Archive for December, 2008
On-Site SEO Optimization
Sunday, December 14th, 2008 | affiliate marketing, search engine optimization | 1 Comment
We learned from previous posts that SEO is split in two general parts: On-site and Off-site optimization. Todays article will cover the On-Site optimization and we will look into web site structure and HTML code.
Web Site URL Structure
The way a web site is build has a huge influence on its search engine optimization. When optimizing your site, take the following points as a construction guideline.
Use static URL’s instead of dynamic URL’s:
e.g. www.examplesite.com/example1/subcategory-of-example1.html
NOT
www.examplesite.com/articles.php?art_id=25&page=2%%true&ytg
This is very easy to implement when building a new website from scratch. Keep in mind that you want to use keywords in the URL instead of numbers or other irrelevant data. As well, use hyphens instead of other separators, like in my example above. To sum it up, keep the URL as short and descriptive as possible.
Web Site Structure
When setting up your site try to read the code like a search engine spider. Many web sites feature the link menu on the right instead of the left side. However, in order to let the search engine read the page content and paragraphs instead of sending it away to other pages, your menu should be located on the left side of the page.
Title & Meta Tags
Every page is a placeholder for different keywords on your page. Lets say you have a web site about cars. Title and meta tags for different pages could be about e.g. cars in general for your homepage. Sports cars for another page and maybe SUV s for yet another page. Below an example of a meta and title tag in your code:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd”>
<html lang=”en” xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” xml:lang=”en”>
<head>
<title>My Car Site – All about cars</title>
<meta http-equiv=”content-type” content=”text/html; charset=utf-8″ />
<meta http-equiv=”content-language” content=”en” />
<meta content=”Find your car on this easy to use site” name=”description” />
<meta content=”cars, cars, vehicles,new cars, all cars” name=”keywords” />
</head>
An example for a title tag could look like this:
<li><a href=”http://www.my-example-cars.com/2009-SUV.html” title=”2009 SUV Models”></a></li>
Make sure you keep the keywords used in your title and meta tags relevant to the page content and construct title tags in a way that it will attract people to click and visit that page.
Internal Page Links and Sitemaps
All your pages should be interlinked so that it is easy for the search engine spider to find all pages on your website. As well you might want to have a site map that outlines the web site structure. You can either have a page with a site map on it or have a XML sitemap in the main root of your website like e.g.
www.my-example-site.com/sitemap.xml. There are many free tool on the internet that create a sitemap for you.
Duplicate Content
Avoid duplicate content as search engines will not credit this content to your site if it was published and indexed on another before.
H Tags
Your paragraphs should feature H tags like H1, H2, H3 etc. The first paragraph should be keyword rich and start with your main keyword in BOLD.
<h1>Cars</h1>
<p> We help you find all cars on the internet. Here, you can find information on price,sports car
features, family car reviews, and car financing etc.</p>
Structure of The Footer
The footer is another excellent opportunity to provide keyword content. The below example has proven to work just fine:
<p>my-example-cars.com is an independent information website about <a href=”/” title=”Cars”>Cars</a>,
not affiliated with any manufacturer or distributor.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2006-2008 <a href=”http://www.my-car-example.com/” title=”Cars”>My-car-example.com
</a> - All Rights Reserved.</p>
<p>Didn’t find what you’re looking for? - Search for <a href=”javascript:OpenAd(’http://dmoz.org/Shopping/cars/’);
” title=”Cars”>Cars</a> at Dmoz.</p>
You will see that your ranking will improve greatly just by having the above points implemented in your web site. Results may vary depending on the niche you are in and other factors discussed earlier.
Published by:
Director
Lasse Kubiack
49Above Marketing Inc.
lasse (at) 49above.com
office: 1.778.785.0080
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lassekubiack
Interview with Rob Duncan on Social Media and Linked In
Thursday, December 11th, 2008 | Industry Interviews, social network marketing | 4 Comments
49Above: “Hello and welcome everyone to our interview with Rob Duncan, who is not only a professional speaker on various business subjects but also the director of British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Applied Research Liaison Office. He has also written three books: one on competitive intelligence, one on team building, and he is now completing one on social media. Welcome Rob!”
