Update on Google Speed Analysis

You know, I'm pretty good when it comes to following advice (Google tells me to improve my page load time). I take advice from just about anyone I consider an authority. (Okay, there are some times that I don't follow advice and that's when I am in a little rebellious mood.) For the most part, though, it just serves me well to listen and take advice from someone I consider an authority. (Big G.)

Yes, we're supposed to all help in speeding up the web. I mean, it just makes for a better user experience. I'm like the next guy in that I hate to wait for anything and the web is just one thing that none of us have enough time for. So any increase in web speed is GOOD. You know, I love going to the Apple stores to see the latest and greatest Macs that seemingly blaze through web pages - and a lot of it is due to to the fact that they are fine tuned machines; but much of it is left to the pages and the speed of the server that is serving those pages.

These are two things we can do something about. One - the page itself is something you have great control over and two, the server, well, we can shop around until we find a place that servers up what we have and does it at the fastest speed.

So given that, I wrote on June 25, 2012, about page speed and how it might help me improve my page rank. I mean, Google has one of my sites at the bottom of the rankings after spending years at the very top _ (maybe they're just rotating stuff) - but in any event I was consistently getting bad scores for page speed and thought that was the culprit . How else did it end up at the bottom? I had made no changes to the site and the basic construction of the site had only improved over the years.

Still, I want to report today that even though I've gone from 10+ seconds in loading down two a very nice 3 seconds and less - it has had NO affect on my page rank . And it's been what?? about three weeks, right?

So there you have it in my case anyway - no gain at all. I truly believe that they are simply wanting others to get more exposure and then let the dust settle. My site offers great material and is all original. So we'll see.

What do you think?

Google Webmaster Crawl Errors - A Solution

Google may be known for being secretive about many things, but they have blessed us with a glimpse of what they see under the hood of our precious websites. It behooves every webmaster on the planet to make use of Google's free Webmaster Tools, a collection of data and actually testing tools you can use to improve the way Google sees your site which in the end will help your ranking in their search engine.

One of the biggest issues webmasters face are crawl errors. This is any error Google's "bot" or "spider" may find on your website - generally resulting in a "page not found" error - called a 404 error.

If you design using Wordpress, one of the most useful tools to get your Google Webmaster crawl errors clear or not found is a plugin called Permalink Finder. What Permalink Finder does is accepts the URL the bot says it is searching for and if it is not found on your website it provides the closest match based on the words in the URL.

Did I lose you?

In the image above, note how the bot wanted to crawl:

http://www.threebestbeaches.com/northamerica/mexico/cancun/2009/01/playa-tortugas-beach-cancun.html

BUT, that page no longer exists because I removed the date in the URL's about a year ago. Yet, the bot is still looking for it. This is because somewhere somebody has a link to that old URL, and the bot crawls it.

The Permalink Finder handles this nicely by using the words in the URL, "playa tortugas beach cancun" and finds the current match. Look at the image below. You can click on the image to get the original size:

Above we see the correct URL and the bot goes along its merry way - no errors!

I was working on page speed recently and disabled this plugin on www.ThreeBestBeaches.com and you can see the results!

As you can see, the errors spiked until I turned the plugin back on. This will dramatically help you with crawl errors in Google Webmaster Tools.

My suggestion is to set the plugin to recognize and work with at least two words in the URL. Anything less will produce errors.

Let me know if you have questions about how this can help you.

Does Speeding Up Your Website Help in Google Search Rankings?

Where shall we start?

You're here because you're not ranking well in Google search. Maybe you think Panda or Penguin was unfair and you got penalized for something that wasn't even your own doing. Actually, you don't know. I, too, was perplexed, but the problem for one of my main sites, Three Best Beaches.com which is a travel sorta site about the beaches of the world, has been sinking since 2010.

Admittedly, I let the site go for such a long time because I was concentrating on other projects. But it's a cool site and deserves attention. So recently I have been working on it and I want you to see my findings which will possibly help you.

This post is all about figuring out if page speed actually does help you rank higher in Google search. So, let's start with that and we'll tackle the other findings in other posts.

