“Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown.” – Claude Bernard

Even the casual reader of this blog knows of my interest in all things SEO…but I admit my expertise is stronger for online enterprises than it is for offline businesses looking to improve their search engine presence from a local perspective.

I do believe that in the next few years, more and more small businesses will begin to realise the value of a strong internet and search engine presence and so I jumped at the opportunity to interview Dave Jenyns from Melbourne SEO services who has a well of experience providing SEO services to small business.

In the interview below, Dave and I cover a range of SEO subjects including:

• Why is SEO important
• How big companies are waking up and how small businesses can compete online
• The importance of systems and strategy in succeeding with SEO

Click on the play button below to listen to the interview:

GuruBob interview with Dave Jenyns

Dave was so pleased with this interview that he is including the interview in the launch of version 2 of his SEO training series (The SEO Method). I was privileged to be given access to version 1 of The SEO Method, which I found to be entirely consistent with my own position on SEO and it’s implementation.

If you are looking for a systematic course on implementing SEO, I highly recommend you take a look at The SEO Method 2.0.

It is…as it is!

Guru Bob

About Robert Somerville

Technorati Tags: dave jenyns, GuruBob, melbourne seo services, search engine optimization, search engine optimization tips, SEO, seo method 20, seo strategies, SEO Strategy, seo training series, small business, small business and seo, small business seo

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” – Albert Einstein

I am fortunate to be in a position to offer SEO advice to a number of people and in this capacity I have observed that many (if not most) of the problems that people face with search engine optimization (SEO) don’t stem from overly complex issues but from either a mis-understanding or mis-implementation of the SEO basics.

Funnily enough, it does remind me a little of a situation from my past. Years ago, when I was a young, ambitious geo-scientist I would occasionally find myself in need of advice from the Chief Geo-Physicist. In offering advice, he would always irritate me enormously by going back to first principles to resolve whatever problem I had. How could it be that the answers would be found there I kept thinking to myself? The situation was doubly vexing when more often than not…that was indeed where the solution was to be found. Eventually, I came to realize that I should not make assumptions and when in a need to troubleshoot, I would carefully make sure that the solutions weren’t a lot simpler than I thought if only I took care to make sure I hadn’t overlooked the fundamentals.

But what has all this to do with SEO you may ask?

The more I have found myself in a position to troubleshoot SEO issues the more important I have found it to have a clear process for reviewing the circumstances of the issues while at the same time ensuring that the fundamentals have been implemented properly. This post has been written to describe the process I use so that people might be able to troubleshoot for themselves without having to seek external advice for something that might be founded in the SEO basics.

Of course any analysis of the SEO characteristics of a page or website should initially start by determining whether Google and the other search engines have discovered and indexed the page/post or domain under question. If this has not happened, then other considerations apply (has the domain been banned for instance) which are beyond the scope of this post but may be the subject of a future posting.

The remainder of this post therefore discusses circumstances where there are no issues about whether a page/post or website has been found and indexed but where the ranking outcome (within the search engine results pages or SERPS) is inconsistent with what is expected. There is no difference whether the factors discussed below are addressed while the content is being considered and published or during a troubleshooting exercise after the fact. The fundamentals must be implemented to ensure the best SEO outcome. Throughout this post wherever I mention the word ‘keyword’ that refers to either a keyword or keyphrase.

Step 1 – Understanding the Keyword

Having established that the domain and/or page has been found by Google, the next step is to understand the keyword being targeted. Using Market Samurai, I establish the traffic potential and that the SEO competition is not so extreme that under normal circumstances it would be almost impossible to rank on page 1 of Google for that keyword. In addition, from the amount of (phrase match) competition an expectation of the time it might take to achieve a Google Page 1 ranking is suggested as is the volume of link building that will be necessary.

My general rule of thumb is that for keywords with less than 30,000 competing pages (phrase match) then the time to rank on Google page 1 may be 1 – 3 months. Were the competition to be up to 100,000 then it may take from 3 – 6  months and that greater than 100,000 then from 6 months to a year. These time frames are simply due to the time it would take to achieve the degree of off-page authority (external back links) that would be required to rank for keywords that have greater numbers of competing pages. Of course these numbers aren’t specific but are based on my experience over the last few years.

Secondarily, Market Samurai can also be used to assess the ‘quality’ of the competition currently ranking on page 1 of Google for the keyword being assessed. The purpose of this is two-fold: firstly to ensure that those sites that are ranking aren’t too competitive and secondarily to establish the level of authority that the ranking sites currently have so as to set an appropriate expectation for the amount of work that will be required to out-rank them.

It goes without saying that there is no point in targeting a keyword that has no commercial potential if the purpose of the page or website is to make money. It is recommended to ensure that evidence of commercial activity exists if that is the case although that subject won’t be discussed in detail in this post.

