With a quarter of search traffic coming from Bing and Yahoo!, if your blog isn’t optimized for bing, you’re missing out on lots of commissions!

So, what can you do to improve your Bing viewership?

1. Make sure the Bing spider is allowed to see your site in your robots.txt file
2. Check to see how many of your pages are indexed in Bing, by searching site:yourwebsite.com
3. Compare those returns against the numbers shown by Google.
4. Use Bing’s webmaster tools, to increase your visibility.
5. Use Microsoft AdCenter in addition to Google Adwords to generate traffic.

Yes, Google is great, but Bing will bring your extra traffic, so start paying attention to what they’re telling you!

I speak at multiple Internet marketing conferences each year like SMX and Affiliate Summit on the topic of SEO (I’ll be doing a full day SEO Training in New York this August). As a result, I’ve heard a lot of questions and seen a lot of “situations” involving search engine optimization. And while many of them I’ll gladly agree are open to debate and theory, there are a few SEO questions that come up regularly that make me want to beat my head into a wall.

Below are five common SEO myths that I wish would finally die:

#5: Meta keywords matter

The use of the meta keywords tag hasn’t mattered in regards to search engine rankings since almost the beginning of my career as an SEO over a decade ago. The meta keywords tag won’t harm you if it’s in your site header, but spending any effort to create them is a complete waste and has been for almost a decade, since the last search engine using them publicly announced abandoning them as a ranking factor. But the topic refused to die, causing Google to issue a public statement confirming once again that they don’t consider the meta keywords tag at all in 2009.

I think part of the reason this subject refuses to die is that the meta description tag still has limited use in Google. But the meta description tag isn’t used to determine where to rank you in the results. It’s used as the snippet for your site at times. So, it can be very useful in increasing your click through rates in the search engine result pages (SERPS) but it won’t help you get the rankings needed to be in front of users TO click on it.

#4: You should submit to search engines

Tons of snake oil SEO companies still tout search engine submission as an offering. However, submitting to search engines through general “submit here” URLs is futile and useless. Providing that your site has a link or people visiting it, it will get found – and indexed – by the search engines. And if it doesn’t have links or visitors, then you’re not going to rank in the algorithms of 2011 anyway, so being indexed in the engine won’t make much of a difference.

The quickest way to get a new site indexed is to promote it, legitimately. Get it publicity and get it basic links and the search engines will find you. And once they do, the promotional efforts you’ve employed will actually help you rank as well. The exception to this rule, in my opinion, is if you have a large or “complicated” site and want to submit an XML Sitemap to Google through its Webmaster Tools section. However, don’t confuse this with search engine submission services submitting your site to “thirty engines” snake oil.

#3: Using the ‘nofollow’ tag on internal links helps you direct internal Pagerank

The nofollow attribute was originally created under the claim that it was a joint effort by the leading search engines of the day (in 2005) to help fight blog spam. The theory was that if easily spammable platforms like blogs employed the use of the nofollow tag, the value of the link to the spammer would be worthless. If blog spamming no longer worked as a “ranking technique” as a result, then the incentive to do it would be removed and spammers would attempt to move onto the next target.

Since then, the tag has “evolved” to be used to not transfer credit to paid links (a practice Google has been “at war” with for a long time) and for a short time, was a way to direct (or sculpt) internal Pagerank to the pages you thought were most important on your website. Even Google’s own Matt Cutts answered that the technique was “allowed” (though stressed they didn’t see the point in putting a lot of effort towards it) during a SMX panel we both spoke on in 2008.

However, it wasn’t long before industrious SEOs found ways to abuse sculpting forcing Google to change how they treated the tag on internal links and thus killing the ability to sculpt internal Pagerank with the nofollow tag.

#2: Toolbar Pagerank matters

First, let’s acknowledge that long gone are the days when Google’s algorithm was based primarily on Pagerank. Second, I’d like to be clear that there is a difference between the real, internal Pagerank of a website that Google uses as a part of its algorithm and the green pixels you’re shown in the Google Toolbar (referred to as TBPR – Toolbar Pagerank.)

