SEO chat

[2008.08.21 18:05:29] Welcome to the CafePress Chat Room
[2008.08.21 18:05:29] shopa... has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.08.21 18:05:29] All users in this room have been allowed to talk
[2008.08.21 18:05:37] LauraCP has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.08.21 18:05:49] BrittaCP: Good afternoon everyone!
[2008.08.21 18:05:53] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.08.21 18:06:00] BrittaCP: We'll be ready in just a minute
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[2008.08.21 18:07:04] armymom03: good afternoon britta
[2008.08.21 18:07:05] jonbaas: Good afternoon to you too Britta!
[2008.08.21 18:07:10] BrittaCP: Hi everyone
[2008.08.21 18:07:22] BrittaCP: Thanks for showing up for another fun filled chat
[2008.08.21 18:07:25] tropicando: :)
[2008.08.21 18:07:58] BrittaCP: Many of you were with us a few weeks ago when we had Laura talk to us about the basics of SEO
[2008.08.21 18:08:01] TexasFiddler: If it's as informative as the last SEO chat, it's gonna be a good'n.
[2008.08.21 18:08:06] Karen has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.08.21 18:08:17] BrittaCP: Well.... this one will be as well
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[2008.08.21 18:08:56] BrittaCP: Today Laura is with us again, and she'll be talking about how to improve your rankings in search engines. I'll let her expand upon that in a minute
[2008.08.21 18:09:09] BrittaCP: first... I need to go over those lovely chat rules for those who are new here
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[2008.08.21 18:09:20] BrittaCP: This chat is moderated
[2008.08.21 18:09:27] matisse has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.08.21 18:09:50] BrittaCP: That means you won't see your comments or questions right away, because they are sent to a queue
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[2008.08.21 18:10:10] BrittaCP: Once a moderator reads and approves, it will be pushed out to the public for all to see
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[2008.08.21 18:10:45] BrittaCP: At the end of the chat the Lobby will open up again for you all to continue chatting, and we'll have the transcript up on the site for everyone to read in a few days
[2008.08.21 18:10:56] Jaenne has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.08.21 18:11:05] BrittaCP: Okay... so without further delay... I give you Laura!
[2008.08.21 18:11:15] twiligtsdesign: yay!!
[2008.08.21 18:11:16] TexasFiddler: YAY
[2008.08.21 18:11:22] jonbaas: Hi Laura. :)
[2008.08.21 18:11:22] LauraCP: Hi everyone! Glad to see you all!
[2008.08.21 18:11:25] LauraCP: :)
[2008.08.21 18:11:47] LauraCP: I just got back from a Search conference in San Jose, CA.
[2008.08.21 18:12:01] twiligtsdesign: sounds interesting
[2008.08.21 18:12:23] LauraCP: It was very interesting. The best part is getting to talk to the representatives from the engines.
[2008.08.21 18:12:26] PeggyWvB: Did you have trouble findiing it?
[2008.08.21 18:12:39] BrittaCP: it's so close to us, everyone knows the way
[2008.08.21 18:12:44] jonbaas: There's a Conference for online search techniques!? Fascinating!
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[2008.08.21 18:13:02] LauraCP: The two main conferences for search are SES and SMX Advanced.
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[2008.08.21 18:13:09] LauraCP: They happen around the world.
[2008.08.21 18:13:27] LauraCP: The next version of SES is in December in Chicago. Burr!!!
[2008.08.21 18:13:28] twiligtsdesign: who knew
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[2008.08.21 18:14:07] LauraCP: You can sign up in advance and attend the "expo" part for free or a very limited amount of $ usually.
[2008.08.21 18:14:31] LauraCP: So, just a quick tip, in case you want to see the world of search engines up close.
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[2008.08.21 18:15:09] LauraCP: www.searchenginestrategies.com is the URL for SES. (Search engine strategies).
[2008.08.21 18:15:34] jonbaas: Ah. I'll have to look into that. Thanks!
[2008.08.21 18:15:36] Amere: Thanking you :)
[2008.08.21 18:15:41] LauraCP: searchmarketingexpo.com/advanced is the URL for the second major conference.
[2008.08.21 18:15:46] Ne' 1512BLVD: thank you
[2008.08.21 18:15:57] LauraCP: OK, so onto my main topic of the day...
