What is a Google Places Page?

 Formally known as Google Local Business Center, Google Places is like the Yellow Pages of the Internet. Think of it like a Google local web page or an online listing of your business. This local listing can display information about your business in text, image & video format and is tied into Google Maps. According to Google, 97% of consumers search for local businesses online. And… over the past year, the Search Engine’s local algorithm in Canada has resulted in more visibility for local organic search results on Google.ca.

Google Places and Google Maps appear in a Google SERP in the organic section. It’s important to understand the placement. In a previous blog post, we addressed the layout of a Canadian Google Search Engine Results Page in terms of Organic Search vs. Paid Search as well as where the engine displays Google Maps and Places. It is very prominent. Check it out if you require better understanding.

With Halloween just around the corner, and people searching for pumpkin picking farms in Ottawa, we decided to feature a local Places page.

Here is an example of a Local Ottawa Google Places Listing:

Google Canada Place Profile for a Pumpkin Farm in Ottawa

Business Information Section
This section is ideally provided by the business owner. It includes the name of the business, relevant categories, a short description, address, website and photo number. A web visitor can phone you, visit your website for more information and get directions via Google Maps (Canada).

Photo Section
Business owners and Google users can upload photos. These photos generally include storefront, products sold and people behind the business. They must, of course, follow Google’s guidelines. Videos can also be uploaded.

Review Section
“What people are saying” about your business in a review format falls under this section. Reviewers must have a Google account to post. Owners have the ability to respond to positive as well as negative reviews.

Related Content Section
Related places that appear in this area of your profile are generated by Google. It’s based on the Google Places algorithm. Google displays other related Places pages in your geographic area. If you are positioned properly in Local Search, you will also appear on your competitor page in this section.

Google Maps Section
This section is also generated by the Search Engine based on your Places listing. Google displays a street view with a map icon to indicate your location. Web visitors can click on the map for a large view and get directions by car, bus, walking or by bike (if applicable).

Google Ads Section
Unlike your listing that is free, this section is for paid ads. This is where Google Ads (known as AdWords) are displayed. While you cannot remove these ads, you can certainly place your text ads on Places Pages.

How does this relate to SEO?
From a SEO perspective, your Google Places profile page can give you visibility in the SERPs beyond your website. Think of it as an additional web property. Depending on your industry, and relevancy from a Google perspective, your Places listing can even outrank your website based on a local branded geo-search. You can also rank in Places for generic searches based on related local non-branded keyword queries. And… your business listing can send you qualified web traffic via the inbound link on your page (SEOs’ love this!).

Your business can also appear on other Places pages under related places and/or in the ads section. From our perspective, this means more visibility in local search!

At least 20% of Canadian searches are local. People search Google.ca and Google Maps to find local businesses. Claim it, optimize it, monitor it -and measure it!

Can you get found?

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SEO & The Anatomy of a Google Places: From a Canadian Perspective is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

What are Sitelinks?

Sitelinks are the additional links that appear underneath the first search result. They allow Google searchers to go directly to specific pages that are deeper within the website. They appear in organic search results based on search queries on branded terms.

Here is an example of sitelinks in a Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page) that have not yet been expanded. You will note that there is a single row of links. In this case, a total of four links to key web pages within the site appear.

Here is an example of the new sitelinks layout. The first search result listing remains the top domain and the same in terms of format (title, URL and short description). The new additions relates to the extended listings in this full two-column sitelinks layout. Rather than just a link, it now includes a title, URL and one line of the text snippet. The maximum number of individual sitelinks that can appear per query are now 12 (up from 8).

How does it work?

Google determines sitelinks based on their algorithms. They are generated and ranked based on link structure of your website. Yes – site architecture has just become even more important if you are serious about Search.

Why sitelinks?

This addresses the issue that some web searchers still use broad queries such as “government of canada” rather than more specific search keyword phrases in terms of what they are attempting to find. This can also be very valuable for improving the visibility of unique sections of large and complex websites. In addition, a link could send traffic to directly to their portfolio of photos (IE sites with image galleries such as a wedding photographer). As you can see, this goes far beyond the regular results from a few years ago. And… it will, of course, help you understand your web traffic from a Google Analytics perspective.

Like all things Search-related, generating good sitelinks, and optimization thereof can improve your website conversions.

Got Sitelinks? Are they optimized?

