Online marketing blog by Stuart Gow aimed B2B for small to medium operators looking for a cost effective and measurable way to use their marketing funds!
20 Jun 2007
Blog Tip #9: Bold your keywords
This is fairly obvious from the way I have bolded the keyword in this post huh?
15 May 2007
Is It Worth Optimizing for MSN?
Google has imposed itself as the “top-notch” search engine on the market, leaving little room for others. Little, but enough, some would say. Among the search engines, Microsoft’s MSN comes third, after Google and Yahoo. So, how do you approach SEO nowadays? Where should your site rank better?
Ideally, optimization for the Web should satisfy all major search engines, but each and every one of them has its own likes and dislikes. Most of the SEO is done for Google, because what they advertise is quality, relevance and low spam content. Given that Google’s brand is so strong, is MSN search engine optimization worth the effort?
MSN vs. Google
Opinions vary. Everybody knows that it’s rather hard to get Google to rank your site high in the search results. Most of the SEO techniques used nowadays are meant to be relevant almost exclusively for Google. Every Webmaster is concerned with code structure, sitemaps, keyword density, anchor texts, links and so on. Google is rather hard to please, especially when it comes to newly created sites.
The much-feared “sandbox” is a side-product of Google, where the new pages end up until Google considers them mature enough to be ranked in the search results. It’s a drawback, and there’s not much anybody can do about it, because one of the things that are valued by Google is the age of a Web page.
What about MSN? In this case, things tend to be a little smoother. MSN seems to really like new pages, and it has no sandbox. It doesn’t use an “age filter” and classifies sites much faster. Therefore, it is highly probable that the amount of results that a Web user might get for a given search to be significantly higher than the one obtained from Google. Also, it appears that the search speed is higher with MSN than with Google. This may be because their index is considerably smaller than Google’s.
Reports show that Google is already a saturated search engine. Its users see so many websites that they don’t have the patience to spend much time on any given site, but still want to visit others as quickly as possible. On the other hand, it appears that MSN users are more likely to produce conversions (sales). This probability is 48% higher for MSN users than for any other Internet users.
This can be a factor that might influence the adoption of some MSN marketing strategies. The conversion ratio is paramount for any commercial website, and such indicators could most probably lead to actions meant to improve the MSN ranking for this type of sites.
MSN Optimization – How?
It is almost impossible to get it right from the start. Much of the SEO process is based on trial and error. There are no precise criteria for each search engine. Basically, what is good for one might be good (or better, or even worse) for the other. Experts say that, in order to get as much MSN traffic as possible, it’s enough to follow the basic guidelines with, of course, some adjustments that will differentiate your MSN marketing strategies from the ones you might use for Google ranking.
MSN is dedicated to satisfying the visitors. Therefore, MSN wants to make sure that they can offer web surfers a high probability of finding what they want on your site. A well-developed site, with many pages and homogenous content will rank much better than a smaller site with poorly organized content (supposing that these two sites apply the ranking factors in a similar manner).
Creating a good, easy-to-navigate site map will not only help the search engine’s spiders crawl your site, but it will also add to its value for the visitors.
Microsoft’s search engine has a great response to an increased keyword density (as opposed to Google, which is quite quick at identifying and penalizing sites that, according to its algorithm, are clearly spamming – and sometimes it is not far from the truth).
This orientation towards quantity rather than quality makes MSN more spam oriented. But the criteria for your site remain, basically, the same.
Therefore, the more back-links you have, the better. Bear in mind though that the quality of the links is a plus, as well as their relevance to the optimization aiming website. This will help spiders to completely index the website, thus leading to an improved visibility among search results.
The logical approach is to focus on building high-quality links towards the site and its content, which will eventually help you rank well in other search engines too. MSN will give credit to the new content and to the inbound links quite quickly.
You should not forget about clean code. It is a major factor for site indexing, and even MSN, which is not as demanding as Google, will rank poorly sites with badly written code.
