SiteProNews

Your job as a search marketer is to make your site easily navigable for both users and the search engines. Your navigation should be clearly and uniformly laid out, your internal linking structure should make sense to a user, and a site map should offer links to the most important pages on your Web site. Part of this responsibility includes acknowledging that mistakes happen and offering users a roadmap for when errors arise.

Despite your best efforts, users will click on broken links, they’ll mistype a URL, guess wrong at what they think a URL should be or try to access a bookmarked page that has since moved. Users do all sorts of things to get themselves confused; sometimes it’s not even their fault. And when they do, they’ll meet your 404 page.

A 404 or Page Not Found error is an HTTP standard response code that alerts your visitors and the search engines that the page they were trying to access no longer exists. By creating a custom page that addresses the needs of your users, you help them get back on track and find the information they were looking for. You give them a reason to stay on your site and not seek out the information elsewhere. Over time this can add up to a significant number of saved conversions.

The question is: What kind of 404 page do your visitors see when they meet a roadblock? Is it friendly and appropriate to their needs or does it look like the default 404 page - cold and ugly, offering them nowhere to go but back to the page that lead them astray? Even worse, does it redirect users back to the home page without explaining or even acknowledging the error?

Our experience tells us that creating unique 404 pages is often one of the most overlooked elements in a search engine optimization campaign. Clients become so consumed with creating great content, adding links, and mastering all the other on-page and off-page factors that go into optimization that they ignore the importance of keeping users on their site when a problem arises. Unfortunately, they do this to their own detriment.

Imagine you’re a searcher on the hunt for a new pair of cowboy boots. You’ve spent time researching the various styles and fit options and now you’re ready to make a purchase. You head to SEOCowboyBoots.com, your favorite stop for cowboy-related merchandise, and come across a pair of boots that you think meets your exact needs.

One problem: You go to view the product information of the pair you’re interested in and you’re hit with a default 404 page that looks something like this:

There’s no navigation, no links to relevant pages, nowhere to go but back, and no way to get back to your boots.

Are you going to stick around and try to figure out what happened or are you going to go the next site on your list, a site you’re confident will have your boots?

You’re going to bail out on the conversion path and go somewhere else.

Most users are intimidated by a default 404 error page. Essentially, you’ve just scolded them for doing something wrong and given them no way to make it right. Obviously, you do not care about their needs, so why should they stay on your site?

The most effective 404 pages are invisible to users because they actually become part of the site. They use the same site template, they’re clearly written, and instead of scaring users away, they invite them to continue interacting with your site.

The five Must Have’s for every custom 404 page are:

• An apology for the error (even if it user error)
• A prominent search box
• A link to your site map
• A link to your home page
• Links to the other main areas of your site

On BruceClay.com, we go above and beyond the five Must Haves. Our 404 page includes our full navigation, a link to our home page, an area for SEOToolSet members to log in, a link to our site map, as well as links to other popular areas like our Search Engine Relationship Chart, SEO Methodology page, and our Code of Ethics. We’ve intentionally made it really easy for visitors to find the pages most relevant to their needs. We do this because we believe it aides in our search engine optimization goals and because we want to make it easy for users to navigate our site.

When appropriate, we sometimes encourage clients to create 404 pages that include a touch of humor. Make light of the situation; acknowledge the goof and encourage users to get back on track and dig deeper into your site. If you’re that site selling cowboy boots, display an image of a cowboy stuck in his own lasso, a boot with its heel broken off, or a rodeo clown two seconds away from getting pummeled. There’s no rule that says your error page has to be boring. Keep users entertained and they’ll be more forgiving of the casual misstep.

There’s also no rule that says your error page has to include the frightening term “404 Error Page” anywhere on it. This phrase provides no value to your users. Most of them don’t know what it means, nor do they care to. All they want to know is how to get to the page they were originally looking for.

Custom 404 pages aid search engine optimization by ensuring that more of your pages are indexed. If you leave the spiders to find a default 404 page you’re throwing a roadblock in front of them that they have no way to get over. Search engines can’t hit the back button or use the other advanced features of your Web site. All they can do is follow links. If they come across a bad link and you don’t give them anywhere else to go, they’ll leave your site. This may result in entire sections of your site not being indexed. Creating a custom 404 page that includes links to your site map and your site’s most popular pages will help prevent this from happening. You have to give the engines something to follow.

Providing access to your site map becomes even more beneficial since the engines will continually return to your site to see if those nonexistent pages have returned. If they have, they’ll reindex them. If they haven’t, they’re once again left with your 404 page and all of your relevant links.

Something else to consider is that if you’re using a 404 that quickly redirects back to home page, you may be penalized. The search engines could potentially see the redirect and take it as a sign that cloaking. In most cases, it’s in your best interest to include a custom 404 error page.

You may even want to create one for every occasion and possible misstep. With just a basic understanding of JavaScript, site owners can create dynamic 404 pages that are specific to what went wrong. If a user click on a broken link, you can create a page that apologizes and gives visitors a place to report the broken link. If they’ve clicked on a product page that no longer exists, you can design a page that includes links to related products. Or you can take a one-size-fits-all approach and deliver one 404 page regardless of what caused the error. Find what works for your site.

When you design your custom 404, make sure you create it to be larger than 512 bytes. This is to ensure that your server will actually display the page you’ve created. If it’s under 512 bytes, some browsers will assume that is the boring default error page and replace it on their own. After spending the time and energy to create a page that stands out and addresses your user’s concerns, you don’t want to leave the decision of which page is shown to your browser.

We recommend adding <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,nofollow”> to the top of your 404 page so that the search engines will not index this page. The last thing you want is for your 404 page to start ranking in the engine’s index.

Once you’ve created the page, you need to upload the page to your server and tell it which page to use. Depending on which kind of server you are using, this is done differently.

To do this for a Microsoft IIS Server, open up your “Internet Service Manager” and click on the site you want to set the custom 404 error page for. From there, select “Properties”, and then “Custom Errors” from the list of Radio tabs. Once selected, scroll down until you come to the file associated with your 404 error page. You can then edit this file or upload a new one for your server to display.

For a Unix server, modify the .htaccess file (create one in new text document if you do not already have an .htaccess) to include the command(s):

ErrorDocument 404 /404.htm
ErrorDocument 403 /404.htm

Note that this will redirect all 404 errors (File not found) and 403 errors (Forbidden) to your custom page.

