Latent Semantic Indexing: What Is It?

Latent semantic indexing was introduced in an attempt to improve the service offered by Google and other search engines to those using their services.

Keyword density has been the main part of search engine optimization for many years, easily understood by beginners in website design and article writing. The two major factors influencing search engine placement were the use of keywords and in-links (back links).

When Google introduced Adsense, however, it soon became apparent to entrepreneurs that there was a lot of money to be made by generating web-pages specifically designed to display Adsense ads. Thousands of dollars could be made daily by generating thousands of pages, using template-based page generation software specifically designed for the purpose. Content duplication was rife and the websites themselves were of little or no use to the visitor who was presented with nothing more than Adsense adverts.
One of the reasons, perhaps the main one, for the introduction of latent semantic indexing was to overcome this problem, and to ensure that websites were providing a useful service to those using Google’s search engine, though Google is not the only search engine using the algorithm.
Since the introduction of latent semantic indexing, many sites have been de-listed by Google as being of little use to the visitor, and for using duplicate content. A change of keyword was frequently the only difference between pages. Many internet marketers found their income slashed to almost zero overnight, and this change can often be traced back to the time that latent semantic indexing was introduced.
Latent semantic indexing was initially used in Adsense to enable adverts targeted to the theme of a webpage to appear on the page. The algorithm checks the wording on the page and determines the theme of the page. It was only later that Google applied the algorithms to search engine placement, and it is used by search engines other than Google. It involves analysis of words used in natural language, the synonyms and closely related words used when discussing the general theme of a page. It complements, rather than replaces, keyword analysis.
Since it is based on a mathematical set of rules, or algorithm, it is not perfect and can lead to results which are justifiable mathematically, but have no meaning in natural language. Google purchased a company, Applied Semantics, to develop it early in 2003.
So what is latent semantic indexing? How does it work in layman’s terms?
Let’s look at the three words separately:
LATENT.
The word ‘latent’ means something which is present, but not obviously visible. For example, the latent heat of vaporization, or the heat required to vaporize water, is present in clouds, and is only released when it rains. This is why it seems to get warmer during thunderstorms. In terms of latent semantic indexing, it means that a word such as ‘lock’, can be present in a text, and its meaning is hidden until some other factor reveals it. ‘Lock’ can mean, among other things, a piece of hair, a security device or a means of conveying a barge between different heights in a canal. It is only the rest of the text which makes its meaning clear.
SEMANTIC
The word ‘semantic’ refers to the meaning of language or words, as opposed to what is actually said or written. In the use of the word ‘lock’ in ‘a lock of hair’, semantics is the use given to the word ‘lock’, which is made obvious by the expression ‘lock of hair’.
INDEXING
With reference to use of the word in latent semantic indexing, ’indexing’ is the identification of the meaning of a document from its subject content, and its listing into a form suitable for use by a search system.
Let’s make it clearer by giving an example. Software-generated pages used for Adsense tend to be very general and are able to be used as templates for any keyword or phrase. Here is how a typical piece of such text could read, using ‘the history of locks’ as key-phrase.
“If you are seeking information on the history of locks, there is no better place than the internet. The information superhighway is full of sites specializing in the history of locks, and the history of locks is a very popular subject. We recommend that you check out the other pages on this site for information on other topics associated with the history of locks.”
This is very common with Adsense sites. You can replace the key-phrase ‘the history of locks’ with any keyword whatsoever, and the same text can be used countless times, being replaced automatically by the software from a given list of keywords. It does not give the reader any information whatsoever. In fact, it does not even give information as to what type of lock is being referred to. It could apply equally to a security lock and a canal lock. This is why latent semantic indexing was introduced to search engine ranking analysis.
Now here is the same text including some qualifying wording:
“If you are seeking information on the history of locks, there is no better place than the internet. The information superhighway is full of sites specializing in the history of locks of all types, from the massive Roman door locks to sophisticated encrypted password security systems. From long-keyed safe locks to the history of combination locks that have given safecrackers so much trouble over the ages. The history of locks is a very popular subject and we recommend that you check out the other pages on this website dealing with topics such as general security, the history of cylinder and lever locks, and padlocks of various kinds.”
The ‘latency’ referred to in the term ’latent semantic indexing’ is the hidden meaning of the word ‘lock’, which remains hidden in the first version until the semantics of the second reveal its meaning. Thus, by use of the algorithm, website content with similar keywords, but different meanings for the keywords, can be differentiated and, more importantly for the webmaster, the relevance of the site can be properly determined and indexed.
No longer will sites with ambiguous keywords, as in version one above, be acceptable to search engines. The semantics of the page must make the meaning and topic of the page clear.
So what does that mean to you? It means that not only must you maintain a reasonable density of the specific keyword being targeted, since that is still the term being used by the searcher, but you must also use related words and terms to define the overall theme of the page. Prior to latent semantic indexing, a search for the term ‘the history of locks and canals’ would have been directed to both of the above texts. Since its introduction, such a search will be directed to neither. It will be directed to a page where it is obvious that the theme of the site is canal locks.
This can only be good for the visitor to Google.

