SEO Company News and Tips

The New Google Pay Per Action (PPA) Program

2007-03-25T07:00:00.000-04:00

It is finally here. The 800 pound gorilla in search marketing is in beta with its new pay-per-acton program. Adsense advertisers can now sign up into what could be the ultimate traditional PPC killer. What has stopped many site owners (big and small) from using Pay Per Click is the uncertainty about the return on investment. With PPA, the advertiser defines an action such as filling a contact form, sign up for a newsletter or the purchase of a product. When someone completes the defined action, Google charges the advertiser. Basically it works like a commission based transaction between Google and the advertiser.
Let's go with a practical example for both PPC and PPA:
You advertise for widgets. When a searchee googles widgets your site comes up on page one. The user clicks on your listing; with traditional PPC you autmoatically are charged for the click. With PPA you are not. Once on the site, if the user decides to purchase a widget (That would be the defined action), Google then charges for the purchase. If the user decides to navigate away, the advertiser is never charged.
How this new system will affect SEO is hard to say. Sites still need to be optimized for both the users as well the search engines. Optimization is not just about rising in the ranks. It is about providing a great experience with speed, clean coding and pages that are compatible with all browsers and systems.

PR Update Under Way

2007-01-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

As of January 10th Google is performing its usual quarterly PR export (give or take a few weeks on the minus/plus side).
Some sites are showing a PR0 where before they had i.e. a PR4 or PR5. Do not be alarmed. During a data export this may happen and it has little consequence to ranks. PR is calculated on a continuous basis and the export/update is just a courtesy Google extends to users. It will take a few days before the export is done so be patient!

Indexing Pictures?

2006-12-19T08:25:00.000-04:00

Every SEO will tell you that pictures cannot be recognized by the search engines. If you have a picture of an actor on your celebrity fan web site, no search engine will be able to tell who he is. By using an "alt" tag, you can describe what the picture is about but the SEs will only see the tag, not the image.

A new company promises to go where not Google, Live or Yahoo! have gone before. Polar Rose, a company based in Sweden, is building a technology aimed at indexing images by using complex 3D and mapping calculations to add a description to any photo in any site.

If the company holds to its promise, it will affect how SEO is implemented and will add a new dimension to optimization. It would be quite feasible that images will have to be optimized to be better "read". Possibly, the use of color correction and contrast tools will enhance readibilty and therefore indexing. Will a blurred or low contrast image be analyzed as well as a clean and snappy one? How about black and white? The possibilities are endless. Also, will a large company such as Google implement a similar technology or simply buy it?

Stay tuned!

The right keywords for effective SEO

2006-12-12T10:05:00.000-04:00

Many times we see prospective customers trying to chase very high competition key phrases and wanting immediate results. I will try to illustrate this with an example:
Mr Jones calls us with a new web site. He is starting to sell Ipod widgets. He is looking to optimize the site for "Ipod widgets" as his primary keyword. After a short look at his competition, we see that there are many established sites competing for the same key phrase. The same pay per click phrase goes at $4 for top results in Google and tapers down to $2 for the bottom of page one. One way or another, he is looking at least $400 a day to generate 100 to 200 clikthroughs to his site. Considering his margins are low, he cannot possibly stay in business by spending upwards to $12,000/month in PPC costs. He also knows that the only way to be profitable is to sell on the Internet as his local market cannot support the revenue he needs.
The solution? Through keyword research we identify alternate key phrase that do not have as much competition both in the natural as well as the sponsored results. By using Overture and Wordtracker, we can identify the number of times any key phrase is searched. The result is driven traffic to his site through lower PPC cost as well a more effective way to make sure SEO reaches desisered results with a lower budget and a shorter time frame.

What is going on with Live Search?

