Articles Published by David Viniker - Keyword SEO Pro Related(See also recommended articles published by others) 
 How Competitive Is Your Website? A Study of 122 Typical Small to Medium Sized Business WebsitesPublished: January 20, 2012 4networking.biz, a Business-to-business UK networking group, provides open access to a list of members currently online on the 4N website's HomePage. A cohort provides a set of typical small to medium sized businesses actively involved in marketing. To win, a webpage must be stronger than the rest. The best indicator we have of how Google sees the competitive strength of a webpage, is the PageRank of the website's HomePage (HPR). In a recently published study of nearly 50,000 webpages on the top Google results page for 1,000 in 5 countries, the average adjusted HomePage PageRank was 5.4. The average HomePage PageRank of the 94 4N members with websites in this study was only 1.7. The vast majority of small and medium sized business websites have HomePage PageRanks that are less than 4 as in the current study. Seen in the context that the average HomePage PageRank required for the majority of keywords is greater than 5, a HomePage PageRank of less than 4 severely limits those keywords that are in range for top page positioning on Google. Domain Authority: The Top Two Factors On Google: A Study of 50,000 Webpages in 5 CountriesPublished: December 8, 2011 A series of 1,000 keywords was developed covering a variety of topics. The webpages on the top page of Google.co.uk for each keyword were assessed to determine their PageRanks and the corresponding HomePage PageRanks. This was repeated for the USA, Canada, Australia and India The localities (towns or cities) were changed for each country. All the results can be easily verified. Nearly 50,000 top positioned webpages were assessed. There were 2,486 webpages on the top Google results page with PR0 (5%). Of these, only 214 (0.4%) were on websites with HomePage PageRank less than 4 or they were not themselves HomePages. The results support the view that the top factor in the Google algorithm is the Domain Authority of the website as indicated by the HomePage PageRank. The second factor is a boost given to HomePages that are competing for a keyword. Implications of the top two factors in the Google algorithm. HomePage PageRank can be used as a guide to keyword difficulty. Websites with low HomePage PageRank, including new websites, only have a realistic chance of top page positioning on Google for relatively low difficulty keywords and, even then, only with their HomePage. Good SEO Courses: Why, How, Where, When and Which?Published: November 7, 2011 Why participate in an SEO training course? There are many reasons to consider going on optimisation courses. There are at least 200 factors in the Google positioning program (algorithm). Just to make it interesting, Google changes their positioning algorithm at least once a day and brings in major changes at less frequent intervals. The Panda update introduced in 2011, involves machine leaning - it is as if the Google algorithm is training itself to provide better search results. The bottom line is that Google holds the key to enormous potential wealth but the combination to unlock it is as closely guarded as Fort Knox. There are more opinions on how to move webpages to the top than optimisers. A good SEO training course will teach you the latest information and help you to maximise your website's potential so that it will receive more targeted visitors. Website Optimisation 3: A Clinical Approach - The BodyPublished: October 14, 2011 It takes less than 10 seconds for a visitor to decide whether to stay on your webpage or leave. The contents of a webpage as seen by visitors is contained in the body area of the webpage. Those that stay are sending positive vibes to the search engines that will improve positioning on search engine results pages. The reverse is equally true. The header, which is usually an image, is the top section of the visible webpage. I suspect that several of those precious first few seconds will go on the header. There are hundreds of fonts, millions of colour options, and endless image sizes. Consistency suggests attention to detail, improves user friendliness, may improve time on site and increase responses to calls to action. Website Optimisation 2: A Clinical Approach - The HeadPublished: October 13, 2011 The head of a webpage is the control centre area of the coding that signals the way viewers see the page in their browser. It must be distinguished from the header which is an area, usually an image, at the top of the webpage when visualised with a browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. The most important tag in on-page optimisation is the page TITLE tag and the META description is the most important META tag. The most useful link in the head area from the coding point of view is for CSS. A favicon or favourites icon is a small image located that appears at the left of the tab for all the webpages of the website that are open on a browser. Website Optimisation 1: The Good, the Bad and the UglyPublished: October 12, 2011 The Internet is an amazing place to display information. The search engines, such as Google, will advertise snippets of your information on their results pages without charge. On the negative side, if your webpages are not on the top search engine results page for your targeted keywords (search terms) they are unlikely to be found by more than a few of your anticipated audience. Sadly, search engine optimisation has acquired a bad press. How can you differentiate a genuine SEO expert from a charlatan or a program that is effective from one that is a waste of precious resources? A true expert will have numerous articles and blog comments published on the Internet. Google their name or their company and you will quickly establish who is genuine. Testimonials about a person, company or program are meaningless unless they appear on other people's websites. The first ugly truth about website optimisation is that there is no magic bullet or quick fix. The second is that