| LED Digest 2536: Goodbye Little Guy? Search is Changing |
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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 .............................................. November 15, 2007 Issue no. 2536 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Great Newsletters ==-- ~ Veronica Yuill "...I have to recommend the Wise Women list." ~ Bruce Clay "I would not normally suggest our own newsletter, but it is a free publication worthy of this list." --== Changes in Search Marketing ==-- ~ David Spahr "I think this is painting with too broad of a brush." ~ Andrew Goodman "...it does not have to be a big vs. small issue." ~ Dirk Johnson "The bar is being raised every day. Literally." --== What's Considered Duplicate Content? ==-- ~ Chris Nielsen "I think of this as more of a filter than a penalty." ~ Scott Marino "Googlebot and the other spiders typically identify themselves..." ~ Thomas Schmitz "...search engines are getting better at recognizing canonical URLs for what they are..." ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Veronica Yuill Subject: Newsletters > Even though email newsletters aren't as "sexy" and > prevalent as blogs these days, some of them are of > very high value... Here are a few must-read newsletters > in my inbox that I recommend you check out: - Adam Audette, LED Digest 2535 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1950/190/ Hi Adam Well, if you are including lists like evolt's I have to recommend the Wise Women list: http://www.wise-women.org/about/join/ Despite the name we do have a few men, but they have to play nice :-) It's a list for web developers / designers from beginners to experts, and one of the great things about it is the friendly and helpful atmosphere. No flaming, and no-one is ever made to feel dumb for not knowing something. There are some very clever and talented people there who are happy to share their expertise with others. I used to subscribe to evolt's list but found it was just too busy. WW is now the only discussion list I belong to; it has probably 30-50 posts a day. Its uniquely supportive atmosphere is a real bonus when you work on your own and just need to chat with people who do the same kind of thing as you do -- and a life-saver when you are stuck on something! Regards Veronica Yuill www.larecettedujour.org/ -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Bruce Clay Subject: Newsletters Every 2 weeks we write very serious articles, not posts, that address issues of importance, complete with examples, images, and more. Many consider our blog a must-read, and our newsletter has a massive "open rate." I would not normally suggest our own newsletter, but it is a free publication worthy of this list. http://www.bruceclay.com/newsletter/ Bruce Clay President Bruce Clay, Inc. http://www.bruceclay.com <Moderator Comment> Can't believe I forgot it, Bruce! You're right, it's a great newsletter and I read every issue. Highly recommended. -adam ========= Begin Sponsor Message ========= When The Going Gets Busy, The Busy Get Gone! Ever since we launched www.GetWebContent.com/LED we've been advertising here with great results! So great, we can't accept new clients for awhile. Fact is, we simply underestimated the demand for professionally written custom copy. See you again as soon as we get caught up. Thanks to those of you who are now repeat clients! www.GetWebContent.com/LED ========== End Sponsor Message ========== -------- new post - new topic --------- From: David Spahr Subject: Goodbye Little Guy? Changes in SEO > Paid search is going big business. The little guy > is being squeezed out, and costs in the already > obscenely expensive Adwords network are reaching > ever higher levels. What are your thoughts? - Adam Audette, SEM 2.0 List Full post: http://groups.google.com/group/SEM2/msg/4b795566c646077d I think this is painting with too broad of a brush. Whether the little guy makes it or not depends on the imagination and uniqueness of their site and purpose. If you want to sell widgets, you are going to have a hard time and probably end up on ebay (a very decent solution for some). If you have a higher level of expertise than others and a unique niche, you still can play on a level field using common sense ideas, clever free marketing, and a simply designed site. My site is like that. I provide inventory and information than cannot be gotten as efficiently anywhere else. My early photographic links are the best (read: not the biggest). I have the expertise to create that. I carefully review everything. I have the ability to explain exactly what I sell. I answer my phone myself and often dispense free information that customers appreciate. People sell me things too. The value of this cannot be over estimated. I don't use adwords or any other pay per click program (except adsense here and there) Ebay has to pay to be next to me on the right. David Spahr http://stereoviews.com -------- new post - same topic --------- [this post was originallyl published on the SEM list, but I'd like to share it with you here too....] From: Andrew Goodman Subject: Goodbye Little Guy Adam, you are on the mark in many ways. A shift is happening. Bigger dollar advertisers are gaining the upper hand to a considerable degree, in part by dint of the fact that they are finally showing up and bidding! I take the example of a niche tour/travel company I worked with. They've been aggressive and successful with paid search. They now face real competition in their niche, and right in the ad auction, because an international conglomerate has acquired one of the niche tour operators and are undercutting on price (probably at no harm to overall profit margins). AND they are willing to overbid on media for a couple of years to actively hurt smaller competitors. This ain't nothing particularly new. Ever tried to bid on "domain name" against GoDaddy? To the victor often go the improbable spoils, which includes blanketing media to prevent competitors from getting a leg up. That being said, you can still bid lower and show up. GoDaddy per se cannot buy all ten or eleven ad positions. But I do see it continuing as more and more big companies find uses for search, paid and unpaid. That said, it does not have to be a big vs. small issue. Small companies actually have advantages in some niches. In terms of direct policies, Google sales execs certainly must have a big-company bias, but as for developing algorithms and editorial policies it's safe to say that they just want consumers to trust and respect the SERP's. So that means taking punitive actions on "low quality sites" and "seedy business models." Many, many small companies will have absolutely no problem with such policies and will continue to thrive. And some big companies that rely on deceptive offers will be hurt by quality-based bidding and the like. (For some related thoughts on cost and whether PPC will become prohibitive, etc. etc. - see my response to Steve Rubel's "bearish" post here: http://www.traffick.com/2007/11/impending-paid-search-recession.asp ) Andrew Goodman Principal, Page Zero Media http://www.page-zero.com/ -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Dirk Johnson Subject: Little guy Hi Adam, Interesting thoughts, and I tend to agree with you whole concept that things are becoming more difficult for small advertisers. It was/is inevitable. The PPC side is showing more of that than the SEO side, since it is the easiest point of