Search Engines - Dreams Site Home

Transcription

Table of Contents
Search Engine
Optimization Strategies
Top 30 Search Engine Optimization & Submission
Strategies For Dummies [6th Edition]
By Michael Wong
© Copyright 2002-5 – Michael Wong
Published by Art Dacor USA LLC, 3727 West Magnolia Blvd #489, Burbank, CA, 91505, USA.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in whole or in part, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
© Copyright 2002-5 - Michael Wong, Art Dacor USA LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Visit: Mikes-Marketing-Tools.com
1
Disclaimer
Errors are a fact of life, and some will always sneak through even with the most
thorough of cheks… I mean checks. My primary goal is to present the essential facts and
tips in an informal (because I don’t like textbooks), easy-to-understand manner. So if an
adjective is used improperly, or I end a sentence with a proposition, I apologize in
advance.
This book is written in US English and has been spell checked. However, if you spot a
spelling error, please don’t panic! I will catch the gremlin the next time around.
I always try to provide the latest, most accurate information available, but sometimes
errors can and do occur. Please understand that the service is provided "as-is" and that
I assume no responsibility for the accuracy, timeliness, deletion, misdelivery, or errors of
the information provided in this document. My lawyer told me to say that, because that
isn’t English, is it?
Please note that unless specified otherwise, information and/or a link for a product or
service in this document is not necessary an indication of an endorsement from me.
Please double check all vendors, before conducting business with them, because not
everyone is as honest as me. ;o)
Trademarks
The words contained in this text which are believed to be trademarked, service marked,
or otherwise to hold proprietary rights have been designated as such by use of initial
capitalization. No attempt has been made to designate as trademarked or service
marked any personal computer words or terms in which proprietary rights might exist.
Inclusion, exclusion, or definition of a word or term is not intended to affect, or to
express judgment upon, the validity of legal status of any proprietary right which may
be claimed for a specific word or term. Again, my lawyer told me to say that.
2
Acknowledgements
Peter Cooper
I would like to thank Peter for proofing and editing the first edition of this book, and all
his hard work and support over the years. Peter is an amazing programmer, writer,
techie, and loyal friend. If you are looking for a smart, efficient and honest freelance
programmer, proof-reader, or writer, at extremely competitive reasonable rates, I highly
recommend contacting Pete at [email protected] for a quote. Tell him I sent you.
Try not to use him too much though, because I need him. ;o)
My Beautiful Wife, Amy.
I dedicate this book to my beautiful wife, Amy, with all my love. She is the reason I walk
around all day with a huge smile plastered all over my face. Without her faith,
understanding, constant encouragement, unwavering support, and undying love, this,
and all my other books, would not have been possible, and I would not be half the man
that I am. Darling, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love you.
Publication Dates
•
•
•
•
•
•
1st Edition – March 06, 2002.
2nd Edition – August 30, 2002.
3rd Edition – March 11, 2003.
4th Edition – September 24, 2003.
5th Edition – April 13, 2004.
6th Edition – January 11, 2005.
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Click on a topic to go directly to the correct page. Don’t forget that you can also access
the complete table of contents on the left, under the bookmarks tag. If you can’t see it,
move your cursor over it and double click the tab to open it.
Table Of Contents ...........................................................................................................4
About The Author .........................................................................................................11
Welcome To The 6th Edition! .......................................................................................15
How To Get The Most Out Of This Book ........................................................................... 15
Tips For Dealing With Broken Links On Any Website .......................................................... 17
What’s New In This 6th Edition? ..................................................................................21
HOT OFF THE PRESS: Google AdWords Announcement: Affiliate Policy Change ................... 21
Major Search Engine News Headlines ..........................................................................23
Search Engine News Resources ....................................................................................... 24
What Is Search Engine Marketing? ..............................................................................26
Why Is Search Engine Marketing Important?..................................................................... 26
What Is Search Engine Optimization? ............................................................................... 27
Why Is Search Engine Optimization Important?................................................................. 27
Should You Outsource Your SEO Campaign, Or Use An In-House Solution? ......................... 28
How To Design A Website With Search Engine Optimization In Mind .........................30
How To Incorporate Search Engine Optimization Into The Website Planning Stage............... 30
How To Incorporate Search Engine Optimization Into Your Website Design ......................... 31
How To Target The Right Keywords For Top Rankings................................................36
What Is The Internet & How Do You Get Your Site Seen In This Massive Library? ................ 36
How To Find Out Which Keywords You Should Target In Your Webpages............................ 39
Why You Must Sprinkle Uncommon Keywords & Synonyms In Your Pages........................... 41
What Is Keyword Frequency? .......................................................................................... 42
What Is Keyword Density? .............................................................................................. 42
How To Calculate The Keyword Density Of A Webpage...................................................... 42
What Is Keyword Prominence? ........................................................................................ 44
What Is Keyword Proximity? ............................................................................................ 44
Why You Must Add Important Keywords To The Title Tag On Every Page............................ 45
How To Improve Keyword Relevance In Body Text............................................................ 45
Why You Must Add Important Keywords To Headline Tags................................................. 46
Why You Should Include Keyword-Rich Alt Tags With Images ............................................ 46
How To Add Keywords To Link Titles................................................................................ 47
Which Search Engines Are Keyword Case Sensitive? .......................................................... 47
Do Individual Keywords Improve Relevance? .................................................................... 48
4
How Word Stemming Can Improve Keyword Relevance ..................................................... 48
What Is Keyword Stuffing? .............................................................................................. 48
What Are Stop Words?.................................................................................................... 49
297 Stop Words You Should Avoid ................................................................................... 49
Do Keywords In Domain & File Names Affect Rankings? .................................................... 50
Does Separating Domain Name Keywords With Hyphens Affect Rankings? .......................... 50
Case Study: Hyphenated Domains Out Pulls Unhyphenated Domains By Almost 3 To 1! ....... 52
Do Keyword-Rich Subdomains Affect Rankings? ................................................................ 53
How To Add Subdomains To A Website ............................................................................ 54
32 Keyword Research Tools .........................................................................................55
16 Online Search Term Suggestion Tools.......................................................................... 55
3 Top Search Lists .......................................................................................................... 57
10 MetaSpy Engines ....................................................................................................... 58
3 Zeitgeists .................................................................................................................... 59
Should You Use Every Keyword You Find? ........................................................................ 60
Basic Search Engine Optimization Techniques.............................................................61
What Are Meta Tags?...................................................................................................... 61
What Is A Meta Description Tag? ..................................................................................... 61
What Is A Meta Keywords Tag? ....................................................................................... 62
Should You Separate Keywords In The Meta Keywords Tag With Commas? ......................... 63
The Dangers Of Adding Trademarked Keywords To Meta Tags ........................................... 64
Other Commonly Used Meta Tags .................................................................................... 64
What Is A Robots Meta Tag? ........................................................................................... 65
How To Use The Robots Meta Tag ................................................................................... 66
What Is A Robots.txt File? ............................................................................................... 67
How To Create A Robots.txt File ...................................................................................... 68
Major Search Engine Robot User-Agents........................................................................... 71
Why Hackers Love The Robots.txt File.............................................................................. 71
2 Free Robots.txt File Management Tools ......................................................................... 71
How To Use Meta Refresh Tag & JavaScript Redirect ......................................................... 72
How To Change Header Font Sizes With CSS .................................................................... 73
How To Remove The Line Underneath Links With CSS ....................................................... 74
How To Change A Link Color With CSS ............................................................................. 74
How To Add Cascading Style Sheet Commands To A Webpage........................................... 74
How To Set Cascading Style Sheet Attributes For Use On All Webpages .............................. 75
Web Browser Support Problems For Cascading Style Sheets............................................... 76
What Are Site Maps?....................................................................................................... 76
9 Tips On How To Create Optimized Site Maps.................................................................. 76
How To Optimize Image Map Links .................................................................................. 78
How To Optimize A Splash Page ...................................................................................... 78
5
How To Get Higher Rankings In Alphanumerically-Ranked Web Directories.......................... 79
ASCII Chart (Alphanumeric Characters) ............................................................................ 80
Alphanumeric Rankings In The Open Directory Project....................................................... 81
Alphanumeric Rankings In The Yahoo! Directory ............................................................... 81
How To Optimize JavaScripts In HTML Documents ............................................................ 81
How To Optimize Frame Based Webpages ........................................................................ 83
How To View The Source Code Of Fast Vanishing Webpages.............................................. 84
Can Bold & Strong Text Improve Search Engine Rankings? ................................................ 84
Should You Hide Keywords In Comment Tags? ................................................................. 85
Should You Hide Keywords In Hidden CSS Layers? ............................................................ 85
Should You Hide Keywords in Hidden Value Form Tags? .................................................... 86
Should You Hide Keywords In Style Tags? ........................................................................ 86
Slightly More Advanced Search Engine Optimization Techniques ...............................87
How To Use Doorway Pages To Get Top Rankings............................................................. 88
What’s The Difference Between Hallway & Doorway Pages? ............................................... 90
How To Get Search Engines To Index Dynamically Generated Webpages ............................ 91
How To Turn Dynamically Generated Pages Into Search Engine Friendly Pages.................... 91
Major Search Engines That Index Dynamically Generated Pages ......................................... 93
What Is Cloaking? .......................................................................................................... 93
How Does Cloaking Work?............................................................................................... 93
Why Do Search Engine Optimizers Use Cloaking? .............................................................. 94
What Features Should You Look For In Cloaking Software? ................................................ 94
2 Cloaking Tools............................................................................................................. 95
Why I Believe Themed Websites Do NOT Improve Search Engine Rankings ..............96
What Are Themed Websites?........................................................................................... 96
Search Engines Are Blind To Themed Websites! ................................................................ 97
What Do The Search Engines Think Of Themed Websites?................................................. 97
Examples Of Webpages That Outrank Themed Websites.................................................... 99
How To Increase Your Site’s Link Popularity For Higher Search Engine Rankings....102
How To Improve Your Incoming Link Popularity Rating.....................................................103
How To Improve Your Internal Link Popularity Rating .......................................................106
Do Outgoing Links Improve Link Popularity? ....................................................................106
How To Construct Links For Optimum Results ..................................................................108
Incoming Links Commonly Mistaken As Link Popularity Boosters........................................108
What Are Link Farms & Why You Must Avoid Them At All Costs .........................................109
Useful Software For Boosting Your Link Popularity............................................................109
How To Contact & Request Links From Link Exchanges Partners........................................110
Sample Reciprocal Link Request Email Subject Titles ........................................................111
Sample Reciprocal Link Request Email You Can Use..........................................................111
How To Create Reciprocal Links For Optimum Results.......................................................113
6
How To Improve Your Link Popularity With Mini-Sites .............................................114
What Are Mini-Sites?......................................................................................................114
How To Cross Link Your Mini-Sites ..................................................................................115
What Is Site Popularity? .................................................................................................116
What Is Click Through Popularity?...................................................................................116
How To Submit To Search Engines.............................................................................118
How To Compose Search Engine Listing Titles & Descriptions............................................119
How To Manually Submit Your Website To Search Engines................................................120
Search Engine Submission Software That Automates The Submission Process ....................121
Online Search Engine Submission Services That Automates The Submission Process ...........122
How Long Does It Take To Get Indexed?.........................................................................123
How To Submit To Foreign Search Engines......................................................................123
How To Submit To Web Directories............................................................................125
How To Compose Web Directory Listing Titles & Descriptions............................................126
Examples Of Successful Web Directory Listing Titles & Descriptions ...................................129
How To Select The Most Appropriate Web Directory Category ...........................................130
7 Web Directory Submission Tips ....................................................................................132
121 Search Engines & Web Directories That Accept Free Site Submissions..............134
How To Monitor Your Search Engine Rankings..........................................................137
How To Monitor Search Engine Rankings Manually ...........................................................137
Search Engine Ranking Software.....................................................................................137
Free Online Search Engine Ranking Tool..........................................................................138
Search Engine Results Do Vary .......................................................................................138
Search Engine Relationship Charts ............................................................................139
Main Search Engines......................................................................................................139
Google ........................................................................................................................141
What Is Google PageRank? ............................................................................................143
How To Optimize Your Webpages For Higher Rankings In Google......................................144
A Simple Technique That Gets A Brand New Website Indexed By Google Within 24 Hours ...145
Two Other Ways To Getting Indexed By Google ...............................................................147
How To Stop Google Caching Your Website .....................................................................148
What Is The Google Toolbar? .........................................................................................149
What Is The Google Everflux?.........................................................................................150
What Is The Google Dance? ...........................................................................................150
What’s All The Fuss About The Google "Florida" Update? .........................................151
Google Adds Word Stemming (Variations) .......................................................................153
How To Determine If Google Has Banned Your Webpages ................................................154
How To Get Back Into Google’s Good Books, If The Google “Florida” Update Devastated Your
Rankings ......................................................................................................................154
Quick Tips For Improving Your Google Rankings ..............................................................158
7
Yahoo! Search.............................................................................................................163
Yahoo! Search Submissions ............................................................................................164
Yahoo! Search – Free Submission ...................................................................................164
Yahoo! Search – Paid Inclusion.......................................................................................165
What Are The Yahoo! Site Match Content Guidelines?.......................................................166
Does Yahoo! Site Match Guarantee Inclusion In Yahoo! Search?........................................168
Why Is My Site In The Yahoo! Directory, But Not In The Yahoo! Search Results? ................168
My Site Has Been Excluded From Yahoo! Search. How Can I Find Out Why?.......................169
My Site Has Been Excluded From Yahoo! Search. Where Can I Appeal Against This Ban?.....169
How To Submit Not-For-Profit Sites To The Yahoo! Public Site Match Program....................169
I’ve Heard That Yahoo! Excludes Affiliate Sites From Its Yahoo! Search Results - Is That True?
....................................................................................................................................170
Yahoo!’s Own Search Engine Ranking Tips.......................................................................170
MSN Search (Beta) .....................................................................................................172
Other Major Search Engines.......................................................................................174
Teoma Search Engine (Ask Jeeves) .................................................................................174
Top 3 Web Directories ................................................................................................176
How Web Directory Listings Play A Big Part In Your Search Engine Success ........................176
Yahoo! Directory ...........................................................................................................177
Open Directory Project (ODP) Index................................................................................180
LookSmart Directory ......................................................................................................182
Top 2 Web Portal Search Engines ..............................................................................185
AOL Search...................................................................................................................185
Netscape Search............................................................................................................186
Search Engines That Offer Paid Inclusion Programs .................................................187
Ask Jeeves Site Submit Program .....................................................................................187
Yahoo! Express .............................................................................................................188
How To Advertise In Search Engines & Web Directories ...........................................189
Search Engines That Offer Banner Advertisements ...........................................................189
Premium Search Engine Advertising ..........................................................................191
Google Advertising.........................................................................................................191
MSN Featured Sites .......................................................................................................191
Yahoo! Sponsor Listings .................................................................................................191
Top 5 Pay Per Click Search Engines ...........................................................................193
Overture .......................................................................................................................195
Google AdWords............................................................................................................197
How Google AdWords Ads Are Ranked ............................................................................200
21 Google AdWords Optimization Tips .............................................................................200
2 Ways Non-US Residents Can View US-Only Google AdWords Ads....................................204
FindWhat......................................................................................................................207
8
Espotting (Europe) ........................................................................................................208
Enhance Interactive (Formerly Ah-Ha).............................................................................210
How To Optimize Pay Per Click Search Engine Ads....................................................211
17 Pay Per Click Search Engine Optimization Tips .............................................................211
Google AdWords Can Bill Twice For One Click Through! ....................................................214
How To Minimize Bid Gaps .............................................................................................214
Top 10 Price Comparison Engines ..............................................................................217
BizRate/Shopzilla ...........................................................................................................217
Ciao .............................................................................................................................218
DealTime/Shopping.com ................................................................................................218
Froogle (Beta)...............................................................................................................219
Kelkoo ..........................................................................................................................219
MSN Shopping...............................................................................................................220
mySimon ......................................................................................................................221
PriceGrabber .................................................................................................................221
PriceSCAN.....................................................................................................................221
Yahoo! Shopping ...........................................................................................................222
Price Comparison Engines Compared Side-By-Side ...........................................................223
Top 2 Metasearch Engines..........................................................................................225
Dogpile.........................................................................................................................225
Mamma ........................................................................................................................227
Search Engine Optimization Forums & Support Sites ................................................228
Top 3 Search Engine Discussion Forums ..........................................................................228
2 Search Engine Optimization Usenet Newsgroups ...........................................................228
Free Tool Monitors 70 SEO & Internet Marketing Forums ..................................................229
Pay Per Question Site ....................................................................................................229
Pay Per Minute Advice Site .............................................................................................230
Students’ Questions & My Answers............................................................................231
22 New Students’ Questions & My Answers......................................................................236
Final Words… .............................................................................................................246
Feedback & Testimonials Are Most Welcome!...................................................................247
My Other Websites ........................................................................................................248
Glossary ......................................................................................................................249
0-9...............................................................................................................................249
A..................................................................................................................................249
B..................................................................................................................................253
C..................................................................................................................................256
D .................................................................................................................................260
E..................................................................................................................................262
F..................................................................................................................................263
9
G .................................................................................................................................265
H .................................................................................................................................266
I ..................................................................................................................................268
J ..................................................................................................................................270
K..................................................................................................................................271
L ..................................................................................................................................272
M .................................................................................................................................273
N .................................................................................................................................277
O .................................................................................................................................278
P..................................................................................................................................279
Q .................................................................................................................................282
R .................................................................................................................................283
S..................................................................................................................................284
T..................................................................................................................................290
U .................................................................................................................................292
V..................................................................................................................................293
W.................................................................................................................................293
X..................................................................................................................................295
Y..................................................................................................................................296
Z..................................................................................................................................296
10
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
If you’ve never heard of me prior to purchasing this book, that’s OK. I try to keep a low
profile. I do not believe in bragging about one’s success, except to your grandkids.
Anyhow, I thought it would be a good idea to tell you a little bit about myself so that
you know who you’re listening to. So here’s a short bio of my online career.
I first discovered the internet way back in 1997. During the past 7 years, I have gained
a lot of experience and knowledge in the internet marketing and search engine
optimization field. Allow me to share some of it with you…
When I discovered the internet, I quickly realized the potential of it as a marketing
medium. I also realized the opportunity for almost anyone, regardless of sex, color,
race, nationality, education, or financial situation, to build a successful business.
For 10 months, I literally read just about everything I could lay my hands on that was
related to web design, e-commerce and internet marketing.
I somehow found the time in between the lunch and evening shift at the restaurant I
was working at. You see, I was a waiter before I became a highflying, internationally
renowned internet geek. I even dabbled a bit with the wok in the kitchen. But I soon
discovered I was no Wolfgang Puck. Luckily for my customers, I no longer cook.
Anyway, I soon discovered that there were few sites dedicated to teaching internet
novices, including me, how to build and market their own websites. At least that was the
case back in 1998.
So in October of that year I developed my first website, eBoz.com to help people new to
the internet build and market their own website. Why eBoz?. Well, “e” represents
ecommerce. And “Boz” was a play on “Boss.” eBoss.com was taken, so I ended up with
eBoz.
You can view an archive of the original site at:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.eboz.com
I worked tirelessly often putting in 14-16 hour days, 7 days a week to build and promote
eBoz. The site became very popular, very quickly. On May 7, 1999, Windows Magazine
acknowledged eBoz! as one of the "101 Best Business Sites."
11
With only a small marketing budget, I developed and implemented a low-cost online
marketing plan that turned a website with no traffic into one with over 100,000 monthly
unique visitors and 750,000 monthly page views respectively within a few months. I also
wrote the eBoz Newsletter which quickly grew to over 9,000 subscribers.
By then, I was making enough money that I could afford to quit my slave job… I mean
day job to concentrate on my internet business full time. I also expanded eBoz by
developing two complementary sites.
I wrote dozens of articles on web design, e-commerce and internet marketing for my
sites and many of the top webmaster and marketing sites and newsletters at the time
decided to publish some of my articles; Associate-It.com, Internet.com, SmartAge, and
WebDeveloper.com to name a few.
Soon, my sites caught the attention of a fast growing start up, iBoost Technology, Inc. - backed by the Softbank Venture Capital group -- based in Los Angeles, California.
SoftBank are the same guys who backed some internet companies you may have heard
of; Yahoo! and eTrade to name two.
In May, 2000, my three sites were acquired by iBoost Technology. As part of the deal, I
was asked to move to Los Angeles for the position of Editor-in-Chief and manage a team
of 5 writers and editors.
As Editor-in-Chief, I managed the development of the new iBoost.com website and 5
newsletters. With great support from the team, I combined a number of existing iBoost
sites with three recent acquisitions, eBoz.com, Associate-It, and W3Nation.com, to
create a network of over 1,000 webpages.
Senior management were impressed with my work and in October asked me to move to
the marketing department to take charge of the company's online marketing efforts.
Naturally, I obliged. Over the next few months, I single-handedly optimized over a
thousand webpages for the major search engines and managed all pay per click ad
campaigns for the company.
In total, I achieved over 2,000 top 30 positions in major search engines and web
directories. This helped iBoost.com's traffic grow by over 33%, which represented an
additional 400,000 visitors and 8 million page views a month.
12
In January, 2001, senior management again went knocking on my door and asked me
to help out the Media Brokerage division by taking over the position of Head Media
Planner and Buyer. Again, I obliged... with a smile. ;o)
For the next couple of months, I managed all the media buys for the funniest team of
sales guys I had ever had the good fortune to work with. Through relationships I
developed with many of the top internet sites, search engines, and search portals, I
completed over $1 million worth of ad buys for the company.
Unfortunately, the company didn't really get off the ground even though it went through
two rounds of VC funding.
In March the company hired a new President. Unfortunately, I didn’t agree with the
direction the new President was taking the company, so I decided it was time to jump
off the crazy train before the company hit the last stop. At the end of March, I resigned
from the company. It went up in smoke shortly after that.
Later that year, one of the managers from iBoost decided to set up a new company. But
for some crazy reason he decided to use my old domain name, eBoz.com! I guess it
wasn't such a bad name after all. So the site is still around, but I have nothing to do
with it nowadays.
After I left, it took me a while to get back onto my feet. I was burnt out. That happens a
lot in internet companies. I guess the 16 hour days caught up with me.
Luckily for me, I stumbled upon the idea of specializing in search engine optimization.
After months of research and writing, I wrote this book. It is the culmination of over 5
years of search engine optimization knowledge and firsthand experience, and over 500
hours of intense research.
After I launched this book, I offered search engine marketing services for a few months.
But I soon realized that I could make more money and have a less stressful life by
optimizing my own websites (as opposed to client websites) and marketing other
people’s products. This is technically known as affiliate marketing in the industry.
Let me illustrate the power of affiliate marketing with a true story. Last December
(2003), I spent the first 10 days of the month in Sydney, Australia. I was there for a
friend’s wedding.
13
After returning home, I got the holiday blues. What with Christmas and the New Year
coming up, I had little appetite for working.
In fact, I ended up doing very little work that month. I think all I did was check my
email and take care of essential maintenance tasks. If I had to put a figure of how much
time I actually spent working that month, I would say I only really worked a few days
for the whole of December.
I wasn’t all that concerned as to how much I earned that month, because based on
previous months, I knew it wouldn’t vary by much. Yet amazingly when I calculated my
income at the end of the month, I discovered that my gross income had increased by
14.99% and my net income has increased by 31.01%, over the previous month! In fact,
it was my best ever month!
Affiliate marketing now accounts for over 88% of my income. The secret of affiliate
marketing is something known as… “passive income.”
If you are interested in discovering this amazing business opportunity, called affiliate
marketing, I recommend getting a copy of Google Cash. You can read my book review
at http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/google-cash.html
Hopefully I’m less of a stranger to you now, after listening to, or possibly sleeping
through, my life story.
OK, let’s get straight into the book…
14
WELCOME TO THE 6TH EDITION!
If you just purchased this book, let me start by thanking you for putting your faith in
me. I am most grateful. I am confident you will be delighted with your investment.
Please take a couple of minutes to read this introduction, as it contains some important
information.
Purchasing this book proves that you're serious about improving your website's traffic.
Congratulations on taking the first step!
I'm here to help you reach your goals. This book will provide you with the knowledge
you need to catapult your webpages to the top of the search engines.
Did you know I achieved over 2,000 top 30 search engine rankings for my last
company’s website? I stopped counting a long time ago, but I would estimate that I
must have obtained well over 5,000 top 30 rankings across the major search engines.
The best thing is that anyone can do it. Because if I (a high school dropout who
survived as a waiter for 9 years) can do it, then you can too!
I don’t tell you that to impress you, but to impress upon you what is possible, with the
right knowledge and tools.
How To Get The Most Out Of This Book
1. Read the entire book. Let me repeat that. READ THE ENTIRE BOOK! You got
that? Read it from cover to cover. You won’t absorb everything. That’s OK. Your
subconscious will. It never ceases to amaze me that people buy a self help book like this
one and don’t read it.
They write to me requesting a refund and complain that they couldn’t get any results
after applying the strategies outlined in the book. Yet when I check their website, I can
quickly see that they haven’t applied even the most basic SEO techniques.
If you don’t help yourself, then I can’t help you. So do yourself a favor - read the book,
will ya?!
2. Brush up on your HTML knowledge - Search engine optimization requires a basic
knowledge of HTML to manipulate the code. If you need to brush up on your HTML
knowledge, I recommend:
•
HTML HTML – This is another one of my websites. It’s a free 818-page tutorial
on HTML.
15
The URL of the website is:
http://www.html-html.com
--Important Note: I include URLs, otherwise known as webpage addresses,
throughout this book. You can easily spot them. They’re the BLUE links that
begin with “http://”. Simply click on a link and it will take you to the webpage in
your web browser.
If for whatever reason that doesn’t work, either copy and paste the URL, or type
the URL into the address bar of your web browser and hit the “Enter” button.
You will also find blue text links without “http://” at the beginning. They are
cross document links. When you click on such a link, it will take you to another
section of the book. Most ebook authors don’t use this system. I felt it was
required to give you maximum usability with the book. I hope you find it useful.
--3. Download a search engine optimization, submission and tracking program If you don't already have one installed on your computer, I highly recommend:
•
WebPosition Gold 3 – http://www.webpositiongoldpro.com
WebPosition Gold will help you to optimize your webpages, submit them to the search
engines, and track their rankings in the search engines. This way you can see how your
webpages are doing and know which pages you need to edit to improve rankings.
WebPosition Gold is very popular with search engine marketing professionals. If you hire
an SEO company to do your optimizing for you, you’ll often receive ranking reports
created by WebPosition Gold.
4. Start optimizing your webpages - If you are comfortable with HTML, browse the
“Table Of Contents” section and jump to the section that interests you most. Then
optimize your webpages with the knowledge you have gained from this book.
5. If you need assistance, visit the “Search Engine Optimization Forums &
Support Sites” section for resources that can provide help.
6. Test and monitor everything - Make notes and monitor everything you do and
every optimization strategy you use. Some optimization techniques may be
16
controversial. But I believe no form of marketing is set in stone. Be it direct mail, viral,
brand, on-/off-line, or search engine marketing. Only by monitoring and testing your
techniques can you see what works and what doesn't. Only by testing, can you improve.
There is no magic bullet in search engine marketing. And don’t expect to get free, hot
insider tips on websites and in forums. After all, fellow search engine marketers are
competing with you for the same top rankings you’re after. This is war. Don’t expect
your enemy to do you any favors. Because if they did, they’re basically shooting
themselves in the foot. And what intelligent person would do that.
Tips For Dealing With Broken Links On Any Website
Some URLs in this book contain upper and lowercase letters. Anything after the “.com”
(.net, .org, etc.) part of the domain is case sensitive. This means that if it’s uppercase
letter and you enter a lowercase letter, and vice versa, it won’t work. You must enter
the URL exactly as it is shown. The best way is to click on the link. It will take you to the
webpage online.
For example, the following all work without any problems:
directory.google.com
Directory.Google.com
DIRECTORY.GOOGLE.COM
The highlighted part of the following URL must be entered as shown.
directory.google.com/Top/Computers/
If you change the capital “T” or “C” to lowercase, as show below, you will get a 404
page not found error:
directory.google.com/top/computers/
This rule applies in most websites.
If you do come across a broken link in this book, please report it to me by email at
[email protected].
17
The best way to find the correct page is to remove the last part of the URL to see if you
can hit a real page.
For example, if you come across a broken link with the following URL:
http://www.some-car-site.com/cars/ford/focus.html
You should remove the last part of the URL, “focus.html” to see if it hits a real page.
http://www.some-car-site.com/cars/ford/
If that doesn’t work, then remove another part of the URL and try again. Keep doing
this until you end up with just the domain name.
For example:
http://www.some-car-site.com/cars/ford/
http://www.some-car-site.com/cars/
http://www.some-car-site.com/
OK, thanks the end of the introduction. Once again, I thank you for investing in my
book. I am most grateful for your faith and trust in me.
I wish you unlimited success with your search engine marketing efforts!
With best regards,
Michael Wong
Search Engine Optimization Specialist
& Editor, Mike’s Marketing Tools.
http://www.Mikes-Marketing-Tools.com
P.S. Here’s a search engine optimization software program that turns SEO novices into
experts overnight!
The Internet Business Promoter (IBP) offers 3 useful search engine optimization
tools:
•
•
•
Top 10 Optimizer
Keyword Density Analyzer
Ranking Reporter
18
Both the Keyword Density Analyzer and Ranking Reporter are very comprehensive and
offer many options. But what perked my interest and makes it stand out from the crowd
is the Top 10 Optimizer tool.
It produces a comprehensive, easy-to-follow, checklist of recommended optimization
advice based on the top 10 rankings, for the keyword phrase you are targeting.
This is how it works:
1. You enter the webpage you want to optimize, and a keyword phrase.
2. Select a search engine from a very comprehensive list of over 250 engines
worldwide.
3. Click the “generate report” button to generate a report in HTML, PDF or text
format.
The software then compares 75 factors that can influence the ranking of your webpage.
The clever part is that the program compares the webpage you want to optimize with
the top 10 ranked webpages, for the keyword phrase you entered.
This is good thinking. After all if you can make your webpage fit into the “pattern” that a
search engine has decided makes the top 10 ranked webpages, then yours should surely
also find its place within the top 10.
After a brief 10-20 second pause you get a 36 (yes, thirty six!) page optimization
checklist report. Not only does it report findings from the top 10 pages, but also makes
suggestions on what you should change on your page to improve your rankings.
By the way, if your webpage is already ranked in the top 10, then IBP only takes into
account webpages ranked above yours for compiling its report. It ignores webpages
ranked below yours.
The report is not only comprehensive, but goes into the kind of detail that would take a
professional optimizer quite a few hours to produce. You then simply go through the
checklist and make the appropriate changes to your webpage.
It’s difficult to express to you how promising the Internet Business Promoter looks. You
really have to see for yourself. It’s so simple, even a complete computer novice can use
it.
For more information and to download a free trial version, visit the webpage below. I
highly recommend it!
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/cgi-bin/g/g.cgi?l=b-ibp
One word of caution. IBP is a promising piece of software. But there’s no guarantee that
IBP will produce top rankings. Like I said earlier, there is no magic bullet in search
engine marketing. Because if IBP were the magic bullet, we would all use IBP to
19
optimize our pages and be ranked #1 for every keyword we want. But we know that
just can’t happen.
20
WHAT’S NEW IN THIS 6TH EDITION?
The latest edition offers almost 30 pages of new and updated content.
I have updated the Major Search Engine News Headlines section and the MSN Search
Beta section. Also added Yahoo!'s own search engine ranking tips; and a new section,
Top 10 Price Comparison Engines. Lastly, I’ve added 22 new students’ questions and my
answers.
Click on a (blue) headline to jump straight to the topic you’re interested in.
HOT OFF THE PRESS: Google AdWords Announcement:
Affiliate Policy Change
On Friday, January 7, Google finally confirmed months of rumors of a major affiliate
policy change affecting Google AdWords. Click the link above for full details and
recommended action to combat the policy changes.
Major Search Engine News Headlines
The search engine industry changes too quickly. It’s so quick, I can barely keep up with
it. As such I have decided to only mention the most important search engine
developments since the last update. For more news, I suggest you visit some of the
many search engine news sites.
MSN Search (Beta)
On November 11, 2004, Microsoft announced the launch of the beta version of its new
MSN Search service, which is set to replace Yahoo! Search. The new MSN Search
includes a new search engine, index and crawler; all built from the ground up on
Microsoft technology.
Yahoo!'s Own Search Engine Ranking Tips
Yahoo! offers some search engine ranking tips in its, "How do I improve the ranking of
my web site in the search results?" Help section. For your convenience, I have
republished the tips in this book.
21
Top 10 Price Comparison Engines
Price comparison shopping search engines enable buyers to shop around by comparing
merchants and products by price, feature, shipping cost, tax, and product availability.
Here's a roundup of the most popular, general purpose shopping and price comparison
search engines.
22 New Students' Questions & My Answers
I’ve added 22 new questions and answers sent in by students.
Here’s a sample of the questions:
•
If you were going to buy one program; either Internet Business Promoter (IBP)
or Optilink, which would you buy?
•
You mentioned the Internet Business Promoter (IBP) in your ebook. My question
is, if I'm too lazy to go through your ebook (sorry, I am lazy), can I just use IBP
to optimize my website?
•
Many search engine gurus advocate mini-sites. In your experience, can a minisite rank high in search engines for keywords with medium competition?
•
Currently my website is ranked 36 on Yahoo!, but it's still not listed on Google.
My website is 2 months old. Am I being too impatient here?
•
I've been making changes to my webpages, checking the next day, making more
changes, and so on… but I haven't noticed any improvements to my rankings.
What am I doing wrong?
•
My competitors are using all kinds of illegal SEO tricks to get top rankings.
Should I try these tricks to get top rankings?
That’s it for this update. I hope you find it useful.
22
MAJOR SEARCH ENGINE NEWS HEADLINES
The search engine industry changes too quickly. It’s so quick, I can barely keep up with
it.
As such, I have decided to only mention the most important search engine
developments since the last update, and provide you with some of the best resources
for a good roundup of the latest news and views in the search engine marketing
industry.
Yahoo’s Overture Extends Sponsored Search Relationship With MSN Through
June 2006
Overture will continue to provide its sponsored search results to MSN sites in the U.S.
and Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia through June 2006. The previous agreement ran
through June 2005. (November 17, 2004)
Press Release: http://www.corporateir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=OVER&script=410&layout=6&item_id=646583
Website: http://www.overture.com
Special Offer: http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-768873-9837879
(Sign up and get a $25 credit for Self Serve or $50 off the Fast Track program.)
Microsoft Launches Beta Version of New MSN Search Service
MSN finally debuted a beta version of its new MSN Search service with an index of 5
billion web documents. The global beta version of MSN Search is available for public use
in the U.S. and worldwide in 26 markets and 11 languages. (November 11, 2004)
Press Release: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/nov04/1111SearchBetaLaunchPR.asp
Website: http://beta.search.msn.com
Google Announces Desktop Search
Google launches a beta desktop search application that enables users to search their
email, files, web history, and chats on their computers. Google searches applications
such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, AOL
Instant Messenger, and Text files. (October 14, 2004)
Press Release: http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/desktopsearch.html
Website: http://desktop.google.com
(I tried installing Google Desktop Search on my PC, but was told I needed to uninstall a
number of programs to complete the installation. This was a case of too much effort,
not enough reward, so I gave up on it. Hopefully Google will fix this problem in future
versions.)
23
Yahoo! Launches Local Search Beta
Users can now find local businesses and services, from an index of 14 million
businesses, around an address or zip code. You can refine searches by distance,
category, rating, and price. Once you found the business, you can use SmartView, which
is basically a map finder, to find other local attractions. (August 3, 2004)
Press Release: http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/pr/release1175.html
Website: http://local.yahoo.com
Overture Launches Local Sponsored Search Listings To Leading Websites
Overture's Local Match listings appear in the U.S. on Yahoo!, MSN, ESPN.com,
InfoSpace, Dogpile, WebCrawler, MetaCrawler, Excite, and Switchboard.com. (June 28,
2004)
Press Release: http://www.corporateir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=OVER&script=410&layout=6&item_id=585653
Website: http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/lm.jhtml
Special Offer: http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-768873-10369773
(Sign up using the special offer link and get a $20 bonus credit.)
Search Engine News Resources
For a good roundup of all the latest news and views in the search engine marketing
industry, I recommend the following resources:
Michael Wong’s Blog - This is my personal blog. My life is so busy these days, I can
rarely find the time to update it. But I still do add important posts to the blog whenever
I get the chance.
http://www.michaelwong.com
Marketing Forum Watch – This is another one of my sites. Marketing Forum Watch
doesn’t exactly offer news. What it does offer is searchable headlines from over 65 of
your favorite internet marketing and search engine discussion forums and message
boards, updated every 5 minutes.
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/marketing-forum/
Google Blog – The official Google Blog. Get the latest word direct from the Googleplex
about new technology, hot issues, and the wide world of search.
24
http://www.google.com/googleblog/
Yahoo! Search Blog – This is the official Yahoo! blog which takes a look inside the
world of search from the people of Yahoo!.
http://www.ysearchblog.com
MSNSearch’s WebLog – This is the official MSN Search blog.
http://blogs.msdn.com/msnsearch/
ClickZ News – Offers search engine, internet marketing and ecommerce news.
http://www.clickz.com/news/
ResearchBuzz - Covers the world of Internet research. It provides updates on search
engines, web directories, new data managing software, and browser technology.
http://www.researchbuzz.org
Search Engine Journal – Covers search engine news.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com
Search Engine Roundtable – Offers view on search engines and search engine
marketing by, supposedly, senior members of the major SEO forums on the Internet.
Upon inspection, most of the post seem to come from the editor of the site.
http://www.seroundtable.com
25
WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING?
Why Is Search Engine Marketing Important?
Search engines are the starting point for most people when they’re looking for
something on the internet. This is why the most popular websites are search engines
and web portals with search functions.
There are many statistics that illustrate the importance of search engines as a method of
attracting traffic on the internet:
•
24 percent of marketers said that over three-quarters of their traffic came from
search engine referrals. [CyberAtlas Research - Aug 21, 2001]
•
Nearly 60 percent of students reported using a search engine when picking an
online retailer. [NACS - Mar 7, 2001]
•
Study found that 55 percent of online purchases were made on sites found
through search listings. [NPD Group - Feb 14, 2001]
•
Search engines were used by 86 percent of users in Switzerland. [Wemf AG
Research - Ag 31, 2000]
•
Over 80 percent of internet users reach sites through search engines. [Forrester
Research - Jul 5, 2000]
•
Nearly 48 percent of websites depend on search engine listings for the majority
of their traffic and over 70 percent of all websites generate at least 20 percent of
their traffic from search engine listings. [NetGambit - July 14, 1997]
Personally, over 90% of my network of websites’ traffic comes from search engines. So
you can see just how important search engines are as a source of visitors.
26
What Is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves making webpages more search engine
friendly to promote them as the most relevant solutions for the search engines’ users.
The improvements can mean the difference between achieving top rankings, which can
result in thousands of monthly visitors, and being lost in oblivion.
All too often SEO is an after-thought for most site owners and web designers. SEO
should play a major part of a website, even before it’s built. You should incorporate SEO
in the planning stage, during the design process and after the site is launched.
Search engine optimization can and should play a major part in the decisions you make
in the following areas:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Domain name
Site structure
Structure of your site network
Site design
Site navigation
Site topics
Headings
Sub-headings
Page content
Links
Site usability
Site accessibility
Why Is Search Engine Optimization Important?
Search engine optimization is basically about following search engine rules. If your
webpage fits the criteria that a search engines are looking for in determining the most
relevant webpage for a search query, it will reward you with a top ranking.
Search engine optimizers simply modify webpages to fit these criteria. They give
webpages a better chance of being selected by the search engines as the most relevant
page for a particular search query.
27
Web pages that aren’t designed with search engine optimization in mind can quite
innocently break a rule that search engines consider as spam. One example is using a
Meta refresh tag to redirect visitors to another page. Search engines will either ignore or
throw out the offending page.
Should You Outsource Your SEO Campaign, Or Use An
In-House Solution?
Should you outsource, or dedicate someone in-house to your SEO campaigns? That is a
good question. The answer is it all depends on the resources available.
If you’re a small company, then it probably isn’t feasible to hire a full-time employee for
SEO purposes.
Since you’re reading this book, I suspect that you may be the person who’s responsible
for the SEO activities in your business. If that is the case, ignore the rest of this chapter.
Instead jump straight to the next chapter and read the rest of this book.
But if your company has the resources, I would always recommend dedicating at least
one employee to SEO for the following reasons:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
More economical, especially for larger sites with thousands of products or pages.
The search engine optimizer is 100% dedicated to the success of your site. They
don’t have to spread their time and effort between numerous clients.
You have full control of what you want and don’t want. It’s quite common for
professional search engine optimizers to stipulate that pages must not be
changed as it could affect the results.
Immediate attention to newly created pages.
Closer working relationship between optimizer and (in-house) web design team.
An in-house optimizer would have a better understanding of his/her company’s
products than an outsourced optimizer.
You own 100% of the work. It has been known for SEO companies to hold
clients to “ransom” by increasing their charges. If the client refuses to pay, the
SEO company threatens to offer the search engine positions to their competitors.
But you must make sure the employee has the skill and experience to handle the task.
28
All too often, companies find someone in-house who thinks they are up to the task,
because they had read a book on SEO. Slowly they realize that the person neither has
the skill, nor the experience, to achieve the success they expected.
Has this happened to your company? If you are experiencing that now, then maybe it’s
time to out-source the work to a professional.
29
HOW TO DESIGN A WEBSITE WITH SEARCH
ENGINE OPTIMIZATION IN MIND
How To Incorporate Search Engine Optimization Into
The Website Planning Stage
Search engine optimization (SEO) should play a major part in the planning of any
website. The sooner you incorporate SEO into your website, the better.
All too often, people only think about SEO after they have built and launched their site.
By then they would have lost a lot of SEO time and may have made decisions that are
detrimental to their SEO efforts.
So what part does SEO play in the planning stage of a website?
EVERY PART!
Let’s quickly run through them now. You will find more in-depth information on each
topic later on in the book.
Website Domain Name
Search engines do take into account keywords in the domain name. So I highly
recommend registering a domain name containing your most important keywords.
However it is also important that the domain name is memorable and brandable. Please
avoid domain names like, “AAA1-Cheap-Domain-Names-Registrations.com.”
Website Structure
A website should be structured for optimum usability and linkability.
The usability of a website is essential to the success of a website. It doesn’t matter how
great your content is, if your visitors have problems or get frustrated trying to find the
information they’re searching for. Typically, the usability of a website is managed by the
web designer.
30
Linkability refers to the internal linking structure of a website. It is vitality important that
webpages are linked in such a way that it maximizes the Google PageRank of each
webpage, because the rankings of each page depend on it.
This is why I recommend employing search engine optimization strategies as soon as
you start planning your website.
How To Incorporate Search Engine Optimization Into
Your Website Design
Search engine optimization should also play a major part in a website’s design. Let’s
quickly look at each part of the web design process.
Website Design
If you’re thinking of building a site that uses fancy multimedia special effects, such as
Flash, you may like to reconsider.
Like I said earlier, search engines rely on the keywords in a site for categorization. Flash
is mainly used for entertainment and lack content. As such search engines have decided
not to index Flash files. This is why you rarely find Flash pages with minimal text, ranked
high in the search engines.
Stick to basic HTML if you want to get top rankings. You can use other languages such
as ASP and Cold Fusion, but make sure they are created using search engine friendly
URLs and links.
Website Navigation
Site navigation is one area that few web designers worry about, with regards to search
engine optimization.
For example, some search engines don’t crawl deeper than the top two or three levels of
a website. So unless you use SEO techniques to help the search engine spider go deeper
than the top levels of your site, your lower level pages may never get indexed.
31
For example:
http://dir.yahoo.com/ (Level 1)
http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/ (Level 2)
http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/Medicine/ (Level 3)
http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/Medicine/Andrology/ (Level 4)
Search engine spiders that don't index more than the top 3 levels will not index pages
starting with level 4 downwards.
The best way to getting all your pages indexed is to lead search engine spiders to all the
major areas of your site. To do this, use a site map. Visit the “What Are Site Maps?”
section for more information.
Website Categories
To attract the most number of targeted visitors, you must offer products, services and
content that people want or need. That’s obvious right?
So you must choose the right topics to target when creating your site. Split your site up
into the wrong categories, or not knowing what categories to target, could cost you a lot
of potential visitors and customers.
For example, let’s say your website sells baby products. Did you know that more people
search for baby names than baby products?
With this knowledge you should create a resource to attract these people. After all, if
someone is interested in baby names, there’s a good chance they will also be interested
in baby products, right?
Good topics include major product categories, as well as major brand names. Some
people may search for a digital camera by entering “digital camera” into a search
engine. Whereas others may know of the brand they want and enter the brand name,
such as “Canon digital camera.” You should create categories that cater to both these
types of search engine users.
32
Webpage Content
The content of a page is the most important aspect of search engine optimization. It is
the keywords contained within the page content that makes or breaks a page’s chance
of top search engine rankings.
Let’s take the two extremes.
•
A webpage has no text whatsoever, as in the case of some Flash pages. Search
engines will not find any keywords to index.
•
A webpage contained lots of text, with dozens, even hundreds, of different
keywords on different topics. Search engines would find it difficult to categorize
the page, as there are simply too many competing keywords.
As you can see, not only is the content of a page is important, but the amount of
content as well.
The inherent problem with web designers is that they generally don’t understand, or
even care about, the importance of creating a search engine optimized website. After
all, they’re web designers, not search engine optimizers.
So it’s up to you to make sure your website designers produce a site that offers a
balance of aesthetically pleasing design and search engine marketability.
Links (Also known as Hyperlinks)
After the contents of a page, links is the most important aspect of search engine
optimization. Some would argue that links is more important. Maybe, but we could
argue that issue all day.
Search engines, such as Google, base their ranking system on the link structure of
websites. In general, the more links pointing to a site, the higher it should appear in the
search engines. But this isn’t always the case.
The link text is just as, if not more, important as the link itself. But web designers would
rather use aesthetically pleasing graphic buttons, than plain, simple text links. The
33
problem is that search engines cannot associate keywords with such links, as it doesn’t
have any link text to associate it with.
So make sure your website uses search engine optimized links.
Website Usability
As a professional search engine optimizer, I always try to advocate the benefits of
search engine optimization.
However, search engine optimization is only one factor that should play a part in a
website’s design. Arguably, a more important factor is the site’s usability. Search engine
optimization quite often goes against good site usability design.
For example, the use of frames can make a webpage more usable. However, search
engine optimizers always recommend against using frames, as search engines can’t
index framed pages as well as standard webpages.
Search engines are now claiming to be able to index frames based sites just as well as
standard webpages. But they’re still far from perfect.
So you have to look at what’s more important – the usability of a website or its search
engine rankings.
Website Accessibility
Web site accessibility is another factor that should play a part in a site’s design. Like site
usability, SEO can sometimes go against good site accessibility design.
For example, search engine optimizers sometimes use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to
control the look of headings and sub-headings by fixing the size. By doing that, visually
impaired users are unable to increase (or decrease) the font size within the web
browser.
A compromise has to be struck between site accessibility and search engine
optimization. It really depends on who your target audience are. If your target audience
is people with disabilities, then it should be common sense that site accessibility must
come before search engine optimization.
34
