It was a seemingly small job, but once we got stuck in, we realised there was in fact a lot more to do than we first thought. The new design and content management system was done by Art Studio Byron. I'm a big fan of their work. Clean, balanced designs, beautfiul work without distracting the user away from the product or service being offered by the website owner, with too much cluttering fancy stuff. Nice. Andrea from Art Studio users a heavily modded Word Press System that is both blog, cms and art gallery all in on

We are on the case now with No.1 for Antique Floor Tiles the goal (Already achieved 19 April 2010) but to also achieve rankings for the site on many regional searches.

Update 20/5/2010 Site now at number 1 on Google.com.au for Antique Floor Tiles, but also ranking well for antique tiles, salvaged antique tiles, as well as regional searches such as Antique Floor Tiles Melbourne. Regional searches are important for this business as many people look for these rare tiles locally not understanding few local places will stock them and that searching for them around Australia is what they need to do. The SEO in this case was not just to get rankings for this or that phrase – we analysed the searching habits of people looking for the product and put together the regional SEO to match this analyis.

A good result.

Our job once again, is to obtain rankings for a client wishing to have their site rank at the top of Google.com, in the USA, even though the site is being operated from outside the US.  The beauty of the internet is that the location of your head office may well be irrelevant when it comes to getting rankings online.

So as of 1 December, 2009 we are on the case, with the top of Google our goal for the phrase "Art Retreats"

May 2010 – rankings achieved, site is is now top5 on google.com for art retreats, bouncing up as high as Number 3.

That’s fine if you are a winder washer, living in down town New York, not so great if your are providing more of a niche service, like our new client who provides angel readings.

The net however, opens up a whole new market for this business…. assuming we can bring the people to it.  So as of 1 November, the SEOGuys are on the job, our goal to take out client to page 1 on Google.com for Angel Readings.

December 10 2009
And we are in the game, with Ask Upstairs coming in at a modest 145 on Google.com

December 20 2009.
Quick gains, already up to 85

December 25 2009
Onwards and upwards, we are at 43

January 3 2010
Still climbing, up to 38 today.

March 3 2010

Hits No.10 on Google.com and no11 on Google.com.au, even though no contract to get rankings on .com.au.

March 22 2010

Hits No.7 on Google.com, and 8 on Google.com.au.  Sadly, this is where our job ends as client has decided to not try for number one.  We are of course happy with achieving the contracted result…. but No.1 was not much more than No.7 and would have resulted in much better profits for the client.

April 3 2010

Site hits 4 on Google,com

Well, having had a look at the site, and the competition, i think the SEO Guys are up to the challenge.

So, as of 5pm today, the 10th of June, we are on the case, and will report progress as we go.

Update 3 July 2009
Site is at No.3 for wholesale silver jewelry, but not without a great deal of work. The site in fact dropped a place to 5 shortly after we took over. Likely, this was a result of "lag" something already wrong with the site kicking in. The fixes applied so far.

• Optimise the site.
• Fix all html errors
• Ban search engines from seeing duplicate versions of the site.
• Start getting links from other sites. They are an ethical business, so its relevant for them to be listed in ethical business directories.
• Start getting articles published on other sites, that refer to the site. The site owners have done some funky things which are worthy of publishing in jewelry magazines online

Its a lot of work to go yet, but number 2, is looking very likely.

Update 19 July 2009
Site has reached its target of No.2 for "wholesale silver jewelry". No pay for us yet, we need to maintain this position for at least 2 weeks, and the reality is we are going to continue working on the site for some months to come.

Update 29 July 2009
No.1 position achieved, and we are very pleased. No.2 was our minimum requirement, but No.1 was always our goal. We will be working hard over the next few months to solifidy this position, its no good if we don't keep it there.

Update 18 December 2009
We've been given a new task, get the site to No.5 or better onf google.com for "Wholesale Jewelry".  It was 25 when we took over, its now at 12.  Watch this space

Update 4 January 2010
A drop, back down to 26.  We've ntoiced this witha  few sites, as of the end of December 2009.  After running some tests, we realised a whole heap of new problems had crept into the site, problems we have briefed the site owner on how to fix, and how to ensure they don't return.  Will report back on this, in 28 days, which is about the amount of time it should take to fix the problem and for Google to lift the fitler that is causing this drop.

When we took on this client, they had already taken some positive steps forward to attaining good rankings for their site, so we are unable to take all the credit. The site was No.23 on Google.com.au for “Pets”, but had been in this position for 6 months.

Page 3 on Google.com.au is like coming 2nd in a winner takes all race. You are ahead of many, many sites, but almost no-one turns to page 3 of Google, all the action is on Page 1. So no prize for this client.

Enter the SEO Guys in October 2008. There were many code problems which we fixed, which made some difference. Thee forum had been set up in such a way that it caused the site to incur penalties. Up to No.13 the site went, but no further.

We realised the main problem was content, the site owner simply had not written enough information about pets, and the site really did not deserve to be on page 1. The competition was way ahead, and no matter what we did, Google was too clever and would see her site was lacking and not rank it.

