Last week I discussed the best tactics for achieving rankings in Yahoo, the web’s number 2 most popular search engine. Now it is time to pick on the third most used search property – MSN, which has 6.6% of the search market (src: Hitwise) and is currently found at www.live.com. MSN’s ranking algorithm has its own nuances which will be noted in this article but in many cases the rules of optimization may be the same as Yahoo’s in which case I will occasionally duplicate information from my “How to Optimize for Yahoo” article or source it for more information.
WEB SITE OPTIMIZATION Except for the following elements, optimizing for MSN is identical to optimizing for Yahoo.
Fresh Content is King: I suppose technically this is not an element of ‘optimization’, however, this article would not be worth its salt if I didn’t express how highly MSN regards fresh content. If your site is in a competitive marketplace and you are finding it difficult to get a leg up on your competitors in MSN then write original content in order to build up your site and reputation. MSN appears to elevate websites that regularly update their content and a blog is a great way to post this content for others to read and favour you with links. If you would like some information on how to get a blog up and running from start to finish then I suggest reading Blogs 101.
Themed structure: this topic is identical to that of my Yahoo article, however, it is vital enough to mention it again. Construct your website using a themed structure where core site topics (themes) have their own unique section of the website to themselves. When the search engine spiders index the content within this section they will be given absolute clarity as to what the section is about. For more information see the example within the Yahoo Optimization article.
Basic optimization principles hold true: take out your SEO basics handbook and follow the rules when optimizing for MSN and you have done the best you can. Specifically focus on inline links (links to pages within sentences) and the use of heading tags to fortify rankings at MSN.
Navigation: pages with text navigation which lends itself to simpler and more relevant indexing are performing well.
WEB SITE SUBMISSION Unlike Google and Yahoo, MSN does not yet have a fully operational Webmaster Central for webmasters to submit sitemaps and to acquire insight into their website profile on MSN; it is currently in private beta so it is not available yet. That said I feel that submitting a website sitemap is extremely important. Fortunately there are two known ways to get your sitemap submitted to MSN:
Option 1) The best method for submitting your sitemap is by adding a sitemap reference in your Robots.txt file using the following format:
Option 2) A back-door strategy can be used to submit your sitemap to MSN through the news aggregation service called Moreover. To submit your sitemap substitute the bolded text with your own information in the following URL: http://api.moreover.com/ping?u=http://www.xyzname.com/sitemap.xml
LINK BUILDING MSN places a great deal of weight on incoming links and does not appear to apply as many filters to the links that Google or Yahoo do. As a result, ethical or not, many link building strategies such as reciprocal link building and paid links appear to pay dividends.
It is also noteworthy that MSN’s spider is very active so any incoming links that you receive will often be spidered within a week. Furthermore, MSN’s link filtering systems are not as bogged down as the other search engines (less traffic perhaps?) so incoming links appear to affect rankings faster which tends to help when tweaking a campaign and measuring the value of links.
CONCLUSION As you can see there is little to report on the intricacies of optimizing for MSN because, quite frankly, MSN is fairly predictable and by the book; write good original content, optimize it well using the techniques outlined in the Yahoo optimization tutorial and ensure to submit your sitemap to MSN. If you combine those elements with a solid link building campaign then you are sure to move into a ranking where you can continue to tweak your optimization until you reach the top.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 12:16 PM
According to ZDNet, vulnerability within Gmail could allow hackers full access to Gmail accounts giving them the ability to steal contacts and incoming emails.
Security researcher Chris Gatford noted that "attackers could compromise a Gmail account--using a cross-site scripting vulnerability--if the victim is logged in and clicks on a malicious link. From that moment, the attacker can take over the session cookies for Gmail and subsequently forward all the account's messages to a POP account."
This problem is made worse due to Google's 2 year holding time for cookies. A hacker who manages to steal a users’ cookie would essentially have 2 years worth of access to the users account.
ZDNet notes that "One work-around is to use Gmail through Firefox and disable JavaScript. While this limits user access to many components of popular Web sites, it will protect against the potential threat."
It is most likely that Google is aware of the problem and in the process of repairing it, however, as long as the issue is in place this could be potentially damaging to Gmail users.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 9:46 AM
Introduction Back in July I wrote about keyword research for SEO. Although researching keywords for SEO is similar to that for PPC there still are many core differences.
In many cases using the generic targets with high searches can be very costly in the world of PPC. While they can offer a good return, often long tailed, very specific phrases can offer more qualified traffic at a lower price.
