Archive for October, 2008

Get Your Links Back! New Feature In Google Webmaster Tools

Google has added an important feature to the Google Webmaster tools area.
Google tells you exactly which pages result in a 404 error on your site. This has existed for sometime. They now let you know which of your 404 pages have links pointing to them. I used this tool and quickly found links pointing to [...]

Google has added an important feature to the Google Webmaster tools area.

Google tells you exactly which pages result in a 404 error on your site. This has existed for sometime. They now let you know which of your 404 pages have links pointing to them. I used this tool and quickly found links pointing to non existent pages for many of my domains. Of course, this was quickly rectified with 301 redirects.

Google wants to give you this information for a few reasons:

1. 404s creates a bad user experience
2. It benefits YOU. Google wants to count the valid links pointing to your site which translates into better rankings and more visibility on Google.
3. Having links to 404s can skew their algorithm.

Here are some more detailed posts regarding the change:

• Google Webmaster Central posts information their blog.
• Free Links to Your Site by Matt Cutts
• Google’s New Tools for Site Link Strengthening by Search Engine Watch.

Google Analytics Releases Powerful New Features

Google Analytics will be rolling out some new features in the coming weeks. Some of you may have already noticed the interface change.
The following has been added

Advanced Segmentation
Custom Reports
A data export API (private beta)
Integrated reporting for AdSense publishers (private beta)
Multi-dimensional data visualizations called “Motion Charts,”
Updated user and administrative interface

The biggest surprise - Analytics is now [...]

Google Analytics will be rolling out some new features in the coming weeks. Some of you may have already noticed the interface change.

The following has been added

1. Advanced Segmentation
2. Custom Reports
3. A data export API (private beta)
4. Integrated reporting for AdSense publishers (private beta)
5. Multi-dimensional data visualizations called “Motion Charts,”
6. Updated user and administrative interface

The biggest surprise - Analytics is now integrated with Adsense. You can see how much money each page generates, hourly earnings (for any metric available), which referrals are bring you profitable traffic and for each page on your site, you can view up to 10 Adsense metrics! You can cross segment with almost any data value!

Links

1. Visit the Google Analytics blog to view the features in detail.
2. If you would like to view a visual representation of the videos, view Google’s Youtube Playlist.

Sitelinks in Google Webmaster Tools

What are Sitelinks?
Take a look at the below Google listing. You will notice a few links under the regular listing … Inside Politics, Political Ticker, etc. Google has determined that this is the navigational hierarchy for cnn.com. These are referred to as Sitelinks.

Can I change the Sitelinks listed by Google?
Google webmaster tools gives you [...]

What are Sitelinks?
Take a look at the below Google listing. You will notice a few links under the regular listing … Inside Politics, Political Ticker, etc. Google has determined that this is the navigational hierarchy for cnn.com. These are referred to as Sitelinks.

Can I change the Sitelinks listed by Google?
Google webmaster tools gives you the ability to block specific Sitelinks. You are not able to modify the Sitelinks, or add to the list of Sitelinks. To block Sitelinks, login to Google webmaster Tools and click “Links” > “Sitelinks.”

Can I Influence the Sitelinks?
There are a couple of ways to influence Sitelinks:

1. Your website should be easy to navigate and users should understand how to drill through your site. It should be EASY to find the information they are looking over through a meaningful hierarchy. If a user experiences difficulties navigating through your website, chances are that a search engine will as well.
2. When you submit your XML sitemap to Google, you can set the priority of each page, 1 being the highest. The higher the priority, the more important the page is. Google may not use this data but they will definitely consider it.

I found the information on Hochman Consultants pretty useful. Here’s what they say:

I’ve worked on a number of sites with Sitelinks, and these sites are similar in the following ways:

1. Site ranks first for the keyword(s) that generate the Sitelinks listing
2. Easily spiderable, structured navigation
3. Fairly high natural search traffic
4. High click through rates from the search results page
5. Useful outbound links
6. Inbound links from high quality sites
7. Site age is several years or older

Here are some more helpful links:
Provide Feedback on Sitelinks
How does Google compile the list of links shown below search results?
How To Get Google Sitelinks

This stuff has been around for a while but it’s never too late to brush up.

