I'm off to New Zealand!

Well, it's time to down tools and head to Sydney for the Search Summit Conference. After that, I'm heading over to Christchurch and Queenstown in New Zealand for two weeks of family fun, so there won't be any FAQs while I'm gone.

But don't despair! My virtual assistant Sarah is going to take over the Ask Kalena blog reins and keep you entertained with some links to search engine articles and news items in my absence. I'll be back on deck on 19th March

Ciao!

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Q and A: Is it ok to use an alt tag for every image for accessibility purposes?

Dear Kalena...

Your newsletter reply to one visitor included: "I would also avoid using more than 2 or 3 alt tags on a single page if you can help it." I designed and manage a site for a visually impaired friend who writes children's books: www.gate.net/~labooks/francesindex.html

Especially for her site, I notice how her text reader (JAWS) handles the page. It was my impression that I should have an alt tag for every image so a text reader could let visually impaired visitors know what was there. I wasn't really thinking about what the search engines want. What should I do about this?

You also mentioned using only 3 or 4 words in the tag. On my site, the picture is often a book cover. For example, I have put in the tag: "Click cover to order The Buggy That Boogied Away." Should that be changed to "Click cover to order" or to an abbreviated form of the title? (Some titles are longer than this one.) Again, I'm thinking about text readers such as JAWS rather than search engines.

Thanks
Betsy

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Betsy

Don't worry about a thing. When you say "I wasn't really thinking about what the search engines want", you're right on the money. You were thinking primarily about the user and they are THE most important consideration when it comes to designing a web site.

It's perfectly fine to add an alt img tag to every image if you are doing it primarily for accessibility purposes. My prior post was really aimed at persons wanting to add alt tags primarily for search engines. As long as the alt tags are not excessively stuffed with keywords, it shouldn't be a problem to include longer ones, especially where it makes sense to do so, such as the use of full book titles.

Do whatever makes the most sense for the user and you should be fine.

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Think Global, Act Global

I'm waaaay too tired to answer an FAQ tonight, so I'll just point to an article of mine published today in SiteProNews: Think Global Act Global: Writing For Your Online Market.

It's about all those sites you see that claim to target an international audience when their content only caters to a regional one. If the article has moved from SPN's front page, try this archived version.

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See You at Search Summit!

For any of my Australian-based readers - Australia's newest search engine conference Search Summit is being held at Luna Park in Sydney on March 1 and 2. If you haven't booked yet, don't despair! You can still get tickets and accommodation discounts have been arranged at local hotels.

The speaker line up is impressive and includes:

- Chris Sherman from Search Engine Land
- Andy Beal from Marketing Pilgrim
- Adam Lasnik from Google
- Gavin Appel from Hitwise
- Aidan Beanland from Yahoo!7
- Detlev Johnson of PositionTech
- Michael Motherwell (aka projectPHP) from WMS Consulting
- Yours truly!

Yes, I'll be speaking about Industry Training on day one, so come along and say hi.

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Q and A: Why have my minimum bids on AdWords jumped to $10 per click?

Dear Kalena...

First - I have been a constant visitor to your blog and thanks for all the useful insights you share. Coming to my issue - we do PPC advertisements on Google. Our campaigns have been running fine for 2-3 years. Suddenly last week Google dropped 2 of our important keywords saying the 'quality' is not good and we have to increase our minimum bids to $10 per click to get it back.

I do not understand this - nothing much has changed - our CTR is almost the same as in past - we bid enough to be in top 2-3, our daily budget is not expiring. And our ads compare well with our competitiors (atleast thats what we think) and we have good conversion rate from people who come. Although CTR (~1%) is low - but that is expected from such a generic keyword. Can you shed some light on this issue and help us? By the way - I created a new campaign by deleting the old one, with same keywords and ad text - and that is working fine.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Martin

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Martin

Thanks for the blog backslap! Re your AdWords issue - relax, it's a bug. As reported by Search Engine Land, the Google AdWords Quality Score had a major bug last week that saw ad prices spike for ads that were previously performing well.

Apparently it was an unexpected side-effect of Google's improvements to their Quality Score Algorithm. Improvements have been completed this week and so I'm assuming the bug has been resolved. Advertisers can now switch on their Quality Score Column to see which ads are performing better than others as rated by Google. More info on the changes at Inside AdWords.

