What Happens When Google Blacklists You?
Are you or a contractor participating in shady SEO (search engine optimization) practices? Well, the party won't last.
At a post over at Hitwise Intelligence, Robin Goad asks, What Happens if Your Web Site Gets Blacklisted by Google? The answer isn't pretty.
GoCompare, an auto insurance comparison Web site found out exactly how ugly recently when they were blacklisted by Google. From being #1 or at least on the first page of Google for "car insurance" they dropped to (at the time of the article) page seven. You can be sure there aren't too many users go to page seven.
In fact, traffic dropped 87% for that particular keyword. For an Internet-based company, that can spell death.
Why did GoCompare get blacklisted? Google doesn't give out specifics, but rumblings seem to point to paying for mentions in blogs. (This could spell death to the pay-per-post cottage industry that has sprung up.)
Whatever this particular infraction might be, the lesson to be learned is that "black hat SEO" might give you a big boost, but the hangover is never worth it.
Slow and steady wins the race, my friends....
Rich Brooks
Search Engine Marketing for Small Business
Search Engine Tips: Improve Your Intrasite Links
Click here. Learn more. Read more. What do these phrases have in common?
They're all missed opportunities when it comes to creating links on your site.
Search engines use the words in hyperlinks in their rankings. It gives them a hint of what's on the following page. So by using "Click Here" as your link, you're telling the search engine the next page is about "Click Here."
Not very helpful, is it?
Instead, you should use targeted keywords when you link from one page on your site to another. Here are some examples (underlines are for demonstration only, they're not links):
- Learn how to train your dog in just five minutes a day.
- Download our new article, "Sixteen Secrets Your Accountant Doesn't Want You to Know."
- Watch our video on baking a cake for the novice.
- Find out why one dentist out of five recommended sugar gum for his patients who chew gum.
The "following" pages (that you're linking to) need to follow up on the keywords you used. The title, the header and the body content should all be about training your dog in just five minutes a day, or whatever the appropriate topic is.
Your to-do? Review your Web site and update all the intra-site links that are specific to the topic you're linking to.
Your outcome? This will help the search engines understand what your site is all about, and should raise your profile in the search results.
Rich Brooks
Search Engine Marketing for Small Business
How Much Do Incoming Links Matter to Search Engine Rank?
Short answer: very. No wait, scratch that: essential.
Developing a keyword-rich site and placing those keywords in the right spots is only half the battle. Getting quality incoming links is the other half.
Part of any search engine optimization program has to include a plan to get incoming links, whether from other Web sites, blogs (including your own), directories, or an article marketing plan.
For more on this, check out Is SEO Possible Without Inbound Links?
Rich Brooks
Guess Where This Links
Tourism's New Math: What Maine's Tourist Economy Needs Now
There's a front page article in the PPH today about a new method of calculating tourism's impact on the Maine economy, and a lot of people aren't happy about it. It's hard to know what the impact will be, but as the article notes,
If tourism promotion doesn't appear to be generating as much
bang for the buck as previously thought, [Vaughn Stinson, chief executive officer of the
Maine Tourism Association] said,
lawmakers could be less supportive of continued funding. His
concern is heightened by the state's budget shortfall.
The bottom line is that companies involved in the tourist industry here in Maine may be getting less support from the MTA, because there's less money to be spent on tourism marketing. This impacts ski resorts, hotels, B&B's, snow mobile rentals, restaurants, and a thousand other businesses that are part of or support the tourist industry.
If I were in tourism I would be planning ahead. Hopefully the funding will still be there, but the possible slack must be picked up by individual businesses. No surprise, but I'd be blogging, developing one or more email newsletters, budgeting money for search engine optimization, and reviewing my Web site based on my analytics. I'd be creating a presence on Facebook and MySpace. In short, I'd be preparing for the worst.
Even if the funding comes in at last year's levels, businesses that are marketing themselves--especially in a recession--will be in a better position to take advantage of it.
Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Maine Businesses
Is Search Advertising Right for You?
Here's my dirty little secret: as a company, we haven't done a whole lot with search engine advertising, aka pay-per-click advertising, aka PPC. We've never done it for our own services (in large part because our organic listings at Google, Yahoo and other search engines keep us busy enough,) and we've only done it a handful of times for clients.
However, after reading How to Gain Instant Exposure with Search Advertising, I can't wait for the next opportunity. We're hopefully launching a few e-products this year, and it sounds like PPC is one of the right tools to generate tons of leads.
If you're having trouble ranking well organically, whether because you're a new site, your site isn't very search engine friendly, you rely too much on Flash, or you don't have enough content, PPC may be a cost-effective way of driving qualified leads to your site. However, you still need to keep on top of your ad buys and make sure they stay cost effective.
Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Small Business
What is Your Web Site Doing for You?
What drives more traffic to your Web site, search engine optimization or an ad in the local paper?- How much business did your email newsletter generate for you last year?
- How much did each Web lead cost you last year? What was each one worth?
If you're like most business owners out there, you have no idea. And yet, chances are the answers are at your fingertips.
Almost all hosting companies offer some sort of traffic reports, no matter how rudimentary. If you're unsatisfied with your reports you can have your Web person install Google Analytics, a free traffic reports application that provides an unbelievable amount of detail in a user-friendly layout.
<shameless plug>
If you'd like to learn more about Google Analytics and how to read some of its most important reports, I'll be leading a workshop on Wednesday morning in Portland, Maine called Google Analytics for Online Success. We limit these workshops to just 10 people, so registration is required. The cost is $50 and we feed you, too!
</shameless plug>
Hope to see you there.
Rich Brooks
Analytics Retentive
Google Analytics: Web Marketing Seminar in Portland, Maine
In flyte's Holistic Web Marketing model the four components are:
- Attraction (driving traffic to your site)
- Retention (staying in communication w/customers even when they're not at your site)
- Conversion (getting visitors to take a desired step towards the sale) and
- Measurement (determining how effective different campaigns really are).
It's the last component, measurement, that we'll be talking about at our upcoming workshop, Google Analytics for Online Success.
Web marketing without measurement is like archery without a target. You don't know how well you're doing.
Traffic report programs such as Google Analytics help small business
owners and entrepreneurs understand which online marketing campaigns
are working and which ones should be dropped.
Google Analytics is an incredibly powerful analytics program that
can answer all of these questions and more. Best of all, the price of
the software can't be beat: $0.
Attendees will learn:
- How to setup and get the most out of Google Analytics.
- How to read and understand reports, and which reports are essential to your success.
- How to set up Goals so you can track which traffic streams are worth the most to your business.
- How to analyze these reports to make changes to your Web site and improve your conversion rates.
Date: Wednesday, 1/16/2008
Time: 8am - 9:30am
Place: flyte's offices (directions)
Cost: $50, includes coffee & danish type edibles
Registration is required, and the workshop is limited to just 10 people, so REGISTER NOW!