Missing Data in Google Webmaster Tools

I came across an article on Search Engine Land and thought I would talk about the same issue since it’s happened to me (I thought I was the only one!). When you add a domain to your Google Webmaster Tools account, you can sign up using the “www” or non “www” version of your domain. [...]

I came across an article on Search Engine Land and thought I would talk about the same issue since it’s happened to me (I thought I was the only one!). When you add a domain to your Google Webmaster Tools account, you can sign up using the “www” or non “www” version of your domain. I just happened to sign up with the non “www” version of the domain and noticed no stats in my account. I then registered the www version and voila, things started appearing. I later found that Google considers these as two separate domains.

Here’s what Google says about this:

What can I do to make sure I’m seeing all my data?

• If you feel like you’re missing some data, add both the www and the non-www version of your domain to your Webmaster Tools account. Take a look at the data for both sites.
• Do a site: search for your domain without the www (e.g. [site:example.com]). This should return pages from your domain and any of your indexed subdomains (www.example.com, rollergirl.example.com, etc.). You should be able to tell from the results whether your site is mainly indexed with or without the www subdomain. The version that’s indexed is likely to be the version that shows the most data in your Webmaster Tools account.
• Tell us whether you prefer for your site to be indexed with or without the www by setting your preferred domain.
• Let everyone else know which version you prefer by doing a site-wide 301 redirect.

Are Your Images Labeled?

Lee Ogden wrote an excellent article regarding Organic SEO - specifically keywords within articles. He makes some excellent points.
Here’s one:
Using keyword research to flavor the content, whether it’s verbal, in print, in video or audio can all influence how the outcome of the PR action is available through search. Using keywords during an interview [...]

Lee Ogden wrote an excellent article regarding Organic SEO - specifically keywords within articles. He makes some excellent points.
Here’s one:

Using keyword research to flavor the content, whether it’s verbal, in print, in video or audio can all influence how the outcome of the PR action is available through search. Using keywords during an interview for example, can influence how the print version of that interview is discovered on site search or general search engines.

The thing to keep in mind is that if a digital asset (text, image, video, audio) can be searched on, then it can be optimized.

He brings up an EXCELLENT point regarding digital assets. Google images has been sending me a crapload of traffic for an images site. It is extremely important to optimize the ALT tag keywords of your images and also named the images according to the picture. For example, if you have a picture of a dog jumping, name it “dog_jumping.jpg” and create a descriptive alt tag. Read Google’s article about Using Alt Attributes Smartly for more information.

Here is a quote from the above link:

Update: Some of you have asked about the difference between the “alt” and “title” attributes. According to the W3C recommendations, the “alt” attribute specifies an alternate text for user agents that cannot display images, forms or applets. The “title” attribute is a bit different: it “offers advisory information about the element for which it is set.” As the Googlebot does not see the images directly, we generally concentrate on the information provided in the “alt” attribute. Feel free to supplement the “alt” attribute with “title” and other attributes if they provide value to your users!

Here is another great article about Optimizing Your Site For Google Search. Here’s a snippet of the article:

Most importantly enable enhanced image search in google sitemasters tools. Find it under Diagnostics / Tools / Enhanced Image Search

. I’ve JUST started using this a month ago so I can’t comment on it yet but I’ll keep everyone posted.

Google has also released an image labeler (a while ago). It works like this:
1) You click “Start Labeling” and you are automatically paired up with someone
2) Google shows you an image. If you see a picture of a house, Google will give you exclude words that you can’t label the images with.
3) You start entering words that describe the picture you see.
4) Once you and your partner enter a tag that matches, you move onto the next image. The purpose is to get as many points as
possible. The REAL purpose is to help Google identify what the images are.

Visit Google Image Labeler

This is all pretty old news but I’m sure someone out there will learn something from this.

