I came across a very clever tactic by an article author the other day. I was reading one of his free reprint articles and when I finished it, I realized just how smart he really was. Not simply for the content of the article, which contained very timely and useful information, but for the way he managed to hook the reader in and possibly profit from them. Let me explain:
Like me and other article writers, this author circulates his articles to hundreds of article distribution lists on a regular basis. His articles contain a link back to his web site, which is an ideal way to boost his site's link popularity on the search engines. Like other authors, he writes about hot topics and current events in his particular industry. Like most article authors, he writes in a casual, relaxed style that engages the reader quickly and earns their trust. BUT, (here comes the clever part), unlike most article marketers, this author always divides his articles into two or more parts.
The first part of the article is circulated as a stand-alone free reprint article via traditional distribution methods. But at the end of the article and in his Author Resource Box, he adds a link to invite the reader to view "a continuation of the article" on his web site. The link is described as either part two of the first article, or a related article with more detailed information or a specific tutorial on how to implement what was discussed in part one.
Why does he do this? Because most people reading the first article will naturally click on the link leading to the next. Once they are at his web site, he has much more control over how the rest of the article/tutorial is presented. If the article is a tutorial about an aspect of web design or search engine marketing, it generally includes software recommendations that integrate his affiliate links. He also manages to weave in Google AdSense ads at convenient points between the article paragraphs. And of course, by the time readers arrive at his site, he has engaged the reader and gained enough of their trust for them to take his recommendations and click on his affiliate and AdSense links so he earns commission from them. Very clever, don't you think?
You too can use this tactic to profit from your own free reprint articles, by doing the following:
1) Write articles that solve a problem for the reader, like a "how to" article or a basic tutorial.
2) Write about hot or new topics in your industry that people are likely to be searching for.
3) Write the article in two or more segments and save the key instructions for part two.
4) Design a landing page for the later part/s of your article that naturally weaves in your affiliate links and/or AdSense ads.
5) Create a text link "hook" to the continuation of your article, (your landing page), from the bottom of part one.
6) Make sure the first part of your article is well-written and contains useful information as a stand-alone article. The key is to provide a relevant, interesting article with a link to another relevant, interesting article. No-one wants to read a poorly-disguised ad for your affiliate products.
7) Submit part one of your article to free distribution lists.
8) Observe the increased link popularity your site attains and the resulting increase in search engine traffic.
9) Enjoy the benefits and potential profits from your article marketing efforts!
Monday, January 30, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Third Screen SEO
Yes, you read that correctly.
Third screen seo is well on it's way.
What is third screen seo?
Well, the Television is the "First" screen, the PC is the "Second" screen, and next up: The Cell phone, PDA and Blackberry.
These are the hand-held devices that almost everyone in the world has, and since they are portable, they can become more important than the TV and PC.
Why should you be concerned?
Coding for third screen is a different monster to tackle for developers - unless they build the entire site in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) - then the screen size doesn't matter, since the technology will automatically adjust to the screen size.
So how can you possibly "optimize" for third screen?
As any technology emerges, there are many players who try to define the industry by taking the lead by providing better service, results or products. There will be sites that will house content where third screen viewers will visit to get their content.
Whether it's from Yahoo or some newly created portal site that becomes a leader, getting third screeners to those sites will be a new challenge that will have tremendous payoffs.
Besides making content easily accessible, but buidling site functionality that functions on a cell phone will determine the life and death of the next Amazon.
Have you ever tried to look for anything on the Internet through your cell phone? The easier a user can find what they want, the more likely they will return to your service to re-use it.
Third screeners who find valuable sites will gladly enter their cell number to get updates from trusted sources.
By ignoring the third screen, you could potentially be ignoring billions of potential buyers of your product or services.
-To your online success!
Paul Bliss
www.SEOforGoogle.com
Third screen seo is well on it's way.
What is third screen seo?
Well, the Television is the "First" screen, the PC is the "Second" screen, and next up: The Cell phone, PDA and Blackberry.
These are the hand-held devices that almost everyone in the world has, and since they are portable, they can become more important than the TV and PC.
Why should you be concerned?
Coding for third screen is a different monster to tackle for developers - unless they build the entire site in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) - then the screen size doesn't matter, since the technology will automatically adjust to the screen size.
So how can you possibly "optimize" for third screen?
As any technology emerges, there are many players who try to define the industry by taking the lead by providing better service, results or products. There will be sites that will house content where third screen viewers will visit to get their content.
Whether it's from Yahoo or some newly created portal site that becomes a leader, getting third screeners to those sites will be a new challenge that will have tremendous payoffs.
Besides making content easily accessible, but buidling site functionality that functions on a cell phone will determine the life and death of the next Amazon.
Have you ever tried to look for anything on the Internet through your cell phone? The easier a user can find what they want, the more likely they will return to your service to re-use it.
Third screeners who find valuable sites will gladly enter their cell number to get updates from trusted sources.
By ignoring the third screen, you could potentially be ignoring billions of potential buyers of your product or services.
-To your online success!
Paul Bliss
www.SEOforGoogle.com
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Search Engine Optimization for Google
With the recent Jagger update settling, many people find their sites no longer have the high rankings they had for so long enjoyed prior to the latest Google update.
So, the sites that lost these rankings are scrambling to find some answers as to why their site dropped. While it's my business to know the intricacies of how this particular update impacted the search algorithm, there are some common ground starting points that if you apply these to all of your sites, you should be able to survive any update intact.
-Proper naming structure
-Name your page titles with your keywords if possible
-Always have a sitemap
-Always include a robots.txt file
-If you must use a re-direct, be sure it's server side, not with a meta refresh tag
-Don't use hidden text
-Make sure your keyword phrase is included in your H1 tags
-Don't optimize for more than 2 keywords per page
-Use text links where possible
-In any product image, be sure to use the alt tag
-Use hyphens, not underscores when you name a page file
-Make sure your site has an error handling page
-Create a Google Sitemap and submit it to them (This is in addition to a typical sitemap)
-Offload all your js and css code
-Don't forget about meta tags
Be sure to follow these simple guidelines and you won't need to worry too much anytime Google has an update - your site will not be impacted by any filters that are checking for spamming, hidden text, or anything that resembles cloaking.
How Google Indexes Your Site
Many of us have a question about google indexing , so I figured since so many are asking, it would make for a great article.
First off, let's describe what we are talking about. A "bot" is a piece of software from a search engine that is built to go through every page of your site, categorize it, and place it into a database.
Google has three well known bots: The Adsense bot, the Freshbot and the DeepCrawl.
The Adsense bot, as you could probably guess, is used for publishers who have Adsense on their sites. As soon as a new page is created, the JavaScript within the Adsense code sends a message to the Adsense bot, and it will come within 15 minutes to index the page so that it can serve up the most relevant ads.
