| LED Digest 2351: Hidden Text: Good, Bad or Irrelevant? |
|
|
|
================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Registration 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 .............................................. February 20, 2007 Issue no. 2351 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== --== Hidden Text ==-- ~ Mark Bishop "...I'm using hidden div tags to hide and show content..." --== Open Source Shopping Carts ==-- ~ Bill Pavone "I am looking into using a hosting company that already has it installed." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Essential Design Criteria ==-- ~ Michael Linehan "Now many designers say they are web marketers." ~ Shaun Johnston "...how easy would it be for someone else to take over the site?" --== Creating Annoying Email? ==-- ~ Adam Jusko "Are you serious about the annoying e-mail?" ~ Joe Halbrook "My advice to you is simple: Don't do it." ~ James Miller "Never force someone to read an e-mail." --== Bad SEO ==-- ~ Nathan Holley "...title text is winning out, even though it's duplicated across all those top listings." --== Google Backlinks vs Yahoo! & MSN ==-- ~ Dirk Johnson "If you want to avoid all the backlink filters in Google, it's easy..." ========== NEW =================================== From: Mark Bishop Subject: Hidden Text - Good / Bad / Who Cares? I'm designing a site for a friend and I'm using hidden div tags to hide and show content both in the navigation and in the site itself. My question is does the hidden text still help with the search engine since it clearly shows up in the code? Or does it hurt or just get ignored since the div tags are hidden? It seems to be a technique that can easily be abused. Any thoughts? You can see a page of the DRAFT site here: http://workforcelanguageservices.com/spanishsystems/training-gcm.php Mark Bishop www.workforcelanguageservices.com Bridging Language & Culture in the Workplace -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Bill Pavone Subject: Open Source Shopping Carts In October (LED 2276 http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1287/55/ ) there was discussion concerning shopping carts. I was looking for answers to some of my questions but they didn't appear. My site has been hosted on Bigstep.com for 7 years. I want to find another host and shopping cart that can handle Linkpoint and PayPal. I don't think I need a lot of bells & whistles, but I need options that can change the price, and would like to sell downloadable items. I do not sell high volume so cost is a factor. I would like your opinions on the easiest best one to use of all the open source carts. I am looking into using a hosting company that already has it installed. I don't want to waste time trying them all. Also, is there an easy way to try them out by just downloading them on to my computer? They seem complicated to do just that. Thank you. Bill Pavone esgdirect.com esgdirect, aol.com ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Michael Linehan Subject: Design Criteria > I chose [my designer] because [his] creations loaded > fastest, in a time when dial-up was still an issue. That > was my top criteria... I'd be interested to know what others > think my criteria should be if I were doing a web site today? - Peggy Deras, LED Digest 2350 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1748/55/ I would suggest that the criteria have gone way beyond "design". And yet most people are still saying, "Do you know a good web designer?", "Who designed your site?", and so on. Rarely, when talking about websites, do business people ask about strategic focus, planning, copywriting, information architecture, target markets demographics, competitive analysis, metrics, or site promotion. Offline, no-one would expect a single person to cover all these areas. No business owner would ask their graphic designer to advise them on formulating powerful headlines, developing a distribution plan, setting up an a/b split test or planning follow-up tactics. And I doubt that any graphic designer would claim to be able to do so. I think the Internet has developed to a similar level - way past the point where one person can have all the skills and information needed for a maximally successful business website. So I think one needs to either pull together and manage a team, or talk to a company that can offer a team. At the very least, any site beyond the most basic probably needs a designer, a programmer and a web marketer. And all three are important. Yes, I know that many site owners take care of every aspect of their site and hire not even a designer. But I'm talking about when someone wants to do more. At even the first level of working with specialists, I think we already need those three professions. Now many designers say they are web marketers. I've had some designers say this to me, personally. I introduce myself and say what I do. They say, "Oh neat, I do web marketing too." Sorry, but I would propose web marketing has gone way beyond the level where one can do it "too" - as an adjunct to one's main profession as a designer. I would therefore suggest the criteria are: 1. Design: a range of abilities and design styles as demonstrated on client sites. An ability to use a range of graphics tools. And desirable for now - maybe necessary before long - able to use CSS layout. 2. Programming: a range of ability shown by various levels of complexity in content management and shopping systems. 3. Marketing: Knowledge and ability in how to market on the Web --- backed by a thorough grounding in marketing. The third one is perhaps contentious. But I consider "web marketer" ultimately to be a subset of "marketer". I don't believe a "web marketer" can help you fully maximize the marketing / sales effect of your website, its promotion and its ongoing use unless they have a thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles of marketing. Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy www.marketing-alchemy.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Shaun Johnston Subject: Design Very important design criterion -- how easy would it be for someone else to take over the site? The easier, the better. As time goes by, web site design has increasing scope for individuality and proprietary add-ons that make site transfer problematic. Perhaps the profession should have levels of proprietariness / functionality that clients can choose from. That would involve someone setting those standards. Perhaps that's a more worthwhile task for this list than yet another how-to manual. Shaun Johnston -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Adam Jusko Subject: Annoying email > To send an email that automatically opens a webpage > when the recipient clicks on it, to (1) look at it, or (2) to > delete it. I know it can be done based on annoying email > I sometimes receive from Asian pr0n sites. - Bob Sheridan, LED Digest 2350 Bob Are you serious about the annoying e-mail? Sending an e-mail that forces someone to look at a Web page will make your e-mail about as welcome as the Asian porn e-mails you refer to. The Webmasters of the Asian porn sites don't care about their reputation, but you should. A tactic like that will hurt your business much more than any gain you'll get from it. Adam Jusko, Founder & CEO Bessed http://www.bessed.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Joe Halbrook Subject: Annoying email Bob, My advice to you is simple: Don't do it. Imagine how annoyed you were when you experienced the first (and likely all future) Asian pr0n site email(s), and the browser opened when you chose only to delete the mailing; not read it. Why would you want to potentially offend your respected audience in the same manner? That's not my idea of a "best practice," as I'm sure others in this discussion will echo. If it were me, and there were only 300 or so of these Professors to be invited, I'd spend the hour or so to draft a written invitation, as well as the $120 or less (depending on bulk mail prices) and send the invitations via snail mail, since there is ample time between now and June. If you did want to send the "normal" email ahead of time, to cut down on your snail mailings, you could provide a link in the email where they recipient could click to confirm their receipt of the mailing. Thus, you only have to snail mail those who don't confirm. Of course, I'm making the assumption that you have the expressed permission to email the recipients, in the first place. If not, I would not even consider the email mailings, to begin with. Joe Halbrook http://www.cleanmymailbox.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: James Miller Subject: Annoying email Never, never, never force someone to read an e-mail. I would do this. 1. Create a very simple e-mail, that is a concise message, that says where, when and what the conference is about. The only graphic might be a small picture or cartoon in the e-mail. 2. Have a link in the e-mail to the web site that describes the conference in detail. 3. Have a link to a printable poster, so they can advertise your conference in college. 4. I would also have a link, in which they can register their interest, so that you get the details right. Perhaps, you could have a draw for a small prize. Then lastly, I'd send another e-mail a week later, with a humorous tone saying that you are sorry to intrude, but we're just checking that you heard about the conference. But if you force a possible client, they'll go away. James Miller Daisy Analysis: www.daisy.co.uk -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Nathan Holley Subject: Bad SEO > ... we targeted the keywords "career builder Ireland." > Try searching that at Google... [an article] appears > multiple times across multiple domains... Does > anyone have a theory as to why this is happening? - Steve Pronger, LED Digest 2347 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1744/55/ I did a quick scan of the results and it appears that since it's not a very common phrase title text is winning out, even though it's duplicated across all those top listings. I wonder if the Career Builder site (which no doubt gets tons of long tail results w/ their name in searches) is linking to some of these stories. Looks like the author of that syndicated column was with Gannett, so no doubt it got huge publicity. Shouldn't be too difficult to outrank these filler listings with a few trusted backlinks and some good relevant content. Nathan Holley holleymoney, gmail.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Dirk Johnson Subject: Backlinks > Google purposely crippled their link search operator years ago > in order to discourage scrapers, analytical tools that automate > the process of grabbing and formatting information from Google. - Tom Schmitz, LED Digest 2346 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1743/55/ Here's a "Secret Tip That the SEO Pros Won't Tell You!". Probably 'cause they don't know. Anyhow, here's the tip: If you want to avoid all the backlink filters in Google, it's easy, and it has been available for years. Just search for ".yourdomain.com", using the leading period before your domain. Try it with and without quotes, but the results have been the same lately. That specific search simply returns pages where Google has found that specific character string, which is exactly what you want to know. I actually posted this trick quite a while ago in LED. Why that trick is not widely known is