SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

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  Search Engine Watch

• SEO Tools -- Worth the Time and Money?

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pm

  An overview of some free and paid tools that executives and non-SEO trained individuals can gain value from when evaluating internal or outsourced search engine optimization efforts. ...

• Frugal Is the New Black

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pm

  The economic climate has changed consumer behavior. Embrace that change. The basic tenets of marketing still apply in a down economy. ...

• Identify New Paid Search Opportunities

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pm

  Search distribution relationships impact your paid search campaigns. Here's how you can use this information to alter your results. ...

• The Promotion Recipe

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pm

  Are your social media contacts numb to your promotions? Spice them up using these tips. ...

• Don't Overdo the Tweaking

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pm

  Time spent constantly changing on-page content is time you aren't link building, doing PR, and social media reference building. Here's how to avoid making this mistake. ...

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  SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

• SEO and Social Media Benchmarking

  RobOusbey

  22 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am

  Posted by RobOusbeyIntroduction We'll often rattle off various metrics quite casually in conversation, but it's easy to forget that others (such as your clients!) might not know whether these are big numbers or small ones. For example: "We've just published a guest post on a site with Domain mozTrust 5.67. Mr_Gadget mentioned it to his 64 thousand followers, and it managed to get over 1,000 Diggs." This post should be useful to anyone who needs to orientate themselves around such numbers. The Website Benchmarks section shows metrics for around half a dozen sites from ten different niches…

• Whiteboard Friday - Content & Technology Licensing

  great scott!

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:32 pm

  Posted by great scott!Looking for a super-powerful tactic to build lots of high-quality links? Well we've got a winner for you! Licensing your content and/or data can be an immensely powerful, highly scalable strategy for building powerful links and brand awareness alike.  It's incredibly effective for folks who have quality content or data and want to leverage that material into a great link building solution.  Be warned though: there are important rules to consider in order to avoid potential duplicate content issues as well as cannibalization.  You want your content…

• The NEW Advanced SEO Training Series: Tips, Tricks & Tactics now Available on DVD

  great scott!

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:59 am

  Posted by great scott!Ready to upgrade your SEO skills, learn actionable new strategies, and get ready to make 2010 the year you totally rock online? Well, we've got just the thing to help you finish out the year with the latest tactics to take your SEO to the next level. That's right, the SEOmoz Advanced SEO Training Series is back with an all new DVD Series: Tips, Tricks & Tactics!  Whether you're a fan of the series, or this is your first time experiencing SEOmoz Training DVDs, this new six DVD set is one you won't want to miss. Filmed before a live audience in Seattle, Tips,…

• Show What You Know: The SEO Keyword Research Quiz

  Danny Dover

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:31 am

  Posted by Danny Dover  Psst! Word on the street is that you are a big deal. Some say that working with you is even more fun than changing a co-workers primary Google language to Swahili1. Well now, it is time to put your reputation to the test! All of us at SEOmoz are proud to announce the brand new Keyword Research Quiz. This lean, mean, question asking machine was designed to test your sugar infused SEO brain by covering all corners of the Keyword Research world. The questions are weighted by difficulty to make the harder questions worth more points than their easier counterparts. The…

• Whiteboard Friday - Special Wednesday Edition: Link Growth Patterns

  great scott!

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:42 am

  Posted by great scott!Happy Wednesday, Whiteboard Friday Fans!  You may have noticed that there was no new Whiteboard Friday on, well, Friday. That's because a sizable battalion of the mozSquad went to Vegas for PubCon and, alas, I didn't bring the camera with me (it's actually prohibited by law--what happens in Vegas, and all that). Nonetheless, Rand and I feel horribly guilty about leaving you sans-WBF last week and wanted to make it up to you. Thus, I present you with this Special Wednesday Edition of WBF. What makes it "special" other than titular anachronism?  First…

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  Search Engine Land

• Reflections On Chrome OS From A Consumer Perspective

  Greg Sterling

  22 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am

  Google hosted something of a formal “status update” on Chrome the operating system in Mountain View on Thursday. There we discovered the company is open-sourcing the code. We also found out it’s intended as a netbook OS (for now) and that Google is working with several hardware partners to create a better netbook experience (full-sized [...] ....

• Q&A With Avinash Kaushik, Google Analytics Evangelist & Customer Insight Guru

  Daniel Waisberg

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:56 pm

  Avinash Kaushik is Google's well-known and widely respected analytics guru. In this wide-ranging interview, he talks about his passion for metrics, why they're critical for success, and how search marketers can use analytics to take their campaigns to the next level. ....

• Search In Pictures: Google México Party, One Republic @ Google & Pineapple 5K

  Barry Schwartz

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:35 am

  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Google México Campus Party: One Republic at Google: Y! Logo Flowers: Our Vanessa Fox Running the Pineapple 5K (hope she [...] ....

• Google Appears To Be Testing New Local AdWords Presentation

  Greg Sterling

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am

  Mike Blumenthal received a screenshot that seems to show a test of a new presentation of Google local/geotargeted AdWords. Mike suggests this may be an expression of AdWords local extensions: This is AdWords and not Local Listing Ads, but the presentation (with the blue pushpin) is similar, signifying a local business or a physical location. Here [...] ....

• Search Ad Keyword Lawsuit, Now Over Privacy

  Barry Schwartz

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:29 am

  We have covered many of the search ad keyword lawsuits aimed between competitors or directly at the search engines in the past. Nowadays, it seems like a new suit around this topic is filed weekly. Typically these suits go after trademark violations and the like, but a new suit is focusing on a [...] ....

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  Search Engine Roundtable

• Daily Search Forum Recap: November 20, 2009

  barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: November 20, 2009

  barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pm

  In this week's search video recap, I try a new format, breaking the news up in segments - do let me know if you like it. I am sorry the video is so long, just lots of information to cover....

• Google Jazz User Interface Out In The Wild

  barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:06 am

  Yesterday, Danny covered a new user interface Google is testing on about 2% of their users right now. The interface is known internally (actually, it is not named this internally, but the name is catchy, so maybe we should use...

• Microsoft Bing November 2009 Search Update?

  barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  There is some early discussion over at WebmasterWorld that Microsoft Bing has updated their search index. Many webmasters are discussing changes in rankings in this and other forums (which are hard to link to). Here is what WebmasterWorld moderator, martinibuster...

• GoogleBot Can Also Crawl Too Much & Be Nasty

  barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:52 am

  The other day, I noticed a thread at Google Webmaster Help where a person was complaining that they were being hit hard by GoogleBot. In short, Google's spider was crawling his site in a very aggressive manner. He said: After...

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  SEO Book.com - Learn. Rank. Dominate.

• SEO Book Re-opening

  Aaron Wall

  12 Nov 2009 | 6:32 am

  After about 11 weeks or so of being closed to new members, I have caught up on a number of projects and we have decided to re-open again. We increased the price again to try to help manage demand, as it is far easier for me to keep adding more value to x members than to have 2x customers. There are so many ways to profit from search, but it is too easy to get bogged down doing administrative work if we were to have thousands and thousands of customers. Plus increasing price tends to increase customer quality (keeping any pikers out while encouraging more successful people to join) and make…

• 10 Blue Links (and a Bunch of Other Stuff!)

  Aaron Wall

  12 Nov 2009 | 4:28 am

  Google announced product listing ads today, a cost-per-action ad program that shows images in the search results: Product Listing Ads is part of our effort to simplify the advertising process for merchants with large product inventories. Some of the key features of Product Listing Ads include: Pay only for results: Product Listing Ads are charged on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis, which means that you only pay when a user clicks on your ad and completes a purchase on your site. Because Product Listing Ads is charged on a CPA basis, it offers a risk-free way for you to reach a larger audience…

• Excuse Me, But Where Did Google's Organic Search Results Go?

  Aaron Wall

  5 Nov 2009 | 11:57 pm

  In the past many SEOs have called organic search results the results on the left side of the page and the pay-per-click / AdWords results as the results on the right side of the page. As Google has grown more aggressive with promoting vertical/universal search I think a better way of defining the portions of the search result page are ABOVE THE FOLD and BELOW THE FOLD. As recently as yesterday Google stripped the phone numbers off of non-sponsored map listings, even if you were doing a navigational search! And that shows that the primary goal of the maps is as filler content (rather than…

• More Ways for Google to Embed Themselves in Your Conversion Stream

  Aaron Wall

  4 Nov 2009 | 11:47 pm

  The Free Credit Report ads have caused such user confusion in the marketplace that the government has felt the need to create a spoof site with $100,000 worth of amateur video to mock Free Credit Report.com. And yet even if you search for the official website [Annual Credit Report] to this very day Google is cashing in showing 3 PPC ads ABOVE the organic search results for that NAVIGATIONAL search query...sorta like how they were cashing in on eBay's brand recently. For [Annual Credit Report] the government has stepped in and said what is right for the consumer. But the Google AdWords team…

• Borrowing From PPC

  PeterD

  4 Nov 2009 | 5:20 pm

  Search marketers know that if the title of the ad matches the searchers keyword query, they stand a good chance of getting the click. This mirroring strategy works for obvious reasons. The visitor already has a psychological attachment to the phrase - after all, they typed it in! Making Sure You Get The Click A lot of SEO strategy talks about how to achieve rankings. Whilst important, the SEO pro knows ranking is only half the battle won. While it's true to say most searchers will click on the top results in preference to results lower down the page, they will also scan across the various…

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  Sean Percival's Blog

• OWLE Unboxing [video]

  Sean Percival

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:21 pm

  A few months ago the guys at OWLE reached out me about this new device they hoped to build and sell. They were looking for a few contacts and I was happy to make some introductions for them. Turns out it helped, their prototype and various dreams have now become a reality. In fact just yesterday one of the first OWLE units showed up at my front door. Basically it’s an add-on for the iPhone that turns the Jesus phone into a series video device. Included is a new (and AWESOME) lens, a directorial microphone and solid case to house it all. If you want to learn more about OWLE head…

• Twilight New Moon Red Carpet Live Stream

  Sean Percival

  15 Nov 2009 | 6:32 pm

  MySpace Twilight Saga: New Moon Red Carpet Live Stream Yes I already know you’re crazy excited about the Twilight New Moon Red Carpet Premiere, or maybe that’s just my wife? Oh I’m so getting trouble for letting that slip. In any case, should you be into such things you’ll definitely want to check out the above live stream starting at Monday 6:00pm PST. MySpace is streaming the entire event live over on the Twilight New Moon page as well. Thankfully we are out of town tomorrow, otherwise I’m sure I would be begging MySpace PR for a spot on the red carpet for my…

• MyFeedSync for MySpace

  Sean Percival

  12 Nov 2009 | 10:13 am

  As I always say, there is better living through syndication. Especially today where content creators are rarely confined to just one platform. Instead they produce across several platforms, everything from Flickr to Twitter and of course their blogs. Most social savvy users also have profiles across a myriad of services, and sometimes it’s difficult to keep all these profiles up-to-date with your latest content. So for me, and I assume many others, having the ability pipe in external content into a social media profile is always a huge win. So with that in mind, I’m happy to…

• Clash of the Titans Trailer

  Sean Percival

  10 Nov 2009 | 5:47 pm

  Clash of the Titans Trailer In ‘Clash of the Titans,’ the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep…

• Prince of Persia Sands of Time Trailer

  Sean Percival

  2 Nov 2009 | 3:23 pm

  The trailer for the new Prince of Persia movie is now out. Check it out below. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in HDTrailer Park | MySpace Video

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  Search Engine Journal

• Twitter Turns On Opt-In GeoLocation Feature

  Arnold Zafra

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:31 pm

  Twitter has just activated its GeoLocation feature which will let you opt-in whether you want your tweets to be tagged  with your current location.  The feature is carried not on your Twitter.com account but on third-party Twitter apps which will use the Geolocation API  released by Twitter. If you’re using Twitter apps such as Birdfeed, Seesmic Web, Foursquare among others and those apps implemented Twitter’s GeoLocation API all your tweets will then be tagged with your current location. Seeismic has implemented geotagging features already. So if your using it as a desktop…

• Try Out Chrome OS on a Virtual Machine

  Arnold Zafra

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pm

  So you’ve read all about it, seen all the video materials, the what’s not and what is – of the Chrome OS, that is. What’s left now is how you can actually have a look and feel of it in action, or at least almost in action. Over at TechCrunch, they are running a piece on how you could possibly run Chrome OS using the available materials. The whole process might seem easy but I bet it is not for non-geek people like us. It will require you to download an image of the Chrome OS either here or here. The first file is a Torrent version and you need to extract it from the…

• Google Combines Search and Real Estate

  Arnold Zafra

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am

  What would you get if you combine web search and real estate listings? Well, there’s not a real name for this feature but Google is nonetheless rolling it out, direct from the labs of Google’s Australia office.  This new feature  lets you search for “real estate” properties as it appears on Google Maps. Isn’t it great that when you’re trying to look for a real estate property, you  can actually see where it is located as well as the surrounding areas via Google Maps? the idea is to make it easier for you to find specific locations and some degree of…

• Google Shopping Results : User Experience Downfall

  David Freeman

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:19 am

  Google’s been integrating its product feed into the main SERPs under the guise of universal search for a while now, with the aim of improving the user experience.  Now don’t get me wrong I have nothing against the universal shopping results, but in the current format do they really improve the user experience? Well that question is a little insignificant now, as Google have just released (or are testing) a new layout for the universal shopping results in the US.  But before we move onto to the new layout let’s briefly run through what I consider to a major downfall…

• Your Site Is Badly Indexed? What Can This Mean?

  Ann Smarty

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:12 am

  So you appear to do everything right: you have a fair amount of unique content and you seem to update your site regularly and Google seems to often visit your site… but there appear to be much fewer links in Google’s index than there are actually on your site. So what may that mean? 1. Are there really few pages in Google’s index? You might be wrong about how many URLs are actually in the index as there appears to be no definitive way to tell this. SITE: command may be inaccurate and Google Webmaster Tools reports may be unreliable. ! To make sure a URL isn’t really…

• 
  Matt Cutts

• Live-blogging the Google Chrome OS event

  Matt Cutts

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:50 am

  I’m sitting in a room at Google waiting to hear more about Google Chrome OS. You can watch the webcast along with me if you like. For starters, here’s what Google announced about Chrome OS back in July. At that time, Google called out “speed, simplicity and security” as the key ideas behind Chrome OS. Google released Chrome a little over a year ago with a novel idea–a comic book to describe the features and design decisions behind Chrome. Looks like Danny Sullivan is live blogging too. Google OS just noticed that the source code for Chrome OS is available. (Maybe…

• State of the Index, November 2009

  Matt Cutts

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:26 pm

  Last week I was in Las Vegas for PubCon, a conference for publishers, and I wanted to share the slides from my main presentation: When I get a chance, I’ll also re-create the talk on video and share the video with you, but in the mean time Lisa Barone did a nice live write-up and coverage of the Q&A. It’s always nice to see SEOs and webmasters that I’ve gotten to know from search conferences. For example, one night featured the traditional SEO Werewolf game, except with blackhats as the werewolves and whitehats as the villagers. Somehow in the middle of that party, we…

• Expect Caffeine after the holidays

  Matt Cutts

  10 Nov 2009 | 7:47 am

  Back in August we mentioned a developer preview of Caffeine, which is new technology that improves our indexing infrastructure. The feedback on Caffeine has been very positive, so we’re ready to move from the developer preview to the next stage of the roll out: going live with Caffeine at one data center. This means that a small percentage of Google’s users will benefit from the technology behind Caffeine in their regular searches. I know that webmasters can get anxious around this time of year, so I wanted to reassure site owners that the full Caffeine roll out will happen after…

• Gaping hole costume for Halloween 2009

  Matt Cutts

  31 Oct 2009 | 3:49 pm

  This year for Halloween I tried to do a see-through hole in your body costume: It worked okay, but not great. The biggest problem was that I didn’t have a gadget lying around the house that could output live composite video. Both my normal video camera and my digital camera had exhausted batteries that wouldn’t recharge, which is a gadget fail on my part. And while my Flip video camera is tiny and it can output pre-recorded video through a composite cable, it can’t output live video (?!). Lame. I didn’t care enough to buy a new battery-operated gadget that could send…

• Export your Google Docs data

  Matt Cutts

  25 Oct 2009 | 8:56 pm

  One of my favorite personal blog posts is about not trapping users’ data. In late 2006, Eric Schmidt declared “We would never trap user data.” Many of the major Google properties (search, Gmail, Calendar) make it trivial to export or download your data. In the past, Google Docs would let you export a single doc at a time, but Google Operating System runs down exactly how to batch export your Google Docs. For each type of document (text document, presentation, spreadsheet, etc.) you can choose what file format to get. I had about 81 personal docs (~13MB) and it only took…

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  Google News, Inside.

• Google Chrome OS

  Jonathan Dingman

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:19 am

  Google OS is expected to drop early next year, but will not be available for download. Instead, it will be available only through unspecified hardware partners. Check out the full article on CNN. Blogged on Google News by Jonathan Dingman © Fireside MediaGoogle Chrome OSRelated posts:Google’s Top Secret Server Specs RevealedGmail: Download All AttachmentsLife at [...]Blogged on Google News by Jonathan Dingman © Fireside MediaGoogle Chrome OSRelated posts:Google’s Top Secret Server Specs RevealedGmail: Download All AttachmentsLife at Google Friday: Alice in Sydney

• ‘Tis the Season

  Jonathan Dingman

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am

  The Christmas season is just around the corner, here the United States of America. Thanksgiving is first, but I’ll be out of town for Thanksgiving. It’s preemptive, but many people here in the states are getting ready for the holiday season.Blogged on Google News by Jonathan Dingman © Fireside Media‘Tis the SeasonRelated posts:Hello Worl..errr IRS.Free [...]Blogged on Google News by Jonathan Dingman © Fireside Media‘Tis the SeasonRelated posts:Hello Worl..errr IRS.Free Internet from Google on Virgin AmericaIt’s Flu Season Again

• How Fast is Your Site? It Will Soon Matter.

  Jonathan Dingman

  14 Nov 2009 | 6:25 am

  During Pubcon Vegas, Matt Cutts hinted at a potential new algorhiym factor for 2010. Site speed. For sites that already do this, such as this one, there’s nothing to worry about. But for those sites that taken 30 seconds+ to load, you really need to begin considering caching and other like functionality to speed [...]Blogged on Google News by Jonathan Dingman © Fireside MediaHow Fast is Your Site? It Will Soon Matter.Related posts:Google Speaks Up Against Australia’s SenateLive.com’s Webmaster PortalBing.com Launches Webmaster Portal

• Google Latitude with Location History and Alerts

  Jonathan Dingman

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:52 pm

  Google Latitude is introducing a few new and sought after features. Location history and alerts. Google Latitude Location History This new feature will allow you to see previously checked in locations for your Google Latitude account. Here’s what it looks like:Google Latitude Alerts The other feature launched with this announcement is Google Latitude alerts. [...]Blogged on Google News by Jonathan Dingman © Fireside MediaGoogle Latitude with Location History and AlertsRelated posts:Sharing Your Location using Your SignatureYahoo! Uses Wordpress, Google Uses BloggerTalk to GMail…

• Using Trends to Predict the Economy

  Jonathan Dingman

  4 Nov 2009 | 8:12 am

  Google is a powerful company, there’s no doubt about that. Google has access to some of the most valuable data in the world because of search tracking. It’s able to use search data to show trending of what’s being searched and therefore, can predict events like Black Friday.It’s truly incredible to see what [...]Blogged on Google News by Jonathan Dingman © Fireside MediaUsing Trends to Predict the EconomyRelated posts:SES San Jose Was a Great Show!Life at Google Friday: Bryan About the BGNGoogle Squared: New UI. New Success?

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  Noble Samurai

• New Features in the Dojo

  Brent Hodgson

  8 Nov 2009 | 11:54 pm

  Have you seen the new Noble Samurai Dojo yet? The Noble Samurai Dojo is our new training area – and has replaced our previous tutorials area. Over the coming months, the Dojo will grow with more and more training added regularly – to help you get the most out of Market Samurai, and your internet marketing Big Changes in The Dojo Based on your feedback, we’ve made some substantial changes to the way that we deliver training. Some of the changes you’ll notice in the new Dojo include: NEW Step-by-Step Written Training Manuals; NEW Downloadable PDF Training Manuals; NEW…

• Dr Anthony Fernando to Create Market Samurai Training

  Brent Hodgson

  3 Nov 2009 | 11:09 pm

  It was always our aim to give you a stream of killer training, and to use this blog to deliver the latest news, insights and resources for tackling the world of online marketing… …And to be fair – we’ve been behind the scenes improving Market Samurai, scaling-up the systems that our tools run on, and preparing for big things around the corner. But in the process, our regular stream of content and training stopped. That’s why I want to introduce you to Dr Anthony Fernando – one of our newest team members – who will be presenting a full course of…

• Turbo-Charged Backlink Analysis

  Noble Samurai

  28 Oct 2009 | 8:26 pm

  Hi Team, I’ve got something exciting to share with you about Market Samurai. We just released an improvement to the SEO Competition module that makes backlink anchor text analysis of web-pages that have a lot of back links much faster, and easier to complete. This latest update has resulted in a MASSIVE speed increase for completing backlink anchor text analysis. In one test, we found a 9,400% speed increase. That’s a speed up of nearly a factor of 100.  In fact, the improvement is even better than that: previously, the more backlinks you analysed, the slower the process went…

• The More Keywords The Better!?

  Anthony Fernando

  21 Oct 2009 | 5:17 pm

  There is a common misconception that in order to develop a successful online business you need to be targeting hundreds or thousands of keywords. This perception often causes a great deal of confusion and can lead to ‘Analysis Paralysis’ as people spend months analyzing keywords looking for the perfect opportunity. As a result they never follow through to create a complete and profitable business. Last week, a group of us were discussing this problem and came to the conclusion that the reason this misconception is still so prevalent is that in the past, focusing on quantity versus quality…

• The Secret to Getting More Than 24 Hours in a Day

  Brent Hodgson

  10 Oct 2009 | 8:32 am

  Nobody wants to work 16 hours a day. Nobody wants to be stuck at their computer, keeping their sites “alive”. The reason most of us begin in internet marketing is because we are sick of killing ourselves 9-5, 5 days a week – just so that we can get 2 days off on the weekend, and 2 weeks per year paid vacation… …We want freedom – we want free time and free money – so we can do whatever we want – driving fast cars and living in big houses, sailing around tropical island paradises, to just “being there” with our families – and…

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  Free Weekly Search Engine Optimization SEO News

• The right SEO tactic for low and high competition

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am

  Depending on the keywords for which you want to get high rankings, you have to employ different tactics. Keywords with less competition require different tactics than keywords with high competition. Two charts illustrate the importance and the effect of different optimization tactics.

• Don't screw it up: why should other websites link to your site?

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am

  Links from related websites are very important for the position of your own site in Google's search results. Unfortunately, it's rather difficult to convince other people to link to your site.

• Paid links: do they really affect your Google rankings?

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am

  Many websites on the Internet will link to your website if you pay them for the links. Is this a good method to increase the link popularity of your website or can you get in trouble if you use paid links?

• Official Google statement: how to deal with bad inbound links

  27 Oct 2009 | 7:36 am

  Many webmasters think that low quality links or links from spammy websites can have a negative effect on the ranking of their websites on Google. The problem with links from spammy websites is that it is very difficult to do something against them. Here's an official Google statement about bad links.

• How to get your website above the regular results on Google - without paying for it

  20 Oct 2009 | 7:36 am

  This week, we're showing you how you can optimize the listings of your website on Google Maps. Good listings on Google Maps can result in many website visitors.

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  SEO BlackHat: Black Hat SEO Blog

• Resizing and Repurposing Amazon Images

  QuadsZilla

  12 Nov 2009 | 1:04 am

  I know, I know . . . selling books is sooo 10 years ago. But the occasion may arise where you want to go old school and use amazon Images in your promotions. Let’s say you want to use Amazon Images in your website to promote Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. You search amazon for “wealth of nations” and see these results: You right click on 1. Image and click view image (in firefox). and are taken to this url: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517E1E0T4DL._SL160_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-dp,TopRight,12,-18_SH30_OU01_AA115_.jpg which looks like this: Now I don’t know…

• Competition Often Achieves what Usually Only Love Can Do

  QuadsZilla

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:39 am

  “Market competition often achieves what usually only love can do: the divination of the innermost wishes of the other, even before he himself becomes aware of them. Antagonistic tension with his competitor sharpens the businessman’s sensitivity to the tendencies of the public, even to the point of clairvoyance, regarding the future changes in the public’s tastes, fashions, interests . . .” -by Georg Simmel in his 1907 The Philosophy of Money

• Google Wave . . . So THAT’s How You Use It!

  QuadsZilla

  9 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pm

  Download Youtube Videos Firefox Addon.

• Google Domination through Less-Than-Free

  QuadsZilla

  1 Nov 2009 | 12:38 pm

  This is one of the more interesting takes I’ve seen on Google’s Business Model going forward.

• The Games that Scam the Most, Win.

  QuadsZilla

  1 Nov 2009 | 11:46 am

  Great write up over on TC on the various scams on Facebook and Myspace. Gotta love Mike bitching about scams on facebook with ads like this appearing on the same page of his site: Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black. That or maybe by clicking that ad, the majority of people can make $1000 per day from 60 mins a day of work.

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  SEO by the Sea

• Google to Upgrade its Memory? Assigned Startup MetaRAM’s Memory Chip Patents

  Bill Slawski

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:40 pm

  In August, the Official Google Blog announced an upgrade to Google’s infrastructure code-named Caffeine, aimed at making the search engine faster, and Google opened the system up for testing to people who might want to provide feedback. An interview with one of the developers behind the upgrade described it as an upgrade to the [...]

• How Google Might Insert Artificial Named Anchors into Web Pages

  Bill Slawski

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:48 am

  Usually, when you click on a link in a set of search results at Google, the search engine will deliver you to the top of a web page. But what if it didn’t? What if it brought you instead to the place on a page where your query terms appeared, or just above [...]

• Patent Shows Google Book Scanning a Musical Process

  Bill Slawski

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:19 pm

  Google was granted a patent today on one aspect of a book scanning process that raises the question what kind of music helps someone scan books best. The patent is Pacing and error monitoring of manual page turning operator (US Patent 7,619,784), which lists Joseph K. O’Sullivan, R. Alexander Proudfoot, and Christopher R. Uhlik as inventors. [...]

• Search Taxonomies and Search Engines: Answering Questions vs. Indexing Webpages

  Bill Slawski

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:11 am

  If you were to search for [Ronald Reagan Movies] at Google or Yahoo or Bing, would you expect to see a list of movies that the former President and actor appeared in? It’s more likely that you would see a set of web pages that contain the words “Ronald” and “Reagan” and “Movies,” which might contain [...]

• How Search Engines May Rank User Generated Content

  Bill Slawski

  3 Nov 2009 | 12:20 pm

  The term “User Generated Content,” often abbreviated as “UGC,” covers a fairly broad range of the words and pictures, images and videos and sounds that you see and hear on the Web. One thing that tends to distinguish “User Generated Content” from other content on the web is that visitors to a site, possibly including a [...]

• 
  Cre8pc Usability & Holistic SEO

• Cre8pc Blog: Tank Not Empty Yet (Just Busy)

  cre8pc

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:33 pm

  When I started the Cre8pc blog, in 2002, blogging was nowhere as popular as it is today. Back then, blogging was still related to diaries and journals and often of a personal nature. Mine has evolved as trends change. Today, it’s the leading communication device that allows me to stay in touch with readers and friends. I used to post here every day and then a few days a week and now, if I’m lucky, a few times a month. In some ways, I’ve just run out of things to write about. Often, someone else has just done a better job of writing about something I find interesting and I…

• Spam Forums at Your Own Risk

  cre8pc

  21 Oct 2009 | 9:15 am

  With every industry, there is an underground of folks who find more pleasure in wrecking a good thing.  Search engine marketing is no exception. Somehow, the idea that humans can outwit search engines became a challenge and even a battle.  For myself, as an SEO who brings usability and user experience design to the mix, the key to marketing and web design is understanding what people want.  It’s referred to as user behavior. Search engine computers are programmed to look for signals about what we want and like. Yet, somewhere along the way, somebody decided to promote the idea that…

• Intuit Web Site Setup Service Misleading

  cre8pc

  16 Oct 2009 | 11:39 am

  I would like to thank Intuit for their hard work in bringing me new clients. It came as quite a surprise that you support my web site usability and SEO services. Imagine my surprise when I flipped on the boob tube for several minutes while making tea from the comfort of my (very busy!) home office and there you were, all professional sounding like, with your (dare I say it?) sly and devious commercial to small biz web site owner hopefuls. For the mere fee of $4.99 (or some such pittance), new web site owners can buy a web site designed and marketed by Intuit. In just under 3 minutes, you had…

• Ms. Dewey Search Lives On

  cre8pc

  13 Oct 2009 | 3:17 pm

  Every once in awhile I long for the days when my sassy female search idol, Ms. Dewey, would tap on my monitor asking where where I was. Today was one of those days. If you remember, Ms. Dewey as a viral marketing campaign started by Microsoft 3 years ago this month. The site was an experimental interface for Live Search. It didn’t take searchers long to discover you could prompt her to say and do naughty, silly things with certain keyword searches. Looking to see if there are any updates on her demise (they bring back dead soap opera stars, why not Ms. Dewey?), I found her domain alive…

• Learning From Conference User Feedback

  cre8pc

  8 Oct 2009 | 1:37 pm

  I spend most of my days in my office with 2 cats and 2 dogs as my office-mates, dual monitors and a laptop. For me, “talking” to people is all done virtually. When I tap into what’s happening in the industries I work in, the feedback is limited and based on my “friends” and “followers” living in the land of the Internet. This is one reason why I enjoy industry conferences. They get me out of the house and office. They’re far more exciting than walking to my mailbox. Where I live, only the birds and squirrels keep me company outside. I can hear…

• 
  Search Engine Watch Blog

• Google News Updates Mobile Site for iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:39 am

  Google has made some enhancements to its mobile news site. The updates are just for the iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre. The look and feel is pretty much the same. What's new is more stories, sources, and images. A new "Jump to" link brings a pop up box offering quick access to a specific news category. Any personalizations you make on your desktop will be accessible via your mobile now, as well (as long as you're signed into the same account on both). Screenshots: News.Google.com on an iPhone Jump to

• Yahoo! Adds Tweets, Breaking News to News Shortcut

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:50 am

  After announcements from Google and Bing about incorporating Twitter into their search results, Yahoo! is throwing hopping on the real-time results news bandwagon. Yahoo!'s Twitter integration is part of a new update when the News Shortcut is implemented in the search results. Yahoo! is also recognizing when there's breaking news and indicating as such on the News Shortcut. Here's a screenshot of a search for the space shuttle Atlantis shortly after launch earlier this week (per the Yahoo! Search blog): What do you think of these updates to the Yahoo! News shortcut? Let us know by leaving a…

• Twitter Consults the Ghost of Fred Berry for New Status Prompt

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:23 am

  Twitter has announced that the question that appears in the status update box will no longer be "What are you doing?" Now, it will be "What's happening?" My immediate reaction was this (and I wasn't the only one):

• Google Tests Permanent Sidebar for Results, Blue Submit Buttons for Homepage

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:07 am

  Lately, Google is experimenting more than Sheldon Cooper on their homepage - and now, also on their search results. They're testing a permanent left sidebar in their search results, which would turn the results into three columns: new sidebar, organic results, search ads. Hmm, this reminds us of Bing. And Bing reminded us of Ask's 3D design (which they've since abandoned). Additionally, after experimenting with removing the submit buttons on the homepage, now Google is bringing back the buttons and testing them with a new color: bright, primary blue. In the Google help forums, two screenshots…

• YouTube Launches Automatic Captions; Great for Accessibility and Search

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:47 am

  YouTube is introducing machine-generated automatic captioning to YouTube. The captions can also be translated. This obviously has incredible implications for the hearing-impaired and language translation. But it also has great implications for search. Automatic captions will be generated using Google's automated speech recognition (ASR) technology and the same voice recognition algorithms used in Google Voice. Additionally, auto-timing is being introduced. If you provide all the words in the video, Google will automatically time the captioning for you. Of course, having what essentially…

• 
  SEO Theory Blog

• Is it time to put relevance back into search?

  Michael Martinez

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:24 pm

  So unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you may have heard that Ask.com just said it’s not for sale and it has a new search technology. That’s a radical statement from a company... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• ReBlog: Why some sites MUST block Archive.Org

  Michael Martinez

  12 Nov 2009 | 12:37 pm

  UPDATE: Matt Cutts clarified what he said/meant for me in a Tweet: “if I’m already investigating a site which is spammy-looking and appears off-topic/expired, then IA block is very... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Beware new comment spam

  Michael Martinez

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:16 pm

  Once again Google shows us just how uncoordinated a very large organization can be. Webmaster Central is telling us they will now discover new Web pages through comment feeds in ATOM/RSS format. Why... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Another 20 Hard Core SEO Tips

  Michael Martinez

  16 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am

  It’s a little early to say that publishing “20 Hard Core SEO Tips” articles has become a tradition for SEO Theory but I definitely have been thinking about writing this article for... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Why Brent Payne’s PageRank Sculpting report is bogus

  Michael Martinez

  5 Oct 2009 | 12:44 pm

  There is no doubt that Brent D. Payne is a very smart guy and an extremely successful search engine optimization strategist. He is the Director of SEO for Tribune Technology, managing the strategies... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 
  Scatterings

• VIDEO: Teen AdSense Entrepreneur

  Stephan Spencer

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:44 pm

  Yes, teenagers can make passive income from Internet marketing. Here's living proof: Isn't she amazing?!? Yes I'm a little biased, since she is my offspring. But still, you have to admit it's impressive when a kid can start an online business and make it onto the speaking circuit by the age of 16, and have such composure in front of the camera. I remember when I was a teenager trying out Junior Achievement, going to a couple of meetings, and thinking how incredibly lame it was. The meetings were more like Arts & Crafts class than anything resembling real entrepreneurship and business. I…

• An Interesting Blog SEO Technique

  Stephan Spencer

  13 Nov 2009 | 4:13 pm

  Bummer that I missed PubCon this week but I have just been traveling way too much lately. Speaking of traveling, I was in Indianapolis last week visiting the offices of Compendium Blogware. I got a demo of their hosted blog platform -- including a look under the hood -- and it's pretty slick. There were features and functionality I had never seen before in blog software. One of the key differentiators, and the reason for the company's name, is the "compending" capability that their solution does. A compended blog is comprised of a collection of posts from other blogs, but all from within the…

• VIDEO: Learn from Shoemoney, my daughter, Duane and Steve (oh, and me too!) how to monetize your blog

  Stephan Spencer

  3 Oct 2009 | 10:42 pm

  I'm in NYC for SMX East which starts tomorrow and I'm really looking forward it. But I'm also gearing up for Blog World Expo in a couple weeks. That's because my daughter Chloe Spencer, the Neopets blogger, is going to be speaking there on a panel called "Are You Getting The Most Money Out Of Your Blog As You Can?" along with heavy hitters Dave Taylor, Tim Jones, and Chris Pirillo. The session is scheduled for Friday, October 16 at 11:30am. Thinking about this panel reminded me of another panel that Chloe was a part of, also on the same topic, last year at DMA08. The session was called "Blog…

• Creating a Buzz-worthy Blog Contest in 7 Easy Steps

  Stephan Spencer

  17 Sep 2009 | 12:59 pm

  One way to bait for links is a blog contest. If you do the contest right, even the most un-sexy of products (like stationery) can become sexy, creating a buzz that can drive a torrent of search traffic to your virtual doorstep. Consider for example the contest we (Netconcepts) dreamed up for the overnight printer of stationery and business cards OvernightPrints.com that I mentioned a few posts back ("Hiring a Link Builder"). The contest was to design Internet celebrity and Technorati Top 100 blogger Jeremy Schoemaker's business card and you could potentially win business cards for life.

