Article Categories

• Advertising
• Affiliate Marketing
• Article Marketing
• Blogs & Podcasts
• Branding
• Business
• Cloud Technology
• Ecommerce
• Email Marketing
• Facebook
• Google
• Keywords
• LinkedIn
• Linking Strategies
• List Building
• Local Search
• Marketing
• Miscellaneous
• Mobile Applications
• Page Rank
• Pay Per Click
• RSS
• Sales Copy
• SE Optimization
• SE Positioning
• SE Submission
• SE Tactics
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Security
• Social Media Marketing
• Social Networking
• SPAM
• SPN Featured Articles
• Technology
• Video Marketing
• Virtual Office/Telecommuting
• Web 2.0
• Web Design
• Web Development
• Webmasters
• Website Promotion
• Website Traffic
• WordPress
• Writing

SiteProNews Blogs

• Editor's Corner
• Darren Dunner
• Jerry Bader
• John Sylvester
• Kalena Jordan
• Mel Strocen
• Titus Hoskins

Social media and Google’s Panda update

By John Sylvester in Featured

The introduction of Google’s recent Panda update changed its search engine algorithm with a view to diminishing a site’s ranking that provide “low-quality content”. The “Panda” update, as Google refers to it after a Google engineer, or the “Farmer” update, as Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land has been calling it because its apparent target is content farms, has been received very cautiously by the SEO community.

As a result, some of the web’s most popular sites have seen a huge drop in traffic. This marks a major change in Google’s rankings, which has affected around twelve per cent of Google’s overall search results. The SEO industry is still digesting its impact and implications.

The RSS feed, a dynamically-generated summary of information or published news, either in the form of a blog or a dedicated news site, provides a glimpse of the article by providing a headline and, generally, the first few lines of the story’s introduction.

Some media sites have described the practice of using “authoritative” sites’ RSS feeds as “spam sites”. Not exactly, perhaps, but one could for example plug in the RSS feed from Search Engine Watch, as your own.

Quite simply, you can grab the feed url, paste it into feed2js.org, customise it, then grab the generated Javascript code and publish it on your website. As soon as new articles are added to the SEW website, and therefore the RSS feed, the content is then displayed on the “low-quality” website that has uses its content.

Wired.com asked, in an interview with Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow and the head of its core ranking team, and Matt Cutts of Google’s Search Quality group specialising in search engine optimization issues: “How do you recognise a shallow-content site?” Singhal responded that it is “a very, very hard problem that we haven’t solved, and it’s an ongoing evolution how to solve that problem.”

Not perhaps very helpful but Matt Cutts went on to explain: “I think you look for signals that recreate that same intuition, that same experience that you have as an engineer and that users have. Whenever we look at the most blocked sites, it did match our intuition and experience, but the key is, you also have your experience of the sorts of sites that are going to be adding value for users versus not adding value for users. And we actually came up with a classifier to say, okay, IRS or Wikipedia or New York Times is over on this side, and the low-quality sites are over on this side. And you can really see mathematical reasons…”

Again, a bit opaque in its definition, but what Matt Cutts seemed to be referring to here is identifying the source. I doesn’t strike me as too difficult, given the date stamp on a story’s publication, but Google’s engineers say it’s a complex problem that is being addressed and so it must be thus. They are also “cautiously” applying it to mixed-quality sites, “because caution is important” according to Singhal.

Most of the sites Google have targeted in this update are labelled “content farms”, sites that extract data from other sites using automated tools. But what do these sites need to do to recover?  If a site’s pages are thin on content, built on copied content or have an excessive ad-to-content ratio, the chances are they have been affected by this update and changes need to be put in place.

But what exactly? In another article on SeoChat, it mentions Aaron Wall as having come up with a list of “defining characteristics” for “useful” content: the ability to pass a human inspection; not being a copy of another document, not being ad-heavy; being well-linked to externally; being created by a brand with a distribution channel that goes beyond the search engines; and not having a 100% bounce rate. Vanessa Fox, writing for Search Engine Land, recommended “removing low-quality pages or moving them to a different domain could help your rankings for the higher quality content.”

Last week we launched SEO South Africa. Coincidentally, Google had just announced that it will be launching a startup enterprise incubator in South Africa. The company, Umbono, a Zulu word for “vision” or “idea”, is to be based in Cape Town with the aim to support web- and mobile-based startups by offering them finances, local connections, offices, tutorials and mentorship, access to seed capital and angel investors.

