Marketing Through Search Optimization This page intentionally left blank Marketing Through Search Optimization How people search and how to be found on the Web Second edition Alex Michael and Ben Salter AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK • OXFORD PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA First edition 2003 Second edition 2008 Copyright © 2008, Alex Michael and Ben Salter Published by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved The right of Alex Michael and Ben Salter to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) (0) 1865 843830; fax: (+44) (0) 1865 853333; email: permissions@elsevier.com Alternatively you can submit your request online by visiting the Elsevier web site at http://elsevier.com/locate/permissions, and selecting Obtaining permission to use Elsevier material Notice No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2007932103 ISBN: 978-0-7506-8347-0 For information on all Butterworth-Heinemann publications visit our web site at http://books.elsevier.com Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt Ltd., Pondicherry, India www.integra-india.com Printed and bound in Slovenia 08 09 10 11 12 10 Working together to grow libraries in developing countries www.elsevier.com | www.bookaid.org | www.sabre.org Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction xi Chapter 1: Introduction to search engine optimization The history of search engines on the Web Why people search? Finding out what people search for So what’s so great about being ranked highly? Should you use an SEO consultancy or it yourself? White hat or black hat SEO? Natural traffic In conclusion 1 11 12 13 15 17 17 Chapter 2: How people search Power searching Personalization Mobile search Social Media Optimization Weblogs 19 19 22 23 26 27 Chapter 3: Linking strategies and free listings Free mass submission services – they work? Free submission to major search engines Building links Increasing your link factor Publishing an article Building links to improve your search engine ranking Automated link-building software – beware 29 29 31 31 32 36 36 41 v Contents Free-for-all links – a warning Business directories Which method should I use? Weblog linking strategies In conclusion 41 42 43 44 45 Chapter 4: Web crawlers and directories Web crawlers The root page advantage Submitting to the major search engines Directories 49 49 54 55 56 Chapter 5: Traffic and keyword tracking How to research keywords for your website Keywords’ page placement Keyword research tools Copywriting for search engine optimization Web traffic tracking and analysis SEO software 69 69 70 74 74 75 80 Chapter 6: The mobile Internet The wireless revolution Understanding the wireless world Wireless technologies Why have a WAP search engine? 89 89 98 101 107 Chapter 7: Page design and page architecture Placement tips and page architecture Entry pages Site map Help your target audiences META tags Make your site useful Search engines and dynamic pages In conclusion 109 109 110 111 112 112 126 129 130 Chapter 8: Building an effective WAP site WAP and the mobile Internet The WAP system Mobile Internet design guidelines Top tips for WAP The XHTML Basic 133 133 135 136 137 142 vi Contents Wireless Mark-up Language WAP site developer tips Top WAP sites The long-term future of WAP 143 144 147 147 Chapter 9: Pay per click Ad service functionality Keywords and pay-per-click terms Ad targeting and optimization Categories 149 151 151 157 157 Chapter 10: Pay-per-click strategies Google AdWords pay-per-click strategies 167 168 Appendix A: Appendix B: W3C Mobile Web Best Practices Glossary of terms 179 219 Index 229 vii This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements We would both like to thank Sprite Interactive Ltd for their support with this book ix Marketing Through Search Optimization Frames: This is the HTML technique that creates a static area on a web page, usually containing navigation buttons and a title bar Frames can cause problems for search engine optimization, as they restrict the ability of some crawlers