Error Forum Blog

Speculation, with a ring of truth about it.

“Calacanis, we hear, has already hired about 20 engineers to work on the project. Roelof Botha, Calacanis’ patron at Sequoia, has already committed the funds. Former associates of Calacanis, such as Mark Cuban and Jonathan Miller, his former boss at AOL, are also backing the venture. So what’s the idea? It’s a cross between Wikipedia and Google. Calacanis’ new site will create more digestible search results for popular queries such as the names of Hollywood stars, and tech products. The pages will be seeded, initially, with content gathered automatically from the web and other sources. But they will be open to contributions by readers. Sounds like Wikipedia? Yes: except Calacanis will employ paid editors to oversee the pages“.

As commentators point out, that’s very Web 1.0.

Calacanis denies it…

“I deny it 100%… it’s absurd. I do have a pool house however. “

…which will only serve to make the story more credible.

Halo SEO - Checklist for Following the Rules

Over time a set of (more or less) agreed upon rules for optimizing a website the “right” way has emerged, and it would generally fall under the moniker of White Hat SEO. I think you can go even a step further and call it “Halo SEO”, like there’s a big halo hanging over your head as you do it. I began work on a new site some 5 months ago with my team of superheroes and I was incredibly paranoid about how well and how quickly we could get it to rank in Google (no MSN I do not care about you). Moreso than ever, we followed down the checklist for what a good little SEO boy should do to ensure that Google grants you admission into their fruitful SERPs. It went something like this:

1. Established domain (been around 2+ years).
2. User-friendly look and feel to the site. Simple, uncluttered.
3. Accessible, logical navigation.
4. Submit to good directories.
5. Build unique, relevant content slowly and consistently.
6. Blog.
7. Optimize internal linking structure.
8. Unique meta descriptions.
9. Relevant outgoing links.
10. A few newschool, trendy features.
11. Slow, relevant link building.

All those down-home-cookin rules that everyone knows about. No underhanded tactics, no auto-generated pages or link farms, buying links on pages just for link popularity or the like. We kept it real and needless to say it has paid off. Our site is already better looking than the rest of the industry and it’s ranking better than all but a few. And the quickness with which we’ve been able to attain this position has me pondering what aspects of Halo SEO really paid off for us. We always have worked on building sites with good navigation, a high # of IBLs, good internal linking and unique content. So what really made the difference?

I think the most important aspects that we introduced into our strategy were the blog and the consistency with which we have added content / pages / relevant links. Many folks talk about the importance of having a blog on your money-making site and I never bought into it until now. If nothing else it creates a forum for you to try link bait, while also giving you more and more unique pages that are relevant. Win win, you just have to keep up with it. Most people are lazy - don’t be. As far as adding pages goes, take it slow. Give all of your pages unique URLs and make sure your navigation flows from the home page to the internal pages freely. At one point, Google wasn’t indexing 75% of our pages, but we refreshed the meta, improved our internal links, and continued to take the time to add more and more unique content and we pushed through. Note: If you’re ever in this position yourself, experiencing lack of indexing and/or supplemental results, also be sure to buy some good directory links (Business.com, Yahoo, BOTW, and try for DMOZ for good measure).

With a new domain (or one that is undergoing major changes cause some toolshed had it parked for 3 years before you got it), it’s obviously all about building trust. Halo SEO builds trust. So often you hear the experts in the SEO industry talk about building quality and crap, but I’m with them now more than ever. As search engines continue to evolve it’s going to get harder to game your way to the top. This is a good thing. With Halo SEO, you have to adjust your time and resources to focus more on making smart additions / improvements to your website, earning links through merit not $. There will always be room for a little link buying but your time will more wisely be spent on establishing quality. Survival of the fittest I guess.

I wanted to let everyone know that I’m still here . . . been boarding in Colorado the last week or so and celebrating the holidays (Xmas and B-day) - didn’t mean to neglect my growing blog, but you know how it is. I’ve been keeping my ear to the SEO grindstone the whole time I assure you.

Who’s pumped for 2007? Who needs some inspiration? Who’s not sitting down? There have been mucho posts regarding the year that was and the year that will be, SEO or otherwise, and people have some lofty goals. (’Um, I like want to work out more and stop taking on bad clients’). My main goal is to turn this blog (which I might rename) into a highly-trafficked and well-respected source on SEO and SEM in general. I plan on being very active on the big boys blogs and to hopefully do some things that draw as much attention as the PubCon Drinking Game did. Maybe even get to speak at SES or WMW.

Forget me, though, you’re here because you care about bettering your situation by maybe getting some kind of insight about SEO/SEM. This life is all about “I”, and I’m not gonna waste your “I’s” time. You want to improve on your organic rankings in 2007, so here’s 7 things you should do everyday to make sure on 1/2/08 you’re sittin’ fat with some cash:

1. Add content more frequently to your site. Content is so cliche, but in general, if you were to add twice as much content in ‘07 as you did in ‘06, your organic rankings are going to benefit from it. Whether it’s through the long tail keywords or your $ keywords, keeping things fresh is key to search engine health and also forces you to think about new features that may differentiate you from others in your vertical.

