Keyword ranking Fluctuations

After we optimize a website, one thing that we quite often face is the fluctuation or drop in keyword rankings. I'm sure many of you would have faced the same. So when we experience such things there is no need to press the panic button, it happens to every site and it’s a process.

When keyword rankings drop, your client will be curious to know why it happened. At this stage do not make any changes in the website, explain it clearly that this is a normal phenomenon. Trying to make immediate changes or improve ranking quickly is not wise SEO strategy.

These fluctuations and drop in keyword rankings happen quite often after the initial optimization process. What you need to do is, try to identify any errors in the site, if there are duplicate content, broken links, page error, download time etc. If the site is free of errors, all you need to continue working on your on page and off page optimization activities.

Google Analytics - storage period

One of the disadvantages of Google analytics over other web analytics tool is that the storage period of your analytics data is just for 25 months. This is very sufficient for most Google analytics users. However, if we wish to retain data for longer period we just need to modify a single line of the Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC). The additional code that you need to add is highlighted in bold below.

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxx-1");
pageTracker._setLocalRemoteServerMode();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>

Importance of Anchor text

Anchor text is the keyword that is been linked to a site or web page. This is one important SEO practice that many people miss out or do not use it in the right way. It is very essential that we link our keywords to the respective landing page.

When we use a proper keyword for the anchor text, it informs or tells search engines what the page is all about. When used wisely, it boosts your rankings in search engines. It is more rewarding as the search engine visibility improves as more users click on your properly done anchor text. For example, if your site is about SEO then link the keyword "SEO", if it is about Jewelry link the text "Jewelry". Instead what many people do is provide anchor-text for text like 'Click here', 'Page2', 'Next', 'Part 2' or the name of the website.

Important notes on Anchor text
- Remember to provide proper anchor text for internal links & external links.
- Do not over optimize the page with the many anchor texts.
- Link it to other pages of the website as well and not just the homepage.

Command: The command to identify websites using anchor text is "allinanchor:yourkeyword".

Video on Anchor text: Check out the SEO tutorial video on anchor text by Gareth Davis.

Google giving small businesses local search data

Google is providing some valuable information for local businesses center users in the US as to how users are searching for services/information related to your business. But it will take a while for users in India to avail this service from Google. For more information Click here.

Google Analytics & Email Marketing - Let the tracking begin

Tracking your email campaigns is such an easy process when intergrated with Google Analytics, making it the most powerful Internet marketing measuring tool. In the process helping many online marketers understand the campaign performance, traffic share, sales conversion and ROI.

Open an account
To begin with sign up for an account by visiting Google Analytics. There are 2 tracking version, preferably select the newer version. Follow the instructions provided and place the tracking code in all the pages of the website.

Generating Email tracking code
Visit Google URL tool builder and put the required variables in the fields provide and generate indivial tracking urls for each link. Add these newly generated URLs to each of the links to track & understand your campaign in detail.

After the e-mail campaign is dispatched, Google Analytics automatically monitors the traffic the email campaign generated to the website, which links were most popular with your recipients, which region the campaign was most seen, how long they stayed and the number of conversion received (i.e. how many purchased or the number of leads received).

Online marketers can measure these metrics and then compare it over other online campaigns during the same period and understand the success/failure of their email marketing campaign.