• EXCLUSIVE: Interview with David Allen

  Stephan Spencer

  12 Sep 2009 | 8:01 am

  http://www.marketingspeak.com/audio/david-allen-interview.mp3I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing David Allen a little while back. David's the author of the best-selling book Getting Things Done, and he's the creator of the stress-free productivity methodology known as "GTD". I'm a big fan of David's, and of GTD. I've written a few articles on GTD and productivity: Clearing the Clutter Hop Off the Time Management Treadmill Outsourcing and Delegating And presented on the topic at a previous SMX conference: Productivity Tips for the Busy Search Marketer (PPT) In this interview with…

• 
  StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

• Yahoo’s Search Share is Tanking!

  Ross Dunn

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pm

  This Silicon Alley Insider Chart based on the latest Comscore U.S. search engine market share results says it all… Yahoo is on its way out as a search leader and none too gracefully. If I were a Yahoo executive it would hurt to see this no matter what future plans they had for Bing to take over. Scary stuff! Yahoo’s Search Share is Tanking! is a post from: StepForth Web Marketing Inc. Related posts:Google Search Share Drops for 3rd Month in a RowBing / Yahoo Deal’s Impact on your SEOBing up by a Hair in June Search Figures

• Web Marketing Today Celebrates 15 Years!

  Ross Dunn

  10 Nov 2009 | 3:04 pm

  Dr. Ralph Wilson Web Marketing Today, one of the oldest and most respected marketing sites in the world just turned 15 years old!! My friend and mentor Dr. Ralph Wilson started Web Marketing Today back in 1995 (at the time known as Wilson Web) after discovering that his website design clients needed help navigating the world of web marketing. To this day Web Marketing Today has published countless thousands of posts helping small business owners, and experts alike, to understand what it takes to succeed on the Internet. To celebrate this auspicious occasion, Ralph is kindly giving a bonus to…

• Lost Google Rankings Could Be Due to Google Webmaster Tools

  Ross Dunn

  10 Nov 2009 | 11:23 am

  Synopsis: If your website is suffering from some dropped rankings on Google consider checking the geographic targeting in your Google Webmaster Tools site settings and read up on how to make the right selection (or not at all). Did you know that changing your geographic target in your GWT site settings can have an impact on your rankings? The impact can be positive in one regard and negative in the other: Google explains the Geographic Target setting (more info here): If your site targets users in a particular location, you can provide us with information that will help determine how your…

• Geo Tags – What Are They and Why You Need Them

  Scott Van Achte

  23 Oct 2009 | 4:29 pm

  If your business either has a traditional brick and mortar store front, or your site can value by being associated with your location, then you can benefit from Geo Tags. If your location is irrelevant to your online success, then Geo Tags will be of little use to you. Geo Tags are trivially easy to implement and they can help to improve your ranking results for searches specific to your area. This ultimately results in higher search rankings and increased targeted traffic to your site. Does Google Use Them? Currently Google most likely ignores Geo Tags. I say “most likely” because…

• September 2009 U.S. Search Engine Rankings by comScore

  Ross Dunn

  14 Oct 2009 | 2:19 pm

  Just an hour ago comScore released the U.S. search engine rankings for September. Without further adieu here is the lowdown on the search engine wars: * Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers. Americans conducted 13.8 billion searches in September, down 1 percent from August (which had one additional day compared to September). Google Sites accounted for 9 billion…

• 
  Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

• Spammer selling ShoeMoney Info… and a bridge

  Jeremy Schoemaker

  22 Nov 2009 | 7:50 am

  If you have a contact form or your email is public somewhere odds are you have gotten this message. Judging from the 300 or so emails we have gotten letting us know about it I am guessing its pretty widespread: —–Original Message—– From: Dominic Fernandez [mailto:domrfernandez@gmail.com] Sent: 22 November 2009 08:12 To: you Subject: Shoemoney Data Hi, My name is Dominic Fernandez, and I came across your contact information while reading through The ShoeMoney Blog. I don’t know your opinion of his advice, but I think his advice is very insightful and obviously…

• Violence, FTC Regulations, Wickedfire forums, Life, and the Economy – ShoeMoney q&a round 19

  Jeremy Schoemaker

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:06 am

  Its been a while since we did a Q&A. I asked Jamie to grab some random questions that were submitted to us from our contact form. In this q&a session we discuss a wide variety of topics everything from my recent scuffles to the state of the economy. This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog Violence, FTC Regulations, Wickedfire forums, Life, and the Economy – ShoeMoney q&a round 19

• onlineprofits.com – Free shirt Friday

  Jeremy Schoemaker

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  onlineprofits.com is an online training program to teach you how to create your own online business, or improve your existing one through internet marketing. On their homepage you can sign up to receive the free newsletter and trial of the program with the first two lessons free. If you would like to see your website or company featured on Free Shirt Friday click here This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog onlineprofits.com – Free shirt Friday

• BlitzLocal’s Dennis Yu Worse Person Than Originally Thought

  Jeremy Schoemaker

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  A couple days ago I posted my personal story with Dennis Yu. The post I wrote was the longest post ever written on ShoeMoney.com. Over 4,000 words. This guy is a very dangerous person and I wanted to tell the entire story in as much detail as possible even if some of it was really embarrassing to me. You CAN’T give con men any room to go anywhere and the only real way to stop them is to get the truth out. Dennis has issued a response and as you can tell it’s all fluff about how he is only being attacked because he is hurting the industry. Which is strange because my post was not…

• Do Not Miss The Ad.ly Boat

  Jeremy Schoemaker

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:50 am

  Ad.ly, the newest twitter advertising network, today announced a 12% referral system. This is HUGE. For instance if I would have signed up for ad.ly through your link just from the few tweets I have done so far you would have made almost 4 THOUSAND DOLLARS.  For nothing!  Just for giving me a link to signup! If making 12% off of people you refer into the ad.ly system was not enough they are also having some contests giving away macbook pro’s, ipods, and other awesome prizes! So go sign up now and refer your friends. Oh, and not to mention make money off of twitter yourself. I have…

• 
  Blue Hat SEO-Advanced SEO Tactics

• Addon Domain Spamming With Wordpress and Any Other CMS

  Eli

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:46 am

  I got this question from Primal in regards to my post on Building Mininets Eli, I like the post and your entire site. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. One thing confuses me about this particular tactic. Where are you getting the content from? You mentioned Audioscrobbler and Youtube API but I am not focusing on a music niche. The “widely available car db” sounds more like something I could use. Can you say where you would get something like this from? Also is there any reason why I should use customized pages instead of a CMS like Wordpress to generate these kinds of sites? Upon a…

• Blue Hat Technique #21 - Advanced Mininet Building

  Eli

  10 Nov 2009 | 4:11 am

  I promised awhile back that I’d teach you ugly bitches more ways to build your sexy SEO Empire. With some spare time this week I might as well take some time to help your nasty hooker ass do just that. YES I will insult you through this entire post because judging from the recent comments you donkey fuckers are getting a lil too big for your own britches and need to be brought down a peg. I’m kidding of course. You guys are great. I just feel like filling this post full of as many reasons not to read it as possible and since no one gave me an excuse to do it, I just made one up.

• Review of AutoPligg Backlink Tool

  Eli

  1 Sep 2009 | 2:42 pm

  If you already own AutoPligg read this post anyways. I promise you’ll learn something… Today’s tool review is of a tool called Autopligg by the Syndk8 crew. You’ve probably already heard of it by now but I’ve been using it for the last 6 months or so and I wanted to give you some insight on the tool and maybe some resources if you don’t already have it. Autopligg is a windows or serverside based tool that spams the popular Pligg platform, which is a CMS that basically is like Digg. There is a TON of sites out there using the PLIGG platform which makes this…

• Conspiracy Theories Please

  Eli

  5 Jun 2009 | 2:09 am

  If you find portions of my writing style on this blog hard to understand, overly complicated, different then my writing style elsewhere or just generally outside the realm of normal blogging; It’s not because I’m trying to hide something, trick you, cover up a lack of experience, or prevent you from learning the technique. In fact I’m not blogging at all. I’m writing pseudocode. Thanks for understanding, -Fishy Eli

• Open Questions - Subdomains and Main Domains

  Eli

  4 Jun 2009 | 12:53 am

  I got a great question on my SEO Empire post from Ryan at NetSEO. I figured it was worth addressing in a post rather than leaving a really long comment. Eli, Can you be so kind and explain why this is: “Primary domains can pass a penalty to subdomains. Subdomains can’t pass a penalty to a main domain unless the main domain holds a relation to the subdomain (ie. a link).” Happy to answer Ryan Anytime I make a statement like that I am usually making a reference to an exemption to the general This-Is-My-Site -> This-Is-Google -> This-Is-The-Value stream of things. Sometimes I’m a bit…

• 
  The Search Agents

• The Week We Searched For – November 20, 2009

  Camille Canon

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:41 am

  Google Lifts the Veil on Chrome Google unveiled part of their Chrome operating system this week. Although the actual launch date isn’t until late next year, the Chrome OS code will soon be released to the public under an open source license. Google’s operating system has been much rumored about, as it will run almost entirely through Web applications, relying on Web-based cloud storage, rather than computer storage. As such, Chrome is expected to pose real competition for Windows and Apple’s computing systems. While Google promotes the benefits of the ‘cloud,’ many are still…

• To Search or Not to Search, That is the Question.

  Grant Simmons

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:08 am

  Sorry Will (Shakespeare that is), I didn’t mean to misquote or mislead the followers of the great bard. It’s just that search isn’t what it used to be. Looking at my client (as well as  my own) analytics, it seems more and more people are typing in URLs into the search box. Is this still considered search, when the only possible result is the one they’re looking for? Or is this a sign of our ‘marketing times’? Gone are the days of typing in “books” or “movies”.  Now brand awareness has Internet users typing “Amazon.com”…

• Does Reading Level Matter in SEO?

  David Waterman

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:47 am

  Below are a statement (from Ted Ives) and a response (from David Waterman) on the concept of reading level as it relates to SERP rankings. Enjoy! A statement from Ted (a wise man) While it’s unclear whether Google utilizes reading level of web pages as an organic ranking factor explicitly, reading level clearly matters if you give it just a little thought. There are various methods of computing the reading level of a page, with pluses and minuses to each, but my favorite is the Flesch-Kincaid grade level, which takes into account the number of words per sentence and the number of syllables…

• The Values of a Click

  Bradd Libby

  13 Nov 2009 | 10:45 am

  In a recent YouTube video, ‘Google AdWords Bidding Tutorial‘, Google’s chief economist Dr. Hal Varian describes a method for calculating what he calls “optimal or near-optimal” bids for keywords.  His method requires first determining your Value Per Click and then selecting the bid whose incremental cost-per-click (ICC) is equal to, or less than, that value.  To facilitate this process, Google is testing an update to its Bid Simulator feature that includes the ICC for each possible bid (The version of Google’s Bid Simulator you see might or might not…

• The Week We Searched For- November 13, 2009

  Camille Canon

  13 Nov 2009 | 9:24 am

  Yahoo, Microsoft and Google to Provide Free Wi-Fi Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and eBay announced this week their plans to offer free Wi-Fi from various outlets across the country for the upcoming holiday season. Google has partnered with Boingo Wireless network to bring free Wi-Fi to 47 national airports, Microsoft has taken care of hotels and airports across the country, provided that users use Bing for search, and Yahoo has computers and mobile phones covered in Times Square. Corporate rationale has, most likely, less to do with bringing holiday joy to the nation and more to do with potential…

• 
  Business Management Consultant - Stuntdubl Search and Marketing Consulting

• Miami Florida Real Estate Agent Needed ASAP

  Stuntdubl SEO

  30 Oct 2009 | 9:23 am

  I will just be renting for a while - but I could use a hand on the inside scoop on things. If you are a top notch real estate agent in the Miami area, I could use your help. In return, I’ll be happy to answer some SEO questions, because I’m sure your website could use some improvement. I promise it will absolutely be worth your while. If you’re a Miami SEO, and you’re reading this - do your real estate buddy a favor and have them get in touch;) If you’re the person I’m looking for - drop me a line at todd at this domain name or just fill out the contact…

• 16 Things I’ve Learned About Business while Being an SEO Consultant

  Stuntdubl SEO

  4 Oct 2009 | 10:33 pm

  1. Pay extra for premium domains (if you develop them) If you can’t find and buy a good aftermarket domain and get creative - you need some marketing classes 2. Don’t skimp on hosting Such a painful expensive lesson to learn. 3. Respect contractors, but don’t overpay Don’t ever talk down to anyone you work with, but don’t allow people to tell you how smart they are without them proving it. 4. Always pay on time Evereyone always appreciates this, and you will lose contractors respect if you don’t. 5. Pay attention to cashflow See above. If you can’t…

• I Love Tools - and Bryan Eisenberg has 69 Awesome Ones for You!

  Stuntdubl SEO

  30 Sep 2009 | 2:50 pm

  Market Motive faculty Bryan Eisenberg has a great list of 69 really killer tools for making your website better. Since I’m a big tool fan myself, we’re planning a future Market Motive panel to discuss our favorite tools for website. It should be truly awesome - if for some reason you don’t know Bryan - you’ve been living under a rock, and are missing out on one of the true top level experts on conversion optimization. This guy literally wrote the book on the subject (in fact, several of them). Check out Bryan’s awesome list of tools to make your website better,…

• Affiliate Summit East and San Jose Search Engine Strategies and IMCharityParty.com

  Stuntdubl SEO

  5 Aug 2009 | 4:07 am

  3 Things to post here at Stuntdubl Land. 1. IM Charity Party - Please help by spreading the word. If you were there last year, you know, and can help spread the word. Should be a great time for a great cause. 2. Affiliate Summit Panel of social media for affiliates - should be good with a great group of speakers. 3. MarketMotive and SEO Clinic panel at SES San Jose - MM folks have built something awesome, and we get to show it off a bit at SES this year. More details on everything below. Looking forward to lots of great meals, great drinks, and awesome seo discussion in my near future:) Be…

• Last Ticket to SEOktoberfest on Ebay

  Stuntdubl SEO

  29 Jul 2009 | 2:43 pm

  Since I am incredibly lazy - here are the details from the auction for the last SEOktoberfest golden ticket copy and pasted. I do agree with Greg’s assessment of why Rebecca should attend, and will add that I’m expecting it to be a lot like Bavarian Festival in Frankenmuth, Michigan, except 10,000% larger and more rowdy…which may remind Rebecca of home if she was from Frankenmuth (but she’s not), though she IS from Michigan, and I will need some representation from another Michigander to remind me where to get booze when there are no “party stores” around.

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  Search Marketing Insights by Dev Basu

• Lecturing At the University of Toronto on Personal Branding

  Dev Basu

  7 Nov 2009 | 2:59 pm

  It’s That Time of Year Again Fall is a wonderful time when students like cracking out the books again, and getting back into the world of academia. Between being knee deep in building a business, and staying on top of all the crazy changes the Local Search world has seen lately, I like to give back every year by delivering guest lectures at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. This year, I had the unique opportunity to have a different experience than talking to students about SEO and Internet Marketing as a  career. Instead, Professor Chris Bovaird got in touch me with to talk to…

• Google Local Business Center Enhanced Dashboard Goes Live In Canada

  Dev Basu

  20 Oct 2009 | 12:51 pm

  More Robust Reporting Eh! When the Enhanced Dashboard reporting interface first went live in June 2009, I couldn’t wait till its new reporting features rolled outside the US and onto Canada and the rest of the world. The last two weeks have been pivotal in that type of progress, with reports that users in Europe and India being able to view the enhanced dashboard, complete with impressions, actions, and common search queries. I’m happy to report that as of today, the enhanced dashboard reports have been rolled out to all Canadian users. As a recap here are some of the top features…

• Google Local Listing Ads and The Death of IYP Advertising

  Dev Basu

  11 Oct 2009 | 2:40 pm

  What are Local Listing Ads? For quite some time, local seo services have revolved around getting clients to the top of the 10 pack results by following best practices and optimizing for local search ranking factors. Organic search had its paid advertising counter part in Google Adwords, and although one could link their Local Business Centre listings with Adwords, the fit wasn’t as snug as it was meant to be. Last week, Google launched its Local Listings Ads service in San Diego and San Francisco in limited beta – Local Listing ads (pictured to the side) are fixed fee advertising…

• Are Google Place Pages Being Indexed?

  Dev Basu

  27 Sep 2009 | 3:09 pm

  Introducing Google Place Pages Google has officially switched over from the tabbed interface presented in all Google map profiles to a new ‘places’ page that offers business information in a more concise and apparent fashion. The shift to Wikipedia style map entries that are supported by community edits (US only) is a welcome change to Google Maps, with countries other than the US going through a transition from the existing tabbed bubble interface to the new ‘place pages’ interface in about 2 weeks time. Internal discussions with local search marketers has yielded…

• Entrepreneur vs. Employee

  Dev Basu

  24 Jun 2009 | 6:29 pm

  Which right minded opportunist has not thought about striking it out on their own? I currently lead the life of an intrapreneur – One who thrives as an entrepreneur within a corporate environment…perhaps the best of both worlds. My friend and fellow Toronto based marketer Satish Kanwar recently presented at Refresh,  one of the increasingly popular  ‘unconferences’ taking place in the city. Check out what he has to say beyond the jump:Satish Kanwar – Entrepreneur Versus Employee Wikipedia (no you’re not getting a link) says: Intrapreneurship is the…

• 
  SEO Speedwagon

• Ten Reasons Why Good Link Builders Fail

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:33 pm

  Having worked in link building for nearly three years, I've seen a lot of people come and go. It's the nature of any business to be sure, but sometimes it's a little more heartbreaking than others. Without a doubt, I...

• Promises Promises

  13 Nov 2009 | 10:58 am

  A good partnership between client and agency is stronger than any 'secret sauce' and will end up providing many years of solid returns for everyone involved.

• Is Social Media a Fad?

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:04 am

  In an ever changing industry sometimes people wonder if what we are doing will make an impact on our clients businesses for the long run.

• Social Media URL Duplication and the Canonical Link Element

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:33 am

  Just because you're not creating tracking versions of your content doesn't mean other people aren't. Here's how to handle it.

• Utilize Micro-blog Technology to Find Talent or a Job

  4 Nov 2009 | 9:58 am

  This morning I had the opportunity to review a site that enables recruiters and job hunters to connect with one another with greater ease utilizing micro-blog technology.

• 
  Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

• Google, the Butt of Toilet Humor

  Andy Beal

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:59 pm

  Apparently Google is more than just the world’s most used search engine. It’s also “Super elastic, soft, smooth. Highly absorbent, for you always!” Via The Huffington Post

• Cup of Joe: How Not To Go Viral and Look Like an Idiot

  Joe Hall

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:02 am

  (via) So, ever since I came back from Vegas, I have had a pretty bad head cold. But, I have been diligently applying my favorite remedy: Watching mindless YouTube videos! Seriously, it makes me feel better. I am not sure why, but I am sticking to it! One thing I have noticed is that the most popular videos have at least one of two things; authentic, original content, or very well polished and produced material. Basically, if the video has authentic, original content then it doesn’t really matter if it’s “put together” well, because the content alone will sell it.

• Closed Captioning Brought to You by YouTube

  Jordan McCollum

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am

  Google announced that closed captioning is coming to YouTube. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know it was already there in many videos where the creators took the time to add the subtitles for the hearing- or speaker-impaired. But now, for selected participating partners (mainly universities), YouTube itself will be adding the captions. The captions will be machine generated and automatically timed to match the video (and still be readable, I hope). Just like any dictation program, I suppose, they’ll listen to the audio from the clips and transcribe it. Now, normally, you know I’d be in…

• Google Testing Permanent Sidebar

  Jordan McCollum

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:46 am

  Search Engine Land talks to Marissa Mayer about Google testing a new search interface among a select few users. The new interface uses a left-hand pane to display search options—but instead of being off by default, with a link to turn on the pane, the new search options will be on permanently, and Google will lose the top blue bar over its results. Other options, including results from other Google properties (Images, News, Maps, Books) will join the left-hand panel. Search Engine Land has screenshots of the news options test: Meanwhile, as a refresher, here’s the present Search…

• Woman Loses Benefits, In Part, Due to Facebook

  Frank Reed

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  So I had to open my big mouth on my previous post today and say that Facebook is keeping its nose clean with regard to news as of late. I guess it still is despite this particular incident that happened to a woman living in our neighbor to the north, Canada. You remember Canada. The place where Facebook had to adhere to their privacy policies for threat of shutting them down? Well, I wonder how that privacy deal is working out because it looks like companies working on Canadian soil may need a lesson in privacy. The CBC reports A Quebec woman on long-term sick leave is fighting to have her…

• 
  SEO Scoop

• Is Your Website in Costume?

  Megan Slick

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am

  Costumes got me thinking about websites and writing. I know, sometimes I have crazy thoughts. Here it is. On Halloween people dress up as witches or the guy with the baby from Hangover. Dressing up is great for Halloween but it would be weird if people dressed up all-year-round. So why are some websites in costume all year long? What I mean by costume, is dressing your website in language that isn’t appropriate for the product or service you are selling. Sadly, a popular costume for websites is lawyer. No one wants to read about the latest toy from the perspective of a lawyer. Moms want…

• How To Sitemap: Search Engine Submission

  Stephanie Woods

  4 Nov 2009 | 7:48 am

  When I was first learning how to submit XML sitemaps to search engines, I found all the information I needed, however, the information was spread out amongst several sources. My intention is to create a quick reference guide on how to submit your XML sitemap to all of the major search engines (in one convenient location). If you have no idea what a XML sitemap is, or you are interested in learning how to create one, be sure to check out the precursor to this post: How To Sitemap: Creating XML Sitemaps. Monty & Spider by Ratkimo You can wait for the search engines to spider your site and…

• 8 Utilities to Track Keyword Rankings

  Will Reinhardt

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:49 am

  One of the more tedious tasks in my monthly routine is preparing keyword ranking reports. While I enjoy analyzing the numbers and discovering how well our clients have (hopefully) improved over the past 30 days, actually collecting those numbers is a chore I don’t relish. If I can pay a few dollars to have a service perform this task on my behalf, I’m all for it. Listed below are eight services that will track your keyword rankings for you. I’ll do my best to list out their various pricing structures, to give you a simplified snapshot to help you find the service that most…

• Overcoming Drunken Monkeys & Writing Tips

  Megan Slick

  28 Oct 2009 | 4:15 am

  How to have your content ready when your boss asks for it. You waited and waited and now you have your keyword research. An exciting moment, until you realize you have to do something with it. Thousands of words staring at you from their excel spread sheet spells writer’s block and drunken monkeys. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a great book. It is about writing fiction but it has great points on general writing. The title comes from a clever story of Anne’s father giving her brother advise about a report on birds he is petrified to begin. “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird…

• How To Sitemap: Creating XML Sitemaps

  Stephanie Woods

  21 Oct 2009 | 3:55 am

  Hiya Google spiders, While you’re here, can you please make sure you check out our main product pages since we make changes to them frequently? Also, we added some new blog pages, so be sure to check those out as well. Have a great week! Thanks, Steph Wouldn’t it be great to leave a note providing suggestions to search engine spiders about how you want your site crawled when they visit your site? Well guess what? You can. Spider dog. Courtesy of epicfunnypictures.com. A XML sitemap is similar to the notes left behind by my well organized sister-in-law when I dogsit for her and my…

• 
  SEO and Tech Daily

• Microsoft Office 2010 Betas now available

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:31 pm

  As short time ago, Microsoft made it official. Office 2010 and Sharepoint 2010 betas are both now available to the public. The news came first today in an article by Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet who, over the years, has very much been in the loop of breaking Microsoft news. Microsoft appears to be continuing a tradition started with Windows 7 of releasing betas in the general public for evaluation and feedback (and, of course, to help create a buzz).  Prior to Windows 7, most if not all Microsoft test products were evaluated by a smaller group of Microsoft beta testers. The…

• Seesmic for Windows previewed at PDC09

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:45 am

  It wasn't just new and enhanced Microsoft programs being launched yesterday, the first day of Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference (or PDC09) in Los Angeles. Loic Le Meur 's team revealed a preview of  'Seesmic for Windows'.  A new version of the popular Twitter client optimized for Windows 7. I received a copy of the preview bits this morning and did a quick run under Windows 7, and while all the features aren't yet available, the Windows native client seemed much 'lighter' and more responsive than the cross platform version powered by Adobe Air. Here's a rundown from the…

• Don Dodge already has a new job

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:43 pm

  It's becoming more and more apparent that Google totally gets it (and despite numerous significant product announcements this year).... Microsoft is losing touch with a huge portion of their own base. We live in a time where different groups of users want to be 'in the loop'. Whether they're developers, system builders, IT professionals or just regular everyday users, people want to put a real face on a company more than ever, and more importantly, be able to communicate with a 'human' to answer questions .... and begin to 'trust' a significant change or new product. Just before Twitter…

• Breaking: Verizon FIXES overcharging issue

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:08 pm

  Yesterday, NY Times' David Pogue took Verizon Wireless to task over miscellaneous charges appearing on his bill .... due to 'hitting the wrong key' and receiving a data charge. I seriously doubt that anyone that owns a Verizon web-enabled cellphone  would disagree with this. It's a known problem.  I've been told about it by numerous Verizon Wireless employees ...... and it has caused them huge headaches (and lots of calls to customer service).  This, despite employees trained to warn customers when selling the phones as well as demonstrating locking features. In my case, I took…

• Google's PR machine goes into overdrive (Updated)

  11 Nov 2009 | 8:07 am

  I honestly can't remember a time when Google has made the amount of product and service announcements as they have in the past two weeks.  Some were subtle, others very direct. Regardless, Google has managed to be in the headlines (in a myriad of spaces) almost every day. The 'Wave' continues .... For well over two weeks, Google Wave has been 'trending' on Twitter.   Why? The team has been sending invites to existing users on a fairly regular basis and 'techie curiosity', as always, is running at a fever pitch.  I gave a few away back here, and just today received 30…

• 
  SEO Web Help

• Changing the Face of SEOWebHelp

  Hi Friends! Just a friendly note to tell you what’s brewing on this site. First, I would like to apologize for the lack of posting in the past weeks. Oct and Nov happen to be conference months for me and I have been trying to get to as many as possible. I will be adding many new [...]

• New Google PageRank to WebRank

  It appears that Google has decided to remove PageRank from the Google Webmaster Tools. Surprisingly it hasn’t been removed from the Google Toolbar yet. I’m sure this is on it’s way though. What will they call the new PR? Many other SEOers in the field have been excited to see that the PR was removed from the [...]

• Generating Extra Income Online – questions answered part1

  I have been looking into some Internet marketing ideas lately. What will help SEO Web Help grow? How can I start generating residual income on a site specializing in one topic – search engine optimization. I see MLM – Multi-level marketing, affiliate marketing, Adsense, reseller options and too many more to list out there. Then how [...]

• My Findings on Google Caffeine

  Many people have been secretly working on the new algorithms for Google Caffeine which will help us all search a little better. Some people may not notice any difference in their searching while others may see the How does Google Caffeine work and what is it? What I believe it’s all about is offering us (searchers [...]

• SEO Buyers and SEO Sellers

  Getting new SEO clients can be difficult at times since some of the SEO scammers have made people uneasy about what to expect from hiring you. As a company looking to hire a new SEO company, you may or may not have experienced an SEO scammer. What do you do? Who do you hire? This [...]

• 
  Sugarrae aka Rae Hoffman

• Affiliate Datafeeds and Duplicate Content

  The other day I posed a question on Twitter; “If you could learn more about one aspect of affiliate marketing, what would it be?” and a large portion of the responses I got back as a result were about using affiliate datafeeds. Even more specifically, several of them revolved around datafeed usage and duplicate content in regards to SEO. I’ve used (and still use) a lot of datafeeds in the construction of my affiliate sites and have learned quite a bit in regards to using them over the years. Hopefully, I’ll be able to pass along some of what I’ve learned to help…

• My First Affiliate Summit Experience

  I know, I know. I’ve been an affiliate for over a decade now [I'm not old, I'm not old]… how have I not attended an Affiliate Summit before? I must have been asked that question thirty times this week. I really don’t know… I think because I’ve always been an organically focused affiliate, I’ve tended to mingle within the SEO community more than the affiliate community. That said, I was asked to speak at ASE, had always wanted to attend the conference and figured now was the time to pop that cherry. The Organizers I was actually impressed with how well the…

• Commercial Twitter Case Study Revisited

  About a year ago I did a case study on the use of Twitter by BBGeeks.com – a site I own about BlackBerry phones. We were using Twitter as sort of a guerrilla marketing tactic to increase traffic to our site and more importantly, promote our brand. The results were encouraging – we’d acquired 500 followers in a short period of time and found they were actually visiting our site and engaging with us as a result. The initial results were promising enough that we kept with it, kept learning, kept testing – and we’re very glad we did. We went on building our brand via…

• Testing

  Please ignore :) Testing something Thanks. This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.Testing This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.Testing

• Thesis Tutorial – Creating Custom Categories

  I get asked at least once per week how I got the custom content on my category pages (you can check out the affiliate marketing category here on Sugarrae or the SEO conference category on Outspoken Media to see examples). The answer are custom category hooks and the instructions for creating them are below. Now first, I’d like to say that having custom categories is possible in any Wordpress theme. So, if you’re not using Thesis, all you need to do is duplicate the basic category.php template of your theme and and then customize it for each category, name it category-#.php (with #…

• 
  Posts from the Econsultancy blog

• Q&A: Dennis Mortensen on Yahoo Analytics

  Meghan Keane

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:14 am

  Dennis Mortensen has worked in the analytics, optimization and online marketing industry since 1996. He is an Associate Web Analytics Instructor at the University of British Columbia, the Author of data driven insights with Yahoo! Web Analytics, and a frequent speaker on the subject of analytics and online marketing. Mortensen joined up IndexTools in 2004 and worked as COO until the company was acquired by Yahoo! Inc., in May 2008. Today he is the Director of Data Insights at Yahoo! and sits on the Board of Directors at the Web Analytics Association. He also writes the popular analytics blog,…

• How to use Google Voice to increase reorders

  Bryan Eisenberg

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:48 am

  I just received an email from nutritional supplement retailer Jigsaw Health, about a new program they offering their existing customer base. After speaking to President and Co-Founder Patrick Sullivan Jr, I learned that 80% of their monthly revenue comes from returning customers (and they don't even offer an auto-ship program). How? By setting up Google Voice so that repeat customers can place orders via text message. Let's take a look at how this works... Patrick came up with an idea to make it simpler for these customers to re-order from him, knowing that most people don't spend all their…

• 12 reasons Chrome OS will fail

  Patricio Robles

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:33 am

  Yesterday, Google held a press conference at its Mountain View headquarters to provide the world with an update on its new operating system, Chrome OS. A lot of new details were forthcoming, which have have been well-covered by others. The questions on everyone's mind: is Chrome OS the real deal? Where does it fit in? How will it impact the OS market. My answers: it isn't, nowhere, it won't. Here are 12 reasons why Chrome OS is going to fail. The web matters, but so does the desktop. With Chrome OS, Google is betting that desktop apps don't matter to the average consumer. Is that a good bet?