8 Benefits of Blogging

Many online marketers underestimate the value of blogging. Blogging (in my opinion) paves the way to a great website and eventual success. Here are some blogging benefits:

Get Free Quality Links!
Write informative blogs and webmasters will create comments or blog posts about your post. More quality links = higher rankings.
Provide a GREAT user experience
Your visitors will [...]

Many online marketers underestimate the value of blogging. Blogging (in my opinion) paves the way to a great website and eventual success. Here are some blogging benefits:

1. Get Free Quality Links!
   Write informative blogs and webmasters will create comments or blog posts about your post. More quality links = higher rankings.
2. Provide a GREAT user experience
   Your visitors will appreciate the education you’ve provided. You can provide tips, write about yourself, provide a daily image, daily video, etc.
3. Talk About Other Blogs - Trackbacks
   The definition of a “trackback” is as follows:

   A trackback is one of three types of linkbacks, methods for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking, and so referring, to their articles. Some weblog software programs, such as Wordpress, Movable Type, Typo and Community Server, support automatic pingbacks where all the links in a published article can be pinged when the article is published. The term is used colloquially for any kind of linkback.

   Let’s say you come across an interesting blog post and you’d like to comment. Why not talk about it on your blog? Once you’ve posted a response on your site, you can send a “trackback” to the site and a snippet of your post will be posted in their comments area with a link to your website. You’ve just completed an ethical link exchange.

4. Unique Content
   We’ve all the heard the phrase “Content Is King.” Self-explanatory.
5. Search Engines Love Blogs!
   Search engines LOVE blogs and why not? It’s UNIQUE content and provides a great experience. Blog posts are usually indexed within 48 hours, giving the search audience immediate access to your posting.
6. Show Your Authority!
   Show your audience that you are an authority! Surfers don’t want to buy from uneducated websites. As a purchaser, would you rather buy from a five-pager website with a few products, or would you buy from a site that has hundreds of products, tonnes of information and a blog with recent postings. Recent blog postings show that you are legitimate, up to date and educated!
7. Maintain Communication
   Send broadcast communications through your blog. Your customers can always reference your blog for important communications.
8. Build Your Brand
   Users will remember your website and they will tell others. Word of mouth is a HIGH converting sales method.

As you can see, the benefits of blogging are tremendous. I would list the best blogging platforms but SpeckyBoy has already done a great job of it.

View the Top 10 Free Blogging Platforms

Here are some other related resources:
Benefits of Blogging - A Practitioner’s Perspective
Benefits of Blogging for Small Business

Maximize Adwords Profits This Holiday Season

The Adwords team has posted a simple article about increasing your traffic and conversions during the holiday season.
Here’s an example tip you’ll find: specifically mentioning any special holiday promotions you are running in your ad text drives additional interest from consumers. Clear and compelling ads with season-specific text is a good way to generate more [...]

The Adwords team has posted a simple article about increasing your traffic and conversions during the holiday season.

Here’s an example tip you’ll find: specifically mentioning any special holiday promotions you are running in your ad text drives additional interest from consumers. Clear and compelling ads with season-specific text is a good way to generate more clicks.

Click the below link to view the retailer tips.

View Google Adwords Retailer Tips

Target Social Bookmarkers

DIGG is the biggest social media tool on the Internet. In the last couple of years, many others have joined their ranks. Here are the top social bookmarking tools according to ALEXA as of today:
DIGG - Alexa rank of 237
Technorati.com - Alexa rank of 401
MIXX - Alexa rank of 1044
Propeller.com - Alexa rank of [...]

DIGG is the biggest social media tool on the Internet. In the last couple of years, many others have joined their ranks. Here are the top social bookmarking tools according to ALEXA as of today:

DIGG - Alexa rank of 237
Technorati.com - Alexa rank of 401
MIXX - Alexa rank of 1044
Propeller.com - Alexa rank of 1183
De.licio.us - Alexa rank of 2508
REDDIT - Alexa rank of 7726

This is not 100% accurate, but pretty close. Since many other companies have joined DIGG as a premium social bookmarking tool, it is very important to talk to social bookmarking users differently. For example, if a user arrived to your website from MIXX.com, show a MIXX counter on your articles. If a user comes from DIGG, show a “DIGG THIS” button on your articles. I would still include the ability to bookmark through any other service (maybe at the bottom of the articles), but make the referrer the prominent choice.

