Back to Home Page You are at news.stepforth.com
Contact StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc. News.StepForth Home Page StepForth Placement Inc. Home Site
Search Engine Placement Services Free Website SEO Review
This Week's SEO Newsletter The SEO Blog

Our Free Server Header Checker
& Other Recommended SEO Tools
 

StepForth SEO News Blog
THE SEO BLOG'S TOP MARKETING TUTORIALS


» How to Optimize Your Web Site for Google Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
» How Glossaries and FAQs Can Improve Search Engine Rankings
» Is Your Website Search Engine Friendly - Your Personal SEO Checklist
»»» More top web marketing tutorials

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Matt Cutts Explains Canonical Tags on Video

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:07 PM

A big thanks to the wonderful Abby Prince from WebProNews for interviewing Matt Cutts explaining what the new Canonical tag is for and why it was created.




Here is a link to the Matt Cutts video shown above.


by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

Labels: , , ,

Email this News Post: 1 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:07 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Matt Cutts Explains Canonical Tags on Video

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Thursday, July 24, 2008
Flash is Still Too Flashy for Competitive SEO

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:25 PM

June 30th 2008 was a day that Flash developers had been waiting for a long time; Google and Adobe had finally announced that Flash .swf files could be crawled by Google! In fact, the extensive news release from the Adobe Developer Center also stated that Yahoo would be incorporating similar technology in short order. When I read this news and the consequential articles from the web marketing community it became very clear that this update was a great step but far from the fix that some Flash developers are likely to pitch to their clients. As a result, I wanted to add my voice to the buzz on this topic and share with you my thoughts on how to optimize a site using Flash while considering the current updates.


What is Flash?
Okay, lets get down to basics. To introduce and establish what Flash is all about I am going to fall back on Wikipedia for a concise description:

"Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of multimedia technologies developed and distributed by Adobe Systems and earlier by Macromedia. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash technology has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages; Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page components, to integrate video into web pages, and, more recently, to develop rich Internet applications." Source, Wikipedia


BEFORE: Search Engines Could Not Crawl Flash
Up until recently the textual content found in .swf Flash files was, for all intents and purposes, just as unreadable for search engine spiders as the text in images; only HTML text on a page could be read and indexed by search engine spiders because they could not yet (and still cannot) conduct on-the-fly optical character recognition.

To explain this differently I think of the HTML that spiders can read like the braille-like feeling of running your finger over a letter written in ball point pen; you can feel the contour of writing. Whereas something unreadable like Flash or an image on a page is like running your fingers along a 4x6 picture of a road sign... you won't feel anything, so by the same token the text on that road sign cannot be read by a search engine spider.


NOW: Search Engines Can Crawl Text in Flash
For the first time, on June 30th, 2008 Google announced it could accurately spider the textual content hidden within Flash files found on the Internet. This major announcement was enabled by a partnership between Adobe, Google and Yahoo where Adobe provided their proprietary Flash Player technology to the search engines so they could integrate it into their systems and successfully 'read' the content within Flash files. This technology has vast implications for Google's and soon Yahoo's indexes because, at least in Google's case, this allows the search engine to index the content within over 70.4 million Flash (SWF) files. That is a vast amount of content that was previously inaccessible to the search engines and the ability to access it could add a lot of value for search engine users.

For example, an inspiring and eloquent Flash site like Forests Forever could be indexed which would expose more viewers to a website that provides a wonderful introduction to the world's forests. Of course that is just one Flash site of many that will add value to search engines when indexed; it just happens to be one of my personal favourites.


Search Engine Optimization Now Possible with Flash
The implementation of Flash crawling technology means that the text within Flash can now be indexed and links can be followed. Here are some examples of the basic optimization that is now possible within Flash:
  • Optimizing page content for specific keyphrase(s) to ensure a visiting search engine bot will correctly perceive the page's topic.

  • Using keywords within internal links to pass link juice from page to page; only applicable for sites where the Flash pages are broken down onto separate URLs.

  • Providing emphasis (bolding) to particular words may help to emphasize keyphrase(s); but I am reaching here... it is unknown if this new technology provides text-importance recognition.

The Limitations of Flash Search Engine Optimization
Now that you have some idea of what can now be optimized for search engines here are a few pitfalls that still limit the search engine friendliness of Flash:
  1. Single URL Flash Websites: Many websites I encounter still incorporate all of the website in a single Flash file; in other words as a user navigates the site they are still using the same URL but different pages appear. In such an instance the search engines will index the content and potentially drive traffic to the site but as Google cannot link to content within a Flash file all users will be sent to the beginning of the file. That type of indirect search result is likely to infuriate many searchers who have come to expect immediate results.

    Here is a quote from Google's comment area on this topic:

    "We’ve heard requests for deep linking (linking to specific content inside file) not just for Flash results, but also for other large documents and presentations. In the case of Flash, the ability to deep link will require additional functionality in Flash with which we integrate."

    That last line is interesting because it leaves room for interpretation. Do they mean Adobe will have to add the "additional functionality" to Flash or that Google needs to beef up their indexing technology to take advantage of the existing Flash functionality? Perhaps some Flash gurus out there could weigh in on this one. It is definitely an ambiguous way for Google to answer the question.

    If you need a work-around to deep-link single SWF files Adobe notes a solution: "you can create multiple HTML files that provide different variables to the SWF and start your application at the correct subsection. By creating multiple entry points, you can get the benefits of a site that is indexed as a suite of pages but still only need to manage one copy of your application."
  2. Text in Images is Not Indexed: Many Flash websites inexplicably incorporate a great deal of textual content within images and currently search engines cannot index text in images; I expect that will remain true for at least another year or two. As a result, a Flash website that includes a vast amount of text within graphics will not see a noticeable benefit to this enhanced crawling technology.

  3. Resource-File Based Content Not Indexed: I noted this in Google's comment area from their support team: "At this time, content loaded dynamically from resource files is not indexed. We’ve noted this feature request from several webmasters -- look for this in a near future update."

In addition, Google's news release announced the following limitations to Flash that Google expects to surmount soon (quoted from Google blog):
  1. "Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. So if your web page loads a Flash file via JavaScript, Google may not be aware of that Flash file, in which case it will not be indexed."

  2. "We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads an HTML file, an XML file, another SWF file, etc., Google will separately index that resource, but it will not yet be considered to be part of the content in your Flash file."

  3. "While we are able to index Flash in almost all of the languages found on the web, currently there are difficulties with Flash content written in bidirectional languages. Until this is fixed, we will be unable to index Hebrew language or Arabic language content from Flash files."

Verdict: SEO for Flash is Still in Diapers
It is wonderful news that Flash is becoming more search engine friendly and there is no question that the addition of previously unattainable Flash content to search engine indexes will prove valuable. But the fact of the matter is that at this moment I wouldn't dream of telling a client that Flash can be a competitive medium for search engine optimization. There are simply too many roadblocks that still exist and need to be addressed before a Flash website has any hope of competing with an HTML website on the basis of just search engine optimization. I do, however, see a couple exceptions to the rule:
  1. At a certain point a threshold can be met where significant incoming links can push even the most un-search engine friendly website to the top rankings. As a result, it is highly likely that some Flash websites with a decent incoming link support structure will see vast improvements in rankings when their content is finally considered thanks to this new crawling technology.

  2. In less competitive arenas (obscure keyphrases or keyphrases with little competition) the basic search engine optimization capabilities opened to Flash may very well be all that is needed to attain top search engine rankings.

In conclusion I would like to pass on extreme kudos to Adobe, Google and Yahoo for working this new technology into their systems. With all of the new multimedia formats coming online it has always seemed quite silly to me that Flash, having been around for years, was still not fully indexable. Thankfully Flash can now be crawled and the day where it could potentially compete for competitive rankings is on the distant horizon.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

Labels: , , , , , ,

Email this News Post: 1 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:25 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Flash is Still Too Flashy for Competitive SEO

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Friday, April 11, 2008
Matt Cutts Pipes in on Google Spidering Forms

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 12:54 PM

At the exact same time (both at 10:50 am PST) Google announced it's spider (Googlebot) was now indexing a variety of forms Matt Cutts jumped in on his blog with his perspective where raised a great point that hadn't occured to me. Essentially this new spider function will allow the indexing of form-based drop-down menus which previously were road blocks to search engine spiders. This form of navigation is unfortunately used quite often as primary navigation by web site owners so this recent addition to Googlebot's super spider powers may mean huge rank increases for such websites.

That said, according to Google this doesn't always mean this content will be indexed... which begs the question whether form navigation is still a good idea to rely on. At this point I hardly think it is now an acceptable navigational tactic. After all the other search engines first have to jump on board and implement a similar capability or else form navigation will alienate them entirely.

Thanks Matt for your ever wise post. Oh and did you all know that Matt Cutts and I are best friends forever? (BFF)

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 12:54 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Matt Cutts Pipes in on Google Spidering Forms

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Google Now Fills Out Forms When Spidering

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:24 AM

I am in disbelief. Less than 40 minutes ago the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog announced that Google can now fill out web forms and spider the resulting content. Previously this was not only not done by search engines but it was well known that such content would be useless since it wouldn't 'necessarily' be formatted for the eyes of searchers. Apparently Google is now throwing this concept to the wind.

How to Block Google's Spider From Your Form
From the announcement it appears that Google is not yet spidering forms on a wide spread basis. Here is a quote that sums up their policy on forms quite nicely:

"Only a small number of particularly useful sites receive this treatment, and our crawl agent, the ever-friendly Googlebot, always adheres to robots.txt, nofollow, and noindex directives. That means that if a search form is forbidden in robots.txt, we won't crawl any of the URLs that a form would generate. Similarly, we only retrieve GET forms and avoid forms that require any kind of user information. For example, we omit any forms that have a password input or that use terms commonly associated with personal information such as logins, userids, contacts, etc. We are also mindful of the impact we can have on web sites and limit ourselves to a very small number of fetches for a given site."
So in short, if you want to block Googlebot from your form the easiest way is to use a Captcha or block the page entirely from spiders using your robots.txt file.

My Thoughts
Interesting indeed. I don't really see how this kind of data would be useful to Google but as the post states they do consider whether the content is of any use before adding it to their index. I suppose this is yet another corner of the Internet that Google wants to be sure it isn't missing in its ever long quest for indexing the world's information.

Special thanks to Google RSS Reader for bringing this breaking news to my doorstep :-) I love technology!

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:24 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Now Fills Out Forms When Spidering

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Monday, April 07, 2008
StepForth Named One of the Best Blogs on the Net

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 3:35 PM

We are proud to announce that StepForth is once again rated one of the best blogs on the net by the BIGLIST of Search Marketing Blogs. Created and managed by respected web marketer Lee Odden of TopRank the BIGLIST is a comprehensive list of the best marketing blogs online - at least it is now that we are on it ;-)

All joking aside the StepForth team is proud to be recognized for their writing efforts in the search marketing space and plan to continue delivering the best work we can - or not at all. And of course I would be remiss if I didn't stress that the StepForth SEO News Blog is comprised of articles from more than just myself - our team rocks!

