1. Open your browser.

2. Type in www.[yourdomain].com. After it loads, does the web address stay on www.[yourdomain].com?

3. Then, type in [yourdomain].com. After it loads, does the web address “resolve” to the same address as it did when you completed step 2?

If not, your site technically has two versions of itself, therefore leaving search engines to believe that your entire site consists of duplicate content. This problem is actually very common, but fixing it is the one thing you should do right now to help your SEO.

In the example above, the domains www.adclubno.org AND adclubno.org both exist, meaning there are two copies of every page on the site, which could be detrimental to rankings in search engines. Luckily, there is a pretty easy fix for this problem. But first, let’s discuss why duplicate content is bad for Search Engine Optimization.

What is Duplicate Content?

Image courtesy of SEOMoz.com.

1. Search engines don’t know which version(s) to include/exclude from their indices
2. Search engines don’t know whether to direct the link metrics (trust, authority, anchor text, link juice, etc.) to one page, or keep it separated between multiple versions
3. Search engines don’t know which version(s) to rank for query results

What this means is that search engines want to show the most relevant content to their searchers, but if you have duplicate content existing across URLs, the search engines get confused. Link metrics and page authority get split between the URLs, diminishing the value of all of your SEO efforts.

Ways to Check for Duplicate Content

Besides typing your domain in your browser, Virante has a duplicate content tool that checks whether your domain has duplicate content. Just submit your domain, and the tool will do a WWW/NonWWW Header Check, Google Cache Check, Similarity Check, Default Page Check, 404 Check, and a PageRank Dispersion Check. As in the previous example, www.adclubno.org failed the WWW/NonWWW Header Check, and because of this main problem, they also failed the Google Cache Check, Similarity Check, and Default Page Check.

How to Fix These Issues

So now that you’ve realized that you have a problem, how do you fix if? For starters, you can log in to your Google webmaster tools account and designate your preferred domain. This lets Google know which version of your site to provide in the search engine results. Next, you (or in my case, someone else with actual programming knowledge) should set up a permanent 301 redirect in the .htaccess file to let other search engines know which domain is the preferred one.

Once this problem is resolved, you will want to make sure that you are consistently using the preferred domain for all of your link building endeavors.

Do you know if your domain has duplicate content? Find out now!

Support Forums – MUST GET FIX BEFORE SOMEONE GET KILL!!!

The ecosystem of the Google Forums allows professionals, amateurs, and Google professionals to come together and try to solve the problems that come up in the daily life of a website owner. However, the average website owner or business professional doesn’t have the faintest idea of how Google is organized or to whom even to address problems.

When a Map Error puts customers in danger, you’d like to see a fast response and some targeted information to help your specific situation. The first response to the thread is by a Google Employee, probably on the Maps team. However, the responder who is best situated to directly take a look at the problem and at least explain what’s going on to cause the error simply puts a boilerplate answer.

It takes a community member to explain in detail what’s going on. This could be Google awaiting a naturally crowdsourced solution to support problems, but that sounds like a euphemism for “we don’t have time for this through inappropriate channels.” That’s fair, of course, but those channels are hard to find and cold copypasta doesn’t reheat well, especially when it’s an error so far beyond the ken of most business owners.

Blog Posts – “In short. This articles fails it’s own goals.”

For those without a “MUST GET FIX,” researching Google through their corporate blogs would seem to be a worthy pursuit. But even when giving deep information about what factors enter into the search algorithm, Google isn’t immune to denouncements of “unmitigated prevarication.” Again, the complaint is that it’s PR instead of real help.

To be fair, I can’t see this complaint, especially in the Panda algorithm change posts. Through sticking to their guns about not releasing too much algorithm data, Google has provided intuitive, i.e. non-technical, ways to check the perceived quality of a site. Here, despite claims of “misdirection” and “saying one thing and doing another,” Google might even be giving better information than they’re credited with, saying that the algorithm is using techniques that are either fuzzy or heuristic or some other kind of higher statistics that somewhat accurately model real human interactions — basically, don’t bother chasing the algorithm, it chases you.

