| LED Digest 2382: Befuddled by the SEO Industry |
|
|
|
================================================== 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 .............................................. April 4, 2007 Issue no. 2382 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== Befuddled by Bad SEO Companies ==-- ~ Lorien Carrillo "Quite honestly, I have been burned before by an SE company so I'm extremely leery." <Moderator Comment> ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Selling with Amazon Merchant ==-- ~ Steve Ball "Amazon, historically, accounts for 80+ percent of our sales." ~ Mark J. Welch "Bottom line: these can be good opportunities." ~ Janet Pickard "It takes a lot of time to build at Amazon. It is my third year and I finally am seeing daylight." <Moderator Comment> --== HTML Standards and Search Rankings ==-- ~ Bob Gladstein "It seems the discussion of standards has stopped being productive..." ~ Nathan Holley "Not knocking standards, they're great and all, but they have no real merit in SEO." ~ Tom Aman "But this whole discrimination issue can be taken to extremes." --== Redirecting Sites with Rewrite ==-- ~ Adam Audette "...I'd submit a sitemap to Google's Webmaster Tools and pick your preferred domain." ========== NEW =================================== From: Lorien Carrillo Subject: SEO Companies... befuddled I've been on this list for many years and today is my first time posting. I'm considering hiring an SE company, but who to go with?! I've tried to find reviews, nothing out there that isn't written by clients of 'X' company on that particular company's site. No one in my industry uses SE, so I can't get referrals from anyone in my proverbial circle. Quite honestly, I have been burned before by an SE company so I'm extremely leery. What I do know is that our annual output for PPC's is extremely and ridiculously high, and I'd like to lessen that by focusing on obtaining natural search results. I don't have the time nor the expertise to do this myself, so I need to hire a company to do it for me. I've been approached by a company called Web Marketing Source / Captures. I know nothing about them at all. Has anyone here heard of them, or have feedback about their practices and most importantly their reputation and results? Can anyone else give me some recommendations for companies they have worked with or can suggest? Thank you so much, Lorien Carrillo <Moderator Comment> This is something I continually hear, Lorien. No standards, no accreditation, no clue for most people on where to look for SEO consulting. There are a number of highly reputable folks here on the LED, so I'm sure you'll hear from them. The bigger issue here of course is, what can be done to move the SEO industry forward? For those of us who do this stuff every day, knowing who the legitimate, quality folks are is easy and automatic. But what if you were entering this area knowing nothing about it? What would you do? Looking forward to the responses, Adam Comment? ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Steve Ball Subject: Amazon Merchant > Recently, I have been looking at an Amazon Pro-Merchant > account... Just curious to know if anyone has any experience, > good or bad, of selling on Amazon? - Mark Roberts, LED Digest 2381 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1784/55/ We are an Internet based used bookstore and have been selling on Amazon, as a Pro Merchant, since 1998. We sell on two other venues as well: ABEBooks and Alibris. Amazon, historically, accounts for 80+ percent of our sales. The issues of what and how you can sell on Amazon are somewhat complex, and worth more space than anyone here in their right mind might be willing to read. Basically, though, if your products have UPC codes then they are generally eligible for selling on Amazon. And, depending on exactly what you are selling, and the nature of your business, you might want to try out for "Featured Merchant" status. Used books are a special case on Amazon: lots of competition and constant downward price pressure from the automated megasellers. (Penny books, anyone? Literally.) It is probably less dog-eat-dog in other product areas. For detailed info, I'd advise you to call Amazon Seller Support at 877-251-0696. Press zero a couple of times and you will give a very helpful, real live human. They can direct you to detailed help pages. Steve Ball, Owner Book Nook of Orange County http://www.amazon.com/shops/booknookoc Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Mark J. Welch Subject: Amazon Merchant Mark Roberts noted that Amazon's products are indexed very favorably by search engines, and asked "if anyone has any experience, good or bad, of selling on Amazon?" I've had some personal experience, and have worked with a number of clients who also sell through Amazon's "Marketplace", eBay, and Yahoo Shopping. Bottom line: these can be good opportunities. I think the key is to understand both the rules and the "strengths and weaknesses" of each system, and especially to understand the specifics of the fee structure. For example, if you offer a large number of SKUs with a relatively low sales level (that is, if you sell fewer than 10% to 20% of items offered for sale each month), eBay's fees can wipe out profits very quickly; Amazon's Marketplace works better in that situation. You will almost certainly decide to offer only a subset of your SKUs through eBay, and you may also find reasons to limit the inventory you list on Amazon. (Yahoo Shopping is likely to be a more limited opportunity for most sellers.) Of course, a key issue is making sure that your inventory and order-fulfillment systems work smoothly across these multiple e-commerce platforms, so you don't accept orders from 2 marketplaces for the same item in your inventory, or misplace a marketplace order because it didn't come in through your regular online store. There are a variety of strategies to bring these "outside" orders into your internal solution. Mark J. Welch http://www.markwelch.com Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Janet Pickard Subject: Amazon Merchant Hi Mark, I have been a Pro-Merchant for years. I believe you would be placing your products in the "house and garden" category. I would do some competitive analysis in that category. First, when you search for "bird houses" in Amazon what listings come up? I found that the top 2 were ranked very poorly for sales in that category. That tells me that there is not much call on Amazon for your product. But that is for you to say. Can you compete price and service wise with the folks who are already there? No matter what you say in your product listing about time to delivery, Amazon customers expect 5-7 days. Unlike eBay, where everyone gives you a 5 just for delivering, Amazon folks will give you a 2 for a day late. They will also hold you hostage. In