A number of well known brands and companies have some pretty negative results that appear on the first page of Google's search results.
Take a look at the results for retailers like dabs.com and laptops direct, and you'll see a number of negative mentions, mainly from dissatisfied customers, in the first ten results.
So what is the best way to deal with this problem? There is no way to make these kinds of negative results disappear and, in the case of complaints from unhappy customers, the best way is to handle these problems before they are forced to put their opinions on forums and review sites.
But what you can do is to try to populate as much of the first page of Google as you can with more positive or neutral mentions of your brand.
Here are a few ways to achieve this:
Use Google Alerts
Setting up a Google Alert for your company or product name will help you to monitor your online reputation. These alerts inform you when your brand is mentioned in blogs, news stories and forums, enabling you to respond quickly to any new issues. It is also worth setting up alerts for mentions of prominent company executives.
Start a company blog
A company blog should quickly rank well in Google, and is a great way of managing your reputation.
As well as being a source of more positive content about your company, a blog can be used to openly respond to customer complaints and feedback, and may even help to prevent further negative mentions on forums.
Promote your brand on social media sites
Results from sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Wikipedia tend to rank well in Google, as does YouTube, especially with Universal Search, so creating profiles and content on these sites will go some way to moving negative mentions down the search rankings. Twitter is another site that ranks very well.
Share photos on Flickr
As with social media sites, Flickr ranks well on Google, so create an account, upload some photos of your company and its products, label them, and this will create more positive content for Google to index.
Again, with the introduction of Universal Search, images will be more prominent in the search results pages.
Create a sub-domain
Adding a sub-domain to your site can get you an extra result in Google, as the search engine classes these as being separate from the main site. This could be for careers, corporate info etc.
Write useful content
This should be done on your main website, as well as blogs. Quality content will find its way to the top of the search results, and will attract more links as a result.
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Using Directories For SEO Benefits
Links are one of the most important parts of successfully running a search engine optimization campaign. As a matter of fact, having well-placed links will do a lot to help to push your website to the top of the search engine result pages for the keywords of your choice. Although there are many different ways for you to acquire these links, there are some ways which are almost automated in nature. By taking advantage of every aspect of your link building campaign, you can not only get your website listed in the search engines quickly, you can also be benefited by the incoming links for a long time to come.
One of the easiest forms of linking that exists is that which is found in directory submissions. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of directories for you to choose from on the Internet where you can post a link to your website. Some of these directories are free to post links and others charge a fee, either a one time fee or a recurring fee. It is up to you to decide if it is worth the effort to post to the free directories and if it is worth the cost to post to some of the paid directories.
Some of the paid directories are very important for you to be listed in, regardless of what the price is. This is especially the case if you are a little bit experienced with search engine optimization and are fairly confident in your ability to get your website listed well on the search engines from your efforts. Some of the paid directories that you want to make sure you're part of include Yahoo and Joeant.com. Yahoo is fairly expensive at $299 a year but by having a link in the Yahoo Directory, you will be giving your SEO efforts of major shot in the arm. Popular directories such as Joeant are an excellent way for you to position yourself with some back links as well.
Submitting your website to the free directories is also an excellent way to give yourself a boost in the SERPS as well as getting yourself listed on the search engines initially. Google does not necessarily give as much weight to these free search engine submissions but remember, Google is not the only kid on the block. Yahoo also has the ability to send you a massive amount of traffic if you're positioned well in their search engine results and MSN can send you traffic as well. Each of these lesser search engines will place a lot of weight on many incoming links from these free directories.
All in all, submitting to directories, whether free or paid is an excellent way to set yourself up for success in your search engine optimization efforts. Make sure, however, that you don't stop with just a few simple directory submissions. Make it a part of your overall efforts to continue improving on your rankings in the search engines.
One of the easiest forms of linking that exists is that which is found in directory submissions. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of directories for you to choose from on the Internet where you can post a link to your website. Some of these directories are free to post links and others charge a fee, either a one time fee or a recurring fee. It is up to you to decide if it is worth the effort to post to the free directories and if it is worth the cost to post to some of the paid directories.
Some of the paid directories are very important for you to be listed in, regardless of what the price is. This is especially the case if you are a little bit experienced with search engine optimization and are fairly confident in your ability to get your website listed well on the search engines from your efforts. Some of the paid directories that you want to make sure you're part of include Yahoo and Joeant.com. Yahoo is fairly expensive at $299 a year but by having a link in the Yahoo Directory, you will be giving your SEO efforts of major shot in the arm. Popular directories such as Joeant are an excellent way for you to position yourself with some back links as well.
