How e-retailers are building web links that charm search engine spiders
An online retailer of baby gear is offering great deals on strollers, making “strollers” a spot-on-relevant keyword for the retailer to target in optimizing pages for natural search. They’re a popular item among new-mom consumers, and they’re priced right and attractively presented on the site.
Sales are robust—for other online retailers. Because under the term “stroller,” this retailer’s listing shows up at number 29. So what gives?
The problem could be links: not enough outside links pointing to the page, or perhaps not enough of the right kind of links. As a result, listings from competitors that may be as well optimized on-page but that have more and better links from outside are moving to the top of search results.
How those links from other sites can improve a retail web site’s rankings in search listings is one of the least understood aspects of natural search optimization.
“Link-building has always been a part of search engine optimization, but retailers have been more focused on the on-page aspects of SEO because it’s easier for them to get their heads around,” says Stephan Spencer, president of Netconcepts LLC, which helps retailers optimize search engine rankings. “But the link-building factor is just as powerful, if not more so. One link or a handful of links can make the difference between meeting your budget or not.”
While it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly how outside links affect a retailer’s rankings in natural search results vs. the effect of other optimization elements such as page architecture or keyword-rich text, one way to diagnose link problems is by ruling out other reasons a retailer’s listings aren’t ranking higher.
“When you’ve had your site design fixed for a few months, you can attribute some of the fluctuations in ranking to what you’re doing with link building,” says Josh Greene, director of online marketing for Discovery Communications Inc.
Sniff test
A link, or hyperlink, is a connection by click to a specific area of content on another web page, either within the same web site or to another site. It’s the latter path that figures into how high a retailer’s listing ranks in natural search results under a given keyword. As search engines strive to deliver relevant results, their algorithms take links to a web page from outside the site—from consumers, directories, blogs and other entities—as evidence that the page is relevant to the searched term.
In fact, outside links are such a valuable commodity in boosting a site’s listings in search engine results that online retailers, their advisers and other parties simply looking to profit have come up with a wide variety of tactics for making those links happen.
But here’s a warning to e-retailers out to build links: Search engines resist being gamed. Because their own reputations suffer when they return results searchers don’t find relevant, search engines are ever more adept at protecting themselves by sniffing out when links are contrived without relevancy solely to boost a listing.
Most recently, market leader Google has been working to identify and actually discount links added to a site exclusively for this purpose. “Since the initiation of search there always have been ways to trick the engines, but the engines always wind up winning in the end,” says Khrysti Nazzaro, director of optimized services at search engine marketing company MoreVisibility.com.
This means retailers should look to emerging best practices in link building and sidestep tactics that could backfire under search engines’ increasing scrutiny of link quality. Here’s an example of such a tactic: The PageRank system, part of the Google algorithm, measures the popularity of a web site to determine how high in natural search results a site will appear. It’s possible for a heavily-visited site to elevate the PageRank of a less-visited site just by linking to it, a practice called “passing PageRank.”
Any number of popular media sites sell links for this purpose, according to Spencer. These links are different from paid search ads that link to products. But when Google finds them, it discounts links that a retailer buys merely to “pass PageRank.” “Google doesn’t want you to buy links and pass PageRank if the links are advertisements,” Spencer says.
Masquerade
Spencer adds that search engine algorithms can easily find various forms of link-buying masquerading as link-building. For instance, search engines frown on asking an author to post a link in an old web article or blog post, even if the content is relevant to a retailer’s keywords. Engine algorithms will likely flunk such links as “natural” listings by determining from cached pages that links are suddenly appearing from a web page that has had no updates for years.
Another link-building practice that engines can spot as unnatural is three-way linking, in which a web site asks to link to another site, and in exchange, asks that site to link to a third site that also links back to the original site. “If those sites don’t have any relevance to each other, the engines are able to see those kinds of multiple link relationships,” Nazzaro says.
With search engines increasingly calling the shots on what outside links will or will not help with list rankings, what opportunities are available to online retailers looking to build links while steering clear of algorithmic biases? Plenty, say search engine optimization experts.
For starters, general directories such as the open-source Demoz.org or niche directories such as BabyBusiness.com can provide online retailers with a source of outside links. So does the Yahoo Directory, the still-existing, human-edited, searchable data base of submitted listings that preceded Yahoo’s web-crawling search engine.
The directories span both free and paid options, such as the Yahoo Directory. Though search optimization experts say the best outside links are naturally-occurring—for instance, a web site or blog about parenting might link to a recommended item at an online toy store—paid links aren’t all bad in terms of their ability to help boost a listing in natural search results, says Eric Papczun, director of natural search optimization at DoubleClick Performics Inc.
Not necessarily bad
“If someone has a site that sells cooking utensils, we shouldn’t discount the value of that retailer choosing to purchase a link from a blog or web site that is relevant to their content,” he says. “Determine what constitutes a good link—is it relevant to the page and is it credible—and if you pay for it, that doesn’t necessarily make it bad.”
Sponsorships of events in the offline world also can add links. For instance, a retailer could sponsor a local baseball team or a charity event and bring in links from those organizations’ own web sites. A thank you or a testimonial on an outside site in relation to a service provided or a community event can bring links from that site to a retailer’s site.
Blogs are another fertile field for retailers’ link-building. At the online store of Discovery Communications Inc., which also operates the Discovery TV Channel, toys are a major category. So the site has reached out to parent bloggers, bringing new toys to their attention, sometimes offering toys for their review and comment and seeing if links from those blogs result. To identify influential bloggers, it depends on input from Netconcepts as well as its own research.
“It’s a beneficial cycle,” Greene says. “As you have links coming into a particular area of your site, you get more traffic, and then other links may show up that you may not have actively pursued.” For Discovery, links from parents who have blogs help build exposure that leads to links to tech toy pages from technology bloggers and sites, even green-focused blogs and sites in the case of Discovery’s fuel cell-powered toy car.
And while compelling content and products work to bring in outside links, this works even better when supported by offline PR. A Discovery.com microscope mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article got a link from the article online; placement on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” later netted Discovery Channel’s Planet Earth DVD set a spot in the show’s annual holiday “Favorite Things” segment, with a corresponding link to the site from Oprah.com.
National Underwear Day
PR efforts and media coverage also combine with content to bring in outside links at underwear site Freshpair.com, a MoreVisibilty client. The site originated National Underwear Day, which features a live show with models strutting in their skivvies on a runway in Times Square. The site devotes real estate to the annual event year-round, with streamed videos, previews, reports of media and more, all of which helps to attract traffic and build links, says president Michael Kleinmann.
Online community and social sites represent another potential source of outside links for online retailers. Online marketing company Orange Soda leverages relationships it’s established with the most active users on social media sites in link-building program for retailer clients such as AbleKitchen.com.
After reviewing social media sites to see what people are talking about that might relate to a client’s business—for a kitchen site this might be buzz about a favorite dessert recipe at a popular restaurant—Orange Soda might develop an article about how people can prepare similar restaurant-quality desserts at home. It’s offered free as useful content to sites and bloggers in the cooking space. Where posted, Orange Soda then sends those postings to social media sites including Digg.com.
Digg depends on a user ranking system to figure out which submitted postings and articles are the most popular—or “dugg”—and that determines in what order they are posted, starting with the top spot on the home page. Sometimes words in those posted articles are linked back to e-commerce sites and the opportunity to buy a referenced product.
But according to Dan Garfield, SEO manager at Orange Soda, it’s not sales and conversions that are the real payoff for getting an online marketer’s content up high on Digg; it’s links.
“If you get on the front page of Digg, you are going to get thousands of hits in five minutes. Those people are not going to click on your ads, but they are great at spreading the word. A lot of people like to blog about stories on the front page of Digg. So if you get a story there, you might generate a thousand links,” he says.
While putting compelling content up on a retail site attracts traffic and links, e-retailers need to get real about the quality of the content they expect to do the job, experts say. “You have to ask yourself, why would someone want to point a link to you? It has to be something people really want, either because it’s truly useful or because it’s cool,” says John Tawadros, chief operating officer of search marketing company iProspect.
Drag and drop
He offers a hypothetical example of content that would be both: a home furnishings retailer creates a tool for its site that presents 10 layouts of a living room. Visitors pick the one that most closely resembles their own home and travel through the online store, dragging and dropping into the layout the furniture that interests them, so they can see how it would all look together.
“That’s something people might want to use and point to,” Tawadros says. “It’s about building something that will entice people, something they will want to pass around. If it’s actually useful, that creates longevity.”
Best practices in organic link-building revolve around the concepts of compelling content, relevancy and relationships—with a knowledge of new online media, cross-channel media and public relations, and a watchful eye on ever-changing search algorithms blended in.
Successful link-building also takes something online retailers haven’t needed so much in the pay-per-click online marketing environment, and that’s patience. Unlike pay-per-click programs that show instant results, it takes time for link-building strategies and tactics to find their audience and produce an effect.
“A good expectation would be to see some results 30 to 90 days after the initiative is launched,” says Tawadros of iProspect. “If I suddenly have a million links pointing to my site overnight, that is a red flag. No way can you organically get that many links.”
However retailers choose to pursue them, links are key to any search engine optimization program, experts say. “You need good content with sound architecture that is spider friendly,” Spencer says. “But just as important, if not more so, you need great links pointing to your site.”
source:http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=24882
Monday, December 31, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Promote your business effectively with search engine optimization
No matter what business you are into, a web presence has become the need of the hour. Almost every business is striving to make their presence felt on the internet because it one of the most effective modes of communication. However, just having a website will not serve your purpose as it will be unable to attract the amount oftraffic, which you desire to spread the word about your business. The practical way to go about promoting your online business would be by getting a professional search engine optimization firm to promote your website on the World Wide Web. Comet search engine marketing firm is one such expert who can give your online business the boost and visibility that it deserves, making it a popular website on the internet.
Search engine optimization strategies by CometSEM are tailor made to suit the needs of your business. The methods for search engine optimization include keyword heavy content, blogs, link building with other sites, article syndication, participation in forums and discussions and many such methods. A specialized search engine optimization firm like CometSEM researches into the positive and negative aspects of a client's website and then works towards enhancing the strengths while minimizing the weaknesses of the site.
The professionals working at CometSEM have the necessary expertise in the field of search engine optimization. As this a comparatively new field, it is crucial that the employees working for your site should be competent and knowledgeable about the internet processes. Professionals at a search engine optimization firm work to ensure that your website content is relevant to the user and the navigation is also user friendly. Keeping all these aspects in mind, one can ensure the popularity and visibility of any website in the internet. If the content is correctly created and placed, the search engine spiders will find it easier to crawl the site, thereby giving your website the top ranking, which you desire.
Source:http://www.pr-inside.com/promote-your-business-effectively-with-search-engine-optimization-r365305.htm
Search engine optimization strategies by CometSEM are tailor made to suit the needs of your business. The methods for search engine optimization include keyword heavy content, blogs, link building with other sites, article syndication, participation in forums and discussions and many such methods. A specialized search engine optimization firm like CometSEM researches into the positive and negative aspects of a client's website and then works towards enhancing the strengths while minimizing the weaknesses of the site.
The professionals working at CometSEM have the necessary expertise in the field of search engine optimization. As this a comparatively new field, it is crucial that the employees working for your site should be competent and knowledgeable about the internet processes. Professionals at a search engine optimization firm work to ensure that your website content is relevant to the user and the navigation is also user friendly. Keeping all these aspects in mind, one can ensure the popularity and visibility of any website in the internet. If the content is correctly created and placed, the search engine spiders will find it easier to crawl the site, thereby giving your website the top ranking, which you desire.
Source:http://www.pr-inside.com/promote-your-business-effectively-with-search-engine-optimization-r365305.htm
Search Engine Optimization: A closer look at search engine optimization including methods employed, company insights and vendor ratings
As the advertising benefits of merely having a web site to promote a company's image and products or services have slowly waned over the last few years, many companies have turned to different forms of Internet advertising to have their web site stand out among the crowd. One such method is the use of search engine optimization ("SEO").
In this report, Amplitude Research examines the general policies and ranking procedures of the major search engines, different methods promoted for increasing web traffic including search engine optimization, and the characteristics that consumers should look for in a trustworthy SEO firm. Also included is a survey of technology professionals and executives on their use of Internet advertising, optimization software and SEO firms, with vendor ratings.
This report is a valuable tool for consumers evaluating the use of search engine optimization firms or other methods of increasing web traffic, and for SEO firms trying to better understand their consumers.
Source:http://www.it-analysis.com/research.php?code=AM-2504
In this report, Amplitude Research examines the general policies and ranking procedures of the major search engines, different methods promoted for increasing web traffic including search engine optimization, and the characteristics that consumers should look for in a trustworthy SEO firm. Also included is a survey of technology professionals and executives on their use of Internet advertising, optimization software and SEO firms, with vendor ratings.
This report is a valuable tool for consumers evaluating the use of search engine optimization firms or other methods of increasing web traffic, and for SEO firms trying to better understand their consumers.
Source:http://www.it-analysis.com/research.php?code=AM-2504
Importance of Meta Tags
Meta Tags are HTML tags which provide information to the search engines, describing the content of the webpages a user is likely to view. Search engines have recognized that website owners and administrators can use this resource to control their positioning and descriptions in search engine results. The three types of Meta tags are:
• Title- The text that appears on the title bar of the web browser
• Description- The quick summary of what the page is all about
• Keywords- The important words on the page
Meta tags add information to the HTTP header of the page as well as contain hidden information of the coding that the Search engines are likely to pick upon.
Meta tags are of great significance as they boost the overall performance of the webpage. Meta tags are useful in enhancing the placement of your webpage in various Search engines such as Yahoo, Google, and MSN thereby increasing the traffic to your site. Webmasters need to stiff a number of keywords in their Meta tags in order to improve the search engine rankings of their webpages for a particular context.
Webmasters need to lay great emphasis on stuffing appropriate keywords in the header. If the keywords are absent from the header of your html code, the search engines will be unable to find your website/webpage.
Choosing the right keywords for the Meta tags needs expert advice. One needs to be extremely careful while selecting the keywords for the Meta tags as they act as major factors in determining how a visitor will locate your website in the search engines.
Title and Meta tag structure formation is the most important aspect and is known as the beginning of website promotion. It is very important to keep track of the number of keywords as most search engine spiders only use the information available in the title tags to locate the webpage. Using high quality Meta tags rich in keywords ensures increased traffic to your webpage.
