| LED Digest 2241: Reclaiming Lost Traffic |
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========== NEW ===================================The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Registration from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ............................................. September 7, 2006 Issue no. 2241 ............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== <Moderator Comment> ~ Special Issue for Friday --== Reclaiming Lost Traffic ==-- ~ Aline Huntly "Yes, I know, hidden text = bad but I thought one letter wouldn't matter!" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== The Search Guru ==-- ~ Michael Linehan "...there are areas of the required work that are far more cost-effectively done by a specialist." ~ Beth Ann Earle "Sure, given enough time, I could fix the leaky faucet or grow my own brussel sprouts..." --== Small Business Sites ==-- ~ Mark Whitman "...I do make bold statements and back them up..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Changing Domains ==-- ~ Daniel Curtis --== Satellite Internet & Bandwidth ==-- ~ Tom Aman ~ John "Zeke" Brumage <Moderator Comment> Greetings LEDer, "The Search Guru" thread started by Nathan Holley in issue 2239 is generating a large response. I'll put together a special issue for Friday with all the posts that couldn't be published today. Stay tuned - there are some good ones in the bunch. Best wishes, Adam --------------------- From: Aline Huntly Subject: Getting back Yahoo & Google traffic Aloha, We used to get a fair bit of traffic from Yahoo but I wanted to boost ranking for a plural keyword phrase "maui vacation rentals" as people use the plural more often than the singular (even though they are only searching for one rental of course). This very popular keyword phrase has always brought lots of traffic (and bookings). I have a lot of link text that includes "maui vacation rentals" pointing at the website from when we used to have 5 units (we moved last year and now only have 1 unit). Since we scaled our business down I have found it difficult to incorporate the plural version of the phrase into the website text so added an "s" the same color as the background. Yes, I know, hidden text = bad etc. but I thought 1 letter wouldn't matter! Google didn't mind but Yahoo has wiped us out of the SERPs (we are still in the index). Of course I changed it back immediately but this is months ago now and we still get zero traffic from Yahoo. In addition to this, since November last year we have lost most of our Google traffic. For 5 years we were coming up on page 1 for 'maui vacation rentals' (often in the top 3, sometimes even #1) but since November 2005 we lost that and it seems impossible to compete with the big agency sites now. I am getting some traffic for Kihei Apartment keywords and other keywords but a lot of people just want to come to Maui and don't know exactly where or exactly what type of accommodation so I am missing reaching them. I expect people will say "diversify your targetted keywords" and I have done that. But, honestly, 'maui vacation rentals' brings in the lions share of targetted traffic. I am maximizing other advertising. After 6 years in the business trying everything from German windsurfing magazines to telephone directories to New York newspapers (none of which worked), I am advertising on some effective websites and have submitted to hundreds of free directories and constantly seek out targetted link exchanges. I confess I do check out other vacation rentals free trackers to see where they are getting their traffic from and have found some good new places to advertise! Also doing some Google adwords. Mailed out to former guests (we used to get repeat business but we are on another side of the island now so it's a slightly different demographic). I long for that Google and Yahoo traffic back as I believe that is what would get the business going full throttle. I pretty much knew how to achieve ranking prior to November, now I'm reading that link exchanges aren't as effective as they used to be (although I'm still pursuing them) and I can't seem to get any idea of what to do. Trial and error can take such a long time to see results these days. Honestly, I'm lost! Any ideas or pointers would be much appreciated. Aline Huntly www.4star-mauirentals.com ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Michael Linehan Subject: Small Business sites > But there are no real secrets in SEO! It's fairly basic, really, > and with a little common sense quite easy to generate quality > content that ranks well by following simple procedures. - Nathan Holley, LED 2239 > There are no "secrets" to doing well in search engines. - Rick Gortatowsky, LED 2239 I think the fact that information is accessible gives rise to the idea that it's easy - in many field of human endeavor. This does necessarily equate. I'd say there is a dangerous myth in the "it's easy" idea that can really put the dampers on your business. Yes, there is A LOT you can do yourself. That's what this list is about. But if you want to get to the