What is duplicate content and why should you care? Google’s Matt Cutts has said many times, there is no duplicate content “penalty” (you won’t be kicked out of the results), but it can substantially impact your rankings. When you have duplicate content search engines can’t determine which page should rank for a given phrase. Perhaps worse, if some people link using one address (URL), while others link using another address, neither page will have the credibility that it would if all the links pointed to a single address.

This has long been a problem on large database driven sites where only a minor difference in the address (URL) of the content (perhaps only a session ID) makes it appear that the same information is on more than one page. However this is also a common problem on Blogs where a Category listing, Tag listing, or Archive listing can present the exact same content, but with differing addresses.

This looks at some ways that duplicate content can occur.

1) True Duplicates – Any page that is 100% identical to another page other than the page’s address (URL).
This could result from that session ID id issue I mentioned:

2) Near Duplicates – Pages that differs only slightly, perhaps only an image or sidebar is different.
This could occur from differing sorts of the same information (category, tag, archive, …):

3) Cross-domain Duplicates -Occurs when two websites share the same piece of content.
This could occur from just shear theft (someone scraping your content) or from syndicating articles:

While the SEO crowd has been preaching the pitfalls of duplicate content for sometime, the farmer or “panda” updates that occurred throughout 2011 have pushed the importance of keeping duplicate content off your site this to the forefront. Peter Meyers covers the topic in more detail here, along with some ways to address these problems.

SEO Huntsville duplicate content, SEM Huntsville

There are hundreds of thousands of sites online today, and nearly every business that is looking to succeed has added to that vast quantity by making a site of their own. Trying to get your site to the top isn’t as easy as it once was, and those interested in staying ahead of their competition must create effective websites.

A good website is more than just a great landing page and some additional media. In fact, a great website should have at the bare minimum:

The Ability to Create a Good First Impression

The look of your website is everything. If the site’s design doesn’t look professional, you can guarantee that potential clients will be quick to hit the back button. To make sure that you capture quick conversions, go the extra mile and pay for a professional design.

Excellent Content

Content is essentially one of the best forms of SEO available, and every website needs to make sure that it is posting relevant articles. Not only does web content need to pertain to the site itself, but it also needs to be interesting and informative. Great content will keep readers coming back, with drive up rankings, and will overall increase business.

Easy Usability

If your site is a pain to navigate through, you will quickly lose business. If users struggle to find the information that they need about your organization or products, they will move on to your competitors. Make sure all information pertinent to your business is easy to get to, if not on the primary landing page.

SEO

Titles and meta titles and descriptions are important when producing a SEO friendly site. Also the phrases used within your content and links to your site are highly important when trying to raise your site’s rank in the search engines. If you are struggling with getting your site to the top, don’t be afraid to hire a professional. In the same way that it is difficult to compete for business against sites that are professionally designed, it is difficult for a business to compete in the search results against sites that have had professional SEO help.

Social Aspects

Every website also needs to have a Facebook and Twitter page, as well as accounts on various other social networking sites, to remain effective. It doesn’t take paid surveys for business owners to know that everyone is chatting through social media, and one of the best ways to drive business to your site is by linking your social media accounts to your business’s primary landing page.

Getting ahead on the web is a bit difficult, but with the right site design, some SEO work, and social media integration, business owners allow themselves the opportunity to get ahead of their competition. If you find that your site is lagging behind, take the above tips and analyze your site. You may find that a few quick tweaks to content or simply signing up for a social networking account was all your business needed to raise its rank on the major search engines.

SEM Huntsville designing a website, SEM Huntsville, web design

On July 14, 2010, I will discuss how to maintain Page Rank when you update or launch a new website with the North Alabama Web Developers group.

This issue can arise when companies or divisions combine; product lines are renamed or when a new face is placed on an exiting website. Money spent on redesign and years of traffic building can be squandered, if this critical step is missed.

In this session we’ll discuss Google webmaster tools, Google analytics, sitemaps, and using redirects to map content with the .htaccess file (emphasis will be on Apache/Linux hosting).

Please visit the meet-up site for details and sign-up.
http://www.meetup.com/web-99/calendar/13878846/

SEM Huntsville SEM Huntsville

I attended PubCon in Dallas last week. I have attended several Search Engine Strategies (SES) and Search Marketing Expos (SMX) over the years, but this was my first PubCon. PubCon is driven by the folks at WebmasterWorld, which is the leading source of what is happening in search and is a different crowd than either SES or SMX. I went to PubCon to get a fresh perspective on the SEO universe and I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed. I picked up especially good information on reputation management and Black-Hat SEO that I haven’t gotten anywhere else.

I was eager to connect with some of the people associated with WebmasterWorld. I was extremely pleased to meet Ted Ulle (Tedster), a prominent poster on WebmasterWorld. I attended Ted’s session on Information Architecture [take away: limit choices to seven or less].  I also attended sessions with Tim Ash and Bryan Massey on Landing Page Optimization [take away: test, test, test...]  and the session on Local Search Marketing by Kate Morris was especially good and uncovered several recent additions to the AdWords interface.

