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High Rankings Advisor: Multiple Domains and Other FAQs - Issue No. 133March 9, 2005 ~~~IN TODAY'S ADVISOR~~~
*Introductory Comments: ----> Seattle Seminar Discount for Forum Members *Search Engine Marketing FAQ: ----> Multiple Domains ----> Files in the Root ----> Blogs and Rankings *This Week's Sponsors: ----> 7 Days to Massive Website Traffic ----> High Rankings Seminar CD - Half Price *Guest Interview: ----> The Power of the Written Word *Stuff You Might Like: ----> Six Strategies To Get Paid What You're Worth *High Rankings Forum Thread of the Week: ----> Concerns over Google's Autolink Toolbar Feature *Advisor Wrap-up: ----> She's In! ________________________________________________________ ~~~Introductory Comments~~~ Hey all! Were you at the NYC conference last week? It seemed like everyone in the entire search marketing universe was there! Next up on the conference/seminar circuit is our High Rankings search marketing seminar and hands-on workshops in Seattle. I'm pleased to announce that we just approved a High Rankings Forum discount. If you're a registered forum member (which is free) we'll $125 off the seminar registration for both days, or $50 off if you choose to attend just day 1. When you register, be sure to use the discount code of "forum" (no quotes) and also add your forum member name in the appropriate field. See the forum thread on this subject for more info: </forum/index.php?showtopic=13098> or the seminar page here: </seminar133>. The day of the seminar is quickly approaching, and the available seats are filling up fast, so if you want in, now would be a good time to register. Okay, on to the good stuff! - Jill ~~~Search Engine Marketing FAQ~~~ ++Multiple Domains++ Q. My competitors are spamming the engines with multiple sites for the same company. [Can I have them killed? ;-) ] What can I do about this? Jill: You can try reporting them to the search engines either via their spam report email address, or through the "dissatisfied with these results" link that most engines have on their results pages. If you decide to do this (and I generally don't bother) be sure not to complain that "it's not fair," and that your site is better or that you're losing money, etc. Simply mention that the search results for the particular search query you tried is bringing up multiple domains for essentially the same product, service or company, and that you thought that the engine might want to know about this. The results may or may not change over time, but at least you can feel good that you tried to help them to improve the quality of their results. They really do want that info, but it's unclear as to whether they will agree with you and also act upon your report. (For the record, I don't recommend having the competitor killed!) ++Files in the Root++ Q. I read an article from 1997 that said all my files should be in the "root" directory on my server so that they are not buried deep within the site. Is this still true? Jill: It actually was never true, although I may have been one of those spreading that myth back then! This is one of those things that many people confuse because it's sort of half true. It doesn't actually matter where a page physically resides on your server, but it does matter how difficult it is for a search engine to find it. So when we talk about not "burying" pages on your site, we don't mean that you shouldn't have it 10 directories/folders deep on the server; we simply mean that it shouldn't be 10 clicks away from the home page. The fewer clicks it takes to get to any given page, the more important a search engine (and your user) will deem it to be. And of course, the more important they deem it to be, the more apt they are to find and index it. ++Blogs and Rankings++ Q. This parrot that I talk to in the pet store told me that I should create a blog for search engine optimization purposes. Can you speak to this? Jill: Blogs have no special powers of high rankings. What they do have (if done correctly) is fresh, unique content. Search engines do tend to like that, regardless of the format. If they know any given site is adding new articles on a frequent basis, they will come around often to index it. Blogs are certainly one way of easily adding new information to your site. Newsletters archived on your site can provide a similar benefit, as can archived press releases, or a popular forum. (P.S. If anyone would like to republish the above Q&A article, please email me your request and where it will reside, and I'll send you a short bio you can use with it for your site.) __________7 Days to Massive Website Traffic__________adv. Free (60+ pages) Guide on How To Get a Top Google Ranking! __________________________________________________ SEO expert Brad Callen hand-feeds you the keys to a top ranking for FREE! This free traffic course will teach you: - How getting listed in Google in under 12 hours is EASY! - The "secret" that all top-ranked websites have in common! - Why you'll NEVER rank well if you optimize the wrong keywords! - And much more! Click below to grab your free copy while it lasts! <http://www.seoelite.com/FreeTrafficCourse/> __________________________________________________ ~~~Guest Article~~~ ++The Power of the Written Word++ Here's the last installment of Amy Edelstein's interview with PPC guru Kevin Lee. Hope this series has helped you in your search engine advertising efforts! - Jill Q=Question, KL=Kevin Lee The Importance of "Creative" to PPC Landing Page Success [For those not into advertising, "creative" often refers to the actual ads created for a campaign. - Jill] Q: I wanted to bring out this point that you touched on last time, which is the importance of the creative. I think it's an undervalued element of design and conversion. Could you say a little bit more about what you've found? KL: Creative is very important to both frontend and backend. I think web design firms and other agencies are totally missing a huge opportunity in this area. Most agencies are in the creative business. Some are in the media-buying business only, but when most agencies go out and sell