| LED Digest 2185: Are H1 Header Tags Important? |
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List Moderator: Published by:
Adam Audette LED Digest
adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com
..............................................
June 19, 2006 Issue no. 2185
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.....IN THIS DIGEST.....
====== NEW =====================
--== How Important are H1 Header Tags? ==--
~ Tim Rosser
"Are the H1, H2...headers really important for the
search engines?"
==== CONTINUING =================
--== Penetrating AOL Email Defenses ==--
~ Will Bontrager
"...provide an 'X-Mailer:' header line with your
own email program's identification."
~ Christian Studer
"Maybe AOL requires a reverse DNS entry."
~ GJ Berg
"AOL...use a 'reverse' domain look-up based
on IP addresses..."
--== Tips for High Rankings ==--
~ Thom Reece
"Article marketing remains one of the few
bright spots in organic SEO."
~ Tom O'Brien
"...article submission will always be a good
tactic but not necessarily for the SEO..."
~ Renee Kennedy
"I really don't want to get into a debate about
PageRank, but I do want to set the record straight."
--== The Sandbox Myth ==--
~ Stephen Mareches
"...every day there are tons of new sites added
to the landscape..."
==== BILLBOARD ===================
--== Code Writing Help ==--
~ Steve Finney
--== Newbie Freelance? ==--
~ Michael Linehan
~ Malcolm Bailey
========== NEW ===================================
From: Tim Rosser
Subject: How important is H1, H2...
Hello All,
Are the H1, H2... headers really important for the search engines?
Many times I'll use STYLES commands to give FONT SIZES - to avoid
the line spacing that happens with the H commands. Example:
font-size:24pt;
Is this bad, or do the engines read font sizes with the same
priority as the H commands?
Does anyone know for sure? Thank you.
Tim Rosser
======== CONTINUING ===============================
From: Will Bontrager
Subject: Penetrating AOL
> I have spoken to some of the admin at AOL -- followed
> all of their advice to the letter, but I cannot get a script
> generated mail to penetrate the AOL defences. Have
> any of you experienced this issue...?
- John Smart, LED 2184
John, have the script send yourself an email. And send yourself an
email from your own email program.
Open both emails to display full headers.
Check for differences in these header lines:
X-Mailer:
Mime-Version:
Content-Type:
The Mime-... and Content-... header lines, if missing from what the
script sends, might be the key. Put them into the email sent by the
script.
The Content-Type: header line will probably contain, in part, either
"text/plain" or "text/html". Adjust that for the type of email the
script sends.
If the email still doesn't arrive, you might do something a bit
sneaky, provide an "X-Mailer:" header line with your own email
program's identification. I've never had to work with non-arriving
AOL email, we don't have many clients with that address, but
concerning at least one other ISP, the "X-Mailer:" header line was
what made the difference.
Suggest you have the script also send you an email with the same
headers as the one sent to AOL, while testing. This is to monitor
that the server actually did send the email out. I've experienced
servers that would send out email only if the Return-Path was
specified (the bounce address), and I've experience servers that
would send out email only if it was *not* specified. (The different
configurations may be due to individual ISPs' independent
spam-inhibiting measures.)
Oh, and of course always check the obvious -- is it a valid email
address. Copy and paste the email address the script sends to and
send to it from your own email program. See if it arrives. Do a copy
'n paste because sometimes a person doesn't see their own typos.
Good luck. Email non-delivery from scripts can be a frustrating
issue to deal with.
Will Bontrager
-------- new post - same topic --------
From: Christian Studer
Subject: Penetrating AOL
Does the IP address the mail server is using have a reverse DNS
entry? Maybe AOL requires a reverse DNS entry.
I send automated confirmation e-mails to my customers and so far
have noticed no problems with AOL accounts.
Regards,
Christian Studer
-------- new post - same topic --------
From: GJ Berg
Subject: Penetrating AOL
Where to begin.
I have a group of friends, some on AOL, that I sporatically send
BCC'd emails of humor, etc., from a "vanity" domain address.
Somewhere along the line, one or more of my humor emails were
flagged as SPAM. That flagged my IP address as bad. I tried to
"fix" AOL to accept my vanity domains, but they use a "reverse"
domain look up based on IP addresses (and that IP points to my ISP's
domain).
As a consequence sending email to AOLers from my vanity domain, from
my IP address, even as revealed recipients, incurs delays or
non-delivery. (And of course, it's four hours before they send an
email - one per recipient - that the email's delayed. This email is
repeated - every four hours for the first day and daily thereafter,
until about 72 hours have elapsed at which time they stop trying to
send.) If I send a message to a single recipient, it does not seem
to be a problem, but sending to multiple recipients and just one is
on AOL can cause delays.
