SEO 2.0 Blog

I was asked by my therapist to draw my nightmares…

A little home-made SEO humor. But here’s are more SEO comics from Blaugh.com that are actually good!

Relatively recently, Google started to incorporate ‘memory’ into their AdWords system. A user who first searched for “hockey”, then for “sticks”, would ultimately be served ads for hockey sticks. Not a bad idea, since about 80% of all unsuccessful searches result in keyword refinement (e.g., going back and trying a different query). Since the first and second searches are probably related, then this looks to be good for publishers, and gives more play on the keywords.

In April, at SMX Sydney, it was relayed by Marissa Mayer (VP of user experience) that this memory is coming to natural search as well. It was even given a name - “Previous Query”.

Sounds good. I’m all for a better search experience. Google is the bandleader, but other technologies and verticals are impeding. If Google can make their ‘best-of-breed’ general engine better, then they better do it fast.

Read more… “Previous Query” Refinement Coming To Hit Google Results

I have a catch-phrase. It’s not really sexy, but I say it a lot - “SEO has a different definition depending on where you stand”. This harsh reality makes it really tough to sell to clients, both big and small. Not only does an SEO need to figure out the definition that works for the client, but we have to figure out the misconceptions or expectations the client already has. If you are able to connect with your client on a more informal level, you’re going to have a much better chance at molding this engagement. Still, very few clients across the board seem to fully accept that SEO is not a particular forest, but the entire wilderness. Yes, it is a marketing channel, but it certainly doesn’t live in a box. Understandably, this truth is not what many clients want to hear; they do not want to be told that the best SEO campaigns take time and are differentiated, or that there is a plethora of hits and misses on the way to pure optimization. Many clients often want quick hits. They’ve seen occasional organic traffic streams draw thousands of visits and dollars, and they just want it again… but not by any means necessary. This is direct internet marketing, right? It works for paid search, right? It would obviously work the same for SEO? Right?

This puts a marketing agency in a tough position. They want the business, so many agencies unfortunately feel forced to dig a measurable, generic, safe “acre” out of the wilderness and shape the client’s expectations to it. They call this “SEO”, and commit the client. The client never really knows that all they got was a decade old SEO marketing model. The lift the client receives is scaled from the start, so a positive end-relationship results. The client is none-the-wiser on how much missed SEO opportunity has been sailing by in the interim; enough missed opportunity to retire on.

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Mahalo is search engine that is ’social’; in this case meaning, community edited. These means real people compile the index and earn $$$ while they’re at it. The best thing about this model is a SPAM free index. However, most of the results are pretty top-level and predictable if you’re searching a topic you’ve explored before. The results feel similiar to the Yahoo directory or DMOZ. This may be a good or bad thing, depending on your needs. Personally, I think it has a value, but not very often. I’ll use Malhalo if I’m intentionally looking for thin results for a less urgent query; it’s just that this kind of search is usually satisfied quickly enough with Google, even with the extra fluff I would get. I may have only used Malhalo 10 times in my life.

Jason Calacanis, pseudo-SEO and affiliate marketing champion, was a keynote speaker at SMX on April 22. Mr. Calacanis consistently stirs up controversy, gets SEOs talking, gets lots of notoriety, and ‘flame links’. On Bruce Clay’s blog, they quote Calacanis:

SEO is a wasted industry. You’re wasting your time fighting off ranking problems instead of creating great content. You’re just spinning your wheels hoping the Google gods won’t kick you out. It’s a bad way to live your life. Using a human service is a better way to go about it.

Calacanis also goes to speak about how many sites who hire SEOs don’t deserve to be ranked.

Strong words. Wow. SEOs are mad right now - tweets are flying, forums are flaring, and blogs are, well, blogging. I’ll be honest, I’m not as angry. Just looking at the statement above, I can’t say I totally disagree. Let’s look at it line by line.

1. SEO is a wasted industry.
   Um. Uhhhh…. why am I defending him again? Ok, I admit - this is asinine. This is probably an intentionally crafted, sensationalized comment to get our attention. It worked! Jason vantage point is slightly obstructed by Malhalo I think.
2. You’re wasting your time fighting off ranking problems instead of creating great content.
   Wasting my time? If it works, it’s for the forces of good, and it’s creating a good experience, it’s not wasting, but I do agree that creating relevant, user friendly content is paramount. I would always recommend content creation before 98% of the other tactics. That doesn’t mean I dismiss the other tactics. See my point?
3. You’re just spinning your wheels hoping the Google gods won’t kick you out.
   Another ‘baby with the bathwater’ scenario; if we’re spinning our wheels then our tactics aren’t working. Lots of tactics don’t. Lots of SEOs sell tactics they know don’t yield big results. Is that Jason’s thought? Would Google kick us out because tactics are bad, and NOT content? Or because tactics don’t tend to rank well for very long. Not sure about this line - too ambivalent, let’s move on.
4. It’s a bad way to live your life.
   Sure, If you’re shady.
5. Using a human service is a better way to go about it.
   And… here’s the Malhalo pitch! Could a human service be better? Sure - if it were 10,000x’s larger, and all the workers could promise diversity, relevancy, and user experience. If it would only reach a growth of 5,000x’s larger, then maybe it could be at least as good/bad as algorithms are today. I think I’m going to hang my hope on the algorithms for now.

