SEO Mistakes

Link Exchange Emails

Here's a mistake that people still sometimes make: buying a random software package that they think will get them a gold mine of links, especially by bulk emailing reputable sites. At this point, most site owners are savvy enough to realize that emails with link exchange requests are rarely hand-crafted with love. Instead of exchanging links, lots of site owners forward the unsolicited emails to Google, so I see plenty of emails such as:

Hello,

I have found your website XXXXXXXXXX.XXX by searching Google for "business free from health home home make money risk work". I think our websites has a similar theme, so I have already added your link to my website.

You can find your link here:
http://www.suspiciousdomain.com/news/insert-random-keyword-phrase-here.html

The best links are not paid, or exchanged after out-of-the-blue emails-the best links are earned and given by choice. When I recap SES from my viewpoint, I'll give some examples of great ways to earn links.

Effective SEO Tactics for 2006

Search engines are looking for unique and useful content - information that is accurate and important to the people interested in that field. Search engines also look for fresh content - regular additions to your website, etc (this is why blogging became / is such a huge craze). So let's put that all together:

Search engines are working towards fighting SEO spam - bad, keyword stuffed content and link spamming - by ... Devaluing the "ranking boost" that these elements give. Penalizing the websites that are obviously spamming search engines. The end result? ... Traditional link building is no longer your best bet to get high search engine rankings.

That's not to say that you should dump your link campaigns all at once and scamper for the hills - links will continue to have value within search engines and until the search engine algorithms develop well enough to distinguish between "organic" linking and links generated through a link-building campaign (not easy to do at all, even with Google's or Microsoft's resources), getting inbound links will stay the easiest way to bump up your search engine rankings by several pages.

However, for SEO purposes, that brings us back to square one. We like things to be easy, but we also want things to work well. If link-building is a good tactic, but not the best tactic (especially when everyone and their mother is getting a few hundred links every month to their 30-page AdSense websites), then where does it leave the rest of us?

The answer lies with what the search engines have been saying all along - quality content, wrapped around quality, organic links. Let me explain that.

Search engines have taken two specific measures to improve their results and reduce commercialized spam from their search engines:

Link pages are being "identified" as such and therefore are being considered as low-quality links (you'll remember from Link Building 101 that the quality of the link is a big factor in how much it improves your website's rankings). Some of the identifying criteria for a link page are: the number of links on that page, the ratio of text to links on that page, and relevance of the link, which I explain in the next point. Search engine algorithms are currently looking at the context that the links are placed in (i.e. surrounding text as well as the page's keywords) to measure the relevance of the host site to YOUR website - in other words, checking the text of the page your inbound link is placed on to find out whether that site is relevant to your industry / niche.
The linking page must have as few links as possible. The links should be focused on as few sites as possible (to funnel the value of the link page). The links should be surrounded by "relevant" content. The linking page should contain "quality" content (written for human reading rather than written for search engines - there's a sharp difference between keyword optimization and keyword stuffing). Now you must be wondering...."is there a point to all this?" And I respect that, because this is exactly what internet marketing and SEO gurus have been saying for a long time nöw. Just like I often ask myself.

Once you've completed this page, contact link partners in YOUR niche - not direct competitors obviously, but complementary businesses (if you sell information books on candle-making, your ideal link partners would be informational websites on candle-making), and make them this pitch:

"Are you looking for a quick and easy way to boost your search engine rankings? Search engines demand relevance, they demand quality, they demand freshness. I'd like to offer you the chance to do a valuable exchange - I'll provide you with an optimized article on a subject relevant to your business, and in return all I ask is that you allow me to place some links to my website on the page. In fact, you can even plug in your own links - affiliate, to your own website or any other website."

Search engines are wising up to article submissions just as they started combating link spam a year and a half ago - at any rate, article submissions are marketing tools / branding tools, not pure SEO tools.

Why Your Site Needs Inbound Links

Most web-savvy people quickly learn why they need "links" from other sites pointing at theirs. Your inbound links are one of the most important ways of getting yourself known in your field, generating traffic to your website, and influencing the search engines to notice your site.

"Traffic" is what linking is all about. Without traffic your website is useless as a tool for selling your products or communicating your ideas. Getting links from other websites is not the only way to generate traffic, but it is probably the most important one. But how do links generate traffic?

**Direct traffic from links** - First, links generate direct traffic. Links from sites that share your target audience will be an important source of traffic to your site. A visitor to the other web site sees the link to yours, clicks on it, and becomes your visitor. Some estimates put the percentage of internet traffic resulting from this kind of link as high as 21% of total traffic.

