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:

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

Sound familiar? You may have read this here in Sept 09

Do I need this domain?
It is really superfluous to my needs. I already have a domain and if someone (a competitor?) decided they would try to steal some potential clients by creating an online facsimilie of my site. If they did I could take the matter up with AuDA

The price
At just $245 many businesses I’m sure would think this is a reasonable offer, however $60 is about the going ‘street price’ for .au domains so its not really a bargain at all…

Note sure if your domain renewal is legit ?
The ACCC has information on domain name scams and as always Google is a great information source

Outside of a 3G service area and cast into the bandwidth wildness, I’ve becoming painfully aware of the delays and download budget impact for simple emails with bloated banners, oversized signature images etc.

I’ve also had to discard several favourite sites either because of image bloat; poor mobile device adaption. The killer is that the iPhone does not support Flash so sites using it for sales promotion and particularly for navigation have lost me and presumably other iPhone visitors.
Just to give this some context a quick scan of high profile sites under my care reveals iPhone/iPods visitors range between 1.8 to 4.6% of all visitors over the Dec/Jan period!

iPhone website visitors are out there aplenty and presumably they like to buy stuff.
Make sure you are not missing out on them through poor mobile support in your phone & emails.

Technorati Tags: iphone

This article from by Janine Popick, Vertical Response founder titled Start Blogging! 10 Reasons Why You Think Time Wasted Might Be Time Well Spent provides some balance.

Cheers
Pete

Technorati Tags: blogs

No this is not about using some black hat SEO technique, this is blatant abuse of a client’s site by the SEO service provider for their own purposes.

This well known Melbourne based internet marketing business had covertly planted a link farm in their client’s site which was feeding keyword aligned links back to other clients

If you’ve been involved in internet marketing for more than a minute, you know how important links are and just how hard they can be to secure. Incoming links that it is, not outgoing ones like this.

So in summary the situation is this:

• The SEO provider has created a hidden page that linked out to seven of their other clients sites.
• Net benefit for the client in question is nil
• Net gain for the SEO provider – Some free links that aid their other clients

BTW when I enquired, the client was unaware of this page and certainly had not approved it.

Before you mentally interject to suggest that this client probably benefited from seven similar links back in, there is no evidence of this. The link farm file date placed its last update at 2008, so it wasn’t a revenge attack linked to their recent loss of this clients business.

Where’s the return on investment for your now ex-client!?
Shame. Shame. Shame.

Technorati Tags: SEO ethics

“>

Technorati Tags: SEO Urban myths

This industrial strength yet surprisingly free website metrics system can help you understand more about how your site is performing and give clues on how to improve it to ultimately make it a viable contributor to your business sales activities.

The upgrade includes:

• More sophisticated goal tracking
• Better table filtering
• More flexible reporting
• A threshold based alerting system

Read more…

Technorati Tags: Analytics, Understanding Analytics reports

Google developers have been toiling away breathing life into this unifying platform and it is really looking like a winner on a number of levels.

Wave is a ’single inbox’ for emails, instant messages and all other forms of online communications, but it is so much more than that.

Integration
Wave combines individual internet communications from various channels while maintaining message context similar to discussion forums threads.

This approach enables participants to have multiple message discussions (online conversations ?) independent of the platform each individual is utilising.

Chat or IM conversations are digested into Wave and displayed in near real time, while slower communications such as emails are structured as and when they arrive into your Wave inbox.

I’m just reflecting momentarily about email being described as a slow communication…
Is email being too slow for some forms of communications..?

Quite apart from the highly functional merger of disparate internet communications there are two other key aspects where I see Wave further consolidating Google’s total online world domination.

Open source
Google are producing Wave as an open source product, which fundamentally means Wave is free.
Sure there may be some costs, but if you compare these with the licences costs say for example for an equivalently functional Microsoft server solution (even though I don’t think there is one yet) there will be no financial competition.

