I think it is about time for a recap on the paid services that are on offer at AussieSEO. Services include search engine marketing, search engine optimisation, pay per click advertising management, internet advertising (including display ads and banners), social media optimisation and web stats & analytics consulting. If it is related to online marketing there is a solution for you. Services are available in Perth, Australia and even worldwide.

From ecommerce websites to small business, to larger corporations – I have had experience in each of these fields and can offer solutions which will achieve a strong ROI. All solutions are customised to your needs, and we work closely with you to achieve your online goals. Feel free to Contact Us for a free proposal.

Lately I started to research and didn’t get that much closer to solving the flash problem, but I did learn something very important;  SEO ‘experts’ know nothing about optimising flash but like to pretend that they do. Whilst they often write about it, I think the vast majority are in the same boat as me; some basic knowledge but no practical experience of optimising flash. To be honest, I have never seen a SEO topic so widely written about by so many misinformed people.

I can admit I don’t know all that much about making a flash website search engine friendly. I know what I shouldn’t do, and I know some possibilities of what I could do – but there is still no way you would see me write a tutorial about it. 99% of articles and blog posts are people writing “If you do x and then you do y, the flash site will be search friendly… I have never tried it, but it will work.”In all my research I did not see one example of any of the practices that these SEO consultants wrote about.

Now to the challenge: I want to see a completely search friendly purely flash site. It doesn’t have to be optimised by you, but it needs to be actually search friendly, it needs to be aesthetically pleasing and it needs to be optimised in light of Google’s most recent flash indexing announcements. Can somebody find me this site?

How long until this expands to other forms of small business – could we have a system where tradesmen are reviewed? Or many people just want to find a good hairdresser or beauty salon? It is after all just a matter of time before there is a web 2.0 incarnation that will satisfy our needs of information, yet where is it?
Some of the bigger directories like HotFrog may have gotten it right with better quality listings than traditional business directories, yet they are still not that open to user generated content. Same for AussieWeb – it is nothing more than a huge business directory with contact information. These sites, in essence are providing nothing that the yellow pages hasn’t provided for decades.

True Local is perhaps the best example of a site that is on its way - at least it has tried to start a reviewing system, the problem is 99% of businesses do not have any reviews. It is a chicken and the egg problem; if small business embraced local search better consumers would start using it, and if consumers started using it small business would embrace it… In the end we have to ask, is it us that is the problem or is it small business? One of the reasons that local SEO has undoubtedly not taken off is that we are all too lazy to offer the infrustructure to support it, that is, online spaces that small businesses can use for promotion, reputation management and as a public relations tool.

The number one problem is that these investors/entrepreneurs think the internet is the same as traditional offline business, yet for some reason they treat it so differently. These entrepreneurs have (mostly) been in industries where if they have a good idea they follow a series of logical processes as well as overcome many barriers to get the business underway: they do their market research, they do their balance sheets, they consult accountants and business advisors, they go to a lawyer, they write a business plan, they have financial forecasts, they have financial goals, they need permits, leases, contracts ect. They are used to going through the hoops to get a good idea off the ground and a 5 or 10 year wait is nothing in the end. The most important thing, and the thing that they remember is that eventually their idea/s have worked and they have made money from them.

Having this success offline has recently increased with web 2.0 start-ups, such as online websites and businesses. What most entrepreneurs think is that offline business skills can be transferred to online enterprises; they think the internet is the same as any other business. This isn’t where the problem lies, however. The problem is that despite thinking that the internet is the same, they treat it so differently. Rarely do these entrepreneurs do any kind of market research, business plans or financial forecasts for a web site. They spend their lives going through these barriers and seeing success so much that they think it is their ideas that will sell themselves. What they don’t realise is that it was often all the other work that originally made their businesses successful, not just their ideas. Most ideas change a lot in the time from when it is in somebody’s head to when the idea is actually executed in a business sense. Inversely, the internet translates ideas too easily and directly from somebody’s head in to reality without consideration of all the external (normal) business issues that are usually considered with any other business. For most it is a matter of going to a web developer and fronting the funds, and the sad thing is that so many people do just that with faith that their idea will take off, even without consideration for marketing or promotion of the idea.

