SEOmoz | 8 Predictions for SEO in 2010

n this post, I'm going to try tackling a lot of the recent trends we've been observing from the engines and talk about my personal perception of what's to come over the next 12 months.

SEOmoz | 8 Predictions for SEO in 2010

Add Multimedia to Your Website with One Click – Apture.com

Add a whole new dimension to your website. Enhance your blog posts and articles with interactive videos, images, Wikipedia, maps and more from 50+ sources without making readers leave the page.

Add Multimedia to Your Website with One Click – Apture.com

Official Google Blog: Translate Google Sites with one click

Google brought translation features to many of our products in 2009, including Google Docs and Gmail and we're happy to add one more before the New Year. To make it easier for people around the globe to read the site you created with Google Sites, we've integrated with the Google Translate Element. Now, whenever someone visits a Google Site in another language, they will be given the option to translate the content into the language of their choice. All they have to do is click on the translate link at the bottom right-hand side of the page. Now, the content on your site can be translated into 51 languages, allowing you to reach a whole new audience. Check out this before and after for a Korean school's website below (or try it out for yourself).

Official Google Blog: Translate Google Sites with one click

The SEO Christmas Tree

Just a little SEO Christmas fun...Merry Christmas

The SEO Christmas Tree

Google Starts The New Year Countdown » SEO Blog PageTraffic

New Year is just around the corner and Google has begun the countdown for the New Year already. Without giving any query to Google, just click on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” option on the Google homepage.

Following this you'll instantly get the count of how many seconds are left in the arrival of New Year. At the time of this blog being written it’s showing 1426000 seconds to be left in this year. However, it may not work with every browser.

Google Starts The New Year Countdown » SEO Blog PageTraffic

Official Google Blog: Two new features enhance search beyond the results page

On Monday, when Amit Singhal introduced Google real-time search, he talked about bringing you information at the speed of light. But speed isn't just about the time it takes the results to load, or even the time it takes us to index new information — it's about the time it takes to get you the information you're looking for.

Official Google Blog: Two new features enhance search beyond the results page

How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell - The Oatmeal

Please go read this! Thanks Anita!

Twitter Statistics | Twitter Adder - Professional Twitter Marketing Tools - Automatic Twitter Software - Automate Twitter Posts, Auto Twitter Follow, Automate Unfollow, Mass Tweets, Twitter Search, more ..

Full suite of Twitter Statistical Data in Tweet Adder
Time Frame Drop Down: Choose Today, Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, All Time
* Follows Sent: # of follows sent
* Followers: # of followers gained
* Followers Lost: Users that have unfollowed you
* Conversion Rate: % of Follows Sent to Follow Back
* Messages Sent: Total # of Auto Dm’s Sent (Direct Messages)
* Twitter Updates: Total # of Tweets and Reply Tweets Sent

Twitter Statistics | Twitter Adder - Professional Twitter Marketing Tools - Automatic Twitter Software - Automate Twitter Posts, Auto Twitter Follow, Automate Unfollow, Mass Tweets, Twitter Search, more ..

Qwitter: Catching Twitter quitters

Qwitter e-mails you when someone stops following you on Twitter with a message like this:

John Gruber (gruber) stopped following you on Twitter after you posted this tweet:
What's the difference between Arial and Helvetica?
Just tell us the Twitter username you want to track and your e-mail address and we’ll do the rest.

Qwitter: Catching Twitter quitters

Twitter to Launch Premium Accounts Before the End of the Year

During a shared a Nesta panel in London today. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone confirmed to the attendees that Twitter still plans to sell "corporate accounts" to its users before the end of the year.

In regards to what these accounts will offer, that has yet to be revealed but you can expect enhanced analytics built in.

Twitter still to Launch Premium Accounts Before the End of the Year

How To Track Social Media Traffic With Google Analytics | ploked.com

One of the more difficult things to do in social media is to track the effectiveness of the campaign. Measuring the profitability of a social media campaign is even more difficult. However, measuring your social media traffic using Google Analytics is not difficult at all. Below, we will cover the steps needed to take to effectively track your social media traffic.

Getting Setup in Google Analytics

How To Track Social Media Traffic With Google Analytics | ploked.com

Is PageRank (or TrustRank, coming soon) Important

Great article from SEOBook shows that yes, PageRank is still important but it's not the perfect answer to every question. PageRank can be an indicator of how well your page is doing on Google. But, remember the first and only rule - market to your audience, the search engines will follow.

• Be smart
• Be clean
• Be concise
• Be factual

Is PageRank Important

Twitter, LinkedIn team up for self-promotion free-for-all | Webware - CNET

Chalk one up for the cringe-worthy marketing term "personal branding": there is a new partnership between Twitter, hub for informing the world exactly what you're doing and thinking at all moments of the day, and LinkedIn, the business-networking tool on steroids. In an announcement Monday, the two companies explained that LinkedIn status messages can sync with Twitter.

"The business use case of Twitter is turning out to be very important, and more and more people are finding that the persona they create for themselves on the Web is part of their resume in many ways," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in a joint video with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman that was posted to the LinkedIn blog.

Twitter, LinkedIn team up for self-promotion free-for-all | Webware - CNET

Is your website ready for Google Caffeine?

With the launch of Google Caffeine coming up quickly, you have to ask yourself, "Am I ready?" "Is my website ready?" If you don't know the answer to that question, please contact Tork Marketing.

This is the perfect time to make sure that your website is ready for the latest Google algorithm change. Is your code as clean as possible? Do you have duplicate content issues? Are all of your meta tags complete and descriptive? Where's your robots.txt and sitemap.xml files? If you're nervous about your rankings changing, please contact our technical team at Tork Marketing and for $600 we can perform a quick website analysis to let you know what areas are okay for the new launch and what areas may need sprucing up - think of it as spring cleaning!

C'mon Google Caffeine - C'mon!

Back in August, we were shocked to learn that Google was working on a new version of its search engine. The secret project, known officially as Google Caffeine, wouldn’t change the face or design of the Google search engine, but would instead provide an overhaul of the architecture of Google’s web search that would improve its indexing speed, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Since the launch of the developer preview however, we haven’t heard much about it. It’s quietly been undergoing testing and tweaking. That’s all changing though, as now the developer preview of Google Caffeine has been taken down, replaced with an announcement that Google Caffeine will go live in its first datacenter soon.

New Version of Google Search Is Launching Soon

Does Google Handle Canonical Issues Fully?

Tedster, WebmasterWorld's Administrator, posted an excellent thread at WebmasterWorld asking how do you think Google handles the canonical issues they find on their own? By that he means, if webmasters don't use a 301 redirect or use Google's canonical header tag to instruct Google on how to handle that URL, how would Google handle it?

Would they cosmetically clean up the search results so that there does not appear to be any canonical (duplicate) URLs in the results? Or do they actually decide to implement a 301 on your behalf and pass all the 'link juice' from one canonical URL to the parent URL?

Does Google Handle Canonical Issues Fully?

Wikipedia

Don’t make the mistake of letting just anyone update Wikipedia for you. Make sure the person has plenty of experience editing Wikipedia pages. Ask to see their user history. Make sure that the Wikipedia page has links to well documented, independent sources. Remember what the goal of Wikipedia is – impartial, non-marketing, in-depth information for all. If you are questioning whether or not you can create a company profile on Wikipedia, ask yourself:

• Am I a public or private company?
• Have any nation-wide publications written about me?
• Are those articles available online or in the library?

Contact us if you have any questions or are interested in increasing your exposure on Wikipedia.

SEO Can't Fix Stupid - ClickZ

The divisiveness of the SEO industry has reared its tenacious, albeit link-baiting head again in recent weeks. Apparently as contentious as politics and religion, SEO tactics should not be discussed in polite company; especially the company you keep includes Web designers, Internet technologists, and failed spammers.

Small wonder search engine conferences remain highly attended. They provide safe havens where like-minded souls can discuss the loathsome topic of SEO without having vitriol served up with light refreshments.

