Conducted by Dave Barry
Academy of Web Specialists
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07:14:16 dbarry We may as well get started then, If anyone has a question type a question mark
07:14:47 web_chameleon Is this Dave Barry?
07:14:52 dbarry Yes it is
07:15:21 web_chameleon Samantha, I met you at the Orlando course a few weeks ago
07:15:40 dbarry Hope everything is good. Any questions?
07:15:43 dbarry good
07:16:56 dbarry The chat today has to do with copyrighting, Did anyone come with questions?
07:16:58 web_chameleon ?
07:17:04 dbarry Go ahead
07:17:34 web_chameleon I prefer for my website home pages to offer more in the way of direction and not so much info. Am I working backwards here?
07:17:53 web_chameleon direction=navigation
07:18:08 dbarry What you need to do is organize the information to follow a path to the sale
07:18:26 dbarry You should use what is called a "call to action"
07:18:56 dbarry A "call to action" can be "buy now", "get more details", try it for free, etc...
07:19:07 dbarry Do you have an example of a product
07:19:08 aesopian Win a Dell...
07:19:18 web_chameleon I have two realtor sites, it's more about forming relationships
07:19:45 web_chameleon In this market it takes about 5 years to turn a lead into a sale
07:19:45 dbarry Then as you present the info, you want to get commitments from them
07:20:09 dbarry small commitments like getting your information, joining a list
07:20:24 dbarry something so that they are used to hearing from you
07:20:40 dbarry the more they hear from you in this case is the more they trust you.
07:21:02 web_chameleon Okay, we do a quarterly giveaway for really nice stuff and get emails that way
07:21:04 dbarry The feel after a year as if they know you and that gives you more of the ability to sell them
07:21:13 dbarry Then you need to use those emails
07:21:22 dbarry Send them updates
07:21:31 web_chameleon then we add them to our bimonthly Info newsletter (program just starting) and send mail via Constant Contact
07:21:39 dbarry great rates, now is the time to buy, the market is great. etc...
07:22:01 dbarry You have a marketing target now just refine the message to cause them to buy
07:22:09 dbarry Do you track the results of your newsletter
07:22:11 web_chameleon I hear what you are saying, but everyone says it, it is overused, I believe
07:22:29 web_chameleon newsletter just starting, haven't sent out first one yet
07:22:39 dbarry They say it is overused if it does not have constant useable info
07:22:51 dbarry you put in current news and pepper in your marketing actions
07:22:57 web_chameleon we will track by only offering a touch of info on the mail and offer links to more info on the website. That way we can see what interests them and what does not.
07:23:19 web_chameleon makes sense
07:23:30 dbarry You can test your offers that way, which is a good idea. Are you tracking clicks from the email to see what offers work and what don't'
07:24:25 web_chameleon I can, as I said, I haven't really gotten into it yet, but I know that I can through this
program
07:24:56 dbarry The key is to track them diligently as it will tell you what to do in order to get their money.
07:25:25 web_chameleon Do you have any "must use" techniques if you're writing for the home page?
07:25:42 web_chameleon Will do it!
07:25:58 dbarry A home page is tough as you want them to feel welcome but you also want to sell them
07:26:33 dbarry I just use about 3 paragraphs, a little about company and services, the navigation bar
will get them there, just tell them in your home page to use it
07:26:54 dbarry for example - To see current rates, Select current rates on the left navigation
07:27:10 dbarry this gives you the ability to use a message and get link text at the same time.
07:27:43 dbarry Does that handle it for you?
07:27:52 web_chameleon So many realtors like to talk about themselves on that home page. That's a killer, right?
07:28:07 dbarry Selling is being interested, not interesting
07:28:27 aesopian Are they looking to by a realtor, or a house?
07:28:29 dbarry I would talk about how much my customers like their homes.
07:28:45 joist82 what do you suggest tracking with?
07:28:47 dbarry a couple of testimonials right on the home page is what I would do here
07:28:48 web_chameleon thanks, good statement - I will remember.
07:29:06 dbarry It depends on your site and its configuration
07:29:17 dbarry You can contact me if you want to take a look at it later
07:29:49 pata Similar question.... how do you track traffic from a newsletter?
07:30:04 dbarry Robin and I just wrote an article on tracking for pay per clicks, it would apply here to
07:30:18 web_chameleon thanks, Dave - it was one of the ones that Michael C. commented on as far as navigation
07:30:23 dbarry Pata - You can put something in the link or a script to log at the web server
07:30:47 dbarry was it a good comment or was it a suggestion?
07:31:04 pata example? Do you just mean use a specific landing page?
07:31:33 dbarry That is one way to do it, But if you want to put multiple links in one email, I would use a query string variable
07:31:40 web_chameleon suggestions on removing left-side java scripting and replacing with link text, etc.
07:31:46 dbarry That is ?code=track at the end of the url
07:31:59 dbarry web_cha - I agree with that totally
07:32:06 dbarry I use javascript when I want to hide a link
07:32:40 pata where is this article posted?
07:32:50 web_chameleon interesting
07:32:51 dbarry This month's issue of Planet Ocean
07:33:01 pata cool thanks
07:33:28 dbarry http://www.SearchEngine-News.com
07:33:38 web_chameleon I did move all my miscellaneous scripting down to the bottom of the body as you had indicated to help with SE spidering
07:33:52 dbarry good, do you have text links there now
07:34:09 pata what are you two talking about???
