SEMpdx.org
Wiki edit
edit Search Engine Marketers of Portland - SEMpdx
About Us
edit Special Offer
SEMpdx members receive 25% off the SpotlightUs article writing service from AboutUs.org.
edit Address
- 2189 NW Wilson St.
- Portland, OR 97210
edit SearchFest 2007 Notes
Ray and Mark from AboutUs.org Attending today
- Keynote by Jeff Pruitt of SEMPO and ICrossing -- Good overall presentation (walking through the ages kinda thing)
- Web 2.0 / RSS Session
- Janet's comments were great:
- Consumers are less brand loyal / Individuals are less trusting
- 67% consumers rely on WOM vs. other marketing methods to make purchasing decisions
- Marketers are afraid, especially the older ones, because they don't understand
- With RSS, we've come full circle, back to white background, black text, blue links
- Writing well is very very important as a result
- domain names are important, direct type in traffic (check SnapNames.com to pick up names in the drop) - this is a blatent plug :-)
- John Hartman (Feedia.net)
- 2007 - possible problem - too many people trying to develop social networks
- 2007 - Social Media / Mobile / IPTV
- Q&A Notes
- Janet's comments were great:
- Advanced SEO
- Personalization - it used to be that you had to turn ON personalization, now it's the default - Google made this change in the past few weeks. This may hurt the blackhat and greyhat guys.
- Wikipedia is so successful in SERPs. Their URL structure is incredibly clean and well structured. Internal link structure is great. Titles, header tags, etc. are great. They have "unwritten articles that are generating traffic" and ask their editors to make those pages. Consistent content format, no ads, easy to find a page on any subject.
- Members of social communities think SEO = Spam
- The power of the Widget, best are interactive, give links, customizable and easy to use. 2007 will be the year of the widget.
- The biggest mistake in LinkBaiting
- Freemium - Give away soem content / services for free and offer upgraded items for a fee. e.g. Wufoo.com, Skype, WordTracker, FeedBurner, Last.fm and SEOmoz.
- LocalSearch beyond the basics / Matt McGee, SEO Manager of Marchex.com
- The Basics, but you can do better!
- make your page "more local" put your address on every page and a LOCAL phone number, Search Engines will use this to figure out where you are located
- write out a "location / directions" page - SE spider can't read a map, use landmarks, neighborhoods, etc. Use these in your page titles and Anchor Text
- PPC, not just about bidding on keywords like "Portland Dentist" but also geo-targetting. Google.com, Yahoo.com and MSN.com support this.
- Add, fix listings at internet yellow pages
- Encourage user reviews, algorithyms likely consider them
- Pole Positioning - Stoney deGeyter, (PolePositionMarketing.com, EMarketingPerformance.com)
- Keyword research very important, it's the foundation for all online marketing
- KWR is time consuming and difficult
- Gathering "Core Terms", unique 2-3 word phrases
- Brainstorm Session / pour through your own website, content, title, navigation, products
- WordTracker & other tools
- Sorting Core Terms
- Search Phrases - phrases that contain the core term / don't analyze, just gather, 100's to 1000's
- Sorting and selecting keywords / keywords that convert
- Draw targetted visitors
- Applies directly to your site
- No broad phrases ("shoes", "bags")
- Informational queries later / product reviews, how to articles
- Organizing Keywords / short and longtail are both good / each page has specific focus / not enough pages? create them
- Conclusion, don't rush, build your foundation properly, create a high performance SEO Campaign
- Keyword research very important, it's the foundation for all online marketing
edit 2nd half of the day
- Lunchtime presentation by Leo Chung of event sponsor OverlandAgency.com
- Eric Facas, SEM channel manager of Google
- Search results have gotten quite a bit more complex / targetted results vs. natural results. Desktop results also now built into search query.
- Google One-Box (get users to what they're really looking for
- Image / Video, etc. to help users hone down then search
- if someone searches "Apple Mac Commercial" they may be looking for a video, they're going to serve that up.
- David Roth, Director SEM at Yahoo
- In a Google centric world, you should also advertise at Yahoo
- Close the gap in search monetization <- corporate goal / Panama release (bringing Yahoo's markeplace up to speed)
- Introducing new auction model and a better User/Advertiser experience
- Initiatives: Enhanced customer services / phased transition / Local Search / Mobile Search
- Summary: Quality based ad serving / higher volume for advertisers / new feature and services
- Stacy Morgan, Sr. Mgr account services at LookSmart.com
- They have an extensive ad network, lots of queries, lots of clicks ...
