Tips for Building up an SEO Friendly Website

The one of the most important key success factors is the design of a website and it does not only affect the user experience, but also the SEO campaign. In this article we will discuss the subject of SEO friendly design and we give 30 tips that will help web designers and web developers to build better and more effective websites in terms of both functionality and crawl-ability.

Many people falsely believe that the SEO friendly design is a set of non-sense restrictions that the SEO professionals impose to designers in order to manipulate easier the search engines. Think different.  Search Engine Optimization can be described as the implementation of a set of search engine standards that also target on the best possible user experience.  Having that statement in mind, it is easy to understand that a good web design is also good for the user.

Optimizing your Web Design

Developing quality content is important but it’s not the only part of your strategy that must be optimized. Displaying the content properly and having a solid hierarchy and easy navigation is the key for an effective web presence.

Tips for user friendly navigation and functionality

1. Discuss with the web design & development team the project specifications. Focus on the feasibility of the design and have this information in mind before creating the website. 2. Group the content by relevance and use descriptive menu items to help users find easily the information that they are looking for.
3. Use text links in footer to support navigation. Text links are very useful both for the users and for the search engines.
4. Use breadcrumb navigation to allow users keep track of their location within your website and help search engines understand your website structure.
5. Consider each page as a landing page providing all the information to the user and inform him where he is and what to see next.
6. Place the logo, the primary message and the navigation above the fold. It is highly recommended to give the best possible first impression to the user.
7. Don’t change the template of your website in every category. It makes the navigation in your website more difficult for the average user.
8. Avoid horizontal scroll, it is not user friendly.
9. A time consuming loading website is a reason for higher bounce rate and lower rankings. Google has clearly stated that page loading speed is a ranking signal.
10. Get familiar with Google webmaster guidelines as it consists of useful tips for better user experience.
11. Avoid Pop ups- and unnecessary use of blurring images as they are annoying for most users.

Content optimization

12. Too long text and/or excessive use of keywords is not a user friendly practice. On the other hand, it can seriously harm the rankings of the page and the image of your brand. That is why in order to avoid such problems you should use the Keyword Analyzer tool and pay attention to the Possible Spam signal in the Keyword Analysis segment. 13. Make use of html heading elements (H1 – H6) to include descriptive headlines and take advantage of their importance for the search engines.
14. Make proper use of relevant images in gif, jpg, or png formats that allow alt text support the online visibility efforts.
15. If you want your text to be crawled and indexed, don’t add it within images or flash elements.

Web Design and Marketing Elements

16. Use clear call to action to ask users to proceed on conversion. You can read more about this in the article “6 Tips for effective call to action”. 17. Make it as simple as possible for the user to understand the process of the conversion.
18. Add value to your website by featuring engaging content that enables users to interact, comment or share.
19. Make the content shareable by incorporating in your design the social media buttons.
20. Use appealing and descriptive images.
21. Always perform a cross culture check for multinational websites. Don’t forget that the menu, in some languages, requires more space than it does in English. Have this in mind before creating the design.
22. Make sure you reserve space for ad banners and don’t forget to use the Standard ad sizes.
23. Use suggestion plugins to provide options to the user and help him visit pages with relevant information.
24. An attractive and user friendly design is more likely to attract links, to rank better, to reduce bounce rate and to increase the average time on site.

Technical aspects of SEO friendly Website

25. Don’t build full flash websites. Use JavaScript and jquery plugins to achieve the same effect when possible. 26. Avoid using flash for navigation.
27. Avoid the excessive use of JavaScript and AJAX. They should be used to improve the user experience (achieve flash-like effects etc) but they should not be required in order to view the website. Keep in mind that some mobile devices have problems with javascript.
28. Make sure that the design fits to the standard screen resolution. Typically you should design the websites for 1024×768 screens. Also you can use your Google Analytics statistics to see what screen resolution is used by most of your visitors.
29. Test various browsers to ensure the proper rendering of your design and make your site cross browser.
30. Deactivate flash and other plugins to see the content as a search spider does. Alternatively you can use the Spider View feature of the Web SEO Analysis tool.

Last but not least you should not forget that the ability to understand and recognize what is best for the users, instead of focusing only on search engine bots, is what will help you improve your conversion rates and increase your sales. A good design, a well written content and a solid SEO campaign can coexist in within the same website.

Posted by dimitriszotos

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Optimize Your Google Places Page

A Google Places page is a free Web marketing service that businesses can use to describe their products and services and list their hours of operation, business address, phone number, email address, and website URL. You can (and should) add photos and videos to your Places page, too, and customers can add reviews.
Google Places pages often appear at or near the top of search results for a localized search query, such as "San Francisco career counselor" or "physical therapist Somerville, Ma." This is where you want your business to show up in a local search -- at or near the top of Google Places pages results for your category and location.
Google Places pages shown in search results are accompanied by a red push pin that shows the business's location on a corresponding map. From the search results page, Google users can click to go right to a business's website, access reviews of the business, or read its Places page.
In some cases, the search results will also show the address and phone number for a Google Places page listing, along with snippets of reviews posted directly to Google or sites such as Yelp and CitySearch. On many mobile phone web browsers, you can even click the phone number to call a business directly from the search result page that displays the business's Google Places listing; now, on to the tips.

10 Tips to Improve Your Google Places Page

1. Creating a Google Places page listing helps you rank higher in local search results.

Google emphasizes Places pages in its localized search results, both on computer and mobile browsers. If you don't have a Places page, you're hurting your chances of rising to the top of the first page of search results, which is prime real estate. It only takes a few minutes to set up a Google Places page, so there's really no reason not to do it if your business serves local customers.

2. Add keywords to your business description.

A Google Places page lets you describe your business in up to 200 characters. Make sure you use your most important keywords -- but don't just stuff keywords in. Write a useful, compelling description that will appeal to readers first and to Google second.

3. Have multiple locations? Create a Google Places page for each one.

For each Places page, list each location's local phone number and address, rather than a corporate headquarters address or toll-free phone number. Using a post office box can cause Google to remove your Places page. If your business services many locations but has only one physical address, it's best to simply create one Places page for your actual location and then add the areas you service to your listing.

4. Use standard categories when possible to describe your business.

When building your Google Places page, you can list up to five different categories to describe the products or services you offer. Using standard category descriptions, such as "Internet Marketing Service" rather than custom descriptions, such as "Social Media Marketing," will help your Places page rank better in search results.

5. Don't add a keyword to your Google Places page's business name if it's not actually part of your business's name.

For example, your business is physical therapy but your business name is, say, Joe Schmoe Pain Management. If you list your business name as Joe Schmoe Physical Therapy on your Google Places page, Google might actually push your listing down in relevancy. (Google is smart and always on the look-out for people trying to game the system.)

6. Encourage satisfied customers to add reviews to your Google Places page.

It's easy for them to do, and it helps flesh out your Google Places listing. Even better, ask customers to rave about you on Yelp, CitySearch, and similar review sites on which you're listed. If you own a B&B, for instance, ask happy customers to post a review on TripAdvisor. The reason: Many SEO experts believe having citations from trusted sources like Yelp, CitySearch, and TripAdvisor can help boost your Google Places page's ranking in local search results.
Bottom line: Try to get as many positive -- and legitimate -- reviews posted to your Google Places, Yelp, CitySearch and other listings. The Local SEO Guide blog has compiled a list of the top 10 reviews sites for improving Google Places page rankings.

