As social media, web3.0, mobiweb and clouds advance forward as a raging technology tsunami – a job seeker might well be asking themselves whats the best way of getting my CV or resume to a recruiter in a way that I can give myself the best chance of getting noticed.

Naturally we’ve all got our paper based version tucked away in the coffee stained folder marked “Job applications” that of course is a few years old or at least as old as the last time you were in the position of looking for work.

Any design oriented person would have ensured that their name was in 34 point bold, the font styles were consistent and serif’less, the kerning of the letters would be perfectly formed together with a nice pantone #344 border around the CV ensuring that if the document was in a pile on someone’s desk – then the border would make it stand out and entice the reader to view it.

Line managers will soon turn to their trusty Google and query you.

Setup your online CV

Today – its easy and I mean really easy..to setup an online profile of you.  At a basic level you can go to wordpress.com or blogger.com (part of Google) and setup your own blog page.  You may be a little more advanced and have already bought your domain name (well done) – if you haven’t, get it now as an exact match… ie. “FirstnameFamilyname.com” .. or .org .net .co.uk .org.uk.  The next step would be to make sure you have a good profile on LinkedIn – in fact make sure your external URL has your name in it now.  (its a bit of landgrab – just like facebook was when it let you choose your public URL)

 <title>Paul Bannister | Expresso Coffee Expert | London</title>

<h1>Paul Bannister - London</h1>

<meta name="description" content="Check you drink the best -

Hire an Expresso Coffee Expert for organic roasted and green beans

 - Paul Bannister in London"/>

Since the advance of Google Caffeine – the focus on sites is around performance and social links.  In fact friend feed seems to be getting higher ranking than facebook  at the moment.  So its really important to ensure you site is optimised and if possible you are using a CDN (Content Delivery Network).   For further tips and ideas on how to optimise your site see this post Optimising your blog.

I thought in addition to all this it would be useful to create a check list of all the other signals that Google considers in its algorithm.  There are 200 of these that can be broken down into different themes for you to focus on.  You should use it as a checklist to run against your website to make sure you are appealing to Google and of course your readers.

This list is big reading and I found various key lists around the web mainly Vaugns List and this published by the Search Engine Journal.   I suggest you get on their mailing list as the site is good reading.

I have listed some of their key points below together with some tips on how to capitalise on it.

As a disclaimer its important to understand that this information is not from Google and its not the definitive answer, but a pretty good indication of the what the algorithm might use to deduce your ranking.

Domain: 13 Signals
1. Domain age – Age ranks better, because 1 you can link faster to it, and 2) Most top 10 in your nice are probably older.
2. Length of domain registration – Try and register your domains for longer than 1 year.
3. Domain registration information hidden/anonymous – Google likes to know your accountable
4. Site top level domain (geographical focus, e.g. com versus co.uk)
5. Site top level domain (e.g. .com versus .info) – My tip only use .com, .net or .org for international and .org.uk and co.uk for uk specific traffic.
6. Sub domain or root domain?
7. Domain past records (how often it changed IP)
8. Domain past owners (how often the owner was changed)
9. Keywords in the domain – Exact match domains matter!  If your keyword is in the domain it will rank faster than anything.
10. Domain IP
11. Domain IP neighbors
12. Domain external mentions (non-linked)
13. Geo-targeting settings in Google Webmaster Tools

Server-side: 2 signals
1. Server geographical location
2. Server reliability / uptime – Get a free monitor setup for 2 URLS at http://host-tracker.com

3. Setting in Google Webmaster Tools for location  – http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Architecture: 8 signals
1. URL structure – Use proper words in your links that are meaningful.  If using wordpress use permalinks.
2. HTML structure
3. LSI (Latent Semantic Index) words
4. Use of external CSS / JS files
5. Website structure accessibility (use of inaccessible navigation, JavaScript, etc)
6. Use of canonical URLs
7. Valid code – check against http://validator.w3.org/

Content: 14 signals
1. Content language
2. Content uniqueness
3. Amount of content (text versus HTML)
4. Unlinked content density (links versus text)
5. Pure text content ratio (without links, images, code, etc)
6. Content topicality / timeliness (for seasonal searches for example)
7. Semantic information (phrase-based indexing and co-occurring phrase indicators)
8. Content flag for general category (transactional, informational, navigational)
9. Content / market niche
10. Flagged keywords usage (gambling, dating vocabulary)
11. Text in images
12. Malicious content
13. Rampant mis-spelling of words, bad grammar, and 10,000 word screeds without punctuation
14. Use of absolutely unique /new phrases.