Use this site to see how fast your page loads: http://www.webpagetest.org/ 

Critical stuff: Well, it's all critical, but your Time to First Byte should be quick. This is the time that a browser makes a request to the server and actually gets a byte of data back. Round-trip sorta thing. And then everything after that should be quick as well.

As you can see, I've worked on getting this down to a 3.3 second page load. For a site with as many pictures and dynamic loads as this, using Wordpress, the load time is pretty good. And yes, I use a CDN (content delivery network - which means placing your files in the "cloud" and having them served efficiently to the closest datacenter to the "cloud" servers.

But it hasn't always been this fast.

Look at this graph from my Google Webmaster Tools for www.threebestbeaches.com:

There were many times that pages on my site took 14 seconds to load!!

Still, I don't believe this is what pulled my site down into oblivion. For now, I'm kinda thinking the competition, sites like TripAdvisor.com and other sites that actually show a resort or hotel have taken a lot of my positions in Google search.

I really don't know. I'm guessing. Some pages are filled with assorted nonsense for key phrases that I used to rank number one for. But others are saying this, too. You have to provide what Google feels is a good experience for the end user.

So far I have noticed a very small increase in the SERPs for my site, and I'll keep monitoring, but I really believe that there are two other things: some bad backlinking and maybe Google doesn't think the site does a good job of responding to what people really are looking for. There are ways to improve that, and I'll cover them in a future post. Thanks for reading. 


UPDATE: So far, after three weeks of Super Fast Pages... ZERO improvement in ranking. See my update here: http://monetizethis.blogspot.com/2012/07/update-on-google-speed-analysis.html

Interest-based Ads Preference

If you've done any work with AdSense then you'll know that there are so many parameters that you can adjust if you're not tracking what you're doing you're shooting in the dark and IF you do hit a target, you'll not know how you got there. Make sense?


Still, there's not much help out there and a lot of hit or miss. And remember, what works for someone with a website on home schooling, might not work for your fancy website about world travel. You MUST experiment and track.
So let's move over to AdSense now and go to the Interest-based Ads Preference page. Here's the URL: https://www.google.com/adsense/v3/app#allowAndBlockAdsAdvancedSettings



Google explains their algorithm in basic terms by saying that the user will bring with them certain predetermined parameters and this will change what AdSense ads display on your website.


Google actually claims that this can be a benefit to you because the user will have ads they like and you will most likely have an increase in your AdSense revenue.


This is exactly why when you have visited a site about sports cars and then go to a site about cats, you can still see sports car ads displaying on the cats site.


Yes, it may be something the user is interested in, but how can we really know if they want to see a sports car ad on the cat site?



I am running an experiment with my site Three Best Beaches and I'll be posting the results right here. Today, I've changed the settings to blocked. I'm not sure how long it takes to change. Most changes I've seen in AdSense happen in 30 minutes or less.



OK, other changes today on TBB include changing my main ad block from the medium rectangle 300 x 250 (as requested by the Google AdSense team when I attended the AdSense in Your City event last month in Orlando) to the large rectangle 336 x 280.


Immediately I noticed on my website that the inventory for image based ads is much lower (at least in my category = travel) than in the 300 x 250 format - seemed to be serving up almost 1/2 image based and sometimes totally image based (like a resort running a hot special or something.) For me - I dunno - I have just had more success with text only ads. More for the user to choose from (because image ads take up the whole ad while text based are three or four ads to the block - see example.)


And the colors were changed, too. I had a hit a few days ago, but crazy me, it was late night when I changed it and I didn't log it. I am thinking that the colors were more in line with my Thesis website links on Three Best Beaches, but you know, sometimes you need a little contrast to stand out.


I don't know about you, but my CTR has fallen dramatically in the last year. I really think this is from this website getting dumped from the high position it held in the SERPs since 2005 and I am working really hard on getting it back up there.


OK, so we've changed the Interest based option (and already I see that it is working - try it yourself) and the block change. Oh, and let me say that I was running the recommended (by Google) three ad blocks on each page using Whydowork AdSense (Google this Wordpress plugin for AdSense placement) to ONE. From my experience AND from talking with the AdSense team, the fewer ads blocks means the ONE block you run with have the most expensive and highest competing ads. Experiment on your own. You will see this is true. The challenge is getting the right block/colors/size/etc. And...depending on your layout, you can get more money from the ads running more blocks. It's not for everyone.


