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| Google Toolbar PageRank Update October 2009 is on !
October 30, 2009 at 9:36 am
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| 
Looks like a new Google toolbar update is underway. Though there are no official announcements from Google team yet, there's a lot of buzz on Twitter as usual, where webmasters are reporting visible toolbar updates. 
Did you have a PR update this time ? Via Binoy Related SEO Tips & Articles: |
| Google now indexes pages via RSS/Atom feeds on your site
October 30, 2009 at 8:42 am
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Hah ! Just what we needed. In its endless efforts to make the life easier for webmasters, Google has now understood that indexing RSS feeds and Atoms could be yet another value addition to their arsenal of indexing tools. Google generally would use incoming links, sitemaps, etc to index new files and websites, and with this new addition newer websites won't find it hard to get indexed on Google. All you need to do is set up your RSS/Atom feed and as an added measure make sure your Robots.txt file doesn't block it. In my opinion this feature had been in practice for quite some time, but its only now that Google announced it officially. Anyways, all good for webmasters. Via – Google Related SEO Tips & Articles: | | | 
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| This Week in Search for 10/28/09
October 29, 2009 at 10:47 am
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| Posted by Sam Niccolls .png)
- Eric Schmidt - What the Internet Will Look Like in 5 Years:
Google's CEO takes a look into the future and talks about some of the ways the internet will change, such as Chinese language sites outnumbering English language sites, an increase in the number of digital natives in the tech workforce, and the difficulties search engines have around ranking real-time search.
- Retailers Going Too Far Tracking Web Habits:
I'm probably the only person on earth who puts items into his shopping cart and intentionally abandons sites in order to get product discount e-mails a week or two later, but the USA TODAY discusses two issues that are hot button topics for more normal consumers: Cookie usage and behavioral targeting.
- Grammatically Incorrect Keywords:
In her Search Engine Journal Post, Susanna Speier talks about how even though grammatically incorrect keywords aren't going to win you any spelling bees, they might be the ones that'll make you the most honey, er-um money.
- Halloween E-mails:
Campaign Monitor's Halloween E-mail Roundup shows some creative, brand specific examples of Halloween e-mails that'll give you some last minute idea fodder for this year or things to think about for next year.
- Update on Google Rich Snippets:
Google has been working on better using structured data and expanding rich snippets for a while, but this week's post on the GWC blog calls attention to improved documentation and tips around their rich snippet testing tool.
- WSJ - Why E-mail No Longer Rules:
You may have caught the Wall Street Journal post earlier this month, but if you didn't, it's worth a read. The negative backlash across the e-mail industry continues several weeks later. 
- Integrating E-mail with Other Marketing:
A well executed e-mail is no different from a fine wine... it's good on it's own, but it's better when given the right pairing. In a useful post centered around e-mail marketing, Joel Book addresses how the most successful e-mail initiatives integrate with other marketing efforts. - Google Analytics Qualification Test:
GA has had a more heavyweight certification for agencies for some time, but now available to individual marketers is a test that gives web analytics users personal certifications.
- Creating a Multi-Cultural Website:
If you've ever tried to market a product internationally, Forrester's post about the importance of market research when creating a multi-cultural website might strike a nerve. - Google Website Optimizer API Released:
GWO rolled out a new API, which, depending on your CMS provider, can allow you to create and launch tests without touching any of your website's code. Pretty useful stuff. Although a major limitation is that the API currently only integrates with two CMS providers. 
- Seth Godin - Some People Are Better Than Others:
The short post about customer types earns a spot in this weeks roundup for one reason: The use of the word sneezers, which Godin uses to refer to the customers and brand evangelizers who are best at spreading your company's word.
- Bing It On:
Google is still going strong, but Bing's share of the search market continues to grow. - How SEO and Sex Are the Same:
In a post with gratuitous use of the word 'sex,' Joel Leydon's parody highlighting the similarities between sex and SEO is an entertaining read. Both sex and SEO are basic needs, they're both organic, and yes, as Leydon points out, you can also pay for each, too. 
