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Thursday, August 12, 2004

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 11:10 AM

For the past nine months the financial and Internet world has been watching Google in anticipation of what could be the largest Initial Public Offering of stock in history. If you are reading this column and have not been living on Mars for the past year, you know that Google is about to go public, and soon. The stock options are being offered to investors using an unorthodox method known as a Dutch Auction. The site taking registrations and bids is scheduled to close tomorrow at 5:00PM, Eastern Daylight Time.

Google has faced unprecedented observation as interest in this offering is reminiscent of the hype of the early dot-com era. Dispite a week of setbacks which included revelations that Google illegally issued stock-options in previous years and a multi-million dollar patent settlement with rival Yahoo, the IPO appears to be going forward. The bidding, which is limited to citizens of the United States, is expected to range between $108 and $135 a share. If shares trade in that price range, Google and its current shareholders could see as much as $3.4Biliion, placing the overall value of the company around $32Billion - $35Billion. Google recently added 1.1Million shares to its offering but has allotted them to Yahoo in order to pay for a technology licence to continue displaying AdWords in a settlement of a long-standing patent suit.

With so much energy focused on all things Google, perhaps this is a good time to review a few questions investors and search engine marketers should be asking themselves. What is this IPO really about? Why is Google issuing this IPO at this time? Why is the world so focused on one search tool? What are the repercussions for Google and/or its investors if the stock goes south? Might this move signify a major change in the operations of Google?

It's All in the Context
Let's get an important point out of the way quickly. At the Search Engine Strategies Conference held last week in San Jose, journalist and search engine guru Danny Sullivan stated that paid, contextual advertising through Overture or Google AdWords cannot be thought of as "search". These are the ads that appear beside the organic (free) results under specific keyword phrases, or are delivered to another website or newspaper based on keywords found in the displayer's content. I believe Sullivan is quite correct in his pronouncement. Information delivered through a contextual advertising program is not the same as a reference from a search engine. Interest in Google's IPO is driven by the financial growth supplied by paid-advertising programs, not because Google produces strong and relevant organic search results. Google may have a better organic algorithm or a worse organic algorithm than its competitors but it's the advertising dollars that are being counted by potential investors. Pure search is merely a loss-leader in the eyes of both the investors and the executives at Google.

Get Big or Get Beat
Google is inviting investment money at this time in order to bulk up for a fight for dominance against Yahoo and MSN. The paid-advertising market is projected to be valued between $6Billion to $12Billion annually by 2009. With revenues falling in other areas of the tech marketplace, search engines and paid advertising are seen as one of few bright spots in an otherwise overstocked sector. The old adage stating "you have to spend money to make money" only works if you have as much money as your nearest competitors. Google is trying to grow as large as Yahoo, at least on paper, in order to defend their #1 status amongst search engines. Industry watchers expect MSN to release its proprietary search tool sometime this autumn though Microsoft is notorious for its delayed delivery dates. When it is released, MSN Search is expected to have a major impact on the sector.

Everyone Loves Google
Due to loyalty amongst North American users, Google continues to be the most used search tool on the Internet though it is losing ground to Yahoo and MSN. Last week, Neilson NetRatings published user numbers for the major search engines for Search Engine Watch. According to the June 2004 survey, Google produced results for about 41.6% of searches either through Google itself or another engine purchasing results from Google. Yahoo accounted for 31.5% of results with MSN responsible for 27.4%. Last year, the numbers were very different with Google accounting for almost 76% of all search results. At that time, Google was serving results to Yahoo in a deal that expired at the end of the first quarter of this year. While Google may not have lost any direct users, it has lost a great deal of influence over the distribution of search results. Even as Google loses market share, the hype surrounding all things Google remains. The word "Google" is a culturally accepted noun, verb, adjective, and pronoun, depending on how it is being used in a sentence. I am hard pressed to think of any other business name that has ever archived such linguistic status.

