SEO UPDATES

When you did the keyword research for your website, you probably found a lot of simple words you’re now incorporating into your website. These general terms are things that many people search for, and are not necessarily going to help your business or website to be number one in the search engine for, other than bragging rights.

What you need to find are the long tail keywords. Keywords that are searched for far less, but searched for by people interested in something specific enough you can be pretty sure they’ll buy if you are offering something that remedies the problem.

Are you wondering how to search for long tail keywords? There are a couple ways. The first way is to use a site like NicheBot to find the terms that people are searching for. Good long tail keywords can be three or even four words long. These keyword phrases are things people actually type into the search engine. Think about how you search on Google. Do you just type in one word or do you type in a full phrase? Some people even type in questions, complete with question marks on the end!

The second great way to find long tail keywords is ask people. Start with your friends and family – tell them your niche and then ask them what they would type into Google to search for your product, service, or site. The more people you ask, the closer you will get to understanding how other people (that aren’t as close to your subject as you are) look for what you have. No jargon, no buzzwords, just the real searches. You can use this information to add important keywords to your website.

Sorry there haven’t been too many updates around here lately… If you’d like to try your hand at blogging on Search Engine / SEO news, we’d love to have ya join us here on the Niner Niner network and SEO Updates.

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Now, onto some AdSense news from a few days ago (in case ya misted it!):

JenSense broke the story of Google’s own AdSense page being hijacked in the SERPS of Google.

This is just silly. Someone thinks they can hijacks a Google page get away with it? LOL. Not.

Jen sez:

When you decide to hijack a site in the Google serps, it makes sense to do one that will benefit you in some way, while not raising yourself too high on the search engine’s radar. So, it obviously makes perfect sense to go and hijack the Google AdSense site

This is the best though. Kevin at All-In-One-Business.com replies back in the comments:

I want to thank JenSense and others for posting this thread.

Thanks for the comment Air Charter. I just got off the phone with two different tech writers explaining why I would have a meta redirect on my site.

It isn’t an attempt to profit from either Google’s page rank or some cloaked affiliate link.

I am no hijacker. In fact, I’m not sure how I could in any way benefit from this link.

The simple fact is this: I write and syndicate articles all over the web. I used to put into those articles direct links to sites I was talking about.

A couple years ago I had a problem when I had written and syndicated several articles about GoTo.com when they changed their name to Overture. There were dozens of websites to notify and ask them to update the links in my articles.

So I decided to begin using meta refresh redirects rather than listing the URL’s directly. I can then keep the links current in all the articles I write.

Hopefully Google will look at this and decide to make some changes so this won’t occur. It’s hard to believe I got a number 1 listing without trying.

Can anyone these days ever just admit when they’ve f’d up and come clean? Feh.

Andi Baio broke another webspam story recently, this time on Syndic8 hosting articles on their various sub-domains.

An update on the article reads:

May 6, 2005: Philipp Lenssen reports that Syndic8.com was removed from Google’s index entirely. By e-mail, a Google engineer also confirmed that the Google AdSense account for Syndic8’s ad affiliate was terminated.

I agree with Aaron Wall in the comments, who states that it’s Google’s responsibility to make sure people aren’t cheating AdSense. If their quality control for the AdSense program was more rigorous, this wouldn’t be an issue. They’re passively supporting this practice by allowing people to profit off it.

Ouch! That’s pretty harsh, but I guess they had to make a lesson out of someone for all this “webspam” + AdSense that’s floating around out there.

CNet: Microsoft plucks top Yahoo Search exec Gary Flake

More on Gary Flake on this thread at Search Engine Watch:

Dr. Gary Flake is Principal Scientist & Head of Yahoo! Research Labs. In part one of this wide-ranging interview, he talked about the daily work of researchers at Yahoo Labs, and what they’re doing to make search better. In part two, he talked about the challenges of indexing various types of information, and Yahoo’s efforts at realizing a current hot trend — personalized search. In this final installment, he touches on a wide range of other search related topics.

Do you see a time when Yahoo will be able to deliver an answer on a results page. For example, instead of just giving links to sites about the Prime Minister of France, you get an answer with key facts, directory info, and links to articles? You’ve started something close to this with Yahoo shortcuts but they usually involve a second or third click? Will Yahoo eventually become an answer engine?

Yahoo! shortcuts have been growing and improving at a healthy pace. I think if you try some today, you’ll see that we give many answers right on the results page (e.g., weather, flight and tracking information, word definitions, etc.). Shortcuts work best when there is an unambiguously correct answer to a query. Many queries have no clearly perfect result, or may be ambiguously formed. As we improve the technology, we’ll get better at answering more things with fewer clicks or query refinements.

(via webmaster world)

Just came across this great thread on Webmaster World.

If you are running AdSense on your website, and haven’t yet experimented with the new Ad Links unit, you should definitely give the entire thread a good read.

Some highlights:

I have tried AdLinks in two different locations on a 3 column layout:
(a) middle of right column
(b) top of left column (just above site navigation)
Results:
1. Location (b) receives 5 times as many clicks as location (a).
2. Location (b) has increased total earnings by 125% whereas location
(a) made no noticable change to anything.

And this comment:

I included Ad Links as soon as it came out and so far I’m very impressed.
Targeting spot on which is good for publisher and advertiser alike and earnings up more than 32%!

We’ll see how it pans out for the rest of the month to judge whether it’s the novelty factor or an accepted more highly focussed results page for the visitor.

Anywhere from 32% to 125% isn’t bad!

There seems to be a bit of confusion regarding the CTRs (click-thru ratios) for Ad Links, and when you actually get paid.

Google only makes money (and hence you only get paid), when the visitor clicks through on the second link via the Google Ad Link results page.

It’s key that you implement Ad Links effectively, otherwise it’s possible that your CTRs will drop and you will be penalized under this new Smart Pricing thing that Google has going. (This is all just from the thread - the Smart Pricing thing seems to be in beta or alpha stage - details are sketchy.)

Good luck! I’ll report back with my results in a week or two, after trying out a few Ad Links formats on some of the new Niner sites.

I recently built a few web pages, and articles such as “Will Plain-Text Ads Continue to Rule?” were extremely helpful when it came time to decide what sort of ads to include. This article was written in April, 2003, by Dr. Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group.

The summary paragraph is as follows:

Text-only advertisements work far better than banners, but is this only due to their novelty? Search engine text ads will retain their superiority over time, but text ads on other sites will work only if they focus on directly meeting users’ needs.

The article goes on to talk about how text ads work for several reasons:

• They are not automatically disregarded by users with banner blindness
• They are a novelty
• They are taken more seriously because they can often communicate more effectively with users

The last reason might be the only one that lasts over time, Nielsen writes. Text ads are “forced to express a message in a few words,” and this focus is exactly what flashy, vague banners tend to lack.

He finishes the article with:

After ten years of watching Web users, one clear conclusion is that they are utterly selfish and live in the moment. Giving users exactly what they want, right now, is the road to Web success, and having to write small boxes of text encourages advertisers to travel it.

Good advice for those of us with web sites!

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