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.

Self interest aside, doing your own website copywriting is a false economy that can cost you in search traffic, sales conversions and brand development.

Paying top dollar for design but doing your own copy means you end with a David Beckham website – it looks good but the voice is a right turn-off.

Now, this might seem like a self-serving post. Of course, I’m going to say you’re stupid to do your own website copywriting. But there are at least 3 good reasons why it’s dumb to write your own website copy. (Unless you happen to be me.)

1. Google Search ranking. The ability of your website to generate sales depends largely on its Google Search ranking. And your Google ranking depends on its level of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). You need to choose the right keywords and then optimise for those terms through meta tags, the body content and links.

Now some people think they understand SEO but this is an area where a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I had a client who didn’t want to pay for SEO and made a right pig’s ear of it. They didn’t go up the rankings – but down. Way down!!! For the sake of a few thousand dollars, this company will have lost thousands of dollars in sales. A good website copywriter is a good SEO copywriter and will easily repay the investment in increased site traffic.

2. Online Sales Conversions. When people get to your site, your copy needs to convert this visitor into a customer. This is a combination of what you say, how you say it, and the different access points you give to the visitor. A good website copywriter won’t limit themselves to the copy – they’ll feed back to the designers and the information architects to improve the sales effectiveness of the site. A good website copywriter will increase the probability that people actually buy something from you – rather then disappear into the ether.

3. Brand Development. Companies seem quite happy to pay a squillion for website design but then want to get cheap on the copy. But when you pay top dollar for design and go DIY on copy, you end up with a David Beckham website – it looks good but the voice is a right turn-off.

You might be a competent writer, have sound grammar and  excellent punctuation. You might be able to communicate perfectly. But, with all due respect, you are unlikely to bring the verve, life and character that a professional writer can. A good website copywriter can turn your brand from an also ran into the cock of the roost.

In the grand scheme of things, website copywriting is only a small percentage of a total website budget. But it can make a huge difference to your website traffic (through SEO), your sales conversions and the voice your website projects to the world. Don’t let your website be a squeaky Becks. Let it be a smooth talking George Clooney. Hire the Web Copywriter today.