When Bad Things Happen to Good Search Engines
The greatest question in my mind is what happens to the tech sector if Google's stock faces a major downswing in share prices? Many are watching this IPO in the hopes it will spark investment in other facets of the technology sector. Unfortunately, those watching from the sidelines hoping for a bit of financial action in the future may be terribly disappointed with the results of this auction. There have been a number of factors in the past month that make the larger investors wary of Google's stock.

The first is the settlement with Yahoo regarding the Overture/AdWords patent dispute. While this matter was settled this week, investors were still faced with an ugly scenario that may have sapped a massive portion of Google's annual revenue.

Last week the world was treated to the revelation that Google had illegally distributed millions of shares to employees and contractors over the past three years. The issuance of these shares was illegal as they were not properly declared with the Securities Exchange Commission. Google has offered to purchase these shares back at the value they were bought at, but given the hype about the IPO, there doesn't seem to be a lot of takers.

Google has faced derision from Wall Street types who speak a different corporate and cultural language than Googlites do. From the day Larry and Sergey filed their IPO documents to the most recent Investors' roadshow, Google presentations have disappointed representatives of the major investment houses. Individual investors have been made wary by the lack of information provided regarding growth strategies and long-term financial projections. All investors, regardless of size or scope are wary of a multi-faceted company where the vast majority of revenues come from only one source. The investors Google is looking for are not responding as the hype suggested they would.

The last reason I believe this stock will go south sooner than later is the method of receiving bids through the Dutch Auction format. With more hype will come stronger speculation, likely driving the price above realistic values for shares of Google. Many investment analysts have stated that Google is more likely worth $50 - $75 per share, almost two to three times today's share-value of chief rival Yahoo (YHOO: $27.42/share on Nasdaq). If share prices for Google are forced upwards by hype-fueled bidding, the cost per share is likely going to drop over the coming months.

California Culture Shock
Finally, will this issuance spark a different culture or tone from Google? I believe that has already happened, though I think a change of culture at Google was inevitable. The nature of the search industry is changing as larger advertising and public relations firms move into the field. A few years ago, Google represented the greater culture of the Internet by being creative, playful and extremely intelligent. The #1 line in Google's corporate ethics policy states "Don't Be Evil". While I highly doubt Larry Page and Sergey Brin have "evil" intent in their hearts, both are more than intelligent enough to not only see the future of "search" but to exercise some control of the direction that future will take. Once Google committed itself to contextual advertising revenues, the dye was cast and the color of that dye is green.

I would like to close this section with two well known quotes. The first comes from the English author Samuel Butler, "It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly." The final quote is from the American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good." Regardless of what happens behind closed doors at the Googleplex, Google will continue to provide strong, free results as long as Internet users want them to. What we are seeing is akin to the maturing of a good friend from high school. It's funny how we look at our old buddies and think they have sold out just before we go home, fire up the BBQ and check our own portfolios.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 11:10 AM.

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Yahoo Anti-Spy Toolbar

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 11:09 AM

Yahoo has released a new version of its toolbar that targets, explains and eliminates spy-ware and ad-ware programs. Installed without user knowledge, spy-ware and ad-ware programs monitor your movement, your words and your communications. With spy-ware, information is fed back to the writer of the software. They sell that information to whomever wants to pay for it. You should know, that information is often personal, useful and identifiable. Important stuff like credit card numbers are NOT safe on your computer screen unless you are certain your computer is free of spyware. Ad-ware is slightly different in that it feeds advertising to your machine based on your surfing behaviors. A quick way to check for one form of ad-ware is to look in the upper left hand corner of your browser window. Do you see a small Netscape logo or an Internet Explorer logo, or do you see the logo for your local radio station? (this does not apply to MAC users or users of alternative browsers). Most ad-ware is more subtle than that though. If you don't have another means of removing spyware and adware, try Yahoo's new toolbar. Just a quick note though... Like the Google toolbar, the Yahoo toolbar feeds information back to its maker.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 11:09 AM.