Compounding this problem of transparency, webmasters only see the noise; that is, they don’t see how well the algorithm works overall and are only concerned with their own site, a little statistical blip that is hard to reconcile with the overall trends. Furthermore, well-educated webmasters also see where Google policy and practice diverge, whether it’s for Ads, Maps, or Snippets. In addition, the wheedling that can happen when a site owner talks directly to Google and the mystique of getting that number for that red phone undermines the transparency Google works to show.

ThinkInsights – Data Beats Opinion

When it comes to the state of search, Google offers a set of studies they’ve conducted and compiled at their ThinkInsights, giving a glimpse at what Google is interested in right now. Since April, they’ve been pushing Mobile internet, which affects most areas of internet marketing: PPC, website design, and specified marketing. These reports are published as slideshows in Powerpoint and PDF formats.

These studies are Google’s way to keep everyone up to date while pushing its products. Like the early videos for learning AdWords, this kind of infotising does a lot for Google, but may not give the kinds of in-depth information some might hope. Here, Google could  improve two areas. Firstly, they need to amplify. These things could be better shown to the average person if they were one-shot infographics or otherwise promoted for easy sharing and larger reach. But it’s not just that — format and distribution might not be a problem if the information were targeted, but it’s neither juicy enough for the common reader, nor specific or new enough for the marketer. The information is often more of a middle-ground, possibly good for the part-time marketer, but not for keeping up with new trends or finding the next big thing. But is that Google’s job?

Matt Cutts – Yes, there is a Santa

Regardless of whose job it is, Google has its own unofficial mouthpiece in its head of Search Quality, Matt Cutts. While he’s a bit of a god among mortals in the search community, his position allows him to discuss with professionals and semi-professionals on forums, blogs, and other social arenas. Most recently, his role in shutting down incorrect speculation on ranking penalty factors puts him at the forefront of any transparency discussion. In this case, he seems to follow the debunking flowchart Danny Sullivan created. He sees a fairly bizarre claim, but didn’t respond until he saw the same claim repeated on Hacker News.

Looking at the comments, you immediately see issues with the one-man show. Not only is a real person capable of mistakes and poor wording, but the nature of a small industry gives people long memories. Furthermore, his direct connection to Google and his dislike of discussing specifics of the algorithm give way to vagueness and expected corporate doublespeak. Finally, the high level of technical savvy of his audience lets them research well, leaving others to repeat the supporting data to undermine his transparent claims.

I feel for Mr. Cutts — he doesn’t have to trawl messageboards and blogs to help people understand his business better, but he does, often to a less than warm welcome. But his position is somewhat self-made as the most vocal Google Guy, leaving the door open for the last line of transparency, the SEO community, who are the alternative to top-down transparency.

SEO Community – Publishing the Factors

Google is a corporation, and therefore sometimes has to avoid certain topics or cloud the waters to dissuade people from gaming the system. The SEO community comes to the rescue and fills in the blanks. Anecdotal reports, such as case studies, forum posts, and SEO blogs, are incredible sources, especially when you find yourself in the same situation. But it’s not these that provide the greatest transparency for those under Google’s will; it’s things like Rand Fishkin’s Search Ranking Factors and David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors that fill in the blanks that Google leaves through its inability to talk about the algorithm or provide meaningful search data.

These factors reports are the result of serious research and collected soft feelings from knowledgeable industry professionals — a good combination of information. Furthermore, since they provide methodologies and even raw data, you can double-check or even focus on a subset of their data, allowing the ultimate kind of transparency.

These information sources beyond Google’s reach are the real transparency for the Search Industry. They are the ones who give as unbiased as possible information (minus high-level trade secrets of course) and unplug the bung for much of the meaningful search truths.

It’s hard to be a large, looming company and give enough care and information to your users to make them feel like you’re being transparent. Giving credit where it’s due, Google is often meeting the criteria asked; however, meeting the criteria and meeting the small business owners’ expectations of those criteria are two separate issues.

The biggest issue for Google’s transparency, despite the multiple sources of information and moderately high level of involvement, is amplification. They aren’t making their information particularly easy to access, nor are they making the answers they give very public. But that’s not the worst thing — bloggers, researchers, and other SEO kings are more than happy to throw their two cents in, letting independent sources keep the information lines clear. Finally, the quest for transparency, especially on the internet, is a bit of a red herring: the Internet is not the democratic utopia we hoped it was.

Is Google doing enough to make its products, services, and policies clear for you?

