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High Rankings® Advisor: Jill's SEO Mailbag - Issue No. 154November 30, 2005 ~~~IN TODAY'S ADVISOR~~~
*Search Engine Marketing: ----> Forum and Blog Links ----> Dropped off the Face of Google ----> WPG and Google's API ----> Changing Domain Names ----> Is SEO Enough? ----> How Deep Will Engines Crawl? ----> Changing Hosts ----> What To Do With Misspellings ----> Authority Sites *This Week's Sponsors: ----> MegaFeeder Shopping Feed Software ----> KeywordDiscovery ----> SEO Copywriting Combo ----> SEM Kit *High Rankings® Forum Thread of the Week: ----> Article Distribution and Duplicate Content Bans *Advisor Wrap-up: ----> SES Chicago Next Week ________________________________________________________ ~~~Introductory Comments~~~ Hey all! I hope our US friends had a nice Thanksgiving! This is the first year in my entire life that I didn't have turkey on Thanksgiving. But not to worry, I got mine a few days later, so all is well. I've got another SEO mailbag bonanza for you today. For those new to the newsletter, these mailbag bonanza issues are some of the interesting questions I've answered recently by email. I try to choose ones that are frequently asked because I know those will probably strike a chord with many of you. I often do these mailbag issues when I have no guest articles. If you have a good idea for an article you'd like to write for me that hasn't already been written about, please pitch it to me. Let's get straight to the good stuff! - Jill ~~~Search Engine Marketing Issues~~~ ++Forum and Blog Links++ Dear Jill, I just joined your newsletter. I have two questions in regard to PageRank/link popularity: 1. If I include my website URL in the forums I participate in that are related to the subject of my site, will this benefit my PageRank? 2. If I include my website in blog sites on subjects that are relevant to my website content, will this help to raise my PageRank? Thank you, George ++Jill's Response++ Hi George, First I need to tell you that you're measuring the wrong thing! You don't need to look at increasing PageRank as it doesn't really affect your actual site rankings in the search engines, nor does it increase the traffic or sales to your site. To illustrate this, search for any keyword phrase in Google and then look at the top 20 or 30 sites that show up. You'll notice that they're not even close to being ranked in PageRank order. That said, links pointing to your site are definitely important, as they're still a big factor in how all of the search engines determine whether you have a worthwhile site. Therefore, any links pointing to your site have the potential of giving your site more exposure, which can also lead to an increase in link popularity. I wouldn't recommend using other people's forums to gain link popularity as it's not going to win you any friends with the forum owners or most of the members. Forum links have been used to subvert the search engines' link pop. algorithms for years, so there's a good chance that the engines have lessened the amount of popularity that is spread by these types of links. Also, you may be interested to know that a good number of forum signatures aren't even spiderable or seen by search engines. In addition, a person "voting for their own site" through their own links probably wouldn't count as much as when other people vote for it (assuming the engines can tell the difference). The same applies to blogs. I would not recommend posting comments on blogs in order to increase your own link popularity, as that's what's known as blog spamming. The best way to gain links, and really the only way I would even bother with these days, is to make darn sure that your site is really and truly better than all the other ones that offer similar stuff to what you offer. You need to figure out what your unique selling proposition (USP) is and shout it to the world. This will garner you more links than you'll even need for link pop. purposes. (Yeah, I know that's hard and takes a lot of work. Such is life!) Best, Jill ________MegaFeeder Shopping Feed Software____________adv. The holiday season is here! Are you listed in the shopping engines? __________________________________________________ Submit to Froogle, Yahoo Shopping, Shopping.com, and BizRate with just the simple click of a button! MegaFeeder will: o Automatically gather your product info o Create your shopping feeds o Submit them to the shopping search engines. Create your shopping feeds now: <www.Megafeeder.com?s=hra154 >. __________________________________________________ ++Dropped off the Face of Google++ Hi Jill, I have recently dropped off the face of Google for all my main keyword phrases. I was in the top 10 before Google changed my description snippet for my homepage. They have changed it from the description tag to the snippet the dmoz directory created for my web site when they listed me. I'm so confused and feel so defeated!!! My traffic stats have fallen and not one sale for a week and counting. :( If you have any suggestions or information for me - please let me know at your earliest convenience. Thanks! Sincerely, Donna ++Jill's Response++ Hi Donna, Google often uses the DMOZ description in the search results, which very much stinks because