The original design had the SEW feed on it to give visitors information on the SEO industry, but after reading about the Panda update it was quickly removed. Social networking and social media, it seems,  is not only here to stay but has subtly been reinforced as best practice SEM.

# # #

V9 Design and Build has just launched SEO South Africa (http://www.seo-southafrica.com) to provide expert SEO services. We will endeavour to support the Umbono initiative, which we hope will be successfully rolled out.

Your Website Has Just 8 Seconds

By Neil Holley-Williams in Featured

Researchers have found that when people arrive at a website, at least 50% of them will leave that website within 8 seconds.

We know this because it’s worth a lot of money to huge corporations to know how people use the internet. They want to know what people like and dislike, and what they do and don’t do. These huge corporations have spent millions on research so that they can figure all this out.

All of this information is in the public domain and we can access it. The best bit is that the information these corporations have funded is just as valid for knowing how your website visitors behave.

To repeat, researchers have found that when people arrive at a website, on average 50% of them will leave that website within 8 seconds.

In other words, if your website doesn’t do something WITHIN 8 SECONDS to keep them there, at least 50% of them will leave. For you, it could even be 60% or 80%.

A Facebook Landing Page Engages New Visitors

By Emily Widle in Featured

If you have set up a Facebook page for your business and stopped there, you’re missing out on a big opportunity. You can – and should – create a landing page for first-time visitors to your company’s Facebook page. That landing page is a chance to welcome new people with an introduction to your business, and possibly even display a special offer that will turn them into fans.

Without a landing page, first-time visitors to your company’s page will likely see your wall first, with your latest status updates and fans’ comments. That’s not the easiest place for someone who doesn’t know your company to figure out who you are and what you do. Remember, engaging people on Facebook isn’t just about accumulating followers – it’s about becoming more visible on the Web and making more people aware of your brand.

Below you’ll find some examples of great Facebook landing pages. When you’re ready to make a landing page for your company’s first-time visitors, get step-by-step instructions from our companion article, How To Create a Facebook Landing Page.

Turn First-Time Visitors into Fans

Some companies use their Facebook landing page to entice new visitors into “liking” the company’s page. (Clicking “like” on a page has replaced becoming a “fan” of a page.) Once someone has “liked” a page, they’ll get notifications in their news feed whenever the company updates its status, enticing them to keep coming back.

It only gets better. Friends of someone who has “liked” a company’s page will see the “like,” and at least a few of them will be curious enough to check the page out.

The screenshots here show Red Bull’s Facebook landing page and its wall. Notice the custom design on the landing page, and how effectively it creates an alluring invitation for new visitors.

You can start brainstorming a good landing page for your business by checking out these examples of fantastic landing pages:

1. Heinz Ketchup communicates a great deal of information on its landing page, titled “Ketchup Love.” The page introduces visitors to the company’s latest packaging innovation, invites them to sign up for an e-mail newsletter, and displays customer comments.

First-time visitors get a great introduction to the Heinz Ketchup brand, along with several invitations to engage more deeply by clicking for more information or to sign up. Notice the abundant images on the page that draw the eye to different types of information.

2. Starbucks uses its Facebook landing page to promote its gift cards by showing Facebook members how easily they can give their friends the gift of Starbucks credit through Facebook itself. First-time visitors to the Starbucks page are invited to purchase a gift card or manage a card they already own.

This landing page is a great example of how to promote a specific offer on a Facebook landing page. It’s also a great example of how to sell on Facebook. By promoting the idea of prepaid cards as gifts, Starbucks is pulling people into making impulse purchases while they’re catching up with their friends on Facebook.

3. Toyota’s Facebook landing page is all about brand image. Toyota launched its “Auto-Biography” campaign on Facebook in July 2010. The campaign seems designed to counter the blow to Toyota’s reputation after the carmaker recalled more 8 million vehicles in 2009 and 2010.

This Facebook landing page highlights personal stories contributed by loyal Toyota owners, and encourages more people to share their own stories of how their Toyota vehicles fit into their lives. The Auto-Biography campaign is clearly intended to create a warm sense of community among loyal Toyota owner, and re-create positive associations with the Toyota brand.

