| LED Digest 2466: Does Keyword Density Matter? |
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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 ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. August 8, 2007 Issue no. 2466 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== <Moderator Comment> --== Keyword Density ==-- ~ Hein van der Honing "...what do you think is the perfect keyword > density of a webpage." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Free Consultations ==-- ~ Mike Mikottis "Two thoughts on addressing the legitimate needs of prospects..." ~ Michael Linehan "I will not prepare a detailed strategic workplan as part of a proposal." --== SEO and Web Standards ==-- ~ Michael Martinez "...non-HTML content...often ranks well in search results..." --== The Hell of CSS ==-- ~ Shaun Johnston "Thank you all for your encouragement to take the leap." --== Selling Digital Goods [was: The Hard....] ==-- ~ Reg Charie "...use a shopping system that has a download manager." =========== NEW ================================== <Moderator Comment> Greetings LEDer, Sorry for the delays with today's issue. Something was hanging up the server, so I gave it a reboot; the first since about September 2006. Don't you love it when things "just work"? That's Windows NT for ya :) I've been playing with Sphinn.com quite a bit this week. It's a social site for SEO and Internet marketing from Danny Sullivan. It's been interesting to watch the launch and instantaneous acceptance by the industry. It's still got limited activity, but there's some quality content going through and a pretty good community feel. Here's my profile: http://sphinn.com/user/view/profile/login/AdamAudette I've also been exploring Facebook a bunch, and it's really an interesting platform. If you haven't played with it yet, do so. Create a profile and you can add me as a friend: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=717812062. We even have an LED Digest group there: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3478110537 I'll follow up later in the week with some thoughts on Facebook, professional networking, and the challenges / strengths of closed platforms. Hope it's a productive week, Adam ----------------------- From: Hein van der Honing Subject: Keyword Density Hi, I know it's a never-ending story and there's lots of debate about it. But what do you think is the perfect keyword-density of a webpage. And what's the maximum / minimum you'd like to achieve? Hein van der Honing www.zylom.com ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Michael Mikottis Subject: Free consultations > I get a lot of people who want a free consultation > in different forms... Have any LEDers had this type > of situation in your respective fields? How did you > handle it more effectively? - Shari Thurow, LED Digest 2465 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1876/190/ Shari, Speaking from sales experience, certainly a prospect has a legitimate need to qualify a vendor. And true, one way to prove expertise might be to give a free consultation. The problem with gratis is there is no built-in "speed bump"; nothing to slow down price shoppers, freebie hounds, and other species who are the bane of every industry, and will always end up costing you more than they ever return to you. Two thoughts on addressing the legitimate needs of prospects: 1) Prove your worth some other way 2) Don't make the consultation completely free RE: (1) In your case, with 12 years industry experience, beautiful websites, long client list, authorship of multiple books, etc. all you need to do is politely point the prospect to that information. If truly what they seek is proof of qualifications. If it isn't that, what else could it possibly be? Easy: Something for nothing. RE: (2) The classic solution to this problem is the nominal fee- and the strategy works- the bloodsuckers disappear. The question is how to do it in a way that does not offend true prospects. Here are three possibilities - choose one that fits your style, comfort level and image: 1) Charge a "quick consult" fee, nominal or otherwise, period. You are an expert in your field, in demand, with the bona fides to prove it. You get paid for your expertise. (Ironically, just having this policy may be enough to qualify convince a potential client that you have "the right stuff"!) 2) Charge a fee that will be credited upon commencement of further work. Similar to the above, but a little less risky for the prospect. 