password
username
Sponsored by CakeMail, an email marketing software.
Newsletter preview


~~~High Rankings Advisor - Issue No. 217~~~

Your Host: Jill Whalen [jill@highrankings.com]

________________________________________________________

~~~IN TODAY'S ADVISOR~~~

*This Week's Sponsors:
----> ProfitChoice
----> Successful PPC Ads

*Search Engine Marketing:
----> PR Popping
----> DMOZ Description
----> Static-seeming Sites

*Stuff You Might Like:
----> Search Engine Wiki
----> ClickTracks, KeywordDiscovery & Campaign Management

*High Rankings Forum Thread of the Week:
----> Seo Expert Rant, Arrrghhh!

*Advisor Wrap-up:
----> New High Rankings Website Coming Soon!
________________________________________________________

~~~Introductory Comments~~~

Hey everyone! Got some diverse Q&A for you today, so let's get straight to
it. - Jill


~~~Search Engine Marketing Issues~~~

++PR Popping++

Hi Jill,

Thanks for your coverage over what Google has done to remove incentive for
link farming. ("Google's Paid-link Smack in the Face"
.)

Two weeks ago, my Google PR was still at 0/10. We have a 6-month-old site,
for which I've been doing many of the "slow growth" SEO tactics as my time
allows.

This week, I find that my Google PR is now 5/10. I've checked it a couple
of times a day for a few days.

Have you heard of such a thing...that suddenly, everything "pops" into place
and this [largely meaningless] number can jump like that? Or have the
recent PR modifications caused some sites to abruptly advance?

I have another non-commercial site, and it was at a 2/10 PR for more than a
year. It's now suddenly 3/10 with no additional work by me.

Thanks for any insight!

Eric

++Jill's Response++

Hi Eric,

What you're seeing is the once-a-year-or-so Google toolbar PR update.
Toolbar PageRank hadn't been updated in ages, so you didn't actually get to
see your home page PR become a 1, 2, 3, and 4, but you can rest assured that
it did indeed go through those stages behind the scenes. So yes, it makes
perfect sense that yours would appear to suddenly "pop" once the update did
occur -- assuming you have a great site that people are linking to.

This is the reason why there's no sense in even looking at your toolbar PR,
because you'll never truly know what your real PR is. I'd suggest even
disabling that aspect of your Google toolbar if it's causing an unnecessary
distraction!

Best,

Jill


Share your comments and thoughts here:




_________ Offer expires 11/23/07_____________________adv.

Get 25 Bonus Submissions with your order of 300 Directories
__________________________________________________

If you are an SEO, then you need an easy and foolproof way to
generate inbound links to your clients' sites fast.

ProfitChoice has accumulated an influential database of SEO-
friendly directories that are actively managed, and keep your
clients' sites out of 'bad' neighborhoods. All submissions are
done by hand, so you won't get blacklisted for using automated
systems. Best of all, you can avoid wasting time with repetitive
tasks like link-building.

Learn more at:
http://www.profitchoice.com/products/web_directory_submissions.php
__________________________________________________


++DMOZ Description++

Hi Jill,

I just want to run something by you...

It appears the text Google is now showing [for a particular keyword phrase]
is from our DMOZ directory listing. Until very recently (and while our
listing position was as good as it is now) Google was showing the first few
words of text from the body of our home page.

So now the question is should we leave everything as is and enjoy the good
listing position, but put up with the less than ideal text in the search
results, or should we insert a good meta description and hope Google uses it
in our search results without negatively impacting our position?

Hope all is well with you!

Thanks!

Richard

++Jill's Response++

Hi Richard,

The position of your page in the search results for your keyword phrase
isn't affected by that DMOZ description. Your position should be the same
regardless of what description is shown in the search results.

I would highly suggest adding the "NoODP" Meta tag to your home page to stop
Google from using the DMOZ description since it's generally not the best one
to have showing in the search results.

The syntax for the tag is as follows:



If you have a Yahoo directory listing as well, you may want to also add
"NoYDIR" to the Meta tag, which would look like this:



We have an old forum thread with more info on this here:
.

You should definitely add a good Meta description tag as well. If you add
the keyword phrase to it (the phrase that's currently triggering the DMOZ
description) there's a good chance this will show up as your new description
sometime after the next Google crawl.

As an aside, I've been lax with Meta descriptions on our own website's
pages, but they are well worth the few minutes of effort to create. Our SEO
associate Jesse noticed the other day that the High Rankings Forum was
showing a lousy description when it showed up in the search results for "SEO
Forum" and that was because we had never applied a Meta description tag to
it. It is also showing its DMOZ description when it shows up for "Search
Engine Optimization Forum" because we had never applied the NoODP tag
either. So we added a Meta description that utilized the phrase "SEO forum"
and will see if it makes a difference in a few days. For now, I didn't
bother to add the NoODP tag because our DMOZ description actually isn't too
bad, but I may go back and fix that when I have some extra time.

Hope this helps!

Best,

Jill

Share your comments and thoughts here:



____________ Successful PPC Ads_____________________adv.

Here's the Easy Way To Write PPC Ads
__________________________________________________

Learn the tested, step-by-step method for easily writing successful
PPC ads. Real-world case studies.

Dozens of examples. Plus lists, charts, and techniques from SEO
copywriter Karon Thackston that help you squeeze more message
into less space.

