Data Dimensions Web Site Audit

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Adam Chubak

Data Dimensions, located right here in Janesville, WI just announced that they are expanding their facility by 20,000 square feet.  This expansion will add 50 new jobs to their payroll.  However, although they are expanding their facility which by itself is a huge capital investment, they are not yet fully capitalizing on the potential of their digital real estate, their website.

High Level Market Analysis

In order to get a understanding of just what type of opportunities exist on the web, we need to do some initial research into just how big and competitive the market is.  To keep it simple, we will look at just one keyword, search phrase, that is probably pretty important to Data Dimensions.  That keyword is ‘business process outsourcing’.  Where did i get this keyword. I got it straight on their homepage of their site – http://www.datadimensions.com/

According to Google, this keyword, is searched for approximately 9,900 times every month just here in the U.S.  If we look at the global search volume it is searched for 22.200 time each and every month.  This is huge key term.  Realistically, you are not going to get all of that traffic even if you are number 1, however, if you were in the first position on Google alone, we could estimate about 40% of those searches would result in visitors to the website.  So if we make it an even 10,000 searches and do the math that means Data Dimensions is missing about 4000 visits every month on just 1 keyword and on just 1 search engine.  On top of that if we assume that on average 1% of those visitors turns into a business lead, (1% is normal),  40 business leads alone.  If we continue down this path that means that with an average close rate of 10% that is 4 new clients a month and I am pretty sure that the services are not cheap.

Where Does Data Dimensions Currently Stand

If we do a search for the keyword ‘business process outsourcing’, we find that Data Dimensions does not currently appear on page one.  So where do they appear?  We need to go to page 16, position 151.  Nobody in their right mind goes to page 4 let alone page 16.  This is just for that one keyword.  There are probably a variety of key search phrases that Data Dimensions should, and would more than likely, want to appear in the top 10 for.

A Few Key Areas They Should Address

There are a lot of things that matter when it comes to optimizing a website, but they fall into two categories; onsite (everything on the website) and offsite (usually linking or things not on the website). For the sake of this post, I will just highlight the areas of concern

Onsite Changes

  • Proper use of Titles and Meta Data
  • Internal Link Structure needs to fall inline with their core services
  • Proper use of Header Tags
  • Add real pages and not PDFs
  • Develop Content, Copy, and Pages that support their core services
  • Add a Contact Us Form
  • Install Web Tracking on entire site, not just homepage, to measure results

Offsite Changes

  • Develop a Linking Strategy
  • Properly Format PR releases for the web
  • Get Links from everywhere, especially clients

So Much Online Growth Potential

Just from this top level analysis of the size of the online market we can clearly see that there is a lot of potential growth for Data Dimensions if they were to invest into their website.  This could easily translate into real jobs here in Janesville.  We can see that the global market is larger then the domestic one.  That means we can bring new dollars here to Janesville as well.

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Day 3 – SEO Crash Course

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Adam Chubak

It has been a couple days since my last post, but that is because I not only have clients to serve, but also a couple personal projects that I am working on.  I am nearly finished with the first section.  The first section is dedicated to a crash course in SEO Fundamentals.  It really is a crash course.  It covers all of the basic tried and true best practices for proper search engine optimization.  Examples of areas that are covered include: Title Tags, Meta Data, Links, Site Structure, No Follows, Robot.txt, Header Tags, Block Level Analysis, etc.  If you are not familiar with these concepts, I recommend doing some studying (Googling), to get a better understanding before you start the course.   Some great takeaways from this section so far revolve around some misnomers; keyword density, no follow changes, and external linking.  I had inklings that all these were true, as true as anything is in SEO, but it was great to see them being spoken to from someone who knows what they are doing.

