What I Learned from Marshall Simmonds
| Category: Search engines - Optimisation | Date: 2003-06-12 |
One of the most popular online destinations today is About.com. Its slogan these days is "The Human Internet." Wouldnt you know it, though; until recently these humans were being foiled by a bunch of robots. Search engine spiders werent giving the rich content created by Abouts human guides the time of day.
Enter Marshall Simmonds, search engine optimization guru, and now Manager of Search Engine Relations for About. His job: get those search engines to send more traffic to all that great content! Simmonds task was a daunting one, but on the other hand, it must have been a dream assignment for someone with his talents.
About sites are set up as more or less independent web sites under the direction of their Guides. Optimizing Abouts vast content - 860,000 pages - is far different from making sure the web site for a single company such as Mitsubishi, Ford, or Intel makes it into the search engines. Simmonds job would be to work with all 750+ About.com Guides to ensure that they began to work on optimizing their sites to get the placements they often richly deserve.
So far, his efforts have been successful. Many of his charges have seen their search engine traffic double or even quadruple after the initial optimization effort.
You likely have two questions: (1) does this apply to me, as a "guerrilla marketer" without the advantages or clout of a big company? and (2) what are the tricks of Marshall Simmonds trade?
(1) YOU HAVE THE ADVANTAGE, FOR NOW.
First things first. The answer is YES, in fact you may have the advantage over a larger company in that there is no cumbersome process of needing to persuade design teams and corporate executives that search engine optimization is worth the time.
"Theres sometimes a naive attitude" on the part of larger companies, argues Simmonds, "that we own this online space".
A site like the Nike site - to use one example - may tend to have poor rankings at Google, in part because Google rewards sites for linking to related resources. Linking out to other sites is something that many corporations are reluctant to do, but this is precisely what many have come to expect from the Internet: a resource to go along with a product pitch.
Many larger companies arent receptive to the needs of basic search engine optimization. After all, getting the free traffic that comes to a site from search engines like Hotbot and Altavista is in the realm of guerrilla marketing, something that some blue chip firms may see as beneath them. Until, of course, they see some small-time vendors product listed first in "their" category.
Chris Sherman, the About Guide to Web Search, is a bit more vocal in his indictment of many top-tier firms for their lack of effort on the search engine optimization front. Site design, the experts will tell you, needs to build in search engine friendliness from the beginning. Designers may be insufficiently cognizant of the main purpose of a site - for most companies, its a marketing tool - and create pages that are unindexable, or will rank so poorly that they are almost invisible. "Im talking about basic blocking and tackling," says Sherman. "Optimizing for maximum ranking is an order of magnitude beyond what most companies should be doing as just a bare minimum, but much to their detriment, simply arent doing at all."
(2) SO WHAT STEPS DO I NEED TO TAKE?
Are *you* doing this "basic blocking and tackling?" What are the keys? Simmonds says these things are common sense. In fact, many webmasters and business owners ignore these basics (including yours truly from time to time), so theyre far from "common."
* Optimization for search engines is a page-by page, not whole site, process
* Dynamic content and other no-nos need to be avoided or managed to ensure that you dont trip up the robots
* Pay attention to the title of each page: is it full of appropriate keywords?
* Meta tags need to contain appropriate keywords, and descriptions should also contain keywords without being too long
* Content, especially first paragraph and subject headings, should contain keywords
* Optimize first, submit second
* Submitting too often might have no impact and may in fact get you banned - if your pages are optimized, the spiders will generally find you without a need to submit constantly
* Make sure your meta tags are different for every page, if possible. The same meta tags on every page wont get you as much traffic and may be perceived as a mild form of spam by the engines
* For Google, ensure that other reputable sites link to you. Dont forget to link out to other sites. In Googles case selfishness may not pay as it can rank you high for pointing to relevant resources in your field. Remember, Google is Yahoos spider partner now, not Inktomi, so learn everything you can about Google!
To boil this down: start with the TITLE and work page by page. Dont have much content? Find some! (We like to share our content with sites which need articles. Ask us if you want some!)
At first, you may have to hold off on submitting your pages to search engines as you normally do, as you work through your site to make it search engine friendly. After an initial dropoff in traffic, youll likely see significant increases in traffic on new keyword combos that werent finding you before. Remember, spamming the engines no longer works. Being careful and sincere will be much more effective in the long run.
For the time being at least, the guerrilla marketing advantage accrues to the smaller webmaster who is willing to learn how to create search-engine-friendly pages. While Intel fiddles, the little guy optimizes. Enjoy it while it lasts.
About the Author
Andrew Goodman is Editor of Traffick, the Guide to Portals.
Stay in touch with the trends. Sign up for the Traffick Monthly by sending a blank email to traffick-subscribe@topica.com.
