SEO Outsourcing

The myth of duplicate content

October 2nd, 2008

It has long been established that everyone should avoid duplicating content on their websites. It is even on Google’s list of forbiddens on its spam report - (http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html) under “Duplicate site or pages”.

Recently, a real estate client of mine found that his ex-partner had not only taken the entire text from his website but was also involved in copying his links and articles to such an extent that he left, on one article, the company’s copyright notice intact. This had gone so far and for so long that he also noticed his ex-partner had stolen the logo of a corporate UK high street real estate agent, flipped it and used it for his new company. To add insult to injury, the original website was then copied five times using various related search terms as the domain name, SEOed them all and linked them together. They all share high visibility on Google.

Needless to say, after having warned him of these shoddy practices, my client was left with no option but to report these abuses to Google under the auspices of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). They took a look and banned four duplicate pages only on all the sites but completely ignored the fact that all six websites are indeed keyword spams in order to gain high placement. They are identical and even the properties come from the same database.

Google has been aware and repeatedly reminded for months of this, but to no avail.

With the advent of datafeed-driven content sites and RSS, what are we to make of these stated penalties when Google themselves don’t apply their own rules to the issue of duplicate content?

The myth of duplicate content

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The broadband crunch

April 9th, 2008

Online video and TV streaming are clogging the copper arteries of the information superhighway.

It’s generally accepted by anyone and everyone in the know that the internet is growing exponentially. To give you an idea of how much and how fast it is, consider that last year YouTube alone used as much bandwidth as was needed for the entire internet in 2000.

Trouble is, this growing demand for video and TV download services such as the Beeb’s recently launched and already successful iPlayer is overloading networks so badly that some particularly gloomy experts are predicting the internet could simply grind to a virtual standstill by 2010. They are calling it the broadband crunch.

The problem lies not in the fibre optics and underground cables of the main internet ‘motorways’ which have huge capacities and are constantly upgraded with new technologies but with the ‘last mile’ routers, switchers and copper wires running from exchanges directly into the home.

“There are going to be some real crunches, some real hard times coming. It’s because of the market and the business models which don’t see a way of making a profit,” commented Scott Bradner, technology security officer at Harvard University ahead of an ‘End of the Internet’ debate happening in Boston this month.

Essentially, internet providers are too busy undercutting each other to maximise short-term profits without considering the long term implications of neglecting the infrastructure.

“There will not be a fibre-to-the-home network in the next 20 years,” according to BT spokesman Mike Bartlett. “It would be a massive call to say, “Let’s fibre up the nation.” It would take many years, cost billions of pounds [actually estimated at around £20billion], involve digging up all the roads and we don’t know if people really want it.”

There are new technologies in the pipeline that could eradicate these problems, such as nuclear research organisation Cern’s fibre optic linked servers that run 10,000 times faster than broadband. But timescale and guarantees are hard to come by.

As Larry Irving, co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance so eloquently puts it, “We’re not saying it’s going meltdown, but you could have latency. It’ll be like trying to get from point A to point B in London on a Wednesday afternoon. Good luck.”

The broadband crunch

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Vietnam, Flash, Google, CD-Roms and a Pernickety Marketing Executive

December 22nd, 2007

V9 NEWSLETTER - DECEMBER 2007

Vietnam - a surging new market?

Vietnam has attracted a record $15 billion in foreign direct investment so far this year, up nearly 40 per cent from the same period last year, an official said. The amount strengthened booming Vietnam’s reputation as the new Asian magnet for investment, thanks to low wages, high literacy and a youthful population. Of the fresh capital, more than $13 billion come from 1,283 newly licensed projects and the remainder from the expansions of existing projects, said Phan Huu Thang, director of the Foreign Investment Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

“Most of the new projects invest in services and technologies,” Thang said, adding that investors from Asia make up most of the fresh investment capital. South Korea took the lead with $3.68 billion, or 24.5 per cent of the total of newly registered capital, followed by the British Virgins Islands with $3.5 billion, Singapore with $1.55 billion and Taiwan with $1.14 billion. “The figures show that Vietnam is becoming a more attractive destination in Asia for foreign investors,” Thang said. Thang forecast that the total inflow into Vietnam would exceed $16 billion this year, a substantial jump over the initial target of $13 billion.