There are a few ways to automate this. Here are a few tools I found:
Blue Hat SEO - They show you how to do it in PERL, PHP and JavaScript (any site can implement with JavaScript)
Big Blue Dev - Displays welcome messages depending on the referrer.

If you’re not technical, hire a programmer via RentACoder.com and have the programmer create a script where a specific message or icon is shown if the user is from DIGG, StumbleUpon etc.

Here are some other general social bookmarking tools:
The Bookmarketer
Wordpress Plugin To Include Bookmarking Tools
WP Notable - Include social bookmarking links.

Other links of interest:
5 Social Bookmarking Tips
7 Social Bookmarking Tips
7 Social Bookmarking Tips That Will Get You Traffic Now

What Screen Resolution Is Your Site Designed For?

Many webmasters overlook one important aspect of a website - screen resolution. BgTheory.com reports the following:
In January 2008, 48% of surfers used a screen resolution of 1024X768 while 38% used a higher screen resolution.
Resolutions higher than 1024X768 are seeing an increase year-over-year. To view BgTheory’s trends from 2000-2008, click here.
It is very important to look [...]

Many webmasters overlook one important aspect of a website - screen resolution. BgTheory.com reports the following:
In January 2008, 48% of surfers used a screen resolution of 1024X768 while 38% used a higher screen resolution.

Resolutions higher than 1024X768 are seeing an increase year-over-year. To view BgTheory’s trends from 2000-2008, click here.

It is very important to look at your screen resolution stats (you can use Analytics, WebTrends etc) and design your site around the most common screen resolution. It seems like 1024X768 is still the way to go, for now.

According to BgTheory, 76.5% of people click on the visible area of your page. Keep this in mind if your site is designed for a super high resolution (about 1024X768). Scrolling up and down is ok, left to right…ALL BAD.

Buying Links - Is It Worth It?

Today we’re going to talk about a very sensitive subject - buying links. Google has made it crystal clear that they are NOT into paid links. They’re so much against it that they’ve created an easy-to-use form so that you can report any offenders. You can check it out here. Google dislikes paid links for [...]

Today we’re going to talk about a very sensitive subject - buying links. Google has made it crystal clear that they are NOT into paid links. They’re so much against it that they’ve created an easy-to-use form so that you can report any offenders. You can check it out here. Google dislikes paid links for the following reason (taken from their site):

Google and most other search engines use links to determine reputation. A site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to it. Link-based analysis is an extremely useful way of measuring a site’s value, and has greatly improved the quality of web search. Both the quantity and, more importantly, the quality of links count towards this rating.

However, some SEOs and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links that pass PageRank, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.

Not all paid links violate our guidelines. Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results. Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as:

* Adding a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the a tag
* Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file

Google works hard to ensure that it fully discounts links intended to manipulate search engine results, such excessive link exchanges and purchased links that pass PageRank. If you see a site that is buying or selling links that pass PageRank, let us know. We’ll use your information to improve our algorithmic detection of such links.

You can read the full post here

Here are some thoughts.
1) What prevents a competitor from buying links on five different sites and reporting me to Google?
2) Instead of forcing millions of webmasters to do it their way, why don’t they modify their algorithm. Google should penalize bad links. If you are buying advertising on a website and it is providing a GOOD user experience, who really gives a rats a**. Isn’t that what Google’s all about? A good user experience?
3) What if I purchase a link on a PR1 or PR2 website? There is no PR to pass. Well there is but its pretty darn low. Sometimes I will buy advertising because its targeted towards my audience, not because of the PR.

I honestly could care less about my PR. I look at the traffic, demographics and other valuable information to grow and retain the customer base.

Saying that, I WILL be implementing a no-follow where I have posted advertisers links because I don’t want to get my ass banned. I will probably lose the advertisers but what can I do. BIG BROTHER is watching.