Now that you’ve seen a few great examples of Facebook landing pages, you’ve probably got a good idea of what you could do for your own company’s page. Our step-by-step guide, How To Create a Facebook Landing Page, will help you set up a page that will entice more visitors to “like” and follow your company on Facebook, and drive more visitors to your website.

Note: This only works for people who don’t like your page already and see this for a non-html solution.

---

Check out how your home page looks to search engines and people with the free Home Page Analysis. Want a deeper look at all your site’s pages? Try an AboutUs Site Report.

This article, originally published at AboutUs.org, was contributed by Emily Widle of PegasusLighting.com (visit).

Emily is the e-commerce marketing specialist at PegasusLighting (visit), where she focuses on search engine optimization and writes for the company’s lighting blog. Emily set up the landing page for Pegasus Lighting’s Facebook page.

10 Internet Marketing Questions Newbies Ask Most Often

By David Jackson in Featured

I’m an active member of several Internet Marketing/Small Business Forums, and without fail, every time a newbie joins a forum, they invariably ask the same 10 questions you see listed below. Even though I’ve answered these questions many times in the past, my answers are scattered across several forums. Because of that fact, I decided to write an article that answered those recurring 10 questions all at the same time, all in one place.

Newbies, are you paying attention? Here are the answers to the 10 questions you ask most often:

1. How do I get traffic to my website?

Answer: There are a variety of ways to get traffic to your website. The best long term solution, of course, is to properly optimize your website so that you get organic traffic – meaning traffic from search engines. The best way to achieve this is to make sure your site has plenty of quality, relevant, keyword-optimized content that visitors will want to link to, such as articles, interviews, e-books, videos, podcasts, reviews, etc.

In the short term, you can use paid methods like pay-per-click, ezine advertising or text advertising. Or, you can utilize free social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Or better yet, use a combination of all of the above methods.

2. How many click-thru’s before I make any sales?

Answer: Assuming your traffic quality is good and you have all your ducks in a row, according to conventional wisdom, you should start making sales after you’ve had 100 click-thru’s. I happen to disagree with conventional wisdom. Let me explain why.

Even though you could make make a few sales after you’ve had 100 click-thru’s or less, I’ve seen many instances where marketers still hadn’t made any sales after 500 click-thru’s. That’s why I always tell marketers, wait until you’ve had a minimum of 1000-2000 click-thru’s before you start panicking. Because it’s very possible, you might not get a single sale in the first 100-500 click-thru’s.

But in the next 100-500 click-thru’s, you could get 10 sales. That’s marketing. You just never know in which batch of hundreds those sales are going to be in. Again, assuming your traffic quality is good and you have all your ducks in a row.

3. What’s the best marketing method?

Answer: There is no best marketing method. They all work, provided, they are all executed properly. The best marketing method is the one that works best for you. The main thing is not to fall into the trap of jumping from method to method like so many marketers do. You have to be disciplined enough to be patient. You have to give whatever method(s) you’re using a reasonable chance to work. Then, when you find something that works, milk it to the point of diminishing returns.

4. Why isn’t anyone responding to my advertising?

Answer: Assuming once again, you have all your ducks in a row, according to The Rule of 7, on average, people have to see your ad a minimum of seven times, before they act on it. Does that mean people will automatically buy what you’re offering after they’ve seen your ad seven times? No it doesn’t.

Again, it’s just an average. It could be more than seven, but it could also be less. The fact of the matter is there are far too many variables involved to suggest that after people see your ad seven times, they will automatically whip out their credit card, and purchase what you’re offering – not the least of which is traffic quality, competency of your sales copy, and the viability of the item being offered.

5. What should I sell online?

Answer: Everyone has a talent. So, why not turn your talent into a product or service and sell it? For example, let’s suppose you’re an above average fisherman. You could write an e-book instructing others how to fish. Or, perhaps you’re an expert at utilizing social media. You could start your own social media consulting service.

Another option is to join an affiliate program and sell other people’s products for a commission.

6. What are the best free places to advertise?

Answer: I’ve had amazing success with forums. While you can’t blatantly advertise on forums, you are allowed to promote your website in your signature file. What’s a signature file? In essence, a sig file is a classified advertisement you write about your business that is automatically attached to every forum post you make.

The social networking sites I mentioned previously are also very effective. In addition, if you have above average knowledge of a particular topic, question and answer sites like Yahoo Answers and AllExperts are also a good option.

