Search Concepts

Carbonite, a Boston online backup service company for users of Mac and Windows, came up with an additional funding worth $20 million. San Francisco’s Crosslink Capital joined the company’s previous investors in the round of funding that came after the online backup service provider successfully raised a total of $47 million worth of funding, including a 2008 Series C round of funding that saw the participation of big companies like the 3i Group, Menlo Ventures, CommonAngels and Performance Equity.

Founded in 2005 by David Friend, who is also the company CEO, and Jeff Flowers, Carbonite has been recognized for its excellent service. It has received recognition as PC Pro’s “Labs Winner,” Lifehacker’s “Best Windows Backup Tool,” and was the recipient of NextAdvisor’s “Editor’s Choice.” It is also recognized as being the pioneer online backup company that offered fixed price unlimited backup space.

Carbonite provides online backup by installing a small software program on computers. This software’s main aim is to look for files—either new ones or those that have been changed—to backup. It encrypts files two times before creating a secure backup. The encrypted files are stored in the company’s highly secure data center so that nobody else can see them except the file owner. Carbonite only works when your computer is idle, so it does not interrupt your work and does not affect your Internet connection.

Named after the substance that froze Han Solo in the movie Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Carbonite has provided backup service for over 25 billion files and helped restore lost files totaling to over 2 billion. In fact, Carbonite has agreements with internationally renowned companies like Packard Bell, Acer and Lenovo for pre-installed online backup service on selected PCs. Last 2009, the company introduced to the public a Mac version of their service that can be used for Intel-based Macs attached to the 10.4 and 10.5 OS.

Keyword optimization is at the heart of search engine optimization, and its importance is quite often down played and under realized. Keyword cannibalization can be a major problem, and addressing it is of serious importance. Keyword cannibalization is also commonly referred to as “keyword blurring.”

Most websites revolve around a theme or series of themes. Industry veterans have coined a slew of witty terminologies to compare the keywords associated to these themes including but not limited to keyword themes, keyword buckets, keyword silos and more. For discussions of this article, let’s call the keyword to content relationship “keyword themes.”

Websites frequently mix themes and subject matter from page to page. While this might make sense from a user-interaction perspective it can also be very counter-intuitive from a search engines perspective. Keywords should be viewed as having three (3) parts, which include 1) core word, 2) keyword phrase, and 3) extended keyword phrase.

Core words will be commonly repeated throughout many pages on a website. This is one of the primary reasons why ranking for a core word, or one-word phrase is difficult or even impossible to do with on-page optimization alone. Example core words include “book,” “website,” “TV,” “music,” etc.

Keyword phrases are also commonly repeated throughout multiple pages on a website, but this is generally where the blurring occurs. Keyword phrase examples include “harry potter book,” “website design,” “JVC TV,” and “rock music.”

Extended keyword phrases are less commonly repeated through multiple pages on a website, and should in many scenarios be limited to only one page of a website. Extended keyword phrase examples include “harry potter and the goblet of fire,” “small business website design,” “JVC 32” plasma TV,” and “rolling stones paint it black.”

Now that we’ve established the basics of the (3) types of keywords let’s get into the best practices!

On-Page Keyword Usage Best Practices

A typical page should focus optimization techniques on 3-5 keyword phrases, and at least 5-10 extended keyword phrases. It is important to see that extended keyword phrases are generally used only on one page. You want to be cautious about how you mix up keyword phrases and extended keyword phrases.

Let’s assume we’re dealing with a “music search engine” website. An artist page might be called “Rolling Stones Music” and feature 20 top Rolling Stones songs, each having their own page which includes lyrics to the song, ring tones, and an option to buy the song via iTunes. Keywords should not blur from page to page.

Keywords for the artist page might include:

1)    Rolling Stones Music
2)    Rolling Stones Songs
3)    Rolling Stones Website

Extended keyword phrases might include:

1)    Classic Rolling Stones Music
2)    Top Rolling Stones Songs
3)    70’s Rolling Stones Songs
4)    80’s Rolling Stones Songs

Keep in mind that on this page we are also linking to 20 songs pages from the artist page; songs like Paint it Black, Wild Horses, Shatter, and Beast of Burden.
The artist page will naturally have some of these song-related keywords within internal links which point to the songs pages. It’s important not to intentionally target these song keywords in general SEO-target areas like the page Title, Meta Description, H1 tags, and on-page content.