Submitting your website to the free directories is also an excellent way to give yourself a boost in the SERPS as well as getting yourself listed on the search engines initially. Google does not necessarily give as much weight to these free search engine submissions but remember, Google is not the only kid on the block. Yahoo also has the ability to send you a massive amount of traffic if you're positioned well in their search engine results and MSN can send you traffic as well. Each of these lesser search engines will place a lot of weight on many incoming links from these free directories.
All in all, submitting to directories, whether free or paid is an excellent way to set yourself up for success in your search engine optimization efforts. Make sure, however, that you don't stop with just a few simple directory submissions. Make it a part of your overall efforts to continue improving on your rankings in the search engines.
SEO Vs PPC
The war is on! Yes! The hottest war over the internet is not between businesses but between two options of online marketing: SEO and PPC. According to a research, almost 85% of internet visitors start their product or service or information search using some of the top search engine like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. All internet users while looking for relevant information type a word that is more commonly known as the keyword and it helps search engines to bring up result pages that have natural organic listings as well as pay per click (PPC) advertisements.
SEO Vs PPC
SEO and PPC are two different sides of the same coin and are an integral part of major Search Engines and can increase your overall brand visibility. According to a research, 60% of search engine visibility will depend on effective SEO vis-à-vis PPC. The average states that almost 70% of all clicks received from various search engines take place through SEO. The fact of the matter is that SEO clicks are able to convert 25% more than PPC clicks according to BusinessWeek. A Marketing Sherpa study has shown that most organic referrals are able to convert at 4.2% vis-à-vis 3.6% for PPC.
SEO
Let us look at what are the different benefits of using SEO:
1. Most of the listings through SEO campaigns have a definite psychological advantage vis-à-vis sponsored links.
2. SEO is a long-term investment
3. It has recorded some of the highest conversion rates as well as best ROI
4. SEO can increase your PageRank
5. Brands get top positions so searchers trust more on organic search results.
6. If you are planning to go with SEO on long-term then it will be cheaper vis-à-vis Pay Per Click.
7. SEO can get you or your business almost 30 times the traffic as compared to sponsored links for the same cost.
Some of the drawbacks of SEO include:
• SEO takes more time to fall into place and provide good returns as compared to PPC
• You will not be guaranteed of Top Rank on Search engines always
• Determine the actual value of a high organic ranking is difficult
PPC
Now let us take a look at the various benefits of PPC:
1. Pay-per-click is a great option for a business looking for immediate exposure.
2. PPC campaigns work well with a bidding model i.e: you select the keyword and bid on it. The advertisement of the highest bidder will reflect at the top.
3. In PPC, you will have to pay only if a user clicks on your advertisement.
4. It is a good platform for testing the effectiveness of a new product
5. It is easy to measure the effectiveness of PPC
Some of the drawbacks of PPC include:
1. It is expensive on a long-term basis. Popular keywords can cost around $10 per click
2. The targeted traffic to your website will stop the moment you stop paying
3. You will need to manage your PPC campaign and keep a tab on the clicks vis-à-vis conversions
The crux of the matter is that you need to use SEO and PPC both if you want to keep ahead of the race.
SEO Vs PPC
SEO and PPC are two different sides of the same coin and are an integral part of major Search Engines and can increase your overall brand visibility. According to a research, 60% of search engine visibility will depend on effective SEO vis-à-vis PPC. The average states that almost 70% of all clicks received from various search engines take place through SEO. The fact of the matter is that SEO clicks are able to convert 25% more than PPC clicks according to BusinessWeek. A Marketing Sherpa study has shown that most organic referrals are able to convert at 4.2% vis-à-vis 3.6% for PPC.
SEO
Let us look at what are the different benefits of using SEO:
1. Most of the listings through SEO campaigns have a definite psychological advantage vis-à-vis sponsored links.
2. SEO is a long-term investment
3. It has recorded some of the highest conversion rates as well as best ROI
4. SEO can increase your PageRank
5. Brands get top positions so searchers trust more on organic search results.
6. If you are planning to go with SEO on long-term then it will be cheaper vis-à-vis Pay Per Click.
7. SEO can get you or your business almost 30 times the traffic as compared to sponsored links for the same cost.
Some of the drawbacks of SEO include:
• SEO takes more time to fall into place and provide good returns as compared to PPC
• You will not be guaranteed of Top Rank on Search engines always
• Determine the actual value of a high organic ranking is difficult
PPC
Now let us take a look at the various benefits of PPC:
1. Pay-per-click is a great option for a business looking for immediate exposure.
2. PPC campaigns work well with a bidding model i.e: you select the keyword and bid on it. The advertisement of the highest bidder will reflect at the top.
