The boost in search ranking of Patent Analysis firm, Filament, was so sharp, it drew the European Patent Office to their site to see what all the fuss was about.

Filament – global leaders in IP Intelligence

Filament works in the area of IP Intelligence, IP Analytics or Patent Analysis. That means that when a company wants to defend their intellectual property, or is looking at a merger and wants to see whether the IP is complementary, they come to Greg. Thankfully, now more of them will be coming Greg.

Boosting Filament’s search ranking

I did some SEO and website copywriting for Greg a while back and it’s just starting to bear fruit. They are ranked on Google’s first page for almost all their keywords – and it’s brought the attention of not just customers – but others keen to see what’s going on.

European Patent Office drops in

On one particular keyword phrase, Filament was ranked behind only the European Patent Office. This brought the European Patent Office to the Filament site to find out what all the fuss was about. Several other major patent players have visited as well. It’s nice to be noticed.

Google suddenly wasn’t indexing one of my pages – ironically, my “SEO Copywriter” page – and it was knocking my ranking for that keyword phrase. But I’ve made some changes and – voile – the page has indexed once more.

What to do when Google snubs you?

Sudden drop for “SEO Copywriter”

I check the Google rankings of my clients and my own sites on an almost daily basis. So I was alarmed during a routine check to find that I had suddenly dropped from a ranking of 3 or 4 on “SEO Copywriter” to 9. And when I looked at the pages listed on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP), neither of them were the “SEO Copywriter” page. How weird.

Google wasn’t indexing the “SEO Copywriter” page

When I checked what Google was indexing (in a Google search field enter site:yourdomain.com), the “SEO Copywriter” page was missing. Yet it was indexing two child pages off that parent – “What is SEO” and “SEO Tools”. Why?

Why isn’t Google indexing my page?

Google can be capricious. It can not index your page for a bunch of reasons. But generally it’s because it doesn’t think that this page adds anything to the world’s collective knowledge. It could form this high and mighty opinion because …

• your page title is the same as other page titles
• your meta tags are the same as other pages
• your h1 tag is the same as other pages
• your page’s content is too similar to other pages

However, in my case, this wasn’t true. The page was unique for my site in every regard. So what else could it be?

Was it something I said?

If Google doesn’t like an inbound link to your site, it will mark you down, but again this was unlikely. So I looked at the content and found that on this page I had made a couple of references that Google might not have liked. Without wanting to repeat the content exactly, I made a reference to Spamming and to a certain landmark event in the way Google ranked pages. Could this have been the problem? I wasn’t taking any chances. I revised the content. But how to get Google to re-index the page?

Getting Google to index the SEO Copywriter page

Apart from getting rid of content that I thought Google might have found offensive, I revised the first paragraph to make it distinctly different to other pages. I also found a 301 Redirect I’d set up from /seo-sydney/ to /seo-copywriter-sydney/ wasn’t working and fixed that. But how long would it take Google to get back to look at this site? I wasn’t going to sit on my hands waiting.

In-bound links to the missing page

I have the Web Copywriter site listed on a few reputable online business indexes. In order to get Google to take notice of the SEO Copywriter page, I changed the URLs on a couple of these sites from the home page to the SEO Copywriter page. I asked one of my clients to alter the link as well, but then this morning I got some good news.

SEO Copywriter is back

When I checked which pages were indexed this morning, the SEO Copywriter was back. And so was my ranking. I am now back at 4 for SEO Copywriter and 2 for SEO Copywriter Sydney. Tellingly, the pages listed on the SERP now include the SEO Copywriter page. What made the difference?

Try an inbound link to cure a Google indexing problem

Who knows. It could have been the removal of the Google references. It might have been making the content more different. It might have been fixing the 301 Redirect. But my money is on the inbound-links. If pages on reputable sites are linking to a page that Google hasn’t deemed worthy of indexing, it is surely going to give it cause to think again. The unease I was feeling while I was being blanked by Google has now dissipated. Now I can get back to worrying about other stuff.

A tiny SEO job I did free for a mate has led to a fascinating brief from a massive new client.

“As Confucius once said, “To open yourself up to the possibilities of the universe, you occasionally need to do an SEO freebie’.”

At the centre of the universe is one small act of SEO kindness.

The ‘optimised’ website that showed no evidence of SEO visitation

A friend of mine asked me to look at his site and I didn’t have good news for him. Despite the fact that it had supposedly been search engine optimised, I could see little evidence of it.

