• Site Overview
  • Palo Alto SEO Agency
  • On/Off-Page SEO Tips
  • Rapid Navigation
    • Contact
    • About Ardan Michael Blum
    • Essential Prerequisites
    • PDF SEO Tips
    • Covid-19 Impact
    • Reviews
  • More
    • Site Overview
    • Palo Alto SEO Agency
    • On/Off-Page SEO Tips
    • Rapid Navigation
      • Contact
      • About Ardan Michael Blum
      • Essential Prerequisites
      • PDF SEO Tips
      • Covid-19 Impact
      • Reviews
  • Site Overview
  • Palo Alto SEO Agency
  • On/Off-Page SEO Tips
  • Rapid Navigation
    • Contact
    • About Ardan Michael Blum
    • Essential Prerequisites
    • PDF SEO Tips
    • Covid-19 Impact
    • Reviews

Organic SEO Ranking Specialist Services

How We View SEO

- Overview: Organic SEO includes on-page and off-page optimization techniques to boost ranking in the non-paid, natural results. The most important of all ranking factors is becoming an authority for your chosen theme or topic content. 


It is our contention that 60% of Google’s ranking factors are based on content quality. 


Your success in organic Search Engine Optimization will come from blending commercial interests and extensive knowledge sharing.


SEO is largely based on creating outstanding content and then knowing which off-page and on-page technical aspects to apply. We do and teach the on-page and off-page tweaks while we help our client focus on core pages with 3000 to 3500 words; authority pages about keyword phrases.


Each project (even every social media account) has to have their very own, highly customized tweaks. Said differently: There is no such thing as "one size fits all" checklist or template to optimization.


- In more detail: At the dawn of search engines (in particular Google), the idea of one site recommending another site was the way that quality was judged and ranked. Spammers soon changed this and forced Google (and others) to adapt their ranking based on a more selective and harder to get group of backlinks. These were newspaper articles (linking within the body of their articles to your content) or dot gov and/or .edu sites linking to you. The idea was that governmental and university websites would be hard to manipulate with link building processes.


This turned out to be a problem for Google as clearly governmental sites and university sites did not have a need or a reason to make large numbers of outbound links. Another way of judging quality was needed. 


This was to become a combination of on-page and off-page ranking factors. Then, to confirm that the site was of high quality and useful to answer a search query, we believe that Google watched the average user time spent on a connecting site. 


Said differently: If your average time for 1000 users is 5 minutes from a search query and your competition's pages are poorly made, so that people see lots of pictures and lots of "read more" and "see over here" links - making the site-wide average visiting time 5 minutes and not a query to specific page average time, then the site with the average time for the DIRECT LINK to knowledge, data, content and/or information would rise in ranking. 


Death in SEO is following the guidance of people who make navigation by submenus based on the marketing ideas of "Information Architecture" which are great for theoretical discussions (as is the problematic creation of SILO structure). 


What it all boils down to is that people no longer are taken in by graphics and rotating images. What people really want is (and will give a new website 40 seconds to prove it can provide) are query answers. Google-to-site connections which do not provide query answers are doomed to rank under the pages which server to answer at least one user search. Note that the power of a truly well optimized page is to answer several known user search queries. A well honed and ethical means to do this is one of two techniques: First, if you are aware of 5 different reasons that (as an example) people search on google.com for Palo Alto (without adding anything else to their search), then you could opt for a tourism information or local information section combined with a F.A.Q section. 


In our example for Palo Alto, you will find Google results for:

- Palo Alto Networks

- The City of Palo Alto

- Stanford news

- The book and movie called Palo Alto.

And other queries. 


With your "area information section" you can speak to queries related to probably every example cited here, and more. The fine line between getting ranked as a resource or an "answer" to a query still depends on the quality of effort put into the answer or expanded definition you will provide.