Save the modified .htaccess and you’re done.

Making your site easily navigable and addressing visitor concerns will keep users happy and planted on your site. An optimized 404 page is one that blends in with your site and seamlessly gets visitors on their way to a conversion again.

Author:  Lisa Barone is a Sr. Writer at Bruce Clay Inc.

… as we know it.  On February 2, 2007 Google launched its big push into personalized search results.  This was, to many, a dark day as SEO’s scrambled to determine exactly what this meant for the industry and for our clients.  Different results showing up for different people?  What are ranking reports if what you see differs from what I see?  Who’s right? And of course, how do I prove it?

I’ll admit it; my first thoughts at the launch of personalization were not necessarily along the most positive tangents.  Upon further reflection (and much of it) and after wading through seven patents to get a better feel for the variables and what they mean (and might mean down the road) I came to one conclusion, coincidentally the same conclusion I consistently come to after each major algorithm update or search technology advancement:  Anything that improves the search experience improves the SEO industry.  This may seem an obvious statement but when the search engines (especially Google) throw a curve ball at us, one cannot help but worry. 

This article will focus on two tangents, what is personalization and how will the SEO industry evolve to accommodation this new feature?  The answer to the later is quite clear once one understands how personalized results are created. 

What Is Personalization? 

The most basic explanation of personalization is that it a system by which the search engines are able to extract patterns from previous search behavior and adjust present and future search results based on “learned” preferences.  The simplest example can be found in the repeated selection of a single site when it appears in the search results.  Ego drives many (present company included) to click on their own site when it shows up in the search results.  Once the site is selected multiple times it will rise in the results when the same or a similar search is run again by the same user.  Google has thus learned that you like this site and is now making it easier to get to it again. 

What we can see from the patents that are out there indicate that personalization is going to go MUCH further than this and get far more sophisticated.  Like any new technology, it is now in its first stages and as more data can be collected and more time put into tweaking the way personalized results are created and displayed the more factors they will be looking at.  The numbers of potential factors, as with any algorithm, are virtually endless in theory however there are some key factors that come up repeatedly in the patents that are sure to hold weight as personalization evolves.  They are: 

Your personal search history.  What you look for and the sites/ads that you select will affect the results you receive when you search.  Right now this seems to primarily be restricted to increasing the position of a site that is selected multiple times when it appears in a set of search engine result however as this technology evolves your past behaviors and the types of sites you select in the results will surely be applied to new searches, increasing the positions of sites that have similar characteristics to ones you have selected in the past for completely different queries.

Your behavior on a selected site.  What you do on a site and how long it takes you to return to the search engine is or soon will be a factor.  The search engines have clearly stated that their main goal is to deliver a positive experience to their users.  The more readily a searcher finds the information they are looking for in a set of results, the better the experience and thus, the more likely that searcher is to continue to use that engine.  If Google discovers that when a visitor lands on a site they are likely to stay for only a couple of seconds then that site can reasonably be considered less relevant for a specific query than one who’s visitor’s remain on their site for a minute or two.  The former site will thus lose position for the phrase and the later will increase.  All indications are that if this is the case for a single phrase, that the rankings for other phrases the site ranks for will not be affected however I would speculate that if visitors react poorly to a site for multiple phrases, that the value of the site as a whole will be reduced and the rankings will be affected globally. 

Your location.  Especially important for mobile search but sure to gain importance for specific, localized phrases – your business location relative to the searcher will gain importance.  A search for a phrase such as “seo services” is likely to be unaffected by such factors (unless the searcher has a past history of selecting sites from his/her own region for multiple phrases) however if a searcher searches for “pizza victoria” and the engine is able to pick up that the searcher is from Victoria, Texas and not Victoria, BC those sites that promote a pizza restaurant in Victoria, Texas will be increased in the results. 

The patterns of similar searchers.  And now it gets even more complex.  It does not appear that at this time the search engines are yet grouping users together to find common search patterns however there are multiple references in their patent applications that Google will be looking for ways to group users together by search patters, interests, or memberships in communities to provide personalized results based on what others with similar interested have selected.  For example, if I as a searcher am looking for blue widgets and after looking at a number sites I spend a few minutes on site xyz.com and you do the same and then a couple days later I am looking for green gromits the search engine will reference your search patterns.  If you have looked for green gromits in the past the engine will use your experience (i.e. which sites did you visit and for how long) to affect my rankings based on our past similar behavior.  Now, when we’re dealing with just two people searching there isn’t a lot of information to affect the rakings however when the engines are looking at global rules across millions of searchers they are able to determine which types of searchers are selecting which types of results by grouping users with similar interests/patterns together and increasing the position of those sites that the majority of the group has found most desirable.   

The engines can also use memberships in communities and bookmarking similarities to establish common interests and patterns to increase and decrease a site’s position for specific phrases or to raise the sites value as a whole.

Your value as a visitor.  A colleague of mine and a brilliant reporter on the industry, Jim Hedger brought a point to my attention that snuck past me the first time I read it but which now jumps out as both interesting and important.  An engine can (and likely will) assign users with their own PageRank.  What this basically translates into is a value that your vote will have when you visit a site and its effect on the overall results of the many.  If Google decides that I am a lack-luster searcher and seem to select sites that others with similar interests do not then my personal PageRank will be decreases and thus, the sites I visit will be given less of a boost than those of a user whose selected sites match those that others find favorable.  That user will then receive an increase in their personal PageRank as their voting power will be deemed higher than others and their decisions more reflective of the most-desired-results. 

As noted, there are a wide array of factors covered in the patents and only through research, testing, watching and waiting will we discover the true nature of the evolution of this technology.  This doesn’t mean that all we can do is sit and wait.  There will be sites that do well as personalization evolves and sites that do not.  So what do you do to help hedge your bets and increase your chances of being on the right side of the winners-losers table? 

How Will The SEO Industry Evolve? 

As with any evolution in the search engine algorithms, the addition of personalization into the equations means that the community needs to adjust what we’re doing and how we rank websites.  This has ramifications for SEO’s and for website owners alike however one of the differences here compared to past changes is that some of the changes will affect only one of the two groups.  Usually what affects SEO’s will affect the website owner and vice-versa.  This is not necessarily the case with personalization. 

