It is a competitive niche, and there is a lot of money to be made over there, so I’m not entirely surprised. Apart from the fact that they could have moved a bit more quietly? I’ve written about conversion optimisation in the insurance niche and car insurance area a few times before.

But in fairness, we had a fantastic 2 threads over on EI board recently:
http://news.enterprise-ireland.com/read/messages?id=17184
http://news.enterprise-ireland.com/read/messages?id=17169

In that second John Ring made a very valid point about buying rankings. It does happen, but sites will also run the risk of doing so. Mick from Voodoo made some great points in the first thread. Both threads well worth reading, and some of the better discussions on EI I’ve seen in a long time.

BTW – I’ve been looking for new Irish blogs to read. Kieran Flanagan’s SearchBrat.com and Leo Fogarty are both worth adding to the reader IMO (Leo reminds me a whole lot of Dave). If anyone know’s of other new Irish guys in SEO/conversion who are blogging I’d love to hear about them.

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1. Google News Finds HSE ‘Entertaining’
2. Negative Point Of Action Assurances
3. How To Smother Your Prospects and Kill Your Leads

Link building is tricky. I’ve worked in some farily competitive niches, and link building does become more and more difficult as you ascend the competitive ladder. One niche I do like to watch (primarily due to the wonderful Insider’s View blog) is the UK insurance/financial services market.

Here’s an email that arrived from one of the largest comparison sites in the UK, GoCompare.com:

Hi – I`m Alex Jones, Website Manager at gocompare.com. We are one of the UK`s leading insurance comparison sites, with over 90 insurance companies on our panel.

I was searching the web and came across ******.TLD. We have a constantly growing range of information and advice surrounding insurance and repair themes. This relates to both motoring and household insurance. As such we are looking for good quality partners that have a motoring, automotive, general household or lifestyle theme . . . so I have an idea which I hope you will find useful.

We can have our editorial team research and hand write some unique content for you to add to a page on ******.TLD. We will agree a subject with you that is relevant to both of our sites. The content will contain a single unobtrusive text link in it back to a relevant page on our site. You would benefit from some unique, relevant content to which the search engines seem to be attributing ever more value. We would probably obtain some long term benefit from the link to us — which, as a relevant outbound link, would also be potentially helpful to you from a search engine perspective. We are not currently in the position of being able to exchange or return links so we thought this could be a good alternative.

There are of course absolutely no costs for you in us producing this content.

*** IMPORTANT – GETTING A QUICK RESPONSE ***
I have found that email isn`t always as reliable as everyone thinks plus I`m either out or in meetings most of the time. We have therefore created a simple and quick-to-use response page that provides detailed information and answers to questions on the various options and allows you to send messages to our team . . and much more! You can access it here:-

Page: http://www.gocompare.com/secure-reply.aspx
Your Access Code: ******

Of course I know that some people prefer to reply via email which is absolutely fine and I`ll reply as quickly as possible.

REMOVAL
If you feel I should not have sent you this email, I`m really sorry – please just reply with REMOVE in the subject.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks and kind regards – Alex Jones
Website Manager
www.gocompare.com

I’ve redacted any info that could identify the site. So what’s wrong with this?

Sneaky Link Building at Site Owner’s Expense

Link building is extremely tough in competitive niches. I’m generally pretty white-hat when it comes to SEO, but when you’re heavily involved in SEO you know the reality of competition – all the sites in this niche are up to no good. Take a read of Insider’s View and you can see how often sites get penalties and bans. You’ll also learn just how much money we can be talking about, and why the returns often justify the high risks taken.

Caveat Emptor

I have a problem with GoCompare.com’s email. They are preying on site owners who wont realise the risks of adding this “unique content”. GoCompare’s risk is negligible, while the risks to publishers are high. Alex Jones is disingenuous when he writes:

You would benefit from some unique, relevant content to which the search engines seem to be attributing ever more value. We would probably obtain some long term benefit from the link to us — which, as a relevant outbound link, would also be potentially helpful to you from a search engine perspective. We are not currently in the position of being able to exchange or return links so we thought this could be a good alternative. [Emphasis added mine]

What utter shite. Of course Alex fails to mention that such content on your site goes against Google’s TOS and risks a penalty for the publishing site:

Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.

