After the recent WordPress 2.9.2 update I noticed that the comments within this blog stopped working – I have since noticed the same problem across a few other self-hosted wordpress sites.

The problem comes about after a user has posted a comment to an article and then they are greeted by a blank screen from the wp-comments-post.php – seems at first the page just won’t redirect back to the original post.

So, I checked the database to see if the actual comment was being inserted – it wasn’t – which meant the script was bombing out before it reached the database part of the script.

Next I checked out the official wordpress support site to see if anybody else had similar problems. Seems there has been a few people out there with the same sort of trouble (http://wordpress.org/support/topic/288615)

Now, going through the threads I tried all the various advice & help

• I modified my wp_comments table and also ran a repair – it didn’t work
• I readjusted my redirect_to form value – it didn’t work
• switched back to Default theme instead of the custom NSM one I have – it didn’t work
• I disabled Askimet – it worked

Now I’m in a conundrum. With no spam protection the bots would have a field day – so, I’ve decided to give Defensio a chance to see how it does.

But what is still bugging me is why has my Askimet plugin decided to act in this way? Is it WordPress? Has Askimet just decided to go total 100% on spam and just disabled my comments?

Perhaps, I’ll never know.

Content sometimes writes itself, ask the best content generators on the planet and they’ll inform you that their job is just a natural progression of placing the correct words in the right order. Writing a headline, however, to grab the users attention and read that tasty content is, somewhat, a different beast altogether.

If your well-crafted content is ever going to be noticed then you need to give adequate attention to the most important of soft-hooks to reel them in. Headlines in blogs, articles, press releases and social media content should not always rely on SEO keyword stuffing. Sure, if you can fit the keyword of your choice within your catchy headline then all the better. But to-be-honest, keyword placement should never take the shine of a well-crafted headline.

I’m going to list 5 tips, to help you gain a better understanding as to why headline writing should be at the forefront of any future content generation.

1. There are people out there already that can mentor yourself into becoming a perfected content writer and foremost a unique headline writer. They are people whom I have followed online for a matter of years and ultimately respect their work deeply. One such person, is none other than Lyndon Antcliff an incredible writer and diverse thinker. If you are going to learn from someone about headline creation then why not learn from the best-in-the-business, is what I say.

2. Don’t shy from controversy within your headline! Obviously, try and stay within the boundaries of good taste but a controversial headline will always catch the eye. Don’t be controversial just for controversial’s sake. If your going on a rant then fine, but remember that people will read it for what it is, a rant is a rant, if your going to be controversial then your going to need more substance within your content than just your own opinion.

3. Don’t start your headline with, “Secrets of [your choice keywords] Revealed”. It’s old, it has been done a squillion, million times and any marketing guru tring to tell you otherwise is lying. Fact is, people that fall for this type of headline is probably not going to subscribe, link, buy, sign-up to your content anyway … their tyre-kickers, time-waters, or most probably, content scrapers looking for a trackback link to your content.

4. Try and get into the head of your reader. No, I’m not talking any voodoo, psychobabble, just trying to understand the relationship better of whom your target audience might be. Your headline is the exposed pulse between a future reader and yourself, if you manage it correctly, a person will revisit your content over and over again. If you alienate from the get-go, then it is a near certainty they’ll give you and your site a wide-berth. Understand what type of reader your communicating with and also which type of reader you wish to hang around.

5. Avoid critisism of your headlines like the plaugue, once they are drafted onto the social media sites such as digg, reddit and the rest, your headline and content is now fair game for both appraisal and ridicule in the same breath. Don’t take scathing attacks personally, you can’t please everyone nor should you even attempt to try, remember your goal is to attract readers that you wish to hang around, everything else is just a potential knotch-up in your bounce rate ratio.

Today is my partners birthday, her 40th birthday, at that. I was supposed to be getting ready shortly to start a BBQ as we have about 30 friends and family about to turn up in the next hour or so looking to be fed. But it’s raining big time, so it looks like its going to be an indoor celebration after all.