Internal Cross Linking: 5 signals
1. # of internal links to page
2. # of internal links to page with identical / targeted anchor text
3. # of internal links to page from content (instead of navigation bar, breadcrumbs, etc)
4. # of links using “nofollow” attribute
5. Internal link density

Website signals: 7 signals
1. Website Robots.txt file content
2. Overall site update frequency
3. Overall site size (number of pages)
4. Age of the site since it was first discovered by Google
5. XML Sitemap
6. On-page trust flags (Contact info ( for local search even more important – Make sure your phone number is on the site), Privacy policy, TOS, and similar)
7. Website type (e.g. blog instead of informational sites in top 10)

Page-specific signals: 9 signals
1. Page meta Robots tags
2. Page age
3. Page freshness (Frequency of edits and
% of page effected (changed) by page edits)
4. Content duplication with other pages of the site (internal duplicate content);
5. Page content reading level
6. Page load time (many signals in here)
7. Page type (About-us page versus main content page)
8. Page internal popularity (how many internal links it has)
9. Page external popularity (how many external links it has relevant to other pages of this site)

Keywords usage and keyword prominence: 13 signals
1. Keywords in the title of a page
2. Keywords in the beginning of page title
3. Keywords in Alt tags
4. Keywords in anchor text of internal links (internal anchor text)
5. Keywords in anchor text of outbound links
6. Keywords in bold and italic text
7. Keywords in the beginning of the body text
8. Keywords in body text
9. Keyword synonyms relating to theme of page/site
10. Keywords in filenames
11. Keywords in URL
12. No “Randomness on purpose” (placing “keyword” in the domain, “keyword” in the filename, “keyword” starting the first word of the title, “keyword” in the first word of the first line of the description and keyword tag…)
13. The use (abuse) of keywords utilized in HTML comment tags

Outbound links: 8 signals
1. Number of outbound links (per domain)
2. Number of outbound links (per page)
3. Quality of pages the site links in
4. Links to bad neighborhoods
5. Relevancy of outbound links
6. Links to 404 and other error pages
7. Links to SEO agencies from clients site
8. Hot-linked images

Take control of your rankings

Backlink profile: 21 signals
1. Relevancy of sites linking in
2. Relevancy of pages linking in
3. Quality of sites linking in
4. Quality of web page linking in
5. Backlinks within network of sites
6. Co-citations (which sites have similar backlink sources)
7. Link profile diversity
1. Anchor text diversity
2. Different IP addresses of linking sites
3. Geographical diversity
4. Different TLDs
5. Topical diversity
6. Different types of linking sites (logs, directories, etc)
7. Diversity of link placements
8. Authority Link (CNN, BBC, etc) Per Inbound Link
9. Backlinks from bad neighborhoods (absence / presence of backlinks from flagged sites)   (It seems that this is less of a factor nowadays – as it would be too easy to affect someone else’s site.)

10. Reciprocal links ratio (relevant to the overall backlink profile)
11. Social media links ratio (links from social media sites versus overall backlink profile)
12. Backlinks trends and patterns (like sudden spikes or drops of backlink number)
13. Citations in Wikipedia and Dmoz
14. Backlink profile historical records (ever caught for link buying/selling, etc)
15. Backlinks from social bookmarking sites.

Each Separate Backlink: 5 signals
1. Authority of TLD (.com versus .gov)
2. PR of a domain linking in
3. PR of a page linking in
4. Location of a link (footer, navigation, body text)
5. Anchor text of a link (and Alt tag of images linking)

Visitor Profile and Behavior: 6 signals
1. Number of visits
2. Visitors’ demographics
3. Bounce rate
4. Visitors’ browsing habits (which other sites they tend to visit)
5. Visiting trends and patterns (like sudden spiked in incoming traffic)
6. How often the listing is clicked within the SERPs (relevant to other listings)

Google now measures CTR (Click Thru Rate) and reports it in Webmaster tools.  So clearly it’s a big ranking factor with Caffeine.