[2008.08.21 18:16:01] twiligtsdesign: yay!
[2008.08.21 18:16:14] LauraCP: SEO: Improve your ranking
[2008.08.21 18:16:45] LauraCP: So you know Google has picked you up, and customers can find you on the 11th page. How do you help them find you on the 1st page? Let’s continue our SEO discussion by chatting about how to improve and keep your ranking in popular search engines.
[2008.08.21 18:17:28] LauraCP: There's a difference between Indexing vs Ranking
[2008.08.21 18:17:28] twiligtsdesign: good idea. :)
[2008.08.21 18:17:54] LauraCP: Indexing – means being included in the search index. It means that spiders or crawlers have found your URL, “read” the page contents and decided it is unique enough to add the search engine database
[2008.08.21 18:18:11] LauraCP: It does not mean the URL will show up in search results.
[2008.08.21 18:18:34] LauraCP: How do you tell if a URL has been indexed?
[2008.08.21 18:18:49] twiligtsdesign: thats what I want to know
[2008.08.21 18:19:16] LauraCP: Typing "site:www.cafepress.com" will show what pages Google has indexed under the www.cafepress.com domain.
[2008.08.21 18:19:30] LauraCP: Here's an example
[2008.08.21 18:19:34] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.08.21 18:19:54] BrittaCP: If you can't see the image, you can click on it and it will open in another tab
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[2008.08.21 18:20:34] PeggyWvB: If you have statcounter, the spiderbot will show up there
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[2008.08.21 18:21:14] LauraCP: One thing to be aware. Engines spider more than they actually index. Yahoo is notorious for this (IMO).
[2008.08.21 18:21:51] LauraCP: Or you can search for the exact URL. Here's an example.
[2008.08.21 18:21:54] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.08.21 18:22:12] twiligtsdesign: what do you mean by they spider more than they index?
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[2008.08.21 18:23:12] LauraCP: So a spider (also called a crawler) may visit a page but not add it to the search engine index. It might also visit a page many times through various URLs but only index one copy of the page.
[2008.08.21 18:23:44] LauraCP: For example: www.cafepress.com and cafepress.com and http://www.cafepress.com are all URLs that could be spidered, but there is only one page to index.
[2008.08.21 18:23:45] twiligtsdesign: oh
[2008.08.21 18:24:43] LauraCP: So I showed how to see what part of site is indexed with Google site: and how to see if singe page is indexed. But there is another tool you can use.
[2008.08.21 18:25:27] LauraCP: At the SMX Advanced conference, I even heard some former Google employees mentioning that they liked this tool better than what Google offers.
[2008.08.21 18:25:41] LauraCP: It is yahoo site explorer.
[2008.08.21 18:25:55] LauraCP: You can use Yahoo Site Explorer to examine your site:
[2008.08.21 18:25:58] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.08.21 18:26:18] LauraCP: Has anyone used this tool before?
[2008.08.21 18:26:44] twiligtsdesign: nope, never seen it before
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[2008.08.21 18:26:47] shopa...: i use site explorer
[2008.08.21 18:26:50] twopurringcats: I haven't
[2008.08.21 18:26:52] twiligtsdesign: or heard of it
[2008.08.21 18:26:53] PeggyWvB: news to me
[2008.08.21 18:27:02] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.08.21 18:27:03] TexasFiddler: couple times
[2008.08.21 18:27:06] shopa...: i have been using it for a little over a year for all my shops and offsites
[2008.08.21 18:27:53] LauraCP: @shopa... How do you use it?
[2008.08.21 18:28:18] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.08.21 18:28:28] twiligtsdesign: what is the url for this site?
[2008.08.21 18:28:30] LauraCP: iteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
[2008.08.21 18:28:44] shopa...: it also offers a small tracking box you can out on your website to show how many inlinks you have - i have that box on my sidebar
[2008.08.21 18:28:53] LauraCP: Very interesting!
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[2008.08.21 18:29:09] LauraCP: I use it to see where competitors are getting their backlinks from.
[2008.08.21 18:29:12] LauraCP: hint hint
[2008.08.21 18:29:16] LauraCP: ;)
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[2008.08.21 18:29:32] jonbaas: Creative!