to index the site Gateway domain names: A domain name the purpose of which is to direct traffic to a main site Gateway pages: These pages are also known as bridge pages or doorway pages, and are submitted to search engines separately from the main site They are used for a variety of reasons, such as to emphasize particular keywords or phrases or to target the optimization requirements of a specific search engine They can also be used as a way to submit a site that has database-driven pages or that uses Flash They can be viewed as being spam if used incorrectly, so should be prepared carefully Google: Now the most widely used search engine on the Web, found at www.google.com Heading tag: An HTML tag of six sizes It is possible that search engines rank a keyword higher if it appears in a larger heading Hidden text/tiny text: Placing coloured characters on the same-coloured background causes them to be hidden This technique was popular for a while to increase keyword coverage on a site, but has been identified now and is viewed as spam Hit: A request for a file on a web server If someone visits your page, it is a ‘hit’ on that page HotBot: Another popular and powerful search engine, located at www.hotbot.com HTML: HyperText Markup Language — the programming language of tag commands used in web pages, which web browsers read in order to present pages to a web user HTML link: A hyperlink within a web page HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol — the standard system to transfer data between a web server and a web browser Image map: A system of associating parts of an image with hyperlinks Pictures can be split into specific areas that then link to different pages on a site Inbound link: Links pointing to a website When a user arrives at a website from another site, that link is called an inbound link Indexer: The part of a search engine that is responsible for processing pages that a spider has visited It will store any pages in the searchable database 222 Appendix B: Glossary of terms Infoseek: An older but still popular search engine, found at www.infoseek.com and now owned by Disney and the Go.com group Inktomi: A search engine database of sites that just services other search engines, providing search results Inktomi provides more searches per search engine than any other site on the Internet, and can be found at www.inktomi.com Invisible web: The group of dynamic or large database sites and online documents that search engines will not index IP address: Whenever you connect to the Internet, you are giving a unique four-number Internet Protocol address (IP address) If your IP address stays the same from connection to connection you have a static IP address If it changes each time you connect, you have a dynamic IP address IP addresses let search engines know where you are coming from; they can then deliver customized content depending on your location (Yahoo! does this) IP delivery: The process of delivering customized content based upon the user’s IP address ISP: Internet Service Provider — the name designed by a Madison Avenue advertising and marketing firm for Internet point-of-access sellers Java: A computer language designed to be delivered from websites to a user’s browser Small programs written in Javascript can be run from within the browser window Javascript: A language embedded within HTML that is executed after a page of HTML has been transferred to a user’s browser, and adds extra functionality to a web page Keyword: A singular word or phrase that is typed into a search engine Mainly refers to popular words that relate to any one website Keyword density: A percentage measure of how many times a keyword is repeated within the text of a page — for example, if a page contains 100 words and 10 of those words are ‘house’, then ‘house’ is said to have a 10 per cent keyword density Linkage: A count of the number of links pointing (inbound links) at a website Many search engines, most notably Google, now count linkage in their algorithms Link farm: Otherwise known as free-for-all links These are places