it's usually not one the site owner would prefer. My hope is that they will abandon this practice at some point because it really devalues a Google listing. That said, I don't think that the description change actually affects rankings at Google. More likely, you are seeing the effects of Google's recent algorithm change (some may know of this as "Jagger"). If you're extremely unhappy with the DMOZ description showing in Google, you could request to have DMOZ remove your listing all together. They may or may not remove it, but all you can do is ask. As an aside and similar to the DMOZ description problem, a listing in the Yahoo directory usually means that your directory title will supercede your site's carefully crafted title tag in the natural Yahoo results. This also stinks because most Yahoo directory titles are not very descriptive and people may be less apt to click through when they encounter them. To combat this, when any of my clients' sites come up for review in the Y! Directory, I recommend that they no longer renew them. Not appearing in the directory hasn't hurt their rankings or traffic in the least. Instead, they save $299 a year, plus they get the title that they want; it's a win-win situation all around! Jill ++WPG and Google's API Key++ Hello Jill, I must tell you I REALLY enjoyed [your High Rankings® Seminar in Philadelphia]. I learned a lot! Before I went to the seminar, I KNEW what had to be done for better search results but I didn't know HOW to do it. We have WebPosition Gold and I can't remember if it was you that said we need to get a Google API key to use the program. I was wondering why and how it works. I was on the Google site that talks about it but I didn't understand how it relates to WPG. We use WebTrends too. I will go ahead and sign up for the Google AP I-- maybe once I get it I will understand. Thanks again -- great seminar! Renee' ++Jill's Response++ Hi Renee', The old version of WPG doesn't support the Google API. You would want to make sure not to use that version on Google, but only check AOL rankings (which uses Google). In fact, if you'd been using it previously, this could be a factor in why you're having problems with Google now. (If your site is completely gone from all rankings.) WPG isn't going to be supporting their old version much longer anyway, so you probably want to upgrade to the new one if you are interested in running ranking reports. With the new version, you can put in your API key and not use automated queries, which are against Google's terms of service. However, it's important to remember that many of us in SEO are trying to get away from using rankings as a measurement for success. You get much better data than WPG can give you by simply using your WebTrends information. (Although since WebTrends owns WPG now, it may all be integrated, which probably comes in handy.) Hope this helps, and glad you enjoyed the seminar! Jill ______________Keyword Discovery_____________________adv. New Keyword Research Tool -- It Totally Rocks! __________________________________________________ "KeywordDiscovery is my new keyword research tool of choice! I've been using it for the past few months, and each time I find new things that it can do. Our clients are benefiting from the additional terms we're finding that may otherwise have been missed. I'll definitely be letting my newsletter readers, forum members, and High Rankings® seminar participants know about this tool." - Jill Whalen </keyworddiscovery> __________________________________________________ ++Changing Domain Names++ Good morning Jill, We recently changed our hotel name from [Hotel#1] to [Hotel#2]. How should we set this up on our server so as not to lose our existing search engine rankings? Hotel#1.com pointing to Hotel#2.com? or Hotel#1.com pointing to the IP of Hotel#2 and place a 301 redirect for Hotel#1 to Hotel#2? Thank you! JR ++Jill's Response++ Hi JR... Changing domains is not a good thing to do right now because of Google's aging delay. Your best bet is to do a 302 redirect from the old to the new (yes 302 not 301) and get as many of your old links pointing to the new domain. Then when you're out of the aging delay with the new site (on avg. 9 months) you can change it to a 301 redirect, which will help to transfer the link popularity of any remaining links that couldn't be changed. Scottie Claiborne has a good article from a past newsletter on this topic called "Switching to a New Domain Name Without Losing Rankings" </issue142.htm#guest>, which is a must-read for anyone in your situation. Jill ++Is SEO Enough?