Once upon a time there were neighborhood craft fairs. You could get a booth, sell a few hand-knit tea cozies, and be on your way. Nobody got rich, but then that wasn’t really the idea. Most craft fair vendors made a living wage, at best, or just some extra spending money. And that’s how it was for a long time, until along came the internet and eCommerce.

Etsy.com changed everything…or at least it was supposed to. It’s a huge, 24/7 virtual craft fair, where it never rains and where hundreds of thousands of customers can find and buy your products. As an eCommerce site, Etsy is very successful. In the first five months of 2009, it boasted more than $58 million in sales, more than double the same period from the year before. It has over 2.4 million registered members, from 150 countries around the world. Those are great numbers, but where the problems arise are in another number – there are approximately 155,000 vendors selling their wares, and competing for the same customers.

Just like any type of ecommerce, trying to make it rich selling stuff on Etsy is proving to be a challenge. The difficulties arise in both making an appealing product, and figuring out how to market it in a way that would-be purchasers can find yours, amid all the other similar crafts. In order to try to help, the powers that be at Etsy have started to offer search engine optimization guidance  to vendors who use the site. But that doesn’t really address the biggest problem with the site – its own success. The ultimate 24/7 virtual craft fair offers a huge number of virtual customers, but a whole lot of competition too.

With the introduction of blended results in universal search in 2007, the result pages of Google have become less utilitarian and more like Yahoo or MSN (sorry… Bing). Today a user can expect to see news results, blog posts, video results, and images for any given query.  What this means for Search Engine Optimization is a result page in Google carries more than just blue links and a short description of your site, but also your image & video content.  So, it is important to know how to optimize for these results as well.

Today, we’ll be discussing image optimization.  Image optimization is often overlooked in most SEO strategies, which is unfortunate, as not only is image search an additional traffic stream, it is also another method in helping define the semantic understanding of a page.  If you have a page about different breeds of dogs, for example, you might want to include photos of each different breed.  If those images are optimized properly, it adds keyword weight to the page, and gives a visual representation of the supporting subject matter.  Here are some tips to optimize your images.

File Name Conventions

When naming an image file, the worst thing you can do is to keep the default name:

ie.  IMG00436.jpg

A better solution would be to rename the file to something more descriptive of the subject matter of the image.

ie.  two-dogs-running.jpg

Use dashes or underscores to separate the words (not: twodogsrunning.jpg), and keep the file names relatively short and concise.  Keyword stuffing a file name is very spammy (the-dog-q-tip-running-down-the-streets-of-vancouver.jpg = bad).

<img alt>

The image alternate text markup should always be implemented when displaying an image.  It helps define and describe what the image is for users who do not support images (via screen readers) and it also becomes the anchor text when an image is linked to a different page.  Again, be concise and descriptive with your alt tags, don’t be too spammy.

<img src=”two-dogs-running” alt=”photo of two dogs running” />

Captions and Supporting Content

Adding captions to an image is also useful, as it gives context to image when wrapped by surrounding text.  Newspapers have used this model for years, and its good practice.  Its also useful to ensure that the image is surrounded by content discussing the content of the image.  So, if your text is about poodle dogs, be sure your image is appropriately tagged and in or around your text.

Since 2006 Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University has taught more students the Greek language than any other university in North America. The only thing is those students aren’t even in North America. The popularity of online distance education, through such platforms as WebCT and driven through associations like CVU (Canadian Virtual University) has created a burgeoning new revenue stream for universities and colleges. It’s also created an attractive new option for those who want quality education but are challenged by geography or scheduling conflicts. In 2006 for example, an SFU’s Greek class had 25 students physically in a classroom and a further 160 studying from Beijing. The economics are obvious. The overhead saved by web hosting as opposed to physically hosting students is a no-brainer. There exists a debate however, that the focus being placed on distance education appears too profit based, and that the education received is not as high quality as would be in a physical setting. I guess it depends on whether you learn better in an auditorium with 500 people coughing and whispering overtop your prof than you do at home.This profit vs public concern has existed in our universities and colleges long before the internet revolutionized the way we teach and learn though.

Regardless of motive, along with scholarly articles found through Google and JSTOR, SEO strategies have increasingly become an important part of how Universities attract students, build web presence, reputation, and yes- generate revenue. Some organizations have even started to rank Universities based on their web presence. But this doesn’t just create new revenue streams for schools. New technology and software platforms are truly revolutionizing education around the globe. So does this mean I can attend my next graduation ceremony from home too?