The Promise of Behavioral Targeting

The mass marketing techniques that dominated 20th century advertising are becoming outdated as online ad-targeting technology continues to advance. This is true of display advertising as well search engine marketing. It used to be that search marketing targeted only with keywords.

Ad Targeting

Search marketing, by its very nature, is a targeting medium. Users are self-directed in conducting queries that follow their interests, be it informational, educational, entertaining or commercial. This data is all recorded and can be tracked.

Most marketers are familiar with contextual targeting; it has been used in offline and online advertising for a long time. You read a magazine article about home gardening and the ads on the page might be for Miracle Grow or Roundup. The same principle is applied to the web.

Behavioral targeting is relatively new but catching on fast. The Internet, with its ability to record behavior, is largely responsible for the increase in behavioral targeting. Marketers like targeted ads because they reach specific consumers, eliminating waste and increasing advertising efficiency.

Within online advertising, there is certainly no better example of efficient targeting than search, which can drive relevant messages welcomed by consumers. Search marketing is effective because it is actually a form self-targeting.

As marketing dollars shift from traditional media to online media, today’s marketers are embracing search strategies such as SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click advertising), as well as contextual, demographic and behavioral targeting.

Behavioral Targeting Research

Behavioral targeting is attractive to advertisers because it delivers ads to consumers based on their past search behavior. Since user behavior reveals their interests, prospects are highly motivated and likely to convert.

A recent survey by MarketingSherpa reports that 22 percent of marketers plan to increase behavioral targeting budgets significantly this year. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they got "great results" with behavioral targeting, compared to 52 percent who claimed "great results" for paid search. IMedia Connection found that 83 percent of marketers were "satisfied" with behavioral targeting and 7.3 percent indicated they were "very satisfied."

Forrester Research queried marketers interested in using behavioral targeting and found that 52 percent already use it, 17 percent are testing and 31 percent plan to test later this year. The study identified the top three benefits of behavioral targeting as:

1. More click-throughs (35%)
2. More conversions (26%)
3. Improved ROI (21%)

Based on the above research, behavioral targeting gets a thumbs-up from marketers.

However, there can be drawbacks. By its very nature, behavioral targeting has the effect of reducing reach. It may be effective to target ads to a motivated audience, but a lot of potential prospects do not demonstrate an interest through past behavior. Some folks never learn about new products unless they are advertised. So advertisers could be missing a lot of sales opportunities.

Targeted Ads Gain Respect

Industry research shows that marketers are spending a good portion of their marketing budgets on targeted ads. The majority of marketers spend over 15 percent of their marketing budgets on targeted ads. Twenty-two percent spend over 45 percent of their ad budget on behavioral targeting.

One of the reasons that advertisers are moving toward targeted advertising is the degree of audience fragmentation. With targeting, they can reach a large number of people within a common target group. Audience fragmentation is driving the development of geographic, demographic, contextual and behavioral targeting in search.

Behavioral Targeting With Search

Search profiling allows marketers to target search users with delayed ads after the initial search. For instance, a user might be gathering information on plasma TVs. Current technology allows marketers to serve users ads based on these searches a few days after the initial query. This allows advertisers to reach consumers in the final stages of the buying cycle.

