Feb 18
Javierseo budget, internet marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo
iCrossing released a paper on how important first impressions are. Here is an excerpt from their research page:
A brand’s position on search engine result pages (SERPs) is critical to driving site traffic. iCrossing analyzed natural search results for non-branded keywords for 10 clients and found that more than 95 percent of all site traffic from search engines comes from page-one results … Our findings also validate the trend towards longer keyword search strings by users and that there are opportunities for marketers to improve their page-one rankings by optimizing for keywords that show up lower in the results. In order to compete for today’s sophisticated online consumers, brands must have a deep understanding of how users arrive at their website, and the tools and know-how to optimize their site to stay in front of the consumer at every step of the purchase cycle.
The original PDF is available at http://www.icrossing.com/articles/The-Importance-of-Page-one-Visibility.pdf. (local copy) It starts off with “in order to compete for today’s sophisticated online consumers, brands must have a deep understanding of how users arrive at their website,” which is something most people who tinker with SEO will eventually state, but it has fun eye-candy charts, and is essentially a decent piece of propaganda to validate your SEO budget to higher-ups.
Feb 18
Times Enemyseo China, insecure news, news, Taiwan
2 China Schools Said to Be Tied to Online Attacks
By JOHN MARKOFF and DAVID BARBOZA
Published: February 18, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — A series of online attacks on Google and dozens of other American corporations have been traced to computers at two educational institutions in China, including one with close ties to the Chinese military, say people involved in the investigation.
They also said the attacks, aimed at stealing trade secrets and computer codes and capturing e-mail of Chinese human rights activists, may have begun as early as April, months earlier than previously believed. Google announced on Jan. 12 that it and other companies had been subjected to sophisticated attacks that probably came from China.
Computer security experts, including investigators from the National Security Agency, have been working since then to pinpoint the source of the attacks. Until recently, the trail had led only to servers in Taiwan.
If supported by further investigation, the findings raise as many questions as they answer, including the possibility that some of the attacks came from China but not necessarily from the Chinese government, or even from Chinese sources.
Tracing the attacks further back, to an elite Chinese university and a vocational school, is a breakthrough in a difficult task. Evidence acquired by a United States military contractor that faced the same attacks as Google has even led investigators to suspect a link to a specific computer science class, taught by a Ukrainian professor at the vocational school.
The revelations were shared by the contractor at a meeting of computer security specialists.
The Chinese schools involved are Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School, according to several people with knowledge of the investigation who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the inquiry.
Jiaotong has one of China’s top computer science programs. Just a few weeks ago its students won an international computer programming competition organized by I.B.M. — the “Battle of the Brains” — beating out Stanford and other top-flight universities.
Lanxiang, in east China’s Shandong Province, is a huge vocational school that was established with military support and trains some computer scientists for the military. The school’s computer network is operated by a company with close ties to Baidu, the dominant search engine in China and a competitor of Google.
Within the computer security industry and the Obama administration, analysts differ over how to interpret the finding that the intrusions appear to come from schools instead of Chinese military installations or government agencies. Some analysts have privately circulated a document asserting that the vocational school is being used as camouflage for government operations. But other computer industry executives and former government officials said it was possible that the schools were cover for a “false flag” intelligence operation being run by a third country. Some have also speculated that the hacking could be a giant example of criminal industrial espionage, aimed at stealing intellectual property from American technology firms.
Independent researchers who monitor Chinese information warfare caution that the Chinese have adopted a highly distributed approach to online espionage, making it almost impossible to prove where an attack originated.
“We have to understand that they have a different model for computer network exploit operations,” said James C. Mulvenon, a Chinese military specialist and a director at the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis in Washington. Rather than tightly compartmentalizing online espionage within agencies as the United States does, he said, the Chinese government often involves volunteer “patriotic hackers” to support its policies.
Spokesmen for the Chinese schools said they had not heard that American investigators had traced the Google attacks to their campuses.
If it is true, “We’ll alert related departments and start our own investigation,” said Liu Yuxiang, head of the propaganda department of the party committee at Jiaotong University in Shanghai.
But when asked about the possibility, a leading professor in Jiaotong’s School of Information Security Engineering said in a telephone interview: “I’m not surprised. Actually students hacking into foreign Web sites is quite normal.” The professor, who teaches Web security, asked not to be named for fear of reprisal.
“I believe there’s two kinds of situations,” the professor continued. “One is it’s a completely individual act of wrongdoing, done by one or two geek students in the school who are just keen on experimenting with their hacking skills learned from the school, since the sources in the school and network are so limited. Or it could be that one of the university’s I.P. addresses was hijacked by others, which frequently happens.”
At Lanxiang Vocational, officials said they had not heard about any possible link to the school and declined to say if a Ukrainian professor taught computer science there.
A man named Mr. Shao, who said he was dean of the computer science department at Lanxiang but refused to give his first name, said, “I think it’s impossible for our students to hack Google or other U.S. companies because they are just high school graduates and not at an advanced level. Also, because our school adopts close management, outsiders cannot easily come into our school.”
Mr. Shao acknowledged that every year four or five students from his computer science department were recruited into the military.
Google’s decision to step forward and challenge China over the intrusions has created a highly sensitive issue for the United States government. Shortly after the company went public with its accusations, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton challenged the Chinese in a speech on Internet censors, suggesting that the country’s efforts to control open access to the Internet were in effect an information-age Berlin Wall.
A report on Chinese online warfare prepared for the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission in October 2009 by Northrop Grumman identified six regions in China with military efforts to engage in such attacks. Jinan, site of the vocational school, was one of the regions.
Executives at Google have said little about the intrusions and would not comment for this article. But the company has contacted computer security specialists to confirm what has been reported by other targeted companies: access to the companies’ servers was gained by exploiting a previously unknown flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser.
Forensic analysis is yielding new details of how the intruders took advantage of the flaw to gain access to internal corporate servers. They did this by using a clever technique — called man-in-the-mailbox — to exploit the natural trust shared by people who work together in organizations.
After taking over one computer, intruders insert into an e-mail conversation a message containing a digital attachment carrying malware that is highly likely to be opened by the second victim. The attached malware makes it possible for the intruders to take over the target computer.
John Markoff reported from San Francisco and David Barboza from Shanghai. Bao Beibei and Chen Xiaoduan in Shanghai contributed research.
Sep 27
Javierseo analytics, internet marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo
There are several ways to determine if a SEO professional actually knows what they are talking about or if they are an imposter. One of the methods to find out if a SEO is a poser is to ask them about “Bounce Rates.”
