Important: SEO Friendly A/B Testing

Posted on April 18, 2011 by ranger

When we’re talking about website optimizations, A/B testing is a standard OP for deciding the best user interface/s for your website, the interface with high conversion rate. Remember “Don’t trust your designer!”. Give the privilege to choose your website layout to your visitor. They are the one who will earn you money.

A/B Testing

Does A/B testing save for my SEO CAMPAIGNS?

A common mistake when running an A/B testing is letting the original and variant pages indexed by the search engines. This can end up with duplicate indexed contents on the SERPs.

Although theoretically, A/B test redirect using Javascript that should keep the variations uncrawled and undexed. But it doesn’t always stay like that when it comes to A/B testing.

There is an important lesson to be learned from this case: although A/B tests work under a controlled test environment, one that is also blocked from search engine crawlers, tests do not occur in a void. Test participants (i.e. site visitors) operate as the gate out of the closed test. Participants are unknowingly given test versions, which they can save as bookmarks, or add as a link in their blogs, unaware they are linking to a test version.

Here are the solutions to keep your A/B testing SEO friendly

Immediately added the alternative URL to the site’s robots.txt file to disallow crawling. This method guaranteed that the alternative homepage version would not be indexed by search engines.
After the A/B testing was complete, the chosen page version was set to the original homepage URL. Then added a permanent redirection (301) of the alternative URL (/index2.html) to the original homepage URL. This would channel any traffic attempting to enter the site via alternative link versions, correct the homepage, and avoid dead end traffic caused by broken links.

[Video] Matt Cutts : Do URL-shorteners pass anchor text?

Posted on April 17, 2011 by ranger

We all knew that Google is now using social media links as ranking symbols. But will custom URL-shorteners that are commonly used in social media will be looked as providing anchor text for links in SEO?

Matt Cutts has recently addressed this issues on a video posted to Google Webmaster Help Youtube channel. Quoting his explanation, “Custom URL shorteners are essentially just like any other redirects,” he explains. “If we try to crawl a page, and we see a 301 or permanent redirect, which pretty much all well-behaved URL shorteners (like bit.ly or goo.gl) will do, if we see that 301 then that will pass PageRank to the final destination.”

“So in general, there really shouldn’t be any harm to using custom URL shorteners in your SEO,” Matt continues. “The PageRank will flow through. The anchor text will flow through, and so I wouldn’t necessarily worry about that at all.”

“Now, just to let you know, if you look at, for example, Twitter’s web pages, many of those links have a nofollow link,” he adds. “So those links that are on the webpage, may not necessarily flow PageRank, but we might be able to find out about those links through some other way – maybe a data feed or something like that. But just URL shorteners, as far as how they relate to SEO, are not necessarily a problem at all.”

So basically the one that you should be more concern with is whether your links are added with nofollow attribute or not.

Best Practices: Optimizing your title tags

Posted on April 10, 2011 by ranger

Title tag is a ranking factor for Google, Yahoo, Bing and many other search engines. It defines the page content to both the user and search engine. Search engines used it as the anchor text pointing to the site on SERP. While for search users, the title tag can influence them to click on your site (CTR).

Here are tips to optimize your title tag
- Don’t duplicate. One title tag should be used only for one page of your website.
- Use a theme inside the title tags. Something like {business name}-{category}-{topic}
- Don’t spam. Keep it less than 110 chars.
- Don’t use all caps.
- Make it for human visitors and search engines visitors.
- Put keywords on your title tag.
- Use location on your title tag if you have a geo targeted SEO campaign.

If you more tips, don’t hesitate to share it with us here

The Importance of Goal in Google Analytics

Posted on March 27, 2011 by ranger

We all know that internet can be used as the medium to have business. Well, to be exact, this technology is even very effective to run the business by considering the amount of the people who access this technology everyday. For your information, thousands or even millions of people are accessing internet technology each day. It means that there are a lot of potential customers out there. Yes, this kind of business is called online business. Basically, this kind of business is just exactly the same like the normal business. The businessmen sell products, promote it, and have some transactions. However, what makes it different from the ordinary business is that all of those things are done by means of online. Because this kind of business has the focus in online society, the businessmen need to make sure that they attract the people to access their websites, in order to let them know their business and the products which are promoted. The term which is used in this matter is “traffic”. It refers to the amount of the people who access the websites of the businessmen. The higher the traffic means the higher the possibility of the websites to get success. It is because such thing will make the sales of the business will also be higher. So that, you can say that high traffic is one of the goals of your online business. Well, at this point, you might wonder how you can learn the traffic of your website. In order to do so, you can use the service of Google Analytics.

Google Analytics

Let us say that the importance of goal in Google Analytics for your online business is to let you know the traffic of your websites, blogs, and the other things related to online field. By considering the traffic, you can then learn what is good and bad for your online business. Such thing will help you to determine the next steps which are going to be taken to develop the business. Yes, indeed, it is also the importance of goal in Google Analytics to let you learn about the features of your website which need to be developed and the features that have been good enough for your business. By using this service, you can also learn about the other things which will determine the success of your business.

