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Internet Marketing Class Notes

January 2004

1/26/2004	"Stemming" refers to the search engines' practice of searching for multiple words that are based on the same "stem" or "root", for example, plurals such as "vitamin" and "vitamins" will be located without the searcher having to specify. Google now follow this practice, relieving the designer of the need to provide both forms of the word in the text. The optimal number of words for a page is somewhere between 450-750. This allows enough room to cover a single topic focused on 2-3 key phrases. It appears that Google is filtering out phrases that show up with more than 2,000 searches in Good Key Words (keyword evaluation software that we refer to often in the classes). A good rule of thumb to follow in linking is to be sure that you have more inbound links than outbound links. Don't be afraid to link to competitors. You don't necessarily want anyone coming to your Home page. Following the principle of specific targeting, you would prefer that searchers arrive on interior pages on your site that pertain directly to what they are searching for. In creating your page content, always "write for the reader, not for the search engine". Use optimization principles to make adjustments to your content after it meets the needs of the individual searching for the information. Remember the slogan for success, "Content, content, content!" A truly successful web site is built on relevant content, not on tricks of the trade!
1/12/2004	Last week, the top site out of about 8,000,000 found in Google reflected a key word density of 0.87%. This figure represents a new "target" for optimization for highly commercialized phrases in response to the recent "Florida" update. There is no easy way, at the moment, to identify phrases that might be considered "commercialized". A viable business web site can be built based on around 10,000 searches per month for relevant key phrases. The remainder of the class was a review of the principles involved in building an effective marketing web site, including search engine friendly design, search term research, writing for search engines, the importance of link structure, submitting sites to search engines, community building, and site maintenance. A PowerPoint presentation of the material is available on the class schedule.
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