Search Engines

Before we begin - What is a Sitemap?

Google first introduced Sitemaps in June 2005 so web publishers could publish lists of links from their sites. Shortly afterward, MSN and Yahoo announced joint support for the Sitemaps protocol along with Google. Sitemaps are now everywhere on the net, not just on the corporate business site.

So, a Sitemap is an XML file that lists all the URLs of your website with additional metadata about each URL. It is useful for every site (or blog) to have a sitemap because it is an easy way to keep the search engines informed on when a page was last updated, how often it is updated, and how important it is in relation to the other URLs of your site.

What are the Benefits of a Sitemap?

1.    Sitemaps make your site more search engine friendly.

The more friendly your site is to the search engines, the more visible your site becomes.  When you create new content, the search engine crawlers (also known as “spiders”) can discover that content more rapidly through the use of a sitemap.

2.    Sitemaps help make your bandwidth usage more efficient.

When new content is created, search engines can find it more rapidly with a Sitemap and avoid having to crawl unchanged pages. This is especially useful for large sites with dynamic content. Search engine spiders will be able to quickly discover what is new and what hasn’t changed without scanning thousands of pages.

3.    Help index large sites.

For sites that have a large archive or a database of resources, it is sometimes very difficult to return quality search results for deep pages. If your pages are not well linked to one another, or your site uses AJAX or Flash that is not visible to the search engines, a Sitemap will help the search engines find the content.

4.    Find new sites sooner.

If your site is new and has few links to it, submitting a Sitemap will help the search engines discover it faster.
Please note that submitting and/or using a Sitemap does not guarantee inclusion in any search engine, it is just a way to help the web crawlers find all your site pages.

But - this is only the beginning. What types of tools, process can you use - if you decide to utilize these options?

Click for More…

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I’ve checked with folks at Google and they confirmed that http://too.blogspot.com/ is Sergey Brin’s blog. The name “too” reflects Sergey’s additional life outside work. One of his first posts is about the fact that he might be more likely to develop Parkinson’s Disease when he’s older. That’s based on data from 23andMe, the personal genetics company co-founded by Sergey’s wife Anne Wojcicki. It’s a serious reminder that healthiness is one of the top issues for anyone.

I’m sure that lots of people will flood Sergey with advice like “Add Google Analytics to that blog!” or suggest how to tweak his blog template or offer him free SEO tips. Personally, I’m just glad that Sergey is blogging. I think it’s a great idea and I hope that he keeps doing it. Sergey, welcome to the blogosphere.

Update: I didn’t even think to check before posting, but Sergey already has Google Analytics installed on his blog. He’s ahead of the game.

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A few neat Chrome things that I’ve seen recently:

CrossOver ported the open-source Chromium browser over to Mac and Linux using Wine. Bear in mind that this is more of a proof-of-concept and not the official version, but you can still download the binaries and play with it.

If you like the look and feel of Chrome but can’t leave your Firefox 3 extensions behind, someone made a Chrome lookalike extension so that Firefox looks like Chrome.

Or if you want to go the other direction, you can make Chrome look like Firefox3:

Lots of different places, including ChromeSpot, talk about how to do other themes, from “Galaxy” to the Boston Red Sox.

Currently Chrome doesn’t have support for extensions such as Greasemonkey that lets users do client-side modifications of web pages. But Kazuho Oku has written a neat way to get Greasemonkey-like functionality out of Chrome. Oku calls it Greasemetal. How does it work, when Chrome doesn’t support extensions yet? I’ll let the author tell you:

1. setup a local web server that sends userscripts to Google Chrome
2. launch Google Chrome specifying the browser to connect its AutomationProxy (an interprocess communication channel of the web browser implemented for automated UI tests) to Greasemetal
3. periodically execute JavaScript in each browser tab that inserts

(hat tip to Mashable on Greasemetal)

As you might imagine, all of this stuff might break in various weird and wild ways, but that’s part of the fun of tinkering. If you want to play it safer, you can read great Chrome tips from Lifehacker, Google OS, or Google Blogoscoped.

And since you’ve read all the way to the bottom, let me mention a tip that I haven’t seen widely mentioned. In Chrome, Control-V will paste from your clipboard and preserve formatting. If you use Control-Shift-V, only the text will be pasted.