They think the internet is like any other business (which it is in certain ways), yet they will trust their intuition in putting down $30,000 for a large web development project just because they think they no longer have to go through the same barriers to get their ideas out there.

The internet is different from other industries, but each industry in itself is different anyway. I wouldn’t start a shoe store if I had success starting a mining company without a LOT of research and advice. Same with the internet, just because you may have had success with a shoe store offline doesn’t mean you will have the same success with a shoe store online; they are two very different industries, and entrepreneurs will think the online like the offline; with faith that their ideas will just work. But they will not treat the online like the offline, which is the number one problem with entrepreneurial investors.

An idea is just that, an idea, and if you can execute it without breaking the bank you may have a chance at success. If the idea has a solid business plan to go with it you may even have a greater chance at success. But if you think you can invest in just an idea, you are nearly always destined for failure.

One of the most valuable link building ‘tools’ I use is my link diary; a spreadsheet where I can quickly add sites and pages where I may be able to get a link from in the future. It needn’t be anything fancy but it is a way to quickly add a site to come back to at a later date that may be worth looking at for link building. I have found the best way to satisfy the inner SEO in me is to quickly write down the site in a text file or spreadsheet, and then come back to these sites at a later date and take a better look. This way you never pass up good linking opportunities, but are not interrupted every time you see a site that may benefit you.

I do it for a range of sites; a niche directory that I wouldn’t have found otherwise, sometimes it is a links page, but most often it is those kinds of sites which you would never try to get a link from – the more obscure sites where you (and your competitors) would never actually think of – these are the ones you really have to look out for. You wouldn’t believe how many quality sites I have casually came across which I would have overlooked if I wasn’t thinking of my links diary at the back of my head. It is so simple to do, doesn’t interrupt you, and means you never pass up a good opportunity for links.

A little success is better than a lot of failure
I lose money all the time, in fact, I can bet you that all affiliate marketers lose money on a regular basis. But failure is fine to me because there will be greater successes which outweigh the failures. You will always find that some things work out and others do not, and this is just the nature of affiliate marketing. The problem with those new to affiliate marketing is that they will put all their time and effort in to one small niche campaign, it will fail and then they will put more time/effort/money in to the same campaign (which will still fail). Some niches will inevitably ALWAYS fail. The good thing about trying to participate in competitive niches is that the surplus time/effort/money will probably pay off in a competitive market, however, it will never pay off in a non-performing niche. Seeing just a little bit of success after putting in so much time and effort is always better than having no chance of success through a bad choice of niche.

Unlike a lot of other clients I had dealt with this was a completely new website on a completely new domain name. The website had been developed by a web design company and was behind a relatively search friendly CMS, the site was visually appealing and had good useability. After doing various amends on the site and starting to optimise the site I received several phone calls, all about the current rankings of the website. I explained time after time that rankings take time to materialise and to wait it out for the duration of the campaign.

So they finally decided to wait… Within a month or two they were nearly dominating their niche – with top 5 rankings for very relevant phrases, they were also getting considerable traffic. This would make the client happy, right? Wrong. They were still not making any sales. After several more phone calls about sales my role of being a SEO consultant switched to a online sales and marketing expert; this isn’t what they had paid for, they had only paid for SEO, nonetheless I kept on offering more and more information to the client on promoting their business through both traditional offline initiatives and other online forms of promotion. This was the key to making sales.

SEO is not enough for a website, and rankings are not enough to sell. People more often than not overlook branding, consumer confidence and traditional marketing processes in creating websites; the online world is not that much different from the offline, you can create the online store, you can get top rankings, but this doesn’t mean you will sell anything. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

Their problem was that they didn’t listen to me and were still focused on their rankings – a number #3 position was not enough for them and they wanted to get to #1 – they thought this would be the be all and end all of online sales.

Another client of mine in the same niche with lesser rankings was selling extremely well throughout Australia and internationally, whilst this new client sold nothing for at least 6 months. The simple difference – one had established an online business, one was simply a website.