Incorporate Search Engine Optimization Into Your Internet Marketing Plan
Do you use any of the following marketing concepts to promote your site?
•
•
•
•
•
Affiliate marketing
Pay per click search engine advertising
Banner advertising
Newsletter advertising
Viral marketing
If you do, have you optimized the advertisement landing pages, or affiliate program
promotion pages for the search engines?
If not, why not? Search engine optimization should encapsulate EVERY aspect of your
marketing plan.
For example, by optimizing your affiliate program page, you may well find that a lot
more people sign up for your affiliate program, simply because more affiliate marketers
are finding your program via the search engines.
Well, that wraps up this section. I hope you now have a better understanding of why
and how you should use include search engine optimization into the website planning
and design process. Don’t leave search engine optimization until the site is finished and
ready for launch.
35
HOW TO TARGET THE RIGHT KEYWORDS FOR TOP
RANKINGS
What Is The Internet & How Do You Get Your Site Seen
In This Massive Library?
Before I show you how to target the right keywords, you have to understand what the
Internet is made up of.
The internet is basically an enormous disorganized library. There are millions of
websites, with billions of webpages, and gazillions of links and bytes of text.
Search engines are like librarians. They both try to organize the content, so that people
can find what they’re looking for, without too much effort.
With books, librarians have the benefit of bibliographic databases and the information
on the book covers to help them organize their library.
Search engines don’t have such a luxury. There aren’t databases of every single
webpage ever created. The internet is just too big, with too much information to index.
And it’s growing so quickly that even the search engines can’t keep up.
The only way search engines can try to organize the mass of information available on
the internet is by the use of keywords and hyperlinks.
It reasonable to conclude that if a webpage contains enough keywords related to a
certain topic, and enough webpages “recommend it” (link to it) as a source of
information for that particular topic, search engines will give it a high ranking.
Keywords Are The #1 Ranking Variable. Period.
Keywords are the most important element to achieving high search engine rankings.
Before you scream "You are wrong!" let me explain my reasons for that statement.
Yes, keywords are by no means the only relevant factor in achieving high search engine
rankings. Other factors such as link popularity, click through popularity, webpage age,
36
webpage size, the number and quality of competing pages, and numerous other factors
all contribute to a webpage's search engine ranking.
But if you study search engine optimization techniques, you will soon realize that the
majority of the optimization strategies involve the keywords contained within a
webpage, in one form or another.
Therefore, I think it is fair to say that keywords are the most important element to
achieving high search engine rankings. After all, if a page had no text at all, there is
nothing for a search engine to index.
The internet is mostly a textual medium. Yes, the internet does offer images, sound and
multimedia. But apart from images, most search engines currently do not index these
elements. Search engines concentrate on indexing text, simply because that is where
the money is, I guess. The internet is an ocean of text, and search engines are simply
made up of gazillions of bytes of text.
Why Web Designers Don’t Design Optimized Websites
The main problem with web designers is as their job title suggests, they are designers,
not marketers. Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not trashing web designers. They do a
terrific job. They are great at designing attractive looking sites, but not so good at
designing search engine friendly websites.
This is why I highly recommend including a search engine optimization specialist in the
design process. This person may be you.
Another problem for web designers is that they don’t know what keywords people
search for when looking for products, services or information related to what the
webpages offer. The variety of keywords used to search for the same product, service or
information is quite staggering.
For example, here is a sample of popular keyword phrases used by people searching for
information on search engine optimization:
•
•
•
search engine optimization
search engine ranking
search engine optimisation (notice the English - as opposed to American spelling of optimization?)
37
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
search engine placement
website optimisation
search engine positioning
website optimization (notice a space between “website”?)
high search engine ranking
webpage optimisation
search engine promotion
top search engine ranking
high search engine rankings
search engine rankings
better search engine placement
website optimisation
high search engine placement
search engines optimization
website optimization
search engine optimizations (notice the “s” at the end of optimization?)
high search engine positioning
You notice how many different variations people use to search for information on the
same topic? And that’s not the entire list!
The fact is unless a page contains all of the keywords in a search query; it has no
chance of appearing at the top of the rankings.
For example, “optimisation” is the English - as opposed to American - spelling of
“optimization.” Unless you have that spelling in your site, you will lose out on all the
English users who search for “search engine optimisation.”
So you see why it’s imperative that webpages must contain the keywords that people
search for.
Before webpages can be optimized, you must conduct research to determine which
keywords to target. This involves finding targeted keywords, determining their
popularity, assessing the amount of competition, and then deciding which keywords to
use in your webpages.
Luckily, there are a number of tools to help you find out what people are really
searching for.
38
How To Find Out Which Keywords You Should Target In
Your Webpages
Each webpage should concentrate on the following (in order of importance):
1. one keyword or keyword phrase matching the page content;
2. and most frequently used by the target audience;
3. and has the least number of competing pages in the search engines.
Admittedly this is not easy and is not always possible. And how do you go about finding
these “perfect” keywords?
Well, let's look at each element separately.
1. Target One Keyword Phrase On Each Page
It is essential that you concentrate on using one keyword or keyword phrase when
creating a page.
Why is that? Well, you want the search engines to consider that particular page as the
most relevant for the keyword you are targeting. So you may sprinkle the keyword
throughout the page, to inform the search engines that the page is important with
regards to the keyword you are targeting.
However, if the page contained half a dozen different keywords on different topics, a
search engine could easily consider that page as too broad to be the most relevant for
the keyword being targeted.
WARNING: Never add popular keywords to a page that have no relation to the page
content, in order to improve your search engine rankings. It doesn’t work. These
keywords will add nothing to your page’s relevance in the search engines, and you could
get your site banned as a result, which would be disastrous.
2. Five Ways To Find The Most Frequently Searched Keywords Your
Customers Enter In Search Engines
39
Here are a 5 ways to find out which keyword phrases are most searched for by your
target audience:
a. Research A Keyword Database – Use a keyword database to build a list of
the most frequently searched keywords. These sites collect and report the
number of searches for a particular keyword over a given time period. They offer
an amazing insight into what people are really searching for in the search
engines. I cannot stress enough of the importance of this research method.
b. Gather Search Engine Related Searches - Conduct research by finding out
what other related searches are popular in some of the major search engines.
Search engines such as AltaVista and Netscape offer a list of popular "related
search" keywords that their users have searched for. This provides a short, but
good list of popular related keyword phrases for you to consider.
c. Analyze Keywords Entered In Your Site Search Engine – I highly
recommend that you add site search engine to your website, if you don’t already
have one. By site search engine I mean a search engine that only searches your
website, not a search engine such as Google.
Once you have collected enough data, analyze the keywords entered to find out
exactly what your site visitors are searching for. You may find they are searching
for a product you don’t stock. If you do stock the product, then it may be a good
idea to add it to the home page, to ensure future visitors can easily find it.
d. Server Log File Analysis - Every time a visitor arrives at your site from a
search engine, your server log files record some vital information about the
visitor, including which keywords were used to find your site.
So it is essential that you analyze your server log files. This is the most accurate
method of measuring which keywords are being used to find your website. But
just because a particular keyword phrase does not appear in your server log
files, it does not mean people are not using it in the search engines. It could be
because none of your pages indexed in the search engines contains these
keyword phrases, which is why researching a keyword database is extremely
important.
40
e. Educated Guess – Lastly, you could come up with a few keywords that you
"think" your target audience are using to search for your products, service or site
information. Unless you also use the other four research methods, you will be
surprised just how many other keywords, or variations of your keyword phrases,
you will miss.
3. Target Keywords With The Least Number Of Competing Pages In The
Search Engines
Wordtracker is the only service that I know of that tells you which keywords have the
least number of competing pages in the search engines.
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/wordtracker.html
You simply enter some keywords and Wordtracker will return a list of keywords that any
bear relation to the keywords you entered, the search count, and the total number of
competing pages for the most popular search engines.
This kind of information can really help to keep you one step ahead of the competition. I
can’t recommend Wordtracker highly enough. It should be an essential part of your SEO
arsenal.
Why You Must Sprinkle Uncommon Keywords &
Synonyms In Your Pages
It goes without saying that less popular keywords will have less competition in the
search engines. Therefore, it is always a good idea to sprinkle a few uncommon
keywords and synonyms in your main body text.
It is vital that you include keywords that maybe less popular than the main keyword you
are targeting.
The reason is that if someone searches for a particular keyword phrase and the
keywords do not appear in your webpage, a search engine is unlikely to consider it as
41
relevant for the search query. The search engine is much more likely to rank another
webpage which does include all of the search keywords higher than yours.
For example, Google state that they only return webpages that contain all the words in a
search query.
http://www.google.com/help/basics.htm
What Is Keyword Frequency?
Keyword frequency refers to the number of times a keyword, or keyword phrase,
appears within a page. The theory is that the more times a keyword or keyword phrase
appears within a page, the more relevant the page is for that keyword. But do not
overdo it, by plastering a webpage with the targeted keyword. Search engines frown
upon keyword spamming.
What Is Keyword Density?
Keyword density is the ratio of targeted keywords contained within the total number of
indexable words within a page.
For example, if a page has 100 words in total and of those 100 words 3 words are your
targeted keywords, then the keyword ratio is 3% (3 divided by 100).
In general, I suggest using a keyword density ratio in the range of 1-3%. For specific
search engines, it depends on which search engine you are targeting, as different search
engines have different preferences regarding keyword density.
How To Calculate The Keyword Density Of A Webpage
You can determine your page's keyword density using the following procedure:
1. View a webpage in your web browser.
42
2. Right click on your mouse and select “Select All” to highlight the text. Right click
again and select “Copy” to copy the text to your clipboard.
3. Open your text or Word editor. Copy the text to the document.
4. Select the “Word Count” option (Most text editors have it). In Microsoft Word,
the option is under “Tools > Word Count…”
5. Run a find and replace procedure by putting your keyword phrase in both the
find and replace area. The select “Replace All.” In Microsoft Word, the option is
under “Edit > Replace…”
The program will search for your keyword phrase entered in the “Find” input box
and replace it with the keyword phrase in the “Replace” input box, which in our
case will be the same. It will tell you how many times the keyword has been
replaced.
6. Divide the keyword replaced count by the total number of words on your page to
determine your page's keyword density. For example, if your keyword replaced
count is 3 and there are 100 words on the page, your keyword density ratio is 3
percent.
Note: The above procedure is a very basic method of determining the keyword density
of a page. The problem is that there is no standard way to calculate keyword density for
all search engines.
Factors such as stop words, word stemming, and whether keywords in a particular
HTML tag are indexed all affect the total number of indexable words that a particular
search engine would end up with.
For a quicker method of calculating keyword density try this online tool, "Keyword
Count.”
http://www.keywordcount.com
However, even Keyword Count has its limitations. You can exclude certain stop words
and tags. But unless you know which stop words or tags a particular search engine
takes into account or ignores, you are unlikely to get a 100% accurate keyword density
count.
43
Useful Keyword Density Software
Here is a search engine optimization software program that features a keyword density
analyzer:
•
IBP - Internet Business Promoter - A search engine software program that
compares 75 ranking factors on the top 10 ranked sites for the keyword phrase
and search engine (from 250+) of your choosing, and produces a 36-page
checklist of recommended optimization advice to improve your rankings. It also
features a Keyword Density Analyzer. Operating Systems: Windows 98, Me, 2000
and XP. Cost: $99.95/$249.95/$499.95
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/directory/search-engineoptimization-software.html
What Is Keyword Prominence?
Keyword prominence is the concept that keywords placed near the beginning of a
webpage, paragraph, sentence, and HTML tags (Title, Meta Description, etc.) are given
more weight than the keywords on the rest of the page.
I do recommend that you try to make your most important keywords more prominent by
placing them near the beginning of a page, paragraph, sentence and HTML tag.
What Is Keyword Proximity?
Keyword proximity refers to the closeness between two or more keywords. In general,
the close the keywords are, the better.
For example:
We sell delicious biscuits for all breeds of dogs!
We sell the most delicious dog biscuits in the World!
44
All things being equal, if a search is for “dog biscuits," the second sentence is more
likely to rank higher, than the first, because its keywords are closer together.
So always try to sprinkle the most important keyword phrase/s, in addition to individual
keywords, in your text
Why You Must Add Important Keywords To The Title Tag
On Every Page
Major search engines give a great deal of relevance to keywords in the TITLE tag. As
such, you should always include the Title tag along with your most important keywords
on every page.
In general, I have found that short keyword rich title descriptions work best, as this
maximizes the keyword density.
Here are some examples of good title tags:
<TITLE>WebPosition Gold Review</TITLE>
<TITLE>Canon Digital Camera</TITLE>
<TITLE>Cheap Flights</TITLE>
And examples of poor title tags:
<TITLE>WebPosition Gold - Search Engine Optimization Software</TITLE>
<TITLE>Up To 50% Off Digital Cameras</TITLE>
<TITLE>Cheap flights, tickets, air travel and much more!</TITLE>
How To Improve Keyword Relevance In Body Text
To improve the relevance of keywords in body text:
•
place your important keywords near the beginning of the page, paragraph, or
sentence.
45
•
•
write the first paragraph as if it were the description for the page, because some
search engines extract the first couple of lines of a page to be used as the search
result description.
Spread your important keyword phrase/s and individual keywords throughout the
body text.
Why You Must Add Important Keywords To Headline
Tags
Major search engines place a deal of relevance on keywords in headline tags (H1, H2
and H3). Therefore you should always sprinkle keyword rich headline tags throughout a
webpage, starting with the largest headline tag (H1) and working your way down (H2,
H3, etc.).
Sample headline tags:
<H1>Search Engine Optimization</H1>
<H2>Keywords</H2>
<H3>Meta Tags</H3>
Why You Should Include Keyword-Rich Alt Tags With
Images
Always include a keyword-rich ALT tag to describe the contents of an image, as some
search engines index the keywords contained within the tag.
You will also provide a text description of the image to visitors with slow download
connections or have their images turned off. To ensure that the text is visible, you must
set the image's width and height dimensions.
The use of ALT tags also enables visually disabled visitors using screen readers or
reviewers to interpret the image on the screen. Images can be translated, only if there
is alternative text describing the image.
46
Also consider adding a period "." at the end of the ALT tag, so that someone hearing the
page can tell where one image stops and another starts.
Sample ALT tag:
<IMG SRC="image.gif" WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="100" ALT="Important
Keywords.">
How To Add Keywords To Link Titles
The “A HREF Title” attribute is used in text links to add information about the nature of
the link. In addition link titles may be spoken by a user agent for users with disabilities.
Sample link title:
<A HREF="ie.html" TITLE="Download Internet Explorer">Click here</a> to
download Internet Explorer.
Resulting link:
Click here to download Internet Explorer (This is not a real link)
When Internet Explorer users hover the mouse pointer over the link, the link title
appears in a tiny floating popup above the link. Don’t worry. It’s not the kind of popup
that gets blocked.
Which Search Engines Are Keyword Case Sensitive?
As far as I know, only a few Inktomi powered search engines are case sensitive. So, a
search query using, "keywords," "KeyWords" and "KEYWORDS" produces a different set
of search results.
Here is a table of Inktomi powered search engines that provide case-sensitive search
results.
47
Search Engine
LookSmart
MSN
Overture
Case-Sensitive?
Partial
Partial
Yes
All other major search engines are case insensitive.
Do Individual Keywords Improve Relevance?
There is evidence that using the individual words that comprise your keyword phrase in
a page improves relevancy.
You will also likely improve your relevancy for those individual words. For example, if the
keyword phrase is "cheap flights," you should sprinkle, "cheap" and "flights" individually
throughout the page.
How Word Stemming Can Improve Keyword Relevance
Word stemming is a concept used by some search engines to return search results that
include keywords that extend beyond what you searched for.
For example, a search with the keyword "cheap" might return results for, "cheaper" and
"cheapest."
In general, try to sprinkle the longer version of keywords throughout a page.
Please note that Google does not use word stemming. So make sure that all variations
of your important keywords are included in your webpage.
What Is Keyword Stuffing?
Keyword Stuffing is the repeating of keywords and keyword phrases in the main body
text and Meta tags. Most search engines consider keyword stuffing as spam, so you
48
should never stuff a page with irrelevant keywords in the vain hope of improving your
search engine rankings.
What Are Stop Words?
Most search engines ignore common words and characters such as "where" and "how,"
as well as certain single digits and single letters, because they tend to slow down a
search without improving the results. It also happens to help to save money by requiring
less processing power – the real reason why search engines ignore stop words.
Only full-text search engines, such as AltaVista and Google, index every single word on
a webpage.
As such, always try to use keywords instead of stop words as much as possible.
Admittedly, some people may find it a bit more difficult to read, but I think it is worth
the sacrifice, in the cause of trying to achieve higher search engine rankings.
297 Stop Words You Should Avoid
Here’s a list of the most commonly-used stop words (There are 297 words in the list):
a about above across after again against air all almost along also always an and
animals another answer any are around as asked at away back be because been
before began being below best better between big both boy boys but by called
came can change children city come could country day days did different do does
don't down during each earth end enough even ever every example eyes far
father feet few find first five following food for form found four from get give go
going good got great had hand hard has have he head hear heard help her here
high him himself his home house how however I if important in into is it it's its
just keep kind knew know land large last learn left let life light like line little live
long look looked made make man many may me means men might miles more
most mother Mr much must my name near need never new next night no not
now number of off often old on once one only or other others our out over own
page paper part parts people picture place play point put read right room said
same saw say school sea second see sentence set several she should show side
since small so some something sometimes soon sound still story study such sun
49
sure take tell than that the their them then there these they thing things think
this those thought three through time times to today together told too took top
toward try turned two under until up us use used using usually very want was
water way ways we well went were what when where which while white who
whole why will with without word words work world would write year years you
young your
Source: The American Heritage Word Frequency Book by John B. Carroll, Peter Davies,
and Barry Richman (Houghton Mifflin, 1971, ISBN 0-395-13570-2).
Do Keywords In Domain & File Names Affect Rankings?
Yes. Keywords in domain and file names can and do appear to help improve search
engine and web directory rankings. To illustrate the point, conduct the following
keyword searches (with or without quotation marks) on the Google search engine.
Search Query
free stuff
funny jokes
online casino
Search Results URL
http://www.google.com/search?q=free+stuff
http://www.google.com/search?q=funny+jokes
http://www.google.com/search?q=online+casino
Notice how many of the top ranked listings have one or both searched keywords in the
domain or file name? This is not to say you must include keywords in your domain
name. But if your keywords are highly competitive, then it could give you a bit of an
edge.
Does Separating Domain Name Keywords With Hyphens
Affect Rankings?
Yes, in my opinion. If you searched for the keywords in the previous section, did you
notice number of domain names that separate keywords with hyphens?
There are two schools of thought with hyphenated domain names.
50
1. Some SEO experts say keywords in the domain name need not be separated
by hyphens. In fact they go as far to say that the keywords are not important at
all, as the search engines don't take them into account.
2. I fall into the other school of thought. That is keywords in domain names
"can" make a difference and that they should be separated by hyphens. For this
reason you will notice that all of my domain names follow this principle.
Here are some reasons why I believe this:
1. According to Lycos, their spider will pay close attention to the URL - see my
article at http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/marketing-tips/lycos-insitepro.html
2. With some popular searches, many of the top ranked sites include hyphens in
their domain names.
For example:
http://www.google.com/search?q=online+gambling
http://www.google.com/search?q=online+casino
http://www.google.com/search?q=debt+consolidation
Of course you could say that all of the top ranked sites listed in the search results above
just happen to have hyphens in their domain names and that they would achieve the
same positions without hyphens. We will never know and we could argue that all day.
I go by what I see. And I see that many top ranked sites have hyphen/s in their domain
name.
I have been separating my domain name keywords with hyphens for quite a while now.
Search engine experts are divided on whether separating domain name keywords with
hyphens actually improve rankings. But I have my reasons for suspecting that it does.
I do suggest that you name your domain and file names with hyphens separating each
keyword, just to be on the safe side. After all, you would not want a search engine to
index the wrong words.
51
For example, what are the keywords in this domain name, "newshut.com"? Are they
"news," and "hut," or "new," and "shut"?
How about “sportsexchange.com”? Are the keywords “sports” and “exchange” or
“sport,” “sex” and “change”?
You can see how a search engine can easily index different keywords from those you
had in mind. If the domain name is, "news-hut.com," it would be clear to a search
engine exactly what the keywords are.
Case Study: Hyphenated Domains Out Pulls
Unhyphenated Domains By Almost 3 To 1!
I came across a case study in the I-Domain Discussion List of someone who actually
conducted tests on whether hyphenated domain names make any difference. You may
be surprised by the results!
The site owner tested hyphenated domains vs. unhyphenated domains between July
2001 and June 2002.
He bought 52 domain names related to the jewelry business, 26 hyphenated with the
corresponding 26 unhyphenated. He had 26 five-page websites designed, one for each
set of domain names. The only difference between the hyphenated and unhyphenated
design was the color scheme. The content was identical.
His sites were hosted on separate IP addresses for each of the domains. He ran the
initial design for six months, and then he switched color schemes and ran them for
another six months. The only promotion he did was to submit all 52 domains to search
engines once per month. He did not advertise any of the domains. He did not link any of
the domains to any external domain, each stood on its own.
And the result?
The hyphenated domains out pulled the unhyphenated domains by almost three to one!
The bottom-line is this...
52
It doesn't hurt to have the hyphen in there. And if any of the search engines do take
into account of separated keywords in the domain name (like Yahoo! used to do) then
we can only benefit from it, if we use hyphens in all our domain names.
Don't forget to register the unhyphenated version of the domain and forward the
domain to the hyphenated version that is hosted on your server. That way, if the user
forgets the hyphens they still end up on your site.
You may like to use a site I set up to register all my domains.
http://www.domain-registration-bank.com
http://www.domainregistrationbank.com (forwarded to the domain above)
The prices are extremely competitive and domain forwarding can be added on free of
charge. I set this site up so that I can pay the lowest fees possible to register domains
for myself. Of course you can use it too.
Those are the facts as I see it. It's up to you to make up your own mind which strategy
to use.
Do Keyword-Rich Subdomains Affect Rankings?
A subdomain is a domain that resides under your top-level domain name, but typically
acts like an independent domain.
For example:
subdomain.topdomain.com
I believe that keyword-rich subdomains can improve rankings. I have a good example of
a subdomain getting top rankings, mainly due to the important keyword being in the
subdomain. Regrettably, I can’t reveal the domain to you, for personal reasons. You’re
just going to have to take my word on this one. ;o)
53
How To Add Subdomains To A Website
Adding subdomains to point to a directory is a relatively simple procedure. Simply follow
these step-by-step instructions:
1. Change every link on the website that you want to turn into a subdomain from:
yourdomain.com/keywords/
to:
keywords.yourdomain.com
2. Contact your website and ask them to add the subdomain/s to your server.
That’s it! Simple isn’t it?
Notes:
•
Any decent web host will allow you to have an unlimited number of subdomains.
But there are some that do not allow subdomains, while others may charge a
fee. So always ask to see if subdomains are allowed and whether there is a fee.
•
Some web hosts only allow subdomains to the root (main) directory. You can’t
point to individual directories or individual files. In this instance you could still
add subdomains, but instead of just linking to subdomains, you have to add the
file name or directory at the end of the link.
For example:
subdomain.yourdomain.com/subdomain/
subdomain.yourdomain.com/subdomain.html
54
32 KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS
Here are a total of 32 tools to help you find out what keywords your customers are
searching for.
I highly recommend that you research your important keywords to discover which
keywords you should use to target your audience. There are quite a few software
programs, websites, and online tools that reveal what people are entering into search
engines.
These include:
•
•
•
•
Online search term suggestions tools
Top search lists
MetaSpy engines
Zeitgeists
16 Online Search Term Suggestion Tools
•
Wordtracker - A 340 million keyword database that you can query to find and
compile lists of the most popular search terms that people enter in search
engines, including search count and the number of competing sites for each
keyword or keyword phrase. It even suggests related and misspelled keywords.
Wordtracker offers a variety of online subscription options; from US$6 for one
day to $200 for a year. This is by far the best keyword suggestion tool I have
ever used and is highly recommended!
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/wordtracker.html
•
Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool – Free online tool that returns a list
of related keyword phrases based on the keywords you enter. It also displays the
number of times each keyword was searched the previous month in the Overture
network.
US: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
UK: http://inventory.uk.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
France:
http://inventory.fr.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
55
France (English Instructions):
http://inventory.fr.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/?mkt
=fr&lang=en_GB
Germany:
http://inventory.de.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Germany (English Instructions):
http://inventory.de.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/?mk
t=de&lang=en_GB
Spain:
http://inventory.es.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Italy:
http://inventory.fr.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/?mkt
=fr&lang=en_GB
Switzerland:
http://inventory.ch.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Japan:
http://inventory.jp.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Korea:
http://inventory.kr.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
The Netherlands:
http://inventory.nl.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
•
Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions – Returns a list of 50 keyword
phrase containing the keyword you enter, plus a list of related keywords.
https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox
•
Espotting Keyword Generator – Returns a list of 99 most popular searches
and search count that contains the keyword you enter, plus related keyword
phrases, for the previous 30 days.
http://www.espotting.com/popups/keywordgenbox.asp
•
BrainFox Keyword Research Tool - Returns a list up to 100 related phrases,
keywords and keyword variations from the BrainFox database.
http://www.brainfox.com/research/
56
•
7Search Keyword Suggestion Tool - Returns the most popular searches and
search count that contains the keyword you enter, for the previous month.
http://conversion.7search.com/scripts/advertisertools/keywordsugge
stion.aspx
http://conversion.7search.com/scripts/advertisertools/KeywordActivi
tyLookup.aspx (Number of searches and current top bids)
•
Keyword Maker – Offers an 800,000 searchable, commercial, keyword
database that reveals what people in Denmark and Sweden are searching for.
http://www.keywordmaker.com
3 Top Search Lists
•
Top 500 Keywords - Keywords offers the top 500 searched internet keywords
compiled from a database of over 344 million search terms extracted from
popular metacrawlers.
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/keywords/
•
Lycos 50 - Displays a list of the 50 most searched keywords at the Lycos search
engine the previous week.
http://50.lycos.com
•
Search.com Top 100 Searches - Displays the previous week’s 100 most
searched keywords at Search.com.
http://www.search.com/top/
57
10 MetaSpy Engines
MetaSpy engines give you a glimpse – in real time - of what people are searching for.
MetaSpy is also known as search spy, search engine spying, search voyeur, spy search,
and search engine voyeur.
You will see the actual keywords entered into search engines. They typically update the
page every 10-30 seconds. MetaSpy keywords are sometimes uncensored, so be aware
that you may view keywords that are obscene and/or offensive.
Here are some popular metaspy search engines:
•
FontSeek Live Search – Displays recent searches and most popular searches
during the last 4 weeks.
http://www.fontseek.com/livesearch.shtml
•
Galaxy StarGazer - Displays random keywords searched within Galaxy.com in
real time.
http://www.galaxy.com/info/voyeur.html
•
Infotiger Voyeur – Displays randomly selected keywords that users are
searching for.
http://www.infotiger.com/voyeur.html
•
Kanoodle Search Spy - Offers the 12 most recent keywords entered at the
Kanoodle pay per click search engine.
http://www.kanoodle.com/spy/
•
MetaEureka Voyeur – Offers the 30 most recent uncensored keywords entered
at MetaEureka metasearch engine. Yes, the word “voayer” in the URL is correct.
Don’t ask me why they spelt it like that!
http://www.metaeureka.com/voayer.shtml
58
•
MetaSpy - Offers the 10 most recent - filtered or unfiltered - keywords entered
at the MetaCrawler metasearch engine.
http://www.metaspy.com
•
OmniSpy – Displays last 10 searches on the OmniCrawler engine.
http://www.maximumedge.com/search/omnispy.shtml
•
SearchIt Results - Displays last 20 searches made.
http://www.searchit.com/current-searches/last20searched.php
•
UKSprite Search Spy - Offers the 12 most recent uncensored keywords
entered at the UKSprite pay per click search engine.
http://www.uksprite.com/search/searchspy.htm
•
Yahoo! Shopping What’s Selling Now - Displays a small sample of products
purchased through the Yahoo! Shopping network in the last hour.
http://search.store.yahoo.com/OT
3 Zeitgeists
Zeitgeists offer search patterns and trends, rather than just a list of the most popular,
yet unrelated, keywords.
•
Google Zeitgeist - Offers search patterns, trends, and surprises derived from
Google's 150 million daily searches. Updated regularly with an archive dating
back to January, 2001.
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
•
Yahoo! Buzz Index - Offers a daily updated list of the top 20 subjects in five
categories; TV, music, sports, movies, and actors. Archive dates back to
November, 2000.
http://buzz.yahoo.com
59
•
JeevesIQ - Offers the most popular search queries - from consumer trends to
breaking news - on the Ask Jeeves search engine.
http://sp.ask.com/docs/about/jeevesiq.html
Should You Use Every Keyword You Find?
I highly recommend that you do make use of every target keyword you find, no matter
how few times it is searched on each month.
You may not be able to include them all in your webpages. But you can submit them all
to pay per click search engines.
There are two main benefits to using less popular keywords:
1. You can usually bid less to get the top positions in pay per click search engines.
2. If you have enough keywords, it can add up to a decent number of searches. For
example, 2 searches a day may not sound like much. But if you multiply that by
30, you get 60 searches a month. Now multiply that by let's say 100 keywords
and you have got yourself 6,000 searches a month. Imagine all those potential
customers you would have lost if you ignore keywords that only get a handful of
searches a day.
It doesn’t matter if some of the less popular keywords turn out to produce zero clicks.
You simply remove them from your list of keywords. But do give them a chance to
perform for you.
60
BASIC SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
TECHNIQUES
In this section, I discuss basic search engine optimization techniques that every search
engine optimizer should know about.
What Are Meta Tags?
Meta tags are hidden HTML tags used to describe the contents of a webpage. There are
numerous Meta tags, but for search engine optimization purposes I will only concentrate
on the two most popular Meta tags; Meta description and Meta keywords.
Here is a sample set of Meta tags:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>page title goes here</TITLE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="page description goes here.">
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="keyword 1, keyword 2, keyword 3,
etc.">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
What Is A Meta Description Tag?
Some search engines extract the contents of the Meta description tag to use as the
search result description. The Meta description tag is often misused with misleading or
even false descriptions of a page. As a result, the relevancy of search results is often
compromised. So search engines have begun to de-emphasize the importance and even
totally ignore the contents of this tag.
Some search engines, such as Google, AllTheWeb, AltaVista and Inktomi, do still extract
the contents of the Meta description tag to use as the description in its search results.
So I highly recommend including a keyword-rich Meta description tag in every single
webpage. But if the Meta description tag is missing, the search engine will usually
extract a description from the first couple of lines of the main body text.
61
In general, search engines will index the first 135-249 characters of the Meta description
tag contents.
The description should be descriptive and sell the page to search engine users, so they
click on your link. So put some effort into creating descriptions that are keyword-rich
(for search engines to rank) and enticing to search engine users.
What Is A Meta Keywords Tag?
The contents of a Meta keywords tag is used to help define the important keywords in a
webpage. It sounds good in theory. But in practice the Meta keywords tag is often
misused by webmasters who stuff it with excessive or irrelevant keywords. So much so
that virtually all search engines now ignore the contents of the Meta keywords tag.
Inktomi is the only search engine that I know of that indexes the Meta keywords tag.
The only notable major search engine that Inktomi provides results for is MSN. And
most of the top rankings in MSN are provided, not by Inktomi, but by MSN itself,
Overture, and the LookSmart Directory.
As such, I do not recommend wasting time with the Meta keywords tag.
6th Edition Update: Yahoo!, which acquired Inktomi, recommends adding the
keywords meta tag to webpages. In its Help section, “How do I improve the ranking of
my web site in the search results?”, it states, and I quote, “Use a ‘keyword’ meta-tag to
list key words for the document. Use a distinct list of keywords that relate to the specific
page on your site instead of using one broad set of keywords for every page.”
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/ranking/ranking-02.html
If you decide to use the Meta keywords tag, I recommend you only include one or two
important keyword phrases. Also make sure you include any keyword phrases in Meta
keywords tag in the main body text.
62
Should You Separate Keywords In The Meta Keywords
Tag With Commas?
I’ve included this topic, because there was a time when all search engines indexed the
contents of the Meta keywords tag, and with Yahoo! expected to add Inktomi-powered
listings to its search engine, the Meta keywords tag may well make a difference again.
The question of separating keywords is one that crops up regularly, and one that I have
wondered about myself.
Here’s an example that separates the keywords with commas:
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="search engine, marketing, tips.">
Some search engine optimizers recommend leaving out the commas in order to create
more keyword combinations for the search engines to index, as illustrated below:
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="search engine marketing tips.">
Here are some keyword combinations created from the above example:
search engine marketing
marketing tips
search engine marketing tips
Personally I have used commas to separate the keywords in the past. The reason is
because this is the original technique, and most of the top ranked webpages I have
examined still use this technique.
I have yet to find conclusive proof that one technique is better than the other, so I can’t
recommend one or the other. I suggest you try both techniques to see if which, if any,
produces better results.
In case you’re wondering, I no longer include meta keywords tag in my webpages. I just
don’t feel it is worth the effort anymore.
63
The Dangers Of Adding Trademarked Keywords To Meta
Tags
If you use a trademarked term because you are selling products bearing the
trademarked term, then you probably have a legitimately reason to add them to your
meta tags. However, I would still recommend that you ask the trademark owner for
confirmation.
But, if you use a trademarked term simply to “trick” visitors into thinking they are at the
trademarked company's site, you are very likely to get into trouble.
A number of sites have had injunctions placed by judges who decided that the use of
the disputed trademarked term was a trademark infringement and represented false
representation.
But there was one site that used a trademarked term and won their case, as they
proved to the judge that they had a legitimate reason to use the trademarked term.
However, that is the exception, rather than the norm.
I suggest that you make sure you have permission to include trademarked keywords in
your meta tags. Search the “United States Patent and Trademark Database” to find out
if a keyword is trademarked.
http://www.uspto.gov
Other Commonly Used Meta Tags
Here is a list of other commonly used Meta tags that are generally not recommended for
search engine optimization purposes. I have provided the list for your reference only.
•
Author - Used for the page author's name.
<META NAME="author" CONTENT="author name">
64
•
Creation Date - Used for the date the page was created.
<META NAME="date" CONTENT="date">
•
Document Character Set - Used to specify the character set used in the page.
<META HTTP-EQUIV="content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=characterset-name">
•
Dublin Core Meta Tags - Dublin Core metadata standard is a simple element
set for describing a wide range of networked resources. I won't go into the
specifics here. For more information, visit the “Using Dublin Core” guide.
http://www.dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/
•
Revisit Tags - Used to instruct search engines to revisit a page after so many
days.
<META CONTENT="30 days" name="revisit-after">
•
Scripting Language - Used to specify the scripting language used.
<META HTTP-EQUIV="content-script-type" CONTENT="type">
•
Style Sheet Language - Used to specify the default style sheet language used.
<META HTTP-EQUIV="content-style-type" CONTENT="text/css">
What Is A Robots Meta Tag?
The Robots Meta tag lets you instruct search engine spiders whether they should or
shouldn’t index, or archive, the page and crawl the links found on it. Some search
engine robots do not recognize the robots Meta tag.
65
Therefore, I always recommended that you use Robots.txt files where possible.
How To Use The Robots Meta Tag
The content of the robots meta tag contains directives separated by a comma. The
"index" command specifies whether a robot should index a page. The "follow" command
specifies whether a robot should follow links on a page.
To add a robots meta tag to a page, place the robots tag between the HEAD section of
a page.
Here are some sample code and what they do:
Instructs spiders to index the page and follow all links:
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="index,follow">
These are the default values, so you really do not need to add the tag above.
Instructs spiders not to index the page, but follow all links:
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="noindex,follow">
Instruct spiders to index the page, but not follow any links:
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="index,nofollow">
Instruct spiders to neither index the page, nor follow any links:
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="noindex,nofollow">
Instruct spiders not to archive (cache) a page:
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="noarchive">
66
Instruct Google’s spider (Googlebot) not to archive a page:
<META NAME="googlebot" CONTENT="noarchive">
What Is A Robots.txt File?
The Robots.txt file lets you instruct search engine spiders which directories and files it is
allowed to crawl and index.
When a compliant search engine robot visits a site, it first checks for a “robots.txt” file
on the server. If the file exists, the robot reads the contents for instructions on what it
can crawl and index. Please note that search engine robots have no obligation to follow
the instructions given in the Robots.txt file. However, most search engine robots do
honor them.
Why Would You Use A Robots.txt File?
There are a number of reasons why you may want to stop a search engine from
crawling and indexing particular sections of your site.
These include:
•
Search engine optimized pages. For example, let's say you optimize a webpage
specifically Google, AltaVista and Inktomi. You would not want one engine to
index the pages designed for the other engines, otherwise they could view them
as duplicate copies designed to spam their index, which could result in a ban.
•
Hiding sensitive content, such as internal reports and content not ready to be
published.
67
How To Create A Robots.txt File
To create a robots.txt file:
1. Create a blank text file using a text editor that can save ASCII .txt files. You can use
WordPad or Notepad which comes with Windows. You should be able to find them
under: Start Menu -> Programs -> Accessories.
2. Insert instructions for each search engine robot, using the following syntax:
User-agent: Robot Name
Disallow: File or Directory Name
User-agent - A user-agent is the name of the search engine robot. You may also
include more than one agent name if the same exclusion is to apply to them all. You do
not need to worry about case sensitivity, so "googlebot" is the same as "GOOGLEBOT."
An asterisk "*" indicates all robots.
Disallow - Disallow instructs the robot specified in the user-agent which directories or
files you do not want crawled or indexed.
Here are some sample robots.txt file instructions:
Exclude all robots from the entire website (not recommended!):
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Allow all robots to a website. Because nothing is disallowed, everything is allowed:
User-agent: *
Disallow:
Alternatively, create a blank robots.txt file.
Allow all robots access to all files and directories, except the two directories listed:
68
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /images/
Allow Google's robot access to all files and directories, except the cgi-bin directory:
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Allow Google's robot access to all files and directories, except the file listed:
Disallow: /members/login.html
A blank line indicates a new "record" - a new user-agent command. Disallow Googlebot
from the website and all other robots access to everything, except the cgi-bin directory:
Disallow: /
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Allow Googlebot complete access, but exclude all other robots:
Disallow:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Disallow all robots access to a file or directory beginning with a certain value:
69
User-agent: *
Disallow: /image
Disallow: /image/
The first disallow command disallows the /image/ directory, /image.html and
/images.html files.
The second disallow command only disallows the /image/ directory, but allows other
files such as /image.html and images.html.
You may add as many lines to exclude as many directories and pages as you wish. Each
disallow statement will be applied to the last user-agent that was specified.
Instruct all robots not to crawl dynamically generated pages:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /*?
Instruct all robots not to crawl files ending in .gif:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /*.gif$
3. Save the file as "robots.txt" (must be all lower case) and upload it to the root or top
directory on your server.
For example:
http://www.yoursite.com/robots.txt <-- root directory
Note that there can only be one "robots.txt" file for each site.
70
Major Search Engine Robot User-Agents
Here are a list of the top search engines and the names of their spiders.
Search Engine
AltaVista
AllTheWeb/Fast
Google
Inktomi
Lycos
User-Agent
Scooter
Fast
Googlebot
Slurp
Lycos
Why Hackers Love The Robots.txt File
Did you know that unless you cloak (hide) your robots.txt file, anyone can access the file
by simply entering the robots.txt file address into a web browser. I’ve read stories about
unscrupulous people searching the robots.txt file to uncover hidden private files. So be
careful what you include in the robots.txt file.
2 Free Robots.txt File Management Tools
Here are 2 free tools to help you manage your robots.txt files:
•
WebWatch Robots.txt Checker - Analyses your robots.txt file and reports any
syntax errors and warnings on the use of new features that are not yet widely
deployed.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/services/robots-txt/
•
The Web Robots Database - A database of currently known robots with
descriptions and contact details.
http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/active.html
71
How To Use Meta Refresh Tag & JavaScript Redirect
If you want to automatically redirect or forward a visitor to another webpage or site, use
a meta refresh tag or JavaScript redirect.
How To Use A Meta Refresh Tag
The meta refresh tag will instruct the web browser to refresh (reload) the page, using
the same or different URL, after a designated time has elapsed. To add a meta refresh
tag to a page, place the tag in between the HEAD section of the page.
Here is a sample refresh tag that reloads the page with "new-page.html" after 3
seconds:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="3; url=new-page.html">
Here’s a sample refresh tag to reload the page a website URL after 5 seconds:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="5; url=http://www.amgy.com">
If you want to refresh the same page, simply leave out the second part of the CONTENT
attribute.
For example:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="30”>
If you want to refresh your page after a certain period of time, I suggest that you set a
time of 30 seconds or more, as most search engines consider anything less than 30
seconds as spam.
How To Use A JavaScript Redirect
If you really must forward or redirect your visitors to a new page or site within 30
seconds, I recommend using a JavaScript redirect instead of the Meta refresh tag to
keep the search engines happy.
72
Search engines are less likely to detect the use of JavaScript redirects to redirect users,
because JavaScript has so many uses. The problem with the Meta refresh tag is that it
only has one use.
To add a JavaScript redirect to a page, place the tag in between the HEAD section of the
page.
Sample JavaScript redirect to replace the current page with a new page:
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="javascript">
<!-location.replace("http://www.amgy.com");
//-->
</SCRIPT>
You should also include a Meta refresh tag, just in case the user has switched off
JavaScript, or is using an older browser that does not support JavaScript. Approximately
10 percent of internet users use web browsers that either have JavaScript manually
switched off, or don’t support JavaScript.
The Meta refresh tag should be placed in a "noscript" element, so that a browser does
not execute both the JavaScript redirect and Meta refresh.
Here is a sample Meta refresh tag within a "NOSCRIPT" element:
<NOSCRIPT>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="30; url=http://www.amgy.com">
</NOSCRIPT>
How To Change Header Font Sizes With CSS
One common use for CSS is to change the properties of header tags and links. This is
useful when you want to highlight an important keyword phrase in a page, but don’t
want to have a huge heading on the page.
For example, this reduces the size of the heading text to medium.
73
<H1 STYLE="font-size: medium">Search Engine Optimization</H1>
How To Remove The Line Underneath Links With CSS
The following removes the underline of a link. This is useful for creating attractive,
search engine friendly navigational bar links at the top, side, or bottom of a page.
<A HREF="index.html” STYLE="text-decoration: none”>Home</A>
How To Change A Link Color With CSS
The following example shows you how to change the link color to fit the style of your
site. The link color stays the same, even if the user clicks on it. i.e. The link color does
not change to the “visited link” color.
<A HREF="index.html” STYLE="color: blue”>Home</A>
You may include CSS within a HTML tag (as above), in a webpage, or placed in a
separate file and linked to from a webpage.
How To Add Cascading Style Sheet Commands To A
Webpage
With the above examples, I have set the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) attributes in the
HTML tags themselves. If you would like to use the same CSS attributes throughout a
page, you can set the CSS attribute for a HTML tag once in a page, and it will the
changes will be reflected throughout the page.
To do this, add the CSS attribute in between the HEAD section at the beginning of a
HTML document.
For example:
74
<HEAD>
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
<!-H1 {
font-size: medium;
}
-->
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
How To Set Cascading Style Sheet Attributes For Use On
All Webpages
It is common practice to set Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) attributes in a CSS file so that
they are reflected across an entire website. This not only saves you from having to
repeatedly enter in the same CSS attributes, but also reduces the size of a HTML
document, which means shorter download times.
To do this, add the CSS code to a new document and save it as a .css file.
For example:
css-file.css
marketing.css
Then add a link to the CSS file in between the HEAD section at the beginning of a HTML
document.
For example:
<HEAD>
<LINK REL="stylesheet" HREF="marketing.css" TYPE="text/css">
</HEAD>
75
Web Browser Support Problems For Cascading Style
Sheets
One disadvantage with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is that earlier browsers (Internet
Explorer 3.0 or Netscape 4.0 or earlier) do not support them. So if you change any
HTML tags drastically, and someone uses an old web browser that does not support
CSS, the page could be a total mess to the user.
However, only a tiny percentage of internet users are still using web browsers that don’t
support CSS. So you should use it without too much concern.
What Are Site Maps?
Site maps are visual models of a site's content that allows users to find specific content
or page. They are like an interactive table of content, with links leading to the most
important topics or pages of a site. Site maps are organized hierarchically, breaking
down the site's information into increasingly specific subject areas.
Site maps can help search engines find, crawl and index all the pages in a website. As
such, I do recommend you create a site map for every site.
9 Tips On How To Create Optimized Site Maps
1. Get ideas from other people’s site maps. Here are some examples of good site
maps:
http://www.amgy.com/site-map.html
http://www.google.com/sitemap.html
http://www.apple.com/find/sitemap.html
http://www.usatoday.com/leadpage/indexusa.htm
http://finance.yahoo.com/sm
2. Stick to basic HTML site maps, as they create the most search engine friendly
links. Avoid creating dynamic site maps that use JavaScript or DHTML.
76
3. Avoid link only site map pages, as some search engines do not index link only
pages. One such engine is AltaVista. Always include some text on the page.
4. If you don’t have too many pages, then link to every page of your site in the site
map. Otherwise, link to all the major topics and pages of your site. From there,
search engine spiders should be able to find the rest of the webpages.
5. In the site map, use the exact keyword phrase that is important to the landing
page.
6. Make sure you include the link text in the main body text of the landing page;
otherwise some search engines will ignore it. One such engine is Google.
7. Add a link to the site map page from the home page, and on subpages. This will
help search engine spiders find, crawl and index your entire website.
8. Site map pages do not necessarily need to be optimized for the search engines.
The only objective of the site map is to lead search engine spiders to the other
pages in your site, not achieve top rankings. Having said that, I have achieved
top rankings with site maps, so it doesn’t hurt to optimize it for the search
engines. ;o)
9. Search engine spiders limit the number of links that they crawl on a page. For
example, Google recommend having fewer than 100 links on a webpage and site
maps containing more than 100 links should be broken down into more than one
page.
I would recommend a limit of 50-75 links per page. I would also suggest that
you list the links in order of importance, so that the most important links get
crawled, in case a search engine has a lower limit.
http://www.google.com/intl/vi/webmasters/guidelines.html
77
How To Optimize Image Map Links
Image maps may be pleasing to the eye, but search engine spiders don’t like them.
They cannot crawl links contained within the image maps. Therefore, if you use image
maps, I highly recommend adding HTML links elsewhere on the page for search engine
spiders can crawl.
How To Optimize A Splash Page
A splash page / screen, is the first page of a site used to capture the visitor’s attention
for a short time as a promotion or lead-in to the real home page.
Most splash pages usually consist of nothing more than a corporate logo, or an attention
grabbing visual or multimedia effect, such as a Flash applet, promoting the site's brand
image.
The splash page typically has a link to the “real” home page, but is sometimes set to
automatically forward the user after a certain amount of time has elapsed, or when the
multimedia effect has finished playing.
As far as search engine optimization is concerned, most splash pages rank poorly,
simply because they do not have sufficient text for search engines to index. Quite often,
the only text on a splash page is a link to the real home page.
As such, I do not recommend the use of splash pages.
Whenever I see a splash page, I ask the question, 'What does this do for the site?' More
often than not, the answer is nothing, as I simply click though to the real home page, or
back out of the site, if the page is taking too long to download, and there are no options
to bypass the splash page.
It is rare than I ever wait to watch the multimedia effect, and I cannot remember the
last splash page that made a lasting impression on me.
So, before you decide to create a splash page for your site, ask yourself this question,
"What am I trying to achieve with a splash page?"
78
How To Get Higher Rankings In AlphanumericallyRanked Web Directories
Web directories like the Open Directory Project and the Yahoo! Directory rank their
directory listings alphanumerically, following the order of the ASCII (American Standard
Code for Information Interchange) alphanumeric character set.
http://dmoz.org
http://dir.yahoo.com
So for example, a title that begins with the letter A (#65 in the ASCII chart) ranks
higher than one beginning with the letter B (#66 in the ASCII chart), which in turn ranks
higher than one beginning with the letter C (#67 in the ASCII chart) and so on.
Obviously, titles usually contain more than just a single letter. If two site titles both
begin with the same letter, the next letter is taken into consideration, then the next, and
so on. Therefore a listing title that begins with a lower number in the ASCII character
set will be ranked higher in the Yahoo! Directory and Open Directory index.
Listings near the top of a page are almost always going to receive more traffic than
those at the bottom. Therefore, alphanumeric rankings can play a big role in
determining the amount of traffic a listing receives in the directory.
Considering the popularity of the Yahoo! Directory and the fact that many search
engines, use the Open Directory listings, it is no wonder that web marketers have long
taken alphanumeric rankings into consideration in selecting their site title.
Some marketers went one step further and began adding numbers and other special
characters, such as the hash symbol "#" (#35 in the ASCII chart), number 1 (#1), and
even the exclamation mark "!" (#33 in the ASCII chart) to the beginning of site titles.
For example:
7exclamationslucky7s.com
! ! ! ! ! ! ! Lucky 7's Online Gambling Guide
79
1-internet-casino-online-casino-guide.com
# 1 Internet Casino Online Casino Guide
Can you believe that these are examples of real websites using this technique in the
Yahoo! Directory?
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Shopping_and_Services/Gam
bling/Online_Casinos/Directories/
I do not recommend this technique. It “may” push your site to the top of the rankings, if
the web directory editor reviewing your submission accepts it. However few people will
remember it, and unless they bookmark your site, it does nothing for you in terms of
brand awareness. So unless the visitor clicks on the same link again, they’re unlikely to
return.
ASCII Chart (Alphanumeric Characters)
Below is a chart of the ASCII character set:
33 !
45 -
57 9
69 E
81 Q
93 ]
105 i
117 u
34 "
46 .
58 :
70 F
82 R
94 ^
106 j
118 v
35 #
47 /
59 ;
71 G
83 S
95 _
107 k
119 w
36 $
48 0
60 <
72 H
84 T
96 `
108 l
120 x
37 %
49 1
61 =
81 I
85 U
97 a
109 m
121 y
38 &
50 2
62 >
82 J
86 V
98 b
110 n
122 z
39 '
51 3
63 ?
83 K
87 W
99 c
111 o
123 {
40 (
52 4
64 @
84 L
88 X
100 d
112 p
124 |
41 )
53 5
65 A
77 M
89 Y
101 e
113 q
125 }
42 *
54 6
66 B
78 N
90 Z
102 f
114 r
126 ~
43 +
55 7
67 C
79 O
91 [
103 g
115 s
127 _
44 ,
56 8
68 D
80 P
92 \
104 h
116 t
80
Alphanumeric Rankings In The Open Directory Project
The majority of the time the Open Directory Project ranks its directory listings
alphanumerically. However I have noticed that in many categories the editor has
decided to ignore all the characters preceding the first alphabetical character.
For example, "#1 Free Clip Art" is a listing title in the directory. But the “#1” part of the
title is ignored in ranking the listings. The rank is based on the first letter of the revised
title, “Free Clip Art,” which is “F.”
Alphanumeric Rankings In The Yahoo! Directory
Unlike the Open Directory Project, Yahoo! takes into account all characters in the listing
title in its rankings. Therefore, the listing, "#1 Vacations, Cruises & Giveaways" ("#" is
#35 in the ASCII chart) ranks above, "1 Above All Resorts.com" ("1" is #49 in the ASCII
chart).
Once upon a time Yahoo! extracted its web search results from its web directory. This is
no longer the case after Yahoo! replaced its old search results with Google powered
listings, which are ranked by relevance, not alphanumerically.
As a result, the Yahoo! Directory now refers far fewer visitors than before. So I think
web marketers who register domain names to take advantage of alphanumerical ranked
listings in Yahoo! are now mostly wasting their time.
How To Optimize JavaScripts In HTML Documents
JavaScript codes in HTML documents are usually placed near the top in between the
HEAD section. This pushes your body text containing your important keywords further
down the page and increases the size of the document, thus the download time. It could
also affect the number of keywords search engines index, especially if the page contains
a lot of text, images and multimedia elements.
There are two ways to move the JavaScript code away from the top of a HTML
document.
81
1. Move the JavaScript code into a separate file.
2. Move the JavaScript code to the bottom of the HTML document.
1. Move The JavaScript Code Into A Separate File
The first solution is to move the JavaScript code into a separate file and link to the file
from the HTML document.
To do this place the following code in between the HEAD section:
<HEAD>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC="file-name.js"></SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
This procedure also reduces your file size, and therefore your download time. In
addition, it allows you to reuse the code on other pages by simply adding a link to the
JavaScript file in the HTML document.
Some servers may not recognize the ".js" file type. If that is the case with your server,
contact your hosting company and ask them to add the following line to the
"mime.types" file in the server's config directory, and then restart the server.
TYPE=application/x-javascript
exts=js
2. Move The JavaScript Code To The Bottom Of The HTML Document
The other solution is to move the JavaScript code to the very bottom of the HTML file,
immediately above or below the closing HTML tag. Although it is considered good
programming practice and nearly all JavaScript sites recommend you add your
JavaScript to the HEAD section of a page, it is not necessary.
The first solution is probably more convenient to use. But both solutions work just as
well.
82
How To Optimize Frame Based Webpages
Frames allow you to present webpages in multiple, independent windows or subwindows, where certain information can be kept visible, while content in the other
windows are scrolled or replaced. Frames use a master (frameset) page to combine
multiple sub-pages to create one HTML page.
Some search engines do not follow links to sub-pages, therefore cannot index the
content contained there. However, search engines can, and do, index the content
contained within the master page, so as long as the information is placed within a
NOFRAMES tag.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>A frameset document with NOFRAMES</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<FRAMESET cols="50%, 50%">
<FRAME src="main.html">
<FRAME src="table_of_contents.html">
<NOFRAMES>
<P>Here is the <A href="main-noframes.html"> non-frame version of the
document.</A></P>
Add your search engine friendly content here.
</NOFRAMES>
</FRAMESET>
</HTML>
In general I recommend steering clear frames. Did you know that none of the top 100
websites use frames? There’s good reason for that.
Notes:
•
Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers earlier than version 3.0 do not support
frames. So make sure the content within the noframes tag is presentable, as
visitors with older browsers will see the content of the noframes tag.
•
Do not include the BODY tag in the frameset page, otherwise the framed page
will not display properly.
83
How To View The Source Code Of Fast Vanishing
Webpages
If you have ever tried to view the source code of a page that uses some form of URL
redirection or forwarding, you will know how frustrating it can be. More often than not,
the redirected page flashes by so quickly that you don’t even get a chance to stop the
page to view the source code.
Luckily, there is a simple solution. All you have to do is enter "view-source:" followed by
the URL into your web browser's address window.
For example:
view-source:http://www.google.com
view-source:http://www.yahoo.com/index.html
UPDATE: 01/14/05 - This trick no longer seems to work on the Internet Explorer web
browser. However, I did still get it to work on the Netscape 7.2 browser. If you don’t
have it on your computer, you can download a free copy from:
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp
Steven Munro, Director of Unlimited Fun Ltd T/A CollarsandLeads.co.nz, who informed
me of the problem, says he got it to work on the Mozilla Firefox browser. Thanks Steve!
If you get it to work on other web browsers, please let me know.
Can Bold & Strong Text Improve Search Engine
Rankings?
Some search engine experts recommend highlighting important keyword phrases in bold
to improve relevancy.
For example:
<B>Mike’s Marketing Tools</B>
84
<STRONG>Mike’s Marketing Tools</STRONG>
I have yet to come across any proof that this technique works. So I suggest that you try
it if you like, to see if it does indeed work. There isn’t any downside to this technique, so
it may be worth a try.
Some search engine optimizers take it one step further by placing bold tags or strong
within header tags. I’m not sure if this does any good, but it may be worth a try.
For example:
<H1><B>Mike’s Marketing Tools</B></H1>
<H1><STRONG>Mike’s Marketing Tools</STRONG></H1>
Should You Hide Keywords In Comment Tags?
No. None of the major search engines index keywords in comment tags, so do not waste
time adding them as part of your search engine optimization strategy.
In case you don’t know what comment tags are, here’s an example:

