I have created two pages with the identical content and no page titles. Just a Heading and 2 sentences.

The question is: which page will rank higher:

This Bucktooth Mary and Her Kids page or

This Bucktooth Mary Who Hates Dessert page?

Server Update:

I looked into a few options on this one. I put a posting up on Craigslist, asked a friend if he would help me, thought about doing it myself and pinged my server’s customer service. In the end the breakdown looked something like this:

• Can someone on Craigslist do it?: The lowest bid I got from people who responded to my posting was $400. While this may not seem like a lot of money for someone to update my Fedora version, PHP version and MySql version, you have to keep in mind this is personal blog - I don’t make money off of it and I am not rich. $400 was too much for me.
• Should my friend do it?: While my friend could have done it a lot cheaper (free was the price tag on this one), the turn around time would not be within a day or two (which is what I needed). A price tag of $0 for some friendly help would have yeilded a timeline of “I will do it when I have some spare time.” This could have meant 1 day - but it could have also meant 1 year. I didn’t want to find out.
• Should I do it?: The big problem with this one is that I am not a server guy. I know my way around a server; I can create sites, do mod_rewrites, update permission (all through putty) but I can’t be trusted to update my server software. The price tag of $0 and the learnings would have been great - but it came with the risk of irrevocably screwing up my server.
• Can my hosting company do it?: Ultimately, this was the option I went with… and to be honest, I lucked out a bit. Apparently b/c I haven’t updated my server in quite sometime, I was able to get a free upgrade to Fedora 6, PHP 5 and MySql 5. The update was free, fast and I didn’t have to do a damn thing - perfect!

WordPress Update:

I think I have been using the first version (ever released) of WordPress for last year; it was time to move up and move on. I had heard horror stories of the last version WordPress put out (plugin issues, DB issues, etc) but quite honestly it was a terrible smooth update.

• Downloaded new version of WordPress
• Uploaded all new files (didn’t overwrite config file)
• Followed instructions to convert database structure (in php admin)
• Finished with no problems

WordPress Plugins:

With my update (server and WordPress version), I decided to take the time to add in some needed plugins. Below are the plugins I have initially decided to install:

• XML Sitemap: Every site needs an xml sitemap and while I would love to build a cron job that runs every night and updates my xml sitemap; if a dynamic xml plugin for WordPress already exists then why reinvent the wheel.
• HTML Sitemap: This what I typically reference to as a site directory. It’s basically an xml sitemap in a human readable form. Again, you could build this yourself but why would you when the work has already been done for you?
• SEO Plugin: Unfortunately SEO Title tags and the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugins are not yet compatible with the newest version of WordPress. Consequently, I had to opt to use the All in One SEO Pack - it’s a great little plugin and gets the job done (so a million thanks) but I still wish I could have just rolled over with SEO Title Tags and UTW.
• WordPress Caching: When you are on a cheap server (like I am), you need to do everything in your power to make sure your pages load as fast as possible. You’ll probably want to start by merely doing some MySql query caching but then (it you are slow like me), you’ll have to move on to compiler caching and page caching. This plugin significantly helps your speed issues.
• Form Management: While this plugin is being used because of pure laziness (I was a lead programmer for 2 years - I can build a form just fine), I do have to say the plugin is quite awesome. It allows you to quick build basic forms, more advanced forms (which allow uploading files and auto “thank you” confirmations) and it also allows you to customize the CSS. It’s a brilliant plugin and I highly recommend it even if you only going to have one simple contact page on your site.

That’s it for yesterday’s updates. Next I am working on getting some social flare, RSS button and a custom logo/design up on the site.

It’s probably because there are too many uneducated search marketers influencing your client. But, for your sake, I hope that is not the case and you have convinced your client or company that stuffing keywords into the URL path will NOT help your organic ranking.