Rich Brooks
flyte school instructor
Throw a Better Party with Google Analytics
Don't you sometimes wish that you had you're own personal Cyrano de Bergerac, handing you lines and giving you advice on wooing the girl (or guy), and in general making you a more popular, more lively party guest?
No? Well, I guess it's just me.
In any case, if you think of your Web site as your cocktail party, and Google Analytics (GA) as Cyrano de Bergerac, you can see where I'm going with this month's flyte log: How Google Analytics Can Make You the Life of the Party.
In this issue of our Web marketing ezine, we look at some of the nuggets of information we can gather from GA on how to make our Web site a more inviting, more engaging place that will attract and retain guests.
Almost forgot! This month's flyte school workshop is called Google Analytics for Online Success. If you'd like to learn even more about how Google Analytics can help you make more money online, register now!
Date: Wed., 1/16
Time: 8am - 9:30am
Place: flyte's offices (directions)
Cost: $50, includes continental breakfast
Limited to Just 10 Attendees, so REGISTER NOW!
(Yes, I plan on doing some webinars in the very near future! Please be patient!)
Rich Brooks
The Host with the Most
12 Web Marketing Ideas to Jump Start Your Business
You know those "new" episodes of your favorite TV show when a character gets hit by a car, and then all their friends gather by their bed side and retell their favorite stories through a series of clips?
Welcome to my clip show.
Here's a quick list of the 12 articles we published in flyte log, our monthly Web marketing ezine:
- Your 2008 Web Marketing Plan
- How to Use Social Media to Reach New Customers
- Business Blog Success: 10 Tips for a Profitable Blog
- Increase Your Search Engine Visibility: Three Things You Can Do Today
- Nine Indispensable Online Tools for Your Web-Based Business
- Four Tips to Maximize Your Email Marketing Results
- The Secret to a Web Site That Sells
- Six Blogging Myths That Are Holding You Back
- The Dangers of Relying on Google for Business
- Holistic Web Marketing: An Integrated Approach to Online Success
- Tracking Conversions: Does Your Web Site Turn Suspects into Prospects?
- Informational Products: Selling Your Knowledge Online
There's oodles of ideas in these articles that you can use to jump start your business and build it over the next year. If you'd rather not miss any new articles, please subscribe to flyte log in the box below.
Are Meta-Tags Important to Search Engines...Again?
For years there was an easy tell if a so-called search engine expert was a fraud. If they told a Web site owner they weren't being found at the search engines because their meta-tags weren't fully optimized I knew they hadn't read anything on the subject since 1997.
Meta-tags are pieces of information that appear in the source code of a page, but don't appear on the page itself. These tags--primarily the meta-keyword and meta-description tag--had been an important part of search optimization in the late 90's, but were then ignored by the search engines because they were often stuffed with mis-leading words to attract more visitors.
As search engines matured they became much more interested in the content that appears on the page, not under it.
Still, there is reason to pay attention to the meta-tags, specifically the meta-description. Major search engines such as Google and Yahoo often use the meta-description on their search results page. This means that you have some control over the words that appear when one of your Web pages is pulled up as a result of a given search.
By crafting a compelling meta-description you may get a searcher to click on your link as opposed to that of a competitor. Our own Carolyn Phillips also suggests putting calls-to-action and phone numbers in a meta-description tag to motivate searchers to click on that link or pick up the phone.
So, while it still seems like there's little help meta-tags can offer to your search engine rankings, a well-written meta-description, coupled with a keyword-rich page title can drive more qualified leads to your Web site.
For more details on how search engines might display your meta-tags, check out 7 Ways Your Page May Be Described in the SERPs by Jill Whalen.
Rich Brooks
Maine Search Engine Optimization
Your 2008 Web Marketing Plan
There's light fluffy snowflakes falling outside my window this morning as I polish off another issue of flyte log, our Web marketing email newsletter...the last for 2007.
Rather than look back on 2007--as good as it was--it's time to look forward to 2008 and start making plans. Web marketing plans, that is.
Today's issue of flyte log is Your 2008 Web Marketing Plan, a month-by-month, itemized list of what you need to do to succeed in 2008.
Your Web marketing plan includes ideas on search engine optimization, blogging, social media, Webinars and more.
Why not take the first step in improving your chances for success in 2008 by signing up for flyte log now, so you never miss another issue?
Will Buying Text Links Help or Hurt You at Google?
Two important statements came out of Google recently, and as Google goes, so does the search engine market. Make sure your search engine marketer knows about these two items.
Buying and Selling Text Links Are Evil
Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of
Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s
ranking in search results.
In the past, one way to get more incoming links--and thus improve your standing in the search engines--was to buy text links from other Web sites. Besides the traffic that you might receive, search engines saw these incoming links as "votes of confidence." However, Google has ruled that these links are there to artificially raise a Web site's ranking, so they will be penalized.
To reduce the incentive to use text links Google is penalizing both the sellers and buyers of these links.
Shared IPs Are as Good as Dedicated IPs
Lots of sites are hosted on shared IPs. If this had a negative effect
on ranking, it would harm most of the sites on the web--and that's not
good for small webmasters or for our users. So, understandably, sharing
an IP should not have an effect your ability to rank.My advice: don't worry about it. Host your site however you think
is best, and instead spend your time focusing on the content--making
sure your pages are easy to navigate for users regardless of their
browser or hardware, and ensuring that the content you provide is
informative and unique.
This is a confirmation that Google has made several times before. So, if you're getting pressure from your search engine marketer or your hosting company to upgrade to a dedicated IP, just tell 'em to take a hike.
If you have no idea what this means, the upshot is that you don't HAVE to know.
Now, get back to writing targeted, keyword-rich content to improve your search engine rankings!
Rich Brooks
SEO for Small Businesses
Web Marketing for Public Relations
I'll be part of an all-day conference for the Maine Public Relations Council this Wednesday, October 17. The annual conference's theme is "The Art and Science of Communication," and goes from 8:30 - 3:30 at the Sheraton Hotel in South Portland.
My topic will be Web Marketing for Public Relations. This is a new lens from which to view Web marketing, at least for me. However, in putting together the presentation I was just blown away by the tools that today's PR professional has at his or her disposal. I mean, I got really excited. I was pacing around the kitchen table as I was creating my slides. And the future looks even more exciting.
If you're a public relations professional, or you're just looking for ways to gain more visibility for your company you can't afford to miss the MPRC's annual conference. Admission is $100 for members, $140 for non-members. Details and registration information can be found on their events page.
Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for PR
Reptetition, Repetition, Repetition....
"I'm concerned that I'm repeating myself."
That's what a new client told me the other day as she worked on the Content Intake Packet (CIP) that we provided her. We developed this CIP as a way of helping clients organize their content and make it as powerful as it can be, especially with an eye towards search engine friendliness and readability.
