Aron Wall the author of ‘SEO Book’ has listed a really useful article on his blog called 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity. This is a very useful article & can be read here

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By Grant Crowell

Your site gets great traffic from search engines, and yet it needs a new design. How can you freshen up a site without risking a decline in rankings and a loss of traffic from search engines?

A special report from the Search Engine Strategies conference, August 2-5, 2004, San Jose, CA.

If a site ranks well in the search engines and gains plenty of traffic that converts, site owners are concerned about losing top positioning and qualified leads. Yet sites obviously must redesign from time-to-time. This session examined strategies to come through a site redesign and successfully retain or increase search-related traffic.

If a site already has good search engine rankings, why redesign?

“First and foremost, redesign is important when evolving from a static HTML site to a dynamic web site,” said said Matt Bailey, Web Marketing Director at The Karcher Group. “With the addition of more content, products, shopping carts, etc., site owners might need to move to a dynamic web site with more administrative capabilities.

“Another reason is just to update the web site,” he continued, “freshen the design and layout. Maybe the site looks like it was designed in 1998. And maybe you want to improve the layout, navigation, or user experience.”

“Another goal of a redesign is to change brand identity to be a little more high end without losing the traffic,” said Amanda Vega, Director of Marketing at Rhino Internet.

Regardless of the reasons for a site redesign, all site owners should plan their search engine marketing strategies before they launch the updated site.

Before the redesign
All speakers recommended gathering data about the current site before creating an updated site. Places to gather data are web analytics tools, market segment analyses, and personas.

“We apply persuasive solution architecture to web sites,” said Jen Weeks, Director of Website Assessments, at Future Now. “There are a few steps that we use in this methodology. Our first step was to create persona. Our personas are based on how people behave on a web site.”

“Second, we did keyword research based on the persona that we developed, and that was specifically to optimize their rankings and conversions,” she continued. “And then we develop wiring frames, storyboards, prototypes based on this data.”

Once the persona is determined, every click-thru possibility is represented in wire frames, and how visitors might navigate a web site. “That is something you might want to do so that you can meet each of your different customer segment needs and where they are in the buying process,” said Weeks.

Both Bailey and Vega recommended using log file analysis to determine site updates.

“Review the history of the current web site, using your logs or other statistics programs,” said Bailey. “Find out what people are currently doing on your site. What pages do they tend to visit? What conversion points to they typically go towards? Look at your entry pages – where are people coming in other than the home page?”

“Identify the user paths towards conversion, because you want to measure those to see how effective they are currently and how you can improve those in the new web site,” he continued.

In addition, Vega recommended carefully reviewing visitor and target audience demographics. In one situation, a client was completely wrong about who made up their chief demographic, which was mostly female. “We used demographic information to drive the page layout and redesign, especially the psychology of an online user,” she said. “What does a woman do on a web site vs. a man? What layout tendencies do they have?” Gender preferences can have a considerable impact on conversion rates, especially on non-U.S. sites.

Launching the redesigned site
Bailey recommended creating a new 404 (Page Not Found) page during the changeover plan. “I can’t stress the importance of this enough,” he said, “because if you create a new URL structure, you are going to need to capture visitors who arrive from old page links Some search engines will not clean out their indices for a number of months so you will continue to get referrals.”

To communicate to the spider-based search engines that URLs have been modified, speakers recommend using a 301 redirect for permanent changes, and a 302 redirect for temporary changes.

“To ensure that we did not lose traffic during a redesign,” said Vega, “we purchase PPC keywords for the highest converting keywords. We kept those ads active until the site converted organically for those words as well. When you are doing a redesign, it becomes especially important to invest in PPC advertising.”

Link development is also part of the redesign equation. “Take a good look at inbound link opportunities and make sure you notify your current inbound links of the changes in your site,” Vega recommended.