Rob: “Thanks, it’s great to be here.”
49Above: “One of the things we wanted to talk to you about today since you have a lot of experience in it is the various reasons people would want to use social media and the strengths of social media, but also specifically using Linked In as a tool to help build a business. If you could please start out by telling us what Linked In is and why it matters.”
Rob: “Linked In is a social network very much like Facebook or MySpace. What’s different about Linked In is it’s geared specifically towards business professionals. So it’s not the type of place where you will find your friends are heading from one pub to another pub. It’s just not focused on fun, social friendly kind of things. It’s focused exclusively on business. For that reason it’s great for networking, building sales, making connections with people and helping out other people so that they help you out later on.”
49Above: “So let’s say I wanted to use Linked In to help build my business. How do I personally use it to help build up my status or my company name?”
Rob: “Well there are a couple of steps. First is to get onto Linked In, at www.linkedin.com, and sign up for a free account. What that lets you do is lets you build an online profile, which is a little like an online resume. The first thing you’d like to do to use Linked In as effectively as possible is to make that profile as detailed as possible. You want to include as much information as possible, and that could include your photo, all the places you’ve ever worked, which schools you went to, your interests, your hobbies, any associations you belong to, and what that does is it allows people to find you more easily.
For example, you may have studied at BCIT, and when someone does a search, your name will come up if you put that in your profile. That makes it much more likely that people around the world with similar aims, interests and aspirations are going to connect with you.
The other thing to do is be an open networker and that means being willing to connect with all kinds of different people, even if you don’t immediately see that you have something to gain from being connected to somebody. What I see with Linked In is a lot of different people doing little favors for each other. For example, you might want to meet someone who knows Donald Trump and I know Donald Trump, so you write to me and you and I haven’t met yet but we’re part of the same network so you ask me if I can introduce you to Donald Trump and I say, ‘Yah, sure that’s no problem”. Because I now trust you, you trust me and Donald trusts me, I can make that connection for you and that takes me only a couple of keystrokes. Now what that means for me in the long run though is that if I’m looking for a speaking engagement, and let’s say you live in Dallas, I’ll put that question out on my Linked In network and you’ll remember me as the guy who introduced you to Donald Trump and you’ll say ‘Sure, I can help you find a speaking engagement in Dallas. So it’s this web of little favors that you do for people. That’s really the best way to use Linked In.”
49Above: “You said that you could sign up for a free membership, and that’s awesome. What if I wanted to just check to see who was on there? Do I have to be a member to do that or can I just do a search? How does that work?”
Rob: “It depends. If the individual you are looking for has created what is called a ‘public profile’, then you can Google them. If not, then you have to be a member to see. Usually the amount of information you see is restricted unless you’re a member. So you might see their name and their title, but if you become a member you might be able to connect with them as a one to one connection because you’ll be able to see all their details including how to contact them. So if you’re trying to sell something or market something, there is really a vested interest in contacting them without any barriers.”
49Above: “Some people struggle to decide if they would like a public profile or a private profile because they don’t want to be invaded on. What would you suggest in regards to this concern and promoting your business?”
Rob: “There are two different ‘camps’ on Linked In. The first one is ‘I want to keep my network small and I want to restrict it to only people I know and only people I might see on a Friday night or I see on a regular course of business. So there are some users who use it as a rolodex of the people they know and their acquaintances. This is good for the 30, 40 or 50 contacts you might have an want to keep in touch with.
The other camp is go big, and I fall into the second camp, so I have kind of a bias. The people now who I am directly connected to are almost 1500 across the world. What that means is their friends of their friends now number almost twelve million. So when I ask a question on Linked In, it now gets seen by twelve million people, which is approximately half of the entire Linked In network. That works for me because if I want to ask a question about how to promote my books or how to find a speaking engagement or how to solve a particular innovation problem, it’s going to get seen by twelve million people. So I’m very much in the ‘go big’ camp and a proponent of building big networks, open networks and trying to give a lot to the network as opposed to seeing it as something I can take from.
49Above: “So what are some of the successes you’ve found from using Linked In?”
