 |
SEARCH |
 |
|
|
|
|
Article Index: Tile View
|
|
Most Recent Articles |
|
|
Web Marketing Now Back Office
> Articles
> Most Recent Articles
Most Recent Articles
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
2007
September 2008
26-Sept-08 |
SEO in a Box Updated - Many claim SEO is complicated. I claim it's not. In fact, to me it is easier than it was ten years ago. Why? Back then you had to optimize for 8 different search engines. Today, you just have to optimize for one: Google.
|
13-Sept-08 |
Switch to PHP - Keep All Your Rankings - Learn how to make a major switch, from HTML to PHP, yet keep all of your hard earned search engine rankings without missing a beat.
|
9-Sept-08 |
Market Share from Real Websites - Understand the current market share for search engines, browsers, operating systems, resolution settings, etc.
|
5-Sept-08 |
Directory List Updated - Every 3-4 months we do an update to the directory list, but every year, we go through and verify every single directory and look to see how they are really doing in terms of SEO and adjust grades and include commentary. The year audit just occurred.
|
4-Sept-08 |
Google Suggest Goes Live - In December 2004, if you were a subscriber back then, I reported on a new tool Google just came out with called Google Suggest, and outlined how it could greatly change SEO and keyword targeting if it ever went live.
|
Return to top
August 2008
29-Aug-08 |
Q&A with Google at SES - Q&A with Google at SES with topics from learning more about Google Site Links to How video should be SEO'd.
|
28-Aug-08 |
SES Wrap-up - While I know there are a ton of summaries from the sessions, I went to very few due to the fact that the content was heavily centered around beginners. I spent most of my time in the hallways and foyers getting key information.
|
2-Aug-08 |
Directory PageRank Update - Here are the directories which had their PageRank changed. As you will see, no major directories were affected.
|
1-Aug-08 |
How to Get More Leads for Your SEO Business - If you don't have a consulting business, the advice can be applied to most business structures. If you currently take SEO clients, this is a must read.
|
Return to top
July 2008
26-July-08 |
Google PageRank Update - There has been an update going on with Google'sToolbar PageRank since Thursday. It seems to have stabilized and the results are quite interesting and based on the tests that I have been running, I've come up with some solid conclusions.
|
17-July-08 |
Outsourcing Tips - Growing your business means hiring employees. It is part of the game. I was a big supporter for outsourcing for many years. I ran into an issue with many of the outsourced staff lying, padding their hours, working on other projects when they were supposed to be working on mine, etc. So I fired nearly my entire outsourced staff and hired everyone locally. My reason? Having people in the same office would allow for "synergy" to take place and more would get accomplished in less time.
|
15-July-08 |
Google Updates Data in Keyword Tool Google's update to their Keyword Tool will SIGNIFICANTLY improve your keyword research ability. Review how in just four minutes with the screen shots, commentary and test results below: |
8-July-08 |
Keyword Competition Tool I've covered this before, but I keep dominating the rankings with this technique. So I am hitting again, with a few more wrinkles to it and an updated tool to boot. |
Return to top
June 2008
| 25-Jun-08 |
SEO and Bounce Rate: Bounce Rates Analyzed
A member pointed me to an article posted on a blog this morning about SEO and Bounce Rate. I read it and just shook my head. There was no clear direction given. So, I did a quick search in the back office and found an article I posted last year and updated it. |
| 20-Jun-08 |
Run of Site Links Testing Results
Over the last six months, I have been running extensive tests to identify exactly what the "penalty" is for ROS (Run of Site) Links, paid or unpaid. I tested with 24 domains and 72 keyword phrases. |
| 20-Jun-08 |
XSS Scripting Link Injection
Often when your rankings go down you look at many causes, but XSS (Cross Site Scripting) isn't usually one of them. If you have a free form text area, like a search box on your site, and your server's security hasn't been updated in awhile, you could be vulnerable to an attack. |
| 17-Jun-08 |
Duplicate Content Issues and Scrapers
An interesting article by Sven Naumann, from Google's Search Quality Team, indicates that there are two kinds of duplicate content.... |
| 17-Jun-08 |
Understanding Google's Penalties
Breaking trust with Google is one of the major things that can get your site penalized. The problem is knowing exactly what you did that broke Google's trust. |
| 17-Jun-08 |
Major Ranking Losses in Google
There have been many claims as to why there was a loss of ranking this month. The only thing that seems to reach across the board is that the penalties all happened on the same day: June 4th. |
| 17-Jun-08 |
Search Engine 'Love Triangle'
Despite a deal from Microsoft to acquire Yahoo! Search for $1 billion, Yahoo! publicly stated it wasn't interested in the smaller deal and wanted a full acquisition. According to my sources at Microsoft, this wasn't the case. |
| 17-Jun-08 |
Getting Links to eCommerce Site
Sometimes getting links to an eCommerce site is difficult, because there is no meat for the other site to link to. If you are suffering, here are a few methods to help ease your "lack of link love" pain.... |
| 17-Jun-08 |
Does AdSense Have Lower Quality Control for AdWords Advertisers?