What I will say now is pure conjecture: The objective by default for a small site is to worry as little as possible about Google ranking and spend as much time as possible on content expansion across all forms of media. Your ranking will follow as Google now works mostly on what I term the "love factor"; where AI picks up on a sentence or thought structure which it has previously or in real-time relates to the theme or topic you are writing about. Once you get validated for partial sentences by artificial intelligence you will get taken out of the sandbox of doubt. You will, with effort, get to a place where you are trusted. Once there, your next pages will rank faster and higher. Once there - in the trusted zone - factors that other sites have to use from the list of technical SEO tweaks will become less essential. For sure you will need less and less backlinking, and for sure, you will hold your top 3 placement for location and "widget" sentences.


After many years of working on SEO one gets wired in and can "feel how Google will respond to what you do and what you say". Now, we are going to switch gears and talk a little about the prerequisites to the study of SEO, which involve a learning curve of their own, which we do not teach.


- Important: Self-managing SEO without the ability to understand a page’s source code will not be possible! Also, you should have a basic to intermediary grasp of HTML(5), JavaScript, PHP, CSS and server tweaks. 


Here is a list of some of the areas to explore:

  • Welcome to the Web
  • A brief history of the World Wide Web
  • HTML basics
  • Structuring the web with HTML
  • HTML markup basics
  • Google Primer is a free app that has interactive tips for marketing, SEO and more
  • Intro to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
  • Starting with HTML + CSS
  • Learn to style HTML using CSS
  • CSS Layout Guides
  • Using CSS animations
  • JavaScript learning area
  • About AJAX
  • What structure should your website have?
  • Mobile web development
  • Graphics on the web
  • Audio and video delivery
  • Audio and video manipulation
  • Progressive web apps
  • User input and controls
  • Unix - Apache Configuration: .htaccess
  • Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA
  • Digital.gov
  • Section 508 Information and Communication Technology Accessibility Standards
  • Section508.gov
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)


- Further reading: 

  • How Google promotes and rewards great content 
  • What site owners should know about Google's core update

About Our Palo Alto SEO Agency

A. Blum Localization Services is a Palo Alto-based SEO agency founded in 2016. Our business model combines a full overhaul of our client’s current web content which is then followed by Search Engine Optimization training workshops. 


Our goal is to help our clients improve their organic ranking results, increase their web traffic, and stop outsourcing SEO work within three months.


- In Palo Alto, California: We are located at 345 Forest Avenue, just East of Stanford University and eight blocks from the Hewlett-Packard Garage* which is known as the 'birthplace of Silicon Valley' (in 1938). ** 


Topics and themes for which we will not provide SEO services: Our firm supports Pro Choice Law and believes that the Supreme Court of the United States is making a grave mistake in overturning what has been an essential right. As a result, we will never support 'Pro Life' projects.


We will never support a group or project which promotes the abuse of animals, the sale of fur, the fur trade, zoos, circuses and aquariums. 


We will also not support the ranking of sites or organizations which sell (or promote) the sale of guns and ammunition. 


Said differently, and legally: We retain the right to refuse - without explanation - our services. 


...

* Related: Palo Alto Historical Landmarks and Palo Alto tourism information. Also, possibly even more cross-related is a video filmed in front of the HP Garage by our CEO Ardan Michael Blum. The film is on YouTube and presents SEO basics to improve the loading speed of a page for mobile view.


** It should be stated that the HP Garage would not have come to be the location of the first local Tech startup had it not been for the guidance and suggestion from professors at Stanford's Engineering Department that instead of heading East, students should create firms in the area. 

About Ardan Michael Blum

Our CEO Ardan Michael Blum is an American who was born in Geneva, Switzerland. 


In 1998, Ardan Michael was founding a charity to care for senior citizens. It would be called Vivre Avec le 3ème Âge ("Living with the 3rd Age") and serve to combat the solitude, isolation and in some cases actual depression felt by senior citizens. 


The first substantial action by this NGO was to equip retirement centers and geriatric hospitals in Western Switzerland with computer equipment. Hardware and software was obtained from Logitech, I.B.M, Hewlett-Packard Europe, and Microsoft. This amounted to a huge "trove of reformatted and new computers, screens, webcams, keyboards, projectors and more.


The charity was to organize a free dinner for up to 70 seniors at Brasserie Lipp. (See a scan of the invitation card). The next winter, Vivre Avec le 3ème Âge held a concert in partnership with the Swiss symphony orchestra the OSR (Orchestre de la Suisse Romande), at the Victoria Hall in Geneva. This was a free of charge event attended by over 700 senior citizens. 


