Search Engine Optimization Blog » SEO

Improve Site Speed with Better Hosting

Matthew Diehl — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:33:04 +0000

Cheap Hosting ≠ Speed

So, over the past couple years I have been putting up with some less than stellar hosting service. I picked it about 4 years ago because it was super cheap and gave me 8 unique IPs. However,in the past couple years it has just gone down hill. I would consistently get page load fails while editing posts and trying to develop on my other sites & tools. My patience was being tested on a daily basis and I just had enough.

So, I switched this past weekend. I put out some feelers looking for options last week, weighed the options and pulled the trigger based on a recommendation from a guy who I know for a fact gets significant amounts of traffic to his site and has exceptional performance from my perspective.

Yes, my motivation behind the move was performance based. I made my initial choice based on price but this time I decided to go with a company that has proven itself to be one of the best. It was a little more expensive but, even though it has been only two days, I am extremely pleased with what I have seen happening already.

The Final Straw

The final straw that really broke the hosting service’s back was when I enabled Site Speed tracking in Google Analytics. In Google’s blog post they waive a very nice avg. page load time of 3.45 seconds across 2,200+ samples. I may have put up with my old hosting’s bits of downtime if my site was fast, but it wasn’t even f’in close. Now, I have no where near the sampling that Google was able to produce but my avg. page load time was a whopping 11.45 seconds on the old host. Just check out this screenshot:

My highest traffic post had an average load time of 16.46 seconds, what a terrible experience for my visitors.

Since the Switch

The results of the switch were unbelievable. Honestly, I didn’t have a number expectation in my head that I was hoping or shooting for but what I saw happen was completely shocking! Also, it has only been one day with only 3 samples but here is what happened, my new average page load time was 2.24 seconds! Here is the screenshot (only my homepage has been sampled so far):

Holy shit, right?! Could have never guessed that would have been the results.

Who’d I Switch To?

Now for the big reveal… the company that I switched to for my new hosting was none other than HostGator (non-aff). For anyone who has ever shopped around for hosting or is in general aware of hosting companies, HostGator is one of the big dawgs of the marketplace. Even though they ended up being only marginally more expensive than my previous host I think it was well worth the slight increase in doe.

So, now I am officially a HostGator fanboy.

What I am Recommending

Now, I am not saying run out and switch all your sites to HostGator right now. But, what I am hoping you take away from this is that, if you have done the work on-site (e.g. you have done as many of the recommendations by Google & Yahoo! speed tools) and your site is still slow, it isn’t your fault. It is likely your hosting company is the one that is dragging you down and then it may be time to consider a switch.

Related posts:

Two Google Tools to Analyze and Improve Site Speed

Tips to Increase Site Speed for Google

Googlebot can’t afford Enzyte

Matthew Diehl — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:33:20 +0000

Alright, lets get the obvious puns out of the way: Googlebot needs some natural spider enhancement, Googlebot needs a bigger band-width for your site, Googlebot needs to last longer crawling your site. Those are pretty bad…. but, if you came here for the pen15 jokes, thanks! Now, move on, perv.

What I am going to actually talk about is site architecture and how you might be wasting Googlebot’s crawling bandwidth for your site.

Site Architecture for SEO

How your site is structured is very important to SEO on many, many levels. For example, a proper site architecture allows SEOs to target keyphrases properly, develop authoratitive pages and appease the mighty search spiders.

An ad-hoc site architecture can be difficult to work worth and even more difficult to achieve the results that many sites are looking for out of their SEO campaigns. So, before you jump into your site – plan ahead.

Lets say your are completely re-doing your site. What you want to do is during the wire framing phase of your site’s build out think SEO or bring an SEO into the discussion so you know you have your major keyphrase targets covered. This will make the optimization go smoothly down the road. Also, an SEO will be able to make suggestions as to what is missing so you accommodate expansions now or make the site flexible enough to accommodate this new content later.

Evaluate Your Platform

Take the time to really test out the platform you are considering on using for your site. Focus in on how the platform builds the URLs as you click around. What you are keeping an eye out for is URL-bloat through improper canonicalization of URLs or a general issue with how the platform actually works. This is a major consideration for larger e-commerce and news sites because you never want to see the “Googlebot found an extremely high number of URLs” error.

