Līve Ambitions

We’ve all been told that building relevant backlinks are important to SEO. However, have you ever wondered how Google determines relevancy between 2 websites that do not share much keywords?

For Example:

Say you have site A linking to site B, but site A is about cars while site B talks about brake pads. And, say both sites don’t really mention too much about the topic of the other site. How would Google then determine that cars are relevant to brake pads? Unless you are human or a really complex program, it would be very difficult to figure out.

For one, we know that the Google search engine is not human, although it is programmed by humans. And two, we can pretty much rule out the idea that Google has a bunch of people sitting around analyzing keyword relationships all day. My hope is that Google is smarter than that. To me, Google is about intelligence, simplicity, automation and streamlining. This may only be my opinion, but keep in mind that Google is the search engine leader for a reason, and they’ve invested billions into research and refinement over the years.  I’ve tried searching for answers, but there isn’t much to read about on this topic.

So, Here’s My Theory:

The only answer left is in their algorithm. I don’t think it’s a single factor. I think it’s based on several different factors, such as:

• Bounce rate of any given anchor text or alt tag keyword.
• An automated system that learns and compares keyword relationships over time.
• For an already established website with tons of links, acquiring new backlinks will only re-enforce its authority and improve its rankings.

Update:  Here’s what Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz.org says about topical relevance:

Years ago, Google Labs featured an automatic classification tool that could predict, based on a URL, the category and sub-category for virtually any type of content (from medical to real estate, marketing, sports and dozens more). It’s possible that engines may use these automated topical-classification systems to identify “neighbourhoods” around particular topics and count links more or less based on the behaviour they see as accretive to their quality of ranking results.

I’ve not been able to verify anything regarding Google Labs and their automatic classification tool, but it seems plausible.  Also, I don’t think Google wants to make it any easier for link builders to do SEO.

Google recently announced the addition of search options for their image search.  Now, you can narrow your image search down to size, type and color.  At first, I wondered how they could determine the color of these images automatically, and realized that the color could simply be included in the image alt tag.

Interesting news.  Microsoft and Yahoo has agreed to combine forces in the search market to better compete against the giant of search, Google.  They’ve launched a website dedicated to the 10 year deal called ChoiceValueInnovation.com.  The gist of the deal is that Microsoft will power Yahoo’s search for both organic and sponsored listings, and in return Yahoo will receive compensation from Microsoft.  Meanwhile, Yahoo will “become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.”  Their PPC advertising platform will be handled Microsoft’s Adcenter.

So, based on current stats, this partnership deal would give Microsoft and Yahoo approximately 30% of the total search market share in the U.S..  If I were Google, I wouldn’t be too worried - its 2 competitors have had the capacity and resources for improvements, but they simply haven’t been able to gain ground on their own.  In my opinion, if Yahoo and Microsoft couldn’t compete on their own, they wouldn’t do better together.  Unless there are some significant advancements to the Microsoft/Yahoo algorithm technology, I don’t see them expanding their search market share by much, if any.

I’m not in favor of this search deal because I believe that market conditions are best when there are many competitors as opposed to only 2.  Instead of having 3 separate choices for search, now it’s only one or the other.  Microsoft and Yahoo would’ve been better off trying to improve their own search technology.  Who knows – maybe there’s a deeper underlying meaning to the deal.  Could it be a slow transition into a merger?  What do you think?

Yesterday, Google announced that they would be launching a new open source operating system called Google Chrome OS.  This is big news as they turn up the heat to compete against the currently monopolizing OS which is Microsoft Windows.

According to Google, “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS.”  Isn’t that what we’re all looking for in an operating system?  I like the fact that Google decided to step up to the plate, and offer the public a new alternative to the OS in our PCs.  I’ve been using Windows Vista at home and at work for about 6 months, and I must say I haven’t been impressed.  I’ve had issues with hardware imcompatibilities and occasional freezes.

Google Chrome OS is scheduled to be released mid-2010.  So, we’ll see.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to manage PPC campaigns in Google, Yahoo, MSN (Bing), MySpace, Facebook, Adsonar and even Business.com.  Here is how I rate them (1-7):

#1 Google Adwords - Google has not only proven to be a very effective tool for marketing, but also consistent.  Needless to say, Google brings me the most conversions at the most cost-effective rate.  In fact, in my experience, Google has brought in more conversions than all the other PPC traffic sources combined.

#2 MSN Adcenter (Bing) - Although MSN Adcenter was the late bloomer in the PPC industry, I think they’ve made significant progress in a short amount of time.  I see consistent conversions from MSN on a daily basis, however, their traffic is only about 1/10 of what Google brings.  Cost per conversion is also good.

#3 Yahoo Search Marketing - I’m a little biased against Yahoo because I never really liked them as a search engine.  Google has always been more superior in terms of relevancy, for both organic and sponsored search, so it’s no wonder why Yahoo has lagged so far behind.  Conversion volume from Yahoo may be slightly higher than Bing, however, you can also expect to spend more per click. 