Happy 40th Julie Ann

Just a couple of days ago, I purchased the .com suffix of North South Media, after a 3 year chase it then dawned on me – how the heck do I proceed to build the .com domain into the continued growth of the company! We have a successful .co.uk suffix running that is entirely focussed on the UK market – but is weak in the competitive international market, mostly dominated by .com suffixes.

I have limited experience of multiple domain procurement mostly within precautionary reputation management roles, but never with the intention of physically allowing the domain as a ranking tool. What to do, I had hunted this .com domain for nigh on 3 years, then finally when I have it in my grasp, I’m at a loose end as to what is the best way for the company to proceed.

There was only one solution, in my head at least, and that was to collect the collective thoughts of individuals that I hold in the most upmost respect within the SEO & Online Marketing environment, and bringing this post into a state of current communication methods, I used Twitter to interact with my respected peers on the suffix conundrum.

Below, is a collection of responses, of which I am most humble indeed, that these busy individuals took the time to answer my very NSM focused question :

Here is my original message, which I posted, and I do admit it is very hard to be specific with such a question in the 140 character format that Twitter allows :

Kwik Q : Bought .com suffix of my domain, what is best practice when running .co.uk & .com suffixes

*********************************************************************

The replies :

in your case, redirect the .com to .co.uk.


@JordanKasteler

depends on objectives and key markets – if UK market is strongest then redirect .com to .co.uk but otherwise do reverse.
It’s a big subject so I don’t know what I could get into 140 chars. and spaces.


@BWelford

If there is shared content on co.uk and .com, better 301 redirect from .com to co.uk or just add metatag robots “noindex, follow” on .com
Of course you can link back from co.uk to .com if .com contains unique content.


@Harith

Which one is established? I would take the other and run a straight redirect (301) to the est. one… .02


@neoblog

Use the suffix directly related to your target market. If your target market is the UK, use the .co.uk it does better in


@JohnCarcutt

I need the context of what you’re doing to give you a good answer.


@toddmintz

making several assumptions, like you’re targeting UK clients, I’d 301 .com to co.uk. Otherwise, host .com in US, co.uk in UK, build links to both from respective countries, but I don’t recommend that, it dilutes your link equity.


@TheMadHat

If the new canonical tag is to be believed that should suffice, not had time to test this yet though so would always stick to 301′ing secondary to primary domain. This also helps prevent domain confusion amongst users


@andrew_thomson

If you are looking to get both markets, develop them separately. If not, 301 it to your main domain.


@neyne

Depends on target country. If UK redirect com to UK, otherwise vice versa.


@RuudHein

Personally I’d redirect the .co.uk to .com – but only because of american traffic…phone tomorrow?Anytime tht suits you


@andrewburnett

Ever c yurself w/ US & UK sites? No? Consider moving to .com. If not then 301 .com back to .co.uk and dont rock the boat. Do I have your email? Happy to give you longer answer later today. I think people might say that was an easy q. It’s not!
Andrew then sent an email here are parts of that email :
In my experience now that you’ve got the dotcom you can and should ask yourself; “What should I do with my company?”

I think a great domain for a UK based digital agency is a UK hosted .com domain. If you’ve nothing else then you get the best of two worlds; your .com makes you look international but your hosting and WHOIS records show you’re British and so Google.co.uk rankings are no challenge to you.

The safe and “here and now” option is simply to 301 the .com domain to your .co.uk. I’d have a long think about what you might be doing in two years time; what domains strategy you might need for that and start to move your .co.uk and .com around accordingly.


@AndrewGirdwood

Not quite sure what you mean. I would just 301 it to the other.
It must be noted that my Tweet was not very clear!


@patrickaltoft

Sorry Paul just back…. whats happened? Somebody done you out of your .com?
Again, it must be stated that my Tweet was not very clear!
Hi Paul I have the .com hosted and 301 in the HT access to the .co.uk domain. My UK rankings have never been compromised.


