I am congratulating SEOmoz not only on their new office (which looks cool as poo).
But more for their new hires. I think one of the better moves they have made was to hire Jennifer.

Jennifer Lopez

I do not know the inner workings of SEOmoz, but I can confidently say that Jennifer is one of the more impressive people I have met and dealt with in the last few years (I don’t remember when we actually met, but as you all know I am usually drunk).
One of the first conversations about Jennifer I ever had was someone accusing me of “trying to steal her”. I sorta was. update: I was trying to “steal” her because she was a talented developer who understood stuff I was talking about. She was clearly a talent.

She really got what I was talking about when I talked (and for anyone who has ever talked to me you know that is a feat). Later, for another company I suggested we use her, and when I contacted her that time, she again understood what I wanted, and she provided a very professional outline for the project.
When she was applying for SEOmoz she asked if I would recommended her, well the truth was, I would have jumped through rings of fire for her to get that job. One of my happier moments was when I learned they had hired her.

Danny Dover

The other impressive person I have always admired is Danny Dover, who started writing great straightforward posts that in my opinion had been missing since Matt left. In addition to being smart and able, he also had the balls to accept my invitation to fly out to Arizona one time for a party where I was supposedly going to drink him under the table.

I didn’t, but in my defense I was drinking for hours before he showed up.

But the real point here is that Danny writes really useful stuff. I admire that.
Another wonderful new hire is Joanna Lord.

Joanna Lord

Joanna is like 27 times smarter that anyone talking to her realizes.

I am not sure what her role will end up being for SEOmoz, but if they are using her for their clients PPC then they are likely having some very happy clients.
I think nowadays it is alot more clear how talented she is because she has been speaking up a storm at conferences.

What a great addition to an already great staff.

Why am I writing This?

I used to be an avid contributor to SEOmoz and I stopped. I have to admit, as many of my contempories know and maybe feel themselves, there was a certain personality to SEOmoz a few years ago.

I had a comfort zone that included Rebecca, Matt, Scott, and Jane. They were a big part of why I was there. It was like a family to me.

Three of those people are now gone, but I really think it is time to take a second look at SEOmoz again, at least that is what I will be doing.
I hope others do too. It has always been a great community and it is chock full of great talent again.

Try them you will like them:  SEOmoz blog

I began my online stuff in forums, mostly help forums where I tried as honestly, patiently, and informatively as I could to answer peoples questions.

There were alot of us in the Google Webmaster help group circa (errr, years ago?) and I have to say I simply respect them. People like @halfdeck (i think the last time we spoke we were arguing, but I love that. The other as I mentioned above was @lookadoo. There was also John Mueller @johnmu, who now works for Google. These are twitter names obviously, but please check them out).

But this post has Barry Schwartz and Aaron Wall in the title. I am gonna talk about them….

Aaron Wall

I will start with Aaron Wall of SEOBook fame.

It is really important for me to be honest here about him, I am writing this from a lovely home looking over the ocean in Puerto Rico, but what I really wish more people knew about me is this…

When I got into SEO I was homeless. I did not own a computer. It wasn’t some cute, nice version of homeless, I was flat out homeless.

While I do not really want to highlight that fact (it is embarrassing), I constantly will highlight when I am talking about Aaron Wall. I have zero reservations about it. The reason is that although I may look bad for being homeless back then, it is the perfect compliment to Aaron what he did for me.

I had been working in the forums and at the Google help group and I kept realizing that just about everything people were asking about or having problems about were already covered in the Google webmaster guidelines. After literally talking to hundreds of people about how they can improve their site to be more visible in Google I decided to write a website that explained the Google guidelines in detail for layman.

I really felt a wrote a great site (feedthebot.com) and I didn’t really know what to do with it.One of the big voices online then was Aaron Wall. I wrote him a simple email (I can’t find it, but if Aaron want to post it he can feel free). It said something like…

“I can not afford your SEObook, but I want it, As soon as I get money, I will pay for it, and I will try to hook up other people with whatever I learn”

He wrote back to me and gave me the book free of charge.
That is Aaron Wall.
In about a month I was able to pay for the book and I did. But the thing to remember here is that he just gave it to me for nothing. This kindness has never once left me and I have never written a post that I felt would be helpful to others without thinking of Aaron.
Sorry Aaron for this public compliment, but it is really true. Some of my tutorials, like the one to make Google gadgets, have been used by tens of thousands of people. The only reason my tutorials are good and real is because of you Aaron, so deal with it.

