Search Engine Keyword Position Tool
By Kyle Henrie | July 1, 2008
Trying to keep track of your site’s ranking for every keyword or phrase can turn into a full time job. That’s even more true if you intend to keep tabs on multiple search engines. Shazam! The Search Engine Keyword Position tool to the rescue!
Just enter your site’s address and a key word or phrase, and it’ll determine where you stand with Google, Yahoo, and MSN. You could hardly ask for a quicker or easier way to gauge your search engine success.
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Topics: Keywords, SEO Tools, Website Strategies | No Comments »
Loyalty Website Best Practices for Affiliate Marketers
By Kyle Henrie | June 26, 2008
Are you looking to build customer loyalty of your affiliate website by offering customer incentives to build long-term customer loyalty? Here are some do’s and don’t to help you turn your browsing customer into a loyal customer while increasing your affiliate sales.
DO’S
- Offer a competitive percentage back to your users.
- Use reliable tracking to properly credit your users.
- Make sure to remind users to click on your link before purchase is made to make sure it tracks properly.
- Use offers when available (such as free shipping or coupons).
- If a special offer is available, make the start and end dates known.
- Watch for specific communication from your advertisers concerning your offer and upcoming promotions.
- Offer well converting advertisers on your homepage for maximum commissions.
- Notify advertisers of missed transactions for proper commissions to be paid.
- Notify your specific users that they MUST click on your link before their purchase takes place, to avoid the above issue.
- Work on strategies; E-mail, link, compensation and site layout.
- Most loyalty publishers either do a 50/50 split or a 60/40 split. This means that depending on the commission offer from the advertiser, you will keep 50% of the commission and offer 50% back as a rebate to your member. Or, as in the case of 60/40, you’d keep 60% and offer 40% back as a rebate.
DON’TS
- Do not use incorrect or expired coupon codes or offers such as free shipping.
- Do not state incorrect start and end dates on offers and coupons.
Topics: Affiliate Marketing, Marketing Strategies | No Comments »
SEO design guidlines even your mom will understand
By Kyle Henrie | June 22, 2008
Whenever someone finds out that I am have a background in Internet marketing, it never fails that I am asked the exact same question over and over again - “What can I do to get my website more visible to search engines?” I usually ask for their website address so I can take a look at what they have done so far. 99% of all of the websites I see do NOT follow the simple guidelines for design and content development that search engines provide.
In an effort to make this as easy as possible for you, here are some of the more relevant design and content guidelines provided by Google, Yahoo or MSN that you should follow -
- Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
- Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages.
- Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
- Don’t overdo the use of graphics. Visitors can read the text on an image, but search engines can’t.
- Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
- Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links.
- Make sure that your TITLE and ALT tags are descriptive and accurate.
- Check for broken links and correct HTML.
- Use only well-formed HTML code in your pages. Ensure that all tags are closed, and that all links function properly. If your site contains broken links, search engines may not be able to index your site effectively, and people may not be able to reach all of your pages.
- If you move a page, set up the page’s original URL to direct people to the new page, and tell them whether the move is permanent or temporary.
- Keep your URLs simple and static. Complicated or frequently changed URLs are difficult to use as link destinations. For example, the URL www.example.com/mypage is easier for spiders to crawl and for people to type than a long URL with multiple extensions. Also, a URL that doesn’t change is easier for people to remember, which makes it a more likely link destination from other sites.
- Make pages for users, not for search engines. Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as “cloaking.”
- Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”
- Limit all pages to a reasonable size. We recommend one topic per page. An HTML page with no pictures should be under 150 KB.
This is a small list of the things you can do to improve your website design. To see a comprehensive list of guidelines provided by the big 3, click on their logo below to read their specific guidelines.
Topics: Website Strategies | No Comments »
Monetize Your Blog
By Kyle Henrie | June 20, 2008
If you’ve read any press in the last year, the number of Internet users already reading blogs and blogging themselves may shock you. The blogging audience is definitely there, but what are they reading? Everything under the sun, from plastic surgery to biking across New Zealand. Closer to home, blogs track performance marketing strategies and the opinions of a host of online marketing professionals. The point here is that you’ve got a great deal of people reading a great deal of highly-targeted content.