The keyword strategy seemed flawed, but the damage was limited because they hadn’t really optimised for those keywords in any event. There was not a single keyword in any Page Title for example. He appreciated my candour but couldn’t afford my services. What the hell, I thought. I’ll do it anyway.

The freebie SEO job that snowballed

I spent a few hours doing keyword analysis and surveying what his competitors were doing. I then spent another few hours rattling off the page titles and meta tags for each page of his site. Unable to help myself, I went on to make recommendations about a switch of domain names, and crafted individual page URLs that were keyword-rich. In for a penny, in for a pound – I then rewrote the home page copy using the principles of Persuasive Architecture. All for the same very reasonable price of nada. But, as things transpired, I got paid back in spades.

I optimised for free but not without expectation

I can’t say I did this free SEO job without expectation. I’m not that altruistic. I did it in the belief that some day in some way I would be repaid for my efforts. My faith was rewarded – more quickly than I could possibly have imagined.

The web lets Karma work its magic

Within days of doing the work – and before my mate had even implemented my SEO recommendations – I got an email from a seriously large client who’d found me on a Google search. When we got to chat, I asked him what it was about my site that convinced him to get in touch. You guessed it. It was my blog post about the work I’d done for my mate. And he wasn’t impressed by my generosity of spirit. He liked what I had to say about Persuasive Architecture. He’s now presented me with a fascinating brief that I can’t wait to get started on, and I feel fairly confident it will cover the cost of the SEO work I did for my mate.

The devout atheist with boundless faith

I’m a devout atheist – don’t get me started – but I do have boundless faith. I genuinely believe that if you make a habit of doing good things that ultimately things will work out for you. This faith can be tested at times. For example, when you promptly respond to a request for a free SEO report card and you don’t get so much as a thank you – let alone a follow-up commission of more work. But this latest episode is a wonderful reminder of why economic rationalists never have any fun. As Confucius once said, “To open yourself up to the full possibilities of the universe, you occasionally need to do an SEO freebie”.

Yesterday I got an email from an executive at one of Australia’s leading banks who said that he’d stumbled upon The Web Copywriter site “while Google searching for SEO copywriters”. This was music to an SEO guy’s ears. And a reminder of why investing in SEO makes sound business sense.

“There are no easy-beats in the ‘SEO copywriter’ category – no Carltons of the pre-Chris Judd era.”

Good Search Engine Optimisation is still surprisingly rare

I’m amazed to find that sites in many business sectors are still not search engine optimised. These companies will spend a fortune on general marketing, hundreds of thousands on a website, and not shell out a few grand on something that could deliver them a huge increase in web traffic and online sales. Unfortunately, “SEO Copywriter” is not one of these sectors.

“SEO Copywriter” is the Parramatta Rd of search categories

“SEO Copywriter” is the Parramatta Rd of search categories. You’re trying to sell in a crowded sector, against people who really know how to sell. There are no cheap wins to be had in this competition – no Carltons of the pre-Chris Judd era. So when I set up The Web Copywriter site, the possibility existed that I could use perfect search engine optimisation and still not trouble the Google scorers. But, to my delight, that’s not what happened.

Lifting the Google ranking of one of my favourite clients: me

I was surprised and delighted to find that my site moved very quickly through the rankings and was very soon on Google’s first page of Search Results in all my primary keywords. Here’s where it currently stands:

• web copywriter sydney – #1
• seo copywriter – #3
• website copywriting – #3
• website copywriter – #3
• web writer sydney – #5
• web copywriter Australia – #6

I knew that reaching the first SERP (Search Engine Results Page) of “web copywriter” – ironically – would be tough. But by listing with a good business index, I made it. I’m at #7. So clearly – given the importance of history in Google’s ranking – not all of these SEO guys are all that cluey.

What’s my SEO secret?

I can honestly say that I haven’t done anything in terms of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) on my site that I don’t do for all my clients.

• Good keyword analysis
• Good domain name
• Good page URLs
• Good page titles
• Good meta tags
• Good highlighting
• Judicious link building

And constantly refreshing the content through this website copywriting blog. You can’t rest on your SEO laurels. You need to be constantly reminding Google that your site is the authority in your category. Particularly in this god-forsaken category.

Has my investment in SEO been worth it?

