Sure, everyone knows that Google’s suite of webmaster tools are exemplary, but they aren’t the only player in town. Yahoo also offers some nifty tools for all of you webmasters out there. Some of the features may be old hat to you seasoned webmasters, but I’m sure this article will open your eyes to at least one thing you didn’t know about.

One note. Yahoo doesn’t refer to this suite as “webmaster tools.” I am using that phrase to simplify things and, besides, we all know what they really are. Yahoo calls it Site Explorer, but so many people think of Site Explorer as a backlink checker so I wanted to differentiate it’s varied and useful set of components. Let’s move on, shall we?

URL Removal Made Easy

You know the problem. You have a URL that you want excluded from search results. There a few obvious ways to go about this: The meta “noindex” tag, exclusion via robots.txt, or password-protecting the URL itself. These solutions will handle 99 percent of any problems you may encounter.

However, there is that prickly final one percent. It’s in these cases you pull out the big guns. Suppose the URL has already been nixed from your server but Yahoo just hasn’t recognized it’s dismissal yet, what then? After all, this makes the URL show up in SERPs with potentially humiliating results. This is a case for Yahoo’s URL removal tool. This will delete the URL from Yahoo’s index. No fuss. In the left navigation of Site Explorer, find the “Delete URLs” tool in the “Actions” section.

However, use this tool with caution. Here are some points to remember before you go in for the kill.

* A deleted URL will disappear only from Yahoo’s index. It will still appear on every other index across the Internet.
* You can only delete up to 25 URLs from a given site. If you are in need of some major, major URL removal, say 100s or more, you are gonna have to look for another tool.
* Yahoo Site Explorer classifies URLs in an odd way. You can inadvertently do some real damage if you delete a “directory”-based URL. Be extremely careful not to delete any URLs that are tied to directories which may feature pertinent URLs. You don’t want to get rid of anything by accident.

Update on URL Parameter Tool

Yahoo’s parameter tool can be extremely useful. One cool use is the ability to filter up to 10 parameters, as opposed to three which used to be the cap. This is great news because most sites with very problematic URL dynamism have more than three URL parameters, but few have more than 10.

Crawl Errors

This tool is extremely similar to Google’s tool of the same name. If you’ve used that one before, then you know what to expect here. The Crawl Errors section lists URLs on your site that are, for various reasons, inaccessible to Yahoo’s crawler. This includes the usual suspects: 404 errors, pages excluded by robots.txt and so on.

Top Queries

The goal of this tool is to give you an overview as to which Yahoo search queries lead to “views” and “clicks” from Yahoo SERPs. Views here means something different from what you may think, however. It simply means the user has an “impression” of the page, meaning they saw the page information on a Yahoo SERP. This tool isn’t finished yet, as noted by that rascally “beta” tag. Look for more improvements soon.

Statistics

The Site Explorer “statistics” section provides a useful snapshot of data about your site. This includes, but is not limited to, the total number of crawled pages, “all known” pages, inbound and outbound link data, and the total number of known hosts on your site. These numbers are not clickable as of yet, but the tool still offers a ton of useful information.

In Conclusion

Yahoo and Google aren’t the only kids at the webmaster playground, but they are two of the strongest. It’d be wise to get to know all of the services they both offer, and while you are at it, do your best to tackle other engines as well. Bing, for instance, also offers a similar suite of tools. Until next time.

A battle rages on between efficiency and volume in paid search engine programs. Google, in all of their infinite wisdom, has addressed this keyword auction paradox by releasing the Bid Simulator.

Of course, this isn’t strictly a new concept. Google is the second search engine to attempt to provide this data to various advertisers.

Yahoo was the first search engine on the block to try this. Their effort was codenamed Panama and was  a modest, although not resounding, success. However it failed on one major front. It  lacked insight into the incremental CPC and the information was only available in the interface and couldn’t be exported via an API.

Google solved this problem, but the bid simulator doesn’t have the ability to export this data. A minor drag, to be sure. However, Google says the functionality is on the way and should act as a tipping point in the war between advertisers and data.

