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GO DADDY -- GOING DOWN ?

High Fines for Broadcast Performers
A media critique by Wayne Friedman,
Thursday, February 10, 2005

BRAVE ARE THOSE MINORITY OFFICIALS in government these days who seemingly go against a cascade of morality players when it comes to TV and radio.

Take note network and advertising executives. And take your hats off in respect for two Democrats -- Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.) They are the only two of 48 who voted against a House Commerce Committee bill that would dramatically raise the fines against networks and performers on indecent broadcasts (Definition: Howard Stern).

For individual performers, the fines will climb from $11,000 per incident to $500,000. This is much stiffer than the Federal Communications Commission's rules, where performers get one warning.

"I don't like censorship," Waxman said to The Hollywood Reporter. "I don't like the impact this is having because of self-censorship. I don't believe that the government should be in there to stand as a censor." (Hey Harvey - they are public airwaves correct ? paid for by tax dollars right ? let's let them say or show or do anything they want, this will help America's youth right ?)

Similar brave sentiments came from Schakowsky: "I am more concerned about infringing the First Amendment than I am about my children or my children's children seeing Janet Jackson's nipples," she said. (great ! is this an endorsement of nudity on prime time television ? Hopefully Ms. Schakowsky is not stumping on this ticket!).

In this tough political and advertising environment - where liberal tones are not only viewed as out of step but increasingly anti-American - those remarks are getting less airplay in an increasingly noisy world of rampant over-protectionism. In their usual effort for balanced reporting, it's always good to see press impress with some ink.

For networks and advertisers - even cable networks who don't abide by FCC rules (like NBC, CBS, ABC, or Fox does ?) - this will only mean more work for their businesses. Standard and practices executives must be working overtime, perhaps adding staff, to ensure that everything works according to some sort of hyper-clean, way-over moral standard. It's an extra business cost hurting any bottom line.

Last year it was Janet Jackson during the Super Bowl. This year there was no such controversy, but the unprecedented move of Fox and the NFL pulling a racy GoDaddy.com (go daddy go)commercial during the broadcast of the Super Bowl is a hint of things to come.

The powers that be may be thinking of the programming content in their indecency efforts, but can advertising content like the learn how to play pool ads be far behind? Already there are efforts to curb food advertising as it targets children.

And that's all. Lawmakers have been grumbling about cable, satellite TV, and satellite radio, in their hopes of bringing it into the government's indecency domain.

Voices of dissent - on whatever low volume - are a good way to mete out fairness.

Wayne Friedman is a veteran media and advertising writer based in Los Angeles

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We thought you might also enjoy these frequently asked questions regarding SEO Consulting from Jill Whalen were a fairly accurate representation of organic website optimization issues:

SEO Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)Author: Jill Whalen
Missing On Google

Q. My site is showing up for my major keyword phrases in Yahoo and MSN but I'm nowhere to be found in Google. Why does Google hate me? (Or alternatively, my web site was doing well on Google but its rankings have suddenly plummeted. Am I penalized?)

Jill: If you're going to be in the SEO biz, or even if you're just trying to get your own personal business site more exposure in the search engines, you need to realize that rankings (and the traffic they may bring) are not static. You may get comfortable seeing your site rank highly for your most coveted keyword phrases, but don't ever assume it will remain there forever.

Sites do not get penalized or banned unless something has been done which deceives the search engines. Deception generally comes in the form of hiding stuff.

If you're not playing games with the search engines, then you don't ever have to worry about penalties. If your site is suddenly gone, it's most likely because of a major algorithm shift (or the site is new, and Google's "new site sandbox" has come into play, your site has flash on the homepage, or you have mirror websites with the same, redundant content and metas per page.)

The search engines are constantly tweaking their algorithms, and new sites are always being created, so ranking fluctuations are part of the normal course of business.

Because of this, it is crucial to optimize your site for lots and lots of related keyword phrases.
(as long as you realize that every page has a distinct keyword set and expecting to rank on hundreds of keywords with one URL is a VERY BAD IDEA!).