Assuming that is the case, let’s look at why URL optimization SHOULD still be part of the conversation. I have narrowed it down to Three Golden Rules… (please poke me if you have another golden rule)

Size Matters

I know people have told you that it doesn’t matter but it does; the shorter the better. A long URL presents a few problems:

1. They are impossible to remember.
2. They look spammy.
3. They often break inside an email
4. They are un-linkable (no one wants to put a link paragraph on their page)

If you don’t know how to rewrite your URLs then I suggest just using Tiny URLs next time you think it’s appropriate to build a link (or send out) a link that looks like: http://www.thelongestlinkintheworld.com/makeitlonger/seriouslylong/thinkthisisridiculous?id=123456789&cmp=aldkoemmntukdl97877tjdme&type=6d546a546d5dd6ada655d6a6d65

Increase Traffic

While keywords in your URL are not going to help you rank higher in organic SERPs for related searches, they will help traffic to your site. Like in PPC, the URL that comes up in the search results is part of your Ad (err… listing). It part of the message that is quickly telling the user what information you have and why they should want it. Relevant keywords in your URL not only help tell the user this information but these keywords (if tightly related to the users query) will become bolded. And bolded, relevant keywords will help increase the likelihood a user will click on your listing.

Built-in Anchor Text

This is the most important point (because it actually does help ranking). People are going to slap your URL on their page and a lot of the time they aren’t going to add anchor text. Whether you are actively link building (outreach) or it happens outside your influence, you will not be able to micro-manage every last link that is pointing back to you. So instead of loosing some edge in the link game by missing out on relevant anchor text, make sure your URLs ARE YOUR ANCHOR TEXT. By adding relevant keywords (as opposed to random numbers and hash marks) in your URL, you ensure that if anyone randomly slaps a link back to you on their page, you will have anchor text.

So What Happens When You Don’t Blog for 7 Months?

You wake up one morning realizing that you have wasted any credibility that you spent time building! And that’s about what happened to me this morning. After 7 months of switching jobs (moved up to Director of Marketing), watching relatives graduate (most importantly my brother, Garrett Keimig, graduated from George Washington) and flying back to Boston for 5 weddings in 4 months - I have decided to get back on track. After all, blogging is not only the best way to keep in touch with your industry but it’s also one of the best ways to develop your understanding of the topics you blog.
One thing is for sure, when you stop blogging you loose credibility… and you quickly start dropping from blogrolls and blog lists. At one point I had made Top Rank’s BigList but I have since lost the privilege. It will be my first order of business to pound out some worthwhile posts over the next few weeks so I can get myself back on that list. Nuff said.

How Quickly Can You Recover After Not Blogging?

If you’re a freelance search marketer or if your livelihood is driven by blogging then a complete overhaul should take you within a week. But for someone like me (an in-house search marketer), I plan on this blog revamp to taking me 30 days. I have prepared a list of tasks for me to accomplish over the next 30 days - I hope to keep on target and get through the list within the time I have carved out for myself.
For each grouping of tasks I will blog about my experience in accomplishing these elements. I hope that this list and the posts around this list will be useful (and motivating) for other in-house search marketers (or other) who have let time slip by and gotten way behind on maintaining their blog.

My Task List (in no particular order)

• Upgrade Server to Fedora 6, PHP 5 & MySql 5
• Update Version of WordPress (version 2.3)
• Ditch the default WordPress theme and finally design my own look (for my own brand)
• Install Search Marketing WP Plugins (great list of WordPress Plugins at ProBlogger)
• Add an RSS Button (hey you think that might help my subscriber number?)
• Create a detailed About page. If people are going to read your blog then I bet their going to want to know who you are and why they should listen to you.
• Update all my social profiles and list the links to let people Add Me as a contact. Right now, most of my profiles are a joke and would only serve to get me fired from my current job.
• Setup Alerts for my name, my blog and my company.
• Find My Voice!! It would probably surprise readers of this blog to know that I am pretty outspoken, controversial and ridiculous person in real life; I need to transfer what allows me to be noticed in real life to my blog. I have, up to this point, been running from my real voice.
• Limit my blogroll to blogs I actually read.
• Force myself to post a minimum of twice a week.
• Add a Contact Me page.
• Add a Service page. While I work as in-house marketer, I still take contracts and I should let the public know this.
• Add in Testimonials to Service page.
• Comment more… I need to engage myself more actively in the conversation.
• Get involved in Blog Carnivals (I think everyone could use this advice - A-List or not).
• Add in weekly and bi-weekly columns.
• Add in the occasional video content & podcast.
• I need to start interviewing other professionals, getting guest bloggers and building user Q&A.
• Create HTML & XML Sitemap.
• Discuss my non-search projects - successes/failures.
• Start sharing more data around successes/failures in search marketing (where allowed by clients).
• I need to stop worrying about being the best blogger and I need to be myself.
• Add Archive and Top Posts section to blog.
• Create Free Guide for others to download and distribute.
• Effectively utilize Twitter, Status Updates & Tumble Blogs.
• Create a Contest.
• Add in (but limit) blog widgets.
• Add in Google Analytics & AdWords Conversion tracking.
• Create a Tool.
• Submit articles to content networks.
• Set end of year (2008) goals for subscribers, visitors & page views.
• Send out a press release of the revamp and the new services I am offering.