++ Hi Jill, I am a Webmaster and whenever it's time for me to optimize my client's site, I take out your list -- "Ten Tips to the Top of the Search Engines" </tentips.htm> -- and read it again and make sure I've applied all the steps to the Web site. My question to you is, is optimizing a Web site enough to be ranked high with search engines, or should one also consider using pay-per-click ads? Is this the way search engines do business today? I would love to receive your expert advice on this. Thank you and please keep the newsletters coming. Michelle ++Jill's Response++ Hi Michelle, If you're doing well in the natural/organic listings in each engine for every single keyword phrase that relates to your site, then there's probably no reason to do PPC. However, it's likely there are some phrases where you could use some additional exposure, in which case PPC ads might make sense. It's also not necessarily a bad thing to show up in both the organic and sponsored results. But it all depends on whether you can make a positive return on your investment. The great thing about PPC is that it's completely measurable. You can track your clicks and the amount you pay per click, then translate that into conversions and eventually learn how much it's costing you to acquire new customers (if that's your goal). I would say that it's certainly worth giving it a shot. But I would caution you to hire someone who either has a lot of time to spend learning how to do PPC correctly, or who already understands it. PPC can make you a ton of money, in that each dollar you put in you can get many more out. But it can also lose you money if you don't track it properly or don't know what you're doing. Jill _________Powerful SEO Copywriting Combo______________ Your site's only as good as its writing. You need the "write" skills. __________________________________________________ If your site is poorly written, your sales will be slow. You *must* speak to your target audience with each and every word you write. At the same time, keeping your keywords featured prominently is a bit of a juggling act. Save $10 on the most powerful copywriting combo available today! Karon Thackston's Step-By-Step Copywriting Course & Jill Whalen's Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines. </combo.htm> __________________________________________________ ++How Deep Will Engines Crawl?++ Hi Jill First of all, great site and newsletter! We've recently added an online version of tour operator brochures on our website. There are about 20,000 pages in a tree-type hierarchy, e.g., continent then country then area etc. This of course means that there are a fair number of pages until you reach an actual brochure page. From the home page to a brochure page it's 6 clicks. Do Google and other search engines have a limit on how far they will crawl? We were hoping that within a month we'd have roughly 20,000 pages indexed, but it's been 6 weeks and we only have 300 or so pages indexed. Plus some of the old content is still being shown in the results. Would reducing the number of levels significantly improve the results? Kind Regards, Aled ++Jill's Response++ Hi Aled, Six clicks away from the home page definitely makes it harder for the spider to find, and this content may or may not eventually get indexed. Often it will depend on how popular your site is. I would keep checking each month and see if the number of indexed pages keeps growing. If not, you may want to look at ways of improving your site architecture so that those pages are fewer clicks away. When you think about it from the search engines' perspective though, it actually makes sense. They're simply taking their cue from your own design. If you don't feel that those pages are very important (as evidenced by how difficult it would be for a person to find them) then they have to assume it's not worth their time and effort to dig down to retrieve them. Jill ++Changing Hosts++ Hi Jill, Thank you for your newsletter. It helps keep me sane. I am planning to move our 3 web sites to a new host. Will that confuse the search engines or worse, will they lose my site and not index us for 6 months? Thank you in advance. Gunnar ++Jill's Response++ Hi Gunnar, If you're keeping the same domain/website, the search engines won't even notice the change in hosts. You have nothing to worry about. To be sure all the DNS stuff gets updated, you may want to keep the site on the old server for a few weeks before taking it down completely. But most of the time that's not even necessary anymore. Jill ++What To Do With Misspellings++ Hi Jill, I have been using various keyword generators to help select high-value targeted keywords. Some great keywords are misspellings, however. How do I use those keywords to acquire hits? If I use them in a visible spot such as the title or body text it makes the site look dumb. What do you advise? How do you handle misspellings as keywords? Thank You! David ++Jill's Response++ Hi David, Your best bet is to use the misspellings in your PPC advertising campaigns. That way they don't have to show up on your site and make it look unprofessional, but your site will still show up in the sponsored listings when someone misspells things related to what you offer. Jill ++Authority Sites++ Hi Jill, What do you know about authority sites and what is your opinion on their importance for high rankings, your philosophy business-wise, and how your company uses them? Norm ++Jill's Response++ Hi Norm, There's really not much to know. Authority sites are those that are considered experts on their topic. For instance, my High Rankings® site is an authority site on search engine optimization because it provides a ton of free information on the subject. It makes sense that the search engines will often show authority sites above other sites in the search results. It makes even more sense when you realize that no site can just become an authority overnight. It usually takes a lot of