I still find MFA's all over Google's search results, even though they came down hard on them in May 2007. |
| 17-Jun-08 |
New/Updated Tools
Andy Edmunds' StomperNet Ranker, AdWords Editor Version 6.0 and a newly updated Google Trends. |
| 6-Jun-08 |
Yahoo! Directory & PageRank
While I still recommend the Yahoo! directory due to the click throughs and one-way link opportunities it presents, if you are after pure "PageRank" juice you aren't going to get much from it right now. Can this change? Maybe. |
| 6-Jun-08 |
Yahoo! Directory & PageRank
While I still recommend the Yahoo! directory due to the click throughs and one-way link opportunities it presents, if you are after pure "PageRank" juice you aren't going to get much from it right now. Can this change? Maybe. |
| 6-Jun-08 |
Graphics Used as Internal Links
I am passing this off as a "bug" in Google because this I have never seen this before and I see no reason why it is a "change" in the algorithm, but here is what you should do in the meantime. |
| 6-Jun-08 |
Member Q&A - June 2008
Here are recently received questions from our members... |
| 2-Jun-08 |
Google Algorithm Update May 2008
Google continues to be unstable for a good portion of 2008. Comparing data sets brought a lot of inconsistencies. The Supplemental Index is still dead and many of our test domains are still reeling from the huge data purge Google did in April and early May. In fact, taking into account ALL of my test domains, the number of pages I have in the Google index is just 18% of what it was in February. |
| 2-Jun-08 |
SEO Q&A
Here is a list of common questions that are asked and I give answers based on testing. Note the testing results from January are also referenced so you can see the changes. |
Return to top
May 2008
| 17-May-08 |
Testing Results: Google On-Page Factors
It's been awhile since I have done a recap on On-Page Factors and how they can influence both SEO and traffic levels. So, here were go. Let's hit the Title Tag and the Meta Description Tag. |
| 9-May-08 |
Boost Your Keyword Research with an Excel Add-in from Microsoft
While it is still in Beta, they have made some great improvements and if you aren't using this add-in, now is the time. |
| 6-May-08 |
Must see AdWords Video from Dan Thies
Do you remember the fiasco that Brad Fallon went through when his wedding favors site got nailed by the canonical bug in Google? It was brutal. Brad lost 50,000 unique visitors a month ... or basically half his business overnight. |
Return to top
April 2008
| 30-Apr-08 |
Google Quality Guide Update
As April is wrapping up, let's review some issues that many of you have posted about. Includes Back Office Search, Usability and Rankings and Google Quality Guide review. |
| 30-Apr-08 |
Can Website Usability Influence Your Search Engine Rankings?