But, for this conversation we are only concerned about the DeepCrawl and the Freshbot.
The Freshbot crawls the most popular pages on your website. It doesn't matter if that is one page or thousands. Sites like Amazon.com and CNN.com have pages that are crawled every ten minutes, since Google has learned that those pages have that amount of frequent changes. A typical site should expect to have a freshbot visit every 1 to 14 days, depending on how popular those pages are.
What happens to your site on a Freshbot visit is that it finds all of the deeper links in your site. It places those links into a database so that when the DeepCrawl occurs, it has a reference.
Once a month, the DeepCrawl bot visits your site and goes over all the links found by the Freshbot. This is the reason why it can take up to a month for your entire site to be indexed in Google - even with the addition of a Google Sitemap.
So, be patient and keep on adding content to your site, and work on getting valuable in-bound links to your site - Google will reward you for it.
-To your online success!
First off, let's describe what we are talking about. A "bot" is a piece of software from a search engine that is built to go through every page of your site, categorize it, and place it into a database.
Google has three well known bots: The Adsense bot, the Freshbot and the DeepCrawl.
The Adsense bot, as you could probably guess, is used for publishers who have Adsense on their sites. As soon as a new page is created, the JavaScript within the Adsense code sends a message to the Adsense bot, and it will come within 15 minutes to index the page so that it can serve up the most relevant ads.
But, for this conversation we are only concerned about the DeepCrawl and the Freshbot.
The Freshbot crawls the most popular pages on your website. It doesn't matter if that is one page or thousands. Sites like Amazon.com and CNN.com have pages that are crawled every ten minutes, since Google has learned that those pages have that amount of frequent changes. A typical site should expect to have a freshbot visit every 1 to 14 days, depending on how popular those pages are.
What happens to your site on a Freshbot visit is that it finds all of the deeper links in your site. It places those links into a database so that when the DeepCrawl occurs, it has a reference.
Once a month, the DeepCrawl bot visits your site and goes over all the links found by the Freshbot. This is the reason why it can take up to a month for your entire site to be indexed in Google - even with the addition of a Google Sitemap.
So, be patient and keep on adding content to your site, and work on getting valuable in-bound links to your site - Google will reward you for it.
-To your online success!
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
SEO Article - How to write an effective Title tag
Making the following changes to your title tag can help improve ranking and increase targeted traffic to your website:
Include keyword phrases in your title tag
Order keyword phrases effectively within the title tag
Make the title tag appealing to the eye
Try to keep title tags as unique as possible
Avoid the list of common title tag mistakes
Include keyword phrases in your title tag:
Think of a title tag as the name above a shop. Imagine you are walking down a busy street with shops on either side of you. However every shop window is boarded up and all that is visible is its name. You mean to purchase a new Hi-Fi system and need to locate a suitable store. You look at all the names but are getting confused as to which one is for you. All of a sudden you see a store with 'Hi-Fi and Electrical' in its name. You enter and purchase your spanking new Hi-Fi system, but it is a bit expensive. And little did you know but the store next door also sold Hi-Fi systems but for a lot cheaper. However its name did not indicate this. In fact its name sounded more like a jewellery shop than an electrical store.
A search engine is rather like the shopper in the above example. It sees the title on each web page and determines whether this would be a good result to return based on its text. If you search for 'Hi-Fi' it is highly likely that some of the results returned will have 'Hi-Fi' in their title.
To be found using the search engines you should optimize your website for a set of keyword phrases. These keyword phrases should be included in your title tag. Suppose I was a website selling Hi-Fi systems, then I would like my website to appear in search engine results when searching with the phrase 'Hi-Fi systems'. If I include 'Hi-Fi systems' in my title tag I will increase the chances that the search engines will find the page and my ranking will be higher. Of course you are not limited to adding only one keyword phrase to your title, I would recommend two perhaps three but be careful not to make it too long. Also remember make it easy to understand and descriptive for a human.
Order these keyword phrases effectively:
Placing a keyword phrase at the start of the title tag allows it to be seen better by the search engines. Look at the following examples:
ABCDEF Electrical - Hi-Fi Systems
Hi-Fi Systems - ABCDEF Electrical
Both of these two examples are acceptable to human eyes but in the eyes of the search engines the second is see as more relevant if 'Hi-Fi Systems' is searched for because it appears at the start of the title. Generally it is best to place company name or the name of website to the end of your title tag.
Make your title enticing to the eye:
Although this point does not make a lot of difference to the search engines it can help to get people to click on your link in search results.
Which is easier on the eye?
XYZ COMPUTER HARDWARE
XYZ CoMpUtEr HaRdWaRe
XYZ Computer Hardware
I imagine that most people would say that (3) is the most pleasing. (1) and (2) are harder to read because of improper captilization. In (1) you see that using all capitals detracts the importance of any words you actually want to draw attention to and also some search engines may penalise this practice. (2) is simply a nightmare to read.
Try to keep title tags as unique as possible:
As each page on your site should be unique so should your title tags. Not only do unique title tags make the site more descriptive and navigable to a person they help search engines answer queries more accurately and allow more penetration of your site's pages in their databases.
Common title tags mistakes:
Do not leave your title tag blank, ever!
Do not use 'Untitled' or default text in your title tag.
If you are using a web page editing application it may place some default text in the title tag. Make sure you always check your title to make sure this doesn't happen.
Do not write title tags that are not relevant to the content on the page.
Search engines compare text in the title tag against actual textual content on your page to rate relevancy. If the two are not related this will decrease your ranking. Also it is annoying to a person who visits your page when the title tag they saw going into your page does not relate to the content on the page. This will ensure that this person leaves your site and maybe never comes back.
Do not stuff your title tag with repeating keyword phrases.
This may be looked upon by search engines as spamming and they may penalise your ranking.
Summary:
Ignoring title tags is definitely a mistake if you aim to achieve high rankings. Although it takes a lot more than the title tag to propel you to the top of the search engines it can be very effective in making a search engine more secure that your site's content is more relevant than a competitor's.
Include keyword phrases in your title tag
Order keyword phrases effectively within the title tag
Make the title tag appealing to the eye
Try to keep title tags as unique as possible
Avoid the list of common title tag mistakes
Include keyword phrases in your title tag:
Think of a title tag as the name above a shop. Imagine you are walking down a busy street with shops on either side of you. However every shop window is boarded up and all that is visible is its name. You mean to purchase a new Hi-Fi system and need to locate a suitable store. You look at all the names but are getting confused as to which one is for you. All of a sudden you see a store with 'Hi-Fi and Electrical' in its name. You enter and purchase your spanking new Hi-Fi system, but it is a bit expensive. And little did you know but the store next door also sold Hi-Fi systems but for a lot cheaper. However its name did not indicate this. In fact its name sounded more like a jewellery shop than an electrical store.