This article provided by the InfoZone Archives at: http://www.MakingProfit.com
editor@traffick.com
http://www.traffick.com
Enter Marshall Simmonds, search engine optimization guru, and now Manager of Search Engine Relations for About. His job: get those search engines to send more traffic to all that great content! Simmonds task was a daunting one, but on the other hand, it must have been a dream assignment for someone with his talents.
About sites are set up as more or less independent web sites under the direction of their Guides. Optimizing Abouts vast content - 860,000 pages - is far different from making sure the web site for a single company such as Mitsubishi, Ford, or Intel makes it into the search engines. Simmonds job would be to work with all 750+ About.com Guides to ensure that they began to work on optimizing their sites to get the placements they often richly deserve.
So far, his efforts have been successful. Many of his charges have seen their search engine traffic double or even quadruple after the initial optimization effort.
You likely have two questions: (1) does this apply to me, as a "guerrilla marketer" without the advantages or clout of a big company? and (2) what are the tricks of Marshall Simmonds trade?
(1) YOU HAVE THE ADVANTAGE, FOR NOW.
First things first. The answer is YES, in fact you may have the advantage over a larger company in that there is no cumbersome process of needing to persuade design teams and corporate executives that search engine optimization is worth the time.
"Theres sometimes a naive attitude" on the part of larger companies, argues Simmonds, "that we own this online space".
A site like the Nike site - to use one example - may tend to have poor rankings at Google, in part because Google rewards sites for linking to related resources. Linking out to other sites is something that many corporations are reluctant to do, but this is precisely what many have come to expect from the Internet: a resource to go along with a product pitch.
Many larger companies arent receptive to the needs of basic search engine optimization. After all, getting the free traffic that comes to a site from search engines like Hotbot and Altavista is in the realm of guerrilla marketing, something that some blue chip firms may see as beneath them. Until, of course, they see some small-time vendors product listed first in "their" category.
Chris Sherman, the About Guide to Web Search, is a bit more vocal in his indictment of many top-tier firms for their lack of effort on the search engine optimization front. Site design, the experts will tell you, needs to build in search engine friendliness from the beginning. Designers may be insufficiently cognizant of the main purpose of a site - for most companies, its a marketing tool - and create pages that are unindexable, or will rank so poorly that they are almost invisible. "Im talking about basic blocking and tackling," says Sherman. "Optimizing for maximum ranking is an order of magnitude beyond what most companies should be doing as just a bare minimum, but much to their detriment, simply arent doing at all."
(2) SO WHAT STEPS DO I NEED TO TAKE?
Are *you* doing this "basic blocking and tackling?" What are the keys? Simmonds says these things are common sense. In fact, many webmasters and business owners ignore these basics (including yours truly from time to time), so theyre far from "common."
* Optimization for search engines is a page-by page, not whole site, process
* Dynamic content and other no-nos need to be avoided or managed to ensure that you dont trip up the robots
* Pay attention to the title of each page: is it full of appropriate keywords?
* Meta tags need to contain appropriate keywords, and descriptions should also contain keywords without being too long
* Content, especially first paragraph and subject headings, should contain keywords
* Optimize first, submit second
* Submitting too often might have no impact and may in fact get you banned - if your pages are optimized, the spiders will generally find you without a need to submit constantly
* Make sure your meta tags are different for every page, if possible. The same meta tags on every page wont get you as much traffic and may be perceived as a mild form of spam by the engines
* For Google, ensure that other reputable sites link to you. Dont forget to link out to other sites. In Googles case selfishness may not pay as it can rank you high for pointing to relevant resources in your field. Remember, Google is Yahoos spider partner now, not Inktomi, so learn everything you can about Google!
To boil this down: start with the TITLE and work page by page. Dont have much content? Find some! (We like to share our content with sites which need articles. Ask us if you want some!)
At first, you may have to hold off on submitting your pages to search engines as you normally do, as you work through your site to make it search engine friendly. After an initial dropoff in traffic, youll likely see significant increases in traffic on new keyword combos that werent finding you before. Remember, spamming the engines no longer works. Being careful and sincere will be much more effective in the long run.
For the time being at least, the guerrilla marketing advantage accrues to the smaller webmaster who is willing to learn how to create search-engine-friendly pages. While Intel fiddles, the little guy optimizes. Enjoy it while it lasts.
About the Author
Andrew Goodman is Editor of Traffick, the Guide to Portals.
Stay in touch with the trends. Sign up for the Traffick Monthly by sending a blank email to traffick-subscribe@topica.com.
This article provided by the InfoZone Archives at: http://www.MakingProfit.com
editor@traffick.com
http://www.traffick.com
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