Rob: “Well one of the things as a writer is I’ve been able to get my books in front of very targeted audiences. My newest book is on competitive intelligence and there happen to be a couple of special interest groups on Linked In that are dedicated to competitive intelligence. In those groups, you’ve got discussion boards, so I was able to say “Hey, I’d like to introduce myself and I have a new book” and that went out to all the members in that group, and the result of that is I’ve had several book reviews. I’ve had several people review my book on Amazon, I’ve had a number of people purchase my book.
I’m also a professional speaker, so I’ve been able to get speaking engagements. Most recently, I even got invited to India to go and do guest lectures about innovation over there, and that was absolutely entirely due to the Linked In network, through somebody I would not have met otherwise.”
49Above: “That’s fantastic! So in your opinion then, what are some of the hidden features of Linked In that you use in order to get that kind of exposure and those kind of connections?”
Rob: “Ok, that’s a great question and before I get into that I just wanted to say that as an overall philosophy I think the best way to use Linked In is to look to give rather than to get. I think if you do that, if you connect with lots of people and you do them favors, there’s a lot of goodwill that comes back your way.
But back to your question, what are some of the hidden features that I really like. I already mentioned the power of your profile. The more detailed your profile is, the more rich it is, the better sense people can get of who you are. That goes for what kind of human being you are, the business you’re in and what kinds of leads and opportunities you’re looking for. That’s going to help you a lot. I think a lot of people make a mistake and make their profile too thin. The more you put into it, the more you’re going to get out of it. So having a good profile is one hidden piece of advice.
Another one is connect to a lot of people. There are a couple of ways you can do that. One of them is, when you set up your account in your settings, there’s a box you can click and it’s called “Open Link Enabled”. If you click that, it puts a badge on your profile that identifies with everyone out there that you like connecting with people, because not everybody does. So if you put that badge on your profile that gives permission to people to contact you and they can connect with you much more easily.
Another trick in terms of building a big network is using the special interest groups. One of them is called “Invites Welcome” and if you join that group, you get a badge on your profile that says “Invites Welcome!” and what that signals to people in that group is that you will connect with anybody within reason.
So those are two tricks you can use to build a bigger network. The bigger your network gets, the more value you can extract from it. In part of my doctoral research, there are actually some mathematical formulas that show that the usefulness of an online network is exponentially related to the number of members in your networks. So when you get up to the point when you’re getting 10-12-15 million people in your extended network, the utility you can get from that extended network is just massive. It’s unbelievable.
There is another hidden trick in Linked In which is to use the question and answer forum. Its probably the piece of Linked In that people underutilize the most. And what Q&A, as they call it, is a forum where you can ask and answer questions. So people in your network will ask questions such as “how do I market an affinity marketing business using social media?” If you see a question like that, jump in and answer it and while you’re doing that take the time to promote yourself and your business. You have the opportunity when you answer questions to put in web links. So it’s a perfect opportunity to send people out to your blog or to your website. So being active in the Q&A is a good way to get yourself known out there.
49Above: “So would you say those are your top ‘gold’ tips for using Linked In or are there any other essential must knows for using the network?
Rob: “I’d say the other one I would underline is “groups”. You’re allowed to join 50 of these special interest groups. For example, I belong to 50 of them and they relate to innovation, schools I’ve been to, places in the world that I like. I like New York, for example, and it lets you build these miniature cultures within Linked In that you can focus around special interests. I used the example of marketing my competitive intelligence book in the competitive intelligence groups and that’s another really powerful tool.
49Above: “That’s right. One question that I have come across from several different companies is ‘should I promote myself in Linked In as myself or as my company’. So do I go in as Sarah Bundy and talk about Sarah Bundy or do I go in as 49Above and talk about 49Above?”
Rob: “Well Linked In is interesting that way because it only lets you be yourself. There’s no real corporate page on Linked In unless you maybe pay for one but it’s basically built all around individuals. So what you have to do is go in as yourself and then promote the heck out of your business through things like your profile and your activity and groups and asking and answering questions.
49Above: “So it sounds like Linked In is your favorite social network tool”
Rob: “Yes, Linked In is definitely my favorite and I made a decision a long time ago that it was going to be my anchor. I do have presence in some of the other ones, like Facebook, for example, but my Facebook page basically points back to my Linked In page. I have a presence in one or two of the other ones just because it’s important to be where your market is but I don’t invest any time or energy in the others.
