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SiteLinks | The Extended SERP

Posted in Principles WebMasters Tools
February 24th, 2010 by Pete

Occasionally you might see a Google search result ( a SERP) with handy links, even a search input box. They make it easier for searchers to find relevant content in your site,and so are very likely to attract more visitors to your site.

How can you get this extended SERP showing on your site ?

Sadly, as mere mortals we don’t have the option to ask for these extended SERPs (Google calls them Sitelinks)
Google decides if it will display Sitelinks with the SERP, but it seem to be based on the site home page having a Google PageRank of 5 or more and the search keyword very relevant to the site

For example the Medibank Private site has a PageRank is 7 and a search of medibank private is as you could imagine very relevant hence a Google search result displays:
A SERP with Sitelinks

It is possible to use Google WebMasters Tools to remove selected Sitelinks

So if your site has a PageRank of 5+ then highly relevant searches may bring up a SERP with Sitelinks

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Campaign to increase sales

Posted in AdWords Organic search Principles
October 9th, 2009 by Pete

Looking to increase sales? Even if your site is already generating leads or sales, there is scope to improve it further through campaigning i.e. short promotional activities designed to engage client interest.

In supermarkets we see these as ‘specials’; and we get bombarded with them in TV advertising, so consider using a campaigning strategy to promote your business via your website. (more…)

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Urban myth | Stronger than fact | The keyword metatag

Posted in Keywords Organic search Principles Urban Myth
September 25th, 2009 by Pete

The power of urban myth is not something to be toyed with.

In a recent meeting a debate arose after I said that Google doesn’t use the keyword metatag. I was challenged on this point by someone confidently asserting that Google is indeed using the keyword metatag once again. He inferred that any suggestion that they weren’t was simply uninformed.

We agreed to disagree. The customer was confused. My creditability was compromised.

I blogged about the keyword metatag back in 2008. More recently even Google’s Matt Cutts once again debunked this urban myth, but the mighty keyword metatags’ magic powers will continue to persist…

My point is that there is so much SEO mis-information that the sheer mass generates its own pseudo-creditability much along the lines of …Oh yeah that must be true because I heard it the other day….

Metatag Basics
A metatag is a special place inside the web page HTML code that can store variables for example the Description meta tag which is used in SERPs

The keyword meta tag is one of a number of common HTML metatags, traditionally used to store a string of words that represent the content on that page.

Its use has persisted, particularly in Content Management Systems where editors are invited to add ‘search words’ etc that are then published into the keyword metatag by the CMS.

The keyword metatag was identified as being open to abuse around 2002, and no longer used by Google from that time and I suspect by many other search engines for the same reason.

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PDFs are great content for your website!

Posted in Organic search Principles
September 12th, 2009 by Pete

Adobe’s PDF (Portable Document Format) is a convenient format for making any document universally viewable, and an especially useful format for putting content into your website

Newsletters, brochures, annual reports etc. in fact anything you can print or scan you can turn into a PDF document and have in your website.

Visitors to your site can download the free PDF viewer from Adobe (and others) to have your document faithful represented on their browser independent of operating system and browser differences.

Of course you need to link the PDF to your menu or content so visitors and search engines can reach it. Search engines? Yes! They treat a PDF as if it’s another page in your website.

PDFs are a great way to increase the amount of content on a key subject to support search marketing efforts, not to mention the benefit of providing additional sales and product information etc that prospective clients can read to support their decision to purchase from you.
busted
Search engines can’t see inside a PDF
This is an urban myth about PDFs that we really need to bust.
Google has been indexing text content and metatags inside PDFs since 2001

Google cant read images inside PDFs
Another myth busted. In fact in Oct 2008 Google announced that they could OCR (Optical Character Recognition) PDF images. That means they can turn images inside of PDFs into indexable text.

Where are your PDFs ?
Use this Google search to find PDF documents in your website:

inurl:pdf

for example inurl:pdf www.succinctideas.com.au

The INURL search operator tells Google to restrict search results to a particular document type. Read more about Google’s inurl: search operator

Statics show that visitors will more readily open another page in your website rather than open a PDF so keep a balance of content types.

So PDFs really are quite genuine content, engaging sales visitors and search engines!

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Matt Cutts | Are sites treated differently by Google?

Posted in Organic search Principles WebMasters Tools
September 2nd, 2009 by Pete

Matt Cutts is a well known Google’s technical guru, who often makes public statements on behalf of Google, including responding to questions from the internet marketing community.

This is one of a series of YouTube videos that clarify important information about how Google works, because frankly there is a lot of mis-information out there.

To catch more of Matt Cutts and other Googlers on YourTube go to the GoogleWebmasterHelp channel

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Beware website changes that loose sales.

Posted in Principles Tales from the trenches
April 22nd, 2009 by Pete

An effective website is a work in progress.

The content changes to reflect the evolution in your business; your offerings, even your target clients. But sometimes changes can quite innocently have a catastrophic impact on your website’s sales effectiveness.

Let’s examine which changes to your site can impact its sales effectiveness: (more…)

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Google’s Content Network | The hidden paid search marketplace

Posted in AdWords In the news Principles
April 21st, 2009 by Pete

Google’s Content Network is emerging strongly as an independent and unique online marketing medium. This is clearly highlighted in Google’s recent report on Content Network Cost-per-Acquisition (CPA) performance.

Including the Content Network in your online advertising; and particularly understanding how to optimise this medium is becoming an important aspect of a successful online campaign.

The statistics from Google are staggering:

  • More than 6 billion ad impressions (i.e. displays) per day globally
  • Reaching 80% of internet users. (more…)
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Sitemaps | The Google Welcome Mat for your website

Posted in Organic search Principles
April 20th, 2009 by Pete

An XML Sitemap provides a directory of your website specifically for spiders to find all of your content and is a critical element in internet marketing.

Don’t confuse this with the ‘sitemap’ directory often provided so human visitors can view an outline of your website’s structure.

The sitemaps I’m referring to are not designed for humans but for search engine spiders. OK so maybe deep geeks can understand them, but definitely not marketers and other mere mortals :) (more…)

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Google PageRank | The webpage quality score

Posted in Organic search Principles
April 5th, 2009 by Pete

For some reason PageRank seems to be one of the great secrets in internet marketing, and yet it is not.

Understanding PageRank will aid in improving your website’s Google ranking. This in turn provides increased online exposure which in turn leads to improved sales opportunity. 

Background
Every wondered why so many people use Google? The answer is deceptively simple; Google gives great search results. It does this by putting the best quality search results first. (more…)

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Keywords metatag died in 2002

Posted in Keywords Organic search Principles
November 25th, 2008 by Pete

Keyword metatag

This article dating back to 2002 (that’s correct 2002!) is just one of a plethora of articles and controlled SEO experiments that have shown the keyword metatag has no affect on Google.

Unfortunately some folks just don’t get it.

Perhaps its because the tag’s name suggest that’s what it does and its just too damn temping to ignore it.

If you’re paying for SEO services and they are getting stuck into your keywords metatag you’d be better off looking elsewhere for your SEO services.

There, Ive said.  I feel better now.

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