Barry Schwartz

I do not have a sweet or historical story about Barry, what i do have about Barry is the same thing you have about Barry, alot of knowledge.
Barry has been following our space for years and his insights are always right on spot. His work on Search engine roundtable, Search Engine Land is widely and universally known to be simply superb.
My public thank you to Barry is this.. Thanks for paying attention when we are not. My other public compliment is this..
Thank you for creating great apps that are useful.
Barry was creating iPhone apps that were great when the “norm” was to create apps that where invasive and pretty much begged and manipulated people to get more users. That was what the norm was, and there was Barry creating apps that were so damn useful they they out shined the other apps.
I love that.
Anyways, they are good people and if you want to be good people in this field I suggest you research and read them.

In the last year, over half of the Adsense income I have received has not come from new ads or new traffic, it has been from tweaking my current ad placements.

This post is for those who already are using Adsense or are at least familiar with how to use it.

This is a long post. You will likely make more money off your stuff if you read it and try the things I mention. If you have old websites that you haven’t updated lately or are trying make more money off of, this post is for you.

Over the last year I have tried many things with my older sites using Adsense, some were simple and obvious, some went counter to what you might think would work. I just tried things to see if they would pan out or not.

There is no Adsense Fairy

Some of what I will say is common knowledge but before rolling your eyes ask yourself if you are actually doing these things. Everyone  knows that exercise is good for them, but it doesn’t mean they are actually doing it.
The difference between making more money and not making more money is actually doing things.

How to make more money from Adsense without screwing anything up

There are several methods of changing up your Adsense, but they fall into just a few categories…

• Changing ad type
• Changing ad size
• Changing ad placement
• Changing ad colors
• Using custom Adsense search

For each of these subjects, we will look at the common best practices, ways to implement those practices, ideas that I have found useful, and how to test them.

Changing Ad Type – Image vs Text ads

The simplest, easiest change you can make to your ads is changing the ad type. This simple step can really make a big difference in ad income. I am writing it first because I think it is the first thing someone should do when trying to improve their income.

You can change your ad type without changing the size of your ads or the layout of your pages.

It is the least intrusive of all the methods I will describe, so it is a good place to start.

This may sound simple, but I have had this small step double my Adsense income on some pages. It is really a great first step into tweaking your ads. You may hear many differing opinions about which type is better, but the bottom line is this.

Until you try both, you do not know what works best for your particular webpage.

The goal here is to determine if you can make more money off of one ad type over the other. To do this you must…
1. Change ad type
2. Wait a few days
3. See if you are making more or less.
Changing your ad type takes only a few moments, imagine if you are like me and you did this small change and received 2 or 3 times the amount of income. It would be a few moments well worth taking. On some pages this worked incredibly for me, on some it made no difference whatsoever. You may not see a change or you may already be using the best type, but this is good information to have either way.

How to change your Google Adsense type between text and image ads

By choosing “image ads only” or “text ads only” you will change the ad type being shown on your page. If you do not see these options, then your Adsense code is old, and you will just have to make a new one and choose the “image only” or “text only” option as you do.
Each webpage is different, some will do well with image ads, some will do well with text ads, some will do about the same.
My advice is to take one or two webpages (not an entire site) and just change the ads on those one or two pages. Make sure the pages have enough traffic so you can have a meaningful before/after comparison. If you see a higher click through rate with one type, then use that type throughout your site more.

Adsense Ad Size – What Size is Best?

As you probably know, Google has stated that the best converting ad sizes are…

• 336×280 Large Rectangle
• 300×250 Medium Rectangle
• 160×600 Wide Skyscraper

In the Google Adsense help page on this subject, it also states…

As a rule of thumb, wider ad formats tend to outperform their taller counterparts, due to their reader-friendly format. Readers absorb information in thought units (that is, several words at a time). The wider format lets them comfortably read more text at a glance without having to skip a line and return to the left margin every few words as they would be forced to do with a narrower ad. The wider ad format also lessens the likelihood of readers leaving the ad unit altogether.

This advice, in my experience, has been generally sound. But it brings up a very important thing for blog authors. Blog tend to be skinny. Many blogs have skinny content areas where a 336 pixel would be really overwhelming. Blogs also have one or two sidebars which are also skinny. Having blogged on several subjects, I have found that wider content areas are very wise for a few different reasons. But let’s look at what I am talking about and break this down to be more clear. Your blog theme really defines what types of ads you can have on it.

Common Blog Formats pros and cons

One sidebar

This is a very common layout of a blog theme. This layout allows more room for the content and depending on the width of your content area, you can use most of the Adsense sizes on it.

What to watch out for. If your blog content area is 400 or less pixels, you are missing out. To give an example, my blog, the one you are reading has a content area of 500 pixels.

We will cover placement of ads in the next section, but as ar as sizes go, you need to know if you want sidebar ads or content ads.

