How Not to Treat Your Customers

YapYapOK Free Ads

I have been looking for an auction site to promote products on behalf of a third party.

They place ads on YapYapOK and it has been working well for them.  The idea was to increase web presence where possible without taking too much time.  The issue with the products is that they are of the adult nature so Ebay is a no go area.

I suggested that I register them on a newer auction site which seems to be doing OK.  The terms and conditions were hard to find and in order to come across them I first had to join.  T&C still very vague so I advised that rather than pay the sellers joining fee they joined free as a buyer and then obtained advice from the forums.

The site works by upfront sellers payments and then unrestricted free listing.  Its not cheap but if you were to achieve high volume sales then it may be worth it.

The seller went on the forums only to see that many who had posted had urls as signatures.  Not one to miss a marketing opportunity he immediately set his signature with his url. 

TThe new thread read that could anyone let him know if he could sell Sex Toys without breaching T&Cs.  The admins answer was pretty quick to suggest all was fine but he had already breached T&C with his signature pointing to an ecommerce site.  He could however point to another site with a link to said ecommerce site.

URl was instantly changed to point to his advert on YapYapOK with link to ecommerce site.  He instantly replied to say that he had not meant to breach the T&C had changed his signature and thanked the responder for letting him know.

So he revisited the forum this morning to see if anything else had been advised only to find he has now been banned.  In fact the message read "You have been banned for promoting external website" ish.

So is he going to use join as as a paying seller?  The only thing which wasn't vague in the T&C was their right to cancel or ban you from using the website with no refund.  Even Ebay didn't do this.  They sent a very polite email to say that they could see it was his first time listing, that he was in breach of their T&Cs with a link to where it was on the site and a refund of listing charges.

YapYapOK Free Classifieds 

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

Business Listings Free

YapYapOK Free Ads

There are a wealth of free listing sites available online.  However it seems that this rarely extends to businesses. 

The sad truth is that many businesses in particular retailers depend on getting their products to the market without paying commissions, listing fees or annual subscriptions.  Having owned a retail outlet on the high street as well as online I am all too aware of the difficulties that small independents are faced with.

Spending on the high street is down.  Whilst ecommerce seems the natural choice to gain a larger audience this is not as easy as it may at first seem.   Having an online shop is the natural step to increase sales, but what happens once your shop is live?

Well unless your an SEO expert or have a real niche product then its unlikely that the search engines will display your site in a good location.  Even with SEO knowledge the time required to implement a good strategy means that the time you have running your own business becomes compromised.  Without SEO resources you can at least depend on good old adwords to kickstart your site to the top of the search engines in the hope of getting noticed.

The problem with that is that its costly and its not as easy as you think.  Be prepared to spend time understanding keyword analysis techniques and what will return the most targeted results in order to achieve a good sales conversion rate.

Ebay is a great tool to achieve sales quickly although you may find a mass of competitors also selling your products at such reduced prices that by the time you factor in listing fees, commisions and other charges, then your profits are down to the wire.  If your prepared for that, then its a great way to get rid of dead stock which needs converting to progress with new orders.  Sadly this is always a short term fix as Ebay does not allow website links to enable you to promote your own site. 

The good news is that some Free Classifieds sites do allow you to post your items, totally free with url links and the benefit of high visitors.  Granted they may not be used to explore potential gift ideas in the same way as Ebay but anyone searching for items can at least know that a highly ranked Classifieds site will likely return their products through the Google search box.

This gives you the opportunity to get items listed and promote your website links totally for Free.

So instead of spending hours or cash on getting products to your customers.  Why not create ads on ad sites?  Its very quick, very easy and may be just the kickstart your business needs.

YapYapOK Free Ads

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

Advertise Property For Sale Free

YapYapOk Free Classsifieds

Advertise Property For Sale Free on YapYapOK Free Ads.

Marketing your own home needn't cost much or indeed anything. Many homeowners who wish to sell their properties tend to go through the usual channels with Estate Agents often being the first port of call.

