Needed to do another post about top 10 rankings not being SEO in support Tadeusz Szewczyk's recent post on 10 Steps to Success on the ’Net Without SEO published at Google Blogoscoped recently.
"…The way SEO works in Germany on Google.de can not really work for international websites in English. Moreover nowadays you do not need conventional SEO tactics to have success on the Net or in Google. In order to make a site succeed in these times you have to forget everything you know about on page optimization and link building first."
This seems to be the logical result of many sites wanting to have international rankings (search engine rankings in every country where there is audinece for a site's products or services). SEO is really hard to do internationally, perhaps the best expert in doing that kind of thing is Bill Hunt of GlobalStrategies.com and Neo@Oglivy (Neo@Oglivy aquired GlobalStategies LLC earlier this year and Bill is now at Director at Oglivy - he still consults at IBM, which is where my connection to him originated). BTW, my friend, Mike Levin, at Connors Communications, and the creator of www.HitTail.com, has spearheaded a group to handle International SEO for you ..and if that's your need, I'd look to Mike Levin and Connors first.
The problem with International SEO on top of the logistical issues of how to make sure your site is seen as local country content is the translation of content that will also do well for SEO in whatever country it needs to appear in. Since most translators don't know SEO well …. doing SEO internationally is extremely hard - and only a few have mastered it to any degree…again, Bill Hunt is probably the best person in the world for this kind of thing - and there may be only 5 or 6 other people in the world who could pull something like International SEO off.
Having said that - it's almost impossible to do international SEO without a business partner in every single market … making it a very expensive proposition. I understand Tadeusz's point of view and agree with it.
"1…Discover your niche
Be different, choose a topic or product that not everybody else already covers or sells. Discovering it is not to be confused with “keyword research” as in conventional SEO. You try to introduce a new niche not just obeying the Google users demands. Try a different angle. Even a very crowded place like SEO itself does have new ones. I am indeed the first blogger to tackle mainly the SEO 2.0 topic. "
What this is really saying is to go after more "long tail" type of subjects where there's less competition - it's more of a "Blue Ocean Strategy" of SEO, to put it Corporate Speak. Create your audience and nurture it rather than trying to do battle with your competitors (that's the "Red Ocean" Strategy).
For example, Tadeusz Szewczyk does not try to optimize his sites for "Seo Tool" or "Search Engine Optimization"….forget it ..he's got too much competition. Instead, he made up a term called "Seo 2.0" which plays well with "Web 2.0" and does, in fact, represent a difference of opinion with what other SEO authorities are telling us (ramming down our throats at SES Conferences - even as it works less and less well - like the death rattle of snake …or should we say…snake oil).
"…2. Use Wordpress
Instead of “on page optimization” you can install Wordpress that is search engine friendly out of the box. Wordpress is not only a blog software, you can use it as small scale CMS and it will suffice for most average websites. Also “search engine submission” even with XML sitemaps is not needed anymore with Wordpress. It pings Google Blog Search automatically so your blog posts end up in the Google index just a few hours later. "
It could be almost any blog platform, not just WordPress. Again, Connors Communications has a product that can take a regular site and make it act like a blog; the page describing this process is not up yet but in essence it comes down to a couple of steps - but there's Secret Sauce that Connors and Mike Levin developed that I haven't seen yet:
- Take Customers current site (worse is better) and create an XML feed of all the content.
- Process the XML feed to SEO Optimize it (i guess you could also "internationalize it at this point as well)
- Feed it back to static web page that looks identical to the clients site but is SEO Optimized
- Create and RSS Feed that Pings back all the Search Engines and Directories whenever content is updated - just like a blog does.
- Create a redirect that moves traffic to the new, SEO Optimized site so the transition is "seamless" and done in a way that preserves whatever ranking and backlinks the client's site already had.
That's the process as I understand it - and I know there will be some more information on it shortly - it's pioneered by Connors Communications but it's really the brainchild of Mike Levin - who understands this stuff way better than most people in the field of SEO/SEM, being both a Programmer and a Marketer and a Communications Expert (PR) at the same time.
