Category : Search Engine Optimization

Content Management System (CMS) is a buzzword in the IT industry these days. While business and website owners want a CMS just because it sounds so impressive, website developers love it for all the benefits it has brought. Thanks to CMS, there is hardly any need to hand code HTML and PHP scripts. That does not imply that there is no need of a developer anymore. CMS is simply a tool to help a developer create better solutions in less time.

The one difficult issue, perhaps, is making the right choice between WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, three of the most popular and powerful CMSs out there. All of them are open-source tools based on PHP and MySQL with regular updates. Each has extra plugins including ones for SEO. The plugins are called plugins in WordPress, extensions an Joomla and modules in Drupal.

While there are many factors on which a CMS is compared, an important one is its SEO friendliness. Let’s take a look at WordPress, Joomla and Drupla and determine how each one rates on the SEO scale.

ABOUT WORDPRESS
WordpressWordPress has been around since 2003 as an open source blogging tool and CMS platform. More than 200 million websites online are based on WordPress. Due to its notable user-friendliness, it is considered the foremost choice for small websites and blogs.

With WordPress, everything is so easy that many website and blog owners just choose to do it all by themselves. This definitely earns it negative points from developers.
As one of the most commonly used CMS, WordPress offers thousands of plug-ins and a huge community ready to help, two very attractive incentives.
When it comes to features, WordPress proves to be more generous than most people expect CMSs to be. A basic WP website not only offers the usual search, comment, tag, index, etc., but also provides multi-level access and authorship for up to ten users.

SEO for WordPress
For SEO, WordPress is perhaps the most powerful CMS, most favorite as well, due to a plethora of SEO plugins and its supportive community. The SEO module All in One SEO pack allows you greater control over your titles, descriptions and duplicate content. Another good module is Google XML Sitemaps which automatically generates a sitemap to submit to Google webmaster tools. Features such as tagging, indexing and WP’s clean URLs make things even better. WordPress sites can get a high ranking; however, as with any website your ranking greatly depends on the effort you put in the keyword selection and optimization process. Contact Red Carpet Web Promotion to optimize your WordPress site.

ABOUT JOOMLA
JoomlaUnlike WordPress which is foremost a blogging platform, Joomla is and always has been a pure CMS; consequently, it offers a window of opportunity for developers as well as designers. Because it is not that simple to use, it is unlikely that just anyone could create a Joomla-based website without help from a developer.

The best thing about Joomla is that it offers plenty of room for customization. There are numerous extensions and plug-ins, which further add to its abilities.
Joomla has a powerful API which enables easy integration into other systems and software. Therefore, there are endless possibilities for developers to create unique and customized websites.

SEO for Joomla
When it comes to SEO, Joomla has been severely criticized since its inception. And although there is ongoing talk about its awful built-in URLs and encrypted plug-ins, newer updates and extensions have changed the story. A proficient developer with a broad understanding of SEO can obtain great results and ranking with Joomla. However, it still lacks ease-of-use and is not considered favorable in terms of SEO. But given the popularity of Joomla over 400 extensions come up in a search for SEO. A few of these SEO extensions facilitate the job of optimizing titles descriptions, page names, links and other factors. Contact Red Carpet Web Promotion to optimize your Joomla site.

ABOUT DRUPAL
DrupalJust like Joomla, Drupal offers flexibility and power to handle huge, complex and highly customized websites. Released in 2001, it is also the most senior among the three open source CMSs under discussion here. Developers love it because it does not limit their ability to create large, robust and scalable websites.

One major difference between Joomla and Drupal is that the latter is more developer-centric rather than designer-centric.
Drupal offers better extensibility than Joomla or WordPress. The add-ons are easier to integrate with the core and third-part systems alike. Overlapping issues are not common, making Drupal a reliable platform as well.
Drupal is an excellent choice for a website where security is a key factor. Even the third party extensions are almost as secure as Drupal core.

SEO for Drupal
Drupal takes the cake here. Although, WordPress does offer best SEO possibilities, it is still not flexible and robust enough for large and complex websites. Drupal offers a good level of control over SEO. It has everything ranging from SEO-friendly URLs to extensive SEO modules. Moreover, there are plenty of tools that automate the whole SEO aspect for a website. Contact Red Carpet Web Promotion to optimize your Drupal site.

Conclusion
There is simply no point of argument or viable comparison between these three most popular open source CMS as they widely differ. The choice depends on the website’s requirements and the developer’s own style and preference. Nevertheless, SEO for WordPress tends to yield better results and ranking if forced to choose. The content of the website, the keyword choices the optimization and the quality incoming links are much bigger factors for good search engine rankings than the choice of CMS.

Written by Tammy Corbett

Tammy Corbett is the resident expert for social media marketing at Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.
www.redcarpetweb.com

In September of 1999, Brett Tabke wrote “26 Steps to 15k a Day” in the Webmaster World forum. A lot has changed since then, and now is the time to consider a new 26-step plan that meets the current needs of webmasters in 2006. Some of the old ones still apply (writing new content everyday, for example), and some don’t (submitting to the search engines is no longer necessary), and we’re here to tell you which is which! As you probably already know, bringing in traffic is not easy – it takes hard work, determination and lots of elbow grease. So if you’re ready, roll up your sleeves and follow these 26 simple steps, and within just one year you will generate enough traffic to keep you busy for a long, long time!

