Be an Internet Glass Chewer, not a Glass Jaw

July 15, 2008 By 17 Comments

This post will seem like a rant in spots, but if you stick with it I think some of you will be inspired enough in your efforts to fill your pockets with a little extra coin; the only result that matters in our industry.

I read a post by Lisa Barone at BruceClay.com entitled Don’t Be Popular. Be Useful. , and got to thinking about how some of those same concepts translate past blogging into the actual fabric of the industry.

The ratio of self-promoting perpetrators in our industry to actual talent seems to be ever increasing.

The former is soft and glass jawed, the later is a mean spirited glass chewer.

The former has a limited value based mostly on a segmented time line, the later will be an innovator in our industry as long as there is one.

You shouldn’t really need to have me tell you which one of these two schools you fall into, but I love allegory so let me tell you a tale to help you understand what the heart of a glass chewer is made of.

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Filed Under: Analytics, Copy and Content, Search Engines, Search Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Tools and Tips, Uncategorized

The Six Ladies of SEO I Would Want to Be Stuck Next to on a Cross Country Flight

July 10, 2008 By 17 Comments

Maybe this will become all that Snydey Sense is. One list after another of people I like.

If that happens someone put a pillow over my face while I’m sleeping.

The reality of the situation is that I wrote the last piece with six specific individuals in mind, and none of them happened to be women. There was an obvious backlash to that, and now I must defend myself against sexist allegations, even though I am actually a misogynistic (or is it masochist? I don’t remember.)

There are a plethora of brilliant women in search, but once again, and specifically for the people that bitched about certain people being left off the last list, these are people that I not only respect for their offerings to our industry, but also for who they are.

The situation this time?

We are on a flight from my home town of Ft.Lauderdale to San Jose for SES. I can think of no more uncomfortable situation for a human than sitting next to my big ass on a cross country flight, except perhaps being stuck with my big ass in an elevator.

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Filed Under: Search Marketing, SEO, Social Media

The Usability of SEO

June 27, 2008 By 18 Comments

It is the chicken before the egg of the online industry.

Which comes first usability or SEO?

Designers and developers often take one stance on the issue, and SEOs another. I am not sure there is a right or wrong answer. Despite how many in our industry present information the only way we can quantify any degree of success in what we do is by measuring how profitable a web property is (I know not all websites operate for revenue, but who cares about them?).

Profitable sites have been built without sound search engine optimization.

Profitable sites have been built with poor usability.

Neither of these points can be argued.

But in a fantasy land of project perfection, sound SEO can lead to high quality usability. Here the two concepts can dance in a green meadow beneath a candy rainbow; also known as Canada (SES Toronto trip showed me how majestic it is North of border)

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Filed Under: Search Engines, Search Marketing, SEO

Clean Up Your Rankings for Conversion

June 25, 2008 By 1 Comment

I am a slave to writing about things that I see and do in my everyday SEO efforts or searching.

To me theory often fails to show value in terms of dollars. And I am in this business to make dollars.

I have been doing a lot of eCommerce searching lately since my birthday is coming up next weekend, and I need to figure out what I want. What I have found are a ton of search results that are too specific. They go beyond the generic term I am looking for, and send me to pages with very specific products that are not what I am looking for. This fact can mean death for an eCommerce site, which should be leading generic terms to non-product, more category oriented terms.

Let’s use the example of a website that sells televisions.

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Filed Under: Search Engines, Search Marketing, SEO

Market Networking for Link Building and Rep Management

June 23, 2008 By 6 Comments

Optimizing a site for search often revolves around your ability to gain links from high quality sources.

Protecting your brand on the web is often connected to your ability to quickly and transparently address issues that may soil your reputation.

Both of these important Internet marketing tactics, need to be cultivated through a healthy foundation of market contacts.

I discussed one way I address this during my in-house, enterprise work in my Site Rejuvenation post. A few comments were made about the time consuming nature of this concept. It is time consuming, but the point of the plan is to gain the high quality links in rich text that can make or break an SEO campaign. Market networking and Site Rejuvenation don’t take any more time than most spend purchasing links, and their effects have more upside.

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Filed Under: Search Marketing, Social Media, Tools and Tips

SES Toronto 2008

June 19, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I just returned from SES Toronto where I had the privelage to participate on a panel with Lee Odden and Chris Winfield on Twitter.

It was a great session and a great experience all around. I was able to speak with some of the top minds in search and social media, about what they are doing to make themselves and others money.

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Filed Under: Copy and Content, Search Marketing

The Importance of Pay Per Click Account Structure

May 29, 2008 By 15 Comments

I had an epiphany while working on a site yesterday, and as most lessons come from life, I thought I might as well turn it into a blog post.

The reality of SEM is that creating PPC accounts that yield a high ROI can often be more difficult than basic organic optimization.

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Filed Under: Search Marketing, Tools and Tips

Beyond Keyword Research: Heuristic Evaluations

May 23, 2008 By 5 Comments

So far in our trip Beyond Keyword Research, we have looked at all of the data available to us on the web, both competitive and from our site.

We have utilized on-site analytics, Google Trends, Seodigger.com, and hitwise tools to collect a wealth of data about terms on our market and traffic approximations related to those keywords.

The next step is to look at heuristic evaluations of the site. This step will allow us to get a look at which of the 25% of daily search terms that are completely original queries we can capture to our competitive advantage.

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Filed Under: Analytics, Beyond Keyword Research, Copy and Content, Search Engines, Search Marketing, SEO, Social Media
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