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Google Canada Expanded Sitelinks is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Search

• Google makes 200-300 changes every year – and they kill off 2/3 of their initiatives.
• Google’s efficiency with Search saves us about 350 million hours per year.
• BING stands for “Bing Is Not Google”
• There are more searches made on Twitter each month than Yahoo! And Bing combined
• Google Instant isn’t changing the way people Search, but the way they read the results. With Instant, searchers rarely look past the top 5 results.
• Google Instant decreased time to click by 50%
• SEO is not just about rankings, it’s about conversions
• 3 key success factors for Search: Relevance, Speed and Usefulness
• The average search query on Google today is 4.3 words
• Over 50% of queries are over 3 words in length – and 2/3 of them yield no exact match
• Local Search queries are up 54% year over year.
• YouTube is the 2^nd most popular Search Engine on the planet
• When optimizing videos, follow similar SEO practices – links always matter!
• Multi-lingual SEO is a whole other ball game. Adidas faced many challenges with international campaigns which included SEO for 19 languages and the use of slang terms
• With multi-lingual SEO, you can’t just translate keywords. You need to consider different dialects of languages in different regions
• Your homepage is not a consumer’s first impression of your brand online. It’s what they see on a Search Engine Results Page.
• Go after those who are actively searching for you, stop searching for them.
• Are you optimizing your landing page? Bring users to where they want to be. Stop sending them on a wild goose chase.
• Always add negative keywords into your PPC campaigns.

Social Media

• There are over 1 billion Social Media users worldwide spending 2 billion minutes a month
• 25% of activity on Facebook is from a mobile device
• Facebook is becoming a bigger enemy to Google than Microsoft is.
• Three often overlooked YouTube Ranking factors: 1) Increase of views over time 2) Quantity of inbound links 3) Inclusion of video in playlists
• When it comes to Social Media don’t ask What – ask Why? “What” is a tactic, “Why” is a strategy.
• Foursquare experienced 3400% growth in 2010
• When creating a Facebook Deal consider the “What if’s”. What if 500 people claim a 50% off deal? Can you support your deals?
• The 4 pillars of Location Based Strategy: Context, Location, Social Interaction and Platforms

Mobile

• 101 million smartphones were sold in Q4 of 2010 compared to only 94 million PC’s
• 2011 will be the year of mobile – expect for it to really take off
• A major difficulty faced with mobile advertising is the discrepancy between a user’s location vs. their destination.
• Is your website optimized for mobile? If not, do it.
• All 5 of Google’s strategic initiatives for 2011 revolve around mobile
• 544.6 million text messages were sent in Q2 of 2010

Online Reviews

• 62% of consumers read reviews online before making a purchase
• 62% of people trust online ratings and reviews of people they don’t know
• 18% of people who were contacted by a company after they had left a negative review ended up buying more from that company in the future
• 33% of those mentioned above removed their negative review, and 34% went on to write a positive review about their experience.
• A bad review online shouldn’t be seen as a threat. It is a great opportunity to address the problem, satisfy that customer, and show others that you care.

Quotes

• “How do you demand innovation, creativity and radical rethinking if you can’t imagine it?” – Avinash Kaushik
• “My three year old son will look at a keyboard the a same way I look at a rotary phone” – Mitch Joel
• “Plugging your computer into a phone line to get Internet ten years ago was so barbaric. Look how far we’ve come.” – Mitch Joel
• “Your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is.” – Chris Anderson
• “Never do anything in marketing that doesn’t add economic value to your company.” – Mitch Joel
• “Incorporate your digital marketing efforts into your marketing mix. Think “with” not “instead of”.”
• “Just because someone is on Facebook all day it doesn’t make them a Social Media Marketing expert. I turn the lights on when I walk into a room, am I an electrician? No. “ – Mitch Joel
• “Display will grow into a $200 billion market” – Eric Schmidt
• “Search is the connection between intent and content.” – Bill Barnes

That’s all folks! Two days of intense sessions with lots of great insights and takeaways. Have you considered these strategies when it comes to marketing your business online?

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Search Marketing Expo Toronto Recap is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Here are five good SEO reasons to use Google Analytics:

1. Search Engine Traffic
Google Analytics tracks search engine traffic to your site. This captured data tells you how many of your site visitors arrived via engines as well as the how your search traffic ranks compared to your other traffic sources (direct traffic / referring sites). It also identifies the engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo! Bing) and who sent the most traffic. By default, GA tracks more than 20 different search engines. There is also a breakdown available between paid and non-paid keyword driven traffic.

