internet on a daily business, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate one's company from others. You need to constantly get your brand in front of people. The Internet has not only made it easier for people to start a business online, but that same simplicity has made the competition enormous. The potential to reach millions of people is as close as your own computer. However, many companies don't know the first thing about promotion and branding.

Articles have always been a way to market a business on and off the net. A well written article in a newspaper or a column would generate some business years ago. Today with so much content available and few publications writing articles about specific businesses other than from a strictly newsworthy standpoint, marketing professionals must strive to create well recieved ad campaigns. Articles are still a great way to boost internet businesses and can provide SEO backlinks and anchor text. Articles also help drive in quality traffic. The most important use of articles, however, is to help brand your company. Informative articles are a great resource for the Internet. The better an article is written, the better chances of it being placed on other sites. The article will be viewed as an extension of your company's knowledge, policies and mission, so make it count. Regularly written articles will help ensure not only a steady flow of traffic, but will help get your name in front of more people. RSS has made it easy to not only have your content syndicated but it also makes it easier for people to know when you have new content available.

Organic search is a necessity in today's online business. If your site can rank well for it's key terms, people who search regularly for your type of business will become familiar with your name, which consequently increases your chances of making a sale. You could also purchase paid listings on search engines. If your URL shows up for keywords and paid listing on the same page, it may help push a visitor to your site. The problem is you don't have control over what sites your ads are placed on. It could hurt your brand if your link was found on an inappropriate site. Some search engines like Yahoo have become smart enough to associate a person to a website or a company. A search on Yahoo for my name, Joe Balestrino, returns my site www.mr-seo.com as the #1 position.

Give your business a human presence. The Internet for the most part is just words and images. Letting people associate a name and a face with your company will let then know that there is a person in charge and that he is accessible, whether it is through email, telephone or instant messenger. Letting them know you are there if they need you can be a big selling point.

Podcasting is a new way to get the word out about your company. Podcasting is basically audio to go. People can download the audio files to their computer or ipod. You can provide news about your industry, tips, ideas etc. This powerful marketing tool is growing by leaps and bounds. If your industry doesn't already have a few podcasts, start one. Be the pioneer in your field, or do something that separates you from the others. If it's informative as well as entertaining, you can grow a steady fan base. The fans are a very important resource to you. You can ask them for feedback, concerns or problems they have in your area of business. Sometimes free advice can go a long way. Also, If your make it entertaining and informative enough, people will tell others.

Blogs are a great way to let people know what is going on with your company, offer tips, insights and provide other information. Many large companies use blogs as a way for consumers to see the company on a more personal level. Companies also use it as a way to release information and to acquire feedback.
Another useful tip is to get your logo out there. Some article sites will let you upload an image. Most message boards allow you to use an avatar. Take advantage of those. Message boards are also a great way to get your name and brand out there. Share some insights or help others with their questions. People do get business from message boards.

These are just some basic ways you get get your business and your brand in front of people. This is not an overnight process. Hard work, persistence and a steady stream of quality content will get you on your way to becoming recognized in your field.

Try Joe's article submission service Read his SEO articles and listen to his podcast on SEO or read his personal blog at http://www.mr-seo.com/wordpress

How to get your pages out of Google's supplemental index - Mr SEO

2006-07-15T14:20:00.000-04:00

There have been many inquires as to what supplemental listings are in Google
and why so many sites are effected. I put together this simple Q and A that
will help you find and correct problems your site may encounter with the
supplemental index.

What are supplemental results?

Supplemental results are Googles way of preventing questionable pages from
being found in the main index. Supplemental results are usually shown
after the main results. Supplemental results are crawled less and not
trusted by Google, which is why the are supplemental.

How do you know if any of your pages are in the supplemental?

Go to Google and use site:www.yoururl.Com. Look at all the urls of your
site. Supplemental results will indicate they are such next to the URL.

Can pages in the supplemental index rank on Google?

Yes, they can. But only if there aren't any other results available for the
phrase being searched.

What can cause a page to be added to the supplemental index and not the
main?

Supplemental status, the majority of the time, is something new sites
encounter. However, if you have given Google a reason not to trust your site or content, you can also be placed in the supplemental results. Any of the following can also cause you to hit the supplemental results:

Not enough content on the page
Duplicate content
Too many query strings in the URL
Orphaned pages... Pages not linked to any other inside your site
Titles and descriptions the same on every page
All links to your site are reciprocals and possibly to bad neighbors
A page that no longer exists may have an old cached version of itself in the
supplemental listings

Any of these alone or a combination of these can cause your pages to be in
the supplemental index. Keeping these factors in mind when creating pages
will help you avoid it. A good example of a site that is a prone target for
getting into the supplemental is an e-commerce sites. These site's generally
have have long query strings and are filled with duplicated product listings
on different pages.

Facts:

If you are in the supplemental, you are being crawled.
You are not in the main index.
You need to take action to get out of the supplemental index.

Once you have made the corrections, be patient. Google indexes supplemental
pages less. Working in backlinks to these pages may help. If you have any
other problems getting out of the supplemental index, try asking on forums
or obtaining info from SEO podcasts.

Try Joe's article submission service Read his SEO articles and listen to his podcast on SEO or read his ppersonal blog at http://www.mr-seo.com/wordpress

Using Content That Works (CTW) to create traffic.

2006-06-27T13:49:00.000-04:00

by: Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

Content, content, content. That's all I hear...probably because that's what I am always saying. Content! I think people don't fully understand me when I tell them let their content do the work work for them. Usually, it's the other way around. People write content to post on their blog, for
creating a page to put adsense on and to write articles. These are all very good ways for you to use your content. What you need to do is create not just content but Content That Works (CTW). This is something I created to help me keep my writing goals in mind.

CTW is content that either creates a buzz or is used to start a conversation, so to speak. It's content that gets people involved in what you are writing It could be positive, negative or neutral. It's a way of thinking. How many times have you written an article just so you can submit it for backlinks? I think just about everyone involved with SEO has at one time or another. But how many of those articles gave people something to really talk about? Not too many, I would assume. The same goes for messageboards, blog posts and other places where you can use CTW.

We all know content spam is bad. But that doesn't mean you can't give people on a blog a reason to see your site. Who is the most popular person blogging in your field? I bet he receives a lot of hits. You can steal some of those hits and gain more readers for yourself. The key is to have knowledge of the topic and give people a reason to leave and see your site. It could be an article you wrote or a podcast you made related to the topic. If your opinion differs from other bloggers and you can back it up, people will flock to your blog or site out of pure curiousity.