So now it makes sense to ask: can you effectively monetize one of the Web’s last vestiges of traditionally marketing-free content to reach these tantalizing audiences? Should you? We think blog advertising maybe a line worth crossing assuming that we can find ways to include contextually relevant ads that provide value to blog readers. After all, hosting and ISPs don’t pay for themselves.
Lawrence Lee, president of Zoundry.com, developer of a blog monetizing tool, shares his perspective below:
“We’re seeing two types of bloggers.
- The first are bloggers who are writing for their friends and family. Given that they already have a trusted relationship, credibility around product recommendations is a non-issue. In a sense, friends and family can reward publishers for learning about new, often niche, products they wouldn’t have learned about otherwise.
- The second [group] are people who don’t necessarily call themselves bloggers, or view themselves as journalists. They are just using the simple tools of blogging to publisher Web sites without having to learn HTML, so they don’t have credibility issues around monetizing their blogs either.”
So let’s assume you fall into the categories above or that you’re on board with blogging. Now it’s Advertising 101: know your audience and target your ads accordingly. Beth Kirsch, senior marketing manager at Audible.com and affiliate marketing veteran, says “You have to be extremely strategic - matching the context of the blog to the product is the key. It’s tricky, but can be a wonderfully effective channel when done well.”
In other words, one can’t simply throw up an apparel advertiser’s banner in the middle of a blog about the experiences of tuning up your car’s engine and expect to generate commissions. However, placing a “Pickup this year’s hottest toy” ad when blogging about buying birthday gifts is both contextually relevant and valuable to readers.
If you’re already blogging, chances are there are plenty of you who match your content and audience. Take the lead of your competitors and implement your unique, lucrative take on blogs today!
Topics: Affiliate Marketing, Marketing Strategies | No Comments »
Combine your keywords to increase your effectiveness
By Kyle Henrie | June 18, 2008
Do you have multiple keyword lists that you are trying to use to optimize your website (SEO) or for your online campaigns (PPC, SEM)? We suggest you take the two lists and combine them to make your efforts even more relevent and targeted.
There is a tool available to help you do this quick and easy. The Search Combination Tool takes your key or main phrases with your secondary keywords. Try it, you’ll like it - and all the time you save!
Topics: Marketing Strategies, Search Engine Marketing | No Comments »
KISS your website - you’ll thank me in the morning
By Kyle Henrie | June 15, 2008
Companies create websites for a variety of reasons. Some are designed to be an online brochure, many try to generate leads and others focus on e-commerce. Nearly all are intended to favorably showcase a business’s credibility. Increasingly, companies are giving consideration to whether generating an organic presence within the search engines is a priority, i.e., incorporating search engine optimization (SEO) techniques into the design and structure. We believe it to be the most important aspect of creating a relevant website that gains visibility to the Internet world. Andrew Wetzler, of More Visibility, provides us with some good advice on this subject.
Andrew writes “If you haven’t written down the most important objectives for the site, then you should. It will help you to impartially assess whether your site is communicating the most appropriate message. Sometimes the priorities aren’t consistent with the realities of the site.
As I review websites, I am often struck by the degree to which they (those who are responsible for the site) create something that is considerably more difficult than they need to be or ignore the fundamentals of making a site appropriate for natural search.
One compelling reason to Keep It Simple is that Simple typically translates into Good from an SEO standpoint. Simple still allows for creativity and relevant content though.
From a user experience perspective, there are usually a number of sites that will show up in the search results or that people are aware of for any particular search, so there’s no reason to assume that you will be able to retain their viewership if your site is not sufficiently intelligent and compelling.
On the most fundamental level, a site should be easy to navigate and zeroed in on the top objective. A primary call to action should be central to the page’s design as should alternate contact methods. For example, if the goal is to complete a transaction, then the site should prominently display a telephone number that someone can call who doesn’t want (or isn’t ready) to fill out the form, but has a question.
