Press Release Avenue » 2006

August 12, 2006

Google’s Orion -The Next Shining Star or a Burnt Ember?

Filed under: Internet - Websites - SEO — admin @ 3:51 pm

Google’s Orion -The Next Shining Star or a Burnt Ember?
By Rob Sullivan (c) 2006
By now you have probably heard that Google bought a new algorithm developed by a university student down under.

Many in the industry have speculated on what this could mean. Will this transform Google yet again? Or, will it merely be just another piece of technology they buy but don’t appear to use.

In this article, I look at the implications of Orion and what it could mean to the future of search.

In order to understand the issues at play, we must first understand just what the heck Google bought.

Orion is a new algorithm which in a nutshell works like Ask or Clusty in that it will not only match results based on keywords but also similar results based on concepts around those keywords.

For example, if you were to search for “Canada” you may get not only the Government of Canada website, but also websites dealing with history, sites talking about the official languages of Canada (there are two official languages in case you were wondering) and more.

Similar to how Ask allows you to drill up or down to narrow or broaden your search.

Many people feel that Orion will “revolutionize” Google. And, while it will be interesting to see what Google does with the technology, I’m more inclined to agree with Danny Sullivan’s assessment. In a recent article he basically says “So what?”

Mind you, I don’t think this is as ho-hum an issue as Danny makes it out to be. However, I also don’t think it’s as huge a deal as others have made it.

For example, Danny says, “When Google acquired the three people from Kaltix along with their search technology back in 2003, it hardly created a revolutionary change for us soon after.” And I’d have to disagree with him.

While the results of the Kaltix acquisition weren’t immediately obvious, they did show up, at least partly, a little later on in the “update from hell” as many webmasters still call it today. It was also known as the Florida Update.

I do agree with this assessment also made by Danny in the article: “It sounds like Allon mainly developed an algorithm useful in pulling out better summaries of web pages.”

Because, the way I see it, that is all this is: A way to make the search experience a little more useful.

Will This Revolutionize Search?

I don’t think so. But it does do a couple of things for Google:

For one, it makes it easier for users to find the data they want on Google. Which, in turn, improves loyalty to the engine ultimately increasing the company’s bottom line.

And another big reason for the purchase? To keep the technology out of the hands of the competition. Namely, Yahoo! and Microsoft.

So What Will Orion Do For Search?

Well, as I mentioned, it will make it easier to find information on Google. For example, if you can’t find what you want in the immediate results, if you can scan some related terms to find other terms which could match what you are looking for and then view results there, it can help.

Also, look at what such a search does to the searcher. No longer does the searcher hit a result and leave the engine. Nöw, they could spend longer on the engine, potentially reviewing more results and obviously being exposed to more ads.

In reality, while this is a nice bell or whistle, the only one who’s really going to benefit is Google. That’s because it increases ad exposures; meaning that more ads get seen, which means a greater chance of an ad being clicked on.

Will the Average Person Use It?

In all honesty I doubt it. I think it’s a tool guys like me will use. You know the type – always into the latest and greatest (if buggy) things. Those things that have a coolness factor.

But, in reality the average person doesn’t care about these types of gimmicks. They just want the search engine to show them the right result every time. If you force users to hunt for the right results, you risk them switching engines until they find what they’re looking for.

Therefore, the average user will probably say “hmm that’s interesting, but what I really want to see better be in the top 2 or 3 results.”

In the end Orion will do a couple of things for Google. It will add some new functionality that some will (but most won’t) use, and it ensures that Microsoft and Yahoo! have to build the technology to remain competitive.

In the end, Danny was mostly right: Google gets another good employee and the technology may give them “another evolutionary change that may improve things over time, rather than instantly.”
About The Author
Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for Textlinkbrokers.com. Textlinkbrokers is the trusted leader in building long term rankings through safe and effective link building.

