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joi, 10 martie 2011

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

Posted: 09 Mar 2011 10:12 AM PST

As you start tracking your rankings and taking SEO more seriously, you're bound to ask the question (and we hear it a lot) – "What are ALL of the keywords that my site ranks for?" Sounds simple enough, but it turns out this question isn't just complicated – it's probably unanswerable.

I'm going to walk you through why it's such a tough question, discussing two myths that lead us to ask it in the first place. Then, I'm going to try to at least give you a partial answer – maybe not all, but enough to keep you busy for a long time.

Myth #1 – The Ranking Table

If you have any experience with programming, databases, or even just Excel, it's pretty easy to envision Google as some kind of giant ranking table. It might look something like this:

Keyword	Site	Rank
unicorns	www.unicorns.com	#1
unicorns	www.bobsunicornshack.com	#2
unicorns	www.unicornwrestling.org	#3
pretty unicorns	www.ohsoprettyunicorns.com	#1
pretty unicorns	www.sexymalibuunicorns.com	#2
pretty pretty unicorns	www.examplesgonetoofar.com	#1

While this approach might work for a very basic, closed system (like an internal knowledge base), it's not remotely practical on the scale of something like Google. The sheer scope of data, the blinding speed it gets updated, and the way that data has to be distributed across server farms (made up of thousands of servers), means that modern search is essentially a real-time calculation. There is no master table.

Myth #2 – Google Won't Tell Us

Ok, so it's not a table, but Google still knows what we rank for or they could figure it out, right? While Google definitely has plenty of data they won't let us see, some things are mysteries even to them. Back in 2007, Google's VP of Engineer, Udi Manber, shocked the search community by suggesting that as many as 20-25% of all Google queries were queries they had never seen before. Let's say that again – as many as 1/4 of all Google searches are new. Google later clarified that this is within a time window (not all of search history), but the number is still staggeringly high.

Much of this has to do with the fact that queries are naturally getting longer and more specific, with over half of search queries in 2010 being 4 words or longer. As people get more comfortable with asking detailed, natural-language questions, this trend is only going to continue. One way or another, your site is ranking for new keywords every day, and some of them are a surprise even to Google.

Tactic #1 – Mine Your Analytics

So, is figuring out what you rank for as elusive as the unicorns in my table? Fortunately, no. While you'll never know ALL of the keywords you rank for, you can definitely find a solid pile of data. Your best, first destination is your own analytics – here's an example from Google Analytics (go to "Traffic Sources" > "Keywords > "Non-paid"):

Google Analytics keyword list

Of course, these are only keywords that drove clicks, but for my own site this represents 1,435 keyword phrases in just 1 month. My blog is hardly exceptional – it gets just over 200 visitors per day. So before you dismiss your analytics because they don't show you EVERYTHING, ask yourself if you've even come close to using the data they do provide.

Tactic #2 – Review GWT Keywords

The second place to look for keywords you're ranking for is Google Webmaster Tools, which is one of the only places to see data for keywords that drive search impressions but NOT clicks. Within GWT, go to "Your site on the web" > "Search queries", and you'll see something like this:

GWT keyword list

The "Clicks" column actually only goes down to "<10", so it's difficult to tell exactly which keywords drove no clicks, but comparing this data to your analytics data can help fill in some of the holes, if you really want to see the big picture.

Tactic #3 – Analyze Inbound Anchor Text

So, what if you want to find keywords that people aren't currently searching for but for which you could potentially rank? One place you might look is the anchor text that external sites use to link to your site, especially the longer tail phrases. For example, in our own Open Site Explorer, click on the "Anchor Text Distribution" tab and you'll get a full list of the phrases or terms external sites use to link to you (export to excel for up to 10,000 results):

OSE anchor text report

For example, I would rank #1 for "muppet intern yoozer", if anyone actually ever typed that phrase (before I did today). I'm not sure how that helps me, but at least conceptually, seeing what phrases people are using to link to you can give you a sense of what you have the capacity to rank for, even if those phrases don't currently drive searches.