Here is the entry as it is shown on the BIGLIST:

StepForth SEO News Blog - (Welcome back!) Since 2003 the StepForth blog has covered a range of search marketing industry news and sets a great standard for SEM blog writing. Kudos to Ross Dunn for a great job.

If you haven't subscribed to our blog feed yet or our weekly SEO newsletter then just check out the links below to see what all the hoopla is about!

Labels: , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 3:35 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: StepForth Named One of the Best Blogs on the Net

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Images are the Natural Evolution of Search

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:27 AM

Over the past couple years it has been impossible to avoid the buzz about images and their increasing role in search; such as universal search which is becoming commonplace among the major search engines. But universal search is only the most prevalent news and only the baby-steps of a new format of search that is about to take over the Internet. Do I have your interest piqued? I will now lay the foundation of my statement to hopefully get you as excited as I am about this unstoppable search evolution.

Evidence 1) Photosynth
If you have any technology mavens as friends it is likely you saw this incredible video presented by Microsoft at the TED conference last year discussing Photosynth. To quote Microsoft Lab's Photosynth home page this software
"takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next. In our collections, you can access gigabytes of photos in seconds, view a scene from nearly any angle, find similar photos with a single click, and zoom in to make the smallest detail as big as your monitor."
My jaw still hurts from hitting the ground after my first viewing of Photosynth many months ago. This software made a massive impression on me that has led me to many interesting ideas on the applications for this software; I will leave these thoughts to another time. For now, however, lets just say that the advent of a technology such as Photosynth provided a first glimpse into how images on the web can play a far greater role than ever imagined.

Evidence 2) PicLens by cooliris
PicLens is a fantastic plugin that allows searchers to navigate a 3d gallery of images associated with the topic they are searching. The user can also surf related images by simply clicking on a small play icon that appears on images anywhere in their browser (the icon appears on the image when the user's mouse hovers over it for a moment). So where does PicLens get its content from? PicLens has complete access to the image caches of: Google, Yahoo, Flickr, SmugMug, Photobucket and DeviantArt.

This free, incredibly useful software is available now and it represents a new way for the masses to think about search; instead of showing information in a ranking format, PicLens makes browsing images as simple as a flick of your mouse (momentum will actually allow the images to move by). Right now PicLens is naturally designed for images but who says it needs to stay that way?

Evidence 3) SearchMe
When my colleague showed me the preview of SearchMe I knew I had the linchpin for this very article. SearchMe is a new search engine in private Beta at the moment but this next generation search engine has finally married image search in a manner that will get many tongues wagging.

As the video below outlines in detail SearchMe allows searchers to type in a search and then define the intended topic of their search in order to provide the most relevant results. Once the user selects their topic they are provided with a slick but simple page showing pictures of each resulting web page that can be scanned through in a manner similar to PicLens.



Now these are not images in a classic sense, since they are actually just screenshots of the existing web pages, however, the technology is extremely similar and it seems natural that the final version of SearchMe's image search option would utilize the same technology.

Tying it all Together
What is the one thing that all of these concepts have in common? The answer is marvelously simple; they all focus on the simple concept that a picture is worth a thousand words. Why show a snippet of content in a search engine result page when a complete image could say so much more about the destination?

Are You Excited Yet?
So are we on the same page now? Are you as fascinated as I am with the next generation of search? If not, you had better get on board quickly; there is no doubt in my mind that image-based searching is the natural evolution of search. Don't get me wrong, on page content will still play a large role in algorithms but the days of top 10 results are numbered.

What Will this Mean to SEO?
Basically a few existing elements of search engine optimization will become more important:
  1. Web pages will have to be designed with a tighter focus on usability and simplicity for screenshots to appear interesting/relevant enough to click on.
  2. Images will always need to be appropriately tagged and described.
  3. Web site images will have to be picked with more care from stock photography sites in order to capture the eyes of image-surfing prospects.
  4. SEOs will find it useful to include sales-oriented information in images but not at the expense of the image.
  5. Content around images and the overall page text must be extremely relevant to the image and the description and tags that are attributed to it.
In short, the evolution of search will continue to do what it has always done; make us all work harder to provide better quality content. One thing is for certain... the evolution of search just makes search engine optimization services more interesting and necessary in order to maintain search success in multiple search environments.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
Celebrating over 10 years of web marketing excellence.


Labels: , , ,

Email this News Post: 3 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:27 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Images are the Natural Evolution of Search

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Thursday, February 14, 2008
Yahoo's Road to War - The Bumps and Scrapes in Sequence

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 9:52 PM

Over the past week I have been keeping the StepForth SEO Blog updated on the events focused on Microsoft's attempted acquisition of Yahoo and the fall out since. This is becoming quite a debacle so I thought a little chronological update on how all this went down might be useful.

From 2006 to Now
  1. 2006: Rumors abounded that Yahoo and Microsoft were in talks about working together and that an acquisition was possible. However, nothing substantial was revealed at the time but we later learned that Yahoo refused to work with Microsoft.

  2. May 4th, 2007: The rumor mill was working overtime that Microsoft was quietly trying to acquire Yahoo for $50 billion. I was elated :-)

  3. Jan 22, 2008: The New York Times reports that Yahoo is expected to layoff hundreds of staff in order to boost profitability and share prices. The quarterly earnings report is eagerly anticipated on Jan 29th.

  4. Jan 29, 2008: Yahoo's quarterly earnings fall short of shareholders expectations.

  5. Jan 29, 2008: The New York Times relays news from Yahoo that the search giant has confirmed it will layoff 1000 employees by mid-February.

  6. Jan 31, 2008: Microsoft officially offers to acquire Yahoo while the iron is hot for $44 billion which is roughly equivalent to $31 per share.

  7. Feb 1, 2008: Yahoo announces its Board of Directors will evaluate the unsolicited offer from Microsoft.

  8. Feb 3, 2008: Google's David Drummond weighs in on the hostile bid by Microsoft citing concerns that a potential purchase of Yahoo by Microsoft "raises troubling questions". He goes on to ask "Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet?" Check out this hilarious interpretation of Mr. Drummond's blog posting by Kara Swisher.

  9. Feb 11, 2008: Yahoo's Board of Directors deny Microsoft's offer on the grounds that the proposal "substantially undervalues Yahoo!" Here is a link to the common questions and answers page that Yahoo created for the media.

  10. Feb 11, 2008: Microsoft promptly responds to Yahoo's rebuff with a 'gloves are off' tone. In the letter Microsoft says it will "ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal."

  11. Feb 12, 2008: The first lawsuit was filed against Yahoo by shareholders unhappy the company didn't agree to the Microsoft buyout.

  12. Feb 12, 2008: The first of the 1000 Yahoo layoffs begin.

  13. Feb 12, 2008: Yahoo exec Bradley Horowitz leaves Yahoo and moves to Google. Bradley was head of Yahoo's Advanced Technology Division and his departure is only the beginning of a long list of talent that is likely to leave Yahoo over the coming months. See Bradley's bio and you will see why this respected man's departure will hurt. To his credit, however, Bradley insists his departure was not directly due to recent events.

  14. Feb 13, 2008: Yahoo writes a letter to shareholders trying to drum up excitement in companies future without Microsoft.

  15. Feb 13, 2008: Yahoo announces an acquisition of online video company Maven Networks. Why? "Video is projected to be the fastest growing segment of the online ad market, and Maven will significantly help advance Yahoo's strategy, expanding the video opportunity for publishers and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness for advertisers."

    Sniff... sniff... I smell desperation! This is yet another rallying cry from Jerry Yang to help keep Yahoo from the slobbering jaws of Microsoft... unless of course Microsoft offers $35 or $36 a share at which point OKAY.

So What Now?
First of all, forget about Google saving the day. I would put money on Google being out of the picture for any possible partnership with Yahoo; Google is just not interested in the certain SEC ramifications of such a partnership.

With that potential path closed Yahoo has had to look elsewhere. As a result there are rumours that News Corp and Yahoo are talking in an attempt to forge a deal that could counter Microsoft's.

Meanwhile Yahoo is facing pressure from all sides to make a move that appeases the company's particularly distressed shareholders and they had better do something soon. Otherwise, (this is hard to believe) matters could actually get uglier.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

Feel free to republish this article under the following conditions: the posting must credit the author (Ross Dunn) before it begins and it should include a permalink back to this original posting (without a nofollow). Thank you.

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 3 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 9:52 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Yahoo's Road to War - The Bumps and Scrapes in Sequence

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Thursday, February 07, 2008
How to Avoid an SEO Horror Story on Your Website

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:40 PM

The following was the second interview I did with Dr. Ralph Wilson of Web Marketing Today while I was at PubCon Las Vegas. In this interview we discussed the horror stories I have seen over my 10 years of SEO. The focus was on how important it is to involve an SEO in the initial planning of a new website because you never know if you are going to use a technology that may hamper or completely block search engines. A SEO consultant doesn't need much time to tell you if you are on the right track and it will save you a lot of headache down the line.

Without further adieu, here is my interview:



by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

Labels: , , , , ,

Email this News Post: 1 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:40 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: How to Avoid an SEO Horror Story on Your Website

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, November 28, 2007
An Introduction to Citizendium by Editor Russ McGinn

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:27 PM

Back in August I wrote an article called "Is Wikipedia Corrupt?" which looked at the concerns caused by controversial editing in the popular Wikipedia online encyclopedia. In the closing section of that article I stressed that Google needed to move away from highlighting Wikipedia in favor of increasing the diversity of its encyclopedic references. In that regard I would like to introduce a great introduction to Citizendium written by Russ McGinn, a Citizendium Editor and former participant at Wikipedia.

Dear Ross,

Responding to your invitation at SiteProNews, I am an author at Citizendium (http://en.citizendium.org.)

We believe the world needs a more reliable free encyclopedia. We are creating a trusted general reference work by giving people a place to work under the direction of experts, and by expecting personal accountability, professionalism and by requiring the use of real names. Our goal is to capture humanity's multivariate understanding of reality, and thereby to paint a maximally broad and detailed portrait of our universe as accurately as we understand it. An indispensable means to this end is the involvement of many experts who will help guide and, ultimately, approve many of our articles. We expect our approved articles to be, in the long run, as authoritative, error-free, and well-written as encyclopedia articles can be expected to be.

As to quantity, we hope to grow to hundreds of thousands of articles within a few years, and millions a few years after that. This is not the traditional goal of encyclopedias, which has been to offer up only mainstream views of the most important aspects of the most important topics. Cheap disk space and bandwidth, and the potential of participation by ultimately millions of people, means that we can capture humanity's understanding of reality with far more nuance and detail.

We are also creating a new sort of online community. We welcome experts as well as the general public; we will be built not by top-down orders but as and where contributors wish to work; and we will be organized as a republic governed by a rule of law. This means that there will be no "dictators," but a regularly changing group of people tasked to manage a public trust in conformity with a relatively stable code of rules. It also means that we will have very little tolerance for the sort of immature disruption, abuse and gaming that plagues so many other Internet communities.