7. Should I join a traffic exchange program?

Answer: No. In my opinion, those programs aren’t worth your time or money. Oh sure, you’ll get plenty of traffic to be sure. But it’s garbage traffic plain and simple. And as the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out!” That being said, some marketers have successfully built subscriber lists using those programs. But I still think your efforts are better spent elsewhere. Same thing goes for free classifieds. For the negligible amount of return, I think your efforts are better spent elsewhere.

8. How long before I start making money online?

Answer: That question is impossible to answer because there are far too many variables involved such as talent, work habits, organizational skills and level of determination. And while I’ve seen individuals come online and make alot money very quickly, I also know of individuals who have been trying for months, who have yet to make a dime.

9. Do I need a website to sell online?

Answer: The answer to that questions is, it depends on what your goal is – what you are trying to accomplish. While you can definitely sell online and make money without a website (for example, affiliate programs). If you want to establish your own identity and sell your own products, you definitely need a website.

10. How much money can I make online?

Answer: See #8

---

David Jackson is a marketing consultant, and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com – Powerful, free marketing tips to help grow your business! free-marketing-tips-blog.com

Product Creation- Public Domain Versus PLR

By Nahid Ashby in Featured

I think one of the best ways to create your own ebook apart from writing your own is to use public domain or better still Private label rights or PLR.

In this article I will try and briefly explain the two and point out the pros and cons.

Public Domain books are works that were created and first published before 1st January 1923 or at least 95 years before January 1st of the current year, whichever is later.

In most cases works that are in public domain have no restrictions attached to them -this means you can use them anyway you want. This is because after so many years, the copyright has expired and the author is no longer around in most cases there are some exceptions of course with some of the famous works that came from the early 20th century like Dale Carnegie and the likes.

Statistically speaking, 15% of the books in the world today are either originated from public domain or are in public domain.

However, I want to warn you that although you can take a public domain book and put your name on it as the author and claim the content as your own, most of the information contained in these works from almost 100 years ago are likely to be obsolete.

The best and the safest bet is that you use public domain information in areas that are time tested like principles, self-improvement, and some food recipes because these will probably still be valid and workable today.

And I won’t neglect to mention that the command of English in those days was quite different than it is today so you really need to do a lot of editing and rendering to bring it up to date.

There are many places where you can find public domain material, but the most famous is www.gutenberg.org.

Private Label Rights are basically pre-made content that you can purchase at reasonable price and use to create your own product. This is becoming increasingly popular in the Internet Marketing arena. Just like public domain, you can put your name as the author and edit the contents.

When you compare private label rights to public domain, I would say PLR is somewhat easier to handle because it’s a relatively new concept and this means that the contents are much more up to date and written by contemporary authors or ghost writers.

For example there are a lot of PLR books on things that we use in our everyday lives like the Internet and popular items like iPhone, and topics such as how to use technology, also on gadgets and that kind of stuff which we cannot find in public domains.

Just to let you know, pre-made content whether it’s public domain or PLR, does not have to be limited to written content. So it’s not just about E-books and articles. Any kind of works that are in public domain including music, images, and even audio for the matter are also content that you can actually use. And today, just like public domain, private label rights are not just limited to E-books or articles. You can also get PLR software, PLR audios and videos. I hope this helps you get a jump start with your content creation empire.

---

If you like this article you’ll love what you’ll find on yourimsuccessacademy.com . Go there now and claim your free gift

Web Design Tips – 10 Common Mistakes To Avoid

By Monika Ruthe in Featured

When visiting websites you know that not all websites are equally attractive. Good web design is not really difficult but there are a few things you should avoid if you want to create user-friendly websites. The 10 most common mistakes inexperienced web designers make are:

1. Technology for technology’s sake

It’s very nice to play with new toys, but your website is not a suitable playing field. Visitors to your website are interested in content, not whether you have Brand X Version N of flashy stuff on your website. Keep things simple. Use tried and trusted technology, not web tools that require the user to download special add-ons just to view your website. They won’t.

2. Using frames for page layout

Frames are a cop-out. They are easy for the designer, that’s why they are used so often. But they have a stack of disadvantages from the user’s point of view – and it is the user that we need to cherish, not the designer. The biggest problem is that the back button becomes unpredictable. You can’t bookmark the current page and come back to it – you will be returned to another version of the frameset. It’s also difficult for the user to know when to scroll, because different bits of the page have their own scroll bars.