One more change I want to make and am debating this one - is to move the link block (200 x 90) running in the left hand column to within the content at the top right.


Take a look. Here we have the link block running in the left hand column. It's right below a search box - also monetized with Google AdSense - and above the main navigation for the site. 


Using free website software (crazyegg.com), I can track where people are clicking over a given time period...in my case, 2 and a half days. This isn't really a lot (5000 visits), but enough to give me a good idea where people are navigating the site.


I can see that through 5000 visits, not that many are clicking the left hand link block. I don't know about the right hand one - because I haven't set it up on a page that I am tracking. But I am going to implement it and will also share the result.

One thing that was interesting to me was that people were clicking a lot - I suppose they like it - on the Most Popular Beach links in the left hand column. This is done by using a plug in for Wordpress called Top 10.


And lastly, regarding clicks - I see that people are clicking more on pictures of people with bathing suits on, especially women. Sex sells, I suppose. Guys are looking for more pictures. Curiosity.


I'll update as soon as I have more info and will update this post so you can go from here to the new page - if you've landed here from another site or the search engines. Thanks a bunch!

The New Rush to Local Search Help

Have you noticed? Have you received the tell-tale email that says "we can get you to the top of Google!"? It's the latest rush and if you're not a part, then you need to be. And it's not hard to get involved. In fact, you probably already know tons more than your local dentist about getting pages indexed in Google, and then working on getting them ranked higher in search.

Why this is rubbish to local businesses

When we approach businesses we don't tell them we'll get them to the first page of Google for their search term. That is like speaking in a foreign language they don't understand. It doesn't make sense and seems like a waste of time to them. What do you suppose they are really searching for from the Internet?

Customers are the Bottom Line

Yes, new customers - those who come in simply because of what you've done helping the local business get their pages and site ranking higher in Google. They don't give a flip about first page, number 10, whatever - what they want to hear from your lips is that you're concerned about making them more money.

How can the search engines make me more money

It's a fact that the lion share of the clicks go to the company in the top positions in Google. You never go searching deeper than page three - probably never more than the top 5 results. So this is what everyone else thinks as well. But what the merchant wants to hear is that these will convert into sales - not that you can get him or her to some magical position on this website. They really could care less. Money is where it's at.

Speak their language

So when presenting this whole local search optimization to them, it's important to speak their language. Don't sound like you are a lawyer. I remember when asking a friend (Brazilian) who dabbled in Japanese art work as a side hobby, some advice about getting a divorce in Brazil, they turned into a totally different person and started speaking this lawyerese that was simply a put-off. I never did do any business with them because I couldn't understand a word they were saying, even though I understand Portuguese. It was because they were using terms I didn't use nor could relate to in my day to day work. What a disappointment.

Provide value

Finally, provide extreme value. Give way more than expected and blow them away with what you can do for them online. This will make them a lifetime customer of yours and one that will sing your graces to their friends forever. It just makes sense to give.

This helps - work your plan and you'll be rewarded greatly. Ask me for advice in this.

Follow Through

Hi All... I want to know your best follow-through methods you have so I can compile a list and make something of value for you. How do you keep going on a project that might be weeks away from a profit?

Tell me in 100 words or less and I'll share the ideas in a report which you can have for free.

Talk soon,
Dave

Christmas Money

It's been eons since I've written so with no excuse I trust I can keep posting ideas and views right here.  I'm pretty sure you haven't been wondering what happened to me, well, maybe after the first few months of not writing.  There has been a lot happening in my life and I bet, yours as well.

I left off here with the 90 day plan to making a great income with AdSense.  And a lot of you have written to me telling me that the strategy is working well.  One of my last posts on the subject was that I was going to put all the posts in a document and market it.  Would you buy it?

What is it?  Making money with AdSense and blogs has probably been one of the less expensive ways to make money online that I know of.  There is PPC, pay-per-click...but the cost of getting into that is not cheap.  And the learning curve is high.  Even with the many pay-per-click course out there, it is just baffling to most.  The money is needed elsewhere and if you're like most, you'll admit right now you're doing your best to keep your head above water.  So PPC isn't an option.