Google says this to the question, “What does Bounce Rate mean?”
Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality – a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert. You can minimize bounce rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.
Wikipedia lays it out like this:
Bounce Rate = Single Page Access / Entries
Bounce Rates may also be considered the percentage of visitors who are only on your site for a very little amount of time, as in a few seconds, before they exit.
There is not a set standard for determining Bounce Rate. However, most analytics tools will be close enough in their interpretation to provide meaningful information. Some basics of what adds to a higher Bounce Rate are:
- Clicking on a link to a page on a different web site
- Closing an open window or tab
- Typing a new URL
- Clicking the “Back” button to leave the site
- Session timeout
A common misguided response to Bounce Rates is that there are set or standardized percentages which websites should aim for in regards to their Bounce Rate. This is simply not true. An acceptable or even desirable Bounce Rate for one website may not be the same for another site. There is no “average” bounce rate value which can be applied to all websites. There may be “averages,” which you may be able to see in Google Analytics’ Benchmarking page(s), but each website has it’s own requirements, traffic, and goals. In an ideal world, your website would have a Bounce Rate of 0% while attaining all other goals.
Bounce Rates are not a single indicator as to whether or not a site is successful or otherwise. Sometimes, a bounce rate along with other analytical data is required in order to be of any real use.
On the surface, most websites will probably want a lower bounce rate. However, there are plenty of reasons where a higher bounce rate would be either preferable or acceptable. The following is a list of some examples of where a higher Bounce Rate is not necessarily a bad thing:
- You are intentionally promoting a single page from which you want visitors to leave your site. This would include a page which has been monetized with advertisements. In this situation, a Bounce Rate alone is not a good indicator of success, but should be tied with specific exit point data, as well as visit times and so forth.
- An information page may have a high Bounce Rate if the information the user seeks is available on a specific page. This may also be the case with strategic landing pages. This example may go either way in regards to being acceptable or otherwise, depending on the goals of the site.
- Some strategic landing pages may have a high Bounce Rate if they are properly crafted to meet the users’ needs without having them move around on the site. This reason is on thin ice, but has validity still.
- A site which requires logging into an area which is not monitored by any type of analytics may appear to have a high Bounce Rate. Users are logging into your site and simply disappearing from the analytic tools’ radar.
- Similar to the previous example, sites which utilize technologies which baffle analytics tools, such as Flash, may create the impression of a higher Bounce Rate.
- Blogs may tend to have higher Bounce Rates due to the nature of the beasts, visitors jump in from someplace, be it an RSS Feed or other link, read an article, then bounce right on their merry way out of your site. This may be perfectly acceptable if your blog maintains a pleasantly steady following, however, it should give you some incentive to draw the attention of your visitors to related threads, comments, et cetera.
Bounce Rate is not an indicator of site or page quality. The misconception that Bounce Rate is directly tied to the site or page quality is that Bounce Rate does, to an extent, measure the visit quality. The easiest way to show this is if a site has a splash page from which visitors enter the site, that splash page may have a very low Bounce Rate, but the actual quality of that splash page may be lacking, if even present.
Bounce Rate does not account for bookmarked pages or pages added to Favorites. If a visitor enters a site or is on a particular page, which they then bookmark for later use, that page may receive a lower Bounce Rate due to this type of traffic. To compound this type of visitor, if they then click on their bookmark to this page, with only enough time to read or view what they could not or chose not to earlier, then they leave from that same page, the Bounce Rate is going to be lowered even further, by the same user! This particular case is where having a well crafted site may entice them to click further into or through your site, but some users try to maximize their time so much that once they find something, bookmark it, all they wish to do is go back and view what they bookmarked then move on to another bookmark of theirs or some other task. Either way, Bounce Rates do not properly represent all visits.
If your site or page is well ranked in a more generic keyword, your site or page may have a higher Bounce Rate because of it. In this particular scenario, it would be in your best interest to better craft your site to meet the needs of visitors for this more generic keyword by offering related information to that generic keyword. For example, if you rank well with the keyword “car,” sans the punctuation, there is no telling if your visitors want to buy a car, sell a car, research a car, find a movie about cars, find a book about cars, find a magazine about cars, build a car, et cetera. So, the landing page from this SERP (Search Engine Result Page) may have a high Bounce Rate. You would then want to determine other keywords your visitors and desired visitors are searching for, as well as entry and exit locations to then add appropriate content to your site. If “car dealer,” sans the punctuation, is a keyword by which your site is also found, or one by which you wish to be found, then add content to your site which would be of use for users searching for that keyword.
As Avinash Kaushik puts it, Bounce Rate “is awesome at identifying low hanging fruit,” if understood and used properly.
Another important factor involved with bounce rate is the amount of data being analyzed, or in this case, the amount of traffic the site and or page(s) is receiving. If two people visit the site and you have a 50% Bounce Rate, this may be good or bad information. If two-thousand people visit the site, or two-million people visit the site and you have a 50% Bounce Rate, as with statistical data, this is a more valuable piece of information. With this in mind, keeping track of the Bounce Rate also requires that you keep track of traffic volumes.
This article does not fully explain or clarify bounce rates, but hopefully it provides enough information where you better understand it.
Mar 17
Javierseo internet marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, seo
Search Engine Monitoring is an essential part of every SEO campaign and an absolute must for internet marketing experts. Locating and implementing amazingly powerful and effective tools can make the difference between success and failure.
Keeping track of your actual search engine rank can be an interesting task, especially for small business owners and individual website owners who do not have a lot of search engine optimization experience and know-how. And for the experienced search engine optimization professional, or marketing professional, there really has not been a simple yet informative and useful solution for keeping track of search engine rankings for the various domains you oversee. That has changed.
Enter Authority Labs.
Authority Labs is a fairly new business located in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Their flagship website is authoritylabs.com. It is this courageous group which has taken on the challenge of refining search engine ranking reports to a wonderfully zen level.
What the people at Authority Labs have managed to do is create more with less. They call it simple, “Simple Search Engine Monitoring,” but as any professional or better yet, hacker, would attest, there is a powerful beauty to taking things down to an elegantly simple state. With Authority Labs you know where your site ranks, every day, with major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Live, for up to thousands and even an unlimited number of keywords.
Authority Labs has the steps listed as pretty much one through six, but that is to take advantage of some of the awesome features they offer. The reality of the situation is only the first two or three steps are necessary to start tracking and receiving ranking reports for your domain(s). This is easy enough where even people who are self-proclaimed “computer illiterates” could quickly get into and understand what is going on with their search engine rankings.