Worse still – site owners aren’t even offered payment for selling links to GoCompare. “There are of course absolutely no costs for you in us producing this content.” I actually had a good laugh at that. Site owners take all the risk while GoCompare take all the benefit. But then again perhaps GoCaompare learnt from previous bans that it’s better to pass the risk to someone else…

GoCompare banned from Google

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1. GoCompare Penalised by Google?
2. Negative Point Of Action Assurances
3. With SEO, Quality Really Does Matter…

There is one thing on my sales page however that maybe flies a little too low on the radar. It has been there on that page since it was first published, and it is this:

If you are a registered charity and would like some advice or assistance I am very happy to donate a few hours when available in return for a simple thank you .

There are so many things I need or would like to change on my site. Making that offer far more prominent is on that list.

To date only two charities have approached me. Today good ole’ Grandad tagged me for the charity link meme which arrived on Irish shores via Gavin’s blog.

The Charity Links

These are the links I’m adding

• Oxfam Ireland – Oxfam Ireland Shop – buy gifts, help charity
• Rescue A Kid – Helping orphaned and disadvantaged kids in the Third World
• Headline – Irish Mental Health and Suicide

to the current list:

• Bubblegum Club – Children In Crisis
• Autism NI – Autism Northern Ireland
• Adoption Ireland – Irish Adoption Charity
• Ireland Funds – Peace and Reconciliation In Ireland
• Dublin Simon Community – Combating Homelessness in Dublin
• The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity – Polish Charity
• CPR For Schools Across Poland – CPR Training
• Program of Insulin Pumps in Diabetic Children Therapy – Insulin Pumps For Children
• Non-invasive Neonatal Breathing Support – Infant Flow
• Program of Universal Neonatal Hearing Screenings – Neonatal Hearing
• American Red Cross – disaster relief
• Raleigh Rescue Mission – homeless raleigh
• SOS Children’s Villages – sponsor a child
• Samaritan’s Purse – emergency relief programs
• St. Jude Children’s Hospital – cancer research
• Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders – Humanitarian Relief
• American Red Cross – Emergency Preparedness
• AMREF – African Medical & Research Foundation – African Health Development
• DOROT – Programs for Elderly
• Feed the Children – Protect Children
• Service International – Disaster Relief
• Pujols Family Foundation – Children with Down Syndrome
• National Alliance to End Homelessness – Homelessness
• The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research – Parkinson’s Research
• Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Program – Child Healthcare
• Aids Research Alliance – Aids Research
• Wildlife Conservation Society – Wildlife Protection
• Cancer Research Institute – Cancer Research
• Second Harvest – End Hunger
• AARP Foundation – Helping Senior Citizens
• Jack & Jill Childern’s Foundation – Jack & Jill Childern’s Foundation
• Irish Guide Dogs Association – Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind
• Simon Community Cork – Sign Up for Simon
• Trócaire – Irish Charity & Development Agency
• Cancer.ie – Irish Cancer Society
• Royal National Lifeboat Institution – RNLI
• Barretstown Castle -Barretstown Castle [Hole in the Wall] Camp

Here’s the text file.

And I’m passing this on to some other SEOs:

1. Mr. Davis
2. Mr. Roe
3. Mr. McDermott
4. Mr. Stanley
5. and lastly, because he needs some extra link love himself Mr. Mulley

And lastly

If you are involved in a charity and would like some of my time for free please fly me a mail. I can’t guarantee any set time frames, but I will help out as and when my schedule allows.

PS – @Grandad – if you ever want some help with Jack and Jill give me a shout

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: Charity Link Love
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1. Spammers Crack Me Up
2. Links Form The Fabric Of The Internet
3. I Don’t Share Enough Link Love – I Hope That Buddha Forgives Me

Time to go check your links boys and girls.

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: Webmaster Console Updates Backlink Data
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1. Google Gives Back Link Data, But Not Publicly
2. For IBA Nominees Accepting My Offer – Please Read
3. Google Webmaster Links Tool – Don’t Rely On It 100%

Gerald Gerbrone Here,

We recently started our blog here http://blog.yourseoconsulting.com and linked to your website hoping you would notice us and maybe link back. To be honest we don’t know what the fuck we are doing and are desperate god help us we arn’t even ranking for anything in msn , yahoo or google and need your help. And link would be of great help thanks again, Gerald.

Sincerely,

Gerald Gerbrone CEO
A-Built Computer Systems and Consulting
14781 Memorial Drive
Office 2464
Houston, TX
77079-5210

I’m in two minds as to whether this is the craftiest or dumbest link request ever. I’m erring toward the former.

