Marketing & SEO Discussion List - LED Digest

 
LED Digest 2375: Competitive Intelligence Print E-mail
==================================================
                 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 26, 2007                     Issue no. 2375
..............................................


            .....IN THIS DIGEST.....


======= NEW =====================

        --== Google Alerts for Competitive Intelligence ==--

                ~ Rod Aries
"...information on how to use Google to
perform free competitive intelligence..."


==== CONTINUING =================

        --== iFrame Exploit to Run Hidden Adverts ==--

                ~ Mike Podanoffsky
"There are a couple of ways you are open to hackers..."

        --== 301 Redirects ==--

                ~ Tim Blackwell
"...we used a simple php script to catch pages
that would have 404'd..."

        --== Marketing with Press Releases ==--

                ~ Bill Rice
"...our use of targeted press releases...was
a leading factor to [high rankings]."

        --== HTML Standards and Search Rankings ==--

                ~ Michael Martinez
"There is no compelling reason for search
engines to penalize non-compliant pages..."


========== NEW ===================================

From: Rod Aries
Subject: Using Google Alerts for Free Competitive Intelligence

My sister runs an online herb store, http://www.1stchineseherbs.com,
and was curious if people were "talking" about it on the net.

I sent her this information on how to use Google to perform free
competitive intelligence for her.

Google offers a free service called Google Alerts (
http://www.google.com/alerts ). Essentially this service works by
having Google exam their own database for new entries or additions
for the keywords or topic you specify. It essentially is a free
competitive intelligence service.

Google Alerts has five variations of alerts that they offer: News,
Web, Blogs, Groups, and Comprehensive. The categories are pretty
self explanatory. I use the comprehensive option.

Here are ways you can use it:

* Monitor your company name. If your company was the LED Digest and
wanted to do this you would add the following to be monitored. I use
quotes around almost everything in my alerts...

"http://www.led-digest.com" "www.led-digest.com" "led-digest.com"
"LED DIGEST"

* Monitor your competitors.

* Monitor your own name. Be sure to do variations, ie "Rob
Tankpozik" "Robert Tankpozik" "Bob Tankpozik" "Rob Tankpozik, Jr"

* Monitor stocks that you watch.

Be sure to use Boolean logic as appropriate. In example, if you are
monitoring something that can be confused, such as if you wanted
information on how to lead, but not lead ore or lead mining...

Lead -ore -mining

... or even...

Lead +"how to" -ore -mining

You can select various options as when to receive the alert; I use
the once a day choice. You can also create up to 1,000 alerts.

Rod Aries
http://www.innetwetrust.com


======== CONTINUING ===============================

From: Mike Podanoffsky
Subject: iFrame Exploit to Run Hidden Adverts

> Just discovered that someone has hijacked an
> index page at a client's site with a zero-iframe...
> If anyone has seen / heard of this happening on
> other sites, I sure would be appreciative...
        - Kevin Houston, LED Digest 2374
        - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1777/55/

Kevin,

If the pages on the server have been altered then you have been
hacked. There are a couple of ways you are open to hackers - most
commonly exploiting an IIS hole or exploiting a web form on your
site.

Mike Podanoffsky
sunnybeachrentals.com


-------- new post - new topic --------

From: Tim Blackwell
Subject: 301 redirects

> ... we redesigned and re-architected an existing site...
> the primary domain is staying the same... individual
> page URLs will change as the client is moving from
> a static to a CMS driven site.
        - Jeff Patrick, LED Digest 2374

Hi Jeff,

We recently went through the exact situation. To combat this we used
a simple php script to catch pages that would have 404'd.  It is a
slightly manual process.  But, our page ranking didn't appear to be
affected much.

We use Apache, so we pointed our 404 errordocument line in the
httpd.conf file to file: url_not_found.php and ran some checks to
see if we could do a proper redirect.

Here's the simple script we used.  I also wrote the date, ip, 404
page and referrer to a .txt file to make sure that we would capture
anything missed.  I'm not sure if it's the most efficient way of
doing things, but, it certainly beats a 404 :)


<?php

//get the url from the browser
function selfURL() { $s = empty($_SERVER["HTTPS"]) ? '' :
($_SERVER["HTTPS"] == "on") ? "s" : ""; $protocol =
strleft(strtolower($_SERVER["SERVER_PROTOCOL"]), "/").$s; $port =
($_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"] == "80") ? "" :
(":".$_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"]); return
$protocol."://".$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'].$port.$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'
]; } function strleft($s1, $s2) { return substr($s1, 0, strpos($s1,
$s2)); }