@Hobo_Web

it depends on a number of factors …


@lyndoman

don’t really do much w/.co.uk, can ask around tho…
Brian then sent me a GMail request if I wanted to find out more info, he’d be on it…


@nowsourcing

Tim is not contactable via Twitter, so I got him on Skype, where I asked him “what best practices should I enforce to protect my .co.uk organic listings”
Don’t do anything with the .com version except a 301 redirect to your .co.uk, not sure I understood the question


www.timnash.co.uk

I’d go for 301ing .com to .co.uk, removing risk of moving domains by separating link rep and content, obviously depends on what you prefer for branding too.


@kevgibbo

U mean for geo-targeting? well….140 is hopeless… lol…. drop me yer email we can compare notes
So I sent Dave an email and he returned a 4 page document … yep, it’s true, he is an uber seo geek, here are some snapshots from Dave’s document …
Now if we’re not an international mega-brand and are considering branching out, then it would certainly make sense and I doubt the content would really need to be substantially changed as long as some of the above steps were taken. I might consider hosting it locally, but that would be dependant on the market and competitiveness therein.

Obviously the decision, as is often the case, comes down to value. Does it makes sense? Will you gain enough new business from the approach to warrant the extra resources? Is there a time frame on the ROI?

In some cases we’ve gone with the .com over the more mature .co.uk and 301’d everything (and added UK and international directories to the structure). After the initial pain process (4-8 weeks) we were able to start ranking in both markets. This though, is also dependant on the query space. Query spaces that are more localized, require tighter geo-targeting, that approach may not be the best…


@theGypsy

I think you can operate both, if u want traffic from the US. cost/benefit i suppose, but it can be done. interesting post.


@swerveball

I want to take this time and thank each and every respondent in offering up their time and energy to help me figure out the best way forward with my .com issue. I also hope that the valued advice offered by the respondents helps many others in this scenario.

On Thursday, 12th of February, Google, Yahoo and MSN officialy announced the introduction of their canonical tag which will help webmasters stop their sites falling foul of the duplicate content filter. For the less-informed amongst you, Google and other search engines cache (store in their index) different url’s related to your website. So, for example, they might see a page within a site called :

http://www.yourdomain.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish&category=gummy-candy

also accessed as
http://www.yourdomain.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish&trackingid=1234&sessionid=5678

By using the new canonical tag, you can present your preffered url like so :

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.yourdomain.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish” />

The visiting bot or spider has accessed the same page via different querystring parameters (the variable and its value after the ? … item=swedish-fish) and inturn will display the example stated within the green text instead of the two examples mentioned above as the preffered url path in the search engines.

By giving the webmasters the power to choose which url they would prefer to see is a massive step in helping preffered url’s rank, ridding the search engines of duplicate content within their results (which is probably never the intention of the webmaster just the side effect of a poor performing platform, highly contributed to ecommerce sites that run querystrings in their url’s) and also harnessing link credits to a page (if their are 5 different ways to view a page there are also 5 different ways of linking to it, diluting the link strength).

The canonical tag works in the same way a 301 redirect does and should help clear the clutter for a majority of ecommerce sites out there that display querystrings in their url’s. However, be warned, that the tag is not intended to send link value from a poor performing page to a more important one, Google has already thought about that and there are checks in place if webmasters decide to manipulate the tag in this way.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been working on a site powered by a Zeus Web Server. Part of the work undertaken was upgrading the site from it’s old ecommerce design querylink structure to new clean, seo friendly urls and also sort out any canonicalisation conflicts that were present.

Unlike Apache, where there is a vast array of information available online for people wanting to run redirect scripts – there is a distinct lack of articles relating to Zeus in respect of redirects. So, I thought I would output the proper way to code redirect scripts for a Zeus server.

Canonical issues: www vs. non-www for a Zeus Server, replace yourdomain with the name of your domain.

301 redirection script for a Zeus Server

And that’s it, have fun and remember these redirect scripts are for the Zeus Server only. Please remember and always test your work when running redirect scripts.

