Marketing & SEO Discussion List - LED Digest

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From: Bob Gladstein

Subject: PHP and SSI

> It has been mentioned 'bots land on home page

> and use text nav to spider all other pages. Since

> SSI puts the code on the page, it should not

> interfere, correct?

        - Nancy Cardinali, LED 2083

Exactly. Just look at the source code of a page that's put together

using SSI. There's no indication that that's how the page was built,

because the server puts it all together rather than the browser.

What you see in the source is what a spider will see, so SSI has

absolutely no effect on search engines. It's just a convenient way

to keep a site's content consistent.

The only exception to this would be the case of Front Page includes,

and even in that case I don't believe it effects the way a search

engine judges the content. It's just that the comment code for the

include is in the source, so it's not a completely invisible

process, but since spiders ignore comments, it doesn't matter.

Bob Gladstein

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From: Jeré Matlock

Subject: PHP and SSI

> Does using PHP or SSI for headers, navigation,

> side bars, footers etc effect SE ranking?

        - Nancy Cardinali, LED 2083

No.  PHP or SSI, when parsed and rendered as HTML by the server

looks exactly the same to robots (including googlebot)  and

browsers, as does straight HTML. The HTML is all they see.

As the old saw goes, "the proof is in the pudding".  I can refer you

to many sites I've built using combinations of PHP and SSI, that are

doing very well in the search engines for their main key words.

Server Side Includes make it way easier to make changes to site-wide

page elements like nav bars and copyright notices.  PHP pages

routinely make it to the top of the search engines.

For the curious, here's a little more info on how to get SSI working

on your site:  http://www.wordsinarow.com/tabletrick.html#virtual

Jeré Matlock

http://www.wordsinarow.com

Website Design & Marketing | SEO

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From: Steve Houston

Subject: eBay blocking

> ... I was reported [to eBay] for putting in links to my

> website... linking to non-commercial sites is allowed

> on eBay as far as I know, so my plan was to set up

> a separate web site which is purely informative...

        - Paul Harris, LED 2083

Paul,

Sure there are thousands of people doing it, but eventually they

will get caught at it just as you did.  It doesn't take someone to

report this, a simple automated bot can catch it.

What I found works for me is to simply say one of the following in

the eBay listing: "Made by companyorsitename", or "Offered by

companyorsitename".  Then place a PPC ad for your company name via

Google, Yahoo, etc.  I've received a lot of traffic this way by

people leaving eBay, doing a search which brings up my ad in first

place and then they visit my site to purchase.

It works well for me.  I couldn't take the chance of losing out on

the eBay sales.

Steve Houston

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From: R. Neilson

Subject: eBay blocking

eBay always gives you several warnings before they block you.   They

only block you if you ignore those warnings and continue to violate

their policy.

I sell on eBay and found the way to still promote my business and

not violate policy is to use my web address in replies to questions

about my product. Always include information that tells customers

about my store and website when I ship them their purchases and in

all of my PayPal receipts and payment confirmations. These are a few

of the legal ways to drive business to your site.

Remember that eBay wants all of the sales to go thru their website

not off site. This is how they make their money. Would you want your

customers to see a product you have listed and then go direct to the

manufacture to make the purchase?

eBay is going to start a second website in the next few months for

fixed price buy it now auctions that might be of interest to you. It

will include all fixed price auctions on eBay and all fixed price

auctions in eBay stores. It will allow customers to make several

purchases at one time from different venders and pay for all of them

at the same time when they are ready to check out. This makes sure

your purchase are paid for immediatly. The only catch is you do have

to have a minimum number of feedbacks and a high rate of positive

feedbacks.

Hope this helps.

R. Neilson

H. L. Supply

www.hansons.net

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From: Alex Hughart

Subject: Multiple sites / Miva

> I was thinking of leaving the present site up

> because it gets so many visitors, and then

> maybe linking to the titles I'm describing on

> the Miva shopping cart if that is possible.

        - Barbara Radisavljevic, LED 2084

Barbara,

I used Miva to build my entire site, not just the shopping cart

part. The only static page is a copy of the Miva's Store Front page

to accommodate search engines. As soon as customers click on any

link on the index page they are in Miva - so are the search engines

which on their own are getting better and better in indexing dynamic

pages.

In addition to this, Miva has SEO abilities. By adding keywords,

swapping store code, etc. you can optimize each and every page. You

can also get a module that shortens those long links. Many of my

Miva pages rank high.

That being said, you can leave your site as it is and just link

products to the Miva shopping cart. I know it's scary to change

anything and potentially loose your ranking but better organizing

your site and making it more user friendly will certainly help in

the long run. Who knows how many customers you've lost because they

couldn't find what they need. BTW, you can have inventory tracking

with Miva. This will eliminate trips to the warehouse to check on

availability (I snooped around your site...)

Regards,

Alex Hughart

www.bonsavon.com

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From: Mark Medlicott

Subject: Multiple sites

I have followed this thread for quite a while now, and allowing that

many people have different opinions, and different results to base

their conclusions on, it has amazed me that no one has followed up

Shari Thurow's post (LED 2078) in any detail.

> How many of you have really asked your users

> what they thought? A set of real usability tests?

> I don¹t mean site statistics data, which is not

> user testing at all.

I encountered a customer who also wished to create a multi-site

scenario, with closely related products, and working on the SEO

improvements they expected (had read about). I was against this,

even though I stood to make more money designing more websites, and

suggested we do a random customer survey.

My results were not scientifically correlated, as neither of our

budgets stretched that far, but we did gather enough information to

put us off multi-sites. I stress this relates to our products, but

the interesting response we got from most people interviewed was

along these lines; "Why try and confuse me? If I go shopping in the

real world to buy cat food in one shop, why do I have to drive to

another shop (that you own as well) to buy dog food?" Those

interviewed also consistently talked of the trust and reliability of

the shop/website owner, established over time as in the real world.

These people could accept that one shop has groceries, and another

has animal food, but related products should be in the same shop.

Transferring this lesson to the web, if a person can buy cat food

and dog food (pet food) all in one place, and only use their credit

card once (lessening fears of hackers or fraud), you are more likely

to gain their custom.

If you are an information site only, (IMHO) have as many sites as

you like, because your content is what searchers will find, and if

it is relevant they will come.

Regards

Mark Medlicott

Medlicott Design

www.medlicottdesign.orcon.net.nz

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From: Cordy Martinez

Subject: Alexa-like Tools

Does anyone know what tool can be used to get the same information

that Alexa is supposed to have available but that is safe to use,

accurate and easily accessed?

Thanks,

Cordy Martinez

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