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..?

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.

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.

For every day in July, Hobo are publishing one SEO tip. Although the lastest entry is dated July 24 but titled Tip 22 (they must be busy over there in HoboLand?), it’s one of the best entries you can read to improve your website’s SEO. It gives you an overview of all the tips so far, so take 20 minutes out of your day and help yourself to free, expert SEO advice.

The biggest bonus to Hobo’s offerings is in their advice delivery – it’s all easy to read, easy to understand and suprisingly easy to impliment into your own website.

He too is a big WordPress fan, and this is the best WordPress/SEO article you’ll read.

And if WordPress is good enough for Yoast, it’s good enough for us. Nearly every website we build is a new WordPress birth. Even if you’re not specifically looking for a content management system, we still WordPress it up. It makes sense.

• you can have a brand new website live online in under 5 minutes
• you can easily add new content to your own website using WordPress’s superb admin system
• thanks to the community of awesome developers (like Yoast), every day people can use expert web tools to make their website better than they ever thought possible.

So thank you Yoast – we (heart) your work and we (heart) WordPress too.