So as most of you readers already know, I am a search engine marketing consultant for a company called All Web Promotion. In addition to providing search engine marketing services such as website optimization and pay per click advertising, All Web also specializes in the design and development of Yahoo! Store websites. In fact, the company is so proactive as a Yahoo! Store designer that a large majority of our SEM clients are indeed Yahoo! Store owners. It is for that reason that I have become very familiar with the Yahoo! Store platform and understand just how to optimize it for the major search engines.

Generally speaking, the developers of the Yahoo! Store platform (not to be confused with Yahoo! Store designers - but the actually people at Yahoo! who've created this platform) are very focused on providing the very best solution possible for their merchants. These guys understand full-well that there is a lot more to eCommerce than just providing a customizable website solution and a secure shopping cart.

How do I know this, exactly? Well, aside from having several meetings with the Yahoo! Store development team and getting to know these guys both personally and professionally, they've put out several tools and resources to assist Yahoo! Store merchants with their search engine marketing efforts. These tools and resources include Google Sitemaps integration, Yahoo! SiteExplorer integration, Yahoo! Search Marketing (PPC) tracking integration, submission links to each of the major search engines, and much more.

With all of this being said, I have a few simple ideas / suggestions that I would like to share with you readers, and to possible the Yahoo! Store development team as I know they stop by once in awhile - referring to you Paul B. I understand that these guys are uber-busy these days, but my suggestions are things I believe can be implemented rather easily (really, I have no idea) and will make life easier for merchants, not to mention myself, especially from a search marketing front.

And so, for what it's worth, I suggest the following ideas to the Yahoo! Store development team:

1) My first suggestion is no doubt one that will either be laughed at or ignored completely, but here goes. Please allow Yahoo! Store owners the ability to edit their store's robots.txt file. In doing so, merchants and their marketing teams will now be able to customize the depth of their search engine experience, and limit search engine spiders to crawl only those areas that matter most.

Now, I know what most of you are thinking... why would you ever want to limit the amount of exposure that your website gets from search engines. Well, there have been numerous times when my clients and I didn't want search engines to crawl and index specific pages, such as PPC landing pages which often at times means duplicating the same content across multiple pages in order to find the layout that converts the best, "specials" pages that change often and where such deals were created specifically for use with email marketing campaigns, or those product pages which are not to be promoted in the search engines per the request of the manufactures that produce the products merchants sell. These are all legitimate reasons for wanting to edit one's Yahoo! Store robots.txt file, and yet doing so is not an option.

2) Creating and distributing a website's sitemap file (as in a Google Sitemap) has become a very important part in getting one's website crawled and indexed by the search engines. Therefore, my second suggestion for the Yahoo! Store team is to integrate the URL for the Google Sitemaps file (in which your platform will automatically generate for us) into the robots.txt file. Why, you ask? Well, the sitemaps protocol that Google established has recently been adopted by all the major search engines including the Yahoo! search engine, as well as Microsoft's Live Search and Ask.com. These engines, while they do not currently offer a place to submit a sitemap, will instead crawl the robots.txt file and record its location via the URL provided.

3) Ask.com, a search engine which up until recently didn't provide a "submit for inclusion" option, is now providing website owners with a special URL that when edited and used properly will automatically ping the search engine and provide it with the location of their site's sitemap file. This URL, while pretty basic, is not really known outside of the SEM community, and could actually be somewhat problematic for merchants with little-to-no Internet/website experience. My suggestion for the Yahoo! Store team is to create a simplified process for utilizing this special URL. A couple of suggestions would be to either provide a link that merchants can click-on in which your system automatically generates the correct "ping" address, or provide a checkbox or something to that effect which would take care of things behind the scenes.

4) Microsoft Live Search has recently rolled out a program dubbed "Live Search Webmaster Central". This program allows website owners the ability to register their website and see key diagnostics and statistics regarding how their website interacts with the Microsoft Live search engine - a program very similar to Google's Webmaster Tools and Sitemaps program. My suggestion for the Yahoo! Store team is to create a tool, similar to the one that was created for the Google Sitemaps program, which will allow merchants to easily verify ownership of their website (something that must be done before Microsoft will relinquish any kind of data).

5) My last suggestion, much like the first, is probably one that will not be taken seriously, but whatever. My suggestion is for the Yahoo! Store team to allow Yahoo! Store merchants the ability to create 301 redirects. I don't care how... just find a way. The 301 redirect is the search engine's preferred way for redirecting traffic from page-to-page or site-to-site, and having the ability to apply a 301 redirect would have saved my ass more times than I can remember when trying to disclose to the search engines of a new page or site.