The song pages by themselves are the most relevant landing pages for keywords like “Rolling Stones Paint it Black,” not the artist page. Targeting songs keywords on the artist page and the song page creates keyword blurring. By focusing on keywords, and being cautious not to blur keyword phrases and extended keyword phrases there is a good change that Google will reward the artist page with a ranking for songs keywords as well, thereby creating a double ranking. Intentional keyword blurring will only confuse the search engines, which reduces the effectiveness of both pages.

Focus should also be paid to internal linking. Links on a page carry significant weight in the rankings process. Make sure the links on your website link to your pages with keyword phrases and extended keyword phrases, and be sure not to link to a page using keyword phrases you are targeting on another page. This will also cause confusion to the search engines. As an example, linking to the “Rolling Stones Paint it Black” page should not only use the words ‘Rolling Stones” or a primary keyword phrase being targeted on the Artist page like “Rolling Stones song.”

Content Indexing Best Practices

In addition to being cautious not to blur keywords it is also important not overly dilute your keyword targets. Websites with heavy content and user-generated content in particular need to be especially cognoscente of keyword dilution. As an example, many music search engine songs pages feature user-comments.
If the Rolling Stones Paint it Black page features user-generated comments then a strategy may need to be considered to exclude portions of the comments.
Let’s assume the song page has 31 comments. Chances are that most of these comments will not use the desired keywords, which may significantly reduce keyword density.
The use of iframes is an excellent way to display desired content without incurring keyword dilution.

My recommendation here is to display the first 10 comments only, and then display the following comments within an iframe. It is important to note that these iframes should be generated with the NOINDEX META tag so they are not indexed in the SERPs. Often, a website will have redundant content themes, and might carry the same keyword phrases and extended keyword phrases from page to page. A review process will help uncover potential theme conflicts. Using a websites sitemap or local/server files is the best way to determine if there is theme repetition occurring.

Another option is to view Google’s indexed pages by performing the site: operation search, i.e. site:yoursite.com. This will display all of the pages indexed by Google for the searched URL. If there are multiple pages targeting the same theme being indexed you may want to consider consolidating these pages down to one page. Multiple pages using a duplicative theme will confuse search engines, and the 2 or more pages sharing the duplicate theme may not rank properly, or the wrong page might rank in place of the more desirable page.

If consolidation is possible from a website architecture perspective, then there is really only one way to properly make your intentions known to the search engines. You will need to 301 redirect the page or pages with the duplicate themes to primary page you want ranked. Performing a 301 redirect can be done in a variety of ways depending on your server operating system. The web is full of helpful guides for properly 301 redirecting an internal page to another internal page.

Redirecting these pages may significantly improve the ranking of the primary page. Not only will you clean up and correct your keyword usage strategy, but the internal pages being redirected may have direct inbound links (i.e. pages on other websites might link directly to them). Now, the primary page will benefit from its direct inbound links, and the direct inbound links from the pages being redirected. The 301 redirect is the essential redirect type, as Google in particular will pass all link popularity credit from the pages being redirect to the primary page. As a side note, this strategy works exceptionally well if you own multiple websites, assuming these sites each have their own unique inbound links.

Off-Page Keyword Best Practices

Off-page anchor text is still one of the biggest components considered by ranking algorithms. A savvy SEO should ensure to the best of his/her ability that inbound links point to the appropriate pages, and use anchor text found within the on-page portions of the page. No webmaster or SEO can fully control inbound link anchor text, but an avid eye should be kept on the backlink portfolio – I suggest tools like LinkDiagnosis.com or Backlinkwatch.com.

If you are engaging in link building activities you should also be aware of standard strategies used to keep your backlink portfolio looking natural. As an example, most websites have 50-80% of their backlinks using some form of branded keywords. Seventy-five (75%) percent or more of most website’s have backlinks linking to their home page. While slightly off-topic, it is also very important to note that overusing specific keyword phrases in a link building strategy will generally have an opposite effect. Overusing the same keywords will essentially throw up a red flag to search engines. The usage rate of keywords in inbound links is all based on your websites existing link popularity portfolio, historical link growth rate, and website age.

