The StarTribune recently ran a story about a Minnesota based above-ground pool company that’s heavily Google dependent for business: The Backer brothers say their online business, B. W. Inc., wouldn’t last long if it appeared way down the list of a Google search. “If you’re not on the first page,” said Jay Backer, “you can [...]
I’ve noticed an incredible spike in blog spam from two websites: SeoMarketingServicesOnline.com and WhereToBuyBacklinks.com Both sites are peppering this blog with ridiculous amounts of spam (thankfully, all of it is caught by the spam filters). Here is an example of what they’ve spammed this site with over the past 2-3 days: If you’re looking for [...]
I’m a fan of Merlin Mann’s work on 43 Folders and how he approaches problems. Figuring out good ways to do things and, more importantly, what’s worth doing at all, is good stuff. One of Merlin’s favorite subjects is pointing out the ridiculousness of “productivity” websites that post new tips dozens of times per day. [...]
Try searching on Google Reader’s feed discovery search engine to get a feel for what shows up on searches important to your industry. Here’s an example for the term “Minneapolis”: In this example, a local news station, KARE 11, has the top search result for this term. Minneapolis largest local daily, the StarTribune, happens to [...]
I believe I’ve had at least one conversation regarding the effectiveness of meta keywords in search engine rankings every week for the past 10 years. For some reason, it’s a sub-topic of SEO that inexperienced website owners hear about and suddenly latch onto as if they’ve suddenly discovered the keys to high search engine rankings. [...]
If you ran a search on Google, clicked on the top search result, then failed to find the words you searched for on the page Google sent you to, would you consider that to be a good or bad experience? I’m guessing that 99% of you would say, “bad.” Now, imagine that you work for [...]
The long tail, for those of you not familiar with the concept, is a working theory that the web allows for much more diversity than the off-line world. For example, an online bookstore doesn’t have the real estate constraints of a typical retail store, or an online music store like iTunes could conceivably sell every [...]
Sally Kavanagh from Atracks.co.uk has a published a great case study on how to select appropriate keywords for a site by finding an appropriate balance between search volume and conversion rates. This builds upon yesterday’s post discussing whether conversion rates for individual keywords matter. They do, and Kavanagh’s post explains how they can be used [...]
This site is called Technology Evangelist, but if I’m asked by a reporter what the site is called, it’s TechnologyEvangelist.com. Why? Company Name Optimization Take a look at this two-paragraph excerpt from a story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s website. That excerpt COULD include links to: Facebook Target Rounder Program Site Target’s Facebook Site drillTeam [...]
I had a chance to check out Monday afternoon’s Search Engine Strategies panel on, “Universal, Blended, and Vertical Search” to learn about how search engines are mixing up the types of results their serving up these days. The theme of the panel is that search results containing simply 10 blue links is dead. Search engines [...]