A) Keyword research
Before you do anything else, use a keyword research tool and do an extensive job researching the right keyphrases to use for your site. What keyphrases are your direct competitors using? Are there any keyphrases that create a potential for market entry? Are there any that you can put a spin on and create a whole new niche with?

B) Domain name
If you want to brand your company name, then choose a domain name that reflects it. If your company is Kawunga, then get www.kawunga.com. If it’s taken, then get www.kawungawidgets.com. No dashes, and no more than two words in the domain if appropriate.

C) Avoid the sandbox
Buy your domain name early, as soon as you have chosen your keyphrases and your company name. Get it hosted right away and put up a quick one page site saying a little about who you are, what you sell, and that there will be more to come soon. Make sure it gets crawled by Google and Yahoo (either submit it or link to it from another site).

D) Create content
Create over 30 pages of real, original content on your site. This will give the spiders something to chew on. It will also give you more opportunities to been seen in the search engine results for a wide variety of keyphrases.

E) Site design
Use the “Keep It Simple” principle. Employ an external CSS file, clean up any Java Scripts by referring to them off the page in an external file, don’t use frames, use flash the way you would an image, and no matter what, do not create a flash site. Do not offer a busy site with lots of bells and whistles to your visitors. Keep things nice and simple. Make it easy for them to find what they are looking for and they’ll have no reason to look anywhere else.

F) Page size
The less kilobytes your page uses, the better – especially for the home page. Optimize your images and make sure the page loads quickly. Most people and businesses in the Western world may have high speed, but cell phones and other countries might not. If your site loads slowly, you may have already lost your visitor before they’ve even had a chance to browse around.

G) Usability
Make sure that your site follows good usability rules. Remember that people spend more time on other sites, so don’t violate design conventions. Don’t use PDF files for online reading. Change the colours for visited links, and use good headers. Look up usability for more tips and tricks, it will be worth your while.

H) On site optimization
Use the keyphrase you have chosen in your title (most important), your headers (when appropriate), and within the text. Make sure that your page/content is ABOUT your keyphrase. If you are selling widgets, than write about widgets. Don’t just stick the word widgets into the text.

I) Globals
Globals are the links that remain the same on every page. They are the reference for new visitors to keep them from getting lost. Sometimes they are on the left of the page, sometimes they consist of tabs at the top. Often they are in the footer of the page as well. Make sure that you have an old style text version of your globals on every page. I usually create tabs at the top, and put the text versions in the footer at the bottom of the page. Find out what works best for you.

J) Headers
Use bold headers. On the Internet, people scan they don’t read. So initially, all they will see are the headers. If your headers don’t address their concerns, they won’t stick around long enough to read your content. Use appropriate keyphrases when you can.

K) Site map
Build a site map with a link to each of your pages. Keep it up to date. This will allow the spiders to get to every page. Put a text link to the site map on the main pages.

L) Content
Add a page every 2-3 days: 200-500 words. Create original content, don’t copy others. The more original and useful it is, the more people will read it, link to it, and most importantly of all – like it enough to keep coming back for more.

M) White hat only
Stay away from black hat optimizing techniques. Black hat optimization consists of using any method to get higher rankings that the search engines would disapprove of, such as keyword stuffing, doorway pages, invisible text, cloaking and more. Stick to white hat methods for long-term success. People who use black hat optimization are usually there for the short-term, such as in porn, gambling, and Viagra markets (just look at your email spam for more black hat markets). These black hat industry sites are usually around just long enough to make a quick buck.

N) Competition analysis
Who is linking to your competition? Use Yahoo’s “link:” service to see the back links of your competition. For example, type in “link:http://www.yourdomain.com” into Yahoo search without the quotes). Try to get links from the same sites as your direct competitors. Better yet, see if you can replace them!

O) Submit
Submit to five groups of directories:

1. Dmoz.org and Yahoo (local, such as Yahoo.co.uk, or Yahoo.ca, etc… if you can).
2. Find directories in your field and get into them. Pay if you must, but only if the price is reasonable.
3. Local directories that relate to your country or region.
4. Any other directories that would be appropriate.
5. If you are targeting the local market, make sure that you are in the Yellow Pages and Superpages (because search engines use these listings to power local searches)

P) Blog
Start a blog about your industry and write a new entry at least once a week. Allow your visitors to comment or, better yet, write their own entries. This will create even more content on your site and will keep people coming back regularly to see what is new.

Q) Links from other sites
Simply submit your website to appropriate sites, asking that they link to your site as a reference because it will benefit their visitors. Don’t spend too much time on this, if your content is good and original, they will find you and link to you naturally. Remember that Linking is Queen (www.redcarpetweb.com/promotion/0409.html#feature).