Way back in the day, the higher your TBPR was, the more valuable Google considered your site and the more your outbound links were worth. So, webmasters who knew this decided to only target links from sites that had a TBPR of 4 or more. While the original “truth” behind that method has long since become fiction, it unfortunately is still a “strategy” employed or suggested by some people who call themselves SEOs. Currently, Toolbar Pagerank seems to have no direct correlation to higher rankings or higher link value, though it is suspected to have some correlation to higher indexing rates. Matt Cutts has been quoted stating that he himself would like to see Toolbar Pagerank go away (I suspect as he may realize it’s mere existence prolongs the death of the TBPR related SEO “strategies.” )

#1: Google hates affiliate websites

Google doesn’t hate affiliate websites. Google hates crap affiliate websites. If the affiliate site is thin or contains the same duplicated information as a thousand other websites that are affiliates of a merchant (think affiliate datafeed sites) with no differentiation to it, then yes, Google is likely looking for your “type” of sites to suffer in upcoming search engine updates. But if you can find a way to create a value add and make your affiliate website into an affiliate brand and promote it via legitimate methods within the Google guidelines, then you’re not a specific target and you likely don’t need to fear every update. If you’re in the former category, learn how to survive the affiliate evolution and make defensible websites Google not only doesn’t hate but ones they actually want to rank.

About the Author

Rae Hoffman-Dolan aka “Sugarrae” is an affiliate marketing veteran and provides (extremely) occasional SEO consulting services specializing in SEO audits and link building techniques. In addition to being the SVP of Marketing for Speedy Incorporation Service, she is also the author of the often controversial Sugarrae blog. You can connect with Rae via Twitter or via Facebook.

After sporting the Thesis theme by DIYThemes on RosalindGardner.com for several months, I switched back to using a StudioPress theme on that blog.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like Thesis. I do. It’s an excellent theme and I still highly recommend it to those looking for a professional theme for WordPress.

Once you get past the learning curve (which all themes have), manipulating Thesis is pretty straightforward. I especially liked the number of design and SEO tweaks available within the options. The Thesis OpenHooks plugin turned out to be a big help too.

So, why did I switch back to StudioPress?

Well, after writing “How Many Blogs?“, I realized that working with too many themes was almost the same as working with too many blogs.

With only one exception (AffiliateBloggerPRO),  all my other blogs were sporting StudioPress themes.

So, instead of researching, writing and marketing – activities that are significantly more important (and lucrative) to a professional blogger – I felt I was wasting precious time tweaking every time an update for either theme was released.

Not only that, but moving back and forth from one theme to another always involved having to take time to ‘stop and think’ about how that particular theme worked.

On the other hand, when you use only one theme across all your blogs, there is no transition time. You’re always working with the same theme and SEO options and all the upgrades can be done at once when a theme or framework update becomes available.

So, my suggestion is this.

Unless you work for others installing and tweaking out themes for WordPress, use a single theme framework for each your blogs… whichever theme that might be – StudioPress, Thesis, Woo or Socrates.

P.S. The new theme on RosalindGardner isn’t quite finished yet… I still have to tweak it out a little with a nice header.

Gee, blog commenters these days have some really strange names.

Like who would think to name their kid “seo strategies“, “plumbing fixtures” or “cheap shoes“?

Seriously, you gotta wonder what some folks are thinking when they post comments like this to a business opportunities / Internet marketing blog like NetProfits Today:

First of all, the NPT blog is about Internet and affiliate marketing, so WHY would a knowledgeable blog commenter use a name like “weddings” or “buy LCD TV” to try and attract traffic to their site?

Uh, they wouldn’t.

It’s unlikely that “cheap shoes” will get their comment approved on professional blogs.

Business bloggers immediately see that “cheap shoes” is probably a spammer or a complete newbie who has wasted money on a bad training course. And it makes me feel sad when “cheap shoes” actually does leave a good comment, but they’ve contravened my blog commenting policy so I can’t approve their comment.

The policy specifically states that “‘nice post, thanks’ type comments from “Buy LCD TV” posters will be marked as spam, so it is in your best interest to contribute to the conversation as a real person, if you are looking for some link love.”

