The New York Times reports that “Google researchers say they have a software technology intended to do for digital images on the Web what the company’s original PageRank software did for searches of Web pages.” … via Search Engine Roundtable
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by Jennifer Laycock
With all the talk about blogging and social media lately, you’d think there was nothing left to do in the world of search engine optimization. I’m guilty of tunnel vision myself. After all, social media is far more fun to talk about than title tags, keyword selection and canonical issues. That said, sometimes the best way to give your site a boost is to go back to basics. Whether it’s a refresher or your first shot at optimizing your site, here’s a trip down content revitalization lane.
Step 1: Pick the Right Keywords
When you’re talking organic search, it’s hard to argue that choice of keywords is the single most important factor in a successful search engine optimization campaign. (Yes, yes, I know…everyone thinks links are most important, but if those links are helping you rank for the wrong keywords, it won’t do a lick for you.)
Selecting your keywords isn’t simply about making random guesses and popping a few words in your title tag. It should be one of the foundational elements of any search engine optimization campaign. The keywords you aim to rank for define the type of traffic a successful campaign will eventually send to your site. Aim for too broad a phrase and you’ll have trouble ranking well and will end up with traffic that doesn’t convert. Aim too specific and you’ll get good quality traffic, but not enough to keep you going.
That’s why it’s essential to understand the keyword buying cycle. (The process of refining a search over time to reflect the move from researching to being ready to buy.) It’s also essential to tap into a keyword research tool so you can find out what phrases people are actually using when they search. Time and time again I’ve seen companies be surprised at what people are really searching for.
For a super general example, I ran a quick search on the phrase “cakes” and built the following list. (Your list should be quite a bit larger, but the concept is the same.)
Now, you may be reading this and thinking “but I’ve already done my keyword research.” Well sure, but how long has it been? Did you put up a site a few years ago and haven’t thought a thing about your keywords since then? If so, how do you know you aren’t missing out on new traffic from new keywords? Remember, the way people search changes over time. If you haven’t done keyword research in the last six months, I’d suggest taking an afternoon to see if your keywords and phrases are still current.
Keyword research can also give you the kick in the tail to add new areas of focus to your web site. Maybe you’ve been thinking of expanding your business, maybe you’d like to take your blog in a new direction. Keyword research can be a great way to dictate which direction you head. After all, if you stumble upon a topic with a lot of searching and not much competition, you’re gold!
Step 2: Divide Keywords into Groups
Once you’ve built your list of new keywords and phrases to target, you’ll need to sort those phrases out into groups so you can come up with a content plan. The best way to do this is to break your list down by topic, like so:
Now you can see what started as one big list turning into some distinctive content areas. While the groups in the image above may show us new areas of focus (i.e. types of cakes, events, wedding related content) the groups can be broken down even further.
Step 3: Start Creating New Content
Once you have your final list divided up into specific topics, you’re at a point where you can being mapping out some content. Your best bet is to take each group of keyword phrases and write up a couple of ideas to go along with it. Decide what type of content is a good fit and what the focus of the content should be. For example:
Keep in mind that new content doesn’t always have to be pure text. For example, you might have noticed the keyword phrase “wedding cake pictures” on the list above. I suppose you could write an article about how to take the best pictures of wedding cakes, but it would make far more sense to build a photo gallery of the wedding cakes you have created. After all, photo galleries don’t have to be made up solely of pictures. You can easily write up some descriptive text describing the style of the cake, the type of cake, the decorations and so on.
Keyword Research Can Spark a Content Rush
It’s easy to think you’ve covered every angle and every perspective of content for your site when you’ve been writing awhile. Bloggers talk about writer’s block and business owners feel like they have nothing new to say about their products. Sometimes taking an afternoon to go and do a little keyword research can give you a great reminder that there are still plenty of ways to talk about your business. Even if you only get a handful of blog posts out of it, you’re still ahead of the game.
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by Scott Allen
Ok, I’ll admit it - I’m addicted to the TV show Friends. It’s one of my
favorite shows of all time, and I’ve probably watched the entire series
on DVD at least 30 times. (And that’s a conservative guess.) The show still makes me laugh, even when I
watch it over and over again.