Penalties, Filters and Manipulation: 12 signals
1. Keyword over usage / Keyword stuffing
2. Link buying flag
3. Link selling flag
4. Spamming records (comment, forums, other link spam)
5. Cloaking
6. Hidden Text
7. Duplicate Content (external duplication)
8. History of past penalties for this domain
9. History of past penalties for this owner
10. History of past penalties for other properties of this owner
11. Past hackers’ attacks records
12. 301 flags: double re-directs/re-direct loops, or re-directs ending in 404 error

More Signals (6):
1. Domain registration with Google Webmaster Tools
2. Domain presence in Google News
3. Domain presence in Google Blog Search
4. Use of the domain in Google AdWords
5. Use of the domain in Google Analytics
6. Business name / brand name external mentions

Feedback below…

I’ve now been using IMeye for over a week now – and its incredible software.   Here are some things I have been doing:

Firstly – unlike any other keyword tool, you don’t bother with any seed keyword.  You start with traffic and competition.  So I’ve been setting the software to the following:

I set the competing pages (pages in the Google index mentioning the same keyword) parameter to no more than 100,000 pages and competing titles (pages on the index with the keyword in the title of the page)  to no more than 30,000.  Then I add the column showing the highest Adwords cost per click.  This tells me if the adsense revenues are interesting or not.  If its at least $3 then its good, as you would normally get about half that.  Finally I put a filter on to show me any domains that are for sale or auction that match these keywords.  If not, I clear the filter and then do the following:

At this level of competition I know I can compete and using some SEO I can get into the top 10 in about 2-3 months or sooner.  Then I sort by traffic and start working my way down until I find strong traffic with words that make sense with something I can sell on or get adsense revenue.  When I find an interesting word I check it in Keyword blueprint (added free package to IMeye users) and see if I get a Goldstar.  This means that its very easy to rank – and also verifies the figures in IMeye.

Now heres the difference.  Its generally accepted that if you get an exact match domain – keyword.com /.org /.net then you will have an excellent chance of the being ranked very quickly.  The problem is most of these have gone…but if you can find one then go for it.  However if you find out what country the traffic is coming from, then you could buy an exact match from that country, and following this line of thinking I have now bought 4 domains, of which 2 are specific exact match.org.uk or .co.uk which are just for UK traffic.

If you are in Australia, France, South Africa or Canada you will be quids in, because the traffic is less competitive than in the US.  Even better is that you do some keyword research using Google Insights and look for local trends there, and then validate them using IMeye or your own tool you could find some real gems.

So to sum up, find the less competitive traffic and find out what region the traffic coming from.  You can do this by setting your keyword tool to relevant datacentre for that region.  Then look for exact match domains local to this area and start building links or use EVO2.

More info on IMeye

Link to the video on IMeye site

Let the keywords find you!

If you know anything about Internet Marketing, you know the most successful affiliates approach marketing by finding the traffic first.

Many people approach it the other way – and this costs – because they will find a product they would like to promote, and then work out how to sell it by researching keywords – but with so many dead ends and blocks from the competition its difficult for sure.

The smart people find the traffic, and more importantly the RIGHT traffic first with little competition and then dominate the niche.

IMeye Review and Bonus

Doing this involves researching keywords and how much traffic there is for the keyword. Then establish, from the high traffic keyword, which ones have the least competition by identifying which ones have less than 50,000 pages with your keywords in its title.

Then you need to establish what is on page 1 of Google to see if you have any chance of getting on it….right? For example you also need to check that there is:

• No eZinearticle there
• No youtube
• No exact domains
• No youtube videos
• No Squidoo lenses
• No Hubpages
• No Blogspot sites

It’s a lot of work yes?

Well imagine if there was a tool that could do this for you. A tool that had already done the research and simply presents you with the best options.

IMeye is the ultimate solution for keyword researching niches. All you need is to feed it a seed word and it will come back the best options like:

• Number of searches
• Number of competing pages in Google
• Number of “intitle” competing pages in Google
• Number of words in the keyword phrase
• 2 Adwords bid estimates: the highest one, and a “cheapest click” one
• The top 10 web sites in the Google search engine rankings
• The adwords ads that are running
• Which Clickbank products have been promoted using this keyword phrase
• Which affiliate offer categories have been promoted using this keyword phrase

Sign Up For Insider Tips Here ==>

IMeye now Live – Awesome Video ==>

Flags that identify:
- If physical goods being sold for this keyword
- If there any “exact” domain matches present in the top 10 of the SERPS
- If EzineArticles in the top 10 of the SERPS
- If youtube in the top 10 of the SERPS
- If Amazon in the top 10 of the SERPS
- If Yahoo Answers in the top 10 of the SERPS
- If Squidoo, Hubpages, or Blogspot in the top 10 of the SERPS
…and that’s just a start. Imagine being able to build smart queries quickly and easily using any or all of those criteria!