The are among the most important code elements which you can rely on if you want to improve your MSN traffic. They occupy a top position in the algorithm used by MSN. Consider it your exhibition room. When somebody is looking at the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), the first thing they see is the title of your page. In order to encourage a web user to click on it, it has to be as descriptive and as “appealing” as possible. But don’t exaggerate; about 80 characters should be more than enough.
One of MSN’s drawbacks is represented by its robots, used for page indexing, so keep them in mind. They have difficulties in indexing pages that contain frames, pictures, flash elements, Java script or dynamic URLs. If your site uses image or script based navigation, it is advisable to use text links as well, both within the content and at the bottom of the page. Text links are easier to follow and, more importantly, they give you the opportunity to link to your home page thanks to the anchor texts.
So…Should We?
To make a long story short, MSN is more permissive than Google. Adopt the right tactics, and you can be riding the MSN wave in no time (as compared to Google, where you have to wait in the sandbox for a painfully large – for your business, mostly – amount of time). But there is the risk of dropping from that high position in the MSN ranking as quickly as you got there. This is because your MSN SEO techniques can be overthrown by those newly arrived sites that MSN likes so much to welcome. Such an inconvenience can be quite easily avoided by keeping the content constantly fresh.
There can’t be a “Yes” or “No” answer to the question above. Yet, there could be a “Why not?” MSN does what Google avoids, and likes what Google frowns upon or regards with suspicion. And then there’s also Microsoft’s potential marketing power that they can bring to the search engine business. So, the value of MSN should not be underestimated. Of course, it is a rather feeble match for Google now, but this situation can change dramatically overnight. Similar situations have been seen before, and Microsoft has the financial power to make enough changes and adjustments relatively quickly so as to turn the tables in MSN’s favor.
Bottom line, if you have already optimized your site for Google, it can’t hurt to do some MSN optimization as well.
4 May 2007
5 SEO Mistakes and What to Do to About It
1. Non-Relevant Linkage
External links to your tourism site play a large part in most of the major search engine algorithms and are seen as an endorsement of the pages on your site. But if you are being linked to from sites that have no relevance to your content, then that is now considered by the search engines as a negative endorsement and will not raise your ranking in the search engines. Ensure all links to your pages are from relevant sites. Be wary of link builders in general but especially those who acquire links from gambling, pharmaceutical or adult themed sites, especially if your site is not of the same theme. Link building does take time, there is no 'magic pill' to do it instantaneously.
2. Untargeted Keywords
The people who use search engines are ‘normal’ people who do not use words used in your average resort or holiday advertising brochures. Get to know how your guests and customers ask for your services and products, and use these in your content. Consistently, actual keyword research surprises even the oldest marketing department in resorts and tourism operations.
3. Too Much Graphic and Flash Content
This looks good on a web page, but to Search Engine crawlers and spiders it means little. Search engines are looking for content and keywords and relevancy to the search terms, this means TEXT. yes you have to have some graphics, but don’t forget the beef. This doesn’t mean Flash designed websites are necessarily bad. In fact, some big businesses do use it. For most tourism products though, Flash sites are best avoided. Unless your Flash designer does high-end websites and knows how to integrate the content and keywords within the Flash, hybrid sites combining Flash headers with HTML content will be a good option. Good FLASH integration is expensive and therefore unless you have the budget, avoid it. Done badly or cheaply will have a negative SEO effect.
4. Bad Use of Title Tags
Most businesses consider the title to be for their company name, property name or product. Not so. You must include your most important search phrases within your title tag and if you do want your company name there, keep it for the end. Keep the title tag to less than 65 characters long to avoid the appearance of title tag keyword-stuffing.
5. Expecting Immediate Results
SEO is an ongoing process and should be treated as such by your SEO company. Good optimization will involve building good links with quality sites and this takes time.
22 Apr 2007
What are link farms & why they are bad...
