While this presentation is a little embarrassing for Dell as it shows just how bad they where it’s a good thing to share as many advertisers even now suffer the same problem that Dell had back in 2005. Dell’s biggest problem is they were relying on typical a advertising agency that was simply focused on making large media buys.

When I started actually handling advertising for Dell I focused on what converted into sales and how to generate actual revenue and the results where great. My conversion rate was 19.53% and I was generating over $200,000 in sales monthly. This was 100% from well focused keyword targeting on Google and none of the keywords I managed had “dell” in them, but buy me a drink sometime and I’ll share more about all the things that were done for Dell.

It also has some great background information including: What is SEO, what SEO is NOT, SEO Facts and Figures and it also has my Google quiz that I give.

You will also see some of my favorite Google logos within the document, which if you have seen any of my other presentations often get reused. You are welcome to make use of any of the data or slide information for your own presentations as this has and continues to help the teams in the companies I work with.

This was done in 2005 and most of this is still very relevant. While the Yahoo qualification program has been closed to new members, Microsoft has created a certification program and Google’s program is growing and further being supported.

In the presentation you will see the slogan I used “Don’t Depend on Luck. Depend on Professionals” as it really holds true to all the actions a client should take.

I spoke on a few tracks at SMX but this time I was on the track along with Allen Qu from NetConcepts. He went first and spent 20 minutes explain that the only way to rank for anything in Google is to buy links, he then went on to offering links for sale and explaining that this is what their “SEO” company does for its clients.

Now yes link buying is a no no in Google’s eyes and while many agencies practice this method, what drove me crazy is in the talk he only focused on that you had to buy links, not that links come naturally from creating a great site. What was very funny for me is he even said while some clients get banned in Google he still recommends focusing on buying links as the his agencies SEO service.

Ok so you can guess by now my presentation was not talking about buying links. My presentation PPT version is also included here and I focused on what really makes a difference. Sorry that is in Chinese but the focus on the presentation was on that internal links are what 99% of the websites on the internet need to focus on and where most people get it completely wrong.

I have seen companies who happy to buy links and “fairy dust” for $1,000’s but then on their own website they fail to update the navigation/linking. Websites all too often focus on the external links, but if you analysis the algorithm at Google you will see that the internal linking is what receives the most weight in terms of keyword target/ranking. The most basic way to think about this is while other sites might link to you saying A if you say your B then who is Google to believe? If Google believed what others said about you more then what you said about yourself you could easily simply change any websites ranking by pointing unrelated links at its content.

If I can find the originally English presentation I will post it, but if that doesn’t work for a rare occasion the English speaking SEO world is the one that is at a disadvantage in terms of understanding what true SEO is all about.

While having said that I understand the absence it is too bad, as without having some good guidance and support the market is developing in a sub optimal manner.

On the other track I spoke (presentation also included in on this site) the speaker before me was Allen Qu from NetConcept. NetConcept is typical agency in Asia as the speaker spent 20 minutes telling the audience to buy links from him and his network of sites. I have posted more about that presentation on the Secrets to Links & Google Rankings.

The keyword research presentation, is a very useful processes in planning and understanding the how SEO works. This example given is from an old process which I created, there are many variations of this process since then but it will give you a great insight even the more advanced SEO’s. As an added bonus I have attached both the English and Chinese version, so it is all ready for you to use and to develop further.

English

Chinese

SEO, when done properly by professionals, is very complex and involves much more than keywords with fairy dust. I would say that most website owners are not ready for true SEO. When I ran my agency I turned away over 90% of the clients that approached me for SEO services, there is no point in taking a client’s money and giving him or her something that will never work. Yes, they might be very happy to be #1 for their company name and they might even see an increase of traffic, as the Internet does grow by over 1 million people a month. But, in the end did your SEO work really drive their business forward?

Within my industry I have held true to the idea of do it right, do it for long term, and do it for the right reasons. I add “do it for the right reasons” because I have had offers from companies that have the right process the right long term goals but the methods of monetization go against my better judgment. I am very proud to say that in over 10 years I have never promoted a gambling, pornography, or pill website.

Keeping this focus has given me less market share, but I have had some of the bigger companies come knocking on my door asking for my expertise: Alibaba, Dell, eBay, Expedia, Global Sources, Microsoft, Tesco–even the almighty Google has come looking for my services. But keeping a selective nature also means I don’t make the insane amounts that the “fairy dust” SEO sellers do. It’s much more profitable and easy to have several clients that you are charging $10k a month to simply change some META data and once in a while advise them what you read on someone else’s blog the night before.

