Sub Domains and SEO - #seopodcast 128

Welcome to the SEO Podcast, Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. Got it right that time. I did. My name is Chris Burris, owner of eWebStyle. Charles Lewis, your internet marketing specialist. Welcome to an exciting edition of the Unknown Secrets of SEO Podcast, or also known as Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing Podcast. This is a Thursday. Normally broadcast on Friday. I will be out of town tomorrow, so we're getting it in early. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. This is podcast number 128. If you're tuning in, you should know that. If you've been following us, if you haven't, this is 128. And go check 127, 126, 125, 124, 123, 123. And time to end the podcast. Do not forget, we are your friendly local neighborhood top position. Snatchers. Snatchers, where our mantra is, don't be a douche. And remember, if you're listening to this from a computer, or you have the ability to do some sort of social media, something right now at this moment, go ahead, tweet, Facebook, something. Say, hey, right now I'm listening to hashtag SEO podcast 128. Excellent. And tag us at it, at eWebStyle. That way we'll know that you guys are following us, and we really appreciate it. Hey, the tip from the last podcast is the new Ziploc algorithm. By the way, that's the phrase we gave it. They call it Google Freshness, but before they titled it, we called it Ziploc. Yeah. And I think Ziploc's a whole lot better. So the new Ziploc algorithm update should remind you to keep producing fresh content. Yes, sir. Because it is about fresh content. Hey, man, I'm excited. I'm disappointed. You know, normally if there's no review, product placement. Normally if there's no review, what do I do? Get a teardrop tattoo. Get a teardrop tattoo. So I didn't even know what to do when we got a bad review. Like I just crawled into it. Get it upside down. Upside down tattoo. Here it is. You know, this is just to show we're really about openness. We read our bad reviews on

the air. The guy's name is Danny Thompson. I'm not giving them another try. One star. That's the title. I've tried to like this podcast and the descriptions look like they have great content to deliver. However, they waste an insane amount of time with other stuff before they ever get to the content. When it's a business-related podcast, I don't think publishers should start thinking they are radio DJs. Get to the point and deliver content, please. You know, that's been one of the criticisms that we have. And, you know, I certainly appreciate your taking the time to listen. Yeah. By the way, it's not DJs. It's radio personalities. There are no discs anymore. And what I did is I actually clicked his link and he recommended another podcast. I'm going to do something probably no other podcast is out there doing. It was Internet Marketing, Insider Tips and Advice for Online Marketing. Go check it out. It's a pretty good podcast. Well, check it out. Then come back and tell us what you think. Matter of fact, compare it. I'd like to see where we're falling at, where we're better at, or what you think we can do to improve. And what's my guy's name? Danny? Yep. Punch in the face for the feedback. Thank you. You know, it is what it is. I think, to be blunt, we have majority of our people appreciate the news, the updates, and things that we're trying to give along with the content. Right. You happen to fall in the percentage that don't, and that's okay. That's okay. Hope you do well. So, we follow this with a great positive review that just came in, I don't know, yesterday or something. This, I love the title, super awesome five stars. This is by Lazak, L-A-Z-A-K. Thanks for all the SEO tip, guys. You're entertaining and informative. Don't let anyone tell you that your witty banter is annoying. It adds to the subject matter, even if loosely. I like that. Danny? By the way, we didn't pay this guy. We didn't.

Well, he came in, what, two days after that one? Yep, two days later. So, he had a chance to see it. I won't give you a punch in the face because that's your thing, but I would like to give you a kick in the shins from my company. Ouch. Oh, oh. That was a good kick. Oh, ouch. I'm only saying ouch because we got a new bedroom set. Bedroom set comes with a footboard. Not used to the footboard. Man, turning the corner too fast, hit my shin on the footboard. Oh, look. That'll lay you out. Done. I'm not going to wherever I was on my way to. I'm laying down right here. Comfortably. Comfortably. And crying. Man, so kicking the shin. Ouchie. Appreciate it, I think. Their company is Kicking Lizard Salsa. And I went to the website. It's kickinglizard.com. It's pretty cool. They have some salsas on there. So, hey, send us a free sample. We'll taste it on air and give you guys some information. Yeah, and let you know. Because we are in Texas. We know salsa. Yeah, we know salsa. I'll never forget one. Should I be in New York City? New York City. With Kicking Lizard, it could be like Arizona or something. Arizona, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, we can give props to that. We also got another review actually on Facebook. This is from Movie Boozer, which is, I went to their Facebook page. So, their kind of concept is, we rate movies with beer bottles. So, it's like a. Movie Boozer. Okay. It's a five beer bottle movie. It's a, you know, one beer bottle. Now, what I don't know is, if it's bad, do you need more beers to stomach it? Like, how does it, because normally you think five beer bottles, oh, that's good, unless you need five beer bottles, five bottles of beer to actually get through the movie. They should even add types of beer. Oh, this is real bad. This is a three bottle OE. OE. Oh, this is great. This