Order now!
__________________________________________________


++Static-seeming Sites++

Hi Jill,

I attended your SEO seminar in July in Denver. I spoke to you about SEO for
dynamic sites, but I have a further question for you regarding that topic.
If needed, I am willing to pay for a tele-clinic to discuss.

My company is considering building some new sites where content is loaded
from a database. We don't have to, though. We plan on using static URLs no
matter what, but we are wondering if it matters whether the content comes
from static, unique HTML files, or if the HTML page is served from a
database. The content won't be changing often.

Can Google tell if the content is from a database? Since we're building new
sites, we want to choose the site architecture that is optimal for SEO.

I appreciate your advice on the matter.

Thank you!!!!

Best,

Casey

++Jill's Response++

Hi Casey,

Nice to hear from you!

There's no reason to be concerned with your site having content that's
pulled from a database. Practically every site online these days works that
way. It's not a problem at all. Even dynamic-looking URLs with question
marks and other parameters are not a problem for search engines these days,
as long as you keep the parameters to a minimum. Most SEOs recommend no more
than 3 parameters in a URL query string.

With dynamic websites that have content pulled from a database, you just
need to make sure that you have links to whatever content you want people
and search engines to see. In other words, you don't want to design your
website so that the only way to view the products and services is via a
site-search box. Search engine robots can't perform searches on your site,
so they would never be able to find your content that way. The same goes
for some types of drop-down menus.

But if you design your website so that you have spiderable navigation with
links to pages full of information, even though those pages are dynamically
created on the fly, they will essentially appear to be static HTML pages to
the search engines and your human visitors.

In case you're wondering, you don't need to worry about the extensions of
your pages either. It makes no difference to the search engines whether
page names end in .htm, .html, .php, .cfm, .asp, .aspx, or any other
extension (even made-up ones!).

Hope this helps!

Best,

Jill

Share your comments and thoughts here:



(P.S. If anyone would like to republish any of the above Q&A articles,
please email me your request and where it will reside, and I'll send you a
short bio you can use with it for your site.)


~~~Stuff You Might Like~~~

++Search Engine Wiki++

Just letting you know that Search Engine College has launched Search Engine
Wiki, the world's first vertical wiki dedicated to search engines and search
engine marketing. My search marketing colleague from the other side of the
world, Kalena Jordan, told me that the idea behind Search Engine Wiki is to
provide a collaborative online library of search engine marketing (SEM)
resources.

Check it out when you get a chance: .


++ ClickTracks, KeywordDiscovery & Campaign Management ++

Lyris, Inc. is combining the power of keyword research from Trellian's
KeywordDiscovery, PPC campaign management functionality, and ClickTracks
into one powerful bid-management tool called "BidHero."

Sounds like a winning combo to me! Be one of the first to check out this
newly released product here: .



~~~High Rankings Forum Thread of the Week~~~

++Seo Expert Rant, Arrrghhh!++

Forum Member "Deverill" is ticked off at the SEO guy in his office due to
some strange advice he is giving. Read the rant and share your own comments
here:



~~~Advisor Wrap-up~~~

That's all for today!

We've been hard at work on the completely updated and redesigned High
Rankings website. It's taken a lot longer than expected, but we're starting
to see an end in sight and hope to have things up and running sometime over
the next few weeks. It's going to be a dramatic change, and I'm glad I have
had all these months to get used to it myself. (Yes, I'm one of those who
resist change with every fiber of my being.) But now that it's nearly done,
I have to say I'm extremely pleased with how it's come out. The new
branding and website should carry us far into the 21st century (as you know
I won't change it again until the 22nd century ;).

We've been very happy with the website development company that worked on
our site, Newfangled Web Factory. If you're in the market for a new
website, complete with the best content-management system I've seen yet,
then check them out here: . Be sure to tell 'em
Jill sent ya!

That's all for now, catch you in 2. - Jill



Today's issue will be available in the archives at the following URL:
http://www.highrankings.com/advisor/

--
Please send all questions to mailto:newsletter@highrankings.com.

If you prefer RSS/XML please feel free to use our newsfeed here:
http://www.highrankings.com/advisor/feed/

I do send personal replies as time allows; however, I do not give out
individual site critiques for free. Please check out my various SEO
services if you're interested in a complete review of your site.

Visit the High Rankings Advisor website at
http://www.highrankings.com/advisor.htm
and don't forget to check out the High Rankings Search Engine Optimization
Forum at:
.

Best Regards,

Jill Whalen
http://www.highrankings.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The High Rankings Advisor is a free email newsletter discussing the latest
news and information in the world of search marketing.


--
To ***/change profile:
http://www.listcast.com/x?u=66532938f-a6080fb6

To subscribe:
http://www.listcast.com/x?oid=18425d

Paid sponsor ads are clearly marked as advertisements and neither the
High Rankings® Advisor nor Jill Whalen take any responsibility for the
claims made within these ads, nor the Web sites they point to. Paid ads
do not constitute an endorsement for the products, services or companies
advertising in the newsletter. Please visit our sponsors and use your
own due diligence for any purchases you make on the Internet. Feel free
to forward this email in its entirety to anyone you feel might be
interested in it.

Copyright 2007 High Rankings Advisor 116 Cochituate Rd.; Framingham, MA
01701


Email list management powered by Listcast