Yet many wishing to buy property search online before they even consider calling any agent. The secret to selling anything is first understanding your buyers habits. Whilst Estate Agents nearly always have an online presence, many do not keep their sites as up to date as they could be.

Additionally the independents rarely feature high in search results as they do not have the resources available to promote their sites as well as sites who specialise in web marketing.

Hence the arrival of property marketing sites which colate property from various channels in order to bring them directly to the customer. Agents generally pay for these services although often private ads remain a free service.

When you consider the thousands of pounds you can save when marketing your own property it has to be worth the relatively small amount of time resources invested.

Make sure that when you are placing your free ad, you give an accurate and detailed description. Key points should include location, number of bedrooms as well as any extras such as parking, garden etc.

Pictures say a thousand words so try to post as many as you can with the best one fronting the advert.

Once you have a detailed description that you are happy with, then use it across multiple sales sites. The more website visibility that you have, the more likely that your ad will get seen by potential buyers.

So why not give it ago.

YapYapOK Free Ads receives thousands of UK visitors every week - who knows they may be looking for a property just like yours!

Why List On Free Classifieds?

YapYapOK Free Ads

Todays economy means that we are all trying to budget with our personal and business costs.  Online selling is easier and quicker than you may think.  I have seen many examples of owners trying to sell their properties online with their own websites but whilst this is a great idea, driving traffic to them is often a full time job.  

Free Ads tend to have large visitor numbers and often feature high in search results, hence they are more likely to receive the targetted traffic that you require to get your online marketing noticed.  YapYapOK has the facility to post multiple images as well as a full page description to optimise selling.

Approximately 90% of home buyers research property online before they ever set foot in an Estate Agents so selling yourself is now a viable option.  Estate Agents often place ads across a wide variety of digital media which illustrates just how effective it is.  In addition to the usual selling tools available with free sites, YapYapOK has the ability to post an embed video link to best showcase your home.

Businesses are often severely penalised with premium rate listings making it difficult or prohibitive to market when budgets don't allow.  In order for businesses to compete, grow or just continue to exist then it is necessary to facilitate them in any way possible.  For that reason all ads placed on YapYapOK are Free.

With thousands of visitors often searching for specific items and businesses listed on our free advertising pages every day, it is fairly easy to generate sales on a regular basis.

So if your selling any product or service, take the time out to list it here.  Registration is fast, listing is easy and takes just a few minutes and your ad will be live for 90 days.  Should you be a business wishing to republish then simple login, goto MyYapYapOK, expired ads and click on republish.  Easy, your classifieds is now live for another 90 days.

YapYapOK Free Classifieds

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

Why Google?

YapYapOK Free Classifieds

Working on high competition keywords is hugely time consuming.  There are some experts who recommend that you should not bother with high competition since duration of site plays too big a part and Google will always priorities them.  The problem with neglecting high competition is that sooner or later it needs addressing and you can find yourself 2 years down the line placing for lesser value words that yield too few visits.  To some extent we did that with Free Classifieds and ignored Free Ads.  It has taken a massive amount of concentrated effort to place for it.

I have worked with many different sites now.  New and established, competitive and not.   I have managed to get all non competitive keywords to page 1 within just a few weeks, one came in under a week and another very general keyword in under 2 weeks.

By general I mean there are hundreds of thousands of sites specialising in the same thing.  So how did we do it so quickly?

Lets say I was working with an antiques dealer.  Its pretty specialised.  To deal in antiques you need to know what your buying so that you can profit.  Antiques dealers spend a great deal of time running their business but don't really understand SEO, much less give away valuable resources to support it.  Hence placing in this industry at the top of Google is really very easy, even though many have an international sales base and therefore massive competition.

I have worked with several specialised sites now.  One was a local service so creating a location specific keyword enabled her to place at number 1 position with very little work.

