Come Dine at the Search Engine and Marketing Smorgasbord

If you are like me, you may spend a bit too much time trying to keep up with the latest industry news and trends regarding search engines optimization and marketing. It’s certainly fair to say there is an avalanche of information out there with more added each day. As such, when I read about recently released Pipes, a feed aggregator (and manipulator) from Yahoo!, I thought it may be a more efficient way to keep up on the latest articles and research.

What Pipes allows you to do is get a bunch of different data feeds and create a mashup. Now you can get really creative with these such as combining several feeds, finding posts with a high number of views or comments, filter out duplicates, and show only the first 50 posts such as this mashup of digg, del.ico.us, reddit and slashdot. What I wanted to do was bring together some of the top SEO and Marketing blogs and put them all in one place for busy merchants to read. So here is the feed I put together called the Search Engine Smörgåsbord, one part search engine optimization, one part online marketing, spiced liberally with comments, and served fresh.

So what blogs are included? I pulled the top SEO blogs from Search Engine Journal’s top SEO blogs of 2006.*

• SEOmoz
• SERoundtable
• SEOBook
• Stuntdubl
• SEO by the Sea

Then I added top online marketing blogs pulled from Todd And’s Power 150 list. I didn’t pull the exact top five blogs here, but rather five that I felt had a lot of posts which would benefit small business owners/marketers.

• Duct Tape Marketing
• Copyblogger
• PronetAdvertising
• MarketingProfs Daily Fix
• Online Marketing Blog

So if this sounds interesting you can subscribe to the Search Engine Smörgåsbord and read the aggregated posts from the above blogs in your favorite newsreader. Now before you cry out in stunned disbelief and set your fingers flying to post a comment that I left out dozens of notable and worthy blogs in each category realize this—it’s only a starting point. The best part about Pipes is it is collaborative. You can edit my list to remove feeds or add feeds as you see fit. If you do, come back and post the link to your pipe and why you added particular blogs. In short, what dish are you bringing to the Smörgåsbord?

Also, and perhaps quite importantly, I recommend visiting each of the above sites and spending time there to read the archives and full-length articles. The blogs will keep you up on the latest news, but you should really peruse them in their natural environment so to speak to get the full benefit of them.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

* Astute observers will note Matt’s absence from the list despite his presence in the top 5. This is not to discount Matt’s contribution to understanding search engines (which is massive and highly beneficial). Rather, this is more an acknowledgment that his blog is not specifically about SEO in the way that the others are, and more so that he is like EF Hutton—when he talks, people listen. As such, most of you likely have his blog bookmarked already.

Got a lunch date today (12/1/06)?

If not, you may wish to take advantage of a free webinar on search engine optimization (and other helpful topics) for Yahoo! stores offered tomorrow at 1pm (EST) by Rob Snell, author of Starting a Yahoo! Business for Dummies and Michael Whitaker of Monitius. Check out Rob’s site for more information about where to sign up or read our newsletter article for more information about training webinars available to merchants.

If you can’t make it tomorrow, then you can take advantage of the ongoing free webinars offered by Solid Cactus, who have classes for both beginner and advanced merchants. Check out the Solid Cactus event site for more information. You can also refer to the calendar of events on this blog.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

New feature: Yahoo! Site Explorer Authentication

Are you looking for information on how your store pages are indexed by Yahoo! Search? Register and authenticate your store with Yahoo! Site Explorer to get detailed information about search activities on your Yahoo! Store.

What is Yahoo! Site Explorer

Site Explorer is a tool that lets you access the information Yahoo! has in our search index about a site’s online presence. You can see which sites and subpages are indexed by Yahoo! Search, track sites that link into your pages, and view the most popular pages from any site.

Use Site Explorer to:

• Find which subpages within a URL are indexed by Yahoo!.
• Find pages that link to that site or any page. (inlinks)
• Submit and track feeds for your sites.

More info on Yahoo! Site Explorer

What do I need to do?