On a personal note, I left Wikipedia, because whilst there are a number of competent editors there, the combination of anonymity, people gaming the system, an overemphasis of 'style' over 'reliable content', and a lack of interest in the management to manage, leads to endless unproductive arguments. In part, it's success is due to exactly those factors - contributors start writing a few articles and are then seduced by the politics - see <this Wikipedia link> as just the latest appalling example - people either burn out become 'wikidrama' addicts.

Not for me I'm afraid.

Kind regards,
Russ McGinn

Thank you Russ for your detailed description of the Citizendium and your thoughts on Wikipedia. The establishment of a comprehensive community-written encyclopedia is no doubt an incredibly difficult task; one that I cannot even pretend to grasp. That said, the values that Citizendium is trying to uphold are extremely worthwhile and I wish you and your fellow editors all of the luck and assistance in the world.

I would also like to turn some attention to Wikipedia; the current forerunner in the online encyclopedia landscape. I understand Wikipedia continues to sort out some complaints and dissent but that kind of controversy is bound to come with the enormous success it has gained over the past few years. The editors at Wikipedia deserve a lot of respect for their hard work and for keeping their heads above water and their spirits high.

Ultimately the best option for everyone would be to have a wide array of resources to consult in order to prevent a single entity from controlling public opinion and knowledge within the Internet.

A Call for More Introductions
Again I request that any online encyclopedia contact me with a description of their site. Tell me why your site should stand out from the rest and I will be proud to post it for all to see. Mail me at ceo at stepforth dot com and I will review your submission for publishing ASAP.

Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: , , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:27 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: An Introduction to Citizendium by Editor Russ McGinn

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, October 31, 2007
WordTracker Promotion Extended

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 1:46 PM

StepForth is happy to announce that we have all been afforded an extension until November 30th on the great 15% discount for annual subscriptions to WordTracker. If you have not already signed up then follow the directions below:

Visit this link and enter the discount
coupon code us-annual-15 to get 15% off


What is WordTracker?
WordTracker is a phenomenal keyword research tool that allows subscribers to find out which keywords drive the most interest online. With this information in tow subscribers can change their SEO and pay-per-click keyword targets to make more money.

Labels: , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 1:46 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: WordTracker Promotion Extended

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Monday, October 29, 2007
Matt Cutts Confirms Reason for PageRank Drop

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 1:42 PM

Loren Baker over at SearchEngineJournal.com announced that Matt Cutts had confirmed the PageRank update that happened last week was 'primarily' a response to link selling. No additional information was provided except that Google would be continuing to look "at additional sites that appear to be buying or selling PageRank."

If your sites's PageRank was damaged by this update Loren suggests taking a close look at your site and ironing out any wrinkles before asking for reconsideration via Google's Webmaster Tools. Be CERTAIN that your website is wrinkle free otherwise you may get yourself in hotter water if you tell Google to give your site special attention.

IMPORTANT
Remember that it is always wise to wait for the fallout to clear before making any considerable changes to your website in response to a search engine update. Often we find that when search results stabilize many falsely affected websites are automatically reinstated - at least partially. Here's hoping that the same happens this time around.

Labels: , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 1:42 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Matt Cutts Confirms Reason for PageRank Drop

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Google PageRank Update Could Punish Many

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:50 PM

Google has upgraded its PageRank algorithm and it has negatively affected a whole host of popular websites.

What does this mean for you? First I should note that no one REALLY knows the reason these sites have been affected. After all, it is possible these PageRanks were reduced for another reason but with all of the righteous posturing from Google over the past year over purchased links I think it is a fair assumption that paid link advertising is the culprit. So with that in mind, if you have a high number of reciprocal or paid links on your website then it is quite possible you will also see a drop in PageRank soon. You should also ensure your site does not have links to websites that may have a vastly lower reputation - penalty by association.

Have rankings been affected? No it does not seem that the PageRank penalty has affected rankings yet. But it is too early for anyone to know exactly what Google has in mind for the sites that have been negatively affected by this update. Logically, however, it make sense that the PageRank is a warning of sorts from Google that they are beginning their crusade on sites that benefit from paid links or have links to websites that have a negative reputation.

Stay tuned! I will keep you up to date on any related news as soon as I hear it.

Other Sources for this News

Labels: , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:50 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google PageRank Update Could Punish Many

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Thursday, October 18, 2007
Google Provides More Control Over Search Results

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 3:40 PM

As of today Google will allow you to see and optionally disallow which links on your site have been identified as candidates for appearing as "sitelinks" directly in Google search results. (see Google's press release)

What are Sitelinks?
Sitelinks are shown when a website is considered a leader in a particular search term. The sitelinks are a list of key navigational links on the site and they appear below the standard website listing (see snapshot).

To view and manage your sitelinks, go to the Webmaster Tools Dashboard and click the site you want. In the left menu click Links, then click Sitelinks.

How is this Helpful?
First of all, only a lucky few will ever have a top ranking where sitelinks are shown so this is really just a feature for a small percentage of sites. That said, if your site is fortunate enough to have a sitelink list you may want to disallow links to areas within your site that may be out of date or that are under construction. It is also possible that allowing a particular sitelink may mess up your ideal sales funnel.

All-in-all, I think sitelinks is a great addition to the webmaster toolset and it is yet another example of Google listening closely to the webmaster community - kudos to them!

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Success

Labels: , , ,

Email this News Post: 1 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 3:40 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Provides More Control Over Search Results

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Microsoft Releases New Live Search Features

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:45 PM

On Monday Microsoft announced a new set of features had been rolled out within their Live Search platform:

Microsoft Corp. today announced the final updates to the fall release of its Live Search service, introducing a broad array of new services and features to its local and mobile search offerings. The new features and enhancements are designed to make it easier for people to find what they need at home or on the go through significant innovations in mapping, imagery and driving directions as well as new services to make the mobile search experience easy and powerful.

For more info check out their news release.

Labels: , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:45 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Microsoft Releases New Live Search Features

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

StepForth's Weekly Newsletter - Important Bulletin

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:06 PM


This is an important bulletin for anyone who is currently subscribed to StepForth's Weekly SEO Newsletter.

This week we need a moment of your time to confirm that you still wish to continue receiving StepForth's weekly SEO newsletter. In addition, starting next week, we will be using a new premium mailing service to send out our newsletters. The service is called Constant Contact and it will allow us to provide the highest quality opt-in and opt-out email services that will ultimately protect your privacy at a whole new level.

If you wish to continue receiving the weekly SEO newsletter please resubscribe here; it is a simple two step process.

Until you resubscribe you will no longer receive our newsletter.

Thank you for your time and we hope you decide to continue to receive our weekly SEO newsletter.

Sincerely,

Ross Dunn
CEO / Founder
StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

Note: This notification was sent via email to subscribers but due to the importance of this bulletin it has been posted here in case subscribers happen to miss the email.

Labels: , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:06 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: StepForth's Weekly Newsletter - Important Bulletin

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, October 10, 2007
How to Optimize for Ask

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 1:54 PM

Ask’s portion of the search market is a mere 4.3% (src. Hitwise) so it is understandable that optimizing for Ask is a low priority in the eyes of many webmasters. That said, despite the company’s rather infamous advertising campaigns Ask has some incredible and unique features that I believe will slowly but surely steal search share from its more popular brethren. Consequently, it seems appropriate to provide some tips on how to optimize for Ask without sacrificing rankings on the other search engines. To that end the following instructions are supplementary to the recommendations provided in my “How to Optimize for Yahoo” article.

ASK OVERVIEW

Ask differs from the other search engines because it has fully rolled-out universal search. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term universal search is the integration of results from a variety of sources (i.e. images, video, local information, news, blogs, etc.) into a single results page. Although Google has implemented universal search to some extent Ask is the first search engine to leap head-first into these complex waters and they have done a great job of it. Since universal search is slowly going to be rolled-out across Google, MSN and Yahoo, Ask is a great place to prepare for the competitive world of universal search. The areas I will cover are images, blogs and feeds, local search and mobile.

ASK IMAGE OPTIMIZATION

Just how do you get an image to show up within Ask.com’s universal search results? The key is to remove any doubt of the image’s relevance to the keyword you are trying to achieve rankings for.

  1. Alt tags need to be created and must clearly represent the topic of the picture while utilizing the target keyword.

  2. The content nearby the image should be relevant to the picture and for best results should include the keyword used to describe the picture in the Alt tag.

  3. The filename of the picture should utilize the keyword.

ASK’S LOCAL SEARCH: ASKCITY

AskCity is Ask’s local portal where various maps and locally themed content (such as event news, theatre tickets, etc.) can be readily found. AskCity was launched in December 2006 as a far superior upgrade over Ask Local and it remains a solid leader in the growing and highly competitive local search marketplace. Fortunately having a presence at AskCity only requires that your business is added to their database if it is not already there.

How to Submit Your Business to AskCity

Submit your business information to askcitybusiness@help.ask.com with the subject line “Ask City Feedback – Business”. Ensure the following information is added to the email:

  • Business name and complete address
  • Phone number
  • The category your business best fits
  • The website URL
  • A contact person’s email address

According to Ask the turnaround time is no more than 28 days.

Tip! You might notice that your business profile (once it is online) has a rating system attached to it; shown as a five star system. If you wish to influence your rating then I suggest sending your happy customers to CitySearch, Yelp.com, and Insiderpages where these results are drawn from. Once they are there have them find your listing and provide a positive review of your business.

MAXIMIZING VISIBILITY IN ASK BLOGS & FEEDS

Ask is the proud owner of Bloglines which is one of the foremost news aggregation tools on the web and happens to be the database behind Ask Blogs and Feeds. To ensure that your blogs and feeds are included in this system I suggest creating an account at Bloglines and be sure to include your feed within the profile.

In order to have any chance of influencing your position within Ask Blogs and Feeds you need to be aware of a couple things. First, the order of results within Ask’s Blogs and Feeds is determined by a combination of Ask’s ExpertRank algorithm (their intensive search engine algorithm) and Blogline’s vast 12 million plus blog database. Ask uses this combination to create the first order of results which is dictated by relevance; not by date which is the most common first viewing at Ask’s competitors. Consequently, it is important that you pay close attention to the relevance of the keyword density in your title, body and links within each post you write on your blog. By keeping your ideal keyword ranking in mind while writing your posts you will have a better chance of obtaining a ranking based on relevance.

Secondly, aside from ordering results by relevance and date (noted as “most recent”), Ask also offers a sorting by popularity. I can only postulate how this works but it makes good sense that a popularity ranking is derived from a mingling of Ask’s monitoring of the stickiness of certain articles (how long users stayed at an article before returning) and how many times a feed and/or a post is accessed within the multitude of user accounts at Bloglines. Considering these factors it stands to reason that creating a sticky blog post is the clearest and most obvious first requirement. The second requirement would be to get active in the Bloglines community and try to spread the word about your quality blog(s) throughout your community. The more people that add your blog feed to their Bloglines profile and interact with it, the better chance you have of achieving a top spot when results are ordered by popularity.