The core purpose of Meta tags is to guide the search engine spiders enabling them to reach a specific webpage. Thus, it is very important to use Meta tags and not drop them as they ensure effective Search Engine Optimization.
Source:http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=122807_meta_tags_optimization.htm
• Title- The text that appears on the title bar of the web browser
• Description- The quick summary of what the page is all about
• Keywords- The important words on the page
Meta tags add information to the HTTP header of the page as well as contain hidden information of the coding that the Search engines are likely to pick upon.
Meta tags are of great significance as they boost the overall performance of the webpage. Meta tags are useful in enhancing the placement of your webpage in various Search engines such as Yahoo, Google, and MSN thereby increasing the traffic to your site. Webmasters need to stiff a number of keywords in their Meta tags in order to improve the search engine rankings of their webpages for a particular context.
Webmasters need to lay great emphasis on stuffing appropriate keywords in the header. If the keywords are absent from the header of your html code, the search engines will be unable to find your website/webpage.
Choosing the right keywords for the Meta tags needs expert advice. One needs to be extremely careful while selecting the keywords for the Meta tags as they act as major factors in determining how a visitor will locate your website in the search engines.
Title and Meta tag structure formation is the most important aspect and is known as the beginning of website promotion. It is very important to keep track of the number of keywords as most search engine spiders only use the information available in the title tags to locate the webpage. Using high quality Meta tags rich in keywords ensures increased traffic to your webpage.
The core purpose of Meta tags is to guide the search engine spiders enabling them to reach a specific webpage. Thus, it is very important to use Meta tags and not drop them as they ensure effective Search Engine Optimization.
Source:http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=122807_meta_tags_optimization.htm
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Search Engine Optimization Firm Combats Hunger and Homelessness
Austin, Texas (PRWEB) December 13, 2007 -- What do our homeless, hungry fellow citizens living in the streets have in common with burgeoning technological companies? Not a lot - that is unless you consider the generous efforts of one world renowned search engine optimization company to bring about a positive impact in its local community.
ArteWorks SEO has committed to sponsoring 1000 meals per month to feed homeless fellow citizens of its Austin Texas community by promising valuable funding for Church Under the Bridge, a multi-church effort to combat hunger in Austin's homeless population. Additionally, ArteWorks SEO has provided 100 sleeping bags to the homeless to keep them warm on cold winter nights.
The Church Under the Bridge initiative is spearheaded by Mission: Possible, an organization aimed at connecting believers with people in need and establishing a connection with the Body of Christ through serving and empowering those individuals in need.
In accordance with the organization's mission, volunteers for Mission: Possible congregate weekly to share in the love of God by providing blankets, clothes and 1,600 hot meals per month to disadvantaged citizens. "Corporate sponsorships are vital to our ministry as they allow our volunteers to get involved in relationships that have a lasting impact on participants serving and being served," said Tim Pinson, Sr., Executive Director of Mission:Possible.
In its 15th year of operation, Mission: Possible is a faith based nonprofit organization which since inception has been focused on connecting to at-risk youth as well as empowering homeless individuals who are pursuing positive changes in their lives by providing a venue through which they can worship and express their faith.
The generous donations of ArteWorks SEO will supply sustenance to 1000 hungry citizens per month, with contributions anticipated to increase with business growth. "We have worked diligently to maintain a position of leadership in our industry, and through our activism we aim to also be leaders in serving the needs of our less fortunate brethren, both as fellow Christians and as a community conscious company," comments Foster.
source:http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/12/emw575907.htm
ArteWorks SEO has committed to sponsoring 1000 meals per month to feed homeless fellow citizens of its Austin Texas community by promising valuable funding for Church Under the Bridge, a multi-church effort to combat hunger in Austin's homeless population. Additionally, ArteWorks SEO has provided 100 sleeping bags to the homeless to keep them warm on cold winter nights.
The Church Under the Bridge initiative is spearheaded by Mission: Possible, an organization aimed at connecting believers with people in need and establishing a connection with the Body of Christ through serving and empowering those individuals in need.
In accordance with the organization's mission, volunteers for Mission: Possible congregate weekly to share in the love of God by providing blankets, clothes and 1,600 hot meals per month to disadvantaged citizens. "Corporate sponsorships are vital to our ministry as they allow our volunteers to get involved in relationships that have a lasting impact on participants serving and being served," said Tim Pinson, Sr., Executive Director of Mission:Possible.
In its 15th year of operation, Mission: Possible is a faith based nonprofit organization which since inception has been focused on connecting to at-risk youth as well as empowering homeless individuals who are pursuing positive changes in their lives by providing a venue through which they can worship and express their faith.
The generous donations of ArteWorks SEO will supply sustenance to 1000 hungry citizens per month, with contributions anticipated to increase with business growth. "We have worked diligently to maintain a position of leadership in our industry, and through our activism we aim to also be leaders in serving the needs of our less fortunate brethren, both as fellow Christians and as a community conscious company," comments Foster.
source:http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/12/emw575907.htm
Search Engine Optimization Firm in Raleigh NC Now Offers Complete Website Analysis
Unlimited Web Solutions, a search engine optimization firm in Raleigh NC, will now offer a complete website analysis by four of the industry's leading SEO experts.
Until now, Unlimited Web Solutions website analysis services were only available to ongoing SEO clients in the premium price range. Now do-it-yourself website optimizers can have access to the same high-end SEO consultation and analysis for a fraction of the price.
The complete website analysis package offered by Unlimited Web Solutions will include:
* Site analysis of source code by Fred Wood
* Copy review by Christine O'Kelly
* General SEO overview by David Williams
* Pay Per Click strategy review by Noah Boswell, a Google Certified Adwords Specialist
Clients will receive a complete written analysis and of their current website as well as a specific short and long term plan of action that they themselves can execute to achieve greater search engine visibility.
In addition to a written analysis, clients will receive a CD of up to 1 hour of live screen cast video and audio detailing:
* Analysis of a website's competition
* Keyword analysis and recommendations
* Analysis and recommendations for on-site optimization
* Analysis of backlinks and recommendations of generate additional quality backlinks
* Analysis of layout and recommendations for enhancing layout
Website owners can use the CD to discover exactly how the complete website analysis is preformed and pass the CD along to the appropriate people in the company responsible for handling related tasks.
"The most important part of an SEO plan is having an advanced SEO strategy in place from which to work with. Once a thorough analysis has been conducted and a plan has been created, most of the details can often be carried out by the website owner to for significant improvements in search engine ranking," says David Williams, vice president of David Williams Online/Unlimited Web Solutions.
Williams says that the decision to offer a website analysis service was driven by the company's desire to help more start-up internet entrepreneurs achieve their goals for success in 2008.
"While many new businesses cannot afford the full-service rates of a high-end SEO company, we wanted to find a way for companies on a budget to receive a high-end, personalized SEO plan that they could execute themselves to gain front page search engine visibility and grow their businesses in the New Year."
About Unlimited Web Solutions/David Williams Online: Unlimited Web Solutions is a leading Raleigh NC search engine optimization firm. The SEO experts at DWO/UWS have worked with numerous of clients to create more visible and more profitable websites.
source:http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52378&Itemid=9
Until now, Unlimited Web Solutions website analysis services were only available to ongoing SEO clients in the premium price range. Now do-it-yourself website optimizers can have access to the same high-end SEO consultation and analysis for a fraction of the price.
The complete website analysis package offered by Unlimited Web Solutions will include:
* Site analysis of source code by Fred Wood
* Copy review by Christine O'Kelly
* General SEO overview by David Williams
* Pay Per Click strategy review by Noah Boswell, a Google Certified Adwords Specialist
Clients will receive a complete written analysis and of their current website as well as a specific short and long term plan of action that they themselves can execute to achieve greater search engine visibility.
In addition to a written analysis, clients will receive a CD of up to 1 hour of live screen cast video and audio detailing:
* Analysis of a website's competition
* Keyword analysis and recommendations
* Analysis and recommendations for on-site optimization
* Analysis of backlinks and recommendations of generate additional quality backlinks
* Analysis of layout and recommendations for enhancing layout
Website owners can use the CD to discover exactly how the complete website analysis is preformed and pass the CD along to the appropriate people in the company responsible for handling related tasks.
"The most important part of an SEO plan is having an advanced SEO strategy in place from which to work with. Once a thorough analysis has been conducted and a plan has been created, most of the details can often be carried out by the website owner to for significant improvements in search engine ranking," says David Williams, vice president of David Williams Online/Unlimited Web Solutions.
Williams says that the decision to offer a website analysis service was driven by the company's desire to help more start-up internet entrepreneurs achieve their goals for success in 2008.
"While many new businesses cannot afford the full-service rates of a high-end SEO company, we wanted to find a way for companies on a budget to receive a high-end, personalized SEO plan that they could execute themselves to gain front page search engine visibility and grow their businesses in the New Year."
About Unlimited Web Solutions/David Williams Online: Unlimited Web Solutions is a leading Raleigh NC search engine optimization firm. The SEO experts at DWO/UWS have worked with numerous of clients to create more visible and more profitable websites.
source:http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52378&Itemid=9
How to Market SEO to Humans
With every holiday season comes the inevitable parties and get-togethers. As with any social gathering, you might find yourself among unfamiliar company being asked about your job.
If you work in SEO (define), what do you say? How do you explain SEO to the layman?
Fortunately, SEO is not unlike other marketing tools. Technical aspects aside, SEO is a marketing discipline at heart, relying on the same principles as traditional marketing practices. While the medium may be unfamiliar, the process can be broken down easily for the unacquainted.
SEO Research and Human Trafficking
Call them traffic, conversions, or whatever you like. Your online audience is made of real people. While SEOs typically define audiences by their search inputs, think of these keywords (define) as your audience's everyday vocabulary.
Do they want hoagies or grinders? Free checking or "no fee" checking?
We compile a list of effective phrases for Web copy from audience vernacular. The keyword list enables your site to speak harmoniously with the audience.
To create this list, SEOs examine what works for competitors, as well as what's hot in search engines. This research helps pinpoint the target audience.
The process is equivalent to how Nielsen ratings are interpreted for demographic targeting, and audience research can be refined further through focus groups. Online, we have user experience and advanced optimization teams for similar refinements.
The New SEO Media Mix
Traditional marketers may view their media mix as print, TV, radio, and outdoor. Based on budget and scope, they create the best mix to deliver their message. The SEO mix behaves comparably.
Within online marketing, SEO has its own media mix. This consists of organic channels ranging from on-site to social media to inbound links. Don't let the jargon confuse you. They're just different pathways for audiences to find your message online.
As in traditional, each channel must be weighed carefully, factoring in relevancy, timing, and budget constraints. The full mix must execute on a unified message, reaching the audience from all angles -- just like a traditional marketing mix.
Budging a Little on SEO Budget
When considering SEO, new clients often wonder, "What percentage of new sales can I expect from increased search results?" ROI (define) is a major consideration and often a major hurdle for SEO agencies.
Predicting new optimization revenue is not an exact science, and therein lies the problem. Search engines expand the playing field so that even sites like Wikipedia can be competitors.
Instead of a handful of competitors in your industry, you now have hundreds of thousands in your search results. This is a key difference between search and traditional.
When budgeting SEO, approach the medium with a goal in mind. If you need instant conversions, try paid search. If you want to improved long-term conversions, then budget for an SEO redesign.
Unlike traditional media, the effects of SEO continue to generate ROI long after the initial engagement ends.
Blended Search: Beyond Traditional Channels
When setting up a television campaign, you need to decide which channels to target. Is a Super Bowl spot the right way to go? Or should you rely on cable niches?
The same thinking goes into SEO. Do we focus on local, image, or vertical search? Is YouTube right for buzz building?
Channel options must be considered carefully to maximize effective coverage of any marketing campaign.
Going Live, Virtually Speaking
Now it's time to take the campaign public. Here's where traditional marketing and SEO align.
To launch a print ad, client and agency work closely to flesh out details -- everything from choosing models to planning magazine placement. In SEO, the agency develops on-site and off-site tactics for the client to implement. Same idea, different tactics.
The client must remain hands-on throughout the process to ensure the campaign flows smoothly. In many cases, the client implements, as they alone may control backend access.
Even SEOs Can Speak English
While casual SEO chat seems tricky, you might charm a few technophobes by speaking their language. Search is still a marketing medium, just like radio or print. Our terminology reflects the same information whether you say inbound links or references, keyword, or psychographics.
Knowing how to pitch SEO in plain English is also important for agencies looking to capture new clientele. Showing how SEO aligns with traditional practices may be more effective than walking a client through meta tags (define) and 301 redirects.
Speaking in human may save your holiday party too, as people tend to listen when you're not talking in HTML. The only thing that should be glazed over this holiday is a nice honey baked ham.
source:http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3627956
If you work in SEO (define), what do you say? How do you explain SEO to the layman?
Fortunately, SEO is not unlike other marketing tools. Technical aspects aside, SEO is a marketing discipline at heart, relying on the same principles as traditional marketing practices. While the medium may be unfamiliar, the process can be broken down easily for the unacquainted.
SEO Research and Human Trafficking
Call them traffic, conversions, or whatever you like. Your online audience is made of real people. While SEOs typically define audiences by their search inputs, think of these keywords (define) as your audience's everyday vocabulary.
Do they want hoagies or grinders? Free checking or "no fee" checking?
We compile a list of effective phrases for Web copy from audience vernacular. The keyword list enables your site to speak harmoniously with the audience.
To create this list, SEOs examine what works for competitors, as well as what's hot in search engines. This research helps pinpoint the target audience.
The process is equivalent to how Nielsen ratings are interpreted for demographic targeting, and audience research can be refined further through focus groups. Online, we have user experience and advanced optimization teams for similar refinements.
The New SEO Media Mix
Traditional marketers may view their media mix as print, TV, radio, and outdoor. Based on budget and scope, they create the best mix to deliver their message. The SEO mix behaves comparably.
Within online marketing, SEO has its own media mix. This consists of organic channels ranging from on-site to social media to inbound links. Don't let the jargon confuse you. They're just different pathways for audiences to find your message online.
As in traditional, each channel must be weighed carefully, factoring in relevancy, timing, and budget constraints. The full mix must execute on a unified message, reaching the audience from all angles -- just like a traditional marketing mix.