Let us take for example a scenario in which algorithmic updates outside of the personalization realm affect the site in a negative manner but at the same time changes from within the personalization realm affect the site positively.  This would result in a scenario where the global results would show decreases in rankings but where members of communities, regions or other relevant groupings would find the site appearing higher in their results.  A ranking report would show decreases but a traffic and conversion report may well show increases due to the site appearing high to users who are likely searching for the type of information your site provides.  This is where much of the concern and confusion lies in the minds of those offering SEO services. 

From this one thing is clear, SEO as we know it will be coming to a slow but sure death.  The rules that once applied, those that were universal, will no longer apply.  New ways of conducting SEO campaigns need to be developed that don’t just target the universal algorithm but also take into account the factors included in the personalization components. 

While currently the effects of personalization have not been widely recognized, this is due in large part to the fact that the majority of search users are not searching Google with the personalization turned on (by remaining signed into a Google service such as AdWords, GMail, Blogger, etc.).  This will change.  Here are ways that more and more of the search population will be added to those receiving personalized results (note: this is far from all of them and new ways to track user behavior are sure to be developed): 

• Toolbars added by default to installed browsers on new computers as is the case created in the recent agreement between Google and Dell in May, 2006.
• Toolbars being included in browsers such as Firefox as was established in an agreement between the two in August, 2006.
• Search engine produced browsers installed by default into mobile phones as was agreement upon in a deal between Google and LG in March, 2007.

 
Some other factors that are going to increase the number of searchers affected by personalized results: 

• New methods for tracking visitor behavior developed.
• New engines providing personalized results.  Yahoo!, with all their social properties, is well positioned to expand into this area and Microsoft, with their control over desktops and browsers, is in a highly superior position in the area of visitor behavior and site selection, even from competing search engines.

 
Basically we’re heading into a world where more and more people will be receiving personalized results and in which more and more people are being tracked to provide superior sets of data to base group-based personalized results on.  So what do we need to plan for and what can SEO’s do to prepare their clients and the websites they optimize to rank highly in the face of personalization?  To be sure, new tactics will be developed and resources made available as the technology matures however here are some steps you can take today to help promote high rankings in personalized results.  Below you will find them listed based on the criteria we listed above as being measured: 

Personal search history.  Having a website that ranks for multiple related phrases and which provides valuable content for all of them is a great way to affect a visitor’s search history. If a visitor goes to your site multiple times and remains on your site for a reasonable period of time then your site will be given a boost when future search queries are performed that include your site in the results.  As a bonus, this is just a best practice regardless and will provide more high quality traffic in-and-of itself. 

Behavior on a selected site.  When visitors land on your site, the time they spend there can be tracked by the engine.  This means that if your site has stickiness and searchers spend a reasonable amount of time there when it shows up in the results, the rankings will increase for that phrase.  Basically, the better designed your site is to provide visitors with the information and experience they are looking for the higher it will show up in the results in future searches.  The only tip I will give here on how to accomplish this is to make the information that a searcher is likely looking for when conducting a specific search easy to find.  Past this we are getting into a variety of usability and copywriting issues.  These are definitely important for SEO and for your site health and will only become more important over time however they could not possibly be covered adequately here.  As an added bonus again, changes made to improve the visitor behavior on your website is going to increase conversions and keep the visitor there for longer periods of time. 

You also may want to consider adding Google Analytics code to your site.  Here I feel it necessary to give a few clarifications regarding some of the common reservations with using Google Analytics.  The biggest common concern among web marketers in general is that Google will use the data obtained through Analytics (especially if you are using conversion tracking) to affect bids for those using AdWords at some point down the road.  I’m not sure if I entirely believe they would do this however it is definitely within their abilities.  They could also adjust the position of your paid add in the results based on how users react to your site once you give them the ability to view how visitors behave.  It’s on the tangent that we head into the effects Google Analytics could theoretically have on your organic results.  We know that Google wants to provide the best possible experience to their users (even more true in the organic realm than their paid).  When you use Google Analytics you are effectively telling them how visitors behave on your site.  If their behavior is not positive (low time on site or low page views) then Google could theoretically affect the position of your site in the search results based on this.  This is the area that most concerns me personally and relates to this article.  My rule of thumb is that it is best to use other analytics tools until you see that your traffic patterns are favorable and then install Analytics.  At this point you would actually want Google to see your traffic patterns and visitor behavior. 

Your location.  While you can’t affect the location of your business or your searchers you can affect how you rank for localized phrases.  The tactics here fall into standard SEO tactics, however the first step is outside of the traditional SEO realm and that is to be sure to get your business listed on Google maps.  Most of us have seen the map results showing up in the search results.  This gives you an opportunity to show up above the natural results for localized phrases or, in future, for generic phrases where the results are based on the searchers position geographically.  It’s also a great way to “tell” Google where you’re located so if localization becomes a defining characteristic of a searcher, your site will appear when relevant. 

You’ll also want to engage in traditional link building efforts from regionally specific resources such as city-specific business directories, and related business in the area.  There have been many great articles written on link building and there is certainly not space here to do it justice. 

The patterns of similar searchers.  When you know what searchers of specific criteria (such as search phrase) do when they enter your site you need to let the engines themselves know that these searchers like what they see (assuming you’ve already dealt with the behavior points noted above).  You need to associate your site with specific communities that you know your visitors are likely to be a part of.  You also need to try to get your site added to social bookmarking sites by people who are likely to have common bookmarks with others who may search your targeted phrases or related phrases. 

Basically you want to make sure that any connection you can help make between your site, your visitors, and other potential visitors with similar interests or patterns as your past/present visitors is established.  This can be done by asking visitors to bookmark you on social bookmarking site by providing links to some of the popular bookmarking sites such as Google Bookmarks and del.icio.us.  This will help make bridges between your site and others by people with similar interests.  Getting links on industry-specific authority sites is another useful way to tie your site to other quality resources in your industry.  To illustrate how Google would view this: if authority site A links to related sites B and C and site D is not linked to by site A Google can assume that if a visitor likes site B then they are more likely to also like site C than the unassociated random site D not linked to by the authority site A. 

The value of a visitor.  So how to you get visitors that can positively affect the results to visit your site?  While there is no definitive answer to this question there are a couple actions you can take to hedge your bets.  The first is sheer numbers.  Not necessarily the most scientific of answers but effective nonetheless.  If you have 1000 visitors to your site your odds that you have visitors who have a high degree of PageRank assigned to them are much higher than if your site only receives 50 visitors.  Ranking for multiple phrases and pulling in traffic from social bookmarking sites and authority communities are great ways to help increase your visitor numbers from people interested in the topic of your site. 