Managing client expectations
“If you are a search engine marketer, stay involved with the client make they know what is going on,” said Bailey. “Let clients know that Google rankings are changing daily, so whether or not you put up a new site or not, rankings are going to change regardless.”

“The fact is that any change to your web pages is going to have an impact on your ranking, and there may be a slightly delayed effect,” said Danny Sullivan. By planning ahead, site owners can minimize the effects of a site redesign on traffic and conversions.

Related articles:

Secrets of Successful Search Engine Optimization

http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2175081

Search Engines and Web Server Issues

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3109261

Grant Crowell is the CEO and Creative Director at Grantastic Designs, Inc.. He has 15 combined years of experience in the fields of print and online design, newspaper journalism, public relations, and publications.

Want to discuss or comment on this story? Join the Maintaining Rankings after a Site Redesign discussion in the Search Engine Watch forums.

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77% of online shoppers read reviews from other users by ZDNet‘s ZDNet Research — 77% of online shoppers use consumer generated product reviews/ratings and those who find them useful are more loyal to stores with reviews/ratings featured, JupiterResearch reports.

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A news article in the NY Times states that a new report due to be released from PQ Media states that product placement has become a key marketing strategy. Nowadays products are pushed to consumers wherever they go: movies, television and radio shows; on Web sites; in video games; in lyrics; in newspaper and magazine articles; and even in the plots of novels.

“Product placement has emerged as a key marketing strategy worldwide,” said Patrick Quinn, president at PQ, who offered a preview of the report in a telephone interview with the NY Times yesterday.

“There’s a new media order emerging,” Mr. Quinn said, “fueled by a fear of ad-skipping technology, doubts about traditional advertising’s effectiveness and, in some countries, a search for new revenue streams as government subsidies decline.

“As brand marketers are seeking to effectively engage consumers with an emotional connection, product placement is no longer a novel tactic and is increasing dramatically.”

The PQ report tracks several types of product placements. One type is paid placements, where marketers spend money to weave their wares into the plots, scripts and content of entertainment offerings. Another type is barter, when, for instance, an airline provides tickets to the producers of a TV series in exchange for the airline appearing or being mentioned in an episode.

Spending on paid placements worldwide will reach $3.1 billion this year, the PQ report forecasts, compared with $2.2 billion in 2005. The United States led last year with $1.5 billion in paid placements, the report says, followed by Brazil, Australia, France and Japan.

By 2010, the report predicts, worldwide paid placements will total almost $7.6 billion.

Read the whole report here

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Nielsen//NetRatings reported that weekly US Web traffic to video sharing site YouTube grew 75% in the week ending July 16th, 2006, from 7.3 mln to 12.8 mln unique visitors. Among the top 25 Web brands ranked by unique audience, YouTube was the fastest growing from January to June 2006, increasing 297%, from a monthly unique audience of 4.9 mln to 19.6 mln. The number of Web pages viewed has grown even faster, increasing 515%, from 117.6 mln in January to 724.0 mln in June 2006. The average time spent at the site has increased 64% during the same period, from just over 17 minutes to nearly 28 minutes.

Men are 20% more likely to visit YouTube than women, with unique audience composition indexes of 113 and 88, respectively. Visitors between 12-17 years old index the highest among the various age groups, at 142. They are nearly 1.5 times more likely than the average Web user to go to YouTube.

These type of media sites are the the new buzz in the Internet world where advertisers see that millions of extra revnenue can be made adding clever advertising campaigns / sponsorships in to these type of videos, Google this week dropped their Froogle link from their search page & replaced it with a link to Google Video, says it all really!

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The 1st episode of a new series of The Dragons Den was shown last night at 20:00 on BBC2. Dragons’ Den is a series where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to secure investment finance from our dragons – elite business entrepreneurs.

Meet the dragons:

Duncan Bannatyne

Top pitching tip – Know your numbers, know your percentages.
Cardinal pitching sin – The very worst thing you can ever do is arrive late.
Motto – You only live once. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s your fault, nobody else’s.

