Friendly URLs May 8, 2007
Posted by Stray Dog in : Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google , add a commentI wish I had kept better track of my usage stats from years gone by for one of my sites. I’ve moved hosts a few times and never thought back then about potentially trying to monetize the site. It is full of original content on learning about web development and I get a reasonable amount of traffic. But I’m sure I used to get far more traffic.
The site started with static HTML pages and that was the way I went for several years. Then I got interested in Content Management Systems (CMS) and decided to roll my content into a Mambo setup. It worked well enough but has SO much going on I spent more time fidgeting with tweaking the interface than developing more good content. Last year I decided to roll my own CMS that provided me with exactly what I need and nothing more. I’m very please with where I have it now except that I was feeding an id number to my application page via the query string and the URL had no reference to all the juicy good content contained on the page. Bad Dog! Bad!
So this week I set out to fix my bad. I used a rewrite within my htaccess file for my site and updated my links site wide. Since the site is fully database driven this was easy and quick to do, although for all images and relative links within my own site I needed to change the path to stem from the sites root directory. This took a bit longer to do but not a big deal.
My stumbling block for not having done this earlier was getting my mind around how to setup the htaccess file properly with the rewrite rules. Fortunately I found a site that allows you to enter a dynamic URL and converts it to a Search Engine friendly one. It also spits out what you need to include in the htaccess file for all of it to work. Once I saw this I was able to get my mind around the process.
Now my content rich site has Search Engine friendly URLs and I look forward to seeing what sort of traffic increases I may get as a result. I will keep a better archive of sites stats as well as I move forward with this.
Today I Discovered: Inside AdWords March 7, 2007
Posted by Stray Dog in : Google, Adwords , add a commentNot that this is a startling or unexpected discovery but I was glas to find it and thought I should share it. There are so many great resources out there and so little time. As you can tell by my lack on any recent post I’ve been quite busy and neglecting my Filthy Jack duties. So this post is a quick one but a good one. Please recall that one purpose of Filthy Jack is to document the things we learn as we move on down the road - even if they are bloody obvious…
So yes, Google’s AdWords team has a blog called Inside AdWords. The Blog focuses on:
Updates on enhancements made to the AdWords system
Thoughts on things that advertisers have been asking about
Tips on getting the most from AdWords
Details on tools we think you’ll find useful
Links to articles you might find interesting
If you are looking at becoming even more entrenched in the world of AdWords you should definately be spending a part of each week on this site. I plan to from this point forward.
Are Two Sites Better Than One? February 26, 2007
Posted by Stray Dog in : Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google, Search Engine Marketing, Adwords, Domain Names , add a commentA “Filthy Jack” reader writes:
i’m looking for some advice…in terms of a client that has a business that operates out of two separate cities…they will have a home page that allows the user to select their city of choice for services…but what i’m wondering is for seo purposes do you think it’s in their best interest to have two separate websites? i’m thinking that one massive website should do the trick as long as all pertinent seo features for both cities is incorporated into the development…but my seo knowledge isn’t advanced–and i don’t have the answer to this one and i’m looking for advice
Evil Green and I discussed it and here is what we think:
One of Google’s key factors in search relevance is how many other sites link to a site. Further, this relevance is increased by both the quality of the site that shows up in the search results and the quality of the sites linking to it. So the question here is whether or not having two sites for the one company would be advantageous in this manner. From this standpoint I do not feel it would be.
We could also look at the domain name and how that may help. Assume we have XYZ Deck and Fence and they have a Kansas City operation and a St. Louis operation. It may be beneficial to have two domains with two sites:
xyzdeckandfencekansas.com / xyzdeckandfencestlouis.com
This would help show up in searches for deck, fence and kansas
OR
deck, fence, st. louis
This same goal could be accomplished with two sections in the site:
xyzdeckandfence.com/kansas / xyzdeckandfence.com/stlouis
However, this information in the title and meta description tag plus within the actual page content may derive the same benefit.
I really do not see a clear advantage in you doing two sites in this case. You may though want to consider if there is a benefit to the client in appearing like they are only in one city. There may be an advantage in appearing more ‘local’ and not ‘too big’. Or it could be the other way around. Some things to consider:
1. Is there a major delineation in services offered between the two cities?
2. is there a difference in pricing between the two cities?
If it is indeed pretty much the same site then I’d go with one.
If they are in a competitive field then they may want to look at a Google adwords campaign so they can precisely market to those within their trading area.
That’s my best advice given what you have provided. I may have more to offer if you want to go deeper.