2. Know your competition. If you’re in the top 10 in a given SERP, you better well know not only the other 9 sites up there, but also keep an eye on the next 90 below you. You want your site to be better than everyone else’s, and to do that you first must know your competition. Like when Iceland crushed the Ducks in the opening round of the Junior Goodwill Games. Coach Bombay didn’t know anything about Gunner Staal’s affinity for the glove side heading into that game. But seriously, knowing your competition can help you to add a feature that no one in your industry has - foresight is essential in this industry, and it is fed by “monitoring”.

3. Refresh your titles and meta to be more “ad” like. Our financially-strapped friend over at SEOmoz beat me to the punch on this one, but going through your pages maybe 1 per day and considering if the titles and meta (whatever part Google is showing in your result that is) are worthy of bringing in visitors is something you should do. There is a fine line to toe with optimizing your page for both organic ranking and CTR, but 90% of sites could improve in this area. If your PPC ad is killing it, see if your organic result is as strong. Like Rand says, a top ranking site should worry as much about organic CTR and conversions as the PPC team does.

4. Brainstorm link bait ideas. It’s only going to get more and more important as time goes on to create link bait. Break free from mindless link acquistion circa 2003 and be compelling. Tools, contests, pictures with drinks and hats - those have been done, but they also seem to work. Try a few. Go beyond that and really be bait worthy. I rank really well for “pubcon” and never proactively tried to. It’s the power of the link bait baby.

5. Regain focus on your core $ maker. Chances are you have a site that you’ve been pounding away at for years and is doing well. “Old faithful” you may call her. Just because she’s boring and you like you’re new site better, don’t forget who was there in the early days. Introduce a new feature, generate a new type of lead, give that old hag a face lift . . . focusing too much on newer ventures can have you missing out on what you already have established.

6. Keep up with the industry. Read blogs like SEOmoz, SEOBook, Stuntdubl, Jim Boykin and all the others. WebmasterWorld. There is an amazing “community” of SEO/SEM people that have blogs. You may not learn something every day, but just reading other SEO’s posts can get your mind going and can help you progress with your sites and your skills.

7. Read SEOThursday. You’re goddamn right this is key to success in 2007. I’ll keep it fresh for ya, I promise. You just make a stop by here everyday to see what’s up. And if I end up 301ing to a prettier site with a prettier name, you can say you knew that kid back in the day when the site was a shitty blue blogger template and it had some goofy premise of only posting on Thursdays, a day when most people are planning out how to avoid Lumbergh on Friday.

A How-To Guide for Creating a Profitable Website

I’ve decided to embark on a long-term project which essentially is going to be an ongoing feature on the blog, entitled “A How-To Guide for Creating a Profitable Website”. Not too catchy of a name, but it gets the point across. I’ve developed a preliminary outline for it (shown below), and I think I will be able to build it up into a very useful resource for anyone who is involved in creating and/or growing a web property.

If anyone has some ideas about what I could add to this outline let me know. Hopefully I will be able to start on the posts tomorrow and we’ll take it from there. One of my hopes is that people will be able to suggest additions to it as we go along and it can become something that is incredibly valuable to someone who may just need a few tips or is completely clueless about how to introduce their business or their passion on the web. Go team!

1.1 Choosing a Domain
1.2 Buying a Domain - What is it Worth?
1.3 Buying a Domain - How to Find One?
2. Keyword Research
3. Evaluating Competition
4. Positioning Your Business
a. Your Services
b. Web Design
5. Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
a. Creating a PPC Campaign
b. Creating Compelling Ads, Improving CTR
c. Landing Page Optimization
d. Split Testing / Day-Parting / MVT
6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
a. Page Titles and Meta Description
b. Navigation / Site Structure
c. Content Management
d. Link Building
i. Directories
ii. Press Releases
iii. Link Bait
iv. Link Buying (2-3 Parts)Competitors
v. SERP Monitoring
vi. Record Keeping
vii. Reciprocal Links* / Trading Services
7. Long-Term Growth / Selling Out

So you’ve got an idea for creating a website, maybe it’s for your up-and-coming lawn business, your real estate agency, or your men’s league softball team. No matter the idea or the purpose for the site, first and foremost you must register a domain. And domain names can be very key to how your experience of creating and growing your website goes. Your domain name should be simple, yet also indicative of the kind of site you have. It also should be easiliy prounouncable and have a certain “flow” to it, and typically, the shorter the domain name the better.

Unfortunately, you are not getting into this whole “internet” thing in its early stages (relatively speaking). Meaning, most domains that are common English words or are 1-2 words in length have already been snatched up. You will find that some of them are hosting real websites that are being updated, while others are being “parked” either for future use or more likely by nefarious characters looking to earn a profit.

