OVBlogger: Blogging and SEO

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So, I get all kinds of interesting SEO stuff in my inbox every day, and read all of it with great interest. But one of my favorite digests is the one I get from the people at Axandra.com, the people who make IBP (IBusinessPromoter)

Today, they had an article about Cuil (pronounced “cool,” BTW), a new search engine that just opened its doors… yesterday! You can see it at http://cuil.com

It’s run by people with some pretty impressive credentials. Tom Costello, its CEO and founder, who was an important figure at IBM; Anna Patterson, President and founder, formerly in charge of GoogleBase; and a host of other IBM, Alta Vista and Google folks. Just go over and check out their About Us, Management page. You’ll be impressed.

They’re claiming that their engine is better than Google, according to Axandra. Well, time will tell, but I totally like what I see from a searcher standpoint. From a marketing standpoint, I’m not sure.  Where I managed to get a #1 listing that has kept on keepin’ on for more than a year so far in Google, the site doesn’t even show up on page 1 at Cuil. In fact, I went through a couple of pages and nada.

To me, that says they have a totally different algorithm and the same things we do to rank with Google will hold no weight with Cuil. Should we worry? Hmm… Not yet. I think it will take any search engine to bump Google off the map—not that it can’t be done, but it will take a while, if that happens. We’ll have time to figure things out.

But the coolest thing about Cuil is how it returns your results. Rather than the listings that we’re so used to seeing in Google and Live Search, Cuil gives you a thumbnail and a description, followed by the URL. It’s cool looking, and makes images much more important. And beside the results, you get categories, like Yahoo, but in brief. Neato.

Since this just came out yesterday, I can’t give you an opinion of whether it’s better or not. I have no idea. I don’t know if it will take the Internet by storm or whether it will be just another good search engine that nobody uses. I hope that’s not the case. I think it’s pretty sweet.

Now, it will be my job to figure out how it works and whether it’s worth optimizing for. Time will tell. Keep ya posted.

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So, I was at jvAlert last weekend, as you know, and Simon Leung was telling us how Google prefers short copy and that they see long copy as spam. Hmm… That’s total crap. Not that Simon is telling us fairy tales, but that Google AdWords wants advertisers but they aren’t supposed to sell things? What?

Well…

I proved that what Simon said was right.

I started an AdWords campaign on Friday for a social marketing product, right? All of the keywords I used were rated “Great,” and I just knew it wouldn’t last. They probably do that for all new keywords, until human eyes evaluate your campaign.

But, here’s the thing: This particular campaign was based on a long copy sales letter, which I had doubts about, but thought I’d try it anyway because creating landing pages for each ad group (though Simon says you need to create them for each keyword… argh) is a bit of a logistical issue (won’t go into that, but it’s not a simple upload to a hosting account for various reasons) and we just wanted to get something up there.

Sure enough, Saturday morning when I buzzed in to check the campaigns, every keyword was turned off and Google wanted $10 a click!

Well… Hmm… Proof.

I didn’t really need that proof, but there it is. I mean, $10 for words that should cost about 33 cents? Argh. What better way for Google to say they hate you?

I created those new landing pages today, issues or no issues, and our tech department is working on getting them up. I’ll let you know what happens when they hit and I can alter the campaign. This is totally interesting to me.

I can be such a geek.

I want to go even further and create pages for each keyword to see how well that works for at least one ad group. If it works, guess what Pat will be doing all week? And into infinity?

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So, today, I had the first two hours of Squeezathon on the phone and the lines were lit up. I didn’t stop talking for two hours! It was awesome! Over the past couple of days we helped 250+ people to get their squeeze pages up and running. (That we know about.) Feels very good, indeed.

But I had one call that disturbed me, and thought I’d blog about it so that maybe it can help someone else.

One man had a page that is #1 on Google, and he was hesitant to put a squeeze page on his website as the front door. Now, any smart marketer knows that the squeeze page always, always, always goes first, right? Well, that’s a little hidden secret that a lot of people just don’t understand. Every single thing you do online should be geared toward list building.

So, I asked how much traffic he was getting from Google. He told me 30K hits in the past three months. Not too shabby, not at all.

But I looked at his stats. He had a 4 million + Alexa ranking. Hmm… That didn’t compute. I think his stats were pretty far off.