I prefer ads in the content area. Depending on the subject of your blog you may find sidebar ads work better than content area ads, but in general I would say that ads within the content do better than ads in a sidebar. Therefore you want to have a content area that is wide enough to show the Google recommended ad sizes. My general recommendation is to have a content area of 500 pixels or more if you are going to be showing ads within your content. This will give you enough room to have your blog look pleasant even when using the 336×280 large ad size.

When you are placing ads in the content, make sure to format them to be to the left or right, I explain how to float Adsense ads left or right here.

Two Sidebars

The two side bar type blogs are often used where people are selling ads like the common 125×125 ads. This can be a good thing if you are making money from it, but I have not seen alot of two sidebar blogs that are good for Adsense. By having two sidebars, you are making your sidebars and your content area too skinny to have the recommended Adsense ad sizes. It is worth experimenting if this is right for you or not.

To test this out is rather simple luckily for blog authors. I recommend you look for a theme that is unlike your own. Find a theme or two that will allow you to try seperately both sidebar and content type ads. You will usually need a sidebar at least 300 pixels wide to try out Adsense in the sidebar (so you can use the 300×250 medium rectangle). For content, try for 500 pixels (so you can use the 336×280 large rectangle).

As a general rule, I have found bigger ads provide bigger results, but I have also found that sticking a big ad in a small place where it looks weird does not do well.

Adsense Placement

One of the great things about Adsense is you can change around where the ads are and it won’t mess up things like your ranking or SEO. The biggest change you can make is the position and placement of your ads.

Let’s look at the best practices about ad placement that come from the Google Adsense help pages and other places on the web…

The Google help page I linked to above is where the well known “heat map” is. This is what Google provides as a reference for where to place ads. That page states…

Certain locations tend to be more successful than others. This “heat map” illustrates the ideal placing on a sample page layout. The colors fade from dark orange (strongest performance) to light yellow (weakest performance). All other things being equal, ads located above the fold tend to perform better than those below the fold. Ads placed near rich content and navigational aids usually do well because users are focused on those areas of a page.

To summarize what this is telling us…
1. Ads above the fold tend to work well
2. Ads to the left tend to work well when near the top
3. Ads within the content tend to work well.

You may or may not already know these things, but the main thing to remember here is that these recommendations are often correct. Not always, but most of the time they are true.

I did some specific testing using the heat map as a guide, let’s look at a couple of things I did and what happened…

1. Changing the sidebar from right to left

2. Above the fold

Now you may be wondering why I would be testing out the obvious. Here are my reasons…

• I have never assumed the obvious path is the best path to take.
• I like to test things
• I found out that I had left alot of things undone, and I wanted to get all of my Adsense in order by naming my ads, having a list of them (and where they resided).
• I have experienced results where the recommended placement did not do the best.

Are your ads doing as well as they could?

As I went back through my Adsense, I realized that I did not really know where my ads were. I have done so many things, and I hadn’t kept track very well. So I made a list of questions that would help me. Some of these are painfully obvious, but it is what I did. Here is the checklist…

1. Can you list all the websites you have Adsense on?

If yes continue.

If no make the list. Make it on a piece of paper or a spreadsheet, but have a list.

2. Do your ads have names?

If yes continue.

If no, name each of your ads. Name them like: “gadzi-300-sidebar” or: “seoish-abovefold-content-postname”

3. Have you read the Google help pages on Adsense optimization?

If yes continue.

If no, start here and watch the webinars, the videos and read the guidelines and optimization tips.

4. Are you spending time everyday optimizing your Adsense?

If yes continue.

If no, you may want to start. Just a few minutes a day can do wonders. As I said before there is no Adsense fairy, how well you will do using Adsense is entirely up to you. I think most people can probably increase their income significantly by just optimizing, even if they are having the same traffic levels.

If you can answer the above four questions with a “yes” then you will have a great deal of information when you log into your Adsense account. You will have trends, figures, and information that will help you optimize your ad income to the fullest. You can sort your ads by click through ratio, for example and see which ads are doing the best and start to understand why they are doing the best. The largest single step that has improved my income really is the naming of my ads. everything else fell into place after that for me because of the reports available in the Adsense interface.

Adsense for Search

The last thing I want to talk about is Adsense for search, also known as Google custom search. It is the Adsense product that has made me the most money. It is not well understood and not widely used. When it is used, it is not used well. I have used it for three or more years now and the oldest such use is one that I will highlight to help show you the potential of this product.

What is Adsense for search?

Now I have used this product for years, and I do not use it much as a site search, but I do use it in other ways and I have made tens of  thousands of dollars doing so.