themselves to clients, they sell themselves as "creatives." So, just to make the point again, to build a site and then say, "It's done" is really a mistake. Agencies have a huge opportunity to go back to the client and say, "Based on the search media that you're buying, we really need to have a retainer in place or some other investment to confirm the value of that buy. Anytime we improve any click streams that you're getting off of search, affiliate marketing, or banner campaigns, that's going to make your business run smoother, better, faster, more profitably." And, for the most part, agencies are missing that opportunity! And they are the Creatives! Whether they're a freelancer or a billion-dollar agency, for them not to embrace this and proactively recommend it to clients is a huge missed opportunity! Q: Why is it being missed? Since it seems so obvious. KL: Well, it does to you and me. I think it's going to be up to the industry and the press on the media side to actually enlighten the agencies, because they may not understand that interaction between testing landing-page creatives and getting better value from search spend. The other reason I think that happens is because pretty much every agency I've ever had interaction with, with the exception of only a handful, "silo" their teams. So the Media team that's out there buying all this media -- in search, banners etc. -- they only talk to the Creative team once a month or so at a review meeting. They don't really even think about Creative. And Creative only thinks about Media that one time in the month when they remember, "Oh, we've gotta write some copy or design something for this campaign that's going on." As soon as that's finished, they don't talk to each other anymore. Media thinks, "Oh, it's not my job because it's creative, so I don't have to even think about it." And Creative thinks, "Traffic? That's a media thing. I don't need to think about media." So the account teams, or somebody else, have to recognize this connection and bring the two together. Hopefully, the agencies will begin to recognize this opportunity and actually be proactive. Some of them are. I won't tar them all with the same brush and say that they are all missing the opportunity. But I think a lot of them are and that they should at least be proactive and recommend this kind of testing and investment in creative to the client. If the client says, "No, I don't have the budget or I'm not interested" or whatever the case may be, at least they can say that they were proactive -- "We made the recommendation. We explained to them why the landing page and the user experience are so important." I hope that they do and I think that they will. We're just coming out of the dot-bomb explosion now. That decimated some agencies. Everybody decided that they had to run lean and mean. The idea of adding these new initiatives into the mix is a big challenge for a lot of these organizations to think about. But the reality is that budgets are opening up again and marketers are starting to recognize the real value of the web and seeing the numbers from the media measurement companies that show how much of people's time is spent on the Web versus other media. That means that when people do end up on your site, particularly by doing a search, you really want to make sure that you're doing the right thing. Q: Thanks so much Kevin, it's great to get the benefit of your experience in the industry. Amy Edelstein Ascent Copywriting http://www.ascentcopywriting.com Kevin Lee, CEO Did-it.com http://www.did-it.com [Thanks to Kevin and Amy for a great interview! - Jill] ___________Can't Travel to Seattle this Spring?____________ Buy Now! High Rankings Seminar CD - Half Price While Supplies Last! __________________________________________________ Listen to the MP3 audio files of our Tampa full-day search engine marketing seminar from November '03 -- was $279, now $139.50! What is covered: SEO Basics, PPC, Copywriting, Measuring Traffic, and Conversions. Also includes complete PDF presentations from the speakers. </cdhra133> __________________________________________________ ~~~Stuff You Might Like~~~ ++Six Strategies To Get Paid What You're Worth++ <http://www.guerrillaconsulting.com/newsletter/issue5-mar-05.html> ~~~High Rankings Forum Thread of the Week~~~ ++Concerns over Google's Autolink Toolbar Feature++ Have you heard about Autolink yet? Apparently, Google has a new feature in the latest version of the Google toolbar that has many people (including me) somewhat up in arms. In its current incarnation, it's fairly innocuous; however, the future implications for Autolink are kind of scary. Scary in that Webmasters could lose control of their content by having links put on their sites that they didn't place there themselves. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's very similar to what Microsoft tried a few years ago called "Smart Tags" and very much the same as Ezula "Top Text." The Webmaster community often calls both of those "helpful" programs "scumware." Is Autolink just another form of scumware? Many believe so. Please read our forum thread for more info, and also for a bit of my in-person conversation with Google's Matt Cutts regarding Autolink. You can find it here: </forum/index.php?showtopic=12843>. ~~~Advisor Wrap-up~~~ That's all for today! Good news this week for Corie, as she got accepted to the college we looked at out on Staten Island! It sounds as if she'll be attending there next year, and she's very excited. I also realized that the London SES conference is right before her graduation, and am thinking that a London trip may make a nice little graduation present for her. She's wanted to go there since she was younger, but the conference dates have always fallen at times when she's still in school. This may finally be her chance! Nice to have all 3 of the kids' school plans for next year worked out already. We're usually so behind on this stuff thanks to my procrastinating ways. Okay, enough family junk! Catch you next week with (most likely) one of the shortened newsletter versions. - Jill    |
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