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Q and A: What are your Top 10 favorite search sites?

Dear Kalena...

Hello Kalena (Cool name by the way), Greetings from the USA. My name is Frank. Some information about me is Age: 49. Gender: Male. Astrological Sign: Libra. Industry: Research, Training and Education /Modeling and Simulation. Occupation: Senior Functional Area Analyst at the moment. Location: My Office : Arlington, Virginia USA.

I am, as you, very much intrigued with Search Engines and how they can be effectively employed for productive searching. Kalena, I would like to know what your TOP 10 Favorite Search Engines/Sites are. And why? Also, any information/sites that list multiple search engines on the same page/site. It seems many are just stuck on Google.

Being a researcher though, I understand the hazards of doing that. I am sure you understand as well what I am saying. Also Kalena, congratulations on holding the position of Director of Studies, Search Engine College. Well deserved I'm sure. Thank you Kalena, in advance, and I look forward to hearing back from you.

Frank

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Frank

Glad you like my name. I share it with a cool band in the UK. It's apparently Hawaiian for Karen and it's also a common Russian name. But I am neither. Just an Australian girl whose father couldn't spell "Colina" accurately on my birth certificate - and thank goodness he didn't!

But on to your question. My Top 5 most visited search engines / directories are: (drum roll please...)

1) Google
2) Yahoo
3) Ask
4) JoeAnt
5) LookSm... Just kidding! Actually, I've been visiting Accoona a lot lately.

The Top 5 search engine related sites I most often visit are :

1) Search Engine Guide
2) Pandia
3) SiteProNews
4) Search Engine Watch
5) ISEDB

Want more? Try this list of sites that publish extensive lists of search engines and directories.

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Another new "Ads by Google" format

Remember earlier this week I spotted a new "Ads by Google" format for AdSense ads? Well today I spotted another one. Check it to the left. This one has the Google's "G" symbol next to the traditional "ads by goooooooooogle" text by-line.

Anyone else seeing it? Or seeing other versions?

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Q and A: How do I add Feedburner to my site?

Dear Kalena...

Any idea about how to add feed burner to my site? I transferred my blog to my own domain so what is my site feed? Where do i find it?

John

Kalena's Answer:

Dear John

Assuming you have already created a Feedburner account, your feedburner address should be: http://feeds.feedburner.com/[yourblogname]. If you haven't created an account yet, simply go to http://www.feedburner.com and create one based on your blog info.

If you are using Blogger for your blog, your feed should automatically be generated at http://[yoursiteurl]/atom.xml

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Legends in LEGO

As a child, I was a great admirer of M.C. Escher's surrealist drawings. I was also completely obsessed with LEGO. Now a couple of guys with a lot of time on their hands have combined both these obsessions by building LEGO versions of Escher's most famous drawings.

Self confessed nerds Andrew Lipson and Daniel Shiu used LEGO, computer programming skills, 3D modeling and a digital camera to re-create Escher's works. My favorite is the one pictured with this post Ascending and Descending, but Relativity is pretty cool too. Beats the crap out of my Escher A&D jigsaw!

Thanks to Laughing Squid for this one.


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Google testing new "Ads By Google" format

While updating some web pages tonight, I noticed that Google seem to be testing some new AdSense formats for their "Ads by Google" by-line so I took a screenshot (see the example on the right). Lucky I did because I haven't see the new format again since I grabbed it.

It appears they are testing an image integrating the Google logo to replace the plain text previously used. I knew they were rolling out new Google Checkout badges for AdSense, but I've never seen the new "Ads by Google" format before. Have I just missed them until now?

Anyone else seeing it? Is this a new thing?

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China Search Marketing Tour 2007

David Temple wanted me to let you all know about the second China Search Marketing Tour coming up in May.

David and a few of his fellow search marketers have organized a tailored itinerary for interested SEOs and SEMs planning on attending the Search Engine Strategies China Conference, to be held in Xiamen. The tour takes in Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen and even Hong Kong. Costs are very reasonable and there's an early bird discount of $500 if you sign up before March 5.

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Q and A: Does the use of bold or italics tags add relevancy weight in search engines?

Dear Kalena...

A quick question - How much added value is there to placing keyword text within bold, strong, italics, or emphasis tags in terms of the weight given to those terms by search engines?

