Archive for August, 2009
August 14th, 2009 by Patrick Hare
Affiliate sites, which make it easy to get a commission off clicks that result in purchases, are very popular among people trying to get their feet wet in the field of ecommerce. Two of the top affiliate networks, which offer commissions on just about anything sold online, are Commission Junction and ShareaSale. Google even has an affiliate network of its own.
Affiliate sites are sometimes very difficult to get ranked in search engines. There are a variety of reasons for this including:
- Lack of original content, or content that exactly matches text on other websites.
- High potential for black hat SEO behavior and spamming.
- Overall low quality of the user experience.
- Association with automatically generated content.
- Obvious links to affiliate networks.
It doesn’t take much to lose rankings in engines like Google with an affiliate site. Even with highly trusted affiliate sources, search engines can decide that your site has “low quality” and remove it from the listings. Even when you replace all your affiliate links with actual content and file a reinclusion request, your site may still be banned, so it is important to follow some guidelines that will prevent penalties and get you the search engine rankings you are looking for.
Google Webmaster Guidelines cautions affiliates to “add value.” Here are some tips on search engine optimization that will increase the value of a site:
- Choose a relevant domain name. A URL that matches the top search term for your product or service goes a long way toward search engine rankings.
- Create useful original content. Many sites include reviews and comparisons, which also solicit customer contributions. By turning the product or service into a topic, you can rank for the keywords related to the topic.
- Don’t just paste in an iframe. Several big affiliate sources allow you to create a “store” that includes products of your choice. It does not take too much time for search engines to discover these, and if the frame for the affiliate store is the primary item on your site, you may never rank at all. Search engines have a blind spot for iframes, except that they may see where it is coming from and decide to take you out of the index.
- Build a complete site. A complete site may only have 5 pages, but you should have a clearly delineated structure including a home page, about, privacy, and contact pages.
- Use javascript links instead of HTML links, if possible. Search engines apparently know which HTML links are being filtered through affiliate sources, and these sources could potentially be considered “bad neighborhoods” because of fraud perpetrated by other affiliates. An affiliate link tells a search engine to be careful, and rightfully so.
- Become the best resource for your topic, or do something viral. Some of the most successful affiliate marketers on the internet got that way because they created something people wanted to see. For dating affiliates, some of the top moneymakers created quizzes that brought people to the site. This also ends up creating links to your website, which is vital in the world of SEO.
The key to staying in the good graces of search engines involves showing content that people will actually want to see, as opposed to wholesale copying. It is possible to make several thousand dollars a month running affiliate websites that sell everything from shoes to identity theft protection. However, it is essential to have a site that stands out among similar offerings, especially other competitors in the affiliate arena. An affiliate site using advanced SEO tactics can find itself beating established brick-and-mortar or ecommerce sites in the same field, but only if it has unique aspects that keep it from getting marginalized in the search engines.
Tags: affiliate seo, search engine optimization for affiliates
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August 12th, 2009 by Patrick Hare
Need to get internet traffic for your travel website? Despite recent articles in the media, people are still checking out rates with online travel agencies, whether they are price shopping or learning more about destinations. If you are doing online marketing for trip packages, student tours, travel insurance, or airfares, then you need to take advantage of all the features that search engine marketing has to offer.
For instance, search engine marketing for travel websites can help put your site in the running with giants like Orbitz, Travelocity, and Hotels.com. If you serve niche markets (like luxury travel) or special destinations, then you can be competitive and get the kind of customers that you want. Cruise and tour operators use search engine optimization (SEO) to get found for packages related to specific cruise ships, personalized tours, and specialty adventure trips which can’t be created online.
Even though many agents still do most of their work over the phone or from a terminal, the internet is a great place to get business. In fact, agents with superior website marketing (through their own companies or through professionals like Web.com Search Agency) can create a loyal customer base. Search Engine Marketing and Pay-Per-Click (sponsored match) programs make it possible to target very specific market segments, so a few hundred leads per month can result in sustained customer growth.