Top YOUmoz entries:
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*Third-Party Affiliate Programs: Roll Your Own Instead by MichaelC
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Case Study: How Building a Site for Users Improved Rankings by csaliba
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Web Analytics and Segmentation for Better Conversion by philou2803 * Indicates blog post was promoted to the SEOmoz Blog
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| Third-Party Affiliate Programs: Roll Your Own Instead
October 28, 2009 at 4:36 pm
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| Posted by MichaelC One of the best ways to build inbound links is to create an affiliate program. It's also a great way to drive real customer traffic from related sites. But...don't just sign up for one of the big third-party affiliate programs--you'll get the customers, but you'll be throwing away a terrific opportunity to get great inbound links. Today, I'm going to try and talk you into writing your own affiliate program from scratch. Companies like Commission Junction and Google's own AdSense will do the implementation for you (and take a piece of the pie), but the real reason NOT to use one of these is that the links to your site are going to be redirected through THEIR site, so that they can track the clicks, sales, etc. What this means, of course, is that when a crawler looks at your affiliate's page, it's going to see a link to the third-party affiliate site, NOT your site.  But surely there's off-the-shelf software already written that you can just install on your servers and configure, right? (You're not being lazy, you're being EFFICIENT...right...).
True. There's a ton of it out there. But the stuff that really works well is going to be popular, and if it's popular, and tons of sites start using it, Google is going to eventually be able to spot some pattern in the linking or tracking identifier in the URL etc. and throw it into the "paid links" black hole. And whether a particular package does/does not skate under the radar with Google today doesn't really matter--why spend your time integrating something that Google's paid link assassins are likely to target in the near future?
Besides, it's NOT that hard...let's run through a quick outline of what you're going to need to do to roll your own affiliate program to get link juice where you want it.
Affiliate Signup
First, you'll need an affiliate sign-up form. Collect the basics: company name, tax ID, address, email, password, phone, etc. and store it in a table in your database. Generate a numeric affiliate ID when you do this (I use the integer primary key from the database table for mine). I recommend that you also include a field for % commission--although you'll probably have the same commission for 95% of your affiliates, it's nice to have the flexibility to quietly offer a few key partners more to get them on board. Putting the % commission in this table will make your reporting and affiliate payments much easier.
Affiliate Linking Strategy
Next, you'll want an easy way to generate links and linking code for the affiliates. DO NOT get all clever on us and create a single page that redirects after collecting the tracking info! You'll funnel all the link juice to a worthless page. And don't start talking 301s...there's a much easier, cleaner way.
Simply add a parameter to your URL (e.g. affid=1234); write a little global include file that looks for the parameter in the URL, pulls it out, and stuffs it in a cookie. Then, use good old rel=canonical to tell the search engines that the canonical version of this page is the version without that affiliate ID parameter. Here's an example written in plain old ancient ASP: 
P.S. while calling the parameter "affid" probably makes this example more readable, if it were ME, I'd name the parameter something that looks less like an affiliate program ID :-)
Tracking Sales
Add a column for the affiliate ID to the database table where you track purchases. At purchase time, suck the affiliate ID out of the cookie. (And, when you write the cookie initially, I recommend a 60 day or 90 day lifespan on the cookie so that your affiliates will get credit if the customer returns later and makes a purchase...affiliates like this  )
If your experience mirrors mine, your program is going to attract a ton of little affiliates that rarely generate any sales, plus a handful of affiliates that deliver 80% of the customers. For starters, create yourself a report you can run monthly that joins your orders table to the new affiliates table by affiliate ID, so you can see who you owe commissions to. Spend your time GETTING affiliates on board, and worry about automating payments to them after they're making you tons of cash; you'll most likely just have a handful of checks to write each month for a while.
Encouraging Links
Make it brainless & painless to link to detail pages on your site. Let the affiliate login, stuff their ID and login state in a session-expiring cookie, and on each page that might be link-worthy (e.g. your product detail pages), look for that cookie--if you see it, add a little block to the page with a callout and your linking HTML.
Linking HTML Tricks
Of course, providing the linking HTML gives you the opportunity to encourage favorable anchor text. If you have thumbnails of your products available, give the affiliate two options: an image link, and a text link. Put the linking HTML in a read-only multi-line text area (http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/interact/forms.html#h-17.7) and add an on-click handler that selects all of the text in the box to make it easy for them to copy the HTML (or, much more difficult for them to screw it up!).
What to Watch Out For
1. Craptastic Affiliates - you're going to get a handful of affiliates from bad sites. Not much you can do about this, BUT as long as you're getting plenty of links from good neighborhoods this shouldn't get you into any trouble.
2. Trust - some affiliates may be leery of your home-built tracking system, and not want to trust that they get every last nickel they're owed. Create a page outlining in general how you track commissions, and if you're brave, reveal approximate conversion rates on your site. Offer to show referral stats from Google Analytics (or whatever you're using for visitor tracking) on an on-request basis.
