| LED Digest 2370: The Big Picture in SEO |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. March 19, 2007 Issue no. 2370 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ======= NEW ==================== --== The Big Picture in SEO ==-- ~ Nathan Holley "...here is my opinion about SEO Niches and the Big Picture..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Marketing with Press Releases ==-- ~ Shel Horowitz "...you write as much to be found on Google as to get in front of journos." --== Design Change Shortcuts ==-- ~ John Smart "I use php for this, and oh it makes life so easy." ~ Karl L. Baldwin "I have always used FrontPage and enabled the top, left and bottom borders." ~ Veronica Yuill "Nowadays I use PHP includes rather than SSI..." --== Rude Emails ==-- ~ Tom Anson "On the subject of rude emails, I've got a new twist for you." ========== NEW =================================== From: Nathan Holley Subject: The Big Picture in SEO I've enjoyed challenging other SEOs here in the past, and I'm gonna take another to task again. Not that my taking them to task is any great thing or even notable - but hey, I've always had a contentious streak about the SEO industry. It's full of nonsense on many levels. Besides, things have been slow around here and it's time for a mix up. You see, I'm not an SEO. I'm not a usability expert. I'm a business person who makes good money on the Internet. I used to consult, but gave it up (except for a priveledged few, wink) to make more money for myself. There is a lot of money to be made in SEO, but not from serving clients. The dirty little secret in SEO land is that 1% of SEOs generate 99% of the spray ("spray" is a slang word for "lots of talking"); and the majority - 95% - of SEOs serve smaller clients, local specific companies, sole props and the like - not CNN. So what's my point? My point is, almost everyone writing on SEO and getting cited is in the boys club of that 1%... writing and linking and talking about each other. It's a very small world, a tiny speck really. These Search Promotion Professionals (the new acronym I'm coining) are churning out a remarkable amount of ink talking about minutia and very little of value for the average Web business. They want to retain an air of exclusivity about their approaches and a proventialism about the industry that they are helping to shape. It's driven by vanity, ambition, and greed, not by a desire to really get to know search algorithms. I'm being widely general in my statements, I realize that. Also, I'm not speaking about the author I quote below. There are some good SPPs out there, but even they seem to be breathing their own vapor these days... Let's look at a latest ClickZ article on "SEO Niches and the Big Picture" -- a statement against niche marketers who get lost in their niches. The conclusion is: ------------------------ "Moral of the story? Look at the big picture. Take a holistic view of the entire search optimization process. An SEO niche is a great USP, but that one piece won't solve the entire puzzle." Source: http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3625082 ------------------------ The bulk of the article describes how SEO niches get on the author's nerves, especially link development and search usability experts. The link devs get slammed for relying on PageRank (I don't know anyone who cares about PageRank, but I'm obviously out of it), and there's even a "special squirt gun saved" for some guy named Rand (yeah, I know who he is). At this point you're saying, uhm okay so what?, and this is where we move on to the intendment of the article. Eye tracking studies. Yup, that's it - eye tracking. Eye tracking studies are skewered for being just a single piece of the picture, because as our SP points out, "eye-tracking tests used in isolation yield limited information," and that's where the straw man gets his due. Well, good reading. But what's the point here? Nothing in the article illuminates a deeper nuance to SEO than using a varied approach... taking a wide view... acknowledging diverse tactics. More than open any eyes about SEO, this article reveals the little squibbling that tends to permeate incestual conference circuits like those familiar to search and marketing. Thanks for the reminder why I have no need to attend the next SES. But I don't want to leave you with nothing, LEDers. So... without further exposure to my typepad, here is my opinion about SEO Niches and the Big Picture: - The Big Picture - Build a website with solid site architecture (directory layout, file names, internal linking, etc). Use flat HTML files if at possible. If not, mod_rewrite. Write relevant, keyword optimized copy. Make it unique and compelling. Optimize your title tags for SEs and humans, likewise your description (mostly for humans). A few keywords don't hurt. Redirect your non-www domain to the www version (or vice versa). Rock a Google sitemap, ditto for Yahoo. Set up sitewide footers with keyword optimized anchor text. Ditto for a human site map. Make sure your anchor text is optimized sitewide (no "click here" stuff). Get some backlinks. Then get some more. - The Niche - Get granular on any of the points above. Nothing revolutionary there, nothing pedantic. And certainly nothing that will ever get published on ClickZ. (dude, what's up with all those internal links? how about linking about more than twice per page) Nathan Holley ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Shel Horowitz Subject: PR services I've been wanting to comment on this thread for a while, but John Smart's post finally got me moving [ see issue 2369: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1770/55/ ]. A few random thoughts: * Press releases still work extremely well in local media as well as targeted specialty niches. They don't work as well any more for national mainstream press * The most successful press release I've ever sent out went to only 12 media outlets; seven of them used the release, and I think three of those used it in the form of asking me for a full-length article. Oh yes, we like that! * The least successful, which was a damned good one in my opinion -- extremely timely, hot news correlation -- went to 1200 places and fell flat. I found exactly one pickup, which was just enough that the distribution service felt they didn't need to give me my money back. But for some reason, no one wanted my particular take on the story. It was an expert-commentary-available release on the Enron verdict, issued one day before the verdict came down. You can see a slightly modified version at http://www.principledprofit.com/expert-commentator-enron-ethics.html Oddly enough media just weren't quoting experts on that story. I only found one even using Google news, and it was a professor, who was local to the market where the story ran. * While journalists are no longer as swayed by press releases, they're great search-engine food, among other benefits, and you should still do them. * Press releases have to be *interesting* -- and that's where I have some issues with John's post. Mind you, I have a lot of respect for m2, they were a client of mine at one point and also distributed a few press releases for me. But that doesn't always mean a "classic" 5-s (who, what, where, when, why) format as John describes below. In fact, in most cases, especially when e-mailing to feature writers, I find that a "story behind the story" format works much better. > Be relevant, brief and precise. 