So remember, if you want to create a business not just a website, there are so many more factors than just SEO that need to come in to play. People do not have confidence in websites that they haven’t heard of before, and the likelihood that they will buy something from a site they reach through searching for relevant words and phrases is minimal. Online promotion is so similar to offline promotion, and the several layers of overlap mean that processes such as SEO cannot be undertaken alone, they should always be part of broader online strategies.

1.    Probably the most important thing to do when submitting to directories is look for quality over quantity. I have lists of thousands of completely free directories, yet rarely would I submit a site to all these directories. The best thing to do is look for niche and topic specific directories, these often provide the best quality links and sometimes even provide traffic as well.

2.    To find niche directories have a look on Google, do some research, and look where your competitors are getting links from. A good tool to use is something like this: http://www.webconfs.com/backlink-builder.php - allowing you to find sites/directories to add a link. Sometimes you will have to send an email to request a link, in this case write out a generic link request email and use this as a template for each site.

3.    As well as niche directories, regional directories are usually of a lot higher quality than average directories. Regional directories will often require your website/business to be located in the particular area and sometimes even require an address; the payoff is that they give high quality links because of their strict editorial process. If you have a high quality site that is regionally appropriate, it will most likely be accepted.

4.    A lot of search engine optimisation companies run a network of directories, and often these are open to the public as well as their clients. Once you find one of them, it is usually easy to find the rest of the network of sites.  These can be good as they are often heavily promoted.

5.    Do not focus on submitting your site to hundreds or thousands of phpLD directories. If there is such thing as Google devaluing directories, they would go straight to sites like these. A lot of non-traditional directories will provide a lot higher quality links than phpLD will.

6.    Same goes for Pagerank, do not focus on solely Pagerank. There are plenty of sites out there with low Pagerank that would provide a lot more traffic than those sites with a higher Pagerank. Do not obsess over page rank.

7.    Look on forums for new directories announced. Digitalpoint forums have a section where people advertise their directories. Often the directories are sometimes not the best of quality, but the one good thing is fast approval; the webmasters of these sites are usually very active in accepting new submissions. And a lot of the webmasters are intent on making something of their directory in the future.

8.    Make sure to include the keywords you are trying to target in your anchor text, but do not make them spammy. Do not use the same description and anchor text for every link. Try to change it around a bit and target different keywords. On higher quality sites and directories, vary your descriptions and anchor text for each submission. It is a waste to keyword stuff your titles, in most cases the submission will not be accepted.

9.    On lower quality sites, automate the process as much as possible. I like to use Auto Form Filler for firefox.

10.    Always aim for one way links, but where you can only get reciprocal or link swaps – see if you can link to them from another domain. Where it is an informal swap (i.e. through email) often works better – allowing you to explain your intentions to the webmaster – often they will be happy about the link swap.

11.    Avoid paying for links; there are a lot of directories out there that want you to pay for a link, but very few sites are worth paying for. Once you have exhausted all free opportunities, then it may be worth looking for paid directories – but stick to the big ones like Yahoo Directory, Business.com directory, BOTW, ect.

Whilst I am sick of people saying that directories ‘no longer work’, I also have to say that they should only be part of a broader link development strategy. Do not solely rely on directories, and you will see good results from SEO

The number one thing to remember is EFFORT vs REWARD. Small businesses want to put in as little money/effort as possible yet want the maximum rewards for the amount of effort. In an agency SEO context you can offer this cheap SEO on a purely suburb level. Whilst you cannot boast amazing rankings for more generic keywords, as long as they are seeing an increase in traffic/sales you have a happy client.

Take this example; if you are promoting a florist that delivers to a few select suburbs 20 minutes from the Perth CBD; you don’t try to target the term “florist” internationally. The effort, money and resources that have to be spent on this would not be worth that little bit of extra traffic that would actually be relevant. Most would then go to the city level – targeting “florist in Perth” rather than simply “florist” – this is OK, however, the florist isn’t really delivering throughout all of Perth, only to a few select suburbs. So, why don’t we just try to dominate some suburb keywords – “Florist in suburb” is much easier to rank for than “Florist in city”, isn’t it?

