Top SEO blog posts of 2008!

These are my top blog posts of 2008. I’ve included posts on different subjects to keep it varied and interesting! Have a browse and take in the big SEO stories of 2008. Well the ones I’ve found interesting are here, if you have seen any *really* good ones, add a link in the comments!

SEO Jobs
Richard Baxter’s complete guide to getting a job in SEO is aimed at beginners but some of the information and links will be useful to even the more experienced of SEO’s. It is the most recent and most comprehensive guide on getting an SEO job I’ve seen and beats most of the generic advice you find on recruitment sites. Get a job in SEO!

Conspiracy theories
Consistently good blog with affiliate and black hat advice. I always like looking at the affiliate marketing blogs as they always seem to have good technical tips. This article outlines the incredible breadth of information Google gathers from users. While this is quite a frightening prospect, you can see why Google is such a profitable company, being able to target very specific demographics with relevant adverts is great for marketers and the end user. The high valuation of social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo and Myspace is mostly down to the huge amount of information they can collect legitimately. Google has its fingers in so many more pies than social networking though, and this is why it will always know a scary amount of information about you, the user!

Usability blog post
This great post from SEOmoz, simply points out that links should look like links. While this might seem like stating the obvious, links have changed appearance a lot with Flash and CSS.Take a look at a hard-line usability website, and you’ll find a site that seemingly, has not been redesigned since 1995. The site makes use of very normal looking links and has always stuck to the blue/purple coloured link system. I’d probably want to run a few multivariate tests to check that any radical colour combinations work for your particular site. Find out how to make a link look like a link!

Affiliate blog post
While this post is from 2006 I only found it earlier this year. It struck me as a quite a good idea, use your business/personal blog as a way to organise an online poker event and include affiliate links to your poker site of choice. This helps network with your visitors and other blog friends while earning you a bit of cash too. Seems like a no-brainer!

WTF 1!
Probably one of the most entertaining SEO videos I’ve seen all year, no offence to SEOmoz who also post SEO videos, but this is far funnier than whiteboard Friday!

Content is king
This post is an attempt to find out an actual figure to measure duplicate content. Google always stated it "wanted to reward good behaviour rather than penalise bad".
For this reason Google will never release info on their duplicate content guidelines, they don't want us to design content to a minimum specification, they want content to be as good, and as useful as possible. Imagine if there was no quality control, spam would reign and no one would use the Internet because all they would find would be shoddy content. At least they try to reward great content!

WTF 2!
One of my favourite posts this year from The Register. It describes the inner workings of a new high tech search engine, its employees and why, without considerable amounts of Strawberries and Muffins, the new search engine would fail in its quest to dominate the “quantum porn” search niche. Find out more about this new fangled search engine!

Merry Xmas and have a Happy New Year!
I hope you all continue to read my blog, have a great Christmas and a happy new year, whether you are an SEO, Webmaster or Web designer, have a great 2009!I have some great new posts on the way, so add me to your RSS reader!

Multivariate Testing

Multivariate testing allows the testing of different versions of a webpage to accurately identify the most effective one. Visitor statistics and interactions are measured to show the difference in performance.

Multivariate testing looks at “elemental contribution”; the elements that contribute to an increase/decrease in conversion. These elements range from the colour of a link to the length of a form on a page.

A tailored process
This will help you to understand the "triggers" that influence conversion. It is particularly important to remember that the changes that work on some websites will not work on others. If by changing the colour of a submit button from green to red improves conversion, the same change won't necessarily work on another site. Multivariate testing is a process tailored to your own site.

How to test
-Select the tool you want to use to test (A list of software is available at the end of this post)
-Design test (Test bounce rate on the homepage? Or conversion rate on the payment area?)
-Develop creative (What elements will you change? The font? The text on the page?)
-Implement code (This activates the Multivariate testing and will send users to different pages)
-Monitor and learn
-Repeat (Look at other elements that can be changed or improved)

The benefits of Multivariate Testing
Multivariate testing can be used to justify design and layout changes. Instead of relying on the "gut feel" of your designers, the test results will make the decision for you. You can use MV results to put some support behind any design ideas you suggest.

