Marketing & SEO Discussion List - LED Digest

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From: Jim Berry

Subject: Local Search - 2 Years Later

It's been some time since the "local search" topic has been

discussed.  There was quite a pronouncement from old friend David

Yancey on the LED, on March 18, 2004 [issue 1768], where he stated:

> You will notice that Google has essentially

> copied our search interface (vivante.com).

and

> This test by Google is actually great for Adjunction

> and its Vivante.com search concept, since it

> "validates" my business plan.

We'd certainly enjoy an update by David as to the success of Vivante

and his opinion of local search 2 years later.

Jim Berry

www.bookkeepinghelp.com

jim, bookkeepinghelp.com

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From: Michael Martinez

Subject: The Value of Site Maps

> ... a few months ago on one client's site, I wrote on the HTML

> sitemap (who knows why!?), "This sitemap is intended for search

> engines only. Readers please use the navigation to the left.

        - Michael Linehan, LED 2076

That you got the client site unbanned is good.  But why in the world

would you NOT want users to use the site map?  Site maps are often

the only salvation a site with "navigation" offers to otherwise

interested and motivated users.

You should be viewing user traffic to the site map as a weather

gauge.  The more they visit there, the more you need to rethink the

"navigation".

Making it difficult for users to find content, discouraging them

from doing so, are good ways to drive off customers.

I've often said that any site with 12 or more pages needs a site

map, and it should be there for the users, and it shouldn't use any

funky design or navigation.  Get people to the content they want as

quickly as possible.  Get off the "This navigation system is great!"

ego trip.

"Navigation" ruins more Web sites than it helps.

How many more years is the Web design and promotion community going

to need to learn this fundamental principle?  People don't want or

need flash, drop-down, Java, Javascript, or any other type of magic,

cool, anticipatory menu systems.  They need to be told, "What you're

looking for is HERE".

Site maps do that faster and better than anything else.  You just

can't put them on the front page.  That's why a clearly visible high

profile text link to the site map is vital for every site that has

one.

End of navigation woes.

Michael Martinez

http://www.michael-martinez.com/

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From: Renee Kennedy

Subject: Multiple sites

Just want to bring up another point regarding multiple-sites in

response to Shari's great post [Shari Thurow, issue 2076].

In terms of both SEO and visitor perspective, isn't it better to

focus on one content topic and have all kinds of resources dedicated

to that topic - staying in the niche, so to speak?

For example, when you are dealing with disease topics - say Breast

Cancer - you can have a whole site dedicated to nothing but various

Breast Cancer resources - news, discussions, articles, etc.  When

people are searching out diseases, they usually aren't interested in

20 different diseases, they usually have one disease and that is

what they want to know about.  Why confuse their experience with

other disease topics?  Maybe in other content areas it is not as cut

and dry as disease, but I feel that with diseases, maybe it's better

to have the separate sites.

However, the branding issue has to be taken into consideration.  For

instance, WebMD is a respected brand, it's going to be much easier

for WebMD to build out a disease on their site because they are

known, respected, etc.  However, when you're starting from scratch,

what's the difference?  I believe that you can still brand across

many different sites effectively.  If they have the same look and

feel and they're all connected in some way, I think it would be

possible to brand across sites.  I liked Michael's post on branding

[Michael Martinez, issue 2076], I think he said it effectively, "We

have grown up with dual brands."

I guess that I see nothing wrong with having multiple sites from an

ethical standpoint, it's a choice, what will make your visitors

happiest?

Renee Kennedy

http://www.e-healtharticles.com: Wanted authors and publishers!

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From: Tom Anson

Subject: Multiple sites

I'm not an expert on this, or anything, but it seems to me that Mark

Roberts' idea [issue 2073] of building multiple sites for related

products (bird houses vs bird feeders) might possibly be somewhat

self-defeating.  One of the things that search engines look for is

content.  Why not just fill out (enrich) the content of the site

that is listing the products already, insteading of listing products

on one site, but sending visitors to another site for details.

It has been my experience that having multiple sites is not that big

of a benefit, in and of itself.

I have four websites now, all under the umbrella of

www.ansondigitalconcerns.com.  There is Anson Aromatic Essentials at

therapeutic-grade.com, Health-Essentials.info at (you guessed it)

health-essentials.info and Essential-Vitamins.com at

essential-vitamins.com.  Health-Essentials is an informational

website with articles that link to product pages on AAE and E-V.

The ADC site links to each of these other sites, and each links back

to ADC.  I'd have to say that interlinking these sites has not done

much for traffic or sales.

However, when I did a major update to my www.therapeutic-grade.com

site, I started seeing a major increase in traffic and sales to my

website.  Before, other than the information pages on AAE, most of

the content was in large, online catalog pages that listed most of

my products in any one category.  (You can see that at

http://snipurl.com/lnzz  [therapeutic-grade.com] ).  The update,

which you can find at www.therapeutic-grade.com/indexNew.html, has a

new page for each of the products.  While this update is not really

online yet (it's running as a parallel site while I work out

shopping cart problems on some of the pages) and the pages are

generally not showing up in search results, traffic to my old site

is increasing dramatically while sales are about triple of what they

had been before November.

And while therapeutic-grade.com and essential-vitamins.com have

several product pages that are VERY similar in content (both are

selling Young Living supplements), I have yet to make a sale through

the essential-vitamins.com website.

