User dependency on the search box is very high; search boxes enable users to easily find the targeted information that they want in a short period of time. The search box is no longer limited to Google and other search engines as many websites now employ the search box as a method for visitors to find the content that interests them. The search box provides a better user experience for the visitor as they can find information in a timely manner, but from a webmaster’s point of view it can lead to some issues. The search box itself will not hurt your website when it comes to search engine optimization, but improper reliance on the search box can lead to deep linking. It is extremely important to avoid deep linking from a seo perspective as all webpages should be accessible within a few clicks (3 should be considered the maximum). The reason for this is because search engine spiders crawl webpages through links and if many of your webpages are deep linked, then the search engine spider is unlikely to crawl these pages and index them. This can have a serious impact on your website when it comes to search engine optimization. Use the search box to give visitors a better user experience, but avoid relying on the search box too much when it comes to deep linking.
Google Offers SEO Starter Guide
•November 14, 2008 • Leave a CommentGoogle recently released their SEO Starter Guide which discusses basic seo issues for webmasters who are just entering the industry. Some of the seo issues covered include:
- Page Titles
- Description Meta Tag
- URL Structure
- Site Navigation
- Creating Quality Content
- Anchor Text
- Heading Tags (H1s, H2s, etc.)
- Image Optimization
- Robots.txt
- Rel=â€nofollowâ€
- Website Promotion
- Webmaster Tools
- Analytics
- More Resources
Although, most experienced webmasters should know all of the things that Google covers in this guide, many of the topics mentioned may need to be refreshed in our minds. Overall, it is a very useful guide that addresses seo topics in a direct and basic manner.
CPM Ad Rates Drop 11% in Q3 2008
•November 13, 2008 • 1 CommentAccording to The Rubicon Project, CPM ad rates dropped 11% from the second quarter to the third quarter of 2008. Although, the CPM ad rates have continued there downward spiral, there is significant opportunity within advertising online. This CPM ad rate drop can be attributed to the downturn in the global economy. Many companies have reevaluated how much money they will be spending on online advertising. Regardless of the cutbacks in online advertising, growth has been made within the industry with regards to stronger technology, niche targeting, etc. These improvements allow advertisers to receive more targeted traffic that is more likely to convert. Currently online advertising can take advantage of the CPM ad rate drop situation because the amount that they pay per ad, visitor, and in the end, the action of the users to purchase their product all costs them less due to this drop in CPM rates. Although CPM rates have continued to drop, there is definitely opportunity within the online advertising marketplace.
Why Use CPALead?
•November 12, 2008 • 7 CommentsOne of the commonly used CPA advertisers today is CPALead (You loss nothing by signing up under my referral code). Some people use the CPALead gateway on their sites that basically make users work to gain access to their premium content; we have discussed specific methods of utilizing CPALead in a variety of niches. Pages can be inaccessible with the addition of CPALead until a visitor completes a survey. These completely surveys pay the affiliate (the website owner) amounts that range from $0.18-$15+ depending on which survey is completed. Most of the surveys that pay over $1 require the user to sign up for something and pay some money up front, so generally these are much less likely to be completed. This basically means that you will earn an average of $0.50 for each user that completes the survey. Unfortunately only a few websites can employ CPA advertising effectively. In general though, forcing users to complete CPA surveys through CPALead will drive some visitors away, but it can be much more profitable than CPC, CPM, popups, or popunders when it comes to advertising. Some niches that can effectively employ CPALead are incentive websites that gives users access to premium content, streaming tv episodes, or even websites that pay the users part of amount that they make from each survey. CPA advertising with the CPALead gateway can definitely not be used in most niches, but it can be successfully utilized in a few specific niches. If your website seems like a potential user of CPALead, I encourage you to sign up, but monitor your traffic statistics and your revenue to ensure that it is actually generating more revenue. In our CPALead Revisited post, we do exactly this and compare our earning prior to using the CPALead gateway and after it was implemented.
Creative Keyword Domain Names
•November 11, 2008 • Leave a CommentSelecting a domain name that contains your keywords, remains memorable for visitors, and is actually open for registration, can be quite a challenge. Some people may choose a shorter 3 character domain name so that it is easily memorable for visitors, but a domain with your keyords is ideal for reaping the benefits of organic seo. For instance, if I want to create a website for watching House M.D. online, I might consider the keywords: stream, watch, house, online, or episodes. Obviously, many of the preferred domains have already been registered, such as watchhouse, watchhouseonline, watchhouseepisodes, etc.  Instead of forcing myself to register a domain like houseonlineepisodesstream or housonlineepisodeswatch, which are both long and not in the preferred order for keywords, there is something else you can try. Combining the last letter of the word with the first letter of the next word; for example, the keywords watch and house can be combined into watchouse. Search engine will still recognize both keywords (watch and house) in your domain name, but you will be able to register a quality domain name that is actually open. I recently did this with the domain name watchouseonline.com. On Google it started to rank on the second and third pages a few days after registration with no promotion. After about a week of limited promotion, this domain started to rank on the first page for all of its keywords. Keywords in your websites domain name or url are obviously very important for serps (Search Engine Results Page), but you can’t always find the domains that you want open. With this tip you can combine your keywords in quite a few situations to be able to get a desirable domain name.