Stop Obsessing & Get to Work

So, maybe you can't find ALL the keywords you'd ever rank for, but so what? Using these techniques and extrapolating a bit (put in some quality time with Excel), you can easily generate a list of hundreds or thousands of keywords that you either currently or could potentially rank for. That ought to keep you busy for a while.

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SEO Blog

Enhance your local business online visibility to local users through local seo

Posted: 10 Mar 2011 05:22 AM PST

There was a time when search engine phenomenon was new. Everybody would go type something, and would look at the result pages with awe and surprise. That point of time, the result pages were simply a listing of all pages on the net having the keyword somewhere in its content. An algorithm to decide which [...]

Link Building – Creating Encyclopedic Content Graywolf's SEO Blog

Link Building – Creating Encyclopedic Content

Posted: 10 Mar 2011 08:01 AM PST

While SEOs are well known for hating Wikipedia for its truthiness factor, as a whole, you have to acknowledge that, at some level, the content strives to be encyclopedic in nature. It’s this encyclopedic and non commercial quality that makes it linkworthy. When building my own websites or working with clients, one of the areas I feel is important to identify and work on is the page (or pages) of encyclopedic content.

The biggest mistake many people make when working on content for a website is assuming that all of the content should be monetized. Yes, you should strive to make a project profitable, but not at the expense of of link building. There are some page where monetization and conversions are the primary factors, there are some pages where social traffic and link building are number one, and there are others where reference quality and link building are key. It’s a subtle but important distinction you need to understand. What are some examples of this:

Disney Website

Disney World Hotel Reviews – conversion centric
Top 10 Disney Thrill Rides – social media centric
A History of Famous Disney Animators – reference centric

Cooking Website

All Clad Cookware Reviews – conversion centric
Foods to Avoid if Want to Get Lucky on Valentines Day – social media centric
Chili Powder – reference centric

The next key element is template layout and monetization. A key component of reference centric content is the absence or subtle placement of advertising. You can probably safely get away with some masthead advertising. If you have one or two side banners, that should be fine, but any more and it starts to look too commercial. Putting adsense or affiliate links in the main content is almost a sure guarantee that you are shooting yourself in the foot as far as link building potential, especially when dealing with “.edu” sites.

As far as style, the content really should be written with an encyclopedic style and not a sales style. For example, the iPhone page from Apple has a “sales” based style, whereas the Wikipedia page is encyclopedic in nature. In most cases, this means having a neutral point of view–unless, of course, your website has an editorial bias or is written with a great deal of sarcasm; if so, then a neutral-ish point of view is fine. These are the types of pages that will get the best results from your traditional email request link building efforts.

One shady approach I have seen used is creating an official-ish looking page where none exist. For example there is a Mall Walkers Association of America, but they don’t have an official website. There is a facebook page and a myspace page but, to be honest, they look a little sketchy, so I’m not linking to them. By creating a pseudo-official looking site where none exists, you create a link magnet for people looking for somewhere to link. Now I would be very careful here in implementation. Saying you are the official website for blue widgets when you’re not is shaky legal ground. However, putting up an official looking website, but indicating that you aren’t, is only likely to get you in trouble with search engines. Once you have a nice, well-linked-to, well-trusted website, you can give your commercial website a well-placed-link with highly desirable anchor text. These sites are usually very easy to build and maintain and cost very little from one year to the next, usually much less than buying some link advertising. Just saying …

So what are the takeaways from this post:

Look for similar topics or related topics in your space that are well suited to become encyclopedic in nature
Develop a non-commercial or low-commercial template for type of content
Create this content with a NPV and encyclopedic style
Use this content to attract links, especially from EDU sites
Once you have some link equity, make the page a link hub and redirect link equity into commercial parts of the website
Create a link network with non commercial content on separate websites (implement with caution)

photo credit: jamiehladky

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Link Building – Creating Encyclopedic Content

Commander-in-Cute

Your Daily Snapshot for
Thursday, March 10, 2011

Photo of the Day

President Barack Obama greets William Jawando, Deputy Associate Director of Public Engagement, his wife Michele and their four-month-old daughter Alia in the Oval Office, March 9, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

SEOptimise

Product URLs – a Duplicate Content Minefield

Posted: 09 Mar 2011 06:57 AM PST

Over the past few months I have been conducting lots of SEO Audits for a vast range of clients of all sizes. One thing that always seems to come out of the audit as a significant action is to look at the URL structure and duplicate content, with a special note for the product URL.