The sweet thing about blogging and putting up a few ads is that it is practically free.  Find a place to host your site and you're in business.  The important points are all covered in this blog.

So what have I been doing and where have I been the past few months?  I've been developing some courses with other people and coming up with new ideas all the time.  One of my latest projects is to map out how easy it is to get started in web hosting.  I know, that sounds crazy, but I have a great deal of experience in that arena.  And I know it something you could do, it all boils down to marketing.  Just like anything else.

OK, about Christmas money.  With AdSense, it's too late for that because you get paid a month after you start.  But you can still get started with a site.  It is easy and the only commodity is time.  Combined with a little knowledge and elbow grease you'll have a perfect game plan for the new year.  I know you don't have the study guide, but enough is in the blog here to get you started.

Hope you have a wonderful day and may God bless!
Dave

Why Tivo Works Well

I get a certain question probably a lot more than others and that is, why do some things just take off and others that you would think be a great idea ..never get off the ground.

And the answer is real easy.

It's whatever people can relate to. Write that down.

It's the reason shows like Dancing With the Stars and Extreme Makeover are SO popular! We see us up there on the screen. We can relate.

And think of something in life you loved but didn't last and the answer you'll find is that somehow it was unrelateable.

We have an innate need to connect with stuff on "some" level. It just makes sense, no? You always associate with that which makes you comfortable.

So take this lesson and apply it to your niches. Why people think Tivo is such a great product? It allows them to playback things they can relate to at any time. Sometimes that's as good as mama's chicken soup.

Love to hear your comments.

Dave
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Updating Via Email

Unless you were looking for it, you wouldn't know I updated my blog here by emailing this post to a control address at Blogger. Most blogging platforms will allow you to do this, so it's a good idea to stay active simply by writing to your blog.

Do you have other ideas about keeping you blog content current? Share them with me and I'll post them here.

Talk soon,
Dave Jackson

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Update Your Blog Via SMS
Keep your blog up to date by posting directly from your phone. This will keep anything that monitors your blog aware you are working.

Update Your Blog Via SMS
Keep your blog up to date by posting directly from your phone. This will keep anything that monitors your blog aware you are working.

Blue Skies

One of my favorite things is jogging about an hour after sunrise.  It doesn't always work out that way, like so many things, but often it does and I get the opportunity to enjoy something that is visually satisfying and just great for my body as well.

This morning the skies were simply blue.  No clouds.  And I thought as I trotted off toward the beach that times are changing and that the day is going to be awesome.  The run was wonderful and I even split up my running in the morning with an afternoon upper body workout.

Once home, some phone calls started coming in.  These were the energy zapper types that seem to take the wind out of you.  When I got done listening to the messages, I just wanted to stare out the window and contemplate what I am really doing here.  Some people don't get it, and yet, others want you to be all things.

I came to this blog because I really haven't given you an update in a while.  A couple of seasons have seemed to go by and even though the web address is still here, I haven't added anything.

Today I found by poking around the backend of Blogger, that you can actually update the blog by SMS Text.  And many of you have asked me when your list of websites you publish to gets sizeable, how do you keep up without some sort of automation.

Well, you know I hate automation on websites.  I can tell when it is used and it just feels so cold.  I've been down that road and tried it, and the results are like a flash of kindling.  Yes, you can realize some quick profit from it, but the long-term damage that it does to your blog or website reputation isn't worth it.

So I'll try a few quickie updates using SMS.  I don't see how this is anything different than Twitter since you can only write a couple of lines.  Still, it should keep the Googlebot gods happy, whereas Twitter can't do that for you.

Keep me bookmarked.  I have some cool stuff I want to share with you that has been going on this past summer.  And you are my friends, no?

Ed Dale is Fun

One of the great things about running an operation from your home is that you are afforded more choices. What I mean is that you can make time for things that you couldn't do at work. And yes, there's a lot of garbage out there, but there's one chap I always gain a lot of information from. Ed Dale.