What makes this tool so great is the nature of search engines. Search Engines will always be able to collect and collate more relevant data than human eyes. That’s just the nature of the beast. For example, Google knows the exact keyword phrase that your keyword appears on, the competitors and their bids.

This information does a number of things. Most importantly it lets advertisers know how much juice they can still squeeze out of any given term. This includes keywords that may be overbid, or are at the 1.1 position, and can still receive additional traffic.

For now, it’s extremely important SEMs become intimately familiar with the concept of incremental CPCs. Bids are increased with one end goal in mind, increasing the clicks.

However, people tend to forget the impact the clicks that they keyword was already garnering. This seems obvious but it’s important not to forget. The increase in CPC means you’re paying more for those clicks you were getting before the bid change. Now let’s look at the bid simulator for an example.

Look at the example above. a $0.43 change in maximum CPC yields an incremental 52 clicks, and only changes the actual CPC by $0.32. The cost for each of those “incremental clicks” is $1.59 (change in cost/change in clicks = incremental CPC), and not the $0.32 change in actual CPC.

This is an important point to take to heart. There is a premium for those clicks that would have been garnered without the bid change in order to receive those extra clicks. This also translates to the measurement of incremental cost per sale, or any other conversion metric the advertise ascribes to.

Of course, this type of analysis is paramount when establishing your advertising budget. It’s also important when measuring incremental volume. This data is occasionally hard to establish, and not available for all keywords. Still, it’s potentially the bearer of extremely useful information. Make a habit of taking it into consideration.

Want a practical approach to to reviewing and comparing tools that will help you analyze those wascally SERPs?  We all want proper analysis  of our search engine results, right? Well, then read on.

First of all, these tools all work as Firefox add-ons. Be careful, though. You don’t want to install too many or it will severely impede your browsing speed. There’s a reason they call it snail mail. So just try one at a time and you’ll thank us in the long run. Or, just read through the entire post and pick which one intrigues you the most to try first.

1. SEOquake

Insert massive amounts of data under each listing in Google SERPs, including but not limited to:

• Google pagerank, Google index, Google cache date;
• Yahoo! index, Yahoo! linkdomain, Yahoo! link;
• Bing index;
• Dmoz listing;
• Webarchive age;
• Alexa rank;
• Delicious bookmarks;
• Technorati index;
• Digg index;
• Domain IP;
• Link to Robots.txt, Sitemap and Page source;
• SEMrush info (traffic, traffic value, rank);
• Compete Rank,

And lots, lots more, including the ability to sort the results by any parameter.

2. SEO for FireFox

Note, for each listing you’ll see the following data listing:

And, here is what SEO for Firefox brings to the table:

• Google PR;
• Google Cache Date;
• Traffic Value (pre SEMrush);
• Age (Archive.org);
• Del.icio.us bookmarks;
• Diggs (as well as Digg’s Popular Stories);
• Stumbleupon popularity (doesn’t appear to work);
• Twitter search results;
• Yahoo! Links: as well as Yahoo! .edu links, Yahoo! .gov Links and Yahoo! page links);
• Technorati results;
• Alexa traffic;
• Compete.com rank and compete.com uniques;
• Google trends link;
• Number of pages cached;
• Dmoz mentions

Lots, lots more!  SEO for Firefox also allows you to customize the data sets to suit your fancy.

3. Search Cloudlet

This is a really useful tool. It’s great for identifying domains that achieve the lucrative top 100 Google listings benefits. It’s also great for other search engines as well. Install the add-on and run a Google search. The information displayed will allow you to:

1. See the SERPs tag cloud (of the words used in Google search results listings);
2. See the domains returned in Google SERPs (the bigger the font, the more times the domain was ranked within one SERPs);
3. See most powerful top level domains;

All in all, it’s a handy little tool.

