Whenever you make changes to a web site, one of the most important considerations should be how to use 301 (permanent) or 302 (temporary) redirects to alert the search engine to your changes to avoid having a negative impact on your search rankings.  Whether you’re moving pages around or switching content management system platforms you will want to utilize.  As reviewed above, there are 2 main types of redirects which are 301 redirect or 302 redirect.

Programmers who are not search engine optimization experience may recommend using a 302 redirect which is temporary redirect.  Unfortunately a 302 redirect  does not transfer link popularity ranking from the old website to the new one.  That being said, the solution is to utilize a 301 redirect as defined earlier in this blog post.

One of the easiest ways for a 301 redirect to be implemented is in your .htaccess file; however, check with your programmer to determine if other implementation options are recommended.  When a visitor to your site (including a search engine robot or crawler) requests a web page, your web server checks for a .htaccess file.  The .htaccess file contains specific instructions, including redirection issues and how to handle certain errors.

The 301 redirect code is interpreted as moved permanently. Conditional redirects should be avoided, especially if your risk tolerance for penalization is low. If you take a good hard look at your “need” for conditional redirects, I think you may find you don’t really need them at all.

1. Load speed of your page is not only important for search engine optimization but also for sales conversion.  When writing your online sales copy make sure that the page itself will load quickly so site visitors will wait for page load to even read your sales copy.  If they have to wait they will leave before reading.
2. Always write the sales copy from the customer’s point of view. After writing your online sales copy read it after asking yourself Why does this matter or help the customer?  If you can’t answer that question then rewrite the sales copy.   
3. Customers buy benefits not features. For example, if you were selling a digital camera with 10mp highlighting the 10mp without explaining the benefit of it (i.e. high quality resolution, etc.) will not help conversion.  Always write online sales copy that talks to the benefits not just features.
4. What is your unique selling proposition for your product or service?  Everything you write must be able to answer that question.  If this is answered well it will help your offering stand out from the hundreds or thousands of other competitors selling the same product or service.  Some unique selling propositions could be based on best price, best warranty, etc.
5. Place the headlines of your sales copy where your site visitor will see it first and arrange your page layout in a clean and simple presentation.
6. Below the headline with the first paragraph of your sales copy should solve a problem or clearly communicate what benefits (again not features) the prospective customer could expect if they buy your product or service.
7. Testimonials or case studies from credible sources will definitely help encourage online sales or call to action conversion. 
8. Use graphics (images) or videos to compliment your sales copy by showing the experience to the site visitor.  Images are also great for helping the visitor to be drawn to specific areas of the page.  Just be careful not to hurt the fine balance between complimentary and chaos.
9. After working at your company for just a few days you start drinking the corporate kool-aid.  Remember that your customers do not work at your company and will not know what certain acronyms, abbreviations or trade terms mean.  At iClick Solutions we have this problem a lot.  Presenting to a client recommendations on SEO and PPC does not help anyone if the client does not first understand what SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click) are and how PPC and SEO would be of benefit to them and their customers.  Use the online sales copy language that your least informed customers might use and be sure to expand on what everything is to play it safe.  We use the “would my mom understand” test on everything we write.  Unfortunately if your mom is Web 2.0 savvy then be careful. 
10. A common question is how long can the copy be and our usual answer is that the copy can be long; however, if each paragraph is not written in a way to get me to want to read more than all that boring additional copy will not help the conversion.  Your site should be written for users and not search engines but as a search engine marketing company we try and place a good balance here.  The extra copy could help your search engine ranking position if the copy is relevant to that page so a little extra might be okay. 

Hope that helps.  If you have any other suggestions or questions please let us know by commenting on this blog post on 10 Tips To Writing Effective Online Sales Copy

In a letter addressed to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, the Yahoo! board insisted that the current offer–which is now valued at $42.2 billion–did not reflect the best interests of shareholders.

The letter was a response to Ballmer’s own bout of gauntlet-throwing on Saturday, when he gave Yahoo! three weeks to accept Microsoft’s offer or face a hostile takeover.

With Web 2.0 and users relying on social reviews in their decision making process, this tool is a great idea and integrated with Facebook could become quite succesful.  Loladex combines local search with the recommendation and rating possibilities inherent in social networks. Loladex already has about 16 million listings. The application is able to return localized results based on recommendations and ratings made by Facebook friends.  “Loladex mimics the way people think about things in the off-line world,” Goodman said.

These kind of applications from outside developers have taken advantage of the site’s open application platform.  Check it out at Loladex.

Before you click to look at the entry, it might be good to know first that it exists in the Hungarian annex of Wikipedia. This of course shouldn’t be much of a surprise to Wikipedia fans. While English is the number one language on the site, others have quickly grown to nip at it’s heels. Some of the other big languages include German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Marathi, Tagalog, and Cantonese are also said to be experiencing rapid growth.

Despite the site’s numerous critics for accuracy, it is obvious that people love the idea of such a resource being out there for them to access so freely and contribute so easily and openly. Can Wikipedia now double its count? We’ll just have to wait and see.  Read the rest of the article at Mashable.

• Gokul Rajaram, the “Godfather of AdSense,” is working on a stealth startup.
• Louis Monier, Anna Patterson, Russell Power are working on a search service called Cuill (pronounced “cool”) — it’s said to index the web more economically than Google. Uses a web crawler called “twiceler.”
• Jason Liebman, Sanjay Raman and Daniel Blackman co-founded HowCast, a network of “how to” videos. The pair company has apparently raised $8 million in funding.
• Steffen Mueller started a “search engine community” called Topicle.
• Vanessa Fox left Google for real estate search site Zillow.
• Dan Daugherty is heading RentBits, a real estate rental site. He’s got support from fellow ex-Googler Tim Moynihan, who is COO of the site.

To read more check out Silicon Alley Insider

The letter signed by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Microsoft will take its case directly to Yahoo shareholders and work to elect a new slate of directors, if the board doesn’t respond by the deadline by April 26. The bid to buy Yahoo was made in January and announced Feb. 1.

At the time, Microsoft offered $44.6 billion, or 62 percent above Yahoo’s market value. The deal is currently valued at about $41 billion, based on Friday’s closing share prices. Yahoo’s board formally rejected Microsoft Corp.’s bid, saying it undervalues the company.

Advertising Age
http://www.adage.com/

eMarketer
http://emarketer.com

CNet
http://Cnet.com

IMediaConnection
http://imediaconnection.com/search/index.asp

Interactive Advertising Bureau
http://iab.net

Marketing Vox
http://www.marketingvox.com/

Online Media Daily
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showTodaysEdition&art_type=13

Search Engine Land
http://searchengineland.com/

Search Engine Watch
http://searchenginewatch.com/

WebmasterWorld.com
http://www.webmasterworld.com/index.htm

iClick Solutions
http://www.iClickSolutions.com

That better data makes for better tools to combat click fraud isn’t exactly Earth-shattering news, but Google’s comments come at a sensitive time for the company.

While Google cracked open the doors surrounding its click fraud detection measures, the news comes at a time when the search giant is trying to explain some rather bleak click data to Wall Street. To be fair, Google posted its assessment of data and click fraud ahead of comScore’s report that the company saw only a modest 3 percent gain in its paid clicks business. But that report came after a disastrous report for the prior month that prompted many on Wall Street to suggest that Google, digital and the wider U.S. economy were showing greater signs of weakness than previously thought.

Read rest of article at iMedia Connetion.

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