that allow anyone to add a link Link popularity: The term used to describe the number of hypertext links coming into a website from other websites Building link popularity is a great way to get a higher listing on many search engines Google is the most high profile engine to place a large emphasis on link popularity 223 Marketing Through Search Optimization Logger: A program that logs web page views LookSmart: One of the largest directories on the Internet, found at www.looksmart.com Lycos: A large search engine, found at www.lycos.com Metasearch: A process of searching several databases simultaneously and combining the results Metasearch engine: A type of search tool that conducts a search across a number of search engines and directories in one go; it does not hold its own index META tag: Author-generated HTML commands that are placed in the head section of an HTML document The META keywords and META description can affect a site’s listing on most major search engines The Robots META tag is used to control certain aspects of how a search engine indexes the page, and can stop a spider from indexing certain parts of it Mirror site: A duplicate copy of a website at a different address, which allows websites to spread their resources Search engines view the multiple duplicate pages of mirror sites as spamming Misspellings: The technique of making a spelling mistake in META keywords or META tags to catch search engine users who also misspell words when searching Multiple keyword tags: Using two or three keyword META tags to increase the relevancy of a page This technique is considered spam by most search engines, and should be avoided Obfuscation: The act of misrepresenting META tags or content The user is presented with a page that looks normal, but it is not the page submitted to search engines Open Directory Project: The Open Directory Project (ODP) is a site directory run by volunteer editors, and found at www.dmoz.org Optimization: Creating a page that is specifically intended to rank well at search engines Basics optimization includes keywords and a description paragraph, no frames, and making sure that keywords are repeated across the page (e.g in alt tags) Opt-in: A program that gives the user the choice of whether to participate Opt-out: Any program or process that requires a user to take action to stop being included in some action — e.g opt-out email lists Outbound link: A link that points away from your website Overture: A search engine that sells keywords via auctions, found at www.overture.com 224 Appendix B: Glossary of terms Page view: The number of times a page is viewed Perl: One of the main CGI programming languages, which has an easy-to-use syntax built from several common languages Pigeon ranking: Web searching in clusters — the name comes from the way pigeons scavenge for food Google uses this technique to index sites Pop-up: An ad that opens in a new browser window Portal: A once popular term to refer to a site that is an entry point to other sites on the Internet Portals are also known as online communities, and usually offer a range of services Yahoo! could be described as a portal Positioning: The position of the site’s entry in the results list returned by a search engine query PPC: Pay Per Click A pay-per-click search engine charges websites on a per-click basis Charges operate on an auction-style basis Proximity search: Defines how close words are together in any search query result Query: The act of typing search terms or keywords into a search engine in order to get a result A single search of the search engine’s database is called a query Ranking: In the context of search engines, it is the position of a site’s entry in a search engine results screen Reciprocal link: When two websites swap links so they point at each other Referrer: The address of the Web page from which a user came to another site Referrer strings can report where a visitor to your site has come from, and record what a user has typed into a search engine to get your site Refresh tag: The META refresh tag reloads a page at a