| From the Editor: |
 Dear
Readers
Yes, the newsletter is late again! But as always, I have an excuse. Two words: SMX Sydney.
Wow! What a great conference it was. It was our first time sponsoring a major conference and our first time running an exhibition booth so it was pretty full on. But it was an amazing experience and my assistant Sarah and I had an absolute blast.
I got to meet some great people for the first time, including Rand Fishkin, Jane Copeland and Gord Hotchkiss and I also caught up with some old friends including Mark Vozzo, Chris Dimmock, Mark Sceats and the always hilarious Michael Motherwell. I ran into Danny Sullivan briefly in the elevator but unfortunately that's the only time I got with him as he was always surrounded by people!
Apart from missing some face time with Danny, my only other regret was that I didn't get to see more conference sessions. The couple I did manage to get to were highly entertaining and informative, particularly Danny's keynote and the SEO Clinic on day two which resulted in controversy over user-agent cloaking by Flight Centre - uncovered live on stage!
Although the exhibition hall wasn't always busy, we did have quite a lot of interest in our Search Engine College courses and had some great conversations with people about their training needs. From what I hear, the demand for SEM staff is still growing rapidly so the market for training is simply huge.
All in all, I agree with Rand when he said SMX Sydney was the best conference ever. Congratulations to Barry Smyth, Lisa Davis and 3rd Door Media for putting on a fantastic event. I'm really looking forward to next year's version.
So what's in the newsletter this month? We have an article about whether blogging is good for business and we also have some interesting Q and A's, including one about anchor text links, another about whether people search using phrases and a question from a reader who wants to know why their rankings fluctuate so much in Google.
Enjoy this issue and remember to visit the Ask Kalena blog to check out my daily answers to frequently asked search engine questions. Got a question of your own? Press the big green button on the bottom right to send me your question and you might see it featured here next month.
Until then - wishing you clicks and conversions...
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Why Online Businesses Should be Blogging
By Kalena Jordan
Last weekend my husband and I were having a conversation with some friends over a bottle of wine. The wine was a delectable New Zealand chardonnay and the friends were a husband and wife team who run a small but highly successful web/graphic design firm.
The conversation veered towards blogging and whether or not it was a viable marketing activity for online businesses. My friend Wendy was lamenting that most of her clients couldn't see the value in blogging. An avid blog reader herself, she could see it had value but she wasn't sure whether it would work for her clients or how to implement it in a way that would be worthwhile for her own online business.
I suggested that she start a blog about environmentally- sustainable business, as this is her company's unique selling proposition and something she is particularly passionate about. I think a lot of small businesses would like to take steps to be more environmentally responsible but aren't sure where to start. A blog about the subject could gain readership quickly and also gain attention for her own company.
This led to a discussion about what types of businesses would benefit from a blog and what THEY could blog about. The potential number of blog niches and opportunities we thought of was incredible. Here are just some of the ideas we came up with:
1) Web Design Firms could blog about:
- Unique business practices
- Customer success stories
- Web site tips
- Staff success stories
- Web site usability issues
2) Travel Related Businesses could blog about:
- Last minute travel deals
- Customer travel stories
- Staff travel stories
- Travel tips
- Flight details
- Breaking news in the travel industry
3) Government agencies could blog about:
- Changes to Government regulations
- Communication between Government agencies and the public
- Government issues and news
- Legislation affecting various industries
4) Marketing agencies could blog about:
- Marketing trends
- Successful client case studies
- How to reach different target audiences
- Tips for marketing offline and online
- How to create effective marketing campaigns
5) Retail businesses could blog about:
- Products and services
- Customer service issues
- Special offers and discounts
- Industry news
- Product recalls
6) Sport-related sites could blog about:
- Latest game results and scores
- Team news and updates
- Individual team member diaries
- Nutrition and weight loss/gain
7) Public relations and advertising firms could blog about:
- Advertising trends
- Successful client case studies
- Press release writing
- Successful advertising campaigns
- How to deal with the media
- How to create effective advertisements
8) Telecommunications firms could blog about:
- Industry trends
- Products and services
- Communication legislation
- Tips for getting the most out of phones and related equipment
9) Law firms could blog about:
- Understanding contracts
- Case histories
- Tips for court appearances
- Understanding legal jargon
- Court and case schedules
10) Insurance firms could blog about:
- Changes/updates to premiums
- News of insurable events (e.g. flood, fire)
- Tips for protecting your house from burglary
- Tips for getting the most from your premiums
- Fire prevention tips
The entire discussion made me realize that blogging is not the answer for every business and in fact, some companies should steer clear of it. But for the majority of online businesses, particularly small businesses, there ARE terrific incentives to blog.
Blogging can provide unprecedented opportunities for new business, media exposure, networking, traffic, customer feedback and interaction. Plus business blogs don't have to be boring. Just glance at the topic range of some of the most successful business blogs, based on Technorati rankings:
- Kotaku - a blog for gamers and persons working in the video gaming industry.
