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Posts Tagged ‘spam’
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
The Microsoft-Yahoo! deal will change a lot of things for a lot people. One thing that will definitely change is SEO. Of course, performing SEO on your website for Google will still be the same, but SEO overall will be a little bit (not much, but a little bit) different.
Here are three ways I think SEO will change in the next few years:
- Link popularity will become more difficult to measure – MSN has not been reporting inbound links for some time now. Google doesn’t report them all. The only search engine that has consistently reported inbound links is Yahoo! and they’ve been somewhat inflated. I think that once the deal is complete, MSN will not report any links at all. It will be much more difficult for webmasters to know what their inbound link count is.
- Bing will become more competitive and begin to offer some of the same tools that Google has to make the lives of webmasters easier. Webmaster Tools is one of them. Imagine having one account at Google and one at Bing just so you can know how to present your information to both of the leading search engines. It will make SEO a little bit more time-intensive, but easier overall.
- Bing will become as much a haven for spam as Google is. Since Bing is much better now for SEO than MSN Live ever was and since they are acquiring even more market share, they will be a major player in the search market. That will attract more spammers. Soon you will start hearing people complain about Bing spam.
What do you think? How do you think the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal will impact SEO?
Tags: link popularity, microsoft, SEO, spam, yahoo
Posted in search engines | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
In a discussion about PageRank sculpting, which is something you don’t need to know anything about, Google’s web spam guy, Matt Cutts, recently said this:
Q: Okay, but doesn’t this encourage me to link out less? Should I turn off comments on my blog?
A: I wouldn’t recommend closing comments in an attempt to “hoard†your PageRank. In the same way that Google trusts sites less when they link to spammy sites or bad neighborhoods, parts of our system encourage links to good sites.
You know what this tells me? That outbound linking actually has value in itself.
It looks like Cutts is saying if you only link to yourself then you not much more trusted than a site that links to bad websites like those that download malicious software. You may as well just be a spammer.
I don’t think this is referring to internal navigation links. Static websites should use an internal linking strategy and not have many, if any at all, outbound links. But a blog is a different kind of website. It’s social in nature and should have some outbound links. If your blog is just a self-promotional website that only links to your own sites and nowhere else, you could be hurting your social reputation. That’s not good.
Tags: blogging, internal links, outbound links, spam
Posted in Blogging for Small Business | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Google sent an apology to Blogger.com users for flagging their blog as spam. It occurred to me as I was reading this that this is one more reason to have your own standalone blog. For a small hosting fee each year you can have a blog that is brandable with your brand name and run on WordPress software (not WordPress.com, which is a free host like Blogger.com). It is very inexpensive for a marketing tool.
One popular blog in New Zealand called “No Right Turn” was one of the blogs that was erroneously charged as a spammer by Google, who claims that it was due to an algorithm gone wild. Here’s what Bloggernews is calling the moral of the story:
The moral to this story is that free is not always the best price. Free comes at a cost. And the cost is loss of control. I was pretty upset at the threat of losing two years worth of articles.
Any time you give someone else control over your content you are setting yourself up for a huge let down. And that kind of let down can cost you money. Do you really want to take that risk?
Learn more about blogging at Small Business Mavericks.
Tags: blogger.com, blogging, content, spam, wordpress
Posted in Blogging for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 30th, 2008
I agree. Spammers are no fun to hang out with. That’s why you need to be real careful about your comment policy. WordPress automatically makes all links no-follow. That means a link that you create from a WordPress blog back to your own blog does not compute for link building purposes. Get all the links you want and you are not going to help your link building strategy.
But, wait a minute …
WordPress has a plugin. Bloggers who install the WordPress do-follow plugin are setting themselves up for spam. As soon as you make all of the links on your blog pass on the link juice then everybody and pet dog wants to get in on the action. You essentially become the easiest girl in your class. Is that the kind of reputation you want?
I understand the desire for webmasters to want to reward their comments with the much coveted link credit. But know that when you do that you are opening up the spam dam so the flood can rush through. A better alternative might be the plugin that passes do-follow juice only to the top commentators on your blog. New commentators must earn the right to get that juice by leaving well-thought-of useful comments over a period of time.
Sounds like a good compromise to me. I’m sure Matt will agree.
Read why blogging is an essential business practice.
Tags: blog, do-follow, no-follow, spam, wordpress
Posted in Blogging for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Saturday, June 21st, 2008
Loren McDonald of Email Insider wrote a great post on the difference between direct mail and e-mail marketing. The gist of the post hinged on the following points:
- With e-mail marketing the consumer runs the show
- E-mail is more complicated
- Performance, ROI, and overall success are measured differently
- E-mail can appear differently to the recipient than it does to the creator
I concur with all of these points. One thing I’ve noticed about companies attempting to do e-mail marketing for the first time: They always think it will be easier than it is. Because e-mail is inexpensive (re: free), the thinking is that it will be easier to perform an e-mail marketing campaign. But honestly, there’s a lot more to think about.