This report, published in the Bangkok Post adds credence to other recent resportse that Thailand has been downgrading its status as an investment destination, whereas Vietnam has been working in the opposite direction.

Last year, the Thai interim government implemented increasingly nationalistic policies and the investment climate here has deterred many would-be investors.

Only a few web companies are operating successfully out there at the moment but, with Vietnam’s business environment expanding as it is, we conclude it won’t be long before all this changes. It extends our Asian exposure to boot. With this in mind, we have set up a strategic partner in Ho Chi Minh City with the long-term view of gaining market share.

In just four days following the launch of www.vietnamwebdesign.net, the site got to #15 on Google and #2 on Yahoo! for “vietnam web design”. It just goes to show how little the Vietnamese market is saturated with web design companies competing for business. We’ve just returned from a week’s fact-finding mission, which went very well.

We have also launched webdesignbeijing.net and will be setting up the same deal there some time soon.

Online marketing and our new year’s policies

For the past couple of years our online marketing rates have remained stagnant. Most people would concur that search engine marketing could be counted amongst the most obscure, deafeningly dull subjects to discuss over a quiet beer, even though there’s big money in it.

This year we have adjusted our rates slightly upwards and have excluded SEO from our overall package prices. After research, we found that we have been significantly cheaper than other companies in the market, so we are now asking for a performance bonus on a results-based platform, which we feel is a far fairer model for our clients - and us, of course.

For more information, you can download our new, unique pricing model by clicking here.

Flash and the art of motorcycle maintenance

Once upon a time on a dusty maidan there hung a rectangular flag. It was solid purple except there was a thin ring-shaped hole that had been cut out of it through which one could see the sky.

The ring resembled the numeral zero, which had yet to be invented; it was millennia hence before an Indian mathematician made it so. The flag, at the time, proved to be a mathematical impossibility.

One fine day a tortoise walked by the flag and admired its beauty but had no reason to analyse it. By chance, just at that moment, he was greeted by Zeno, a Greek philosopher from Elea.

Zeno said to the tortoise: “It is not wind nor flag; neither one is moving. The Fifth Patriarch taught me that reality is at once immutable and unchanging; only plurality changes; motion is but a mere illusion of the senses.” The tortoise merely nodded in confused agreement.

Google could well be a product of the great Zeno himself as it too doesn’t recognise “movement”, and in fact uses this post-invention argument detrimentally to websites that employ such “pluralities”.

The moral of this story: use Flash as an element, not as the site itself, as Google can neither read nor understand it; it thinks it is “pure illusion”
when it comes to being recognised and, as such, is summarily ignored.

Websites do not achieve good rankings when wholly developed using Flash. And for those who do: sorry, but zero does now exist. You may have a cracking website but the Flash paradox ensures you will receive no online revenue from it.

Best Real Estate Web Awards 2007

V9 Design & Build was nominated last year for the Best Real Estate Web Awards 2007 for the development of the Soho Properties website.

Not that we won, but it was a surprise to be nominated and an accolade to our efforts in making the site what it is.

Google’s downgrading - should we worry?

We must admit to being absolutely mortified one afternoon in late October last year when we were demoted from having a Google PageRank™ (PR) of 5 to that of 3; but it didn’t affect placement and we still retain #1 positions.

