Archive for the 'SEO' Category

Clueless Indian link monkeys revisited

Indian link spammerBeing an Indian by birth and an SEO, nothing riles me more than seeing Indians behaving badly on the international stage known as the Web, particularly link monkeys.

I run many sites, one being a directory of Australian and New Zealand websites. In the registration email, I say

SEOs please note: Do NOT submit sites that are not about Australia or New Zealand, else your account will be deleted.

Indian SEOs: Read the above para in case you missed it.

There is an idiot of a link monkey who gives his address as “Block-B/191, Lohia Nagar, Ghaziabad 201001″ or “191, Block - B, Rahul Palace, Lohia Nagar, Ghaziabad-201001″ depending on his mood. He is always pushing some recovery software website - partition recovery, flash drive recovery, pictures recovery, etc. Clearly, he cannot read English, as I keep deleting his account and his submissions. But he keeps resubmitting the numerous websites that are all registered to one Tarun Tyagi, also of Ghaziabad. Tarun, if you read this, fire that link monkey!

Just take a look at this poor, unsuspecting directory that was spammed by the same idiot: http://www.japanautopages.com/city/ghaziabad-India.php. A screen shot is on the right. Here is another, and another.

Submitting links to low-value directories does nothing for ranking. Getting a link from a reputable website in the same industry is worth a thousand of these spammy submissions.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Australia’s top 100 association websites

It is useful for an SEO to check from time to time which Australian association websites are considered by Google’s ranking algorithm to be the best. Best means trust and authority. These sites show good toolbar PageRank and have quality backlinks. This list does not imply that one site is better than another - that exercise is left to the marketing head of each website. If your site ranks in the top 10 or top 20 for the typical search phrases used by ordinary people, then your website is a winner!

Well done to the webmasters!

According to a Google.com.au search for “www” and restricting it to .asn.au sites, here is Google’s verdict:

1. Australian Breastfeeding Association
2. NATA
3. Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA)
4. FPA
5. Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
6. Australian Industry Group
7. Bicycle SA
8. Australian Council of Trade Unions
9. AASW
10. 101FM Logan City
11. Australian Water Association
12. Carers Queensland
13. Australian Bankers Association
14. Australian Automobile Association
15. Australian Anthropological Society
16. Financial Industry Complaints Service
17. Australian Council for International Development
18. ALA
19. Mental Health Association
20. Chiropractors’ Association of Australia
21. Australian Local Government Association
22. ASFA
23. APESMA
24. Law Institute of Victoria
25. Cancer Council WA
26. Law Council of Australia
27. Local Government Association of Queensland
28. Australian Institute of Food Science Technology
29. Ai Group (incorporating AEEMA)
30. Australasian College of Dermatologists
31. APA
32. The Law Society
33. The National Folk Festival
34. NECA
35. Surf Life Saving Australia
36. Carers NSW
37. Queensland Writers Centre
38. The Australasian Evaluation Society
39. Institute of Actuaries of Australia
40. APC
41. Craft Victoria
42. Netball Australia
43. Australian Employers Network on Disability
44. Municipal Association of Victoria
45. Water Services Association of Australia
46. Australian Institute of International Affairs
47. Women’s Legal Service NSW
48. Public Interest Advocacy Centre
49. New South Wales Bar Association
50. Food Safety Information Council
51. Logistics Association of Australia
52. Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory
53. Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch)
54. Law Society of South Australia
55. RSPCA Western Australia
56. Carers WA
57. Palliative Care Victoria
58. WMAA
59. VAC/GMHCe
60. Optometrists Association Australia
61. The Australian Gas Association
62. Film and Television Institute
63. Restaurant & Catering Australia
64. WALGA
65. Bicycle Federation of Australia
66. Australian Music Association
67. The Australian Association of Gerontology
68. Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists
69. Alzheimer’s Australia NSW (redirect)
70. Native Fish Australia
71. Motor Neurone Disease Association of New South Wales
72. CRC Association
73. Pride Western Australia Inc.
74. Australian Pituitary Foundation
75. SNAICC
76. Energy Networks Association
77. Australian Law Students’ Association
78. Palliative Care Council of South Australia
79. NSW Nurses’ Association
80. West Australian Music Industry
81. GriefLink
82. Australian Marine Sciences Association
83. Immigration Advice and Rights Centre
84. Australian Institute of Radiography
85. AVBC
86. SimTecT 2008 Simulation Conference and Exhibition
87. ASSDA
88. ParaQuad Victoria
89. UNYA
90. Australian Shareholders’ Association
91. APMF Australian Paint Manufacturers Federation
92. A3P
93. AEPCA
94. Australian Practice Nurses Association
95. The Push
96. MTBA
97. Dads in Distress
98. Australian Forest Growers
99. Theatre Australia
100. Aged and Community Services Association of NSW & ACT

Popularity: 29% [?]

