Ask Kalena

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Job Title: Search Engine Optimisation Executive
Job Reference #: VAC-2502
Position Type: full time, permanent
Name of employer: Brand Attention Ltd
Location: London, UK
Date Posted: 20 July 08
Position description:

Brand Attention is a growing digital marketing agency based in Hitchin (near Stevenage), Hertfordshire just 35 min from Kings Cross, with a focus towards Search Marketing, Mobile Development and Web Design. They are looking for a talented SEO specialist to join their expanding SEM team.

Reporting to the Head of Search, responsibilities will include:

• Ensure the smooth handling of your designated client campaigns.
• Undertake competitor, sector and market analysis.
• Conduct keyword research using industry tools to create keyword optimised content.
• Critically analyse client and competitor websites and provide recommendations.
• Plan and implement link building campaigns.
• Utilise web analytics tools to measure the success of organic search, calculate ROI and supply regular reports to management.
• Assist in training editorial, marketing and development teams on SEO best practice and techniques.
• Keep up to date with changes to search engine technology by participating in forums, reading blogs, white papers and attending industry conferences.

Skills & Achievements

• MS Excel & Word – Intermediate user.
• Understanding of HTML and CSS.
• Proven communication skills and a team player.
• Strong written, presentation and verbal communication skills.
• At least 1 year search marketing experience.
• Experience in implementing search engine optimisation techniques.
• An aptitude and passion for Internet-related technology.
• An analytical approach, with a focus on detail and process.
• Knowledge of Internet technologies.

Desirable skills include:

• Experience using web analytics software e.g. WebTrends, Google Analytics, Omniture.
• A degree within a technical or marketing discipline.
• PPC Management experience including Google GAP (Google Advertising Professional) exam passed.
• A good working knowledge of FTP and Packages such as Dreamweaver.
• Knowledge of Web programming languages is advantageous but not essential.

The successful applicant will receive:

• A competitive salary that is benchmarked against London based companies.
• 25 days holiday.
• Private Health Cover.
• Individual training budget.
• Recognition within a small highly focused and respected specialist team.

Salary range: £20,000 to £30,000 per annum
Closing date: Unknown
More info about company from: [www.brandattention.com]
Contact: Send resumes to info[at]brandattention.com

For more search industry job vacancies visit Search Engine College Jobs Board.

Popularity: 9%

Dear Kalena…

I have just discovered your site and have read your article on Blogging. I am a realtor in Whistler, BC Canada and my question is: Do you think blogging is a good thing for a realtor, and if so what do you think the topics should be? Please note, I have just discovered your site, and a friend built my site, but he can’t do it any more so I have turned to SEO101 to find out what on earth I need to do. Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Marion

Dear Marion,

Maintaining a blog for almost any site is usually a good thing. However, it takes consistency, time, and of course, commitment. There are several benefits to having a blog on your site.

Blogs provide rich content that the search engines just love. They are usually updated on a regular basis which also helps to keep the search engine spiders coming back for more. For your purpose, you need to focus your blog to attract whomever you are looking to get to your site.

Assuming your goal is to bring in folks looking to buy real estate in Whistler, BC, I would write about Whistler! You could blog about great restaurants, interesting places to visit, or happenings in the town. Whatever news and information you think your visitors would find helpful.

Try not to talk about your own business, but rather offer information that is useful and unbiased, so your visitors will keep coming back, and also see you as a trusted source of information.

Lastly, research and build a list of important keywords that you need to optimize your site for. Use those keywords to link to your main site where appropriate. That will all help to pass the relevance of your blog onto your business site.

Oh, one last tip. If you’re going to start a blog it is worth the time and effort to install and host the blog on your domain instead of using a hosted version from a third party. WordPress is easy to install and administer.