ABOUT ASK MOBILE

Ask Mobile utilizes ExpertRank and appears to be based on Ask’s standard website database. This may seem odd at first. After all, how can Ask provide mobile users with full size websites? The trick lies in their use of Skweezer technology that squeezes normally unwieldy websites into more digestible one column sites for mobile users. It may seem that there is nothing that can be done then to influence mobile rankings at Ask. Not true, the answer lies within the fact that Ask Mobile is focused on providing local results to cell users while they are on the go. With that in mind it makes sense that you improve your website’s odds of being found by ensuring it has a comprehensive listing in AskCity.

Tip! If locally based results are extremely attractive to you then I also suggest adding your physical address information within the footer of every page so that Ask and other locally focused search engines have a better chance of associating your website with a region.

SITEMAPS ARE CRITICAL

Ask’s spider is the least active of the big 4 search by far. When reviewing client spider reports I see Ask visiting websites 50% less or more than MSN, Yahoo and Google. In fact on many websites that have not yet added a sitemap or have less than ideal site structures Ask often does not even index pages deep within their website(s). As a result, submitting a sitemap to Ask is critical if you want your deep content to be properly indexed.

  1. First create a sitemap. On StepForth’s recommended SEO tools page we noted our favourite tool currently: Vigos Google Sitemap Generator. Download this free utility and have it spider your website. Once it is complete set whatever custom data you want (info is provided within the program) and then generate the sitemap.xml file. Place this file within the root of your website and move to step 2.

  2. To submit your sitemap to Ask you have two options: add a link to the sitemap into your Robots.txt file or simply inject your sitemap.xml address into the following URL and then visit it:

    http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http%3A//www.the URL of your sitemap here.xml

    Of the two options I strongly recommend going the route of adding the sitemap auto discovery link to your robots.txt file because this is now an agreed method of submitting a sitemap amongst the major search engines. Just place the following code on its own line within your robots.txt file:

    SITEMAP: http://www.the URL of your sitemap here.xml

USING ASK AS A RESEARCH TOOL

Ask has a helpful resource included in its universal search layout called “narrow your search”. Try typing in your keyphrase in Ask and then take a look at the narrow your search section of the page. There you will see popular searches that are relevant to your keyphrase. Record this information when conducting keyword research because it is a valuable glimpse into what Ask’s ExpertRank algorithm considers closely relevant and it may also show what users are actually searching for.

OTHER INFORMATION

There are a few personality traits that you should be aware of when working with Ask that are quite unique:

  1. Ask does not currently support the “nofollow” tag which could mean that any link leaving your website is considered a vote of confidence for the destination site.

  2. Ask utilizes a site/content preview window for each listing it presents; represented by a binocular icon. Since users may use this tool to get a glimpse of your site before visiting it is more important than ever to ensure the content above the fold (that appears first without scrolling) is enticing to users and relevant to their search.

CONCLUSION

I am solidly impressed by the technology at Ask and its successful foray into the realms of universal search. In fact, my research for this article has moved Ask from a bystander in my set of daily search tools to the forefront. I highly recommend utilizing Ask for your search needs and to keep an eye out for future technology additions to this solid search engine. In my opinion Ask is cutting edge enough that we can expect many search engines will be copying their successful implementations in the future.

Now… if only Ask could get the positive attention it deserves. If I were them I would start by creating a stronger connection with webmasters to interact with them and build awareness. That would be far more effective than the ad campaigns they are currently flooding the airwaves with.

Are you an Ask fan? If so, what do you think they need to do to improve their visibility? Post your thoughts by commenting on this article and perhaps Jim Lanzone and his crew will get a helpful tip or two.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: , , , , ,

Email this News Post: 3 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 1:54 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: How to Optimize for Ask

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

15% Discount on WordTracker - Compliments of StepForth

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 12:37 PM

Wordtracker is a fantastic tool for researching keywords to prepare for an optimization campaign OR to compile an unbeatable list of top searched phrases for your pay-per-click campaign.

To that end, we would like to offer you a fantastic deal: 15% off a subscription to Wordtracker. The offer allows a 15% discount on one month or even one year and it includes a 30 day money back guarantee.

Just click on the link and insert the appropriate code below to get this special discount:

  • Monthly discount: us-affiliate-monthly-2007 (link)

  • Annual discount: us-affiliate-annual-2007 (link)

The offer expires October 31st, 2007. Enjoy your membership and thank you for reading the StepForth SEO Blog.

Labels: , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 12:37 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: 15% Discount on WordTracker - Compliments of StepForth

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Friday, September 28, 2007
How to Optimize for MSN

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 12:28 PM

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:

Sitemap: http://www.xyzname.com/sitemap.xml

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.



by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 12:28 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: How to Optimize for MSN

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Today Facebook Opens the Gates to Search Engines

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 5:47 PM

A Facebook press release announced the following today:

"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.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

Labels: , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 5:47 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Today Facebook Opens the Gates to Search Engines

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Friday, August 31, 2007
Jim Hedger Leaves SiteProNews

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:18 AM

At the SiteProNews blog today Jim Hedger announced that his contract as the daily editor for SiteProNews was not renewed for another year.

The whole staff at StepForth wishes our friend and former in-house writer all the best as he refocuses his attentions on other partnerships and his company Markland Media based in Victoria, BC, Canada.

(Photo from SEO Atlanta's Flickr library)

Labels: , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:18 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Jim Hedger Leaves SiteProNews

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Google Will Resume Sending Penalty Notifications

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:18 PM

A post today at the Google Webmaster Central Blog announced that Google's Search Quality Team will resume sending notification emails to violators of Google's Webmaster Guidelines.

The notices started in 2005 as a courtesy to let webmasters know that pages have been temporarily removed from Google's index but over the past few months Google stopped sending them because fraudulent emails (that supposedly came from Google) were scaring webmasters half to death.

Google has resumed sending these notices to everyone because their current system only allows them to provide notice to website owners that have verified their site at Webmaster Central. By only using Webmaster Central they left many webmasters in the dark which had, I imagine over the past few months, increased Google's complaint file.

By sending these reports to those outside of Webmaster Central, Google is likely to re-energize the fraudulent emailers out there but that can't be helped - the unsuspecting webmaster needs to know if they have stepped over the line. Even if they are not a patron of Webmaster Central.

Labels: , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:18 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Will Resume Sending Penalty Notifications

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Thursday, August 16, 2007
SEO is More Important Than Ever

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 1:39 PM

I do my fair share of web marketing reading on a daily basis and lately I have noticed more and more writers stating that search engine optimization (SEO) is no longer as important for online success. This spin may make sense to those writers (and their financial goals) as they try to push industry cash flow away from SEO but I disagree wholeheartedly and throughout this posting I will explain why. And I assure you that despite my own inherent bias it will all be very logical and undeniable.

Not As Important? No, SEO is FAR More Important than Ever Before!
Search engine optimization (SEO) "is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results" (src. Wikipedia). By this definition alone SEO is a requirement for any website that wishes to be successful within organic search results. This is especially true since the competition for online visibility is fiercer today; because previously uncompetitive terms have become over saturated with late-comers to the perceived 'gold rush' of Internet commerce. As a result, websites need the best optimization possible to have any hope of standing up to the competition.

Successful SEO has Evolved
As with any growing technology industry competent SEO companies have had to evolve their search engine optimization practices to include the latest tools that improve SEO results. For example, when a SEO campaign is conducted today StepForth Web Marketing Inc. has far more information to access and evaluate the success of a campaign with analytics sources like ClickTracks or Google Analytics. In addition, keyword research tools such as Keyword Discovery and WordTracker have revolutionized our capability to find qualified keyword targets and ultimately increase the effectiveness of campaigns. As a result, SEO campaigns can now be far more targeted and effective.

These invaluable new SEO tools aside, the search landscape has played a major role in the evolution of SEO as well. Nowadays SEO companies have been forced to adapt to new forms (formats) of search results and, as a result, less space now is made available in the traditional search engine result pages (SERPs). This is due to the inclusion of other forms of media (i.e. video, images) and personalization but the goal is still the same; targeted visibility leading to higher traffic volume.

The Revised Guide to SEO
With the addition of new tools and the search landscape constantly changing and evolving so much over the past 10 years the techniques of applying quality SEO has also followed suit, but the fundamentals remain the same. The addition of a SEO manual at this stage of my posting is not an option; however, I have provided a couple examples below. For a more diverse explanation please see The 10 Minute Search Engine Optimization which I updated a few months back with many of the best practices.

>> Example: Local Results
Over the past couple years Google has started showing differing search results to its users depending upon their locality; all a part of their bid to personalize search results to create a more effective search result. If the website to be optimized (i.e. www.victoriastuff.ca) would benefit from being found more readily by people searching from its locale then it is important to consider this when optimizing the website.

SEO Tip #1 for Local Rankings: Make certain that each page specifically includes in textual format, not as part of an image the complete address to the company's physical offices. This information can be added to the footer; there is no need to make it front and center which could take away from other, (perhaps) more important content.

SEO Tip #2 for Local Rankings: It is as easy as pie and totally free to add your business to Google's Local directory which will often provide you with a free top ranking if you do it right. Here is more information on getting your free Google Local listing.

>> Example: Blog Optimization
Over the past few years blogs have virtually become required for any business that needs to build online credibility and free incoming links (from those who reference posts). With this great new marketing tool, however, comes a set of best practices for optimizing a blog so that each post has a high chance of obtaining visibility. Indeed optimizing a blog is, in its nature, an evolution of SEO because optimizers have to consider how the content will perform on site as well as on other sites that may syndicate the content. Okay, optimizing content for syndication is not anything new but it definitely is far more common than ever before. Furthermore, SEOs now sit in an educational role more often than before because they have to teach the blog writers (who may be writing posts multiple times daily) how to optimize their content on the fly.

Again a complete tutorial on blog optimization and promotion is not practical at this point but here is a comprehensive three part tutorial on blogs; including setup, optimization and promotion suggestions.


Conclusion: Do You Have Doubts About the Importance of SEO?
So after all of that do you have any doubt that search engine optimization (SEO) is any less important than it was? Indeed, would you agree that SEO is more important than ever before due to the need to secure every advantage possible in a competitive marketplace? Either way I would love to hear your considerations in this regard.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: , ,

Email this News Post: 1 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 1:39 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: SEO is More Important Than Ever

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Google is Being Hacked Using this Technique

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 1:08 PM

According to a fascinating release from search marketer Dan Thies, Google has been aware over a year now (that he knows of) of a method to destroy a website's ranking. The method is called proxy hacking.

What is a Web Proxy?
First, it is important to understand that in their simplest form proxies are servers that act as a relay for Internet requests. Web proxies are often used to allow people to surf the net anonymously by forwarding their requests for content and then delivering the content to the users. This is similar to sending mail to a person through the post office except that in this case there is no return address or any identifying information. For a more detailed explanation here is Wikipedia's definition.

