StepForth SEO News Blog

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

A year of unprecedented change in the search engine landscape and online business environment has forced many SEOs and SEMs to alter and, in some cases, drastically rethink the services they offer and the techniques they use. For some SEOs, the changes represent a world of opportunities to expand their services and experiment with emerging techniques. For others, the changes in the search world have hit with the repetition and intensity of a series of destructive environmental disasters. Before getting into the changes to services and techniques, a quick look at how the search marketing sector has changed is in order.

To begin with, I need to stress that a news time deadline and word limit of 2000 or less permits only a very general overview of this expansive industry. There are exceptional SEO and SEM practitioners working far beyond the fringes of the mainstream SEM world. The growing numbers of SEOs employed by global corporations are an example of an exceptional group outside the typical small or micro-business SEM shop model. Similarly, traditional advertising firms have started to understand the importance of search marketing and are hiring or sub-contracting their own in-house search marketing teams. Regardless of who works for or with whom, or who has what resources to work with, the same general factors affect the products of our toilsome tinkering.

As the search marketing industry matures the knowledge base that supports it grows rapidly. The numbers of practitioners grows every year as well with thousands of new SEMs annually entering the field. The field they enter is already well populated with established firms, some quite large and some much smaller. Fortunately, there is more than enough work for the sector to continue expanding. Very few SEM shops went out of business for lack of clients this year.

It is important to know how SEMs tend to make their money before considering how search industry changes affect the SEM sector. The two extremities of the professional SEO/SEM practitioner world are those who do it for their own online ventures and those who work for outside clients. The vast majority of SEM practitioners are found somewhere in between those two extremes with the bulk tending towards the latter. There is however, an apparent correlation between the choice of SEO tactics and the spot on the spectrum of a practitioner or specific project.

Those working on their own web properties exclusively tend to see revenues from participation in affiliate programs or paid-ad distribution programs offered by Yahoo and Google. SEMs who take outside clients tend to see revenues from service fees and commissions. Ultimately, for small business SEO and SEM shops, financial planning and scheduled money management are the essential skill sets that bridge the gap between success and failure.

SEOs and SEMs who achieved most of their revenues promoting their own website properties have been the most adversely affected by the changes at Google, Yahoo and other search giants. This side of the sector established itself in the early days of the late 90's finding ways to tempt web surfers into affiliate program sales, gambling industry sites and of course, adult entertainment sites. Until recently, the "anything-goes" attitude formed around those sectors, and the inability of the major search engines to keep up with them, allowed self-interest SEOs to use obvious and highly creative algorithm exploits to get their sites ranked higher.

During and just before the recent Jagger Update at Google, many of these sorts of sites found themselves virtually unfindable as Google delisted or degraded their placements. Google took action for a number of reasons, the greatest of which was the long-term incompatibility of Google's PageRank based algorithms and the various (and often amazingly intricate) link-based exploits used. To be honest, incompatibility might be exactly the wrong word. Many of these exploits were designed specifically to maximize the behaviour of Googlebot but often forgot about the content to keyword contextual relationships Googlebot is searching for. Eventually Googlebot started acting like a jilted suitor, especially after reading about such exploits (or people bragging about them) on various search related forums.

Frequently, SEOs and SEMs working solely for themselves stray towards what has been labeled the "black-hat" side of the search marketing sector. Basically, black-hat SEO is technique that does not follow the stated guidelines posted by the search engines. As the sites they promoted, for the most part, belonged to them, any sanctions faced stemming from a violation of search engine guidelines would ultimately be less severe for them then it would be for SEM practitioners working on someone else's sites. It is much easier to sluff off damage your actions caused to your own property than it is damage caused to the property of others.

SEOs and SEMs who work as agents for other businesses tend to be more like traditional advertising firms in their relationship with and reliance on their clients. Agency type SEO and SEM shops tend to adhere to a loose and unregulated code-of-conduct that includes a commitment to following search engine guidelines. For the most part, this group, and by extension their clients, tended to come out of the Jagger Updates in fair to fine condition. Those who view the search engine guidelines as a quasi legal-code are often labeled "white-hats".

Algorithm updates are more of an interesting inconvenience to this group, a thunder and lightning storm with obvious destructive potential that is compelling and wondrous to behold. In such storms, some stuff might be damaged by rain, hail or even lightning and it is not entirely safe to play in the water but at the end of the day, if you play it safe you'll probably be ok. Sudden and unexpected algorithm changes at Google might have minor effects on techniques used by "white-hat" SEO and SEM practitioners however algo-shifts don't keep them up at night.

The growing segmentation of the search world and the adoption of emerging technologies and trends is what keeps them awake into the wee-hours of the morning, trying to figure out exactly what is happening and how provide expert services in a rapidly changing environment. As most SEO and SEM shops are small to micro-businesses, daytime is for operating the business and nighttime is for reading and experimenting. Things were much simpler for three years ago.