You can also target users with paid search ads on landing pages after they leave a search site. Many of these sites sell ads at low CPMs. Post-search ads can benefit users by presenting them with relevant ads while maintaining their privacy (ads are cookie based and personal information is not collected). Advertisers can create more opportunities to reach customers beyond search real estate and at subsequent stages of the buying cycle. Microsoft adCenter lets you adjust bids by demographics, geographics and day of week or time of day (dayparting). Microsoft’s targeting and audience intelligence data comes from registered users voluntarily providing information upon registration for Microsoft products and services, as well as Microsoft Passport registrants and third-party data from Experian.

Google provides regional and local targeting with AdWords, as well as Ad Scheduling (dayparting). The ad scheduling option allows you to control the days and/or the time of day your ads are displayed. You can improve ROI on some campaigns by running ads only when it makes good business sense. For instance, it can be advantageous for local businesses to run ads only during business hours, or for a retail site to increase exposure during the holiday season.

Yahoo provides ad category targeting on Yahoo Publisher Network and is expected to add targeting capabilities to Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) with its Panama upgrade by the end of the year.

Market Size

Online ad targeting becomes more popular as mass-marketing techniques lose clout due to audience fragmentation. Emarketer estimates U.S. advertisers will spend $1.2 billion on behavioral targeting this year, up 30 percent from 2005. This growth rate exceeds the total online advertising growth rate for this year (24.7%). The report also predicts behavioral targeting revenue will double to $2.1 billion by 2008.

Search engine marketing is one of its fastest growing segments of Internet advertising, representing 41 percent of total online ad revenues and continuing to rise. Online ad revenues totaled $12.5 billion in 2005 (U.S.), an increase of 30 percent over 2004.

Consumer Resistance to Behavioral Targeting

The industry would like to believe behavioral targeting is good for everyone: the advertiser gets more efficient targeting, the publisher sells more inventory, and the consumer is exposed to relevant messages based on his or her interests.

However, consumers and advocate groups have been vocal about the lack of disclosure and loss of privacy. H.R. 2929 (the "SPY ACT") passed the House of Representatives last year but so far has not cleared the Senate. This Bill requires web publishers to give consumers prominent notice about the information collected (who will collect it and how it will be used) prior to collecting any cookie information. Consumers would have to be given the opportunity to opt out, not in a privacy policy on another page, but clearly and conspicuously on the page viewed before gathering cookie information about consumer activity. All advertisements would have to be labeled.

Research has shown that consumers want more disclosure but would be willing to give up some privacy if provided adequate value in return.

The Task Ahead

Technology gives advertisers new opportunities to reach consumers more efficiently. To realize the promise of behavioral marketing, the online ad industry must build trust among consumers who increasingly demand more disclosure about what is being tracked on their computers and why. This is doable since behavioral marketing does not require the use of any personally identifiable information.

However, the risks that concern consumers, such as identify theft and misuse of personal information, must be disassociated from behavioral marketing through PR efforts. Lastly, if marketers adopt the principles of providing more transparency and giving consumers adequate value for using their data, they can advance the cause for behavioral marketing.

10 Steps to Creating Your Internet Marketing Plan

If you're the owner of a small service business, having a solid Internet marketing plan in place can both increase your name and brand recognition locally in your geographic area, as well as expose you to a whole new set of potential clients throughout the world.

If you have a business plan or vision that is written, you only need to integrate this Internet marketing piece into that existing plan. However, if you are like many of my clients, you carry your business and marketing plans in your head without bothering to commit anything to paper.

Here are ten considerations you need to make as you complete your Internet marketing plan:

1. Objective of Internet Marketing Plan:

What do you want to accomplish by using Internet marketing? To find new clients? Provide services and info to existing clients? Sell services or products? Educate your target market or your staff about your product or service? Create an online community for your target market? How much money to have to spend each month on this Internet marketing plan? Having a goal and budget in mind will make your marketing more effective.

2. Marketing Funnel:

The most successful online business owners have a marketing funnel (think of it as an upside down triangle) through which they "funnel" clients. The process begins from the wide top of the funnel, representing low-cost products or free give-aways, and moving clients down through the funnel to the narrower portions which represent gradually increasing investments from the clients from your higher-priced products and services. What products and services do you currently offer? Are they at varied price points that would create a funnel effect? What plans do you have to increase your product or service line? Will those new offerings plug gaps in your marketing funnel?

