Monday, August 31, 2009
Yahoo! Directory Listings
LinkPopularity suggests people use Yahoo! Directory Listings..
2. Yahoo Directory (not to be confused with Yahoo's main search engine).Expensive ($299/year) but very heavily weighted. Added benefit is that listings are often syndicated to other country specific Yahoo directories and can provide additional incoming links. Important: BE careful to optimize and choose your site description carefully, since Yahoo commonly uses this description for all Yahoo searches (search and directory). Also note that listing fee is non-refundable and will be charged even if your listing is declined.
Linkpopularity.com
In 2007 Jon Smith of BusinessLink wrote to me after www.BeSeenOnABike.com was reviewed in E-Den, Bournemouth.
Jon Smith wrote...
Developing external links
At the moment the website has a very low number of external websites linking to it. “Link popularity” is one of the main algorithms now used by the search engines (such as Google) when they decide the ranking order of websites found. Try http://www.linkpopularity.com to check your own and competitors websites and see where traffic is coming from.
This is an area that I would suggest can only assist your search engine rankings and a continually “keeping an eye out” to establish another link is the best method. Recruiting other members of staff to do the same whilst they browse the Internet is another useful way of identifying new link opportunities.
Replicating the links that any competitor has already established is another useful method for increasing you link popularity.
www.BeSeenOnABike.com – Current (2007) Link Popularity
Thursday, August 27, 2009
W3C validation ' a great accolade' - BusinessLink
Jon Smith of BusinessLink, Fareham, Hampshire reviewed www.beseenonabike.com in July 2007.
He said 'HTML Check
As an example, the HTML code being used behind the home page has been checked for consistency against the international standards authority W3C - www.w3c.org. There is one fault with the HTML coding. This is easy to fix and re-running the validation tool, once fixed, will allow you to use the W3C validated logo on your website which is a great accolade. See Appendix 2.
This page is not Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional!
He said 'HTML Check
As an example, the HTML code being used behind the home page has been checked for consistency against the international standards authority W3C - www.w3c.org. There is one fault with the HTML coding. This is easy to fix and re-running the validation tool, once fixed, will allow you to use the W3C validated logo on your website which is a great accolade. See Appendix 2.
Appendix 2 – HTML Validation
Note: The Validator XML support has some limitations.
This page is not Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional!
Below are the results of checking this document for XML well-formedness and validity.
- Error Line 6 column 29: required attribute "type" not specified.
E-Traders, Dorset and Meetup.com Group
E-Traders Dorset meet at Bournemouth University the third Wednesday of every month.
E-Traders Meetup Group attracts new members to our group.
I've been a member E-Traders, Dorset since its inception by Bowshot (Nicholas Stevens) late in 2007.
Ben Norman books
both these books look informative, for SEO beginners. I've bought 'em both!
Get to #1 on Google in Easy Steps (Paperback)
Getting Noticed on Google in Easy Steps (Paperback)
Ben Norman is MD of SEO experts ImpactMedia, Southampton, Hampshire, UK who are registered with SEMPO which is how I first came across them a few days ago.
Interactive Seven by Marketing Week
Interactive Seven by Marketing Week (mentions ImpactMedia of Southampton) has some great articles on SEO etc.
Google for Webmasters - 23 minute Video Tuturial
Great 20 lesson video in 23 minutes - Google for Webmasters.Excellent reinforcement for the Google SEO Starter Guide pdf.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Atracks
I attended a day long course with Sally Kavanagh of Atracks, Ringwood in December 2007. For what its worth here are my edited action points / notes. I'm ashamed to say I've implemented very few of her suggestions... yet.
Use PPC Keywords to find out which natural keywords are important
Try ppC to test market eg Ireland
Standard time is PACIFIC time
Link Adwords with analytics account (already)
Campaign and Group levels
Geographical – ISP – based in Dorset ??
Pause ad at weekends
See paid / not paid ads on analytics
Adsense
Search content
GOOGLE Wordtracker £15pm or free trial of limited version for a week (instead of webposition gold)
3 versions of your ad concurrently – moniter in analytics
Prepayment into a fund for payments (controls does not run away with you)
Concurrent ads – x3 adds concurrently
Analytics – gives ad words page per click: pages /visit, ave time on site, bounce rate %, % new visits
Traffic sources
Google groups – google analytics – for beginners
Beginners group physical meetup – meetup.com
Bounce rate – for landing page <<30%
Keyword insertion – allows insert keywords auto into both the text of the ad and the landing page URL
Analytics is better than conversion ex google
Google Analytics
TLA
E-consultancy.co.uk –
Capture data by analyse log
AW stats, clicktracks, webtrends
Capture data by javascript tagging
Google analytics, omniture
Will not collect info on pdf downloads or when spiders visit
Google analytics setup
Filter out own IP and staff address
www.lawrencegoetz.com/programs/ipinfo
Web analytics google group forum
Site overlay for number of clicks!!!