For example if you needed a plumber in Cardiff.  Unlikely you would search Google for Plumber since your results would not be relevant and you would spend too long looking through the pages.  If on the other hand you typed "Plumber Cardiff" then youir results will be more specific.

Therefore if you are a plumber in Cardiff with a website, then getting to number one means that you have very little competition and should manage it with ease.

Clearly I am also working with high competition general sites whereby the areas of specialism are in marketing.  Hence placing against some of the other established sites is incredibly difficult.  Not least because of the large budgets they have in comparison to our very non existent one.

So why do we concentrate on Google?  Well it is the largest search engine with the most specific results.  SEO is therefore logical.  I am  fairly certain that by following a broader range of SEO techniques as well as some blackhat methods would result in better results in placing however I also think that would be detrimental to Google SERP.

Many run off the back of Google so playing to the Google tune will ultimately see results in the smaller search engines too.  Our stats are certainly suggesting this.  While 90% of our traffic is generated from Google, we are now seeing results from Bing, Ask Jeeves, AOL and Yahoo.

We will continue to implement specific whitehat SEO unless Google  becomes less important. Frankly, I can't see that happening.

YapYapOK Free Ads

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

The Trouble With Fiverr Feedback

YapYapOK Free Classifieds

I have used Fiverr alot in the past for SEO services.  The new Google Panda means that much of it is surplus since replicating and link spamming via directories etc hold less value.  To search for a gig its important to check out and see if the provider is using Google friendly techniques.  Then its necessary to check out the feedback.

Since feedback is usually done after gig deliver then the effectiveness of the gig is unknown.  There is no option to change it later to give the provider either a bigger thumbs up or even a thumbs down.

Those who don't understand SEO are often frustrated that their site hasn't climbed to the top of the search engines instantly - they give negative feedback which scews the results.  The only way of seeing how anyone has rated the gig is to see how many repeat orders it has.  Again anyone understanding SEO knows that repeating a gig can be detrimental particularly if it involves anchor text links on the same pages that they already have links on.  The exception to this is if they have multiple sites to promote, however this is often impossible to determine.

So I was delighted to come across Facebook page whereby someone has created a fan page for Killer Gigs.  This creates transparent discussions at any time after the gig to share how it has performed.  Clearly it can be open to abuse from sellers themselves who will promote their own gigs but if there is enough of a follow then their buyers will be able to add their experiences.

I really hope this takes off, it will save hours of sorting the wheat from the chaff - there is a lot of chaff.  We put up with it since the charges are small.  Small charges do add up though and it is easy to see how you can spends 100's of dollars on crappy gigs which give no results at all and may even get you "sandboxed". 

So inevitably I have returned to the Fiverr experience.  Not for YapYapOK Classifieds, we rank pretty well now so just continuing what we are doing will hopefully be enough to maintain position with major keywords and grow some of the minor ones. Ads being one!

YapYapOK Free Ads

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

Blogging Explicit Ads

YapYapOK Free Ads

Its time to blog the ads.  The death of my computer has meant that I have been neglecting some of the latest classifieds appearing on YapYapOK.  This, when we have had so many raunchy  adverts appearing.  Its good to see that all of the advertisers have followed the guidelines of placing them under the appropriate adult categories.

Mr Jack is an adult entertainer - don't look if your offended by nudity - its explicit.  Miss Shawnee is another adult entertainer available for parties.

And if that's not your thing - how about this advert for Sex Toys.  This one has started a shop and the other toy they have listed is more than a little baffling.

Thankfully the YapYapOK Free Classifieds has a censored facility so that it is not necessary to view the images should that be of issue.

We have a wide range of personals as well as adult chat currently live on YapYapOK.  Whilst we had anticipated adult products and services and built in a censored facility, we really had no idea that it was going to be so popular with the advertisers or with the curious and probably curious browsers.