7. Space out reviews as much as possible.

It's best to get a steady stream of reviews, rather than having a bunch appear all at once. Again, the search engines are always on the lookout for spam, hoaxes, and frauds and may see a sudden surge of reviews as suspicious. At worst, this might cause Google to push your Place page down in search results.

8. Get your business listed in appropriate online business directories.

Listings of your business in directories such as Local.com, Yellowpages.com, your local city's chamber of commerce, or a directory affiliated with your profession can help boost your Place page's ranking.

9. Add images and videos to your Places page.

You can add up to 10 photos and up to five videos for free. SEO experts don't uniformly agree that adding photos and videos per se helps boost your Places page ranking. But some believe geo-tagged photos and videos in particular may give you a bump. At a minimum, photos and videos can make your Places page more appealing to potential customers.

10. Monitor your Places page analytics.

Make it a point every so often to log in to your Places page account. You can learn the top search queries that caused users to see your listing and how many clicks occurred to your website over the past week or month. The information isn't nearly as comprehensive as what you get with Google Analytics, but it's helpful nonetheless. You can have analytics automatically emailed to you as well.

Written By James A. Martin
Original Post is Published Here - Web Marketing: 10 Tips to Optimize Your Google Places Page

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Facebook Mistakes to Avoid as a Brand

Below are some common Facebook mistakes you’d be wise to pass up -

Mistake: Creating a Profile Page instead of a Brand Page

Because Facebook was created on personal profiles, many business owners still think a profile is what they need to promote their business. But it’s not. If you identify with any of the following, you’ll want to create a Facebook Page, not a Facebook profile.

I noticed this mistake a lot while doing competitive research for a political candidate recently. Several of the candidates had personal profiles instead of built out pages. The problem there is that it’s extremely limiting in the features available. Facebook profiles have friend caps, require you to manually approve friends, and are closed off from the rest of the Web. Brand pages, on the other hand, are open, media rich and allow anyone (and as many anyones) to like and promote the brand. Unless you’re creating a Facebook account solely for yourself with no business intent, use a Brand page, not a profile.

Mistake: Cutting Off Wall Interaction

You’re on Facebook to create a hub of interaction between you and potential customers. To do that, you need to let them speak and interact with you. You cannot enter social media and then attempt to hide by turning off your wall functionality.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the appeal. A lot of people prefer to talk to an audience that can’t talk back. But that’s not social media and it’s counterproductive. If you want a social presence, allow yourself to be social. Let people post on your wall, let them respond to what you’re saying, maybe even let them upload their own content. The more you get them talking to you and to each other, the greater the experience you’ll be able to create and the more your brand will benefit.

Mistake: Interacting Without A Plan

Social media is informal. But that doesn’t mean it’s so informal you don’t have to plan for it or that you can pop in and out of Facebook at whim. You need to create a social media plan that will dictate the types of content and conversations you’ll be using Facebook to push. Once you know what you’re hoping to get out of it, structure content around it. Know how often you should be posting, what days of the week get the most activity, and the types of material that people like to share. For example, in his Science of Facebook Marketing presentation, HubSpot scientist Dan Zarrella found that weekends are most friendly for Facebook sharing and that users prefer video more than Twitter users do. This is all important to know because it can help you plot your course.

Mistake: Leaving Your Page For Death

You know other reason it’s good to have a plan for your interactions? Because when you leave it to chance, it tends not to get done. And then your page dies a pathetic social media death.
On Facebook, regular interaction is even more important because of the EdgeRank algorithm that determines what content is shown and what gets ignored. Everything you put out receives a quality score. If you have a low post quality score – meaning people don’t tend to comment on your posts, they don’t get liked/shared — then your content won’t make it into a user’s News Feed. Because of that, it’s really important that you’re using Facebook to share engagement-worthy content.

Mistake: Being Argumentative

Never resort to fighting with your fans on Facebook. I know. You’re thinking what business in their right mind would get into public arguments with their customers? Who does that? Well, Nestle did. Cooks Source Magazine did. And they’re not alone. However, you can be smarter than all of them. Crazy bully isn’t a long-term business strategy, so instead you need to learn how to respond to negative reviews and comments

Mistake: Being Boring

You know what’s a really sucky Facebook strategy? Doing the same thing on Facebook every day. As a small business owner you can use Facebook to poll your audience, ask questions, post pictures, upload video, have contests, get people to check into your business, create Facebook deals, and to BE PERSONABLE – why wouldn’t you take advantage of every part of that? Get creative. When you post the same type of content or indulge in the same kind of interactions, you make it really easy for people to scan over you. Again, that’s going to affect your TrustRank score and whether or not you appear in a users Feed.
Written by Lisa Barone - the Chief Branding Officer of Outspoken Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.
6 Things NOT to Do On Facebook As a Brand

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Ways to Optimise Your Site for Speed

I’ve listed 30 ways to optimise your site for speed below: I’ll start with the obvious ones which  many people nonetheless tend to forget these days, as they use fast connections themselves.

Media

1. Use smaller images – while images are not a problem for most Broadband users, they will still slow a site down significantly. You can resize and compress the same .JPG image so that it’s 50kb instead of 200 and still bring the point across. A very simple program like IrfanView can do it for you.

2. Use fewer images or gallery scripts instead – unless your site is about images, you don’t need to load several images at once. For more than a few images you can use gallery scripts.

3. Use fewer Flash animations or elements – you don’t use Flash as a web design element these days. Flash is used for webware, audio and video players, but most animations and Flash enhancements are obsolete by now.

4. Don’t use video – do you really need to load this video on your homepage? Consider video an additional asset that you show on demand on an extra page.

5. Don’t use audio – the worst thing to do on the Web is autoplay an audio file. I have a special tool that blocks unwanted music installed. In all other instances you can stream it on demand once the user clicks on it.

Files

6. Make fewer http requests – some simple websites send a hundred or more http requests; that means for each tiny image or script the site sends a request to the server. Consider whether you need each of the requests.

7. Merge image, style and script files – the most obvious way to limit http requests is to merge files. Having several CSS or Java Script files is, in many cases, not needed anyway. Use so-called CSS sprites to merge images.

8. Server side compression – you can compress files using Gzip or PHP.

Scripts

9. Use external scripts – don’t use inline scripts in actual HTML pages. Use external script files, or even better just one file.

10. Use short names for variables, functions and the like – a function like removeelementfromgroup() can be called refg() as well.

11. Use object oriented programming – OOP provides reusable script elements which you have to define once and can use all over your site instead of redefining them for each function etc.

12. Don’t use several redundant JavaScript libraries – while Java Script libraries provide great OOP elements you can reuse, I see more and more sites using several JS libraries at once, despite the fact that those libraries provide basically the same features.

13. Don’t use font replacement – font replacemnt tools for headlines look neat, but they are  either built in Flash or in Java Script or both, and require considerable resources.

14. Cache your AJAX – apparently it’s quite easy to cache AJAX in order to save time on repetitive requests.

Web hosting

15. Switch to a faster server – SEOptimise switched to a faster server, or rather web hosting provider, a while ago. The old one was slowing down the site significantly.

16. Use a local server – take at a look at your analytics and find out where most of your users come from. Then host your site there instead of sending them to the other end of the world each time.

17. Use cloud hosting – shared hosting, or even dedicated servers, are fine most of the time but under a heavy load they become slow or can even time out. Cloud hosting, at least theoretically, does not, as your content is spread across many servers as is possible or needed in case of a large spike in traffic.

18. Use CDN – so-called Content Delivery Networks combine some of the advantages of local and cloud hosting. In a CDN, content is served from a server physically in the vicinity of the request.

