Archive for September, 2008

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, involves many different internal and external factors affecting a web site. Things like directory links, description tags, and URL structure. However, it is possible to categorize each of these smaller considerations into one of the three major aspects involved in SEO. These major aspects are as follows:

Internal SEO Aspects

A large part of SEO involves optimizing a web site internally; making sure search engine spiders can navigate it, adding ALT tags to images, creating a site map, entering valid META tags, and so on. Many of these efforts are not only useful for SEO purposes; they make sites easier for human visitors to use and navigate as well. It also includes the use of proper keyword density, original/unique content, SEO based web page URLs/filenames, and search query oriented titles. All of these factors are under the direct control of the web site operator, and they should be optimized before the other two aspects are attended to.

Link Popularity

Another one of the major aspects of SEO is linking, which is relevant both internally and externally. Obtaining inbound links on related web sites, blogs, social bookmarking systems, and directories often significantly improves a site’s search engine rankings. However, the wrong type of links can be detrimental or unhelpful, such as links on completely unrelated pages or sites which have been “banned” by major search engines. Outbound links to other sites also affect the search engine optimization of the pages they are located on, so (for example) users of a web site generally shouldn’t be allowed to post links on it without approval.

External Aspects

Other external factors include search engine submission, banner/image advertisements, and the SEO strategies of major competing web sites. Submitting a site’s domain name to search engines can help it become listed more quickly, especially if it doesn’t have any inbound links yet. Like text links, graphical advertisements count as inbound links, but only if they directly link to a web site (not a click counter or other redirection). Competing web sites’ SEO strategies can change how the internal optimization of a site should be handled.

When each of these three major aspects of SEO are properly attended to, a web site’s potential for success becomes much greater. This can take a lot of effort, but is typically a more cost-effective and long-term solution than purchasing pay-per-click listings or email advertisements.

While SEO basics state that your dynamic URLs should be search engine friendly, Google’s latest announcement states that they prefer you not use rewrites to change your dynamic URLs to static-looking URLS.

This change comes from Google due to the fact that they can better understand the purpose of a page based on its URL structure now. John Mu of the Google team had this to say: “One of the reasons for that is that we can use the information provided through the parameters to better understand what your site is doing with those parameters. For instance,the URL http://www.mysite.com/search.php?q=keyword can give us information about what is happening, it could even allow us to recognize that this is a search form and perhaps let us attempt other keywords that might lead us to content that we haven’t seen for your site. On the other hand, a URL like http://www.mysite.com/search/keyword does not give us any information at all about what the “file name” is used for.”

The question now is do you need to undo all of the dynamic URL rewrites you already have. While there is not a punishment for switching your URL formats it may take a bit of time. So, essentially changing your URL rewrites really depends on how many rewrites you have and how well those pages currently rank. One suggestion is to start with your lower performing URLs and see the effects of switching them.

Otherwise you may find that you lose ranking popularity and lots of time making a switch. And what’s most important is making sure your site doesn’t suffer in search engine optimization.

Web sites often need to redirect users to a different page, either because a page no longer exists, an invalid URL was entered, or the filename of a page has been changed. Two common types of redirection are 404 and 301; read on to learn more about them and what kind of situation each redirect is better for.

404 redirects send the user to a single “catch-all” page which tells them that the webpage they are looking for does not exist. It can then link to the home page, allow visitors to search the web site, or provide a list of links for each section. It is not specific to the URL the user entered, and will show the same information regardless of whether the URL was incorrect or outdated. According to wikipedia.org, a 404 redirect page should be at least 513 bytes for compatibility with some versions of MSIE. Example:

ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.html

On the other hand, a 301 redirect forwards visitors going to a specific (former) webpage to a new page. If the user is sending form data to a PHP file, such as a search query, this data will be redirected to the new page as well. This can give users a more specific replacement for the invalid address they are trying to reach, increasing the chance that they will stay on the web site. Example, for a site where the search feature has been moved to a new subdomain:

Redirect 301 /find.php http://search.example.com/results.php

So which type of redirect is better for web sites to use? This depends upon the situation. If a webpage has been moved or combined with other pages, a 301 redirect is probably best. However, if pages have been deleted and there is no similar content on the web site, or users are just typing in the wrong URLs, a 404 redirect is better. Many sites can effectively make use of both 301 and 404 redirects.

When a page’s location is changed, both types of redirect are better than leaving duplicate pages in place. Search engines do not react favorably to multiple pages with identical content, and the web site operator receives the added burden of having to update both pages every time a change needs to be made.

Webpage redirection can be set up through cPanel (or a similar interface), or by adding/editing .htaccess files (via FTP or File Manager). Other types of automatic redirects exist as well, such as 302 and 307 (like 301, but “temporary”) and META refresh - which usually isn’t recommended, but is better than nothing if a hosting provider doesn’t allow other types.