top of a hundred million page returns, please don't think it's easy. It's true that it's not done using "secrets" --- but obtaining and holding #1 out of that many is a little more than "fairly basic" and "a little common sense". > Everything you ever wanted to know is available online. Everything I need to be obtain a MBA is probably available online, but the critical question is whether it's worth my time to find and learn it. What is the return on investment? Is it really worthwhile to spend many tens, maybe hundreds, of hours of my time to save a thousand dollars? Are there activities that you could be doing, day by day, that would be more profitable than working on your site? In all likelihood, there are. Somehow, this 'it's easy' idea has happened with websites, but not in other business areas. Does everyone on this list do their own four-colour separations? Accounting? Legal work? Computer repair? I doubt it. I'm a big advocate (with my own clients) of 'partnership'. Yes, I think there are important parts of site development and promotion that are, in fact, BEST done by the business owner. But, as with those accounting and legal matters, there are areas of the required work that are far more cost-effectively done by a specialist. And once you want to go beyond the basics, or deal in very competitive areas, I believe one of those is SEO. Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy www.marketing-alchemy.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Beth Ann Earle Subject: Search guru > The fixes that can be found online vary so widely, > that finding your best answer for a particular situation > can be likened to finding a needle in a haystack... > a good guru can save you a tremendous amount > of wasted time and energy... - Detlev Johnson, LED 2240 I definitely concur with the concerns others have stated about SEOs who take advantage of clients and who aren't the experts they pass themselves off to be. The company I work for is pretty upfront with its clients and prospects about the SEO process: we tell them there's no magic bullet ... you just have to know what to do and try to do it as well as possible ... but no, we're not going to give free lessons on how you could do it yourself (although we do provide basic advice and insight, and more than once our old VP accused me of having "charity" written on my forhead). We charge reasonable prices and set reasonable expectations for what our work can do. In the end, I don't mind charging people for work that, honestly, anybody with an ounce of sense and enough time could do. Likewise, my plumber and electrician and hairstylist (not to mention the local grocer) don't seem to mind charging me for the products and services they provide. And I don't mind paying them. Sure, given enough time, I could fix the leaky faucet or grow my own brussel sprouts or even put in a new ceiling fan, but it's worth the money to pay someone else so I can use my time and resources to concentrate on other endeavors. In many cases, it probably makes sense for business owners to do the same thing. Of course, I trust my plumber (and electrician and hairstylist and grocer) and believe I'm getting a good value for what I pay them. And business owners should feel the same way about their SEO partner. If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't, and you should do some careful investigating before investing further with that vendor. Yours in all that is good and LED'ly, Beth Earle pilotfishseo.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Mark Whitman Subject: Small biz sites > First of all, what qualifications do you > have, to speak so boldly, Mark? - Lori Smart, LED 2238 I'm a degreed software engineer, prior to that I had many years of experience in sales, advertising, ad design, commercial copy writing etc. I studied no one else's code however I have studied effective internet marketing, website development and SEM techniques, new programming languages, and also done much trial and error for 11 years now to always try to improve my results. You're right, I do make bold statements and back them up by risking my time to provide 100% performance based marketing and SEO services. Can you do that without going broke? I make people a risk free offer they (usually) can't refuse and I have never, not once, lost out (I have come close though :). I'm so burned out on working with pin heads however that I don't work with new customers anymore. Did you notice I never use a sig line - I don't advertise myself or want new business. > Who knows more about what keywords are important > for their industry than the business owner. The biz owners (those without SEO skills) know what products they have and they probably know their demographic group but typically have no idea which keywords provide decent opportunities for high SE index placement. Again, I'm talking about the inexperienced do-it-yourselfers with no desire to take the time to learn how to create an effective website on all levels. That's not insulting, I'm sure lots of them just don't have the time or desire. > I would say it's