| LED Digest 1861: Wide Open Opportunities |
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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 ================================================== Guest Moderator: Published by: Veronica Yuill LED Digest post,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ................................................ August 26, 2004 Issue #1861 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== Email Autoresponders ==-- ~ Brett Swooshman "Lately, ProAutoresponder has been blacklisted or tagged as SPAM by just about everyone..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Natural Search ==-- ~ Tom Aman "...it is false economy to skip validating everything..." --== The Future of SEO ==-- ~ Dirk Johnson "[SEOs] simply do not want to manage the detailed data work required to pursue reciprocal linking..." ======= NEW ====================================== From: Brett Swooshman Subject: Email Autoresponders A client of mine uses ProAutoresponder for sending sequential emails. Lately, ProAutoresponder has been blacklisted or tagged as SPAM by just about everyone (Hotmail doesn't even get the message???!!! - Earthlink auto tags as SPAM). Of course, they claim it is the message content, but when I can send the exact same message from other services without a problem.... Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions to other services. The ones out there (Aweber, GetResponse, etc) look suspect. He needs a high quality service - he has a learning system based on sequential autoresponders that people pay for and they're not getting what they paid for. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Brett ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Tom Aman Subject: Natural Search In LED 1857, Bob Sheridan wrote > I have pretty much stopped trying to understand Google. > Can anyone take a look at my website and suggest how it > might be better optimized for Google's natural search? and in response to this, Helen Estlin, LED 1858 observed: > I took a look at your website and just a few observations: > -you have eight broken links, specifically on your index page > "learn more" goes to an error 404 page Actually, it is worse than that. I did a full check of the site and there are actually 59 broken links, plus a couple of other problems. 13 of the broken links are actual 404 errors (i.e. the page pointed to does not exist - probably the HREF contains the wrong file name) 46 of the broken links result from bad URLs. Instead of being "http://..." URLs, they are file:///C:/Inetpub... URLs. They may display OK in Front Page, but no browser will be able to find the item (e.g. file:///C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/RestaurantPlus/images/CC_MasterCard.gif) In addition, there are some other problems, such as an input field defined as: <.input type="hidden" name="description" value="All-in-One 12.1" POS Terminal (Premium)"> Note the unbalanced quotation marks - this can really confuse a browser since the browser may assume that everything between the last quotation mark (just before the >) and the next encountered should be taken as quoted (i.e. any tags within that section would be ignored). There are at least two "input" items with this problem. Another problem is that two pages are missing the <./body> tag, and these two as well as one other are missing the <./html> tag. The point of all this is to show how important it is for a Web site to be fully validated. Do not depend on your page generation software (Front Page, Dreamweaver, ???) to ensure your site is all OK. To be safe, routinely run link checking software to validate all of the links on the site (i.e. software that will give you some form of report that says "these links are probably broken"). I sell such software but there are also a number of similar programs of this type available. Use the one that suits your situation best since they each have their own strengths and weaknesses - most offer a free trial period, so check out several. Also, run some kind of HTML validation program against every page (I recommend CSE HTML Validator - there is even a free version of this program now available). It is not really necessary to eliminate every error that a validator picks out, but at least eliminate those that are likely to cause real problems (such as the unbalanced quotes mentioned above). With all the time, effort and money that put into developing and promoting a Web site it is false economy to skip validating everything just because the software to do it costs a few bucks (costs start at less than $100) and it takes a bit of time. One key broken link is all it takes to cause a visitor to leave in frustration, or to cause a search engine spider to miss a critical section of a site (read "spoil your ranking"). Tom Aman Aman Software Home of CyberSpyder Link Test ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Dirk Johnson Subject: The Future of SEO Pat McCarthy wrote: "1. It's hard to get a site listed in a directory. Since these directories don't crawl, they rely on the site owner submitting their own site, .... The majority of web sites aren't being submitted to directories... This problem would hold true with topic-specific focused directories as well." A good observation from Pat, but the shrewd website owner looks at this situation as a wide-open, drive-a-Mack-truck-through-it opportunity, rather than as a problem. Some people take advantage of it, and others do not. Private web directories, built for the legitimate purpose of exchanging links with other relevant sites, as well as providing their site visitors with resources, are proliferating. Admittedly, this proliferation is due in most part to the emphasis on linking at Google and other engines. From my experience, the direct traffic alone from these links can be substantial. For a site that is an "enthusiast" realm of interest (hobbies, recreation, etc.), you will find people who do peruse these directories and click on the links, looking for items of interest. Many of these niche resources pages are more interesting and fresh than what is listed in the dormant YAHOO! and DMOZ listings. The shrewd website owner hunts down these opportunities and gets their sites listed in them. Like everything else that really matters in business, it takes work, skill, focus, preparation, commitment, time and money. As well as the willingness to reciprocate and manage a directory on their end, too. It's no free ride, by any means. Lots of people out there in the SEO world take a dim view of directory-to-directory reciprocal linking arrangements. Just this month, I read a new and very widely-published article that could not have been more hostile toward the practice. It was littered with ridiculous, unfounded assumptions about reciprocal linking, and obviously written by someone who does very little of it, but despises the practice for some reason. This type of ranting would be hilarious, except that inexperienced website owners may read such widely- distributed garbage and decide to believe it, to their own long term detriment. Most detractors in the SEO world get nostalgic about the days past when creative word games worked oh-so-well, before it became obvious that Google and other engines demanded some link popularity. Words still matter, but now, so do links. There are many ways to earn links, (many legitimate, and some not), of which directory-to-directory reciprocal linking is just one. All of them have a cost, a time frame to success, and a stability factor. Choices have to be made. The smartest site owners deploy several methods. It should not be a "this or that" choice, as many of the content-is-king and one-way purchased link promoters try to make it. Use them all, if it makes sense for your site. I suspect that some SEO specialists simply do not want to manage the detailed data work required to pursue reciprocal linking effectively, especially since they did not have to do it in years past to be successful. It's a new and unwelcome thorn in their side, and it's out of their realm, technically, from a data-management perspective. Of all the methods to get links, reciprocating is the one that most requires a robust data application to manage it efficiently, and this becomes absolutely critical with multiple sites under management. So these people often disparage reciprocal linking publicly, maybe as a backlash reaction. I don't know. Whatever. I don't think that Pat's post goes in this direction, and I appreciate that, but I would respectfully disagree with him that niche directories are ineffective at driving traffic, and dormant. My own data shows that the links section of websites continue to be very popular places, albeit, mostly within the enthusiast realms of interest. The big directories (YAHOO!, DMOZ, etc) may be dormant and cumbersome, but the niche, private directories are certainly boiling over with new activity. At least among site owners who understand their value. They insist on keeping their reciprocal link program current and active, willingly accepting new submissions, and likewise, submitting their own sites to other new directories. At all times, relevancy should be maintained. Irrelevance wastes everyone's time. Pat is also correct that these private, niche directories are not crawling the web, nor are they out to provide a "free ride" to other sites, in the manner of DMOZ. There is usually a quid pro quo at work here, in the form of reciprocity. That's the reality. One either participates in the established protocol, or takes a pass. To repeat, the shrewd website owner looks at the relevant niche directories as an opportunity to establish their brand. The bonus is that the engines reward it. Some people will pursue this, and others will ignore it, based on their own needs, time and budget. But it does work, and appears to be an expanding opportunity, and not declining. Best regards, Dirk Johnson - owner "The Benefits of Reciprocal Linking - A Baker's Dozen Points to Ponder" http://www.linkstrategy.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." - Yogi Berra |
