Google | Dangerous Common Sense

How Many Number 1 Pages Do You Have in Google?

A friend said he was recommending me to one of his contacts for Search Engine Optimization. The contact asked, “How many #1 positions does Ozdachs get in Google?”

I was stumped. I produce reports for clients saying where they show up in various search engines for different phrases. But, I have never thought to aggregate the #1 positions for all clients and come up with a number of #1’s for bragging.

Frankly, I don’t think the gross number of top positions is a good metric. I work with my clients to track:

Referral sources for prospects who contact them.
Hits to their web site, including the search phrases used by the visitors.
Search engine result positions for selected phrases in the major search engines.

Tracking the number of #1 positions in Google for a site may be a good marker for success. Or, it that number could be a useless statistic that can be gamed by a Search Engine Optimization company.

I can get almost anyone the #1 position in Google results for a lot of commercially meaningless searches. The easiest example is your company’s name. Your web site is probably already #1 in Google for your business’ name. Search Google for “Ozdachs Consulting” and my site comes back on the top of the list… and I have not done SEO on my own site. My client “Sterck Kulik O’Neill accounting group” shows us #1 when you search for “Sterck Kulik O’Neill”.

These #1 positions aren’t important. If someone knows your business’ name and searches for it, they are already your clients or at least know about you and are considering buying from you.

Search Engine Optimization is most valuable when marketing your site to people who are looking for what you sell but don’t know that your business exists. Those are the prospects who find you when they search Google for terms such as “San Francisco CPA”. Sterck Kulik O’Neill comes up #1 in Google for this search, and that’s a #1 that means business!

How many of those type of #1’s do I have? Not that many. The reason is simple. It takes time and money to earn number one rankings for terms.

For instance, you can optimize each web page for only one search phrase. So, if you want to score well for several phrases, you need to have separate pages tuned for each phrase. “San Francisco CPA” is not the same as “San Francisco accountant”. To have both phrases show up #1 in Google, you will have one page tuned for each phrase and unique content for each page. Then you have to find authoritative sites to point to each of these keyword pages so that Google knows to take each and every one of them seriously.

Most of my clients decide that it’s cost effective to try for one or two top rankings in Google. We identify the most important money-making phrase and tune the home page for it. Tuning more pages for other phrases isn’t too much work, but to get them to rise to the top of the search results requires promoting them and having other sites link to them. To do it right, we really should set up separate web sites — or at least unique sub-domains — for each money term.

I’m up for the task, if my clients want me to spend the time. But, in my space most clients are very happy with having one page show up near the top of Google. When other tuned pages in the site show up reasonably well, they’re ecstatic.

So, how many number 1 pages do my clients have in Google? Enough to keep them happy with my services!

By Ozdachs|2010-04-07T16:56:03-07:00April 7th, 2010|Google, Search Engine Optimization|0 Comments

Double Trouble

One new client bought two domain names, one for their business and one for their family and personal life. Let’s say one domain is www.ozdachs.biz (for business) and the other is www.ozdachs.com (for personal).

He started his business web site and took advantage of the offer of the hosting company to point the address of his future family web to the business site. That is, you see the same pages whether you go to www.ozdachs.biz or www.ozdachs.com . “Great!” he thought. His business will get double listings in Google and other search engines until he’s ready to put up family photos and whatever on his personal site.

Unfortunately, Google doesn’t give double listings to content it finds at different addresses on the Internet.

In fact, if Google notices the duplication of content, it will take one of these three bad actions:

1. In the worse case, Google will suspect that the two sites are both sleazy cheats. Google will see the duplicated material as the work of lazy webmasters up to no good. Google hates copied pages, and it may ban both sites completely from its result pages. That means neither site will show up in any search results.

2. Google will decide that one of the duplicated sites is real and the other is a cheat. How Google picks the “real” one is not known. Google will then ban the one they identified as a cheat. There’s a 50-50 chance that Google will ban the business site and decide that the placeholder family site is the one that should show up in search results.

3. In the best bad case, Google will DIVIDE the ranking of each duplicated page. If the home page would normally show up as #1 for a search of “blue widgets”, Google would adjust the importance of both sites’ home pages and will display them in position #30 or worse. In addition, in the search results for SOME phrases, the business’ site page will show up higher than the duplicated content on the personal site. For other phrases, the personal site’s pages will show up above the exact same business page. It’s a genuine mash-up.

