Category Archives: SEO

Wikipedia has decided to block all of its content from users for the next 24 hours to make a statement to Congress, but at what cost? Is it really worth Wikipedia taking a chance at being penalized by Google or do they know something that we don’t? (they do.) Any good SEO will tell you that if you cloak content on a page, Google will not only “slap” you, but furthermore, your site is in jeopardy of not fully recovering all of its rankings even after you fix the cloaking issue. It appears, however, that not only will Wikipedia not be penalized, but Google feels the same way Wikipedia does — and even supports Wikipedia’s cause (because it will have a direct negative impact on Google’s own business as well). The bottom line: this Wikipedia situation is yet another example of Google playing favorites and accommodating certain websites (aka its

In this week’s Highly Relevant SEO audit series, we’re going to help out SamAsh.com. SamAsh.com is a great resource for all kinds of music gear, but their website has got a couple wrong notes here and there. In order to get them back to shredding at maximum potential, they should consider making some of these changes. Then they’ll be record label certified instead of your neighborhood garage band. Problem 1: Images above text on product pages. How to fix Problem 1: Text links should appear above the images because Google only counts the first link that it sees, and the text links pass more strength and relevance than pictures.  Therefore, the text links on the product pages should be moved above the images. Problem 2: Sitemap only shows zipped versions. How to fix Problem 2: Currently, there is no XML sitemap on SamAsh.com; only the zipped versions appear.  SamAsh.com’s webmaster

In the third installment of our SEO audit series, we’re going to help out UnderArmour.com.  Apparently “Protecting This House” doesn’t include optimizing their website, but luckily we’re here to help. They definitely got it going on the turf and on the court, but the juggernauts of the performance apparel market could stand to step up their game in the digital realm. We’re not trying to sweat you, Under Armour, but we too are all about performance. Take a peek at some ideas we had for them to take their SEO game to the next level. Problem 1: JavaScript Dropdown Menus. How to fix Problem 1: UnderArmor.com’s dropdown menus are created with Javascript. While search engines can crawl Javascript, it is unknown how much link juice is passed through the links.  Therefore, it is not recommended that sites use it for their global navigation.  We strongly recommend HTML and CSS navigation.

In this week’s SEO audit series, we’re going to help out DicksSportingGoods.com. Here are five SEO problems that DicksSportingGoods.com is currently facing, and our recommended solutions. Problem 1: The site has multiple home page URLs. How to fix Problem 1: Redirect all of the duplicate homepage URLs to the root URL: http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/ Problem 2: Many of the URLs are dynamic and are amongst the most non-SEO friendly URLs that we’ve ever seen. Here is an example: http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/category/index.jsp;jsessionid=QhfGTyGB0qZ5t4v8FWl7d7jHGVkJg5LySYTlbjjp2xcXv2RQn04C!1820288686? ab=TopNav_Footwear&categoryId=4413987 (Imagine having to read that URL to someone.) How to fix Problem 2: Update the URLs accordingly. Here is an example of what the above URL could look like: http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/category/footware Problem 3: The category pages have no content on them, which is holding them back from an SEO perspective. How to fix Problem 3: Add unique, relevant content to the category pages and add internal links to the most important sub-categories or

Search Engine Optimization has been an integral part of online marketing since the mid ’90’s, and due to its constantly shifting nature, there is never a shortage of sites that we think could use a little help. So we’ve decided to start an understated, fun weekly SEO audit series here on the Highly Relevant blog. Every Thursday, we’ll publish a post about a specific, high-profile website and identify five opportunities where that particular website can improve its SEO. (If you have any websites that you’d like for us to assess, please e-mail us at info@highlyrelevant.com.) Not only will we point out five specific challenges that the website is having from an SEO perspective, but we’ll also make recommendations on how these issues can be corrected. We’re solutions-oriented at Highly Relevant Being big football fans, and since we’re right in the middle of football season, the first website that we’ll

Based off our knowledge and experience with SEO, we’ve been able to create our own SEO process that includes a mix of best practices, tactics, and tools that we’ve created. By laying out our process, we’ve really been able to streamline the execution of our SEO projects and deliver our clients some amazing results for them. We’ve decided that we don’t want to hoard all of this good SEO information to ourselves, so we’ve published the Highly Relevant SEO Process for you to see. The process is laid out in a step-by-step format, and it takes into consideration many SEO best practices (such as keyword research, on-page optimization, and linkbuilding), but we’ve also sprinkled in some other strategies that enhance our SEO efforts. You can access our SEO process here or just click on the screenshot below. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments about the