[2008.08.21 18:29:39] shopa...: it lets me track people linking to me - i can see affialites - helps me set up reciprocal links
[2008.08.21 18:29:52] shopa...: you can see what i mean witht he sidebar box on www.cafepress.com/shopaholicchick at the bottom fot he sidebar
[2008.08.21 18:30:34] matisse: I can find some affiliate links by googling my shop ID
[2008.08.21 18:30:46] Ne' 1512BLVD: Shopa, you have almost 9,000 links to your main page? wow!
[2008.08.21 18:30:48] twiligtsdesign: whats a backlink?
[2008.08.21 18:31:07] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.08.21 18:31:25] LauraCP: A backlink is another word for an inbound link.
[2008.08.21 18:31:38] LauraCP: sometimes in forums you will see it called IBL
[2008.08.21 18:31:41] Ne' 1512BLVD: Laura, can you explain further how you use it in that way?
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[2008.08.21 18:32:15] LauraCP: You can see who is linking to your competitors. Then you could ask those sites to link to your site too.
[2008.08.21 18:32:24] shopa...: you can show the report excluding your domain or subdomain links though....the # however includes each sub page of my shop that links back to the main page...
[2008.08.21 18:32:55] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.08.21 18:33:02] LauraCP: Make a list. Slowly try to get links from those same places. Slow and steady link building is key. You don’t want 100 links in a single week. That looks suspicious.
[2008.08.21 18:33:14] brev87 has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.08.21 18:33:52] Ne' 1512BLVD: Thanks you Laura!
[2008.08.21 18:34:00] LauraCP: More is not better. More links is nice. But more links from places with high page rank and high search engine trust values is way Way better. PageRank will be discussed in just a few minutes.
[2008.08.21 18:34:13] jonbaas: Fascinating tool!
[2008.08.21 18:34:32] LauraCP: Yes, the tool is very cool.
[2008.08.21 18:34:51] LauraCP: If you authenticate your site, you can get more info and have a bit more control.
[2008.08.21 18:35:14] ac has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.08.21 18:35:42] LauraCP: The instructions are in Yahoo site explorer .... (this won't work for a basic shop because you won't have the ability to add the meta data they will ask for.)
[2008.08.21 18:35:51] HaHaShirtShop: How do you decide which offers for linkbacks you accept?
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[2008.08.21 18:36:06] LauraCP: Great question!
[2008.08.21 18:37:03] LauraCP: You want to link to sites that are relevant to your customers, the page the link will be on, and in moderation.
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[2008.08.21 18:39:28] LauraCP: Ask yourself if the site provides useful info for your visitors. It is like introducing someone. You usually try to avoid introducing someone you like to someone you don't like. But you would naturally like to introduce someone you like to someone else you like and that you think they would enjoy meeting.
[2008.08.21 18:39:49] Ne' 1512BLVD: How do you get the websites to link to you? Do you just use their contact us form and ask? Or do you try to sell why they should link to you?
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[2008.08.21 18:41:34] LauraCP: Using their contact forms is a good start. Ask politely. Give a reason why you think their site and yours are a good fit. Indicate you have read and valued their content. Say on the specfic page example.com/i-like-this-page.html, you enjoyed their photos and stories of "cats" and you have made designs that feature similar cats.
[2008.08.21 18:41:47] tropicando: what about suspicious sites that link to you, can that harm you?
[2008.08.21 18:42:26] LauraCP: A few suspicious links to you should not hurt. Lots of suspicious links to you could hurt your ranking if they are not balanced by enough normal links.
[2008.08.21 18:43:24] tropicando: ok
[2008.08.21 18:43:43] Jaenne: What other SEOs have you to tell us about?
[2008.08.21 18:43:45] LauraCP: So onto "ranking"
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[2008.08.21 18:44:10] LauraCP: Ranking is what position your indexed URL appears in when someone searches for keywords related to your content.
[2008.08.21 18:44:25] LauraCP: Everyone’s goal is to appear on the first page of search results for the keywords they think their pages are relevant to. This is ranking in positions 1-10. Ranking in positions 1-5 are the most desired because they are “above the fold.”
[2008.08.21 18:45:20] LauraCP: Almost all clicks from searchers go to page 1. And only about half of the searches result in a click at all. Many searches don’t result in any clicks because the searcher doesn’t like the results and abandons the search or tries a different keyword.