49Above: “So just as a final question, what would you say is the biggest piece of advice you could give to anybody who is looking to get into social media and social network marketing for the first time?”
Rob: “I would say it’s a brilliant, low cost, extremely effective way of marketing and as we head into difficult economic times, I don’t think you can get better value for the dollar than being involved in social media. As far as Linked In goes, my advice would be to get on it, get active, and give a lot to other people and you’re going to find that the payback comes back to you a thousand fold.
49Above: “Well we’d like to thank you, Rob, for coming on and talking to us about social media and your experiences with Linked In.
In regards to your books, your books on competitive intelligence and team building, where can people find those books and what are they called?”
Rob: “Ok, the first book is called ‘Haul Away – Team Building Lessons from a Voyage around Cape Horne’ and it’s available on Amazon or anywhere online through your local bookstore as well. The second book is called ‘Competitive Intelligence – Fast, Cheap and Ethical’ and that’s also available on Amazon. So if you go to Amazon and you search for ‘Rob Duncan and team building’ or ‘Rob Duncan and competitive intelligence’, you’ll pull up the books and you can buy them there.
49Above: “Ok great. And if people wanted to reach out to you, they could just do a search on Linked In and find you there, is that right?”
Rob: “Absolutely! I’d be happy to connect with anyone who would like to connect with me on Linked In.”
49Above “Alright, well thanks so much again, Rob, for being here and thanks to everyone for listening in or reading about our topic on Social Media and Linked In.
The SERP’s - And How To Show Up
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 | search engine optimization | No Comments
SERP’s or Search Engine Ranking Pages are a vital piece to SEO. Why? Depending on where your web site shows up in the SERP’s, you might or might not get the qualified traffic to you want.
In general there are some features that almost all search engines have in common. They all feature so called sponsored links, related searches, natural search results and the search engines own content like videos, news, images etc.
Search Engines Ranking Pages example
Where should be your web site?
natural search results
Right here in the first position(s) of the natural search results!
Relevance is Key
Search Engines assign the positions based on relevancy. Let’s take the example screen shot above with “contact lenses” as the keyword. In our example 1800contacts.com shows up in the number position being the most relevant for the given keyword. Relevancy is in part given to your web site through its content. If the content is about “contact lenses” like in our example, and the searcher typed in “cars” the contact lens content is not considered relevant to the “car” keyword and our example search result will not show up in the SERP’s.
Every page on your web site should be representing different keywords as they all can be an entry page. Let’s stick with our contact lens example. The main page is optimized for the broad keywords contact lenses, contact lens and contacts. Category pages, linked from the home page are optimized for e.g. the keywords Acuvue, Acuvue contact lenses, Acuvues as these keywords represent a subcategory of the broad keyword contact lenses.
Earn Trust
Search engines differ in the way they operate and in our experience, Google is the most powerful, however also the most tricky search engine to optimize a web site for. In the search engine world your site needs to earn trust and you need to prove that it is a reliable, trusthworthy and accurate source of information. One of the trust parameters is time and this is the point where Google is a whole different animal than other search engines. Professional Search Engine Optimizers often speak about the “Google Sandbox”, referring to a time delay for a web site before it is able to score a high ranking position and has passed a certain time of “reliability test”. Opinions vary on this subject wether a “sandbox” really exists or not, however the fact is that there is a time delay caused by whatever. The time delay is not defaulted to a pre-set time and varies from niche to niche. In my work experience I have experienced delays from 3 months to 2 years.
Authorities Pointing to Your Site
Search engines are trying to determine which web site is the best representative for any given topic. To stick once again with our contact lens example, if the web site content is about contact lenses and other web sites from within the contact lens industry point to our example website identifying it as relevant to contact lenses, search engines consider the pointing sites authority sites.
The best possible way to achieve authority is to get links from other websites with few links which are either from within your niche or at least somewhat close related.
Published by:
Director
Lasse Kubiack
49Above Marketing Inc.
lasse (at) 49above.com
office: 1.778.785.0080
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lassekubiack