Recently, I had an epiphany, and
realized that there is a lot you can learn about link building from
this show. I’m sure you’re asking, “What exactly does a TV show
have to do with search engine marketing?” Well, a lot more than you
might think.
One of the things I noticed during my 25th or 26th time
watching the series through, was there were subtle references to
specific brands and products. I’m usually pretty quick to catch things like this, but I’d never noticed it before. Off the top of my head, some examples include IKEA,
Pottery Barn, and Williams Sonoma. After I started paying attention, I
noticed that there were 2-3 of these per episode.
Having lived in
southern California for over ten years, I’ve got a few friends who are
actors, and I know a thing or two about the TV and film industry.
Rarely will they give away free references to specific brands. They
usually get sponsors to pay for these subtle contextual placements. The
writers are clever though, and are able to sneak in these references
without you noticing it most of the time. Later on, you find yourself
subconsciously desiring that item mentioned in the show. I’ll give an
example, and I think this is when I first started paying attention to
these brand references.
On one episode, Joey was eating a Three
Musketeers bar. I rarely eat candy bars, but later that day, I found
myself really wanting a Three Musketeers bar. I thought, “Where
the heck did that come from?” I realized it was from the contextual
advertising in the show, and it had worked brilliantly. It was subtle
enough to not hinder the plot, and yet strong enough to stick in your
head - the perfect balance. I’ve seen this done in TV shows and movies
before, but few are this well executed.
Ok, here’s where it relates to search engine marketing.
You
probably know that building links into your site is one of the most
important things you can do in your efforts to improve your site’s
ranking. A lot of people struggle with this process, especially at the
beginning. Many questions also arise as to where the link should be
placed on the site you are trying to get linked from, along with what
kind of sites should you get links from, and what those links should
look like.
Let me help you simplify this and eliminate some of those questions.
In a TV show, when a brand is mentioned, it can be compared to when a
website links out to another site - it’s a brand reference. Whether or
not the link is paid or given voluntarily, it is a tiny little ad for
the other site. Friends is such a great example because these reference are subtle, natural, and contextual - they are simply part of the conversation.
The most valuable links you can acquire for your site will look like this too. They should be subtle, natural, and contextual - part of the conversation. (This is also a great model for how we should link out to other sites.)
On the flip side of the coin, think of the last time you saw a TV show or movie where there was some contextual advertising that just stuck out like a sore thumb - it’s tacky and a turn-off. When I see those I make a mental note, “Do not buy x brand product.” Seriously - I’ll actually boycott a product if the advertising is that obnoxious.
Well, guess what…search engines and users feel the same way about websites. Search engines place the most value on links that seem natural and relevant, and so do site visitors. To get the most value out of the inbound links you acquire for your site, go for the natural contextual ones.
There’s obviously a lot more that goes into link building, but this should help you have an easier time deciding what kinds of links to pursue.
So, the next time you’re trying to figure out what kind of links to get, just think of the TV show Friends.
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In the past I have written articles about the growing importance of creating a mobile website. I am currently in the process of creating yet another article with an update on the basic methods of creating a mobile website based on StepForth’s own work so that hopefully more people will take the time to do so. During my writing I came up with some burning questions:
I plowed through endless articles and tutorials that were often jam-packed with bafflegab only understandable to programmers - a group I am far from apt to join. After a while I finally came up with some answers but frankly I found the process exhausting and it became clear I had better share my findings so that others could benefit from my research. As a result, here is my latest addition to StepForth’s Web Marketing Knowledgebase: How to Redirect Mobile Traffic to Mobile Content.
I must note that I am still far from confident that I have acquired all of the answers but I did provide at least one solution for redirecting mobile traffic within each of the most common web languages; PHP, ASP and ColdFusion.
If you are not of the faint of heart and you want to dive deeper into the world of mobile redirection and design I urge you to visit the Wireless Universal Resource File (WURFL).