Today we’ll be looking at a very basic, but very important, search engine ranking factor that sometimes gets overlooked: linking and anchor text.  Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink.  Often, it appears highlighted or underlined and usually stands out from regular content in some useable fashion.  For example:

Software Company

In the HTML code, this link is written out like so:
<a href=”http://www.thirdi.com”>Software Company</a>

Anchor text is used as a signifier to a user to show where they will be taken to if they click on the link.  It also acts as a signifier to search engines the topic of the page it is pointing to, and thusly which keywords it should rank for.  When linking internally or when building a website’s navigation, it is important that the anchor text you use is indicative of the page it is pointing to.

Some Dos and Don’ts

DO use anchor text that is descriptive of the page it is pointing to:

Search Engine Marketing
<a href=”http://www.thirdi.com/what-we-do/search-engine-marketing”>Search Engine Marketing</a>

DO use targeted keywords in your anchor text:

Software Development & eCommerce
<a href=”http://www.thirdi.com/what-we-do”> Software Development & eCommerce </a>

DON’T dilute your keywords by using too many words in your anchor text:

Thirdi.com is a software development, eCommerce solutions and Internet Marketing company!
<a href=”http://www.thirdi.com”> Thirdi.com is a software development, eCommerce solutions and Internet Marketing company!</a>

DON’T have more outbound links than you have content to support it!

DON’T use “click here” as anchor text!

Microsoft’s new search engine Bing has now been up and working for a bit. It’s still way too early to tell how popular it will eventually be, but so far it seems to getting decent traffic and pretty good reviews. The consensus is that it won’t be really competing with Google any time really soon, but since Microsoft is in it for the long haul, they can afford both the time and money required to eventually compete with the big kahuna.

In the meantime, though, the question arises: what impact will an increasingly popular Bing have on those who’s business relies on search engine optimization? So far, the answer seems to be: not too much. Because search engines keep their algorithims a closely guarded secret, Google and Bing aren’t ripping each other off. So they both search the web differently. But, the evidence so far indicates that, for a user, search results via both engines wind up being pretty similar. Not identical, but not that different either.

Extensive testing by those in the SEO game has uncovered a few differences, though. For example, Bing gives more search value to older websites than Google. Again, it’s not a huge difference, but it is noticeable. Of course, no matter how clever an SEO whiz may be, he or she won’t be able to increase the age of the website they work for, so that particular example won’t affect how someone optimizes their website. And that seems to be how things are shaking down. Where there are differences in how Google and Bing get results, they tend to be for factors that can’t be adjusted anyway. So, for the time being at least, those who practice SEO won’t need to learn a whole new set of rules to optimize for Bing.

Google drops a bomb on how PageRank works!

The biggest news to hit the SEO community yesterday was Matt Cutts of Google announcing at SMX Advanced that using the NoFollow microformat for PageRank sculpting doesn’t quite work as everyone thought.  Apparently, PageRank distributes the same amount of PR to a page, despite how many other pages are nofollowed.  Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan explains:

“If you have $10 in authority to spend on those ten links, and you block 5 of them, the other 5 aren’t going to get $2 each. They’re still getting $1. It’s just that the other $5 you thought you were saving is now going to waste.”

For the uninitiated, PageRank sculpting is an advanced SEO technique designed to push PR to specific pages on a website, usually the top converting pages.  There have been many debates in the SEO sphere whether this is a useful or necessary technique, because if implemented improperly, it can choke and hamper a site’s deeper pages.  I’ve seen many ill-conceived attempts at PR sculpting, and in one hilarious instance, a site that NoFollowed every page except the login area (FYI, robots don’t sign up for user accounts).

Personally, I’m of the belief that a better technique is to focus your energy on improving the conversion paths on ALL of a site’s pages (adage: “Every page is the homepage”), as opposed to trying to push PR around with NoFollows, but I feel there is value to keeping spiders away from login pages and the like.

The other big news is Google announced the ability to spider JavaScript “onClick” events and indexes those links.  So, if you’ve been hiding your paid links with JavaScript, now’s the time to slap a NoFollow on that link!