Should You Hide Keywords In Hidden CSS Layers?
Hiding keywords in hidden Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) layers is a technique that search
engine optimizers use to add keywords to a page, while keeping it invisible to human
visitors. This technique is often used to add text to a splash page, or one containing
nothing more than Flash effects.
For example:
<DIV STYLE="visibility: hidden; position: absolute; left:-300; top:300;">keywords go here</DIV>
85
The above example places the hidden layer 300 pixels above and to the left of the
visible page. You can add as much text as you wish, since your visitors can’t see the
text, but search engine spiders can.
The downside is that Internet Explorer and Netscape browser versions earlier than 4.0
do not support CSS layers. They will ignore the style tags but display the content of the
style element, which could produce a rather messy page.
I have seen this technique being used, but personally I wouldn’t recommend it.
Should You Hide Keywords in Hidden Value Form Tags?
Adding keywords to hidden value form tags is considered spam by all of the major
search engines, so stay clear of this practice.
However, it is almost impossible for search engines to detect the difference between
genuine hidden value form tags and those added specifically for optimization purposes.
That doesn’t mean I endorse this practice though. ;o)
Here’s an example in case you don’t know what hidden value form tags look like:
<INPUT TYPE=”hidden” NAME=”keyword-phrase” VALUE=”keyword phrase”>
Should You Hide Keywords In Style Tags?
Very few, if any, search engines index the content of the Style tag, so do not waste any
time on this technique.
Here’s an example in case you don’t know what Style tags look like:
<SPAN STYLE=”keyword phrase”>
86
SLIGHTLY MORE ADVANCED SEARCH ENGINE
OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES
In this section I will discuss some slightly more advanced search engine optimization
techniques. Don’t worry if some of them don’t apply to you, or understand how a
particular technique works.
Some techniques are a bit controversial and just because I discuss them, it doesn’t
necessarily mean I endorse them. I include discuss them with you, so that you at least
know about them and know what people are referring to when you read or hear about
it.
Some search engine optimizers have very strong opinions towards the validity of certain
SEO techniques. I’ve heard people say you can’t do this, or you can’t that, simply
because a search engine has publicly stated a certain technique is not allowed.
For example, the validity of “cloaking” always produces very strong discussions. Many
search engines publicly state that all forms of cloaking are spam.
However, I have read stories from professional search engine optimizers who have been
using cloaking for many years, achieving great rankings for their clients, without ever
getting any of their sites banned by a single search engine.
Plus, there are valid uses for cloaking. For example, redirecting visitors to local language
versions of a site is a valid cloaking technique, which many search engines and other
popular websites use all the time.
I don’t have such strong opinions either way. I like to present all SEO techniques with
an open mind, so that you can make up your own mind. Please don’t misunderstand me.
I don’t advocate the use of SEO techniques that will get your website banned by the
search engines.
The problem is not whether a certain technique is valid or not. The problem is that some
SEO techniques are in a gray area. It’s not always black and white. A technique that was
acceptable a couple of years ago could be considered bad practice today. What is
banned today may be acceptable tomorrow.
87
SEO is just another marketing concept. Like all marketing concepts you should test all
techniques to see what works. There is no 100% right or wrong techniques. I believe
that given all the facts, you’re intelligent enough to decide for yourself.
How To Use Doorway Pages To Get Top Rankings
Doorway pages (bridge pages, entry pages, gateway pages) are information pages
created for the sole purpose of achieving higher rankings for a particular keyword
phrase in one or more search engines.
Doorway pages act as entry points to the real content of a site. They are used to attract
search engine visitors, who are then encouraged to explore the rest of the site. Doorway
pages are not visibly linked from a website's home page.
Having said that, do not think that doorway pages are simply empty pages with minimal
content and some links to the rest of the site. On the contrary, doorway pages should
be rich in content, and offer links to other pages within the site, as well as links to
related pages in other sites, in an effort to boost link popularity and relevancy.
Doorway pages should offer just as much as the original page, but without the elements
that can affect the page’s ranking, such as tables, graphics and multimedia content.
How To Design Doorway Pages
Doorway pages are usually designed with one keyword phrase in mind. Sometimes
they’re designed with one search engine in mind to maximize the relevancy of the
keyword phrase for that particular search engine.
You should apply all of the basic search engine optimization techniques to doorway
pages. The major difference is in improving the keyword weight and density in the body
content. Doorway pages should be simple. There should be minimal, if any, use of
graphics, multimedia and tables. Stick to plain text, as this is the only element of a page
that search engines index and use to determine the relevance of a webpage.
88
What Do Search Engines Think About Doorway Pages?
Doorway pages are one of a number of controversial SEO techniques. Some search
engines, such as Google and Inktomi, publicly state that doorway pages are consider as
spam.
The problem is that search engines find it difficult to police this policy. A smart optimizer
would create doorway pages that look similar to regular pages. As such, how can a
search engine tell if a page is a doorway page or a standard page?
They can’t unless a human visitor views the page. It’s technically impossible. Most of the
time I doubt even a human can distinguish the difference, so don’t expect computers to
be able to tell the difference.
Here’s another example. How do you promote an affiliate product? Well, typically I
would add a page, or two, to my website promoting the product and link to the
merchant’s website via affiliate links.
So are those pages considered doorway pages? I would say so. And thousands of
websites promote affiliate products in this way. So if search engines consider all
doorway pages as spam, then can you imagine how many websites it would affect; far
too many.
The truth of the matter is that search engines don’t ban these pages. In fact search
engines like doorway pages; so much that quite often doorway pages occupy the top
rankings. So, as long as you use doorway pages to visitors to relevant content, you
won’t get into trouble with the search engines.
Should I Use Software To Create Hundreds Of Virtually Identical Doorway
Pages?
There are software programs that generate hundreds of virtually identical pages, which
use different keywords, without any human intervention. I have seen such pages. They
are ugly and don’t make any sense.
I recommend you avoid using such programs. Search engines consider these types of
pages as spam and will catch up with you sooner or later.
89
According to the search engines, 30-40% of all webpages on the internet fall into the
category of spam. I bet a large percentage is doorway pages created by software
programs. So you see why search engines don’t like them?
Search engines can, and do, detect spam doorway pages and are actively removing
them from their index.
Beware of Scam Artists That Use Software Generated Doorway Pages
So what do the search engine optimizers who use software generated doorway pages
do, when they’re removed from the search engines? They go back to their clients and
tell them that the search engines have dropped all their pages and they would need to
spend more money to create and optimize new pages. Talk about getting ripped off!
How To Hide Doorway Pages From A Search Engine
On a final note, if you create a doorway page for a specific search engine, you do not
want other search engines to find and index the page. Because if they do index a page
not intended for it and also indexes the page created specifically for it, the two virtually
identical pages could set off the spam alarm bell. So how do you avoid this
predicament?
The answer is to use a robots.txt file to instruct each search engine spider which
directories and pages they are allowed to crawl and index. Read the What Is A
Robots.txt File? section for more information.
What’s The Difference Between Hallway & Doorway
Pages?
Hallway pages are similar to site maps, except that they only contain links to doorway
pages. Hallway pages are so-called because they are like hallways leading to many
doors. Do not include links to your doorway pages on your site map. Use a hallway page
instead.
90
How To Get Search Engines To Index Dynamically
Generated Webpages
Dynamic pages are database driven pages created "on the fly," (in real time) depending
on the user's interest or request. Dynamically generated pages are commonly created
using programming languages such like ASP (Active Server Pages), Cold Fusion, or Perl
(CGI).
Anyone who surfs the world wide web would have come across a dynamically generated
website. For example, all search engines dynamically generate a particular page of
search results based on the search terms you enter.
There are 3 reasons why search engines do not index dynamically generated pages:
1. Dynamically generated pages do not actually exist on the internet until someone
submits a request, and since search engine spiders do not submit requests, they
may not find all the pages in a site.
2. Dynamically generated URLs usually contain question marks (?) or other symbols
(&, %, + and $). When search engine spiders do follow dynamically generated
URLs, they may only crawl part of the URL excluding everything after the
question mark, which usually results in the spiders indexing nothing.
3. Many search engine spiders avoid indexing URLs that have a reference to the
CGI bin directory to ensure that they do not fall into an endless loop.
How To Turn Dynamically Generated Pages Into Search
Engine Friendly Pages
The best way to turn dynamically generated webpages into search engine friendly pages
is to use a system that converts your database into static pages whenever it is updated.
Alternatively, you may use a software program to convert an entire database driven site
into a static one.
91
3 Tools That Convert Dynamically Generated URLs Into Ones That Search
Engines Can Crawl & Index
Use software fixes to convert ASP, Cold Fusion, or Perl generated URLs into ones that
search engines can crawl and index. Note that these software fixes do not convert ASP,
Cold Fusion, or Perl generated pages into HTML static pages. They simply convert the
URLs into HTML versions, so that search engines will index the contents properly.
•
A Users Guide to URL Rewriting with the Apache web server - A
document that describes how you can use Apache's "mod_rewrite" module to
enable you to turn URLs containing query strings into URLs that search engines
can index. This guide is very advanced and is not recommended for beginners.
http://www.engelschall.com/pw/apache/rewriteguide/
•
ASPSpiderBait - An ISAPI Filter program that rewrites URLs on the fly to help
search engines find and index every page on a dynamic ASP site. Cost: $100.
http://www.webanalyst.com.au/Products/ASPSpiderBait.htm
•
XQASP - Offers a NT IIS 3.0+ C++ or Unix Java filter called XQASP that
converts question marks (?) in ASP URLs into forward slashes (/). Cost: $250$2,100.
http://www.xde.net/xq/tool.xqasp/qx/index.htm
Here is a tool that converts databases into static HTML files:
•
DBtoHTML Express – Offers a template-based tool that converts database files
into static HTML files. Supports ODBC, Oracle, and SQL databases. Operating
Systems: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT and 2000. Cost: $129.
http://www.xlinesoft.com
92
Major Search Engines That Index Dynamically Generated
Pages
•
Google - http://www.google.com
•
Yahoo! Search (AllTheWeb, AltaVista and MSN) – http://search.yahoo.com
What Is Cloaking?
Cloaking is the practice of serving search engine optimized pages to search engine
spiders, while at the same time serving un-optimized pages to site visitors. It is also
known as food script, spider script, ghost pages, phantom pages, IP delivery or stealth
technology.
Cloaking is probably the most controversial and hotly debated search engine
optimization technique around today. Most major search engines publicly state that they
consider cloaking to be spam.
However, in the 6 years I’ve been in this business, I have yet to hear of a single website
get banned by a search engine because of the use of cloaking. Some search engine
optimizers who specialize in cloaking have stated that they have used this technique for
many years without ever having a site banned.
How Does Cloaking Work?
Cloaking works by detecting whether a visitor is a search engine spider, or human
visitor, and serve the appropriate page to the spider or human visitor accordingly.
Good cloaking software will identify spiders from their unique IP address (the internet
address the spider came from), which can be one of many IP addresses. For this to
work you need a comprehensive search engine spider IP address database.
Search engine spiders are never redirected; otherwise it would be penalized by a search
engine. Only your human visitors' web browser is redirected, so search engine spiders
“should” never know they are being “tricked” (and I use that term lightly).
93
Why Do Search Engine Optimizers Use Cloaking?
Cloaking allows you to:
•
Optimize webpages for search engines without compromising your site's look and
feel. Pages consisting mainly of graphics and multimedia typically offer little in
the way of text for search engines to index. As a result these types of pages do
not rank well.
•
Deliver dynamically generated (Database or CGI) webpages as static HTML
pages, so that search engines will crawl and add them to their index.
•
Deliver local versions of webpages.
•
Hide the source code of your optimized pages from would-be search engine
optimization page thieves. Getting top ranking pages is not easy. So you do not
want to give your page optimization secrets away to your competitors easily by
allowing them to view your optimized source code. Cloaking lets you protect your
hard work, because the human visitor is served the un-optimized version of the
page.
This is the only way to hide optimized source code that search engines can
index. There is another method of hiding optimized HTML source code from your
visitors, but unfortunately it also hides the optimized code from search engine
spiders. So it would defeat the purpose of optimizing your webpages. As such
the program is not worth mentioning in the context of this book.
What Features Should You Look For In Cloaking
Software?
There are a number of important features you should look for when deciding on which
cloaking software to use.
94
•
It should support all the major search engines and their spiders, so that you can
optimize pages for specific search engines for optimum targeting.
•
It should offer updates of spider IP addresses and other spider characteristics
that the software supports. Search engines can, and do, add or change the IP
address or other characteristics of their spiders. So a good cloaking software
program must reflect the changes. Cloaking software that updates automatically
is preferred, but some software providers will send a file for manual updating.
•
It should automatically redirect your human visitors without interfering with the
spider receiving the cloaked page. Many search engines penalize websites that
quickly redirect visitors. By giving search engine spiders the optimized version of
webpages, spiders should not be redirected or encounter any redirection code on
a page.
2 Cloaking Tools
•
IP Delivery - Supports all the major search engines. You can install the script
on all the domains your company owns, as the script is licensed to your
company, not your domain. The purchase price includes IP updates for the first
year plus phone and unlimited email support during the first month. Operating
Systems: Unix (Perl) / Windows NT 4.0 (ASP). Cost: $995 + $100 per year for IP
updates after the first year.
http://www.ip-delivery.com
•
ShadowSniper - Offers many features. Price includes a 12 month subscription
to their SpiderSpy database of search engine spiders, free installation and
unlimited email support. Operating Systems: Requires PERL 5 - Unix, Linux,
Windows NT and BSDI. Cost: $240 + $199 per year for IP updates after the first
12 months
http://www.fantomaster.com/fassniper0.html
95
WHY I BELIEVE THEMED WEBSITES DO NOT
IMPROVE SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS
I’ve always believed that themed websites helped increase search engine rankings.
That’s what I was taught when I started my SEO career. All the SEO experts agreed, so
I had no reason to think otherwise.
Let me tell you now that I was wrong, and I’m not afraid to admit my mistake.
Search engine optimization is a complex subject. I am always learning and open to new
ideas and findings. So when Mike Grehan, a search expert I respect very much, and
author of “Search Engine Marketing: The Essential Best Practice Guide,” told me that
search engines do not take into account the concept of theme websites, I was ready to
listen.
I was skeptical at first, but the mounting evidence just kept telling me that my belief in
themed websites was wrong. Before I tell you why I now believe themed websites do
not improve search engine rankings, let me explain what the concept of themed
websites is, and why virtually all search engine optimization experts, including myself
previously, endorsed this SEO concept.
What Are Themed Websites?
Themed websites is a concept recommended by search engine optimizers whereby you
created a website based around a theme, such as business, health, travel, etc.
The idea is that search engines will give more relevance to webpages within a website if
all the webpages are based around a single theme or topic.
If you think about it logically, the concept makes sense.
For example, let’s say you design a website on the theme of business. Every page in the
site is about business and you cross link your webpages. So not only have you got
dozens, even hundreds of pages, of business content, but the pages are all linked from
other pages within the site which are also about business.
96
Now if you were to pick a page from the site, it is more than likely that the page is
about business, right? As such, search engines should think the same as well, correct?
So in theory, the concept of creating themed websites sounds logical.
Well, here lies the problem…
Search Engines Are Blind To Themed Websites!
Search engines rank pages on a page-by-page basis, not on a site basis. In other words,
they don't try to figure out how many pages of content you have on different topics, and
reward sites with lots of content on a particular topic or theme.
Instead, each webpage is ranked based on its own merits. As such, it makes no
difference to a webpage’s relevance whether it is located within a site that contains 100
other pages of content on the same topic, or a site with 100 pages all on different
topics.
What Do The Search Engines Think Of Themed Websites?
Here are some quotes for those who like to hear the facts straight from the horses’
mouth.
Here's what Daniel Dulitz, a Google software engineer said on the topic of themed
websites:
"I think people sometimes mean different things by 'themes.' The statement that
somehow your blue widget site would be 'weaker' if it contained a page about
Tigers - is completely wrong. No search engine would want to do that; having a
page on Tigers doesn't affect your ability to be a resource for blue widgets. We'd
miss good blue widget pages if we excluded the sites that also talk about Tigers.
However, there is a difference between 'having a little bit of content about blue
widgets' and 'having in-depth content about blue widgets.' Clearly we prefer indepth (more useful) content. That's not so much a preference for themes as a
preference for depth."
97
Mike also recently interviewed Paul Gardi, Senior Vice President of Search at Ask
Jeeves/Teoma. Here’s the transcript of part where Mike asks Paul whether themed
websites play a part in search engine rankings.
---START
Mike: Okay, a pet subject here, while we're discussing communities, and that's the
subject of themed websites. I'm sure you know all about this. [Paul has a knowing smile
here!] It's long been bandied around that if you have a website which sticks to one
theme and one theme only, which is centered on a few keywords; this is the ticket to
success. A themed website wins by pure mass, or dense aggregation, or something...
So, the themed website thing, we have some poor guys laboring away desperately
trying to create one hundred pages of material on the same subject so the entire site
talks about blue widgets, every page is a blue widget page...
Paul: You mean creating page after page on the same subject? Again, they're focusing
on the wrong thing...
Mike: Let me jump in again and put it this way: "Does the guy who has a blue widget
website with 100 pages beat the guy who has only one page - but one very IMPORTANT
page?
Paul: No the larger site does not do better: Because we don't count the number of
pages. We care about this: Are other pages on the same subject considering this to be a
GOOD PAGE. And you know, even Google and what they do and the other methods,
they can't do this. Sure, they do look at who's referring to the page but they don't look
at the subject - the subject of the page. Yes, we look at all the information that the
others do as well as everything else...
---END
I would like to thank Mike for allowing me to republish those snippets here. Thanks
Mike!
If a search engine doesn’t look at the subject of the page, as Paul states, then the
concept of themed websites just cannot exist. It simply can’t!
98
Add to the fact that search engines do not count the number of pages, the only
conclusion one can come to is that search engines determine relevancy by a page’s own
merits, and not the number of pages surrounding it or the subject of those pages.
What you have to realize is that it’s not that search engines don’t want to analyze the
subject of every referring page. They do! The problem is that it would take far too long
and reduce searches to a snails-pace instead of the quick quarter-of-a-second results we
are accustomed to.
This may change in the future, but for now themed websites is just not part of a search
engines ranking algorithm, period.
Examples Of Webpages That Outrank Themed Websites
If themed websites were given special treatment by search engines, then themed
websites should always outrank single webpages, right?
Wrong. Let me show you some examples of webpages outranking so-called themed
websites.
Unless you’re a Hong Kong movie fanatic, you probably don’t know that there is a well
known Chinese movie star with the same name as me, “Michael Wong.”
Now if you search for our name in Google, you would expect the most relevant search
results to be websites or pages on the movie star, as opposed to me. After all, there are
hundreds, probably thousands, of websites and webpages devoted to him and his
movies.
http://www.google.com/search?q=michael+wong
You may, or may not, be surprised to find that the top two rankings belong to me. I
may not be anywhere as famous as Michael Wong the film star, but I have two
webpages that Google thinks are the most relevant results for the search term, “Michael
Wong.”
Internet Marketing Expert - Michael Wong
... Internet Marketing Expert - Michael Wong. Mike is ... I have had the good
99
fortune of knowing Michael Wong for the past 3 years. He is ...
www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/whos-mike.html - 23k - Cached - Similar pages
Marketing News
... Marketing News By Michael Wong. Latest Marketing News Aug-15: Overture
to Introduce New Ad Features. Aug-15: Website Errors Cost ...
Description: Weblog offering Internet marketing news, press releases, product
announcements, statistics, tips and...
Category: Business > Marketing and Advertising > ... > Resources
www.michaelwong.com/ - 31k - Cached - Similar pages
The #1 ranked listing is a webpage located in my Mike’s Marketing Tools website.
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com
The website offers reviews of marketing tools, some marketing tips, and a few free
online marketing tools. There are about 180 pages of content, yet only about a dozen
pages mentions my name. The main page which contains my bio is the one that Google
has ranked as the most relevant page on the web for the search term, “Michael Wong.”
Visit the site and you can see that the entire site clearly isn’t about me, but rather on
marketing tools.
Now if you take a look at the #2 ranking, you will see it is for another site of mine. This
site has over 200 pages of content, yet only the solitary home page mentions my name
in full. This site also isn’t about me at all, but offers marketing news headlines.
Although this listing has my name as the domain name, it is interesting to note that the
single page on the Mike’s Marketing Tools website containing my bio outranks the site
containing the keyword phrase in the domain name.
So it should be quite clear that themed content played no part in the ranking of these 2
top rankings.
Want more examples?
Search for “Arelis” which is a popular link popularity software program offered by
Axandra/Voget Selbach Enterprises. The #1 ranking in Google is a review of the
program on my site. This page is one page amongst 180 webpages. The official Arelis
website is nowhere to be seen.
100
http://www.google.com/search?q=Arelis
If you do a Google search for some of the marketing experts that I list on my Mike’s
Marketing Tools site, you will find that my pages outrank the experts’ official websites.
For example:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Armand+Morin
http://www.google.com/search?q=Cory+Rudl
I could go on and show you many, many more examples of single webpages outranking
themed websites, but I think you get the idea.
I would like to end by thanking Mike Grehan, for enlightening me on this subject. His
knowledge of search engine technology is far greater than any other search engine
expert I know of.
101
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR SITE’S LINK
POPULARITY FOR HIGHER SEARCH ENGINE
RANKINGS
Link popularity refers to the number and quality of links pointing to a webpage. It is an
extremely important method of improving your site's relevancy in search engines.
The logic behind link popularity is broken down into two parts:
1. Quantity of Links - A link from page A to page B is a “vote” or
“recommendation” for page B. Therefore it is logical to conclude that a webpage
with 10,000 links pointing to it should be more relevant than one with only 10
links pointing to it. So try to get as many websites to link to yours as possible.
2. Quality of Links – A vote from an authoritative source should carry more
weight than one from unknown source. For example, if you want to improve your
search engine rankings, which are more likely to give the best advice - search
engine optimization experts or car mechanics?
So try to get as many links from authoritative websites as possible. These
include:
a. major search engines such as Google.
http://www.google.com
b. popular search portals such as MSN.
http://search.msn.com
c. popular web directories, such as the Yahoo! Directory and the Open
Directory or Dmoz.
http://dmoz.org
d. high trafficked sites, such as eBay, Amazon, and CNN.
http://www.ebay.com
http://www.amazon.com
102
http://www.cnn.com
e. trade associations.
f.
trade magazines.
g. industry experts.
The two most important websites to get links from are the Yahoo! Directory and the
Open Directory. Google will crawl and index sites that are listed in either, or both, of
these directories.
I have seen websites achieve top rankings in Google merely with links from Yahoo! and
the Open Directory and no other sites. It clearly illustrates the influence those two web
directories have on Google.
There are three types of links that will increase the link popularity of your site; incoming,
internal, and to a lesser extent, outgoing links. Let’s take a look at each one in more
detail.
How To Improve Your Incoming Link Popularity Rating
Incoming link popularity refers to links pointing to a webpage from other people’s
websites. It goes without saying that recommendation from a third-party should carry
more weight than one from the site’s owner, simply because the third-party
recommendation should be less biased.
For this reason, search engines give incoming links the most weight out of the three link
popularity factors.
There are three ways to find websites to link to yours.
1. Free Tool For Finding Out Your Site’s Link Popularity Rating
My free Link Popularity Checker offers instant, online reports of a site's link popularity
rating in 4 top search engines, including Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Teoma (Ask Jeeves)
103
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/link-popularity/
2. How To Find Websites That Link To Your Competitors
The best way to get other sites to link to yours is to ask them politely. And the best way
to find likely candidates is to ask those sites that link to your competition.
To find out which websites are linking to your competitors, visit a search engine and
enter, "link:" or "links:" followed by a competitor’s domain name (with and without
"www").
For example:
link:yourcompetitor.com
link:www.yourcompetitor.com
links:yourcompetitor.com
links:www.yourcompetitor.com
In the AllTheWeb, AltaVista and Yahoo! search engine, use:
link:http://www.yourcompetitor.com
This should return a list of websites linking to your competitor. To check the link
popularity of your own sites, simply use your own domain name.
Do not forget that all the sites listed in the same category as yours in the major web
directories, such as the Yahoo! Directory and the Open Directory, are ideal link
candidates too.
3. How To Find Websites That Advertise Reciprocal Link Exchanges
The second way to find link exchange partners is to find websites that publicly offer link
exchanges.
To find such sites, visit a search engine and search for:
104
links “your keywords”
Include the quotation marks to ensure the search engine only return pages with the
exact search phrases you enter. Try replacing, "links" with one of the following sets of
search phrases:
resource
info
partner
resources
information
partners
4. How To Find Websites That Accept Site Submissions
The third way to find websites to link to yours is to find sites that accept site
submissions.
To find such sites, visit a search engine and search for:
"add url" "your keywords"
Try replacing, "add url" with one of the following sets of search phrases:
add site
add a site
submit site
submit a site
add link
add a link
submit link
submit a link
add a url
submit url
submit a url
In addition, you can also find site submission pages by searching for the actual page.
So, try replacing the "add url" search phrase with one of the following page names:
addurl.html
addaurl.html
submiturl.html
submitaurl.html
add-url.html
add-a-url.html
submit-url.html
addsite.html
addasite.html
submitsite.html
submitasite.html
add-site.html
add-a-site.html
submit-site.html
addlink.html
addalink.html
submitlink.html
submitalink.html
add-link.html
add-a-link.html
submit-link.html
105
submit-a-url.html
add_url.html
add_a_url.html
submit_url.html
submit_a_url.html
submit-a-site.html
add_site.html
add_a_site.html
submit_site.html
submit_a_site.html
submit-a-link.html
add_link.html
add_a_link.html
submit_link.html
submit_a_link.html
I have discovered many relevant submission pages using these techniques.
How To Improve Your Internal Link Popularity Rating
Internal link popularity refers to links between webpages within a site.
Over the last few months I have noticed that search engines have reduced the
importance of internal links between webpages. This must be the search engines answer
to combating optimizers trying to improve link popularity by cross linking webpages
within a site.
Anyhow, it is still an important linking strategy. Therefore I do recommend cross linking
all your important pages. This will help to improve your link popularity rating, and
enable you to improve the relevancy of more important keywords.
Cross linking your webpages also helps the search engine spiders find and index your
most important pages quicker, especially if some pages are buried deep within your site.
Do Outgoing Links Improve Link Popularity?
Outgoing links refers to links pointing to other sites from your webpages. This issue of
whether outgoing links contribute to link popularity is a hotly debated issue amongst the
search engine optimization community.
The fact is, outgoing links do dilute the Google PageRank rating carried over to other
pages by the rest of the links on the page.
Some SEO experts may not agree with me on this next point, but that’s OK.
106
I also believe that linking to other relevant websites can also help your search engine
rankings, although it may not specifically help your link popularity as such.
Let me give you an example of why I believe this.
1. Find a subcategory within the Yahoo! Directory.
2. Search for the topic of that particular subcategory in a search engine such as
Google. You are more than likely to find the Yahoo! Directory category page
listed amongst the top 30 search results.
Here are some examples:
Search Term: communications and networking
Google Search:
http://www.google.com/search?q=communications+and+networking
Ranking: #1
Yahoo! Directory Category:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Communications_and_Netw
orking/
Search Term: computer generated art
Google Search: http://www.google.com/search?q=computer+generated+art
Ranking: #1
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Visual_Arts/Computer_Generated/
Search Term: computer generated music
Google Search:
http://www.google.com/search?q=computer+generated+music
Ranking: #1
http://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/Computer_Generated/
107
As you can clearly see, Yahoo! does not offer any substantial content for those particular
topics. It merely offers links to relevant websites. Yet many of its web directory pages
are considered as relevant pages for the search queries listed.
Is this a fluke? Is this limited to Google, because of its relationship with Yahoo?
I doubt it very much. Conduct the same search on other major search engines and you
will find the same pages listed amongst the top ranked search results in those engines
as well.
Some astute search engine optimizers have already gotten onto this fact and have
designed links pages to take advantage of this. I have actually landed on these links
pages as a result of a clicking through a top ranked Google listing.
How To Construct Links For Optimum Results
It is essential that you use the important keyword phrase exactly as people would enter
into search engines in your incoming, internal and outgoing links.
In addition I highly recommend naming your files after the keyword phrase.
For example, if the page is about “search engines,” the file name should be either
“search-engines.html” or “search_engines.html”
And all links to the page should contain the exact keyword phrase, “search engines.” Do
not use the singular version of the keyword, which in our example would be, “search
engine” minus the “s.”
<a href=”search-engines.html”>search engines</a>
Incoming Links Commonly Mistaken As Link Popularity
Boosters
There are two types of incoming links that people commonly mistake as links that will
boost their link popularity.
108
These are links from:
•
pay per click search engines, such as Overture.
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/overture.html
•
affiliate program providers, such as Commission Junction.
http://www.cj.com
These links do not link directly to your site. Instead they link to their own site, for
tracking purposes, which then redirects to the intended site. Search engines do not
crawl and index these types of links. So these types of links will not help boost your link
popularity rating.
What Are Link Farms & Why You Must Avoid Them At All
Costs
Link farms are networks of heavily cross linked pages on one or more sites, with the
sole intention of artificially improving the link popularity of those pages and websites. All
of the major search engines consider such linking as spam, so stay clear of these types
of links. So NEVER EVER use link farms in the vain hope of boosting your link popularity.
How can you spot a link farm?
Link farms typically give you a page of links to add to your website. The outgoing links
point to other link pages belonging to other members of the link farm network. The link
titles and descriptions are the same on all the link pages, which makes it easy for a
search engine to detect the presence of link spamming.
Useful Software For Boosting Your Link Popularity
Link popularity software, such as Arelis, will help you find, manage and monitor link
exchange partners. Yes, you can find link popularity partners manually. But in the time it
109
takes you to find 10 link exchange partners manually, Arelis would have found 1,000
potential link partners for you.
•
Arelis – Searches the internet looking for suitable reciprocal link exchange sites,
based on the keywords you give. Arelis then evaluates each site, sets up a links
directory and uploads it to your server. It then helps you email potential link
partners by sending personalized reciprocal link email requests, after you visit
and approve those sites you wish to include into your links directory. Operating
Systems: Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 and XP. Cost: Demo (Up to 100 link
partners) / $99.95 (Standard) / $299.95 (Business)
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/arelis.html
How To Contact & Request Links From Link Exchanges
Partners
In this section I will show you a sample email you can send to potential links exchange
partners to request a link back to your site.
Link popularity software programs, such as Arelis, provide sample emails. However, I
highly recommend you edit the email to suit your own style of writing. Do not simply use
the default emails that come with programs like Arelis.
Why?
Because thousands of Arelis users also have access to the same email template. There’s
a good chance many of them would simply use the email offered by the program. You
don’t want your email to sound exactly the same as theirs. Be original. Inject some
personality into your emails.
Once you have compiled a list of websites you wish to request links from, add a link to
their website on your site. Then send an email to each site owner informing them that
you have linked to their site and politely request a link back to your site.
Don’t forget to use a subject line that will catch their attention without sounding like
spam.
110
Sample Reciprocal Link Request Email Subject Titles
Here are some sample subject titles:
Reciprocal link exchange request...
I have added a link to your website...
I have linked to your website...
I would like to exchange links with you...
I want to trade links with your site...
You notice that they are straight forward and to the point? Webmasters are busy
people, so get straight to the point of the email in the subject line. Don’t use fancy
headlines. Feel free to use or edit them as you see fit.
Sample Reciprocal Link Request Email You Can Use
Here’s a sample email:
<--- START
Dear Sir/Madam
I have visited your website and found it to be most useful. As such I have added
the following text link to your website on my partner/info/resources (delete as
applicable) webpage.
Your Site Title - offers a free online keyword density tool. (This is their text link,
which you have added to your page)
http://www.mydomain.com/partner.html (show them where their link is placed
on your site)
I would be most grateful if you would add a text link to our website in return.
(Ask for the link back to your site)
111
My website offers reviews of the best internet marketing tools & software, which
I am sure your visitors would find most useful. (Tell them what your website is
about and why they should link to you)
I have attached a text file containing our link to this email for your convenience.
If you have any questions, or suggestions, please let me know.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Kind regards,
Full name,
CEO, My Company, Inc.
http://www.mydomain.com
END --->
I highly recommend you edit the sample email to suit your own style of writing.
Sample Reciprocal Link Attached To Email
Notice that I didn't include the link in the email. Instead I have included it in a text file
[Mikes-Marketing-Tools-Link.txt] attached to the email.
<a href="http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com">Mike's Marketing Tools</a>
is the leading review site for the very best internet marketing tools.
The reason for this is because some email clients, such as AOL, execute the HTML link in
the email. The result is that the email recipient sees the link, instead of the link HTML
code.
Alternatively you could provide the link code on a webpage on your site, and provide a
link to the page in the email.
112
How To Create Reciprocal Links For Optimum Results
Here are some tips on how to swap links for optimum results:
In General You Should Link To Your Home Page
Search engines consider the home page as the most important on a website. So getting
everyone to link to it will boost its chances of moving up the rankings.
Use The Exact Keyword Phrase As The Link Text
The reason is that search engines will consider the keywords in the link text as the
keywords the site (linking to you) is “recommending” your website for.
Make Sure The Link Text Is In The Landing (Linked To) Page
Otherwise search engines will disregard the page as relevant to a search query for the
keywords in your link text.
Word The Link Description To Attract Click Throughs
Your reciprocal link exchange partners can and will send you free visitors, so take
advantage of this by selling your website to visitors who visit your link partners' links
page.
113
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR LINK POPULARITY WITH
MINI-SITES
The easiest way to get external websites to link to your main website is to add links to
your main site from your other existing websites. If you don’t have any, then create
some mini-sites.
What Are Mini-Sites?
Mini-sites are small websites, normally containing no more than a few pages.
Let’s use an example to illustrate how to use mini-sites. Let’s say you have an online
store selling baby products. Here are some ideas on how to create mini-sites for your
store.
Idea #1
Set up a website offering a list of baby names and their meanings. According to the
Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool, there were 598,551 searches for “baby names”
compared to only 75,872 searches for “baby clothing” across the Overture network in
June 2003. So it makes sense to target visitors interested in baby names. After all, what
kind of people is interested in baby names? Parents of course! And do they buy baby
clothing? Absolutely!
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Idea #2
But why settle for one website offering baby names? Set up additional sites for names in
other languages, such as Chinese, Jewish, French, Japanese, etc. You get the idea?
114
Idea #3
You could also set up a website allowing parents to send email announcements of the
birth of their new baby to their friends and families. Include the option to add photos of
their baby to the announcement and allow recipients to purchase copies of the photos.
Idea #4
How about setting up a website offering advice on how to protect a baby from SIDS
(Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), also known as cot death? I’m sure new parents would
find such a site most useful. Plus you would probably attract many links as well.
I’m sure you get the idea. The idea of mini-sites is to create websites that compliment
your main website. In general, you should offer free information or service that your
customers would find useful. You then funnel the traffic from the mini-sites to your main
website.
How To Cross Link Your Mini-Sites
On your mini-sites, add text links to your main site, as well as to the other mini-sites.
Make sure to include the exact spelling of your most important keywords in your text
link.
I highly recommend using different keyword phrases on different pages, in order to
improve your search engine relevancy for different keyword phrases. Not everyone
enters the same keywords when they are searching for a particular product or service.
For example, in the case of our example baby store, you could link to the main site
using the following popular search terms:
baby furniture
baby clothes
baby bedding
baby gifts
and so on…
115
You can see how I have used this technique to funnel traffic from my free content sites
to my commercial sites.
http://www.amgy.com
http://www.michaelwong.com
http://www.1hour-search-engine-optimization.com
http://www.javascript-2.com
http://www.html-html.com
http://www.great-web-design-tips.com
http://www.ecommerce-dictionary.com
Actually mini-sites are probably not a good description for these sites, as they contain
over 1,800 pages of content in total. But their main purpose is to funnel traffic to my
commercial websites, which you can find a list of at:
http://www.amgy.com
What Is Site Popularity?
Site popularity refers to click through popularity, and how long visitors remain at the site
after getting there. Do not confuse site popularity with link popularity. Link popularity
refers to the number and quality of links pointing back to a website.
Direct Hit was the best known site popularity engine, but since Teoma acquired it, the
public search interface has been removed and is no longer accessible. As far as I know
there are no other major site popularity search engines in existent today.
What Is Click Through Popularity?
Click through popularity refers to ranking links by the number of clicks it receives. One
such search engine that uses click through popularity is the Yahoo! Directory. It takes
click through popularity into account to determine the rankings of its “Most Popular”
listings in each category of its web directory.
To determine if a search engine or web directory tracks click through popularity, simply
look at the link URL of an outgoing link. If the link URL starts with the search engine's
116
own site address, it is a clear indication that the search engine is monitoring the click
through activity.
For example, here is the outgoing link for Amazon.com in Yahoo's search results page:
srd.yahoo.com/srst/2015786/amazon/1/359/T=1008927398/F=56ee31eeb0b688
94eb9ce52dd1d0985f/*http://www.amazon.com/
It is interesting to note that the outgoing Amazon.com link in Yahoo's directory (see
below) is slightly different from the search results link. The reason is probably because
Yahoo! uses different links to track the popularity of a link in different areas of the site.
Category: Home > Business and Economy > Shopping and Services > Retailers
> Amazon.com
srd.yahoo.com/drst/2015786/*http://www.amazon.com/
117
HOW TO SUBMIT TO SEARCH ENGINES
It is vital that you let the search engines know your website exists. Because if they don’t
know your website exists, you have no hope of getting indexed by them.
