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Domain Name Keyword Importance

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Keywords in domain names have very little importance in actual ranking calculations – that’s been the case for years now. The positive effects people see are a consequence of sites linking to the domain using the URL as anchor text – link text containing keywords is what helps the domain rank, not the actual appearance of the keyword in the domain name.

It’s a common mistake SEOs make – differentiating between “direct” ranking factors and “indirect” ranking factors is very important. People just tend to make the wrong assosciations – they optimise a keyword domain site and see it rank for the keyword and assume that this is down to the keyword in the domain. It isn’t.

The strength of keywords in domains is very easy to test. Find a keyword with mild competition (say anywhere from 500k +), buy the domain, stick a page up with content that doesn’t mention the keyword (nowhere in the body copy, title, etc). Then link to the site from another site using the text “click here”.

If the appearance of keywords in the domain name were so important, then the domain would rank well. But it won’t. That’s because it used to work (circa 2002, 2003) and Google SERPs were filled with spammy keyword domains hosting scraper sites so Google heavily devalued the impact keywords in domain names.

Think about it logically. If this was such an important factor – i.e. more important than any other SEO factor as people are saying – why would Google allow this? A keyword in a domain says nothing about the quality of the content on the site – it’s something that anyone can manipulate in an instant and at very low cost.

BobsWidgets.com ranks well for “widgets” because people link to it using the text, “Bobs Widgets”. There’s a reason that marketing.com, seo.com, searchengineoptimisation.com, travel.com, food.com, etc aren’t number 1 for their respective keywords – that reason is that they have uncompetitive levels of keyword inbound link text compared to their competitors and the domain name is largely irrelevant.

That’s just the “pure SEO ranking” value however. You need to also look at other types of value that can come from keywords in domains –  it makes link building easier – people link to the site using keywords more often so rankings can come quicker because of that.

But look at the issue in a larger context – sure having “widgets” in your domain name will help you rank faster because people link to it saying “widgets”. But widgets isn’t your only keyword is it? What about the dozens, hundreds or thousands of other keywords you want to target? The appearance of “widgets” in the domain name doesn’t help them in the slightest.

For those reasons, overall keyword in domain names have very low value to even small campaigns and the overall value decreases as your campaign increases.

Personally, I wouldn’t even rank the value of this factor in my top 10 – it’s inconsequential to a SEO campaign where even a made up word as domain name (i.e. a brand) can achieve the same success just as easily.

There’s also an issue of image. I guess many people won’t realise and this is probably less and less of an issue as time passes, but there was a time when keyword domains were synonymous with spam (because as I said, spammers used to buy up keyword domains and throw up spam sites because they used to rank well because of the keyword in the domain). Personally, I ignore link requests and business requests from keyword domains for that reason – this may be the exception rather than the rule, but I believe there are probably a good percentage of website owners who feel the same.

And then the marketing issues. You spend loads of money on SEO for edinburghwidgets.com just for someone else to go ahead a buy up glasgowwidgets.com or buyedinburghwidgets.com and legally there’s nothing you can do about it – and there’s a decent chance they will outrank you and capitialise on any marketing efforts you are making. Why would you risk that as a business when you can optimise “abrand.com” just as easily?

Keywords domains are good for some applications, but I would be seriously concerned if a legitimate business wanted to spend money developing a keyword domain for their core business solely on the belief it will help them rank better.

By Scott Boyd

Giving Props To Essential SEO

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The basics never go out of style

Search engine optimization covers an array of topics, from a decent title tag to the world of viral video and social media connections. It’s the basics that matter most

If you spend much time online, there’s a good chance you have a greater affinity for technology than the average person. Something new comes along, and you’re looking for a reason to give it a try. It’s fun, and it could be rewarding too.

Lisa Barone looked at the current state of search marketing and SEO, courtesy of Andrew Goodman’s assessment of SEO and recent trends. There’s a lot of curiosity and love for the latest and greatest ways to attract attention, she noted:

There may be great value in spending the time and money creating Facebook applications, toying with viral YouTube videos, and seeing if MySpace is filled with anything other than strippers and bands, but that often comes with an awfully low return on investment compared to the traditional stuff.