SEO Training Observations and Comments

After every videocast there is a small non graded quiz that covers what was talked about in each section.  Each video varies in length, but they are all quite long.  Additionally the videocasts are at least 30 minutes in length, if not more.  I can not give an exact time due to the way the videos are broken up.  One possible option that would be great to have would be a way to add it to my ipod (podcast).  I would love to use my1 hour plus commute to listen and study these topics.  There is no official way to do this, but I suspect since it is a streaming video feed, that one can simply grab it if they really wanted to.  Also, I think the quizzes could be more in depth as well.  They are really short almost too short given the length of the videos.  Lastly, it would be great if the videos themselves were of a higher quality.  For the amount of money that we are paying I would think this could be accomplished.  I understand that these Master Certifications and classes are new on the scene so there probably was little to know seed money involved, but going forward, it would be nice.  Kind of like how the SEOmoz Training Videos are.  The second series is way more higher quality.

Even though I am not yet done with the first course, I am pleased with the pace.  Given that this is a Masters Search Engine Optimization Certification Course, the first section should be the most basic and if this is the most basic then the rest should be really great.  I am looking forward to more advanced topics and they even added some cutting edge sections.  One section that should be worthwhile will be SEO for Mobile Devices.  This is an area that is going to explode and I have yet a real world chance to focus any effort into expanding my knowledge on this subject.

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Market Motive SEO Master Certification Course Day 1

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Adam Chubak

My employer, Top Floor Technologies, has been vary generous in alloying me and 2 of my coworkers sign up and partake in the Master Certification Course offered by Market Motive and Search Engine Journal.  I hope to chronicle my experience in the 90 day course.

Day 1: Orientation

Today was the first day and we all had to call into an orientation phone conference.  We went over the syllabus, where and what the assignments are, and what we are going to be graded on.  I am not going to chronicle as much as I can without giving everything away for free.  These courses cost $3500.00 a pop and we used the discount code and saved $1000.00.  The first day of orientation was actually cut a little short.  There was some phone trouble on the instructors and he was dropped from the call.  He did make arrangements to continue the call later in the day and to set aside time tomorrow to finish it up if anybody was unavailable.

My Expectations

I have a lot of expectations going into this training and certification course.  As with you, I was a little leary going into.  I mean is there really any true SEO Certification Course out there that is worth its salt.  As I was learning more and more about the course being offered by Market Motive and Search Engine Journal, the more it sounded like this was worth it.  What I really like about the course is that it is being taught by some of the best people in the field; Avinash Kaushik, Bryan Eisenberg, Andrew Goodman, Andrew Goodman, Matt Bailey, Jennifer Evans Laycock, and Todd Malicoat.  Additionally after watching the Faculty Panel Challenge from the last class, it highlighted that you have to really earn this Master Certification from top industry practitioners.  Michael Stebbins in that video indicated that not everyone made it to this point and not everyone who made it to this point is automatically going to pass.

Initial Overview

At this point, things look pretty good.  There is a nice balance between theory and hands on experience.  There is going to be a self guided e learning video course.  Each section looks like there is a nice range of assignments, mini (non graded) quiz’s, readings, and videocasts. At the end of that, about half way through, there is a final test on this material.  Then we have a hands on project where we get to demonstrate our knowledge of SEO/SEM.  There are also some essay questions that need to be completed and a peer review of  a classmate’s project.

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Janesvilleseo.com Now Indexed In Yahoo

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Adam Chubak

Following my own advice in the previous post by submitting the site straight to Google, I did the same with Yahoo.  Yahoo’s URL submit is a little bit more tricky to find, since they had multiple ways to submit.  One of those is free and the others are paid. You have to do some digging to get to the option. But if your lazy: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit You will need a yahoo account.   No worries if you don’t have one, they are free.

Additionally I am currently ranked #1 for the keyword “Janesville SEO” in Yahoo as well.  This really goes to show that even with a brand new site with no history, the domain name is incredibly important.  However, to keep things in perspective, “Janesville SEO” is not a difficult keyword to obtain.  There is next nothing when it comes to real competition and on top of it all, there is hardly any search traffic for it.  But the good news to that is, if it does start to pick up from nothing, maybe its more brand awareness on my part.  Only time will tell.