3. Scrolling, blinking and animations

Moving images are distracting. Don’t use them. Visitors want to be able to read and digest what you are saying on your website. They don’t want the text to be bouncing around or flashing on and off before their eyes.

4. Color clashes

Yes there are 256 different colors you can use for text and background, but that doesn’t mean you have to use all of them. Nor does it mean that you should use color combinations that give your visitors eye-strain. Choose color combinations that provide a good contrast – dark on light is easier to read than light on dark.

5. Where am I ?

All pages must have a clear indication of which website they belong to, either in the browser window or on the web page itself. This is to help users who come to pages directly without coming in via the home page. For the same reason, every page should have a link to the home page as well as some indication of where they fit within the structure of your website.

6. Long scrolling pages

It’s best to avoid pages that have several screens full of content. Users will only scroll if they believe that there is something useful further down the page. If you really can’t split the page up, then at least provide content and navigation options on the top part of the page.

7. Lack of signposts

Your users won’t know their way around your site like you do. Provide a clear idea of structure and place. Use a menu bar or column in the same place on every page. If you have more than two levels of page hierarchy, provide a site map and search function as well.

8. Non-standard link colors

It has become conventional for links to pages that have not been visited by the user to be blue, and links to previously seen pages to be purple. Don’t invent your own color codes, you will only confuse visitors to your site.

9. Long download times

In our increasingly “time poor” society, people are getting more and more impatient, and when websites take too long to load, they will go somewhere else and probably won’t come back to you. So do everything you can to reduce download times. When designing your website, consider reducing the number of images on each page, and definitely reduce the size of the image files.

10. Outdated information

Nothing is worse than a website that advertises an event that has already passed its date, or a product that has already sold out. Have a plan to review and modify your site on a regular basis. When designing your website, identify pages that are date sensitive and remove or amend them as soon as that date has been reached.

Avoiding the design flaws highlighted above will enable you to create appealing websites that visitors will find easy to use.

---

M. Ruthe runs a website design for small businesses and has developed an online information resource for aspiring website designers. For more information on various aspects of website design visit www.bedfordwebsitedesign.com

Designing for SEO – A SPN Exclusive Article

By Rand Kramer in Featured

Is it possible to design a great looking website and achieve a high level of search engine optimization (SEO)? It sure is and we see evidence of this all over the web, as well as in mobile platforms. In recent years the heavy emphasis on web standards has enabled designers to develop more creative, engaging interface designs without compromising SEO goals. Effective SEO is no longer a mystifying goal that only trained SEO consultants can achieve. Think of the combination of good SEO and quality design as just sound site development. To dig in further, this article takes a closer look at how to achieve both without having to sacrifice design principles or effective SEO.

Lessons from the Design Studio

Here are some things to think about well before, and during, the design process:

1. When setting up a page structure and composition, designers tend to start with a specific defined grid system. Designers look at the grid as a foundation for positioning elements on the page. You should take it a step further by considering how the grid can support elements for SEO. Not only where images and text will be placed on the page, but also setting up a clear hierarchy of information, logical page titles and text links, headings and sub heads. This approach not only supports users’ browsing behavior but also makes it easier for search engine spiders to move throughout the site.

Website Design Tips: Image Sizing – Why Big Isn’t Best

By Monika Ruthe in Featured

When you are designing a website, also think about the photos or “images” you want to include. Images in this context means diagrams and drawings as well as standard photos. All of them are held in a digital format on your computer and saved as such on the web server. Be aware of certain pitfalls in their use as this will make all the difference for visitors to your website.

Size matters

Images or photos come in all shapes and sizes. As digital cameras have advanced, the available camera size has soared from barely 1 mega-pixel to 10 or 12 or more mega-pixels, with a consequent increase in the photo size. You may have experienced what happens when a friend emails you a photo taken on their nice new camera. The attachment can be huge, and takes forever to download, even on broadband. Now imagine what would happen if you put that photo on your website – exactly the same: it would take ages for the image to be downloaded by the browser.

What you have to do is “re-size” the photo, using your photo-editing software. It’s an easy thing to do: open up the photo-editor and the photo you want to re-size, and click the menu button marked “image” (this is how most editors label it). What you have to do is change the horizontal width to a number of pixels that fits inside your web page. So if you have decided on a page width of 1,000 pixels, a photo size of 250 pixels would be one-quarter of the page width. Let the photo-editor work out the corresponding vertical length for you automatically, so apply the option to “maintain aspect ratio” or similar wording.

