I checked the Major League Soccer (MLS) website on Saturday to see the fixtures for the weekend (because I’m a soccer nut) and noticed that they were announcing a new website redesign. I found it kind of funny that they were announcing this with the website I was on being the exact same. I soon discovered that they had their site redesign on another URL entirely… which isn’t the best way of doing things.

In any case, I thought I’d run down some of the best practices for a website redesign and see where the new MLSSoccer.com website stood in my opinion. After going through some of the bigger issues and evaluating the new website, I would like to give a yellow card for the MLS’s effort for their website redesign:

Here’s why the new MLS website deserves a yellow card for their site redesign:

1. Announcing a website redesign on their old URL that tells users to go to a new URL. I wouldn’t approach a website redesign this way. I’m also hoping that in due time, the MLS web team makes the switch to the new MLSSoccer.com domain permanent by assigning 301 redirects from old URLs to their corresponding new URLs.
2. Their old website has some “official” branding (such as, on the top, the “official site of Major League Soccer”). I don’t see anything like that on the redesign.
3. I’m seeing some weird 301 redirect issues. If I type in “mlsnet.com” in my browser bar, I go to the old site. If I type in “www.mlsnet.com” in my browser bar, I go to the new site. Very odd and can be confusing to site visitors.
4. The new site’s custom 404 error page is a bit lacking (please click this link so we can get this URL in their top content report for Google Analytics). Ideally, especially with a site redesign situation, you would want to have a mini-sitemap here for users to be able to quickly get to their wanted destination.

If I were in the MLS web team’s shoes (err, cleats), I would have made the switch from the old MLSnet.com website to the MLSSoccer.com one with 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new before the first Matchday in the regular season. That being said, the MLS web team did a good job with the new website with how SEO-friendly it is: there are lots of text headlines, a MUCH cleaner URL structure and more. In fact, I like it a lot better than the old website. But they could be doing a much better job on the website redesign launch than what they’ve done now.

And lastly, my one sentence of actual footy analysis:

Great action in the first weekend, some fun games (and goals) to watch, tough for the expansion Philly team to go into Seattle for their first game and even more so with the red card and MLS players need to work a bit on their first touch.

This is part of our series of posts that we putting together about how we approach PPC campaign management for our clients.

Our Other PPC Campaign Domination topics:

• Landing page optimization
• Google Adwords, quality score & you
• Campaign organization
• Google Adwords ad extensions – Part 2 – Our client test

Today’s topic is:

An Introduction to Google AdWords Ad Extensions

In November, Google rolled out new ad formats, now known as Google Adwords ad extensions, just in time for the big holiday push known as Cyber Monday. Those in the know and or those who read the Official Google Blog will remember a post detailing the release of these new ad formats. In the months since this release, Google has expanded the ability to utilize these formats to every AdWords advertiser who is willing to jump through the hoops.

These new extensions that you can add to your Google AdWords campaigns include:

1.)  SiteLinks

2.)  Product Extensions

3.)  Click to Call

4.)  Map Extensions

Google AdWords Map Extensions - Collapsed

Google AdWords Map Extensions - Expanded

Implementing Google Adwords Ad Extensions

For the extensions to appear, you must enable each extension at the campaign level. These are clearly marked as “Ad extensions”. Once each format is enabled, you must fill out the required information or link the corresponding Google Account, such as your Local Business Center or Merchant Account.

-SiteLinks: Add up to 10 extra links with 35 characters of text.

-Product Extensions: You must link Google Merchant (formerly Google Base) with Google AdWords. Read this guide to linking your accounts.

-Click to Call: Your phone number (duh).

-Map Extensions: Must link your Local Business Center with AdWords.

Keep in mind these extensions do not get served every time time. For example, the SiteLinks extension will only be served when your ad ‘meets certain criteria’, or being number 1 with a high quality score (see our post Quality Score and You).

The other extensions seem be served at Google’s discretion, and feature a ‘plus box’ as AdWords reporting calls it. This plus box must be expanded for the non-SiteLinks extensions to show.

Google AdWords Ad Extensions Tips, Tricks and Warnings:

1.)  Right now, there is very little oversight when it comes to enforcing the terms of service requirements (shhh). For example, in the Merchant Center, Google states your landing page must have a fixed price listed and the user must be able to buy from the website. Don’t let that silly little detail deter you. This is not true, or no one seems to be checking, so ‘if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’’. Just know that this extension could disappear without warning when Google gets around to enforcing their own policies.

2.)  The SiteLinks copy also appears to have very little editorial oversight. So be sure to make any claims you and or your client feel comfortable making. Just make sure you adhere to the FTC’s Truth In Advertising Standards. Again, know that you may have to rewrite some of these in the future.

3.)  Google already has video ad extensions. It is just not open to all AdWords advertisers, but one can imagine that soon you will have the capability to insert a product demo, testimonial or even a short tv-like spot.

Video Ad Extension - Collapsed

Google AdWords Video Ad Extensions - Expanded

4.)  Remember you have to manage your feeds in the Merchant Center. This requires a spreadsheet being manually uploaded monthly, or an xml feed.