Let me show you what I mean. There’s a site called Sphinn that lets you comment on search news, but the comment box allows rich formatting. In this image, I’ve highlighted a comment about Chrome and pasted the whole thing into the comment box with Control-V:

Now if I only wanted to paste the raw text that I highlighted, here’s what happens when I use Control-Shift-V:

This can be handy for some programs such as Google Docs that let you paste rich objects like images and formatting–but sometimes you want to paste only the text.

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by Stoney deGeyter

This is a continuation of a series of website marketing checklists. Check out all Web Marketing Checklists in this series.

What this is about: This list covers items regarding the actual checkout process of the shopping experience, after products are added and the visitor moves to complete the purchase of the items in the cart.

Why this is important: If visitors only add products to the cart but abandon the cart or get confused in the checkout process conversions will be low as will profit. The more proper cues you can provide that give the shopper confidence and assurances about their purchase, the less likely they will be to dump the cart or lose interest before closing he deal.

What to look for:

• No hidden fees: Don’t use the checkout process to add additional hidden fees. All fees should be spelled out in the basket page.
• No pre-registration: Don’t require shoppers to register before purchasing. Let them fill out the form and then add a password at the end of the process.
• Keep checkout process short: The fewer steps the shopper has to take to purchase the less likely they will be to abandon the shopping process.
• Show benefits of registration: At end of process, show benefits to being a registered customer:

  • Faster checkout in future: They won’t have to fill out all the information each time they order.
  • Access to order history: Shoppers have access to complete order history at any time.
  • Check order status: Status of order is available anytime shoppers login.
  • Saved for later information: They can buy some products now and save others for purchase another time.
  • Access to special promotions: Shoppers will be provided special offers and discounts that they can benefit from.
  • Personalization: They will have a more personalized shopping experience based on their order history.
  • Joining a community: If fitting, point out the community that user will join once registering.

• Show checkout progress meter: When checking out requires multiple steps, make sure the number of steps is mapped out throughout the process, identifying each current step along the way.
• Effective after-order follow-up: The order is not the end, be sure to provide sufficient after-order follow-up to keep involved with the purchaser.
• Receipt / Confirmation: Provide a order confirmation receipt allowing the shopper to review the order, pricing and products purchased.

  • Printable: Receipt should be web-based and printable for easy record keeping.
  • Emailed: Email a copy of the receipt to the shopper.
  • Thank you message: Provide a strong message of thanks for the shopper. Providing additional information about customer satisfaction is a good idea.
  • Order number: Receipt should have the order number for easy follow up reference.
  • Order date: Provide the date the order was placed with the confirmation.
  • Items purchased: List all items purchased including descriptions and links.
  • Expected delivery date: If order cannot ship right away, provide a date in which shipment can be expected to go out.
  • Payment method: Note method of payment, including credit card type and last numbers of credit card if applicable.
  • Cancellation policy: Provide information or links to order cancellation policies.
  • How to cancel: Provide additional information on the steps necessary to cancel the order if necessary (different from policies).
  • Return policy: Provide information or links to order return policies. This should also include a return address.
  • Address return costs: Be sure to address all concerns regarding the costs of returns as applicable.
  • After-sale guarantees: Provide information on your customer satisfaction guarantees as well as any warranties provided.

Did I miss anything? Add to this list with your comments below.

Free White Paper: How to Optimize for Google
A free 10 page white paper on how to optimize a website on Google the right way - so the website succeeds.

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by Karri Flatla

When I finally did get on the micro blogging bandwagon (and no, I don’t count Facebook, not even the “new” one), I put my profile on pretty much all of the Twitter-ish sites I could find. Hey, why not? It’s sort of like one of those drinking games where you do a bunch of different shooters in about half and hour, realize most of them just make you want to throw up and go back to your favourite beer the following Saturday.

My favourite beer is Twitter. My favourite shooter is Ping.fm. Both have a special place in my repertoire, and I’ve not puked even once. A veteran knows how to pace herself. Here’s what works for me in the micro blogosphere, hangover free:

1) Twitter is my water cooler. (And yes, I was calling it that BEFORE Joel Comm or anyone else called it that. So there.) As such, it has a special place on my desktop via the twhirl app. Tried others. Came back to twhirl. So, I take a sip of water often throughout the day, and if I see a good conversation going on “over there,” I park myself at the water cooler for a few, give and get some advice, be entertained, gossip a little about my own life and then it’s back to work. Refreshing without feeling like I’m drowning.

2) Ping.fm is my broadcast. It’s no micro blogging tool, and it wasn’t meant to be one. It’s  for blasting a short message that you want everyone you know and might want to know a little better to read. I use Ping.fm for general, marketing related communications as well as other juicy bits that may be of interest to my kin. And when I Ping I Ping it good. I Ping LinkedIn, Facebook (uh, the new one), Twitter, Plurk, Pownce, Plaxo and so on.