SEO Can't Fix Stupid - ClickZ

Google Introduces 3D Building Maker Tool for Google Earth » SEO Blog PageTraffic

Google has launched a new tool Building Maker, which will compliment with Google Earth and Maps products. This online tool will help users in creating 3D model renderings of building structures on Google Earth.

The Latlong blog of Google explains that Building Maker tools is a cross between gigantic bin of building blocks and Google Maps. Users can easily build and construct a model of it by using aerial photos and 3D shapes provided by Google. When you are finished with it, Google Earth team will examine the 3D model and if they approve it, they will add the model to the 3D building layers in Google Earth.

Google Introduces 3D Building Maker Tool for Google Earth » SEO Blog PageTraffic

Search Engine Optimization FAIL: An SEO Horror Story

It’s almost Halloween, kids, so I thought I would share a scary SEO disaster tale to get you in the Halloween spirit. Listen (er, read) closely and be very afraid, as it could happen to you [insert evil witch cackle here].witch

After careful consideration and months of brainstorming and working through ideas, you redesigned your site. It looks so pretty, with all its vivid images and bold colors. It has all the functionality you asked for and it meets all the goals you had for it- except one [this is where the scary, impending doom-type music picks up]. A month after you launched it, your rankings in Google, Yahoo & Bing disappeared. Your site traffic is down and stress is up. People at your organization are asking questions and demanding answers. What the heck happened?!? How can you get your rankings and traffic back?? You’re wishing you could wake up from this horrible nightmare.

OK, are you officially spooked? Well have no fear. I’ve got the steps you will need to take to mitigate this SEO disaster if you ever find yourself in this position.

Search Engine Optimization FAIL: An SEO Horror Story

The FTC Update – In Plain English | ClickNewz! Internet Marketing Blog

Earlier this year there was an uproar surrounding the news that the FTC was proposing regulations on Social Media Marketing. Last week the FTC published the final guides, which govern endorsements and testimonials and specifically addresses online advertisers and bloggers.

What the FTC Guidelines Actually Say – And What It Means (To YOU)
In Plain English…

The FTC Update – In Plain English | ClickNewz! Internet Marketing Blog

Duplicate Web Content: Google Penalty Myth | ClickNewz! Internet Marketing Blog

The first issue that Greg Grothaus discusses is the common myth about the Duplicate Content Penalty. He explains how they create a set of results for any given search query, and explains that there is actually no penalty.

They simply determine which of the duplicate pieces of content is most relative to the actual search query, and omit the others. Those that are omitted from one search query, may very well show in another more relevant search query. Example: a web page, and the print version of that same web page.

Duplicate Web Content: Google Penalty Myth | ClickNewz! Internet Marketing Blog

Japanese Candlesticks - Subscribe to our Newsletters with Japanese Candlestick Stock Charting reviews from twice a week to five days a week

Who knew there was such an easy way to understand the stock market? I love patterns, it's what I look for every day. Now I can apply that technique to the stock market. The technique is called Japanese Candlesticks. There are too many patterns for me to explain here but check out this website and get more information. Their monthly subscription starts as low as $12 per month. This will get you two pdfs per week full of great information. I can't wait to start making money!!

Japanese Candlesticks - Subscribe to our Newsletters with Japanese Candlestick Stock Charting reviews from twice a week to five days a week

Google Prefers HTML Sitemaps over XML Sitemaps » SEO Blog PageTraffic

The latest Seorountable blog post is talking about why HTML sitemap is better than XML sitemap. Here is a video in which Google's Matt Cutt answers SEO related questions and preferred HTML sitemap over XML sitemap.

Matt Cutt tells the reason of choosing an HTML sitemap by Google is because both the users and search spiders can follow it for important information results. The other benefit can be that it becomes very easy to make XML version after creating a HTML sitemap.

Google Prefers HTML Sitemaps over XML Sitemaps » SEO Blog PageTraffic

Bing Introduces 'Visual Search' To Refine Search Results » SEO Blog PageTraffic

Of late, Microsoft has conducted a study that shows that images give the users 20% faster search results than the text only. Hence, it has become clear that images play a key role in various search activities for movies, cars, news and different products.

It seems like Bing has seriously followed the above study for search results. Yesterday, Bing in a blog post announced new Visual Search feature, which is a new way to refine your search queries through imagery to enjoy more structured search results. To see new visual search experience, just go to www.bing.com/visualsearch and install Silverlight in case you do not have it. Visual search lets you scroll through the galleries or do one-click refinement using the quick tabs that are on the left to help get results which you are looking for.

Bing Introduces 'Visual Search' To Refine Search Results » SEO Blog PageTraffic

BREAKING: Google Announces Social Search

Google’s Vice-President of Search Marissa Mayer has just made a surprise announcement at the Web 2.0 Expo: a new Google Labs feature called Social Search. They just gave a quick demo of the new feature.

While the details are still sparse, here is what we currently know (and we’re still updating, so check back for more information):

BREAKING: Google Announces Social Search

HOW TO: Gather Feedback With Social Media

1. Add a Survey to Your Website or Blog
2. Add a Poll to Your Facebook Page
3. Poll Your Twitter Followers
4. Post a YouTube Video
5. LinkedIn Answers
6. Gather Feedback Responsibly

HOW TO: Gather Feedback With Social Media

You’ve Been Served … A Court Order, Via Twitter

The issue of "Twitter jacking" someone's identity has been a hot topic this year.

Perhaps the most visible incident was St Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa taking Twitter to court over someone else using his identity on the microblogging service. Kanye has also had issues with Twitter imposters, but, what doesn’t he have issues with?

You've Been Served … A Court Order, Via Twitter

87% Won't Allow Google To Manage Their AdWords Accounts

87% Won't Allow Google To Manage Their AdWords Accounts

On Friday we ran a poll asking Would You Allow Google to Manage Your AdWords Account? I am honestly not surprised by the answer, where an overwhelming majority of the responses were basically, "no way!" In short, people feel that the Google AdWords representatives who manage accounts in Google for advertisers cannot do as good as a job as an SEM company or someone who manages it themselves.

87% Won't Allow Google To Manage Their AdWords Accounts

6 Tips for Customizing Your Small Business Blog

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

If you’re like most socially-savvy companies, your business probably has a blog. It’s a great way to connect with your customers, announce new products, and provide a human face to your company’s image.

6 Tips for Customizing Your Small Business Blog

Google Removes PageRank Data From Webmaster Tools

Google has removed the PageRank section in the crawl statistics in Google Webmaster Tools. This has gone mostly unnoticed, with the release of the labs feature, until now. A Google Webmaster Help thread reports the PageRank values shown in Webmaster Tools has now been completely removed. I have verified this and it is true.

Google Removes PageRank Data From Webmaster Tools

Steps To Restrict Google Results to the Past Minutes or Seconds » SEO Blog PageTraffic

A recent blog comes up with the update that while expanding the options on a Google search result page, you can restrict the results to things such as the past week, the past 24 hours, or “Recent results”. This is possible by tweaking the URL parameter on the result page.

The URL parameter value starts with qdr that stand for query date range. Remember that you have to type “s" for seconds and “n" for minutes as shown below while “h" for hour, “y" for year and likwise in the URL.

Steps To Restrict Google Results to the Past Minutes or Seconds » SEO Blog PageTraffic

Internet Marketing 101: Why mobile search is different than typical search - Mobile Marketing - BizReport

Internet Marketing 101: Why mobile search is different than typical search.

Although still quite different a new whitepaper from the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) indicates that the gap between mobile searchers and Internet searchers is lessening. Meaning that marketers should begin to see some overlap between mobile and Internet campaigns; however, this is not an indicator that a 'one size fits all' approach to search marketing is in order.

Internet Marketing 101: Why mobile search is different than typical search - Mobile Marketing - BizReport

SEO: Search Engine Rankings Vary Among Searchers | Practical eCommerce

Rankings have long been a valued metric in search marketing. After all, it's easy to monitor and seems like a really important measure. However, if you really want to measure the effectiveness of your SEO campaign, stop obsessing about rankings.

Proactively changing the focus of your company’s expectations from rankings on a single trophy term to metrics that matter more will help. Search engine rankings remain a useful diagnostic tool and should be tracked as a metric, but rankings are not the most telling measure of SEO success. See my articles on setting SEO goals and measuring SEO success for more detail.