Categories When it comes to any form of keyword research an Excel spreadsheet can be your best friend. I highly recommend using this to sort out your ideas before entering them into the PPC platform to prevent timely rearranging in the future.
Before you begin thinking of and gathering long lists of phrases, first decide where you want to drive traffic to in your site. This could be determined by anything from products or services, to specific informational landing pages and you may have a single destination or several.
Create columns in Excel that each will represent a specific category of phrases. Where you want to send traffic to will vary widely on the type of website you have. These categories will ultimately be used to define various Ad Groups in your PPC campaign.
If you are a real estate agent in Seattle, some appropriate categories may be; houses, condos, town homes & commercial. In this case you will want unique target phrases relevant to each category.
Geographic Targeting Once you have your categories figured out you need to ask yourself what areas you will be targeting your ads to. Do you offer your services on an international level, or are you limited to a single country? Perhaps your services are limited to a specific city or state. These factors will contribute to your keyword choices.
Sticking with the real estate example, if you are selling real estate in Seattle, the generic phrase "real estate" would be a huge drain on your budget resources and would deliver a very low level of qualified traffic. In most cases targeting this phrase would simply make no sense. If, on the other hand, you are only displaying your ads to the geographic area of Seattle, the level of qualified traffic increases dramatically because only those searchers in the Seattle area will see your ad, and, if they are interested in real estate, your site and ad will be highly relevant.
For any campaign served up nationally where you are trying to gather traffic for a specific geographic region it is important to, in most cases, stay away from generic terms. Be sure that your ad copy also uses some form of qualifier such as a location, to help discourage clicks from searchers that are unqualified.
If you decide to go with a national or international campaign, you will most likely want to rule out the generic terms, and instead use more specific phrases such as "Seattle real estate" or "Seattle Washington real estate". This way, for someone searching from Miami for a property in Seattle they will view your ad as relevant.
Initial Phrases Now that you have an idea of the categories and geographic targeting, it is time to start working on your keyword lists. Start by rattling off as many relevant phrases for each category that come to mind and list them in your Excel sheet.
Once you have exhausted all possibilities, go visit your site and the destination pages for each category. Are there any phrases that you have missed that will suit your needs well?
When it comes to PPC long tailed phrases can sometimes be very effective. While they may deliver a limited amount of traffic, this traffic is often very well qualified and more likely to result in a desired action. "Seattle 3 bedroom house for sale" may work well as a long tailed phrase, but remember, as your phrases become more specific, so should your landing pages. With this example, for optimal performance you would want to ensure that the visitor is directed to a page with listings for 3 bedroom homes.
If you find that your phrases under each category are closely related, but would require different landing pages, as in the above long tail example, you may want to add an additional column to the right, and beside each phrase paste in the most relevant URL for your site. You can later use this URL to ensure that each phrase drives traffic to the best possible location on your site.
Keyword Tools Once you have gathered a solid list of keywords you will want to expand this to include as many relevant long tailed phrases as possible.
Using your favorite keyword tool enter the base phrase and scroll through the generated list gathering any other relevant phrases you may have missed. Unless your initial list is incredibly exhaustive, you will most likely find a number of additional phrases to add.
The main PPC platforms all have their own integrated keyword tools. These tools are really helpful to use after you have your campaign setup and your initial phrases posted into the appropriate Ad Groups. The Google AdWords keyword tool is great at finding a number of additional phrases. Once you have set up your campaign be sure to use this tool to check for any additional phrases you have missed.
Thinning and Adjusting At this stage you should have an exhaustive list of relevant phrases. Now is the time to weed through this list. Remove any phrases that are simply too generic to be profitable. If you are a realtor, basic phrases such as, "house for sale", "real estate" etc., may be in need of removal (again, depending on your geographic targeting). Also be sure that no phrase is repeated twice. If you use the same phrase in two separate AdGroup’s this will cause a conflict and you will have little to no control for which AdGroup the phrase will be active.
Weeding out Poor Converters Finding the initial phrases to use with your campaign is really the easy part. As your campaigns progress and you begin to gather click through rates and conversion data, you can then begin to weed out phrases that are either simply too expensive or are not converting. Assuming you have implemented conversion tracking codes, take a look at your cost per conversion for each phrase. If you find that a certain phrase is simply not giving you the return you are looking for consider pausing it, or reducing the maximum cost per click.