3. Your Competition:

Knowing and understanding where you stand among your competitors can you help you strengthen your marketing message. Do a keyword search for the terms someone might use to find your business online. Write down the URL's of your top 5 competitors. How popular and relevant are their sites? You can check their traffic ranking with Alexa, http://www.alexa.com/#traffic, as well as see what other sites link to them. Does your competition offer something unique? Where are the gaps in the service or product offerings?

4. Target Market:

Instead of trying to marketing to everyone (the shotgun marketing approach), find a clearly definable target market that you can easily describe and locate. Are they male or female? What age group? What industry? What socio-economic group? Where do they hang out on- and off-line? What do they read? To what groups and associations (real and virtual, personal and professional) do they belong? How much money do they make? Can they easily afford your product or service? What keywords are they using to search for businesses like yours online? (Note--you can do keyword research with free downloadable software, http://www.GoodKeywords.com).

5. Solution to a Problem:

The reason that someone will buy your product or hire to you to provide a service is to solve a particular problem that they have. What problems and issues plague your target market? How does your product or service solve that problem? How does your solution differ from that of your competitors? What makes you uniquely qualified to provide the solution to their problem?

6. Branding Your Business:

Your domain name can either help you be memorable or cast you into a sea of "brandless" solutions. At a minimum, you'll want to buy both your personal name as well as the name of your business in the .com version, if it's available. Then buy the .com versions of your product names and program names. If you use a full-featured domain registrar, you'll be able to point and mask these domains to internal pages of your web site, or use them as stand-alone sales letter pages.

You may also think of problems faced by your target market or solutions that you provide and buy domain names in the .com version of those as well. Internet marketer Dean Jackson brands his ebook on how to stop a divorce by owning the domain name, StopYourDivorce.com, This is a compelling solution to his target market -- men who have been ignoring their wives' complaints of marital dissatisfaction and come home one day to an empty house and a note telling him that she's filing for divorce.

7. Assess your website.

Your web site should be visually appealing, with one primary font for the text and a simple primary color scheme, along with an easy-to-navigate layout, and readily identifiable buttons to link to other pages in the site. Your content should focus on and address the problems of your visitors and how your product or service can help solve their problems. Rather than listing the features of your product or service, detail the benefits they'll gain from purchasing your product or service. People rarely buy features -- they buy benefits. Don't depend on your web site designer to write your content -- that is best done by you, as you know your business and your target market better than anyone.

Present a clear call to action that is clearly shown on every page of your site. In an online business, your primary call to action should be getting the visitor's name and primary email address by asking him subscribe to your ezine or by giving him access to a free ecourse, special report, audio recording, or ebook. Lastly, provide an abundace of readily available information to demonstrate your expertise (articles, blog posts, free downloads, giveaways, contests). Your visitor is always asking WIIFM (What's In It For Me) -- make your web site about your visitor, not about you.

8. Online Business Management Technology:

Do you have access to the appropriate services and technology that will help you sell your product or service online? At a minimum you'll need a merchant account (permits you to take credit card payments) that includes a virtual gateway (enables you to process transactions online) and a full-featured shopping cart that will permit you to sell both physical and electronic products and create a series of autoresponders to follow up with buyers and non-buyers alike. Depending on your marketing plan, you may also want to investigate email newsletter distribution services, online appointment setting services, stand-alone autoresponders, blogging software, article submission sites, online press release distribution services, website content management services, and links exchange management services and software.

9. Internet Marketing Strategies:

How will you create traffic to your website? There are countless ways to do this, including: pay-per-click purchases (in which you buy a keyword at a search engine and pay for placement on that search engine for that keyword and pay for each visitor who clicks on that link and is sent to your site); organic search engine listing ranking (in which your site comes up at the top of the non-sponsored listings on a search engine by having keyword rich descriptions in the page title and page desciption meta tags and then optimizing each page for no more than 3 keywords in the first 250 words on a page); well-written email newsletter that is published on a regular basis; submission of articles on topics related to your target market to article submission directories; regularly post entries to a blog aimed at your target market, full of content discussing issues related to that target market; series of podcasts containing interview with experts of interest to your target market; ongoing series of teleconferences containing value-added content for your target market; submission of online press releases with new tips information for your target market; exchange relevant links with others in different industries with the same target market;

10. Building a Team:

You'll never be able to do this all alone. The most successful business owners don't even try. You need to add experts to your team who are great at what they do so that you've got the time and energy to go out and do what you do best -- selling your products and services to your target market. Some great experts to add to your team include a virtual assistant or online business manager, an online business coach, a web site designer, a graphic designer, a writing expert (editor, ghost writer, proof reader or copy writer), a bookkeeper, and intellectual property attorney, to name a few.