There are a few options when running into the problem that a domain you want has already been registered. For one, you can attempt to contact the owner of the domain and try to purchase it. In this situation it’s all about cost/benefit. If you are planning on generating a lot of money from the web then maybe it’s worth $50,000 to secure that ideal domain name. (Later on in the guide, I will provide a rubric for better determining the monetary value of a given domain name.) If, on the other hand, it’s going to be used simply for recreational use, then you probably won’t be willing to sink much into it. Either way, it depends on how badly you want the ideal domain. If you feel like you can accomplish the same things with the website by choosing a name that is still available, go that route.

Another quick thing of note when going after registered domains is that if you are a company and you have a trademark on a name you should be able to legally obtain the domain from its current registrar. For most of us, though, you just have to bit the bullet and try and work with what you can get.

Domain registrars such as GoDaddy and Network Solutions are popular choices for registering your domain. Simply head over to one of those sites and enter in your desired domain name to check on its availability. You can save money by registering for 2 years or more - I generally do 2 years at first and then if I stick with a site I go and extend it. Search engines are able to see the length of time a domain in registered for, so it can’t hurt to register your domain for 4 years (if you think you’ll use it for that long). It may or may not help with your “reputation” as a trusted site with Google, but it can do nothing but help your chances of getting indexed.

The importance of a certain domain name cannot be understated, though. Aside from the benefit of having something short, relevant, and memorable (like a Cameras.com), there is another benefit worth mentioning - search power. Search engines have evolved to the point where domain names that have been registered and hosted for a year or longer are most likely “trusted” domains that have had time to establish a rapport with a Google or Yahoo.

Generally, Google is the industry giant and the one where the majority of online businesses generate visits and income. It is also the search engine with the most stringent domain age and trust factors. That’s where the importance of securing an established domain can come in. If you have aspirations of showing up in the search engine results pages (SERPs) within 9 months, you have a lot better chance of doing so if you obtain a domain name that’s been around for a few years and already is hosting pages of content relevant to your business or site purpose.

So, what if you have a spankin’ new domain name and no search love? There are a few things you can try. First of all, you could possibly bypass the wait by taking / purchasing an established site related to your site and 301 redirecting it to your new domain. Another option is to break through with some exciting new product, news story, or tool that gets picked up by so many other websites that the search engines automatically index and “trust” your site. Granted, most people are not lucky enough to have an innovative idea or anything at all viral about their new website that would cause thousands to begin visiting and/or linking to it, but the more creative and compelling a given site is the better the chance it has to be referenced or linked to by others.

If all you have is a common idea for a website - fear not, as this guide continues, I will shed light on other ways to generate traffic as well as all the steps to follow to ensure that your new domain does in fact begin to show up near the top of the SERPs with time. But first things first, head over to GoDaddy and get your site registered. You’ll be the proud papa of your own webspace in no time.

A blacklist, as the name implies, is a list of people or companies who have met with the disapproval of others. In the online world a blacklist refers to those people who have been marked as responsible for generating spam in a very big way. Blacklists are also known as blocklists.

Blacklists are used to combat spam in a very specific way. When spam is reported to one of the relevant spam fighting organizations the IP address the spam originated from is added to a banned or blacklisted IP addresslist. An IP address is the unique location of you or your website on the Internet - think of it as your “home address” online. To put it simply every www.domain.com Internet address has a matching IP address. Any email coming from your website domain also has a corresponding IP address. If your IP address is present on a blacklist then you’re potentially wasting your time sending email to customers.

Why are you wasting your time? Modern spam blockers come with the most common blacklists installed and/or allow you to import updated blacklists into your spam blocker. This allows to you block a huge amount of spam but you may also, potentially, block legitimate email. Blacklists are not foolproof.

There are two types of IP address:

Dynamic - changes every time you connect to the Internet. Most commonly used for dialup Internet access. Spammers love these because they’re very hard to track and 100% disposable.

Fixed/Static - All websites, most large companies and some individuals use fixed IP addresses. This can cause huge problems if they’re reported for pamming.

When an IP address (dynamic or fixed ) is reported for sending spam it’s added to a blacklist. There are three different types of blacklists:

Temporary An IP address placed on a temporary blacklist will have email coming from that IP address blocked for several hours. After a few hours the offending IP address is removed from the blacklist.

Permanent When an IP address is added to a permanent blacklist any email server configured to block email from this list will never receive email from that range of IP addresses again.

Comprehensive This is the most damaging of blacklists. Not only does it block a single IP address it also blocks the IP addresses next to it. For example if the IP address 192.156.66.67 was added to a comprehensive blacklist then all IP addresses close to 192.156.66.67 will also be blocked. This can be a huge problem for those website owners using virtual hosting because if your host has ever appeared on a blacklist then you’re also on the same blacklist, by default, because of the shared hosting from the same IP range. It’s important for all website owners to check whether or not they’re on a blacklist. You’ll need your IP address (available from your webhost) and you can check your blacklist status at: www.mail-abuse.org/cgi-bin/lookup

Blacklists are a necessary evil due to the volume of spam being sent each day but are not an exact science. Take a few moments from your day and ensure that your website or email address is not being blocked.