3) Charge a fee that will be donated to Feed The Children or some other favorite charity. Kind of the best of both worlds -- it says "my analysis, and my time is valuable" while at the same time saying "I am not trying to take advantage of you." Just some thoughts. Mike Mikottis -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Michael Linehan Subject: Free consultations My response to free consultation requests is simple and easy apply --- I no longer offer free consultations, as such (except pro bono for a worthwhile cause). In the early days, I did free consultations as a way of attracting potential clients, and I think doing so served its purpose well, for a while. But the time required for all that non- billable time grew and grew. When I stopped, we experienced zero drop- off of clients - just a drop-off of people looking for free work. Now, the first and only free meeting is purely a getting to know each other, sales meeting --- and I make that purpose clear. Before the meeting, I send the potential client some introductory materials. One section describes the process of getting to know each other and of working together, should they decide to use us. One critical clarification in the materials is, "In our introductory meeting, you will explain to me what you want to accomplish with your website. Then I will explain what we can offer. I will detail this thoroughly enough that you have all information needed to make a decision on whether you want us to work for you." (That 'what we can offer' is described, of course, in such a way as to distinguish us from possible competition.) Part of the information 'needed to make a decision' may very well involve a few comments on their site. But if they ask questions beyond those few points, I just explain something like, "That kind of detailed analysis (workplan / strategy / commentary / solution / whatever) is actually part of the work you need. That would happen if you decide to use us." I don't get defensive at all, or anything like that - it's just a matter-of-fact, polite statement, and it has always been received perfectly well. I believe (whether rightly or wrongly) that this will be the response of any "real" businessperson. For RFPs, my process is, essentially, the same. I will not prepare a detailed strategic workplan as part of a proposal. I put what I will do, but not how I will do it. Similar to the verbal process, this has worked very well. Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy www.marketing-alchemy.com ============ Sponsor Message =========== Pirates of the Caribbean, what a great flick. Lots of kids want to grow up to be pirates. Some go into the web content business. They loot copy from one client and sell it to many more. The clients get to walk the plank, because duplicate copy is a big SE no-no. At http://GetWebContent.com/LED our copy is custom crafted for you and you alone. ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: SEO standards > A coworker (unaware of the discussion currently raging in > the LED) emailed me a link to this piece last week: > http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3626600 - Beth Ann Earle, LED Digest 2465 I'm familiar with the interview, as I read SearchEngineWatch every day. Of course, he didn't say "Yes, it would help to do these things", he only said, "Those would be very good ideas". Compliments often mask non-answers. Google in particular indexes non-HTML content and that content often ranks well in search results (which is why I know that it's there). As many link-bombing SEOs know fully well, you can even get non-existent and non-indexed URLs to rank in Google's search results (except in Safesearch mode). The HTML standards argument is an emotional issue, not a technical issue. Browser don't need standards-compliant pages, search engines don't need standards-compliant pages, and so search engine optimization really doesn't benefit from standards compliance. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Shaun Johnston Subject: CSS hell > [CSS is] the meanest design environment I can remember, > except for designing in postscript, which I dimly remember > and was HELL. - Shaun Johnston, LED Digest 2464 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1875/190/ Since no lurkers leapt out of obscurity to come to my support in my rant against CSS, I must assume I am indeed a lone straggler far behind the times. Thank you all for your encouragement to take the leap. VS does indeed seem to provide excellent access to the styles, thanks for the pointer. Shaun Johnston -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Reg Charie Subject: Selling free > What are the nuts and bolts of setting up > a page that requires payment to access? - Peggy Deras, LED Digest 2464 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1875/190/ Peggy, There are a couple of was to do this. About the easiest is to put your download in a folder that is not linked from any public page on your site and use the payment processor's return link to direct your customers to the file. Most payment processors have a place to enter a link that they use to direct the customers after payment success or failure. Another way is to use a shopping system that has a download manager. I use CRELoaded and once a purchase is made, the customer receives an email detailing the link to the download. Using the admin I can specify how many times the user can access the download and how many days the link will stay active. Reg Charie http://DotCom-Productions.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by: GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED SEOToolSet.com Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification Join the certified SEO directory: www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/189/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/187/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/201/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "If you want to kill any idea in the world today, get a committee working on it." - Charles Franklin Kettering |