I find it extremely frustrating that with today's technology and the skill set of most developers, CMS Platforms still generate multiple URLs for products associated with several categories. This instantly generates duplicate content for a single product, and if this is replicated across hundreds if not thousands of products, a serious duplicate content issue occurs.

To give you an example of what happens with some CMS Platforms (all CMS platforms are different), I have described a scenario below that is from the point of view of both a merchandiser and platform.

Merchandiser: a leading retailer has a new product that needs adding to the CMS.

CMS Platform: generate a generic URL that incorporates the product title and the SKU:

www.domain.com/product/product-title-plus-sku-number-011232

Merchandiser: the product that was added is a waterproof jacket; this fits into three categories, which were selected from the options available.

CMS Platform: generate three new URLs, BUT they are SEO friendly with keywords included.

www.domain.com/category/sub-category-1/product-title-plus-sku-number-011232

www.domain.com/category/sub-category-2/product-title-plus-sku-number-011232

www.domain.com/category/sub-category-3/product-title-plus-sku-number-011232

Merchandiser: the product is added to the correct brand

CMS Platform: another URL is created for the brand product.

www.domain.com/brand/product-title-plus-sku-011232

THREE MONTHS LATER: the winter season comes to an end, so the close of season sale is on.

Merchandiser: the product didn't sell very well and was added to the sale.

CMS Platform: a new URL is created for the product that is now associated with the sale category.

www.domain.com/sale/product-title-plus-sku-number-011232

The scenario above describes adding the product to three different core categories, a brand and sale category, resulting in the creation of five different URLs to go with the generic product URL.

Now what is the issue with that, when they are keyword rich?

One of the biggest, if not THE biggest issue with e-commerce sites is the amount of duplicate content that is created, the majority by products and product listings. The above shows a perfect example of how duplicates are being created by multiple product URLs through CMS Platforms.

So how do you solve this issue? There are a couple of ways, depending on how far you are along with the CMS and how co-operative your web development team are.

1. When adding a product to the CMS, make sure that the platform creates just ONE generic URL (www.domain.com/product/product-title-plus-sku-number-011232 ) that can then be associated with multiple categories, brands, sale page etc. This will allow the merchandiser to select multiple categories to associate the product with, which will link through to the same URL. By ensuring the use of just one URL, the amount of duplicate content would be significantly decreased.

There are numerous large brands that are already using this method to good effect, although in slightly different ways, including:

John Lewis
http://www.johnlewis.com/27573/Style.aspx
http://www.johnlewis.com/173405/Style.aspx

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0470554185
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-KDL32BX300-32-inch-Widescreen-Freeview/dp/B004AHKUJA/

2. If your web development team are unable to change the way the URLs are generated, speak to them about automatically creating a rel="canonical" tag for each product with the generic URL added. This will provide the search engine with the generic URL to index instead of the other multiple URLs

3. If you are unable to implement either of the above recommendations, then I would suggest 301 redirecting the multiple URLs to the original generic URL. Before going ahead with this option, I would strongly urge you to try everything you can to get your web development team to implement either of the first two options. Option 3 will take up a considerable amount of time, with collating the different URLs for each product and then 301 redirecting them.

How does your current CMS generate product URLs? Is your web development team co-operative when you suggest SEO enhancements, or do your requests go unanswered? As a web developer, are you looking to improve the product from an SEO perspective? I look forward to hearing your views, not just from SEOs and Online Marketers, but also from web developers in the comments below or on Twitter – @danielbianchini.