SEO Information |
Torpedo and Sink the Ship SS Search Engine Ranking
I was recently contacted by one of my best clients who askedme what I thought of his decision to make a major change toone of his highly ranked pages. His initial concern was thatvisitor sales conversion ratio was low. At almost one percent,it was just below normal, but I'm always happy when a clientwants to improve. Conversion and rankings though, are verydifferent beasts and his concern was overly focused on theformer to the total exclusion of the latter. As his SEO I should have realized that the top rankings ofthis already optimized page were in danger when his firstsentence referred to the existing "Dusty, tired old page, thatjust isn't getting enough sales." That page had just beenoptimized for search engines about 6 months previously, andwent from page 10 (invisible) or so of the Search EngineResults Pages (SERP's) to the top three on the first pages ofall three major search engines virtually overnight after a fewtweaks to gain traction from a popular movie reference to hisproduct. The page had been up for several years before the movierelease without gaining substantial web sales of that sameproduct, but our optimization six months ago lead to a leap insales and consistently improving page visits after thattheatrical release. But sales plateaued over time and slowlydecreased after the movie which had mentioned his producttransitioned to DVD sales. Somehow he hadn't forseen thatdecrease and wanted to continue the level of sales he hadenjoyed while the movie mention was fresh. To achieve the continued sales though, he wanted to completelyreplace the page text with new material he'd been given by themanufacturer of the product. As is the case with marketingmaterial provided by many companies, keyword density wasnon-existent with emphasis was on slick new photos, coveredwith stylized, graphical text. Text with keywords thatcouldn't be repeated in any page text since they had alreadybeen embedded in the image graphics several times. What to do? I suggested creating an entirely NEW page with themanufacturer provided information linked within his site menulinks on each page and from the sitemap. While maintaining theold page for it's top rankings in the search engines we couldsimply use internal linking to keep the search enginescrawling that (old dusty) fully optimized page. That way wewould still rank in the top 5 for that page and it's covetedkeywords and provide the new conversion focused page to sitevisitors from the menu links. For some reason though, the client insisted on using theexisting filename for the new content and moving the oldcontent to a NEW filename! Why? Because he wouldn't have tohave his programmer change a script which loaded a rotatingbanner to a select few highly trafficked pages. The programmercosts too much to change a few lines of code for a profitableproduct page? This tactic meant that we would completely lose the existingrank on the next visit of the search engine crawlers after thenew page was posted. I was convinced that we could gain therank back, but only over time and with substantial extra work.The cost to the client to get a new page into the top five onSERP's was going to exceed the cost of programming updates ofbanner rotation scripts. But he insisted we use the newmanufacturer provided (image only) content on the oldfilename. OK, I relent. The web designer wanted to use the new manufacturer providedpage in an iframe and embed the old page text in noframes tags- making it visible to search engines, but not visitors. Sillyidea and borderline spam technique that may drop our top fiverankings off the charts. I dug my heals in and refused thatidea. The client suggested simply keeping previous metatags andtitle tag to maintain ranking. Sorry, that simply won't work.If it did, we'd return to the bad old days of simplistickeyword stuffing in those (no longer) magical metatags. Istarted to wonder ... "Am I here as an SEO only to stopdesigners from using SE spamming techniques, programmers fromhaving to write new code and clients from doing absurd keywordstuffing in metatags?" No you actually have to use carefully crafted keyword richtext on the visible page - and NOT embedded in graphics filesas text painted across photos with photoshop and illustratorsoftware. Search engines can't read text on images and thatimage "Alt" text in the HTML is no longer useful in SEO sinceit has been so badly abused by simplistic optimizers forranking gains before the search engines began to ignore it intheir ranking algorithm. The new page may initially see sales increases due to thepretty new photos (there is zero text on that new page) butafter a long series of email exchanges with this client and afinal phone discussion over ranking issues, he proceeded withthis change anyway. I normally don't hope for poor rankings onclient pages, but since this one runs counter to every fiberof my SEO being, I'm actually looking forward to that torpedostriking and the ranking to sink off the charts and the clientto pay attention to his SEO's advice. The old page is still showing up in cached pages at the searchengines, so they haven't yet crawled the new version. I willdutifully point out the sinking of the venerable "SS SearchEngine Ranking" ship next week when Googlebot revisits thisclient site and finds all that text has disappeared from hispreviously #1 ranked page and suggest to him that he reviewhis WebTrends traffic reports to see that it has settled tothe bottom of the ocean. I guess I better get busy finding a way to rank the previous(old optimized) page on the brand new shiny filename. Won't hebe surprised to learn that most of his sales come from that(newly named) "old dusty page" within a few weeks? Copyright © September 3, 2005 Have you done anything to torpedo and sink your ship "SSSearch Engine Rankings" lately? Call me at 562-572-9702 if youneed a salvage operation to raise that venerable ship from thebottom of the vast search engine rankings ocean. http://www.seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htmMike Banks Valentine operates the article distribution sitehttp://Publish101.com and a Small Business EcommerceTutorial for Web Entreprenuers at http://WebSite101.com