Here is essentially how this Google hack works:

  1. All is well; your website is www.xyzname.com and it is currently listed in the top 10 in Google for 'xyz'.

  2. A hacker comes along and decides that your listing for 'xyz' needs to be removed (perhaps for competitive reasons or out of spite). So the hacker gets Google to spider your website through a proxy. The address that Google would be given to index might look like this:
    www.proxysrus.au/proxy/www.xyzname.com/

  3. When Google indexes this new URL it looks legitimate and Google's filters will soon recognize that the content being indexed is exactly the same as www.xyzname.com. As a result, in the cases that have arisen so far www.xyzname.com loses its ranking and the freshly indexed proxy URL has effectively eradicated the competition.

So how is this hack technically accomplished?
Well I am with Dan Thies on this one, I have no interest at all in sharing the specifics because the last thing I want to do is enable more evil in the world. In addition, since I have never seen such a thing done I can only postulate how it would be accomplished. That said, I think it is reasonable to share the problems that would need to be surmounted to make such a thing work:
  1. When the proxy URL is requested the server would have to provide the search engines with zero suspicion that a proxy was delivering the information. This includes URL syntax, URL length, server header information and latency.

  2. The proxy URL would have to appear authoritative.

  3. The proxy would need to be able to thwart the proxy hacking prevention measures that Dan has laid out within his informative article. At this time it appears the only proxies that are having some success are the ones that strip all browsing information so that the 'hack proof' sites cannot tell whether the traffic is legitimate or not. If they can't tell then they will not know to block Google from spidering their site through the wrong URL. Again even that attack has been rebuffed by Dan and his team by enabling noindex and nofollow tags on his client's sites UNLESS a verified search engine is visiting.
The above info is really only a snippet of the whole story that Dan told. I highly recommend reading his article and considering some of the preventative measures he outlines if you think you are a victim of this technique.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 1:08 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google is Being Hacked Using this Technique

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Yahoo Search Assist Aids Visibility

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 12:03 PM

Yesterday Danny Sullivan posted an interesting walkthrough on a new technology that Yahoo is currently testing called Yahoo Search Assist. Throughout the following I will give a quick rundown and explain why Search Assist may help sites found in the bottom 5 of the top 10 search results.

What Do I Mean by Search Assist? First Some Background
You may have noticed over the past couple years that whenever you search for an item in Google or Yahoo you were provided with word completion suggestions. For example, if you typed in 'boat' then the suggestions that appeared in a drop-down (which you can select from to complete your search) might be 'boating', 'boat sales', 'boat magazine', 'boating tips'... or something like that. These suggestions came from the search engine's analysis of the most common searches related to what you are typing in. This functionality is useful but Yahoo Search Assist promises a more intelligent search experience.

Yahoo Search Assist takes suggestions to a whole new level by providing related topics. For example, if a searcher were looking for a cement cleaner to get rid of oil stains on his driveway he might start by typing in "cement" at which point he pauses to consider the next word. Yahoo Search Assist will 'notice' his pause and begin suggesting related searches. It will first provide the standard word & phrase stems such as 'cement mixer', 'cement manufacturer' or even 'cement cleanser'. But with Search Assist, Yahoo may also provide related terms or even brand names such as 'Pur-Pwr' or 'Powder 230' which are all products that are related to 'cement'. In this case both of those brands happen to be cement cleansers which a person could immediately click on and see search results (such as links to vendors).

So how does this affect the user experience? According to Danny's article Yahoo usability testing has shown that this enhanced search experience dramatically changed how searchers interacted with results; they spent more time and tended to search the whole page of results rather than simply the top few listings.

Search Assist Might Help Level the Playing Field
Once this technology is formally released I expect Yahoo will suddenly become a hotter commodity for marketers if the bottom 5 of the top 10 rankings suddenly see more traffic than other search properties; since sites like Wikipedia or monster corporations tend to take the top positions in competitive categories. I will believe it when I see it but if we take Yahoo's usability studies as fact, this technology may vastly increase the visibility for sites rankings 'below the fold' (where you have to scroll down to see them).

by Ross Dunn, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 2 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 12:03 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Yahoo Search Assist Aids Visibility

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Monday, July 16, 2007
Increase Your Visibility in Local Search

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:33 AM

This morning I came across a great article by Sujan Patel at Search Engine Journal called "5 Quick Ways to Optimize for Local Search". I highly recommend reading this article!

The following is a summary of the main points with an added Canadian perspective for those who want to add/edit their business listing in Canada:

1) Make sure to list your business in the following local sections of these sites:

2) Make sure your address information is present within your website; a great place is the footer of every page.

3) Ensure your domain is registered with your business address. Use a WHOIS tool to verify the address is correct in your domain.

4) If you want to take your local Internet presence to a more competitive level try getting backlinks to your website with geographical references. For example, StepForth might look for "web marketing, Victoria, BC" or "SEO services, Victoria, BC"

5) Cell phone and PDA users are turning to fast local searches using their mobile devices. In order to tap this marketplace create a mobile version of your website with geographical references including nearby popular spots/businesses. You would also benefit from trading links or acquiring links from businesses in your area. Read "Stake Your Claim on the Mobile Web" to get an introduction into Mobile device marketing or read our other articles and posts on mobile.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:33 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Increase Your Visibility in Local Search

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Friday, July 13, 2007
Google Adds Additional Control for Webmasters

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:10 PM

Today at the Search Engine Marketing New England conference Google employee Dan Crow confirmed his crawl systems team is working on a new tag that will allow webmasters to remove a page from Google's search results at a predetermined time.

The tag will appear as Unavailable_after and is a perfect addition for those who wish to expire web pages that may have time-limited sales or pages that have content that is free for a limited time.

Thanks to Jill Whalen for posting this valuable SEO news from the event.

We will let you all know when this new tag becomes available for use.

Labels: , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:10 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Adds Additional Control for Webmasters

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Thursday, July 12, 2007
Banned from Yahoo? Just Pay to Get Back In

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 12:36 PM

According to a thread at the Search Engine Watch forums it is possible to get back into Yahoo Search after being banned by paying for reinclusion using Yahoo Search Submit. This news was released by a forum participant who noted that after being banned by Yahoo Search they made some changes to their website (to address the issues) and were denied reinclusion. In response they chose to try using Yahoo Search Submit after which they were pleasantly surprised to see they were miraculously reincluded into Yahoo's organic results. Is it really this easy to buy a spot in Yahoo?

First Things First - What is Search Submit?
Yahoo Search Submit is Yahoo's controversial paid inclusion program which guarantees a website will be reviewed and if approved, rapidly included into Yahoo Search's database. Additionally, sites within Search Submit are guaranteed a high frequency of indexing by Yahoo and have the ability to submit custom meta data.

Exploring the Issue
Considering that the site is 'reviewed' does that mean the Yahoo Search Submit reviewer has no idea of the submitters prior record of being banned? This example could all point to a rare miscommunication between Yahoo departments or a fundamental loophole that adds credence to Jim Lanzone's (CEO of Ask) opinion that Yahoo's paid inclusion is hypocritical.

Unfortunately, the fact is we don't know exactly what happened behind the scenes that allowed this previously banned website to get reincluded into Yahoo's index. For all we know the reviewer may have known the submitters prior history but took a closer look at noted the SPAM (or whatever got the person dropped) was rectified and allowed reinclusion. At this time there is no formal comment from Yahoo.

Special thanks to Barry @ Search Engine Round Table for documenting this interesting piece of Yahoo goodness!

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 1 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 12:36 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Banned from Yahoo? Just Pay to Get Back In

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, June 27, 2007
A Sampling of the Latest Marketing News

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:50 PM

I have been hard at work writing a white paper that we will be releasing today on do it yourself social media marketing. As a result, my blogs have been rather infrequent - my apologies. Here, however, is a quick list of some of the articles that have piqued my interest over this past week and I expect you will find worthy of a read as well:

Lastly her is an interesting interview with Eric Peterson, web analytics guru. Note the background noise is a little annoying.


Labels: , ,

Email this News Post: 1 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:50 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: A Sampling of the Latest Marketing News

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Google's Vanessa Fox Discusses Duplicate Content

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:44 AM

Google Product Manager Vanessa Fox posted her notes from the Duplicate Content Summit at SMX Advanced. She discusses some of the recommendations from the audience members and some of the questions and answers from the audience. It is worth a read if even just want to reassure yourself with words from a bonafide Googler.

Want more info from SMX Advanced? Here is part 1 of my SMX Advanced notes. Part 2 will be released today or tomorrow.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth SEO Services

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:44 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google's Vanessa Fox Discusses Duplicate Content

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Yahoo Releases Robots Tag for Blocking Specific Content

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:10 PM

This morning Search Engine Land released details of a "robots-nocontent" tag that has just been adopted by Yahoo. The tag will allow site owners to block portions of a page from searches. This means that blocked content will still be indexed by Yahoo!'s search engine spider but it will not be among the searchable content at Yahoo.

What would be the purpose of such a robots-nocontent tag? Perhaps you have a few paragraphs of generic content duplicated across several pages of your website and you are suspicious the dupe content is hampering rankings. In this case you can now block that specific content from searches and test your assumptions. It remains to be seen how well this tag will work but it is always favorable to have more tools in the optimization tool chest.

Implementation
The new tag must be included as a "class" in these exact words "robots-nocontent" and can be included anywhere in the page. If wide areas need to be blocked then simply use DIV tags to encapsulate the content.

Additional notes:
  • At this time it is not known if any other search engines will follow suit.
  • Yahoo has provided official word of this launch on the Yahoo Blog.

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 1 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:10 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Yahoo Releases Robots Tag for Blocking Specific Content

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Thursday, April 26, 2007
Microsoft's Analytics Program Still in Alpha - "Project Gatineau"

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:34 AM

Back in January it was noted in a blog or two that Microsoft was working on creating an analytics platform in response to Google Analytics. This was a logical move after buying Deep Metrix, an analytics software company, last year. The background information on the Microsoft analytics platform code named "Gatineau" was sparse back in January and I am sad to say it is still sparse to this day. In fact, upon receiving a reply from Ian Thomas today, the lead of the project at Microsoft, I am sad to say the program appears to still be in the Alpha stage; but at least I am in the queue for testing the beta when it is available. Here is a link to the Gatineau login page; don't bother trying to login it doesn't work.

So what do we know about project Gatineau? Nothing but some snippets from Ian Thomas that points toward Microsoft having a few tricks up their sleeves (I haven't heard that before). The following is a quote from a comment Ian Thomas made in response to a discussion on his original blog posting on project Gatineau: "We think there's room in the market for another service of this nature; plus, we have some stuff up our sleeves that we hope you'll like and which will differentiate us from Google's and others' offerings." He went on to note that "we have more resources than DeepMetrix did (development team has more than quadrupled since the acquisition, for example), so hopefully we won't disappoint you."

How will it compare to Google Analytics? On the original blog posting Ian says "the target audience for this project is broadly similar to the target audience for Google Analytics - though it's emphatically not our intention simply to replicate the functionality within that product."

When is Gatineau supposed to become available? Ian stated we hope to release this product during 2007; however, we're extremely keen to avoid a repeat of Google's experience with Google Analytics, so we will be ramping up our user numbers gradually to make sure everyone has a good experience from a performance perspective."