Full breakdown of IMeye here

I have been involved in IMeye’s development for the past 3 months, and I can safely say there is nothing like it out there. Its one of those products that is a “no brainer” especially as it comes from a quality company which is massive in affiliate marketing ($10m per year).  Steven Clayton and Tim Godfrey have produced commission blueprint, NicheBlueprint, SEM business blueprint and various essential SEO tools like article and blog blueprint and more.

I have practically all these – and I can say that they are all top notch quality products with sincere support and backing.  To give you an idea Steve practically lives in the forum, and comments in response to questions more than the moderators or even their support employees.  The guy loves what he does its refreshing and re-assuring to see that – and makes me feel good knowing I have this kind of support behind me.

IMeye is now live and I’ve been using it –  register on my list for more details and inside tips on how to use it.  ==>

Meye is NOW LIVE – Watch This Video

If you publish on the web, then you will be completely aware of your search engine results positioning (SERPS) for specific keywords.  However one of the newer aspects of the Google algorithm is called Caffeine, where Google now considers the performance of your site as a major contributor to user experience, and so it should.  If you use wordpress to publish like me, then understanding the fact the trade off with having a great publishing engine is performance.  Wordpress is database driven and noticeably slower than a pure html driven website.

Here are some advanced tips for getting your publishing performing:

W3 Total Cache

If you have used wp super cache then you know all about caching pages on disk or memory so that visitor calls to your site don’t have to go to the database to retrieve the content.  W3 Total Cache goes a step further, and adds gzip compression, minifies your css and js files and adds caching to the database.  Its a classic one click install from the wordpress site, and will add at least 10% performance of your site.  Make sure you uninstall wp super cache and any other caching or optimisation software you have.

Get Thesis

Ok a new a theme might seem daunting, but if you want your blog to be clean and seriously SEO friendly then this is one to get.  It completely distinguishes your content from your design – so what? – well this ensures that evey wordpress upgrade or customisation you do is totally supported and doesn’t bring your blog down.  Then you can customise the whole site for colours, styles and fancy widgerydoos to your hearts content in a point and click interface.  No Coders needed.    Thesis is here.

Google Webmaster Tools

Set your blog up in the webmaster tools and go into the labs section and check two things;  1) Make sure that the Google bot reads your site clearly and reports back what you want it to.  This will pickup on any redirects or badly formed content you may have.  2) Check the site performance.  This is what Google will be using as part of its caffeine algorithm, although its not clear where you need to be to be fully optimised in their eyes – just try and get it as close to the dotted line as you can.  If its under then go and buy yourself a beer!

PageSpeed

In Firefox you can install a plugin called page speed.  This will analyse the downloads for the page you are viewing on your site and advise on what changes you need to make.  Its important to pay heed to these because Google themselves seem to be recommending it, and they are using the same algorithm.  To use page speed you need another plugin called firebug.  Its all easy to install and when you’ve done it, select firebug from the tools menu.

Get a VPS

Getting a website hosted is quick and easy nowadays.  I use Hostgator simply because the support is amazing.  I can go online any time of the day via chat and have an issue taken care of and believe me I’ve had issues.  Most people use normal web hosting instead of VPS and cost-wise running an unlimited domain site should be well under a tenner a month.  The problem is you are sharing the server with who knows what – and it could well be a spotty teenager providing info on the best hacks for Xbox – for which he’s getting millions of hits per day.  The next logical upgrade used to be a dedicated server but now there is a step in between which is the future of cloud provisioning.  A “virtual private server” – VPS is a slot on shared hardware that can be provisioned in seconds and to you its completely dedicated but most importantly the resources are dedicated to you as well.   Being a virtual server allows you to grow it according to demand so if you become an overnight celeb by accidently twittering about the demise of Cheryl Cole you can recover quickly by extending the resources of the server to cope with the demand.  VPS.net has a new service where its offering VPS nodes which are replicated so should one fail a new one can be provisioned instantly.  This is what the larger companies do anyway and I run hundreds of virtual servers for my work.  When I get setup with VPS.net watch this space, in the meantime I’ve gone with hostgator and you can too.

CDN

Content Delivery Networks store your cacheable data on their network so that wherever your visitors are in the world they can retrieve your site into your browser as if it was in your next door neighbours garden.  It massively speeds up delivery and when you get serious about your blog or website performance you will want to be doing this.  Solutions available from Akamai and NetDNA , and maxcdn.com among others.  (As I write maxcdn.com have a special of $10 and I’ve set this blog with them, so I would recommend you do to.  It takes 5 minutes as long as you have W3 Total Cache – If you need help setting it up, let me know and I’ll do a HowTo.)