2. Keywords
In addition to automatically tracking search engine sources, Google Analytics tracks keywords that send search traffic to your site. This data tells you which keywords / keyword phrases were used by your site’s visitors and ranks them according to popularity. You can drill down further to determine more details for each keyword including statistics on organic and paid search.

3. Content Performance
Since optimizing content for search is the basics of search engine optimization, tracking page performance is essential. Google Analytics tracks data on which web pages attract site visitors and displays them in order of which are performing the best (listed by URL). You can also view this data by Page Title. The Content Drilldown report provides a list of top pages based on content sections within your website. Top Landing Pages, sent by search engines traffic can also be identified, as well as data on how well they perform.

4. Campaign Tracking
This is a more advanced feature than the above three, as it needs to be set up. Google Analytics can do campaign tracking. This includes Google AdWords by default. However you can also track any search marketing (as well as offline) campaigns. Campaign tracking is implemented by using link tagging (a unique URL to identify each marketing source).

5. Site Search
Likely the most overlooked – yet a real valuable source of SEO data. This is only for those sites that have a search box and allow web visitors to do an internal search to find information. Google Analytics can track these search terms as well a search term refinements at the site level. This requires set up as well.

Accessing the data, of course, is only the first step in the web analytics process. You need to measure, analyze, test and modify – always working towards your desired outcomes.

If you do not have Google Analytics installed on your website or if you are not monitoring your site outcomes, it is time to get started.

Recent Post: Google Analytics Qualified Professional Helen Faber

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Why use Google Analytics for SEO? is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

WebFuel’s 2011 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Checklist:

1. Domain Name Ownership
Review your domain name registration and ensure that it does not expire. This is likely the most important item on the checklist. No rights to use your domain name equals no live website. Just imagine what that would do to your Search Engine rankings. While you are checking your domain status, register the other related extensions (if applicable). This is known as Google insurance.

2. Reliable Hosting
It likely goes without saying, but a site that is down due to hosting issues does not help your Internet visibility. Even worse, Search Engines cannot crawl a site they cannot access. Ensure that you have engaged a reliable company to provide you with hosting services. There is software (some free) that can track uptime as well as alert you if your site goes down. Being live 24/7 is a must.

3. Crawl & Index Friendly Website
Making certain that your site stays live is the foundation of the SEO process. The next step is to ensure that your website design, including the navigation system, is “spiderable”. This will allow Search Engines to crawl and index your web pages – and other online digital assets (such as slideshows, podcasts and videos).

4. Website Content Review
Yes – content is still King. After all, this is what generates the possibility of your web page to appear in the search results. Content review should include checking for content starved pages, outdated and / or non relevent information, as well as building new content pages – if required. Copywriting revisions should also include integrating keywords and addressing internal lingo (generally not what people search for).

5. Robots.txt
Review and update your robots.txt file. This is usually the most overlooked item on the checklist. We see this almost every time we perform a SEO Website Audit. The robots.txt file tells Search Engine crawlers what content you do / don’t want crawled. Not everything on your site should get found in a Search.

6. Website Download Speed
One of the more recent Google ranking factors is based on the download speed of your website. In other words, the faster the web page downloads, compared to your keyword competitors, the better. Google is rewarding websites that are / or have been optimized based on speed performance. Do a test. Again, there are several free tools on the Internet that can be used.

7. Search Engine Submissions
If you haven’t already done so, submit your XML sitemap to Google, Bing & Yahoo. You can do this via your various Webmaster Tools accounts. While there is no need to submit to the major Search Engines (they find you), you should take this opportunity to review what industry-related engines exist (always new ones). And… of course, submit your URL (if relevant).

8. Social Media / Social Search
Now think beyond just your website and explore Social Media / Social Networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn – and of course Twitter. If you are already using them, ensure that you can get found in a social search for at least your company name. If you haven’t embraced Social Media yet – and even if you are unsure if these sites are a good fit for your particular business, create / claim a company profile (just in case). Once again, this is also known as Google insurance. This likely goes without saying but inactive profiles should be hidden from web visitors as well as blocked from the Search Engine crawls (if possible).