3. In PPC, you will have to pay only if a user clicks on your advertisement.
4. It is a good platform for testing the effectiveness of a new product
5. It is easy to measure the effectiveness of PPC
Some of the drawbacks of PPC include:
1. It is expensive on a long-term basis. Popular keywords can cost around $10 per click
2. The targeted traffic to your website will stop the moment you stop paying
3. You will need to manage your PPC campaign and keep a tab on the clicks vis-à-vis conversions
The crux of the matter is that you need to use SEO and PPC both if you want to keep ahead of the race.
Make Money From Forums
If you have a website about a topic you enjoy, you can make money from discussion forums. Talk, post links to your site, get traffic. Traffic means money, right? If not, try different affiliate programs or Google Adwords. The worst sites should get a couple cents per visitor. Now here's how to talk and make money.
Search "forum" plus the topic of your site on Google or Alta Vista. For my first site, I searched "backpacking + forum" and in the pages of results I found several good forums. I also searched related topics like "hiking" too. You can also check about.com, and other sites that have forums on many topics.
Registration is usually giving your email address and choosing a password. Some forums allow guests to post without registering. Once registered, browse the forum topics, and post a response to anything, just to "learn the ropes".
Income From Discussion Forums
The point of posting in forums is to get readers to come to your web site. Sure it's fun to give advice and discuss things of interest to you, but that's secondary. With that in mind, do the following:
1. Always link to your site. If they don't allow any links, find another forum.
2. Don't "spam." Sales pitches will be removed. Offer honest advice, or express an opinion, then sign off with your name and the link to your site.
3. Ask for help from others. This is an effective and acceptable way to "advertise." Enter a topic like "Can I get some advice?" and post something like, "I just started a meditation site. If some of you would visit and tell me what you think, I'd really appreciate it." Have a link to the site. People love to help, and to give opinions, and they'll click on those ads while they're at your site.
4. Look at total "views." Many forums show the total times each "thread" has been viewed. When you see some with many more than others, get in on those, or start a new thread on the same topic. Go where the traffic is, and get some of it.
I didn't like the idea of forums until I made a few posts, and saw my traffic and revenue climb for days afterwards. That convinced me. Just be polite, offer some value to others, and always have a link to your site. Many other secrets of using forums are covered in my newsletter, but this should be get you started. Talk and make money today.
Search "forum" plus the topic of your site on Google or Alta Vista. For my first site, I searched "backpacking + forum" and in the pages of results I found several good forums. I also searched related topics like "hiking" too. You can also check about.com, and other sites that have forums on many topics.
Registration is usually giving your email address and choosing a password. Some forums allow guests to post without registering. Once registered, browse the forum topics, and post a response to anything, just to "learn the ropes".
Income From Discussion Forums
The point of posting in forums is to get readers to come to your web site. Sure it's fun to give advice and discuss things of interest to you, but that's secondary. With that in mind, do the following:
1. Always link to your site. If they don't allow any links, find another forum.
2. Don't "spam." Sales pitches will be removed. Offer honest advice, or express an opinion, then sign off with your name and the link to your site.
3. Ask for help from others. This is an effective and acceptable way to "advertise." Enter a topic like "Can I get some advice?" and post something like, "I just started a meditation site. If some of you would visit and tell me what you think, I'd really appreciate it." Have a link to the site. People love to help, and to give opinions, and they'll click on those ads while they're at your site.
4. Look at total "views." Many forums show the total times each "thread" has been viewed. When you see some with many more than others, get in on those, or start a new thread on the same topic. Go where the traffic is, and get some of it.
I didn't like the idea of forums until I made a few posts, and saw my traffic and revenue climb for days afterwards. That convinced me. Just be polite, offer some value to others, and always have a link to your site. Many other secrets of using forums are covered in my newsletter, but this should be get you started. Talk and make money today.
ow to Make Money Online by Buying and Selling on eBay
Buying products on eBay marketplace then resell the products on the same marketplace has become one of the ways to make money on eBay. There are now a number of people doing this. eBay is their primary products source and also their primary marketplace to sell products.
eBay Buying
Nothing is complicated when buying products on eBay. Search for the products you like to sell and place your bid on them to buy the items. When finding products on eBay, one of the ideal sections to look for is the wholesale lots category of eBay. You may find some good deals there on an ongoing basis.
But keep in mind that the sellers typically auction large lots of products. If you just started in eBay, make sure you know what you are buying.