Knowing that, I asked what his keyword was. I won’t type it in here because I don’t want anyone to realize who this person was. My intention isn’t to embarrass anyone. So, let’s just say it was a really obscure keyword. In fact, when I checked it on SEOBook, there were NO results whatsoever for it.

What’s the big lesson?

You can have a No. 1 ranking in Google, but if nobody is searching for that keyword, it DOESN’T MATTER. I mean, I can have the #1 spot for “raccoon clothes,” but it’s not going to bring my little tailor shop any hits, you know? People have to be actively searching for your keywords or your ranking, no matter how high it is just doesn’t matter. Not a hoot.

Do some keyword research before deciding what keywords to target. If the keyword has been searched for at least 10,000 times in a month, it’s probably a pretty good keyword. I mean, you might have stronger keywords in the list that pops up, but you also have to determine how competitive they are. You don’t want to try to compete for a keyword like “pets” for example because the competition is too high. Find something lower on the list, and something pretty specific, too.

Here’s an example:

If you search chairs, you’re going to have tons of competition.

If you look further down the list, you might find “office chairs.” Well, that might still be too competitive.

But what about “leather office chairs”? That’s a bit narrower.

But what if you used “black leather office chairs”? That’s a long-tail keyword that might get some very targeted traffic to your website and if you’re selling black leather office chairs, your chance of converting your visitor, who is looking for such a specific item, to a sale just  skyrocket.

So, two things to take away:

1. If you’re using a keyword nobody is searching for, you can be #1 on the page at Google, but it won’t do you any good.

2. Never try to compete for the most competitive keywords. Choose specific long-tail phrases and not only get more traffic, make more sales, as well.

How ’bout that?

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Duplicate content has been the bane of search engines for quite some time. Why? Because search engines simply don’t want to return 10 results and have it all be the same article, video, etc. Spiders love fresh meat, and if they think yours is slightly overdone, you will have issues.

Don’t get me wrong…

You won’t pay a penalty in most cases, unless the dupe content is on your own site. Then, the heavy hands of the Google ghod will pound you into SERP (search engine results page) oblivion.

I have concrete proof of this.

I have a client with a big membership site. It’s in constant need of content, and I was providing it for the blog. The person in charge of the site decided that he could use the same content on the front page, and WHAM! The site dropped from #3 to #602 the moment the spiders found it.

Here’s the proof that dupe content was the problem: When I removed the duplicate items, we shot right back to #3 within a day or two.

However, most often marketers use dupe content in article directories, or they use the same content on their blogs as is on their website. Though this won’t raise a penalty, it won’t help you, either. Only ONE site will get credit for that content (at least at Google) and it may not be yours, even though you originated it.

Fresh content is best.

If you can’t write two articles, write one and then, rewrite it completely, making it fresh and new again. It’s a lot of work, but hey… If you’re in this to win, you don’t want to waste time sending out content that won’t win you any laurel leaves, either, right? Take the time to create quality content, put it out there, and watch to see what happens. You’ll should be happily surprised.

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I often go to sites like 103 Bees and HitTail to figure out what the heck people are searching for, and how they got to my blog. One of the most searched keywords in my list happens to be http://inventory.overture.com, a site that used to give you a pretty good rule of thumb when it came to keywords.

But stop looking at that folks! It’s either totally dead or it just won’t give you updated information. The last time the list of keywords was updated was in January 2007, and you don’t want to base your SEO on outdated search stats.

Here are a few places you can go, if you want some great keywords:

Aaron Wall’s SEO Book: http://SEOBook.com

I totally like this one. Aaron Wall is a respected SEO, and his tool is pretty comprehensive. You get stats from the big three (Google, Yahoo, and MSN), but a whole lot more, like links to Google Trends, Google Keyword Selection Tool, Quintura, and more. Pretty cool.

WordTracker’s Free Tool: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

This is a pretty basic search, and if you loved Overture, you’ll like this one, just as well. It’s a bare bones keyword search.

Good Keywords: http://goodkeywords.com

This is a bit of free software you can download. Good Keywords is a great way to get suggestions and it combines words to give you long-tail phrase ideas, as well.

Those are three good suggestions for you to replace Overture. If SEOBook’s keyword discovery tool is too complicated for you, try one of the other options. I’m sure you’ll find that one works quite nicely for you.

