We Do Search Engine Optimization.

Search engine optimization review for FreeCreditReport.com

Free Credit Report clearly had a weak search engine optimization effort into their site. Experian has spent millions of dollars on Television advertising and created a strong brand for their product. The problem they faced was FreeCreditReport.com is really just a single landing page with no supporting content. Great type in and domain name search value, lousy natural search engine ranking.
So did Experian create dozens of quality content pages to backup their homepage? Unfortunately no. They weakened their brand perception and spammed the bottom of the homepage, simultaneously insulting their users and search engines.

Here is the top half of FreeCreditReport.com. This is a very nice landing page with well placed conversion elements and usable text usage. There is a clear call to action and an engaging photograph of an attractive person.

Here is the bottom of the Free Credit Report homepage. Notice it is plain text, keyword stuffed and not meant for human users:

Don’t be like Experian and cheapen the website you’ve spent millions of dollars to brand. Spend a few thousand and hire a quality SEO. View this online credit lead generation site at http://FreeCreditReport.com.

For those of you who promoted the Microsoft AdCenter affiliate program you know it converted well and was a goldmine for any search engine marketing related blog. Then on March 31 they sent all Microsoft Affiliates a termination email.

The good news is the adCenter affiliate program is still active and available to all!

Here is what you need to do:

1. Signup to become a Microsoft partner https://partner.microsoft.com/40009570. This is easier than it sounds, and all applications seem to be rubber stamped. I have never heard of anyone being declined. Another benefit is MS will send you lots of heavily discounted software.
2. E-mail your Microsoft Partner Program ID to the adcenter manager: affiliates {AT} microsoftaffiliates.net
3. Login to your affiliate account at www.microsoftaffiliates.net, agree to the new terms of service, generate updated text links and start collecting signups.

The process is really simple, and I received confirmation from both the Microsoft Partner application and adCenter affiliate manager in 1 day.

One big change in the program is they now record sales only after the user has spent $75, so affiliate conversions may not be immediate.

I completed this process and received this email from the Program Manager, Microsoft Affiliate Network.

Thank you for your interest! I have updated your account to reflect your Partner status. The next time you log in you should see the adCenter Partner offer appear as the others do.

In regards to the tracking—it is a little confusing right now as we are still in the beta version. It is not reflected in real time—once you have a customer sign up, you won’t see anything appear in your transaction history. Weekly, we update the Partner stats, so once we update them, you will see a transaction labeled as adCenter Partner. This transaction will remain as Pending until your customer spends the $50 or the $75 minimum spend requirement.

I have included the terms of this program below for your reference. http://www.microsoftaffiliates.net/forms/ Addendum-adCenter_04022008.pdf
As always, please let me know if you have questions.

Thanks you and best of success!

It was extremely easy for me to re-enable my adcenter affiliate account, and it should be for you as well.

If you watched the final 4 basketball tournament you would have seen 545 million dollars worth of ads that corporations spent to try to sway your attention from hoops.

If you are Chevrolet, you spent approximately $70 million to generate interest and leads to a vast, complex network of car websites such as pontiac.com.

Below is a graph from compete.com showing search referrals to auto brand websites including pontiac.com, dodge.com, fordvehicles.com, chevrolet.com and jeep.com

This search marketing chart shows traffic to major advertisers websites skyrocketed during this event, unfortunately this did not translate into actual sales.

According to Autodata car dealer marketing, Pontiac sales were up 6% in March but Chevrolet sales were down 1%. Ouch.

Chevrolet may want to consider refining their lead generation funnel and update their online customer acquisition process.
Read more about chevrolet and pontiac driving online leads at Compete.com.

How do you make flash and swf files search engine friendly? If you want to perform search engine optimization on a flash website is essential to create a secondary static site that lies behind the dynamic flash.

If this is not an option, or the flash site is too large, convoluted or management will not allow an HTML version of flash or adobe flex, you can export flash content into XML files.