Comments Off

August 11, 2006

Search Engine Optimization Four Vital Steps for Optimizing Your Website

Filed under: Internet - Websites - SEO — admin @ 3:45 pm

Search Engine Optimization Four Vital Steps for Optimizing Your Website
By Donald Nelson (c) 2006
There is a bit of confusion about search engine optimization. Some people think that SEO (the abbreviated form) is nothing more than tricking search engines into giving a high ranking for a particular site. Others think that search engine optimization is so complex that they could not possibly understand it. Neither of these views are correct. Search engine optimization is best defined as the art and science of building web pages that are both search engine friendly and user friendly. Below are four basic steps that you should take when optimizing your web pages.

1. Your Web Design Should Emphasize Text and Not Graphics

“Search engine friendly” means that search engines should be able to find data on your site that they can put in their data bases. While a picture may be worth a thousand words, a search engine is trying to classify pages by text and not by images. If you have an opening page with a beautiful picture of the sea and only two words of text saying “enter here” then this page will not rank high in searches for Florida Vacations. Similarly, if you have a headline with important text containing your site’s keywords, it should not be displayed as a gif or jpeg image. Pages that are all flash or all images are not search engine friendly, and often are not user friendly as well.

2. Links to Your Interior Pages Should Be Easily Found by Search Engines

An important thing to remember is that you want not only your main page, but all of your interior pages to be included in the search engine index. While most people will probably enter your site through the main page, many will enter after doing searches which lead them to your inner pages. The best way to make sure that search engines will find and index your inner pages is to include text links to these pages. If you have a navigation system which uses Java-script or images, then it is best to add an additional text link navigation bar at the bottom of the site to ensure that the robot follows the links to your inner pages.

3. Your Pages Should Be Built Around Specific Keywords or Keyword Phrases

Robotic search engines and human users have one thing in common: they are trying to figure out what your site or your particular web page is all about. It is not possible to get high rankings for thirty different search terms with only one web page. However, it is possible to build separate web pages which explain and give importance to various aspects of your organization’s activity. These sub pages can be optimized so that they perform well in searches for your various keywords.

4. Once Your Material is Organized, Then Your Keywords Should Appear in Strategic Portions of Your Web Pages

If your site is about Florida Vacations, then these words should appear in the following places of your html pages:

a. In the File Name or the URL

If your site is called www.floridavacations.com then this will give you a head start in any searches for this term. Similarly, if your company is called XYZ Travels, you may have a web page with this url: www.xyztravels.com/floridavacations.html

The URL or file name is an important indicator to a search engine, so don’t miss the opportunïty to put your important term either in your main domain name or in your file names.

b. In the Title Tag

The text that is displayed in the blue line at the top of your browser is your title tag. The title tag is located in the <head> section of the document. If your main phrase is “Florida Vacations” then the title tag in your html document should look something like this: <title>Florida Vacations: Florida Vacation Information by XYZ travel</title>

c. In the Description Tag

The description tag is not seen on the web page but search engines often display it as the text which gives the searcher an idea of what your page is about. The description tag should be compelling, and make someone want to click and see your page, while also containing the keywords that are in your url and your title tag. A description tag for this site might look as follows: <meta name=”description” content=”Florida Vacations: Plan your Florida vacation with the help of XYZ travels. You will find up-to-date information and the best ratës on accommodations, entertainment, and transportation in Florida on our website.”>

d. In the Headlines

Just as someone reading a newspaper looks at headlines to find out what is important, a search engine robot looks at the headlines of a web page in order to pick up the essential feature of that page. Put your main phrase in a headline and place it near the top of the page. Your headline text should be enclosed with special header tags such as <h1>, <h2>, <h3>. A headline tag for our hypothetical page could be written as follows: <h1>Florida Vacations: Plan Your Vacation Now And Save Monëy on Accommodations, Entertainment and Transport in Florida</h1>