Now, you are probably saying that nobody searches for suburb names… this is complete rubbish. I have done SEO on hundreds of local business sites and watched the stats very closely for most of these sites: people search for suburb names all the time – if I want a hairdressers to go to, I want to find one in the immediate vicinity to where I live, not a 40 minute drive away. As such, I (and a lot of other people) search very locally.

Sure, on face value I would much rather for my business to rank when somebody is searching with the city name, but it just doesn’t make sense if I only service 3-4 suburbs. Think of what the visitor would want once they get to your site; they want to find what they are looking for, and if it’s a local business they want it to be local. They want to see each suburb you service listed right there on your home page.

In my opinion it is much better to be on the first position for a specific suburb phrase that will bring very few, but very targeted visitors, rather than be on the 3rd page for a more general city phrase. Google map listings in search results have taken a fair bit of suburb targeting out of the picture, but this has resulted in people forgetting about the fundamentals of SEO, and not even trying to get their sites to rank for specific areas/suburbs. From an effort vs reward perspective, targeting to the suburb level is fundamental, especially where businesses have small budgets yet still want to bring in sales/leads from their website.

What are my views? Well, there is certainly a middle ground. And many do over step the line by charging exorbitant fees, but inversely many should probably be charging more for what they do. Personally, I see there little wrong with a SEO consultant charging $1000/hour if they are getting the business a ROI out of it (and neither do most businesses), however, my major problem comes with SEO consultants who charge this much (or even substantially less) and don’t achieve the business any kind of benefit.

In reality, people shouldn’t be so critical of the SEO consultant that charges $1000/hour and gives the business results, they should be more worried about the SEO consultant that charges $100 an hour and gives no results. Because of the nature of the job and industry, it naturally attracts its fair share of snake oil salesmen, but price is not the issue here; it is quality of work we should be concerned with.

Over the last couple of weeks I have seen several businesses charging hundreds of dollars for simply “search engine submission”, undoubtedly through automated programs submitting to a bunch of search engines nobody uses. This $200 will not result in any more sales, or benefit to the business, so there is something definitely wrong with charging for this. Whilst charging for changing some page titles, no matter how rudimentary it is, may only be 10 minutes of work – but may result in a 50% traffic boost in the next month. This may be a highly valuable service that the business would have realised without the guidance of a SEO professional.

If a business was to hire a consultant in any other industry they would charge similar rates such as these for the kind of results they get; and believe me SEO usually provides much better ROI than most business consultants.

People should stop viewing SEO as a simple labour process where all they pay is the labour costs of optimising a site… this leaves out all the know-how, knowledge, and research that goes in to a SEO campaign. If your average run-of-the-mill office employee was to sit down and research everything that a SEO consultant knows it would take weeks, or even months to come close to just the knowledge base – and that is not even getting started on the skill of many SEO’s.

It is true that some of the more basic elements of SEO are quite simply very basic or even common sense that it feels we shouldn’t be charging this much for SEO, however, you are charging for the information and know-how. It is the same in nearly any other industry which has a highly specialised skill base, but even more pronounced because of the necessity of a SEO consultant to be constantly up to date on the latest progressions of the industry; plumbers, electricians, or even professionals such as lawyers do not have the same constant requirements as SEO professionals. Although every industry changes, SEO is one of the most volatile industries that it does require a constant exposure in order to keep up to date; something which most part time ‘marketers’ would never be able to keep up with.

In reality I probably would have a problem with a business charging $1000 to change some meta tags even if it did help sales, but I do see that there should be a definite middle ground; SEO professionals have to charge a fee that reflects their commitment to the job, their knowledge, skills and ability to return a return on the businesses investment, but they also have to weigh it up with the labour involved. Something such as changing a couple of meta tags or page titles verges on the labour side of things so should be charged accordingly, whilst putting forth a proposal to completely re-program a site to dynamically create search engine friendly page titles and meta tags verges on the knowledge side of things, so again should be charged accordingly. It is all about balance.