Change order to optimise site architecture
External links – to monitor a link to a page on a differnat site add the following code to the links url
onClick=”javascript:urchinTracker(‘/outgoing/datamind.co.uk’);”>
goals and funnels – goal =thank u for your order or thank you for newsletter or contact page for phone numbers
analytics settings > website profiles >settings >edit
funnel – series of pages a visitor must follow in order to ‘convert’#
cycle: action >measure > report > analyse > action
Key Performance indicators in Kaizen cycle
KpI
Traffic, goal conversions,bounce rates, pop. Landing pages, content that people find interesting
Ratio new/returning visitors, ave. rev.per visit, ave.order value
Email support requests, int. search engine use
Bounce rate if good – use for a keyword for natural search
Set Google Analytics AND Adwords a/c for separate websites
Set up a different profile OR DIFFERENT ACCCOUNTS
VISITS / VISITORS (green v red) new v old visitors, bounce rate, goal pages
£400pm for stats to customers USING ANALYTICS!!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Can product descriptions be considered duplicate content?
DataMind.co.uk resells manufacturers products. Many manufacturers never bother to compare and contrast their own products. A comparison of various manufacturers products and / or a single manufacturers products can provide customers with some great information (i.e. 'addvalue') and make their choice of product a little easier to make. Adding customer comments to product descriptions can also be useful.
Comments on YouTube here.
Yahoo Site Explorer
Firebug
Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. Suggested to delete the rogue " /> on www.datamind.co.uk
source: The Optimizer
Page Rank checkers
The Optimizer (Steve O) suggests this page rank checker: http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
eg Archos.com 6/10
Google WebsiteOptimizer
www.Google.com/WebsiteOptimizerGoogle WebsiteOptimizer - has anyone used it? Is it any good for anything?
Multivariate Experiment - The most robust way to test lots of ideas
Multivariate Experiment - The most robust way to test lots of ideas
that allows you to run experiments to find what on-page changes will produce the best conversion rates with visitors. This, in combination with Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools (see our video on using the "Google Trifecta"), is a powerful way to begin improving your site.
Backlink & Competitor checkers: Intellitracker & Hitwise
Google Webmaster Tools only allow you to check you own websites. Intellitracker and Hitwise allow monitoring of competitor & industry websites.
Business Link SEO guide
Key points:
- SEO Partner website on the SEMPO website
- found ImpactMedia, Southampton
Monday, August 24, 2009
SEO offerings from top Search Agency companies
Search Agencies by Turnover (New Media Age)
All the above Search Agencies have turnover between £100,000 - £10M.
All the above Search Agencies have turnover between £100,000 - £10M.
Big Mouth Media Search Agency
Big Mouth Media (who have the BBC account) are the No 1 (£13 turnover) Search Agency company according to NMA Marketing Services Guide.
I wonder how this sector will fare when people learn about the Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide which came out November 2008.
The Optimizers
Bruce Clay is THE expert online for SEO etc.
Metatag keywords are never used by any search engines now but Metatag descriptions are very important.
On www.DataMind.co.uk javascript was an issue - they thought that this may be stopping Google from searching sites properly.
Sempo is largest Search Marketing-specific nonprofit trade organization in the world.
The Optimizers have worked for a CarAgency involved in Car Finance in Southampton. They have got them onto the first page of google for Car Finance Southampton, Car Finance Hampshire etc....
Big Mouth Media are doing the work for the BBC.
On www.DataMind.co.uk javascript was an issue - they thought that this may be stopping Google from searching sites properly.
Sempo is largest Search Marketing-specific nonprofit trade organization in the world.
The Optimizers have worked for a CarAgency involved in Car Finance in Southampton. They have got them onto the first page of google for Car Finance Southampton, Car Finance Hampshire etc....
Big Mouth Media are doing the work for the BBC.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Setting a geographic target for your site in Webmaster Tools
Use the geographic targeting tool in Webmaster Tools to associate your site with a particular region.
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