Stay away from reciprocal linking, links farms, link scams, and any other unnatural links. They may not necessarily hurt you, but Google tracks when you get a link, how long you have had a link, who links to the site that links to you, where you live, what you had for breakfast, and more (not really… but kind of).

R) Statistics
Make sure your server has a good statistics program. Use it! If you don’t have access to a good program, then pay for one. Without the knowledge of who is coming to your site, from where, and how often, you will be missing out on some essential tools to improve your site.

S) Pay-per-click (PPC)
Sign up for Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing. Spend money getting people to your site. Use it for branding too. This will create a steady flow of visitors to your site, and will make your site more accessible to your potential clients. You don’t have to be #1, you don’t even have to be #5… just make sure you are on the first page of search results for most of your keyphrases, when the cost is right.

T) Look ahead
Stay informed of what is coming up in your market. If a new product will be out next season, write about it now. Take advantage of being a first mover. The search engines, and linkers, will reward you.

U) Articles
Write an article once every week and get it published in as many online publications as you can (with a link back to your site). Include the article on your site. Not only will this create many links to your site, but it will also get people to click to your site, and most importantly you will become an expert in the eyes of your visitors. They may even begin looking for your site by querying your name!

V) Study your traffic
After 30 to 90 days you will have enough results to analyze in your statistics program. Go over them with a fine toothed comb. Get the answers to these questions:

– Where are your visitors coming from?
– Which search engines do they use?
– What queries do they type in?
– What pages on your site do they visit the most?
– What are the entry pages on your site?
– What are the exit pages?
– What path do they follow when they browse your site?

Use this information to tweak your site.

– Use the most popular page to encourage the visitors to make you money.
– Adjust the paths they use to send them where you want them.
– Figure out why they leave from the exit pages.

Also, see what search terms people use to find you, and fine tune your keyphrases. If you targeted “green widgets”, but your visitors are finding you with the query “green leather widgets”, then start creating content about “leather widgets”!

W) Verify your submissions
After 3-4 months, check that you got into Dmoz.org and all of the other directories that you submitted to. If you have not been included, then submit again, or better yet, write a polite email to the editor and ask why. Also, find any new directories that would be worthy of your submittal time and submit to them.

X) RSS feeds
RSS (Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is becoming a powerful tool for Internet marketers. You can quickly and easily add fresh content to your website. Article feeds are updated frequently, so you can give your visitors (and the search engines) what they want – fresh content! You can use RSS to promote any new content, such as new pages, articles, blogs, press releases, and more!

Y) Press releases
A press release is a written communication that you submit to journalists in the media (newspapers, radio, television, magazines) which are used to make announcements that are newsworthy. Create press releases announcing publication of any new articles or new company information or products. If it is interesting/original enough, a journalist may pick it up and write an article about it. Before you know it, your website address may get published in the NY Times.

Z) Keep your content fresh
Remember to write a new page every 2-3 days. I only mentioned it briefly, but it is probably the most important point in this article. Keep writing! Without fresh content, your site will gradually drop in the search engine results. To stay on top, your content has to be the most up-to-date, freshest, and most interesting and original content in your field.

Follow these 26 simple steps and I assure you that within one year you will call your site a success. You will bring in a massive amount of traffic from within your industry and watch as your business grows!

So start writing, and write yourself to the top!

Shawn Campbell

Shawn Campbell is the co-founder and Chief Search Engine Optimizer at Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.
www.redcarpetweb.com

There has been a lot of talk about Google and MSN’s new algorithms and Yahoo’s search engine changes. When these changes finally do occur, it is always important to remember the number one rule in SEO: DON’T PANIC!

If there is one guaranteed constant in this business it is that there will always be changes in the search engines’ rankings. Our job, as search engine marketers, is to stay on top of the changes and to monitor how the change affects our clients’ site’s traffic.

I am actually excited about any algorithm change, because it means that the search engines should actually get better.

What follows is a “back to the basics” on getting good rankings:

Keyphrases

First things first: Always be sure to research the keyphrases you intend on using. Find out what keyphrases Internet users most often employ to find your product or service. There is no point optimizing your site for “online web marketing” if everyone types in “Internet marketing”.

Once you have a list of potential keyphrases with a high amount of Internet traffic, comb over that list and see which keyphrases best describe your product or service. These are the ones you should consider.

Here are some sites that can help you in your research:

• Wordtracker www.wordtracker.com
• Google AdWords https://adwords.google.com/select/ (Click to sign up, it is free to do the keyphrase research)
• Snap www.snap.com

Competition

Research your competition with these questions in mind:

• What keyphrases are they using (take a peek at their keyword Meta tag)?
• What are the titles of their sites?
• When you do a search for the keyphrases you are considering, who comes up in the top five rankings?
• What is their title/keyphrases?
• Are the top ranking sites your competitors or are they industry associations?

Use the keyword effectiveness index (KEI) tool at Wordtracker to compare the effectiveness of your keyphrases. A higher KEI signifies a better ratio of demand-to-competition for a keyphrase.

Do a link search to see who is linking to your competition. In a search engine, type in “link:” (without the quotes) followed by the URL you want to verify. This will allow you to see all the important links to the site that the search engine tracks (I would recommend doing this in both Google and Yahoo).