Budging a Little on SEO Budget
When considering SEO, new clients often wonder, "What percentage of new sales can I expect from increased search results?" ROI (define) is a major consideration and often a major hurdle for SEO agencies.
Predicting new optimization revenue is not an exact science, and therein lies the problem. Search engines expand the playing field so that even sites like Wikipedia can be competitors.
Instead of a handful of competitors in your industry, you now have hundreds of thousands in your search results. This is a key difference between search and traditional.
When budgeting SEO, approach the medium with a goal in mind. If you need instant conversions, try paid search. If you want to improved long-term conversions, then budget for an SEO redesign.
Unlike traditional media, the effects of SEO continue to generate ROI long after the initial engagement ends.
Blended Search: Beyond Traditional Channels
When setting up a television campaign, you need to decide which channels to target. Is a Super Bowl spot the right way to go? Or should you rely on cable niches?
The same thinking goes into SEO. Do we focus on local, image, or vertical search? Is YouTube right for buzz building?
Channel options must be considered carefully to maximize effective coverage of any marketing campaign.
Going Live, Virtually Speaking
Now it's time to take the campaign public. Here's where traditional marketing and SEO align.
To launch a print ad, client and agency work closely to flesh out details -- everything from choosing models to planning magazine placement. In SEO, the agency develops on-site and off-site tactics for the client to implement. Same idea, different tactics.
The client must remain hands-on throughout the process to ensure the campaign flows smoothly. In many cases, the client implements, as they alone may control backend access.
Even SEOs Can Speak English
While casual SEO chat seems tricky, you might charm a few technophobes by speaking their language. Search is still a marketing medium, just like radio or print. Our terminology reflects the same information whether you say inbound links or references, keyword, or psychographics.
Knowing how to pitch SEO in plain English is also important for agencies looking to capture new clientele. Showing how SEO aligns with traditional practices may be more effective than walking a client through meta tags (define) and 301 redirects.
Speaking in human may save your holiday party too, as people tend to listen when you're not talking in HTML. The only thing that should be glazed over this holiday is a nice honey baked ham.
source:http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3627956
Is it Really Your Space with Social Media?
A power shift is being waged on the Internet and the “non-sophisticated” Internet user stands to gain. Getting to the top of the search engine results page (SERP) is typically a costly hit or miss event put in the hands of marketing experts. Social media is changing this with its unyielding ability to attract Internet users and quickly build online communities and ranking around popular topics. Until recently, online communities were looked at as merely places to socialize, network or advertise. Now, the business minded seeks to establish marketing control and eventually ownership of these online communities but they will have to seek alternatives to MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Bebo, LinkedIn and others.
A first of its kind technology called www.Moguling.com integrates search engine optimization with a social media platform for businesses and individuals looking to market themselves on the Internet. It is now possible, and quite easy, to build “and own” an online community around ones personal and professional interests. The ability to establish ownership of online communities is making every business reconsider their approach to social media and the marketing technology of choice.
To make the picture clearer, let’s look at how the whole process of building online communities works and where the value is: as new members sign up online, a community grows around popular topics along with a mass of content rich web pages. Each individual (or business) becomes a valuable publisher in the community and ownership of the content (web pages) it not you. This content that you help create on MySpace, Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn is a major part of why these companies have become worth so much and why they want to keep this a secret. Online communities are built naturally through the addition of friends, or if you are a business through employees, customers, vendors and partners into your network. Additionally, valuable online real estate (content) is generated. As these communities grow in numbers, there is now more real estate for MySpace, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Bebo, and others to sell advertising on. Unfortunately, these big online communities restrict your ability to establish any ownership in the community, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising. Which leads you to ask, is it really your space?
Unlike other social networking sites/communities, www.Moguling.com allows you to easily develop your own online community while continuing to use other social, professional and video networking communities. Moguling enables participants to have marketing control over the content your network creates. Additionally, your content gets listed and ranked in search engines naturally to further build traffic and the overall value of your online community. The end result is a powerful network that you manage and most importantly own.
Moguling is positioned to become what industry experts say has yet to be established, the basis for the first “standard” for search engine marketing using the power of social media. Moguling makes it possible for virtually anyone to build search engine friendly online communities that businesses and individuals own and have marketing control of. Moguling.com is taking an aggressive approach to becoming the market leader for building valuable online communities that businesses and individuals own.
source:http://www.prleap.com/pr/109779/
A first of its kind technology called www.Moguling.com integrates search engine optimization with a social media platform for businesses and individuals looking to market themselves on the Internet. It is now possible, and quite easy, to build “and own” an online community around ones personal and professional interests. The ability to establish ownership of online communities is making every business reconsider their approach to social media and the marketing technology of choice.
To make the picture clearer, let’s look at how the whole process of building online communities works and where the value is: as new members sign up online, a community grows around popular topics along with a mass of content rich web pages. Each individual (or business) becomes a valuable publisher in the community and ownership of the content (web pages) it not you. This content that you help create on MySpace, Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn is a major part of why these companies have become worth so much and why they want to keep this a secret. Online communities are built naturally through the addition of friends, or if you are a business through employees, customers, vendors and partners into your network. Additionally, valuable online real estate (content) is generated. As these communities grow in numbers, there is now more real estate for MySpace, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Bebo, and others to sell advertising on. Unfortunately, these big online communities restrict your ability to establish any ownership in the community, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising. Which leads you to ask, is it really your space?
Unlike other social networking sites/communities, www.Moguling.com allows you to easily develop your own online community while continuing to use other social, professional and video networking communities. Moguling enables participants to have marketing control over the content your network creates. Additionally, your content gets listed and ranked in search engines naturally to further build traffic and the overall value of your online community. The end result is a powerful network that you manage and most importantly own.
Moguling is positioned to become what industry experts say has yet to be established, the basis for the first “standard” for search engine marketing using the power of social media. Moguling makes it possible for virtually anyone to build search engine friendly online communities that businesses and individuals own and have marketing control of. Moguling.com is taking an aggressive approach to becoming the market leader for building valuable online communities that businesses and individuals own.
source:http://www.prleap.com/pr/109779/
Is it Really Your Space with Social Media?
A power shift is being waged on the Internet and the “non-sophisticated” Internet user stands to gain. Getting to the top of the search engine results page (SERP) is typically a costly hit or miss event put in the hands of marketing experts. Social media is changing this with its unyielding ability to attract Internet users and quickly build online communities and ranking around popular topics. Until recently, online communities were looked at as merely places to socialize, network or advertise. Now, the business minded seeks to establish marketing control and eventually ownership of these online communities but they will have to seek alternatives to MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Bebo, LinkedIn and others.
A first of its kind technology called www.Moguling.com integrates search engine optimization with a social media platform for businesses and individuals looking to market themselves on the Internet. It is now possible, and quite easy, to build “and own” an online community around ones personal and professional interests. The ability to establish ownership of online communities is making every business reconsider their approach to social media and the marketing technology of choice.
To make the picture clearer, let’s look at how the whole process of building online communities works and where the value is: as new members sign up online, a community grows around popular topics along with a mass of content rich web pages. Each individual (or business) becomes a valuable publisher in the community and ownership of the content (web pages) it not you. This content that you help create on MySpace, Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn is a major part of why these companies have become worth so much and why they want to keep this a secret. Online communities are built naturally through the addition of friends, or if you are a business through employees, customers, vendors and partners into your network. Additionally, valuable online real estate (content) is generated. As these communities grow in numbers, there is now more real estate for MySpace, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Bebo, and others to sell advertising on. Unfortunately, these big online communities restrict your ability to establish any ownership in the community, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising. Which leads you to ask, is it really your space?
Unlike other social networking sites/communities, www.Moguling.com allows you to easily develop your own online community while continuing to use other social, professional and video networking communities. Moguling enables participants to have marketing control over the content your network creates. Additionally, your content gets listed and ranked in search engines naturally to further build traffic and the overall value of your online community. The end result is a powerful network that you manage and most importantly own.
Moguling is positioned to become what industry experts say has yet to be established, the basis for the first “standard” for search engine marketing using the power of social media. Moguling makes it possible for virtually anyone to build search engine friendly online communities that businesses and individuals own and have marketing control of. Moguling.com is taking an aggressive approach to becoming the market leader for building valuable online communities that businesses and individuals own.
source:http://www.prleap.com/pr/109779/
A first of its kind technology called www.Moguling.com integrates search engine optimization with a social media platform for businesses and individuals looking to market themselves on the Internet. It is now possible, and quite easy, to build “and own” an online community around ones personal and professional interests. The ability to establish ownership of online communities is making every business reconsider their approach to social media and the marketing technology of choice.
To make the picture clearer, let’s look at how the whole process of building online communities works and where the value is: as new members sign up online, a community grows around popular topics along with a mass of content rich web pages. Each individual (or business) becomes a valuable publisher in the community and ownership of the content (web pages) it not you. This content that you help create on MySpace, Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn is a major part of why these companies have become worth so much and why they want to keep this a secret. Online communities are built naturally through the addition of friends, or if you are a business through employees, customers, vendors and partners into your network. Additionally, valuable online real estate (content) is generated. As these communities grow in numbers, there is now more real estate for MySpace, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Bebo, and others to sell advertising on. Unfortunately, these big online communities restrict your ability to establish any ownership in the community, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising. Which leads you to ask, is it really your space?
Unlike other social networking sites/communities, www.Moguling.com allows you to easily develop your own online community while continuing to use other social, professional and video networking communities. Moguling enables participants to have marketing control over the content your network creates. Additionally, your content gets listed and ranked in search engines naturally to further build traffic and the overall value of your online community. The end result is a powerful network that you manage and most importantly own.
Moguling is positioned to become what industry experts say has yet to be established, the basis for the first “standard” for search engine marketing using the power of social media. Moguling makes it possible for virtually anyone to build search engine friendly online communities that businesses and individuals own and have marketing control of. Moguling.com is taking an aggressive approach to becoming the market leader for building valuable online communities that businesses and individuals own.
source:http://www.prleap.com/pr/109779/
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Search Engine Marketing Issues: Changing URLs
I would highly recommend *not* changing your URLs at all. It is a common misconception that keywords in URLs are somehow helpful to search engine rankings, when in reality, they have very little (if any) effect on
rankings.
The reasons why people believe they help rankings are many, but generally center on a mixing up of cause and effect, as many people learning about SEO are apt to do.
For instance, when you do a keyword phrase search at Google, you will see your keywords bolded on the search engine results page, including keywords that appear in the URLs. People see this and assume that it means Google factors the bolded words into their relevancy algorithms. Yet, the software that does the bolding is just that -- software that is programmed to bold the queried words that show up in the listings. It's a huge leap to think that the bold type has anything to do with Google's actual algorithm.
Another reason why people wrongly assume that keyword phrases in URLs are a factor in getting a page to show up in the search results is because the top results do indeed often use keyworded URLs! But (and this is a big but) websites that use keyword-rich URLs are using them because someone, somewhere is attempting to optimize the pages to show up in the search results -- which means they are doing a lot more than simply putting keywords in URLs as part of their website optimization. Very rarely will you see a page show up in the search results if the only place the keyword phrase appears is the URL. Most likely the phrase is also being used in the Title tag and other visible places on the page. So again, there's a mixing up of cause and effect.
What has happened over the years is that the mixer-uppers have spread the word that keywords in URLs will help with rankings, so others believe it and make changes to their own URLs, making more and more keyword-rich URLs appear in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Which, of course, feeds the myth-monster even more!
All that said, this is somewhat of a tricky one to prove one way or another
,and it certainly doesn't hurt to use keyword-rich URLs when building a new website. It often makes it easier to remember the URL, which is why on our
new High Rankings site most of our URLs will have keywords. It's not for SEO purposes, but for usability purposes. If we didn't have to change our URLs due to switching backend platforms, we definitely wouldn't go changing to
keyword-rich file names. But since we had to change them anyhow, I figured we could use our site as a test bed to see what happens when you change URLs. (And yes, I realize we could have done some complicated things behind
the scenes to continue to keep our URLs the same as they were, but in this case, we felt changing them and redirecting was our best solution.
Especially as I can probably get a few good articles out of it later!)
I can't stress enough that you should never change URLs simply for SEO purposes. But if you do have to change them, and you do want to eke out any possible search engine benefit that you might get, then you should not use
underscores between the words, but hyphens instead. Even though Google recently announced that they were going to start reading underscores as a word separator, traditionally they haven't. They do read hyphens as a separator, however. So if Google decides to use URLs to rank pages, then you'd want to at least create them in a way they can read. You would also not want to put two words together like "twowords.html " as they don't separate words that are mashed together that way either.
Where you may benefit from a keyword-rich URL that has its words separated by a hyphen is when another site links to your page by using just the URL because it becomes somewhat of a keyword-rich anchor text link. For example,
if someone links to your page with this URL www.example.com/keyword1-keyword2 (instead of using traditional anchor text) you'd still have keyword1-keyword2 as part of the anchor text, which does tell the search engines that the page they're about to go to is at least somewhat relevant to those keyword phrases.
So in answer to the original question, instead of changing the existing URLs, make sure you've optimized the page elements that do matter --especially the Title tag, the anchor text pointing to that page, and the words on the actual page itself -- and don't worry about the URLs. Changing them can lose any "age equity" that you may have built up with your old URLs, with minimal (if any) effect on rankings.
If after all this you still feel the need to change them, be sure to put 301-redirects in place from the old URLs to the new, and use hyphens rather than underscores.
Source:http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1759/1/Search-Engine-Marketing-Issues-Changing-URLs/Page1.html
rankings.
The reasons why people believe they help rankings are many, but generally center on a mixing up of cause and effect, as many people learning about SEO are apt to do.
For instance, when you do a keyword phrase search at Google, you will see your keywords bolded on the search engine results page, including keywords that appear in the URLs. People see this and assume that it means Google factors the bolded words into their relevancy algorithms. Yet, the software that does the bolding is just that -- software that is programmed to bold the queried words that show up in the listings. It's a huge leap to think that the bold type has anything to do with Google's actual algorithm.
Another reason why people wrongly assume that keyword phrases in URLs are a factor in getting a page to show up in the search results is because the top results do indeed often use keyworded URLs! But (and this is a big but) websites that use keyword-rich URLs are using them because someone, somewhere is attempting to optimize the pages to show up in the search results -- which means they are doing a lot more than simply putting keywords in URLs as part of their website optimization. Very rarely will you see a page show up in the search results if the only place the keyword phrase appears is the URL. Most likely the phrase is also being used in the Title tag and other visible places on the page. So again, there's a mixing up of cause and effect.
