Reactions to the recent Exact Match Domain changes in Google Australia!
Oct 2nd
So over the last few days there have been some changes from the Australian market and global markets targeting Exact Match Domains,
I have sourced together a few quotes from Australian website owners who have been directly hit by this update, please note these are not clients of mine just members from the general publish who have expressed their opinion on the update.
“Looking at my own EMD sites, a few with thinner content seems to have been hit…But those which are built out with pages are holding strong… therefore will be interesting to monitor over the coming weeks”
Website Owner – Sydney
“Haven’t actually seen any ranking drops today with my EMDs so far although overall adsense views do seem to be down over the weekend. However it was a public holiday in NSW at least which generally hurts traffic.”
Website Investor and Site Owner – Sydney
“A few of my low quality EMD sites got hit hard in this update as well.”
Website Owner – Brisbane
Tips on how to avoid been hit by further updates:
- Make sure you invest in high quality content, so not use duplicate content or spun content.
- Make sure you have high quality links pointing to your site.
- Make sure that you push social signals to your site.
- Make sure that you invest time into sites which are long term and have been established for a while, I have seen many story’s from
This update where people who have been hit are people who own very new domains.
Please post here if you have been targeted by this update:
Google Rolls out update to target Exact Match Domain names!
Oct 1st
Google last Friday released an update to target exact match domain names, Google has said they will target Exact Match Domains which are low quality (see Matt Cutt’s post below from Twitter)
This is an interesting change for Google from any one who owns domain names and has a large number of domains in your portfolio. The reason this change is interesting is because it could have a negative impact on the way in which your sites are indexed and the rankings you hold.
Now the thing is what do you do to make sure that your exact match domain and website is not deemed low quality,
I have a few important points for you:
* Make sure you do not use ad heavy adsense pages on your EMD.
* Make sure that you do not use large amounts of duplicate content on your EMD.
* Make sure that you push quality social signals to the page level of your EMD, example: Facebook Likes, Tweets and G+ mentions.
* Make sure that you target higher quality link building to the page on your EMD.
* Make sure that you build the EMD into a site with numerous pages, rather then just an EMD with 5 pages for example.
Google PPC new ad site links change for brand search
Sep 11th
An interesting new change has been developed over the last few days in Google for some brands we see a change to the site links format where you have multiple tabs for large brands now showing. This change will draw even further traffic from organic results on brand terms, I am sure it will also have a direct impact on PPC for brand terms.
Four Great SEO meme’s
Sep 6th
I have decided to find some great SEO memes
SEO Meme – I’m aiming for number 1 rank on AltaVista
SEO Meme – Our Flash site is already SEO friendly
SEO Meme – $100 for SEO your links are in mandarin chinese
SEO Meme – I want to be ranked first in a month and Ill give you like 50 bucks
memes from: funnymemes.com.au
10 tips to make a great Flippa sales template!
Sep 2nd
So recently a few people have asked me how to make a great Flippa sales template, over the past 5 years I have sold a few websites on Flippa from any where to $x,XXX-$xx,XXX range, so to some degree I know what to do.
Here are 10 basic steps to take when selling your site on Flippa:
1. Make sure that you verify your account: Use phone verification.
2. Update your profile, add images of yourself make it look like a person is using the account not a robot.
3. Make sure that if you are going to sell a site for $10,000+ make sure you do a smaller sale for $1,000 first for example so you have some positive history on your account and it will give users something to trust, it is similar with dealing with sales on eBay for example.
4. The sales title is important, make sure that you include key points things such as: “Easy to run”, “Makes $650
profit a month” “Limited involvement” these types of lines will entice a wider audience to invest in the purchase.
Example of a sale I did 4-5 years ago, I have removed some information for privacy reasons.

5. The next section of the sale Description:
- Background: Talk about the background of the site, talk about why you built the website ect.
- Advertising: Talk about any advertising that has been done with the sale, be honest with users if you have been doing a CPM buy or using PPC to increase revenue tell the buyers because the more honest you are the better result it will have for your site, also talk up any free advertising in which has been done, buyers will usually link free long standing advertising.