For each page of the prospective Web site, there's a field for Title, Header and meta-description tag.
Title: The title tag may be the most important variable for the search engines, yet many people have never noticed it until I point it out. It appears outside the browser window, in the -- duh -- title bar. On the Mac it's right up there next to the red, yellow and green buttons. On Windows you'll find it next to the minimize, maximize and close buttons. (Still can't find it? Check out this post on Web page anatomy.)
Title tags should be descriptive, unique to the content on each page, and use the keywords people are searching for when looking for a product or service like the one you offer. It's also the big blue text on a search engine's results page, so it may be the first impression that a prospect has of you.
Headers: Headers appear within the page. For you HTML monkeys out there, it's everything between the <H#> tags. Because these are structurally more important on the page, search engines pay attention to these tags as well. They should reiterate the theme of the title tag as well.
They're also important because people don't read on the Web, they scan. Headers let them quickly find the information they're interested in.
Meta-Description: Meta-tags used to be extremely important to search engine optimization, but that was about 8 years ago. Now they have little to no impact on your search engine ranking, depending on who you talk to. However, it's a good idea to have a unique meta-description for each page, as search engines often use these descriptions on the results page. Think of it like free advertising. Here's an example:
Otherwise, the search engines may just grab some random text from your Web page that matches up against the search words used. This meta-description does not appear on your page, but rather on the underlying code only.
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition....
Since the title appears outside the browser window, the header appears within it, and the meta-description appears only in the source code and on the search engine results page, it's OK to repeat the same text or reword it in a similar way.
Each of these serve a different purpose, but they all build upon each other to help the search engines understand why your site should rank well when a prospect is searching for what you have to offer.
It's a good idea to go Google yourself -- don't worry, you won't go blind -- to see what your prospects see when they search. If you don't like the results, you can change your title tag and meta-description and a few weeks or even days later, see your improved result.
Rich Brooks
Search Engine Optimization
How to Rank Better at Google in Three Easy Steps
Yes, it's a few days late. (If by "few" you mean "seven.")
However, we've been busy wrapping up current projects and signing up quite a few new ones, plus kindergarten started last week so I'm still in a state of shock. At least she's looking up to Disney princesses and not Lindsay Lohan.
But I digress....
We just published the latest issue of flyte log, our award-winning email newsletter (BTW, do awards from your mom count?) with a featured article entitled Increase Your Search Engine Visibility: Three Things You Can Do Today.
Enjoy.
Rich Brooks
Search Engine Optimizer
Building a Web Site with Search Engines in Mind
While it's never too late to optimize your site for search engine visibility, the best time to do it is before you build it (or rebuild it.)
Why? For the same reason it's better to plan the electrical system before you build your house; it's less expensive to build the electrical system into the house rather than tear down walls to install the wiring.
At the most recent Search Engine Strategies seminar in San Jose, there was a session entitled Search Engine Friendly Design with a panel made up of Shari Thurow, Founder & SEO, Omni Marketing Interactive and Maine's own Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner, Beyond Ink.
The entire session has been documented and can be found at the SE Round Table Web site at Search Engine Friendly Design.
Rich Brooks
Maine Search Engine Marketing
How to Show Your Google Ads Only in Portland, or Bangor, or Lewiston...
There a good post on How to Geotarget Your Google Ads to a Specific City over at SE Round Table.
Why would you want to geotarget your Google Ads? The real question is why wouldn't you? Since every time someone clicks on one of your Google Adwords Ads you pay Google money, you want to make sure that it's a qualified lead. If you're a Bangor dentist, a click from a Portland Web site visitor--no matter how poor her teeth--probably won't land you a new client.
While in the past you could only limit which state the searcher was for, now you can control by city, region and more. If you're going to spend you ad dollars on Google Adwords, spend them wisely.
5 Ways to Track Your Online Spending for Maximum Results
Wouldn't it be great to know exactly which Web marketing campaigns were generating sales for you, instead of just site traffic?
If you could easily determine whether it was your blog, or organic search results at AOL, or a paid ad you took out on an email newsletter, that was getting the cash register to ring, would you be interested in finding that out?
Of course you would; if not, you'd be reading Catching Flies, Catching Fish. (And more power to you, BTW!)
By installing and utilizing a free copy of Google Analytics, you can. GA (Google Analytics) allows you to track your incoming links in a number of different ways, allowing you to quickly determine which campaigns are contributing to your bottom line. GA tracks campaigns using a combination of five marketing "dimensions":
- Source: where the traffic comes from; i.e., Google, Yahoo, an email newsletter, another Web site.
- Medium: qualifying the source; i.e., organic search results v. paid search placement.
- Term: the word a person types into the search engine.
- Content: the version of the ad. Best used in content a/b testing; i.e., which version of the ad a person clicked on.
- Campaign: to qualify which campaign the link came from; i.e., "Hot Summer Specials" v. "Back To School Specials."
In a completely unrelated aside, I'll be leading a Working Lunch Seminar entitled "Google Analytics for Online Success" this Wednesday from noon - 1:30 at flyte's offices in Portland, Maine.
Lunch in included, seating is limited, so register online now. (Or just learn more.)
The Press Herald Tackles Search Engine Optimization
I had mixed feelings about an article in today's Press Herald called: Searching for Room Near the Top, by Tom Bell, and not because he didn't contact MaineToday's Internet marketing blogger (me) for an interview. Sniff. It was a well researched and written article, and like any article that appears in the mainstream media, it was meant to play to a wide audience.
However, I'm concerned that it will get a bunch of small businesses here in Maine fired up about spending money on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) without a plan on what to do with that traffic.
One of the things I tell anyone who attends one of the Search Engine Marketing seminars I put on from time to time is that search engines are like a hose, but if your Web site is a leaky bucket, it doesn't make a difference how high the hose is on.
Search engine optimization is probably the most well-known aspect of Web marketing, but if you spend all of your Web marketing budget on SEO, you'll miss out on other important components of a Web marketing campaign, such as email marketing, business blogging and a Web site that can convert visitors into customers.
So yes, absolutely SEO is essential to the success of your Web site. But if you don't have a plan to handle that increased visibility all the traffic in the world won't save your business.
For more on this, check out Holistic Web Marketing: An Integrated Approach to Online Success.
A few items I would have liked to see mentioned in the article:
- Onsite content is only half the battle; you need to get quality incoming links to succeed.
- Blogs are great ways of increasing your visibility at the search engines.
- The links from other sites and intrasite links (links from one page to another) should be keyword rich; in other words, don't just say "click here", say, "Web marketing for small business" (or whatever your customers would search for.)
<shameless plug>
Google Analytics for Online Success! is the upcoming Working Lunch Seminar at flyte. Learn how to determine your traffic levels, what search engines are sending you traffic, where people are leaving your site, and which Web sites and search engines are giving you the best quality visitors.