Conclusion

Keyword cannibalization is frequent, and is often the underlying problem in a well designed SEO strategy. Utilizing proper keyword optimization strategies on-page and off-page will neutralize blurring, and improve rankings. A website’s optimization should be revisited every 90-180 days, and the instructions listed above make up some of the most basic rules to follow. Every website and SEO strategy is different, but if you haven’t given much thought to keyword cannibalization before, not might be a good time to revisit your approach. Good luck!

Earlier this year, Google released a web developer preview of its latest state of the art web-search configuration, Caffeine, to obtain user feedback. Once deemed Google’s “secret project,” the scheme is now out in the open. The technology, designed to build on the existing site listing network to provide more relevant search results, has since been received with overwhelming positivism. Due to the affirmative response, developers have decided to move on to the next phase of development: making Caffeine live.

The slow but steady advancement in the search tool will add to Google’s hard-hitting dominance over online searches. The initial trial run has noted important differences between the running search version and the one under development. Results are now more reliable, significant, and turn in less spam.

In August of 2009, to allow their target audience to get a feel for their new search innovation, Google directed users to a preview of the prototype. The positive comments on the work-in-progress have encouraged developers to go live with the new service from one data core. Soon enough, Google users will be able to use Caffeine in addition to Google Live services.

However, due to the added stress brought on by the holidays, the company has decided to postpone the launch of Caffeine until after Christmas. The later date will give restless webmasters and site owners a little leeway to get into what is sure to be the next big thing in web-search. The timing is perfect!

Matt Cutts (Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO) of MattCutts.com wrote, “Caffeine will go live at one data center so that we can continue to collect data and improve the technology, but I don’t expect Caffeine to go live at additional data centers until after the holidays are over.”

November 9, 2009 — Earlier today, advertising giant Google announced that mobile web advertising leader AdMob will be added to their growing family. The arrangement saw an impressive $750 million in stock for AdMob, and another boost in search-based advertising supremacy for Google.

AdMob, based in San Mateo, California, has been listed as the largest mobile Internet advertising company since the world-shattering rise of the smartphone. The company has over 140 employees on payroll, with ads served in 160 countries on 15,000 websites and mobile applications. Especially designed to bring the mobile environment to such devices as the iPhone, the company fills the gaps within Google’s mobile ad contributions.

The company now has tools like mobile adsense that allow users to put up ads according to related content much like they would on a laptop or desktop computer. Furthermore, Google’s disinterest in the iPhone due to competing system, Android, has instantly been filled by AdMob.

Having grown exponentially since its birth in 2006, AdMob sees 10.2 billion ad impressions monthly. The numbers brought with it several interested buyers, which in turn led to endless negotiations. In the end, Google AdMob brings to Google its savoir faire in business with publishers and advertisers.

AdMob’s investors included Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Northzone, Draper, and Fisher Jurveston’s Growth Fund. The company received $47 million in financial support. Google’s $750 million easily makes up for the investors’ initial capital.

AdMob founder Omar Hamoui couldn’t be happier with the recent events. He said, “We’re excited about the positive attention this deal will bring to mobile advertising. We have no doubt this will bring even more players into the space and accelerate all the innovation that is already taking place.”

AdMob has exceeded all expectations in the short time since its launch. Last year, VentureBeat released an article on the potential of companies on the rise. It included some critical views on the corporation’s ability to stand on its own. As of today, there is no doubt.

Mint.com is the nation’s leading online personal finance service. The site is great example of how a quality product speaks for itself. Mint.com has a user base of approximately 1.4 million up 400,000 since March 2009. The system itself utilizes a tracking system that records data of around $175 billion in transactions and $47 billion in assets.

All of Mint.com’s hard work and quality service has paid off with $14 million in Series C funding. The funding led by DAG Ventures represents a portion of the $30 million in total funding raised. A recent release of their iPhone app has been ranked #1 in the iTunes finance category.

Aaron Patzer, Mint.com’s CEO recognizes that their current success comes during hard times in the economy. Their connection to helping personal finance and online reputation as one of the top financial resources has given them the ability to execute and prepare for the future.

