November
9, 2005
In This Issue:
1. Google - The Jagger Update
2. In the News - YSM update, Blog threats, Design
choices
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - Buying text links
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Google - The Jagger Update
If you're a SERP-watcher, have you checked how
your site is doing in Google this week? You might
want to if you haven't -- changes from the so-called
"Jagger" update appear to be rolling
out. For my part, I'm seeing some areas of improvement
in the SERPs and some problems. On the good side,
the authority sites for many searches are ranking
at the top where they should be; i.e. - the web
site of a product's creator is the #1 site, and
the retailers/distributors are now below that.
On the bad side, I'm seeing some links to news
articles and even Craigslist classified ads appearing
in places they probably shouldn't appear.
If you do take a look, whether you like what you
see or not, I would suggest you sit tight for
a while. It's near impossible to analyze anything
when the dust hasn't settled yet. Give it a couple
weeks and see what happens, and start your analysis
and decision-making then. And, as always, don't
put all your eggs in Google's basket. You can't
build a solid business by expecting and relying
on free advertising from a search engine. They
can, and will, change their algorithms without
warning.
If you want to learn more about the Jagger update
and what people are saying, there are literally
dozens of places you can do so. But I'll link
to Search Engine Watch, where Danny Sullivan has
a good overall recap with links to recommended
reading.
Search Engine Watch blog: Google
Jagger update
_________________
In The News
Yahoo lowers the bar some more
Just two Net Gains ago I mentioned that Yahoo
had just killed off its $20/month minimum spend
on buying pay-per-click ads in an attempt to sweeten
the Yahoo Search Marketing program for small business
owners. And now the bar is lowered even further
as Yahoo has just cut its account deposit from
$30 to $5 for U.S. advertisers -- the same price
you have to pay to open up a Google AdWords account.
So now you really have no excuse not to try YSM,
aside from the fact that the minimum bid-per-click
is still 10 cents. (It's a nickel with AdWords.)
Yahoo
Search Marketing
Blog threats to business
A recent article in The Guardian (UK) newspaper
quoted a survey which suggested that nearly two-thirds
of businesses are unaware of the threat to their
business and reputation posed by unhappy customers
or ex-employees posting on blogs. Seth Godin writes
about this a lot - the fact that there is a conversation
going on out there amongst your customers and
potential customers, you really need to be aware
of it, and part of it. And Search Engine Watch
has a good article about using search for managing
your reputation online.
Using
Search for Public Relations & Reputation Management
Web design choices
A List Apart has a good article this week about
the need for A/B testing on web site designs.
The article uses an example web page and I have
to admit that the design I liked best was not
the one that produced the most sales. Sigh....
A List Apart: Design
choices can cripple a web site
_________________
More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time
to read. These are just some of the headlines
we've posted to OWTweb.com in recent days.
Get
results with Google AdWords
November 07, 2005 - ClickZ.com
A new book by the leading authority on Google
AdWords can help you reach your SEM goals.
'Googlewashing'
makes your site invisible
November 04, 2005 - InternetNews.com
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Matt,
We are considering buying text links to increase
exposure for our web site via search engines like
Google and Yahoo. We understand it's a better
way to advertise than with graphical banner ads.
Have you ever done this, and can it actually help
us rank higher?
Thanks for your time,
Dan
Hi Dan,
I have investigated the buying of text links for
clients of ours, but I haven't made the actual
purchase for them, nor have I ever had any reason
to buy text links for myself on a personal level.
This is something that's debated fairly regularly
on webmaster and SEO forums -- do purchased text
links help you rank higher in the SERPs? Surely
they can help you, but there's a lot of discussion
over how good the SEs are at separating a purchased
link from a non-purchased link. If you've been
following Net Gains for some time, you probably
know that Google and other SEs are able to give
more weight to links which appear *in the body
content* of a web page. The text link you purchase
will likely be placed on the periphery of the
page - at the top, or maybe on one of the sides.
It's easy for a computer to analyze page content
and locate where the main body content is and
where the "extra" stuff is. So buying
a text link may help your rankings, but how much
(if at all) may depend to some degree on A) the
page and site it's appearing on, and B) where
exactly on the page(s) it will be placed.
That said, even if it doesn't help your SE ranking,
buying text links on sites that your customers
are likely to visit can be a very effective form
of advertising in its own right. So don't just
think about the search engine benefits when making
your decision.
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
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Wrapping it Up
That's it for this week. I hope business is treating
you well. Please send in any questions we can
help with - the email address is above!
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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