I bumped into somebody yesterday who does SEO, and they said that the best way to send traffic to your website is not to have landing pages but to buy lots of domains, and automatically redirect them from the server to your webpage.

That sounds like a load of rubbish to me, and from what I understood about Google’s recent updates, I thought content was king? If you have no content because it’s simply an “empty” redirect, then how does Google even see that website?

I did ask if Google looks at the redirected website and automatically reads the content instead from the actual domain it’s being redirected to (that’s the only way that makes any sense to me), and they said they “think so”.

So what’s the story? Which is right? Better to buy domains and slap redirects on them, or slap landing pages on them with links back to your site?

Firstly Chris, thanks for dropping by! And what a great question! Let’s get into it…

Everything is Changing

There’s been a lot of uncertainty going around the SEO world these past 12-18 months as Google has been cleaning up its results pages, and those that engaged in “frowned upon” tactics to boost website rankings have finally felt the gorilla’s wrath.

This “purging” is also highlighting a lot of misinformation being spread around by those that haven’t been keeping up to speed with industry events. Unfortunately, the person you met may fall into this category, as it sounds like news of Google’s “Exact Match Domain” update is yet to reach them.

The “Exact Match Domain” Update

In September / October last year, exact match domain names were the subject of their own algorithm update, and what was a well known and used strategy was knocked off its perch.

In the instance of the advice you received, the red flag for me is the buying up of those multiple domains, merely for the purpose of redirecting them. As you point out, there’s no content on them, and at least for most attempting that strategy, they’d probably be brand new, and so carry little to no authority of their own.

So how would I do it?

Put Landing Pages on your Domain

In your scenario, my recommendation is to put your landing pages directly on your domain (or a subdomain, whichever works best for you).

The reason for this is if you’re already running a content rich website with good authority, in sending paid traffic to those landing pages, that authority will get taken into account in your quality score.

Tip: Improve your quality score, improve your chance of a lower cost-per-click.

(Of course, there’s other factors at play, but opportunities to lower your costs sounds pretty hot to me.)

Also, you can leverage the traffic you are receiving with “you may want to read this too” type links on the call-to-action thank you page. For mine, having that under the same domain name / branding increases trust, and so the likelihood of the link being clicked on rises.

And of course that action feeds back into keeping people on your site, compounding the interest in your brand and its services.

Gorillas

“You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry”

To me though it seems very short sighted to build a strategy on something the 800lb gorilla has already notified you it doesn’t like, so my advice is to stick with keeping the gorilla happy. :)

On the question of Google et al attributing authority to a domain name (alone) because of the site it’s redirecting to? That’d be a no, the domain would have to stand on its own merits. Anything else would potentially open up the results to all sorts of spamming – definitely not what the search engines want.

If you’d like to read more about the exact match domain update, check out this in-depth guide on the SEOmoz blog.

Hope that answers your question, Chris!

Do you have an SEO or web marketing question like Chris’ here that you’d like answered? Just drop me a line via the contact page. Make it a good one, and it may get published here on the site!

Image Credit

The post On Gorillas, Landing Pages and Domain Names (Q&A) appeared first on Dan Rippon Web Marketing.

So maybe more for my reference than yours (!), and because re-inventing the wheel is a little bit silly, I thought I’d publish this cheat sheet infographic that I found in that search.

There are of course many more social media platforms than shown here, but this should get you started when you next need it.

Image Credit: Jeff Golden

The post Social Media Images Cheat Sheet appeared first on Dan Rippon Web Marketing.

This quick 2 minute video will show you how to add a scheduled post to your facebook page, but to use this feature to its full power and really get your “content curation strategy” on a roll, think about scheduling multiple posts in one go, and spread them throughout the week!

Video Transcription

Today I’ve got a quick video on putting up scheduled posts on your facebook page. Now why might you want to use a scheduled post? Well, basically, time management. Small businesses are famed for not having a great deal of spare time, so anything you could do to leverage your time better, is a great thing.

We’ll get started here. I’ve got a piece of text I’m going to use for this particular update already written, just drop that in there, and I’ve also got a link that I’m going to use, just going to add that in there.

Now sometimes you’ll notice that when you do a status update, you’ll put in a link and there won’t be an image or a picture that pops up here, so as that’s the case here, I’m just going to drop that out, and I’m going to add my own image that I’ve picked up earlier on. OK, so we now have the copy that we’re putting into the update, we’ve got the link that we’re putting in, and we’ve also got the image that we’re putting in.

So to set up the scheduled part of the post, click on the clock in the bottom left hand corner, and pick your year, month, day and time. Just going to set that up for twenty to ten on Thuesday morning, and then click the blue Schedule button.

And that’s pretty much all there is to it. You’ll get a confirmation message just popping up here, and if you want to edit anything that you’ve put in, you can click on the Activity Log and go and change those settings.

OK, thanks very much for watching, if you found the video useful, please let me know in the comments below and please drop by my site, danrippon.com.au and subscribe to my updates. Thanks and goodbye for now.