Let us take the example of keywords. You know that keywords are the things which are used to attract the traffic on the internet technology. The keywords are usually included in some articles which are then published on the internet and they are in linked condition. Indeed, the links will direct the people to your websites whenever they click on them. Therefore, you need to make sure that the articles and the keywords are attractive enough for the people. The service will let you know if some keywords are not effective in attracting the people to visit your websites and that is one of the goals of the service provided by Google Analytics. Yes, indeed, this service is a must have service for your online business. If you do not know anything about it and you do not use it, it will be hard for your online business to get the success.

SEO Games 2011

Posted on March 16, 2011 by ranger

Calling all bloggers and SEO enthusiast. Inbound Marketing Indonesia invites you to their SEO Games 2011. Try out your skill to compete and win the games for a total $500 cash prize.

Rules are easy, just be the number #1 on SERP for the selected key phrase.

Interested? Visit this page for more information http://inboundmarketing.web.id/seo-games

Things to Consider When Planning the First Online Marketing Campaign

Posted on March 9, 2011 by ranger

Internet marketing is one of the most popular marketing strategies to market your business, writing, and affiliate program by taking advantages of internet services. One advantage of internet marketing over any other marketing strategies is that it targets the potential segments of customers from different parts of the world. Another advantage is that it is not limited by geographical boundaries. The overall success of the online marketing campaign depends upon how you plan it. Planning the first online marketing campaign is sometimes a daunting task. It requires comprehensive understanding on what is trending in the market and what kind of products the customers prefer.

The first thing to do in planning the first online marketing campaign is researching the target market segment. You need to decide to whom your products and services will be offered. To understand the trends, you can find some online forums on your products and services. The second aspect you need to consider at the onset of the online marketing is how to get the products and services received by the target consumers. This is influenced by your budget and time. You can benefit from free online services such as classified, product reviews, and SEO. If you have sufficient budget, you can consult paid advertising agencies to recommend the most appropriate marketing strategies for your products.

The third aspect in planning online marketing campaign is finding where to put your marketing campaign. For cost per click service, you can rely upon online advertising agencies, such as Yahoo, Amazon, MSN, or local directory websites. The next aspect is writing the materials. They can be in the forms of articles, ads, and press release. For free services, social networking sites, webpage, and personal blogs are the most popular options. The last aspect is determining the marketing lifecycle and risk management strategies. This is an important phase to minimize the risks of loss. When a strategy fails, you use another one.

Now, what aspects you need to consider when selecting the right online marketing agency for your campaign. If it is the first time for you to use online marketing agency services, the first thing to do is getting references from friends or business partners. Others’ experience can be a great learning for you. You can learn others’ success keys and prevent yourself from the same mistakes others did. Secondly, do not ever make a decision when you have visited just one agency. Find at least three or four online marketing agencies, compare the offers, and find the advantages and disadvantages of each agency.

Thirdly, in addition to comparing the service coverage, you have to consider the pricing strategies each agency offers. Make sure you are familiar with the benefits and limitations of cost-per-access and lump sum pricing. This understanding helps you identify your need and budget availability. Never choose an online agency that involves hidden costs. Fourthly, a good online marketing agency is one that fully understands the need of the clients and knows every aspects of the clients’ business. Please ensure that you deal with such kind of agencies. Finally, you need to bear in mind that positively reviewed marketing agency is one with whom you can build a mutual trust.

The Differences between Press Releases and Articles

Posted on March 6, 2011 by ranger

Building traffic for a brand, whether a storefront or online requires lots of work, dedication, and above all, writing. Creating content is how you reach the masses, but knowing what to write for whom you are trying to attract can be very different. Creating quality content is no good if you aren’t directing it to, and in a manner that will allow the reader to digest and use it to the best of their ability.

There are two type of content that are commonly used for content marketing, press release and articles. Here are the difference between these type of content.

1. Press releases should be written for writers or news media and outlets. Think of it this way, your press release is a sales pitch, the idea is to get someone as much information as possible in the least amount of time and contain content that can in turn be re-written or broadcasted to the ultimate demographic of the project you are pushing.

2. Press releases should not be written for your demographic. When writing a press release, you need to assume that the person you’re sending it to has almost no knowledge of the content. Write the press release so the content is easily digestible and understandable by a broad audience.

3. articles are usually longer and contain more in-depth compared to a press release with the goal of attracting readers and can be used as purely informational, to sell, to suggest or to link to another article, but to drive traffic. Unlike press releases, articles are written specifically for the target demographic that is to read them, so utilizing keywords and looking at current trends is that niche is essential.

4. articles can be written to optimize search engines to get inbound traffic. They can also be written to link to, or have links in-bound from other sites, unlike press releases which are once and done pieces.

5. Press releases are time sensitive. They are used within a narrow window to make an announcement, draw attention and start a buzz, but they usually point to or reference an article, so in may ways they work together but are definitely different.