| LED Digest 2038: Google Sitemaps |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest post, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. October 18, 2005 Issue #2038 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== --== Google Sitemaps ==-- ~ Alex Hughart "Supposedly, it should benefit dynamic sites..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== SEO for Unoptimizable Sites? ==-- ~ John Smart "...leave things exactly as they are, and go with paid-for inclusion." ~ Veronica Yuill "There is no reason at all why pages on PHP sites should not have unique titles..." --== SEO is Dead ==-- ~ Michael Martinez "The worst thing about the SEO industry is its inherent conservatism." --== The Google Sandbox Effect ==-- ~ Renee Kennedy "I feel your frustration, there is nothing to be done about the Google Ageing Delay." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Javascript & Menus ==-- ~ Jennifer Thomas --== Views of PayPal ==-- ~ Marty R. Milette ~ Dejan Bizinger ======= NEW ===================================== From: Alex Hughart Subject: Google sitemap Any experiences with Google sitemap submission? Supposedly, it should benefit dynamic sites the most but I'm hesitant to touch anything right before Christmas season. You just never know... Thanks, Alex Hughart www.bonsavon.com ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: John Smart Subject: Unoptimizable sites > Any thoughts on how to optimize for a client who won't > let you touch their web site would be greatly appreciated. - Beth Earle, LED Digest 2036 One option would be a different site. Getting a new domain name (and doing it this way gives you the chance to use just about every trick in the book - no matter if the tricks work, or if the book even exists!) that has the key words in it (WeSellWidgetsToBusiness.com). Use the layout they have on the main site. Add a wealth of content, with healthy, happy meta tags. Alt-tag your images to your hearts content. And link to the main site from every logical place. Another option would be to leave things exactly as they are, and go with paid-for inclusion. I still don't know what I think about this, and have clients who do very well with it, and very badly with it. However, there are many here who know far more than I, perhaps someone else can follow that thought through. (The thought of promoting the paid way - not the thought of many people knowing more than me - I don't think we can follow that thought any further!!) John Smart, InternetDesign.com - A Human Touch in a Digital World ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Veronica Yuill Subject: Unoptimizable sites > For instance, one big issue in PHP sites is > that each page may not have a unique title. - Renee Kennedy, LED 2037 I'd just like to point out that this is not an issue with PHP sites, it's an issue with lazy programmers ;-) There is no reason at all why pages on PHP sites should not have unique titles: all of mine do. Any competent programmer is capable of pulling an appropriate phrase from content held in a database (or another source such as a text file) and inserting it into the title tag. My 2 centimes Veronica Yuill Archetype Information Technology Ltd http://www.archetype-it.com/english/ Dynamic websites for fast-moving businesses ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: Multi-Level Ducks > ... in Canada, 2-tier does not fall within the definition of > MLM under federal law. In the U.S., which lacks one cohesive > federal law... only 4 out of 50 states consider 2-tier clearly > to be MLM. We registered in all of them.... - Ken Evoy, LED 2037 I have read "Make Your Site Sell!". I have not read Ken's other eBooks. The generic advice in MYSS has been freely available on the Web for years, and Ken is not the only person to package and resell advice that is freely given by other people. However, the eBook advises people to sign up with Ken's program so they can sell the eBook to other people who can sign up with his program. And he offers you great marketing tools to help you sell his eBook and sign other people up for the program, who can take advantage of those great marketing tools. Now, Ken's program clearly offers resources (like Web hosting) that people can take advantage of without (so far as I know -- I have not read the contracts) having to promote MYSS or related products and services. I have seen some of Ken's affiliate sites that don't shove MYSS down the visitors' throats. I have seen some that do. I'm not going to get into duck analogies. I'm certainly not going to go on about "borderline slander", but since Ken felt compelled to acknowledge that, yes, the program qualifies as MLM in at least four jurisdictions, clearly I am not saying anything legally or morally wrong. While I fully expect Ken's paying customers to continue hammering me at every opportunity, and to OVERemphasize the 47 jurisdictions that don't define the program as MLM, it's MLM, it's MLM, it's MLM even if it's only 2-tier MLM. Apology accepted, Ken. I won't hold my breath for Steve and the others to retract what they've said. As for SEO, the "visitor-centric content" statement that I did not quote made me "smirk". Dudes, that is what good SEO is all about: creating content for visitors. You just have to go through search engines to get the content to the visitors. Search engine optimization isn't going away, it certainly isn't dead, and it's only just beginning to develop some serious sophistication. The worst thing about the SEO industry is its inherent conservatism. People are reluctant to let go of bad ideologies, but I have noticed some movement and improvement on key issues over the past few months. Ken Evoy is not the enemy. If his customers want to call me names and start flame wars, that is their business. I'll continue to be honest, direct, and blunt. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Renee Kennedy Subject: Google sandbox > The strategy for now is to act as if nothing happened... > but I do hope that the sandbox exists and that in a couple > of months we'll be getting some traffic. - Claudiu Spulber, LED 2036 Claudiu I feel your frustration, there is nothing to be done about the Google Ageing Delay. Just keep adding content, building back links and not worry about it. I do wonder if they have that ageing delay in order to force new site owners to consider using Google Adwords. What I always recommend to clients if they are waiting for a new site to be recognized by Google is to purchase Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing. It's one way to get the site off the ground while waiting for the Search Enginges to find you naturally. Renee Kennedy http://www.e-healtharticles.com: Wanted authors and publishers! ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Jennifer Thomas Subject: Positionable Javascript That Hides a Menu Hello Everyone, I would like to design a website with an external .js file as a menu. I want it to be such that I can make a simple change in that js file and have it reflected as a modification to the menu for the entire site. I currently run a similar site with code from dynamicdrive.com. It has been very good except for one major problem: You cannot position the menu in a table so it can float over the logo, text etc. Instead, it has to be "generally" aligned with page coordinates ( e.g., 100 pixels down, 25 pixels left). On different browsers, it moves a few pixels up and down because of that type of positioning. The reason for the desire to find an external .js menu is that I want to hide the menu from search engine spiders. If you have an alternative, I would be interested in hearing it. The site is to be built in HTML and CSS. I do not intend, at all, to do it in PHP or ASP. A flash menu is a possibility but I am concerned about how many people will be able to see it. In sum, I need a menu that will be positionable within the site and that will be ignored by search engines. Does anyone know of such an item? I have searched and tried numerous software programs but so far nothing worthy has been found. Thanks for your help, Jennifer Thomas ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Marty R. Milette Subject: Paypal > Does anybody have any views on using PayPal > on a commercial site. Is it a turn off? - James Miller, LED 2036 PayPal isn't the only game in town, but one that most merchants should be playing. For my particular type of clients, I find that approximately 50% will use PayPal and the other 50% will use regular credit card. (Keep in mind that you can pay with a credit card through PayPal also.) For credit card processing, I use 2Checkout.com -- and YES they work fine for UK sites. Although not a 'true' "Merchant Account", their service works exceptionally well, has good fraud protection and is the cheapest possible option unless you are doing a LOT of credit card sales. The nice thing about both PayPal and 2Checkout is that they are both relatively easy to set up, cheap, reasonable transaction fees, direct deposit capability and have no monthly or recurring fees. For the 'small guy' both are pretty good solutions. (Compare this with the set-up fees and recurring fees of a 'real' merchant account -- not to mention the retina scan, dna sample and other stuff you need to submit :) International sales are, and continue to be a major problem. I recently ran a seminar here in Russia (http://mastering-google.com) where I asked people to pay with their credit card -- but NONE of the attendees could pay with either PayPal OR 2Checkout. (Even with US-issued credit cards.) PayPal is exceptionally anal about which countries they will permit people to even log in from. 2Checkout seems a bit more enlightened, but can still lose some sales. Marty R. Milette ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Dejan Bizinger Subject: Paypal Paypal can be great for collecting payments. It is used by around 80 million people. Many people like paying via Paypal more than with standard shopping cart option. They are reputable company, part of eBay and you can be sure that they will be long in the business which is very important with this type of companies. However, Paypal can't be used by many people in the world. They say that they have restrictions because of fraud protection. That is OK, but this way they are losing much prospective clients this way, but that is their policy. Unfortunately, there are many people that have bad experience with Paypal. You can make a search on Google about Paypal and you will find those sites. Some merchants offer only Paypal for buying their goods and services. That can be a problem. As I said, Paypal is good, but definitely merchants have to offer different ways to their clients to make payments. In this case more is better. So everyone will choose the best option for them. James, why don't you review some other payment options, as well? I suggest you to visit http://www.2checkout.com, http://www.authorize.net and http://www.ibill.com and see if they have what you are looking. They are also reputable companies and very popular. Using those services, everyone can pay who has valid credit card, there are no restrictions. HTH, Best regards, Dejan Bizinger Infacta :: Email Marketing Solutions http://www.infacta.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "A kind word can warm three months of winter." - Japanese Proverb |