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Cuban's Ice Rocket

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 11:08 AM

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is taking on a new challenge, Google. Last week, Cuban introduced ICE ROCKET, a new search tool that mixes algorithmic and meta search to produce very relevant results. Long-term Internet users will remember Cuban's last challenge, Broadcast.Com, now the largest streaming broadcaster on the web. There are many features to IceRocket including thumbnail views of the page referenced in search engine results.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 11:08 AM.

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How to Increase Content When You Have Nothing Left to Say. (By Scott Van Achte)

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 11:07 AM

Once upon a time in a search engine long ago, content was king and little else mattered. Then along came the links in an attempt overthrew the king - now everything is messed.
Back links are very important in placing well in the SERP's especially for highly competitive keywords, however content is still the king, and without it your sites are as good as lost! So what is a site owner to do when you've expressed and said all there is to say and are left with only a 5 page website?
If your target market is quite specific and you've carved out your own little niche, a 5 page site may do just fine in the SERPS, but if your target is at all competitive it will be much more difficult. In most cases you'll need more content.
One way to throw up some relevant pages of content fairly quickly is through the use of articles. For nearly every industry there are articles and newsletters. Most authors will happily give you permission to post their work providing they receive full credits including a link back to their site.
Depending on the topic of your website you may be able to find an extensive amount of content. Coping these articles to your site, however, may present a significant problem - duplicate content. Google in particular, as well as many other SE's frown upon duplicate content, and it may result in diminished rankings.
So if you shouldn't re-produce all these articles, how can they help you? One way around this is to simply place a link to the entire article, and provide a description or summary of that article along with the link. Providing around 100 words about the article along with the anchor text embedded within the description, will give you unique, relevant content. Placing 5 or so links to articles per page will give you numerous pages each with around 500 words of unique content.
This technique will involve putting in a fair amount of time in the beginning, but once you have it started, it will be quick and relatively easy to maintain. By adding a few articles a day (or week depending on the popularity of your topic), before long you may have dozens of on topic relevant pages for the spiders to sink their teeth into.
Posting articles written by others will work well, but what about writing your own articles, or putting out your own newsletter? The biggest drawback to these options is time, but the positive impact it can have is quite significant.
Not only will creating your own newsletter, or writing your own articles provide you with highly targeted original content for your website, it will also give you a new stream of incoming links. By providing an interesting on topic newsletter, you will also get another avenue to promote your products and website. Other webmasters that publish your articles will have to provide you with an incoming link to your site, this combined with the new content to your site, will ultimately increase your search engine rankings.
The necessary time required to write newsletters and articles may be substantial, but it is certainly worth considering. Even as little as writing a single article a week and posting it on your website will greatly help you to build content and credibility.
Regardless of how you go about increasing content on your website, it is certainly an important aspect of strong search engine positioning. By adding new articles and content you give the spiders a reason to return to your site regularly, and increase your chances of securing that top spot in the SERP's.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 11:07 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: How to Increase Content When You Have Nothing Left to Say. (By Scott Van Achte)

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Bill’s Bark: ABC to XYZ Cont'd - Quick Responses to Readers' Questions (by Bill Stroll)

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 10:56 AM

Q. Where can I find the ranking of search engines?
A. Some of the latest stats on search engine user frequencies are done by Nielsen NetRatings. In his July 14 article "Neilson NetRatings Search Engine Ratings" Danny Sullivan, Editor of SearchEngineWatch discusses the June 2004 results. To read the report, please click here.

Q. Is it possible to "infect" a search engine?
A. As Jim Hedger, StepForth Senior SEO, reported in a July 28 news article Google, Yahoo, Lycos and AltaVista went weird, evidently. “They were all temporarily offline across much of the globe on Monday following a massive direct assault from the MyDoom.O worm virus. Effectively creating a denial of service (DOS) attack, MyDoom.O prevented search results from being displayed across most of Canada, the United States, UK, Europe and Asia.

