it just looks unprofessional.

At least send them an email and tell them you’ve gone elsewhere or you find them expensive or not the right fit.

Out of courtesy and common decency.

Please.

Thanks.

Every now and then I like to do some searches online to see who ranks for what.. specifically, I target industries which have multiple well-known players, from pizza to flights to car rental to search engine.

Here’s some intersting findings from Google.com.au

“pizza”

1. Dominos.com.au
2. PizzaHut.com.au
3. EagleBoys.com.au

“car rental”

1. Thrifty.com.au
2. Avis.com.au
3. Budget.com.au

“flights”

1. FlightCentre.com.au
2. WebJet.com.au
3. IWantThatFlight.com.au

“SEO”

1. Wikipedia.org
2. DEJANSEO.com.au
3. eWebMarketing.com.au
4. SearchEngineRankings.com.au

“search engine”

1. DogPile.com
2. Bing.com
3. Wikipedia
4. Google.com.au

“coffee”

1. Wikipedia
2. GloriaJeansCoffees.com.au
3. VittoriaCoffee.com.au
4. CoffeeSnobs.com.au

**I wasn’t signed in to my Google Account and I turned off personalised search. Your own results may vary

The Next Web published an article recently which asked the question, could you quit the Internet? and after reading through the article and comments, it got me thinking about my own situation.

I spend a large amount of my daily life on a computer and essentially, on the Internet (courtesy of an iPad and a smartphone). I haven’t played online games in ages and haven’t gone into a chat room in a very long time either. But my work as an SEO Expert combined with my love of web design and insatiable curiosity means that I’m constantly online and constantly doing something active on the Internet.

So could I quit the Internet?

Let’s define it first. What is quitting the Internet? Does this mean not going online voluntarily? Boycotting all sorts of Internet-related things? Could this be scaled back to ‘cut back on Internet’ as opposed to ‘quitting Internet’? Is Internet usage akin to smoking cigarettes?!

There is no simple answer.

I spent over a month overseas last year and had no Internet access at all and was not at all fussed by this ‘inconvenience’. In fact, I didn’t even worry about the ever increasing number of emails hitting my inbox every hour or updating my Facebook status or catching up with industry news on Twitter. Granted, I was quite pre-occupied with my travels but still, I wasn’t concerned at any point in those 4 weeks about ‘the Internet’.

I might have felt a need to research a few things on Wikipedia but these weren’t mission critical though.

So on the outside, yes, I probably could quit the Internet, provided I was distracted enough.

But so what if I could quit the Internet?

What would happen then? Would I get an award? Is there an Internet Quitters Hall of Fame I get added to? Is there a support group for those who might break and go back online?

If anything, the world is becoming even more connected with the Internet not just changing and shaping lives but is every bit an essential part of life as breathing or blinking is.

I can stop using the Internet.. maybe block by block. No more Facebook or Twitter. Dismantling my various online properties and closing up AdSense accounts. Bidding farewell to friends on discussion forums…

then what?

Nothing.

The Internet doesn’t stop when I stop.

It keeps growing, exponentially, second by second. More and more businesses appear and operate solely online. More services are offered online. The need to use the Internet in order to get things done becomes evident in more aspects of our lives. There may well be a tipping point but I can’t begin to fathom where/how/what that is..

but my point is.. quitting isn’t the way to go because even if you manage to somehow quit, you will be forced back online (lest you live in the woods, wearing a potato sack and living off mother nature with no contact with civilisation….)

So what is the solution?

Moderation.

You can’t quit entirely but you can begin to moderate your usage and how connected you are.

You don’t need to be on every single social network. You don’t need to publish everything on social networks. You don’t need to constantly have access to the Internet. You don’t need to check emails every 5 minutes. Heck you can go a few days without it. Why do you need to check in at every place you visit? and so on.

You can start limiting usage at home to just the essentials. It’s harder than it sounds (from my experience) but can be done.

Read more books. Write more with pen and paper. Doesn’t have to be a novel.. even just little notes..thoughts..feelings… it’s like Facebook but on paper!

Take up painting… do more DIY projects…  rely less on that computer for everything. Use it for essentials and then maybe get out and live a little.

Don’t be afraid to disconnect.

ps. I should add that some people have made their entire livelihood online and need the Internet in order to sustain that livelihood. In this case, my arguments will probably falter however I think the general gist can resonate with all sane people out there… online or offline!

I love analysing and optimising websites for SEO purposes. I love making tweaks and changes and seeing results within days (yeah, I get lucky like that sometimes!) and it’s extra special when my work gets dramatic results for websites and businesses that were almost breathing their last.

What I love almost as much as doing these SEO audits, is the music I jam to when optimising.

Here are some of the tunes I love to listen to when working on SEO audits:

‘dust me selecta’ by gerling
‘electric feel’ by mgmt
‘dlz’ by tv on the radio
‘elektricity will keep me warm’ by london elektricity
‘pala’ by friendly fires
‘galaxy bounce’ by chemical brothers
‘diamond’ by illy
‘all is full of love’ by chris.su (remix of bjork’s awesome tune)
‘jacksons last stand’ by ou est le swimming pool
‘drifting off’ by puzzle
‘everything is everything’ by phoenix
‘never fade away’ by blue king brown
‘drive’ by incubus
‘belong’ by washed out
‘hold out’ by washed out
‘still sound’ by toro y moi
‘cross rhodes’ by donnie dubson

and so much more!

