The strategy of the seo hunt
May 31, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
This post only refers to a specific breed of SEO. That is the independent SEO whose main interest is strictly in finding ways to become a self-sufficient work from home person. This kind of SEO usually only works on his/her own sites, rather than taking on clients (although they may do this occasionally as a way to supplement income).
Contextual ads merge with Affiliates
May 30, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
I received an email recently promoting a new type of Internet advertising. In effect, it combines the look and feel of contextual text ads (like Google Adsense) with a software affiliate program. The ads have that same Adsense style look, but they advertise different software programs. (see screenshot – right) Your affiliate id is connected to the ads, and you receive the appropriate commission from any software sales just like you would with a regular affiliate program. It is being described as the next wave in online advertising. The url to the program is www.softwareadsnow.com and it uses RegNow as the affiliate provider. You can select the category of products to show on your site, choose the style and layout of the advertisements, and update or change your advertisements. Interesting and creative way to merge two popular forms of advertising into one model.
Link Harvester link analysis tool
May 29, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
Aaron Wall (of SEOBook fame) has created a free open source link analysis tool. It relies on the Yahoo! API and is limited in the number of requests in can make in a day, so he offers the script for others to mirror on their sites. I have now added Link Harvester on SEO Scoop to serve as a mirror for the tool. You will find the link to the tool in the navigation under SEO Scoop Tools.
Free online site map creator
May 28, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
Just wanted to pass along an online tool that creates a site map for your site. It is free but requires a link back. Still, this may be an easy way for you to create a site map if you have not already done so. It uses CSS, so you should be able to easily change the look to fit your site. Just in case you have forgotten why a site map is a good idea to have, I will remind you. A site map gives the search engine spiders a quick, easy way to find links to all pages of your site, and provides them with a one-stop place to spider all those pages of yours. Put a link to your site map on your home page, and the search engines will know about every page on your site in a jiffy. Check out the site map tool at www.searchenginepromotionhelp.com/m/spider-map/creator.php.
Google PR disappears
May 28, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
The shock waves are being felt all across the SEO forums as everyone realizes that PR is quickly going to 0 or gray bar for all sites – including Google. Earlier, the cache server was down, and now PR has disappeared. The rumors are flying as everyone tries to decipher what is going down. Is PR gone forever? Is it just a glitch? Is it a precursor to some change or a PR update? Many are applauding, hoping that the end of the PR era is gone. Others are wondering what will happen to the various companies and services that rely upon PR. Link brokers, link coops, etc. would have to drastically change their method of operation. Stay tuned, SEOs, as we watch yet another Google mystery unfold.
Yahoo! Mindset – Separate commercial from research
May 27, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
And so it begins. How many times have you seen an SEO suggest that search engines separate the commercial results from the informational results – perhaps using tabs? Yahoo! just released a new lab product called Mindset that essentially does just that. However, it uses a slider bar to allow you to adjust the search results for more commercial or less commercial. The Yahoo! blog entry is at www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000114.html and the actual lab product is at mindset.research.yahoo.com/.
Coming Soon – a print SEO/SEM magazine
May 27, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
SysCon Media will be issuing an SEO/SEM print magazine soon. SysCon is promoting it by saying SEM/SEO Journal will serve as the central resource for the evolving search engine optimization and search engine marketing industry. There is a brief announcement about it at www5.sys-con.com/read/89264.htm.
Easily see links with rel=nofollow
May 26, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
If you are using Firefox and have installed Greasemonkey, you can install a Greasemonkey script called Nofollow Display that will make all links on a page that use rel=nofollow show up as a strikethrough link. This can be very useful when evaluating a potential backlink. Sure, you could View Source, but it’s nice to know at a glance. You can get Greasemonkey here and get the Nofollow Display script here.
Google Pagejacking Petition
May 25, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · 1 Comment
As I am sure you all know, I have repeatedly spoken out about the Google pagejacking problem, and I was quite happy to see that Google’s own Adsense page was pagejacked yesterday. Having it happen to them may be one of the only ways to get through to the Google giants that they really do have a problem. The other way is to generate enough public and media attention that Google has no alternative but to fix the long-standing problem.
Google updates and hijacks
May 24, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · 1 Comment
Google has been undergoing a SERPs update for the last few days, and in addition, has updated backlinks as well. WebmasterWorld named the SERPs update “Bourbon” (to reflect the upcoming WMW conference in New Orleans – think Bourbon Street here). Like the last few updates, it is significant to a group of people, but it is not as wide-spread as in the days of old. In other words, with each update, a relatively small number of people see significant changes, while a large population see no changes at all. My theory is that Google is dividing up the sites into segments, and updating one segment with each update. What those segments are, or how they are divided, is completely unknown. Heck, it could be as simple as alphabetical for all I know. Of course, my theory is just that…a theory. In any case, none of my sites were affected in any way by this update, so I really cannot judge what may or may not have changed this time around. The only thing I can really comment on is the backlink update that occurred. All of my sites saw significant increases in reported backlinks. Naturally, that matters very little, since Google only reports a small sampling of the actual number of backlinks that it knows about. All in all, I can report that Google is updating both SERPs and backlinks, but I unfortunately do not have anything of value to say about either. Sorry about that. Maybe next time. 
Yahoo! Publisher update
May 23, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
I just received an email from the Yahoo! Publisher team letting me know about a contest they are having for the most innovative use of Y!Q Beta, with a first prize of $5000. While that is interesting and sort of fun, the first sentence of the email interested me more. It said: As you know, Yahoo! is testing a new platform that will be the basis for several new publisher-focused products, which we will begin introducing soon. Hopefully, this means that Yahoo’s version of Adsense will be released soon. It is high time for a REAL competitor to Adsense. I really hate placing all my eggs in one basket, especially when that basket is Google. I look forward to being able to compare the two services to see which is better for me. Interesting times around the corner for web publishers!
MSN leads in picking up original phrases
May 22, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
Yesterday, I coined a new phrase (as far as I know), which was Blue Collar SEO. Today, when searching for that phrase (without quotes), MSN had already picked it up, displaying my site in the number one spot, and also showed four other sites in the top 10 that referenced the post. Google – nowhere to be found. Yahoo – nowhere to be found. In fact, Google and Yahoo show no results at all if you search the phrase in quotes.
I am a Blue Collar SEO
May 21, 2005 by DazzlinDonna · 1 Comment
Some SEOs have a big reputation because they have Fortune 500 clients. I call these firms White Collar SEOs. I mean no disrespect towards these SEOs when I say this, but I mean really, how hard would it be to optimize for a company that is so well-known that it comes with hundreds of thousands of backlinks built-in? And let’s not forget the substantial budget you’d have to work with. The SEO work would most often focus on some simple on-page changes, or worst case, dealing with a badly seo’d dynamic site. Have a staff of trained underlings make these changes, and the mega-company will easily rank. Ok, let’s back up a bit. These White Collar SEOs need to work hard at meeting with and pleasing the upper echelon of business society. They also need to have a good understanding of how best to spend those large budgets. They also have to be able to manage and run a business that involves employees. These are all things I would not be good at doing.