SEO: Search Engine Rankings Vary Among Searchers | Practical eCommerce

Bing’s Visual Search Needs to Be Seen to Be Believed!

When the folks at Bing first demonstrated Visual Search, I was blown away. That's quite an accomplishment for this search cynic. Now you get to try it for yourself–as the feature has just gone live.

It's really hard to describe Visual Search, which is why I told Bing, "You have to do a video demo of this, because it's going to be really hard to describe." :-)

Bing's Visual Search Needs to Be Seen to Be Believed!

How to Set Up a Laptop Security System - Feature - Lifehacker

Phase One: Lock and Key
They aren't free, but an inexpensive laptop lock can do wonders for securing your laptop and deterring thieves. You can find a huge range of laptop locks on Amazon ranging from $12 to $40, and whether you know it or not almost all laptops support them.

Phase Two: Laptop Alarms and Security Cameras
You've got your laptop physically locked down, so you're off to a great start. For phase two of your laptop security system, try setting up a software-based security system and alarm. Here's how they work.

Phase Three: Retrieval
If worse comes to worst and your laptop is stolen, you're still not without recourse. Several tools are available to help you not only track your laptop and the thief after your laptop has been stolen, but also to secure data on your computer after it's been stolen.

How to Set Up a Laptop Security System - Feature - Lifehacker

How to Stop Making Yourself Crazy with Self-Editing | Copyblogger

Write. Edit. Write. Edit. Edit. Edit. Edit. Write.

Does this sound familiar? If it doesn’t then you’re probably from Mars, because most of us drive ourselves crazy with self-editing when we write.

And it's not only when writing.

We self-edit when we're walking. When you walk on gravel, you walk differently than when you walk on grass.

How to Stop Making Yourself Crazy with Self-Editing | Copyblogger

E-commerce sites: You have 2 seconds to load your Web pages | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

E-commerce sites have two seconds to load a Web page or consumers will click away. And after three seconds nearly all customers will split, according to research by Forrester and Akamai.

Akamai had Forrester conduct a followup to a 2006 survey. The 2006 survey found that four seconds was the threshold for Web page loading. Three years later that threshold has been halved.

E-commerce sites: You have 2 seconds to load your Web pages | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

Google Mass Bans & Warns AdWords Advertisers, But Why?

I figured, it had to be some type of bug, where the algorithm was tweaked a bit too strong against the landing page quality. Google first sent us a statement that read:

Google is constantly working to ensure that we’re showing ads to our users that are relevant, in accordance with our ad policies, and safe for users. To that end, we perform regular reviews, using both manual and automated processes, in order to detect and disable ads that violate our policies.

That didn't sit right with me, so I pushed on and asked them to dig deeper into these complaints. AdWordsAdvisor, the official Google representative at WebmasterWorld, replied to the thread last night. Unfortunately, the reply isn't what these advertisers wanted to see, nor what I wanted to see. Here is the reply:

Google Mass Bans & Warns AdWords Advertisers, But Why?

Sports and Social Media: Where Opportunity and Fear Collide

"There has been no shortage of stories on athletes using Twitter (Twitter) and social media to further their personal agendas.

On the flip side, we’ve also seen the organizations behind the professional sports leagues, and the media outlets covering them, struggle between their desire to understand and embrace social media and their fear of losing control of their entertainment properties.

Athletes and their representatives, coaches, staff members, and media analysts all pose a threat to the status quo. Cincinnati Bengals Wide Receiver Chad Ochocinco’s in-game tweets could mean that fans follow him over watching the television interview, Andy Roddick’s tennis tweets could reveal insider information, the ESPN analysts’ tweets on sports stories could attract off-camera discussion; the bottom line is that control of the message is slipping away with Twitter as a medium. It’s this fear of losing control that is driving organizations to restrict what gets said in a social media space."

Sports and Social Media: Where Opportunity and Fear Collide

Meet Seth the blogger guy, AT&T's answer to angry iPhone owners - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Brainstorm Tech

"We have heard you. We are on it."

So says the Seth Bloom — a.k.a. Seth the blogger guy — the geeky talking head that AT&T (T) has sent out to do damage control in the face of rising outrage among Apple (AAPL) iPhone users about the quality of AT&T's service, particularly in urban areas like San Francisco and New York.

(See for example Wednesday's New York Times, which dubbed the data-guzzling iPhone 'the Hummer of cellphones.')"

Meet Seth the blogger guy, AT&T's answer to angry iPhone owners - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Brainstorm Tech

Fox's Fringe "Twitter on TV" Experiment Irks Fans

"Last week we reported on what sounded like a cool experiment to mix social media with television. Fox's idea of "tweet-peats" would combine reruns of popular new shows Fringe and Glee, with producers and members of the cast tweeting their show commentary as the episodes rolled.

Unfortunately, the promising experiment went off the rails because of the implementation. Zatz Not Funny caught a screengrab of the resulting interface (shown at right), with the TwitterTwitterTwitter commentary showing up smack on top of the lower third of the screen, obscuring the action of the show (and Anna Torv’s face! Oh the humanity)."

Fox’s Fringe “Twitter on TV” Experiment Irks Fans

HOW TO: Use Twitter’s Advanced Search Features

"There’s an astonishing amount of information to be gleaned from mining the amazing real-time stream of information Twitter (Twitter) provides. Twitter search (tweetzi Twitter Search) is an extremely powerful way of turning up some of those answers. Even using only plain text queries can turn up lots of valuable information about what people are talking about right now.

But you can go even deeper than plain text queries. They’re not too well publicized, so it’s all too easy to forget they even exist. We wanted to jog your memories and highlight a few of the cool advanced operators that can help you turn up sometimes surprising results."

HOW TO: Use Twitter’s Advanced Search Features

GGG/AI Helps Those Affected by Southeastern Flooding

Goodman-Gable-Gould/Adjusters International (GGG/AI) is in the Southeastern United States assisting business owners who have suffered property damage due to the recent flooding. Our Disaster Recovery Consulting Division successfully guides municipalities, businesses, organizations and eligible non-profits in securing FEMA funding to rebuild their facilities and restore operations after a disaster.

GGG/AI Helps Those Affected by Southeastern Flooding

7 Ways to Customize Your Google Search Results Page | Search Engine Journal

For some Google's simplistic interface is its best advantage. Others may think it is too boring. This post looks at some ways to beatify Google search as well as give it more visualizing and entertaining features:

1. Google Preview

GooglePreview is a FireFox addon that adds a thumbnail of each page within Google SERPs:



Similar addon: Better Search

2. Google Icons

Google Icon add the favicon next to each search result (if available) in Google SERPs.

Icons make it easier to recognize your favorite websites and breathe more life into that dull search page.

Similar addon: Faviconiac

Read More

You Can Do Your Own Tech Support

HOW TO: Create Custom Twitter Backgrounds

Here are a couple reasons for why you might want to build your own:

1. Personalization and expression: It’s a chance to express yourself and who you are. Are you an artist, a musician, a blogger, or a cook? Do you love Macs or the beach? A new backdrop can really help people understand who you are.

2. Contact info: It’s an easy way to add additional information you can plug into your 160 character bio.

3. Personal branding: Having your contact information, your face, or additional bio information within your background is a common practice. It helps potential followers understand what you do and why you are someone people should follow. Check out HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter for more.

4. Artistic creativity: Twitter is a great opportunity to push the limits of your talents.

HOW TO: Create Custom Twitter Backgrounds

Top 10 Tactics for Productive Travel - Travel - Lifehacker

Great article with essential tips - I found most of them useful and can't wait for my next trip!

Top 10 Tactics for Productive Travel - Travel - Lifehacker

BREAKING: Facebook’s @Mentions Feature Is Live

Facebook's most Twitter-like feature yet – the ability to include other users in messages using the "@" symbol – is now live.

As we reported last week, the feature doesn't include just users though. Brands (Facebook Pages), events, and groups can all be included in status updates using the syntax.

