TLF eFlorist nofollow

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Mac

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Jun 11, 2007
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I was recently inspired after looking at www.affairstorememberflorist.com to write a short insight on Teleflora's eFlorist Program template defaults as it relates to the Google's nofollow attribute (which has SEO implications)

My findings include that the template design will not allow for proper internal SEO optimization (yes, there are workarounds).

These findings can be read here: TLF eFlorist Nofollow Attribute
 
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That blows and one can feel assured this is totally by intent.

Yep, I just checked some more and they're all that way - but teleflora.com isn't.

Guess they don't want their products indexing on other's sites.

Good find Mac.

anybody gonna pitch a btch about this?
 
I commented on the blog post about the nofollow issue and the general awfulness of TF's templates.
 
They don't have to worry about the product issue - see me comment on the blog. Google sees all the product pages as duplicate content WITHIN the site, let alone compared to the 15,000+ other sites using the same stuff.

TF.com has much more authority than florist sites, so it will out-rank most florists for TF items, unless there is a local flavour to the search.
 
I would pitch a @@@@@ if I understood anything that the article was talking about....Sorry I am website stupid...I just can't grasp it...I am trying, but just not connecting..
 
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Sorry about the complexity Lori, but the team behind the eFlorist Program will know things don't look good for them when (or if?) they read it.

Usual SEO tactics like the one Ryan recommended to you in another thread about ranking pages related to funeral home info won't work because of the nofollow attributes embedded in your homepage. So when Ryan said:

"Or you could compete - add a section to your website with information on funeral / sympathy flower buying, and include a page on that funeral home. Give their name, address, contact info ... and talk about how you deliver their several times a day. Link to the sympathy section of your site with the text "Order flowers for Acme FH now" for guaranteed delivery. See if you can out rank him."

He had not considered that the place where you place the link is capped off with a link-condom. In other words, the link would not influence the ranking of the page as outlined by Ryan.

You'd have to do it another way. For instance, if you were to take the gist of what Ryan said except link to it from an outside source (meaning not from your website), well, then it would work.

I only bring all that to your attention because you said in response to Ryan that "I will get to working on it right away."

Don't want to do all that work for nothing.
 
They don't have to worry about the product issue - see me comment on the blog. Google sees all the product pages as duplicate content WITHIN the site, let alone compared to the 15,000+ other sites using the same stuff.

TF.com has much more authority than florist sites, so it will out-rank most florists for TF items, unless there is a local flavour to the search.

Not from what I've seen.

Here's a funny thing about that - often when we get an incoming order - it's faster to google TF11-1 or c5-3043 or whatever than walk across the room and get the book.

You virtually never find tf.com or ftd.com, at least on the first couple pages. I think never. (oops I just tried - not in 9 pages) Even when you include the word teleflora - they list very poorly or even not at all for their own products. (unless you count that paid link)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...&rlz=1I7HPIA_en&q=teleflora+t11-1&btnG=Search

TF.Con isn't there at all, yet many of their websites are.

maybe they know this and are trying to combat it.

It's great to have a site that grabs item numbers or one line descriptions and puts them into title tags.
 
Sorry about the complexity Lori, but the team behind the eFlorist Program will know things don't look good for them when (or if?) they read it.

Usual SEO tactics like the one Ryan recommended to you in another thread about ranking pages related to funeral home info won't work because of the nofollow attributes embedded in your homepage. So when Ryan said:

"Or you could compete - add a section to your website with information on funeral / sympathy flower buying, and include a page on that funeral home. Give their name, address, contact info ... and talk about how you deliver their several times a day. Link to the sympathy section of your site with the text "Order flowers for Acme FH now" for guaranteed delivery. See if you can out rank him."

He had not considered that the place where you place the link is capped off with a link-condom. In other words, the link would not influence the ranking of the page as outlined by Ryan.

You'd have to do it another way. For instance, if you were to take the gist of what Ryan said except link to it from an outside source (meaning not from your website), well, then it would work.

I only bring all that to your attention because you said in response to Ryan that "I will get to working on it right away."

Don't want to do all that work for nothing.

And I thank you very much...
 
So when Ryan said:

"Or you could compete - add a section to your website with information on funeral / sympathy flower buying, and include a page on that funeral home. Give their name, address, contact info ... and talk about how you deliver their several times a day. Link to the sympathy section of your site with the text "Order flowers for Acme FH now" for guaranteed delivery. See if you can out rank him."

