This was a great post on seomoz.org that I thought was very topical given the conversations I have had with clients over the last couple weeks. I hope they don’t mind me using it.  Rand, if you do just let me know and I will be happy to take it down ASAP. I did give you a link back to the article below.

Tonight, I received an email with a familiar question, asking why the top companies providing SEO consulting and development services rarely ever provide guarantees (and virtually never use it as a marketing tactic). Since the subject has been popping up of late, and since we’re just emerging from the summer lull, I thought it was as worthy a time as any to address persistent concerns. Here are five solid reasons that compel SEOmoz as well as the many companies we work with/recommend to stay far away from any “guarantee” of search engine rankings.

Reason #1: SEO & Guarantees Have an Abominable History

From 1996 through to today, SEO scams have used “guaranteed rankings and traffic” as a slimy catchphrase to lure in gullible buyers with too-good-to-be-true promises. That association has stained the entire industry and repulsed even businesses that might consider using the “guarantee” label. Just look at some of the questionable messaging used by so-called SEO companies that employ this moniker:

(source) Our search engine optimization software comes with the latest link popularity and web site optimization tools for helping you achieve guaranteed ranking. Here is what the Internet’s best search engine optimization software has to offer:

• Link Popularity & Link Exchange Tools
• Website Submission Software

Automated software for link exchanges and website submissions? If you’ve done ten minutes of due diligence into how SEO is practiced, you’re well aware that these claims venture deep into the sort of tactics that haven’t been effective in the last half-decade.

(source) $399 annual - Guaranteed fast listing on DMOZ, Netscape, Google, MSN, AltaVista, LYCOS, FAST, ASK/Temoa and 100+ other engines and portals! Trace your traffic and guarantee a higher position!

Not only is the listing and traffic guaranteed, it’s guaranteed fast. I’m reminded of Homer Simpson’s infamous utterance after a crayon is re-inserted into his brain, “Extended warranty? How can I lose?”

(source)

• We guarantee to keep you on 1st-page results each month, or you don’t pay for that month.
• We guarantee to optimize your website for up to 100 different keyword phrases.
• We guarantee to provide monthly reports that document all of your 1st-page positions.

Many of the SEO companies that do still guarantee rankings have taken the clever tack of guaranteeing a certain number of keywords that they themselves choose. In this fashion, they can select primarily non-competitive terms and have a fairly high rate of success. Whether those keyword rankings provide any serious traffic is another matter altogether.

The point doesn’t need belaboring. Just as time shares have their “free” weekend getaways and used cars have high pressure salespeople, SEO has its own insiduous, stereotyped marketing claims that legitimate providers avoid like the plague.

Reason #2: The Search Engines Expressly Warn Against It

I don’t often reference Google’s guidelines on search marketing, but since the page ranks so well for a variety of queries related to SEO and guarantees, its virtually unavoidable if a client is performing research about your offerings. This line in particular, stand alone:

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

Even though the context is meant to put it in a slightly different context (”Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or…”), the messaging comes through very clearly. If your potential clients have read on Google’s website that guarantees are bogus, they’re likely to carry that bias with them as they peruse what the market has to offer.

Reason #3: Rankings are Inherently Unstable

If I perform a search for SEO Company here in Seattle, then drive 3 hours south to Portland (or 3 hours north to Vancouver) and execute the same query, I’m likely to end up with very different ordering of results. Likewise, if I log into my Google account and get personalized results or hit a different datacenter during the course of my querying. Many searchers have even had the odd experience of hitting refresh on a query and finding the results change or re-order.

Given the incongruous nature of ranking fluctuations and the fact that ranking in a particular position on a given machine at a single point in time says very little about the future or even the present, it’s no wonder that savvy SEO firms stay away from the guarantee.

Reason #4: Rankings are a Poor Metric for Overall Performance

Rankings do not equal traffic. A great SEO campaign should be measured by the increase in search engine traffic and (if the contract also includes site optimization for conversions) the rate at which that traffic performs the desired actions on your site. Achieving rankings is (almost) always a means to an end and not the end itself (the one exception being reputation management campaigns).

If your patrons are seeking rankings for posterity or to boost their egos, they might not be the best choice of clients. Those clients who have a solid business model and great content or services to back it up want the kinds of qualified, interested visitors that come from search engines because they’ve expressed a desire that the website can fulfill. Yes - position #1 will generally get you more traffic than any other real estate in the search results, but plenty of campaigns we’ve seen and even some we’ve worked on have been sabotaged by an obsession with pure rankings.

The metric shold always be traffic - increasing search traffic means the SEO is doing their job. Making the rankings of a few top phrases the priority, above and beyond the overall search traffic means that goals are out of whack. Don’t forget that 70% of search volume is in the tail of the demand curve - and there’s usually a lot more low hanging fruit to be found therein.