What do you think?

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1. Houston Search Engine Optimization Spammers Promoting thehoustonseo.com
2. I Don’t Share Enough Link Love – I Hope That Buddha Forgives Me
3. Links Form The Fabric Of The Internet

For many years webmasters and SEOs have indulged in buying links to boost the rankings of their sites in Google’s SERPs. This practice became especially prevalent as Google increased the link relevance in their ranking algorithm.

Google strikes back

On Saturday Matt Cutts, Google’s head of Web Spam (and generally all-round nice guy), posted about Google’s intention to go after paid links that don’t disclose their paid status to both visitors AND search engine bots. In the post Matt gave information on how users could report paid links that are not following Google’s guidelines:

- Sign in to Google’s webmaster console and use the authenticated spam report form, then include the word “paidlink” (all one word) in the text area of the spam report. If you use the authenticated form, you’ll need to sign in with a Google Account, but your report will carry more weight.
- Use the unauthenticated spam report form and make sure to include the word “paidlink” (all one word) in the text area of the spam report.

This data will be used to “start testing out some new techniques we’ve got“.

And what does the SEO world think?

The response in the webmaster/SEO world has been fairly predictable – virtually everyone is up in arms. For a great mash-up see here, more good commentary here.

There seem to be a lot of people who think this will be openly abused:

The call for submissions of paid links is also fraught with problems, most obviously that of competitors sabotaging each other by buying ads for them and reporting them to Google, and secondly of just how Google expects to be able to detect paid links without access to a webmaster’s bank account.

Now if you know Google you will be aware that they really hate human intervention. Algorithmic solutions scale far better than human solutions, and it’s commonly known that Google cant apply the HR to many areas that need them.

Is this valid?

I think that Google is going to roll out something that simply turns off the juice from any link that appears to be a paid link. So if I go out and spend my hard earned money buying links to point my competitor, and then report that competitor for link buying, all that will happen is those links will no longer pass any juice. Will the competitor’s ranking drop? No. Because they will still have all the link juice that got them their rankings in the first place. Google are going to tackle the supply side rather than the demand side IMO.

As for the request to report link buying activities, well that’s really some more smoke and mirrors. Google is after the link buyers so that they can ferret out the link sellers. And if you used Google’s spam reporting feature you’ll know that those reports do not result in micro-level changes to the index. Reported sites are not (generally) removed. Instead Google uses the reports to tweak their algorithm to pick up such sites on a later run.

It’s all about scale with Google

Google doesn’t like human intervention. Plain and simple. Google prefers automation. So I think that the reports will simply be used to test and tweak whatever automated techniques Google is about to unleash.

So will I be able to sabotage my competitors with this feature? I seriously doubt it. Time will tell.

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: Reporting Paid Links To Google – Mountain Or Molehill?
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1. Pibasure.ie Looking for a Google Slap?
2. Why SEO Is More Important Than SEM
3. Google Gives Back Link Data, But Not Publicly

So if links benefit everyone why would you want to curtail peoples’ ability to link to your site by publishing something like this:

Whoever drafted that form does not understand the Internet. Period.

Oh, and just to make a point purple monkey dishwasher.

Well done Donncha for discovering this. (Was that link OK for you Donncha?)

Or was it Frank? Well I know that Paul has been discussing it. Please send all linking complaints to the linking manager. By Fax.

[Update] Lar has rewritten this into a user-friendly linking policy that ICS could adopt. Free advice from Ireland’s leading accessibility and usability experts is surely hard to turn down.

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: Links Form The Fabric Of The Internet
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1. Can Excessive Outbound Linking Hurt Your Rankings?
2. Did Someone Say That Internet Scams Were Becoming More Sophisticated
3. Text Links Can Bring You Joy….

The widget as link bait

First up, Nick Wilson gave a good high level introduction to ‘viral link building’. Giving a passionate speech, Nick discussed widgets as the ultimate linkbait, and his observations were well worth hearing.

Heellloou Jason Calacanis

Dave Naylor gave another extremely passionate speech. During the entire conference Dave entertained the crowd, and this session was no different. Jason Calacanis was the main target, as Dave vented vitriol on the ‘SEO is bullshit’ argument. All highly entertaining.

