Click here to download Dave’s SEO update.

Ok, here we are again… another day, another round of SEO updates. With all these changes, the tide has gone out and we’re now learning who’s been swimming naked. So, how has your website faired in the most recent series of Panda and Penguin SEO updates?

From onsite factors like: internal linking, keyword stuffing, sneaky redirects, hidden text and more to offsite factors like: paid links, footer links, foreign language links and not enough diversity… Those with weak SEO strategies have been punished.

Like Dave always does, he sorts the facts from the fiction, makes the complex simple and speaks from experience – download his most recent Panda and Penguin update mp3 here.

It’s free… no optins… no hoops to jump through… just the best information he can share to help you.

We’ll see you at the top.

Dave & The Melbourne SEO Services Team.

Ps. Been hit by Panda? Want Dave to review your site and give you a clear recovery action plan? Click here and book a consult.

"Let me help you put more cash in your pocket" - Dave

There are a lot of SEO companies today, so how do you go about choosing the best SEO firm Australia to help with your business? Here are 5 characteristics you should look for:

Ethical and Transparent

This may seem obvious, but you need to get a good feeling when working with an SEO company. Moreover, they should be able to explain, in simple terms, what it is they’re doing. Good SEO doesn’t have to be complicated or mystifying.

Proven Track Record

Don’t work with frauds, phonies or wannabes… this is your business, your livelihood. Any good SEO firm Australia should be able to show you results of their work. What you’re looking for here are verifiable examples of good rankings – if you’re given examples like “Grandma Joe’s Pizza Shop Melbourne”, ask to see rankings for broader keywords too – keywords for which people are actually searching.

Tailored Service

As with most things in life, one size doesn’t fit all. Accordingly, the best SEO company should start by analysing your current business – including an in-depth look at your company background, target market, current web presence, objectives, etc.

You need to feel confident knowing that your SEO campaign is going to give you the best bang for your buck. We call it “targeting the low hanging fruit”.

End to End Project Management

We know you’re busier than ever. It never stops, right? If you’ve chosen to go with an SEO company, it’s most likely because you’re aware that there’s not enough time in the day to do everything and the last thing you need are more ‘to do’s’. You want to be focusing on your core business, not SEO.

If that’s why you’re looking to use an SEO company, then you’ll want one that can handle everything from end to end… that is, from stage 1 through to stage 4 and beyond.

Expert, Professional and Timely

Since you’ve made the decision to hire a professional, you should reasonably expect professional service. Don’t settle for poor communication, non-transparency or late work. The exception to this, of course, is if you bought solely based on price… don’t expect the Rolls Royce treatment if you purchased a Ford Edsel (voted as one of the world’s worst cars – Google it).

You’re looking for a company that believes in your products and services; one that grows with you and changes with your business needs; an SEO services Australia that has a long term vision of working with you, understanding that your success builds their success… the perfect win-win situation.

Want us to help you get your business found online? Click here to learn of our Internet marketing consulting service.

Look for a tailor-made service for your business.

Unlike many traditional marketing methods, with SEO you are able to get a very clear, measurable result for your efforts. You are able to see where you appear on Google, how many new visitors this brought to your website and how many of these visitors went on to make a purchase. And that’s just the beginning…

Once you start to see the benefits of a successful SEO campaign (through website reporting), it can become very addictive. You’ll look to identify new keywords, bringing you even more visitors, and then improve the rate at which your website converts these visitors into sales. That’s why SEO needs to be a part of your long-term sales and marketing strategy.

The fact is, you can’t improve what you don’t track… and that’s why we suggest you track everything! If you don’t currently have any tracking on your website, check out a free service called Google Analytics – it’ll provide you with more information than you’ll know what to do with.

The key metrics we like to follow, include:

Unique Visitors
It’s important to keep an eye on the number of unique visitors to your website. Be wary of any webmaster that talks in terms of “hits”. Hits really aren’t a very good representation as to the number of visitors to your site – it can make things appear busier than they really are. Instead, you want to see your unique visitors increasing month on month.