BREAKING: Facebook’s @Mentions Feature Is Live

RAILS RUMBLE: 11 New Apps We Love

Last weekend, a group of entrepreneurs and programmers got together for Rails Rumble. The goal? To build the best web app possible in only 48 hours based on the Ruby on Rails programming framework.

The result? 168 teams completed functional apps that do everything from aggregate your social media profiles to turning your Twitter (Twitter) account into a de-facto visual voicemail. Now the field has been whittled down to 22 applications where a popular vote will determine which one wins the Rails Rumble.

RAILS RUMBLE: 11 New Apps We Love

TV facing 'iTunes moment' warns Microsoft's Ashley Highfield | Media | guardian.co.uk

The TV industry has as little as two years to create viable digital businesses or face a version of the 'iTunes moment' that saw the music business cede the online future to Apple, according to Ashley Highfield.

Highfield, the the managing director of consumer and online at Microsoft UK, said he believed the reluctance advertisers feel to advertise on sites such as Facebook will soon be a 'non-issue', putting more pressure on broadcasters' advertising revenues.

TV facing 'iTunes moment' warns Microsoft's Ashley Highfield | Media | guardian.co.uk

Tweeting By Numbers: 7 Ways to Become a Twitter Analyst

There are plenty of Twitter tools out there designed to help you understand Twitter (Twitter) metrics. These tools come in handy for measuring change in tweet fluctuations, charting follower count numbers, finding out hashtag frequency, and quantifying Twitter activity.

Most of us, however, will find ourselves wanting to know more about the tweets themselves, and to really understand the context and content of a tweet. It’s easy to take a look at a single tweet and dissect its content, but how do you go about doing so on a grand scale? When it comes to individual Twitterers, the same logic holds true. It’s easy to take a look at someone’s Twitter bio and most recent tweet, and make an assumption about what kind of Twitterer they are, but how can you go about understanding the totality of that Twitterer’s behaviors?

Tweeting By Numbers: 7 Ways to Become a Twitter Analyst

Wikipedia: Time for a reality check -- DailyFinance

The egalitarian ideal of an online repository of human knowledge that is exclusively written and edited by volunteers has come face-to-face with an unpleasant reality. The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that governs the sprawling Wikipedia, admitted a defeat of sorts yesterday when it announced that soon all changes to articles about living people must be reviewed by experienced volunteer editors before the changes are released to the public Web site.

The reason? Too many errors, too much unreliable information, and a growing realization that the position of the Wikipedia as a trusted information source could be placed at risk unless more controls are placed over its freewheeling editorial process. In a nutshell, this announcement affirms the limitation of serious user generated content on the Web and reaffirms the necessity for professional or dedicated curators to ensure quality of information and lack of self-dealing or self-interested postings.

Wikipedia: Time for a reality check -- DailyFinance

360i Report Outlines Difference Between The Google Caffeine and Old Google » SEO Blog PageTraffic

If you are among the ones who have been following Google Caffeine, the new search architecture, then you must know what to expect when it is eventually rolled into the main search. Some of us have not seen anything new, while others have witnessed big changes. According to the reports, the folks at 360i have done a bunch of heavy lifting and have released a report comparing Caffeine to the old Google ,that has been nicknamed as Decaf. 360i analyzed 40 retail keywords are as under:

* 10 retail long-tail phrases (four-word phrases)
* 10 major retail brand names (keywords)
* 10 retail head terms (single keywords)
* 10 retail torso terms (two-word phrases)

The above keywords come with these conclusions:

See full article for results...

360i Report Outlines Difference Between The Google Caffeine and Old Google » SEO Blog PageTraffic

WordPress Responds to Attack: “Please Upgrade”

"WordPress (WordPress) has responded to news today that outdated versions of the popular blogging software are vulnerable to a new attack. The attack affects only self-hosted versions of WordPress, not those at WordPress.com. The organization’s advice is simple: if you aren’t using the most recent version (2.8.4), upgrade now to avoid problems.

This isn’t really a problem with WordPress: those who have been upgrading regularly, as advised, are not affected. And WordPress has made it increasingly easy to upgrade, now just requiring a single click."

WordPress Responds to Attack: “Please Upgrade”

Big Trouble in Google China: Kai-Fu Lee Quits

Google Inc. announced today that Kai-Fu Lee, president of Google China, has resigned from the company. He will be succeeded by two executives: director of Google's Shanghai engineering office Boon-Lock Yeo, who will take care of engineering, and Google China's sales team leader John Liu, who will be in charge of business and operations.

Speaking about his departure, Kai-Fu Lee gave the usually vague "moving on to pursue other ventures" statement, which might mean that he's starting his own project. "With a very strong leadership team in place, it seemed a very good moment for me to move to the next chapter in my career," he said.

Big Trouble in Google China: Kai-Fu Lee Quits

Top 10 Reasons Why Your Ads Aren’t Showing in Google | The Adventures of PPC Hero

Your new pay-per-click account is structured, keywords loaded, ad text optimized. You activate your Adwords campaign, expecting great things, then… nothing. No spend. No impressions. No clicks. Don’t worry, it can happen to anyone. Chances are, there is one issue in your account that is preventing your ad text from appearing in the search results. Problem is, there are several possible reasons why your ads aren’t showing in Google.

The PPC Hero team frequently receives questions from readers regarding ad serving issues in Google. So, I have compiled a handy top 10 list of reasons why your ads may not be showing in Google. Start from the top and work your way down. By the end, you should (hopefully) see activity in your AdWords account.

Top 10 Reasons Why Your Ads Aren’t Showing in Google | The Adventures of PPC Hero

Six Tips For Improving High Bounce / Low Conversion Web Pages | Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Six Tips For Improving High Bounce / Low Conversion Web Pages | Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

In my travels around the world the most frequently asked question is: “What’s your favorite web analytics report? “

A close second is: “How can I improve my web pages with high bounce / low conversion rates?”

Or “I have done all I can and I don’t know how else to improve my webpage, ideas?”

If you think about it for a moment it is not a very hard question.

I believe the insights for improvement exist at the intersection of customer intent and the webpage’s purpose.

Let me explain.

The Customer Intent – Webpage Purpose Gap

There is a very simple reason many websites and web pages have a very high bounce rate, and in turn very low conversions…

Five Best Disk Defragmenters - Defragment - Lifehacker

1. Auslogics Disk Defrag (Windows, Free)
2. MyDefrag (Formerly JKDefrag) (Windows, Free)
3. PerfectDisk (Windows, $29.99)
4. Defraggler (Windows, Free)
5. Diskeeper (Windows, $29.99)

Five Best Disk Defragmenters - Defragment - Lifehacker

Free Speech Comes With Responsibility

Outed "Skanks of NYC" Blogger Plans to Sue Google for $15 Million

This was the title of an article that came out last week and it said some controversial things. Well I have some strong feelings about this.

Last week, a controversial court ruling forced Google to reveal the identity of a previously anonymous blogger, who had used the Internet as an outlet to trash a Canadian-born model named Liskula Cohen.

1. If you use the Internet to attack one person (in this case Liskula Cohen), then it's personal. You've made it personal and that doesn't deserve to be anonymous.

The user behind the "Skanks of New York" website, which was hosted on Blogger, has since been revealed as Rosemary Port, a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

1. Really! You wanted to be anonymous so you use a free account on Blogger! Why not purchase a domain for $9 and pay the $20 for it to be private. Did you really want to be anonymous?

Now, Port plans to sue Google to the tune of $15 million according to a report in The Daily News. At the heart of Port's argument: "When I was being defended by attorneys for Google, I thought my right to privacy was being protected … Inherent in the First Amendment is the right to speak anonymously. Shouldn't that right extend to the new public square of the Internet?"

1. Does she know how to read? The First Amendment is the right of free speech. Not the right to speak anonymously. It doesn't protect you from the consequences of free speech, it just allows you to speak your mind. If you have the balls to say things like you did in the public arena, then have the balls to stand up and take credit for them. This was very clearly personal.

I believe that you can never blame someone for turning you in. If you wanted complete secrecy, then you don't tell anyone, ever. She didn't do anything to protect her privacy so she deserved to be outed and it's not Google's responsibility to protect everyone that uses their services.

