Search Engine StrategiesSan Jose 2008

Search Secrets

Five Quick Tips

• Using Syndicated Content to Get Links can Backfire

• How to Provide Accurate Data to Local Search Engines

• Get Free Links Using Google Webmaster Tools• Recovering “Lost” Links• MSN Search Funnels

Syndicating Exact Copies = BAD

NYTimes.com Syndicate-NYTimes.com

The GOOD

• Great way to get links• Lots of web sites starved for quality content• Get to present yourself as an expert• Many times you can even specify the anchor

text

The Bad and the Ugly

• The BAD:– Search engines see duplicate content– Search Engines only want to show one copy

• The UGLY:– They USUALLY show the original author in preference to

other copies– BUT, not ALWAYS– They do make mistakes– Don’t want to syndicate your content and then not rank for

it!

The Solution

• Solution is simple:– Pay a different writer to cover the same topic– Guide them with key points to include

• Add new value, and new observations

– You will get a very different result– Might cost you $40 or $50– Buys you “Safe Syndication”

Seattle Pizza - Google

Seattle Pizza - Yahoo

Seattle Pizza - Microsoft

Impact

• Results above the fold dominated by Local Search results

• Web search results not even visible• Search engines are doing this because users

are responding (by clicking on the map links)• If you want traffic on “Seattle Pizza”, you

better score well in Local search

Search Engine Challenge• Search engines have a big problem:

– Obtaining accurate data

• They use many sources– Yellow page sites– Syndicators such as LocalEze and InfoUSA– Local Review Sites– Information you provide to them directly

• Data provided is often inaccurate, or out of date

Give Them the Data Directly• All 3 major engines provide you a way to give

them authenticated data directly:– Google Local Business Center– Google also uses KML files– Yahoo accepts direct feeds for a fee– Live Search Local Listing Center

• Give them accurate data• These sources carry the most weight

More on the Local Business Center• Allows you to submit locations:

– Individually– Or by feed

• Feed is useful for large numbers of locations• Individual submissions are VERIFIED by Google

– Phone or mail– Feed submissions are NOT verified

• Go individual, even for 100s of locations

More on KML

• “Keyhole Markup Language”• Language for geographic annotation• Search engines find the location of your KML

file using your sitemaps file• This means it is authenticated• Google uses this data• So should you

Last Notes on Local

• Good to be listed in many places– Yellow page sites, review sites, directories, etc.

• Increases data accuracy problem• Invest the time and effort to get this data right• Services like Localeze help with this, but cost

money• Summary: Quality Data Drives Rankings

Free Links Using Google WMT

Free Links Using Google WMT

Free Links Using Google WMT

• If you don’t have an account, get one• Look at the Not Found Report in the Web

Crawl Errors section• Look for malformed URLs• E.g. /stc_services.shtml is incorrect• Should be: /STC_Services.shtml• Add to your .htaccess file a 301 redirect from

the incorrect to the right one

.htaccess example• redirect 301 /stc_services.shtml

http://www.stonetemple.com/STC_Services.shtml

• Benefit: the link is now passed through to a real page on your site

• Presumes you are using an Apache based web server

• Process is different for IIS (Windows) servers (but it can be done)

Find “Lost Links”

What you really want

Why and How

• Contact these people and ask them to make it a real link

• Let Yahoo tell you who they are• Here is the query string:

intext:stonetemple.com

Results Sample

Benefit

• 2,042 potential links• People who have already endorsed us

• Asking people who have already endorsed you has to be easier than asking people who don’t know who you are

MSN Search Funnels - Outgoing

MSN Search Funnels - Incoming

How to use Search Funnels

• Use to determine searcher intent• Use to isolate problems on your web site• It’s advanced keyword analysis• You can find Search Funnels here:

– http://adlab.msn.com/Search-Funnels/

• For more great tools: http://adlab.msn.com/

Contact Information

Eric EngePresidenteenge@stonetemple.com(508) 485-7751