Actual Pages Visited
Seeing where your visitors go when on your website can identify some easy opportunities to increase profits. Knowing what pages are most visited then gives you the opportunity to improve the rate at which those pages convert. This website reporting is often overlooked by those new to SEO, yet it can give you one of the biggest returns. And here’s why…

*Increasing a page’s conversion rate from 1%-2% will yield the same profit results as doubling your traffic. That is to say, you’re converting twice as many visitors from the same number of visitors.

Length of Stay
Have you ever visited a website only to leave almost immediately? Most likely you didn’t find what you were looking for and so you didn’t make a purchase. By analysing how long your visitors stay on your website (along with a few other tests) you can identify what made them leave. Obviously you want to give them what they are looking for and the longer they stay, the greater the chance they’ll purchase your product or service.

What Customers Are Buying
Many people tend to focus on their weaknesses, thinking they need to become stronger in that area. The reverse is actually true. It’s important to analyse where you’re already successful and do more of that. By analysing what’s already selling, you’ll be able to build your website (and profits) faster than you ever thought imaginable.

Do you want professional advice on your web marketing strategy? Click here to know more about our Internet marketing consultant services.

With understanding comes the power to make a change.

Cute but can be deadly at times.

Another day another Google Update – we’ve now had multiple Panda updates, over optimisation filters and now the Google Penguin update. I haven’t seen this many updates from Google in such a short time in my entire SEO history.

Here’s the link to Google’s blog about the most recent update:
www.googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html

Interestingly, when you read it you’ll find there’s nothing new here and we’ve been teaching these best practises for years (as such our clients have been safe with the most recent update). Perhaps what’s changed is how Google is now targeting these algorithmically?

In any case, there’s blood in the water and people are still jumping to conclusions as to what’s going on. With so many changes released all in one go, it’s actually getting harder to isolate what issues a website might have. It’s like you need a checklist to ensure your website stays on the right side of Google.

With more data rolling in every day as we analyze our sites, clients sites and… I’ve had more people call me in the last couple of weeks (wanting me to fix bad SEO) than ever before.

I’m thinking it’s almost time for me to release another SEO update to share what I know. For now, stick to quality with links and content – diversity is the key – and if you haven’t already, start improving your social indicators!

The big winners in the most recent update was YouTube and Google Plus.

But I digress, I’ll save all that for my SEO update.

Here’s the Small Business Internet Marketing Weekly were we summarise news and helpful links for small/medium sized business owners.

Here’s what I spotted this week:

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Can your site lose rankings because of negative SEO? {interesting}
www.webpronews.com/can-your-site-lose-its-rankings-because-of-competitors-negative-seo-2012-04

Unnatural links investigation {got the webmaster tools email? read this}
www.blog.majesticseo.com/training/unnatural-links-investigations

Negative SEO case study {this makes me sick}
www.trafficplanet.com/topic/2372-successful-negative-seo-case-study

Negative SEO myths, realities and precautions {SEOmoz is always solid}
www.seomoz.org/blog/negative-seo-myths-realities-and-precautions-whiteboard-friday

Google penguin update {tips from Google}
www.webpronews.com/google-penguin-update-12-tips-directly-from-google-2012-04

How Google search works from Matt Cutts {getting back to basics}
www.seroundtable.com/how-google-works-video-15055.html

=======

Ok I know those updates were mostly around SEO this week but that’s where most of the action has been happening.

The biggest lesson with this Google Penguin update is, don’t rely 100% on SEO, you must build a business with more than one leg. Video, social, email, ppc and solid business fundamentals are now more important than ever.

Stick with it, you’re on the right track and you’ll often find the biggest opportunities when the masses run for the hills.

Last but not the least, video is still the lowest hanging fruit online. Start YouTubing!
www.melbournevideoproduction.com.au

Having identified the keywords you’re going to target, you now need to ensure Google sees your website as a good match for those keywords when people are searching them. This is called website optimisation. To do this you need to put your keywords in the right places on your website – this is know as onpage optimisation.

