Archive for January, 2007

This is especially important for very large websites. The goal is to get more pages indexed. The more pages indexed, the more organic traffic. Simple as that.

Here are the steps:

1) Create a XML sitemap using the sitemap protocol ( it’s as easy as plugging your URL into a free sitemap generator tool ).
2) Then, place the Sitemap on your server.
3) Then, submit the URL of your XML Sitemap to each search engine.

It’s as easy as that.
Use the crawl data to fix any broken pages, and analyze / optimize your site.

According to Forrester Research, User-generated content (UGC) is being created by approximately one-quarter of online consumers. In my opinion, UGC can be used as an SEO tactic, and can take the form of product reviews, discussion boards, comments on blogs, etc.

Besides being a way for big brands to engage with their consumers, UGC can also add relevant content to a webpage, thereby optimizing the content for Search. There are several methods that User Generated Content can boost SEO. Did you ever wonder which type of UGC carries the most trust?

The trust factor of UGC can be seen by the chart below. Interestingly, an online review by a blogger has the lowest trust rank.

Methods that User Generated Content can boost SEO:

Onsite optimization:
1. Product reviews will definitely add relevant content to your webpages.
2. However, uploading video (Butterfinger UGC campaign) will not.
3. JetBlue enables travelers to share their story.
4. Ebay has a wiki.
5. Media sites like CNET and NYTimes.com enable comments on articles to solicit feedback from readers.
6. Companies have initiated corporate blogs, like General Motors’ FastLane blog, and Wells Fargo started their own mini blog network.
7. And, let’s not forget blog comments. They are great. I love’m. Whether they disagree, agree, or just have something to add to the conversation ( except of course for spam).

Offsite optimization:
1. Review Sites like ReviewMe, Sponsored Reviews, and PayPerPost are useful for generating buzz, and links.
2. Other sites like CurrentTV add branding value, but do nothing for SEO.
3. Just recruit bloggers like Vespa did.
4. Some advertisers are getting their own MySpace profile like Honda.
5. Leverage your own UGC community. Reward participation, even if they say things you don’t like. Respond with appropriate product and service changes — and thank them for the advice.
6. Consider social networking sites like Digg.

For companies concerned about brand or reputation management there are services and/or software that allows for monitoring consumer generated content regarding your brand. Nielsen BuzzMetrics, and Cymfony collect and analyze data. Or, Netpinions can be used to monitor over 35,000 discussion boards and forums. Alternately, you can use a simple tactic such as Technorati, or an automated Google Alert.

This is a post that should help in the Link Discovery process for effective links. Below are 12 criteria to analyze when hunting for links:

1. Backlink profile to site using Yahoo [linkdomain:mysite.com].
2. Anchor text of link…and the anchor text that’s used to link to your target website…and the anchor text used to link to those websites. Basically, go back a few “generations”.
3. Placement on page.
4. Relevant text around link
5. Relevant text on overall website
6. Co-citation (related neighborhood)
7. Authority of the outbound links on page
8. PageRank matters.
9. Alexa rating.
10. Homepage vs Subpage (which is more relevant/powerful for your link?).
11. Something else to consider is, which of the websites will give you the highest clickthroughs.
12. Avoid Link Traps.

So, after your links go live, the question is…”How long until I see results?”

Remember, the AGE of the link matters in terms of aiding to boost your ranking in the SERP’s. In some cases, you will see an immediate boost in the SERP’s from the initial inertia of your Link Campaign. Then, after a day or two, you may see the rank slide back to where it was. It’s almost as if Google has the “link radar” on, and can detect the age of the link. Or, is a safeguard against advertisers buying links to increase rankings. On average…and I want to stress the word average….a link campaign will make a noticable difference after the links have aged approximately 12 weeks in the Search Engine index. According to Rand, there is some delay of at least a week or two, and possibly longer in some situations. I’ve seen the link effectiveness within 1 week. But, it depends on a lot of factors as mentioned on the list above.

An additional benefit of a 12+ week link campaign is the possibility of an increase in PageRank during the next update. PageRank is NOT an indication of actual ranking in the SERP’s. It is only an indication of how often Google crawls your website. So, as more links to your website go on more websites, that will help you increase PR for the next Google update. The reason is because as the Google spider crawls those websites, and follows the link to your site, it will crawl thru your site each time. Hence, a higher frequency crawl rate. Hence, a very high probability of an increase in PageRank during the next update.

In searching for webpages in order of importance, I like to go to Yahoo, and use the query [site:anysite.com keyword]. Yahoo sorts the SERP’s in order of importance. Another query I like to use for finding all anchor text for a keyword that points to a website is this query: [inanchor:keyword linkdomain:yoursite.com -site:yoursite.com].

If you’re a SEO Consultant doing outsourced Link Ninja work for a different SEO firm, then you might want a legal agreement in place to protect your hard work if the client doesn’t want the links you suggest. Possibly set-up a process where your client (the other firm) can analyze the potential site before committing to the purchase. In the agreement, be sure to detail how many days before the other SEO firm can call on the site themselves, after you had hunted down & analyzed, and submitted the site for their review.

Have you ever seen a webpage, and it looked complete…even with a nice footer navigation. Then, you just happened to scroll a little further down the page and saw something like this. Keyword stuffing. Text and links that are similar to the page background color. It definitely has a flavor of spam. Or, blackhat-ish SEO.

Is the website just trying to enhance your user experience, and ability to quickly navigate their site? Or, is this a more cynical SEO technique designed to trick the Search Engines. Or, maybe a little of both?