Chad Hurley: That F1 Racing Team I Invested In Is Just Like YouTube

Chad Hurley: That F1 Racing Team I Invested In Is Just Like YouTube

20 Ways to Begin & Improve Your LinkedIn Presence

20 Ways to Begin & Improve Your LinkedIn Presence

On July 23rd I was able to log on to a great webinar sponsored by LinkedIn. The title of the webinar: "LinkedIn on Campus: Exclusive Training for Career Services Professionals" led me to believe that I would hear about things I already knew about LinkedIn- making connections, updating my status and seeking out new connections. I’ve been a member of LinkedIn for over a year now and thought that because my profile stated it was "100% complete" that I was set…wow, was I wrong!

It is currently home to 43 million users with one new user sign-up per second! http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/12/linkedin-reaches-45-million-users/ The site boasts employers from 150 industries and Executives from every Fortune 500 firm; as well as 37,000 college and university 'Groups'- I’ll get to Groups later.

Are links in footers treated differently than paragraph links?

Check out this great video from Matt Cutts. Listen carefully.

Lawsuits & PR Nightmares: Why Employees Need Social Media Guidelines

Lawsuits & PR Nightmares: Why Employees Need Social Media Guidelines

How have companies with more than 1,000 employees been faring with employees and their social media use?

According to multiple recent studies, it appears that many companies have encountered problems and these problems are escalating.

Consider these results from a recent Proofpoint study examining how companies are managing their employees’ social media behavior:

When SEO Doesn’t Make Sense | SearchRank Blog

When SEO Doesn’t Make Sense | SearchRank Blog

I am always flabbergasted with clients who pay good money for us to develop SEO strategy for them as well as manage their marketing campaigns and yet they do absolutely nothing with it. They ignore requests for web site modifications and enhancements, as well as other marketing suggestions. I liken this to those who pay hard earned money to see the doctor but then completely ignore the doctor’s advice and/or remedies.

It is in these scenarios where SEO does not make sense.

CBS to run video ad in magazine this fall | Digital Media - CNET News

CBS to run video ad in magazine this fall | Digital Media - CNET News

NEW YORK--Broadcast network CBS will be advertising its fall TV season with a video-chip ad embedded in an issue of Entertainment Weekly.

The September 18 issue of the Time Inc.-owned magazine will feature the first video ad to appear in print, George Schweitzer, CBS marketing president, said Wednesday at a press conference at the company's headquarters here.

Why Is Gmail Ranked #3 and Not #1?

via seohosting.com

via seohosting.com ... Posted via web from kandi111777's posterous

Google Team gives presentation on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Thanks to PageTraffic Blog!

How to send an email to undisclosed recipients

This may seem pretty straightforward to other people but I figured if I needed to look it up maybe someone else needs the info as well.

• Launch Outlook 2007, and click the button to create a new email message.


• In the 'To' address field enter 'Undisclosed Recipients' followed by your e-mail address in braces.
  
  
  • For example: 'Undisclosed Recipients youremailaddress@gmail.com'
  
  
  • Side note: If you leave the TO: field blank, the email may bounce as some service providers may filter mark the mail as spam.


• In the BCC field, enter the e-mail addresses of those to whom you are sending the message.


• Write your message and send your e-mail.

Thank you to Carol's Corner Office at infopackets for the great tips!

Online Video Marketing

Jivox is an interesting addition to your pay-per-click marketing. They offer online video marketing in a different way.

1. According to their website, step one is to create your free online video ads. Jivox offers a step-by-step builder and library of videos, images and music that are royalty-free. Our use their QuickStart templates to create your ads. You can also upload your own images or videos of your products or storefronts and create video slide show ads. Then add your headline or special offer and your video ad is ready for online distribution.
2. Step two is to select your target audience. You can target the whole country or narrow it down to your state or even your city. Geo-targeting capability makes the exact target audience you want to reach possible. Or use Jivox's interactive map to combine multiple geographies to match your requirements.
3. Step three is the easiest. Tell Jivox how much you want to spend over what time frame. They also offer subscription packages for more savings. For as little as $300, you can get 15,000 full video views on the Jivox Online Publisher Network.

I'd love to hear what anybody else has to say about this service! Have you tried it? If so, did you like it?

A few do's and don'ts for that graduation speech

A few do's and don'ts for that graduation speech

Posted using ShareThis

Vocaboly - Help with SAT

Vocaboly is new vocabulary software to help with the TOEFL, GMAT, GRE, SAT and VOA Special English.

If your child/teenager has difficult learning the traditional way, you should check out this software. A free trial download is available. Note: the trial version uses computer voice, after registration, you will get high quality human voice of American accent.

As you all know, I swear by www.download.com. Well here is what their review said:

August 01, 2004: CNET Review

...The clear and direct interface lists all your study options on the main window's left side. We were impressed by the number of ways Vocaboly can help you learn. For example, you can have words and meanings randomly tick across your screen, take a multiple-choice test, spell words when given their definitions, and play several games...

Other awards/nominations include the Shareware Industry Awards Nomination on May 11, 2004:

Vocaboly was nominated for "Best Educational Program or Game"

And the five-cows rating from Tucows.com:

March 5, 2004: Vocaboly got five-cows rating from Tucows.com - the first and most professional software rating website.

Their software includes more than 12,000 words, including meanings, phonetic symbols and pronunciation. You can select a book according to your purpose and English level. Each book contains eight flash cards for focusing on specified words. Each word can be assigned to a difficulty level from 0 to 5, which makes the vocabulary learning very efficient!

You can also create your own books and enjoy all the following innovative features:

• Word Ticker. Display words automatically.
• Recall. Recall the meaning of the words.
• Spelling. Spell words by meaning.
• Listening Test. Spell words according to pronunciation.
• Multiple-Choice Test. Select correct meaning or word from four choices.
• Memory Game. Match the word and meaning.
• Star War Game. A shoot game.
  

Take your username before someone else does!

Use a great website like KnowEm UserName Check to find all the social websites that you're missing. According to their website, "Don't have time to register for all 120 sites? Let our team do it for you! For $64.95 (about .50 cents a name) we will fill out the registration on all these popular social media sites with your Username and information in about 1 to 5 business days. Don't fall victim to "Cyber Squatting" or social media identity theft - ensure that your username or vanity URL is saved for you!"

Use it or don't complain when someone reserves a name that you think should be yours!

Great tool for Internet Marketing - Number 2

1. WhosTalkin (http://whostalkin.com/)
   
   
   • A great website to find who is talking about yourself or your clients.
   
   
   • Checks website such as: Backtype, Blogdigger, FriendFeed, Google Blog Search, IceRocket, identi.ca, Indianpad, Myspace Blogs, Plazoo, Plurk, Social Mention, Technorati, Twitter, WordPress.com, Ask News, BBC, Google News, ITN, Microsoft Live News, Newspad PRWeb, Techmeme, Topix, Yahoo News, bebo, Facebook, Friendster, hi5, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Myspace, Netlog, Ning, xanga, Blinkx, Blip.tv, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Revver, Viddler, Vimeo, Yahoo Video, YouTube, DeviantART, Flickr, Fotki, PhotoBucket, Picasa, SmugMug, Yahoo Image Search, BoardReader, BoardTracker, Omgili, Blinklist, Blogmarks, del.icio.us, Faves, instablogs, Jumptags, Metafilter, MyWeb, Newsvines, Reddit and WordPress.com.
   
   
   • Again, you can use the Excel 2007 "Import Web Query" option to gather the data in an easy-to-use format.

How to Integrate your Blog into Facebook

Login to Facebook and click on your Profile tab. Then click on Notes. On the right should be a box to add your RSS feed. According to Facebook, “You can import posts from one external blog so that they appear along with your notes. Facebook will automatically update your notes whenever you write in your blog. Imported blog posts cannot be edited.”

Great tool for Internet Marketing

Great tool for Internet marketing

1. ValidRank
   
   • Our Backlink Checker Tool is designed to see how many websites are linking back to you. Additional information is also available such as the Page Rank of the linking page, and whether the page has nofollow tag.
   