Think I am foolish for believing I can get this all done in 30 days while keeping my day job? I do… I will keep you updated on my success/failure in hitting this deadline.

What Did I Miss?

I built this list pretty quickly but I am sure I missed a bunch of stuff. If you were doing a complete revamp, what would you have added to the task list that I didn’t include?

But rest well my friends. Today I found out (via Kineda) that I am a C-List Blogger and I couldn’t be more happy. Sure, A-List Bloggers get to enjoy the riches, the woman, the notoriety, but C-List Bloggers enjoy much more unseen (quiet) benefits. For instance, C-List Bloggers can comment harshly on anyone’s blog without notice or say incredibly stupid things, make completely conflicting arguments and settle on using a WordPress template instead of customizing their blog AND NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW. A-Listers can only dream of that kind of anonymity.

But I know what you’re thinking (and by “you,” I mean the 3 people that actually read this blog), what is a C-List Blogger? Well, Kineda explains that a C-List Blogger is:
“The Middle Authority Group [C-List Bloggers]
(10-99 blogs linking in the last 6 months)
This contrasts somewhat with the second group, which enjoys an average age not much older than the first at 260 days and which posts 50% more frequently than the first. There is a clear correlation between posting volume and Technorati authority ranking.”

While Kineda does a great job of defining the C-List Blogger, I feel they don’t quite hit the heart of what it means to be a C-List Blogger and thus I have compiled a list of characteristics that I believe define the C-List Blogger. Any hey… who better to define C-List Blogger than a proud C-Lister? Here’s how I would define a bona fide C-List Blogger:

• Probably works as an in-house web marketer at a startup
• Probably works way too many hours for what he/she is being paid
• Might have a slight drinking problem
• Occasionally comes home from work and spends too much time on Facebook searching for old college “friends”
• Might have deeper thoughts that are never verbalized (see first three points)
• Lives in the past (very nostalgic) and has a hard time taking advantage of the present
• Wonders why he/she/it ever starting blogging in the first place
• Is constantly coming up with cute post ideas but then never has time to finish them
• Definitely has a drinking problem
• Has a wife and/or partner
• Potentially is socially inept, even on the web
• Is convinced none of his/her ideas are worth posting

Please add to the list as you see fit. Here’s looking out for my movement from a comfortable C-Lister to a bastardly A-Lister. Look out Hollywood!

The Ground Round Up is designed to be a weekly post to allow me to give thanks to those who have linked/mentioned to my blog, notice those individuals who have helped in my learning of search marketing, and any post that I found interesting/unique over the past week.

First off is a great post over at Bruce Clay by Lisa Barone. The post spoke about linkbaiting on an unsavory subject matter that could potentially be unethical. Specifically, it was a question around Brittany Spears and linkbaiting (for the mental institution). It was a great post and the only thing I found disappointing was the lack of debate. It really seemed one sided – everyone just agreed with the post. Personally, I get a little freaked out when there isn’t heavy debate around ethical issues furthermore when we are discussing the ethics around creating exposure using a celebrity that has continually chosen to advance her career by being whorish.

SEO by the SEA pointed out a great use of viral marketing by none other than Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails. It’s actually pretty damned cool… but I couldn’t help from asking myself if they had done the same marketing campaign when I was a kid (I listened to them in middle school and high school) would I have enjoyed it? I think my answer is NO. I would have felt cheap for falling into their marketing trap. Meh… but now that I am older, I love it for its creative and effectiveness.