A search engine is rather like the shopper in the above example. It sees the title on each web page and determines whether this would be a good result to return based on its text. If you search for 'Hi-Fi' it is highly likely that some of the results returned will have 'Hi-Fi' in their title.
To be found using the search engines you should optimize your website for a set of keyword phrases. These keyword phrases should be included in your title tag. Suppose I was a website selling Hi-Fi systems, then I would like my website to appear in search engine results when searching with the phrase 'Hi-Fi systems'. If I include 'Hi-Fi systems' in my title tag I will increase the chances that the search engines will find the page and my ranking will be higher. Of course you are not limited to adding only one keyword phrase to your title, I would recommend two perhaps three but be careful not to make it too long. Also remember make it easy to understand and descriptive for a human.
Order these keyword phrases effectively:
Placing a keyword phrase at the start of the title tag allows it to be seen better by the search engines. Look at the following examples:
ABCDEF Electrical - Hi-Fi Systems
Hi-Fi Systems - ABCDEF Electrical
Both of these two examples are acceptable to human eyes but in the eyes of the search engines the second is see as more relevant if 'Hi-Fi Systems' is searched for because it appears at the start of the title. Generally it is best to place company name or the name of website to the end of your title tag.
Make your title enticing to the eye:
Although this point does not make a lot of difference to the search engines it can help to get people to click on your link in search results.
Which is easier on the eye?
XYZ COMPUTER HARDWARE
XYZ CoMpUtEr HaRdWaRe
XYZ Computer Hardware
I imagine that most people would say that (3) is the most pleasing. (1) and (2) are harder to read because of improper captilization. In (1) you see that using all capitals detracts the importance of any words you actually want to draw attention to and also some search engines may penalise this practice. (2) is simply a nightmare to read.
Try to keep title tags as unique as possible:
As each page on your site should be unique so should your title tags. Not only do unique title tags make the site more descriptive and navigable to a person they help search engines answer queries more accurately and allow more penetration of your site's pages in their databases.
Common title tags mistakes:
Do not leave your title tag blank, ever!
Do not use 'Untitled' or default text in your title tag.
If you are using a web page editing application it may place some default text in the title tag. Make sure you always check your title to make sure this doesn't happen.
Do not write title tags that are not relevant to the content on the page.
Search engines compare text in the title tag against actual textual content on your page to rate relevancy. If the two are not related this will decrease your ranking. Also it is annoying to a person who visits your page when the title tag they saw going into your page does not relate to the content on the page. This will ensure that this person leaves your site and maybe never comes back.
Do not stuff your title tag with repeating keyword phrases.
This may be looked upon by search engines as spamming and they may penalise your ranking.
Summary:
Ignoring title tags is definitely a mistake if you aim to achieve high rankings. Although it takes a lot more than the title tag to propel you to the top of the search engines it can be very effective in making a search engine more secure that your site's content is more relevant than a competitor's.
SEO Article - SEO deadly sins - mistakes that reduce web page ranking
The following are a list of SEO mistakes can ensure that your site maintains a low ranking with the search engines. Avoid at all costs.
Specifying no title for your page
Excessive use of images or Flash animation on a page
Complicated menu systems
Specifying no title for your page:
I cannot stress how important the title of a web page is. Failing to specify a descriptive, keyword optimized title will do untold damage to your ranking with the search engines. It is the equivalent to owning a shop and boarding up its windows. Ideally each page on your site should have a unique, content-specific title following the guidelines specified in the Title Tag Optimization article.
Excessive use of images or Flash animation on a page:
If your web page has plenty of nice-looking graphics and eye-popping Flash animation and not a lot of textual content it may indeed look nice but have you ever considered what how the search engines might see it. Search engines thrive on textual content, scavenging as much text as they can but unfortunately they cannot understand images or Flash animations like we can and so will find nothing of real value on your page. Try to balance your page so that the textual content is given priority and that any images or animations are used only when needed. Also it is a good idea to attach some text to an image by using its ALT tag as search engines use this text when determining rank.
Complicated menu systems:
Search engines spiders that crawl through our pages are a relatively primitive bunch. They find in hard to navigate complicated menu systems implemented for example in JavaScript or as a Java applet. Just because it is easy for a human to navigate through the site never assume it will be as easy for a search engine spider. A menu system using simple textual links will be easier for a spider to understand and it will be able to successfully navigate your site. A lot of the time complicated menu systems can be replicated using textual links and CSS.
If you must use a complicated menu system be sure to provide a site map that is clearly accessible from the homepage of your site and contains only textual links to your pages. This ensures that even if the spider cannot understand your menu system that it will be able to find the pages on your site.
Specifying no title for your page
Excessive use of images or Flash animation on a page
Complicated menu systems
Specifying no title for your page:
I cannot stress how important the title of a web page is. Failing to specify a descriptive, keyword optimized title will do untold damage to your ranking with the search engines. It is the equivalent to owning a shop and boarding up its windows. Ideally each page on your site should have a unique, content-specific title following the guidelines specified in the Title Tag Optimization article.
Excessive use of images or Flash animation on a page:
If your web page has plenty of nice-looking graphics and eye-popping Flash animation and not a lot of textual content it may indeed look nice but have you ever considered what how the search engines might see it. Search engines thrive on textual content, scavenging as much text as they can but unfortunately they cannot understand images or Flash animations like we can and so will find nothing of real value on your page. Try to balance your page so that the textual content is given priority and that any images or animations are used only when needed. Also it is a good idea to attach some text to an image by using its ALT tag as search engines use this text when determining rank.
Complicated menu systems:
Search engines spiders that crawl through our pages are a relatively primitive bunch. They find in hard to navigate complicated menu systems implemented for example in JavaScript or as a Java applet. Just because it is easy for a human to navigate through the site never assume it will be as easy for a search engine spider. A menu system using simple textual links will be easier for a spider to understand and it will be able to successfully navigate your site. A lot of the time complicated menu systems can be replicated using textual links and CSS.
If you must use a complicated menu system be sure to provide a site map that is clearly accessible from the homepage of your site and contains only textual links to your pages. This ensures that even if the spider cannot understand your menu system that it will be able to find the pages on your site.
SEO Article -Link Popularity, the make or break element for Search Engine Rankings
Link popularity is the single most influential factor for determining how well a web site will perform in search engine rankings. A web site's link popularity is computed from the number and more importantly, the quality of links pointing to a web site.
