I want to talk about the worst mistake you can make when it comes to SEO and Google traffic: assuming Google is dumb. There are some very common mistakes I see on a all sort of websites, including “professional business” websites and these mistakes are mostly due to thinking Google is dumb and can’t detect basic patterns like keyword stuffing. Thinking you are smarter than Google will probably hurt your website more than help it.

Common mistakes

Writing with the search engines in mind at first is a bad idea. The best technique in my opinion is to write in a natural way AND THEN optimize what you wrote for search engines if you have to. Here are some common patterns I often see that won’t help your rankings:

• Overusing the target keywords (too much repetition)
• Overusing bold text
• Keywords stuffing
• Text with same color as background to hide keywords
• Not using h1, h2, hx tags
• Gazillion HTML errors (Not XHTML compliant)
• Page title too long with 100 keywords

Assuming Google is dumb

Why most of these mistakes also mean assuming Google is dumb? Well, let’s take “overusing the target keywords” for example: some people think that by making the target keywords appear on the page very often, it will improve their website’s ranking. While not entirely false, it is not entirely true. It is true that you have to make your keywords standout, but don’t assume Google can’t detect non-natural text. The Google algorithm is not as simple as “This keyword represent 25% of the total text, let’s rank the site higher for this keyword”. Look, there are thousands of engineers and PhDs behind the Google algorithm, I’m sure they thought of that.

It’s the same story for keyword stuffing. Don’t you think Google can’t detect simple keywords repetition patterns like “Internet Marketing, Marketing, Internet, Search Engine Optimisation, …, …” all cleanly separated by a comma? Please.

The same goes with using a hundred keywords in your website’s title and H tags. By doing that, you dilute the keywords and simply make it harder for Google to determine what your website is about. It’s not because “Web 2.0″ is one of the 50 keywords in your title that you will rank for “Web 2.0″, you have to prove to Google it’s a relevant keyword.

This goes on and on. My advice is: if you think you found a new “clever” way to rank higher and that it is kind of obvious, probably someone at Google thought about it too.

My top SEO basic tips

Here are my key advices for good website ranking:

• XHTML compliant website (hard with blogs), use http://validator.w3.org/ to validate
• Using H1, H2, H3 tags (only one H1 tag per page)
• Natural writing, still with an emphasis on your keywords
• Make your text and titles relevant
• Get decent “dofollow” backlinks
• Relevant anchor text for backlinks

There are a lot more of course, but if you do this, you’re good to go. And you know what? SEO is all about common sense, it’s when you try to be clever that you will most likely fail.

Share with us

Have you made some of these mistakes in the past and what are your top tips for a good ranking? Share with us your knowledge and what you think!

I thought of stopping here

I thought of stopping here, but then that would have been a too short article. Is it a problem? Well, it would’ve been because you expect me to write a much longer article. Why? Because that’s what most people do.  But in fact there is no problems about writing short posts, Seth Godin’s blog made the Time’s top 25 blogs list this year with nothing but short posts. Ironically, that’s probably why he made it in the top 25 blogs. If Seth was just like everyone else and was simply writing the way most people say you should write to please the search engines or to get ReTweeted, he wouldn’t be on the list. Still, most bloggers will tell you you don’t know a crap about writing if you go with short posts. I know, Steth is Seth.

It’s hard

Most people are very unique when they start producing content online because they know nothing about blogging: they just have a very unique idea and approach. It all change very quickly though when they start reading articles about how they should write and how they should generate traffic. From that moment, they become like everyone else with the same formula and approach.

Traffic is usually the reason that will get you to change the way you produce your content. It is easy to change the way you write or act simply because you don’t have traffic. I think a better approach would be to build a very solid small fan base and work from there, rather than targeting 99% of the population. But that’s just me.

The bottom line is that sticking to your uniqueness is hard because of every single person/blog/website trying to make you just like everyone else.

Some examples

Because Frogstr is mostly about Internet Marketing, I received a lot of comments and emails on a lot of things blogs about Internet Marketing should do to attract more readers and traffic. Here are some of them:

• “Ben, you should run a contest and have people subscribe by email”. That’s not what I do.
• “Ben, you should have a RSS contest against another blogger”. That’s not what I do.
• “Ben, you should offer a free ebook on subscription”. That’s not what I do.
• “Ben, you should write everyday”. That’s not what I do, I write when I have something to say.

I think you get the idea. Yes, these techniques work and I could maybe have twice the amount of traffic and 10 times more subscribers at this time, but that’s not the way I do things. It might not be the best way or the right way, but that’s my way.

What’s your way?

That is my question. What is your way? Are you doing things differently because of what everyone tells you to do? Are you doing what you think is right for you? Tell me.

While it is extremely flattering to be on such lists or can be very tempting to invest time in analyzing the different metrics to rank higher or simply get on the list, here’s my question: “At the end of the day, does such a list pays the bills?” No it doesn’t, but if you pay the bills with your online business, you will get on those lists without even trying.

I guess what I am trying to say is that there are a lot of things out there to get you focused on the wrong things. Getting on lists or getting more twitter followers is nice, but these won’t help you achieve your goals at the end of the day: they are the result of a successful online business.

What do you think?

]]> http://bentremblay.com/en/so-you-want-to-get-on-that-list/feed 59 http://bentremblay.com/en/sell-your-blog http://bentremblay.com/en/sell-your-blog#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2008 06:17:25 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://www.frogstr.com/?p=537 OK, sarcastic title here, but just to express how I am so not surprised. This week, three Internet Marketing blogs went on sale: The University Kid, LinkersBlog and Slyvisions. To be fully honest with you guys, it’s not true that I wasn’t surprised: I was a little bit surprised. I am expecting major shifts in this business in the coming months and that shift starts to happen as more and more bloggers will realize that blogging about Making Money Online is a freackin’ dead end. The shift is just happening a little faster than I expected.