‘Textual advertisements’

Alan Webb of Abakus gave a presentation on link buying with some interesting, if not ground-breaking, discussion about how to approach site owners when buying links purchasing textual advertising . Bread an butter stuff.

This is the bit When Link Bait Isn’t Link Bait

This last guy annoyed me so much that I actually bailed about 60 seconds into his presentation. The official handbook says his name is Matt Paines, MD of XSEO. This guy obviously does not understand link bait.

He started off by referring to the famous SEO ‘Chris’ until someone in the crowd told him it was Rand. OK, that’s a human mistake – anyone could make it. But the 30 seconds that followed showed that this guy doesn’t have a clue. So fumbling on he’s muttering ‘Wow…. yeah…. Rand Fishkin…. Superbowl….. now that was some link bait’. I got up and left right then and there.

Link bait is contrived content created with the intention of deriving inbound links. [My definition]

So what the final speaker was basically saying that Rand Fishkin contrived his engagement in order to generate links.

I don’t know Rand Fishkin personally, but do read his blog which regularly contains some great posts. Maybe I’m a sucker, but I believe that people are in general innately good. So the idea that someone would go on national TV (and the Internet) to say, first, that he loves his soon-to-be fiancé, and then ask her to marry him, that this was in some way link bait….

Well I didn’t stick around any longer so I’ll never know what else he said.

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: SES London – Linkbait, and When It’s Not
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1. Reporting Paid Links To Google – Mountain Or Molehill?
2. PubCon In The Rear-View Mirror
3. Let’s Call Some Bullshit on The ‘SEO is Bullshit’ Bullshitter

The things search engine reps mention…

If you were at SES London, you might have heard one or two little nuggets that seemed inconsequential at first, but were probably more important than you realise.

I was lurking toward the back of the room at the Linking Strategies Session when (I think) Tom Alby from Ask made a comment about hubs and authorities. He said that the difference between a link farm and a hub is that at least one or two authority sites would be linking back to the hub.

Hmmm… so there I was thinking about that for a second. If one or two authority sites link back to a link farm, hey presto, you’ve got a hub! I’ll be honest – I couldn’t hold back the snigger, and I wasn’t alone.

From the last row in the room, I swear I could just about hear the penny drop in Greg Boser’s head as he sat next to the Ask guy. I’m pretty sure he was trying very hard to hold back the laugh (he didn’t succeed ).

Very funny moment, and probably one of those little nuggets the search reps wish they hadn’t dropped.

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: SES London – When is a Link Farm NOT a Link Farm?
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1. Google Gives Back Link Data, But Not Publicly
2. Yahoo Site Explorer – checking your backlinks
3. SES London – Linkbait, and When It’s Not

But I digress

Right, first off I have never had a blogroll here. Yes, yes, I should know better – if you don’t show some link love then why would you expect any back?

Well I’ve been very fortunate and lots of kind people have linked to my humble blog. Thank you everyone who has linked here

But one thing that’s really pissed me off is when I take a peak at Technorati. Occasionally I see links coming at me from guys who I know here in cyberspace, some of whom have this rather lonely message after their blog name:

So here’s some links to take away that horrible text:

First off…

If you asked me who were the best Irish Internet marketing/monetising people I would probably say ‘not the one’s who advertise it’. The cutest guys and gals are the ones who actually just do it. I reckon Gavin at Ireland SEO Marketing is one of those, and his blog is worth a read because he’s at the coalface and knows how to work the system.

Those bloody awards again

While I am quite outspoken about a certain Irish awards ceremony, there is one winner who I think deserved to get that golden thingie. So if you’re looking for a web designer in Navan, that link brings you to such a person’s blog from which his website is just a click away.

Really slick design

Last link this time around points at a site whose design spoke volumes the first time I stumbled upon it. I’m not sure how I found Stuart Curry’s design website, but I can say that it’s very hard to knock his design skills. Really sweet. And I think he’s for hire.

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: I Don’t Share Enough Link Love – I Hope That Buddha Forgives Me
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1. Weirdest Link Exchange Request Ever?
2. Charity Link Love
3. Google Gives Back Link Data, But Not Publicly

And for that very reason it is probably a must-read for anyone interested in link building in general, and social media marketing in particular.

Deserves a hat-tip really – the guide that is 100% self-fulfilling. Sweet.

