Jan 30 2012
An interview with Chris Burns of SERPd
Google is expected to rely less on backlinks as a way to determine the value of websites. This seems to be the theme of most of the changes we are seeing with Google’s algorithm with respect to SEO.
Continue reading “Google Algorithm Changes to Expect In 2012″
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Jan 25 2012
There are instances when SEO is not the best solution 
as a traffic source, the squeeze page is one of them. Here’s a good example of a question I’ve seen in marketing forums a number of times…
Q: “I understand that SEO is content and backlinks and all that mumbo jumbo. Now normally I’d think you’d stick your squeeze page out there and SEO that, but with that there’s no real content so no real SEO. The other issue I have is that I went and wrote some articles a while back and when I really changed to what’s working for me now, none of the directories will except my new squeeze page as its very small and has about zip content (but has been converting the best for me). So do I need to completely reconstruct everything I”m doing to get started with SEO or is there something I’m just not getting about what pages need SEO and what pages can get subscribers?”
Continue reading “Does SEO Trump Conversion?”
Jan 03 2012
It’s interesting how many businesses act like 
SEO is in a different department than marketing… “oh that’s IT.” This is a real problem for people who implement SEO because the expectation is often: “go do your technical thing to get our site ranking but don’t expect any help from us, that’s your job.”
This kind of thinking might have worked out fine a few years ago but today the search engines treat sites that don’t engage as not so useful – and that impacts search rank. “But it’s just a program, how could it know what’s engaging or not?” Oh my friend, the algorithm is a program, but don’t be naïve, that’s not all search engines have at their disposal to evaluate and rank sites today.
Continue reading “Does SEO Support Marketing or Does Marketing Support SEO?”
Nov 21 2011
People hear about the algorithm so much they don’t 
realize the other side of Google’s ranking matrix – human raters.
A few years ago, conversion optimizers wondered whether their work to improve a landing page’s conversion rate also influenced search rank. Well, today it most likely does because of human raters.
Continue reading “Google’s Quality Raters Are Looking At Your Site”
Oct 10 2011
This article is intended for SEOs who 
want to stay fresh, but others may find it useful as well:
Continue reading “Top SEO Skills for 2011″
Oct 03 2011
SEOmoz’s 2011 Search Engine Ranking Factors offers some interesting details about Google’s current algorithm as it relates to individual page features and their correlation to search rank based on 10,000+ pages they tested earlier this year.
The correlation chart below outlines how features on a page tend to relate to higher rankings on a scale from 0 to 1. There are also negative correlations which means the more the particular feature showed up on a page, it tends to relate to lower rankings. But, remember these are correlations, not causes and based on a test of 10,000 pages. So, don’t run off and change your site just because you see something here that correlates to higher or lower rank, but do consider it especially in light of the Panda updates.
Aug 29 2011
strategyWhether you are doing SEO in-house, on your own time or with a professional, it still takes time for a site to begin ranking well for a keyword that has never been targeted before, unless you’re involved with a brand with a huge following. Here’s the gist:
Continue reading “8 Things To Consider If You’ve Not Done SEO Recently”
Aug 15 2011
In a somewhat recent Matt Cutts video he goes over some of the objectives 
of the Panda update and iterations that followed. Then Matt says, “It helps to step into the Google Mindset and how we think about these sorts of things because whenever we’re trying to write the algorithms, whenever we’re trying to uncover the signals, those kinds of questions can be very helpful to understand how we’re thinking about the problem and how we’re trying to return higher quality sites.”
Matt says they are going to keep iterating on the Panda update to try to keep sites that don’t produce quality content from ranking as high as sites that do produce content that users love.
Continue reading “Inside the Google Mindset”
Jul 18 2011
An interview with Stacy Williams of Prominent Placement.
At a recent Atlanta SEMPO/AiMA event on social search, speakers from 
Google, Bing and Newell-Rubbermaid discussed their efforts in social media and incorporating social networks in with search.
Continue reading “How Social Media Impacts Search Rank”
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Jul 05 2011
Does it seem like the pages on your website take forever to load?
If so, it’s essential that you find out where the bottleneck is and take steps to remove it. Why? Because Google is now factoring page load speeds into their ranking algorithm as part of their newly minted objective of sending searchers to the most user-friendly pages possible.
There are a number of factors that can cause a web page to load slowly. One common culprit is the use of large image files, each of which can add precious seconds to overall page load time even if the user has a fast Internet connection. And if you run a blog, using too many widgets and plugins can put your site into the slow lane.
Continue reading “Is Your Web Host Sabotaging Your Google Rankings?”