• Search marketing stats round up

  Graham Charlton

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:37 am

  Here's a selection of recent social media stats, taken from a range of sources, including Econsultancy's Search Marketing Statistics document, which forms part of the Internet Statistics Compendium, and other reports... US search engine rankings (comScore) Americans conducted 13.8bn searches in September 2009, with Google accounting for 64.9%. Yahoo was next on 18.8%, followed by Microsoft on 9.4% and Ask on 3.9%. UK search market share (Efficient Frontier) Google's share of UK search spend was 86.5% in Q3 2009, Yahoo was next on 9.1%, while Bing took 4.3%. Search and branding (Google /…

• Q&A: Gerrard Dennis of Simply Group on e-commerce

  Graham Charlton

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:33 am

  The Simply Group operates seven e-commerce sites in the UK, from SimplyScuba, to the recently relaunched SimplyBeach. I've been talking to founder Gerrard Dennis about the challenges if running seven separate sites... How long have you been operating?We started out in 1995 with the Scuba shop and, around 2000, we decided to branch out into other avenues, feeling that specialising in just scuba gear left us too exposed to possible changes in the market.By offering ski gear as well as scuba, we were covering all year round in terms of leisure activities, and we have continued to add more since…

• 
  Search Engine Guide

• Web Copywriting Voodoo: The 8-Step Secret Copywriters Might Not Want You to Know

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:14 am

  by Karri Flatla I might get in ca-ca for sharing this with the entire readership of Search Engine Guide, but it's time to reveal what a lot of web copywriters probably don't want you to know. Why? Because keeping you in the dark about how we crunch out great copy day after day keeps us in business. Or so one would think.Personally, I'd rather spill the beans. It's too much pressure to have everyone believing that we web copywriters and SEO copywriters are practitioners of witchcraft. While I readily admit that I cannot always explain how I craft each and every line of compelling copy, there…

• Striking Out On My Own All While Staying Put

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:26 pm

  by Jennifer Laycock Regular readers of Search Engine Guide probably noticed I've been less than active as an author and Twitter voice this past year. All of that's about to change. Over the next few months you'll all see me getting back into the swing of things here on Search Engine Guide and hopefully back to my chatty self on Twitter and other social media sites. Returning to My Roots As of this week, I'm back at Search Engine Guide full time to resume my position as Editor-in-Chief. I'll also be launching my own consulting company so I can continue to work with small businesses and larger…

• 5 Worries That Can Blow Your SEO Budget

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:20 pm

  by Stoney deGeyter Many small businesses are at a financial disadvantage when it comes to marketing their website. Too often they don't have the funds, time, or resources needed to engage in as much marketing as they would like. Unlike larger businesses with deep pockets, small business often have to rely on do-it-yourself strategies built upon free advice gathered from blogs, forums, and social networking sites. This gives them a lot to worry about, making sure they are doing it right and that the results will be all they had hoped for. And hoping it doesn't break their budget in the…

• When Should I Build a New Website & Invest In SEO

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:17 pm

  by Jeff Howard The Holidays are no further than one week away, and on the other side of everyone going bonkers is a new year. Chances are at this juncture new budgets will be set, taxes paid, and 2010 business goals established. If you're on the fence about shifting marketing funds toward SEO, or whether or not to build a new website here are objective methods packed into two PDF guides that can assist in the decision making process. Many factors come into play when deciding whether or not to build a new website for your local business, aside from the obvious such as who will build it and…

• 5 Worries That Can Kill Your SEO Campaign

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:43 am

  by Stoney deGeyter Small businesses are often seen fumbling around in the dark when it comes to figuring out which SEO strategies really work and which don't. There is an onslaught of information freely available online, much of it contradictory or confusing. Small business owners who attempt to perform SEO for themselves don't often know which strategies are more important than others, which are worthwhile and which are worthless, or how do you tell the difference. Slogging through SEO forums, blogs and article sites can provide a great deal of good information, but it can also leave the…

• 
  Online Marketing Blog

• SEO for Flash: 5 Tips and Best Practices

  Michelle Bowles

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:32 am

  SEO for Flash – is it a reality yet? One of the most common issues for web sites with poor search visibility involves Google not being able to crawl and index a site’s content. Web sites made entirely with Flash are problematic because there are often no links for search engine crawlers to follow or HTML text to copy. According to the Opera (browser) developer center, somewhere between 30% and 40% of all pages tested contained Flash files representing a lot of content that may not be included in search results or only partially indexed. Despite a large number of sites publishing…

• Google: Social Media is a Party, SEO is Bullsh*t, Advertising is Good For You

  Lee Odden

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  I noticed someone using Google suggest in another story today (honestly forgot where) and thought I’d see what Google “thinks” about social media. Then I tried SEO. Not surprising. Funniest of all, considering Google’s business model, was advertising. Pretty telling when you think about it. Of course this isn’t what Google “really thinks” about social media, it’s Google’s response to search queries and effort to predict what we’re really searching for. Google Suggest works by drawing from searches by other Google users, sites in…

• Book Review: Socialnomics by Erik Qualman

  Lee Odden

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:33 am

  “It’s a people driven economy stupid” and “Online word of mouth has made many traditional marketing strategies obsolete”. Those are powerful words and central to the theme in “Socialnomics” by Erik Qualman, Global VP for Online Marketing for EF Educatio, the world’s largest private educator. I appreciate Erik’s characterization because it’s how I’ve viewed social media since our digital marketing & PR agency started blogging and using social news/bookmarking sites in 2004: as technology that facilitates word of mouth. At…

• Why Use Social Media For Public Relations

  Adam Singer

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am

  Recently, I presented at PubCon on the intersection of social media and PR.  The session title was “experts on PR and Twitter,” however the session description went on to discuss a variety of networks.  Therefore my interpretation was to speak on the intersection of social media and PR, and not just PR and Twitter. The social web is far more than just Twitter, and if Twitter is the extent of your participation you’re missing out.  Lee’s diagram of social media and channels of distribution presents a visualization of a strong approach, where the centerpiece is a blog.  The…

• 5 SEO Tips for Online Retailers

  Michelle Bowles

  13 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  Online retail websites face a unique set of obstacles when it comes to improving sales through better search engine visibility.  Repetitive product descriptions, a lack of content and frequent churn of products can all be hurdles to overcome. But with these specific tips for retail search engine optimization, online retailers can turn those challenges into opportunities and maximize their organic search traffic. 1. Add fresh content to the website. Many online retail websites focus on selling products rather than informing and providing value to customers, and hence severely lack content.

• 
  John Battelle's Searchblog

• "WuzUp?"

  http://fmpub.net/contact.php?to=jb

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:34 pm

  From Biz' post on Twitter's shift: Twitter helps you share and discover what's happening now among all the things, people, and events you care about. "What are you doing?" isn't the right question anymore—starting today, we've shortened it by two characters. Twitter now asks, "What's happening?" Well, regardless of spin, this is a major shift, to my mind. Semantics matter, *a lot*, when your entire business is, well, semantics. Language is how we encode that which is essential to who we are. And there is a world of difference between "What are YOU doing" (emphasis mine) and "What's…

• I Love It When...

  http://fmpub.net/contact.php?to=jb

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:48 pm

  You imagine something out loud in a book, and then it starts to happen.... I am sure many of you have heard of RedLaser, but I hadn't until today. I love it! Here's the text from my blog post, written in 2004 (pre iPhone, so I used a Treo...) which I rewrote into the book: What to do? Not to worry, you’ve got Google Mobile Shop installed on your phone. You whip out your Treo 950, the one with the infrared UPC reader installed, and you wand it over that bottle of 2001 Clos Du Val now lovingly cradled in your arms. In less than a second a set of options is presented on the phone’s screen…

• Thanks For Flying With Us. Please Give Us All Your Money.

  http://fmpub.net/contact.php?to=jb

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:04 pm

  Today I had quite an experience with United Airlines. It has very little to do with much of anything I usually write about here, save one key element: I have posited that to succeed in what I've been calling the Conversation Economy, companies must learn to have conversations with their customers at scale. (And to do so, they will need to leverage open platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc. and, of course, change the way they instrument their business. But more on that later). Well, here's a tale of one company failing miserably at doing just that, even while, in the end, due to my own…

• Why Did Google Buy AdMob?

  http://fmpub.net/contact.php?to=jb

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:58 pm

  Look. Sure, it's a mobile ad platform, and sure, Google wants to play there, more than they already are. OK. Fine. But really. What's the play? Droid. Data. Droid. Iphone App Data. Droid. K? Data. Just to be clear. Data. About what works, on iPhone apps, so they can leverage it...for Droid. K.

• Hey Mr. Murdoch: It Doesn't Have to Be Black and White

  http://fmpub.net/contact.php?to=jb

  9 Nov 2009 | 12:54 pm

  Sheesh. Just give Google summary text and headlines to index (like the WSJ does now). Then do your best to convert would be readers to your paid model. That's it. What's the big deal? The rest is bluster.

• 
  Bruce Clay, Inc. Blog

• Friday Recap - Little Genius Edition

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:21 pm

  Welcome back to Friday, friends. There was no major news this week. Oh, wait. There was that one minor blip on the radar -- a.k.a. the release of Twitter's new, official retweet feature. The long and short of it is that no one likes it. Lisa Barone dissects the many...

• Sticks & Stones May Break Your Bones But Ignoring the Online Convo May Crush You

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:14 pm

  Conferences are a hub of learning, growth and progress in the SEO industry. They're part of the glue that connects members of the community, offering a cherished opportunity for forging relationships and friendship. And no matter how many conferences they've been to, most attendees almost always walk away from a...

• A Competitive SEO Advantage in Studying the Times - SEM Synergy Extras

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:33 pm

  On today's episode of SEM Synergy, I speak with my guest Bas van den Beld about search marketing in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall. What does the Berlin Wall have to do with search marketing, you ask? Bas is a Holland-based Internet marketing consultant, the co-host...

• Got That? 6 Compelling PubCon Takeaways

  17 Nov 2009 | 10:37 am

  After attending PubCon Las Vegas last week, Marty Weintraub kindly offered to share his major takeaways with PubCon-deprived BCI blog readers, and we are thrilled to have Marty's unique wit and sharp analysis on the BCI blog. You can also find more of Marty's PubCon insights, along with search and...

• Achieving Strong Themes through Silos and Data Mining Server Logs in the SEO Newsletter

  16 Nov 2009 | 4:55 pm

  The monthly SEO Newsletter will be blazing its way into inboxes tomorrow. It's so stuffed with the last month's news, it's safe to say you could have been Rip Van Winkle the past few weeks and none would be the wiser after your reading of November's SEO Newsletter. For a...

• 
  MediaPost | Search Insider

• What's Going To Work? TEAMWORK

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:45 am

  If you have a child in the 18- to 36-month-old range, you may recognize the catchphrase of the "Wonder Pets" in the title above. I happen to have a two-year-old who enjoys the adventures of the Wonder Pets -- three animals who each episode set out to save a poor, innocent animal using their can-do attitudes and, yep, teamwork. So what do these Nickelodeon creations have to do with search? The Wonder Pets, in their "team together" philosophy, exemplify the greatest area of growth still needed in the search space.

• Search Insider Sneak Peek: The Three-For-One Keynote

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:30 am

  Avinash Kaushik, Google's Analytics Evangelist, will be kicking off the Search Insider Summit in just two weeks. I had the opportunity to chat with Avinash last week about what might be in store. As anyone who has heard him before would agree, it won't be-sugar coated, it will be colorful and it will probably wrench your perspective on things you took for granted at least 180 degrees. Here are the three basic themes he'll be covering.

• Even More On: Everything I Need to Know About Business I Learned From Google

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:45 pm

  Today we close out the chapter on business lessons learned from Google. As much as I like a good top-ten list, I couldn't whittle this one down, so here are numbers nine through eleven, staring with: 9. Follow the law of averages at your own peril.

• Search Is For The Drills; Social Is For The Holes

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:46 am

  How do people engage with your product or service? Do you sell something like kayaks, which become a part of people's lives, passion and identity? Or do you sell couches, which tend to only interest people while they're shopping for them? A Twitter search for "kayak" reveals all sorts of conversation about people indulging in their favorite activity, conversation that a kayak manufacturer could participate in to become part of the community. A Twitter search for "couch," on the other hand, reveals conversation focused on laziness -- not exactly fodder for potential couch sales.

• Applied Video and Social Search

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:30 am

  So I am sitting around with some friends last weekend watching sports on TV. We get to laughing about the E*Trade baby ads. Well, what do you know? We ended up whipping out the laptop and searching for the ads to watch them a few times. What a brilliant creative execution -- and how brilliant that we were able to re-enjoy the ads again together as friends. Then of course, much to my friends' chagrin, I started waxing poetic about the merits of SEM, video, and social media optimization. My point is that great creative begets the need for video search optimization and social media integration.

• 
  Search Marketing Standard

• The Razor’s Edge – Web Analytics 2.0 Arrives

  Frances Mary Krug

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:22 am

  We’re on the razor’s edge today – Occam’s Razor, that is. With Avinash Kaushik’s new book Web Analytics 2.0 finally hitting the bookstores, he’s promoting – well, at least as much as he has time for with his multiple full-time jobs and numerous other responsibilities and passions. Avinash is not popular just because of what he has to say – his energy and sense of humor makes what could be a dry, dry topic into something anyone can get into and understand. Avinash himself lays out the “chapter and verse” of the book on his blog this week. As he says, “It is not a…

• Hiring Your Own SEO

  Rebecca Appleton

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:10 pm

  If, despite your best efforts, your website is not making the inroads you would hope in the search engine rankings, it may be time to consider recruiting an SEO to the team. Hiring a professional gives you the benefit of their expertise and will ease the workload of team members currently required to carry out SEO-related tasks that they may not be fully trained to do. However, the job of hiring an SEO is a tricky business, especially since their knowledge will often be far superior to your own. That can make the interview process difficult, as you do not want to be blinded by science or…

• 5 Tips For Creating Compelling PPC Ads

  Chris Stiner

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:30 am

  Search engine marketers are always looking to capture a valuable and relevant click throughout their pay-per-click campaign. Here are five ways to help target those all-important searchers through compelling and effective ad copy. 1. Utilize Your Product’s Uniqueness – Most companies already know what sets them apart from their competitors. More than likely, your company has already completed hours of market research, so you should utilize this data in your ad copy. For example, if you have a Volvo dealership, capitalize on the safety aspect of your brand; if you have a Subaru dealership,…

• What Do You Do Now That LinkedIn Is All A-Twitter?

  Frances Mary Krug

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:20 pm

  With Twitter and LinkedIn announcing this past week that LinkedIn users can now synch their status with Twitter updates, LinkedIn has stepped up to the plate with something that is bound to cement its position even more securely among business users. Early results show a strong uptick in LinkedIn status updates. So, if you’ve been letting your LinkedIn account languish, it may be time to revisit and revamp, especially with their much-awaited redesign making its way online as well. Here are some recent postings on good places to go for tips and help on getting the most from your LinkedIn…

• Tips For Distributing Your Online PR

  Rebecca Appleton

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:31 pm

  Armed with last week’s post on writing the perfect PR, you should now have a structured, formatted, and interesting news release to send out online. But just because the writing is finished, it doesn’t mean that your work is done. Having a PR and having people read it are two very different things. This is where PR distribution comes in. Distributing the PR is just as important as the creative process because it’s this part of the job that will help you harvest good quality links and drive targeted traffic to the site. 1. Start Locally Your local media should always be your first port…

• 
  Pandia Search Engine News

• On the Google Chrome OS and other search engine news (Nov 22)

  Per and Susanne Koch

  22 Nov 2009 | 7:18 am

  Here are some of this week’s headlines from the search engine scene. We also presents several videos on the new Google Chrome operating system. Yahoo Search Now Indexing Twitter Tweets for Breaking News (Google Watch Nov 19 2009) Google Chrome OS Preview Comes as Microsoft Preps Azure Yesterday, Nov. 17, Microsoft said Azure, the cloud-based operating system, would be ready for enterprise consumption as soon as Jan. 1, 2010. (Google Watch Nov 18 2009) Mystery Google - what is it? A custom search engine designed to show you what the person in front of you just searched for. (About Nov 18…

• New features from Google, Bing and Yahoo!

  Per and Susanne Koch

  22 Nov 2009 | 7:07 am

  The search engine innovation frenzy goes on, as both Google, Bing and Yahoo! refine their search toolboxes. Google translate gets some new features Google Translate let’s you translate both copied text and complete web pages. This week Google changed some of the features available. You no longer have to click on the translate button to generate a translation. Instead Google starts translating as soon as you enter text in the the text box. Google has also added romanization of non-Latin characters. The Google Blog puts it this way: Want to say “Today is a good day” in…

• November 2009 Google Page Rank and Algorithm Update

  Per and Susanne Koch

  22 Nov 2009 | 4:02 am

  Google has once again updated their search engine algorithm and Page Rank. This has caused great joy for many webmasters, while others are scrambling to find out what happened to their websites page rank. Here is what you need to know about the most recent update and how to prepare for the next one. By Guest Writer Brandon Leibowitz Keep your content fresh Goggle’s newest page rank update, occurring late October/November 2009 seems to favor new pages. New pages are pages that have recently been added to your website, or have undergone major changes in content. Existing pages with no…

• Top 5 search engines for kids

  Per and Susanne Koch

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:25 am

  Like their parents and teachers, most kids use Google to find their way online. But there are plenty of great search engines made especially for children out there. Here is a list of the top 5 search engines for kids What to look for These child friendly search engines all search safe content, often indexes of content of particular interest to children, so you know the kids don’t stumble upon unsavory content. A great search engine for kids also has a user interface that is easy to navigate and that appeals to children. This is my favorite part of researching search engines for…

• Pandia Search Engine News Wrap-up Nov 15

  Per and Susanne Koch

  15 Nov 2009 | 4:32 am

  Here are some of the most important search engine news headlines of the week: Google eyes China as Baidu fumbles Baidu’s switch to a new advertising system, Phoenix Nest, may be the catalyst that boosts Google’s market share. (Economic Times Nov 15 2009) Google makes concessions on digital book deal Internet search leader Google will ease its control over millions of copyright-protected books earmarked for its digital library (SFgate Nov 15 2009) Google aims to double Web speed Google is hoping to make Web pages download up to twice as quickly using SPDY, a new application-layer…

• 
  Ask Kalena

• Q and A: Can you start a career in SEO / SEM from home?

  Kalena Jordan

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:44 am

  Dear Kalena… I just read your article on SEM careers at Pandia and I have a strong feeling that you probably are the right person that I can air my career-question to. I am Raj from Hyderabad, India and I am an engineering graduate. I worked as a Software Developer and am planning to shift my career to SEM/SEO. I have been reading as many article as I possibly could on SEO/SEM but unable to get that first break. Could you please answer the following questions for me? 1. Is it possible for a newbie on SEM/SEO to work remotely (from home)? 2. Where does a newbie make a beginning and how?

• Twitter’s New Retweet and Why You Shouldn’t Hate It

  Kalena Jordan

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:53 am

  Twitter began rolling out their controversial new Retweet functionality last week to quite a large number of beta testers, me included. Old Skool Retweeting In the past, when Twitter users wanted to repeat the tweet of somebody they followed, they would simply use the *RT* or *via* syntax in front of the twitter handle of the person whose tweet they were repeating, to signify attribution. For example: @kalena: wondering why monosyllabic isn’t. @bob: RT @kalena wondering why monosyllabic isn’t. @jane: wondering why monosyllabic isn’t. (via @kalena) Some Twitter clients have built-in…

• Google’s Liquid Lunar Doodle

  Kalena Jordan

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:15 am

  Scientists and space enthusiasts the world over were entralled on Friday when NASA announced that they had discovered water on the moon following their deliberate rocket blasts into the surface last month. We’re not talking just puddles here. According to NASA, about 25 gallons of water in the form of vapor and ice were discovered, giving legitmacy to the idea that man could one day establish a lunar colony. Until this week, such theories of lunar living have been considered far-fetched. The possibilities opened up by the discovery have captured the imagination of Google staff too. To…

• Q and A: Will Multiple Description Tags affect my Rankings?

  Andy Henderson

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm

  Hi Kalena, I just noticed that my company’s homepage has five meta description tags within the head tag. Will this have any negative ramifications? Thank you, Heather Hi Heather, The Meta Description Tag in itself is not likely to have a significant effect on your rankings one way or another, but it is still important because more often than not, the snippet displayed in Google search results is taken from the description tag. Using a description tag therefore gives you some control over the “message” you are providing to searchers about what your page is about. Having…

• Dumbass of the Week: Virgin Blue

  Kalena Jordan

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:48 am

  Today, an unknown number of Virgin Blue Velocity members (including me) received an email titled “Surprise!- You’ve Turned Gold”. The email announced that the recipient had been granted a free upgrade to Velocity Gold, the Gold level membership of Virgin Blue’s frequent flyer programme for a period of one year. The email went on to describe perks available to Gold members when travelling including: Free Lounge membership, so you can catch up on work, relax and escape the airport crowds. Priority check-in. Up to 32kg of checked baggage at no cost. Two personalised…

• 
  aimClear Search Marketing Blog

• SES Chicago 09′ Looms Large in The Windy City!

  Marty Weintraub

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:42 pm

  It may be blustery outside, but this year’s SES Chicago looks like a burner! With more than 70 sessions covering PPC management, demographic research, SEO, social media, link building, mobile and duplicate content, SearchEngineStrategies Chicago is an annual techno-pilgrimage for fortunate attendees. We’re stoked because December 7-11th is coming up fast! aimClear will be at SES (as always) in full blogging regalia covering sessions, speaking and hanging out with ya’ll. Here’s our speaking schedule, a look at notable sessions and what to expect from this year’s…

• Dear Facebook Ads, Customer Support Sucks

  Marty Weintraub

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:46 am

  Dear Facebook Ads, Thank you for the amazing new Ad Platform. It’s groundbreaking,  heart-pounding, a lot like Google’s Content Network and with even more intriguing targeting options on the grid.  It’s been a love affair for aimClear, starting in the academic lead generation sector years ago when ‘Ads first launched. I’m sorry to say that Facebook’s inability to grow customer service at the same prodigal rate is extremely disappointing. I first started evangelizing Facebook PPC at SearchEngineStrategies New York 2008 in a presentation entitled “The…

• A Guerrilla Account Manager’s Field Guide: Part 1

  Marty Weintraub

  14 Nov 2009 | 3:21 pm

  Whatever business you’re in, dealing with customers is where earth moving boots crunch deep gravel roads. Part of my job is training marketers committed to becoming self-contained entrepreneurs over the long haul. Relatively early in their development we start them interacting directly with name-brand clients, to our mind a necessary step for building “complete” marketers. At morning meetings we discuss each other’s jobs, progress, ongoing client dynamics, priorities, coordinate production and critique correspondences.  We focus on leadership, being nimble and doing whatever it takes…

• PubCon & Las Vegas, Faces, Places & Lobster Tails

  Marty Weintraub

  12 Nov 2009 | 3:51 pm

  PubCon is a whirling dervish, a collage of kindred spirits, sites, sounds, intensive learning and hyper-techno-geeks. All of this is hyperbolic stew mashed up with a healthy heaping of Las Vegas kitsch & killer eats.  Here are some snapshots to capture a portion of the frenetic ultra-vibe. The boys from seOverflow: Yes, tell your boss that there is ROI for the sweet shirts. Someone might take your picture and post it in their blog. . I meant to ask but did not want to disturb you. What does your name mean anyway? ….that you take work that other SEO firms don’t have the…

• I Wanna’ Freaking Dance! PubCon 2009 Day 1

  Marty Weintraub

  10 Nov 2009 | 10:31 am

  Ah PubCon, jewel of the Nevada desert.  The sun has barely risen here but I’ve been up for hours working,  thinking, tripping about the amazingly massive search marketing day ahead.  Dude the energy here is unreal. Here IS the obligatory true-must-attend conferences of the year thing…so powerful and fully authentic.   Yeah, these are the post-bbs-nerds who took over the world. In a minute I’ll be pycho-trawling the eye candy people-watching Hilton halls. I’ve got my PubCon 09′ playlist cranking in noise canceling headsets. Dude, I feel like dancing. Here’s…

• 
  Blogstorm SEO blog

• 5 SEO Focussed Web Analytics Tools

  Patrick Altoft

  21 Nov 2009 | 11:34 am

  Most people at small to mid-size companies don’t think too much about analytics and are happy to let Google Analytics do all their day to day reporting. We think Google Analytics is a great product but it shouldn’t be the only tool you use. Below are some innovative web analytics tools built with SEO, conversion rate optimisation & social media in mind for you to try. BVLD Status BLVD is somewhat of a revolution because not only does it offer real time conversion reports for social bookmarking buttons & sales, traffic data and configurable alerts for traffic spikes via…

• Playing with Google Analytics Intelligence

  Patrick Altoft

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

  Google Analytics has been adding loads of new features recently and in the last few days the Intelligence feature has finally been made live. This new feature allows you to see an overview of the major events happening on any particular day before segmenting the data to drill down further. You can also create alerts to warn you if your search traffic for a particular keyword drops by more than a certain percentage compared to the previous day or the same day last week. It doesn’t seem to be able to match against average daily search traffic which would be far better and without real…

• Google replaces URLs with breadcrumb links in search results

  Patrick Altoft

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:36 am

  Google has announced this morning that for certain queries they will be showing site hierarchies in the search results rather than URL’s string. On first inspection I don’t like the system because in all the examples Google has provided the keyword rich product URL is removed and replaced with a more generic category level keyword. For example this nice URL “/spidersapien/” (in bold) gets replaced with a less clickable “Toys & Games > Robots” On the plus side the categories in the hierarchy are links through to the category pages on the site but this…

• Page load speed may be in Google 2010 algorithm

  Patrick Altoft

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:13 am

  In a video interview for Web Pro News Matt Cutts has given a clear hint that page load speed will be a part of Googles algorithm next year. Page speed is already part of the AdWords quality score algorithm but until now it’s not directly been part of the main search algorithm. We’ve always seen the effects of very slow hosting with poor crawl rates and a lack of deep indexing but Google has traditionally not been giving a boost to faster sites. Historically, we haven’t had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast.

• How Google News uses click data for rankings

  Patrick Altoft

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:56 am

  Over the last 6 months Google has been striding forwards with using click data for natural search and over the weekend we had confirmation that it’s being used for Google News stories as well. This makes total sense but it’s nice to hear it officially. Josh Cohen is the Senior Business Product Manager for Google News and he was recently interviewed by Eric Enge about various Google News issues including the row with people like Rupert Murdoch. The whole interview is a must read but the ranking section is copied below: Eric Enge: Are there other things that go into ranking news…

• 
  Natural Search Blog

• Inbound Deep Links Benefit Page Rank Distribution Sitewide

  Ravi

  15 Nov 2009 | 1:20 pm

  Many a time, you would have come across sites (especially the large ones) where the deeper you dig into the site hierarchy, you can see the Pagerank toolbar grayed out or having a value 0. In general, the home page is the starting point for a website and it accrues the maximum Page rank. The entire domain’s authority and trust is reflected by this page rank value. The home page then tends to distribute this page rank to the first level (categories), the second level (sub-categories) and the third level product pages which we often refer to as link juice. In general, the first level…

• New Tool to Annualize Google Keyword Data

  Brian R. Brown

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:33 am

  Do you use Google’s AdWord Keyword Tool for your keyword research? If not, you might be missing out. Like all keyword research tools, it may not be the end all be all, and it isn’t without its own little quirks, but it is still rich keyword data whether you use it on its own or in relation with the other keyword tools you are using. Google has modified the tool over time, and one of the great additions was the ability to see the monthly demand via a small little bar chart. This can be very useful for factoring in seasonality or growing demand for certain phrases. Wrapping your…

• How To Breathe Life Into A Lacklustre PPC Campaign

  Ravi

  8 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pm

  PPC or Pay Per Click campaigns are a sure fire way of attracting traffic to your website almost instantaneously without the rigors of an SEO campaign that is required to bring your site on top of the SERPs. The most important thing to be aware of when it comes to a PPC campaign is understanding the rules to play the Adwords game. Google’s policy of serving relevant ads in response to user queries coupled with complex factors like quality score can make Adwords a minefield for a novice or intermediate level practitioner so much so that a lot of money is coughed up to elicit a poor ROI…

• Good Practices SEO With A Tinge Of Creativity

  Ravi

  1 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pm

  Search engine marketing is increasingly becoming popular with people from all walks of life and businesses of all hues adopting the web in a big way. The global recesssion has clearly thrust SEM into the spotlight as a great way to drive targeted traffic that is measurable and also making a huge difference to the bottomline of any company, the $ generated in revenue. Search engine optimisation(SEO) and Pay per click (PPC) marketing are being accorded increasing importance as affordable means of tapping the market potential by reaching a targeted audience on the web compared to the traditional…

• SEO Tools: Using Xenu and Excel - Blindfolded SEO Audit Part 2

  Brian R. Brown

  22 Oct 2009 | 8:26 am

  During Part 1 of the Blindfolded SEO Audit, we started learning how to use Xenu and Excel to begin our SEO audit and focused on the foundational element, URLs. Now let’s move on to the most important signal a site’s pages can send to the search engines, the all powerful title tag. Like URL constructs, sites often have nearly as many constructs for title tags. Three things that a quick scan of our data will tell us: General constructs and patterns used Title tag duplication General sense of optimization quality (potentially) Branding (or lack of) always jumps out quickly, of which…

• 
  Performancing

• Paul Scrivens to Take Over as Splashpress Media Publisher

  J Angelo Racoma

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:25 pm

  Splashpress Media, the parent company of Performancing, has recently announced that Paul Scrivens will take the helm of the network as publisher. Scrivs will be our captain and conductor, managing our assets, coordinating our efforts and hopefully expanding our reach. Along with this new leadership comes a bit of reorganization. Andy Merrett (a regular contributor here), who has been a community manager and channel editor to sites like Forever Geek, 9rules and Performancing, will take the creative lead as Editor of the network. Andy plans to continue outgoing editor Jayvee Fernandez’s…

• Is Your Blog Bloated With Unnecessary Stuff?

  Dee Barizo

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:59 pm

  If you observe the business world, you’ll often see companies releasing new products in a different sub-niche or niche. These products can be closely related to their existing products. For example, M&M’s stayed in the food niche when they entered the ice cream market. Other companies will enter a market that’s not related to their existing niche. For instance, Harley Davidson, the maker of powerful motorcycles, created their own brand of perfume in the 1990s. The term for this strategy is called brand extension. Brand extension can work out well and increase the sales…

• British Press Complaints Commission slammed for its desire to regulate blogs

  Andy Merrett

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:23 am

  The last few days has seen an interesting standoff developing between the British press regulatory body, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), and the bloggers it may be seeking to regulate. The PCC is a self-regulatory body set up and funded by a number of major newspapers and magazines published in the UK. Simply put, its purpose is to investigate complaints made against member publications on a number of grounds including accuracy, privacy, intrusion, portrayal of children, discrimination, financial journalism and the confidentiality of sources. (Read Wikipedia’s PCC entry) On…

• Twitter: How much is too much information?

  Andy Merrett

  12 Nov 2009 | 7:17 am

  Even more than blogging, Twitter seems to be the ultimate way to say exactly what you mean, sometimes without thinking about the consequences, and sometimes not caring. Twitter has had its fair share of high-profile spats, but a recent “outrages” concerns Penelope Trunk’s twitter: “I’m in a board meeting. Having a miscarriage. Thank goodness, because there’s a f***ed-up three-week hoop-jump to have an abortion in Wisconsin”. Old news, perhaps — two months is an age in the world of Twitter — but it does still raise some interesting points about…

• Buy, Sell, Trade at the Performancing Marketplace

  J Angelo Racoma

  12 Nov 2009 | 1:06 am

  The Performancing Marketplace is just another one of those things that had been put on hold when we made the big move from Drupal to WordPress. After some thought and tweaking (plus a bit of elbow grease), we’re pleased to announce that the Performancing Marketplace is now back online. On the Marketplace, users can advertise blogs, domains, blogging services, themes, design services, or just about any related products and services. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell, you’re most welcome. The Marketplace is an open forum, so we won’t be limiting users to outright…

• 
  Sebastian's Pamphlets

• Handle your (UGC) feeds with care!

  Sebastian

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:44 am

  When you run a website that deals with user generated content (UGC), this pamphlet is for you. #bad_news Otherwise you might enjoy it. #malicious_joy Jump station Background Risk Potential Defense Tactics Discuss Not that the recent –and ongoing– paradigm shift shift in crawling, indexing, and ranking is bad news in general. On the contrary, for the tech savvy webmaster it comes with awesome opportunities with regard to traffic generation and search engine optimization. In this pamphlet I’ll blather about pitfalls, leaving chances unmentioned. Background For a moment forget…

• The most sexy browsers screw your analytics

  Sebastian

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:24 am

  Now that IE is quite unusable due to the lack of websites that support its non-standard rendering, and the current FireFox version suffers from various maladies, more and more users switch to browsers that are supposed to comply to Web standards, such as Chrome, Safari, or Opera. Those sexy user agents execute client sided scripts in lightning speed, making surfers addicted to nifty rounded corners very very happy. Of course they come with massive memory leaks, but surfers who shut down their browser every once in a while won’t notice such geeky details. Why is that bad news for…

• As if sloppy social media users ain’t bad enough … search engines support traffic theft

  Sebastian

  26 Oct 2009 | 12:18 pm

  Prepare for a dose of techy tin foil hattery. [Skip rant] Again, I’m going to rant about a nightmare that Twitter & Co created with their crappy, thoughtless and shortsighted software designs: URI shorteners (yup, it’s URI, not URL). Recap: Each and every 3rd party URI shortener is evil by design. Those questionable services do/will steal your traffic and your Google juice, mislead and piss off your potential visitors customers, and hurt you in countless other ways. If you consider yourself south of sanity, do not make use of shortened URIs you don’t own. Actually, this…

• Derek Powazek outed himself big-mouthed and ignorant, and why that’s a pity

  Sebastian

  16 Oct 2009 | 11:30 am

  With childish attacks on his colleagues, Derek Powazek didn’t do professional Web development –as an industry– a favor. As a matter of fact, Derek Powazek insulted savvy Web developers, Web designers, even search engine staff, as well as useability experts and search engine specialists, who team-up in countless projects helping small and large Web sites succeed. I seriously can’t understand how Derek Powazek “has survived 13 years in the web biz” (source) without detailled knowledge of how things get done in Web projects. I mean, if a developer really has…

• Full disclosure @ FTC

  Sebastian

  12 Oct 2009 | 5:00 am

  Trying to avoid an $11,000 fine in the Federal Trade Commission’s war on bloggers: When I write about praise search engines, that’s totally paid-for because I’ve received free search results upfront. Copyright © 2009 Sebastian`s Pamphlets. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator/feed reader, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement and will be put down immediately. Please contact sebastians-pamphlets.com so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by Taragana

• 
  Ramblings About SEO

• Josh Cohen Interview: Comment Here

  Eric Enge

  15 Nov 2009 | 8:30 am

  In this interview with Josh Cohen of Google News, we go into a lot of detail on the inner workings of Google News. Perhaps the most interesting bit of information was confirmation that Google uses click data as a ranking factor for Google News. If the Google News team is using it, it seems likely that the web team is using it as well. This is something that has been long suspected, but I am not sure I have seen it confirmed before. We also cover other aspects of what Google News requires, and how it can be an important way that sites who publish news oriented content can obtain visibility for…

• The Disproportionate Value of Deep Links

  Eric Enge

  8 Nov 2009 | 7:37 am

  The impact of a few deep links appears be greater than what you might first expect. In today’s post I am going to explore why that may be the case, and how to leverage it. First let me go into my theory on the matter. For this example, let’s assume we have a high PR home page (PR7, 8 or 9). Let’s say it has 3 layers of content, consisting of an upper layer (categories), a 2nd layer (sub-categories) and a 3rd layer (detailed content). If we apply the traditional PageRank algorithm, even the 2nd layer and 3rd layer pages should be somewhat competitive because they receive of…

• The Art of SEO

  Eric Enge

  30 Oct 2009 | 4:06 am

  One of our clients forward me an email message yesterday. The subject of the email was: “Fwd: Your Amazon.com order has shipped (#102-2280136-1739409)”. I scratched my head when I saw it, wondering what it could possibly be. Then I opened the email and saw these wonderful words: “FYI, your book is now shipping Look forward to reading it” Sweet! You can order your own copy here.

• SEMPO Mobile White Paper

  Eric Enge

  19 Oct 2009 | 8:13 am

  Recently SEMPO released a white paper on the mobile market. The paper references data from comScore which shows tremendous growth (what a surprise!). The comScore data reveals that in May of 2009 more than 64.2 million in the US accessed the mobile Internet, a significant uptick from 36.8 million users from January of 2008, or a Neilsen study that showes 42.5 million users in July of 2008. This is a full 28% of US wireless subscribers, and 30% of all desktop Internet users. Mobile advertising related to search is seeing some nice growth too. In the US, the Kelsey Group indicates that $39…

• Interviewed by Richard Baxter

  Eric Enge

  18 Oct 2009 | 12:31 pm

  While I am known for interviewing lots of different people I recently got interviewed by Richard Baxter of SEO Gadget. In it, I speak about how I got started in SEO, and my favorite interviews. Richard also does a great job on an ongoing basis on the SEO Gadget blog. Check it out!

