| LED Digest 1498: Separate Sites for SEO? |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest ................................................. January 17, 2003 Issue #1498 ................................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= -=Froogle: Getting Listed=- ~ John Fallentine "Froogle requires that you update at least every month..." ~ Joe Halbrook "New Froogle tools to help [data feeds] are in the works." -=Search Engine Optimization (SEO)=- ~ Adam Dorfman "...specific web sites can be an invaluable tool for SEM." ~ Steve Pronger "...search engines will always outperform paid offline advertising." -=Do's and Don'ts for Catalogs?=- ~ Eric Pederson "I do not believe catalogs in the B2C market result in significant future sales..." ~ Tom Anson "What are query hyperlinks...?" ==== BILLBOARD =================== -=Internet Casino Links?=- ~ Richard Stubbings ~ Vicki Lambert ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: John Fallentine Subject: Froogle > Does anyone know how to get Froogle to index > your site? ... they will not index my site. They want > me to do a monthly feed... - Wanda Husick, LED 1497 I have been 'negotiating' with Froogle for about a month now. I sent an initial e-mail to get setup on their 'feed'. I received a username / password and a FTP location to upload my file (a tab delimited text file - name of product, URL, image name, price, description, category, and ID). I followed their structure, was told my feed was successful, but my products still do not show up in their results. I am not sure if they are still figuring this out (beta), but it seems odd to offer this and not be able to back it up. Froogle also requires that you update at least every month (can do it every day) to keep it fresh, so I would recommend starting with a small amount of products, then working up as (or if) the search engine produces. At the end of the day, you will have to calculate if the time doing data entry is worth the response Froogle might give you (meaning sales). John Fallentine SEO / Marketing Specialist www.zintax.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Joe Halbrook Subject: Froogle Hello Wanda, Froogle promises to be an exciting new service by Google. However, it should be relatively easy to get your site indexed into Google itself simply by visiting this link: http://www.google.com/addurl.html If your site changes frequently, believe me, Google's crawlers will revisit your site often and you'll have no problem obtaining visitors from Google. Of course the Froogle service would be an awesome way to get your antiques and collectables in front of specific searchers. Granted, developing a data feed will require time, and you will HAVE to resubmit your data feed monthly, according to Froogle. But hopefully, only the first feed will be a challenge. New Froogle tools to help in this regard are in the works. William Bontrager is graciously offering one of the first tools that I'm aware of to help in formatting / building the Froogle data feeds. You supply the data, and his CGI script generates the data feed file for you. You can find it here: www.willmaster.com/master/generator/frooglefile/frooglefile.shtml No doubt, we'll be seeing many more such tools in the near future. Best of success, Wanda, in what promises to be another fantastic Google tool. Joe Halbrook, CTO Permission Technologies http://www.cleanmymailbox.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Adam Dorfman Subject: SEO Hello everybody, > If an SEO firm is building a unique, separate site > instead of optimizing your current site, you are probably > dealing with a spammer who builds doorway pages, > doorway web sites, cloaks, or all of the above. - Shari Thurow, LED 1497 I disagree with what Shari says here. Maybe not a "better" company as she suggests, but certainly this is a viable method that if appropriately used can drive substantially more traffic to the client's main site. I currently do SEM for over 20 regionally based web sites our company built from the ground up for a top five luxury hotel chain. These sites work in conjunction with the SEM we are doing for their main site and none of these sites are "doorway web sites" or utilize cloaking. They contain relevant and specific content based on each location. We also use content-rich, highly optimized pages on these sites to enhance our positioning efforts. At the present we are developing even more unique content for these sites. And please remember, we developed these sites purely as a marketing tool, not to celebrate each location. These sites did not exist until _we_ suggested this strategy to them. For an established web site, especially for the large, diverse company, looking to expand their search engine presence, product / service specific web sites can be an invaluable tool for SEM. Our firm has incorporated this technique for many clients and achieved great success in doing so. Adam Dorfman, SEM Specialist http://www.meandaur.com/ ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Steve Pronger Subject: SEO I agree with Bill Davison (issue 1496) that there are SEO companies using dubious and unethical tactics to deliver traffic to their clients, as evidenced by recent posts in this digest, but I find it hard to believe that ANYONE could believe that they will get more traffic by using keywords like sex and pornography. Surely anyone that purports to be a professional SEO expert could not be so naive! I think Bill is missing an important aspect of this discussion, and that is web designers and professional design firms have a responsibility to their clients to at least cover the basics of SEO when constructing their site. If the client wants to achieve top rankings for a search term that has 6 million page matches at Google, then assistance from a professional and ethical SEO may well be advisable and would return a favorable ROI. But the basics are not that complicated. They are: * Research your keywords using tools like Wordtracker * Develop profitable keywords i.e. words with a favorable supply / demand ratio * Put those keywords in the page title, heading (H1,H2,H3 tags), alt (image) tags, links, meta description and keyword tags, and throughout the body text * Exchange links with other RELEVANT and non-competing sites. But don't spend every waking hour doing this. Unless you are targeting HIGHLY competitive keywords you don't need 6,000 incoming links to achieve good rankings When it comes to bang-for-your-buck, search engines will always outperform paid offline advertising. Just get the basics right and you won't have to drive visitors to your site -- they'll find you. My little business has a constant supply of new business and I haven't spent one dime on offline advertising! Steve Pronger Steve Pronger Web Design http://www.stevepronger.