You can remove any subjective arguments and opinions about the design and layout of your site and use Multivariate testing results to justify changes. This is very useful when working client side in large corporate environments. It can show loss in conversion/revenue which is a powerful way to get support from senior managers. See more in house SEO advice.

When Multivariate testing remember...
-You are testing with real people.
-Unlike A/B testing, Multivariate testing allows you more potential combinations.
-You need to collect a substantial amount of data to support a decision to change a webpage permanently. Decide how substantial the amount needs to be beforehand.
-Good test results are sometimes unexplainable and might even go against common usability thinking or advice.
-To combine testing with other technology like gaze trails and heatmap imaging to help decide what elements to alter and test.
-To test pages that will make a difference, test key landing pages.
-Make things simple and easy for users (See Paradox of choice below).

The Paradox of choice
Faced with two much choice a consumer will often choose not to purchase. This is because the increased cognitive thought needed to make a decision will burden the user too much. This is a key thing to remember when choosing what element to alter when Multivariate testing. Keep calls to action short and simple. Often text on a button performs better when kept short: "Submit" would usually perform better than "Submit your email details". This is just because a shorter piece of text requires less brain power to interpret.

Multivariate Testing software
Google Optimiser
Maxymiser
Optimost
Omniture test and target

SEO friendly Iframes

Want an SEO friendly Iframe? Or something that looks just like an Iframe but will allow all content contained on it to be indexed by Google et al? Fool your SEO mates with this little bit of code:




This cool inline CSS Div will allow the content to scroll if it can't fit within the width and height that you set the Div. I'm about to set live a couple of websites that will use this as an expandable navigation area. The cool thing is, you will never run out of space. Obviously you will have to consider usability because your users won't want to scroll down all day long.

For you HTML phobes, copy the code, paste into notepad and change the notepad file from a .txt to a .html file and open in your browser of choice!

Voila! An SEO friendly Iframe. Whatever next?

Search Engine Optimisation books

Writing an article on SEO books is quite difficult. SEO (like most of the Internet) changes quite quickly, what is in favour one month could be bad practice suprisingly soon. Books are not updated as fast as this. Despite this, I have decided that many people like to read through the pages of a book rather than an up to the minute forum packed with geek speak.

SEO book
Aaron Wall's comprehensive SEO Book manages to go into enough detail for some intermediate SEOs, but this is a great starter book with real in depth info that will help you acheive what you want with SEO and Online Marketing. More info on The SEO Book.

Google Hacks
The most important search engine that will provide your site with most of its referred visits is Google and so a book to help you understand a bit more about this search engine is crucial. I have an old copy of Google Hacks which helped me figure out the importance of proper SEO as well as the flexibility of the Google API. This book can get quite technical at times, so I would ignore this book if I was from a traditional marketing background.

Google Hacks:http://www.amazon.com/Google-Hacks-Industrial-Strength-Tips-Tools/dp/0596004478


Search Engine Optimisation: An Hour A Day
A more rounded and less technical book is Search Engine Optimisation: An Hour A Day. This book is for those less interested in the technical side and more interested in the practical side of SEO. I would say this book is an excellent starter for new SEO's.

Search Engine Optimisation: An Hour A Day: http://www.amazon.com/Search-Engine-Optimization-Hour-Day/dp/0471787531/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_2_1/104-9604579-8847162


Web Site Usability
As SEO is often measured by registrations or purchases (a process required from the user) usability becomes an important part of SEO. Without a usable website, you face losing customers you have attracted through SEO. This makes usability a concern for the budding SEO. Because of this I have linked to a usability book.

Web Site Usability: http://www.amazon.com/Web-Site-Usability-Handbook-Internet/dp/1584504692/ref=sr_1_17/104-9604579-8847162?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185920742&sr=1-17