It's hilarious, but in all this time of Internet and Online Marketing, I never truly understood the term until a friend came to message boards and talked about a link program he was involved in. It wasn't a type of program I've ever participated in...but I still didn't realize it was a link farm. It was just a group of small businesses in one industry trying to find a way to promote each other.
But so what, let's get to the point: What is a Link Farm?
A link farm is when group of websites get together to link to each other. One main links page is created with links to all the participant's websites and each participant places that links page on their website. Et voila! Instantly a whole load of links to your website.
Now whether or not your purpose is just to help promote one another as opposed to boosting search engine rankings...you still run the real risk of being punished or banned by the search engines. And once you are banned, getting back into the SE's and regaining your placement is a major uphill battle.
Search engines cannot understand your, possibly innocent motive, and this could be seen as one of the disallowed link popularity scheme.
These disallowed pages are ones that exist solely to increase the link popularity of those who post their links. Listing on these sites will most definitely cause you to be penalized in the search engines eventually. Avoid them. You do not need to try and 'cheat'.
Legitimate link building strategies work! See other posts for ideas...
19 Apr 2007
Blog Tip #4: Use your keywords in the anchor text of links
Keyword in links have more importance than simple text. This is major to the search engines, ANCHOR TEXT IS VITAL!
For example if you want to rank using the keyword diving then make sure all the links to the site use the word diving like this: diving
Don't just put in the code http://www.diving.blogspot.com, use the link button in the posting WYSIWYG editor and highlight the keyword, like this: diving
18 Apr 2007
Blog Tip #3: Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post
The theory is that the more times a keyword appears within a blog's web page, the more relevant the page is likely to be for someone searching those keywords.
But do not overdo this by repeating the same keywords over and over again. Google bots can find out if a keyword is too frequent on a page and might just remove your site from their index.
As outlined below, checking a keyword density using software is a smart idea. See the post on WebCEO in April 2007.
13 Apr 2007
Blog Tip #6: Get backlinks from other blogs
You need as many links as possible to link back to your posts or blog because it will help you build pagerank and get your blog to rank higher in search engines. The more links you have the higher your blog is ranked in Technorati helping your blog to be found easily.
So how do we get backlinks? Basically a lot of hard graft and slogging and cutting and pasting.
- The 1st thing to do to get high-quality links is to submit your blog and RSS feed to blog search engines and directories. As a start submit your blog to all the directories listed on this page:
- Link exchanging with other similarly-themed blogs will help you to form richly interlinked networks or communities. This again takes a lot of time online cruising around to find them. Start by searching for your keywords and the word blog...
- If you find an interesting article on another blog, link to it generously. This means 3 to 5 times from a post on the article. Use anchor text for the other blog, it's normally obvious what their keywords are! The track back will become a link back to your blog.
- Make sure that your signature for comments includes you blog link (if possible embedded in anchor text). Then start posting legitimate comments in response to posts on other blogs will help you get back links. Regularly post legitimate comments in similarly-themed blogs with high traffic to get many back links.
Blog Tip #5: Make sure search engines can spider your blog easily
Most of the standard blog set-ups (WordPress, TypePad, Blogger) will give you an option to have Archives and Blog Archives module to do this automatically for you.
Remember, we are going to submit only the primary domain and RSS feeds to the directories and search engines and they will only find all of your pages and posts if they are linked on the main page.
Blog Tip #1: Use your main keyword in your blog domain
The first thing to do is to ensure that your blogs URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize for. Using the targeted keyword in sub-domains also helps.
For example, if you want to start a blog site about diving then the primary keyword you want your URL to contain is diving. So choose a URL like www.divingblog.com.
You can also use the keyword in subdomains like www.fiji-resort.com/diving
SEO tips for tourism blogs
So I have pulled together some simple rules for search engine optimization and if you start following them then your blog will rank much higher in Search Engines.