As someone who spends a large amount of time in front of my computer I do often get distracted when looking for new media for SEO.  I love Scribd because after I have read the latest articles I often look at the authors for some short story viewing material.  By and large I am a Michael Connolly fan, I also live Lee Childs and Harlen Coben so much of what is on Scribd tends to be too short to really appreciate.

You can also find yourself reading a story which starts well and turns out to be pure erotica.  All very well but imagine my horror when after reading one short story I saw that when I loaded Facebook there was a link on my page telling all who new me what I had been reading.  Now I avoid them like the plague - even the seemingly innoculous.

Nowadays I prefer to be distracted by Pioneer Woman and her recipe blog.  Its well written with some great recipes and even helps me multi task my dinner preparations.

YapYapOK Free Classifieds - Only human!

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

Post Server Update

YapYapOK Free Classifieds

The migration of the server has had us all holding our breath in anticipation.  I think that finally we can slowly let it go.  We had expected a small drop in SERP and thats what we got.  Down one place for Free Classifieds (currently no 2), down 2 places at number 9 for Free Ads.

Today I shall SEO via an internal link strategy as well as with external links.

I read in the local rag last night about a columnist who has unexpected traffic to his blog, to the tune of 10,400 visits.   This is not huge considering that he has been going for a couple of years.  Also users search for blogs now rather than wait for them to come to the fore.  Blogs are just waiting to be discovered from web masters who will utilise them for their own ends.  Start to get into unique topic specifics and they can feature well in search results.

So should he have taken this as flattery - hmm probably not.  As a columnist he has probably written some good material with a wide range of subjects.  However he has still only achieved small visitor numbers - to do considerably better he needs to look at his blog commenting.  If he does not allow it then he should, perhaps as moderated so that his blog doesn't get spammed.

His good range of material as well as well written posts with specific topics should yield well in Google.  Could be he is not utilising the tags.  Just taking a moment to fill these in appropriately would mean that he would be complying with the specific meta data that Google clearly loves.

So I am off to check out said blog, hopefully I will be leaving a lasting impression on it.

Wish me luck!

YapYapOK Free Ads

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

Disruption Of SEO

YapYapOK Free Classifieds

A series of events has led to a huge disruption in SEO techniques utilsed by YapYapOK Free Ads

1. Computer hard drive breakdown.   - A clear issue resulting in an out of action computer necessary to facilitae and inplement link building strategy
2. Lack of manpower - stretching oneself too thinly whilst doing last minute school assessments (son due to enter secondary school education next september), as well as external web development for second site.
3.  Aforementioned sons birthday weekend.  - Yes weekend to enable sleepover with friends plus time with all family members 100 miles down the road.

Consequently the to-do list has rapidly grown to an unfathomable length whereby priorities are yet to be determined.  In a moment of blindness I have decided to post a blog and then take a step back to see if the fog clears and the route becomes a little more focused when, at such time I will commence all efforts with renewed energy.

Of course having lost a huge amount of work has not been advantageous.  Personal photos of family over the last 6 years are forever lost.  Laziness meant that whilst I did not back up data, I did email myself links, seo strategies as well as important documents.  I stored many others on private web 2.0 sites  Yes it was lazy, since I had not filed it away in a methodical manner on my harddrive.  Instead I had built a folder filing system within my inbox  - since my email is permanently open.

Thankfully this bizarre approach to document management has saved me a mountain of work.

I am ready to continue the advertising link campaign for the next hour before calling it a day and recharging my rather spent batteries.

YapYapOK Free Ads - frankly a little exhausted actually!

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

Catastrophic Failure

YapYapOK Free Classifieds

  I am currently more than a little stressed that my operating system on my MAC has suffered a catastrophic failure.  To be fair its not as stressfull as the idea of server migration, which was actually OK in the end.  Having said that it is pretty damn close.

  Since the OS system has collapsed, it will not read disks and is totally unresponsive to any command.  I Googled how to reboot the old operating system but all the key commands were MAC specific and I have a normal keyboard. 

