| LED Digest 2413: Cool SEO Tools, and more! |
|
|
|
================================================== 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 .............................................. May 18, 2007 Issue no. 2413 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== Domain "Health" Service ==-- ~ Christophe Cash "Reputation scores are calculated based on behavior data captured in real-time..." <Moderator Comment> "What are your favorite SEO tools?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== SEO and Content ==-- ~ Mackenzie Andersen "I have been struggling with finding the balance between expressing my own voice..." ~ Anthony Kirlew "It's hard enough for someone who speaks English...to be a master copywriter..." ~ Reg Charie "Usability IS part of SEO." ~ Peggy Deras "...any site owner should, at the very least, direct the writing." --== The Gatekeeper Mentality ==-- ~ Jim Gatton "[Don't] assume people know what [you] want..." --== Blocked by Hotmail ==-- ~ James Haley "It could be that someone else on your server is spamming..." --== Google Languages & Databases ==-- ~ Michael Martinez "The chief characteristic of Google 3.0 is that they are integrating results..." ========== NEW =================================== From: Christophe Cash Subject: Domain Health Check A recent release gives us a heads up about a new free service that purports to offer you a detailed analysis of your website's online reputation. ---------------------- "Users who request a Domain Health Check will receive a report that provides a snapshot of their domain's security reputation regarding Web and e-mail traffic. Reputation scores are calculated based on behavior data captured in real-time by Secure Computing's TrustedSource reputation service, according to the company. Like a credit score, a reputation score indicates whether a site is in good standing, or if it may have been compromised and is being used in nefarious ways. As part of the report, participants will receive remediation tips that serve as a starting point to rectify any problems." Source: http://www.securecomputing.com/domain_health_check.cfm ---------------------- Cheers, Christophe Cash audiomind.us Comment? <Moderator Comment> I'm not usually a fan of these types of services. They try to automate something that is probably much more effectively done manually. That said, I didn't even test out the above service because the first thing they ask for is an email address. That was enough for me to click away. I'm not worried about giving out my email address - half the web has it. I just dislike a service that gives you that requirement right off the bat. I guess I'm not that fearful that a site I own may be surreptitiously "used in nefarious ways." If it is, I'll probably know about it soon enough. On a related topic -- SEO tools -- someone recently sent me this link: http://www.linkvendor.com/seo-tools/domain-popularity.html , which basically takes your backlink data and tries to organize it by PageRank, giving you an indication of the "power" of your various incoming links. Since PR is almost totally useless as a metric of a site's strength, I don't think I'll use it much. A far better method is probably something like Jim Boykin's "Strongest Subpages Tool" right here: http://www.webuildpages.com/seo-tools/strongest-subpages-tool.php . This counts incoming links to specific deep pages and organizes them that way. There's always Yahoo Site Explorer that usually organizes links in descending order by their quality. That's the rumor, anyway. http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/ The best tool IMHO for auditing a site's off-page strenghts is Aaron's SEO for Firefox plugin: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html . It can quickly give you a snapshot of a site's overall profile. I find it extremely useful when checking out a site before getting to the on-page optimization stuff. There are tons of other tools, too. What's your favorite? Comment? Have a great weekend, Adam ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Mackenzie Andersen Subject: Content I am developing a blog that I created myself. I also developed the website. I know it is not the conventional thing to do but we are not a conventional business. I have been struggling with finding the balance between expressing my own voice and the voice of the entity that I am representing. I received some disturbing feedback from a well intended colleague and I ended up creating "copy" about my own response to that feedback, and as a process of giving myself permission to speak in my own human voice. My blog style began as an email news letter. The second letter became the first published blog. The response to the email news letter was increased sales. Formerly my news letters were about sales discounts, but the blog-styled news letter made as much or greater sales than the letters that offered a discount. Since there was no discount offered that means higher profits. Because of who we are, I feel that it makes sence to speak in my own voice. It is the voice of an individual voice, a "natural person" and not the voice of a "corporate personhood". With corporate personhood developing an ever growing layer of artificial intelligence, as an interface between the artificial person and the natural person, I think it is a "plus" to speak in the controversial voice of an individual person. I am sure there are those who will disagree with my approach, but that's OK. I also received positive customer feedback to my email news letter. I believe that our customer would rather read the voice of a natural person. Through our links categories, I have been using our website to connect with ideas outside of the normal