No blog posts until 16 July

Hello readers

I have recently discovered that I have a medical condition which requires surgery and so I will be taking sick leave from Monday 2nd July to at least 16th July. You are welcome to send me questions during this time, but please note I will not even get to read them until mid July. Thanks for your understanding and patience!

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Blog break

No blog posts from me for a few days - family crisis to deal with. Keep my seat warm!

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I've Caught Bento Madness

I'm way too tired to answer an FAQ tonight, so instead let me reveal a deep dark secret about myself. I've caught Bento Madness!

You can blame Jennifer Laycock. To prove a point, she started the Bento Yum site with her Japan-based friend Abigail with the added challenge of making it a success without the four major search engines being allowed to index it. This piqued my interest and when I caught site of the whimsical Bento Kits at Bento Yum I was enthralled.

After a few days of soaking up the photos of Jenn's gorgeous lunch box creations and poring over the colorful Bento Kits for sale, I've been inspired to become a Bento genius in the hopes of coaxing my fussy toddler into eating anything that doesn't come out of an Oreos box. I mean, how could he resist the toddler Bento lunch pictured?

I've got my name on a waiting list for the cutest Bento Kits and I'm spending more time in the fruit and veg section of our local supermarket. When I go out shopping, I find myself side-tracked by craft shops and obscure little Asian shops in the hope of adding to my Bento accessory collection.

I've succumbed to the madness, as Jenn calls it, and I'm loving it.

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Q and A: How do I get search engines to recognize my main domain from the alias domains?

Dear Kalena...

I took out several domains that all pointed to one primary domain. A year on I have changed the content of my site completely and so the 'pointing domains' are totally irrelevant. Now however Yahoo have dropped my primary domain in the search results and only include one of the irrelevant domains. Could you advise how I would go about having the alias domains dropped and my primary domain reinstated with Yahoo?

Ade

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Ade

A client of mine is facing the identical situation right now, but on Google. How big an issue this is really depends on your definition of "pointing" domains. If you merely have the alias domains on the same IP address as your main site, that may not suffice. Does your primary domain have a Google cache? If it doesn't, then Google and or Yahoo may be assuming one of your alias domains is your primary site and ignoring all other domains.

You should park all the aliases to the main domain in your hosting panel so that when the aliases are typed in to the browser URL field, they redirect straight to the primary domain or show the content being cached from the primary domain. When you look at the Google cache for your alias domains, they should each show the message "This is Google's cache for [primary domain]". If they don't, you haven't got the DNS set up properly to point to your primary domain.

The alternative is to use manual 301 redirects from the aliases to the main domain. Your .htaccess file will then instruct search bots of the preferred domain and the others should no longer be indexed. It might take a week or two for the search engines to make the connection and index the primary domain, but it will happen.

You can help things along by creating a sitemap for your primary domain and uploading it to Google's Webmaster Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer. I recommend using the free XML Sitemaps Generator to create your sitemaps.

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Q and A: How long will it take our new page to rank on Google?

Dear Kalena...

I've added a new page to our site, what is a realistic expectation of timeframe when this page will rank organically on Google? The old page ranked about 78 so we change the page URL and content hoping it will help it rank better. It has been indexed.

May

Kalena's Answer:

Dear May

What makes you think that changing the URL and content will make it rank better than before? Google has to consider the page to be highly relevant for certain keywords and phrases to rank it highly for related search queries. The URL of a page has very little to do with this.

The content of the page should certainly be optimized for any search queries you are trying to rank for, but it's how relevant other sites consider the page to be that will most impact the page's ranking on Google. Unless there are other sites linking to the page or other pages on your site linking to the page, it is unlikely to rank highly. The anchor text used within the links to the page is also important. If the anchor text contains keywords or phrases relating to the search query, that will boost the page's relevance for such search queries. Unless you cover all these factors, the page's search ranking is unlikely to change.

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Q and A: What is the status of the search industry in Asia?

Dear Kalena...

What would you say about the current status of the search industry in Asia?

Pooja

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Pooja

I can't say I have my ear to the ground in Asia, so I really couldn't tell you about the status of the SEM industry there. I have noticed a huge increase in Indian firms offering SEO services and contract staff to SEO/SEM firms in Australia, Europe and the U.S. so my guess is that India is ahead of the curve.

