Understanding Search Engine Speed Bumps & Walls

In Part One of our “How Search Engines Work” series, we showed you  how search engines go to work the nanosecond you submit a query. But search engines aren’t perfect machines, and some very basic navigation errors can hinder or entirely prevent search engines from reaching your website’s content.

As search engine spiders crawl the Web, they rely on the architecture of links to find new Web pages and revisit those that may have changed. Complex links and deeply buried site content often create “speed bumps” in the search engines’ process. And data that cannot be accessed at all by spider-friendly links qualify as “walls.”

Possible “Speed Bumps” for SE Spiders:

• URLs with 2+ dynamic parameters –take this beast for example http://www.url.com/page.php?id=4&CK=34rr&User=%Tom%.  Spiders may be reluctant to crawl complex URLs like this because they often result in errors with non-human visitors.
• Pages with more than 100 unique links to other pages on the site. Spiders may not follow each one.
• Pages buried more than 3 clicks/links from the home page of a website. Unless there are many other external links pointing to them, spiders will often ignore deep pages.
• Pages requiring a “Session ID” or Cookie to enable navigation. Spiders may not be able to retain these elements the way your browser can.
• Pages that are split into “frames” can hinder crawling and cause confusion about which pages to rank in the results.

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The number of ”graying and affluent” households is on the rise–and more and more of them are embracing the Internet as a shopping medium.

That’s the word from International Demographics, whose new Media Audit revealed that 65.6% of “graying and affluent” households had made at least one online purchase in the last 12 months–versus 50.2% the year before.

The Media Audit defines the graying and affluent market as those over the age of 50 with incomes of $50,000 or more–and they make up 15.7% of all the households in the US.

This certainly isn’t news for anyone who’s been following the social and economic impacts of the aging baby-boomer generation, but it may be a timely reminder for marketers who still think the Internet is only for targeting the Gen X and Y crowd.

Even if many of the older and wiser audience never go near the Internet, the fact remains that their children and grandchildren will.  As caregivers, they’ll use it to research and make decisions on behalf of their elders–on everything from finding a new doctor and purchasing a car to everyday things like filling a prescription or shopping for shoes.

So are the graying and affluent among your target audience? If so, take a step back and make sure you’re not ignoring their Internet savvy–or the Internet savvy of the ones who love them most.

National Internet Marketing Firm Expands to West Coast with New Locations in L.A. and San Diego; Offices Also Open in Atlanta, Illinois and Virginia

TruePresence today announced that it has expanded to 25 markets nationwide with the addition of three new offices in Atlanta, Peoria, Illinois, and Springfield, Virginia, as well as its first two West Coast offices in Los Angeles and San Diego.

“We are thrilled with the steady growth our company has maintained,” said Michael Teitelbaum, President of TruePresence. “Internet marketing is a red-hot industry, and a TruePresence franchise is a fantastic opportunity to leverage its explosive growth to create a lucrative career.”

With the announcement of their first West Coast offices, TruePresence has achieved its goal of nationwide expansion and continues to aggressively pursue expansion plans throughout the country.

“Sales, marketing and media professionals throughout the country are recognizing that almost every business has a need for consultative Internet marketing expertise,” said Teitelbaum. ‘With TruePresence, business leaders benefit from the expert guidance from a local Internet marketing consultant backed by the resources of a centrally-located team of Web development and search marketing experts.”

Franchise owners are a carefully selected group of experienced marketing and sales professionals, trained and educated to offer clients the most powerful and effective online solutions for their specific business needs.  Continue Reading…