Jun 29 2011
$$$ = [Desire Based Tension] + (Decision)
“If you are not relevant enough in the mind of your [prospects and] customers to get them to make a decision, then they will never ever buy.”
“Your job as a marketer… is to be relevant enough to get people to make a decision about you… one way or another. The purpose of good marketing is to get people to make a decision about you… to be a fork in the road.”
These are quotes from Clay Collins which are spot on, watch the short video below to get the full force of these statements.
Continue reading “Get a Decision or Get Out of Marketing”
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May 31 2011
Crowdsourcing articles is a great way to create highly 
engaging content for your audience, but it’s not for everyone. Publishing crowdsourced articles on your site might not be for you if:
Continue reading “How to Crowdsource Articles – a Beginners Guide”
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Mar 30 2011
How do you know if your SEO efforts are successful or not? Rankings? Traffic? Conversions?
Just a few years ago measuring an increase in search rank for a keyword was the standard, but then Google introduced universal search, personalized search and local search. These three elements make it impossible to use rankings as an accurate measure of SEO success today.
Continue reading “How To Measure SEO Success”
Mar 02 2011
You may have heard of the Farmer Update now, Google’s intention to clear out content farms from their search results. At first I was skeptical about Google’s claim on their blog that this was a “pretty big algorithm improvement,” but now I’m convinced it was and is a huge change that will remain!
This update was nothing like the Florida update that affected almost every ecommerce store enjoying good search rank just before December 2003, and I doubt there will ever be another update from Google like that one – which felt like the effects of a hurricane. But I predict that the Farmer update will go down as the biggest in terms of visible change over a four-year period of updates.
Continue reading “Google Said “Pretty Big” Update – That Was An Understatement”
Feb 25 2011
Google’s latest change to their algo is designed to reduce rankings for low quality sites and increase rank for high quality sites. Google defines a low quality site as being a low value add for users, a site that copies content from other sites or a site that just isn’t useful. Google defines a high quality site as one with original content and information such as research, detailed reports and thoughtful analysis.
Although the rollout is very early some SEO professionals have noticed some changes:
Continue reading “Google’s “Pretty Big Algorithmic Improvement””
Jan 12 2011
It has been estimated that 80% of all new websites seeking rank in Google are scraper sites or spam sites – sites that Google sees and then decides they are low quality and of little value to searchers. These sites are created with out much thought about the audience they are intended to attract and it’s not hard for anyone, even a search engine to see that they were thrown together for one purpose, quick search ranking. Google puts most new sites through a lot before they are allowed to enjoy good search rank.
Continue reading “Think Again Before Buying Keyword Domain Names”
Oct 14 2010
If you are looking for how to setup a proper 301 redirect, checkout Website Upgrade – Can That Affect My Search Engine Rankings?
Sometimes 301 redirects are not seen by search engines even though they appear to work in a browser. So, how do you verify the search engines will see and transfer all page rank and authority to the new URL? Continue reading “How to Verify Search Engines See A 301 Redirect”
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Mar 30 2010
Matt Cutts recently said, “We have over 200 signals in our scoring to try to return the most 
relevant, the most useful, the most accurate search results that we can find.”
Google constantly changes its algo to provide info that’s relevant and useful to its current users. What ranked well last year may not rank well this year. Here’s what I mean. You can go hire a copywriter to spin content for you for $10/hour or less just so you can add more content to your blog and get more internal links to your important pages. But, Google can look at that and decide, “another waste dump, not interested”.
Continue reading “Useful Content Is Part of The Algo”
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Feb 11 2010
Google’s algo changes on a frequent basis, most of the time without warning. 
Why Google changes the way they rank search results so often is likely due to business objectives (keeping investors happy), trying to keep up their image as an innovator and manager of the web’s information amidst a host of competitors (Facebook, Twitter, Bing, Yelp, etc.), fighting spam, and providing relevant search results. It’s rare that Google informs everyone about upcoming changes to their algo (as they did with Caffeine), unless it helps them achieve one of their many objectives. In my opinion, Google wanted plenty of user feedback before they launched Caffeine.
What’s your opinion, why did Google make Caffeine a publicity event? Answer in the comments below.
Continue reading “Is Google Caffeine a Search Rank game changer?”
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Feb 04 2010
Google caffeine, the latest algo update, emphasizes page speed load time. Google says this will help make the web faster – more user friendly. But how much emphasis should be placed on things like optimizing photos for faster download, consolidating all css into one file, reducing flash usage and other things that bog down a browser? Matt Cutts, Google engineer, takes a moment to answer…
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