No one except Google really knows for sure why PR dropped for some news sites, but it certainly looked like an extension of last September’s paid directory massacre. At the time, Google targeted some well-known sites in the search marketing world and mainstream news too. Sites included heavyweights such as:
* Washington Post (from 7 to 5)
* Washington Times (from 6 to 4)
* Forbes.com (from 7 to 5)
* New Scientist (from 7 to 5)
* Seattle Times (from 6 to 4)

Google reported that: “selling links muddies the quality of our links-based reputation and makes it harder for many search engines (not just Google) to return relevant results.”

One enlightened reader responded: “The Google conundrum is such that although it doesn’t count its own paid advertising text links results, it does count everyone else’s…and they affect algorithmic results. In my opinion, that’s the flaw in the model.”

As per usual, one rule for Google and another for the rest of us.

Political Corner: What has broadband got to do with the new government?

Mid-way through December last year, Cisco exec Howard Charney, a 35-year veteran of Silicon Valley, lectured at an information and communications conference in Bangkok.

The emphasis of his address was that “education was the route to a better life and the internet has the potential in providing it, even to remote rural areas via wireless communications”.

In Thailand, only 11 to 12 percent of people currently use it, but the hope is that in the future this figure will grow exponentially to empower all Thai people.

That’s all very well and good but steady on here tiger: unless Thailand’s communications infrastructure is vastly improved, by the time this growth happens there will be more people like me who have fallen victim to Tourette’s Syndrome because of access speeds. To become “an operational base for knowledge-intensive industries to operate”, this incentive will inevitably fail unless something is done about the network.

Let’s hope the new government will seriously address this issue, for all our sakes.

CD-Rom Cards: outdated technology or social opportunity?

It’s old, neglected and gimmicky but the giving out of CD-Rom cards instead of 125gsm plastic with your name and logo written on it, whilst not all that practical, could well catch on as a valuable alternative at networking meetings.

In fact, the term “networking” could take on new meaning: on exchange of cards, you plug a networkee’s card straight into the lappie you’re wearing around your neck instead of actually listening to what they have to say. Conversation killers such as this may be the very blessing in disguise you had been dreaming of at such events.

If you find this in any way appealing, take a look at our own CD-Rom Card.

Profile: New clients round-up, 2008

The Light of Buddhadharma Foundation International: I chose this site not particularly for its design - because we didn’t design it; we updated it - but because LBDFI acts as the primary sponsor of the Pali Tipitika Chanting International Council which meets all the living expenses of bhikkhus who travel to ceremonies from within India. It’s an organization endorsed by His Holiness The Dalai Lama.

MegaBooks Thailand: This is a novel idea, if you pardon the pun. We created this site for Richard Murray, who will be selling books and magazines online at discounted prices and delivered straight to your door. It’s about time we had greater access to literature.

X2 Resorts: This was purely an SEO exercise and site hits have grown immesurably after we turned three Flash sites into html sites to get the inside pages indexed. The manager said he wanted to kiss me on the strength of it, which was complimentary but nervy in the extreme.

Thann: I included this site for one specific reason: the marketing executive is the fussiest, pixel-perfect client known to man. It took eons to get it exactly right and when it was, he changed it until it wasn’t. It’s a massage and therapy website, based in Brunei. I have an eerie feeling it’s not quite finished, even yet.

FileVault: This is a New Zealand online back-up system website that was expertly thought through. Its director is not too dissimilar to the man from Thann and again, the end-product needed to be “perfect”. Interestingly, neither men were that fussed with online marketing. Maybe they should be talking to Zeno rather than us?

Vietnam, foreign direct investment up 40 percent

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SEO packages - a unique and fairer pricing model

December 12th, 2007

When one looks at the SEO industry for services, you will inevitably find packages on offer such as “Basic, Silver and Gold”. These packages are progressively costed according to the “number of keywords targeted” and “guaranteed number of keywords”. This doesn’t make any sense to us; it’s too vague and opaque.

In practice, the industry tends to charge a monthly fee for these services (in the case above $100, $200 and $300) for research analysis and implementation, when this is a one-off exercise. This, we feel it is unethical, as it ties the client into monthly installments for work that has already been completed. In contrast, V9 offers a one-off site optimization fee of $250 for up to 20 pages (larger sites are charged pro-rata).