Making updates to your web site or blog has many advantages. Updates make visitors more likely to return on a regular basis, they can improve search rankings, and they increase the chance of gaining inbound links or being listed in directories. So, is there such a thing as too many updates?

There is, but only in some circumstances. Here are a few situations where too many updates could become a problem:

A. Low Traffic: If a web site has relatively few visitors, entering many updates could be a waste of time, because too few people will see each update. One approach is to update weekly or daily until the site starts to receive more traffic, then increase their frequency. This is more of a problem if each update permanently replaces the material which came before it, because it further decreases the chance of anyone seeing the previous content.

B. Massive Content: Some blogs have speculated that it can harm search engine rankings if a web site adds a large number of new pages at one time. This issue shouldn’t be a concern unless your updates sometimes involve adding several dozen or hundreds of individual pages on the same day.

If you pay someone to write a large quantity of articles for your website, consider adding them periodically instead of all at once. In addition to the possible SEO benefit, this may also encourage visitors to keep returning (because there will be new content each time they visit the site).

C. Limited Bandwidth: Updates will increase the amount of bandwidth consumed by a web site, especially if they cause users to visit more regularly. Using too much bandwidth is more likely to be a problem for sites located on free web hosting services. It is usually not very expensive to upgrade your bandwidth limit, unless there is an impressively large increase in traffic. If the updates do not replace old material, more storage space will also be used up; however, even the cheapest blog and web site hosting services typically provide enough space for hundreds of articles.

All of these problems apply to some web site operators, but most don’t really need to worry about them. Although there is such a thing as adding too many updates, far more web site and blog owners have difficulty finding the time and inspiration to post updates regularly enough.

Top search engine Google recently put an end to its AdSense referral program, but it has already introduced a new revenue-generating option for AdSense users. Google recently announced on its AdSense blog that they had launched a new feed advertising system, which makes it possible to earn money by putting AdSense units in RSS feeds.

The feed advertising program will include both pay-per-click and pay-per-impression advertisements. According to Google, they will be specifically targeted to the type of users who view RSS feeds. Content authors can customize the advertising in several ways that are specific to RSS feeds; they can choose how often the ads are displayed throughout the feed, as well as the minimum entry length they should be applied to. Google AdSense Help Center now provides a section on “Getting Started” and “Troubleshooting” the feed advertising system, and the AdSense blog offers a short explanatory video with screenshots of the new system.

When using any RSS feed advertising system, advertisers should take into consideration the kind of people who will see their ads. Generally, it can be predicted that people who subscribe to feeds are at least fairly skilled in using computers, spend enough time on the internet to have an interest in subscribing to these feeds, and have their own computers (rather than only using publicly available computers). Free RSS reader applications are available for almost any operating system, so anyone who can afford an internet connection has access to them. Users with recent browsers like IE 7.0 have built-in RSS support, so they might be somewhat more likely to use it.

This new Google AdSense program gives web site and blog operators another opportunity to generate advertising revenue, if they produce RSS feed content. As with other companies which are introducing feed based advertising, it also provides Google advertisers with another promotional option. On the other hand, some readers of RSS feeds are displeased with this change; such feeds were previously free of ads and other “clutter” often found on web pages. This was probably to be expected; sources of information seldom remain ad-free unless they require a subscription fee or are operated by the government.

On a more positive note, Google’s new feed advertising program may encourage some web site owners to introduce new RSS feeds, even if they were previously reluctant about using RSS. However, feed operators should be careful not to overuse advertising in their feeds, keeping in mind that this could cause some users to unsubscribe.

Since SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is fairly complex and has many different facets, it’s not surprising to find that misconceptions about SEO are somewhat common. Controversy over certain aspects of SEO has helped to spread them.

One of the relatively common misconceptions is that search engine optimization is all about manipulating search engines, or that the engines are opposed to SEO. Although it is true that a few SEO firms use manipulative “black hat” techniques, most SEO actually benefits both the engines and individual web sites. Many engines, including Google and Yahoo, have instructions on how sites can better optimize themselves. The Yahoo! page includes common SEO suggestions like focusing on search keywords and using ALT text with images. It is in each engine’s interest to index as many useful sites as possible; if a web site hasn’t been search engine optimized, search “spiders” (a.k.a. “robots”, “crawlers”) might not be able to access or index it. Basically, it is only manipulative techniques like “cloaking” and “Google bombing” that degrade search result quality and are rejected by the engines. However, some people generalize or lack in-depth understanding of the issue and fail to see the distinction.