The basic steps to getting started with Authority Labs are as follows:
- Create your Authority Labs account. This is an especially nice deal when you have a 30-day free trial for every account! This is done from http://authoritylabs.com
- Add Domains. Once your account is created, you can start adding domains to monitor immediately. Within your account Dashboard is a simple form text input field which says, “enter a domain here,” with an “Add Domain” button right next to it. Simple enough.
- Add Keywords. After you have added a domain or several to your account, you just select a domain to view it’s ranking report, and you will see another simple form text input field, this one empty, with an “Add Keyword” button clearly visible to the right of the input field. For example, we added, “advanced seo tactics” with and without the quotes, to our domain of seomire.com. So now we can monitor how we are ranking on search engines for these keywords.
Currently, a Basic plan with Authority Labs allows you to monitor a total of ten domains and one-hundred keywords. If you would like to keep track of more domains and keywords, Authority Labs also offers Plus, Pro, and Enterprise packages with currently the following monitoring options:
- BASIC: 10 domains, 100 keywords total
- PLUS: 25 domains, 250 keywords total
- PRO: 50 domains, 1000 keywords total
- ENTERPRISE: unlimited domains, unlimited keywords
In addition to just showing you your current search engine ranking, Authority Labs tells you when your rank goes up or down, and by how much. If your site goes from a ranking of 61 to 60 in a particular keyword, this is good news! You can use this to track any changes with any promotions or campaigns you are running. Essentially, you can see how effective your efforts are, on a daily basis.
Some other features Authority Labs offers is the ability to graph data with a single click, add users so you can share your data with other people, and receive e-mail reports. All of these allow you to have a very quick and easy to understand view of where your internet domains are ranking with search engines, and how to rank better by using the information provided by Authority Labs.
When we contacted Authority Labs for this article, Chase Granberry told us in an e-mail, “We built this because rank monitoring has always been a pain with bloated software you have to install or websites that are too complicated to use. We kept it simple so that anyone could easily use it, from professional SEOs to business owners.”
After using Authority Labs’s ranking reports services for a couple months now, we believe Authority Labs has succeeded in simplifying the processes involved in monitoring search engine rankings for internet domains and keywords.
Anyone who needs to keep track of where their website(s) are ranking with search engines, we highly recommend you give Authority Labs the opportunity to give you a strategic edge with clear and simple insight about your domains.
Dec 12
Javierseo internet marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, seo tips
There are a lot of tips on the internet related to search engine optimization. When creating the Internet Marketing firm, Zero Day Media, part of our research included compiling currently published techniques, tips, tricks, and related data. This list is the first effort of what may become a series, and is taken from our studies at Zero Day Media.
The following categories are used throughout this list:
- Formatting. – This has to do with HTML coding, or other items which directly involve visual layout, design and appearance.
- Usability. – This has to do with making the experience more efficient and fulfilling for the users. This also has to do with accessibility.
- Analytics. – This has to do with analyzing logs, patterns, and related research.
- Strategy. – This has to do with intelligence, planning, and implementation.
- Expense. – This has to do with management expenses, and other overhead.
This is not expected to be a complete list, however, it is a good place to not just start, but for some projects finish as well. We invite your comments, be they on this site, or directly to us at Zero Day Media.
SEO TIPS & TRICKS
Bold important text. Formatting. By selectively highlighting keywords with the B, STRONG or EM tags, or other tags which may be modified through CSS, users and search engines alike are directed to important information. When used properly, strategically bolded keywords draw the eye, as well as search engine spiders.
Italicize properly. Formatting. Italics is a more subtle form of bold, and can be used more frequently.
Use Headers to organize content. Formatting. Usability. Creating organized sections can highly improve the experience and effectiveness of your site.
Hyperlink text naming. Formatting. Usability. Properly naming links is among the easiest search engine optimizations which can be done, and is an SEO fundamental. W3.org says, of hyperlink text,
Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid “click here.”
Link titles. Usability. Formatting. Use Anchor TITLE attributes effectively. This is one method for doubling keywords on a page, and also a method for implanting additional keywords. Link TITLE tags can also be used to alter generic link names to relate to keywords. An example of this is incorporating a domain name with the “Home” link so often used on websites: <a href="http://www.seomire.com" title="Advanced Search Engine Optimization SEO Mire Home">Home</a>
IMG tag ALT attributes. Usability. Formatting. Use image ALT attributes effectively. Beyond having accessibility benefits, image ALT attributes may also act in similar fashion to Anchor TITLE attributes, and can be used to incorporate keywords into the page.
Use page TITLE tags strategically. Usability. Formatting. Strategy. Consider placing site/company name at the end of page titles, when using TITLE tags. Use TITLE tags effectively. Keep in mind that TITLE tags are generally used to create bookmarks and favorites.
Tie page TITLE tags into the BODY. Usability. Formatting. Strategy. Incorporate TITLE tag phrases and keywords effectively throughout the body or content of the page. Make TITLE tags relevant to the page.
Diversify TITLE tags. Usability. Formatting. Strategy. Do not use the same TITLE tag throughout the entire site.
Internal linking. Usability. Use effective links to pages within your own site. Search engines use internal links to create a site map of your site. The site maps created by search engines start at the root of your domain and layer outwards, giving higher priority to lower layers or levels. A page within your site which is not directly linked to from the root of your site is not seen by the search engines as important as a page which is directly linked to from the root of your site.
Tag properly. Usability. If your site uses tags, use them very wisely. Too often a plethora of tags exist where only a few are necessary, had some foresight been given at their creation and application. If your site then uses “tag clouds,” be very aware of your users, as it may be more confusing and frustrating than expected, as well as a potential eye sore.
Diversify traffic sources. Strategy. Analytics. Keep up with where site traffic is coming from, and cultivate new sources.
XML Sitemaps. Strategy. Properly and efficiently utilized XML Sitemaps are powerful guides for search engines, and potentially other resources. One key of implementing XML Sitemaps is maintaining search engine standards, or rules, as well as keeping the XML Sitemap up-to-date. A stale, or old XML Sitemap is mostly useless, so keep them current. For larger websites, break the XML Sitemaps into separate files, perhaps by groups (again, this is in keeping with specific search engine rules).
Site Maps and Directories. Usability. Site Maps and Directories are useful not just for users, but for search engines as well, especially search engines which do not use XML Sitemaps.