CAN-SPAM laws are one very important thing you must consider. With direct mail marketing, you won’t be penalized for sending unwanted and unsolicited mail as long as what you are sending it legal. With e-mail marketing, you can be banned from your ISP and lose your e-mail account if you get too many spam complaints. That changes everything.
Another thing you have to think about is how often you send out e-mails. Too often and you’ll get blocked by recipients. Not often enough and they’ll forget about you. With direct mail, too often just costs you a lot of money.
When it comes to e-mail marketing the ease and low cost of it can be deceiving. Many companies do not accurately track their costs because many aspects of it are seemingly free. For instance, how much time does it take you to put together an e-mail that you send out? That’s a cost that many business owners do not consider. It does affect your ROI.
One more thing to consider is your audience. E-mail marketing and direct mail marketing work differently for different demographics. People who might respond to e-mail would just throw you mailer in the trash before even looking at it. On the other hand, some people who might read your direct mail brochure would hit the delete key on e-mail without reading even if they’ve opted in to your list.
There is no sure way to know whether direct mail or e-mail marketing is best for you. Chances are, you can benefit from both types of marketing depending on your goals and the individual campaign. For a consultation on your marketing needs, contact Small Business Mavericks.
Tags: cost, direct mail marketing, e-mail marketing, roi, spam
Posted in Direct Mail for Small Business, E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 2 Comments »
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
It seems I’m not the only one with an aversion to spam. Two days ago I talked about search engine spam. Yesterday the topic was blog spam. Today feels like a good day for e-mail spam.
Aaron Wall knows about SEO so don’t take this lightly. The last thing in the world you want to do is spam and SEO guy like Aaron. His suggestions for DietsinReview.com, the spammer with audacity, are worth re-mentioning:
If you are reactive to blog feedback then why not be proactive in creating meaningful relationships in the community? No point putting great ideas on churn and burn sites, and no point burning relationships with leading editorial voices in your market if you are creating a longterm site.
To that I’d like to add the following suggestions:
- If you absolutely must send out your e-mail offers today, buy or rent a list
- Otherwise, take some time to develop relationships with the people you want to be your customer
- Put an opt-in box on your website
- Provide something free for an e-mail address in exchange
- Use the double opt-in process
- Be sure to include unsubscribe information in all of your e-mails
- Never send out unsolicited e-mails
Not only will e-mail spam not endear you to your target market, but it could get you in trouble with the law as well. It’s really not worth the risk. DietsinReview.com needs to take a diet from spam this holiday season, and, I might add, so should you.
Tags: e-mail, SEO, spam
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
(Source) During the month of November 2007, close to 90 percent of the email volume received by large companies was spam according to a report from Proofpoint.
Does the high volume of e-mail spam mean that e-mail marketing is no longer effective? Don’t count on it. Companies that do it the right way still earn a nice return on their e-mail marketing. But what is the right way?
The key to success e-mail marketing is in the list. You have to have a good list and that means good prospects who want to be contacted by your offers. If you are one of the e-mail marketers that are sending out e-mail spam to promote your business, take note: You’re not just breaking the law; you are also engaging in a practice that isn’t even effective. Most people don’t open spam and most who do don’t purchase anything from it. It is largely a waste of time.
The spam laws are actually pretty lenient. They allow for a wide range of practices that are considered legal. For instance, it’s OK to send e-mail to prospects who didn’t ask to be contacted by your company IF you don’t misrepresent yourself in the process, send your e-mail from a different e-mail address from the one displayed in the sender field of the e-mail, and you include an opt out or unsubscribe link in the e-mail. That’s pretty lenient. However, sending that kind of e-mail is still ineffective.
The best e-mail marketing campaigns use a double opt-in process. It’s called permission marketing. By getting the permission of the people who receive your e-mail offers, you are not only safe from the law but you are also more likely to get a click through and more likely to close a sale. The double opt-in process gives your prospects two chances to say “No.” It also gives them two chances to say “Yes,” and if you get that yes then you know that you have a prospect who is truly interested in what you have to say. But you still need to include an unsubscribe in all of your e-mails to those prospects. It’s for your own protection and why waste time sending e-mails to people who aren’t interested in your services? It just doesn’t make sense.
Caroline Melberg
Small Business Mavericks
Small Business Mavericks Blog
Tags: e-mail marketing, opt out, opt-in, spam
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
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