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All you need to know about search engine optimization in 2006

December 27, 2006

The year 2006 has been full of news about Google and the way it ranks web sites.

If you need information about Google’s ranking algorithm and if you want to know how to get high rankings on Google, then Axandra’s Newsletter Archive offers valuable information for you.

If you want to know more about official Google statements about search engine optimization, if you’re interested in how to avoid search engine spamming or if you want to learn more about search engine optimization then Axandra’s newsletter articles will help you.

Here are the most important articles of the year 2006 sorted by topic:

Articles about Google ranking algorithm and high rankings on Google:

Articles about search engine spamming:

Official statements from Google employees:

Articles about link popularity, linking and inbound links:

Articles about general search engine optimization topics:

Articles about other website promotion topics:

Axandra’s Newsletter Archive is a valuable resource if you want to get high rankings on Google, Yahoo and other major search engines.

Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day Search Engine Optimization For Dummies, Second Edition (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under Search Engines | Leave a Comment 

First Impressions - A Sloppy Site Provokes Doubt!

December 26, 2006

“If you happen to be the owner of a well-established brand-name site such as Amazon.com, the issue of trust is a non-issue. However if you are one of the faceless millions of netpreneurs scattered across the globe you are precisely that…Faceless! You are working from a position of weakness in that you don’t have brand-name recognition behind you and that you’re an unknown entity.” — Ba Kiwanuka

Being unknown means that you as the owner of a website must cultivate and sustain trust — The competition is vastly distributed and is cut-throat, therefore you — a “Brandless” and “Faceless” entity, must design your website with your users in mind, first — followed closely by Search Spiders.

First, the information and design of your home page must communicate the purpose of your site, precisely.

Second, your navigation and menu mechanism should not only be on the homepage but on all other pages too. Your navigation system plays a critical role — It gives the user access to the rest of your website and more importantly, it gives the user an impression about the depth of your content — Poor navigation translates into a poor first impression.

Conversely, overwhelming navigation can be a turnoff — It’s an intricate balance that must be handled very carefully.

Clarity and ease of use is therefore paramount — Your homepage must summarize your site in a “nutshell.”

In the same breath, a site that “greets” you with a large “dose” of adsense advertiser links may not be a sloppy site, necessarily, but the fact that the user has to scroll more than halfway down the page to see any “real” content, may prod the user into dismissing your site as an irritant “adsense farm.”

Visual appeal to the user is paramount, but must not be implemented at the expense of webpage “Load Time” — Due to too many images on a page. Excessive image use usually slows down your webpage(s), and can steer your users away to your competitors. If you have to have many images on your webpage(s), do optimize them to reduce load time — The GIFBot by NetMechanic is a free tool that compresses your GIF, JPEG, and animated GIF images — Decreasing image file size without sacrificing image quality!

A clean, navigable, professional, and fast loading website will ensure pleasant first impressions — and hopefully sustain repeat visits by users.

References:

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under Marketing, Search Engines, Web-Dev-Design | Leave a Comment 

Search Engine Optimization: The Benefits of SEO in Online Retail

December 24, 2006

Online retail is not a venture for the faint of heart, to be sure. Finding success in the realm of eCommerce requires patience, diligence, and a willingness to be flexible and constantly experiment with new methods and techniques to improve rankings and conversion rates.

Alan Dick and Brian Mark are successful e-tailers who know a thing or two about running an online store. WebPronews’ Mike McDonald was lucky enough to catch up with them at Search Engine Strategies in Chicago, and they had some intriguing things to say about SEO and online retail — view video below:

Both Alan and Brian have noted that since implementing common SEO strategies into their respective online shops, their businesses have seen almost exponential growth in both traffic and revenue streams. What areas did these intrepid entrepreneurs focus on with their site optimization strategies?

One fundamental aspect they both agree upon is the balance between paid and organic search listings. Focusing too much on one or the other is not the most efficient way to achieve optimum search rankings, but a holistic approach that takes focuses on the interdependency of paid and organic listings has proven to be the most effective strategy in the long term.

Also, pay-per-click should be viewed as more of a testing mechanism to chart the conversion rates for certain keywords, rather than a complete marketing tool.

Social media is playing an increasingly important role in online retail, so it may be in the best interests of retailers to tap the blogosphere for product reviews, with the caveat of full disclosure if the reviewer is receiving product compensation for his or her time. The goal should be to facilitate discussion about your products, and not to influence the conversation.

- Article by: WebProNews.com
- View the latest videos at WebProNews

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under Marketing, Search Engines | Leave a Comment 

The Near Death of DMOZ a.k.a Open Directory Project (ODP)

December 21, 2006

DMOZ otherwise known as Open Directory almost “died” during the last two months. A six-week unscheduled outage and a history of consumer dissatisfaction, lagging editorial energy and layoffs at AOL intimated a possible demise of the Open Directory Project.

DMOZ, in my opinion, has been a den of BIAS, perpetrated by the so called volunteer “Human Editors” — I have been a victim of what I consider bias at DMOZ — This site was summarily yanked out from their listings for no tangible reason.

I am not condemning ALL DMOZ Editors wholesale, but I am convinced that there exists a “climate” that fosters abuse by competitors, biased and even bigoted editors — in an imperfect world such as ours there is bound to be some who don’t like others for all kinds of reasons, ranging from competitive bias to everything imaginable.

Numerous webmasters have complained about the backlog of sites awaiting review for inclusion, and poor title & description snippets, in addition to outright bias among many other complaints.

MSN recognized this anomaly and in May this year issued directives allowing webmasters and website owners the choice of “opting out” of Open Directory listing descriptions.

MSN stated: “Even though these human-edited descriptions provide a lot of value, with human editing may come human error, bias, descriptions getting outdated, or the editor’s text may simply not suit the webmasters who want to be represented in their own way.”

Google quickly followed in the footsteps of Microsoft and now supports the NOODP Meta-Tag.

Search Marketing Expert Jim Hedger says: “Though rumours of its death are obviously exaggerated, complaints about its demise are not. The ODP is a wonderful entity, but the power it inadvertently exerts is far greater than its ability to edit itself. Many have suggested the ODP should shut its door for good but perhaps this downtime has given its meta-editorial collective a chance to consider its role in the search community.” — Here is Jim’s take on DMOZ’s recent stumble

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under Search Engines | Leave a Comment 

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