Date: Wednesday, July 11th
Time: Noon - 1:30pm
Cost: $50 (lunch included)
Seating is limited to just 10 people, so register today or just learn more!
</shameless plug>
Rich Brooks
Maine SEO (See?)
Double Dose of Rich Brooks
Some days you need two cups of coffee, some days you need two doses of Rich Brooks.
What? You don't? Well, too late.
At noon I'll be putting on one of our now-world famous Working Lunch Seminars here at flyte. Today's topic: Search Engine Optimization: Driving Qualified Traffic to Your Site. If you're around Portland and you have no lunch plans, there's still 3 open seats. Register now!
Also, for those of you in Southern Maine, I'll be on 207 tonight, Maine's premiere evening news program, talking about a few new cool Web sites that you can personalize and interact with. That's on at 7pm on channel 6, WCSH.
How to Piss Off Google
Are you looking to anger the folks at Google and get blacklisted? Want to reduce the traffic to your Web site by 50% or more? Then just ignore some of these recently updated tips from the Webmaster Guidelines put out by Google.
- Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
- Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
- Don't send automated queries to Google.
- Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords.
- Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
- Don't create pages that install viruses, trojans, or other badware.
- Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
- If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.
Sounds reasonable, right?
If you'd like to learn how to rank well at the search engines (as opposed to just not pissing them off), be sure to check out our upcoming Working Lunch Seminar: Search Engine Optimization - How to Drive Qualified Traffic to Your Site. It's Wednesday, June 13th from noon - 1:30ish at flyte's offices.
Give Viagra Away so There’s No Profit in Selling It
That was one of the more creative ideas for how to reduce spam and fight spammers at the "Penalty Box Summit" at the Search Marketing Expo 2007 in Seattle.
Most of the session was about how to get out of a search engine's penalty box once you've gotten in for "bad behavior," as well as better ways of reporting spam that you find yourself.
For a more complete run down of this session, check out Penalty Box Summit at Search Engine Roundtable.
For some additional advice on how to rank higher than your competition at Google and Yahoo, check out our upcoming seminar on Search Engine Optimization: How to Drive Qualified Traffic to Your Web Site. It's being held Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 in our offices in Portland, Maine. Seating is limited, so reserve your space now.
Free Web 2.0 Handouts to Download
Yesterday I spoke at the Maine Marketing Association's Web 2.0 Conference; my topic was Web Sites for Action! Anne Kennedy of Beyond Ink spoke about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Aileen Cahill talked on Online and On Target which talked about the benefits of a Web 2.0 Web site and how to get your customers participating.
It was a great turnout--I'm guessing over 80 people--and there were a lot of good questions for all three presenters. Whether you were able to attend or not, the Maine Marketing Association has posted all three presentations up at their Web site for anyone to download.
PowerPoint handouts (or in my case, Apple's Keynote) are pretty hard to understand if you weren't there for the presentation, so if you review the handouts and still have questions on Maine Web Design or Internet Marketing, please feel free to ask.
What is Web 2.0 Anyway?
If you've been looking for information on Web 2.0 and how you can use it to turbo-charge your Internet marketing, I've got some good news.
The Maine Marketing Association will be putting on Web 2.0 - Internet Strategies for Power Marketing on Monday, May 21st, 2007.
There will be three workshops in this all-morning event:
- Online and On Target - Strategies for One to One Marketing at the Speed of Light by Aileen Cahill, author of Internet Marketing: Building Advantage in a Networked Economy
- Web Design for Action! by Rich Brooks (that's me!)
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) by Anne Kennedy of Beyond Ink
The festivities begin at 8:30am and will be held at the Ambromson Center in the new Hannaford Hall building.
Registration is $35 for members and students, $45 for everyone else. Pre-registration is appreciated.
Can Link Baiting Help Your Search Engine Marketing?
What a lot of Web site owners don't know about search engine optimization is that half the battle is getting quality incoming links to their Web site. (The other half is creating quality, keyword rich content on their sites.)
In this week's issue of Practical Ecommerce, Stephan Spencer has a great article on improving your search engine rank through incoming links called SEO: Link Baiting Type To 'Juice' Your Site.
Spencer breaks down what makes for good link bait (humor), whether it will work on an e-commerce site (doubtful, or at least difficult), and gives some examples of link baiting campaigns that have worked.
If you've been looking for ways to increase your search engine visibility and site traffic, this article is worth a look.
What Is "Ethical" Search Engine Optimization?
Brian Ortiz--no relation to Big Papi as far as I know--has a great article in this week's MarketingProfs called Ethical Search Engine Optimization Meets the Consistent Value Proposition. Ortiz states:
There are two main schools within the search engine optimization
(SEO) world. The first is to work against the search engines (and your
clients) with trickery, smoke and mirrors, unrealistic expectations,
and short-term thinking.
The second is to work in tandem with the search engines and your
clients who have reasonable expectations, by following the rules the
search engines put forth to create a quality, user friendly, relevant,
unique, valuable, engaging, sticky, thought-provoking, fresh, and
intuitive website.
This is another way of discussing the division between "white hat" SEO and "black hat" SEO. If your SEO company guaranteed you page one results, chances are they're working against the search engines. If they guaranteed you quick top ten results, chances are they're working against the search engines.
Ortiz says, "Ask yourself: Are my SEO's actions setting me up for now or the future?" It's a good question to ask yourself about SEO, as well as every other aspect of your business.
Take 5 minutes out of your day and check out Ethical Search Engine Optimization.
Attend Flyte's Working Lunch Seminar: How to Use Email Marketing to Grow Your Business - 5/9/07
What Do Search Engines and Love Have in Common?
They're both blind.
Search engines can read text, but they can't "see" images. So, if a lot of the "words" on your home page are actually images and not HTML text, search engines may not be able to determine what your site is about.
How is Google going to rank you on page one if it can't read what you have to say about your products, your company, or who you work with? And how can you tell what Google or Yahoo is able to read from one of your Web pages? For that, we turn to a tool called SEO Browser.
Let's take a look at a search I ran this morning on maine construction company. The first result is from Wright-Ryan Construction's Web site. (This may seem biased because they're a client of flyte's, but I swear that was just happenstance.)
The result was not actually Wright-Ryan's home page, but rather an internal page on the Merriconeag Waldorf School in Freeport. (Remember: every page of your site is an opportunity to rank well.) To see this page as the search engines see it, we turn to SEO Browser.
This is what the page looks like through the eyes of a search engine. Although this page is short on copy, there's still quite a bit of content for the search engines to grab onto. The fact that the page title includes the word "Maine Construction Company" is a big help as well.
The second result is from Ryder Construction who is not a client of ours. (See, you can rank well on your own if you know what you're doing!) Here's what their pages look like from Google's perspective.
