I’ve played around in a fair few eCommerce “solutions” too, including X-Cart, Zen Cart, Cube Cart, Ubercart, Magento and more. But nothing really “solved” my problems. They were either too complicated, too painful or too expensive. And anyway, I love WordPress.

But regardless, if you’d said to me 4 weeks ago … “I need a eCommerce website built on a brand new domain, using WordPress, and I need it to rank number 1 on Google for my primary keywords within a month”, I’d say … “you’re a fool” and “do you have many THOUSANDS of dollars”..?

But who’s the fool now..? Enter www.aromata.com.au.

I’ve been building this website for a new online business, and I decided to use it as my own testing ground to combine some SEO techniques with some WordPress techniques with some custom coding techniques. The results, while making me look good, also makes me look stupid, because Aromata Online Shopping is already ranking number 1 on Google Australia for nearly every primary keyword (where Google have indexed the appropriate URL), and I said this was neigh impossible.

Let’s put this into perspective - this website that I’ve hand delivered to Aromata (which I now know is worth 10 times what I charged) has all the the following features …

• eCommerce (including a fancy ajax shopping cart)
• CMS (Content Management System)
• (obviously effective) SEO
• advanced security features
• no ongoing, expensive “website upate fees”

And that’s really only the beginning. I could list on and on about the pretty URLs, PayPal integration, Google sitemap, Google Analytics and Webmaster integration, but that list would never end. And this article is more about the result than the methods use to get there.

So … just how many number 1 Google rankings does this brand new website have..? Well considering that there’s only 20 products instore at the moment (the site’s not yet finished, and the cart not yet fully stocked), and I only cross-checked for 10 keywords, this list has an impressive strike rate.

1. handsaw keyring
2. hacksaw keyring
3. chakra locket
4. car diffuser refill
5. pliers keyring
6. cam keyring
7. throat locket
8. crown locket
9. drill keyring
10. saw keyring

    * (these 10 keywords are all ranking #1 on Google Australia as I write this review. We all know that Google rankings change with the breeze, so this won’t be the case for ever. We all also know that SEO is not a one off operation - so if you’re reading this Aromata, you have an incredible head start, so don’t deny your website the regular love it so rightly deserves).

This Google eCommerce WordPress success story would simply NOT BE POSSIBLE without the SIGNIFICANT contributions made by folk way smarter than me:

• WordPress eCommerce Theme: Market Theme - US$55
• WordPress SEO Advice: Joost de Valk - FREE
• WordPress SEO PlugIn: Semper Fi Web Design - FREE

nb. No doubt some SEO/WordPress Gurus will question/debate/refute points in this article. But hey, Aromata are happy, and why woudn’t they be. By using simple, sound & ethical website building practices, they’re laughing all the way Position #1. And is there any greater position for an eCommerce website than to be ranking #1 in Google for an exact match on your product keywords..?

This petition is the highest ranking petition on TakingITGlobal.org, with over 13,500 signitures online (at the time of this post).

I’m going to spend some time this weekend learning a bit more about this issue. Cause it’s sounds scary to me.

Here are some great WordPress security tips that are simple, effective and DEFINITELY worthwhile employing. Some tips are slightly more advanced in their implementation, but everyone will find something in here to make your website somewhat more secure.

1. Steven Sanders with 7 WordPress Security Tips
2. Matt Cutts on WordPress Security
3. Skull Bits’ “Stealth Login” Plugin for WordPress
4. Semper Fi Web Design’s WP Security Scan Plug In

Clearly someone has some serious connections, skills, and/or vested interests, and are more than capable of hacking and sending fake emails from Australian government email addresses. So yes, I am spooked, and way out of my depths. So Pissed Off Person, I know you’re reading this (and quite possibly my entire email account), so my game of curiosity ends here.

This is the story of “Googleplexter and the Invisible Text”, made possible by some dude who calls him/herself “Fork Spoon Man”.

There’s a website that’s ranking well for some keywords in the botox and beauty niche of the plastic capital - Gold Coast, Australia. This is one of “those” niches that has to contend with Trademark issues, regulatory issues and (therefore) questionable SEO issues. In Australia, using the word botox in website copy, under certain conditions, is in breach of the Therapeutics Goods Administration.

So when I received an email questioning a particular website’s ranking quality, it didn’t take long to see what was happening. The invisible text on the homepage was like a beacon saying “look here, look here!”. How so you ask? Well there’s an isolated, single word of visible text sitting just above the footer with not a single other word surrounding it. That word is “Googleplexer”.

A closer inspection beneath “Googleplexter” reveals a host of arguably-invisible keywords, coloured the same as the website background ( I’ve highlighted the invisible text so you can see them in these screenshots). The homepage is just one of many pages on this site to use the same invisible text tactics.

This website is that of an MBBS qualified doctor, who’s also part of the Cosmetic Physician’s Society of Australasia and the Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery, so you have to wonder who’s bright idea this was? The Good Doctor is clearly qualified, in medicine. (For the record - it’s NOT the bright idea of the web hosts or CMS provider (so says Fork Spoon Man in a follow-up email)).

Now, if you’re a Gold Coast website using invisible text tactics, against Google’s recommendations, and for the sole purpose of HIDING keywords from users, you should probably make sure you hide ALL the words, especially one as random and obscure as “Googleplexter”. Then at least your users won’t be inquisitive enough to further investigate (like Fork Spoon Man did). That way only the search engines will punish you, and your readers and the TGA will never know that you’re cheating the system.