Soul searching was done, and eventually our client agreed to write 30 more pet articles, which took her 3 months -the site is a hobby site with the owner writing articles in her spare time.

The articles were then edited by us to ensure maximum impact and loaded onto the site and “Boom” onto page one with a bullet at No.9, then No.6 and then BAM! No.3 on www.google.com.au for the single word "Pets".

Single word phrases such are the hardest to gain rankings on, and as a result are the most valuable.

One very happy client. As always, we do not promise No.1 rankings, but in this case, we are quietly confidant that its going to happen. 

10 August 2009 
Stop Press. Site is now at No.1 for "Pets". Pets, is a very competitive, single word phrase so we are very happy with this achievement.

25 November 2009
Stop Press.  the SeoGuys have been called in because of a slide in rankings, our job is to find the problem.  Site has dropped to 7 on Google.com,au for "Pets".  Its clear on looking at the site, a whole heap of new problems have crept in.  Duplicate and old content being the main problems.  I think its important to note here that getting a site to No.1 on Google.com,au is an achievement, but unless you match what the competition is doing?  Your site will not stay there for long.  Will report back when we know more about what is going on.

18 December 2009
As I suspected, idle website development is the problem here.  Dead links, dated content, empty pages…. Google no longer feels the site is worthy of the top spot and the reality is?  Google is right.  We are working with the client now, to improve the site content and remove the dead links, and expect to see a recovery of the site in January, or February 2010.  Watch this space.

1. Hiding content on the pages. 
2. Taking part in an Indian 3 way link exchange deal, eg. Site a links to site B, Site B links to site C. 
3. Massive amounts of duplicate content, many pages with essentially the same data. 

It had worked for them for a while, in fact they had got all the way to No.13 on Google.com.au for their target phrase “Baby Names”

Then things turned pear shaped.

www.mybaby.net.au dropped to 39 for “baby names” on Google.com.au. 31-40 is a dreaded position to be on Google. Your site might deservedly be ranked at this level, but you might also have what is known as the “+30 Google Penalty”. In this case, Google makes a determination that there is someone not quite honest about your site’s popularity, and applies a penalty where your rankings are reduced by 30 places. Google knows that page 4(31-40 on Google) is as good as a death sentence for the site, as almost no one ever bothers to go that far down its search results.

Two months later, and all pages were removed from Google, and all rankings disappeared, the dreaded total removal by Google.

5 months after the penalty had been applied, the SEO Guys were called in. We dug through the site’s html and found piles of bad code, hidden text and links. We found sites referring to the banned links campaign that the site had taken part in.

We went to work and fixed everything thing we could see, then contacted Google to let them know all issues were fixed, and could they please reassess the site. No change for 30 days, but on day 31, the 24th of March 2009, the home page appeared back in Google, then a few weeks later, a few more pages appeared.

As of writing this case study on the 8th of April 2009, the site is at No.8 for “Baby Names” on www.google.com.au and doing well on many other phrases.

A tremendous result, that is far from over yet and we expect the site to at some point, gain rankings on google.com as well, and get many more pages indexed.

Stop PRESS!!!

As of today, the 3rd of May 2009, www.mybaby.net.au as gate crashed google.com, and as well as ranking in the top 10 on google.com.au, it is now ranking at 18 on www.google.com. An impressive result, since the site is an Australian site, for it to be ranking so well internationally.

We expect it to improve further yet.

3 September 2009: 
As of today, site is at 15 on Google.com for Baby Names. Its pretty hard with .com.au to do well on Google.com, but we are happy with this recent climb. I think we can improve further yet.

The site is running a Zen Cart, as well as some custom programmed database driven pages, such as a baby names section. Problems we've found so far.

1. Zen cart, creates a whole heap of duplicate content pages. This causes problems for Google. Google does maintain it can work out which ones you want in the index….. but what if there are a whole heap of duplicate pages where the reality is you want none of them in the index? Anyway, this problem now fixed.
2. There were many pages, where the page title was duplicating on pages with different content. Pretty standard programming bug, fixed.
3. Site content is not great, client is working on this with us.
4. The site is not as popular as it could be. We are working on this.

So, it's the 7th of September 2009, and we are on the case.

Update 21 September 2009
It never ceases to amaze me how fast things can turn around. Already, the site is at No.10 for Baby Gifts. We've hit our target so fast, but we are not satisfied with 10, and will continue working for the next few weeks to see if we can give the top couple of sites a scare.

Update 30 September 2009
Site is now bouncing around at 6 to 8 on Google.com. We've hit our first targets, and are now eyeing off the top 3 positions. The site has a pretty poor links system, and we are thus installing a better one that will be more useful for their site visitors, be easier to manager and also be more Google friendly.

Update 13 March 2010

Site now seems solid at 7, lets see if it sticks.  Lots of problems were fixed, and new ones introduced when the site had magicseo added.  Fingers cross we are now at the end!