Whatever their reasons, it’s not the point

OK, I am about to talk about the Make Money Online niche and how well “the dream” is being kept alive by a couple of selected bloggers. The fact that three good bloggers decided to sell their blog is just what I needed to post and write about the MMO niche and it is in no way related to the bloggers themselves. They all have different reasons to sell and that is perfectly fine with me. In fact, I spoke with Cooper from Linkers Blog and his reasons for selling are more than valid.

The dream

There is a dream out there my friends. The frickin’ dream that by blogging about making money online you will make money online. There is a CRUCIAL step that a lot of people tend to forget: successful “Make Money Online” bloggers were ALREADY making money when they started their blog. “The dream” keeps a lot of people going while the big guys are making the money.

The shift

The shift is about to happen guys. There are gazillions of MMO blogs out there and you know the funny part? Most people think that the only way to make money online is by running a MMO blog! Wrong. That’s just the dream and that dream is branded very well.

I see a lot of MMO blogs shutting down in the near future as the niche will get even more saturated and hard to monetize. Three big blogs are shutting down and I’m telling you this is only the beginning.

Internet Marketing is the next saturated niche

Unfortunately for me, I feel like the Internet Marketing niche will be extremely saturated as well. It’s important not to confuse Internet Marketing with MMO as IM is a lot larger and while it includes monetization, it also includes Internet strategies, social medias strategies, blogging, branding, etc. It will eventually become a much bigger niche as more and more people become “experts” and that the dream is kept alive. But you know, standing out of the crowd will be fun and challenging. At the same time, it is a nice reminder that it is important to focus on what’s outside the Internet Marketing niche because this is where the real potential is.

The winners will be the creative people

You know who will be the real winners in this industry my friends? The person who blog about cars, food, beer, tennis, chess or whatever, but with enough creativity, manages to be successful. These will be the next big Internet Marketers.

What are you waiting for?

OK, I actually know that most of you blogging about MMO/IM run a lot of other stuff in parallel and that is the way to go. I just want to say that if a MMO blog is the only thing you run, what are you waiting for? The MMO niche is not the real world, it’s important to know what’s out there and make a difference for the average Joe!

By the way…Just before you ask, I run other stuff

]]> http://bentremblay.com/en/sell-your-blog/feed 34 http://bentremblay.com/en/could-your-brand-be-having-no-brand http://bentremblay.com/en/could-your-brand-be-having-no-brand#comments Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:29:35 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://www.frogstr.com/?p=467 It’s really strange and interesting at the same time how things can happen. This morning I woke up and thought about branding yourself or your website and how much I like talking about it. This led me to ask myself an important question: “Am I full of shit?”. This is a very honest question to ask and I think you should ask yourself very often as you can look at things from a different angle. What that made me think of is: “What if I stop advertising what I am or my brand? Could it be possible to have no brand, still bring visitors and have a certain feeling of success?”

Your ‘no brand’ is your brand

Here’s my take on this branding Vs no branding situation: even if you claim not to be branding yourself or your website, in the end you will be marketing the idea that you have ‘no brand’ and that you are not branding! Woah, what?

let’s start with an example my friends. As you probably all know by now, I recently started doing videos and I had some pretty nasty editing problems with the first one. The outcome of this was that I decided to just drop the bomb without any editing and see what happens (Thanks Freddie). The result is that it seems like everyone liked the “one take” concept with no editing or anything and this was particularly appreciated in the Rubik’s Cube Vs Internet Marketing video I think.

Now here it is: “Ben you’re full of shit, you talk about branding and you don’t brand your videos”. What if my brand, trademark or what characterize my videos is to not have a brand? What if what make things special is the “one take” concept, no crap, no editing or whatever? You see, I’m not branding them, but the best part is that I’m currently selling you the idea that doing videos without editing, branding or whatever is awesome! So, what am I doing here? Marketing my friends!

Half full of shit

OK, I’m half full of shit! I want to do some editing, but only an intro would be enough for me as I want to keep the one take concept. I like the idea because I can’t really afford to screw up and I think it brings fluidity to the videos, but at the same time I’d like to have a recognizable introduction for proper branding! The previous example was really just a situation where you could be openly marketing the fact that you’re not branding!

You can even be cocky

I’m sure you know a blogger or maybe even a friend that are like this: “I don’t like flashy stuff, branding, marketing or whatever. I don’t have to hide behind marketing techniques to promote or give value to my stuff, my content is good enough, I don’t need that crap”.

What is that person doing? Branding my friends. What makes that person special is that she doesn’t want to get into heavy marketing/branding and tries to capitalize on that. Keeping things simple can be your trademark just like being completely crazy and flashy can be.

Bottom line: you’re always branding

Bottom line is that whatever you do, you’re branding. So, if you don’t like marketing or flashy stuff and you’re much more sober, why not just brand that? Use it as your trademark just like “I don’t do marketing, I don’t need that crap” can be part of your strategy! Then, you might be famous one day and be the guy who never did any flashy or branding stuff. But you know what? In fact that was your whole strategy from the very first beginning. That was exactly what you were trying to sell to other people: “Cut the crap, I don’t need that stuff”.

Brand whatever you want, but brand. Even if that means marketing the idea you’re not branding. Do it now because one day, you’ll have to do it anyway.

This probably is my most confusing article.