• 
  Andy Beard - Niche Marketing

• Fairly Useless Feedburner Google Analytics Update

  Andy Beard

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:25 pm

  Feedburner apparently has integrated analytics with Google Analytics… woopie dooI suppose it makes things simpler for people who weren’t already doing something similar for feeds, and at least they are segregating clicks between email and RSS, something their competitors for RSS > Email such as Aweber, Feedblitz, Mailchimp etc have been able to do for a long time.What they can’t do is track RSS signups as a goal, and until they can do that from a marketing perspective RSS is fairly useless.Google Reader is also still misbehaving – even if you use a 307 temporary…

• Friday 13th – A Very Bad Day for Comment Spammers

  Andy Beard

  13 Nov 2009 | 11:59 am

  Nice search engine friendly links are a great way to reward valuable members of the community of any blog, but they are certainly not a right, and still find myself deleting 50+ worthless comments every day.Most disturbing of all though are the SEO consultants and agencies who I have caught commenting on behalf of their clients, or as themselves with a link through to a client’s site. Some of them are totally dumb about it.I now have a new comments policy in force though most of it is just a clearer interpretation of what has been in place for the last 3+ years.Comment Policy Update:…

• Why Tweetglide Matters – seriously

  Andy Beard

  27 Oct 2009 | 9:45 pm

  When Mike Filsaime first mentioned Tweetglide, I signed up to his notification list but I wasn’t really that interested in the concept. I thought it had a few flaws in the business model he was proposing, and there were already enough Adobe Air Twitter applications on the market.I am saying this as someone who even considered hiring some developers to make an app, or picking up a dying project and adding some viral life to it. There are ways to leverage the Twitter application market that will be attractive.Before Mike really started selling information products, he had a huge amount of…

• Value Trojans & Free Training Webinar (Wednesday 10/28/09 10:45 PST)

  Andy Beard

  26 Oct 2009 | 4:09 pm

  I was meaning to get a post out on this most of last week but I was tied up helping lots of people big & small.Mike Hill is the only guy I know that teaches this stuff, but you will find Value Trojans all over the place when you realise the simplicity and powerful concept behind it.I also mentioned when I offered my bonus for Stompernet that I had plans to add some kind of Value Trojan to this site.Mike goes into incredible detail in his free promotional videos for his launch of sales tsunami and normally charges $25000/day to teach this stuff as a consultant, so it is well worth taking…

• Product Launch Manager Bonus & Video CDNs

  Andy Beard

  23 Oct 2009 | 7:51 am

  If you have been following the theme of Jeff Walkers Product Launch Manager launch, a large chunk of it is that online marketers often have far more knowledge than they think they do – they just have to go out there and sell it.So my bonus is along those lines and will reveal a lot more of my long term plans, which I even hinted at long ago in a comment on Jeff Walker’s blog when he first launched PLF over 3 years ago.Best Existing Solution By FarThe other day I felt compelled to write about Quansite because it is the closest service to what I want to achieve.If you are looking…

• 
  SEO Theory Blog

• Is it time to put relevance back into search?

  Michael Martinez

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:24 pm

  So unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you may have heard that Ask.com just said it’s not for sale and it has a new search technology. That’s a radical statement from a company... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• ReBlog: Why some sites MUST block Archive.Org

  Michael Martinez

  12 Nov 2009 | 12:37 pm

  UPDATE: Matt Cutts clarified what he said/meant for me in a Tweet: “if I’m already investigating a site which is spammy-looking and appears off-topic/expired, then IA block is very... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Beware new comment spam

  Michael Martinez

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:16 pm

  Once again Google shows us just how uncoordinated a very large organization can be. Webmaster Central is telling us they will now discover new Web pages through comment feeds in ATOM/RSS format. Why... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Another 20 Hard Core SEO Tips

  Michael Martinez

  16 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am

  It’s a little early to say that publishing “20 Hard Core SEO Tips” articles has become a tradition for SEO Theory but I definitely have been thinking about writing this article for... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Why Brent Payne’s PageRank Sculpting report is bogus

  Michael Martinez

  5 Oct 2009 | 12:44 pm

  There is no doubt that Brent D. Payne is a very smart guy and an extremely successful search engine optimization strategist. He is the Director of SEO for Tribune Technology, managing the strategies... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 
  Wiep.net - SEO & Link Building blog

• Easy Links: Send A Thank You Note

  Wiep

  12 Nov 2009 | 12:34 pm

  Just recently, I used crowdSPRING’s creative community for designing the logo of a new project website. The process went according plan; there were a few good entries and I picked a winning logo. Quickly after that, I received the files I requested, and as soon as I left the designer a positive rating (in other words: when I still was in a very happy mood), I received an email: Hi Wiep, I wanted to send a personal note and thank you so much for using crowdSPRING. We’re thrilled to have you as a customer and hope that your experience was positive. Please let me know if…

• Link Building this Month (10.2009)

  Wiep

  2 Nov 2009 | 12:34 pm

  Considering the large amount of good link building related posts I came across last month, I’m officially declaring October the official month of link marketing; Linktober :) Let’s start with one of the best posts I’ve read in a while – Gab’s 101 link buying tips. Whether you buy links or not, there are lots of useful tips in there for everyone! If you rather not buy your way to the top, you’ll have to learn the art of web promoting. And this art starts by fully understanding why people share stuff with each other, and/ or how you can persuade them into…

• Ready for New Challenges…

  Wiep

  20 Oct 2009 | 5:56 am

  Time goes fast, especially online. It’s already been about four years ago since I started working at Tribal Internet Marketing, and I’ve learned a LOT in these four years. Tribal gave me the opportunity to expand my knowledge, to attend (and speak at) several search marketing conferences, and to work with lots of amazing colleagues and very interesting clients. It was great to set up a completely new service at Tribal, and to hire and coach a team of very smart link marketers. Although I still love working at Tribal, I felt it was time for a new challenge, which is why I decided…

• Linkbait: Good Content Isn’t Good Enough

  Wiep

  14 Oct 2009 | 11:19 am

  Just recently, I was talking with someone about a linkbait campaign. He suggested that, instead of creating one page with outstanding content, it might be better to create two pages with good content for the same price. I didn’t agree with this, and we had a discussion about this topic, which lead to an (in my opinion) interesting comparison. For those who know a thing or two about cars – in my opinion, choosing between good content and excellent content is like choosing between giving away a BMW, or giving away a Bugatti Veyron. A BMW (I just couldn’t resist :) ) is a car.

• Link Building this Month (09.2009)

  Wiep

  4 Oct 2009 | 12:14 pm

  A few days later than usually, but it’s here nevertheless: a new edition of Link Building this Month. At Tribal, I’ve had the opportunity to interview dozens of potential link builders, and certainly know how difficult this can be. Useful tips like the 5 questions for link builders that Angela Moore listed, may help you to select the right people, and to build a great team of link builders. If you would base your link building strategy solely on what people say in forums, or what they write about in blogs, it probably won’t bring you optimal results. Despite what some may…

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  High Rankings Advisor Newsletter Feed

• Twitter Question of the Week

  11 Nov 2009 | 9:08 am

  What are your Twitter pet peeves?

• 10-plus SEO Questions - Google Rules

  11 Nov 2009 | 9:08 am

  This morning I woke up to someone having submitted a pile of SEO questions using our newsletter question form. At first I thought, 'Yikes, that's kind of pushy to think I have time to answer all those questions!' But then I remembered that this was a newsletter week and I still had no idea what I was going to write about.

• Advanced SEO Forum Thread of the Week

  11 Nov 2009 | 9:07 am

  Meta Description Beyond 155 Still Alive?

• HRA 269 Advisor Wrap-up

  11 Nov 2009 | 9:07 am

  By the time you read this, I'll be in Vegas for PubCon, baby!

• HRA Wrap-up 268

  28 Oct 2009 | 8:48 am

  That's all for today!

• 
  Michael Gray - Graywolf's SEO Blog

• Why It’s Harder to Hide Things on The Internet

  Michael Gray

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:01 am

  In recent years it has become increasingly more difficult to hide information (including data, pages, new domains, and entire websites) on the internet. In some cases, the discovery’s results can range from being mildly embarrassing to to completely giving away a business plan. In this post I’ll talk about some of those holes and how to protect yourself. Domain Registration When you register a new domain, especially one of the popular high level TLD’s such as .com, .net, or .org it gets recorded in numerous places. One of the most visible is AboutUS.org (see my page). For…

• How to Use Evernote to Create the Ultimate Post Conference Reference Guide

  Michael Gray

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am

  Now that Pubcon is over I’m going to let you in on a tool that helps me keep track of, organize, find, and use the information I get from conferences, trade shows, and seminars:  Evernote. The company describes Evernote as an external brain. Your external brain. It remembers things so you don’t have to. Evernote is a clipping service with a browser based client, web interface, desktop application, and smart phone interface (it works on the iphone, blackberry, and others). Evernote is also cloud based, so information that’s added from your smartphone is sync’d to your…

• Why Google HQ Loves Thin Affiliates

  GabGoldenberg

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:51 am

  Despite what you may have read, Google secretly has a love affair with thin affiliates. Like a techie and Gizmodo, Google can’t get enough of affiliate marketers who build sites with no value add. If Google has its own internal Twitter, Eric Schmidt would tweet, “I heart affs who rely on search to power their business model.” Why? Google loves thin affiliate sites because they: 1) Are lazy. 2) Lack brands that would cause people to be loyal to them. 3) Give Google their AdWords data. 4) [Sometimes] do Google’s testing for Google. [NB: A high converting lander doesn't…

• How Bing and the Wall Street Journal Could Screw Google

  Michael Gray

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:03 am

  In the past week there’s been a lot talk about the Wall Street Journal threatening to pull its content from Google and why it’s a good idea or sheer lunacy. Let’s be clear. I think this entire thing is saber rattling on both sides and that Murdoch really just wants a “piece of the action.” I don’t think he wants the Wall Street Journal to be out of the index any more than Google is being flippant about whether they are in the index or not. However, if you are going to play hardball and draw a line in the sand, you have to be willing to hold your…

• New Twitter Account @graywolfseo

  Michael Gray

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Now that twitter lists have taken off and are being utilized, and in some cases are replacing RSS readers, I’m going to try to take advantage by experimenting with a new account @graywolfseo.Some of the common complaints I get are that I am chatty, meander about, post too many cooking, disney, or other non SEO related tweets. If that describes your feelings  then go ahead and follow @graywolfseo. The plan is to use it to post things from this blog and other interesting marketing, search engine, or social media links without being conversational. Lot’s of people think social media…

• 
  SearchEngineWorld

• Google Reports Spam Levels Rose 25 Percent In 2008

  Google has reported a 156 percent increase in the amount of unwanted e-mail spam targeting users of its Postini enterprise system between November 2008 and data from earlier this month, a rapid increase from the 25 percent annual 2008 rise the Internet giant announced Monday.

• Yahoo Earnings Report Reveals $303 Million Loss And Weak Outlook

  At the close of the market Tuesday Yahoo released its first quarterly earnings results under recently hired chief executive Carol Bartz, with fourth quarter results showing revenues down 1 percent to $1.80 billion from the same quarter one year earlier.

• Google Launches Measurement Lab Internet Traffic Analysis Effort

  Google has launched an effort called Measurement Lab that is aimed at making it easier to measure how ISPs manipulate subscriber Internet connections, Google chief evangelist Vint Cerf, co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocol that underlies the Internet, announced Wednesday.

• AOL Laying Off 700 Employees Citing Weak Online Advertising Market

  Time Warner Inc. will cut 10 percent of its workforce, or as many as 700 jobs, from its Internet services group AOL, in order to help curtail losses brought about by a weakened online advertising market, AOL chief executive Randy Falco wrote in an internal memo Wednesday.

• Microsoft Woos Users Of Rival Browser Firefox With Live Search Plug-in

  Microsoft, the maker of the popular Web browser Internet Explorer, has released a free tool for users of Mozilla Corp.'s open source rival browser Firefox that provides search engine suggestions for Live Search, the Redmond, Washington-based software maker's search service.

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  Alibi Productions - Website Promotion and Online Marketing Strategies

• My Apologies to the Top Commentors

  Drew Stauffer

  12 Nov 2009 | 7:47 am

  Around the beginning of last year I installed the Top Commentors plugin on this blog. At first I was extremely excited thinking it was a great way to reward commentors. After running it for a while it has become painfully obvious that peoples are only using it to increase their search engine rankings for keyword rich text links. In theory the plugin is fantastic. The people who comment the most on your posts get a link on the sidebar, or where ever you place the PHP. The link is not rel=”nofollow” ed, so it’s more beneficial (for rankings) than the regular comment links that do have the…

• @font-face breakdown

  Drew Stauffer

  4 Nov 2009 | 11:42 am

  If you’ve heard about the somewhat new @font-face CSS declaration, but not sure what its about or how to implement it, Dave Shea has the post for you. Starting with @font-face over at mezzoblue goes into detail and explains the @font-face method as well as other font embedding options and gives some good links if you need to investigate further. Check out his post to learn all about using @font-face. This is a post from Alibi Productions. If you'd like to get more try subscribing to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter .

• Content Strategy and Typography

  Drew Stauffer

  19 Oct 2009 | 8:35 am

  Last week was extremely busy, which is good, but it didn’t give me a lot time to post some of the cool links I’ve run across. Content Strategy Content strategy is such a huge part of any website and sadly it seems like it is often overlooked. Listening/watching to the live feed from A Event Apart Chicago conference going on this past week, much of the topics I caught were on content strategy. Here’s a snippet from Kristina Halvorson’s Content First Results from good content strategy: better user experience, greater brand consistency, new operational efficiencies, better risk…

• The Show Must Go On

  Drew Stauffer

  14 Oct 2009 | 7:38 pm

  When the sun is shining and your surrounded by some good friends nothing can be better. Above is a little Sunday jam session with John King on guitar and yours truly on the drums. This is a post from Alibi Productions. If you'd like to get more try subscribing to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter .

• Rotating Text with CSS

  Drew Stauffer

  25 Sep 2009 | 9:49 am

  Being a front-end developer with a strong emphasis on web standards, CSS is usually what I spend most of my time on when it comes to building out websites. One aspect of design that I’ve never really been able to accomplish with CSS is rotating text on its side. Snook.ca wrote up an exciting post on Text Rotation with CSS and explained exactly how you accomplish this task and make it work across multiple browsers (Safari, Firefox and even Internet Explorer). This is a post from Alibi Productions. If you'd like to get more try subscribing to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter .

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  SEO ROI

• 3 Guest Posts Of Mine

  Gabriel Goldenberg

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:14 am

  @Search Engine Land: How predictive heatmap tools work and how they can lift your conversion rates. I write for SEL’s Just Behave (Usability/Conversion Optimization) column once a month. @Wolf-Howl: Why Google HQ Really LOVES Thin Affiliates . I write at Mike Gray’s site periodically, when I have something that will fit with his audience. @Wildfire Marketing’s Marketing Tips: An Interview on Link Building With Yours Truly If you liked those, you should add my rss feed to your reader because some of the best stuff I write gets published here before it gets cited or repurposed…

• If I Could Go Back In Time, I’d Kill Date Based Navigation

  Gabriel Goldenberg

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:53 am

  Time and date based navigation offer terrible usability and even worse SEO. Have you ever heard of mystery meat navigation? Maybe not, but you’ve probably seen archive navigation that meets the following description: “Mystery meat navigation (also abbreviated MMN) is a term coined by usability expert Vincent Flanders to describe user interfaces in which it is inordinately difficult for users to discern the destinations of navigational hyperlinks—or, in severe cases, even to determine where the hyperlinks are. “The typical form of MMN is represented by menus composed of…

• Competitors Checking Your Backlinks? Give Their Tools The 180 Fake Out!

  Gabriel Goldenberg

  16 Nov 2009 | 10:30 pm

  Are competitors mining your backlinks with tools like Yahoo! Site Explorer, Linkscape and Majestic SEO? Just because they can check your backlinks out, doesn’t mean you should make life easy by giving good data to their link building tools. So here’s how to dirty the data that competitors see when using backlink checking tools or hub finders. (Hub finder are tools that find so-called ‘hub websites’ that link to multiple sites in a niche) The answer is counter-intuitive: build useless backlinks. Why? Because useless backlinks can be copied until doomsday without their…

• How I Inject Humor Into My Writing, My Speaking And My Veins

  Gabriel Goldenberg

  9 Nov 2009 | 5:04 am

  Surprising people forces a reaction, and if it’s a silly surprise, that reaction is laughter. That’s why list-jokes or series-jokes are a staple of comedians everywhere. In high school, I remember my friend Johnny Shanaan giving a speech to our English class for his public speaking assignment. He was talking about body language, and handshakes in particular. He said, “There are different types of shakes. There’s The firm shake, The weak shake, The clammy shake, The power shake, And the milkshake.” What’s nice about series jokes like that is that the first…

• How To Find Competitors’ Best PPC Ads

  Gabriel Goldenberg

  5 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pm

  If you could find out your competitors’ top converting ads when you enter a market, you’d save a lot of time optimizing campaigns, wouldn’t you? It would be like knowing where the jelly is in a jelly donut – you’d bite right into the good stuff and skip the mostly-dough areas. The principle that applies in this case is to look at the length of time an ad has been running. Duration is indicative of ad performance. The problem is that when you search for a given keyword, you only get a snapshot in time of competitors’ ads. So you don’t know if what…

• 
  Sphinn: New Topics

• Antique Engagement Ring

  22 Nov 2009 | 4:19 am

  Save 30% to 50% over retail prices on all antique engagement rings. Design your own engagement ring right now!

• Google Doesn't Know if Your Site is in the Cloud :: Article

  22 Nov 2009 | 4:10 am

  Google's Matt Cutts discussed how the search engine handles sites that that are "in the cloud" with regards to how listings are affected. Matt's explanation was a response to the following user-submitted question:Can moving <a href="http://www.diolt.com">my website</a> to "the cloud" harm my listings? Say my server's in Germany and I move the website to Google's App Engine or Amazon S3. Does this harm my listings for German results - or is it enough to set the "geographic target" in GWT to Germany?

• Keys to Getting Indexed on Google ::

  22 Nov 2009 | 3:58 am

  Getting indexed on Google can seem tricky at first, but it does not have to be an impossible task. Once indexed on Google your website is much more likely to receive higher traffic through organic searches. Of course none of the ways discussed here guarantee that Google will index your site, but you should feel confident your website will be indexed if you practice at least a portion of the ideas.1. Create a website worth visiting - Google looks for content that is relative to what people actually want to find. If you put up a website about your family vacations there is no way you will…

• Official Google Blog: Releasing the Chromium OS Open Source Project

  22 Nov 2009 | 12:18 am

  Today we are open-sourcing the project as Chromium OS. We are doing this early, a year before Google Chrome OS will be ready for users, because we are eager to engage with partners, the open source community and developers. As with the Google Chrome browser, development will be done in the open from this point on. This means the code is free, accessible to anyone and open for contributions. The Chromium OS project includes our current code base, user interface experiments and some initial designs for ongoing development. This is the initial sketch and we will color it in over the course of…

• 25 Top Get Paid To Blog Sites

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:52 pm

  There are actually many get paid to blog sites on the internet, most of them have really good offer and you can make some quick cash too. You need to really find out which get paid to blog site is legitimate and really pays its’ publisher, nowadays there are many companies out there don’t pay their publisher, the company made some cash and ran away, publisher worked damn hard and got nothing in the end.How To Earn More Money?In order to earn more money from writing paid post, you need to have a...

• 
  adCenter Blog

• What’s New From Bing: Mobile, Shopping, and Travel Updates

  Carolyn Miller - MSFT

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pm

  Several new and improved Bing features announced earlier this month are now 100% live in the U.S. , and include adCenter ads in their results pages – this is your opportunity to get your ads in front of your audience as they check out the latest...(read more)

• JiWire's Ads for Access Program: Free Wi-Fi in Hotels and Airports for Bing Users

  Emily Chandler-MSFT

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:02 am

  Microsoft is launching a new campaign with JiWire to provide free Wi-Fi access throughout airports and hotels in exchange for searching on Bing. The deal is the latest in an ongoing strategic push to further encourage new users to test the decision engine. According to the press release Monday, the campaign "is based on the premise that once people experience Bing first-hand they will come back and use the engine again." It works something like this. I'm at my gate 30 minutes until my flight boards going home this Thanksgiving, so I hop online to see if I can get Wi-Fi. In my…

• Increase Your Content Ad Intelligence

  Sean O Connor - MSFT

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  The Microsoft Advertising Content Network continues to grow its ranks of desirable publishers with the recent addition of PC World. As the content network expands, so too does the need for tools to help advertisers understand this product better and enable them to optimize their campaigns more easily. Enter Microsoft Advertising Intelligence. The latest release of Microsoft Advertising Intelligence now includes tools for Content Ad Keyword Generation, Content Ad Volume Estimations, and Content Ad Vertical Research. This is, indeed, a big win for our content advertisers. Summary of the top…

• SEM Beginner Series: Why is Ad Position Important?

  Tina Kelleher - MSFT

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  This is the 5 th post in the SEM Beginner Series, following last week's post on dynamic text . This series of posts is intended for new search engine marketing professionals that are looking for guidance to help identify, monitor and adjust the key...(read more)

• Black Friday, Cyber, Green and Brown Monday and What They Mean For adCenter Advertisers

  Tina Kelleher - MSFT

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  With Thanksgiving just around the corner, most advertisers should have noticed an uptick in volume of clicks as online shoppers begin scouring the internet for the best deals leading up to the holidays. If you haven’t already started optimizing...(read more)

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  Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog

• Holiday Season: Are You In the Game or on The Bench?

  Linda Bustos

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:03 am

  This week I had the pleasure of sitting down (virtually) with Shawna Fennell of One Choice for Your Store for an interview on her Webmaster Radio show, Ecom Experts titled Holiday Preparations for Online Retailers (on-demand link). One of the questions Shawna asked was What should retailers be doing during the holiday season now that it’s too late to be working on the site or strategy? This post is a recap of what I believe retailers should be doing now to really be “in the game” rather than a benchwarmer this season. Monitor and Optimize Performance Even the largest, most…

• Key Trends in B2B: Webinar Recap

  Linda Bustos

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:04 am

  This post is the Coles-notes version of Brian Walker of Forrester Research’s presentation: Key Trends in B2B eCommerce: From Fulfilling Demand To Creating Demand If you missed it, you can catch the replay at the above link. The replay includes all Brian’s screenshots of real B2B examples (which didn’t look right when resized to fit the blog specs) so I recommend you check it out to get the full effect. Agenda Growth Drivers in B2B eCommerce The Range of Models in B2B eCommerce The Evolving B2B Site Growth in B2B eCommerce Business to business eCommerce has been evolving…

• Should Your Online Store Use Tabbed Boxes?

  Linda Bustos

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:09 am

  Tabbed boxes are one of the best ways to fit more content on a page without increasing page length or cluttering the page and they have become more and more popular on ecommerce sites in the past few years – especially on product pages. But one concern I always have when reviewing websites that use tabbed boxes is – do they really get noticed by customers? Or are they too subtle? I recently worked with an online retailer that had very poor attachment rates for cross-sells and upsells. The culprit? Product recommendations were hidden behind a tab that nobody clicked. Here are some…

• B2B Ecommerce and the Pharmaceutical Industry

  Linda Bustos

  13 Nov 2009 | 3:02 am

  I recently conducted an interview with Mkrtich Laziev, a pharma and chemical e-marketing and ecommerce consultant with over 15 years experience in the industry. Check out his website for more information about Mkrtich and read more of his articles on pharmachem e-marketing, ecommerce and SEO. Can you give Get Elastic readers some background on ecommerce and online marketing for pharmaceutical companies? In many people’s view, pharma e-marketing and ecommerce are closely linked with a famous “blue pill.” I haven’t found anyone with an email address who hasn’t received spam urging…

• New Ecommerce Podcast: eCom Experts

  Linda Bustos

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:48 am

  I’m excited to hear that WebmasterRadio.fm has added a new show to its lineup, eCom Experts. Yours truly will be a guest on Monday, November 16 at 3pm PST/6pm EST. So far there have been 3 episodes, SEO for ecommerce, Improving Shopping Experience & Increasing Sales and Increasing Conversion for the Holidays. On Monday I’ll be talking about the holiday shopping season. Please save the date! Can’t make it? Subscribe to eCom Experts and catch it on-demand. You may also like these similar posts:3 Quick And Dirty Holiday Hints for Procrastinating Etailers Persistent…

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  Compete Blog

• Startup-Watch: A Closer Look at Etsy.com

  Damian Roskill

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:30 am

  One of the companies I’ve been following for a long time is Etsy.com.  Etsy.com is a website for folks selling craft items – or as they put it “Your place to buy & sell all things handmade.”  More broadly, they are referred to in the startup world as P2P commerce (person-to-person) – similar to eBay or any other site that enables person-to-person transactions with the website in the middle taking a small cut. The press around the site has been amazing.  According to Techcrunch, “$100 million worth of goods were sold on Etsy in 2008. The company is generating over $1…

• Visa and the NFL team up for another season

  Anthony Gulino

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  Football is in full swing as we enter the midpoint of November and are two months into the NFL season.  Many teams are still in the hunt for a playoff berth which makes for numerous exciting and must see games each weekend.  Not only are the fans of these teams enthused by this but also companies that sponsor the league. The start of the NFL season brings excitement to sponsors as this is a key time of the year to reach a vast audience with marketing and promotional materials.  One of the league’s major sponsors on a yearly basis is Visa which is hoping to use this season to further…

• Droid Really Does

  Nina Current

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:25 pm

  The Motorola Droid is here.  And though I’m a little disappointed it didn’t actually arrive via Stealth Bomber, it did come in with a bang.  From all of the buzz online and an aggressive advertising campaign, Verizon Wireless has declared the Droid as the poster child of its new line of phones running Google’s Android OS. Speaking of Android, remember the T-Mobile G1 from last fall?  There was a ton of anticipation around the release of the G1, which was essentially the poster child of the first generation of Android phones.  How does interest in the Droid compare to interest in the…

• October Search Market Share Update: Most gain in volume but only Google gains share

  Simon Schanche

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  Apparently October brought a lot of costume searchers online.  After several months of declining search query volumes, October query volumes ticked up 4% m-o-m. Total web search activity peaked just shy of 13 billion queries in the US.  Among the major market players nearly every engine benefitted from the lift in activity.  However behind the rising tide only one engine managed to pull ahead of the pack. (more…)

• Casinos Need to Continue the Digital Evolution

  Lincoln Merrihew

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:27 am

  Casinos, like many travel industries, have struggled during the recession.  To help gauge the impact, Compete analyzed traffic to its “Casinos” industry category.  Category traffic represents unique traffic across all sites in the category (over 100 in this case), meaning a person that visits more than one category site in a month is counted only once in that month’s category total. (more…)

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  Small Business Search Marketing

• Google has the Real Estate Industry on Borrowed Time

  Matt McGee

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:07 pm

  As you probably know by now, real estate is a subject that’s near and dear to my heart — quite literally. My wife is a real estate agent. My sister is a real estate agent. My dad opened his own agency in the 1950s and still works from a home office today as he approaches a tender 80 years old. It’s not just personal, though; real estate is all about small business and I try to watch what’s happening in the industry as much as possible. Lately, I’ve been watching Google take one baby step after another, pushing into real estate as quietly as Google can do…

• SBS Flashback: November 2008

  Matt McGee

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:33 pm

  For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading. Small Business Attitude: Survival or Successful? Keywordfinder: New & Different Keyword Research Tool Small Business and Social Media: Experience vs. Enthusiasm The List: Local Search Industry on Twitter Review Spam on Google Maps, 10 Months Later Planning an SEO Campaign Google’s Hypocrisy: Search Spam and Map Spam Previous…

• SearchFest 2010 = Amazing Value

  Matt McGee

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:16 pm

  I know it’s not happening for another four months or so, but SEMpdx is already offering early-early-early-bird registration for the 2010 edition of their annual SearchFest conference. The event is scheduled for March 9, 2010, at the Governor Hotel in downtown Portland, and you can register now for only $139. SEMpdx is selling a limited number of spaces at this (absurdly low) rate, and there are only 22 slots left. Registration/Event Information Don’t bother looking for an agenda or speaker list. They don’t exist yet. This is the “trust” rate. I’ve spoken at…

• Cheap SEO is Cheap SEO

  Matt McGee

  13 Nov 2009 | 3:24 pm

  Dear small business owners, Please promise me that if you ever get this same email that I got, you’ll have a hearty laugh and then hit the DELETE button: Hi: Affordable SEO services starting. 50 Social Bookmarking Your sites are bookmarked on 50 different sets(PR 4+). Completion Time: ~3 Days $5.00 100 High PR Directory Submission(PR 4+);‰ We will submit your site to 100 PR4+ directories that have good approval rates. Completion Time: ~3 Days $5.00 100 Article Submission We will submit your article to 100 Article Marketing Websties and been one of the collections. Completion Time: ~7…

• One Less Reputation Management Tool

  Matt McGee

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:46 pm

  With Technorati in the midst of a major re-launch, it looks like we’ve lost one small-but-important reputation management tools: the ability to subscribe to keyword-based RSS feeds from Technorati’s blog database. For ages, I’ve had Technorati RSS feeds setup for searches on my name and on “small business sem,” which is how many people refer to this blog. While checking RSS last night, I saw this alert from Technorati: The message says that existing feeds have been “retired” and hints that new feeds are on the way. I went to Technorati last night and…

• 
  Hitwise Intelligence - Analyst Weblogs

• Video Games searches overtake Mobile Phones following release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

  Robin Goad

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:50 am

  UK Internet searches for video games increased by 28% last week following the release of the much hyped and anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. As the chart below illustrates, Video Games overtook Mobile Phones to become the most searched for category within the Experian Hitwise Hot Consumer Electronics List last week – the first time this has ever happened. A few other impressive stats: Over a third of Video Games searches last week related to the new game;’ modern warfare 2’ and ‘call of duty modern warfare 2’ were the second and third most popular search terms on the…

• Bebo out from downunder?

  Alan Long

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:31 pm

  This morning’s online news reported that Bebo is about to close its Australian operations. But what does that really mean? To Australian Bebo users it means very little, there will be no change to their interaction with their social networks, but to AOL, who purchased Bebo in March 2008, it means a whole lot more, it is a response to not being able to substantially commercialise their audience in Australia against the growing behemoth of Facebook. Bebo is currently the number 6 ranked website in the Social Networking and Forums industry, behind Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter and Yahoo!

• East Asian Games generating interest

  Alan Long

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:39 pm

  The 5th East Asian Games on 5 December is for the first time being staged in Hong Kong. This is the first time Hong Kong plays host to a large-scale multi-sport international event. The East Asian Games brings together 2,300 athletes from 8 countries and territories competing in 22 sports including Badminton, Basketball, Football, Judo, Rowing, Tennis and Wushu The last major sporting event staged in Hong Kong was the Equestrian event as part of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. To provide an indication of the interest in the East Asian Games, the chart below tracks the share of visits by all…

• Blog Shops popular in Singapore

  Sandra Hanchard

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:57 pm

  Christmas online shopping in Singapore and Hong Kong has gained strength over the past few years, with visits to the Shopping and Classifieds industry reaching a 3-year high during the week ending 28 November 2008 in Singapore, and week ending 13 December 2008 in Hong Kong. Earlier this week I provided an update on the leading product categories in the retail sector in Australia. There were some regional similarities in Singapore and Hong Kong, with Apparel and Accessories, Computers and Appliances and Electronics dominant verticals in all three markets. · Apparel and Accessories was the…

• Analyzing the Maclaren Stroller Recall

  Heather Dougherty

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:24 pm

  Last week parents were horrified to learn about a recall on Maclaren umbrella strollers due to multiple cases of children’s fingers being amputated. The volume of traffic to the Maclaren website jumped 9x in volume on Monday, Nov. 9, 2009 as the recall hit the news and initially overloaded the website. While the recall was only for products within the US, concerns also caused the volume of visits to surge 12x in the UK for the British stroller company. Search was the top driver of traffic to the Maclaren website on Nov. 9th and referred 42% of the visits that day, 97% which were new…

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  ReveNews

• 5 Online Video Ideas for Businesses

  CT Moore

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:59 pm

  Integrating video to your online content strategy offers a number of benefits ranging from increased conversions to reputation management. The question for businesses, however, is whether to divert resources from standard marketing activities with a proven ROI to potentially costly multimedia content production. Well, just as your main product offer may not necessarily be tied into video (or other rich media) production, your business can leverage online video without investing significant time or resources. In fact, there are five different kinds of easy, cost-effective videos that are…

• Virtual Goods, Offers, and Scams: Part 1

  Duane Kuroda

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:50 am

  There’s been alot of hype and debate around the concepts of virtual goods and offers due to a few high flying companies which have been media darlings. The highest profile company in question is Zynga, athough other social gaming sites and social networks have employed similar tactics. All have enormous user bases and are pulling in hundreds of millions in revenue, but the debate centers around how they make earn money. There’s too much to cover in one post, so this discussion will be split into two posts, with this one providing the basis for the controversy. By some estimates,…

• Listen to What the Consumer Wants

  Barry Silverstein

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:03 pm

  I’ve periodically written about the plight of print publishers and their reluctant move to the digital world. One of the looming issues for these publishers when they make the transition to online content is how to get consumers to pay for it. This all may be coming to a head in 2010. According to a study just released by the American Press Institute and reported on by eMarketer, close to sixty percent of member publishers are considering charging for content that is currently free. Twenty-five percent of them said they’ll have a paid strategy in place within six months. Whatever plans…

• Importance of Networking to Your Bottom Line

  Billy Kay

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:18 pm

  I turned on my computer yesterday and there was a sale for a personalized penguin Christmas ornament. The next email was from ShareASale: “An affiliate transaction has taken place”. I wondered if it could be from that person with an obsession for tuxedoed birds, and sure enough: “The affiliate who referred this transaction: Jennifer Goode”. Jen is a respected peer, friend, as well as owner of a little plushie traveling penguin that has become semi-famous. SAS emails give you the option to “Click to Send Affiliate a Bonus for this Transaction”, but I opted…

• Social Media: At the Tipping Point

  Barry Silverstein

  11 Nov 2009 | 11:20 am

  Long before Malcolm Gladwell’s extraordinary best-selling book The Tipping Point, there was Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm, published almost twenty years ago, and his follow-up book, Inside the Tornado. Moore talked about the flash point at which a technology product progresses from early adoption to mass adoption. There can be little doubt that social media has “crossed the chasm.” Social media surely meets Gladwell’s tipping point criteria as well: “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.” So with mass adoption under its belt, where is…

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  Making Adwords Make Sense

• Paid Inclusion

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:23 am

  For years Yahoo has had a paid inclusion program called Search Submit. You would pay a small fee to get hundreds of URLs listed in the Yahoo “Organic” listings (of course, this makes it slightly less “Organic”) but, ethics aside this has been a great program and I’ve seen it make a lot of companies great return on investment especially for ecommerce. The fact that this program was a great way to develop low cost highly targeted traffic was a not-so-closely guarded secret among ecommerce experts, many of which were upset to hear that Yahoo would end Search Submit this year.