Mint.com will continue to pursue technological improvements to their system to keep users active and increase their overall user base. Their team has stated that the funds will be allocated to expanding Mint’s already award-winning team, particularly its engineering staff, and to accelerate product upgrades and new partnership launches scheduled for the next 6-12 months.

Symantec and LifeLock are uniting their cause to make your online and offline experience safer by creating a limited edition Norton AntiVirus with a free 30 day trial membership to LifeLock. This is also accompanied with a 10 percent off extended membership and throws in two movie tickets.

LifeLock has had great success in raising funds. The initially kicked off with 2 million in seed funding, then in early 2006 locked in approximately $4.5 million in venture funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. LifeLock in the spring of 2007 raised $6 million in Series B funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, followed by $25 million in Series-C funding led by the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Both of these companies in the short term should see a nice bump in sales and hopefully with positive customer feedback these sales will hold for the 3rd and 4th quarter, and continue on into 2010.

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As I discussed in a previous post, I’m a semi-fan of the Bing.com search engine. They lack the authority algorithm which has made Google’s results all in all very good. To top it off Microsoft has convinced Yahoo! to commit to 10-years! This is crazy. Why wouldn’t Yahoo! commit to 3-years, or 5-years 0n the high-end.

By committing to 10-years, Yahoo! has essentially given up on Search.

Yahoo! has a better search engine than Bing. I just hope Bing gets better. This is a dirty blow to searchers worldwide.

I do like Microsoft as I’ve said in earlier posts. But, Bing.com needs some work. BAD.

Read more on Yahoo! News - http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090729/ap_on_hi_te/us_microsoft_yahoo.

A Story about Local Search (authored by Joe Griffin and published in the 2008 Fall Edition of Search Marketing Standard):

A practical and factual study about the shift in ad dollars and audience targeting among contractors, doctors and  attorneys.

For over 50 years, the medical practitioner, legal, automotive-dealer and home services industries have invested the majority of their advertising dollars into yellow pages, TV commercials, outdoor billboards, and print ad campaigns. Each year these industries spend billions in yellow page advertising alone. Studies conducted by Web.com, The Kelsey Group and others show that the contractor, medical and legal industries (The Big 3) in particular are making expeditious retreats from many forms of local media.

According to the Kelsey Group, traditional Yellow Pages advertising revenue is on the decline, having fallen .6% last year. Generally, all advertising revenues increase by a good 5+% per year, partially to just be in alignment with inflation and the ongoing growth of the U.S. economy. So, a loss of revenue is a pretty bad sign. The Kelsey Group also reported in June of 2008 that the U.S. online video market is expected to grow between $4 billion to $7 billion by 2012. The growth in the Small and Medium Business (SMB) category is expected to grow at a staggering annual compounding rate of 167.8% per year, growing from $10.9 million in 2007 to $1.5 billion in 2012.

The Big 3 understands that in 2008, the yellow page books are better suited for propping up youngsters at the dinner table, compared to their traditional use as an information retrieval source. With a computer in the majority of U.S. households, and over half the nation already on broadband, people prefer to access their information online, most frequently through search engines and online yellow page type directories.

Video on Demand (VOD), TiVo, and DVR are bringing television advertising to its knees. I recently sat with and interviewed Roland Perez, Executive Director and President of the popular television health network show, The American Health Journal.  We spoke about his meetings with other industry executives whom, he says, are scared to death of what is happening with television viewers and advertiser returns. “Major cable networks are now pushing over 500 channels, and a good percentage of these viewers are simply skipping through commercials via TiVo and DVR or downloading video and movies directly via VOD,” said Perez.  Advertisers are feeling the pain and are complaining to the broadcast industry. More and more of them are shifting their budget to online advertising formats.

Print advertising still has life in it, but let’s be honest, what’s more boring than a flat print ad? Worst of all, because of the success advertisers are having online, the average cost for an ad in a local print magazine is actually decreasing, which means they have to sell more ad slots. Have you seen a copy of a major national magazine like Vogue or GQ lately? Check out the first 20-30 pages. All you see are ads. Old school marketing directors and agencies are getting desperate. It’s clear that traditional advertising is losing its effectiveness.
Instead of pushing more ads in the yellow pages , more commercials at the tube or more billboards on the highway, the Big 3 started turning to the Internet. In case you didn’t know it, there’s a fight happening on the streets –on the Google streets, that is.