- The Unofficial Apple Weblog - news and views relating to Apple Macintosh business and products.
- The Pharma Marketing Blog - a blog for persons in the pharmaceutical marketing industry.
- TechCrunch - a blog that profiles and reviews new Internet products and companies.
- Advertising for Peanuts - a consumer's guide to advertising and media.
- The Consumerist - consumer rights blog where people can lodge complaints about products and businesses.
- TreeHugger - a blog trying to bring environmental sustainability to mainstream business and media.
- Construction Marketing Ideas - Information and ideas for marketing and promoting construction-related businesses.
Business blogging does take time and commitment, but the rewards are well worth the investment.
About the Author
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S.
Search Industry Job of the Month
Got positions vacant or short term projects you'd like advertised? Sign up for a free account with the Search Engine College Jobs Board and find great candidates.
Search Marketing Specialist
Job Title: Search Marketing Specialist
Job Reference #: Unknown
Position Type: full time
Name of employer: Grand Canyon University
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Date Posted: 12 April 2008
Position Description:
The Search Marketing Specialist manages organic and paid search marketing efforts for Grand Canyon University web properties. This includes all websites, landing pages and partnership programs.
Some of the day-to-day tasks will include:
- Conduct keyword research and selection for paid search campaigns.
- Write effective search marketing advertisements based on marketing and branding.
- Recommend content, tags, and copy based on keyword research.
- Proactively make strategic recommendations regarding campaign tactics to improve performance by optimizing click-through and conversion.
- Make suggestions on where to display advertising.
- Create link building campaigns to help improve search results.
- Report on the effectiveness of campaigns and search optimization efforts by preparing reports that demonstrate measureable levels of success.
Skills/ Requirements:
- 2-4 years of online marketing experience.
- Experience with keyword research, tools, and paid search.
- Knowledge of organic search optimization principles and techniques.
- Understanding of link building.
- Strong interpretive/analytical skills.
- Clear understanding of affiliate marketing and viral marketing.
- Proven track record implementing SEO principles.
Salary range: Unknown
Closing date: Unknown
More info from: Grand Canyon University
Contact: Send resumes to: hr [at] gcu.com
"The first divine was the first rogue who met the first fool"
Voltaire
This Month's Sponsor: Freshbooks
Freshbooks is an online estimating, invoicing, project management and time tracking service that gives your business a professional image, no matter how small. You can use it to invoice all your clients online and it can even be set up to automatically bill and debit the credit cards of recurring clients every month. It also has built in staff timesheets and project management tools for online collaboration.
Freshbooks offers plug-ins for a wide range of third-party tools such as BaseCamp, PayPal and 2Checkout and provides the option of email or ground-mail invoicing. We simply love it!
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All of these methods require you to verify your subscription. If you have been subscribed in error or don't wish to receive any more of our newsletters, simply press the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of this page and follow the instructions.
Have a great day!
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FAQ 1: How many anchor text links should I create on a page?
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Hey Kalena, 
Quick question for ya if you got a minute. If I'm targeting a keyword or phrase, lets say dogs. I write a 500 word article about dogs. I post it on my site. I want to target my main url i.e. www.dogs.com. How many times can I create anchor text in that one article that links to the main page?
Chris
Hi Chris
It's really not about counting the number of keywords or links - it's about what sounds natural to a reader and what makes the most sense in the copy. If you can read page copy aloud and it doesn't sound stilted or repetitious, you've probably got the right balance of keywords. As a general rule of thumb, I recommend aiming for keyword repetition of around 2 to 3 times per page for each keyword/phrase you are targeting. More than that usually ruins the copy and/or triggers red flags in search engine filters.
When using anchor text, a good way to avoid excessive keyword repetition is to try using keyword variations and word stemming e.g. accounts, accountant, accounting etc. Also consider using your keywords in headings, sub-headings and bullet points. These have the added advantage of breaking up the copy and making it easier to read. Oh and if you decide to use "dogs" in your anchor text, for Pete's sake make sure the page you are linking to talks about dogs! Sounds obvious but it's amazing how often this is overlooked.
Kalena
FAQ 2: Do people actually search for exact phrases?
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Hi Kalena, 
As I'm rethinking about my page, I've become curious about something. Do people actually search for phrases such as "web design Gloucester" or do they for the most part just search for a page with those three words on it? (which if I understand things is what you get when you search without quotes).
Of course if I have the three words as a phrase either search hits it, but I'm having trouble making it as readable as I'd like using the concise phrases and I'm wondering if the sacrifice in readability is worth it?
Lastly, I wanted to be sure that if I have a key phrase such as "web design Gloucester" that the string "web design in Gloucester" matches. I seem to remember that "in" was a stop word ignored by Search Engines.