All the latest technologies have their place. In a number of examples, social media and viral videos brought tremendous attention to their points of interest.

Such potential should not be ignored, but Barone cautioned against getting too caught up in them. Content building, link development, and researching analytics for trends and necessary adjustments may not be the flavor of the month.

But like a vanilla cone, they still deliver what people really want when things get hot.

 By David A. Utter

Sixty-Five Percent of Small Businessse Say ‘Following Up With Leads’ Biggest Failure in Marketing Efforts

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Leads Going Cold Seen as Biggest Gap, According to Infusionsoft Survey

PHOENIX, AZ (May 14, 2008)—Surveying the landscape of small businesses across the U.S., and amid concerns over the need to grow sales while reducing expenses, small business owners say the number one frustration they face daily when it comes to sales and marketing is the inability to consistently follow up with prospects. In a survey of entrepreneurs across the U.S. conducted by small business marketing automation software provider Infusionsoft, 65 percent of small business owners cite an inability to consistently and efficiently follow up with leads as the top concern.

The survey indicates a growing frustration among small business owners and marketers with closing an immediate sale, saying that they forget the nurturing process and instead let leads simmer. Small businesses increasingly seek a way to automatically capture and court leads until they are ready to buy, thus allowing the business owner to work on strategically growing the business.

Infusionsoft, a leader in marketing automation software for small businesses, reports that small businesses want to send more email to customers and prospects, capture information from web visitors, prospects, and then automatically follow up with those people.

The following is a list of the top 10 marketing-related frustrations as cited by small business owners in the 2008 U.S. Small Business Marketing Frustration Survey (ranked in order of importance):

  1. Too difficult to follow up with cold, warm and lukewarm leads consistently and efficiently
  2. Can’t properly track and manage prospects and customers
  3. Need to integrate online and offline marketing efforts
  4. Poor email deliverability
  5. Too much manual grunt work in the sales and marketing process, no automation
  6. Can’t track sales activity
  7. Lack of centralization, too many different programs and systems
  8. Too costly to maintain servers and IT staff
  9. Too difficult to manually manage multichannel campaigns
  10. One-dimensional marketing

The survey asked small business owners across the country to choose their top marketing-related issues from a list and then rank them in order of importance, recording results from 1,000 respondents. Infusionsoft conducted the survey via email and phone to organizations with 2-100 employees from January 1, 2008 through April 30, 2008.

“These findings are telling for understanding the challenges a small business owner faces,” said Clate Mask, President and CEO, Infusionsoft. “Small business owners are trying to figure out how to make their marketing more effective amid the reality of smaller marketing budgets, limited time to manage campaigns, smaller organizational infrastructure, and longer to-do lists. So these results are eye-opening to understand just how simple, yet real their daily frustrations are with converting more leads into sales.”

Automation of marketing and processes enables the small business to convert more leads into customers, grow the business without the need to grow staff, and increase sales from existing customers.

Automated Follow-Up Marketing for Small Business
Marketing automation software from Infusionsoft is built for small businesses. The web-based software allows small businesses to track contact details, capture leads automatically from their websites, send emails, execute multi-step and multi-channel campaigns, distribute leads to salespeople, and create orders and fulfillment tasks. Infusionsoft is capable of handling prospect and customer marketing communications, from one-off emails to complex multi-step, multi-channel campaigns that would be nearly impossible for an individual or group of individuals to do without an automated system.

“The benefits of marketing automation are huge,” said Mask. “It’s the difference between having a struggling small business that is just going day to day, trying to make a go of it and on the other hand rapid, consistent growth and really building a much stronger business that doesn’t require the business owner to be at the center of it.”

About Infusionsoft
Infusionsoft, the leader in marketing automation software for small businesses, is revolutionizing the way small businesses grow. There are 10 million small businesses in America that need an easy-to-use, affordable, powerful software solution that increases sales while freeing up their time. The company’s follow-up marketing software answers that need by helping small businesses automatically convert more prospects to customers, get repeat sales, and grow their business without growing staff. The privately-held, Inc 500 company, based in Gilbert, Arizona is funded by Mohr Davidow Ventures. For more information, visit www.infusionsoft.com.