The introduction of several new types of search engine makes the job of a search marketing practitioner more complicated. Where once we thought about Google, we now have shopping and comparison search tools, local search engines, RSS, music and video search, blog and podcast search appliances to think about. Not only does the SEM need to have a working knowledge of how each type of search engine works, they also need to know how to write and/or code for them. Over the coming year, expect to see the SEO and SEM sector start to segment to offer specialized service packages for specific types of search appliance.

Electronic commerce dominates our economy. From individual consumers and Christmas sales to the flow of global capital, the Internet has become the backbone of business everywhere. As more and more people become Internet savvy, the environment moves towards becoming more professional. Information begets information and the more of it we have, the better we can run our businesses. Site statistics and established industry metrics drive a lot more of the decision making than they used to. As search develops from the $12billion industry it is today to the $25 billion industry predicted in five years, the ability to offer analytical services to clients is going to be emphasized by expanding search marketing firms.

An assumption made about both Google and Yahoo is that each place increasing importance on the intent of a document in their indexes and the relationship it shares with other documents in their index. The relationship between document A and document B is further judged by the relationships both share with other documents found in Google or Yahoo's indexes. Expect the link-generation business to evolve and become far more professional. In order to seriously sell links, link brokers will increasingly need to be able to vouch for the contextual relevance of the links they establish between documents.

Furthermore, both Google and Yahoo take an interest in user behaviours. How a user acts when they visit a document found in search results has an impact on how important the search engines think the document might be. This leads us to conclude that usability, or the ease of use of a website or document, will play a greater role in rankings on both Google and Yahoo. We expect to offer a greater range of usability consulting options and urge current clients with questions about usability to contact us.

Lastly, the introduction of Google Base and Microsoft's very similar Fremont.Live will force SEOs and SEMs to add a number of hours to client accounts as product and service offerings should be inserted into both systems as quickly as possible. Base and Fremont are both sort of mysteries in development. They appear to be the equivalent of classified ads but given the intent of their owners and the feel of the systems, are obviously designed to be something greater. Whatever they become in the long-term, it only makes sense to put client information in them as soon as possible, a process that could unfortunately take hours per client.

The face of search marketing is changing and those changes pose a lot of challenges. New services, more analytics and a greater volume of work per client are expected in the coming year. Finding and training staff is going to be one difficulty faced by smaller firms. Retaining staff will continue to be a challenge for larger ones. Fortunately, given the array of tools at our disposal, attracting new clients, retaining old ones and achieving strong rankings for all should be the least of our challenges.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Changing Faces of Search Marketing

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Lots of entrepreneurs have started businesses online but few have offered a day-by-day, play-by-play narrative outlining their experiences. For the past few weeks, Search Engine Guide editor Jennifer Laycock has treated her readers to an insiders view of her new social-business, the Lactivist.

The Lactivist is a blog offering information on breastfeeding along with clothing and product referrals. The blog is also designed to, "help spread awareness of the availability of human milk banks." Jennifer started the project about three weeks ago and has been posting daily updates on her progress, revenues and experience.

The series, entitled, "Zero Dollars, a Little Talent and 30 Days", stand as one of the most honest and comprehensive looks at the trials, tribulations and triumphs faced by people Jennifer calls "shoestring entrepreneurs", or people starting businesses with little or no money. Jennifer started the project in part because, as editor of Search Engine Guide, she wanted to get a sense of the experiences shared by many of her readers.

Her first post at SEGuide's Small Business Ideas Forum describes her motivation and her methods.

"One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that it is supposed to level the playing field between the major corporations and the little guy trying to eek out a living on his own from his basement. Many a netrepreneur has managed to go start a company on a shoe string and turn it into a business that generates a nice profit. The whole point of Search Engine Guide and our sister site, Small Business Brief, is to try and help people learn how to do just that.

So, I've decided to set up a little challenge for myself and to both blog and write articles on it over the next month. The idea is to try to setup some type of business in my free time and see if I can start to turn a profit in a 30 day period. That shouldn't be too hard, since I'm also going to limit myself to spending zero cash out of pocket. That means that any sales at all will be profit.

I plan to outline all of the steps that I take over this 30 day period so that readers can find out what worked, what didn't, and maybe get some ideas to try with their own sites. The point I need to make again is the lack of money involved here. There's a big difference between what someone can do with cash to pay for hosting, for marketing, for web analysis and so on. I'll be working without many of those advantages, using only what I can get for free."

Jennifer's posts are witty, highly informative and, topical. Today she writes about finally getting rankings at Google (after only three weeks!), some technical issues surrounding her Blog vendor, a few new products offered at the Lactivist, and the resolution of an annoying DNS issue that has plagued the project.

Anyone interested in establishing an instant online business should take the time to read Jennifer's experiences. They might make a major difference and save time, money and headaches. As for Jennifer's profits to date, after day 11 she is in the black (on the good side of the ledger) and has seen $75.57 in profit from $80.53 in revenues.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Jennifer Laycock, SEO, Editor, L'activist

Friday, November 25, 2005

Michael deconstructs websites, pulling them apart to find or add the little things specific to a business website designers often can't customize for. His work could be described as user-outcome optimization.