is a five bottle Corona, you know? Yep. That's awesome. He says, I have been listening to your podcast for a couple months. I like listening to you guys. Thanks for the tips. I still have a lot of work to do, but our hits are going up. Cheers, Salvador from Movie Boozer. Hits are going up. So, you implement the changes. Salvador, punch in the face to you. Punch in the face. Thanks for tuning in. And did he give us a link to the site? He didn't, but you can find it. Actually, go to our page. Go to our Facebook page, which, by the way, you can stalk us. Facebook.com slash. E-Webstyle. Twitter.com slash. E-Webstyle. YouTube.com slash. E-Webstyle. Podcast at. E-Webstyle.com. I'm way too cool to do. Yeah, you're not going to give me that. I tried. I threw it in real quick. Seriously, hit us up. Send us an email. Hit us up on Facebook. Go to iTunes. Three steps. Go to iTunes. Create an account. Write a review. And if you want, send us a notice that you wrote the review. Or in the case of kicking lizard, it's enough information for us to give you a shout out. So, excuse me. A punch in the face. A punch in the face. A punch in the face. Let's see. Let's go on to this. A little bit of news. Hey, Adobe axes Flash for mobile and TV. So, they never really got it to work on all the devices. Obviously, never the iPhone. Although, that's not exactly true because you can jailbreak your iPad. I saw it and get Flash on it. It was never running stable. That was always Steve Jobs' complaint. And now, they're making the decision to pull it. They're not going to develop Adobe Flash for mobile devices or TVs like Google TV. I don't know. I think that's risky. I was just reading stats and I should have put that stat in this list. You know, more searches and more advertising is moving towards mobile. So, if everyone's shifting from

being at the desk, which is never going to go away, and a lot more is happening mobile. Well, I think that's why it is risky, but it may be worth the risk. Because if everyone's shifting towards mobile and you're clearly having problems with mobile on one of the platforms that is by far at the top, it may be worth, okay, white flag, we're going to fall back, switch to, you know, some sort of HTML5 presentation that will accomplish the same goal we're trying to do for these mobile versions. Well, the same, you know, we were talking when somebody was announcing that they thought Adobe Flash was doomed. And then I looked at the stats, like 98% of users, desktop users, actually have Flash installed. So, their market capitalization, not capitalization, but the amount of market share that they have is huge. So, they're clearly not going away anytime soon on desktops. It's hard to imagine right now an online gaming platform, right? The little games you play online, that would be better than Flash. All the loads in Flash. Yeah. Yeah, so, it's interesting. We'll see how that plays out. I thought this was cool. Kindle Fire has reportedly slowed down iPad sales. This is, of course, from somebody taking polls, a poll organization. Kindle Fire slowed down iPad sales. So, in the people that they interviewed, 5% said that they were planning on getting a Kindle Fire. 4% said that they were planning on getting an iPad. And of those 5% that are going to get a Kindle Fire, 26% said that that was slowing their purchase of an iPad. Because they want to investigate the Kindle Fire. That's it. Check it out. My brother-in-law, he's going to get two probably. Oh, I hope that doesn't, they don't listen. And he was saying he's going to get one for his wife and one for his daughter. Two Kindles or two iPads? Two of the Fires. Okay. Right? He's very price conscious, and the Fire would do everything. His daughter gets on the web to

do research. She's only 7, and she gets on the web from time to time to do research for stuff that she's doing. So, a Kindle Fire makes a whole lot of sense. Well, it does, especially if you're being price conscious. Because I just bought an iPad, iPad 2, for the pastor of my church. And it was interesting. It's $4.99, no matter where you look at it. It's $4.99. Right. For the base model, 16 gig, you know, Wi-Fi only. Right. Right? It was another $100. As a matter of fact, another $130 if I wanted to get the $32, then add $50 more if I wanted to make it so I can use it with the service provider. Right. Sprint or, you know, whoever. T-Mobile or. So, I was like, wow. So, if I want to get maximum storage and use it with my service carrier, I'm going to spend $700, $800. Yep. Plus another $100 for the warranty. I said, man. And if you're on a service contract, plus $40 a month for the contract. Whereas the Kindle Fire's, $199. Yeah. Right? So, it's $300 cheaper than the cheapest iPad. So, that's. I think that's what. The Kindle Fire, although I'd want it to be the same size as the iPad. It's a little smaller, yeah? Yeah, it is. I think it's about $700. I think it's like the Galaxy. Okay. I think then $300 cheaper and with almost the same specs is just going to, that's going to be really something that can go head to head with the iPad. Otherwise, they're just doing an awesome, awesome amount of stuff. They're doing a great job, iPad. This is interesting. Android and iOS, so that's the operating system for Apple, has about 58% of the portable gaming market. Of the portable gaming market. So, the little P, I don't even know what they're called, that the kids play, the Nintendo PS3. But PS3 doesn't run on, say that again? So, Android and iOS have 58% of the portable gaming market. So, they have to be considering