Articles are the best way to use CTW. I know we all have written some not so terrific articles. Why was that? Were you pressed for time, short on ideas or perhaps you just didn't care? The more you care about what you are writing about, the better your article will be. What was the message? Their was a message, right? How attuned are you to what people in the industry you are writing for want to read? I wrote an article about how to spam Google and get away with it. It really had nothing to do with spam. The title alone, however, generated a lot of buzz. That article is one of the the most posted articles I have written to date. It not only created a buzz, but it created traffic. People on message boards discussed it. Some agreed with it, others hated it. The bottom line is, it served its purpose by creating buzz.

Do you frequent messageboard? Are your posts with CTW in mind? Anywhere you can write something that other's see is a place where you can potentially gain a new visitor, sale, listener or notoriety for yourself. All if these things are important. I know, we all want backlinks. We want high rankings and we want to brag that we are on the top of Google for our keyphrase. That's fine. But, with every algorhythm change their is a risk of your methods not working quite as well as they use to. Or, maybe you get banned, or overrun by your competition. Whatever the case may be, as long as you use CTW with everything you write, Google and all those other search engines can never take that away.

Try Joe's article submission service Read his SEO articles and listen to his podcast on SEO or read his ppersonal blog at http://www.mr-seo.com/wordpress

Biggest mistakes with do it yourself SEO - Mr SEO

2006-06-21T12:58:00.000-04:00

by Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

I read and evaluate hundreds of websites a month. Some sites I read for information, some are my own, some are blogs, messageboards and so on. The rest are from people who request a free SEO site evaluation from my company. Some are from large corporations and others are from mid-sized companies, but almost 50% of the evaluations requested are from do-it-yourselfer's.

There is so much information available on SEO and SEM. Everywhere you turn there is another article on SEO. One thing I often notice is many people suffer from information overload. They try to read everything they can find and in many situations, they try everything they read. Some of that information is either outdated or ineffective. Some of these self SEO'ers simply don't use what they read effectively. I have taken some of the most common mistakes and listed will explain them for you here. Hopefully, this will help you correct any problems on your site.

Keyword research: Many people have no idea that it's even necessary. I have seen website owners attempt to optimize for key terms that do not even exist. One gentleman created a new product that no one has even heard of. The only marketing he was doing was SEO and some PPC. You can't optimize for the product name only when no one has ever heard of your product. If no one has heard of it, how will they search for it? They won't. The research needs to be done to determine what keyphrases people would type to find what your product is offering or related to.

Bad web design: This one really gets to me. This is one I see more than any other. People hiring a web design firm or DIYing it before fully understanding what SEO is. The way most strictly online businesses begin is by someone deciding that they want to create a website online. Then they have one built. Then they learn about how to promote it and how search engines are used. The problem there is, if their site is not SEO friendly (meaning clean urls, not in frames, not 100% Flash and other search engine indexing problems), it will hurt their ability to rank well. Many people don't find this out until after they have their site built. This can cost a new website owner a lot of money. Educated yourself. Do not rely on the web designer to tell you about SEO and what you need to know to have a SEO friendly site. Many web designers are just designers. They have no interest in what is SEO friendly or not. Do all your research before you have a site built and find a web design that can provide what you need for your site and the search engines.

Hidden text: This one still amazes me. That method hasn't worked since Ebert sat next to Siskel. Why do people still try these old methods? They read old articles, blog entrys or messageboards. They think doing things unnaturally will help them in the natural listings. If you don' know this yet, you do now. It doesn't work.

Repeating words too often: This one gets overlooked a lot. Let's say for example you sold tickets. Now let's say your menu is all HTML (links). Your menu may read something like this; Hockey tickets, Boxing tickets, Wrestling tickets and so on. Now if you have fifty events and you have tickets after every one, you could run into a lot of problems. Especially if you wanted to come up on the search engines on any phrase with the words tickets in it. There are a lot of other factors that would need to be considered as well, such as the length of content on the page, off site SEO, etc. If this was a typical site, it would hurt your rankings in the SERP's.

This is just a small portion of problems I see. Hopefully, you can learn to avoid common SEO mistakes. Unless you are SEO savvy, it's almost always better to hire a professional if you can afford to. I know that isn't always possible. Also, try to get your information and tips from reliable sources. It will save you a lot of back tracking.

Try Joe's article submission service Read his SEO articles and listen to his podcast on SEO or read his ppersonal blog at http://www.mr-seo.com/wordpress

Getting listed in DMOZ. Not as easy as we'd like it to be.

2006-06-12T13:09:00.000-04:00

by: Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

The open directory project, or dmoz as it is better known, is the directory many webmasters want to be in. There are many myths and so-called benefits to being in dmoz. Unfortunately, this article will not be about them. This article is to help people better understand how dmoz works and will hopefully give you a better idea of how to submit properly. None of this article is speculation. This has all come from my conversations with the editors themselves, either from their message board or via email.
Here are the basics:

Keep in mind it can take anywhere from 2 weeks to a year or more to get listed. In order to be accepted, you need to meet their qualifications. Some of the qualifications are...

You can't submit a site that is consists of mostly affiliate links.

You can't submit an individual URL from the same site. For example if you submit

www.abc.comn you can't submit www.abc.com/next-page

You can't submit mirror sites. These are sites that are identical to another. (Same content, just different URL)

Do not submit a site that is "under construction" or only partially finished.

Your site can't have any illegal content, child pornography, or advocate illegal activity.

How soon can you expect your site to be accepted into the directory? It can take anywhere form a a few weeks to a year or more. Why so long? Dmoz runs on the steam of volunteers. An editor for Dmoz must make an edit at least once every four months. So, if an editor does the minimum and your number 1000 on the list in his or her category, it may take a while...to say the least. Some editors are more active than others, so their level of commitment can greatly affect the process.

According to dmoz's forum, only 31% of sites are submitted to the right category. How can you get listed faster? Make sure you pick the right category. If you are not sure what your category is, look at other sites in the directory and see where your competition is listed. What happens if you pick the wrong catergory? It will slow your sites' approval.

If an editor has the power to, he will reassign it. If not, it will be left un-reviewed until an editor with the power to move it does so. I also learned that if your site is not listed, 99% of the time it's because your site lacks quality content or content period.