Q. I am trying to find the Alexa address that will show how often a particular search term is used.
A. Owned by Amazon.com, Alexa uses the Google index for its searches. Alexa offers information on site traffic and links. You can find data on such topics as traffic ranking, links to related sites and back link statistics. It also allows for keyword searching. Check out their free toolbar. You can find it at: www.alexa.com

Q. If I were to use paid per click advertising, how much would these terms cost me per month and approximately how many hits could I expect? Are the number of times these phrases are searched by the search engines in the paid per click price?
A. The answers you seek are too lengthy for the scope of this column. Scott Van Achte, StepForth SEO wrote two articles last December and January called "PCP for Dummies Part 1" and "PCP for Dummies Part 2". I highly recommend them. Here are the links: · http://news.stepforth.com/2003-news/ppc-for-dummies-part1.shtml http://news.stepforth.com/2004-news/ppc-for-dummies-part2.shtml

Q. My understanding is that keyword suggestion tools provide only a listing of the number of times someone has come to that particular address and searched for that term. Do they indicate if there is any connection to the number of times a phrase is searched on all search engines?
A. Keyword suggestion tools vary in the manner of how and where they collect information. They can provide results on how often keywords are used as search terms. It is important to note these tools may utilize a particular search engine. As can be expected several programs use either Google or Yahoo. The end result is called 'search term popularity' or 'keyword effectiveness index'.

When researching keywords there are three main factors that must be considered:
· the number of searches for each phrase,
· the targeted nature of a specific phrase, and
· the competition for that phrase online.

The number of searches will indicate the amount of traffic you will get from top placement. Generally speaking, any phrase with more than 100 - 150 searches per day is considered relatively highly searched. That said one must also consider how targeted a phrase is. An untargeted or general phrase with 200 searches per day may be less valuable that a targeted phrase with only 30 searches per day. Armed with this information we must then look at the competition. If a phrase with 150 searches per day has a very high competition level but a phrase with only 10 searches per day has a low competition level, the less competitive phrase may produce a better return on investment.

Q. My current site is written in MS FrontPage, has keywords repeating too often on each page, and the pages are not as relevant as they could be. Now, I have an entirely new site with the pages designed in Dreamweaver. I can't afford to spend too much money, but need to get this done quickly. What would be the best way to take the text from my current web pages and rewrite each page, using correct SEO technique not repeating keywords too often, and as well, keeping the pages strictly on topic?
A. As you seem to be familiar with web design, hire an SEO company on a consultancy basis to assist you in optimizing your website. Find an SEO company with a solid track record, is respected within the industry, has longevity, and has a published code of ethics. (To view StepForth's SEO Code of Ethics please click on http://stepforth.com/company/ethics.html)

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 10:56 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Bill’s Bark: ABC to XYZ Cont'd - Quick Responses to Readers' Questions (by Bill Stroll)

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Cyber Vigilantes.. The Good or the Bad, All are Ugly

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 10:52 AM

Cyberspace is a lot like the real world except in one major field, privacy. In the real world, people have privacy. In cyberspace you are a series of identifiable numbers often being watched from many directions at the same time. Your email, "private" chats, and the website's you visit are all read and/or recorded in one way or another. Paradoxically, people operating in cyberspace tend to feel more anonymous than a person walking down a crowded public street. They are not, as is proven by the number of vigilante sites being established to bust suspected pedophiles, scammers and other social miscreants. Recently, a site known as Perverted Justice was established to lure and catch pedophiles in chat-rooms. What they do is pose as a minor and seduce older males into agreeing to meet. Once an arrangement is made and solidified, members of Perverted Justice set about finding as much information on the alleged pedophile as possible. They then use that information to harass the alleged pedophile in any way possible. Postering his neighborhood and calling his employer are two of many means of harassment.
Sometimes cited as being online heroes, the vigilantes often forget a central tenant of law in a free society, the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Another extremely important right that is a pillar of our justice systems is the right to face your accuser in court.
I hate pedophiles and would personally like to see them jailed and forced into counseling. My love of western democratic values however forces me to say that vigilante justice is often justice perverted.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 10:52 AM.