Link Popularity history
Main classes of links
How to build link popularity
Link Popularity history:
To gain a better understanding of link popularity it is useful to know why it became so crucial for search engine rankings. In the past a web page's ranking was determined, amongst other factors, by the number of keyword occurences within 'on-page' elements i.e. in page text, META tags, title tag. When web developers learned that they could trick a search engine to return their web pages by cramming keywords into their pages the search engines had to get a bit smarter. They were using 'on-page' elements to determine relevance so it was only natural that they would look to elements out of direct control of the web page creator i.e. 'off-page' elements. Search engines made the assumption that the greater the number of links from other sites pointing to a web site, the more popular the web site is and therefore a more quality resource. This worked nicely in theory but in practice it was also to be abused.
Web site owners figured out many ways to get links pointing to their web sites one example of which was through the use of link farms, pages the contained nothing more than a collection of links, Quantity of links was being abused so the search engines made use of the old saying "quality not quantity" and began to assign a quality factor to each of the links pointing to a web site. Now web sites that had a higher number of high quality links were looked upon favourably by the search engines. Building link popularity became a science in itself and today is still the most time-consuming and frustrating activity for a search engine optimizer.
Main classes of links:
Note: In the following examples SiteA is our web site and SiteB is an outside site (i.e. a web site under a different domain name than SiteA).
Inbound links:
Inbound links to a web site are links that originate from an outside web site . An example would be a link on SiteB pointing into a page on SiteA.
SiteA <----- SiteB
Outbound links:
Outbound links from a web site are links pointing to a page on an outside web site. An example would be a link on SiteA pointing out to a page on SiteB.
SiteA -----> SiteB
There are two further classifications of links:
Reciprocal links:
An example of a reciprocal link is when SiteA links to SiteB AND SiteB links to SiteA, the link is reciprocated by both parties.
SiteA -----> SiteB
AND
SiteA <----- SiteB
One-way links:
An example of a one-way link is when either SiteA links to SiteB OR SiteB links to SiteA, it is one-way only.
SiteA <----- SiteB
OR
SiteA -----> SiteB
To achieve a high link popularity the type of links to build are inbound one-way links. This simulates how natural links are created i.e. links that people create to point to your site because they found it worth linking to.
For outbound links it is natural to assume that they might decrease link popularity of a web site but this is not true. You do not give away your link popularity when you link to another site. They do not add to your link popularity though.
Reciprocal links can add to your link popularity if the web site that you exchange links with has a higher link popularity than your site. However they are not as powerful as inbound, one-way links as they are quite artificial in nature i.e. most probably created by communication between the owners of both sites.
How to build link popularity:
So it is quite obvious that to help build up a nice link popularity many inbound, one-way links need to be created. This can be achieved in a number of different (and most importantly, legal) ways:
Directories:
Directories are categorized listings of links from around the web. Many, many directories exist and vary in their methods of getting your link posted on them. They provide a great source of quality inbound, one-way links. Getting listed in quality directories such as DMOZ or Yahoo can be more beneficial for your link popularity than a lot of links from smaller, newer directories. Directories are discussed in my Directories article
Great site content:
The most powerful way to get inbound, one-way links is to have great site content that other web sites will want to link to. This allows you to get links from sites other than directories, which can definitely be better. The best thing about this is that it requires no communication on your part, it just happens naturally. If your site has poor content then others sites may not link, including the directories. Most of the top ranking web sites today got to the top because of great content. Writing interesting and informative articles for your web site is a good way of getting these kind of links.
Emailing web site owners:
If you come across a listing of links on a web site other than a directory e.g. a links page on a somebody's personal web site, it can do no harm to write the web site owner a polite email requesting a link to your site from their page. They may request a reciprocal link in return but sometimes they do not and you can get a quality inbound, one-way link for your efforts. I have got many links in the past using this method. In my email I always ask them to visit my site first before making a decision to link and I personalise each email with a comment or two about their site.
Summary:
The best and most effective way of increasing your search engine rankings is working to improve your web site's link popularity. This can be achieved by getting as many inbound, one-way links as you can from quality sites such as directories. Other ways to get these links are having great content on your site and requesting a link to your site from other web sites.
Increasing link popularity is a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating process but is definitely worth the time and effort when you see a dramatic increase in traffic.
Link Popularity history
Main classes of links
How to build link popularity
Link Popularity history:
To gain a better understanding of link popularity it is useful to know why it became so crucial for search engine rankings. In the past a web page's ranking was determined, amongst other factors, by the number of keyword occurences within 'on-page' elements i.e. in page text, META tags, title tag. When web developers learned that they could trick a search engine to return their web pages by cramming keywords into their pages the search engines had to get a bit smarter. They were using 'on-page' elements to determine relevance so it was only natural that they would look to elements out of direct control of the web page creator i.e. 'off-page' elements. Search engines made the assumption that the greater the number of links from other sites pointing to a web site, the more popular the web site is and therefore a more quality resource. This worked nicely in theory but in practice it was also to be abused.
Web site owners figured out many ways to get links pointing to their web sites one example of which was through the use of link farms, pages the contained nothing more than a collection of links, Quantity of links was being abused so the search engines made use of the old saying "quality not quantity" and began to assign a quality factor to each of the links pointing to a web site. Now web sites that had a higher number of high quality links were looked upon favourably by the search engines. Building link popularity became a science in itself and today is still the most time-consuming and frustrating activity for a search engine optimizer.
Main classes of links:
Note: In the following examples SiteA is our web site and SiteB is an outside site (i.e. a web site under a different domain name than SiteA).
Inbound links:
Inbound links to a web site are links that originate from an outside web site . An example would be a link on SiteB pointing into a page on SiteA.
SiteA <----- SiteB
Outbound links:
Outbound links from a web site are links pointing to a page on an outside web site. An example would be a link on SiteA pointing out to a page on SiteB.
SiteA -----> SiteB
There are two further classifications of links:
Reciprocal links:
An example of a reciprocal link is when SiteA links to SiteB AND SiteB links to SiteA, the link is reciprocated by both parties.
SiteA -----> SiteB
AND
SiteA <----- SiteB
One-way links:
An example of a one-way link is when either SiteA links to SiteB OR SiteB links to SiteA, it is one-way only.
SiteA <----- SiteB
OR
SiteA -----> SiteB
To achieve a high link popularity the type of links to build are inbound one-way links. This simulates how natural links are created i.e. links that people create to point to your site because they found it worth linking to.
For outbound links it is natural to assume that they might decrease link popularity of a web site but this is not true. You do not give away your link popularity when you link to another site. They do not add to your link popularity though.
Reciprocal links can add to your link popularity if the web site that you exchange links with has a higher link popularity than your site. However they are not as powerful as inbound, one-way links as they are quite artificial in nature i.e. most probably created by communication between the owners of both sites.