If you go to submit to a category and you see "Volunteer to edit this category", that usually means there is no one assigned to that category you are applying to be in. That doesn't mean it won't be reviewed by someone higher up, but I am sure it will take even longer than usual. Oh, and if you are thinking about resubmitting every week, month or the rumored 3 months, don't. I was told that if your site is in "queue" to be evaluated, resubmitting my cause your site to go to the back of the line. That means you'll have to start from scratch again.

I know this seems like a long complicated process. The editors at dmoz have told me that people should submit their site and forget it.
You can check out their forums and speak with editors at http://resource-zone.com/forum/index.php, but don't expect them to tell you the status of your submission. They won't, and you will not get an email saying that you have been rejected or submitted. It seems like a lose, lose situation, but have patience. The best shot you have of getting listed faster is to be in a very non-competitive category or one that doesn't have a lot of submissions or listings.

Try Joe's article submission service Read his SEO articles and listen to his podcast on SEO or read his ppersonal blog at http://www.mr-seo.com/wordpress

Using your blog to get one way links - Mr SEO

2006-06-06T16:49:00.000-04:00

Blogs are a great tool. They allow you to add new, fresh content to your site. They are also a great way to build readership. Think about all the blogs you read. I'm sure that if you're reading this, you're also likely subscribed to a few or at least check them on a daily to weekly basis. Why? Is it because it is entertaining, informative or both? Blogs have been given a bad name because of splogs. Darren Rowse has a terrffic blog (http://www.problogger.net.) where he posts daily with tips for bloggers. Darren has discussed the "Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers", which consist of tips from highly successful bloggers who tell you what they do and make suggesstions as to what you should do.

So, how does all this help you get one way backlinks. Preferrably, you want people to link to you naturally. The best way to do that is to give them something worth linking to. Let's say I was an MS Office guru. My blog might be about relatively unknown tips and tricks on how to use MS office or for creating calenders and spreadsheets. Many people who work with MS office would be interested in that. They may like the tips so much that they list it on their blog or site.
What makes a good blog? Information? Yes! Consistency? Absolutely! However a great blog has to have its own style and flare. A blog that invites its readers to participate in the post is a golden rule. That's almost a guaranteed way to ensure that people will be coming back for more.

If you want to get traffic to your blog, one of the best ways is to leave comments on other blogs. Keep in mind, however, that it has to be done in a smart way. People can always tell when something is spam, so avoid being so obvious. Limit your posts to those blogs that are at least somewhat related to your blog. If a blog is about automobiles and you try to plug your aquarium business, you'll do more harm than good. Go to blogs that are related and take part in the discussion. The more informative and intellectual your comments are, the better chance your post will stay around long enough to be read. That is how you can start to build your readership. If you can convince people what you have to say is worth reading, they will come and read it.

Regardless of what you do to get people to your blog, the proof is always in the pudding. If you can't keep them coming back, all the advertising and work you put into creating traffic will mean nothing.

Try Joe's article submission service Read his SEO articles and listen to his podcast on SEO or read his ppersonal blog at http://www.mr-seo.com/wordpress

Why your site may not be fully indexed by Google. - Mr SEO

2006-05-17T14:33:00.000-04:00

Google has certainly taken a bite out of how web site owners market their sites. Google recently stated how important it is that sites find others worth linking to. Traditional methods of link exchange and buying links is not the answer. The answer is knowing how to get people to link to you voluntarily. You need to view your site as another site owner would and ask yourself if you would want to link to your site? Is your site stuffed with poorly written content simply for the purpose of placing adsense ads on it? Before SEO became a must, people relied heavily on the originality and uniqueness of their sites to draw traffic. Today, that seems to be a lost artform for most. Google is starting to tell web site owners that they need to do more than exchange and buy links and that fancy methods of linking won't hold much weight. In actuality, continuing to adhere to outdated link methods may result in your site not being fully indexed.

Matt Cutts recently stated on his blog that "if you were getting crawled more before and you're trading a bunch of reciprocal links, don't be surprised if the new crawler has different crawl priorities and doesn't crawl as much". Back in 2004, link exchanges were the "in" thing to do. Now, however, Google is aware of the possible arrangements (including the "triangle" exchange) and as a result, they hold little merit. Linking to bad neighbors or unrelated sites can have a negative effect on your site. Matt stated that owners should be careful regarding link exchange policies as it can be a risky practice that could affect your sites value in the long term. The same goes for buying links on related sites. When buying links, you should be using the no follow tag. This will help ensure the link will not be counted in a negative way. especially if buying from sites that are not related to yours. Fact: The Bigdaddy crawl looks more at inbound than outbound links. The quality of the links will determine how deep to crawl a site or if a site should be crawled at all!

What makes your site hard to crawl?
* Using Cookies
* Using Session Id's
* Frameset can be indexed but there is room for improvement so becareful, not the best solution.
* Flash still should be accompanied with HTML text

How to make sure your site is indexed correctly?
* Use Google sitemaps
* Stay away from free hosting
* Using too much Java
* Mouseovers
* Over-designing your site

To see how your site looks to spiders, use a text based browser. If you can't make out what is on the page, neither will the spiders. Making sites clean and useful is the goal. Too many effects, Java, flash and other fancy features can hinder your sites indexing.

Google has also stated they want to align themselves with sites that offer useful content to get links, so content is still king. Quality is more important than quantity.

Google is doing its best to make it so that webmasters cannot control the linking process. They want people to naturally want to link to you, whether it's because you have a great message board, informative articles or quality related content. Google is trying to push sites that are relevant as it will positively affect the public's view of their engine. So, before you buy a link, sell a link or try to find a sneaky way to build backlinks, try good old fashion web site marketing 101. When creating a site, give people a reason to want to come back! Too many marketers worry about bringing in visitors for that one time sale or visit. If they took the time to separate their site from the competition with helpful content, a great layout and easy navigation, they would have little trouble establishing links. If your site is informative and resourceful, people will find you and so will the search engines.

Joe is an SEO Consultant visit his site for more information, read his SEO articles, listen to his podcast on SEO or check out his SEO forum all at http://www.mr-seo.com

What's wrong with online advertising?

2006-05-15T15:19:00.000-04:00

I had to ask myself this question a few days ago. I'm always working on a project or two, sometimes ten. One thing that concerns me is not how much money is being made on the Internet, but even more importantly, how much is being lost. There are so many possible ways to make mistakes with online advertising.

