November Funny Photo Caption Competition

Like to win a free course of your choice at Search Engine College? Then enter our Funny Photo Caption Competition for November 2006!

By simply providing a funny caption for the photo to the left, you can win a self-study search engine marketing course of your choice.

We have one to give away each month and the best ones will be featured here on the blog, (click on comments below this post to see the latest), with the monthly winner also earning a link from our site. Congrats to Adrian from New Zealand for submitting last month's winning caption.

Get your entries in by midnight GMT November 30 and make us laugh!

Q and A: Do you offer any kind of online SEO course?

Dear Kalena...

Hi. I recently visited your blog. i wanted to ask you if you offer any kind of online SEO Course.

Sami

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Sami

Yes, at Search Engine College, we offer a wide range of Online SEO and SEM courses. In fact, most people find our main SEC site before finding this blog! Nice to see someone bucking the trend.

Q and A: How do I change our domain name without losing existing customers?

Dear Kalena...

If I change our URL name how do existing customers still find the old one?

Tracy

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Tracy

Your question is not crystal clear to me but I assume you mean: "How do I change our domain name without losing existing customers?".

If you are changing domain names but you want to make sure that existing customers still find you, you simply keep your old domain name and place a permanent 301 redirect on it, pointing it to your new domain. If you have access to your hosting CPanel, you can also achieve this by parking the old domain on the new one or by simply editing your .htaccess file.

Once this is in place, anyone typing in page URLs from your old domain, or clicking on outdated links in search engines will be automatically taken to your new domain. The search engines will eventually update links so they point to your new domain.

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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Q and A: Will redirecting multiple domains to a single domain negatively impact our Google rankings?

Dear Kalena...

It's been a couple of years since I posted my last question; but time has come around again where I'm really stumped, and I thought, I bet Kalena will have the answer so (without anymore back slapping):

The question is loosely based around Google's 'Big Daddy' update.

We have recently released a new website (well at least the domain name was new); now before we released this website we had another site (just a different domain name); in fact there were quite a few domain names, all going to one site. Now the problem we have is that, well, a lot of these domain names were successful (are still successful) and we really don't want to lose the traffic from them, in our industry they are pretty good domain names. I want to keep the new site (the same as the previous site) whiter than white, I can't abide all this 'black hat' SEO stuff.

What we've done so far is apply a '301' permanent redirect from all these different domain names to the new website; once you've been '301' redirected and have landed at the new website the previous domain name (i.e. the one you'd have typed in) transfers (in the address bar) to the URL of the new website.

What I'd like to know is: will having these domains (approx twelve 12) effect our ranking, positioning and basic good buddy comradeship with Google?

David

Kalena's Answer:

Dear David

Redirecting domains to other domains is not technically a problem, if it is done correctly at the server and IP. From your description of the method used, you are correctly redirecting those domains to your main site from a search engine's point of view.

Eventually, most search engines will take note of the 301 redirect and update their databases. When that happens and you no longer have any outdated links pointing to your old sites, it is safe to remove the redirects and allow the domains to expire (assuming you wish to do this). In the meantime, you need to start contacting directories and other sites that link to your old domains and ask them to update their links to your new site.

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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Q and A: How do you compare Google Analytics to ClickTracks?

Dear Kalena...

Do you have any feedback on comparing Google Analytics to ClickTracks? Do you use ClickTracks Optimizer?

Just curious which one you'd rather use.

Thanks
Sarah

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Sarah

I use both Google Analytics and ClickTracks Optimizer to track the visitor metrics of my sites and those of my clients. While it's good that Google Analytics is free and the depth of data is impressive, I personally find the interface clunky to use and not very intuitive. The reports and graphs also seem to take a long time to load, even on broadband.

While ClickTracks Optimizer is a bit expensive, the depth and accuracy of data just can't be beaten, in my opinion. The ability to flag individual visitors or groups of visitors based on unique identifiers (such as all persons who visited page x or all persons who bought product d) provides a level of analysis that other analytical packages can't compete with. The WYSIWYG interface is simple to use and gives you true "at a glance" stats. The ability to export reports into Word, PDF or Excel is another plus. I should make it clear that I use the stand-alone version of ClickTracks, not the hosted version so I can't comment on that one.

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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Q and A: How do you use xml-sitemaps?

Dear Kalena...

You have a testimonial listed on xml-sitemaps.com. Do you use it to produce sitemaps for your clients? Do you load the PHP s/w on each of them, or run it remotely? Did it require a special license to run it on non-personal sites?

Chris

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Chris

Yes, I use xml-sitemaps.com to produce sitemaps for my clients. I use the site's own generator to produce the XML files for each client and then copy the files to my PC, before uploading to Google Sitemaps.

As far as I know, you don't require a special license to use the software for business sites, but if you've got a site exceeding 500 pages, you'll need to buy their stand-alone software. It's only USD14 and well worth the investment.

