When we build out your blog we use content from a database of over a quarter of a million articles and we always search based upon the keywords that you provide. Sometimes though we can only retrieve content based upon the higher level keywords, or the keyword density is not very high.
As the articles are syndicated it is not possible to edit them. There are two relatively easy ways to increase the relevancy of your syndicated content posts and today I am going to run through them.
The first really only applies to automated blogs or sites that use content from ArticleBuilder.net; the other is relevant to any site where syndicated content from article directories is used.
Rewrite Article 'Tips'.
The content that we use from Articlebuilder incorporates small boxes with keyword relevant text called 'Tips', this content is pulled from the same article database as the full articles and is designed to produce content on the page that is unique, as far as the search engines go.
Problem is that sometimes it is not as relevant as we might like.
The solution is simple.
Go to the article post and edit it. In the edit page you will see the text of the article. As you scroll down you will see the tips in the page. All you need to do is to rewrite the tips with keywords that are appropriate to your chosen niche. Of course, if the tip already has relevant content then there is no need to change anything and you simply scroll down and check the next one.
When you have finished with the tips simply save the article and move onto the next.
One extra thought. Usually when we do the article research we need to keep the articles in a single category in order to avoid duplication. When you are editing your 'Tips' you can also select additional/different categories for your article without worrying about duplicating the article. This will tend to have a slight increase in the relevancy of the theming of the pages.
Adding a Commentary to Posts
Search engines love unique content and they will rapidly reward a well marketed blog or website that provides it. A method recommended by Google is to offer a commentary to existing, syndicated content from article directories. All this means is that you add a paragraph or two to an article that adds your own thoughts and context to an article that has been used elsewhere. This gives you a chance to make the page absolutely unique as it is now about what YOU think about the content provided by somebody else. You can reinforce the theme using appropriate keywords and phrases, you can be critical, or supportive of the piece it does not matter, although readers seem to enjoy a little controversy.
The commentary can go above or below the main article, from an SEO perspective it might be better above the article but if you are seeking additional comments from readers then a postscript under the article may be more productive as readers can then reply to your position.
The process of adding a commentary is the same as above – open the post to be edited, insert the new words and save. As before, it may be worth looking at the categorisation of the post. You may want to add or change categories.
Thanks for reading, I hope this helps.
Andrew Wilson.
Filed under Blog Promotion, Blog Setups, LAMMs Techniques by on Oct 1st, 2007. Comment. 
A while back Jason Katzenback of PortalFeeder pointed me at Google best Practices by Jerry West, he told me to take on board what was in the book because it was as he put it 'the real deal'.
Jerry has been consulting on internet issues since 1996 and the edition of Google Best Practices that I read was the latest edition updated in August 2007. Jerry is a big tester, taking little at face value and in his book what he shares is the result of his testing.
Purpose of the ebook.
Jerry wanted to produce a guide that was based upon building organic traffic to websites using Google. The goal being to produce long term sustainable businesses built upon a base of tested 'best practice'.
His premise is that we should not be too concerned about getting a number one Google ranking, or even traffic. The real story is getting people to the site who take the actions that we want them to do. This is a fundamental insight and one that is usually overlooked by SEO experts and other gurus but is very familiar to businesspeople in the offline and online world!
Topics Covered in Google Best Practices
Among others Jerry covers the following subjects:
1) Is SEO Dead?
2) The Title Tag
3) The Supplemental Index
4) Good Linking Structure
5) Page Rank, its real importance
6) Meeting Google's Criteria in site development
How Well Does Google Best Practices Perform?
Jerry West starts off by discussing domain names and he has some good reasons for choosing brandable domains over keyword domains. He goes on to cover buying domains and points to watch out for,including PageRank fraud. Follow his suggestions and I think you would be unlikely to buy a duff domain and, even if you did, you would know that you had done all you could.
I liked his suggestion for ensuring that domains are 'clean' but especialy that the same technique allows me to check up on what my competitors are up to.
Later he covers issues such as page loading speed and the size of pages. At first glance these may not seem too relevant to SEO, but they are and my eyes were opened when I read the reasons why.
There are some interesting points about niche sites and their management. No surprises here for automated blogs site owners, we already cover that ground in a Google Best Practices manner!
Of course there is a big section on keywords and their use. All the information is recently tested by Jerry. Some of what he writes runs counter to practice as suggested by many armchair gurus.
His linking advice is sound and I appreciated his suggestions in repsect of sharing traffic, both internally and to external sites.
There is detailed advice about redirects including the code needed to ensure that redirects are done properly.
An area that concerns many webmasters is the Supplemental Index and Google Best Practices has a whole section on the topic. He makes the point that a few pages in supplemental is not a bad thing but there are pages that one really does not want there and these should be identified and promoted out, of course Jerry shows us how!
There is a comprehensive section of resources – this is up to date and useful to webmasters and DIY SEOers.
Conclusion.
This ebook costs just $47. It has informational value to justify a much higher price. There is no wasted space and readers will be avoiding a lot of misinformation. Jerry even provides commentary for some of these assertions so that we can understand where some people are going wrong AND see how to do better.
I liked this ebook and printed it out for further reading. This is not one of those that stays on my hard drive waiting for me to find it from my desktop search tool.
By the way, Google Best Practices is available for just one day from Dealdotcom at a special price. Normally $47 from GooglebestPractices.com
Andrew.
Filed under Blog Promotion, Blogging Tools, Internet Marketing, LAMMs Techniques, Reviews by on Oct 4th, 2007. 2 Comments.
I always want to know what my site visitors are here for. Sometimes folks tell me by leaving comments sometimes I have to remove them. 
Sometimes people send an email.
But what is it worth to know what people come to your site for?
Do they come for information?
Do they come to buy stuff?
Basically, for most of us we want to know if they have commercial intent – are their wallets open or not.
Been playing with a new toy, actually a bunch of them, from Microsoft.
So, now I can see the intent of visitors, whether it is to buy stuff or simply seek info. I guess this is based upon the search tems used:
adlab.microsoft.com/OCI/oci.aspx
For now this is a demo tool but can you imagine writing content that provoked people to visit your site with the intent to buy stuff? Yummy!
Then there is another, the demographics prediction tool, also a very useful thing:
adlab.microsoft.com/DPUI/DPUI.aspx
Now you can see the age and gender of your visitors, again a demo not yet a full on tool. But imagine that you want to appeal to men aged 24-35 and the tool says you got girls under 18. Now you just KNOW you gonna rewrite some copy, yes?
And I am very interested in Ads Delivery on Social Network, but that ain't out yet.
There are some nice toys in there.
The interface of the tools is quite neat too.
If you find something interesting or see a neat application for these new tools, please share them through the comments box.
G'nite,
Andrew.
Filed under Blog Promotion, Blogging Tools, Internet Marketing, LAMMs Techniques, Reviews by on Oct 9th, 2007. Comment.
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