Now even Facebook is inspiring blog posts. Not because I want to write a post on social media, but they put up that silly ad for a t-shirt that reminded me all I do is talk to people all day that wants to tell me they are experts in SEO, did their own SEO so that makes them an expert, or find smart people who are experts that tell them what they want to hear, regardless of whether it’s the truth, and then want me to validate their ability. SEO is not a hobby. SEO is not easy. And real SEO experts are hard to find and even harder to identify.
So often the information I hear is just flat out wrong. And it’s so difficult to tell someone that. Web Designers at times are yes people that can do what they want with only a rudimentary nod to SEO concerns. But how is a consumer to know who and what is real and what is not?
Here’s a list of all the things people think they know about SEO, that are just not correct:
#1 Talks about how the PPC helps Organic Search
I usually get this from the client side. Now for years, there has been this undercurrent of why PPC helps organic search, but if you ask Google they will tell you that they house those departments in two different buildings and never the two shall meet. And although I have my own opinion on this, and maybe will write a post on it, when a customer leads with “I want you to do PPC so you can drive my organic search,” you know this will be a problem. You don’t do PPC as an organic strategy. And in fact, if it’snot done right it can screw up your organic results. It should be complementary at best.
#2 Talks about Building Citations and Links
This one is tricky to navigate in this regard. Yes, you need links and yes, you need citations. But going and getting thousands of junk links from every directory site on the planet is now passé. Getting citations from places that have no traffic or no relevancy is just a waste of good resources. Furthermore, adding pages to article directories for backlinks is not only passé, but more or less taboo in this day and age. Yet I’m still asked about it.
#3 Talks about Social Sharing and Yet has No Followers.
There for a while, you could add your page on social and have no followers and still get credit. Now, Google is looking for that social activity and it’s no longer good to just have the link found. Google wants the engagement. So, to just put a page up for the sake of putting up a page is long gone by the wayside.
#4 All you Need is good MetaTags
So yeah, Google stopped ‘honoring’ that in 2009. And although you need to have proper title tags and well-written descriptions, it’s not the beat all and end all of an SEO game. But many times I see bids built around how they are going to fix the meta tags and make a website rank. Hardly.
#5 I have 5 “Great” Keyword-rich Domains and I want to use them all to Rank on the Same Keyword
Hello, its 2003 calling and they want their strategy back. I hear this a lot too, and customers get mad when we advise that would not be the way to go. Some days not being a yes man is hard. I had over 25 web hosting domains and have systematically shut them down and pointed all their power to this website. I now have a website that ranks well, is focused and is a perfect lead generator. I admittedly have three brands we work with here, and each serves a unique clientele and purpose. They are not setup to compete on Google or optimized to game Google’s system. It is next to impossible to own multiple properties, give them their own identities and develop each of them so uniquely.
#6 Pricing
This one is so hard to explain, but you cannot have good SEO for $100 a website. Or $300 a website, or even $1000 a website. It’s just not possible to do all the things that need to be done in all the directions it needs to come in from. But so often I find people taking the bait on low-cost SEO. In the end, those folks end up with more problems than solutions.
#7 News Papers and TV stations are not SEO companies
More and more I hear this that SEO has been outsourced to the local big newspaper. If they can’t deliver the news why do think they can do SEO? I know, all kidding aside. $3000-$5000 a month to rank on 10 keywords is not good. I don’t care how many reports they give you. Those reports are ways to buffalo you into thinking they did something more than 10 keywords.
#8 Take a #1 Ranking Website and Flush it
This pains me. I treat our websites like children and work with them, nurture them, and build them into big, strong sites that can compete with even the biggest brands. But occasionally I have a new person come into a client company and want to replace us with ‘their own people.’ And then over the next six months, I watch the website be systematically dismantled in the name of progress by another SEO firm that simply did not know what they were doing. There are very few that do, honestly. Unfortunately, that is pretty much always the case. Out of the last three clients, I’ve had leave, two have completely decimated their web presence. One has done better because the company was sold and the new owner put more resources in.
With the two that are decimated, I’ve noticed that they have used PPC to prop their sites back up. When you have a #1 website don’t change drivers for the sake of changing. Respect that someone did the work and got you to that spot, and that did not happen by accident. Furthermore, flipping a website is an art form and very few people can do it successfully. We can, but very few others can do it right because of how much is involved. It’s not simply putting a few 301s in and walking away. Remember, it’s much harder to fix a website after it’s been destroyed than to do it right in the first place, especially if it’s a competitive field.
As a P.S. to this topic, if you have traffic and are not making a sale, find out why don’t just turn the site off without even redirecting the traffic. It’s very hard to get a website that has 10,000+ organic visits, and to throw it away is…well…no words.