for the majority of websites most of the desirable keywords will be out of range for top positioning. Website development should be a gradual on-going and skillfully applied process. Link Bait - Alive, Beguiling and GratifyingPublished: October 7, 2011 Link bait is the term for techniques specifically designed to attract natural links to a webpage for search engine optimisation (SEO). Websites accumulating natural will have their pages move up the search engine results pages as they will be considered to have authority. It includes a spectrum of possibilities including a complete article on a webpage, a list within an article, an image, a comment on a blog, a video, a quiz, a free program or an EBook. Link baiting is an ethical means to lure those precious incoming links. Link bait is unique and interesting content that other sites will naturally want to link to. The great bonus is that you do not have to ask or beg for the links but just set the bait and let it go to work. Choosing a Good Domain Name for Your WebsitePublished: October 7, 2011 The domain name is the name for your website. It is the Internet equivalent of your mail or postal address. Choosing a good domain name is one of the first items on the agenda when setting up your new website. Take great care with it. You cannot change it any time in the future without a completely fresh restart. The domain name should be easy to remember and it should include your main targeted keywords. There is a balance to be struck between the inclusion of your main targeted keywords and ease of recall. Three words, perhaps including your locality, are a reasonable maximum and aim for no more than 20 characters. Finally, choose a domain name that you will feel comfortable with and that you will enjoy. It is like choosing the name for your baby. Let us hope that your website will be successful and you will be happy with your choice. YouTube And Article Directories For Internet MarketingPublished: September 30, 2011 Internet marketing is advertisement and promotion of products and services on the web usually with a website. YouTube videos and articles written for directories are thought to be amongst the best modalities to promote websites. Findability and Search Engine OptimisationPublished: September 30, 2011 Findability indicates how easy it is for the information available on a website to be found. Placing sought after information on a webpage that cannot be easily found means it will not be located. Findability is a concept relating to the whole website rather than to individual web pages or positioning of the website's pages for individual keywords. There is, therefore, no means to measure it directly although changes in visitor numbers indicate success or failure. It embraces issues such as quality of on site navigation and search facilities. It may be argued that any form of Internet marketing increases findability. Optimising on-page and off-page factors is no longer all that is required in SEO. This means that part of the old border between findability and SEO has become less clearly demarcated. 10 Hidden Key Facts You Need To Know About Getting To The Top Of GooglePublished: September 27, 2011 What does it take for a website to get to the coveted top page on Google for a keyword? The team at Google is remarkably skilful at revealing a little information whilst hiding many key facts. Google determines PageRank of a webpage in two stages. It summates the value of all the incoming links to the webpage. Every page indexed by Google is ranked according to the total value of its incoming links. The average adjusted HPR of the webpages on the top Google SERP for a keyword is the best indicator of keyword difficulty (HPR-KD). HPR-KDs are in a narrow range because PageRank is allocated logarithmically; an HPR of 4 equates to about 2500 average value links and HPR5 to 75,000. The boost for HomePages competing for a keyword to at least PR5 means that the average adjusted HPR of the top webpages on the Google SERPs is rarely less than 3.5. Guidelines have been produced to show when at least two webpages with equal or lower HPR than the planned competing webpage are likely to be on the top page of Google. Meta Description Tags - Link Bait Par ExcellencePublished: September 26, 2011 The Meta Description is the most important Meta Tag in search engine optimisation (SEO). It is link bait par excellence. This Tag's contents are not included in search engine ranking algorithms. So how can the Meta Description be so important? The contents of this Tag are usually included in the snippet that describes a page on the search engine results pages. A well-written Meta Description will increase the Click-Through-Rate (CTR) of your organic search listing. 3 Clues Suggesting SEO Advice May Be Poor Quality: Science FictionPublished: September 20, 2011 In this, the second of a pair of related articles, I suggest three indicators of poor quality SEO advice. The first clue is that the advice on offer is unrealistic. The second clue is that the offer is being made by someone who does not have a website or they have a website with few incoming links. The third clue is more difficult to spot: Typically, success is being claimed for a keyword that nobody is searching for or the website making the claim has high authority (HPR4 or more). Attempting to increase your Google account with unnatural links is as futile as submitting 'Monopoly' or other toy money into your bank account. A proportion of every outgoing link is removed before it arrives at the receiving page to prevent the PageRank system imploding - a sort of Google tax. If two webpages with equal link juice and an equal number of outgoing links reciprocate links, there will be a net loss of precious link juice from both websites. Any suggestion that there is an easy method leading to instant website success comes from those versed in science fiction rather than science. Beware. 3 Indicators That SEO Advice Is Genuine SciencePublished: September 20, 2011 Most website owners are frustrated with their websites. The modern day Dick Whittington is learning that the Internet Highway is not paved with gold. There are three sets of SEO information that can be regarded positively. Firstly, the search engines themselves provide information. Secondly, there are a number of authentic SEO experts who regularly produce high quality books and articles in peer reviewed internet directories. Finally, there are observations you may come across that are verifiable - you can check them out for yourself. Three examples are provided including the recently published top two factors in the Google algorithm. It is emphasised that knowing the top two factors in the Google algorithm does not provide the magic bullet to Internet success. If you approach SEO scientifically, or work with someone who does, your website will progress steadily. Failure to do so will retard potential website development and rewards. 5 Things You Should Know About The Page Title Tag for SEOPublished: September 20, 2011 The page title is the most precious real-estate on your webpage - particularly the page title of the HomePage and you must use every character with the greatest care. The page title tag is the fourth most important factor and it is the only on-page factor in the top five; the other four are off-page factors. Search engines include up to about 65 characters in the page title in their index. Although probably in the minority, I do not believe that there is any merit in including the company name for the majority of websites in the page title. You need to find your best niche keywords. A niche keyword will have an acceptable number of searchers and your webpage should have a good chance of top SERP positioning. If your niche keywords are not included in the page title, you are unlikely to have top page positioning. You need to find your best niche keywords. A niche keyword will have an acceptable number of searchers and your webpage should have a good chance of top SERP positioning. If your niche keywords are not included in the page title, you are unlikely to have top page positioning. The Magic Bullet That Will Propel Your Website To The Top Of Google: The Great SEO IllusionPublished: September 8, 2011 All business owners with a website try to find that magic bullet that will propel their websites to the top of Google. Compelling and verifiable evidence that the top factor in the Google positioning algorithm is the HomePage PageRank (HPR) has been published (G-Factor-1). Furthermore, the second factor is an adjusting boost that Google gives to the effective PageRank of a HomePage when it is competing for a keyword (G-Factor-2). The most desirable keywords will require an average HPR6 or more for top positioning. The Top Two Factors In The Google Algorithm: A Clinical ApproachPublished: September 2, 2011 The PageRanks of the URLs of the top 10 webpages for numerous keywords and their corresponding HomePagePageRanks were recorded on a spreadsheet. HPR was clearly the #1 factor as far as Google was concerned; however, it did not explain a few exceptions to the rule occurring with some medium difficulty keywords.These exceptions to the rule became the next focus for attention. Most of these top page positioned webpages with PR0 for medium keyword difficulty were themselves Homepages. Google has been all about "authority" as indicated by links from other websites and is clearly assuming that the HomePage of a website has that website's greatest authority. The conclusion was that Google is providing a boost in effective PageRank to Homepages when they are competing for a keyword (the second factor in the Google algorithm - G-Factor 2). Is HomePage PageRank Important In SEO?Published: September 2, 2011 High HomePage PageRank (HPR) does not ensure high positioning of webpages competing for a keyword but if a website does not have sufficient HPR for that keyword, it will have no chance of top page positioning on Google. As search engine optimisation (SEO) involves a competition for keywords, optimizers need a means to identify keyword difficulty and a credible way to determine the competitive strength of a website that might wish to compete for that keyword. The author takes the view that there is a crucial interim step that has not been previously discussed in the literature. That interim step is the identification of those keywords that a website has even a chance of top page positioning on a search engine results page (SERP) and in particular the top Google SERP. Targeting keywords that are in range allows a website to be found and potentially acquire natural links. Whilst it may seem tempting to target keywords that have higher search volumes, if they are out of range for the website, top positioning will not be achieved and the websites authority development will be unnecessarily retarded. Google Panda and PageRank Updates: Top Two Ranking Factors in SEO UnchangedPublished: August 17, 2011 Keyword difficulty aims to identify those keywords that are in range for a website to achieve first page positioning on search engine results pages. The HomePage PageRank keyword difficulty (HPR-KD) on a specific Google domain is calculated by finding the HomePage PageRank of each of the top 10 webpages for the keyword. The HPR-KD is the average value of the top 10 webpages for the keyword. Analyses of 1000 keywords for HPR-KD were conducted in December 2010, January 2011 and July 2011 - before and after a PageRank updates and Google's Panda updates. Remarkably, the mean HPR-KD for these thousand keywords remained stable throughout. The primary determining factor for feasibility for top page positioning remains the HomePage PageRank. Panda sets out to improve positioning of top quality websites' webpages. Greater emphasis will be placed on excellent content, outstanding presentation and attention to detail. There will be even less potential benefit to those who participate in inappropriate strategies such as automated backlinking campaigns. Niche keywords are found by determining their HPR-KD and knowing the HomePage PageRank of the website. Experience has shown that for a completely new website, niche keywords with HPR-KD of no more than 4.3 should be targeted.
(The Data for the Panda and PageRank Updates article is available here: http://keywordseopro.com/PageRank-Articles-1000kws-data-3sets.pdf The data is available on Excel and I would be happy to forward it as an email attachment for anyone who would wish to evaluate for themselves.) Backlinks in Search Engine Optimisation - Value and Limitations: The Nofollow AttributePublished: December 20, 2010 A backlink is a link placed on another website back to the writer's website. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the application of verifiable techniques that improve positioning of web pages for targeted keywords on search engine results pages to drive more visitors to a website. There have been numerous articles promoting the concept that backlinks provide enormous benefit in terms of enhancing authority by increasing PageRank. We must, however, question whether such backlinks are truly effective from an SEO point of view. (Read Full Article)
Measuring Link Value in SEO - Link Authority Unit DefinedPublished: December 1, 2010 Larry Page and Sergei Brin, the co-founders of Google, realised that the best web pages on a subject would have most high quality links. Surprisingly, there is no measurement applicable to link value. A unit of measurement is clearly required for link value. It is proposed that we use "link authority unit" for the value of links. One link authority unit is defined as the value of a link from a web page of PageRank 1 with one outbound link. (Read Full Article)
Off-Page SEO Backlinking Campaigns For Keywords - Merits and PitfallsPublished: July 23, 2010 SEO experts are agreed that off-page optimisation is more important than on-page optimisation. Off-page optimisation is about procuring backlinks from other websites. It is apparent that backlinks are advantageous and search engine optimisers and website owners are understandably keen to attract them. Consequently, an SEO industry has developed based on the acquisition of backlinks either placed by individuals who undertake the task manually or by the use of programs that place backlinks by automation. The search engines have sophisticated means to find and disregard black hat techniques including artificial link building. (Read Full Article)
Calculating the Link Juice (Value) Of Backlinks to Webpages - Manual and Software OptionsPublished: July 23, 2010 Link juice is the currency of backlink value. The number of inbound links to a webpage can be determined by searching for 'link:pageURL'. It would be possible to visit each linking webpage and determine its PageRank and number of outbound links. However, this would be prohibitively time consuming. Several programs are discussed. (Read Full Article) The Relationship Between PageRank and BacklinksPublished: June 15, 2010 Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the science of making the most of a website in terms of attracting new visitors and potential clients. SEO can be divided into on-page optimisation and off-page optimisation. On page optimisation relates to content within the website. Off-page optimisation involves increasing the total value of backlinks to the website. PageRank is the most important factor in search engine positioning. (Read Full Article)
PageRank is the Best Indicator of Competition Strength For a Keyword in SEO - New Verifiable TheoryPublished: May 18, 2010 The major argument against PageRank in SEO is that pages with zero PageRank can be in the top positions even for highly competitive keywords. However, we are left with requiring an explanation as to why "PageRank is Google's view of the importance of this page." It becomes apparent that either Google is misleading us or we have all been misinterpreting Google's statement. From extensive evaluation of the top Google search engine results pages for hundreds of keywords, the author observed that those high positioned web pages with PageRanks of zero have a home page with higher PageRanks, usually three or more. (Read Full Article)
Defining Niche Keywords & Keyword Difficulty - Development of a New Essential and Unique SEO ToolPublished: July 9, 2009 Finding "niche keywords" is fundamental in our quest to attract visitors to a website. A niche keyword is defined as having an above threshold search volume for the targeted locality of a website with potential for top ten positioning on the search engine results page (SERP) for that locality (country). (Read Full Article) A Revolution in Keyword Research and Search Engine OptimizationPublished: August 7, 2008 The success of a Website is dependent on the quality and quantity of its content. The content of web pages should be structured around keywords. (Read Full Article)
Keyword ResearchQuestions and Answers interview - Digital Marketing Institute How important is keyword choice in SEO?Success depends on:
The majority of websites fail. The #1 reason for a website failing to achieve its objective is that the appropriate keywords have not been targeted. I am writing a page and I know what I want to write about, but there are many keywords I could use.How would I go about finding the right keyword from an SEO and user stand point?Google’s keyword suggestion tool provides a list of appropriate related keywords together with the global and local country volume of searches per month. Our list of keywords can be analysed by Keyword SEO Pro to determine their HPR-KDs. We must determine the Homepage PageRank of our website. Guidelines are available that indicate the minimum Homepage PageRank required for a webpage on our website to have even a chance of top SERP positioning.
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