vaughan-marketing.com Blog » Industry news http://vaughan-marketing.com/blog Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:54:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 New Feature: Yahoo! Dynamic URL Rewrite http://vaughan-marketing.com/blog/2008/01/28/new-feature-yahoo-dynamic-url-rewrite/ http://vaughan-marketing.com/blog/2008/01/28/new-feature-yahoo-dynamic-url-rewrite/#comments Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:42:33 +0000 Administrator http://vaughan-marketing.com/blog/2008/01/28/new-feature-yahoo-dynamic-url-rewrite/

 

One of my ongoing requests for the engines is for them to allow us – i.e. webmasters and SEOs – to share more information about how to eliminate duplicate URLs created by campaign tracking URLs. I’m pleased to say I’ve seen one of the major search engines address in full force.  

Yahoo! developed a tool within Yahoo! Site Explorer that allows SEOs to directly communicate to them exactly what tracking parameters to ignore – thus removing duplicate content in their index while combining all link popularity to the base URL. It also solves other issues like over-measuring referrals for a campaign because the marketing URL with the tracking parameter was indexed and served in natural search results. This is a great feature and, while I’m excited that Yahoo! has provided this as an option for SEOs, I’d love to see the other engines also provide such functionality. 

The feature on Yahoo! is called “Dynamic URL Rewrite” and I encourage any webmaster or SEO to provide rewrite information through Yahoo! Site Explorer. Once we saw this released we quickly jumped on it and we’ve seen a significant drop in indexed URLs with our tracking parameters and an improvement in ranking for many of the pages where proliferation of the tracking URLs was a significant problem. Bravo Yahoo! for developing a feature in your toolbox that solves a common problem for the engine, the webmaster, the site SEO, the marketers and the searchers! 

 

]]> http://vaughan-marketing.com/blog/2008/01/28/new-feature-yahoo-dynamic-url-rewrite/feed/ 0 PubCon Vegas – 2007 http://vaughan-marketing.com/blog/2007/12/17/pubcon-vegas-2007/ http://vaughan-marketing.com/blog/2007/12/17/pubcon-vegas-2007/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:35:50 +0000 Administrator http://vaughan-marketing.com/blog/2007/12/17/pubcon-vegas-2007/ This was my frist time attending PubCon and in a nutshell – I’m glad I went. I’ve now been to SES a few times and SMX Advanced in Seattle so I have basis for comparison and PubCon was every bit as good in some of the same and some different ways. Sure the Google party as part of SES San Jose is hard to beat, but then again, so is Vegas if parties are what you’re interested in. Back to the conference…

The longer I’m in the search marketing industry, the less I take away from the actual conference sessions – even though that is where I learned so much to get where I am today (newbies read: conferences are a must!). Not saying I know it all but I know enough that much of the content is familiar. That said, I always take away a few “A-HA’s” or ideas that kick-start my energy when I get back.

And even though the sessions aren’t the part of the conferences where I get the most value any longer, I find a lot of value in the networking and conversations surrounding the sessions. That’s a big reason why I still attend them – so I can take away conversation pieces and ideas but also find those birds of a feather who have a similar challenge or interest. Being able to talk to other SEOs and Paid Search Marketers is key in this industry.

PubCon didn’t fall short of my expectations at all. I was pleased to find a lot of seasoned experts on the panels as well as in the audience. There were reps from the engines in some of the SEO sessions which is always a benefit of attending search conferences.

A few things I like about PubCon:

  • Session rooms were plenty big enough. I was able to walk in right when the session started and get a seat that wasn’t on the floor or in the doorway. It was nice not to have to show up ten minutes early to find standing room only.
  • The people in attendance seemed to be a little more advanced – at least in the sessions I attended. As a result the questions were more advanced and provided more value.
  • PubCon mails you a DVD of the presentations after the conference. For some reason I really like having a DVD with all of the presentations. I think because the only time I really would take time to look at them would be on the plane when accessing them via the web isn’t an option (and apparently neither is my planning ahead to download them!).

Ok, back to the parties… I really didn’t go to many of the parties. I stopped by the cocktail reception on the first night to do some networking and talked to quite a few people but I wouldn’t call it a party. On Thursday though, I did make it to the Microsoft adCenter and Live Search “Party Like a Rock Star” party at the Ghost Bar – which was very nicely done. Thanks Microsoft! 

 

]]> http://vaughan-marketing.com/blog/2007/12/17/pubcon-vegas-2007/feed/ 1