• Can you get links from the same sites as your competitors?
• Are there industry associations or organizations that are linking to the top sites, but not to you?

Get your link campaign going! (see the article about linking for search engines to learn why links are important)

Optimizing Your website

Now that you know what keyphrase you are optimizing for, here is how to optimize your site: write good quality content that focuses on your keyphrases.

Above all else, this is the single most important factor.

Sure there are other on-site factors such as:

• Getting the keyphrase into the title (this is the second most important factor)
• Getting the keyphrase into the Meta description tag, the Meta keyword tag, the headers and sub headers, the alt tags, and into some link text (some of these factors are VERY minor)
• Having a good site map so that the search engine spiders can easily navigate your site
• Having a robots.txt to include the pages that you want the search engines to include
• Don’t use frames
• Use flash wisely (not the WHOLE site in flash)
• Use external files for your java scripts
• Use cascading style sheets (a .css file)
• Use dynamic URL’s wisely (Avoid using URL’s with ? or & in them)

Content is king

Oh…and did I mention that you need to write good quality content that focuses on your keyphrases? All of the points above are superfluous if you don’t have good content. Content is the food that the search engine spiders like to gobble up with a voracious appetite. The items below are just the side dishes. You need good content to get decent rankings, but you need the side dishes to become a serious competitor in your market.

• Write about your keyphrases.
• Write extra pages.
• Write about your industry.
• Write about your product or service’s uses.
• How will your product/service improve the life of the consumer? Find out, and then write about it.
• Why is your product/service better than your competitor’s? Think of a reason and write about it.
• What is the history of your product/service? Or your industry? Write about it.
• Who are you? Everyone always enjoys “about us” pages…
• And of course, be sure to serve the search engine spiders with a tasty main dish full of keyphrases!

Whatever you do, be sure that you don’t write junk or filler copy and double check that everything reads well. Keep in mind that writing about your keyphrase doesn’t mean adding the keyphrase unnaturally into the text. If you have any doubts, employ the talents of an expert to do the writing for you!

Links

Start soliciting links today! Get people in your industry to link to you. Contact:

• Industry associations and organizations
• websites about your industry
• Sites related to your product or service
• Suppliers
• Resellers
• Competitors who don’t compete in the same region
• Sites that sell products/services that relate to your, but don’t compete directly

See my article on soliciting links for more information on how to go about it: Linking is Queen

Submissions

Submit to all the directories you can find, so long as they are related (e.g., don’t submit to the Abba directory unless your site is about Abba). Submitting to a directory should not be a mindless activity. Read the directory’s directions on how to submit VERY CAREFULLY. Write your description very well, and tailor it to each directory in order to follow their guidelines. Make sure you submit (and get in) to www.dmoz.org – it is probably the most important directory out there today.

Do research and find “vertical directories” that focus on your industry, and submit to them. These directories are very important because, for example, if you have a dodo bird site, what better potential client than someone who found you through a dodo bird directory!

Search engines and directories are different. Do not confuse them. You can submit to all the search engines you can find, but it usually won’t do much because the good search engines will find you anyway. Submitting to random search engines will usually only increase your email spam. Don’t waste your money on search engine submission software for the same reasons.

Here is a partial list of the current important search engines:

• Google
• Yahoo
• MSN

Conclusion

• Build your website for your customers, within the guidelines that the search engines set out.
• Don’t make the site awkward by over-conforming.
• The site’s first focus should be on what your clients want.
• Create good content. Good, quality content that reads well and flows seamlessly.
• Update it regularly. An active, living site is healthier than a stagnant, dead one (the search engines spiders like their food alive and full of life).

And remember: Content is King!

Shawn Campbell

Shawn Campbell is the co-founder and Chief Search Engine Optimizer at Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.
www.redcarpetweb.com

With the ringing in of the New Year, I resolve to become a better search engine optimizer (SEO). Below is a list of resolutions that I have made in order to make my clients’ websites the absolute best on the web.