07:34:23 web_chameleon sorry, slightly off subject, pata
07:34:35 dbarry back to tracking
07:34:37 pata please elaborate!
07:34:48 web_chameleon yes, I do, Dave.
07:34:57 web_chameleon I agree, my apologies
07:35:14 dbarry Ok, so back to copyrighting, who is next
07:36:30 dbarry Pata - Are you handled on your email-tracking question
07:36:49 pata I will read the article
07:37:01 dbarry Great, Let us know if you have any questions
07:37:07 dbarry Who is next, Anyone?
07:37:15 joist82 what are the limitations on using a competitors name in domain name?
07:37:25 dbarry Mainly trademark
07:37:28 pata ?
07:37:38 dbarry If it is trademarked in any way you can't use it.
07:37:57 dbarry That is more of a legal question for a lawyer and a lawyer I am not
07:38:06 dbarry Yes pata
07:38:45 joist82 k
07:38:50 pata how much importance do you put on key word prominence. Do you try to start the article / copy with the keyword? Do you try to avoid using the keyword towards the end of the copy?
07:38:56 aesopian Where should I use bolding in my copy? If I use it on keywords, will it affecting the
rankings at all, or is it just good for people to notice it?
07:39:20 dbarry Keyword prominence to me is very important, but I put it both at top and bottom
07:39:33 dbarry The key is to spread it out in a natural language
07:39:53 dbarry I also create text links out of each keyword in article so as to add importance
07:39:58 pata when I use it at the bottom I seem to kill my prominence. According to WPG
07:40:09 dbarry Don't forget the H1 tag as it more important than people even realize
07:40:28 dbarry Heading is keyword phrase
07:40:38 dbarry first word in first paragraph too if possible
07:40:59 dbarry Spread them out and put other text links there too so you don't look obvious
07:41:25 pata where do you link the key words to if they are already on the optimized page for that keyword?
07:41:48 dbarry You can use heavy at the front and gradually decrease as you get to the end for the prominence factor
07:42:04 dbarry Home page of site and other optimized pages are where the links go
07:42:36 web_chameleon What are your "must do or must include" things when writing copy for a website?
07:42:44 pata here is an example...
07:43:08 pata I have a page about flash training (the program)...
07:43:23 dbarry one moment web_c
07:43:27 pata there is only one main page about it and...
07:44:15 pata one general. Shouldn't my flash keyword links go to a page a bout the key word?
07:44:28 dbarry Not necessarily, just related
07:45:04 dbarry I would add some articles to the site, example. Why flash is good, The history of Flash, Flash to Flash MX, etc..
07:45:07 pata seems like a usability issue. Confusing the surfer for the sake of seo
07:45:23 pata ok thanks I get it
07:45:40 dbarry It will not confuse the surfer if you do it correctly, I am not saying blatantly kill the page
07:45:52 dbarry ok web_c you're up
07:46:02 dbarry must do's
07:46:08 web_chameleon ;-) Did you get the questions from above?
07:46:17 web_chameleon question - only one
07:46:24 dbarry strip html, no JavaScript if you can help it, one or two images, no tables, etc...
07:46:35 web_chameleon must- do's - yes!
07:46:50 aesopian You could say some thing like " See more about *keyword as link text* "
07:46:54 web_chameleon no tables?
07:46:55 dbarry a clean page with nothing but text
07:47:03 dbarry not if you don't need them
07:47:14 web_chameleon how do you organize your text and images?
07:47:18 dbarry don't kill functionality for it but do what you can
07:47:30 web_chameleon that's like one foot off the ledge for me
07:47:38 dbarry you have to find the medium ground
07:47:38 web_chameleon ok
07:48:03 dbarry use a table if you have to but you know you can take 1/2 the garbage out of any page if you really want to
07:48:06 web_chameleon do you do this for all your sites? or only on pages you are trying to optimize?
07:48:25 aesopian You could just stick the logo in the top left corner of the page for branding, and then a single product picture, then make the rest nicely organized text.
07:48:35 dbarry Mainly optimized pages, but again you want them to have similar look and feel of site, again medium ground
07:48:40 web_chameleon thanks "a"
07:49:15 dbarry Next....
07:49:47 dbarry 5 minutes left
07:49:54 dbarry last question anyone???
07:50:21 web_chameleon thanks for stepping in, Dave!
07:50:36 dbarry not a problem, looks like that is it
07:50:58 dbarry Everyone have a good one, If you need me for anything - dbarry
07:51:12 pata ?
07:51:18 dbarry yes pata
07:51:41 pata what about using includes? Do you know if a SE will spider include?
07:52:02 aesopian They will, I'm pretty sure.
07:52:11 dbarry It will as it is a server side include, that means it is included at the server level and
presented in browser as one page
07:52:15 aesopian It's all done server-side, so they only get the whole page.
07:52:17 dbarry A spider will follow it.
07:52:23 pata I think so too but...
07:53:00 pata cant you put your javascript in an external file to move your copy closer to the top of the page?
07:53:13 dbarry yes, but that is not a server side include
07:53:15 aesopian Java includes? That's a different story.
07:53:22 dbarry it is a script link, there is a difference
07:53:36 dbarry the javascript link is also client side script, not server
07:53:47 aesopian You can move the script out of the page, so the spider only sees one include line, but the Java still adds to the load time.
07:53:47 pata can you put your nav table in a SSI and still get them indexed?
07:54:14 dbarry Yes

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