Another way to attract high PageRank users to your site requires thinking like a high PageRank user.  What type of person would visit related websites and view multiple pages and/or spend reasonable amounts of time on those sites?  What are they looking for?  How do they surf?  What other sites do they visit?  If you can get an understanding of how they surf the web and what they do on websites you’ll get a feel for what you need to do in regards to site structure and keyword targeting to get them and keep them on your site. 

What Does All Of This Mean? 

To understand what this all means we need only reflect back on the title: SEO as we know it is dead.  SEO’s are going to need to develop new measurements for their campaigns that reside outside of the direct ranking-reports of old.  New strategies to tie sites together and ensure that websites are included in communities and that visitors react favorably to them are going to become increasingly important.

What this means to the website owners is that the workload on your SEO provider (or on you if you’re a do-it-yourselfer) is about to go up and like all things, so too is the cost.  On the other side of the coin, you’re about to get traffic from new sources and your site, by necessity, will be more visitor friendly so your conversions will go up.  So while the workload and cost may increase, so too will the ROI.

In short, while the lives of SEO’s are once again going the to get a little more difficult, the search engines will benefit, their visitors will benefit, website owners will benefit and so in the end, this is good for all of us.

Author:  Dave Davies is the CEO of Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning, Inc. He writes with 6 years of experience in SEO, link building and reacting to algorithm additions and updates. You can keep yourself updated on the latest goings-on in the SEO and search engine world on Beanstalk’s blog. Dave is also co-host of The Alternative on WebmasterRadio.fm with SiteProNews.com editor, Jim Hedger

Since Google began ruling the realm of Internet search it has become a major figure in my professional life. As a result, whenever an interview with a key figure of Google is posted I try not to miss it. To that end, John Battelle recently interviewed Google CEO, Eric Schmidt at the Web 2.0 Expo and posed some questions that have been tugging at my imagination lately. I watched the video over at WebProNews and jotted down some of my favorite points in the interview - I did the work, I might as well share it!

Please note that unlike the answers from Eric, the questions are not quotations but are similar to the question asked by John Battelle.

QUESTION A: With the latest introduction of a free online presentation tool Google has rounded off a nice office-like set of applications. Is this meant to compete with Microsoft Office?

Eric Schmidt:
“We don’t think so and the reason is it does not have all of the functionality nor is it intended to have all of the functionality of products like Microsoft Office. This is really a different way of managing information. It’s casual, it’s sharing. It seems to be a better fit to how people use the web and we think it is an example of one of the application categories on a web 2.0 framework
that we think will be very very successful. And my guess is that there are many companies represented in the room that are building products like this or other variants of this that are using this emergent architecture. You know, this whole story about Web 2.0, which I view is a
marketing term, is really an architectural transition from an older architecture to this new web based architecture and that transition which I think is what everyone in the room is a part of, is a fundamental computer architectural transition. Google is one of the companies that is benefiting from it, there are many others.”

John Battelle then responds incredulously by stating that Google’s toolset is bound to be “exceedingly threatening to Microsoft”.

Eric Schmidt:
“Well I am sure Microsoft will have a response. They actually have a set of web-based products which they can talk about. The important point here is that for people who are using products that are on the web who need presentation access and sharing”… “they are going to use this or something like this. And I think this is a testament to the strength of web 2.0.”

QUESTION B: What areas of technology is Google interested in focusing on into the future? Note: John essentially asked Eric what areas Google might be pursuing acquisitions in. Eric, with caution required rewording and responded with the following.

The 1st noted area of acquisition interest for Google
Eric Schmidt:
“The biggest growth areas are clearly going to be the mobile space; mobile, mobile, mobile. It is the easiest way to understand it. And the reason is that people treat their mobile phones as an extension of their persons and those mobile phones are very personal, very portable, and having GPS information in them now and this next generation of wireless networks, the 3G and eventually the 4G networks will have tremendous power. So if you look at the mobile space it is probably the biggest wide open space that quite a few interesting companies that we could partner with, and I won’t say beyond that, which are building either applications or advertising services that use the targeting that is capable in mobile.”

The 2nd noted area of acquisition interest for Google
Eric Schmidt:
“Another area is in the local space, most of the transactions we do in advertising are really good for local products. Go down a street to buy a car, go down a street to go shopping… that kind of thing. And most search engines”…”don’t fully take advantage of the local information that is inherent in the web. That is another big opportunity. There are quite a few companies that have figured out how to mine, target, or advertise in a local context.”

Wrapping Up
Other questions were certainly asked and I highly recommend watching the interview. That said, I was mostly intrigued by the quotes I placed because they show some indication of Google’s future intentions. Nothing was earth shattering. After all, it is no secret that Google Apps is thinly veiled as a competitor Microsoft Office. That is at least for users only requiring basic technology, however, the launch of a presentation application really makes any denial of competitiveness humorous.

Next we come to areas of interest for Google. “Mobile, mobile, mobile” certainly stood out as confirmation that getting into the mobile web scene is a smart move; do it now before everyone else does. Early adopters of mobile will be in a very good position once it catches on. Furthermore, the interest in local search is in perfect sync with Google’s desire to provide an enhanced regional experience. After all, the more local their search is, the more profits they can make since advertisers in every region will have their own top 10 listing to bid on. Exponential profit increases must sound mighty tempting to Google.

Author:  Ross Dunn is founder and CEO of StepForth Search Engine Placement. Celebrating its 10th year of operation, StepForth is one of the oldest and most trusted brands in the search engine optimization sector.

One of the fun things about publishing a newsletter like SiteProNews is the research that goes into each issue. For more than 6 years, we have been finding and highlighting freeware tools and applications that can make the DIY (do-it-yourself) webmaster’s job a little easier. If you’ve been fixated on the articles in SPN and missed our App of the Day selections, you can find the 900+, mostly freeware programs, filed in 12 major categories at our WebMaster Tools Directory.

The focus of this article, however, will be on some of the freeware tools that are available to you to use for SEO purposes. There are a fairly large number of these type of tools out there so Part 1 of this article will líst keyword, sitemap and ranking tools and Part 2 will look at meta tag generators, link popularity apps, link checkers and general SEO tools.

Keyword Tools

1. Good Keywords v2.01 (595 KB) finds the best keywords for your web pages. Features include Keyword Suggestions, Phrase Builder, Keyword Organizer, Misspelled Words, and Site and Link Popularity Finder. For Windows 95/ 98/ 2000/ NT/ XP.