[2008.08.21 18:45:43] LauraCP: It is also possible that he can get the answer he is looking for right from the search results page (known as a SERP) and does not need to go to the actual Web page.
[2008.08.21 18:45:57] LauraCP: Here’s how SEO Researcher estimates the distribution of clicks on page 1:
[2008.08.21 18:46:11] BrittaCP sent a picture:
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[2008.08.21 18:46:50] LauraCP: source: seoresearcher.com
[2008.08.21 18:47:14] LauraCP: See how quickly the clicks drop off as you move down the page?
[2008.08.21 18:47:26] twiligtsdesign: yeah
[2008.08.21 18:47:31] LauraCP: We’ll talk about techniques to rank highly for relevant keywords in a minute, but first I want to address a related term.
[2008.08.21 18:47:51] cyi has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.08.21 18:47:54] LauraCP: PageRank is a Google term people use a lot
[2008.08.21 18:48:11] LauraCP: .” Pagerank is the publicly posted value Google shows for individual web pages. The CafePress homepage currently has a PageRank of 8. 10 is the maximum possible.
[2008.08.21 18:48:25] LauraCP: This is very rare. Google gives it’s own homepage a PR of 6. CNN.com and Amazon have a PR of 9 for their homepages. eBay.com has a PR of 8.
[2008.08.21 18:48:34] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.08.21 18:49:03] PeggyWvB: wow! that's a dramatic difference between the top listing and the 6th
[2008.08.21 18:49:21] LauraCP: (the green bar if you enable the google toolbar)
[2008.08.21 18:49:26] LauraCP: Here’s what Google has to say about PageRank
[2008.08.21 18:49:40] LauraCP: Google PageRank - http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html
[2008.08.21 18:49:54] LauraCP: • PageRank Technology: PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.
[2008.08.21 18:50:16] LauraCP: PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page's importance.
[2008.08.21 18:50:45] LauraCP: So we're back to the "friends" concept we were talking about...
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[2008.08.21 18:51:07] LauraCP: Here's a bit of technical background... a tiny bit
[2008.08.21 18:51:09] LauraCP: ow does Google actually process a search? – content copied from http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html
[2008.08.21 18:51:32] LauraCP: The life span of a Google query normally lasts less than half a second, yet involves a number of different steps that must be completed before results can be delivered to a person seeking information.
[2008.08.21 18:51:37] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.08.21 18:52:24] twiligtsdesign: interesting
[2008.08.21 18:52:53] LauraCP: Does ranking vary with different search engines?
[2008.08.21 18:53:01] LauraCP: Yes. You will find differences between Yahoo, Google, and MSN. You can even find differences between AOL.com and Google.com even though Google powers AOL.
[2008.08.21 18:53:29] TexasFiddler: It even differs between different flavors of Google
[2008.08.21 18:54:23] rametta has left the room (logged out)
[2008.08.21 18:54:39] LauraCP: True, it does. It varies if you are logged in or not too..
[2008.08.21 18:54:48] LauraCP: So, How do I rank highly for my keywords?
[2008.08.21 18:55:03] LauraCP: Select your topic areas carefully. It is easier to rank highly for longer tail queries like “Ladybug designs on t-shirts” than “T-shirts”.

http://www.google.com/trends and http://www.google.com/insights/search/#

-Delete or consolidate pages with duplicate content.
-Don’t forget all the SEO basics like titles, text, meta data, alt text.
[2008.08.21 18:55:36] LauraCP: One Key to Ranking well is good Linking
[2008.08.21 18:55:45] LauraCP: • If you don’t provide a link to a page, the search engines cannot find it. Therefore it will never be indexed or rank well.
[2008.08.21 18:56:04] LauraCP: No more than 100 per page. Fewer is better
[2008.08.21 18:56:55] LauraCP: No more than 100 "links" per page ... Fewer is better.
[2008.08.21 18:57:04] LauraCP: • Inbound Links from sites related to your content will help. Ask for links to pages other than your homepage.
[2008.08.21 18:57:19] LauraCP: •Outbound links to lots of unrelated sites or pages can hurt by making your page look less focused.