Code

19. Load external scripts at the bottom – back in the day, you had to add Google Analytics to the head of an HTML page. So when GA was down, the whole page didn’t load. Make sure you load external scripts at the bottom of the page whenever possible.

20. Clean up your code – every site I check has some redundant code; sometimes even whole parts are not used, or they are enclosed in a comment. Clean up everything you don’t really need.

21. Don’t use tables – back in the day, people used tables to structure page content. With CSS and web standards this way of using HTML became obsolete, but many people (or rather programs) still do it to this day. Consider replacing tables with lists and layers (divs) to save lots of redundant code.

22. Compress your scripts (by removing white spaces in script files, for example) – even the most effective files still have lots of white space which enlarge them unnecessarily. While HTML and CSS may be a bit more difficult to compress, it’s easily done with scripts.

Databases

23. Don’t do URL rewrites – clean URLs are very important for SEO and usability, but it can increase the load time. Consider using clean URLs from the start instead of merely rewriting them. Also, Google can now index dynamic URLs that aren’t too complex. Something like shop?p=shoes&b=adidas&s=45 gets treated like shop/shoes/adidas/45.

24. Make fewer requests – again, you can save time by sending fewer database requests, especially for popular websites. For instance, you could use the same field for the html title tag, h1 and alt attribute of the header image. That’s one request instead of three.

25. Cache files as static data – instead of building each page for every user, each time you can save pages as static files – aka cache them. WordPress has a plugin for this WP Super Cache.

External services

26. Don’t activate Gravatar – sadly, Gravatar, which is used on WordPress by default, sends lots of requests. Even the default graphics are unique for every user who comments on your blog. You can save a lot by dumping Gravatar.

27. Don’t embed Facebook elements – while including Facebook tools on your page makes your content more shareable, you have to think twice before doing it. Do you have a significant audience on Facebook? Facebook tools loads dozens of elements to your site. Even Twitter buttons can slow down your site.

28. Use fewer web analytics tools or self-hosted ones – I have to admit I’m a web analytics junkie; I use Google Analytics, Piwik, Woopra, Reinvigorate on my sites at once. That’s a risk, of course; whenever one of them takes longer, your page does as well.

29. Use the faster Google Analytics embed code – there are at least two ways to include Google Analytics in your pages:  the traditional one and the asynchronous one. The latter loads data in the background without halting your page load.

30. Don’t integrate third party widgets – widgets are all the rage now, especially third party ones. You can add all kinds of widgets to your site. Most of them are not really earning you money, while they increase load time.

Posted by Tad Chef

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Solution to PPC Campaign If It Is Not Driving Any Traffic

By carefully analyzing why you’re not driving traffic and cycling through these exercises given below, there’s a good chance you’ll find that missing traffic you’d been counting on in setting up your campaign. And if none of these work: beware the galaxy effect and start to work to expand your keyword universe.

If you’re a PPC campaign manager you’re probably at least somewhat familiar with this sequence:

• Do a painstaking amount of keyword research and segmentation, carefully crafting twenty or so nicely targeted ad groups.
• Create two to four ads for each group, ensuring that they speak to the searcher’s intent and map well to the messaging on your landing page
• Create landing pages that speak to different types of queries
• Research the best bids for the initial campaign using some of the Google tools and/or your own data and experience with the niche
• Check your campaign settings
• Set things live!
• No one comes

It’s a bit like spending months and months prepping a restaurant for a big opening that no one shows up to.
Since one of the major advantages to paid search advertising is the immediacy of the data and results available to you remedying this lack of data in a way that will get you quality impressions and clicks quickly is crucial. We’ll take a look at some things to look at dials to turn in attempting to get some quick feedback from your freshly created PPC campaign.

Diagnosing Your Issue

We’ll assume for the sake of this post that you’ve already done your due diligence in researching keywords and identifying opportunities using some of Google’s tools to identify opportunity and potential volume. Even using these tools, however, you might not see the traffic you’d anticipated. The first questions to ask are:

• Are Your Bids High Enough? – You might not be bidding enough to have your ads actually show. There are a couple of good metrics to look at here to get a quick idea of whether bids are the cause of your ads not showing:
  • Average Position – If your average position is lower than seven for the campaign, there’s a good chance many of your ads are rolling off the first page and/or that the impressions you’re getting are in lower positions that aren’t likely to get clicked.
  • Impression Share – You can look at your impression share metrics to give you an idea of whether your ads are actually being seen by searchers. Look at your IS by Rank to get an idea of whether bid may be impacting your ad getting shown.
• Are You Having Quality Score Issues? – If you’ve looked at your IS by Rank and your average position and they’re both low, that may mean you’re not bidding enough. However it may also mean you’re having Quality Score issues. Take a look at the aggregate Quality Scores for your keywords (preferably weighted by impressions – if you don’t mind giving up your Email there is a free handy spreadsheet to help you with this in WordStream’s Quality Score Toolkit).
• Are Your Ads Compelling? – The best metric to tell you whether or not you’re having a problem with your ad text is click-through rate. Take a look at your CTRs – two indications that they should be higher are poor Quality Scores (see above for diagnosis of this issue) or that they’re lower than many of the click-through rates in other areas of your campaign (there’s no blanket “good” or “bad” click-through rate, but often if your CTR is below 1% that may be an indication that there’s a problem).
• Are Your Match Types too Restrictive? – You certainly don’t want to indiscriminately use broad match in your campaigns, but to get some initial feedback you might consider whether you can implement more use of less restricted match types that you’d initial intented.

So now hopefully you have a better grasp on why you’re not getting the traffic you expected. What do you actually do about it?

Coming Up with a Solution

The next step is to take action against the problem area. Depending on what your issue is, there are a number of different tacts you can take, including:

• Increasing Bids – You certainly don’t want to be “bidding to position” without regard for return, but if you’re really not seeing any traffic yet and you seem to have solid Quality Scores (solid here basically being 5 or better – 7 is also enough when it comes to Quality Scores).
• Rethinking Your Campaign Structure – So what if you run through your account’s Quality Scores and you really are having issues there. One possible solution is to re-think your campaign structure: tighten your Ad Groups to contain fewer keywords (drive for 20 in a group, or if you’re already there, segment even more aggressively). Also look at the keywords that you have grouped together: do they really fit? How tightly themed are they? Can you write one great message that speaks to all those different terms and layers of intent?
• Optimizing Your Ads – If you have issues with either Quality Scores or click-through rates, you should definitely consider testing your ad copy – start with big ideas and drive down to smaller elements like your display URLs.
• Consider Less Restrictive Match Types – Again it’s important not to get carried away here, but take a look at whether or not you can move to phrase, modified broad match, or broad match from a more restrictive matching option to generate more traffic.

This article is taken from www.searchenginejournal.com, written byTom Demers . Look at the original post here:
My PPC Campaign Isn’t Driving any Traffic: What Next? | Search Engine Journal

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Use Regular Expressions to Group Keywords in Google Analytics

Below are the five Regular Expressions shared with the team:

1) | (pipe) – OR. This is the one you’ll need 98% of the time!!
Looking at SEER’s Google Analytics profile, many of our terms come from people searching for “SEER” or for “Wil.” To see searches that contain either “Wil” or “SEER,” use the pipe: seer|wil Everything that contains either of these two terms will come back.

2) ^ (carat) – Starts with.
^seer finds keywords that start with “seer,” so “SEER Interactive” would match, but “thinkseer” would not.

3) $ (dollar sign) – Ends with. This is the opposite of the carat.
interactive$ finds keywords that end with “interactive,” so “SEER Interactive” would match, but “SEER Interactive Philadelphia” would not.

