We find that many questions remain unanswered in our world as SEO’s. Every one seems to think they have the answers when it comes to SEO but the reality of the situation is that with over 200 factors that effect ranking, we can’t know everything. So the question of the day is, “Should we build our site with Subdomains (cars.mysite.com) or Subfolders (mysite.com/cars)?”

Our client whocanisue.com was having in indexation problem after a shift over to a new CMS.  While still ranking very high for their well converting keywords they went from about a 70% IR (Indexation Rate) to an IR of about 20 percent over 120 days post New CMS. Although it seems very  commonsensical, whocanisue.com had the standard subfolder structure with a deep page hierarchy that we felt may have been making it difficult to get all the pages indexed. After confirming our theory with SEOMoz and their post about how flattening your site could yield better indexation results we put it to the test.

Less than one month after migrating 1800 pages of content into 140 subdomains we have found that we have 1710 pages indexed for an IR of 95%. Additionally, our search engine traffic increased 7% over the same time frame. Although some of our keywords dropped position on a nominal level we now have more pages indexed which are resulting in far more keywords appearing in search querys.

We are elated by this move as is our client. It’s important to understand that if your goals are to make the user experience better, chances are Google and the other big Search engines will take note and help you out.

Can you believe that some random dude tried to trademark the term SEO? Yup it is true his name is Jason Gambert, here is a quote from his blog posted on April 9, 2008 as to his reason why he should be granted this trademark.

My goal in owning the trademark for the word SEO is not to try to force people to change their SEO process, but rather, prevent companies from selling “SEO” as a service under false pretenses.

…We will also be forming a board of directors to oversee changes to the process, and format in which SEO can be sold (basically the BBB for the SEO industry). We will restrict businesses from selling the process of SEO as an “SEO” service if they do not meet the process approved by the SEO trademark requirements. Those approved will use SEO as normal, but will now be able to use the term as SEO™, and will be able to claim that their SEO service is approved under SEO trademark guidelines.

This power is for the people of the Search community and the protection of the general business consumer.

In my best Rosie Perez voice “REEAAALLLY?”

On April 24, 2008 the nice folks over at SEOmoz made the SEO world aware of this Jason character and his attempt to regulate the industry.  Thanks guys!

Today Rhea Drysdale has successfully defeated Jason Gambert, you go Rhea! Today you are our hero in the SEO world.

Click here to read Rhea’s thoughts in her own words.

Webpages are typically requested or called up through the server by their URL. In the event that a url is called and there is no page available, it will result in a “not found” or 404 error. This is problematic for two reasons:

1. If an enduser ends up at a 404 on your site they may get confused and leave your site.
2. Google likes URL’s and links that actually link somewhere. Overtime google may stop indexing the page the URL is pointing to.

How do you know if you have a 404 problem?

If you have webmaster tools, it will actually tell you what pages are resulting in a 404 and if you don’t, it’s actually pretty simple. Let’s say your domain name is www.dogdayafternoon.com, just add any obscure word or phrase after your domain like www.dogdayafternoon.com/i-fly-kites. It will most likely see something along the lines of page not found or 404 error.

How do solve this problem?

First, make sure your link’s are pointing to the right URL’s. Secondly, you want to create a 404 error page like our client whocanisue.com. Some site’s get creative and funny. It’s recommended that you have links on your 404 page that act almost as a sitemap to your most important pages, that way your enduser doesn’t cut and run, but knows that you understand there is a problem and they can start over or be guided through another path.

Digital Footprint can help you with any of your Search Engine Optimization needs. Contact us today.

301 redirects are like link bridges from Google or any other major search engines to your website. Let’s say you decide to simplify your URL structure or you decide to make your URL’s Search Engine friendly, these redirects are as necessary as food or water to us. A 301 redirect is a simple forwarding protocol what lets the search engine know that the URL has moved. Just as you would not want to miss any important mail, you would contact the post office to let them know you’ve moved.

Not having these redirects can be fatal to a website, from an indexation standpoint. Let’s say you were a small website with 500 URL’s and you had 385 indexed. If you were to completely restructure your url system, without 301 redirects. Overtime, Google and the other major search engines would stop displaying your URL’s as they would most likely return a 404 error.

Let’s use the example of a made up boat company xyzboatco.com. We decide to make our structure more effective with less folders and change xyzboatco.com/boats/engine/speed to xyzboatco.com/speed-boat-engines. If your initial URL was on the first page of Google and you didn’t redirect it to the later URL, overtime Google would drop that link. Google would still be sending traffic to the old link and it would result in a 404 error, which is an SEO no no.

If you are considering a URL overhaul it is absolutely imperative that you create a 301 redirect for your website, so you don’t lose all the hard work that you have put into your site.

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, relevancy is the key issue. Relevancy must be taken into consideration when creating page titles, domain names, and page content. Search Engines operate in the same way as other businesses, seeking to deliver the best product to its customers. For this reason, they reward websites that bring customers back to a reliable search engine by showing their link higher in the search results. The Page Title should be keyword rich, as it must accurately represent the ensuing content. When potential customers see a page title, they should feel that it is indicative of the purpose of the content. Therefore, a precise page title is best, as generic titles can attract clicks from unwanted viewers. Domain name provides another opportunity to represent the company or the company’s product to customers. A company that sells books benefits from using the word “books” in its URL. Customers will be enticed to visit the page in search of books. Finally, the content of a page should contain appropriate amounts of keywords. Search Engine spiders and web bots search web content for keywords. Your content should therefore contain use of all keywords associated with the page, and should spread out this usage so as to encompass the entire page. Your content should also relate to your page title, and URL, in order to maximize efficiency and relevancy. If visitors to your site do not read their keyword early and often, your bounce rate will increase substantially and your website will convert inefficiently.

whocanisue.com serves as a great example for relevancy in all three aspects of a page. When the term real estate attorneys is searched for, this page (www.whocanisue.com/real-estate/) presented on the first page of Google connects me to the real estate page of the whocanisue.com website. From reading the page title of “real estate/mortgage”, I can assume that the content contains listings of real estate attorneys.  In the brief content on the front real estate page, the word “real estate” is seen six times, and the word attorney appears once. Also, the use of the word sue in the domain name demonstrates the websites purpose of connecting customers with attorneys and information on the legal process.