Amazon poor ratings means poor product placements. You do not have much control. The order and inventory system is horrible. Placing products is a nightmare. Do not forget that they will require a contract. Make sure you check the terms. They may not be very agreeable, especially fees. It takes a lot of time to build at Amazon. It is my third year and I finally am seeing daylight. On, and be careful at the holiday season! You better have in place the manpower to fulfill orders. Hope that helps! Janet Pickard ChessCentral www.chesscentral.com Comment? <Moderator Comment> Some additional reading on this topic: "R. Black" (not the poster's real name, obviously) launched an attack on the Amazon Merchant program in June of 2006: > Our company has sold on the web for over 10 years, Amazon > is by far the poorest managed sales place we have ever encountered. > The feedback system is completely bogus and often used to blackmail > the seller. There is no buyer feedback in public view... - R. Black, LED Digest 2193 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/403/55/ Not surprisingly, this post stirred up several responses, including this one from long-time LEDer Scott Marino of www.webundies.com: > Amazon's ability to move product for us has fueled solid growth > in our company. Amazon provided the tools needed to automate > the loading of products and inventory into their database and to > extract orders in a format for loading into our systems. - Scott Marino, LED Digest 2194 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/404/55/ There are more responses and back-and-forth, too, in the next two issues: LED Digest 2195 http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/405/55/ LED Digest 2196 http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/406/55/ Also, thanks to Claudiu Spulber of www.novapdf.com here are some worthwhile discussions about selling with Amazon: http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.350531.14 http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.353779.8 Hope this is helpful, Adam Comment? ============ Sponsor Message =========== Have you sat down and read your website lately? What your site says is crucial in converting surfers into customers and meeting search engine mandates for fresh, unique copy. Our all-pro writers have Fortune 500 experience. For top-quality, customized, cost-effective copy, visit http://GetWebContent.com/LED today. ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Bob Gladstein Subject: Standards It seems the discussion of standards has stopped being productive, mostly because people are talking about two different things: W3C standards for HTML and XHTML, and accessibility standards. I don't personally believe either one has anything to do with search engine rankings, although there are jurisdictions where accessibility is a legal requirement. Bob Gladstein www.raisemyrank.com Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Nathan Holley Subject: Standards & Rankings In response to Lee Roberts in the last issue, I find that information interesting as far as accessibility and disabled access to the Internet, but fail to see how it relates to search rankings. Have we reached any conclusions about SEO and HTML standards? Does proper (x)HTML, that complies with W3C standards, have any noticeable influence upon rankings in any way? All of this will only be personal opinion and speculation, so feel free to consider it worth a penny. I tend to agree with Michael Martinez -- how can a search engine use coding standards as part of its algorithm, when it's nothing but an arbitrary standard (an ideal) and not even close to ubiquitous? Not knocking standards, they're great and all, but they have no real merit in SEO. Time to move on! Nathan Holley Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Tom Aman Subject: Standards > Click and mortar Web sites can offer online only specials > (oh Southwest Airlines did this and was sued), but if the > disabled person can't buy through the Web site, why is that > okay? Isn't this act of discrimination...? - Lee Roberts, LED Digest 2381 But this whole discrimination issue can be taken to extremes. Would it be considered OK for me to sue a site that only takes credit cards for payment if I can only pay via PayPal or check. Does than not constitute discrimination against people who do not have a credit card? Or what about a business (online or mortar) that only takes Master Card and Visa. That constitutes discrimination against those who only carry American Express (or some other card). On a business trip, if I only access the Web via my cell phone or PDA and a site is difficult or impossible to view and/or navigate this way, am I being discriminated against since the site is not accessible unless I carry a laptop? It is easy to go on and on in this vein. Seems to me that offering some specials only online is not really a serious discrimination issue - in most cases it is likely to be an advertising / promo issue where a company may do it mainly to encourage use of their Web site and many do it. To sue over this kind of thing seems to me to be yet another silly lawsuit and there are a lot of them (Lee, did Southwest Airlines win or lose this one?). Basically, if you follow usability standards and guidelines that have been around for a long time (almost as long as the Web), the site will be accessible and usable for almost anyone who can get online. As soon as you add Flash, Javascript, etc., etc., you start to reduce accessiblity for some people. But, except for possibly government and other public service site, I feel the choice should really be left to the individual company in most cases. Tom Aman Aman Software Comment? -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Adam Audette Subject: Rewrite and redirection woes > So now rewrite is in place and the 2 indexed domains > point to his choice. Which is still not indexed by Google > after 2 months. Is my rewrite code bad? Here it is... > Looks right to me... - Nathan Holley, LED Digest 2381 Looks right to me, too. One thing to be aware of (that I'm sure you already know, but anyway) is that your code will redirect any and all URLs without the "www" to the root www domain. So even if the valid page "domain.com/pagehere.html" exists, a user will be redirected to "www.domain.com." Shouldn't be a problem, unless you've got lots of pages already indexed with non-www URL. Either way, I'd submit a sitemap to Google's Webmaster Tools and pick your preferred domain. > I've never seen Google be so slow indexing > a site that appears to be properly 301'd. I'm seeing this all the time. Nothing to worry about, in time you'll be back in action. Best wishes, Adam Audette http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/40/79/ Comment? ------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure." - Joseph Campbell |