There are so many ways to slice up the micro blogging pie. At the end of the day though, Twitter is where I hang out. It’s my community. Maybe Bebo is yours. (What’s a Bebo?) Ping.fm is what its name implies: a way to reach a lot of people without getting too personal. Sort of like radio. 

The best way to illustrate my micro blogging strategy(?) would be with examples.

Twitter Post Examples:

• Want to try the new Ping.fm for micro blogging en mass? It’s in beta. DM me for the code.
• My laptop would make a better doorstop. Where are the best laptop deals in Canada online?
• The next kid that pulls the cord on my modem is getting put up for adoption. Takers?
• Woohoo! Just signed a new client who loved the website audit we did. Nice lead gen tool.

Ping.fm Post Examples:

• New Search Engine Guide post - Bet You Didn’t Know Micro Blogging Could Be This Simple - http://searchengineguide.com/karri-flatla/etc
• Star Wars-meets-Izzy-Izzard skit in Lego. Funniest thing I’ve ever seen on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw [No really, you do have to see it].
• Latest newsletter went out today. New whatever offered for download to all subscribers.
• If you like purple widgets, Digg this - http://www.somewebsite.com/somepressrelease.html

See? Nuthin’ hard about this micro blogging thing. We’re all connected now, and that doesn’t have to be overhwhelming. Just pick your pleasure on the micro stuff and stick with it (i.e. Twitter for me). And Ping the macro once a day or once a week. No hangovers. No headaches. No hassles.

Free White Paper: How to Optimize for Google
A free 10 page white paper on how to optimize a website on Google the right way - so the website succeeds.

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Yahoo has teamed up with Rhapsody to enable users to listen to the full copies of songs right on the Yahoo! Search results page. This is in addition to the other Rhapsody collaboration which provides music artist shortcut on the page. Whereas before, Yahoo search users can only find quick details about artists, this time whenever a user search for an artists or a particular song, a Rhapsody music player will pop out of the screen to enable them to listen to the full version of the songs. (more…)

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As expected, the latest data from comScore shows that Google once again got the biggest chunk of the search market share for August and even managed to register a 1.1% increase from last month’s 61.9% to 63%. And we don’t have to guess who suffered from Google’s gain, Yahoo with a .9% decrease from last month’s 20.5% to 19.6% and Microsoft with .6% decrease from 8.9% to this month’s 8.3%.

Both Ask Network and AOL got a slight increase with .3% (4.5%-4.8%) and .1% (4.2%-4.3%)  respectively . (more…)

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Last week Jane posted a must-read overview of various URL shorteners and WebproWorld.com forum thread discussed the SEO benefit of TinyURL and similar services (there is no SEO benefit by the way). I think this is hot enough topic to discuss it at SEJ also.

Why URL Shortening Services Exist?

• For usability purposes: most people are more inclined to click a shorter URL (example: email clients will break a too long URL up by line making it less clickable);
• New technology oriented: with social networking or “microblogging” sites (e.g. Twitter and Plurk) that have strict character limits per message, URL shorteners allow to send over long URLs or say more within one message.
• To disguise destination links: to mask affiliate links or ad-tracking codes.

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Today I want to share something on SEO. Here I am comparing SEO with Doctors, Farmers, War and Cricket.

• SEO is like Doctors
• SEO is like Farmers
• SEO is like War
• SEO is like Cricket

[Note : This is a fun Friday piece from Gunjan, it may not be the best grammar, but the comparisons are cute - Loren]

SEO is like the Doctor:

Why I am comparing them with Doctors? There are so many similarities in SEOs and Doctors. Doctors analyzing the health of the Human body. While SEOs analysing the health of the Website like how much pages site have, how many back links site have, how many years old website, What is PR of the website etc.

After the analysing the health of the human body doctors gives the medicine or treatment and after the analysing of website SEO gives the treatment to website like need to increase back links, need to change meta details, need to change content etc. Sometimes the doctor can see the result of medicine if that medicine is not effective for that human then the doctor will change the medicine.

Same is the case of SEO they will also see the result of their work after some times. If that treatment is not effective for website then they will start other treatment or experiment. Sometimes for doctors some of diseases are new and there are no medicines for that disease, same in case of SEO sometimes there are some of issues are new and may be there are no cure.
(more…)

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