I found this post especially helpful as I am always monitoring my Client’s website traffic and I don’t ever like seeing lulls occur. So instead of fretting when I see a dip I can use this post as a check off list. There will be certain factors that we can take control of and improve to boost traffic and others that will just have to run their course before we can once again increase site traffic.

Image courtesy of:

I found this post especially helpful as I am always monitoring my Client’s website traffic and I don’t ever like seeing lulls occur. So instead of fretting when I see a dip I can use this post as a check off list. There will be certain factors that we can take control of and improve to boost traffic and others that will just have to run their course before we can once again increase site traffic.

Image courtesy of:

Local SEO consultant and Portland, OR web designer David Mihm has just published his second annual Local Search Ranking Factors Survey and for the second year running, Search Influence has been chosen to participate.

This is the definitive document on Local Search Ranking.

The study asked participants to rate 49 factors on their impact on Google and Yahoo Local’s universal search algorithms, calculating their positive or  negative impact on ranking as well as the level of agreement the participants had on each issue. The following are some of the highlights of the survey:

• Positive Impact -  According to the 27 participants, local business listing address in the city of search currently has the most positive impact on ranking, followed by citations from major data providers, and properly categorizing local business listings.
• Negative Impact - Top factors to avoid according to the study include using multiple local business listings with the same address, multiple local business listings (Google) with the same phone number, and including a PO box with no physical address.
• Increased Positive Impact since 2008 –  Within the past year, participants say LBL with marginal categories has increased its positive impact the most, followed by LBL with videos, and KLM file submission.
• Decreased Positive Impact since 2008 -  Top factors that have fallen in positive impact since last year include the number of inbound links, the age of the LBL, and using a PO box without a physical address.
• Most Controversy -  Study participants had the least agreement on the importance of using the same address for multiple LBLs, using the same name on multiple LBLs, and naming products and services in the inbound keyword text.

The study surveyed 27 participants in the local search market field and was designed to help small businesses prioritize their web marketing needs.

Click for full results of the Local Search Ranking Factors study.

For those of you not already familiar, delicious.com allows you to store all your bookmarks in one place organized by date with tags for secondary management.

I was very fortunate in my reading today, thanks mostly to my friends on twitter .

• Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle | chrisbrogan.com
• How To Optimize For Conversion In Organic Search Results
• 27 Twitter Applications Your Small Business Can Use Today | SMALL BUSINESS CEO
• A Twitter Primer for Small Business | Marketing | Small Business | Mainstreet
• How to Answer the Social Phone | Customer Conversation | Fast Company

Image Courtesy of Flickr User timlewisnm

It’s pretty simple: marketing on the Internet is, on one level, about dominating as much real estate on page 1 of Google as possible.

The typical places to dominate are the left side of the page (natural or organic search results) and the right side of the page (paid search results). However, with the abundance of online directories aggressively marketing themselves, the ability to own more of page 1 of Google for a certain key phrase is more and more attainable.

Many online directories work as lead generation services providing their clients with a profile page that can act as a separate web site in organic rankings. Some even guarantee a certain amount of leads per month for a given cost.  Often they will also sell visible real estate on their site for an extra cost (e.g. a banner on the home page).

The main problem is that businesses sign up for these directories 1) without knowing enough about the service to ensure they are going to get an acceptable return on investment (ROI), 2) not knowing how to use these profiles to their fullest ability and 3) not understanding that in signing up they’re paying the directory to compete with them for search engine position.

I have outlined three ways you can begin measuring your ROI for each online directory you are currently under contract with, and those who may approach in the future: tracking, analyzing and optimizing

Bank of America Stock Chart

TRACKING

• For each directory/profile listing implement call-tracking numbers. These numbers allow you to track exactly how many calls come in from that listing. This also allows you to track leads throughout the entire process and decide if they are quality leads.
• Implement Google Analytics (the best free analytics tool available) to track referring sites (among other things). This allows you to see exactly how many people come directly to your site from your directory listing. There are some directories that can’t be tracked on analytics, so you will have to track these more closely in-house.

ANALYZING

• Each month every directory should send you a recap of the activity on your profile. They usually list how many visits to your profile, how many leads you got from the profile, how many leads went to your site, etc. You can use these numbers to compare to your tracking reports. This will also allow you to gauge if the leads are quality or not. Yes, they might bring in their number of guaranteed leads, but they may never convert into procedures, which is where the ROI comes into play.
• Reality check with customers: If the customer was looking for you by name, and your lead source intercepted them, they’re not doing you any good and you should discount those leads.