He had not considered that the place where you place the link is capped off with a link-condom. In other words, the link would not influence the ranking of the page as outlined by Ryan.

You'd have to do it another way. For instance, if you were to take the gist of what Ryan said except link to it from an outside source (meaning not from your website), well, then it would work.

Um ... footer link. No condom. Kthxbai

PS - Home page cache date is 17th. Other pages cache date as far back as the beginning of August. She could have no link-rubbers at all, and it would still take time to rank that page because the quality of the site has driven the crawl-rate to near nothing. She's probably on a 30-day crawl. Let's hope it's less.
 
Those links didn't get condoms put on them by accident.

Lori - I'd be giving them a call and demanding they remove them, or at leats get us a good bullsht explanation for trying to keep your traffic down by purposely not indexing your products. If you need to know more exactly what questions to ask - give one of us a call and we'll help you get your ducks in a row.

This is not only negative web programming, but since it wasn't done by accident - somebody got some 'splainin to do.

Let us know what line of crap they tell you, please.
 
Bloomz,

You know I'm the last one to give TF the benefit of the doubt. We don't need to rehash that.

Having said that, what they've done really isn't harmful. It's more likely a misguided attempt to combat a common duplicate content problem caused by many ecommerce platforms than it is a mailicous attempt to impact the florist's site. When you have multiple paths to the same content, sometimes it's wise to use nofollow or robots.txt to keep spiders out of certain paths. All TF has done is eliminate one path of two identical paths to the same pages. No harm is really being done, here.

Either way, it's amateur hour all around. Sabotage FAIL / SEO FAIL

Sounds about on target for TF tech, doesn't it?
 
Well I sure wouldn't want a nofollow link to my products.

I still think it's diabolical, due to their own site not being found for searches for their products.

I remember a long time ago with FTD in a SEC filing saying one of the problems they had to combat was "migration or orders to their member sites".

Somebody needs to do a site: search and see how many or how few pages are indexed in these sites.
 
Done, earlier.

Her product pages are being indexed - as much as you'd expect for a template site with low PR carrying WS products.

Ryan
 
OK, I have talked with Teleflors web services...

I had to immediately escalate for the first peon that answered the phone to a level 2 tech...

The level 2 tech was very honest about not knowing that this was even embedded and equally as honest about not knowing why...stating it was probably just part of the code, to which I replied that really wasn't a satisfactory answer...He assured me he would find out why and call me back when he had the correct info...

He did suggest getting some meta tags on my pages although he didn't offer any suggestions(I guess that part is up to us) He also suggested that I put links embedde in my catagories, but didn't know what liks would work best...

Bloomz, I may be giving you a call to get a crash course on some of this crap...I am usually a good read and quick learner, but I feel like the more info I get the more confused I get on this subject....It all reads like stereo instructions....

They also recommended mainstreethost.com, as they see alot of florists sending in emails with jobs for them from this company...I was wondering if anyone has heard anything about them...
 
They also recommended mainstreethost.com, as they see alot of florists sending in emails with jobs for them from this company...I was wondering if anyone has heard anything about them...
Run florist, run!

BBB report
Message Board discussion (BTW, Traffic Power was an SEO firm that used black hat techniques and got a bunch of their customers' sites banned by Google. They then sued customers who openly discussed their shady practices. They are now out of business.)
Message Board duscussion

Lori - If you're going to hire an SEO/SEM, choose someone than knows the flower business and has a great reputation for getting results. Ryan's the first guy that comes to mind.

Companies like MainStreetHost, Netwok Solutions and the guys who call you on the phone promising to make you #1 in Google prey on local business, deplete bank accounts and provide little if any long-lasting results.
 
As CHR said, beware Traffic Power and their ilk (CEO is in jail now, as I recall).

Be especially careful of what you pay for with a wire service site, as the advice may not be implemented - or it could be implemented on the WS's own sites. When you have only a little control, there is limited return or value available to you.

Ryan
 
Lori - did you ever get a decent answer to this dilemma?

Oops! Never mind - I just checked your site and it seems the nofollow links have been removed.
 
Mac,

I'm curious on your thoughts about the relevancy of the nofollow that WAS present on the side links but not in the replicated footer links, given your study on how only the first link on the page counts.

Ryan
 
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