To conduct a successful Internet marketing campaign, you need to integrate your plan into the overall marketing plan/business vision that you have for your service business. Some businesses will thrive off Internet marketing alone; however, for most, Internet marketing simply complements and enhances your offline marketing strategies.

The Death of Google Adsense And Other Myths

Recent changes in the Google Adsense program has many online website owners and marketers seriously concerned. Many have seen their Adsense profíts and income flatline... seen their four or five figure monthly Adsense income disappear overnight. For many the Google Adsense bubble has burst.

First, Google made a change in its Adsense program, letting advertisers choose between putting their ads in the search results or on the content pages of Adsense publishers. Search won out and started to receive the higher bids. Search results convert better than content ads.

Next, Google has cracked down on Junk Adsense sites, like they should. These sites consisted mainly of software generated re-hashed search engine links and were totally annoying to say the least. But Google also cracked down on 'squeeze pages' or 'affilíate landing pages' - a lucrative source of income for many online marketers, mainly because these pages helped marketers build an opt-ín list or use permission based email.

The results of these changes produced an Adsense meltdown for many online marketers.

Some Internet marketers are speculating recent changes could even mean the death of Adsense. One online marketer, Scott Boulch even published a free report entitled 'The Death of Adsense".

Many affilíate marketers would agree with Boulch on some of his points, especially the obvious fact that using Adsense on your web content is starting on the bottom rung of the online marketing ladder. Instead of receiving pennies per clíck with Adsense, alert marketers and webmasters have already discovered that by using CPA (Cost-Per-Action) and direct affilíate links, they can produce significantly more revenue from their web pages. Why eärn pennies per clíck when you can eärn $5, $10 or OVER $100 per clíck?

But the fine people at Google are catching on...

In the past Google has made its own swing to the Cost-Per-Action direction with its referral system for the Firefox Browser and giving webmasters credít for signing up Adwords and Adsense accounts.

Many online marketers believe Google needs to expand on these baby steps and open their Adsense affilíate program up to third party products/advertisers. In a recent company statement Google offered some hope: "We're always looking for new ways to provide effective and useful features to advertisers, publishers, and users," the company stated "As part of these efforts we are currently testing a cost-per-action (CPA) pricing model to give advertisers more flexibility and provide publishers another way to eärn revenue through AdSense." Basically, in cost-per-action, advertisers pay for leads, purchases or customer acquisition. It would help with the clíck fraud issue and the monetary returns could potentially make Adsense's revenues pale in comparison.

As more and more commerce goes online... acquiring customers for such diverse services as ínsurance, real estate, telephone, marketing, web hostíng, travel, mörtgage loans, cable TV, banking... you name it, almost any service or product sold in the marketplace is now turning to the Internet for customers and lifelong clients.

Enormous sums of monëy will change hands. Perhaps, the most lucrative of these is customer acquisition. Advertisers are turning to the Internet and webmasters/marketers for acquiring these lifelong customers for their respective services and products. Businesses and companies are quickly realizing paying an attractive lead generating fee/commission is smart business. They quickly build a client base for their services or products and quickly recoup their expenses - realizing in the long run these leads will generate huge profíts.

It can also mean huge profíts for the CPA networks like ValueClick's Commission Junction and Rakuten's LinkShare who supply the advertisers with publishers and website marketers to harvest these leads. It can be a lucrative venture for all involved, especially for those online marketers who have cornered the search engines for lucrative niche markets in big ticket items. Even small ticket items pay quite well for those marketers who know how to market online.

