How (and why) to hide your webpages from search engines

There are two main reasons to hide some of your webpages from Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

1. You have information that you do not want turning up in search results: private data, family pictures, coupon codes, limited offers, test/demo pages, etc.
2. You have duplicate content: landing pages for e-mail campaigns, highly-templated pages, etc.

Extensive duplicate content will hurt your search engine rankings. Search engines are looking for relevant pages. Duplicate content reduces your relevancy. There are two ways you can fix this:

1. Use the robots.txt exclusion file to tell the search engine spiders crawling your site not to index particular pages or folders
2. Add appropriate metatags to your pages which will then tell search engine spiders to exclude those particular pages from their results

Creating the robots.txt file is generally more efficient than crafting individual metatatags. Information on how to properly create your robots.txt file can be found here. Remember to create only one file for your website.

You may chose to use the metatags if you do not have the ability to upload files to the root of your webserver (for example pages on a shared site like Yahoo! Geocities). The code you should use is:



This code should be pasted into the content of your HTML.

Featured in the Sun-Times

Sandra Guy wrote a nice feature in the Chicago Sun-Times that covers some of the podcasting and vodcasting work we have been doing to enhance our College of Commerce MBA courses at DePaul University. We still have plenty of work to do but it is gratifying to get exposure like this.

Not mentioned in the article is the IDD (Instructional Design and Development) department here at DePaul. IDD helped us create greenscreen introductions for staff and faculty. They do great work.

I cover some of the podcast/vodcast creation process in the Practical Internet Marketing Certificate Program.

Guests and prospective students can view some of the DePaul vodcasts by going to DePaul’s iTunes U site. Here is a direct link that should get you in to see our videos.

Podcasting…From Music To Marketing Success

A little bit of shameless self-promotion:

I will be presenting a short session on podcasting (Podcasting…From Music To Marketing Success) for the CADM’s 8th Annual Bob Stone Education Day. This will take place on Wednesday, November 7, 2007. I will be presenting from 9:00 a.m. until 10:15 a.m. but the event will be all day.

The presentation should be fun. I am looking forward to participating.

Online registration is available at https://www.cadm.org/EventSignup.cfm

CADM: Social Networking Communities

The CADM (Chicago Association of Direct Marketing) will be presenting a Second Wednesday Event titled "Social Networking Communities: A Market of One, A Market of Millions" on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at Petterinos Restaurant (50 West Randolph Street, Chicago)

More information can be found on the CADM website.

"Social networking is not just for placing banner ads anymore. If used properly and creatively, it has the potential to be one of the most cost-effective, dynamic, and targeted tools for marketers. Not all social networking sites are created equal, though. Learn how to find your target customers and influencers and discover the ways to communicate with them using the many resources social networking communities present."

More People Search Engines...

• Pipl
• Wink
  

Wikipedia Strategies

If you are using the Internet to market your services (or that of your company) you are going to have to come up with a Wikipedia strategy at some point. Google’s search engine results favor Wikipedia quite heavily. You will find that your customers use Wikipedia to form a view of how you operate.

So what do you do when you discover that articles on Wikipedia present you in an unfavorable light, or are factually wrong?

Here are some articles that present suggestions for the appropriate course to follow:

• The Right Way To Fix Inaccurate Wikipedia Articles
  The author is a Wikipedia administrator
• What To Do When Your Company Wikipedia Page Goes Bad
  A slightly Machiavellian take on things. The author suggest ways of circumventing negative PR.
• Wikipedia's Business FAQ
  

Spock: Search engine for people

Spock, a search engine for finding people has launched in beta form today. The site is a little slow – which is a shame (and probably a very bad business decision). Users have a high level of expectation on the Web. If a site is uncomfortably slow then users are unlikely to return unless they really, really need to.

It will be interesting to see how the engine compares with ZoomInfo, ZabaSearch or even LinkedIn.

And why did they decide to use the name Spock?

How to hide your e-mail address from spam bots

If you are sick of spam bots harvesting your e-mail address from your websites and then sending you unsolicited mail (and who isn’t) then this resource that Wired has put together may be of use to you.

The article (and the user comments) present some options for obscuring your e-mail address from spam bots (the automated programs that scrape your e-mail address from the Web). Well worth checking out.

FTC Online Advertising Town Hall

The FTC will host a two-day Town Hall to bring together consumer advocates, industry representatives, technology experts, and academics to address the consumer protection issues raised by the practice of tracking consumers’ activities online to target advertising.

The event will be held November 1-2, 2007 at the FTC Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC. It is free and open to the public.

More information can be found here.

Gina Gershon Viral Marketing

CADM: Traditional Techniques in an Online World

The CADM's Interactive Marketing SIG (Chicago Association of Direct Marketing’ Interactive Marketing Special Interest Group) will be holding an event on the evening of July 26th (this Thursday).

SIG members can still register for $49.

"Traditional Techniques in an Online World", the event (held from 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.) will feature 5 senior-level panelists from both the online and traditional channels. They will lead a lively discussion about the similarities and differences that exist between the Direct & Interactive marketing worlds. More details, including a list of the speakers and some
of the topics they will be focusing on, can be found here.

"Traditional Techniques in an Online World" will take place at Fulton's on the River, located in downtown Chicago.

Sucessful Blogging To Increase Winery Sales

This month’s Baseline Magazine (June 2007, Issue 073) has a fascinating article entitles “Winery Blogs To Turn Browsers Into Buyers.“ The article charts how Stormhoek (a South African Winery) used blogs to promote their wares as they entered the U.S. market.