9. Online Reputation Management (ORM)
Don’t just pay attention to your company brand based on your site and/or social media profiles. Manage your reputation on the Internet as well. To get started, simply Google your company name, products and/or services, key people in your organization etc… and review the search results. Again, there is lots of software available to track what is being “said” on the web about your brand – some are fee-based and others are free (Google Alerts). And… of course you can hire a company that specializes in monitoring your brand and keeping your online reputation clean.

10. Web Analytics and Measurement
Review your filters, goals and conversions to ensure that they are in place as well as a system to analyze the data. Make sure that you are tracking everything on your website that should be measured. If you don’t have a application installed to track your web visitors, and what search engines are doing, put this on the top of your “to do” list. Google Analytics is a powerful tool – and it is free!

11. Search Engine Ranking Reports
If you haven’t already done so, invest in ongoing Search Engine ranking monitoring and reporting. In a nutshell, this type of report lets you know which web pages from your site are showing up in a SERP (Search Engine Results Page), your keyword positions – and in which search engines. This data will help you understand which SEO strategies are working – and which ones are not. It also documents and tracks keywords and search engine performance over time (good to have if you hired a Search Engine Optimizer). This is likely the best investment you can make when it comes to search.

Our SEO prediction for 2011 is that Search will continue to remain strong – with another year of enormous growth expected in Social Media. Ensure that this year you manage and improve your online visibility.

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SEO Checklist: Top Eleven for 2011 is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

You may be wondering how does the WebFuel team actually stay up-to-date with search and what is happening on the Internet. Well, first off, we devote at minimum 20 per cent of our time to making sure that we are on top of search. But how do we do this?

We do this in a number of ways:

• Attending industry leading webinars
• Attending Search Engine Marketing and Social Media events
• Attending Google Webcasts
• Attending Google Seminars for Success
• Attending conferences (Search Engine Strategies and PubCon Social Media and Search Marketing Conferences) on an annual basis

As an example of how we “really” do this, this week we are attending the Search Engine Strategies 2010 Conference in Toronto, Canada. This three-day conference is focused entirely on Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies. This includes keynote speakers Peter Morville on the topic of the future of search and Maile Ohye from Google. We will also be attending seminars on topics such as SEO, Canadian search, local search, mobile search, pay per click management (also known as paid search), keyword research, social media, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization, site optimization, and usability.

In addition to the professional development component, we also devote time to keeping up with industry search leaders. We do this by:

• Following industry experts on Twitter
• Reading industry-focused blogs
• Online networking through LinkedIn and Facebook

But that’s not all – we also have the following recognized Google credentials: Google Advertising Professional (GAP) and Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ). And don’t take our word for it, it can all be verified by Google!

All this goes to show that we are passionate about Search. We know the value of a sound and serious search strategy. We do the work on the Internet to ensure that your search strategy is getting you to the top of the search engine results page.

We work with clients like you who are Serious about Search and can clearly understand the value it adds. You’ve learned the value of outsourcing search to the experts – letting us do the work for you. As you know an in-house search strategy doesn’t allow you to stay on top of the industry shifts and trends. Since we devote 20 per cent of our time to search, we know what is coming and how to get you where you need to be.

Working with WebFuel gives you the peace of mind that the latest strategies in SEO, Social Media, and Web Analytics are being used to get you to the top and keep you on the top.

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Are you Staying on Top of Search? We are. is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

For those of you just getting started, here is a list of the seven most critical things to manage.

1. Track your inbound links
This is where you must start. Using a Word document, or Excel spreadsheet, record all your incoming links. Additional data should include the name of the site, Google PageRank, linking URL, link type (organic or non-organic), anchored text, link status (i.e. active), date reviewed and comments.

2. Recheck your backlinks
Tracking the links to your site is just the beginning. Not all links are permanent (for a wide variety of reasons). Periodically, you should check your list to ensure that your incoming links still exist. If not, you should determine if they were simply moved to another page (during site redesign) – or were removed all together. And… if it is a paid link, it should be at the top of your to be addressed list!

3. Test search results
You should also think past just getting a link. Ideally it should be crawled and indexed by the search engines – and show up in an organic search engine results page (SERP). This is when you get the real value. Test and record the results in the comments section of your Link Building Report.

4. Identify the web page(s)
We often find when reviewing the external links for our clients, that they generally all point to the home page. Is there another web page that would be better suited? Remember we want to improve ranking of more than just this one page. Spread the Google juice!