A great example of this is my “Ask Google” tool on feedthebot.com which I created as a way for me and other bloggers to search official Google resources. With Google custom search, you can define what sites the search engine you create searches. It could just search your own site, or it can search other sites as well.
In my case I got a list of official Google sources and had my search engine search all those sites. This was useful to me because sometimes it was hard to know what Google had actually said about a subject. For example let’s use “nofollow”, nofollow has been written about a million times, but what has Google actually aid about it? It was hard to determine but here are the results of a search for “nofollow” on my ask google tool. As that page shows there are many things Google has said about it and I often use that tool to learn things about Google when I need something from the horse’s mouth.

What is likely more interesting to you the reader though, is that I have been making over a thousand dollars a month from that page for years.

The click through rate of Adsense for search is very often around 25 percent. Yes, 25 percent. 1 in four or so of people using it tend to click an ad. While no click through ratio is ever guaranteed, you will find the Adsense for search CTR to be much much higher than any other product.

This means that if you come up with a way to get people to search for something through your engine, you can make good money.

If there is one Adsense tool I recommend over all others, it is Adsense for search.

To do so you would create a custom search engine that searched all the great resources you know of, and not include all the crappy ones.

How you promote it is up to you, I will likely write more about it and provide a tutorial soon on the subject.

Until then, good luck and let me know of any tips you recommend.

Update: Read about this event on the Google Blog.

GetListed.org has been announcing a few cities lately, but I just want to highlight the Getlisted Local University in Minneapolis is where local business owners can get answers from the search engine reps of Google and Bing. This event is happening next Thursday in the Twin Cities on May 13th.
During the sessions and after the morning session I will be helping business owners take the first steps to implementing solid best practices for their business.

I want to again thank our event sponsors Google, Bing, ReliaCloud, and Deluxe for their support.

Google representatives Ryan Hayward and Ari Bezman will be there. Mikko Ollila, senior product manager for Bing, as well as industry leaders like Mike Blumenthal, Matt McGee, David Mihm, Mary Bowling, and Ed Reese will be speaking there too.

Aaron Weiche of Five Technology is spearheading the logistics for this one as well as speaking, so a big thank you to him.

To get details, please see: GetListed Local University – Minneapolis

(You can use the code “gl” to save 50 dollars)

Here is some coverage of our last event:

• Photos of the event
• Small Business Wins Big With Local University
• Looking back at GetListed Local University Spokane
• Getlisted SEO WorkShop

In a nut shell, they are link building now. It is through a third party, but they are doing it.

I received an email a couple of days ago that asked me if I was interested in doing a story about the new Google search stories tool.

Upon initially reading this email I was very suspicious to be completely truthful. Suspicious enough that I did some investigating. Here is what I learned…

This appears to actually be someone acting on the behalf of  Google.

After speaking with several people (all of whom were notably professional and nice) I wanted to share what occurred because it is a great example of communication. Social media is people, and these are some professionals who know how to interact with people.

Even though I have some critiques about the initial email I received, they impressed me very much with their open communication as I was investigating this.

I am going to describe this in three parts.

1. I will share the email I received and note the things I liked and didn’t like about it.
2. I will explain why I was suspicious of the email
3. I will describe how the communication went when I contacted them, and why I was left with such a great overall impression.

The Email

I have highlighted what I think was good about it and what I thought was bad about it. Here is the entire email with my critiques in red and my compliments in green…

Hey Patrick (<–They got my name right, good way to start),
How’s everything? My name is [name], I’m a digital Marketing consultant that works with Horizon Media. (they identified themselves)(but they did not identify that they were working with Google)
I love the site. (compliments will get you everywhere)
I really liked your articles “Facebook fan requests make me want to projectile vomit” and “Google translate for animals”. I thought the Google translate for Animals video was pretty hilarious. (they mentioned by name my posts and commented specifically about them)(they probably shouldn’t just reference the last two posts I did, would be more real if they mentioned a new post and an older post)

I’m reaching out to you today about Google’s new Search Story campaign. (they explain why they are contacting me)
You may remember Google¹s Parisian Love ad that aired during the 2010 Super Bowl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU .This was Google’s first Super Bowl ad, and the response was so positive, that Google decided to share this opportunity with all of its users. (they used a great reference that most people would know about)

Google’s brand new Search Stories tool has gone live yesterday. You can check the below blog posting to read more about it
(http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/make-your-own-search-story-video-in.html). This tool allows you to create and publish your own personalized Search Story that you can share with your readers, fans and friends. To view the Search Stories Creator template, and build your own story, please visit the YouTube channel @ http://www.youtube.com/searchstories I have also attached a PDF on how to create your own search story.You can also reference the below link on youtube if you would prefer. (a good solid but brief description of product)

If you could check out the tool, create your own story and post on your site that would be greatly appreciated. (very specific and real request, no confusion here) If you could encourage your readers to do the same and share with their friends and family that would also be a huge help. Lastly, if you could let me know when you do create your own search story that would be great because I would love to see and read all about it. (these are very specific requests as well, which I think is good, they are contacting me, might as well not beat around the bush about what you want. The request for further communication is a good thing. It also is a pretty good idea for a blog post.)