Don't place your bid too high to get the items that you want to sell. Your purchase price per item should be at 1/3 or lower of your selling price. The shipping, handling and insurance charges will drive up your cost. So, you should also take these charges into account when placing a bid to purchase your inventory on eBay. Many buyers like to wait until the auctions near ending to place a bid. You may need to watch your items closely and try to buy them at the last minute or two.
Besides the wholesale lots category of eBay. You should also check out other categories like cell phones, laptops, computers, electronics, video game and etc. People often auction their used items in these categories. You may find few months old cell phones or laptops selling at a great low price. Used and fully functioning video game consoles and electronic items sell for half price or lower. All these used items can be bought and resell on eBay for profits.
eBay Selling
Once you have purchased some items, you can start reselling them on eBay. Create an auction for each of your different items. Upload the photos that capture the different angles of your items. Write an attention-grabbing auction title and a clear description for your each auction. After setting up your eBay auctions, your products are up online and ready for sales.
You should try to limit your auctioning costs as these little costs can add up quickly and cut your profit especially if your product doesn’t sell. Gallery listings, special layouts and bold faced listings can make your auction special but they will cost your more money. So, it is necessary to control your costs of auctioning to make sure they don’t reduce your profit too much.
You can choose to use software that is very inexpensive or free which will help you list your items. Using the software you can create designer listings and add pictures without paying extra fees.
Then you need to set your policies for product shipping, return and refund; and decide if you want to ship the product outside your country. The next thing to think about is what payment methods you want to accept. PayPal is a safe and convenient payment processor. Many buyers prefer to use Paypal to make payment for their purchases. So, you should ready to accept Paypal. It could bring you more sales if you also accept other payment methods such as bank wire, check and etc.
Conclusion
Overall it is not difficult to set up an online business that makes money by buying and selling products on eBay and one good thing about this business is that you can start slow and keep you current full-time job. As you learn and experience more about eBay buying and selling from time to time, you can start buying and selling more on eBay for greater profit. This is how people make more money buying and selling products on eBay.
eBay Buying
Nothing is complicated when buying products on eBay. Search for the products you like to sell and place your bid on them to buy the items. When finding products on eBay, one of the ideal sections to look for is the wholesale lots category of eBay. You may find some good deals there on an ongoing basis.
But keep in mind that the sellers typically auction large lots of products. If you just started in eBay, make sure you know what you are buying.
Don't place your bid too high to get the items that you want to sell. Your purchase price per item should be at 1/3 or lower of your selling price. The shipping, handling and insurance charges will drive up your cost. So, you should also take these charges into account when placing a bid to purchase your inventory on eBay. Many buyers like to wait until the auctions near ending to place a bid. You may need to watch your items closely and try to buy them at the last minute or two.
Besides the wholesale lots category of eBay. You should also check out other categories like cell phones, laptops, computers, electronics, video game and etc. People often auction their used items in these categories. You may find few months old cell phones or laptops selling at a great low price. Used and fully functioning video game consoles and electronic items sell for half price or lower. All these used items can be bought and resell on eBay for profits.
eBay Selling
Once you have purchased some items, you can start reselling them on eBay. Create an auction for each of your different items. Upload the photos that capture the different angles of your items. Write an attention-grabbing auction title and a clear description for your each auction. After setting up your eBay auctions, your products are up online and ready for sales.
You should try to limit your auctioning costs as these little costs can add up quickly and cut your profit especially if your product doesn’t sell. Gallery listings, special layouts and bold faced listings can make your auction special but they will cost your more money. So, it is necessary to control your costs of auctioning to make sure they don’t reduce your profit too much.
You can choose to use software that is very inexpensive or free which will help you list your items. Using the software you can create designer listings and add pictures without paying extra fees.
Then you need to set your policies for product shipping, return and refund; and decide if you want to ship the product outside your country. The next thing to think about is what payment methods you want to accept. PayPal is a safe and convenient payment processor. Many buyers prefer to use Paypal to make payment for their purchases. So, you should ready to accept Paypal. It could bring you more sales if you also accept other payment methods such as bank wire, check and etc.
Conclusion
Overall it is not difficult to set up an online business that makes money by buying and selling products on eBay and one good thing about this business is that you can start slow and keep you current full-time job. As you learn and experience more about eBay buying and selling from time to time, you can start buying and selling more on eBay for greater profit. This is how people make more money buying and selling products on eBay.
Google Dies !
The end is nigh, Google, and you must know it. For a long time now it has been evident that search was not a secret alchemy after all. The code Google cracked was equally worked over by Teoma, Wisenut, Raging, and a list of others. Now Yahoo has deployed it. Their results no longer say powered by Google, and they will soon have no need for Google after their Inktomi acquisition is digested. It may already be.