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Over the past few weeks I have received a few questions regarding my 3 part series on How to Optimize for Google. This post will answer a few of the questions I have received.
Do hyperlinked images count as back links? Which scores higher, text or image links?
Yes, Google does count hyperlinked images, however, to get the most out of imaged based links it is best to have relevant, preferably keyword-rich, alt text tagged onto the image.
As far as which scores higher, for the most part they are equal, assuming that the image has the appropriate alt text. In some cases a text based link may actually pass on a little more value if it is located within a highly relevant paragraph as an in-line link.
What about Business Link Directories?
Some link directories can offer significant value to your site. While many may be virtually useless, a well targeted business directory of related websites can help boost your link density and ultimately your organic rankings.
When submitting your site to a link directory, make sure it is somewhat reputable. Check out how well they are indexed in Google, what the Google PR is on internal pages, and generally how many links does the directory contain. If you find that the most relevant category for your site listing has literally hundreds of links, this could raise a flag to pass on this one.
Avoid the FFA (Free for all) directories. These tend to be loaded with SPAM websites that could drag you down. Hand edited and even some paid directories are often the best bet. Make sure that the page that will house your link is indexed in Google, preferably has some Google PR showing up, and that it does not use the rel=nofollow attribute, or another form of blocking the spiders from seeing your site. Also make sure that the link doesn’t direct through some tracking script as these will often pass no value.
When it comes to deciding on if a directory is worth submitting to if you use your common sense, you should be okay. Remember the key here is relevance.
What are your thoughts on Siloing?
While siloing may not be perfect for all websites, it can help focus certain areas of your site on a specific theme, which in turn can help your rankings for phrases related to that theme. By driving spiders and passing PR only among a specific silo, it helps to keep the relevance up, and ultimately can help with your search rankings.
If you do have your site setup using a silo structure, also try to get inbound links directed to each of the specific silos as this will further help boost the PR value of the pages within each section.
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If you have any questions regarding my recent “How to Optimize for Google” series or anything SEO related for that matter, please feel free to send them to us here at StepForth!
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This morning I arrived at my desk to find a very welcome message from my friend and colleague Eric Lander. Apparently Google made a colossal boo-boo and exposed the quality score and max bids for some advertisements. As far as I know this is a first. Check out Eric’s article at Search Engine Journal.
Below is one of the screenshots of the leak from Eric’s article
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In the first quarter of 2008 earnings are up, employees are down, Microsoft started its attempts at a takeover, and Yahoo still found time to get into bed with Google (although the U.S. Justice Department is still out on that one).
(Note: this posting was originally aired in this week’s StepForth Weekly Newsletter)
First quarter earnings for Yahoo were higher than most experts had predicted. Sales rose by 9 percent to $1.8 billion, with an increase in net income by a sizable 282% to $542 million, compared with $142 Million for the same period in 2007. These profits were largely in thanks to Yahoo’s investment in the initial public offering of Alibaba.com which accounted for $401 million.
In mid February Yahoo also laid off approximately 1000 employees, thus taking a significant chunk out of their payroll. While this would account for only a small percentage of the increased profit, considering that many of the layoffs involved fairly prominent and higher paid employees, it likely totals up to a sizable amount.
Analysts were expecting revenues at $1.32 billion excluding acquisition costs yet Yahoo’s first quarter revenue was, in fact, about $300 million higher at $1.35 billion.
This recently announced increase in Q1 profits has not had an impact on Microsoft’s acquisition attempt. Back at the start of February Microsoft had offered $31 per share in an unsolicited bid to purchase Yahoo and since then Yahoo has been battling this Microsoft takeover. On Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, according to the Seattle Times, “Yahoo’s quarterly results would not affect the value of Yahoo to Microsoft.” Microsoft has also threatened that if things are not resolved by this Saturday, they will bring a lower bid directly to Yahoo shareholders.
As part of a search to find alternatives to the Microsoft takeover, Yahoo announced a test where 3% of paid ads appearing on US based Yahoo searches would actually be from Google’s AdSense program. The test is expected to last up to two weeks. According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, this has sparked the U.S. Justice Department to look into possible antitrust applications - no word yet on the results of that investigation.