Thanks,
Adam

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Adam

Just like a healthy diet, everything in moderation is the key to a search engine compatible page. Yes, if you use bold/strong or italics to highlight text on your page, the search engines will assume you consider the content of that text to be important.

Same goes for the use of H1, H2 tags etc. If you consider certain keyword strings important enough to emphasize via headings, it is my understanding that the search engines will give the content between the tags slightly higher relevancy weight than content outside the tags. But don't go overboard and emphasize too much content, or you will defeat the whole purpose of making certain keywords stand out. You'll also annoy your readers - there's nothing worse than trying to read a web page that has been over-formatted. Overuse of such tags might also trigger anti-sp@mdexing filters.

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According to Google, I am incapable of romance

Google's Doodle artist responsible for their Valentine's logo has posted an official response to the whole Googe scandal on their Official Google Blog. Dennis Hwang claims that true romantics would have recognized the strawberry stem as an "L" immediately. Here's a quote:

"When you look at the logo, you may worry that we forgot our name overnight, skipped a letter, or have decided that "Googe" has a better ring to it. None of the above. I just know that those with true romance and poetry in their soul will see the subtlety immediately. And if you're feeling grouchy today, may I suggest eating a strawberry."

Phleeeaaazzze! First Dennis calls poor design "subtlety", then he insults a large majority of Google users (yes, thousands of people thought the logo was misspelt), by saying we are incapable of romance or poetry. On the plus side, my Digg post on the subject was promoted to popular overnight.

What do you think people? Do YOU think the logo looks like GOOGE? And if so, are you a non-strawberry eating, unromantic grouch? Please leave your comment.

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Google Misspell Their Own Name on Their Home Page

It appears that Google can't spell their own name. Check out this screen grab showing their latest logo for Valentine's Day. Yep, it spells "GOOGE". Oops!

[Added: a reader has informed me that the stem of the strawberry is meant to represent the missing "l". But it's pretty ambiguous if you ask me].

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Q and A: Does CSS help improve search engine rank?

Dear Kalena...

Does CSS help improve search engine rank?

contactlab

Kalena's Answer:

Hi contactlab

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) alone probably won't make a blink of difference to the way your site ranks. However using CSS may reduce the amount of code you need to use on each page, avoiding code bloat. Bloated code can sometimes cause important content to be shoved to the bottom of the HTML, reducing the likelihood of it being indexed by engines and reducing its relevancy weight.

CSS can also improve the accuracy of your HTML because there is less code to make errors with and more likely that your site will validate to W3.org standards. Valid code is less likely to trip up search robots as they crawl through your site. So while using CSS won't necessarily boost your rankings on it's own, it could make your site more search engine compatible and that may in turn improve your rank.

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Q and A: Why does my site ranking fluctuate so much in Google and Yahoo?

Dear Kalena...

What do you think about recent changes going in Google and Yahoo search? Because I have seen that my site in Yahoo was on top but now I am not able to find it on any pages though I can see that my site is there in Yahoo by site. So what can you suggest about this?

Kind regards,
Huned

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Huned

Search engines are constantly in a state of flux. Think about how many new pages are added to the Internet on a daily basis. Now think about how many different computers around the world are required to hold all this information. Top that with the number of idiots trying to game the system or crack the search algorithms and you've got the problems that Google and Yahoo face.

It's only natural that your site will ebb and flow within the search results. The major engines need to shuffle their content between data-centers and tweak their relevancy algorithms on a regular basis. Instead of concentrating on what rank your site is on any particular day, try checking the search engine compatibility and the usability of your site for visitors. If it can be better, improve it! The more improvements that you make in these areas , the more likely you are to see your site rank higher in the search results.

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Q and A: How can I increase my site traffic and my AdSense commission?

Dear Kalena...

My site is www.shopitonline.co.uk, and it's been up since November 2005. The traffic I am getting now is near enough to 3000 visitors per month.

I would really like to increase this traffice substantially, and also increase the Google Adsense commission. The Google Adsense has been on for just about a month, and the commission is next to nothing. How can I improve these 2 areas?

Thanks
Saleem

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Saleem

I no longer see Google AdSense ads on your site - perhaps you've removed these since you submitted your question? There are a lot of ways to increase your AdSense commissions. Most of them are listed in my article: Top 10 AdSense Tricks to Boost Your Commission. But be warned, Google has changed the rules for AdSense publishers since this article was written so you should check with their revised AdSense Policies before using any of the suggested tips.