When you save the image, you will be given the option of saving it in different resolutions or qualities, from low resolution to high resolution. Unless you are building an “arty” website, low resolution will be quite adequate. Some photo editors actually give you a specific option to save at a suitable resolution for websites.

Finally, use “save-as” with a different file name rather than just “save” so that you don’t overwrite the original version.

Help the browser

When you include the image in your web page, you will have a line of HTML code looking something like this: img src=”mynewphoto.jpg” alt=”Words for Photo” height=”125″ width=”250″

It’s important to provide the height and width data. You can make a note of these values from when you re-sized the photo. By providing the data you are helping the browser allocate that amount of space on the page, and process the remaining HTML while the image is being downloaded.

If you don’t specify these values, older browsers will stop formatting text, download the image, check its dimensions, make room for the image and then start formatting text again.

If you follow these tips when designing a website, you will speed up the download time for your web pages, which will make it better for visitors to your website.

---

M. Ruthe runs a website design service for small businesses and has developed an online information resource for aspiring web designers. For further information on various aspects of website design visit www.bedfordwebsitedesign.com

Web Marketers – Are You Liable For Your Affiliates’ Trademark Infringement With Keyword Ads?

By Chip Cooper in Featured

You’re an online retailer, and you’ve got a network of affiliates that are committed to selling your products. You expect that your affiliates will engage in online advertising to generate sales. Some of your affiliates will purchase keywords for sponsored ads from major search engines including Google and Bing, and some of these keywords may be trademarks of your competitors.

The purchase of a competitor’s trademark as a keyword is likely to result in litigation. Do your affiliates’ purchases of a competitor’s trademark for sponsored ads amount to trademark infringement? And if so, will you be held liable for your affiliates’ trademark infringement?

Keyword Ad Litigation Trends

The practice of selling and purchasing keyword ads that contain competitors’ trademarks continues to be hotly litigated. To date, most of the lawsuits filed by trademark owners has been aimed at the sellers of the keyword ads – the major search engines, primarily Google.

The current trend of the law seems to be that neither the sale of keyword ads using trademarks (by search engines) or the purchase of these keyword ads (by advertisers) is inherently infringing by itself. The focus now seems to be shifting from the sale and purchase of the keyword ads to the precise wording of the ads generated by the keywords.

To date, there has been little if any guidance from court decisions regarding whether online retailers can be legally liable for keyword ad buys by their affiliates – that is, until the recent case of 1-800 Contacts v. Lens.com decided by a Utah U.S. District Court.

1-800 Contacts v. Lens.com

1-800 Contacts sued Lens.com for trademark infringement based on purchases by Lens.com and its affiliates of sponsored ads that contained 1-800 Contacts trademarks and variations of them.

The Court ruled that Lens.com was not liable for trademark infringement for its purchase of the keyword ads stating “…that the mere purchase of a trademark as a keyword cannot alone result in consumer confusion”. Also, the court noted that Lens.com had not used 1-800 Contacts’ exact trademark, only variations of it.

After dismissing 1-800 Contacts’ claim against Lens.com for Lens.com’s purchases of keyword ads and the wording of the ads the keywords generated, the court turned its attention to the issue of whether Lens.com was liable for its affiliates’ purchases of keywords ads. In its analysis of this issue, the court addressed:

* whether the keyword ads purchased by affiliates were infringing, and

* if so, whether the infringement by affiliates could be used to nail Lens.com.

Regarding the first question, the court focused on “…not just what keyword was purchased, but what was the language of the advertisement generated by that keyword”. The court ruled that some of the affiliates went too far in their ad copy because they used the exact 1-800 Contacts trademark. This caused a “strong likelihood of confusion” and therefore infringement.

Regarding the second question, the court ruled that the actions of Lens.com’s affiliates could not be imputed to Lens.com because Lens.com used the Commission Junction affiliate network to acquire its affiliates, and for this reason Lens.com didn’t know who most of the affiliates were and had little direct contact with them. The court noted that Lens.com had nothing more than “general information”
of its affiliates and their activities, and ruled that Lens.com therefore cannot be charged with contributory infringement because Lens.com had no actual knowledge or willful blindness based on that information.