Proper URL / URI naming. Usability. Naming files easy, readable and keyword oriented names is a simple way to increase usability for your site.
Cross Promotion. Strategy. Whenever feasible and possible, advertise your website(s) through other mediums, such as television, radio, print, et cetera.
Credit sources properly. Strategy. Giving credit where credit is due is a way to establish and strengthen one’s own reputation. It can also help by tying authoritative names to your site.
Backlinks. Strategy. Usability. These are links from other websites which point to your site. Backlinks are SEO 101. Establishing backlinks is the primary objective of Link Building. The more the merrier.
Deep Linking. Strategy. Usability. These are backlinks which point to pages within your site, not directly at the root of your site. Deep links are an effective method for attributing authority to pages which are several layers deep into your site. See Internal Link for more about link layers.
Backlink keywords. Strategy. Usability. This is link naming on third party sites. Try to get strategically named links pointing to your websites. In regards to link naming, backlink keywords may be more important when they are on other websites pointing back to your site. This is also an interesting way to see how your site is perceived by the third party sites.
Think Internationally. Usability. Be aware of International audiences, which includes paying attention to TLDs, languages, and trends.
Use ROBOTS.TXT. Strategy. This is a very easy and important way to stay in touch with search engines. Robots.txt files allow you to direct search engine spiders to important information as well as direct them away from unimportant information.
Provide quality content. Usability. Strategy. If I were ordering this list, providing quality content would be my number one recommendation. Users will recognize a good resource, and will not only come back for more, but will recommend it to others through backlinks, reviews, word-of-mouth, et cetera. This is not always the quickest route to being top of the SERPs, but is more of a long-term tactic.
Be aware of keyword density. Usability. Strategy. Keyword Density is the frequency of keywords within your site in relation to the rest of the content within your site. Keyword Stuffing, as the practice of using far too many keywords per page is called, not only ruins the experience of the user, but may result in search engines interpreting your site as SEO spam, which it probably is, and refusing to index your sites. So, keep the amount of keywords per page down to a strategic minimum. Over-saturating your pages with keywords violates the common sense approach of using natural language.
Stay In Touch With Users. Strategy. Keep in contact with users via e-mail, mailing lists, and other mediums.
Stay In Touch With Your Interests. Strategy. Keep up with your area of interests, specific to your website. This will help you provide better content for your users, and will provide more opportunities for you to be, or remain, an expert in your field.
Order of Appearance and relation of importance. Strategy. Formatting. Search engines tend to place higher value to items which they encounter first, within your page. This is one area where writing for search engine spiders will pay off.
Family Branding. Strategy. Have multiple domains within the family of networks which all relate to one another, and promote one another. Read Search Engine Optimization Through Brand Equity and Family Branding for more information about family branding.
Provide Original Content. Usability. Strategy. Provide original content whenever possible. This helps establish you as an expert authority both with readers and search engines.
Utilize Pay-Per-Click advertising. Strategy. Usability. Expense. This is not for everyone, but Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is a good way to introduce yourself to internet advertising, as well as to your target market. Internet advertising, depending where you advertise, and how, can get very narrow, in a good way. You should be able to narrow your advertising down to zip codes, niches, very localized groups. Also, tracking your PPC advertising campaigns should be very easy to do.
Keep content fresh. Usability. Strategy. Some sites may be able to get away with stale or not very up-to-date information, but most sites will benefit from some regular TLC. It does not have to be a complete site redesign, but your site should hold value and should draw the interest of users who check your site on a daily basis.
Keep your site design fresh. Formatting. Strategy. Maybe every year or two, redesign your site. This is purely to keep up the impression that your site is current, latest and greatest, new, fresh, the right place to be.
Know Keyword History. Analytics. Strategy. Be aware of search phrases and historically effective keywords. Check out internet archives such as archive.org, and observe patterns which various sites have and put your SEO hat (you choose the color) on, and think about why certain changes were made, and what results they may have had. Internet archives are also a good place to find information which has been pulled, for whatever reasons, from the actual “target” site(s).
Properly use 301 Redirects. Formatting. Usability. Strategy. URL Forwarding through 301 Redirects tells users and search engines that the page they are trying to reach has PERMANENTLY MOVED to such and such new PERMANENT destination. There are various ways to implement 301’s, so just do your homework before implementing URL Forwarding.
Properly use 302 Redirects. Formatting. Usability. Strategy. URL Forwarding through 302 Redirects tells users and search engines that the page they are trying to reach has TEMPORARILY MOVED to such and such TEMPORARY destination. There are various ways to implement 302’s, and if used improperly, 302’s can have adverse effects … as in your site may be removed from search engine indexes, banned, or basically your SEO campaign can be assassinated. So, it is very important to do your homework before implementing 301 URL Forwading.
Efficiently use 404 Errors. Usability. Strategy. A 404 Error is what happens when a user attempts to view a page that does not exist. These generally happen for either misspelled page URLs or for pages that have been deleted or moved without any notices. See 301 and 302 URL Forwarding. Be creative with 404’s! Some of my favorite 404’s, I have even bookmarked, because they offered wonderful site maps or directories to the site, or some of them are actually classic games like Zork! Google now offers the ability to include a site search option on 404’s, which is very helpful to users who have lost their way.
Use Search Engine submissions. Strategy. Use search engine submission as a backup. A lot of alleged SEO experts ignore search engine submissions and claim they are a waste of time. If you are unable to spare twenty (20) seconds to submit your site to a single search engine, you need to call Franklin Covey or just find a different profession. Submit your sites to search engines using their submission forms, but do not leave it at that. Hopefully you are using as many of these SEO tips as you can. If you are running an actual SEO campaign, then you will be making efforts to secure backlinks, and such from strategically chosen sites which are already indexed. SEO is a lot like security, in that a layered approach is often the best path. The more layers you effectively and efficiently implement, the greater your chances of success. Do not limit yourself, and do not let your SEO Consultant limit you. Submit your sites. FWIW, if your site takes off like a wildfire, and is indexed before you take the few seconds it takes to submit it to a search engine, then you can go ahead and skip this tip.