To further compound package costs, these companies then add to their SEO services by charging exorbitant fees for link building (i.e. obtaining links from other websites). Again, in the case above, they tend to charge figures such as $1,200 for 100 links that have a Google PageRank™ of 3. We charge $100 for the same but with quite a few sites that have a Google PageRank™ of 4 and above.

Some might be tempted to ask: “Clearly your pricing policy is utter madness? Why don’t you charge more?” Because we charge by the hour, not by the link; because we charge on results, not on false guarantees; and because we have developed a much fairer system of results-based pricing, which is only payable once we have secured these results. Okay, you might say, so you have got our site’s keywords to #1, but what if they’re not searched on? We thought of this too and have built a safeguard into the model.

V9’s Placement Bonus
Before starting a campaign, as a team (the client and V9), we identify and agree on five keywords we will be competing for traffic and identify the corresponding number of “clickthroughs”, taken from the three major search engines (these rates are merely used to determine keyword popularity). Bonuses are then based on three levels of performance: the #1 position; the #2 or #3 positions; and in the first twenty. We calculate the bonus using the combined results of Google, Yahoo! and MSN from seobooks.com as a guide; we then factor in a price in US$ from a defined range to arrive at the final sum. This is so you know from the outset what fee would become payable if we secure placement. We obviously choose the best keyword performer for our bonus but have built self-regulation into the model, so that even if a keyword reached the #1 position but had 0 clickthroughs — and is not that popular— the Placement Bonus would also be zero. Obviously, we wouldn’t have suggested it in the first place, but it’s an example of how the bonus system works.

Six months following the initial review and on-site keyword implementation, we then review your website to determine how each of the five keywords we agreed on performed. At that time, we also discuss how the next six-months’ campaign is to be run and rewarded.

But also, we ask for a Placement Bonus, based on the above figures. To be fair, we weight the top result according to the search engine’s popularity stats. As of August 2007, the percentages were: Google: 64%; Yahoo!: 23%; MSN: 8%; Ask: 3.5%; Others: 1.5%. So, if for example, we achieved the #1 position on Google for any of the targeted search terms which received 1,000+ clickthroughs, a $750 bonus would become payable; if on Yahoo!, 23/64*$750, or $269; and if on MSN, 8/64*$750, or $94 would be payable. This weighting effect balances the bonus out equitably.

Timing and patience
Directory submissions do take time to filter through, sometimes up to three months, and new sites can take up to six months due to Google’s “sandbox” which inhibits links during that initial period. We know this only too well and have structured our model taking the long-term view. So, for new sites, we do ask for more time.

In conclusion
Our associates, Soho Properties, receive on average 700 unique hits per day which, when converted into sales, makes up a sizeable percentage their overall business revenue. We think our Placement Bonus is fair price to pay for this.

SEO packages - a unique and fairer pricing model

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ChaCha, a search engine with a difference

December 12th, 2007

ChaCha is a search engine which brings a fundamentally different kind of intelligence to the problem - human brain power.

The current implementation of ChaCha offers a combination of automation and people-powered search. The results can be organized by a vertical, like images or news. Also it has a set of related searches. But by far the most interesting and unusual aspect of ChaCha is its people-powered search.

ChaCha employs people to help users sift through the results. This is cleverly done using a familiar chat interface. When you first come to the site, you are presented with a standard search box. Type in a query and you get back a traditional list of matches. In the testing we did, we found both the performance and quality of the results to be quite good.

If for some reason you are not happy with the quality of the results, you can request a chat session with a (human) Search Guide to help you find what you’re looking for. The Guides get paid for this service - the one I spoke to told me she gets paid $5 per search hour, which is the level for Guides after they reach “pro level”. She also said there are about 10,000 Guides in total, working from home.

ChaCha, a search engine with a difference

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