4. SERPs Analyzer

This one works as a FireFox search plugin, which is lighter than a full-fledged add-on. It redirects the search to it’s own domain. This may not be the most reliable way to output information but it’s certainly the lightest. For each listing in SERPs it shows the following information:

• Number of clicks the listing generates per month (no idea how the data is obtained);
• PPC cost equivalent per month;
• Yahoo! links and linkdomain;
• Domain Quancast rank;
• Webarchive age

The cool thing about the tool is that it displays the number of unique domains, max. and average Google PR, as well as other interesting data:

Be careful though. Several bugs have been reported. For example, setting Google results per page in preferences didn’t work. It only managed to get more results by directly editing the query URL string (serp_results_per_page=100).

How does Google decide how much a particular link helps your rankings? That one question has plagued link builders since the dawn of  time 2002.

Before we get started on the list, let’s talk turkey. You may have noticed search engines have become more and more dependent on metrics about an entire domain, rather than just an individual page. It’s why you’ll see new pages or those with very few links ranking highly, simply because they’re on an important, trusted, well-linked-to domain. The Internet is changing, and in a way becoming more homogenized. But don’t worry, you can still make money with your site by understanding the nature of search engines and how they judge the value of a link.  Here are 17 examples:

#1 – Internal vs. External

Search engines value external opinions more than internal. This is a simple fact, and it makes sense. If you are in a band and you go around telling everyone how great you are, not many ears perk up, except in annoyance. However, if Spin Magazine begins telling people your band is great, that changes things quite a bit. Search engines work in the same way. Internal links (links that point from one page on your site to another) do carry some weight; links from external sites matter far more.

This doesn’t mean it’s not important to have a good internal link structure, or to do all that you can with your internal links (good anchor text, no unnecessary links, etc.), it just means that a site/page’s performance is highly dependant on how other sites on the web have cited it.

#2 – Anchor Text

An obvious one for those in the SEO business, anchor text is one of the biggest factors in the rankings equation overall.

This, of course, comes with a question. Is “exact match” anchor text more beneficial than simply including the target keywords all hully gully? In a word, yes. We’ve conducted many experiments, much to the dismay of our interns, and we’ve conclusively decided that anchor text that features an exact match is the winner, no contest. However, the engines won’t always bias in this fashion. It seems to me that, particularly for generic (non-branded) keyword phrases, this is the cause of a lot of manipulation and abuse in the SERPs.

#3 – PageRank

Whether they call it StaticRank (Microsoft’s metric), WebRank (Yahoo!’s), PageRank (Google’s) or mozRank (Linkscape’s), some form of an iterative, Markov-chain based link analysis algorithm is a part of all the engines’ ranking systems. So, it’s important. All of the services use the analogy that links are votes and that those pages which have more votes have more influence. Pretty simple, right? Well, sort of. Here is a quick PageRank primer:

1.Every single URL on the Internet is assigned a tiny, innate quantity of PageRank.

2.If there are “n” links on a page, each link passes that page’s PageRank divided by “n” (and thus, the more links, the lower the amount of PageRank each one flows.)

3.An iterative calculation that flows through the web’s entire link graph dozens of times is used to reach the calculations for each URL’s ranking score. The calculation is too complicated to replicate here, either that or it’s magic. It might be magic.

4.Representations like those shown in Google’s toolbar PageRank or SEOmoz’s mozRank on a 0-10 scale are logarithmic (thus, a PageRank/mozRank 4 has 8-10X the link importance than a PR/mR 3. Get it?)

#4 – TrustRank

The basics of TrustRank are described in this paper from Stanford – Combatting Webspam with TrustRank. There will be a quiz later.

If you are long since college age and got tired from just reading the word “Stamford,” then here is a quick primer. TrustRank, basically, says that “good” and “trustworthy” pages tend to be closely linked together. Think PayPal and eBay or something. It follows, then, that the spammy and dangerous stuff is located outside of this safe “center.” By calculating an iterative, PageRank-like metric that only flows juice from trusted seed sources, a metric like TrustRank can be used to predictively state whether a site/page is likely to be high quality vs. spam. So, the lesson? Don’t take candy from strangers. The candy might be laced with spam and phish.

#5 – Domain Authority

The phrase “domain authority” is thrown around all over the SEO world, but a concrete definition remains elusive. Most people use it to describe that wonderous combination of popularity, importance and trustworthiness that is calculated by search engines and based mostly on link data.

