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June 28, 2007
Current Favorite Blogs on PPC
Today's entry is short and sweet: What blogs do I currently keep up on for PPC news and tips. I thought I would share these links as I've found that PPC blogs are a bit hard to come by. I guess people are afraid of spilling the beans on the secret sauce or something. Anyway, I don't believe that and to prove it here are my current favorites for in-depth PPC news and goodies (in no particular order mind you).
I know the list is short but there really aren't very many to choose from that I've found. If you know of another and would like to throw it up in the comments be my guest as I'm always looking for new resources and ideas.
Best!
Posted by brent at 03:13 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 26, 2007
Checking Supplemental Index Status for URLs in Large Sites
For sites with fewer than 1000 pages, it's possible (if not monotonous) to see which URLs are in Google's Supplemental Index. Simply run a site: command for your domain (example) and scroll through the results pages until you start to see "Supplemental Result" next to some of the URLs.
But what if your site has 50,000 pages and the supplemental results don't start until the final 10,000? Even the fairly common site:domain.com *** -view query isn't totally accurate, and it's still subject to the 1000 URL display limit.
Depending on which case you find yourself, it can be either tedious or impossible to detect whether a specific URL is Supplemental.
Using our blog site as an example, suppose I suspect -- but can't confirm -- that an old post about Yahoo Sitemaps is in the SI. A simple info: query doesn't tell you whether the URL is supplemental or not. For example, the following shot came from the query:
[info:http://seoblog.intrapromote.com/2006/11/an_update_on_ya.html]
Instead, a quick way to check Supplemental status is to pull a unique string from the URL in question (such as a folder or filename) and tack it into an inurl:-filtered site: query. In other words, the following shot came from this query, in which I added the filename (minus extension) into the inurl: command:
[inurl:an_update_on_ya site:seoblog.intrapromote.com]
In this result, note the Supplemental Index status.
The bottom line is to find an inurl: string that will quickly filter down the site: query results so that your specific URL shows up quickly.
Posted by erik at 08:50 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
June 21, 2007
Keeping Your PPC Campaign Regional & Relevant
In the past few years there has been a lot of noise about local targeting, how important it is, and how each individual engine is going to offer the best solution since the invention of the internet. It has been particularly interesting to see all of this noise now come into 'focus' as several similar yet distinct songs.
I for one have been happily awaiting the arrival of local targeting for everyone agrees that it can be particularly effective in getting the word out about the various good and services that we all offer. In the PPC realm though I have noticed several distinct issues that eventually formed my basis for creating and managing regionally targeted campaigns and I'd like to highlight them for you.
How Do People Search?
As with anything else in the SEO/PPC world people search by typing in keywords and so any good campaign must begin with this. With local/regional campaigns though we need to add special importance to keywords that contain any of the official or even unofficial 'local' names for the particular area that we are targeting. I find it particularly useful to separate these keywords from the general one's before going on to the next step.
How Do I Organize?
I like to setup two separate campaigns, one for the general terms, and one for the terms that contain the local names attached. For the general campaigns I have begun using the ISP targeting feature to more narrowly capture any searchers in the target area who happen to be using generic terms. For the other campaign I do not turn on the ISP targeting feature so that we can reach even those who happen to be out of the target area, but are still searching for our item within that specific area.
In theory this sounds simple enough but to make it actually work while following all the rules, I've encountered a few tips that help guide me in this:
1) Make sure there are NO duplicate keywords in either list. The engines do not accept more than one ad for fear that someone with deep pockets would buy up all of the top spots.
2) Make sure to group keywords tightly by location. This will assist in your evaluation of results and, as stated in #4, help you with discerning your target audiences search preferences.
3) Create ads that make good use of the regions names. (I.e. The Best Hot Dogs In South Florida). Test out the different names, like South Florida, Ft. Myers, The Gulf Coast, etc. These could all be ways that people search and research has proven that people respond to seeing their area name in the ads.
4) Pay particular attention to the other, more subtle details of the campaigns like, the click patterns throughout the day and which engines people use in different parts of the area that you are targeting. You will soon be able to compile some data about the search habits of people in your area because of the keywords that you have grouped together.
With these tips in mind I've been able to navigate the local search waters with much more ease and have found the results to be typically better than the general 'shotgun' approach. Good luck with your local search campaigns!
Posted by brent at 02:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 19, 2007
High Rankings Seminar in Denver - June 28-29
Jill Whalen asked us to mention her upcoming seminar in Denver next week, June 28-29. I'm getting around to it a little late, but there's still room if you're a) going to be in Denver next week and b) need rock-solid SEO advice from one the best known names in the biz.
Jill's been doing SEO since the late '60s, loves chocolate, and is giving away two free tickets for non-profit groups (more details). By themselves, those three qualities are okay. But put them together, and that's a good show.
Posted by erik at 03:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
10 Ways to Make Your Wiki Sticky
Let’s assume that you have an article that legitimately belongs in Wikipedia, for the remainder of this article is worthless if that is not the case. And as a cautionary note, your article still faces speedy deletion even if it legitimately belongs in Wikipedia and you follow every step of this article. That being said, the following is a set of guidelines that will give you and your articles the best chance of remaining in Wiki.