• I will not use flash as text.
  • Even though many search engines can now read some of the text embedded in flash, flash sites do not perform as well in search engine results as non-flash sites. Flash should primarily be used to enhance sites; in the same way one would use pictures to make the site look better.
• I will not use images as text.
  • Although I personally believe that text in images will be read by search engines by the end of 2006, we are not there just yet. As it now stands, image text is invisible to search engines and therefore should not be used in that capacity.
• I will use good usability techniques.
  • Usability is simple to test. Get three friends to complete a task on your site as you silently watch and take notes (have them talk out loud too). You will be amazed as to what you find. Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox has a good introduction to usability.
• I will not use cloaking.
  • Cloaking is frowned upon by search engines. Once they catch you, you will get penalized (or in some instances, banned).
• I will not use frames unless I have a REALLY good reason to.
  • Frames complicate things for the search engine. There are very few good reasons to use frames and thus they should be avoided whenever possible.
• I will use a catchy title with the keyphrase in it.
  • Marketing is what we are all about. A catchy title will bring in the customers. A title containing the target keyphrase will raise the result in the search engines. Put the two together and you have a professional marketing title that works hard to bring in traffic.
• I will track the return on investment (ROI).
  • By tracking the ROI, I will clearly see if the site is making or losing money. To track ROI one needs to co-relate the marketing dollars spent with the revenue earned. This statistic is usually hindered by the site’s owner, who cannot (or does not) provide the financial information, nor the conversional statistics I need to track ROI.
• I will write an alt tag that clearly depicts what the image is, for every image.
  • This will help people without images on their screen know what the image is about. Using the keyphrase in the alt tag is a bonus because it will help the rankings slightly in the search engine results, but it is most important to describe the image as clearly as possible.
• I will use good informative content.
  • Ah yes, “Content is King”. All the above resolutions are meaningless if I don’t have good content. This is what will bring in the search engines. This is what will bring in the clients. And this is what will bring in the dough.
• I will not stuff the pages with keyphrases.
  • Stuffing the page with keyphrases goes against the golden rule of good content. If you stuff the pages with keyphrases, they will no longer read well, and readers won’t like to read them. Consequently, people won’t enjoy your site, and because the search engines are designed to figure out what people like and then display it to them, the search engines will eventually begin to disregard your site. Therefore, ALWAYS use keyphrases wisely.
• I will not use “spammy” techniques.
  • “Spammy” techniques are anything the search engines say not to use. These techniques may do well in the short-term, but in the long run they will get you penalized (or even banned).
    – Google has a list of guidelines here
    – Yahoo has a list of guidelines here
• I will use pay-per-click (PPC), even if it is for a very small amount.
  • I have found that using even a minuscule PPC campaign will bring in more traffic. It also propagates links to your site throughout the Internet, and thus makes your site more prominent. If you are worried about losing money, then use the free conversion tracking tool available at both Overture and Google AdWords. USE IT. Only then will you know how effective your PPC campaign really is.
• I will track unique hits to the site.
  • By keeping track of whether the site’s traffic goes up or down, I get a big picture of the health of the website. If traffic goes up, then the rankings probably went up. If traffic goes down, then rankings probably went down. Of course there are also seasonal variations (and marketing pushes), but you should be familiar enough with the market to know when to expect such cyclical fluctuations.
• I will get a good copywriter to write the content.
  • “Content is King”, so get a professional to write it. You may think you are good, but are you really? Would you bet your Internet presence on it? Use someone who knows how to write specifically for the Internet. Use someone who knows how to balance writing for people, writing for sales, and writing for search engines.
• I will not send out “spammy” emails asking for reciprocal links.
  • Reciprocal links don’t bring in clients, and they tend to only slightly boost your PageRank. An SEO’s time is better served getting the site listed in directories and on sites where people would be looking for it (such as associations, suppliers, clients, and more…). Personalized emails to these sites requesting a link to yours are fine. Templates or mass emails requesting reciprocal links are definitely not.
• I will work hard getting valuable links to my site.
  • “Linking is Queen”, thus getting links is essential. Find directories that relate to your market and take your time to submit to them (in the best category). Contact your suppliers and/or resellers and see if they will link to you. Figure out where your potential clients hang out on the Internet, and get those sites to link to you. Do your homework to choose where you want your links to appear, then roll up your sleeves, get out the elbow grease and get those links to show up!

With a little dedication and a lot of work, I will get my clients into the top search engine results. If you want to do well with your website, stick to these resolutions and before you know it the traffic (and the sales) will roll in smoothly, just like the New Year.

Shawn Campbell

Shawn Campbell is the co-founder and Chief Search Engine Optimizer at Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.
www.redcarpetweb.com

A lot has changed in the way sites are optimized for search engines since last year. For one thing, Google is not the only search engine worth looking into anymore; Yahoo has definitely managed to take away some of Google’s oomph over the past twelve months. Another important change is that the intelligence of the search engine spiders and algorithms has increased dramatically. So without further ado, I will present you with a standard search engine optimizing process as done by Red Carpet Web Promotion.

Keyword Research

Nothing can be done until you know what your target phrases are. Keyword research must be done to find out what people are actually typing into the search engines. For example, do they type in “medical insurance” or “health insurance” more often? Is it worth targeting the keyword “dental insurance”? What do your competitors think its clients type?

Keyword research usually begins by asking the client what they think are good keywords and by looking at your competitor’s Meta tags and text. You then have to brainstorm to find new and related keywords that were not previously thought of. The use of Wordtracker, Overture, and Google AdWords’ estimates is indispensable. If you use the “KEI” offered at Wordtracker, don’t fall into the trap of giving it too much worth. It is a good tool to help discover keywords that have not been exploited by the competition, but the really important number is the amount of traffic each keyword generates. Finally, create a chart to determine the relationship between keywords used. For example, there is no point promoting dental insurance if your site does not offer it.

Texts

The next step is to write the text. Hire a specialized writer to put the text together. Ideally someone who has been trained in Internet writing, Internet marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO), or get advice from professional SEOs, marketing experts, and usability experts. Work with the client to get a feel for what is needed for the site. Then use all these skill to put together the delicate balance needed between selling to people, selling to search engines, and making the text interesting/useful to read.