Steve
Hi Steve
I think you'll find that most people will start a search using generic terms and then add qualifiers to help narrow down the results. So they might start with "web design companies" (no quotes) and then seeing billions of matches, they might try "web design companies Gloucester" or "web design Gloucester" (no quotes). I don't really know too many searchers who use quotes unless they are advanced users or SEOs. So it really pays to try to get ranked for the non-quotes version of your target keyphrases.
You can achieve this by using the phrase in your text but including stop words so the copy is more readable. You should never have to sacrifice readability! Stop words are words like "the", "and", "in" etc that are mostly ignored by the search algorithm. So if your page has the sentence "we are one of the most popular web design companies in Gloucester" then search engines should rank your page high for the query "web design companies Gloucester" as they will ignore the word "in".
The reverse also applies, where if a search query includes a stop word, engines will show pages that have either the shorter sentence included without the stop word/s or the longer one.
Kalena
FAQ 3: What search engine submission program should we use?
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Hi Kalena,
We are looking to buy a search engine submission program. Can you make a
recommendation? Here are a few we've heard work well. What do you think?
Thank you so much for your great newsletter!
Amy
Hi Amy
What do I think? I think you need to stop listening to people who tell you
that you need to use search engine submission programs! You. Simply. Don't.
Need. Them.
It's a a common misconception that you need to submit your site to search
engines. Provided at least one site is linking to yours, all the major search
engines will find your site as they crawl the web. In my opinion, many of the
sites listed in those automatic submission programs are low quality Free For All
(FFA) directories, considered bad neighborhoods by Google anyway.
That said, most major engines still provide an Add URL facility, or XML
sitemap upload facility where you can manually submit your site for indexing.
But do a manual check for your main site URL first, to see if any pages have
been indexed. If they have, the search engine already knows about your site, so
there is no need to submit it.
What I think you should do is obtain one-way links from high quality niche
directories and popular sites in your own industry. There are really no
shortcuts when it comes to gaining links. You'll need to seek out sites that are
relevant to your site and submit by hand. I recommend that you forget the auto
submit products and put together a quality submission list tailored to your own
site requirements. If you insist on using auto-submit products, be very
selective about the sites you choose to send your link to and expect LOTS of
email spam.
Oh and I'm glad you enjoy the newsletter!
Kalena
FAQ 4: Why is my client's site no longer ranking in Google?
Hi Kalena, 
I've been reading your articles and find your answers to many people very helpful. So, here is my issue.
I am helping a friend with his website that I built. I felt like we did a pretty decent job with SEO and we had some fairly high ranking in some key terms like "lasik in chicago" 6th and "lasik in Oakbrook" 2nd.
All of a sudden I was changing the index page to put up a larger flash video. I also added some additional text that looks similar to some of the higher ranking sites that are competitors of my friend Dr. Sloane. Since then I have noticed he has been moved down to page three for the same ranking. When I went into Google Webmaster Tools, I noticed that it shows that Googlebot hasn't accessed the homepage since 2007. Also, I see all my pages rank very low on PageRank.
I'm just a little bit confused and was hoping that you could give me a little advice on getting his site on the right track. He has been around on the net since mid 90's, so the domain has some age.
Shannon
Hi Shannon First of all, thank you for the caffeine donation, that helps a lot when I'm answering these questions in the wee hours. As for your issue, I've taken a look and wow, where do I start? How about here:
1) The first major content on your client's home page HTML is a huge Flash file. Quite apart from the fact that it's visually distracting and goes against every web site usability rule possible, you've stuck it right after the header tags, meaning it's the first thing search engines are going to try and index. The file isn't optimized so it doesn't tell Googlebot and others anything about your page, it simply pushes the meatier content further down the code.
2) You seem to have some weird link to the iFrance site embedded in an iframe. What's that about? It looks dodgy and search engines don't like iframes so it's probably triggered a red flag or two.
3) Your current home page looks and smells like a doorway page. There's no obvious formatting, no navigation menu, the design is not consistent with the rest of the site and it doesn't load properly in Firefox. I was half expecting to see user-agent sniffer code in the HTML, but perhaps it's just really poor design.
4) We're up to number 4 already, and this is probably your main problem: there seems to be some type of delayed meta refresh that kicks in after 5 seconds and redirects people to a different URL on the same domain. This is retro spam at it's finest and is like waving a huge red flag at Google saying "HEY, I'M DOING SOMETHING DODGY OVER HERE! PENALIZE ME QUICK"
Spammers like to use meta refreshes in order to bait and switch i.e. show Googlebot a family safe DVD page like Driving Miss Daisy and then redirect human searchers to a porn site of the... ahem... same name. Ditch the redirect pronto. Decide which home page you want to show both users and search engines and stick with it.
Surprisingly, your Title and META tags check out ok, although there's a bit of excessive keyword repetition in your META Keywords tag. Googlebot last cached your home page on 13 April so check your Webmaster Tools account again.
That's it for now, I hate to say it but my coffee's run out.
Kalena
Got a question? Ask Me:
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