Use XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) and transformation (XSLT) to rewrite an XML files containing data used in the SWF binary file. Each piece of content will have 3 files: the original SWF, an XML content file, and an XSL stylesheet. XSL looks very similar to HTML/CSS.

Comment from Matt Cutts

Note that if you stuffed keywords in your XML and then never used those words in your Flash/SWF, that would be considered spammy by most search engines and would be high-risk.

Read more about the holy grail of converting flex and adobe flash swf files into search engine friendly XML files at Metah.

Use the Google search engine to search for content that is minty fresh.

How often are you searching for a particular item using long tail keyword strings and find half of the results on the SERP are from 2002. Using the date parameter “&as_qdr=d” will filter results by date. Append this string to the end of a search query for a blogsearh like experience.

Google date search parameter: &as_qdr=d

You can change the value of as_qdr to custom intervals. A list of the possible values of the as_qdr search parameter:

• d[number] – past number of days (e.g.: d5)
• w[number] – past number of weeks
• y[number] – past number of years

See the date filtering search in action:
http://www.google.com/search?q=apple&as_qdr=d

TC has a writeup of this date filter and Matt Cutts and the GS blog explain what to expect for future google search operations.

The kind folks at Omniture.com have created an informative webinar focusing on landing page optimization. This is a service from the Omniture Marketing Experts On-Demand series 2008 summit.

Keyword and langing page strategies are key to paid search campaigns and PPC ad budgets.

Landing Page Optimization Strategy depends on a detailed knowledge of all the keywords in your campaign and how well they convert. Generally, keywords should be directed to a specific landing page.

Watch the video

Here is a thread that discusses how to combine targeted langing pages into a search engine optimization campaign. The consensus is that extra content pages are always good, even if they are relatively light sales pages.

Develop independent landing pages that can be SEO’ed and linked to from the main site itself. Optimized landing pages can be linked to from any page on your site, such as the sitemap.

Read the webmaster forum discussion at WMW.

Interview with Udi Manber vice president in charge of search quality for Google. Mr. Manber engineers search engine results pages on Google to defy spammers, improve quality and provide the best user experience for information retrieval.

Search engines face the same problem of exponential data growth, but also increased users expectations. Searchers are no longer content just to find some information, they want precise results, without having to perform multiple searches.

Does the increase in information make the job of search exponentially harder because the volume of material is so high, or easier because of the increased linkage of information?

I think some of it is easier, but overall it’s harder, because people’s expectations are so high. Ten years ago, when you found anything, it was a miracle. Okay, I shouldn’t say a miracle, but a surprise: “Hey, look at this! I got what I wanted.” Today, if you don’t find everything you’re looking for, then something is wrong. And that’s the way we look at it, too. If your question is clear, you should get the answer. But now we’re getting into a situation where the questions are no longer always clear. People want more complicated information, and that’s much harder.

Here is a great question about how paid ads are segregated from natural search

You have nothing to do with the advertising side, but is there a sort of “church and state” separation between the advertising side and what you do?

Yes, I told you we launched our 450 improvements. When we decide to launch something, we have a weekly meeting where all those things come together and we look at all the evaluations and we make decisions—revenues and any effects on ads do not come into those meetings. We don’t even know what the effects are. We make the decisions solely based on how good it is for search, how good it is for users. The ads are on a different part of the page, and the ad people, I assume, do the same kind of thing and try to improve the ads.

Read more from the popular mechanics tech blog.

(Photograph by James Duncan Davidson/O’Reilly Media, via Wikimedia Commons/Flickr)

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Unfortunately for Microsoft, this video intended for its inside sales staff was leaked.

Microsoft copies the Bruce Springsteen classic Born to Run in a display that lets these words by Steve Jobs ring true: Microsoft has no taste

Complete with a cameo by the Incredibles cartoon character – animated by Steve Jobs’ Pixar.

Bruce ServicePack and the Vista Street Band

Unforgettable lines:

Vista Gotta Get Me Some

Our Ecosystem Rocks!

Note: this is so funny & bad it must have been released on purpose. Microsoft may have created the hottest viarl tech video of 2008.