One last thing I wanted to mention was that many videos that stand out as creative and fun will be posted on the official YouTube Search Stories Channel. In order to meet those requirements, you must publish a story that meets Google’s terms and conditions, which you can find on the Terms and Conditions page of the You Tube Search Stories Channel (http://www.gstatic.com/sst0/static/terms.html). Thanks a lot and I look forward to seeing what you create and publish on your site.

Thank you! (politeness rocks.)

~[name]

(the following FTC rule warning was a big red flag because it says to disclose I was directly contacted by Google, but I was not informed in the email that it was Google making the request. This did not add up to me.)
IMPORTANT NOTE

In keeping with recent FTC rule changes, we request that you provide full disclosure to your audience in regards to your relationship with our brand.
Please make clear that you were contacted directly by Google, who asked for your participation in the ways outlined above. In addition, please disclose fully any materials and/or products we have shared with you as part of this initiative. Your honest and transparent participation is truly valued by Google. We look forward to working with you again on future initiatives.”

That was the email I received and now I want to describe what made me suspicious of it.

Smells Fishy

As I noted I was a bit suspicious of this email when I first looked at it. I am a pretty big fan of Google and I am somewhat familiar with how important their brand is to them. When I first read the email I was never told that it was from Google (or someone directly acting on the behalf of Google) so when I got to the end of it and read that FTC warning stating “I was directly contacted by Google” it didn’t add up for me.

Worse still, I went to the domain name that the email was sent from and…

There was nothing there.

This convinced me at that moment that this could not be a Google contact as I felt that they would not send emails from a domain that didn’t have anything on it.

The Communication

Since I am a bit protective of Google because I am sorta a fanboy, I replied to the email with this…

“explain more of who you are to me please and what your relationship with Google is. If you do not, the only story I am writing is about your misrepresentation.”

Nice aren’t I?

I received a prompt reply. It was professional, it explained what was up, and it offered me solutions. (wow)
Here it the reply I got….

“Patrick,

Google is one of the advertising accounts that Horizon Media represents. The current campaign we are working on in generating awareness and encouraging people to try out this new Search Story software Google has created.

If you would like I could send you my supervisors email so you can discuss further with him.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
name of person”

I was impressed by the prompt reply, but I wanted to put on my reporter hat and dig deeper, so I replied that I wanted the email. I also said in part…

“The email seems sneaky to me, it is not sent from horizon media, and the domain the email is from is non existent.
Thank you”

I was again given a prompt reply within minutes..

“Patrick,

Not a problem at all. My supervisors information is below. I apologize if the email came off as sneaky, that was not my intentions.

[name of supervisor, email of supervisor, and phone number of supervisor was provided here]

I hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks,
Name of person”

Wow. A nice, apologetic reply with actual contact info. I was again impressed, but I wanted to get to the bottom of this so I called the contact.

I had a conversation with the supervisor on the phone, and he explained to that there was a relationship between Horizon Media and Google.

I then spoke to the director of social media & relationship marketing of Horizon Media and we had quite a friendly chat. I have had my share of overseeing outreach efforts, and he was a very nice open person who actually wanted to hear my critiques.

The bottom line of this is that Google has hired someone to do social media outreach and are actively engaging in reaching out to publishers.

I appreciated the transparency of the conversation I had, and my impression went from suspicion to support. Nice job.

They found me, and I am one of the right guys to find if you are Google and are wanting to reach out to publishers.

I think there are two main things a social media outreach plan needs to do in order to be successful.

1. Find the right people
2. Communicate with them well

They seem to have done that. If your communications were published by a rogue blogger, would your outreach fare as well?
(notes: I am not a rogue blogger, and do not normally publish email communications on my blog without discussing it first with those I have communicated with. I told them I would do this story, and that it would include critiques on their initial email.)

This means that small business owners can now see their status with Google, Yahoo, Bing, Best of the Web, and Yelp too.

Below is a screenshot of  what GetListed results looks like for a business with Yelp included …

You can also see your latest reviews, a photo and a quick glimpse of how your business is listed on Yelp by going to the detail page …

GetListed.org is a free resource that overviews and displays how effectively your business is listed online.

Check out our new version (now with Yelp) and examine your business online here.

This reminds me of a favorite childhood song “If we could talk to the animals”…

Yelp for business owners is Great in My Opinion

The majority of business owners who interact with Yelp seem to like it. I have personally helped several business owners get on Yelp, and they pretty much all have thanked me for it.

I highly recommend Yelp to small business owners. I recommend that business owners get over to Yelp and claim their business and interact with their reviews.