How to build link popularity:
So it is quite obvious that to help build up a nice link popularity many inbound, one-way links need to be created. This can be achieved in a number of different (and most importantly, legal) ways:
Directories:
Directories are categorized listings of links from around the web. Many, many directories exist and vary in their methods of getting your link posted on them. They provide a great source of quality inbound, one-way links. Getting listed in quality directories such as DMOZ or Yahoo can be more beneficial for your link popularity than a lot of links from smaller, newer directories. Directories are discussed in my Directories article
Great site content:
The most powerful way to get inbound, one-way links is to have great site content that other web sites will want to link to. This allows you to get links from sites other than directories, which can definitely be better. The best thing about this is that it requires no communication on your part, it just happens naturally. If your site has poor content then others sites may not link, including the directories. Most of the top ranking web sites today got to the top because of great content. Writing interesting and informative articles for your web site is a good way of getting these kind of links.
Emailing web site owners:
If you come across a listing of links on a web site other than a directory e.g. a links page on a somebody's personal web site, it can do no harm to write the web site owner a polite email requesting a link to your site from their page. They may request a reciprocal link in return but sometimes they do not and you can get a quality inbound, one-way link for your efforts. I have got many links in the past using this method. In my email I always ask them to visit my site first before making a decision to link and I personalise each email with a comment or two about their site.
Summary:
The best and most effective way of increasing your search engine rankings is working to improve your web site's link popularity. This can be achieved by getting as many inbound, one-way links as you can from quality sites such as directories. Other ways to get these links are having great content on your site and requesting a link to your site from other web sites.
Increasing link popularity is a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating process but is definitely worth the time and effort when you see a dramatic increase in traffic.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Why are Some E-commerce Solutions Not Search Engine Friendly?
There are many factors that come into play when attempting to determine if an e-commerce system is not search engine friendly. These factors are important to understand and can help you determine if the system is right for you.
CGI-BIN and Scripting Languages
Shopping Carts or e-commerce systems using the CGI-BIN format typically utilize the PERL scripting language. When a search engine finds /cgi-bin/ in a URL it typically ignores it. There are however some search engines that can index beyond the /cgi-bin/ element of the URL. However, there are many that cannot and do not index beyond the /cgi-bin/ element.
Then we have the database driven shopping cart or e-commerce system that operates on one of the more advanced Object Oriented Event Driven (OOED) languages such as PHP, ASP, .NET, .JSP, or Cold Fusion (just to name a few). These advanced languages utilize the question mark (?) and ampersand (&) in the URL to identify the variables required to pull the information out of the database and into the dynamically generated page. Not all search engines are able to index beyond the question mark (?) or the ampersand (&) making it difficult to be indexed by all search engines.
Meta Data
Shopping carts or e-commerce systems typically re-use the same set of Meta keywords and Meta descriptions throughout the dynamically generated pages. This simply means that an orange would have the same Meta keywords and Meta description as an apple. Obviously this does not work very well for search engines that utilize the Meta keywords and Meta descriptions. The Meta keywords and Meta descriptions should be based upon the product or the category.
Page Titles
Page titles are one of the most important elements in search engine optimization. Page titles inform the purchaser that your page offers exactly what they are looking for. Since many e-commerce solutions re-use the same page title which is typically the company name or the site URL that it can prevent your site from moving to the top of the search engine results. Each page should stand on its own.
URL Rewrites
Many programmers use URL rewrite technologies to make the URL's friendly to the search engines. However, not all rewritten URL's are created equal. Some people rewrite URL's to simply remove the question mark (?) and ampersand (&) from the resulting URL. However, this does not provide the best form of rewritten URL.
Hidden Session ID's
Hidden session id's are session id's that are placed in the link, but not in the resulting URL. Because session id's use the question mark (?) or ampersand (&) in the link, this causes many search engines to cease attempting to index the site.
Session id's are used to keep track of the visitor as they add items to their cart for purchase. Not all shopping carts utilize session id's, but those that do can cause problems if not properly programmed to keep the session id's out of the links. Some programmers use cookies, but those can also be problematic if the shopper turns cookies off like so many people do.
Heading Tags
Heading tags are those tags that identify the importance of a piece of content and elevate it above the remaining content. For example, anheading tag is the most important of all heading tags. When a page uses the
For example, a page about Mandarin Oranges that uses antag enclosing the words Mandarin Oranges identifies to the search engine that the main topic of the page is, in fact, Mandarin Oranges. This can elevate your page above all others that talk about Mandarin Oranges if they do not utilize the
CGI-BIN and Scripting Languages
Shopping Carts or e-commerce systems using the CGI-BIN format typically utilize the PERL scripting language. When a search engine finds /cgi-bin/ in a URL it typically ignores it. There are however some search engines that can index beyond the /cgi-bin/ element of the URL. However, there are many that cannot and do not index beyond the /cgi-bin/ element.
Then we have the database driven shopping cart or e-commerce system that operates on one of the more advanced Object Oriented Event Driven (OOED) languages such as PHP, ASP, .NET, .JSP, or Cold Fusion (just to name a few). These advanced languages utilize the question mark (?) and ampersand (&) in the URL to identify the variables required to pull the information out of the database and into the dynamically generated page. Not all search engines are able to index beyond the question mark (?) or the ampersand (&) making it difficult to be indexed by all search engines.
Meta Data
Shopping carts or e-commerce systems typically re-use the same set of Meta keywords and Meta descriptions throughout the dynamically generated pages. This simply means that an orange would have the same Meta keywords and Meta description as an apple. Obviously this does not work very well for search engines that utilize the Meta keywords and Meta descriptions. The Meta keywords and Meta descriptions should be based upon the product or the category.
Page Titles
Page titles are one of the most important elements in search engine optimization. Page titles inform the purchaser that your page offers exactly what they are looking for. Since many e-commerce solutions re-use the same page title which is typically the company name or the site URL that it can prevent your site from moving to the top of the search engine results. Each page should stand on its own.
URL Rewrites
Many programmers use URL rewrite technologies to make the URL's friendly to the search engines. However, not all rewritten URL's are created equal. Some people rewrite URL's to simply remove the question mark (?) and ampersand (&) from the resulting URL. However, this does not provide the best form of rewritten URL.
Hidden Session ID's
Hidden session id's are session id's that are placed in the link, but not in the resulting URL. Because session id's use the question mark (?) or ampersand (&) in the link, this causes many search engines to cease attempting to index the site.
Session id's are used to keep track of the visitor as they add items to their cart for purchase. Not all shopping carts utilize session id's, but those that do can cause problems if not properly programmed to keep the session id's out of the links. Some programmers use cookies, but those can also be problematic if the shopper turns cookies off like so many people do.
Heading Tags
Heading tags are those tags that identify the importance of a piece of content and elevate it above the remaining content. For example, an
heading tag is the most important of all heading tags. When a page uses the tag it announces to the search engines that the enclosed text is of vital importance and it is usually the topic of the page.
