Overture - Overture changed the name of their Pay-for-Performance Search to Precision Match referring to their standard pay-per-click service that allows you to bid for top positioning. These results are displayed on various partner sites throughout the web with the (usually) three top spots being listed as Sponsored Sites and normally grabbing top placement above the so-called Web Results. Be wary of enabling Content Match within your Overture Account.

Ask Jeeves / Teoma - On June 21st Ask Jeeves announced the addition of a host of new features such as Movie Search, White Pages Search, Binoculars Site Preview, Dictionary Search and Famous People Search to their search results.

MSN - MSN recently published a Guidelines for Webmasters that, among other things, recommends... 1. URLs that are simple and easy to read. 2. Discussing one topic per page and using links to take users to related topics. 3. keeping your URLs simple and static.
They discourage and identify as spam... 1. Pages with irrelevant words in an attempt to increase a page's keyword density. 2. Hidden text or links. 3. Artificially increasing the number of links to a page through tactics such as link farms.

ODP / DMOZ - No changes to report for the past 30 days at ODP.

Yahoo - No changes to report this month with the important exception of the keyword in the URL study we explain in detail in this month's issue.

1) What is the overall motivation for optimizing this site? What do we hope to achieve (e.g., more sales, more subscribers, more traffic, more publicity etc.)?

2) What is the timeframe for this project?

3) What is the budget for this project?

4) Who will be responsible for this project? Will it be a joint or solo effort? Will it be run entirely in-house or outsourced?

Answering these questions will help you to build a framework, as well as establish limitations for the size and scope of the campaign.

Gather Requirements - Next, you need to establish the project requirements so you can tailor the SEO campaign to your or your client's exact needs.

You need to know things like:

1) What technology was used to build the site (e.g., Flash, PHP, frames, Cold Fusion, JavaScript, Flat HTML etc.)?

2) What are the file extensions of the pages (e.g.,.htm, .php, .cfm etc.)?

3) Does the site contain database-driven content? If so, will the URLs contain query strings (e.g., www.site.com/longpagename?source=123444fgge3212, containing "?" symbols), or does the site use parameter workarounds to remove the query strings?

4) Are there at least 250 words of text on the home page and other pages to be optimized?

5) How does the navigation work? Does it use text links or graphical links or JavaScript drop-down menus?

6) Approximately how many pages does the site contain? How many of these will be optimized?

7) What is the current link popularity of the site?

8) What is the approximate Google PageRank of the site? Would it benefit from link-building?

9) Do I have the ability to edit the source code directly? Or will I need to hand over the optimized code to a site admin for integration?

10) Do I have permission to alter the visible content of the site?

11) What are the products/services that the site promotes (e.g., widgets, mobile phones, hire cars etc.)?

12) What are the site's geographical target markets? Are they global? Country-specific? State-specific? Town-specific?

13) What are the site's demographic target markets (e.g., young urban females, working mothers, single parents etc.)?

14) What are 20 search keywords or phrases that the target markets will use to find the site in the search engines?

15) Who are the major competitors online? What are their URLs? What keywords are they targeting?

16) Who are the stakeholders of this site? How will I report to them?

17) Do I have access to site traffic logs or statistics to enable me to track visitor activity during the campaign? Specifically, what visitor activity will I be tracking?

18) How do I plan to track the rankings in the search engines?

19) Do we have the abilities and resources in place to respond to increased traffic/business as a result of the campaign?

20) What are the expectations for the optimization campaign? Are they realistic?

Answers to the first 10 questions will determine how search engine-compatible the site currently is and the complexity of optimization required. This initial analysis will help you to scope the time and costs involved in advance. For those of you optimizing client sites, obtaining accurate answers to these questions BEFORE quoting is absolutely crucial. Otherwise you can find yourself in the middle of a project that you have severely under-quoted, and that's very frustrating.

The remainder of questions are to establish in advance the "who, what, where, when, why and how" of the optimization campaign. This will help you determine the most logical keywords and phrases to target, as well as which search engines and directories to submit the site to and which sites to pursue reciprocal links with.

You're Now Prepared!

So now you are clear about your motivations for optimizing the site, you know more about the target markets, you know how compatible the existing site is with search engines and how much work is involved in the search engine optimization process. You're ready to tackle the job!

Kalena Jordan - Search Engine College http://www.searchenginecollege.com

When it comes to search engine marketing and SEO, an effective strategy requires a balance between three major factors: the cost of the campaign, the quality of the resulting traffic, and the total amount of traffic generated. To illustrate this better, we present the "SEO Triangle."

Better Traffic = Precise Targeting - To improve the quality of your search engine traffic, simply focus on the very specific search terms that represent the type of visitor you want. If you sell "toy wooden boats," then target that search precisely, instead of the more generic "toys." The more specific the search term, the more precisely you can target the desired visitor...

Strategy #1: Low Cost, Better Traffic - A strategy of precisely targeting search engine users can usually be accomplished at a very low cost. For many site owners, it's as simple as reformatting your web pages to optimize for the keywords that you're already using. The web abounds with free advice on how to optimize a web page - stick to the basics, no fancy tricks, and that's all it takes...

Strategy #2: Better Traffic, More Traffic - There are several ways to increase the amount of targeted search engine traffic your site attracts. The main methods are: keyword research to improve focus and uncover more search terms; content development to target more search terms; strategic link development to improve rankings; and pay-per-click advertising to increase your overall presence...

Strategy #3: More Traffic, Lower Cost - The idea here is to find the most popular search terms that you can compete for. "KEI" (Keyword Effectiveness Index) is largely based on this approach. Not only is this a difficult path to follow, it's just not very effective any more. As competition moves into the available niches, this approach will slowly degrade into a poor version of Strategy #1...

Strategy #4: More Traffic, Higher Cost - We have already covered all 3 sides of the triangle. However, this article won't be complete unless we examine one more strategy, which many readers are probably pursuing today: throwing big money at very competitive, very popular, very generic search terms...

To Decrease Cost Sensitivity, Focus On Your Website - Every algorithm change at Google brings people out of the woodwork to complain that their free traffic has dried up, and they "can't afford" to use pay-per-click. When Overture increased their minimum bid to 10 cents a while back, website owners flooded the online forums to complain that they simply couldn't afford the higher rates...

For the complete article, go HERE

So why don't people play by the rules? A few reasons:

Better Search Engine Disclosure? Want a real solution to spam? The search engines should agree to publish lists of companies they've banned. That would help consumers seeking SEM firms to understand which to avoid. If they do use a banned firm, at least they were warned of the consequences of going with a rule breaker....

They Do Enforce! Of course, search engines do police for spam. If they catch it, a page may be penalized or banned entirely. It's not the same, nor as effective, as an offenders list for a variety of reasons...

Protect Yourself. Better disclosure would help for so many reasons. It would help confused site owners. It would help guide those seeking the many good SEM firms that diligently try to avoid trouble and play by the rules. I'd love to see it happen.

For the full article, go here.