[2008.08.21 18:57:41] LauraCP: Webrings are of questionable use. Linking to them can make your site look less focused and it can lead you to link to sites you wouldn’t normally want to be
[2008.08.21 18:57:50] LauraCP: associated with. Think carefully if you are getting what you want from them
[2008.08.21 18:58:01] LauraCP: Ask for links from topically related sites. Again, ask for links to pages other than your homepage
[2008.08.21 18:58:18] LauraCP: Topical inbound and outbound links make your site an authority. It is the idea of becoming a “hub.”
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[2008.08.21 18:59:01] LauraCP: Don’t buy links - or at least beware that if you are caught your entire site could be deleted from the index.
[2008.08.21 18:59:19] dan has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.08.21 18:59:27] LauraCP: Don’t sell links - same caution as above...
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[2008.08.21 18:59:43] LauraCP: Use descriptive “anchor text”. Example “See great stuff here.” Compare to “See great ladybug t-shirts.”
[2008.08.21 19:00:04] LauraCP: •Surround links with topically related text. See great ladybug t-shirts. LadyBug designs on long sleeve t-shirts, girls tees, and plus size t-shirts are all available here.”
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[2008.08.21 19:00:19] Ne' 1512BLVD: I thought we did not want outbound links because they were leaks?
[2008.08.21 19:00:23] BrittaCP: It’s an act of balance. On the one hand you can add links if you want to improve your ranking (which is one of the ways that Laura has suggested). On the other hand, if you are concerned about affiliates, you may need to rethink. It’s really a question of what is right for you, as an individual Shopkeeper.
[2008.08.21 19:00:37] LauraCP: How do you get from page 3 to page 1?
[2008.08.21 19:00:53] LauraCP: This is O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y ! If you are on page 2 or 3, then moving to the next highest page is probably one of your biggest opportunities. Trying to move from position 8 to position 3 is hard.
[2008.08.21 19:02:10] BrittaCP: hang on gang... laura seemed to freeze up
[2008.08.21 19:02:53] BrittaCP: she's lost her internet connection, so let's give her a minute to try and get reconnected
[2008.08.21 19:02:55] twiligtsdesign: how sad :(
[2008.08.21 19:03:03] BrittaCP: It happens... silly wi-fi
[2008.08.21 19:03:09] TexasFiddler: Is there a way to contact Laura after the chat?
[2008.08.21 19:03:27] BrittaCP: Texas... you're welcome to email a question to communityteam@cafepress.com
[2008.08.21 19:03:36] BrittaCP: I'll forward it off.
[2008.08.21 19:03:52] BrittaCP: We'll also be having a special Q&A chat in september with laura
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[2008.08.21 19:04:02] twiligtsdesign: taking notes here...just like high school
[2008.08.21 19:04:07] TexasFiddler: thanx
[2008.08.21 19:04:08] TexasFiddler: yay
[2008.08.21 19:04:56] BrittaCP: We have one more strutured chat with her in a few weeks and then the Q/A
[2008.08.21 19:05:20] jonbaas: Yep. Notes are a must in chats like these!
[2008.08.21 19:05:23] TexasFiddler: the chats we've had with her have been some of the most informative i've attended!
[2008.08.21 19:05:25] tropicando: feels like a college lecture actually
[2008.08.21 19:05:25] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.08.21 19:05:33] shopa...: you can stick around after chat in the lobby and ask some things to othe rshopkeepers who stck around too
[2008.08.21 19:05:35] Jaenne: I appreciate all the help you give. Cafe Press is wonderful to it's shopkeepers....
[2008.08.21 19:05:54] twiligtsdesign: are there archived chat transcripts on things she has talked about that we may not quite understand like inbound and outbound links
[2008.08.21 19:06:04] BrittaCP: we have many chats archived
[2008.08.21 19:06:27] BrittaCP: http://community.cafepress.com/?cat=14
[2008.08.21 19:06:32] BrittaCP: you can flip throough them here
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[2008.08.21 19:08:07] Amere: You know you can click on the "view chat transcript' button and copy and paste the whole chat twiligtsdesign.
[2008.08.21 19:08:08] shopa...: there are a lot of chat logs on cafechatter.blogspot.com also
[2008.08.21 19:08:29] twiligtsdesign: can we like do a search on a certain topic or do we have to read though each chat till we find what we need?