Another of the fairly common misconceptions about SEO is that optimization can be achieved through some sort of “quick fix” or by “just writing good content”. Search engines are typically designed to resist any simple, quick technique that would drastically improve an individual site’s ranking in the results. Some of these techniques can even harm rankings. As for quality content, it makes optimization easier and should always be considered important, but it cannot replace SEO as some misconceptions suggest. An online article might have excellent information about a specific topic, but not include any of the keywords or phrases people use to search for that subject. It may also lack optimized META tags, be located on a page that is inaccessible to “spiders”, have no keywords in its URL, or be presented in a way that ruins its keyword density. Thus its lack of optimization could cause it to receive few or no visitors, despite offering good content material.

Other less common SEO misconceptions exist; some are the result of changing search engine policies and outdated information, while others are spread by individuals and companies trying to sell services which benefit from misconceptions of this type.

Chances are you have heard the phrase “information architecture” plenty of times in the past. But, if you haven’t given it a passing glance you may want to rethink your stance. Information architecture is the semantic structure and organization of digital inventories. Since SEO is concerned with giving the search engine spiders easily understood relevant content while making the website user-friendly, information architecture is a very important aspect.

A website’s architecture is composed of domains sections, categories, pages and media, among other items. Domains are the top level of the structure, potentially housing multiple sub-domains. Sections are the organizational hubs that hold categories, and occasionally other sections. Categories are reference points for pages and media. Pages are web documents in a variety of languages such as HTML, PHP or ASP. And media are images, videos, pdfs, sound files and so on.

So what are some things you should avoid for the best SEO results on a site? Well, first of all is duplicate content. Search engines only show one version of a page so if they crawl the same thing 5 times, the time spent doing that is wasted. The same goes for print pages. With either of these you should try to use a unique URL folder structure to modify those files so the robots don’t crawl them.

Another big issue is canonical problems. These allow users to find your site both with and without the “www” before the domain name. Crawlers think these are two different websites that have copied one another and this leads to an enormous problem with duplicate content.

So, what are some things you should do to enhance your information architecture for SEO? Definitely try to make your hierarchy as clean and simple as possible. Ensure that your navigation is consistent and that it’s always in the same place on your site. This makes it easier for crawlers and humans alike. Another helpful thing to do is to use cross-linking. This is when you are browsing a site and they have suggestions along the bottom for similar things on their site you may be interested in.

Knowing more about information architecture is crucial to SEO, but it also helps user interaction. And at the end of the day that’s just as, if not more, important to the success of a site.

With Web 2.0 and new media, many companies embraced blogging. But only a few are doing it right.

When executed correctly with a strategic and credible approach, blogging can build thought leadership online and foster dialog between customers and brands.

In this post, I’ll discuss some of the ways you can use blogging to reach these business goals. But first, what are most companies doing wrong?

The biggest mistakes I see are corporate blogs created merely for the sake of doing so. “Other companies are blogging, so we should too” (even if we have nothing to say). And then there are the blogs that function as thinly veiled undercover marketing tools, fake blogs or flogs.

In the blogosphere, there is nothing more important than credibility. What’s more, social media communities will turn quickly upon disingenuous and self-serving attempts at blogging. Worse, they won’t forgive and they won’t forget, so don’t shoot your blog in its digital foot.

So how should you blog if you want to create thought leadership? Corporate and executive blogs are communication platforms, and to get noticed and stand out writers need to share provocative ideas. Whether that means new perspectives on industry issues or discussing strategic concerns, thought leadership happens when you post original and relevant ideas.

Still, having great ideas is only half of the equation. With no attention or readers, your ideas will fall on deaf ears no matter how revolutionary they are.

In order to maximize your visibility and reach, start by researching the most popular bloggers in whatever vertical your going to be writing about. Then, comment on their posts and start a conversation. This helps you get your foot in the door and gain credibility by association. Chances are they’ll link to your blog too, which is a big help from a what marketers call an “influencer.”

As you write, make sure your posts utilize search-engine friendly titles, keywords, and links. A little SEO can go a long way propelling your blog to the top of the rankings, which lends further credibility to your words.

Add video and sound to your blog as well. Studies show that blogs with interactive media, especially video and podcasts, capture more returning visitors and offer a “stickier” user experience.

Don’t overlook social media channels either. By adding social bookmarking buttons, readers can digg, del.i.cio.us, Facebook, etc. your content and expose it to their networks. Again, being connected to these key “influencers” is a proven and effective method to build thought leadership.

None of this will happen overnight, however. It may take months of blogging before you start to build readership and gain recognition. Monitoring your blog with web analytics will provide further insight into your efforts while showing you what content is the most popular with readers.

Remember that a corporate or executive blog must create dialog between management, customers, and readers. Companies and brands can leverage blogs successfully to share information that otherwise would remain internal. Blogs humanize companies by giving a face to an organization, and well-written content can create loyal brand supporters. Always enable comments on your blog to foster conversation.