The Wikipedia culture, dare I say subculture, operates under the suspicion that you are a spammer and that your article is spam. You need to operate within their rules to prove that you and your article are worthwhile, for any action at all arouses suspicion, but any action outside of their rules yields a guilty verdict.
Identify Yourself
Get a Wiki ID. If you edit anonymously, you are a spammer.
Build Wiki Cred
Learn Wiki structure and coding by becoming familiar with the Edit page. Contribute to existing articles. The more good edits you have, the more likely you are to be trusted by Wiki.
Play in the Sandbox, and Preview Everything
As you get more daring, go to the Sandbox to perfect coding. And always preview before saving to make sure your edits looks exactly right. While edits involving code make you one of the gang, edits with invalid code make you the enemy.
Don’t Save a Lot, but Save Lots
When you are ready to upload an article, save the entire article. Your first save creates the article, and an editor will delete it within seconds if he or she does not see the entire article.
You Have to Have Me at Hello
While that editor expects to see an entire article, you have about 3 seconds to explain why your subject matter is so important that it warrants its own Wiki article. If the editor reads the opening description and does not see the importance or significance of its subject, your article will be deleted.
Love at first Cite
Include a reference in your statement of importance. The editor will not believe that your subject matter is important unless somebody important agrees with you.
Be Boring
Anything that sounds like a commercial will be deleted. Wikipedia fancies itself an encyclopedia and must remain as factual (sounding) as possible.
Link out/ Link in
Wiki loves itself. Link to as many other Wiki articles as you can, within reason. Also, search for other articles to find places where it makes sense to link to your article. Your article becomes stickier with each link to and from it.
Categorize your Article
You must place your article into categories, which are shown at the bottom of all articles. Consider these easy links.
Defend your Article
You can follow every word from above, and still have an editor that wants your article removed. Be prepared for debate on the article’s Discussion page or your user Talk page. Reload the History page periodically for a few hours in search of changes, then create a feed for the History page to track change in the future.
Just something to watch for in the future, although I don’t really consider it a guideline for this article: If you start feeling an urge to quell all points of view other than your own while doing God’s work on Wikipedia, take a break from editing.
Posted by tom at 08:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 18, 2007
But Alexa Tells Me My Site Is
Ok, just stop right there. I don't want to hear what Alexa is telling you about your site. My goodness, please stop telling me about your Alexa ranking! Yeah, yeah, yeah, Alexa is popular amongst Digg users and has a small user base for their Toolbar (although I have yet to hear of or talk to a single Alexa Toolbar user), but last I checked, most people are using Google or Yahoo! Toolbars, not Alexa. Do any of our faithful wagon readers even use or know of anyone that uses their toolbar???? I’m sure there’s a few, but I doubt a huge majority are using it.
People of SEO and site promotion - look at your web analytics and do TRUE competitive intelligence gathering to gauge your sites popularity, don’t just rely on Alexa to tell your site is popular or not.
Posted by sean at 03:49 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 14, 2007
The Google Supplemental Index Inbound Link(s) Threshold
Wagon Rider Pat Fusco penned a great primer this Month on the issue of Google’s Supplemental Results as they are tied to duplicate content, if you’d like to orient yourself first. Our own Wagoneer Doug offers some points on Getting Out of Hell Free (that is, at least, without requiring direct payments to Google), the last method of which involved examining backlinks, and the fact that a great number of pages in the GSI we have examined across the massive sites we spend time with each day seem to share the commonality of zero inbound links.
We are finding, increasingly, that the distance from zero to one in terms of inbound links to a page seems to be much more of a threshold for exiting the Google Supplemental index than, say, 2 to 100. This is not to say that 1 gets you out, bada bing, but that there is a great more deal of love granted from Google on that single giant step from nil to 1 than there seems to be on the next link steps a page takes out of infancy.
A baby’s first steps are much more exciting and remarkable than the subsequent toddling around the room that follows, and it may be helpful to think of Google watching a page with no links in the same manner.
Posted by john at 08:49 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
June 12, 2007
A Quick Route to the Google Text Cache
I am constantly looking at cached copies of web pages through Google's cache. It's a wonderful way to double-check that your content is showing up the way you want it to and quickly tell if Googlebot has noticed any recent changes you've made. It's also a great way to sniff out some rather "brave" techniques on behalf of your competition.
As a primer, you can view the cached version of any web page by typing cache:URL in a Google search box, where URL is any full URL string. For example,
cache:www.united.com
will show a cached copy of the home page of United.com:
But beyond the normal cached version, I prefer to look at the text-only cache. The pink rectangle above shows the link to the text-only cached version. Clicking this shows you a version of the page much more like what a robot really sees.
But sometimes because of the site layout, the box at the top of the cached page doesn't appear. Consequently, the link to the "text only" version of the cached copy is hidden -- as in this sample shot from the BMW USA home page:
When this happens, the text-only cached version is still not hard to find. Simply append
&strip=1
to the URL of the regular cached version, and you'll see the text-only cache.