4) ? (question mark) – Last character can be ignored.
There are almost always going to be variations in how people search for your brand name. I see a lot of people searching for us as “SEER Interactive” but others searching for “seerinteractive.” I want to catch both, and the question mark makes that easy. Using seer ?interactive tells GA that we want all instances of “SEER Interactive” with or without the space.

5) + (plus sign) – Last character can be repeated.
Know how many people have searched for Wil as “Will” in the last month? Whether they spell it “Wil” or “Will,” the searcher is still looking for the same person. Using the plus sign can help us here. wil+ will find the person searching properly for “Wil” but will also catch “Will,” or even “Willlll.”

These can be paired up, made into Includes or Excludes, used for advanced filters, and utilized for segments. As an example, if I wanted to look at people searching for “SEER Interactive” or “ThinkSEER,” both with and without spaces, with out any longtail, and with people who accidentally used 1 or 3 “e’s” in SEER, I’d use this: ^se+r ?interactive$|^think ?se+r$

Read the original post written by Rachael here: Using Regular Expressions to Group Keywords in Google Analytics | Seer Interactive SEO Blog

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HTML Title Tags For Humans, Search Engines

What Is An HTML Title Tag?

Let me go back to the basics. The title tag is a section of HTML code that every page should have. It declares what the page’s title is.

For example, here’s the title tag for the Search Engine Land article I wrote earlier this year, Some SEO Advice For Bill Gates:

The section of a web page. Other content may also appear in the header area, including meta description tags, the canonical tag, special tags for Facebook and much more. In my example above, I’ve eliminated much of what’s in the head area so that we can focus on the title tag.

How Is An HTML Title Tag Used?

Every page can have an HTML title tag, but how that tag is used can vary. Most browsers will show the title in the reverse bar at the top of the browser window. Below, I’ve showed how that “Some SEO Advice For Bill Gates” article that I mentioned appears in Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox:

Chrome is also shown in the illustration above. Rather than use the title in the reverse bar, Chrome uses it at the top of the “tab” for each page it displays. The others also do this in addition to using the title at the top of the browser window overall.

Title Tags Versus Headlines

The HTML title tag is often used by many blogging systems and other content management software as the main headline for a web page. Again, here’s that page I used as an example:

You can see how the HTML title tag is also being used as the main headline on the page.

This is common, but it is not required. For example, here’s a recent New York Times article that attracted much attention about a merchant who believed that being mean to customers was helping him rank better on Google:

Notice how the title tag, which is used at the top of the browser window, is different from the main text on the page.

Title Tags For Bookmarking

When you bookmark or make a page a favorite in your browser, the title of the page will be suggested as name of the bookmark (generally, you can edit the page name before saving). Here are the two articles I’ve mentioned above, as bookmarked in Firefox:

The title tag will often be suggested as the text used to record a page with social sharing sites, such as Delicious:

Here’s another example at Digg:

Title Tags As Displayed By Search Engines

Search engines make use of title tags in two ways: for display purposes and for ranking purposes. In John Gruber’s article today, Title Junk, he gets upset about title tags that produce a bad display or readability situation. He’s correct, on some fronts. He also suggests that title tags play no role in ranking. He’s dead wrong, in that regard.

Let’s talk about display first. Below is a search on Google for seo advice:

You can see my article listed. The headline of the listing matches the page’s HTML title tag. In most cases, the listing will do this. Not always.

When Google Ignores Your Title Tag

In some relatively rare cases, Google will make use of the Open Directory’s headline for a page. Similarly, if a page lacks a title tag, Google may create a listing title by looking at common text used to link to that page. Additionally, Google sometimes decides to craft a listing’s title by combining text from a title tag, text from links, text from the page, the domain name or other methods that it decides is best.

As a site owner, I hate this. I want Google to use whatever page title I give it. Google argues back that it has to be creative, especially in cases where people have failed to provide titles. I’ve argued in the past that as a solution, Google should provide site owners with some type of “yes, I’m really really sure” meta tag to declare that they absolutely want their pages titles to be used. I’ve not won that argument. But, at least, Google will obey the NOODP meta tag and not use Open Directory titles, if you object to that.

Good Titles Versus Too Many Keywords

One of the things Gruber is upset with are titles that seem “sloppy” or filled with “junk.” Perhaps the best example of overload is MSNBC, which has this title tag:

Breaking News, Weather, Business, Health, Entertainment, Sports, Politics, Travel, Science, Technology, Local, US & World News – msnbc.com

Gruber writes:

Who are these title-junk keywords aimed at? Google? Do you they really think that putting “breaking news” in their home page title makes it more likely that Google will rank them higher when people search for that term? It’s like they’re taking advice out of an SEO book from 1995.

I’ve actually been doing SEO since 1995 and writing advice about it since 1996. I can tell you that my advice from back then wasn’t to shove in a billion keywords like this. From April 1996:

Focus on the two or three keywords that you think are most crucial to your site, then ensure those words are both in your title and mentioned early on your web page.

So I agree. I think MSBC is overdoing it. It has 12 different news topics that the home page’s title tag is targeted. Really, it should focus on only two or three topics. But I’ll get back to this more when I talk about ranking issues.

How long is too long? Google and Bing don’t really care. If you have a long title, they’ll simply truncate the excess, like they do in this case for a search on breaking news, which brings up MSNBC:

Some, like Gruber, may feel having a title cut short like this is ugly. Some searchers might not care. I’ve never seen studies that say one way or the other. Personally, I’d prefer titles that fit. But ultimately, I’m not writing my own titles to precisely fit within the space that Google and Bing will display (about 70 characters at both places).

Site Name In The Title Or Not?

Gruber also offers suggestions on what he views as the only sensible formula for creating page titles. These are to show:

• Name Of Site –Headline
• Headline — Name Of Site

I’ll provide an simpler formula:

• Show what you think is important to your potential reader

Do you think that your readers need to know the name of your site on each and every page? I don’t. Not for my site. That’s why we don’t put Search Engine Land into the title of all of our articles.

For example, here’s a search on Google for pages from Search Engine Land about SEO. Most of these are articles, features and columns that we’ve written. None of those types of pages carry our site name in the title tag:

Search Engine Land has what I believe to be a good brand in the search marketing space. I suppose putting our name in the title of each article might further resonate with those who do a search at Google and know our brand. However, I also know that people will also look at the entire listing, and the name of our site is included in our URL.

More important, I expect many people who search for the content we provide do NOT know our brand. They’re new to search marketing, and I think a short, focused title will be more likely to attract them to visit. So, in our case, we leave off our site name.

That’s not in every case. For example, we have a number of guides about popular search topics. In those cases, we deliberately want our brand to be known, so we include that in the page title:

Over at the New York Times, that publication clearly feels having its brand in the title is important, which is why you see it in its titles, tucked at the end:

In the last listing, “NYTimes.com” is in the title. It just doesn’t show, because it’s at the end, and the title gets cut off.

Ultimately, You Decide What’s Best About Titles

What exactly you put into your title ultimately depends on what you decide is best — not what I personally think is best, not what John Gruber personally thinks is best. No one will know your site and your visitors better than you (assuming you’re a diligent publisher). Advice can be good, but advice from afar can also lack specific insight.

Going back to Gruber’s advice, the idea of some type of template that you use for most of your pages does make sense. Do you want your site to be listed in the title or not? Make a deliberate decision about that. List it first or last? There have been debates on what’s best in this regard (or even if it’s required) that go back for years. There’s no definitive answer.