I have no desire to reward  cheap traffic seekers who contribute nothing of value.

Even if the comment does get approved, it’s too much of a crap shoot to hope that people who are interested in doing business online might also be planning a wedding or in the market for a new TV.

So, if you want traffic to a site about weddings, go post a comment on a site where the topic is about weddings.

Having said all that, a real affiliate marketer can drive traffic to their wedding site from a blog about affiliate marketing, but they have to be smart about it.

“Smart” means:

• Building credibility by contributing value to the conversation. If your site is about weddings and the post is about traffic strategies, share an experience related to the topic and invite folks to look at a relevant page on your blog.
• Using your real name or a pen name. Not just a first name either. You gain additional credibility for your blog comment by including your real FULL name. Even something like Super Affiliate Wendy W. is more likely to encourage visits than “cheap shoes”.
• Having a Gravatar. Want even more credibility? Get a gravatar to show alongside your thoughful comment.

All that said, remember that you want traffic that stays on your site.

The fellow who pops by “acia berry wonders” from a bizop blog won’t help your bounce rate if he only sticks around for a half a second.

So take the time to post real comments using your real name and point to content on your site of real value to your visitors.

Brian Clark of CopyBlogger has just released a completely free 29-page report called, “How to Create Compelling Content that Ranks Well in Search Engines“. Are you interested in ranking higher in the search engines for your content?

If so – you should download this completely free report (there’s no registration needed and no obligation to do anything to get it) from Scribe. It’s called How to Create Compelling Content that Ranks Well in Search Engines.

Topics include:

• Why SEO Copywriting Still Matters
• How Search Engines Work
• Why You Have to Spoon Feed Search Engines
• The 5 Essential Elements of Keyword Research
• How to Create Cornerstone Content That Google Loves
• Five Link Building Strategies That Work
• Five Areas to Focus On for Effective SEO Copywriting
• Why Writing for People Works for Search Engines
• How to Make SEO Copywriting Simple

I’d highly recommend taking a hour or so to go through Brian’s report to learn how to improve your SEO through better copywriting.

I never write content specifically to get search engine placement and it’s something I never want to do.

My blogs are for real people like you who would quickly decide that I no longer deserve their business if I were to write like an SEO optimizer instead of just being myself and writing as I do.

Seriously, no reasonable adult takes a blogger seriously when they start a post with “Want better search results? Then get better search results by targeting the search engine results pages with better SEO. You can improve your SEO…” blah, blah, blah.

Boring and obvious.

But due to my refusal to even consider SEO when I write, my blog posts probably don’t rank as highly as I would prefer for the topic that I’m writing about.

The posts generally get traffic because I use a multitude of other promotional methods — i.e. social media, Feedburner, Aweber, etc — but Google does not frequently reward my efforts with 1st page listings.

That’s about to change, however.

During a conversation with one of our Rosalind Gardner’s Academy members, I learned about Scribe SEO, a tool for affiliate bloggers like myself who prefer to write for readers than search engines.

Scribe SEO is a plugin with an online interface that shows you exactly how a proposed post will fare in terms of keyword effectiveness.

For example, I plugged an existing post from my travel blog into the Optimizer Content Analysis tool and this is what I saw…

UGH!!! A 39% SEO score overall.

Your content meets few of the SEO recommendations. Check any warnings to see where you could improve.

No doubt.

All the stuff in yellow was where the post was deficient, such as:

• Title contains 0 Primary Keywords; below the minimum recommendation of 1.
• There are no Primary Keywords in your Body. After adding there, consider adding them in your title.

and…

• Description contains no Primary Keywords.
• When you add keywords to your description, consider adding them towards beginning; using keywords towards the beginning is recommended.

Then Scribe SEO picked what appeared to be my primary keywords…

Primary Keywords - No Primary Keywords found.
Other Keywords – Additional keywords found include canada, laptop, air canada, transport canada, vaio, las vegas, air travel, london drugs and airport security.

Um… those weren’t exactly what I was going for.