China is also developing quite a big SEO market, judging by the attendances at the Search Engine Strategies conferences held there to date. For more insights into the Chinese SEM market, I suggest contacting David Temple of China Search Marketing Tour.

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Q and A: How much should I charge to manage an AdWords campaign?

Dear Kalena...

I operate an ad agency in Seattle, mostly working with small business and specializing in media planning for print, outdoor, TV, and radio campaigns. I've recently decided to become certified in Google Adwords and offer an additional service to my clients, managing a SEM campaign. I'm wondering a competitive rate to charge my clients on a monthly basis for a SEM campaign. Can you tell me what rates you have commonly seen charged to small busineeses for this service?

Thanks,
J

Kalena's Answer:

Dear J

Unfortunately, this is another of those "how long is a piece of string?" issues. SEM fees vary widely between agencies and there really is no recommended range I can give you. It depends on so many factors, including:

• whether keyword research is required
  
• number of keywords targeted
• number of AdGroups created
  
• number of ads created
• size of client
• size of client's budget (these are two different things!)
  
• what type of ad creatives are used (text, image, video)
  
• whether landing pages are included
  
• how competitive the industry is for the client's product/service
• how often the campaign will require tweaking and who will do it
  
• whether new keywords will be added regularly
• whether the click charges will be billed to you or your client (think credit card interest)
  
• whether detailed reports and analysis are required
• what the client's daily and monthly budgets are
• what geographic targets the client wants to reach
  
• how long the campaign will run
  

See what I mean? You'll need to have many of these factors sorted out before you can quote, so no two PPC campaigns are generally costed at the same amount. My best advice is to quote an hourly rate and estimate the number of hours the campaign will take to create and manage for each client well in advance.

Whatever you do, don't underquote. PPC campaigns require a much larger time commitment than you may realize.

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Interview with Jessica Bowman of Business.com

Jeff Behrendt of Aviva Directory wanted me to share with you his interview with Jessica Bowman of Business.com this week. I agreed to blog it because not only is it a great interview, but Jessica provides a discount coupon giving readers a 20 percent discount on paid directory submissions to Business.com. Thanks for the heads-up Jeff!

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Q and A: Why isn't my blogging helping my SEO efforts?

Here's a recent exchange on LiveHelp with blog reader Jerry, who is concerned that his blog efforts aren't paying SEO dividends:

Jerry: Hi kalena, I'm writing like crazy but not bumping my seo juice. I was hoping for advice
kalena : how are you syndicating your articles?
Jerry : I'm not. I'm just blogging.
kalena : Ah. Have you registered your blog with as many blog directories as possible?
kalena : Do you make it super easy for readers to find your RSS feed?
Jerry : technorati and blogpulse
Jerry : yes, I use addthis
kalena : do you Digg etc your own posts?
Jerry : No, i haven't figured digg out yet. That's one I want to work on
Jerry : What about syndicating?
kalena : If you think your post is unique enough, you should Digg it yourself. Digg will tell you if there are posts on the same subject, but usually you can Digg your own
Jerry : Okay. That sounds like a good tip. I think it's very unique
kalena : yes, if you can encourage other sites and bloggers to syndicate your own blog feed, that's a good way to get traffic
kalena : It helps if you can get bloggers in the same industry to link to or comment on your posts
Jerry : How do I find them to ask them? My blog about memoirs is so unique I have not found too many like it
kalena : Do searches for popular sites and blogs on your subject matter and simply email them and ask for a link. Or send them a post that you think they'd like.
Jerry : Okay. But I get stuck in blogosphere when I search. I've been doing this for 4 months and still haven't got the hang of finding similar blogs
kalena : Try writing a few longer posts or mini articles on your blog. They are the ones that usually get traffic. Or create a useful tool for other memoir writers to use
Jerry : They are ALL articles
Jerry : I'm cranking out some of my best writing ever
kalena : Try creating a free account at helium.com. They are looking for new writers and you can link back to your blog.
Jerry : huh. That's new. Okay I'll try that
kalena : Hold on for a sec, I have a great list of article distribution sites...
Jerry : NEAT!
kalena : Ok, here is the URL: http://www.searchenginecollege.com/hub/weblinks.php?cat_id=52
kalena : Also, you can join Yahoo Groups and do a search for Article Announcement groups. These are places where you can submit your articles for free to thousands of sites who will re-publish them with your link
Jerry : That sounds perfect.
kalena : Glad to help.
Jerry : Thanks so much for your time!! This is awesome. I think I already have you on my blogroll
Jerry : If you have a moment I have a couple technical questions
kalena : Just a quickie as I am grading assignments
Jerry : Thanks! I started with the ugly default slug
Jerry : Should I go back and fix them with pretty permalinks?
Jerry : AND another question. Can I repost them, or does that get me in trouble with google for double posting.
Jerry : permalink
kalena : Re permalinks, if you have a look at the titles of my blog posts, they are permanent links.
Jerry : yes, they look great. All my first 4 months were ugly
kalena : You can add code to your Blogger template to ensure all your article/blog post headings are permanent links
kalena : Don't know about double posting, but why would you want to do that?
Jerry : Two reasons. I had SO LITTLE traffic my first few months, I don't want them to be lost
Jerry : And 2, the permalinks the first time were those ugly looking ?p=232" or whatever
kalena : I'll email you the code to create permalinks out of your blog post titles:
Jerry : Thanks Kalena. You've been awesome. Thanks for taking the time.
kalena : ok I'll shoot it through when I get time.
kalena : You're welcome. Good luck with the syndication
Jerry : Thanks
kalena : bye