#9 We Have an In-house SEO Guy
I hear this a lot too. You cannot have one guy that you’re paying less than $50K a year do all the SEO. Besides there not being enough hours in a work week, it’s not possible. You need writers, tech people, editors, link builders, creative/graphics people, content people and security people, and they are all different skill sets. So, for a small to mid-sized business you are far better advised to use the $50K-$75K a year and hire an agency that provides a turnkey solution that covers all of it than one guy who knows how to work a computer, maybe. The in-house budget really needs to be over $250K and more pushing $500K for a normal company. For web-based companies that number really needs 25 or more people. Ever see The Intern? it’s not all that far off.
Digital marketing requires commitment and consistency most of all to be successful. There is no secret sauce, just a lot of hard, coordinated teamwork. And one secretary that knows how to use Facebook is not going to cut it.
#10 Your Web Hosting Needs to be in the Loop
Bad web hosts, and for that matter web designers, can hurt your efforts far more than you can ever account for. Slow connections, hacked websites and no firewalls are among the basic problems website owners may encounter.
And I guess while I’m on the subject, knowing how to use WordPress and add plugins does not make you a web designer, and in fact, improper use of plugins can kill your efforts.
I admit that at ACTWD I’ve put all the components under one roof by accident. I didn’t start out to have all three components under one roof. I did it because I kept hitting things that were needed that we couldn’t do, so I found solutions and have been doing that as long as I can remember. I know we are the exception, but honestly, we should be held up as the norm and the litmus test that is used when choosing an SEO company.
I received a client email that was riddled with misinformation someone had told them regarding SSL. This post has been on my mind for a long time and this seemed to give me the perfect opportunity. This also a timely topic with hacking being in the news and Google losing yet another 2+ Billion lawsuits in Europe, both of which related to this topic.
To understand the role of SSL in security and how it’s being co-opted, misused, as well as touted as the end game in cyber security as well as SEO, one must first understand how and what all these things are, as well as the proper application. Every day I see people throwing around a lot of words but most people don’t really know what they mean.
Hacking
So, let’s first look at what hacking actually is and how to avoid it. Of course, the most understandable definition is breaking into a computer, network, or account and gaining control, usually for nefarious purposes.
Brute Force Hacks
is when a username and password combo are sent repetitively to a computer or server in hopes to gain access. This can be done via Shell Logins, FTP Logins, Email Logins and Website Logins (such as WordPress and Magento).
By way of oversimplification, there a few ways to slow a brute force hack. Usually, this is seen when the end user experiences a lock out because they have logged in wrong too many times. This slows up the process because often users are blocked for a period and the system administrator is notified. And of course, using a secure password is mandatory. When someone uses a password of password or qwerty1234, it almost guarantees a break-in. No SSL encryption can save stupid.
FTP, Telnet, SSH
These three protocols are ways people access remote systems. And are also weak spots used to access and gain control of networks. Often malicious code is uploaded that will allow the servers to be compromised with things that monitor keystrokes, opening or exploiting security holes or running a spam mail zombie or phishing email campaign, usually with an accompanying website hack that fools users into turning over their usernames and passwords.
Using an SSL encrypted protocol (SFTP, and SSH) will slow hackers down and are a front line of defense, but the way to stop exploits of these protocols is great security policies, patching servers and a hardware firewall with intrusion protection that protects the entire network (something our web hosting accounts receive free of charge).
Virus Activity
Hackers use computer viruses to take over computers, networks and sometimes countries, such as the Ukraine experienced just this last week. Ransomware is just the latest iteration of virus that attacks mainly unpatched versions of Microsoft Windows and locks the owner out of the system until a ransom is paid.
In most cases, viruses are one of the simplest things to avoid. Unpatched systems and Email users are the two biggest failure points that allow the virus to infiltrate the computer or network. And in most cases, the viruses are designed to either help spread the virus or cause outages in things like DDoS attacks. I’m not even sure I want to say that SSL offers any level of enhanced security here because, in my opinion, most causes of a virus spreading are because of human ignorance or apathy.
So, what is encryption?
When speaking of encryption in regards to cyber security, the simple plain text is taken and scrambled so it is unreadable to a human. There are fancy words like ciphers involved in this process, but unless you’re a security wonk, there is no need to go into that.
Again, a way oversimplification (although important). Basically, when a file is encrypted, it’s scrambled and along with it is sent a key. If the file is intercepted it is of no value to the interceptor because they do not have the decryption key that is sent along with the file. Presently and 128-bit Encryption Key is the standard and believed not to be breakable, but as computing power and hackers advance in this war, it’s only a matter of time before we need to move to a 256-bit Encryption Key.
Encryption and SSL
SSL or Secure Sockets Layer is the connection that is opened between two computers, i.e. a website and your computer that allows sensitive data to be transmitted securely between the two computers.
The way SSL was intended to be used is when a website needs to pass sensitive data, the SSL is called (for a website its HTTPS, for FTP its using SFTP and so forth). Usually, that is things like credit card numbers and passwords. The SSL also confirms that the data that is sent is the same as what you receive, as well as validates the computer that is sending the data to your computer. Browsers are also programmed to alert end users when a connection is not TOTALLY secure, with totally being the operative word.
When SSL is activated on the page, it means that every file must be encrypted, including images and graphics or the browser will alert the end user if it is not. But Google has taken this to a whole new level.