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I really enjoy working with search engines and all that it entails, and I’ve come to learn lots of little tricks and tons and tons of interesting information that’s been helpful both to me and to my clients.

But there are other things about SEO that people sometimes put blinders on about. First, they think that SEO is mysterious and too complicated, so rather than study it themselves, they hire people, like me, to help them with it. That’s cool. It’s what I do. What I love, and it pays well.

But over the past couple of years, I’ve learned that before taking on any client, I need to be upfront with them about some things…

Caveats of SEO

The first thing I tell people is that SEO is fluid. What works today may get you penalized tomorrow. For example, people were buying and selling links for a long time. It was great for the buyers because it helped them to get more traction with the search engines, and it helped the sellers earn some income.

But a few months ago, the Google hammer came down and smacked just about everyone doing so, including yours truly. I had a PR4 blog for eons, until Google saw my one, tiny little link that earns very little, and I could easily abandon it. But I’m a loyal person and I just won’t boot my advertiser because he/she has been on board here for many moons. It must be a link that works for them, so I won’t take that away.

The next thing I tell clients is that just because you spend time and money on SEO, that doesn’t guarantee that the strategy will work. I mean, I never provide a plan for someone, unless I’ve had experience with the system and know that it’s worked for other people. But… niches are quirky. What works in one niche, might not work in another. I mean, chances are very good that it will, but SEO doesn’t come with guarantees.

Case in point: I had a fitness client, and I did quite a bit of work for him. I set him up with a links page and did a lot of stuff that was working well two years ago. Then, boom! Google changes its algorithm and life as we knew it in the SEO world changed with it. My client was furious! His site like plummeted, and he couldn’t understand why. Owie. That was bad, and why I always go out of my way to explain that these things could happen before they pay me a dime.

Page Rank Doesn’t Matter

The third thing I explain is that page rank doesn’t really matter. Just because you see a PR5 on your Google toolbar, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your page is a PR5. Google changes their rankings all the time, but they only update the toolbar once per quarter.

That one almost cost me a job a while back. I had worked on a site for months, trying to build it to where it would show PR to appease the client, but the toolbar just kept showing a PR0. Then, after about 6 months, BINGO! PR5, first time out of the gate.

What really matters is where your page is appearing in the SERPs (search engine results pages). That’s all. You can have a PR10 and still won’t get traffic to your website, if you’re on page 8 of the results, right? That’s what matters — positioning. Where will your site fall on the results pages for the keywords appropriate to your niche? That’s all that matters. You don’t get any gold stars for having a PR anything. It looks cool on the toolbar, maybe, but that’s about it.

And finally, I explain the Brad Fallon rule that “SEO isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon.” And that’s what it is.

A good SEO system takes hours and hours of effort, and it takes consistency. You have to write in your blog every day. You have to write articles every week. You have to collect links back from top-notch directories and websites — one-way links whenever possible. You have to comment on blogs for that reason, and post in forums.

YOU HAVE TO BE A STRONG PRESENCE ON THE WEB.

Period.

You have to use every tool available, and you have use them on a regular schedule. I mean, just grab your Oulook calendar or even a paper desk calendar, like I use, and write the things in that you need to do. Monday, post in my blog. Tuesday, submit and article and post in my blog, Wednesday, make a video and post in my blog, and so on.

And then, when Google decides to change an algorithm, it won’t hurt so bad. You’ll have tons of resources shoring up your listing and you can make the needed adjustments and keep cranking!

Just don’t think that you can write an article here, write in a blog once every three months, and get tons of crappy directory links. That won’t help you.

SEO is a system. Set it up and just keep working it. It will pay off… in time.

Great Free Teleseminar Series on Blogging Still Running Strong

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So, I lost an old friend over the weekend. It really totally sucked, too. I’d had my old HP desktop for 4 years and used it hard. I mean, I ride ‘em to death. Poor thing. I felt so bad.

And then, the aftermath. Some of my old software just won’t work with Vista. Bye-bye Office 2000, hellow Office 2007. Whoopee. I’m not thrilled. Not that it’s not a good program. I can’t say if it is or if it isn’t. I haven’t used it enough just yet.