By close of day Wednesday, Yahoo shares were down $0.15 closing at $28.08 Yahoo shares rose sharply by about 50% back in February with the news of the possible Microsoft buyout, and have hovered around the $28 mark ever since.
Yahoo’s earnings release for Q1 of 2008 can be downloaded in PDF form from Yahoo Investor Relations.
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In Part 1 and Part 2 of How to Optimize for Google I discussed general website optimization, links, and Google webmaster tools. In Part 3 we will look at a number of other considerations which play a role in successful rankings in Google, and also touch on some tactics which are best avoided.
Completing Optimization: Other Considerations
Redirects
If you need to use redirects on your site it is very important to use the correct one. If a page is moving to a new location, or being removed all together, it is very important to have this page redirected to either the new location or the next closest page using a Permanent 301 Redirect.
While rare, if a page is being moved to a new location for a short term, with the intent of it returning to the original location, then and only then, will you want to use a Temporary 302 redirect. For more information please see Redirects: Permanent 301 vs. Temporary 302
Non WWW Redirects
To help eliminate page rank split, and provide your site with a little extra value, implement a non-www redirect. What this redirect will do is change the URL to include the “www” whenever a URL is accessed that does not include it. This can help to consolidate links to the correct page and give your site some additional strength. For more help on Non WWW redirects please see: How to 301 Redirect Non-WWW to WWW URL’s
HTTP Headers
Check your page headers! If you have implemented any form of redirect on your site including mod rewrites, check your HTTP headers. You may be surprised at what you find. Some forms of redirects may use a 302 code where you really want a 301. By checking your headers you can ensure all is well, and troubleshoot problems. On our website we have added our own HTTP Header Checker for your convenience.
Home Page URL
Never have more than one URL for your home page. If your home page is available and displays on more than one URL, then utilize 301 redirects on all but the main URL you want to focus on - in most cases “http://www.domain.com/”. All your links pointing to the home page should direct to the exact same URL otherwise you will split the value of your home page into multiple duplicate URL’s.
Google sees “http://www.domain.com” and “http://www.domain.com/index.html” as different pages, but displaying the same content. This splits the overall value of your home page, and can decrease the chances of rankings. By keeping it consistent with a single URL, you remove this split and retain more of the strength.
In theory having your home page split like this could bring with it duplicate content penalties, however, I have yet to see this actually happen – that said, it is best to avoid the risk all together.
XML Sitemap
XML Sitemaps are great for ensuring that Google and the other engines are able to spider your entire site. While an XML sitemap will not directly impact your search rankings it can help as Google is more likely to see any SEO based changes more quickly, which in turn can have an impact.
Robots.txt
This is the first file all search engines look for every time they visit your site. While placing a blank robots.txt file in your root folder will not help with search rankings, it will help reduce 404 errors appearing in your log files.
It is also highly recommended that if your site utilizes an XML sitemap, to include a call to this sitemap within the Robots.txt file. Simply add the following line to ensure that the major engines (including Google) can find your sitemap:
Sitemap: http://www.domain.com/sitemap.xml
Potential Blockages
If you are finding that your site is simply not being indexed it is possible that you are blocking the spiders in one way or another.
Start with checking your main site navigation, if you are using Flash or some other fancy form of navigation that could be your problem right there. Next check your HTTP headers to ensure that your home page is returning a 2xx code which indicates that the clients’ request was successfully received. Finally take a look at your Google Webmaster Tools for any noted errors. If you are blocking Google, chances are you will be able to uncover the issue with these steps.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content can be quite damaging to your rankings. Ensure that all content on your site is unique. Never steal or “borrow” content from another site, and never cut and paste large portions of text from one page of your site to the next. By keeping all pages of your site entirely original you stand the best chances of getting a thumps up from Google.
Fresh Content / Regular Updates
Update your content. In highly competitive markets, sites with old static content can often slip away. Keep your content fresh and updated to keep bringing Google back to your site. If they find new pages and updated pages with every visit, they will come back more often.