I will suggest that when it comes to home pages, they’re special. If you’re a known brand, in a space where there may be brand confusion, especially consider adding the word “official” to your title tag. Yes, others could pretend to be official as well. But they usually don’t, and you’ll usually come first.

While adding “official” doesn’t make sense for every page, it does make sense that every home page should be focused around one to three key terms that you hope the entire web site will be found for. Your most important terms. They go in your title. They do help with ranking. Leaving them out is like handing out a blank business card.

Yes, Virginia, Title Tags Do Help With Rankings

I’ve been writing about SEO for nearly 15 years now. I’ve moderated around 50 “Ask The Search Engine” sessions at conferences with reps from the major search engines. Consistently, from SEOs and search reps alike, title tags are consistently said to and found to have a ranking impact, when this question comes up.

For example, keyword in title tags were found to be the fourth most important SEO factor in SEOmoz’s ranking factors survey in 2009. Google has written about the importance of titles on its Webmaster Central Blog. Google also offers an SEO Starter Guide. I’ll get back to more advice from it in a moment — as well as a link to it — but the guide says:

A title tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is.

The tag tells users about the topic from a display perspective. It tells search engines from a relevancy ranking perspective. A descriptive title helps the search engine know what the page is about, which in turn can help the page rank for the key terms in the title.

The title tag is not the only thing Google uses. It quite famously has over 200 signals that it contemplates. Bing similarly has a complicated recipe or “algorithm” that it uses to analyze which pages should rank tops. Yes, pages will rank well even if the key terms are not in their titles. But having key terms within a page title can help, and it is recommended as a good SEO practice.

Getting Focused

Going back to MSNBC, a good SEO practice would mean breaking its title tag down to the most important topics, maybe:

Breaking News, Politics, Sports & More From MSNBC.com

If MSNBC wants to be found for other topics like “weather” or “business,” it has other pages within the site that can do the heavy lifting for those topics.

Then again, while Gruber might not like how MSNBC’s long title looks and makes an assumption that having “breaking news” in the title doesn’t help MSNBC rank, the site IS showing up for that term:

In fact, EVERY page in the top results for breaking news makes use of those words in their page titles.

Of course, you could argue that it’s natural that the most relevant sites for breaking news would use those words in their page titles. If they suddenly dropped those words, maybe they’d retain their ranking. Maybe. Or maybe not. But when Google — and Bing — and scores of SEOs tell you that title tags matter, why on earth wouldn’t you create a short, descriptive title for your home page that encompasses what it’s about?

If Books Get Good Titles…

So when Gruber writes:

Surely, the name of the site should be the first thing (and in many cases, the only thing) in the title of the home page.

I have to disagree. It’s like saying that the title of a book should only be the author’s name. A web site is like a book. It deserves a good title, just like a good book does.

By the way, while I’d agree that MSNBC might want to trim its title to be more specific — which could then include having its brand showing — consider this search for MSNBC itself:

Notice the title is “msnbc.com” — but this is the exact same home page that has that long title before. What’s up? This is one of those cases where Google is trying to do the right thing. I searched for MSNBC. Google has changed the title that it shows for the page, probably using patterns of how people link to it, to present a title that Google believes is most relevant.

Some Closing Advice

Goodness knows there are plenty of people who dismiss everything about SEO as junk. SEO is not junk, and people who continue to have that type of knee-jerk reaction are simply ignorant of how search engines work.

If someone cannot distinguish between spam and SEO, if they cannot distinguish between good SEO practices and going overboard, if they write off all of SEO off as nonsense, my advice is to safely ignore anything they have to say. They are effectively web bigots, and you should treat their advice as you would the rantings of any bigot.

I don’t get the impression that Gruber is such a bigot. I think he understands there are good SEO practices and is justifiably upset at some excesses. As I said, I agree with much of that.

However, writing off the importance of title tags period is bad advice. That takes me back to that SEO starter guide from Google (PDF format & the image at the top of this article comes from it). It’s from Google! Unless you buy into a conspiracy that Google is deliberately trying to mislead publishers about the importance of title tags, I think it’s good advice to follow. Here’s what the guide has to say about title tags:

Accurately describe the page’s content

Choose a title that effectively communicates the topic of the page’s content.

Avoid:

• choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page
• using default or vague titles like “Untitled” or “New Page 1″

Create unique title tags for each page

Each of your pages should ideally have a unique title tag, which helps Google know how the page is distinct from the others on your site. using a single title tag across all of your site’s pages or a large group of pages

Avoid:

• using a single title tag across all of your site’s pages or a large group of pages

Use brief, but descriptive titles

Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long, Google will show only a portion of it in the search result.

Avoid:

• using extremely lengthy titles that are unhelpful to users
• stuffing unneeded keywords in your title tags

It’s basically what Gruber wants — short titles that are relevant to the page. No disagreement there. But if you want to “trust the Googlebot to figure it out,” as Gruber writes, then you should also trust that Googlebot does indeed want some help in doing that figuring. That means being descriptive, even on your home page.

This post is taken from SearchengineLand.com written by Danny Sullivan
Writing HTML Title Tags For Humans, Google & Bing

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Will Google Product Kill Online Retailers Who Don’t Have Physical Locations?

Google Products is giving you a choice of purchasing the product online or at a nearby store. In this instance the online stores are listed first – a win for etailers, but the places are just below. The user won’t have to wait for the product to get shipped AND won’t have to pay shipping. Is this going to harm etailers if a user sees a local store right around the corner? And if Google is grouping products according to price now, how important do the number of reviews become? Should sites only go after a few quality reviews to ensure quality products and customer service?
As with many of Google’s changes, I’m usually hesitant to adopt a positive attitude in the beginning. Displaying prices in results as opposed to websites helps a user find the best price, so I understand Google’s reasoning. However, I’m concerned grouping by price will make it harder for sites with a physical location to compete.
What are your thoughts on this? Will this simply create price wars?

How Do You Appear for Nearby Stores?

1. Create a Google Places Account
2. Create a Google Merchant Account

I know, that was simple, but the sign up instructions are a little confusing. Essentially if you have a Google Merchant Account and a Google Places account, you’re in. One caveat, you need to use the same URL for both account listings. Here are Google’s words on how they link Nearby Stores and your Merchant Center account, “The linking between the Google Places account and the Merchant Center account is done based on the website that you provide. If you want to appear in the Nearby Stores feature, please ensure that the URL in both accounts is the same.”
To take it one step further for local businesses, you can create an account with Google Local Shopping, a service that lets users find and buy products that are in stock at nearby locations. This is an application process whereby Google accepts you into the program, and not everyone gets in! So make sure you submit complete and accurate data and feeds for your locations and products.

Read: Google Product Search Displaying Nearby Stores in the US: Will This Kill Online Retailers Who Don’t Have Physical Locations? | Seer Interactive SEO Blog

Google Product Search Displaying Nearby Stores in the US: Will This Kill Online Retailers Who Don’t Have Physical Locations? | Seer Interactive SEO Blog: "Product Search Displaying Nearby Stores in the US: Will This Kill Online Retailers Who Don’t Have Physical Locations?"

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Tips to Inspire Our Audience to Take Action in Social Media

Social media should be executed under the umbrella of a plan with a focus on integrating into the DNA of your business in support of broader goals and objectives.

Ten Tips to Get to Know and Inspire Your Audience:
1. What is the mindset of your audience? Where are they emotionally, mentally, professionally, financially, physically, and possibly even from a geography basis depending on your service offering. Are they under pressure? Are they financially distressed, in the middle of a move, or months away from getting married? The mindset of your audience can unlock many keys to connecting with them emotionally.
Social Media Example: Post a morning and afternoon quote to Twitter and Facebook that relates to where their mindset is.
2. What do they need? How can your product or service feel a need in their life or business?
3. What do they want? This is different than a “need”. They may need to buy a printer, a computer, or the services of an accountant. However, they may “want” a new payroll software system, faster computer for their product development team and list goes on. Understanding the difference between needs and wants can help you not only connect emotionally but also highlight key messages that will resonate with the securities the “need” makes them feel as well as the excitement or fulfillment the securing of the want will fill. They often times are very different emotionally needs and messages that can be leveraged for such value proposition development.
Social Media Example: Execute a poll asking what their top goals or needs are for 2011. You’ll be surprised how many people will answer this question if you simply ask!
4. What could make their life easier? Don’t forget to connect with the person as a human being. Don’t only focus on the business objectives of your audience. Also focus on the individual needs they have as a human being, as a father, mother or friend. Are they worried of losing their job? How can your product or service help them feel more secure in their job? How can you help them enjoy more time off so they can spend it with their family? Knowing their state of mind, needs and desires will help you better understand how you can help better their life.
Social Media Example: Again, ask the question. Execute a poll asking what they dream about. Ask them “what if” types of questions. Ask them what their favorite vacation spots are. Ask them “what if” time was of no constraint, how would they spend their week.
5. How can you help their business be more efficient? How can you decrease costs, increase margins, increase return on investment? How about improving the efficiencies within their sales or customer services departments? Really take the time in this area to understand and validate the core opportunities you have to align your products to their business needs. The better you can do this the higher chance you have at inspiring them to subscribe to your email newsletter, click the Facebook like button or follow you on Twitter! Give them a reason to do such!
Social Media Example: This is where the rubber meets the road in regard to you establishing your thought leadership. Let them know you understand their business. Talk directly to their needs and wants for business. Give them tips, best practices. Offer them white papers. Give your best stuff within your free offers. Don’t hold back. If you do this, then when it’s time for the customer to make a purchase decision you will be one of the first that will come to mind.
6. How can you help them spend more time with their family and friends enjoying life? Who doesn’t wish they had more time to live and enjoy life? If your product can do such, time to let your audience know it can! Don’t be shy in sharing your life enhancing benefits!
Social Media Example: Same thing goes here. If your product helps their life, tell them so. However, don’t focus the message on your product. Focus the message on the benefits and what it can do for your audience!
7. How can you help them achieve their dreams? What do they dream of? Where do they dream of being in one, two, three or five years? Where would they like to be? Who would they like to be with? What do they want to be doing? How would they like to get there? Why do they dream of this?
8. What can help them reach a personal, business goal or dream? What career goals do they have? How can your product or service help them advance in their career? How can it help secure their position within their organization or within the community? Same thing goes for the personal goals. Who do they want to be? Do they need help securing a better job so they can pay their bills, afford to take a vacation, spend more time with family.
9. How can you help them achieve more satisfaction or peace in life and business? What brings them peace? What makes them feel satisfied? If peace for them is keeping their boss off their back then by all means don’t be afraid to include some marketing messages on such. I did this for many years when selling big iron in the high tech “dot com” days. I focused on the role of the IT director and CTO. I zoomed in on how I could help them achieve more, keep the boss off the back. I learned that when I helped them keep their job, kept the boss off their back that their boss also became very interested in our services. He/she would then want to discuss how we could help their organization or department overall. Zooming in on the human being side of business helps you navigage roadways into business opportunites as well as overcome sales obstacles you’d never be able to do otherwise.
Social Media Example: Start a Facebook “keep your boss off your back Friday” event on your Facebook business page. Crowdsource the discussion. Ask them to partiicpate and share the best ways they know to keep a boss off your back. Guess what, in asking such questions in the open social media world not only are you establishing yourself as a thought leader, engaging with your audience, but you are also doing research without having to do a whole lot of work.
10. How can you relate to them? What can you do to relate to them personally and professionally? What do you have in common with them? How can you help them know there are others who struggle with the same challenges? Let them know you are there to help. Celebrate their wins. Be there for them when they face challenges. Be aware of who they are, what they are doing and what they need. The better you can relate to them the better you will know then and can build an authentic relationship with them.
Some additional questions to ask yourself as you’re zooming in on the pain points and goals of your audience:
1. What is the most challenging thing in their biz?
2. What literally drives them nuts each day?
3. What eats away at their Return On Investment (ROI)?
4. What affects foot traffic into their location or storefront?
5. What affects web traffic? How can you help improve web traffic?
6. How can you partner with them for mutual benefit?
7. What is on their list of goals, objectives or dreams they wish they could do but can’t afford?
8. What are the things they have to pay for in business or life but don’t want to?
9. How can you make a menial task fun!
10. How can you help them help their community?
The key is to focus on adding value in every aspect of marketing and communications. Adding value via compelling and relevant information, positive communications and simply “being there” can help you inspire your audience to further connect with you.
We must first inspire our audiences to connect with us. We then build meaningful relationships that are focused on helping our audience achieve their goals. Last we achieve our goal as a result of helping someone else succeed! Inspire – Connect – Achieve
Written By Pam Moore . Have a look here - 10 Tips to Inspire Your Audience to Take Action in Social Media | Social Media Today

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Points To Remember For Local Listings

If you're just starting out promoting your business online then listing yourself on somewhere like Google Places is a great place to begin. It delivers features such as action tracking which allows you to see how many times a user has been interested in your business listing, how often they've clicked for more info on maps, directions or directly on your page.

Confirm Yourself

Type your business name and location into Google place, Bing Local or Yahoo! Local to see if you're already listed.

You probably will be listed on business pages and in directories even if you haven't built yourself a website yet.

If you find you're not present or that your presence isn't terribly strong then these are some good local search starter resources. Be sure to verify your listing.

Since Google draws data from directories, online phone books and business aggregators and this data originally had to be input by hand, often years ago, it's a good idea to check that the address and telephone numbers are correct.

Categorize Yourself

Fill in your categories correctly and fully. The better you describe yourself the better people can find you. You only get five categories and once you start typing you'll be given related categories.

Add as much information as possible, including everything you would want to know if you were looking for a business. Include the opening hours, do you take orders over the phone/internet, whether you take cheques or you're plastic/cash only, all of your contact details, photos of your shop front.

Once that's done you can put pictures on Flickr and videos on YouTube or Vimeo and link them back to your profile on Google Places. Places allows ten photos and five movies.

List Yourself

Getting citations from local business directories can really drive traffic to your Places profile , Again, make sure all information is correct and keep the same format in all of your entries; this will make it easier for your customers to identify you and for your to track any changes that are made either by you or on you behalf.

Promote Yourself

If you have a good rapport with your customers then don't be afraid to ask them to give you a review; you could offer special inducements to people who are willing to say nice things about you or who are frequent visitors. Also see if you can get references and maybe a link from your local chamber of commerce, local news websites, papers and magazines.

Written by Dan Cash

This post is taken from here -
4 Point Local Listings List | Search Engine People | Toronto

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The Real Value of Internal Linking and Why It’s Important

The Value of a Page

Think of each page as an island in itself, the page essentially has 3 attributes and/or characteristics (1) the links to it from other pages (2) the content or topic of the page and (3) the links leaving the page.
Based on those three characteristics each page serves a very specific function in the website. That function is either  (1) to rank as a champion page or preferred landing page or (2) to serve as a hub page or supporting page (to create enough topical relevance) to rank preferred landing pages.
With this in mind, the reason why so many pages plateau in the search engine result pages is due to link attrition or more specifically not having enough link-flow from either (a) the site architecture (b) deep links / inbound links from other websites or more importantly (c) internal links from other critical / semantically aligned pages.

Leveraging On Page Assets

The quickest way to get a page in the top 10 is to get a link from another page already ranking in the top 10 for a semantically relevant keyword or node of relevance.
Here’s the interesting part, you have COMPLETE control over your own pages, their topical focus, how they are linked (with which anchor text, in the primary secondary navigation, breadcrumbs or contextual links (also known as editorial links) from the body of documents in your website; so why wouldn’t you leverage this optimally by segmenting a regiment for your internal links.

The Power of Scaled Content

Taking this a step further, not only can you leverage the collective power of the entire body of documents available within your website; you can create more pages at will to exceed the algorithmic tipping point required to gain enough authority (based on the competitiveness / barrier to entry) for that keyword – on a keyword by keyword basis. We built tools for this (DWS) and for a limited time, you can still gain access before we take it off the menu.

Keyword Campaign Thresholds

For example, if I need to rank for the keyword shoes, with its 606 million competing pages, adding a 10 page website and building some links (no matter how many) is NOT going to create enough relevance to hit page one for the word shoes.
Competitors are there due to the relevance and citation they have acquired over the years. The more competitive the keyword, the more time, content, internal and external inbound links from other sites you need as well as trust and authority to offset your competitors relevance score (tips on building domain trust here).
Going back to the conquest to rank for a competitive keyword “like shoes”, to accomplish this feat, you will need every layer of your website to be semantically relevant to the seed phrase “shoes” and incorporate various keyword modifiers or different makes, models, types and variations.

Selective Segmentation to Augment Link Flow

From there, you will need to structure and segment which pages are critical and what function they serve and how they are connected, i.e. tier one, tier two and tier 3 (meaning landing page, category page or product / supporting article page) and then map out the required internal links, content and implement them seamlessly in the site architecture/hierarchy where they belong – before you start building links.
The more competitive the keyword, the more meticulous the on page optimization should be to offset the tendency for attrition or recession in the SERPs. Selective internal linking and relevant content can augment keyword stemming (where a site begins to rank itself – page by page through themed links and content) without relying solely on inbound links from other websites.

The Internal Link Dynamo: Scalable Expression

However, getting to the point where each page can “rank” another page (like a dynamo that has more than enough energy to keep itself perpetual), requires that those pages are (a) indexed (b) strong enough (meaning linked from enough other internal pages) or (c) has enough deep links (inbound links from other websites to those internal page other than the homepage).
Sure, you can drip content, add products “in the event it’s an ecommerce platform” and chip away at the keyword, but in order to do it effectively you need a themed referential integrity created by creating inherent self referral loops using internal linking as the circulatory system for the lifeblood or link-flow for your pages. This is referred to as theming through siloing (more on siloing here)…

The Synergy of Off Page and On Page SEO

In my testing and 15 years of ranking websites, no amount of links from other websites (inbound links) are complete unless you (a) have internal links from the strongest topically aligned pages in the website to augment the preferred landing page or (b) have managed to get PageRank to that page (as an indicator of citation) so it can fend and defend itself amidst competitors vying for the same position.
Internal links can:

• Strengthen a page to withstand attrition
• Rank a page for competitive or less competitive shingles “groups of words” once it has achieved buoyancy for those keywords itself.
• Index new pages which can support even more pages eventually as they mature

The takeaway here is without “proper” internal linking, you are only achieving half the results you could without them. So, before you are tempted to go out and buy links “like JC Penny” in an attempt to bully your way to the top of search engines, create a robust or authoritative site capable of emanating the authority required to topple each keyword variant “starting from the less competitive keywords, then working your way up”.
Ironically in the JC Penny fiasco, had they invested in content, site architecture and themed internal linking, they could have captured the majority of those competitive keywords due to the sheer volume of content, age and trust of their domain.
You have to build relevance layer by layer to exist outside the wrath of “corrective” search engine algorithms. Everyone has to start somewhere, and once you optimize and see results / traction for the less competitive long-tail and mid-tail phrases, use those pages (like punches in bunches) in tandem with internal linking and site architecture to funnel critical link-flow to your primary category and landing pages, which in turn feed product pages and become stronger.
Your website is only as strong as your weakest link, so, the more pages you have “that are indexed and aging” and “linked appropriately or exclusively with the anchor text that page is intended to rank for” the easier it rises to the top unchecked by competitors as a result of the collective weight of the relevancy of your websites authority using a fragment of the off page links than if you hadn’t.

This entry was written by Jeffrey Smith

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All My Faves | Blogs Visual Directory

All My Faves is the Ultimate Homepage

We like to keep it simple. Why search? is the essence of AllMyFaves' philosophy. We believe the Internet should be an inspiring, easy and free experience for everyone. We, too, think that there must be an appealing and simple alternative to traditional Internet navigation. That is why we have taken up the task of simplification so that end-users could find what they're looking for quickly, whether they are interested in Entertainment, Games, Kids, Shopping, Travel or anything else. With AllMyFaves, users can smoothly cruise on the vast Internet highway without wasting valuable time or having to sieve through irrelevant search results.

Our visual platform not only directs users to their sought-after information fast but also introduces them to new and exciting sites, both of the same and different categories. We achieve this through a strict selection process and a back-and-forth dialogue among the AllMyFaves team members. This way, AllMyFaves acts as a pioneering force of Internet browsing, searching and learning, thereby offering nothing but the absolute best of what the web has to offer. Today, when much of the searches we perform produce considerable numbers of spam, fraud and aggregation sites, we feel someone needs to step up and sift through the Internet so that Internet users' experience is a positive, to the point and no-nonsense one. AllMyfaves has a calling and we're dead set on doing it right. What a better way to do so than by the use of the human brain.

History and Approach

Back in 2006, Shachar Pessis grew frustrated by the cumbersome and convoluted nature of the Internet. To find something on the web, he had to type in URLs, use his ever-increasing list of bookmarks, enter key words in search engine boxes, or be acquainted with an Internet savvy friend who could recommend relevant sites to him. Sure enough, Shachar learned he was not alone: 72.3 percent of adult Americans experience 'search engine fatigue' either always, usually or sometimes when searching for a topic on the web ("The State of Search" - compiled by Autobytel Inc. with Kelton Research, October 2007). Discovering new sites was even more challenging and time-consuming, and rarely did Shachar accomplish this in a fast and easy manner.
Shachar shared his discontentment with Roy Pessis, his brother. Together they came to the conclusion that a better alternative must exist, one that applies to and is shareable by everyone, everywhere. The two brothers then held brainstorming sessions and came up with the AllMyFaves concept. They envisioned a virtual directory that includes a list of top and most visited sites in major daily-used subject categories, a list they knew would introduce new and interesting things to others as it grew larger. Shachar and Roy aimed for a simple way by which users can discover new fields of interest without having to think about these beforehand or surfing the Internet with the initial intent of learning new things.
The AllMyFaves' Internet team scans the Internet for the best and latest sites on the web. Our experts are constantly hard at work in examining the Internet's various aspects, categories and sites. By doing so, we eliminate all the crudeness of the Internet and offer users a purified, virtually distilled version of the web. Becoming a Faves expert is no easy task; new 'fave selectors' who come aboard AllMyFaves go through a personal and ongoing training program in order to perform high quality filtration of the thousands of sites they come across every week. Indeed, we are stern believers in human editing skills versus those of a machine or software.

