A large portion of what I do consists of optimizing sites in all aspects. So when a website I visit frequently and purchase from is completely un-optimized for search engines it drives me crazy. I hate seeing how they are losing willing customers and revenue because they fail to be involved actively in SEO. The only way I even found the website is because I had a hunch they had a website under their brand names, New Era Cap and 59atFifty.

So over the weekend after I bought my NY Creamsicle Fitted Baseball Hat, I did some digging. A quick run through the Poodle Predictor shows that the homepage of the site in question has No h1, h2 or h3 Headings, no content, un-spiderable JavaScript menus, meta keyword spamming and NO KEYWORD LINKS! None.

I give them credit for using ALT tags on the linked images on the homepage but they are clearly not capitalizing on their internal/external linking structure. The internal pages link images and “More Details” text rather than the product description. The title tags don’t reflect the page and they reiterate descriptions. To even get into to core of the site you need to specify if your from the US, Europe or Japan. And I don’t even want to get into the dynamic urls.

This is a website with over 16 Unique Educational Domains and over 90% Unique C Block Addresses linking to the homepage along with a 20% deep linking ratio (almost all natural) from sites you couldn’t buy a link from. Yet the internal linking structure is cumbersome and useless to search engines.

Macromedia promotes a case study for the site claiming they built the e-commerce section from scratch in six weeks. I’m guessing they run a ColdFusion backend which could implement at least, a successful html based internal navigation to help improve spiderability and perhaps rankings in a few easy steps. I’m guessing an hour or so.

Aside from the lack of On Page SEO, there is also a good use for affiliate programs and other search marketing tactics. So, do they not care, not need or want increased rankings? Not that it matters to me, I just want to find my hat’s a little easier considering they run pretty sweet limited edition runs. Besides, trying fitted NY baseball hats on in the mall is up there with trying on underwear. That link won’t work since the url’s change which make’s it tough when sending out my birthday wish list.

BTW, I’m a huge fan of this company’s products and contributions… aside from the issues outlined in this post.

SEO Stories | No Comments »

The winter here in NY has been brick. No snow, cold temp’s and mediocre bar service. It’s Saturday nights like this before a trip where I wish I was at The Shelter. So since I’m bored, here is season recap of what we do when not working. If your in the know you might catch a glimpse of Stuntdubl’s brother during his summer stay at Qua’s hideaway… I should get an honorary architect’s degree for building this thing. 56k go away.

Shooting the Breeze | 2 Comments »

I knew when I set this damn thing up I would neglect it. Not that I want to… I’m just not a blogger, I tried and made 3 posts in 3 months.

Besides, having an On Page SEO blog is like beating a dead horse. The general info has already been written, for the skinny of it just hit up the SEO FAQ. It’s pretty decent aside from calling out Inktomi as a “stone age” search engine pertaining to Meta Tags. Just take it with a grain of salt, the methods get applied differently to every site. And when you work with 60+ clients like I do it’s hard to apply a standard set of rules.

There are plenty of other good “white hat” On Page tactics to help you out… but you gotta pay the piper. C’mon, I’ve got student loans like everyone else and some painful tattoos in the works.

So with that cleared up, me and the rest of WBP crew are off to SES NYC. The last one I attended was long ago in Chicago of ‘04. I should have been at a few others but we keep a heavy workload amongst other excuses.

I might be able to “sneak” into a session or two but mostly I’ll be lurking around and meeting with existing clients and hopefully some new ones as well catching up on some good art (MET and subway graffitti), great shopping (gangster fitted baseball hats on Canal St.) and $9.00 Budweisers.

I think I'’ll even bring my camera and post a recap (hopefully) but your not going to see any famous SEO’s (maybe) or happening industry parties cause every hack with an SES badge and website posts those.

I’ll bring you bum’s and strippers.

_____________________________________

Also:

Link Ninjas is dead so be on the lookout for SEO Pirates and everytime someone spams a blog Jesus kills a kitten.

Shooting the Breeze | No Comments »

We Build Pages is conducting our very first link development training class on January 18th and 19th at the We Build Pages offices in Troy, NY.

Interesting tidbit, Troy, NY is the home of Uncle Sam and Jack Nicholson referred to it as the armpit of America. To even out the catfight Al Pacino seemed to enjoy our area quite a bit though so sign up for a free link training class and decide for yourself.

We’re giving away 10 free passes for training so if your interested in link building register for a chance to win a free pass by 12/15.

So why is the on page seo guy involved with link development training? Good question.

I won’t show you the newest ways to build links or the fancy tools involved. I’ll simply show you how to capitalize on your current site. Once you know the in’s and out’s you can keep up with the changes on your own. Or you could go to a site clinic at the conferences but then Google will know your network.

It’s like the new shows on TV that use a few cans of paint and some old junk in your shed to dramatically increase the value of your house.

Except I do it with a copy of Dreamweaver.

Link Building | No Comments »

When I fist got into SEO 3 years ago it was pretty fun and easy to grasp. Build a site, optimize your pages, throw a few hundred links at it and wait for a few Google dances. There was a pretty consistent time frame to becoming popular and well liked. All in all it equated to about 3 months.

As time went on SEO got more complicated, you needed a variation of the same formula but more links. When people started adding comma’s to their meta keyword tags and interlinking became a shameful word I realized the field was evolving. (yeah yeah, Yahoo likes comma’s)

A more sophisticated algorithm forced those desperately trying to maintain their position on the prom court to invest more, revise their strategy and look for the next best thing. It wasn’t just being on the football team that mattered, it was now participating in the chess club, honor society and key club to maintain that popularity level.

Backlinks were in, directories were their best friend and on page seo was the third wheel that tagged along in the shadows and overlooked. Rankings became less about what you were about and what you had to offer, and more about who your friends were. Not to mention how rich and powerful their neighborhood was.

Now SEO seems to be about moving into a nicer, cleaner community of like minded themed sites. About surrounding yourself with those who think and share the same ideas as your site. You might call it an elite online country club or perhaps a cult.

But even the nicest communities have a few bad apples, (Legs Diamond used to live next door to me). Lets say we have a Psychiatrist that runs a specialized University. It would appears on the surface that his friends the Pharmacist and Physician live in the same circle. I mean they are all similar right, they at least all went to medical school and work in somewhat related fields.

Later on the Pharmacist and Physician need a boost in their business. It occurs to them that it is in their best interest to exploit the Psychiatrists popularity for their own benefit, so he refers some friends and patients to them.

What if those referred by the Psychiatrists find out he is really in cahoots with a online Vicodin dealer and breast surgeon? Is that similar and like minded? Will that have a negative impact on his reputation or business prospects? Are they still similar? Do those who believed the trust of the Psychiatrist feel betrayed?

You can argue that the Psychiatrist calls on his Pharmacist friend to prescribe pills to his patients and the Physician can assist in their self esteem. You can rationalize all you want but it seems unless you abide by the latest neighborhood association bulletin you might find yourself looking in from outside of the gates surrounding the new prestigeous community.

Are the same rules that apply to social circles working their way into how SEO sites are building traffic communities? Just cause we were all friends a year ago doesn’t mean I agree with your now, besides… what do you have to offer now that you’ve reached your online peak.

I know this has nothing to do with on page seo, just something I was thinking about.

Shooting the Breeze | 1 Comment »