Avoid search engine submission services. Strategy. There are several reasons for this, but I will list just two. One, do not be so lazy! Two, some search engine submission services do not play nice, and the search engines respond by looking at the sites these services submit in a negative way. I have never used these types of services, because I can take five minutes or so out of my day and do my own search engine submissions. Just bookmark the submission pages, and save yourself a minute or two next time you need them. If you absolutely insist on wasting your money to have your site submitted to search engines, contact me, and I will submit your sites to the top three to five search engines for our minimum one hour fee … this way you feel good for paying someone else to do things, and we feel good for making a quick buck. I will then open up my bookmarks, and manually submit your site, which should take me about twenty seconds each SE if I hurry or sixty if I am busy in another browser tab. Also, do not even ask if you can get fifty-five minutes of consulting service with that!
Use frames sparingly. Formatting. Usability. Strategy. Frames are not user-friendly in most scenarios. They may have their uses, but in a lot of situations, a little extra creativity should allow for a better solution with a method other than frames. Frames are also not search engine friendly. There have been a few arguments that frames allow multiple opportunities for keywords and such, but I have not seen any proof of this to date.
Share content as a form of advertising. Strategy. If you can provide quality content which other publishers can benefit from posting, then do so!
Create linkable content. Formatting. Strategy. Create content which lends itself towards social media networks, making it easier to obtain backlinks. You may also find it beneficial to create summaries for each page, post, section, et cetera, so as to make it more a copy and paste endeavor for anyone wanting to link to you. You may also take the copy and paste concept even further and provide completely ready to go links for your readers.
Copy & Paste Summary & Link:
<a href="http://seomire.com" title="Advanced SEO & Internet Marketing Tactics SEO Mire Blog">SEOMire.com</a>, and <a href="http://zerodaymedia.com" title="Internet Marketing Reverse Search Engine Optimization SEO Online Identity Management Zero Day Media">internet marketing</a> firm, Zero Day Media have compiled a comprehensive list of search engine optimization tips which should be not just in every SEO professionals checklists, but that of every webmaster or website owner. Each SEO tip has a brief description or explanation which allows this <a href="http://seomire.com/index.php/2008/12/12/seo-tips-and-tricks/" title="SEO Tips and Tricks">SEO tips and tricks</a> list to be useful for all levels of search engine optimization.<br />Read the article here: <a href="http://seomire.com/index.php/2008/12/12/seo-tips-and-tricks/" title="SEO Tips and Tricks">SEO Tips and Tricks</a>
Low-Level Browser Compatibility. Strategy. Usability. Provide basics for low-level browsers and search engines when using JavaScript, Flash, et cetera. Be aware of your target market’s browsing capabilities. In regards to search engines, the more basic the site, the easier and quicker they can process it, which is a win-win for you and the search engines.
Browser Compatibility. Usability. Strategy. Be aware of your target market’s browsing capabilities, and habits. Keep in mind that search engines may not be able to interpret a page or site as well as an internet browser client. There are tools out there which can assist you with this, one of my favorites is BrowserShots.org.
Use reputable website hosting services. Strategy. Where you choose to host your websites can impact how users and search engines perceive your site. This is true on numerous levels. Obvious issues may include bandwidth, or the lack of, as well as server errors and other technical issues. Not so obvious may be blacklisted IP addresses, spam histories, virus histories, protections for current and future issues of each, and so forth. Just do your due diligence when selecting a web site host.
Standardize root links. Strategy. Standardize root links to just the domain name, or to index.html, et cetera. This is to maximize your marketing efforts. Also, be aware of how others will naturally link to you. If they will naturally just link to your domain name, then perhaps you should consider doing the same. If they will link to your domain /index.html, then again, perhaps you should consider the same. This should stay true throughout just about all of your advertising campaigns. This is another reason to know your target audience as well as interested entities, such as those who may review your products, or comment on your products, and link to your sites.
Use META tag keyword objects effectively. Formatting. Strategy. Usability. Whether search engines fully utilize META Keywords as part of their indexing and ranking or not, META Keywords can help you determine what the focus of each page is. META Keywords are simple to implement, and are a classic way to place keywords onto a page.
Use META tag description objects effectively. Formatting. Usability. Strategy. The META description is most commonly seen in search engine summaries within the SERPs. The description is also an opportunity to include keywords in a natural language, ie for humans rather than for search engine spiders. Each page should have its own unique META description.
Create and maintain directories. Usability. Formatting. Strategy. Create and maintain directories for specific types of content, such as videos, audio, various documents, et cetera. This is an easy way to help your users and search engines better navigate your sites, and it helps break your sites into organized pieces.
Use natural language. Usability. Formatting. Strategy. Write primarily for people, not search engines. This is something which may sometimes be difficult to identify as an issue. Be aware of what you are composing, and be sure it makes sense to someone who may be learning from your site.
Properly surround links. Usability. Strategy. Surround links, images and other multimedia with descriptive content. Both people and search engines place things into context, each in their own way of course, but the content surrounding a link should support that link, or image, or multimedia object.
Identify images and multimedia with the ALT attribute. Usability. Strategy. Include the word “image” or “picture” in the ALT tag option of images. Include the word “video” in the ALT tag option of videos and movie clips.
Develop content which flows well. Usability. Formatting. Strategy. W3.org refers to “Page organization.” When developing content, your use of natural language should be just that, words which naturally flow when read, spoken, or thought.
Sparingly use splash pages. Usability. Formatting. Strategy. If you must, use them sensibly and efficiently.
Interact reputably with your industry, market, niche, community. Strategy. Search Engine Optimization sometimes falls outside of the internet. By creating a strong reputation for yourself, you are creating demand for you, your work, and or your organization. Your name is your brand. Build it. Protect it.
Know the value of various TLD backlinks. Strategy. Be aware of the value of backlinks from various top level domain types, such as .gov, .edu, et cetera, for your particular needs.
Use HEAD tag sections effectively. Formatting. Strategy. The HEAD tag contains several opportunities to provide valuable information to both human readers and search engines.
Be aware of localized search patterns. Formatting. Usability. Strategy. Localized search patterns may range from inclusion of local geographic names to local language nuances. Understand these, and determine if and how you may use them to your advantage.
Analyze search engine caches. Strategy. Analyze search engine caches as part of evaluating current and potential locations for backlinks. Sites which are already indexed and cached carry the potential to direct the search engine to your sites. As part of this they can also offer their vote to your authority.
Keep the amount of keywords per page down to a strategic minimum. Usability. Strategy. Over-saturating your pages with keywords violates the common sense approach of using natural language. Keyword Stuffing, as the practice of using far too many keywords per page is called, not only ruins the experience of the user, but may result in search engines refusing to index your sites.
Strategically target backlinks. Strategy. Develop a list of authoritative resources from which you would like backlinks and work towards obtaining and maintaining these links. Be aware of TLD Authority.
