| LED Digest 2385: Google Ranking Factors |
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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 .............................................. April 9, 2007 Issue no. 2385 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== <Moderator Comment> ~ Google Ranking Factors --== Affiliate Script in Frames ==-- ~ Cyril Hallard "I would like to insert the script...and open a completey new page when visitors click on it..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Ad Tracking System ==-- ~ Jaffer Ali "We have been using an ad tracking solution..." --== Befuddled by Bad SEO Companies ==-- ~ Janet Attard "One other thing to look at...is how many of your sales come in by fax, phone, or mail..." ~ Mark J. Welch "...it's absolutely foolish to pay someone based solely on the amount of your money that they spend." ~ Dirk Johnson "...the SEO industry has deteriorated into factions and cliques, instead of consolidating around what works." ========== NEW =================================== <Moderator Comment> Tip of the 'ol LED baseball cap to Nathan Holley, who sent me a link well worth a look. The good folks at SEOmoz have put together an interesting document that culls knowledge from many of the top search marketers (including several LEDers) and presents it beautifully. Dubbed, "Google Ranking Factors," what we have here is a speculative document representing a sampling of best practices for SEO. Here are some highlights from the piece: --------------------- Top 10 Positive Ranking Factors 1) Keyword Use in Title Tag 2) Global Link Popularity of Site 3) Anchor Text of Inbound Link 4) Link Popularity within Internal Link Structure 5) Age of Site 6) Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site 7) Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community 8) Keyword Use in Body Text 9) Global Link Popularity of Linking Site 10) Rate of New Inbound Links to Site Top 5 Negative Ranking Factors 1. Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots 2. Content Very Similar or Duplicate 3. External Links to Low Quality Sites 4. Duplicate Title / Meta Data 5. Participation in Link Schemes or Selling Links Source: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors --------------------- When looking at the top positive factors, here's what jumps out to me: - 7 of 10 factors are related to linking, either internal or external; - There's no mention of content, only keyword use; - No mention of site structure (ie architecture); I think this is a very valuable document for SEOs for several reasons. But at the same time, I think the Google staff must be having a good laugh. There's a huge tendency to underestimate Google's sophistication, I think. Still, great stuff that offers some tangible and practical guidelines for SEO; so it's a step in the right direction for many. (By the way, where's Shari Thurow on their list? And Detlev Johnson?) Speaking of site structure and internal linking, this is one of the best posts on the topic that I've come across. It was written in early 2001 by Brett Tabke. Skip down to the 4th post on the page: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum34/68.htm I'd love to hear your thoughts on the SEOmoz piece. Comment? Have a great week, Adam -------------------- From: Cyril Hallard Subject: Script in frames Hello LEDers, I need technical help. I have an affiliate program with eaffiliatez.com. This company provided me a script to insert on my web pages. It works fine on most of my pages but I do have a job posting page that is using frames. That page is split in 3: navigation on top, advertising at left, jobs posted in the 3rd frame. (www.it-careers.ca/careersite.htm). I would like to insert the script on the left part and open a complete new page when visitors click on it instead of opening it in the frame of the left part. Is it possible technically to achieve this? Should I redesign my page and remove frames? Thank you for your help, Cyril Hallard www.it-careers.ca Comment? ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Jaffer Ali Subject: AdtrackZ > I have purchased, but not yet installed an ad tracking > program called AdtrackZ. Does anyone have any > experience with the program good or bad? - Dean Wright, LED Digest 2384 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1787/55/ Hello folks: My name is Jaffer Ali and I was a long time LED subscriber in the early days. I recently reconnected with Adam and resubscribed. I hopefully will be able to add to the discussion list. We have been using an ad tracking solution ROIA and we ended up investing in the company many years ago (full disclosure, we still own a piece of the company). ROIA is used by huge clients like Wall Street Journal, Hot Jobs to start ups. The strength is scalability and you can get into the system for a low rate and not pay a ton of money. You pay by the drink without having to buy the whole bar. If you want more info, I would be happy to supply. Jaffer Ali, CEO www.evtv1.com Comment? ============ 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://GetWebContent.com/LED ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Janet Attard Subject: SEO befuddled > 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. - Lorien Carrillo, LED Digest 2382 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1785/55/ One other thing to look at, depending on what you sell, is how many of your sales come in by fax, phone, or mail, and therefore aren't trackable by any of the PPC conversion statistics. If you sell shippable goods, it's not unusual for 1/3 or more of sales to come in through some means other than an online shopping cart. Janet Attard Free small business newsletter: http://www.businessknowhow.com/newsletter/subscribe.htm Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Mark J. Welch Subject: PPC Search Management (SEO befuddled) Adam Boettiger wrote (in part): > In general most [PPC management companies] charge > a monthly management fee of 15% of media spend [and] > their fee may nullify what they may be able to save you by > way of reduced pricing on click bids. - LED Digest 2384 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1787/55/ I've been amazed for years that merchants pay marketing gurus on a "percentage of media spend" for anything, whether it's traditional advertising or online advertising, but in the PPC search "management" industry, it's absolutely foolish to pay someone based solely on the amount of your money that they spend. Instead, merchants should insist on paying based on the value received, which should be a share of the improved profits from "optimizing" the PPC campaigns. As Jill Whalen wrote in the same issue: > You shouldn't be spending 'ridiculously high' amounts > on PPC unless you're getting many more times back in > conversions and sales. PPC tune-ups by qualified companies > or individuals are one of the most costs-effective ways for > you to make more money. Your goal with pay-per-click search is not to generate profits for Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft. Your goal is to generate profitable sale transactions at your site. Thus, you should not pay management fees based on the amount spent, nor on the number of visitors reaching your site, but the improved gross-profit-from-sales (minus the PPC costs). Since the value of a PPC management expert is often mostly realized during a short period, Jill's notion of a "PPC tune-up" is certainly worthwhile, and I'd reasonably expect to pay an hourly rate or ideally a negotiated flat fee for that service. There are many creative ways to structure fees for PPC campaign management, but if you're paying for anything other than "performance" (meaning success in achieving your specific campaign goals), you are probably wasting a lot of money. Mark J. Welch http://www.markwelch.com/ Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Dirk Johnson Subject: SEO befuddled Unfortunately, the SEO industry has deteriorated into factions and cliques, instead of consolidating around what works. Different cliques coagulate around forum X or discussion board Y, and they attend or get regular speaking gigs at Conference Z. These relationships now go back several years. They long ago realized that outsiders are a threat to their status quo and income. What's more, it has become obvious that the individuals who are the most prominent "experts" have mostly become experts at the art of self-promotion and the intramural promotion of their other clique members. They'll tolerate and accept the people who fawn over them in their forums, but they tend to shout down, insult and edit away anyone who disagrees with them. It is childish, grade-school behavior, in what is proposed to be a professional environment. I steer clear of most of it these days. I have learned that, despite their bravado and self-promoted self-importance, they really don't matter all that much. One example is in the real estate industry, which functions quite nicely without much influence from these people and their ever-more complex solutions and remedies. The actual business credentials of many of these people leaves a lot to be desired. Some are quite young and brash, and willing to take chances with their clients, on hunches or on gambits that are less than pure at heart. Maybe without the client's knowledge? Some come from very non-business backgrounds. Their entire business experience, prior to becoming a world-renowned "search expert" may be based entirely upon running a couple of websites from home. They learned a few tricks that worked, and then, with some good self-promotion and being in the right pace at the right time (somewhere around 1999), they tapped into a waiting market for "SEO guidance". Now they are considered to be the foremost "experts", in a self-perpetuating cycle, advising established business owners on all manner of web marketing concepts that they have conceived. Here is just one example, but far and away the most glaring one. By now, almost every "brand name" SEO expert has made some wildly ridiculous statement about the practice of reciprocation and how it affects a site. These statements are often completely unfounded and lacking in any research, and there are real life examples that refute them, everywhere you look. All this, while these "experts" admit to not having much direct experience with reciprocation, by their own choice. You end up with individuals advising stridently on a subject that they actually know very little about. Yet they insult vigorously those who do have substantial experience, but are willing to refute the claims of these "experts". Link reciprocation between two sites that complement each other is a Web marketing practice that predates every single search engine, as well as every single one of these self-appointed search engine optimization gurus. In the end, it's just basic Branding 101. You can find SEO consultants who do understand reciprocation, and then deploy it properly, as just one means of many ways to brand a site. Look for them. They are hard to find, since they tend to be the work-a-day SEO consultants that spend more time working for their clients at reasonable rates than those who spend their time writing in blogs and forums and speaking at conferences, so they can bill their rest of their time at astronomical rates. Best regards, Dirk Johnson, Partner - Operations DomainDrivers LLC www.domaindrivers.com 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. 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