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Q and A: Will search engines obey the robots.txt if a robots meta tag is used per page?

Dear Kalena...

I am running a CMS (joomla) and have robots.txt configured for the pages I want indexed. however, I noticed that the CMS is automatically appending the meta robots tag (index, follow) to every single page - yikes! So my question is, will Googlebot respect robots.txt or be led astray by the meta robots tag?

Thank you!
AP Clarke

Kalena's Answer:

Dear AP

I think Joomla has an option of turning off the automatic tag appending. Search engines usually follow robots.txt in the first instance, but some will obey the robots meta tag per page, so if you don't want to risk confusing search bots, try to turn off that meta robots tag option or manually delete it from the code after publishing.

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Q and A: Is it better to use a database or build individual web pages for each product?

Dear Kalena...

I was thinking of starting an e-commerce site and wanted to ask for your opinion regarding information of the individual products. Is it better to simply build a separate web page for each product rather than storing them in a database? This way search engines should be able to crawl them and I may get more visitors.

Thank You,
Daniel

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Daniel

It's difficult to answer this question without knowing your range of products. Assuming your product range doesn't extend into the hundreds and the specs for your products won't change regularly, I would create a dedicated web page for each product that has it's own URL e.g. www.site.com/catalog/product74855.htm rather than having a single catalog page with dynamically generated product pages like www.site.com/catalog.asp?productid=74855 and www.site.com/catalog.asp?productid=74856 etc.

When a database is used to generate content, some search engines will only ever index a single page. For example, in the situation above, the URL www.site.com/catalog.asp would be indexed but the product pages wouldn't be viewed as pages in their own right. Having flat product pages also gives you the opportunity to optimize each one for unique target keywords relating specifically to their content.

With the increasing uptake of the sitemaps protocol, search engines are getting better at indexing dynamic content, but why take the risk? You might as well make your site as findable as possible right? With large e-commerce sites, you've rarely got any choice but to use a database. The solution here is to use one in conjunction with mod_rewrite to ensure each page has it's own "static" URL.

If your product information changes on a regular basis, another solution that a colleague of mine uses is to have a database that generates a dynamic main page for each product, but to manually create a flat product description page that appears when persons click on a "more information" link within the main page. This description page can have a product image on it and optimized descriptive text that can be edited whenever the product is updated. As long as you provide a way for search engines to easily find it, this type of content makes juicy spider food.

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Q and A: Is it best to use single keywords or variations and phrases in PPC campaigns?

Dear Kalena...

I am in the process of setting up a PPC campaign on Google AdWords and I have found a keyword that looks promising. So what I have done is to use the Google Estimator.

