DazzlinDonna’s take on SEO news, tips and theories.
Wow, check out the interesting news over at Search Marketing Gurus. A couple of people are taking up residence over at KeyRelevance and somebody else is going to be joining the Gurus gang. I won’t spoil the surprises…go see what Li, Bill, and Fangirl are doing and how podcasts fit into it all as well.
When you have a fair amount of time, kick back and read the final report of the 2007 Web Analytics Shootout. It is an exhaustive report based on tests that compared 7 different analytics packages across 4 different sites. The performance, accuracy, and capabilities were each tested, but in my opinion, the accuracy data is what stands out the most.
If you are thinking about choosing an analytics package, don’t make a move until you read this report. It will be an eye-opener.
When is a directory not a directory? When that directory is a “vertical niche destination whose aim is to connect buyers and sellers, and who not only lists sellers, but provides metrics and content solutions to those listed”. What the heck am I talking about? I’m talking about providing value. I’m talking about going beyond what most SEOs see as a “directory” and providing real value both to users and to those listed. I’m talking about how what I once called “a crusty, old directory” turned itself into one of the highest-value sites on the Internet, by providing more than…
Yesterday, the world buzzed about Google finally releasing a feature to all Adsense publishers that allows them to give Google a list of “allowed sites”. This is a list of all sites that the publisher confirms is allowed to show their ads. Any site not on the list, is not approved by the publisher, and will not be counted. This would prevent scraper sites or anyone else from showing a publisher’s Adsense ads and subsequently getting the publisher banned through no fault of their own. This allowed sites feature had been in the testing phase for a while, but was finally…
I was asked to review a blog directory, and I thought sure, ok. Blog directories aren’t a dime a dozen yet, right? Well, maybe I was wrong on that. There seem to be a lot more blog directories than I thought, but I guess that was inevitable. In any case, here is my review of the Alive Blog Directory.
The blog directory appears to be a new addition to the already well-established Alive Web Directory, so I’d assume that it will be well promoted and probably used. My guess is that it may actually send traffic, although that’s just a guess…
The one thing I’ve done a few times successfully in the past is to capitalize on a new trend before everyone else does. Generally, being a geek, that means I tend towards taking advantage of new technologies, grabbing a great domain name if possible, and then getting a site with some content up before the rest of the world catches on. This makes my site a leader, or an early adopter, and that makes SERPs domination just a little bit easier.
One thing I don’t tend to do is capitalize on non-geeky trends, such as fashion or non-electronic consumer goods. But…
Today’s post is from a guest blogger, Khalid Hajsaleh, Thanks, Khalid!
Regardless of the type of website you have, when your site visitor takes the action you designed for them to take, a conversion occurs. In the case of an e-commerce website, a conversion happens when a customer places an order. On a lead generation website, the conversion happens when the customer fills a contact form. When a visitor subscribes to an RSS feed on a blog, a conversion happens.
But let’s face it, if you have operated a website for any amount of time then you must have faced the…
Last week (or maybe the week before) I downloaded Michelle MacPhearson’s Social Media Daily, as did another 1613 people (there’s a download count on the page). I’d really prefer that no one else download it, because I hate sharing total gems when I find them. But, Michelle deserves the mention, and you deserve to hear about it too.
So, run, don’t walk, to download your own Social Media Daily. It’s free, and it’s jam packed with incredible information. If you get nothing else out of it, the list of social sites is worth the price…oh right, there is no price!
I’m not…
Hopefully, some of you have gotten some use out of the mental exercises I’ve asked you to go through this week. I do think it is important that you consciously determine what the core aspect of a site (or page) is, and then make sure that core aspect is well represented on the page and in the SERPs. So often, we don’t consciously make the effort to think about it, just assuming that we know what the message is, and assuming that the message comes through. But we are often surprised that our users and visitors disagree with us! So,…
At the beginning of the week, I asked the following questions:
What is your message? If you wanted your site to say “one thing�, what would it be? Is that message represented well in the search engines?
Raise your hand if you thought about that post for more than about 5 seconds. C’mon, don’t everyone raise their hands at once. What? Just a couple of you! Ok, that’s what I thought, so today I’m going to challenge you to answer the following, and I want to see your answer in the comments so I know you actually participated. 
Today’s task: Explain what…
Apparently, the Paid Links session at SES San Jose this week was quite the spectacle. Oh how I wish I could have been right there in the midst of the action while the search engine reps tried in vain to defend their positions against the big, bad SEOs. Luckily, others have done a great job of giving blow-by-blow playbacks.
Of course, the reality is that paid links work, and any good SEO will advise you to stay under the radar whenever possible. The big ad networks will need to do what they can to obfuscate their inventories so that Big Brother cannot…
The following is a guest post, written by Glen Allsopp. Enjoy! (Thanks, Glen)
I realise I am going to have to explain this title a little bit so I may as well do it now. There are so many avenues of Internet Marketing such as Social Media, SEO, PPC etc. The only thing known online to provide the majority of Internet Marketing tactics in one place is blogging:
- Social
There’s nothing more social online then commenting on other people’s blogs and allowing them to comment on yours. Blog platforms are what allow you to publish the content that can make it onto…
I live on the web so much I sometimes forget that our industry might actually have information available in a book. And although search is an ever-fluid industry, there are certain aspects that are timeless. I haven’t read it yet, but I have no doubt that Shari Thurow’s new edition of her popular search engine optimization book, Search Engine Visibility contains lots of timeless SEO information. Shari does have a companion site for the book at http://www.searchenginesbook.com that will be able to document changes as they happen over time.
Based on descriptions of the book, it appears to be a great resource…
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