For example, a page about Mandarin Oranges that uses an
tag enclosing the words Mandarin Oranges identifies to the search engine that the main topic of the page is, in fact, Mandarin Oranges. This can elevate your page above all others that talk about Mandarin Oranges if they do not utilize the tag.
Over use of the tag on a single page can be considered "spam" by the search engines. This can get the page banned and may even get the site banned for "spamming".
ALT Attributes
ALT attributes are typically ignored in the majority of CGI-BIN and scripting language e-commerce solutions for various reasons. These reasons could be as simple as the belief that the site owner or webmanager doesn't understand the value of these fine attributes to the programmers didn't understand their value and though the exercise of adding extraneous information was not worth the effort. However, they are just as important as the other content describing the item or product.
Flash Navigation
Some programmers feel it is important to utilize Flash to enhance the site presentation. Unfortunately, this hinders the search engines from navigating through the site because Flash does not utilize standards linking technologies.
JavaScript Navigation
JavaScript is an executable script residing on either the client-side or the server-side. This technology allows for the use of "eye candy" and is does not allow navigation through the entire site by some search engines because they cannot execute or parse the codes to perform the navigation required to reach the other pages.
Frames
Frames provide an easy way to manage navigation in one window while providing the content in another window. While this may sound good, but the problem with this situation is the internal pages get indexed without the frameset. That means if a person finds that page, they can't navigate to the other sections of the site.
Coding to Standards
Many times when a site is developed the programmer writes codes that are not standards compliant. This can create problems in many of the browsers available and mean that the visitor isn't able to utilize the site. If the visitor isn't able to use the site, the visitor isn't able to shop.
Over use of the
tag on a single page can be considered "spam" by the search engines. This can get the page banned and may even get the site banned for "spamming".
ALT Attributes
ALT attributes are typically ignored in the majority of CGI-BIN and scripting language e-commerce solutions for various reasons. These reasons could be as simple as the belief that the site owner or webmanager doesn't understand the value of these fine attributes to the programmers didn't understand their value and though the exercise of adding extraneous information was not worth the effort. However, they are just as important as the other content describing the item or product.
Flash Navigation
Some programmers feel it is important to utilize Flash to enhance the site presentation. Unfortunately, this hinders the search engines from navigating through the site because Flash does not utilize standards linking technologies.
JavaScript Navigation
JavaScript is an executable script residing on either the client-side or the server-side. This technology allows for the use of "eye candy" and is does not allow navigation through the entire site by some search engines because they cannot execute or parse the codes to perform the navigation required to reach the other pages.
Frames
Frames provide an easy way to manage navigation in one window while providing the content in another window. While this may sound good, but the problem with this situation is the internal pages get indexed without the frameset. That means if a person finds that page, they can't navigate to the other sections of the site.
Coding to Standards
Many times when a site is developed the programmer writes codes that are not standards compliant. This can create problems in many of the browsers available and mean that the visitor isn't able to utilize the site. If the visitor isn't able to use the site, the visitor isn't able to shop.
Why are Search Engine Friendly Shopping Carts Needed?
The objective of any shopping cart or e-commerce system is to allow visitors to shop on a business site for products they want. Not all search engines are created equal with equal capabilities. Some search engines are able to navigate through dynamic sites while others are not. Sometimes the search engines that are able to navigate through dynamic sites have problems indexing and navigating through the entire site.
These factors eliminate many e-commerce sites from the search engine result pages or hamper their advancement to the top of the search engine result pages. For a business to be competitive on the World Wide Web, all of its pages need to be indexed and developed correctly.
For the past 10 years programmers have been developing e-commerce systems that required the sites to compete at the site level. This required many site owners to find a company that could optimize their sites, create doorway or landing pages that focused upon a product or category, or use any number of other means to elevate the e-commerce site in the search engines. These tactics have worked successfully, but the search engines want pages that are of unique value to present to their clients. Dynamic sites hamper the model search engines desire.
In order to meet the demands of the search engines and be indexed by all search engines new techniques must be employed. These new techniques can make an e-commerce system more search engine friendly if they are developed correctly. Some systems will never be search engine friendly and result in less than adequate placement in the search
These factors eliminate many e-commerce sites from the search engine result pages or hamper their advancement to the top of the search engine result pages. For a business to be competitive on the World Wide Web, all of its pages need to be indexed and developed correctly.
For the past 10 years programmers have been developing e-commerce systems that required the sites to compete at the site level. This required many site owners to find a company that could optimize their sites, create doorway or landing pages that focused upon a product or category, or use any number of other means to elevate the e-commerce site in the search engines. These tactics have worked successfully, but the search engines want pages that are of unique value to present to their clients. Dynamic sites hamper the model search engines desire.
In order to meet the demands of the search engines and be indexed by all search engines new techniques must be employed. These new techniques can make an e-commerce system more search engine friendly if they are developed correctly. Some systems will never be search engine friendly and result in less than adequate placement in the search
SEO is part of SEM
Time and again I see people getting upset because their pages don’t rank as high as they want them to rank on the few words or phrases they try to optimize them for. But what makes an SEO consultant successful? Is it the ability to make a web site rank high on certain words or phrases?
The answer is plain and simple: “No!”SEO is part of a bigger thing called “Search Engine Marketing”. Any SEO consultant needs to know at least a bit about Search Engine Marketing (SEM). A few things are important and at the same time very helpful for getting those pages rank high in the Search Engines:
What is your targeted audience?
Which people are interested to visit your web site? “The people that look for my keywords.” is the easy answer, and of course you reach a big group with that logic. But there are so many more people that are interested as well; they just need to be confronted with your web site. Example, somebody that is interested in vacations in the south of France , may very well be looking for sun vacations or warm water beaches.
So look for who is interested as well. A good way to do this is to just do a search on your existing search term, and open some of the results in the range of rank 20 to 100. Just quickly look over those sites and you will
definitely find some words you never thought of before. Of course using WordTracker is also a good way. But some alternative ways definitely work too.
Write good copy
Good copy writing is very important. Writing copy that makes the search engines rank your pages higher does not necessarily change those visitors into buyers. The search engines think different from your visitors. Even though the web crawlers do try to look at it in the same way, they are not human beings. Web crawlers are not sensitive to the feeling that a text creates while reading it. So often, when writing for the search engines, the writer switches off his/her own feelings as well and starts to think like a web crawler.
Combining the 2, writing for the search engines and your visitors, is almost a form of art. But it is not as difficult as you may think. Just write for your visitors and edit the text afterwards so that the search engines like it also. It really is as simple as that. And if you can not manage to get your key words in, you may need to consider choosing other key words. If you can not come up with your pre-chosen key words, then how do you expect people to use them when while looking for what your web site has to offer?
So basically it comes down to 2 things: Knowing your audience and knowing how to write for them. Once you know these 2 things, the SEO work will be easier and more effective.