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Tuesday, August 10, 2004

5 Difficult Technologies or Techniques for SEOs

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 2:54 PM

Last week our CEO Ross Dunn wrote about the Ten Worst SEO Tactics. Today, I will cover the most difficult technologies and techniques to work with. While each of these technologies, techniques and designs have a useful purpose for web-designers, webmasters and general office staff tasked with keeping the site up to date, they each also present problems for search engine spiders and/or SEO practitioners. While reading, please keep in mind that the search engines are aware of these issues and may be in the process of creating work-around solutions. Similarly, the creators of many of the technologies mentioned here are also aware of these issues and in some cases are working to present webmasters and site designers with solutions. Topping the list is FLASH.

FLASH creates an extraordinary visual presentation when used properly. When used incorrectly, FLASH can present many problems from both a user perspective and a search engine placement perspective. Most Internet users experience FLASH when visiting the intro or splash page of a site. FLASH is basically a movie that is capable of doubling as a webpage. Links and text can be added to FLASH to create what appears to be a standard webpage. The problem for search engine spiders is the file containing the data is stored on the site's host-server as a .SWF file. These files cannot be read by a spider and, even if they could, contain information in a way spiders can't read or record. The most often cited example is the website for the new film iRobot. When searching for "iRobot" I was unable to find the site. It wasn't until I typed "iRobot Movie" that a listing came up directing me to the correct site. This happened because the site is designed using FLASH from front to finish. In order to correct this issue, a new website incorporating standard HTML with a FLASH movie embedded in the HTML page (http://www.irobotmovie.com/) was created. Macromedia, the designers of FLASH are working on a newer, updated version that is search engine friendly. Until this version is released, sites designed solely in FLASH will not likely see the light of the elusive Top10 listings.

Content Management Systems (CMS) were designed to enable people without technical expertise to create, post and update websites on their own. Quite often used by the Real Estate and small retail sectors, CMS sites create tangible cost-savings for companies with websites that require frequent updates or have a large number of contributors. There are hundreds of CMS programs out there, most of which are woefully search engine unfriendly. As there are so many types of CMS out there, SEO practitioners have a steep learning curve every time they try to work with one they have not worked with before. Quite often, CMS systems limit an SEO's ability to create unique titles and meta tags for individual pages within the site. Many CMS systems also have clunky file naming defaults such as "page1.htm" or "nextpage.php". These three issues make working with a CMS designed site difficult and can limit the ability of an SEO practitioner to achieve desired placements.

Frames are used by webmasters to split a page into two or more active areas. Often used to provide elements that remain static regardless of where the visitor moves in the site, Frames present a basic problem for search engine spiders due to the way a frame-set is written into the source-code. When you view a page designed using Frames, you are actually viewing three or more distinct files that are compiled together to make what appears to be one page. The first file is the frame-set or the foundation. The frame-set then calls two or more files that appear next to each other on the page creating what looks like a single page. When a search engine spider moves through the source-code of the page, it only sees the file names but does not actually see the files or their contents themselves. There are work-around's for sites designed using Frames such as the N0-FR@MES tag, however these solutions are never as powerful as a properly designed HTML page could be.

Shopping Carts are used to enable E-Commerce and are obviously necessary to allow for purchasing of products directly from a website. As the vast majority of our clients are from commercial sectors, we see dozens of different shopping carts each month. Most carts are not search engine friendly. Using long data strings to direct traffic, or non-descriptive file names, individual products displayed in most carts will not achieve search engine placements without serious manipulation or mapping on the part of a good SEO. One shopping cart I can recommend is the Apple Pie Cart made by Lee Roberts of Rose Rock Design in Oklahoma. Roberts is a website designer and is a member of the World Wide Web Consortium. When designing Apple Pie, Roberts paid a great deal of attention to the function and capabilities of search engine spiders. Please note, there may be other search engine friendly shopping carts on the market but this one is the most open to spiders I have ever come across.