5. Analyze anchor text
Along the same lines, in analyzing the data, you may also discover that all (or most) of the anchored text is your “business name”. In addition, you may also find a number of meaningless terms such as “website” or “click here”. Or even worse, there may be no text just your company’s URL embedded into the link (Google is all about words). The company name, of course is good for building brand – but take this one step further and think “keywords”. You will need to request this modification from the linking site.

6. Use link value (as a gauge)
Yes, believe it or not, there are situations when managing a link is not worth the trouble. If the link value is low (PageRank 0 – 3), you may decide to pass it up. Keep it in your report for review at a later date.

7. Review your web analytics
Last but not least, you should be tracking and analyzing your traffic sources including both referring sites as well as the search engines. This will also help you determine – which aspects of your Link Building Campaign is working as well as what is not.

This, of course, is not a complete list. But these are some of the major and common oversights that we see when we audit or consult on in-house link building efforts. Before you embark on link submissions and link development, we recommend improving the links that you have already acquired. It holds true regardless of whether they are paid or natural links.

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Are you managing your inbounds links? is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

I suspect that many of my readers may not know what a 404 Error page is. But I can guarantee that all of you have seen one at one point or another.

In short, a 404 Error page is what you see when a website has no content associated with the URL you have keyed into your web browser’s address bar or a link you have clicked on.

You are probably asking yourself what the possible causes would be in order to display a website’s 404 Error page. You are also probably wondering if your website is serving up 404 Error pages.

Some Causes of 404 Errors

Deletion of website content that has been indexed by the Search engines. We see this all the time!

Lack of maintenance of inbound links. This happens when you link to some part of your website from somewhere else (i.e. a partner site, LinkedIn, etc…) and you then delete the content that the link was pointing to. In other words, you totally forgot about the hard work you did to get this additional traffic.
Note to self: Leverage (and manage) Inbound links.

FAT FINGERS: People mistyping a URL but still landing on your website — and getting a 404 Error!

You or your website developer starts to create content in your hosting space for future viewing and then inadvertently omits to block the Search Engines from indexing it. The search engines index the content pretty quickly. Someone finds the half-baked content in a Google Search, and sends you a courtesy note advising of same (blush). Before you realize that it has been indexed, you call your Developer; who sheepishly takes the content down. But the damage is done! The content in question is in Google’s Index and people now get a 404 Error page when they click (the no longer live) link the are seeing in the SERP! Sad but true.

Bad Internal links. Don’t laugh. We see this all the time. Website owner updates a page URL and forgets that there are internal links pointing to that content. Poof! Bye Bye web visitor!

Finding 404 Errors

It’s better to find 404 Errors on your website before a web visitor does. Methods for identifying 404 Errors on your website are dependent on what platform you use to run your website. We use WordPress and have employed some nifty plugins that track any 404 Errors that occur when someone is accessing our site. Plus we monitor our Google Analytics & Webmaster accounts closely. Yes, that right, Google Analytics tracks everything; including visits to our 404 Error page. Plus (in the case of Inbound links), you can see where the link originated. So a quick email can usually get the link fixed on the far end. Or it could be you forgetting to update an outbound link from your company’s Facebook Fan Page.

Fixing 404 Errors

I won’t go into every possible scenario. But usually the quickest way to fix a 404 Error is to do a 301 redirect. This is an easy fix where you simply “tell” the Internet that when someone hits whatever bad link, that link is redirected to a link that has appropriate content. This strategy is often used when moving websites or if you change your website’s URL Structure. We did it last Summer when we upgraded our website to WordPress and changed the site’s URL structure. This involved 301 Redirects for +100 pages!

404 Error Pages

Okay face it, no matter what, somehow someone will get a 404 Error when they hit your website. In the eventuality of this happening, our advice is to make sure that your 404 error page is useful inasmuch as the web surfer is already unhappy with getting a 404 Error. Let’s keep them on your site. Give them some options.

For example, show them your sitemap. Suggest that maybe they mistyped a URL. Place your site search within easy reach so that they can do a quick search. If you want some ideas of what to put on a 404 Error page, have a look at ours. Be creative.

Here’s a good one!

A useless 404 Error Page

So what do 404 errors have to do with SEO? Everything as monitoring and mitigating 404 errors are part of a well balanced SEO diet.