What has happened over the years is that the mixer-uppers have spread the word that keywords in URLs will help with rankings, so others believe it and make changes to their own URLs, making more and more keyword-rich URLs appear in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Which, of course, feeds the myth-monster even more!
All that said, this is somewhat of a tricky one to prove one way or another
,and it certainly doesn't hurt to use keyword-rich URLs when building a new website. It often makes it easier to remember the URL, which is why on our
new High Rankings site most of our URLs will have keywords. It's not for SEO purposes, but for usability purposes. If we didn't have to change our URLs due to switching backend platforms, we definitely wouldn't go changing to
keyword-rich file names. But since we had to change them anyhow, I figured we could use our site as a test bed to see what happens when you change URLs. (And yes, I realize we could have done some complicated things behind
the scenes to continue to keep our URLs the same as they were, but in this case, we felt changing them and redirecting was our best solution.
Especially as I can probably get a few good articles out of it later!)
I can't stress enough that you should never change URLs simply for SEO purposes. But if you do have to change them, and you do want to eke out any possible search engine benefit that you might get, then you should not use
underscores between the words, but hyphens instead. Even though Google recently announced that they were going to start reading underscores as a word separator, traditionally they haven't. They do read hyphens as a separator, however. So if Google decides to use URLs to rank pages, then you'd want to at least create them in a way they can read. You would also not want to put two words together like "twowords.html " as they don't separate words that are mashed together that way either.
Where you may benefit from a keyword-rich URL that has its words separated by a hyphen is when another site links to your page by using just the URL because it becomes somewhat of a keyword-rich anchor text link. For example,
if someone links to your page with this URL www.example.com/keyword1-keyword2 (instead of using traditional anchor text) you'd still have keyword1-keyword2 as part of the anchor text, which does tell the search engines that the page they're about to go to is at least somewhat relevant to those keyword phrases.
So in answer to the original question, instead of changing the existing URLs, make sure you've optimized the page elements that do matter --especially the Title tag, the anchor text pointing to that page, and the words on the actual page itself -- and don't worry about the URLs. Changing them can lose any "age equity" that you may have built up with your old URLs, with minimal (if any) effect on rankings.
If after all this you still feel the need to change them, be sure to put 301-redirects in place from the old URLs to the new, and use hyphens rather than underscores.
Source:http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1759/1/Search-Engine-Marketing-Issues-Changing-URLs/Page1.html
SEO - Search Engine Optimization Methodology
If you want to rank your web site in the top positions within search engine results pages (SERPs), your first tasks are to address how your site is built, how the page content is developed and thematically organized throughout the site, and how the internal navigation is structured. All of these factors impact how your site appears to a search engine.
The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design.
Essentially search engine marketing (abbreviated SEM) is an umbrella term for web site promotion through a search engine, whether that is through search engine optimization, pay per click advertisements or through paid inclusion. The theory behind SEM is a good one; when people use search engines, they are in a state of mind where they are looking for information. When a web surfer gets to your site via a search engine, he does not feel put upon or annoyed, which he might if he had received a piece of spam e-mail from you. By giving the searcher exactly what they want when they search, SEM can get you customers who are already sold on the type of services your provide, but just need to find you.
The best and most direct way to ensure that your website is near the top when a search string related to your site is entered into Google Yahoo or MSN, is through search engine optimization and through link building. The search engine rates your site on how closely it seems to match what the search string says, and also by how many other sites have linked to you. There are many ways to make sure your site is attractive to search engines, ranging from article writing to placing your link on directories that list similar services.
Pay per click advertising is also a main part of SEM; you can set up an arrangement where a small link to your site appears when a certain search string is used in the search engines. The best example of this sort of advertising and how it relates to SEM can be seen with Google Ads. You choose which words you'd like to bring up your ad and then, whenever anyone clicks on your link, you will pay Google a certain amount. You can set a budget to and limit how much you pay every day, and you can also experiment with the words you use to see which combinations bring the most relevant traffic to your site.
There is fairly constant debate that goes on over whether natural search results (search results that show up on their own) or paid search results are better. A blended strategy is normally best which utilizes both search engine optimization and pay per click as it encompasses both parts of the marketing mix.
Search Engine Optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn about and use the advertising opportunites offered by search engines, and new agencies focusing primarily upon marketing and advertising through search engines emerged. The term "Search Engine Marketing" was proposed by Danny Sullivan in 2001 to cover the spectrum of activities involved in performing SEO, managing paid listings at the search engines, submitting sites to directories, and developing online marketing strategies for businesses, organizations, and individuals. As far as search engine promotion is concerned, your web site's text content is your key to success (or failure!). When doing SEO copywriting, it is important to understand that the search engines exist for one primary purpose, and that is to provide the internet searcher with relevant results for their searches.
Source:http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=44529
The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design.
Essentially search engine marketing (abbreviated SEM) is an umbrella term for web site promotion through a search engine, whether that is through search engine optimization, pay per click advertisements or through paid inclusion. The theory behind SEM is a good one; when people use search engines, they are in a state of mind where they are looking for information. When a web surfer gets to your site via a search engine, he does not feel put upon or annoyed, which he might if he had received a piece of spam e-mail from you. By giving the searcher exactly what they want when they search, SEM can get you customers who are already sold on the type of services your provide, but just need to find you.
The best and most direct way to ensure that your website is near the top when a search string related to your site is entered into Google Yahoo or MSN, is through search engine optimization and through link building. The search engine rates your site on how closely it seems to match what the search string says, and also by how many other sites have linked to you. There are many ways to make sure your site is attractive to search engines, ranging from article writing to placing your link on directories that list similar services.
Pay per click advertising is also a main part of SEM; you can set up an arrangement where a small link to your site appears when a certain search string is used in the search engines. The best example of this sort of advertising and how it relates to SEM can be seen with Google Ads. You choose which words you'd like to bring up your ad and then, whenever anyone clicks on your link, you will pay Google a certain amount. You can set a budget to and limit how much you pay every day, and you can also experiment with the words you use to see which combinations bring the most relevant traffic to your site.
There is fairly constant debate that goes on over whether natural search results (search results that show up on their own) or paid search results are better. A blended strategy is normally best which utilizes both search engine optimization and pay per click as it encompasses both parts of the marketing mix.
Search Engine Optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn about and use the advertising opportunites offered by search engines, and new agencies focusing primarily upon marketing and advertising through search engines emerged. The term "Search Engine Marketing" was proposed by Danny Sullivan in 2001 to cover the spectrum of activities involved in performing SEO, managing paid listings at the search engines, submitting sites to directories, and developing online marketing strategies for businesses, organizations, and individuals. As far as search engine promotion is concerned, your web site's text content is your key to success (or failure!). When doing SEO copywriting, it is important to understand that the search engines exist for one primary purpose, and that is to provide the internet searcher with relevant results for their searches.
Source:http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=44529
Search optimization helps blog drive traffic
Challenge:Objective Management Group is a service company that provides sales organization assessments and sales candidate evaluations, including personality testing. The company sells its service two ways: directly and through 110 resellers.
OMG wanted to add resellers and track leads better. “We had no way of determining where these people came from, whether the leads were any good, and we weren’t getting enough [leads] to make everybody happy,” said CEO Dave Kurlan.
Kurlan maintained a blog about sales assessment, hosted at Blogger, but traffic was not extraordinary, averaging about 800 visits per month. He wanted more visibility to attract more business.
In his blog, Kurlan inserted links back to the company’s Web site. “I’d post an article and nobody would see it and nobody would come,” he said.
Solution: Enter HubSpot, a company that combines search engine optimization with blog strategy to help its clients generate and convert leads.
HubSpot’s first order of business was to optimize both OMG’s blog and Web site, and set up a mechanism to track visitors.
“They did some search engine optimization, they tweaked the corporate Web site and they added tracking tools and analytics so that I could continue to play with it and change my writing to increase the traffic,” Kurlan said.
The tracking gave Kurlan the insight he needed to determine which topics were of interest to potential customers and which were falling on deaf ears.
“I go in and look at the data relative to my blog, because it tells me whether I am writing things of interest [to our prospects],” he said. “We get a lot of real world information about their behavior. We actually get the trail they leave behind, so we have a lot of intelligence about them before we contact them.”
OMG’s customer service staff also reviews the tracking data in order to get qualified leads out to the resellers.
Moreover, Kurlan has adapted his blog writing significantly. Now instead of writing about sales assessment and the business of sales assessment, he writes about things like coaching, motivating and recruiting salespeople.
“Most people doing searches weren’t looking for information about sales assessments,” he said. “They were looking for information about selling strategy.”
Simply marrying the search terms that most people were using and writing more about those topics, OMG managed to attract a greater number of qualified prospects.
“One third of our traffic is coming from the Google search engine, and [HubSpot] optimized our site so that we show up in the first page of search results,” Kurlan said. “The search traffic we’re getting from Google has been increasing exponentially.” OMG also does some paid search with Google AdWords.
Interestingly, Kurlan said the nonpaid search is working better than paid search. “We measure it in terms of quality of the leads,’ he said.
The keywords HubSpot used to optimize OMG’s site included “evaluating a sales force,” “sales force objectives,” “competencies for sales people” and “sales competencies.”
Results: With HubSpot’s involvement, OMG’s business is booming.
Page views on the blog jumped from an average of 800 views a month to 5000 views every month. In addition, with the tracking tool, OMG has learned that its blog generates a whooping 25% of the traffic to its corporate site.
source:http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071219/FREE/962120748/1113/FREE
OMG wanted to add resellers and track leads better. “We had no way of determining where these people came from, whether the leads were any good, and we weren’t getting enough [leads] to make everybody happy,” said CEO Dave Kurlan.
Kurlan maintained a blog about sales assessment, hosted at Blogger, but traffic was not extraordinary, averaging about 800 visits per month. He wanted more visibility to attract more business.
In his blog, Kurlan inserted links back to the company’s Web site. “I’d post an article and nobody would see it and nobody would come,” he said.
Solution: Enter HubSpot, a company that combines search engine optimization with blog strategy to help its clients generate and convert leads.
HubSpot’s first order of business was to optimize both OMG’s blog and Web site, and set up a mechanism to track visitors.
“They did some search engine optimization, they tweaked the corporate Web site and they added tracking tools and analytics so that I could continue to play with it and change my writing to increase the traffic,” Kurlan said.
The tracking gave Kurlan the insight he needed to determine which topics were of interest to potential customers and which were falling on deaf ears.
“I go in and look at the data relative to my blog, because it tells me whether I am writing things of interest [to our prospects],” he said. “We get a lot of real world information about their behavior. We actually get the trail they leave behind, so we have a lot of intelligence about them before we contact them.”
OMG’s customer service staff also reviews the tracking data in order to get qualified leads out to the resellers.
Moreover, Kurlan has adapted his blog writing significantly. Now instead of writing about sales assessment and the business of sales assessment, he writes about things like coaching, motivating and recruiting salespeople.
“Most people doing searches weren’t looking for information about sales assessments,” he said. “They were looking for information about selling strategy.”
Simply marrying the search terms that most people were using and writing more about those topics, OMG managed to attract a greater number of qualified prospects.
“One third of our traffic is coming from the Google search engine, and [HubSpot] optimized our site so that we show up in the first page of search results,” Kurlan said. “The search traffic we’re getting from Google has been increasing exponentially.” OMG also does some paid search with Google AdWords.
Interestingly, Kurlan said the nonpaid search is working better than paid search. “We measure it in terms of quality of the leads,’ he said.
The keywords HubSpot used to optimize OMG’s site included “evaluating a sales force,” “sales force objectives,” “competencies for sales people” and “sales competencies.”
Results: With HubSpot’s involvement, OMG’s business is booming.
Page views on the blog jumped from an average of 800 views a month to 5000 views every month. In addition, with the tracking tool, OMG has learned that its blog generates a whooping 25% of the traffic to its corporate site.
source:http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071219/FREE/962120748/1113/FREE
Search Engine Visibility and Site Crawlability, Part 1
At the recent SES Chicago. Laura Thieme and Matt Bailey, both experienced presenters, showed how webmasters could tame the dynamic Web site beast and improve search engine visibility and site crawlability.
This is the first of two articles outlining the SEO problems they identified with dynamic Web sites and solutions. I'll expand on both.
At the very highest level, dealing with large dynamic Web sites requires IT and marketing to collaborate. The person responsible for the technical search engine optimization is an important member of the team. Without the cooperation of technical SEO support staff, your Web site can end up poorly optimized for search engines.
Keyword Research and Deployment
Do your keyword research up front. You need to understand the language potential customers use to find the products or services you offer. You also want to understand related topics that interest these potential customers.
You then want to match up this understanding of the marketplace with the available content you have, or are willing to develop, and design a logical and clean hierarchy around that.
Laura said embedding keywords into your page names (i.e. the URI) is a powerful SEO tactic. In fact, she recommends existing sites embed the most important keywords for each page into their URI (and then 301 redirecting the old page location to the new page location).
Don't use the same titles and headers for all the pages of your site. That's another reason to do keyword research. The long tail of keywords enable you to create a different title and header for every page of the site.
Large sites also have issues with pages being found and indexed. Make sure the most important keywords for your site appear in the title and header for the home page.
Robots.txt Files
Matt pointed out that it's surprising how many sites have problems with their robots.txt file. He provided a tutorial on how robot.txt files work. You can also find good tutorials on the Web.
I've seen many sites that have problems with Robots.txt. While it's a powerful tool for directing the way search engine crawlers see your site, it's easy to make a mistake. A single mistake can have catastrophic consequences. So use robots.txt, just use the file with great care.
To illustrate how easy it is to make a mistake, we worked with a client a while back that implemented new versions of their site on a staging server separate from the one used for the main site. This allowed them to look at the site live before launching it.
They didn't want this duplicate site indexed by the search engines, so they implemented a robots.txt as follows:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Experienced readers are already cringing because they know where this is going. Unfortunately, one day during a site update they copied the whole site from the staging server to the live server, including the robots.txt file.
It took 3 weeks before anyone noticed, and that happened because traffic to the site was already crashing. Ouch. Again, use it, but be careful.