Search engines likely use scores about the “authority” of a domain in counting links, and thus, despite the fuzzy language, it’s worth mentioning as a data point. The domains you earn links from are, potentially, just as important (or possibly more important) than the individual metrics of the page passing the link. Our advice? Practice the term “domain authority” for your next SEO gathering but be prepared to hide behind the punch bowl if people get too curious.

#6 – Diversity of Sources

No single metric has more positive a correlation with high rankings than the number of linking root domains. This is also, incidentally, a very hard metric to manipulate for spam. So, that being said, it tends to indicate true, broad popularity and importance. How to rack up those linking root domains? Diversity. Empirical data suggests that a diversity of domains linking to your site/page has a strong positive effect on rankings. Getting a link from an entirely unique domain is more important than getting a new one from a previously linked domain. So get your name out there and start making those contacts. A few of them might turn into new links. Thank us later.

#7 – Uniqueness of Source + Target

Those crafty search engines have a number of ways to judge and predict ownership and relationships between websites. These can include (but are not limited to):

* A whole lot of shared, reciprocated links
* Domain registration data
* Shared hosting IP address or IP address C-blocks
* Public acquisition/relationship information
* Publicized marketing agreements that can be machine-read and interpreted

Anecdotal evidence that links shared between “networks” of websites obtain very little value from search engines. This is particularly referring to the classic SE strategy of “sitewide” links. So, again, diversify those links.

#8 – Location on the Page

Microsoft was the first engine to reveal public data about their plans to do “block-level” analysis (in an MS Research piece on VIPS – VIsion-based Page Segmentation). If you lack the patience to read that long form piece, or are simply out of ADD medication, then read on.

Simply put, internal links in the footer of web pages may not provide the same beneficial results that those same links will when placed into the top or header positions. This is based on of our own experimentation(Gotta keep that intern working) and much empirical data brought to us via Google and Yahoo! This seems to be based on an algrorithim that seeks to dismiss pervasive link advertisement by diminishing the valu that external links carry from the sidebar or footer of webpages. Links from the actual content of the piece, as always, remain the most sought after links.

#9 – Topical Relevance

The search engines have a myriad of tools at their disposal to determine if two pages or sites cover similar subject matter. Years ago, Google Labs unveiled an automatic classification tool that could predict, based on a URL, the category and sub-category for nearly any type of content. This worked for conents in a wide array of subject matters, from  medical news to real estate and back again. Engines may use these automated topical-classification systems to identify “neighborhoods” around particular topics.

However, there are arguments to be had on both sides of the field here. We are of the opinion that if you get a link from a topic-neutral site such as NYTimes.com or a specific blog on an unrelated subject, then they’ll still pass positive value. Perhaps the engines use these classification tools to predict spam, more than passing judgement. After all, it does look fishy(phishy?) if a site that’s never previously linked to anything in the pharmaceutical field, suddenly does so.

#10 – Content & Context Assessment

Sure, topical relevance can provide some useful information for engines about linking relationships. But, isn’t it possible that the content and context of a link may be even more useful to said engine? Of course it is! Content is king, after all. In content/context analysis, the engines attempt to discern, in a machine parse-able way, why a link exists on a page.

For instance, links positioned for editorial content create certain patterns. They tend to be embedded in the content, link to relevant sources, use accepted norms for HTML structure, word usage, phrasing, language, etc. Through a series of pattern-matching algorithims, it’s possible for search engines to analyze the editorial links and determine their value and liklihood they were added authentically.

#11 – Geographic Location

The geography of a link is, obviously, highly dependent on the purported location of the host. However, the engines(Specifically Google) have been amping up the sophistication in their quest to pinpoint the location-relevance of a root domain, subdomain or subfolder. Here are some of the things they look for:

*  The host IP address location
* The country-code TLD extension (.de, .co.uk, etc)
* The language of the content
* Registration with local search systems and/or regional directories
* Association with a physical address
* The geographic location of links to that site/section

If you earn links to a page or site that is targeted to a particular region, that does mean it should help you perform better in that region’s searches. However, if your profile is tied too heavily to one particular region, it may make it harder to perform in other regions. Keep that in mind as you set out to build links.