2006-11-19T08:14:00.000-04:00

As you probably all know, Microsoft has been heavily focusing efforts on its new search engine, Live Search. Although results have been steadily improving, Live still has ways to go. What used to be an advantage of Live, which is fast indexing of new sites, is now becoming a longer feat. Google, with the aid of Sitemaps submission in XML format, is indexing sites in as fast as 48 hours. I am talking complete indexing, every single page!
Returning to Live.com, we sometimes see sites that are either irrelevant to the search terms or that have extremely little information. These sites grossly outrank much larger competitors with not only more content but many more backlinks. If you have the Pagerank toolbar installed, you will see pages ranking very high on Live with a PR0.
Keyword density and frequency seem to favor a heavy hand on Live. We are seeing a site with a keyword count of 10 in 7 lines of text and #6 for a single fairly competitive keyword.
What does this mean for search engine optimization? Well, for now do not worry about having targeted keywords showing heavily in your copy. Backlinks are not that important if Live is your target search engine. I am writing this post now and of course this information could be obsolete tomorrow. I can't imagine Live sitting on the current algorithm without making some substantial changes.

ODP is down

2006-11-16T08:56:00.000-04:00

If any of you has been trying to submit a site to DMOZ sometimes between October and November, you may have gotten a "Service is unavailable" message. AOL is trying to fix the issue but as you can probably gather, there was a (likely) catastrophic event. Due to the amount of scripts running in the directory, as well the massive amount of data, this is not an easy feat. Please be patient and keep checking.

SEO Services and Your Web Site

2006-11-06T08:18:00.000-04:00

Prospective customers call us for an obvious reason: they want to increase internet exposure through our SEO services. At times, we get to run an analysis of web sites that are poorly designed and definitely not user friendly. I am not necessarily talking about poor code, but a general lack of content, call to action and a inefficient navigation structure.

Why am I saying this? Because, not matter if you get to be on page one in Google search results, you still need to capture the reader's interest and make sure he stays on you site.

First, content. Please take the time to write content. There is no excuse for not having useful information on any site. Even for someone who, for example, is a photographer or artist, there is an opportunity to describe who you are, your technique, what the art is about etc. I am bringing this example up because one may argue that if you are selling visual art, how can you possibly have a lot of content? Search engines look for content as one of the ways to determine a site's relevancy. Images can't be read by search engines. A good search engine optimization company will point these factors out and not just take your money.

Second, a call to action. All the effective SEO in the world will not do any good if you can't solicit a strong customer motivation to use your service or product. Explain why it should be you and not a competitor; you do not have to use pushy sales tactics, but there is nothing wrong in offering incentives, such as quantity discounts, guarantees or anything else that prompts a prospect to say: "Yes, I like this company and I will give them my business".

Third, a poor looking site says a lot about your company. It is a store front and an ugly store front does not entice people to come in and stay. Beauty has always attracted people and a good design will open the door to the opportunity of more and longer visits. Once the visitor is in, make it easy for him to stay and see everything. Navigation and links should be laid out in an easy to find manner.

Yes, I really have not talked SEO services. Search engine optimization is only a part of a comprehensive strategy to accomplish one task: to attract and retain customers.

SEO Services Shouldn't Be Hurting Your Site

2006-11-01T09:03:00.000-04:00

Because of the high exposure of our site in the SEO industry, we are literally bombarded with exchange schemes. Many SEO companies are under the very wrong impression that any link to their site will increase their ranks. Here is how it goes:

You are contacted by a webmaster who says he posted a link to you site from www.zzz.com. He is asking if you could link to his site, www.yyy.com. Here is the problem: what he is doing is a 3-way link exchange, which is basically playing with fire. On the surface, it looks like a good strategy because you get an incoming non reciprocal link and so does he. The major flaws are the following:

-The site he is putting your link on is basically a dump full of outgoing links, basically a link farm. If it does have a PR now, it is very likely that as Google and other engines catch up, it will be penalized or banned.

-Once you are found out as part of the 3 way link, you may be banned or penalized as well.

If anyone with half a brain out there thinks that the very smart people at the major search engines are not able to find out this obviously bad SEO practice, well, it is definitely time to change careers. Sorry about the harsh words, but we are so fed up with the incompetent SEOs who not only push this scheme with their own sites, but they use it with their clients. It is bad for the search engine relevancy results and the SEO industry in general.