entry, and the easiest to go to the top. Simply bid more. Everyone tries it. But you are right that large advertisers get preferred treatment at the engines and have advantages of scale. We have a rule of thumb that "bids will always rise to the point where the entire downstream profit is sent to the search engines". Someone, somewhere is willing to bid at that rate, for a while. It's "loss leader" mentality. Finding second and third tier terms that are affordable becomes a challenge, but it is still possible. There my be alternatives to the big three engines, as well. It takes more effort, and that time has a cost. On the search side, we still see new sites doing well, but it is taking longer if the particular search term is already competitive. The bar is being raised every day. Literally. The days of lucking into good search results are long gone. Now it takes a concerted, well-planned approach, but it is still possible to rank a site well for moderately competitive terms. I think that well ranking sites will increase in value, as they are hard to displace. That value is moderated by the fact that the engines do change. But it is also apparent that a lot of sites have been ranking at the top for years. There is asset value in that. Other business owners who want top rankings and can't get them will have to buy the underlying asset, or "rent" it, since the top sites cannot be displaced. Website owners who want to use free search results effectively will need to pay a lot more attention to what works. It may take a video clip, or images, in addition to text-based optimization. It will certainly require them to take a hard look at the entire scope of search terms that have value to a particular business, and developing a means to attract them. Providing something of value to site visitors can never be underestimated. That can drive traffic independent of the search engines. Then that content needs to be promoted. The small business owner can simply outsource all of this to experts. There are consultants out there that have the skills to take complete control of an integrated web marketing strategy, but they may be pricey for the small business owner. That is essentially hiring a senior-level marketing executive on a part-time basis, and they demand to be paid accordingly. It is a capital investment. You also need one that is genuinely skilled and experienced, which can be hard to find. They gravitate toward the larger, better capitalized clients, since that is where the money is. Instead, the business owner who takes the time to learn what is possible, develops a plan, and hires specific vendors or assigns tasks in-house to achieve specific goals stands a much better chance of doing well. But that is exactly the type of small business owner who has *already* done well using the Internet to market their business. There is no "magic wand". It is a matter of taking responsibility, self-educating, and deploying. Small business owners who refuse to face that reality head-on will most likely continue to stand on the sidelines, wanting. Best regards, Dirk Johnson www.domaindrivers.com -------- new post - new topic --------- [the following is content from our "Ask the Experts" series.] From: Chris Nielsen Subject: Duplicate Content QUESTION: "Duplicate content, canonical URLs.... 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? "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" ANSWER: In the first 3 examples, each one of those COULD have different content. Ok. domain.com is not really a proper URL. It's like saying "main street". Where on main street? In www.domain.com, the www indicates that it's a device or server, so it's sort of like 10 main street. With www.domain.com/index.html it's like you are saying 10 main street, apartment B101. Generally this 3 different addresses all point to the same thing, but they could be all different. If your sever was set to display the file for index.php for requests to www.domain.com/, then the index.html could be different content. And you could have a different server at domain.com from the one at www.domain.com. The key to what you are asking about is duplicate content. I think of this as more of a filter than a penalty. As you can see from your example, it would be very easy to have 3 results in Google for this one site. To keep things from getting really out of control, Google figures out that those three pages are duplicates, even if they are complete intact separate copies and not the same exact source file. Only one is treated as the original and the others are noted, but not given any importance. After all, if they have one page they don't need to consider any duplicates. Now, how much of page has to be like another one for it to be considered a duplicate? I'm not sure, but I would think it is a certain percentage and the pages are reduced by some formula that allows a quick determination for this kind of thing. Chris Nielsen Nielsen Technical Services http://www.nielsentech.com/ -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Scott Marino Subject: Duplicate content These are all configuration issues / settings within Apache, IIS, or any web server. If nothing follows the ....com or the ....com/, then the web server software will deliver the default "home page" for the site. Most web hosts set this up to look for certain pages in a specified order. Perhaps index.htm, followed by index.html, then index.php, etc. Thus, different content can be created for each of those pages. Depending upon what the user (or a spider) requests, will dictate what page is delivered by the web server. With the web servers, there are ways to configure it to deliver specific pages or content based on such things as browser type or version, referring url, time of day, etc. These are some of the ways the slick "SEO Experts" try to cheat the system. They will deliver one page to the spiders and another to the end user based on browser type. Googlebot and the other spiders typically identify themselves, which makes it possible to do this. In general, for sites that have the same content at index.htm and index.html, the search engines should easily determine that it is duplicate content and handle it appropriately. I'm sure they have taken it into consideration. Of course, if the content is radically different between those pages, the search engines may penalize if they suspect someone trying to cheat the system. Scott Marino PandaImprinting.com -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Thomas Schmitz Subject: Duplicate Content The fact is that Google and the other search engines are getting better at recognizing canonical URLs for what they are and not messing things up as badly as they used to. Unfortunately, search engines are computer programs. They are written by people and it is impossible for them, given the complex nature of the job, to be perfect. Another problem is that this is not the simple recognition process that it ate appears to be. Domain.com and www..domain.com are not necessarily the same page. They could easily have different content. Also, if a CMS is used, the program might render parts of the markup differently based on the difference in URLs. Trust me, it is a lot easier for you and I to do some good housekeeping then it is for the search engines to solve this problem once and for all. Thomas Schmitz Marketing Piranha http://www.marketingpiranha.com (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself." - Benjamin Franklin |