I also suggest that business owners understand the Yelp review system. Not every bad review will end up on your page, nor will every good review.

Yelp Review Filter Explained

Yelp just put out a video that gives an overview of their review filter and which follows up on the reason business owners should not ask people to write reviews for them (this advice was given out last year on the Yelp blog).

There is very little value in a review system which is manipulated and just like some people are unhappy with Google that their site doesn’t rank well, some business owners are unhappy that their reviews do not always show up. If you are a business owner and you have your friends and family review you it can be seen as spam. Many people who are unhappy with Yelp are people who have even stated that this is exactly what they did, they asked people to write them good reviews, the people wrote the reviews, and some of them didn’t appear on Yelp.
They then assumed that Yelp is “withholding reviews” so they can get money out of business owners.

Which simply isn’t the case.

Just like Google identifies links that have value, Yelp identifies reviews that have value.

A review coming from a Yelp user that has been using Yelp for a long time and who has reviewed many businesses is considered a stronger review than one written by a first time user of Yelp.

Some sort of filter is naturally needed to ensure that reviews seen by users are legit. If they did not do this, then a business owners could just create a whole bunch of usernames and make bad reviews about their competitors.

The very same business owners who are complaining now about not having instant good reviews on Yelp would also be complaining if Yelp let reviews go up instantly that were negative about their businesses.

Use Yelp Well

Here is a great video of a business owner who is taking full advantage of Yelp for his business…

Yelp is great. I highly recommend it. They also have a great blog.

There are people complaining about Yelp right now, but not many people praising them for what they have done overall, which is create some of the most trusted reviews on the web and a wonderful resource for both business owners and business customers.

I do not try (and fail) to make a million zillion dollars on the web.

I do try (and succeed) to make a few hundred dollars a month on websites that are really good and really small (if you make a few of these websites, they add up pretty quick).

The work to money ratio on these types of websites is amazing.

I have sites that make from 1000 to 30,000 dollars a year that only took me a couple of days to create. I never did any link building campaigns for those sites, I never looked at any charts and SEO graphs for those sites, and I never kissed up to anyone or begged for social mentions for those sites. I just made really good websites that were really small. Since I have several such sites, I have a good solid income, I don’t need to have a job and I don’t need to deal with clients.

If that sounds good to you, read on.

I consider 3 key elements while creating a new website because when I consider these elements, I know I can likely make a website in a weekend, have it do well, and get recurring revenue from it. These types of websites also make the web better. I am going to describe at length the process and considerations I use to make web sites. This post will provide actual examples using a website I specifically made for this post which uses the concepts I discuss.

How to Make a Website That Ranks Well Without a Bunch of Links

The first step is to decide what your website is about, here is what I do when I am thinking of creating a new site. I always start with a very important question…

1. Does the web need this website?

The surest path to disappointment on the web is creating a web site that isn’t really needed.

There are millions of things you can make a website about, you need to ask yourself if there is a need for the website you are creating. The websites that tend to do well fill an existing need that is not currently being filled. As you dream up your website, make sure it does not already exist.
The first step in making a great website is to determine if the web site is needed on the web. To make that determination is basically asking yourself if the subject of the proposed website is covered well already in the search engine results.
Probably the best way to find a subject for a successful website is to use your search experience. If you are searching for “odd hats” on Google and all you find is sites that have normal hats, then you know you can make a website about odd hats and have it work and have a good chance of ranking even without a million links.

In contrast, if you search for something on Google and all the results are websites that fufill your search needs, then you probably shouldn’t make a site about that subject.

2. Decide how your website will be better than other websites

If you have decided that the subject of your website is needed, now you have to decide how it will be better than the websites that already exist. This is crucial. Prior to getting a domain name, decide how your website will be superior. To use the “odd hats” example again, if you made a website about odd hats, one of the main ways you could be better is by only highlighting odd, unique hats.

Even if there are a million websites out there on a subject, they may not be filling a need well.

Example: I always search for CSS code to move an image to the left or right, I always forget it and always end up searching for it again. I noticed something very strange when I did.

The top results for image related CSS information often did not have an image in it. There are no visual cues on the pages. I often found myself reading through very verbose explanations when all I really need was a tiny bit of code.

This to most would seem a minor frustration, but to me it was a web site in the making, particularly because there isn’t a website out there that only discusses image related CSS.

I knew if I made a website that was only about image CSS, was very visual, to the point, and simple, it would probably rank well even in an area as crowded as CSS sites. It probably wouldn’t need to get alot of links to start getting traffic.

If you search for “float images left” on Google, nine of the top 10 results do not even have an image on them to display the concept of what it is they are explaining. Articles about image CSS techniques should have images. This could be done better.