5.)  Remember to test. These ad extensions may only serve to drive up clicks. If those clicks don’t convert or they bounce, you may be wasting money. Just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s better.

With the guides, a loose strategy and our Award-Winning PPC Client’s approval in hand, we set out to test relevant extensions (note I left out the comparison extension).  These are now percolating.  Results and analysis to follow in Part 2….

Ben & Spencer pose with their MAX Award

Amplify Interactive was awarded the “best single medium advertising campaign” at the 2010 AMA MAX Awards. Amplify Interactive’s work on a campaign for our client SawStop was recognized as the best among 8 entries in the category from other Portland area agencies & companies including a campaign from our office-mates Grady Britton as well as our partner eROI, and Intel (with whom we tied for 1st place) among others.

Great job on the AWARD WINNING work guys!

Links to related info:

• Press Release: Amplify Interactive wins a 2010 AMA MAX Award
• Our entry/case study: PPC Campaign Domination – Launching SawStop’s New Professional Cabinet Saw with PPC Advertising
• AMA MAX Awards
• Pictures from the 2010 AMA MAX Awards Ceremony
• Our series of posts on how to  “PPC Campaign Domination“

We’re always looking for clients who want to do award winning campaigns. Follow the link to find out more about our PPC Management Services.

These tips are intended solely for programming developers and not copywriters, site architects or graphic designers. We will be releasing SEO tips to help guide those individuals in future posts. If you are looking for some good e-commerce tips you can read Ian Lurie’s post 24 E-commerce development tips.

Here we go…

1. Make sure every page within a website possesses the functionality for customized page titles and meta descriptions or at the very least (for larger sites) the ability to assign unique business rules to these fields.
2. Each page should contain at least a single H1 header and if plausible, corresponding H2, H3, etc… headers as well. There should only be a single H1 per page which acts as the “title” for that page. The corresponding H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6 tags should be used to identify related sub-pages. Linking to the sub-pages via the headers is recommended.
3. Images on the website should possess a customizable alt tag field especially if that image is being linked to another page. As any developer knows, the alt tag field is used to describe what an image is depicting but it also acts as the anchor text (of sorts) for hyperlinked images so consult with whoever is responsible for optimizing the site to ensure the alt tags are search term enriched.
4. Choose a primary domain and apply 301 redirects (a permanent redirect) to all other domains and point them to the primary domain. 302 redirects (a temporary redirect) will not pass along any search engine value nor will any other type of redirect.
5. For redesigns or overhauls apply 301 redirects for every moved sub page to tell search engines that “this page has permanently moved here”. When redirecting sub pages make sure to point them to their replacement page and not the homepage. The only time you want to point a sub page to the homepage is when it no longer exists.
6. Each page should be named after the targeted search term assigned to represent it (or at least a portion of the term) and should be displayed that way within the URL.
7. URL’s should be structured in a way where there are multiple tiers. Websites with depth are seen by search engines as more relevant (if they are properly optimized) because it shows them that there is a wealth of supporting content on a particular subject matter.
8. The website should possess an auto-populated site map that is less than 150 links and is linked to from every page on the site. If there is a need to represent more than 150 links simply create a second site map page or as many pages needed to encompass the entire site. A quick note, larger sites with a lot of authority (link juice) and history can get away with simply linking to the high level landing pages.
9. Reference CSS and JavaScript code through an include file. This will lower the page size, move the relevant body copy further up the page and lessen the chances of search engine spiders receiving an error.
10. Create a customized 404-Error page that closely resembles the site map.
11. Every page should posses a single dedicated URL no matter how many different ways there are to navigate to the page or how many places the page appears.
12. Ensure that there are not any broken links within the site.
13. Assign the nofollow attribute to links that point to “irrelevant” pages like the privacy policy, terms of use, etc… You may want to consult with whoever is responsible for optimizing the site.
14. Create a robots.txt file and block search engine spiders from indexing pages not meant to be visible in search results such as the shopping cart. THIS ALSO INCLUDES STAGING SITES.
15. Do not use iFrames to display any information meant to be spidered and indexed by search engines.
16. For all of you dot net nukers, reduce your Viewstate code.
17. Place analytical script just above the closing body tag.
18. Direct users to a “thank you” page after they perform a conversion on the site.
19. Hook up separate RSS feeds for press releases, blog posts, articles, etc… Basically any content that can and should be syndicated.
20. Create xml feeds for sites that sell products, real estate or anything that can be uploaded to Google’s Merchant Center and related portals.

Obviously there’s more so what’s missing? Share additional SEO development tips below.

The folks over at tmmpdx.com were kind enough to interview me about SearchFest 2010. Hope we see you there!

TMMPDX.COM’s SearchFest Preview: Q&A with Ben Lloyd, SEMpdx President

SEMpdx President, Ben Lloyd, took some time out for a Q&A with TMMPDX to talk about SearchFest and give us a preview of the upcoming conference happening March 9, 1010 at the Governer Hotel