There are two ways to get your site onto the search engine radar:
1. Submit your webpages directly.
2. Let the search engines find your webpages via links from webpages already
crawled and indexed by the search engines. Nowadays this is the preferred
method. The reason is because more and more search engines, such as Google,
no longer rely on site owners to submit their websites for indexing. Instead they
rely on finding sites via links from other websites already in its index.
The most basic way of submitting to a search engine is visit a search engine's
“submissions page” (add a site, submit URL, submit a site, etc.) and submit your
website’s URL.
The search engine “should” add your site to its list of URLs to crawl. However, this
doesn’t always happen and you will usually find some statement stating this on a search
engine’s submission page.
Part of the reason is because far too many webmasters abuse the system by submitting
their websites over and over again. So don’t rely on search engines indexing your site
just because you submitted it via their submission form.
I highly recommend getting links from websites already indexed in the major search
engines. Visit the “How To Increase Your Site's Link Popularity For Higher
Search Engine Rankings” section for more information.
118
How To Compose Search Engine Listing Titles &
Descriptions
To ensure that your entire website is indexed properly by the search engines, you must
prepare your website before submitting it.
To do that you must make sure each page has:
•
•
a useful listing title.
a useful listing description.
How To Compose Search Engine Listing Titles
You must include a HTML TITLE tag in the HEAD section of every single page. All search
engines extract the contents of a page's TITLE tag to use as the listing title. Without a
title tag search engines will either use something like "Untitled," or the page URL as the
listing title. This is detrimental to your page's search engine relevancy and doesn’t help
to sell your webpage to search engine users.
Here’s an example of a TITLE tag:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Search Engine Optimization Strategies</TITLE>
</HEAD>
How To Compose Search Engine Listing Descriptions
Quite a few search engines now extract the contents of the meta description tag to use
as the listing description. If the meta description tag is missing, the first sentence of the
main body text is used instead.
Here’s an example of a meta description tag:
<HEAD>
<META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”FREE search engine optimization
strategies, newsletters, news, tips, statistics, & resources.”>
</HEAD>
119
Common Problem With Indexing The First Sentence
If the meta description tag is missing, search engines will extract the first sentence of
the main body text to use as the listing description. This sounds good in theory, but
quite often doesn’t produce the desired results.
The reason is most webpages display a navigation menu at the top or left side of a
webpage. As such navigation links come before the main body text in the HTML
document. So the first couple of hundred characters that search engine spiders see are
the navigation links. This is what they extract to use as the listing description.
This is not good. But what’s worse is that if a website uses a top or left navigation bar, it
is most likely to use it on every page of a site. So every listing description will end up
with the same keywords.
Visit the “How To Compose Web Directory Listing Titles & Descriptions” section
for more information on how to compose your page title and description for optimum
rankings.
How To Manually Submit Your Website To Search
Engines
The best way to submit a website to search engines for indexing is by hand. Yes, I do
mean physically visiting a search engine and registering your URLs.
Of course you should only submit a site by hand if you only have one or two small
websites to submit. If you have dozens of webpages, I recommend using a search
engine submission software program or online service.
Some search engines have a policy of only accepted a limited number of URLs per day.
So you would have to return on another day to submit additional URLs.
In addition, most search engine spiders only crawl a limited number of pages in a site.
So if you have a large site with hundreds of webpages you should register every
important page of your site, which may require many visits.
120
Visit the “121 Search Engines & Web Directories That Accept Free Site
Submissions” for a comprehensive list of search engines you can submit to for free.
Search Engine Submission Software That Automates The
Submission Process
Search engine submission software can automate the tedious task of submitting
hundreds of webpages to the search engines.
NOTE: It is extremely important that you only use search engine submission software
that simulates manual submissions, as most search engines have banned automated
submissions that simply submit URLs without any regard for the search engine’s
submission guidelines and limits.
Here is a recommended search engine submission software program that I use, which
simulates manual submissions:
•
WebPosition Gold - A popular search engine optimization, submission and
monitoring software program. The reporting feature display a summary of your
ranking statistics over time, by search engine and keyword, what is positioned
above and below you, and alerts you to places where you have declined in rank.
Supports 92 major search engines, web directories and pay-per-click search
engines worldwide. Operating Systems: Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT and XP.
Cost: $149 (Standard Edition) / $349 (Professional Edition)
http://www.webpositiongoldpro.com
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/webposition-gold.html (My
review)
For more search engine submission software, visit:
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/directory/search-enginesubmission-software.html
121
Online Search Engine Submission Services That
Automates The Submission Process
Online search engine submission services are similar to their software counterpart,
except they are hosted online rather than on your computer. As with search engine
submission software, you should only use an online search engine submission service
that simulates manual submissions.
Be careful of which online search engine submission service you use. Many of them are
very basic in design, often designed before search engines starting banning automated
submissions.
Many claim to submit your site to hundreds of thousands of search engines. That is just
marketing hype. The fact is there aren't that many search engines on the internet. The
vast majority of the search engines these services claim to submit to, are either small
directories or link pages, with little or no traffic.
Another problem with the majority of online submission services is that they do not take
into account that search engines only accept a maximum number of URLs from one site,
per day. What happens is that people end up submitting too many URLs, which are
either ignored, rejected or get the site banned.
If you prefer an online search engine submission service to a software solution, here is a
service worth considering:
•
Priority Submit - An online search engine submission service that offers
Trusted Feed services and paid inclusion of your webpages in top search engines
within 48 hours.
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/priority-submit.html (My
review)
For more search engine submission services, visit:
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/directory/search-enginesubmission-service.html
122
How Long Does It Take To Get Indexed?
Once you have submitted your site to the search engines, it may take up to eight weeks
or more, depending on the search engine, for your site to appear in the search results.
Why does it take so long?
The answer is that it takes search engines that long to crawl and index the billions of
pages on the web. In addition, some of the major search engines receive up to several
hundred thousand submissions a day.
A lot of people do not understand why it takes so long for their site to get indexed. They
get impatient after a few days of not being able to find their site in the search engines.
As a result, they resubmit their site again and again in the hope of speeding up the
indexing process. This does not speed up the indexing process. Instead, it will get your
site blacklisted.
You must be patient when it comes to the search engines. You either play by their
game, or not at all. In general, I suggest that you wait 6-8 weeks, before resubmitting a
URL.
How To Submit To Foreign Search Engines
Be careful of search engine submission software and online services claims that they will
submit your site to thousands of search engines.
More often than not a good percentage of those search engines are foreign, non-English
search engines and directories.
In general it can be difficult to get indexed by foreign search engines because:
•
most foreign engines only accept websites ending with their country code
extension (e.g. ".de" for Germany).
•
they only websites belonging to its country's citizens, permanent residents, and
companies.
123
•
many foreign search engines only accept websites in their local language. It can
be difficult and expensive to translate a site into a foreign language.
•
Many foreign search engines only accept websites that are hosted locally. It can
be expensive to co-host a site in another country. The costs can quickly add up if
you had to rent server space for every country you wanted to host your site in
order to comply with local search engine registration policies.
So in general unless your main target audience is non-English speaking, I advise against
spending much, if any, effort in submitting to foreign search engines. It just isn’t worth
it.
124
HOW TO SUBMIT TO WEB DIRECTORIES
The first place your should submit your website to are the popular web directories, such
as the Yahoo! Directory, Open Directory Project, and LookSmart.
http://dmoz.org
http://www.looksmart.com
Here are the four main benefits:
1. Listings in the Open Directory and LookSmart index also appear on many of the
top search engines, including Google, Yahoo and MSN.
http://search.yahoo.com
2. Search engines will have a better chance of finding and indexing your website.
Google for example publicly state that they will index your website within six to
eight weeks, once your website is included in either the Yahoo! Directory, or the
Open Directory Index.
3. Some search engines give a relevancy boost to sites that are already indexed in
major web directories, such as the Yahoo! Directory, or the Open Directory
Index. Therefore, I recommend submitting your site to the web directories,
before you submitting it to the search engines.
4. Web directories themselves can provide a lot of free traffic.
But before you submit your websites, I highly recommend that you spend a bit of time
selecting appropriate categories and composing your web directory titles and
descriptions. They will ultimately determine the success of your listings in the
directories, and can also contribute a major part to the success of your listings in the
search engines.
125
How To Compose Web Directory Listing Titles &
Descriptions
Before you even consider submitting your site to the web directories, you must prepare
the listing title and description for your site.
If you have already built your website, I assume you know what your most important
keyword phrase, right?
If not, visit the “32 Keyword Research Tools” section for tools to help you find out
what keywords your customers are entering into search engines.
In the case of the Open Directory Project, which accepts multiple submissions for
different topics in a website, you should find the most important keywords for each
section of your site you are submitting.
How To Compose Listing Titles
Here are some tips on how to compose good listing titles:
•
•
•
•
•
Only use the most important keyword phrase. The fewer keywords you use, the
greater the weight given to each keyword, which increases relevancy.
Spell the keyword phrase exactly as your visitors would enter into the search
engines. Do not use plurals, if your visitors usually enter in the singular version
of your keyword phrase, and vice versa.
Do not include your company name in the title, unless that is the primary
keyword you are promoting, or is required by the web directory you are
submitting to.
Do not hype up your title. It’s not a classified ad. Web directory editors only want
functional titles.
Do not include any "stop words" (a, an, and, i, in, it, of, on, etc.) in your title.
Stop words are usually ignored by search engines to speed up searches, and do
nothing for search engine relevancy.
126
Here are some examples of good titles:
•
•
•
SEO Services
Cheap Baby Clothing
WebPosition Gold
And examples of poor titles:
•
•
John Smith’s SEO Services (Remove your name, if possible)
The Cheapest Baby Shop In The World! (Too much hype)
WebPosition Gold – Search Engine Software (Too many keywords)
How To Compose The Description
Here are some tips on how to compose the listing description:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Do not hype up your description into a sales pitch. Web directory editors only
want functional descriptions.
Compose a one sentence description.
Include the most important keyword phrase as close to the beginning of the
sentence as possible.
Include some secondary keyword phrases.
Spell the keywords exactly as your visitors would enter into the search engines.
Use as few "stop words" (a, an, and, i, in, it, of, on, etc.) as possible. Stop
words are usually ignored by search engines to speed up searches, and do
nothing for search engine relevancy.
Here are some examples of good descriptions:
•
•
•
Features search engine strategies, news, statistics, optimization tips, resources,
and a weekly newsletter.
Offers baby clothing, toys, diapers, and a free online dictionary of baby names.
Internet marketing news headlines, statistics and commentary.
127
And examples of poor descriptions:
•
•
•
Offers America’s best search engine optimization service, with guaranteed top 10
listings within 7 days!
Features 5,000 different software titles, all low prices and free delivery.
The Baby Superstore offers baby clothes of all sizes, colors and designs. Plus
toys, diapers, and a baby name dictionary.
If you submit an unsuitable description, the editor could either edit it to the point that it
no longer resembles the description you submitted, or worse still ignore or reject your
submission altogether.
So stick with functional keyword-rich descriptions and you won’t run the risk of major
edits to your description, which could lose some, or all, of the important keywords you
want.
Maximum Number Of Words Or Characters Allowed In The Listing Title
& Description
Each web directory has its own set of guidelines as to the maximum number of words or
characters allowed.
Max. Title Length
Max. Description
Length
LookSmart
Open Directory Project
55 Characters. N/A
145 Characters / 25-30 Words
20 Words
Listings Per Site
One
Yahoo!
40 Characters / 5 Words
200 Characters / 25 Words
Accepts multiple listings, as long as One
each submission offers unique
content.
128
Examples Of Successful Web Directory Listing Titles &
Descriptions
Here are a few examples of successful titles and descriptions that I have created in the
past:
Affiliate Programs Guide - Articles and tutorials on how to start making money
with affiliate programs.
Dreamweaver Tutorial - Tutorial for novices and gurus alike which covers various
aspects of how to use Dreamweaver.
Free JavaScripts - Over 400 free JavaScripts.
Link Popularity Checker - Generates a report of your site's link popularity in top
search engines.
Notice how the important keywords are in both the titles and descriptions? Always try to
include additional keywords in the description that are not in the title. This will help to
create more keyword phrases.
For example:
Affiliate Programs Guide - Articles and tutorials on how to start making money
with affiliate programs.
Important keyword phrases include:
affiliate
affiliate
affiliate
affiliate
affiliate
programs
program guide
program articles
program tutorials
program make money
Create a number of listing titles and descriptions. Play around with it. Even leave it and
come back to it the next day. I am often surprised how a fresh mind can improve a title
or description I had written the day before.
129
You really only have one chance to get the listing title and description right. Because
once you submit it, it’s virtually impossible to get it changed unless your site content
changes significantly.
Directory editors do not care about your site’s rankings. So don’t expect to be able to
edit your listing if it doesn’t get a good ranking.
When you are 100% satisfied with your title and listing, you are ready to submit your
site to the web directories.
How To Select The Most Appropriate Web Directory
Category
The choice of category can make or break a listing. Select inappropriate categories and
your submission will probably be rejected. Select unpopular categories, or categories
situated down too many levels, and you may only receive a trickle of visitors.
Another important consideration is that search engines tend to give listings indexed in
web directory categories nearer the top of the directory tree. So always try to select a
category as near to the top level as possible.
Go to a web directory’s search form and enter the most important keyword phrase you
are targeting in the search box.
Let’s say your important keyword phrase is "cheap web hosting" and we conduct a
search in the Yahoo! Directory:
http://search.yahoo.com/search/dir?p=cheap+web+hosting
Take a good look at the title and domain names of the top listings. Notice how the
keywords appear in the majority of the listings?
Now take a look at the link directly underneath the top 5 listings. You should see one of
the following text links:
More sites about: Website Hosting
130
More sites about: Website Hosting > Directories
This tells you that the Yahoo! Directory considers these two categories as the most
relevant for our keyword phrase. More often than not, the searched keywords are in title
of the category itself.
In fact, the category is the most important factor in a site’s ranking in the Yahoo!
Directory. Select the wrong category and your chances of achieving top rankings are
virtually zero.
Click on one of the “More sites about…” links. This takes you to the listing's category in
the Yahoo! Directory.
You notice the border at the top of the page that stretches across the screen, directly
underneath the banner? It's in yellow. This indicates a commercial category. Noncommercial categories are in blue.
You should find the, "Suggest a Site" link at the top of the page. These links correspond
to this particular category in the Yahoo! Directory. Every category has its own
submission link. So you must visit the category you want to submit to and click the
"Suggest a Site" link to submit to a particular category.
131
7 Web Directory Submission Tips
Here are seven web directory submission tips:
1. Make Sure Your Website Is 100% Ready
Web directory editors are under no obligation to index your website. Do not submit a
website if it isn’t 100% ready and professional looking.
2. Submit Your Website Manually
I highly recommend that you do not use any kind of automated search engine
submission software or online submission service to submit your site to the web
directories. Web directory submissions should be undertaken manually, and I have
always followed that policy.
3. Follow The Submission Guidelines
Carefully read and follow the guidelines set out by each web directory.
4. Submit To The Most Appropriate Category
This could make or break your listing, so make sure you get this right, as you only have
chance at it.
5. Double Check Every Detail
Make sure there is no spelling or typing errors. Make sure the contact details you enter
in the submission form matches the details in your site and the InterNIC (Whois)
records. To find your Whois records, visit Domain Registration Bank, click the Whois link
at the bottom of the page, and enter your domain name.
132
6. Consider Submitting To A Regional Directory Or Category
If you have a regionally specific website, consider submitting it to the appropriate
regional directory or category. Regional submissions have a better chance of getting in,
and in a much quicker time, since those editors are more interested in building up their
guides and do not usually have as many submissions to deal with. If you submit to a
regional directory, your site will still available for searching in the main directory.
7. Indicate Time Sensitive Submissions
If your website contains time sensitive news or information, make sure you indicate this
on the submission form. Quite often, websites that contain time sensitive information
are indexed very quickly.
That’s it! Good luck with your web directory submissions!
133
121 SEARCH ENGINES & WEB DIRECTORIES THAT
ACCEPT FREE SITE SUBMISSIONS
Many search engines and web directories nowadays no longer accept free site
submissions. Fortunately there are plenty that still do.
Here are 121 legitimate search engines and web directories where you can submit your
site to for free. None of them are FFA (Free For All) link pages. I highly recommend that
you steer clear of FFA sites. In general they are consider spam by search engines.
I have visited and double checked every single search engine in this list. But please do
report any broken links by emailing me at [email protected]. Thank you in
advance.
Country
Name
Free Submissions
-
Citysearch
Argentina
Yahoo! Argentina
http://selfenroll.citysearch.com/Enroll_Start.asp?Agent=citysearch&Feed
=default
http://ar.docs.yahoo.com/info/sugerir.html
Asia
Yahoo! Asia
http://asia.docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/
Australia
NineMSN Search
http://au.zeal.com
Australia
OzSearch
http://search.oznetwork.com.au/search/tips.html
Australia
Yahoo! Australia & NZ http://au.rd.yahoo.com/f/su
Brazil
Yahoo! Brazil
http://add.br.yahoo.com/fast/add?2086175535+BR
Canada
http://www.canadaone.com/business/addurl.html
Canada
CanadianOne
Business
CanadianOne
Canada
CANLinks
http://www.canlinks.net/addalink/
Canada
Categories.ca
http://www.categories.ca/cgi-bin/user.cgi
Canada
MSN Canada Search
http://ca.zeal.com
Canada
Sympatico
http://pre.sympatico.ca/en/search/submit.html
Canada
Yahoo! Canada
http://ca.rd.yahoo.com/home/bpl/*http://help.yahoo.com/help/ca/url/
Catalan
Yahoo! Catalan
http://ct.docs.yahoo.com/info/suggerir.html
China
Yahoo! China
http://cn.yahoo.com/docs/info/suggest.html
Denmark
Yahoo! Denmark
http://dk.docs.yahoo.com/express/splash.html
France
MSN France Search
http://search2.msn.fr/suggestions/fr/default.asp
France
Yahoo! France
http://fr.docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/splashyexhp.html
Germany
Yahoo! Germany
http://de.docs.yahoo.com/info/yexpress/splash.html
http://www.canadaone.com/business/suggest.html
Hong Kong MSN Hong Kong
Search
Hong Kong Yahoo! Hong Kong
http://msn.openfind.com.tw/MSN/submit-hk.htm
http://hk.yahoo.com/docs/info/suggest.html
India
Yahoo! India
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/
Italy
Yahoo! Italy
http://it.docs.yahoo.com/splash_espress.html
Japan
Yahoo! Japan
http://help.yahoo.co.jp/help/jp/url/url-04.html
Korea
Yahoo! Korea
http://kr.suggest.yahoo.com
Mexico
Yahoo! Mexico
http://mx.yahoo.com/docs/info/sugerir.html
Norway
Yahoo! Norway
http://add.europe.yahoo.com/bin/add?2000226956+NO
Rus. Fed.
MavicaNET
http://www.mavicanet.com
134
Singapore
Yahoo! Singapore
http://sg.docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/
Spain
Yahoo! Spain
http://es.docs.yahoo.com/info/sugerir.html
Sweden
Yahoo! Sweden
http://se.docs.yahoo.com/express/splash.html
Switzerland SearchEngine.com
http://www.searchengine.com/List_Your_Site/Basic_Submit/
Taiwan
MSN Taiwan Search
http://msn.openfind.com.tw/MSN/submit-home.htm
Taiwan
Yahoo! Taiwan
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/add?69349243+TW
UK
192 Directory
http://www.192directory.co.uk/forms/submit.htm
UK
Gimpsy
http://www.gimpsy.com/gimpsy/searcher/suggest.php
UK
HotBot UK
http://www.hotbot.lycos.co.uk/submit.html
UK
Mirago
http://www.mirago.co.uk/regions/default.asp
UK
Mirago Directory
http://dmoz.org/add.html
UK
Splut
http://www.splut.com/cgibin/suggest.cgi?type=site&level=000
UK
Yahoo! UK & Ireland
http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/ukie/express/splash.html
US
2kCity
http://www.2kcity.com/search/addurl.asp
US
About.com
http://www.about.com/gi/pages/homehc.htm#c4
US
Aeiwi
http://www.aeiwi.com/submit.html
US
Aesop
http://www.aesop.com/cgi-bin/sub/submiturl.cgi
US
Alexa
http://pages.alexa.com/help/webmasters/index.html
US
AllTheWeb
http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php
US
AltaVista
http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/new
US
AOL Directory
US
AOL Search
http://www.google.com/addurl.html
US
Bhanvad
http://www.bhanvad.com/index.php?t=rregistration
US
Blue Web 'N
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/suggesturl.cfm
US
Cipinet
http://www.cipinet.com/addurl.html
US
Claymont
http://www.claymont.com/login/login.asp
US
Clickey
http://www.clickey.com/signup.shtml
US
Ditto
http://www.ditto.com/addurl.asp
US
Education Index
http://www.educationindex.com
US
Education World
http://www.education-world.com/navigatio-dd_url_form.shtml
US
Entireweb
http://www.entireweb.com/eng/basic/
US
ExactSeek
http://www.exactseek.com/add.html
US
FindInfo
http://www.findinfo.com/submit.htm
US
Froogle
http://froogle.google.com/froogle/merchants.html
US
GamblingSeek
http://gamblingseek.com/cgi-bin/addurl.cgi
US
Go.com
US
GoGuides
http://www.goguides.org/info/addurl.htm
US
Google
US
Google Catalogs
http://catalogs.google.com/googlecatalogs/catalog_vendors.html#add
US
Google Image Search http://images.google.com/addurl.html
US
Google News
http://www.google.com/help/about_news_search.html
US
HotBot
http://insite.lycos.com/searchservices/ssecrm_homepage.asp?func=free
US
HumorSeek
http://humorseek.com/cgi-bin/addurl.cgi
US
Inktomi
http://free.submit-it.com/msnsubmit.htm
US
Internet Archive
http://pages.alexa.com/help/webmasters/
US
Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org/div/contact/
US
iWon
US
Jayde
http://search.jayde.com/cgi-bin/submit.cgi
US
JoeAnt
http://www.joeant.com/suggest.html
US
LibrarySpot
http://www.libraryspot.com/suggest.htm
US
Librians' Index to the http://lii.org/search?suggest=1
135
Internet
US
Lycos
http://insite.lycos.com/
US
Lycos Directory
US
Mallpark
http://www2.mallpark.com/MS/MSIndex.cfm
US
Medology
http://www.medology.com/addurl.htm
US
MixCat
http://www.mixcat.com/addurl.html
US
MSN US Search
http://www.zeal.com/users/non_profit.jhtml
US
My Global Website
http://directory.myglobalwebsite.com/cgi-bin/request.cgi
US
NationalDirectory
http://www.nationaldirectory.com/addurl/
US
Nerd Wide Web
http://www.nerdworld.com/ww_add_a_link.html
US
NetInsert
http://www.netinsert.com/en/insert.html
US
Netscape Search
US
US
Open Directory
Project
PageSeeker
US
Prime Find
http://www.primefind.net/add-a-site.html
https://secure.pageseeker.com/signup.htm
US
QuestFinder
http://www.questfinder.com/search/s-ctm.cgi?s-addurl.ctm
US
Refdesk
http://www.refdesk.com/criteria.html
US
REX
http://rex.skyline.net/add/
US
Scrub The Web
http://www.scrubtheweb.com/addurl.html
US
SearchHippo
http://www.searchhippo.com/addlink.php
US
SearchIt
http://www.searchit.com/addurl.htm
US
SeekOn
http://www.seekon.com/addurl.html
US
SeekOn/Local
http://www.seekon.com/faq.html#listing
US
SirLinksalot
http://www.sirlinksalot.net/suggest.html
US
Splat! Search
http://www.splatsearch.com/submit.html
US
Subjex
http://www.subjex.net/submit_url.html
US
TravellerSeek
http://travellerseek.com/cgi-bin/addurl.cgi
US
TrueSearch
http://www.truesearch.com/addurl/
US
TryAmerica
http://www.tryamerica.com/AddURL.htm
US
http://www.turnpike.net/directory.html?getentry
US
TurnPike Emporium
Directory
Walhello
US
Web World Index
http://www.webworldindex.com/submit.htm
US
Websquash
http://www.websquash.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?Mode=AnonAdd
US
WhatUSeek
http://www.whatuseek.com/addurl-secondary.shtml
US
Wisenut
http://www.wisenut.com/submit.html
US
WWW Riot
http://www.dxpnet.com/riot/submit.asp
US
Yahoo!
http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request
US
Yahoo! Directory
http://www.yahoo.com/r/ad
US
http://chinese.yahoo.com/docs/info/suggest.html
http://e1.docs.yahoo.com/info/sugerir.html
US
Yahoo! U.S. in
Chinese
Yahoo! U.S. in
Spanish
Yahooligans!
US
Zeal
http://www.zeal.com/guidelines/user/
US
http://www.walhello.com/addlinkgl.html
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/add?+Kids
136
HOW TO MONITOR YOUR SEARCH ENGINE
RANKINGS
Search engine rankings are a measure of a site's visibility in the search engines. Being
ranked #10,345 will not get your site any traffic, as few people ever go beyond the first
three pages (top 30) of search engine results.
How To Monitor Search Engine Rankings Manually
You can find out your search ranking results manually by entering a keyword phrase in a
search engine to see where your webpages appear in the rankings.
Of course, monitoring your search engine rankings manually is only recommended if you
have a tight budget, only a few pages and keyword phrases to check, and a lot of time
on your hands.
Alternatively, you can monitor your search engine rankings quickly and efficiently using
one of the many search engine ranking software programs, or online services.
Search Engine Ranking Software
Here is a software program that I use to check the search engine rankings of my sites
and those of my clients:
•
Web Position Gold - A popular search engine optimization, submission and
monitoring software program. The reporting feature display a summary of your
ranking statistics over time, by search engine and keyword, what is positioned
above and below you, and alerts you to places where you have declined in rank.
Supports over 80 major search engines, web directories and pay-per-click search
engines worldwide. Operating Systems: Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT and XP.
Cost: $149 (Standard Edition) / $349 (Professional Edition)
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/webposition-gold.html (My
review)
137
For more search engine ranking software, visit:
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/directory/search-engineoptimization-software.html
Free Online Search Engine Ranking Tool
I also offer a free online search engine ranking tool on my Mike’s Marketing Tools
website.
•
Search Engine Ranking Reports - instant, online reports of website rankings
in 7 top search engines, including Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN, AOL, Teoma
(Ask Jeeves), AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and the top 3 web directories; Yahoo!
Directory, Open Directory (Dmoz), and LookSmart - FREE!
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/
Search Engine Results Do Vary
Various factors can affect rankings reported by the search engines. These include time
of day, indexing runs, traffic load, load balancing measures, server timeout, ongoing
ranking jobs, etc.
Some search engines, such as Google, use multiple databases.
So search engine rankings aren’t necessarily 100% accurate, since they only present a
snap shot of the rankings at a particular moment.
138
SEARCH ENGINE RELATIONSHIP CHARTS
The search engine relationship chart shows the major search engines and the search
engines that power their main, pay per click, web directory and backup search results.
This will give you a quick overview of the major search engines and their relationships
with other search engines.
Search Engine
AllTheWeb
AltaVista
AOL
Ask Jeeves
Dmoz
Go.com
Google
HotBot
iWon
LookSmart
Lycos
MSN
Netscape
Overture
Teoma
WiseNut
Yahoo!
Search Engine
Main Search
Results
Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Google
Teoma
Dmoz
Google
Google
Inktomi
Google
WiseNut
Fast Search
Yahoo!
Google
Teoma
WiseNut
Yahoo!
Main Search
Results
Pay Per Click
Results
Overture
Overture
Google
Google
Google
Google
Lycos
Google
LookSmart
Lycos
Overture
Google
Overture
Ask Jeeves
LookSmart
Overture
Pay Per Click
Results
Directory
Results
Dmoz
Dmoz
Dmoz
Dmoz
Dmoz
LookSmart
Dmoz
Dmoz
Dmoz
Yahoo!
Directory
Results
Backup Results
WiseNut
LookSmart
Inktomi
Backup Results
Main Search Engines
This search engine chart shows the most popular or influential search engines and the
part they play in other search engines.
Main Results by
Google
AOL
Go.com
Google
iWon
Netscape
Pay Per Click by
Google
AOL
Ask Jeeves
Go.com
Google
iWon
Netscape
Pay Per Click by
Overture
AllTheWeb
AltaVista
MSN
Overture
Yahoo!
Directory by
Dmoz
AltaVista
AOL
Dmoz
Google
iWon
Lycos
MSN
Netscape
Owned by
Yahoo!
AllTheWeb
AltaVista
Inktomi
Overture
Yahoo!
139
For the latest updates to the search engine charts, visit:
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/search-engine-chart.html
The online version uses search engine logos which probably makes for easier viewing.
140
GOOGLE
Google is the world's biggest search engine with over 8 billion webpages, 880 million
images, and 1 billion Usenet messages.
Its search results now appear in some of the most popular websites including Yahoo!,
AOL Search, and Netscape. Google is without doubt the most widely used search engine
on the planet, with over 250 million searches per day. Fifty percent of Google.com traffic
is from outside the US.
Google Information
Documents Indexed
Crawls The Web (Every)
Unique Visitors (Monthly)
Audience Reach
Searches (Daily)
Referral Traffic
Directory Partner (Powered By)
Pay Per Click
Supplies Results For
Search Results Listing Order
Free Submission (Time to Index)
Non-Submitted Pages (Time to Index)
Submit Pages
Deep Crawl?
Pages Indexed
Submission Limit (Daily)
Paid Inclusion? (Time to Index & Update + Costs)
Ranking Data
Spider's Name
Page Clustering?
Maximum Title Tag Length
Maximum Description Tag Length
Maximum Keyword Tag Length
8 billion web Pages
880 million images
1 billion Usenet messages
4 weeks (in order of importance)
62.2 million (Nielsen//NetRatings 10/02)
39.4% (Nielsen//NetRatings 01/04) - over 50% of
which is from outside the US.
250 million+
14.40%
Google AdWords
Set Up: Within minutes
Cost Per Click: $0.05 minimum
Ads per page: Up to 8
Ranking Algorithm: Mixture of bid price and click
through ratio
Yahoo!, AOL Search, Netscape Search, CompuServe,
EarthLink and AT&T.
Google
4-8 weeks
4-8 weeks
Home page
Yes - 4 levels down
Entire website
1 page recommended
Not Available
Spider
Googlebot
Yes
83 characters
160 characters. If tag is missing, it displays webpage
extract. Also displays Open Directory description, if
available.
Not indexed
141
Support Frame Links?
No
Support Image Maps?
No
Support Meta Robots Tag?
No
Support Robots.Txt?
Yes
Index Description Tag?
Yes
Index Dynamic Pages? (CGI, ?, =, %, &, Etc.)
Yes, but given lower ranking than HTML pages.
Index Keyword Tag?
No
Index PDF Files?
Yes
Recommended Maximum File Size
20k
Recommended Maximum Keyword Weight
1-3%
Recommended Maximum Word Count Per Page Maximum of 750 words
(Content)
Case Sensitivity Affect Ranking?
No
Cross Linking Important Pages Affect Ranking?
Yes
Directory Listing Affect Ranking?
Yes
Home Page Affect Ranking?
No
Keywords in ALT Attributes Affect Ranking?
Yes
Keywords in Anchor Text Affect Ranking?
No
Keywords in Body Content Affect Ranking?
Yes (Density)
Keywords in Bold Affect Ranking?
Yes
Keywords in Bottom of Page Affect Ranking?
Yes (Density)
Keywords in Comment Tags Affect Ranking?
No
Keywords in Entire HTML File Affect Ranking?
No
Keywords in Headline Tags Affect Ranking?
Yes (Density)
Keywords in Hidden Layers (CSS) Affect Ranking?
No
Keywords in Link Text Affect Ranking?
Yes (Frequency)
Keywords in Link URL Affect Ranking?
Yes (Frequency is important)
Keywords in Meta Author Tag Affect Ranking?
No
Keywords in Meta Description Tag Affect Ranking?
Yes (Frequency)
Keywords in Meta Keyword Tag Affect Ranking?
Yes (Density is important)
Keywords in NoFrames Content Affect Ranking?
No
Keywords in Style Tags Affect Ranking?
No
Keywords in Title Tag Affect Ranking?
Yes (Density and frequency is very important)
Keywords in Top of Page Affect Ranking?
Yes (Frequency and density is important)
Keywords in URL Affect Ranking?
Yes (Frequency is important)
Link Popularity Affect Ranking?
Very important
Page Length Affect Ranking?
Short pages
Spider Found Sites Affect Ranking?
Yes
Stop Words Affect Ranking?
Yes
Uncommon Keywords Affect Ranking?
Yes
Word Stemming Affect Ranking?
No
Cloaking Considered Spam?
Yes
Hidden Links Considered Spam?
Yes
Duplicate Pages Considered Spam?
Yes
Invisible Text Considered Spam?
Yes
Keyword Stuffing Considered Spam?
Yes
Keywords in Hidden Value Tag Considered Spam?
Yes
Link Exchange Program Use Considered Spam?
Yes
142
Meta Refresh Tag Considered Spam?
Tiny Text Considered Spam?
Home Page
Engine's Own Site Submission/Ranking Tips
Free Submission
Paid Inclusion
Sponsored Feature Listings
Email Support
Spam Report / Support
Copyright Infringement Support
Customer Support Telephone Number
Yes
Yes
Google Information for Webmasters
http://www.google.com/webmasters/
Submit your site
Google AdWords
https://adwords.google.com/select/
Premium Sponsorships Advertising
http://www.google.com/ads/overview.html
[email protected]
[email protected]
http://www.google.com/dmca.html
1-650-330-0100
What Is Google PageRank?
PageRank is the heart of the software that runs Google. It’s a system for ranking
webpages developed by Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
PageRank relies on the nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator
of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B
as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of
links a page receives. It also analyzes the page that links to the linked page. Links from
pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other
pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each
time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't
match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching
techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google
goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all
aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if
it's a good match for a search query.
So always try to get links from webpages with a PageRank of 3 and above. Anything
lower is generally a waste of time.
But what is also important is the number of links out of the page that you’re receiving a
link from. It’s almost definitely more beneficial to get a link from a webpage with a
143
PageRank of 4 that only contains a few external links, than one from a page with a
higher PageRank, but contains hundreds of outgoing links.
The reason is because every outgoing link has a share of the PageRank that a page
offers. So the more outgoing links there are, the less PageRank each link gets.
Lastly, concentrate on getting as many different quality sites as possible to link to one
page on your site, usually your home page. Do not spread the links to different pages.
This will maximize the PageRank of your main page, plus those of the subpages.
How To Optimize Your Webpages For Higher Rankings In
Google
Here are what I believe to be the two most important ranking factors used by Google.
My findings are as a result of my ongoing optimization experiments of my network of
websites on Google.
The top two Google ranking factors are:
•
•
PageRank
Incoming Text Link Keywords
I’ve explained what PageRank is above and why its importance in getting higher search
engine rankings. Add incoming text links keywords and you have the formula for high
search engine rankings.
Incoming Text Link Keywords
Always provide text links for linking to your site. Avoid image links.
Google does index image links, but without any text for it to index, it won't help your
link popularity rating for your important keywords.
In addition:
144
a. Include the most important keyword phrase in the text link, using the EXACT
spelling.
b. Do not pluralize the keyword phrase in the text link, if your visitors usually enter
the singular version of an important keyword phrase, and vice versa.
c. Avoid excess words in the text link, where possible.
d. The linked to page must have the text link keywords in the body of the page;
otherwise Google will discount the page as a relevant page.
e. Include the text link keywords within the title tag of the linked to page. It is
possible for a page without the text link keywords in the title tag to get top
rankings. But I have discovered that around 80% of top 10 rankings have the
text link keywords in the title tag, so always include it.
Well, there you have it. Those are what I consider the two most important ranking
factors used by Google. Other factors are considered by Google, but their importance
pales in comparison to the two discussed here.
Follow these tips whenever you optimize your webpages and they will quickly shoot up
the Google rankings.
A Simple Technique That Gets A Brand New Website
Indexed By Google Within 24 Hours
Here’s a simple technique that will get any website – commercial or non-commercial -indexed by Google within 24-48 hours.
Here’s what you do…
Simply get blog or weblog to add a link to your site on their homepage.
A blog is typically a journal containing bits of news, information, and links to relevant
websites that the author adds on a regular basis.
145
This technique works because Google LOVES blogs and makes an effort to crawl
thousands of them on a very regular basis, like daily, or even several times a day.
So the trick is to get a blog that Google crawls regularly to add a direct link to your
website. An added benefit is that blogs typically have a good PageRank as many
websites link to them.
To find a blog simply search for it in your favorite search engine. Enter the keywords
related to your site and include the keyword “blog” or “weblog” in the search query, and
you should be presented with a bunch of relevant blogs.
To refine your search results, you could tell Google to only return results with the
keywords in the title. To do this, simply add “allintitle:” before your keywords in the
search form.
For example:
allintitle: internet marketing blog
Some search engines, such as Google, will indicate the date the site was last crawled
and indexed. Pick blogs that have been updated recently. Visit each one to make sure it
is relevant to the topic of your website.
Some blogs welcome news submissions. Others don’t openly say they welcome news,
but you should find that most blog owners are happy to received news that they can
add to their blog.
If you have something interesting to say about your new site, then write to the blog
owner with your story. If you can’t think of anything newsworthy, then offer to pay for a
small text link on the blog owner’s home page. If you can get the link added to every
page; so much the better.
You could probably get a text link added for a nominal fee. Depending on the blog’s
popularity, I would expect to pay no more than $25-100 for a small text link ad for a
one month period.
You may be wondering why you would want to have a link to your site on the blog site
for one month if Google will index your site within 24-48 hours.
146
The reason is that Google does two types of crawls; a regular “fresh crawl” which runs
about once a day and a main “deep crawl” which runs about once a month.
The fresh crawl only indexes the main pages of a site. You have to wait for the deep
crawl for Google to crawl and index the rest of your site.
You could probably get away with getting into the fresh crawl database with a 2 day
text link, and then hoping that Google to does a deep crawl from the URL it has indexed
as a result of the link from the blog. But I would recommend that you keep the blog link
for a full 30 day period just to be safe.
Two Other Ways To Getting Indexed By Google
There are actually two others methods to getting listed in Google. But only one is
guaranteed and that can cost you $299, if your site is of a commercial nature.
1. Submit Your Site To Google
The first method is to submit your website via Google's free “submit your site” form.
Just submit your home page and Google's crawler, Googlebot, will crawl the rest.
However, Google do not add all submitted URLs to their index, and there is no
guarantee as to when, or if, your site will be indexed.
2. Submit Your Site To The Yahoo! Directory & The Open Directory Project
Index
The second method is to submit your website to the Yahoo! Directory and/or Open
Directory Project index, which is owned by Netscape.
http://dmoz.org
147
As far as I know, this is the only 100% guaranteed method of getting into the Google
index because Google has agreements with Yahoo! and Netscape to include the sites
indexed in their directories in the Google index. So submit your site to either, or both
(recommended), of these directories.
For more information, visit Yahoo!'s How to Suggest Your Site page and the Open
Directory Project's How to add a site to the Open Directory page.
Once your site is included in either of these directories, it will appear in the Google index
in about 4 to 8 weeks. So now you have no excuse for not getting indexed by Google.
How To Stop Google Caching Your Website
As Google crawls and indexes webpages, it also stores them in its cache to retrieve for
users as a back-up in case the webpages are not available. Users can view the cached
version by choosing the "Cached" link on the search results page. If you don't want your
content to be accessible through Google's cache, set the NOARCHIVE attribute in a
Robots meta tag.
For example:
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="noarchive">
This tag tells ALL robots not to archive the page. All robots will continue to index and
follow links from the page, but will not present cached material to users. If you want to
allow other robots to cache your content, but only prevent Google's robot (Googlebot)
from doing so, use the following tag:
<META NAME="googlebot" CONTENT="noarchive">
The change will take effect the next time Google crawl the page containing the
NOARCHIVE directive in a <META> tag. If you want this change to take effect sooner,
you must contact Google and request immediate removal of the archived pages.
148
The NOARCHIVE attribute only instructs robots whether it can provide a cached copy of
a webpage. To control whether the page is indexed or links on the page are followed,
visit the “What Is A Robots Meta Tag” section for more information.
What Is The Google Toolbar?
The Google Toolbar is a FREE add-on for the Internet Explorer web browser. The
minimum system requirements for running the Google Toolbar are:
•
•
Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP or 2003 Server
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5 or later
Unfortunately the Toolbar is unavailable for the Mac.
The Google Toolbar offers a number of useful and timesaving features:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Google PageRank of a page
Backward links (links to a page)
Highlight search terms on a page
Cached snapshot of a page
Similar pages
Translate a webpage into English
Search the web with Google from any site
Pop-up blocker
Fill in forms with one click
Link a weblog to the page you're visiting
Search a site
The two most useful features for search engine optimizers are:
•
•
Google PageRank of a page
Backward links (links to a page)
149
The Google PageRank bar will instantly tell you what the PageRank of the page you’re
viewing. Please note that if a page is not indexed by Google, the Toolbar will often try to
guess the PageRank of the page.
The Backwards links feature will tell you how many and which pages link to the page
you’re viewing. This is useful in determining the link popularity of a page.
I highly recommend you download the Google Toolbar. You will find the features useful,