#12 – Use of Rel=”Nofollow”

Although in the SEO world it feels like a lifetime ago since nofollow appeared, it’s actually only been around since January of 2005, when Google announced it was adopting support for the new HTML tag.

To put it simply, rel=”nofollow” tells the engines not to ascribe any editorial endorsements or “votes” that would boost a page or site’s ranking metrics. It is an attempt to filter out some noise. Linkscape’s index notes that approximately 3% of all links on the web have the “nofollow” tag attached to them.

#13 – Link Type

Google recently announced that they’re not only crawling this third group, but passing link endorsement metrics through them (which has many upset about the reversal in policy about using Javascript as a way to delineate paid/advertising links).  The mega-engine has also, for years, treated the text in an image’s alt attribute similarly to how anchor text is handled in standard text links.

Not all links are created equal, however. We made our tired, forlorn intern run some more experiments and it was decided that straight, HTML links with standard anchor text pass the most value to engines, followed by image links with keyword-rich alt text. Coming in last, however, were Javascript links, which are not universally followed throughout the web. So, to all of you admins out there, for now it’s best to assume the engines just aren’t that good at passing value to the “quirkier” links. Keep that in mind as you design your sites and put an emphasis on straight HTML links.

#14 – Other Link Targets on the Source Page

When a page links out externally, both the quantity and targets of the other links that exist on that page may be taken into account by the engines when determining how much link value will be passed on.

As mentioned way up on topic number 3, PageRank, algorithims from all of the engines divide the amount of value passed by any given page by the number of links on that page. Additionally, the engines may als consider the quanity of external domains a page points to. They do this as a way to judge the quality and value of said endorsements. For example, if a page links to merely a few external resources on a particular topic, spread out all over the content, it will be perceived differently than a long list of links pointing to external sites. One take is not necessarily better than the other, but the engines may pass greater value through one or the other. However, this is subject to the rest of your page/site and the links contained therein.

Also, the engines are going to be looking at who else your linking pages endorse. If they go  for anything shady or spam-filled, the value of your link is going to go down. It’s kind of like being scene with your one friend who always clears the room at parties. Nice guy, but…

#15 – Domain, Page & Link-Specific Penalties

Nearly everyone in the SEO world can agree on one thing, search engines apply penalties to sites and pages. These range from the loss of the ability to pass value and endorsement all the way up to a full on ban from their main index. If a page or site has received the former punishment, then links from it provide no value for search rankings. Beware, though, engines occasionally show penalities publicly but this is not always the case.

#16 – Content/Embed Patterns

As content licensing & distribution, widgets, badges and distributed, embeddable links-in-content become more prevalent across the web, the engines have begun looking for ways to downplay these tactics. It’s not that Google et al. don’t want to give proper value to the pages or sites that employ these tactics, it’s just that they are a bit wary about over-counting or over-representing sites that simply do a good job of distributing their licensing deals.

It’s likely that content pattern detection and link pattern detection plays a role in how the engines evaluate link diversity and quality. If the engines see the same link with the same content on thousands and thousands of sites, this is sure to signal a decrease in endorsement. To say it yet again, diversity is key here. The engines place more stock in a variety of links from a variety of sources featuring a variety of content. It makes sense, after all.

#17 – Temporal / Historical Data

Timing and data about the appearance of links is the final point on this rather long list. As the trusty engines crawl along the web, they see patterns about how sites earn links. They use this data to fight spam, identify authoritative links and to pass endorsement on rising Internet stars.

Of course, what the engines do with these patterns of link attraction is the subject of much debate. One thing isn’t, however. The data IS being consumed. It is being analyzed and it is being used to help algorithims do a better job of showing the best results and reducing the abilities of spam.

This list had a lot of information, but it certainly was not a be-all end-all list. Please feel free to suggest your own additions in the comment box.

Able to leap tall search engines in a single bound! Popular SEO blog  SEOboy has compiled another list of their greatest hits. This list chronicles their most viewed, most appreciated articles. The articles span the SEO-verse and back again as they tackle subjects such as redirecting domains and  link building techniques. Check out the list here.