Now, about bringing more traffic to your site, I would start with correctly optimizing it for target keywords. Here are just a few of the many problems with your site:

1) Your Title Attributes are too long, incorrectly formatted and stuffed with too many keywords. Your Title Tag should be a grammatically correct sentence of no more than 15 words, containing 2 or 3 target search keywords/phrases.

2) Your META Keywords Tag is too long and stuffed with too many keywords and contains keyword repetition which may trigger search engine spam filters.

3) Your META Description Tag isn't enticing enough and contains highly generic keywords which won't attract buyers for your individual products. Your Description Tag is often used by search engines and directories to list your site so you want to ensure it is written in a way that attracts clicks.

4) You use the same Title and META Tags on EVERY page of your site! You should create tailored Title and META tags for each and every page of your site, based on keyword relevant to the page content. That way you are creating multiple entrances into your site instead of relying on the front door.

5) Your site contains query strings and presents dynamic content for each page (e.g. http://www.shopitonline.co.uk/default.asp?cat=43), meaning some search engines will have difficulty finding all your content and treat your site as having a single page. If you don't want to redesign the site, you should consider using flat HTML pages for your most important category content or integrating a parameter workaround to switch the dynamic URLs into static ones.

6) I know your site is a directory, but you are trying to target too many generic products and categories with a single set of Title and META Tags. This is a complete waste of time. You should be dividing your content into various themes and optimizing each area for keywords relating to that theme.

In relation to gaining more traffic - I notice your link popularity scores are pretty low. You probably need to conduct a long term link building campaign and attract one-way incoming links from high quality sites and other directories. Try contacting sites that contain large lists of directories and search engines and asking them to link to you. You could also try a Pay-Per-Click advertising campaign on Google AdWords and/or Yahoo! Search Marketing to promote your free directory submission.

Good Luck!

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Melbourne Rocks!

Wow, Melbourne totally rocks! My trip was fantastic, despite the fact it was too short. Didn't win at the casino but had a blissful visit to the Aurora Spa and a decadent High Tea the Windsor. Who would have thought that two small women could work their way through a three layer tray of cakes, scones and sandwiches? We even caught a fine gig at Australia's best jazz club: Bennets Lane.

And the shopping? Divine. I won't reveal the damage to my credit card, but let's just say I checked through an extra bag on the way home. A real highlight of the trip was catching up with fellow SEO and cre8asite forums buddy Sophie from ThinkProspect whom I hadn't seen in person for over five years. We made up for it though - spending three hours catching up and gossiping over lunch and a few glasses of wine. I wouldn't be surprised if half the SEO community felt their ears burning that day!

So I'm well rested now and feel better able to tackle the ridiculous amount of work in my In-Tray. Stay tuned for Q and A's later today.

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Blog Break

I am in desperate need of some R and R so I'm taking off tomorrow for a week of girlie pampering in Melbourne with my sister. On the agenda is a visit to the Aurora Spa, High Tea at the Windsor, lunch with forum buddy sanity (Sophie) and a few games of roulette at Crown Casino.

Assuming I recover on the weekend, I'll catch you all on Monday and I promise to make it a bumper FAQ edition.

The Porkers Apologize

If you've been following the whole pork vs boobs saga I posted about yesterday, you might be interested to know that Jennifer Laycock has received a formal apology from Steve Murphy, the Pork Board's CEO.

To their credit, the Pork Board has also made sure that all persons who complained about their approach to The Lactivist, (and there were a LOT of complaints), received a polite, measured email response from Mr Murphy:

"Thank you for your email to the National Pork Board. We appreciate you taking the time to send us an email regarding our communication with "The Lactivist" webstore on CafePress.com about our trademark rights.

It is important to understand that our lawyer’s correspondence to Ms. Laycock was in no way intended to challenge or demean breastfeeding or those who support it. This correspondence is about defending our trademark and the National Pork Board's responsibility to protect pork industry investments on behalf of the 70,000 US pork producers we represent. The Other White Meat® is a pork industry trademark whose value was built slowly and thoughtfully over 20 years, paid for by producer’s hard-earned dollars. Any infringement on that mark would substantially lessen its value and impact for US pork producers.

