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?