SEO Company News: Google and the Orion Algorithm

2006-09-17T07:14:00.000-04:00

Some recent news organizations around the world have reported that Google has acquired the rights to use the Orion algorithm.

The Orion algorithm is the work of Ori Allon, an Israeli student working at the University of South Wales in Australia. The concept behind the technology is not new: it revolves around the ability of a search engine to respond to queries by sifting through results and provide snippets. Furthermore, it provides results based on a wide understanding of the search.

The Orion model was originally designed to work with search engines. As every searcher knows, all SEs sometimes return results that are not relevant to the keywords. Often the user has to click on the web site only to find out it is unrelated to the topic, creating a negative experience.

Orion gives the searchers an expert review of a term results by returning related topics and other useful information to expand knowledge. Let’s go with an example: If you were to conduct a query for the key phrase American Constitution, the search would come up with direct results related to the topic as well as the names of the Founding Fathers, the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 etc. In essence, Orion would function as a researcher who can understand a key word not with “tunnel vision” but as a comprehensive, broad request to elaborate on a topic and provide a more complete view. Without a working prototype available to the public, we can only assume Google’s interest in Orion is warranted.

What are the implications for a SEO company trying to optimize a web site? Orion is likely using a much more sophisticated approach to search engine results compared to present attempts to provide snippets before someone clicks on a result. The snippet feature is only part of what Orion is about. The algorithm behind this technology focuses on taking search engine queries to the next level, which is something many prominent figures in the SE industry have promised in the last recent years.

If the algorithm is implemented in Google search, content is going to play an even more important part in the optimization efforts. A heated debate is currently happening in many well known SEO forums on the importance of content vs acquiring incoming links to climb ranks. The mere fact that Mr Allon is now working at Googleplex, points at the seriousness on the part of Google management to study the technology. Whether Orion is going to translate into a feasible component of web search or be shelved as many other projects in the past, all remains to be seen.

Choosing a real SEO Company

2006-08-31T17:37:00.000-04:00

If you wonder why we are posting regarding choosing a real (vs bogus) SEO, I would like to explain.

Too often we receive inquiries about guarantees. It goes like this: "We guarantee top results". No one can guarantee top results. This is not from us: Google says this it its webmaster guidelines. The reasoning is simple. Search engines are not controlled by SEO companies. If you hire a lawyer to defend you from a lawsuit, do you ask for guarantees? If you do, no one will give them to you. The reason is simple: an attorney is not the judge or jury and SEOs are not the search engines. What you do when choosing a lawyer is to check references, success rate, experience. Do the same with an SEO company.

Beware of $150/month SEO. If it is too good to be true, it probably is. There is absolutely no way an SEO can do effective work for competitive phrases for this little. It would take below minimum wage and even foreign companies cannot compete. This of course does not hold true if the SEO uses "canned" software that cuts work to a fraction. What you get is what you pay for: run of the mill SEO that thousands are doing and will give you no competitive edge. The game is to outrank the competition, not to follow the mass.

This is why we call ourselves an ethical SEO company. We do not resort to gimmicks, secret techniques or unethical ways to put a site temporarily on top of the search engine only to see it disappear because of questionable tactics.

Search Engine Optimization : How to Put Your Web Site on the Map

2006-07-16T16:48:00.000-04:00

Search engine optimization is a term often used to describe an array of techniques aimed to boost ranks when people search for a given keyword or key phrase. Many web site owners often spend money and time building a web presence. Unfortunately the most important step is often overlooked: how can you be found?

Years ago it was fairly easy to design a site, write content and submit it to a directory or two. Odds would be that the search engines would rank the site well for keywords related to the copy present in the web pages.

Furthermore, as the search engine technology and the number of web sites was not what it is today, using keyword repetition and many questionable tactics such as creating many domains with the same content, pretty much assured prominent positioning.

The reality of today' s search engine marketing has changed dramatically. Any web site owner needs to work hard to be found for any popular term in Google, Yahoo! or MSN search. The stakes are high because more and more people use the internet to find goods and services.