Some people will not notice the scroll bar on the browser, because the actual webpage looks complete. Most users won’t scroll. And very few look at the right top of the browser to check the scroll bar. Usability studies have shown that most people don’t pay attention to everything on the screen. They try to process only the information they consider useful. So, if the page looks complete with the footer visible ( but nothing under the footer is visible), then there is no reason for the user to scroll. And, it’s fairly obvious that the extra content below the footer is to trick the search engines.

People also tend not to look at the bottom of a screen unless they have a reason to do so. So, should that be an SEO opportunity?

Another “below the footer” SEO technique is to place content under the footer navigation. Again, the question…is it for humans, or search engines. Here is one example and here is another example. In my opinion, this SEO technique has less a flavor of spam, and more of poor usability.

Another similar SEO technique that is less shady, is using your keyword phrase in many hyperlinks on the webpage. Here are a two examples from the real estate industry.

E-commerce sites make the best use of their target keyword phrase when they use it in the textual hyperlink to describe an image. Instead of the more questionable SEO techniques above, that require scrolling beyond the footer navigation.

When analyzing a site for optimizing, it’s best to only choose one keyword phrase to optimize per landing page. You can identify which page is already indexed, and considered the most relevant page on your site for your chosen keyword by doing a “site:yoursite.com keyword” in Yahoo to see which page is considered the most relevant. Additionally, you can check to see if your chosen landing page is already indexed in the search engines by doing a allinurl: search query on Google. Use a url: query on Yahoo and MSN.

1. Keyword Ranking:
Establish a baseline for Keyword Ranking by checking your current position in the SERP’s.

It is also useful to track your keyword rankings as compared to your competitors keyword rankings.. Create a simple spreadsheet with the Competitor names across the top and the keywords on the left column….then fill in the data. Let’s call that the Keyword Ranking Matrix.

Run monthly reports, and update the Keyword Ranking Matrix to measure the effectiveness of your SEO campaign in regards to the Keyword Rankings in the SERP’s.

2. Website Traffic:
You’ll need to use Web Analytics software to establish the current website traffic from a keyword. Once you have the baseline, then determine how many monthly searches are being conducted on that keyword. To calculate the Total Monthly search volume you can use the Overture Keyword Tool and multiply by 4. The rationale for multiplying by 4 is because Yahoo has approximately 25% of the Market Share of Searches.

To calculate your percentage of “Share of Search Traffic” you can divide the amount of your actual Search Visistors by the Total Keyword Search Volume.

3. ROI:
What is the ROI? Or more specifically ROAS? It’s Return on Advertising Spend. A simple formula to calculate ROAS is: (Revenue-Advertising Cost)/ Advertising Cost. Then, multiply the ROAS by 100 to express as a percentage. Figure out how much new sales revenue resulted from Organic traffic from a keyword. For example, if you spent $10,000 in a month for SEO, but your Sales Revenue from that Keyword was $1,000,000, then more than likely the SEO campaign was a success.

4. Brand Awareness:
Can it be possible that some advertisers just want Brand Awareness, and not a conversion of some sort? Politicians?

Startup web-based businesses are often looking for inexpensive advertising techniques to generate website traffic. Guerrilla Marketing techniques are a great way to get started on a shoestring marketing budget…especially to a niche audience. Offline advertising can drive online visitors to a website. Here is a short list of a few low cost marketing ideas:

1) Refrigerator Magnets. Then, mail to a niche mailing list.
2) Sponsor a weekly newletter ( school, church, synagogue, niche organization, etc )
3) Send a flyer announcement to a niche mailing list.
4) Sponsor an event.
5) Bulletin Boards in local shops, clubs, etc.
6) Advertise on disposable Coffee cup holders. Give out free to local coffee shops.
7) Sponsor restaurant placemats.
Local Radio and/or Low Cost Television Ads.
9) PPC Search Marketing.
10) Display Ads such as banners.
11) Imprint your message on a Calendar, and drop off stacks at local businesses. Calendars will keep your name and website in front of people throughout the year.
12) Sponsor T-shirts for the little leaue baseball team, where they will wear your website or message at every practice and game event.

TLA is a great place to get started either buying or selling text links.

However. And, there is a however. Be forewarned that there is a high probability that TLA is on Google’s radar screen. Google has told us that they will start devaluing any text link which they can identify as being sold. And, Text Link Ads uses a specific publisher code on it’s Publisher sites. All Google needs to do, is build a detection system into their algorithm to identify the TLA code, and that’s it. End of story. The TLA links won’t pass any linkjuice.

Let’s assume they don’t pass linkjuice. TLA still has a great inventory of sites. The clickthrough value from their publisher sites can be comparable to Display advertising. But, not for boosting your SEO.

Some people have said that Google identifies the TLA affiliate link from a banner, and manually check to see if the site is selling text links. Then Google devalues the sites’ linkjuice. I find that argument hard to believe. Is that something Google shareholders are paying for? It may be true, but I strongly doubt it.

Here are some top search blogs that have the TLA affiliate link on their site, and they all have powerful SEO value: searchengineland has one, and seroundtable, searchengineguide, SearchEngineLowdown, and a ton of other SEO blogs. The TLA affiliate link certainly isn’t hurting any of their linkjuice.

My assumption is that if it’s just an affiliate id, and not the TLA publisher code, then your site is perfectly safe from any SEO harm from Google devaluing it. However, if you are a publisher using the TLA code, then that’s a different story. You very likely could be on Google’s radar, and have your PageRank/Linkjuice devalued.

So, advertisers looking to buy links from TLA to increase their SEO efforts, need to start looking at other ways to gain link popularity.

Now, it’s not all that bad. That’s only for Google. My suspician is that those TLA links still pass linkjuice for Yahoo and MSN….At least for now.