| LED Digest 2656: How To Compare SEO? |
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The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom http://www.AudetteMedia.com : the LED's Publisher Boutique Internet Marketing: SEO, SEM, Social Media http://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 .............................................. June 2, 2008 Issue no. 2656 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Discussion Board for Non-Profit ==-- ~ John Merrell "I have found Joomla to do everything you are asking..." ~ Megan Carruth "KickApps is an online community platform that integrates with Wordpress..." --== SEO Standards ==-- ~ Barry S Mills "That's the challenge I'm throwing down: how do we compare one SEO to another...?" ~ Alex Hughart "...SEO is no different than, let's say, numerology..." ~ Renee Kennedy "Google does make a ton of money off of our hard work..." ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: John Merrell Subject: Events > We want to capture user details via the > website but also allowing manual entry and > snail mail as some of the people we will be > dealing with are not too IT literate. - Carol Moore, LED 2655 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/2070/190/ I have found Joomla to do everything you are asking, and more, if one uses the right extensions. The Community Builder extension offers the ability to maintain multiple user groups. FireBoard provides a forum that is integrated with the individual user. There are several e-newsletter extensions, but I am prone to using Dada mail, which is fast and lean, though without direct integration into Joomla. (It requires either some hacking, or manual transfer of emails.) On the other hand, I am not particularly enamored of WordPress. It is blog software, and it seems no matter how it is configured it still looks and feels of being blog software, at least to me. Check out http://www.sojaa.org and http://www.afcna.com for a couple of member sites developed with Joomla. John Merrell -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Megan Carruth Subject: Events Carol, KickApps http://www.kickapps.com is an online community building platform that integrates with wordpress fairly seamlessly. Their audience does include non profits, though large corps and small web publishers use their hosted platform as well. There are no set up fees or costs, simply rev share on display ads. That said, you can use the wordpress.org software to set up your dual diagnosis site, using plugins to enhance the functionality. Woopra http://www.woopra.com/installation-guide/ is a plugin that captures user data. This plugin http://www.douglaskarr.com/projects/wp-contactform/ allows you to create spam protected contact forms, and their are many others. The kickapps integration would give you the option of adding an interactive community element, whereby visitors could create user profiles, add user generated video, set up their own blogs on your site, and so forth. From what you've described about your audience, you may simply just want to take advantage of the message board feature. Good luck. Megan Carruth Online Marketing Consultant www.bizdevmarketing.com ============ Sponsor Message =========== Writerfind.com, established in 1998, specializes in connecting professional freelance writers with clients. The site caters to: * freelance business communicators who have a 'way with words' along with industry experience * freelance journalists who have substantial experience writing articles for magazines and journals There is a charge for freelancers to be listed, but no charge for clients to search the database and post jobs. Writerfind.com - http://www.writerfind.com ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Barry Mills Subject: SEO standards > For me it is easy to measure the > effectiveness of SEO. If my income from my > e-commerce site goes up and stays up then > SEO is working for me. A few years back I > paid a SEO firm to optimise one of my > sites. My visitors doubled and my income > doubled in the next 6 months. Money well > spent. - Richard Stubbings, LED 2655 That's good to know Richard. But if you were doing lots of different marketing activity, you wouldn't necessarily know. And coming back to my main point, these results told you clearly that doing SEO makes more financial sense than not doing it. But everyone pretty much knows that. What you don't know, is whether you'd have fared better or worse with a different SEO campaign. All SEO is not the same. Some of it is total hogwash, most of it is mediocre but gets results so clients are happy. Only a few firms do it really thoroughly, and they can't usually do it without working closely with the web site owner. You probably have search phrases that moved from nowhere to say number 3 after your SEO, and saw a great boost in traffic and sales. But did you know that moving from no. 3 to no.1 could treble your traffic? And do you know you're as high as you could be? If it's your business and you're making enough money, maybe you don't care. If you were a marketing manager on a salary and had to justify your decisions to your boss, you probably would care. That's the challenge I'm throwing down - how do we compare one SEO to another, or one site to another. Barry S Mills, Chairman Netstep, http://www.netstep.co.uk -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Alex Hughart Subject: SEO standards > My goal is to truly understand the users' > intent and design, code, script, program, > etc. accordingly. Incorporate those things > into business goals. And voila! An > effective Web site. - Shari Thurow, LED 2655 I think the keyword here is INTENT as it points to the source of all misconceptions and frustrations related to the SEO field. It's a mind (reading) game where everybody is guessing (more or less educated) everybody else's intent. Content providers (I like this term because it covers both commercial and non-commercial sites) are guessing search engine algorithms and what (and how) users will be looking for; the users are guessing both providers and the search engines by adjusting their search terms; the search engines are looking to sort out relevance based on the intent shown by the other two parties. In that regard, SEO is no different than, let's say, numerology - fortune telling based on obscure mathematical calculations - and it's understandable why some people are so frustrated with the process. This is also the reason why it's so easy to categorize everything under "snake oil" peddling and wish for the "exact math". Unfortunately, getting the "exact math" will continue to be the problem. Not because the search engines are master conspirators but, because it's a new way of amassing, cataloging and retrieving information pertaining to such a wide variety of human endeavors. Nowhere in history, has a catalog of any sorts contained side by side philosophical dissertations, furniture stores, banks, the latest news and gossip, seedy strip joints, social clubs, flea markets, family photo albums ..... you name it! We have to adjust our thinking to this huge, ever-raising, ever-changing, free-flowing body of information even if, at this point, it makes us all look like charlatans. Alex Hughart www.TheParticipator.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Renee Kennedy Subject: SEO standards I'm sorry Reg, I have to agree with Al on two points: A search in Google on "al toman" yields 2 million results. #5 and #6 are LED digest "big whoop" - now that's funny! Google does make a ton of money off of our hard work as organic search engine optimizers - they make money because we are getting more of our web pages indexed, the bigger and fresher the Google index, the better their engine is. We are making them look good! They are making money on our work, in an indirect way. Reg, I do agree with you on the point that any person with half a brain knows that when we say SEO, we are talking about optimizing web pages. Come on, Al, you need to give a little on that one! Renee Kennedy (c) Copyright 1995-2008 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." - Michelangelo Buonarroti |