   
   • Great tool to get a list of websites/pages that are linking back to you, what their PageRank is, and how many outbound links are on the webpage.
   
   
   • Use the Excel 2007 “Import Web Query” option to gather the data in an easy-to-use format.

HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter

HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter

Posted using ShareThis

Is It Still Worth Using Keyword and Description Meta Tags?

There has been a lot of talk about whether or not keyword and description meta tags are even worth doing anymore. Here's my opinion - YES! Here are the actual facts:

• Back as far as November 26, 2007, Search Engine Journal was reporting that the keywords tag has little impact on where a site will appear in the Google search results.


• In an article published April 25, 2008, at searchengineland.com by Barry Schwartz (originally by Eric Goldman), a US Court Judge ruled that since the keyword meta tags do not influence search results, having trademarked terms in them are immaterial.


• The Google Webmasters/Site owners Help section on Meta Tags does not identify the keyword meta tag in the list of meta tags that they support but it does list the description meta tag:
  
  
  
  • <meta name="description" content="A description of the page" />
  
  
  • <meta name="robots" content="..., ..." />
  
  
  • <meta name="googlebot" content="..., ..." />
  
  
  • <meta name="google" content="notranslate" />
  
  
  • <meta name="verify-v1" content="..." />
  
  
  • <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="...; charset=..." />
  
  
  • <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="...; url=..." />


• They also discuss how to help improve the quality of the snippets displayed for your pages by providing informative meta descriptions for each page. Because one of the ways that Google generates the snippet displayed for your pages is by using DMOZ, they give you a way to stop them:
  
  
  
  • To specifically prevent Google from using this information for a page's description, use the following:
    
    
    
    • <meta name="googlebot" content="NOODP">
  
  
  • To prevent all search engines (that support the meta tag) from using this information for the page's description, use the following:
    
    
    
    • <meta name="robots" content="NOODP">
  
  
  • If you use the robots meta tag for other directives, you can combine those. For instance:
    
    
    
    • <meta name="googlebot" content="NOODP, nofollow">
      
  
  


• Everything thing that I've read and researched online shows that Yahoo and MSN still use the keyword and description meta tag for search engine results pages.

The most important thing to remember is consistency. Yes, Google does control the lion's share of the search market; however, people still use Yahoo and MSN. At one of my local clients, their engineers swear by Yahoo and won't use anything else.

So be consistent. Don't produce a website for the search engines first and users second. Remember that search engines are looking for reliable, valid, up-to-date content and that includes meta tags. Don't let your clients persuade you to remove these tags!

Check out my second guest post at Search Engine Journal!!

Pacamor Kubar Bearings (PKB) Maintains ISO9001/AS9100 Certifications - Pacamor Kubar Bearings' Blog

Pacamor Kubar Bearings (PKB) is pleased to announce that they have successfully passed their ISO 9001:2000 and AS9100:2004 audit. The quality system assessment was completed at PKB’s Troy, New York facility on May 8, 2009, including a review of all special capabilities necessary to develop and/or manufacture miniature and instrument ball bearings for the aerospace industry.

via pacamor.com

Posted via web from kandi111777's posterous

How Do You Manage Client Expectations?

via outspokenmedia.com

Great article!!

Posted via web from kandi111777's posterous

11 Internet Marketing Skills That Must Be Second Nature | Internet Marketing Strategy: Conversation Marketing

via conversationmarketing.com

Awesome! I am all of those things except for rolling averages :(

Posted via web from kandi111777's posterous

Linking is Like Love, You Have to Give Some to Get Some

My first guest blog post at Search Engine Journal! I'm so excited - everybody check it out: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/linking-love/10121/

How to Have a Crappie Spring

I saw this title on one of my favorite websites and I knew that I would have to blog about it. Some of my favorite fishing memories are of being a child and my stepfather waking me and my sister up early in the morning and stopping at McDonald's on our way to go fishing in the rain. Anyone that is interested in fishing, definitely needs to check out www.fishny.com!

Can Hulu Sustain Its Success Without Engaging Community?

Mar 26, 2009 at 7:00am ET by Eric Papczun
At first, online video service Hulu appeared to be a futile response to the rising tide of online user uploaded and user generated content—after all, Hulu is a group of major broadcasting networks backing a platform to publish their content online and regain control of their distribution networks. Hulu was declared doomed, and bound to fail.
Read More

In A Down Economy, Engagement Matters: 4 Tips To Boost Your Efforts

Mar 25, 2009 at 8:00am ET by Andrew Wheeler
Better. Faster. Cheaper. That seems to be the mantra of senior management as they pressure marketers to do more with less during these trying economic times. But B2B marketers aren’t the only ones feeling the squeeze. Many of your customers and prospects are facing similar challenges. But what can you do about it? A lot actually.
Read More

Utica Tattoo Fest

Great event in Utica, New York and I can't wait! Eternal Images rocks! Everybody knows how much I love tattoos. I'm known for the tattoo on my upper right arm that says "Fear is temporary, regret is permanent". That's how I try to live my life. I just got another tattoo, this time from Dylan at Eternal Images. It's part of my mother's tattoo that he recreated on my back. I love it and I scheduled my next tattoo for May 7!

read more | digg story

March Madness Strategies For Small Businesses

Mar 26, 2009 at 9:00am ET by David Mihm
Some of you may know that around this time every year, I come down with a serious case of NCAA Tournament fever. During the month of March, when people ask for my phone number, I respond "65-32-16-8-4-2-1." Assuming clients are able to get a hold of me somehow, all of my doodles during phone calls somehow turn into brackets. I find myself buying lottery tickets with the numbers 8-9, 7-10, 6-11. An unseen force compels me to blurt out "5-12 upset!" every so often on the street, drawing stares from my fellow Portlanders.
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Search In Pictures: St. Patrick’s Day, Mozilla With Google & Schmidt With Charlie Rose

Mar 20, 2009 at 12:12pm ET by Barry Schwartz
In this week's Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
Eric Schmidt with Charlie Rose:

Google & Mozilla:

St Patrick's Day at Yahoo:

PHP Stuffed Animal at Yahoo! Dome in Japan:

Read More

Search Biz: Google News Courting Legal Trouble?, Bold Predictions About Behavioral Ad Targeting & More

Feb 27, 2009 at 4:04pm ET by Matt McGee
Will the recent introduction of paid ads on Google News lead to legal issues for Google? That question is discussed today on ClickZ, where Sandra Baron of the Media Law Resource Center says publishers will be looking at what Google is doing:

"A significant issue for content providers is whether or not what Google provides becomes a substitute for going to the actual content providers site. When that tension becomes too great, people seek legal solutions to it."

Read More

Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics Tips & Tricks

Great article! Using Google Analytics to Create an Optimization Plan.

read more | digg story

Evaluating Paid Search Performance In A Down Economy

Mar 16, 2009 at 8:00am ET by George Michie
Is it time to fire your paid search managers?
Many online advertisers are seeing their first-ever year-over-year declines in PPC performance. Because of this, and the general need to find something, anything that will generate more sales cost effectively, PPC programs are coming under serious scrutiny from corner offices. We welcome this scrutiny, and hope to provide some useful guidance on how to measure success in PPC in a tough economy.
Read More

New Add-On for my Blog - Tweet & Track

Make it easy for your readers to share links to your content on Twitter and track who clicks them.
Copy these two lines into the head tag of your HTML page:

<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://bit.ly/javascript-api.js?version=latest&login=tweettrackjs&apiKey=R_7e9987b2fd13d7e4e881f9cbb168f523">
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://s.bit.ly/TweetAndTrack.js?v=1.01"></script>

Then, add this with each item on your blog or content site:

<a href="#" onclick="return TweetAndTrack.open(this, '{Permalink}');"><span style="display:none;">Your custom message - {block:PostSummary}{PostSummary}{/block:PostSummary}</span>Tweet & Track</a>

Substitute whatever template tag or variable you use for permalinks for {Permalink} and your Post Title template tag for {block:PostSummary}{PostSummary}{/block:PostSummary}. You can also add a common custom message where it says "Your custom message - ".
Make sure that you convert each < to <>.

