Search Engine News from Piedmont Design

Nice post at thegooglecache.com/ on the difference between paid and organic listings:

People who rely on PPC for traffic are renters. There is nothing wrong with this and it certainly has its perks. You can start and stop renting at any time - no waiting for a house to be built. On the otherhand, you are always paying someone else’s mortgage.

SEO on the otherhand, is more like ownership. Sure, your house could be blown away by a storm or destroyed by fire. But, if you maintain it well, and don’t take too many risks, you can save a lot of money and get A LOT MORE HOUSE. You can always go back to renting if it doesn’t work out for you. 

One thing worth noting is that to hire an SEO pro, it costs money up-front (liek buying a house) but there is not equivalent to a bank through whom you can finance.

This article: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2006/sep/18prt.html is inherently biased because it’s written by a guy selling SEO services rather than by a site trying to inform you (does that mean this blog is “inherently biased?) but his stats in particular are interesting:

Study after study indicates people are less likely to clíck on paid search ads rather than on results from organic search engine optimization. For example, one study found that search users are up tö six times more likely to clíck on the first few organic results than they are to choose any of the paid results [1], while an eye tracking study [2] showed that 50 percent of users begin their search by scanning the top organic results. Other studies have shown that only 30 percent of search engine users clíck on paid listings, leaving an overwhelming 70 percent who are clicking the organic listings. [3] And a 2003 study found that 85 percent of searchers report clicking on paid links in less than 40 percent of all of their searches, and 78 percent of all respondents claim that they found the information they were searching for through sponsored links just 40 percent of the time.[4]

Here’s a post I liked from the SEObook blog: Linking for Conversion

If you link to a few authority sites from within the content it helps engines know what community the page belongs to. Although you do not want to link out too heavily on your main core conversion / offer pages. Hopefully you could create other linkbait pages and other content which helps carry the authority of those other page. If you do link out to other authority sites on pages highly focused on conversion perhaps it makes sense to do it below the fold.

The part that stands out to me in the post is where he says “If you assume (rightly) that users ignore your navigation…”.  I’ve never written with that in mind.  I think SEObook overdoes it but if people really do ignore navigation, that should effect how I write.  The part about links in the text working against screen scrapers is a nice point too. (unless they strip the links out which is what I would expect to happen).

Directory submission has long been a part of SEO and web promotion.  It’s really no longer useful for driving traffic directly.  Search engines do at times take the recommendations of directory’s, particularly human edited one, quite seriously.  Other directorys can put you in the dreaded Google Sandbox.  So should you submit to them?  Which ones?  The link below hopes to help guide you.  A good rule of thumb is is to use your head.  Click on some of the links.  If they’re junk, stay away.  If it is good content, and related to your site or topic, submit. I’d be slow to pay for a link though.  There are better, more effective ways[1][2] to spend your money.

http://www.avivadirectory.com/strongest-directories/

If you’re looking to research keywords, there are a number of tools for doing so on the web.  The (major) ones I know of are:

• Wordtracker - http://wordtracker.com/ Wordtracher is nice because it is designed for SEO types rather than for ad buyer so the tool provides a score for which keywords appear underrepresented.  It requires a subscription, but you can have unlimited free trials (only for MSN but that’s good enough).
• Google Adwords - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Google’s tool is listed here second because it’s Google (85% marketshare?). 
• KeywordDiscover - http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/ I’ve not tried this yet but I’ve heard good things about it from smart folks.  I can’t see spending $40 / month though unless it’s superb.
• Digital Point - http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/ You create a free account and it tracks keywords for you over time.  It’s a great thing to set up and then foorget about.  You need a Google API key but they have a link on the site for it.
• Yahoo Overture - http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ I’ve been using this one forever (since it was goto.com).  I don’t know that there’s anything special about.  Rumor is that in recent months it’s been getting less accurate, but I still like it.  It’s really straight-forward… no login or anything.

The Other Guys

• Good Keywords - http://goodkeywords.com/
• Keyword Count - http://www.keywordcount.com/index.php/welcome
• Keyword Density - http://keyworddensity.com/
• NiceBot - http://nichebot.com/
• SEO Book - http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/

If you have any more majors to add, please post or email me.

Per an article at WebProWorld:

The Japanese testing of AdWords on mobiles proved successful enough that Google has quietly debuted the service in the US.

This is a bit too bleeding edge for my taste. I pay for mobile content by the kilobite and would resent searching and getting ads instead. It’s hard to be unobtrusive on a small phone screen. Any space used by ads better be done well or else I’m switching. I tend to use Google, but that would drive me away fast.

I have been contemplating starting an SEO blog for some time but have been quite hesitant as the market seems crowded and the quality of many of the blogs is quite high.  Why then have I chosen to do it?  A couple weeks ago I read a post at SEObook.com (which has one of the best SEO blogs I’ve come across) talking about experts who fail to archive their answers when they help people.  I’m not sure I’m comfortable calling myself an SEO expert, though I sell my SEO services to clients. (I’d never thought about that before!)  I do believe that I have provided clients a good bit of value through the years by passing along what I know.\

Honestly though, what I want most for this blog is a place to point friends and clients who are interested in SEO but not interested in paying for SEO.  I follow read some great blogs and come accross valuable resources weekly… rather than talking with folks and trying to remember URLs and communicate the basics, it would be easier to put that here. 

I do hope to provide some value to users and I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog.  I’m always open to feedback and suggestions.