Australia’s top 100 government websites

It is useful for an SEO to check from time to time which Australian government websites are considered by Google’s ranking algorithm to have trust and authority. These sites show good toolbar PageRank and have quality backlinks. Well done to their webmasters!

According to a Google.com.au search for “www” and limiting it to .gov.au sites, here is Google’s verdict:

1. www.gov.au
2. Department of Immigration and Citizenship
3. Medicare Australia
4. Parliament of Australia
5. Innovation.gov.au
6. Centrelink
7. Australian War Memorial
8. Australian National Maritime Museum
9. Australian Taxation Office
10. National Museum of Australia
11. National Parks and Wildlife Service
12. City of Melbourne
13. Better Health Channel
14. Department of Veterans’ Affairs
15. Australian Bureau of Statistics
16. Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
17. AIATSIS
18. Department of Education, Employment and Workplace
19. Bureau of Meteorology
20. Customs
21. Department of Health and Ageing
22. Office of the Privacy Commissioner
23. Austrade - Australian Trade Commission
24. Department of Human Services
25. Department of the Environment, Water and Heritage
26. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
27. Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service
28. IP Australia
29. National Library of Australia
30. Australian Securities and Investments Commission
31. affa.gov.au
32. Biotechnology Australia
33. ACCC
34. AusAID
35. business.gov.au
36. australia.gov.au
37. Department of Climate Change
38. Community Water Grants
39. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
40. Reserve Bank of Australia
41. Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
42. Northern Territory Government
43. AusIndustry
44. Going to Uni
45. Victoria Police
46. Geoscience Australia
47. workplace.gov.au
48. Food Standards Australia New Zealand
49. dewr.gov.au
50. Victoria Online
51. ACT Government
52. Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
53. Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
54. Queensland Government
55. Workplace Authority
56. City of Sydney
57. ACMA
58. Australian Sports Commission
59. National Archives of Australia
60. Australian Antarctic Division
61. NSW RTA
62. National Health and Medical Research Council
63. Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government
64. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
65. NSW Government Portal
66. Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO)
67. Internet Visa Services Australia
68. Superannuation Complaints Tribunal
69. HealthInsite
70. ascc.gov.au
71. Therapeutic Goods Administration
72. Attorney-General’s Department
73. Australian Electoral Commission
74. Wagenet
75. Prime Minister of Australia
76. NOIE (AGIMO redirection page)
77. NTIS
78. Art Gallery of New South Wales
79. Government Education Portal
80. Endeavour Awards
81. The Treasury
82. NT WorkSafe
83. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
84. National Gallery of Australia
85. Productivity Commission
86. Australian Federal Police
87. Department of Defence
88. Australia Council for the Arts
89. GreenPower
90. South Australia Central
91. Australian Institute of Criminology
92. Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation
93. SCAMwatch
94. Australian Government Emergency Management Australia
95. Brisbane City Council
96. Australian Institute of Marine Science
97. Australian Museum Online
98. ComLaw
99. Energy Rating
100. NSW Health

Since government departments tend to follow similar guidelines within their own level, e.g. a particular state or the Federal government, it was interesting to observe a variety of labelling practices. Not surprisingly, many webmasters still use the phrases “Welcome to …” or “home page” in the title tag. There is nothing wrong being neighbourly to web visitors, but SEO best practice advises against wasting this most valuable part of a web page on something non-essential.

There was no consistency with the way the titles were phrased - many used the official name, e.g. “Department of Blah”, while some used the contraction. Do you know what is AIATSIS? Now I know it is the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. My preference would be to see the official title first in the title text. Since Google does not show more than 62 characters in the results heading, the viewer is left guessing what comes after “The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development …”

The Federal government and national heritage websites have done a lot better than have the state governments when it comes to ranking. This is probably because they have a lot of quality incoming links, including from some state websites and large companies, whereas not many Federal sites would link to the various states. Local government has fared very poorly, again because of a lack of quality inbound links. At a quick glance, the first city council websites appear below #400.