I don’t contribute to the SEO forums like I should. I’m obsessed with the posts, but I don’t tend to comment because of time restraints. When I do post, my nickname is “billse”. I used to go by “billthemountain”, a play on my favorite Frank Zappa song.

Like any super-nerd, I Google myself. I even Google my nick names. To my utter shock (well, not really ’shock’), I discovered another “billthemountain” posting around. To make the story more funky, he’s was active in the SEO forums I would frequent. From the posts it sounds like he’s more of a web designer looking for some optimization tips, a little bit of a beginner, and more polite than me!

Now, I don’t think he’s an impostor. This isn’t identity theft. I think it’s all fun, playful innocence. I’ve always known I wasn’t the only one using the nick - I tried to sign up for several things with it, only to be told ’sorry - this account name is taken’. That’s part of the reason I quickly bailed on it.

But in all candor, it does make me wonder about the signal of ‘reputation’. I don’t mean reputation management per se, but the emerging idea that a person’s reputation or a site’s reputation might heavily affect link equity. I think this makes sense - we know social computing is going to grow to skyscraper levels, and we know that engines are engaged in leveraging the new ‘personality’ these platforms provide. I think this is an arena ripe for improving universal search if algorithms could eventually reign it in.

Could SEO’s be tasked with reputation management for high-profile Facebook users in the future? It would be weird, but I wouldn’t discount it as a future tactic.

One of the greatest (mostly) unknown abilities of robots.txt is wildcard pattern matching. We know how robots.txt can block files and directories from being crawled, but in the case of URLs with unique paramaters and duplicate content issues, did you know that Google and Yahoo respect wildcards (this was verified by connections at the engines - but MSN said they do not respect pattern matching “at this time”).

If you have URLs with unique parameters - for example, UTM with Google analytics, paid search tags, and so on - you can create a robots.txt entry like this:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /*utm

How cool is that? Remember, this only should be employed if you have very unique parameters. If your parameters are keyworded, and that keyword appears as other directories or page names, they will get blocked too… quite possibly to your dismay.

More from Google’s Webmaster Blog.

Getting links to your site is mucho importanto; not necessarily because of the traffic it will bring, but the SEO link value you’ll earn. It’s true - negotiating links can be a manual, arduous process, but you can save time if you approach it smartly. When reaching out to a webmaster, you want to make sure you are clear in your intention of providing information about the existence of your site, and not to ‘grease the webmaster’s palm’ or buy your way onto their page. Do it ethically - provide other relevant websites with knowledge of your value, and let the webmasters decide if you are a good fit for their site. This good intention is in line with search engines’ interests.

Here’s the Top 5 checklist I use when chasing down links.

• Look for relevant sites to get links from, because these will make the most impact. In getting links, think “Quality, not quantity”. Check niche directories, your competitors’ backlinks, and even searches on keywords related to your website (many times websites that get served are not direct competition - getting links from other keyword related sites can have a big impact).
• Use the Google toolbar PR rating as an indicator of page value. Although this is not the updated often, it is still a relatively directional data point.
• Create a spreadsheet of sites you reached out to, and their response (if any). If they offered to post a link, note where the link is located. This spreadsheet may save you from duplicating your efforts or repeating yourself to uninterested parties. If the only way to negotiate a link is to do it reciprocally, this spreadsheet can also help you make sure your link partner is keeping up with their end of the bargain (provided you revisit this spreadsheet routinely).
• Don’t be afraid to provide a “thank you” gift for the webmaster. A coupon or a gift from your site might create a stronger connection between you and the webmaster, and entice them to consider linking to you longer. Note: I do not recommend doing this as a bribe - do it in good faith, and only after the link has been created. Obviously I can’t convince you to be a pure ‘white hat SEO’, but bribing or buying links can have negative side effects in the slim chance you’re caught.
• Offer to post some of their content on your site, or create your own unique content about their site or service (think reviews, interviews, opinions, pictures, etc.). This will often get you a link, especially if the site you’re referring to is smaller or in the social network space. Who doesn’t like to point out where they’ve been mentioned?