• Content Links

  admin

  7 Jul 2009 | 9:50 pm

  I am consistently surprised to see professional websites failing to use links in content. This is an important part of the content strategy for several reasons. Links in content are probably the best way to help search engine spiders understand the structure of your site, understand which pages are important and deserve to be ranked higher for specific topics. As discussed in my post Improve Bounce Rate, links within content represent one of the most important factors of usability and conversion architecture - another way to say this is that used correctly, links in content help visitors to…

• SU.PR - URL Shortening Plus Tracking

  admin

  30 Jun 2009 | 11:35 am

  So the common problem with Twitter (or any microblog) is that most URLs are too long to fit into a 140 character message (and still have room for the message). There have been a few solutions for this, my favorite at this time is a Stumbleupon tool that serves double duty Shortens the URL Tracks how many people clicked it and at what time Shows who retweeted the shortened URL One click to submit to Stumbleupon Shows who ‘liked’ it in Stumbleupon in the lower right Here is a pretty good review of the tool by Tim Ferriss http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/06/09/stumble-upon-supr/ The…

• Yahoo Partners with Newspapers - Old and New Media Meet

  admin

  1 Mar 2009 | 8:49 pm

  There was an article in the New York Times today describing a very important test that went on at the end of 2008. This test was performed by Yahoo and several major newspapers to see how well the two could work together to aid each other in serving advertisements. Yahoo was able to serve ads on the newspapers websites and vice versa. These ads were targeted to the reading behavior of the users. “a new ad system from Yahoo, currently installed at about 100 newspapers, that allows them to sell graphical ads on their sites that are aimed at specific audiences, like car buyers or sports…

• How To Improve Bounce Rate

  admin

  23 Feb 2009 | 9:26 pm

  On the Google Blog Avinash Kaushik wrote a post on Bounce Rate that begins a series called The Power of Measurement. Lesson one is on Bounce Rate. Bounce Rate is a very easy metric to understand. For that reason it is always one of the first concepts I talk about to my clients that need help deciphering their web analytics. What does a bounce mean from a user experience perspective? Bounce Rate is a very important metric because it illustrates one of the biggest problems from a webmaster perspective. It has become normal human behavior to enter a website with the understanding that if you…

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  Understanding Google Maps & Local Search

• Google Local Listing Ad Heatmap

  Mike

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:37 am

  Like all in the industry, I am curious about how a user might view and respond to the new display that Google is presenting when the Local Listing Ads are included. Between the Adwords, new Local Listing Ads & the 7 Pack organic results have been pushed very far down the page and user behavior is obviously impacted. Not having a budget for this project I used one of the new algo generated online heatmap products, AttentionWizard to see what the results looked like. According to their own description there is a 75% correlation between this type of heatmap and a real heatmap. So what you…

• Is Google AdWords Testing a New Local Adwords Display Type?

  Mike

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:24 am

  In July, Google upgraded AdWords to allow advertisers to add the full address to their search ads through location extensions. It appears that they are now testing a new ad layout similar to the one developed for Local Listing Ads. Tim Coleman of A Second Opinion, sent along this screen shot from last week of a search for “garage door repair denver” that displays a new local AdWords ad type. (Click the image to view larger) – – Has anyone else seen this type of Ad?

• Google Maps Local Listing Ad Spam & Other Notes

  Mike

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:23 am

  As Google Local Listing Ads rollout it is no surprise to see spam creeping in and potential trademark questions once again coming to the fore. Pierre Kairouz has shared a screen shot with me for the search taxi San Francisco which brought up this Local Listing Ad. It is interesting in two respects, the use of PO Box for the address and the obvious business title manipulation. The domain taxicabcalifornia.com leads to a website with the business name of Yellow Cabs CA and a whois address in Mountain View. The taxi industry is not a new comer to mapspam but it will be interesting to see how…

• Traveling – light postings

  Mike

  11 Nov 2009 | 8:06 pm

  I am traveling to San Francisco today thru Sunday and will be posting extreemely lightly until next week.

• Get a keyword stuffed Google Map listing with a virtual office thrown in for free!

  Mike

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Creative abuses of Google Maps for profit always intrigue me and this “ad” is one that certainly wins an award for chutzpah. PanzerMike, never one to let a potential spamming competitor sneak through & frustrated by Google’s spam fighting efforts, sent me this example. Apparently with the real estate business in a downturn, an enterprising real estate company needs to turn somewhere for new leads. With a little searching, you can find this Map listing in every major market, each located in a building offering virtual office space. One even offered the space up free for…

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  Convert Offline

• Google Product Listing Ads Of The Third Kind

  Local Search Hound

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:31 am

  Over the weekend I had my first sighting of the new Google Product Listing Ads. Having missed all the write-ups last week I was shocked when they showed up in a search I was doing over the weekend. Visually dominant and uber-relevant, these ads dominated my attention as a search marketer and someone looking for an above ground pool. Screen cap of my first sighting and interaction with a Google Product Listing Ad. Subscribe | Submit

• Google Maps Update - 10 Pack Displays For County Search

  Local Search Hound

  30 Jul 2009 | 3:22 pm

  Google continues to expand the types of searches for which it displays the 10-Pack. Today for the first time I found the 10 pack for a search with a county geography. Subscribe | Submit

• How Much Does Yodle Charge?

  Local Search Hound

  12 Jun 2009 | 5:44 am

  In the light of Borrell Associates recent study that showed astronomical churn rates at local search resellers like Yodle and ReachLocal, there has been a lot of speculation about the reasons why. I commented on David Mihm’s Blog that price is a big issue and how much they charge is still unknown. Andrew Shotland, a a well respected seo, speculated on that same post that cost was probably between 30% - 50% of spend. Here is what 2 customers of a prominent reseller told me: I told them I wouldn’t do business with them until they told me how much they charged. I knew they…

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  Local SEO Guide

• BIA Kelsey ILM 2009 in Los Angeles Coming Up

  Andrew Shotland

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:27 pm

  I’ll be speaking at the BIA Kelsey ILM ‘09 Local Search “Preconference” - sort of akin to sitting at the kiddie table at Thanksgiving - along with Mr. David Mihm, Chris Spanos of AOL/Going.com and BIA Kelsey’s Mike Boland.  We’ll be doing a site clinic as part of the session so if you have a site that just can’t seem to get any respect from the search engines - and that’s most of you from what I can see - you might want to be there. Peter Krasilovsky, the Larry King of local search, just announced the final line-up here. If you’re going…

• Yahoo Mail Goes All Social On Me

  Andrew Shotland

  10 Nov 2009 | 11:13 am

  I just sent an email out to a bunch of local seo types and saw this on the “message sent” confirmation screen: For now the data looks relevant only to Yahoo social activities, but you could imagine a future where Yahoo (or Google via GMail) would understand the text of the outgoing mail and shown social content relevant to the text.  So if I had written “know any good dui attorneys in Pleasanton?”, and Dave (pictured above) had reviewed a Pleasanton DUI Attorney on Yelp after a night on the town with Johnnie Walker, then Dave’s review would have shown up.

• Should Rupert Murdoch Give Google The NoIndex Finger?

  Andrew Shotland

  9 Nov 2009 | 3:05 pm

  The web is all abuzz today with the news that Rupert Murdoch is threatening to block Google from indexing NewsCorp’s content. Jason Calacanis & the Blogging Maverick have both jumped into the fray encouraging Rupe to go for it and give Google the NoIndex Finger. It’s certainly worth a shot and if he can get a lot of other big publishers to do it with him he might have started a powerful movement, but there’s a reason why the original headline for this post was: “Rupert Murdoch = Howard Stern Without The Lesbians”. Stern effectively noindexed himself from…

• Business.com Social Media Survey - Are You Running 7 Social Media Campaigns?

  Andrew Shotland

  5 Nov 2009 | 11:49 am

  Business.com just released the results of a study on social media usage by business professionals. The big data points that stuck out for me: The average company in this study was planning, developing or running seven(!!!!) different social media initiatives Facebook is the social media platform of choice for the majority of respondents, but I suspect that most are not using it for business reasons. Here are the high level findings: Webinars and podcasts are top social media resources for business professionals, used by 69% of those who turn to social media channels for business…

• Google Local Social Search is Coming

  Andrew Shotland

  2 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  And so I thought I put up some deep thoughts on the subject at SearchEngineLand…Are You Ready For Google Local Social Search?

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  Mihmorandum: Local SEO + Web Design

• More on the Possible Effects of Call-Tracking in Local Search

  David Mihm

  30 Oct 2009 | 9:17 am

  As many readers probably know, Telmetrics president Bill Dinan responded to my original Search Engine Land column about call-tracking last week. Greg Sterling was kind enough to let me post a response to Bill's response on his blog this week. Please check it out & let me know your thoughts either in the comments area on Greg's blog, or on this post.

• Google Place Pages Show Prominent Snippets of Consumer Sentiment

  David Mihm

  19 Oct 2009 | 7:08 am

  Google Maps appears to have introduced another innovation to their interface recently: Zagat-like review snippets on Place Pages for individual businesses.

• My Thoughts on Google Local Listing Ads

  David Mihm

  9 Oct 2009 | 9:05 am

  As I mentioned in yesterday’s SMX East recap, Google announced a new ad format–Local Listing Ads–on Monday afternoon.  Both Greg Sterling and Mike Blumenthal have written fairly in-depth summaries of what the ads entail but I’ll try to lay out the highlights below: Only businesses with claimed LBC listings are eligible to participate. The landing page MUST [...]

• SMX East Local Items of Interest

  David Mihm

  8 Oct 2009 | 6:26 am

  What this post lacks in coherence it will make up for in speed :)  Below are some of the items I found most interesting during my three days in New York this week: Ranking Tactics for Local Search It was truly an honor to be on a panel with Mike Blumenthal, Mary Bowling, Will Scott, and Andrew [...]

• New TMP (15miles) / Comscore Study on Local Search

  David Mihm

  6 Oct 2009 | 11:08 am

  TMP & Comscore’s annual study of the Local Business space was published this morning, and hot off the presses, Gregg Stewart, the President of TMP’s new Interactive wing called 15miles, shared the initial results with those of us in attendance at SMX East.  There wasn’t really anything earth-shattering, but some interesting data came out nonetheless.  The [...]

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  SEO Igloo Blog

• Google Locking Locksmith Spammers Out Of Maps

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:03 am

  This is huge news! Our client, Glenn Younger of Grah Safe & Lock, has just reported to us that Google appears to at last be taking offensive action against the spammers that have so polluted the locksmith sector of Maps. You may recall that we recently published an article about our website design and Local [...]

• Google Maps Sows And Reaps Incongruities

  admin

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:56 pm

  A happy fall to all my readers, and I hope while you’re putting by locally-harvested supplies for the long winter ahead, you take a glance at Google’s pantry shelves to see what’s new in stock by way of their updated Local Business Center guidelines. Farmer Blumenthal wins the blue ribbon for his handy comparison chart [...]

• Are We Waking To A New Day With Google Maps?

  admin

  8 Oct 2009 | 1:52 pm

  I think I’ll have to pinch myself! Has anyone noticed that Google seems to be throwing a surprise party this week? After years of collective public admonishment, cajoling, begging and pleading with Google’s Maps department to start backing up their giant local information entity with a sense of accountability, pebbles seem to be slipping down [...]

• Google’s Place Pages Play Hide And Seek

  admin

  2 Oct 2009 | 12:38 pm

  Yoo-hoo. Oly oly oxen free! You’re it! 3-2-1, ready or not here I come! Yes, this whole week has been one of playing games with Google’s new Maps interface – Place Pages. It all began with Greg Sterling being incorrectly informed that Place Pages wouldn’t be indexed by Google. This caused some scratching of heads, [...]

• Best Buy Brings On Crashing Wave Of Nostalgia

  admin

  30 Sep 2009 | 1:10 pm

  Scroll back three decades with me. Texas Instruments has just released its first home computer and the gatekeepers to technology open their humble shops, beautifully clean, beautifully quiet, carpeted, furnished with curious ergonomic kneeling chairs. The small computer store has the convivial hush and vibe of a library and the owners practically live there, so [...]

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  Local Biz Bits

• New Merchant Circle Survey-Sentiment Low but Glimmers of Hope

  Larry Sullivan

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:06 am

  Kevin Leu of Merchant Circle sent me info on a survey that Merchant Circle had recently done. I thought the results were interesting. More than 12000 business members participated in the survey.  Just over 10% of those responding businesses classified themselves as retailers, while 90% fell into other categories.  For the complete survey and results, visit www.MerchantCircle.com/corporate/blog/. Some interesting points: A. Economic and Business Outlook: 47.3 percent of merchants disagree or strongly disagree with the statement “The worst effects of the recession are behind us.” 23.2…

• How To Dominate Page One of Google So Your Competitors Don’t Stand a Chance – Part II

  Larry Sullivan

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:19 pm

  Today we finish up the article by Tim Conley. If you have any questions, please post them here and Tim or myself will be more than happy to discuss them. Now…. Dominating Local Searches on Google First you need to do basic search engine optimization on every page of your website.  Next build optimized pages for your major local keywords and include semantically related phrases on those pages.  Talk to Larry about getting this done for your site. Next, set up a Google Local Business listing so your business can show up in the Google Maps local results box.  Fill it out completely. …

• How To Dominate Page One of Google So Your Competitors Don’t Stand a Chance – Part I

  Larry Sullivan

  9 Nov 2009 | 8:34 pm

  Today and tomorrow we have a guest author -Tim Conley from LocalMarketingMastery.com (Thanks for the article Tim.) What if there was a way for you to get more than the average 50+% of visitors from a number one Google ranking? I don’t know about you, but I really dislike paying a lot of money to advertise my business (or that of my clients) only to have my direct competitor’s ad show up right next to mine. Every directory that you’re business is listed in also has your direct competitors, too. In most advertising venues that get a lot of “eye balls”, you’re…

• Twitter And My Blogging

  Larry Sullivan

  1 Nov 2009 | 6:55 pm

  Every time I sit down to work on a post, something comes up. Yeah, I know “a likely story”. LOL I have been reading so many articles that I like and think are worthwhile but I have been keeping them to myself. So to fix this situation, I am planning on twittering about the articles as I read them or find them. So the articles I have are old but the info is great. So If you can, follow me on Twitter (l_sullivan) or see the twitter update box to the right of the blog here for updates. Also too, if you find a cool article, let me know. I will be tweeting in a few minutes with my…

• SEM 09 Final Results

  Larry Sullivan

  14 Oct 2009 | 5:26 pm

  Hope everyone is well. Yes I am still around- got too much on my plate now. Got lots of post ideas to work on.. Well if you remember, I set up a fantasy baseball league earlier in the year. Thankfully that league and the main baseball season is over. It was a terrible year for my NY Mets and my fantasy team I am now looking forward to the NY Giants and the NY Knicks seasons. My last team the Florida State Seminoles….well it appears their season is pretty much over at 2-4. There is always beer. LOL Well here are the results to the SEM09 season: 1. Dial9 4LongDistance -Steve Meyer 2.

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  The Friday Traffic Report

• Wicked Cool Tool: TwitterTim.es

  Jack Humphrey

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:49 am

  Wicked Cool Tool: TwitterTim.es is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following! Does your blog get traffic? Make Money? Want it to? Click Here! Wicked Cool Tool: TwitterTim.es is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following! Does your blog get traffic? Make Money? Want it to? Click Here! That silly little 140 character tool that we all thought was shallow and of little use in the beginning is getting deeper and [...]

• Fantasic Overview of Google Chrome OS

  Jack Humphrey

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:06 am

  Fantasic Overview of Google Chrome OS is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following! Does your blog get traffic? Make Money? Want it to? Click Here! Fantasic Overview of Google Chrome OS is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following! Does your blog get traffic? Make Money? Want it to? Click Here! Chris Lang, Google sleuth #1, has put together a top-to-bottom review of Google Chrome OS (a completely cloud-based operating system set to [...]

• The Occasional Sammy

  Jack Humphrey

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:11 pm

  The Occasional Sammy is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following! Does your blog get traffic? Make Money? Want it to? Click Here! The Occasional Sammy is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following! Does your blog get traffic? Make Money? Want it to? Click Here! That’s my boy!  Today he says, as he’s getting ready for bed, “Daddy, I learned something new today!  When you touch something that belongs to [...]

• I have super powers!

  Jack Humphrey

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:51 pm

  I have super powers! is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following! Does your blog get traffic? Make Money? Want it to? Click Here! I have super powers! is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following! Does your blog get traffic? Make Money? Want it to? Click Here! Image by Pat2001 via Flickr If you watched the last Superman movie, you’ll remember when he flew up to get some yellow sun and then [...]

• Putting Your Business on the Map

  Jack Humphrey

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:43 pm

  Putting Your Business on the Map is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following! Does your blog get traffic? Make Money? Want it to? Click Here! Putting Your Business on the Map is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following! Does your blog get traffic? Make Money? Want it to? Click Here! Today’s lesson will show you… 1.  How to use Twitter trends map to get more exposure and 2. How good a video can [...]

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  SEO Training

• Building Social Equity 2.0 – Social Media Training

  Your SEO Mentor

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:03 am

  BuildingSocialEquity.com What is Building Social Equity 2.0? Why is it important? How can I get it? So if you watched my video above you know that I am launching my new Social Media Training Course – Building Social Equity 2.0! The tag line is “SEO Meets Social Media” because I teach step-by-step how to use and submit valuable [...]

• Social Media Blog

  Your SEO Mentor

  5 Nov 2009 | 1:03 pm

  This is going to be one of my shortest posts ever!!! I just wanted to announce that I am the new owner and content contributor of the Social Media Blog SocialMediaVision.com. Social Media Vision Blog is a focused on Social Media, New Media, Technology, and all things Web 2.0. Social Media Vision is a blog offering [...]

• Big Week For Google Search

  Your SEO Mentor

  1 Nov 2009 | 8:21 am

  Big couple weeks for Google Search with Music, Social Search, and Twitter.

• SEO Dojo is the Place to Be!

  Your SEO Mentor

  28 Oct 2009 | 8:52 am

  SEO Dojo community launches to the public. Get an exclusive discount to the SEO Dojo membership site.

• Google Social Search On or Off the Mark?

  Your SEO Mentor

  27 Oct 2009 | 8:55 am

  Google Social Search has launched again or has it.

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  SEO Diva

• Thinking Outside the Box

  Seo Diva

  4 Nov 2009 | 10:51 am

  We all need to develop new ways to advertise our businesses and get new customers, especially in the current tough economy. The term “think outside the box” has been around forever, but exactly how do you do it? Today I came across a poll that asked which you put on on a sandwich first, the peanut butter or the jelly. My first thought was “Peanut butter, of course!” But wait…how many people actually put the jelly on first? As it turns out, just over 1%. Those are people operating “outside the box” – whether they actually think that way, or are just copying how Mom used to make…

• Fast and Easy Way to Build Links to Your Site

  Seo Diva

  13 Oct 2009 | 8:54 am

  How do you build links back to your site? Do you find your progression slow and time consuming? Article marketing is a great way to build links to your site, but it can be a tedious process to come up with a volume of unique articles. Enter a fast and relatively easy way to build a lot of links quickly with article marketing. Build Links to Your Site Quickly I am a total fan of Alex Krulik’s Magic Article Rewriter and Magic Article Submitter. I’ve been using both for over a week, building links to my sites like mad! Here’s how they work… Magic Article Rewriter is a dream to use,…

• Keyword Index Tool

  Seo Diva

  23 Sep 2009 | 12:02 am

  I feel like I’ve become Sears, and September is tools month! But I’ve sure come across some handy ones, lately. Here is one I think you’ll like – simple to use, great information. If the info was downloadable I’d be extra happy. According to the Alexa site, they claim to get the search date through several ISPs, retrieving millions of searches on several search engines. (They would have to kill you if they told you any more than that). It’s called KeywordIndex. They keywords are straightforward – no synonyms. Below is a search for SEO, and I find this type of search helpful when…

• WordPress Privacy Default Option: Invisible

  Seo Diva

  21 Sep 2009 | 10:34 am

  After my blog post last week about invisible blogs and sites, I started a couple of new sites using WordPress. That’s when I discovered that the default for WP is I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors Yikes! That means unless you know to go under “Settings”  and then “Privacy” and change it to the following: I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers …the search engines will skip over your Wordpress blog or site. It really sucks that this is the default. It’s okay, in…

• Website Rank Checker Toolbar

  Seo Diva

  14 Sep 2009 | 5:15 am

  Here’s a brand new, cool tool I just came across…the KPMRS Website Rank Checker Toolbar. You can use it directly on their site , or download the toolbar to your browser. The free toolbar offers a handy way to check a site’s ranking of a specific keyword on the fly. It shows rankings for Google, Yahoo and Bing. It also indicates number of impressions social media sites, page rank (which wasn’t correct) and Alexa ranking (which I don’t pay much attention to). Share this on del.icio.usDigg this!Share this on RedditBuzz up!Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponShare this…

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  Utah Search Engine Optimization | Utah SEO Consultant

• PixelSilk – SEO At It’s Core

  admin

  29 Oct 2009 | 2:16 pm

  PixelSilk is an extremely SEO friendly web based CMS (content management system). This platform was created with SEO at in mind and thus allows users to have a wide range of SEO controls, HTML and more. From PixelSilk: PixelSilk is a scalable, Web-based CMS that provides SEO, marketing and Web development teams with the features they need to maximize their online initiatives and gain a competitive edge in their organic search engine rankings. Cutting-edge tools that allow full control of the HTML code, the ability to interact with business and social media applications, open framework…

• Social Media & Online Reputation Management (ORM) – SMX East 2009 Presentation

  admin

  9 Oct 2009 | 2:17 pm

  SMX East, in New York City, was great this year. I was double-booked on two panels at the same time. One being SEO for Wordpress and the other was Social Media, Search, and Reputation Management. The Social Media, Search, and Reputation Management panel was a great list of people including: Moderator: Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land Speakers: Brent Csutoras, Social Media Consultant, Brent Csutoras, Inc Rhea Drysdale, COO & Co-Founder, Outspoken Media Jordan Kasteler, Co-Founder, Search & Social (myself) Chris Silver Smith, Director of Optimization Strategies,…

• Mobile SEO – Affiliate Convention 2009 Presentation

  admin

  21 Jun 2009 | 4:03 am

  Affiliate Convention was a great time thanks to the fine people at WebmasterRadio.fm. I had a great opportunity to present on Mobile SEO and Mobile Marketing with Gary Ackerman and Cindy Krum. As promised to attendees, here is my presentation below: a Bookmark to: Hide Sites

• Is Your Hosting Ready for Social Media Success? – SMX Advanced 2009 Presentation

  admin

  5 Jun 2009 | 8:38 am

  SMX Advanced 2009 was a great time this year with lots of good content, good networking, and fun. I spoke on a panel called “Is Your Site Hosting Ready for Social Media Success” with Curtis R. Curtis, Ken Spreitzer, and Steve Hasselbach. The slides from it are below: a Bookmark to: Hide Sites

• SEO and Podcasting – Podcamp SLC Presentation

  admin

  28 Mar 2009 | 11:57 pm

  I had the pleasure to present locally on SEO and Podcasting at PodcampSLC in Salt Lake City, Utah recently. The presentation strongly focuses on multimedia in general and the importance of enhanced media in Google’s Universal Search. Unfortunately, I had to run after I presented in the morning so I missed the rest of the event, but I’m sure it was a great success like it has been in the past. Special thanks to Thom Allen for putting together the event. Below is my presentation as promised to attendees. a Bookmark to: Hide Sites

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  Hobo

• Free Link Building For Beginners Ebook

  Shaun Anderson (Hobo)

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:30 pm

  Free Link Building For Beginners EbookFree Search Engine Optimization Blurbs By Hobo. We’ve started sending out our free linkbuilding guide for beginners PDF to all subscribers. I’m doing it in batches of @ 1,000. When this process is completed, I’ll remove the linkbuilding ebook for the time being and it will then be unavailable. It’ll take about 6 days to complete the process. At this time it’s a one time mailout for subscribers to this blog, a beginners guide to link building created from tips from the Hobo blog, and a thanks to the folks who’ve put up…

• Internet Home Business Kit / Google Online Cash Kit Scams Everywhere

  Shaun Anderson (Hobo)

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:13 am

  Internet Home Business Kit / Google Online Cash Kit Scams EverywhereFree Search Engine Optimization Blurbs By Hobo. Jeez is it just me or do you see more and more banners for these friggin Internet Home Business Kit everywhere? They are operating under the banner Google Online Cash Kit too. I’m well surprised at some of the well-known sites that carry adverting banners for these home business kits, despite the amount of bad press they seem to be garnering. This is an example headline: How Did This Computer-Illiterate Mother of Two Start Making £10,000 a Month Posting Links on Google?

• Free Press Release Tips & Process Step By Step

  Shaun Anderson (Hobo)

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:01 pm

  Free Press Release Tips & Process Step By StepFree Search Engine Optimization Blurbs By Hobo. Our free link building Ebook will be sent out end of this week, but here’s a quick online press release tip for small businesses meantime…. A lot of press release sites are crappy, but some do a job. Google makes it simple for you to idnetify which press releases are decent ones by including them in their News Results. Examine your niche in Google – by typing in varying keywords related to your industry – it doesn’t even have to be your industry Observe if any of…

• This Site May Harm Your Computer – Hacked – How To Fix

  Shaun Anderson (Hobo)

  11 Nov 2009 | 6:11 am

  This Site May Harm Your Computer – Hacked – How To FixFree Search Engine Optimization Blurbs By Hobo. We recently took over a few sites from another company, and a few days later, the dreaded “This site may harm your computer” appeared in Google. Not the best start to a campaign. If your site is hacked, your supposed to submit a review in webmaster tools, which I always thought should be a bit unnecessary. Anyway, we cleaned up the code immediately (or rather got the web dev company we took over from to do it), and WITHOUT submitting the site for review, Google removed the…

• Google Caffeine Live Soon

  Shaun Anderson (Hobo)

  10 Nov 2009 | 4:57 am

  Google Caffeine Live SoonFree Search Engine Optimization Blurbs By Hobo. Google caffeine will be live “soon” according to Google. We appreciate all the feedback from people who searched on our Caffeine sandbox. Based on the success we’ve seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given. Google This might be a bit (or a big) shake up for a lot of…

• 
  SEO blog - SEO Tips, Social Media Marketing for the learner.

• 3 Simple Ideas that will get backlinks, even if you don’t ask

  Mani Karthik

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:21 pm

  Building backlinks to your site isn’t easy, but not impossible. Lets discuss some quick and easy ways to source links to your site, without having to go through the tedious and boring link exchange/request process (which in my opinion is a wasteful exercise). When looking for building backlinks to your site, I always suggest to make it a practice to put on your “users hat”. Being the webmaster will blind you from other perspectives and make you focus too much on the numbers/number of backlinks and most of the time, make you un-impressive, which unfortunately, you wouldn’t realize at…

• Find out people who’re not following you back on Twitter

  Mani Karthik

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  When you’re following lot of people on Twitter, be it hundred or thousands, the key factor is to keep the noise to the minimum. And a very important step is to keep away from following spam accounts. Having said that, spam has different meaning to different people on Twitter. For some it could be bots (for most of us), while for some its people who RT a lot, and for some its people who don’t follow back. I make it a regular practice to unfollow people who aren’t following me back. It makes sense that way right ? I do it once a while so that it all balances out. There are many…

• 10 Awesome WordPress RSS plugins to super charge your RSS feeds !

  Mani Karthik

  15 Nov 2009 | 8:54 am

  Its a fact that a major chunk of your blog visitors are on RSS readers. And no, this post is not about making them visit your site, nor this is a post about increasing your RSS subscribers. Since most of your (our) readers are on RSS feed readers, I thought it would make sense to do some customizations and control over the RSS feeds being delivered. Here are ten such awesome plugins for WordPress that would make some cool tweaks and changes to the original plain boring RSS feeds. Try them, they’re worth the time. 1. Enable RSS feed Subscription for Categories This WordPress Plugin allows…

• The 2010 Google Online Marketing Challenge is now open !

  Mani Karthik

  15 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am

  The 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge saw 2,187 student teams from 57 countries around the world taking part in a global online marketing competition. And now, the 2010 sequel to the competition is now live. Developed by professors in collaboration with Google, the Challenge is a great opportunity for students to gain practical, real world online marketing experience. Student teams receive US$200 of free online advertising with Google AdWords and then work with local businesses to devise effective online marketing campaigns. Teams outline a strategy, run a campaign, assess their results…

• Google India Doodles – Winners announced

  Mani Karthik

  14 Nov 2009 | 4:21 am

  Google India has announced its winners for the Doodle 4 Google competition it held lately. Here are some winning entries. Theme – My India 1. Unity in Diversity – Sriradha Kapoor 2. Headgears of India – Arnobe Das 4.  Pot Seller – Arushi Agarwal 5. Ghungroo se Google – Anusha S. Patel 6.  Celebrating Life – Indrajeet Devale 7.  My India – Full of Life Puru Pratap Singh 8. Incredible India – Clint Baby 9. My India – Mrudul Gole 10. Land of Gandhi – Vedanshi Dalmia Related SEO Tips & Articles:10 Funny SEO Cartoons – ( SEO…

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  Link Building Strategies to Help Increase One Way Backlinks | Linkers Blog

• Time to Share Some More Links

  donny

  14 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Enkay blogs about what success really means.  I feel that success is unique for every individual person because oneself can only measure success. Caroline Middlebrook wrote about how to build a large prospect list using your blog.  Most bloggers don’t seem to take advantage of the opportunity to build a large subscribers list using their blogs.  They just use the standard RSS feed as the only means of communication with their subscribers. I talk a lot about article marketing on this site, but I feel that everyone needs to read Mr. Javo’s post about how to boost your sales with article…

• The Mybloglog Social Traffic Machine

  donny

  10 Nov 2009 | 5:43 am

  If you do any form of blogging or social networking, you probably have heard of a little social networking site called MyBlogLog.  This site was designed to focus on the blogging community that is based in part on interactions facilitated by a popular web widget that many members install on their blogs.  If you are not using this site and you are a blogger, you are losing traffic and the opportunity to network with other bloggers in your niche. Most people that use this service use it solely to network with other bloggers within their industry and not for traffic.  If used correctly, you…

• List of Blogs With Top Commentator’s Plugin Installed

  donny

  3 Nov 2009 | 5:24 am

  A couple of the readers requested that I make a list of all of the blogs that have the top commentators plugin installed on it.  On this blog, I try to make it a point to give people what they ask for.  This is by no means all of the sites that have this plugin installed on it, but it is quite thorough.  If you don’t know what this plugin is and the benefits of this plugin, please take the time to read a couple of my post about the top commentators plugin Here is the list of blogs that have the plugin installed on the site and are in order according to pagank. Blogs With Top Commentators…

• Interview With Caroline Middlebrook on Blogging

  donny

  26 Oct 2009 | 10:23 pm

  Caroline Middlebrook Expert Blogger Who is Caroline Middlebrook and what is her blog about? I used to be a software developer and in 2007 I quit my job to begin an online business. My blog is a chronicle of that decision and the journey in building that business When did you start blogging and who or what did you learn from when you first started? I started my blog on the day I handed in my resignation, which was August 2007. At the beginning I learned almost exclusively from other bloggers. Some notable ones that I still read today include Yaro Starak, Darren Rowse and John Chow. What are…

• Creating Backlinks by Referencing Other Bloggers Posts

  donny

  24 Oct 2009 | 9:27 pm

  Alan from Affiliate Confession, blogs about giving away free stuff in return for huge profits.  This idea has continued to work over and over again simply based on the fact that people love free stuff and they will do almost anything to get it. Tom from Standout Blogger, posts about boosting your business with blogging.  Blogging has become the ultimate form of free advertising because it costs almost nothing to run and host a blog.  The unique thing about blogging is the ability to reach such a large audience. Michael Martine discusses how knowledge is power and convenience is weakness. …

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  Reel SEO Video Marketing

• Viral Video Round Up – Lessons From This Week’s Viral Successes

  Jeremy Scott

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:11 pm

  It’s time for another Viral Round Up—our weekly look at the latest viral success stories as we attempt to reverse engineer them to see what made them work. Since I missed last week’s Round Up, we’ll actually look at more videos than normal this week.  Call it my tangible apology, like the flowers I sometimes buy my wife. Without further ado, let’s dive in. 1. The Bird Tennessee Titans owner, Bud Adams—who is 86 years old—was captured on film by a fan in the stands after the Titans beat the Bills in Nashville last Sunday.  Don’t ask me why this fan decided to turn around and…

• Google Rolls Out Automated Captioning For YouTube Videos

  Mark R Robertson

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:11 pm

  Google today announced that they are adding automatic captioning capability to videos on YouTube. This is a fantastic step forward for accessibility for deaf Internet users.  Says Vice President Vint Cerf, who is hearing impaired himself: “Google believes that the world’s information should be accessible to everyone.  One of the big challenges of the video medium is whether it can be made accessible to everyone.” Until this announcement, users have only had the ability to manually upload their own captions, something many users have indeed done.  With the new system, the…

• Video Project Planning & Management – Market7 Overview

  Christophor Rick

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:40 pm

  Market7 wants to be your online collaboration service and video project planning solution and of course make money off of you while doing it. They have free trial accounts to check it out and offer a range of product packages to help you get all your creative from talent to post-production in the same place and on the same page (or in the same frame?). It allows you to assemble teams, define projects, develop content, securely share files, and communicate clearly. The environment’s modules are organized by project stages: pre-production, production, and post-production. Market7 is…

• EveryZing Moves to RAMP Focus on Content Optimization

  Mark R Robertson

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:46 am

  Yesterday, EveryZing, a company that we have profiled in the past, has re-branded themselves as RAMP.com. They made a name for themselves by helping companies optimize their video content for search discovery through speech to text recognition technology and they are now moving beyond video optimization to focus on helping publishers ramp up monetization, discovery, and engagement through “content optimzation.” “Over the past three years of the company’s history, we’ve continued to build our core technologies for solutions to grow audience and revenue for online audio,…

• Univision/YouTube Partnership Is A Bigger Deal Than You Think

  Jeremy Scott

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:50 am

  Did you see the headline earlier this week that YouTube had struck a deal with Spanish Television Network, Univision?  If you’re a typical American, you might have passed right over it.  Maybe you noted it mentally, but figured it wasn’t terribly important to you since you don’t speak Spanish. The deal actually seems pretty important to me for two big reasons: 1. For what it means for Spanish speakers Let’s start with some basic facts about Univision that, because they aren’t NBC, you might not know.  First, they have the largest Spanish-speaking audience of any television…

• 
  Antezeta Web Marketing

• Yahoo Web Analytics (ex IndexTools) soon in no man’s land?

  sean

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:52 am

  When Yahoo announced their effective exit from the search engine business last July, the main points seemed clear: Microsoft will provide the development and management of search engine results technology Microsoft will provide the search and content network ad platform Microsoft will manage the relationship with all but an elite group of advertisers Yahoo will provide their own user [...]

• Der Berliner Mauer, 1961 – 1989. Good riddance.

  sean

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:11 am

  As the western world looks at the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I though I’d make my own modest contribution. I had the fortune to study in East Berlin in 1987-88, just before the wall fell. Sure there were tensions (communist darling Rosa Luxemburg’s Freiheit ist immer die Freiheit des anders Denkenden [...]

• The real news behind the Google and Bing Twitter deals

  sean

  22 Oct 2009 | 1:50 am

  Yesterday we saw a lot of press and blogosphere attention devoted to deals being made between the two leading search engines, Google and Bing, and leading social media services Twitter and Facebook. Twitter search deals, while interesting, doesn’t yet merit much beyond a big yawn – we’ve already had decent, if imperfect, search via Summize, which [...]