Here's Hoping
I really hope Microsoft can pull off a working analytics program soon for their sake. It has been over a year since their acquisition of Deep Metrix (May 15, 2006) and they are still in the Alpha stage even with a significant sized staff at hand. When they do launch I hope their product offers enough unique functionality that its competitors like Google can't copy them within a month. At any rate, sorry I can't provide anything new or concrete but I look forward to additional news on Gatineau (including a better name) and will post news and replies from Ian as I receive them.


I Need to Vent!
I don't know about you but if I hear another claim from Microsoft that they have something amazing they are working on and they don't deliver I will have had it with them. They have enough money and brains over there that they undoubtedly do have amazing ideas but for some reason their corporate culture just kills their delivery by being too late (behind other innovators like Google) or delivering products too early without enough testing (thinking back to Windows 95 & Millennium). Here's praying that they deliver like they did with Windows XP (their best operating system to date IMHO, albeit late).

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth SEO Services
Celebrating 10 Years of SEO Excellence
www.stepforth.com

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:34 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Microsoft's Analytics Program Still in Alpha - "Project Gatineau"

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Any News on Google's Integration of News in Organic Results?

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:39 PM

Last week I commented on Google's plan to integrate news results with organic results. Search Engine Land noted the change was suppose to be completed by last Saturday but I have yet to see the integration anywhere.

Is this perhaps a limitation of my region? Is anyone seeing this update completed? I would appreciate any news on this. Search Engine Land is oddly quiet regarding the update so I wonder if they are waiting for the change to complete just as I am.

Labels: , , ,

Email this News Post: 2 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:39 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Any News on Google's Integration of News in Organic Results?

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Monday, April 23, 2007
Raising Flags Over Google's Newly Inherited SEO Firm

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 12:42 PM

Google is treading in dangerous waters right now. The prolific company will inherit its own search engine optimization (SEO) company called Performics after purchasing the online advertising giant DoubleClick on April 13th (takeover due to complete at the end of the year) and so far there is no sure indication of the company's future. Unfortunately, since the purchase it (outwardly) appears business is as usual at Performics and the prospect of that continuing does not sit well with many people. The fact of the matter is a leading search engine like Google who claims to highly value its "don't be evil" mantra will rapidly lose any remaining credibility if it continues to operate a SEO/SEM company.

The Basics: Why is this a conflict?
According to Wikipedia, search engine optimization (SEO) is "the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results." Algorithmic results are supposed to be unbiased and highly relevant which is why Google keeps its proprietary algorithm so closely guarded. With the purchase of a search engine marketing company such as Performics, Google is put into the conflicted position of trying to generate profits by providing result-oriented organic ranking services for its own "unbiased" organic search results.

In addition, Performics provides other services within the realm of search engine marketing that add another dimension of conflict. For example, it provides paid ranking campaigns (pay per click, banners, etc.) that are designed to provide quality returns on investment. In their own words, Performics claims to "know which paid keywords convert to sales and optimize ROI on advertising investments with Yahoo!, Google and other paid search engines." Now, this is not an uncommon claim within the paid advertising industry, however, with Google behind the wheel the claim is likely to be perceived as having merit within Google's paid search results.

So What is Next for Google and Performics?
Google could run Performics completely above board and without any advantage whatsoever but unfortunately there is no one to police them to ensure that happens and I am certainly not comfortable with Google policing itself. That said, Google seems largely un-intimidated by anyone these days so I figure they will do whatever they want to in the end. However unlikely, Google could even hold on to Performics and try to ensure the world that the SEO company is a far, unconnected arm of the wider corporation. But that would not be a very smart move since the potential damage done would not be worth the benefit of having (comparatively) a trickle of profit from Performics.

When all is said and done, I have little doubt Google will sell off Performics as soon as possible in order to stem any bleeding of Google's hard earned reputation for quality search results. Whatever the result, Google's final decision on the fate of Performics will give some insight into their current level of brazenness. For the moment, however, I bet the conversations between Performics and Google are extremely tight-lipped while the big decisions are being made.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth SEO Services
Celebrating 10 Years of SEO Excellence

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 2 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 12:42 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Raising Flags Over Google's Newly Inherited SEO Firm

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Thursday, April 19, 2007
NEWS FLASH - Google to Add News to Main Search Results

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:03 PM

In a recent update to the Search Engine Land blog, Chris Sherman announced that Google will be mingling the latest news headlines into the main body of search engine results; wherever searches appear relevant to the news. According to Marissa Mayer, VP of search products at Google, "this allows us to rank news according to relevance in search results rather than at top of the page." The Google update will be happening over the next couple of days with a planned completion of the role-out on Saturday. It was not noted whether a organic algorithmic update would also take place but I highly doubt it since they will have enough on their hands with this change alone.

The Ramifications
So what will the ramifications of this Google update be? At this time there are no screenshots of how the news headlines will be combined into the results so I can only speculate. That said, I see this change as potentially HUGE. Just consider the following Pros and Cons:

PROS
  • Having and maintaining a business blog will have additional benefits.
  • Blogs that have been accepted by Google News as a news resource will now have the potential to attain a massive increase in traffic when they appear in search engine results.
  • There will now be even more benefit to writing quality blog posts that are on the cutting edge of news.
  • Google will most definitely make friends with the Press conglomerates by providing extra exposure. This strengthening of ties may open up different sources of media-rich content for Google's users.
CONS
  • Having and maintaining a business blog will be more important than ever. Why is this a con? Maintaining an active blog requires significant resources.
  • Search result pages may now be longer and force users to scroll farther down to see the complete top 10 listings. As a result, having top 5 rankings will become even more important.
  • The future potential for news SPAM will increase astronomically. After all, these sought after rankings will be prime targets for spammers that don't mind creating false news to generate clicks.
How Will Google Determine Which Headlines to Use?
At the beginning I expect it will be a rigorous algorithm devoted to news sources with only the highest credibility ratings in order to all but remove the possibility of SPAM or false news. Whether these sources will be restricted to only major news outlets (i.e. CNN, BBC, etc.) remains to be seen but I imagine they will cast a slightly wider net to include indisputable authority blogs.

Is this Good or Bad for Competing Search Engines?
It remains to be seen how this convergence of news with search results will appear, however, these changes could be positive for competing search engines. For example, if the first page of search results appear to be cluttered it may send searchers to other search engines for cleaner results. That said, if Google pulls off this integration flawlessly it may only increase the gap between the major search engine market shares.

Conclusion
I am waiting with baited breath to see how this Google update turns out. I have little doubt this change will send some positive and negative ripples throughout the search community but at the same time mingling news with search results is an inevitable step forward.

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 1 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:03 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: NEWS FLASH - Google to Add News to Main Search Results

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, April 18, 2007
SES NY Keynote Video: Windows Live Chief Steve Berkowitz

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:03 PM

The following video is an excerpt from the 2007 Search Engine Strategies Keynote discussion between Danny Sullivan and Windows Live Chief, Steve Berkowitz. In this excerpt Steve Berkowitz explains that "it is not ever satisfactory not to be number one" in the search engine industry. He further explains that Microsoft's first goal is to reach critical mass from an advertising standpoint and how Microsoft's search platform will continue to evolve.







This video was shot by Ross Dunn, CEO and Founder, StepForth SEO Services and was originally posted at The StepForth SEO Blog.

A special thanks goes out to Matt McGowan of Incisive Media for allowing StepForth to tape segments from Search Engine Strategies New York 2007.


Labels: , , , , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:03 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: SES NY Keynote Video: Windows Live Chief Steve Berkowitz

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Monday, April 16, 2007
SES NY - Google's Shuman Ghosemajumder Discusses Click Fraud

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 5:47 AM

At the 2007 SES New York, Google's Shuman Ghosemajumder responds to the question: (abbreviated) "How is it possible for Google to identify click fraud when an aggressor utilizes rotating proxies?". Shuman responds by discussing the Clickbot A botnet case and how Google deciphered the click fraud in that situation. This video was taken during the "Auditing Paid Listings and Click Fraud Issues" seminar that took place on April 12, 2007.





This video is courtesy of the StepForth SEO Blog. Video taken by Ross Dunn, CEO of StepForth SEO Services. Special thanks to Matt McGowan of Incisive Media for allowing StepForth to record this footage.

Labels: , , , , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 5:47 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: SES NY - Google's Shuman Ghosemajumder Discusses Click Fraud

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Friday, April 06, 2007
Bulletin - Yahoo Weather Update

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 12:21 AM

Thursday evening the Yahoo Blog gave warning of changes to their algorithm.

"We are in the process of rolling out some changes to our search results. As usual, you may see some changes in ranking as well as some shuffling of the pages that are included in the index throughout this process. This update will roll out this evening and will be complete very soon."

Remember, do not react rashly to any short term changes. Updates tend to take a little time to stabilize so keep that in mind. All the best in the coming weather!

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 12:21 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Bulletin - Yahoo Weather Update

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Weighing-in on Search Engines and Flash

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:43 PM

Danny Sullivan wrote an article today describing Flash optimization and how it is unlikely that Flash will be a completely spiderable medium anytime soon. The article is sobering for those of us who were hoping for a 100% optimizable version of Flash, but at the same time I must stress that there are ways to optimize around Flash if no other alternative is possible. Danny points to a blog describing Flash workarounds that I had not previously seen and I enjoyed a great deal.

All-in-all I consider Flash an amazing technology that can add immense value to a website. That said, if organic rankings are desired it is my preference that Flash be added as a page element versus being the entire website. Flash-only websites are not impossible to optimize but they are extremely undesirable in my opinion because spiderable, optimized content must be hidden in the background of the page (the source). Managing hidden content essentially doubles the work of managing a website because both the Flash and the hidden website needs to be kept current.

Related SEO Material:
Is Your Website Search Engine Friendly? Your Personal Checklist is an article I wrote recently describing the various search engine friendly design techniques that can improve a website's chances for rankings.

Labels: , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:43 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Weighing-in on Search Engines and Flash

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Monday, March 26, 2007
Yahoo Drops Directory Links, Google Experiments, and Digg's BBC Expose

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:46 AM

In my review of today's SEO and search engine headlines I came across a few posts of interest that I would like to share with you:
  • Barry Schwartz at The Search Engine Roundtable wrote that Yahoo removed directory shortcuts found under its search engine result pages (SERPs).

    I checked this myself from Canada to see if it was a regional alteration but no dice; Canada has been affected as well. I have mixed feelings about this change. On one hand, the link to a directory listing was a great indicator that a website was 'verified' by Yahoo staff since human review is required for directory inclusion. In essence that made the directory link in results an added incentive to pay the price of directory inclusion. On the other hand, removing the directory link has saved 10 lines of valuable screen property on every Yahoo result page. I am unsure what Yahoo will do with this free space but considering their lust for profits (see Yahoo reinvents paid inclusion) I wonder if some additional advertising or another form of profit generation might be forthcoming. If this newly freed space is to be used I just hope it is done creatively.