There seems to be a "one per day" limit as well. So if I send a
message to five people at 8am, and another to two people at 2pm,
that second message is the one that gets delayed.
GJ Berg
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-------- new post - new topic --------
From: Thom Reece
Subject: SEO Disinformation
> 7. Write an article and submit it to article directories
- Steve Pronger, LED 2182
> This is now bad advice. Most of the free article directories are
> being filtered out by Google, in terms of building up backlinkage.
> It's a shame that people continue to pass around such outdated,
> bad advice despite months of debunking these kinds of SEO
> myths by many well-informed people in the industry.
- Michael Martinez, LED 2184
Aloha...
It must be nice to be so self-assured of your own infallible advise.
Unfortunately, the only "bad advice" being given is by Michael
Martinez. He is dead wrong.
Article marketing remains one of the few bright spots in organic
SEO. My company operates eleven niched article directories and we
track back-links with regularity, and with as much precision as the
current technology allows. Every major search engine rewards both
our own sites... and the sites of our contributing authors... with
substantial high quality back links. In one dramatic case alone the
numbers of back links gained in a 60 day period was over 40,000. The
majority of links come from Google, Yahoo, MSN, along with other
important players in the search stream.
Even "well-informed people in the industry" will have to admit that
is a powerful performance... driven solely by using article
marketing as the tool of choice.
Thom Reece
-------- new post - same topic --------
From: Tom O Brien
Subject: Ranking tips
In Michael's post on bad linking practices [Michael Martinez, LED
2184], I'd have to agree and disagree. Whilst from an SEO point of
view, you may not get a great benefit in terms of the God of Page
Rank, you are still increasing your Internet Link Distribution
Footprint.
The more links you have out there, the more traffic you will of
course get (not tied to Search Engine algorithms), people do read
those articles and distribute them in ezines.
Even reciprocal link directories are "read" - by other webmasters.
So, article submission will always be a good tactic but not
necessarily for the SEO benefits.
All the best,
Tom O'Brien
Grab A Coffee and have a stimulating read...
-------- new post - same topic --------
From: Renee Kennedy
Subject: Ranking tips
Michael - you know I respect your opinions but, you wrote:
> Pay no attention to PageRank. It's a useless,
> worthless measurement and does not indicate
> quality of page, link, or reference.
- Michael Martinez, LED 2184
Yet in a post you made at High Rankings.com about the Big Daddy
update, you quoted Matt Cutts and he says this:
-------------------------
"... typically the depth of the directory doesn’t make any
difference for us; PageRank is a much larger factor. So without
knowing your site, I’d look at trying to make sure that your site is
using your PageRank well. A tree structure with a certain fanout at
each level is usually a good way of doing it."
-------------------------
I tend to believe Matt Cutts as he is a Google employee, right?
I really don't want to get into a debate about PageRank, but I do
want to set the record straight. You know I've posted before on
this issue... it's not that I want everyone to run out and obsess
over PageRank. But I do think it is more meaningful than "a
useless, worthless measurement."
Thanks,
Renee Kennedy
-------- new post - new topic --------
From: Stephen Mareches
Subject: Sandbox myth
> There is no such thing as a Google Sandbox.
- Shari Thurow, LED 2177
Shari,
I'll have to agree with you on this one, although I was under the
same impression for some time.
Then we put together a web site for a candidate running for office
in the Atlanta City Council elections. We did do a Google site map,
then added a blog to the site.
One blogger who decided to make fun of the candidate linked to the
site, which in the end did more good than harm. The site went to #1
for "atlanta city council district 6" in about 3 days. Obviously, if
there were a "sand box" that Google imposed on new sites, this could
not have happened.
Something SEO people may not keep in mind is that every day there
are tons of new sites added to the landscape and for Search Engine
spiders to get to them all overnight is simply not practical. It's
not like a domain name propagating to name servers across the
Internet, which does occur over a period of days, but programs that
analyze what they find, which is going to take time for each and
every new site that gets indexed.
And in the end there are no guarantees or quick fixes.
Stephen Mareches, Web Consultant
Sophia Solutions
We're with you every step of the way!
==== BILLBOARD ===================================
From: Steve Finney
Subject: Need code writing help
We need someone to submit a proposal to help us solve a code problem.