Domain Selection

Once the text is written, come up with a catchy domain name for the site. Try to include part of the keyword in the domain, and to think ahead so that the domain can be expanded into the title. Our site www.gloriousbahamas.com is a good example of a domain with a keyword in it that is catchy and clearly stated. The keyword for that site is “Bahamas real estate”, so having part of the keyword in the domain will help in the long run.

Title and Meta Tags

From the domain name, you can then create a title with the full main keyword in it (such as Glorious Bahamas Real Estate). The title is the most important text on the site. The Meta tags include the description tag, and the keyword tag. The description is what the searchers will see in many search engine results, so it must have the keywords in it and, more importantly, it must sell the site. Write a description that is objective, not subjective. Zeal has some good advice for titles and especially description writing at http://zeal.com/guidelines/style/site_titledesc. The keyword tag is done just in case some engines still use it (though very few still do), so don’t pull your hair out over it. Just list 10-15 keyphrases and try not to repeat any single word more than three times.

New Content

Now we come to the meat of today’s search engine optimization. So far, we have not discussed anything new or original. It is the same strategies that have been used since I first got into the business of SEO in 1998. Today, with smarter engines, a site needs to be something that is cared about. A site has to grow, develop, and expand as if it were someone’s baby. Gone are the days when you could build a site, get good listings, and then forget about it as it brought in the traffic and the dough. Take care of your site by adding useful content to it on a regular basis, and then the site will gradually grow from a few pages to dozens of pages. Not only will this make the site seem more alive – radiating with the healthy glow of a developing child – but it has the added benefit of increasing the amount of content the site contains, and thus increasing the amount of keywords found within it. For example with www.canada-health-insurance.com we add pages with more details about dental coverage or pages with details about government coverage for each province. Every month there are new pages, so that every time the spider comes back to visit, it spends more time at the site reading new content. This is one half of the key to getting good listings in the search engine results pages (SERP).

Link Campaigns

The second half of the key is getting good sites to link to your site. Going after websites with related content, sites with good authority in your website’s field, and sites that are “popular” are the priority. Getting only reciprocal links is not the goal, getting the aforementioned sites to link to you because you have good, valuable content is the goal. Sites that do reciprocal linking usually have hundreds of links on their link pages and these will add very little value to your site. Don’t waste your time with reciprocal linking. Only link to a site if doing so will increase the value of your site in the eyes of your clients.

A link campaign is a lot of work, and it involves a lot of frustration and rejection. You have to approach bigger sites and sell the value that linking to your site will bring them. For every 20 sites you approach, you will be lucky to get one to link to you. You have to be persistent, consistent, and determined.

Conclusions

Optimizing a site is no longer something you can do and then forget about. For a site to succeed in the search engines today, it has to constantly be changing and growing either in content or in links, and ideally in both. It has to appear that the site is the life and soul of its creator, and that somebody cares enough about it to pay attention to it. Because after all, if the creator doesn’t care, why should the search engines?

Shawn Campbell

Shawn Campbell is the co-founder and Chief Search Engine Optimizer at Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.
www.redcarpetweb.com

While you may have heard of a controversial new program called Site Match, which is being run by the Yahoo/Overture team, what you probably don’t know is what this program is really all about. Site Match is a program created to get your site into the Yahoo database (formerly the Inktomi database) and it can be expensive. It is based on a yearly fee and an additional cost for every click you get from a Yahoo based search engine.

Demystifying the mysterious Site Match

Let me back up a bit and give you some history. On a hot July day in 2003, the directory giant Yahoo bought the colossus Pay Per Click (PPC) database Overture (previously known as Goto). Today, Yahoo has decided to monetize by offering us such programs as Site Match.

What Site Match is not

• Site Match has nothing to do with the $299 fee you pay to get into Yahoo’s directory
• Site Match will not get you better rankings in Yahoo (or in Overture)
• Site Match does not get you into Overture’s auction-style PPC database

What Site Match is

Site Match ensures that your site is listed in Yahoo’s search database (not their directory), and that it is refreshed every 48 hours. If you are not listed in Yahoo’s search database you can do one of two things:

1. Wait until Yahoo’s spider picks you up
2. Pay Site Match to list you right away.

Unless your site is brand-spanking new, you are likely to already be listed in Yahoo’s search database. Yahoo’s spider (Slurp) does an extensive job of picking up websites to add to the database. To verify that you are indeed listed, you can type your domain into the Yahoo search box and see if your site comes up (type “yourdomain.com” without the quotes). If a result comes up, then you are in the database.

How much does Site Match cost?

Site Match costs $49 per year to sign up and $0.15 to $0.30 per click afterwards. If you are listed in Yahoo’s database, you get the exact same service for free (except that your site is refreshed every month instead of every 48 hours). What are the advantages of being refreshed? What does refreshed mean? It essentially entails that Slurp comes to visit your site and updates it to the Yahoo database every two days.