Unfortunately, just as with banner advertising, many people simply don't know when and how to correctly market themselves online. Here is a perfect example; I had a listener from my podcast ask me if he should buy banner space on a web site recently. The site he wanted to advertise on was receiving 300,000 hits a day. The price was actually very reasonable. The problem was that it wasn't his target audience. He was going to advertise on a site where the visitors were between 13 and 19. The product he was selling is geared towards consumers 21 and over.

Getting back to adsense... Adsense, in my opinion, shouldn't be on sites that sell a product or service. If you owned a store front, you wouldn't place your competitors sign in your window would you? Would you endorse them? What do you think it says to your visitors? It tells them a lot, including the fact that your service doesn't make enough revenues to keep you from having to sell space. It also makes them wonder whether your products or services are of the best quality and gives them an open invitation to check out your competitors. It makes it look as though you are selling out your company and don't take your own business seriously. Besides, would you make more on a sale or on a click? Google has drop the cost per-click pay out, meaning that no matter how cheap your items are or how much volume you move, you are still highly likely to make less money on a click.

You would be better off joining an affiliate program and place ads on your site that complement your service or product than allow ads that directly compete with you. That would come across as more of a service to your visitors. For that matter, just go to websites that offer services that complement yours and strike up a deal of some sort, even if it's just a link exchange. The more you do for your visitors, the better off you will be. If contextual ads go this route, it may be worth it to have them on your site.

Same goes for PPC. I have seen so many do-it-yourself-ers waste money on bad keywords, poorly written ads and an overall misconception of how the process works. I wonder how much Google has made off of poor marketing efforts. People should either hire a professional or have a better understanding of how online marketing works. Just because a new form of advertising comes out doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea for your business. Don't waste money on bad keywords or ads that will bring in traffic looking for something you don't have or are loosely associated with. Not only will you waste PPC funds, you will also be remembered and avoided by those who may have a need for what you do offer in the future.

Joe is an SEO Consultant visit his site for more information, read his SEO articles, listen to his podcast on SEO or check out his SEO forum all at http://www.mr-seo.com

Resumes and SEO. Let your resume work for you! - Mr SEO

2006-05-04T09:11:00.000-04:00

by: Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

This is a out of the norm for me. Writing about resumes, that is. I thought I'd tackle this subject to help those looking for work. I hope to offer insight to others who may not have thought of using SEO to help garner employment opportunities. Take my word for it, a well optimized resume will help land you a job or some freelance work at the very least.

So you have a website. Great! What's on it? Your portfolio? Resume? Information useful for someone seeking your skills? Is it optimized? Optimize a resume? Sure, why not. It is on the Internet already? You may send links to potential employers, but wouldn't it be better if they found you on their own?

Suppose you were looking to relocate but you don't have the time to actively search for a new job. Your optimized resume could do the work for you. What if you are a freelancer? Wouldn't it be nice to have clients come to you? Of course it would. Do you need numbers back it up?

What if you are a model or actress. Did you know that on Yahoo alone there were over 1200 searches last month on Google for Model resume?

If you are a teacher, your resume has the potential to be seen by over 13,000 on Yahoo alone. There were 914 searches for elementary teacher resume. The list goes on and on. Even math teacher resumes are searched 300 times a month, just on Yahoo. One could safely say you can easily double that number by adding Google and MSN.

Granted, some of those searches are for people looking for a sample of a resume. Not all of them by any stretch, however, as only 1800 searched for "sample teacher resume".

If you optimized your resume for a specific geographically area, especially one you are looking to relocate to, it may help you land the job you are looking for.

The point here is to help increase your chances of landing a job. If you already have a site, take advantage of SEO. It can't hurt. Think about how impressed the person doing the searching will be with your self promotion. Not everyone has the ability to market themselves and it shows great initiative on your part. The bottom line is, a resume on a website is still a resume. Drive traffic to it. The worst that could happen is that you'll find a better paying job.

Listen to our Podcast http://www.mr-seo.com/MR_SEO_Podcast.html on SEO and join our message board at http://www.mr-seo.com/message_board_SEO.html

Donald Trump Trumped by Travel Sites With SEO

2006-04-25T21:57:00.000-04:00

Donald Trump recently launched a travel site located at www.gotrump.com. Trump, like many new website owners, built a site without first considering the unique nature of online marketing and promotion. So where did Trump go wrong? From an SEO standpoint, little of the site is optimized, including title tags and pages. The tags currently in place are too long and don't conform to search engine standards. The site is geared toward those looking for a deal on airline tickets, car rental, last minute flights, hotels and more. Online travel industry sites such as these are highly competitive and require both an initial optimization effort and a PPC campaign.

Since the site is new, PPC advertising is crucial. Organic listings garnered from proper SEO techniques take time to produce. Still, organic listings are preferred over PPC by the majority of web surfers, so it's a bit of a surprise that the site is littered with subpar optimization efforts such as bolded keywords and other SEO strategies that haven't been valid since Mr. Trump woke up next to Ivana. Over time, organic rankings earned through proper SEO implementations will bring in more quality leads and lessen the reliance on paid listings. Every business should have a plan for effective marketing from the outset, and whoever drew up this plan should be the next one to hear the words, "You're fired".

A search for airline tickets yielded no PPC results for www.gotrump.com. Perhaps Mr Trump is relying on the popularity of "The Apprentice" or other forms of advertising to make the site a success. Still, considering the comparison shopping nature of most web surfers, one needs to advertise on the net to be a valid contender. Most people rely solely on PPC ads and organic listings to find the products or services they will purchase when shopping online. Suppose Mr Trump placed an ad for the site in each episode of "The Apprentice", which has an average weekly viewership of around 20 million. The last time I checked, that leaves well over 230 million Americans alone who would have no direct knowledge of the site even existing.

The purpose of this article is to teach people that anyone, even Donald Trump, can benefit from the use of SEO. This is why future web entrepreneurs need to be aware of the marketing avenues that are pertinent to the world wide web. All the money in the world won't help if you don't put it to good use. Avoid the aforementioned mistakes by incorporating an effective SEO strategy into your web based business. If you do so at the time the site is created, you will not only have a solid marketing plan but also save money by not having to implement SEO after the fact. Remember, just as in real estate, stocks, bonds and all business venues, the internet has an exclusive set of rules by which success and failure are governed. For a guy who has been successful in almost every type of business venture there is, there is little excuse for being ill prepared.