Now before I go any further, I want to say that when SSL is used properly, it is a very good thing.
SSL SEO and Privacy
So, last week it was announced that Google was fined another 2.7 billion in the EU over manipulation and privacy concerns. This is the second time this has happened in the last few years and the lawsuits against Google continue to mount because of the amount of data it collects on each user, their query and how that data is used. And in my opinion, what in essences amounts to a demand of each website owner by Google that their sites be made secure is born out of this.
So let’s talk about the pros and cons of making your whole website secure regardless if you’re the one passing sensitive data. Nearly 2 years ago (and what seems to be around the time of the first EU ruling) Google came out saying that it was going to offer and organic SEO credit for any website that forced their website to respond as HTTPS in all cases regardless if sensitive data was being passed, such as a credit card or password. The whys they requested this is lost in the hyperbole of it all in my opinion.
So webmasters ran out, bought SSL certificates installed them, forced their site to HTTPS to activate the SSL in the browsers and their websites sunk like a rock. Word quickly spread that this was not a good idea after all and webmasters started to back off the idea.
Why Forcing a Website to HTTPS Breaks Organic Search?
Simply it breaks the link profile of a site for a substantial amount of time. It seemed that initially, there may not have been an adequate consideration of the effects on and impact of links in relation to how a website ranks. So, taking http and forcing it to https, even via 301, saw the effects of those links be devalued, thus causing smaller sites to tank. It is even possible that even Google underestimated the deduction a site would receive and did not provide adequate compensation via their magic SEO credit they said everyone would receive.
Eventually Google seemed to change the way the SEO credit and 301s and 308 codes were handled to give more credit for the process, trying to add better incentives to make the move to HTTPS. But it seemed that loss, although not as great was still not worth it.
So Google turned up the gas, and started using their browser, Chrome, to alert end users that the website was not safe. And even the simplest non-ecommerce websites were having end users alerted about the website not being safe. Now again on the surface, this sounds good but a small engineering first with 5 basic HTML pages that request no personal info really has no business being required to use and SSL connection without Google issuing a scary warning about internet security, especially when Americans are hearing nightly about hacking, ransomware and such.
This of course lowered conversion and forced many webmasters to convert to HTTPS, regardless of the reduction in organic search. Google continues to be aggressive in warning chrome users of sites that are not using HTTPS.
It has taken approximately 18 moths for our lower trafficked sites to stabilize after conversion.
From an SEO standpoint, there isn’t’ a great reason to do it. From a conversion standpoint, there are many reasons to do it. But from a system admin side, the side that is often overlooked there is a lot of negatives.
4 Sides of the SSL Discussion:
- SEO Viewpoint – To convert a site to SSL, there still isn’t enough ‘credit’ being offered to make this be worthwhile. Expect at least 8-12 weeks minimum of upheaval.
- Conversion Viewpoint – Big scary warnings about your website, make this an absolute slam dunk as to why this need to be done and outweighs all the other reasons in our opinion.
- Website Owner – There are security benefits from using SSL on parts of websites where passwords are involved, but to secure the whole site for a password is not necessary.
- System Administrator – They are not thrill with this improper use of SSL. SSL should only be used with something needs to be encrypted. So, if buying a product, and adding a credit card SSL great. Logging into a web account would be another great use. But using SSL just for the sake of doing it, it is a unnecessary burden put on any server and slows websites down. Honestly, from the hosting side of this, the imposed use of SSL really is maddening. It is an unnecessary blanket use of something. So why would Google go to such lengths to force webmasters to use SSL? Great question, isn’t it?
Why Google Why?
Noticeably missing from my viewpoints of SSL is the end user and that is where the truth lies. This is all being done to protect the end user so seems to be how the story goes.
But what are we protecting the end user from? Remember the proper use of SSL is to stop the user data from getting stolen. Google is going to great lengths to force website owners into the use of SSL, so much so they are using Chrome to cajole SEOs and website owners into using SSL by making the warnings about entering an http website more and more visible. And offering credits for better organic SEO results seem to reinforce that Google can manipulate search results by rewarding certain behavior that is unrelated to punishing people who operate outside its guidelines. It would seem this issue is very important to Google. And in my opinion, it transcends the ability to buy something on the internet.
One hypothesis and opinion may be that this is an actual legal strategy or defense. SSL protects user data. So with the myriad of lawsuits Google is facing all involving user privacy would the universal use of SSL blunt the privacy lawsuits? Will this still allow Google to collect and sell user data, but yet now be able to argue they are doing this securely? It would explain the big push to force everyone on the planet to make their websites SSL.
So is the juice worth the squeeze. From a pure SEO standpoint, no. The credit is not large enough to offset the loss of link juice on lower level sites and with Google now using your traffic as a ranking variable it’s a recipe for disaster. However, if Google is going to put big scary warnings on websites via Chrome which is now the most used browser coming in at just under 50%, website owners have little choice but to implement SSL on their sites.