When a site is being initially created or redesigned and an outside Web design firm is involved, there tends to be an emphasis on the sizzle instead of the substance. Web design firms, much like offline ad agencies, have a propensity to differentiate themselves by accentuating their artistic side. That is fine, until it gets in the way of an intelligently designed website. For instance, I reviewed a new real estate site recently that was very artsy, in the sense of beautiful pictures, which were intended to set an upscale impression of the property being developed. While it achieved that objective, I believe it was at the expense of other critical items; their Contact Us form was obscured behind a “menu” link. The initial results were modest. We have since created a landing page for their paid campaigns that is able to overcome many of the flaws of the site, and which is delivering a markedly higher conversion rate (into a lead).
Flash openings on home pages are probably the best example of a misguided technology today. Besides the fact that Flash is an impediment from a natural search perspective (impedes crawling by the engines), it delays and oftentimes confuses the site visitor’s experience. It’s fine to encourage a visitor to play a video on the site that accentuates the intended look and feel, but don’t make it the first thing someone encounters when coming to the site. This is particularly incompatible with attracting repeat visitors.
Websites don’t need to be fancy to be effective. Sites that are well-designed are straightforward and precise in their intentions. Everybody has looked at competitor sites to see what else is out there. Try looking at them as an objective critic. Ask a family member or someone whose Web acumen you admire for their opinion to rate your site versus theirs. Above all, commit to refining on a continual basis.”
Keep it Simple and Smart (KISS) and you will be a step ahead of many other businesses.
Topics: Website Strategies | No Comments »
Ping your blog
By Kyle Henrie | June 12, 2008
You have your blog all ready to go. It has a nice, clean design and solid, original content. Now what? You need to get your blog visible to the Internet world. To do this, we recommend you submit your blog’s URL and/or RSS feed to as many high-ranking blog directories as you can. This is often called a “ping” or notifying a directory that you have a new blog or that your blog has recently been updated.
The first submissions, or pings, should be Google and Yahoo - if you have not submitted your Blog URL to them you need to do that first. Then you can move on to the remaining list of directories (see below).
Different directories have different forms to fill when submitting your blog. Their instructions are usually pretty easy but take some time to follow. Here are few things to note when submitting your blog.
- Some directories require you to register before adding your Blog. While most of them allow you to submit more than one Blog, some may require you to use a different login name for each Blog.
- If you are asked for the RSS Feed or your Feed URL, check that your blog software on how to locate or use this feature.
- You may be asked for an image to represent your blog, make sure you add this. The Internet is a visual media and needs to be exploited at every turn.
- The Reciprocal Link URL is the main page where you may need to put a link back to their blog directory.
- The meta keywords or“tags are keywords that represent your blog’s content. Basically meta description is one or, at the most, two sentences describing your blog, while meta tags provide information about your Blog for search engines to help identify and search matches.
Another way to submit your blog to the www-world is to use a FREE blog ping service like Pingoat.com. This is a quick and easy to use tool that does the heavy lifting for you. This is especially helpful if you are just getting started and need to get your new blog noticed right away.
What about updating these same blog directories when your publish new content to your blog? Most of the well know blog tools (i.e. Wordpress) can automatically ping these groups for you. This is much quicker and easier than manually submitting your blog every time you add a new post or page. Technorati has a great configuration page that walks you how to set this up. Go here to read how to configure popular blog tools to do this.
Once you know how to configure your blog, you need a list of all of the blog directories and their automatic ping urls. For your convenience, I have created this list for you. Just copy and paste the list below into your blog as instructed by the Technorati’s configuration page (listed previously) and you are good to go! Happy blogging!
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc/
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
Topics: Website Strategies | 1 Comment »
SEO Tips for Affiliate Marketers
By Kyle Henrie | June 10, 2008
Below are some SEO tips that we hope many of you will find useful. Time and time again I find these issues from people operating affiliate-based websites. Take the time to fix these things and you should see results.
- Fix any broken links. Broken links cause the site’s relevancy to decrease.
- It is vital to contain a site map on a large site. Links from every page need to link back to the site map in order for search engine spiders to locate the pages.
- Write unique content on your website as often as possible. The more relevant the content, the more a search engine will consider the site valid.