Have you checked your website for 404 errors lately?

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SEO and 404 Error Pages: What's the Big Deal? is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Guest Post by Jill Whalen

Why We Do What We Do in SEO

I hear from many people who want to be told exactly what they need to do to get high rankings and bring more targeted search engine traffic to their websites. I wish I could provide them with a straight answer, but every site has its own needs when it comes to SEO. Which means there’s no exact rule that will work each and every time for any website.

One thing, however, that can help you figure out how to SEO your site is to learn the whys behind the specific techniques you always hear about. But to understand the whys, you first need to get the gist of how search engines work. Sounds scary, I know, but I’m going to make it as simple and painless as possible so stick with me!

In very simplistic terms, there are 2 main components to the search engines: the crawler and the algorithm.

The crawler, which is sometimes referred to as a spider, a robot, or simply a bot, is what goes out on the web and fetches all the pages of information that it can get its virtual spidey legs on.

The algorithm (or algo) is basically the ranking formula that each search engine uses to determine the relevancy of any page that the crawler finds.

The search engines use this formula to decide out of the pages that were previously fetched which pages they should show for which keyword phrases that any searcher might type into the search box. Those keyword phrases are also sometimes referred to as a person’s “search query.”

While the algo is a formula, it’s so complicated that it’s not something you can simply reverse-engineer. The engines look at hundreds of factors and weigh them all differently. This is why you’ll find that automated SEO software doesn’t work well to increase your rankings.

Here’s an interesting point those hundreds of factors that go into the relevancy algorithm boil down to two major things:

What you say about yourself, and what others say about you.

Really. It’s as simple (and as hard) as that!

“What you say about yourself” means the information you provide on your website, or the words that you write on your pages. The Internet is mostly a word-based medium. Every single web page has its own story to tell. Each page should be relevant to one or more search keywords or phrases. And each page’s story helps the search engines understand which search queries the page is relevant to.

Make sense?

So now let’s look at what others say about you. This aspect of how the search engines determine relevancy is known as the “off-page” criteria, and it’s typically done through links.

That is, another site owner likes what you say or offer on your site, and wants to tell their own site visitors about it. The way they do this is by linking to your site – or a specific page of your site. Search engines take these links into account because what others say about you provides an additional layer of trust beyond what you say about yourself.

Still with me?

These two major factors how search engines work and what they’re looking for help clarify what you need to do SEO-wise to keep them happy.

First, you need to steer clear of any technical issues that can impede the crawler from finding, reading and indexing the pages of your website. The easier you make it for them to do their job, the better chance your pages will have of showing up for relevant searches.

Which means you need to start on the SEO of your website from the very beginning. You’re going to need lots of up-front research on keywords and other elements. You’ll also need to make sure your content is written to appeal to both your users and to the search engines. While all of this *can* be done later, you’ll save yourself tons of time if you plan your SEO before you ever start developing your website.

Then, once you’ve got a crawler-friendly website, you’ll need to create pages that conform to the search engines’ algorithms by making sure they are not only relevant to what people are looking for, but interesting and unique enough for others to want to link to them. You’ve also got to spend time getting the word out about your website, because even the greatest content in the world won’t market itself!

I hope I’ve simplified the search engine process and SEO enough that you understand why you need to use the specific tactics that are involved. If you always keep the two major factors that search engines are looking for in mind what you say about yourself and what others say about you you’ll always be able to make the right decisions for your website.

It’s those two factors that drive the SEO process and fulfill its goal of helping your target audience find your website when they’re seeking out exactly what you offer.

Jill

Jill Whalen, CEO  of High Rankings and co-founder of SEMNE, has been performing SEO services since 1995. Jill is the host of the HRA SEO newsletter and the High Rankings SEO forum.

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What SEOs do – and the whys behind it is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Duplicate content is alive and well on the Web! And here’s why you as a website owner should care.

Real life examples are great fodder for Blog posts. So let’s dig into the topic of ‘duplicate content’ and why it can be harmful to your website’s rankings with Search Engines. I’ll be using Google in my explanation. But my comments hold true for all Search Engines.

First and foremost, Search Engines are not “smart”. Blasphamy? No, they are not! They are too smart as in as they will index everything they can find.

Sidenote: Indexing is a related topic which I will cover in a future Blog Post. : “To Index or Not to Index, That is the Question!”.