It’s also important to understand that the National Pork Board cannot pick and choose which infringement challenges it decides to address. We have a responsibility to the industry to challenge all viable infringements (and we do so on a weekly basis) or face the possibility of losing trademark protection and allowing the industry’s valued trademark to become public domain, and thus worthless.

Again, the National Pork Board takes no issue with your important cause. Our interest here was in protecting US pork producer’s investment in The Other White Meat® trademark. We apologize if our response seemed impersonal or harsh; that was not our intent. We will use all feedback that we receive to improve our communication processes in the future. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.

Sincerely,


Steve Murphy
Chief Executive Officer
The National Pork Board"

Their choice of legal team may be questionable, but the Pork Board's public relations team seem to know exactly what they are doing. They are in full damage control mode and are doing a jolly good job of mopping up the PR mess before it spreads too far.

As a former PR consultant myself, I tip my hat at them. Having the apology come from the very top is smart. It demonstrates how seriously they are taking the complaints. The wording of the complainant response is polite and restrained. Addressing each and every complainer personally is impressive. I dread to think how many flames they received in their in-box. It would've been tempting to ignore them all and issue some stock standard release. You can bet that somebody has been working overtime since this thing bubbled over.

This whole situation underscores the growing importance of online reputation management. SEO players such as Andy Beal recognized the potential growth in ORM a long time ago. But I wonder how many PR agencies offer this service? You can be sure I'll be adding ORM to my own service offerings this year.

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US Pork Board Offended by Breastfeeding

Some days a story comes along that is every blogger's dream. Today is such a day. I've just heard that wonderblogger, supermom and breastfeeding advocate Jennifer Laycock has been threatened, (see Back Off National Pork Board), with legal action by the National Pork Board of America for (wait for it) allegedly stealing their pro-pork slogan "Pork: The Other White Meat".

Yes, you read right ladies and gentlemen. It seems that the guys in the big chairs at the Pork Board were offended by Jennifer's irreverant pro-breastfeeding t-shirts, in particular one that read "The Other White Milk" and felt they could justify legal bullying to make her stop selling them (and cease raising money for her local milk bank). But it gets better - here's a quote from the letter Jenn received from the Pork Board's legal counsel:

"...your use of this slogan also tarnishes the good reputation of the National Pork Board's mark in light of your apparent attempt to promote the use of breastmilk beyond merely for infant consumption..."

So apparently, staff at the Pork Board think that Jennifer's t-shirts are promoting some kind of kinky breastmilk fetish. Either that or the Pork Board are SO offended by the concept of breastfeeding mothers, that they feel any association with them would tarnish their reputation. I don't know which is worse!

I might have thought the Pork Board's request was reasonable if people could easily confuse Jenn's parody with their slogan and if she was selling a related product. But there's no confusing the two. Jennifer is promoting a non-profit organization that contributes to infant well-being and the Pork Board are promoting the slaughter and consumption of innocent animals. Yet they take offence at HER! It's priceless.

Apparently Jenn only sold the one version of that shirt but the item has already been removed by Cafe Press from her web store without Jennifer's permission, probably after contact by the porkies. You KNOW that whoever owns that shirt (?) is one happy purchaser right now. There will probably be people lining up at the door to buy Jenn's other shirts as a result of this. And all thanks to the Pork Board. As Danny Sullivan pointed out, the Pork Board's letter to Jennifer tarnished their reputation far more than her t-shirts could have.

Care to join Jenn's cause? I am going to lead the charge and go and purchase that NIP/SUCK shirt from The Lactivist that I've had my eye on for a while. Anyone else? You can also contact the Pork Board directly and tell them what you think. Let's poke those porkies and see if they squeal.

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Q and A: Is the Google PageRank update over?

Dear Kalena...

Is the google-pagerank update over? Or its still going on. Can you tell us something about it?

Thanks and Best Regards
Avik

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Avik

I've no idea. I don't spend a lot of time tracking database shuffles and PageRank updates. I'd rather spend my time working on my site to make it more user-friendly or up to date.

That said, I did notice a change in the Google Toolbar PR ranking for each of my sites over the past week or so. I don't know if it's a permanent change but I don't spend too much time fixating on the little green bar. It's not an accurate indicator of your true Google PageRank, only a very broad approximation. Don't sweat the small stuff Avik - just make your site a better place for your visitors and the search engine rankings will follow.

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