Large travel aggregators may be too volume-based to go for niche customers, but travel agents who can offer different or specialized tours can definitely compete in the search engine world, even among the giants. Even if you have a hometown travel agency with walk-in clients, you can create a search engine marketing strategy that gets more local business and phone calls. Although travel agents aren’t as common as they used to be, savvy professionals can find ways to bring in customers who aren’t interested in DIY travel packages, and even though these people aren’t going to book their trips online, they are still looking for travel agents on the internet.
Tags: search engine optimization, travel seo
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August 12th, 2009 by Patrick Hare
An article today in CNN shows how specialized cars record information for Google maps and other sources. If you’re a small business owner, you may want to know that your business should be listed on Google’s map section as well. In most cases, it only take a few minutes and you may find it to be quite profitable.
By being part of the Google Local results, your business can be found above other natural search engine results when people do specific local searches. This can be a tremendous advantage for your business, assuming that all the information on the map is correct. As a business owner, it pays for you to “claim” your business listing and ensure that the phone number, address, and website address (if you have one) are correct, since people have been known to hijack this information.
Google’s Local Business Center is one way to make sure you become part of local results. Additionally, Web.com Search Agency can help you get your business in local online Yellow Page directories, in search engine results, and on sponsored ads which can be shown nationwide or just limited to your hometown. For anyone offering a local product or service, getting found on Google Maps and Local Search Results can be highly profitable.
Note: For more information on adding yourself to Google Local, see our previous blog entry.
Tags: google local, search engine optimization
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August 11th, 2009 by Patrick Hare
For the first time in its history, Google is letting users try a beta test of its latest algorithm update, which is known as “Google Caffeine.” The name is meant to imply that the search results are faster, but it may also be insinuating that is moving closer to real-time search capabilities so it can more rapidly show results for news events as they happen.
To test Google’s new results, there is a link to Google’s “Sandbox” location which otherwise looks like the standard search interface. The difference for many people will be the relevance of the results that come up. In some cases over the past day, we have seen low quality sites move into positions normally occupied by trusted websites. Google actually allows people to critique these results, so evidently they are adding a human component to their algorithm. If you want to let Google know about results on a particular phrase, look near the bottom of the results page for the link that says “Dissatisfied? Help us improve.”
What’s different about Google Caffeine update? This is a tough question, since the update is being beta tested, so what you see on the test site may not be there when Caffeine goes live. It looks like on-page keywords are getting a bigger response, and several exact URL matches appear to have higher positions. Google may be going for more precision, but it would appear that a complete update may push aside several results currently visible in the test version.
The other side of the update may be problematic for webmasters who are doing SEO for newsworthy topics. Google appears to be giving faster placement to news stories on some topics, so the best optimized site could find itself pushed back by relevant news events in the same keyword field. In this sense, breaking news (which can create a lot of good traffic) is going to get a priority over older content. There is some thought that Google is giving more preference to “freshness” with its real-time approach, but it will take a few weeks of observation to see if this is really true.
How should you prepare for Google Caffeine? First, don’t panic. As long as you are building a good user experience for your customers, and a resource for the general public, then you are more likely to be found. If Google is going to be rewarding keyword content, then you should consider expanding your site to the point that you cover your service or product’s features without going overboard. The current best practices in SEO and link building appear to be working just fine on the test site. As always, Google is trying to stay current by providing the best possible search results for customers, so it is incumbent upon webmasters to have sites that are the best possible match. This is why search optimization agencies like Web.com Search Agency and its industry colleagues make sure that basic SEO principles are in place, allowing for flexibility and quick recovery no matter what algorithm adjustments are made by search engines.
Tags: google caffeine, google update, seo
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August 11th, 2009 by Patrick Hare
You don’t have to be a website consultant to improve the user experience for your website. You just have to think like a new visitor. Every day we see sites that have been around for years, but continue to present information in a way that makes site navigation a mystery.
If you are making money off a website with substantial roadblocks, imagine the how much you would make if you could double or triple your revenue with a website that is easy to use. One way to get conversion advice is to hire an experienced site consultant, but another way is to improve your website so it can be used easily by a first-time visitor.
Here are a few usability tips that are used (or sometimes missed) by major online companies:
- Cut the Clutter. The most important action that should be taken by a visitor should be prominent, and in the top middle section of the page above the fold.