This article was borne from an experience I had recently within an on-line SEO Forum. The poster asked a question on how to help his client get page one listings in Google and also what to put in his monthly SEO report. When I replied that he should never have taken this client on in the first place when he had no knowledge about SEO, the poster retorted abusively and chastised myself for not giving him the advice that he required. This got myself thinking: ‘How many charlatan SEO or Web Design companies are out there ripping clients off with promises of Page One listings or exuberant prices for no return!’

I did some research before I decided to write this article and I was surprised and saddened by the number of companies that I came across on the Internet (in a very short time frame) that either offer dubious SEO practices or promises of high rankings so cheap that professional optimization companies may as well gather their hat and coat and call it a night.

The intense marketing spiel that underhand firms adopt informs you to only pay them a few hundred bucks and hey presto the view from the top of the Search Engines was yours for the taking. Now, I have been in the business long enough to know when something doesn’t smell right. But what about the ordinary client who is only interested in getting their product sold or their service found on the Internet? How are they supposed to tell which SEO firm is transparent and which are as dirty as an mucky puddle?

Thus, I have mustered up some thought indicators that I feel you should be aware of before any relationship with an SEO Company is worthy of consideration. They are as follows:

Cost! : There is a saying that rings true here ‘You only get what you pay for!’ If a firm is offering something so sought after as ‘Page One in Google’ for an unbelievable price then that is normally what it is: unbelievable! I’m not saying they won’t get you on Page One but it will be for such an obscure keyword phrase that generates no traffic whatsoever to your site, your money will be wasted.

Blinding you with Science! : Please, forget about companies who claim they have analyzed Google’s or any other Search Engine’s algorithm and have cracked the technology and are willing to let you in on the benefits for a small fee – virtually gaining your site those prized possessions overnight. The words ‘Scam’ spring to my mind among a few others which I shall regress from printing.

Reputation! : Ask around amongst friends, business associates, on-line help forums like Yahoo! Answers or Google Answers for advice before you settle upon contacting an SEO Company. Professional SEO companies that are worth their salt mainly get a high percentage of their business from referrals. Look at the SEO companies site; do they have a testimonial page (again though be thorough as testimonials can be duped) are there contact numbers or a web address? Go one further and call that company, ask them about the service they received. Were they satisfied? Was it worth the money? Dig a little then dig some more.

Future Provisions! : Just what are you getting for your money? Does the company have a pro-active approach by embracing new marketing techniques and technologies or are they just concerned about your meta keyword tag and advising that you need an extra gazillion pages on your site to be able to rank better. Will they report back to you at the end of each month with details about what they have undertaken to help rank your site better?

Trust your Instinct! : A professional SEO Company will always ask you questions to help understand more about your business and the market your in, not just to help build an on-line profile about your company but to assess what service suits your requirements. SEO or Web Design companies that offer one-price-fits-all models have no conceptions (or experience) of the varying techniques required to help successfully promote a company on-line, drive its targeted traffic to their site and help boost their positions within the Search Engines.

Complacency has no room when you are trying to source a company who will deliver an increased return of investment for your site. Hopefully, I’ll never have the experience again of having to reply to an on-line post about what a company needs to do in order to rank their clients site.

It has been stated many times on the web that getting to grips with SEO is more achievable when you start to rank your site for local searches. I agree with this wholeheartedly. Trying to roll up your sleeves and compete for highly competitive keywords when you have little or no experience is soul destroying and nine times out of ten a persons SEO experience will end right there.

Thus local SEO is the way forward to gain those prized ranking positions and priceless experience. I will give a few examples in this post to help you achieve improved rankings for your site.

First let’s look at the Title Tag: For this example I am going to presume that your company does Web Design and your company is based in my local city of Glasgow. Now this is not rocket science but by having the phrase ‘Web Design Glasgow’ in my title tag is as good a starting point as any. Some companies like to have their company name or brand in the Title tag along with the URL of the site. I always opt against this unless it is actually the company name or the brand that I’m more interested on optimizing for. Now as I have a little knowledge about keyword research I would also add the word ‘company’ so that our title tag now looks like the following: ‘Web Design Company Glasgow’ – that’s it, anymore and you begin too dilute the strength of your keyword phrase.