Now to take this to the next level (if you're a Firefox user ... and you are, right?), here's how to use Firefox Quicksearch Bookmarks to find the cache of a page so fast you'll amaze your friends and stun your competition.
(If the concept of Quicksearch Bookmarks is new to you, get some background here and here. It's a way to search any site from the Firefox address field. Trust me: If you search a lot, you will LOVE this.)
When you create a new Quicksearch bookmark, here's the data to use:
Name: Google Text Cache
Location: http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache%3A%s&strip=1
Keyword: tc
So typing this in Firefox's Address field:
tc www.yahoo.com
will show you this. Pretty cool, huh?
Posted by erik at 02:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 05, 2007
SEO Case Study: Press Release Archives
We recently worked on the press release archive for a pretty large company and I wanted to show an informal case study about what happened.
Here's the initial structure:
Each of the smallest document icons represents a specific press release. The issues with this architecture are fairly obvious when displayed graphically. It's a linear linking format, with the main press page showing the most current releases. You need to click a "next" button to hit a page linking to releases 11-20, 21-30, etc. etc. So the oldest releases were literally dozens of clicks away from the home page.
With this setup, here are the baseline stats. I can't use real numbers, but I'm hopeful that your algebra knowledge is current enough that variables will suffice:
- Total releases indexed: X (representing about 6% of total possible pages)
- Search traffic (monthly visits from search engines where the landing page is a press release): ~Y visits / month
Here's the modified structure:
The main press page now has child pages devoted to releases from specific years, as well as pages devoted to releases based on their subject area. Consequently, each release has links from at least two internal pages, and no release is further away from the home page than 3 clicks.
Stats 45 days after implementation:
- Total releases indexed: 16.8X (representing >98% of total possible press releases)
- Search traffic (monthly visits from search engines where the landing page is a press release): ~2.4Y visits / month
A couple important notes:
Don't fool yourself. This is content that people actually search for in pretty significant numbers. If you write press releases just to write press releases -- and your content doesn't have the pent-up demand to justify it -- don't expect results like these. Jill Whalen wrote a smart article about this very topic at Search Engine Land.
Sitemaps aren't a back door. For 6+ months prior to the change implementation, all press release files were included in a Google XML sitemap file. So don't expect a sitemap feed to dramatically increase your indexing if your site's architecture doesn't back it up.
Posted by erik at 03:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Yahoo robots nocontent Tag - Google?
In the beginning of May Yahoo introduced the robots nocontent tag. This allows you to block redundant, useless text from being indexed:
| Web pages often include headers, footers, navigational sections, repeated boilerplate text, copyright notices, ad sections, or dynamic content that is useful to users — but not to search engines. Webmasters can apply the "robots-nocontent" attribute to indicate to search engines any content that is extraneous to the main unique content of the page. Yahoo! Search observes the class="robots-nocontent" present on XHTML elements, such as div, span, and all others |
| Applying the "class=robots-nocontent" Attribute:
Listed below are several examples of how to apply this attribute for various uses and different syntax options: < span class="robots-nocontent">This is the site header that is present on all pages of the site and is not related to any particular page < p class="robots-nocontent">This is a boilerplate legal disclaimer required on each page of the site < div class="robots-nocontent">This is a section where ads are displayed on the page. Words that show up in ads may be entirely unrelated to the page contents |
Will Google follow Yahoo's lead? This can be very useful when dealing with duplicate content issues across the same site or multiple sites. Having numerous products with the same description/name can cause duplication issues and you can find your pages in the Google Supplemental index.
Whether it be Book Sellers or RV Dealers, when your inventory is duplicated across multiple sites you are going to have problems. A way to deal with some of this may be to use a Google version of the Yahoo nocontent tag and eliminate much of the redundant text.
Google - Where are you on this one? Please step up and offer the same tool.
Happy Trails!
Posted by james at 07:18 AM | Comments (3)
June 01, 2007
Flash, Javascript, CSS, Ajax, sIFR, and Textual Image Replacement... Oh My!
Not just because I am somewhat easily confused, but as our title today suggests, the overlap, literally and figuratively, among all of these web elements can and often is the nexus of confusion in advocating Best Practices SEO to any client development team, whether in-house or, um... out.
Comes now a Flash Engineer at Google (on the YouTube side) with the most elegant writing to date on the lines of demarcation in what he terms modern web development philosophy:
First off, you need to embrace web standards. Semantic markup and separating content from style and behavior is the only way you should be building your sites. Many web standardistas have been recommending this method of web development for years, and rightly so. However, this post isn’t the place to go into the whys of this type of development, so I’ll skip that part and just say this about how it’s done: There are three areas of front-end web development: Content, Style, and Behavior. You should always keep these three things separated as much as possible.
Content, Style, and Behavior as three separate things. Makes it all much easier to put in place and figure out where one stops and the other begins. The money quote helps even further:
Progressive enhancement is a method of web development that goes hand in hand with Web Standards. You start with your HTML (your content), then add CSS (your look and feel), then add in additional behavior (Javascript, Ajax, Flash, any other interactivity that isn’t handled automatically by the browser).
Content. Style. Behavior. Trot that out next time everyone is looking at each other confused.
Posted by john at 11:11 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack