| LED Digest 1768: The Local Search Buzz |
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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 adam,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ................................................ March 18, 2004 Issue #1768 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== The Local Search Buzz ==-- ~ David Yancey "Google began Beta-testing their latest attempt at 'local search'..." <Moderator Comment> ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Stand-Alone Optimized Pages ==-- ~ Beth Earle "...in very specific situations, it makes sense to have stand-alone optimized pages created..." ~ A.Brantley "...are multiple domains pointed to your site considered to be 'doorway pages'?" ~ Shari Thurow "I recently wrote a Clickz article on this very topic." --== All About DMOZ ==-- ~ Greg Colin "...have your DNS provider alias the old name to the new one..." ~ Hakon Rian Ueland "...find out who is the meta-editor of the category..." ~ Joanne Cannell "...how do I get DMOZ to correct their listing when there is no editor for a category?" ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Network Solutions' Submit Wizard? ==-- ~ Allen Chou ======= NEW ====================================== From: David Yancey Subject: Google's Local Search As they say, "Imitation is the highest form of flattery"... A few hours ago, Google began Beta-testing their latest attempt at "local search" - you can see it here: http://local.google.com You will notice that Google have essentially copied our search interface (vivante.com). It just demonstrates that we have been on the right track, design-wise. (But the Google Beta does NOT offer the many extra options and tools we have in our "advanced" version.) This new Google Beta produces very crude search results, but, with over US$10 billion in annual local search ad revenues at stake, we can be sure that Google - and Yahoo, Microsoft MSN, AOL and the rest will be making one local-search product "announcement" after another with increasing frequency over the coming few years. This test by Google is actually great for Adjunction and its Vivante.com search concept, since it "validates" my business plan. Even better, locally-focused businesses and websites will soon learn that getting exposure to local prospects via Google / Yahoo / MSN / AOL is very expensive, and will find in Vivante a better-targeted engine that is *much* less costly. Meanwhile, our visitor traffic is climbing steadily, with thousands more new folks coming to Vivante.com everyday... David Yancey <Moderator Comment> This post wasn't actually a post at all, it was just a message from David that he sent out to friends of vivante.com. I'm running it as a post however (I don't think David will mind), because it's a great way to bring in a new topic. News of Google's local search beta has been circulating online, along with Yahoo's "SmartView" aimed at localizing content for users of the service. And if that wasn't enough Superpages.com (owned by Verizon) has been "overhauled to deliver more useful local results" according to this Associated Press story http://snipurl.com/560p [houstonchronicle.com]. Seems like everybody's jumping on this bandwagon. There's a discussion about this on Slashdot http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=100780 that's mostly smarty-pants geeks trying to out-wit one another, but there are a few items of interest. For instance this: -------------------- "This was from the Google programming contest by Chris84000000 "Some might remember this from a while back. This feature's origins come from the Google Programming Contest. They said that the good entries might actually become google features if they had sufficient merit. The winner from 2002 whipped up a prototype geographic search..." http://www.google.com/programming-contest/winner.html -------------------- Also found out about www.mobilemaps.com, which is an open source alternative for localized search. Looks interesting. I'd love to hear your comments about local searching, both the insiders and outsiders! Thanks, Adam ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Beth Ann Earle Subject: Stand-alone optimized pages I finally had to comment on all of the "nevers" concerning stand-alone optimized pages. Obviously, this is sound and wise advice for nearly all of the LED'ers, but it's not the right advice for everyone. My employer started as a business-to-business Internet marketing firm for companies in the rubber and plastics industries. We have a number of clients that are actually rubber- or plastics-specific divisions of large conglomerates. These clients feel their corporate web sites don't provide the necessary lead-generation and branding opportunities for their specific divisions, and, most critically, they can't get any corporate support for changing the main web site to meet their division's needs. Other clients are smaller companies that have sunk a huge amount of money into an ego site that pleases the CEO but does nothing for lead