If you don’t like the look of the h1 tag, then use a smaller tag, h2 or h3, or adjust your site’s style sheet so that the h1 tag is displayed in a small font which better matches your body text.

e. In the Body Text of Your Page

Your main keywords or key phrase should appear in the first paragraph of text and in a natural way throughout the text and also at the end of the page. In normal writing you would first introduce your subject, then explain what it is about and then summarize at the end. Follow this same procedure when you start writing your web page. Pages written in this style will automatically have correct keyword density and distribution.

f. In Anchor Text on Your Page

Anchor text is the clickable portion of links on your web page. Suppose you are describing your Florida Vacations and you want to direct your web visitors to an inside page with more information about this subject. Instead of making a link that says “click here,” it would be better to have a link that says “Click here for more information about Florida Vacations” or even better, the link text will only be “Florida Vacations” and the “click here” will be rendered as normal text.

If you follow these search-engine-optimization steps when building your website you will end up with web pages that are easily understood by your visitors, and easily classified and indexed by search engines.
About The Author
Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor and social worker. He is the proprietor of A1-Optimization and provides search engine optimization, copywriting, reciprocal linking and article marketing services. He recently launched a new reprint article directory located at http://www.a1-articledirectory.com.

Comments Off

August 6, 2006

Going Broke on Google Adwords?

Filed under: Internet - Websites - SEO — admin @ 4:10 pm

Going Broke on Google Adwords?
By Kim Roach (c) 2006

You’ve heard the stories. Clíck fraud has run rampant on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. This is evidenced by the numerous law suits that have been filed.One of the most notable cases occurred this year when Google settled their own clíck fraud case to the tune of 90 million dollars. In fact, Google and Yahoo have each settled a class action lawsuit filed by marketers.

Clíck Fraud – What It Is

So, what is clíck fraud and how does it occur? Wikipedia provides us with a definition:

“Clíck fraud occurs in pay per clíck online advertising when a person, automated scrípt, or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating an improper charge per clíck. Clíck fraud is the subject of some controversy and increasing litigation due to the advertising networks being a key beneficiary of the fraud whether they like it or not.”

However, I would like to simplify this definition. Clíck fraud is a crime, plain and simple. Cybercrime, however, is hard to track. Law enforcement has only just recently started focusing on the threat of clíck fraud.

Clíck fraud is now being targeted by some of the industry’s biggest names. This movement has both the American court and government system involved. Business Week recently announced that major brands including Expedia.com and mortgäge broker LendingTree.com planned to go public with their disputes over clíck fraud in late September.

Who can blame them? When it’s your monëy that’s going out the door, you need to be asking questíons. Unfortunately, Google and Yahoo haven’t come up with many answers.

They have certainly paid lip service, indicating that they have systems in place to deter it, but the clíck fraud numbers continue to rise.

The Threat to a Popular Advertising Model

The Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates that 20 to 35 percent of ad clicks are fraudulent. The multi-billion dollar search industry is under attack and the problem is not going away anytime soon.

Advertisers are being cheated and the search engines appear to be sitting on the sidelines, leaving much of the responsibility for detecting clíck fraud with advertisers, the majority of whom lack the tools and knowledge to detect it.

The high level of clíck fraud has undermined advertisers’ confidence and some have even pulled their entire ad campaigns. For small to medium-sized businesses clíck fraud effectively erodes ROI, impacting the bottom line and future marketing initiatives.

Clíck fraud is also the single biggest threat to companies like Google and Yahoo, whose digital empires are largely dependent on their advertising revenues. Google’s $6 billion-a-year advertising business is especially at risk. Despite the threat, or maybe because of it, Google is saying little about clíck fraud and the pay-per-clíck concept as a whole.

While Google maintains its silence, many advertisers and savvy online entrepreneurs wonder where pay-per-clíck is headed. Clíck fraud threatens to destroy the very business that Google thrives on. In fact, clíck fraud losses have surpassed the total loss attributed to credít card fraud in the U.S.