MORE RESOURCES: Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting |
RELATED ARTICLES
Getting To Know Google Having greatly benefited from my relationship with Google in the past several years, I am dedicating this article to the search engine superstar.I have to be brutally honest and relay that our friendship hasn't always been rosy. Things You Must Realize When Searching For the uninitiated, searching for web pages can seem a slow, obscure process. Unless you have a high-speed Internet connection, web pages may seem to take days to load. Stay In The Know With Google SMS The Short Messaging Service (SMS) from Google sends short, quick, text answers in response to your queries from an SMS-enabled mobile device, such as a cell phone. For example, you can look up phone numbers and addresses of local restaurants, do local phone book searches, compare prices from online merchants in Froogle to those you find in local stores, even look up definitions of words from the dictionary. Soliciting Search Engines As your guide operator through the web, search engines are invaluable when used effectively.You don't have to be able to create a search engine to use it, and their interface is designed with that in mind. LSI and Link Popularity When Paypal's official Web site no longer ranked #1 in Google on a search for "paypal," it was obvious that Google had become more aggressive in penalizing sites with "unnatural" backlink anchor text. Although the high-profile Paypal example has since been rectified, thousands of webmasters are suffering the consequences of not ranking for even their official company name, let alone their top keywords. Is This A "DMOZ Killer" In The Making? Is building a Human-Edited Fully "Democratic" Search Directory Possible?The independent creators of the non-profit "BuildtheHive" (www.BuildtheHive. These 7 Back Link Strategies Will Get You a Top Ranking on Google Guaranteed Google use a very complex function to determine which search results to return, Google is always changing and Modifying that function to better Serve the Search Engine User. The one constant is quality back links. Cracking the Google Code: Under the GoogleScope Google's sweeping changes confirm the search giant has launched a full out assault against artificial link inflation & declared war against search engine spam in a continuing effort to provide the best search service in the world? and if you thought you cracked the Google Code and had Google all figured out ? guess again.Google has raised the bar against search engine spam and artificial link inflation to unrivaled heights with the filing of a United States Patent Application 20050071741 on March 31, 2005. SEO Facts The internet is the largest market place on earth. It offers unparalleled access to an international base of consumers - and referrers. Search Engine Optimization: Who Do You Trust? Internet search engines exist to organize the seemingly immeasurable amount of information available on the web. They direct people to pages that are relevant to their searches, pages that discuss the exact keywords they are looking for. Search Engines The Masters Of The Internet Universe - Part 3 This is part three of the article series and deals with the paid inclusion and organic search results from search engines.We touched on the topic of Kibitzing in the last part, now we will deal with some of the new concepts in search engine submission namely Paid Inclusion and Sponsored Results. Google Ranking WITHOUT Ever Submitting To Google! A while back, I read an article that explained how to get a good google rating without ever submitting your site to their submission forms. Like you, I was kind of shocked by this statement so I decided to give it a try. How To Avoid The 3 Biggest Title Tag Mistakes With Search Engines Your title tag is the most important 3 to 12 words on your Web page. It accounts for up to 80% of your rankings on search engines. SEO #1: Choosing THE Keywords to Optimize for This is the first lesson out of 6 that teaches you the most important elements of search engine optimization. You should read one of these 6 courses EVERY day so that you can have enough time to "digest" all the information and put them to the test. Promoting Home Business: Tips to Increase Web Site Sales You've selected an appropriate Online Business Opportunity. That is not ALL!To run a successful online ecommerce Home business, getting the targetted users to visit your site and converting them into customers is the first and foremost thing. Good Content: The Key To Search Engine Ranking Good Content: The Key To Search Engine RankingWhat drives visitors to your website and keeps them there? Good content.Content is KeyGood content is key to website promotion success. How to Pick an SEO Firm If you're looking for an SEO firm, we recommend that you weigh 10 factors that can save you trouble down the road.1. SEO Expert Guide - Black Hat SEO - Activities to avoid (part 8/10) In parts 1 - 7, you learnt how to develop your proposition, identify your key words and optimize and promote (for free) your site and pages on the world's search engines. You were also introduced to our mythical Doug (who sells antique doors, door handles, knockers, door bells or pulls and fitting services) in Windsor in the UK. SEO Expert Guide - Keyword Analysis (part 3/10) If you imagine that building an optimized site is like cooking a meal, then keywords are the essential ingredients. Would you attempt to cook a complex new dish without first referring to a recipe? Would you start before you had all the ingredients available and properly prepared?In our analogy, key words are your ingredients and the rest of the guide (after this part) is your recipe. 10 Quick Ways To Kick-Start Your Profit Pulling Keywords First, you must realize that targeting the right keywords or phrases is the 'key' to making any kind of profit from your site. Choosing the 'right' keywords (the exact keyword or phrase surfers type into the search engines to find yoursite or product) can make or break your online venture. |
home | site map | contact us |