It will take some time to digest all that I learned, but I will discuss key finds with my customers and begin to roll out key changes for their sites in coming weeks.

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Your company website has the role of a sales person, working 24/7, representing your company, answering questions, educating the prospect. Many times it will be the first impression prospects will have of your business and should convey quality at every turn. Like any good sales rep, its appearance should be a reflection of its audience, wearing tennis shoes if it’s selling skateboards and a suit if it’s selling financial advice.

A website is in many cases the first impression someone has of your company and doing it right can make a huge difference in the sale of your products and services. For traffic to translate into sales, you need a solid message, a unique selling proposition, and content that engages the prospect, answers questions, and addresses key concerns.

Let the Designer Design

When you work with a designer, keep your focus on the message and let the designer design. You hired a professional for reason and becoming too involved with the design will often compromises the results.  In the end, the money you spend on quality website design, content and copy writing will pay dividends in sales for years to come.

Don’t go cheap

Companies who wouldn’t think twice about spending thousands on booth design, promotional items, and direct mail for a trade show, will often attempt to market the same products and services on the Internet with a budget they might allocate for designing a brochure. Or worse, hire a friend that “does websites”, paste in some blurbs from a brochure, and feel they have covered their bases.

A website is not a brochure

Unlike a brochure, a website can be an interactive portal to your company and its products and services. It can enable customers to ask and get answers to questions in real time. It can capture leads, provide product demonstrations, take orders and solicit reviews and get product feedback.

Keep the copy crisp and write in common terms

The copy should be carefully written to convey your understanding of the market and the solutions you provide. Care must be taken to avoid proprietary terms, techno-babble and unverifiable marketing hyperbole. It must be both brief and detailed. Pages should be brief enough to capture the attention of the prospect surfing the Internet aisles for a solution, and yet enable a prospect to drill deeper when they are ready to know more about your solution.

People want to do business with an authority in the field

They want to know that the company they have chosen to work with is a safe choice and a leader in the market. Listing your credentials, years in business, and memberships in trade associations, Chamber of Commerce, and the Better Business Bureau help clients know you’re for real.

Keep the noise down

Getting noticed at a large trade show was almost always a problem, but you didn’t want your booth to become a circus act either. While giving away tee shirts and hawking your products over a megaphone might generate a lot of traffic, in my experience, the “show” detracts from your message and rarely translates into sales. The same is true for your website. A site that is overly busy with too many colors, icons, buttons, and animated gifs, can be confusing and detract from your message.

Don’t clutter your Home Page

Your home page should briefly describe what you sell and who you market to. Divide other content into logical sections and let each page do its job. When people search, they will enter on the page that most relates to the topic they are researching and your website will rank better in the search engines.

See: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

I don’t design websites, but I work with many local designers who can help you with this important part of your marketing effort.

SEM Huntsville designing a website, SEM Huntsville, web design

I am attending the search optimization and marketing conference SMX West in Santa Clara next week. If you will be at the conference and would like to get together, drop me a note. For my customers, this is one of the larger industry events. While I follow in the neighborhood of 20 blogs on marketing and optimization all year, this show does a lot to pull all the information together. Confirming trends and many times is the launching point for new techniques and information.

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I have written several posts on Quality Score, but I recently found two articles on the subject that make it worth revisiting. Quality Score is Google’s way of assessing how relevant your paid search keywords are to the searchers you’re targeting. 

This article by by Craig Danuloff discusses  in monetary terms what the real costs of a low-quality-score are and this recent article, also by by Danuloff suggests 5 Steps to Improve Your Quality Score.

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I just read a great article by Ian Lurie at Coversation Marketing titled Things You Don’t Know About Your Customers. Perhaps more aptly named Things to remember when designing a website, its a great read with clear points we all need to remember. In summary:

1. Reading onscreen is hard, for everyone.
   • Use short paragraphs.
   • Use short lines.
   • Use wide line spacing and nice margins.
   • Use dark text on a light background.
   • Scrolling up-and-down is OK
   • Use lists.
2. They browse in an F-shape
3. They can’t remember your web address (being at the top of search results for your name means nothing)
4. They don’t search for your name (they search for answers to problems)
5. They don’t want to log in (or anything standing between them and their goal)
6. They don’t want an ‘experience’ (simple is better)
7. They do want your newsletter (make it prevalent and easy to sign-up)
8. They don’t care how clever you are. (just the facts please)
9. They aren’t enticed by mystery.
10. They get lost a lot (make navigation easy, redundant, and extend to your 404 pages)
11. They aren’t using cell phones  (at least not in big numbers)
12. They still use Internet Explorer (so be sure it works in IE)
13. They’re using big monitors. (so don’t create 800 X 600 layouts)
14. They need to want (create desire)

A list of designers I work with and recommend is here: web designers

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