With this keyword I have used exact match, phrase match and broad match and the google traffic estimator gave me estimates for my keyword. I notice that the traffic estimates vary a lot through the three of them. So I just tried one keyword and the estimates were higher.

Is it best to use one keyword or is it best to use the variations on the keyword you like? I hope you know what I mean.

Graeme

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Graeme

You've got to be very careful when choosing your keyword matching types. Broad match and phrase match will always show a higher number of searches in the Keyword Estimator than exact match because using those matching options result in your ad being shown for more variations of your keyword.

The use of broad match for your keywords will trigger your ads to appear for a much wider number of search queries and save you time researching an exhaustive list of related keywords to target. However broad matching can drain a PPC budget very quickly and result in your ad being shown for unsuitable or less relevant search queries, lowering your conversion rate and increasing your overall cost-per-conversion. For these reasons, broad matching options should be used cautiously and in close consultation with negative keywords.

In my campaigns, I use a combination of phrase match and exact match and I use 2 or 3 word keyword phrases and variations instead of generic keywords. It requires more keyword research, but it means I know *exactly* what search combinations will trigger my ads to appear so I can better design my ads to suit. It also saves me money. Knowing which matching options to use for which keywords and phrases and when to adjust them will give you much better control over your campaign’s performance and click-through costs.

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Jennifer Plays Hide and Seek With Google

After the success of her 30 Days series, Jennifer Laycock of Search Engine Guide has set herself a new challenge: See how well a new site can survive if it hides from Google and other big search engines.

Jennifer has built a new e-commerce site and (wait for it...) she's preventing Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask from indexing it. The point?

"Whether it's the struggle to gain strong rankings in the organic index or the razor-thin margins associated with running a paid search campaign, new business start-ups seem convinced that they can't get anywhere without Google. I'm here to tell them that they can... In fact, I'd argue that without the crutch of Google propping you up, you'll be forced to build the type of business that can ride the ups and downs of search.

I'm kicking Google (and Yahoo and Windows Live and Ask) to the curb and telling the world that you CAN build a business, increase traffic and drive sales all without the major search engines."

In lieu of major search engines, Jenn's going to be using the power of social media and viral marketing to help the site's growth. I'll be watching this one with interest.

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Q and A: How long will it take search engines to update my new keywords?

Dear Kalena...

My question is to do with keywords and how often search engines update them. If I change my keyword or key phrase for a page how long would it take Google to update its index for the keyword or phrase so that it now shows up in a search for that new keyword?

Regards
Clive

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Clive

Search engines don't update on the basis of keywords. They re-index the code on your pages and how often they do this depends on their own update schedule. If you've verified your site with Google's Webmaster Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer, you can view your stats to get an idea of how often your site pages are indexed.

Whether or not your site begins to rank for new target keywords depends on how well you've optimized your pages for those keywords and how relevant the search engines now determine it to be. If you've optimized well and your pages are indexed regularly, you should see the results within a week or two. But in terms of Google, you may need to wait for a major database shuffle before you see your revised pages showing up for new keyword searches.

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Q and A: Should I swap links with this site?

Dear Kalena...

I have received a link request from [site URL removed] to exchange links. Should I do it?

Susan

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Susan

If you look at the page where they are placing their "links", you will see that the links are actually embedded in Javascript code. This is a sneaky way to make it look like there is a link to your site from theirs (to the naked eye), but it is not a text link that search engines can read, so it might as well not exist.

The best links are when popular sites and directories link to you, but you don't necessarily link back to them. This is what this site was trying to do to you - having you link to them, but them having no real link to you. Search engines are clued in to sites exchanging links to try to boost each other's results, so they don't give as high "marks" when each site links back to the other as they do when there is only a one way link from one site to the other.

This site is betting that you will use a simple HTML link on your site so that they can get some value from you linking to them, but you will get nothing from them in return. Tell them to bugger off. Better still, ignore them.

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Q and A: How do you ensure your AdWords ads appear above organic results?

Dear Kalena...

On Google's SERPs, sponsored listings appear above organic results, as well as on the right of organic results. How does one achieve sponsored listings above organic results, as opposed to on the right of organic results?