Googlebot Found an Extremely High Number of URLs

The above error message means you have a serious issue on your hands. If Googlebot is having an issue with the number of URLs your site is offering up for crawling you can bet that Bingbot and every other bot on the planet is probably having the same problem.

Your Whole Site isn’t being Crawled

The error basically tells you Google has used too much bandwidth crawling your site and they aren’t going to waste any more. This boils down to repetitive URLs displaying the same content (a canonicalization issue). Large sites that have tons of pages but each page has unique content won’t run into this error, but it’s large sites that have a dysfunctional CMS that will always get this message.

See Step 2

You may have missed something while evaluating your platform, so circle back on how your CMS is building your URLs. Googlebot has clearly found itself in an area of the site that is continuously spitting out URL after URL that aren’t necessary.

Google even offers up a bit of advice on this too: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=76401

Googlebot can’t afford Enzyte

Google is crawling the entire Internet. Everything! They just can’t afford to spend forever crawling your defunct site in hopes that eventually they will find the content they were meant to find. Having a proper architecture and platform that respects that architecture will help to keep you out of trouble.

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So Long 2010 and Thanks for All the Fish

Matthew Diehl — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:42:07 +0000

If you were working within the search engine marketing industry in 2010 and you found it to be a boring year, then you were clearly living under a rock.

Changes in the search landscape were abundant. It seemed as though every week news was breaking here, there and everywhere. It was a dizzying whirlwind of changes and information that all I have to say is THANK GOD for Twitter. If it wasn’t for the incredible people that I follow on Twitter, who on a daily basis share their understanding of search, 2010 would probably been a mess. As a tool for monitoring the search industry Twitter has paid off big time in 2010 and if you have yet to setup your outpost get on that asap.

This could quickly become a lengthy recap of the changes in search that happened in 2010 but lets just bullet out some of the big ones (because you are busy folks):

Bing/Yahoo Search Alliance

Google Instant & Instant Preview

Google Caffeine Architecture Upgrades

Real-time Search for both Bing & Google

Blekko Launched

Google One Algorithm for Local

Mayday Update

Big Brand SERPs

I think that is a fairly good list of the big changes that we saw in 2010. It is up to you take what ever time you need to reflect on those “oh yeah” items.

What I want to reflect on as the year closes are the people like YOU who have made 2010 an awesome year for me. I have received kind words from a great number of people within the industry, my little blog is starting to grow up (+200% in visit y-o-y) and the conversations on Skype & Twitter that I have had this year have been enlightening and just great.

So, here to you for making 2010 an awesome year! And, I can’t wait for 2011 bring our way!

In closing…

Related posts:

New Years Resolution To Help Through SEO

Rearrange Your Keyphrase Strategy for New Perspectives

Matthew Diehl — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:43:12 +0000

Month after month you look to your keyphrase strategy document for guidance on where to focus SEO efforts. High volume, high competition keyphrases require different tactics from low volume, low competition keyphrases. However, consistently looking at your keyphrase strategy as high vs. low could augment your view of the success of the keyphrase strategy as a whole by hiding gapping holes in the strategy.

The best way to illustrate this is with an example. Lets say you are working on a site targeting “ebook reader” related keyphrases and here is the view of how your site is performing in a standard high to low ordering of your keyphrases:

Not bad! You have been putting in some work and have a number of great 1st page placements but as with all SEO there is always room for improvement.

But where should you concentrate next?

The high to low view of your keyphrase strategy may be masking a hidden opportunity for a grouping of related keyphrases that could easily be your next ‘duh’ initiative you undertake. So, lets take a look at the same keyphrases above but rearranged to provide a new perspective on the list.

With this view you can clearly see related keyphrases within topical groupings that you have either missed or done really well in. In this example, the place where you should move on to next are “review” related keyphrases as that seems to be the topical area that you have no positions in.

I have found that the topical view of the keyphrase strategy has been very useful. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

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Exact Match Domains will Continue to Dominate Google

Matthew Diehl — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:34:23 +0000

At PubCon 2010, Matt Cutts called out exact match domains as an area that Google will be looking into. Specifically looking into why exact match domain names perform exceedingly well within the algorithm.

With this one statement the hearts of thousands of Internet marketers and thousands of domainers sunk, potentially caused a few to flatline. Why? Because, exact match domains are the pillar to the success of domainers and a cornerstone of success for A LOT of people who use them to make significant amounts of money online.