The next three results are a little off topic, so if you're a Maine construction company looking to drive more traffic through the search engines, opportunity is knocking!
What can you do to improve your own ranking at the search engines? Put yourself in the shoes of these search engines by checking out your site at SEO Browser. If what you see is confusing, or doesn't do a good job of explaining what you offer, or doesn't include any of the words you'd like to rank well for, rewrite your copy.
Make sure you get that new, keyword-rich copy where it can do the most good:
- titles,
- headers,
- body copy and
- intra-site links.
Then just sit back and get ready for more qualified leads at your Web site.
Want to Rank Well at the Search Engines? Plan Early
OK, I'm just back from vacation, so I'm going to slip back into the blogging with an easy layup.
Too many Web site owners still think that to rank well for a keyword, i.e., "travel," "bed & breakfast," "dog training," it's just a matter of mentioning it to your Web designer as the site's about to launch, or tell the search engines this is what you want to rank well for.
However, good search engine optimization begins during the planning phase of your Web site, including the site architecture.
Eric Enge has an important article called 12 Quick Site Architecture Tips that is a must read for any business about to start the process of building a Web site or planning a revamp.
If search engines are important to the success of your Web site, doing this work up front will offer the best return on investment you can imagine.
Why Can't Search Engine Companies Guarantee Results?
Who doesn't like a guarantee?
Many Web site owners are intrigued by offers that guarantee page one placement at the search engines. After all, no one wants to spend a lot of money and find that they aren't ranking any higher than they did before.
But think about if you owned a bed and breakfast. You can guarantee your visitors clean sheets, a view of the ocean, and a fine dining experience. What you can't guarantee them is that they'll have a good time. Or that it will be in their top 10 weekends of all time.
It may be that they have a lot of great weekends. It may be that it rains. It may be that they get sick, or hungover, or they have a terrible fight with their significant other. There are just too many variables out there.
Likewise, psychologists can't guarantee you complete happiness, plastic surgeons can't guarantee that the object of your affection will fall in love with you, and a career counselor can't guarantee you'll have your next job for life.
The same is true with any legitimate search engine optimization company. They can guarantee that they'll be professional, that they'll do the appropriate research, that they'll make recommendations based on previous experience and success, but they can't guarantee you'll be on page one.
Maybe you have too much competition. Maybe the keyword phrases you're targeting are too broad or off-target. Maybe you're unwilling to add the necessary content to your image-heavy home page. Maybe Google or Yahoo changes their algorithm next week. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
So how do companies that guarantee you page one placement get away with it?
- They use pay-per-click ads that appear on page one. Nothing wrong with this approach, except it could be expensive. Also, if they're leading you to believe this is natural search results at work, that's misleading.
- They're using underhanded, black hat SEO tricks that probably will rocket you into the top 10 results...and then get you banned just as quick. Many fly-by-night search engine firms use this slash-and-burn technique, and then you'll spend a LOT more money with a legitimate SEO company trying to get back into Google's good graces.
- They're lying.
I know you want to rank on page one at Google. But so does all of your competition. The best long-term, sustainable approach to search engine success is to continually add quality content that your customers are interested in and organize and present it in a way that the search engines can also understand.
Drive More Traffic To Your Web Site
Would you like to drive more traffic to your Web site? Rank higher at the search engines? Understand how a blog or podcast could attract more prospects and customers? Would you like to know about new forms of Web marketing, like social bookmarking and tagging?
Well, we have just two spots left for this Wednesday's Working Lunch Seminar at flyte: Building Traffic at Your Web Site.
The session goes from noon - 1:30 and includes lunch. For details, directions, and to register for one of the last two remaining spots, be sure to check out our Web Marketing Seminars page.
How to Build a B2B Web Site
If you're audience is other businesses, you need to have a B2B approach for your Web site. Galen De Young provides a lot of helpful advice in an article entitled B2B Search Engine Optimization: Driving Conversion.
This is the 2nd article in a series, and this one focuses primarily on different incentives you might offer at your Web site to build trust and establish your expertise with prospective buyers. She covers newsletters, white papers, podcasts, case studies and more.
While not all of the elements might be right for your business, it's about testing out different campaigns to see what works, and using analytics to measure success and failure.
Sounds pretty holistic to me.
What Is Holistic Web Marketing?
Too often Web site owners focus all of their attention on ranking well at the search engines at the expense of building a Web site that will convert this traffic into business. Or, they spend a lot of money on a Web site design, but never sink dime one into promoting their site. Or they build up a big email subscriber base, but don't know how to get these subscribers to take action.
The problem is that these site owners are focusing on just one element of their Web marketing, instead of viewing their Web marketing as a whole.
Web marketing these days takes an integrated, multi-faceted approach if you want to succeed. To better explain how to create a more effective online marketing plan, flyte has created a model called Holistic Web Marketing.
You can learn more about Holistic Web Marketing at flyte's blog.
Are Title Tags the Most Important Factor for Search Engine Success?
If you could improve only one thing on your Web site to rank better at the search engines you should work on your title tags.
In the new High Rankings Advisor Newsletter, Jill Whalen answers all of your questions about Title Tags...those words that appear above the URL or Address Bar, outside the actual Web page itself.
Questions like:
- Do Company Names Belong in the Title Tag?
- Should Title Tags Contain Specific Keywords?
- Should Your Title Tags Mimic Your Visible Text Copy?
While Title Tags aren't the only thing that affect your search engine rankings, they are the first thing your prospects see of your business on the search engine results page.
Read All About Title Tags now!
Tracking Conversions With Google Analytics
I've been so busy talking about my 15 minutes of fame on local TV that I completely forgot that this blog is supposed to be about Internet Marketing. Let's get back in the swing of things by mentioning the recently published issue of flyte's email newsletter: flyte log.
This month's issue is entitled Tracking Conversions: Does Your Web Site Turn Suspects into Prospects?
With the price of a Web site ranging from near-zero to tens of thousands of dollars for a small business, it's often difficult to determine whether or not your site is a good investment.
An inexpensive site might prove to be wasted money, while an expensive site may be bringing in twice the revenue you laid for it. Or vice versa.
By using Google Analytics and setting up trackable goals, you can start to measure the results you're getting from your Web site. In this email newsletter, now archived at our site, we'll walk you through the step-by-step process of setting up goals and tracking them.
If you'd like to sign up to receive flyte log each and every month--talk about a competitive advantage!--you can do that at our Web site.
George W. Bush No Longer a Miserable Failure, Says Google
It's a shame, really, because I told the "Miserable Failure" story time and again to explain to people the power of incoming links.
The story goes like this: up until a few days ago if you Googled "miserable failure" the first result was George W. Bush's bio page on the White House Web site. Now, you can be sure the words "miserable failure" never appeared on that page. So how would it rank #1 for that phrase?