scope of a commercial website. I read here on LED that links are important to SEO and so I make sure to have a lot of links, but as I do so I realize that links are more than an SEO strategy. It is part of the natural beauty of the internet in forming networks of affiliations. Blog http://www.andersenstudio.com/ASBLOGz.html Links http://www.andersenstudio.com/Links.html My Blog is currently publishes as an HTML page on our server. I am currently investigating the pros and cons of publishing it through Blogger. Mackenzie Andersen www.andersenstudio.com Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Anthony Kirlew Subject: Content > I honestly don't understand how content is a function > of SEO. Isn't content just part of having a Web site than > people enjoy using? - Rae Deisler, LED Digest 2411 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1815/55/ Content development is one component of an overall SEO campaign. Ideally your SEO firm would work with you to come up with the content, but many do have copywriters on staff or on retainer to get the job done. It's been a while since I posted, but here are my answers to your "content" questions: > 1) Do you write your own copy or > hire a copywriter? It depends on the site. I have done it myself (I do have copywriting skills), and at my old company one of our SEO team members was a copywriting specialist, so that helped. I would not hesitate to outsource to a trusted copywriter however. > 2) When writing copy for the web, what's more > important: usability or SEO? If I had to take a side, I would lean towards usability as that is the ultimate goal, but SEO can't be left out of the mix. > 3) Should copywriting be outsourced > overseas? (Speaking from an American perspective) My initial thought is no because of some of what I have seen that is obviously written from people who do not have a good grasp of the English language. It's hard enough for someone who speaks English as a first language to be a master copywriter, so I think its exponentially harder for someone who is not intimate with a language or culture to do this. > 4) What's a fair price to pay for copywriting > services? This is vague as I haven't paid for these services in a while, but in general, you can find reasonable rates from sole practitioners or lesser known copywriters. The well known names command a pretty penny, and deserve it, as they usually get the results for their clients. I hope that helps. Anthony Kirlew, Author "Internet Marketing Secrets from the trenches" http://www.webtrafficteam.com Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Reg Charie Subject: Content Great subject and one close to my heart. > 1) Do you write your own copy or > hire a copywriter? This varies with the length of the search term tail and the type of page. Mostly, I work with the owner of the business to generalize the content, adding their insight into the various industry terms and terminology, combined with my input as a general user who is looking for product, but not savvy in regards to the industry's terminology. > 2) When writing copy for the web, what's more > important: usability or SEO? Usability IS part of SEO. Information should be presented in a manner that features the keywords to lead the visitor to their intended destination(s). Keywords should be researched to prioritize, and pages built in an easy to follow structure from short to long tail. > 3) Should copywriting be outsourced > overseas? Difficult question and one that I have not had to answer. I have a US based copy writer who does well for me. > 4) What's a fair price to pay for copywriting > services? It varies by the complexity and time. In the neighborhood of $50 - $75 per hour for a professional. Thank You, Reg Charie www.dotcom-productions.com Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Peggy Deras Subject: Content I write my own copy; and think any site owner should, at the very least, direct the writing. Some business people aren't good writers. That's a given. But they know their business and message better than anyone else. That message needs to come across on the web more than anywhere else in marketing except perhaps television advertising. Too many small businesses turn their web site creation over to "the pros" and end up with cookie-cutter magazine page sites, when they could have a portal that really enhances their business and adds to their bottom line with increased sales or leads. I believe in the diversity that is the Web. I think it is the obligation of every business to enhance and enrich the Web experience for all by bringing their unique knowledge online and sharing it with all. It takes some soul searching to do, but the results are well worth the effort and time involved. I certainly don't discount the contributions of web designers and SEO people in bringing our content to the public in a form that is coherent and effective. They are part of the team. But the message should come from the business or whatever entity is represented by the site. Peggy Deras, CKD, CID Kitchen Artworks www.kitchenartworks.com Kitchen Design - Problem Solving - CAD Drafting - Cabinetry Design Comment? ============ Sponsor Message =========== Now you got 'em, what are you gonna do with 'em? Surfers, that is. They're at your site, but is your copy ready? Is it powerful enough to convert casual visitors into free-spending customers? At www.GetWebContent.com/LED we first write "sell" copy that makes you money and your website sticky. Then we SEO it to make sure it gets read. ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Jim Gatton Subject: Gatekeepers > I've encountered it. My point is this: when you > ask for what you want you often get it. - Malcolm Fitzgerald, LED Digest 2411 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1815/55/ I had to laugh with Malcolm Fitzgerald's comment here and especially with its context. Sorry for the following, Adam, as I share that I tease a lady friend for using ambiguous phrases and pass it off as "woman's talk". It happens fairly often that I'm supposed to interpret and apply non-direct comments that she makes. If I don't do something appropriate in these cases it's typically because she didn't specifically ask me to do something. (Umm, at other times it's just a male thing, I guess. I really wasn't paying attention.) In a restaurant she'll say to the waitress, "When you have time would you get us some more coffee?" At other times I say, "More coffee, please". Guess who gets quicker service? Well, the waitress didn't have time yet! She's busy serving other people. It's a lesson well learned by all of us to not assume people know what we want unless we are very specific in our requests and sharing our needs. For instance, I want everyone reading this to smile and not accuse me of being a male chauvinist pig. Jim Gatton information-on.org Comment? -------- new post - new topic -------- From: James Haley Subject: Hotmail blocked > So it appears Hotmail is blocking > everything from my server. - George Miller, LED Digest 2412 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1816/55/ George, It could be that someone else on your server is spamming and Hotmail is penalizing the whole server. Dealing with the behemoth is not going to be easy. Can you send your mail from a different server in the interim until it gets resolved? James Haley http://www.911dating.com a free dating network Comment? -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: Google indexes > Does Google have different databases in their different > language versions... If not do they have different priorities? > The results can anyhow be very different. - Lars Ekdahl, LED Digest 2412 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1816/55/ Google just redesigned its search engine and by the time you read this it should be visible and in use across all data centers. This is the second rewrite of their search engine in 2 years. Call it Google 3.0. The Google you have been using since December 2005 through March 2006 was Google 2.0 -- better known as Bigdaddy. Based on comments from Google employees and some sparse documentation I have read on the Web, I would conclude that Google has indeed been crawling and storing Web documents by language as much as possible, although there are links between languages (for example, much of my Tolkien work is linked to by people in Greek, Hebrew, Polish, French, Spanish, and Italian -- perhaps other languages as well). With Google 3.0, we have been told to expect a new initiative to emerge in the near future. They call it Cross Language Information Retrieval. In essence, for queries that fail to return sufficient documents in their native language, Google will search for relevant documents in other languages. They will score the relevance by first translating those documents (if necessary) into English before applying their algorithms. It is my understanding that the results sets will list the documents in their original languages but people will obviously be provided with links for translation, if desired. Google says they will launch Cross Language Information Retrieval in 12 languages to begin with and expand the capability as time goes on. Whether they need a separate index for each language any more, I don't know. I would say they are working hard to make the whole business transparent. The chief characteristic of Google 3.0 is that they are integrating results from Google Book Search, Google Blog Search, Google Image Search, Google Local/Maps Search, Google News Search, and Google Video Search into their Web search results pages. The separate vertical search options are still available, but Google says that we should gradually see more results from those other types of searches appear in the Web Search results. So Google 3.0 could also be called Google Fully Integrated (or Google More Fully Integrated). They've also included a more efficient navigation menu bar across their services to help people use their network more easily. My personal sites have been receiving hits from Google's translation tool for some months already. I suspect that as their Cross Language Informationi Retrieval capability comes into play that I'll see even more translation traffic. In effect, this makes a larger part of the Web more easily accessible to everyone, but the greatest benefit may be to those people whose native languages currently have only small repositories of Web content. With respect to optimization and managing search visibility across all these integrated data sectors, we'll just have to see how it plays out. Google has not abandoned its core PageRank philosophy. Nor have they, I am sure, given up on determining which pages can be trusted and which pages probably should not be trusted. So I think that, despite the complete redesign of the search engine's software, we're still playing by many of the same rules we have gotten used to -- at least for the time being. Google says the transformation in results should be gradual, so any adjustments we have to make in content and/or linking profiles may also only have to be made incrementally or gradually. I am guessing that we should have time to see how it all works and figure out what (if anything) needs to be changed or added to our content. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.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. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes." - Mahatma Gandhi |