9 Sept 2006
How to know if your site is banned from SE's
Yahoo! Search is using a second link-only banning method in which the site's pages are not indexed by the search engine but links to the site that have been found on other sites are still included and can theoretically be found in a search. The pages have not been indexed so text on the pages cannot be found in a search. The pages are not cached. No descriptive text is provided in the unlikely event that such a listing is included in a search result, so a user is unlikely to be able to determine what the site is about. The title text provided in the search results is the "link text" provided by the site linking to you. These "supplemental results" are essentially useless for search users and are apparently included so Yahoo Search can claim to have a larger index than its competitors. If the site: search reports many pages, check to see if the listings consist entirely of "link-only" entries. Your site is banned if the search engine is not indexing your text. The link-only entries result from indexing other people's sites. Link-only banning adds insult to injury. Yahoo Search is claiming your pages as included in their index while actually refusing to index them!
Another test method is to search for some unique phrase that appears only on your pages. Some webmasters include a phrase such as “Vmxzwh S34pp” on their pages for this purpose. This search will avoid listing “link-only” entries and will also disclose some of the other sites (not banned by the search engine) that have stolen your content, if any.
The “ultimate misfortune” is to find that your site has been banned but that many sites that have stolen your content have not been banned by the same search engine!
We would expect that spiders would stop visiting a censored site. They do visit much less frequently. However, they usually continue to access some pages and to check /robots.txt apparently to monitor that the site still exists. Yahoo’s robot “Slurp” checks /robots.txt up to several hundred times per day. One reason for doing this might be to determine if a domain name is sold to another owner by detecting a substantial "down" period.
21 Aug 2006
Building Quality Links Outside of Link Exchanges
1. Get your site listed on large directories like Open Directory Project (DMOZ) and Yahoo! Directory. Google uses Open Directory Project listings in these directories to formulate its own directory and listings in either or both directories can help boost your "importance" or PageRank on Google.
Listings in the Open Directory Project are free. Just be sensible, honest and careful into which categories you try and get listed. Don;t choose the first one that looks 'likely'...
You will have to pay to be considered for inclusion to Yahoo! It's a whopping US$299 just to be considered with absolutely no guarantee of listing. Given the Yahoo's search results are currently provided by Google, I don't believe it's necessary. If you still want to proceed, click here for tips on getting listed on Yahoo.
You cannot request a listing in Google's Directory. You need to submit your site for free submission at the Open Directory Project.
2. Write a press release about your website. Submit it to online newswires like PRWeb or Click2NewSites.com. You can also submit to newspapers that run their stories on their websites. Click here for tips on writing a press release.
3. Join associations related to your business or field of specialty. Many of these associations will link to their members.
4. Have your articles with your byline published on other websites. Submit your articles to sites that host free content. Consult our list of free content sites to get started.
5. Get links from other big, "important sites". Do you have an eBay About Me Page, a Ryze Page or even a Yahoo Groups page? Did you know these have link popularity? It makes business sense to link to these pages and then have them link back to you.
6. Link the various pages of your website together. Your most important links should be on all your pages for easy navigation and to increase your link popularity. You should also link to relevant information on your other pages when appropriate.
7. Create a few websites with similar themes and create a few links between them. For example, if you sell children's books on one site, you can also make a site on children's literacy and so forth. One is your sales site and the other is purely informational, but be careful of cross-linking to heavily...as this can be penalized by search engines.
8. Purchase ads on various directories that have a relevant theme to yours. If you are a wedding planner, get your site listed in Wedding-related directories.
9. Create an informative and useful site. If your website is good, people will WANT to link to you. You won't need to ask them.
10. Offer testimonials for products and services related to the tourism industry. Many websites will give links in return for testimonials. For example, if you are a dive operator, provide testimonials for various dive equipment and software.
11. If someone asks you for an interview for their website or to contribute to an article, do it. They should (and you should insist they do) give you links back to your site in return.