A critical mass of Web site owners critical of Bush linked the words "miserable failure" from their Web sites to W's bio at whitehouse.gov. Because Google looks at the words in a link to help determine what the lined page is about, this helped W's bio rank first for "miserable failure."
For example, if I wanted flyte's site to rank well for Maine Web Design or Maine Web Designer, not only would I want to include those phrases on my site, I'd like to get incoming links that used those phrases...like I just did. ;-)
If you get enough people to exploit that feature of Google's algorithm--the mathematical equation that determines how relevant a page is to a given search--you can create what's known as a "Google Bomb."
However, Google just updated their algorithm to reduce the chances that a Google Bomb will work, and sure enough, George W. is no longer the number one result for "miserable failure."
This doesn't diminish the power of quality incoming links, since that's at the heart of Google's algorithm; instead, it just reigns in the abuses.
To learn more check out the post on the official Google blog.
What Are Your Traffic Reports Telling You?
Due to overwhelming demand (no, seriously!) we're repeating our Understanding Web Site Traffic Reports class on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007. As I said in my last email,
"A person who reads tea leaves can predict the future, but a person who can read their traffic reports can make the future."
Title: Understanding Web Site Traffic Reports
Date: 1/31/07
Time: Noon - 1pm
Place: flyte's offices @ 136 Commercial St., Ste.201, Portland, ME
Cost: $50, lunch included
Again, the last class sold out the first day I formally announced it and I've already set aside 4 of the 10 seats for the people who were on the waiting list.
For more information and to register online, please visit our Web Marketing Seminars page.
BTW, if you'd like to be informed of other upcoming classes, sign up for our free email newsletter and be sure to check off the box that says: "Alerts for Web Marketing Related Webinars, Classes, Events, Etc." on the confirmation page.
Hope to see you there.
How FAQs Help Your Search Engine Rank
There are many benefits to an FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions page on your Web site. If you're often asked the same questions about your product or service, it's probable that many other people have the same questions but haven't asked.
Even though the information may be available at other pages on your site, the question and answer format is a comforting, familiar one. Also, many people may start with the FAQs, feeling that all their questions will be answered there, plus a bunch of other questions they hadn't thought of yet.
Finally, but equally important, are the search engine benefits of an FAQ page. There's a theory in search engine optimization that the keyword density of the content--the number of times your keyphrase appears in your content compared to the total number of words on the page--affects your search engine rank. In other words, a page that uses "Portland Caterer" five times on a page of 500 words will rank higher than a page that uses the phrase two times on a page of 500 words...all other things being equal.
Of course, "all other things" are never equal, and too much keyword density is a red flag for the search engines; cramming too many occurrences of your keyphrase may actually hurt you at the search engines.
So what's the magic number of times you should use your keyphrases? Well, no one knows for sure, and if they did Google would change the number the next day. My recommendation is to use your best keyphrases as often as reads well...and maybe one time more.
Getting back to FAQ pages, they allow you to repeat your keyphrase multiple times without sounding forced. For example...
What's the most effective way to get my children to do housework?
Getting your children to do housework can be a challenge, but it is possible....What are the benefits of an ARM as opposed to a fixed-rate mortgage?
There are many benefits to an ARM (or adjustable-rate mortgage) over a fixed-rate mortgage, and here are just a few....
The other search engine benefit is that you can work in search terms that might not be appropriate, but might be effective. For example, if you run a long-term care facility, but you find most people are searching for nursing homes, you can use the "inappropriate" or "competing" phrases to your advantage.
What's the difference between a nursing home or nursing facility and a long-term care facility?
The difference between a nursing home and a long-term care facility is mostly semantics. What was traditionally called a nursing home or nursing facility is now....
You can do the same if your keyphrase is often misspelled....
I've seen Hannukah spelled Hannukah, Chanukah, and Hanukka. What's the correct spelling?
Since Chanukah is a Hebrew word, there's no correct way to spell it. However, we chose to spell it Chanukah because....
Now, if you want to take your FAQ to the next level of effectiveness, take a couple of your best, keyword rich FAQs and put the question on the home page as a link to the answer. If you're interested in learning why creating these keyword rich links are important, read What Is Anchor Text?
12 Web Marketing Articles to Read Right Now
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I'm a big fan of email newsletters. They're very cost effective, they keep you in front of your best prospects and customers, and they help you establish your expertise.
The only downside is that once they're sent, they're gone. If you're producing a content-rich newsletter you should archive these newsletters on your Web site. This helps you with the search engines as well as providing this content for people who have just discovered you.
To that end, here's a quick list of the twelve flyte log newsletters flyte published in 2006. Enjoy! More can be found here: http://www.flyte.biz/resources/newsletters/
- New Year's Resolutions for Your Web Site
- Use Your Blog to Attract the Long Tail of Search
- 37 Calls to Action to Get People to Read, Click and Buy at Your Web Site
- PayPal: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
- Blog Marketing: How Blogs Can Increase Your Reach and Deliver New Customers
- Boost Your Search Engine Rank: Proven Methods to Increase Incoming Links
- Search Engine Optimization: Stop Guessing and Start Researching
- Keyword Research: Five Ways Your Prospects Search for You
- Lead Generation Online: Is Your Web Site a Leaky Bucket?
- The Secret to Great Search Engine Rank
- Broken Windows, Broken Web Sites: Why Your Web Site is Underperforming
- Search Engine Success Through Article Marketing
As always, you can subscribe at our Web site.
Understanding Your Web Site Traffic Reports
Would you like to get more information out of your traffic reports? Would you like to better understand how people are finding your site, where they're coming from, and what search terms they're using at the search engines?
Are you curious to know how much time they're spending at your site, or how many pages they visit before leaving?
Would you like to know which pages interest them, or which pages drive them to your competition? How about where in the world they live? Or how cost effective your pay-per-click ad campaign is?
Would you like to take this information and use it to drive more qualified traffic to your site, generate more leads and make more money online?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, have I got the workshop for you. (If you answered no to all of these questions you're in the wrong place.)
Flyte's starting a new program called the Working Lunch Seminar Series. The first seminar will be Understanding Web Site Traffic Reports: How to Improve Your Web Site and Get More Business Online.
We'll be looking at how to get important information from of your traffic reports and how to put it to use to improve your site.
We'll use Google Analytics
as our traffic reporting software. Attendees may choose to setup a free
Google Analytics account for their own site before the course begins, but it's not required. What you learn in class will work for most other traffic reporting software packages as well.
(If you'd like flyte to set this up for you you can request that now or after you've signed up for the class.)
Lunch is included for all attendees.
Seating is limited to just 10 attendees! (News Flash! Only 9 8 seats left!)
Date: Wed., 1/17/07
Time: 12 noon - 1pm
Place: flyte's learning lab, 136 Commercial St., Ste 201, Portland, ME
Cost: $50
(We also have another Working Lunch Seminar schedule for February 21st: How to Plan, Build and Promote Your Business Blog.)