Site Age
The age of your site can also have an effect on search engine rankings. While there is little you can do (short of keeping the same domain) to help on this matter, remember that the longer your site is online, the better its chances for success. It pays to select the perfect domain right from the start and not to change domains mid-stream. Older sites that stand the test of time add a level of authority in Google’s eyes. New sites seldom see rankings for competitive terms in their first year.
Note: Site Age is determined not by the date the domain was originally registered by rather by the date Google first discovered content on your site.
Load Time
Load time can have an impact in your Google AdWords Quality Score but it is unknown for sure if it can also impact your organic search rankings. It is best to keep you load time to as little as possible. If it is not already a part of the Google Algorithm, it likely will be soon. Besides, it is also best in order to give your site visitors the best experience possible.
Server Up Time
This can be a rather significant issue. If you find that your web hosting company has a history of down time, change hosts. If Google comes to visit your site once and it is down, not to worry, they will come back, but if Google visits your site often only to find that it is unavailable, you can find yourself with drastically depleted rankings.
Google Local
If you have a traditional brick and mortar store, consider submitting to Google Local. While this will not directly impact your regular organic rankings, you may find your site ranking above the organic results with a “local business results” map listing. This tends to be most common when your business is near the geographic center of a city, and when the search phrase uses a geographic modifier.
W3C Compliant Code
There is much speculation as to if W3C compliant code can have a positive impact on search rankings, and the majority believe “maybe” with some saying “yes”. Regardless, it is definitely a good idea to have your site be W3C Compliant if at all possible. Not only may it help you in terms of search rankings, but having compliant code can decrease load times, and help to ensure cross-browser compatibility, all of which are good things. If at all possible, it is recommended that sites be made to be compliant.
Many experts who took part in the SEOMoz “Google Search Engine Ranking Factors” lean towards it not being a big contributor, however, it may be an issue if Google has difficulties indexing a page properly.
A code validation service is available at validator.w3.org.
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME
I want to stress that this section is about things you should NOT do. These issues could be damaging to your rankings. If your site is implementing any of these, it may be best to remove it.
Hidden Text
This includes any text that you can simply not see when viewing the page. It may be text hidden in invisible div layers, text located below the fold with vertical scrolling disabled or even text on the same colored back ground (white text on a white background for instance). Whatever the case, hidden text can get your site into hot water and it is not recommended.
Excessive Keywords
Don’t go over board in placing target phrases within your body text. Stuffing keywords everywhere possible just because you can, is not only unlikely to help you achieve rankings, it could very well have the opposite effect.
Duplicate content
Large amounts of duplicated content or pages, as well as stealing or scraping content from other sites is one good way to get your site banned.
Doorway pages
Creating multiple websites or pages with nearly identical, yet slightly different content for the purposes of trying to grab some Google rankings is a good way to get your site into trouble.
If you have created pages of this nature for PPC campaigns, make sure that they are blocked from the search engines as to not get you into any hot water.
Cloaking
Simple - Don’t Cloak. In a nutshell cloaking is when you display different information to the search engines than you do to your human visitors. Google frowns on this, and if they catch you, watch out!
All Flash
Websites that are entirely flash based will not get you into trouble. The reason I have included it here however, is that they won’t do you many favors either. Sites that are all Flash, have little to no content for Google to digest and thus, drastically reduce your chance of rankings. If you must keep your “All Flash” site, it is recommended that you also create a secondary HTML version for the search engines and for those visitors who simply prefer it.
Frames (including iFrames)
Frames are also one of those things that won’t get you into trouble, but do significantly reduce your chances of rankings. If you want any chance of ranking in Google using a Frames site, be sure to copy your relevant content from each page into your ‘noframes’ tag. While this is far from ideal it may help you salvage some listings.
When it comes to including content through the use of an iFrame, remember, Google can not see any of this content located within the frame. It will be of no use to your rankings. If you rely on this content to help your listings, find another method such as a server side include.