Obviously I get my SEO at very good rates. But there is still an opportunity cost – instead of writing this post I could be making phone calls to prospects. (If it wasn’t 6.30 am). But my own investment in SEO has been good business for me. This bank client alone has made it all worthwhile. If you’re at all cluey, you’ll get a good SEO Copywriter to take a look at your site. I know someone I can recommend.

Some SEO tips from the Web Copywriter are hopefully going to lift the Google Search Ranking of a UK company that turns photos into Personalised Pop Art on canvas.

Which bits did the SEO guy optimise exactly?

Email Marketing leads to SEO opportunity

I recently sent out a Web Copywriter email update and heard back from a mate I used to play tennis with when I lived in Brighton, UK. Dave – who’s worked for some of London’s top design consultancies – had just created a website and invited me to take a look.

UK Personalised Pop Art firm, Photo2Art's website - Before

Personalised Art – turning photos into pop art portraits on canvas

His business is called Photo2Art and the idea is that they turn your photos into Andy Warhol-inspired pop art portraits on canvas. A cute idea but they’re not the only ones doing it and they need to distinguish themselves from firms that just print your photos onto canvas. Unfortunately, even though he’d employed a web copywriter (rather than The Web Copywriter) and an SEO guy, site traffic had been poor, and conversions had been low. What was the problem?

No evidence of SEO

The site had a Google PageRank of 3/10 which wasn’t bad but it showed no evidence of being optimised at all. It had poor (and repetitive) meta page titles, few relevant h tags, no highlighting and no terms being emphasised. I was left thinking, “Which bits did the SEO guy optimise exactly?”.

Why Keyword Analysis Tools need to be used with discretion

I asked to look at the SEO guy’s keyword analysis and discovered that they’d recommended “unusual gifts” as the best keyword for this business. Why? Because their Keyword tool said it had the highest Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI).

KEI is a measure that you’ll use in SEO to try to unearth a niche keyword but it needs to be used with discretion. How many people who are looking for “unusual gifts” will want this offering? How many will you actually convert? Meanwhile, you have failed to optimise for the keywords that would attract people who are actually looking to convert their photos into personalised pop art portraits on convas.

Revisiting Keyword Analysis

I used Wordtracker with its UK database option to identify a bunch of keywords that are popular in this category and was surprised at the results.

1. “personalised pop art”
2. “personalised art”
3. “personalised wall art”
4. “personalized wall art”
5. “personalised pop art portrait”

Who would have thought that “personalised pop art” would be the most popular – for a factor of almost two.
“Pop art portraits” and “pop art canvas” were also rated highly.

“Photos on canvas” was searched for much more frequently than any of these – but it’s too broad and too competitive. You get those people who just want to put their photos on canvas and you’re competing in a very crowded and better resourced market.

But before making any recommendations, I wanted to see what Dave’s competitors were doing?

Which keywords? Look at your competitors

Dave had identified the number one competitor as You Are Art so I checked out their site and guess what I found? They were optimising for the terms that Wordtracker had identified. What’s more, Google ranked them #1 for these terms. Clearly they must be the right terms. But could Dave’s firm hope to compete?

Can you compete for the prime keywords?

This competitor only had a Google PageRank of 3/10 – the same as Dave – and its page titles weren’t as good as they could be. Other competitors who were ranked highly also weren’t too intimidating. So I recommended that Dave optimise for these keywords and rattled off some meta tags at very affordable rates (ie free). But I didn’t stop there.

Domain names – .co.uk vs .net and usability

Dave’s domain name – www.photo2Art.net – was problematic. Firstly, it’s a .net domain, which means that when people in the UK look at a Google search results page, they can’t be sure whether it’s a UK firm or not. Secondly, if people have been to the site, when they come back – assuming they remember your name – they are more likely to go to photo2art.co.uk than photo2art.net. I sure did.

A keyword optimised domain name

It’s always a good idea to try to have a domain name that includes keywords – particularly if you are first and foremost an online business. While www.personalisedart.co.uk and www.personalised-art.co.uk were both taken, www.personalisedpopart.co.uk was not. So the domain name with the most searched for keyword phrase in the category was available. Fabulous. They bought that. But I made a further recommendation.

Domain name usability and defending your turf

I said they should also buy www.personalised-pop-art.co.uk for three reasons. Firstly, Google will rank more highly a domain that has words delineated. So it will prefer www.personalised-pop-art.co.uk over www.personalisedpopart.co.uk.

Secondly, it’s easier to read on a Google Search Results page. People can look at it and at a glance see exactly that it is “personalised-pop-art” whereas “personalisedpopart” is much harder to discern and can be read as “personalised po part” amongst others.