May I Suggest… Google Suggest? February 19, 2007
Posted by Stray Dog in : Google, Adwords , add a commentLooking for a quick way to identify some keywords for phrase or exact matching? Try Google Suggest - You know the little menu that appears under the Google Search Box when you are using the Google Toolbar? As soon as you start typing within it Google starts to show related searches. You can use those for exact and phrase matches within your AdWords campaigns. They directly relate to what Google knows people are searching for. Cool!
Google Secondary Results = Results February 8, 2007
Posted by Evil Green in : Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google, Search Engine Marketing , add a commentSo one of my small eBay affiliate sites has received the indentation treatment. See an example below:
Since being indexed as above my traffic has increased considerably. I am guessing your listing really catches the readers eyes when it is indented as seen above.
How did I receive this secondary result? Apparently Google will combine your results if you have more than one page ranking for the search query. For example if one page from your site would normally rank 3rd and one page would normally rank 9th for the same search term Google will combine the results indenting the second below the first.
My pages are currently ranking #1 and #2 for a term that’s searched about 50 times a day. It is not a ton of traffic but its not all that bad. It is bringing in a little bit of revenue. 
Google AdWords Support January 12, 2007
Posted by Stray Dog in : Uncategorized, Google, Adwords , add a commentYesterday afternoon I received an automated email message from Google explaining that one of my ads was being blocked for containing a word that was in ALL CAPS. This (as I was aware but screwed up) was contrary to Google’s editorial guidelines for AdWords. So I promptly fixed it and emailed the site owner (the email from Google went to the site owner and myself) and cc’d Google AdWords Support.Much to my surprise I received a personal (at least it certainly seemed to be coming from flesh and blood) email from a Google AdWords support person thanking me for taking prompt action to adhere to the guidelines. I felt it was a positive gesture on Google’s behalf. I received the email approximately two hours after I had rectified the proplem and sent the cc.
Here is what I received:
Hello Xxxx, Thank you for your email and for promptly making the suggested changes to your campaign. We appreciate your effort in complying with our guidelines.If you have additional questions, please visit our Help Center at https://adwords.google.com/support to find answers to many frequently asked questions. Or, try our Learning Center at http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/ for self-paced lessons that cover the scope of AdWords. We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.
Sincerely,
Xxxx X.
The Google AdWords Team
Lately there seems to be somewhat of a paradigm shift in feeling that Google is becoming an evil empire. This brief encounter with Google AdWords Support has given me a positive feeling. The account that I was managing does spend in excess of $2000 a month on Google AdWords - so I would hope that would trigger some form of personal response though…
Becoming a Google Advertising Professional December 19, 2006
Posted by Stray Dog in : Google, Adwords , add a commentSince I need to become vastly more knowledgeable about Google AdWords in general I thought I may as well work towards achieving my Google Advertising Professional status. This accreditation is available for individuals who have signed up for the professional program, successfully achieved 75% or better on the accreditation exam and managed AdWords accounts that accumulate a minimum of $1000 spent over a 90 day period. I am fortunate as I am able to ‘manage’ the AdWords account for a client that spends more than enough for me to achieve this goal. Guess I do have some luck some of the time…
I spent some time today Googling to see if there was any slant one way or the other as to the effectiveness of this Google accreditation. I did not really read of anything too much either way - good or bad. Knowledge is never a bad thing and since I need to learn more on this anyway I have decided to make my own accreditation a goal for the first quarter of 2007.
Google has a great learning center that is available to anyone, not just those working towards accreditation. Lessons in the learning center are provided in both text based and multimedia (for those with shorter attention spans I guess - and I’m thankful for this…) versions.
In addition to other things I may add here I’ll start mentioning more about the learning center and what I find out.
The Link Affect December 12, 2006
Posted by Evil Green in : Uncategorized, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google, Search Engine Marketing , add a commentAffect or Effect? I never get that right.
Anyway, I am going to spend some time over the next few days attempting to get a few quality incoming links.
My classifieds site which receives about 2 uniques a day (not counting Adwords traffic), recently scored a good incoming link which provides about 3-5 more uniques a day and is obviously of value for SEO purposes.
This has motivated to me to look at getting more incoming links. I plan on emailing a lot of related sites suggesting a link and cancelling my Adwords campaign ($60.00 per month) to purchase a couple of decent incoming links.
I think the value in getting these links is for SEO purposes more than traffic however a 5-10 links providing 5 uniques a day adds 25-50 visitors a day and this often has a slow compounding affect (or effect).
Here is to link building!