This will ensure that when some phrases go AWOL, the others will perform well for you (MAYBE). I can't stress enough how important this strategy is to your SEO campaign, as well as your piece of mind. Never be married to any 1 or 2 specific keyword phrases. Yes, it's cool to rank highly for the most coveted ones, but if they're that important to you, then you should purchase Pay Per Click sponsored ads that are triggered by them.

The best advice I can give you is to change your mindset from "rankings" to "targeted traffic and conversions." I know I sound like a broken record with this, and it may even seem like a convenient excuse; however, if you don't want to make yourself crazy, it's best to ignore rankings, and instead work hard at making your site better and better. (AMEN - publish new pages, go deeper with content that matters, serve users from every perspective on your products and services, become an authority on the topic or theme that your website is based on. Also follow up on leads, drive conversions, and forget about becoming an obsessed google PageRank toolbar junkie that seeks links with meaningless FFA link farms totally unrelated to your site's content and is always seek the easy way out and the next greatest manipulative short tem "30 days to the top -guaranteed for $39.95 or your money back " "Traffic Blazer " garbage sales tactics).

While your various keyword phrases are on an emotional roller coaster at Google, you won't even notice a blip in your traffic or sales if you've got all your bases covered. It may be cliché, but it really does work and it does pay off in the long run.

Where Do I Place Keywords? Q. I heard from the dogcatcher that I need to place my North Carolina mortgage company keyword phrases
in: [bold] [italics] [H1s] [alt tags] [Meta tags] [anchor text] [Title tags] [body text] [the first few words on my site] [the first paragraph of my North Carolina Marriage Counseling website] [the last paragraph of my site] [my cousin Vinnie's site]. Is this true?
Jill: The most important places to utilize your researched keyword phrases (anywhere from 3-5 of these per page) are 1) your Title tags,
2) in the visible copy that people read, and 3) in onsite and offsite links (aka the "anchor text").
Whether they're in the first paragraph, first words, last words, or whatever really doesn't make all that much difference. I've long ago stopped worrying about specific places and coding and simply use them where they make sense from a reader's perspective. I would definitely avoid using them in "ALL the right places" such as listed in the question above, however. This is because if you pull all the Sharps Containers tricks out of your SEO bag, your page will simply reek of SEO. If it makes sense to have a headline that uses a keyword phrase, then go for it, but don't feel that you have to create headlines where none were needed. If it makes sense to describe a graphic with a North Carolina Home Loan company keyword phrase, then you shouldn't hesitate to do it. The important thing is not to do anything just because you think you have to in order for the search engines to like you.

There are very, very few "have to's" when it comes to SEO.

This is because SEO is an art, not a science.

Is Content Really King? Q. If you're so smart and keep telling everyone that content is king, then how come the top pages for the keyword [insert any word here] don't have lots of visible content?

Jill: I do believe that content is king (ABSOLUTELY - CONTENT IS KING!) , because that's what the people who visit your site are looking for. However, Content means different things for different sites.

Content can simply be your product offerings. For instance, sites from well-known brands very often have no visible copy on their home pages, but still rank highly for some very general keywords. This is often due to their strong brand, which brings in tons and tons of natural links to the site.

Natural links are those that people add to their own websites just because they found them relevant to whatever point they were trying to make. Bloggers do this often, and so do people on forum threads.

Let's face it; well-known brands are talked about a lot, both in real life, and online. It makes perfect sense that if you're searching for something general like "pizza" that Pizza Hut and Domino's will show up at the top of the results. It's not necessary for them to say all over their site that they are all about pizza because that's a given.

For those of you who don't have a big brand, you can certainly create a home page that doesn't describe what you offer in clear words, but you'd better be prepared to put all your faith in a link-building campaign.

Always remember that there are tons of ways to obtain targeted search engine traffic, and the methods I espouse are just one way, another way is to use similar efforts that have been employed by this preclinical drug development company. They happen to work for my clients and me, and I like them because they focus on making the site better overall.

However, every site is unique and you have to decide what the best overall strategy is for YOUR site. There's no sense in compromising your message for search engine rankings, as you'll be less apt to convert your visitors into taking your desired action. On the other hand, if you have no visitors, it really doesn't matter what your message is, now does it!

Article above was wrtitten by: Jill Whalen with comments from Carol Jacobsen of Peak Positions