My Site Match test

I decided to test out a site to see if there are any benefits to using Site Match. I submitted www.PrintPot.com to the program on April 23rd. This site was created in early April, so it just got into the database a week before. The rankings before and after Site Match are as follows:

A ranking of “none” means that it did not turn up in the listings. As you can see, since we signed up for Site Match, our ranking dropped dramatically. Yahoo only shows the top 500-700 listings, and The Print Pot (which sells Epson inkjet refill kits) is not found at all.

This was my experience with Site Match, but it was only one experience. I doubt that I will be using Site Match again, nor would I recommend it to my clients. However, with only one test, it would be a mistake to conclude that the majority of sites will drop in listings after signing up for Site Match. What is troubling is how Site Match affected all the keywords that Print Pot was struggling to improve.

What happened? Was there a penalty? The site has no reason to be penalized as it followed all the content guidelines listed by Yahoo/Overture at http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/sm_gl.jhtml. These guidelines were pointed out by the support staff from PositionTech, a reseller of Site Match. So why did it drop? I suspect that Yahoo is still ironing out the bugs from its Site Match program. The other possibility is that Yahoo changed its algorithm, and the new one does not rank www.PrintPot.com highly. I have sent a letter to Yahoo and expect an answer in the near future. I will inform you of their response in the next www.RedCarpetWeb.com newsletter.

Should you pay for Site Match?

The answer is wonderfully complicated.

Option 1) If you are already in the database: The answer is a big fat NO WAY. The only exception would be if you change your site more often than once a week. Even then, Yahoo would only update the description, title, and ranking of your site on the search engine results pages. The link would still go to the new updated site even if you don’t pay, and even if it is not freshly spidered.

Option 2) If you are not in the database because your site is new: It would normally take 2-5 weeks to be included in Yahoo’s database for free. If you are in a hurry, then sign up to Site Match. You should show up within 48 hours, and you will be paying $0.15 to $0.30 per hit.

Option 3) If you are not in the database but your site has been online for over 2 months: Something is wrong with your site. Either your robots tag is wrong, or you have zero links in to your site, or you have a penalty of some kind. In order to resolve your situation, it is imperative that you need to hire a search engine optimizing specialist to inspect your site.

Conclusions

Unless you are running a site that gets updated on a near daily basis (such as a news site or a web log), my advice is not to sign up for Site Match. You would be throwing your money at Yahoo, and in return you would be getting a service you probably don’t really need. If you are not listed in their database, there is probably a reason for it, and that same reason would probably keep you out of the database even if you signed up to Site Match.

Shawn Campbell

Shawn Campbell is the co-founder and Chief Search Engine Optimizer at Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.
www.redcarpetweb.com

I was all set to write an article predicting the future of search engines, when Yahoo dropped Google and replaced it with its own engine. Now that’s big news. In less than twenty-four hours, Google went from about 79% of the market share to about 51%, almost overnight. And what a welcome relief it is too! Being #1 in Google was great, but when you had the misfortune of dropping even a couple of positions you really felt it. Now there will be more stability; if you drop in Google today, your hits from Yahoo will remain consistent.

What is the new Yahoo?

Last year, Yahoo bought the AltaVista, Fast, and Inktomi search engines. The new Yahoo results are none of these. Many people are saying that the results come from a new Inktomi because the results are similar; but the results are also similar to all the other search engines out there. In comparing these engines, it seems to me that Yahoo’s results are from a brand new engine. Maybe they took parts and ideas from all the search engines they bought – maybe they even took the best parts – , but whatever they did, the result is something completely new.

Which search engine is better?

I will be comparing Google and Yahoo for the terms “music”, “art prints and posters”, “Bahamas real estate”, “mosquito nets”, and “liposuction”. The other search engines all hold less than 4% of the market share (except for MSN which uses Yahoo’s Inktomi), so I won’t be considering them. Here is what I found in the top 10 results for each keyphrase:

Music

Yahoo offers a lot of music resource sites. Information about music from different sources such as magazine, TV and other music news sites are found 6 times in the top 10 results. It also offered downloading and file sharing programs 3 times. The 10th result was an audio player program site.

Google has a lot more diversity. There were 3 music resource sites (but no magazines), one downloading program, one CD store, one radio station (Yahoo radio), one music directory, and the 10th result was an audio player program site. Google also had 2 sites in its top ten that were of no value whatsoever; MP3.com which just has one page stating that they no longer offer the services that they used to (with links to their parent company), and music.com, which is nothing more than an email gathering site for a newsletter (not a single link on the entire page).

Google’s diversity is a big bonus, but the 2 spam/junk/useless sites really hurt it. The results? Yahoo 1, Google 0.

Art Prints And Posters

Yahoo offers 6 stores, while Google offers 5. The other links are all affiliate spam with no content whatsoever (just links to stores), with the exception of one of Yahoo’s links, which has some biographical content about artists. So Google has 5 spam sites, and Yahoo has 3 and a half.

Yet another round goes to Yahoo.