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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Q and A: How do I update my RSS feed?

Dear Kalena...

I read your article about RSS feeds and I'm trying to create one. But I am not clear on the updating. Who updates the items? Do I update my RSS files with new stuff or if I just update the pages in the links of the RSS files will they get updated by the aggregators? I am confused.

Joelle

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Joelle

If you create an RSS or XML feed from scratch, you add items manually to your feed. Every time you add a new story or post your feed will be updated. Aggregators will automatically index your RSS or XML file and recognize when new items are added to your feed.

But these days, it is not necessary to create a feed from raw code. Most people use a blog or feed service such as WordPress or Blogger to make and add automatic updates to their RSS or XML feed. You can also "ping your feed" to alert aggregators whenever your blog or feed is updated. Learn more at Feed101, Introduction to RSS and What is RSS.

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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Roll your own search engine

You might have noticed the "search this site" box on this page is a bit different to the usual you see on the web. I used to use Atomz for on-site searching, until I realized that Atomz is only free up to a certain number of pages. Once your site grows beyond that number, you have to pay for the service.

I thought about using a standard Google search box, but I had heard good things about Rollyo and thought I'd check it out. My opinion? Brilliant. The site is intuitive, the service is a snap to set up and the search functionality can be tailored to search a single site or several at the same time, making it truly tailored to your own requirements. If you are looking for a site search option - consider rolling your own at Rollyo.

Q and A: Could purchasing and redirecting multiple domains to our main site hurt us from an SEO perspective?

Dear Kalena...

Management constantly wants to register new domain names based on new product line brand names. These domains will all end up pointing to specific product pages on our single corporate site. Could this hurt us from an SEO perspective? Would the better route be to use direct URLs such as www.corpsite.com/product-page ?

Thank you,

Leona

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Leona

Yes and double yes. There is absolutely no value in purchasing a unique domain name for each of your product lines, especially if you are only going to redirect those domains back to your main site anyway.

Search engines no longer give any ranking boost to keyword-stuffed domains and new domains are subject to an aging delay of up to 9 months before being included in Google's standard search results database so the pages wouldn't be found anyway. Plus, if you DO decide to redirect other domains to your main site and use META refresh as the redirect method, you can trip spam filters on some search engines and possibly have your site filtered or pushed further down in results pages.

Another disadvantage of using multiple domains is the fact that you dilute the link popularity of your existing site because some links would point to your other domains and not your main site. The best option to avoid all these hassles is to dedicate a page or series of pages on your main site to each product line and optimize those pages very thoroughly for the target search keywords relating to each unique product. You should also use a logical navigation structure when creating those product pages, for example if you were a jewelry site selling multiple products online, you could use something like this:

www.jewelrysite.com/rings/silver-rings.htm
www.jewelrysite.com/rings/gold-rings.htm
www.jewelrysite.com/necklaces/silver-chains.htm
www.jewelrysite.com/necklaces/gold-chains.htm
etc.

Using a logical navigation structure such as the above helps search engine spiders to easily find and index all your pages and it also aids usability for your site visitors. Now go and convince your managers quickly, before they sabotage your site's search engine visibility!
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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

We're Moving Office

Just a quick heads up to let you know there won't be an FAQ today or maybe even tomorrow. We are moving to larger office premises and I don't expect we'll have our broadband connection going for at least 24 hours. Catch you at the other end!

Q and A: Is it considered black hat SEO to hide H1 tags within CSS?

Dear Kalena...

If you make H1 tags hidden by using the CSS method, do search engines like Google and Yahoo consider this black hat SEO? I've heard that using the colour method is definitely considered bad SEO but that wouldn't be used along with the CSS method. It was suggested to use the CSS method for our H1 tags we're creating for clients but I wasn't sure if it was something that would be safe to implement as part of our SEO set up for clients.

Demi

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Demi

It depends on the intent. If you are deliberately hiding tags in your CSS because you don't want search engines to find them, that's black hat, in my opinion. If there is a legitimate usability or design reason to put these tags in your CSS, then my feeling is it's ok.

However, Google's own staff recommend against using CSS to hide text so I would probably avoid it if you can.

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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Q and A: Why isn't my site in the top 2000 results in Google?

Dear Kalena...

I just created a new site, its dead basic and mainly an affiliate site. I have linked to it from a couple of my other sites that have a Google PR of 4 & 5 but of course I need loads more links yet as it's in a very competitive sector (www.autoinsurancedeals.co.uk).

Its been indexed by Google this week but of course its not even in the top 2000. In your opinion Kalena, without a ton more links is that where it's likely to stay, outside the top 2000?. It seems to be a catch22 situation, if I don't have a decent PR, why would another site want to exchange links? I seem to find this concept of asking other sites to exchange links akin to begging :-)

Graham

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Graham

If your site is brand new, you won't be able to find it for your target keywords for up to 9 months. Why? Because nearly all new sites are subject to Google's aging delay. That explains why you can't see it in the top 2000 results right now.