Image based Index (home, default) pages are notoriously difficult to work with. Many designers create a gorgeous cover-page for a website but forget to place any text on it. While the design may produce a site that looks as organized and efficient as the business it represents, a graphic based Index page will almost certainly be passed over by a search engine spider as it has no body-text to read and record. Often, a designer of an image based page will include links designed as part of the image and linked using "hot-spots" as opposed to providing a text-path for a spider to follow to subsequent pages within the site. As spiders do not follow image links, chances are very high they won't follow links found within an image.

There are several other techniques that present difficulties for SEO practitioners however, the five mentioned above are by far the most challenging and at times, impossible. Again, it is important to mention that software designers and search engine engineers are working to enable spiders to move through all types of files regardless of the techniques used to create the site in question. As things stand today however, webmasters might wish to avoid these techniques unless they have a good background in design and a good relationship with their SEO. tag, however these solutions are never as powerful as a properly designed HTML page could be. Shopping Carts are used to enable E-Commerce and are obviously necessary to allow for purchasing of products directly from a website. As the vast majority of our clients are from commercial sectors, we see dozens of different shopping carts each month. Most carts are not search engine friendly. Using long data strings to direct traffic, or non-descriptive file names, individual products displayed in most carts will not achieve search engine placements without serious manipulation or mapping on the part of a good SEO. One shopping cart I can recommend is the <a href="http://www.applepiecart.com/" target="_blank">Apple Pie Cart</a> made by Lee Roberts of <a href="http://www.roserockdesign.com/index.php" target="_blank">Rose Rock Design</a> in Oklahoma. Roberts is a website designer and is a member of the World Wide Web Consortium. When designing Apple Pie, Roberts paid a great deal of attention to the function and capabilities of search engine spiders. Please note, there may be other search engine friendly shopping carts on the market but this one is the most open to spiders I have ever come across. Image based Index (home, default) pages are notoriously difficult to work with. Many designers create a gorgeous cover-page for a website but forget to place any text on it. While the design may produce a site that looks as organized and efficient as the business it represents, a graphic based Index page will almost certainly be passed over by a search engine spider as it has no body-text to read and record. Often, a designer of an image based page will include links designed as part of the image and linked using "hot-spots" as opposed to providing a text-path for a spider to follow to subsequent pages within the site. As spiders do not follow image links, chances are very high they won't follow links found within an image. There are several other techniques that present difficulties for SEO practitioners however, the five mentioned above are by far the most challenging and at times, impossible. Again, it is important to mention that software designers and search engine engineers are working to enable spiders to move through all types of files regardless of the techniques used to create the site in question. As things stand today however, webmasters might wish to avoid these techniques unless they have a good background in design and a good relationship with their SEO. </div>

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 2:54 PM.

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Major Players Updates

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 2:53 PM

Google IPO - Gentle-investors, Start Your Engine
The Google IPO auction has entered its first phase with the call for investors to register their names in order to get an identification number allowing them to participate in the modified Dutch Auction. Under the terms of the auction, potential investors will enter the price they are willing to pay for each share and the number of shares they would be interested in buying. Google has stated their expectation is that bids will come in between $108 and $135 per share, placing the overall value of the company around $36 - 40 Billion. Many investment advisors are questioning the actual value and growth potential of Google however, with the sustained and continued growth of paid-advertising, investors appear to be bullish. If you are interested in registering, visit http://ipo.google.com

Google and Yahoo Sued in California over Gambling Ads
A class-action lawsuit in California has been filed against the world's two largest search engines and several websites that allow advertisements from online casinos. In a sixty page document filed in San Francisco Superior Court, the lawsuit alleges that sell advertising space under keywords such as "California Gambling", "Online Casino", and even "Illegal Casinos". With the popularity of Google's AdWords program, the actual number of sites displaying casino or gambling ads is almost impossible to determine. Google and Yahoo continue to make a great deal of money selling advertising space to casino operators even though unregulated gambling is illegal in the United States.

