| Why am I SEO Stoopid? | | | | unknown to me as my old stats package didn't |
| I'm SEO Stoopid because I didn't properly take | | | | make the distinction, my posters were still very |
| notice of what my stats could have told me. | | | | very well ranked in Google Images. I only found |
| If I would have done, I would have noticed | | | | this out by studying my Google Analytic stats, a |
| something sooner and factoring that something | | | | service I'd only recently signed up to in anticipation |
| into my response would very probably have | | | | of clients expecting me to keep them abreast of |
| saved me a goodly number of lost posters and | | | | Search Engine and SEO events. |
| art print sales. | | | | I checked out one of my artist's pages. I was in |
| My site is about SEO. I've been doing it since 1996 | | | | the 80's in Google but to my amazement I was |
| or thereabouts and have clients of many years | | | | at positions 1 and 3 in Google Images. I checked |
| standing. Halfway through last year, I started | | | | out another and another. Same kind of deal, I |
| adding posters pages to it. It's restful and | | | | was well off the main map and out in the boonies |
| unoressured compared with a lot of SEO, plus I | | | | in the text-driven Googles but top 5 in Google |
| wanted to see how fast I could get unrelated | | | | Images. |
| pages indexed and where and with whom, plus | | | | So, what was I to do? All those potentially |
| unexpectedly I found that I enjoyed doing it, lots | | | | hard-to-get SERPS were going to waste as when |
| of reasons. | | | | people didn't see the result they expected when |
| When the first two phases of Jagger hit, I was | | | | they clicked through, just my 404 page (polite |
| cool. It washed over my SEO clients the way I | | | | though it was) they just went somewhere else. |
| expected it to (it had no effect at all), and it | | | | Hurriedly put all my pages back up again is what I |
| washed over my (by now only mostly) SEO site | | | | did, and on my SEO site too, thinking to catch |
| the way I expected it to (it had no effect at all | | | | what business I can from what's left of the |
| there either). | | | | Christmas rush. I've left all of the links to the new |
| Then came the third wave. Oh dear! | | | | site in place as they'll get people hopping back and |
| My site's serps (not my clients' - they're all fine) | | | | forth from each site to the other, hopefully |
| went into a decline that they still haven't come | | | | without realising. All the posters and art prints, the |
| out of. I was getting damp postcards from my | | | | wall tapestries too, will have to be moved over |
| serps telling me what depth they were reaching. | | | | eventually and on a permanent basis. You can |
| They told me in one message they'd dived | | | | have a site about SEO or a site that uses SEO to |
| deeper than any known footballers. Imagine! If | | | | sell posters, you can not, not for any length of |
| they ever come back up they'll need time in a | | | | time, have just the one site that does both. |
| decompression chamber before they can surface | | | | Not the way Google are ordering the universe |
| again. | | | | anyway. |
| I decided that since I was tanking anyway no-one | | | | I'll change over slowly using individual 301 redirects |
| would be finding my poster pages from the | | | | and this time they really will be permanent. |
| engines and so now was the time to hive my | | | | For now I don't believe it'll matter as Google, |
| poster pages off to their own site, something I'd | | | | according to their own stats via Google Sitemaps, |
| been meaning to do for some time as a site is | | | | have no info about my new posters domain and |
| unlikely to do well for two such diverse subjects. I | | | | given everything else they have on their plate |
| got myself a new posters-oriented domain for | | | | just now I don't suppose they'll be indexing it all |
| them too, in anticipation of the day when I have | | | | and handing out a content penalty before I've |
| more time and can settle them down on their | | | | moved everything over permanently. |
| own dedicated space - the demand I had for | | | | But look at the sales opportunity I very nearly |
| them shows that they deserve it and I'll be | | | | missed, eh? |
| attending to this in the new Year. | | | | Moral of the story is, make sure your stats |
| I put them in a little backwater personal hosting | | | | package is the best that it can be. I don't think I'll |
| space I have with my Broadband ISP. I have a | | | | be using my old stats package too much from |
| custom 404 on my main site and I adjusted it to | | | | now on, but I'll keep it on as it does have some |
| make it plain to folk that I'd moved the posters | | | | individual visitor tracking capabilities that Google's |
| to a new domain as they were swamping my | | | | version of Urchin currently lacks. Reading your |
| SEO efforts. | | | | stats regularly will save you money and time in |
| Now I always kept a good eye on my stats but | | | | the long run. |
| I'd failed to note that results from Google, these | | | | But do make sure they're as detailed as possible - |
| days, aren't just from Google any more. They're | | | | you may miss important information if they aren't! |
| from Google Images too - and despite the fact | | | | Don't be an SEO Stoopid! |
| that I'd tanked in Google etc for text searches, | | | | |