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Design It Yourself Or Hire A Pro?

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Whether you should design that website yourself or hire a professional web designer depends on several very important factors. One of the most important things to consider is the level of expertise that you or your employees have in the necessary web technology needed to create an attractive, professional looking website that functions the way you want it to be. The decision whether or not to do it yourself comes down to your skill levels, the features you want or need, the image you want to project for your web site and the amount of time you have to devote to building the website. Read more

Craig Tanner Freelance

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Let’s talk about Craig Tanner (random name). Craig Tanner is a freelancer who tries to make a living by offering his service to others. Craig Tanner is a very gifted graphic designer. If you need a graphic job to be done, Craig is the right person to deliver it.

So…what is so special about Craig Tanner? Why is he worth this special attention? Well… he’s not. I would like to use Craig Tanner’s story as an example why you, a freelancer, who is willing to succeed in the endless WWW world, should learn Craig Tanner’s mistakes and hope to avoid them.

It’s not enough to be a gifted web designer like Craig Tanner indeed is. It’s not enough to have remarkable control with Photoshop, Illustrator and other well branded graphic design software. It’s not enough to have a polished website where you can show off some of your previous design works. It’s not enough to be creative and to be able to come up with several different designs within only a few hours of work. Those are the basics. Most of the graphic designers that I know can do at least 80% of what I’ve just mentioned. The same as Craig Tanner, he knows the job extremely well.

However what Craig Tanner does not know is how to handle customers. Unfortunately, many like Craig do not know the art of customer relations. A happy customer is more than a customer. A happy customer is your best sales force, as opposed to an unsatisfied customer which is the worst freelance business enemy you can find. Sometimes it’s better not to get in an argument with your customers and even to lose some money, just to keep them as happy as possible. You never know what will be in next day. He might need your help with more jobs or might even recommend your services to his colleagues.

Try to think as a buyer. One of the biggest mistakes freelancers do is NOT putting themselves in the buyer’s shoes. Do not act like a robot. Give a personal touch with everything related to the webmaster that is looking for you, the freelancer, to be found and picked. When Craig Tanner bids on a project, he always uses the same words in his text. That’s the worst thing to do. You have to give the webmaster a good feeling about your service. You have to send a message that’s implying: “I read your needs. Here is my custom solution”. Webmasters are looking for any kind of a hint to disclose if the freelancer can be trusted. The assumption is simple: whoever bids on a project claims that he can handle it. Then how does the webmaster choose at the end with whom to work with? Don’t get me wrong, it’s not always the lowest price who wins the projects. Most of the time it’s the way to approach the project.

The delivery date is very important. As a freelancer you have to keep in mind that your time is a valuable commodity. Do not take projects that are way beyond your capability. You will find that from a matter of time consuming your profit will be much less for those kind of projects. Alliteratively do not give a delivery date that will not leave you any room for mistakes or unpredictable delays. The webmaster is not watching your work. He does not know if you are in front of your computer or playing outside with your children. He probably does not care. What he really cares about is that you will deliver the work exactly as you committed to. I found that in most cases this is one of the key factors for a freelancer to get contact again by a webmaster.

Now that you know something about Craig Tanner’s mistakes, I hope you will adopt my advice and do your best to avoid them. Try this advice for a small period of time. I am sure that you will find a big improvement with your income. Give it a thought.

About the Author:
Warren Baker is an Internet business consultant for WebDesigners123.

http://articles.webdesigners123.com/craig-tanner-freelance.php

Creating Great Design Takes Guts

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Daring to be different can give instant boost to market share

By Mary Zalla

The word is out: Great design delivers great business advantage. Design is being increasingly leveraged to move and shape markets, attract customers, and help differentiate among competing products and services. Read more

Common Sense Sustainability: A Better View of the Trenches

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By Dennis Salazar

How green is green enough?…and how committed does a company have to be in terms of dollars and cents to be a good eco-citizen?…and can an environmentally conscious public raise their sustainable requirements so high that it becomes economically unfeasible for companies to even attempt to meet them?

Some may call it selling out, compromising, or even “sustainability lite,” but I believe in a realistic, common sense approach to sustainability. I am convinced sustainability in the packaging world will be best accomplished with what can be a very delicate, and at times uncomfortable, coexistence of determination and patience.