• Italian press to Google: you’re unfair (and we’re confused)

  sean

  30 Aug 2009 | 12:51 pm

  This past week the Italian antitrust authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato) conducted a search of Google’s Italian office and announced it was beginning an investigation into Google’s possible abuse of its dominant position in the Italian search engine market. The case was triggered by a complaint from the Italian Federation of News [...]

• 10 shadows hanging over Google: does Google have a dark side?

  sean

  5 Aug 2009 | 7:35 am

  In a recent article on Microsoft’s bing, I felt it necessary to temper my enthusiasm for Microsoft’s commitment to web search by noting Microsoft’s decidedly checkered record as a good net citizen. What about Google? It is almost too easy to write a glowing review of whatever new service Google unleashes. For example, Google Maps Street View [...]

• 
  Science for SEO

• Serendipity on the Web

  CJ

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:35 pm

  I’ve been catching up on all my reading these last couple of weeks and I particularly liked “From X-Rays to Silly Putty via Uranus: Serendipity and its Role in Web Search”. It’s by Paul André from Southampton University together with Jaime Teevan and Susan Dumais from Microsoft Research. Louis Pasteur once famously said: “In the fields [...]

• 3 little books for managers

  CJ

  12 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

  Having been a manager myself, and of course having been managed many times as well, I have come up with a list of books that pass on some important information and messages. The best managers inspire people, help them grow into their professions or bloom into another and they remain calm when the sea turns [...]

• NY Times RDF

  CJ

  12 Nov 2009 | 12:12 am

  The New York Times has announced that it has made available RDF documents for us to use. They use 30,000 tags to power their Times Topics Pages and they intend to make them all available. They’ve also created a Google groups community for people to give feedback and share their experience with the data. The Linked [...]

• 7 Semantic web FireFox extensions

  CJ

  3 Nov 2009 | 10:06 pm

  I’ve been using some add-ons for FireFox that enable me to investigate semantic mark-upon any given page if there is any on there. It’s good because it means I can begin to see which sites are all out on Semantic web and which ones aren’t yet. I’m definitely seeing a move towards more of [...]

• SMORE: link up your data

  CJ

  20 Oct 2009 | 2:52 am

  Finally semantic web formats are becoming more mainstream, although many of us in the SEO world are considered slightly odd and confusing for adopting them. We are not alone, search engines have adopted both RDFa and Microformats so it’s not so crazy for web professionals to be paying attention to them. Yahoo has been on [...]

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  Saad Kamal

• Google – Lets Look back in Time

  Saad

  9 Nov 2009 | 4:58 am

  In late October, Google UK’s YouTube channel posted an amazing video that brings back Google’s past 11 years to life with some really cool animation. The video mentions some of the most interesting events from Google’s history. “From Stanford to Mountain View and around the world, featuring many different products, starting with BackRub (Search) up to Google Wave, StreetView and Chrome.” This video is definitely worth checking out! The Google Story For RSS Readers: (Watch it Here) Now they did leave out a number of Google Products for obvious reasons – they…

• Google Commerce Search

  Saad

  7 Nov 2009 | 8:36 am

  Google is slowly trying to tap into the online commerce market by launching yet another product for this specific niche (after Google Checkout) – Google Commerce Search. So If you’re running your own online shop, this brand new Google Commerce Search may be worth looking at. Google describes this as a “search solution designed specifically with online retail enterprises in mind.” You can easily upload your product data at the Google Merchant Center, and go on to customize your site’s search engine. Google’s admin console lets you “manage product promotions, upload synonym…

• Trakkboard – Google Analytics for Desktop

  Saad

  7 Nov 2009 | 12:12 am

  If you work with multiple Google acocunts to Track many different Google Analytics profiles then you already know that its a very clumbesom process. Signing in and out of various Google accounts multiple times in a day can be a real pain if you are dealing with a lot of websites of your own or of your clients. Trakken, a company from Germany has recently released a free desktop app called Trakkboard that uses the Google Analytics API to pull data from different analytics accounts. Trakkboard lets you access multiple Google analytics account simultaneously and also compare data from each of…

• The International Language of Online Marketing

  Saad

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:44 pm

  It has quickly become a commonplace that the internet has made the world much smaller than it ever was. Friends, family, and businesses based thousands of miles across the globe are just seconds away through email, facebook, or skype, just to name a few of the many examples of online communication. However, international businesses, large or small, still need to appeal to a distinct regional or national base to be successful. Globalization and the internet have not – yet – made the world completely homogenous. Linguistic, cultural, and economic differences exist between regions in a…

• Google Dashboard

  Saad

  5 Nov 2009 | 5:35 am

  If you have been using internet for a while then its very likely that you use quite a number of Google services. For instance, my net life is purely surrounded by Google – starting from my email (Gmail), IM (Google Talk), documents (Google Docs), search (Google Serch), photos (Picasa), Feeds (Google Reader), Calendar (Google Calendar), Online Payments (Google Checkout) – everything is just Google. Since everything in Google is sort of “inter connected”, it’s really scary to think of how much Google knows about each of us. Google Dashboard, is a new portal which…

• 
  SEO Service Blog

• Google Caffeine going Live - Caffeine SERP's get ready to experience it

  Afzal Khan

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:56 am

  Google Caffeine Going Live Google Caffeine when announced first back in August created the strong buzz among Online community, SEO folks, website owner's and many people started comparing their rankings with Caffeine and Universal Search. Too some Google Caffeine results were exciting and too many they didn't experienced much changes, but all were on same page regarding Caffeine quick, faster and accurate results, also the crawling were increased to much larger extent with relevant results. Google made the Caffeine available to Power Searches and all other people till today at…

• Lovingtech.net - Webmaster & Tech Forum Review

  Afzal Khan

  26 Oct 2009 | 7:05 am

  A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from one of my Blog reader asking about any good webmaster forums in my knowledge which I would recommend him to join. On drilling down his email further I figured out he got frustrated of being member to many of known webmaster and technology forum's. He just want to concentrate and get active on limited but informative forum's. It's all about quality information online not quantity. I think we all look for same, being a Online Marketer I do want to utilize my limited time getting involved on useful webmaster forum's. Certainly maximum percentage of…

• Top 20 SEO Blog's which are on my SEO RSS Radar

  Afzal Khan

  15 Oct 2009 | 4:50 am

  Searching to get latest update's and news from SEO industry to be on top of everything. Everyone loves to be pioneer in their niche industry. Being an SEO Expert I too love to keep myself up to date on what all are is happening in Search Industry. Image Source: Chocopars.com Do I Google every-time to find new advancement and latest news in SEO, not much instead I have subscribed to limited, but very good SEO Blog's whom I admire reading. I love the content which they publish, quality write up's from all these blog's are well-renowned Blog Author's whom I can trust. So if you are beginner in…

• Google Sitelink - What are Google Sitelinks & How to control which Links to show at SERP's

  Afzal Khan

  14 Oct 2009 | 7:34 am

  Have you ever noticed some additional links shown at Google Organic Search Results while you searched for something on Google. You will find Google will show sub-pages/URL's along with main domain for top ranking website. Sitelinks are these additional links which Google show's at search engine result page's for #1 ranking website, while many times Google also shows Sitelinks for top-10 ranking websites. Above screenshot show's how Google show's website sitelinks, I believe all those who were not aware now knows what are Sitelinks and how it shows at Google. It is important for you to try get…

• Barcode Google Logo - Google Doodle BARCODE Logo on 07th October, 2009

  Afzal Khan

  7 Oct 2009 | 12:56 am

  Google Celebrates the patent Barcode invention by displaying "Barcode Logo" at Google Search Home Page, Barcode Logo to remark Barcodes 57th Anniversary at Google (www.google.com) as on 07th Oct, 2009. On decoding "Barcode Logo" image it say's GOOGLE. Barcode Information Source WikipediaA barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data. Originally, bar codes represented data in the widths (lines) and the spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1D (1 dimensional) barcodes or symbologies.They also come in patterns of squares, dots, hexagons and other…

• 
  Frank Thinking About Internet Marketing

• True Colors ALWAYS Come Out

  Frank Reed

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:49 am

  My wife reminded me of a person from our past who simply touched us both because she was good to us and sincere. Now almost 20 years since I last spoke to her, I am reminded of words she spoke often but are just as true today as they were then: No matter what is said or done, true colors always come out. Honestly, I was too young and ignorant at the time to even get that. Now, I have a few more years on me and little more awareness in me and I really appreciate Evelyn’s words. In particular, I am seeing it more and more as the Internet ‘evolves’. I use the term evolves loosely because…

• Can Social Media Make People Act Crazier Than They Need To?

  Frank Reed

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pm

  I was just checking out a piece of video from a student ‘demonstration’ at UCLA about a 32% hike in tuition. A big number, no doubt, but look at this video and ponder a question or two. Are the police that these kids are yelling at responsible for the tuition hike? Rhetorical question I realize but if we know the answer is no why are these students threatening them? If there were no cameras would this have gotten so out of hand? We live in a society that is overheated. Does too much media lead to too much of a need to be heard which then leads to extreme behavior being accepted so one can…

• Asleep at the Social Media Wheel

  Frank Reed

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:40 am

  It’s becoming more and more important to make sure you are paying attention not IN social media but BECAUSE of social media. Whether you are an active user or not you are not immune for something that comes out of your mouth to be recorded, tweeted, blogged about or who knows what else. Just because you ignore it don’t think the rest of the world isn’t paying attention and will not hold your feet to the fire. Look at Bud Adams, owner of the Tennessee Titans from yesterday. Sure he may be 86 and not social media savvy but his team is part of the NFL so someone has to help him get this.

• PR Means “Premature Readiness” for NEC

  Frank Reed

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:16 pm

  I’ll keep this short and sweet because it’s just an instance of stupid company tricks. If you really wanted to get someone excited about a product that you have put together for a very specific industry like NEC has with its Vukunet product you could do what? Do a press release is definitely one option. Let’s forget the debate on whether press releases still work because this examples proves they do. Not in a good way, mind you, but in some way. I have a friend in the digital out of home signage business and he found or was pointed to a press release for this new product. Honestly, I…

• A Prayer for Our Armed Forces

  Frank Reed

  10 Nov 2009 | 8:00 pm

  FYI – This post has nothing to do with Internet marketing. I  just wanted to be fair. I have never served in the Armed Forces. My grandfather fought and died in World War II when my Mom had just turned 3 years old. The title of Frank Thinking belongs more to Frank Ianuzelli PFC 32594056 because I am named after him. I carry that name proudly. Below is the letter from Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding his death. Today is a day to take at least a minute and acknowledge the fact that there are people doing truly brave and heroic things so we can be here in the US and carry on our daily…

• 
  The Search Engine Optimization Blog @ MoreVisibility

• Google’s Caffeine and Page Speed

  Emily MacNair

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:26 am

  There has been quite a bit of news circulating within the Search industry lately, and some of this news may have an impact on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts.  In case you haven’t heard, below is quick re-cap of two pieces of important information. Back in August, I wrote a blog about Google’s Caffeine Update.  [...]

• Site Speed Could Effect Rankings

  Michael Buczek

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:10 am

  A slow loading website may not only deter your visitors, but in the near future may affect your search engine rankings.  In an interview with Google’s Matt Cutts, Webpronews.com recently reported that site speed may become a factor in ranking sometime in 2010.  If you think about it, it makes perfect sense.  Google wants to [...]

• ICANN Includes Non-Latin Domain Name Extensions

  Carolina Usbeck

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:36 am

  Have you ever wondered why Japanese or Korean sites use Latin extensions in their domain names? Those sites from countries with non-Latin languages had to use Latin domain names since domain names extensions were implemented from the beginning of the Internet as Latin. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced the inclusion of [...]

• The Use of the “Long Tail Keyword”

  Michael Sherman

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:49 am

  When designing and building a website they’re many items you should take into consideration, aside from the basic structure and usability. One fundamental that strongly needs to be considered is the use of keyword rich keywords throughout the website both in the actual copy of the website and in the Meta data. The more relevant [...]

• 3 Things Needed to Keep Your Pages from Being Indexed by Search

  Lee Zoumas

  12 Nov 2009 | 8:32 am

  Sometimes you may have certain pages on your website that you do not want indexed by search engines. Just recently, we developed an online order form for a client that should not show up in search engines. To ensure that a page does not get indexed or crawled by search engines, it is important to [...]

• 
  SEO White Hats

• What is KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index)?

  seowhitehats

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:29 pm

  KEI is definitely a good metric to look at when doing keyword research, here is a quick definition: Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) attempts to characterize the value of a keyword based upon its popularity and the number of competing websites. Higher KEI values are “better” in that they represent more searches per website. Typically KEI is the the ratio of the square of the searches upon a particular keyword in a day divided by the number of websites that are listed for that keyword. For example, a keyword that has 100 searches a day and for which Google shows 5000 websites…

• 6 SEO Trends for 2009

  seowhitehats

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:04 pm

  Following the pace of change relating to search engine optimization — or SEO as it’s often called — can be dizzying. Here are 6 important SEO trends you should know about as we close out 2009. 1.) Increased SEO Awareness SEO used to be something akin to voodoo; the only people who understood it were the ones doing it. But now it seems everyone knows about SEO. As more small business owners become aware of what SEO is and why you should be doing it, competition should increase and put a premium on smart decision-making when it comes to doing SEO in-house or hiring a consultant. 2.)…

• Writing for Search Engines

  seowhitehats

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:36 am

  Much of the time when we take on a new client, one of our recommendations is that they íncrease the amount of unique, keyword-targeted, text content on their site. We generally recommend having at least 250 words of content per page, a number that continues to grow as the years go by. Ten years ago our minimum was 75 words. However, as competition on the Web becomes greater, the barrier to entry gets higher as well. Search engines are seeking even more expert content as a way to determine the most relevant sites for a particular keyword. Conversely, there is no maximum number of words you…

• Tracking the Success of Your Website – Google Analytics

  seowhitehats

  14 Nov 2009 | 2:30 am

  How successful is your website? Do you really know how well it is performing for your business? Many website owners make the mistake of thinking that the more traffíc they get to their website the better, and they work towards this end. It is better to focus efforts on bringing in targeted traffíc that will convert to sales or enquiries. To understand more correctly how well a website is performing, and who is visiting the website, a good website statistics package is required, as well as an understanding of the data these website reports produce. With many website hostíng packages free,…

• Why is Keyword Research Critical To SEO?

  seowhitehats

  13 Nov 2009 | 9:54 am

  Like a foundation for a building, there is one aspect of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that is more important than any other. Without this foundation, you may be wasting all your time and resources. Proper keyword research should be the basis of your optimization. Keyword research is the practice used by SEO professionals to find actual “search terms” people tend to enter into the search engines when conducting a search for a specific thing. Keyword research is a very vital procedure in SEO. It’s where search engine optimization starts. Keyword research determines which keywords you…

• 
  Natural Search & Mobile SEO Blog

• Free SEMPO Chicago Google Analytics Mixer November 4

  Bryson Meunier

  28 Oct 2009 | 9:26 am

  Wasn’t planning on having a Chicago SEO Meetup next month since Q4 is a bear for marketers in general, but I’m happy to announce that November’s Meetup will be a Google Analytics demonstration hosted by Google and SEMPO Chicago. Details and RSVP at the Chicago SEO Meetup site: http://www.meetup.com/chicago-seo/calendar/11732725/ Thanks to Bob Tripathi and SEMPO Chicago for inviting our members to participate! Great opportunity to peek under the hood of the new Google Analytics features.

• Google Finally Announces Mobile Analytics

  Bryson Meunier

  24 Oct 2009 | 11:52 am

  Nearly two years ago, Google Analytics was noticeably absent from my review of available mobile analytics packages. It was still possible to use Google Analytics to track smartphones, to some extent, but my unscientific test showed their solution wasn’t as accurate as mobile analytics packages that didn’t rely on JavaScript for tracking. Omniture and Coremetrics had since developed a mobile tracking solution, and the mobile analytics-only players that were developed in the absence of a prior mobile analytics solution for Google Analytics and other web analytics players had…

• Co-hosting Mobile Presence with Cindy Krum on Webmaster Radio

  Bryson Meunier

  21 Oct 2009 | 11:00 am

  It’s been my pleasure to be the new co-host of Mobile Presence on Webmaster Radio. I was actually a guest on the first program a while ago, and now host a weekly half-hour show with Cindy Krum where we discuss the latest happenings in mobile marketing and interview important mobile movers of the day. It airs every Wednesday at 1pm EST, so be sure to tune in and discover more about mobile! First show on Google Adsense for smartphones is available now as a free podcast on the Mobile Presence site. You can also become a fan of the show on its Facebook page.

• Google Adds Mobile Search Volume to New AdWords Keyword Tool

  Bryson Meunier

  25 Sep 2009 | 2:14 pm

  Have you tried the new beta keyword tool within AdWords yet? Kudos to Google for simplifying the process of finding mobile search volume, turning a four step process into two steps. Once you’ve accessed the beta keyword tool, select Mobile Search within the Advanced options to base your targeted monthly search volume on mobile searches in the country you specify. It would be nice to see what percent of search volume is mobile and what is desktop to highlight the keywords that will be most effective in mobile search, but this is definitely an improvement in what is currently the only…

• Hiring Entry-Level SEO in Chicago

  Bryson Meunier

  19 Sep 2009 | 10:31 am

  Great opportunity for smart people with limited experience in SEO to get in on the ground floor with a great company. Job description for a Resolution Media SEO Coordinator is below. Apply at the Omnicom jobs site if you’re interested. Job Description: Resolution Media (www.ResolutionMedia.com) is a leading Search Engine Marketing firm with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco and over 80 employees. With experience in Pay-Per-Click and Natural Search engine marketing & content optimization, Resolution Media connects clients� brand to their audience based…

• 
  SEO, Marketing Blog

• Paid Links and False ROI

  seanhecking

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:41 pm

  Found some interesting slides from SEOmoz that detail the pitfalls of buying links to improve your search engine rankings. The slides below suggest that buying links is a "quick fix" or instant gratification that can come back to haunt your site in time. It also recommends other tactics that will help you build your brand and gain natural links through SEO best practices. One of the most interesting charts is on slide #34, the cost of paid links over time. The graphic below suggests natural links offer the best ROI of any link building tactic. Paid links will continue to cost the site owner…

• Where did my PageRank Go?!

  seanhecking

  7 Nov 2009 | 8:27 am

  This week I stumbled upon an interesting forum thread on Google Webmaster Central. It appears that Google Webmaster Tools has removed the PageRank metric from their site reports. In the post, a Google employee provides details on why PageRank was removed from the tool:We've been telling people for a long time that they shouldn't focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it's the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they…

• Twitter and the Hype Cycle

  seanhecking

  25 Oct 2009 | 6:15 pm

  In early 2009, there was a lot of hype around micro blogging and platforms such as Twitter. The research group, Gartner, has produced a detailed report on where micro blogging falls in the hype cycle.Technologies tend to follow a cycle of adoption and Twitter is no different. While everyone in the media has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, many users have signed up only to leave their new accounts tweet-less. With a large number of people turned off by the technology, the hard core tweeters are still in full force. It's this core group that will see Twitter through the "trough".Now you will…

• What is Google Wave anyway?

  seanhecking

  2 Oct 2009 | 10:11 am

  With all the hype recently, I thought it would be good to get the word out about what Google Wave actually does and how it is helpful. Below is a simple video that helps explain Google Wave in plain English.(thanks to cmilburndesign)

• Brother can you spare a Google Wave invite?

  seanhecking

  1 Oct 2009 | 10:31 am

  A while back I posted about Google Wave, the new chat, video, sharing wiz-a-ma-jig from Google. I would like to provide a review but I am still waiting for an invite to this app and would appreciate anyone who has an invite to share. If you do, please email or DM me on Twitter. I would be happy to link to you or do a review on your product or company.

• 
  Level 343 Articles

• The Real Deal on Link Building

  Gabriella

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:46 pm

  Directory Submissions & Article Marketing Directory submissions and article marketing are touted as two of the top ways to develop a slew of links, raise your traffic and get those conversions. Many who pick up knowledge of SEO around the Net jump on directory submissions because it sounds like an easy form of SEO. It is, but [...]

• Social Media Marketing: Four Reasons to Join the Revolution

  Gabriella

  14 Oct 2009 | 5:00 am

  With television commercials validating the importance of online social media portals like Twitter and Facebook, the battle for domination in the social media marketing arena is leaving many feeling confused and dazed.  After all, as the language of the Tweet-osphere cuts communications to 140 characters or less, it also add a unique brand of instant [...]

• SEO Techniques: Does Any Optimizer Really Know What To Do?

  JRPittman

  6 Oct 2009 | 2:00 am

  Everybody knows that search engines no longer care about meta descriptions. Everybody knows that header tags don’t matter. Everybody knows that there has to be a 5.6% keyword density in written content. What else does everybody know? And who the heck is “Everybody”? Most people visiting this blog are looking for a “how-to”. They’re trying to [...]

• Social Media Marketing: Top Five Best Time Investments

  Gabriella

  1 Oct 2009 | 5:00 am

  The first rule of any good marketing campaign is “go where the people gather!”  Although this marketing strategy is certainly not an epiphany, the onset of the new frontier of marketing encompassing social media and networking has added confusing complexity to the old game of marketing.  With new social media networks virtually popping up on [...]

• Your Website Code May Not Be As Clean As You Think

  Gabriella

  22 Sep 2009 | 4:59 am

  True story: About two weeks ago, I came across a website that listed top SEO companies – well-known SEO companies at that. The website had used a site validator to see how clean the top SEOs’ site codes were. I stared in shock and then started gloating. Several of the top name SEO companies had more [...]

• 
  eVisibility Insider - Internet Marketing Blog

• The Weekly Insider 11-16-09 to 11-20-09

  Stephen Peron

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:50 pm

  This is what we found this week in the world of search engine marketing: Dennis Yu – Rise and Fall Of A Con Man In The Affiliate Industry The Disproportionate Value of Deep Links Page Load Time & Speed Will Likely Be a Ranking Factor in Google Is Google Caffeine At 216.239.59.103 Data Center? Strategies to Spend Money & Earn ROI from Link Campaigns (without “buying links”) 6 Ways Local Domains Crush Dot Coms In International SEO 21 Link Builders Share Advanced Link Building Queries Explore images with Google Image Swirl, now in Labs New site hierarchies display in…

• The Weekly Insider 11-9-09 to 11-13-09

  Stephen Peron

  13 Nov 2009 | 4:26 pm

  This is what we found this week in the world of search engine marketing: Murdoch: We’ll probably remove our sites from Google’s index London Escort Service Using Seductive Images in Google Maps Business Listings Expect Caffeine after the holidays Google Maps LBC Local Listing Ads: Additional Details & Interface Review Dink to Success Stay Connected with Free Airport Wi-Fi from Google this Holiday Season Google Caffeine Sandbox Complete, New Google Index Coming Google Caffeine Index Goes Live Right Before Holiday Shopping Season Link Building Has Changed My Million Dollar Mistake…

• The Weekly Insider 11-2-09 to 11-6-09

  Stephen Peron

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:28 pm

  This is what we found this week in the world of search engine marketing: Here’s How You Make the Most Money With $5 and 2 Hours How a Search Engine might Adjust Rankings based upon Patterns in Query and Click Logs Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Keynote SMX West – March 2-4, 2010 in Santa Clara, CA Refining Rankings - Click-Trough Rate as a Ranking New Google Maps Business Listing Guidelines – What’s Changed Jeremy Shoemaker (aka Shoemoney) Interview Google Adds “Page Preview” To Search Options Google Maps and PO Boxes – When can they be used? MSN Home Page Gets a Major Face Lift…

• The Weekly Insider Halloween Edition 2009!

  admin

  30 Oct 2009 | 1:11 pm

  We found this guy walking around our office this morning … This is what we found this week in the world of search engine marketing: Goodbye GeoCities: Yahoo Shuts Down GeoCities Today Google Webmaster Tools Showing Sub-Sitelinks Video: Demo of Google’s Social Search Project As if sloppy social media users ain’t bad enough … search engines support traffic theft GoogleVoice now allows use of an SMB’s primary phone number, is call tracking far behind? Google Voice with your existing number Best Practices for Verifying and Cleaning up a Compromised Site generate 18 quick and…

• The Weekly Insider 10-12-09 to 10-23-09

  admin

  23 Oct 2009 | 1:27 pm

  This is what we found in the last two weeks in the world of search engine marketing: Area Man Murders Palm Pre At Local Bar 4 Visual Charts on the Value of SEO Tactics No More TeleAtlas, Google Goes It Alone For Maps Data? Fetch as Googlebot and Malware details — now in Webmaster Tools Labs! News Alert: SEO is a Scam Winning the SEO Battle at Every Step of the Purchase Path Fetch As Googlebot Shows Only 100Kb But Real Googlebot Gets More One-stop shop: Buy Promoted Videos in AdWords Get Out Of Google Jail For $50, Web Site Captures Mug Shots Getting Indented Listings Google Trust Rank…

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  Jive From The Hive

• Legal Versus Social: 7 Steps To An Amicable Relationship

  Elizabeth Hannan

  25 Oct 2009 | 7:58 pm

  7 Steps to integrate your corporate legal department and an evolving social business model seamlessly.(This post is designed more for those deep in the corporate trenches, looking for guidance on how to plan out a new guidelines around social business practices policy).As social business communications become more prevalent in your marketing strategy, it should be expected that legal will also become more adamant about creating documents to lock down your companies brand message.Evolving integrations of social with current legal policies and communications can be difficult for many…

• How Do You Overcome Communication Obstacles?

  Elizabeth Hannan

  17 Oct 2009 | 12:36 pm

    Creating content that all of your network or community enjoys all of the time is nearly impossible. It is Fall and my favorite season of the year. Everything changes and abruptly. I'm taking advantage of this and I suggest you do as well. The way I communicate through specific mediums is changing. I usually communicate directly through twitter, text messages or through speaking gigs. Apparently, I do loose of connection points by not following through after the first touch point. Most often this happens after events and conferences. So in attempt to ignite new friendships and to…

• Re-Evaluating Your Strengths and Goals in Eleven Steps

  Elizabeth Hannan

  29 Sep 2009 | 3:54 pm

  Updating my Blog In the past month I've been terribly absent from my blog and my writing passion in general. Not for lack of love of my readers I needed to step back and address my own life goals and priorities and where I want to go. Thank you for all the emails I am still here:) I was just getting stuck on the small stuff and reevaluating how I can be better to my community and grow my own personal Business Blue Blazing Media. I stepped back and sought feedback from my inner circle of friends. I had lost my focus. After reading a significant post By @PamSlim I realized fall is just a time…

• Affiliate Summit East 09 NYC

  Elizabeth Hannan

  18 Aug 2009 | 7:00 am

     Affiliate Summit East 2009 My adventures at affiliate summit have been vast. I set out at any conference with set goals. To maximize my time and to grow my networks. This was primarily done in the blogger lounge. To meet influential individuals that have the potential to be game changers. Listening to the pros and perils of other people's experiences. Communicate with other like minded individuals and to discuss what processes are working and what processes are not working. To quantify and calculate my time and actions online and find algorithms in online success. Why Go? I…

• Digging Into the New "Trust Agents" Book

  Elizabeth Hannan

  17 Aug 2009 | 12:36 am

                                                                   I just received my copy of "Trust Agents" authored by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith last night. I am excited to dive into it. So far, I'm about 1/3 of the way through it and overwhelmed with just how applicable the content is across a variety of industries. With every page I read it inspires new thoughts of how trust is actually very visual in everyday business life.

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  Outspoken Media, Inc.

• If It’s Wet, Sticky & Not Yours…Ask

  Lisa Barone

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:43 am

  I don’t know how it works for boys, but if you’re an overly-ambitious female, you’re taught from an early age that it’s a lot easier to beg for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. It’s a small morsel shared with a knowing twinkle that gives young girls a license to be horrible. And I won’t lie – when it was shared with me, I ran with it. It made sense. If I actually ASKED to be allowed to do something, then I gave the other party a chance to say no. If I just did it and they got mad, well, that’s why God gave me dimples. That line of thought, though, does not work if…

• Why Twitter’s New Retweet Feature Sucks

  Lisa Barone

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:47 am

  Let’s play a game. On board? Pretend PubCon never ended (man up, liver!). You’re still in Vegas. You’re having fun. You’re dancing. You’re partaking in some adult beverages. It’s 5 in the morning when you finally decide to stumble back to your hotel room to pass out. Groggy, with a headache, you wake up the next morning feeling content and still gigging in your head about all the fun you had last night. Until you turn over. AND THERE’S A STRANGER IN YOUR BED! Someone you’ve NEVER SEEN before. What the hell happened last night? CONTROL Z! Crap! It’s jarring. To suddenly see…

• How To Get Your Content Shared Online

  Lisa Barone

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:47 am

  During his presentation at PubCon, Tony Wright shared a quote that really stuck with me. In my liveblogging craze, I have no idea where the quote originally came from (forgive me. Do share, if you know), but here it is: “If I tell my Facebook friends about your brand, it’s because I like my friends – not because I like your brand.” No. Read that again. But take it in his time. People don’t care about you. They care about helping themselves and their network. Come to terms with that. A lot of businesses are under the assumption that people share their content because of how…

• Does Your CEO Know What You’re Doing? Does Everyone?

  Lisa Barone

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:50 am

  Just call me Obama. You just looked over your shoulder and had a mini panic attack, didn’t you? It’s okay. Your secret’s safe with me. Back to your cubicle porn. But really, does your CEO know what you’re doing in social media? What about the rest of the organization? Do they get it or would they look at me funny if I was to ask them about the company Twitter account? If they would, you may have a problem. In fact, you most definitely do. There’s been a lot of buzz this morning over the news that Barack Obama has never used his Twitter account. Despite his being heralded the Social…

• Pubcon Smackdown Session

  Lisa Barone

  12 Nov 2009 | 5:36 pm

  It’s the last session of Pubcon. I have absolutely no idea what to expect here. I just know that they’re playing some old school Billy Joel and that makes me very happy. Very, very happy. Matt Cutts is up on stage. Nathan Buggia is listed as being the Bing dude…but that’s not Nathan on stage. We’ll see if I can get a name.  It’s kind of a lame “smackdown” when you just have two people up on stage, isn’t it?   The other guy is Sean Suchter. Hey Sean. I wish we had more search engines. Someone create an engine that doesn’t suck.

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  Search Engine People

• Ruud Questions: Glen Allsopp aka ViperChill

  Ruud Hein

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:56 am

  I had been following Glen’s blog when it “suddenly” became awefully quiet. Then it appeared I was still following him but on another blog, one where I should have known or remembered that this was his site but well, you know how the mind operates sometimes, don’t you? Recently he popped back up on not just mine but everybody’s radar; Glen is well liked all around. This series of Q&A's started when the economic situation was worse than it is now. Making money online seems like *the* answer for a lot of people who no doubt have it really hard at the moment. You're the…

• Google Analytics Filter Best Practices

  Helen Overland

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:01 am

  This is the third post in a 3 part series on Google Analytics setup Best Practices. Google Analytics is something we sometimes take for granted, but in reality sometimes accounts with years of data have to be abandoned simply because they were not set up properly. Hopefully this series will help people understand some of the best practices for setting up Google Analytics. Once you have your accounts, profiles, and user access accounts set up for your Google Analytics account, it's time to look at creating filters. Filters are actually a really powerful tool which you can use to…

• Keyword Research: A Proven System

  Garrett Pierson

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

  This process on Keyword Research I am about to teach is one of many that I will be sharing with you on systems that I use in my daily business for myself, clients, and students. It is a proven system that I use that is simple, free, and powerful. Oh, did I mention it is Free? Keyword research is by far the most misunderstood, misused, and unappreciated process in Search Engine Optimization and marketing in general. Misunderstood! So why do we miss the boat on keyword research? It is because we do not understand why we are doing it, or how it should be done. When I say misunderstood, I am…

• Spending Time On Your Website

  Barry Welford

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:32 am

  Spending Time On Your Website perhaps brought to mind a possible visit to check out some of your favourite web pages.  However the phrase has a much more important sense that could well be a call to action.  Time is a critical element for us all.  We usually do not have enough of it and sometimes we may reflect on how best we can use the time we have.  In that sense, the title is all about how we should invest that critical resource, time, in our website.  Unless your website is a vanity site with no clear objectives, there are always actions that can help in…

• Link Mining for Backlink Gems

  Melanie Nathan

  16 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  In case you missed it, there was a great post about mining GeoCities backlinks recently. It basically pointed out that, with the closure of all GeoCities sites, there were now some sweet backlinks up for grabs for those that were willing to put in the work and ‘mine’ the links for suitable prospects. I completely agree and encourage you to do so. The fun doesn't have to stop there though Link Mining via Discontinued Pages Whenever I come across a site or page (related to my industry) that for whatever reason has been permanently discontinued but not redirected anywhere, the link…

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  New Media SEO Blog

• SEOtool selected as a DEMO Showcase Finalist at Internet Summit 2009!

  Scott

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:44 am

  We’re proud to announce that our proprietary technology, SEO tool, has been selected as a DEMO Showcase finalist for the Internet Summit event. Here’s the official release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/triangle-direct-medias-seotool-selected-to-present-at-internet-summit-2009-demo-showcase-68850962.html. If your company has a focus on improving its search engine optimization, then you should speak with us about SEOtool and the unmatched intelligence and SEO metrics it can uncover for your website(s).  We’re biased, but we strongly believe there is not a single…

• Social Media - The Explosion - Need Any More Evidence For Your Boss?

  Scott

  19 Aug 2009 | 10:33 am

  If you’ve not seen the video from Socialnomics yet, titled “Social Media Revolution”, then you need to carve out 5 minutes to watch and enjoy!  If you or your team are trying to get buy-in & more budget, from upper management, for social media content marketing, please share the below video.  You can also speak with a New Media Account Executive here at TDM to learn more about solutions, strategies and ways to greatly leverage the power of social media and search optimization.

• How Consumers Shop Online - Study Highlights

  Scott

  13 Aug 2009 | 11:06 am

  Channel Advisor just released its bi-annual study titled “How Consumers Shop Online”.  As an industry leader in shopping comparison engines & product feeds, CA knows a thing or two about consumer shopping trends for the advertiser’s they serve.  The study comprised 850+ individuals in nearly 30 states, ages 18-65 years old.  To access the full report, click here. Here are some key takeaways for online retailers to strongly consider as they plan for the Holiday Shopping season and into the future: “81 percent of consumers begin their product searches with Google…

• Study claims PPC brings more buyers than SEO — What’s Missing?