Bahamas Real Estate

For this keyphrase, I found results between Google and Yahoo to be quite similar. The only differences were sites by actual realtors and sites that were simply property listings. Both types of results are useful, with Google having an edge in realtors. Google had some lower quality sites, but the information was just as good even though they did seem less professional. On the other hand, Yahoo did have one site that was nothing more than a links page from another realtor’s site. Big boo boo.

This one goes to Google.

Mosquito Nets

It seems to me that someone searching for “mosquito nets” wants either A) to buy them, or B) to learn about them, so I was expecting to find either stores or information about mosquito nets. Yahoo showed me 6 stores and 2 informational pages. The other results were a search result page (not a good result) and an inner page from a previous result (also not a good result).

Google gave me 7 stores and 3 charitable organizations (one of which was a store as well). The other 2 charitable organizations were a news article outlining what they had done regarding mosquito nets and information about mosquito nets.

So even though I didn’t necessarily want the latest news about what a charity did regarding mosquito nets, I think getting the same site twice from Yahoo (not to mention the search result page) is the bigger no-no. Google wins this round.

Liposuction

I expected to find information about liposuction, liposuction organizations and either doctors or centers where you can have liposuction done. What I got was a lot of “how to find a doctor” sites, with a lot of good information.

Yahoo results included 3 sites doubled. This is a problem that killed AltaVista in the late 90’s. Hopefully they will have it fixed soon. Other than the 3 doubled sites, the results included 4 informational sites, 2 sites for finding doctors and one poorly written article about the history of liposuction.

Google gave me 4 good informational sites, 2 good “find a doctor” sites, one recent article about liposuction for people in the industry, one site with very poor information one written by a single doctor and one site that was nothing more than a directory.

Google gets this round as well. Overall, it looks like Yahoo needs to fix its doubling of sites and Google needs to clean out some spam (poor sites).

And The Winner Is…

You! Having two good search engines to choose from makes searching that much better for everyone. It also makes getting listings better. It also makes marketing better. It also makes traffic to your site steadier. The only way this could have been worse is if Yahoo’s results sucked, and they don’t. They seem just as good, if not better, than Google’s.

So rejoice, and enjoy a more dynamic world of online searching!

Shawn Campbell

Shawn Campbell is the co-founder and Chief Search Engine Optimizer at Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.
www.redcarpetweb.com

On November 16th, Google did a major overhaul of its results. Many legitimate sites that were basking in the sun at the top of Google results plummeted down the rankings into a dark abyss of countless other results. Many webmasters and search engine optimizers went into shock, as they saw their Christmas sales sink like a stone in the water. Many people got angry. Many people wrote letters and participated in forums. Many people complained, and many people wept. Basically, anyone who wasn’t a multinational conglomerate or an educational institution felt the pangs of rejection. Google shook the Internet… again.

This Google update has been nicknamed the Florida update in honour of the Florida election fiasco in 2000.

What changed?

On average, about 50% of all results in the top 100 have now fallen below the top 500. These changes only apply to certain terms, usually the terms that are related to commercial searches. You can see if your site has fallen at www.google-watch.org/scraper.html by typing in your keyword and looking for your site. This site compares the old Google results with the new results and counts how many sites are missing from the new top 100. Google is currently trying to block these results by blocking Google-watch.org’s IP address, but as of the writing of this newsletter the site is still in operation.

The Theories

There are many theories about what Google did and why. One of them is that Google removed commercial sites from their free listings in order to get the merchants to buy more AdWords. I disagree with this theory. I don’t believe they did it to monetise. I think that Google’s intention was to diversify the types of sites in the top results in order to provide better results to users. I think the profit they will make from this change just happens to be a happy side effect for Google. One thing is for sure, there are much fewer commercial listings in the top results than ever before. Many have been replaced by educational, governmental, or directory listings. The top ten in many results are now a mix of informational, authoritative commercial, and directory listings. This gives searchers more of a choice in the kind of site they want. The commercial sites that survived tend to be the leaders in the industry.

Here are some of the theories about the changes at Google:
www.webworkshop.net/florida-update.html
searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3286101
www.searchengineguide.com/hotchkiss/2003/1215_gh1.html
www.searchengineguide.com/terry/2003/1205_tv1.html
www.webpronews.com/wpn-4-20040108GoogleRumorsThatNeedToBeStopped.html

What to do

Since the big update, many sites that were dropped have been crawling their way back into the top results. It seems to be a slow and painful process. Google’s Senior Research Scientist Craig Nevill-Manning actually apologized for the update, saying: “I apologize for the roller coaster. We’re aware that changes in the algorithm affect people’s livelihoods. We don’t make changes lightly.” The good news is that if a site has a lot of good content, then Google seems to care. The more content you have, the better Google seems to like you.

Many search engine optimizers are frantically making changes, but until we understand more about what motivated the update, such a reaction becomes the equivalent of thrashing and flailing about in the water. Right now the best thing to do is to continue adding good quality content to your site, make sure you are not using spammy techniques, and continue getting links from quality sites and directories.

Hold the boat steady, and you will weather the storm.

Shawn Campbell

Shawn Campbell is the co-founder and Chief Search Engine Optimizer at Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.
www.redcarpetweb.com