  Several websites later I was able to translate the keys such as eject and apple command and promptly went through the process of getting the computer to read the set up disc in the drive.

  All appeared to be working correctly untill the disc intitiation which came back as error.  Repeat 3 times = error.  Did I mention I have a sticky disc drive?  My MAC will not eject discs easily.  Specifically it will not eject the mac set up discs that came with the computer.  All others have been fine.  Since eject is through the screen or eject command then you are relying on the operating system to kick it out when you ask it to.

  This has been difficult even when I had an operating system and relies on the utilsation of a guitar plectrum (the only thing small and thin enough) to keep the clip back and a pair of tweezers to grab it once the disc emerges its 1 milimeter edge.  You need patience and a good grip since grabbing it first time is unlikely.  However I have had much practise at this and can usually do it within 3 ejects.

  Anyway - my MAC is more than a little sick and I am preying that with the right care it can be bought to life.  It may suffer a little "brain damage", as in all my data may be lost.

  So the lesson here is back up your data.  I know this so very well from previous experiences and had recently bought myself a new drive for that very purpose.  Sadly my house keeping is chronic and I just had not got round to it.

  So friends, please prey with me for one last chance not only to repair my MAC but to save us from lost data.  Its on its way to the specialist now!

  YapYapOK Free Ads - We're only human!    

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

New Server

YapYapOK Free Classifieds

We would like to express our apologies for any disruption to the YapYapOK Free Ads website.  This is due to a change of our server provider..

The process has been seamless, however for  anyone who may have been posting or registering their may be a requirement to do it again.   Alternatively just get in touch and we will do it for you.

The other issue regarding server change over is the potential for SERP dropping.   I am unsure if this is something dreamed up by the host providers but even one independent server engineer suggested the same thing.  The host is still located in the UK so I hope that any change will be minimal.   

I would also like to express our thanks to Nick Tekhoi who was responsible for the migration of the server.  Nothing was any trouble and he personally dealt with the host company keeping communication open all the time.  I got Nicks details from People Per Hour.  Due to time constraints we were faced with needing someone to carry out the work urgently.  Hence price was less of an issue than it may have been.  I stipulated that accuracy and speed were paramount and that price was not what would win the job.

Within minutes there were several applicants, however Nick stood out with his portfolio, skill sets and feedback. I also really wanted someone from the UK since I have had issues trying to communicate with someone who's English is their second language or if they are on a different time zone.  It took very little considering when I accepted his quote.  From placing the advert to completing was less than 24 hours.

I strongly recommend People Per Hour for outsourcing.  Unless you are confident that you can communicate a complex requirement then you need to be wary of some of the cheaper labour.  Due to hiring skill sets directly it is still highly likely that you will save money using UK workers.

On that note, I am off to SERP!

YApYapOK Free ADs - Performing better - getting bigger!

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

EDU Blog Sites

YapYapOK Free Classifieds - Pole Position!

Clearly we are having amazing success with topic specific edu blog postings.  In Google UK we are now number 1 - yes pole position for Free Classifieds.  Our other main keyword Free Ads is coming up at number 7 on page 1 from this morning.   Our others are still moving about quite alot so we cannot take them too seriously, however the bouncing does in itself indicate that Google has noticed the extra work and is figuring where to place us.

Currently "Classifieds", as a search is seeing us on Page 4 which is a 6 page jump.  I don't expect us to stay there but it is an indication that we can take a big jump now since the ground work is in place. Our last keyword - Ads, is not quite as successful with only a 4 page jump. 

The issue with trying to find edu blogs with the correct advertising topic matter has lead me to look for edu sites which will enable me to have my own topic rich blog site.  Far easier said then done.  I managed to find one - thanks to an article I read online only to find that posting links was not allowed.  I tried html as well as ordinary hypertext links copied across, since there was no facility to create one.

So my mission, which I have chosen to accept is to see if I can create one on another edu website. 