games that are played on your phone device. Exactly. Okay, yeah. Because PS3 uses something else. Something else, yeah. Yeah, so the actual devices that are designed for gaming. Are left with the other 42%. That's pretty interesting. So, I wonder if that's including, I guess, Angry Birds and things like that. Are they talking about game apps? I'm sure it does, yeah. Zynga, you know who Zynga is? The company Zynga? Yeah. I thought this was interesting. They're the ones who made Farmville and Cityville or whatever. Early on, they didn't have money, and so they gave stock options. Recently, they said, give us our stock options back or we'll fire you. Wow. Yeah, because they're probably about to try to... They're about to go to IPO, and they don't want to create... Like, Google apparently created a $20 million chef. What game is that, though? That's super lame. Here's your salary. Wait, give us back your salary, or we're going to fire you. And then we'll let us go public first, and then we'll pay you what we think you're worth. Yeah. Not what you've earned. Yeah, I mean... Oh, it's bad. But you know what? That could have been blank stare, so that's just nasty. Yeah. They often say they need a kick in the shin. Yeah. It'll have a whole different meaning. I know. Check out thinkwithgoogle.com slash insights. It's a lot of information about everything related to Google. It's really cool. And one of the things that I read out there was it said that 79% of websites do not have a mobile-optimized website, which is really interesting that this came up at this time because we were working with one of our clients on their mobile site. We had a big, drawn-out conversation about mobile and what mobile should be accomplishing for them. And so it made a lot of sense. So what I did is I put a question on our Facebook page. So go to our Facebook page. The question is, how many of you actually go to the full slash desktop

version of a mobile site? So as an example, when I go onto eBay, the first thing I do is scroll all the way to the bottom and go to the full site. When I go onto facebook.com, if I'm not using the app, and there are times when I want to do business stuff where I can't use the Facebook Android app, so I scroll to the bottom and I go to desktop version. I want to see the whole thing. And so I would say I almost always go to the full desktop version. Me too. There's two of us. Apparently, Javier here in the office, he's about 25% of the time. So 75%, he stays on the mobile version of the website. We'd like to know what you think. So go to our Facebook page, facebook.com slash eWebStyle. You know what I'd also like to see? If you do stay on the mobile site, why? Yeah. What are you looking for? I mean, are you staying on a mobile site to seriously browse company information? Or are you staying there because they've presented what you're looking for easier? I think most people who probably stay on that mobile is because whatever they're looking for is ready. Yeah. For example, the client who he was speaking about earlier, you know, we need to feature maps and directions and instructions on how to get to a certain location mobily. So for that reason there, we're designing it so that that information will be easily accessible on the mobile version. And if you want to see any other information about us, frequently asked questions. Or investor relations information. Yeah. Then go to the full version of the site. Because it does render well on an iPhone. It renders well on an Android device. And so that was our kind of we've got a little push back and forward. We were just, Javier and I were talking this morning. Should we have a mobile version of eWebStyle? Would you watch it? Let us know. Yeah. What should we? Yeah. We'd love

to have that. Hey, question from a long-time listener, big-time friend, punch in the face regularly. He's all bloody. Darren Bowie says, does it hurt SEO if you point your host's name servers not to your root directly but to a folder instead? Say that you have just launched a blog and wish your domain name to go to the blog instead. And I know you put a response. So what did you say? My response to Darren was, no, it doesn't hurt your SEO. I mean, because, frankly, we see subdomains and other domains point to internal folders on a server all the time. Even down to, you know, some people who share servers, right? Technically, all these things are in different folders. And so those domain names are already pointing to internal folders. So I don't think it hurts the SEO. I just think as long as you make sure you do it the right way and that, you know, everything is... Yeah, you don't want it, for instance, if our folder was blog. You wouldn't want the address bar to say e-webstyle.com slash blog, right? You can do server tricks to have it point to an internal folder so that e-webstyle.com actually points to the blog folder. So in that case, clearly it won't make a difference. I think his question was, though, if it's got that extra folder extension, right? In which case, I would say... So depending on which one you're doing, I would say that you try not to do that. Because really, Google does seem to give more value and credibility to the homepage. And the homepage being, you know, e-webstyle.com slash, you know, whatever. It tends also to be where you get your inbound links. Yeah, exactly. So you might even be mindful of if you're doing... Just depending on... Let us know which one you're doing or we've given you the answer to both. If it shows you the folder, probably not good. If you're just doing a server trick to point to a folder, it doesn't matter. Google doesn't know