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: The Ultimate Link Bait
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1. Hello YouTube, Please Come In, Make Yourself at Home
2. Keyword Data Is Often Very Skewed – Internet Marketers To Blame?
3. I Don’t Share Enough Link Love – I Hope That Buddha Forgives Me

Google publishes extensive link data

People have been complaining for years that the link: operator doesn’t work. It still doesn’t work, but you can now log into your Google Webmaster Console and get a very full and wholesome report on your backlink profile. This goes far beyond anything else that’s currently available, and it’s fascinating to see the number of links to some of my inner pages. I had seen some figures from Y! but I’m surprised to see over 4,500 links to inner pages of my site.

I won’t bother explaining this any further as Danny Sullivan has created what I imagine will become a reference piece on the subject over on Search Engine Land.

The only catch

The data is only available to site owners who validate their sites within the console. So you won’t be able to view backlink profiles to other sites unless you’ve validated those sites in your console.

But leaving that aside, this is a very welcome move by Google, and all the more reason to sign up for the Webmaster Console (previously Sitemaps) program.

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1. Google Webmaster Links Tool – Don’t Rely On It 100%
2. Webmaster Console Updates Backlink Data
3. Sudden Visitor and Rankings Drop – When Your Site Falls Out Of The Sky

In ‘13 Deadly Google Sins‘ I looked at a few of the most serious issues that can affect a website’s ability to rank well in Google.

Now it’s time to look at 10 ways to make Google love your site and feed it with all those fantastic visitors:

1. Getting Indexed

   If you want to get into Google’s index in short-time you need to get as many authoritative links pointing at your site as possible. Forget about using the Google submission tool, just find some links from regularly crawled sites (sites that frequently update their content are usually crawled more frequently). With the right links pointing at your site you can get indexed in a week or less, so go beg, borrow or steal to get those links.

2. Give Some Friendly Directions

   When you need to find your way you look at a map. Sitemaps are just as useful to spiders as real maps are to humans. In fact, sitemaps are also incredibly useful for your human visitors so consider creating both a html and an xml sitemap – the former for humans (and spiders!) and the latter for Google Sitemaps.

3. Don’t Stress Out the Googlebot

   Where possible use well formed, semantically correct mark-up. I make sure that my pages validate over on validator.w3.org (well, I let the HTMLtidy plug-in take care of this).

   I also spend a fair bit of time on the page title, the header elements, the text body and the internal link anchors. I try to ensure that keywords are consistent across these four page elements. This helps Google to identify what your page is about.

   BTW the page title is quite an important variable used by Google when applying SERP positioning so make sure to get the correct keywords into each and every unique page title.

4. Avoid overuse of Flash

   Search Engines have always had problems with Flash. For this reason Flash-based websites are notoriously difficult to rank well in Google.

   If you must keep that cool looking Flash site you should consider offering a text-based alternative (not just for the SE’s, but also from a usability perspective). Failing that, you could try utilising the <noembed> or <noframe> elements to incorporate as much text into your pages as possible. If absolutely all else fails your last hope is probably the ‘Google Bomb‘.

   While I’m on the subject, try to avoid using Flash for navigation – bear in mind that some people don’t have Flash installed and others (like me) block Flash from their browser.

5. Create Unique Compelling Content

   Google loves unique content. But more importantly so do humans, and the best advice is to create your content for human visitors first and foremost.

   Great content attracts attention and people show their interest by linking to your content. Every time someone links to you Google counts this as a vote for your content – the more votes the higher your SERP ranking. Oh, and just for the record, the converse of this also holds – Google hates copied content just as much as it loves unique content so don’t expect much love if you scrap other sites.

6. Better Links = Higher SERPs

   The most important trick to getting those all important #1 positions from Google is to get great links pointing at your unique content. (Having a 10 year old domain doesn’t hurt also, but that’s another story.)

   This is probably the trickiest part of getting Google’s love – if people cant find you how can they possibly link to you? Well my advice is to go for the low-hanging fruit first. Human edited web directories offer a great way to get some easy links.

   If you have a bit more time you could also try some writing some quality articles related to your niche and submit these to the top article directories.

   A quick note about link anchors:

   If I can control just one single factor when looking for Google love then it would have to be the anchor text used in the backlinks pointing at my content.

   *Note*: Quite a few people have asked me what are the best anchors to use. I recommend you check out Wordze if you need to find the best keyword anchors.