Then in the keyword Meta Tag I would reiterate the title tag as is: ‘Web Design Company Glasgow’ – nothing else as this is the phrase that I want to target. I know some SEO guys who completely forget about the Meta keyword tag as they know Google just skips this and goes straight into the content for the search terms. Personally, I like to use it because it’s just not Google I optimise for but all Search Engines.

The Description Tag is just that – it explains what the page is all about – so for this example I would put: “Professional and affordable web design company | YourCompanyName based in Glasgow” – nothing fancy just the right amount to help entice a user to click-through to your page. Notice the pipe bar in the middle of the description – this is a short-cut mode to relay different types of info quickly and effectively in a short sentence.

Our body content is the next stage we turn our attention too. Right at the beginning I would have a H1 tag with the words ‘Affordable Web Design Company in Glasgow’ or something that not only once again holds our keyword phrase but also makes sense to a human reader. If you just code for Search Engine robots or spiders then you may get high rankings but all that effort will be in vain because it’ll just look and read awful to the human eye and they’ll exit as soon as they enter.

By also having your address in the site of your company you can again replicate the location you are trying to optimize for. One or two more mentions of ‘Web Design’ in the content should be enough to suffice. Remember do things naturally – there is such a thing as over-optimizing a page and stuffing keywords every 5 or 6 words apart- this will do you more harm than good and may even get your site penalized.

Finally do some off-page optimizing by submitting your site to a few on-line directories. Some are paid, some are free, some require a link back from your site to theirs (this is called a reciprocal link).

When submitting your site to the directory make the ‘Title of your Website’ in the submission form similar to your localized keyword phrase – Web Design Company Glasgow – this is known as having rich keyword anchor text and helps greatly in defining what your site should rank for in the Search Engines.

All in all this is a pretty basic level SEO task. We focus on one search keyword phrase and we localize it to gain a better ranking position. Give it a week or so then check Google, Yahoo or MSN to see if there has been improvement in your SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Positions).

Understand why these small changes have worked and once you see improvement move onto another page and run through the same process with another keyword phrase and so on and so on. At all times never make too many changes as then you’ll never know what is actually working for you or against you.

Many-an-argument has taken place within on-line forums and community sites over the importance of having a top ranking position for a sought-after keyword phrase. Some contributors have readily stated that they are more-than-happy if their site comes within the top ten to twenty positions stating that their customer/client’s on-line ROI (Return On Investment) targets have been met and traffic to the site has doubled, tripled or peaked greater than their initial expectations.

So, is it really all that important to have your site sitting top-of-the-stack? Are SEO’s or Search Marketing Agencies more than happy for a clients site to settle for a Page Two listing? Before I can honestly answer that question, lets delve into some facts and figures to get the general consensus of what page ranking means to your on-line business success.

It’s no secret that there are figures available on the Internet as to how many searches are performed on a keyword phrase. Some major Search Engines (Yahoo for example) release their figures to on-line sites or third-party desktop applications every month. One of the best examples that I have come across of determining the search criteria of a keyword phrase is SEO Book’s Keyword Suggestion Tool: (http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/suggestions/)

This tool collates the information released from Overture (Yahoo) and determines the estimated monthly searches by Google users simply by doubling the number. In the USA, Google has around roughly 60% of the market share and Yahoo 20% – that’s three times as much, not twice as many, I hear you cry but remember to take into account vanity searches, click bots, rank checkers, and other forms of automated traffic. Google in the UK has around 78% of the market (source: http://www.999today.com/technology/news/story/3285.html) and an educated estimate would be to times Overture’s figures by eight to find the Google audience for your keyword search.

