Seo Services, LLC – Indiana based search engine optimization consultant

How do you get a specific Web page indexed?

by Mike Moran

I’ve often been asked why particular pages are not indexed. Honestly, you can never be sure until you fix the problem. If you think that you’ve isolated the problem, you never know if you’ve only corrected one of multiple problems. So, it’s best to take it step-by-step.

The first step is be sure that your page really is missing from the search index. (Throughout, I’ll be talking about the search “index” but each engine has its own index, so you must check every blessed one individually.)

Most search engines allow the use of a special operator to reveal if a page is in the search index. As an example, if I wanted to know if a page from my Web site was indexed, I could search for “site:www.mikemoran.com/aboutmike/index.htm“–the search engine would show the page in its results if it is in the index.

Assuming that your page is not found using this method, the next step is to try to figure out why. One possibility is that most of your site is missing, which you can determine by a similar search, such as “site:www.mikemoran.com“–you can see how many pages are indexed. If it’s very few, your problem is bigger than that single page.

Major site problems include:

• Spam penalties. If you’ve been caught violating the search engines’ terms of service (spamming), they’ll drastically scale back the pages in the index until you beg for reinclusion.
• Hidden links.If the navigation to your site is hidden within JavaScript, Flash, or other non-HTML methods, the search engine spiders are unlikely to be able to follow them.
• Dynamic URLs. If your URLs are excessively long, or have many parameters, or contain ID or session parameters, the search engines might elect not to index them.
• Incorrect robots.txt file. Your robots.txt file tells the search spider which pages to include and exclude from the crawling–if you’ve coded the file incorrectly, you might be excluding lots of pages you meant to include.

But what if it really is just this one pesky page that isn’t being indexed? Some problems are likely to be confined to a single page:

• Incorrect robots tagging. Just like the robots.txt file, a robots metatag tells the spider to include or exclude an individual page–you might be telling the spider to exclude the page by mistake.
• User interaction required. If your page launches a pop-up window, or demands that a form be filled out, spiders won’t be able to comply.
• Improper redirects. If your page uses a meta refresh or JavaScript redirect, spiders ignore them and don’t index the page.
• Poor quality pages. If your page is excessively long, contains HTML coding errors, or uses frames, it’s unlikely to be indexed correctly.

Once you’ve identified what’s wrong, you can correct the problem and wait for the spiders to come back. Good luck getting all your pages indexed. Remember, if your page isn’t in the index, it can never be found.

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Untouchable: Sage’s All Time Favorite Movie Scene

by Sage Lewis

Sage goes all gaga over one particular scene in the Matrix. He then goes on to use that scene as a metaphor for life: Get out of the day to day grind. Rise above it.

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Vote for Your Favorite Promotion Ideas

Cast your vote to help shape this column into the absolute best column it can be. Pick your favorite user-submitted idea, and enter to win an Amazon gift card. …

Maintaining an SEO Log

At its root, SEO is an inexact science. It’s a world where we follow best practices and use our best judgment to make decisions on what to do next. Once changes start occurring in organic traffic and related conversions, you can look back at your SEO log and establish some basic cause and effect. …

Maximum PPC

Advertisers big and small face the dilemma of reaching max capacity with their search budgets and they reach a point of hesitation that resembles trying to swim through quicksand. The vast majority of companies would increase search budgets, if only their perceived barriers were removed. …

Bartz Blogs: Yahoo! Reorganizes, Customer Advocacy Group Created

It’s been rumored for a week, and now is making it official in her first post on Yodel Anecdotal: Yahoo! is reorganizing. Bartz says she wants to make things run smoother and simpler. She says the “notorious silos” are gone.

Bartz also announced the creation of a Customer Advisory group. She says she’s frustrated with how many customers call up and are angry. Bartz wants Yahoo! to do a better job of listening to customers.

This is very good to hear. Their primary competitor, Google, has always presented a customer-oriented business model. Yahoo! at times has presented themselves as “Look what we’re doing.”

I hope these goals that Bartz is pushing for with the reorganization work. It would be great to see Yahoo! emerge as a stronger competitor to Google. Competition is driven through innovation, and the beneficiaries will be the customers.

But reorganization has its not-so-pretty side. Yahoo!’s CFO Blake Jorgensen will be leaving his post once his replacement is found. Expect more exits to follow as the reorganization is implemented.

By the way, Wall Street reacted positively to the news. Yahoo! stocks went up after the announcement.