His Thirty Day Challenge is always refreshing and comes around each August. If you are into technology and how it can get your web business ahead, check him out here http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/

Let me know what you think about it and if you've followed him before.

Talk soon,
Dave

Google AdSense Now So Easy

One of the most rewarding things about technology is that it keeps improving.  Whether or not you're on board, is something you have to wrestle with.  It's not going to slow down, and you must get your stuff in gear unless you want to remain in the caboose forever.

I've been spending more time tweaking a system I use to put up small blogs and getting them to make money in a few weeks.  It is very rewarding and something that doesn't take much time.

Google has been great at keeping current with trends and with what works.  I was actually happy to see them drop video ads, i.e. ads that are displayed across YouTube videos when placed as an AdSense block on your page.  These never worked and the videos did not follow the context of the site most of the time.

Soon I'm going to be releasing a video series on how to create the blogs and make money from them with contextual advertising.  This will be similar to my famous 90 day challenge, but now all on video.

Talk soon!

Dave

Taking the Ecology Seriously

It's amazing to me it means this much to them, even as good stewards, or maybe pressure to act wisely, but whatever the case, Google has done some great strides.  Over the weekend, they posted a story in the Official Google Blog, about Powering a Google search.  And don't just skim through the numbers.  Read each paragraph so you get a good understanding of what they're trying to say.

Google has become more responsible than most data centers, and they are showing facts to tell you they're working toward keeping their carbon footprint down.

I thought about what my day is like and what I personally do to cut down on emissions that hurt the enviroment.  I don't print as much as I used to, and even print on the other side of paper when I goof up the first time.

Are you turning your PC off at night?  How about the little light in your office?  Are you keeping it on for some reason?

And what is your thermostat set to?

Make a difference - peace of mind.

Dave

Above the Fold

For almost a decade we've been hearing the words - above the fold - and yet I get the question at almost every event - where above the fold should we be putting our ads, Dave?   And the answer is that there are SO many variables that you must test.

One of the reasons I keep a journal is so I can look back over the pages and see what worked and what business I didn't finish, maybe a few things that I wish I never did... those kinds of things.  And that's what I'm talking about here - it's sort of like - well, as complicated as life can be.  What you need to do is:

1. Find a nice website or blog you like.

2. Copy it.

3. Test ad placement.

Once I was under the impression that a great layout from a high trafficed site would bring me tons of AdSense revenue.  But what I forgot was that I could not replicate that traffic exactly.  Their traffic might be from any number of places with people set on buying.  My traffic to the same style site might be from tire kickers.

So just because CNN is running a 150 x 150 ad in the top left corner and making $3000 a day doing so doesn't mean anything other than a starting point.  The bottom line is that you must test and test at least through 1000 visits.

Even then, I advise using Google Analytics to see who is coming to your site.  Another great tool I use is called Hittail.  This is a tracking service that will show you search terms that may generate even more traffic.  When I review my analytics, I can see what type of Internet user is coming to my site.  With that info - and where, what time of day they are coming - I can pretty well tailor my site to them.

But you'll get none of this if you don't try stuff out.  Don't say it doesn't work - it takes a ton of work to find the sweet spot.  And remember, your sweet spot might be someone else's rotton spot simply because of demographics.

Go ye therefore and track!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi folks!

Happy Thanksgiving from me. Hope you are fairing well and what you are doing is working to your expectations.

Take a day off and be thankful for all you have.

Kind regards,
Dave

Using EzineArticles in Your Content Network

My wife and I just got back from the curriculum meeting with our third grader's teacher. Along with twenty-some other parents, we sat in tiny blue chairs while listening to what promises to be a fun and exciting year. And as soon as I got back, I wanted to check on a test I've been doing using Ezinearticles.com articles in my content network.

I've never used these articles before, but rather, had either someone write the articles for me, or I wrote them myself or I painstakingly used some article re-writer.

But on one of my sites that I write about Internet marketing, a fellow commented that he had the best "re-writer" in the world and that I had to check it out. So I contacted him, because I like to check out almost anything that I feel will give me an edge. And he wrote me back and provided me with the software which works with all the blogs I have.