I do something a little different for my own blogs - having found that I generate a great deal of traffic off of what I write, especially on Webmetricsguru.com. I'm generating about 50,000 visits a month off my writings lately - just on this blog along. I incorporate SEO into my writings but what I do, much like what Tadeusz Szewczyk, is not really traditional SEO (if such a thing really exists - let's call it SEO 1.0).
"3..Create a killer CSS design and submit it to CSS galleries
Traditional SEO is all about link building or getting links. Sites doing SEO often look crappy. These days people link web sites that look great just for the sake of the design. Unlike some years ago nowadays CSS and web standards are the best way to design a site. Now it is not difficult to create a great design, especially with Wordpress. Create a killer design for your blog and you will be linked everywhere. Just check out this list at CSS Juice."
This is an area I do nothing with - I'm not a programmer or a web designer even - more of a Web Analyst and Artist ….. I don't really get involved with CSS but imagine it is helpful to do what Tadeusz Szewczyk says - he knows more about this than I do.
"4..Allow trackbacks, use dofollow
Blogs thrive in connection with each other. The best way of connecting blogs is the trackback function. Install the dofollow plugin in order not to treat other bloggers like spammers.
Maybe that's what some bloggers are doi
ng - I haven't tried it since most of the blogs I write for are maintained by others and I don't actually set them up - I create the content but don't control the template. While Trackbacks are set up, more or less by default in most blogs (not sure about Blogger though) the "Dofollow" part is probably not. As a blogger, most of your link juice with be from other blogs so you'd want to do this - esp as WordPress has a dofollow plugin for it while I'm not sure Movable Type has the equivalent plugin. This is more of a webmaster type utility and I suspect Tadeusz Szewczyk is way more hands on with the website template and hosting part of all of this than I am. I'd go with what he says here - he probably knows this stuff like the back of his hand and if he says - add the Dofollow plugin and you have WordPress - I'd do it.
"5..Socialize, write comments and link other blogs
Link and mention other blogs and bloggers in your posts. Also commenting in other blogs is much appreciated as blogging is not a monologue if it’s done right. ""6..Include social media on your site, use social media yourself
Include buttons to your favorite social bookmarking services like del.icio.us or Stumple Upon. Be careful with social news sites like Digg or Reddit. They may crash your server and/or cost you lots of money by driving tons of useless traffic in short periods of time to your site.
I'm not sure about this 5, but I'm all for 6. I think if it's going to work your going to have to do ALOT of it. The thing is that your comments can be indexed along with what your commenting on - so in theory, the more content you write - even a comment, the more chances you have to come up in Search for something you wrote. Certainly, it's better to comment liberally - as long as you stay within theme.
Here's what I mean. I am a Web Analyst, I'm known for that, I'm also an Artist but not so well known for that. When I comment on Web Metrics I want to point back to the blog that is about that and when I comment on Art - I want to make sure I point back to my blog about Art (www.artnewyorkcity.com).
In all things, I want to make sure that theme and keywords (a carryover from SEO 1.0) is somewhat in my mind, even if I don't deliberately do anything to optimize my content or my comments.
Social Media, on the other hand, is important, and some claim it's replacing blogging - or even that Microblogging is replacing blogging. I don't know about that since I'm not really doing much Tweeting and I'm not a Twitterbug yet …but I am the Director of Social Media and Community for the Web Analytics Association and Social Media is the direction people are going to, more and more.
To the extent you can put Social Media into your sites - you can increase "engagement" and possibly "Buzz Traffic" by making it more fun and rewarding to be part of your site. Just realize that in doing so, your giving up some control to your "community" of friends and clients and that at some point, you may become more of a "Curator" of your brand and website than it's content creator …which is fine ..because your audience will be creating your content for you! But you have to be able to give up control and know how to handle it - and reply quickly when things spiral out of control - and not a lot of companies are ready for that yet.
I'll stop here as the post is getting quite long and I've given Tadeusz Szewczyk plenty of attention - the rest of his points 6-10 are great, I'd follow them but some of it goes into directions that are more hands on than I am - so I haven't done all of those points. It's enough that he says it works - I'd agree it probably does.
Thanks Tadeusz for a great post and I hope I added something to the conversation with my own input.