Related Reading:
Yahoo’s New Era
Stock Price Low Yet New Yahoo CEO Could Make Million Plus?

YouTube Adds Help Center Video Submission; API Gets Recent Activity

YouTube is now accepting video submissions for its Help Center. Now, users can help others learn how to use YouTube. Simply go to a Help Center topical page (find one that’s super specific) and look for the box on the right hand side where you can submit a video.

Here’s a screenshot of the page for “Sign-up and Log-in Issues: Unsolicited ‘Reset Password’ email”

YouTube is also enabling “Recent Activity” to be accessed through the API. The “Recent Activity” info appears on YouTube channels and lets viewers know what users have been up to lately.

Related Reading:
YouTube Launches Collaborative Annotations
YouTube Tests Downloading; Offers Creative Commons
YouTube Continues Online Video Dominance in December 2008

Yahoo! Sets Facebook SearchMonkey App as Default

Yahoo! has set the SearchMonkey application for Facebook as default. This means, when you search for a name and see a Facebook result, the customized result developed by Facebook via SearchMonkey will appear.

Here’s an example of the result for Facebook engineer, Alex Moskalyuk:

Facebook joins other SearchMonkey apps already set as default, including Wikipedia, Yelp, LinkedIn, Citysearch and Zagat.

SearchMe Launches Search Advertising Beta

Visual search engine SearchMe has launched a search advertising test and is looking for beta testers. The program is open to 500 participants who will get free advertising for 30 days. To apply, click here.

“We are fusing together two popular advertising formats to drive better tracking of both ROI and branded advertising spend. We want consumers to know exactly what they’re getting before they even click on an ad,” said John Galatea, vice president of sales and marketing at SearchMe. “The combination of search marketing with the power of branded display ads creates more valuable clicks leading to increased conversions and that’s what advertisers want. The added qualification of seeing before clicking makes a huge difference for end users and advertisers and provides an exciting glimpse into the future of visual search advertising.”

Related Reading:
Searchme Adds Media Search and Visual Bookmarking
Search Startup Announces Million in Second Round Funding
Visual Search Engine Searchme Launches Private Beta

Stress Tests for SEO, SEM, PPC at SES New York

Regulators are putting banks through stress tests to determine whether they have adequate capital. And if you look at the SES New York conference agenda, you’ll see that you can put your SEO, SEM and PPC programs through some pretty rigorous stress testing at six express site clinics that will be held in the Expo Hall.

Now, why would you want to do that? For starters, you can get some free advice from SEO, SEM and PPC experts. In addition, you’ll get an honest opinion from search engine marketing specialists who will tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, even if it hurts.

For example, the first clinic is being taught by Shari Thurow, the Founder and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Director at Omni Marketing Interactive. I first met Shari at Search Engine Strategies Spring in Boston — back in 2002. And I’ve learned that she’ll tell you exactly what she thinks — without fear or favor.

And you’d be a fool to ignore her recommendations. Shari has a 100% success rate for getting client sites ranked at the top of search engines — and her clients include Yahoo, Microsoft, America Online, ABC News, HSBC, Expedia, Deloitte and Touche, National Cancer Institute, and WebMD.

Shari is holding an “Express Search Usability Clinic” on Tuesday, March 24, from 1 to 2 p.m. You can get one-on-one advice for usability, design, copy, link development, and any technical issues that may prevent your Web site from receiving high quality search engine traffic and visitor conversions.

Need another example? Check out the “Power PPC Advertising Clinic” being taught by David Szetela, the CEO of Clix Marketing, on Tuesday, March 24, from 2 to 3 p.m. I’ve known David even longer than Shari. Back in the 1990s, we both worked together at Ziff-Davis Publishing.

I’ve never known David to pull a punch — on his company’s blog, in his weekly Profitable PPC column published by Search Engine Watch, or at search and advertising industry events. And Clix is also one of the few agencies paid according to their performance — as a percentage of profit or a commission per sales lead generated.

You can get your Google AdWords PPC advertising campaigns and landing pages expertly analyzed, with specific recommendations for improvement and optimization. Or just come to watch and learn a wide range of tips and best practices!

The third Express Site Clinic is being taught by Jonathan Mendez, Founder and CEO of RAMP Digital. It is entitled, “CPA Optimization Station,” and will be held on Tuesday, March 24, from 3 to 4 p.m.