This ranking is largely of academic interest, as the query looks for trust and authority. It does not attempt to show where a site would rank for a targeted search, such as “Waverley council rates enquiries” - the NSW council of that name ranks in the top two results. Each marketing manager of the representative departments should identify such important keyphrases and see if they rank in the top 20 results in Google, Live, Yahoo or Sensis. This is not something for the “IT department” to solve, even though they might nominally control access to the website.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Australia’s top 100 organisation websites

It is useful for an SEO to check from time to time which Australian organisational websites are considered by Google’s ranking algorithm to be the best. Best in this context means trust and authority. These sites show good toolbar PageRank and have quality backlinks. Well done to their webmasters!

According to a Google.com search for “www” and limiting it to .org.au sites, here is Google’s verdict:

1. Standards Australia
2. Australian Computer Society
3. Beyond Blue
4. A C O S S
5. Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia
6. PBS FM
7. Oxfam Australia
8. Australian Copyright Council
9. Heart Foundation
10. Australian Red Cross
11. Bicycle NSW
12. FBi Radio
13. Australian Institute of Refrigeration Air Conditioning and Heating
14. Lungnet
15. Sydney Festival 2008
16. Lifeline Australia
17. Ian Potter Foundation
18. WSC
19. Engineers Australia
20. Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia
21. Alzheimers Australia
22. Vision Australia
23. The Cancer Council
24. AusCERT
25. ACF
26. Australian Psychological Society
27. Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
28. Zoos Victoria
29. Bayside Health
30. Triple R FM
31. Black Dog Institute
32. C31
33. Greening Australia
34. Amnesty International Australia
35. WWF Australia
36. 3CR Community Radio
37. Royal College of Nursing, Australia
38. National Prescribing Service Limited
39. Australian Labor Party
40. The Australia Institute
41. Quit Victoria
42. MEAA
43. Australian Drug Foundation
44. St Vincent de Paul Society Australia
45. Phillip Island Nature Park
46. Greenpeace Australia Pacific
47. RSPCA Australia
48. World Federation Of Occupational Therapists
49. Salvos.org.au
50. National Institute of Accountants
51. NAPCAN
52. Mensline Australia
53. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
54. The Wilderness Society
55. National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre
56. CARE Australia
57. Starlight Foundation
58. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology
59. Kidney Health Australia
60. Australian Dental Association
61. The Official Great Ocean Road website
62. Leukaemia Foundation
63. Australian Academy of Science
64. Reconciliation Australia
65. 3MBS Radio
66. Ecotourism Australia
67. The Cancer Council
68. Liberal Party of Australia
69. Refugee Council of Australia
70. Sydney Writers’ Festival
71. VECCI
72. The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
73. Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman
74. Minerals Council of Australia
75. Variety, The Childrens Charity
76. Philanthropy Australia
77. The Career Development Association of Australia
78. National Asthma Council Australia
79. Green Left
80. Australian Independent Records Labels Association
81. Australian Medical Council
82. Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation
83. GetUp!
84. Arthritis Victoria
85. Lawstuff.org
86. National Breast Cancer Foundation
87. Medecins Sans Frontieres Australia
88. The Centre for Independent Studies
89. Franchise Council of Australia
90. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council
91. Save the Children Australia
92. The Salvation Army in Australia - National
93. JOY 94.9
94. Australian Film Institute
95. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry
96. Friends of the Earth Australia
97. St John Ambulance Australia
98. COTA
99. auDA
100. AVN

Note that this list does not imply that one website is better than another. After all, the only ranking that matters is where your website appears in a search for your typical search terms, e.g. “first aid classes in Richmond VIC” (ranking for fewer words in the phrase is harder). As long as your site is within the top 10 or top 20 for your most valuable keyphrases, you are a winner!

Popularity: 27% [?]

Australia’s top 100 business websites

It is useful for an SEO to check from time to time which Australian business websites are considered by Google’s ranking algorithm to be the best. “Best” in this context means trust and authority. These sites show good toolbar PageRank and have quality backlinks. Well done to their webmasters!

According to a Google.com search for “www” and limiting it to .org.au sites, here is Google’s verdict:

