Month: January 2007

Directory Submissions

Are directory submissions important anymore?

Despite Google’s preeminence, directory submissions are still important. Directories catalog links for easy access for visitors to find information they are searching on.

The biggest value from directories is not so much direct traffic from your directory listing, but from the SEO lift you get from the directory listing. The more important the directory, the better improvement in your search engine placement.

Links play an important part in determining your ranking position for the various search engines. Obtaining quality inbound links can influence your search engine rank immensely.

Garbage in, garbage out. If your website lacks lots of text content but is full of images and flash content which search engines cannot spider, the directory is not going to be able to overcome these ‘spider traps.’ Make sure your site is SEO friendly and optimized to take full advantage of a directory’s SEO lift. Submitting to a directory under a particular category, and have links to content rich pages which will allow the search engine to most easily categorize your site under the relevant topic.

There are many specific directories available online. Niche or specific directories target only websites categorized for a particular subject or field. There are directories available for virtually all business areas and topics. Regional directories are available which may be highly useful if your online business targets customers locally.

Directory submission companies like Directory Maximizer can help. Check out this article from them on the importance of directory submissions.

DNForum — Domain Sales & Appraisals

This site -- DNForum.com -- is a clearing house for discussions on a variety of topics on domain name sales, domain appraisals, and discussions about domain registrars.

Their "Industry Leaders" forum allows you to talk about issues with registrars. If you're like me and have a lot of domain names, then you've likely run afoul of some registrar at some point and this is a great place to get tips on how to deal with individual registrar issues.

Possibly the best opportunity on this site though is if you have some domain names you want to sell. Here you can get an appraisal and then create buzz and network to sell that domain you've been holding on to.

Free Forums using GoBoardz

GoBoardz is a new -- and free! -- forum service that allows you to create online message boards. Some selected features:

  • Picture uploading/linking via embedded Photobucket widgets
  • Avatars
  • Active Topics (via RSS too!),
  • Customizable colors
  • Digg suppport
  • Del.icio.us linking

Unlike some other systems in the market, this system is very fast (no graphics, just colors), and simple to set up. I set up a test forum here --http://seo.goboardz.com -- and had it up and running in minutes.
Learn more at GoBoardz Forums

301 vs. 302 Redirects

When you move content from one location to another on a web site, there are a number of methods to redirect requests for the old URL to the new page location. For SEO purposes, a technique known as a 301 redirect is the correct way to set up redirects. A 301 redirect is the web server’s way of telling search engines that the page has moved permanently. A 302 redirect, by contrast, states that the page has moved temporarily. To avoid losing page rank for your URLs, always use a 301 redirect, not a 302 redirect.

OK, now let’s say you’ve set up a redirect, and from a user experience perspective, you can see in the browser that requests to a moved page redirect properly to the new URL. But is the 301 code rendering correctly to the search engines to preserve your URLs page rank? How do you verify this?

Enter LiveHTTPHeader. More on installing this incredible tool later.

White Hat SEO Optimization

eTrafficJams has an interesting search engine optimization service article that talks about "White Hat" SEO optimization.

Lurking in your website's HTML code can be many "do not enter" signs that you aren't aware of. These roadblocks make it hard or impossible for search engine spiders to fully access every part of your site.

That's a serious problem. Source

To fix it, their SEO optimization experts perform a thorough analysis of your site's design and HTML. They remove any spider traps they find along the way. One often overlooked area for optimization are shopping cart or database-driven web sites. These functions are usually prime candidates for better search engine optimization.

Examples of basic content techniques they use to make sites search engine friendly:

  • Title Tag
  • META Description
  • META Keywords
  • Alt tag attributes
  • Headings H1, H2, H3 etc
  • Body Text
  • Link Text (Anchor Text)
  • Link Title
  • Domain Names, File and Folder Names
  • Keyword Repetition, Proximity, Prominence
  • Page Size
  • Search Engine Friendly Navigation
  • Number of Pages on the Website
  • Website Freshness/Frequency of Updates
  • Number of Outgoing Links
  • Site Map

Formatting your content is only the start. The second part of the strategy is to keep ranking up over time through link building and constantly enhancing your content.  SEO firms like this offer a monthly maintenance plan which is vital to your long term success. They monitor your search engine rankings and analyze the progress of your SEO campaign. As necessary, pages will be re-optimized to sustain and improve your rankings in the major engines: Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

Part of 'White Hat' optimization is doing the ethical, search-engine approved methods to enhancing your site. Black Hat optimization such as duplicate pages and white text links on a white background and stuffing pages with keywords is frowned upon.

Rely on an expert to optimize your site or else you may find yourself blacklisted from the search engines!

Halt to Hard Copy News Decline

A new Gallup study reveals a halt in the steady decline of those relying on newspapers for their news gathering.

Despite all of the publicity about people fleeing to the Web for their daily news diet, the Gallup survey found that twice as many still rely on newspapers: 44% daily vs. 22% daily for Internet use.

Read more about these trends.

Creative (and Effective) Form Design

cell_phone_guy.pngUK based Carphone Warehouse has created an innovative phone ordering application on their web site, The Phone Spot. There are two things I like about it.

First, they make creative use of animation on their cell phone ordering form. This 'Step by Step Phone Finder' has an animated character on the left which makes the search feel personal, and takes out some of the otherwise intimidating nature of selecting multiple products and configuring a cell phone order. The animation also catches you eye and makes you stay longer on the page, make it more likely to engage the visitors interest.

Secondly, they make good use of diagrams to show the different cell phone types. A picture is worth a thousand words, and this web form certainly makes creative use of illustrations to aid the user in their buying process.

cell_phone_illustration.png

Visit their ThePhoneSpot.com to see this buying experience in action.

Web Site “Pulse”

websitepulse.pngI liked how this website monitoring tool is positioned.

They have geographically dispersed monitoring locations which take the 'pulse' of your servers' health. They also have a "triple stage" error verification system and multi-level error correlated notification system.

This type of independent, off-site monitoring of the availability and performance of your web sites allow you to keep tabs on servers and network components, web applications and e-business transactions, web-based and e-mail systems.

This service ensures reliable early problem and error detection with a multi-stage verification process, followed by real-time alerts. Detailed reports and website diagnostic tools allow web system owners and operators to quickly locate and troubleshoot problems.

Note their feature set:

Network & Server Monitoring - monitors any type of server or network device as often as every minute with error detection and real-time multimedia alerts.

Website Monitoring - monitors performance and availability of web sites up to every minute simultaneously from a global monitoring network. Provides full-page downloads with real-time alerts generated if page errors or performance problems occur.

Transaction & Web Application Monitoring - monitors complex multi-step web transactions and the applications they use. Features simultaneous full-page downloads for every step from multiple cities around the World.

Email System Monitoring with Round-Trip
- verifies that your incoming and outgoing email services are working from and end-to-end perspective.

Read more about WebSitePulse.

Desktop Ergonomics: Screen Tips

20061218-ergonomic.jpgI've used a ergonomic split keyboard for years. But what about monitor positioning? Here are some tips for the ideal monitor setup to help your eyes reduce eyestrain and undue stress on your neck and spine:

  • Eye-to-screen distance: at least 25?, preferably more.
  • Vertical location: viewing area of the monitor between 15° and 50° below horizontal eye level.
  • Monitor tilt: top of the monitor slightly farther from the eyes than the bottom of the monitor.
  • Lighting: ceiling suspended, indirect lighting. Use blinds and shades to control outside light.
  • Screen colors: dark letters on a light background.

Read more at Visual Ergonomics in the office