How to break the Internet filter

It's been revealed that it won't be illegal to circumvent the Australian Government's proposed mandatory Internet filter, so today I show you how. There are also unintended consequences for business from this revelation

Also a couple of questions from viewers on country level domain best practice for ranking.

We're hiring again! We're looking for another Account Manager, tell your friends! :)

Payroll Software

I was asked a question about payroll software yesterday. It is a good excercise in keyword research. For instance, the two most popular brands for small business bookkeeping in Australia are MYOB & Quicken.

As you can see Payroll software comes no where near the same level of popularity. So the people looking for payroll software are probably in a different market. They are more likely to be SMEs who require a dedicated payroll system. So maybe the people looking for payroll software are also looking for payroll system?

Well yes they are. If you were in the payroll business I would be having a think about which searcher is more important. The one looking for software or a system.

Mark Dreyfus, Libs have responded.

Below is a response from Liberal Senator Julian McGauran to my question on whether the Libs would block the Internet filter legislation in the Senate.

Dear Mr Stewart

I wish to acknowledge your email of 10 March 2010 regarding internet filtering.

Thank you for bringing your views to my attention. Rest assured I will raise your concerns in the appropriate forums of the Liberal Party.

I have received many emails and letters on this issue supporting this position.

Regards

Julian Julian McGauran
Senator for Victoria
Suite 17 Collins Place
45 Collins Street
MELBOURNE VIC 3000

I'm still waiting for a response from Mark Dreyfus my local member. He had said previously to me in public he though filtering the Internet was impossible. That was before Conroy announced they were pushing ahead with it last December.

I followed the EFA directions on 'Lobbyalib'

Site uptime, page speed & filtering tag clouds

Speed is becoming a major issue as is hosting reliability when it comes to good google rankings. One of our clients got a massive boost in their rankings this week when we changed their hosting company. Today I have a look at a couple of ways you can check if your hosting company is adversely affecting your rankings.

What is long tail & how do I find it? I show you a couple of ways you can find new high converting keyword markets.

Senator Conroy, (like any politician) is attempting to shape the message on ISP filtering, to the point where he has filtered it from his own site. Now he is breaking copyright as well according to the author of the code he is using. That's what happens when you try to control the message online. It ends up backfiring. It's not a passive medium.

Obagi

One of our clients is was asked to appear on A Current Affair (ACA) talking about a product called Obagi. It is a skin care product and whilst I have more exposed skin than a lot of people, I'm still not qualified to talk about Obagi :)

Our client gets called on a lot for their professional opinion in the media. If you do a lot of PR or get asked for your comment as a professional, It is a good idea to have a think about the key phrases that will stick in people's minds about the topic & then optimise for them. In the case of our client, I have no idea what these phrases will be until I see the story. It may be Obagi, our client's brand, the name of the principal or even "new skin care product on A Current Affair".

So often I hear ads on the radio where you are meant to memorize a complex URL whilst driving. These businesses would do a lot better if they focused on getting a phrase embedded into the listeners psyche, rather than trying to get them to do difficult memory games. Then they could take out a PPC campaign, or if they had more lead time, make sure they rank organically for that phrase.

Conroy Vs the Librarians

The Australian Government just got a lot more opposition to its mandatory online censorship plans. The Librarians are angry.

What are tag clouds & how can they help your SEO? Also this week, great SEO quiz by Google with all the answers provided.

Page Rank, subdomains & Youtube censorship.

Are you still worried about Page Rank? Don't be. This week I explain why. Got wwws? Do you really need them? What is best practice with subdomains? Senator Conroy now wants to protect you from YouTube. Apparently he met with Google to discuss. So this week I continue my series on how to get stephen-conroy.com no.1 for the phrase "stephen conroy"

 

Links filters and your ranking

Getting the right keywords in your links on your site can really boost your rankings. If you sell baby gifts, why link the word 'product' when you could link the phrase 'baby gifts' ?

How will the Australian Government Secret Blacklist Filter affect your business? There's been a bit of chatter this week that it will affect SEO, the problem is a tad larger than that.

Woohooo! You're no.1 ....or are you? How to double check your results and why they may differ.

Google Index Search

Ever had the feeling that Google hates you? You're not alone! It can be very frustrating when you think you are doing everything right but you still can't get ranked, yet sites above you are no where near the "quality" of yours. It could be that Google is seeing something completely different. Today I look at an important technique that can save you a lot of time & heartache.

Google Billboards & busted news

The owners of stephen-conroy.com were directed to our show last week where I showed how their site could benefit from a better redirection. Talk about networking :) They've done half the work & it's already had a positive effect. I don't know about you but my Google news alerts are busted. One of our other viewers is getting news alerts with links sending him to hacked sites. That's not real helpful Google. Is Google broken?