Client is everything—but what should the clients...

We should not try to be smart, smartness will only last to get the project—the results one will deliver will speak volumes, and then clients can decide about whether to continue with the services or not. So client always has a choice. But it happens many times that clients do not seem to be all that willing to give a chance to the service provider. Most of the times, it is because the clients are misinformed about what is SEO or what can be done with SEO. They forget to realize that there are only 10 top results displayed on the Google search results page, and not everybody can fit in there.

But isn’t that what SEO is all about? Why should I even go for SEO?

At present, the kind of algorithm Google search uses is based on calculations, and calculations are always taken advantage of. That is why Google clearly says that one should not worry about search optimization techniques, and instead worry about quality content and site structure. But there are companies who have already made it big in the market and they promote other sites solely based on their reputation (not the clients product). And if you are ready to spend lot of money, you too would get such ranks, but how many of the “traffic” will convert into customers? You never really can get such answers, can you?

So what is my point?

Instead of deciding your online marketing strategy based on a single factor called as page rank, it makes sense that the clients should instead define their goals, their needs for the business and sit with the service providers and talk about achieving those goals instead of demanding and then not benefitting.

But clients come first, isn’t it?

I never disagreed with that, I am just saying that we can create a better playing field for the clients and the SEO services by understanding the “catches” in each other’s fields and then do make the most of what is available.

So what exactly should the client ask from the SEO services company? To be continued…

SEO tools for beginners...

If you are just starting out in SEO field, you will wonder about what kinds of tools you should use for various purposes. You want to search the page rank of a site, you open Google and start searching, then you want to analyze the keywords for a page and you start searching again. Web is filled with numerous tools for various purposes; these choices might overwhelm a beginner—I know how it feels.

So we decided to put together a list of SEO tools for the essential tasks that you may come across at various stages.

Here is the assorted list:

For checking Domain stats

Check domain age

For checking HTTP Headers

HTTP path Tool

For checking back-links

Backlinks of a website

Backlink Analysis tool

Google Page rank check, Adwords Keyword tool

Tool for Advanced Google searches
Google Page-rank Checker
Google Data center wise PageRank by Google data center
Google Adsense Keywords Search Tool

Google Keywords Analysis tools

Keyword Density Tool
Keyword Density Tool
Keyword Density checking Tool
Keyword Suggestion

Link Popularity/ Site Link Analyzer checking tools

Tool for checking the depth of the links
Tool for checking link Popularity
Tool for checking Link Popularity
Link Price Calculation Tool

There are more tools coming your way, please check back in.

Page-Rank or Search engine Ranking?...

Last week I had a discussion with my SEO team lead about one of the most controversial things in SEO business—Ah, the page-rank. I still remember the time when I had been interviewed by few SEO companies, “So how soon can you get me a Google page-rank of 1”, was the question raised with a sense of pride by one of the managers. I didn’t care to tell him that it works the other way (higher the number the better), I instead told him I cannot promise and that such things should not be on top of the “agenda” when working for a client. Result—everything that I had piled up till then (in the interview) crashed without a noise, as if I had attached a rank to my face but couldn’t live up to their expectation when I did not say what they expected to hear. You see the point?

My team lead had to say the following things:

• Page rank is controversial
• Lots of people doing business are promising page rank for websites
• Page rank adds almost no value to your business in the end
• It does NOT help in getting your page to the top in the SERPs
• Google might decide someday to totally do away with the concept of page-rank

Although I understand the emotion behind his words (even he knows that!), we do know that page-rank has its place when it comes to SEO, although its value is over-rated for sure by people who especially do not belong to the industry. Surely, it shouldn’t be one of the factors for rejecting a company for your SEO project.

Here is a bit of demystification:

1)      When lots of sites are competing for the same keywords to get into the SERPs (given that other factors are evened out), the one with higher page rank will get higher priority.

2)      Sites with higher PR are served with “high-value” add sense ads.

3)      Google bot will crawl the website with higher PR more often that the ones with lower PR, as a result more pages of higher PR site will be indexed more.

That is why specialists exist, why don’t you change your question next time around—“How soon can you get me into the first page of SERPs for my keyword?”

Now I have raised another controversy, haven’t I?