Do the current clíck fraud problems have the power to slow the growth of pay-per-clíck search advertising or even bring it to a screeching halt?

Well, that’s hard to say, but the industry as a whole is certainly being crippled by this problem. Pay-per-clíck may not be the future. Many advertisers are now starting to look at advertising options that offer an uncorrupted alternative. Flat-fee advertising, pay-per-percentage, and pay-per-action are all possibilities, but there is one alternative in particular that deserves attention.

This search engine advertising model was first put forward by ExactSeek.com and then promoted through the ISEDN (Independent Search Engine & Directory Network) which ExactSeek founded in June, 2005. The model promulgated by ExactSeek and the ISEDN does not eliminate clíck fraud but does eliminate the cost associated with it.

How the ISEDN Model Works

The ISEDN charges a flat fee for advertising, making clíck fraud a pointless endeavor for scam artists, “paid to read” rings and cutthroat competitors. Your competition could clíck on your ISEDN listings all day long and it wouldn’t cost you a single penny more than what you originally paid.

$3-$4 provides you with an entire month’s worth of advertising across a network of 235+ search engines and web directories. If you choose to buy in volume, you can even expect some significant discounts.

Let’s face it, pay-per-clíck advertising is expensive. There are a number of companies who spend $5,000 to $10,000 per month on paid search marketing. Competition is fierce with many keywords costing $5 per clíck or more.

The problem is then compounded when you consider that 20 to 35 percent of those advertising dollars are wasted on fraudulent clicks. Just imagine. If you are paying $1,000 dollars per month to advertise on Google, $200 – $350 of those dollars are wasted on clíck fraud.

If you want to lower your clíck fraud costs, you need to buy clíck fraud monitoring software, which is quite pricey. Unfortunately, few clíck fraud monitoring companies target small to medium sized businesses.

The ISEDN offers an affordable alternative that charges a one-tíme, flat fee. The initial cost is the only cost.

Within this unique advertising model, the sale of any keyword or phrase is limited to 30 advertisers. Regardless of whether a keyword term is sold 5 or 30 times, ads rotate within the SERPs and throughout the ISEDN. The rotation ensures that every ad appears in the top 10 search results. In the worst case scenario, a listing would appear on the first page of results approximately once out of every 3 searches.

Of course, you can’t expect the same exposure provided by Google or Overture. Google alone receives millíons of searches per day. However, if you are looking for a consistent return on your ínvestment without wasting a penny on clíck fraud, then the ISEDN provides an affordable and lucrative solution.

Not to mention, the ISEDN is growing every day. An average of 3- 5 search engines are added every week. As the network continues to grow, your ad automatically receives more exposure.

This program gives advertisers the benefit of advertising with smaller search engines on a massive scale without the fear of clíck fraud and without the hassle of managing multiple advertising accounts. For more information on the ISEDN, visit ExactSeek.com or ISEDN.org.

Summing It Up

The rules in search engine advertising are shifting and the winners are adapting.

As for Google, Yahoo, and MSN, you can definitely expect to see some changes being made with their paid search programs in the near future. Cybercrime is still a crime and law enforcers are finally starting to take these problems seriously.

The pay-per-clíck model is inherently flawed and must be altered to survive. Google and the other major search engines know that their business will be crippled if they do not adapt. The challenge for them is how to adapt and still maintain those multi-billion dollar bottom lines.

Fortunately, there are individuals, groups, companies and organizations more interested in finding and providing solutions to the problem of clíck fraud than in propping up a flawed concept. Those leading the fight against clíck fraud, like the ISEDN, may nevër see 10 figure bottom lines like Yahoo or Google, but the revenue they do make won’t be based on fraudulent clicks and at your expense.

About The Author
Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews and SEO-News newsletters. You can also find additional tips and news on webmaster and SEO topics by Kim at the SiteProNews blog. Kim’s email is: kim @ seo-news.com

Comments Off