How to Manage Your PageRank Flow Using the “Nofollow” Tag

The official Google blog announced recognition of the the ”nofollow tag” in January of 2005. This tag did not reach awareness on a wide scale until Matt Cutts, Google’s mouthpiece to the SEO world, further clarified in his blog the many uses of this controversial link tag.

This post explains one excellent alternative use for the “nofollow” tag — helping divert “link juice” to the most important pages and give stronger link flow to improve your SEO results.What is the “Nofollow” tag?The nofollow tag tells Google spiders not to pass second generation internal or external link popularity value to the page which is being linked.

This is best applied to certain internal pages, outbound links, paid links, or pages with duplicated content. The “nofollow tag” is not to be confused with the “noindex” tag, which keeps a page out of the search engines.

An Alternative Use of the “Nofollow” TagIn a 2007 Q&A with Matt Cutts, Rand Fiskin (SEOMOZ) summarized what Cutts conveyed when asked if using the “nofollow” tag was a good tool for stopping wasted PageRank.

“Yes – webmasters can feel free to use nofollow internally to help tell Googlebot which pages they want to receive link juice from other pages.”

If you think of your website as a grapevine growing, and your PageRank as the available nutrients, you can do what grape growers do –prune the dominant vines in order for the already thriving clusters to flourish.

Once you have established what vines (pages) are producing the most fruit (SERP listings, traffic, conversions) use the “nofollow” tag to prune any pages not necessary for keyword searches. You can also “nofollow” tag to divert less relevant pages that may be competing with each other.

Some of the most common pages that are useful for your visitor and search engine trust factors, but not necessarily useful for coming up under qualified searches may include your: Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Links page, Login pages, and others.

If you are linking to these pages from your homepage, you may be leaking some value that would be better flowed to service description areas, a blog, How To articles, and other valuable content-rich pages.

Although I have known about the tag for awhile, I plan on using it a lot more in the next few months as I do my best to sculpt stronger link flow for our client websites. For many of our marketing clients we have used the most powerful SEO techniques that we know and now is the time when all the little things count.

Can you think of any other common pages that might be a candidate for the “nofollow” tag?

Google Geo Targeting Tools

Learn how Google geo-targets web sites in their search results locally, regionally, nationally and internationally - how it can help your website.

This is a great webmaster tool to help you geographically define your website(s) and interior website pages. Whether you have one website serving customers regionally/ locally or you have one or more websites serving customers throughout the US/ Internationally this tool can help you define your online marketing goals.

What this video doesn't say... Don't forget that first and foremost Google reads textual content!This is especially important for text content located in your website footer. This includes your address, city, state and the all important zip code!

Also don't forget. Google reads meta-data too!

Guidelines for Web Credibility

How can you boost your web site's credibility?

Standford has compiled 10 guidelines for building the credibility of a web site. These guidelines are based on three years of research that included over 4,500 people.

1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.
You can build web site credibility by providing third-party support (citations, references, source material) for information you present, especially if you link to this evidence. Even if people don't follow these links, you've shown confidence in your material.

2. Show that there's a real organization behind your site.
Showing that your web site is for a legitimate organization will boost the site's credibility. The easiest way to do this is by listing a physical address. Other features can also help, such as posting a photo of your offices or listing a membership with the chamber of commerce.

3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.
Do you have experts on your team? Are your contributors or service providers authorities? Be sure to give their credentials. Are you affiliated with a respected organization? Make that clear. Conversely, don't link to outside sites that are not credible. Your site becomes less credible by association.

4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.
The first part of this guideline is to show there are real people behind the site and in the organization. Next, find a way to convey their trustworthiness through images or text. For example, some sites post employee bios that tell about family or hobbies.

5. Make it easy to contact you.
A simple way to boost your site's credibility is by making your contact information clear: phone number, physical address, and email address.

6. Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).
We find that people quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone. When designing your site, pay attention to layout, typography, images, consistency issues, and more. Of course, not all sites gain credibility by looking like IBM.com. The visual design should match the site's purpose.

7. Make your site easy to use -- and useful.
We're squeezing two guidelines into one here. Our research shows that sites win credibility points by being both easy to use and useful. Some site operators forget about users when they cater to their own company's ego or try to show the dazzling things they can do with web technology.

8. Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently). People assign more credibility to sites that show they have been recently updated or reviewed.

9. Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).
If possible, avoid having ads on your site. If you must have ads, clearly distinguish the sponsored content from your own. Avoid pop-up ads, unless you don't mind annoying users and losing credibility. As for writing style, try to be clear, direct, and sincere.

10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.
Typographical errors and broken links hurt a site's credibility more than most people imagine. It's also important to keep your site up and running.

Suggested CitationFogg, B.J. (May 2002). "Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility." A Research Summary from the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab. Stanford University. www.webcredibility.org/guidelines

The Google Webmaster Help(ing) Googlers

BY JOHN HONECK
http://www.jlh-design.com/

Today I’ve been inundated with “Best of 2007” SEO, SEM, and Search blogs and sites lists. Amazingly the only mention Google got was for their Webmaster Central Blog, a quality one at that, but there is so much more information out there that Google offers us lowly webmasters.

One of the best kept secrets in the webmastering and SEO community is the Google Webmaster Help Group which is part of Google’s thriving and growing Google Webmaster Center. Unlike some much lesser but more popular forums site specific help is available and almost required to get the most information. The discussion on the group is not a matter of theoretical discussion but actual practical application. Almost daily (sometimes more, sometimes less) you will see input from actual Google employees and not mere speculation on all aspects of webmasters’ concerns and Google. Google employees can be easily spotted in the discussion by the little blue by their name.

With that being said, most people don’t have enough time to religiously follow the discussion group for the most important nuggets of knowledge and I could not find a central location that catalogued their contributions. The following is a list of the Googlers that regularly post on the help group, a link to their profile so you can find their latest posts. I’m sorry if I missed anyone,

If I did please let me know.

Adam Lasnik
Amanda Camp
Andrey Stroilov
Berghausen “Bergy”
Evan T
Google Employee
Jessica W.
John Mueller
Jonathan Simon
Maile Ohye
Mariya
Matt Cutts
Matt D
Nathan Johns
Nelson
Patrick
Reid
Riona MacNamara
Sahala
Susan Moskwa
Thu Tu
Vanessa Fox
Wysz

If you liked this post please John a beer.

The Worst Ad Campaigns of 2007

Accentuate the Positive. Forget the negative

I have noticed that there has been a new crop of broadcast media ads that do a miserable job in hawking the clients’ products and services. Let’s take a look at a few of these.

Burger King Corporation

It is already bad enough that the over-sized plastic coated, bobble-headed 'King' elicits the gut response; 'man, that looks creepy' , now Burger King has chosen to associate underlying messages of death and destruction to their services and food products.

The first ad campaign features urban mom's hiring a hit man to oust the 'King'; to make the hit, slow and painful. What does a slow painful (hit) aka (murder) have to do marketing with fast food? Agreeably, the stuff can cause a slow painful artery-clogged death.

The second ad campaign features three mom's in a mini-van, attempting to 'run down the King'.
Agreeable, the 'King's food may look like road kill from time to time, but what does extreme road rage, aka (murder) have to do with fast food?

This is very, negative and lacks taste. (figuratively)

Force Flex Bags, The Glad Products Company

A couple of bank robbers get nabbed when they take too long stuffing the Force-Flex bag with everything but the kitchen sink. The advertising agency for Force-Flex chose to use a ‘bank robbery’ at the heart of their concept.

This is very, very negative.

Wendy’s International

A group of people are in a hospital setting. Their mouths are missing and they have to communicate by writing suggesting that their ability to use their mouths was “removed” because they did not eat at a Wendy’s. The advertising agency for Wendy’s chose to use a rehabilitation clinical setting for the heart of their concept.
While rehabilitation can be a positive step in the right direction, a major fast food chain should not pin their branding to rehab.

This is tasteless as well as negative.

Nationwide Insurance

Looking through the eyes of a Nationwide representative you see a normal home. Moments later the home is in flames, cars at an intersection start crashing and finally a wedding ceremony is transformed into a funeral. I think this one titters on the line.
Any novice could have rubbed two brain cells together and come up with catastrophic examples of collision and death to brand an insurance agency.

This is lacks total creativity and is negative.