- Naga Krothapalli Representative from Microsoft (very short intro, mainly here for Q&A)
Web Analytics
- WebTrends.com (Barry)
- Automation efficiency / Spreadsheets -> Bid Management -> Portfolio Optimization -> Dynamic Optimization
- the more keywords you track, the harder it is to do manually
- Omniture.com (I didn't get the name either) / Omniture just bought TouchClarity.com
- Website real estate varies (where on the page)
- Optimize for click-through, revenue or profit
- Realtime learning and optimization
edit Some of the 250 people who attended Searchfest 2007
- Tim Germer of Dotster.com (major ICANN accredited Registrar)
- Scott Fish also of Dotster.com and FishSEO.com
- Janet Johnson of SnapNames.com
- John Hartman of Feedia.com
- Michael Wills of MikeWills.com
- Kent Lewis of AnvilMediaInc.com
- Kerry Finsand of Citysearch.com
- Tricia Pobjoy DougWilliams.com (web development company)
- Michelle Tilborg of SnapNames.com
- Andrea Ashley of AxiumAE.com
- Benjamin Lloyd of Amplify-Interactive.com
- Todd Mintz of Srclarke.com
- ...add more
edit Related Domains
edit External Links
- Alexa: Sempdx.org
edit Tags
How visible is your website?
Home Page Analysis
A better home page will help you show up in search results.
| Titles & Headings |
|
|---|---|
| Links & Images |
|
| Search Engine Friendliness |
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Get Your
Competitive Edge
See how your digital marketing stacks up,
and get ahead.
Web Presence Analysis
How easily can your site be found around the Web?
| value for Google crawl date | |
|---|---|
| value for Bing indexed pages |
Home Page Analysis
The Home Page Analysis helps you understand how a site's home page appears to both search engines and site visitors.
SEMpdx.org Home Page Analysis Summary
|
Titles & Headings
The title and headings on the home page tell people and search
engines what a website is about. Analyze the title & headings of the home page for free or the entire site. |
Problem |
|---|---|
|
Links & Images
Relevant links to other sites are good for people and search
engines. Images on a web page should be described for visually impaired
visitors and search engines. Analyze the links & images of the home page for free or the entire site. |
Warning |
|
Search Engine Friendliness
A few simple technical fixes can make any site show up better in
search results. |
Good |
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Title
The title of a web page appears in search results as the link to that page. Learn more ...
Purpose
The title of a web page appears as a clickable link in search results and bookmarks. A descriptive, compelling home page title with relevant keywords can increase the number of people visiting the site.
Search Engines
Search engines view the text of the title tag as a strong indication of what the page is about. Accurate keywords in the title tag can help the page rank better in search results.
Length
A title tag should have fewer than 70 characters, including spaces. Major search engines won't display more than that.
Content
The title tag of your home page (and any other page on your site) should not contain the site’s domain name or URL. These will appear near the title in search results, so use your 70 characters to tell people what the page is about. The title tag should not contain any HTML, because it will be displayed incorrectly or not at all.
- Good: This web page has a title tag.
- Good: The title tag is a good length.
- The title of this site's home page:
- “Search Engine Marketers of Portland - SEMpdx”
H1 Headings
The H1 heading is an important sentence or phrase on a web page that quickly and clearly tells people and search engines what they can expect to find there. Learn more ...
Just one H1
In most cases, a web page should have just one H1 heading. Using multiple H1 headings is okay if that is a logical way to organize the page, but they should be used sparingly. That’s because search engines can view multiple H1 headings as an attempt to signal that all the content on a page is equally important, a tactic that’s seen as an attempt to game the search engine algorithms.
Purpose
Search engines look for an H1 heading to determine what a page is about. Human visitors do, too.
Content and placement
The H1 heading appears on the web page itself, unlike the page title, which people will see mostly in search results.
The H1 tag (which contains the H1 heading) is usually listed first among the other heading tags for a page. None of the major search engines, however, will penalize a site for listing H2 through H6 tags ahead of the H1 tag.
The H1 heading for a page should be different from its title. Each can target different important keywords for better SEO.
- Problem: This web page does not have an H1 heading. It should have one.
SEMpdx.org in search results
You can see below how most search engines will display this site's home page in search results. The title is used as the link to the page, and the meta description appears below the title.
Search Engine Marketers of Portland - SEMpdx
Portland Oregons' first, largest and best search engine marketing organization, with monthly and annual events announced here, along with insightful arti...
sempdx.org/
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Links & Images
Sites You Link To
Outbound links tell search engines which websites you find valuable and relevant to your own site, and help your visitors find what they need…even if it’s not on your site. Learn more ...
Search engines
Including links to relevant sites is good for your website's standing with search engines. The Web is all about linking, and carefully chosen outbound links tell search engines that you understand their value to site visitors. These outbound links also help search engines classify your site in relationship to others.
Here, we identify only the outbound links on this site's home page, but outbound links add value to any important page on a website.
Site visitors
Outbound links tell people that you want to provide them with good information, even if it’s not on your own site. These links can also prompt other people to link to your site, which can boost its reputation and ranking in search results.
