| LED Digest 2439: SEO - The Ubiquitous Hammer |
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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. www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== Guest Moderator: Published by: John Audette LED Digest john, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ............................................. June 27, 2007 Issue no. 2439 ............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== NEW ======================= --== Database Generated vs. Static Pages ==-- ~ Jackie Monticup "Are we going to take a hit in the search engines for these changes? ==== CONTINUING ================= --== The SEO Hammer ==-- ~ Ari Ozick "SEO has become a tool that works." --== Domain Naming ==-- ~ Chris Nielsen "Domains that do use hyphens enjoy the ability to be matched for more search queries." ~ Dan Rosenfield "I have had pretty good success with hyphenated domain names." ~ Tom Anson "...I sometimes have to explain what a hyphen is..." --== Duplicate Content ==-- ~ Nancy Cardinali "Why does Google consider it duplicate content?" ======== NEW ======================== From: Jackie Monticup Subject: Rankings For Database Generated vs. Static Pages We are about to make the first major change in our site in seven years. Your opinions please - how will this affect our search engine rankings? Our site has always been built with static HTML pages. I worked hard (and listened to your advice) over the years to optimize the pages for both people and search engines, and I'm proud to say that we enjoy rankings in the top 3 for terms such as "magic tricks", "magic shop", specific magic tricks names, Houdini, etc. In addition to our online shop, we provide many pages of relevant information about magic history and magicians (resulting in a number of consulting jobs for TV shows and movies!). We also have an active links trading program with mutually beneficial sites. It's time for an upgrade to our shopping cart system. We will be using Monster Commerce from Network Solutions, which will allow us to greatly automate our backend and will make it much easier to manage our online product offerings. The two main differences will be: 1) we will be changing hosts from Hostway to Network Solutions and 2) our product pages will now be database generated rather than static HTML ones. Are we going to take a hit in the search engines for these changes? And if so, what can I do to mitigate the damage? Thanks for your help. Magically, Jackie Monticup http://www.magictricks.com Comment? ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Ariel Ozick Subject: SEO as the Ubiquitous Hammer? > Has Internet marketing been reduced to optimizing > for Google searches? I realize that SEO is a powerful > hammer -- but is everything a nail? If it is, it is. Let's > talk about it. - John Audette, LED Digest 2436 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1841/190/ Our Striving Moderator laments the focus on SEO and specifically Google on this list and in general. As someone who does a lot of SEO/SEM for myself and others, here are my thoughts: The other internet mediums that John mentions are alive and kicking (well, except maybe for banner advertising). Social media, viral content, guerilla marketing, cultivating journalists, affiliate marketing, etc. are all proven ways that still work when you want to market something. So why the focus on SEO/SEM? I think for two reasons - the targeted, interested traffic and the science involved in it. The first reason is obvious, but what do I mean by science? Well, while SEO is difficult to achieve, everyone knows what you need - a good site, good content, excellent links, title tags, description tags and a little bit of secret seo sauce. But by and large we know what works, what influences the algorithms, and how to make the engines think that one site is more relevant for a given subject then another. The same is not true with other venues. We don't always know what will make something viral, we don't want to invest the money to create what Seth Godin describes as the Purple Cow - something truly remarkable, because we don't know if it will work. So in a certain sense SEO (and to a certain extent SEM) has become a tool that works, mainly requires effort and time, but has results, assuming you give it enough resources. So to the thread that started this thought - employers not using search engines - how do you reach the employers? I would suggest creating online tools for employers (how much will an employee cost in payroll taxes, for example) and using it as bait. Get the name of a few local journalists and tell them about your new site - but make sure it does something different. Maybe offer a matchmaking service between employers and employees, or charge employees to search for jobs? It's no longer 1998, so if you want to be talked about, you have to be different and unique. On a final note I'd like to briefly mention defensible traffic in terms of SEO. Sites come and go for keywords on Google. It happens. I worked with a site that dropped from #1 to #30 to #50 across the board for major keyword terms, in a market where adwords was not cost effective. What do you do? You prepare by building defensible traffic - generic domains with your keyword that bring type-in traffic, facebook widgets, develop a community before the drop. Any good SEO guy needs to tell you this - build defensible traffic! In any event I already think that John will cut this email off because it's awfully long, so let me just wish everyone a great weekend and God Bless! Equip your toolbox with many tools, not just a hammer! Ari Ozick Wired Rhino, Inc. http://www.wiredrhino.com Comment? ============ Sponsor Message =========== Speaking of July 4th, did you know website content is a lot like fireworks? It either lights up the (cyber)sky, or it doesn't. Do your articles, product pages, and blogs have more fizzle than sizzle? Is your home page copy a dud? Visit http://GetWebContent.com/LED and get maximum bang for your buck. ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Chris Nielsen Subject: Domain Naming > ... is a hyphen prefered to separate words making > up a domain name or just run them together...? - Terry Smith, LED Digest 2437 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1842/190/ My first question is how will you use the extra domains and how do you think they will help? Extra domains pointing to the same site, or "Parked" on a site will result in only one of the domains being considered "valid" for the content with the others discounted. This is generally true although I have seen some cases where more than one domain gets valid PR, but I don't know that traffic or exposure is really increased. It's a duplication that usually gets filtered out. For domains, you have a choice of using the version without hyphens that is easier to type and that people find more "attractive, or a version with hyphens that is not as attractive or as valuable if you are later selling it. But domains without hyphens will generally not match search queries unless the query is in the same word order ("led digest" should match "leddigest.com"). If there are other word or sub-words created that are not intended by joining words together, they will generally not be found. The amount of effort needed to determine all possible words in a domain is not something that you would try to figure out, since they are not likely to be "intended". Domains that do use hyphens enjoy the ability to be matched for more search queries, since the "words" are clearly defined with the hyphens that are treated like spaces. While I have quite a few domains with hyphens that enjoy good traffic, I cannot say how much advantage is gained by this, and do NOT recommend that clients use them only for any possible traffic gains. The best thing is a short dot com domain with no hyphens. Thank you, Chris Nielsen ojdl.com Comment? -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Dan and Mary Rosenfield Subject: Domain Naming Hello: In response to Terry Smith's question about search engines' reaction to hyphenated domain names, while I have no hard empirical data, I have had pretty good success with 3 such domains: http://www.college-scholarships.com http://www.guaranteed-scholarships.com http://www.online-degrees-and-scholarships.com All have top ten rankings (in Yahoo and Google) and all are Google PR 6's (after one recently dropped from a 7). I am by no means confident that the hyphenated URL's have helped, but it seems reasonable to assume they have not been a negative. My guess is that having keywords in the URL... hyphenated or not... is a good idea and that many factors, on page and off, are of greater importance than whether or not a site's URL's are hyphenated. As I do whenever I post, I would like to thank Adam and all of the Digest subscribers for all I've learned and continue to learn from them. And, before I go, I'd like to recommend a website where I have found some great tools: http://www.webuildpages.com/tools/default.htm The "Backlink & Anchor Text Tool" is as helpful a tool as I've ever used. Other than being an appreciative user, I have no affiliation with the site. May the search engines be kind to all of us. Dan Rosenfield Comment? -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Tom Anson Subject: Domain Naming Hi Terry, I tend to agree with Micheal Linehan and our talented moderator, John, when it comes to domain names. Specifically, when I was choosing the domain name for my chief website, my first thought (on my third shot at choosing a domain name) was to make it READABLE -- forget running the words together into a jumble of unintelligible letters. I chose to add the hyphen, and came out with www.therapeutic-grade.com. I really thought it would be easier for my visitors to read and remember. That might be true, but it's a pain to give to someone over the phone. I not only have the problem of people misspelling therapeutic (they tend to settle for theraputic), I always have to explain that there's a hyphen in there (and sometimes have to explain what a hyphen is). Like Michael said, "Sheesh!" No matter how it looks to you (or the search engines), "People expect the words in a URL to be run together". Tom Anson The Essential Oils Desk Reference http://www.therapeutic-grade.com/References/desk-ref.html Comment? -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Nancy Cardinali Subject: Duplicate Content Chuck Hiatt's duplicate content issues: > To address potential duplicate content penalties, > manipulate your htaccess file and redirect secondary > domains to the preferred listing. - Chuck Hiatt, LED Digest 2432 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1837/190/ To which Shari Thurow responded: > Chuck certainly gave great advice. Search engines certainly > want you to deliver them the "canonical" (that's what they call it) > URL to them. - Shari Thurow, LED Digest 2433 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1838/190/ All of this is confusing to me. Just because my browser will use any of the above urls to get to my home page, why would Google consider it duplicate content? Or better yet, can you explain how I could have truck parts at domain.com, clothing at www.domain.com/ and gourmet food at www.domain.com/index.html ? Take it a step further and add www.domain.com/index.htm, www.domain.com/index.php... etc. Can someone explain how this, what I would call browser behavior, could possibly trigger Google's filters? Especially if there is no way of having different content on at least these three 'pages': domain.com www.domain.com/ www.domain.com/index.html I have been pondering this since Chuck wrote about it. I'd like to hear more. Thank you, Nancy Cardinali www.CardinaliDesigns.com *Consolidate your online and print image for name recognition* P.S. Nice to meet you John! Comment? ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by: GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. 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