1. Qantas
2. SEEK
3. Optus
4. Virgin Blue
5. Regional Express
6. www.standards.com.au
7. Foster’s Group
8. News.com.au
9. RACV
10. Australia Post
11. Commonwealth Bank Group
12. Crown Casino
13. SBS Online
14. Australian Grand Prix
15. Budget Rent a Car
16. Sydney Morning Herald
17. Greenfleet
18. Skybus Super Shuttle
19. Lend Lease
20. Google
21. Transport Infoline
22. Deep Purple OnLine
23. ‘Coca Cola’ 600 ml Buddy
24. Diabetes Australia
25. Australian Securities Exchange
26. Courier Mail
27. Skywest Airlines
28. RealEstate.com.au
29. Vibe Hotels
30. Stockland Trust Group
31. Ansett Australia (not kidding!)
32. Choice Hotels
33. Yellow.com.au
34. Ticketmaster
35. Adelaide Festival
36. Domain.com.au
37. Mirvac Group
38. VisitCanberra
39. Australian Venture Capital Association
40. National Australia Bank
41. Ticketek Australia
42. Builder AU
43. YHA Australia
44. Westpac
45. Melbourne IT
46. Whitepages.com.au
47. Nova100
48. The Menzies Hotel
49. CareerOne
50. Mooloolaba Underwater World
51. The Australian
52. Triple M Sydney
53. MyTalk
54. Kids Help Line
55. Australian Hearing
56. TransLink
57. Heart Foundation
58. Greyhound Australia
59. Cargo
60. Reach Out!
61. Museum of Contemporary Art
62. moshtix
63. Medibank Private
64. Metlink
65. Win Television
66. BestRestaurants
67. CPA Australia
68. Centro Properties Group
69. Airnorth
70. Conservation Volunteers
71. Mirvac Hotels and Resorts
72. Sydney Airport
73. Australian INfront
74. MacAir Airlines
75. CHOICE
76. Fox
77. Tony Attwood
78. eBay Australia
79. CeBIT Australia
80. Queensland Tourism & Travel
81. Harris Technology
82. 2DayFM
83. Australia’s Great Train Journeys
84. Graduate Careers Australia
85. Public Relations Institute of Australia
86. DA Information Services
87. Relationships Australia
88. NetComm Australia
89. The Medical Journal of Australia
90. Australian Football League
91. Macquarie Group Australia
92. Nova969
93. NAATI
94. The Good Guides
95. ourcommunity.com.au
96. rugby.com.au
97. Harvey World Travel
98. Challenger Financial Services Group
99. Sydney.com.au
100. Penfolds

Popularity: 23% [?]

Quality content writing - an elusive beast

This headline made me smile and I wondered if the writer can see the irony in his post:

New Indian Generation Loosing Quality??

Well in my case its true. New generation of designers and writers which is coming in the market are becoming money minded and just want MONEY with no Quality return. In last few months I am facing this issue with my regular writers and designers. I used to believe them so much that I add stuff which they have given with a simple go through and without confirming the details. I think why should I check with so much detail when I am paying them! BUT BUT BEWARE! never believe anyone in the market. These people out there are are doing nothing but NO QUALITY WORK.

The rest of the post laments the lack of quality in outsourced written content and programming and is equally amusing to read. It begs the question, “Who is fit to judge quality?”.

I found the post via a comment on a post by Amit Patel entitled, “Stay Away from [company name] Content Writers”. It too is full of ironic prose such as:

Getting work done by freelancers is not always the best thing because there are always negative factors of the same. Recently i was in need of some huge content and i was referred to a content writer who was running a company from New Delhi on the name of [company name and URL] and this lady who added me on Yahoo took my first articles order and then came back with the articles set after a huge amount of time, though i was in a idea that she ran away.

The writers didnt knew the spelling of ‘Chennai’, ‘beautiful’ kind of simple words and called themselves real professions, which may be in their dream.

It is not my intention to critique bloggers who are seeking quality written content, as I support their call for better quality control from freelancers, particularly content writers.

In the West, the consensus among SEOs is that one cannot expect good writing from the Third World, even though the price might be cheap. I am pleased to say that all rules have exceptions and that I have found such a quality supplier in India. They have provided hundreds of articles for some of Australia’s well-known SEO companies and others. I am about to send them a large order, so I am not ready to share their identity yet.

In the meantime, I recommend that content writers take some of the following advice, which should not add a lot to their workload:

  • Offer a free written sample to the customer before taking the order, as this offers a level of comfort that the supplied content will be at least of the same quality.
  • Offer money back on any content that is rejected.
  • Write the content in Microsoft Word or a similar word processor and set the language to the locale of the customer, e.g. Australian English. Run the spelling and grammar checker and follow its recommendations carefully but not blindly.
  • The writer should famililarise himself with the style of English used in the target country in that particular industry. Trust me, English isn’t always the same the world over.
  • Before delivering the content to the client, check unusual sentences with a Google search, to satisfy yourself that the writer didn’t copy something from another website.
  • Check everything on your own website and your emails for writing excellence. You are not credible if your own website contains spelling and grammatical errors.

Popularity: 16% [?]