The other little usability gimmicks: cached page, similar pages, minimal UI, no graphic advertisements, image search? All copied easily. And Yahoo has upped the ante slightly with their "open in a new window" icon.
The other side of the puzzle is advertising, where Overture has Yahoo over a barrel. Yet Google shows how the search engine can be free of such concerns. Open it up to private advertisers with credit cards. Price per click. You're done.
Is there anything more to Google than that? Not really. And remember that Yahoo and MSN are already better integrated into PC desktops, MSIE, mail and other personalizations. They are more sticky. Google is not at all sticky. The instant a site becomes more practical than Google, you stop using Google and forget that it ever existed.
The other little usability gimmicks: cached page, similar pages, minimal UI, no graphic advertisements, image search? All copied easily. And Yahoo has upped the ante slightly with their "open in a new window" icon.
The other side of the puzzle is advertising, where Overture has Yahoo over a barrel. Yet Google shows how the search engine can be free of such concerns. Open it up to private advertisers with credit cards. Price per click. You're done.
Is there anything more to Google than that? Not really. And remember that Yahoo and MSN are already better integrated into PC desktops, MSIE, mail and other personalizations. They are more sticky. Google is not at all sticky. The instant a site becomes more practical than Google, you stop using Google and forget that it ever existed.
SEO Your Site For Yahoo!
This article is part two of a four part series on optimizing your website for the the three major search engines. Part one, titled "SEO For MSN" covered optimizing your website to rank highly on MSN. In this article we will cover optimizing your website for Yahoo
Yahoo! is the second biggest of the three major engines and includes an enormous network of websites. The algorithm is based on that of Inktomi which Yahoo! purchased back in 2002 as part of their plan to stop serving Google results to search queries. The algorithm itself can pose a problem for some SEO's as we optimize client websites to rank highly on multiple search engines due to the way that it deffers from Google and MSN. That said, any issue can be addressed provided that the right attention is given to the right details.
The Factors
To optimize and rank highly on Yahoo!, as with any of the major engines, specific areas need to be addressed. On Yahoo! the major areas are as follows:
Keyword density
Site structure
Backlinks
Aging
Keyword Density
As noted in the article on MSN, it would be unwise for me to specify a keyword density for you to target on your website. There are two reasons for this. First, if there is a delay between the writing of this article and when you read it specific numbers could well send you off in the wrong direction. Second, you will need to analyze your specific competitors to determine what the best density is in your area and for your type of website. Optimal keyword densities are no longer a one-size-fits-all calculation. Your industry and site-type will affect the optimal densities and thus, a complete analysis using a tool such as Total Optimizer Pro will be necessary.
Additionally, optimal keyword densities change on a regular basis and so you will need to periodically reanalyze your densities and compare them with others in the top 10 to insure that your densities remain within the optimal levels. When using Total Optimizer Pro for the onsite analysis we generally aim our densities for the upper end of the top 10 results but not aiming to be the top. Generally you will see a range that appears much like a bell curve with a couple sites in the very low range (0.5 to 1.0%) and a couple site in the very high range (5.0 to 8.0%). The rest will generally fall in the middle. Ignore those in the very low and very high range and target towards the upper end though not the highest of the remaining sites and you will be on target.
Site Structure
On no other engine is site structure more important than on Yahoo! While having a good site structure is important for a vaiety of reasons, it was on Yahoo! that Beanstalk noted the most significant gains when we brought our homepage and key internals into compliance with W3C standards (the rest of the site will be brought into compliance as part of our complete redesign scheduled for launch on April 24th). While slight gains were noticeable on both Google and MSN they were so minor that they may well have just been part of the ebb-and-flow of the results. On Yahoo! however we noted a three page jump the day the changes were picked up. No other changes to the site were performed during this time.
The site structure is important for two key reasons. First, the site structure determines the order in which your page content gets seen by the search engines and thus, whch content will be given the highest priority. Content that occurs higher up in the code of your page (not necessarily in your browser) is given a higher weight than content lower down in the code. Second, a properly structured site will be lower in code through the use of CSS, reduced or eliminated table use, etc. The reduction in code will push the content higher up the page as far as a search engine is concerned and thus, it will be given more weight.