3. Only Make Websites That You Can Finish Quickly

One common mistake is to make a website with a subject so broad that it gets bigger and bigger and takes forever to finish and maintain.

Being more comprehensive is a wonderful way to have a better website than someone else. However, you must realize that in the spirit of “making really good websites that are really small” you should not choose a subject that takes more then 10 or 20 pages to be comprehensive. If you can not be a comprehensive resource about a subject in a few amount of pages, you have not found the right subject yet.

There is real wisdom in creating concise laser focused websites that solve a certain problem. This is what “niche” is all about. Niche web sites are talked about all the time, but not many people talk about what a niche site really is.

How do you know if a subject is niche? I do not know how other people decide but here is what I think…

If you can not make a comprehensive website in a weekend about a subject, that subject is not niche.

Understand that well. It is very important.

With my CSS frustration I outlined above, I knew that I could make a website that took care of all of my frustrations and it could likely be less than ten pages.

So I made decided to make a website that would take care of all the gripes I had about the subject and use it as a real example for this post.

Here is the website that I made for this post. It is about… image CSS.

Here are the things I did to make that site and why I did them…

What I did step by step

1. I determined a website was indeed needed about image CSS
The 3 biggest deciding factors I used to make this decision were:

• I had a problem finding what I wanted in Google when searching for image CSS subjects.
• There was no website specifically about image CSS
• Image CSS is a no brainer when it came to traffic. Virtually everyone creating web content, no matter their skill level, will at some point wonder about CSS and images. I did not use tools or charts to determine this, I used my common sense.

2. I decided how my website would be better than other websites… Specifically, I looked at the problems I noticed:

• There was no website that was only about image CSS
• There were no (or very few) web results that quickly and concisely gave me the information I needed.
• There were no images in posts about image CSS techniques, which I found incredibly weird.
• There were not visually simple and pleasant websites about this subject.
• Many of the results I found were overly verbose, and spoke with complicated terms rather than simple terms.

Having seen these problems, I knew that I could be better than those results because…

• My website will only be about image CSS
• My website will have pages that quickly gave the user the information they want
• My website will have visual examples of the techniques using images.
• My website will scream simplicity
• My website will focus only on providing solutions, not history of problems.

3. Get a domain name.

Now that I know how my website will be better, I can look for a domain name.

Amazingly, I found a rather good one…

imagecss.com

That is a good domain name for a website about Image CSS huh? I lucked out on that one. Ten bucks well spent.

4.  I need to think about how it will look visually.

I want it to scream simple. I want it to be clear within an instant what the site is about. I want to use images that are friendly. I want it to be visual , visual, visual. This would mean I need to spend some money on images, but whenever I spend money, I want to do it effectively. I decided I would spend about 100/200 dollars on images so the site would look good.

Since this would be a visual website I decided I need to find and use images that were friendly, cute, simple. I used istockphoto.com to find images. Here are some tips when looking for images to use on your new sites…

• Understand that your images need to tie together in a theme. You are not looking for one perfect image, you are looking for a suite of images that work together. This is important so that you site “fits together” well.
• Drawings are less used on the web because they cost more than photos do. Consider this when making your visual decisions. Your website can often look more original if you use stock drawings instead of stock photos.

Knowing these two things, I went to istockphoto.com and searched around…

When I did a search I searched for “cute friendly”…

I then unchecked all of the choices except for “illustrations”…

I browsed through the results and came across an image I liked. Once you find something you like, it is well worth the time to make sure that the artist has other things you like so that you can used the same “look” throughout your site. To do this choose “view portfolio”…

Okay when I did that there were lots of similiar drawings. I had found an image I liked, with a look I liked, and made sure that there were many options available from the same artist.

5. I need to make a good header.

I found an image from the artist I liked that was simple and friendly and that I thought would be a good logo of sorts…

I then got a pen and some paper (cause I’m fancy like that).

I sketched out a design that I thought would be kinda cool using that image as part of the header.

Once I decided it would look nice, I bought the image.

You can also download a copy of the image and use that in your experiments.

I am cheap. I do not want to pay for an image I do not want. Testing is good.

Here is the header I eventually made…

With this header I accomplished a few of my goals (remember one of my gripes was that “there was not a website only about image CSS”).

It is simple and friendly (one of my gripes was that “There were not visually simple and pleasant websites about this subject”).

It is clear what the site is about without even seeing any content, nobody who ends up on this website will be confused if they have found the right place or not. A good website header will let the user know instantly what the site is about.

The tag line is concise and a little bit humorous (non technical and simple).

6. I need to make a good homepage.

I have a domain, I have a header, now I need to figure out what the site should include and how it will be presented. The home page is important, and should illustrate quickly to someone what the site is about.