Reason #5: Making Guarantees About Something You Cannot Control Carries Inherent Ethical Problems

Politicians constantly fall into the trap of making promises they cannot possibly deliver on. Luckily, since they’ve let people down since the dawn of government, we’ve set the bar relatively low. This isn’t true, however, in the business world. If FedEx promises to deliver a package by tomorrow, that’s a guarantee they can make because they control the means of delivery. On the flipside, if a camera-maker promises that all your pictures will come out beautiful, that’s irresponsible - what if you decide to point your lens at Gary Busey?

This same principle applies to SEO.

What search engine optimization companies can & should guarantee is that they’ll provide the best advice possible to help your site earn more traffic. They may even guarantee, after reviewing your site, that they can grow your search traffic by at least 10, 20, 30% or more (we’ve done this in the past, at least verbally, when we’ve seen sites that had incredible potential and extremely poor SEO practices). But, SEOs cannot control the search results the way FedEx can control shipping packages or Coca Cola can guarantee the taste of their beverage. The search engines alone are responsible for and privvy to the rankings methodologies.

In my personal opinion, there are times when I would be willing to gamble a large amount of money on the fact that we could achieve a certain ranking for a given keyword. However, that’s not the same as a guarantee. A guarantee is a promise - a basic contract that necessarily creates an assumption of certainty by the deliverer to the recipient. Anytime you cheat on that logic and make a promise outside your sphere of direct control, you’re walking on shaky ethical and business ground.

This list is compliments of Seth Godin.
I thought this was interesting as it seems to mix traditional advertising thoughts with web design.

Here are principles I (Seth) think you can’t avoid:

1. Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a dealbreaker.
2. Change the interaction. What makes great websites great is that they are simultaneously effortless and new at the same time. That means that the site teaches you a new thing or new interaction or new connection, but you know how to use it right away. (Hey, if doing this were easy, everyone would do it.)
3. Less. Fewer words, fewer pages, less fine print.
4. What works, works. Theory is irrelevant.
5. Patience. Some sites test great and work great from the start. (Great if you can find one). Others need people to use them and adjust to them. At some point, your gut tells you to launch. Then stick with it, despite the critics, as you gain traction.
6. Measure. If you’re not improving, if the yield is negative… kill it.
7. Insight is good, clever is bad. Many websites say, “look at me.” Your goal ought to be to say, “here’s what you were looking for.”
8. If you hire a professional: hire a great one. The best one. Let her do her job. 10 mediocre website consultants working in perfect harmony can’t do the work of one rock star.
9. One voice, one vision.
10. Don’t settle.

International SEO is a web page issue not a website issues

3 ways The Search Engines Identifies Location

1. TLD (Top Level Domain, .ca, .cn, .uk)

If it has a .com it goes to

2. IP Address

Finally if they cant determine site origin.

3. Link Analysis

Check IP adress to find out where its hosted, this could cause problems with rankings in primary country.

Low Hanging Apples In International SEO

1. Encode your site is UTF-8
2. Don’t Translate Meta Tags and Page Titles
3. Adopt a global Public Relations strategy
4. Manage 301’s effectively
5. Keywording URL’s
6. Source Local Links
7. Use a smart Geo-selector
8. Expert Keyword Research
9. TLd’s
10. Content

Problems with sculpting page rank:

1. More Control?
2. Distraction from other site problems
3. Management Headaches
4. Its a band-aid
5. Where’s the user?
6. Open to abuse
7. Too focused on Search Engines
8. There is no standard

Increase Your Conversion Rates By Meeting Your Clients Expectations

By keeping the page graphically relevant to the search term that a visitor is coming to your site from an organic search results is a key to increasing conversion. Each page of your website should be optimized for specific keywords and represents a product or service that you want someone to see (if its not then you have other concerns). So with that said, when a person finds you based on a specific keyword within Google, MSN or Yahoo and they click on the link in the results set, they have certain expectations of what they are going to see on that page and how that page is going to fulfill their need, want or desire. I know these are very simple thoughts, but a lot of people are not optimizing their pages for expectations and in doing so are lowering their conversion rates.

For Example

Lets take a site whose main product that they manufacture is scotch tape, and their secondary product set is tape dispensers, boxes and other things that are related to tape usage. The First thing they should do is look at what terms each page is being ranked on. This will give them the expectations of what the user would want to see when they click on their organic search set.

In this example let’s say that their home page is ranked well and is getting traffic from 2 main keywords (Scotch Tape and Scotch Tape Dispenser). Their main graphical call to action on that home page should be related to buying scotch tape or a scotch tape dispenser and not about moving boxes or other things that they sell. When someone comes into that page they expect to see the main offer that relates almost directly to the keyword they came in off of and in this case its one of the two key words.