In typical Baseline fashion there are hard facts and graphs amongst the insight and quotes.

The technologies that Stormhoek used are:

• Blog: Movable Type
• Video: YouTube
  
  • You can view some of the videos here
• Wiki: MediaWiki
• Maps: Frappr Maps

The article mentions two downsides to the blogging strategy:

1. Substantial increase in spam to Stormhoek’s website


2. Risk of negative comments from customers

Overall Stormhoek was extremely happy with the end results. An article well worth reading.

Seventeen Best Practices for (ethical) bulk e-mail

There are good (and ethical) reasons for you to send bulk mail. You might have a newsletter that your subscribers actually want to receive and read each month. However, there are people who send bulk e-mail for unethical reasons. You want to ensure that you follow best practices to avoid antagonizing your customers or being incorrectly identified as spam.
Here are some general guidelines that you may wish to follow:

1. Only send e-mail to someone who has provided you with an e-mail address. Never buy e-mail addresses. (who knows how these e-mail addresses were obtained). If you need to build up a distribution lists you can get third parties to send on your behalf (the recipients of these e-mails have either signed up for this service or are content to see appropriate adverts within their mail).

 Ensure you validate an e-mail address (confirmed opt-in) before sending out e-mails. As part of this process you should let your subscribers see examples of the type of mail they will be receiving.
   
   
   
   Let your subscribers understand:
   
   
   
   • The volume of mail they will receive.
   
   
   • The schedule. When you will send e-mail. How often you will send e-mail.
   
   
   • Where archived mail is kept. Ideally your website will have an archive of older newsletters. You can always password protect this resource if you need to.
   
   
   
   


2. Test your e-mails against a spam filter before you send them. One options is:
   
   
   
   • http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/AvoidingFpsForSenders 

   
   
   • Alternatively the software you use to send e-mail may have this functionality built in. MaxBulk Mailer is a great example of this.
   
   
   
   


3. Always provide an easy way to unsubscribe. Record unsubscription requests (a good practice is to note the time and day the request came through). Process unsubscribe requests immediately.


4. Always provide your physical address (and perhaps an e-mail address and telephone number) in all mail that you send. This information has to be on your website as well..


5. Always send your e-mail from the same e-mail account. Ask your subscribers to add this e-mail address to their address book or whitelist.You are aiming to be trustworthy and reliable. Never use this e-mail account for anything other than the subscription service.


6. Use a generic e-mail account rather than a personal account (“news” rather than jmoore”). Your employees will change, “news” does not...
   
   
   
   • Segment your accounts if you can (and give your audience to sign up for the particular e-mails they want to receive):
     
     
     
     • News
     
     
     • Special offers
     
     
     • New products
     
     
     • Support
     
     
     
     
   
   
   
   


7. Spell check everything you send. Look through your message for grammatical errors.
   
   
   
   • The person who checks your e-mail is not the person who writes your e-mail. Try reading aloud to make sure everything makes sense and sounds good.
   
   
   • Allocate plenty of time for revisions. Your audience will appreciate a well-crafted message.
   
   
   • Stress does not focus the mind. Make sure you have a peaceful environment to work on this.
   
   
   
   


8. Validate any HTML in your message. Simple code is best. Remember some of your audience will be reading mail on mobile devices.


9. If you send an HTML message make sure to provide a text-only version. Modern e-mail readers will distinguish between the formats
   
   
   
   • Use HTML to track message delivery.
   
   
   • Use HTML to tracks clicks.
   
   
   • Use HTML to provide alternative landing pages.
   
   
   
   


10. Provide a subject line that clearly identifies the content of your message. Examples are
    
    
    
    • “Acme Corp: New products for July”
    
    
    • “Manifold Store: 10% off skin products this month”
    
    
    • “Event Architects: 5 tips for planning your staff retreat”
    
    
    • “Prairie Title: Recent changes to Illinois law”
    
    
    
    


11. Keep your message short and focused.


12. Schedule your messages and keep to the timetable.


13. Ask your audience to add your e-mail address to their whitelist or address book (it is a good idea to ask this twice).


14. Remove bouncebacks immediately from your distribution list. Bouncebacks are e-mails for which the recipient cannot be found. You may want to record bounceback e-mails in a separate database.


15. Provide a simple way users can sign up for e-mail newsletters on your website.
    
    
    
    • Name, e-mail address
    
    
    • Send confirmation e-mail to validate subscription (double opt-in)
    
    
    
    


16. Create a simple and understandable privacy policy. Make sure you promote your privacy policy. Make sure you follow your privacy policy.


17. Check the bulk mail policies and guidelines of ISPs:
    
    
    
    • AOL

    
    
    • Gmail
    
    
    • 
MSN

    
    
    • Yahoo

    
    
    
    

Child-Friendly Search Engines

Many parents (and teachers) typically have difficulty configuring and installing Web filters on computers that are going to be accessed by children. Typically the children have a better handle on how to administer the PC. However, parents are frequently on the look for search engines that are child-friendly. These are search engines that filter out objectionable material and provide a cheerier interface.

I don’t have any recommendations that I think are perfect but here are some options to investigate if you are uncomfortable leaving you child on Google.

• Yahoo Kids
• KidsClick
• Zoo
• AOL Study Budy
• Ask for Kids

Yahoo Pipes

For those of you who are fans of the mash-up and RSS Yahoo presents Yahoo Pipes. This looks to be an interesting (and relatively painless) way of combining data feeds from various websites into something new.

To make life easier Yahoo Pipes provides you with a visual editor.

It is interesting to see Yahoo ahead of Google here.