$url = selfURL();


if(strstr($url,"http://domain.com/old_url_1.htm"){
                $url = "url1";
}elseif(strstr($url,"http://domain.com/old_url_2.htm")){
                $url = "url2";
}elseif(strstr($url,"http://domain.com/old_url_3.htm")){
                $url = "url3";
}

//do the redirects

switch ($url) {
case "url1":
       header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
       header( 'Location: http://domain.com/newurl1.htm' ) ;
          break;
case "url2":
           header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
         header( 'Location: http://domain.com/newurl1.htm')  ;
          break;
case "url3":
         header( 'Location: http://domain.com/newurl1.htm')  ;
          break;

default:
//if we can't do a proper redirect, send to 404 page
           header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
          header( 'Location: http://domain.com/404error.htm' ) ;


// Write 404 info
$filename = 'url_not_found.txt';
$refer = $_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"] ;
$handle = fopen($filename, 'a');
$date = date("m.d.y");
$ip = GetHostByName($REMOTE_ADDR);
fwrite($handle, $date." - ".$ip." - ". $url." --> ".$refer."\n");
fclose($handle);
}
?>


Tim Blackwell


-------- new post - new topic ---------

From: William Rice
Subject: PR services

> People all have their own preferred method for consuming news,
> and while many folks do prefer a shorter blog ready format or
> abstract, that does not mean the press release is dead. Far from
> it. It just means recognizing how your particular news should be
> distributed / shared and why.
        - Eric Ward, LED Digest 2371
        - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1773/55/

The Web Marketing Association uses press releases extremely
effectively to promote the call for entries for our annual WebAward
competition for Website development. Our award program recognized
the best Websites in 96 industry categories.

A headline "The Web Marketing Association Names Best Automotive
Website" is more likely to be picked up than one the reads "The Web
Marketing Association Names Best Website" if you are only interested
in the auto industry.

We use PRWeb to distribute our releases to specific industry groups,
which gives us the ability to target the text of the release to a
specific industry.  We customize the headline, opening paragraph,
quote and past winners data to the specific industry we are
targeting. This allows our releases to be picked up on the thousands
of sites, blogs and reporters who are focused on a specific industry.

These releases has resulted in us being picked up in many trade
publications and industry specific websites, but more importantly,
it has created highly targeted pages within the search engines that
point to our site. If you Google "Best Automobile Website", Best
Bank Website" or even "Best Non-Profit Website" you'll get one of
our pages and I feel strongly that our use of targeted press
releases distributed through PRWeb was a leading factor to those
pages high ranking.

We also track the traffic generated by this strategy and these
releases generate more traffic to our site that all of the other
advertising we do during our call for entry period.

Bill Rice, President

Web Marketing Association
www.07webaward.org


============ Sponsor Message ===========

Why pay more for less?

Some content providers charge extra to search-engine
optimize copy. And some are so clueless, they don't
offer SEO at all. A lot of good that'll do your site.

At GetWebContent.com, we SEO everything we write
without any additional charge whatsoever.

Get it all, http://www.GetWebContent.com/LED

============ Sponsor Message ===========


-------- new post - new topic ---------

From: Michael Martinez
Subject: Standards

> Most people aren't aware that the W3 is the result
> of the work by CERN (European Council on Nuclear
> Research) and the United States government....
        - Lee Roberts, LED Digest 2374

Yes.  That agrees with what I said.  Most people are NOT AWARE of
the W3C.  It doesn't matter where it came from.

Most Web content is being produced by people who don't follow those
standards.  Web browsers and search engines maintain backwards
compatibility for that reason alone.

> Just because one might think they don't need to know the
> standards doesn't mean the standards are arbitrary and useless....

The standards will always be arbitrary as long as backwards
compatibility is maintained by the tools we use to access Web
content.  In your zeal to proselytize for W3C standards, I'll
appreciate that you don't put words like "useless" in my mouth.

> The wild west of Web design is going away. Government regulations
> such as those found in the UK, Australia, Italy, and the European
> Union are demanding closer compliance with (x)HTML and
> accessibility.

You failed to mention the United States, Canada, and India (nor all
the non-compliant content that is still out there and won't change).
 I'm not ready to hold my breath on W3C standards or "the wild west
of Web design".

> Search engines as companies are getting smarter. I expect
> that by 2010 we will see the end days of non-standards
> compliant Web pages showing up in the search results.

There is no compelling reason for search engines to penalize
non-compliant pages in that fashion.

Wishful thinking won't change the world.

Michael Martinez
http://www.michael-martinez.com/
http://www.woundedwarriors.org/


-------------------------------------------------------
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

"There are two ways to spread happiness; either be the light who
shines it or be the mirror who reflects it." - Edith Wharton