3. Referrals falling through the cracks - with the scheme I've outlined, of course the affiliate is not going to get credit if the user has blocked cookies. You COULD carry the parameter along in all URLs and form submits as hidden variables, but this is likely a lot of work on your side to cover a tiny fraction of the traffic. I'd recommend NOT using client-side Javascript to write the cookies as now you're also weeding out users who block Javascript :-).
4. Promotion - first, create an "affiliate program" link in your footer that takes you to an intro to your program. Consider buying a mailing list for businesses in your industry and emailing those businesses. Target a number of larger, more promising partners and email their marketing/business development people directly about your program--but be sure to personalize each email so they KNOW they were hand-picked. Do a Google search for "affiliate program" + related businesses and look for affiliate programs YOU might want to join, then send them an "I joined YOURS, now check out MINE" email.
5. Payments - are many of your affiliates going to be out of country? Are the payments going to be really big? You need to figure out if you want to send checks, do PayPal payments, etc. There are laws about how much $ you can move between countries; and, you do need to report commissions over a certain amount to the IRS, which is why you want to collect the federal tax ID if you're a US company.
Thanks to LHOON/WikiMedia Commons for the image of the nose; Faigl Ladislav/WikiMedia Commons for the image of the arrow; Gothika//WikiMedia Commons for the image of the gears.
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| the Basics of Search Engine Optimization – Part Two
October 29, 2009 at 2:01 pm
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| Any website, regardless of its purpose, can benefit from search engine optimization techniques. We’ve laid the ground work in the 1st part of this presentation that has hopefully helped you gain an understanding of how search engines work. Now it’s time to turn our attention to five basic techniques used by most webmasters to achieve search engine optimization. Let’s cover the second five of these basic SEO techniques: SEO Networker Tip No. 1 -
Every Site Needs a Site Map A website sitemap is a page on the site that contains links to each of the other pages on the site. They can be useful to visitors but they are intended to make it easier for search engine crawlers to index a website and the pages of the website. SEO Networker Tip No. 2 -
Robots! (robots.txt) The search engines look for certain things when they are indexing a site. A robot.txt file will tell search engine crawlers (or robots) to look for your website. This is essential to achieving a high ranking for your site and the pages within your website. SEO Networker Tip No. 3 -
Get Your Site Into The Relevant Niche Directories Niche directories are extremely helpful in achieving a high ranking with search engines. They offer a way to connect and build links to other sites that are most relevant in content to your own. Webmasters use this technique more and more all the time to create inbound links to a website. It’s a very efficient technique. SEO Networker Tip No. 4 -
Creating Quality Content Informational content that is helpful and interesting to your website readers will also influence the search engines and ultimately the ranking of your website. In addition to creating content for your site, submit content articles to article directories on a regular basis. Include a link back to your site. If your article is picked up for syndication or placed on another website, you will have established a link back to your site that extremely helpful to search engine optimization. Even if the article is not syndicated, the presence of the link in the directory where the article was posted has positive results. SEO Networker Tip No. 5 -
Position Yourself as an Expert Becoming involved in active online forums that are relevant to your websites niche will help you establish yourself as an expert in your field. Make comments on related blogs and provide useful information to participants. In order to use your experience to your advantage, always leave your website’s URL in your signature. You will be establishing yourself as an expert and creating links to your site as well. Continue in this way to build your online profile and establish yourself as a professional in your niche. Confused? Overwhelmed? Watch This FREE Video Training – SEO Fundamentals Made Stupid Simple… The SEO Networker Mastermind Experts Raymond Fong and Ferny Ceballos Will Show You How You Can Dominate The Top 10 Spots On Google Search Results For ANY MLM Keyword. Period. Related Tutorial | | |  |
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| How to Get In Yahoo and DMOZ
October 28, 2009 at 10:17 am
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| Directory submission is not as simple as adding URLs to search engines. This adds your URL, press the submit button and then take a rest to await the results. However, submission directory is more complicated steps: 1. category selection 2. Site title and description 3. coordinates. If you have no idea what category suits your website theme, you’d better use targeted keywords to find the file and review websites and their descriptions on the results retrieved from your search. Some web directories provide guidelines that are suggested to read before submission. Another way to find categories that match your site theme is to search the web directory using the names or URLs of competitor sites and see what categories of sites are listed below. Also, if your site is targeting the niche market, it was suggested to report to the local directory, not directory. For example, if your site offers a rental car in Sydney, Australia, you must submit your sites to Yahoo! At the regional level rather high from Yahoo! Directory. Yahoo! Directory Submission Some web directories are valuable deserves a thorough search, including Yahoo! Directory. This is a directory that has paid U.S. $ 299 to review your presentation, but not guaranteed inclusion. You