- Make it obvious. For every step in the signup or navigation process, the preferred route through the site should have the most prominent colors for text or graphics. If you have free shipping and accept specific forms of payment, every page of the site should say so.
- Don’t Interrogate, Converse Instead. Many sites (still!) require a complex signup before someone can make a purchase. Signing up takes time and adds complexity, and may cause people to abandon the shopping process. In many cases the signup process asks customers for more information than they are willing to give. While some companies may ask you to create an account before buying, an easy checkout process gives you an advantage, while allowing you to automatically create an account for the customer when the checkout confirmation is complete.
- Test Your Website. Surprisingly, quite a few people own websites that they haven’t tested. In many cases obvious failures, which would have brought in more sales if fixed, have been part of the site for years. Things tend to break over time, so you should go through your site periodically as if you were a customer, and immediately fix anything that doesn’t work.
- Answer the Phone. Savvy ecommerce companies actually talk to website customers who call in, and monitor customer service calls. If there is a pattern of questions that could be answered online, the site should be improved. This single tactic can simultaneously reduce unnecessary phone calls, improve sales, and give you valuable intelligence about what your visitors want to see.
- Spy on Your Visitors. Several software packages let you see real-time or recorded views of how your customers use your site. You can see small movies of visitor behavior and mouse movements. If too many people are lingering over unimportant parts of any given web page, or clicking on a link that is hard for the average user to find, then the site can be improved.
- Never Stop Testing, Tweaking, and Trying. Continuous improvement is the key to success in the world of web design, online commerce, and usability. Standards for website usability are continuously getting defined by the collective user experience of several million web surfers. We have sites that got great results in the past but are now considered antiquated and untrustworthy, based solely on appearance or ease of use.
You don’t have to be any kind of an expert to improve your website usability. In some cases you just have to build the type of site that you would like to visit, and one that answers the questions that you might ask when you are looking for a product or service. Learning about usability standards for websites can be done on your own time, and through several dozen online sources, but the real key to getting your message out involves reducing the factors that would cause a customer to become confused or suspicious.
Improving web site usability is a great way of growing your online business without spending extra money on marketing or advertising. Better yet, a higher customer conversion rate allows you to channel your online marketing dollars into the places where they are most likely to increase profitability, giving your site a flexibility that lets it thrive under all kinds of economic conditions.
Tags: improve website usability, usability
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August 3rd, 2009 by Patrick Hare
Lots of people use blogs to make business connections, get work, or make extra money. A recent CNN article even encourages client-seeking freelancers and other professionals to blog. As many seasoned bloggers already know, getting the blog set up is only half the battle. You have to have interesting topics, maintaining a blog takes up a certain amount of time, and you have to get visitors.
This is where the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques can help you. Most SEO customers are B2B or B2C companies that make money selling products or services online. Based on the competitive nature of e-commerce and lead generation efforts, SEO for these companies can be expensive and time consuming. For the solitary business professional, however, several small scale SEO practices can be undertaken which may get you enough traffic to your site (or blog) to keep the money coming in.
Here are some hints for getting more visitors to your blog with SEO techniques.
- Think Local. Most business professionals and freelancers will be working out of a certain geographical area. If you’re using your local city name in your blog posts, you are going to get classified in search engines for those phrases. If you leave out regional terms, you are effectively competing with everyone in the world who does what you do.
- Become a subject matter expert. If you practice a specific field of copyright law, or do marketing consulting for beverage companies, you definitely want to talk about those topics in your blog. If there are aspects of your work that are common to many customers, blogging about it will get you visitors who have the same issues.
- Find out what people are looking for. The Google Keyword tool can help you find blog topics related to your profession. Even if there are only a few hundred searches a month for your trade, one click can create thousands of dollars in new business, depending on your field.
- Build keywords into your titles. Most blog platforms like Blogger and Wordpress will show your blog title as the title of your posting page. Titles are very important in the world of SEO, and can be the difference between getting found on the first page of Google. Over 80% of searchers don’t even bother to get to the next page of results, so good titles are important.
- Get other people to link to your site. Search engines like Google value links from other sites as endorsements. You can start by getting links from fellow bloggers, but if you can get links from news sources you will be considered more credible.