The continued rise of social media and networks has quite a few interesting storylines, several of them discussed right here on this blog. But there’s one phenomenon that’s becoming very significant, very quickly – that social media is already, or will soon be, the #1 way that people find content on the internet. Like a bunch of ravenous Cookie Monsters, online users are now more inclined to go for those big piles of tasty content provided by social network streams, rather than go off looking for individual bits of content themselves via Google, or other search engines. And that means that even though Google is the top search engine, social media is threatening its position as the dominant way that people find the content they consume online.

It’s just one little example, but check out the chart on this page about the phenomenon. Four years ago, the online magazine Baekdal.com received 60% of its traffic from Google, and just 2% from social media. This year, their traffic from Google is down to 15%, while social networks drive 65% of their traffic. That’s an astounding turnaround, and while it is just one example, it does make the point clearly. And if you’ve ever visited a website that’s recently been featured on Digg or Fark, only to find it broken from the surge of traffic, you already know all about the massive and immediate influence social media sites can have on what the rest of us consume.

Of course, Google still matters a whole lot, as evidenced by the money and energy spent on seach engine optimization. But to an increasing degree, people join and follow a herd online. They gather at online places that share a common interest, whether its social, geographic, cultural, cookies or whatever, and then they follow the streams of content that emerge from, or intersect with that common interest. It’s an interesting evolution, and one that will have huge ramifications for anyone who creates content or sells stuff online.

One of the greatest tools Google, Yahoo and MSN has offered to site owners is their Webmaster Tools, a somewhat comprehensive look at what a search engine knows about a website.  Out of the big three, Google has the best offering, showing nifty things like which pages are 404ing, redirect loops, top search queries, inbound links, and much more.  While Webmaster tools are aimed at the more technically minded, there is one overarching advantage I’ve seen that, I believe, a number of people seem to overlook.

Once upon a time, SEOs would have to submit their website to DMOZ and the Yahoo directory to let search engines know a site existed, but the real advantage to webmaster tools is the fact that it guarantees a spider visit, as you have to verify the site either by adding a line to the <head> field of the homepage, or by uploading a 1kb file to the root directory.  By going through this verification process, you’re basically telling a search engine “Here I am!”  I’ve seen sites get indexed, literally, within hours after completing a verification process!  Even if you don’t use the extremely useful suite of tools that you get for free, it’s worth the effort just to go through the verification process.

You can sign up for Google Webmaster Tools here.  Yahoo has Site Explorer, which is not as involved as Google’s WMTools, but still valuable.  Lastly, MSN Webmaster Tools can be found here.  All in all, Webmaster tools are the quickest, and cheapest method of guaranteeing your site will get indexed!

People who write articles and blog posts and whatnot have figured out a few tricks to attract readership. One popular technique is to use wild exaggeration in the headline, to try to fool people into thinking the article or post is more significant than it is. (cough, cough…) But another far, far more important and well-utilized technique is to SEO the hell out of everything you write. Now, search-engine optimization is a tried, true and accepted way to attract readers to your website, whether you’re trying to sell stuff, increase ad revenue or just bump up your readership. But where it gets a little dodgy, in my opinion anyway, is when the mainstream media starts getting into the SEO game. There’s one little throwaway line in these writer guidelines for the Huffington Post posted yesterday, where they say that submitted articles may be edited for SEO purposes.

Well, what’s the big deal? Of course media outlets want to attract readers using any method at their disposal, right? The big deal is that SEO is a slippery slope. On one end of the spectrum, it can be as simple as using tags and keywords to improve your Google ranking. But at the other end of the spectrum you get into a situation where SEO dictates content. The web is full of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of sites that create content purely to get traffic from search engines. That’s why there are, when I checked a few minutes ago, 207,000,000 returns when you Gooogle the phrase “Top 10″. A long time ago, someone figured out that top 10 lists are a great way to attract readers, and now there are more of them online than photos of Britney Spears’ crotch.

But when big media, the CNN’s and CBS News’s of the world, start creating content just to attract traffic, they’re not really doing what media should be doing. Instead of investigating and informing their readership about “real” news, they’re writing countless articles about who got kicked off of American Idol, or the “Top 10 movie car chase scenes”. Okay, maybe this doesn’t actually spell the destruction of the world…maybe I exaggerated slightly in the headline. But it is an interesting, and kinda crappy, side-effect of the intricacies of SEO.