They should go through and map out their pages that are ranked and what key terms they are ranked for to keep a good alignment with the expectations of their customers.

This goes back to other things that I have talked about which are treating each page as its own site and optimizing the page for specific keywords, and wrapping them with a centralized theme for the website. Do not try to optimize a page for more then 2 primary keywords and 1 secondary keyword. If you need to do that you are better off breaking that page up and making a couple pages out of it and really optimizing those pages for specific keywords. This will help with relevancy and conversion because the visitor’s expectations will be met when they get to the page.

Google Sitelinks will always intrigue and excite SEOs until they can figure out how they are derived. Google’s explanation of sitelinks, although present, is just as vague as their other documentation:

“Sitelinks serve as shortcuts to help users quickly navigate to the important pages on your site .”

These are all interesting theories about how Google sitelinks come to be and how you might be able to get sitelinks.  I personally think its a combination of these with an emphasis on the internal structure of your site and the on-site seo.

Sitelinks Thought #1: Surfer oriented

This theory can be considered supported by Google:
“We only show sitelinks for results when we think they’ll be useful to the user. “

Sitelinks Thought #2: Domain-authority oriented

The more powerful the domain is, the more likely it will get sitelinks.

Sitelinks Thought #3: Internal-architecture oriented :

If your internal architecture clearly shows Google what’s important and what’s relevant , you might get sitelinks.

Google FAQ:
“Our systems analyze the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they’re looking for.”

Sitelinks Thought #4: On-site SEO :

Some SEO’s noticed that some on-page SEO changes effected a site receiving sitelinks:

• Links located at the top of the source code stand better chance of showing up as sitelinks;
• Consistent usage of a keyword in the link anchor text, file path, and h1 and h2 Tags.

Jeff is a real estate agent who sells vacation rentals in The Outer Banks. His clients range from one time renters to repeat vacationers who bring their family and need large homes. Since his profit comes from repeat business Jeff offers a different level of service to repeat customers who rent his luxury homes consistently than he does to a new customer who is looking for something inexpensive for a quick getaway.

With the help of his SEO Company Jeff put a different call to action on his rental pages based on which visitors he wants to see them. He offers only an online reservation tool for inexpensive rental homes and live chat and a 1-800 number that goes directly to his cell phone for more expensive rental homes.

Jeff’s SEO firm developed a strategy to optimize the luxury rental pages with high end keywords and his cheap vacation rentals with keywords that reflect cheap, discount, or bargain rentals.

After collecting 6 months of data, Jeff’s SEO Company noticed that repeat customers didn’t usually return to his site by typing the URL into the address bar or book marking the website. They actually came to his site by searching in Google for the name of his website. Jeff optimized a select set of pages on his site for the company name and website name that he would most want his returning buyer to find in the search engines. By using this optimization strategy Jeff created membership without having to develop private log in/password driven components to his site.

I had the pleasure to sit with Jeff Cutler, former CRO of Answers.com and talk with him about the vision of answers.com during his time there. The interesting topic of monetization of the different interactive channels came up and this is a short excerpt from the conversation.

Jeff Said, “Not everything can be monetized, nor should be given a goal based on how effectively it can be monetized”.

We spoke about how they tracked their other interactive ideas such as their widgets, press releases, and news letters. When asked how they tracked all those channels Jeff said, “those were not tracked from a success standpoint; they just needed to be where people where on the web”. He then gave the example of their Facebook application and said, “that the demographic they targeted were not emailing to communicate, but rather using Facebook to be social. So they just had to be where their demographic was to get in front of them.

Knowing How Your Clients Perceive You Is Key

Short Post Based On Some Thoughts I Had. 3 Questions to ask yourself before you start redesigning your website or embarking on that new marketing venture.

Who Do I Think I Am?

Have you ever spoke with a client and they say “we are a X type of site or company”, and after looking at their site there is no way thats what they are portraying to the community. The old adage “you can’t know where your going till you know where you have been”, well in this case you can’t know where your going until you know how your seen. Not how you see yourself, thats biased, but how your seen by your clients or potential clients.

Who Am I Really?

This question is easily answered, simply ask your community what they think you do. Send an email out to your email list saying ” give me 1 sentence you would use to describe us”. you will be amazed at how different your view of what you are and how your outward facing website portrays you in the eyes of your consumers.

Hint:These sentences that you get back will be chalked full of keywords that people are using to search for your service or products.

Who Do I Want To Be?

Once you figure out what people are seeing you as, and what you see yourself as you can start to mold into who you want to be and build campaigns and your website around goals and the community, since the community is who will be using your site to purchase your products.