- Ensure that an H1 tag is not below an H2 or H3 tag on your page(s). H1 tags are the most important tags- if they are lower on the page, a search engine will consider not as relevant.
- A helpful tool to fix meta and title tags: http://www.seoworkers.com/tools/analyzer.html These show up as the description in a search engine. For usability purposes, if they do not pertain to a user’s needs, they will not click.
- ALWAYS, always, always track your work using an analytics program to ensure traffic control and conversion rates.
Topics: Affiliate Marketing, Marketing Strategies | No Comments »
Carefreetrip.com :: Travel Services
By Kyle Henrie | June 6, 2008
Carefreetrip.com :: Explore. Dream. Discover.
Carefreetrip.com is an online travel agency that offers broad travel choices and low prices on airfares, hotels, vacation packages, cruises, car rentals and more. Henrie Media Inc. helped explore, develop and build their brand around a quote by Mark Twain that reads -
“Years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
After the brand was developed, we did research to determine what travel customers wanted from a website. Specifically looking at search engine data, ISP data and competitor analysis. From this research, we developed an easy to use website that caters to the customer.
Topics: Brand Services, Development Services, Our Work | No Comments »
No-Cost SEO Tools to Help You Increase Your Website Traffic
By Kyle Henrie | June 3, 2008
The right SEO tools can work wonders for your search strategy. You can save time, effort and investment, not to mention improve your rankings. A big thank you to Marketing Sherpa for providing the background for each of these.
Google Advanced Search
Cost: Free
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
Description: This tool can be found by going to Google, clicking “Advanced Search” and then clicking the “+” symbol next to “Date, usage rights, numeric range, and more.” Now you should see a field titled “Where your keywords show up.”
This lets you limit a search to:
o Anywhere in the page
o Title of the page
o Text of the page
o URL of the page
o Links to the page
The big one is “links to the page.” By selecting this option and searching for your competitors, you can find which sites are linking to them. You can also limit the search by date to uncover the links that have been created most recently.
Google Trends
http://google.com/trends
Cost: Free
Description: Google Trends reveals keywords’ historic search volume on Google (but not the exact figures). Say you’re torn between two keywords. Type them into the text box, separate them with commas and click to see which has received the most search traffic over time. The data dates back years and is illustrated with graphs.
Use the tool to:
Decide on a keyword, i.e., should you go with singular or plural?
Search engines return different results for singular and plural forms of a noun. So, a tractor manufacturer might rank well for the term “tractor” but not for “tractors.”
Rank Checker
http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/
Cost: Free
Description: Rank Checker is a Firefox plug-in that takes keywords and reports your rankings on:
o Google
o Yahoo!
o MSN
o Google in other countries
If you check your rankings by typing in search engines and sift through results, stop now. This tool automates that process.
SeoQuake
http://www.seoquake.com/
Cost: Free
Description: SeoQuake is a Firefox plug-in that’s great for researching your search competition. It can resort search results based on a range of factors, including:
o Number of Web pages
o Number of links from Yahoo!
o Number of links from MSN
o Alexa rank
o Domain age
o Links from del.icio.us
Today’s Hot Trends
http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X
Cost: Free
Description: Another Google Trends feature is Today’s Hot Trends. You can access it by clicking “More Hot Trends” on the Google Trends homepage. “It’s been talked about for a while, but I don’t think a lot of people are using it,” Reynolds says.
Today’s Hot Trends is updated every hour and shows the top 100 fastest-rising search terms on Google.
Yahoo! Search Assist
http://www.yahoo.com/
Cost: Free
Description: When you’re using the search box in Yahoo!, you might notice a gray textbox of terms that appears when you start typing a phrase. The words in the box are Yahoo!’s suggestions for related keywords, loosely based on word content and search volume.
The difference between this tool and many others is the fact that Yahoo!’s suggestions are not based on character order alone. For example, typing “bug” into some tools will only return keywords that begin with “b-u-g” like “buggy” or “bugs.” Yahoo!, on the other hand, returns “fashion bug,” “bugs bunny” and “bed bugs.”
Topics: SEO Tools, Website Strategies | No Comments »
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