and best of all, it’s FREE! If you don’t like it, you can uninstall it at anytime.
http://toolbar.google.com
What Is The Google Everflux?
The Google Everflux refers to the fluctuation of rankings that webpages get as Google
crawls and indexes webpages.
Google does two types of crawls; a regular “fresh crawl” which runs about once a day
and a main “deep crawl” which runs about once a month. As Google crawl new pages
and existing pages, rankings can fluctuate. The rankings settle once the main crawl is
complete.
What Is The Google Dance?
The Google Dance refers to the different search engine rankings a webpage gets
depending on which Google database you search.
Every month Google calculates the PageRank of each webpage and changes the search
engine results pages (SERPs) for all keywords. The Google Dance is the time between
the start and the end of an update, which usually lasts about 4 days. In that time you
get different results on www.google.com, www2.google.com and www3.google.com.
http://www2.google.com
http://www3.google.com
150
Well, that wraps up Google. Remember Google is by far the most popular search engine,
not only in terms of searches, but also in actual referred visitors. So do spend a good
part of your time and effort on optimizing for Google.
WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT THE GOOGLE
"FLORIDA" UPDATE?
Around the middle of November 2003, Google did something to its ranking algorithm
that caused sweeping changes to the rankings of thousands of webpages. Some even
disappeared from the top rankings altogether, after many months and years of top
rankings.
Some students have written into me for help. Here’s my take on what happened and
how to fix the damage.
So what happened? Why were so many rankings affected? What did Google do to its
ranking algorithm?
With no official explanation from Google, the SEO community was baffled. Many
different theories were thrown around by SEO experts and analysts.
Some SEO analysts thought Google were filtering sites that targeted "money or
commercial keywords," because the hardest hit sites were commercial websites.
What would be Google’s motive?
Greed of course, or was it? The thinking was the changes coincided with the upcoming
holiday shopping season, as well as the supposedly forthcoming Google IPO.
The speculation was that if commercial websites could no longer get Google traffic from
its free listings, they would be forced to pump money into their Google AdWords paid
listing program to get any traffic from Google search results.
So who benefited? It seems that non-commercial websites, such as government,
educational, and non-profit sites benefited the most. Indeed many of the top rankings
were replaced by such sites.
151
Since these types of sites aren't your typical Google AdWords advertiser, analysts
believed that ranking them high would not affect Google’s income.
So what’s the real story? Is Google actually filtering commercial sites to force them into
advertising on their AdWords program?
Well, let's step back a bit and take a look at the whole picture.
Fact #1: Google constantly changes its ranking algorithm, so thousands of webpages
move up, as well as down, every time Google updates it index.
Fact #2: It wasn’t only optimized webpages that were affected by the Google “Florida”
update. Many non-optimized websites were also affected.
Fact #3: Thousands of commercial websites lost their top rankings. But since there
aren't any empty positions, then thousands of other sites must have filled those newly
vacated top rankings.
Fact #4: There was a disproportionate amount of negative noise in the SEO community.
Most of the noise about the changes came from disgruntled commercial website owners
and optimizers who saw their rankings plummet. There was hardly any noise from
people who saw their rankings rise.
Fact #5: Google is constantly fighting a battle against search engine optimizers, who are
trying to influence Google's rankings for profit. Google on the other hand would prefer
to have full control over the rankings of its index.
Fact #6: The Google founders live by the principle - "You can make money without
doing evil." I have yet to see Google do something that goes against this principle, and I
would give Google the benefit of the doubt until I see irrefutable proof.
My Conclusions
I've had a few months to take note of the after effects of the ranking algorithm changes
and read all the reports, analysis, and speculations on what exactly occurred.
After examining the evidence and given much thought to the subject, I have come to
the following conclusion...
152
I do not believe the speculation that Google changed its algorithm to line its pockets. I
simply do not believe Google would do something that would severely damage its brand
and credibility.
I believe that all Google did was what it has always done - tried to improve its ranking
algorithm. After all, it's been doing that ever since its inception.
The difference this time was that Google tried to level the playing field a bit more than
usual. It threw a spanner into the works of over-optimized webpages. Increasingly noncommercial websites, such as government and educational sites, which are typically not
optimized for search engines, have been losing out to over-optimized webpages. It just
so happens that they mostly comprise of commercial websites – not that it should come
as a surprise to anyone.
Now, if on the other hand, the change had caused thousands of government and
educational websites to drop from the top rankings, it probably wouldn't even have
caused a ripple in the SEO community, let alone the storm that we all experienced.
Google Adds Word Stemming (Variations)
Google recently added stemming technology to its search results. Now when
appropriate, Google will search not only for the entered search terms, but also for words
that are similar to some or all of those terms.
For example, if you search for "search engine optimization strategies," Google will also
search for " search engine optimization strategy” and other related variations. Any
variants of the search terms will be highlighted in the search result extract.
http://www.google.com/search?q=search+engine+optimization+strategies
Naturally this has had an impact on rankings, as stemming expands the number of
pages that Google uses to determine relevant matches for a particular search.
153
How To Determine If Google Has Banned Your Webpages
To see if Google has indexed any of your webpages, visit Google, and enter any of the
following in the search box:
site:your.domain
link:your.url
If you can’t find any of your webpages, visit the My Webpages Are Not Currently Listed
page on Google for possible reasons.
http://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html
How To Get Back Into Google’s Good Books, If The
Google “Florida” Update Devastated Your Rankings
Many thanks to all my students who responded to my request for Google Florida update
damaged webpages. I was inundated with websites. Thank you for your support.
I conducted extensive research into webpages that lost their top rankings due to the
Google Florida update. After much research, I have come to the conclusion that if you
stick to the basics and do not over-optimize your webpages, you will do well in the
rankings.
This may sound obvious to most people. And it is. But I still find websites that don’t
follow the basic principles of SEO, and use all kinds of bad SEO tricks to try to get
ahead. Listen. Don’t do it! It’s not worth it. Stick to the basics and you won’t get into
trouble with Google or any other search engines.
Here is a checklist of advice to get your webpages back into Google’s “good books.”
Many of these tips are common sense SEO. But common sense isn’t all that common,
right? ;o)
So I highly recommend that you study these tips whether you’re trying to get back into
Google, or simply want to improve your rankings. You may find that you are making the
most basic of errors in your SEO campaigns.
154
Remove SEO Spam Techniques
This may sound obvious, but most banned or dropped webpages are the result of SEO
spam techniques being detected by search engines.
I came across numerous websites that used SEO techniques that could be construed as
spam. Make sure you remove all possible traces of SEO spam techniques from your
website.
These include:
•
Excessive Keywords - Avoid excessive use of targeted keyword/s. I came
across a site where one in four of the keywords on the home page consisted of
the targeted keywords. Worse still, more than one in two of the links on the
page included one of the keywords in the targeted keyword phrase. That’s far
too high a ratio. Stick to a keyword weight of about 1-3% in the body and link
text.
•
Don’t Link to Bad Neighborhoods - Double check all sites that you link to, to
ensure that you’re not linking to a site that has been penalized by Google.
Because if you are, then you could get penalized as well.
How can you tell if you’re link to a “bad site?” Visit the homepage of each site
that you link to, and see if the Google PageRank is 2 or lower. If it is, then I
would recommend removing your link to that site.
Also be aware of sites that have thousands of links pointing to the home page,
yet have a low PageRank of 3 or even 4. Sites with so many links should have a
PageRank of at least 6 or 7. The reason for the low PageRank could be because
Google has penalized the site for spammy SEO techniques.
Please note that the PageRank bar is sometimes misleading. Google do admit
that it doesn’t work 100% of the time. So recheck the page’s PageRank by
refreshing the page, and also visiting the page at a different time.
Don’t worry about “bad sites” linking to yours. Google does not penalize for that.
They understand that that isn’t your fault.
155
•
Remove Comment Tags - Keywords in comment tags could be construed as
spam. So remove unnecessary comment tags from your source code. I came
across a webpage that included multiple header tags and keywords in a
comment tag. This is not recommended.
Another one had several hundred lines of HTML code hidden in a comment tag.
Such code is not executed, so it’s simply a waste of space and download time.
Make a backup of the page, and remove the unused code from the published
webpage.
•
Alternative Text - Don’t use more than one ALT (alternative text) attributes in
IMG (image) tags.
For example:
<IMG SRC=image.jpg ALT=”keywords, more keywords, blah…”
ALT=”keywords2, and more keywords, blah, blah…”>
In addition, only use one keyword phrase in ALT attributes. I came across ALT
attributes that included almost 50 words, or over 300 characters.
•
Tiny Text - Minimize the use of FONT SIZE=1 tags. Better still, use FONT
SIZE=2 or larger. I came across a webpage that used ‘ FONT SIZE="-6" .’ Font
sizes range from 1 to 7, with 3 being the medium. So a “-6” is clearly asking for
trouble.
•
Duplicate Links - Don’t include too many text links to the same URL on a page.
I came across a home page that had 12 identical text links, all pointing to the
same URL. There were 58 links in total on the page, so 1 in 5 links were
identical. That’s far too high a ratio. Don’t use more than two or three identical
links on a page.
156
•
Fix Broken Links - Check for broken links. Relative links are the most common
culprits.
For example:
<a href="../My%20Site/index.html">
<a
href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/John%20Smith/My%20D
ocuments/My%20Web%20Sites/My%20Site/index.html">
These links may work fine on your computer. But it doesn’t work when you
upload it to a server.
•
Remove Hidden Spammy SEO Code - If you’ve ever used a third party to
optimize your webpages, examine the HTML source code for suspect SEO spam
techniques. Pay close attention to the bottom of the page. This is usually the
area where bad search engine optimizers add spammy SEO code, such as hidden
links and text. If you find any, remove them from all your pages.
•
Webpage Errors - Fix webpage errors. JavaScript errors are the most common.
Java and Flash are less common. The best way to find JavaScript errors is to test
every piece of JavaScript code in your webpages.
To help you, switch on the “Display a notification about every script error”
feature in your Internet Explorer web browser.
You can find it under:
Tools > Internet Options… > Advanced > Browsing > Display a
notification about every script error (check the box)
•
Avoid Text Links In Header Tags – I suggest that you do not include text
links inside header tags at the very top of the page – the rest of the page is OK.
I have seen sites that used this technique get penalized by Google. When the
code was removed from the pages, Google reinstated the webpages in its index.
157
Quick Tips For Improving Your Google Rankings
Include The Keyword Phrase Everywhere
On the one extreme, I have seen webpages with no mention of the targeted keyword
phrase get high rankings. But this isn’t the norm. You should go to the other extreme,
and include the targeted keyword phrase one or more times, in every aspect of a
webpage and incoming links.
These include, the TITLE tag, META Description, header tags, body text, text links, ALT,
file name, etc.
Add A Header Tag or Replace Graphical Text With A Header Tag
On every page, include the exact targeted keyword phrase in a header tag. I
recommend using a H1 tag (largest). But the resulting header text doesn’t have to be
large. You may change the properties of the header tag using Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS).
For example:
<H1 STYLE="font-size: small">Keyword Phrase</H1>
<H1 STYLE="font-size: 16px; font-style: italic">Keyword Phrase</H1>
<H1 STYLE="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Verdana">Keyword Phrase</H1>
Sprinkle A Webpage With The Exact Targeted Keyword Phrase
Make sure you include the exact keyword phrase you’re targeting throughout a page.
By that I mean the whole phrase, and not separate incidences of the individual
keywords.
For example, if the keyword phrase is “double beds” then craft a paragraph something
like this:
158
Our double beds are made of the highest quality materials. Each one of our
double beds are individually crafted by one of our own master craftsmen. There
are over 130 different styles of single beds, double beds, and queen size beds
to choose from.
The above paragraph is much better than:
Our double beds are made of the highest quality materials. Each one is
individually crafted by one of our own master craftsmen. There are over 130
different styles of single, double, and queen size beds to choose from.
Notice the difference a change of wording can make? See how the first version has a
higher keyword density and frequency of the exact targeted keyword phrase, as well as
individual keywords than the second paragraph?
Use The Exact Targeted Keyword/s In All Text Links
Make sure you use the exact keyword/s you’re targeting in all text links.
For example, if the keyword phrase is “sofa beds,” then use:
We offer a range of 59 different sofa beds in our store.
Don’t use:
We offer a range of 59 different sofa beds in our store. (Contains untargeted
keywords)
Take a look at this modern sofa bed. (It should be plural. If you search for “sofa bed”
and “sofa beds” in Google, you will notice it returns two different sets of results.)
Also avoid text links with meaningless keywords.
For example:
159
Click here to for more information on this sofa bed.
It would be better to use:
More information on this sofa bed.
I even came across a site that used Flash links. It was no surprise that Google didn’t
index those links.
It did include text links further down the page. Unfortunately, the text links were in font
size one – in other words, tiny text. A back link check showed no internal links, so it
means Google doesn’t index font size one text links.
So re-examine all your text links. View them on their own. See if you can tell what each
text link is about and if it relates to the landing page. If you can’t, then replace the text
with more descriptive keywords, which would help Google to better understand the
nature of the landing page.
Replace Image Links With Text Links
Image links won’t help your rankings, because search engines simply cannot tell what
images signify. It is far better to use text links.
I came across a site that had over a dozen links to it. The problem was that all of the
links were either image links, or text links that didn’t include the targeted search term. It
was no surprise that the site failed to get top rankings for the keywords it wanted.
Link To A Target Page From As Many Pages As Possible
Google likes text links. That is a fact. So you must link to a target page from as many
pages as possible, from within your site, as well as from other websites, using the exact
targeted keyword/s in the text links (see previous tip).
If possible, add a link to the targeted page from every single page of your site. Of
course this isn’t always possible, especially if you have a large number of keywords you
160
want to target. In that case, at least add a link to the targeted page from every page
within the same section of the site.
I came across a website that “forgot” (at least I think they did) to cross link their
webpages. How crazy is that?!
Replace Splash Pages With The “Real” Home Page
Why? Because splash pages typically consist of nothing more than an image or a Flash
animation. There’s no text for search engine spiders to index. As such, how can you
possibly expect search engines to give you a high ranking? You can’t - and they won’t!
So get rid of it. Replace the splash page with the home page that the splash page links
to.
To Hyphenate Or Not To Hyphenate Keyword Phrases?
Google does distinguish hyphenated and unhyphenated words.
For example, if you search for “pop ups” and “pop-ups” in Google, you will notice two
different sets of search results.
http://www.google.com/search?q=pop+ups
http://www.google.com/search?q=pop-ups
So should you hyphenate or not? I would recommend do both.
I would suggest that you target the hyphenated version in one webpage, and the
unhyphenated version in another page.
If that isn’t possible, then use the most searched version - be it hyphenated or
unhyphenated – as the main keyword phrase, and sprinkle the other version of the
keyword throughout the page.
Once you have cleaned up your over-optimized webpages, try sending a re-inclusion
request to Google at:
161
[email protected]
That’s it! Follow those tips and your webpages should start reappearing in Google again
within one to two crawls (4-8 weeks).
162
YAHOO! SEARCH
On February 18, 2004, Yahoo! replaced Google search results on its website with its own
Yahoo! Search Technology, which combines various acquired search technologies, such
as Inktomi, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and Overture.
Yahoo! leverages Open Directory Project (ODP) title, description and category Meta
data to enhance Yahoo!'s relevant search results on distribution partner sites.
Yahoo! Search Information
Documents Indexed
Crawls The web (Every)
Audience Reach
Searches (Daily)
Non-Submitted Pages (Time to Index)
Submit Pages
Pages Indexed
Ranking Data
Spider's Name
Support Frame Links?
Index Keyword Tag?
Index PDF Files?
Case Sensitivity Affect Ranking?
Home Page Affect Ranking?
Keywords in Anchor Text Affect Ranking?
Keywords in Entire HTML File Affect Ranking?
“Several” billion
2-4 weeks
30.4% (Nielsen//NetRatings 01/04)
42 million+ (01/03)
Yahoo!, AltaVista, AllTheWeb and others.
2-4 weeks
2-4 weeks
All important pages
Entire website
20 Pages
Site Match (Up to 1,000 URLs)
Initial Index: Within 4 business days.
Update: Every 48 hours.
URL #1: $49/year.
URL #2-10: $29/URL/year.
URL #11+: $10/URL/year.
$0.15/30 Per Click
$50 Refundable Deposit.
Site Match Xchange (1,000+ URLs)
Initial Index: Within 4 business days.
Update: Every 48 Hours
$??? Depends on Content Category
Spider
Yahoo! Slurp
60 characters
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
163
Keywords in Headline Tags Affect Ranking?
Keywords in Link Text Affect Ranking?
Keywords in Meta Keyword Tag Affect Ranking?
Keywords in NoFrames Content Affect Ranking?
Keywords in Title Tag Affect Ranking?
Doorway Pages Considered Spam?
Home Page
Free Submission
Paid Inclusion
Email Support
Yes
Important
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Link farms
Yes
http://search.yahoo.com
1-408-349-3300
Submit Your Site
Site Match & Site Match Xchange
http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/bjump/sm.jhtml
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/ysearch/cgi_feedback
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/ysearch/cgi_reportsearchspam
[email protected]
Yahoo! Search Submissions
Yahoo!’s spider, known as Slurp, goes around the web crawling and indexing webpages.
But if your webpages were missed by Slurp, there are two ways to submitting your
webpages to the Yahoo! Search index; submit your site via the free submission form, or
pay for inclusion with the Site Match and Site Match Xchange program.
With both submission programs, listings appear in the main body of the search results
page, and are ranked by relevance. Paid inclusion pages do not get preferential ranking
treatment.
Yahoo! Search – Free Submission
The Yahoo! Search index contains several billion webpages with more than 99% of its
pages populated through the free crawl process.
You may submit your webpages at:
164
Registration, which is free, is required. Enter only the top-level page of your site, and
Yahoo!’s spider will crawl and index the rest of your site from there. It will also
automatically detect and remove dead links. Expect a delay of several weeks before your
URL is crawled.
Yahoo! Search – Paid Inclusion
In addition to the free site submission service, Yahoo! also offer paid inclusion services;
Site Match and Site Match Xchange (for sites submitting 1000+ webpages).
The service is available via the Overture website (also owned by Yahoo!) at:
http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/sm.jhtml
The benefits of paid inclusion include:
•
•
•
•
Guaranteed timely review and addition of your webpages in the Yahoo! Search
index, within 4 business days.
48-hour reindexing of webpages allows constant testing of search engine
optimization to try to improve rankings.
Traffic reporting includes number of clicks, and search terms for each URL in the
program. Both current and historical data are presented.
A dedicated account representative and XML feed for advertisers submitting
1,000 or more webpages.
Site Match Pricing
With Site Match, you pay a non-refundable annual fee, per URL, per domain, PLUS
$0.15 or $0.30 for each click through.
There is also a $50 refundable deposit to cover click through fees. If your URL is not
accepted and you do not want to use the Site Match service, your $50 deposit will be
refunded.
165
URL Submission
First URL: $49
Next 2-10 URLs: $29 each
11th URL and beyond: $10 each
Cost-Per-Click Fee
Tier 1 Categories: $0.15 CPC
Tier 2 Categories: $0.30 CPC
Adult
Automotive
Books
Computers & Software
Dating
Education & Career
Jewelry & Watches
Music & Video
Office
Other
Reference
Sports & Outdoors
Toys & Baby Equipment
Apparel
Electronics
Financial Services
Flowers, Gifts & Registry
Health, Beauty & Personal Care
Home & Garden
Professional Services
Real Estate
Telecom & Web Services
Travel
Site Match Xchange Pricing
Site Match Xchange is for larger sites submitting 1000+ webpages. There is no annual
fee. The pay per click fee is based on content category.
What Are The Yahoo! Site Match Content Guidelines?
Pages Site Match wants in its index:
•
Original and unique content of genuine value.
•
Metadata (including title, description and keywords tag) that accurately describes
the contents of a webpage.
166
Pages Site Match doesn’t want:
•
Pages dedicated to directing the user to another page ("doorway pages").
•
Pages that have substantially the same content as other pages. Unfortunately,
this includes pages promoting affiliate products.
•
Sites with numerous, unnecessary virtual hostnames.
•
Pages in great quantity, automatically generated, with minimal content or of little
value.
•
Pages using methods to artificially inflate search engine ranking.
•
Pages with text that is not easily read, e.g., text that is too small or is obscured
by the background of the page.
•
Cloaking or stealth; a technique used by some websites to deliver one page to a
search engine and a different page to all other users.
•
Excessively cross-linking to inflate a site's apparent popularity.
•
Pages built primarily for search engines or pages with excessive or off-topic
keywords.
•
Misuse or inaccurate use of competitor or brand names.
•
Duplication of content, either by submission of multiple pages with same
content, submitting the same content from multiple domains, or submitting the
same content from multiple hosts.
•
Pages that use excessive pop-ups, interfering with user navigation.
•
Pages that seem deceptive, fraudulent or provide a poor user experience
(Descriptions that are not relevant to the page content).
•
Pages that result in a 404 error.
167
Does Yahoo! Site Match Guarantee Inclusion In Yahoo!
Search?
No. Site Match only guarantees a review of your submitted URLs within 4 business days.
If a URL is refused, you get a second review of the URL at no additional cost. However,
after that you must pay again for review.
Why Is My Site In The Yahoo! Directory, But Not In The
Yahoo! Search Results?
The reason is because there are separate editorial guidelines for the Yahoo! Directory,
Add URL, crawler and Site Match services.
Directory submissions are reviewed by editors only. Sites from the Add URL, Site Match
service or crawler are reviewed both by editors and algorithmically.
If the Yahoo! spider catches a site using search engine optimization spam techniques,
such as hidden text, it would bar the site from its index. This and other search engine
spam techniques are quite as easy to detect by human editors.
As such, a site could be accepted into the Yahoo! Directory but not into the Yahoo!
Search results.
This is OK because the directory listings are not ranked by relevance and therefore are
not influenced by search engine spam techniques, such as the hidden text. But with the
algorithmic search, the hidden text is in violation of editorial guidelines because it is an
attempt to influence the relevance of the Yahoo! Search results.
So inclusion in the Yahoo! Directory does not guarantee inclusion in the Yahoo! Search
results.
168
My Site Has Been Excluded From Yahoo! Search. How
Can I Find Out Why?
If your site is excluded from Yahoo! Search, and you’re unsure why, you could try
emailing [email protected]. This was suggested by Tim
Mayer, Yahoo's Director Of Product Management, in a thread in the WebmasterWorld
forum. - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum35/1845.htm
My Site Has Been Excluded From Yahoo! Search. Where
Can I Appeal Against This Ban?
If you believe your site was incorrectly excluded from the Yahoo! Search results, or you
feel that you have corrected the issues that led to your exclusion, you can ask Yahoo! to
re-evaluate your site.
Contact Yahoo! at:
[email protected]
This is the only email address you should use. As you might imagine, Yahoo! have a
backlog of requests for review, so please be patient. It may take at least two months for
your site to be re-evaluated and may take longer for that site to be updated in the
search results.
How To Submit Not-For-Profit Sites To The Yahoo! Public
Site Match Program
Not-for-profit sites can submit their webpages to the Yahoo! Public Site Match program.
To do that, send an email to Yahoo! at [email protected] with your site
information to see if it qualifies for the program. They will follow up with you if
additional information is required.
169
I’ve Heard That Yahoo! Excludes Affiliate Sites From Its
Yahoo! Search Results - Is That True?
Kind of. Yahoo! says they don’t want its Yahoo! Search index to contain duplicate
content. So they try to avoid indexing affiliate sites that display the same sales letters,
articles, etc., as other affiliates of the product/service.
So the answer is that Yahoo! is excluding webpages with the same content. It just
happens that many affiliate sites use the same content, and is caught in the crossfire.
I’m still conducting tests on how to optimize webpages for higher rankings in the new
Yahoo! Search index. Hopefully I will have something for you in the next update. Please
accept my sincerest apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Yahoo!’s Own Search Engine Ranking Tips
Yahoo! offers some search engine ranking tips in its, “How do I improve the ranking of
my web site in the search results?” Help section.
For your convenience, I have republished the tips here (Gee, I hope I don’t get a letter
from Yahoo!’s lawyers for this):
•
Think carefully of the key terms that your users will search on to find content like
yours. Use those terms to guide the text and construction of your page.
•
Users are more likely to click a link if the title matches their search. Choose
terms for the title that match the concept of your document.
•
Use a "description" meta-tag and write your description accurately and carefully.
After the title, the description is the most important draw for users. Make sure
the document title and description attract the interest of the user but also fit the
content on your site.
•
Use a "keyword" meta-tag to list key words for the document. Use a distinct list
of keywords that relate to the specific page on your site instead of using one
broad set of keywords for every page.
170
•
Keep relevant text and links in HTML. Placing them in graphics or image maps
means search engines can't always search for the text, and the crawler can't
follow links to your site's other pages. An HTML site map, with a link from your
welcome page, can help make sure all your pages are crawled.
•
Use ALT text for graphics. It's good page design to accommodate text browsers
or visually impaired visitors, and it helps improve the text content of your page
for search purposes.
•
Correspond with webmasters and other content providers and build rich linkages
between related pages.
•
Note: "Link farms" create links between unrelated pages for no reason except to
increase page link counts. Using link farms violates Yahoo!'s Site Guidelines and
will not improve your page ranking.
Yahoo! Search Site Guidelines
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-18.html
171
MSN SEARCH (BETA)
MSN Search is part of the MSN web portal, which is owned by Microsoft.
On November 11, 2004, Microsoft announced the launch of the beta version of its new
MSN Search service, which is set to replace Yahoo! Search. The new MSN Search
includes a new search engine, index and crawler; all built from the ground up on
Microsoft technology.
Existing MSN Search
New Beta MSN Search
http://beta.search.msn.com
According to a Nielsen//NetRatings report, 29.6% of the internet population searched at
a MSN-owned website, in January 2004.
Note: The following information refers to the beta version of the new MSN Search
service.
Aside from it’s search engine technology, MSN Search also has a few other resources to
draw on when providing results:
•
Direct Answers from MSN Encarta provides information about geographical
locations, historical figures, animals, and more.
•
The Encarta Calculator and Equation Solver provides answers to mathematical
questions.
•
MSN’s automated news service searches over 4,800 news sources worldwide.
172
MSN Search Information
Documents Indexed
Audience Reach
Submit Pages
Pages Indexed
Ranking Data
Spider's Name
Doorway Pages Considered Spam?
Free Submission
Email Support
5 billion
MSN
Homepage
Entire website
Spider
MSNBot
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Link farms
Yes
Submit Your Site
http://beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
[email protected]
I will add more information on the new MSN Search, as they become available.
173
OTHER MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES
There has been a number of major changes in the search engine industry in the last
couple of years.
AllTheWeb and AltaVista search results are now powered by Yahoo! Search Technology.
With MSN working on its own search engine technology, it basically only leaves one
other “major” search engine, aside from Google and Yahoo!; that being Teoma.
Teoma Search Engine (Ask Jeeves)
Teoma primarily powers Ask Jeeves search results and appear above Ask Jeeves’ own
knowledge base of answers to roughly 7 million commonly asked questions.
http://www.teoma.com
http://www.askjeeves.com
http://www.ask.com
Ask Jeeves Information
Searches (Daily)
Audience Reach
Search Engine Partner/s
Directory Partner (Powered By)
Pay Per Click Partner
Searches (Daily)
Page Clustering?
Home Page
Free Submission
Paid Inclusion
11.3 million
20 million (02/03)
Teoma
Google AdWords
Google AdWords
Teoma
Ask Jeeves
25 million+
No
Ask Jeeves Site Submit
Initial index: 7 days
Update: Every 7 days
1st URL: $30/URL/year
URL 2-1,000: $18/URL/year
http://www.teoma.com
http://www.askjeeves.com
Not available
Ask Jeeves Site Submit
174
Email Support
http://ask.ineedhits.com
[email protected]
[email protected]
510-985-7400
175
TOP 3 WEB DIRECTORIES
Web directories are human edited lists of websites organized into categories of topics
and subtopics.
The top 3 web directories are:
1. Yahoo! Directory - The leading web directory on the internet generating an
estimated 250 million search related page views every day.
2. Open Directory Project - The largest human-edited web directory on the
internet with over 4.5 million reviewed sites within its index.
http://dmoz.org
3. LookSmart – A pay per click web directory consisting of commercial websites
only.
http://www.michaelwong.com/b/looksmart.html
How Web Directory Listings Play A Big Part In Your
Search Engine Success
A search engine's goal is to provide its users the best solution available from all the
webpages stored within its index. So how do search engines work out if your webpage is
the best solution to their users’ queries? That is, rank your site at the top of its search
results.
Well, unlike humans who are sold on emotions, search engines are sold on cold hard
data. There are two sources of data that web directories rely on to determine the
ranking of a website:
1. The first source is internal, or the data a search engine spider extracts from a
webpage. The internal data search engine spiders collect include keyword
phrases, keyword frequency, density, proximity and prominence, page length,
keywords in various HTML and Meta tags and, so on.
176
2. The second data source is external data, or data and events not entirely under
the site author's direct control. These include link popularity, click through
popularity, and site listings in popular web directories, such as the Yahoo!
Directory and the Open Directory Project. The first source of data is often
manipulated and abused, so search engines have increasingly begun to rely on
the second data source.
At present, search engines do not have the time and resources to physically visit each
site to verify the quality of its content. The internet is just growing too fast.
For this reason, search engines have turned to pre-existing web directories, such as the
Yahoo! Directory and the Open Directory Project. Web directories may only index a small
percentage of the websites available on the internet. But their goal is to index the best
of the Web, not every site on the planet.
This is why search engines, such as Google, place a great deal of importance on sites
listed in the Yahoo! Directory and the Open Directory Project. For each site in their
respective directories has at least had a human reviewer visit the site to confirm that it
meets the quality required to be listed in the directory and the listing title and
description fits the site.
Yahoo! Directory
Yahoo! is without doubt one of the best known brands on the internet. Many people
mistakenly categorize the Yahoo! Directory as a search engine, although it does have a
search engine that searches the directory.
According to Yahoo!, they generated 1.32 billion page views per day on average during
December 2001. But in an interview by Forbes.com, (12/11/2000) Tim Koogle – Yahoo’s
previous CEO - stated, "Yahoo!’s two original services, directory and search, now grab
only 20% of the website's total page views." Only 20%! That is still an impressive 250
million search related page views per day.
Yahoo! displays pay per click ads provided by Overture at the top of its search results.
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/overture.html
177
Should You Submit To The Yahoo! Directory?
Prior to October 2002, when you conducted a search at Yahoo!, you were presented
with a list of search results comprising of Yahoo! Directory listings.
In October 2002, Yahoo! decided to replace its web search results with search results
powered by the Google search engine.
As a result, the Yahoo! Directory listings were no longer the first set of returned search
results. Instead Yahoo! placed a link to Directory search results on each search results
page. What this effectively did was greatly reduce the importance and traffic generated
by Yahoo’s Directory listings.
In February 2004, Yahoo! replaced Google search results with its own Yahoo! Search
Technology. The technology comprised of AllTheWeb, AltaVista and Inktomi technology.
Yahoo! could have taken the opportunity to include its directory listings within its search
results, but it failed to do so.
As such, I would not consider a listing in the Yahoo! Directory as essential. I would only
recommend submitting to the Yahoo! Directory if your website is brand new, and you
don’t have any links pointing to it. By being listed in the Yahoo! Directory, your website
will get indexed by the Google search engine. Plus Google gives listings in the Yahoo!
Directory a ranking boost. Generally, it gives a link from the Yahoo! Directory a Google
PageRank of 3.
Visit the “How To Submit To Web Directories” section for more information on how
to submit and optimize your listings in the Yahoo! Directory.
178
Yahoo! Directory Information
Documents Indexed
Audience Reach
Searches (Daily)
Referral Traffic
Search Engine Partner (Powered By)
Pay Per Click Partner
Pay Per Click Listing Order
1.8 million
56.1 million
250 million
53.40%
Google
Overture
Top: Top 3 Listings
Bottom: 4,5
Overture
Google powered results
2-8 weeks (non-commercial only)
Submit Pages
Home page
Pages Indexed
One URL
One page per site
Resubmission Time (Free Submission)
4 weeks
Paid Inclusion? (Time to Index & Update + Costs) Review within 7 days ($299 per year)
Ranking Data
Submission form
40 characters / 5 words
200 characters / 25 words
Alphanumerical Ranking?
Directory listings only
Site Popularity Affect Rankings?
Click throughs count towards appearing in the “Most
Popular” section of the directory category listings.
Telephone Support
Submissions: 408-349-3333
Changes: 408-731-3333
Home Page
http://www.yahoo.com
Directory Home Page
Engine's Own Site Submission/Ranking Tips How to Suggest Your Site
Free Submission
How to Suggest Your Site
Paid Inclusion
Suggest a Site Using Yahoo! Express
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/busexpress.html
Sponsor Listings
http://sponsoredsites.yahoo.com
Change Listing
How to Suggest a Change to Your Yahoo! Listing
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/change
Email Support
[email protected]
179
Open Directory Project (ODP) Index
12/04 UPDATE: The ODP weblog is written by ODP editors to inform the general
public about news of any important events happening in the world of the ODP that
others may be interested in. This includes both news from within the organization, press
articles on other sites, and interesting discussions that may prove useful to users and
submitters alike.
http://dmoz.theblob.org/dmoz/journal.cgi
04/04 UPDATE: Google recently demoted its Open Directory Project (ODP) web
directory link from the main page. To get to the directory, users now have to click on
the "more>>" link at the top of the page. Google will still include ODP data. However it
will be relegated to a level of lower importance. ODP descriptions and categories will not
appear alongside search results.
03/04 UPDATE: The Open Directory project now indexes RSS feeds, alongside
standard HTML websites and PDF documents. There's no change in the submission
process, but in future categories will start showing 'XML' sections with links to related
RSS feeds.
The Open Directory Project – also known as Dmoz - is the largest human-edited web
directory on the internet with over 4.5 million reviewed sites in its index. It is maintained
by a community of over 62,000 volunteer editors.
What makes the Open Directory Project unique is that it has foundations in the Open
Source movement and is the only major web directory that is 100% free.
You may submit as many websites as you like to the directory for free. They even
accept submissions for different sections of your website, if it contains sufficient content
to warrant a listing.
You can even use the Open Directory's data on your own website, as long as you agree
to comply with their free use license.
It is for these reasons that many of the major search engines and portals make use of
the Open Directory Project index data.
180
However, the Open Directory Project is not entirely a non-commercial entity, as it is
owned, hosted and administered by Netscape Communications, a division of AOL TimeWarner.
How To Optimize For The Open Directory Project Index
to submit and optimize your listings in the Open Directory index.
Here’s a tip on how to select the best category for your submission. Google, which has
its own version of the Open Directory index, probably sends the more traffic than any
other user of the Open Directory data. Google also gives listings in the Open Directory
index a boost in rankings.
As such, I recommend finding the most appropriate category to submit to by searching
for it in the Google Directory, rather than in the Open Directory itself. Simply select the
most appropriate category that the top ranked sites are indexed under in the Google
search results.
http://dir.google.com
Open Directory Project Information
Documents Indexed
4.5 Million
AOL Search, Google, InfoSpace, Lycos, Netscape Search and
hundreds of other search sites.
Partner Index Update
2 weeks+, after URL is indexed in the Open Directory
A couple of weeks to several months
Submit Pages
All important sections of your website, as long they fit under
different categories
Pages Indexed
Only submitted URLs
No limit, although I recommend you don’t submit more than a
couple of URLs a day.
Resubmission Time (Free Submission)
3 weeks
Ranking Data
Submission form
30 Words
Directory listings only
Home Page
http://dmoz.org
Engine's Own Site Submission/Ranking Tips Submitting Your Site
http://dmoz.org/help/submit.html
Free Submission
How to add a site to the Open Directory
181
Change Listing
Changing Your Site Listing
http://dmoz.org/help/update.html
Feedback
http://dmoz.org/cgi-bin/feedback.cgi
(I recommend contacting the subcategory editor/s directly)
Open Directory Project Public Forum
http://resource-zone.com/forum/
Online Form for Support
Online Forum for Support
LookSmart Directory
04/04 UPDATE: LookSmart lost its biggest search partner, MSN Search, at the
beginning of 2004. Its listings now only appear on a few of the smaller search engines
and directories, such as LookSmart, Lycos, InfoSpace, Mamma, and CNET Search.
I can’t see LookSmart prospering in the search arena. It just can’t compete with the
likes of Google, Yahoo! Search and soon-to-be-released MSN Search. I wouldn’t be
surprised if it is acquired, or merges with another search engine to expand its reach.
LookSmart is a web directory consisting entirely of commercial websites. For noncommercial websites, LookSmart accepts submissions in its Zeal directory.
http://www.zeal.com
LookSmart Is A Pay Per Click Web Directory
Prior to April 2002, LookSmart was a standard web directory accepting submissions for a
one-time fee.
In April of that year LookSmart changed its business model into a pay per click web
directory. LookSmart accepts multiple listings per website. So you can have one listing
for each product category.
LookSmart Introduces New Pricing Structure
LookSmart now charge a $29 submission fee for each new listing, plus $0.15 per click
through, for the first 5,000 clicks. After that, you pay a higher cost per click, depending
on the category of your listing.
182
Here is a chart of the new pricing structure:
Category
Auto
Books, Magazines, CDs, and DVDs
Auctions, Affiliate Malls & Coupon Sites
People & Relationships
Business Services
Professional/Consumer Services
Moving and Real Estate
Paid-Download Services
Retail
Ticket Services
Travel
Education
Jobs & Careers
Health Products
Credit/Bad Debt
Online Gaming
Finance/Insurance
Communications/Internet Hosting
Cost Per Click
$0.23
$0.30
$0.40
$0.75
How To Optimize For The LookSmart Directory
to submit and optimize your listings in the LookSmart directory.
LookSmart Directory Information
Documents Indexed
Audience Reach
Searches (Daily)
Partner Index Update
Submit Pages
Pages Indexed
2.5 million
60 million
1.7%
45 million+
WiseNut
Lycos, InfoSpace, Mamma, and CNET Search.
A few days
Sponsored Listings
Reviewed Websites
Directory Categories
Not Available
All important pages, if they fit under different product
categories
Only submitted URLs
No Limit
183
Paid Inclusion? (Time to Index & Update + Costs) LookListings
Add new listing: $29
$0.15 per click through for first 5,000 clicks each
month, then $0.23-75 per click thereafter
Update listing: $19
Minimum monthly spend: $15
Ranking Data
Submission form
65 characters
170 characters
In directory only
Home Page
http://www.looksmart.com
Paid Submission
LookListings
http://listings.looksmart.com
Free Submission
Zeal Directory
http://www.zeal.com
184
TOP 2 WEB PORTAL SEARCH ENGINES
Web portals typically provide users with multiple services, including search, email,
shopping and other services. Their search results are usually provided by other search
engines.
The top 2 web portal search engines are:
•
•
AOL (15.5% - Nielsen//NetRatings 01/04)
Netscape
Note: MSN Search now has its own section, after Microsoft launches beta version of
new MSN Search service on November 11, 2004.
Let’s take a look at each one in more detail.
AOL Search
AOL Search is part of AOL.com, which is owned by AOL Time-Warner. It offers a search
engine which everyone - not just AOL internet access subscribers - with access to the
internet can use.
http://search.aol.com
According to a Nielsen//NetRatings report, 15.5% of the internet population searched at
an AOL-owned website, in January 2004.
AOL Search results, including its sponsored links, are powered by Google. As such, the
search results on AOL Search are pretty much the same as those on Google. So visit the
“Google” section for information on how to optimize and submit your website for
inclusion in AOL Search.
AOL Search also now uses Google’s version of the Open Directory Project as its web
directory.
185
http://dmoz.org
To get indexed in the Google directory you have to submit your site to the Open
Directory. So visit the “Open Directory Project Index” section for more information
on how to optimize and submit your website for inclusion in the Open Directory index.
Netscape Search
Netscape Search is part of the Netscape web portal which is owned by AOL TimeWarner.
http://search.netscape.com
Like AOL Search, its search results are also powered by Google and its web directory is
powered by the Google Directory.
So visit the “Google” and “Open Directory Project Index” sections for more
information on each of these search engines.
186
SEARCH ENGINES THAT OFFER PAID INCLUSION
PROGRAMS
Some search engine offer paid inclusion services, which offer either guaranteed inclusion
in a search engine index, or a site review within a certain number of days in web