set time Registration: The act of submitting a website to a directory for inclusion (such as registering with Yahoo!) Relevancy: The accuracy of results that a search engine returns Results page: A page at a search engine that displays the results of a search This is the page that appears after the user has typed a search query into the engine The order the results are presented in is called the rankings 225 Marketing Through Search Optimization Robot: In the context of search engines, robots are the programs that go out onto the Web and follow links to record web pages, which are then stored in the search engine’s database A spider is a type of robot robots.txt: A file in the root directory of a website that is used to control which pages spiders can access When a spider or robot connects to a website, it checks for the presence of a robot.txt ROI: Return On Investment In relation to search engine advertising, this refers to the amount of return in relation to the amount of money invested in a particular campaign This can be hard to measure in relation to search engine optimization Search engine: A web-based search tool that visits websites and records and indexes them to its database It then uses this database to provide results based on user queries Examples of search engines are Google and AltaVista Search engine marketing: SEM is the term used to describe the process of making a website visible on search engines and directories so that it will attract more visitors There are a number of different techniques, including site optimization, submission to directories and search engines, and the use of pay-per-click services Search engine optimization: SEO is the term used to describe the preparation of a website in order to improve its chances of being ranked highly in search engine listings Search terms: The words that are typed into a search engine search box Also called search words, keywords, and queries SEO: Search engine optimization, the act of preparing a website for search engine submission Server: A computer that is designed to provide information for clients’ computers Servers store documents, which are then supplied to the client computer Spamdexing: The submission of pages that have been modified in an unethical way to rank highly Techniques include submitting hundreds of different pages designed to rank high, or small invisible text to increase the keyword count of a page Spamming: See spamdexing A broad term mainly used to describe unsolicited junk email Spider: The main program used by search engines to retrieve web pages to include in their database (see Robot) Spidering: The process of a spider downloading a web page Most modern spiders download pages and store them raw in a database Different search engines use different custom spiders 226 Appendix B: Glossary of terms Static IP address: An IP address that remains the same each time a person logs on to the Internet Stop words: A stop word is a word that causes an indexer to stop indexing in the current procedure and something else — most commonly when an indexer encounters an Adult word Submission: The act of submitting a web page to a search engine, or a website to a directory Submission service: A service that will automatically submit your page or website to many search engines at once These were once popular, but many search engines now ban these types of services One that is still widely used is Submit It, part of Microsoft’s bCentral suite Theme engine: A theme engine is a search engine that indexes entire sites as one giant page Theme engines then use only the most relevant keywords found to determine your site’s theme By determining a theme, search engines hope to return more accurate results Title: The part of an HTML page that is displayed on a browser title line The text of a title is important, as it is the text displayed on the search results page as the link to that page Traffic: The number of visitors a website receives Unique user: A single individual website visitor Unique users are important, as these give an indication of success of a