Backlinks
Like the other two major engines, having a solid backlink count from relevant sites using good anchor text practices is a major factor on Yahoo! for any reasonably competitive phrase. When it comes to calculating backlinks Yahoo! is far more similar to Google than MSN. Aspects of backlink counts that must be taken into consideration when optimizing your website for Yahoo!:
Quality of site - like Google has attempted to do in the past with PageRank and is learning to do with TrustRank, sheer numbers aren't what will get you high rankings on Yahoo!, the quality of those links is more important. We must remember than PageRank is a Google calculation, not Yahoo! and so it alone cannot determine the value of a link when we are optimizing for this engine. It can be used as a quasi-benchmark however when determining if a link is a quality link on Yahoo! we are better off to considered whether it is from a site that is ranking well on Yahoo! for the same or related phrases, does it come from a site that it related to ours, does the site link to a site that is ranking well on Yahoo! and does the link come from a trusted domain. For these purposes a trusted domain can be considered any domain that is over 3 years old, has a solid number of backlinks coming from a wide variety of sites and which at least a solid number of are non-reciprocal links.
Position of link - like all the major engines, the position of your link on the page is important. A link at or near the bottom of the page is less valuable than a link nearer to the top. Also, if your link is on a page with other links, the effect that link will have on your rankings decreases respective to the number of links on the linking page.
Anchor text - the text used to link to your site will help reinforce that the keywords in that anchor text are associated with your site/page. Also, if that anchor text in in the midst of the content it will hold greater weight than if that anchor text is in a directory-style format above a description (i.e. link a standard links page)
Non-reciprocal links - reciprocal links are certainly still valuable on Yahoo! however it is important to supplement these links with non-reciprocal links in the form of directory listings and other one-way links.
Aging
The bane of new websites is the aging delay. Many focus on Google's "sandbox" when they think of aging delays however Yahoo! employs one as well, though it is lighter and lasts a shorter duration of time. New sites and links are not given the same weight as sites and links that have been around for a while. The aging delay on sites has been extended over the past couple years however it isn't as severe as that imposed by Google. New sites can expect to find it extremely difficult to rank for competitive phrase inside of 6 months even if everything else is in place. To add to the difficulty is a delay on the value of links. When a new site launches it obviosly has no links. These links are subjesct to a delay that appears to be somewhere between 3 to 4 months before they hold their full weight.
The combination of these delays can make it very difficult for new sites to rank for competitive phrases inside of 8 to 12 months however because the restrictions are lighter than those imposed by Google one can expect to see rankings for secondary, tertiary and completely unexpected phrases far faster on Yahoo!
Conclusion
If is important to note that a very important area that needs to be considered is coming in part four of this series. Simply optimizing your website for Yahoo! will likely not get you the traffic you're hoping for. Part three will cover optimizing your website for Google and part four will be titled "SEO For The Big Three: Tieing It Together" and will outline how to tie all the optimization tactics together into a concise strategy that will result in top rankings on all three major engines.
Resources
Total Optimizer Pro - A keyword density and backlink analysis tool. This tool breaks down a variety of onsite and offsite factors giving you a full snapshot of how the top 10 got their positions.
Yahoo! Press Room - Read the latest press releases from Yahoo!. This may not give you the algorithm but it will tell you the direction they're going. Understand this and you'll be better equipped to deal with changes down the road.
DigitalPoint's Yahoo! Forum - Read the latest news, feedback and discussions on the DigitalPoint forums. A great way to keep updated but beware, not everyone in there is a qualified opinion.
Yahoo! is the second biggest of the three major engines and includes an enormous network of websites. The algorithm is based on that of Inktomi which Yahoo! purchased back in 2002 as part of their plan to stop serving Google results to search queries. The algorithm itself can pose a problem for some SEO's as we optimize client websites to rank highly on multiple search engines due to the way that it deffers from Google and MSN. That said, any issue can be addressed provided that the right attention is given to the right details.
The Factors
To optimize and rank highly on Yahoo!, as with any of the major engines, specific areas need to be addressed. On Yahoo! the major areas are as follows:
Keyword density
Site structure
Backlinks
Aging
Keyword Density
As noted in the article on MSN, it would be unwise for me to specify a keyword density for you to target on your website. There are two reasons for this. First, if there is a delay between the writing of this article and when you read it specific numbers could well send you off in the wrong direction. Second, you will need to analyze your specific competitors to determine what the best density is in your area and for your type of website. Optimal keyword densities are no longer a one-size-fits-all calculation. Your industry and site-type will affect the optimal densities and thus, a complete analysis using a tool such as Total Optimizer Pro will be necessary.