Savvy Advertisers Get Vertical For Local Results

Mar 23, 2009 at 7:00am ET by Scott Greenberg
In a struggling economy, there is even greater competition among businesses for the almighty dollar. It is the epitome of the expression "survival of the fittest" when you see which businesses will close shop and which will find ways to succeed. What ultimately separates the two is the ability to see the opportunity in an otherwise difficult situation.
Read More

FEEDJIT real-time blog traffic feeds

I found this great little free widget while I was visiting another blog and I just had to have it. Then I found out that it's FREE! Fun, cool and free - it doesn't get any better than that.
According to their website:

Get a cool widget and get local visitors for your blog. Blogs that install our widgets are also included in the Geoblogosphere and are featured to local readers. Read the Geoblogosphere FAQ for more info.

I installed it on the sidebar of my blog so people can see what search terms other visitors used to end up on my blog and what geo-location they are from.

How To Avoid The Link Vacuum Effect

Mar 24, 2009 at 7:00am ET by Julie Joyce
I recently came across a post explaining why Twitter isn’t great for SEO. This quote in particular really got to me:
"In addition to being a nofollow vacuum, Twitter has the danger of becoming a linking vacuum. In the ideal scenario, people will find a link on Twitter and then link the post in their own blog – page rank gold. But Twitter is becoming a kind of fishbowl where people merely link to a site from their Twitter account, not from their personal site. It's just easier and users can still feel as if they’re part of a viral meme."
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Free ASP script: Learn how to display RSS/XML feed

This page provides quick guide for displaying of RSS/XML feed using free RSS2HTML ASP script in ASP or ASP.NET environment. This script can be used free of charge on any ASP or ASP.NET web-server and generate HTML from RSS feed.

read more | digg story

Despite The Hype, Twitter Isn’t A Mainstream Social Marketing Tool

Mar 17, 2009 at 7:00am ET by Ciarán Norris
Every so often a site comes along that, in the amount of hype it generates, blows away everything that has come before it. Not so long ago it was Second Life, then Facebook came along and now Twitter is scattering all before it in a blizzard of press-coverage that many of its start-ups peers would give their trendy offices & table-football sets for.
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The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

The failed bankers on Wall Street have been whining that if they have to cut bonuses and salaries dramatically, they'll be unable to recruit great talent, and they need great talent to fix the situation...

read more | digg story

Can Reading Online Be As Rewarding As Curling Up With A Good Book?

Mar 27, 2009 at 8:00am ET by Kim Krause Berg
Have you ever considered how different the experience of online reading is compared to scanning words printed on a dead tree? To me, the experiences are worlds apart.
My life as an avid reader began with cereal boxes in the 1960's. In those days, there was typically a small toy inside the box. The back of the box might have a game, or something to cut out or tell a story. Once I got a 45 RPM record from a cereal box. I think it was a song by The Partridge Family. I learned early on that reading while eating Captain Crunch led to some kind of reward.
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ReputationDefender Blog : Twitter Becomes SEO Friendly

Twitter, it seems, has optimized its title tags. This could turn out to make Twitter an instant SEO tool, launching people to the top of Google.

read more | digg story

An Insider’s Look At Google’s Search Based Keyword Tool

Mar 13, 2009 at 12:14pm ET by Josh Dreller
Google’s free search based keyword tool has given advertisers access to Google's data to help leverage the relationship between organic and paid search campaigns. Last year, before the release of Google's search-based keyword tool, my Google rep sent me a very insightful report on one of my clients. It compared, side by side, the keywords that had high organic rankings alongside the keywords in the client's AdWords campaign. All in all, it gave me a couple hundred new terms to consider adding to the AdWords account which already had around ten thousand keywords. It seemed pretty clear that a good Quality Score should be easy to attain with these new suggested keywords as the landing page relevance for the keywords was already established. "Great tool," I said. "I wish Google would release it to the public."
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How I Got a Link from CNN

1. Build Relationships
2. Stay Top of Mind
3. Offer an Insider's View
4. Position Yourself as an Industry Expert
5. Be Accessible
6. Never Miss a Deadline
7. Ask for the Link

Shocking, I know. But, unless you ask, you could miss this golden opportunity. I usually say "In closing, I have a small request. I'd really appreciate a link directly to Voices.com. If you can swing it, that would be great!" Consider adding this as a P.S., as if it was an afterthought and not your modus operandi. The lesson here is you'll never know unless you ask.

read more | digg story

How To Prioritize Search Marketing Work At A Large Company

Mar 18, 2009 at 12:34pm ET by Duane Forrester
Although it’s rarely discussed, a huge part of an in-house search marketer’s job is setting priorities on work items. In an even broader sense, this role expands out to encompass staffing, budgeting, content planning, infrastructure management and more. But fundamentally, setting priorities is a crucial part of assuring your internal search marketing activities are successful.
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SEOmoz Tools - Top Pages on Domain Kick Ass

Where this tool really adds value is the ability it gives you to investigate old domains and their previously indexed (and linked to) pages. Take the example above. This old domain is 301 redirecting somewhere else, but the following URL in the list, with another 3 links, leads us to a 404 error page.

read more | digg story

How We Manage SEM Budgets (And Expectations) At Yahoo

Mar 9, 2009 at 7:06am ET by David Roth
If you’re like me, you spent most of Q4 last year planning out SEM budgets for 2009. Perhaps you even changed your entire SEM strategy from last year to this year due to the economic downturn, and now you’re optimizing to different metrics. Planning meant accounting for seasonality, negotiating with different groups around the organization and finally, finally, sometime between last December and now, you unveiled The Plan. It’s your SEM plan of record for 2009, and it includes spend, clicks, CPC, conversion rate and ROI by search engine, for all products and services you’re going to market with SEM this year.
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Don’t Damage Your Brand With The Wrong Keywords!

Mar 11, 2009 at 12:15pm ET by Laura Centore
In search, keyword selection is paramount as it can help drive the right audience to your door. Choosing the right keywords can also enhance brand awareness. But despite the importance of keyword selection—and the fact that it helps lay the groundwork for every paid or organic search campaign—marketers commonly make mistakes with the process.
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twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter - post RSS to twitter automatically

I'm testing out this new website but it hasn't worked for me yet. I'm not giving up!

read more | digg story

Are The Search Engines Really Indexing Flash?

Mar 26, 2009 at 8:00am ET by Jill Whalen
It seems that once a year for the past five years or so, a search engine representative will stand up at a conference and announce that they are now indexing Flash. Website designers jump with glee, and SEOs lament that all the work they did educating their clients on why they need to curb their use of Flash will be for naught.

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Finally - Wikipedia traffic statistics!

Great tool for finding out how many page views a specific Wikipedia page is getting. The only catch is that you cannot filter out yourself. Keep this tool in the back of your mind!

read more | digg story

Internet Marketing Partnership Programs

Do you feel that it is advantageous for traditional marketing/public relations companies to partner with Internet marketing companies? Should they create their own internal capabilities or out-source?

We at Tork Marketing feel that our Internet marketing partnership programs allow agencies to fully serve their clients in both traditional marketing aspects as well as marketing on the Internet. We offer two types of partnerships: silent partner or ostensible partner. Your clients can know who we are or we can be behind the scenes.

Why bother adding shared items to Google Reader?

I am having a great time using the share feature in Google Reader. I "share" the articles that I find interesting and then I copy the code into the bottom of my blog so other people can follow what I've shared. It also allows me to update the content without having to go to two different places.

Your shared items are available publicly at this web page. You can choose people to share with in Sharing settings.

Other things you can do with your shared items:
Email the link to your friends.
Add a clip to your web site or blog.


How do I add a clip to my website or blog?
To create a clip that you can post on your blog or website, follow these steps:

1. Click the Settings link.
2. Click Tags.
3. Use the check boxes to select the tag you want to share, or to select your shared or starred items.
4. From the Change Sharing... menu, select Public.
5. Click the add a clip to your site link.
6. You'll see a preview of your clip. Customize the title, color, and number settings as much as you like.
7. Copy the code provided, and paste it into your website or blog. (Note: If you use Blogger, you can click the Add to Blogger button to add it directly to your blog's layout.)