Wish me luck!

YapYapOK Free Classifieds - getting academic!

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

The Results Of Panda Friendly SEO techniques - So Far

YapYapOK Free Classifieds

A good friend of mine recently told me that he had once received a post coitus of compliment of - "You are a miracle!"

Whilst delighted with this comment it fazed him as he wasn't quite sure which bit had earned him such high praise, particularly since it had been a particularly long and varied session.  In his words " Its like changing your marketing 20 different ways and then faced with success your not sure what worked!"

Well not quite, the latter would be a bit of a disaster whilst the former was a one night stand and he will be a beautiful memory to the satisfied recipient - no of course he didn't go back, he had too much to live up to!

Our SEO campaign has been a combination of many techniques running concurrently.  Since we SERPED fairly well in quite a short space of time I was loathe to anaylse the techniques I was implementing, prefering to drive myself crazy by doing everything recommend on blogs and articles.  60 hour weeks were the norm.

Since Google introduced Panda, we had slipped for Free Classifieds from the number 1 position to number 5 ( in Google.co.uk).  I had been neglecting SEO so I was fairly convinced that I just needed to redo the same SEO as before. 

How wrong, nothing I did worked.  Not until I read an article for a quality linking strategy for Google Panda friendly SEO.   I cannot believe how much the site SERP has improved.  We have suffered penalties because of spinning article which still exist - apparently Google Panda can see them, boy it got clever.

The results of quality linking has now seen Free Classifieds at number 2, OK not quite at number 1 but I am working on 4 keywords so my effort is diluted.  Having been there, it is really not making a difference to my hit rate.  Free Ads is now on page 1 number 10.  OK a few positions to climb to get to pole position but its been a tough one to work with.  Its massively competitive and despite being lower on the page we are getting far more hits on the YapYapOK Classifieds site from searchers using this keyword then we are with the first.

In addition, whilst we are not actively seeking Google.com SERP, inevitably we are getting it. However I had not expected to feature on page 2 & 3 having just a few weeks ago not being on the first 100 pages for either keyword.

Our new keyword search terms are Ads & Classifieds.  We are lagging a long way back but hopefully by using the quality link strategy I have previously blogged & implemented, we should start to dominate Google with all the competition.

So whilst I cursed the Panda - I now adore it - gone are the long days frantically working the world wide web.  Gone are my Fiverr  days, they don't have enough quality campaigns for a mature site.  Yes I have to do it all myself but there is a lot less of it!

YapYapOK Free Ads - A competitive edge!

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

Off Topic - Doggies

YapYapOK Free Classifieds

I could not resist blogging about ads following this one for cute Italian Bolognese Puppies.  Anyone who follows my blogs will know what a sucker I am for animals and these are as adorable as they get.  Despite not having a dog at present I am a novice whelper. 

My mother is a coordinator for German Shepard Dog rescue which she commits a huge amount of time on a volantary basis.  She has rescued sheps which often have such a reputation for aggression.  The problem is that they are so misunderstood.  In truth they are too intelligent to take on unless someone is willing to learn about the breed and train them with love rather than a rod of iron.

Dogs respond better to a firm but kind handler who understands dog behaviour.  My mother has huge respect for dogs and her Shep, Pippa is a member of the family who is rarely left alone, is the centre of her world and who is challenged with agility classes and ongoing training at  home.  Its not so much about the work, its a requirement for an animal that needs the stimulation to feed their intelligent nature.  It stops them becoming bored and  they enjoy it.

Additionally diet plays a critical part in their health and their mood.  Pippa has a natural diet which is freshly prepared daily.  Consequently she does not have the problematic health issues so often associated with GSD's in particular with respect to their digestion.  Flea control is also managed with diet since Sheps have a tendency for skin problems associated with either chemical treatments or/and resulting flea infestation.

