Wednesday, May 26, 2004


Affiliated

Search Engine Optimization for DummiesI was talking with Ted McConnell several years ago about search engine optimization. Ted is the head of P&G's IT Research Organization (or ITRO) and who, along with Terry McFadden, was one of the ultra-smart dudes I came across while hanging around the Chemed Center in downtown Cincinnati.

Anyhow, Ted told me about a few of his ideas for utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) techniques for marketing purposes. A lot of them were very clever and I hadn't heard about them being used before. One of his ideas I've modified and I'll share it here.

One of the keys to successful marketing on the web is to have a high ranking in a lot of good keyword phrases. Feel free to voice-over at this point, "Thanks, Captain Obvious!" But hear me out. In this context, "good" means commonly employed search terms used by your target audience. Sure, that's a key. But how, practically, is that achieved? Ah, there's the trick.

Imagine if you were selling baseball cards on the web. Wouldn't it be worthwhile to post some links to Amazon's books and collectibles related to baseball and card-collecting? And to have some good descriptions of each item? And, better yet, to augment those links with your Affiliate code?

So what I have done is combined meaningful links (say, to Amazon SKU's with my affiliate code) on certain of my pages with good excerpts of each item's description. This kills two birds with one stone:

- It generates lots of good keyword hits for the topics, driving traffic
- It generates affiliate bucks for purchasing more Amazon junk

Oh yeah. Thass' what I'm talking about. So click away on any Amazon SKU you see on these articles. My wish list seems to grow by the day, and Daddy needs a new pair of books.

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