You'd be a big dummy to convert all of your work to the latest whim. With something as crazy as a re-writer, it just makes sense to test it out on one or two sites. And that's what I did. The site is about wedding speeches. I know - you're going to email me and tell me how lame that is because everyone else is doing it.

It is a tough market because everybody and his brother has used that market as an example for Internet marketing. Wedding favors, speeches, wedding anything - there you go. But I used the re-writer on this site and simply cut and pasted the articles from Ezinearticles. Normally for this cardinal sin you would get lost on page 200 of the SERPs.

But I leave you with this screen capture of the last few days of stats that I've been tracking. I also did a lot of checking for identical content and only my page and the original article rank at the top - pretty cool! And I look to do this with a few other sites. Why not?

Language Translation Plugin Based on Geo IP Tracking

It's time someone created a WordPress Language Translation plugin based on the visitor's IP geo-location. This way, when a visitor stopped by your site, it would be automatically translated for you without them having to search and then click on some "flag" in your header or sidebar.

You know what I mean - this would happen on the fly and once installed, you would have a hands-free operation. You keep posting in English, or your language, set in the plugin setup page, and forget it. Visitors would stop by and possibly not even know the blog was originally in English.

Google already does this with AdSense. When I travel abroad and check my pages, the ads are in Italian, or Spanish, or Russian. So the technology is there. We just need someone who knows how to make this happen.

GeoBytes.com has a lot of stuff like this on their website. For instance, check this out:



Crazy, right? So how hard can translating a page on the fly be?

Hey, I said I was going to shoot some video on the beach this morning (well, past midnight now) and I did. Hope you enjoy it and remember to drop me an email on how you're doing with your online business.

AdSense Plugin for Blogs

Two days ago I received an email asking about how to insert AdSense blocks into blogging templates. And there are probably ten different templates and plugins that work pretty well with AdSense. In fact, there is one template I was sent today that was free and claims to get double-digit click through rates.

I remember when I started with contextual advertising in earnest, back in late 2005, my template was so bad that I was getting clicks from visitors because they were hoping for something better. I mean the site was decent, but the navigation really sucked, as it does with some blogging templates.

So people simply clicked away on the ads and I became rich and famous.

Later AdSense did some slaps which, even though they were making more money (adjusted for the economy) than they are now, caused many advertisers to quit. I don't advertise near as much as I once did. I was spending over $5 grand at my peak and I haven't done that since. Google simply expanded instead of creating better relationships with those spending lots of money.

But that's OK; I retooled and switched to running AdSense instead of Yahoo Publisher Network ads. The only way I think it would work to run Yahoo is to get something incredible low cost with Google AdWords, and send them to a page without ads - then have them click through to a page set up with Yahoo ads. I haven't tried that, but it would probably work.

The 90 day challenge I published last year was a total success and many continue to make small fortunes with the system. At the end of the 90 days, I took the pages off the blog here and claimed I was going to create a program for users. If you want to know more about that, feel free to drop me an email.

Out of the 90 day challenge blossomed a few templates that absolutely rock. They convert incredible well, and better yet, are designed to ping the best blog indexes. One site was so impressive (the niche had to do with wrestling) that I posted at 8 AM and the pages were indexed in Google at 2 PM. That is the fastest I've ever seen and what's more, the system can be pre-loaded with articles.

In fact, a few days ago on a site I have about making money online, I wrote about rewriting articles. The next day a fellow left a comment on the blog about his new tool that totally rearranges the text without changing it. Sounds incredible, but I checked it out and what this thing does is puts tons of &120 and such in the HTML so to copy comparing software - it appears as a new article. Blackhat? Yeah... it is.

On another blog, I was publishing about online television program viewing, and how some website allowed you view full programs. One such site is called www.fancast.com. The day after reviewing the site, one of the co-founders of FanCast commented and thanked me for the great review. Pretty sweet - this new system rocks.

So, I'm excited with how things are going and the only reason I don't totally spill the beans here is because right now it is working SO well that I will shortly be at the pre Google slap level.

It's getting late and tomorrow I promised myself a good beachwalk - hmmm - maybe I'll record a video on the way. I am in the midst of losing weight I've gained while sitting at the PC for hours on end. Trying to get back in balance.

Take care and we'll talk soon.