Basically, this “free” pointing of the home site to the business site is a serious problem for someone interested in getting traffic from Google.

Apparently the hosting service thinks it’s doing my client a service by letting people access the one set of web pages by using either site address. In reality, they’re hurting the client’s chance of showing up in a good position in Google.

I have no fancy workarounds to talk about or options to suggest. Simply, if you’re offered the chance to point two domains to the same content, just don’t do it!

By Ozdachs|2009-11-30T16:31:07-08:00November 30th, 2009|Google, Search Engine Optimization|3 Comments

Picking the One Phrase that Will Get Your Site the Most Visitors

New clients start off by telling me that they want their site to show up on the top of Google search results. My response usually stumps them: “For what phrase do you want to be #1 ?”

As I posted last week, you can tune a web page for just one phrase, and most business owners don’t know what their best money-making phrase is. Selecting the right keyword phrase will get your site visitors. Picking the wrong one will mean your work is invisible and a bad return on your website investment.

Here are 2 tips to help you pick the right keywords for your web pages:

Pick phrases that are specific.

If you are offering a guided tours of the Alaska wilderness around Prince William Sound, you don’t want to tune your page for “vacation”, even if people buy your guide service as part of their vacation. “Vacation” is too generic, and most people looking to go on a vacation have another destination in mind. Perhaps they’re even thinking of a tropical resort.

You’ll be better off selecting a phrase such as “Alaska wilderness vacations” or even “Prince William Sound guided tours”. If people type those phrases into Google and find your site, they are much more likely to want your services than someone looking to bake on a beach in Puerto Vallarta.

Similarly, if you are selling a product, you should tune the web page for a longer phrase instead of a generic one.

Web visitors looking for Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly shoes are going to be overwhelmed with choices when they enter “athletic shoes” as a Google search term. Visitors are also going to have a lot of choices if they search for “Nike shoes”. Soon these web browsers are going to wise up and search for what they really want, “Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly”.

Your web page should be tuned for that phrase so that you can snag those motivated customers!

Find a phrase that is searched for a lot and which doesn’t have that many competing web pages.

This is a tricky task, but it’s one that can make or break your site. If there are 100 searches a day in Google for “San Francisco limousine service” and already 10,000 sites published with that phrase, it is going to be difficult to rank on the top of Google’s result list. If there are also 100 searches a day for “San Francisco limo service” and only 100 sites published with that phrase, you should tune your new web page for the phrase with fewer potential competitors.

Finding the most effective keywords is one of the tasks of Search Engine Optimization specialists such as Ozdachs Consulting. I use two tools to identify cost-effective keywords: Google AdWords and Wordtracker.

Google AdWords

Google’s advertising program AdWords tools includes a screen which shows the number of searches for a particular term and the number of other people bidding for that term. The number of competitors is not quantified and is only described in terms like “Very high advertiser competition”. And, the number of advertisers doesn’t directly translate to the number of web pages with the keyword term. Still, the AdWords provides a free glance at what people are searching for and the number of people competing against you.

Wordtracker

Wordtracker is specifically designed to find the terms which are most searched for with the least competition. Wordtracker has created proprietary algorithm that produces a Key Effectiveness Index (KEI) that provides a numeric value to indicate the quality of a search term.

When you find a keyword phrase with a high KEI, you should tune your page for that highly-searched-for rarely-appearing term. Unfortunately, in my experience, there are few terms with a high KEI that relate to my clients’ real-world business.

Wordtracker is also relatively expensive, $60 for a month of access to their database of searches and web page competition. Running a search for a client with a small website takes at least a couple hours of my consulting time, so the price of selecting a better keyword for tuning can be several hundred dollars.

Nevertheless, I recommend to my clients that they buy a Wordtracker subscription for a month and have me use it. We don’t want to overlook a money-making phrase to tune a web page for. I’d hate to have my San Francisco CPA’s miss out because neither they nor I thought to tune a page for “independent public accounting firms”.

Picking The One Phrase That Will Get You the Most Business

Both Google’s AdWords Tools and Wordtracker will point out keyword phrases that you can tune your web pages for to get the most number of visitors to your site.