If you do not have an web presence and plan to get into the online arena, you have a disadvantage: Google in particular will not rank a new domain very high. As the web site "ages", ranks will improve.

Older domains with an established presence are in better shape to achieve good results sooner. I will describe some of the most important factors involved in reaching top positions in the search engines.

-Clean code: Search engines like a well coded site: please to dot use Word to design a web page. It creates "dirty" html code. Be also careful with WYSIWYG editors. Some put proprietary tags that are search engine unfriendly.

-Content: I can not emphasize enough how important it is to write extensive content so that the search engines recognize the site as relevant to the people who search for a particular keyword.

-Tags: Make sure the title and description tags contain the keywords you want users to look for.

-Linking: Linking refers to other sites linking to one. This is a very important factor; search engines count links as a "vote". The reasoning is that if site A links to site B, then site B must be useful. Links can come from important directories such as Yahoo! or Dmoz. They can also come from other relevant web sites. For example, if you sell paintings a link from an art school or a gallery would be important. Please do not exchange links with questionable sites such as link farms. Link farms are directories that exist for the sole purpose of gathering links with no valuable content. Make sure that, when possible, links to your site contain anchor text with the keywords being targeted. Post articles about your services and products and include a link to your site. Many reputable article sites will appreciate your content. Publish online press releases.

These are some of the most important factors for search engine optimization. I will describe now what should never be done because it can lead to a search engine ban on a site.

-Do not stuff meta tags with the same keywords. It is a sure way to be penalized.

-Do not hide keywords by using the same or similar color text as the background.

-As I mentioned above, do not exchange with questionable sites.

-Do not use "cloaking" software to serve "ad hoc" pages to the search engine spiders.

-Do not create multiple domains with the same content. You will be found out and search engines will at a minimum ban all the duplicates.

Effective search engine optimization will take time, expertise and money to accomplish. The results will be well worth the effort.

What is happening with Google?

2006-06-12T07:42:00.000-04:00

Search engine optimization evolves as the major players change algorithms to create a better user experience. There are times when a new formula is rolled out by a search engine and it immediately shows issues. It has happened before and it will happen again. Google has been showing some very interesting results in some datacenters. When searching for a keyword, Google returns sites with a title tag that does not reflect the sites' code. Instead, it is listing the sites' title of the DMOZ entry. Furthermore, some sites are not being fully indexed while they have been live for months. Live.com and Yahoo! have crawled and indexed these sites for weeks. Google still showed the old pages in the supplemental results, with no "interest" in the new pages. Google is still by far the most used search engine. Its results are superior to the competition in terms of value. On the other hand, new and updated sites take sometimes a very long time to appear. This is not good and many users are starting to become dissatisfied with what should be a live, up to date catalog of the web. If a search engine can not keep up with a snapshot of the most current internet presence, it is doomed to be replaced by better technology and resources.
Everybody pretty much agrees with the Google "sandbox effect". We explain this on our site and the reason for its implementation. On the other hand, is it fair to penalize a site for being new. Many legitimate businesses open an internet presence and have no immediate chance to be ranked high in Google for competitive keywords. The only alternative for these sites is to do PPC until the site matures.

search engine optimization

The Importance of Copy in SEO: Ontological Text Recognition

2006-05-01T08:30:00.000-04:00

The old days of SEO are gone. Just not too long ago, standard SEO practices would place a site in the graces of the major search engines. Let's examine what these standard techniques are before I venture into the copywriting/ontological part of SEO.

-Clean code and use of a CSS. It is still imperative to write in clean code and avoid proprietary tags or server side extensions such as the ones created/required by certain web design programs. Use a cascading style sheet to reduce attribute clutter.

-Keyword density. The accepted parameters call for keyword presence on each page in order to rank well for the particular term. Too little density and the search engines will not rank the site well and too much will be viewed as spam.

-Unidirectional and reciprocal linking. The more sites linking to one and the better the site will score. Note: reciprocal links are being discounted by Google in particular because of rampant, free for all link exchange abuse. Make sure anchor text reflects the keywords being targeted when conducting a link campaign.