We recommend each page of your website should only be optimised for a maximum of 1-2 keywords. And for each page, include your keyword in the following places: 

• The title tag
• The meta description
• The meta keywords
• Within an H1 tag
• Early and often in the text on your webpage
• Within an internal link

*Please note: If you don’t know html, you may not be familiar with these terms, but that’s OK. Just pass this information onto your web designer or SEO company.

Link Building

Arguably the most important stage in any SEO campaign, link building is how you make your website become more popular. Simply put, you want to get as many links to your website, using your targeted keywords, and from a good range of sources.

*Please note: Link building needs to appear ‘natural’. That is to say, it wouldn’t look natural to go from zero links to ten thousand overnight. Similarly, it wouldn’t look natural if all the links pointing to your website came from one place or if they said the same thing. In short, you want a good range of one-way links sent to different sections of your website that gradually build over time.

If you’re building links yourself, the easiest way to do this is by publishing good quality articles and then syndicating these on other websites. To find out more about this method, search ‘article marketing’ on Google.

Some of the more advanced methods of link building we use include:

• Press releases
• Directory submissions
• Blog and forum marketing
• Web 2.0 promotions
• Video marketing
• Building additional websites

There are many more ways to build links, but we have found those listed above to be the best return on investment.

If you want to have a clear understanding on how to run your online business, we are here to help. Just click here to learn about our Internet marketing consulting service.

Make it easy for your site to be found.

Do your research first.

First things first, you’ve got to know the landscape of your market. You need to know how to do keyword research. What searches are your clients typing into Google? Who are you competing against and what are they doing? The aim here is to build a list of potential keywords to further analyse and at this point, the more the merrier.

Start with a common word or phrase that is appropriate to your business. Your starting point doesn’t need to be clever or creative, just relevant to your business niche. For example, a good starting point, if you were a dentist, might be ‘dentist’. Search this keyword using one of the following keyword tools:

• Free Google Keyword Tool
• Wordtracker
• Market Samurai

These tools are designed to help you expand your keyword list by offering a number of derivatives or suggestions related to that keyword. They will also tell you how often those keywords have been searched and how competitive they are. Document all those keywords you think are appropriate and run any additional searches on any newly discovered phrases.

Now with a big list of keywords, you need to identify the top ten to twenty keywords to start targeting. You should identify those keywords that represent the best opportunities for your niche. You want keywords that are ‘buying phrases’ with a good balance between low competition whilst also being highly searched.

Buying phrases (as opposed to browsing phrases) are more specific searches that indicate the customer is ready to purchase. For example, a user searching ‘Sony Handycam HDR-SR11’, as opposed to just ‘Sony’, is much further down the buying funnel. They know what they want and their choice of keyword search will reflect this. You want buyers… not browsers.

Watch the video below to find out more:

Want expert advice on how to promote your business online? Click here to learn about our Internet marketing consulting services.

I know, busy, busy, busy… we’re all very busy

So, let’s get to the point.

Here’s the Small Business Internet Marketing Weekly where we summarise news and helpful links for small/medium sized business owners.

Here’s what’s news:

Negative SEO & Outing – my views are changing, I think links can hurt you
www.seobook.com/negative-seo-outing

More about negative SEO – doing your research
www.searchenginewatch.com/article/2169138/Negative-SEO-Looking-for-Answers-from-Google 

Google Rich Snippet For Your Website – you really need to implement this
www.webpronews.com/google-authorship-can-help-level-the-playing-field-in-search-visibility-2012-04

Google indexing URLs with embedded YT videos – we’re testing
www.reelseo.com/embedded-youtube-indexed-google

Making the web work for major brands – important metric for Google to solve
www.googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/making-web-work-for-major-brands.html

Internet ad revenues $31 billion – Why is this growing? Because web works.
www.mashable.com/2012/04/18/internet-ads-31-billion

What to call your call to action – great tips on conversion
www.conversionxl.com/what-to-call-your-call-to-action

YouTube adding 1000 movies from paramount – that’ll hurt cable + DVD stores
www.searchenginewatch.com/article/2169128/YouTube-Adding-1000-Movies-From-Paramount-MGM

And one more thing… do you know anyone who’s a super star? If you do, point them our way, we’re hiring again:
www.seek.com.au/Job/client-care-admin-super-star-all-rounder/in/melbourne-cbd-inner-suburbs/22130270

Also it looks like we might be doing another road trip to the Philippines in November – so, if you’ve got anyone over there, maybe you should come with us.

