SEO Magic

Google Page Layout Algorithm Gets a Facelift

Cameron Whitaker — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 04:55:32 +0000

Even though we are SEO consultants it’s beginning to get a little hard to keep up with all the updates Google keeps pumping out of their well oiled assembly line. This comes at the end of a huge update wave that included the EMD update, Panda #20 and the latest refresh of Penguin.

One interesting point that could explain this “apparent rise” in updates is Google actually announcing them. With so many algorithm tweaks happening all the time it makes sense that we’re not always in the know. Is Google simply trying to be more transparent and keep webmasters in the loop (something many have asked for)? Or is it a tactic they are using to create mass panic and fear within the SEO community to try and clean up webspam and make Google a better place for everyone?

To be honest I think it’s probably a little bit of both (I know i’m slightly concerned about the stranglehold Google has over the internet. As SEO consultants we’re merely pawns trying to make the right moves ...

Latest Google Panda Update Rolled Out

Cameron Whitaker — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 09:16:31 +0000

It’s official Google has released the 20th version of their Google Panda algorithm update. Unleashed on Thursday the 27th of September this was more than a simple refresh and impacted about 2.4% of English search results and that’s just to begin with.

This was rolled out at around the same time as their exact match domain algorithm update but it wasn’t confirmed until a couple of days later. This created mass confusion and hysteria for webmasters hit by what they thought was the EMD update whose sites simply didn’t fit the algorithm profile.

We know all to well about this confusion as our own site was caught up in the mayhem. We along with several other’s had a sneaky suspicion that something else was going on. Now that we knew exactly what wiped our site out from the search engines it was time to assess the damage and ask that common Google related question of…WHY US?

But first for those of you who aren’t quite sure what the Google panda algorithm is, here’s a little rundown:

What is Google ...

Latest Google Update Tanks Exact Match Domains

Cameron Whitaker — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 01:23:33 +0000

The Google realm has been rocked once again by the latest update rolled out by big G near the end of September. Matt Cutts (the Google webspam master) announced the new exact match domain (EMD) update via twitter.

Here’s the tweets for your viewing pleasure:

This is something that has been on the cards for years but nothing has ever been officially done about it until now. The aim is to devalue sites that have been getting an unfair boost in rankings simply for having a domain containing their exact keyword. Obtaining keyword domains has always been a popular and abused practice for spammers and site owners wanting to increase the chances of their site ranking for certain keywords.

It’s especially popular with affiliate sites and often you will see someone trying to dominate a niche by buying a bunch of exact match keyword domains then getting them all ranked for their respective keywords. Unfortunately this is also a common practice we see used by misguided business owners who are usually driven by fear of their competitors obtaining those domain names instead.

Who Has ...

We Grew Stickerbiz’s Revenue by 1337%

Cameron Whitaker — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 10:56:04 +0000

Website: Stickerbiz.co.nz What they do: Custom and pre-designed vinyl stickers for your home, office or car Goal: Increase online sales and visibility of their brand Challenge: Stickerbiz is a newly established online business who were nowhere to be found on Google. Their target market had no chance of finding them. Stickerbiz specialises in custom stickers and this is what they wanted to be found for. They also wanted more visibility around specific product categories and wanted to avoid the high costs of using AdWords. We created a campaign around this goal and achieved the following results within two months…

Ranking Results:
“Custom Stickers” – Google Page 1 “Custom Stickers NZ” – Google Page 1 “Kids Wall Stickers” – Google Page 1 “Wall Decals for Kids” – Google Page 1 “Vinyl Wall Art” – Google Page 1 “Wall Art Stickers” – Google Page 1
What Did This Mean for their Business?

Traffic increased from 7 visitors a week to 138 or 1871% They went from one sale every two weeks to 7 sales every week Their weekly online ...

We Helped Churtees Increase Sales by 160% Within Just Two Months…

Cameron Whitaker — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 07:00:16 +0000

Churtees is an online store that sell funky New Zealand themed t shirts. Since they rely 100% on online sales their top priority was increasing buyer traffic to their site. We began the SEO program in October 2011 and within two months they began to see a return on their investment.

Results Achieved Within Two Months
Organic traffic increased by 56% Sales increased by 160% First page rankings for “kiwi t shirts” and “kiwiana t shirts”

Conversions increased because the traffic coming to the site was highly targeted. Visitors stayed longer on the site, viewed more products and were much more likely to buy.

Web Page Optimisation that Gets Results

Cameron Whitaker — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 07:08:11 +0000

We all know how important on page optimisation is for creating a search engine friendly website that gets results. The problem is most people seem to have a loose idea of what it actually involves and aren’t utilising it effectively on their websites.

What Actually Does Web Page Optimisation Involve?

There are many on page SEO elements that can help create more web page relevancy for target keywords and increase search engine visibility. These include:
Meta tags – The most important are title and meta description tags H1 tags – The most important for SEO is the H1 tag URL Structure – Static URLs are more search engine friendly that dynamic and enables you to include keywords Image Optimisation – Including keywords within the filename and alt attribute Content – Ensuring your keywords and variations show up within the pages content
To make things easier for you to understand SEOmoz have created a simple image that shows you exactly what ideal web page optimisation is all about:

How to Get 94% More Search Traffic Without AdWords

Cameron Whitaker — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:58:37 +0000

Its official (well in the UK at least) that 94% of searchers click on organic search results versus Google AdWords (PPC) that get just 6% of the click love, at least that’s what this infographic created by Neilson for GroupM shows us.

I have always heard that on average around 15% of searchers click on AdWords compared to organic search results but have never seen any conclusive data to back that up so this is both a confirmation and a bit of a shock. Just to put things into perspective the research was collected from 28 million people who made 1.4 billion searches (that’s a lot of zeros) over the whole month of June 2011.

Interesting Discoveries
Females are more likely to click on paid search ads than men Older folk are more likely to click on paid search ads And no prizes for guessing that Google is still king!
All this data has been summarised into a nice easily digestible infographic:

Econsultancy.com – Become a smarter digital marketer

The Moral of the Story Is… If you ...