The standard above guidelines are what many SEOs are focusing on to help websites in the top rank arena.

While these are still the basics, we are seeing a a shift in the ranks where sites rank extremely well for a keyword without such term even being present on the page. How is this possible? The only possible explanation is the contextual text relationship or theme of a site. Search engine marketing needs to be taken a step further.

Google seems to be at the forefront of this technology: the sites that are doing well even for terms that are not present in the text or anchor links are very rich in related content. Also, very important, the site relates to the particular key phrase. Let's try an example: when searching for "market timing", a site is in the top 3 in Google. The site has hundreds of pages indexed and deals with market research for stocks, stock buying and investment decision tools. A human being reading through the site found by searching for market timing will find the site extremely informative and pertinent to the search. Then, how is it possible that Google could rank it high if it is just blindly indexing the text to find the exact keyword? The answer is ontological text recognition. By reading the contextual relationship between words and paragraphs, Google is capable of "understanding" that the site, without mentioning a particular keyword, will be relevant when a user searches for it.

What does this mean for you? Simply put, a lot. Copywriting is king. Well written content, informative article writing in conjunction with standard SEO techniques are the new search optimization reality. It means more work but also the advantage of maintaining more solid ranks over time as no competitor site can just easily tweak some code to rank higher. We have been focusing heavily on this new aspect to find the best way to create user friendly and rich content that will be positively received by search engines and searchers alike.

Update to the Jagger Update!

2005-11-12T07:36:00.000-04:00

We are seeing Jagger in the third phase of deployment in a few datacenters. One of the sites we are monitoring is telling a few things that characterize the Jagger update:

-Content: it seems that content is what Google is emphasizing more than ever. Lots of well writen, informative pages.

-Reciprocal links are losing weight in a dramatic fashion: this particular site has few reciprocal links, some important uni-directional ones. Still, the Jagger update recognizes the content and is rewarding the site in the ranks. Are reciprocal links dead? I would not go that far. It looks like topic related exchanges still have some importance. On the other hand, free-for-all exchanges such as an online immigration law site swapping with a diamond store will probably be a waste of time. And possibly in the future this technique could even have a negative effect on ranks.

-Clean code: this is of course an important factor that has always weighed on results. It looks like W3C compliance is playing a bigger role.

What does this mean for search engine optimization? Simply put, SEO firms will either need to have good content writers on staff who can look at a site and write pertinent pages or have the site owners create them. With the latter, these pages will have to be optimized to make sure they are keyword rich.

We are sure there are going to be some automated page generating software companies who will emphasize the increasing importance of having many pages created on the fly to increase ranking. From what we can see, Google is capable of reading and understanding content and we still strongly feel they are implementing ontological text recognition. Write real content and you will see the results. Take shortcuts and things could get bad really fast.

Google and the Jagger Update

2005-10-27T18:13:00.000-04:00

Google seems to have finished rolling out the first pahase of the so called Jagger update. PR has been reworked for many sites, as well as the number of backlinks. We are noticing interesting results where low PR pages with no keyword in the text or code are ranking very high. A wild speculation is that Google may be implementing ontology driven similarity algorithms to rank a site, particularly using Natural Language Processing and Fuzzy Logic.

This is the way it works: a site sell "prime aged steaks". There are many pages that describe how cattle is raised and fed, with a lot of content with keywords such as "high quality beef", "premium meat cuts", "grain fed cattle" etc. An ontological similarity algorithm can read, interpret these pages, understand how such keywords relate to "prime aged steaks" and rank the site high for such key term. Add a few internal and external incoming links with anchor text "prime aged steaks" and it is feasible that the page will rank very well. The race is on to create true artificial intelligence to weed out spammy and software generated sites.

We need to see if this is the case with Google. Recent purchases of companies specializing in these aspects of text recognition point to some work in progress. On another note, MSN sear regained its old PR9.

