| LED Digest 1780: Reciprocal Linking is not Dead |
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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 ................................................ April 12, 2004 Issue #1780 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== Reciprocal Linking: Dead or Alive? ==-- ~ Dirk Johnson "Directory-to-directory reciprocal linking...is one of the original forms of website marketing..." --== Cookies and Shopping Carts ==-- ~ Chuck Donner "Does anyone know of any studies on the use of cookies in carts?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== HTML Editors? ==-- ~ Graham Brown "...many regard [Vim and Emacs] as core tools for writing code..." ~ Marty R. Milette "My 'mantra', if you will is: If it doesn't add VALUE, don't use it!" --== Choosing an SEO ==-- ~ Kathryn Martyn "...what good is SEO if the site is poorly designed or the text isn't optimized." --== The Local Search Buzz ==-- ~ John Barendrecht "Do searchers want a local search engine or a local portal?" ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== CSS and Javascript Menus ==-- ~ Richard Graham --== AdWord Analyzer? ==-- ~ Richard Lindner ======= NEW ===================================== From: Dirk Johnson Subject: Reciprocal Linking - Dead or Alive and Well? The SEO pundits seem to be releasing a new wave of "Reciprocal Linking is Dead" articles. A recent one in particular will likely get passed around on the "SEO article re-publication circuit", which now appears to be a "closed-loop" of people who seem to support each other with mutual promotion, as in "If you print my article, I'll print your's, and we can influence a lot more people..." Also, there is now a well-known search forum moderator who could not be more hostile toward reciprocal linking, and this person seems to refuse to even allow any posts that do not support his dogma against linking. LED Digest is emerging as a lone place where the truth is allowed to be presented. Reciprocal linking is not dead. Anyone who thinks it is, based upon these "experts", and then acts upon it for their own site, stands to make a serious error. One could end up spending a lot more money to achieve far fewer results. These recent articles never support with facts the argument that reciprocal linking does not work. Usually there are no facts at all. It is always just opinion, based on flimsy empirical evidence, or just vented frustration. Be very careful when reading this stuff. To determine if directory-to-directory reciprocal linking still works or not, one need not take my word for it (or theirs). Just do the following: Look at some search results (especially Google), and then analyze the link-back profile of the top listed sites. Use the Marketleap.com tool to do it. Invariably, the site with the most links will be at or near the top. And most of those links will come from directory-to-directory reciprocal linking, since that is the way to earn the most links, usually for the least investment. This will not always be the case, but it is the case, in most cases. Another way to find out if directory-to-directory reciprocal linking works is talk to someone who does it diligently for their site, and has done it for a while. Again, the chances are excellent that they will tell you that they plan to keep doing it, because it works, especially from a return-on-investment perspective. The reason that these SEO experts seem to despise linking is because they don't want to have to do it. Doing it right takes effort, dedication, and time. It's a "messy" kind of work. Money is not really the issue. And many of these SEOs are tired of seeing their clients getting trounced in Google by sites that take their linking seriously. All of the "optimization" games in the world cannot displace a site with good content, good page structure, and a lot of links. So, many of the SEO gurus now seem to have taken the approach that if they publicly denounce directory-to-directory reciprocal linking, and do it loudly and often, maybe they will collectively "disarm" the marketplace, thus restoring their old advantages. This is ridiculous fantasy. Sites that have done a lot of linking will not quit doing it. They know better. If these gurus convince other sites to unilaterally disarm themselves, that's all the better. Those who keep on linking will simply extend their advantage even further. Directory-to-directory reciprocal linking has been around long before the search engines, and their gurus. It is one of the most basic, original forms of website marketing, and it continues to be effective and vital. It is very hard to "game" good results, which is another point of frustration for some SEO specialists. To anyone who decides against a link program based solely on the opinions of these gurus is taking a huge risk. Currently, the facts prove beyond any doubt that this could be a very misguided strategy. Yes, you'll make some SEO gurus happy by becoming one of their flock of followers, but will that really help you? Or them? Thanks! Dirk Johnson, Owner LinkStrategy.com http://www.linkstrategy.com djohnson, roiwebsites.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Chuck Donner Subject: Shopping carts and cookies Over the past 7 years we have used a shopping cart that utilizes a unique cart ID that is tracked in the URL and doesn't require cookies. Because of some limitations in the current product, my company is planning on moving our online store to a new shopping cart with more features / flexibility. We are familiar with ASP / Windows so we would like to stick with that type of application since we will definitely need to make modifications. I have some serious concerns about moving to a cart that utilizes cookies to store the session / items. Even if the cart uses session variables, my understanding is that the cart won't work for people that have disabled cookies. If we switch, I don't want to eliminate anyone from our store... Does anyone know of any studies on the use of cookies in carts? What percentage of users have cookies disabled? If disabled, do they turn them on when shopping, and off when they have finished shopping? Does anyone have any experience with carts that have cookies? I know eBay uses cookies for user names, etc., but do large sites like Amazon, eBay, etc. utilize cookies for their carts or will they work without cookies? If they operate without cookies, I would think that there is a strong reason that they were designed that way. Any insight would be appreciated. Chuck Donner Curiosities Greeting Cards www.papercards.com ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Graham Brown Subject: HTML editors > Anyone have any experience with open source editors? > We found ekit and are working on some enhancements > to it, but would appreciate any input. - Ann Richmond, LED 1778 Hi Ann, I presume that you are looking for something a bit less opaque than Vim or Emacs, but many regard them as core tools for writing code so they might be worth a look. If you just want to code, Kate is quite