Back to duplicate content. In the simplest of terms, duplicate content happens when the same website content is indexed via more then one URL. What do I mean? Let’s look at some examples.

Example 1: Canonical URLs
Here we are looking at the same website where duplicate content is hosted on 2 different URLs:

URL 1: www.myniftybusiness.ca
URL 2: www.myniftybusiness.ca/ home.html or www.myniftybusiness.ca/index.php

Looking at the above example, if you see the exact same content in your web browser with both URLs, you can be sure that Google will also. And that, dear reader is ‘duplicate content’.

Example 2: www and non-www versions
www.myniftybusiness.ca and myniftybusiness.ca. You should be able to reach your website by typing either example into your browser’s address bar. So far so good. Here’s a 2 step test to check if your website is at risk of being identified as having duplicate content:

Type www.myniftybusiness.ca into your browser’s address bar. The site loads and www.myniftybusiness.ca still shows in the browser’s address bar – okay. Now type myniftybusiness.ca (no www) into your browser’s address bar. If myniftybusiness.ca still shows up in the address bar, you have a problem that needs to be resolved. I call this the worst case of ‘duplicate content’ as basically your website’s entire contents are at risk of being double-indexed by Google (and Bing, and Yahoo… etc…). In short, your website should be able to be accessed by either the www version of your website’s URL or the non www version of your website’s URL. But not both!

I have also seen websites that are constructed in such a way as to allow duplicate content scenarios solely through the coding that is done when the site is built.

Example 3: Coding errors
A well laid out site has a form and flow to it that allows for expandibility. Most good website designers understand this concept. After all it is logical. Things, however, can fall off the rails in a scenario such as what follows. A designer is working with a client and they come up with a well thought out structure that categorizes a large volume of products: www.myniftywebsite.ca/product1, www.myniftywebsite.ca/product2, www.myniftywebsite.ca/product3, etc… You get the idea. Then, because of the programming language they are using they may end up having to do something like this www.myniftywebsite.ca/product1/index.aspx, www.myniftywebsite.ca/product2/index.aspx, www.myniftywebsite.ca/product3/index.aspx. In short each product page can be reached by keying in www.myniftywebsite.ca/product1 or www.myniftywebsite.ca/product1/index.aspx (1 example). Google could index both. Duplicate content!

Example 4: Duplicate websites
Another example, and one that really gets under my skin, are these cookie cutter websites that are being flogged all over the Internet. You know the ones I mean. The sales pitch is usually something like, “Let us build your website and fill it with relevant content. $XXXX and you will be off and running.” Sounds good eh? Not! Why? Because they will be selling the exact same content to everyone who is in the same line of business as you are. Google will eventually find it and will have to decide which content is more relevant (you don’t get a say in this). My favorite is real estate agents in the same city who buy into this scenario. In a competitive business such as real estate, you want unique and engaging content…. not duplicate content.

So why is duplicate content so bad?

Duplicate content is bad because it can dilute your website’s positioning within the Search Engines. How bad is that? This is tougher to answer as the algorythms that each search engine uses are constantly changing. So one cannot say something like: “My site has duplicate content and it has gone to page 400 on Google’s SERP!”. Rather you would say, “Thanks Helen for letting me know I have a duplicate content situation on my website. We better work together to get this resolved.” I say this tongue in cheek.

How to check for scenarios where duplicate content may be getting indexed by Google (and the other Search Engines)

Review the above examples and see if what I outline above is happening. Look at your Google Analytics reports. It will jump out at you. And if it shows up in GA, then you know that you have an issue that needs fixing.

How do I fix duplicate content?

I won’t tell you how to fix it as there are so many scenarios to take into consideration. However, the first step in fixing a problem is understanding what that problem is. So # 1: Identify whether or not you have a duplicate content scenario. #2: Work with your SEO professional (Me!) and your Webmaster to work through the technical issues that are causing your woes. Together you will get through it!

More information on solving duplicate content issues

If you aren’t pooped by now, here’s a great video (featuring Google Geek Greg Grothaus) on duplicate content and solving related issues. Grab some popcorn and prepare to learn some great stuff in the next 15 minutes!

Hint: Skip to about 4 minutes in for the real meat.

So…. do you have this SEO technical issue with your site?

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SEO and Duplicate Content: Why should I care? is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel