Ok, I have spent a lot of time creating the content for this website myself. None of it is copied from other sources, it's written by me. The topics I cover, including search engine optimization, Internet marketing, web analytics and search engine marketing are all areas of my experience. When I write an article, it comes from my experience, through my brain and then onto my computer at home in Calgary.

As an SEO specialist, I of course try to optimize my own website as much as I can, and as much as time allows, for certain keyword phrases, like Calgary SEO. I'm from Calgary, I live in Calgary, and I provide search engine consulting to companies in Calgary...and well sometimes Vancouver.

Also, as you might expect, I watch my competition in the search engine results pages fairly closely. If you've read my articles then you'll also know that the best way to gain presence in search engines is to create lots of high quality content. Of course, those articles are the bulk of my own content.

Yes, this is leading up to something....

I recently noticed a certain not-to-be-named company (because I don't want to help THEIR search rankings) appear for calgary seo. After looking at their site, a lot of the content as it related to Calgary seemed oddly familiar. A lot of my background is in hotels and hospitality so not surprisingly when I used Copyscape to check to see if any of their content had been ripped off from other websites, it came as no big shock to me to see that yes, in fact, their content as it related to Calgary came DIRECTLY (like copy and paste kind of directly) from Tourism Calgary's website.

And go figure, the company is based in Montreal.

I am all for fair game in search engine optimization, but stealing content is just plain bad form. It's also REALLY bad SEO as it can sometimes (although apparently not this time) result in a duplicate content penalty. I won't mention the name of the company, but if you're dying to know, go to Copyscape and type in www.tourismcalgary.com. The number one bad guy on the list.....

In case you're wondering, I use Copyscape to make sure no one is taking MY content and using it for themselves. Copying content is plagiarism, and if Tourism Calgary was paying more attention, or cared, they could easily go after these websites.

That raises a whole other question. Once someone steals your content, what do you do? Well, you can send them a nasty email, or you can try to take them to court. Be prepared to be able to prove the content is yours, which is much more difficult than it seems. Webserver logs are one of the few ways, but as those can be pretty easily faked it also becomes tough to use these to make your point.

Hopefully Google will catch up with this and be a bit more aggressive in penalties. Until then, please don't copy me! Better yet, ask permission to copy. A link and proper acknowledgement will got a long way!

Labels: calgary, Internet Marketing, search engine optimization, SEO

More industry jargon! Great! *sigh* I'll add it to my Internet Marketing Glossary. Check it out for a tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek look at my favorite thing in the world - acronyms!

In this case however, Long Tail search engine optimization is actually a very relevant part of any SEO campaign and should have some close attention paid to it.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Labels: Long Tail, search engine optimization, SEO

Hey everyone!

Thanks for reading. I've just added the Web 2.0 and Google Universal Search article and detailed how these technologies and principles can apply to your search engine optimization efforts.

Check it out here.

Cheers from Calgary!
Dan

Labels: Google, Google Universal Search, search engine optimization, SEO, Web 2.0

I recently read an article about the so-called Web 2.0 and search engine optimization. The writer suggested that while interesting, there's no particular advantage from an SEO perspective to these websites.

I think that's a matter of perspective. In fact, I think she was dead wrong. Blogs, Wikis, social networking sites and all the newest forms of user interaction with various websites are all designed to do one thing. Add content. Hopefully that content is interesting and useful to potential future visitors but for search engine optimization purposes, more content is fantastic.

The reality is if I spend time writing a webpage and Google indexes that webpage, the content that I write adds to my search engine prominence. If however, I have a blog like this one and someone decides to make a comment about something that I say here, then I get my content PLUS your content. Maybe I agree or disagree with what you said, but Google doesn't particularly care about your opinion of this blog.

Google does like seeing more content that has relevant keywords spread throughout.

Of course Google will index what I say AND what you say. There you have it, more content. Best of all, I didn't have to pay you for your comments and you have helped my search engine rankings. Content, for search engine optimization, is king. The more of it, the better. (Feel free to leave a comment about this article!)

So is there an advantage to Web 2.0? You bet! It's free content. There is a balance of course, but type in almost any technical term into the Google search engine and likely the first result you'll get is a Wikipedia entry. Wikipedia is of course completely created by unpaid editors. The most popular sites on the Internet are YouTube, MySpace and Facebook which are all created completely by users.

Should you incorporate Web 2.0 features in your website? Absolutely,as they fit with your particular business. A blog or review section where users can post comments is the most basic and easiest way to get started. If you run a hotel add a place to put reviews (although now you can apparently include TripAdvisor reviews right on your own website!). Start an interesting blog and encourage feedback. Let users upload videos, Youtube style. Start a user group forum if you sell software.