the difference. Gotcha. And, all right, so we've been doing lots of mobile. And I would, you know, I would definitely have to agree with LASIK here. It says that we're adding to our subject matter, even if it's loosely. Today, it's actually pretty tightly connected. Nine tips for optimizing your website for mobile users. So I'm going to start with one. I'm going to start with number three. Oh, where's this article from? This article is from Jamie Turner, and it's from socialmediaexaminer.com. I'll start with one. Okay, you can hand me number one. Yeah, okay. That'll work. Number one. I was giving you a little time to, like, get caught up. You almost confused me. You handed me one and said, I'll start with number one. I'll start with number two. You'll start with number three. Let's see here. Number one, simplify, then simplify again and again. Excellent. That's exactly what we did with our client. It's like, and it was a big point of contention in our discussion, which is it's too simple. If, you know, people want other information, where do they go? And our point was, if you're mobile, you don't want any other information, really. And if you do, then you go to the full version. Yeah, which is, you know, technically still up for discussion. So, we'll see. Yep. Number two, plan your site layout. I'm going to read this paragraph. Mobile web pages will load slower than traditional web pages, so it's important to keep the number of pages to a minimum. Kind of like what we were talking about with our client. Yep. They wanted each page of their current website to have a mobile version. And, you know, we just didn't think that that was entirely necessary. Yeah. And it can detract from the experience. We felt it would detract from the experience, actually. Yeah. Number three is match the branding elements from your standard site to your mobile site. Now, frankly, I think this goes without saying, right? And I know that we use WP Touch, which is a

WordPress plugin that allows you to show mobile stuff. You need to style it. You need to style it. You need to get your logo in there. You need to get your color scheme in there. They gave an example here of a website. I can't remember. A 60-second marketer or something. And it compares the full version to the mobile version. And your mobile version is just simpler with icons. And it really makes sense. And it has the same branding elements. So same color, same look and feel type of situation. I think to tie into that, that's kind of across the board, like especially if you're doing social, right? Your Twitter page and Facebook fan page and especially if you're doing Facebook marketing or even your YouTube background. I mean, things of that nature should all resemble your current website. Yeah, and we've learned the importance of branding in the last two months. Utilize white space. So when designing, so let me just read this. It's a natural tendency to cram as much information as possible, fight the urge, and that goes back to simplify, simplify, simplify. Not only does white space give a cleaner, more sophisticated appearance, it ensures the users can quickly and easily find what they're looking for. And I just want to go back even to the branding elements. One of the differences in the sample we're looking at is they're really big icons to represent the different pages. And I think really you should design your mobile website to be more like an app, right? So you don't even need to create an app for Android or iPhone. Actually just make a mobile version that's got big icons. It's really simple. Think of it in terms of that. All the nice details of a good quality app should be implemented on your mobile version. You shouldn't need an app, actually, for your website. Apps should be for application stuff, not just for your business. This is since most apps truly are shortcuts to a mobile version. Exactly. That's true. Is what I've

noticed. Yeah. That's true. Number five, avoid Flash or Java. We just talked about. Your first reason. Man, the tie-in is awesome today, isn't it? First reason is because Flash isn't going to be supported on mobile devices in the short term even. And then what was the other one? Flash or Java. Yeah. Because I guess some devices don't render Java well. Yeah. Probably, you know, RIM devices, BlackBerrys, things of that nature. Well, and I was even thinking, like, on our website, you know, you have to click on internet marketing in order to get a drop-down menu. That's Java. That doesn't work so well. I know sometimes I can get it to work on a mobile device. Sometimes I can't. Yeah. So it's one of the reasons we probably do need a mobile version of our website. That answers that question. Number six, reduce the amount of text entry necessary. Do you suffer from fat finger syndrome? Aye. Which makes it difficult to use a smartphone keyboard? Aye. Most of us have trouble typing on tiny keyboards. Aye. Yeah. When possible, use drop-down menus, checklists, and pre-populated fields as a means of data entry. Yeah. Excellent point, excellent tip. And, yes, that's one of the reasons why my next phone, like my current phone, will be a slider with the keyboard. Yeah. Because I can't type on screens. Yeah. Let's see here. Number seven, do not use pop-up windows. Navigating between multiple tabs and browser windows is more difficult on the mobile and can cause slow load times. That is so true. Pop-ups on mobile suck. Yeah. Don't do it unless extremely, unless it's part of the conversion, kind of like Groupon. Right. You have to input your location. Right. Yeah. To do anything. So that pop-up is necessary. Did they mention this? Because sometimes I'll be on a website and it'll do a pop-up. And because I've got, like I can only have six windows. Like at my desk, at the office, I can have hundreds. And usually do. And on my phone, I get like,