The final reason is a defensive move. Because it’s a better domain name, you don’t want anyone else to get it.

So I recommended they set up the site as www.personalised-pop-art.co.uk. However. when they tell people where to go, they should say “personalisedpopart.co.uk” because it’s easier to remember. They then redirect all traffic from www.personalisedpopart.co.uk to www.personalised-pop-art.co.uk.

But – and this is a very big but – I said they MUST use a 301 Permanent Redirect from all their old pages to their new ones. This way they get the advantage of the SEO improvements while preserving their existing PageRank.

Practise what you preach

I do this with my own Web Copywriter domains. I own web-copywriter.com.au and the site is set up there, but I also own webcopywriter.com.au and I use this for my email address because it’s easier to type in and remember. I also own thewebcopywriter.com.au. Domain names are partly about SEO, partly about usability and partly about keeping your competitors at bay.

Beyond SEO

I have also recommended that Dave rejig his information architecture (IA) and website copywriting to make it clearer, cleaner and more action-oriented. I wanted him to implement Persuasive Architecture. This means guiding people through your site step by step, massaging them past all of their psychological barriers in turn until they WANT to press that order button. But this will have to wait – and I might have to get him to part with a few sheckels for that.

I also said that link building was important and that they should get themselves listed on a reputable gifting website. Those inbound links from high ranking sites are gold.

Watch this space

The recommendations are in. Let’s see how they go. I’ll keep you posted.

Before you go getting any Tom, Dick or Harry.com to link to your site …

Everyone says Link Building is important but you really wish it wasn’t because it’s such a tedious process. Here’s the motivation you’ve been looking for. In a recent survey of SEO experts, they identified the top 10 contributors to a website’s Google Search Ranking – and 7 out of 10 involved links!

Survey of SEO experts on factors affecting Google Search Ranking

In the States, seomoz conducted a survey of 37 leading experts on organic Search Engine Optimisation. They asked them to rank the importance of a huge range of factors. What helped your Google Search Ranking? What hurt your Google Search Ranking? They then compiled the collective wisdom and came up with a list of the top ten positive SEO factors – and the top 5 negative SEO factors.

What is the most important SEO factor?

So what was the sophisticated SEO technique identified by these experts as the most important factor contributing to your site’s Google search ranking? The humble Meta Page Title. Those 60 characters that are available to you across the top of the web browser. The bit of your site that might currently say “Home”. As Christine Churchill said, “If you have time to do only one SEO action on your site, take the time to create good titles”.

How important is link building to your Google Search Ranking?

According to this group, link building is VERY important to your site’s ranking. In fact, of the top ten factors they identified, a whacking 7 of them involved links.

Top 10 Positive SEO Factors

1. Keyword Use in Title Tag
2. Anchor Text of Inbound Link
3. Global Link Popularity of Site
4. Age of Site
5. Link Popularity within the Site’s internal structure
6. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to site
7. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community
8. Keyword Use in Body Text
9. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site
10. Topical Relationship of Linking Page

So, go build some links, huh? Simple. Well, maybe not.

How important is GOOD link building to your Google search ranking

Before you go getting any Tom, Dick or Harry.com to link to your site, there is some more sobering information for you to digest. Of the Top 5 Negative Factors influencing your Google Search Ranking, 2 of them involved links.

Top 5 Negative SEO Factors

1. Server is Often Inaccessible to Search Engine Bots
2. Content is Very Similar or Duplicate of Existing Content in the Index
3. External Links to Low Quality/Spam Sites
4. Participation in Link Schemes or actively selling links
5. Duplicate Title/Meta Tags on many pages

So, you need links but you need quality links. Motivated? I sure am.

For the full article on SEO factors affecting Google Search ranking, click here.

Americans and Australians have a different vocabulary. It’s not ‘petrol’, it’s ‘gas’. It’s not ‘takeaway’, it’s ‘to go’. It’s not an ‘invasion’ of Iraq, it’s a ‘liberation’.

Everything I’d read said that Wordtracker was the Keyword Analysis tool of choice for the serious SEO professional. But there are two reasons why it’s of limited value to local Search Engine Optimisation operators – the relevance of its data, and its very ordinary usability.

Is Wordtracker all it’s cracked up to be?

Most US SEO professionals will tell you that Wordtracker is the best keyword analysis tool on the market. Peter Kent says it – though he acknowledges a commercial relationship with them. But he’s not alone. So I left the comfort of Google’s keyword tools and explored Wordtracker but was totally underwhelmed.