10 words to define > your news - and the headline should tell me most > of what I need to know... 1st paragraph - who, what, > where and why. - John Smart, LED Digest 2369 My favorite example is this one I did for a client: I wrote a press release for a book on electronic privacy with the headline, "It's 10 O'Clock -- Do You Know Where Your Credit History Is?" A bit more captivating than the 5Ws format of "Electronic Privacy Expert Releases New Book," eh? A press release I just sent out had both a headline and a subheadline: "How to Get ANY Book Noticed AND Sold" "Award-Winning Marketing Author's Latest Effort Helps Other Authors" * It's important to remember that routine events that once were considered news are no longer considered news: opening a website, publishing a book, hiring a new team member...again, you can get local and trade press, but that isn't always enough. In fact, it usually isn't. * Finally, remember that press releases have been disintermediated. Even five years ago, you wrote a press release because you wanted to get your story in front of journalists, who would then deign perhaps to re-tell your story to a wider public, These days, you write as much to be found on Google as to get in front of journos. And that's one reason why the traditional style doesn't work nearly as well any more, because it's usually deadly boring to the wider public. Shel Horowitz Marketing Strategic Planning, Consulting, and Copywriting focused on Ethical, Affordable, Effective Approaches http://www.frugalmarketing.com ============ Sponsor Message =========== Ever wonder why Presidents and board chairmen hire professional writers to craft their speeches? Because they're usually trying to sell something, be it a new federal program or a lame excuse for a lousy fourth quarter. You're in sales, too. Online sales. Your site needs words that sell, power words. http://GetWebContent.com/LED words. ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic --------- From: John Smart Subject: Design > Having an external .js file? > Frontpage extensions? > Wordpress or blog format? > Server side includes? - Richard Graham, LED Digest 2368 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1769/55/ I use php for this, and oh it makes life so easy. If the nav menu is one file, I update that file to reflect change on the page and ding - the whole site is instantly updated. It is the 1st 'trick' most developers learn in php and one of the most useful. Sorry for all the code - I cannot think of an easier way to do this. If the site is a two column table. menu on left, page on right, footer menu (obviously) across the footer. You could build a page like this: I am skipping all the head and body tags.
So what does this do? In the 1st td tags we see the include file is calling leftmenu.html. all this is doing is opening the file leftmenu.html, and showing it here - placing it within the td tags - think of it almost like the menu being a simple image, and the php tags being img src tags. now the html you include there should be simple html, no head or body tags, because it is a child of the main head / body tags. So you need to call and .js or .css files from the page that has the php include file in it. Once you get the structuring right, it really is easy! The files you include can be .htm, .html, .php - whatever you want - .txt if you have a need for that. Although the browser will assume it is html code no matter what filename it is, because all the browser sees is the end result - the browser has no idea that you are calling a second file into the fray. It all happens server side. I hope that helps, John Smart InternetDesign.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Karl Baldwin [email]: Subject: Design I have always used FrontPage and enabled the top, left and bottom borders. Whatever content (navigation buttons for instance) you put in the border can be replicated on all the pages. I believe this is being accomplished by Server Side Includes. You can also disable the borders on individual pages if you need to. For instance, my 2 secure order pages where I collect credit card information, need to have the borders disabled, otherwise the SSL throws up a security warning that the page contains insecure as well as secure data. Best Regards, Karl L. Baldwin "MountainLodging" Vacation Cabin Rental Listing Service http://www.mountain-lodging.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Veronica Yuill Subject: Design This is a no-brainer for me: server-side includes. It's the most flexible and search-engine way to go IMHO. Nowadays I use PHP includes rather than SSI; this lets me figure out what page I'm on, so that it can be highlighted and not linked in the navigation (since it doesn't make sense to link to the page you are on). I'd strongly advise against FP extensions or Dreamweaver library items. For one thing, they tie you to proprietary software for updating. Yes, you can change the nav in just one place, but all they do is copy the library code to pages where it's referenced, so you still have to upload every single page to the server. Not very practical for a site with hundreds of pages. Regards Veronica Yuill http://www.larecettedujour.org/ -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Tom Anson Subject: Rude Emails Hi fellow LEDers, On the subject of rude emails, I've got a new twist for you. I received an email this past weekend from someone who did not include his / her name. Basically, the sender was questioning the value of aromatherapy (my website is about therapeutic-grade essential oils) and the character of my religious faith for promoting a product that could help people with various health problems. The sender said that, instead of looking for relief, we should instead "consider it all joy when [we] encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of [our] faith produces endurance..." (James 1:2-3). The tone could not be construed as anything but rude. As I have done before, I took the time to give a gentle response, pointing out that aromatherapy is actually promoted in the scriptures (as in, "The Lord is my Shepherd... He anoints my head with oil... "), as is the use of other natural remedies to relieve suffering. After sending off this response, I received an almost immediate reply from this person. It turned out to be an old college friend of mine that I had lost touch with almost 30 years ago. At the time of our last contact, we were both going through some difficult times, and she was writing to test me -- to see if the years had left me bitter or not. Apparently, my response was what she wanted to hear, because we've exchanged a few more emails since then. I don't know if this will rekindle our old friendship, but at least not responding in kind to that rude email offers some hope for a happy ending. Tom Anson Anson Aromatic Essentials http://www.therapeutic-grade.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man." - Golda Meir |