website If you have a high unique user count but a low hit count this means people are not staying on your site; the opposite would mean less people are visiting your site, but they are staying on it longer and looking at more pages Upload: The process of retrieving information from any computer is called downloading When one computer sends information to another, it is called uploading URL: Universal Resource Locator URLs form the basis of how we find websites; your URL is basically a web address, and by typing it into a web browser you will be taken to that page URL submission: The process of submitting a web page to search engines Yahoo!: One of the oldest site directories on the Internet, found at www.yahoo.com 227 This page intentionally left blank Index + symbol, 19 − symbol, 19 About.com, 42 Access log, 76 Active Server Pages (ASP), 130, 219 Activity cost per time unit analysis, 160–1 Ad inventory, 219 Ad services, 151 See also Pay per click (PPC) Adaptation, 186 assumptions about, 187 implementation model, 187 Adult words, 219 AdWords, See Google AdWords Affiliate, 219 lists, 66 Agent log, 79–80 Algorithm, 219 ALIWEB, 2–3 ALT tag, 219 ALT-texts, 71, 112 AltaVista, 5, 56, 219 free submission, 31 Amazon, 22, 55 America Online (AOL), Apache web server, 130, 219 Archie, Architext, Articles, publishing, 36 AsiaFocus, 125 Ask Jeeves, 5, 7, 219 See also Teoma ASP (Active Server Pages), 130, 219 Automated link-building software, 41 B2B, 219 B2C, 220 Bango.com, 24, 90 Banner ads, click-through rate, 161–2 BBS (Bulletin Board System), 220 Behavioral targeting, 157 Bhargava, Rohit, 26 Bidding managers, 86–7 Black hat techniques, 15–16 Blogger, 27 Blogrolls, 27 Blogs, 27–8 directories, 44–5 linking strategies, 44–5 BMW, 16, 127–8 Boolean search, 220 Brainstorming, 69–70, 153–5 Brand names, use in META tags, 123–4 lawsuits, 124–5 Bridge page, 220 Brookfield Communications Inc., 125 Business directories, 42 Caching, disabling, 146 Cascading style sheets (CSS), 112 Categories: additional, 61–2 multiple, 65 Open Directory, 64–5, 67–8 Yahoo!, 60 CGI (Common Gateway Interface), 220 CGI-BIN, 220 229 Index Click to call, 160 Click-through, 59, 220 Click-through rate (CTR), 161–2 Client, 220 Client Side adaptation, 187 Cloaking, 16, 220 Clustering, 220 Cold Fusion, 130 Content adaptation, 186 implementation model, 187 Content analysis, 82 Contextual targeting, 157 Conversion rate, 165, 170 Copywriting, 74–5 Cost per action (CPA), 163 effective (eCPA), 163 Cost per click (CPC), 164, 220 See also Pay per click (PPC) Cost per impression (CPI), 163 Cost per mille (CPM), 162 effective (eCPM), 162 Cost per thousand (CPT), 162 Counter, 220 CPC, See Cost per click Crawler, 220 Crawler-based search engines, xii, 49–56 dynamic pages and, 129–30 elements of, xii manual submission, 49 See also Specific search engines Creative optimization, 157 Cross linking, 220 Dead link, 220 Deep linking, 221 Deep submission tools, 85 Delivery context, 185–90 adaptation, 186–7 choice of user experience, 188 default delivery context (DDC), 188–90 establishing context, 187–8 One Web, 185–6 Description, 68 META description tag, 73, 115 Open Directory, 64–5 Yahoo!, 61 Device Independence Working Group (DIWG), 182 Dial through, 145–6 230 Digital tracker keyword suggestion, 74 DirectHit, Directories, xii, 3, 56–68, 221 blog directories, 44–5 business, 42 See also Specific directories Disabling caching, 146 Domain, 221 Domain names, 16, 128 doorway domain, 221 gateway domain names, 222 registration, 221 Doorway domain, 221 Doorway pages, 66, 127, 221 Downloading, 221 Dynamic pages, 129–30, 221 ECommerce reporting, 169 Effective cost per action (eCPA), 163 Effective cost per mille (eCPM), 162 Elnet Galaxy, EMB, 109 EMS (Enhanced Messaging System), 102 Emtage, Alan, Entry pages, 110–11, 221 Error log, 79, 221 Excite, 55, 221 Exclude command, 20 Ezines, 35 File Transfer Protocol (FTP), 1–2 Filo, David, 57 Flash content, 33 Flash Lite, 106 Format tags, 146 404 error, 219 Frames, 222 Free submission, 31 mass submission services, 29–30, 43 Free-for-all (FAA) listings, 84, 