[2008.08.21 19:08:42] BrittaCP: you do for right now
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[2008.08.21 19:08:57] tropicando: hello room by the way
[2008.08.21 19:08:59] shopa...: this chat will be on my blog the moment it ends
[2008.08.21 19:09:20] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.08.21 19:09:41] jonbaas: I appreciate the promptness of your transcripting, Shopa.... :)
[2008.08.21 19:09:47] TexasFiddler: btw, good to see you back, shopa. i sent you a couple transcripts, but never knew if you got them
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[2008.08.21 19:10:02] LauraCP has left the room (logged out)
[2008.08.21 19:10:09] BrittaCP: alright!
[2008.08.21 19:10:22] LauraCP has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.08.21 19:10:29] BrittaCP: i think we've made contact!
[2008.08.21 19:10:31] LauraCP: whoo hoo!! I'm baaack
[2008.08.21 19:10:31] Ne' 1512BLVD: welcome back!
[2008.08.21 19:10:37] LauraCP: so sorry everyone
[2008.08.21 19:10:37] twiligtsdesign: welcome back
[2008.08.21 19:10:48] jonbaas: No worries. It happens. :)
[2008.08.21 19:11:13] LauraCP: :') so I'll be quick to try to get us finished. thanks for hanging in there.
[2008.08.21 19:11:35] LauraCP: There is so much competition for top 1-5 those slots. But if you are on page 3 and can move to page 2 you will double your chances of getting a click
[2008.08.21 19:12:03] LauraCP: Consider your internal linking. Look at which pages have the highest Google PR. Links from those pages are high value links. But don’t link to every page you have from your homepage or other higher ranking pages.
[2008.08.21 19:12:17] LauraCP: Link to the pages you most want to boost. The pages you provide the most and best links to yourself are a clue to the engines of which pages you think are most important.
[2008.08.21 19:12:30] LauraCP: Submit your site to related vertical directories. Got a store about LadyBug designs? The Yahoo directory is always a good start.
[2008.08.21 19:12:47] LauraCP: . Best of the web also works : http://botw.org/helpcenter/submitcommercial.aspx But look for smaller dedicated directories.
[2008.08.21 19:13:00] LauraCP: See http://www.celticbug.com/Buggy/Links.html as an example.
[2008.08.21 19:13:04] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.08.21 19:13:23] LauraCP: Find blogs that are about your topic area. Write useful informative comments. If they allow, post a useful link to your store.
[2008.08.21 19:13:41] LauraCP: Comment in your blog and link from your blog to your products. Use relevant anchor text that contains the keywords that are relevant to your products.
[2008.08.21 19:13:49] TexasFiddler: One of the things that I have read is that it is very valuable to become listed in Directories...especially DMOZ. How do you do that? I've requested my website be included several times over the last couple years. Since they don't answer or give reasons why they don't list a site I feel like I'm talking to the ether!
[2008.08.21 19:14:21] LauraCP: DMOZ is really hard to get into. And they don't update info much.
[2008.08.21 19:15:33] LauraCP: There is even an "oopd" tag to keep your site from having its title and description over written in search results by the DMOZ info.
[2008.08.21 19:16:26] LauraCP: They do take volunteer editors. If you really want to be listed, then ask about once a quarter and try to present a very compelling case. You can also become an editor...that could help.
[2008.08.21 19:16:54] TexasFiddler: been there, tried that
[2008.08.21 19:17:06] LauraCP: Another way to help go up in ranking
[2008.08.21 19:17:10] LauraCP: Start a MySpace page and FaceBook page. Add a feed to your products through “share it.”
[2008.08.21 19:17:25] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.08.21 19:18:44] LauraCP: @TexasFiddler: It was extrodinary hard to get changes in DMOZ for HP.com. We only managed a very few...
[2008.08.21 19:19:03] Ne' 1512BLVD: I have done that on Facebook. But, I forgot all about it and haven't done it recently! Thanks for the remind. I also try to add to Kaboodle. Is that a good site to add your products to?
[2008.08.21 19:19:11] twiligtsdesign: i've joined lots of facebook groups on one of my topics and have a running discussion board topic and update whenver I add a new shop/section
[2008.08.21 19:19:19] LauraCP: Once you climb in rankings...How do you stay there?
[2008.08.21 19:19:27] LauraCP: - Keep your content up to date.
[2008.08.21 19:19:51] LauraCP: - Add new content regularly. Keep it focused on the same basic contents/topics...
