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The Search Light Newsletter
Guiding your site to the top of the search engines... (10 June 2003 - Vol
3 Issue #5)
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Dear Reader,
The past month has been an exciting one for Web
Rank. First we won a large new SEO project in the
U.S., beating out several local competitors in the client
pitch. Then I was given the opportunity of writing a
regular column for the Technology section of the local
newspaper here in Christchurch, The Press
(which I'm enjoying immensely). You can view the
latest issue
here.
Lastly, we are very close to launching our Special
Report - Search Engine Compatibility and the Top
100 New Zealand Companies - which reveals just
how invisible the web sites of New Zealand's top
companies are to the average searcher. Fascinating
stuff! Watch this space next month for Report
highlights and details on where you can get your copy.
We've also been busy tracking the online success of
clients whose web sites we've optimized for higher
search engine rankings. Our feature article this month
highlights one such success story -
BirthNet - and how SEO doubled their site traffic in
just three months. I remember grinning from ear to ear
when I received a very excited email from BirthNet's
founder Catherine Price, with the subject line "Visitors have jumped!" The case study serves as a
timely reminder that search engine marketing is not just
for ecommerce sites.
One final thing I want to mention is how disappointed I
am in Overture for continuing to partner
with "scumware/adware" manufacturers
Gator Corp. Gator's GAIN software installs itself on
your PC when you download certain types of software
and can be very difficult to remove. GAIN launches pop-
up advertising to appear on web sites while you're
browsing, generally encouraging you to click away from
the site you are viewing to visit a competitor's site.
People often don't realize they've installed it and
wonder why they are being inundated with pop-ups.
As mentioned in
this article in March, Overture has partnered with
Gator, meaning that Overture advertisers have their
ads displayed via annoying pop-ups, often without their
knowledge. Once I learnt this, I immediately cancelled
my Overture account in protest. Many advertisers have
since followed suit.
This month, a Harvard University researcher completed
a fascinating report into the workings of Gator and the
way their advertisements are linked to certain web
sites. The research exposed more than 8,000 web
sites that were being "hijacked" by the software and
the numerous pending lawsuits against Gator. Definitely
food for thought.
Enjoy this issue and remember to visit our daily Search
Engine News Blog for the latest industry news and gossip. Till next time -
wishing you high rankings...
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In this issue...
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* Successful SEO Case Study: BirthNet
* SearchKing vs Google Lawsuit Dismissed
* LookSmart Shares Dive 43 Percent
* Sprinks and AOL Sign Ad Deal
* SEM Industry Farewells Jim Wilson
* Google News Launches in 5 Countries
* Overture Sued Over FAST Purchase
Successful SEO Case Study:
BirthNet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Kalena Jordan of Web Rank Ltd
This month we're going to take a look at how search
engine optimization helped double the traffic to an
Australian web site, contributing to the success of a
unique business venture.
BirthNet is Australia's premier pregnancy website
and resource for pregnancy and birth information online.
The site provides information about what women can
expect from their pregnancy and even provides online
pregnancy and childbirth classes.
Founders Catherine Price and Sandra
Robinson felt that many people could benefit from
having the option of completing their childbirth
education classes online and having access to unbiased
pregnancy information, written for the Australasian
and international Internet user. So BirthNet
was born.
"BirthNet's online classes are structured to provide a
convenient alternative for parents preparing for the
birth of their baby. The site is especially useful for
women staying in hospital during their pregnancy, those
who are hungry for information, time poor, unable to
access classes due to geographical isolation, or
perhaps inhibited by group situations", says Ms
Price.
Having been impressed by Web Rank's detailed Search
Engine Compatibility analysis of the site, BirthNet asked
us to provide a search engine marketing solution to
ensure their site would rank well for regional pregnancy-
related searches in their target market of Australia. One
of the first recommendations we made was to
remove existing "doorway" pages from the site,
developed by an inexperienced or ill-informed SEO firm
hired prior to Web Rank. Designed to trick the search
engines, these doorway pages were ineffective and
could have attracted "spam" penalties by the likes of
Google if they had been detected. Luckily they hadn't
and they were quickly removed from the site with the
client's consent.
The next step was to conduct keyword research on
the topic of pregnancy to produce a range of target
keywords and phrases that would attract relevant
traffic to the site. This was followed by an overhaul of
existing Title and META Tags on each page, followed by
extensive page copywriting to integrate new target
keywords naturally into the site.
With the implementation of BirthNet's search engine
optimization campaign, Web Rank has achieved scores
of top ten positions for the site across the world's most
important search engines and directories. Below are a
few examples:
Google
# 5 pregnancy due dates
# 6 early signs of pregnancy
# 5 pregnancy trimesters
AllTheWeb
# 5 pregnancy announcements
# 2 early signs of pregnancy
# 2 twin pregnancy symptoms
LookSmart
# 3 pregnancy sites Australia
# 5 twin pregnancy symptoms
NineMSN
# 1 pregnancy announcements
# 1 pregnancy sites Australia
# 1 twin pregnancy symptoms
AltaVista Australia
# 1 early signs of pregnancy
# 3 pregnancy signs and symptoms
# 1 pregnancy week by week
Anzwers
# 1 pregnancy questions
# 1 early signs of pregnancy
# 1 pregnancy due dates
Lycos
# 2 early signs of pregnancy
# 5 pregnancy announcements
# 2 twin pregnancy symptoms
MSN
# 4 twin pregnancy symptoms
# 3 pregnancy sites Australia
# 4 pregnancy week by week
Remember that these ranking results were achieved
even while competing with millions of other web sites
targeting the same search terms. So what is the most
obvious benefit of search engine optimization? Traffic!