Contextual advertising is fine, but CPA (Cost-Per-Action) will offer much better returns for the website owner. Making any profitable site much more profitable. It will and is opening up a whole area of marketing opportunities that nevër existed before we had the Internet. Creating a complex structure of advertisers, publishers and the Affilíate/CPA companies that connect the two.

Of course, cutting out the middle man has always been even a more profitable venture for most marketers. As more and more webmasters realize they can make much more with dealing directly with companies, rather than going through a middle process like Google Adsense or the countless other affilíate/CPA networks ... online marketers can reap even bigger rewards.

For an online marketer when you get a telephone call or email from the CEO or the affilíate manager with a company or service you're promoting with your website - you know you have made it! Dealing directly with a company usually means bigger commissions and special exclusive deals just for you or your sites.

Only fly in the ointment, all that extra paperwork and business wheeling and dealing. Many marketers and website owners like the idea of someone else handling all the tracking, collecting payments, promotional materials... they just like to sit back and build more websites and content. It gives the affilíate marketer a lifestyle that they are looking for on the web. They just like to market and promote with their sites and let someone else worry about the details. Therefore, there will always be a place for contextual ads like Google Adsense... "Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."

However, could CPA be a better alternative for the current Adsense contextual ads?

Google would be the natural choice for a middleman if there ever was one. Besides, many savvy marketers know the Google brand name is trusted online, any product/service promoted through Google would be an easy sell. Many argue Google already dominates the web, why should it not be the one to handle these CPA transactions through its Adsense program.

On the flip sid.e, over countless updates and changes to its indexing, many webmasters have experienced more than a few negative dealings with Google. Many have won, many have lost in this Google Age, but all have realized riding the Google Search Engine is like running with the bulls at Pamplona, totally thrilling unless you're one of the unfortunate few who get trampled in the process

Don't Sabotage Your Search Engine Optimization Company

Demand Rankings with No Changes to the Site

It is a common assumption that search engine rankings are determined by a magical formula rooted largely (or almost exclusively) in technology. In reality, long-term search engine rankings are generally achieved through an equal mix of technology and updated website content. An ethical search engine optimization company will usually turn down work when told that under no circumstances can any of the visual elements or content of a site be changed.

It is largely a site's content--from the text to the images--that allows search engines to determine what that site is about. That same content also helps other sites and directories to decide whether or not a site is worthy of a link (and link popularity is, of course, a major factor in rankings). Many companies do not want to hear this, especially after they have paid a sizable amount of money to a web designer. The bottom line? That site built entirely in Flash for which you spent $50,000 is not going to achieve high rankings for a variety of phrases without substantial changes that will allow its content to be indexed by the engines. The truth hurts sometimes--but so can the cost of lost opportunities.

Update the Website without Consulting Your Search Engine Optimization Company

A very common and innocent mistake can have disastrous consequences. It generally happens when a webmaster is updating a website, perhaps simply adding a press release or uploading a graphic. Accidentally, the webmaster saves an older version of the site over the new version, removing many of the elements that the search engine optimization company had added to achieve high rankings. This can result in a loss of positions for which the search engine optimization company, of course, is blamed.

Worse yet, since most sites are developed on a "test bed," damage can be done when the site goes live. Test beds are not intended to be crawled by search engine spiders, and so responsible webmasters include instructions in the site code requesting that spiders not index the site--the Internet equivalent of a "do not disturb" sign. The major search engines dutifully obey this request on the test bed site. They also dutifully obey when these instructions are accidentally transferred over to the live site during an update. As you might imagine, the results from such an oversight are somewhat less than ideal. Once again, the search engine optimization company generally gets the blame.

Since constantly accepting blame can be demoralizing, a good search engine optimization company monitors the code on all of its clients' sites on a daily basis, analyzes any changes, and quickly reacts if anything potentially harmful has been done. In this way the website can be repaired before ranking losses occur.

Link to Other Sites

Everyone that has a website has received at least one email requesting a link exchange. Unfortunately, this type of exchange defeats the purpose of link popularity, and engines are starting to take notice. Since inbound links are essentially counted as "votes" for your site, a simple trade-off between sites does not necessarily indicate that those sites are advocating one another. Worse, if you actively link out to a site that becomes penalized (and sites that seek reciprocal links are likely to be very aggressive in their optimization tactics) your site can become penalized in turn.