   IMO Google applies quite a serious bias to the anchor text used in your backlinks when determining the most appropriate SERP position (and if you want to see what the difference is between #1 and #2 or #1 and #10 then take a look at this).

   Some link tools and other info

   Most Search Engines allow the use of the link: operator to display the backlinks a website has. Generally I use Yahoo.com to check backlinks quickly, but be warned that the Google link: command NEVER displays anything other than a sample of your backlinks.

   MSN have just recently released the LinkFromDomain: operator which shows you all the outbound links from a website (handy to check where a site is linking to).

7. Tell Google Where You Are

   Google offers country-specific searches on all its search properties. If you want to appear in any particular ‘pages from [your country here]‘ search you must fulfil one of the following conditions:

   1. your site must be physically hosted in the targeted country (and the server IP must resolve to that country); and/or
   2. your domain must use the ccTLD of the targeted country.

   So if you want to target the ‘pages from Ireland’ search your website must be either hosted on a server located in Ireland (use this to test) or your domain must be a .ie ccTLD.

8. Remember the ‘Long-Tail’

   Google indexes pages not websites so each page can target different keywords that apply to the niche you are targeting. The more possible ways people have of finding your site then the more potential visitors your site will receive from Google.

   You should make use of keyword estimators (again, Wordze is a great tool for this, but bear in mind that no keyword tool is flawless) to ensure that your pages and copy contain the keywords people actually search for. There are many free keyword tools that you can try.

   You should also familiarise yourself with the advanced operators available from most of the major search engines. ‘inanchor:’, ‘allinanchor:’, ‘intitle:’ and ‘allintitle:’ are extremely useful for determining how competitive particular search phrases are, and these operators should form part of any serious keyword analysis.

   It’s worth mentioning that the rapid growth of local search (e.g. appending place names onto queries) means that targeting particular locations is becoming more important. I personally see far more referrals come for localised search queries than from country-only filtered searches. (Note – I work on optimising Irish websites so this observation should be taken in that particular context.)

9. Learn just 1 important Apache module

   If you want to really be best friends with Google then I suggest you learn 1 fairly easy Apache module:

   mod_rewrite allows you to turn those ugly dynamic URLs into their pretty SEO-friendly static-looking counterparts.

   mod_rewrite also allows you to redirect the non-www to your www website URL (or vice-verse). This issue, known as the canonical URL, is one of the most common causes of problems within Google’s index.

   I also suggest getting familiar HTTP header codes, and in particular the 301 redirect which might someday save your relationship with Google.

10. Play by the book

    If you try to game Google chances are you’re going to fail. Unless you are extremely well versed and experienced in
    black-hat techniques any attempt to ‘con’ Google is likely to have very serious consequences for your site.

    I recommend you become familiar with the Google webmaster guidelines, and very carefully research any grey areas before you implement any semi-shady changes to your property. Wrong-doings usual result in either a penalty or an outright ban depending on the severity of the misdeed.

    If in doubt I would check out Google Webmaster Group – you never know it might be me who answers your question .

If you have any questions or comments on this post why not leave them below. I try to answer any questions people leave, so feel free if you want my opinion on anything.

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: 10 Steps to Getting Into Google And Staying There – The Ultimate Quick Guide to Google SEO
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1. Google Index and Cache Diverging?
2. 13 Deadly Google Sins – Is Your Website Committing Any of These?
3. Google Webmaster Links Tool – Don’t Rely On It 100%

Paid and Organic Search – Impact of Ad Copy on Click Through Rates (Post 2 of 3)

The post makes for interesting reading – the findings are sure to apply in many other contexts also.

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: Click Through Rates Can Soar With The Correct Copy
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1. Let’s Call Some Bullshit on The ‘SEO is Bullshit’ Bullshitter
2. A Dose Full of Comment Spam, Long Copy Referrer Pages & SEO Tools – What Do YOU Think?
3. Are Your Adwords Campaigns Leaking?

Links to your site are one of the most important factors used by the Search Engines in deciding whether your site is listed #1 or #500 for any given search phrase. (I previously discussed the importance of ranking using the AOL data.)

Every link to your site found on the Internet counts as 1 ‘vote’. Oh, didn’t you know? Democracy rules on-line!

It’s an Election Every Day

Just like in the real world not everyone’s vote is equal, and rigging the count isn’t as difficult as you might imagine.