Site Maps
The Sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site, as well as when each URL was last updated, how often it usually changes, and its importance relative to other URLs in the site. The protocol was designed to enable search engines crawl the site more intelligently. In principle, this should help the search engine find all of the pages on your site more easily than crawling it naturally.
Matt had a great point when he told the audience you're better off letting your site being found naturally by the crawler. He referred to Sitemaps as a "fast track to the supplemental index".
I couldn't agree more. We don't use Sitemaps on our clients' sites.
The two best solutions for the crawlability problem -- lots of pages not being indexed -- the following two steps are the best solution:
1. Build an efficient and clean global navigation system on your site. There is no better way to help a crawler find your site than a logical and simple navigation structure. If you do this, the crawler will find its way around.
2. Get third party sites to link to your site. No on-site search engine optimization strategy will work unless you get these links.
Summary
We've outlined three key problem areas with sites that have dynamically generated content: information architecture and keyword research; robots.txt files; and the use of Sitemaps.
When search engines don't index pages on your site, invest your time and energy in site navigation and inbound link development, rather than using Sitemaps protocols.
In Part 2, we'll look at tools for analyzing your Web site structure and traffic, as well as more solutions to SEO problems with dynamically generated sites.
source:http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3627930
This is the first of two articles outlining the SEO problems they identified with dynamic Web sites and solutions. I'll expand on both.
At the very highest level, dealing with large dynamic Web sites requires IT and marketing to collaborate. The person responsible for the technical search engine optimization is an important member of the team. Without the cooperation of technical SEO support staff, your Web site can end up poorly optimized for search engines.
Keyword Research and Deployment
Do your keyword research up front. You need to understand the language potential customers use to find the products or services you offer. You also want to understand related topics that interest these potential customers.
You then want to match up this understanding of the marketplace with the available content you have, or are willing to develop, and design a logical and clean hierarchy around that.
Laura said embedding keywords into your page names (i.e. the URI) is a powerful SEO tactic. In fact, she recommends existing sites embed the most important keywords for each page into their URI (and then 301 redirecting the old page location to the new page location).
Don't use the same titles and headers for all the pages of your site. That's another reason to do keyword research. The long tail of keywords enable you to create a different title and header for every page of the site.
Large sites also have issues with pages being found and indexed. Make sure the most important keywords for your site appear in the title and header for the home page.
Robots.txt Files
Matt pointed out that it's surprising how many sites have problems with their robots.txt file. He provided a tutorial on how robot.txt files work. You can also find good tutorials on the Web.
I've seen many sites that have problems with Robots.txt. While it's a powerful tool for directing the way search engine crawlers see your site, it's easy to make a mistake. A single mistake can have catastrophic consequences. So use robots.txt, just use the file with great care.
To illustrate how easy it is to make a mistake, we worked with a client a while back that implemented new versions of their site on a staging server separate from the one used for the main site. This allowed them to look at the site live before launching it.
They didn't want this duplicate site indexed by the search engines, so they implemented a robots.txt as follows:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Experienced readers are already cringing because they know where this is going. Unfortunately, one day during a site update they copied the whole site from the staging server to the live server, including the robots.txt file.
It took 3 weeks before anyone noticed, and that happened because traffic to the site was already crashing. Ouch. Again, use it, but be careful.
Site Maps
The Sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site, as well as when each URL was last updated, how often it usually changes, and its importance relative to other URLs in the site. The protocol was designed to enable search engines crawl the site more intelligently. In principle, this should help the search engine find all of the pages on your site more easily than crawling it naturally.
Matt had a great point when he told the audience you're better off letting your site being found naturally by the crawler. He referred to Sitemaps as a "fast track to the supplemental index".
I couldn't agree more. We don't use Sitemaps on our clients' sites.
The two best solutions for the crawlability problem -- lots of pages not being indexed -- the following two steps are the best solution:
1. Build an efficient and clean global navigation system on your site. There is no better way to help a crawler find your site than a logical and simple navigation structure. If you do this, the crawler will find its way around.
2. Get third party sites to link to your site. No on-site search engine optimization strategy will work unless you get these links.
Summary
We've outlined three key problem areas with sites that have dynamically generated content: information architecture and keyword research; robots.txt files; and the use of Sitemaps.
When search engines don't index pages on your site, invest your time and energy in site navigation and inbound link development, rather than using Sitemaps protocols.
In Part 2, we'll look at tools for analyzing your Web site structure and traffic, as well as more solutions to SEO problems with dynamically generated sites.
source:http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3627930
Achieving Organic Search Engine Optimization
When it comes to difficulty, organic search engine optimization is really not that difficult. There are a couple things that you should implement on your website and the link building is not all that hard to understand. You need to remember not to use unethical means to obtain links to your site so knowing the right way is vital. One way to get many links to your website is by obtaining them from other sites that are relevant to your niche by developing unique content for them to link to.
Search engine optimization is a process that is ever changing and evolving. With every day something new comes to the table, a new method of organic SEO. This changing information is what you need to stay in tune with in order to stay ahead of your competition. A good way to stay on top of this is through forums, news developments that are related to the niche, newsletters and networking within your niche.
Search engines need to see the relevance and importance of your site within your niche. Make sure that your site is easily accessible and navigable by the search engines. You want them to be able to explore the content of your website deeply. To facilitate that you need to design it in a manner that allows the search engine robots to easily get follow through the network of you site to explore the content.
A newer method of designing websites uses a cascading sheet style that is more transparent to robots which makes it easier for robots to read the content. But don’t forget that you need to have optimized content there for the robots to read. The content should have keywords that arerelevant to your niche that the spiders can feed on. The more they see your sites relevance to your niche, the higher they will place you in the search engines. Content and keywords will get you to the top of the search results. That is where any site that does business on the web wants to be.
If you don’t have a thorough understanding of how to best implement organic SEO techniques there are companies that can assist you with it. A professional will be able to assist with the generation of content that is unique to your niche and bring visitors to your website.
Hiring a professional is not absolutely necessary though. If you have a knack for writing and are well versed on your industry you can easily generate interesting articles that other interested web surfers would want to read.
Keep in mind that you should understand prior to writing the content what words and topics that you really want to emphasize. They need to be within the content of your site for the spiders to read and understand the relevance to your topic.
source:http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=46138
Search engine optimization is a process that is ever changing and evolving. With every day something new comes to the table, a new method of organic SEO. This changing information is what you need to stay in tune with in order to stay ahead of your competition. A good way to stay on top of this is through forums, news developments that are related to the niche, newsletters and networking within your niche.
Search engines need to see the relevance and importance of your site within your niche. Make sure that your site is easily accessible and navigable by the search engines. You want them to be able to explore the content of your website deeply. To facilitate that you need to design it in a manner that allows the search engine robots to easily get follow through the network of you site to explore the content.
A newer method of designing websites uses a cascading sheet style that is more transparent to robots which makes it easier for robots to read the content. But don’t forget that you need to have optimized content there for the robots to read. The content should have keywords that arerelevant to your niche that the spiders can feed on. The more they see your sites relevance to your niche, the higher they will place you in the search engines. Content and keywords will get you to the top of the search results. That is where any site that does business on the web wants to be.
If you don’t have a thorough understanding of how to best implement organic SEO techniques there are companies that can assist you with it. A professional will be able to assist with the generation of content that is unique to your niche and bring visitors to your website.
Hiring a professional is not absolutely necessary though. If you have a knack for writing and are well versed on your industry you can easily generate interesting articles that other interested web surfers would want to read.
Keep in mind that you should understand prior to writing the content what words and topics that you really want to emphasize. They need to be within the content of your site for the spiders to read and understand the relevance to your topic.
source:http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=46138
Search Engine Optimization Firm in Raleigh NC Now Offers Complete Website Analysis
Unlimited Web Solutions, a search engine optimization firm in Raleigh NC, will now offer a complete website analysis by four of the industry's leading SEO experts.
Until now, Unlimited Web Solutions website analysis services were only available to ongoing SEO clients in the premium price range. Now do-it-yourself website optimizers can have access to the same high-end SEO consultation and analysis for a fraction of the price.
The complete website analysis package offered by Unlimited Web Solutions will include:
* Site analysis of source code by Fred Wood
* Copy review by Christine O'Kelly
* General SEO overview by David Williams
* Pay Per Click strategy review by Noah Boswell, a Google Certified Adwords Specialist
Clients will receive a complete written analysis and of their current website as well as a specific short and long term plan of action that they themselves can execute to achieve greater search engine visibility.
In addition to a written analysis, clients will receive a CD of up to 1 hour of live screen cast video and audio detailing:
* Analysis of a website's competition
* Keyword analysis and recommendations
* Analysis and recommendations for on-site optimization
* Analysis of backlinks and recommendations of generate additional quality backlinks
* Analysis of layout and recommendations for enhancing layout
Website owners can use the CD to discover exactly how the complete website analysis is preformed and pass the CD along to the appropriate people in the company responsible for handling related tasks.
"The most important part of an SEO plan is having an advanced SEO strategy in place from which to work with. Once a thorough analysis has been conducted and a plan has been created, most of the details can often be carried out by the website owner to for significant improvements in search engine ranking," says David Williams, vice president of David Williams Online/Unlimited Web Solutions .
Williams says that the decision to offer a website analysis service was driven by the company's desire to help more start-up internet entrepreneurs achieve their goals for success in 2008.
"While many new businesses cannot afford the full-service rates of a high-end SEO company, we wanted to find a way for companies on a budget to receive a high-end, personalized SEO plan that they could execute themselves to gain front page search engine visibility and grow their businesses in the New Year."
About Unlimited Web Solutions/David Williams Online: Unlimited Web Solutions is a leading Raleigh NC search engine optimization firm. The SEO experts at DWO/UWS have worked with numerous of clients to create more visible and more profitable websites.
source;http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52378&Itemid=9
Until now, Unlimited Web Solutions website analysis services were only available to ongoing SEO clients in the premium price range. Now do-it-yourself website optimizers can have access to the same high-end SEO consultation and analysis for a fraction of the price.
The complete website analysis package offered by Unlimited Web Solutions will include:
* Site analysis of source code by Fred Wood
* Copy review by Christine O'Kelly
* General SEO overview by David Williams
* Pay Per Click strategy review by Noah Boswell, a Google Certified Adwords Specialist
Clients will receive a complete written analysis and of their current website as well as a specific short and long term plan of action that they themselves can execute to achieve greater search engine visibility.
In addition to a written analysis, clients will receive a CD of up to 1 hour of live screen cast video and audio detailing:
* Analysis of a website's competition
* Keyword analysis and recommendations
* Analysis and recommendations for on-site optimization
* Analysis of backlinks and recommendations of generate additional quality backlinks
* Analysis of layout and recommendations for enhancing layout
Website owners can use the CD to discover exactly how the complete website analysis is preformed and pass the CD along to the appropriate people in the company responsible for handling related tasks.
"The most important part of an SEO plan is having an advanced SEO strategy in place from which to work with. Once a thorough analysis has been conducted and a plan has been created, most of the details can often be carried out by the website owner to for significant improvements in search engine ranking," says David Williams, vice president of David Williams Online/Unlimited Web Solutions .
Williams says that the decision to offer a website analysis service was driven by the company's desire to help more start-up internet entrepreneurs achieve their goals for success in 2008.
"While many new businesses cannot afford the full-service rates of a high-end SEO company, we wanted to find a way for companies on a budget to receive a high-end, personalized SEO plan that they could execute themselves to gain front page search engine visibility and grow their businesses in the New Year."
About Unlimited Web Solutions/David Williams Online: Unlimited Web Solutions is a leading Raleigh NC search engine optimization firm. The SEO experts at DWO/UWS have worked with numerous of clients to create more visible and more profitable websites.
source;http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52378&Itemid=9
Friday, December 14, 2007
SEO for Mobile: Tips and Tricks
A Cre8asite Forums member asks how a site is differentiated by Google as a mobile site or as a regular website that may not be included in Google's mobile web search. What are the criteria for being categorized as a "mobile" site?
The Google Webmaster Help Center has a guide of questions and answers on this very topic. Additionally, other feedback is given from a webmaster who has been designing for the mobile web for a year.
He says that you need to avoid tables in your design, have concise titles, have a small page size, and include good content.
As far as understanding whether your site is going to be accessed, he says that Google crawls your site as a Nokia 6820 which accepts XHTML.
And finally, it helps to create a mobile sitemap.
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015651.html
The Google Webmaster Help Center has a guide of questions and answers on this very topic. Additionally, other feedback is given from a webmaster who has been designing for the mobile web for a year.
He says that you need to avoid tables in your design, have concise titles, have a small page size, and include good content.
As far as understanding whether your site is going to be accessed, he says that Google crawls your site as a Nokia 6820 which accepts XHTML.
And finally, it helps to create a mobile sitemap.
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015651.html
PPC shot down by SEO experts
Experts in Search Engine Optimisation dismissed PPC as far less likely to bring about results in a debate last night (11 December).
The "B2B Marketing Debate" saw SEO exponents and Pay Per Click champions clash over effectiveness and results.
The debate, at The English Speaking Union in London, saw head of search at Bigmouth Media Andrew Girdwood argue that organic results were often perceived as more directly relevant, with a lower overall cost. He said: "“People don’t want to put more money in. For B2B campaigns SEO has a definite advantage over PPC.”"
Periscopex co-founder Simon Norris defended PPC as a marketing tool and said that its plus points were that it was easy to change, start, stop and completely transparent. He asserted that PPC was a better, more targeted way to gain leads.
Stuart Small, industry leader, business and industrial markets at Google, backed up the argument and said that with 85% of all B2B purchases starting in a search engine, paid search ads were vital to any business. He added that Google sees 80% of searchers clicking on organic results, with 20% clicking on search ads.
While the "black art" of SEO was criticised Girdwood argued that Google was excellent at filtering spam out of the index and said: “Google does an excellent job at this. ‘Gaming’ the search engine is just no longer possible the way it used to be.”
Norris also claimed that Google was trying to increase the number of ads clicked on by searchers and that personalisation changed the ads shown based on user intention. “That is not true” said Stuart Small from Google. “Google is very careful about privacy and we do not change ads based on people being logged on to Google. That is completely wrong.”
Source:http://www.mad.co.uk/Main/News/Articlex/aa351f9517854e389afd62334673b5dc/PPC-shot-down-by-SEO-experts.html
The "B2B Marketing Debate" saw SEO exponents and Pay Per Click champions clash over effectiveness and results.