#4 Facebook Ads -  I was running an ad through Facebook with a targeted audience of a little over 1 million members.  Soon after the campaign was set to active, I was surprised to see the volume of views and click-throughs.  I think I received 200 clicks within a matter an hour or two.  I tried them out for about a month, but unfortunately I couldn’t continue due to the high cost per conversion rate.

#5 Adsonar – Adsonar has a massive content network (ie. Fox, AOL, ET, People.com and many more).  In fact, their coverage is so big and fast that your balance may be used up in a matter of minutes.  If you don’t have a big budget, it may even be hard to test out a campaign.

#6 MySpace – MySpace is pretty similar to Facebook ads in that they both allow you to target a large number of members based on specific categories.  I used them for about a month, and dropped them due to lack of traffic and conversions.  At least, I didn’t spend much money to test it out.

#7 Business.com – I was pretty dissappointed with these guys.  I received a bunch of click-throughs, but 0 conversions.  I think their traffic may cater more for B2B type of businesses.

Remember, this is my personal opinion, and it is only based off my own experiences.  Your results may vary based on the type of products or services you’re selling and the profit margin involved.  Some type of products may perform better for certain types of audiences.  The bottom-line with any ad campaign is that it should be profitable.  If you spend $1000 and make $1200, you’ve still made a profit (even it’s small).  If your business is still in its infant stages, you may even opt to break-even just to get some exposure.  Finally, if you’ve tried to optimize your ad campaign and you’re still losing money, then it’s time to move on to a new PPC program or marketing strategy.  Don’t try to force something that doesn’t work.

I know there are other PPC programs out there like Bidvertiser and Clicksor, but I’ve never tried them out.

Update:  After I wrote this post, Microsoft and Yahoo joined forces to “change the search landscape.”

PR Sculpting is the process of optimizing the linking structure within a website for the purpose of achieving the highest possible PR (Google Pagerank).  The primary technique used for PR sculpting is the utilization of the “nofollow” tag within links.

According to Google, their search engine robot does not crawl links with the nofollow attribute which means they don’t pass PR juice.  So, you would think that by “nofollowing” the crap out of all your external links, that you would be able to retain the full potential of the PR on your site, right?  Wrong.  This may have been the case before, but Google now handles “nofollow” tags differently.  Here’s an illustration for all you visual folks:

So, does PR Sculpting work?  Probably not.  Worry about what is more important  – content and inbound links.

I must admit that a few years back, I had no confidence in Microsoft’s search engine algorithm.  However, in recent times, I think they’ve gained a lot of ground in terms of search results relevancy.

Although Google is still my preferred search engine, I occasionally use Live Bing.  I never use Yahoo for searching, but I like the other services they offer, such as news articles, email and music videos.

You can compare search results on this site: http://blindsearch.fejus.com/.  According to the poll, Google is the most favored, followed by Bing and Yahoo.  I agree with the numbers.  If you would’ve asked me 3 years ago, I would’ve told you Google #1, Yahoo #2 and MSN #3. 

It’ll be interesting to see whether or not Bing gains ground on the search market.  According to Nielsen, Google leads with 64%  of the market share with Yahoo at 16.3% and MSN Bing at 9.9%.  I think Yahoo has 2nd place only because so many people use their portal and email system.

Relevancy is the key to capturing search engine market share, and I predict that Bing will gain some ground in the coming months.  The main thing I don’t like about Microsoft’s Bing is the name itself.  I would’ve stuck with Live as the brand.  Badda-Bing!

I just went over Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.  It’s a solid foundation to have if you’re just starting out in SEO.  The PDF file provided by Google is only 22 pages long, but I decided to make it even shorter.

1.   Create unique, accurate page titles
       a.   Accurately describe the page’s content
       b.   Create unique title tags for each page
       c.   Use brief, but descriptive titles

2.   Make use of the “description” meta tag
       a.   Accurately summarize the page’s content
       b.   Use unique descriptions for each page

3.   Improve the structure of your URLs
       a.   Use words in URLs
       b.   Create a simple directory structure
       c.   Provide one version of a URL to reach a document

4.   Make your site easier to navigate
       a.   Create a naturally flowing hierarchy
       b.   Use mostly text for navigation
       c.   Use “breadcrumb” navigation
       d.   Put an HTML sitemap page on your site, and use an XML Sitemap file
       e.   Consider what happens when a user removes part of your URL
       f.   Have a useful 404 page

5.   Offer quality content and services
       a.   Write easy-to-read text
       b.   Stay organized around the topic
       c.   Use relevant language
       d.   Create fresh, unique content
       e.   Offer exclusive content or services
       f.    Create content primarily for your users, not search engines

6.   Write better anchor text
       a.   Choose descriptive text
       b.   Write concise text
       c.   Format links so they’re easy to spot
       d.   Think about anchor text for internal links too

7.   Use heading tags appropriately
       a.   Imagine you’re writing an outline
       b.   Use headings sparingly across the page