This has been floating out there for a bit and many experts point to the latest Yahoo! patent filing as proof. The summary of this patent is it will look at quality factors and base the top SERPs not just in ranking factors but on usability factors too. Before you start freaking out, let me ask, when has Yahoo! ever done anything right in search? |
| 30-Apr-08 |
Google Toolbar PageRank Update
I have spent the last three hours analyzing the PageRank update which just hit Google and how the test domains faired. It is pretty interesting. |
| 23-Apr-08 |
Gumbo: Cheese is Not Served with Whine
One of our members told me this story and gave me permission to share it with you. If you work with clients, undoubtedly you have experienced something very similar to this. |
| 19-Apr-08 |
Speeding Up Your Site a Plus for AdWords Pt. 2
Here is an update and the ten remaining YSlow sections analyzed for you. |
| 11-Apr-08 |
Step-by-Step SEO Site Audit
Whether you are analyzing a competitor, putting together a proposal for a prospect or giving a current client a report, knowing what to look at and what to ignore is vital. Here are the steps I go through. You will notice a lot of the steps are not "Pure SEO" steps, they are more "webmaster steps", as SEO is easy. Seriously, it is. |
| 11-Apr-08 |
Link Bait Example
A few of you have asked for an example of what a "link bait" Blog post would look like... |
| 3-Apr-08 |
Kitchen Table Copy Released
I have completed and posted the 47-page document which will not only show you my technique to creating solid landing pages for PPC traffic, but also it will strengthen your copy writing ability. |
| 3-Apr-08 |
Directory Testing
I have been looking at some of the main directories and see exactly how impressive they were in getting spidered and passing PageRank. I took this data from 23 domains. |
Return to top
March 2008
| 31-Mar-08 |
Google Webmaster Tools Live Chat
Google help a "live chat" Friday, March 28th. Mainly I felt it wasn't worth the time as most of the questions were answered dodged or they plugged posting the question in Google Webmaster Help. So, if you didn't make it, here is my summary. |
| 18-Mar-08 |
Google Engineer Discussion
I was on the phone last week with two engineers from Google. We were going over some Spam issues which I was reporting and I asked them regarding the "rumor" about the accuracy of the Toolbar PageRank./td>
|
| 18-Mar-08 |
Does Only the First Anchor Text Count?
Rand Fishkin at SEOMoz posted a new article on an old issue that is generating some buzz, so I thought I'd clear it up with testing results. |
| 18-Mar-08 |
Becoming Great Involves Risk
No one has ever become great working for someone else. When it comes to business we all have mental fears. |
| 18-Mar-08 |
Yahoo! Directory Listing
If you have a listing in the Yahoo! Directory and your Title only shows your domain name and your description is missing, I have the fix. |
| 10-Mar-08 |
Speeding Up Your Site a Plus for AdWords Pt. 1
Last week it was reported, and I confirmed through testing, that slow loading landing pages caused the "Quality Score" in Google AdWords to be reduced. As you know, a lower quality score not only means you will pay more, on average, per click, but you can also rank lower too. Neither of those are good things.Note: This article should be read before Yslow article. |
| 10-Mar-08 |
Installing and using YSlow - A Comprehensive Guide
While the following is a technical discussion, I will outline it with as many examples as I can to make it easy to follow and understand. Because even though I am a former software tester, guys like Andy Edmunds and Leslie Rohde still can talk circles with this stuff. Note: Speeding Up Your Site a Plus for AdWords Pt. 1 and this article should be read together. |
| 10-Mar-08 |
SEO In A Box: Update
Here is just a quick update. |
| 4-Mar-08 |
Google PageRank Update - Directory Impact
Here is just a quick list of the directories which were affected in the PageRank update that finished on Sunday. |
| 1-Mar-08 |
Gumbo: Leave "Bluffing" for the Poker Table
"A closed mouth gathers no feet." - Anon |
Return to top
February 2008
| 28-Feb-08 |
NoFollows and Links on Web Marketing Now