The information I want to provide is image CSS related stuff. The most common issues I had were how to move an image left, right, center, etc. I decided all this type of info should be quickly and plainly addressed.

I wanted a visual homepage that clearly showed what information you could find at this site. Under the friendly header, I decided to make this for the home content…

The home page has six boxes that cover the main ways an image can be placed in a web page or blog: left, right, center (horizontal), center (vertical), top, and bottom. This solved my gripe that “There were no (or very few) web results that quickly and concisely gave me the information I needed.”

Each box has a visual example of what technique I am describing (remember that my biggest gripe was that there were no visual examples of techniques on other sites. I am better!).

The friendly theme of the header is continued. In the side bar it says a blurb about how the site covers simple and easy ways to do things with images using CSS. It is friendly, simple and provides visual indications of the techniques that are described.

7. I need to decide the hierarchy of  the site.

The great thing about small websites is that they have simple hierarchies. You know that advice about “every page should be able to found in two clicks”?. When you have a small site that is easy to accomplish. In fact, every page of my website is linked to from the homepage.

That being said, it is still good to have a list of your pages, and a general idea of how they will fit together. I decided that the home page would be the main navigation of the site (sorta like a “sitemap”) because each page of my site is linked to from it.

My site has a grand total of 11 pages and describes the subject pretty well, pretty throughly, and pretty simple like.

I did not choose to look at keyword research for what my subjects would be, but many people do. I instead just covered what I felt were useful. Because the total of pages is so small, all the pages can be linked to about evenly.

8. Create the information pages

I have a great domain, a great header and a great homepage, now I need to have great content. The content must to fulfill the needs of people searching for image CSS terms.

Each page should describe quickly and visually the concept. It should have a clear title and describe off the bat what the page is about.

I also decided to have a short concise description of each technique at the top, and then a more thougrough and in depth explanation below. This way if people knew what they wanted, but just couldn’t remeber the code (like me) they could grab it quick. If a person need more info, they could just scroll down and get it…

Below the fold there is a much more in depth explanation of the technique and how to accomplish it.

I made the articles as good and simple as I could. I made one for each technique (left, right, center, etc.). I also decided to create content that helped people understand things like background images, image opacity, and the image tag. I did not go crazy. The only thing the website discusses is image CSS.

Things like “padding”, “margin”, and “border” can be hard to explain or understand, but it can be visually explained in an image quite quickly with the CSS box…

I made the best content I could, I chose my subjects and stuck to them.

I now have a good website. Now what?

SEO stuff:
I do not do much as far a as SEO goes, here is what I do…

• Choose “www” or “non www”. Make a choice, and the do the 301 redirect to the version you decide.
• Make sure that a search engine spider can see the site using a spider simulator.
• Add it to Google webmaster tools

Okay, that is the SEO I do. Pretty involved, huh? In the beginning, this is really all I do as far as SEO goes.

Link Building
I do not do much on the link building front either.
I tweeted about the site yesterday. Today I am linking to it in this post. I also put it on Stumbleupon.
That is all I will do for the first few weeks. Three links is good for now
If that surprises you or you feel that is too little effort, you might just be surprised. We will revisit this site in a couple weeks and I will do another post about tweaking, monetizing, and more link stuff if necessary.

Monetize it:

For the first month or so, I do not put any money stuff on my sites. I sometimes end up getting emails from people wanting to advertise. If I do not, I will probably put Adsense on there, again we will revisit this in a few weeks.

The important part

This post is like 3000 or more words long. I spent around 2800 of those words describing the things to do before you make a website. The thing to spend time on is the decisions you make before making a website and knowing how it will be better than others and how it will fill the needs of searchers.

I will be conducting a workshop at the Getlisted Local University in Minneapolis where local business owners can get answers from me about their specific businesses.
During the sessions and/or after the morning session I will be helping business owners take the first steps to implementing solid best practices for their business.

I want to thank our event sponsors Google, Bing, ReliaCloud, and Deluxe for their support.

Google representatives Ryan Hayward and Ari Bezman will be there. Mikko Ollila, senior product manager for Bing, as well as industry leaders like Mike Blumenthal, Matt McGee, David Mihm, Mary Bowling, and Ed Reese will be speaking there too.

Aaron Weiche of Five Technology is spearheading the logistics for this one as well as speaking, so a big thank you to him.

Our Minneapolis event on May 13th will be larger than our first Local University we did in Spokane. I do advise, however, for you to get your tickets early (even though this event is two months away, people are already buying their tickets).

To get details, please see: GetListed Local University – Minneapolis

Here is some coverage of our last event:

• Photos of the event
• Small Business Wins Big With Local University
• Looking back at GetListed Local University Spokane
• Getlisted SEO WorkShop