Joe is an SEO consultant. His SEO/SEM firm has helped many companies increase there organic placement. He also writes SEO articles and creates a weekly podcast on SEO. Check out the Mr SEO message board. Low prices on hosting and domain names see his sister site.

When to outsource SEO and when to keep it in house.

2006-04-18T12:49:00.000-04:00

The Benefits of outsourcing SEO.
by Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

SEO is big business these days. All too often, there is little supply to meet the current demand. With increases in the costs associated with other forms of web marketing, it has become almost a necessity for businesses to incorporate SEO in to their marketing plan. Unfortunately many companies know very little about SEO and assume it will be cheaper for them in the long run to hire someone "in-house". In some cases, it may very well be. For most, however, overlooking the benefits of outsourcing SEO can be costly.

Why is it better to outsource?

SEO is an ever changing business. One has to know when and how to find new information. An SEO firm is more likely to be aware of changes to search engine optimization protocols than an in-house individual. An individual will likely spend the majority of his or her time developing and implementing your SEO strategies. Outsourced SEO professionals must perform these same functions while constantly studying the industry, staying current with changing trends and familiarizing themselves with the latest SEO techniques. This is a simple necessity SEO companies that wish to survive.

There are few individuals who will be able to successfully perform the many functions associated with SEO well. An SEO firm likely has several individuals on payroll that specialize in one particular function, be it link building, writing , optimizing etc. These individuals are able to perfect their craft and are usually more adept at their position than a single person wearing many hats.

Time is another concern with in-house SEO. Will one individual be able to optimize multiple pages, write content, tags, build links, run reports and perform other SEO tasks in a timely fashion? One person can only do so much. In the online business world, time is money. Most companies can do in a matter of days what might take an individual weeks to do. Many companies who use in-house SEO personnel spend more than necessary to get the same amount of work done in a longer amount of time.

What about cost? Surely the cost of hiring an individual is substantially less than the cost of hiring a company, right? As I stated in the last paragraph, time concerns and individual expertise will make outsourcing cheaper. Having one individual do the job of five is rarely a good idea. You wouldn't ask your auto mechanic to take a look at your broken television, would you?

In any case, is outsourcing the right move for you or your company? Whether you choose to outsource or not, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Do your research by performing a simple cost/benefit analysis on what outsourcing versus in-house SEo will cost. In some cases, in-house SEO maybe a better option, especially if you require little in the way of SEO and would be hiring an individual who canperform other tasks.

A resume can say a lot and mean nothing. A resume talking about rankings is meaningless unless you have all the information. Top rankings for phrases no one is searching for means little, and shouldn't be used as a guage of someone's abilities.

Whether you hire a SEO company or individual...what is their contribution to the SEO society? Do they share their knowledge? Set trends? It is better to do business with someone that shares their ideas and insights than one who simply learns from others. Innovative techniques are only developed by innovative individuals or companies.

What do others say about the company or individual? Ask for references and check them.

For small companies, in-house SEO can be the best option. The company has time to grow into their SEO. They can see how it works for them and then branch out. Large companies, on the other hand, can lose a lot of ground using an individual over a company. Choosing a competant firm would suit them best.

Joe operates Mr SEO His SEO firm has helped my companies reach their SEO goals. Visit his site to read his articles on SEO, listen to his podcast, check out his message board or try out his services. If you'd like to purchase affordable domains and hosting visit www.mr-seo.net

Subdomains. What are the SEO benefits? - Mr SEO

2006-04-11T16:22:00.000-04:00

Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

There has always been a long standing debate over whether or not to use a subdomain. Questions I commonly receive are... What is a subdomain? Is it hard for a sub-domain to rank well? When should a use a subdomain? What are the SEO benefits? What are the alternatives to a subdomain? These are all very good questions. Lucky for you, all the answers are right here. So let's get to it.

What is a subdomain?

A subdomain is just as it sounds, a sub or second-level of a domain. A standard domain looks as follows: www.mydomain.com. A sub domain would be http://prefix.mydomain.com. Subdomains do not take on the "WWW".
All subs start with "http://subdomain/maindomain.com.
That's simple enough, I think. We have all seen a subdomain before. On to the next question.

Is it hard for a subdomain to rank well?

Subdomains rank just as well as regular domains. Having a subdomain doesn't decrease your chances of ranking on search engines. You'll just have to treat each subdomain as a new, individual site. This means work on building PR and links. As with any domain, you don't get a free ride.

What are the benefits to using a subdomain?

Let's say you had a site that had many categories in it. If you were to submit to directories you could submit each subdomain as it's own individual category and not get penalized. The links from the subdomains to the main domain would be looked upon as one way links from another domain.

What are the drawbacks to using subdomains?

Each subdomain would be looked at by search engines as a new site, which means you will need to do everything you would normally do for a new site. In short, creating backlinks, battling the sandbox, and all other problems associated with domain development are still present. If this sounds like too much trouble, you may want to consider creating subfolders within the domain. This would look like www.mydomain.com/folder.

If a sub,domain becomes banned will it effect the main domain?

The answer is yes. It may get the main domain banned if they are linked to each other. There has been proof of main domains being banned, yet i have heard of many instances where they have not. The main domain may not get banned under certain circumstances. The question shouldn't be whether the main domain can get banned because of a subdomain, but instead, why would your subdomain get banned in the first place. If you want to experiment with untested or controversial methods, do so on a new domain.

So should I use a subdomain?

If you can afford the time an money required to develop out each subdomain and if your main domain would be too convoluted by having too much on it, I'd say yes. If not, save yourself the heartache and extra work. Just make your site easy to navigate, use folders and you should do just fine.

Joe is an SEO expert. His SEO/SEM firm has helped many companies increase there organic placement. He also writers articles and creates a weekly podcast on SEO. Win SEO for your site just for post on the Mr SEO message board.

Pay Per Click VS Organic SEO...and the winner is?

2006-04-01T15:14:00.000-05:00

by: Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

Pay Per Click has changed the way we advertise our businesses. PPC has made it possible for small and large business alike to show up on the first page of Google, as long as they are willing to pay for it. Even if you don't have a website, you can create a landing page and push a product or service. This would certainly save you the time and money of building and optimizing a site. Still, how much better is PPC compared to organic SEO? Well, let's take a look...

PPC will allow your add to hit the engines very quickly, where organic SEO could take months to produce the same results. Organic rankings, however, cost you nothing per click, wheras PPC could cost you any where from a few pennies to a few dollars. Recently I wrote an article that discussed how organic SEO was choose five to one over PPC. Organic listings are more popular because they are more relevant. PPC ads are paid advertisements and may or may not be what you are looking for.