    Also, Barry Schwartz noted this may be a step towards folding the Yahoo Directory. This may very well be true, it would certainly explain the result alteration. That said, I hope Yahoo's Directory sticks around because at this point it is the only directory that has any real validity these days. After all, DMOZ (the Open Directory Project) is a complete mess and I don't honestly know of any other directory other than DMOZ and Yahoo that has any reasonable clout. To put it simply, Yahoo would be foolish to drop their Directory but they do need to reinvent it. I think they should intertwine social media with their directory to give it some freshness and potential energy.

    Thinking off the cuff... Yahoo could offer directory listing owners the opportunity to make their listings more robust and they could provide a listing of the most recent articles associated with a company listing. Heck another option that comes to mind is a social media tagging system where any site that met a confidential threshold would get a free review and ultimately a free or discounted listing in the directory. The key is to get the big players in the directory again and make it more attractive and interactive. Personally I could spend ages brainstorming this, it would be a blast... unfortunately it is up to Yahoo to make it work.

    As a final note, I was horrified when I could not find a single link to the Yahoo Directory on Yahoo!'s home page. I guess it is true... the directory is being put on the backburner. Does anyone have any sure insight on this topic?

  • According to Search Engine Land, Google has been caught testing new navigation formats. From the screenshots on Search Engine Land and the adjoining articles it seems Google is attempting to find the right way to include more personalized navigational elements such as Google Calendar, email, etc. into their main navigation. I look forward to seeing the result. I for one, would be very happy to see a quick access link to my Google Calendar or GMail.

  • Are you still a little fuzzy on social media networking and what affect it has on the web? If so, I expect this review of Digg, one of the more significant social media websites, will provide you with a great introduction.
by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth SEO Services
Celebrating 10 Years of SEO Excellence

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:46 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Yahoo Drops Directory Links, Google Experiments, and Digg's BBC Expose

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Friday, March 16, 2007
How Many Prospects See Your Ranking If You Are Not in the Top 10?

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 5:36 PM

chart of search engine user behavior - courtesy of JupiterResearch and iProspectCourtesy of JupiterResearch and iProspect, this chart provides a glimpse of the number of search engine results surfers will review before choosing their path.

As an admitted stats junky I really enjoy this kind of data. I hope you find it enlightening as well. It may be these numbers are far from a surprise but at least they confirm your beliefs which is a comforting thought in itself.

Labels: , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 5:36 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: How Many Prospects See Your Ranking If You Are Not in the Top 10?

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Google Finally Provides Decent Backlink Data

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 5:33 PM

Ever since Google stopped showing accurate backlink (aka incoming link) counts to websites webmasters and SEOs have been forced to turn to other, more accurate tools like Yahoo. This hasn't really been all that bad in my opinion but it is refreshing to hear that Google has finally launched a new backlinks analysis tool within Google Webmaster Central.

I have to say, it rocks! The system allows you to navigate a Google-generated sitemap of your website where at the right side of each page a number appears which denotes the number of backlinks to that page. Then, if you want more information on those backlinks you have only to click on it and a comprehensive list appears; very slick indeed. The list is even downloadable in .csv format.

For more information here is Google's blog post regarding this update. I hope you enjoy this tool as much as I will. Just keep in mind that Matt Cutts noted the tool is not quite 100% accurate.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc.

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 5:33 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Finally Provides Decent Backlink Data

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Friday, January 26, 2007
Google Bombing Will Be No Longer Says Google

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 8:26 AM

Yesterday Google's official webmaster blog announced that Googlebombing will be soon a way of the past thanks to some targeted attention from the search results team. Here is the gist of the posting:

We wanted to give a quick update about "Googlebombs." By improving our analysis of the link structure of the web, Google has begun minimizing the impact of many Googlebombs. Now we will typically return commentary, discussions, and articles about the Googlebombs instead. The actual scale of this change is pretty small (there are under a hundred well-known Googlebombs), but if you'd like to get more details about this topic, read on.

Ultimately they admit these algorithm changes will not catch every Googlebomb but they expect the changes will clear out the majority.

What is a Google Bomb?

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 8:26 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Bombing Will Be No Longer Says Google

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The Most Common Reason for Dropped Rankings: Duplication

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:26 PM

Repeatedly my sales and consulting staff find themselves explaining that using duplicate content can and will negatively affect search engine rankings and it is heartbreaking to see clients having to rebuild rankings due to such a simple mistake. As a result, I felt it was time to write this article and hopefully dispel many misled website owners.

Why write an entire article on something as simple as duplicate content? Well probably because it is not as simple as it sounds and many website owners find themselves in the grey area of duplication; where they don’t know for sure whether they are risking rankings or not.

The following is a sectional breakdown of the most common duplicate content issues we see defined from the standpoint of a question – hopefully making this article a little easier to read. After all, I have no illusions that reading up on duplicate content rules is exciting.

Duplicate Websites

Definition: a duplicate website is a website that has many if not all of the same pages as another live website.
Note: the following questions are based on a person who owns two websites that are duplicates.

Q: “Why is a duplicate website such a bad idea?”

A: The major search engines are constantly trying to improve the quality of their search engine results in an effort to provide the best quality content for users. When duplicate content is indexed by search engine spiders, valuable time and processing power is wasted. As a result, search engines have blocked sites that used duplicate content from their database, ultimately favouring the site that either had the content first, or I believe, the one site that has the greater online history. In addition, the major search engines have a bad taste after dealing with so much duplicate content created by spammers over the past several years. As a result, posting a duplicate website is an offense that can quite literally blacklist a domain; there are few things the search engine properties dislike more than being gamed by spammers.


Q: “What should I do with my duplicate website then? Just delete it?”

A: Deleting the site is the only option unless you want to create an entire new website with unique content and a unique purpose. That said, by deleting the website you can still ensure the effort you put into promoting the old site does not go to waste by pointing the domain to your new website’s domain using a 301 redirect. A 301 is a term used to describe a server protocol which Google and other search engines will ‘see’ when they visit the old site. The protocol essentially says that your content from the old site can be found on the new site and that this is a permanent forwarding of all traffic. 301 redirects are by far the best way to minimize your losses from shutting down a website that just might have traffic or inbound links.


Q: “Which website should I shut down? Is there anything I should consider first?”

A: Yes, it is very important that you keep the website that has the most backlinks and has been online the longest. The reason I say this is that Google tends to favour entrenched websites; they have been around a while, are well backlinked and overall appear to have a positive history.

Whatever your decision is, it is vital you understand switching a website to a new domain is a dangerous step. This is because of Google’s famed ‘sandbox’. The ‘sandbox’ is really only an overused turn of phrase that represents a portion of the Google algorithm which considers the age of the domain as a signifier of trust. Generally, new websites will require 6 months to a year before substantial rankings are evident; this is kind of a right of passage that Google appears to be enforcing on the average website. Sites that are obviously popular and quickly gain a load of legitimate link popularity will easily avoid the sandbox (because Google can not afford to miss a ‘great’ website) but this is not the common scenario.


Q: “Will using a 301 redirect pass on the benefit of the deleted site’s link popularity?”

A: Link popularity is passed onto the other website when a 301 is used but how much this pass-over will benefit the website seems to fluctuate on a case-by-case basis. Usually the fluctuation is only present when popularity from one domain is passed to another with differing content/topic. In this case, since the link popularity is being redirected to an identical website I expect the benefit to be virtually lossless.


Duplicate Content

Definition: content appearing within a website that is duplicated elsewhere on the same website or elsewhere on the Internet.


Q: “I need content for my website; can I just copy content from industry journals and benefit from that quality content?”

A: No, aside from the copyright concerns of using content that is not yours, your rankings (if they exist) would suffer because it is highly likely the major search engines would detect the duplicate content. As a result, the page that you create may get flagged as duplicated and it would be ignored at the very least. The page could even devalue your site’s overall credibility. Credibility is a critical component of Google’s algorithm so sites with less credibility tend to have a harder time staying (‘sticking’ if you will) in a particular ranking.


Q: “I use a content management system to manage my site and it uses a particular set of templates. These templates have some duplicate content within them and they are spread all throughout my website. Should I be worried?”

A: No, in most cases the amount of duplicate content used within a template in a content management system (CMS) is negligible. If, however, you have a large number of pages created using a page where 90% of the text is duplicated and only 10% is unique you do have a reason to make some changes. In my opinion it is crucial that every page within a website be composed mostly of unique content with the exception of catalogues and shopping carts where text simply has to be reused over and over.

Whatever your situation make certain that your site contains a large number of pages composed of unique content that has been well optimized by yourself or your search engine optimizer (SEO).


Q: “How much of my page should be unique? Is there a standard ratio or percentage you can share?”

A: There is no industry standard formula but if I had to state a percentage I would say a minimum of 70% of the page should be completely unique to thwart any concerns of duplication. You may be able to get away with less than 70% unique content but I would suggest this is playing with fire. Either way, this statistic is moot since every page you create needs to be created with the intention to provide a powerful resource; after all search engines are only a small part of the plan – you do need visitors to like what they see and buy your product or service!


Q: “My blog currently has many different ways to find content and depending on the route a visitor may find the page is actually shown on a different URL (i.e. archives, search by label, etc.). In this scenario am I not in danger of a duplicate content penalty?”

A: Yes and no. Yes that this is duplicated content but no you are not likely to be penalized by this simply because a majority of blogs offer these additional methods of finding content so it would be detrimental if search engines penalized this application right now. That said, search engines do have to have some way to handle this duplicate content. I expect when Google (picking the most advanced search engine) finds duplicate blog postings on a website its algorithm chooses the most popular posting as the primary page to provide in its ranking results. In other words, the posting URL that has the most number of inbound links or was spidered first will be the page that attains rankings.

For those unfamiliar with blogs, the following is an example how a blog can easily have 3 duplications of a single article. In this scenario, I recently posted an article on our SEO Blog called “SEO Answers #12”. Upon posting this article was immediately posted in 3 places: once on the home page (because it is the latest article), second on its own page for permanent linking purposes, and third within the label “Local Search” a topic related to this posting.

1) SEO blog home URL: http://news.stepforth.com
2) Permalink URL: http://news.stepforth.com/blog/2007/01/
seo-answers-12-my-couk-domain-lost.php
3)"Local Search” label URL:
http://news.stepforth.com/blog/labels/Local%20Search.php

In the future I expect blog systems will offer an option to specifically add a NO INDEX tag to the top of posts located within the labelled search section. After all, every additional label I added to this article created a duplicate version which is something that I expect search engines will soon either ignore or require a NO INDEX tag.

Conclusion

I am sure I didn’t cover every question regarding duplicate content but I am fairly certain I touched on the most common questions we see at StepForth. If you would like to submit a duplicate content question or any other SEO question please go to our submission page and I will endeavour to respond as soon as possible; likely in an article format or SEO blog posting.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc.

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 4 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:26 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: The Most Common Reason for Dropped Rankings: Duplication

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Search Engines Paying Users - Advertisers Beware!

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 9:36 AM

"If at first you do not succeed, try and buy your market share." Okay, admittedly this is a bad example of the mantra I am trying to get across but it does fairly represent the enticements a couple of search engines are using to attract users; Blingo and AGLOCO.

