I have a few extra resolutions to make this year, such as: get back into the gym (been out for almost a month), finish the six unfinished websites I am working on, spend more time with my wife and my dog, buy property in the mountains, finish the basement, etc. But my primary resolution is this:

STAY IN COLORADO!

Backcountry snowboarding in the middle of September.
Need I say more?

What is your New Years Resolution?

As many of my friends and coworkers will already know, I am a Tech Crunch Junkie. It’s nice to get news about technology and the Internet that doesn’t “always” have to do with search marketing and website design. Does anyone know why Tech Crunch doesn’t have SiteLinks on the Google result for their brand name even though their Alexa score is 500, they have tons of links and have been around for awhile? See this post for more info. Anyway…

They recently reviewed a bunch of ergonomic office chairs in
Workspace Roundup: Ergonomic Chairs on the CrunchGear blog.

I have used a few of the chairs mentioned in that post, and they were certainly comfy. But none were as comfy as the Balance Ball Chair, which was left out of the Tech Crunch blog entry. Why post about a chair? As someone who spends at least 12 hours of every day staring at a computer while sitting at a desk, a good chair is very important to me.

My apologies, but I am running behind on blogging. …two years behind, actually.

But everyone is doing their Best Of 2006 posts, so I figured now would be a good time to wrap up our late Best Of post for 2004.

THE BEST SEO POST OF 2004 AWARD GOES TO RYAN KING for the post titled: My Website on Google

“I’ve always wanted to be on Google for something… and now I am.”

“If you search for ‘Moscow Photos’ (without the quotes) on google, my website will come up on the first page (ok, I know its the last entry on the first page, but still…). I found this out, because I noticed that I was getting a significant number of hits on my moscow pictures page, about 10 a day. For my website that is a lot. So, when playing around on google, I found that I had been listed there, even though no one is linked to me. Hopefully I can move up in the rankings.”

Congratulations Ryan!

Actually, we should get this guy ranked #1 on Google for My Website on Google without quotes. He’s already #5 with them, but no longer on the first page for Moscow Photos

I usually don’t just rant off my pet peeves on this blog. It is, after all, a company blog - although I may forget that at times. But this particular pet peeve has to do with website design, usability, and SEO.

Here’s the tip:
IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE CUTE AND SPELL SOMETHING INSTEAD OF USING YOUR PHONE NUMBER AT LEAST PROVIDE THE NUMBERS UNDERNEATH.

My computer doesn’t come with the same number-to-letter convention used on those, those… what the heck was that thing that I haven’t had in my house in five years… Ohh - LAND LINE telephones! My BlackBerry doesn’t use that convention either.

So when you have 1-800-SOME-PHRASE I have no idea what the number is. And if you’re too lazy to translate it for me, I’m too busy to figure it out. There are too many of your competitors out there who don’t make me jump through those hoops. As a matter of fact, I’m going to go find one of them now. Perhaps I’ll pick the one listed right under your result on Google.

Regards,

Everett

Search for “Gaiam” on Google - just using them as an example - and you will see a series of links under the first result for http://www.gaiam.com/. This has been happening with many moderate-to-high traffic websites since earlier this year, 2006. How does Google decide which internal links to show? How can a webmaster get this cool type of result to happen for their own site? As most SEOs have speculated, it has a lot to do with user behavior. But there is more to it than that, and we no longer have to speculate….

The following patent has been out and about since December 21, 2006 (a few days ago) but the first I heard of it was while reading the following two blogs today:
- SEO By The Sea
- Search Engine Land

United States Patent Application 20060287985
Systems and Methods for Providing Search Results
Invented by Luis Castro, Walt Lin, and Benedict Gomes
Released: December 21, 2006 Filed: June 20, 2005

Don’t let the generic name fool you. This pending patent has a very specific purpose, which is summed up in the following abstract in typical patent-speak:

A method includes generating search results in response to a user query, where at least one of the search results includes a group of links. The group of links may represent links to web pages within a same web site and may be identified based on at least one factor associated with the links. The method may also include providing the search results to the user.

How Does Google Decide Which Pages to Show Additional Links For?
Data associated with users’ access of various web pages and/or sites such as:

1. Other web pages that have been accessed by users, such as hyperlinks associated with the web pages.
2. Total number of times each of the web pages corresponding to the hyperlinks have been accessed by users and/or an amount of time users have stayed on each of the web pages.
3. The number of links that point to each particular web page identified in log data storage.
4. Whether a typical user  scrolled through the web pages identified in log data storage  or linked out of the web pages without scrolling.
5. An information retrieval score indicating how closely a particular search query matches information on the web page.
6. The likelihood that a typical user will make a purchase associated with an item displayed on a web page. The likelihood that a purchase will be made may be provided by an entity (e.g., a company) associated with the particular web page or may be provided from user logs.

Where Does Google Get the Data to Make Such Decisions?
Three ways described in patent 20060287985 include:
1. Information gathered from user behavior on Google’s search engine
2. Information gathered from user behavior after the Google Toolbar has been installed
The first two are probably not news to anyone who has thought about the issue. However, the “alternative” way outlined in the patent’s conclusion area is a little more interesting:
3. Allowing the webmaster to identify what they believe to be the most important pages of the site.
Yet another reason to utilize the Sitemap options over at Google Webmaster Tools, as the XML sitemap allows you to rank the relative importance of your pages from 0.1 to 1.0.

How Can I Get My Site to Show Up in the SERPS With Extra Links?
This is the million-dollar question. Although nobody is going to be able to tell you with 100% accuracy, we have a much clearer picture now that this patent application is available. The good news is that the suggestions below, with the exception of #4, will also help you achieve higher search engine rankings in general, and are good SEO practice:

1. Submit an XML sitemap to Google (First Page Fitness offers this service) and be sure to give a higher number to the pages that you WANT to receive additional sitelinks.
2. Make sure these same pages are linked to from your home page.
3. Make it intuitive for users to visit these pages once they are on your site.
4. See if people who you know visit your site often will install the Google Toolbar and visit those pages.
5. Get more traffic by utilizing SEO, PPC, viral marketing and CPM ad buys

The last one is the most important. If you don’t already have Sitelinks below a search result for your brand name, chances are you just do not have enough traffic for Google to have compiled a meaningful data set on user behavior as it relates to your website. Being a highly-niche website, First Page Fitness probably falls into this category.

An example of Google Sitelinks in action on a search for Backcountry, showing links for www.BackCountry.com:

NOTE: This was only a brief interpretation of the Google patent application for Sitelinks in search results. If you are an SEO, we suggest you read the entire patent application yourself. For our health and fitness website owners, we suggest you read the two blog entries mentioned above, or contact us for more information.