Google Pagerank and Backlink Update

2005-10-20T23:33:00.000-04:00

We are seeing interesting changes in the Google Toolbar. The msn.com home page has a PR2, down from PR9! Also, we are seeing a very different list of backlinks for the sites we are monitoring. It remains to be seen what this will mean for search engine optimization for Google. It may just be a hiccup. Google has done this before and, as always, take the toolbar information with a grain of salt: at times it may give misleading data, totally irrelevant and of little consequence. Stay tuned and we will update once we see stable results.

How Web Design Can Affect Search Engine Rankings

2005-10-12T15:09:00.000-04:00

Uniquely built web sites can create unique issues when being promoted on the search engines. From a basic 3 page brochure site to a corporate site with hundreds of dynamically generated pages, every web site needs to have certain design aspects in order to achieve the full effects of an SEO campaign. Below are a few points to take into consideration when building or updating your web site.

1. Size Matters.
The size of a web site can have a huge impact on search engine rankings. Search engines love content, so if you have only a few pages to your site and your competitors have dozens, it's difficult to see a top page ranking for your site. In some cases it may be difficult to present several pages of information about your business or products, so you may need to think about adding free resources for visitors. It will help in broadening the scope of your web site (which search engines like) as well as keep visitors on your site longer, possibly resulting in more sales.

2. Graphics-Based Web Sites.
While web sites that offer the visitor a more aesthetically-pleasing experience may seem like the best choice for someone searching for your product, they are the most difficult to optimize. Since search engine robots cannot read text within graphics or animation, what they see may be just a small amount of text. And if we learned anything from point #1, small amounts of content will not result in top rankings. If you really must offer the visitor a graphics-heavy or Flash web site, consider creating an html-based side of your site that is also available to visitors. This site will be much easier to promote on the search engines and your new found visitors will also have the option to jump over to the nicer looking part of your site.

3. Dynamic Web Pages.
If most of your web site is generated by a large database (such as a large book dealer with stock that is changing by the minute) you may find that some of your pages do not get indexed by major search engines. If you look at the URL of these pages they can be extremely long and have characters such as ?, #, &, %, or = along with huge amounts of seemingly random numbers or letters. Since these pages are automatically generated by the database as needed, the search engines have a tough time keeping them up to date and relevant for search engine users.

One way to combat this problem is to offer a search engine friendly site map listing all your static pages just to let them know that you do have permanent content on your site. If search engines see links going to and from these dynamic pages within a good internal linking system, this may also lead to the pages getting indexed. The link popularity of your site may carry more weight in this case as well, so if you can't offer as much static content as your competition, make sure you have an aggressive link campaign on the go.

4. Proper Use of HTML.
There is quite a bit of sub-par web design software out there. Word processors usually have a way to create HTML documents which can be easily uploaded to a site via ftp. However, in many cases the code that the search engine robots see is mostly lines and lines of font and position formatting, not relevant content. The more efficiently written web sites usually achieve higher rankings. Our choice for web design software is Macromedia Dreamweaver, as it is an industry standard. It also makes using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) a breeze, which can drastically cut down on the amount of text formatting in HTML code. Hand-coding HTML to design sites is also a good method if you are proficient enough.

There are some no brainers too: Web sites with abnormal amounts of hyperlinks, bold or italicized text, improper use of heading, alt, or comment tags can also expect to see low rankings.

5. Choosing a Domain Name.
The golden rule to web development of any kind is to keep your visitors in mind above all else - even search engine optimization. When choosing a domain name, one should pick either your business name (if you have a high-profile business name such as Chapters or Coca-Cola) or a brief description of your products. Domain names can always help with search engine optimization, as it is another area of your web site that important keywords can appear. Forget about long-winded domains such as www.number-one-best-books-on-earth.com as no one will ever remember it and it will be hard to print on business cards or in ads.

If you need to change your domain name for any reason you obviously don't want to lose existing rankings. An easy way to do this, and one that is currently supported by most search engines, is the 301 redirect. It allows you to keep your existing rankings for your old domain name, while forwarding visitors to your new web site instantly.