2. Golden Phrases 1.0.3 (391 KB) is a analyzing utility that scans specified log files to retrieve all search phrases used by your visitors to find your website through search engines. It gathers search phrase statistics and determines the position of your site on search engines for every phrase. Its unique “Perspectivity rating” technology also allows you to find which keyphrases were not used. For Windows Windows 95/ 98/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP/ 2003.

3. PPC Keyword Generator (1.1 MB) is a powerful keyphrase permutator/generator. Generate 100s of keyphrases in seconds, remove duplicate keyphrases automatically, define per-keyphrase custom CPC/URLs and import/export. For Windows 98 and above.

4. Hixus Keyword Inventor 1.0 (679 KB) is a SEO and keyword popularity analysis front-end for the the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool. Speeds up the process of finding popular keywords. For Windows 98/ ME/ NT4.x/ XP/ 2000.

5. e3KWDCheck 2.5b (920 KB) is a lightweight and fast SEO tool for analyzing keyword density within text documents. It can also retrieve and analyze online web documents using the built-in address bar. For Windows 95/ 98/ 2000/ NT/ ME/ XP.

6. Get Keywords 1.0 (289 KB) is a small program that finds keywords in files and then creates an optimized web page using selected keywords. Features include automatic words search, add/remove keywords options, web page creation and preview, etc. For Windows 98 and above.

7. Keyword Digger 1.0 (50 KB) is a simple tool designed to search Overture for all keywords people entered during the previous month. Provides the number of times a keyword was searched and up to 100 different variations for that term. For Windows 9x/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP.

8. AnalogX Keyword Extractor v1.03 (214 KB) extracts keywords from a webpage, and then sorts and indexes them based on their usage and position. Once indexed, you can adjust search-engine specific weighting factors and keyword criteria to get the best possible view of how a search engine sees your site. An older program but still useful. For Windows 95/ 98/ 2000/ NT/ XP.

SiteMap Generators

1. eXactMapper Lite 1.2 (1.1 MB) automates the process of creating professional site maps. It offers three different customizable html/dhtml site map styles, including a UL líst, static tree and an index page. For Windows 95/ 98/ ME/ NT/ 2000.

2. SiteMapBuilder.NET 1.5 (1.4 MB) allows you to create a Google XML SiteMap or text based sitemap. It also checks for URL errors. For Windows XP/ 2000/ 2003. Also requires .NET Framework.

3. Sitemap Creator (783 KB) is a sitemap creator that exports a directory structure to an html file. Does not read websites online. For all Windows versions.

4. Sitemap 4 traffíc (360 KB) can build a Google or html sitemap. It also checks for broken links and backs up website files. For Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista. Requires .Net Framework 1.1 or higher and Internet Explorer 6+. Nice program but might have some bugs.

Ranking Tools

1. Rank Tracker 1.4.2 (5.0 MB) is a useful tool for checking the keyword rank of websites, using search engine results from Google, Yahoo and MSN. You can create multiple projects with unlimited keywords and track changes and progress over time. Supports Google and Yahoo API login, if needed. For Windows 98/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP/ Mac/ Linux. Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Version 1.4.

2. WebCEO 6.5 (22 MB) is a comprehensive SEO program that provides much more than search engine rankings. This is the freeware edition. Requires a learning curve but is worth the effort. For Windows NT4/ 2000/ XP.

3. PaRaMeter 1.2 (1.0 MB) is a bulk Google PageRank™ checking and monitoring tool. Easily find the page rank of many pages with one clíck. For Windows 9X/ 2000/ XP.

4. M6.net PageRank Checker (515 KB) is another simple, bulk Google PageRank™ checker. For Windows 98/ ME/ NT/ XP/ 2000.

The various freeware tools listed above are the best that we have come across in the last 6 years. If you are aware of similar tools that are as good or better, let us know and we’ll do a follow-up article with your recommendations.

Author:  Mel Strocen is CEO of the Jayde Online Network of websites and founder of the Independent Search Engine & Directory Network. The Jayde network is comprised of more than 20 websites, including ExactSeek.com, SiteProNews.com, SEO-News.com,and GoArticles.com.

Still think you can fool Google with your unnatural links? I’m talking about link exchanges, link farms, hidden links, and now even paid links. Google’s Matt Cutts recently wrote about Google’s plan to catch you. You and I know it as vigilantism.

Prior to the Google era search engines were mediocre at best, looking at on page factors only which could easily be manipulated and spammed. These factors included metadata (especially the keyphrase tag) and the number of times a search term appeared on a page.
Those days are long gone. With the advent of Google, the concept of link popularity became tantamount to the determination of the relevance of a page to a specific search query. But what is Google looking for when it comes to links?
The answer is natural, one way, inbound links from trusted sites to unique, original, useful, informative, or educational content, with the anchor text of the link containing keyphrases relevant to your site.. The answer may also be found in what they do not want: link farms, link exchanges, hidden links and paid links. And guess who they have watching you? Your enemy.
Cutts wrote in his blog this week the following:
“I’d like to get a few paid link reports anyway because I’m excited about trying some ideas here at Google to augment our existing algorithms. Google may provide a special form for paid link reports at some point, but in the mean time, here’s a couple of ways that anyone can use to report paid links:
- Sign in to Google’s webmaster console and use the authenticated spam report form, then include the word “paidlink” (all one word) in the text area of the spam report. If you use the authenticated form, you’ll need to sign in with a Google Account, but your report will carry more weight. - Use the unauthenticated spam report form and make sure to include the word “paidlink” (all one word) in the text area of the spam report.
As far as the details, it can be pretty short. Something like “Example.com is selling links; here’s a page on example.com that demonstrates that” or “www.shadyseo.com is buying links. You can see the paid links on www.example.com/path/page.html” is all you need to mention. That will be enough for Google to start testing out some new techniques we’ve got — thanks!”
Whoa! Google is now asking your competition to report you if you buy or sell links. Interesting, isn’t it, when Google’s massively popular AdWords program is all about paid links. Conspiracy theorists will tell you that Google is trying to take over and control all paid advertising on the Internet, worldwide. But I digress. The point is that Google is asking your competition to report you if you buy or sell links. Period.
So what to do? Create the kind of links that Google wants. There is only one way to do this, and that is through the regular creation of unique content. Here is what you do:
1) Set up a blog (blogger.com is owned by Google and a great one to use as they crawl all of their blogs regularly)

2) Post content in the form of articles

3) Syndicate those articles through article distribution sites (do a search for “article distribution” to find these sites), use your keyphrases within anchor text links back to your site (these links are usually included in an about the author section, but can be in the article body as well)

4) Get active in social bookmarking and social media optimization, sites such as digg, furl, and del.icio.us to name a few.
Those four simple steps are all it takes to conduct an effective link building campaign that won’t get you into trouble.