Let’s take a look at the current landscape of a Google results page using the keyword phrase “boston plumber.”

1. We get 308,000 results.

2. We have a maximum number of advertisers on the page (approx. 9). On average, these advertisers are spending $2-$4 per click.  8 of the 9 advertisers are locally-owned plumbers competing against each other, and 1 of these advertisers is a nationwide plumbing franchise.

3. We get 10 local listings (the one-line listings) at the top of the page.  100% of them are actual local businesses with websites, reviews and other local directory listings.

4. In the top 10 organic results we get mostly nationwide directories/lead brokers. 7 of these results include MagicYellow, CitySearch, SuperPages, Yellow.com, etc. The remaining 3 represent some local city websites and actual plumbers’ websites.

This data begs the question, “Why are there so many nationwide directory/lead broker sites in the organic results?” Smart Internet pioneers understood that this shift would take place years ago, and they developed these portal websites primarily to attract organic positioning. Contractors have been the slowest to fight back in the Big 3;  however, recent studies show that major contracting firms in many of the top U.S. metropolitan areas are starting to fight back. As these companies continue to shift budgets into organic search, you will see most of these directory sites move to the second page.

One industry that has already made the shift is the medical field. The organic listings portfolio in the medical services vertical looks completely different than that of the plumbing vertical. “In the last two years, my understanding of Search and its function as a marketing tool has increased tremendously. Now, in every seminar I attend, I hear about search engine marketing and its effectiveness in targeting local customers. While we still invest in some traditional media, we get most of our new customers via search engine referrals,” said Tim DeBacco, Director of Marketing at NU/HART Hair Clinics.

Let’s take a look at the current landscape of a Google results page under the keyword phrase “phoenix cosmetic surgery.”

1. We get 429,000 results.

2. We have a maximum number of advertisers on the page (approx. 8-10). On average these advertisers are spending $2-$4 per click. 7 of the 8 advertisers are local cosmetic surgeons competing fiercely against one another.

3. We get 3 local listings at the top of the page. 100% of them are actual local businesses with websites, reviews and other local directory listings. ‘

4. In the top 10 organic results we get 9 out of 10 local businesses.

Why do we get so many local websites in the organic results of Google in the surgery category but not the plumbing category? Do these major directory websites not target the cosmetic surgery vertical? Absolutely they do. Is it safe to say the surgeons might represent a slightly more sophisticated business owner? Yes. Is it safe to say that surgeons on average have more dynamic websites, and invest more money online? Yes, definitely.

I spoke with Robert Baxter, President of Surgeons Advisor, a web-based surgeons’ marketing company. He explained that his business has increased tremendously over the last  two years as more and more surgeons embrace Internet marketing and the effectiveness of search engine optimization (SEO). “In a recent speech I gave at the Facial Cosmetic Surgery 2008 conference, I discussed the statistical increase in search engine user referrals to my clients’ websites and the strategies behind the success. I walked out of there with more business cards and customer interest then I can even handle. The level of competition now for first page rankings is at an all-time high.”

Speaking of smart marketers and sophisticated-shifters, let’s move on to attorneys. Like medical practitioners, attorneys have been quick to embrace the web medium, particularly in the last 24 months. Personal injury veteran Anita Robb of Robb & Robb LLC says, “Search is the most effective marketing tool we have at our disposal. We’ve been in this business for over 25 years, and have invested massive dollars into traditional media. I think traditional media will always play a role in the advertising mix, but when it comes to sheer customer volume, quality and ROI we trust Search the most.”

So, what does this mean for the search engine marketing industry, and how does it affect search engine optimizers, interactive agencies and the rest of the brainiacs that “get” Search? The level of competition is rising at an exponentially faster rate. Standard on-page SEO and link-building strategies alone aren’t enough. I highly recommend spending extra time and research in these categories. Setting the right expectations is crucial, and it’s a fact that the Big 3 are not only doing SEO and PPC themselves.  A good portion of them are investing north of $5,000-$10,000 in SEO and PPC with Search and interactive agencies. The local competition is tough, and not to be underestimated. Aggressive and new link-building approaches are key for organic results. Landing page optimization and video integration is necessary to maintain healthy PPC conversions and stave off hungry PPC competition. Know your facts about the local playing field, set realistic expectations, and be ready to compete with these aggressive small and medium business owners.