directories in exchange for a one-off or annually recurring fee.
A site review does not guarantee your site will be included in a web directory. However
it appears that most sites that pay for guaranteed site reviews are accepted. This is
probably due to the fact that most people make sure their site is up to scratch before
submitting it.
Both AllTheWeb and AltaVista are now powered by Yahoo! Search Technology, which
also comprises the Inktomi search index. So submit your site to the Overture Site
Match program for fast submission to the Yahoo! Search index.
Google does not offer a paid inclusion program, and doesn’t intend to in the foreseeable
future.
Ask Jeeves Site Submit Program
The Ask Jeeves Site Submit program allows you to get your most important pages
included and refreshed in Teoma’s U.S. index.
http://ask.ineedhits.com/sitesubmit.asp
•
•
•
•
•
Submit between 1 & 1,000 URLs.
Inclusion within one week.
12-month inclusion subscription.
Pages checked and updated every week.
Reporting on click throughs.
Your content will appear in the Teoma search partner network, including sites such as:
•
Ask Jeeves
187
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Excite
HotBot
iLor
Ixquick
Mamma
MetaCrawler
MySearch
MyWay
Search123
Teoma
Pricing
1st URL: $30 (Adult $60)
URLs 2 – 1000: $18 (Adult $36)
Yahoo! Express
Yahoo! Express guarantees a member of Yahoo!'s editorial staff will look at your site and
consider it for inclusion in the Yahoo! directory, within seven business days.
In addition, you will receive an email response within seven business days, stating
whether your entry is accepted or declined. If your entry is denied, you will be told why.
Payment does not automatically guarantee inclusion in the directory, site placement, or
site commentary.
Yahoo! Express requires a US$299.00 non-refundable, recurring annual fee per
submission, or US$600.00 non-refundable, recurring annual fee for submissions offering
adult content and/or services.
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/busexpress.html
188
HOW TO ADVERTISE IN SEARCH ENGINES & WEB
DIRECTORIES
Advertise in the major search engines and web directories if you want guaranteed
exposure. Costs can vary greatly, so decide on the form of search engine advertising
that fits your marketing budget.
There are four types of search engine advertising:
•
•
•
•
Banner advertising.
Paid inclusion listings
Pay per click advertising.
Sponsored feature listings.
Search Engines That Offer Banner Advertisements
Banner advertising on search engines and web directories is one way of getting your
message in front of search engine users without optimizing your listings. You simply pay
for banner ads to be displayed on the same page as the search results, in web directory
sub-categories, or across a site or network of sites.
The banners are either non-targeted (Run of Site - ROS, or Run of Network - RON), or
targeted by keywords, topic, category, demographics, countries, or some other variable.
Targeted banner advertising costs more than non-targeted banner advertising, but is
preferred, due to improved return on investment.
Here are a list of major search engines, web directories and metacrawlers and direct
links to their respective pages on banner advertising:
•
AllTheWeb, AltaVista, FindWhat, Kanoodle, and LookSmart no longer offer
banner advertising. Google has never offered banner advertising.
•
AOL - For advertising on AOL, AOL Anywhere, AOL Music, CompuServe, Digital
City, ICQ, MapQuest, Moviefone and Netscape.
http://advisor.aol.com
189
•
Ask Jeeves – Banners, towers and interstitials.
http://sp.ask.com/docs/advertise/traditional.html
•
Dogpile - Advertise on Dogpile and the rest of the InfoSpace network, which
includes 100Hot, Go2Net Portal, Haggle Online, HyperMart Network, InfoSpace,
MetaSpy, PlaySite, Silicon Investor, Useless Pages, WebCrawler and WebMarket.
http://www.infospaceinc.com/advert/
•
Lycos – Now managed by 24/7 Real Media.
http://247realmedia.com/products/web_ad.html
•
Mamma – Offers full & tower banners and pop-up windows. Run of network ads,
or target by keyword, category, country, state, area code, and/or browser.
http://www.mamma.com/banners.html
•
MSN - Requires a minimum budget of $40,000!
http://advantage.msn.com/home/home.asp
•
Netscape – See AOL above.
•
Overture’s banner advertising is managed by DoubleClick.
http://www.doubleclick.com
•
Yahoo! - Minimum ad budget of $3,000.
https://public.yahoo.com/leads-cgi/iso_lead_form.pl
190
PREMIUM SEARCH ENGINE ADVERTISING
Search engines also offer premium positions for large advertisers. Typically the ads are
displayed at the very top of the page, above the search results. Minimum buys are
usually in the thousands of dollars per month and usually require commitments of
several months at the very least.
Google Advertising
•
•
•
•
Text listings displayed in colored boxes, at the very top of the page, above the
main search results.
Minimum spend: $30,000 over three months, with at least $10,000 per month
Minimum spend for agencies: $10,000 per client per month with a minimum of
one month
http://www.google.com/ads/overview.html
MSN Featured Sites
•
•
•
•
The listings are displayed under the heading “Featured Sites” at the very top of
search results pages.
Keyword-targeted listings.
Only three paid clients per keyword.
http://advantage.msn.com/adproducts/adproducttype.asp?aptid=apti
d8
Yahoo! Sponsor Listings
•
•
•
Allows commercial websites already listed in the Yahoo! Directory to enhance
their placement.
Participating sites are featured in a "Sponsor Listings" section above the directory
listings.
Pricing and availability varies by category. Categories priced in the US$50-$300
per month range can be submitted through their online subscription form.
191
•
Categories priced above US$300 per month are handled by the Yahoo! sales
team and have a minimum 3 month term.
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/bzinfo/prod/marketserv/sponsorlist.
php
192
TOP 5 PAY PER CLICK SEARCH ENGINES
04/04 UPDATE: In October 2003, Google acquired the Sprinks pay per click search
engine, which powered About.com. As a result, Sprinks was put into retirement and
About.com's text links are now powered by Google AdWords.
Initially pay per click search engines started life as individual search engines. Soon they
began expanding their reach by paying websites for referring search traffic, but the
growth was slow and somewhat limited.
They quickly realized that to reach critical mass, they needed to harvest the huge
volumes of traffic that the most popular sites attracted; namely search engines, web
directories and web portals. They achieved this through revenue sharing listing
partnerships.
Pay Per Click search engines offer a number of features that standard search engines do
not offer:
•
Guaranteed top positions - typically before the main search results - in major
search engines, web portals and metacrawlers.
•
Keyword targeted listings - your listings will only appear in search results for
keyword phrases you have selected. This allows you to extend or narrow your
targeted audience as you see fit.
•
Pay only for click throughs - you only pay for visitors - not impressions - who
come to your site by clicking on your ad.
•
Cost control - you determine how much you want to bid for each keyword
phrase. Typically the higher you bid, the higher your listing appears in the search
results. This allows for better tracking of your advertising costs and return on
investment.
The top 5 pay per click search engines are:
1. Overture
2. Google AdWords
193
3. FindWhat
4. Espotting
5. Enhance Interactive (Formerly Ah-Ha)
Let’s take a look at each on in more detail.
194
Overture
Overture is the leading pay per click search engine delivering 2.2 billion click throughs in
2002. Overture supplies results to many of the top search engines and web directories,
including Yahoo!, MSN, AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Lycos, and InfoSpace.
Overture has existing marketplaces in the Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US.
Overture can deliver a high volume of visitors, so be careful of bidding too much for a
visitor. I have seen people spend thousands of dollars in a few days, without getting
much in return. It is a painful lesson to learn.
Overture Information
Websites (Countries)
Language Support
Search Terms Represented
Audience Reach
Searches (Daily)
Number of Advertisers
Total Bidded Search Listings
Number of Click Throughs
Average Price Per Click
Account Set Up Service
Minimum Account Opening Budget
Minimum Monthly Spend
Minimum Bid Per Click
Time For Listings to Become Active
Maximum Keyword Phrases Allowed
Keyword Pluralization?
Maximum Title Length
Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US.
English, French, German, Japanese and Korean.
4.4 million
11.2 million
More than 80% of active U.S. Internet users.
167 million+ (02/03)
Yahoo!
AllTheWeb, AltaVista, AOL Europe, InfoSpace,
Lycos, MSN, Yahoo! and thousands of affiliate
sites.
100,000+ (Q1 2004)
7.4 million
646 million (Q2 2003)
$0.40 (Q2 2003)
Self Serve – No Service Fee
* Editorial review within 5 days
Fast Track - $199 Service Fee
* 3 business day turnaround.
* Expert Assistance with search term selection,
titles, descriptions, budget management, and
tracking URLs.
* Customized proposal.
$50
$20
$0.10
3-5 Business days
25,000
Yes
40 Characters
195
Maximum Description Length
Optimizes Bids? ($0.01 More Than Next Ranked Listing)
Home Page
Email Support
Telephone Support
Open Account
Advertiser Tools
190 Characters
Yes - automatic.
http://www.overture.com
[email protected]
1-866-999-6837
Get $10 credit (up to 100 leads) with this link:
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/cgi-bin/g/g.cgi?l=bonus-ov10
Get $50 (25%) off Fast Track with this link:
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/cgi-bin/g/g.cgi?l=bonus-ov50
Search Term Suggestion Tool
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
View Bids Tool
http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/search/tools/bidtool/
ROI Calculator
http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/learning/roic.jhtml
CPM Advertising ROI Calculator
http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/learning/roasc.jhtml
196
Google AdWords
HOT OFF THE PRESS: Google AdWords Announcement: Affiliate Policy Change
On Friday, January 7, Google finally confirmed months of rumors of a major affiliate
policy change affecting Google AdWords.
The main policy changes are:
1. Google will only display the top ranking ad, per search query, for affiliates and
merchants sharing the same top level domain. Lower ranked ad positions will be
replaced by ads for other domains.
2. The display URL in the ad must match the landing page URL. Unique tracking
URLs, often used by affiliates and advertisers, can continued to be used, so long
as the display URL matches the landing page URL.
3. You may not frame the landing page in another website.
4. Affiliates will also no longer be required to identify themselves as an affiliate in
an ad. However, current ads will continue to display the affiliate status until it is
changed by the advertiser.
There’s no word from Google when the new policy will come into effect. The rumor is
that it will be “sometime in January.”
Recommended actions to combat the policy change:
a. Bid as much as you can afford, and/or optimize your ads, in order to gain the top
ad position.
b. If the top ad position is too expensive, you can:
a. show your ads on the Google content network, if they’re not already enabled.
b. get free traffic from Google’s main search results. Do this by creating and
optimizing a content page on your website specifically targeted for each search
term.
c. Don’t remove the “affiliate” or “aff” notice from your ads just yet, as this will
reset its ad rank. Instead, create a new identical ad, without the affiliate notice.
Over time, the ad rank of the new ad should roughly match that of the old ad.
When that happens, remove the old ad.
197
Google AdWords is Google’s own pay per click advertising program. Google AdWords
listings are displayed in Google search results and its network of search partners
including AOL, Netscape, CompuServe, Ask Jeeves, Excite, WebCrawler, EarthLink and
Dogpile.
Google AdWords is fast catching up on Overture in terms of the number of click
throughs it generates for its advertiser. Personally I have found Google AdWords
generates as many click throughs as Overture. Costs are comparable.
Google have made great improvements to their user-interface. I personally think it’s
much more user-friendly than Overture’s.
Google AdWords’ Unique Features:
Here are some unique features that differentiate Google AdWords from other pay per
click search engines:
•
AdWords Discounter monitors competing bids and adjust your bid to just one
cent above than your closest competitor, based on the maximum bid you set.
•
Lets you create more than one ad, within an ad group, which are rotated. Your
ads are shown equally at first, and as your campaign progresses, ads that
receive more clicks will appear more often.
•
Rank is determined by a combination of your bid price and click through ratio.
Ads that don't attract clicks will move down the rank. Ads that do attract clicks
will rise to the top. This way, no one can lock you out of the top position purely
by outbidding you.
•
Ads go live the within minutes of creation. No need to wait 3-5 days for editorial
review.
•
You may target your ads by country (250) and/or languages (14), including
English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
198
•
$5.00 total startup cost with no monthly minimum spends. Your credit card is
charged after 30 days or when you surpass your credit limit.
•
The option to opt out of having your ads shown on its partner sites.
Google AdWords Information
Website Targeting (Countries)
Language Targeting
250
14 languages
AOL, Netscape, CompuServe, Ask Jeeves, Excite,
WebCrawler, EarthLink, Dogpile, BizRate,
InfoSpace, AT&T, Sympatico-Lycos, Searchalot,
and MetaCrawler.
$5
Account Auto-Recharge Feature?
Credit card charged after 30 days or credit limit
surpassed.
Minimum Monthly Spend
$0
$0.05, but varies according to a keyword's
popularity.
Goes live almost immediately upon submission
Maximum Keyword Phrases Per Submission
2,000
Maximum Keyword Phrases Allowed
Unlimited
Search Phrase Pluralization?
Yes
Maximum Title Length
25 Chars
Maximum Description Length
2 Lines X 35 Characters Per Line
Maximum Keyword Length
Unlimited
Optimizes Bids? ($0.01 More Than Next Ranked Listing) Yes - automatic.
Open Account
Welcome to AdWords
https://adwords.google.com/select/
Contact Us
http://www.google.com/contact/
Engine's Own Site Listing Tips Optimization Tips
https://adwords.google.com/select/tips.html
Advertiser Tools
Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions
https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox
199
How Google AdWords Ads Are Ranked
An ad's position is determined by a combination of its maximum cost-per-click (CPC) or
price, and click through rate (CTR) or performance. This is known as an ad’s Ad Rank.
The algorithm weighs more heavily on click through rate than the average cost-per-click.
So raising your maximum CPC has less effect than you think.
For example:
Site A’s maximum bid is $0.10 and has a 1% click-through rate, which produces
an Ad Rank of 10 (10x1).
Site B’s maximum bid is $0.06 and has a 2% click-through rate, which produces
an Ad Rank of 12 (6x2).
As a result, site B's ad will appear above site A's since it has a higher Ad Rank value,
even though its maximum bid is less than site A’s.
This is Google's attempt to ensure that only the most relevant ads appear for a search
term.
To improve your ad’s Ad Rank, either improve the cost-per-click or click through rate.
21 Google AdWords Optimization Tips
Here are 21 Google AdWords optimization tips that will increase your click through ratio
and lower your cost per click:
1. Divide your keywords into campaigns. Each campaign could refer to a specific
product category or promotion. This will let you set different options for each
campaign and obtain more accurate return on investment (ROI) data.
2. Only target customers who speak your language. For example, if you website is
only in English, then only target users who understand English.
200
3. Only target countries where your customers are. If you find that the majority of
your customers are from the U.S. and Canada, then only select those two
countries for your ad to appear in. This is one advantage that Google AdWords
has over Overture and allows for more targeted advertising.
4. Enter as many targeted keyword phrases as possible. Don’t make assumptions
on whether a keyword phrase will attract clicks.
5. Include misspelled keyword phrases. I find they produce the highest click
through ratios as they typically have little competition.
6. Breakdown your keyword phrases into groups of similar keywords that can be
targeted using the same titles. This will produce the higher click through rates
and lower cost per click.
7. Use “Exact” and “Phrase” match to improve your click through ratio and lower
you cost per click.
For example:
[search engine optimization] – Exact match
”search engine optimization” – Phrase match
search engine optimization – Broad match
8. Include negative keywords to avoid click throughs from people you don’t want to
attract. For example, all software promoters should include keywords such as
free, hack, crack, warez, etc., which are entered by people looking for free or
hacked versions of the software.
9. Minimize the use of “stop words” such as “in, on, at, from, and, etc.” in your ads.
For more information on stop words, visit the What Are Stop Words? Section.
201
10. Set your initial cost per click bid as high as you can afford. This will help to get
as high a click through rate as possible. After you have achieved a reasonable
click through ratio, you may lower your bid. The high click through rate will help
you to achieve a higher position for your bid.
11. Set a high enough bid to at least get your ad into the top 8 positions, or the first
page. If possible try to bid for the top 2/3 positions to get your ads “above the
fold” – visible content that does not require the user to scroll down the page.
This will help you to maximum your click through ratio.
12. For extremely popular and competitive keywords that cost far too much to the
top positions, don’t be afraid to settle for low cost bids that give you rankings in
the 40-50 range. They can and do attract click throughs.
13. Enter a reasonable daily campaign budget. Make sure it is sufficient; otherwise
your ads may not appear every time your keywords are searched.
14. Uncheck the “content sites in Google's network” checkbox, if you do not want
your ads to appear in content-targeted pages. People have reported that
content-targeted ads generally attract a lower click through and ROI ratio. Please
note that by choosing not to display your ads in the content sites in Google's ad
network, your ads will not appear in the Google Directory and Google Groups,
aside from other highly trafficked sites.
15. Always include the main keyword phrase you’re targeting in the ad title. If the
keyword phrase doesn’t fit onto one line, let it continue on the second line. When
a user searches for the keyword phrase you’re targeting, it will be highlighted in
bold and will help to draw attention to your ad.
16. Always test 2 or more ads simultaneously. Google will automatically display more
of the better performing ad. After a while, replace the lesser performing ad with
a fresh one. Continue this process in your never-ending quest to improve your
202
click through ratio and lower your cost per click.
17. Test ad groups by pausing them to see what effects it has on your conversion
ratio and return on investment. Add the ads back into the system by selecting
the “Resume” option.
18. Test ads by changing the title, description, and displayed URL. Also try changing
just one word in an ad. You could be surprised by the results. I have had ads
perform up to 30% better just by changing one word in the ad.
19. Don’t be afraid to pause and delete ad groups and campaigns that are not
producing a return on investment.
20. I have seen Google AdWords ads appear in the 2 premium positions that are
usually reserved for large advertisers. These positions typically produce higher
click through ratios. So it can pay to bid for the top rankings.
21. Optimize your return on investment by watching your average cost-per-click, not
your maximum cost-per-click. Quite often you can drive more click throughs by
setting a much higher maximum cost per click, yet keeping your average costper-click low.
For more Google AdWords optimization tips from Google, visit
https://adwords.google.com/select/tips.html
Visit the How To Optimize Pay Per Click Search Engine Ads section for more
optimization tips.
203
2 Ways Non-US Residents Can View US-Only Google
AdWords Ads
If you don’t live in a particular country, and you conduct a search in Google, you will not
see Google AdWords ads where the advertiser has not selected your country as one of
the countries he/she wants their ad to appear.
There must be lots of Google AdWords advertisers who target the US market, but don’t
live in the US. So how do you know what ads you’re competing with?
Well, there are 2 ways to view the same set of ads that US-based users see.
1. Use The Google Toolbar
a. First you must be using Internet Explorer and have the free Google
Toolbar installed onto your computer. You can download the Toolbar at
http://toolbar.google.com
b. Visit Google US – http://www.google.com
c. Conduct a search.
d. Click the 'I' button on the Google Toolbar, and select the "Translate into
English" option. Now look again at the ads. They should have been
replaced with the same ads US users see.
2. Use A US Proxy Server
A proxy server is simply a server that anyone can connect to. By requesting a
webpage via a US based proxy server, you are able to view webpages as though
you was connecting from within the US itself.
Please note that this procedure is a bit more advanced and is not recommended
for complete beginners.
a. Visit the CyberSyndrome website.
http://www.cybersyndrome.net/pls.html
204
b. Select one of the proxy servers from the huge list of worldwide proxies
available.
c. Visit the WhereIs website to make sure the proxy IP address is US-based.
Enter the proxy IP address (first part -- before the colon -- of the
address) into the search form and if the result is “US” or the country you
want, then proceed. Otherwise try another proxy.
http://where-is.info
d. Find your internet connection setting in your web browser.
e. Switch to connecting via a proxy and insert the proxy setting.
i. Internet Explorer > Tools > Internet Options > Connections >
Lan Settings.
ii. Check the “Use a proxy server for your Lan” checkbox.
iii. Enter the first part (before the colon) of the proxy address into
the Address input box and the second part (right of the colon)
into the Port input box.
iv. Click OK.
OR:
v. Netscape > Exit > Preferences > Advanced > Proxies
vi. Check the “Manual Proxy Configuration” radio button.
vii. Enter the first part (before the colon) of the proxy address into
the HTTP Proxy input box and the second part (right of the colon)
into the Port input box.
viii. Click OK.
f.
Visit Google US – http://www.google.com
205
g. If the Google homepage obviously doesn’t look like the Google US
homepage, then you need to try another proxy.
h. Conduct a search and you should see the same Google AdWords ads as
US-based users.
Connecting to the internet via a proxy server can be quicker than connecting via your
local internet service provider. Plus if you’re a parent, this is actually a good way to add
a free adult content blocker onto your computer.
206
FindWhat
FindWhat supplies results for Dogpile, Excite, MetaCrawler and Search.com. FindWhat’s
list of distribution partners are smaller search engines, so don’t expect to receive as
much traffic as advertising in Overture or Google AdWords.
FindWhat Information
Language Support
Search Terms Represented
USA
English
750,000
None
Search.com, Excite, WebCrawler, NBCi,
MetaCrawler, Dogpile, and Go2Net.
Searches (Daily)
33 million+ (01/03)
24,500
Number of Click Throughs
98.4 Million (Q2, 2003)
Average Price Per Click
$0.18 (Q2, 2003)
$25
$0.05
24 hours
Keyword Pluralization?
Yes
Optimizes Bids? ($0.01 More Than Next Ranked Listing) Yes - manual.
Home Page
http://www.findwhat.com
Email Support
[email protected]
Telephone Support
1-877-274-2525
1-239-454-6988
Open Account
Advertiser Tools
Advertise With Us
http://www.findwhat.com/content/advertiser/index.asp
View Current Ads (Bids)
http://www.findwhat.com/content/advertiser/view_current_ads.asp
207
Espotting (Europe)
NEWS: Espotting signs amended merger agreement with FindWhat search engine.
Espotting is Europe's leading pay per click search engine powering over 1 billion search
requests per month across Europe. Its listings are distributed across the top UK sites,
including Yahoo! UK & Ireland, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, LookSmart, Lycos, AllTheWeb,
InfoSpace, and UK Plus.
According to Espotting 97% of the click throughs come from their top 5 listings, so it is
essential that you bid for the top 5 positions.
Espotting Information
Note: £1.00 equals approximately $1.80-$1.85 depending on exchange rate fluctuations.
Language Support
Home Page
Email Support
Telephone Support
Open Account
UK, Ireland, France and Germany.
English
Yahoo! UK & Ireland, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, LookSmart, Lycos,
AllTheWeb, InfoSpace, UK Plus, and other major search engines
across Europe.
20,000
Bronze
* Optional automated bid management service.
* £10 fee + minimum £100 deposit.
Silver
* Professionally written titles & descriptions.
Gold
* Advises you on how to maximize your listings.
* Provide a list of targeted keywords.
* Professionally written titles and descriptions.
* All keywords activated at #1 position across their affiliate network.
Platinum
* Minimum £50,000 budget
* Espotting manages campaign and ROI.
£10 fee + £100 deposit.
£0.05
48 hours
http://www.espotting.com
[email protected]
+44-(0)20-7539-0500
Espotting Media
208
https://www.espotting.com/advertisers/secureadvertisers/list_yoursite.asp
Advertiser Tools Keyword Generator
http://www.espotting.com/popups/keywordgenbox.asp
209
Enhance Interactive (Formerly Ah-Ha)
In December, 2003, Ah-Ha changed its name to Enhance Interactive. Enhance is a
family-friendly pay per click search engine that does not accept adult content.
Enhance Interactive Information
Language Support
Searches (Monthly)
Home Page
Email Support
Open Account
Email Support
Telephone Support
Open Account
USA
English
21 million (Enhance Interactive 04/04)
One billion+ (Enhance Interactive 04/04)
FAST Search
Dogpile, Excite, Verizon, WebCrawler, and NBCi.
14,000
$50
We’ll Do It For You
* Sign up process (5-10 minutes)
* Editorial review (included)
* Keyword creation
* Title and description creation
* Personal account representative
* Toll free customer service
* $99 service fee
Do It Yourself
* Sign up process (30-60 minutes)
* Editorial review (4-5 business days)
* Toll free customer service
* No service fee
$50 deposit.
$0.03
4-5 business days
http://www.enhance.com
[email protected]
Sign Up
https://secure.ah-ha.com/signup/teaser.aspx
Contact Us
http://www.enhance.com/about/contact.asp
Questions or Feedback - [email protected]
Prospective Advertisers - [email protected]
1-801-705-7125
Get $10 credit with this link:
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/cgi-bin/g/g.cgi?l=bonus-ei10
210
Free $5 Kanoodle voucher. Get top rankings on Dogpile, WebCrawler, MetaCrawler,
CNET Search, MSNBC, CBS MarketWatch, and Quicken.
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/cgi-bin/g/g.cgi?l=bonus-ka5
For information and reviews on over 630 pay per click search engines, visit
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com
HOW TO OPTIMIZE PAY PER CLICK SEARCH
ENGINE ADS
Pay per click search engine advertising is becoming increasingly popular as they allow
anyone to bid for top positions in major search engines and drive immediate traffic
within hours of launching a website. In this section I will discuss some ways to optimize
your pay per click search engine ads.
17 Pay Per Click Search Engine Optimization Tips
Here are 17 tips on how to optimize your pay per click listings:
1. Create a list of every single targeted keyword phrase you can find and submit
them to the pay per click search engines. For more information on how to find
targeted keywords, visit the “32 Keyword Research Tools” section.
2. If the pay per click search engine does not automatically pluralize keyword
phrases, make sure you include plural versions of all keyword phrases.
3. Create attention grabbing titles. Include the search phrase in the ad
title. Often a search engine will highlight the search term in ads in bold. This will
help to catch the search engine user’s attention.
211
4. Compose benefit driven descriptions. Tell your potential customers how your
website meets their needs. Spell out the most important benefit/s to encourage
prospects to click on your link.
5. Offer incentives, such as special offers, freebies, product reviews, online
coupons, and free trial download to entice prospects to click your ad.
6. Tell people what to do by including a call to action phrase at the end of the ad.
For example, “Download free 30-day free trial now!”
7. Minimize the use of stop words. Try to replace them with keywords. Visit the
“What Are Stop Words?” section for more information on stop words.
8. Monitor the performance of every keyword phrase and ad to track click throughs,
click through ratios, conversion ratios, sales and profit margins.
9. The #1 position gets the most clicks – period. But also try the #2 and #3
positions, as they can turn out to produce a better return on investment than the
top position.
10. Avoid bidding wars. Instead try to find more specific multi-word phrases that
cost less per click.
11. Create landing pages for different keyword phrases to grab the visitor's interest,
create desire and invoke action, by leading them to make a purchase decision, or
seek more information about your product or service.
12. Start by setting the maximum cost per click you are willing to pay. Monitor
results on a daily basis - hourly if you are getting a lot of click throughs.
Decrease cost per click until you hit the perfect balance of visitor numbers and
return on investment.
212
13. Update your listings as the shopping season changes. For example, Christmas,
Easter, Valentines Day, etc.
14. Including the price in the ad description to deter freebie hunters and to improve
click through ratios. I have found that adding prices and discount percentages
nearly always improves click through ratios.
15. Submit listings using misspelled keyword phrases. This may not produce a whole
load of clicks, but the chances are your competitors haven’t thought about this,
so you end up with 100% of the click throughs.
16. Test! Test! Test! Test every part of your campaign. Test with different keywords,
titles, descriptions, bids, landing pages, etc.
This last tip which won’t be easy to perform, but is essential if you are spending
thousands of dollars a month on pay per click advertising.
17. I recommend setting up some kind of system to monitor your click throughs for
click fraud. By click fraud I am talking about detecting multiple clicks from people
who are out to waste your advertising dollars. I have read of horror stories
where advertisers have detected their competitors clicking on their ads on a
regular basis, racking up tens of thousands of dollars of useless clicks.
Yes, pay per click search engines does have systems in place to track basic click
fraud, such as multiple, successive clicks on an ad. But it won’t detect “smart”
clicks, such as when people click on different ads at various times of the day, on
a daily basis. If you are paying a few dollars a click, it can quickly add up to
thousands of wasted dollars. It is up to you to monitor your clicks for click fraud.
I recommend you budget for an additional 20-25% on top of your bids to cover
click fraud.
213
Google AdWords Can Bill Twice For One Click Through!
I recently read a report from a reputable source that if someone clicks on your link in
Google AdWords, visits your site, returns to Google, and then hits the back button;
Google counts this as another billable click.
It probably doesn’t occur too often. But wouldn’t you still kind of feel cheated by
Google?
How To Minimize Bid Gaps
Bid gaps are the price differences between rankings in pay per click search engines.
For example:
#1 - $1.00
#2 - $5.00
#3 - $0.49
The bid gap between the #1 and #2 ranked listing is fifty cents, whereas the bid gap
between the #2 and #3 listing is only one cent.
The majority of the major pay per click search engines does offer a minimum bid gap
feature so that you only pay one cent more than the next highest ranked listing.
However, the majority of the smaller pay per click search engines doesn’t offer this
feature. So unless you minimize the bid gaps, manually, using a bid optimization service,
or software program, you’re almost certainly paying more than you should for click
throughs.
There are 4 types of bidding tools to help you minimize bid gaps…
2 Online Bid Gap Optimization Services
If you want to constantly monitor and optimize your keyword bids, then automated
online keyword bid optimization services are a good option.
214
They work by monitoring your keyword bids to identify opportunities whereby they can
minimize the gap between the price you are paying and the price you need to pay to
maintain the position. When a bid gap is found, they automatically adjusts the bid for
you to ensure you only pay one cent more than the highest ranked listing below yours.
•
Go Toast - (Overture Approved) - Optimizes your bids and positions in 19 major
pay per click search engines. Cost: From $79.95/month for monitoring 50
keywords on 16 pay per click search engines, twice a day, to a jaw-dropping
$15,599.90/month for 1,000 keywords, on 27 engines, 48 times a day. Basic
return on investment tracking aid included in price. The service works well, but
can get expensive if you are monitoring a large number of keywords.
http://www.gotoast.com
•
PPC BidTracker - (Overture Approved) - Supports Ah-Ha, ePilot, Espotting,
FindWhat, Kanoodle, Overture (US, UK, France, Germany) and Sprinks. Monitors
accounts every 30 minutes, with the exception of Overture. Cost: Ranges from
$39.95 per month for up to 50 keywords on either Overture, or all engines
except Overture, to $499.95 per month for 2,000 keywords on either Overture,
or all engines except Overture. Above 2,000 keywords costs $499.95 + $.20 per
keyword.
http://www.ppcbidtracker.com
2 Bid Gap Optimization Software
Keyword bid optimization software is similar to their online counterparts, except they run
on your computer. Keyword bid optimization software usually costs far less than the
monthly fees charged by self serve keyword bid optimization services.
The disadvantage is that unless you have a constant connection to the internet, the
software will only monitor your bids when you are connected. This could lead to missed
bidding opportunities.
•
BidRank - (Overture Approved) – Supports Overture (US, UK, France,
Germany), Ah-ha, BrainFox, Espotting, FindWhat, Kanoodle, SearchFeed,
Sprinks, Xuppa, 411Web, LifeTips, Turbo 10. Operating Systems: Win 95, 98,
ME, NT, 2000 and XP. Cost: BidRank for Overture - Standard (50 Keywords)
$129 / Professional (500) $299 / Business (2,000) $449 / Enterprise (5,000) $599. BidRank Plus - Standard (50 Keywords) $119 / Professional (500) $249 /
215
Business (2,000) $349 / Enterprise (5,000) $399. (All versions include 1 year of
free upgrades)
http://www.bidrank.com
•
PPC Pro - (Overture Approved) – Supports Overture (US, UK, France, Germany),
Google, Ah-ha, FindWhat, and Kanoodle. Prices include all updates and
upgrades. Cost: PPC Pro Overture - $15/month or $119/lifetime for 50 keywords
to $120/month or $949/lifetime for unlimited keywords. PPC Pro Non-Overture $15/month or $99/lifetime for 50 keywords to $80/month or $699/lifetime for
unlimited keywords.
http://www.ppcmanagement.com
Bid Gap Monitoring Software
Keyword bid monitoring software reports bid gaps. Unlike bid gap optimization tools,
they do not automatically adjust your bids.
•
PPC Bid Reporter Professional – Supports Overture (US, UK), 7Search,
FindWhat, Xuppa, Kanoodle, ePilot, Ah-ha, Brain Fox, GoClick, eSpotting and
Search Feed. Includes a built in keyword builder to help you create lists of
keyword phrases. Cost: US$77 for single copy / $175 for site license, both of
which includes one year of free updates.
http://www.ppctoolkit.com/products/gkwpro/
Visit the “21 Google AdWords Optimization Tips” section for more optimization tips.
216
TOP 10 PRICE COMPARISON ENGINES
Price comparison shopping search engines enable buyers to shop around by comparing
merchants and products by price, feature, shipping cost, tax, and product availability.
Price comparison engines are basically pay per click search engines that online
shoppers. The major difference is that products are typically ranked by price, as
opposed to bids.
Product listing fees vary, and typically cost from 5 cents to one dollar per click through,
depending on the product category.
I would definitely recommend submitting your products to price comparison engines,
especially if your products fall into the popular categories such as books, health and
beauty, home and garden, toys, etc.
I have tested e-goods, such as independent software and ebook listings, on price
comparison engines, without much success. It seems e-goods buyers generally don’t use
price comparison engines to shop for those types of products.
Here's a roundup of the most popular, general purpose shopping and price comparison
search engines.
BizRate/Shopzilla
http://www.bizrate.com (US)
http://www.shopzilla.com (US)
http://www.shopzilla.co.uk (UK)
http://www.shopzilla.fr (France)
Founded in 1996, BizRate is one of the oldest and most popular price comparison
engines on the web.
In November 16, 2004, BizRate changed its corporate name to Shopzilla, Inc. and
unveiled Shopzilla.com. Both BizRate and Shopzilla continue to operate as separate
services, supported by the same underlying technology.
217
Shopzilla offers over 28.7 million products, from 52,000 merchants, at the time of
writing; December 2004.
BizRate attracts 13.2 million unique visitors a month. Merchants can get their products
listed on BizRate and Shopzilla for as little as $0.05 per click thtough.
Ciao
http://www.ciao.fr (France)
http://www.ciao.de (Germany)
http://www.ciao.it (Italy)
http://www.ciao.es (Spain)
http://www.ciao.co.uk (UK)
Ciao claims to offer a multi-million-strong online community that critically reviews and
rates millions of products and services. The service is available in local-language
versions in 5 major western European countries. Ciao doesn’t have as many products as
some of the other price comparison engines, but it still attracts a healthy 12 million
visitors a month, generating 2 million leads per month.
DealTime/Shopping.com
http://www.dealtime.com (US)
http://www.dealtime.co.uk (UK)
http://www.shopping.com (US)
http://uk.shopping.com (UK)
Launched in April 2003, Shopping.com is the combination of DealTime; a price
comparison engine, and Epinions; a consumer reviews and ratings website.
The Shopping.com network consists of over 200 websites, including Shopping.com,
DealTime, Epinions, and AT&T. They claim to reach more than 15% of online shoppers,
each month.
218
Shopping.com offers “millions” of products from over 5,000 merchants. The website
attracted 15.8 million unique visitors in October 2004, according to comScore, and
generates 20 million leads per month.
Merchants can list their products for between $0.05 and $1.00 per click through.
Froogle (Beta)
http://froogle.google.com
http://froogle.google.co.uk
Froogle is Google's price comparison engine. Google attempts to crawl and include as
many online products as possible, but it encourages merchants to submit product feeds
for accurate listings.
Unlike most other price comparison engines, Froogle does not charge merchants a fee
for product listings, though merchants can bid on Google AdWords which are included in
Froogle result pages for product-related queries.
Froogle was recently promoted with its own link on the Google.com search engine
homepage, replacing the Directory link. In October Google also launched a UK version of
Froogle, with other country-specific versions to come.
Kelkoo
http://fr.kelkoo.be (Belgium)
http://dk.kelkoo.com (Denmark)
http://fr.kelkoo.com (France)
http://www.kelkoo.de (Germany)
http://it.kelkoo.com (Italy)
http://nl.kelkoo.com (Netherlands)
http://no.kelkoo.com (Norway)
http://es.kelkoo.com (Spain)
http://www.kelkoo.se (Sweden)
http://www.kelkoo.co.uk (UK)
219
Kelkoo is Europe's leading price comparison engine. In April 2004, Kelkoo was acquired
by Yahoo! Inc and is now a wholly owned subsidiary. They operate in 10 European
countries and receives over 32 million unique users per month. Kelkoo offers over 2
million products, from more than 2,400 UK merchants, including 80% of the top 50 UK
retailers.
The minimum cost per click is 15 pence (approx. $0.29), and there is a minimum
spending cap of GB£500.00 (approx. $970.00) per month.
MSN Shopping
http://shopping.msn.com (US)
http://shopping.msn.co.uk (UK)
http://shopping.ninemsn.com.au (Australia)
http://www.msn.be/eshop/ (Belgium - Dutch)
http://www.fr.msn.be/eshop/ (Belgium - French)
http://www.msn.com.br/eshop.asp (Brazil)
http://eshop.msn.ca (Canada - English)
http://magasiner.sympatico.msn.ca (Canada - French)
http://shopping.msn.fr (France)
http://shopping.msn.de (Germany)
http://msn.co.il/page/11.asp (Israel)
http://shopping.msn.it (Italy)
http://shopping.msn.co.jp/home.htm (Japan)
http://www.msn.nl/winkelen/ (Netherlands)
http://shopping.xtramsn.co.nz/home/ (New Zealand)
http://www.msn.no/shopping/default.asp (Norway)
http://www.msn.com.sg/shopping.asp (Singapore)
http://www.msn.es/compras/ (Spain)
http://www.msn.se/shopping/ (Sweden)
MSN Shopping is part of the MSN Network, offering more than 4 million products, from
over 200 stores.
Microsoft claims that MSN Shopping includes more Fortune 500 retailers than any other
online shopping portal, including Blue Nile, Circuit City, Dell, and JC Penney, Target, and
Wal-Mart.
220
Unlike the other websites in this list, it doesn’t offer a price comparison service. MSN
Shopping attracts 12 million visitors a month. The big drawback with MSN Shopping is
that they require a minimum budget of $40,000 for product submissions.
mySimon
http://www.mysimon.com
MySimon, owned by CNET, was one of the early online shopping search engines. It was
created by Yeogirl Yun, a Stanford University student, who later founded Wisenut, a
crawler-based search engine now owned by LookSmart.
CNET don’t provide specific figures, but claims its MySimon database offers “millions” of
products from “thousands” of merchants.
PriceGrabber
http://www.pricegrabber.com (US - English)
http://uk.pricegrabber.com (UK)
http://ca.pricegrabber.com (Canada)
http://www.preciomania.com (US – Spanish)
http://mx.preciomania.com (Mexico)
http://br.preciomania.com (Brazil)
PriceGrabber, a popular price comparison engine with over 13 million visitors each
month, offers 5 millions products from over 5,000 merchants.
PriceSCAN
http://www.pricescan.com
PriceSCAN’s database consists of publicly available product and pricing information,
gathered from magazine ads, vendor catalogs, web sites, etc. PriceSCAN doesn’t charge
merchants for listings in its database.
221
Yahoo! Shopping
http://shopping.yahoo.com
Yahoo! Shopping is one of the most popular online shopping malls, featuring more than
50 million products from over 200,000 Yahoo! Small Business Merchants and merchants
from around the web.
There are three ways to get your products into the Yahoo! Shopping search results
pages;
1. Build an online store with Yahoo! Small Business Merchant Solutions. Fees range
from $39.95 to $299.95 per month, plus 0.75% to 1.5% a transaction fee, and a
$50 set up fee. For more information, visit:
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/merchant/
2. Submit products to the Yahoo! Product Submit program. Fees are $0.15 to $1.00
per click through. For more information, visit:
https://productsubmit.adcentral.yahoo.com
3. Bid for rankings at the Overture pay per click search engine. Bids start from
$0.10, but top rankings are likely to be much higher, especially for popular
product categories. For more information, visit the Overture section.
222
Price Comparison Engines Compared Side-By-Side
Comparison
Countries
Stores
Products Visitors/ Leads/ Product
Engine
BizRate/
FR, UK, US
52,000
28.7M
Ads By
Month Month
Listings
13.2M
$0.05+/
Google
click
AdWords
N/A
Shopzilla
Customer Shopping
Ratings
List
Yes
Yes
Website URL
bizrate.com
shopzilla.com
shopzilla.co.uk
shopzilla.fr
Ciao
DE, ES, FR,
N/A
500,000
12M
2M
N/A
Espotting
Yes
No
ciao.co.uk
5,000
Millions
15.8M
20M
$0.05-
Google
Yes
N/A
dealtime.com
$1.00/
AdWords
IT, UK
DealTime/
UK, US
Shopping.com
dealtime.co.uk
click
shopping.com
uk.shopping.com
Froogle
UK, US
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Free
Google
Yes (1)
Yes
AdWords
Kelkoo
MSN
Shopping
10
2,400
2M
32M
N/A
GB£0.15+ Overture/
European
($0.29)/
countries(2)
Click(3)
17
200
4M
12M
N/A
Yes(5)
froogle.google.com
froogle.google.co.uk
No
No
kelkoo.co.uk
No
N/A
shopping.msn.com
Yahoo!
MSN
countries(4)
shopping.msn.co.uk
eshop.msn.ca
mySimon
US
Thousands Millions
PriceGrabber BR, CA, MX,
5,000
5M
N/A
N/A
N/A
CNET
Yes
Yes
mysimon.com
13M
N/A
N/A
Price
Yes
No
pricegrabber.com
UK, US
Grabber
uk.pricegrabber.com
ca.pricegrabber.com
PriceSCAN
US
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Free
PriceSCAN
No
No
pricescan.com
Yahoo!
US
200,000
50M
N/A
N/A
$0.15-
Overture
Yes
Yes
shopping.yahoo.com
$1.00/click
Shopping
Comparison
Engine
Countries
Stores
Products Visitors/ Leads/ Product
Month Month
Listings
Ads By
Customer Shopping
Ratings
Website URL
List
Notes:
1. Froogle's customer reviews and ratings are provided by other comparison engines,
such as BizRate, NexTag, PriceGrabber, ResellerRatings and Shopping.com. From this,
Froogle calculates its own store rating for each merchant.
223
2. Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, UK
3. Minimum spend of GB£500.00 (approx. US$970.00 at the time of writing) per month.
4. Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands,
Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States.
5. MSN Shopping requires a minimum budget of $40,000 for product listings.
M = Million
N/A = (Information) Not Available
AU - Australia
BE - Belgium
BR - Brazil
CA - Canada
DE – Germany
DK - Denmark
ES - Spain
FR - France
IL - Israel
IT - Italy
JP - Japan
NL - Netherlands
NO - Norway
NZ – New Zealand
SE - Sweden
SG - Singapore
UK – United Kingdom
US – United States
224
TOP 2 METASEARCH ENGINES
Metasearch engines / metacrawlers do not crawl the web and index webpages. Instead
they search other search engines simultaneously, compile the results, and display them
either in groups, sorted by search engine employed, or by clustering them together and
eliminating duplicates.
In other words metasearch engines allow you to search a number of search engines
with one click. Because metasearch engines neither crawl and index sites, nor have a
database of websites of their own, they cannot accept site submissions.
However, many metasearch engines do accept classified and/or pay per click listings for
those who want guaranteed exposure.
Let’s take a look at the top 2 metasearch engines… (Scroll down)
Dogpile
Dogpile searches up to 11 search engines and displays the top 5 or 10 results from each
search engine in a clustered format (listings from different search engines combined into
