Fed up with his webmaster and an ongoing list of SEO excuses, a new
prospective client asked me advice on what to do about his lack of
presence in Google search results.
A little research was in order. Using the usual terms for his
industry, I found him nowhere on Google, just as he had said. Next I
viewed the coding on his web pages and found that his webmaster had
neglected to address many issues pertaining to SEO, such as adequate
title and description, as well as providing minimal page content from
which to extract keywords. In addition, he duplicated a single page over
and over with one minor difference, adding the name of each local town
in our region in the title as an attempt to capture geographic search
terms.
The Client’s Dilemma and Our Plan of Action
Since this client’s financial arrangement set up a year ago involved a
monthly payment for which he received the above website, as well as
hosting and domain registration through the contractor, I asked whether
he thought the contractor would allow us to “point” any traffic from the
original domain to a new domain I could register in the meantime. If
so, I could develop a new website for him to address these concerns. If
the relationship was a lost cause, however, I told the client that it
would probably not amount to a loss of much business since no one could
find him in web searches anyway. He agreed we should just start all over
again from scratch.
Great. Now I would be faced with establishing page one SEO for him
with a brand new domain name and an even newer website. All with no
seniority, backlinks, or history of any kind to which Google could
relate. Having never had such a set of circumstances previously, this
was a scary proposition. But the client said that if I could get him to
show up among his competition in search results within a few months’
time, he could live with that. I said it was definitely a possibility.
So we began our project.
A Step-By-Step Strategy
First I chose to register a domain very close to his original, using
his company name, but adding “NY” at the end to include his location. As
I frequently do, I chose PowWeb for hosting which allowed me a free
domain registration and a deep discount on the annual hosting fee. I
also received a bonus for one of my other websites so my total cost was a
lot less than GoDaddy who usually comes in at the bare minimum. When
it’s time to renew next year at full rate, I can negotiate with PowWeb
for a renewal that matches their reduced bulk rates or just transfer the
whole thing over to GoDaddy who will give me a year’s free domain
extension as a bonus for the transfer.
With my only project expense little more than pocket change, I was
free to devote my total attention to creating a website that would
outshine the competition in every way. My only trepidation was how long
Google would make me wait before seeing any results in searches. I was
prepared for the typical six to eight weeks.
Painstakingly writing extensive, interesting and creative text which
differed on every page to complement excellent visuals, I included
detailed “image alt,” “link alt,” and “title” coding everywhere I could.
I added his industry membership, certification and service expertise
logos, as well as many satisfied customer reviews with detailed project
descriptions and mentioned specific locations.
I set up links to his Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook pages, in
addition to adding social endorsement buttons for each. I listed his
many services individually on every page with links to his comprehensive
service page, anchored directly to the appropriate elaborate
explanations clients would need to judge his full value.
I wrote a different title and description for every page to represent
as many probable keywords potential customers might use to search for
his services. Then I created and uploaded a sitemap page in a format
both Google and Bing would accept so they would have all pages ready to
index.
Once the site was ready, I registered it with Google Analytics and
Google Webmaster Tools so I could use these diagnostics to further
refine my work. I also registered the site with Bing Webmaster, a new
effort on my part, which I found impressive and consistent with Google
in its many reports and statistics.
How The New Website Ranked in Searches
The client’s review was a rave and I advised that we go live right
away so Google would have adequate time to get to know us. Two days
passed when my searches returned no results, even those specifically
aimed at the exact domain name. On day three, one of my generic searches
brought his site up on page two in the midst of competition with years
of seniority on the Internet.
A second search landed him on page one, among his biggest
competitors, one for whom I had won numerous marketing and design awards
years ago and with whom I continue business relations today. This
competitor had also purchased adwords from Google which I noticed kept
his organic search results quite prominent during my many search
experiments. Yet, my client’s new website beat out his ranking on page
one in an important search!
This was unbelievable to me. His site has no backlinks whatsoever.
His seniority is nonexistent since we wiped out his history on the
Internet. And his traffic is virtually zero because it is a brand new
website. Yet, with use of various keywords and search phrases, his
website appeared in the competitive mix on pages one through five only
three days into its life.
On both Google and Bing webmaster diagnostics, I can see exactly what
searches have brought him up. On Google’s actual search page preview
which appears to the right of search results, I can see what text is
targeted. In some cases, the word “company” was linked to some of the
industry logos I had added, which is an ironic, inadvertent and
unexpected twist. The Google preview highlights text used both on the
home page as well as other pages as the specific source of its keyword
matches.
Only when I repeated the five exact words in the exact order of the
home page title did his website appear on page one, though, which proves
the overwhelming power of that component in SEO.
The more terms I used in my searches, the more his search ranking
improved. Using just a 2-word search relegated his website to a much
poorer ranking on Google, but he retained a good showing (page 3) on
Bing.
An Astonishing Discovery!
Webmaster Tools has also given me a list of website keywords in order
of priority based on the number of times each term appears.
This is a most startling set of statistics. As I often have done in
recent years because of proven success, I had added a block of small
text at the foot of each page specifying the name of every town he would
service. Instead of working to my advantage, these town names were
dominating his keywords, yet were not appearing in search results when
targeted. As a consequence, when other keywords were used in search
experiments, these town names may have been responsible for crowding out
the prevalence of more valid terms needed to bolster his rankings. I
have removed those blocks of text from every page and hopefully his
rankings will improve soon.
Google Has A New Darling in Organic Search Results
I also noticed that Google is now featuring its Google+ pages for
many companies in search results at the top of its organic listings.
Although my client had set up his page, he has been remiss in adding any
content which could explain why he is not included in those results. If
he had agreed to pay me for the effort, I would have gladly uploaded
plenty of worthwhile content to his Google+ site about whose critical
importance I had advised him early on!
This case study provides ample insight that parameters for Google’s
algorithm have drastically changed over the past few years, giving
businesses without an established Internet presence a chance at search
success if SEO is managed carefully. It also shows that you are never
locked into using a domain or contractor you do not like. Finally, it is
a glimpse into the future of SEO as an everchanging, evolving science
about which we can never be too sure.
Marilyn Bontempo, Post from: SiteProNews
Google’s SEO Darlings – A Current Case Study with Actual Results