  Scott

  13 Aug 2009 | 6:57 am

  A recent study by PPC management firm EngineReady presents alot of great data for retailers to consider regarding order sizes, conversions & other purchase metrics important to eCommerce.  The study was summarized by InternetRetailer, which can be found here. The problem with this study, as many studies & surveys in the online marketing industry, is that it is SKEWED to the target audience.  Below are some reasons why the study is wrong in its claim that PPC is more likely to bring buyers than SEO. Key findings from the study included: The conversion rate from paid search is 2.03%…

• Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Finally Becomes Reality

  Scott

  29 Jul 2009 | 9:26 am

  Microsoft & Yahoo have announced a 10-year partnership to take on Google and its search engine market share dominance.  For those companies keenly interested in successes in organic search, this announcement states that Bing’s search engine will power results for Yahoo Sites.  How is your website ranking in Bing for your most important keywords, themes & topics?  It’s about to be reflected in Yahoo.com organic listings, so plan accordingly! While Google is still king of the mountain in terms of search engine market share (65%), one can reasonably conclude that…

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  Local Search Simplified by Shagun Vatsa

• Local Search Interview With David Mihm

  Shagun Vatsa

  3 Nov 2009 | 5:25 am

  In light of the new changes that Google has introduced to its local platform, I thought it would be a great idea to get feedback from some of the local SEO gurus on what they think the ramifications are of these enhancements. These interviews will detail their views opinions about the local sphere and also give us an opportunity to get to know them  a little more personally. I chose to kick things things off with interviewing David Mihm. David is one of the leading industry experts in the field of local search today. Innovator of the annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey and a regular…

• Google’s Recent Changes to its Local Algorithm

  Shagun Vatsa

  29 Sep 2009 | 9:10 pm

  Google has recently rolled out a series of changes to its local algorithm which have the local SEO community on their toes and have caused many business owners to voice their concerns through frustrated and angry threads on the Google Maps Help Forum. These recent algorithmic updates include: Category customization & spamming penalties Google One Box gains authority over the 3 & 10 pack Introduction of Google Place pages Sudden drop in local rankings of business listings Let’s take a closer look at some of these concerns: Custom Category Penalization Google is now penalizing…

• Canadian Guide to Local Citations - Updated

  Shagun Vatsa

  20 Jul 2009 | 8:15 pm

  This concept was initially started by our very own Toronto Local SEO expert, Dev Basu. David Mihm recently added to this list and I aim to contribute further and make the list of Canadian Local Citation Sources more complete. I cannot stress how important it is for SMB’s and SME’s to undertand and respond to the increasing local intent of searches online. In addition to being represented in the maps, it is imperative to submit your business to these local search engines which allow you to engage with your community, build social capital and eventually enhance your local…

• YouTube Gets The Wonder Wheel

  Shagun Vatsa

  19 Jun 2009 | 7:56 pm

  Attending the video search panel last week at the SES Toronto gave me a great insight into the evolution of search and how optimizing for video search is gaining momentum against the good old organic SEO. With statistics showing that Youtube is now the second largest search engine and Canada is the global leader in online video watching (ComScore),  enhancing the search capabilities of online video viewers is a must! YouTube has done exactly that with the introduction of its own Wonder Wheel. Wonder Wheel was first introduced by Google amongst its many other search options in early May. The…

• SES Toronto 2009 Day 1 Recap

  Shagun Vatsa

  8 Jun 2009 | 8:08 pm

  Attending my very first Search Engine Strategies Conference here in the heart of downtown Toronto was a unique experience. Despite being an early Monday morning, Day 1 was packed with sessions covering a wide array of search marketing topics. The Expo Hall was busy all day, making it a great opportunity and venue for networking and re-connecting with old friends. I must say, the Bing Booth did attract a lot of attention! The combination of valuable informational sessions and conversational discussion panels made my overall learning experience worthwhile. Here is a quick summary of the key…

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  Web Traffic Pro

• Free Traffic At Your Disposal

  admin

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:22 am

  With the enormous rise in the use of the Internet as a virtual shop to obtain any thinkable product or service , the number of sites catering for these needs have also risen dramatically . The success of any website depends on its web traffic. Sites that do not get traffic cannot conduct business or rise in the popularity stakes. The secret of attracting visitors and consequently traffic to the site is the single most important factor that makes a site popular. Free traffic is financially rewarding, no doubt about it. Get any market domination with 85% CTR without Google Adwords augment free…

• Three Easy Methods To Increase Traffic

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:17 am

  Regardless if you are an experienced marketer or a marketing newbie there are 2 constants that every online marketer focuses on, in the industry today. These two main components are (1) getting targeted traffic to your website and as much of it as possible, & (2) converting that huge quantity of targeted traffic in to sustainable customers of your product or affiliate offer. When I say sustainable buyers I mean buyers that are satisfied and do not ask for refunds. But prior to you can even look at on conversion you have to concentrate on getting targeted traffic to your site. I will…

• Consider Paid Linking Services To Enhance Search Engine Rankings

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:45 am

  The Internet is all about getting the correct information into the correct hands in the most proficient fashion. If you own a website, then you believe that what you have to offer is significant enough for others to read. Backlinks are a expedient way to increase targeted traffic to your site and boost your search engine ranking. You can go through the more accepted methods of creating backlinks. Social networking, social bookmarking, blogging and other tools take time to become established. If you are looking to get additional traffic straight away, then you may possibly want to look into…

• Online Businesses Need Web Traffic To Turn A Profit.In General, The More The Better.

  admin

  14 Nov 2009 | 12:30 am

  However, as a marketer, that isn’t the case.Marketers must have targeted web traffic and to earn full from it, they need to know where it is coming from. If you are unaware of where your web traffic comes from, then you do not know which traffic generation methods are effective. There are few marketers who make any effort to monitor their visitors. Anyone who pays for advertising and is not tracking their visitors are not getting the best return on investment! You have to recognize which adverts are generating income and which are not. You can then increase your income by doing more of…

• $0.01 Traffic

  admin

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:30 am

  Learn Cell Phone Marketing from Mack who makes $350,000+ from his cell phone. Discover StomperNet. Know these Email Tricks that doubles sales! How was your week? I’ve just been given a sneak peek into a super underground marketing method. The craziest part is that you can literally get targeted visitors for less then ONE CENT! It doesn’t involve the ‘usual suspects’… - Blogging - Social media - Pay per Click Marketing - Article Marketing But yet works better than all of the above…Imagine how much money you could potentially make buying clicks for $0.01 that…

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  Link Building Best Practices

• PubCon 2009 Las Vegas – A Guide To Competitive Analysis

  Chris von Nieda

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:15 am

  One of the best sessions I attended during PubCon 2009 in Las Vegas was one about Competitive Analysis. In SEO and Internet Marketing, competitive analysis is most often used to try to discover how a more successful competitor is out ranking your business or website online.  Many times by performing comprehensive competitive analysis you will find [...] Related posts:Pubcon Las Vegas Day 3: Session WrapupPubcon Las Vegas Day 2: Social Media SessionsPubcon Las Vegas Day 1: Twitter Sessions

• Join Our Webinar! “SEO & Link Building Strategies for 2010″

  Kaila S.

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:45 am

  If you haven’t started planning for 2010 you should start, it’s right around the corner! Planning for next years internet marketing and search engine optimization early will allow you to get a head start on what should be a great year for online businesses if executed properly. Mark your calendars now and join us for [...] Related posts:Webinar: How Social Media Builds Inbound Links and High Search RankingsWebinar: How Social Media Builds Inbound Links and High Search RankingsEnhanced Link Building Services: Link Building Just Got a Whole Lot Better

• This One Time, at WordCamp…

  Ralphm

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  As a supporter of the open source initiative and GPL, I was happy to get to attend Phoenix WordCamp 2009! If you’re not sure what WordCamp is all about, just imagine 500 nerds getting together under a giant white tent, having conversations, collaborating, and spreading their love for WordPress.  If that’s not a clear enough [...] Related posts:Vertical Measures Website Move, Update & Blog Integration (part 3 of 4)

• “Boost Your Juice 2″ Contest Winners Announced!

  Kaila S.

  13 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

  We’re proud to announce the winners of our "Boost Your Juice 2" Contest, which set out to give health and/or wellness websites an opportunity to win $5,000 in internet marketing services. Not only that, but a second place winner had the chance to win $1,000 in internet marketing services too! We’re so happy to have [...] Related posts:Boost Your Juice Winners AnnouncedBoost Your Juice Socialize Prize Winners Announced“Boost Your Juice” Contest Finalists Announced

• Pubcon Las Vegas Day 3: Session Wrapup

  Kaila S.

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:17 am

  What a great week it has been here in Las Vegas, but I have to admit I am ready to head home. Late nights, early mornings, too many vodka cranberries, and way too much money spent on those darn slot machines have me aching for Phoenix! The sessions I attended on Day 3 focused a lot [...] Related posts:Pubcon Las Vegas Day 1: Twitter SessionsPubcon Las Vegas Day 2: Social Media SessionsPubCon 2009 Las Vegas – A Guide To Competitive Analysis

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  Increase Traffic and Rank Using SEO

• The Truth About In-House SEO - It is a ‘Secret Weapon’

  SEO Company Geek

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:06 am

  Search engine optimization (SEO) has really taken corporate Canada by surprise or a better way of putting it would be bewilderment.   Most decision makers in this country know that SEO is important but are not sure exactly what it is and how it can ultimately effect the bottom line of their companies.  Because of this uncertainty Canada still lags behind the USA and the UK in terms of utilizing SEO to drive quality visitors to their websites and grow their business . The secret that many large companies in the UK and the USA already know and that the more progressive Canadian companies are…

• Google Throws Around $750 Million in Pocket Change

  SEO Company Geek

  9 Nov 2009 | 12:21 pm

  When a company is as rich as Google they don’t really have to worry about the competition, they just buy them up. Google has officially announced that it is taking mobile display advertising provider in exchange for $750 million. This deal helps create Google’s mobile ad platform as AdMob’s mobile display joins Google Mobile search ads and SMS. The following is the joint statement by both companies: “Mobile advertising has enormous potential as a marketing medium and while this industry is still in the early stages of development, AdMob has already made exceptional progress in a…

• Google to Offer Free SEO?

  SEO Company Geek

  5 Nov 2009 | 7:22 am

  There is a long standing rumor that Google wishes to ‘take over the world’ - now that might not be exactly true but they sure as heck got their fingers in a lot of different pies!  While the title is a bit ‘tongue-in-cheek’ at the moment, it might just be the future? While this post is not directly related to SEO, it does give a glimpse into where Google is headed and what type of power they wield.  How long till Google offers free SEO advice or automated SEO advice? The turn-by-turn GPS market is huge and you just have to take a look at the juicy prices Garmin and…

• Google Page Rank to go Poof!?

  SEO Company Geek

  15 Oct 2009 | 10:51 am

  Many SEO’s and Google themselves have been preaching the relative un-importance of visual page rank for ages….now it appears Google is finally ready to put its words into action - they have removed Google page rank from being reported in Google Webmaster Tools and here is the official explanation: Susan Moskwa from the Google Webmaster Central team explained it was removed because Google keeps telling webmasters “that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much.” They felt it was “silly” to keep telling webmasters that, and at the same time show it in Webmaster Tools. So…

• Made for Adsense Sites Hit?

  SEO Company Geek

  8 Oct 2009 | 12:06 pm

  It seems MFA sites have been hit with low quality scores and are being warned/banned by the truckload!!  This is great news for ‘real’ adwords users because now the bids won’t be artificially pumped up with the estimated 10-15 million MFA sites rotting the web. Here are some excerpts from a thread over at Webmaster World: “they are still at it.. got a few campaigns hit by 1/10 QS.. Ads that have been running for last 2 years with no change in ‘domain’ or anything.. They just decided overnight that they are low quality..” “Our affiliate/partner…

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  Seo Tips

• Do follow blogs

  A new search engine has borned. Its made for only do follow blogs and is very easy to use. We all know that dofollow blogs are a good way to post comments with links to transfer Page Rank and the most used tool to find this blogs are directory's for do ...

• Do follow blogs search engine

  The reason for "the unupdated blog" in the last time was the fact that I spent all my time in building a do follow blogs search engine. Its not finished yet, but is all most done.Its a new tool for seo purposes, for those of you who want to find dofollow ...

• How to not start link building for a site - mistakes in seo

  All market is full with lots of tools that promise top 10 positions in Google,100000 backlinks in seconds and other cracks. I will give you a list of things to NOT to do in a link building strategie. 1) Do not submit your site to more than 50 directories in a month.This ...

• SEO friendly urls after submiting a form

  What means that? It means that in a form whit GET method, when you submit, you will be redirected to a new page with "?example=variable" added to the URL. Think if your users will search on your site some data and wish to place the link with the searched results on blogs,forum ...

• Dofollow blogs lists give the backlinks you need

  This days Ive tested my own spider for dofollow blogs post, in order to get links with PR were I can place a comment with a link in it.So I came to conclusion that I have to spent a lot of time to place comments ,well written and I had ...

• 
  SEO Unique

• HTML Sitemaps Help Increase SEO Rankings

  admin

  26 Oct 2009 | 9:38 am

  Sitemaps are an aspect of web design that has been around from the very beginning. The ideology is simple; create an accessible area of the website whereby users can navigate to any one area of your site architecture easily. A lot of web designers see these pages in the same way a builder would see four walls, a floor and a roof – they are part of the infrastructure and should not be ignored. While this is sound advice the reason and benefits for SEO may not be so transparent. A sitemap can be a very powerful platform for SEO and I mean VERY powerful and yet it is so simple and often…

• 5 Link Building Tips for The UK

  Matt Ridout

  10 Sep 2009 | 2:59 am

  Ok guys, I have been link building for many years now but don’t always get the chance to practice the art as much as I’d like to, mainly due to my more strategic based role at my current job. Call me crazy but I do actually enjoy link building and I think you have to if you’re involved in the job, it’s a buzz to setup quality links for a client at absolutely no cost then watching the impact these links have on the rankings. So the reason for my post is to share with you my observations from a recent batch of link building I completed. Most of you will probably already know what’s…

• How using twitter could harm your brand

  Matt Ridout

  4 Aug 2009 | 8:07 am

  Those of you may or may not have seen many references to random words such as “MoonFruit” and Mpora on twitter over the last few months. Let me just explain to those of you who are not so up-to-date with these seemingly meaningless phrases what exactly they are all about. Since twitter has been snowballing in popularity more brands are quickly diving into the “twitter barrel” in hope for some kind of brand value to pour out. Lots of businesses are “doing twitter” just because someone sitting in a nice empty office at a top of a tall building says” it’s what everyone else is…

• Vince Update Hits UK – Brand Update Phase 2

  admin

  6 Jul 2009 | 5:59 am

  Back in February 2009 when the original Google brand update or “Vince update” hit the US there was a lot of talk regarding why this had happened and how long the results would last. In the UK the original update was not a heavily influence in rankings although a few new sites made an appearance in the top 10, these sites would be considered “big brands”. Now after a month or two of this activity all things seemed to return to normal and these big brands returned to the lower depths from where they had risen. However around the beginning of June 2009 the results in one particular high…

• Anchor Text Optimization 101

  admin

  3 Jul 2009 | 6:50 am

  Ok, I thought I’d go back to basics for some beginner SEO’s and those who take an interest in the subject. Anchor text is the name given to the text of a link or a link description, for example in the link SEO Blog, the anchor text is “SEO Blog”. The anchor text on any website is completely editable and can provide some great SEO value from inside a website and from external websites as well. Essentially the best practice to use in any situation is to provide the most accurate description of what the link destination is as possible. Use the image below as guidance, so for example…

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  SEO Design Solutions

• SEO Tips for Creating a Strategic Game Plan

  Jeffrey Smith

  22 Nov 2009 | 5:38 am

  Websites do not optimize themselves; they need SEO, a game plan and tactful execution to overcome savvy competitor’s intent on ranking in the top 3 results for any respective profit-bearing keyword. SEO Tips to Develop a Tactical Game Plan As a result, it boils down to which site has (a) the most authority (b) the most relevant content (c) the most relevant on page SEO signals and (d) the most popular off page inbound links. The underlying multifaceted metrics of information retrieval remain the same for websites regardless of industry or topic; however, the only distinguishing metrics that…

• Search Engine Alternatives: Using Visual, Video and Image Search

  Jeffrey Smith

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:23 am

  When you think about the rate in which content is being created, imitated and shared online daily, the fact is each person has their own preferred method for assimilating information. There are more ways to search than one.. We all know about the top 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) and how SEO is important, but what about other ways to quickly and conveniently find what you’re looking for on the web? There are more ways to search than one… Take for instance the, some people are visual and peruse e-stores surfing through model after model of all manor or shoes, gadgets,…

• SEO Ultimate WordPress SEO Plugin Version 1.3 Released

  John Lamansky

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:58 am

  The revolutionary WordPress SEO plugin from SEO Design Solutions has just been upgraded yet again, this time with a new module that lets you fine-tune the anchor text of a class of links that point to your posts. SEO Ultimate All In One SEO Plugin Version 1.3 Released! You may be familiar with WordPress’s ability to insert a “more” link, which is useful for posts with long content. The problem is that, on a default WordPress installation, this “more link” always has the same anchor text (e.g. “Read more of this entry »”). SEO experts know that…

• 5 SEO Tips to Avoid Common SEO Mistakes

  Jeffrey Smith

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:19 am

  So you’ve heard it several times before…what good is SEO and website traffic if it doesn’t convert. No matter what your conversion objective is (request free quote, buy a product, provide customer information, etc), if a site visitor is not engaged it will not matter how much traffic a site receives. Here are 5 SEO Tips to avoid common SEO mistakes. Basic SEO Solutions for Common SEO Mistakes These 5 simple SEO solutions for common SEO mistakes can save you time to market and countless hours of frustration trying to reverse engineer competitors, simple keywords or rankings. 1- Don’t…

• Will Caffeinated Results from Google Stir Up Search Results?

  Jeffrey Smith

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:50 pm

  When the talk of Google Caffeine hit the street a few months back in August of 2009, SEO’s panicked thinking they had to retool their optimization methods to encompass the new paradigm. Google Caffeine is Live! Well, here is in November and according to the tip off from Russell Wright and Sue Bell at Themezoom.com, the caught the first roll-out of the Google Caffeine search results in Google’s main data center earlier today… What does this mean to you? Depending on which metrics you have been focusing on in your SEO, link building and content creation methodologies, it means…

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  High Search Ranking

• Utilize Facebook Pages For Maximum Branding

  Dorothy

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:14 am

  Look around your favorite online hangouts these days, and you might see a common theme. No matter where you go for news, amusement, or online shopping, somebody appeals to you to join their Facebook following. As Facebook has fast become the most popular social networking among people over 30, businesses know it is a prime forum for marketing products and services. Everything from pet supplies to coastal resorts, restaurant chains to car manufacturers is on Facebook, working to get social with clients and customers. Here are some important statistics on Facebook: Facebook has more than 300…

• Social Media Use For Business - Focus Or Cover the Spread?

  Dorothy

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:46 am

  Recently the question came up from a client about the usefulness of Twitter beyond posting updates to thin air. When one sets up a Twitter account, it’s no surprise that businesses may follow an arbitrary number of people in hopes of receiving a courtesy follow back so somebody may view their messages. Add to this the fact that Twitter update and profile URLs are difficult to bring up in search results (not as easy as calling up fan pages on Facebook), and one might wonder…why bother using social media at all? Pundits and experts may argue the fad factor in social media rates high…

• Growing Your Social Media Network

  Dorothy

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:51 am

  It’s not enough to set up a fan page on Facebook or a Twitter account and expect people to follow you in mass numbers. Granted, if you enjoy a strong following via a company blog or existing portfolio Web site, there’s a good chance visitors will migrate to your social networks for updates and interaction. You can place buttons on your main site, and post and tweet to your heart’s content to build your following, but what happens when you plateau and can’t quite reach a friendship goal? Word of mouth is the strongest marketing tool out there, and often one has to mouth…

• Using Twitter Lists to Your Site’s Advantage

  Dorothy

  11 Nov 2009 | 8:24 am

  It seems the buzz on Twitter’s application of Twitter Lists is gaining momentum among the more prolific Tweeters. Just as the eager website owner checks his analytics several times daily to see how many people are visiting his site, so people are surely checking their Twitter dashboards to see how many other users have added them to a list. If the lists are categorized as professionals in one realm or another, all the better for you. It means somebody has recognized you and your posts for what they are - informative and relevant to the topics and products you advertise. This begs the…

• Bing continues to grow, making it more important for SEO

  kathryn

  2 Oct 2009 | 11:47 am

  It appears that Microsoft continues to make a case for companies to factor Bing into their search engine optimization (SEO) strategy after the company saw its search engine market share in the U.S. increase in August. According to comScore, Microsoft sites saw their share of searches increase 0.4 percentage points to 9.3 percent in August. Meanwhile, Google saw its share of the market dip slightly with a 0.1 point drop to 64.6 percent. Read more from Brafton.com. Do you want your site to be found at the top of Bing search results. High Search Ranking, a division of CINIVA Systems, can help…

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  Search Engine War

• SEO Industry Trends of 2009

  MarkeD

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:20 am

  This may be a bit early but I was asked to write something of this nature for a client and thought it worth sharing with you all.  I think the most significant trend of 2009 is the rise of Twitter, demonstrated by how I compiled this post - I didn't do endless Google searches, I asked leading SEO industry people on Twitter what they thought should be included.  Many thanks to them, you should all follow them as they are ace: @neyne @BenjaminHook @IngoGuava @peteyoung @jonaths @phillmidwinter @guavarian @dorksterdave SEO Highlights for 2009Vince:Vince was an update in Google…

• Search is Dead, Long Live Search

  Teddie

  2 Oct 2009 | 7:58 am

  source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chinwagcom/3966681689/in/set-72157622483452494/This week I was fortunate enough to speak on the panel at Chinwag.coms "Search is Dead, Long Live Search" event in SOHO. The turn out was pretty good, and the discussion surprisingly broad, why? Because whether you like it or not, search is getting more and more important due to the ever vast amount of information being created online. 20hrs of videos uploaded to YouTube every minute 4,500,000,000+ Tweets. 377 tweets per second Five exabytes of new information - roughly five billion gigabytes - was…

• Twitter or Bitter? which are you?

  Lucy Cokes

  21 Sep 2009 | 7:12 am

  Overhyped and overblown, or the next paradigm shift in communications? Distracting marketers from the stuff they should be doing, or rightly, the most important thing on their radar. Since the funky micro-blogging tool went mainstream, Twittermania has rocked our worlds: from Jonathan Ross to the Daily Mail you can’t escape small blue birds and big blue whales. Tonight leading industry figures argue the pros and cons, highs and lows, loves and hates of sending 140 characters to the rest of the world. Twits or tweets? You decide.Guavarian Matt Whelan will be on the panel taking part in the…

• 
  Bill Sebald's SEO Blog

• How do I know what kind of SEO I need for my website?

  Bill Sebald

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:32 am

  Before we tackle this one, let’s set the scene for a second. I don’t think a lot of business folk realize there are different kinds of SEOs.  SEO is a household name today (especially in business) but since its inception SEO has gone through several different iterations. In the early days an SEO was more of a designer/developer type, and focused on crawlability issues. Later the SEO started focusing on improving findability – that is, how well do you spotlight content on your website for search engine spiders. Finally, SEO became a web marketing channel that works with…

• Tools To Help Learn From Competition

  Bill Sebald

  9 Oct 2009 | 11:18 am

  Let’s imagine you’re asked to review a website and provide either a technical audit or a content audit.  If you’re doing it for a business, you’re surely expected to understand a bit about the competition and what they’re doing correctly.  How can you provide this information?  How can you leverage this information?  So, as an SEO, you have two choices.  Run in unarmed and guess like hell, or arm yourself with the right tools. Granted, it’s a big SEO world out there.  Finding the right SEO tools is a little daunting.  I personally discover new tools…

• SEO Is Like NASCAR?

  Bill Sebald

  3 Jun 2009 | 11:52 am

  Last week I had a great chat with a few SEO peers about communicating.  SEOs, like other niche professionals, usually speak a unique language. Where some developers (for example) usually have a client facing filter, SEOs often have to speak to business folk directly.  That means an SEO needs to practice communication.  Yes, practice! A good, ethical SEO knows that nothing in this space is an absolute guarantee – no more than a lawyer can guarantee a win in court. But a good business person is bred to get as close to a "sure thing" as possible. For this reason, SEO can still…

• Quick Review of Bing

  Bill Sebald

  2 Jun 2009 | 8:13 am

  Behold.  Bing is alive.  Bing is Microsoft’s newest search engine (codename Kumo), replacing Live Search (Live.com redirects, and the search box at msn.com is now a Bing box).  Microsoft is putting a big $80 million into branding this; probably a reaction to some of their previous branding/rebranding failures.  But if this is more of the same, it’s not going to beat Google despite all of the branding.  Sure it can raise market share and improve ad revenue, but this needs to be a special search engine targeting a big “type” of searcher. So is it?  Not really. First off, the…

• Need a New Keyword Research Trick?

  Bill Sebald

  12 May 2009 | 3:01 pm

  Here’s one I use involving a Google engine operator.  I passed this over to DailySEOTip - Use Google’s Brain To Find Keywords I highly recommend this blog.  Ann Smarty is one of my favorite bloggers and has an amazing amount of knowledge in SEO.  It’s amazing, really. Post from: Bill Sebald's Greenlane SEO 2.0 Blog Need a New Keyword Research Trick?

• 
  Jason Bartholme's SEO Blog

• Web Development is Just Cut and Paste

  Jason Bartholme

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am

  No, this isn’t my opinion, but it is the opinion of some figures of authority that believe what a web developer does is simply cut and pasting content from a Word document. Here are some things that company-level web developer knows that the average person may not be aware of. Cross Browser Compatibility Web developers know that just because something looks pixel perfect in one browser may look like a train wreck in another. Fixing these quirks usually involves fine tuning the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) so that all the required browsers see what is needed for the site to display…

• Bacon Sushi

  Jason Bartholme

  12 Aug 2009 | 8:23 pm

  So, I got this “build your own sushi” package last week and decided to combine the best of both worlds. I give the you… Bacon Sushi. The package I bought was Annie Chun’s Rice Express Sushi Wraps Sticky White Rice. The kit came with a bowl of microwavable rice, package of nori(seaweed wraps), and a packet of soy sauce. All I had to do was nuke the rice for about a minute, and fill the seaweed wraps with whatever. The rice was really sticky, so I was able to form the bacon sushi rather easily. You can see in the picture, I added a bit of sharp cheddar cheese to a few.

• 11 Free Apps to Get for Your Blackberry Storm

  Jason Bartholme

  1 Jul 2009 | 6:00 am

  Last week, I picked up the Blackberry Storm (9530) because my contract was up and I wanted to be more connected with clients and friends when I wasn’t sitting at a laptop or computer. Once I got the Storm, I started looking around for mobile versions and applications of services and features I regularly use. I have downloaded over 30 applications, but have since become removed all but a select few. Here are 11 free apps to help you expand the capabilities of the BlackBerry Storm. BlackBerry’s App World App World is BlackBerry’s answer to the iPhone’s App Store.

• 21 Twitter Directories and Follower Finders to Expand Your Twittersphere

  Jason Bartholme

  20 May 2009 | 12:31 pm

  New to Twitter and looking to expand your Twittersphere? Even if you are a seasoned tweeter, then you need to be added to these directories so others may find you. These active directories are all different ways of associating people with similar interests or geography using the developer-friendly Twitter API. Directories WeFollow Created by Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.com. A nice clean directory that associates Twitter users by self-proclaimed tags. To get listed you can click the “Add yourself” link on the home page or tweet the following from your account: @wefollow #tag1 #tag2…

• A PHP Link Directory Reciprocal Link Exploit Revealed

  Jason Bartholme

  29 Mar 2009 | 2:52 pm

  There is a relatively simple exploit going on in my PHP Link Directory, phpLD, script that has gotten significantly more popular in the last two months. I don’t intend to open the floodgates to shady link builders, but hope to bring attention to the script creators to find a way to remedy the problem within the application. I have been running the script on My Directory Live for about two and a half years and I have recently given it more attention since the Page Rank and Alexa Ranks have increased substantially. Right not it sits at a PR4 and an Alexa of 41k, not bad at all for a link…

• 
  Kneoteric Blog

• Brace for Google Caffeine

  saurav.verma

  11 Nov 2009 | 2:35 am

  Bank in August, Google created sensation when it announced that they were working on a new version of search engine. The project was officially known as Google Caffeine. When it comes to Google, even a logo change attracts widespread attention from all quarters of media. And since Google Caffeine was a major change, it created quite [...]

• Google’s Local Featured Listings

  saurav.verma

  7 Nov 2009 | 3:29 am

  For long, small and local business have struggled to effectively capitalize on search engine promotion, be it organic or paid promotion. Blame it on the ever increasing competition and efforts required to achieve and maintain healthy organic rankings or the complexity and intricacies involved in running a fruitful paid search campaign. On top of this, [...]

• A spook-tacular gift for You

  saurav.verma

  31 Oct 2009 | 12:31 am

  Get Started Today

• Google Search goes Social

  saurav.verma

  27 Oct 2009 | 3:20 am

  Yesterday, Google announced the introduction of Google Social Search. This service is available as part of a new experiment on Google Labs and getting started is pretty simple and straightforward. Login to your Google account and join the experiment christened “Google Social Search” – your job is done. I honestly believe that the name is a [...]

• Look through the eyes of Google

  saurav.verma

  14 Oct 2009 | 2:58 am

  Google Webmaster Tools has announced the addition of “Labs” section which includes two new features for webmasters. Fetch as Googlebot & Malware details It appears that Google is taking the ‘Labs’ route to introduce new features to a larger audience and thereby illicit more feedback and shorten the test phase. This also means that these features are not [...]

• 
  Bruce Clay Australia Blog-Search Engine Optimisation, Internet Marketing and SEO Blog

• Are Google spreading themselves too thin?

  melison

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:59 pm

  I know that seems like an odd statement for the most valued brand on the planet. However, I was just perusing the latest news from TechCrunch this morning and read 2 articles one after the other, the first was The...

• New Keywords User Interface for Google Webmaster Tools

  melison

  12 Nov 2009 | 9:25 pm

  Photo by Yodel Anecdotal via Creative Commons In a special post-Halloween, the Google Webmaster Central Blog announced a change to the keywords section of Google Webmaster Tools. The major changes are: • The data is now updated daily •...

• Promotional Links or Spam?

  ghilton

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:17 pm

  Photo by agjimenez via Creative Commons To have a successful site, in terms of search engine optimisation, a site needs to rank in search engines for key products or services. As every man and his dog know, high quality...

• SEO News Update | 5 November

  melison

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:16 pm

  Photo by See-ming Lee via Creative Commons in homage to the 40th birthday of Sesame Street After a lengthy absence the SEO news roundup is back. Enjoy what our analysts thought were the most interesting and high value blog...

• Google Social Search

  melison

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:12 pm

  Photo by manfrys via Creative Commons Google's Social Search was announced this week by the Official Google Blog. It sounds like a great tool for making search results more relevant. Social Search essentially pulls in information from social networks...

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  Yoomost - Experiments in Earning Online

• The Importance of Keywords

  martin

  10 Nov 2009 | 4:29 pm

  Perhaps one of the most overlooked elements in the SEO process is the proper identification of keywords that you are targeting. Time and time again, I have seen keywords being selected based on the opinion of a few individuals, who are usually too close to either their website or the product to really give an objective view about what keywords people will use to search for their site. If I’m being really honest, I’ve been guilty of that myself. During my experiments, largely with the backlinking strategy I’ve employed and discussed in previous posts, I have selected keywords…

• Pagerank Stagnation is Over (for me)

  martin

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:26 pm

  Hurray! I noticed today that the pagerank of Yoomost.com has increased from PR2 to PR3. This follows a very long period of pagerank stagnation, and I’m not the only one that has witnessed this. Lots of reports have been left on some of the forums where people have thought that Google has just given up on PR changes. However, it looks like things may be moving again. I’ve also noticed that my PR hasn’t changed at all on my travel experiences site, TrippedOff.com, following my PR penalty from PR3 to 0 earlier this year. However, through my consistent link building over the…

• No Penalties for Duplicate Content

  martin

  27 Oct 2009 | 9:59 pm

  Just before I begin this post, apologies for the long duration without any new posts. My wife and I have just had a baby, and as you can imagine, I’ve had my hands full for the last few weeks. While I was away, I did manage to unearth some information about penalties from search engines for duplicate content. Now, before you get excited, this really only affects sites that are found on multiple ccTLD’s (country coded Top Level Domain’s). This means that if you’re trying to target different geographic regions, what you used to have to do is to create unique sites for…

• Is Email Marketing Dead?

  martin

  30 Sep 2009 | 4:46 pm

  In my role as an e-marketing manager, back a few years ago, email marketing was perhaps one of the most effective forms of direct marketing that was available to us. More recently, the company that I’m at now, does barely any email marketing at all. With the amount of spam going around the cloud nowadays, I’m not surprised that email marketing may perhaps have lost some of its effectiveness. However, I’m still receiving a healthy amount of marketing emails in my inbox, so I suspect not everyone would agree. One person that understands the value of using email to connect with…

• Google Caffeine

  martin

  27 Sep 2009 | 4:05 pm

  If you haven’t heard (where have you been??), Google is about to release a new updated (and improved) version of their search engine, that has been named Google Caffeine. Since they’ve released it for all to try at a temporary address (http://www2.sandbox.google.com), there have been a lot of comparisons between the new and the old. The main conclusions that they have drawn is that: Caffeine is much faster Has blended search results (with images, videos and news results appearing within the results) It’s more accurate (subjective but the algorithm has definitely been…

• 
  10 Golden Rules Internet Marketing Strategy Blog

• The Webby Awards Announces the Past Decade's Top 10 Internet Moments

  Erika Barbosa

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:08 pm

  With 2009 almost coming to an end, we tend to reflect on the past year to remember all those memorable moments. Taking that a step further, The Webby Awards has just released what it considers being the 10 most influential moments of the past decade. Here’s a look at the top 10 moments:• Craigslist expands beyond San Francisco (2000)• Google AdWords launches (2000)• Wikipedia launches (2001)• Napster shuts down (2001)• Google's IPO (2004)• Online video revolution (2006)• Facebook opens up, Twitter takes off (2006)• The iPhone debuts (2007)• U.S. presidential campaign…

• Oxford English Dictionary Announces 2009 Word of the Year - "Unfriend"

  Susan Cruz

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:05 pm

  You know that social media has made a huge impact when the Oxford English Dictionary picks a word to be the word of the year that has to do with Facebook.unfriend - verb - To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook.As in, “I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.”This word was chosen as the word of the year because its meaning is understood in online social networking context, and considered an interesting choice since this word starts with "un-" and is different from the norm. Some other Technology driven words that were…

• Google and Bing Gaining Market Share

  Marc Purtell

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am

  A measurement by Comscore shows increases in the percentage of searches running through Google and Microsoft servers from September to October. Where did the additional market share come from? Yahoo!While Google continues to dominate the market accounting for 64.9% of all searches in September and picking up an additional .5% in October. Microsoft matched Google by picking up an additional .5% in October, now accounting for 9.9% of all searches. This is bad news for Yahoo, as they have been steadily declining throughout the year. If these trends continue, we just may see Bing overtake Yahoo…

• Is Your Link Profile Natural?

  Melanie Broemsen

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:39 pm

  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about link building and the importance of your Deep Link Ratio. That post explained that backlinks built to your site – including your deep link ratio, the anchor text used in the links, and the speed at which those links are acquired - should always appear “natural” to the search engines. Taking this one step further, the “natural approach” should apply to your entire link profile (incoming and outgoing).So, what does this mean to your inbound link building efforts?First, a healthy mix is necessary. And not every link needs to be perfectly optimized.