A poverty-stricken childhood steeled Duncan’s drive to make his fortune from an early age. He began his entrepreneurial life by trading in cars, but it was with an ice cream van that he changed the course of his life – setting out to become the king of the ’99′.
He then switched to nursing homes, becoming a multi-millionaire in the process. Since then Duncan has built up a chain of health clubs called ‘Bannatyne’s’ and also owns Bannatyne’s Casino, Bar and Hotels.
Estimated to be worth more than £170m, Duncan holds an OBE and was recently awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) from Glasgow Caledonian University for services to business and charity.
He was also North Region Entrepreneur of the Year 2003 and Master Entrepreneur Of The Year 2003 for the North Region.

Peter Jones

Top pitching tip – Know your end goal and work towards it.
Cardinal pitching sin – Do not over exaggerate the opportunity, be clear and concise.
Motto – Believe in yourself, never give up and go about your business with passion drive and enthusiasm.

Peter’s entrepreneurial journey started early when, at the age of 16, he founded a tennis academy. He then set up a computer business and had various other business interests.
At the age of 28, Peter joined corporate giant Siemens Nixdorf and ran the computer business in the UK. In 1998 he founded Phones International Group, a telecommunications firm that now generates revenues in excess of £200m.
His business interests range from telecoms, leisure, publishing as well as TV and media. Peter has won many national awards, including Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001. Aged 40, Peter is considered to be one of the UK’s leading young businessmen.

Theo Paphitis

Top pitching tip – Make sure you look right and have the answers that will press the dragons’ buttons.
Cardinal sin – A lack of cashflow is like a heart attack – if you can’t pay your bills you’re out of business.
Motto – There are three reasons to be in business. To make money, to have fun – and to make money.

Born in Cyprus, Theo came to England when he was six and was running the tuck shop at his north London school at 15. Starting out as tea boy at a City insurance broker, he found his flair for retail as a shop assistant at Watches of Switzerland.
Theo returned to the insurance industry in sales at 20, where he discovered his natural ability of pointing out the obvious and applying common sense (which is not common). In no time he was helping businesses in difficulty and this soon became a full time role.
He has turned Ryman, Contessa, La Senza and Partners the Stationers into successful and profitable retail businesses.
He now heads up a 350 store chain and a group turnover approaching £250m. His latest ventures include Red Letter Days, the company he salvaged out of administration with fellow Dragon Peter Jones.

And we have two new dragons for this series:

Deborah Meaden

British multi-millionairess, Deborah Meaden launched her own glass and ceramics export company straight out of business college, before setting up one of the first Stefanel fashion franchises in the UK.
With several successful business in the leisure and retail sector under her belt, she became Managing Director of her family’s holiday park business Weststar Holidays, acquired the major shareholding in a management buyout and later sold the company in a deal worth £33 million whilst retaining a 23% stake.
She still retains an active role at Weststar but is devoting more time to finding good investment opportunities, the first of which has been a market research company.

Richard Farleigh

New Dragon, Australian multi-millionaire Richard is a full time business angel who has possibly invested in more new UK companies than any other British investor.
With a penchant for private equity investment in young high growth technology startups, the list of companies he has put his money in reads like the who’s who of the UK tech sector – including Amino Technology, ANT, Celoxica, Clearspeed, ARC International, Argonaut Software, IP2IPO and Wolfson Microelectronics, amongst others.

For any budding entrepreneur, this is a must watch!

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The UK is now officially the largest online retail market in Europe, according to Mintel. Driven by the increase in broadband use, total online spending in the UK is now at £6.69bn against £6.63bn in Germany.

Total European internet sales are up 51% on last year to a total of £27.48bn, with 2 thirds coming from the UK, Germany and France. Further growth is predicted, as online retail currently makes up only 2% of the total European retail market – this is set to rise over the next 3-4 years to 5%, when the total market will be worth £78.61bn.

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