Good luck! Nick
www.TheSmallMerchant.com

Popularity: 11%

Dear Kalena…

I have been in the top three positions for the keyword ‘motivation’ for five years and just last month dropped to 16. A block of my once-ranked pages has simply disappeared. My business is sinking as a result. I haven’t changed a word on my site for months - perhaps even a year - because I’ve been writing a new book. Could this be the issue? My site is: Motivation123.com

Jason

Dear Jason

The advertiser competition for this keyword is very high resulting in a near saturated market.
The position change for your site could be as a direct result in a downturn in the number of searches for the single keyword “motivation”.

If your site content and meta-data has remained static for a period of a year or so then Google may have decided that your site is not as relevant in this search as it once was, resulting in placing your competitors higher in the Search Engine Results Page for the search term “motivation”.
Detailed analysis of your competitors may reveal more readily updated content and SEO work being carried out on a scheduled basis.

A positive move may be to restructure your keywords for a less saturated keyword phrase still related to motivation, it is important not to lose the keyword “motivation” altogether so add keywords rather than delete them.

Take a look at your site content and be sure to include any new keyword phrases in the body text two or three times and also consider looking at your description tag to reflect this new content.

Plan strategic SEO by using different related keyword phrases as opposed to single keywords and you could see your site rise in the SERPs again.

best regards
Andy Watson
Wildcat SEO

Popularity: 9%

Hi Kalena,

I noticed that your site contains information on search engine optimization. I’d like to notify you of a new, free tool for automatically analyzing URLs for a comprehensive range of SEO issues.

www.seositecheckup.com

Submitted by: Rachel from seositecheckup.com

Review findings:

For:
Easy to use due to only one field to populate so enter your URL and away you go!

Site analysis is fairly quick and results are displayed in easy to understand sections;

• - High importance
• - Medium importance
• - Successful check

There are useful explanations and suggestions with rollover help pop-ups for each section.
In the event of the site being analyzed returning any results flagged as red or amber, the application displays detailed instructions and explanations as to why these have failed along with links and suggestions on how these issues can be resolved. These instructions can be a little technical and may be of more use to web designers and SEO specialists rather than the end user and site owners.

Against:
Browser compatibility - site appears to have been written for IE7 - slight misalignment of left edge when viewed in FireFox 3.01 and Opera 9.5

Conclusion:
There seems to be a lot of focus on the page size and even when the page analysed is less than the average page size (25Kb as stated in the application) there is still the suggestion to compress the page size further.

All in all this is a good and easy to use resource which, when used in conjunction with other site checking applications, can provide an excellent starting point or a reference for cross checking other web site optimisation processes.

Andy
Wildcat SEO

Popularity: 10%

Dear Kalena (and Jacqueline in this case),

Are there any issues with an SEO company taking on clients that are competitors? Who will get ranked highest and is strategic marketing info passed on to competitors?

David Ash

Dear David,

In my opinion, an ethical SEO company has no place taking on clients that are in direct competition, like two businesses that are targeting the exact same market with the same keywords. Furthermore, a trustworthy SEO company definitely wouldn’t pass any strategic information on to competitors - look up a company before you work with them, and be sure to go past the first page or two of results. After all, an SEO firm probably knows how to push anything negative down in the SERPs, but they can’t make that stuff disappear completely.

For SEOs and search marketers themselves, taking on two clients that are direct competitors can lead to many ethical quandaries, so therefore, each client’s chosen keywords and even a non-compete clause should be written into your contracts. You should always protect yourself legally - an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in that regard.

If you are planning on working with an SEO firm and you are concerned about that same company working with competitors, ask them about their confidentiality practices and such before you sign anything; if you are an SEO consultant wondering about dealing with two clients that compete, consider the differences between those clients. Are they really that similar, to the point where they would go after the exact same keywords? Do they have different specialties or do they operate in different neighborhoods? If your potential clients are two distinctive companies in the same industry, it is possible to still work with them ethically if you target separate keywords and focus on their differences (and of course, if you keep everything confidential).

Best of luck!

-Jacqueline

SEOGroup.com and Ocean19.com

Popularity: 9%