OPTIMIZING

• Each listing is different, but it’s important to find out all the ways you can optimize your listing for better visibility. Some allow you to add video, press releases, optimized content, articles, and before/after images – you should take advantage of any opportunity you can. This will allow you to know at the end of your contract that you have done everything possible to utilize the listing and you can accurately measure the ROI (bearing in mind that you are investing your time).

Also be aware of what you can get for free- sometimes free is enough to get you what you need.

If you are considering joining a paid online directory, consider the following before signing the dotted line.

• What is the cost per lead (CPL) the directory is guaranteeing, if any?
• What is your current CPL for your own website and how does it compare?
• How does that directory rank for valuable local and national key phrases?
• How many of your colleagues will you be competing with on the site?
• What is the site’s reputation (seek opinions from others in your industry)?
• How long is the contract? Will they let you out if the leads are no good?
• What are they doing to continue optimizing their site for your key phrases?
• What is your opportunity cost of promoting their site over yours?

Photo: Phone calls = Money

Being able to answer some of these will give you a good idea if it’s worth a shot.

Again, be aware of what you can get for free – this can sometimes be enough to get you what you need.

Directory advertising isn’t evil.  It can help you own more of page 1 and in the case of map based results may contribute to your ranking. Just be aware of the risks, rewards and cost (both monetary and opportunity) of paying someone to compete with you.

Related: Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket

She sent me an email with a list of questions which were based in large measure on a list at SEOConsultants.com. It was a great list, I’m a guy who likes being challenged and with Natalie’s permission I’m reposting the bulk of that email here:

It’s funny this is the first time I’ve been asked to answer so specific a set of questions but I’m happy to have the opportunity.

Perhaps we should make it the basis of an FAQ page

Please see my answers in line below.

Very best regards,

Will

Natalie wrote:

> Will,

>

> Great speaking with you on Tuesday. Below you will find a lot of questions. Due to our inexperience and knowledge on this subject we tried to compile a list of questions that could help us understand things a bit more. Thanks for your time and patience.

I’m going to say again, you’re pretty darn savvy and this list proves it.

> 1. Have you optimized other cleaning services? If so can you give us an example of feedback/response they have received?

We have not worked with a cleaning service. We work with many different businesses both consumer and business to business. These have included printers, sign brokers, medical professionals, soil testing companies and many more.

The tools we use are appropriate for any business and most particularly effective with locally oriented service businesses like yours.

There is a great quote on our web site in the testimonials section from our soil testing company.

This past Tuesday, Midwest Laboratories had the largest receiving day on record. We received 17,800 soil samples. The previous record was 13,200. That is the equivalent of 790 UPS Boxes – 3 UPS Trucks.

We are now averaging about 85-120 hits per day on the eStore. Thanks again for your help in this process.

Also, we recently published a press release on our success in internet marketing for plastic surgeons with a New Jersey plastic surgeon: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/10/prweb1410684.htm

> 2. Based upon your professional opinion when should we expect results?

It is a constant process, and we see continued improvement in sites we’ve worked with for years. In the worst case you should see something definitive within 6 months. If we are aggressive it should be markedly less, perhaps as little as 60 – 90 days.

> 3. Will you/company be undertaking the seo work yourselves or will you be outsourcing to another country?

We have both US and offshore staff. We do not outsource our core work and aside from 1 or 2 discreet tasks all work is done by our employees, some of whom are offshore.

> 4. What is the payment schedule?

We bill by credit card on the 1st of the month.

> 5. Who owns the rights to the work?

You do

> 6. Please define maintenance after site is up and running. What does maintenance include and why is the start-up and maintenance price the same? Do you have a maintenance program?

The bulk of our ongoing maintenance is link-building and content development. See fuller answer in #7.

> 7. Will you be providing any additional value added services with the setup? Example: blog, ezine, newsletters, PR, etc.

We often use all of the above. Currently for link-building we are very fond of Articles (distributed to ezine sites and press releases. When desired, some of the effort that would go toward off-site content creation can be used for on-site blogs. As an added service we can help with newsletters and email marketing.