A member sent in a few questions regarding why I do certain things on Web Marketing Now that don't make a lot of sense. Let me be clear. Don't look at my site for ways to do things. I use the WebMarketingNow site for testing and do some pretty crazy things so I can report to you what actually happens with real sites when you use certain methods. |
| 28-Feb-08 |
Get Google Ads Free
You may have seen a promotion for this eBook on sale through ClickBank. Basically, their "talking" sales page states, "Just insert a simple piece of code onto your web site, landing page, etc. and get all of your Google ads for free." It isn't what it seems... |
| 28-Feb-08 |
Detecting Link Farms
A question was asked regarding how to distinguish between a link farm and a good site. It is best if I show you by example. |
| 28-Feb-08 |
Another Linking Strategy
One of the strategies that I have been advocating is finding a poorly ranked page for your targeted keyword phrase and contacting the owner to buy the phrase on the page as a "paid link". |
| 28-Feb-08 |
Directory List Updated
In all, no earth-shattering changes, but having up-to-date data is always good. |
| 28-Feb-08 |
SEO in a Box
Many of you do SEO for sites that you own, or for merchants as affiliates, or you do SEO work for clients. Regardless, it seems SEO comes up on a daily basis. A member asked me recently what I would do if I had a client (thankfully I don't have those anymore) who said, "We're currently on page 4 in Google for term "XYZ". We want to get on the first page." How would you address it? Let's roll up our sleeves and do it ... |
| 26-Feb-08 |
Blogging & SEO
Okay, so last week we had Sherman Hu on, who shared some excellent tips, and I wanted to do a follow-up on how to use Blogging to your advantage when it comes to SEO. |
| 18-Feb-08 |
Blogging Test Results & Tips from Sherman Hu
Over the last several months I have been testing how to gain small victories with increased ranking but bring high returns in traffic and conversion. After all, what this business is about is doing the "little things" over and over. |
| 18-Feb-08 |
Thoughts on Lincoln: Improving Business
Do you conduct your business based on "being liked" or doing what you know is right? |
| 8-Feb-08 |
Link Building Review
One of our members, and an SEO I GREATLY respect is Mike Grehan. He had a great quote about linking that I would like to share with you. |
| 8-Feb-08 |
11 Experts Speak Out on Linking
A member brought this to my attention last week for review. Rae Hoffman, otherwise known as Sugar Rae, put out a couple of articles on linking and quite a few members asked me to summarize and comment on the articles. So, since linking is still a vital piece of SEO, here you go ... |
Return to top
January 2008
| 29-Jan-08 |
Keyword Research - How to Discover Top Keyphrases
I know there are a ton of articles out there on Keyword Research. It seems every time you turn around there is a new one. What works? What's effective? I've put together some key points, sprinkled in some graphics from the web, and dusted off an old video to show the process. It doesn't need to be difficult or time consuming. |
| 29-Jan-08 |
Google Penalty - Lifted?
Many blogs and forums are reporting that the Google Penalty, which hits sites when the anchor text is "too targeted", has been lifted. Or has it? |
| 29-Jan-08 |
Yahoo! Layoffs and Algorithm Update
The signs are looking worse for Yahoo! as they continue to lose money in the search arena and layoffs are scheduled.What this means for you... |
| 21-Jan-08 |
Google Algorithm Update January 2008 - On-Page Factors Analyzed
Before I get into the current algorithm update, many members, both new and veteran ask the following questions routinely. So, I thought while I compiled the data, I would look into them along with the current status of Google to give you absolute fact regarding these issues. |
| 14-Jan-08 |
Expanded Link Building Tip & Definitive Link Guide Updated
Aaron Wall over at SEO Book had a Blog post recently about a supposed -5 penalty if your anchor text was "fitted too tight". Here's what to do... |
| 14-Jan-08 |
Google Mini-Toolbar Update
If you've been going nuts over the flux in Google, don't sweat it, they are going through mini PageRank toolbar update. |
| 14-Jan-08 |
Directory List Updated
I have updated the directory list. |
Return to top
|
|
|
|
|