generation or branding. While the marketing manager can't get any support for correcting the on-line monument, they can get approval for a modest Internet marketing project. So, these clients come to us, and we create small web sites for them (usually around 10 pages or so) that mirror the look and feel of their corporate web site but focus on the keywords and concerns of that division. There are usually a number of links back to the main corporate site, along with a bunch of useful information that anyone looking for this client's products or services would be glad to have. All of the pages and sites are written and created following the best and most sound SEO advice available. Overall, these mini sites perform well for our clients -- they rank well on the search engines, and they generate the leads the client needs, plus they often send along a little extra traffic to the corporate site, which is never a bad thing. In a perfect world, yes, you should be able to update and optimize an existing corporate web site -- and the vast majority of LED'ers do have sites they can and should manage and optimize themselves. But, sadly (on so many levels), this isn't a perfect world, and sometimes, in very specific situations, it makes sense to have stand-alone optimized pages created, maintained and promoted by a reputable SEO professional. With many thanks to Adam and all of you who make the LED one of my daily must-reads, Beth Earle ------- new post - same topic ------- From: A. Brantley Subject: Question re Doorway Pages I notice that doorway pages are greatly frowned on by the search engines. My question is, are multiple domains pointed to your site considered to be "doorway pages"? We have changed our domain name a couple of times over the years and simply pointed the old domains to the newer one. Will that cause us to be penalized? Thanks for your help. A.Brantley ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Shari Thurow Subject: Attraction pages Hi all- Wow, this post came just in time. I recently wrote a Clickz article on this very topic. Here's the URL: http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/results/article.php/3325301 It has some links and resources at the end of the article that LED subscribers might find useful. Best wishes, Shari Thurow, Webmaster/Marketing Director ~ Search Engine Visibility book now available http://www.searchenginesbook.com/ ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Greg Colin Subject: DMOZ > I had my website redesigned a few months ago, and the designer > changed my web address from www.kitchendesignbyjoanne.com > to http://kitchendesignbyjoanne.com. - Joanne Cannell, LED 1765 One thing that you could do to avoid losing customers who are getting the old listing in the search results is to have your DNS provider alias the old name to the new one. I dont know if/how that might affect positioning though.. Greg Colin http://www.thearmchairmall.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Hakon Rian Ueland Subject: DMOZ > I'm not sure what your web designer has been telling you, but > www.kitchendesignbyjoanne.com and > http://kitchendesignbyjoanne.com are the same thing. The first > address is missing the http:// and the second is missing the > www. - but these are quite simply the same address. - Paul Baldowski, LED 1766 Paul, Actually, this is not quite correct when speaking of DMOZ. It used to be a common trick that all DMOZ-editors are warned against, submitting with and without www. Also, adding index.html at the end is a way people try to get duplicate listings in DMOZ. It doesn't work well, and it might even get your site banned. Joanne should send the editor of her category in DMOZ a mail, requesting a change and informing them of what has happened. When I still worked there, I always did my best to make people happy ;) And, if this doesn't work, she should find out who is the meta-editor of the category, and mail that person. Best regards Hakon Rian Ueland www.haakon.nu ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Joanne Cannell Subject: DMOZ When my site name changed, along with my site content, I submitted updates to DMOZ that clearly identified the change to my site name, as well as changing the listing to reflect the new content. I know that when someone searches for my site, it is found regardless of whether they enter 'http://www.kitchen...' or 'http//kitchen...', but my question is now how do I get DMOZ to correct their listing when there is no editor for a category? (The top index for the listing that was updated did just get corrected) Joanne Cannell ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Allen Chou Subject: Submit Wizard by Network Solutions? Does anyone have any experience or feedback using Network Solutions' "Submit Wizard Professional Service" ? Did it help with your ranking in the major search engines? Thanks, Allen Chou ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "The hand that rules the press, the radio, the screen and the far-spread magazine, rules the country." - Learned Hand |