Step 2 – Assessing On-page SEO factors

Once the keyword meets the requirements of step 1, it is necessary to publish content that has been appropriately optimized for this keyword  in order to rank in the SERPS for that keyword. It is amazing the number of pages that fail to do this thereby seriously reducing their ranking potential in the SERPS.

In simple terms, if you want to rank in the search engines for a keyword then it is paramount that you have a page or post on your website that has been properly optimized for the keyword you are targeting. While on-page SEO factors may not ultimately be primarily responsible for the final ranking your content will achieve, it is imperative they are implemented properly as a sound foundation to maximise the value (from an SEO perspective) of the external links that will point to the page. Ultimately, it is the quality and quantity of your external links that determine your final ranking in the SERPS, but the value of the link network will be significantly reduced if the keyword optimization of the link network and the page they point to are not consistent and optimized for the keyword being targeted.

But not all on-page SEO factors are equal, so I have categorised them below as being either critical, recommended or optional:

Critical on-page SEO factors

• keyword or phrase is contained within the domain or URL
• keyword or phrase is contained within the title of the page or post

Recommended on-page SEO factors

• keyword or phrase is contained within the meta-description of the page or post
• keyword or phrase is contained within a header tag on the page or post
• keyword or phrase occurs in the tags of a post (especially pertaining to a blog)

Optional on-page SEO factors

• keyword or phrase occurs in the first paragraph of the main content of the page or post
• keyword or phrase is bolded and/or italacized and /or underlined
• keyword or phrase is used as the anchor text of a link within the page or post
• keyword or phrase is used as the alt text of a link within the page or post
• keyword or phrase is used as the title tag for an image contained within the page or post
• keyword or phrase is the name of the image file used within the page or post
• keyword or phrase is used 4 – 5 times at least within the whole page or post (1% keyword density)

I highly recommend that you ensure that at least the critical and recommended factors detailed above are implemented in your published content and as many of the optional factors as the circumstances allow. The goal is to ensure that when the search engines spider and index your page/post there is no uncertainty about what keyword the page/post is relevant for.

Step 3 – Assessing Off-page SEO factors

Assuming the keyword and on-page factors have been properly considered and implemented then a poor ranking outcome will almost certainly be due to a lack of authority in the eyes of the search engines (primarily Google). This lack of authority will almost certainly be due to either a link network (that points to the page or post) that is either too small, lacks links from other authoritative sites or is optimized (through the anchor text of the links) for the wrong keyword.

The first thing to do is assess the size of the link network (using the seo competition module of Market Samurai) that points to your page/post and compare with the link networks of the pages that are currently ranking on page 1 of Google for the targeted keyword. Pay particular attention to the number of links that have a Google pagerank greater than zero. While it is necessary to have a platform of PR 0 links, the reality is that your ranking will be influenced much more by the smaller number of high PR links you have than the higher volume of PR 0 links.

Ultimately, it is possible to rank high for any keyword if you have enough (quality) links but at the very least you need to have more links than your competition has.

Assuming you do have more links than your competitors but are still failing in the SERPS, then you will need to assess the anchor text of the links to ensure that the keyword or phrase that predominates amongst your links is again consistent with the keyword being targeted. I have had several cases where there were plenty of links to a page being assessed but where the anchor text was different than the keyword for which the page was expected to rank for.

In the end, let’s be very clear, if the on-page factors are properly implemented for a keyword being targeted then the ultimate ranking outcome is almost entirely dependent on the number and quality of the external links that point to the page. But the value of the link network is considerably enhanced when the on-page and off-page factors are both optimized for the same keyword.

In almost all cases (after having established that a page/post has been found by the search engine spiders) the process outlined above is the procedure I follow when troubleshooting an SEO problem. If the ranking outcome is not as expected then the problem usually tends to exist within one or several of the areas discussed above.

There is only one other factor that may need to be considered and that is the impact of time. It is clear to me that sometimes it takes time for the search engines to discover and give a page credit for certain on-page and off-page factors. This is especially true when something has changed on the page or when the link network is constantly changing due to additions or losses within the link network. On several occasions, I have witnessed that it has taken Google from 4 – 8 weeks or more to recognise a change or to give credit for ranking factors that should have positively influenced the ranking position of a page or post within the SERPS. So, if everything discussed above is in order, make sure that a sufficient period of time has elapsed before you come to the conclusion that a problem exists.

So there you have it. My motive for writing this post was to assist people who may need to troubleshoot a poor SEO ranking outcome and for whom a review of the SEO basics may reveal the problems that are the cause.