Being in the industry for over 10 years and working with so many companies I have seen “fairy dust” go for as high as $150,000/month. If you look around the industry you will see a lot of the SEO world more focused on creating a blog post then doing actual SEO work. This is because skill level in this industry, for some reason, has become based on the number of blog posts you make rather then your technical expertise and experience. If I was hiring an SEO professional I’d rather hire the head of class coming out of applied mathematics of Harvard then any of the SEO bloggers.

In a lot of my talks at industry events I relate search engine optimizers to stock brokers, and search engines to stock markets. This comparison comes from search engine optimizers having millions of people that claim they can bring in returns, like stock brokers. But many fail and lose clients money while others simply just live off the natural flux within the stock markets/search engines. There are also the day traders and the DIY SEO’ers who believe they have the system beat. Then there are the elite who can not only to guarantee returns but are already making enough money themselves that the only reason they take on a client is to be able to make even more money using their formula for success.

The only real difference between a stock broker and an search engine optimizer is that, unlike a stock market, a search engine follows a mathematical formula. Ultimately there are no unknowns in the search engines, so a true SEO professional has no reason for failure. While I don’t claim to know everything about the ranking formulas at Google I do know that there is a set formula, and with the right set of people (note to self: hire some ex-WWII code breakers) the formula can be understood.

This presentation was informative, fun and easy for most to understand as it was relatively a high level review of Search Engine Optimization.

The 4 areas which I focused on where:
What is SEO?
What SEO is NOT
SEO Facts and Figures
Future of SEO

Slide #6 also contains my favorite Google logo, that uses Albert Einstein’s math formula e=mc2 to really portray that Google really is equal to one large math puzzle.

Enjoy, SEO Facts vs Fiction

While ad:tech isn’t a search specific event, it is probably the largest advertising conference circuit. My speech at ad:tech would be focused on letting people know what SEO is.

This event was held in Shanghai and it was my first trip into China, which made this even more special. I few up with my good friend and business partner Michael and we both enjoyed Shanghai far too much. I’ll post some stories about that trip in the travel section later.

The event was full of agencies, mainly people trying to sell services, CPM advertising and other things far far from what SEO is about. I did managed to meet some great people at the event, I met 2 people that have gone to become very good friends. I met Ahnee Min as we both were trying to support the growth of SEMPO and I met Inway Ni, who later went on to setup SES and SMX in China.

My presentation is rather basic, but it has some fun graphics and talks about how Google, Yahoo! and then MSN geo target their results. I had a great time presenting at ad:tech and an even better time meeting my new friends and learning about China, as now China is almost a 2nd home to me.

Sure some of these items are no longer considered “advanced” but still websites fail to follow this simple requirements in both the basic and advanced presentations. It was also yet another great trip to China, in the photo here is Michael, Chris, Inway, Tim and myself.

The 2 presentations reviews these items:

IP/Domain
Title Tag
META Description
Absolute vs Relative Links
Dash vs Underscore
Product Focused Pages

Basic SEO Presentation / Top 3 Metrics of a Search Engine

Advanced SEO Presentation

The report has 3 sections:
AUDI.com.sg Home Page Review (7 points)
AUDI.com.sg Inertial Pages Review (6 points)
and AUDI.com.sg other Factors (3 points)

You are welcome to make use of this list and update it and in a few years I’ll release the 2009 algorithm check list.

I will also publish the Yahoo! and then MSN now bing algorithms information on separate posts, which are linked to here: Yahoo’s Algorithm & bing’s Algorithm

16 Main Points to Google’s Algorithm:

Website’s IP / Server Location

Title of Page

META Description

Domain Name

PageRank of Links to the Website

Number of Links to the Website

PageRank of Links to the Page

Text in the Links to the Page

Number of Links to the Page

Page’s CTR on Search Results

Stickiness of Page from Search Results

Freshness of Page Content

Page Theme/Keyword Density

Total Number of Pages on Website

Website’s Theme in Google

Links on Page to External Websites

9 Additional Items Used by the Google SPAM Check:

Location on Page of External Links

Text Surrounding External Links

Uniqueness of Page with Linking to the Page

Number of Links on the Page Linking to the Page

Maintenance of External Links

Quality of Hosting Company / Name Servers

Name / Email Used on Registration

Domain Registrar Used

Length of Domain Registration

This blog wasn’t started to talk about Google/SEO/SEM but I added this category and will post relevant information periodically (my original blog was actual about the city I lived in and the URL was the name of city, which is why I had to change to misc.info).

With my job the most common question I get is “How can I get my website to rank better in Google” and while I always try and help those who really have a good message, product or service I don’t have enough time to teach/help everyone (I also don’t like to teach everyone as some people use it just to spam/make money via affiliate programs).