For more about link-building in the local space please feel free to have a look at my presentation from SMX Local/Mobile.

http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/2008/07/local-search-ranking-presentation/

> 8. Is there a limited number of keywords that will be used?

We usually select a basket of 20 search terms to focus on. These are terms which we agree together will drive valuable traffic. In our typical relationships we have a 1 year contract which has a 6-month checkpoint. If at the end of 6 months you’re not on page 1 of Google for 10 of those 20 selected terms we keep working for free until you are for up to another 6 months.

Typically we track many more than 20. The selection of 20 search terms is merely intended to be used as a yardstick by which our clients may hold us accountable.

> 9. What is Google PageRank™ and how does it affect our website(s)? How would you address improving our PageRank™ with Google, and other search engines that calculate the number of quality inbound links to our website?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank

PageRank, in a nutshell is Google’s indication of the relative authority of your site among its peers. All of the search engines do some level of weighted link analysis which helps to sort the sites competing for a given set of searches.

In other words, if you have two sites which say exactly the same things and one of them has 10 inbound links and the other has 100 links, the one with more links should clearly win.

That said, per the algorithm MORE links doesn’t always mean better. The authority of the links matters too. if the site with 10 links has links from Harvard, Emory, NASA, The Pentagon, your local newspaper and the like and the site with 100 links has nothing but free directory links, the 10 trump the 100.

To improve PageRank, it’s important to focus on trusted inbound links (of the type discussed in 6 & 7)

> 10. What is link popularity? What linking strategies would you use to increase link popularity for our website? Is this service part of the proposed price? What types of websites will you target for link exchange?

Link popularity is no longer as widely used given the advent of PageRank and similar systems from the other major engines. Many times Link Popularity was referenced when talking about reciprocal links (you’ll notice this question references “link exchange”) — I’m sure you get the emails offering these exchanges.

Per the PageRank algorithm, the number of links is no longer weighted nearly as strongly as the trust of the sites linking in.

In fact, in the last 2 years Google has specifically come out against link exchanges and there was even and issue a year or so ago where hundreds of realtors disappeared from the listings due to aggressive use of this technique.

> 11. What changes can we expect you to make to our website to improve our positioning in the search engines? Will these changes be visible? Will there be changes in the coding of our website?

We typically change a number of on-page elements including the title and description which are not readily apparent. We also will often make changes to the visible copy to enhance the use of search terms in copy and the use of page elements such as heading tags which are cues to the search engines of the importance of certain text.

We typically don’t change the code which structures your site unless it is inherently blocking search engine spiders.

> 12. What type of reporting will you provide to us? How often will you provide those reports? Will you provide consultation on how to interpret the reports so that we have a basic understanding of the statistics?

We typically offer both position reporting (e.g. you rank # 10 for phrase X) and traffic reporting using Google Analytics. We send monthly reports interpreting these data and are happy to walk you through the reports to explain items which may be unclear. We will also have separate call tracking #s for better visibility on the actual leads.

> 13. What is a PR0 penalty?

Sometimes, when site owners behave very badly their PageRank and ability to rank will be greatly diminished sometimes to zero. Recently Google has been clamping down on paid links. Some have suggested that a PageRank of zero is a warning to clean up one’s act. There are a lot of differing opinions on this point. In short, if a site has been online a year or more has a fair number of inbound links and a PR0 it’s not a good sign.

To really be able to tell what’s going on with your site we’d need to do some analysis and then submit a re-inclusion request to Google and see what happened.

> 14. How many pages will you be optimizing in our website?

All of them.

> 15. What techniques does Google consider spam?

The Google Webmaster Guidelines say it better than I can: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769#3

> 16. Can you assure us that the optimization strategies and methods that you are utilizing fall under the criteria of Best Practices for the SEO/SEM Industry? Can we assume that this means no penalties for our website? Penalties could include, but are not limited to; removal from the search engines or directories index, or a possible Google PageRank™ penalty.

We haven’t lost one yet. We don’t do anything risky. We don’t hide text and we don’t auto-generate 15,000 links overnight. We trade content in the form of articles, PR, blog posts and submission text for links.

As I’m sure you can see from the above, this is a GREAT way to start a relationship. If only all our clients were this rigorous in interviewing an SEO company we’d all be better off.