Author:  Matt Foster is the President of ArteWorks SEO, one of the top 15 search engine optimization firms in the world. For more information, please visit www.arteworks.biz.

The following is coverage of the Search Engine Strategies (SES) New York presentation called “Mobile Search Optimization” by Cindy Krum of Blue Moon Works, Gregory Markel, President of Infuse Creative LLC and Rachel Pasqua, Director of Mobile Marketing at iCrossing.

This presentation provided a fascinating glimpse into the young realm of mobile site creation, compliance and optimization. I have a lot of information to work with here so to make this article a little more digestible I have broken it into two parts; one is the site creation and the second is the site optimization.
Mobile Website Design & Creation
During this presentation two very different lines of thought were noted regarding the best method for creating a mobile website, one from Cindy Krum and the other from Rachel Pasqua.

> Cindy Krum’s Presentation
Cindy Krum felt strongly that an existing website should pull double-duty as both the wired and the mobile version by using CSS to provide an alternative, mobile friendly version shown only to mobile users.
Cindy provided some great tips on how to create a hybrid mobile/wired website:

1. Ensure your website is 100% W3C XHTML compliant because mobile browsers are completely unforgiving when it comes to improper coding.
2. Follow strict XHTML accessibility guidelines to provide the best quality product for both wired, mobile, and those that require accessibility (i.e. the blind). She also noted that by following accessibility requirements any images that do not show up on the mobile browser will be defined in text format – a nice backup.
3. Avoid unnecessary code to minimize download times.
4. Ensure the site uses CSS to control content – this is critical to ensure the mobile version can have reorganized placement of content. (i.e. the menu might be at the bottom vs. the top)
5. Use external CSS files to provide maximum flexibility such as the ability to specify a different style sheet for each mobile browser.
6. Use the LINK element to attach style sheets because it is a much friendlier format for mobile browsers.
7. Use multiple style sheets. The minimum would be a style sheet called “screen” for regular wired visitors and a second style sheet (provided below the first) called “handheld”.
8. Use “display: none” to hide elements in either rendering. This is useful if you have page elements you do not want to appear to mobile users or vice versa. Using this method of hiding content is part of what makes Cindy’s hybrid approach feasible of using a single website for both viewing technologies (handheld, and wired).
9. These headers will help you identify the mobile device being used to access the content. HTTP User-Agent headers, HTTP Accept Headers, and UAProf.
10. Use the appropriate MIME type: “text/html” or “application/xhtml+xml”.

> Rachel Pasqua’s Presentation
At the opposite spectrum was Rachel Pasqua who firmly stated that offering your current website to users, reformatted or not, would likely provide a less than desirable user experience. She went on to explain that mobile users should see an entirely different, more time efficient version of your website because such users are task oriented. Rachel put her thoughts into excellent perspective when she stated that mobile search is “not surf media, it’s search media”. She also went on to state that iCrossing decided to proceed with the subdomain concept rather than a separate domain such as a .mobi. In this case their mobile site is located at mobile.icrossing.com; a sensible concept that retained the branding of the top level domain name without having to rebrand a new one (i.e. going with the .mobi version)

Rachel had some interesting metrics and tips to share with the group that were researched at iCrossing using focus groups and other research (sorry I don’t know the source but the report is due to be released soon I hear). Here are a few tidbits that I caught on paper:

1. Mobile searchers tend to utilize the same search engine they use when they are on their PC.
2. Only 10% of the estimated 234 million US wireless subscribers are active users of mobile search.
3. Searchers are task oriented, they tend to want to get their information and get out; mobile surfing is extremely uncommon.

My Take on Hybrid Sites Versus A Separate Mobile Website
Of the two beliefs I felt myself more strongly drawn to the concept of a separate mobile site. Why? I think the maintenance of a hybrid website is bound to be far more difficult because design updates will require designers to think in both realms which is likely to make updates laborious for the average business owner.

> Gregory Markel’s Presentation
Gregory Markel of Infuse Creative LLC, dropped a very intriguing bombshell at the beginning of his discussion when he noted that Google’s Voice Local Search just might take the world of mobile search in an entirely different direction. According to Gregory, his friends and network of mobile enthusiasts have been impressed by the results of using 800-GOOG-411 and conducting a free voice search; the results have been extremely relevant and Google immediately connects the user to their preferred result by phone. After this bombshell had sunk in, he went on to discuss many of the points already mentioned by Cindy but he had a few highlights definitely worth mentioning including this valuable tip: get into Google local for your area so that you can be found on Google’s Voice Local Search, it is free and easy to do. (Note, I wrote an article on how to do this a few months back called: Have Your Company Listed Free in Google Maps). Unfortunately, Google Voice Local Search is experimental and only available in the United States.

Highlights from Markel:

1. Mobile search adoption has been slower in the US than expected at only 19%
2. An excellent source of mobile statistics is the self-described authority on mobile metrics, MMetrics.com.
3. When users conduct searches, they are more likely to search using 2 or a maximum of 3 words.
4. Nokia has decided to try to simplify the process of searching by integrating it into its future line of cell phones.
5. Mobile devices require ultimate simplicity to ensure compatibility across the vast number of proprietary mobile browsers available.