1) Blingo: Owned by The Publisher's Clearing House, the search engine Blingo is randomly giving away prizes to those who search on their site. They have even made it viral by providing a duplicate prize to the person who referred the winner.

2) AGLOCO: The core concept of this search engine is that it is a co-operative. Users who sign up and use its proprietary "Viewbar" to search the net will get paid per hour and will be treated like a shareholder by getting a chunk of the company's profits. Members will also get paid for referrals to friends; the crucial viral marketing method. This is not a new concept, in fact AGLOCO was created by a couple founders of the similar but long dead AllAdvantage search company. Apparently the founders that started AGLOCO feel there is a better chance the second time around.

So why the title "... Advertisers Beware!"?
Each of these search properties are built on the basis of making money off you, their advertiser. In fact, that is their entire business model - attract the users and the advertisers will have no choice but to come and pay well for visibility. My concern is that users who sign up to get paid to search may not be the target market for the average advertiser. After all, logically some of these users are on the search engine just to make an easy buck and are not necessarily interested in serious searching. Lower quality viewers aside, there is bound to be a market here worth tagging but I expect advertising on any of these properties should be carefully thought through before proceeding.

If you do decide to go ahead and advertise on these two sites (or any others like them) I strongly recommend setting up unique landing pages for each search engine and monitoring the average time for each visit using your traffic statistics. If you find a very low conversion rate and that the majority of users stay a very short time (less than 5 seconds) you had better turn tail and run - unless the cost of advertising is so low it doesn't matter.

Caveat Emptor
by Ross Dunn, StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc.

Labels: , , , , ,

Email this News Post: 4 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 9:36 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Search Engines Paying Users - Advertisers Beware!

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Stake Your Claim on the Mobile Web

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 5:10 PM

With the Internet growing so rapidly do you ever wonder if you are missing a new trend or technology that could boost your bottom line? Well, there just happens to be a piece of the Internet that I bet you haven't made the leap to yet and it is going to be BIG. This new space is mobile search and mobile Internet surfing.

I know, I know, mobile Internet use has been around for a while, but even now it is very much in the infancy phase of development. After all, it was only over the past year that a W3C working draft appeared that allows web designers to create mobile sites compatible with the many mobile phone browsers. I have tried to use the search and navigation abilities on mobile phones and I have not been impressed; clunky is a nice way to put it. That said, there is no question in my mind this is a market that will explode over the next couple of years. To back up my lofty claim here are just a few of the notable headlines on the build-up to mobile search and advertising published over the last 30 days:

• Vodafone and Yahoo to Launch Advertising on Mobile Devices (Yahoo)
Mobile technology is way ahead in Europe and Vodafone is currently “the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world by turnover and has a market value of about £86 billion (November 2006)” ( according to Wikipedia ) . Yahoo has signed a deal which will provide Vodafone users with carefully targeted advertising in exchange for cheaper phone options.

• Google Testing Mobile Ads in Eight More Countries (MarketWatch)
“The ads apparently will appear whenever someone in those countries use a cell phone's Internet capability to access a site or to search via Google's engine.” The article also states that Google is “… also going after the $11 billion that advertisers are expected to spend on mobile marketing by 2011, according to a recent report by the telecom division of Informa Group.”

• Google and Microsoft in Mobile Search Race (Financial Times)
This article notes that “ Google announced a deal to put its search function on 3mobile's handsets”, and “Sprint Nextel, the US carrier, said it would place Microsoft's search engine on its mobile phones.”

So we know from the articles above that the mobile web is poised to really take off. However, did you know that it already has to some degree? For example:

• Google Mobile has an option that will only provide results from sites that were created mobile-friendly. ( link )

• On November 28, 2006 the Webby's, which are labeled the “Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times, added a new category specifically for the mobile web: “ Webby Awards Join With dotmobi To Launch Webby Mobile Awards. ”

In short, there is a huge amount of positive growth in the mobile marketplace and I recommend taking a slice of it before your competition does. So what do you need to do? Get a dotmobi domain, build a mobile version of your website and promote it by adding it to various mobile directories and sites.

1. Get a .Mobi Mobile Domain
Just this year a consortium of major players including Google, Microsoft, Vodafone, Samsung, Ericsson and Nokia sponsored a new domain meant specifically for a new mobile web: .mobi . Opened for general registration as of September 26, 2006, the .mobi top level domain “is the first and only top level domain dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices” says the official “ What is dotmobi? ” page).

The idea of the .mobi domain is to create a mobile version of your website so that users can simply type in your .mobi address and be assured of a streamlined viewing of your company website on their mobile device. It really is quite brilliant in my opinion and it has a good chance of becoming a popular address with such monsters as Google and Microsoft on the list of supporters.

If you wish to register your dotmobi domain here is a list of registrars provided by the dotmobi website. From what I can tell, however, GoDaddy is providing the best annual .mobi registration price of $15 per domain (min. 2 yrs).

2. Build Your Mobile Web Site
Designing for mobiles is not exactly new but as it is still new to me I cannot provide a great deal of first hand knowledge. That said, StepForth will be creating our own mobile site in-house so I know my Senior Designer and I have a learning curve ahead. Fortunately, to this end, a little research and patience led me to some great resources that I recommend. The following sites will take you in the right direction:

- MobiSiteGalore.com : if you are looking for a simple cookie cutter approach to creating your mobile website you can develop it for free using this website's mobile compliant website builder. I watched the demo movie on how a website is created and I must say I am very impressed with its functionality.

- Official .mobi Development Standards : If you would like to custom design your mobile website so that it stands out from the rest then this is the site for you. Develop a mobile website to meet .mobi guidelines at the .mobi development website . The .mobi development site appears to be designed to make the move to mobile as easy as possible – thankfully! The development site even offers a free course to put your designer through so that he/she can understand the needs of a properly designed mobile website. In short, I am very impressed with this website and I expect it to provide all that StepForth needs to get our own mobile website online (it will be stepforth.mobi when it is complete).

Additional Mobile Resources
Here are some sites that provide some great additional information but they would likely be a bit too technical for the average site owner. These are, however, great for your designer to check out:

- Mobile FAQ: a mixture of general and specific questions for understanding the mobile phenomenon and designing a mobile site.

- W3C Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group: this is not light reading but your designer may find it interesting.

Check Your Final Product
Once your mobile website is complete you need to verify that it is completely mobile compliant. The .mobi development site provides a “ MobiReady Report ” which will check your site for compliance. This is a great way to be sure that your designer has done a good job and that your website will be as compliant as possible across the wide range of mobile products available.

3. Optimize Your Mobile Site
Optimizing a mobile site is only slightly different than the average website. The basics of optimization remain true; be sure to create great Title Tags, Description Tags, headings, navigation, and focus your content to match page targets. The only difference is you will have less screen real estate to work with so try to keep your optimized content concise – no one wants to read useless information on his or her mobiles. After all, you can be reasonably sure that the time a visitor is willing to spend on a mobile site to find information will be significantly less than their standard visit from their home computer; thus the word ‘mobile'. In short, you will have very little time to convince a visitor to stay at your website.

Google Optimization Note: create a Google Mobile Sitemap so Google can ensure your mobile content is properly noted and categorized as mobile friendly. Will this help traffic? I would think so, here is Google's message verbatim, ‘ by using Mobile Sitemaps to inform and direct our crawlers, we hope to expand our coverage of the mobile web and speed up the discovery and addition of pages to our mobile index.' ( link )

4. Promote Your Mobile Web Site
The mobile Internet is composed of a growing exclusive group at the moment so it is important that your new website get as much visibility as possible. Here are some great tips and resources to help you do that:

- Submit your mobile site to Yahoo! Mobile for free

- Use PRWeb.com to send out a press release about your new .mobi website. Show the world that your company is cutting edge and strives to provide multiple solutions for accessing your products/services.

- Publish your mobile address on your website, business cards, and any other promotional materials. If you don't tell your target market that you have a mobile site they won't know to use it.

- Tell dotmobi about your site and it might just get some free publicity by being featured or becoming a case study.

In Summary
I think the .mobi domain is a fantastic way to provide a unique presence specifically designed for the mobile world. The fact that mobile phones are ubiquitous simply reinforces the need for the informed website owner to get their own mobile site setup ASAP. At the very least I would recommend picking up a .mobi domain of your own so that it is not snatched up when the inevitable rush to the mobile web becomes a reality.

Other Excellent Mobile Content
The following are some sites that I came across throughout the creation of this article. I found them very interesting and well worth noting:

• WAPReview.com “It's all about the mobile web”: this site is well written and includes some great tips and stories that you may find revealing – I know I did. Here is a particularly good posting that attracted my attention: “ Mobile Web (un)Usability ”

• Open Gardens : a blog that discusses the latest innovations in wireless mobility.

Labels: , , , ,

Email this News Post: 2 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 5:10 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Stake Your Claim on the Mobile Web

ADD TO:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb

08/01/2003 - 09/01/2003
09/01/2003 - 10/01/2003
10/01/2003 - 11/01/2003
11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003
12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004
01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004
02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004
03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004
04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004
05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004
06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004
07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004
08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004
09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004
10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004
11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004
12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005
01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005
02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005
03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005
04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005
05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005
06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005
07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005
08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005
09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005
10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005
11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005
12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006
01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006
02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006
03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006
04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006
05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006
06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006
07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006
08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006
09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006
10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006
11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006
12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007
01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007
02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007
03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007
04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007
05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007
06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007
07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007
08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007
09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007
10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007
11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007
12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008
01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008
02/01/2008 - 03/01/2008
03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008
04/01/2008 - 05/01/2008
05/01/2008 - 06/01/2008
06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008
07/01/2008 - 08/01/2008
08/01/2008 - 09/01/2008
09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008
10/01/2008 - 11/01/2008
11/01/2008 - 12/01/2008
12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009
01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009
02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009
03/01/2009 - 04/01/2009
04/01/2009 - 05/01/2009

Blog Archives by Topic
SEO Resources
Subscribe
The Mobile version of The StepForth SEO News Blog is available here.
Link to StepForth's profile on Facebook

Subscribe to the SEO Blog's Daily Digest. Enter your e-mail address:
line
line

Add to Technorati Favorites


SEO Blog Postings
by General Topic

» SEO
» SEO Answers
» SEO News
» SEO Tips

SEO Blog Postings
by Search Engine

» ASK
» Baidu
» Google
» Microsoft
» MSN
» Yahoo
» Other Engines

SEO Blog Postings
by Category

» AJAX
» Algorithms
» Analytics
» APIs
» Click Fraud
» Conferences
» Copywriting
» Directories
» E-Mail
» Fun Stuff
» Interviews
» Link Building
» Local Search
» Mobile Search
» New Tech
» Online Statistics
» Other News
» Paid Inclusion
» Pay-Per-Click
» SOAP
» Social Marketing
» StepForth Inc.
» Usability
» Video

SEO Blog Postings
by Author

» Ross Dunn
» Scott Van Achte
» Jim Hedger
 

This Week's SEO Newsletter | The SEO Blog
Recommended SEO Tools | Request SEO Services
Copyright ©2004-2008, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

 StepForth is a Member of the SEO Consultants Directory