Finding good sources for great SEO content can be difficult. Enter Webrulon. We do the work so you don’t have to! Here are three great sites:

Search Cowboys – One of the most professional sites out there. This news resource is written by a team of highly talented writers who know their trade and aren’t afraid to have a sense of humor about it. Highly recommended for a place in your bookmark.

SEO by the sea – Not so sure of this website’s fish and water theme, however the content is so good it hardly matters. This site is big for breaking news and for being a link workhorse. You won’t find a better place online that helps you find you better places online.

Alltop/SEO – The SEO division of the popular Alltop mega-site is a veritable treasure trove of articles, videos and more. In this case, maybe, bigger is better.

An honorable mention, of course, goes to this blog. What? You think we’d let that slide?

In SEO blogging circles, such as they are, Stoney deGeyter is something of a Lester Bangs. The man writes honestly and passionately, and also, he writes lengthily. Extremely lengthily. Case in point: He has recently taken it upon himself to pen a massive fifteen part series tackling the basics of SEO. He calls it, appropriately, SEO 101. If you think you know everything you need to know, think again. This series is sure to open you up to a few things. It has to! It’s FIFTEEN PARTS LONG. How could it not?

Stoney has finished the first two parts. The first part tackles the four basic benefits of SEO and the second part chronicles the adventures of title tags and keywords.

Modern SEM practices suggest that lowering bounce rates and raising conversion rates are both key to putting giant smiley faces on your web revenue forecasts.  Rankings don’t mean much when your visitors bounce off to spend their money somewhere else.  Some  might argue that improving bounce rate and conversion rate is more about web analytics or even overall online marketing, but come on, we all know it’s more than that.

This is the fifth of a five part series detailing five major factors in boosting the effectiveness of your SEM. The first part, on boosting targeted traffic, can be found here. The second part, on identifying and directing visitor intent, can be found here. The third part, on usability, can be found here. The fourth part, on landing page optimization, can be found here.

A/B Split Testing

Testing your websites is a basic and effective way to make sure everything is “kosher.” A/B split testing, otherwise known as multivariate testing, can be an essential tool in optimizing your sites.

Many people are already familiar with the A/B split testing concept from PPC and are using Google Website Optimizer. The Google Website Optimizer tool is not limited to ads, however. You can test whatever pages you want no matter where the traffic comes from. Oh, those crafty Google geniuses! Now, let’s see what steps you can take to make sure you get straight As. Da dum dum.

1. Test – Obviously. Test several versions of a landing page using Google Website Optimizer or A/Bingo. Do this even if it’s a simple blog post, even if you are just requesting people join you on Twitter or another simple call to action.

2. Compare – Compare different call to action wordings on both buttons and page copy. Experiment to find the right match for your desired reaction. Then test to see the results. Don’t worry. It’s easier than it sounds. And even if it isn’t, hey, gotta work to make money, right?

3. Compare(Again) – This time focus on images. Input different images on to your pages, depending on who you want to attract and what you want the desired outcome to be. For example, old vs young people, men vs women, casual visitors vs experts etc. Then, you guessed it, test.

4. Change – Depending on various outcomes and what is seeming to attract visitors, and what isn’t, change up your approach. If a page feels too cluttered and removes too much white space, remove a badge or two. Delete images if they don’t add anything necessary. Simply liking something is not enough. It must do it’s job. Sometimes “killing your babies” is an essential part of the task of being a webmaster. Do what works best, not what pleases you most.

5. Test again – Keep the testing going. This is an ongoing process. Test at different times of the day, different times of the week, after posting, before posting, any combination you can think of. Pretty soon you’ll have it down to a science. You’ll know who comes when and more importantly, what they want. Their pocketbooks(Or Paypal accounts) will be putty in your hands.

And that’s it. We hope this five part series has put a few ideas in your head. Good luck, and remember, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just your livelihood. Wink wink.