Now, I don’t know Jonathan as well as I know the other presenters, but here’s what I do know: Jonathan authors the popular marketing blog Optimize & Prophesize. And he has provided expert pre-click and post-click strategies and execution for online testing, targeting and optimization to some of the world’s leading brands and businesses, including Amazon.com, Ameriprise, Disney, Citibank, H&R Block, IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, Monster.com, Sears, and T-Mobile.

With advertising dollars more accountable than ever, optimizing your Cost Per Acquisition or Cost per Action (CPA) has never been more important. So, you should take advantage of this rare opportunity to sit with Jonathan as he finds ways to improve your ROI. He will perform strategic evaluations and provide actionable insights on the consumer touch-points in your conversion path — keywords, ads, landing pages and registration/checkout. Jonathan will also offer test ideas for use with Multivariate & A/B testing and advice on how to use emerging marketing technologies to further improve your results.

These stress tests will let you know if your SEO, SEM and PPC programs can do heavy lifiting. But wait, there’s more!

On Wednesday, March 25, Matthew Bailey, the President of Site Logic Marketing, will hold a clinic entitled, “Small Changes, Big Results,” in the Exhibit Hall from 1 to 2 p.m. Now, what can I tell you about Matt that I haven’t already revealed — in about 120 articles, blog posts or video interviews? (Those of you who know that I went to the University of Michigan understand how hard it is for me to say warm, fuzzy things about a guy from Ohio, but I’ll try. Hey, the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is even a Wikipedia listing.)

Matt and I are both members of the Market Motive faculty, which has been called the “Internet marketing dream team.” He is the primary trainer and developer for The Direct Marketing Association’s Search Engine Optimization Certification program, and the trainer for the DMA’s 2-Day Website Marketing Seminar. This year, Matt was selected as the Direct Marketing Association’s emissary to France because of his expertise in search marketing. (Coming from a Wolverine, that’s high praise for a Buckeye.)

If you need some help, or just another pair of eyes to check your website, then the Express Clinic with Matt will help you identify minor changes in your website that could provide major results. If you are particularly daring, bring the access to your analytics (if they are hosted online), and he will really dive in! (Actually, we are good friends and are both co-presenting the First Timer’s Guide to SES and SEM at SES New York. So, we don’t let football get in the way of our friendship … except on one Saturday each fall. Oh, and maybe on New Year’s Day.)

Now, I mentioned earlier that the SEO, SEM and PPC experts holding these Express Site Clinics will tell you the truth, even if it hurts. My fifth example of this is the title of the next clinic: “Your Baby Is Ugly – Landing Page Mini-Critiques.” It will be held on Wednesday, March 25, from 2 to 3 p.m. by Tim Ash, President of SiteTuners.

Tim Ash is the author of the bestselling book “Landing Page Optimization,” published by Wiley. He is a contributing columnist to several publications including Search Engine Watch. And he has also worked with Verizon Wireless, American Express, Sony Music, American Honda, COMP USA, Harcourt Brace, Universal Studios, HomeGain, Fair Isaac, TransUnion, Rand McNally, Red Envelope, Black & Decker, and Coach to develop successful Internet initiatives.

If your landing page has severe and fundamental problems or if you think it could have a much higher conversion rate, join Tim on the exhibit show floor for complimentary mini-critiques. His firm offers consulting, full-service flat-fee guaranteed-performance tests, and advanced software tools for landing page optimization. (Tim’s Salsa dancing is pretty impressive, too.)

Finally, you’ll want to attend the clinic entitled, “Dave Naylor Search Marketing,” which will be taught by none other than David Naylor, SEO of Bronco, on Wednesday, March 25, from 3 to 4 p.m.

David, more commonly known as DaveN, is constantly developing new optimization techniques and has the uncanny ability to see algorithmic changes before most other SEOs. He has a proven track record of successes in some of the most competitive markets. And his blog is well known for its down to earth, yet informative approach on all SEO issues.

If you have ever wanted the chance to have an industry leading SEO take a look at your website, if you want to get an honest and often brutal opinion on whether it is any good, then Dave is available to do a mini site clinic for you. You’ll be amazed at the information you will glean within seconds of the analysis.

A few final words of warning for those who put their SEO, SEM and PPC programs through one or more of these stress tests at SES New York. First, these PowerPoint free, interactive clinics are “first-come, first-served.” Second, if you can’t handle the truth, don’t get your Website reviewed live by one of these SES experts.