Ensure navigation is available as text links. Formatting. Strategy. This may be more difficult in sites which rely heavily on eye-candy, however, in such situations, be sure that ALT attributes are used properly whenever possible, and perhaps offer a low-resolution alternative.
Leadership blogging. Strategy. In some instances it may be advantageous for high level executives, specifically the President or CEO of an organization, to have a blog or other regular outlet for publications. Be very sure though, that anyone officially publishing content for your organization has a deep and thorough understanding of search engine optimization techniques and tactics. Also, try to have someone to edit and keep the blog on track, which may be a more pressing task for the ego’s of leadership than anything else, but such is the way of things.
Use eye-candy strategically and efficiently. Formatting. Usability. Strategy. Even sites with a heavy reliance on graphics should understand how to maximize the use of such objects. I suggest studying arts of persuasion, art in general, and related forms of psychology and sciences.
Use audio strategically and efficiently. Formatting. Usability. Strategy. It is a personal annoyance to have audio automatically play when a page is loaded, especially when i am already listening to something, or am enjoying the silence and have forgotten to mute or turn down the volume. Also, a heavy reliance on audio, will have little effect on users with hearing impairments or on those lacking audio hardware. Of course, if your site is all about music or such, one would think your target audience is prepared for audio, but even then, just think respectfully of your users. If you absolutely must play audio with each page load or such, please offer an obvious and effective method for stopping your audio.
Develop each page as a landing page. Formatting. Strategy. By developing each page as a landing page, you are inviting, and are better prepared for backlinks. This also allows for easy entry into your site, but may be more difficult to channel or control the flow of users.
Stay current with domain expiration times and renewals. Strategy. Expense. Be aware of the dates when your domains will expire. Also, be aware of the dates when desirable domains you currently do not own will expire. It is such a simple task it is often deemed unimportant, but it just takes one domain expiration to cause immense misery with an organizations internet presence.
Offer site search which keeps traffic on your site. Formatting. Usability. Strategy. The concept here is to keep users on your domain for as long as possible, and to provide valued resources to these users throughout their visit to your site. In some situations, you may even want to avoid sending traffic to another domain you own. If you implement a site search, which i suggest you do, then use a search solution where both the search and results are on your site. You may also be able to glean search patterns from users.
Where feasible, use text captions with images. Usability. Formatting. This is primarily a usability issue. However, consider it another opportunity to choose your words wisely.
Whenever possible, use absolute links over relative links. Formatting. Strategy. Absolute links continue to work if your information is published elsewhere. Relative links will most likely not work outside of your site, which translates to lost backlinks and a poor impression. For the curious:
Absolute link: http://seomire.com/index.php
Relative link: ./index.php
Properly utilize search engine image options. Strategy. By intentionally allowing, and even encouraging search engines to index your images, you are allowing more options for your site to be in SERPs. An example of this would be “enhanced image search” from Google Webmaster Central’s Webmaster Tools, specifically Settings, Image Search, "Include my site in Google Image Labeler." (Recently moved from Tools to Settings.)
Verify your server headers are clean. Strategy. Verify your server headers are being properly generated. There are free online tools which can help you check your web server’s headers. I suggest you start with, “check headers.”
Keep up with search engine policies and practices. Strategy. This may be accomplished via the search engine’s own blogs, mailing lists, forums, et cetera.
Properly utilize rel=”nofollow”. Formatting. Strategy. NOFOLLOW should be used to emphasis strategic or non-strategic sections of your site and outbound links, or exit points. Here is what Wikipedia, at the time of this writing, defines nofollow as, “nofollow is an HTML attribute value used to instruct some search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target’s ranking in the search engine’s index. It is intended to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing spamdexing from occurring.” Essentially, it is telling search engines which use this anchor attribute to not use that pages link juice or authority towards benefiting the nofollow link. The link is still usable by site users. The following is an example of a before and after of an anchor tag and the nofollow attribute:
<a href=”http://seomire.com” title=”Advanced SEO & Internet Marketing Tactics”>Advanced SEO</a>
…versus…
<a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://seomire.com” title=”Advanced SEO & Internet Marketing Tactics”>Advanced SEO</a>
Also, regarding nofollow’s, blogs, and plugins, do not be afraid to just directly edit the HTML code. It does not take long to type fourteen simple characters.
Utilize Press Releases effectively. Usability. Strategy. If you send out press releases just for the sake of sending out press releases, chances are potentially interested humans will begin to opt out of reading your press releases. (I promise that sentence was not a lame attempt at kiwi stuffing … yes, i know it is “keyword,” it is 3:02am while and i am still working on this post….) Put press releases out when you actually have something worth talking about. Do not waste your readers’ time. Implement the Golden Rule here … not “He who has the gold makes the rules,” but “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If you do not have anything worth mentioning in a press release, stop worrying about stupid press releases and start working on improving your organization, reaching goals, achieving amazing results, dominating your industry, and so forth. This all said, press releases are good opportunities to pitch your organization, and to do it strategically.
Use search engine provided analytical tools. Analytics. Strategy. The most obvious examples of this, for me, are Google Analytics and Yahoo Site Explorer. There are third-party website analytics tools out there, but i suggest you utilize the search engine(s) you are targeting’s analytical tools if possible.
The following is directly from W3Schools.com’s Website Design page, and is not just good web design advice, but very applicable SEO advice:
Users Are Scanners
If you think a typical user will read the entire content of your Web pages, you are wrong.
No matter how much useful information you put into a Web page, a visitor will only spend a few seconds scanning it before they decide whether to leave it or to stay.
If you want a visitor to read your text, be sure to make your point in the very first sentence of the page. After that you should try to keep them occupied with short paragraphs and interesting new headers all the way down the page.
Less Is More
Try to keep all sentences as short as possible. Try to keep your paragraphs as short as possible. Try to keep your chapters as short as possible. Try to keep your pages as short as possible.
Use a lot of space between your paragraphs and chapters. Pages overloaded with text will kill your audience.
Don’t place too much content on a single page. If you have a lot to say, try to break your information into smaller chunks and place it on different pages. Don’t expect any visitor to scroll all the way down to the bottom of a page with thousands of words.
Navigation
Try to create a navigation structure that is common for all the pages in your Web.
Keep the use of hyperlinks inside your text paragraphs to a minimum. Don’t use hyperlinks inside text paragraphs to send your visitors to every random page of your Web. That will destroy the feeling of a consistent navigation structure.