Summary By creating relevant groups, determining your geographic targeting, and using the various keyword tools available, you should be able to gather a strong base of phrases for your PPC campaigns. General phrases such as "real estate" can become extremely costly and unproductive so do not forget to try various long tailed and specific phrases.
There are many other factors in having a productive PPC campaign including ad copy, landing pages, geographic targeting, conversion tracking etc, but without a solid base of keywords your campaign may be dead in the water before it even sets sail.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 12:52 PM
In most places Google dominates search over rivals Yahoo and MSN, however, in China it’s a different story.
Google has been investing heavily in search for China, however, despite this; Baidu.com is up 7.6% this year reaching a 69.5% market share in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Google’s share fell 1.1% down to a still respectable 23 percent.
Yahoo China also saw a sharp decline with its share cut by more than half, down by 2.9% to 2.3% market share.
With a reported 22.1% of search traffic Yahoo is second only to Google’s 64.4% (src: Hitwise) for search user volume so it is extremely important not to forget that attaining a top ranking in Yahoo can be a big boon to the bottom line. As a result, I decided to write this update on how to attain superior rankings in Yahoo using today’s useful tools and tactics.
OVERVIEW: Optimizing for Yahoo! Algorithmically Yahoo is Google’s much younger sibling. I say this because many of the requirements for a successful ranking mirror Google’s requirement about 4 years ago and they sum up to one distinct fact; optimize your content boldly on Yahoo and you will be rewarded. When I say “boldly” I do not mean use SPAM; by nature SPAM and optimization do not mix… they are two entirely separate concepts (black and white in fact).
The following are the current generalized specifications for achieving solid rankings in Yahoo.
WEB SITE OPTIMIZATION SEO tactics have not changed a great deal over the past 10 years I have been an SEO. In general terms the only effect time has had on SEO is to vary the intensity of the optimization for particular page elements. That is the rub of course; some search engines appreciate the optimization of particular page elements over others. In the case of Yahoo, this old property with a relatively young algorithm tends to favour the following elements:
Title Tag: Keep your title tag as short as 5 small-medium sized words and include one complete incidence of your keyphrase. Yahoo! blatantly favours sites that include the keyphrase in the title tag. For an example check out “car sales” or for that matter any phrase. Within the top 10 results you will notice that the majority of sites listed will include at least one incidence of the keyphrase or a crucial portion of it (i.e. “cars”). The ones that do not include the keyphrase tend to be sites that have are extremely popular so even basic title tag optimization is not required to attain a top ranking.
Meta Description Tag: Start this tag with an incidence of your keyphrase and then produce a short 15 – 18 small-medium sized word sentence clearly describing your site. Include one more incidence of your keyphrase in the sentence. Keep in mind that the description tag is often utilized as the description for any rankings you achieve so it is best to make it alluring.
Meta Keyword Tag: Keyword tags have long been considered ineffective and no longer have any importance on Google; however Yahoo does still consider the keyword tag so it cannot hurt to include it. The keyword tag should start with the keyphrase and then all following words or phrases should be ordered according to their relevance to your website; place the most important ones up front. The max size of a keyword tag should be 250 characters – comma-delimited. Do not over repeat words; no more than 3 repetitions of a single word within the tag.
Keywords in URL: Create keyword-based filenames that closely represent the content within the file. Yahoo rewards keyword-based filenames a small amount – perhaps enough to push past your competition.
Headings: Heading 1 and 2 tags should be applied on every page where appropriate to embolden the relevance of the page. In other words, use the page’s keyphrase within a Heading 1 tag to further enhance the visibility of the keyphrase on the page.
Alt text for images: Don’t forget to provide appropriate ALT text for each image on your website. The ALT text must not provide information that is already written on the website. ALT text is supposed to provide a clear and concise description of what the image is. Fortunately this means that adding an incidence of the keyphrase or a portion of the keyphrase is totally appropriate which can add slightly more credibility to your page score when Yahoo’s crawler (Slurp) indexes the page.
Inline Links: In the midst of your page it is beneficial to include links to related pages from related content. These links will apply relevance to the linked page; which is optimized for the same keyphrase you linked from.