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Janesvilleseo.com Is Now Indexed In Google

Posted on September 10, 2009 by Adam Chubak

Well that was fast.  It only took a day to get indexed since my last post.  I only did two things since that time frame.  The first was submitting my blog to Blog Catalog and I directly submitted my site to Google.

Since I have been doing this Search Engine Optimization thing for quite some time now, I was amazed that this was the most direct way to get indexed.  I say this because I installed Google Analytics, signed up with Google Webmaster Tools, and submitted an XML Google friendly Site Map and there was no indexation by Google.  These are a lot of signals that I provided to Google and yet they did not pick up on them.  So let that be a lesson, if you want to be indexed quickly, submit your site directly to Google. Another interesting fact is that one of the fields that you are able to fill out when submitting your is labeled “comments”.  This indicates to me that someone, a real human and not a bot is actually looking over your submission.  Can you imagine how many submissions they get a day or even a week.   I can only imagine what that job would be like.

Linkbuilding Slowly Begins

The other thing I did was sign up and submit my site to Blog Catalog.  I thought this would be a great initial start in building good backlinks to this site.  This was easy and free to do, which is great.  So if anybody is out there is starting a blog, I would recommend this site and others similar to it to build good backlinks.  Another great benefit for this can be seen in the search engine results page for the search of  “Janesville SEO”.  I currently rank 1, 2, and technically 3.  I say this because my listing on Blog Catalog is in the 3rd spot.

Ranking Results Are In

So in a short while I have obtained the top 3 spots for 1 main keyword I am focusing my rankings on.  The other keyword of choice at the moment is “Janesville Search Engine Optimization”  I am not doing as well there, yet!  Currently I am number 10 (Blog Catalog) and number 15 for janesvilleseo.com.  I am sure within a short period of time I will obtain top rankings for these keywords.  The best thing I have in my favor is my domain name.  Keep that in mind if you have a local service and are in need of a new website/domain.  Get one with the key + city if you can.

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New Site Not Indexed In Google

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Adam Chubak

Well, I have to admit that I am a little surprised that this site, janesvilleseo.com has yet to be index in Google.  Well I guess I am not really surprised.  This is a brand spankin new website, with little to now content, no backlinks, no domain name history.

What Have I Done Thus Far

I have covered all of the basics:

  • Signing up for a Google Analytics account
  • Submitting the site to Google Webmasters Tools
  • Submitting a XML sitemap to Google through Webmaster Tools

What Are The Next Steps

If we keep the two major tenants of SEO in mind, Content and Links, then those have to be the next steps.  As we speak I am continuing to add content to this site.  In the coming weeks and months I hope to not only document my journey to top rankings for the keywords Janesville SEO and Janesville Search Engine Optimization, but also write about other search marketing news and tactics and try to to apply them on a local level here in Janesville, WI.

In terms of building links, I will start with blog directories and local directories.  This tends to be a great starting point for new websites.  By adding to local and topical directories it not only tells Google and the other search engines what you are about, but it can help speed up the process of getting indexed.

I will keep you all posted as to when I get indexed within Google, as well as, Yahoo and Bing.  My guess is that Google will be first and within the next couple of days with Yahoo and Bing to follow shortly.

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New Website Launched 10:59pm

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Adam Chubak

It took me awhile but I finally got this site up and running.  My name is Adam Chubak and I am an SEO professional.  I have been doing SEO and SEM for a few years now and have helped over 100 companies obtain 1000′s of top rankings.  My area of expertise is in the industrial world.  I work for Top Floor Technologies located out of New Berlin, WI.  They have been building and marketing websites for over 10 years.

The Goal of Janesvilleseo.com

The main reason I started this blog is to have a place of my own to store my thoughts and ramblings in the wide world of SEO/SEM.  I hope to provide value to the ever changing world which I and my colleugues are apart of.  Please feel free to leave any comments whether they are constructive or not.  Sometimes I just like to be picked on for the heck of it.

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