And that's, that. Again, I want to reiterate that while I am a huge fan of the Yahoo! Store platform, and of their development team and what they've been able to accomplish thus far - in terms of providing a customizable website solution that not only provides a secure shopping environment, but is also search engine friendly as well - I feel that the implementation of the ideas I've shared above will certainly make for a better kick-ass merchant experience.

So I know I've never mentioned this before, but I really, really, and I mean REALLY love the Del.icio.us bookmarking website. Aside from leveraging it in association with a well-rounded social bookmarking campaign, the site is essentially very useful and easy-to-use.

Del.icio.us, for those of you who may not know, is an online bookmarking tool where users can record all their favorite websites, tools, and other online resources... essentially, one can record any web address that they want to remember for future use. What I believe makes this tool so much better than say the standard "favorites" feature on your browser is that with Del.icio.us, your bookmarks are saved into an online account, and accessible from everywhere. This is a huge plus if you're geek like myself and happen to work from multiple locations such as an office and at home.

How I use Del.icio.us
I happen to use Del.icio.us daily... yeah man, seriously... that often. And, it's so easy. I spend anywhere from a half-an-hour to an hour each day reading through my collection of industry news, gossip, and happenings... aka industry blogs and newsletters. During this time, if I come across anything of importance, say like a new tool, theory, or SEM strategy, I'll bookmark it. To make things even easier, I've downloaded the "My Del.icio.us" and "post to Dec.icio.us" browser buttons (for IE and FireFox). These buttons make bookmarking so much easier as one does not have to actually visit the Del.icio.us website to add a listing. Instead, with one quick click of the "post to Del.icio.us" button (followed by a login and password session - one per day) I can bookmark any page instantly, and move on.

What I tend to do is bookmark all of the things I want to bookmark each day, and then designate some time at the end of each month to editing, tagging, and organizing my listings into their appropriate category. For example, I have a "search engine optimization" tag that houses all of my search engine optimization bookmarks. And, the same for when it comes to Pay Per Click bookmarks... and so on, and so on. Categorizing and labeling bookmarks is a big part of what makes this tool so valuable. How relevant would your list of bookmarks be if they were buried within your account? You'd never be able to find and use them.

Here is a screen-shot of the how I tag and categorize my bookmarks. As you'll see, I go into great detail when it comes to labeling my listings as locating them quickly is something that is important to me. To do this efficiently, I have utilized the "bundles" option and separate my labels into categories such as "Graphic Design", "Internet Marketing", and "Website Design".

How you can use Del.icio.us

1) One way to use Del.icio.us is to use it exactly how I do... bookmark everything that you feel is important to know or remember, and then later spend some time sorting it into their appropriate categories. As you're doing so, you'll essentially be compiling a library full of online tools, references, and resources relating to your specific industry. For example, in my online travels, I had found and bookmarked several guides pertaining to local search marketing. As it turns out, I currently have no use for such information, but nonetheless I have it and can reference it should I ever need to.

2) Another interesting way to use Del.icio.us is as a means for researching specific topics. Let's take the Internet marketing industry for example. If you were someone that was new to website design, development, and marketing and wanted to get a better understanding of how to improve your website's search engine placement, Del.icio.us makes for a good starting point. Here's my thought... because Del.icio.us accounts are available to the public - meaning you can view what others have bookmarked - you could simply find a well-known search marketer's Del.icio.us account, say mine, Matt McGee's, or even Tamar Weinberg's, and view everything that they've found to be important on a variety of topics. Instantly, you would have access to many of the same tools and guides that we use and find valuable. That to me sounds like a short-cut if I ever knew one.

3) Last, but certainly not least, Del.icio.us is one of those tools that can be leveraged to promote one's own website or cause. Bookmarking your own website, blog, press releases, or tools can increase the chances that they are not only found by Del.icio.us users with similar interests, but by search engines as well. Simply put, search engines crawl and index Del.icio.us accounts on a regular basis - just as they would with any other website - and their findings (aka links to your website) could in fact be used to influence search engine rankings... regardless of their use of the "no follow" tag. Hey, a link is a link.

Welcome to a brand new year here on the Klog blog. I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday break and a grandiose New Year celebration... I know I did.

At the start of each New Year, I like to take a few moments and reminisce back through the events of the previous year, and highlight all the happenings that really helped to make the year stand out for me. The following is a break-down of 2007:

Top 5 Klog Posts of 2007
The following are the top 5 posts of 2007 (or at least in terms of user-participation, number of views, and my personal opinion). If you're recently new to the Klog... have yourself a peek at some of what you may have missed, and if you've been reading all year long... take a second to reminisce a little:

• NEW at Wal-Mart: SEM Services -- 12.26.2007
  Move over Sam's Choice Cola and Sam's Choice Drinking Water... there's a brand new product offering hitting the shelves. Introducing Sam's Choice Pay Per Click services.