In many respects, my mums complete commitment to her dog  has deterred me from having a dog until such time as I know I have the time.  I will however,  as soon as I can persuade my husband, have a couple of cats, rescue of course.  I lost my 19 year old boy last year having had him from a kitten and his presence is still missed by all of us.

YapYapOK Free Ads - A very different Classifieds

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

Advertising in the 20th Century

YapYapOK Free Ads

Since we are now following a Google Panda friendly SEO strategy we are  spending time troweling the internet for advertising topics.  The problem with the internet being so large is the number of contradictory articles.

The first one was doom and gloom discussing how advertising is dead and how a powerful group of ad execs were simply terrified of failing.  Whilst its true that certain media is less effective, other media has grown.

Another article discussed the merits of progressive advertising in a booming industry.

Success in any industry depends on consumer behaviour.  Clearly the reason for a demise in the more traditional marketing techniques such as printed media and TV is on the decrease because consumers have changed how they spend their time.  Newspapers no longer have the readership they used to.  Many of us now access the news via the internet which is kept up to date on a more regular basis.  Similarly entertainment has changed in more than one respect.  The internet provides a wealth of entertaining with gaming, socila networking and TV and film streaming.  Digital techniques now employed by Sky & Virgin means that it is no longer a requirement to sit through the commercial break when and if we watch TV.  Many of us record and playback our chosen channels fast forwarding through the ad break.

Advertisers have simply transferred much of their methods to where their targeted market is.  Consequently anyone still advertising on old media is getting it at bargain prices to compensate for the loss of  a captive audience.  Providing the advertising agents are progressive and are up to date with consumer behaviour then they can exist and grow.

Obviously corporate budgets are not the same in the current economy however the internet market can be specifically targeted to the consumer making it a more viable solution.   There is a wealth of data available for businesses wishing to take advantage of internet marketing.  We can, with some degree of accuracy check the popularity of the website as well as the demographic.  Alexa is often used as a marker for website publishing prices.

There are exceptions to this.  Facebook for example does provide affordable advertising space but they have a poor click through rate.  However of those who do click through the conversion rate is very high.

Every industry needs to view and adapt according to their market.  The high street was one of the first to suffer with the advent of ecommerce.  Independent retailers in particular had to adapt and change to make up for a lack of sales.  Savvy customers frequently window shop prior to an online purchase where heavy discounts can exist in a market with fewer overheads.

Even traditional industries such as the food industry demands evolution.  Restaurateurs have to be prepared to work with ingredients that they probably never heard of when they attended catering college.

Technology sectors lead rather than go with a changing market.

The writing was on the wall for failing ad agencies, many of whom did not read the signs.  To be controversial I think that they have had it easy in terms of relying on historic performance and being too lazy to implement the changes required in a ruthless industry which will leave them behind!

YapYapOK Free Classifieds - another form of internet advertising FREE.

Free Ads, Free Classifieds, Free Internet advertising.   Property Ads, List Cars, Jobs and more ...

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

Web Structure II

YapYapOK Free Ads

Web Structure is an important part of SEO, ie the way in which a website is built.  Sites built within frames are difficult to see even when all the meta and content is correct.  Rather than try to SEO a site which will clearly never do well in organic searches it may be better to redo the website into readable language.  This is a cheaper alternative to PPC & SEO is certainly more time consuming and expensive than Web building.  There are many free templates available where self build is possible for even the least techy amonsgt us.

The advantage of free templates is that they are generally well built and the web owner has the control of meta data as well as implementing third party tools such as Google Anaysis or Statcounter rather than re-employing the web builder to implement the changes.  They can be limiting and some free templates have limited template availability.

I recently built an ecommerce site with Freewebstore and it is a doddle.  There is an option to place code in for Google Analytics but I used Statcounter which it allowed.  Its logical where to place all the meta data both on product pages as well as main pages.  Products can be integrated onto Google Shopping and many ecommerce options are in place.  Domain assignment is easy, although there is no need providing you are happy to keep a freewebstore adress.  There are instructional videos should any part of the process be problematic.  The disadvantage is that you can only utilise the site tools so you are relying on them to be proactive regarding modern web add ons.  You can also only have a maximum of 15 products to qualify for a free site as well as have ads appearing for which you do not benefit.  After this there are various package options available.