Site Structure: Site structure is a vital component to ranking success on Yahoo; especially in competitive marketplaces where every advantage is required to reach the top. One method that would be successful at Yahoo (and happens to work as well on the other major search engines) is a tried and true technique that revolves around the linear progression of related content throughout the website; it is commonly known as Themeing. The following example should shed some light on this subject:
Your site is a car sales site focused on Audi. In order to create a linear site structure you would focus each section of the site on an individual relevancy. Say you pick “Audi A5” as the relevant topic (see Figure 1.0). As you move deeper into the Audi A5 section you only see A5 relevant content. The search engine spider and your users will not be distracted by links to other vehicles – only information on the A5. This progresses as you proceed deeper into this arm of the website and because this section of the site is utterly focused on the subject “Audi A5” the odds of achieving a ranking for that term increase considerably.
LINKS When building links for Yahoo concentrate on quality not quantity. Quality links would be one way links from sites that specialize in content directly relevant to the content on your own website. Building these links can be done by creating content and syndicating it to your own industry for link love and to build credibility. In addition, if your website is a worthwhile resource it is entirely reasonable to tell the world about your site in order to build links; hopefully they will link to you because they like your site so much.
Finally, there is another tactic that has mixed results; send out press releases once a month using PRWeb or an associated press release agency. A good press release can easily build the links you need in no time at all. Unfortunately the mixed results I noted occur when press releases inevitably become archived, at which point the link relevance will fade. As a result, link building with press releases is only useful as an ongoing practice and should be considered a small facet of a robust link building campaign.
SITE EXPLORER SETTINGS Yahoo’s Site Explorer is a fantastic tool for monitoring your website(s) and running basic link reports. If you have not already done so you should create an account at Site Explorer and then validate your website (prove you own it) so that you can manage the information Yahoo has for your website. Once you have validated your website I have noted some Site Explorer functionality that may help your website perform on Yahoo:
Make certain to create a sitemap and submit it to Yahoo: If you haven’t already done so use a XML sitemap generator to create a sitemap for your website and then submit it to Yahoo using the “Add Feed” form within your website’s Site Explorer profile.
Removing unnecessary dynamic content from your URLs with new add-on within Site Explorer: Does your URLs content session ID’s or other dynamic content that is unnecessary within the URL? If so, this information can be indexed by the search engines and ultimately can cause havoc with your rankings. Thankfully Yahoo has implemented a new tool within the Site Explorer domain management section called “Dynamic URLs Beta”. Here are the instructions to use the Dynamic URLs tool.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS After reviewing our notes from current and previous Yahoo promotions and taking a look at a variety of top 10 results the following points appeared noteworthy:
Ensure open indexing by using Robots.txt wisely
A lot of our client’s older content appears to be sticking to top rankings with little or no monthly tweaking. As a result, I think it is fair to assume that fresh content is not currently gaining much weight in the Yahoo algorithm.
In many cases top ranking sites have pushed the envelope and their sites border on SPAM. Considering the top ranking these sites have it appears Yahoo’s SPAM filters are far less sensitive than Google’s. I expect Yahoo will change this in the near future but then again I have been surprised how long this has been the status quo.
One common claim throughout forums is that achieving a placement in the Yahoo Directory provides an instant boost to Yahoo rankings. Unfortunately we have not seen conclusive evidence that the annual $299 fee will increase rankings dramatically in the short term. That said, I strongly believe that a Yahoo Directory placement is a very reputable incoming link that does pay dividends in the long run at any search engine that weighs incoming links (the ones that count).
Yahoo Search Submit was re-introduced back in February 2007 to significant criticism due to the potential favouritism to those who pay to get into the Yahoo index. Despite the negative feedback there appears to be some potential benefits to paying for submission. For one, in July I noted an interesting story where a website was banned from Yahoo and the webmaster got the site back into Yahoo’s index by paying for inclusion (“Banned from Yahoo?”). A second reason Search Submit may be worthwhile is the guarantee that your site will be indexed. Furthermore, the Yahoo’s Search Submit Pro service allows you to recommend your own title and description tags for each page submitted and to submit pages that may not normally be indexed by Slurp.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 2:03 PM
Microsoft has attacked Google in a statement released on Monday. ZDNET reported the statement was released shortly after Google signed a deal with Capgemini to promote its office-productivity software.
The statement had 10 questions directed at Google App users and those considering the software. These questions addressed the perpetual beta stage for many of Google’s products as well as the minimal functionality for fundamental features such as headers, footers, and footnotes.
There has been no word on Google’s stance on this statement.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 12:59 PM
It is now a widely known fact that duplicate content is bad (with some exceptions such as BLOGS where it is expected). Yesterday on the Google Webmaster Central Blog, Maile Ohye posted some important notes on duplicate content directed at those who use multiple URL parameters on their site.