I believe we have to accept that while we move toward absolute standards and consistent definitions, today to a certain degree we live with “subjective sustainability,” in the sense that others’ ideas of what is sustainable or even eco-friendly may not be identical to our own. I also believe it is good and even wise to applaud the smallest steps as long as they are in the right direction. Ironically, it is really not much different than the way we cheer and celebrate a child’s first unsteady—but usually very enthusiastic—steps in life.

A taste for waste?

Whether we are talking about spoiled consumers or gluttonous companies, we are conditioned to feed to excess and to be the world’s greatest consumer of resources. None of us was tattooed at birth with “born to kill….the environment,” and I doubt anyone will ever prove that we suffer from a genetic predisposition for environmental recklessness. Being incredibly wasteful does, however, appear to be a learned skill and we have all become darn good at it.

From a packaging perspective, the solution is really not all that difficult to understand: utilize better, more earth friendly materials (production); use less of those materials (application); and know how you are going to utilize or process them in the end (disposal).

When you cut through the details, biases, and opinions, that is really all it comes down to. Then why is sustainability proving to be such a difficult task? Is it because for a very, very long time, we have enjoyed tremendous prosperity that allowed us to have little regard for what we take out of our earth and even less care for what we put back into it in terms of waste?

How many environmentalists does it take to shift a paradigm?

It sounds like a terrific opening line for a late night TV joke but it is a legitimate question. I spoke to a friend of the cause earlier today and she referred to sustainability as not a movement but a dramatic, tremendous paradigm shift—and she is right. What we are asking consumers and companies to do is so far from what they have always done, we have to understand that this is going to take some time.

For benefit of the impatient zealots out there: No, I am not talking about decades but let’s assume it may take a few years! Let’s also accept and understand that such a dramatic reversal in behavior is going to be painful for everyone concerned. It is going to be excruciating for those people going through the change, as well as for the ones impatiently observing their slow forward progress. All I can say is the obvious. The environment did not get into this awful condition overnight and the solution is probably going to take a little longer than any of us would like.

According to the Old Testament and the Ten Commandments movie, the Israelites who escaped from Pharaoh, after losing faith and behaving very badly, were forced to roam the desert until the sinful generation had died. Then and only then was the new, faithful generation allowed to enter the beloved Promised Land. Having crossed the magical threshold of 50 several years ago, I am definitely not suggesting accelerating the Baby Boomers’ departure. I am, however, suggesting a little common sense and understanding. Environmentally, we have all behaved very badly. But with a lot of hard work, and a little patience, this much needed cleansing process will hopefully not take a generation to accomplish.

An Open and Closed Case, Or a New Trend in Soda Cans?

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By Lynn Dornblaser

Depending on your perspective, a 12-oz. or 330-ml can of soda is either a quickly drunk single serving or something to consume over a period of time. Up until now, if you fell into the latter group, you were consigned to drink soda that became increasingly flatter and flatter, given that the can, once opened, cannot be reclosed.

Easy auf and zu

However, for those consumers in Germany who are looking for portability from their metal cans, there ‘s a new package to help answer that need. Coca-Cola is now offering (in Germany only) a regular Coke can with a resealable swiveling closure. A sticker on the plastic closure is marked “open” and “close” (“auf” and “zu”), with a directional arrow. On the side of the can is another diagram with a three step explanation.

Consumers push the tab “auf” to expose the opening and contents of the can. After drinking or pouring (drinking from the can is a bit challenging, given the placement and size of the opening), consumers can then push in the direction of “zu” to close the can so that the contents can be finished another time.

This is the first time we have seen this closure on any package. The design company, 4Sight Innovation, based in The Netherlands, currently does not have the special closure on other products, but no doubt we ‘ll be seeing it more in the future. Coke is selling the cans individually in stores in Germany.

Reclosing markets

We would guess that this closure (especially on carbonated soft drinks) is one that has the best potential in Europe rather than in North America. That conclusion comes from the assumption that U.S. consumers are a bit more likely to drink an entire can at one sitting—or in one gulp!