What about PPC fraud? Google just shelled out 90 million dollars due to fraudulent clicks. What does that mean to you? Well it could mean that your competitor could try to deplete your advertising money by clicking on your ads in the hopes of running your daily budget dry so they can have less competition. Or, it could be that your ad is on a website that is related to what you sell. The site owner that hosts your ads gets paid when someone clicks on it. Some site owners will go to great extremes to get as many fraudulent clicks as possible. It's a get rich scheme that has worked in the past, although Google has really cracked down on it.

So, what happens to PPC? Will search engines improve their methods to stop click fraud? The latest theory is that search engines will allow you to pay only if a sale is made or a form is completed. Good idea? Maybe, maybe not. The agreed upon cost per lead, which would take the place of the bid, will be high. What will they do with sites that sell over a phone number? Leads can still come from there as well.

Anyone who knows me and my work knows how I feel about organic SEO. I have helped many companies increase their search engine traffic and lowered their dependency on PPC. In my mind organic should come first and be aided by PPC, but that's just one man's opinion.

This round goes to organic SEO! Click as many organic listings as you want. I dare you!

Listen to our Podcast http://www.mr-seo.com/MR_SEO_Podcast.html on SEO and join our message board at http://www.mr-seo.com/message_board_SEO.html

Top Ten SEO Myths - Mr SEO

2006-03-29T19:03:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder what the biggest SEO myths are? I have taken the most prevalent myths that seem to be constantly resurfacing and examined them for you. This is a must read for anyone looking to hire an SEO firm or someone looking to do SEO for themselves.

Myth #1 All meta tags are of equal importance
Some meta tags are useful while others are not. I have stated this many times. Search engines are relying more and more about what is on the website than what the tags are telling them. The description tag is used by some (but not all) search engines. The same goes for the keyword tag. Keyword tags are used more by spammers and people using software to find you as a link partner than the search engines. In my opinion, the only tags you should concentrate your efforts on are the robot tag and the description tags.

Myth # 2 You should submit your site to search engines weekly or monthly.Honestly, I never submit any site more than 1 time and sometimes I don't even do that. If you submit your site once, you're good. The engines will come back on their own. You can sometimes speed up the process of getting your site indexed by linking it to a high traffic or high PR site. The search engines will find the URL to your site and index it automatically.

Myth # 3 SEO is too expensive
Actually, SEO is probably the most cost effective form of online marketing. Organic SEO is cheaper to set up and maintain than a PPC campaign or banner advertising. With PPC and banner advertising, you pay for clicks or impressions. With SEO, all clicks are FREE. You simply pay for the set up and monitoring of your site's pages.

Myth # 4 PPC is more effective than natural SEO
In the short term...true. In the long term...false. Why, you ask? Organic SEO is preferred by traffic over 5 to 1 to PPC. People trust organic searches to return relevant results. People also know that the ads to the right of the page are sponsored ads. They have long ago figured out that anyone can bid on any term they want, as many often do, without even a hint of relevance. So, long term SEO structuring can indeed be more effective than PPC, especially when considering the preferences of search traffic. A top 5 ranking may take some time to get, but once you are there (and provided you can maintain it), you will get better results than from a PPC ad.

Myth # 5 Hiring an SEO specialist "in house" is cheaper
The problem with hiring someone in house is, they are paid hourly or by salary. Most SEO firms (Mr-SEO included), charge per item or project. It doesn't matter how long it takes us, you pay a one time charge. When you hire a firm, it's like having a team of SEO experts on your payroll. Paying a flat rate saves you money and speeds up the time it takes to complete a job. Additionally, most SEO firms (again, Mr-SEO Included) have specialists who write, submit, redesign sites, post pages, etc... Hiring one person who can do all these things competantly is highly unlikely.

Myth # 6 I can only optimize my homepage for keyterms
You can and should optimize every page on your site. Each page should have it's own keyterms, with no more than three phrases per page (preferrably one).

Myth # 7 All I need to do is write content with the correct keyword density and my site will rank well
Wrong...especially if you want to rank on Google. You will need off site SEO as well as onsite SEO. Keyword density may work on MSN (for now), but it will take more than that to rank well for all search engines.

Myth # 8 I shouldn't aim for the most competitive keywords and phrases
If the keywords you are competing for are very competitive, should you optimize your site for them? Of Course! I would optimize for some high, medium and low competitive keyterms. Cover all your bases. The worst case is that you won't rank well for the high competitive keyterms and that's ok. You can always work to improve them. Don't shy away from top keyterms just because they are competitive. You may never know how close you could rank for them unless you try.

Myth # 9 Only work with companies that give you a guarantee
Guarantees would be nice if they were worth the paper they are printed on. In fact, most guarantees from SEO firms have the same stipulation in them. This stipulation usually states that as long as they get one of your keyphrases to the top of any major search engines, they have fulfilled their end of the agreement. This is irrelevant to the competition of the term. In other words...it's easy to be number one for terms no one is competing for. Don't be deceived by high rankings listed on SEO sites as they can be misleading.

Myth # 10 SEO requires a 1 year commitment on my part
It certainly shouldn't. Don't lock yourself into a year contract with any company unless you already have an established, favorable business relationship. SEO, in most cases, should be performed on a month to month basis with a mutual understanding of the objectives and relative timetable. Often, both the long and short term maintenance contracts that many firms insist on including with each job are unnecessary. As an example...If you have a new site optimized, especially right after an update, you may not see results for three months. Why pay for maintenance in the interim time? Additionally, you may not be happy with the results of an SEO firm or even the level of service. A long term contract may only ensure that you receive a full year of bad service. So, don't lock yourself in with a year contract, at least until you are comfortable with who you are dealing with.

Hopefully, I put a few common SEO myths to rest. Feel free to contact me with questions you may have regarding these or other SEO myths you want more information on. If you post this article on your site you must link back!

Listen to our Podcast http://www.mr-seo.com/MR_SEO_Podcast.html on SEO and join our message board at http://www.mr-seo.com/message_board_SEO.html

SEO and Expired Domains: Is It Worth It?

