SEOSEM in OZ

Impressions: SEM in Ozland

Helping a friend put together a business plan in a determined effort to salvage his struggling business, I rummaged through some boxes of old books. These things had been gathering dust for a few years and were due to be dumped or sold off somewhere, but you never know what insights you'll find in old books.
What I found was instructive, if not encouraging: an old copy of "The Australian Internet Book" from 2000. If I'd read better, instead of dismissing the discouraging tone of the writing as the author trying to sound knowledgeably disdainful, I'd have had a good insight into the realities of the Internet in Australia, and Australian culture and society.
Under the title, "What is worth buying?" are the words:

"Online shopping is easy but solitary. It is price effective but hands off. You do not get to try before you buy.
As a result, things that are difficult to find, vary greatly in price, or that are not considered fun to buy, sell well online.
The items that score top in the online shopping surveys are books, music CDs, and computer software. Likewise, travel, employment and investment services hae been building for some time."

I remember commenting on the negative tone of this book 5-6 years ago. It's probably why it sat in a box for years, too. But the authors - Geoff Ebbs and Maryanne Phillips - had a very good grasp of the society and the state of technology. I just refused to believe it because of my own intellectual stubbornness - and the forced anticipation (read: "irrational expectations") of a lucrative new market for my skills.
After all, 2000-2001 in the US was still the rising tide of the dot-com bubble. There wasn't even a hint that it would burst back then.
In order to hang onto that happy anticipation, I had to ignore the comparison of statistical realities between Australia and America:

• In America, nearly 40% of households had access to the Internet;
• and more than 35% of those households had purchased using credit cards off the Net;
• broadband of any form - cable, ISDN, or DSL - was a hot demand across the country.
• In Australia, less than 15% of the nation had access to the Internet;
• and it was stretching reality to find 15% of those who were willing to buy anything off the Net.
• Internet banking was just being introduced in Australia;
• I'd been paying my bills via the Net for nearly 5 years in my rural California town.
• Americans saw the Internet as a new medium for free speech, entertainment and commerce;
• Australians were wary of putting any personal details, especially financial, onto this frightening new means of intrusion.

Amazon and Google had only risen to prominence, - supplanting smaller, less-technical services. America was still waiting to see if these "great new ideas" were going to work. Australia didn't want any part of these untested technologies.
The phrases from that old book may seem silly now, but only to some. Even now, 7 years later, Australia is about where America was then, but with all the resistance and baggage of the dot-com collapse. Australia is still being dragged - kicking and screaming - onto the Internet by government, banking and telecomms.
A solid 20-25% of Australian households and businesses simply refuse to have Internet access because they "see no need".

Looking a little closer

In Just the Basics is a short checklist to illustrate the steps to making a website visible to the larger web and drive traffic to it. Let's take a closer look at the steps, one by one.

Attract new visitors
Get your site listed in search engines and directories:

• Submit site to Google and other search engines    
• Submit site to Yahoo! and other directories    
• Revise site as needed to improve search rank 

People use Google every day. Customers expect a business to have a website. Every website owner wishes wants their website to bee seen. Yet many never realize that unless they tell the search engines and directories the site exists, there's a good chance it will never be found.
In fact, more than half the webpages on the Net are not listed anywhere.

Did you notice the change? Websites were the topic, then in the last sentence, webpages.
That's an important distinction for a business since most businesses offer more than one service or product. And each product or service commonly goes on a different page.
Search engines and directories need to know not just that your website exists, but the webpages where your services and products are described. Every webpage on a site potentially defines a different marketing goal because the product(s) or service(s) on the page have different competitors, customers, and goals for the business.