- Use social media. For every new blog post, you can submit yourself to social media outlets like Digg. Sometimes the summary of your post on Digg will hit the search engines in a few hours, even if your own site doesn’t get ranked. You can use Twitter to let your followers know that you’ve done another post, and Facebook to link to it as well.
- If all else fails, buy paid traffic. Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN Adcenter (for Bing) all sell sponsored search packages, and there is no minimum spend per day. If you’re a freelancer with a niche service, your ad may show up among a small group of other ads, which is cheaper than being found for high demand terms.
There are also plenty of SEO tools you can use to find out where you rank in the search engines. As a word of warning, it can take several months to get your blog into competitive positions in the search engines, so getting started right away is generally the best course of action. As you develop you blog, you will be able to master techniques that can “ping” other networks every time you post, but the real key to getting found involves having plenty of fresh material. As you build an audience for your subject matter, you may find that word-of-mouth referrals take over for your SEO, but having a good groundwork will get you out in front of the free traffic that is looking for your unique abilities.
Tags: blog seo, blog visitors
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August 3rd, 2009 by Patrick Hare
As many people already know, search engine optimization usually doesn’t have one single factor that instantly fixes search engine rankings. Instead, there are a series of small items, both on and off-page, that contribute to the “picture” that a search engine has in its electronic brain. When it comes to pictures, search engines still aren’t good at image recognition, so they need help with classifiers known in HTML code as “alt text” or “alt tags.”
Properly written alt tags still have a place in SEO best practices. While many search engine professionals have ignored them in favor of bigger factors, they can still be the fractional difference that puts your site ahead of your competitor’s. Fractions count in the world of SEO, so here are some tips regarding how alt tags should be treated.
- Don’t stuff your alt tags. In the past, people used to hide content in image alt tags, so you could hover over a picture and get a paragraph or an extended list of keywords separated by commas. The alt text should describe the image, or simply parrot any words that are embedded in it.
- If your site was built a few years ago, or you had work done on it in the past, you should check all of your alt tags to ensure that they aren’t spammy or inaccurate.
- Alt tag content should be original. If you have multiple tags with the same content, it should be changed, or perhaps deleted from less important images.
- If your navigation uses images instead of text, there should be alt tags matching each image. Ideally, you may want to consider using text for navigation in the future.
- Not every image needs alt text, especially if you use graphical elements to build a page. You might confuse the search engine if you have tags like “rounded upper right corner” and “tracking pixel.”
- Whenever possible, don’t exclude your images directory in the robots.txt file. The alt tag describes the image, and services like Google Image Search use this information to put you in results that may be seen in various places, including the top of a general search query. There are people who make quite a bit of money by having products listed in image search.
- If the image is of a product, include the brand name and part number in the alt tag.
- Alt text does not have to be as complex as Wikipedia makes it, but it should still adequately describe the image, using a selection of relevant keywords.
- Use proper punctuation and sentence structure for longer tags. Sales messages (“Buy now and receive FREE SHIPPING”) usually are not recommended in alt text. Most people won’t see it, and search engines may downgrade your page for being spammy.
- If your image is linked, then the alt text of the image serves as a version of anchor text, which defines the link. For instance, your company logo may link back to the homepage, so your alt text should be relevant to your home page keywords. Note that if you have an alt tag that is relevant to your current page, and are linking the image somewhere else, you may be diminishing your page’s relevance. In this case the alt tag should be rewritten to match the target page’s topic.
Alternative text for images goes back to the principle of usability, since pages would often load very slowly, so the alt text would tell you what you were about to see. It is still helpful for visually impaired people who want to use the internet, and should not be omitted for any image that is important to your site. As with any content, consideration should be given to how the keywords in the tags blend with the rest of the work on the page, so you don’t end up with high keyword density or keyword blurring.
As we stated above, alt text may not be the “smoking gun” that solves your SEO dilemma, but it should not be neglected. Anything that helps a search engine spider understand your site and its content is going to be an effective part of your SEO strategy. As search engine algorithms get more complex, they may indeed be able to decipher the context of your images, and a picture that matches its description is going to have an advantage over one that does not.
Tags: alt tags, alt text, search engine optimization, seo
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