If you must use hyperlinks, add them to the bottom of a paragraph or to the navigation menus of your site.
Download Speed
A common mistake made by many web designers is to develop a site on a local machine with direct access to the data, or to develop the site over a high-speed Internet connection. Sometimes developers are not aware of the fact that some of their pages take a long time to download.
Internet usability studies tell us that most visitors will leave a Web page that takes more than 7 seconds to download.
Before you publish any content heavy pages, make sure they are tested over a low-speed modem connection. If your pages take a long time to download, you might consider removing some of your graphic or multimedia content.
Let Your Audience Speak!
Feedback from your users is a very good thing. Your visitors are your “customers”. Very often they will give you some valuable wisdom, or advise you, completely free of charge, about what you could have done better.
If you provide a simple way to reach you, you will get a lot of positive input from a lot of people with different skills and knowledge.
I also suggest you keep up with the W3C’s Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and their Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), as well as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Do be aware though, that just because something is a W3C Accessibility method does not mean it is an SEO tactic. Accessibility is a usability tactic, which is an important item when writing for humans.
Patience is often sited as an Search Engine Optimization tip, however, there is no time to be idle. SEO is an intense job which requires a lot of dedication, planning, implementation and constant learning. As with a lot of things in life, if it is worth doing, it is worth doing right.
Now we have something on which to build …
Nov 29
Javierseo internet marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo
Among the initial objectives of a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign is identify target keywords. At face value this is a very simple task. However, we know the path of least resistance is not always the best path to take.
To begin with, we use common sense tools such as Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter Labs, and others to identify existing keyword patterns. Google Analytics, and similar utilities will show us what keywords have been used to locate our site(s) so far. It is important to realize that this is not the end of our work. There may be a group or groups of prospects who were not able to locate your site(s) with their keyword searches. This is a fundamental concept to understand, so i will expound. For example, let us pretend that our site(s), when observed through our analytics tools, shows that users have been locating us with the keywords, “nine brief digit” and “outdated future.” There may be prospects trying to find us with the keyword “vanilla general,” but since we are not listed in the SERPs for “vanilla general” they cannot find us.
To mitigate the issue of being in as many of the SERPs as we realistically can, we must do additional research. I personally like to involve the client, or the SEO recipient(s), when I can, and this is a good place to do so. Have them provide to you keywords, trade words, terminology and such, which is used by their target market(s). This may not be the same keywords used by the industry professionals themselves. It should be the keywords used by the industry’s consumers, again, their target market. If they are trying to break into a new market, have them do what they do to get this information. Either way, we have our own task of discovering what the competition is doing.
Regardless of whether or not the competition is properly utilizing keywords, we may want to target some of theirs, if only to eat into their targeted SERPs. Much can be learned about an industry through analyzing their SEO tactics, which is even more important if you are entering a new industry, market, or niche. One thing you may be able to learn about a competitor, beyond their target audience(s), is if, and possibly when, they are preparing for a product launch, or some other event. Also, you may be able to guess as to internal issues if you watch active SEO efforts go stale along with varying Press Releases from the organization, possibly regarding management changes or low earnings, et cetera. Be creative in researching competitors. Think, open source intelligence.
Regarding analytics, they are history. I mean this quite literally. Yes, they may point towards the future, but they are just records of the past. To find the lost users, clients, or prospects, after you have canvased your competitors (all of them or as many as you can), you may find others through creative guesses with your analytics and AdWord type tools. You want this to be as accurate and thorough as possible so you can have the biggest impact possible. In order to accomplish this, I suggest we realize that the business world is not a fluffy environment full of love and goodwill, but rather a wild realm where survival of the fittest is a moment by moment reality.
Before I forget to mention this, another factor in locating lost users, clients, or whoever, is cross promotion, or to up the marketing and branding efforts in other fronts, such as print, radio, television, packaging, and so forth. Yes, this falls into the no-brainer category, but that is even more reason to not forget it. Have a unified front with your marketing efforts, and ultimately with all of your organization’s efforts.
While keeping up with the other marketing mediums, such as television, and radio, pay attention to what others are doing there as well. Television has a fairly amazing grasp of their demographics. It may be possible for you to glean some knowledge from how a certain channel, station, show, or product may target various groups, including their choice of words.
Keep up with social trends, including trends which distrust newer trends. Know where your target audience lives. If the people you want to reach listen to a certain type of music, follow that type of music. Listen to that type of music yourself! Know who your consumers are, where they exist, and how they move. Indeed, this is all marketing 101 stuff, but remember that how well and naturally you perform fundamentals is a sign of your true skill. So step back from your universe, look around, and get lost in other worlds.
While working on all of the above, go to the source. Go to existing customers, prospective customers, complete strangers, go to the masses, and ask them what they want. More important than asking them anything though, is listening to them whole-heartedly. Communicate with the public, not as a sales force, but as someone who wants to learn. Incorporate your efforts of knowing who your consumers are, where they exist, how they move, what they want into real-world relationships. Interview as many people as you can, and learn by listening to them.
Earlier I discussed SEO Through Brand Equity and Family Branding. This is where you build networks, and utilize the concepts of family branding to create brand equity, or authority. It may not be uncommon for you to have a single network, or family of one-hundred or more sites. These sites can be used for numerous ends, including testing of keywords. Tools such as Google Analytics’ Goals, and Google Website Optimizer are good for testing various aspects of page layout, design, wording, et cetera which can be used to find an optimal combination which yields maximum results. You can also do this type of testing manually, through your own web logs, though it is probably easier just to use a search engine’s utilities. If you are a fan of other search engine related analytical tools, so be it, as long as you are able to determine ideal patterns of success for your site(s).
Another rich location for discovering useful keywords is your own internal site searches. If your site offers the ability to search your site, or even your network of sites, keeping track of what users are searching for may be precious information you can use to better target your internet marketing efforts.
Overall, keyword selection is an involved process which is critical for a successful search engine optimization campaign. Like just about every other aspect of SEO, keyword selection is an on-going process which is constantly changing and morphing. Because this is an issue which will continue to exist, understanding how to confidently select keywords for your websites is a highly important aspect of successful and strategic search engine optimization.
Nov 17
Javierseo internet marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo
A tactic used by ants is overwhelming force by attacking their prey with large numbers. There are some exceptions to this, however, most ants use their superior numbers to achieve victory. Ants work as a highly efficient team, even when observers may see their actions as chaotic.