Encouraging participation gets extra content for your website for no charge. This is a huge advantage for search engine optimization. By encouraging participation you also get something even better: an engaged audience. Engaged audiences do something search engines don't do. They actually buy products and services. I'll post a Web 2.0
article soon that will lay out the basics of incorporating the next generation of user interactive experiences to your site.

Labels: search engine optimization, SEO, Web 2.0

I know how much my fees are, and if you ask me I'll be happy to tell you. The more research I do and the more postings I see makes me wonder.

I've always tried to provide a fair service for a fair price. Some recent articles have lead me to believe not everyone is doing the same thing. Is an in-house Search Engine Optimization person for your company worth 250 000 per year?

I know someone is going to argue with me, but I would say no. Most of us are specialists to be sure, but we're mostly self taught. Many SEO's don't even have a solid grasp and still rely on META tags which they probably generated with a free online tool. (I swear if I see another "revisit-after" tag I'm going to scream.. ok I do scream somewhat regularly.)

Now of course, I'm as big of a fan of getting paid more as anyone else. Fair is fair though, and you can learn as much or more about SEO as I know by listening to Google, doing research online and visiting search engine forums. The reality is that the basics of SEO like good page design, proper tagging, quality tagging and reputable inbound links have not changed. How search engines detect pages which are designed to fool them has definitely gotten more sophisticated but a quality interesting page has always ranked well in Google and probably will for quite some time.

If you're researching either my company, Get Clicked SEO, or another SEO company, get some background information first. Do some basic research on search engine optimization so you can at least understand what services you're getting for your money. Feel free to start here with my SEO articles. I certainly don't believe that the cheapest is the best, but I am fan of value for your investment. With some basic knowledge about what you're buying, you're far less likely to get ripped off.

Labels: search engine optimization, SEO

A couple of ongoing topics I've ran into lately...

Recently Google Analytics launched their new and upgraded interface. After a few minutes of playing around with it, I've found everything I've used in the past. A great deal of attention in group forums though has been focused on the disappearance of visitor statics by the hour. It now appears that Google either forgot or ignored it but thanks to user outcry, they are now working on putting it back in.

The hourly traffic analysis is interesting on a few levels, but also raises many questions. Should you target
AdWords advertising during your low hours to boost traffic? Or is there bigger bang for your buck to advertise during your busiest hours to attract the largest possible interested audience?

If you're an e-commerce website, particularly a regionally targeted e-commerce website, this could be really good information. If you're a flower shop selling flowers only to people in a specific city, you will probably get hits at specific times of day, and then it may be good advice to use Google AdWords to boost this trend (attract visitors when they are looking).

Here's hoping the hourly report comes back soon!

Another interesting topic I've seen around lately is the length of URL title for search engine optimization purposes. Now there are two arguments here. One is that a description URL, like...www.calgary.com/downtown_calgary_flower_delivery.html is great from an SEO point of view. The counter argument is that no one will
remember that or type it in themselves. Compared to www.calgary.com/flowers which someone might actually recall from other advertising (radio, tv, or whatever) and type in themselves.

My theory is do both. I've used this strategy successfully for search engine optimization purposes AND advertising simplicity. All you need to do is create both pages, and then redirect the simpler, easier to remember address to the more complex one. Don't put any text on it or duplicate the page as you might be penalized for having duplicate content. A simple meta-refresh tag will do the trick. Also make sure
there is a text link on your main page or site map so Google can find and index the page easily.

Voila, a great search engine optimization URL plus a great advertising campaign. Google sees and indexes only one page with appropriate content. For more on SEO, check out my SEO Articles.

Good news for me and my fellow Calgary walkers and bikers, the weather is finally warming up!

Labels: google adwords, google analytics, search engine optimization, SEO

Well, I spend a lot of my day researching search engine optimization, search engine marketing, analytics and all sorts of related things.

Once in a while, even I get surprised.


Ask.com (formally askjeeves.com)is advertising in the London tube. Check out this picture.

I think Ask.com is just being bitter, I mean c'mon. At least Google SEEMS to do most things fairly. And really, why would Ask be worried about it, everyone has access to everything on the Internet, including them. If they were better at indexing, maybe they would be more popular with users.

But they aren't. Google is currently providing what is seen by the vast majority of the population as the most relevant search results. Shockingly, most people use Google.

Go figure.

As a dedicated SEO guy, I've spent a lot of time getting to know the in's and outs of Google and other search engines. While I don't always agree with everything they do, I have to admit Google seems to be doing the best job so far.

So why the smear campaign Ask.com? Here's a thought. Make a better search engine and compete with them, instead of trying to get politicians to regulate something which can't be regulated anyway.

Ah good times indeed.

Labels: search engine optimization, Search Engines, SEO