Why do people click on these links? One reason is they may view a link to an outside source as an endorsement. They assume the webmaster is saying "Here is a source you will find interesting or helpful". They are looking for the kind of service you provide, so they click on the link to check you out.

But just as important is simple curiosity. Someone sees a text link with intriguing wording like "Powerful Cheap Advertising" or "Win a Free iPod" or "See Pamela Anderson Video" and, depending on their interests, a certain number of people are likely to click on it.

This suggests at least three things about your links. First, you should get as many links as possible on pages your target audience is likely to be visiting. The more people see your links, the more traffic you are likely to get.

Second, your anchor text (the words that are linked) should be intriguing. It should be short and sweet, and suggest a benefit -- a reason for people to click on it.

Third, your links should be on pages that people actually look at. Having hundreds of links on pages that nobody ever looks at will not result in traffic -- at least not direct traffic. Putting your link on a link exchange page containing hundreds of services similar to yours is not likely to generate very many clicks. This is why exchanging links with link directories is such a questionable waste of time. Web visitors rarely look at these directories.

Finding good pages where you can place your link is not always easy. One method is to systematically do searches for your most important keywords -- the search phrases people are likely to use when looking for your kind of product or service. Many of the results will be competitors of yours. But one or two may be secondary sources such as directories or reference pages. Getting your link on some of these secondary sources is almost guaranteed to result in traffic, so it is worth the effort -- and sometimes the cost -- of getting listed in the resources that score high for your keywords.

**Traffic from Search Engines** - The second reason for getting inbound links is to impress the search engines. Most search engines use the quantity and quality of your inbound links to evaluate the importance and relevance of your site to specific keywords. For instance, if you sell a product like "Full Color Vinyl Banners", or you are a Real Estate agent servicing "Kitchener Real Estate", one of your objectives is to rank high for searches done on your primary search phrase (and other similar ones).

This will result in traffic because when people search for your important keywords your site is more likely to show up in the search results. The more inbound links you have that relate your site to full color vinyl banners or web promotion services, or "fill in your keyword here", the higher your site is likely to rank for these terms, and the more search engine traffic you are likely to receive as a result.

**Using Articles to get traffic and impress the search engines** - Embedding your links in articles is one of the best methods of rapidly increasing your inbound links. Many times a well-written article will show up in hundreds of places on the web. And if it has your link embedded in it, that will obviously increase your inbound links. Webmasters pick up these articles because they want content to enhance the value of their sites.

Articles will also generate direct traffic because people who read them are already interested in your subject matter, and are therefore more likely to click on your link.

This suggests that the most valuable place to publish your article is in a themed or categorized article resource. For instance, if your product is "health" related, having it published on health-oriented sites will be more valuable than having it published on generic sites.

You can even take this a step further. If your article is about something more specific like "mesothelioma advice", then getting it published on sites that focus on "mesothelioma" will get more "reads", and have a greater influence on the search engines.

Second, when embedding your link, try to use anchor text that contains one of your important keywords, not just your URL or web address. Remember that search engines are dumb. One of your objectives is to have them relate your website to specific search terms (keywords or key phrases). And the best way to do that is to use them as your anchor text.

February Search Engine News

Google - Google is revamping its ranking algorithm and putting new server infrastructure in place in preparation for what it hopes will be significantly improved search results. The expected roll-out-date will be sometime either this month February '06 or March. You can see it temporarily at http://66.249.93.104/

Google Refuses to Hand Over Search Data to Feds - The subpoenas requested one million random URLs and records of all searches from any one-week period. Google was the only search engine who refused to comply. Google maintains their position that the US government is overreaching in their request and that it would violate the privacy of Google's users while revealing some of Google's own trade secrets.

MSN - MSN is in the process of beta testing their new adCenter contextual advertising program with a select group of advertisers. You can expect adCenter to offer a program much like Google's AdWords or Yahoo's Sponsored Search.

AOL - Google will continue supplying AOL with search results for a good long time and that AOL will continue displaying Google AdWords.

Yahoo! - All remained quiet on the Yahoo front this past month. Yahoo!

10 Secrets for Successful Web Based Customer Service

Customers are your company's most precious resource. That's why it's so important to provide great customer service. Companies that provide a superlative service experience keep their customers satisfied and loyal. And that's a significant competitive advantage.

It has become particularly important to deliver great customer service on the web. More and more, the web is where customers go to find answers. It's convenient, it's open 24 hours a day, and-ideally-makes it easy to quickly pinpoint information. In fact, many customers now prefer the web to phone or email. They don't want to spend time on hold, call back during business hours, or wait hours for a reply. They want to quickly click their way to the solution they need, any time of the day or night. That's why great web self-service should be a top priority for every company.