The answer is plain and simple: “No!”SEO is part of a bigger thing called “Search Engine Marketing”. Any SEO consultant needs to know at least a bit about Search Engine Marketing (SEM). A few things are important and at the same time very helpful for getting those pages rank high in the Search Engines:
What is your targeted audience?
Which people are interested to visit your web site? “The people that look for my keywords.” is the easy answer, and of course you reach a big group with that logic. But there are so many more people that are interested as well; they just need to be confronted with your web site. Example, somebody that is interested in vacations in the south of France , may very well be looking for sun vacations or warm water beaches.
So look for who is interested as well. A good way to do this is to just do a search on your existing search term, and open some of the results in the range of rank 20 to 100. Just quickly look over those sites and you will
definitely find some words you never thought of before. Of course using WordTracker is also a good way. But some alternative ways definitely work too.
Write good copy
Good copy writing is very important. Writing copy that makes the search engines rank your pages higher does not necessarily change those visitors into buyers. The search engines think different from your visitors. Even though the web crawlers do try to look at it in the same way, they are not human beings. Web crawlers are not sensitive to the feeling that a text creates while reading it. So often, when writing for the search engines, the writer switches off his/her own feelings as well and starts to think like a web crawler.
Combining the 2, writing for the search engines and your visitors, is almost a form of art. But it is not as difficult as you may think. Just write for your visitors and edit the text afterwards so that the search engines like it also. It really is as simple as that. And if you can not manage to get your key words in, you may need to consider choosing other key words. If you can not come up with your pre-chosen key words, then how do you expect people to use them when while looking for what your web site has to offer?
So basically it comes down to 2 things: Knowing your audience and knowing how to write for them. Once you know these 2 things, the SEO work will be easier and more effective.
Home business – Making money with your web site
With the Internet it is so easy to start a home business. Just set up a web site and start selling. You can sell your own products, practically to the whole world, or be an affiliate for a bigger company and sell their products online.
Many people started their home business like this. Just throw in a couple of bugs to register a web site and get a host and the money will start to roll in, right?
Bad luck, it doesn’t work like that. Most home business owners come to this conclusion after a couple of months and some just forget about it. Others realize that marketing is the next step and start spending some money on marketing.
New as they are to the world of internet marketing, they spend some money on pay-per-click campaigns, try to get some banners flying around on the internet, but it’s all in vain. Often the costs are so high that the net result is negative, zero or not worth all the trouble.
I’ve been there, it is a lot of work and not much results. Then I found something interesting: “search engine optimization”. It is possible to get high rankings in the search engines, simply by optimizing your web site for the search engines. And with high rankings come visitors that are looking for what your web site has to offer.
After studying search engine optimization I decided to make it my own home business. I love SEO and am now delivering my services just like any other home business owner.
With your home business you can make money, if you get your internet marketing organized. A simple list of products in a web site won’t do it. You need to give your visitors something to come for. A shop owner with just products on the floor of his shops and a counter where you can pay won’t sell much. A shop needs to have the right atmosphere, nice lights, etc. The products need to be presented in the right way. The same thing goes for a web site.
You need to present your home business in the right way. Then people will like your web site and start surfing around on it and maybe even buy something. Also they need to find your web site.
So, your web site needs to be good looking and findable, findable through the search engines. If you are a web master with good html knowledge, all you need is for your web site to be analyzed and you can implement the optimizations your self. If you do not have that much knowledge about html, there are many resources available.
Everybody can make money with a home business. But setting up a web site and waiting for the money to roll in, is not an option. As with all things, you need to work for your money.
Many people started their home business like this. Just throw in a couple of bugs to register a web site and get a host and the money will start to roll in, right?
Bad luck, it doesn’t work like that. Most home business owners come to this conclusion after a couple of months and some just forget about it. Others realize that marketing is the next step and start spending some money on marketing.
New as they are to the world of internet marketing, they spend some money on pay-per-click campaigns, try to get some banners flying around on the internet, but it’s all in vain. Often the costs are so high that the net result is negative, zero or not worth all the trouble.
I’ve been there, it is a lot of work and not much results. Then I found something interesting: “search engine optimization”. It is possible to get high rankings in the search engines, simply by optimizing your web site for the search engines. And with high rankings come visitors that are looking for what your web site has to offer.
After studying search engine optimization I decided to make it my own home business. I love SEO and am now delivering my services just like any other home business owner.
With your home business you can make money, if you get your internet marketing organized. A simple list of products in a web site won’t do it. You need to give your visitors something to come for. A shop owner with just products on the floor of his shops and a counter where you can pay won’t sell much. A shop needs to have the right atmosphere, nice lights, etc. The products need to be presented in the right way. The same thing goes for a web site.
You need to present your home business in the right way. Then people will like your web site and start surfing around on it and maybe even buy something. Also they need to find your web site.
So, your web site needs to be good looking and findable, findable through the search engines. If you are a web master with good html knowledge, all you need is for your web site to be analyzed and you can implement the optimizations your self. If you do not have that much knowledge about html, there are many resources available.
Everybody can make money with a home business. But setting up a web site and waiting for the money to roll in, is not an option. As with all things, you need to work for your money.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
The Don'ts of Directory Development
Article posted by Edward Lewis, aka pageoneresults™
SEO Consultants Directory System Administrator
Orange, California United States
Over the years I've been involved in quite few topics concerning various directories that appear to have been manually removed and/or penalized by various search engines. From those discussions and my research over those years, I've put together a list of Basic Don'ts when developing a directory. Remember, these are just the basics...
Don't launch prematurely
Sure, it's okay to alert members within a community where you are known to get some initial feedback but, do not make any public announcements until you've really looked things over. And, I do mean look them over. From top to bottom and left to right, make sure you've got it covered.
Don't use an off the shelf directory script
Unless of course you've changed every footprint that the script may leave. Sorry Script Makers, there are too many abusers of your scripts out there and the footprints your users leave are very easy to track, even by the most unsophisticated types. If I were a search quality engineer and noticed these footprints were abusive in nature on a large scale, I'm going to take out your entire user base, no questions asked and no explanations given.
Don't generate a directory based on your entire taxonomy
Sorry all you "my site has over a million pages indexed" types. I've seen what you have indexed and you've made a major mistake in your strategy. Filling the search indices with empty categories is not a valid strategy. You do realize that the search engines will index just about anything first time around, right? That is not what counts. It's what happens after the fact that counts.
Sure, Googlebot will ferociously attack a dynamic directory and index thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of pages. Even if those pages are void of any real content. It is unfortunate that this happens, but it is the nature of the beast. You can be assured that if you are filling Google's index, or any SE's index with that many pages, a search quality engineer is going to be on top of things. And you can also be assured that your competitors will be too!