Part 2: Mobile Site Optimization

The question remains; how should you optimize a mobile web page? All of the presenters provided tips, but Cindy Krum’s presentation provided the majority of information. I listed a blend of the tips from all presenters below:
1. Make certain that no information is located more than 3 clicks from the home page
2. Organize the page so the main content appears first on the page followed by the navigation. For most this will seem counter intuitive, but by laying out the mobile page in this manner mobile users will see the content they want faster and thus know they are on a different page; versus seeing the same navigation listing again if the navigation was at the top – which would look the same across all pages. In addition, mobile users want to avoid scrolling as much as possible so having the content first will offer better visitor retention.
3. Organize your navigation in the most logical fashion. In other words, place what is likely to be the most popular buttons first using text links, followed by the others in order. In addition, make certain to word the buttons clearly and succinctly to use as little screen real estate as possible while applying good call to action principles.
4. Offer a sitemap so that spiders and users alike can quickly navigate the mobile site if need be.
5. Keep the filenames for the mobile pages short and keyword rich.
6. Do not use pop-ups, frames or Flash because these are likely to block mobile browsers, not just search engine spiders.
7. Optimize mobile pages for short keyword phrases since mobile users tend search using up to three words in a single phrase.
8. Rely only on the textual content, not on images, objects or scripts because they may not appear on handheld browsers.
9. Minimize file size for faster content loading.
10. Use optimized heading tags wherever appropriate. Just like standard web pages, properly optimized Heading Tags play a significant role in search engine algorithms.
11. Test and validate your mobile website to ensure maximum effectiveness for both users and spiders alike. Here are some options that Cindy Klum provided in her presentation:

Simulators: Skweezer, Google,

Validators: .Mobi Validator, W3C Mobile Web Validator
12. Conduct a traditional link building campaign specifically for your mobile website. Do this by submitting to local and mobile directories and getting links from other mobile websites. Also, purchase text links from other mobile and traditional websites.
13. Announce to the world that your mobile website now exists through press releases. This will add bonus backlinks to your website.
14. Offer social book marking and tagging functionality to your mobile website.
15. When a user clicks on one of these phone numbers their mobile phone will immediately connect them to the number.Include your main website address in the footer of the mobile page and make your phone numbers clickable using the following sample syntax:

< href=”tel:2503851190″>250-385-1190< /a >
Note: eliminate spacing immediately beside brackets for the code to work.
Other Tips from the Mobile Optimization PanelAmidst discussion and the question and answer period there were a few great points that I felt were worth adding to this summary:
- If you choose not to use a .mobi domain as your primary address for the mobile website then you should still purchase the domain and forward traffic to the alternate address. In this way, you will at least protect your brand. As an added note, I would strongly recommend using a 301 redirect from the .mobi to the main address if you decide to follow this path.
- Google offers a transcoding system that will attempt to change any website into a mobile website automatically. It was universally agreed on the panel that depending on transcoding to provide your mobile users with a mobile-friendly website is a very bad idea.
- According to Gregory Markel, approximately 17% of mobile traffic comes from users navigating directly to a URL. As a result, it is strongly recommended that your mobile URL is very simple to remember and easily typed in (no too long or difficult to spell).
- The current best source for mobile user statistics is http://www.mmetrics.com/
- Google produced a (PDF) Mobile Search Behavior study that Gregory Markel mentioned was an excellent source of information.

I will end this synopsis with an apt quote that Rachel Pasqua began her presentation with:
“… it’s really not a matter IF the mobile phone will become the dominant internet platform any more but WHEN…” - Yahoo! analyst Russell Beattie

Author:  Ross Dunn is founder and CEO of StepForth Search Engine Placement. Celebrating its 10th year of operation, StepForth is one of the oldest and most trusted names in Search Engine Optimization and Placement. For more information, please call 1-250-385-1190, or 1-877-385-5526 (toll free in North America)

David Gent queries the hype surrounding the advance of online advertising in the UK

Advertising spend on the internet has now overtaken that on radio, we are told, and it won’t be long before it leaves behind national press, then television as the nation’s favourite marketing medium. If we are to believe the hype, and hype there certainly is, we’ll soon be spending more time online than watching TV, ‘silver surfers’ are eschewing traditional retirement activities like gardening for the web, and the only media predicted to grow their audiences in the near future are the internet and, somewhat unaccountably, radio.
When you realise that last finding comes from an online poll amongst heavy internet users and radio listeners by advertising bodies with vested interests, that the Office of National Statistics reports this month that there is a distinct lack of enthusiasm amongst the over 65’s for internet usage (just 15%), and that reliable sources such as the Government, BARB, the BBC and the IPA all report that TV is still our most popular leisure pursuit, watching an average 4 hours per day, then you might conclude these flattering online figures are somewhat skewed. As one American pundit observes ‘People don’t believe all the hype, they just go home and watch television, as always’.
Nevertheless, the national press, busily polishing up their online versions, and the broadcast news seem willing to accept such statistics without applying normal journalistic standards, reporting excitedly on the next advance of the internet and recording that ‘millions of people’ are watching a webcam of cheeses ripening online (as if). Frightened of missing out on ‘the next big thing’ and searching as always for a marketing magic bullet, many board directors are investing heavily in their internet presence, transferring budgets from offline to online without necessarily applying the same rigorous ROI measures and neglecting proven media channels in favour of sexy new technology.
Then when the web doesn’t prove as self-sustaining and business-building as hoped, they blame this on their own lack of technical knowledge, feeling that if everyone else makes it work, why can’t they? They overlook, perhaps, the fact that there are already more than 110 million websites in the UK alone, with a further 10 million going online annually, and that the average well-travelled web page looks like a racing driver’s overalls, with its confusing mix of pop-ups, banner ads and video streams. So you have to accept this is an extremely competitive channel of communication, where you cannot simply ‘set out your stall’, pay for some click-through advertising and wait for the world to beat a path to your electronic doorway. You need to throw something else into the media mix to make your online investment work. Why else, despite their ubiquitous web presence, would Google and eBay choose to advertise on TV, if not to drive traffic that they cannot generate solely online?
A central shortcoming of online marketing is the lack of agreed, universal and independently- audited web traffic measures. With direct mail you have postcode data and CPR metrics, with press and radio there are regularly-updated circulation and listenership figures, whilst the independent BARB TV panel not only provides reliable ratings for programming, it also measures viewers for every single advertising spot, a unique capability. On the other hand, take website ‘hits’, the term universally used by the popular press and web amateurs everywhere. For years, I suspect web designers, engineers and masters have been sniggering behind our backs, because they know a web ‘hit’ simply describes a single request for a server to send a file and that every element on a web page (text, graphics, images, sound) generates yet another hit. Which means that your newly redeveloped home page, with its extra content and features, will instantly trigger ten or twenty times more hits, without necessarily attracting a single extra visitor (although your web designer probably won’t reveal that).
The number of unique site visitors and page impressions are more useful measures, although these can be exaggerated by search engine robots checking out your site (there are hundreds apparently), users who land on a page then leave immediately, as well as people and computers that generate fraudulent and invalid clicks for various nefarious reasons. In fact, ‘click fraud’ is already such a concern in the States, reportedly costing online advertisers up to $800 million annually, that almost a third have already decreased their online spend, with a further ten per cent planning to do so unless search-ad publishers can arrive at a proper solution. Moreover, at a recent search engine strategy conference, participants reported experiencing fraudulent click rates of 20-40%, threatening the entire paid search industry, although Google insists invalid clicks remain below 10 per cent. The obvious solution is for independent auditors, with no motif for under or over valuing click fraud rates, to provide an audience measurement system, just like BARB, RAJAR and ABC in fact.