2006-03-29T19:01:00.000-05:00

By: Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

So you want to start a business, sell a product or have the next big dot Com idea, huh? Well, undoubtedly, you will need a domain. Wouldn't an expired domain name give you a head start? Think about it...the site attached to the domain already has a page rank and backlinks. Maybe the site is listed in Dmoz or several other directories and search engines. By purchasing an expired domain, you wouldn't have to worry about Google's age factor for new sites. It would likely save you a whole lot of time and money, right? Wrong. Like most things in life, nothing is that easy.
Expired domains are viewed by many as a way for a new domain owner to capitalize on a the previous site's page rank and traffic. Unfortunately, that's simply not the case.

Once a site expires, it loses its page rank, meaning all existing links are no longer counted towards the site. That's right...you start fresh. You'll have to re-establish PR. Dmoz has even mentioned that they will pull a site's listing once it expires. Of course, depending on the popularity of the name in terms of it's relation to search traffic, you'll probably get more traffic than if the site was new. The site already has established links that bring in traffic, they just won't count toward your page rank...ever. But honestly, that's really the only benefit you get, unless you are lucky enough to buy a domain whose name you can benefit from because of a direct relation to your products or services. The chances of that happening are pretty slim. Think about it...if someone owned a successful site with a successful name, would it be expired and available? This is why even the best attempts at garnering an expired domain usually only result in a loose association by name at best. If you want to sell computers, you won't find "computers.com". You might find "discountcomputerperipheralsupply.net", but that's not exactly memorable, is it?

There are many SEO gurus who advocate buying expired domains. I don't necessarily disagree as long as you know what the benefits will and won't be. Google has stated that expired domains will lose their PR and backlinks. I have even heard of instances where attempts to re-establish PR after purchasing the expired domain and registering it have failed. In fact, more than a few people have had problems with Google failing to recognize backlinks set up after the domain is re-established.
So, is there any safe way to get a jump on the SERP's? Well, if possible, you'd want to purchase a domain before it expires. This way, there is no chance of losing the backlinks and PR. Still, if it holds a site with a high PR and good backlinks or is simply a popular phrase or term, it's likely going to cost you a lot more than the registration fee on a domain. The cost could be justified, however, in some instances.

In my research, I couldn't find one instance where Google or any other search engine had a problem with a transfer of ownership regarding domains. This basically entails buying a business with the location, not just an empty store with a sign. Of course, someone could own a domain with no site on it, but then pre-existing PR and backlinks wouldn't be a factor. You would simply be buying a name. For domains with successful sites already established, it's a good way to get a head start if the price is right. If you can afford it and find someone willing to sell, this is one way to avoid the loss of any pre-existing PR and backlinks. Of course, we are talking about domain purchase in the context of small business. If you bought "Sears.com" in 1990 and you don't own the company, it wasn't because your last name is Sears.

Back to expired domains...

If you do decide to buy an expired domain, keep one thing in mind. The site already has backlinks, anchor text and other off site SEO factors. There are two considerations you will need to make before you plunk down your cash:

1. Are you buying the domain because the domain name is related or because the previous site had high traffic? If the site you are planning is unrelated, you won't benefit from the traffic (provided there is any) or off site SEO work.

2. Make sure you know what you are getting into when you buy an expired domain. Any "black hat" methods, links to bad neighbors, paid links and other unethical practices can affect you.

If all else fails or your search for a related expired domain bears no fruit, start from scratch. You will be able to develop your site knowing that the success or failure of it can't be attributed to someone else's efforts. In other words, you will know if your SEO methods are effective for the particular business you are in and not a result of traffic already established by the previous owner. I have written many articles that can help you boost your pagerank and get indexed faster. Sometimes, it's better to start fresh than go through the headache of searching for the right expired domain.

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Surfers prefer organic SEO 5 to 1 over PPC advertising

2006-03-29T18:51:00.000-05:00

It's a fact that surfers prefer organic search results, which are the result of organic SEO methods, 5 to 1 over Paid Search engine advertising. I'm not saying this because I'm a firm believer in the long term benefits of SEO over SEM (even though I am), I'm saying it because it's true. PPC does have it's place in online marketing, but before I get into that, let me expound on my previous statement.

Why do people go to the organic listings before they go to the sponsor ads? It's very simple. People know that organic listings are more likely to have what they're looking for. Sites that are shown as a result of a search have creditability over paid listing sites. This is important to keep in mind, in addition to the fact that if your site ranks well organically, you will spend substantially less money on PPC and overall online marketing. I have a few clients that receive thousands of hits a day based solely on organic searches. These results, along with the ever-increasing cost of PPC advertising, make me wonder why more companies don't utilize organic SEO methods.

In regard to PPC, it's certainly an effective way to drive traffic to your site quickly. PPC campaigns are an excellent option for those waiting for a higher page rank or companies that sell high dollar items or have large profit margins. If your average sale is 5 dollars, you can't really afford to be paying much for an ad. If one average order can pay for an entire day's or even week's PPC budget, it's probably well worth the money. Unfortunately, a successful PPC campaign takes a lot more than money.
A successful PPC campaign is all about monitoring. Of the many subpar PPC campaigns I have "inherited" from frustrated site owners, roughly 80% were improperly monitored or tracked. Why is tracking so important? For one thing, without any sort of tracking, how will you know how much you are spending for a lead or a sale? Aside from not having tracking in place, many PPC managers bid on bad keywords, allow poorly written ads and utilize improper landing pages. Again, a successful PPC campaign takes a lot more than money.

Another thing many fail to realize when it comes to organic SEO and PPC is that one can be used to the advantage of the other. PPC can be used to test whether or not the keywords you are targeting are right for you. This works especially well for a company that has a unique service or product. Sometimes, traditional keywords or phrases are ineffective. PPC combined with tracking can help you determine if the keywords you are bidding on are converting. If they are, you can the create pages for the organic search which will hopefully alleviate your need for future PPC spending or at least curtail it significantly. There are also other ways to use PPC to "test" areas in which you could benefit from organic SEO, though many SEM firms will not tell you this. Why? Because they either don't know how to use PPC in this capacity or they want you to remain dependent on PPC for the life of your business. Not all, but many SEM firms view their clients much in the same way that high interest lenders view borrowers with good credit. They want you to stay put and throw your money out the window and will be more than happy to let you do so until you figure out that you don't have to.

The idea behind SEM is to help your ROI. Since I lean more toward SEO than SEM, I tend to use PPC as a way to test the market and to help new businesses bring in traffic. Ideally, organic SEO will help minimize the cost of PPC. It's my opinion that companies who focus solely on PPC are putting all their eggs in one basket and will always be dependent on their marketing budget. As PPC prices soar, so will your PPC expenses.