As for exchanging links - reciprocal linking is soooo last year. Every link you place pointing away from your site is diluting the value of your incoming links somewhat. That doesn't mean you shouldn't link to other sites or swap links - as long as the outgoing links are useful to your own site visitors. But you shouldn't pursue reciprocal link exchanges solely for search engine value.

The most valuable links to build up your site's PageRank are non-reciprocal links from high-quality, high-traffic sites that have a similar theme to your own. How do you find these? Do a Google search for backlinks pointing to your competitor's sites by entering "link:http://site.com" in Google's search box. Take a look at the type of sites linking to your competitors and see if you can get those same sites to link to you.

Look for niche directories, portals and search engines in the insurance industry. Submit your site to those. Write some articles about auto insurance and submit them to ezines and article annoucement lists for re-publishing on other sites. Make it a condition of re-publishing that they include a link back to your site in the Author Resource box.

Hope this helps!

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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Q and A: What does the term "long tail phenomenon" mean?

Dear Kalena...

What does the term "long tail phenomenon" mean?

Carmela

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Carmela

Here's your definition and an article about the long tail phenomenon in keyword research.

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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Google Buys Garage That Conceived Them

Google has bought the property in California that houses the garage in which Sergey and Larry first developed the world's most popular search engine. When they weren't building Google, the two apparently liked to spend time in the hot tub and eat other people's food.

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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Motherlode of all Search Engine Blogs

Someone was asking me for a list of my favorite search blogs. I finally completed the list and here it is...

read more | digg story

Google Code Search Engine Reveals SEO Blunders

I've been waiting a LONG time for this. Google Code Search is now live in the Labs. You can now search any published HTML code for keywords, HTML syntax and SEO tricks.

Want to see who is still using the mythical "revisit-after" META Tag? Try this search.

Fun for all the family.
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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Q and A: Why did my site have a better Google PR when it was on another domain?

Dear Kalena...

Thanks for your answer to my last question. What's curious is how my *other* site (tony.thehungs.org), where my content resided before I transferred evreyting to its current domain, got a PR in the SAME amount of time (and still does).

Sure, its a PR of 2, but at least its not zero.

Have any idea why this is?

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Tony

Ok, couple of explanations:

1) The old site content was actually on a sub-domain and that site would take it's Google PR from the main domain http://thehungs.org. Although I see that site is password protected so it can't be indexed by search engines - has it always been this way?

2) The old domain was .org. Some people swear that .org and .gov sites are given a slight boost in the rankings and/or are not subject to Google's aging delay. No idea if this is currently true.

A final comment - If you have moved your blog to a permanent location, you should get rid of that old blog content or use Permanent Redirect 301s to point it to your new domain, because it *may* be considered duplicate content (same name, titles etc) and might be affecting your PR at the new site or causing Google to ignore the new site.

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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Q and A: Why does my site have a Google PR0?

Dear Kalena...

My site (http://www.deepjiveinterests.com), after being live for a month and a half, still has a pagerank of zero. I know that there's recently been an update, but still -- nothing.

Its gotten some pretty good inbound links from some pretty reputable sources (mostly tech related) -- Cnet news, the guardian unlimited (a british newspaper), techmeme, blogherald, valleywag, and most recently crunchnotes, for example, all with decent PR, in the short time its been up.

Now, I was wondering if this was all because of the "sandbox" effect? If it was, I thought it had to do with how well the site ranks in the actual searches -- which it doesn't do too badly for, I suppose.

That is to say, I don't purposely target keywords / phrases, but I do get traffic from google, and for some phrases, like "digg history", which has over 26M results (if it means anything), I do rank #3 .

Anyway, its a bit of a ramble, but the question is straightforward enough -- why the PR0 still?

Thanks!
Tony

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Tony

the answer is simple: Google's Aging Delay for new sites. Best explanation is here. It can last up to 9 months, if any of my recent client sites are a good measure.

This is often incorrectly referred to as the Sandbox but the Google Sandbox is applied to sites that build links quickly rather than new sites. A good explanation of the difference between the two is here.

More info on both phenomenons can be seen here. A good way to avoid the aging delay is explained here.

Nothing for it but to wait in limbo and work on your links while you wait.

Hope this puts you out of your Google misery!

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[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]

Latest Search Light Newsletter out now!

The latest issue of the Search Light Newsletter was delivered over the weekend. Did you get your copy? The current issue features an article about the difference between reciprocal linking and mutual linking. It also contains lots of frequently asked questions (and answers) taken from this blog.

Check it out here. What? You're not a subscriber? Tsk Tsk. Don't make me get the whip out - subscribe now!