221 Free-for-all (FFA) links, 41–2, 43 Friendster, 25 Funnel, 176 visualization, 176 Gateway domain names, 222 Gateway pages, 222 Geocities, 57 Index GeoTargeting, 172–4 Global Positioning System (GPS), 94 GnuHoo, 62 Go.com, 4, 55, 56 Gomez, 169 Google, xii, 6, 12, 56, 113, 222 free submission, 31 Keyword Tool, 74, 151–2, 153 mobile search, 24, 107–8, 142–3 PageRank meter, 37–9 Pay-Per-Action, 160 penalty for not following guidelines, 16, 127–8 personalization, 22–3 power search commands, 20–1 submissions, 50–1 Google AdWords, 149, 168–77 Conversion Rate, 170 Keyword tool, 156 pay-per-click strategies, 168–77 Google Analytics, 168–9 average order value, 170 categories, 170 Conversion Rate, 170 ECommerce reporting, 169 end-to-end tracking, 177 funnel visualization, 176 GeoTargeting, 172–4 product overview, 170 product SKUs, 170 scheduled email exporting, 174 site overlay, 172 time to purchase, 171 total revenue, 169 transactions, 170 trend reporting, 176–7 user interface, 172 visitor segmentation, 175–6 visits to purchase, 170 Google Suggest, 156 Gopher servers, GoTo, Gray, Matthew, Guerilla marketing techniques, 33–4 Heading tag, 222 Headlines, 71 Hidden text, 16, 222 Hits, 76, 222 HotBot, 5, 222 HTML (HyperText Markup Language), 49, 222 checking, 129 links, 40, 129, 222 HTTP, 222 Human-powered directories, xii, i-mode, 105–6 business applications, 106 success of, 105–6 Image map, 222 In-Network adaptation, 187 Inbound link, 222 Index, xii Indexer, 222 Info search, 21 Infoseek, 4, 223 Inktomi Corporation, 5, 77, 223 Insituform, 124–5 Internet, 23–4 See also Mobile Internet; Mobile Web Best Practices Internet Promotions, 125 Internet Service Provider (ISP), 223 log files, See Log files Invisible web, 223 IP address, 223 static, 227 IP delivery, 223 ISP (Internet Service Provider), 223 J2ME, 106 Japan: i-mode, 105–6 Japanese model, 90–3 Java, 223 JavaScript, 125, 223 Jughead, JumpStation, Keynote, 169 Keyphrases, 126, 127 targeted, 153, 155–6 Keyword density, 109, 223 analysers, 83, 86 Keywords, 69, 223 bucketing, 164–5 META keywords tag, 73, 82, 116–17, 224 multiple keyword tags, 224 231 Index Keywords – continued page placement, 70–2 pay per click, 151–6 researching, 69–70, 74, 152–5 stuffing, 70 targeted, 153, 155–6 URLs, 73–4 Yahoo!, 59 See also Keyword density Koster, Martjin, Landing pages, 130 Link analysis, 6–7 Link exchange letter, 40 Link farm, 223 Link popularity, 223 Link search, 21 Linkage, 223 Linkedin, 25 Linking, 26–7, 31–2, 50 automated link-building software, 41 cross linking, 220 deep linking, 221 free-for-all (FFA) links, 41–2, 43 HTML hyperlinks, 129 improving your search engine ranking, 36–41 increasing your link factor, 32–5 link strategy, 45–7 weblog linking strategies, 44–5 Listing: Open Directory, 65–7 Yahoo!, 62 LiveJournal, 27 Location-based services (LBS), 94 location-based search, 24–5 Log files, 76–80 access log, 76 agent log, 79–80 error log, 79 referrer log, 77 Logger, 224 LookSmart, 7, 53, 56, 224 Lycos, 4, 55, 224 Magellan, 55 Mass submission services, 29–30, 43, 227 Match All command, 20 232 Match Any command, 20 Messaging, 101–5 MMS messaging, 93, 95, 102, 103–5 photo messaging, 95 SMS text messaging, 92, 95, 102–3 META tags, xiii–xiv, 49–50, 72–3, 112–25, 224 checking tools, 83, 86 descriptions, 73, 115 HTTP-EQUIV tags, 120 keywords, 71, 73, 82, 116–17, 224 lawsuits, 124–5 legal issues, 123–4 multiple keyword tags, 224 NAME attribute, 120–2 placement, 113 robots tag, 118–19 size of, 117–18 title tag, 114–15, 126 MetaCrawler, 5–6 Metadata, 113 Metasearch, 224 Metasearch engine, 224 Microsoft, 22 Mirror sites, 66, 224 Misspellings, 224 MMS Centre (MMSC), 104 MMS (multimedia messaging service), 93, 95, 102, 103–5 Mobile books, 94 Mobile Internet, 96–8, 101, 135 advantages, 185 advertising issues, 184 bandwidth and cost, 183 design guidelines, 136–7, 182–3 device limitations, 184 site developer tips, 144–6 user goals, 183–4 user input considerations, 141, 183 See also Mobile Web Best Practices; WAP Mobile phones, 89–108 application environments, 106 games, 95 gender gap, 94–5, 96 generations, 