Extensibility
The other and probably strongest reason Wave will dominate stems from the strategy to include the ability for software developers to easily integrate Wave into their own solutions.

Many applications need an online communications/synchronisation capability and integration with Wave will fast-track the realisation of many concepts into viable solutions.

Consider the plethora of iPhone applications that have exploded into existence; these are only available to you & me because of the iPhone platform’s extensibility. These applications would have continued to exist only as agonizingly brilliant concepts but not commercially viable because of the costs and impossible logistics to establish the supporting infrastructure required.

A lateral albeit non-business application is the Sudoku game in the You Tube video below that illustrates real-time multiple participant interactivity…

Geeks everywhere already know about Wave. Google is generating peer group hype by using the same limited access marketing they did originally with GMail ie can only particulate in the beta Wave program if you’re invited…

When business gets their head around the opportunities Wave represents it will explode onto our desktops.

Standby for the Google Wave tsunami.

Currently in beta testing in San Diego and San Francisco, these ads are positioned as “low budget, low maintenance, a flat monthly fee ad solution…”

Click below to view the overview:
“”

Delivery it via the local Business Centre that currently provides free advertising in Google Maps. Google goes on to say:

“Unlike Google AdWords, Local Listing Ads require no management of ad creative, keywords, bidding or budget management. After you select a standard category that best describes your business, Google determines the cost that ensures the ad is seen by the highest number of people looking for businesses like yours in your location. You will be given the chance to confirm the monthly flat fee that is unlikely to change frequently or be notified of the change 30 days in advance via email and your LBC account message.”

“Local Listing Ads also offers free call tracking with a short announcement (‘this caller brought to you by Google’) before each forwarded call. That way, you know precisely when and how often the ad makes your phone ring.”
Sounds nice, but when will we see it in Australia ?

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.

Ideally a campaign will add value for your clients, while not costing you much if anything e.g.

• Seasonal products or services
• Launching a new product
• Engaging a new client segment
• Bundling to create a larger sale
• etc

These are all opportunities to engage and entice your clients. Try to be creative, but avoid discounting! Here’s a few tips to get you started with your online campaigning.

Paid search for campaigns
Paid search is ideal for campaigning because it is quick to deploy and can be highly targeted. Google AdWords is the most popular paid search system because of Google’s absolute domination of search in Australia.

If you want to reach Australian women 25-34 years; Small business owners based in Adelaide or South Australians with interests in a particular hobby or indeed almost any other target segment, AdWords will do this for you much cheaper than traditional marketing mediums.

The Google Keywords Tool lets you select keywords and you can add up to 2,000 into AdWords based on your target and budget.
Control your Google AdWords expenditure with a daily click budget.
If you have multiple segments then setup multiple Ad Groups for improved targeting, and get campaigning almost straight away.

Organic search campaigning
Using organic search for campaigning can challenging, but ultimately more rewarding. It is rare these days to find keywords that are not already being targeted and competitive keywords take months of lead time to gain appropriate ranking.

A good PageRank on your home page really helps so continue collecting links to your site.
There is an inherent delay from adding your campaign content to it being digested by Google so you can’t rely on attracting campaign related searches immediately. Because of this I suggest starting with a teaser on your home page linked to the campaign page.

If you have recurring or seasonal campaigns, leave the related pages active in your site rather than removing them. This allows search engines to index the page and you to cultivate links to improve its ranking ready for the critical period.
Prepare your site early for upcoming seasons and then lure search engines to update your new content by submitting your XML Sitemap.

Measuring your campaign success
As always, I recommend tracking your campaign with Analytics.
When there are no related visitors then you need to revisit how you are trying to attract them.

If you do generate campaign traffic, but no sales don’t be disheartened. Analytics can track visitor activity trends (i.e. click streams) through your website, which is effectively their feedback on your offer.

Click stream analysis is the online alternative to focus groups, only your visitors tell you what they think with mouse clicks. Modify your offer and try again.
Mike Moran’s book title says it all: Do it wrong quickly