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Eric Pederson Subject: Catalogs My observation is that catalogs can have an essential place in a marketing campaign for an online business, at least if that business has frequent changes in product offerings. A perfect example is a bargain, clearance outfit, which operates "mail order" / online, but announces new items in various small and frequent catalogs. It is magnitudes more convenient for a potential customer to casually leaf through a small catalog (with good pictures) than to go through page after page of items online, even with broadband. Better yet, a good catalog can generate a latent "need" for the item in the customer's mind, a need the customer is not aware of when they log on to their computer each day. For an example of a company doing this, see http://www.sierratradingpost.com, a company worth studying for reasons that include a return policy that I believe is strong enough to be a factor in making sales. On the other hand, if one is offering a fairly stable product set, I think the only role of the catalog will be to incite an immediate sale. I do not believe catalogs in the B2C market result in significant future sales, it's now or never. Catalogs on CD-ROM may be be an exception to this rule (and could include links to the product page on your site, making the purchase easy for the consumer to complete), but ultimately consumers will have stacks of CD-ROMS gathering as much dust as old Sears catalogs, lost in a junk drawer and destined for the trash. If a customer is requesting a catalog it is a sale asking to be closed (now). Eric Pederson paradigmb.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Tom Anson Subject: Catalogs I think Ronni Rhodes' idea (issue 1496) of a CD catalog is great. Except for one thing: If they have come to Yuwanda's web site to order the catalog, and there is a catalog on-line already, I don't see the advantage of giving the customer another way to see the catalog on their computer. If the customer is not on-line (does not have an internet connection), but does have a computer with CD, then it makes a little sense. But then the links on the CD don't. The truth is: there is nothing that takes the place of a hard copy catalog. It would always be my first choice, even if I was shopping on-line. A question for the group (or Stephen Mareches): In Stephen's response (issue 1497) to Yuwanda about catalogs, he said, > ... search engines like text hyperlinks that query > a catalog. It appears they can run those links right > to the page that serves up the info... So be sure to > put some query hyperlinks on your homepage. This is wonderful information, but I don't know what it means. I know what a hypertext link is, and I know what a catalog is. But what does it mean to query a catalog? What are query hyperlinks? Tom Anson Anson Aromatic Essentials http://www.therapeutic-grade.com ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Richard Stubbings Subject: Casino links > ... I have a links page for increasing traffic and > building link popularity... What's the overall opinion > on internet casinos, are they widely accepted or > should you stay away from them? - Toon Eppink, LED 1495 Firstly, having a link page to increase your link popularity is a good idea. Clearly getting reciprocal links. As such your link page should be related sites. Sites that add information, enhance your site and clearly you would prefer it if traffic arrived at your site from this link rather than left your site using this link. Link pages are a necessary evil. You need them to get the reciprocal link. To a visitor they are yet another way off your site, so why make them prominent. An exception to this is when you have an affiliate link, because you can make money (perhaps) as an affiliate. Again I would suggest that these affiliate sites should be relevant to your site. In your case something that will relate to your cutlery, for instance cookery books from Amazon, or other kitchenware. I firmly believe that all your links, including your affiliate links, should be related to your site, and should be to quality sites that will not tarnish your reputation. The fact that you have to ask the question about casino sites means that you already suspect that this is not a good idea. What message are you trying to give to your customers? Richard Stubbings Kulture Shock http://www.kultureshock.co.uk ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Vicki Lambert Subject: Casino links I don't do any links as of yet on my website, but as a user I don't respond to them and I don't think highly of the sites that have the casino links. If it is a site I use often I will tolerate them or just close them. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not a stuff shirt and I think online casinos are great. But not if I am shopping for kitchenware. When I go to Vegas, I shop for stuff in the stores and play in the casinos. I treat my online shopping the same way. By the way, as an indicator, I do 80-90% of my shopping online, including groceries. Vicki M. Lambert, CPP Lambert and Associates www.vickimlambert.com ------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1995-2003 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Marge, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen." - Homer Simpson |