Search Engine Land wrote about duplicate content. Not a new subject but one that I have had debates with people over and over about. For me it’s a touchy subject and one that I still do not 100% opinion either way. In the post, Jill Whalen makes her case logically but I constantly stuck by this one point - About 3 years ago, a site I was working on www.webradiator.com was kicked out of Google’s index. When we spoke to their organic team (they actually came to our office) we were instructed that the site contained duplicate content and was considered spammy – thus removed from the index. The duplicate content (of course) was purely accidental as we had moved over our site to new URLs and our programmers didn’t properly redirect the old URLs. Now, whether or not the information we gained from Google’s team was true – the scaredity cat mentality over duplicate content and being blacklisted remains.

Marketing Hipster (Cord Silverstein) posted (awhile ago) on Ann Coulter’s grasp of the English language as interpreted by complete A-holes. It’s a funny post – very much worth the read. What Cord points to and I am continually amazing by is the lack of accountability and how completely unapologetic Ann Coulter and her constituents are for the type of language she uses. Furthermore, why do people insist that just because the woman is a loud-mouth bigot that she is in anyway intelligent? I read some of GodLess and you know what? Her points are sophomoric, baseless, lack intellectual depth or critical thinking… but then again, what could you expect some someone who has made living on shouting generalized opinions (hype) with a virginous passion?

Last – SugarRae. Some posts speak for themselves. Read the whole thing (don’t quit half-way through. Read it and digest it b/c it’s a hearty meal with lots of nutrients.

Cheers!

When I first logged into my account this morning to run some custom reports, I noticed that there was a NEW report – The Reach and Frequency Report.

I gasped – it was every little girl or boy’s dream – a new AdWords report to play with. A report that gives me audience reach per site as well as this audience’s frequency of visit (i.e. you can gauge UU).

Why is this Reach and Frequency significant?

Well for one, it signals Google becoming slightly more transparent. This is now the second time recently Google has given a bit of clarity – the first being the quality score column in the AdWords UI. Sure, they aren’t opening up the robe and letting us gaze at the intricate details that make up Google’s voluptuous body [search network]. However, they are giving us enough to keep us happy and stop complaining while we chew and use this new data.

The second significance is that the data IS useful for both monitoring traffic/site quality AND cost per conversion. I see UU playing a larger role now that you can effectively bid per unique.

Unfortunately, I am unable to pull any current information (yet) – I will look forward to a fully populated data set!

The next big thing I witnessed (about an hour or two later) was a message on my dashboard stating that I could now bid CPC on my site targeted campaigns.

Apparently Google is trying to get me in bed… TWO GIFTS IN ONE DAY?!?!? Please, my wife doesn’t pay this much [positive] attention to me. The idea of the new program is as clear as the name – you can now (finally!!) bid per click on site targeting

Why is CPC bidding on site targeting significant?

1. see: Why CPC advertising is a preferred advertising model?
2. Because not everyone that wants to target websites for advertising is a brand advertiser
3. Because some of us have great banner (image) ads with high CTR that could, potentially, displace the ridiculously high CPM bidder if CTR and CPC were taken into account.
4. Because if you tie this new feature with the Reach and Frequency Report then you are able to control your acquisition cost and conversions on the contextual network down to the source UU. Yeah… I know… who the hell cares about that? That’s about as useful as a donut at bikini carwash.

Today, started off on the right foot – two new gifts from Google. I am already in the process of putting them to full use. Honestly… these gifts were about 40 times better than the damned mini-refrigerator. Though, who am I kidding? Having a tiny refrig filled with malt liquor and beef jerky in an office environment is classy.

Since I started managing Healthline’s web marketing last April, the company has generated the bulk of its daily revenue (off the the destination site) from AdSense. It was the first time that I had worked in a company that drove it’s revenue not from product sales or lead gen. but from the resell of advertising. Coming from an ecommerce background, the first two questions I had (questions that I began to test from day one) were how do we get the most (quantity) ads per page and the most (quality/relevance) ads per page. When building (and testing) a product path in the retail world, presenting consumers with options (information and control over what type of product they are purchasing) as well as relevant options (whether relevance is defined by their search or by their on-site behavior) is of utmost importance if you want to increase conversion, margins and profit.