But I always buy HP. I’ve had 4 desktops and 2 laptops and most of them are still working. I’ve even sold them to other people because I loved mine so much. Hell, I should get a commission, you know? But they make a great product and I stick with them. I can’t say the same for some of the other companies, and certainly not for buying computers at Walmart. Bad idea.

Speaking of that (and why I’m telling you the sad story of my computer death), while going through some old mail, I found an Aaron Wall post about Walmart offering SEO services from late December. Whoa. I had to click:

http://samsbiz.com/page/1dmiu/Online_Advertising.html

Get ready.

Remember what happened to the mom & pop shops when the discount chains moved in?

Not a good sign.

Let’s hear it… What does that say to you?

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SEO and Affiliate Marketing genius, Jerry West, who’s also a faculty member at Stomper Net, says that the directories have lost beaucoup PR points at Google.

You can see the results of his hand-done survey here:

SEO Revolution

So, apparently many directories lost ground in the recent PR update, and many are below PR4. Some lost their PR entirely.

Only Family Friendly Sites walked away with a PR6 and Seoma and Clickey came away with PR5s.

PR4 sites are still good to link to, if you have low PR, but are directories still worth the time and effort? Hmm… I guess you’ll have to decide. For me, I can think of much more productive ways to spend my time.

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I just finished writing a post over at the Conquer Your Niche forum about directories and thought I’d share:

Actually,

Google specifically isn’t really counting links from many directories. DMOZ.org, Yahoo, or Joe Ant are quality listings in their eyes. A plain old “link farm” directory won’t get you anywhere.

What they’re concerned about is that the directory makes sense. If you’re listed in a golf directory for an Internet marketing information product, it won’t help a bit.

Also, if the links aren’t reviewed and validated by humans, you won’t get any link juice, either, because that’s one of Google’s requirements for a “quality” directory.

I wouldn’t waste too much time on directories.

My advice is to apply for a listing in DMOZ at http://dmoz.org, which is free. Yahoo’s directory is $299 a year, so unless you’re making the income to justify that, it’s probably not going to work for you. But…

Joe Ant.com, (http://joeant.com) for example, is like $40 one time and it will get you the kind of backlink you want. Not a bad investment, IMO.

Articles work much better. Plus, you can turn around and re-purpose them for your blog. Of course, you don’t want to use the same article in your blog that you post to Ezine Articles or Go Articles or another quality directory. You need to rewrite the whole thing so that it’s at least 60% different so that you don’t run into the “duplicate content” issue. You won’t be penalized, but you won’t benefit, either. Google may decide that some other site gets credit for your work, as they tend to pick only one site to credit for a particular piece of content.

Directories aren’t even as powerful as blogging. Writing in a blog everyday will get you far more traction with the search engines, however Google does love itself. A DMOZ listing is just as good as ever.

Does anyone ever get DMOZ listings? I’m not sure. I placed links about two years ago that still haven’t shown up. But then, I didn’t become an editor, either. I hear that’s a quicker road to success there.

Bottom line? I wouldn’t waste too much time with directories. Concentrate on other stuff that works much, much better–articles, press releases, social bookmarking, and so on.

And of course… my favorite… blogging! It totally rocks.

Come to my telseminar series on blogging with some of the biggest names in the IM world… Call tonight!

Popularity: 51% [?]

Have you ever used “nofollow” tags on your website? If you aren’t using them, you definitely should be.

For example, if you have a PR4 page and you have links to 10 sites on that page, each of the pages is getting the benefit of 1/10 of the strength of that PR4 page. You’re bleeding page rank, if you’re using follow-through links to pages like support, about us, or any other page that you don’t want to rank in the search engine results.

The solution is the “nofollow” tag. When you use that tag, the search engine spiders stop when they see it, and the page the link is on won’t be affected.

Here’s how a “nofollow” link looks: <a href=”http://ovweb.net/about.html” rel=”nofollow”>About Us</a>

So, it’s smart to use the “nofollow” tag on any page that you don’t want to appear in the search engine results pages. You’ll find that this strategy works as well on websites as it does with blogs.

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As an aside, this week is heating up. Ben Mack will be joining me on Wednesday at 9 p.m. for a little Guerilla Balance Sheet conversation. Go over to http://Blogging4Boomers.com and sign up for the calls, wether you’re a Boomer or not. It’s going to be chock full of great information!

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