So which votes count more than others? Well they happen to be the votes that the counters ‘trust’. In our case that means links from websites that the Search Engines ‘trust’.

Who Do You Trust?

Link ‘trust’ is a function of a number of factors, but suffice to say that older websites that contain shed loads of quality content and are linked to by similar sites would generally be trustworthy.

One Person, One Vote?

In the real world each individual should have just one vote. It doesn’t quite work like this in the virtual world. On the Internet it is easy enough to vote over and over again.

Search Engines count links to determine how popular you are (link popularity). But more importantly, they check the anchor (this is an anchor) text to decide what your popular for.

Working The Phrase

The key to getting listed in most Search Engines for any given search phrase is to have enough links pointing at your site containing that phrase in the anchor text.

If you want your site to rank well for ‘purple monkey dishwasher’ then you would try to create as many links as possible (on trustworthy sites of course) pointing at your site using the anchor ‘purple monkey dishwasher’.

Google Bombing

Creating an overwhelming number of links is referred to as ‘Google Bombing’, the most famous examples of which are failure and liar.

And closer to home, it appears that a certain broadband lobbying group may have inspired its own mini Google bomb for the term ‘telecoms poodle‘. Well deserved it is.

So now you know that the anchor can be your friend, but it can also be your enemy. Just ask Comreg!

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: Text Links Can Bring You Joy….
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Want to read more?

1. Say Goodbye to ‘Google Bombing’ & Hello to ‘Take Care with Your Anchor Text’
2. Links Form The Fabric Of The Internet
3. Interesting New Statistics on Irish Search Engine Usage

RTE reported last night that the cost of this campaign was €30,000+. This figure doesn’t surprise me but I was a wee bit disappointed when I noticed this morning that a Google search for “funda ireland” only returns a #5 spot for Funda’s website (#2 with the quotes).

I think that this viral will be hugely successful in creating a buzz about Funda, and in this respect it would make sense to plan for the SE’s also.

The Funda website is only a placeholder at the minute and a very (even very, very) modest link-building campaign would have ensured that the Funda website gained a #1 ranking for its own name. I’m sure that soon they will have that #1 spot but still think that it’s a shame that they seem to have overlooked this area of on-line marketing.

I do now also wonder if they have a good strategy in place for passing the link love and on-line buzz from The Dublin Development Company to the funda on-line property? The property segment is a fierce area of the SERPs and I’m sure that after the buzz dissappears Funda will have to fight with all the the other on-line property sites for SE rankings.

Ok, I’m sorry for focusing on the SEO side of things, but, after all, it is my job .

[EDIT - I've changed the post title to see how well this post ranks for 'funda ireland'. Sorry to anyone who gets a 404:D]

[UPDATE 28 September - Lo and behold, this post is now #1 on Google for 'funda ireland'.]

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: Funda Ireland, €30k (excluding the SEO)
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Want to read more?

1. Funda Ireland Pulling Down The Shutters
2. Dublin Coastal Development a LOT Slicker Than Funda.ie
3. How About Some Serious Irish Viral Marketing

The major search engines have long offered the link: command for finding data on a site’s backlinks. Unfortunately this command has been ‘broken’ on Google, and I tend to ignore MSN, not because the site: command is pants but because of the poor SERPs. This leaves me with Yahoo.

At the beginning of August Yahoo updated Yahoo Site Explorer and introduced some features that I find myself using more and more every day.

When you use the site: command you are presented with a fairly comprehensive list of the backlinks to your site (when compared with a number of other online tools offering this service Yahoo appears to present the most comprehensive list). You also have the option of either page (‘link:’) or domain (‘linkdomain:’) backlink analysis:

But what’s really nice is the ability to explore the backlinks of any site linking to yours by using the ‘Explore URL’ option displayed as you rollover each row:

There is an option to add sites to your Yahoo account, but to date I have not heard of any benefit in doing so – the features are available whether you add your site to your account or not judging by some of the posts on the Site Explorer Forum.

If you are running any link-building campaigns and need a decent backlink checker I would recommend giving it a try. Oh, and if do try it out I’d love to hear your feedback on Site Explorer.

Have thoughts on this post? Head over and leave a comment on the blog: Yahoo Site Explorer – checking your backlinks
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Want to read more?

1. Yahoo! Comes to Ireland (properly)
2. 13 Deadly Google Sins – Is Your Website Committing Any of These?
3. Quick Fluffy Link :-)