The debate, at The English Speaking Union in London, saw head of search at Bigmouth Media Andrew Girdwood argue that organic results were often perceived as more directly relevant, with a lower overall cost. He said: "“People don’t want to put more money in. For B2B campaigns SEO has a definite advantage over PPC.”"
Periscopex co-founder Simon Norris defended PPC as a marketing tool and said that its plus points were that it was easy to change, start, stop and completely transparent. He asserted that PPC was a better, more targeted way to gain leads.
Stuart Small, industry leader, business and industrial markets at Google, backed up the argument and said that with 85% of all B2B purchases starting in a search engine, paid search ads were vital to any business. He added that Google sees 80% of searchers clicking on organic results, with 20% clicking on search ads.
While the "black art" of SEO was criticised Girdwood argued that Google was excellent at filtering spam out of the index and said: “Google does an excellent job at this. ‘Gaming’ the search engine is just no longer possible the way it used to be.”
Norris also claimed that Google was trying to increase the number of ads clicked on by searchers and that personalisation changed the ads shown based on user intention. “That is not true” said Stuart Small from Google. “Google is very careful about privacy and we do not change ads based on people being logged on to Google. That is completely wrong.”
Source:http://www.mad.co.uk/Main/News/Articlex/aa351f9517854e389afd62334673b5dc/PPC-shot-down-by-SEO-experts.html
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Pay-per-click is customer analytics
Pay-per-click advertising is, at its basic level, paying for ad placement in search engines. The concept is simple. When a user searches for a keyword a paid ad will appear. These ads are usually listed at the top or right side of the search engine results page and are identified as Sponsored Links, Featured Listings or Sponsored Listings.
That is PPC for the basic user. Unfortunately, most PPC advertisers are basic users. PPC is much more then paid advertising. Not only is PPC the best return on investment available, but it is, or should be, at the heart of all marketing campaigns.
PPC can provide customer analytics through ad testing, geo-targeting, match types and discovering SEO targets. PPC advertising provides an instant view into the mind of the customer at an extremely low-price.
Ad testing
Google and now Yahoo, with the new Sponsored Search, allow advertisers to run multiple ads for the same keyword. With various messages reaching potential customers, advertisers are able to see which ads attract the most visitors and more importantly which ads attract higher revenue.
Ad rotation gives the advertiser great insight into the mind of the customer. For instance, do customers click more on ads that offer “Free Shipping” or “Free Item with Purchase?” Another example, do discount mentions convert better than guarantees?
To get accurate measurements on ads, it is important not to let the search engines optimize the rotation of the advertiser’s ads. By default, search engines will serve the better performing ads more often. However, the problem is search engines measure “better performing” as ads with higher clickthrough rates and quality scores. By delivering all ads evenly within a given time, advertisers should be able to define which ads generated a higher conversion. With knowledge from strong ad testing, off-line campaigns can be tailored to meet those discoveries. Thus, PPC becomes a testing ground for all marketing campaigns.
Solid geo-targeting statistics can help off-line campaigns
PPC geo-targeting lets advertisers target ads to specific countries, regions and languages. Geo-targeting especially benefits companies with smaller budgets, by allowing product promotion strictly within the majority of customers’ region.
Geo-targeting resolves any geographic uncertainty about customers. For example, more customers from Region A may click on ads. However, more customers from Region B may actually convert and purchase.
By combining geo-targeting with ad variations, advertisers discover which messages convert best regionally.
Learn the customer’s language with exact keyword matching
Often advertisers get caught up in internal jargon. Within the industry it may be an acceptable form of communication. However, it is the customer that pays the bills.
To obtain accurate results from PPC, having various match types is essential. By bidding on all variations of keywords advertisers are able to see which keywords customers are typing into a search query. Google, as an example has four different keyword matching options (broad, phrase, exact, negative), each with their own advantages and disadvantages. For example Broad Match, the default setting, includes all variations of the keyword in the query.
However, Exact Match is the most targeted option available. It only shows ads when the exact phrase is used. Exact Match will provide instant feedback into the language of the customer. It is not to say there is not a place for other match types. Ideally, all variations should be tested. In fact, Exact Matching will inevitably bring in fewer visitors than other forms of matching. However, Exact Matching is a great way to gather instant customer analytics.
Discover highly targeted keywords for organic search rankings
Search engine optimization is often compared to rocket science. Of course the advantage of rocket science is that there are always constants, SEO does not have that luxury.
With PPC reporting advertisers are able to know what the customer is typing in search engines. By reviewing periodic reporting, they are able to tell which keywords bring in the most clicks and most importantly which keywords bring in the most revenue.
Instead of creating search engine optimization initiatives to tackle hundreds of keywords, the top converted pay-per-click keywords are targets. Site content, link building, and various other search engine optimization techniques can push these elite keywords.
Advertisers do not have to waste time trying to get rankings on keywords that do not convert. The numbers are provided; it does not matter where the competition is ranked. By following the payper- click keyword statistics advertisers are able to get instant customer analytics to use for search engine optimization efforts. With PPC, there is very little guesswork in marketing.
However, the trouble arises when traditional advertisers do not understand or believe in the power of pay-per-click marketing. Many companies still see it as separate advertising model and fail to tie the relationship back to traditional off-line campaigns. By analyzing PPC reports advertisers can pull dramatic customer analytics. With that knowledge all marketing campaigns can benefit, thus eliminating traditional guesswork from traditional advertising.
Source:http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-opinion/columns/43077.html
That is PPC for the basic user. Unfortunately, most PPC advertisers are basic users. PPC is much more then paid advertising. Not only is PPC the best return on investment available, but it is, or should be, at the heart of all marketing campaigns.
PPC can provide customer analytics through ad testing, geo-targeting, match types and discovering SEO targets. PPC advertising provides an instant view into the mind of the customer at an extremely low-price.
Ad testing
Google and now Yahoo, with the new Sponsored Search, allow advertisers to run multiple ads for the same keyword. With various messages reaching potential customers, advertisers are able to see which ads attract the most visitors and more importantly which ads attract higher revenue.
Ad rotation gives the advertiser great insight into the mind of the customer. For instance, do customers click more on ads that offer “Free Shipping” or “Free Item with Purchase?” Another example, do discount mentions convert better than guarantees?
To get accurate measurements on ads, it is important not to let the search engines optimize the rotation of the advertiser’s ads. By default, search engines will serve the better performing ads more often. However, the problem is search engines measure “better performing” as ads with higher clickthrough rates and quality scores. By delivering all ads evenly within a given time, advertisers should be able to define which ads generated a higher conversion. With knowledge from strong ad testing, off-line campaigns can be tailored to meet those discoveries. Thus, PPC becomes a testing ground for all marketing campaigns.
Solid geo-targeting statistics can help off-line campaigns
PPC geo-targeting lets advertisers target ads to specific countries, regions and languages. Geo-targeting especially benefits companies with smaller budgets, by allowing product promotion strictly within the majority of customers’ region.
Geo-targeting resolves any geographic uncertainty about customers. For example, more customers from Region A may click on ads. However, more customers from Region B may actually convert and purchase.
By combining geo-targeting with ad variations, advertisers discover which messages convert best regionally.
Learn the customer’s language with exact keyword matching
Often advertisers get caught up in internal jargon. Within the industry it may be an acceptable form of communication. However, it is the customer that pays the bills.
To obtain accurate results from PPC, having various match types is essential. By bidding on all variations of keywords advertisers are able to see which keywords customers are typing into a search query. Google, as an example has four different keyword matching options (broad, phrase, exact, negative), each with their own advantages and disadvantages. For example Broad Match, the default setting, includes all variations of the keyword in the query.
However, Exact Match is the most targeted option available. It only shows ads when the exact phrase is used. Exact Match will provide instant feedback into the language of the customer. It is not to say there is not a place for other match types. Ideally, all variations should be tested. In fact, Exact Matching will inevitably bring in fewer visitors than other forms of matching. However, Exact Matching is a great way to gather instant customer analytics.
Discover highly targeted keywords for organic search rankings
Search engine optimization is often compared to rocket science. Of course the advantage of rocket science is that there are always constants, SEO does not have that luxury.
With PPC reporting advertisers are able to know what the customer is typing in search engines. By reviewing periodic reporting, they are able to tell which keywords bring in the most clicks and most importantly which keywords bring in the most revenue.
Instead of creating search engine optimization initiatives to tackle hundreds of keywords, the top converted pay-per-click keywords are targets. Site content, link building, and various other search engine optimization techniques can push these elite keywords.
Advertisers do not have to waste time trying to get rankings on keywords that do not convert. The numbers are provided; it does not matter where the competition is ranked. By following the payper- click keyword statistics advertisers are able to get instant customer analytics to use for search engine optimization efforts. With PPC, there is very little guesswork in marketing.
However, the trouble arises when traditional advertisers do not understand or believe in the power of pay-per-click marketing. Many companies still see it as separate advertising model and fail to tie the relationship back to traditional off-line campaigns. By analyzing PPC reports advertisers can pull dramatic customer analytics. With that knowledge all marketing campaigns can benefit, thus eliminating traditional guesswork from traditional advertising.
Source:http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-opinion/columns/43077.html
Friday, December 7, 2007
SEO - Search Engine Optimization Methodology
If you want to rank your web site in the top positions within search engine results pages (SERPs), your first tasks are to address how your site is built, how the page content is developed and thematically organized throughout the site, and how the internal navigation is structured. All of these factors impact how your site appears to a search engine.
The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design.
Essentially search engine marketing (abbreviated SEM) is an umbrella term for web site promotion through a search engine, whether that is through search engine optimization, pay per click advertisements or through paid inclusion. The theory behind SEM is a good one; when people use search engines, they are in a state of mind where they are looking for information. When a web surfer gets to your site via a search engine, he does not feel put upon or annoyed, which he might if he had received a piece of spam e-mail from you. By giving the searcher exactly what they want when they search, SEM can get you customers who are already sold on the type of services your provide, but just need to find you.
The best and most direct way to ensure that your website is near the top when a search string related to your site is entered into Google Yahoo or MSN, is through search engine optimization and through link building. The search engine rates your site on how closely it seems to match what the search string says, and also by how many other sites have linked to you. There are many ways to make sure your site is attractive to search engines, ranging from article writing to placing your link on directories that list similar services.
Pay per click advertising is also a main part of SEM; you can set up an arrangement where a small link to your site appears when a certain search string is used in the search engines. The best example of this sort of advertising and how it relates to SEM can be seen with Google Ads. You choose which words you'd like to bring up your ad and then, whenever anyone clicks on your link, you will pay Google a certain amount. You can set a budget to and limit how much you pay every day, and you can also experiment with the words you use to see which combinations bring the most relevant traffic to your site.
There is fairly constant debate that goes on over whether natural search results (search results that show up on their own) or paid search results are better. A blended strategy is normally best which utilizes both search engine optimization and pay per click as it encompasses both parts of the marketing mix.
Search Engine Optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn about and use the advertising opportunites offered by search engines, and new agencies focusing primarily upon marketing and advertising through search engines emerged. The term "Search Engine Marketing" was proposed by Danny Sullivan in 2001 to cover the spectrum of activities involved in performing SEO, managing paid listings at the search engines, submitting sites to directories, and developing online marketing strategies for businesses, organizations, and individuals. As far as search engine promotion is concerned, your web site's text content is your key to success (or failure!). When doing SEO copywriting, it is important to understand that the search engines exist for one primary purpose, and that is to provide the internet searcher with relevant results for their searches.
Source:http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=44529
The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design.
Essentially search engine marketing (abbreviated SEM) is an umbrella term for web site promotion through a search engine, whether that is through search engine optimization, pay per click advertisements or through paid inclusion. The theory behind SEM is a good one; when people use search engines, they are in a state of mind where they are looking for information. When a web surfer gets to your site via a search engine, he does not feel put upon or annoyed, which he might if he had received a piece of spam e-mail from you. By giving the searcher exactly what they want when they search, SEM can get you customers who are already sold on the type of services your provide, but just need to find you.
The best and most direct way to ensure that your website is near the top when a search string related to your site is entered into Google Yahoo or MSN, is through search engine optimization and through link building. The search engine rates your site on how closely it seems to match what the search string says, and also by how many other sites have linked to you. There are many ways to make sure your site is attractive to search engines, ranging from article writing to placing your link on directories that list similar services.
Pay per click advertising is also a main part of SEM; you can set up an arrangement where a small link to your site appears when a certain search string is used in the search engines. The best example of this sort of advertising and how it relates to SEM can be seen with Google Ads. You choose which words you'd like to bring up your ad and then, whenever anyone clicks on your link, you will pay Google a certain amount. You can set a budget to and limit how much you pay every day, and you can also experiment with the words you use to see which combinations bring the most relevant traffic to your site.
There is fairly constant debate that goes on over whether natural search results (search results that show up on their own) or paid search results are better. A blended strategy is normally best which utilizes both search engine optimization and pay per click as it encompasses both parts of the marketing mix.
Search Engine Optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn about and use the advertising opportunites offered by search engines, and new agencies focusing primarily upon marketing and advertising through search engines emerged. The term "Search Engine Marketing" was proposed by Danny Sullivan in 2001 to cover the spectrum of activities involved in performing SEO, managing paid listings at the search engines, submitting sites to directories, and developing online marketing strategies for businesses, organizations, and individuals. As far as search engine promotion is concerned, your web site's text content is your key to success (or failure!). When doing SEO copywriting, it is important to understand that the search engines exist for one primary purpose, and that is to provide the internet searcher with relevant results for their searches.
Source:http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=44529
How To Choose an SEO Agency and Why
When you're scoping out a Web site design project, you expect prices to fluctuate from provider to provider. You expect one company's talents to be greater than another's. You expect to pay for added functionality.
When pricing SEO (define) services, many companies have a hard time getting a handle on what they should pay. Why? It's not easy to understant the numerous tactics and strategies that go into an SEO project.
If you're shopping around for SEO services, compare companies. That's just common sense. You'd be surprised, though, how few companies do it. Comparing companies ensures you're not just getting the best price, but the best value. That's what you do with most big ticket purchases.
Scope Out the SEO Project
When shopping for Web site redesign, you'll likely set up an internal discovery meeting to determine the scope of the site redesign project. This process usually involves countless hours with those responsible for the brand -- designers, the marketing team, and many other "decision makers" within the organization.