In search engine optimization (SEO) , overwhelming force can be very effective. Add strategy and efficiency to the SEO efforts and the limits of what is possible can be pressed.
How can the concept of overwhelming force be applied to search engine optimization, and other SEO endeavors, such as reverse search engine optimization (Reverse SEO)? PPPPPPP. One definition of this acronym is “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance.” In order to maximize the tactic of overwhelming force in search engine optimization, proper prior planning must take place, where large volumes of content are generated, before the SEO campaign goes into full motion. The “proper prior planning” also requires that you have in-depth information and knowledge of the campaign, the campaign objectives and campaign goal(s). Having this understanding will allow for the “proper” content to be generated. Any misinterpretation in this area may set the entire campaign on a path for undesirable results, which in SEO can be fatal.
While the content is being strategically generated, the foundation for their voice is being created. This may be a new website being designed and developed, or new social networks being tapped into, or publication outlets being prepped, or all of the above. Setting up all of these outlets is so critical to the entire SEO campaign because this is the springboard for the overwhelming force part of the project. This also falls into the same guideline that an in-depth understanding of the campaign, in it’s entirety, must exist. Also, failure to realize this knowledge can make or break the entire campaign.
Once enough strategic content has been generated, the outlets for these pieces should be in place and ready to go live. This is where the two fundamentals of this tactic join forces, where the overwhelming force is put into motion.
Utilizing this tactic, as outlined above, is a guerrilla warfare type of maneuver which can give a small organization a strategic advantage over more established organizations, including large enterprises. One of the very powerful advantages of this tactic is surprise, which then leaves any interested competition repeatedly behind the curve as your content, your arsenal, was amassed before you made your move.
Hopefully, in your PPPPPPP, you chose the right ground to go after….
Nov 12
Javierseo internet marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo
Consider the concept of voting. You really only can vote for one thing, with one vote. When a decision has to be made, you generally do not have the option to vote for both options or all of the above. This is because a vote for more than one of the options would skew the overall vote, and would in essence, weaken your votes from a full vote, to half-votes or less. In regards to search engines, every web page has a vote. How that vote is used effects not just the item or topic being voted on, but also that web page.
If you have a web page which is called thebest.html which raves about the best internet marketing blog, the links which that page points to are considered as votes made by that page. So, if the thebest.html page has two links to two different internet marketing blogs, then consider the vote split, and each vote from that page is actually a half-vote, because every web page only has one vote. If that web page which is raving about internet search blogs links to a dozen different blogs, each vote is weakened even further! However, if the entire page only has a single external link, which points to some amazing internet marketing blog, then the vote made by that page, as far as organic search engines are concerned, holds more value, and is not as watered down.
From a usability perspective, a site or web page which has an excessive amount of links on it may have its uses, but will most likely be a cluttered mess. Sure it is possible to list links in a clean fashion, but chances are, if you are going to put that much effort into the page design, you will probably be more selective as to the content you are posting.
This concept of a single vote for a single page holds true, regardless of how popular that page is or is not. Perhaps later we can discuss factors which cause some votes to hold higher sway over others.
Nov 12
Javierseo internet marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of using strategy throughout the web development processes to achieve greater exposure in search engine results. In most forms of SEO there are specific keywords or keyword phrases which are targeted as destinations for higher exposure.
Throughout the course of a Search Engine Optimization effort, or campaign, the concept of “brand” has numerous forms. The primary “brand” is that of the ultimate object or objects for which the SEO campaign is being done, be it the product for sale, the company selling the product, the person running for office, et cetera. If a single product is the focus for the SEO campaign, then that product may have it’s own branded image which must be marketed accordingly. If the company producing or selling the brand would prefer their company itself be the focus of the SEO campaign, then that company’s branded image must be marketed according to it’s brand.
Inside of the SEO campaign, the term, “brand,” may also be the specific keywords or keyword phrases being targeted. This is actually more a form of branding than being an actual brand, but, in internet marketing, at least one form of Search Engine Optimization exists which uses the Brand Equity and Family Branding concepts as it’s foundation. In order to understand this relationship, and definition of keywords as brands, both brand equity and family branding should be clarified.
Brand Equity can quickly be defined as market recognition and its effects. If two products are essentially identical to the consumer, but one of the products is of a particular brand, how that brand effects the consumer’s decision as to which of the two products to purchase is a measurement of the branded product’s brand equity. For example, if there are two choices of paper to purchase, one is not branded, and the other is branded as “Crane & Co.” paper, Crane & Co.’s objective regarding their brand equity would be that just their name on a product should be enough to sway the outcome of the purchase in Crane & Co.’s favor. (There are of course further levels of branding which Crane & Co. would most likely, and in fact does employ, which may place their products in different subsets of the paper market, but that is somewhat unrelated to our current topic.)
Family Branding can most easily be explained as a product line; even though the products may not all be part of the same “line,” this still gets the concept across. Family Branding takes place when a product is part of a pre-existing brand, from which the hope is that the “new” product will enjoy more immediate market results due to the brand equity of the brand itself. For example, if Crane & Co. where to provide a notepad, a pen, or some other paper related product, then by keeping their name on the product they are using the most common form of family branding. Family branding does not have to use the company, individual, or organization’s brand directly, but may use any existing brand which has enough equity to have a significant impact on sales and how the “new” product is perceived and accepted. An example of this is Nike Air, and the Nike Air Jordan product line. Nike, the shoe company, has an entire product line called the Nike Air Jordans, which eventually became its own brand called, “Jordan.” Now, if Nike wants to push a new product to the same markets they can just add the new product to the Air or Jordan lines, and hopefully enjoy the benefits of their strong brand equity in those lines, their family brands.
What does this all have to do with search engine optimization? In at least one method of SEO, everything. Family Branding in SEO can even take different levels.
One objective of internet marketing is to create a strong brand presence online. The internet allows for very targeted marketing efforts as well as a diverse potential audience. In such market environments brand recognition generally has a strong impact on internet traffic, and ultimately sales, use, votes, or whatever the ultimate goal may be.
When dealing with search engines, of the organic type, brand equity is the name of the game.
Create at least one domain or website which has a strong brand for a specific keyword or keywords. Then, use the brand equity of this domain to point to the domain or website which you wish to promote. In this instance, the term “brand equity” is the search ranking, the site’s authority, for that keyword or keywords. The idea is to have several domains or websites with a strong search engine ranking, authority, or brand equity, from which you can springboard and promote related products, services, individuals, organizations, or whatever fits the trend.
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