Ask Jeeves Gets Close and Personal with Localized Search
Ask Jeeves has announced plans to introduce a cleaver localized search feature in partnership with CitySearch. Starting in early September of this year, Ask Jeeves users will see a new box appear at the top of search results showing user reviews of local businesses, maps and and rankings for local businesses that are relevant to the keywords entered by the searcher. Unlike competitors Google, Lycos and Yahoo, Ask Jeeves has found a way to avoid the obvious trap of limiting a search engine user's results to geo-specific listings while still providing a highly valuable service for local searchers.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 2:53 PM.

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PPC Quick Tips: Local Targeting with PPC (By Scott Van Achte)

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 2:51 PM

Internet advertising has evolved significantly over the years. In the beginning pop-ups were just that - pop-ups. When they open, you close them and move on. The original pop-ups are still there, but they have also evolved into interstitial ads - you know, those annoying versions that require some level of interaction to make them go away. Some times it's a video, sometimes a static ad, but it's always right in your face.
When PPC ads started appearing in search engines they were simple text ads separated by the non-paid listings - they were non-intrusive and un-offending to the searcher. Over the years they have significantly evolved, but to the searcher they, for the most part, remained the same. Most of the changes have been in the realm of the advertiser in terms of ad management and specific targeting abilities, in particular local targeting.
Google has its Local Targeting Options and Overture has its Local Match. A variety of other pay per click engines are offering Geo Targeting based on country, and soon, will likely offer very targeted city and precise searching by radius.
Now both Google and Overture offer the ability to target very specific locations, within 20 miles from a specific point by using the physical address or longitude and latitude. This precise method of targeted PPC advertising is still quite new, but will likely shift over to the second tier engines in time if it proves to be beneficial to both advertisers and searchers.
Such local targeting gives localized business the chances to advertise online with the chance of receiving qualified business. A small craft shop in Vancouver that does not offer online sales, can now place an ad online that will be directed to only local qualified traffic - no more wasted leads from searchers in Toronto.

Hacking The Locals
In Many cases, creating a successful Ad Campaign requires a look at the competitor's ads. If you are targeting specific countries outside of your own, in many cases it is either near impossible, or extremely difficult to view the competition - until now.
If you are an advertiser in the US and also place ads targeting the UK, it is difficult to see your direct competition unless you are located in the UK. Although it may have been around for a long time, today I just learned of a Google hack that gets you around this.
After you perform your search in Google, go up to the address bar and at the end of the URL add the text 'gl=uk'; (or instead of uk, any applicable country code), hit enter and you will now see a listing of AdWords ads that are targeted towards the UK.

FeedBack
Have you have an experience with Local Targeting for any of your PPC campaigns? I would love to hear about your positive and negative experiences! Email me at scott@StepForth.com.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 2:51 PM.

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View this Article Only: PPC Quick Tips: Local Targeting with PPC (By Scott Van Achte)

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Sales and Marketing Tips - Bill's Buzz (by Bill Stroll - Sales Manager)

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 2:47 PM

"Thank you so much for your willingness to help and for your time supporting the beginners". (Michael from Australia) Over the last few weeks I have received several emails like this - from interesting people with inquiring minds all over the world. They have a broad range of experience, from beginners to advanced in their knowledge base of search engine placement and optimization. Each are seeking, in as layman terms as possible, answers to many basic and fundamental questions. To wit:

Q. Is it really important for visibility to have my own domain name?
A. Absolutely. To maximize impact, consider a domain name including your specific keyword(s). As well, you should develop a keyword-enriched title for the page.

Q. Please shed some light regarding keyword phrases?
A. Keyword phrases are particular combinations of relevant or unique words that users search on. What is the wording you want to promote? Focus on this. For example, a few unique and descriptive keywords for StepForth Placement would be: search engine placement, seo services, sep, sem, S.E.O., search,engine, optimization, StepForth, ranking, optimisation, optimize, top10, website,marketing, etc.