Why would I think that conversion (clicks in Healthline’s case) and revenue for a content based company should be any different?

After months of testing, I had determined that AdWords Squatters was causing a loss of AdSense revenue over time. I point out “over time” because some the ads (which I lovely call “Ad Blockers”) will, occasionally, produce a temporary bump in revenue. However, the ads grow stale quickly and are, typically, not at all relevant to the subject our users are reading. Sure… there is a distant relevance; “rehab” hospitals are related to “lupus” because both are “health” subjects - but let’s get real.

When I first started pulling these Ad Blocker (Ad Squatters) from Healthline.com I didn’t see any dramatic or immediate change in our AdSense revenue. This might be due to fact that a) it takes 24-48 hours to remove these ads and b) where one Ad Squatter is removed, another one pops up. In fact, killing these things is still part of my daily task list - it’s like playing Whack-a-Mole and we are currently at 250+ sites and growing. So, the change wasn’t overnight but over a 6 week trend I tracked the changes of our revenue. At the end of 6 week test what I found was:

CTR Tripled: While I am not able (contractually) to give our AdSense CTR numbers, I can say that we went from low single digit CTR’s to near double digits. Why? Unfortunately, due to the AdSense black box I can’t 100% say that the increase was due to removing these AdWords Ad Blockers but I can say that the trend followed actions. I think that by offering users with more options that directly relate to health subject they are reading or searching about, users were more likely to click off on an AdSense ad - thus make us more money.

eCPM Increased by Two Points: Again, I can’t talk specific numbers but we did move (increase) two points. My theory on this one is that when we had more relevant advertisers, users were more likely to find needed information. Because the information they landed on was desired information (or products) they were less likely to “bounce” and more likely to “convert” on the advertisers site. Under this assumption, two other assumptions would fall (and help with an eCPM increase): 1) Healthline would take a larger cut of CPC revenue because advertisers wouldn’t be discounted through “smart pricing” and 2) Advertisers would be more willing to bid each other up because the traffic is quality and converting more.

If this information/observation isn’t good enough then I will add that nearly every quarter I “re-test” the assumption by removing all of the AdWords Squatters from our AdSense Competitive Ad Filter. However, each quarter (so far) I have been met with the same result - drop in CTR, drop in eCPM and a drop in AdSense Revenue when I re-institute the AdWords Squatters.

This is my experience and I have data to prove it but like any testing that involves a black box (so anything involving a google aglo), I would encourage each company to retest. My experience and data have proven that AdWords Squatters are NOT a positive influence on AdSense Revenue and instead multiple, relevant options (like in the ecommerce world) DO increase clicks, margins and revenue.

The Ground Round Up is designed to be a weekly post to allow me to give thanks to those who have linked/mentioned to my blog, notice those individuals who have helped in my learning of search marketing, and any post that I found interesting/unique over the past week.

This week I am devoting all links to Search Engine Land and Search Engine Round Table (though I will give “hooray” to SeoClass). Why am I doing this? Because I am lazy? While it might seem like that, actually I just think both of these sites had killer content. Here is my link push, like it or not.

Search Engine Land

• The Pros And Cons of Personalized Search
• Survival and Small Business Flexibility
• Why Google Should Take Over Ford’s Auto Plants
• MS Third Era of Search
• Reducing Barriers to Registration (hopefully I will have a follow-up post out soon)
• Social Button Overload
• Personalized Search, Link Building

Search Engine Roundtable

• AdWords Squatters (also hoping to have a follow-up to this)
• Spell Checker Bias
• Downside of Getting Digged
• Sudden AdSense Drop (another one I would like to follow-up post on)

Alright… now call me lazy. It’s been a rough week at Healthline.

Cheers!

My question is: With so many great guides already out there, is there any point creating yet another guide (regurgitation) other than giving my blog relevant content?

I feel like, at this point, even if I wrote a great guide and was able to bait the guide it would just be a slap in the face to all those who have written great basic information in the past.

But I wonder, is it worth it to put a unique spin on widely distributed content or would it just be a tired attempt to be “part of the group?”