Below is an actual example of the growth in site traffic
BirthNet experienced as a result of their search engine
optimization campaign:
(See this page for chart)
As you can see, within two months of the SEO
campaign being implemented at the end of March 2003,
site traffic increased by a whopping 96 percent
from 27,793 visitors to over 54,500 visitors in the
month of May 2003. Search engine referrals now
account for nearly 20 percent of all site traffic, a factor
that can be attributed entirely to the impact of Web
Rank's search engine optimization services. What's even
better is that all this extra traffic is highly targeted,
having found the site by conducting a search for
keywords and phrases directly related to pregnancy
information.
So what do BirthNet think of the results of their search
engine optimization campaign?
"We are extremely happy with the results that Web
Rank achieved for us
and
our fears of the stats going through the floor
when the doorways were removed was not realized, which we are very pleased
about.", said Ms Price. "In the
last week, visitors have jumped from 1800 - 2000, to
around 2,500 a day, which is great!".
Could YOUR site use more traffic? Are you attracting
the right visitors by targeting the most relevant
keywords and phrases? Is your site invisible to search
engines? Web Rank can analyze your site for search
engine compatibility and provide an obligation-free
quote to improve your search engine ranking. Just ask
us!
Click Here for info on our SEO services...
SearchKing vs Google Lawsuit
Dismissed
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An Oklahoma court has granted Google's Motion to Dismiss the case brought against them by disgruntled owner of SearchKing, Bob Massa.
Last August, Mr Massa's PR Ad Network allegedly used
Google's proprietory PageRank system to sell ad
space on his network of portals, which led to Google
manually applying a low PageRank score to his
network of sites. Mr Massa responded with a lawsuit,
claiming his ability to do business had been infringed by
Google's manual adjustment.
Google responded with a Motion to Dismiss the case,
asserting they were immune from Tort Liability arising
from the manual devaluation, because PageRank
constitutes protected speech. Last month, the judge
agreed with Google, stating:
"The court simply finds there is no conceivable way
to prove that the relative significance assigned to a
given Web site is false," the judge said. "Accordingly,
the court concludes Google's PageRanks are entitled to
full constitutional protection."
LookSmart Shares Dive 43
Percent
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spooked investors drove LookSmart share prices down by 43 percent last month, following the company's announcement that it had reduced its earnings outlook for the year.
The company revised its forecast 2003 earnings from
between USD 22 and 25 million, down to USD 13 million
as a result of increased investment in product
development and unanticipated costs. LookSmart stock
closed at $2.17 on the Nasdaq, after recovering slightly
from a session low of $2.00.
Additionally, the company did not follow Generally Accepted Accounting
Principles (GAAP) to issue a forecast for net earnings, claiming a lack of
visibility because of variable accounting for re-priced stock options. LookSmart's revised earnings
outlook and share price plunge follows hot on the heels of Overture's similar
earnings revision and share loss
Sprinks and AOL Sign Ad Deal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Primedia-owned pay-per-click search company Sprinks has signed a deal with AOL Time Warner to provide contextual paid listings to AOL Instant Messenger, Compuserve and Netscape sites.
The deal is significant because it allows Sprinks advertisers to bid for placement on newsletters and editorial pages of popular AOL-owned portals. Instead of bidding for certain keywords that appear in search engines, contextual advertising gives them the opportunity to bid for topics in non-search content pages such as news articles.
It's widely acknowledged that contextual link marketing and contextual search are very effective advertising mediums by which to reach a target audience. Consequently it is expected demand for Sprink's new service will be high, as will bid amounts for popular topics such as finance, home loans and real estate.
Currently, Sprinks offers advertisers 1,500 different topics to bid on, with pay-per-click revenue to be divided equally between Sprinks and their distribution partners.
SEM
Industry Farewells Jim Wilson
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The search engine marketing industry is in mourning after it bade farewell to pioneer Jim Wilson last month. Jim (of JimWorld and Search Engine Forums fame) passed away from congestive heart failure after a long illness. A memorial site for Jim has been set up to receive tributes and messages of condolence for Jim's family.
Click Here to leave your tribute...
Google News Launches in 5
Countries
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Google has launched five international versions of their popular news service. Google News is now available in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India and the U.K. I've already spent quite a bit of time at Google News New Zealand - great stuff!
Click Here for Google's main news site...
Overture Sued Over FAST
Purchase
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May was a bad month for Overture. During
the month, it was discovered that the pay-per-click
giant is being sued over their recent purchase of FAST
Search and Transfer. The legal action was
revealed in a
filing Overture made with the Securities Commission last
month.
A company called MRT Micro ASA filed suit in
Massachusetts seeking permanent injunctions blocking
the sale and a claim of all proceeds from the USD 70
million deal. MRT Micro claims that technology being
acquired by Overture as part of the sale actually
belongs to them. Overture plans to fight the law suit.
This is apparently not the first time MRT have threatened legal action involving a claim to FAST technology. A search for MRT Micro ASA on Google brings up a cached press release of FAST's from 1999, rejecting MRT's prior claim that FAST was using their processor:
"Allegations emanating from MRT Micro ASA (MRT Micro) are totally false and
untrue. FAST is not and has no intention of making use of the out-dated MS160 or
any other technology from MRT Micro", said FAST Chairman at the time, Thomas
Fussell, " FAST has had no contact with MRT Micro and I find it strange that
we have had no direct approach from MRT Micro in pursuit of these claims. I can
only believe that this is an attempt by certain parties to associate themselves
with FAST's undoubted success and in some way profit for themselves."