Sudden Silence continues

The dearth of commentary on the new copyright laws continues in Australia.
For nearly a year, Kim Weatherall was filling her blog posts with important commentary on the subject, along with a number of other blogs and news outlets around the country, but suddenly - silence.
YouTube continues to be under fire, - It may be directed indirectly at Google since they own YouTube. - with a diminishing number of comments from any media. Considering the potential for public harm and expense from the Cooper decision, it is hard to believe that nothing has happened in over a month. I mean, this stuff even had Australians working and reading until late December. Even the Attorney-General wanted to go home in mid-November, but stuck around to deal with the crisis.
And now: nothing.

Just the Basics

When I conceived this blog a few weeks ago, it was intended to illustrate the special circumstances of search engine marketing and search engine optimization in Australia. I picked up a few books on SEM and waded through them, bookmarking handy sites and lists of sites, all along comparing them with the clients and their marketing goals.
It wasn't long before I had lists on lists all over Australia.

I planned to do a few test projects to get me started. Each site could be representative of small business in Australia.

Because Australia has taken to the Net so quickly, and with the advent of real broadband speeds, this project looked to be fun - a case study in globalization that might track well as other small countries move onto the Net.
I felt kinda lucky to have found them, since each plan appeared to apply to thousands of businesses.
The real surprise after doing the research across the country to prepare for these projects was the restrictions of the new copyright law in Australia, but nuff said about that for now.

Links to your site

One of the more interesting reactions to the new copyright laws in Australia is on links and law, titled "How to stop links to your site".
There is a whole page on how to avoid being "framed", as if that were a real concern. What their on about is best demonstrated by choosing a link from any article on About.com. The page will appear under a wide About.com banner. About.com uses invasive Javascript to inject the code for their banner into the new page if it won't open in the frame.
It's not hard to overcome such programming. Just right-click anywhere in the new page and choose 'Open in new window' (or 'Open in new frame' if you're using Firefox.)

There is code that can be inserted into a web document to prevent being "framed"; and code that can prevent injected Javascript.

Thing is, this is the Internet. The whole idea of the Net is to get links to your site, blog, or page.

Not being "framed" has little or nothing to do with the dangers of the new copyright law, whether you have links to offending material or not. Your code may prevent someone from using a link to your page, but that doesn't mean they won't be able to copy the link and use it in a new browser window.
All the code does is force your page into a new window.

If the idea is to protect yourself from being visible to Australians, you've failed.
There is better technology for that on every server. Just set the server exclusions to Australian IP addresses. Not only will your site not be "framed" and exposed to Australia's restrictive laws, but it will not appear at all. You just redirect the user to a customized error page to explain.

Some servers will allow you to do this on a page by page basis, leaving parts of your site available while any offensive material is blocked. If the server doesn't have this facility (or you don't have access to it), there are Python and Perl scripts that can be employed.
This sort of scripting can be used on blogs, too.
Savvy webmasters will redirect the visitor to a customized error page for a few seconds, then back to the main page for the site. There's no sense in losing a visitor.

Sudden Deafening Silence

It's as if a silent hand reached out across Australia. You can even mark the date: December 20th.
From all the sources listed on the right under "Australian Copyright Law", there was an intense debate examining the new law, then suddenly - silence.
As if someone said, "Enough", then, "Stop dissecting and criticizing Australian law. Write about the rest of the world." The Word was spoken, and The Word was heard.
The last comments from Kim Weatherall and LawFont were on 20 December. The Sydney Morning Herald is focusing on YouTube. The last critique on Boing Boing was 25 December. TechDirt's last article was 18 December.
The ITWire from 12 December quotes Attorney-General Philip Ruddock's amorphous reassurances:

"Everyday consumers shouldn't be treated like copyright pirates. Copyright pirates shouldn't be treated like everyday consumers," Ruddock said. "In fact, anyone who uses iPods, DVDs, CDs or records television programs will benefit from the changes."

"Tonight countless Australians will no longer be breaking the law," he said, even though the new law doesn't come into effect for two weeks.

On the 18th of December, the Cooper judgment was handed down by the High Court making Mr Ruddock's reassurances sound hollow.
Why the sudden silence? If there was some official or semi-official word that went out, why aren't Australian experts writing about it? If there was no word, then why the silence?
Or is this just the infamous aussie holiday break?