This does not mean that you should never link out to another site, especially if you believe that the site contains information that is of value to your visitors. Your search engine optimization company, however, should be given the opportunity to review any site to which you want to link. Additionally, a thorough search engine optimization company will frequently review the outbound links on your site, making sure that none of the websites to which you are linking begin using questionable SEO practices. This ensures that your site stays out of danger of penalization.

Create Additional Domains

There are legitimate reasons for wanting to have several domains mirroring your site (tracking the performance of offline website advertising, for example), but few, if any, are search engine related. If you are hoping to get a double listing for duplicate content on multiple domains, you are wasting your time--the engine will typically choose one version of the content and keep the other version out of its index.

Not long ago, there was a danger of all versions of a website being removed from search engine results for having multiple domains with the same content. Most engines, as mentioned above, now will simply choose one of the websites and discount the others. The problem is that promoting multiple domains with duplicate content can water down your link popularity as it is spread over several sites. This obviously hinders campaign performance.

Vanity domains can still be used, but they should redirect to a single version of the website using a 301 redirect. This means that if anyone adds an outbound link to one of your vanity URLs, your site will still get credit for the link.

Try Your Own SEO Tactics

The worst nightmare a search engine optimization company can face is when clients begin to see great results from the campaign and then believe that they should pitch in and help "accelerate" the results. Unfortunately, while the intentions are admirable, this is usually much like someone observing an auto mechanic screw on a radiator cap and believing that this observation now qualifies him as a certified radiator technician (and his tool of choice is generally a hammer). There is much going on in a typical search engine optimization campaign involving page elements, behind the scenes factors, linking strategies, and many other facets. If your search engine optimization company were to take the time to explain exactly how everything worked and why it was important, your campaign could take years. Many tactics, particularly those that SEO beginners might try, can put your site at risk of penalization. I suggest you steer the car and let your search engine optimization company fix the radiator.

Change the Marketing Direction

This may seem like an obvious issue that is easy to avoid, but often a search engine optimization company is the last to know that your company is no longer offering a certain product or service, that you no longer desire certain types of clients, that you are launching a new product or service, or that you are trying to drum up additional business in a certain product or service line. Organic search engine optimization takes time. When marketing issues like this arise, your search engine optimization company should be on your speed dial, so that it can be ready to take action based upon your current marketing strategy.

There are many other ways in which to hinder the performance of your search engine optimization company, but the above list details some fairly common examples. Organic SEO, when done properly, offers one of the highest returns on investment of any marketing channel available. If you do careful vendor evaluation, your campaign should perform above your expectations, provided you trust your search engine optimization company and leave your hammer in the toolbox.

The Future Of Ecommerce Sales Is Promising…But Is Yours?

Anyone can start up an online business with the plan of making a large income.

However, because the competition is so steep, people don't realize the effort that is required to make it in the internet business. If you have aspirations of becoming another statistic of someone successfully starting up a business online, you have to be willing to put in the effort to reach out to the public.

Without a doubt, the statistics are in favor of those going into ecommerce sales.

In the fourth quarter of 2005, US retail ecommerce sales totaled $26.5 billion. That was an increase of 27.5% just from the third quarter of 2005. So as you can see, more and more people are shopping online creating the possibility for success in an online business.

With the high competition online, it is essential that you have two things to make it in ecommerce sales; a well thought out plan and a quality marketing campaign.

If you create a website without planning out who your target market is, how you will advertise, and how you can keep in contact with customers, you are setting yourself up for failure.

The more in-depth your plan is to begin with, the better your chances will be of succeeding.

There is nobody saying you have to stick with your plan throughout your business's existence, but it will help you develop into a money-making site. The marketing campaign is the same way. If nobody knows about your business, how do you expect to make money? The more thought out your marketing campaign is, the better chance you have of generating a higher traffic volume.

Despite the high competition in the internet industry, the future of ecommerce sales is bright.

As more and more people turn to the internet for their shopping, the availability and need for more online businesses will continue to increase throughout time.

Email Deliverability Tips

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL:
Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.
Words/phrases:
Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.
Images:
Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.
Attachments:
With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

• http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
• http://www.bondedsender.com
• http://www.habeas.com