So, the next time you search for an SEM firm, ask how they can help you save money and achieve better results over the long term by incorporating organic SEO into your overall marketing strategy. If a 5 to 1 preference isn't a good enough reason to engage in organic SEO, then I don't know what is.

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SEO dirty little tricks - The things people will do to put you out of business.

2006-03-29T18:48:00.000-05:00

Ahhh...business it is wonderful, isn't it? It's great to know that you can make money online without owning a storefront. Despite the low overhead most online businesses enjoy, there are certainly down sides as well. Instead of competing with other providers of goods and services in your immediate area as storefront businesses must do, yo are competing with everyone in the world. Still, it can be easy to make money on the Internet but even easier to have your business sabotaged. Sabotaged, you ask? Yes, sabotaged! In fact, sabotage is not as uncommon as you might think. Before I go any further, I want to make sure you are aware that some of the things I will be discussing in this article are illegal. I shouldn't have to tell you that anyone who uses this information to harm another could (and should) face prosecution. This article is intended to help web owners spot potential threats and stop them before they get out of hand. With that said, let's move on.

Early in Google Adsense's not so distant history, there was a substantial amount of pay-per-click fraud going on. People were paying others in 3rd world countries to click ads on their sites. That's a common example of someone trying to make money in an underhanded and illegal way. Now read what underhanded and illegal things people will do to put their competition out of business.

Pay-Per-Click fraud can be devastating. It's a sad world when your competitor will click on your ads to deplete your advertising budget. This is not as big problem as it once was, but you can bet your money it's still going on. People have simply become more ruthless and put more effort into their trickery. What can you do about this? Not a whole lot. The best advice I have is to keep an eye on you PPC campaigns. If you average 30 hits a day and it all of a sudden you double or triple that a few days in a row, you may want to contact the search engine you advertise with and have them look into it. Better to be safe than sorry.

This type of sabotage isn't unique. There are also those who will hurt you by helping you make money, at least initially. Earlier in this article I mentioned people having others click on their Adsence ads to make money. It now seems people are clicking on their competitor's google ads in hopes of getting them in trouble with Google and other publishers. These people are more concerned with getting a competitor's site banned than the fact that their actions could get someone locked up or paying a hefty fine. As I stated before with the PPC fraud, keep an eye on your Adsence ads. If they jump higher than normal, look into it. Check your stats to see if there are hits from the same IP and how long the IP stays on your site. If you suspect something, contact Google or which ever search engine you're using to place ads on your site.

I have also come across some tactics that go beyond belief. People have actually created doorway sites for their competition and then reported the sites to Google. Oh yes, it has been done. How to stop that isn't as easy as it sounds. Many hosting sites allow the domain owner to remain incognito. How do you prove you don't own something?

I wanted to make readers aware of some of the negative things that are going on in the SE world. Chances are, none of these will happen to you. Still, knowledge is power, so use it to fine tune your senses. I don't want to inspire paranoia, but there are a lot of bad elements on the net and caution is often necessary. If everyone conducted business with the golden rule in mind, we would never have to worry about these things. Unfortunately, the net is just like the real world...there are always going to be those that want to better their situation at the expense of someone else's.

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Owning a website is more than just having it built.

2006-03-29T18:46:00.000-05:00

Things you need to know before building a website of any kind.

Internet business is big whether your business is solely Internet based or not. It's also true whether you are a large corporation or a mom and pop business with a small site for local clients only. The problem is that many people only do a limited amount of research when it comes to having a website built. Sure, people take the time to find an affordable web design firm or freelancer, after all...money is important. Sometimes, but not always, the lowest bid gets the job. Most business owner take a good look at their portfolio before committing, which makes perfect sense. I have seen people pay as little as $300 for a site. Let me tell you, they got what they paid for. But aside from web development, what do you know about online business? More importantly, what do you know about running a website?

You see, many people think all they need to do is to get a website up and running. There mentality is “If you built it, they will come” and that is rarely true. What people fail to understand is that they will likely need to do extensive research to make their site a success, unless the product or service they are offering is already wildly popular. Building a site is not a "one and done" proposition. You're probably asking yourself “What do I need to know?” Keep in mind, web designers will not give you that information. Why? It is in their best interest not to. If they did, you'd probably rethink your entire strategy for building a website.

Things to keep in mind.

Flash Design: This is popular among companies that like the visual aspect of web design. However, search engines can not read the content in a flash site unless it is designed with both Flash and HTML. Many companies come to me asking me to optimize their site after they spent a small fortune on Flash. I can't do it unless they are willing to allow me to make some changes. So, if you want to have a site that is easy to update (yourself) or want search engines to be able to index you, stay away from 100% flash.

Framed Sites: These are not as popular as they once were. Thank goodness for that. Framed sites are bad for a lot of reasons. Frames are basically 3 or 4 websites put together by frames to make one site. This makes it very hard to index the site properly. This will cause you to miss out on a lot of potential traffic.

Search Engine Submissions: When you finally decide to launch your site, keep in mind that it can take several months to get listed on search engines after you submit to them, and yes, you DO need to submit to them at least once. Have a plan of action if your site will be dependant on the search engines for traffic.

Search Engines Optimization: If you plan to be found on search engines, you need to consider doing some search engine optimization. SEO is about optimizing your site and its content so it can be found under certain keywords and phrases. This will cost less to do on a monthly basis than any other forms of advertising. Unfortunately, if your site is new it will take several months before your content is picked up by search engines. After that, any changes you make will been picked up within days. So, plan for other forms of advertising until you are picked up by the search engines. Then you can cut back on the paid stuff and concentrate on natural SEO.

Traffic: How will you bring traffic to your new site? You will need to plan a monthly budget to keep new traffic coming in. Do you know what your options are? Where are your competitors advertising? Do you know about PPC, banner advertising, article writing, link exchanges or other forms of getting traffic? You should, if you want to succeed.

Remember, just like with any business, you need to promote your site. Unlike a storefront, people will not just pass by your internet business on the way to work. It is much harder to promote a site and get traffic to it without a presence. If your site isn't created for people to find, the aforementioned points don't pertain to you. If your site will be relying on traffic, then keep them in mind and plan for it in your budget. Again, many people don't realize what they're getting into when they build a website. If you don't have the time to make a success of it, at least hire a professional who can do it for you.

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