• Have Your Business Priorities Changed? -- 07.19.2007
  So there I was walking into my local Target store when out of the blue it hit me... I was a changed man. I was a little frightened, but came to terms with my discovery.


• Setting Up a Google Sitemap with a Y! Store -- 04.26.2007
  The Yahoo! Store platform seems to always play well with others... well for the most part anyway. Here are 12 steps for setting up a Google Sitemap with a Yahoo! Store.


• New YSM: All that and a bag of chips? -- 02.15.2007
  Now that the Yahoo! Panama upgrade has taken full effect in the U.S., what do you think? I have to give kudos to Yahoo! for what appears to be a flawless upgrade.


• A "Story" About Success -- 02.07.2007
  A couple of years ago, while I was brushing up on my design skills, I created this uber-cool poster. I now have a copy of it hanging up on my cube wall to remind me about success.

3 Industry Interviews of 2007
In addition to attaining a better understanding of one's beliefs and points-of-view on a particular subject, interviews are a great way to get to know someone, and inevitably learn from them as well. I have set-up interviews with the following reputable industry-folks, whom specialize or carry with them a background in a variety of website design and marketing areas. The following are 3 industry interviews I've conducted in 2007:

• An Interview with Matt McGee -- 11.19.2007
  I'll be talking shop with my good friend Matt McGee of Marchex. He and I first met at SMX back in June, but we've known each other on the web since well before that.


• An Interview with Lisa Barone -- 04.23.2007
  In addition to her role as a Senior Writer for Bruce Clay, Inc., Lisa is also the very lovable personality, the voice if you will, of the Bruce Clay blog.


• An Interview with Li Evans -- 03.06.2007
  Today I'll be talking shop with search marketing expert Liana Evans of Commerce360. She, as most of you know, is also the editor and chief at the Search Marketing Gurus blog.

Karl Ribas Interviewed in 2007
Surprisingly enough (at least to me anyway), I took part in 4 separate interviews this past year... ranging from search marketing-related chit-chat to a podcast interview I did on cigar smoking. "Being interviewed" is something that I haven't yet gotten used to (personally speaking, I feel more comfortable being the "Q" guy than the "A" guy), but I had a really great time being apart of each. The following are 4 interviews that I did in 2007:

• Interviewed on the Cigar Alliance Podcast -- 12.27.2007
  I was interviewed on the Cigar Alliance podcast. The interview was published just yesterday and features lots of information regarding one of my favorite hobbies.


• Interviewed by Yahoo! Store Blog -- 09.21.2007
  Check it out... last week I was interviewed by my man Paul Boisvert (the infamous Paul B.), Sr. Technical Content Producer from the Small Business division at Yahoo!.


• Interviewed by Practical eCommerce Magazine -- 08.17.2007
  A couple of weeks back I was interviewed by Ryan Welton, a staff writer for Practical eCommerce Magazine, for an article titled "Maintaining Sanity Amid Multiple PPC Campaigns".


• Interviewed on Mr. SEO Podcast -- 05.11.2007
  Yesterday I was interviewed on the "Mr. SEO podcast". Joe and I had a great conversation on Pay Per Click advertising and management, and offered up some good pointers for all.

The Highlights of my Personal Life
What would a 2007 recap post be if it didn't include the highlights of my personal life? The following are 5 events (2 of which were never publicly mentioned here on the Klog - I really do try to keep this blog as much of a search-marketing related resource as possible) that helped to shape my personal life in 2007:

• My Girlfriend Jackie is Officially Out of Beta -- 11.08.2007
  Much like a programmer who spends his days working out the bugs in his newest web 2.0 community, I've been doing the same with my 7+ year project dubbed "Jackie".


• Rush Live Last Saturday -- 09.11.2007
  Some buds and I caught a Rush concert at the "First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre". The concert itself was a blast, and it turns out that I even recognized a few of their songs.


• I Became a first-time Uncle (and Godfather) -- 07.16.2007
  My brother Ken and his wife had their very first child... a baby boy. They named him Alex. It's funny how a little-man like Alex can change one's opinion on life.
  


• I Bought a House -- 06.26.2007
  After lots of searching for just the right place, my girlfriend Jackie and I bought a house! Thus far, the experience has been a great and rewarding one.


• WrestleMania 23... Priceless! -- 04.04.2007
  This past weekend in Detroit was without a doubt the single greatest weekend of my entire life as I, and 80,000 other wrestling fans, attended WrestleMania 23 at Ford Field.

And, that's that! In closing I want to send out a very meaningful 'thank you' to all of you who read this Blog. It's been a true-pleasure to share with you my insights on the various topics of search marketing and website development, and I'm very happy to be apart of your weekly read. Let it be known that I do not get paid for this gig (not even with Google Adsense)... it's actually something I do on the side, which proves the fact that I really do write for the betterment of my readers.

I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year in 2008!