Additionally, optimal keyword densities change on a regular basis and so you will need to periodically reanalyze your densities and compare them with others in the top 10 to insure that your densities remain within the optimal levels. When using Total Optimizer Pro for the onsite analysis we generally aim our densities for the upper end of the top 10 results but not aiming to be the top. Generally you will see a range that appears much like a bell curve with a couple sites in the very low range (0.5 to 1.0%) and a couple site in the very high range (5.0 to 8.0%). The rest will generally fall in the middle. Ignore those in the very low and very high range and target towards the upper end though not the highest of the remaining sites and you will be on target.
Site Structure
On no other engine is site structure more important than on Yahoo! While having a good site structure is important for a vaiety of reasons, it was on Yahoo! that Beanstalk noted the most significant gains when we brought our homepage and key internals into compliance with W3C standards (the rest of the site will be brought into compliance as part of our complete redesign scheduled for launch on April 24th). While slight gains were noticeable on both Google and MSN they were so minor that they may well have just been part of the ebb-and-flow of the results. On Yahoo! however we noted a three page jump the day the changes were picked up. No other changes to the site were performed during this time.
The site structure is important for two key reasons. First, the site structure determines the order in which your page content gets seen by the search engines and thus, whch content will be given the highest priority. Content that occurs higher up in the code of your page (not necessarily in your browser) is given a higher weight than content lower down in the code. Second, a properly structured site will be lower in code through the use of CSS, reduced or eliminated table use, etc. The reduction in code will push the content higher up the page as far as a search engine is concerned and thus, it will be given more weight.
Backlinks
Like the other two major engines, having a solid backlink count from relevant sites using good anchor text practices is a major factor on Yahoo! for any reasonably competitive phrase. When it comes to calculating backlinks Yahoo! is far more similar to Google than MSN. Aspects of backlink counts that must be taken into consideration when optimizing your website for Yahoo!:
Quality of site - like Google has attempted to do in the past with PageRank and is learning to do with TrustRank, sheer numbers aren't what will get you high rankings on Yahoo!, the quality of those links is more important. We must remember than PageRank is a Google calculation, not Yahoo! and so it alone cannot determine the value of a link when we are optimizing for this engine. It can be used as a quasi-benchmark however when determining if a link is a quality link on Yahoo! we are better off to considered whether it is from a site that is ranking well on Yahoo! for the same or related phrases, does it come from a site that it related to ours, does the site link to a site that is ranking well on Yahoo! and does the link come from a trusted domain. For these purposes a trusted domain can be considered any domain that is over 3 years old, has a solid number of backlinks coming from a wide variety of sites and which at least a solid number of are non-reciprocal links.
Position of link - like all the major engines, the position of your link on the page is important. A link at or near the bottom of the page is less valuable than a link nearer to the top. Also, if your link is on a page with other links, the effect that link will have on your rankings decreases respective to the number of links on the linking page.
Anchor text - the text used to link to your site will help reinforce that the keywords in that anchor text are associated with your site/page. Also, if that anchor text in in the midst of the content it will hold greater weight than if that anchor text is in a directory-style format above a description (i.e. link a standard links page)
Non-reciprocal links - reciprocal links are certainly still valuable on Yahoo! however it is important to supplement these links with non-reciprocal links in the form of directory listings and other one-way links.
Aging
The bane of new websites is the aging delay. Many focus on Google's "sandbox" when they think of aging delays however Yahoo! employs one as well, though it is lighter and lasts a shorter duration of time. New sites and links are not given the same weight as sites and links that have been around for a while. The aging delay on sites has been extended over the past couple years however it isn't as severe as that imposed by Google. New sites can expect to find it extremely difficult to rank for competitive phrase inside of 6 months even if everything else is in place. To add to the difficulty is a delay on the value of links. When a new site launches it obviosly has no links. These links are subjesct to a delay that appears to be somewhere between 3 to 4 months before they hold their full weight.
The combination of these delays can make it very difficult for new sites to rank for competitive phrases inside of 8 to 12 months however because the restrictions are lighter than those imposed by Google one can expect to see rankings for secondary, tertiary and completely unexpected phrases far faster on Yahoo!
Conclusion
If is important to note that a very important area that needs to be considered is coming in part four of this series. Simply optimizing your website for Yahoo! will likely not get you the traffic you're hoping for. Part three will cover optimizing your website for Google and part four will be titled "SEO For The Big Three: Tieing It Together" and will outline how to tie all the optimization tactics together into a concise strategy that will result in top rankings on all three major engines.
Resources
Total Optimizer Pro - A keyword density and backlink analysis tool. This tool breaks down a variety of onsite and offsite factors giving you a full snapshot of how the top 10 got their positions.