We built a 50 product site costing £6.99 /month which is  cheap retail space as well as very cheap website and hosting.  A paid template means that you can benefit from advertising space which may actually pay for your site.

It is better to invest either time or money into a Google friendly site than optimise a website which is unlike to get seen by search engines.

Content on home pages should be keyword rich but without being spammy.  This should also be mirrored within the content of the other pages - not copied.  I have recently been asked to assess 2 websites for 2 clients.  One had no content at all, ie was just made up of images and the other had a home page that was just an image.  The harder it is to find text , the more down graded the site will be.  The former doesn't stand a chance and the latter needs the home page updating to contain text.

Images should contain meta tags but cannot be spammed with keywords. 

In summary:

• Website should be readable - not built in frames
  
• Text rich home page with keyword rich content

• Meta data should mirror keywords on home page and contain other search terms within the context of the website
• Individual pages should have relevant meta data differing from other pages
• Images should be labelled with tags
• Internal keyword linking - particularly use your main keywords to link the sub pages to the home page
  

Once all this is in place - run it through Google Webmaster Tools to see how well it performs.  If you have created an honest appraisel with relevent meta and keyword rich topic then it should be OK.  Use Google keyword tool to see what are the popular searches, make them location specific,  choose ones that are well searched but may be less competitive.  Don't be too scared at competition if the traffic is worth it for you and its your absolute target market.  Just follow the SEO rules.  Many competitor sites will not have implemented the fundamentals in meta and web build.  If you have, then as long as your prepared to put the time in to a quality external linking strategy then you will see your efforts rewarded!

YapYapOK Free Classifieds - SERPing on Page 1 Google UK for Free Classifieds and now for Free ADs

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

Website Structure & SEO

YapYapOK Free Classifieds

The most fundamental SEO advantage is domain name.  So many web engineers are ignorant to this fact and ill advise clients.  For example if YapYapOK.co.uk was called YapYapOKFreeClassifieds.co.uk instead it would behave as a metatag telling search engines what the website.  This statement is controversial but I have worked on so many sites containing the keyword within the url and SERP is autonaitically good soon after launch providing meta and content matches.

Fortunately YapYapOK has a good long tail url, ie sub pages contain contain classifieds as a search term!  The major advantage of the url is that it adopts the advert title adverts as the long tail in the url rewrite program.  The advertiser can put keywords within the tags section of the editor which is a red flag to google to check the url against the meta keywords.  The advertiser who puts keyword rich content within the description has an excellent opportunity to get the advert viewed by potential customers who are searching for the item within the search box.

The issue that some advertisers have regarding utilising Free Ads pages is that they are concerned that it may in some way cheapen their business.  Its a little like brands who don't like their retailers placing products on Ebay.  However the quantity of visitors that visit these pages should not be dismissed.  More visitors normally equals more sales in turn creating more orders for the brand companies.

Unlike Ebay Free Classifieds advertising is no risk since their are no listing charges.  Many web owners wish to sell primarily via their own websites however they will be losing out to the competition who value the available web tools to promote from external sites.  YapYapOK Free Ads also have a Twitter feed wherby the advert title, price and a link back to the advert are posted automatically on the popular microblog.  This enhances the SEO as well as creating further visitor numbers.  We get a huge quantity of Twitter referrels utilising this method

So clearly there is no harm listing products on many different sites if they are free!

YapYapOK will very soon be changing its server as we have grown and need to have more available space.  Consequently our site will be down for a day within the next week.  We are sorry to anyone wishing to place ads on this day but we hope that disruption will be minimal.

YapYapOK Free Classifieds!

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site