Ardan Michael's charity ran a hotline where we would call once a week a senior citizen who lived alone. If there was no answer we had the contact information for the building manager and or a neighbor. This phone line also allowed many people to speak with someone.


Vivre Avec le 3ème Âge created a website allowing senior citizens to share their life stories. See: Histoires de Genève (1904-2014).


 Up till 2001, his organization depended on the press to announce our activities and, sometimes, mention that we were looking for volunteers. Sponsors were single project partners. The charity needed to find lasting support, and so the process of learning how to rank web pages began. The objective was organic ranking in the top 5 on Google.ch in French for keywords related to social care, charities in Geneva,  senior citizens and other terms which could bring us the needed funding.


The ranking of our senior citizen website was now an example of someone in the city of Geneva who was able to rank well on Google and this news spread fast. This led, to a passion for SEO which Ardan Michael has not lost.


- Today: Ardan Michael is a Block Preparedness Coordinator with the Palo Alto Emergency Services. Ardan Michael is also a member of the Palo Alto Police Chief's Advisory Committee. (Related: Police chief starts citizens advisory committee — member invites Zuckerberg to drop in).


As a Freemason since 16 years, Ardan Michael believes in a world which can made slightly less damaged with charity, creativity and Masonic ways. Ardan Michael joined Mensa in 1993, he plays the cello since the age of 8, he adores Dachshunds. He is not much of a fan of cats, but then no one is perfect.

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On/Off-Page SEO | Tips & Tweaks

- Examples of tasks which we focus on, and once done, teach our clients to self-manage:

  • Watch for rising searches using Google Trends. Note: "If you see 'Breakout' instead of a percentage, it means that the search term grew by more than 5000%."
  • Review the list of Google penalties. Learn more from this good article.
  • Find duplicate content and define canonical URLs.
  • Place as much script content "below the fold" as possible. (See details).
  • Place anchor elements next to header tags.
  • Set up 301 rules. (More on how to do this) .
  • Control the traffic flow from banned IPs and block specific browser agents.
  • Scan blog and site stats for bad inbound links and then, if needed, will report these backlinks to Google for disqualification.
  • Get the free 'Primer' app which is beautiful gift from Google! Improve your business, and marketing skills with five-minute lessons.
  • Check that your floating items (such as live chat and your cookie notice pop-up) do not cover each other in mobile view or on a tablet. Learn about cross-browser and cross-device checking tools.
  • Discover 'Grow with Google' content. Related: 'Learn how to be found online'. 
  • Avoid the use of generic images, as this lowers the bar in terms of your brand's identity. 
  • Watch your stats! When needed, take action to disavow bad inbound links in a text file you submit to Google. This is purely for advanced level users. Learn more.
  • Use the post option in your 'Google My Business' account. Make posts which are unique. (Social Media, like websites can provide you multiple top ten results if they have original images and are rarely (best never) a replication or copy and pasted process).
  • Combine into one or two files all Cascading Style Sheets markup and validate the CSS.
  • Advanced tip: On a UNIX server you will find the wonderfully multipurpose .htaccess file (used for URL redirects, HTTP headers, and for organic ranking, it can serve you greatly). It is one of the coolest single files in a "CMS" or Content Management System. 
  • As you may know, the first new web domains were launched in 2014 and continue to be released. These domain extensions (example: dot live, .buzz, .top, .xyz, .icu) offer users a chance to have per topic niche / brand and market control.
  • Use ‘Microsoft Clarity’! This is free of charge and provides heatmaps and a color coded scroll map (which shows the depth of scrolling by a user). Adding any new tracking tool may require on-site legal term modifications.
  • Your firm, brand, product, app, and every theme/topic will have one central keyword phrase. You can not optimize each page on your site for this phrase. At most two pages should be focused on the most important term. Learn how to use Google Trends. (With this tool you will be able to define keyword selection based on actual user search patterns for the language and region of your target market).
  • Recommendation: Make your own YouTube captions/subtitles. Here is a "how-to" demonstration. (Note that “Subtitles” are an accessibility tool for people who cannot hear a video, and “Captions” are for people who do not understand the spoken language). When you’re writing the text, consider accessibility needs and include a mention of non-verbal sounds. More about adding caption tracks to your video files.
  • Scan your pages with Lighthouse (Google's free analysis tool).
  • There is a great YouTube series about SEO Myths. It is described as: "(...) Martin Splitt from the Search Relations team and members of the developer and SEO communities chat about topics around technical SEO to clarify common misconceptions (...)". 
  • Intermediate SEOs: read "Getting started: Advanced Users" and Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines with a focus "E-A-T" which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
  • Advanced tip: In HTML5 you can avoid JavaScript (which might slow down your page loading) if you want to make an open / close 'accordion' box! Example: <details> <summary>Details</summary> Message here.</details> (and get some optional CSS here).
  • Use asynchronous loading for non-essential JavaScript. Read this good blog post for details.
  • Check that the site resolves correctly to your canonical choice (www or no www and in all cases, https and not http). 
  • Work on structured data. Markup can be implemented with, for example, JavaScript, or in different ways. Tip: Test your pages with this tool.
  • Set link qualifications. Share with search engines your site’s relationship to outbound links. For example: You can mention that a link goes to a sponsor’s page, or that another is “UGC” or content made by you defined as “User Generated Content” and so on.
  • In your robots.txt (see this Google document about making a robots.txt file) add “User-agent: googlebot” for specific crawling requests. 
  • Favicon tip: You may wish to use a multi size favicon generator. Read the Google favicon guidelines and 'How a favicon ends up in Google search results'.
  • Blog basics: Work on at least 3 posts a month which add information to content which appears in your core website.
  • If you intention is to have multiple top ten results you will wish to consider making a high quality (with unique content) pages in a small dedicated "event" website. This could be for example a main page about the event, a F.A.Q page, a contact page, an archive of videos and photography of the past events, and if appropriate you would also make for this small site a social media account on Twitter, Pinterest and/or Youtube.