Essentially, variables placed in a URL for the purposes of tracking will result in duplicate content. This tracking can be in the form of affiliate ID’s, session ID’s, or any other form of tracking you may be implementing.
While the article does not address if there are possible penalties due to these duplicate URL’s it does point out that these longer URL’s can offset branding efforts and decrease the chance of your listing being selected by the searcher.
So how can you help search engines to understand your site? By removing any unnecessary URL parameters and submitting an XML sitemap with the clean version of each of URL will help, but your best bet is to permanently clean it up through the use of cookies. By 301 redirecting any inbound affiliate ID or tracking encoded links to the short clean URL and storing those affiliate and tracking variables in a cookie you can ensure that only one version of each URL is accessible on your site.
Duplicate content can come in many forms. Ross Dunn has published some articles which cover other aspects of duplicate content:
On Wednesday the news lines were afire as Apple's CEO Steve Jobs announced a $200 price slash on the iPhone. Ever since the announcement there has been rampant speculation on Job's move...
Why, why, why?
Well I came across a fantastic character profile on Bill Gates and Steve Jobs by Robert X. Cringely; a man with abnormally deep insight into both men. The article is fascinating and I strongly recommend the read. After all, these are two people who have serious influence over the technological world we live in.
I enjoyed a fantastic overview of a press conference presented by Steve Jobs today. Among other cool news such as a new line of iPods Steve Jobs announced huge price slashes on the iPhone (sorry those who already bought it!) and added a particularly cool product called the iPod Touch which looks identical to the iPhone but lacks the phone capabilities.
Complete with WiFi I expect the iPod Touch to be a new rage... I want one badly! I also expect theiPhone Touch will vastly increase the frequency of mobile search since it uses the far less expensive (or free) WiFi networks that seem ever-present in the big cities.
In today's information travels I came across some information about Google App's and its rumoured expansions over the coming months. Here are a few things you can expect that have me quite intrigued.
Google is expected to add a wiki which will provide added collaborative functionality to Google Apps.
Acquired by Google in October of 2006 JotSpot is an online wiki platform that (according to their FAQ) "allows you to create rich web-based spreadsheets, calendars, documents and photo galleries. It's as easy as using a word processor — you don't need to know HTML. Thousands of businesses are using JotSpot to manage projects, build an intranet, share files and stay in sync with colleagues and customers."
Google's purchase of a company called Tonic Systems in April has prompted expectations of many who are eager to see Tonic's Java Powerpoint editing software added to Google App's. There is no telling when, or if, the full breadth of the Tonic platform will be integrated into Google but it is a logical move for the App's platform.
On Tuesday Sept 4th Yahoo announced an agreement to acquire BlueLithium which is one of the few remaining top Internet ad agencies. The $300 million move will increase the technical capabilities and reach of Yahoo's global ad network by adding BlueLithium's impressive toolset for data analytics and its significant advertising inventory.
Just how big is BlueLithium's network? Quoting Yahoo's press release: "According to comScore Media Metrix, BlueLithium is the fifth largest ad network in the US and second largest in the UK with 145 million unique visitors each month."
"Starting tomorrow (Weds), we are making limited public search listings available to people who are not logged in to Facebook. A public search listing provides, at most, the name and profile picture of any Facebook member that has their search privacy settings set to “Everyone”. It will show less information about a person than results of a search performed by someone logged in to Facebook. We wanted to give people who had never come to Facebook, or who are not currently registered, the opportunity to discover their friends who are on Facebook."
The news has caused a bit of an uproar from Facebook fans concerned about their privacy. In my opinion the risks are extremely low with the minimal amount of information provided but it is a vastly smart move for this popular social media website. Why is it a smart move? By opening the gates to spiders Facebook will amplify its impressive footprint by allowing search engine users to discover Facebook while they search for specific people. This all ads up to a hell of a lot more market share in the social media web space which is sure to make an IPO all the more tantalizing for investors.
One thing is for sure... Facebook nay sayers should definitely take a step back and reconsider their standpoint because I am in good company believing that Facebook is poised to be the Google of social media.
John Battelle's blog brought to my attention a startup called Cuill (pronounced "cool") that was created by some wealthy ex-Googlers that specialized in search technologies. Apparently the startup, and this is rumour, has already been approached by Google with a very appetizing offer.
As John Battelle said, the search engine must have some very attractive concepts for Google to jump in with an offer so soon. At this time the engine is not available for use, however, it is already gaining the attention of some prominent marketing professionals.