It is…as it is,

GuruBob

Technorati Tags: guru bob, GuruBob, gurubobco, keyword, keyword research, Market Samurai, offpage, offpage factors, offpage seo, offpage seo factors, onpage, onpage factors, onpage seo, onpage seo factors, phrase match, phrase match competition, ranking outcome, search engine optimization, search engine results page, SEO, seo basics, seo issues, seo ranking outcome

“Control your own destiny or someone else will.” – Jack Welch

I was privileged to have been invited to participate in the .co Co-Founder program right from the beginning and was lucky enough to be able to capture my main target keyword (GuruBob) as the domain name for this blog. It had irritated me for some time that the .com variation was not available and I was very happy to be able to locate my personal blog on http://www.gurubob.co/ as I wrote in the post entitled GuruBobsBlog.com has moved to GuruBob.co.

Right from the outset, I was aware that as a Colombia domain, Google would probably penalise my rankings in the search engines for searches (of my target keywords) anywhere outside of Colombia so I was quite specific in my advice to the .co domain register about applying to Google to have .co domains treated as a global domain like .com and .net domains. As it turned out I was able to secure sufficient SEO authority that I was happy with my search engine rankings anyway, despite the fact that it was being treated as a local Columbian domain.

Fortunately, that is now all in the past as Google is treating .co domains as global domains meaning that you can set the geographic target that your .co domain is associated with. Setting the geographic target in Google is handled within your Google Webmasters Tools account and I have recorded a video below to show how this is done:

Now that Google is treating .co domains as global domains, I believe the main SEO impediment has been removed for .co and I’m happy to recommend .co as a suitable alternative to other global domains. I am of the view that it is much better to be able to secure a domain that only contains your target keyword or keyphrase rather than adding hyphens or adding a prefix or suffix to the keyword. Of course, if your keyword is already taken, then you have no choice but the addition of .co as a domain choice, particularly now that Google is treating them as global domains, means that you have an increased chance of securing your preferred domain name which in my opinion justifies the premium cost of a .co domain.

It is…as it is.

Guru Bob

Technorati Tags: .co, co-founder, domain, domains, geographic target, global domain, google now treating co as a global domain, GuruBob, gurubob.co, SEO

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” – Mark Twain

It has been an age since I’ve been able to find the time to post on the blog and I feel guilty for the time that has elapsed. There are mitigating circumstances, of course, not the least of which were the Coming Home seminar in San Diego and completing the planning and implementation for The Challenge (formerly the Thirty Day Challenge – 30DC) which have absorbed all of my time and attention over the last few months.

Fortunately, even the greatest of Challenges come to fruition and finally The Challenge is about to commence and not a moment to soon!

A great deal of planning goes into The Challenge both throughout the year and at specific planning sessions. I am lucky to have a prominent role in managing the strategic planning and implementation of The Challenge but like all great enterprises, it couldn’t be achieved without the passion and commitment of a large team of people.

In 2010, The Challenge has undergone the greatest number of changes since we moved from largely teaching a paid traffic model to an organic/social media driven traffic model in 2007. These changes are motivated by two main drivers:

1. We develop our training modules to deliver the greatest value to the widest group of people looking to get started with Internet Marketing and hope to bring as many people through to the end of the training.
2. We want people to succeed. Success for us is to teach people to implement a sustainable and repeatable method of testing markets/niches online and to assess the potential commercial value. A successful outcome is the completion of the test whether the niche test delivers a dollar value or not.

This year we came to the realisation that a complete re-think of the structure of the training was required which has lead to development of the 7x7x7 model where we deliver 7 modules of 7 days duration interspersed with a break of 7 days between each module. By changing the delivery model in this way, we are able to reduce the daily time required to watch the content delivered and implement the tasks/actions that we ask throughout the program. Our goal is that each active day within the training modules will only require 30 minutes to complete.

The extra time afforded by the change in the delivery model has also resulted in two additional benefits:

1. The training program has been expanded to include additional content in 2010. I’m not at liberty to reveal what that content is, but I can assure you it’s going to be great!
2. There is now extra time within The Challenge program for the search engine optimization (SEO) strategies that we teach to work within the time-frame of the program. This should result in a proportionately higher success rate to the benefit of all.

As in all previous years, we are very hopeful that all of our participants, both new and returning, get the most out of the training we offer. I am absolutely confident, that if the training is completed then the participant will have received a wonderful platform of marketing expertise and strategy which can applied to a multitude of commercial activities on the Internet…and all for free*.

In closing, I want to refer to the quote at the top of this post. Mark Twain has encapsulated it perfectly, almost anything can be achieved it you break it into series of small, manageable tasks, GET STARTED with the first one and keep going. Well that is exactly what we have set out to achieve with The Challenge…and that first task starts on the 12th of July.