Wordtracker’s woeful usability

The first thing that will strike any self-respecting SEO professional is just what a naff site Wordtracker is. It looks old and dated. But, worse than that, its interface is not intuitive – to say the least – and it just doesn’t let you do what you want to do.

Control over the keywords you choose

Wordtracker’s strength is that it really does throw up an awful lot of keyword suggestions. In an increasingly crowded market where everyone is looking to carve out a keyword niche, this is pretty useful. However, what I’ve found is that it’s far too hard to control what you include and exclude. And then you’ve got to export the data for inclusion in an SEM campaign. But, its failings are more fundamental than that.

Wordtracker tells you what Americans search for

The whole purpose of doing Keyword Analysis is to identify what your customers are searching for when they come onto the net. Now, while Wordtracker might tell you what US customers search for on the net, there is no guarantee that Australian users search for the same terms.

For Australian SEO work you need Australian search data

You may have noticed that Americans and Australians talk differently. It’s not just the difference in accents. We have a different vocabulary – in almost everything. It’s not petrol, it’s gas. It’s not takeaway, it’s “to go”. It’s not an invasion of Iraq, it’s a liberation. This different use of language is going to have serious consequences in Keyword Analysis. So, American-dominated data is of limited value – unless you have a global market. If your market is Australian, you need Australian data.

Why I prefer to use Google’s keyword tools

I still use Wordtracker – hell, I’ve paid the hefty annual subscription so I’m going to get my money’s worth. But my two preferred tools are both by Google – and not just because they are free. Google’s Keyword Tool and its Traffic Estimator have the huge fundamental advantage over Wordtracker that you can look at purely Australian results. Or purely NSW results. Or purely Sydney results. And know much more accurately what your customers are looking for.

This post is no longer valid – for an update on the SEO effect of Domain names and hypens, look at this more recent post.

Here’s a little test for you. Your name is Ray Costanza. You’re starting a new company and you want to sell drill bits. Should your domain name be www.raycostanza.com.au or www.drillbits.com.au? Well, maybe neither. Here Max Webster looks at SEO and Domain name considerations.

Using Keywords in your Domain Name is good for SEO

Your domain name is the first thing the search engine spiders see and their first clue to what your site is about. So, ideally, you want your domain to include keywords. So, if you sell drill bits, and the domain name www.drillbits.com.au is available, then this would be a good domain name, wouldn’t it? A better name than www.raycostanza.com.au. But perhaps not ideal.

SEO, Domain Names and Hyphens or Dashes

When Google looks at www.drillbits.com.au, it can read the words “drill” and “bits”, so it will know this site is likely to have something to do with drill bits. So, that’s good. However, if Google looks at www.drill-bits.com.au or www.drill.bits.com.au, it will rate those names higher than www.drillbits.com.au. This is kind of ironic – given that people tend to race out and buy domain names that run keyword together, whereas domains with the keywords separated by hyphens are very often still available. So, you should make www.drill-bits.com.au your domain name, right? Well, not necessarily.

Balancing SEO with Usability and Memorability

The problem is, it’s harder to type a dash or hyphen in a domain name than it is to just run the keywords together. So, from a usability point of view, www.drillbits.com.au is preferable. What’s more, it’s harder to get people to remember a domain name that includes a hyphen. For example, you’d prefer to be able to tell people that they should go to drillbits.com.au rather than drill-dash-bits-dot-com-dot-au – particularly if you’re running a radio ad campaign. You also won’t capture the person who just types in drillbits.com.au to see what comes up. So what’s the solution?

Buying multiple domain names and redirecting

The ideal solution would be:

1. Buy www.drill-bits.com.au and make this your main website domain name
2. Buy www.drillbits.com.au and redirect it to www.drill-bits.com.au
3. Buy www.raycostanza.com.au and redirect it to www.drill-bits.com.au as well
4. Use www.drillbits.com.au on all your company stationery
5. Have all your company email addresses include the “drillbits” name (e.g. ray@drillbits.com.au)

This would give you the best of all worlds:

• The best SEO performance because Google loves www.drill-bits.com.au
• The best usability and memorability because people get to use www.drillbits.com.au
• And your highschool sweetheart can track you down by typing in www.raycostanza.com.au

Of course, we can’t always get the domain names we want. We’ll talk about some options in that situation in another post.