Here, we identify only the outbound links on this site's home page, but outbound links add value to any important page on a website.
Image Descriptions
Image descriptions - also called alt text - are the best way to describe images to search engines and to visitors using screen readers. Learn more ...
Help for visitors with impaired vision
People with impaired vision use screen readers to help them “read” websites. If you provide descriptive alt text for images on your site, people using screen readers will know what the images are about, and will get the same full understanding of your site that others do.
Good for search engine rankings
Describing images on a web page with alt text can help the page rank higher in search results if you include important and relevant keywords. Do not be tempted to stuff irrelevant keywords into alt text just so a page will rank well for those words. Search engines can recognize this ploy for what it is: an attempt to game results.
Writing image descriptions
This is what an image description looks like in HTML:
<img src="image.jpg" alt="This is the image description">
You can write image descriptions, or alt text, by writing the HTML directly into the code for a web page. If you’re using a content management system or online commerce software package, it will probably have a feature to help you quickly create alt text for your images.
Caution: While some software packages automatically generate alt text, they don't always do it well. Always check the quality of automatically generated alt text.
- Warning: Some of your images don't have descriptions.
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Robots
Your website's robots.txt file can tell search engines to ignore parts of your site. Learn more ...
Purpose
Website owners usually use robots.txt to let search engines know which pages or sections of their site shouldn't be indexed — for example, web contact forms, print versions of web pages and other content that's duplicated elsewhere on the site. Robots.txt can also be used to request that specific robots not index a site. For more information, read How To Use Robots.txt.
Be careful!
If you're going to use robots.txt, be careful not to accidentally exclude search engines from pages you want people to find. To learn more, read Don't Block Search Engine Crawlers.
Search engine robots
You'll need to know the names of specific search engine robots - or "bots" – if you’re going to exclude any or all of them from any part of your site.
- Google’s bot is called Googlebot. Google is the world’s largest search engine, and is where many people discover new websites.
- Bing’s bot is called msnbot. Bing also provides search results to people using Yahoo to search the Web. Together, Bing and Yahoo are the second largest search resource, after Google.
- Baidu’s bot is called Baiduspider. Baidu is a major search engine in China, and the number of people using it is increasing rapidly.
- AboutUs.org’s bot is called AboutUsBot. To create a Site Report, AboutUs uses crawling technology that’s similar to what search engines use.
- Good: This website’s robots.txt file is not blocking major search engines from crawling its pages. Your website can appear in any engine’s search results.
Canonical Url
This website can live at www.SEMpdx.org or SEMpdx.org. It's best for your site's visibility to live at just one URL, or web address. You'll want to create a 301 redirect to the URL you choose from the other URL. Learn more ...
Choose one or the other
Whichever of these URLs you choose, make sure your website lives ONLY at that location, which is called the canonical URL for your site.
Be careful!
If you choose www.MyWebsite.com for your site, make sure people who don't type www can get to your site, too. Create a permanent 301 redirect from MyWebsite.com to www.MyWebsite.com.
If the same web page exists at two different URLs, people can choose to link to one or the other. Links from other sites to your website are valuable — they tell search engines that your site is important to people. By splitting valuable links between two identical pages, you're diluting the power of those links to help a page rank higher in search results.
Learn more about why you should have just one home page: Read Twin Home Pages: Classic SEO Mistake
- Good: Your website resides at www.SEMpdx.org, and SEMpdx.org is permanently redirected to it.
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Web Presence
Search Engine Visibility
Check this site's prominence around the web and in major search engines.
Date Last Crawled
| value for Google | ? |
|---|---|
| value for Bing | ? |
Social Visibility
Check this site's presence on news sharing and community sites.
Social Media Visibility
| value for Digg | 0 |
|---|---|
| value for Dmoz | 0 |
| value for Google Groups | 16 |
| value for Yahoo Answers | 0 |
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Redirectory
Below we show domains that redirect to SEMpdx.org.
We survey every domain on the Internet ending in .com, .net, or .edu to see if any redirect to this website. Large or famous websites like Amazon.com often have many sites redirecting to them.
Domains that redirect to the home page of SEMpdx.org
A website owner can point one domain to the home page of another. Learn more ...
Capture visitors who type the wrong name
It can make a lot of sense to redirect a domain to an existing web page. For example, many people are likely to type wikipedia.com when they are really looking for wikipedia.org. Creating a redirect from wikipedia.com to wikipedia.org helps these people get to the site they want.
Domains that redirect to a page within SEMpdx.org
A domain can point to any page within another website. Learn more ...
Get people to a specific web page
Creating a redirect from a simple domain name helps people find an existing web page that has a long, hard-to-remember URL. For example firefox.com redirects to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/.
- searchfest.com
- redirects to: http://sempdx.org/searchfest/
- semportland.com
- redirects to: http://sempdx.org/blog/
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