one set of search results). It also offers listings by individual search engine.
Dogpile offers a paid inclusion service which also adds your webpages into the Search
Partner Network (DogPile, Verizon, WebCrawler, NBC, and MetaCrawler), with an option
to add to Excite. The fees are really quite competitive, compared to other paid inclusion
services. But I guess the reason is because the search network attracts far less searches
than the top search engines.
225
Dogpile Information
Number of Search Engines and Web Directories Supported
Search Engines Supported
Clustered Search Results?
Number of Search Results Per Page
Other Search Results
Search Engine Submission
Home Page
11
Yahoo!, Google, FAST, Ask Jeeves, Overture,
FindWhat, Sprinks, Ah-Ha, About, LookSmart,
and Open Directory Project.
Yes
20
Images, audio, multimedia, news, and
shopping.
Paid Inclusion
Initial Index: Within 72 hours
Reindex: Every 48 hours
1 URL: $49.95/year
Up to 10 URLs: $99.95/year
http://www.dogpile.com
Paid Inclusion https://secure.ah-ha.com/guaranteed_inclusion/teaser.aspx?network=dogpile
226
Mamma
Mamma is a metasearch engine that serves 21 million unique users a month on
Mamma.com and her network of 14,000 third-party websites.
Mamma Information
Number of Search Engines and web Directories Supported 10
Search Engines Supported
MSN, Ask Jeeves, Teoma, FindWhat, About,
LookSmart, Open Directory Project,
Business.com and Mamma Collection.
Clustered Search Results?
Yes
Number of Search Results Per Page
15
Affiliate Sites (Powers)
14,000
21 million
Click Throughs (Monthly)
2.5 million
Other Search Results
Audio, images, kids, and news.
Pay Per Click Ads
Mamma Classifieds
Cost Per Click: $0.15-$1.00
* Top three listings on Mamma.com's results
pages and within the results of network partners.
* No monthly minimum spend.
* Fixed priced pay per click determined by
category.
* Free professional campaign management.
Paid Inclusion
Standard Submit
* Guaranteed site review within eight weeks.
* $29.99 + $19.99/year after first year.
Velocity Submit
* Guaranteed site review within two business
days.
* $59.99 + $19.99/year after first year.
Home Page
http://www.mamma.com
Pay Per Click Ads
Mamma Classifieds
http://classifieds.mamma.com/signup/
Paid Inclusion
Mamma Collection Submission
http://mamma.whatuseek.com
Email Support
[email protected]
Telephone Support
1-888-844-2372 (US & Canada)
1-514-844-2700
227
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION FORUMS &
SUPPORT SITES
In this section you’ll find search engine websites where you can mingle with fellow
search engine optimizers and experts alike and ask questions, offer advice, start or join
in discussions.
Top 3 Search Engine Discussion Forums
Here are 3 popular search engine discussion forums:
•
Webmaster World – Offers over 680,000 posts in 46 forums, including
separate forums for every major search engine and web directory.
http://www.webmasterworld.com
•
Search Engine Forums – Contains over 268,000 posts.
http://www.jimworld.com/apps/webmaster.forums/
•
Free Search Engine Forums – Offers over 116,000 posts by over 3,600
registered members.
http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/
2 Search Engine Optimization Usenet Newsgroups
Search engine Usenet newsgroups offer a collection of user submitted messages and
discussions on various search engine topics that are posted to servers on a worldwide
network.
Usenet newsgroups are similar to discussion forums, except they are usually not
moderated, which means you sometimes have to shift through the junk to access the
useful information. Google offers a way to view and post messages on Usenet through
Google Groups.
228
The following Google Groups offer messages and discussions on search engine related
topics. Not all threads are relevant. Therefore I suggest that you search a newsgroup by
entering keyword(s) and select the "Search only in..." option to refine your search.
•
Google Public Support - 16,500 posts on Google related issues.
http://groups.google.com/groups?group=google.public.support.gener
al
•
Search Engines – Over 32,000 messages on search engine issues.
http://groups.google.com/groups?group=alt.internet.search-engines
Free Tool Monitors 70 SEO & Internet Marketing Forums
I’ve created a free online tool that offers constantly updated, searchable, customizable
headlines from 70 of your favorite search engine and internet marketing forums and
message boards. This way you can keep up with what’s happening in all the popular
forums without having to visit each website individually.
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/marketing-forum/
In addition, Ecommerce Forum Watch offers free, searchable, headlines from over 30 of
your favorite ecommerce and web design discussion forums and message boards,
updated every 5 minutes.
http://www.mikes-ecommerce-software.com/ecommerce-forum/
Pay Per Question Site
Pay per question sites offer answers to questions in return for an agreed fee, usually in
the region of US$5-25.
•
Google Answers - Gives access to more than 500 approved researchers (in all
topics), starting at $2.50 per question. It does not specify how many of their
researchers are search engine experts. It also offers previously asked questions
229
and recently answered questions.
http://answers.google.com/answers/
Pay Per Minute Advice Site
Pay per minute advice sites offers answers to questions and live advice over the
telephone. The phone charges can vary from a few cents to a few dollars per minute. So
be careful otherwise you could end up with a huge phone bill!
The main advantage of pay per minute advice sites is that they can provide immediate
answers to your questions. The downside is the cost. Those phone charges can quickly
add up, if you get drawn into a long conversation with the expert, so have a clock or
watch handy and keep an eye on the time.
•
Keen – Experts provide live answers to questions and recorded advice over the
phone on a cost per minute basis. A search for the keywords "search engine
optimization" returned 68 experts. Prices ranged from $0.75-$2.50 per minute.
http://www.keen.com
230
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONS & MY ANSWERS
Here are my answers to questions that students have sent in.
Q: Will my site be banned if I submit it too often to the search engines?
A: No, never. Otherwise it would be too easy for your competitors to get your websites
banned.
Q: Do you recommend creating doorway pages with duplicate content with
only the keywords changed?
A: No. Duplicate webpages simply waste space in search engine databases. As such
search engines will usually ignore them. Be careful of using doorway page generation
software that creates hundreds of copies of a webpage with only the keywords changed.
I do not recommend this technique at all.
Q: Do you recommend adding hidden/invisible keywords to webpages?
A: No. In the old days search engine optimizers often hid irrelevant keywords and links
in webpages by changing the text color to match the background color. Search engines
caught onto this practice a long time ago, and will either ignore or penalize websites
that use this technique. So I suggest you avoid this technique.
Q: Do search engines penalize the use of tiny text?
A: Only if you use it excessively. None of the search engines specify exactly what they
consider as tiny text. I would say font size one (7.5pt or 10px) is considered tiny text.
Some search engine books state that font size two or less is considered spam. However,
in my studies I have found many top 10 ranked sites use font size two. So I conclude
that it is safe to use font size two.
231
It is perfectly fine to use some tiny text in a webpage. For example, many people use
tiny text for the copyright message at the bottom of pages. I do.
What search engines don't like are webpages where tiny text is the main font size. That
is, the majority of the text. I guess the theory is that if people can't read it, then it must
be for optimization purposes, which search engines don't like.
Q: What types of links can’t search engines crawl?
A: Search engines currently don’t crawl JavaScript links, search forms, Flash links, or
links that requires cookies or session IDs for access. So avoid using such links, where
possible.
Q: I noticed that you recommend WebPosition Gold. I also bought that a
long time ago but stopped using it because I heard that some search engines
may penalize it for the auto submission. Is this true?
A: I think the rumors are due to what Google state on their website http://www.google.com/intl/mr/webmasters/guidelines.html
"Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings,
etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our terms of
service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition
Gold that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google."
But if you think about it, all search engine optimization software and web-based services
use a similar method to submit webpages and get rankings from search engines. No
serious search engine optimizer would waste time submitting and getting rankings of
dozens, even hundreds or thousands of webpages, manually.
The fact is, Google simply don't like ANY such programs that do any of those tasks,
because it uses up their resources without them getting anything in return for it. Yet
thousands (even millions) of web marketers use such programs to submit their
webpages to search engines and check their rankings. Google surely cannot ban them
all, and they haven't.
232
I have yet to hear of a single case of a site being banned because they used
WebPosition Gold, or something similar.
Google actually allow advertisers to advertise the WebPosition Gold program in their
search engine. Surely Google wouldn’t allow ads for WebPosition Gold, if they banned
websites that use it, would they?!?
I do know this. I've been using WebPosition Gold for years and have achieved
thousands of top rankings without ever getting banned for the use of it. In addition, I
know of many SEO companies and professionals who use WebPosition Gold.
Therefore, I wouldn’t worry about using programs like WebPosition Gold. It’s an
excellent time-saving program and perfectly safe to use.
Q: If I order Arelis, and get pretty good at it, how much time will it take me
on the average to generate 5 reciprocal links, based on your experience? In
other words, for each hour I spend, what's my average going to be?
A: It will be different for each person and website. Arelis will help you find dozens,
even hundreds, of reciprocal links in no time, especially when you get Arelis to find sites
that link to your competitors (a feature I suggested to the author).
However, contacting site owners and getting them to add your link will take a bit longer
and don't expect everyone to reply. If you spend an hour a day on it, you should be able
to easily generate 10-20 reciprocal links a week; of course it could be more. That may
not sound like much, but if you do this consistently, it really adds up over time.
Q: How truly important are hyphenated URL's? Are they a must for SEO? Can
I expect to fail at conquering the top ten spots for a given keyword phrase
without them? Whenever I ask someone this question they kind of dance
around the answer and tell me it helps sometimes, but is not necessary all the
time. This kind of answer doesn't help me much.
233
A: You ask a very good question. The reason why most people dance around the
answer is simply because they can't give you a definite answer. The main problem is
that it is extremely difficult to test whether a domain with hyphen/s ranks better than
one without, especially since Google only update once per month.
I believe that hyphenated domain names do affect search engine rankings, which is why
I generally use hyphenated domain names for my websites.
Visit the Does Separating Domain Name Keywords With Hyphens Affect
Rankings? section for more information. There you will find a case study of someone
who tested hyphenated versus unhyphenated domain names and discovered that
hyphenated domains out-pulled the unhyphenated domains by a ratio of almost three to
one!
Q: WordTracker seems like a great tool and I'm sure I will get a lot of use
out of it. I have been using Overture's Keyword tool, but this one seems
better. I wanted to know which of the searches is best to use? Compressed,
Comprehensive, Simple, Exact or Precise. Which do you use most? Which is
the most effective? Do you ever use the GoTo or 7 Search databases? Also,
which engines do you use when performing a competition search? Do you use
just one or two and which ones?
A: I use compressed mode all the time. Compressed search removes unnecessary
characters (+, -, ") and compresses all forms of the term to lower case. E.g. 'POKEmon',
'+pOkEmon' become 'pokemon'
I do use the GoTo database when I want to build keywords for Overture. I never use
the 7 Search one. I rarely use the competition search, because I don't believe that the
number of competing pages is the key to success. After all, most, if not all, popular
keyword phrases will have lots of competition. You won't find a popular keyword phrase
with no competition. As long as you optimize your pages better than the top ranked
ones, you will be ranked higher than them.
Q: Is there a limit to the size of a webpage that search engines will index?
234
A: A good rule of thumb is to keep webpages (excluding images) under 75k, as most
search engines stop crawling when a page exceeds this limit. I also try to limit the
number of hyperlinks on a webpage to 50.
Q: In your opinion, what are the best search engine tools for getting top
search engine rankings?
A: The top 3 tools I would recommend are; (1) WebPosition Gold for submitting to
search engines and tracking rankings; (2) Arelis for finding reciprocal link partners; and
(3) Optilink for more advanced search engine optimization.
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/webposition-gold.html (review)
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/arelis.html (review)
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/optilink.html (review)
http://www.optilinksoftware.com
235
22 New Students’ Questions & My Answers
Q: I've been reading more of your reviews of SEO programs. It seems to me
that Optilink has several distinct features from Arelis, which again is different
from Web CEO. Would you say that all 3 such programs have quite different
but necessary tools? Do they round out the SEO toolbox? What else is
required as far as software is concerned?
A: You're absolutely right. OptiLink, Web CEO and Arelis are 3 distinctly different
programs. Although Web CEO does offer other features, it is primarily designed for
submitting web pages to search engines and tracking their rankings. Arelis is designed
for finding link partners and managing those relationships. Optilink is for search engine
optimizers who want to find out how a web site/page got its top rankings, so that you
can use that insight to improve your own rankings.
By the way, WebPosition Gold and Internet Business Promoter are similar to Web CEO:
WebPosition Gold
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/webposition-gold.html
Internet Business Promoter
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/cgi-bin/g/g.cgi?l=ibp-shorturl
May I suggest that you download each free trial and test out the programs to see what
each does, and whether it suits your needs.
Q: If I have more than one domain name, say 10-20 or more, for the same
company name. Is it illegal with search engines?
A: There is nothing illegal about it. In fact it could work to your advantage. Check out
the top listings in Google for “Coke” to see what I mean:
http://www.google.com/search?q=coke
However, it doesn't necessarily work with all search engines. Some will only index one
domain and ignore the rest.
236
Q: What is the best search engine cloaker you would recommend that works
really well?
A: I've never used a search engine cloaker, so I don't have a recommendation. Sorry.
By the way, I wouldn't recommend using a search engine cloaker.
Q: I have created a search engine optimized hallway page. This is linked
from the logo image on the homepage. The links on this page then drill down
to further optimized doorway pages. My question regards submitting these
pages. Do I submit each and every page to the search engines, or should I
just submit the hallway page, or just the main homepage? Please let me what
is the best way to submit.
A: I do not recommend submitting hallway pages that only contain links and no text.
Some search engines, such as AltaVista, ignore/reject links only pages, as they see it as
SEO spam. A better way would be to add a short description beside each link. Why not
turn it into a site map or something like that. Then link to the page, via a text (not
image) link, from all the main pages of your site. The important thing is to use the exact
keywords in your text links that you want to target. When you've done that, submit your
homepage and all your important pages, such as the "site map" (hallway) page as
suggested above.
Q: I was ready to purchase WebPosition Gold. However, they don't support
my Macintosh. Your other suggestions also don't support Macs. Do you have
any suggestions that would be similar to WebPosition Gold for a Mac?
A: Try SubmitWolf Mac; a search engine submission software program for the Apple
Macintosh that automates the process of submitting web pages to hundreds of search
engines.
You can find more info at:
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/directory/search-enginesubmission-software.html
237
Q: Can I apply your search engine strategies to Chinese search engines?
A: Yes, you should be able to apply the SEO strategies to Chinese search engines.
There may be some differences, but the basic principles should apply.
Q: If you were going to buy one program; either Internet Business Promoter
(IBP) or Optilink, which would you buy?
A: IBP is quite different from Optilink. IBP is a search engine
optimization/submission/ranking tool, whereas Optilink is a link analysis tool more suited
for intermediate to advanced optimizers.
If you're just starting out and require a program for optimizing, submitting and ranking,
then I recommend either IBP or WebPosition Gold (WPG).
WebPosition Gold Review
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/webposition-gold.html
Internet Business Promoter (Direct link)
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/cgi-bin/g/g.cgi?l=ibp-shorturl
Q: At the moment, we have a campaign with a well known newspaper
website, where we are on all article pages, but not the
front page. We are also in the featured links on the bottom right, for one
month. This gave us about 300 links in Google, but they all have a page rank
of 0-2. We were offered the opportunity to be on the front page, which has a
page rank of 9. Would it be of much help to our PageRank and traffic in
Google by having this one link on the front page as opposed to the many
pages that have low PageRank?
A: I would recommend getting a PageRank 9 link as opposed to hundreds of PageRank
0-2 links, which is basically doing nothing for the PageRank on your webpages. Having
said that, there's no guarantee that a single PageRank 9 link will be picked up by Google
or the PageRank will be passed onto your landing page. A number of factors come into
play including how they link to you and the number of links out of the page.
238
The major benefit of having hundreds of PageRank 0-2 links compared to the one
PageRank 9 link is that there are hundreds of "doorways" for the website's visitors to
click through to your site, whereas the PR9 link only offers one.
What I would suggest is test the homepage PageRank 9 link for 4-6 weeks to see if it
affects your website's PageRank. I'm pretty sure the newspaper site is crawled and
indexed by Google on a regular basis (if not daily), so you should be able to measure
any benefits within 4-6 weeks.
Q: I am setting up a new website, and was wondering whether it makes a
difference if the domain name is 29 characters long. Is this too long? Will
people frown on using a long name compared to a shorter one? It seems like
most of my top 10 competitors use short domain names.
A: I would recommend a shorter domain name; the shorter the better. There are good
reasons why domain names are short, and why all your competitors are using short
names.
The benefits include:
* easier to remember
* less likely to be misspelled
* more brandable
Q: I'm very interesting in implementing the strategies in your ebook.
The
ONLY concern I have is that search engines are a little sensitive to
"aggressive" or "gimmicky" game playing, and quick to blackball websites. Is
your methodology "conservative" in the sense that you won't lead me to do
things that would "annoy" search engines and cause them to black-ball me?
Being new to the game I want to learn the ropes without getting into trouble.
A: I totally understand your concern, and it is a most valid one. What I do in my book
is teach you everything you need to know to get top rankings; legitimately. However, I
do show you techniques used by "advanced" optimizers that can be construed as "onthe-borderline". I don't preach these techniques. I only show them to my students, so
239
that they are aware of them. It is entirely up to you whether you use any of them. They
are all categorized in one section of the book, so you can easily spot them.
Q: I remember it is possible that domains with hyphens and include
keywords can be ranked higher than domains without the keywords,
separated by hyphens. What I'm wondering is which domain should be the
actual real domain of the site, and which ones should be submitted to the
search engines?
A: To answer your question, let me show you what I have done with most of my sites.
I have used www.domain-name.com and forwarded all www.domainname.com visitors
to www.domain-name.com. I submit www.domain-name.com to the search engines. If I
were to promote my domains offline, I would use www.domainname.com as it's easier
for people to remember. Take a look at some of my domains at
http://www.amgy.com to see what I mean.
Q: When I have my website analyzed by a keyword analyzer, it shows I have
twenty-eight words with the name function. But that word appears nowhere.
Do you have any ideas?
A: I'm not quite sure what you mean. But if you're saying a keyword analysis tool finds
keywords on one of your web pages which you can't see, then it could be due to hidden
keywords; keywords added to a webpage typically using the same font color as the
background color to hide the text from visitors.
Did anyone else edit your web pages for you? If so, ask them what keywords they
added to your webpages. Alternatively, search the HTML source code of the webpages
to see if you can find the keywords.
Q: You mentioned the Internet Business Promoter (IBP) in your ebook. My
question is, if I’m too lazy to go through your ebook (sorry, I am lazy), can I
just use IBP to optimize my website?
240
A: Yes, you can use IBP to optimize your website. However, you'll more likely to get
better results by understanding how SEO works and applying the knowledge in the book
alongside any SEO tools you use.
Q: Many search engine gurus advocate mini-sites. In your experience, can a
mini-site rank high in search engines for keywords with medium competition?
A: Yes. I have used so-called "mini-sites" to get high rankings on search engines for
very competitive keywords.
Q: I am using SiteBuildIt (SBI) for my website. SBI already has a wellknown system for search engine optimization. In my case, do you advise me
to buy search engine software, such as Internet Business Promoter (IBP) or
WebPosition Gold (WPG)?
A: That is a very good question. I have seen many SBI sites achieve good rankings, so
it must be doing something right. Having said that, there's no guarantee that SBI can or
will get all SBI created sites into the top rankings. There are too many other variables
that come into play.
As far as I know, SBI offers most of the main features offered by WPG and IBP. If that
is the case, then there is no point in spending money on a program that does the same
jobs. So, I would simply recommend applying the strategies and techniques in my book;
something the SBI system cannot do.
Q: Currently my website is ranked 36 on Yahoo!, but it’s still not listed on
Google. My website is 2 months old. Am I being too impatient here?
A: No, you're not. Google should have picked it up by now, but only if you submitted it
and/or it's linked from at least one or more sites that are already in the Google index.
Having said that, there is no guarantee that Google would pick up your site. With
gazillions of links on the internet, it is easy for search engine spiders to miss a link here
and there. To improve your chances of getting indexed by Google, try to get as many
websites already indexed in Google to link to yours.
241
Q: Question on PageRank. In your book you stated, "Concentrate on getting
as many different quality sites as possible to link to one page on your site,
usually your homepage. Do not spread the links to different pages."
I have started a shopping directory with multiple categories; shirts, shoes,
socks, etc. Each category page will target a different keyword for that
particular products. Let's say I get some sites about "shoes" to link to me.
Shouldn't I have them link to my shoe category? Should I have them link to
my homepage? If I have all incoming links point to my homepage, then how
can I improve the SERP (Search Engine Ranking Positions) for the category
pages? Can you give me some advice on a good linking strategy for a site
with multiple categories?
A: If you have a site that covers many topics, then it makes sense to get other
websites to link to the main category pages for each topic. The advice I give for getting
other sites to link to the homepage is mainly for sites that cover one or two topics. It's
better to build the PageRank up on the homepage. This way the high PageRank will
spread onto the lower-category pages.
For example:
Homepage - 6
Level 2 pages - 5
Level 3 pages - 4
and so on.
Whereas getting sites to link directly to lower level pages will probably do this:
Homepage - 5
Level 2 pages - 4
Level 3 pages - 3
and so on.
Your homepage cannot get top rankings for lots of keyword phrases, so in your
situation, it would probably be better to get sites to link directly to subcategory pages.
242
Another thing you have to take into consideration is the landing page that visitors who
click through on the links on the other sites land on. If you direct everyone to the
homepage, they will have to find to find the category pages they are interested in.
Whereas linking directly to a subcategory page, they land on the webpage they are
interested in.
Q: I'm looking for software to use in my site redesign.
My HTML knowledge
is limited, so I'd want something that does most of that for you, but gives you
the capability of doing some HTML writing/editing directly as well, as I learn
more about optimizing the site. Obviously I want something that’s in wide
enough use so that I can continue to use it for years to come. Can you
recommend anything beside something like Dreamweaver which is probably
too complicated to learn for my purposes, and more sophisticated than I think
I need?
A: Yes, of course. A couple of programs worth trying is Microsoft FrontPage and
CoffeeCup HTML. They are both very popular programs, used by millions of
webmasters, and should be around for a while. You might find the link below useful. It
offers download links for numerous HTML software programs.
http://www.download.com/sort/3150-2048_4-0-1-4.html
Q: I have a question regarding a section of your book, "Why I Believe
Themed Web-Sites Do Not Improve Search Engine Rankings". You give two
examples of your own websites where the search engines ranked highly, that
are primarily based on single pages containing your "bio". What is the use of
having many pages of keyword content, if the search engines are going to
rank you on one page?
A: Each webpage should be targeted for one specific keyword phrase. You see, the
point I tried to make in the section you refer to in my book is that search engines see
each webpage individually. It doesn't matter if you have one hundred webpages under
one domain, or one hundred domains each containing one webpage. They can all rank
at the top of the search engines.
243
Q: I’ve been making changes to my webpages, checking the next day,
making more changes, and so on… but I haven’t noticed any improvements to
my rankings. What am I doing wrong?
A: There is no need to make changes to the same webpages everyday. That is a
complete waste of your time. I would recommend making changes once every 2 months
or so, after you have given the search engines a chance update their index.
Having said that, there is a way of speeding up the entire process to a few days; pay for
your webpages to be included in search engines such as Yahoo and MSN. This is known
in the industry as pay-for-inclusion listings. Google do not offer this option.
With this method, you can quickly find out, within 2-3 days, whether your optimization
efforts have worked or not. If you haven’t achieved the desired rankings, simply modify
your webpages, wait for the search engines to come around again, and then check your
rankings. You can do this almost indefinitely, until you do achieve the desired rankings.
It does cost money, but the investment may well prove profitable in the end.
Visit the Search Engines That Offer Paid Inclusion Programs section for more
information.
Q: My competitors are using all kinds of illegal SEO tricks to get top
rankings. Should I try these tricks to get top rankings?
A: No. Don't worry about websites that use banned SEO techniques. The search
engines will catch up with them sooner or later.
The analogy I use is... websites that use banned SEO techniques are no different from
people who break the law. They may get ahead quicker than law abiding citizens, and
even get away with it for a while. But we all know that sooner or later, the chances are
the law will catch up with them, and they will lose everything.
You have to ask yourself, “Am I willing to take this risk?”
Are you willing to risk losing all your rankings; and consequently all the traffic you get
from the search engines?
244
Q: With regards to Google, I have had problems with getting the wrong page
of my website set as "The Page" for a particular set of keywords. How do you
overcome this to get the right page indexed.
A: A quick way to stop the search engines listing the wrong webpage for the targeted
keyword phrase is to remove the keywords from the page in question. Search engines
typically don’t give high rankings to webpages that doesn’t contain the targeted
keywords. By removing the keywords from the page, this should stop the search engines
from listing the webpage in question.
However, that may not be the end of it. If other webpages links to the webpage in
question using the targeted keyword phrase, then the search engines may still consider
that page as the most relevant webpage for the targeted keyword phrase on your
website.
To correct this, you should either remove or change those links, or get more text links,
using the exact keyword phrase, to point to the webpage you want the search engines
to consider as the correct page for the targeted keyword phrase.
245
FINAL WORDS…
Well, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed my guide to getting top 30 rankings. There
is a lot of information contained in this book. I’m sure you won’t grasp it all on your first
read, so do go back to the sections that interest you most and study them in more
detail.
Apply the strategies and techniques as soon as possible. It is possible to get results
within days, but do allow 6-8 weeks in general, as search engines typically only update
their indexes about once a month. So please be patient.
There is no magic bullet, aside from a deep pocket, which I’m sure most people don’t
have.
Remember to constantly test and tweak your techniques. Don’t think the job of
optimizing a website is finished when you have optimized your website. It’s a neverending quest to improve rankings and drive more quality traffic for the lowest possible
cost. That in turn will increase profits.
If you don’t get the results you expected. Examine what you have done. Then work out
what you did wrong and try different techniques.
I always remember this wise man’s definition of a fool.
“A fool is someone who expects different results, when they do the same thing
over and over again.”
Don’t be a fool. Remember that, and you will be more successful in business, and in life
in general.
Want to be even more successful?
Simply do one constructive thing each day - be it for your business or your life. There’s
no such thing as overnight success. Success comes from doing lots of small things,
right, on a consistent basis.
246
Feedback & Testimonials Are Most Welcome!
I welcome any feedback you may have, including broken links, improvement
suggestions, new topics I should include in the next update, etc.
If you enjoyed my book, please send a glowing, sincere (non-hyped) testimonial. With
your permission I will include your testimonial, along with your name, job title and
company name in my search engine ebook website.
http://www.SearchEngineOptimizationStrategies.com
If you also include a nice, clear, color photo, I will include a direct HTML link back to
your site – assuming you have a professional looking website and is not banned or
penalized by the search engines.
At the time of writing, the site has a Google PageRank of 5, and attracts thousands of
visitors a month. So a direct link to your site from mine will help your link popularity
rating, plus send you some free visitors on a regular basis.
Please send a color photo of at least 120 (width) by 180 (height) pixels. The larger the
better, as I can edit it down to the required size.
Please send feedback and testimonials directly to me at [email protected].
Please note that I can’t promise that I will use every testimonial I receive. But unless
you enter, you can’t win, right? ;o)
247
My Other Websites
•
Mike's Marketing Tools
For informative, straight-to-the-point reviews on a wide range of internet
marketing software tools. Plus internet marketing tips to read, or republish in
your website, newsletter, or ebook. There are also a number of useful, free
marketing tools; An instant, link popularity checker, search engine rankings
reporter, online marketing forums aggregator, AdWords Wrapper, search engine
chart, and a constantly updated list of top 500 searched keyword phrases.
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com
•
Mike's Ecommerce Software
For informative, straight-to-the-point reviews on a wide range of ecommerce and
web development software and tools.
http://www.mikes-ecommerce-software.com
•
Domain Registration Bank
If you want really low, low prices and great service on domain registration
services, check out this website of mine. I partnered with GoDaddy on this site
and I’ve set the prices to the lowest allowed, so you can be sure you’re not
paying a penny more than you have to. One-year registrations cost as little as
$4.95 per year, at the time of writing. SSL certificates only cost $49.95 per year!
•
AMGY.com Network
The AMGY.com Network basically offers a list of all my websites. There are over
2,000 pages of content in the network of sites, so be sure to visit it! I’m sure you
will find something useful.
http://www.amgy.com
I wish you every success with your search engine marketing efforts!
With best regards,
Michael Wong
Editor, Mike’s Marketing Tools
http://www.Mikes-Marketing-Tools.com
248
GLOSSARY
0-9
404 File Not Found / dead link
Error message displayed when a browser can't find the page requested. Caused
by mistyping a site address in the browser window or clicking a broken link.
A
accessibility
The state or quality of websites that is accessible to users with disabilities.
acquirer
A financial institution that maintains merchant card processing services, and
receives transactions to be distributed to the card issuers for a merchant.
above the fold
Top section of a webpage that is viewable without the user having to scroll
down, or sideways.
ad audience
Number of unique users exposed to an ad within a specified time period.
ad blocker
Software on a user’s browser which prevents banner and interactive ads from
being displayed.
ad centric measurement
Audience measurement derived from a third party ad server's own server logs.
ad copy
Printed text in an advertisement.
ad impression / view
Single display of an ad that is viewed by a web user on a webpage, in a
newsletter or email.
249
ad network
Online advertising agency that brokers ad impressions on behalf of the websites
within its network.
ad rotation
Number of banner ads that are rotated into an ad space on a website by
software residing on a site's server, or a remotely hosted ad server facility.
ad space
Space on a webpage that is reserved for advertisements.
add URL / site / page
Same as search engine submissions.
Address Verification Service (AVS)
Service in which a merchant can verify a credit card holder's address with the
Issuing Bank. Required by VISA for credit card processing over the Web.
adjustment
Debit or credit to a credit card holder or merchant account to correct a
transaction error.
affiliate
Publisher who is a member of an affiliate program or network.
affiliate / associate program
Marketing concept whereby a website sells its products and services with the
help of affiliates, usually other websites.
affiliate directory
Categorized index of affiliate programs.
affiliate fraud
Bogus or unlawful activity generated by an affiliate in an attempt to make
money.
affiliate marketing
Use of affiliates to help market a website's products and services in return for a
commission of each sale generated.
250
affiliate merchant
Advertiser in an affiliate marketing relationship.
affiliate network
Online advertising agency that sells ad space on behalf of its network of affiliate
sites. Affiliates are paid on a per click, lead, registration, or sale basis.
affiliate software
Software used by affiliate managers to track and report activity (clicks, leads,
registration, sales) generated by its affiliates.
Ah-Ha
Ah-Ha is a popular pay per click search engine.
AllTheWeb
AllTheWeb is the testing domain for the "FAST" search engine.
alphanumeric rankings
Alphanumeric rankings are used by web directories to rank its listings. The
listings are displayed in the order of the ASCII character set (punctuation marks,
mathematical and other conventional symbols, numbers, and then letters).
AltaVista
AltaVista claims to be the first searchable full-text database of the World Wide
Web launched way back in December, 1995.
alternate text
Alternative text description of an image for users who disable image downloads
in their browser. Also appears as a pop-up text message when a user moves
their mouse over an image.
animated GIF
A GIF graphic that rotates through a series of static images to create the effect
of animation.
Anonymizer
Intermediary which prevents websites from seeing a user’s IP address.
251
Anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
A way of accessing another computer to upload or download files. Generally used
to upload files to web servers or for downloading applications.
antialiasing
Smoothing of text, or an image, to remove rough sharp edges.
AOL Search
AOL Search is a search engine which everyone - not just AOL internet access
subscribers - with access to the internet can use.
Apache
Apache is the name of a project team which has created the Apache web
server [www.apache.org] , a freely available web serving program.
applet
Small program embedded in a webpage that gives special functionality, usually
written in Java.
archive
Single file containing a collection of compressed or zipped, files for efficient
storage. To extract the original files from the compressed file, use an unzipping
program, such as:
PKZIP – http://www.pkware.com
StuffIt Expander – http://www.stuffit.com/win/expander/
tar – http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/tar.html
WinZip – http://www.winzip.com
ask an expert
“Ask An Expert” sites have experts in different fields offering answers to posted
questions. While some “Ask An Expert” sites are free, others charge on a pay per
question emailed, or per minute of advice given basis.
Ask Jeeves
Ask Jeeves is one of the most popular search engines that combine a knowledge
base of answers to roughly 7 million commonly asked questions.
252
ASP (Application Service Provider)
Company that offers individuals or enterprises access over the internet to
software applications and related services that would otherwise have to be
located on their own personal or enterprise computers.
associations
Organization which administers and promotes different types of credit cards that
are licensing and regulatory agencies for bankcard activities.
attachment
Computer file electronically attached to an email and sent along with it.
authorization
Approval of a credit card transaction by a card-issuing bank or approved service
provider for a specific sum of money. The authorization indicates that the credit
card holder has enough credit to be able to make the purchase.
autoresponder
Computer program that automatically returns a pre-written email message to
anyone who sends email to a particular internet address.
B
B2B / BtoB (Business-to-Business)
Trade between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers.
B2C / BtoC (Business-to-Consumers)
Trade between businesses and consumers.
B2G / BtoG (Business-to-Government)
Trade between businesses and government.
back-end
Application or program that serves indirectly in support of the front-end services.
For example, a CGI search script is a back-end application that processes and
returns results for a search form submission.
253
backbone
High speed communication links that connect internet service providers and
other large internet sites.
bandwidth
Bandwidth refers to the speed, in bits per second (bps), of data on internet
connections.
bandwidth transfer
The amount of data your web hosting plan allows you to transfer in a given
month. 'Transfer' means any data that needs to be sent to visitors at a site, such
as HTML pages, images, sounds, music, and other files you have available for
download.
bank card
Debit or credit card issued by a bank or financial institution.
banner ad
Advertisement in the form of a graphic image that is typically displayed on a
webpage. Dimensions: Full banner (468 x 60 pixels), half banner (234 x 60) and
vertical banner (120 x 240).
banner exchange
Ad network where member sites display banner ads on their own sites for
credits, which allows them to purchase ad impressions on other member sites.
batch
A full day's worth of transactions collected together ready to be processed by a
card processor.
BBS (Bulletin Board System)
Software that enables users to log into email, Usenet and chat groups via a
modem.
BCC (Blind Carbon Copy)
Insert email addresses into the BCC field of an outgoing email to send an email
to one or more recipients, without revealing the email addresses of all the
recipients.
254
beacon
Code placed in an ad on a webpage, or in an email, to track whether the ad was
delivered correctly.
beta / pre-release test
Phase of testing in which a sampling of the intended audience tries the product
out, before it is launched.
beyond the banner
Every other form of internet advertising, except the standard animated GIF
banners. For example, interstitials.
bit
Short for binary digit. The smallest unit of data in a computer. A bit has a single
Boolean value, either 0 or 1.
bonus impressions
Free ad impressions above the commitments outlined in the approved insertion
order.
booked space
Number of sold ad impressions for an ad space.
bookmark
Record the address of a file or webpage, so you can return to it later. In the
Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, it's called, "Favorites." In the Netscape
Navigator browser, it's called, "Bookmarks."
bounce
When email cannot be delivered and is returned to the sending mail server.
bps (bits per second)
A measure of how fast data is transmitted.
brand marketing
Concept of marketing a product, service, or company to identify its distinctive
benefits and qualities.
255
button ad
Similar to banner ads, except they are smaller than the standard 468 by 60 pixel
banner ads. Dimensions: Square button (125 x 125 pixels), button 1 (120 x 90),
button 2 (120 x 60) and micro bar (88 x 31).
byte
Group of eight bits used to represent a character such as a letter (a), number
(1), or typographic symbol (?).
C
cache / caching
A place to store something temporarily for quicker access at a later date.
Typically, webpages are stored in a browser's cache directory on a hard disk, or
on a local proxy server.
cache busting
Preventing browsers or proxy servers from serving content from their cache, in
order to force the browser or proxy server to fetch a fresh copy for each user
request. Cache busting is used to provide a more accurate count of the number
of requests from users.
canonical domain names (CNAME)
Canonical domain names are sub-sets (prefixes as it were) of your main domain
name which point to the same place. For example, mail.yoursite.com and
members.yoursite.com.
cardholder
Any individual who has been issued a credit or debit card (bankcard).
card issuing bank
The bank that issued a credit or debit card (bankcard) to an individual or
company.
CC (Carbon Copy)
Insert email addresses into the CC field of an outgoing email to send an email to
one or more recipients.
256
CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
Standard way for a web server to pass a web user's request to an application
program and to receive data back to forward to the user. CGI is commonly used
to process online forms.
CGI script
CGI scripts are commonly used to handle forms, database search queries on
webpages, and to produce dynamic webpage content. The CGI Resource
Index is a popular directory containing thousands of CGI / Perl scripts.
http://cgi.resourceindex.com
chargeback
Transaction debited to a merchant's account usually as a result of a cardholder
dispute.
chat room
Place for web users with a common interest to communicate in real-time.
clearing
The process of managing the details between an acquirer and an issuer to allow
posting of a cardholder's account and reconciliation of a merchant's settlement
position.
click / click through
When a web user clicks on an advertising banner or text ad and lands on the
sponsor's webpage. 'Click through' is the more popular term.
click stream
Recorded path of the pages a user visited as they surfed one or more websites.
client
Program, such as a web browser, that requests the services of another
computer. A web browser makes requests for pages from servers all over the
Web.
clip art
Prepared artwork designed for use in webpages by experts and novices alike.
257
clustering / clustered results
Clustering is a technique used by search engines to "cluster" search results
together, when they find multiple results from the same website. Usually, the
most relevant result is listed first with the other relevant pages from that same
site indented below it. This makes search results clearer and more useful to
searchers, by preventing a small number of sites occupying all of the top
rankings.
cobranding
When two websites display their logos, and thus their brands, together so that
the web user considers the site or section to be a joint venture.
colocation / co-location / collocation
The provision of space for a customer's own computer server in the internet
service provider's premises.
comment tag
Comment tags () are used by programmers to add comments
to a HTML page and also to hide JavaScript code from non-compliant web
browsers.
Content Management System (CMS)
System used to manage the content of a website. Typically, a CMS consists of