How to easily add interactive Google Maps to your Blogger po

Very important info on adding a google map to your posts

read more | digg story

What is Internet Marketing?

According to Wikipedia, the definition of Internet Marketing is "the marketing of products or services over the Internet. It can also be referred to as i-marketing, web marketing, online marketing, or eMarketing."

i-Stuff

A collection of interesting stuff that matters ...

read more | digg story

The America I Believe In

I jut saw this poem for the first time in a Law & Order episode titled "Take-Out". The episode aired 18 March 2009 (Season 19, Episode 16). You can find the information on IMDB here. The full poem is:

The America we believe in
does not torture people.

The America we believe in
does not run secret prisons.

The America we believe in
would shut down Guantanamo Bay.

The America we believe in
leads the world on human rights.

Thank you to Bruce Clay, Inc.

Thank you to Bruceclay.com - Usability Archives - Search Engine Optimization SEO Blog for posting a link to one of my SMX West 09 blog posts, Just finished the Meet & Greet at SMX West 09. I appreciate the gesture from one of the top authorities in the field!

Here is what Bruce has to say about Pixelsilk:
"It helps you validate the content of each page and prepare it for SEO, and it does it for every page you create or revise. With high-quality SEO-ready content, Pixelsilk is going to make SEO just that much easier for you; it is terrific."

What is Pixelsilk?
Pixelsilk is a web-based content management system (CMS) built from the ground up with search engine optimization (SEO) requirements at its core. The SEO CMS allows full access and control of the HTML to implement a branded design, custom development, e-commerce cart or search strategy – while still being easy for those editing content. Combined with real-time SEO advice, building awareness and traffic to your website and ultimately converting your consumers is at your fingertips.

Pixelsilk - Web-Based Content Management System with SEO

Pixelsilk is a web-based content management system (CMS) built from the ground up with search engine optimization (SEO) baked in. The CMS allows full access and control of the HTML to implement a branded design, custom development, e-commerce cart or search strategy - while still being easy to the content editor.

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FEMA Recovery Blog

When navigating the FEMA public assistance grant program, following a major disaster, eligible government entities and organizations can face hurdles that can delay and limit their financial recovery. Disaster Recovery Today, an informative publication, is an excellent resource that can prepare them for and then guide them through the FEMA process.

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Polar Bear Rug For Sale

Polar Bear Rug For Sale – $16,000
RARE OPPORTUNITY! Authentic 1920's polar bear skin rug in great shape and available to ship anywhere within the United States. From tail to nose the bear is 9' long. Front paw to font paw the bear is 8' 7" wide. Claws are completely intact, hide is flexible and all fur is intact. There are no worn patches of fur.

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Google’s Matt Cutts On Keywords In The URL

The question asked, does the order of the words in the URL make an impact on one’s ranking at Google? Matt Cutts said one should not obsess about the order of the words but he said keywords in the URL “does help a little bit.”

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Aardvark is Social Search

* Ask any question via IM or email
* Live answers from your friends and their friends

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Introducing the Google Friend Connect API

While it's always been easy to add social features to your site with Google Friend Connect, it just got a little more flexible with the introduction of the Friend Connect API. This API lets you access the core features of Friend Connect to use them on your site in interesting ways.

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An Example of a Great Thank You Page

Rules Of Linking Engagement As The Web Turns Twenty

After working in a profession for many years you might logically assume you don’t need to spend as much time learning still more about it. Take bowling. If you’ve been bowling for twenty years, do you still need lessons, or are you close to being as good a bowler as you’re ever going to be? You can practice every day, sure, but odds are you are at a point of diminishing returns.

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A New Policy for Internet Use in the Workplace

I don't care what you do on the internet. (O.K. no porn, fundraising for terrorists, and online scams.) I'm not a babysitter, and we're all responsible adults, for the most part. Plus, nothing will kill creative energy and a spirit of collaboration faster than distrust and paranoia. My message to all of my colleagues is this: Please don't hide...

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Intersection of Search and Social Media

Live blog about the Intersection of Search and Social Media.

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WeFollow - Kevin Rose Launches New Twitter Directory

Can't find who to follow on Twitter? Digg's own Kevin Rose has launched a new service called WeFollow that makes it easy to locate who is popular and to list yourself.



One of the problems with Twitter is knowing who to follow in particular areas. Now Kevin Rose has launched WeFollow, a nice directory of people organized into categories. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great start and well worth visiting.

At the site, you’ll see the top five people in popular categories such as celebrity, music and news. You can also drill-down into any category to see all the people listed in them. On the right-hand side of the home page, there’s also a list of more popular categories:



That list of popular categories (or tags) is dynamic and has already changed since the site first launched. For example, socialmedia and marketing weren’t on it originally, but then they rose up.

What happened? The top categories are based on the total number of followers that everyone in a particular category has. For example, at the time I wrote this, the "marketing" category had 76 people who have placed themselves into that category. Those people collectively had 60,236 followers. Just above marketing was the apple category. It had 93 people who had 73,617 followers collectively. The more followers a category has collectively, the higher it comes on the list.

Adding yourself is easy. Simple send a Twitter reply to the WeFollow twitter account with the areas you’d like to be listed under, up to three of them, with each area starting with a # sign. For example, if you wanted to be listed under wine, design and awesome, you’d do it like this:

@wefollow #wine #design #awesome

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DJ at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Utica, NY

DJ, Amanda and Bill were at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Utica, NY on Saturday, March 14, 2009. Nancy L. Ford from UticaDailyNews.com took great shots and they were included (check out slide 28!)

Amanda is a great mother who makes sure that DJ gets to experience all kinds of activities. He may not remember them when he gets older but we've got the pictures!

What Kind of a Father will Ryan be?

This commercial made me think of the kind of father Ryan Mortensen will be to his daughter, Zoe.

Small Screens Tripping Up Communication Professionals

Are You Listening? Or Are You Playing With Your BlackBerry Again?

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Want To Hire An SEM Agency? Check Its Site First

You probably don't want to hire a doctor who's obviously unhealthy or a lawyer who's just been released from jail. Similarly, you should look askance at any SEM agency whose online property is in a shambles. While it's true that most agency sites are fairly decent, a surprising number of them contain enough flaws to give prospective clients pause.

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Importance Of SEO Makes Front Page Of Los Angeles Times

What a nice surprise to see on the front page of the Los Angeles Times today a story that features how important SEO is to web sites.It’s Web 101 for this experienced intern covers how a former magazine editor, Lois Draegin, has entered a new life of online editing after losing her job with TV Guide.

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Another version of Tug of War at SnoFest '09

Yay!!!!

Tug of War at SnoFest '09

Go Laura, Keith and Racheal!!!

Six Companies Google Should Buy Right Now

Google wants to organize all the world's information. That's the official line, at least, but what it really wants to do is organize all the world's information and stick ads on it. It's the king of web search and search advertising, but what about the other things we do online?

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Check User Names - Social Networking Username Availability

CheckUserNames is an online username checker that lets type in any username and check it’s availability across top 45 social networking sites. This comes in handy if you want to make sure you have registered your preferred username on popular social networking sites.

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Google Confirms Algorithm "Change" But Down Plays Brand Push

About a week and a half ago, there was the start of discussion around Google's brand push in the algorithm. Some people started noticing that for some queries (mostly generic queries), more "big brands" were showing up in the search results.

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Cool Webmaster Tool: Bulk domain name availability checker

Enter several words, and it gives you all the available combinations of domain names.

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Fish NY - The Most Popular Sport Fishing Directory

FishNY.com has developed the most current, informative website dedicated to sport-fishing in New York State. From Montauk to Lake Erie, freshwater to saltwater, no other State can match the diversity of New York State.

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What I Learned About Google Blog Search at SMX West

At SMX West a couple weeks ago, I moderated a unique session titled “Up Close with Google Blog Search.” I call it unique because there was only one speaker on the panel: Chris Pennock, Senior Software Engineer for Google Blog Search. As moderator, I also gave a brief, unscripted presentation of some things I researched in the days leading up to the

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