July 14th is (A) my birthday and (B) the Inaugural Event of AZIMA (Arizona Interactive Marketing Association) - of which I serve as a Board Member. If you have an interest in networking and ongoing education in the area of Interactive Marketing please come - http://www.pitchengine.com/free-release.php?id=16539.

Originally published by Joe Griffin in Visibility Magazine in December 2007 - Concept is as powerful now as it was then, and still under-utilized.

There’s an old saying out there that “content is king”, and I agree that good content is the primary foundation for every website. Everyone who’s in the know understands that link popularity is far and away the primary driver of top search engine rankings.

After all, link popularity acts much like a “search engine credit score.” When you first start out, you can have the best looking website in the world, with incredible content and an amazing business model, but until you’ve established some trust, tenure, and responsibility, you simply won’t get any “credit” with the search engines. You’ve probably also heard about the very cliché “Google Sandbox.” Google representatives themselves have admitted the synergies behind the Google Sandbox theory, and the actual algorithmic logic that runs the Google search results.

The Google Sandbox however isn’t necessarily something that Google is intentionally inflicting upon new websites (Yahoo! has a similar policy). Understanding that Google and Yahoo! live and die on the relevancy of their search results, we must conclude that serving up websites with no established credibility, no tenure online, and zero trust would be a really bad idea.

So, I guess the question really becomes, “What is the best way to establish credibility with Google, Yahoo!, and MSN, and how can this be done in the fastest way possible?”

The answer to this question is simple and complex all at the same time. Essentially, building new inbound links to your website establishes credibility. The problem is that building these links properly needs to be addressed early on — having a strong game plan is crucial for obtaining optimal results.

The three components of link building are:
1) Link Quality
2) Link Growth
3) Link Volume

The industry has adopted link quality and link volume as the primary ingredients for link building juice. The only problem is that link growth is still rarely addressed, and long term link growth strategies are scarcely mentioned in tight SEO circles, even among the most experienced.

Well, what do we know about link growth? Let’s recap:

1) Link growth is not a new concept.
In May 2005, Google made public the contents of their United States Patent Application. Just search “May 2005 google patent” in Google to read up. Basically, this patent paints a picture that Google may be looking at a lot more than meets the eye. The patent discusses how they may be recording the date on which new inbound links are gained, the frequency with which new links are gained, the total number of days new links are maintained, and much more.

2) Link growth can act as a “sandbox” expeditor.
As previously mentioned, link growth is kind of like a natural credibility builder. Imagine link popularity like a high school popularity contest. If you can create new friends every single day, than you can exponentially better your reputation in a very short period of time.

3) Link growth is more powerful than fresh content.
People always talk about fresh content. Fresh content!?! Forget fresh content! A monkey can update an HTML page. Fresh content is great, but at the end of the day it plays a small role in the rankings process. Link growth cannibalized fresh content a long time ago. To be safe you should employ both strategies, but if you’ve got time on your hands invest it into getting new links first and foremost – assuming you’ve got at least decent content!

4) Link growth types matter.
There are a number of different classifications of link types. Links from bloggers can be classified as “social media links,” while links from newspapers and online publications can be classified as “news links and article links.” Links from top industry websites can be classified as “authority vertical links.” Each link type is important, and each link type should be expanded upon all the time.

5) Link growth consistency – the primary driver of rankings in the future?
Link growth consistency is one of the tell-tail signs of top performing sites. Why do Amazon, Google, and eBay all have millions of backlinks? They built them feverishly day in and day out naturally over many years. This link growth consistency will forever mark them as the titans within their respective categories. Every category on the Internet is different, and making sure that you are building the best links all the time is the secret sauce to Search. Start now, as this will continue to be one of the primary drivers for top rankings over the next several years.

With all that said, I challenge the person who said “content is king.” If content is king, than link growth is god. Without link growth, you can take your content and flush it down the toilet. Don’t know how to get links? Consult an expert!