But, you and your Search Engine Optimization expert need to use common sense in tuning your site. Don’t go after visitors for a phrase that isn’t going to make you any money! If you are renting a vacation home in Puerto Vallarta you may tune for many different phrases that relate to your business. However, just because you see that “Puerto Vallarta food poisoning” is searched for a lot and there are few sites with information on that topic, it doesn’t mean that you’ll get more customers for your vacation rental if you publish a spiffy page on diagnosing, treating, and avoiding food poisoning in that city!

By Ozdachs|2009-09-05T16:58:51-07:00September 5th, 2009|Google, Search Engine Optimization|0 Comments

Why Focus on Google?

When business owners ask for help appearing in Search Engine results, we talk about what Google likes to see. We tune pages to be attractive to Google.

Being #1 in Google is the Gold Standard.

Why Google?

Because most people world-wide use Google. I checked yesterday morning and the latest statistics show that 79% of all searches go through Google. Second place world-wide is Baidu (China) at 9% . Yahoo! is at 7% and Bing (Microsoft’s new search site) at 3%. (Data provided by HitsLink Market Share)

So, if you have limited time and a limited budget, it makes sense to focus on Google. Preparing Yahoo!-tuned pages and creating a Yahoo! ad campaign takes the same amount of effort as tuning for Google and advertising at Big B. But the return is the potential of being seen by 79% of the world at Google while only 7% of web

Ozdachs monitors the ebb and flow of search engine traffic. Yahoo! used to be a much more important force in the search market. It may be more important again.

The recently announced Yahoo! and Microsoft Bing collaboration is currently getting 10% of traffic worldwide, according to HitsLink. If that percentage grows over time, we will advise clients to consider tuning their pages for Yahoo!/Bing or buying Pay-Per-Click ads at that site, too.

But, right now our recommendation for cost-effective optimization and ad placement is to stick to Google. That’s where the potential visitors to your site are surfing.

By Ozdachs|2009-08-04T14:44:24-07:00August 4th, 2009|Google, Search Engine Optimization|1 Comment

Reach Me on Google Voice

My invitation to Google voice came in the email about two weeks ago. I’ve set up my account, tested the phones, and imported my contacts. Now I am mulling over how much to use the service.

Google Voice provides a single telephone number that I can then direct to any number of cell phones, landlines, or whatevers. In theory I can keep this number forever and go online to change where it rings as I move or change locations.

Google Voice Widget

Google also provides a widget for my website that let’s people call me for free. You just click on the widget on my website, enter your telephone number, and answer your phone. As soon as you answer, Google will connect you to my Google Voice numbers.

If you want to talk with me (and it’s a reasonable Pacific Coast timezone hour!) give it a try. Click on this link to my Web Design and Internet Promotion website, and then click on the Google voice widget. Or, pick up your phone and dial my personal Google Voice number 415.347.3393.

But, I confess. I haven’t put that number on my website. I haven’t ordered business cards with the number. I haven’t started giving out that number to friends, customers, or family.

Why? Google Voice is free. Free for me. Free for my friends, customers, and family. Free.

I’m uneasy about relying on a free service. FREE! is a wonderful price, but will the catch be worth it?

Right now there is no catch. You call, I answer. If you’re calling from a blocked number, you have to say your name, and I’ll get a chance to answer or send you to voicemail.

In the future, the best guesses on Google’s forums are that Google will insert audio ads when people call me. Instead of hearing a ringing tone or clicks before being connected, you’ll hear a targeted ad. In addition, if you reach my Google Voice voicemail, those messages are automatically transcribed and sent to me via email. The forum writers think that in the future if I look at voicemail transcripts online they’ll be Google Adwords ads on the margins that relate to the words in the transcript.

Voice ads for a free call? Not bad, I guess.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t want someone calling me to get an ad for another web designer or marketing service. And, I am not sure how comfortable I am having personal information available to Google. What can it “learn” about me from the words in the voicemail transcripts? Or, will Google also let itself listen into conversations to really give us “helpful” targeted ads?

As I said, I am mulling.

By Ozdachs|2009-08-02T07:01:05-07:00August 2nd, 2009|Google|2 Comments

Previous 12