Unfortunately, many companies fail to effectively exploit the web's full potential as a customer service channel. Some fail because they don't recognize how important the web is to their customers. Others fail because they don't implement a system that makes it easy for customers to find answers to their questions online. Often, the problem is an inadequate understanding of exactly what information customers or looking for. Another common problem is poor integration of web self-service with email and voice channels. In other cases, companies neglect capabilities that can make web self-service really "click"-such as store locators or rich content.

There is a cost for such failure. Companies that don't provide great service on the web lose customers and waste money. They lose customers because web users who can't find what they need online get frustrated and head elsewhere. They waste money because their contact center costs wind up being much higher than they need to be.

Ten Secrets for Successful Web-Based Customer Service

As these companies and others prove, effective web-based customer service is a very achievable goal with significant potential rewards. It simply requires the right principles, practices and tools. By surveying today's most effective practitioners, RightNow has distilled ten basic attributes that make web-based customer support work:

Make sure your web site can "listen" to customers
Every successful salesperson knows the most important part of their job is listening to the customer-for both explicit and implicit messages. Web sites should do the same. Explicit messages are clear requests for specific information. Implicit messages are patterns of queries or usage that provide clues about customer needs and interests. Effective online service requires mechanisms and/or practices that give an attentive ear to both types of messages.
Give customers what they want-quickly
Once you've "heard" what kind of information customers want, you have to give it to them-quickly. The web is all about immediacy. So whether it's getting new information posted onto your site or making the information that's already on there easier to understand, you must optimize your ability to respond to your customers' needs with online content. Don't confuse this with the rapid posting of the information that marketers want to put on your site. Quality customer service requires the rapid posting of content that is completely customer-driven.
Make customer service resources easy to find and easy to use
Great content isn't much use if customers can't find it easily. That's why it's essential to provide customers with highly intuitive search tool that let them pinpoint the answers they need with a minimum number of steps. It's also smart to maintain a "Top 20" list of current hot topics that customers can view as soon as they come to your main self-service page.
Integrate all your communications channels
Different customers will use different communications channels at different times. You don't want them to get different answers depending on which channel they happen to use. So it's important to leverage your knowledge base across all channels. Ideally, the information you provide on the web should be exactly the same as what you provide via your live operators, voice self-service, email and chat.
The "80/20" rule
To be successful at web-based customer service, you don't have to be able to answer every conceivable customer question online. More than 80% of all customer questions are usually answered by just 20% of a support knowledge base. And many companies achieve 97-plus percent self-service rates with relatively limited-but highly customer-driven-content that they've developed over time by learning what customers need. That's why it's more important to get started with web-based customer service than it is to first develop the "perfect" knowledge base. Smart companies get the most important information up right away, and then refine their content over time.
Let your customers rate you
You can't improve what you don't measure. So the companies that are most successful with web self-service provide customers with a way to rate the quality of the answers they find online. Using this feedback, content that isn't useful can be quickly weeded out-thereby improving the overall effectiveness of the site.
Use rich content wherever appropriate
A picture is often worth a thousand words. Photographs, diagrams, and animations can therefore be very useful in helping customers solve their most common problems. Creating these types of graphics can help further improve the effectiveness of your online customer service system.
Connect the online world to the real world
For retailers, banks, and many others types of companies, it's important to link online operations with real-world facilities. After all, many customers come to a web site specifically to find a local store, branch office or service center. One of the best ways to do this is to provide a searchable database of real-world locations on your web site. It's also a good idea to supplement street addresses with maps and driving directions to ensure that your customers can get where they want to go without getting lost.
Consider a hosted, on demand solution
Many successful web-based service implementers are taking advantage of hosted on demand solutions in order to eliminate capital costs and ongoing infrastructure management hassles. Hosted systems accelerate time-to-benefit and offload ownership burdens from corporate IT organizations that already have their hands full. Hosted systems also offer advantages when it comes to performance, reliability, scalability and security.
Buy experience along with your technology
Online customer service technologies can be very powerful. But you have to know what you're doing to get the most out of them. That's why the smart buyers look for a source of substantial customer service experience to complement the technologies they acquire. Best practices like those listed here are extraordinarily valuable. So it makes sense to partner with a vendor who can help you apply those best practices to your company's online customer service initiatives. It's even better when that vendor can help you optimize the rest of your CRM processes as well.

These ten simple principles can make your online customer service initiative a high-ROI success. And they're not hard to fulfill. With the right technology and the right partner, you can take full advantage of the Internet as a medium for superior customer service and reap all the rewards that result from great web-based customer service.