Last but not the least, we love videos so much that we’d be doing it even if we weren’t paid to do it. Here’s a cool video from Adrian: www.youtu.be/p-gBrW-mHg8 – he’s one of the main guys behind www.melbournevideoproduction.com.au .

Let us know what you think by posting a comment below.

Feel what it's like to be on top.

The fact is, your clients are on Google looking for your products and services every day and unless your website appears at one of the top 3 positions in Google (or at the very least on page #1) they’re going to do business with your competition.

Can you imagine that? You have a group of clients who are actively searching for your products and services, yet you’re not there for them – you’re literally turning them away. To make matters worse, you’re sending them to your competitors!

And it’s not enough to say ‘I already have a website’ … a website is worthless if no one’s finding it. You’d have to agree, the most beautifully designed website won’t make you a cent unless you have visitors to it. The “build it and they will come” strategy simply doesn’t work online.

So where does your website rank when your clients seek you out? … and we’re not just talking about appearing when your clients search your name e.g. “Joe Bloggs Dentist.” Definitely, a top Google ranking is of utmost necessity.

Does your website appear when your potential clients search for the product or service you provide? For example, “Melbourne dentist”, “teeth whitening Melbourne”, “emergency dentistry” … those sorts of words. People searching those words are ready to buy, however, unless you’re on page #1 of Google, you’ll never be found.

Conversely, imagine your website taking position #1 on Google for the top phrases that your clients are searching. What could this mean for your business? Here are a few of the benefits…

• Drive new, highly targeted customers to your website.
• Have your clients come to you. Stop cold calling to drum up business.
• Build trust and authority while becoming a market leader in your industry.

The bottom line is…

More Website Visitors = More Money

But what’s the secret to getting more website visitors? Through a process called search engine optimisation or SEO for short… you too can begin to move your website up through Google.

SEO is all about understanding the way the Google search engine works and giving it what it wants. In simple terms, Google (and any other search engine for that matter) works like a popularity contest… the more people that like you, the more popular you become.

Online, that means the more websites that link to you (showing they like you) the more popular your website becomes and accordingly you rise up the ranks in Google (and other search engines). Obviously there’s more to it, but we want to help you understand what you’re looking to achieve here.

How exactly do you get a top Google ranking?

Thankfully you don’t need to spend the nine years in development, nor do you have to run tests on hundreds of websites like we did… we’re happy to share what we’ve discovered.

The process of building a successful SEO campaign (and becoming popular on the internet) can be broken down into four simple stages:

1. Keyword And Market Research
2. Website Optimisation
3. Link Building
4. Site Reporting

We will go into more details on each stage. Just watch out for my next blog post tomorrow.

Do you want expert help with getting your website ranked number 1 on Google? Click here to learn about our corporate SEO training.

There’s an expression that goes “overnight success takes ten years”.

It isn’t meant to be a joke. Many highly-successful online businesses have experienced the phenomenon of going from modest growth to exponential overdrive in just a matter of days, but what most people don’t take into account is that the modest growth period can last for years before the accumulation of hard work reaches a tipping point.

If I may be so bold as to suggest it, if you follow the steps I outlined at www.AustralianInternetMarketing.com, you could cut years off that building process.

Click the link below to find out what you should do to ensure your business’ success.

www.AustralianInternetMarketing.com/small-business-marketing-online

And don’t forget to leave a comment if you have any questions. Remember, I’m here to help.