Don't use deprecated markup in your development process
Sorry all of you "it has to be in tables types" or, "you don't need to validate types". These days, if you plan to make an entrance, you need to do it in a way that sets the next level of standards in your chosen space. Keep it simple. You're a directory and that should be your main focus. You are presenting information for the user, present it professionally both visually and semantically.
Don't run AdSense
Sorry Google, but I think this is a mistake for any directory launching these days that is serious about establishing their initial brand in the marketplace. There are plenty of AdSense Directories out there already, no need to continue adding more. Once a directory becomes established, advertising of this nature may be an option, but not at launch or, anytime shortly thereafter.
For those of you running AdSense, don't put it above your directory results. Don't blend the AdSense in with your directory results. Don't trick the user into clicking your AdSense listings. This is becoming common practice with many directories I see occupying the space. Sure, trick your users into clicking your AdSense ads. Eventually this strategy will backfire. Or, maybe it won't. Either way, "I feel it is a short term deceptive strategy and very unprofessional."
Don't buy links
Sorry Link Brokers, but I think this is a mistake too. You, as the directory owner/administrator may want to invest some time in seeking quality link partners and, there may be a monetary investment involved. But, those high quality link partners are going to be your bread and butter as they say. Forget about the numbers! Focus on the quality of the link, not the quantity of links. This is another major mistake I see being made by today's directory promoter.
Don't brag about anything
Sorry all you Egomaniacs, but this is definitely a mistake and one that search engine representatives don't take kindly to. I know how good it feels to reach certain goals and I too like to brag every now and then. But, when it comes to promoting a directory these days, keep your mouth shut. Sorry to be so blunt, but this is a major downfall for many. The search engine representatives do read the forums and blogs. Many SEO's snitch on themselves and then blame it on an algo. In all probability it was a manual ban because they were touting 500,000 or 1,000,000 pages indexed by Google, most of them void of any content other than standard includes.
Don't get involved with rings of any kind
Sorry all of you "friends" out there who decided to develop a network of directories that are basically self-promotional outlets for your products and services and/or those of your friends. This is not about promoting yourselves, this is about providing quality information for your visitors. Wow, what a concept that is huh? One that I see many have forgotten.
Don't expect to get rich overnight
What a flawed concept that is these days, especially when it comes to developing a directory. Sure, some of you guys/gals have made some decent numbers but, it didn't come overnight, did it? It takes dedication, loyalty, devotion, integrity and, a sincere passion for whatever niche you may be targeting.
Last but not least, don't let "them" get you down
If you find yourself involved in discussions concerning your directory, do not, I repeat, do not talk down to your prospective client base. If you as the directory administrator are not adept at discussion in a professional community environment, then don't do it. Have your senior editor or whomever else has the marketing skills required to address any issues about your directory at the public level. Hire someone if you have to.
Don't forget, you are representing your directory, first impressions are lasting impressions. Word of mouth is a very powerful tool. Leave a strong first impression and watch how quickly the word spreads.
SEO Spending - Rising Budgets for Search Engine Optimization
SEO Spending - A Smart Approach
Spending on SEO services is on the rise and there are good reasons for that trend. The first is that search engines are an increasingly pivotal online location for consumers and B2B buyers and this is where businesses have to show up to access consumers. The second is that marketers are putting more of their marketing budgets into search engine marketing. That would include paid ads, text link purchases and optimization of websites. This competitiveness means you need to plan better and invest more.
According to a recent study by Credit Suisse, the market for online ads will increase 32 percent to $16.6 billion in 2006. They suggest that Yahoo, the most visited website, and number one search engine Google will win new advertising business at the expense of publishers and broadcasters. That estimate includes paid advertising but research shows people are not clicking on ads and that advertisers have given up on clickthroughs, and instead are looking for branding benefits. If you spend smartly and hire the best SEO firm, you won't have to rely on branding alone and forego real clickthroughs from real paying customers.
In the eight years I've been an SEO specialist, I've noticed that those who spend the most on SEO get better returns on that investment. That seems like a no brainer, but you really need to think about search engine results for a moment. The top ranking sites get all the clicks, so unless your SEO expenditure can get you into those top rankings, your performance will lag. Estimates are that the top ranking listing gets 40% of clicks, the second spot 20% and the third captures 10% of all viewers. The rest get a few percent each.
The number one problem of most search engine optimization campaigns is under funding. Even after getting outstanding results, companies still hold back on SEO spending. The bar is being raised on competition as big money invades the search engine arena the
"no spend" policy of some companies will result in continual disappointment with their SEO providers and the value of SEO. Failure to build a good case for growing SEO budgets could result in substantial losses for some companies.
Intense Competition Because It's Valuable Real Estate
Consider Google's dominating market share of searches (Hitwise just reported Google has a 42% market share and visitors spend two to three times longer session times than other search engines.). For SEO, Google is everything. In essence, they control access to consumers with their algorithm. Google rankings are very competitive. Everyone wants that same piece of real estate. Companies will need to spend money to capture top rankings in the free organic search results.
SEO is still a mystery to most marketing managers and it's only going to get worse. Google's algorithm will become more complex as they try to defy all attempts at manipulation of rankings. Don't expect too many non-information science people to explain it well. You need to consider the depth of the SEO's knowledge when planning SEO. They're a lot of web design firms trying to hang out an SEO consultant shingle. Some may have a good SEO expert working for them, but you'll want assess the ability and skill of the specific person working on your project. Watch out for outsourced work. It may be cheaper but you get what you pay for.
Google is getting much better at detecting and filtering out paid links, so don't expect that approach to continue working. In the end, it's the optimized development of your site that will provide good rankings, along with some good links from on-topic sites!
Getting Quotes
You might get quotes varying from $3000.00 to $30,000.00+ for your SEO campaign and your return will depend on what you spend and on the skill of the search engine optimizer and the complete range of services offered. Stay focused on what you need to achieve. That approach will ensure the long term development of your search engine presence.
Don't ask for guarantees on keyword phrases. Keyword guarantees are unethical. The fact that you're asking for guarantees means you have no confidence in the SEO provider. Guarantees lead to spam because the guarantor will take desperate measures to get that ranking and when you get aggressive with search engines, they will take action.
Hire a consultant/service provider that you can see is a master in SEO work. That is your guarantee.
The key here is that your SEO investment has to be sufficient to get your site to the top three ranks. Any investment below that is bound to be disappointing for most companies. It's the same in any area of promotion really. Always keep in mind how highly targeted and often highly qualified the visitors to your site will be. Many require minimal sales effort. They're ready to buy and all you have to do is show up.
Make 2006 a successful year for your company!
Gord Collins is SEO Director at Bay Street SEO. Gord writes frequently in magazines, blogs, and forums on new trends in search engine optimization and search engine marketing. He provides SEO services to numerous major U.S. companies and other SEO companies.
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