Register your Yahoo! Store:

1. Sign in to Yahoo! Site Explorer and register your Yahoo! store.
2. Once your store has been registered, click the Authenticate button to obtain your alpha-numeric filename and contents.
   (e.g. Filename: y_key_7abe9b660c327bb1.html, File contents: b171066591908be4)

Authenticate your Yahoo! Store:

1. Open a new browser window and go to Yahoo! Small Business.
2. Sign in to your Store Manager and click the Search Engines link under the Promote Section.
3. In the Authenticate with Yahoo! Site Explorer section, enter the alpha-numeric Filename and File Contents that you have obtained from Site Explorer.
4. After clicking Done, publish your Order Settings.

Tell Site Explorer Your Store is ready to Authenticate:

• Return to Site Explorer, and click Ready to Authenticate. Site Explorer will then check for the authentication file within 24 hours and your site should be authenticated. Learn more.

Yahoo! Site Explorer contains many valuable features for site owners. Take advantage of these tools by registering and authenticating your Yahoo! store today.

Duncan Shen
Yahoo! Small Business

Yahoo! Store CAPTION Linking Secrets

Yahoo! Store CAPTION Linking Secrets:

Rob Snell, long-time Yahoo! Store owner and developer, provides another chunky blog post, this time about good captions. Rob blogs about Yahoo! Store, speaks at search conferences about Yahoo! Store, is the author of a new book on Yahoo! Store: Starting a Yahoo! Business For Dummies, and conducts Yahoo! Store internet marketing workshops from time to time. So pour yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy.–Paul

Make your Yahoo! Store easier to navigate with simple text links sprinkled throughout your CAPTION fields (the text field where you put product descriptions). These hyperlinks help shoppers and have amazing SEO benefits.

Take a look at Wikipedia to see a great example of a site with well-done internal links. Whenever the text references anything that has another Wikipedia listing (usually any noun), that word or phrase is hyperlinked to that page. Here’s an example of a Wikipedia page with tons of links using my favorite animal: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wombat

OK. In this post, I’m going to show you how I write CAPTIONS on section pages and how I link ‘em up to benefit shoppers and search engines! Let’s get started!

Maximize CAPTION Fields on Section Pages

First, section pages need well-written CAPTION text fields to educate your shoppers. This CAPTION text is really for shoppers, but search engine ‘bots love them too. Your CAPTIONS should tell folks what products they should buy and why they should buy them. Sometimes retailers have great product descriptions, but almost no text on their section pages. ACK! What a waste of valuable Web real estate!

Here’s why you need to maximize CAPTION fields on your section pages:

• Section pages typically get more page views than product pages do. The average visitor to your site will probably see more sections pages than product pages, so take advantage of this.
• Section pages can keep folks on your site. Provide shoppers with the information they need to buy the products they want.
• Section pages usually have more link popularity than product pages. It’s easier to optimize sections to rank better in search engines.

If you want to see which of your section pages are getting the most page views, go to the STORE MANAGER, and click on the PAGE VIEWS link under the STATISTICS heading.

TIP: Spend most of your time tweaking the section pages that feature products that make you the most money. Start with your most valuable sections and work your way down the list. If you only have time to optimize three or four pages, you’ll get the most bang for your buck if you start at the top of the list.

Put Links Inside CAPTION Text Where it Makes Sense

Links in CAPTION fields make it easier for folks to shop your site and for search engines to know what your site is about. As you probably know, a link is a clickable hypertext reference (a word or an image) that directs you to another Web resource, usually another HTMLWeb page.

Here are some things you need to know about links:

• Whenever you mention anything in the CAPTION text that has its own page, make that text a link to that page so shoppers can click to learn more about what you’re talking about.
• Any time you refer to another type of product in your CAPTION text, link that word or phrase to the most relevant product on your site for that term.
• Link to products, sub-sections, shop by manufacturer pages, product FAQ pages, buyers’ guides, product comparison charts or virtually any other pages on your site that educate users.
• Use relevant keyword phrases as words in the link text (a.k.a. anchor text) because it makes more sense for the reader. Don’t link with the words click here.
• Keywords inside the link text (anchor text) help search engines figure out what the linked page is about, sometimes called reputation analysis.

Now that you know a little bit more about links, I’ll give you an example of some text in a CAPTION field on a section page, and how I link the keywords in the text to the most relevant page for each keyword phrase.