Well, having had a look at the site, and the competition, i think the SEO Guys are up to the challenge.

So, as of 5pm today, the 10th of June, we are on the case, and will report progress as we go.

Update 3 July 2009

Site is at No.3 for wholesale silver jewelry, but not without a great deal of work.  The site in fact dropped a place to 5 shortly after we took over.  Likely, this was a result of "lag" something already wrong with the site kicking in.  The fixes applied so far.

1. Optimise the site.
2. Fix all html/xhtml conflicts
3. Ban search engines from seeing duplicate versions of the site.
4. Start getting links from other sites. They are an ethical business, so its relevant for them to be listed in ethical business directories.
5. Start getting articles published on other sites, that refer to the site. The site owners have done some funky things which are worthy of publishing in jewelry magazines online.

Its a lot of work to go yet, but number 2, is looking very likely.

Update 19 July 2009

Site has reached its target of No.2 for "wholesale silver jewelry".  No pay for us yet, we need to maintain this position for at least 2 weeks, and the reality is we are going to continue working on the site for some months to come.

Update 29 July 2009

No.1 position achieved, and we are very pleased.  No.2 was our minimum requirement, but No.1 was always our goal.  We will be working hard over the next few months to solifidy this position, its no good if we don't keep it there.

When we take on a new client that has been online for a while, we have the vagaries of Google.com.au and penalties to possibly deal with.  Has the site done something wrong in the past that they are now penalized for?  Will this undermine our work?  Or delay it?

Google in the main, is a very reasonable company.  They penalize sites that deserve to be penalized, and they listen when told something done in the past has now been fixed, or was done by some unscrupulous SEO company that has now been fired.

In the case of the website or this new client, Shed Spot, we don't have obvious Google penalties to deal with, but we do have some work ahead of us to get it to the first page of Google.com.au for both Sheds, and Garden Sheds.  Google does not like to see very new sites rocket to the top of its rankings, if it were to allow this, the result would be an unstable index that people did not trust.  Trust is key.  Google will not allow a site to rank highly(at least for an extended period) until the site has proven itself trustworthy.

The shopping cart system being used by www.shedspot.com.au has been built by a company called “Interspire”.  We were quickly able to determine the shopping cart though whilst not a complete disaster, we full of duplicate content problems.  “This can not be” said our client.”It's recommended by Aaron Wall the SEO Expert”.'This is the second time in only a few months we've been given the “But Aaron Wall Says” comment and I am beginning to wonder what the hype is here.  We investigated the Interspire company a bit further and found out they were a client of Aaron Wall, they recommended Aaron Wall's services… their marketing seemed to associate them with him….but in fact their system seems not be in fact specifically recommended by Aaron, and it has got some fundamental problems.

At least in this case, the shopping cart software has been purchased instead of licensed by the client, and we can get access to it to reprogram it.

We have already started work redoing some of the code to fix the problems, and expect to have these done in 48 hours.

December 18 – Update
Wow.  What a nightmare this shopping cart turned out to be.  it really made me appreciate how much work goes into building a shopping cart that is no only feature packed, but has the SEO groundwork done.  Pretty much every mistake that could have been made when building this system, had been made.  A great many hours were spent fixing errors that really should not have been in a shopping cart application of this level of maturity,

But the fixes have been worthwhile. 

Site is now No.15 on Google.com.au for the main target phrase, "Garden Sheds" and at No.20 for the secondary phrase, "Sheds"  We expect a new update from Google in January, and for our client to get over the line then.

December 24 – Update

Site is now at No.7 for Garden Sheds on www.google.com.au, and  No.15 for "Sheds"  So top 10 achieved for one of our target phrases, one more to go. 

Wonderful to work with this client, the site owner is also the web developer, and he has done a great job og working with us, to make his site all it could be.  I have no doubt, that No.1 will be achieved in 2010.

February 10 2010

We are now working on top10 for over 1000 terms for this client.  Such a massive project can not be achieved over night – we are expecting to work on it for at least 12 months.  Some of the new targets include top10 rankings for Aviaries, garages and carports, as well as rankings for many combinations of these phrases with the client's delivery locations.  Here we go! 

March 13 2010

Top 10 for Sheds and Aviaries now achieved.

So we've got to move fast on this one, and get the rankings quick smart.  We did the lot for this little site, design, content, technology and now… the seo.

So as of today, 15 October 2009, the SEOGuys are on the job with a target for page one on google for Cronulla Hot Water Installation

November 2009
Straight into page one, in fact as I write this, at No.1 for many, many combinations of Hot Water and installation in the Sutherland Shire, with good rankings for plumbing related searches coming in too as a bonus. Within one month, we have achieved the target goals for our client, and he has already booked sufficient work to pay for our services.

An outstanding result for everyone

The big lesson for us is that whilst the Yellow Pages used to be the first and only place people would look to find a tradesman, more and more the internet, and that means Google, is the place people are looking. Our client was reluctant at first to go ahead with this job – but he sure is happy now!