TOOLS
In this article I mention a few items which can be made much easier with the help of available online tools. Here are some to help you on your way:
HTTP Header Checker
The StepForth HTTP Header Checker
Spider Simulators
XML Sitemaps, Search Engine Bot Simulator
Page Size and Load Time
1-Hit Load Time Analyzer
Google’s Cached Text Version
Click on “cached” next to your listing in Google, then click “Cached Text Version” at the top of the page. This is Google’s Cached Text version of your page. Substituting www.domain.com with your website will also bring up the cached version:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:WWW.DOMAIN.COM/&hl=en&strip=1
To see a larger selection of tools visit our SEO Tools page at the StepForth website.
SUMMARY
There are a lot of little pieces to getting a site to the top of the rankings in Google that I didn’t have time to mention here. In most cases not all items noted in this 3 part Google optimization series need to be in place to achieve top rankings, however, the more you can implement the better. Links, optimization, and content all play a significant role in Google rankings and the more competitive the term, the bigger the role they play.
If you have a site in a competitive market it is best to ensure that the site is entirely Google friendly and well optimized, while working on increasing links, and expanding on relevant content.
Patience is important and Google rankings are possible, but they do take time and effort. In nearly all cases it can take several months before you start to see significant results, although in cases where a site is just missing one or two pieces of the puzzle and those are put into place, rankings can come much quicker. If you have any questions about optimizing for Google try sending them to us here at StepForth and we will get to them as soon as our workload permits.
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Optimizing for top Google rankings includes a number of factors. In Part 1 of 3 we discussed onsite optimization. In Part 2 we will touch on incoming links as well as using Google Webmaster Tools.
LINKS
Links are very important in today’s Google rankings, but just how many links you need will depend on both the competitiveness of your target phrases, and the quality of the incoming links themselves.
Essentially the number one rule of links is to keep it relevant! Topical relevance is very important in order for inbound links to give your site the most value. If the page that links to you is relevant that is good, if the entire site linking to you is relevant, that is better.
First to get an idea of how many links you may need, take a look at the top 10 ranking sites in Google and record how many links Yahoo is noting for each site. (This is because Google does not display anywhere near all the links they have noted). The average of this count is often a good indication of how many links your site may need.
There are many different ways to get links to your site including the age old reciprocal link trade, directory links, article based links, and links from press releases.
Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal linking has seen its value drop considerably over the past few years, however, if the site you are trading with is relevant you can still receive value from these links.
Paid Links
Google frowns on paid links, however that is not to say that they don’t work. Often you can find highly reputable and relevant websites which are offering paid advertising spots. If these links are coded to link directly to your website without passing through any tracking redirects, you will in many cases see value in the form of both direct traffic and increased link densities and rankings.
Articles
Writing and distributing industry specific articles is a great way to help increase both your link counts and site traffic; for examples of such content see StepForth’s SEO Blog News articles. Consider writing articles on a regular basis and submitting them to some of the more popular services such as EzineArticles. Be sure to include a link to your site from somewhere within the article, or at the very lest within your bio. Try to use a target phrase as part of the anchor text for additional value.
Press Releases
If something of importance has happened to your company such as a new product launch, or other notable achievement - essentially anything news worthy, put out a press release. Submit this press release through services such as PRWeb or PRNewsWire. Again, be sure to include a target phrase as part of the anchor text.
There are also a number of places you can get links that have basically turned south, and are not generally recommended. These include signatures in form posts, guest books, and other typically free links.
Forum Posts
Forum posts can help to marginally increase your link counts; however, with this one you must be careful. Only add a link to your site in your signature if both the forum allows it, and you are a respected member of the forum. If you are a solid contributor and your posts have depth and meaning, and the forum is highly relevant to your site, then having a link in your signature may give your site some juice. Posting wildly to random forms will in most cases get yourself banned, and will be both a waste of time and potentially make you and your site look bad.
Guest Books
In nearly all cases, do not post your link to guest books. If you happen to stumble upon a guestbook that is highly relevant to your site, the other comments are relevant to your site, and you have something useful (and again relevant) to say, then perhaps consider it, but typically focusing on links from guest books is considered SPAM and is best avoided all together.