For example, let’s say you sell the latest high-end wombat fashions and wombat grooming products. On your wombat shampoos section page, write three or four sentences describing the various types of shampoos you sell, the brands you sell, what the best selling products are, what problems these products solve and list other related products. Link each of these phrases to the most relevant page. You can also link to buyers’ guides and FAQ pages.

Here’s an example of a keyword-loaded CAPTION:

Everyone loves a wonderful-smelling wombat. Browse our wide selection of wombat cleaners & wombat shampoos. Not sure what to buy? Check out Wilber’s “How to Wash Your Wombat” and “Wombat Grooming FAQ.” More folks buy 100% all-natural WOMBAT WASH (shampoo & conditioner) than anything else. After washing your wombat, groom your pet with specialty wombat brushes, blow driers, and styling gels.

How many words in the above CAPTION could you turn into links? Here’s how I would link up my CAPTION. This is what it would look like on the Web:

Everyone loves a wonderful-smelling wombat! Browse our wide selection of wombat cleaners & wombat shampoos. Not sure what to buy? Check out Wilber’s “How to Wash Your Wombat” and “Wombat Grooming FAQ.” More folks buy 100% all-natural WOMBAT WASH (shampoo & conditioner) than anything else. After washing your wombat, groom your pet with specialty wombat brushes, blow driers, and styling gels.

Notice how some links are bold (to draw attention). I use the strong tag <strong></strong> which works like a bold tag, but also tells the search engine that the words inside the tag are important. Here’s the code:

<strong><a href=id-of-page.html>keyword anchor text here</a></strong>

Here’s the HTML code which assumes page1.html is about wombat cleaners, page2.html is about wombat shampoos, etc.:

<strong>Everyone loves a wonderful-smelling wombat</strong>! Browse our wide selection of <strong><a href=page1.html>wombat cleaners</a></strong> & <strong><a href=page2.html>wombat shampoos</a></strong>. Not sure what to buy? Check out Wilber’s “<a href=page3.html>How to Wash Your Wombat</a>” and “<a href=page4.html>Wombat Grooming FAQ</a>.” More folks buy 100% <strong><a href=page5.html>all-natural WOMBAT WASH</a></strong> (shampoo & conditioner) than anything else. After washing your wombat, groom your pet with specialty <a href=page6.html>wombat brushes</a>, <a href=page7.html>blow driers</a>, and <a href=page8.html>styling gels</a>.

Here are a few more things you might need to know to make CAPTION links:

CAPTION: The CAPTION field is a text field on a page made in STORE EDITOR where you can type the description for items and section pages. The CAPTION field accepts limited HTML code. To add or edit text in a CAPTION, sign in to your STORE EDITOR, browse to the page you want to edit, and click the EDIT button. Make the changes you want and click the Update button to see your edits. Remember to PUBLISH your store when you’re ready for your customers to see your work.

Link (or hyperlink): A clickable word or image that moves your browser to another page.

Anchor Text / Link Text: The words inside a link. This clickable text is sometimes shown in a blue font and is underlined.

Anchor Tag: The HTML code that makes a word or image a clickable link. The code looks like this:

<a href=pagename.html>anchor text</a>

Relative Path URL: This is a relative path URL:<a href=pagename.html>link text</a>. Notice how the URL in the HREF only specifies pagename.html. This link assumes you are already on a page somewhere on a domain. A relative path link will move you from where you are to that new page.

Relative URLS work both in STORE EDITOR and on the published site because they move you to pagename.html, whether to
http://us-f1-edit.store.yahoo.com/RT/NEWEDIT.youraccountname/pagename.html or http://www.yourdomain.com/pagename.html on the Published site.

Absolute Path URL: This is an absolute path URL:<a href=http://www.yourdomain.com/pagename.html>link text</a>. Notice how the HREF specifies the domain and the pagename.html. This link assumes nothing and moves you to the exact location specified in the URL. Absolute URLS don’t work in STORE EDITOR because they “boot you out” to the Published site.

I prefer to use relative path URLs on my stores because I like using my CAPTION links to navigate when I’m in the STORE EDITOR.

Good luck writing effective CAPTION text and linking pages on your Web site!

Rob
guest blogger for Yahoo! Small Business