time and hard work. With clients, I always recommend that they provide people with something unique and different if they want to have any chance of showing up in the engines for whatever it is they're selling or offering these days. They don't necessarily have to become an authority, but they have to be different. I won't even take on new clients unless they have a unique idea, product or service anymore. This is because there's no way to make a site that sells the same thing as 100,000 other sites show up in the top 10 of a search engine unless they really are one of the top 10 sites in their space. Sure, you can probably fake authority in one way or another, but for long-term success you're much better off to be the real thing. Jill ________SEM Kit For Search Engine Marketers____________adv. Confused About the Best Way To Run Your New SEM Biz? __________________________________________________ Dan Thies' new SEM Kit from SitePoint provides you with a book & CD-ROM that includes a client-management form, SEM sales presentation, SEM process flowchart, keyword-research worksheet, sample agreement, proposal, pricing calculator and a whole lot more. And that's just the CD! The book is chock-full of SEO/SEM strategies. Order now: </semkit> __________________________________________________ ++After SEO++ Hi Jill, I have followed what I have learned from you about SEO copywriting, meta tags, keywords, etc. and I am very glad that I did. I am in the Boston area and I have one question that I cannot find the answer to. After my pages are complete with the tags, etc. and they are uploaded to my site, do I have to do anything else to get those pages noticed? Do I have to submit them manually to the major engines, or will they just bubble up in the rankings if they are written and tagged right? I hope you can answer that question. I read you have partnered with a marketing company in Boston. Good luck! You offer great info. Thanks in advance, Jill. Judith ++Jill's Response++ Hi Judith, You don't have to submit your pages to the spidering search engines, as that won't actually do anything. What you'll need to do instead is make other site owners aware of your site so that they might add a link to it on their site. The only way to get listed in the search engines these days is to have links from other sites that the engines can follow. All the great content on your site won't help one bit in the search engines if nobody finds your site worthy enough to link to. Jill (P.S. If anyone would like to republish any or all of above Q&A posts, please email me your request and where they will reside, and I'll send you a short bio you can use with them for your site.) ~~~High Rankings® Forum Thread of the Week~~~ ++Article Distribution and Duplicate Content Bans++ Are duplicate pages penalized and/or banned? Most of the regulars at the High Rankings® forum strongly believe that there is *no such thing* as a duplicate content penalty. Yes, duplicate content can get filtered out and put into the dreaded supplementary listings, but that doesn't mean there's a penalty. Sure, it could be just a question of semantics since a duplicate content filter probably feels similar to a penalty when your site is the one being filtered. However, there is a difference and it's very important for people to note and understand this. This forum thread was started well over a year ago, but was recently revived when a new forum poster challenged the moderators' assertions that there was no such thing as a dupe content penalty. It's a pretty interesting read: </forum/index.php?showtopic=6221>. I'm hoping to ask a Google engineer about it at next week's SES conference. It would be good to put the rumors and misinformation to rest once and for all. ~~~Advisor Wrap-up~~~ That's all for today! We had a great time at the Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos for Thanksgiving last week. You can see pics of the indoor waterpark here: </photos/thumbnails.php?album=20>. If you have kids, I highly recommend this place! Corie was home from college, but she didn't want to miss even one second with her friends, so she opted out. We did get to spend some time with her once we were all back though, so that was good. Jamie had a nasty cold and cough, but she didn't let that stop her from having fun on the water slides with Timmy. I even did some of them, but I got bored with it after about an hour. They had a nice hot tub though, and an even nicer bar! ;-) I treated myself to a really cool new coffee maker recently. We've always freshly ground our beans, and recently I saw a coffeemaker that had a built-in bean grinder as well as the ability to brew the coffee, all in one unit. Plus, you can set it up the night before and then use the built-in timer to grind the beans in the morning and brew the coffee, all before you even wake up! We've been using it for less than a week, but already I'm completely spoiled. What gadgets will they think up next? Next week is the Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago. I'm speaking on 2 panels this time. There's still time to register at <http://www.searchenginestrategies.com>. I hope to see you there! If not, I'll catch you here in 2 weeks.    |
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