Local Search: Buy Local? Sell Local!
With the Internet consumers are able to buy products and services from around the country or even the world. But what if your company has a product or service that people generally shop locally for? Doctors, dentists, pizza, doggy day care, whatever? How can you make sure local customers find you, and not your competition in Dallas, Texas?
John Boulter of Bastion Internet runs a Web marketing podcast called Drive It - Convert It! In his most recent episode he goes through--step-by-step--how to come up higher in local search.
My favorite tips from the show are how to get into Yahoo, MSN and Google's local search. Often, when your customers do intelligent searches, such as "portland maine pizza" they'll see three local results above the rest of the organic results.
John provides links for you to submit to the local search of Google, Yahoo and MSN as well as a host of other important links.
Internet Marketing for Values-Based Businesses
I'll be running "Internet Marketing for Values-Based Businesses," a workshop at the MEBSR Annual Fall Sustainable Business Conference.
MEBSR--Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility--hosts this event every year...which is why they call it their Annual Fall Conference. The theme of this year's fall conference is "Practical Tools for Business Success."
How does an ethical business succeed on the Internet where email spam, click-fraud and search engine schemes seem to rule the day?
By enabling a long-term solution that engages the Four Pillars of Internet Marketing. Learn how to use search engine optimization, permission-based email marketing, blogs, podcasts and non-malevolent viral marketing to engage like-minded customers and prospects, drive more qualified traffic to your site and convert that traffic into business.
Besides my workshop, there will be two keynote speakers, Kevin Hancock of Hancock Lumber and John Warner, the Director of the Center for Green Chemistry at UMass Lowell.
Date: Friday, December 1st, 2006
Time: 8am - 5pm
Place: University of Maine Hutchinson Center, Belfast, ME (Map & Directions)
Cost:
- $100 MEBSR members ($150 after Nov. 10th)
- $150 non-members ($175 after Nov. 10th)
- $15 students ($35 after November 10th)
I know the 10th is coming up soon, so please register now! You can call 207.338.8908 or download the conference PDF.
Can Search Engines Keep Politicians Honest?
Will Google and other search engines keep politicians honest?
While some might argue that this is beyond the scope of technology, a recent article in the Financial Times quotes Google's Eric Schmidt as saying:
He forecast that, within five years, “truth predictor” software would “hold politicians to account”. Voters would be able to check the probability that apparently factual statements by politicians were
actually correct, using programs that automatically compared claims with historic data.
Chris Boggs from SE Roundtable says:
Pretty cool, and it’s highly likely that people with advanced search
skills are already performing this type of research, if they care to.
For the rest of us, there's always Jon Stewart.
Internet Marketing Seminars in Maine
For those of you with a desire to learn more about Internet Marketing and a burning desire to meet me in person, next week is your Mardi Gras.
Monday, October 16: I'll be presenting "How to Plan, Build and Promote a Business Blog" for MESDA from 6pm - 8pm at their offices in Westbrook, Maine. Entrance is free, but they ask you to register for a door prize. (Directions.)
Tuesday, October 17: I'll be part of a panel put on by the Maine Marketing Association called "Right On! Staying on Message No Matter What: Crafting and Communicating Effective Messages That Will Break Through the Clutter." It's from 9 - 11:30am at the Glickman Family Library on the USM campus in Portland. Roy Heffley is the keynote speaker. The cost is $35 for members, $45 for non-members, and $15 for students or anyone with a fake student ID. You can register via email or just show up. (Directions.)
Wednesday, October 18: Is the first class of the Web Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses at the University of Southern Maine's Center for Continuing Ed. The classes continue each Wed. evening (10/25, 11/1 & 11/8) from 6:30 - 8:30pm. The cost is $195 and you can learn more and register here.
Thursday, October 19: I'll be taping a segment for WCSH's evening news magazine 207. Topic and broadcast date TBD.
Whether I get any real work done next week is also TBD.
Text Navigation Helps Your Search Engine Rank
Search engines uses mathematical algorithms to determine whether your site should rank above your competition. There are many variables that make up this algorithm, all varying in weight or importance.
Your site's navigation is an important variable in this algorithm. Search engines send programs called spiders or robots to visit your site that follow the links on your page and index the content. The search engines then use this information to determine how relevant your site is to a given search.
These spiders aren't especially smart, and many things can trip them up. They have difficulty with Flash, for example, so if you have Flash navigation you should have a back up plan for driving qualified traffic to your site, such as pay-per-click advertising.
Spiders are also blind, meaning they can't see images. They can read the "alt" tags (what you often see in the yellow boxes as you roll over an image), but they don't necessarily give them a lot of weight in the algorithm. In other words, they can follow an image link to your portfolio page, but they don't know if the button read "Architect's Portfolio" or "Free Tapas."
As a Web site owner looking for good rankings, you want to make your site as easy to navigate as possible for these spiders.
Lately, search engine experts have realized how much impact replacing an image-based navigation with a text-based-navigation can have. Image-based navigation doesn't necessarily mean having an icon of a house for your home button; images of text are treated as images by the search engine spiders.
For example, the image below can't be read by the search engines. Although you can read it, it's an image of text, not really text.
Get it?
Image-based navigation has been popular for a while with Web designers and site owners because images appear the same in every browser in every operating system. Text, on the other hand, can appear at different sizes, wrap differently, be resized by site visitors, and unless you're on a Mac, the font can appear jagged. In fact, unless the visitor has the font installed on their computer, it won't even show up!
That's a strong argument for image-based navigation.
However, if search engines are a big part of your marketing mix, you may want to reconsider your current image-based design.
The Search Engine Roundtable reports on a thread at WebmasterWorld.com on the Power of Text Navigation.
The site in question changed only their navigation to text and went up 45 positions (4.5 Google pages) for their "trophy" keyword. They also saw other keywords rank in the top three after being on secondary pages at Google.
Now, if you change your navigation to text-based, but your buttons still have generic labels like "portfolio" or "about us", then you probably won't see much impact. But, if your navigation includes important keywords, such as "Portland Coffee Houses" or "About Pediatric Services" you'll most likely notice a much bigger difference.
In other words, YMMV. (Your mileage may vary.)
Web Marketing Course at USM
If you enjoy the subject matter of this blog, but you'd prefer a little more interaction and perhaps specifics on how YOU can implement some of these ideas on your own Web site, blog or email newsletter, I've got good news.
I'll be teaching a course called Web Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Small Business at the University of Southern Maine this month as part of their Center for Continuing Education.
We'll be talking search engine optimization, email marketing, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing, e-commerce, home page strategies and more. Last time we got into wikis.
The course will be Wednesday evenings from 6:30 - 8:30pm, October 18th - November 8th. For more information and to register online check out the Web marketing course page on the USM Web site.