Nick

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Nick

The sponsored listings above the organic results are generally AdWords advertiser's ads that have the highest ad quality score based on Google's ad-ranking algorithm. Advertisers that bid higher than other advertisers and/or have a higher quality score for their ads appear in the highest two or three positions. These positions usually appear above the organic results, but not always.

Sometimes you'll see a SERP with ads only down the right hand side. This positioning is entirely determined by Google's ad display algorithm and cannot be influenced. You can make sure your ads have the best opportunity to be displayed above organic results by ensuring they have a higher quality score than other advertisers and a higher bid amount.

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Congratulations to our latest Search Engine College Graduates!

On behalf of Search Engine College and our tutors, I'd like to offer congratulations to our most recent graduates:

Search Engine Optimization 101

Harshvardhan Kharshingkar
Nick Swami
John Jodrell
Jonathan Sexton

Search Engine Optimization 201

Nick Swami

Pay Per Click Advertising 101

Jason Singleton
Nick Swami

Web Site Usability 101

Nick Swami

Congratulations for successfully passing your respective courses and qualifying for certification. Please contact your tutor if you haven't yet received your hard copy certificate or certification seal and please stop by Search Engine College from time to time to download updated lesson material, contribute to the Search Engine Wiki, check our Jobs Board or just to say hi.


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Q and A: Does it matter to search engines if my pages are PHP or HTML?

Dear Kalena...

Does it matter if I write my web pages in php or html? Does it hurt me to use php pages, or is it a benefit? Any suggestion to improve my site? Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it!

Barry

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Barry

Nope. Whatever programming language you choose to design your site with, just make sure you use clean, valid code, preferably in combination with CSS to help reduce code bloat.


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RUMOR: Google to allow AdSense publishers to specify own ad formats?

I don't usually like to take part in surveys. My time is pretty valuable and I find them tedious. But when Google asks, I ALWAYS take their surveys. Why? Because I get an insight into what features they're planning to roll out by the questions they ask.

Take the latest AdSense Publisher Feedback Survey for example. Under the question "Which of the following AdSense features would you like to see Google implement in future?", they listed:

1. Selecting ad categories to appear on your site
2. Selecting the types of advertisers that appear on your site
3. Managing other publishers' AdSense accounts for them
4. Specifying your own ad formats and sizes
5. Paying for phone support
6. Applying AdSense earnings towards AdWords marketing
7. Gathering information about your visitors

Wow! Some of those made me sit up and pay attention, especially # 3, # 4 and # 6. I manage AdWords accounts for clients now so it makes sense to offer a similar service for their AdSense accounts. The ability to choose your own ad formats would be awesome, as would the ability to transfer AdSense earnings to an AdWords account.

Now this is all speculation on my part. But if enough publishers request these features, I wouldn't be surprised to see Google roll them out quite quickly. Watch this space!

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Q and A: Why doesn't Google show all our backward links?

Dear Kalena...

I came across your site as I was searching for "why doesn't google show my links?". Yahoo and MSN show over 200 links to our www.Rubber-Bracelets.com site, but Google shows 2! What's up with that? We have the keywords in our domain name and I can't find us in the first five pages for "rubber bracelets". What gives? Of course, people aren't searching for rubber bracelets like they once were, but it appears in Google Suggest that there are still a good number of searches. Can you help?

Thanks!
Tony

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Tony

First up, what makes you think that having keywords in your domain automatically makes your site more relevant for searches involving those keywords? What if I purchased a domain like www.safe-kids-toys.com and loaded it up with porn? Do you think Google's algorithm will automatically assume my content is about "safe kids toys" just because my domain suggests it is? Uh uh. It doesn't work like that. I answered a similar question about keyword domains just yesterday.

Secondly, Google never displays the true number of backlinks your site has, only a sampling of the ones they consider to be important. You can get a better indication of who is linking to you from Yahoo Site Explorer.

Lastly, if your site is under 9 months old or has recently undergone a major re-design, it could be suffering from Google's aging delay for new sites. If that's the case, it won't rank in Google for your target keywords until it is released from limbo. It's Google's little screening process to help them weed out the dodgy sites from the authentic ones.

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