may spend $ 299 and get nothing in return. For sites included in Yahoo! Directory, please remember to choose an appropriate category, and therefore descriptions, relevant writing. Dmoz Submission Dmoz is another major web directory which is edited and maintained by volunteers. Due to lack of volunteer editors, takes at least half a year to their study sites. Therefore, getting listed in Dmoz is a test of patience and perseverance. Steps to submit their sites to Dmoz successfully: 1. Website submission 2. Wait three months 3. Send an e-mail to writers support group to ask the status 4. Wait three months 5. Send an e-mail to the editors in chief who is responsible for the higher level category 6. Wait three months 7. Find help in the ODP forum 8. Wait a month 9. Send emails to several publishers and seek help in various forums Rules for submission: 1. Do not submit your site once, unless your site is excluded by the search engines. 2. Search for specific category and follow each step accordingly. 3. Create a brief description (less than 25 words). 4. Use the current contents of their sites. Do not use exaggerated words that publishers create confusion. 5. Avoid using keywords in the description of the site. 6. Stay humble. Do not use the false statement. 7. Be patient. It takes at least half a year for their sites listed in the directory. Repeated observations did not accelerate the process. It is long and time consuming to submit your site to web directories. However, it brings long term benefits. I teach my methods that are alternative to Site Submit. If you want to learn follow the link and I will tell you what you need to do. Related Tutorial |
| On Page Optimization Is Essential for Improving Your Rankings
October 27, 2009 at 9:33 am
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| When you begin and SEO campaign, start by focusing on your on-page optimization. The practice of on-page optimization is all about what you do on your web page to help search engines understand your content and what your site is focused on. Even though off-page optimization is an important factor in the rankings equation, on page optimization builds a strong foundation for all SEO efforts. Here are a few SEO tips you can use starting immediately to make your site more search engine friendly and begin enhancing overall rankings on all types of search engines. Optimize Your Website Name. If you have not yet picked a URL for your website then consider purchasing one that includes your keyword but is broad enough to represent your business. Additionally, try to find a website name that is memorable. This helps with word of mouth and repeat visitors. Include your main broad keyword into your URL. Optimize Your Page Title and Header Tags Including H1 and H2. Develop a title that is relevant to your website content and which has no more that sixty characters. The reason you want to keep your title to a fixed width is because longer titles wont display fully on search engine results listings. The title is important because it gives you an opportunity to display your keywords and entice browsers to click on your link. The first title or headline that appears on your web page should include your keywords. It is best to have this title display with an H1 tag which signals each search engine as to the importance of the content being displayed. The sub text should be presented with an H2 or H3 tag. This shows the search engines how important your keywords are and helps them promote the key elements of your web page. Optimize Your Meta Tags. Search engine optimization experts debate the value of meta tags for search engine ranking enhancement. I can tell you that meta tags include a variety of tags including title, description, and keywords. Even though meta tags are less important that it was many years ago, it still plays an important role in optimization. Today, meta tags are used as a starting point and a reference point for search engine crawlers. Your meta tags need to be aligned to your page content and also include your keywords. This creates consistency, something that search engine spiders yearn for. So make sure to fully develop your description and keywords. I suggest limiting your keywords to no more than twelve and limiting your description to about 150 words maximum. Optimize your keyword density. Keyword density is an important factor in search engine rankings. Your keyword density should be no more than 5 percent on any given page. Instead of focusing on keyword density alone, you are better off focusing on the placement of your keywords and treatment of your keywords. Focus on H1 and H2 tags and place keywords through out your web page. You should have an instance of each keyword phrase in bold, italics, and underlined to complete your on-page optimization effort. Keyword Variation. The last piece to focus on is keyword variety. Instead of stuffing your page with the same keyword phrases again and again, use some variety. A great way to do this is to add a word or two before your keyword phrase and after it. Creating variety is important because it shows each search engine that your site has a focus but that you are not intentionally trying to improve your ranking. The most important part of any search engine optimization campaign is to make your site appear natural, present valuable content, and follow on-page optimization best practices. If you use the above suggestions as a guide, you will be well on your way to a fully optimized website. Michael Fleischner is a marketing expert and can show you tips to improve search engine ranking. Learn more about his techniques at the Good marketing tip blog. Michael has appeared on the TODAY Show and other major talk shows. Related Tutorial | | | 
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| SEO Tricks and Treats Workshop
October 27, 2009 at 7:50 pm
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|  This Thursday, October 29th, we will be holding the SEO Tricks and Treats Workshop to help business owners learn about some of the most recent trends in the Internet Marketing industry. You don't have to be haunted by poor website rankings anymore.