Yahoo! Press Room - Read the latest press releases from Yahoo!. This may not give you the algorithm but it will tell you the direction they're going. Understand this and you'll be better equipped to deal with changes down the road.
DigitalPoint's Yahoo! Forum - Read the latest news, feedback and discussions on the DigitalPoint forums. A great way to keep updated but beware, not everyone in there is a qualified opinion.
Keyword Selection Tips
The selection of your Keyword or Keyword Phrase is perhaps the most
important step in your listing's performance.
Keyword Targeting: For best results, select a Keyword or Keyword
Phrase that is related to your product or service.
Correct Phrasing: Do NOT select meaningless keyword phrases.
Acceptable: cheap dedicated web hosting
Not Acceptable: hosting web dedicated cheap
Keywords and keyword phrases are not case sensitive so a search
for 'Clip Art' is the same as 'clip art'. However, pluralized words
such as 'webmaster' and 'webmasters' are treated as different key
words.
Non-Alpha Numeric Characters: In general, avoid the use of any non-
alpha numeric characters in your keyword selection. Letters and
numbers are fine. Hyphens, periods, apostrophes, quotation marks,
extra spaces, and other symbols (*, =, +, %, &, @, ") should NOT be
used at all as they will cause your listing not to appear.
Acceptable: Online card games
Not Acceptable: online, *card*, games
Phrase Length: In general, the longer the keyword phrase, the less
likely it is that it will be searched. However, most single keywords
are too general to deliver targeted searcher traffic.
Our recommendation is to select a well-considered two word, or at
maximum, 3 word phrase. Recent studies have shown that more people
are now using multiple word phrases when performing searches on
the Net with the majority using two word phrases
important step in your listing's performance.
Keyword Targeting: For best results, select a Keyword or Keyword
Phrase that is related to your product or service.
Correct Phrasing: Do NOT select meaningless keyword phrases.
Acceptable: cheap dedicated web hosting
Not Acceptable: hosting web dedicated cheap
Keywords and keyword phrases are not case sensitive so a search
for 'Clip Art' is the same as 'clip art'. However, pluralized words
such as 'webmaster' and 'webmasters' are treated as different key
words.
Non-Alpha Numeric Characters: In general, avoid the use of any non-
alpha numeric characters in your keyword selection. Letters and
numbers are fine. Hyphens, periods, apostrophes, quotation marks,
extra spaces, and other symbols (*, =, +, %, &, @, ") should NOT be
used at all as they will cause your listing not to appear.
Acceptable: Online card games
Not Acceptable: online, *card*, games
Phrase Length: In general, the longer the keyword phrase, the less
likely it is that it will be searched. However, most single keywords
are too general to deliver targeted searcher traffic.
Our recommendation is to select a well-considered two word, or at
maximum, 3 word phrase. Recent studies have shown that more people
are now using multiple word phrases when performing searches on
the Net with the majority using two word phrases
GOOGLE METHOD OF SEARCH
Google Results are based on 4 major criteria
* Keyword Density
* Keyword prominence
* Page rank or back links
* Last, but the most important: Content
Keyword density
The density of keyword affects the ranking of your page. The higher the keyword density the higher is your rank so one should always include a 30-40 word paragraph containing key-word rich content, thus increasing the keyword density.
Keyword prominence
The keywords you have chosen should appear in title, Meta and H tags with some occurrence in the body also. So you should not define Google without putting the word Google in the body of the definition. This means H and P tags should go hand shaking with each other.
Page rank and back links
The more site links to your site better is the page rank of your site and more relevant your site is. Google also takes into consideration the words [or Anchor text] that appear in your back links
Code:
Click Here is less relevant than
Example of Google
Content
Some say that the Content of your site is the king, but for me it’s actually the crown which the webmaster wears if his site has the right content. Build the content and users will be interested just be reading it.
* Keyword Density
* Keyword prominence
* Page rank or back links
* Last, but the most important: Content
Keyword density
The density of keyword affects the ranking of your page. The higher the keyword density the higher is your rank so one should always include a 30-40 word paragraph containing key-word rich content, thus increasing the keyword density.
Keyword prominence
The keywords you have chosen should appear in title, Meta and H tags with some occurrence in the body also. So you should not define Google without putting the word Google in the body of the definition. This means H and P tags should go hand shaking with each other.
Page rank and back links
The more site links to your site better is the page rank of your site and more relevant your site is. Google also takes into consideration the words [or Anchor text] that appear in your back links
Code:
Click Here is less relevant than
Example of Google
Content
Some say that the Content of your site is the king, but for me it’s actually the crown which the webmaster wears if his site has the right content. Build the content and users will be interested just be reading it.
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