Blog Comments
Having a link from your blog comments is not necessarily a bad thing. If you find a relevant blog post of use, and have something relevant and constructive to say, don’t be afraid to enter your link into the “URL” field of the form, but don’t try stuffing links into the comment itself.
Link Farms & Bad Neighborhoods
These are sites that allow you to simply post your link no strings attached. They are mostly long scrolling pages with countless links. Stay away from them. If you see one, run in the other direction. These links are bad, will not help with your rankings, and in some cases can actually damage your rankings.
Stay away from sites that cross link with obvious spammers. These networks of SPAM sites are not ones you would want your site associated with, and if you achieve links from enough of these sites it can adversely impact your rankings. Even more important, NEVER link to any of these sites - as that will certainly tie in your connection to them and give Google reason to discount your rankings.
DMOZ, Yahoo and Other Directories
Directory based links can be of significant help, especially if they are from highly reputable directories, the two biggest being DMOZ.org and the Yahoo Directory.
Getting a site into DMOZ is like Gold. Google loves links from DMOZ and your site will reap the benefits. The big catch however is actually getting your site into the directory in the first place. Find the perfect category for your site and check to see if it has an editor. If you see a link “Volunteer to edit this category” try and find another relevant location. Pages without active editors take much longer to get listed into. Once you find the perfect directory submit your site every 4-6 months until listed. If you are lucky you will get in eventually.
Yahoo Directory is seen as an authority in the eyes of Google, and getting your site in will help your link reputation. This link does come at a price of $299 per year, but will play a role in helping your website achieve top rankings.
There are a number of other valuable directories out there that can help you with your search rankings. Before submitting to any directory the key is a combination of relevance and authority. If the directory is relevant and active it may be worth considering.
GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS
Google Webmaster Tools can be very useful for your optimization efforts. It may not directly help you obtain higher rankings, but can help you trouble shoot if you are experiencing problems. It will also allow you to remove URL’s that you don’t want indexed and set various preferences such as your domain, crawl rate, and geographic target.
XML Sitemaps
This is the most common reason people use Google Webmaster Tools - the submission of their XML sitemap. While you can use your robots.txt to have Google find your XML sitemap, by submitting it directly to Google you can check up on the spidering status.
Error checking
Webmaster Tools is also quite useful for checking on various error URL’s that Google may know about. Under the Diagnostics > Web Crawl you can view any errors that Google has to report on your site. By cleaning up any errors you can help increase your chances of rankings.
Links
From inside Google Webmaster Tools you can get a much clearer look at what sites Google is noting as having links to you, and give you a better indication of the need, if any, to increase your link counts.
WWW Preference
Be sure to select your domain preference under Tools > Set Preferred Domain. In nearly all cases you will want to select the version including the “www”
SUMMARY
Inbound links play a significant role in successful Google rankings. By focusing on relevant links, as well as by diversifying where you get those links from, you can build a solid foundation for your search rankings today and into the future.
Stay tuned for How to Optimize for Google Part 3 (of 3) where I will discuss other considerations including redirects, HTTP headers, and a number of other factors which play a role in successfully conquering Google.
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This is the second in a series of articles intended to convey my personal impressions of managing PPC through Google Adwords, Yahoo Panama and MSN Adcenter.
If you missed part one, you can view it here. Today I will be covering Yahoo’s Panama. Of the three, this is my least favoured, so I’m wearing my Yahoo Search Marketing ball cap today, to remind myself not to allow too much vitriol to slip into the article.
Interface
Logging into a Yahoo account brings you to the Dashboard. This is an overview page containing basic account information, along with any alerts. Also on this page is a drop down menu allowing you to shift to different accounts under your master account. If you are advertising in multiple countries this is useful for easier access without requiring multiple logins, though these accounts can only be linked by Yahoo support personnel.
The dashboard also contains a table which allows you to view either top performing campaigns, ad groups or keywords at a glance. The nifty thing with this table is it allows you to view at a glance items you have set up on the watch list. This is useful for quickly viewing items of concern and allows you to select from a drop down menu, watched campaigns, ad groups and keywords.