Q. For my site would it not be better to have three instead of four pages by combining two pages in order to increase the size of the small Home Page?
A. It all depends. Certainly you want the Home page to offer sufficient enriched keyword text. The text used in this section should be descriptive of your business, its products, and your potential customers. In addition, for each page, remember to use unique and descriptive titles, Keyword and Description META Tags. Also, consider creating text-based navigation map and Site Map at the bottom of each page.

Q. I can understand the importance of links to my site, however, why should I offer my link to other services that my potential clients may go to.
A. It is good practice to develop a link page on your site. To increase site relevance, popularity, and visibility, link your site to complimentary business, service, or information sites. As a rule, obtain meaningful reciprocal links with related and relevant associations, on-line publications, manufacturers, suppliers, etc. Search engines would consider this link as a vote of confidence that the target web site is about your keywords or keyphrase and thus your site would have a better chance of achieving a top placement under that phrase.

Q. I have a limited budget. What can I do to get the best return for a minimal investment?
A. Everyone has a different concept on what is 'a best return' and 'a minimal investment'. How fast do you need it and how much work needs to be done? And who is going to do the work? Generally speaking, you get what you pay for. Our small company package starts at $2000. To many business owners this is viewed as a small price to pay for marketing their business. Many companies setup an annual budget for web design yet remarkably they neglect to set aside funds for necessary search engine placement, optimization and maintenance.
Sometimes there is a relatively quick fix. If you have a advertising or promotion line in your financial statement appropriate some the funds from there. Many SEO companies can offer flexible payment plans, spreading out the payments. See your finance department for advice. Depending on your fiscal year-end he/she may suggest monies could be used from the current fiscal year with the balance paid from the next annual budget. Another route many of our technically minded clients lean toward is our $150 per hour consultancy fee.
If you depend on a successful Christmas/Chanukah selling campaign the only way the reap the benefits of marketing your site now may be to just bite the bullet and set aside the necessary financial resources. Or wait until next season's campaign.

Q. Should I put into my Meta Tag "Keywords" my selected keyword phrase, which may be exactly the same phrase a user might type into a search engine box? Also, should they be in the same order in the text body AND as in the SE user's box
A. For an excellent explanation of Meta Tags, please read "10 Minute Search Engine Optimization", by Ross Dunn, StepForth CEO. The link is http://news.stepforth.com/2003-news/ten-minute-optimization.shtml

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 2:47 PM.

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Jib-Jab Was Made for You and Me

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 2:42 PM

Woody Guthrie's anthem "This Land is Your Land" has been covered by literally millions of performers over the past 52 years. Recorded in Gutherie's last commercial session for Decca Records in 1952, the lyrics to the song have been rewritten so often and reworked to fit so many different nations, it is difficult to know which land the song was actually written for. For example, the Canadian version mentions "From Bonavista to the Vancouver Island" in place of "From the redwood forest to the New York island". Up until this point, no one seemed to care, so long as the words were easy and the singers were having a good time.
Now, in the face of the extreme (and bizarre) polarization of the US electorate, the good folks at Jib Jab have released a South-Park like animation to the tune of Guthrie's classic starring unreasonable facsimiles of Democratic nominee John Kerry and the current President George Bush. Kerry and Bush deride each other over perceived political and character flaws and are often depicted in degrading imagery such as the S&M gear worn by Kerry as he begs world leaders to trust the American administration again, or the dunce cap worn by Bush as Kerry lectures him on physics and the correct pronunciation of "Nuclear".
Well, they say timing is everything in politics and, as timing would have it, the owners of the rights to Guthrie's music, Ludlow Music has issued a cease and desist letter to Jib Jab's lawyers demanding the animation be removed from the Internet immediately. Suddenly, the Jib Jab video has become one of the most popular diversions on the web. Woody Guthrie's son, Arlo Guthie was asked about the controversy the other day in an interview. Arlo, famous for the songs "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" and "Coming into Los Angeles" said he enjoyed the cartoon and even referred friends and relatives to the site. "I think my dad would have absolutely loved the humour in it." Perhaps you will too. Here is a link to the video.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 2:42 PM.