*Of course, you’ve been able to schedule your status updates for a while now using third party tools such as Hootsuite, however there have been studies that this method could lead to your update receiving less likes and comments.

Image Credit: kudumomo

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Get ‘em while they’re hot!

It’s well known that the best time to get a customer to comment on a service you’ve provided them is when it’s right in front of them (or at least when it’s still fresh in their mind), so it makes sense that allowing someone to leave a review, comment or check-in while they are in your establishment is an easy way to a glowing testimonial.

Clearly, if this were to happen, most people would be using a smartphone – just like I was recently when I went to do the same at a cafe in Currumbin on the Gold Coast. Unfortunately, there was no mobile coverage, meaning I couldn’t leave a review of the rather nice club sandwich I was eating at the time.

Mmm, bacon…

The Set-Up

So I got to thinking, how could you turn a negative into a positive? Well, first things first, let’s get an internet connection up and running, so that we can offer free wi-fi to your customers.

Yes, I said free. Because going to a cafe, buying a coffee and a ticket, for 30 minutes of internet time is an idea thought up in the 90′s. Where it deserves to stay. (If you’re thinking of charging for it – please, please, PLEASE don’t. Just don’t, OK?)

Now, there’s a few ways you set this up – but my recommendation would be to call your local IT company, tell them you want to set up a free wi-fi connection for your customers.

If they know their stuff, they should be able to install a device on your existing connection (if you have one, and want to use that), in such a way as it and the customer wi-fi are entirely separate – because you don’t want some smart 14 year old sitting in your cafe hacking into your back office computer.

Tell Everyone!

Next, you want to be publicising that you offer free wifi, and publicise it hard. I’d suggest adding something to your both your Google Places and Facebook pages, and maybe team it up with a launch offer as well.

The goal here is bums on seats (no-one likes an empty cafe!), and getting those same bums to leave great reviews, check-ins and hey, maybe even writing a blog post about their favourite coffee shop!

:)

Image Credit: thefoodgroup

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With the rise of Facebook, Google+ Local and other social media and review based sites, the word of mouth network finds itself challenged, as it was when those retail chains first started their rise to popularity, and local businesses can again be easily overlooked:

“Hey, you hear there’s a new Target store opening 2 hours up the road? Wanna go?!”

Having read a bit of Marcus Sheriden’s blog lately, the idea of answering your clients’ questions as a content and lead generation strategy has been resonating strongly with me. The #1 objection I hear from businesses when I mention content marketing is “but what do I write about?”

Hmm, an idea forms…

Of course, this wouldn’t suit every business, and putting the idea into practice might not always be as easy as that. Unless you happen to be my local coffee shop – Kartel Espresso Bar.

While in the store recently, I heard the owner chatting and laughing with a regular about an idea they’ve had to promote the business.

I should explain first that Kartel isn’t your regular boring old coffee shop – it’s a quirky, hole in the wall, standing room only, hip-hop music playing, locals’ art gallery, home-made food serving slice of beachside sunshine. (Can you tell I like the place?)

Start a Blog!

The idea they were discussing was so simple, so easy to put into action, and suited the business so perfectly, I was having my own party of one just standing there in the queue.

Only problem was, they had no inkling that what they were talking about could be a gold mine for them.

Thinking about it later, I came to the conclusion that if even if you’ve only a small footprint in your local community, and for whatever reason haven’t yet started a blog, but think that you should (yes, you should!), it’s perfectly OK to look beyond whatever product you’re selling to build your profile.

Customer Reviews

It may seem a strange idea at first, but in those areas with strong word of mouth marketing, in today’s age of smartphones, it’s not hard to turn those local referrals into reviews. And more reviews gets you more exposure, and we know where that leads… ;)

Image Credit: A Tale of Design

The post Why You Should Blog Beyond Your Product appeared first on Dan Rippon Web Marketing.

Now I’m passionate about what I do, and when it comes to small business web marketing, I see many basic mistakes that because they are so easy to fix, get me more worked up than they should!

I was chatting with a friend recently who runs an IT firm, and (happily for my sanity) I found I’m not the only one with this passion. What am I talking about?

Domain Names

Let’s take this scenario: you run a small business, spending a tidy sum on advertising your business in Yellow Pages, the local classifieds, and maybe even some online advertising. You might even have a nice website for people to come and look at, and your car or van has one of those one-way-view stickers across the back screen.

Sounds good so far? Problem is, on all of that brand promotion, your email address looks like this:

yourbusinessname@hotmail.com

And your potential customer sees this: UNPROFESSIONAL.

Harsh I know, but this is your brand, your image, your professionalism you are representing. And by using a free email address or one supplied by your internet provider, your business looks as professional as a Saturday sausage sizzle.

There is of course another reason to get your own domain name: when the day comes that you want or need to change your internet provider (and it does happen!), that address and all the sometime clients that may have used it in the past?

Good luck with that…

So if that’s you in the scenario above, please get a domain name! It’ll set you back a couple of cups of coffee, and if you need help picking and setting up the right one (yes, it still matters!), I’ll be covering this in future post.

Image credit: Sean MacEntee

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