One of the things I like about Panama is the use of colour to highlight various features. Particularly when I’m creating new campaigns or ads, these buttons stand out very well. Also, the capability of different colour fonts and sectional backgrounds eases the look of pages that would otherwise appear cluttered with all sorts of information.
The dashboard is the first of 4 tabs, the others being Campaigns, Reports and Administration.
Campaign
The Campaign tab contains 5 links to navigate back and forth:
One thing to note, with exception of the search page, all of the above can be viewed for specific date ranges using a fairly robust date range selection system.
Reports
Reports can be saved in several different formats. Performance reports can be saved in CSV for Excel, CSV, TSV and XML, while financial reports can be saved as either PDF or TXT. Reports can be set up for either the campaign, ad group or keyword level to view overall performance data. There are also optional views for geographic location, daily spending and URL performance. There is an option to use saved templates, but it is limited to 5 saved configurations.
Under the administration page, you can find the account details and edit billing and budgetary options, set up alerts, change tactics, set up different account users and assign permissions. You can also choose up to 250 domains to block placing content ads on.
The Tactics selection includes the ability to turn on or off either Sponsored Search or Content Match, set match type to advanced or standard and add keyword exclusions. This is kind of an odd spot to put these; one would normally expect to see this in campaign level settings, but it seems Panama is only capable of this at the account level. A definite minus for flexibility.
There is also a link for analytics (where you can set up conversion tracking) and one for tracking URL’s. The first time setting up conversion tracking, I found the interface to be quite confusing, but it was just the choice of labeling that threw me off. You must ensure “Conversion Only Analytics” and “Analytics are enabled” are both activated in order to have the conversion tracking function.
Campaign Setup
Setting up is an 8 step process.
Learning Resources and Certification
A while back I studied for and passed my certification examination to become a YSM Ambassador for StepForth Web Marketing. Having gone through this process prior to this with Google AdWords, I was somewhat dismayed at the learning resources available for using this interface. Whereas AdWords has a comprehensive learning center with video and text modules complete with relevant quizzes for each, Yahoo only offers a very brief, scant slideshow with no quizzes. Most of my learning had to be done the hard way, meandering through their help sections.
The overall difference in quality and difficulty between AdWords and Panama exams was pretty obvious. But at least Yahoo allows professional accreditation, unlike MSN, whose recently implemented program is only available for US residents.
Annoyances and Oddities
These are some of the gripes I have with Panama I have not covered in previous articles. I will try not to foam at the mouth too much.
Also, if you are modifying ads, your modifications will not show until the changes have been approved, which can take several days. By this I mean you cannot even see the changes you have made until the ads have been approved. (This caused me quite a bit of grief recently, as I was required to do a massive overhaul when a client renamed all the URL’s on their site - it was very annoying to be unable to double check my changes upon completion.)
My perception of the quality of first tier staff training diminishes with each successive phone call. When trying to figure out the problem which led to the discovery of certain geo-targeting issues, we went through quite a few emails and phone calls before finding someone with an adequate grasp of their system to understand what was wrong.
In another case, a support saga of epic proportions, I received 5 successively different, nonsensical explanations, none of which addressed my actual question. Sensing the circular pattern of this, I struggled to get direct contact up-tier. Incredibly, one rep actually told me editors aren’t allowed phones, to keep them impartial. When I finally got put through to an editor, I was initially told more of the same, but upon realizing I wasn’t buying it, he simply went ahead and fixed the problem. Quite an ordeal and a completely unnecessary waste of time.
While it is obvious some of the complaints I have about the design of this system are fairly trivial, these little problems can add up to a serious, unnecessary increase in the amount of time required to work with this interface, particularly in large campaigns. It is my hope that Yahoo can expend a little more effort to improve Panama’s usability.
Summary
Over the course of writing this article, I realized there are quite a few things I do like about this interface. If they made it a little easier to work with and especially if they improve their customer support, I would have no qualms about using this interface.
by Tim Rule, PPC Specialist, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
Celebrating Over 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence
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