Not sure if this class will help? Here's an unsolicited thank you email I received:
Rich,
Thanks to applying what I learned from you to my new site, in the last month I have zoomed up in the Search rankings (when any part of my name or ‘Maine’ is included with key terms, I get at least three listings on first page), increased the amount of time people are spending on the site, increased my new visitors to 25% of my traffic and tripled the rate of new subscribers to the ezine.
Chris Trout
OK, enough self-love. Hope to see you there.
Getting Out of the Google Sandbox
For people who aren't part of the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) community, the first time they hear of the Google Sandbox they may think it's a company perk like pinball machines or massage therapists that went out with the dot-com bust.
However, the Google Sandbox is more like a "time out" box. (Other
search engines, including Yahoo and MSN's Live.com have similar
programs in place.) New sites generally don't rank well when they're
launched. This is because Google has a "wait and see" variable built
into their algorithm.
First, a little background: search engines have a mathematical equation called an algorithm that determines how relevant a given Web page is to a given search. There are dozens or hundreds of variables that go into the algorithm, each with a different amount of weight. On top of that, each search engine has its own algorithm and is constantly tweaking it to foil anyone trying to "crack the code."
Why would Google have a sandbox? It's a matter of trust. A new Web site hasn't been around long enough to earn Google's trust.
We hired a handyman a couple of years ago and started him off on a small job. After he had done a good job we gave him a bigger job, which he also performed well. That led to even bigger jobs as our trust in him increased. Then he went down south to work on a giant oil refinery and we haven't heard from him since. But that's a different story.
Many new site owners are frustrated to hear that they may have to wait 3, 6 or 9 months before their site can begin to rank well at Google. Search engine forums are filled with their angry tirades. But I say it is better to light a candle than to curse the sandbox.
There are a number of steps to get you out of the sandbox faster and they're all spelled out in Secrets to Beating the Sandbox 2.0 REVEALED: The Ultimate Guide over at the Link Building Blog. Author Andy Hagans touches on such things as:
- Getting into trusted directories,
- Link baiting, and
- Social bookmarking.
For the non-SEO expert this may be a little bit of information overload, so if you look at the article and your eyes glaze over, be sure to give it to your Web master/mistress and ask for a synopsis.
Even if your site has been around for years, there's a wealth of information that can greatly increase the incoming links to your site and improve your search engine visibility.
Traffic Reports Lead to Better Web Sites
Do you have access to your Web site traffic reports? Do you read them?
Recently we've picked up a couple of clients who currently have Web sites but either don't have traffic reports or don't know how to access them. One of the first things I recommend is that we set up traffic reports for them immediately. This helps benchmark the success (or lack thereof) of the new site.
By continually reviewing the traffic reports we can make changes, add new content or articles, create more links to important but under visited sections of the site and more.
Traffic reports are required reading for anyone who cares about the success of their Web site.
Good traffic reports tell you:
- how many people visited your site
- where they came from (another Web site, a search engine, a bookmark, etc.)
- what search engine they used
- what search terms they used
- how long they spent at your site
- how many pages they viewed at your site
- the first and last pages they visited at your site
- and more.
While most decent Web site hosting companies include traffic reports, lately I've been enjoying the stats generated by Google Analytics (formerly Urchin.) The reports are free, and it's a hosted solution (meaning you don't have to do anything on your own server.) Also, if you do use Google Adwords for your pay-per-click advertising, you can more deeply track all of your ads' ROI.
You'll need a Google account (free) to get going, and ability to add some code into your Web pages, or hire a professional to do it for you. The whole process should take 2 - 3 hours depending on the size of your site and your comfort level.
The reports you receive are incredibly revealing. The home page will greet you with a 20,000' foot view of how your site is doing.
There are dozens of different reports you can run, as well as target specific dates or ranges of dates to see how a newspaper or TV ad may have impacted your traffic.
One report I always review is the referrers report; this tells me where my traffic is coming from.
One report that I just discovered is very interesting. It shows a working version of any page in your Web site, along with graphs next to each link to show what percentage of traffic clicked on each link.
The tan bars appear under each link and the blue bar shows visually the percentage. By clicking on each bar you can get more details. From this page you can see that during the past week 12.42% of my home page visitors clicked on the link to download 10 Questions to Ask Before Setting Up a Web Site.
If I was trying to drive more traffic to a specific part of the site, this would help me determine if I needed to promote it more heavily on a given page.
The only shortcoming of this is that Google Analytics can't tell which link the visitor clicked on, just how many people clicked a link that went to a given page. In other words, was it the image that caught their attention or the text link?
Still, if you're looking for help on how to drive more qualified traffic to your site and how to get your site visitors to take the appropriate steps to close the sale, reviewing your traffic reports is an essential first step.
Tagging, Web 2.0 and Internet Marketing
You may have heard of the term "Web 2.0" in the mainstream media this year, or noticed it floating near the most popular blog topics at Technorati. While what Web 2.0 is exactly may be debatable, one of its more popular tenets is the concept of tagging.
Tagging is a new way of organizing data on the Internet. Tagging is adding labels to specific items, such as photos, music, Web pages or blog posts. For example, you can upload your photos to Flickr and tag them with different labels. A photo of Market St. Eat's front door might be tagged, "Portland, ME", "Restaurant," or "Bacon." (Mmmmm...bacon.)
For an example, here's a Flickr page for the tag "Portland, Maine."
Why is this important to you as an Internet marketer?
Because tagging is a very social way of organizing information. If you're blogging, you should be tagging your posts. For instance, you may already have categories for your blog posts. This blog has categories on Business Blog Marketing, Email Marketing and Search Engine Marketing. Categories are types of tags.
However, you may blog about an item that's part of the zeitgeist, but doesn't quite rate a category. For example, I might create a post about a marketing lesson I learned from the New England Patriots home opener. I'm not going to be blogging about the Pats often enough to create a category for them, but I can take advantage of that post by tagging it with Patriots, football, or Deion Branch.
How does this help? Well, it helps both traditional search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and blog search engines (Technorati, Ice Rocket, etc.) understand what your post is about and rank it appropriately. It also creates more links into your post and drives more traffic to it.
Now, I don't know that many people searching for Deion Branch will be looking for Internet Marketing advice, but it's possible.
For a better example of how you can harness popular searches to drive qualified traffic to your site, and how to create these tags, please read "Tagging Your Posts in TypePad." (Aside: TypePad has made it easier to add tags of late.)
I haven't bothered tagging Internet Marketing 101's posts because of the registration this site requires. However, for the sake of showing you an example, here goes.
Tags: Web 2.0 | Tags | lonelygirl15
(That last tag may give you an idea of the downside of tagging...it's easily abused. As more people tag "inappropriately" to rank artificially high or drive unqualified traffic to their site, tagging may become devalued as a way of finding relevant material.)
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