Conclusion

The 1-800 Contacts v. Lens.com case is important for keyword ad cases for at least two reasons:

* the court made it clear that it’s about the ad copy, not the ad buy, and

* online retailers won’t be automatically be held liable for infringing ads placed by their affiliates; the result will depend largely on what information the retailer had regarding the identities of the infringing affiliates and their activities, and what it did (or didn’t do) with that information.

Although this case is not the last word on the issue of a retailer’s liability for keyword ads placed by their affiliates, it does provide some guidance regarding where this emerging trend will lead us in the future.

---

Leading Internet, IP and software lawyer Chip Cooper has automated the process of drafting your SaaS agreement. Use his free online tool — Website Contracts Determinator — to determine which documents your website really needs for website legal compliance. Discover how quick, easy, and cost-effective it is to draft your SaaS agreement at http://digicontracts.com/.

Is Page Rank Still the Key to Good Link Building?

By Alex Johnson in Featured

Ever since the dawn of Google there has been a single constant of SEO and that is that we must build links. Quite simply, when you put all the other minutiae aside, links are what make the difference between a #1 ranking and search engine obscurity.

Naturally, then, when Google first pioneered this thing that we call “Page Rank,” the world of SEO quickly adopted it as the litmus against which all potential link prospects should be measured…

Today

The thing is, Google has gotten a little more sophisticated these days. Links still matter, no doubt about it, but how much each link matters has become a complex thing indeed. So, the question arises then: Is page rank still the best thing to consider when doing your own link building? I say perhaps not.

The Dreaded Panda

If you know anything at all about SEO then I will assume you have heard of the recent “Panda Update.” In simple terms Google has declared a new effort in the war against spam.

Video: http://videos.sitepronews.com/video/4652/Google-FarmerPanda-Update-Whitelists

Content farms are the primary targets, and for this reason, many big sites with less than great content have been slapped back down the rankings. But the real casualties as far as I can see are not restricted just to these “farmers”…

For every content farm that’s been all but eradicated from the index, there are probably hundreds or even thousands of links which effectively don’t even count anymore.

That’s right, if you have been overdoing it on the article submissions etc… there’s a good chance that many of your links are almost worthless now. It’s the link builders equivalent of a stock market crash.

What Google Wants

The simplest way to figure out what Google really looks for in a link is to think about what Google wants to achieve. After all, as Matt Cutts put it in one of his videos on webmaster help:

“Webmasters should be chasing after what the user wants (rather than just chasing the algorithm).”

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdmzKzuXurY

The Ideal Scenario

What Google really dreams of (I wonder if it has started to dream
yet…?) is that we, as web masters, simply focus on building better sites and focusing our marketing efforts on our users and not on what the algorithm wants.

Logically then, Google is going to try to single out the pages which are popular with the humans who are viewing them. As a corollary to this, wouldn’t it make sense that Google would also care more about links which are more important to the user too?

So if not page rank…

How can you tell then which links you should and shouldn’t bother with? If you can’t chase after that old idol of page rank, then what should you look for in a link?

The answer is simple: Imagine for a minute that Google didn’t exist (scary thought right?), and for that matter search engines in general were unheard of… How are you going to get free traffic to your website now?

That’s right, logically, shouldn’t the most important links be the ones which you would build even if you didn’t care about SEO? i.e. the ones which will bring you the most traffic?

Summary

Link building has been heading this way for a while, and OK we’re not quite there yet, but logically; if a link gets you oodles of relevant traffic, that has to be considered a good link right?

Let’s stop chasing this silly algorithm and adding more and more useless content and poor quality links to the internet. Let’s start focusing on getting more traffic and happier users – Google is bound to catch up with us before too long!

---

This guest post was written by Alex from WhoIsHostingThis.com. Alex is an SEO fanatic, a coder and all round tech geek. Come visit our site for hosting reviews and other webmaster tips and tools.

© Copyright 2012 All rights reserved. Jayde Online, Inc.

Home Newsletter Archives SEO Forums Webmaster Tools Webmaster Resources Link to SPN Top SEO Tools Website Templates SPN Partners Contact Us Privacy Advertise

ExactSeek SiteProNews MetaWebSearch SPN Videos EzineHub ISEDN DropJack NewWebDirectory.com SEO-News SEO-News Forums Blog Search FreeWebSubmission SmartWebGadgets