My Faves

The My Faves feature is one of AllMyfaves' most exciting components (click here to join). Although we do our best in making AllMyFaves your one-stop-shop for all your Internet needs, we do recognize the fact that each user is into different fields of interests and activities. Therefore, we're giving users their own creation powers for free. Once you've signed up and have logged in, you'll have the option of adding your choice of new sites.

Weekly Faves

Updated every Monday, the Weekly Faves are our hand-picked sites for that week. These are the sites we were most impressed by and the ones we wish to pay forward to our users. Think of it as the 'crème de la crème' of the Internet on a weekly basis. Accordingly, the Weekly Faves offer users a little bit of everything each week with the added value of introducing new sites and fields of interest to users.

Weekly Games

Same as our Weekly Faves, the Weekly Games are our hand-picked games for that week and we update these every Wednesday. The web offers thousands of online free flash games but only a small percentage of these is actually worth spending some time on. Our games experts play games online all day (hey, someone needs to do the dirty work...) and provide you with only the best ones. We must give you the heads up though: entering the Weekly Games page might result in long hours of participation on your part. To see what games we've picked for our previous Weekly Games, you can either click on the Games tab on our homepage or simply click here.

All My Faves | Blogs Visual Directory

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Tips to Measure a Search Engine Optimization Campaign

Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals

• Organic search engine traffic
  The most fundamental of all search engine optimization metrics.
• Percentage of traffic from organic search
  This percentage will certainly vary based on the different internet marketing strategies an organization uses.
• Unique keywords sending traffic
  If your organization is continually building new content (that is getting indexed by search engines), this number should certainly increase over time.

Search Engine Optimization Campaign Effectiveness

• Conversions from organic search engine traffic
  There are various goals an organization may define as a conversion. The most important key is to track them regularly.
• Conversion rate from organic search engine traffic
  In particular, in comparison to other internet marketing channels.
• Revenue from organic search engine traffic
  Assuming this metric can (or should) be tracked.
• Percentage of search traffic from non-branded keyword search referrals
  An important metric especially when working with a known brand or product name.
• Revenue from branded and non-branded keywords
  Again, assuming that this metric is appropriate to be tracked.
• Percentage of search traffic from core keyword strategies
  If a core set of keyword targets are defined, establishing the overall visibility of those themes (and the traffic and leads from those themes) is important.
• Keyword rank monitoring
  Keyword rankings should not be the end-all-be-all, but there is certainly a correlation between a better keyword ranking and likelihood someone will click into your website.

Search Engine Optimization Productivity

While raw numbers do not necessarily translate into SEO success, establishing benchmarks for the creation of links, content, and deliverables executed at least help to provide visibility to a search engine marketers plan of action.

• Inbound links research, requested, and acquired (high quality to the head of the line of course)
• Content generated, pages optimized, content reviewed and optimized (IE, keyword strategy applied)
• Unique domains linking to website (in addition to the overall link imprint, a list of websites linking is important)

SEO Trend Analysis

Trend analysis of key SEO metrics provides insight into how well your search marketing strategy has performed over time, and helps to establish goals and benchmarks for future campaigns.

• Month-to-month improvements (declines) in organic search traffic and unique keyword referrals
• Month-to-month improvements (declines) in organic search conversions and conversion rates
• Year over year improvements (declines) in organic search engine traffic, conversions, unique keyword referrals
• Year over year improvements (declines) in keyword visibility (relative position of website for priority keyword searches)

Joanna Lord of SEOmoz has an excellent post providing additional insight and recommendations on how to leverage year over year data successfully.

Competitive Keyword Visibility

We would be remiss if we did not briefly address the need to benchmark against the competition as well. While it is not likely a competitor will provide you access to their own web analytics tools, tracking the ranks of a strategic set of keyword targets is a first step. In later posts we’ll detail SEO competitive analysis in greater depth.

Final Thoughts on SEO Benchmarks

Have we hit every SEO metric possible? Absolutely not. But the recommendations above provide most of the broad-brush benchmarks marketing managers will want to know. Deeper analysis certainly can be done and SEO’s realize there are finer points that may provide additional support or add value to a campaign.
Written by Derek Edmond
18 Ways to Measure a Search Engine Optimization Campaign - KoMarketing Associates

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Questions to Ask When Performing SEO Keyword Research

Keyword research is the life-blood of a search engine optimization promotion. Effective keyword research can direct to high quality traffic and leads. Poor keyword research leads to frustration and leaves site owners questioning the value of SEO.

Ask yourself when performing effective keyword research.
Part 1: Keyword Discovery

• Do I understand the value proposition of the website? In my opinion, the basis for effective keyword research hinges on how well one understand the products and solutions a website (an organization) really offers. If you do not have this in place, you are throwing darts blind-folded at a dartboard, hoping they hit their mark.
• Do I understand the value proposition of the page? That sounds simple enough but in reality can be quite challenging. For example, B2B solution pages certainly offer complexity. Not only must one follow the objectives of a solution but how that solution fits into the market.
• How many ways could a visitor search for this content? Part of keyword research is exploring all of the paths a potential customer might use if they wanted to find your web page. Think about synonyms, adjectives, root keywords, etc and then use keyword tools, to uncover approximate search volumes for the possibilities.
• Did I review competition and industry sources? Seemingly obvious but this certainly gets overlooked. Not only can one find keyword targets, but a deeper dive may reveal content strategies and link opportunities as well.
• Did I research and cover the existing copy? Sometimes we (search engine marketing consultants) get so entrenched in detailed keyword research that we forget to evaluate the words the client actually wrote on the page! While marketing speak might get in the way, or obvious in the lack of search potential, it is critical to cover all the bases and come prepared with detail.
• Did I really cover as many ways as possible? And yes, it is always worthwhile to revisit your research a second (maybe third?) time. Take a break, walk away, and dive back in with a fresh perspective.

Part 2: Keyword Evaluation
Now that you have a wide range of keyword opportunities, the next step is making recommendations for what keywords to prioritize.

• Where in the site navigation, is the page located, that I am applying keywords? As a general rule, more competitive terms should get placed in more visible (and viewed) locations. Content buried three or four layers down in a navigational stream rarely stands a chance to rank well for highly competitive keywords, unless it’s meant to attract inbound links or get referenced consistently in other locations.
• Do I understand the type of search results that appear for a particular keyword opportunity? Knowing a keyword is searched regularly and the type of results that currently perform well in search engine results are two different things. In other words…
• Does the content on the page resonate with the intent of the search engine query? Your content needs to be appropriate to the perceived intent. One may argue that search results are not appropriate; that you’re content written is truly what is appropriate. Just keep in mind that that is a tougher hill to climb to achieve success (though it can be accomplished with perseverance).
• How competitive are the sites that rank well for a particular keyword? “Never bring a sword to a gunfight”. Make a realistic evaluation of just how difficult it might be for your page to rank, in comparison to the web pages already ranking well for a particular keyword opportunity. Do you have the right tools, assets, and strategy in place to compete?
• Is there really a better solution for applying a particular keyword? I guess I might be asking the same questions in a different way. However the key is in the understanding of the right direction moving forward. It is better to make a recommendation for new content to be developed, than an attempt to squeeze an indirectly related keyword to an existing page.
• Has a benchmark already been established? The final question is simply where or if the page or website currently ranks for the keyword opportunity. And in relation, how will improvement be defined and/or observed going forward (somewhat rhetorical).

Twelve questions to think about when performing keyword research for search engine optimization.

Written by Derek Edmond
12 Questions to Ask When Performing SEO Keyword Research - KoMarketing Associates

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