PDF Documents and Organic SEO Tips

- The basics:  Increase the credibility of your site in the eyes of Google by creating "extra content" (that expands on your central theme) in self-hosted documents. Link to these from your website as a resource for expanded knowledge sharing. Less is more - especially when a PDF is not by definition a document you are optimizing for first ten placement (it is a means to boost the trust in the quality of the site which links to it).


Sample checklist with tips:

  • Your PDF document(s) should be hosted one folder deep on your server.
  • Avoid the use of dates in the file name (unless they are really needed).
  • Avoid any capitalization of your file name.
  • Learn about editing PDF metadata includes having a clear title and a two sentence description about the subject of your document. Read more about this process.
  • Make a link in your footer to a HTML sitemap (listing in text with links the various PDF files you have made). 
  • Follow accessibility-friendly rules (such as using clear image descriptions).
  • Set the document language: "(...) the document language for the entire document in a PDF enables the screen reader to choose to the appropriate language. If the language is not present, then you can manually enter an ISO-639 language code. Open the Document Properties dialog: Choose File > Properties || Select a language from the Language menu in the Reading Options area of the Advanced tab. Activate the OK button. (...)" Source.
  • Make a dedicated XML sitemap for PDF files and share the URL (location) of this XML sitemap in your server root hosted robot.txt file.
  • Make the PDF file name a hyphenated description of its content. Example: ".../pdf/keyword-topic-description.pdf". 
  • A PDF (with substantial, original content) may have an elegant and clear "back to website" navigation message in its header and footer. This navigation back to your site's home page / or another page on your website should not be used if the PDF does not qualify as a stand-alone resource. The reason is that you risk being flagged as making a "Doorway Page".
  • Use H2-H4 headers! These will become left side menu items. Do not use your keyword more than 2 times in your menu/headers.
  • Before you upload the PDF, ensure you have compressed it and cleared it of all possible JavaScript or other scripts. See also this page by Adobe.
  • Keep the PDF file free of multiple fonts to keep the file size small for faster loading.
  • Verify that your document is enabled for Fast Web View.

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