While this package is not the first reclosable aluminum can on the market, it is the first to use this type of closure and the first in a standard 330-ml size. The others we have seen on the market have all had twist-off caps and have come in much larger formats, such as Jolt Cola in a 23.5-oz. can. That larger can size with the twist-off metal cap is seen only in the U.S.

The main advantage of this can package could be its potential to stand in for plastic PET bottles. As consumers become more concerned about the environment, and as talk about recyclability continues to grow, we have seen grumblings among consumers and in the press about the benefits of recycling some materials. With aluminum being 100% recyclable and more easily sorted, adding reclosability may help to further boost cans ‘ popularity. And without a cap to keep track of or lose, efficiency-conscious consumers may respond with a gulp and a “Wow.”

http://www.packagedesignmag.com/issues/2008.01/wow.shtml

Communicating Your Needs to Your Web Designer

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Communicating with a web designer can be the most difficult part of the hiring process because you and the web designer don’t speak the same language when talking about the details of a website. This article explains how to get your ideas across to the web designer you want to hire.

Ok, so you’ve decided to hire a professional web designer to build your website. You spent some time looking for the right person. Eventually you found the right web designer that you believe will design the most “remarkable”, “extraordinary” website the internet community has yet seen.

So now what? Explaining to the web designer the layout design you have in your mind can be a very frustrating process. You will find that putting the “picture” in your mind into words can be a difficult task. Actually in most cases this is the biggest hurdle between you and the final outcome. No matter how talented the web designer is, if you can not communicate with him properly, in his own professional language, he will not be able to use his talent to achieve your design.

There are two possible situations you may face:
1. You know what content you want on the website but have no clue how to present it to the user.
2. You know what content you want on the website, and you have the layout in your mind, but you don’t know how to implement it.

In both cases you will need to explain your thoughts to the web designer. Although most people who read those lines are probably thinking that being in the second situation is better then being in the first situation. However, real life experience shows the opposite to be true. Giving a web designer the complete freedom of action regarding the web design based solely on the website content is usually a smart thing to do. You will find that explaining to the web designer what the nature of your website is, whether it’s a product that you want to sell or a hobby item, is much easier then trying to explain to him the temperate of the color schema or an undefined shape that you would like to have in the website header.

Actually for both of the situations, I would suggest you use the same approach, but with a minor modification to each situation. If you know of a website that has all the features you want or need and/or a site that looks the way you want your site to look, be sure to give the site’s url to the web designer. Doing so will give him some idea of want you want. You will both be looking at the same thing but will actually look at it from a different angle. Therefore, it may be better to give him more than one website as an example. The more websites you find that can express your feelings and/or needs, the easier it will be for web designers to understand your intention without you having to use a single “technical” term. Chances are that you won’t find a single website that has all of the feature you want. After all, if such a website already exists there would be no place for your new web site to be born. Use several websites to express the different features you want. Spend as much time as necessary until you find just the right websites to provide examples of your needs. Doing research at this stage will definitely save you a lot of time later trying to point the web designer in the right direction.

Although you are the one who needs to express your self to the web designer, you must learn to listen to him as well. When he uses technical terms, ask for their meaning. Do not finish any part of the conversation unless you are absolutely sure that both sides are on the same page. Remember that when a web designer speaks about the temperature of a color, he is not talking about the next day’s forecast.

Remember, you hired a professional web designer because you want a professional looking website and you couldn’t do it yourself. So, trust the web designer’s judgment when they tell you something you want won’t work or isn’t the best way to accomplish your goals. After all, you are paying them for their expertise. Don’t try to tell them how to do their job.

It is OK to require that a web designer gets your approval each step of the way so you can tell them if one of your goals isn’t being met. Also, if you really don’t like how something looks and want it changed, tell them immediately. Don’t wait until everything is done and then decide you don’t like it.

A final word about cost

You have agreed on what needs to be done and the web designer has given you a price quote. Simple modifications and bug fixes are usually included in the price. However, other major changes or outright revisions may or may not be included. Make sure the agreement states what is included, what constitutes a revision rather than a fix, and how many changes you can make after delivery without incurring additional costs.

About the Author:
Warren Baker is an Internet business consultant for WebDesigners123.