easy to use http://kate.kde.org. Quanta is also making good progress http://quanta.sourceforge.net Graham Brown ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Marty R. Milette Subject: HTML editors Most everyone seems to have mis-interpreted one statement from my post: > And forget about cross-platform nonsense -- in 10 years of web > development, I have yet to meet a client who's EVER asked for it. - Marty R. Milette, LED 1777 I was talking about SERVER CROSS-PLATFORM issues, NOT browser compatibility. One of the biggest 'red herrings' I hear from the Unix guys is that Microsoft-based web sites suck because they aren't 'cross-platform' portable. Again, I restate myself by saying "WHO CARES". Clients who already have a server generally have no intention of changing it. (As a consultant, you're treading on very thin ice if you start recommending that clients switch software or technologies without some pretty substantial backing.) Please be assured that I DO INDEED fully advocate and support cross-BROWSER compatibility. If you check my own sites, you will see that without exception, I do NOT use Java Applets, JavaScript, Flash, Shockwave or any other funky plug-in unless it is absolutely necessary. (Some of my feeds are JavaScript based, such as SearchFeed and Google AdSense -- but that's only because there are no other options.) My 'mantra', if you will is: "If it doesn't add VALUE, don't use it!" Marty R. Milette http://www.custom-toolbars.com marty, milette.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: Choosing SEO > Just don't mix up search engine advertisers with search > engine optimizers. Two different animals. A search engine > marketer knows how to do both, because marketing > encompasses both optimization and advertising. - Shari Thurow, LED 1779 Thank you for the clarification, Shari, because that has been a question of mine for quite some time. The confusion may be due to the name "SEO" itself. I think most would associate Search Engine Optimization with just that, listings, ranking, etc., while usability is another thing - at least that is how my thinking went. I wondered what good is SEO if the site is poorly designed or the text isn't optimized. There is still so much confusion for business owners as to what the Internet can do for their businesses because they aren't being educated as to the realistic team they'll need for a good business website - the structure of the site, the content of the site, the usability, and the search optimization, all come together to form a cohesive whole. Rather I am seeing businesses being sold "business card" websites (I get calls from these firms all the time offering sites for US$350 a month that will list my company name, address and telephone), that will then be listed on their industry specific search engine that no one visits (they always claim millions of visitors a month though). I've spoken to business owners who still have a "if you build it, they will come" mentality, and when I mention advertising their site (PPC or the like) or optimizing it for better search placement they balk (I don't offer this for free), yet they think nothing of spending multiple thousands per month on full-page Yellow Page ads that are unlikely to show the same REI as a good website. These business owners don't trust the Internet (they hear about viruses and spam constantly), they rarely, if ever, hear of business success stories. Similarly to people buying the marketing hype for ridiculous weight loss products, businesses continue to buy these "cookie cutter" websites because they want so badly for it to be so easy, they want to believe it costs next to nothing to get rich online, they simply want to believe more than they want to know the truth. Their naivety is charming, yet so ripe for exploitation it saddens me. Yet, how best to educate them? Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP Ending Emotional Eating, One Bite at a Time http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: John Barendrecht Subject: Local search In LED 1779, David Yancey, in points 1 and 2, talks about local stores. But I think he hits the nail on the head with point 4: "They are travelers and others who want to know more about the areas *outside* their local area." I would also include locals who want to know about local events and attractions. If I were going to use a local search engine, I would want to know about the weather, local attractions, stores, churches, museums, dance, theatre, hockey games, etc. and dates and listings for these events. The problem is that Joe's local Salsa dance, can't afford to advertise on any search engine. He's lucky to break even after putting up posters. The stores are the easiest to go after, they can pay for a listing. But to get the other information, is going to cost time and money, with no immediate return. There are city search engines that provide this information such as www.citysearch.com, www.superpages.com, www.smartpages.com, www.yahoo.com and Google is getting into the fray as well. There are specialty search engines for everything from medical, legal, to scientific search engines. David Yancey's challenge is not to build a better mousetrap, but to get the word out to mom and pop searchers. Unless he is a billionaire philanthropist, he needs to make it commercially viable. Google may not be the best search engine but it is the best known. Other than the Big 3, ask your friends to name 3 other search engines. His geographic search engine may be better than citysearch.com or Google, but if no one finds it, does it matter? Do searchers want a local search engine or a local portal? John Barendrecht http://www.iefit.com ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Richard Graham Subject: CSS and Javascript menus Hello, To get around the problem of updating the menu on every page of my site, I call a JavaScript on each page. To change the menu I simply change one file. ( This was a great tip that has saved me lots of time and effort!) e.g. http://genkienglish.net/howRU.htm The menu file is http://genkienglish.net/mle.js But now I want to know... can I get a CSS style sheet to call up these JavaScript files? That would make editing the site even easier! I'd be very grateful if anyone could help me! Be genki, Richard Graham http://www.genkienglish.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Richard Lindner Subject: Adword Analyzer I paid US$67.00 for a program called Adword Analyzer. It didn't work on my XP. When I informed the seller, I was sent a version that worked. Two or three days later I was informed there were some important changes but the new version sent did not work. It's been several weeks now and I have heard others have received updates, but I have not. My emails have gone unanswered. Does anyone know whats going on with this product? Richard Lindner ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "We can chase down our enemies, We can bring them to their knees. We can bomb the world to pieces, But we can't find the end to peace." - Michael Franti |