What tunes help you get your SEO on?

Ok so there’s a lot of spots on page 1 these days but I’m coming up against a lot of folks who just brush off keywords, all because they ‘already’ rank on page 1 for those particular terms.

Though the question is, where exactly on page 1.

With Google Places listings now merged with regular listing and there sometimes being up to 15 results on a page (combination of Places and regular listings), page 1 just doesn’t cut it – especially if you’re:

1. not in Google Places
and
2. at the bottom

I met someone recently who was panicking due to a drop in traffic, rankings and enquiries – all because of Google Places listings being merged with regular listings.

His business ranked #3 for a very long time in regular listings but since the merge and due to the lack of his Google Places listing, he dropped to the bottom of the pile.

He’s still on page 1 but this of no comfort to him – understandably!

The solution?

1. Get a Google Places listing and get it now!

2. If you rank on page 1 and are not #1, DON’T STOP WORKING! (though to be fair, even if youre #1, you need to keep working to keep the competition at bay!)

A number of my clients have recently been asking how they can give their site a bit more of a push in terms of rankings and traffic – other than using AdWords, banner ads or other methods with a price tag attached.

And in almost every case, my answer has been to ‘give advice’.

What do I mean by this?

I’m talking about giving people extra tips/friendly advice/guidelines that they may otherwise have to pay for, or perhaps go into a physical store for. You see, people don’t always look for a service or product – they look for ideas or advice or guidelines.

Some people may not want an SEO company in Brisbane, but they may want some ‘quick SEO advice for a business owner’ – so this is something you could write about.

Someone may not want a fridge repair service in Melbourne but may want to learn more about maintaining their fridge so it has a longer lifespan or they might want to know how to clean a fridge properly.

What about online gift shops. Yes, she wants to buy a gift for her husband but needs some ideas. Give some suggestions using examples from your inventory. “These would be great for the sporty husband” or “for a man who has a major sweet tooth, the chocolate gift hamper is always a hit”.

There’s a lot you can do with it and writing about it is only half the fun. The content needs to be promoted (Twitter is great for this) and you need to ensure there’s good interlinking between pages. You could feature a link to latest articles from your homepage.

If you’re unsure of where to start, think about what you would do or ask if you were in a shop selling what you sell or if you were in need of your own services.

Google’s Autocomplete feature of search queries is very handy and can give you an insight into popular search queries – which then become ideas for your next blog post/article!

Be sure to use the AdWords Keyword Tool to get more ideas and for what it’s worth, if your niche is topical in the news, you better get onto that bandwagon and ride it into the sunset!

Google Shopping has finally arrived and is seen by many as Google’s response to the plethora of shopping sites out there.

It’s simply Google, but specifically for products. You search like you normally would in Google, then click on the Shopping tab for product details, refine using the many filters available and you can then compare products from various online retailers and proceed with your purchase.

There’s product reviews as well so essentially, this is just like any other shopping comparison site.

How do you join?
You can submit a catalogue to the Google Merchant Center and away you go.

This is exciting stuff and one we’ll all be watching with a keen eye to see if this is a hit or a miss.

I travelled with Jetstar recently and they sent me a survey to complete. It was long (bad Jetstar!) but I completed it because I had a great time with Jetstar and needed to let them know.

However this one question came up and it caught my eye… Make from it what you will…

In the growing war between Facebook and Google, there are some interesting developments.

Google isn’t knowing for being on the money with social media things (look at Orkut, Google Buzz and so on) but they are trying to tackle Facebook in a very different way and in their own backyard: SERPs.

The +1 button is Google’s version of the Facebook ‘like’ button but it’s displayed next to SERP results.

When you’re signed into your Google account, you can +1 (like) a website in the SERP and your friends will be able to see this. It works the same way when you’re on Facebook or viewing pages on the Internet with a Facebook widget – you can see which of your friends like a particular item.

It’s a great new take on the concept and it works on Google’s terms. Of course, such a system can easily be manipulated so Google is careful about what impact (if at all) it has on rankings.

The like/+1 concept is great because you’re more likely to check out a website/product/band/restaurant/whatever if trusted entities in your circle have given it their seal of approval. Given that this is now happening directly in search results (which Google dominates), this could potentially be huge for Google in its quest to take on Facebook (which in my opinion is becoming a separate Internet of its own!).

The latest news is that as quickly as this feature was made live, it was pulled back for further development/tweaks. It is expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks for most Google users and its impact is yet to be seen.

Good luck Google – I already give you a +1!

Website loading times are important for conversions and in recent times, another important factor in Google’s ranking algorithm.

So it makes sense that webmasters concerned with rankings (most of you I’m sure!) would be focusing on this. Matt Cutts even went into some detail about this in a video not long ago.

There’s a lot you can do like minifying JS and CSS files (this means you, Magento!) and using CSS sprites and images that have been better optimised.

But Google, as helpful as ever has released Page Speed Online – a new tool to help analyse page loading times along with providing recommendations. It’s so smart, it even helps with mobile versions of websites (which are quite different to regular versions).

I just ran it for a few websites and it’s been very insightful and proving to be invaluable in our pursuit for better rankings!