• InternetMarketingClub.org Presents The Ten Golden Rules of Writing for the Web

  Erika Barbosa

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:33 pm

  Join copywriting and marketing expert Allison Nazarian founder of www.allisonmediagroup.com and Jay Berkowitz Founder of http://podcast.tengoldenrules.com to discover the Ten Golden Rules for Writing for the Web.- How is web writing different from print and broadcast?- What are the key strategies to write for the search engines?- Learn the Apple A Day Strategy- Determine how many words should go on a page and how to use linking strategiesThe event will take place on Wednesday, November, 18, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: The Ten Golden Rules of Writing for the Web

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  SEO.com Blog

• Debunking Press Releases

  Dan Bischoff

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:20 pm

  At the Tricks and Treats Workshop I talked about how to optimize press releases for the online public, and why you should write and send them consistently. What I did not explain as much, however, is what a press release is and how to write one. After talking to a few people lately, I’ve realized not everyone gets it. For many, “press release” is synonymous with “article.” Others think it’s a sales pitch. Sometimes when I tell people what I do, they give me blank stares when the words “press” and “release” are repeated back-to-back in a sentence. They have no idea what a…

• How to Screw Up a Web Project – During the Sale

  Mike Benson

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:14 pm

  There are many ways to screw up a web development project, and it all starts with not helping the sales managers. You got this one When you’re working for a studio, web development projects are team efforts. That team includes your sales staff; they’re the front line. Here’s some tips on selling them out and getting things off to a bad start. Skip the meetings After the sales lead comes in, usually a meeting is set up to talk about the project. Go ahead and skip that meeting. It’s highly unlikely that any thing important will be discussed, such as their goals, target audience, and…

• How Twitter Helped Me Save Money and Stay In Shape

  Adam Torkildson

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:50 am

  So I was down in Vegas for a 3-day conference, staying at the Hilton Hotel. I am pretty big into fitness, so I woke up early the first morning and headed over to the spa/workout room. Lo and behold, there was a $20 charge to use the facility!? I was incensed, and also pretty out of sorts since I didn’t get to take my rage out on a treadmill that morning. It so happens that the Hilton Hotel Casino’s CEO, Petere Arceo, was speaking at the conference I was attending. He had a great presentation about social media, twitter, Facebook, etc., that gave me an idea. I tweeted to the world…

• Is It Really Better to Give?

  Andy Chesnut

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:01 pm

  Last month, my wife and I jumped on a plane out of Salt Lake City and headed toward what my wife refers to as “the most magical place on earth,” Walt Disney World. Why were we going when we don’t have any kids? I can promise you it wasn’t because of all the wonderful childhood memories. After all, this would technically be my first time. I went for the food. This was not just any food, mind you. I’m talking fillets, lobster, bread pudding and more! We sampled everything from the fufu of Africa to the burgers of a Sci-Fi diner. The best part was that the food was free!

• The Green Building Center Gets Recession Help, Wins $60,000 Ultimate Web Marketing Makeover from SEO.com

  Dan Bischoff

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:18 pm

  SEO.com selected The Green Building Center as the winner of the Ultimate Web Marketing Makeover because of its commitment to the environment, its struggles during the recession and potential for future success. The organization receives a 6-month contract that includes Web design, search engine optimization, PPC, social media marketing, and conversion optimization. SALT LAKE CITY – In May, 2008, The Green Building Center celebrated the grand opening of its second office in Park City, Utah. A year later, after the recession took a huge bite out of the company’s profits, it was forced to…

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  1918

• How Writing Bad Headlines Can Cost You Money

  Phil Buckley

  22 Nov 2009 | 12:57 pm

  When the newsobserver.com chooses keywords for their headline that no one searches for, it impacts their bottom line

• Sitemap Best Practices

  Phil Buckley

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:23 pm

  Sitemaps can help your site have better coverage within the SERPs

• Internet Summit 2009 Wrap Up

  Phil Buckley

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:11 pm

  A not so quick wrap up of what I saw at the 2009 Internet Summit

• How Social Media Can Save The Newspaper Industry

  Phil Buckley

  12 Nov 2009 | 5:17 am

  Working in the US newspaper industry isn’t always rainbows and unicorns… I know, it’s shocking. Over the past few years I have come to believe a few of things. Print papers will disappear in smaller and younger cities, but will remain in the older and larger metro areas like New York and Philadelphia. What is commonly referred to [...]

• How My Dad Taught Me To Use Social Media

  Phil Buckley

  1 Nov 2009 | 7:19 pm

  Who taught you how to use social media? My Dad taught me.

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  SEO Services Group - Blog

• Google Search Results Update - Breadcrumb Navigation

  Royston

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:24 pm

  Nowadays, Google has been introducing new updates in their search results often. This time they are updating “Breadcrumb Navigation” in their search results. Instead of the webpage URL,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• SEO – The World of Illusion!

  kumaresan

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:05 am

  As a SEO expert, can you predict the effort for your site regarding page rank, keyword rankings, keyword search volume after doing certain SEO process. As it is predicted its not be a accurate... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• AdMob acquisition - Why did Google make this move?

  crganesh

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:15 am

  Leader in search engine business, single company which is holding 84.5% search engine market share, is all set for its 56th acquisition. Well this time it acquires AdMob for $750milllion., its a... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Google Launches - GO

  Jackson

  12 Nov 2009 | 12:05 am

  Being the Leader in the Search Engines. Google started launching their own products starting with their Chrome Browser and its Chrome OS. Now Google has come up with their Programming Language this... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Top 5 Online Affiliate programs

  Selva

  8 Nov 2009 | 11:48 pm

  The affiliate program is probably the best return for your effort with the least demand on your time. A successful affiliate marketer can easily make thousands of dollars every month. The problem is... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 
  Smartacus Web Development Blog

• Mad SEO Scientists

  yankeerudy

  27 Oct 2009 | 11:26 am

  In a recent post I talked about some dumb job posting terminology found on job sites. It occurred to me that SEO specialists aren't "rock stars" or "gurus" at all. The more accurate descriptor of an SEO consultant is "Mad Scientist."

• Stupidest Job Posting Tactics Ever

  yankeerudy

  19 Oct 2009 | 12:33 pm

  I'm looking through the classifieds on some well-known career placement sites, and I'm seeing some of the same stupid things over and over again. Eventually, the outrages piled up until I felt compelled to point out their idiocies. Hiring managers, don't let these happen to you!

• Top Nine SEO Twitter Folks to Follow

  yankeerudy

  15 Oct 2009 | 12:13 pm

  In Twitter-land there's a weekly event called Follow Friday; you point out folks you enjoy reading tweets from, helping your followers find new useful accounts to follow. Here are my top nine favorite search engine optimization tweeters for your enjoyment.

• Secret Behind Free SEO Reviews

  yankeerudy

  5 Oct 2009 | 10:58 am

  In a previous post I expressed my opinions about the Value of a Free SEO Report (short version: not a fan). In my opinion, free SEO reports are essentially useless to the customer and nothing but a lead generator for the SEO firm. Let me elaborate further, and give you the real inside skinny on how they work.

• Key to Selling Your Ideas

  yankeerudy

  1 Oct 2009 | 9:26 am

  Whether you're pitching a new business idea to prospective partners, or trying to drum up support for a web development project, you need to be aware of this critical obstacle to success and how to overcome it.

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  Li'l Engine - Search Engine and Marketing news and tools

• New breadcrumb feature in search results part of Google Caffeine rollout?

  John

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:25 pm

  Google's new SERP URL update Over the next few days we should see some changes in the way Google displays the URLs in organic SERP. Currently the URL listed in the search result is a citation based version of a page’s URL. It looks like this update is could be part of the Caffeine rollout, where Matt Cutt’s mentioned will only be rolled out on 1 server currently until 2010 – I am seeing the new breadcrumb result about 10% of the time when search for the phrase ’spidersapien reviews’. The new version will take on a more breadcrumb feel based on the hierarchy…

• Google Affiliate publishers – make sure to update your payment preferences

  John

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:33 pm

  Are you a Google affiliate publisher? If so and you haven’t logged into your account for a while, make sure you log in and select your payment preference in the Adsense dashboard or you might get paid by your regular date. Google announced this on the GAN blog today: Affiliate publishers have new payment options through the integration with AdSense. As we head into the busy holiday season, please take a few minutes to check on the status of your payment preferences. Publishers can view payments that have been posted to your AdSense account in the Google Affiliate Network platform; on…

• Will Google have to pay for news content? Murdoch says yes, publishers rejoice!

  John

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:47 pm

  News Corp Vs Google An epic battle is brewing between Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and Google, as early as next month we could see News Corp controlled websites disappear from Google’s search results. It all started when Google began to index News Corp websites such as the Wall Street Journal / Fox news and returns to the minute results in Google News Search. There has been a lot of commentary and discussion between the News Corp supporters and Google supporters, the case has been made by News Corp that Google is stealing content from their websites and basically not paying…

• Link bait your way to backlinks nirvana – Introduction to the linkbait concept.

  John

  15 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm

  Introduction to the Link Bait concept Introduction to the link bait concept The art of link bait is a combination of creative ideas and great execution; the term linkbait itself refers to the act of creating content for the purpose of acquiring links to a website to increase its search engine rankings. The content itself is considered as ‘ the bait ‘ , which the SEO hopes to catch ‘ links ‘ from websites of value. One of the most powerful and organic methods to generate contextual backlinks is by the way of link bait. Through this post I hope to share with you the…

• Google Caffeine rollout – Not until Jan 2010 says Matt Cutts

  John

  10 Nov 2009 | 10:24 pm

  caffeine roll out planned for 2010 The Google Caffeine sandbox has been switched off today, replaced by this message. We appreciate all the feedback from people who searched on our Caffeine sandbox. Based on the success we’ve seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given. Thank you – Google So it looks like Google is finally rolling out the…

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  SEO Meme - TweetMeme

• Hosting Directory #1 - Activate Any Windows Xp Without Product Key High Quality

  22 Nov 2009 | 3:49 pm

  Activate any Windows XpThis the link: http://rapidshare.com/files…New link added http://www.mediafire.com/?s…Just Run the program and click yes, it will then tell you that windows is al…0 comments Source: hosting-n1.com

• Hosting Directory #1 - What Version Of Linux Seems To Be The Least Buggiest And Easiest To ...

  22 Nov 2009 | 3:22 pm

  #hosting #domain #seo What Version Of Linux Seems To Be The Least Buggiest And Easiest To Start Off With?: [[ This is a http://url4.eu/oCHK0 comments Source: hosting-n1.com

• SEOmoz | SEO and Social Media Benchmarking

  22 Nov 2009 | 2:51 pm

  Posted by RobOusbeyIntroductionWe'll often rattle off various metrics quite casually in conversation, but it's easy to forget that others (such as your clients!) might not know whether these are big numbers or small ones. For example: "We've just published a guest post on a site with Domain mozTrust 5.67. Mr_Gadget mentioned it to his 64 thousand followers, and it managed to get over 1,000…0 comments Source: www.seomoz.org

• Hosting Directory #1 - Proxy Script

  22 Nov 2009 | 2:28 pm

  A script I wrote to automatically change the proxy server address for use on my school’s wireless network.The only input from me, is opening the stack and running the ‘proxy’ application.0 comments Source: hosting-n1.com

• Hosting Directory #1 - Cari.net -password Protecting A Directory In Cpanel

  22 Nov 2009 | 1:37 pm

  http://www.cari.netHow to put a password on a directory in cPanel0 comments Source: hosting-n1.com

• 
  SEO Scoop

• Is Your Website in Costume?

  Megan Slick

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am

  Costumes got me thinking about websites and writing. I know, sometimes I have crazy thoughts. Here it is. On Halloween people dress up as witches or the guy with the baby from Hangover. Dressing up is great for Halloween but it would be weird if people dressed up all-year-round. So why are some websites in costume all year long? What I mean by costume, is dressing your website in language that isn’t appropriate for the product or service you are selling. Sadly, a popular costume for websites is lawyer. No one wants to read about the latest toy from the perspective of a lawyer. Moms want…

• How To Sitemap: Search Engine Submission

  Stephanie Woods

  4 Nov 2009 | 7:48 am

  When I was first learning how to submit XML sitemaps to search engines, I found all the information I needed, however, the information was spread out amongst several sources. My intention is to create a quick reference guide on how to submit your XML sitemap to all of the major search engines (in one convenient location). If you have no idea what a XML sitemap is, or you are interested in learning how to create one, be sure to check out the precursor to this post: How To Sitemap: Creating XML Sitemaps. Monty & Spider by Ratkimo You can wait for the search engines to spider your site and…

• 8 Utilities to Track Keyword Rankings

  Will Reinhardt

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:49 am

  One of the more tedious tasks in my monthly routine is preparing keyword ranking reports. While I enjoy analyzing the numbers and discovering how well our clients have (hopefully) improved over the past 30 days, actually collecting those numbers is a chore I don’t relish. If I can pay a few dollars to have a service perform this task on my behalf, I’m all for it. Listed below are eight services that will track your keyword rankings for you. I’ll do my best to list out their various pricing structures, to give you a simplified snapshot to help you find the service that most…

• Overcoming Drunken Monkeys & Writing Tips

  Megan Slick

  28 Oct 2009 | 4:15 am

  How to have your content ready when your boss asks for it. You waited and waited and now you have your keyword research. An exciting moment, until you realize you have to do something with it. Thousands of words staring at you from their excel spread sheet spells writer’s block and drunken monkeys. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a great book. It is about writing fiction but it has great points on general writing. The title comes from a clever story of Anne’s father giving her brother advise about a report on birds he is petrified to begin. “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird…

• How To Sitemap: Creating XML Sitemaps

  Stephanie Woods

  21 Oct 2009 | 3:55 am

  Hiya Google spiders, While you’re here, can you please make sure you check out our main product pages since we make changes to them frequently? Also, we added some new blog pages, so be sure to check those out as well. Have a great week! Thanks, Steph Wouldn’t it be great to leave a note providing suggestions to search engine spiders about how you want your site crawled when they visit your site? Well guess what? You can. Spider dog. Courtesy of epicfunnypictures.com. A XML sitemap is similar to the notes left behind by my well organized sister-in-law when I dogsit for her and my…

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  periscopeUP

• Google Update Due After the Holidays

  Dan Kaplan

  17 Nov 2009 | 10:01 am

  Google announced recently that it would be postponing its “Cafeine” update until after the holidays. They say this will have a minimum effect on search ranks, but as with all their past updates, our clients are sure to be affected in some way. One important change is Google will be giving more results based on up-to-the-minute breaking events, to compete with Twitter and Facebook’s real time search initiatives. We appreciate Google holding off on making this change, to put webmasters at ease that no rankings will change until after the holiday shopping season. More…

• Blog Keyword

  Dan Kaplan

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:42 am

  Finding the Right Blog Keyword How do we chose a keyword for our blog posts? If you want people to read your blogs, you need a strategy for every blog post to get found in search engines. In other words, you should SEO your individual blog posts. This starts, like any SEO project, with good keyword research. Our approach is to fish where the big fish are. We’ll chose a blog post topic AFTER THE KEYWORD RESEARCH! This post for example, started as an idea about Blog SEO, but after researching what people are searching on, we decided there was too much competition on the term “Blog…

• New SEO Client in Baltimore

  Dan Kaplan

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:41 am

  periscopeUP signs another SEO client in Baltimore. periscopeUP today announced it will provide Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services to Eastern Floatation Systems, Inc. (EFS). EFS is the exclusive manufacturer of the Pro-Float® pontoons, a patented floating concrete pier system. Based in Baltimore, EFS distributes their product world-wide. periscopeUP will optimize www.profloat.com for search engines and for people, including keyword research, on-page optimization, website writing, website development, submission to search engines & directories, conversion tracking, and web…

• periscopeUP mentioned at AD:TECH New York 2009

  Dan Kaplan

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:10 am

  periscopeUP was quoted today at AD:TECH New York for our beta testing of Yield Software’s SEO, PPC, and LPO web marketing suite. Click here to read the press release. Tweet This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook MySpace Ping This Post Reddit This Post Stumble This Post

• New SEO Client in Baltimore

  Dan Kaplan

  7 Oct 2009 | 8:23 pm

  periscopeUP signs a new Baltimore SEO client! periscopeUP today announced it will provide Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services to leading 3D modeling software developer and 3D animation design firm, ASGVIS, LLC. ASGVIS makes the world-class 3D animation software V-Ray for Rhino, Sketchup, 3Ds Max, and other 3D modeling software applications. ASGVIS software is used by top studios around the world to generate photorealistic images of outstanding quality. ASGVIS also has a team of talented artists and industrial designers that provide 3D design services to architecture firms, product…

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  Fathom SEO Search Engine Marketing Blog

• Doctors: Healthcare Social Networking is Here to Stay

  Paul Richlovsky

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:11 pm

  As broadcast in a November 16 NPR story, a recent report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows  61% of American adults go online to check out healthcare information.  Of this number, 20% look to social-networking sites for guidance from other patients or medical practitioners. Do you represent one of the few healthcare institutions still afraid to step in the social-media waters?  Well, you can sit comfortably on the beach, but know that your rivals may already be there.   Not possible, you say?  Check Ed Bennet’s hospital social network list to be sure, which…

• Quick and Easy Ways to Maximize PRWeb Press Release Reads and Referral Visits

  Paul Richlovsky

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:17 am

  So, you want to publish an online news release that gets thousands of views and sends hundreds of referral visits to your website?   One of the easiest and most cost-efficient ways to do this is by using PRWeb.   For why you might choose PRWeb over other news release services, check out Rae Hoffman’s “PRWeb Review.”   Having myself written/edited and submitted  nearly 100 news releases on behalf of clients on PRWeb,  I have learned a few tricks for SEO and online visibility.  For a quick look at the common elements of the most successful  PRWeb news releases, …

• Search Engine Marketing NewsWire – November 2009

  Kurt Krejny

  12 Nov 2009 | 8:22 am

  Email and Social Media: Friends with Benefits If you have been looking in your inbox lately you have surely seen that email and social media have become good friends. Upon closer examination of this relationship you’re going to see they are more than “just friends”; they are friends with benefits. Use ‘Bid Adjustment’ Ad Scheduling in Google AdWords to Get an ROI Edge By looking at pay-per-click trends you may notice that weekends bring in low-quality leads. You may have also noticed that on certain days of the week your cost-per-lead tends to spike and on other…

• Social Media ROI: Being Seen is Not Enough – Local Social Media Event

  Kurt Krejny

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:19 pm

  Thursday, November 12th, 2009 7:30 am – 8:00 am EDT: Registration and Continental Breakfast 8:00 am – 10:00 am EDT: Presentations and Audience Q&A The City Club of Cleveland 850 Euclid Ave., Second Floor Cleveland, OH 44114 Description Your organization has started blogging, tweeting and updating your Facebook status, but is it working? If you’re like many communications professionals today, you may not be sure how to quantify the success of your social media efforts. Measuring social media is very different from what you may be doing to measure a PR campaign’s…

• Google Analytics Benchmarking: Turn it on!

  Paul Richlovsky

  2 Nov 2009 | 9:53 am

  At one interlude during a New York concert, the musician Beck spoke over his live mic: “Electronic sound man, turn me ON!”   That’s what I think everybody using Google Analytics for their website should do: turn on the “benchmarking” reports.  If you are like the clients I know, or deal with clients like the ones I know, then you are often wondering how you stack up to the competition.  Who has better rankings for top keywords?  Who has more and higher-quality links? Who’s getting larger market share? Who’s copying whom? Well, there is another…

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  Search Engine Optimizician

• Firefox Web Browsers, SEO Tools of the Trade for Search

  Gary Pool

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:10 am

  Search - SEO tools of the trade for Firefox web browsers

• How to use the new Twitter Linkedin connection properly

  taylor

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pm

  Twitter tools, use the new Twitter-Linkedin connection properly.

• Cell Phone Radiation – Will My droid Kill Me?

  Gary Pool

  12 Nov 2009 | 9:09 am

  Is your cell phone killing you? Being in business today means that you have a cell phone...

• How to use Twitter Lists to monitor topics of interest

  taylor

  11 Nov 2009 | 11:05 am

  twitter lists are and how you can use them to keep track of your industry

• Using Keyword Research for Better Results in the Search Engines

  Gary Pool

  10 Nov 2009 | 12:04 pm

  SEO, keyword research, and thematic headings for better search rankings.

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  FMS The SEO Company

• BlogEngage Can Make You A Better Blogger (And Bring You Lots Of Visitors)!

  Karl Foxley

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:31 am

  BlogEngage can make you a better blogger!Related posts:Get More Website Visitors: 30 Plus Ways To Generate TrafficJV Plus: Turn Your Visitors Into Joint Venture Partners The Easy WayWho Else Wants... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Who Else Wants Access To The Largest Database Of CommentLuv Enabled Blogs On The Internet

  Karl Foxley

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:45 am

  Discover how to tap into the ultimate list of CommentLuv Enable Blogs and start building deep links to your website through blog commenting.Related posts:Blog Commenting For Traffic GenerationStop... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Create A New Audio Product Every Single Month In Just A Few Clicks!

  Karl Foxley

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:28 am

  Have you ever wanted to create high quality audio products? Now you can make audio products with leading marketers that you can sell and keep all the money!Related posts:7 Reasons Why Affiliate... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Welcome To FMS SEO, Testimonials, Top Commentators, and…

  Karl Foxley

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:45 am

  We've moved! Welcome to FMS SEO The Derby SEO Company.Related posts:Blog Commenting For Traffic GenerationPolite SEO For Link BuildingDo You Want To Know My Secret Voodoo Blogging Methods [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 5 Reasons To Subscribe To Our RSS Feed

  Karl Foxley

  15 Nov 2009 | 4:20 pm

  5 reasons you'll want to subscribe to our RSS feed.Related posts:Blog Commenting For Traffic GenerationHow To Install A Wordpress Blog Using Simple Scripts [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

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  Adam Sherk

• The Most Popular NFL Teams on Twitter and Facebook

  Adam Sherk

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:20 am

  The role of social media in professional sports is getting a lot of attention these days, unfortunately mostly in the form of teams and leagues trying to clamp down on it or players making mistakes with it. Despite this, fans are passionately supporting and discussing their teams through a range of social media outlets, in particular Twitter and Facebook. Since we’re in the heart of football season, I thought I’d take a look at which NFL teams have the largest following on both sites. In the table below the 32 NFL teams are ranked by the total number of followers/fans on their official…

• Fortune 100 Need to Get More Creative with Twitter

  Adam Sherk

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:56 am

  While many companies now have some form of presence on Twitter, how well are they utilizing it? According to a new study by Weber Shandwick, when it comes to the Fortune 100 the answer is not so well. Among the Fortune 100 Twitter accounts analyzed by Weber Shandwick, 53% did not convey any personality, tone or voice and 15% were either inactive or placeholders: Additionally, 26% of the accounts were primarily used for a one-way flow of information that offered no engagement with followers, and only 9% of the accounts focused on customer service: The end result for the Fortune 100? No so many…

• An Early Look at News Media Twitter Lists: Not Much Traction

  Adam Sherk

  3 Nov 2009 | 9:30 am

  With all the buzz about Twitter Lists I thought I’d take a look at how some major news sites are doing so far with their own Lists. Looking at selection of Twitter accounts from 30 31 news sites, I checked the number of Lists that have been created and how many followers each has attracted to-date. These figures will change quite a bit in the weeks and months to come, but I wanted to capture an initial snapshot. (Note: currently Twitter allows users to create a maximum of 20 Lists.) Twitter account (Lists page)Lists CreatedAverage # of followersMost followers (on one List) wsj20722…

• Google Social Search: Are You in Your Target Audiences’ Social Circles?

  Adam Sherk

  29 Oct 2009 | 8:18 am

  This week Google unveiled Google Social Search, an opt-in feature that provides additional search results with content from a user’s “social circle” of friends and trusted sources. A limited number of listings will appear at the bottom of the main search result pages, or users can drill down to see more extensive listings: Currently a social circle is determined by the social media accounts linked from a user’s Google Profile, the feeds they subscribe to in Google Reader and their Google chat and Gmail contacts. So if you link to your Twitter account on your Google profile the…

• NewsPulse Gives CNN.com a New Way to Showcase Popular Content

  Adam Sherk

  27 Oct 2009 | 2:03 pm

  One of the more promising features in this week’s relaunch of CNN.com is NewsPulse, which surfaces popular content in a simple, user-friendly interface: (Click on the screenshot above to see a larger image) NewsPulse makes it easy for users filter popular news by time period (from 15 minutes to 30 days), section and content type (articles vs. video). How “popularity” is determined is not specifically defined, but it is likely a simple metric like page views. One aspect that CNN might want to rethink is the inclusion of “Total Comments” for each news item. Since many stories do not…

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  GenuineSEO

• Sency – What’s Going On?

  Eddie Gear

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:32 am

  It seems as if new real time web start-ups are popping up each day.  The reason for this is that Internet users have begun to show an affinity for real time data.  In the past, search engines would show static search results based on relevancy.  Today, users can find out what is happening right now, and the real time web start-ups are aimed at filling that need.  Today, we have reviewed real time web start-up, Sency.  Sency offers  both a search for users and feeds for webmasters. The search allows users to see what is going on right now.  Comments from the real time web are displayed…

• Process 1: Find the best keywords related to your niche

  Eddie Gear

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:17 am

  In simple terms keywords are nothing but the words that web surfers enter in search engines to look for information on the World Wide Web. It is essential that you get these keywords to optimize your site as it is pointless to optimize your articles and site for keyword that nobody uses or which has very less target audience. It is also important that you use the right keywords for your online marketing campaign to make it a success. Always make sure that you only use keywords that are relevant to your website. If you target the wrong keyword you will not be driving the right traffic and will…

• Overcoming Common SEO Problems (Do’s and Don’t)

  Eddie Gear

  22 Oct 2009 | 9:20 am

  Most bloggers face difficulties with SEO and some don’t due to their area of specialization. For the ones who have trouble with SEO here are some quick do’s and don’t that you will find helpful with your SEO work. DO’s…. Use 301 redirects for moved pages Optimize titles and meta-data for non-html files (.pdf, .doc, .xls and more) Have valid HTML Use custom 404 errors for missing pages  DON’t… Allow broken links Make content only accessible through forms or other elements that require human action Use images, Flash, or JavaScript to display…

• The Ugly Truth about Blogging

  Eddie Gear

  7 Oct 2009 | 9:35 pm

  Here is a secret (the ugly truth about blogging) that we have learnt and are sharing it with our readers. If you are a new blogger or your blog is still in the process of being established, we suggest that you consider the following. This post aims at helping you understand and learn the art of making money and driving web traffic to your site. The Truth about Article Directories Article directories are said to  benefit from contributors like bloggers and writers. One of the strongest from of SEO is creating unique and keyword rich content. Even search giants like Google in their Search…

• Top 15 must follow Search Engine Optimization Blogs

  Eddie Gear

  2 Oct 2009 | 6:33 am

  Every one wants to learn and optimize their blogs and website and rank better on search engines. What better than following some of the top 15 blog that we consider the best in providing information on Search Engine Optimization. Be it an e-commerce website or an information blog or a high revenue generating blog, SEO is an important aspect. We have put together 15 SEO blogs that you can learn from to optimize and stay up to date with the SEO trends in the market. Search Engine Land Search Engine Watch SEO Chat Search Engine Guide SEO Blackhat Graywolf’s SEO Search Engine Roundtable Search…

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  FedEx's Blog - SEO Tips - SEO Blog - Internet Marketing - Blogger Tips

• How to Start with Affiliate Marketing

  Tony Tran

  22 Nov 2009 | 5:43 am

  Affiliate Marketing, the best way to make money ? Is it right with you or just normal way like others program. When we talking about affiliate marketing, we must recognition it take much our time and requirement skills and experiences. Why is that ? You can sign-up a affiliate program or affiliate network, then get the promote [...]

• Twitter Traffic – The Best Traffic with Twitter

  Tony Tran

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:33 am

  As I tell you in the previously, many people using Twitter for business such as promote for their product or service, increase traffic and many things. Almost of them was success with their plan and the rest was not. Why ? Did you in that the rest ? Is Twitter a significant traffic source for your [...]

• Affiliate Marketing – The Best Way to Make Money

  Tony Tran

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm

  As you know I have give you many ways to make money in the previously article. And also I have tell you I will write more an article to help you understand all about affiliate marketing. I will tell you in this post include some great tips to help you improve your commission. Affiliate Marketing is [...]

• Ways to Make Money Online

  Tony Tran

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:26 am

  When you join and using Internet as a tool to make money, you will discover many ways to make money and I sure you will wondering which way is the best to follow and focus on. Most people write blog, building back-links to development their website/blog, to sale back-links, blog posts … or just getting traffic [...]

• Great Way to Get High Page Rank Backlinks

  Tony Tran

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:19 am

  Many people take a lot of their time to building backlinks for their website and blog to make money or just increase backlinks and page rank. Some people do it by themselves, some was rent a seo company to do, but final purpose is get a lot of quality backlinks. If you looking for concept and [...]

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  PreciseInternetMarketing.com

• Profitable Internet Marketing

  admin

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:25 am

  Profitable internet marketing is a must if you want to succeed, whether you’re taking an existing business online or establishing a new business. If you don’t market your products and... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• SEO Internet Marketing

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:39 am

  Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO is a form of internet marketing that is targeted toward ranking highly in search engines. SEO internet marketing is about targeting what people interested in your... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Internet Marketing 2009 Trends

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:20 am

  When looking at new developments in internet marketing, 2009 shows that things are remarkably different to what was happening just five years ago. Internet marketing refers to the promotion and... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Ideal Onpage Optimisation

  admin

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:14 am

  In this blog post I am going to examine what I believe to be ideal on page optimisation Assuming you have built a site with an search engine optimisation friendly site architecture, you’ll want... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Pay Per View Marketing

  admin

  16 Nov 2009 | 10:03 am

  If you have been marketing on the internet for a while, you may have come across pay per view marketing. If you are wondering what pay per view marketing is, then you should find this blog post... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

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  reactorr.com

• New Advertising - Micro Banners

  Mark

  2 Nov 2009 | 8:51 pm

  At a recent conference in Frankfurt, a book company created Micro Banners using flies!

• Is Virtual Currency The Future of Social Media?

  Mark

  1 Nov 2009 | 7:47 pm

  Social media websites have been seeking ways to monetize their system beyond serving ads for a while, and virtual currencies look to be the cash cow they’re after. If you’re familiar with Facebook, you’ve probably come across Mob Wars or Farmville, the social network’s virtual game that allows you to purchase virtual currency to advance in the game faster, get better gear, or obtain virtual goods. Previously, virtual economies were typically found in MMORPGs and life simulation games  like Second Life, but lately they’re showing up in Social network sites…

• Social Media Growth

  Mark

  27 Oct 2009 | 11:04 pm

  No one could have forecasted the rate at which social media might catch on had you asked them just a couple years ago. Below you’ll find the top 20 sites on comScore’s social networking list. It’s not definitive, but gives you a good idea. The one site that stands out, given the time its been around is Facebook. To put the social media growth into perspective, have a look at this; If you crave additional social media statistics try this post on mashable.

• Online Branding and SEO

  Mark

  24 Oct 2009 | 3:22 pm

  Brands are built in decades, not days, but when it comes to online branding they’re far more achievable to create in less time with the inclusion of SEO. When building your brand online there are several ways to go, or you can include them all. Internet advertising is often the route many will choose to start, yet similar to branding offline, it is both time consuming and expensive. Social media is another option, but I don’t think this a strategy to rely on entirely. More of something to include with your internet marketing plan in addition to other strategies you might include.

• Internet Advertising Suggests Economy On The Rise

  Mark

  20 Oct 2009 | 10:33 am

  As the economy takes its toll on advertising budgets, marketers are looking for ways to stretch their ad dollars and get more for less. For some, that means shifting their budgets towards Internet advertising. Even though the ad spending revenues were down 5.3%  in the first half of 2009, according to the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers, I suspect that with the strengthening of the DowJones will carry optimism and more advertisers will loosen the purse strings a little. And Google shares in the optimism after stellar third-quarter results and reporting the strongest quarter in the…

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  EduTek n Social Media Advisor

• Social Media Optimization

  EduTek_SocialMedia Consultant

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:09 pm

  Today I am going to present how TFLB (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Blog) can be used effectively to promote your business.    Twitter  Use Twitter To drive traffic by providing useful information with links. Monitor your brand on Twitter using Twitter Search Tool. In search results add all positive tweets under ‘Favorites’ and promote the URL to clients. (http://twitter.com/user name/favorites) Promote events using tag. Engage the audience by suggesting tool. Once I mentioned in my blog about graders and said that I am selected as digitally distinct. Some of the…

• Various Ways of Engaging Students

  EduTek_SocialMedia Consultant

  29 Oct 2009 | 8:28 am

  In my earlier blog titled ‘Is Blended Learning the Future of Educational Scenario?’ I had mentioned that instruction offered through blended mode enhances learning. It is not enough that technology is utilized for offering instruction. The instruction must be designed in such a manner that enhances recall, application and retention of knowledge that has been imparted.    I am reminded of a famous Chinese Proverb, that says,   “Tell me, and I’ll forget Show me, and I may remember, Involve me, and I’ll understand.”    It is true one hundred percent.

• Social Media n Learning

  EduTek_SocialMedia Consultant

  15 Oct 2009 | 9:18 am

  Let me first explain what ‘Social Media’ is and then explore the possibilities of using them for enhancing learning.   Social Media represents the online tools that enable anyone to interact in one-one, one-many and many-many conversational format deviating from typical one-way broadcasting options offered by media. The real-time, borderless interaction offered to participants provide an opportunity to make use of 3Cs Collaboration, Community, Communication effectively to enhance learning and pave way for innovation.   Various Social Media Tools for Learning are:  …

• Role of Organic Twitter Optimization in Determining Twitter Grades

  EduTek_SocialMedia Consultant

  5 Oct 2009 | 9:53 am

  Let me first introduce the factors that play an important role in determining Twitter Grades (TG). They are:   Power  Reach Authority of a twitter account   Or in other words, TG determines the quality of tweets sent by you and the influence of them upon others.    The following factors play a crucial role as Twitter Algorithm take note of these things;   Follower / Following ratio – The greater the value better it will be for Twitter Grades (TG). Power of Followers – If more people with high TG follow you the better it will be. Tweets – Here all the…

• Social Media Marketing 4 Business Owners

  EduTek_SocialMedia Consultant

  29 Sep 2009 | 1:15 pm

  Before stressing the importance of Social Media Marketing (SMM), let me just explain in a simple manner, what Social Media actually is, and later on try to explain the SMM.   Social Media represents the online tools that enable you to interact in one-one, one-many and many-many conversational format deviating from usual one-way broadcasting options offered by media. The real-time, borderless interaction offered to participants provide an opportunity to establish a brand for individual / company.   Often times I have come across people asking whether SMM has replaced Internet…