Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category

The results of the Australian & New Zealand SEO SEM Salary Survey are finally available. The survey started in February 2008 and lasted a month and a half. The data collected helped to have a better picture of the Australian and New Zealand search industry.

65 SEO/SEM professionals from Australia and New Zealand (84.6% of all respondents) have participated in the survey and here are the key findings:

- The SEO SEM industry in Australia and New Zealand is dominated by Male under 30 years old

- Australian and New Zealand SEO SEM professionals are experienced, but do not always come from a IT background.

- Search Agencies are the main employers and salaries are reasonable

For more information, you can download a comprehensive report of the SEO SEM survey

As I am sure you all know Google clearly states, by virtue of their actions if nothing else, that bartering for links is fine as long as no money changes hands (and if there are no editorial discrimination issues etc). Using the data that Google has the ability to collect using Webmaster Central and Google Analytics they would quite easily I imagine be able to sniff out what links a site has purchased and take whatever action they please to that site be it drop the pagerank (shutters) or drop your paid words X positions per infringement which I imagine would be sufficient to stop a lot of link buying/selling.

Problem is then how do you get someone with a decent pagerank - or two million people with a less decent pagerank - to actually want to link to your website, publish your media release or your fascinating article on how global warming has affected the hibernation in the local squirrel community?

If you can’t add any value to that person’s website like value to their visitors or just to make them look smart by linking to your site, and honestly how many of us own one of those domains is your only option to pay up and risk the ultimate punishment from the mighty G or be left behind?

There are options if you must buy/sell links - for example you can have the links disguised as AdSense Ads as shown in this SEO Blog or you can request that the link purchase is wrapped within a guest blog post or that fascinating article about the hibernation in the local squirrel community.

Whichever option you go with I would recommend that you watch your step - especially if you use Webmaster Central and Google Analytics. Things will change in the near future, just make sure your SEO efforts are not relying to heavily on these purchased links, it might even be an idea to leave the link building (not buying) to a BDM to whom I think that job belongs anyway.

Best regards from the cradle of Google,
Andreas

Here is a look at the Top SEO firms based on organic optimization services in Australia for March 2008. Rankings are from topseos.com.

Rankings Australia (March, 2008)

Organic Optimization

1. trainSEM

2. Hot Chilli Media

3. PositionMEonline.

4. ineedhits.com Pty Ltd

5. Glass Onion

6. Net Starter

7. Cogentis Pty Ltd

8. SEO Sydney

9. Sydney FX Pty Ltd

10. Core Digital Media

The Australian and New Zealand search marketing industry is growing, but there is a lack of information on the industry. There are plenty of SEO/SEM industry surveys on the internet (SEMPO and SEOMOZ), however these surveys have strong focus on North America.

At SEO Sydney Blog I wanted to tackle this issue and therefore I released a survey dedicated to Australia and New Zealand. The survey has 10 questions and will take about 5 mins to complete. The survey is anonymous and the results will be published on the second week of March.

If you are a SEO/SEM professional in Australia and New Zealand, feel free to take the survey.