two elements; the content management application (CMA) and the content
delivery application (CDA).
conversion rate
The percentage of people who take a desired action (click, register, subscribe,
buy, etc.).
cookie
Small information text file that a website stores on your hard disk so that it can
remember something about you at a later time. Typically, a cookie records your
preferences when using a particular site.
cookie buster
Software that blocks cookies from being placed on a user’s browser.
258
cost-per-sale
Cost, in terms of a commission payment, to an advertiser for each sale
generated by an affiliate.
CPA (Cost-Per-Action)
Cost to an advertiser for each visitor that takes some specifically defined action
in response to an ad beyond, such as subscribing to a newsletter.
CPC (Cost-Per-Click)
Cost to an advertiser for each click through of an ad generated by a site visitor.
CPL (Cost-Per-Lead)
Cost to an advertiser for each lead generated by an affiliate.
CPM (Cost-Per-thousand ad impressions)
"M" is taken from the Roman numeral for "thousand."
CPO (Cost-Per-Order)
Cost of advertising based on the number of orders received.
CPT (Cost-Per-Transaction)
Cost of advertising based on the number of transactions received.
crawler / spider / bot
Program that visits and reads webpages in order to create entries for a search
engine index.
creatives
Banner ads, copy, active URLs and other forms of creative artwork which are due
to the ad seller prior to the initiation of an ad campaign.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
Management of customer relationships to increasing brand loyalty.
CRON script
A list of one or more commands to a computer operating system or application
server that are to be executed (processed) at a specified time.
259
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
CSS defines how to display HTML elements in a webpage.
CTR (Click Through Rate / Ratio)
Percentage of ad impressions that resulted in click throughs.
customer acquisition cost
The cost of acquiring a new customer.
cybercafe
A place, usually a coffee shop, which offers internet access to the public.
D
database
Collection of data that is organized so that its contents can be easily accessed,
managed, and updated.
de-listing
Removal of pages from a search engine's index.
decryption
Process of interpreting data which is sent in a hard to read form (encrypted).
dedicated server
Rental and exclusive use of a computer that includes a web server, related
software, and connection to the internet, housed in the web hosting company's
premises.
deep linking
Linking to a page other than the site's home page.
demographics
Characteristics of population or audience, such as gender, age group,
occupation, income, race, preferences, etc.
description tag
HTML meta tag used to provide a description for search engine listings.
260
DHTML (dynamic HTML)
Advanced version of HTML that contains more features, for example, animation.
dial-up connection
A method of connecting to an internet service provider using a telephone
connection in a system of many lines shared by many users. A dial-up connection
can be started manually or automatically by a computer's modem or other
device.
digital certificate / signature
Electronic "credit card" that establishes your credentials when doing business or
other transactions on the Web.
Direct Hit
Direct Hit was a search engine that provided search results by analyzing the
activity of millions of previous internet searchers. Direct Hit was acquired by
Teoma, who subsequently removed the public search interface.
discussion forums
Discussion forums are sites where people can meet for open discussion on
various topics.
DNS (Domain Name Server)
Machine which translates an internet domain name, such as www.google.com to
internet Protocol (IP) address 216.239.51.100.
Dogpile
Dogpile is a metasearch engine that searches multiple search engines at a time
and displays the results from each engine in order.
domain
Name with which domain name server records are associated that describe
subdomains or hosts.
domain name
Meaningful and easy-to-remember "handle" for an internet address.
261
doorway / bridge / entry / gateway / information page
A doorway page is an information page created for the sole purpose of ranking
high in search engines for a particular keyword phrase, or specific search engine.
download
The process of copying a file from a remote computer to your local computer.
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
DSL is a technology that transmits high-bandwidth information over ordinary
copper telephone lines. Individual connections will typically provide 512 Kbps to
1.544 Mbps downstream and 128 Kbps upstream transfer rates. A DSL line can
carry both data and voice signals and the data part of the line is continuously
connected.
dynamic ad rotation
Delivery of ads on a rotating, random basis so that visitors are exposed to
different ads in different pages of a site.
dynamically generated page
A dynamically generated page is a database driven page created "on the fly,"
depending on the user's interest or request.
E
e-book / ebook
Electronic version of a traditional print book that can be read on a personal
computer or a special e-book reader.
e-commerce / ecommerce (electronic commerce)
Buying and selling of goods and services over the internet.
email / email (electronic mail)
Electronic messages sent over the internet.
email discussion lists
Email discussion lists are similar to discussion forums, except the discussions are
conducted via email, not on the Web.
262
email marketing
Marketing via email.
encryption
Process of encoding data into a form which is hard to read and decipher. This
data can then be decoded (decrypted) by someone with the correct key.
Excite
Excite@Home, the company that owns the Excite search engine recently filed for
bankruptcy. As a result, Excite@Home sold Excite.com to InfoSpace, which has
decided to replace the Excite search engine with InfoSpace's Dogpile metasearch
engine results. So search results on both Excite and Dogpile are identical.
extranet
Private network that uses the internet and the public telecommunication system
to securely connect a business with its customers, suppliers and business
partners.
F
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
List of frequently asked questions and answers.
FAST search
Search engine that powers the AllTheWeb search engine.
Favicon.ico (Favorite icon)
Customized image that Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 and above uses, if
it is available, as an icon to go with a user-specified bookmarked site on the
Links bar at the top of a web browser window. For more information about
designing your site's Favicon, visit http://www.favicon.com
Favorites
Method of recording the address of a file or webpage for later reference in the
Microsoft Internet Explorer browser.
263
FFA (Free For All)
Links page where anyone can add a link. Do not bother with submitting your site
to FFA pages, as it will only generate lots of spam emails for you.
FindWhat
FindWhat is a popular pay per click search engine supplying results for some of
the most popular search and metasearch engines on the internet, including
Dogpile, Excite, MetaCrawler and Search.com.
finger
Program that tells you the name associated with an email address.
firewall
Set of related programs used to prevent unauthorized outsiders from accessing
the local network.
flame
Angry, inflammatory, or insulting message sent via email, or posting to a forum
or newsgroup.
flame war
Exchange of angry, inflammatory, or insulting messages between internet users.
Flash
Popular authoring software developed by Macromedia. It's used to design and
deliver low-bandwidth animations, presentations, applications, and websites. To
view a Flash file, users have to install the Macromedia Flash player.
http://www.macromedia.com
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/
footer
Often used to refer to the bottom part of a webpage.
frames
Frames allow you to present webpages in multiple, independent windows or
subwindows, where certain information can be kept visible, while content in the
other windows are scrolled or replaced.
264
freeware
Freeware is free software. The authors of the free software still retain the
copyright so that you can't use the software code in anything you may be
developing.
front-end
Application that web users interact with directly. For example, a search form is
the front-end of a search engine.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Method of transferring files, such as webpages, over the internet. Typically used
to upload webpages and images to a host server. The server then serves the
pages to users requesting it over the internet.
FTP server
Computer on the internet that stores files for transmission by FTP.
G
gateway
Computer that connects one network with another. Often used in commerce to
act as a gateway between a merchant and a bank.
Gbps
1 Gbps = 1 billion bits per second. A measure of bandwidth on a digital data
transmission medium such as optical fiber.
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) / GIF89a
One of the two most common file formats for graphic images on the World Wide
Web. The other is JPEG.
gigaPrefix meaning one billion (1,000,000,000).
gigabit
In data communications, a gigabit is one billion (1,000,000,000) bits.
265
gigabyte
Measure of computer data storage capacity. One gigabyte is 1,073,741,824
bytes.
Google
Google is the most popular search engine in the world.
gross exposures
Total number of times an ad is served, including duplicate downloads, to the
same user.
guerrilla marketing
Unconventional marketing techniques for achieving maximum results from
minimal resources or budgets.
GUI (Graphical User Interface)
Graphical (rather than purely textual) user interface to a computer.
H
HCI (Human-Computer Interaction)
Study of how humans interact with computer systems.
header
The beginning of an email that contains information about the email itself; "To"
and "From" addresses, date sent, subject, etc. A header is also used to refer to
the top of a webpage.
hidden links
Hidden links are a means of adding links from a home page or site map to
doorway and hallway pages, so that search engines can crawl and index them,
while keeping the links invisible to human visitors.
hit
The request of a single file, such as an HTML, image, audio, or other file from a
web server.
266
home page
The main entry page of a website.
HotBot
HotBot no longer offers its own search engine. Instead it offers a search form to
the four major web indexes; FAST, Google, Inktomi, Teoma.
house ad
Self promotional ads that replace unsold ad inventory.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
Most popular language used to write webpages on the Web. HTML webpages
usually have the extension .htm, .html, or .shtml.
HTML banner
Banner ad that includes HTML elements, such as interactive forms or pull-down
menus.
HTML email
Email that is formatted using HTML.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
Protocol used by web servers to deliver and receive information. Used to
exchange text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files on the
Web. All webpages URLs start with "http", although its use is often optional.
HTTPS (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
A secure extension of HTTP. This extension securely encrypts and decrypts
webpage requests. Whenever you pay for goods using a credit card on the
internet, HTTPS will be used to ensure your credit card details are secure.
Human Factors
Study of how humans behave psychologically and physically in relation to
particular products, services, or environments.
hybrid pricing
Pricing model based on a combination of a CPM pricing model and a performance
based pricing model.
267
hypermedia
Hypermedia is an extension of the hypertext to include links to pictures, sound,
video, and virtual reality.
hypertext
System of organizing information that enables the text to be linked in different
ways. The web is hypertext, since it is nothing more than an enormous amount
of information content connected by an enormous number of hypertext links.
I
IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau)
Organization that fosters the growth of advertising on the internet and
recommends a set of standard size banner ads for webpages.
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)
ICANN is a private non-profit corporation responsible for issuing IP address
space allocation, domain name system management (.com, .net and .org).
http://www.icann.org
ICQ ("I Seek You")
ICQ is a popular instant messaging system that lets users exchange instant
messages.
http://www.icq.com
IFrame (inline frame)
Floating frame that is inserted into a webpage.
IM (Instant Messaging)
System that allows users exchange instant messages electronically (Internet, cell
phones, WebTV, PDAs, etc.).
image map
Graphic image that has separate clickable areas.
incentivized traffic / clicks
Site visitors who have received some form of compensation for visiting a site.
268
incoming link
A link going into your site from another site.
Inktomi
A search engine that used to provide search results for many of the top search
engines. It is now owned by Yahoo!.
interactive advertising
Interactive advertising is advertising that customers can interact with by sharing
a mutual exchange of information and ideas.
interactive ad agency
Ad agency that uses traditional print, broadcast and online advertising to get a
message across.
interchange
Fee that an acquirer pays to an association (or credit card company) to
compensate the issuer for risks associated with accepting and funding the
cardholder's account. This fee comes out of the discount rate charged to the
merchant.
Internet
Worldwide system of computers that are connected together to communicate
with one another.
interstitial
Page that is inserted in between webpages for the purpose of advertising or
brand reinforcement.
intranet
Private network that is contained within an enterprise (corporations, small
businesses, non-profit institutions, or government bodies). An intranet is used to
share information and computing resources among employees, to facilitate
working in groups and for teleconferences.
inventory
Total number of ad impressions that a website or newsletter has available to sell
over a given period of time.
269
invisible web
Areas of the web not indexed by search engines, such as database driven
dynamically generated websites.
IO (Insertion order)
Formal printed order to run an ad campaign. Typically, an ad space seller will
send the advertiser an IO for them to sign and send back.
IP address
Unique numeric address given to every TCP/IP device. These addresses are used
to locate other computers on the internet.
IP address cloaking
IP address cloaking is the practice of serving search engine optimized pages to
search engine spiders, while at the same time serving un-optimized pages to site
visitors. Also known as page cloaking.
IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
System that enables internet users to chat to each other in real-time.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)
High speed internet connection over ordinary telephone copper wire at speeds as
of up to 128 kilobits per second.
ISP (Internet Service Provider)
Organization that provides access to the internet.
Ixquick
Ixquick is a metasearch engine that clusters its search results and ranks listings
by the number of different search engines a listing achieves a top ten ranking,
and the actual ranking it has received.
J
Java
Programming language used to create complete applications or small application
modules or applets for use as part of a webpage.
270
JavaScript
Popular programming language used to JavaScript is used to do such things as
automatically change a formatted date on a webpage, or cause a page to appear
in a pop-up window.
JPEG / JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
One of the two most common file formats for graphic images on the Web. The
other is the GIF. JPEGs are typically photographic images. Files in this format
end in ".jpg".
K
K / KB (kilobyte)
Measure of computer memory or storage. One kilobyte is 1,024 bytes.
Kanoodle
Kanoodle is a popular pay per click search engine.
Kbps (kilobits per second)
In data communications, kilobits per second (thousands of bits per second) is the
measure of how fast data flows on a given transmission path, such as an internet
connection.
keyword
A keyword is a word used as a reference point for finding other words or
information.
keyword density
Ratio of keywords contained within the total number of indexable words within a
page.
keyword frequency
Number of times a keyword phrase appears within a page.
keyword proximity
Closeness between two or more keywords.
271
keyword stuffing
Repeating of keywords and keyword phrases in meta tags and elsewhere on a
HTML page.
keyword tag
HTML meta tag used to help define the important keywords of a page.
kiloPrefix meaning one thousand (1,000).
kilobit
In data communications, a kilobit is one thousand (1,000) bits.
L
LAN (Local Area Network)
Group of computers that share a common communications line and resources of
a server within a small geographic area.
link / hyperlink
Clickable connections from a word, picture, or information object to another.
link checker
Software program or online service used to check for broken links in a site.
link popularity
Link popularity is a measure of a site's popularity by the number and quality of
links linking to a site.
link rot
Links to pages that used to work, but no longer work, because the page has
moved or been deleted altogether.
link text
The text contained within a link.
272
Linux
Free or very low-cost operating system that is similar to the more expensive
UNIX systems.
list server
A program that manages email mailing lists and distributes new messages,
newsletters, or other postings from the members of the list to the entire list of
subscribers.
long domain name
A domain name that contains more than 26 characters. A limit of 67 characters,
including the extension (.com, .net, etc.), is allowed.
LookSmart
LookSmart is a pay per click web directory consisting only of commercial
websites.
log file
Record of all the requests for individual files that have been requested from a
website.
login
Process of gaining access to a service by identifying yourself, often with a
username and password.
Lycos
Lycos is a web portal and part of the Terra Lycos Network.
M
mail server
Computer on the internet that provides email services.
mailing list
List of people who receive periodic email on a particular topic, or a discussion
forum distributed by email.
273
Mamma
Mamma is a popular metasearch engine.
manual submission
Submitting a site to the search engines by hand.
MB (megabyte)
A measure of computer memory. One megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes or 8,388,608
bits.
Mbps (megabits per second)
In data communications, megabits per second (millions of bits per second) is the
measure of how fast data flows on a given transmission path, such as an internet
connection.
m-commerce / mcommerce (mobile commerce)
Business transactions conducted via a mobile device, such as a WAP enabled
phone.
media broker
Person or company that brokers ad space between site owners and media
planners and buyers.
media buy
The buying of advertising.
media buyer
A person who places advertising orders by requesting proposals and negotiating
the final cost.
media kit
An information file about a business or product.
media planner
A person who deals with the planning of ad campaigns.
megaPrefix meaning one million (1,000,000).
274
megabit
In data communications, a megabit is one million (1,000,000) bits.
merchant
A retailer that agrees to accept credit cards, and has signed an agreement
obliging them to meet several requirements to do so.
merchant account
Account associated with a merchant. This account holds the money obtained
through credit card sales until you transfer it to a different account. A merchant
account is necessary for you to process credit cards.
Merchant Identification Number (MIDS)
Unique number that identifies a merchant for reference and billing purposes.
merchant agreement
Contract between a merchant and a merchant account provider.
meta refresh
Coding on a webpage that automatically redirects a visitor to a new page after a
specified number of seconds.
meta tag
Meta tags are HTML tags in a webpage that describes some aspect of the
contents of the webpage.
meta tag generator
Software or online service that creates meta tags based on input information.
MetaCrawler
MetaCrawler is a popular metasearch engine.
metasearch engine
Metasearch engines searches other search engines simultaneously, compiles the
results, and displays results either by search engine employed, or clustering
results together after eliminating duplicates.
metaspy search engine
Metaspy search engines give you a glimpse of what other people are searching
for, in real time.
275
MHz (Megahertz)
MHz is commonly used to express microprocessor clock speed. Most computers
currently in use fall between 200 and 2000 MHz (2Ghz). In comparison, the first
IBM PC operated at 4.77Mhz.
MIME (Multi-Purpose internet Mail Extensions)
A system which allows a user to send audio, video, images, application
programs, and other non-text information via email.
mirror site
Exact copy of the original site on another computer server in order to reduce
network traffic and is usually updated frequently to ensure that it reflects the
content of the original site.
moderator
Someone who presides over an online discussion forum.
Moore's Law
A theory that states computer-processing power doubles every 18 months.
MOTO (Mail Order/Telephone Order)
A card transaction where a merchant cannot see the card, for example, by
telephone, by mail or on the Web. This is also known as a 'card not present'
scenario.
mousetrapping
The use of browser tricks in an effort to keep a visitor captive at a site, often by
disabling the "Back" button or generated repeated pop-up windows.
MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group)
Common file format for video files on the Web. Files in this format end in ".mpg"
or ".mpeg".
MSN Search
MSN Search is part of the MSN (Microsoft Network) web portal.
276
MySQL
MySQL [www.mysql.com] is a free relational database management system
(RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL), the most popular
language for adding, accessing, and processing data in a database.
N
Net Delivery Exposure (NDX)
The time between when a cardholder is charged and when their order is
successfully fulfilled.
netiquette
Etiquette practiced or advocated on the internet and in emails.
Netscape Search
Netscape Search is part of Netscape - one of the most popular web portals on
the internet.
network
A group of computers connected together.
news server
Computer that receives, stores, and serves Usenet newsgroup messages.
newsgroup
A news discussion on a particular topic that is distributed via Usenet.
news reader
Program that lets people read and respond to messages in Usenet newsgroups.
newsletter / ezine
Newsletter or magazine delivered via email or published on the Web.
277
O
offline / off-line
Not connected to a network.
online / on-line
Connected to a network.
Open Directory Project / Dmoz
Open Directory Project is the largest human-edited web directory on the internet.
opt-in email
Email that recipients have previously requested by subscribing at a website or via
email.
opt-out email
Opt-out email is similar to opt-in email, except that email recipients are
systematically added to a mailing list, unless they choose to opt out of, rather
than into joining a list.
OS (Operating System)
A program that provides the basic functionality of a computer. For example,
Windows, MacOS and Linux are all operating systems.
out of the box
Synonym for "off the shelf," meaning a ready-made software, hardware, or
combination package.
outgoing link
Link going from your site to another site.
Overture
Overture, formerly known as GoTo, processes more pay per click searches than
any other engine of its kind.
278
P
P2P (Peer-to-Peer)
Process whereby computers can trade information between each other without
having to pass the information through a centrally controlled server as with email
or IM programs.
page jacking / pagejacking
The theft of original content from a site for republication at another site.
page view / impression
A measure of the number of pages visited by users.
Paid Inclusion Listings
Paid inclusion listings are guaranteed search engine site inclusion reviews in
exchange for a one-off fee.
payment threshold
The minimum accumulated commission an affiliate must earn to trigger payment
from an affiliate program.
pass-along rate
The number or percentage of people who pass on a message or file, which is
typically a measure of the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing.
Pay Per Click Search Engines
Pay Per Click (PPC) search engines are also known as Bid For Location, Bid For
Position, Cost Per Click (CPC), Pay For Performance, Pay Per Performance, Pay
For Placement, Pay Per Placement, Pay For Position, Pay Per Position, Pay For
Ranking, Pay Per Ranking and Pay For Result search engines. These are search
engines that allow advertisers to bid for rankings. The higher they bid, the higher
they rank.
Pay Per Click advertising
Pay Per Click advertising is where an advertiser pays for each visitor sent by a
website.
279
PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)
A term for any small mobile hand-held device that provides computing,
information storage and retrieval capabilities. These include schedulers,
calendars and address books.
PDF (Portable Document Format)
Adobe's PDF is a file format that captures all the elements of a printed document
as an electronic image that you can view, navigate, print, or send. To view PDF
files, you need the free Acrobat Reader. Once you've downloaded the Reader,
it will start automatically whenever you want to download a PDF file.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/
Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language)
Perl is a popular programming language used for developing common gateway
interface (CGI) programs.
http://www.perl.com
permission marketing
A marketing concept of selling goods and services to prospects who have
explicitly agreed in advance to receive marketing information.
persistent cookie
A cookie which remains on the user’s hard drive until the user deletes it.
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)
PGP is a program used to encrypt and decrypt email over the internet. It is also
used to send an encrypted digital signature that lets the receiver verify the
sender's identity and know that the message was not changed en route.
http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html
PICS (Platform for internet Content Selection)
The PICS specification enables labels to be associated with internet content. It
was originally designed to help parents and teachers control what children access
on the internet, but it also facilitates other uses for labels, including code signing
and privacy.
ping (Packet internet or Inter-Network Groper)
Basic internet program that lets you verify that a particular IP address exists and
can accept requests.
280
pixel
A single illuminated dot on a computer monitor.
plug-in
A program you add to your browser to help it handle special files, such as PDF
and Flash.
POP (Post Office Protocol)
System whereby email is received and held for you by your internet server. Any
mail stored in your mail-box on the server can be downloaded into an email
program.
pop-over
A new browser window that appears over, as opposed to under, the current
browser window to display another webpage or advertisement.
pop-under
A new browser window that appears under the current browser window to
display another webpage or advertisement.
pop-up
A new browser window that “pops up” in front of the current browser window to
display another webpage or advertisement.
portal
Web site designed to be a starting point for users to surf the Web. General
portals, such as Yahoo.com and Netscape.com, try to offer everything.
Specialized or niche portals, such as CNBC.com (for Investors), and women.com,
cater to a particular audience or interest.
PPA (Pay-Per-Action)
Commission paid by an advertiser for a specific action generated by an affiliate.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
Commission paid by an advertiser for each click through generated by an
affiliate.
PPL (Pay-Per-Lead)
Commission paid by an advertiser for each sales lead generated by an affiliate.
281
PPS (Pay-Per-Sale)
Commission paid by an advertiser for each sale generated by an affiliate.
PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol)
Protocol for communication between two computers, typically connected by
phone line to a server.
privacy policy
A website's official statement on:
o the type of personal information that is being collected.
o how the information is being used.
o how an individual can access their own data.
o how an individual can opt-out.
o the type of security measures that are in place to protect the user's
information during the collection process and in storage.
privacy seal program
Program that certifies a site owner complies with the site’s proposed privacy
policy. For example, BBBOnline and TRUSTe.
http://www.bbbonline.com
http://www.truste.org
profiling
Building a profile on consumers' interests by monitoring and analyzing the URLs,
types of content, and paths users take while online.
protocol
Special set of rules that computers rely on to communicate.
proxy server
Proxy servers cache web content in order to provide quicker access for users,
when new requests are made for the same content.
Q
query
Request for information, usually from a search engine.
282
QuickTime
QuickTime is a multimedia and video file format from Apple Computer.
QuickTime files combine sound, text, animation, and video in a single file.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
R
rate card
Pricing information for various advertising options.
RealAudio
A continuous or streaming audio file format from RealNetworks. A RealAudio
player plug-in is required to listen to RealAudio files.
http://www.real.com
reciprocal link
Exchange of direct links to and from a site.
rectangle ad
Seven new Interactive Marketing Unit ad formats introduced by the (Interactive
Advertising Bureau (IAB) designed to enable marketers greater interactivity and
creativity. Dimensions: Large rectangle (336 x 280), medium rectangle (300 x
250 pixels), vertical rectangle (240 x 400), rectangle (180 x 150) and square
pop-up (250 x 250).
referrer
The URL or site address from which a visitor came from.
relationship manager
Bank representative assigned to your account once you've started to process
large volumes of transactions. This person is your direct link to the bank.
repeat visitor
Unique visitor who accesses a site more than once over a specific time period.
rich media ad
Internet advertisements that contains interactive elements such as video, sound,
music, request forms, and games.
283
Robots Meta tag
The Robots Meta tag allow you to instruct search engine robots whether or not it
can index or archive a page, and crawl the links found.
Robots.txt file
A Robots.txt file allows you to instruct search engine robots not to crawl or index
certain pages, directories, or files on your server.
ROI (Return On Investment)
The bottom line on how successful an ad campaign was in terms of returns for
the money spent.
RON (Run Of Network)
Ads that are run on some or all ad space across a network of sites.
ROS (Run Of Site)
Ads that are run on some or all ad space across a single website.
router
Computer that connects two or more networks
S
Satisficing
Satisficing is a cross between "satisfying" and "sufficing." It refers to the fact
that when human beings are presented with numerous choices, I usually select
the first reasonable option, rather than the best option available.
scalability
The ability of a computer application or product (hardware or software) to
continue to function well as it (or its context) is changed in size or volume in
order to meet a user need.
Scooter
The name of the AltaVista search engine spider. (Now retired)
284
screensaver
Program or animated image that is activated on a personal computer display
when no user activity has been sensed for a certain time.
search engine
A set of programs that include:
1. a spider (crawler, bot or robot) that crawls the internet retrieving web
documents that want to be searchable, and follows hypertext links to retrieve
other web documents.
2. a program that creates an index from the documents retrieved by the spider.
3. a program that receives your search request, compares it to the entries in the
index, and returns results to you.
search engine optimization / positioning / placement
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to search engine positioning and
placement, a concept whereby you improve your site's design and content to
achieve higher rankings in search engines.
search engine rankings
Search engine rankings are a measure of a site's visibility in the search engines.
search engine spider / robot / crawler / bot
They crawl the internet retrieving web documents that want to be searchable,
and follows hypertext links to retrieve other web documents.
search engine submissions / registration
Search engine submissions refer to getting your site indexed by search engines
and web directories, so that people can find your site.
search term / phrase
Word or phrase that searchers enter into search engine and web directory search
forms.
Section 508
A federal mandate requiring that information technology is made accessible to
people with disabilities. Much of Section 508 compliance concerns making
websites, intranets, and web-enabled applications accessible. This affects
government agencies as well as private-sector institutions.
285
secure server
Web server that uses encryption technology to prevent non-authorized users
from intercepting and reading sensitive messages sent via the internet.
sell through rate
Percentage of ad inventory sold, excluding traded or bartered inventory.
server
A server is a computer program that provides services to other computer
programs in the same or other computer. For example, email, FTP, Usenet, and
HTTP connections.
session cookie
Temporary cookie placed into a computer’s RAM for use during that user session.
When the user exits, the cookie is removed.
settlement
A process by which a merchant and a cardholder exchange financial data
resulting from a transaction.
SFA (Sales Force Automation)
SFA is a means of increasing your sales team's efficiency and effectiveness using
technology to help automate, organize and track the sales process.
shareware
Software that is distributed free on a trial basis with the understanding that the
user may need or want to pay for it later. Sometimes shareware programs are
'lite' versions of a program with certain functions disabled as an enticement to
buy the complete version of the program.
Shockwave
Macromedia's Shockwave is a program for viewing interactive media on the
Web.
http://www.shockwave.com
shopping cart
An interactive online catalog where a user can view, add and remove items to
and from a cart.
286
signature / sig file
Short block of text at the end of an email, often used as a business card.
signed volume
Projected annual volume for a new merchant. This figure is used to track the risk
of a particular account.
site map
Site maps are a visual model of a website's content that allows the users to
navigate through the site to find the information they are looking for. Typically,
site maps are organized hierarchically, breaking down the website's information
into increasingly specific subject areas.
site popularity
Site popularity refers to click through popularity, and how long visitors remain at
the site after getting there.
site search
Searching of a single site.
skyscraper ad
Tall online banner ads, usually displayed at the side of a page. Dimensions:
Skyscraper (120 x 600) and wide skyscraper (160 x 600).
SLA (Service Level Agreement)
The objectives committed to a merchant by the merchant account provider for
delivery of services.
SLD (Second-Level Domain)
The portion of an internet address that identifies the specific and unique
administrative owner associated with an IP address. The second-level domain
name includes the TLD (top-level domain) name. For example, in AMGY.com,
"AMGY" is a second-level domain. "AMGY.com" is a second-level domain name
(and includes the top-level domain name of "com").
slotting fee
Fee charged by sites to advertisers for premium ad positions on their site.
Slurp
The name of the Inktomi search engine spider.
287
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
A method by which computers use to send and receive email.
sniffer
Software that detects user's browser capabilities, such as bandwidth, JavaScript,
plug-ins and screen resolution.
SOHO (Small Office Home Office)
A term used for the small office or home office environment.
spam
Typically used to refer to unsolicited junk email on the internet. Historically
means an electronic message which is sent to a large group of people when such
messages are prohibited or discouraged.
splash page
A splash page is the first page, usually the home page, of a website used to
capture the visitor’s attention for a short time as a promotion or lead-in to the
proper home page.
SPM (Sales Process Management)
SPM is the front-end evaluation and assessment of a company's sales process.
Innovative diagnostics benchmark current processes, identify areas of
improvement, and codify best sales practices. Through SPM, effective sales
processes are put into place that enhance productivity and help generate and
increase revenue.
Sponsored feature listings are text link ads that are normally displayed at the top
of the page in search engines, before the search results.
Sprinks
Sprinks was a pay per click advertising system that primarily serves its ads on
the About.com network. Google acquired it in October 2003 and replaced its ads
with ones from the Google AdWords program.
SQL (Structured Query Language)
A standard interactive and programming language for extracting and updating
information to and from a database.
288
SSI (Server-Side Include)
A variable value that a server can include in an HTML file before it sends it to the
browser.
SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
Commonly-used protocol for managing the security of a message transmitted via
the internet.
Stealth script
CGI script that switches page content depending on who or what is accessing the
page.
stickiness
A measure of a user's loyalty to a site, measured in the amount of time spent
over a given time period.
stock photography
Copyrighted photographic images that can be licensed for use in a website.
stop words
Stop words (a, an, and, but, he, her, his, i, in, it, of, on, or, she, the, etc.) are
common words and characters ignored by some search engines to enhance the
speed and relevancy of their search results.
super affiliate
A top earning affiliate who is capable of generating a significant percentage of an
affiliate program's income.
Superstitial
A rich media ad format developed by Unicast that combines Flash or other
animation technology with Java programming to deliver video-like web
commercials.
http://www.unicast.com
surf
Another word for browsing the Web.
289
surround session
A concept whereby ads follow readers as they link from page to page, deploying
ads from only one advertiser during the entire visit.
T
T-1 / T1
Digital line with a potential bandwidth of 1.544 million bits per second.
T-3 / T3
Digital line that can provide 44.736 million bits per second of bandwidth.
t-commerce
Electronic commerce conducted via interactive TV.
target audience
An audience group being targeted by an advertiser, usually in terms of
demographics, interests, product purchase behavior, product usage or media
usage.
targeting
Purchasing ad space that matches audience and campaign objective
requirements.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
The basic communication language or protocol of the internet.
Telnet
Program that lets you access a remotely hosted computer, assuming you have
permission to access it.
text ad
Advertisement using text based links.
theme based content
Theme based content is a concept used by search engines to classify a site as
one based around one theme, much like a human would.
290
thread
Sequence of responding messages to an initial message posted in Usenet
newsgroups and similar forums.
thumbnail
A term used by graphic designers and photographers for a small image
representation of a larger image.
timeout
An action that takes place after a certain time has elapsed. For example, your
dial-up connection may "timeout" by disconnecting if no activity has taken place
for some time.
title tag
HTML tag used to define the title of a page. The title is displayed at the top of a
web browser and also used by many search engines as the title of a search
result listing.
TLD (Top-Level Domain)
Identifies the most general part of the domain name in an internet address. A
TLD is either a generic top-level domain (gTLD), such as "com" for "commercial,"
"net" for "network," etc., or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), such as
"uk" for the United Kingdom.
trick banner
A banner ad that attempts to trick people into clicking the banner, with graphics
that look like actual links or buttons, or an operating system error message.
trademark (tm)
A name, symbol, or other device identifying a product, officially registered and
legally restricted to the use of the owner or manufacturer. Search the United
States Patent and Trademark Office to find out if a word is trademarked.
http://www.uspto.gov
two tier affiliate program
Affiliate program that pays affiliates commissions on their conversions [first tier],
in addition to conversions of webmasters they refer [second tier] to the program.
291
U
UCD (User-Centered Design)
A method for designing ease-of-use into the total user experience with products.
unique / unique visitor
A single count of a visitor with a unique IP address who visits a website during a
specified period of time; usually a month.
UNIX
A popular server operating system.
Uptime
The time during which a website is accessible.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
An address of a file accessible on the internet.
URL redirection
URL redirection is the process of automatically redirecting a user to a different
URL, without the user's intervention.
Usability
The user-friendliness and ease-of-use of a product to achieve specified goals.
Usenet newsgroups
Collection of user submitted messages and discussions on various search engine
topics that are posted to servers on a worldwide network.
user session
Each time a site visitor with a unique IP address enters a website during a
specified period of time; usually 20-30 minutes, is counted as one user session.
If the visitor exits the site and re-enters within the specified period of time, it
does not count as another user session.
292
V
viral marketing
A marketing concept that induces internet users to pass on a marketing message
to other users, thereby creating a potentially exponential growth in the
message's visibility and effect. Viral marketing is basically the internet's
equivalent of mouth-of-mouth advertising.
virtual domain
A domain hosted on a virtual server.
virtual hosting
The provision of web server hosting service so that an individual or company
doesn't have to purchase and maintain its own web server and connections to
the internet.
virtual server
Server at someone else's location that is shared by multiple website owners so
that each owner can use and administer it as though they had complete control
of the server.
virus
Piece of programming code designed to cause havoc to computer systems and
usually spread by way of email to other computers. You can protect your
computer from viruses by scanning all email attachments and downloaded
software using anti-virus software.
vortal (vertical industry portal)
Web site that provides a gateway, or portal, to information related to a particular
industry, such as automobile, health care, or insurance.
W
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
An open international standard for applications that use wireless communication.
For example, e.g. Email and internet access from a mobile phone.
293
WASP (Wireless Applications Service Provider)
An organization that provides content and applications for wireless devices.
WAV (Wave file)
A popular audio file format that has become a standard PC audio file format for
everything from system and game sounds to CD-quality audio. Files in this
format end in ".wav".
Web browser
Program that lets you view webpages on the World Wide Web. Popular browsers
are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/
Web design
The development of a website.
Web directory
Searchable subject guide typically organized by major topics and subtopics. The
best-known directories are LookSmart, the Open Directory Project and Yahoo.
Web ring
Group of related sites all interlinked together. Navigation is usually by going
forward and backward along the "ring" of sites.
Web server
A computer that serves webpages and files to internet users.
Web traffic
The number of visitors to a website over a given period of time.
Web usability
The user-friendliness and ease-of-use of a website to achieve specified goals.
WebCrawler
WebCrawler was acquired by InfoSpace from the now defunct Excite@Home
Network. As a result, InfoSpace has decided to replace the WebCrawler search
engine results with Overture pay per click search engine results. So search
results on both WebCrawler and Overture are identical.
294
weblog / blog
Web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts (links,
commentary, news, diaries, project updates, etc.) that are arranged
chronologically.
WebTV
Microsoft's WebTV provides web access via a standard television using a set-top
modem box similar to a cable TV box.
Whois
An online service that tells you who owns a particular second-level ".com,"
".net," and ".org" domain name.
Windows CE
An operating system based on the Microsoft Windows operating system designed
for mobile computers and devices.
word stemming
Concept used by some search engines to return search results that include
keywords that extend beyond what you searched for.
WWW (World Wide Web)
Global network of computers on the internet that provide pages of information in
HTML.
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
Web site editor or program in which the screen displays what the end result will
look like while the document is being created.
X
XML (Extensible Markup Language)
Relatively new language which provides more efficient data delivery over the
web. XML is similar to HTML and both are used to describe the contents of a
page or file.
295
Y
Yahoo!
A popular web portal offering an array of internet services.
http://www.yahoo.com
Z
ZIP file
A compressed file. You need a file unzipping program, such as PKZIP or
WinZip, to decompress compressed ZIP files.
http://www.pkware.com
http://www.winzip.com
THE END
Pssssssst...
Wanna be inspired, like I was, by amazingly successful small business netrepreneurs
who make millions of dollars a year? If your answer is yes, check out…
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/success-secrets.html
296

Search Engines - Dreams Site Home

Transcription

Similar documents

technician training

Dual Port, Four Barrel, Aluminium lnlet Manifold. Crane Cam and

Turning Press Releases into Ticket Sales

Energy Saving and CO2 Reduction by MACH Gas Engine Series

The laghu kaumudi

oil flyer 22.qxp - Cen-Pe-Co

S-3 Oil Flyer - Cen-Pe-Co

Suzuki GSX R 600

WELCOME TO CAESARS PALACE

Parts for DT-466E and DT-530 International® Engines.