Australian Copyright Law - Images

Nearly every website, blog, or webpage on free hosting has a few images or links that could be construed under the new Australian Copyright Law to be infringements. Small businesses frequently use images from Google to provide information about their services or products. Technically, most of these images are Intellectual Property.

A picture of a product can be construed as theft, or it may also be seen as a source of free advertising - not just in a conventional marketing sense, but also - if the web designer links to the product description on the manufacturer's site - a means to increase the visibility and page rank of the product, and manufacturer.
This would be an example of a "deep link" and an "external link" - a link that points to a page other than the homepage without a reciprocating link from the indicated site. Search engines give special consideration to such links.
Even if there is no link, the image is still free advertising; like someone passing out pictures of your product for free.

Professional Ethics
Often, a client approaches a web designer with a list of links to sites that they like, or chooses a template from the designer's portfolio of templates.
A professional web designer will discuss with the client the costs of obtaining licenses to use the images, but too often will accept whatever images a client presents as licensed. If there is some question about the ownership of images the client wants on the site, the designer will discuss the risks and ask the client to be aware of them.
Most professional web designers, large and small companies, have purchased licenses for libraries of images. They use these images to construct the templates.
The licensing of images can get a little complicated though.
There are very few good images available for free and in the public domain.

Well, here it comes

Here it comes
For a nation that is pushing people onto the Internet faster and faster with new programs being funded all around, there had to be a plan to recoup the generosity. New taxes in Canberra (ACT) will increase the costs for providers that will be passed on to consumers. It's not hard to see this is a pilot program that can easily be copied by other states and territories.
Still the biggest money maker looks to be fines and legal fees generated by the new Copyright Law.

Cooper was investigated secretly for over 2 years at the expense of MIPI and its deep-pockets clients. Then the court case took 18 months. As a penalty, Cooper and Comcen were ordered to pay MIPI's costs. Those costs haven't been determined yet, but they must have been significant.
Even the High Court didn't feel it fines were necessary as punishment. At $6600.00 a link, the fines would have never been paid.

From a few conversations, it's obvious to ordinary Australians that courts and laws are made in Australia to generate revenues for the government and fees for lawyers has not escaped the general public. The general public has no idea what to do about it though.
Any conversation along these lines brings out a couple of terms from Australians they truly despise: "hillbilly" and "banana republic".

Whole websites are being torn down. Some rebuilt with great care. From my continuing informal survey, many will just leave the site blank.
Companies wishing to have a web presence will have to factor in the costs of copyrighted images and new taxes, even before the website has a chance to prove it can pay for itself. It won't be long before all states and territories enact taxes following the lead of the ACT, and probably adding a few more just to prove their independence.

Given the cost of access in Australia for second-rate broadband services and the absolutely low cost of providing it, Telstra should be able to quarantine profits from these services for its upgrade and maintenance strategies.- Michael Harris, Tapping, WA (from comments published on Australian IT News)

Walking is Important

I have a friend who is new to the Net and cannot resist passing on all the words of wisdom that have been circulating for years - but she just found! The woman is becoming Henny Youngman.
Ergo:

Importance of Walking

   Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $5000 per month.

•         My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60.
  Now she's 97 years old and we don't know where the hell she is.
•         The only reason I would take up exercising is so that I could
  hear heavy breathing again.
•         I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to go there.
•         I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.
•         I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
•         I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.
•         The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier.
•         If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

        And last but not least:     You could run this over to your friends but why not just e-mail it to them!

I doubt there are many who will read this yet. Someday, hopefully, between all the doom-and-gloom about the copyright laws and their effects on Australia, it'll give a smile.
For those of you who don't know who Henny Youngman is, too bad. He was the king of Vaudeville-corny one-liners in the US about when John Kennedy was President. Gawd, do I feel old now.
I saw Youngman in person in Las Vegas as a kid!