After all, it’s safe to say that if this spam checking tool knows there’s invisible text issues, Google certainly does/will sometime soon.

So, the million dollar question … does anyone know who or what “Googleplexter” is..?  Because unless it’s the user “Googleplexter” from NUMA, Google doesn’t know either.

As it stands, web designers and developers are forced to spend time and money to ensure websites work properly inside IE6. Hello people, and corporates, IE6 was outdated more than 2 years ago for the improved (and free) IE7. So why won’t you upgrade..?

After reading adii’s IE6 support delima, I can see the time is coming; IE6, your days are numbered. The fact that high profile web wizards like adii are even suggesting a total drop of support for IE6, could kick start a global revolution for the immediate end to all IE6 support.

And how cool would be..?

The little people, we small time designers & developers who spend our time and money fixing Microsoft poor workmanship, revolting on a global scale, to speed up the inevitable end of a browser that’s way past its expiry date.

We should do it.
Someone start something.  (or has someone already..?)
Spread the word from here.  (digg, reddit & sphinn this story)
Something will happen.  (and we can all rejoice)

RIP IE6.  (that could be our campaign name..?)

Yesterdays I wrote about StatPress: the analytics WordPress plugin. So this morning I awoke and checked Google to see what was ranking where for “StatPress”. The results speak for themselves; the top 10 results were all indexed pages of WordPress PlugIn directories. Do you really want your WordPress admin pages (and links) listed in Google..?

The moral of this story - if you use WordPress, make sure you also use Yoast’s Meta Robot PlugIn to prevent Google indexing your WordPress admin pages.

There are 26 articles packed with expert, onsite SEO advice. The advice is easy to read and easier than you might think to implement. This really is a thorough beginner-to-intermediate guide that will enable you to twist and tweak your own website to an SEO level that WILL reap rewards.

While you’re at hobo-web.co.uk, do yourself a favour and sign-up for their email newsletter or RSS feed. Hobo are in the “must read” list or our gReader and we’re disappointed any day of the week when they don’t have new news. That’s a true sign of quality content.

I’d be very interested to know the client value of this content..? So Hobo, If you read this, how much would the industry standard price be to implement your SEO steps to a website..? (I’m asking purely to gain a worth of your content to anyone reading this post. I imagine when people understand the monetry value of your articles, they will pay even closer attention to the content).

So thanks again Hobo - a job very well done, and much appreciated by us.

It lives inside your WordPress dashboard and it gives you instant access to live website statistics like traffic volumes, keyword/search terms, referring websites, browser & operating systems, search spider visits and lots more.

And best of all, it also allows you to “spy” on your own website traffic. At any time you can see exactly who is accessing your site, where they’re from, their IP address, which pages they are viewing, what search term and engine brought them to you, PLUS what operating system and browser they are using. Google Analytics eat your heart out..!

And the biggest advantage to this type of analytics tool is there are no coding requirements. Google Analytics is arguably the best free tools for thorough, detailed website analysis. But you do need some coding skills/access, and sometimes it just “feels” like a laborious tool to use.

StatPress is exactly the opposite; it’s effortless to use and painless to access. Installation is a breeze, and since installing it I’ve been checking my basic traffic trends here more than inside Google’s analytics tool. Admittedly, it is not the fully-featured tool that is gAnalytics, but that does not matter. This plugin rocks..!

It’s instant, live data that you can analyze, search and export easily. It doesn’t replace gAnalytics, but it’s a faster, easier way to quickly check your stats.

This is how detailed StatPress really is. The Dashboard, which is a basic overview of all the stats, shows you ALL the following:

Overview : a total report on visitor, pageview, spider and RSS feed stats. Displays volume by total, this month, last month, today and yesterday.

Hits : reports your last 10 site hits. Breaks them down to time, IP address, TLD, page hit, operating system and browser used.

Keywords/Search terms : reports the last 10 search queries that brought traffic to your site. Includes date, time, keyword, search engine and search engine results page.

Referrers : shows you the last 10 URLs that sent traffic to your site, and what time and date that occurred.

Agents : the 10 latest Agents

Pages : what day, time, page and OS/Browser combo were last viewed.

Spiders : what day, time, Spider and Agent last crawled your site.

And that’s just the Overview…! This really is a must-have WordPress PlugIn. And with the recent crash and burn of alternate analytic providers, I’d be careful who you use to track your traffic. Between StatPress and gAnalytics there’s not much you can’t achieve.

Here’s the link to StatPress plugin on WordPress.org and the StatPress Homepage.

In the blue corner, defending old browsers, is Litmus. They have a vested interest in the fight, as their business generates income from testing websites in old versions of browsers. So they’re fighting for money. In fairness, Paul’s article is only questioning the non-support of IE6; I’d like to know who he’s really fighting for (which could be difficult considering Litmus pay his wage).

In the red corner, attacking old browsers with a free webtool is PushUp. They’ve released a free scipt that detects when outdated browsers view your website, and advise the viewer (in a subtle, clean manner) that a newer, safer, up-to-date version is available.

Refereeing this fight is Profy who seem to be scoring towards the blue corner..?

I’m cheering the red corner all the way. PushUp are the underdogs, and they’re fighting this battle for love not money.

I’ve left comments on both stories, so you can more there. Interestingly everyone seems to be cheering for PushUp according to the comments on Profy.

It’s a single page, beautifully laid out, with every tag and use clearly defined. Whether you’re a code guru or code rookie, you’ll love this.

Do yourself a favour, bookmark this page. And a shoutout to the creators of this WordPress Heaven, DBS, who also build INCREDIBLE websites.