We sell templated web sites to the real estate industry. On one of
the pages, a prospect fills out a form with their contact
information. Upon submission, a computerized voice message is
generated and a call is automatically placed to the real estate
agent's cell phone where the agent will hear the message. The code
requires merging some pre-written text to be merged with the the
form.
For example, the prospect fills their name out on the form, but the
agent will hear, "The prospect's name is John Smith".
Our sites are .asp and written in MS Dot Net. If anyone on this
list would like to submit a proposal, please use the contact info
below.
Thanks,
Steve D. Finney, President, CEO
Eagle Web Services, Inc.
steve, finney.net
-------- new post - new topic --------
From: Michael Linehan
Subject: Freelance
> I recently decided to go out and offer freelance
> e-marketing services but have VERY limited funds
> to begin looking for work. Any suggestions would
> be GREATLY appreciated.
- Ivan Jimenez, LED 2184
Develop a strategic plan to build the business you want. Start
implementing systematically. Have a very clear and easy-to-remember
message that describes what you do and sets you apart from your
competition. Then with that message --- networking, networking and
more networking.
Join your Chamber, go to networking meetings, invite people for a
coffee. Figure out who your best potential clients are and approach
them. Build up a presence in your community.
To build a business, one must invest money or time or both. Without
much money, it's time, and networking is the best use of that time I
can think of. If you don't feel great about talking to people that
much, get some tips / help / support from business friends or your
Chamber. But get out there.
Michael Linehan
Marketing Alchemy
-------- new post - same topic --------
From: Malcolm Bailey
Subject: Freelance
Hi Ivan,
I turned to freelance about 7 months ago and initially had only a
couple of small jobs lined up that would keep me busy for about a
week. However by the end of that week I had a month or so's work in
the pipeline. And now since going freelance I've had only about 5
days where I've not been working flat out and to date I've spent
precisely nothing, zero, nada on advertising (other than time with a
couple of days on project proposals and meetings etc)
I don't worry about having a flashy portfolio site that I need to
constantly be tweaking for search engines etc (In fact my site is
just a 1 page presence with contact details - URL below)
So how did I do it?
1. In the first week I called / emailed a few ex-work colleagues who
had moved to other agencies just to let them know what I was up to
and then left it with them. They knew what I could do both
technically and strategically for them and their own clients. If a
project came up that that would be suitable, they can then call me -
I won't keep pestering every few weeks with follow ups as I know
being on the other side that this can be annoying rather than
helpful.
2. I also spoke to my last employer - the agency I left to go
freelance. And even though they replaced me they still had more
projects than their workforce could cope with and as a result
regularly outsource to me. The moral? don't burn bridges when
leaving a job as it doesn't mean the end of your work for them (I
also get a sense of pleasure having invoiced them circa 18,000
pounds already this year ;-)
3. Often you'll work on projects with other freelancers, make sure
you get a card from them and sometimes you'll need to pass work to
them and sometimes they'll call you asking if you're free for a
small project they don't have time to fit in as they're working
elsewhere.
4. Be professional at all times. What do I mean by that? Well always
try and think of things from the clients perspective - what do they
actually want? That is what you provide even if it's a bit beyond
what they expect and even if it's a little beyond what they are
paying for. Excel and exceed their expectations and you WILL get
referrals.
5. Never deliver work late - you have chosen to be a freelancer and
as such your working hours are likely to be more irregular than
most. As an employee you can (usually) finish at 5.30 work completed
or not. As a freelancer if it's not finished you may not get paid so
finish the work rather than go to the pub and stay up late if
necessary. (If you find you're doing this too often then look at
being more efficient or taking on less work!!!)
6. Be genuinely grateful for referrals - I've had quite a few
referrals both from past clients and new clients. Every time I hear
of a referral I make sure I send a small gift as a thank you even if
paying work doesn't follow from the referral. A bunch of flowers, or
bottle of wine makes people genuinely surprised and now I get more
referrals than I could have imagined.
The hardest part is probably getting your first few clients, but
once this has been done if you produce outstanding work at a
reasonable cost (and I don't mean cheap, there are many who charge a
lot less than me) then you should be able to turn that into a good
stream of work.
In fact I've currently got more work on than I can handle and am
outsourcing to other freelancers. I'm always on the lookout for
others that I can pass work to so please email me your details /
skills / example work / rates and I may be able to help. (and this
is probably asking for a bombardment of emails, but anyone else on
the list who works as a freelancer and has capacity, please also
send me your details!)
Thanks for reading,
Malcolm Bailey
mbailey, aethon.co.uk
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