[2008.08.21 19:19:59] LauraCP: - Delete irrelevant content, outdated content
[2008.08.21 19:20:14] LauraCP: Try to get one new inbound link per week.
[2008.08.21 19:20:27] LauraCP: Add or edit one outbound link once per month
[2008.08.21 19:20:37] LauraCP: -Add a sitemap with links to your newer pages
[2008.08.21 19:20:49] LauraCP: Consider adding an XML sitemap and providing it to the spiders. https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/docs/en/sitemap-generator.html
[2008.08.21 19:21:04] LauraCP: Check for broken links and fix them. Sites with lots of broken links are a warning sign of low quality
[2008.08.21 19:21:15] LauraCP: Add links to your homepage in all of your emails
[2008.08.21 19:21:24] NiftyGaloot has left the room
[2008.08.21 19:21:27] LauraCP: Bookmark in social sites like Digg and Delicious
[2008.08.21 19:22:04] LauraCP: Twitter about your products when you release a new design
[2008.08.21 19:22:32] LauraCP: twitter.com
[2008.08.21 19:22:56] PeggyWvB: How do you bookmark?
[2008.08.21 19:22:56] LauraCP: What not to do?
[2008.08.21 19:22:56] BrittaCP: Many sites have a button on thier page whihc will let a user automatlically bookmark to whereever they are joined up with
[2008.08.21 19:23:09] BrittaCP: that was peggy
[2008.08.21 19:23:26] LauraCP: •Don’t spam
[2008.08.21 19:23:38] LauraCP: Don’t try to fool the engines
[2008.08.21 19:23:48] LauraCP: •Don’t link to link farms
[2008.08.21 19:24:02] LauraCP: Don’t put too much content on a single page. About 150 -300 words is ideal.
[2008.08.21 19:24:17] LauraCP: Don’t put too many links on a page. Try to keep it to less than 100. Much less.
[2008.08.21 19:24:46] LauraCP: And to answer a question that got dropped when I lost my connection:
[2008.08.21 19:25:02] LauraCP: What about page 2, position 1 vs. page 1 position 10?
[2008.08.21 19:25:10] LauraCP: Here's an industry estimate
[2008.08.21 19:25:25] LauraCP: 89.73% of all clicks go to page one
[2008.08.21 19:25:42] LauraCP: 4.38% go to page 2
[2008.08.21 19:26:39] TexasFiddler: gulp
[2008.08.21 19:26:41] PeggyWvB: good to know!
[2008.08.21 19:27:11] LauraCP: On a page ~46% go to position 1. And 3% go to position 10.
[2008.08.21 19:27:39] LauraCP: This is all "approx" - not published anywhere in exact refutable data...
[2008.08.21 19:28:07] jonbaas: Still... it's a helpful approximation. :)
[2008.08.21 19:28:38] LauraCP: but 3% of 89% is still larger than 46% of 4.38%... so page 1 position 10 is likely to get more clicks than page 2, position 1.
[2008.08.21 19:29:05] Ne' 1512BLVD: Do you have to ask them or do they list stuff they find useful?
[2008.08.21 19:30:02] LauraCP: The editors of directories find stuff and take requests. The last time I talked to a manager at Yahoo who was responsible for the Yahoo directory, the team editing it was really small!
[2008.08.21 19:30:37] LauraCP: So, it is a big challenge to get added or edited. But it is possible.
[2008.08.21 19:30:52] BrittaCP: So as you can tell… we’ve gone past the hour mark. There were a lot questions coming through… and again we apologize for not getting to them all. Don’t forget, we’ll be having a Q&A so save those questions. September’s chat schedule will be up on the 1st.
[2008.08.21 19:31:23] LauraCP: Thank you all for your questions, patience with my technical problems, and all the enthusiasm. I really enjoyed talking with you all.
[2008.08.21 19:31:31] Amere: cool. Thanks Laura, thanks Britta
[2008.08.21 19:31:34] TexasFiddler: Laura, it has been a plasure!
[2008.08.21 19:31:37] Jaenne has left the room (logged out)
[2008.08.21 19:31:40] Alex has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.08.21 19:31:43] twopurringcats: thanks
[2008.08.21 19:31:45] TexasFiddler: pleasure
[2008.08.21 19:32:03] BrittaCP: Thanks for joining all!