 Think Like A Search Engine To Gain Success
Search Engine Land
Want to know what the search engines "think" of your Web site? Matt McGee lists a set of tools you can use to find out. First up is to use the various Webmaster guidelines each of the engines provide.
"At minimum, you should connect your site with Google's Webmaster Central and Yahoo's Site Explorer," he says. "MSN also recently launched its own Webmaster Center, and you should consider connecting your site there, too."
Then, McGee says to use the "site:" parameter in a search for your particular domain. The results will offer stats about the percentage of the site that is being indexed, which can point to internal navigation problems or other issues that are preventing the crawlers from accessing your content. You'll also find out whether there are any duplicate content problems, how often the crawlers are combing through your info, as well as how unique (and descriptive) your page titles and meta description tags are. - Read the whole story... When Good AdWords Campaigns Go Bad
PPC Discussions
Jeremy Mayes outlines the many ways that competitors can use an AdWords campaign to hijack your brand, and create a negative experience for potential consumers in the process. While bidding on competitor's terms is allowed, deliberately trying to confuse consumers isn't. Still, the onus on calling attention to these kinds of ads and proving that a competitor is being malicious falls squarely on the affected business owner.
Competitors can set up ads touting the wrong price info for a particular product -- ultimately leaving them confused or angry when they get to the real landing page and see the correct price. Another tactic is to include the wrong phone numbers, typos or other grammatical errors in the ad copy, essentially tarnishing a brand's image. Brand-jackers can also craft ads that send clickers to review sites that feature negative info about the company, or even false negative reviews.
"At the present time there's not a whole lot you can do to combat this type of advertising," Mayes says. "At minimum you should contact the paid search platform (AdWords, YSM, adCenter, etc.) and file report. In some cases you may be able to get the ad(s) pulled, especially if they violate a current rule or regulation put in place by the search engines." - Read the whole story... 10 Questions To Ask Your Clients
Search Marketing Insights
Dev Basu explains that "identifying a client's existing inventoriable assets" is one of the tenets of being a good agency, whether you're a search-specific firm or part of a bigger shop. "Expert SEOs can often spot such 'client assets' or 'useful inventory,' but that process can be optimized by simply asking the client the right questions," he says.
For example, find out if a client has a list of unused domains. You can then start redirecting them to the main URL. Also, ask if they're promoting their URL through offline channels, as you can then start estimating where some of their direct traffic is coming from. Other questions help deal with duplicate content issues, social media account consolidation, and even indexation problems.
"Folks, I've learned to ask these questions over time and through experience, because I've lost precious time and money discovering errors on a client's site on my own time and without prior knowledge from the client," Basu says. "Avoid the horror stories and OMG moments by remembering to ask the questions you usually don't ask your client the next time around." - Read the whole story... Steer Clear Of These Olympic-Sized PPC Terms
Marketing Pilgrim
It may be too early to start thinking about ad campaigns tied to the 2012 London Olympics, but as Andy Beal notes, U.K.-based marketers ought to start thinking of out-of-the-box keywords -- as the most obvious terms are officially off limits.
According to the Olympics Act of 2006, only marketers that have purchased licenses with the Games' authorities can use keywords and key phrases like "2012 Games," and "London Summer Games" in their print, TV or online ads. Anyone else caught using those terms faces a £20,000 (roughly $36,800) fine.
"This, according to Out-Law.com, is too severe and many UK advertisers have no idea of how this legislation affects them," Beal says. The Web site found that just 14% of advertisers polled understood the ramifications of the 2006 Act. "While you can sympathize with the Olympics -- after all they don't want big companies mentioning the Olympics, when others have paid licensing fees to do so -- you might want to say a prayer for the small business owners who are blissfully unaware that their next print ad might put them out of business." - Read the whole story... Out Of Blog Post Ideas? Try These
SEOptimise
Helping clients come up with SEO-friendly blog posts can be a chore, even for the most inventive search marketer, so Tad Chef serves up more than 50 suggestions. "Some of these ideas are the bomb and will bring you publicity and popularity," Chef says. "While others focus on highlighting your expertise or are part of a social networking strategy."
Post suggestions include checking your search engine referrers and writing posts for those keywords that currently have no matching content or asking a question on Twitter and summarizing all the answers in blog form.
Chef also says to try reviewing one of their industry's trade pubs, reviewing a book that deals with the trade and "thinks outside the box," and even highlighting the top female bloggers or experts in their niche. Of course, the key to boosting the SEO potential of any of these blog posts is to ensure that you incorporate your targeted keywords in the copy. - Read the whole story... |
You are receiving this newsletter at brian.bobo@gmail.com as part of your membership with MediaPost. 
We welcome and appreciate forwarding of our newsletters in their entirety or in part with proper attribution. 
No comments:
Post a Comment