6. Using Frames.
Don't use frames. Frames are a thing of the 90's (and in the Internet world that is eons ago) and are not even supported by some search engines. The search engines that are able to index your site through frames will most likely frown upon them. Whatever you are trying to accomplish by using frames can usually be done with the help of PHP includes or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Some browsers are not frames-compatible, so there is the danger of some visitors not being able to see your site at all. Bookmarking of individual pages within a frame becomes difficult without lengthy scripts being written.

7. Update Your Information.
Not only does information printed two or three years ago look badly on your organization when it is read by a visitor, it is also looked down upon by search engines. Web sites that continuously update and grow their web sites usually experience higher rankings than stagnant sites. When the trick to SEO is offering visitors the most relevant information, you can bet that the age of web pages is taken into consideration by search engines. Consider creating a section of your site devoted to news within your organization, or have a constantly updated resources area.

Many shortfalls of web sites can easily be attributed to designers who just don't keep the user or search engines in mind. Search engine algorithms are quickly improving to try and list the most user-friendly sites higher, given that the content and link popularity are there to back it up. So first and foremost, know your target market and make your web site work for them before focusing on search engine optimization. If you build it (properly), they will come.

Shift in search engine optimization for Yahoo!

2005-10-07T10:16:00.000-04:00

We have recently noticed a shift in the Yahoo! ranking algorithm. Having keywords in the URL is always a good idea; Google and MSN also weigh this feature but it seems that Yahoo! is putting a heavier emphasis on it. Take the keyword Ipod for example: 9 out of 10 top 10 results have Ipod in the URL.

We somewhat disagree with the philosophy behind it. Search engine optimization can be somewhat easier when one of the few things to be done is to create url containing the target keyword. On a search standpoint, why should a company be penalized because the keyword is not contained in the domain name?

Again, to get around the lack of a keyword in the domain name, the next best thing is to create a subpage with the term in it, such as xyw.com/ipod.html. Make sure that this page has many incoming links, both internal and external.

It may take some time to create a good linking strategy for a subpage but in the end it will benefit in all the search engines, especially (as of now) Yahoo!

Search Engine Optimization Basics

2005-10-06T17:49:00.000-04:00

Welcome to our search engine optimization blog.
We will be posting new developments and observations on SEO. Below is a basic article about the differences (pros and cons) of natural vs Pay Per Click search engine positioning.

Establishing a web presence has become a must for a great percentage of small companies. Even at a local level many prospective customers prefer to look for products and services online instead of going through phone directories. The advantage is an immediate feedback and the availability of much more information compared to an address and phone number. Being found on the search is vital. If nobody can find your business you are missing on possibly a great number of customers.
Once you have a professionally looking site, make sure the name of what you are selling is reflected in the title and copy. For example, if you are providing pet sitting services in Tampa, do not name your site "Anne's Caring Touch". It does not describe what you do and the search engine will not return results if someone searches for pet sitting services in Tampa. Name the site "Anne's Pet Sitting Services - Tampa". Scatter these keywords throughout the site with good copy describing your company. Do not overdue it though. The search engines frown upon heavy word repetitions and will penalize sites as spammy.
Make sure you list your site with local directories and possibly DMOZ (Open Directory Project) and Yahoo!
The steps mentioned above are basic search engine optimization techniques.
If you are in a highly competitive area where many companies offer the same goods and services, one alternative is to use Pay Per Click (PPC) to be at the top of the search results. You apply to open an account, select the keywords and pay only when someone clicks on your listing. The advantage of PPC is immediate search engine positioning and a captive audience that has already searched for a particular item. The disadvantage is that a lot of people might just be browsing. They will click on the listing after a search and never buy. You still will be charged for the click. It is possible to optimize PPC. Take this example: You sell Red Widgets. Many people search for them but never buy. They click on your site and here goes the charge. You can instead only bid for "Buy Red Widgets" and "Red Widgets for Sale". Only people who search for these keyphrases will see your listing and you get "qualified" traffic.
This all sounds simple but it is surprising that many companies do not know how to manage PPC and waste a lot of money. In the end they get out of PPC because it brings a negative ROI. Natural search engine optimization takes time to become effective but once your site is high in the results you will not pay if someone clicks.
You can read more about PPC and search engine optimization on our website.