I'd have to say that this is all due to "enriching" my old website,

not having a separte site with informational content.

Another bonus (which seems a bit like a contradiction to what I've

said above): Although I haven't updated the links on my

Health-Essentials site to include the NEW product pages, the search

results for this site have improved, as well.

Based on this, if I was Mark, I'd focus on building a really good

site for bird houses and feeders, with lots of enriched content and

helpful information.  After that was functioning, I'd maybe think

about building a (mostly) informational site dealing with related

topics.  Like, how DO you keep squirrels out of bird feeders?!?

Best of luck, Mark.

Tom Anson

Anson Aromatic Essentials

www.therapeutic-grade.com

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From: Robert Bedard

Subject: Learning

I wish people could remember that we come together as a community to

share our experiences in a common endeavor ... yes, we will all have

different perspectives, and therefore opinions, and ways of

expressing our ideas ... no matter how good we are at expressing

ourselves in written form, we all tend to write an occasional

message when we are tired or frustrated ... we really need to

remember that it takes two to tango, and that over-reacting to a

simple mistake, or even a phrase that could merely have been worded

differently, precipitates more distrust and bad feelings than the

original event ...

I have seen a business partnership fall apart over a single e-mail

that contained merely unhelpful language ... instead of simply

acknowledging that, an end-of-the-world argument ensued, which

precipitated the end of the business.

It is always a shame when a contributing member of a list decides to

leave because of bad feelings. It is a shame that Sheryl's post

became an example, because in the time I spend reading other lists,

this list cannot hold a candle to the EGO problems or insensitivity

found elsewhere, and while I did think the use of language was not

"kind", it was nothing, compared to others I have seen, elsewhere.

Debate becomes heated, but usually, people keep things in context

here, and the mud slinging rarely happens. I am on lists that have

very little redeeming value, due to the prodgious egos of the people

involved. This list is significantly better than average in the tone

and focus of the information it contains.

The one thing that I frequently see in other lists that I do not see

here, (and that I think Salem might like, if I understand his points

correctly), is that after a particularly lively thread, I frequently

see a synopsis of the thread posted by somebody that either started

it, or had been following it closely, that summarized the various

positions put forth, and if there was any concensus, a conclusion

.. that is very helpful to people that may not have yet achieved

"critical mass" in their perspective. Without this "critical mass"

it is difficult to put all the different opinions into perspective.

Nobody has a patent on the truth. Every different perspective on an

issue can bring benefit. The real pupose of lists like this (IMHO)

is for people to share those perspectives, and it becomes very

difficult to do so, if we are primed and ready to over-react to

every slip of the pen that somebody else makes. Please be kind when

posting, and even kinder in replying to posts that appear to have

been made with less kindness than you feel is appropriate. This is a

small thing that we can all give to the communities that we work and

play in: tolerance. patience, kindness. This also extends to those

that make an occasional mistake ... if the person doesn't have a

history of ad-hominem attacks, then do not assume that they have

just started.

Robert Bedard

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From: John Smart

Subject: Scam

> I just received a rather strange email. My first thought

> was that it was just another twist of the Nigerian letters...

        - Tom Anson, LED 2074

The phone number is a pre-pay cell phone in England. The address is

a freebie which normally wouldn't be used by a reputable lawyer!

('Reputable lawyer' may be an oxymoron - but that is another issue

for another forum!).

It's a new one - I have seen a few similar (although not from the UK

before) come into our Californian base. Regardless of where this

comes from, who made it or why, there is one truth to all these

mails.

If it seems to good to be true, it is.

Of course, there may be exceptions. For instance, my book

'guaranteed earnings of $5,000,000 per week from your web site' is a

proven success. For your copy, just send a $25 check (made out to

'cash') to PO Box....

John Smart, Technical Director

InternetDesign.com - A Human Touch in a Digital World

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From: Kathryn Martyn

Subject: Google

> Recently, one of my sites has totally disappeared from Google

> and I haven't made any changes to its content. I am baffled.

        - Marsha Kopan, LED 2074

Marsha, I spent countless hours trying to satisfy the Google Gods

and finally gave up. Your site may be at the top on day and

disappear the next and you have no control, so give up trying to

figure out an unanswerable question.

I achieved top 100 in Google for the phrase "weight loss" shortly

after I launched my weight loss business, One More Bite; not an easy

feat considering there are 83,700,000 pages with that phrase. Then

after bragging up a storm about how smart I was, it suddenly

disappeared.

Instead of trying to figure out what happened, I just focused my

attention elsewhere such as on writing articles about weight loss,

posting in forums, donating my weight loss coaching program to

community auctions, and the like.

Today I'm listed 83 for "weight loss" so I'm back to bragging, but I

also realized it's better to optimize for either less popular terms

or more specific search phrases so I focused on "eft weight loss"

and "nlp weight loss" where there's much less competiton.

I would suggest that you attempt to optimize for one or two main

search terms on a page, and I wasn't able to determine which those

were from your home page. I know the only term I'd think to search

would be "virtual secretary." I didn't know there was such a thing

as "virtual office management."

Maybe an article about that subject to help enlighten me and others

like me? I know I could sure use an assistant, and hadn't thought of

going the virtual route.

Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP

Ending Emotional Eating, One Bite at a Time

http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com

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