I think on my Galaxy tab, I get six options. And on my phone, I get four maybe or something. So you end up and it says, oh, I can't open it. So then you've got to go close something and come back. So yeah, absolutely no pop-ups. Yeah. Number eight, use mobile redirects. Once your site is designed and ready to go, make sure to put redirects in a place that will sniff out when the visitor is using the mobile device and direct him or her to the mobile optimized version of your site. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. I think that's some script that goes in the header. Yeah. You know, it can tell which type of browser you're using if it's on a mobile device and automatically redirect them to the mobile version. Number nine. I thought I gave you number nine, but I have it. Allow people to visit the full site. And we talked about this already. Yeah. We think this is paramount. Certainly, I know with eBay, full site. Facebook, in fact, the features that I want aren't on the mobile version. And that's like, you know, use Facebook as E-WebStyle so I can make a comment as E-WebStyle or whatever. Make sure that the full version is there. Because I was talking with Javier this morning. When he's used to a full version website, as soon as you get on a mobile, you don't know where things are. So scroll down to the bottom, full version, right click, I can do this. He pointed out one of the things that you can't do, even on the full version of Facebook, is when you change your photo, there's an opportunity to crop, which is probably JavaScript related. They don't have that on them, even on the full version, if you're on a mobile device. So it's interesting. And I also, I mentioned the iPad that had, that was jailbroke and had Flash on it. I went to a website that had Flash on the screen. And it was interesting because it just showed me, it

knew that it was an iPad. So it knew that it couldn't show me Flash. So it showed me a static image where there was a big Flash section. So I thought that was actually pretty interesting. That's it. That's it for our podcast. Again, while you're right now sitting wherever you're at, doing whatever you're doing, hop on Twitter, hashtag SEOpodcast128. And make sure that you're letting people know that you're listening to our podcast. We really appreciate you guys. Oh, we got Blank Stare, right? Blank Stare with the, yeah, Blank Stare with the can't believe it face. Not really take Blank Stare, but I'm a sports fan. And so Blank Stare at all of the students at Penn State University. I actually heard about this. Yeah, I was watching it up late last night on SportsCenter. So, you know, due to some stuff happening 10 years ago, you know, which, you know, I totally hate, you know, the situation in regards to the children, people getting molested or whatnot. And the president and Coach Paterno got fired. Right. All the students went mad, rioting in the streets, flipping over news vans and breaking light poles. And, like, come on, like, violence does not, shouldn't beget violence. Yeah. You know, Blank Stare at all for choosing the wrong way to express yourself. Yeah. And I'll take that at the ones who were actually doing it. Because there were some good students who were just out there voicing their opinion, trying to be calm. But it was most of them were quite rowdy. Beyond rowdy. It's no longer rowdy as soon as the TV truck flips over. Rocking it, that's rowdy. Pushing it over, no longer rowdy. I think it was Jefferson who said something about riots. And he said, when people riot, you have to stop a riot with such a strong fist that generations remember rioting's not cool. And I don't think we do that. That's not our tendency. Anyway, it's been a great podcast. We will catch you guys next Friday. Again, you can catch our

podcast 915 Central Standard Time, Friday mornings. And then we, of course, upload the... Except for tomorrow. Except for tomorrow. Yeah. And we also have another podcast, which is the Unknown Secrets of Website SIBO Analysis. We'll be doing a couple more of those today. And that's where we do an analysis of websites from both an SEO and what we call a SEBO perspective, Search Engine Visitor Optimization. So go check that podcast out. And if you want us to do a review of your or an analysis of your website, just go to e-webstyle.com. On the right, there's a form. Fill out that form. And if you're one of the lucky ones and we choose your name out of our proverbial hat, we'll do an analysis of your website. Thank you guys for tuning in. Until the next podcast, my name's Chris Burris. So, bye-bye for now. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.