Unfortunately, most SEO projects don't receive near the time and attention afforded to Web design projects. In many cases, that's a colossal mistake.
Without the due diligence on your Web site's SEO challenges, it's almost impossible to understand the scope of work necessary to launch a successful SEO campaign. Do you have JavaScript navigation? Does your site content reside within images or frames? Do you lack for content? Will you need to write many pages of copy, add them to the site architecture, and build out pages? Does your site have others linking to yours? Is your internal link structure sufficient?
Once you answer some of these questions, ask yourself if you have the resources -- internally -- to do this work. Or will you need an SEO company to handle these tasks?
What's the Competitive Landscape?
With SEO, the competitive landscape is everything. You have to look at not only who your known competition is (those companies you compete with on a daily basis), but also who your keyword competitors are. In other words, what companies are ranking for the keywords you want your company to rank for?
You also must take into account the degree of competitiveness for the keywords you want to rank for. Are you trying to rank for "home loans" or "Dallas home loans"? Big difference.
For those trying to be found for highly competitive keywords, the timeline to rankings and/or significant traffic increases can be a daunting and time-consuming task. As with any service-oriented company, time is money. So, if the scope of the work determines the highly competitive keywords are the goal, then you can expect to pay more money.
The more competitive the keywords, the more content you may need to write. That means more pages to add to your Web site and more assistance with link generation.
What Are You Spending on PPC?
Funny thing. So many companies spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on PPC (define), because they know they only pay when someone clicks. Well, that's great, but there's no doubt that a well developed SEO campaign can do better, even if you measure it on a PPC basis.
For example, at Vizion Interactive, we have a client that spends less than $10,000 per month on SEO and also spends approximately $100,000 per month on PPC. The traffic they receive from SEO is valued at approximately $2 million per month. If they'd acquired this traffic on a PPC basis, that's what they'd be paying. For the $100,000 they spend on PPC, they get $100,000 worth of traffic.
sorce:http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3627562
When pricing SEO (define) services, many companies have a hard time getting a handle on what they should pay. Why? It's not easy to understant the numerous tactics and strategies that go into an SEO project.
If you're shopping around for SEO services, compare companies. That's just common sense. You'd be surprised, though, how few companies do it. Comparing companies ensures you're not just getting the best price, but the best value. That's what you do with most big ticket purchases.
Scope Out the SEO Project
When shopping for Web site redesign, you'll likely set up an internal discovery meeting to determine the scope of the site redesign project. This process usually involves countless hours with those responsible for the brand -- designers, the marketing team, and many other "decision makers" within the organization.
Unfortunately, most SEO projects don't receive near the time and attention afforded to Web design projects. In many cases, that's a colossal mistake.
Without the due diligence on your Web site's SEO challenges, it's almost impossible to understand the scope of work necessary to launch a successful SEO campaign. Do you have JavaScript navigation? Does your site content reside within images or frames? Do you lack for content? Will you need to write many pages of copy, add them to the site architecture, and build out pages? Does your site have others linking to yours? Is your internal link structure sufficient?
Once you answer some of these questions, ask yourself if you have the resources -- internally -- to do this work. Or will you need an SEO company to handle these tasks?
What's the Competitive Landscape?
With SEO, the competitive landscape is everything. You have to look at not only who your known competition is (those companies you compete with on a daily basis), but also who your keyword competitors are. In other words, what companies are ranking for the keywords you want your company to rank for?
You also must take into account the degree of competitiveness for the keywords you want to rank for. Are you trying to rank for "home loans" or "Dallas home loans"? Big difference.
For those trying to be found for highly competitive keywords, the timeline to rankings and/or significant traffic increases can be a daunting and time-consuming task. As with any service-oriented company, time is money. So, if the scope of the work determines the highly competitive keywords are the goal, then you can expect to pay more money.
The more competitive the keywords, the more content you may need to write. That means more pages to add to your Web site and more assistance with link generation.
What Are You Spending on PPC?
Funny thing. So many companies spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on PPC (define), because they know they only pay when someone clicks. Well, that's great, but there's no doubt that a well developed SEO campaign can do better, even if you measure it on a PPC basis.
For example, at Vizion Interactive, we have a client that spends less than $10,000 per month on SEO and also spends approximately $100,000 per month on PPC. The traffic they receive from SEO is valued at approximately $2 million per month. If they'd acquired this traffic on a PPC basis, that's what they'd be paying. For the $100,000 they spend on PPC, they get $100,000 worth of traffic.
sorce:http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3627562
Quick SEO Tips
One of the features on my blog, The Web Optimist, is a tip box that shows a different random search engine optimization tip each time a page is loaded. As I come across little pearls of wisdom, I add it to the collection.
For the first time published anywhere, here are the first twenty of my Quick SEO Tips in no particular order and with on-site and off-site tips all together. More to come in Part Two.
1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.
2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.
3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks using your keyword phrase as the link. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for that site to link to you, you don't want the link.
4. Don't be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.
5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a major brand name that is a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.
6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.
7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is "blue widgets" then link to "blue widgets" instead of a "Click here" link.
8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.
9. Don't design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won't cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.
10. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.
11. Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem - you can't link to a single page. It's either all or nothing. Don't use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.
12. Your URL file extension doesn't matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won't make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.
13. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google's regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.
14. If your site content doesn't change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.
15. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.
16. Search engines want natural language content. Don't try to stuff your text with keywords. It won't work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.
17. Not only should your links use keyword anchor text, but the text around the links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.
18. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you're not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.
Whew. OK, try to digest these first 20 tips for a while. I'll be following up with the rest in 40 Quick S E O Tips, Part 2 once you've had a chance to absorb these thoroughly.
Source:http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2007/12/06/quick-seo-tips
For the first time published anywhere, here are the first twenty of my Quick SEO Tips in no particular order and with on-site and off-site tips all together. More to come in Part Two.
1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.
2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.
3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks using your keyword phrase as the link. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for that site to link to you, you don't want the link.
4. Don't be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.
5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a major brand name that is a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.
6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.
7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is "blue widgets" then link to "blue widgets" instead of a "Click here" link.
8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.
9. Don't design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won't cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.
10. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.
11. Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem - you can't link to a single page. It's either all or nothing. Don't use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.
12. Your URL file extension doesn't matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won't make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.
13. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google's regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.
14. If your site content doesn't change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.
15. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.
16. Search engines want natural language content. Don't try to stuff your text with keywords. It won't work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.
17. Not only should your links use keyword anchor text, but the text around the links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.
18. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you're not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.
Whew. OK, try to digest these first 20 tips for a while. I'll be following up with the rest in 40 Quick S E O Tips, Part 2 once you've had a chance to absorb these thoroughly.
Source:http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2007/12/06/quick-seo-tips
Thursday, December 6, 2007
SEO Design and Organic Site Structure
I will cover getting your site to do well and traffic – not the end of the game; you need to convert and be successful on all browsers. I will cover keyword research, creating a SE friendly architecture. I won’t get into details, just highlights, and content.
Keyword research – you may use your tool and build strategy around most searched for keyword. At this phase you need to talk to your target audience, don’t just go for the most popular, go for the tail end. Make sure the keywords didn’t come from the CEO, talk to the target audience.
Assign relevancy to words to get a good targeted list. At vision, we put together a spreadsheet and assign relevancy – up to 100%.
Once you’ve done research, find out who is ranking for those words and why. Know who you are; carve out your niche, try to determine factors necessary to compete with those words, then develop your content.
We look at indexed pages for competitive sites and your own, Yahoo does the best here.
Creating the IA: incorporate the keyword research, incorporate comp analysis, then lay out your site. Use keywords when you can in the names of the pages, assign tags, metas, etc.
A lot of people say SEO sites are ugly – not true. Avoid java script, image based navigation, flash navigation, flash intros to site. Allow space for content – a lot of ecommerce site get carried away with images. Use alt text. Try to write static urls in the development stage. Design should follow the IA – design should be the 3rd phase of the process, try to have a reason why the site is being designed that way.
Trip Advisor is good for usability. Usability is important. What’s below the fold on their home page is a lot of links using great anchor text.
Read Searchenginewatch.com this Tuesday for article on spam.
Building content:
Once you have your keywords, your site is only as good as the copy you put on the pages write engaging content. Don’t stuff. Make it engaging for visitors and search engines. Once you have content, go back through it and try to link between one page to another, this is great for spiders. Use good anchor texts. People get so caught up with external links but forget about linking within site.
Make sure you avoid marketing fluff. Blogs are great for getting out quick content. Pages will rank quickly.
Summary: do research before design, use research smartly to develop IA. Deign for usability and SEO, in that order. Make sure you have good content.
Speaker 2: Alan K’necht, K’nechtology, Inc:
Linear approach: spiders read from top to bottom, left to right, and go straight through. Search engines care about words, words and words! Not pictures. Also care about positions of words. Then why show graphic first? Good for usability, not search engines. Use 2-tier design architecture. Separate content from presentation. Doesn’t necessarily mean design will be ugly. Organize content logically, i.e. don’t use privacy policy first – use H1 tag first! Use CSS to position.
Newspaper philosophy – they get readers engaged. Why? Linear info – easy to read! Headlines first! Main story first! Important stuff up front! That’s what search engines are trying to do, be easy for the human. Newspaper puts links to inner pages at the end (i.e. continued on page 22). So linear approach is that the important elements must come first! H1 first, H2 second, target words in H1 – first and foremost, this is what page is about! Stick graphic at the bottom!
One of the ways to see if coders did a good job is to turn off CSS using the Firefox Webmaster Toolbar. You can see what the site looks like. You can remove lots of the fluff. If the logo is relevant or well known keep it in towards the top. Get content up front though. Usability for search engines.
Speaker 3: Lyndsay Walker – WestJet – Canadian Airline
Design for your visitors! You want to have a clear navigation not only for visitors but also for search engines.
Avoid flash, there is no advantage whatever. There is so much you can do with CSS and Java that can simulate what Flash can do.
Fresh content is the best.
Use DIVs – more reliable than a table structure.
Use your stats – what browsers are people using? Where are they going on your site?
Test everything in Firefox – it’s a compliant browser. If you design for Internet Explorer, you will test in Firefox and it will be broken. Design for Firefox and tweak for IE. You will save yourself a lot of headaches. Especially since Firefox has great tools and plug-ins. If you watch your stats over time, you will notice an increase in Firefox users as well as mobile device users to surf the net.
Must-haves recap:
Title tag – unique to every page.
Meta description tag – the yes or no if someone will click on our site. Very important.
Header tags – place prominently at the top, H1, H2 etc.
Strong code-to-content ratio – CSS is so important, you really don’t need a lot of code these days.
DIVs instead of tables.
Don’t forget your keywords.
Links – so important – internal linking structure just as important as external.
Side note - Inadvertent SEO – If you are testing out new pages, the search engines will find it whether you are ready or not. If you are not ready for it to be live, use a testing environment or watch your linking structure.
Speaker 4: Paul Bruemmer – Red Door Interactive
Organic Site Structure:
- Server configuration: robot.txt, redirect codes, 404 error codes, internal broken links, canonical duplicate content, dedicated IP address, alias URLs, transfer of keyword page rankings, etc.
- Site architecture gone bad: messed up situation. To prevent, 6 essential components to implement:
Inclusion ratio – it pays to know and track the number of pages indexed to gauge how you are doing in the index.
Directory structure and naming conventions.
Internal linking structure – very often neglected and annoying to correct.
Dynamic and persistent URLs.
Site Map.
Privacy statement.
Content Generation:
Look at competitive landscape and be equal to or greater than.
Textual content types: articles, industry news, etc.
Think about content promotion, RSS feeds, blogs etc.
Content Optimization comes down to 6 on-page factors, Lyndsay summed them up. If you work them into your design you will do really well.
Natural Link Profile: think ahead about creating a neighborhood of links around you which will have a huge impact on your site. Give some thought to your link profile.
Deep Link Profile – ratios of links to subpages in comparison to links to homepages.
Additional considerations are feeds, paid search, local search (map locations, XHTML for mobile), development and administrative staff etc.
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015577.html
Keyword research – you may use your tool and build strategy around most searched for keyword. At this phase you need to talk to your target audience, don’t just go for the most popular, go for the tail end. Make sure the keywords didn’t come from the CEO, talk to the target audience.
Assign relevancy to words to get a good targeted list. At vision, we put together a spreadsheet and assign relevancy – up to 100%.
Once you’ve done research, find out who is ranking for those words and why. Know who you are; carve out your niche, try to determine factors necessary to compete with those words, then develop your content.
We look at indexed pages for competitive sites and your own, Yahoo does the best here.
Creating the IA: incorporate the keyword research, incorporate comp analysis, then lay out your site. Use keywords when you can in the names of the pages, assign tags, metas, etc.
A lot of people say SEO sites are ugly – not true. Avoid java script, image based navigation, flash navigation, flash intros to site. Allow space for content – a lot of ecommerce site get carried away with images. Use alt text. Try to write static urls in the development stage. Design should follow the IA – design should be the 3rd phase of the process, try to have a reason why the site is being designed that way.
Trip Advisor is good for usability. Usability is important. What’s below the fold on their home page is a lot of links using great anchor text.
Read Searchenginewatch.com this Tuesday for article on spam.
Building content:
Once you have your keywords, your site is only as good as the copy you put on the pages write engaging content. Don’t stuff. Make it engaging for visitors and search engines. Once you have content, go back through it and try to link between one page to another, this is great for spiders. Use good anchor texts. People get so caught up with external links but forget about linking within site.
Make sure you avoid marketing fluff. Blogs are great for getting out quick content. Pages will rank quickly.
Summary: do research before design, use research smartly to develop IA. Deign for usability and SEO, in that order. Make sure you have good content.
Speaker 2: Alan K’necht, K’nechtology, Inc:
Linear approach: spiders read from top to bottom, left to right, and go straight through. Search engines care about words, words and words! Not pictures. Also care about positions of words. Then why show graphic first? Good for usability, not search engines. Use 2-tier design architecture. Separate content from presentation. Doesn’t necessarily mean design will be ugly. Organize content logically, i.e. don’t use privacy policy first – use H1 tag first! Use CSS to position.