But, have no fear, exact match domains will continue to dominate Google and here is why.

Google owns exact match domains, the example being boutiques.com. And just how well does boutiques.com do for a search on “boutiques“…

#1 on the exact match. Not bad, right?

So, this leads one to reason this out… hmmm….

If Google owns exact match domains that they are leveraging to MAKE MONEY, why would they alter their own algorithm to devalue exact match domains?

A smart person would say “They wouldn’t” and I agree.

Just because Google is looking into a slice of the algorithm doesn’t mean they will begin devaluating large groups of sites across the board (unless you are an asshole intentionally pissing off customers). Exact matching domains will continued to be treated as they currently are, with high value.

So, continue developing those gem domain names that exactly match popular searches and go make some bucks.

Related posts:

.Tel Domains to Use Keywords to get into SERPs

Keywords in Domain and URL Important to Bing

Matt Cutts is an asshole?!

Google Instant Previews Hates Flash

Matthew Diehl — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:44:58 +0000

Google Instant Previews is the latest addition to the Instant Search family from Google and it hates Flash.

Similar to oil and water, Flash and search do no play well together. There are many best practices to try and optimize Flash content for search but when it comes down to it, avoidance is the best policy. Instant Previews does not break that mold but further solidifies that Flash will not play well with the search engines and your site will be worse off for it.

This issue comes to light when your whole page is enclosed within Flash. Here is a good example:

The search the generates the above.

Yikes. Now that is a user experience that will not be drawing in flocks of search visitors.

If this is happening to your site because you largely use Flash, there are two ways to avoid that dreaded puzzle piece. First, stop using Flash; it is not as awesome as you think it is. Second, you can block the preview by using the NOSNIPPET tag. It is a meta tag that looks like this and instructs Google to not display a search snippet for your results. Since the Instant Preview is tied in with the search snippet, this meta tag will disable previews for your site. This what you will be serving search users instead:

So, would you rather have no preview or a puzzle piece?

Or, even better, place actual content there and your preview will work just fine.

Related posts:

So Long 2010 and Thanks for All the Fish

Greasemonkey Script to Add Blekko SEO Stats to Search Results

Matthew Diehl — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:48:39 +0000

Blekko is the latest search engine to hit the market and they are doing a few things right. The big one is openly sharing a lot of the data points that the Blekko search ranking algorithm is using to determine positioning.

SEOs, so far, absolutely love this about Blekko (me included).

The only thing that I have found challenging is that Blekko serves up 20 results and to compare the data points for the results requires opening up 20 additional browser tabs. Who wants to try and analyze data like that?

So, I set out to create my first Greasemonkey script. The goal of the script was to take the SEO data points for each of the search results at the seo slash tag (/seo) and integrate them into the search results below the corresponding result.

Here is what it looks like after you install the script:

What I am looking for is some brave folks to take a crack at version 1.0.0 and give me some feedback. You can get the script here: Blekko SEO Stats in Search Results

Related posts:

Cross Your Search Data Streams to Benefit SEO

Personalized Search Strengthens Need for SEO

SEO Advice for Startups

Matthew Diehl — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:27:12 +0000

Being an SEO located near Boston will most likely be the blessing of my career. In my opinion, Boston is the startup capital of the North East and a force to be reckoned with all along the East Coast. In my nearly 5 years as an SEO I’ve already had the opportunity to meet some great people who are doing some great stuff (yeah that’s the technical term).

Just the other day I got an email from one of those awesome startup types, a former co-worker (not an SEO) who has a great idea and is taking it places. Here is the body of the email:

“So SEO still feels like a giant game to me and I’m not sure where to start. In a way, it’s overwhelming. I’ve literally done nothing, nor do I have much time. So two questions:

1) In order for me to start the process and outsource my SEO, what’s a fair budget for me to set? (Think startup/small biz)
2) If I were to hang out on one website to learn more about SEO, what would you suggest?”

Now, unless you are a former SEO who is launching a startup, you have the same exact questions. And before I answer the two direct questions let me first address the starting sentences, specifically how to overcome that overwhelming feeling that can sometimes accompany SEO.

Take it Slow, Step-by-Step.
As most startups go, it is your baby. You have put in the blood, sweat and tears to start from nothing and now it is starting to take off.