baffling, but then again, a lot of stuff in the SEO world is baffling. Anyhow, let's talk backlink analysis, something that I have considerable experience with. I fully encourage people to examine the backlinks of their well-ranking competitors. Do it, do it, do it. For a more complete link profile, get yourself a tool like LinkSurvey.com. Run the reports, then start drilling down through them, link by link. Note specifically which links might be available to other sites, and which are not accessible. Of the ones that might be available to other sites, determine the means of their obtaining that link. Was it a paid placement? Was it placed gratuitously (free)? Or was it reciprocated? Take notes, and use a spreadsheet. For the paid links, you'll then need to determine the cost of placing that link, and the link duration. For the free, gratuitous links, was it an article citation? A forum or blog post? Whatever it was, you'll have to devise our own way to get your own link placed there. Just realize that getting that link might involve a lot of preparation work and prior content development. Realize that gratuitous links are not really "free". There is a good reason why they are there. You'll need one to get yours palced, as well. For the reciprocated links, you need to determine if the site providing the link publicly offers to reciprocate with other relevant sites, and, if so, by what means they accept the submissions, be it email or via an online form. This, too, takes compilation work, but it's rather straightforward. Once you get the info, you can readily use it. In fact, people should do this complete back link analysis in direct conference with one of these big-name, self promoting SEO gurus who has told them (and the rest of the world) time and again that reciprocation does not work at all. Why do I say that? Because, having done this exact type of analysis myself, in a lot of situations, here's what you'll find: 1) There will be a variety of non-accessible links. That is, the link to your competitor is simply not available to other sites, no matter what. No guru in the world can get you that link, regardless of the content on your site or any other link baiting scheme. 2) Of the accessible links, you do need to determine the cost and effort required to get that link, for return on investment decisions that you will make later. Sure, paid links are accessible, but at what cost? Same with content citation. 3) Of the accessible links, by and large, most of them will have come from reciprocation, which is also rather affordable to pursue, in comparison to other methods of link building. That leaves the site owner with a decision. To take the advice of some SEO guru who insists that reciprocation does not work, and then dig deep to deploy some other link building methods at greater cost, time and effort. Or simply try to establish the reciprocated links as a first measure, and see if that works. Then maybe deploy other methods, once that foundation is established. Having observed all of this, first hand, time and again, in a variety of situations, I am very confident that you will find that simply establishing your own reciprocated link profile will go a long way toward achieving parity with competitors. Links beget links. Once a reciprocation campaign starts, sites tend to get other non-reciprocated links. It just happens that way in the real world. Again, I am 100% in favor of doing a complete and thorough back link analysis of well-ranking competitors. Everyone should do it. Short of years of field experience, it's the only way that a site owner has to see first-hand that, in most cases (there are exceptions), that most of their competitors are relying on reciprocation as the very foundation of their link building methods. If reciprocation was not used to get them there, (and there are those scenarios), then they will see that there are a lot expensive purchased links or outright inaccessible links coming back to their competitors, often due to content citation that is simply not readily duplicatable. There are no secrets, once an in-depth link analysis is performed. The mystery evaporates. Real strategies can be developed, based on what is found. At that point, the site owner needs to decide if they will continue to take the advice of some famous SEO guru who insists that reciprocation won't work. Or will they cut that person loose, and simply start competing effectively? If they don't, then other competitors will, sooner or later. Run those link back reports, and see just exactly what you are up against, in detail. There is your road map, unless you can conceive of some unique link bait scheme that will generate links in enough quantity to compete. Good luck with that. It just might work. It might also lead nowhere, after months of effort. Doing all of this work is real world analysis, not SEO theory. It avoids all of the complex SEO theories and baiting schemes that might or might not work, and reveals what has worked well, again and again, for other sites. Make cost estimates of each course of action. Then decide what to do, for yourself, and not for the benefit of some SEO guru who is dogmatic and public about their anti-reciprocation stance. be very aware that that person is not financially responsible for your own site. Realize that their preferred link building methods might require excess cost that is not coming from their wallet. It comes from yours. And there is the big difference. Best regards, Dirk Johnson www.domaindrivers.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/120/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/77/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/86/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income." - Errol Flynn |
