SEO: January 2010 Archives

Videos, properly submitted, are 53 times more likely to generate a first page Google ranking than traditional SEO techniques, according to a recent study by Forrester Research. However, many companies are ignoring video SEO altogether, only submitting the pages on which videos reside and not the videos themselves, or worst of all, submitting their video assets to YouTube under the misunderstanding that this will generate SEO benefits.

Video SEO Advantages

Video SEO is 53 times more likely to produce a first-page search result than traditional techniques.
• Google is pushing video to the top of search results, creating a goldmine for marketers.
• Results begin to appear in days, and some publishers succeed in getting 25 percent or more of their videos to produce first page results.
• Search engines can't find video content on their own, so getting submission right is critical -- a knowledgeable partner can make this much easier.

The Unfair Advantages of Video SEO

Although video SEO isn't dissimilar to traditional SEO, it has two distinct advantages.

First, Google and other search engines work to have a mix of content types displayed in search results (a.k.a., blended search results). For this reason, they give a higher ranking to video content than other forms of Web content in order to make sure that searches consistently display mixed search results.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636282
Microsoft/Bing has released what amounts to one of the most powerful free server-side SEO (search engine optimization) tools available.

The IIS SEO toolkit, which caters to Web developers, hosting providers and Web server administrators, aims to "improve discoverability and user experience" for websites and it's going to be a game changer.

The IIS SEO Toolkit includes a Site Analysis module, a Robots Exclusion module, and a Sitemaps and Site Indexes module. These tools let you perform detailed analysis and offer recommendations and editing tools for managing files.

See the full story at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2010/01/25/bing-s-iis-seo-toolkit-now-available.aspx
When it comes to big teams (and just as frequently with one-man shows), all marketing initiatives earn the distinction of being a priority, which normally denotes something that's important enough to jump on right away. But with dozens of other projects hanging in the air, a further hierarchy is required. Individual action items (or at times, the entire list) becomes a high priority, on top of which it's more than likely that the team has three or four top priorities.

When you have a project in mind that can make a huge difference to your bottom line, like SEO or PPC, hearing that it's a top priority and then watching it languish as a line item in weekly and monthly staff meetings quickly becomes a top annoyance with a high incidence of face palming as a result.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636181
Social media has changed the way people look for jobs, share pictures of their kids and find new love interests, but thus far the vast majority of large companies still aren't taking advantage of these sites and services to evangelize -- and protect -- their brands, according to a panel of social networking experts here at the Consumer Electronics Show.

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/advertising/article.php/3857406
Looking for a simple way to build links? One way is to start an office volunteer program. It just needs to be promoted to get the attention of local media, bloggers, and others.

Think of a headline on the nightly news and online newspapers like this: "Local Company gives Free Computer Classes to Disadvantaged Youth." That could translate to high-quality links, publicity, and improved employee morale

The Program

One way to start this and get employees excited is to find a cause many of them are passionate about. This volunteer program could be a one-time event or recurring.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636123
Article marketing is a good tool for reaching out to a broader audience and letting them know about your expertise on a given topic. The purpose is to establish credibility and drive traffic back to your Web site. So let's first cover the basics of article marketing and submission, and then touch on potential duplicate content issues.

What is Article Marketing?

Article marketing allows writers to promote themselves and their company by writing articles and making the content freely available for reproduction on other Internet sites. Basically, you're providing something of value for free to those who have similar interests or work in your field.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636065
If you're involved with SEO in any way, you've probably heard about duplicate content. If you're not exactly sure what it is and how it affects your SEO efforts, then this article is for you. This topic can be rather technical and have some advanced features, but I'll try to keep it basic and won't get into technical details here.

What is Duplicate Content?

In the basic sense, duplicate content is when two or more Web sites have the same content on their site. This isn't just the same subject or headers, but the exact same content word for word or maybe almost word for word.

This may happen for several reasons. You may have written an article and another site or blog picked up the article and posted it word for word.

Another situation is you might have multiple sites with different domains but have similar content. This is sometimes true for sites in different countries. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for having the same content. Still, it's good to understand the pitfalls.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636001
Link building -- the process of attempting to influence inbound links pointing to a site -- is a fundamental activity of most SEO strategies, but very few people are armed with the tools to do it right. Even more people have the right tools but struggle to stay on top of their linking efforts and understand the impact of them.

Today, let's examine how you can be fully prepared for your link building endeavors by developing a comprehensive link-building toolkit that you can leverage throughout your program.

This "toolkit," which consists of contact lists, worksheets, and templates, is a consolidated repository or file of relevant references or documents required to undertake your link-building program. My link-building toolkit is typically a spreadsheet file with multiple tabs for each item or element. As you will be entering data into your toolkit throughout, I've found that Excel facilitates this most easily.

See the full story at: http://www.clickz.com/3635990
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About this Archive

This page is a archive of entries in the SEO category from January 2010.

SEO: December 2009 is the previous archive.

SEO: February 2010 is the next archive.

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