That is why in the last few years I have been helping the masses by speaking publicly at events like Search Engine Strategies, ad:tech and one of my favorite venues eComXpo University (sadly since 2007 I have not had the time to keep on the eComXpo panels, but next year we’ll see).

This year’s eComXpo University will open March 20 and again this year I will be giving a presentation on the subject of SEO (I will try and see if I can get my other eComXpo presentations and post them in this new blog).

I really like the idea of eComXpo University as it gives the chance for a lot of webmasters and SEO’s from places outside of the main stream markets like the US and the UK to have access to experienced professionals within the industry. I hope that in the future more and more conferences offer an online/live webcast version, as the developing search markets really need this level of support (this differently has happened, I think Google now has weekly webinars with the industry).

I will be giving the presentation entitled “How to Rank Better in Google” and it explains the top things that a webmaster or Search Engine Optimizer can do to rank better in Google. Topics include IP addresses, domain names, GEO targeting, text link building, homepage links, site maps and advanced SEO content structure/navigation (I would say 90% of the things mentioned in the presentation are still the most important things).

Now while general admission into eComXpo is free, to access the university section will cost you $49 and considering what you will learn from not only myself but from all the other presentations this will be the best $49 you can ever spend. But since it does cost money and since I know some of the SEO world doesn’t have access to credit cards and maybe some are just starting out and $49 is not something they can afford, for these people and these people only I offer my corporate pass to access the university presentations.

Please if you can afford the $49, please register at http://www.ecomxpo.com/ as they offer a great service and are a great part of the future of the industry.

To help ensure that this offer isn’t taken advantage of I haven’t posted the pass details publicly, but they are available if you send me an email to (removed as no longer used) with the reason why you can’t afford the $49. I read mail daily and will reply quickly and you will be sent the pass details. Also sorry, no pass details will be sent to email addresses from free/public email providers (did this as you would be surprised at people trying to resell these passes).

No email addresses and no email will be kept, used to reply to you other then to send you the pass details, no email will be sold to anyone, or given to anyone and after my reply to you your email address will be purged from my server.

UPDATE ON POST:

Here is the actual presentation that was given at eComXpo. Please if you liked it or have a suggestion please leave me a comment below as it would help in future presentations. One fun note is this presentation was the most watched presentation of eComXpo (other then the keynote).

I am back in China for the next 10 days, will be speaking at SES China on the Advanced SEO track. I am really looking forward to meeting up with some old friends at this year’s event. This will mark the 2nd year for SES in China and thanks to Inway and TimeV sure it will have many more years of great success.

Later today will be fun as I will meet up with several executives from the largest Internet company in China (for those that don’t know it was the team from Alibaba) for some dinner and talk about the future of that company within the International marketplace. This dinner also happens to include an old friend from Singapore, she happen to leave Singapore to join this company and now landed herself a sweet directors role and an even sweet chance to meet up with me again tonight.

Its 6:30am here, which means its 6:30pm back in Guelph and surprisingly my body has been able to shift over to the new time zone relatively easy. Part of the easy of switching time zones came from the flight as it was non-stop from Toronto to Shanghai which meant it didn’t really feel like you where traveling. But sadly the flight was on Air Canada and boy even though I was flying Executive First Class it was far far from first class service (I was spoiled flying in Asia as they all use new planes, but found out that Air Canada uses mainly planes from the 70’s).

On a funny note related to domain/company names, the gentlemen sitting beside me on the flight was the CEO of a company which I thought was a really cool name, eSteve (ie electronic steve) or at least that is how I read his company name. Turns out it’s really Esteve and is a pharma company based in Spain. He did laugh when I told him I thought is company was eSteve and he said that it’s very often people don’t know how to pronounce the name. Got me thinking about eStephen.com, but sadly some damn domain parker has registered it so not much chance of getting that one anytime soon.

Ok its off to have some breakfast and then a quick nap so that I can make it though the day as want to make sure I am fresh and alert for tonight’s dinner.

UPDATE ON POST:

SES China was eventful and fun, met up with the Jianfei Zhu, who is the Matt Cutts of Asia and is actually the one in charge of the websites ranking in the Asian markets at Google. There where a lot of great presentations and this year Rand Fishkin attended and several other agencies had foreign speakers. This trend hasn’t really continued as the last few events have had less and less major foreign agencies and more and more local Asian startups that are enjoying the easy to spam system of Baidu.

Here are the presentations that I gave at this year’s event. I ended up speaking a few times and also ended up doing the site clinic, which I will try and attach the notes from that. I will have the Chinese finial version and an English version, but the English version might not be 100% complete as all my presentations in China are created in Chinese, the English one is just one of my earlier drafts.

Hope you find the presentations useful and if you have feedback or suggestions please comment back in the comment section below, thanks!

Final Version in Chinese