Then it made a bunch of suggestions on how I could make those keywords more prominent…

To make canada, laptop and air canada Primary Keywords, add them to the beginning of your Title and Description. Re-analyze to see the new Keyword Review.

To make transport canada, vaio, las vegas, air travel, london drugs and airport security Primary Keywords, add them to your Title and/or Description and add it more frequently to your Body content. Re-analyze to see the new Keyword Review.

The software also suggested Tags that I could add…

The following is a list of semantically relevant terms that have been identified within your content. Consider adding these terms to your post tags.

Next it showed me an example of how my content may appear within a Search Engine Results Page. The SERP item is comprised of the first 72 characters of your title and the first 165 characters of your description. Therefore, if important words are cut off in the SERP sample below, edit your headline and description accordingly to move the important words, for example Company Name, to the front of the sentences.

Lastly, it gave me a tutorial on SEO best practices.

One of the most significant items (as far as I’m concerned) is the incorporation of the Flesch Reading Ease Score – one of the best-known and most popular readability indicators.

The formula rates text on a 100-point scale based on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence. The closer the score is to 100, the easier the content is to read; the closer the score to 0, the more difficult the content is to read. In general, a score below 30 is considered very difficult, and a score of 70 is estimated to be written at the eighth or ninth grade level. Research has indicated that a score of 70 is likely appropriate for adult readers. A score of 100 represents that the content is understood by readers with at least a fourth grade education.

All the while, Scribe SEO gives you the opportunity to change and re-evaluate your text on the fly.

Will I use this tool?

You betcha.

Especially considering I know I can do better than 39% SEO scores, even when writing for real people.

The post evaluated above was all about carry-on baggage allowances. Somehow, in my frenzy to get the post out there, I missed the obvious.

That won’t happen again however.

I picked up the Scribe SEO monthly membership (for $27) just to check it out, but will definitely upgrade to the yearly membership before the month is up.

If you write like I do, Scribe SEO is one tool well worth checking out for $27. You’ll get 30 evaluations on unlimited websites. For $47, you can get 120 evaluations and $97 buys 300. If you’re just starting out, I’d suggest going the ‘Starter’ $27 route. If you don’t think it serves you well, they have a 30-day money-back guarantee.

If you’re writing an affiliate website/blog and Scribe SEO helps you write posts that rank better, drive more traffic, and gets you more clicks or conversions, I think you’ll find the absolutely worth the price and the little bit of time it takes to evaluate your posts before publishing.

Here’s a traffic generation question / comment from Kenny that was spot on!

Rosalind, it is inconceivable that you have time to utilize all the techniques in your ebook.

So, in an effort to follow your lead, so to speak, if you were to narrow down the five most consistently effective marketing / promotion / advertising processes that you use primarily, what would you say those were?

In advance, thanks.

Kenny Love

GREAT question, Kenny!

You’re absolutely right – I’d go bonkers if I tried to do ALL of the marketing techniques ALL of the time.

So, here are the 5 traffic generation or marketing methods that I use most consistently:

1. Blogging for Search Engine Placement
2. List / Email Marketing
3. Social Media Marketing & Community Activity
4. Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC)
5. Article Distribution & Marketing

Blogging for Search Engine Placement

Essentially, my first priority is to publish fresh content to my blogs on a regular basis (some of which are more regular than others). Although I don’t engage in keyword stuffing, (which makes for horrible reading), the content of each blog post has to be tightly focused on one subject so that keywords and keyword phrases in the article are closely aligned and thus the post is more likely to get picked up and listed by the search engines, resulting in free traffic.

List / Email Marketing

The post is then distributed by email to the relevant subscriber list either through a blog broadcast (using Aweber / Feedburner combined) or through a link in a weekly newsletter.

Social Media Marketing & Community Activity

Engaging the audience personally through either blog commenting, forum posting or social media marketing comes next. I will respond to comments and answer any questions posted by my own blog readers and subscribers, which enhances information contained in the article and adds still more ‘fodder’ for the search engines to notice. My social media marketing efforts are fairly scant – using applications like TwitterFeed to broadcast the post’s title and link to Twitter for some more free traffic. From time to time, I’ll post a comment to a high-profile blog or forum in response to a topic relevant to my original article, along with a link to that article.

Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC)

Depending on the response from blog readers and subscribers, I may incorporate PPC marketing at that point. If the conversion rate is better than average for the audience, I’ll do the math to assess whether it’s worth driving traffic to that particular post or page with PPC, starting with Google Adwords and/or Yahoo! Search Marketing depending on the demographic. If the response is just ‘good’, PPC may still be worth the effort if enough of that traffic joins the list.

Article Distribution & Marketing

Article marketing comes in 5th and last, because I don’t post the same articles to my site as I would distribute to article directories so they require some re-writing, which takes time. Furthermore, the traffic isn’t as targeted as it is with your own list or with PPC marketing… but it’s traffic none-the-less and every click counts for something… eventually.

After that’s all said and done, it’s probably time to write another post — or more likely, take another vacation.

Here is a question that I received from one of our readers…

Hi Rosalind,

I’m really enjoying your new book, “Make a Fortune Promoting Other People’s Stuff Online: How Affiliate Marketing Can Make You Rich“. I’m an experienced and somewhat successful dating affiliate myself, and I still have been able to find lots of useful information and tips in your latest book. Thank you so much for sharing!

I did want to mention that I believe there’s a small typo on page 113 – second paragraph:

“the left side is read before the right side. Therefore, place your primary navigation on the RIGHT side” (Shouldn’t it be placed on the left side?). Just wanted to mention this before your book goes into another printing.

Very enjoyable book. Thanks again for being so helpful and generous with sharing your knowledge!

Kind Regards,

Rhonda Ray

Thanks very kind for your question, Rhonda, and no, that wasn’t a typo.

From a reader’s perspective, I prefer to see content on the left and navigation on the right and that has certainly been the trend in site design for a number of years now.

Too, you want to place site navigation on the right hand side of your blog (or HTML pages) so that search engines read your site content before they get to the often long and always repeated site navigation links.

However, the simplest justification I can give for this is the way WordPress blogs and most WordPress themes are structured out of the box, with navigation on the right side. (see screenshot below of my 101Date.com homepage with it’s StudioPress theme loaded and the primary navigation outlined in red).

WordPress blogs are known for their search-engine friendliness, which is due in most part to their dynamic nature.

However, because the WordPress designers are also so search engine savvy, I trust that their choice to typically place navigation on the right side has a great deal to do with enhanced visibility to the engines.

I just wanted to make sure that you’ve seen the video that Michael Green and I did before it comes down in the next couple of days – because whether or not you plan to buy Google 1st, the short (9:46) video is a worthwhile watch.

In the video, Michael shows some clear ‘outside the box’ thinking when it comes to getting 1st page Google rankings. This is good stuff that you may not have thought about before, but that’s easy to replicate in your own marketing efforts.

Watch the video now or learn more about Google 1st.

BizZites has scheduled a Webinar with the highest paid SEO strategist on the planet, known as “Mr. Black”. His name will be revealed for the first time on this Webinar. He works with Fortune 100 companies getting paid Millions for his services. His services are focused on high level inbound linking campaigns, as he will reveal more details on the call.

The webinar is on Thursday, May 7th at 8PM Eastern.

Details about what Mr. Black will discuss on the call include:

• How to get a large diverse set of targeted back links that come from properties that give you a tremendous amount of control in “bleeding” ranking factor to your target URL.
• How to get both home page ranking and deep target page ranking from your back linking program.
• Why “in content” links are the back links you want to your website.
• How to focus your ranking factor and its related anchor text to your target URLs.
• What are the best directory services, blogging services, article services, podcast services, video services, bookmarking services, wiki services, etc. to get back links from?
• The secret of how to pull a common thread from your off page linking to your on page, with specific targeted anchor text that will have significant effect on SERP organic rankings
• And much more!

Weboma

Reserve your seat today! There is a limit on attendees and I want to make sure YOU can reserve a spot at the event.

Click here to read my BizZites review.