The only Search Engine to release relevant data to help figure out Click-Through-Rates for Top Twenty Positions were AOL (source: http://www.jimboykin.com/click-rate-for-top-10-search-results/) and the figures were surprisingly astounding:

• Number 1 Position would get 3.5 times more Clicks than Number 2 Position
• Number 1 Position would get 4.9 times more Clicks than Number 3 Position
• Number 1 Position would get 8.5 times more Clicks than Number 5 Position
• Number 1 Position would get 14.1 times more Clicks than Number 10 Position

By using the above example I can run a test against a keyword search to determine the CTR for a competitive keyword phrase. If I type in ‘SEO Company’ I’m informed that I get around 9084 searches in Overture (Yahoo) and by using our 50% greater-than ratio for Google (US) this gives us just over 18,000 estimated searches per month. We can be liberal here and apply that 50% of searchers click the Number One position (a rough estimate would be around the 65% margin) this then gives us 9000 estimated clicks for the top rank site for ‘SEO Company’.

Number Two position decreases by 3.5 times thus 9000/3.5 = 2571 searchers would click this link. It gets even more extreme when you consider what Position Ten of Page One is equivalent to: 9000/14.1 = 638 clicks.

If we carry and consider that Page 2 clicks are worth only 10% of the total monthly searches then we can truly grasp the real rapid decline that is happening to a site that is positioned at the bottom of the pile on Page 2: Position Twenty makes 900/28.2 = 32 clicks.

So my answer to the question, ‘Should you settle for a Page Two listing’, is if your budget allows it and your SEO Company has the skills available for achieving Top Ten results… Absolutely No!

Never, believe the hype that Page Two is an affordable place to be. When you consider 9000 clicks against 32 clicks that is when you conceive that SEO can be the greatest return-of-investment your on-line business is ever going to participate in and why many SEO firms still hail that Number One ranking as the Holy Grail.

Many websites suffer from not engaging with their audience. They may receive a constant stream of visitors 24/7 visiting their site but they fail to capitalize on this audience. Why? A common problem with most static sites and e-commerce shopping carts is they fail to hold the attention of the user long enough to earn a trusted vote of confidence and consider what is on offer.

The simple truth is the Internet is stuffed with cloned replicas of the same static or e-commerce template sites offering nothing else but predictability. By employing media rich, interactive content, a site can help boost its on-line profile. Sites that do really well in getting a return on their investment know how to motivate their audience and entice a sale.

So what are the tools available that can help in securing a purchase from your site? A 360 Degree Virtual Tour is a proven pro-active sales tool that can add depth to your site and also motivate potential customers to securing a purchase on your site.

360 Degree Virtual Tours allow your visitors to get a first hand glimpse of visiting your premises from the comfort of their living room. If you have premises that you feel a static image fails to get over on your site then a Multimedia Presentation may be for you. Here are some examples where 360 Virtual Tours have added to the on-line presence:

• Restaurants
• Pubs and Clubs
• Real Estate
• Limo Hire Firms
• Sporting Facilities
• Conference Centers
• Hotels and Guest Houses

The beauty of interactive 360 Degree Virtual Tours is that they can also be used within e-mail marketing campaigns or copied to Cd’s and used as off-line digital brochures.

Video Production is definitely the buzz word at the moment. You only have to look at the phenomenal success of YouTube and MySpace plus a whole plethora of Video Blog websites. An on-line video commercial can be used as a massive on-line marketing tool. These advertisements can be used in Viral Marketing campaigns, on your website and also submitted to the above web 2.0 sites mentioned above. Imagine what the cost for this sort of exposure would cost you for a television or cable advertisement.

The beauty of the 360 degree virtual tours and video commercials is that they are a one stop shop for all your multimedia requirements on your site. Rather than storing say, a video on one page of your site, a gallery on another and music on another you can combine all these elements into one presentation and engage your user immediately with the simple click of a button.

The Internet is a true world wide marketing tool, giving you access to people and places that used to be beyond the reach of traditional marketing methods. By absorbing these stimulating interactive web-ready mediums you are not only dressing-up your window of opportunity to on-line consumers but your giving them the keys to your premises twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.