Now I'm not going to name names, but lately I've observed that many Australian targeted websites are still using black hat SEO techniques to achieve higher search engine rankings. Sure there is always the usual amount of spam/splog based websites, but what is most disturbing is that sites which appear to be completely "white hat" are actually using black hat techniques. First and foremost, these sites are not really using black hat techniques when it comes to … read on »

I recentley got an email from someone offering SEO services. I wasn’t really interested, but decided to check out their website anyway (no the email wasn’t spam). Now I’ve worked with this mob before, but only for their pure web development skills. And low and behold, I check out their website, and it’s a textbook example of how to write for a search engine only, and forget that most humans are, … read on »

Xivos has over 10 years of online marketing, design and development experience. We're based in Melbourne, Victoria, but we've worked for clients all around Australia and even across the globe. Unlike a lot of other SEO and SEM firms, we only charge for hours completed. The majority of our clients come from Melbourne, and we tend to service small to medium sized businesses. We can do anything from small sized consultation projects to much larger, long-term, … read on »

Despite what all the search engine companies like to say, the technology behind image searching is very much in its infancy and it will be a long while yet before any algorithims – or computers for that matter – will be able to sucessfully recognise and image based on its content. Quite simply, our human minds are hard-wired – from a very early age – to recognise and evaluate visual … read on »

Terri Wells at SEOChat goes quite indepth into Google's announcement that it will be able to index Flash files a lot more: Late in June Google and Adobe announced an arrangement whereby the search engine could now read and index Shockwave Flash files. The move has been hailed as a huge step forward, since Flash has up until now been invisible to the search engines – and therefore invisible to searchers. But this isn't quite the … read on »