This applies to SEO too.

Since you are starting from ground-level take your time to just get the ball rolling. SEO as a whole can be completely and utterly overwhelming from the outside looking in. But, if you approach the SEO project with a step-by-step mentality it is definitely do-able.

If you put into SEO what you have put into every other aspect of your startup then SEO will deliver.

Now on to the questions…

What is a Fair SEO Budget?
As a startup, with or without funding, making financial sound decisions matters. So, when setting a budget for outsourcing your SEO there are, at the very basic, two choices:

Hiring an SEO consultant on retainer

Hiring an SEO consultant and paying hourly

Both have advantages and disadvantages.

Hiring an SEO consultant on retainer will give you that SEO expert that you are looking for right in your back pocket. On a month-to-month basis look to them to set and drive your SEO strategy including valuable reporting on where you are and where you are going. Monthly fees for SEOs on retainer vary greatly based on experience (and market) but as a startup look to be spending $2000 – $4000/month for someone who knows what they are doing.

Hiring an SEO consultant and paying hourly means that as the startup you will most likely be in charge of setting the SEO strategy. As the startup, you will be in charge of breaking the SEO project down into the steps that you want accomplished and then sending them off to the SEO consultant (or consultants) when you want them done. A little bit more work on your part but you have more control on what you spend on your SEO on a month-to-month basis. Hiring at an hourly rate, again, varies based on experience and market but knowledgeable SEOs can often be snagged at $50 – $100/hour for one-off SEO tasks.

Like everything and anything you have every purchased in your lifetime, you get what you pay for with SEO. Outsourcing your SEO to an 3rd world country for $199/month or $10/hour will often result in low quality, underwhelming work that could lead to more problems than it solves.

Where do the SEOs Hang?
As an SEO I am all over the place when it comes to where I get my information that keeps me on the bleeding edge of search. But, as a startup you are probably looking to get caught up, get a little dangerous and be able call a little bs.

Here is where you should go to start learning SEO:
The SEO Training Dojo
SEO Book
SEOmoz

Once you have learned a bit about SEO I recommend these other great sites:
Search News Central
Search Engine Journal
Search Engine Land
Search Engine Roundtable

Finally, setup your Twitter outpost. Create a Twitter list that is composed of SEOs. Twitter is where we share articles from great blogs as well as tips and tricks. To get you started with that list just check out the SEOs I follow on Twitter, there are a lot of exception SEOs on Twitter.

In Closing
Good luck to everyone who is working on a startup of their own. Your entrepreneurial spirit is what makes the US and many other countries around the globe great.

And, feel free to drop me a line I love talking to startups about SEO.

No related posts.

My Own LDA Tool

Matthew Diehl — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:23:08 +0000

Well, I have done it. I created my own LDA Tool. It was a grueling task that I undertook this morning using highly sophisticated modeling. I really hope you enjoy it and that it helps to drive home the point that I am trying to make in the disclaimer after you submit your request.

Try my LDA Tool!

For additional information on what LDA is check out this great post on The Trail – Google Rankings and LDA

Related posts:

Using Google Webpage Removal Request Tool to Your Advantage

Exclude Terms Not Working in Google Keyword Tool

Google Analytics Error in IE and FF but NOT Chrome

Matthew Diehl — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:04:11 +0000

UPDATE! This appears to an account issue and not a browser issue. [wah wah wahhh... sorry conspiracy buffs] Found this thread in the GA Help, it is a bit old but allows you to manually submit your account to be fixed – Google Analytics Account Error Manual Fix

It looks like Google Analytics is broken for both IE (Internet Explorer) and FF (Firefox) BUT NOT for Google Chrome. Try it yourself, and below are screenshots of the error in IE and FF.

Caution: Conspiracy Theory
Is this a Google attempt to push a little bit more Chrome usage? If they intentionally block IE & FF from accessing the Google Analytics site and cite a compatibility issue they could send the millions of users of the free analytics software into the arms of Chrome bolstering adoption of the browser and capturing additional market share. This would be beyond devious! Also, illegal, right?

Here are the error messages in IE & FF:

Related posts:

Bypassing the Google Analytics Overview Pages

Access Link to New Version of Google Analytics

Screenshots of Updated Google Analytics Standard Segmentations

Not “Cuil” Google Analytics

Googlebot can’t afford Enzyte