107 Japanese model, 90–3 mobile browsing, 89–90, 96 personalization, 90–1 photo messaging, 95 text messaging, 95 See also Mobile Internet; Wireless technology Index Mobile search, 23–5 location aware, 24–5 personalization, 24 reasons for, 107–8 See also Mobile Internet; WAP Mobile site submission, 52 Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), 99–101 business issues, 101 Mobile Web Best Practices, 179–217 conformance and mobileOK, 216–17 delivery context, 185–90 navigation and links, 193–8 overall behavior, 191–3 page definition, 203–14 page layout and content, 198–203 structure of Best Practice statements, 190 user input, 214–16 See also Mobile Internet; WAP MobileOK, 216–17 MSN Search, mobile search, 24 personalization, 22 Multisubmission tools, 85 MySpace, 25 National Envirotech, 124–5 Natural traffic, 17 Netscape, 57 Network operators, 98 Newsgroups, 33–5 Newsletters, 35 Nokia, 102 NPD Group, 11 NTT DoCoMo, 90, 105 Obfuscation, 224 Off-the-page factors, xiv One Web, 185–6 Open Directory, xii, 7, 44, 46, 62–8, 224 disappearing site listings, 65–6 getting listed, 64–5 resubmission, 65 search results, 64 special tips to get listed, 66–7 submissions, 65 updating your listing, 66 useful links, 67 Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), 133–4 Open Text, 55 Oppedahl & Larson, 124 Opt-in, 224 Opt-out, 224 Optimization, 224 Outbound link, 224 Overture, 8, 224 Overture Keyword Selector Tool, 74, 126, 155 Page analysers/‘perfect page’ tools, 86 Page generator software, 81 Page titles, 71–2 Page view, 76, 225 Paid inclusion: dynamic URLs, 130 Pay per action, 160 Pay per call, 160 Pay per click (PPC), 149–62, 225 activity cost per time unit analysis, 160–1 ad service functionality, 151 ad targeting and optimization, 157 categories, 157 keyword search engines, 158 keywords and, 151–6 product PPCs, 158 service PPCs, 159 See also Google Adwords PDA navigation, 137 Penalty for not following search engine guidelines, xiv, 16, 127–8 Perl, 225 Permalinks, 27, 44 Personalization, 22–3 mobile search, 24 Pew Internet Project Data Memo, 9–10 Photo messaging, 95 Pigeon ranking, 225 Piggybacking, 31 Playboy, 125 Pocket MSN, 24 Point, 55 Pop-up, 225 Portal, 225 Position checking/tracking tools, 85–6 Positioning, 225 Power searching, 19–21 commands, 20–1 PPC, See Pay per click 233 Index Privacy issue, 22–3 ‘Product comparison’ engines, 158 Proximity search, 225 Query, 225 Quotation marks, 20 Ranking, xiii, 81, 225 building links, 36–41 Google PageRank, 37–9 importance of high ranking, 12–13 improvement of, 36–41, 56 link analysis, 6–7 off-the-page factors, xiv, 36–7 position checking/tracking tools, 85–6 Yahoo!, 59 Really Simple Syndication (RSS), 22 Reciprocal link, 225 Referrer, 76, 225 Referrer log, 77 Refresh tag, 225 Registration, 225 Relevancy, 141–2, 225 Reporter software, 81 Repository Based Software Engineering Spider (RBSE), Results page, 225 Return on ad spend (ROAS), 164 Return on investment (ROI), 165, 226 Revenue, 169 Ring tones, 95 Robots, 2–4, 49, 77–9, 220, 226 META robots tag, 118–19 See also Crawler-based search engines Robots.txt files, 49–50, 118–19, 226 security and, 119 Rocketmail, 57 Root pages, 54–5 Scheduler software, 81–2 Search engine marketing (SEM), 226 Search engine optimization (SEO), 1, 167, 226 consultants versus DIY, 13–15 copywriting for, 74–5 importance of, 9–11 ‘off page’ factors, 36–7 software, 80–7 234 strategy, 80, 83–4 white hat and black hat techniques, 15–16 Search engines, xi–xiv, 226 differences between, xii–xiii dynamic pages and, 129–30 history of, 1–8 pay per click keyword search engines, 158 penalty for not following guidelines, 16, 127–8 personalization, 22–3 tricking, 128–9 WAP search engines, 107–8 Search terms, 226 Searches, 11–12 mobile search, 23–5 personalization, 22–3, 24 power searching, 19–21 reasons for, 8–11, 153 statistics, 9–11 Server, 226 Server Side adaptation, 187 Server Side Includes (SSI), 130 Service price per clicks, 159–60 Short message service center (SMSC), 102–3 Site description, See Description Site map, 111 Site Search command, 20 Site structure: analysis with tracking software, 75 cascading style sheets, 112 entry pages, 110–11 first paragraph, 127–8 JavaScript, 125 META tags, 112–25 site map, 111 title, 126 visible text, 112 Skrenta, Rich, 62 Smart messaging, 102 SMS text messaging, 92, 95, 102–3 benefits of as a marketing tool, 103 how SMS message is sent, 102–3 Social Media Optimization (SMO), 26–7 Social networks, 25, 26–7 sites, 27 Soft keys, 144 Spamdexing, 226 Spamming, xiv, 14, 226 Spidering, 226 Index Spiders (crawlers), xii, 2, 3, 220, 226 See also Crawler-based search engines Splash screens, 137 Sprite Interactive, 13 Stop words, 219, 227 Style tags/tables, 146 Submission, 49–50, 227 dynamic URLs, 130–1 free, 31 mass submission services, 29–30, 43, 84–5, 227 mobile sites, 52 page analysers/‘perfect page’ tools, 86 to major search engines, 55–6 See also Specific search engines Submission tools, 81, 84–7 bidding managers, 86–7 deep submission tools, 85 keyword density analysers, 86 link and support software, 87 META tag checkers, 86 multisubmission tools, 85 page analysers/‘perfect page’ tools, 86 position checking/tracking tools, 85–6 Submit It, 30, 49 Symbian, 106 Synchronized multimedia integration language (SMIL), 104 Target audiences, 112 Targeted keywords and phrases, 153, 155–6 Teoma, submission to, 52 Text messaging, See SMS text messaging Theme engine, 227 3G, 107 Tiny text, 222 Title, 68, 82, 126, 227 Google, 72 page titles, 71–2 search, 21 Yahoo!, 60–1, 72 Title tag, 114–15, 126 TrackBacks, 27 Trackers, 76 Trademarks, use in META tags, 124 Traffic, See Web traffic Trellian Keyword Discovery tool, 155 Trend reporting, 176–7 Unique user, 227 Unique view, 76 Universal resource locators (URLs), 8–9, 227 dynamic, 130–1 keywords, 73–4 submission to search engines, 49, 50–2, 55, 64, 67–8, 227 WAP, 140 Upload, 227 User agent, 76 Veronica, Viral marketing, 25 Virgin Mobile, 100 Visits, 76 visitor segmentation, 175–6 WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), 96–8, 101, 105, 133–47 communication with users, 141 easy access, 140 images, 140–1 information architecture, 138 logging in, 141 long-term future, 147 MMS message transmission, 104 search engines, 107–8 site developer tips, 144–6 site relevance, 141–2 site testing, 138–9 splash screens, 137 top sites, 147 user input considerations, 141, 183 WAP system, 135 Wireless Mark-up Language (WML), 143–4 XHTML Basic, 142–3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, 181, 182 Web crawlers, See Crawler-based search engines Web page rankings, See Ranking Web traffic, 75–80, 227 analysis software, 79–80, 82 natural traffic, 17 terminology, 76 tracking, 76–80 WebCrawler, 4, 55 Weblogs, See Blogs 235 Index Webmasters, contacting, 40 Welles, Terri, 125 West Coast Entertainment Corp., 125 White hat techniques, 15–16 Wireless Application Protocol, See WAP Wireless Mark-up Language (WML), 143–4 Wireless technology, 89–90, 98–107 i-mode, 105–6 main players, 98–9 messaging, 101–5 mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), 99–101 WAP/mobile Internet, 101, 105 See also Mobile phones WiseNut, 7, 53–4 Word-of-mouth marketing, 25 Wordtracker, 74, 85, 126, 155 World Wide Web Wanderer, 2, World Wide Web Worm, 236 Xanga, 27 XHTML Basic, 142–3 Yahoo!, xii, 3, 12, 46, 57–62, 227 blog directory, 44 click-through, 59 directory, 58 free submission, 31 listing, 62 mobile search, 24 origin, 3, 7, 57 personalization, 22 ranking, 59 submissions, 51–2, 58–62 Yahoo! Express, 60 Yahoo! Search Marketing, 149 Yahoo! Slurp, 51 Yang, Jerry, 57 YouTube, 25 .. .Marketing Through Search Optimization This page intentionally left blank Marketing Through Search Optimization How people search and how to be found on the Web... good search engine positioning It’s also important to prepare a website through search engine optimization Search engine optimization means ensuring that your web pages are accessible to search. .. same search Marketing Through Search Optimization Figure 1.3 The AltaVista website (reproduced with permission) MetaCrawler promised to solve this by forwarding search engine queries to search