Allocate the resources for your blog before you start writing. If it’s a company blog, make sure you or whomever manages the blog has time to update it frequently, ideally posting new content every two or three days. Nothing looks worse than a blog that hasn’t been updated in three months.

Creating thought leadership online is tricky business. As you can see, many companies are prone to the mistakes and mishaps that arise when their blogs are used for the wrong reasons. In the blogosphere, credibility is paramount.

Developing thought leadership is about gaining credibility with readers and establishing yourself as the authority on whatever topic you write about. Do this and you’ll become one of the “influencers” I mentioned above. Key influencers are, by definition, thought leaders.

Nick Yorchak is a Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Fusionbox who is actively engaged in the art and science of blogging. Nick enjoys experimenting with social media and its many business applications. For more information, contact Nick at Fusionbox.

Many web sites use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to promote themselves to a national or worldwide audience. However, some sites really only need to target a local audience; examples include the web sites of a single hardware store, a local internet service provider, or a small book shop. In these situations, localizing SEO is a better option; this way, the site only needs to focus upon improving its rankings for locally-oriented searches.

Part of localizing SEO is to determine the different keywords and phrases people use to search for local businesses or content. For example, people looking up information about computer repair services in Portland, Oregon might search for “Computer repair Portland Oregon”, “computer repair portland OR”, or “PC repair Portland, Oregon”. Because there is another major city called Portland, searchers often put “Oregon” in their queries, whereas people in cities like Atlanta or Seattle are less likely to include the state name.

People also sometimes use zip codes when localizing their searches, particularly when looking for weather information and businesses in a specific area. The actual popularity of different search queries can be researched using online SEO tools like Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery, although such statistics are subject to change and do not cover all search engines. The web site should then use one or more of these phrases (or single SEO based keywords) in its text, META tags, URLs, and page titles.

Localizing SEO also includes the acquisition of links on other local web sites, preferably about related subjects. For example, a local TV antenna and satellite store would benefit from gaining a link on a site which offers TV listings for the same area. Obtaining links in local web directories is beneficial as well, particularly the business directories found on some city/town government sites. Many national and international web directories feature regional categories, including the major directory DMOZ.org.

It is also best if the inbound link titles (or “anchor text”) include words aimed at localizing the site’s promotion. For example, it would be better for SEO purposes if a movie rental business in Lincoln, Nebraska gained a link titled “Video Rental in Lincoln NE” than “Local Movie Rental Business”. It isn’t always possible to decide the titles of inbound links, and poorly-titled links still have value. However, localizing the site’s homepage title is esp. important to SEO, as these titles are often used by other sites when creating links.

We’ve all been to websites with mistakes in their design. Such mistakes can make a website difficult to use, inaccessible on some computers, and/or unprofessional looking. Here are the top 5 common mistakes that website designers should avoid:

1. Lines of text wider than the screen: Some websites require users with common lower-resolution displays to repeatedly scroll left and right across the screen while reading each line. A website should be designed so that it appears properly on any screen resolution. Worse still, a number of websites have design mistakes which cause part of the page (especially common within non-scrolling frames) to be completely obscured at some resolution levels.

2. Too much javascript, Flash, etc: When a website relies upon Flash, javascript, and IFRAMEs (especially those supplied by external sites) for most of its content, search engine “spiders” find very little intelligible material when they check the website, and users with browsers that aren’t javascript-enabled won’t see much either. Having some original content is generally better for search rankings.

3. Right-click blockers: It is relatively common to visit a website that shows error messages if you try to use the right mouse button. The reason for this is to discourage people from copying the page or its images. However, it prevents legitimate right-click functions like opening a link in a new browser window, and someone intent upon stealing the content can still do so in a different way. It also makes the page take longer to load.

4. Poor color combination: One of the top website mistakes is to use a color scheme that is hard to read (or look at). Be creative with the choice of colors, but make sure the lettering contrasts well with the background (which shouldn’t be unnecessarily bright). Even the best information or offers may be ignored if they are difficult to read or otherwise undesirable.

5. Internet Explorer based design: Because IE is the top web browser, some website designers only consider how a site will appear in it. However, when the 08/2008 market share (according to w3schools.com) of Firefox, Opera, and Safari are combined, it is about 48%. Also, search engine “spiders” see a website more like text-only browsers do. Keep in mind that Windows 95 users are limited to IE 5.5, and 98/2000/ME users to IE 6.x, so these versions remain common.

Avoiding these top website mistakes is to the benefit of both the site’s users and owner. Web designers working for someone else will find that they have to correct fewer mistakes and respond to less complaints if they avoid the above-mentioned design flaws.