That aside, the £2 billion online adspend attributed to the UK market seems, to an old marketing man like me, to be predominantly below-the-line, much like direct mail and sales promotions, with search advertising accounting for a massive 58%, three quarters of that on Google. Nielsen research suggests the top 100 online advertisers actually spent some £260 million on display ads only, excluding search and affiliate marketing and website building costs, although the IAB puts this higher at £450 million. Whatever, it is salutary to note that the internet’s biggest presence, YouTube, which attracts 133.5 million visitors worldwide, only sold around $15 million of advertising last year, putting ITV’s UK-only ad revenue of £1.3 billion into some context.

Then there is the question of whether the internet is a marketing medium at all, but an enabling technology, like printing, broadcasting or telephony. Just as you wouldn’t attribute every telephone call your business receives to the Yellow Pages, it’s shortsighted to allocate every website hit to your online marketing strategy. Every marketing tool you use, be it sales leaflets, PR, e-shots, press ads or TV commercials, will undoubtedly feature your corporate web address for channelling further enquiries and it’s vital to set up systems for identifying the source of online traffic, to determine whether it’s click-through activity, brand name searching, online magazines and directories, or just keying in your url. Otherwise, the online cost-per-response metrics are going to be unduly favourable, just like bus backs are often disproportionately mentioned in customer surveys, simply because they were the last ads seen on the journey to the shops. Using coded ‘landing page’ domains like .com/tv or .co.uk/radio is one solution, although human nature being what it is, most people will just enter the standard web address and not the all-important suffix; there are, however, tracking systems that provide more sophisticated web visitor data than your standard server log, which means the tools are available for more rigorous ROI analysis, should you choose.
If all this suggests that I am something of a techno-luddite, trying to hold back the inevitable online tide, then I’m not. We have had a web presence since the earliest days, when newcomers to the net used to wave to each other, and since then have invested, with a greater or lesser degree of success, in trickier graphics, new websites, search engine optimisation, online directories (don’t ask), paid search, a blog site, e-shots, even banner ads, but not yet pop-ups or video streaming (perhaps a bit too much for B2B). It’s just that I find the unremitting hype and hoopla surrounding the online advertising industry a little too self-serving; if you don’t believe me, search for ‘online adspend’ (Did you mean online ad spend?) on Google and you’ll find pages and pages of the stuff.

There’s no doubt, the internet is a valuable marketing channel, among its many other attributes, but building a brand, even an online-only brand, on the web alone is a costly and I suspect frustrating experience, because so often it doesn’t work. The golden rule is to ensure consumers or trade customers will recognise your brand name from the offline world, so that you have standout from the competition, which means paying equal attention to less glamorous, yet well-honed marketing techniques, be they trade PR and press ads, direct marketing, radio and TV advertising, even good old exhibitions. Get the offline and online marketing mix right and you’re talking! (Postscript: Google has just announced a deal in the US, designed to encourage its online clients to advertise on radio as well. Great minds eh?)
Author:  David Gent is MD of advertising agency David Gent Creative, telephone 01706 220388, www.davidgent.com

When I was preparing up the various interviews lately, Josh Stylman was one of the individuals who I knew would make an interesting contribution. I’d known of Josh for quite a while; lots of friends hold him in very high regard, but we’d only actually met within the year, in relation to Enquisite. Ten days ago or so, it was announced that his firm Reprise Media, had been sold to InterPublic. Over this past weekend, Josh was kind enough to send me his answers to the interview questions. They are extremely interesting, and a lot of what he writes is both common sense as well as wise.

Q. Josh, how long have you been working with Internet Marketing ?

13 years.

Q. What’s been your favorite organic technique that you can no longer use due to algorithmic changes at Google?

None. Any good white hat SEO will tell you that by subscribing to methods that are totally above board, and approved by the search engines, you are never subject to algorithm chasing. The SEO’s that are always looking for the latest edge (i.e.: trick) will need to redeploy a new SEO strategy every time the engines update their algorithms. I’m exhausted just thinking about that.

Q. Has Google (or any other engine) ever made an algorithm change which made you very happy?

I don’t know if this is an algorithm change, but it’s nice to see that Google now explicitly recommends excluding website search results from search engines – this is a recommendation that we’ve been making to our customers for years.

Q. If you could get each of the search engines to each answer just one question about their algorithms, what would it be?

I’m not a mathematician, so this question is probably wasted on me. There are some other folks in my firm that would love to pick their brains for hours.

Q. Why analytics are important to you?

Web analytics are the underpinning of everything we do, in both organic – and paid – search. They help us determine testing strategies and are the ultimate measure of success. If you’re not measuring, then you’re just guessing.

a. how often do you look at them?

Our analysts “look” at the stats every day, but that doesn’t mean we’re reacting to them quite as often. Testing strategies are for the longterm. It is important to keep your eye on the data regularly though.

b. how do you suggest your clients use them?

We impose that our customers use analytics to develop KPI’s so that internally and externally, their business goals are clear. Far too many people spend time obsessing about ranking reports, when the absolute rank isn’t what’s critical – what is important, is moving the needle on business goals.

Q. What do you see as being the biggest change coming to the search industry over the next 18 months?

The biggest changes are dynamic reply pages that are starting to be deployed around personalization and vertical search. Search engine optimization will become increasingly complex, as pages are different for individual people based upon their history, preferences, etc. Again, it’s about delivering value, so the core model won’t change. Some of the tactics will though.

Q. What’s one tip you give to all new clients about Internet Marketing?

Deliver good content, don’t try to outsmart anyone and realize it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Oh yeah, measure everything.

Thanks Josh,

Author:  Richard Zwicky is the CEO of Enquisite Search Metrics. He is also one of the founders of Metamend Search Engine Marketing. When not on an airplane, Richard lives in Victoria BC, Canada.