You can register to attend the event in Salt Lake City, or attend the event via webinar. AGENDA Tricks & Treats-Presentations Using SEO Tools, Ash Buckles: SEO requires a lot of research. There are many tools available to assist in the process. Each tool you choose will guide your actions to provide the best possible rankings for your site. Social Media & SEO, Dan Patterson: Social media is a trend that is not going away. Smart businesses have caught onto this and are using social media as another way to connect with and learn more about their target audience. PR and SEO, Dan Bischoff: If done right, an online press release can reach the public in more efficient ways than conventional press releases ever have. PPC Management, Todd Julien: In an age of shrinking marketing budgets, it's never been more critical to effectively allocate and target your marketing dollars. Because of this, Pay-Per-Click is a necessary and powerful marketing vehicle. SEO Expert Panel: Dave Bascom, Nelson James, Seth Ellsworth and Mike Benson will address all your questions about the industry. It will be a great chance to learn about how the industry is changing and what you can do to keep up. For those attending the live event in SLC, you will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with an SEO expert to go over any questions you may have about your site or how you can start the SEO process. For those attending via USTREAM, we have SEO Experts available to answer your questions via Twitter. The cost is FREE. We are offering a chance for business owners to learn the ins and outs of the industry at no cost. The SEO.com Tricks & Treats Workshop is an opportunity to take a fresh look at your website, clear out the old skeletons, do away with outdated zombified strategies and really start to improve your rankings. To follow the event on Twitter, or submit a question or comment, use #SEOTAT in your tweet. Register to attend the workshop
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| SEO.com Caps Record Year with 'Emerging Elite' Award
October 27, 2009 at 6:47 pm
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| MountainWest Capital Network's Utah Top 100, which recognizes the top businesses in Utah, names SEO.com to the Emerging Elite. This is the second in-state award within in the last six months for the search engine optimization company. SALT LAKE CITY – SEO.com capped its record year with one of the highest achievements for young Utah businesses. MountainWest Capital Network selected the Internet marketing company as one of 12 newer "Emerging Elite" companies at the Utah Top 100, an event recognizing the fastest-growing businesses in the state of Utah. "It is truly an honor to receive this award," said David Bascom, CEO of SEO.com. "We have worked hard to be successful as a company, but there are so many other great companies here in Utah, I feel like we must be doing something right to be recognized in this way." The Emerging Elite were selected among companies less than five years old that had significant increase in revenue, and also showed considerable promise for future success. The Utah 100 was determined by the percentage of revenue increase from 2004 through 2008. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert addressed the Utah Top 100 crowd that gathered in the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, and told them their success is providing the backbone of strength that Utah needs to be competitive with the rest of the world. "I appreciate the good work you all do to make Utah the great state it is," Herbert said. "My No. 1 priority as the governor is to grow the economy. You are the engine driving the economy, and we are here to highlight those that are making that effort." The Emerging Elite award comes after both PromotionWorld and TOP SEOs recognized SEO.com as a top 10 SEO company in the country, and the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum named the search engine marketing firm among the Top 25 fastest growing Utah businesses under five years old. In the last year, SEO.com's monthly revenue has increased more than 300 percent; the company moved headquarters to accommodate its rapid growth; and it acquired Graphics.net to offer full-service Web design along with an array of SEO services. Since its launch in June, 2007, SEO.com has hired more than 40 employees and helped numerous clients climb to the top of the search engines. Currently, SEO.com has more than 100 clients that range from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies. About MountainWest Capital Network
Founded in Salt Lake City in 1983, the objective of the MountainWest Capital Network – the real Deal Network – is to support entrepreneurial success and enable business growth by fostering the dynamic flow of information about capital formation and distribution, educating and mentoring excellence, recognizing and rewarding business success and performance, and fostering synergistic relationships through networking. MWCN has provided the Deal Flow Report since 1995. About SEO.com
SEO.com is a full-service Internet marketing firm that specializes in search engine optimization. The SEO firm's website optimization strategies help numerous clients reach millions of potential customers on the Internet. SEO.com has grown rapidly since its inception and continues to expand its offerings as a full-service online marketing firm. The company offers everything from organic search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) to social media marketing, online public relations and search friendly-Web design. Clients range from small startups to Fortune 100 companies.  | | | 
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