a safe bet to assume that most of the > readers of this list are small business owners... I dunno, I see a lot of comments from service provider professionals on this list. Many times I've seen these people challenged and battered, as I've been, for making bold statements based on their extensive experience, ability, creativity, and ability to think for themselves rather than just following the lame status quo. > What good is it to demean their work, while > inflating your own importance? They're here > to learn from those of us with experience. I never did anything of the sort, I made true statements and my "importance" was never an issue, I stay as low profile as possible. If you think I'm wrong *prove it* - show me relevant examples but please read my original post a few times first so you have a better understanding of what I was saying. > As staunchly as we wish to protect our high-wage salaries, > there is that underlying knowledge that this stuff ain't hard to do! Right you are, anyone can create a website, my 10 year old autistic son created one, but creating a highly effective commercial website is a whole different story. If you're telling me that the kid next door can create a commercial website as effectively as you can well, I think I'll have to point your own statement right back at ya... "You've just alienated potential new customers ... I would fire you and look for a much more ... educated developer immediately." The only thing worth while in all this banter, other than a little entertainment value, is the information that to get the *most* out of your internet marketing endeavors in general, you should learn as much technical stuff as you have the time for. It will absolutely give you an edge over your competitors who don't and will definitely give you an edge over the site created by the kid next door (assuming that kid hasn't been studying website development / internet marketing / SEM) BTW Lori - that does not imply that I hate or disrespect kids. M.Whitman ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Daniel Curtis Subject: Changing Website Addresses Hello everyone... I have been a long time reader and infrequent poster. I need some help. I currently have my hobby website hosted at my college's website of which I am an alum. They are eventually looking to move my site off their servers which will eventually force me to find my own hosting for the very first time since I started the site in 1997. The site is currently hosted at: http://www.daemen.edu/pages/dcurtis/mattingly/dmatt23.html. I currently own the domain name hitman23.com which is now redirecting to the above URL (daemen.edu). My plan is to use the hitman23.com URL when I find my own hosting. My questions are as follows: 1. Any recommendations as far as hosting that is affordable, reliable, easy to set up and use? 2. I am currently ranked in the top 10 or higher on many of the major search engines. I am concerned that I will lose this ranking if I transition to the new URL. How can I avoid any possible backlash? Thank you for any help - it would be much appreciated. Daniel Curtis -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Tom Aman Subject: Satellite Internet > ... I believe that if I get satellite internet service, > if I exceed a certain amount of bandwidth allotted > by the plan I choose, then my connection speeds > go back to those of dialup until the next month? - Sherry Shefaro, LED 2239 Whether or not there are limits and what happens when the limit is exceeded would depend on the satellite service provider. Most ground based DSL providers that have band width limits usually just bill extra for the extra. I would expect a satellite provider to do the same but you would have to check the plan in detail. You mention uploading a Web page many times a month. If it is just the page (i.e. the HTML text file), you could upload it many, many times with even a 1 gigabyte limit. If by *page* you meant the HTML file, images, etc., then you might have some concern. Also, bear in mind that with satellite high speed, data sent from you (uploaded) only goes at about 1/10 the speed of data being received (downloaded) so, for upload purposes, you may not make as big a speed gain as you would expect. You would have to get details from the satellite provider on upload and download speeds. See http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question606.htm for more details on this. Tom Aman -------- new post - same topic -------- From: John "Zeke" Brumage Subject: Satellite Internet Most cell phone carriers offer Internet service. Although many add jitter to prevent VoIP from working (the bean counters are afraid of losing that expensive voice channel,) it should be better than a satellite feed at about the same or lower cost. There is generally a discount if you also take voice service, so if you get good cellphone bars at your location. talk to your present carrier first. An advantage, when you travel, you can take your connection and your work with you. John "Zeke" Brumage Disco Legend Zeke
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