Verizon Wireless

A father and son are window shopping for phones. The son asks his dad when the phones will go on sale. His father retorts, ‘When pigs fly’. At this moment a large pig waddles into the shot – (walking) just as a Verizon sales person puts a ‘red-hot’ sales sign in the window.
I have watched this commercial several times and cannot figure out the concept. For gosh sakes! – The pig is walking and the phones are on sale. Am I missing something here?

This commercial is not necessarily negative, but is ambiguous and confusing.

And now… the absolute worst commercial for 2007

Kentucky Fried Chicken

Panicked office workers run for cover when one of the associates screams. “She’s got a knife.” The knife-wielding worker responds, “she has a knife and fork.” (Because she’s eating a KFC meal, of course). The brainchild of this concept uses killing, mayhem and murder to sell their client’s product.

This commercial is especially insensitive to families who have lost love ones in similar real-world circumstances akin to the recent rampage at Virginia Tech.

This commercial is tasteless, insensitive and extremely negative.

All of these companies and their advertising agencies have broken the cardinal rule in advertising. Never reinforce your branding with a negative idea or concept. A smart ad agency accentuates the positive. Nike, Coca Cola USA and McDonald's are good examples of running ad campaigns that touch on a positive note.

From a psychological perspective humans tend to bury and suppress bad or negative memories.
So why in the world would a business or company ever consider reinforcing their branding with a negative concept or idea?

It’s just bad business.

There's Marketing Gold All Around Your Business

Many companies have marketing gold laying around their office or hidden in their computers. These untapped assets can give you a leg up on the competition if marketed correctly.
Google wants to show its users more than text and photos, and it has successfully been rolling out a program called Universal Search that targets Blogs, News, Video and Images.

For the smart business owner, the days of posting only news releases, marketing content and still photos are over. You can now enhance your search engine results and potential client base by taking advantage of this new opportunity.

Go to the Google homepage and type in "Google headquarters." You should see three photos at the top of the results page.
Now type in "Google datacenters." You should see a thumbnail photo of Matt Cutts, the Google-Guy. This is a thumbnail from his talks posted on Google Video.

Video Shows and CommercialsIf you have a show, seminar, teaching session, marketing video, trade show video, TV commercial, instructional video, industrial video, safety video, educational video or webinar you should post it on any of the free, large video Web sites.

These include:
Truveo Video Search
Google Video also Google Beta Upload Program for TV Stations
YouTube Broadcast Yourself
SoapBox Video (Beta Microsoft)

I'm not going to promise that your image, photo and video resources are instantly going to start popping up in search results, but chances are they will over time. Especially when there are searches for more cryptic information.

Be sure to tag and title your video properly. For example, if you're uploading an instructional video about "Sexual harassment in the Workplace," make sure you include the title as such and a complete description of the video.

Convert Your Power Point to Video too!Just about every company creates Power Point presentations. Convert these to video and upload them as well. If you have a Power Point about "The Impact of Unregulated Chinese Toothpaste in the US" chances are your Power Point will appear in the Google search results for this topic.

Multiple Stores, Businesses and LocationsCompanies can also leverage there multiple locations. Google allows stores, companies and businesses to register their individual locations through Google Local. (Google Maps).

Google wants to capture, saturate and grow hyper accurate local results! So why not help them and tell about your locations across the US!http://www.google.com/local/add
If you have more than 10 locations, Google will let you manage these from one spreadsheet.

Google is so serious about this program that they're paying independent contractors to visit local businesses, gather data and photographs of local businesses, and tell the business owners about Google Maps and Google Ad Words.

Photos, Images and GraphicsGoogle and other search engines, most noticeably Ask.com, show photos, images and graphics in their search results.

Go to Ask.com and type; Andy Warhol Work http://www.ask.com/web?q=Andy+Warhol+Work&search=&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dirNotice that there are three images at the top page that link to other Web sites.

The images in your Web site may start appearing in search results depending on the amount of imagery you use and its related search query. Here are some helpful hints to pass along to your webmaster.

1) Use keywords or key phrases in the image file name.Example: < src= "red_rubber_ball.jpg">

2) Use the same keywords or key phrases in the ALT TAG.Example: < alt= "red_rubber_ball.jpg">

3) Keep the image near the supporting content or text on the Web page.

4) Upload your images to popular photo sharing sites like Flickr and Photobucket.

Adding videos, listings and images to your web site will give your business a competitive advantage as Universal Search grows and takes hold in all the popular search engines.

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