8.   Optimize your use of images
       a.   Use brief, but descriptive filenames and alt text
       b.   Supply alt text when using images as links
       c.   Store images in a directory of their own
       d.   Use commonly supported filetypes

9.   Make effective use of robots.txt
       a.   Use more secure methods for sensitive content

10.   Be aware of rel=”nofollow” for links

11.   Promote your website in the right ways
         a.   Blog about new content or services
         b.   Don’t forget about offline promotion
         c.   Know about social media sites
         d.   Add your business to Google’s Local Business Center
         e.   Reach out to those in your site’s related community

12.   Make use of free webmaster tools

13.   Take advantage of web analytics services

You should keep these things in mind whenever you decide to develop a new website.  It’s easier/better to launch a website having all these things already implemented vs. fixing any issues later down the line.

I’m a little late on this topic, but I wanted to share my thoughts on it.  I think it was Google who first implemented it, but the others quickly followed.

To me, the search query suggestion feature is just another blow to the SEO industry.  Although the feature adds convenience and saves time, I believe it also alters natural search behavior.  This hurts the little guys the most because people aren’t typing in the long-tail keywords anymore.  Now, people simply select the most popular suggestions even before they’re done typing the entire search query.  I often do this myself.

Undoubtedly, the search suggestion feature only helps to bring more traffic to the bigger websites (and corporations) that are already ranking in top positions for popular keywords.  Therefore, the mom-and-pop sites will have to work twice as hard to compete for the same keywords.  In addition, more money would have to be spent for SEO and marketing.

This may seem unfair for small business, but I think there is an ulterior motive behind the search query suggestion feature.  This is my theory: Since the little guys (small business) can’t compete for top 10 rankings naturally, they would have to resort to paid search marketing or PPC.  This would generate a lot more PPC business for the major search engines.  Why would they target small business?  Because small businesses account for 99.7% of all firms in the U.S.  This is a huge market, especially now that more and more small businesses are looking towards the internet for new customers.

How does this affect the users?  Sure, it adds convenience.  But does it alter natural search behavior?  I think so.  I’m not sure about everyone else, but when I do searches now, I catch myself choosing from the top 3 list of suggestions.

Has it changed your search behavior?

This is the age-old question that never seems to go away.  I think the answer depends on a number of factors.  I always try to do some preliminary research on the directory I’m thinking about submitting to, especially if I’m spending money on it.  Here are some questions to ask yourself before deciding to submit.

How old is the directory?  Websites are like fine wine, it gets better with age.

Is the directory banned or penalized in any search engines?  Run a simple check on all the major search engines.  Simply run a search on the domain name – if the site shows up in the results, it means that directory has been indexed by the search engine and is not banned.  If the directory isn’t ranked top 5 for it’s own domain name, then that’s a red flag for me.

Does the directory have a Google PageRank?  Having a greyed-out PR bar could mean that the directory is too new or it’s being penalized by Google.

Are the directory links “do-follow”?  Obviously if the links are “do-follow”, you’ll be getting the benefit of some link juice.  However, the amount of link juice you get will depend on the strength of the actual link page.

Does the directory have lots of backlinks?  The more backlinks it has, the stronger the directory it is.

Does the directory rank for popular keywords?  If the directory ranks for many popular keywords, it may be an indicator that it receives considerable organic traffic.

Does the directory have a good linking structure?  I look at the linking structure for 2 reasons:  One, to make sure that the directory is SEO-friendly.  And two, to make sure that your site can be found within a reasonable amount of clicks.  I think 1 to 3 clicks away from the homepage is good.  Although, some of the bigger directories like DMOZ or Yahoo will have deeper sub-categories.

Does the directory feature unique categories?  If you have experience with any of the popular directory scripts out there (such as php link directory), you would know that most of them come with pre-filled categories.  I’ve seen hundreds of directories using the same default categories.  This tells me that the directory owner is really not that serious about building a unique directory experience.

Is the directory using a dropped domain name?  Beware of directories that simply use dropped domain names.  Often times, these type of directories are put up overnight to make a quick buck.  Dropped domains normally have an existing PR from their previous website, so people are often fooled into thinking that the directory itself has the PR.

Does the directory have a unique custom design?  Seeing a unique design on a directory tells me that the directory owner is serious about his business, or at least investing money to promote his directory.  Not only that, it’s more appealing to the user.

Do you see a future for the directory?  If you get the sense that the directory was built to make a quick buck, don’t submit!  Try to target the directories that you feel will continually work to improve themselves and plan to hang around for long-term. 

Is the directory inundated with excessive advertising?  I think having moderate advertising is ok.  However, too much advertising can degrade the appearance of the directory and deter users from browsing. 

Are there recurring fees?  I usually try to avoid directories that have monthly or yearly recurring fees.  The only exception I make is for the bigger directories like Yahoo or Business.com.  For BOTW, I pay the extra for the permanent listing, so at least I won’t have to worry about recurring payments.

After weighing out the goods vs the bads, it’ll be easier for you to decide whether to submit or not.