Newspaper philosophy – they get readers engaged. Why? Linear info – easy to read! Headlines first! Main story first! Important stuff up front! That’s what search engines are trying to do, be easy for the human. Newspaper puts links to inner pages at the end (i.e. continued on page 22). So linear approach is that the important elements must come first! H1 first, H2 second, target words in H1 – first and foremost, this is what page is about! Stick graphic at the bottom!
One of the ways to see if coders did a good job is to turn off CSS using the Firefox Webmaster Toolbar. You can see what the site looks like. You can remove lots of the fluff. If the logo is relevant or well known keep it in towards the top. Get content up front though. Usability for search engines.
Speaker 3: Lyndsay Walker – WestJet – Canadian Airline
Design for your visitors! You want to have a clear navigation not only for visitors but also for search engines.
Avoid flash, there is no advantage whatever. There is so much you can do with CSS and Java that can simulate what Flash can do.
Fresh content is the best.
Use DIVs – more reliable than a table structure.
Use your stats – what browsers are people using? Where are they going on your site?
Test everything in Firefox – it’s a compliant browser. If you design for Internet Explorer, you will test in Firefox and it will be broken. Design for Firefox and tweak for IE. You will save yourself a lot of headaches. Especially since Firefox has great tools and plug-ins. If you watch your stats over time, you will notice an increase in Firefox users as well as mobile device users to surf the net.
Must-haves recap:
Title tag – unique to every page.
Meta description tag – the yes or no if someone will click on our site. Very important.
Header tags – place prominently at the top, H1, H2 etc.
Strong code-to-content ratio – CSS is so important, you really don’t need a lot of code these days.
DIVs instead of tables.
Don’t forget your keywords.
Links – so important – internal linking structure just as important as external.
Side note - Inadvertent SEO – If you are testing out new pages, the search engines will find it whether you are ready or not. If you are not ready for it to be live, use a testing environment or watch your linking structure.
Speaker 4: Paul Bruemmer – Red Door Interactive
Organic Site Structure:
- Server configuration: robot.txt, redirect codes, 404 error codes, internal broken links, canonical duplicate content, dedicated IP address, alias URLs, transfer of keyword page rankings, etc.
- Site architecture gone bad: messed up situation. To prevent, 6 essential components to implement:
Inclusion ratio – it pays to know and track the number of pages indexed to gauge how you are doing in the index.
Directory structure and naming conventions.
Internal linking structure – very often neglected and annoying to correct.
Dynamic and persistent URLs.
Site Map.
Privacy statement.
Content Generation:
Look at competitive landscape and be equal to or greater than.
Textual content types: articles, industry news, etc.
Think about content promotion, RSS feeds, blogs etc.
Content Optimization comes down to 6 on-page factors, Lyndsay summed them up. If you work them into your design you will do really well.
Natural Link Profile: think ahead about creating a neighborhood of links around you which will have a huge impact on your site. Give some thought to your link profile.
Deep Link Profile – ratios of links to subpages in comparison to links to homepages.
Additional considerations are feeds, paid search, local search (map locations, XHTML for mobile), development and administrative staff etc.
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015577.html
Saturday, December 1, 2007
AML Launches New SEM Tool – Integrating SEO Within A Web Page Generator
Associated Marketers has launched a new website designed to help businesses become visible on the web. Page Author provides a simple to use tool, to build, optimize, and submit WebPages to a search engine.
The tool may be used to promote an existing website, or create new search engine friendly sites.
Ed Shea a founding partner stated that, AML will apply techniques learned from years of experience in automating Computer Aided Manufacturing processes to simplify web publishing. Tools are designed for use by those without Web Design or SEO (search engine optimization) technical skills.
The idea for LeadsLander is based on the premise that the SEO process can be applied to any content, using an automated process. I know that that would be considered blaspheme in the SEO forums. However the majority of business web pages are written with no consideration for search. They are highly specialized with narrow topics making search optimization straightforward.
Businesses have ample content available that would be suited for publication on the web, the problem lies on the lack of technical skills related to publishing material optimized for search. LeadsLander product is our attempt to offer a tool where in-house textual content can be published by “cut and paste” skill levels.
The integrated SEO scoring method provides for fine tuning by the page author.
The HTML Tags important for effective indexing by search engines are automatically generated for each page. The visible scoring system assures that the page content supports the keywords and phrases chosen.
Building Link Popularity for a site through paid links or from unrelated sites has been discounted by search engines for some time. LeadsLander pages are dependant on content related to the business topic and will only post when they score well enough.
Publishing of pages to the integrated hosting is allowed once a minimum score is achieved. The page is viewed in a pre-viewer once saved, then automatically published to the AML server. Pages are submitted to search engines through XML sitemaps generated as pages are added.
Source:http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/26869/
The tool may be used to promote an existing website, or create new search engine friendly sites.
Ed Shea a founding partner stated that, AML will apply techniques learned from years of experience in automating Computer Aided Manufacturing processes to simplify web publishing. Tools are designed for use by those without Web Design or SEO (search engine optimization) technical skills.
The idea for LeadsLander is based on the premise that the SEO process can be applied to any content, using an automated process. I know that that would be considered blaspheme in the SEO forums. However the majority of business web pages are written with no consideration for search. They are highly specialized with narrow topics making search optimization straightforward.
Businesses have ample content available that would be suited for publication on the web, the problem lies on the lack of technical skills related to publishing material optimized for search. LeadsLander product is our attempt to offer a tool where in-house textual content can be published by “cut and paste” skill levels.
The integrated SEO scoring method provides for fine tuning by the page author.
The HTML Tags important for effective indexing by search engines are automatically generated for each page. The visible scoring system assures that the page content supports the keywords and phrases chosen.
Building Link Popularity for a site through paid links or from unrelated sites has been discounted by search engines for some time. LeadsLander pages are dependant on content related to the business topic and will only post when they score well enough.
Publishing of pages to the integrated hosting is allowed once a minimum score is achieved. The page is viewed in a pre-viewer once saved, then automatically published to the AML server. Pages are submitted to search engines through XML sitemaps generated as pages are added.
Source:http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/26869/
Friday, November 30, 2007
The biggest SEO keyword searches for November
Lycos today announced its results from its excellent blog report The Lycos 50, the 50 most popular Internet search results for the week ending Nov. 24, 2007.
Biggest Search Engine movers for the week ending Nov. 24, 2007:
1. Rachael Ray - 871%
2. Nelly Furtado - 220%
3. Amy Adams - 150%
4. Anna Nicole Smith -100%
5. Stephen Colbert- 100%
6. Emma Watson- 86%
7. Johnny Depp- 73%
8. Xbox- 72%
9. Thanksgiving - 55%
10. Poker- 40%
As to be expected a distinct Christmas theme is around this week with terms like Xbox (Natural Search #45) re-enters this week’s Lycos 50, jumping 72% in online interest.
A report recently issued its list of Top Toys and Video Games of 2007, based on web search activity, and while the gaming consoles fail to make the Top 10 Toys list this year, both Nintendo (Natural Search #36) and Xbox score the biggest points with web users over the past week, generating 64% more search interest than PlayStation.
Meanwhile, the unstablity in Iran (Natural Search #28) continues its climb up the Lycos search logs, rising from number 35 last week.
While shy of making this week’s Lycos 50 list of top search terms, celebrity chef Rachael Ray sees the biggest jump in search activity, up 871% over the past week.
The star of the popular US TV show “Rachael Ray” show, Ray is also a best-selling author, and for the past year, has locked in the sweet gig of Dunkin Donuts’ spokeswoman.
Her CBS talk show won a 2007 Daytime Emmy Award, while Forbes named her the number two “Most Trusted Celebrity.” The most popular Rachael Ray-related search queries this week include Rachael Ray biography; Rachael Ray party food recipe; Rachael Ray photos; and Rachel Ray Show.
The Lycos 50 Top 10 Search Terms for the Week Ending Nov. 24, 2007:
1) Poker
2) Thanksgiving
3) Golf
4) Fashion
5) Disney
6) Christmas
7) World Series
8) YouTube
9) South Beach Diet
10) Britney Spears
Source:http://www.hitsearchlimited.com/news/999186/
Biggest Search Engine movers for the week ending Nov. 24, 2007:
1. Rachael Ray - 871%
2. Nelly Furtado - 220%
3. Amy Adams - 150%
4. Anna Nicole Smith -100%
5. Stephen Colbert- 100%
6. Emma Watson- 86%
7. Johnny Depp- 73%
8. Xbox- 72%
9. Thanksgiving - 55%
10. Poker- 40%
As to be expected a distinct Christmas theme is around this week with terms like Xbox (Natural Search #45) re-enters this week’s Lycos 50, jumping 72% in online interest.
A report recently issued its list of Top Toys and Video Games of 2007, based on web search activity, and while the gaming consoles fail to make the Top 10 Toys list this year, both Nintendo (Natural Search #36) and Xbox score the biggest points with web users over the past week, generating 64% more search interest than PlayStation.
Meanwhile, the unstablity in Iran (Natural Search #28) continues its climb up the Lycos search logs, rising from number 35 last week.
While shy of making this week’s Lycos 50 list of top search terms, celebrity chef Rachael Ray sees the biggest jump in search activity, up 871% over the past week.
The star of the popular US TV show “Rachael Ray” show, Ray is also a best-selling author, and for the past year, has locked in the sweet gig of Dunkin Donuts’ spokeswoman.
Her CBS talk show won a 2007 Daytime Emmy Award, while Forbes named her the number two “Most Trusted Celebrity.” The most popular Rachael Ray-related search queries this week include Rachael Ray biography; Rachael Ray party food recipe; Rachael Ray photos; and Rachel Ray Show.
The Lycos 50 Top 10 Search Terms for the Week Ending Nov. 24, 2007:
1) Poker
2) Thanksgiving
3) Golf
4) Fashion
5) Disney
6) Christmas
7) World Series
8) YouTube
9) South Beach Diet
10) Britney Spears
Source:http://www.hitsearchlimited.com/news/999186/
Google Experimental Offers Vote Up Search Listing: End of SEO
Yesterday I covered the news at Search Engine Land of a new Google experimental search feature that lets you move search results up and remove results from the Google search results page.
The changes you make only impact you - your login and does not influence the overall scope of the search results. But can they? Who knows. We have been seeing Google test remove results features before and then drop the feature.
Google says:
This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you'll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you've made. Note that this is an experimental feature and may be available for only a few weeks.
A Cre8asite Forums thread is talking about how this may or may not impact SEOs. Well, this is nothing new. We have had whole conference panels on the topic, such as Personalized Search: Fear or Not?. Plus we have shown how much the personalized results today can differ from non-personalized results. In fact, why not try turning off Google personalized results yourself and do some tests.
Is this new Google experimental test the end of SEO? Not at all. This does not add much more than what we have today with Google Personalized results. All it does it make it more visible to all of us.
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015496.html
The changes you make only impact you - your login and does not influence the overall scope of the search results. But can they? Who knows. We have been seeing Google test remove results features before and then drop the feature.
Google says:
This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you'll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you've made. Note that this is an experimental feature and may be available for only a few weeks.
A Cre8asite Forums thread is talking about how this may or may not impact SEOs. Well, this is nothing new. We have had whole conference panels on the topic, such as Personalized Search: Fear or Not?. Plus we have shown how much the personalized results today can differ from non-personalized results. In fact, why not try turning off Google personalized results yourself and do some tests.
Is this new Google experimental test the end of SEO? Not at all. This does not add much more than what we have today with Google Personalized results. All it does it make it more visible to all of us.
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015496.html
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Google Spam Patent Explorer: "Identifying Manipulated Articles
What SEO doesn't like talking about spam? Now add a newly granted Google patent that talks about spam and an SEO is in heaven!
Bill at created a Cre8asite Forums thread about a new granted patent named Methods and systems for identifying manipulated articles. Here is the abstract:
"" Systems and methods that identify manipulated articles are described. In one embodiment, a search engine implements a method comprising determining at least one cluster comprising a plurality of articles, analyzing signals to determine an overall signal for the cluster, and determining if the articles are manipulated articles based at least in part on the overall signal.""
Bill goes into more detail at the Cre8asite Forums thread and in his blog post at SEO By The Sea. I will not recap what he wrote, since he did an excellent job explaining the patent.
In short, Google has come up with an formula for analyzing articles, placing them in a cluster and determining based on the linkage pattern between those articles if they are manipulating the web with spamming tactics.
Here is how Bill explains it:
"" A patent granted to Google today explores Web spam and the manipulation of documents and links on the Web. It describes how the rankings of pages may be influenced if they are identified as “manipulative.”
The identification of manipulative documents, how they might be grouped together, and how they could be treated by the search engine is described in some detail. That treatment might include removal of pages from the search index, reductions in rankings for pages, and possibly a change in how quality scores (PageRank) are calculated for links from manipulative pages.""
The patent application was filed about 4 years ago. So Google may or may not be using all or some of these concepts within their current day algorithm. The fun part is the discussion and application of the patent to current day SEO trends.
Bill ends his thread with a teaser, "Anyone want to talk about spam? Paid links?"
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015480.html
Bill at created a Cre8asite Forums thread about a new granted patent named Methods and systems for identifying manipulated articles. Here is the abstract:
"" Systems and methods that identify manipulated articles are described. In one embodiment, a search engine implements a method comprising determining at least one cluster comprising a plurality of articles, analyzing signals to determine an overall signal for the cluster, and determining if the articles are manipulated articles based at least in part on the overall signal.""
Bill goes into more detail at the Cre8asite Forums thread and in his blog post at SEO By The Sea. I will not recap what he wrote, since he did an excellent job explaining the patent.
In short, Google has come up with an formula for analyzing articles, placing them in a cluster and determining based on the linkage pattern between those articles if they are manipulating the web with spamming tactics.
Here is how Bill explains it:
"" A patent granted to Google today explores Web spam and the manipulation of documents and links on the Web. It describes how the rankings of pages may be influenced if they are identified as “manipulative.”
The identification of manipulative documents, how they might be grouped together, and how they could be treated by the search engine is described in some detail. That treatment might include removal of pages from the search index, reductions in rankings for pages, and possibly a change in how quality scores (PageRank) are calculated for links from manipulative pages.""
The patent application was filed about 4 years ago. So Google may or may not be using all or some of these concepts within their current day algorithm. The fun part is the discussion and application of the patent to current day SEO trends.
Bill ends his thread with a teaser, "Anyone want to talk about spam? Paid links?"
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015480.html
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