- Traffic: Break the traffic down month on month, be sure to include a long term history of traffic, from my experience selling a site with 6 months history will never be as stressful as selling a site with over 24 months history.
- What needs to be done to run the website: Talk about what needs to be done to run the website, talk about costs involved with elements of the website, example it costs XXX a month to host and it takes me 3 hours a week to manage the website and I outsource XX numbers of hours to my contractors.
- Financial Details: Make sure that you include all financial revenue details for the website, as above the longer term history you include the better it will be for the sale overall.
6. Payments to accept:
- I would advise on accepting most payment types such as Escrow, Paypal and even direct debit for local buyers. If you do not accept a high value options it could turn away buyers.
7. Attachments:
- This is a very important section to utilize to the full extent.
- I would advise to include a break down month on month to show various revenue streams for example, break down January, February, March, April, May, June, July 2012 Adsense/ Affiliate/CPM revenue images and show each month how much you are making. Be sure to include a long term revenue view on the website for example 24 months of history will be more beneficial over only 6 months. (see example below)
Make sure you remove any details which could lead you into trouble such as total impressions/ CPM rates as some publishers may ban this information from been shared publicly.
8. Any other information: Try to include every thing possible with the sale, any information from SEO tools which will assist the sale will be more beneficial for you becuase
9. Include any due diligence information and legals into the sale, if you want users to sign a NDA before they receive information this is also something you can do for a high value sale, my advice is to find a standard NDA form online.
10. Overall the more information you include into your sale the more beneficial it will be for you, with Flippa you need to remember that buyers want the following *Easy to run website *On going monthly revenue *no other issues with the domain and website such as Google penaltys, like with any sale the more honest you are the better also be open to replying to comments and show the buyers that you are 100% transparent with the sale.
If you have any further questions please feel free to ask below:
Thank you card from SEO Client
Aug 30th
I have been doing SEO for a while, its sad when you loose a client or move on from a specific business but it is good to receive a thank you gift and even a card which shows you that you have made a different for a specific client. A recent thank you card a received from the web dev and marketing team was really nice I thought I would share it here:
Back to the business of SEO
Aug 22nd
So I have been back in the country for a few days after my 2 month Europe holiday and I have already been on yet another plane to Brisbane to meet clients, the business of SEO does not stop. That been said over the last 2 months I have been taking things some what easy but I have still been reading most of the SEO/ Industry news and keeping up to date with emails while in transit, so I still had a good idea of any changes in the market.
While I was in the UK in August I was had some spare time one night and decided to attend a SEO meetup “London SEO” run by the popular agency Ayima, it was a good night with a very healthy turn out. It was great to meet some like minded SEO professional from iCrossing, SEO Gadget, Ayima, independent agency’s and large agencies! overall it was a great turn out with around 80+ people attending on a Tuesday night at a guess.
Now the reasons for the post is that more and more I see people saying SEO is Dead ect, well in my eyes I feel SEO has evolved and it is more popular than ever, going to an industry event at a random bar on a Tuesday night and seeing 80+ people all involved and passionate only shows you a small segment of how strong the industry is currently, sure enough if you are doing SEO poorly and providing low quality results then yes it probably is dead but if you are looking out side the square and providing good value for clients then it is not dead now is it.
What are your thoughts on this one please comment below on how you feel about the current state of SEO?
Google+ Events – A new development on Google+
Jun 28th
Google has rolled out yet another feature onto Google+ been Google+ events, this new feature seems to be similar to Facebook events, yet some good features which set it apart from the Facebook offering.
I really think google+ is setting the benchmark for pictures, my sister who recently was on a 8 month holiday and she wanted to host 1000s of photos from the trip some where other than facbook, so I mentioned Google+ as an options, she was happy too see that Google+ had a great user interface for uploading a large number of images and was very happy with the product overall.
Now onto the new feature on Google+ been Google+ Events:

