It is as it is.

GuruBob

* The Challenge is completely free to participate. During the training we do suggest that participants acquire their own (keyword focussed) domain name and hosting which results in a small cost.

Technorati Tags: 30dc, GuruBob, Internet Marketing, ppc, robert somerville, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, The Challenge, Thirty Day Challenge, traffic, training

“Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness.” – Marshall McLuhan

In that frustrating time between when the Apple iPad was announced and when I was finally able to get my hands on one (earlier than most thanks to Ed Dale) I thought very carefully on how I would use the device and how it would add value in my daily work practices.

Like many people who spend as much time online as I do, a considerable amount of my time is taken up with consuming content, be it email, PDF documents, audio and video podcasts, news feeds and general web surfing. What I hoped and what ultimately has transpired, is that I would be able to conduct those activities on the iPad thereby unchaining me from the desktop when I choose to do those things. Now, particularly given that I have mobile WiFi access (using the MyWi app on a jail broken 3G iPhone) I can productively consume content or manage email wherever I choose to be and whenever I choose to do so.

I am fortunate in that I was already a big user of Cloud services from document management (Google Docs) to email (Gmail) and there would be no transitional issues as those services would be accessible on the iPad right from the outset.

But there was a long standing issue, however, with my main email account which had been an irritation for me for a long period of time, it just took the iPad to cause me to do actually do something about it!

You see my email account was a POP email account through which, over a period of nearly 10 years, I had acquired an archive of nearly 2.5 Gigabytes of email stored on my main desktop computer. This email archive is important in my business because I’m expected to be able to search back through that archive when issues come up that may have occurred months or even years ago.

Even before the iPad was a reality, when I travelled away from the office for an extended period of time, I would copy that email archive from my desktop to my laptop so I could access and manage email while on the road and that copy it back to my desktop upon return. This was considerably annoying and ultimately unsustainable and for some time I knew I would have to solve this issue for good but I put it off on the assumption it would require a difficult and time consuming solution to be implemented.

As it turned out it wasn’t as bad as I thought (often the way) although the solution did require some effort to implement. I knew I had no alternative but to transfer my email archive into the cloud and use an online email service. My choices were many although in the end only 2 were really feasible for me. As an Apple .me member I could have used the email service provided by Apple but I was a little leery of doing that as Apple has had problems in the past and I wasn’t confident using that service.

The only other real choice was Gmail as I have been using that service for years without problems and the over 7Gb capacity of a Gmail account meant that I wouldn’t have a problem with importing my existing email archive. In addition, it is possible to setup a Gmail account to look like it is your existing POP account and Gmail will pull email in (via POP) from your existing mail server (often provided by your ISP) and when you send mail from Gmail it can be configured so the mail seems to be originating from your POP email address. All this was relatively easy to implement, but how to get my existing email archive into Gmail…that was the problem.

The solution again was easy but definitely time consuming. It turns out that I could setup my newly configured Gmail account as an IMAP account (see image at left) meaning that I could add it to my existing mail client (I use Mac Mail) and having done so, drag folders from the mail archive on my desktop machine to equivalent folders in the Gmail account. Having dragged the folder in Mac Mail to the Gmail account, the mail client handles the import of the individual emails up to your Gmail account through the magic of the IMAP mail system. All it took was time and patience.

Being a little pedantic about folder management in email, I had over 600 mail folders and when I dragged them into Gmail the folders (even the nested folders) were converted to labels. This was great as I didn’t need to manually re-create my folder structure, it was effectively done automatically.

Now I couldn’t just do the move in one global move, I had to move groups of folders bit by bit and it took me nearly 5 days of gradually moving folders across in Mac Mail and wait for all those emails to be uploaded (via IMAP) into the Gmail account. What I can say though is I got all 2.5 Gigabytes of email imported with only a few failures and even those completed successfully just by attempting the move a second time (just occasionally your connection to Gmail drops and times out which causes the failure).

Having done this, I can now manage all of my emails on the iPad (and as a benefit also on the iPhone or in a web browser) and can access my full email archive wherever I happen to be on multiple devices. There are other productivity gains as well because searching email in Gmail is very fast and efficient and the time it takes to process and archive email is faster once you get the hang of the Google label system.

The other principle benefit is the spectacularly good spam management system within Gmail, some of which I had to do manually before.

So there you have it…if you are like me and have a legacy email system that binds you to a single desktop, then a solution does exist if you are prepared to go through the pain of importing your mail archive into Gmail via IMAP.

It is as it is.

GuruBob

Technorati Tags: cloud services, email, gmail, guru bob, GuruBob, IMAP, ipad, iphone, mac mail, pop mail