Modern SEM practices suggest that lowering bounce rates and raising conversion rates are both key to putting giant smiley faces on your web revenue forecasts.  Rankings don’t mean much when your visitors bounce off to spend their money somewhere else.  Some  might argue that improving bounce rate and conversion rate is more about web analytics or even overall online marketing, but come on, we all know it’s more than that.

This is the fourth of a five part series detailing five major factors in boosting the effectiveness of your SEM. The first part, on boosting targeted traffic, can be found here. The second part, on identifying and directing visitor intent, can be found here. The third part, on usability, can be found here.

Landing page optimization

What’s a landing page? Leading usability and SEO experts will tell you every page is a landing page, in the same way every meeting is a chance to make an impression. However, the old-school definition is a page that was created for a singular purpose, or to attract a particular audience.

In the dark ages, webmasters would attract users to their front page. Hoping upon hopes that someone would see that singular link somewhere. Times have changed. Nowadays, potential consumers can be led to any part of your site through any number of different avenues. Sort of like cockroaches. Only, these are the kinds of cockroaches you actually want to start hanging out in your cupboards.

As a matter of fact, deep links are now more popular than front pages. You should optimize your website accordingly. But how? You know the drill. Read on.

1. Create – Create landing pages for organic traffic, long tail queries and important social media sites like Twitter, not just for PPC and banner ads. This will reap huge dividends.

2. Simplify – Keep your landing pages simple, but not too simple. You don’t want your visitors to think you are the e-village idiot. It’s certainly a fine-line but you’ll get the hang of it.

3. Build trust – Add signs of trust to your site. Embed badges from professional organizations, user reviews and endorsements from recognizable names. Note: Do not just make these up. Fact-checking is easier than ever in 2010 Internet.

4. Do not distract – Keep your landing pages free of distractions. Minimize pitfalls, ads and other annoyances. However, this is null and void if the purpose of your site is to get ad-clicks. In that case, go hog wild.

5. Test – Test your landing pages frequently. Do this by visiting from a variety of sources. You’ll be surprised by how many broken landing pages abound. If you notice a problem, fix it.

These tips will have your landing pages optimized in no time. Tune in next time when we’ll tackle A/B split testing otherwise known as multivariate testing.

Modern SEM practices suggest that lowering bounce rates and raising conversion rates are both key to putting giant smiley faces on your web revenue forecasts.  Rankings don’t mean much when your visitors bounce off to spend their money somewhere else.  Some  might argue that improving bounce rate and conversion rate is more about web analytics or even overall online marketing, but come on, we all know it’s more than that.

This is the third of a five part series detailing five major factors in boosting the effectiveness of your SEM. The first part, on boosting targeted traffic, can be found here. The second part, on identifying and directing visitor intent, can be found here.

Usability

Oh what a prickly word. Some in the SEO world consider usability to be one of those, um, nasty 9 letter words. However, if you want to earn money off of your website you are going to get used to it. It’s more than just offering a clean and simple interface. Sometimes sheer attractiveness helps a site maintain usability, as well.

Without proper usability the best search optimized site does not earn money. So, what can you do to ensure proper usability? We need consumers on the page. We don’t want them leaving due to the lack of an obvious visual cue. Here are some things you can do.

1. Eye-catching images – Use an eye-catching image to illustrate the top of a page. Avoid cliche photography or else you’ll look like someone still using Photoshop to make birthday party invitations. You don’t want to be alone on your birthday, do you?

2. Declare – Declare the topic and purpose of a page is in the headline and also the page title. It may seem like overkill, but you never where eyes are going to roam to on a page.

3. Call to action – Make a call to action as simple as humanly possible. Add a clearly visible and button-like call to action above the fold/scroll of your page, something like “call now toll free”, “subscribe now”, “download the free version.” Get creative, but simple.

4. Limit clicks – Get users to the finish line in as few clicks as possible. Give them as few chances as possible to close the window. This is a no brainer but it’s really important.

5. White space – This is a controversial one, but some experts believe if you add a significant amount of white space to your page, it gives people’s eyes something to rest on. A restful eye keeps on click, click, clicking.

These are some great tips for maximizing the usability of your web enterprise. Tune in next time when we’ll tackle that great white beast, how to land page optimization.