He has a good point. Search engine marketing is becoming much more complicated. The web is rapidly adopting a more professional attitude as it grows into the global mainstream marketplace. As this maturing takes place, two factors should drive website owners and webmasters towards a more professional view of their online marketing strategies.

The first factor is the increased analytic abilities of the major search engines. As previously mentioned, Google is taking stock of a number of user-sensitive factors surrounding documents in its index. In March 2005, Google filed a patent titled, "Information retrieval based on historical data". The patent application outlines the historic record Google keeps on every document and file in its index. One of the items mentioned covers user behaviours touching on the following points:

• how much time an average user spends examining a document,
• the entry and exit paths of users,
• if users store reference to the document in bookmarks,
• how users access the document (via search engine, typing URL, link from other document, or bookmarks),
• an evaluation of search traffic driven by Google and related keywords the document was found under

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Measuring Importance - Usability Strategy Ranks High With Search Engines

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Dirk Johnson from DomainDrivers.com provides link-building services. Over the past year, Dirk's firm has helped a number of our clients acquire the relevant incoming links necessary to achieve strong Google placements. These are not purchased links though clients do pay for the time it takes to find and get them.

Quite often the true price of a link is a link. If one website links to another and in return, the other links to the original, a reciprocal link has been established. Several articles about a perceived negative effect of the recent Google/Jagger update on reciprocal links caught Dirk's attention and raised his ire. The problem with the statements is, it doesn't prove true when examining Google's SERPS.

Dirk is concerned the writers of these articles have not researched the material sufficiently to make such sweeping statements. He emailed us the following article in the hopes it would either put an end to the erroneous claims that recip linking is a kin to spam, or make the claimants provide evidence to support their conclusions.

The Reciprocal Link Morticians

by Dirk Johnson, Partner - DomainDrivers.com

Here we go again, folks. The reciprocal link morticians are writing the obituaries again. Singing their dirges. Digging the graves. Holding funerals.

This has happened with every Google update over the last several years. The SEO world is once again filled with "reciprocal links are dead" babble. It's all very predictable, and it's an old, worn-out routine. In all of these pronouncements there is never any factual data to support them. Simply innuendo and some passing observations that this must be the "big one" for reciprocal links. Maybe what they are not telling their readers is that there were other factors at play with sites that got downgraded, so they simply chose reciprocal linking as the "cause".

We look at actual search results for hundreds of sites. Here's what we have seen. The vast majority of sites that continue to hold top place positions for their main keywords rely on reciprocal links for much of their link popularity. What's more, many of the sites that were displaced in Google were replaced by sites that use...reciprocal links!!! The reciprocal linkers are still right there, at the top.

Certainly, links seem to have played a role in this update. Raw linking games got hit pretty hard. But subject relevant, non-gamesmanship reciprocal linking is still a very valid method of promoting a website. There are several very good reasons why Google may not want to penalize legitimate reciprocal linking. But that's another article for another day.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Dirk Johnson on Post-Jagger Recip. Links

An interesting phenomenon is coming to a monitor near you, perhaps the one you are looking at right now. The days of convergence are upon us. The trend towards the merging of media via the Internet is already causing significant cultural shifts as witnessed by the power bloggers have exercised in relation to TV and print journalism. What a difference an era makes. A decade ago, the traditional media set the pace by telling our stories and provided practical means of mass-communications. Today, the Internet provides a globally stable transmission line and the Web serves as both production studio and broadcast medium. The Internet's growth and more importantly, the ease of access for anyone with a computer, a connection and a bit of talent, has pushed the majority of traditional media outlets into a period of survival strategy and planning.

The Internet, as a means of content-distribution has been recognized as the emerging standard as opposed to the add-on it had previously been. Just as cable killed broadcast, IPTV and HDTV will replace the current cable TV distribution model. (Imagine the threat to satellite TV providers.) That doesn't mean the demise of your local cable company but it does mark a change in the way they will be doing business in the future. For most sectors of the entertainment, marketing, distribution and search industries, the only thing left to do is to actually figure out how to do it and how it will work.

The recent discussions between Google, Yahoo and CBS , along with the combined support of AOL and ASK for Internet TV start-up Brightcove show a definite shift in thinking among the US TV networks. Along with that shift, two unique experiments in business model development appear to be underway.

In an interview with Reuters, Les Moonves, CBS chairman said, "We're talking to them [Google] about a whole slew of things including video-on-demand, including video search."

The distribution power of four of the five largest search engines and the business model proposed by Brightcove can be seen as an experiment in marketing and content-distribution. The TV networks have recognized they need to work with the Internet and to do so they need to work with the Web's core information providers, the major search engines.

"They need our content, we need their technology," he said in the Reuters interview, referring to broader discussions with Internet companies. "We argue about which is more important. I think ultimately my content, no matter how you get it, content is still the most important thing."

Google, Yahoo, ASK, AOL, et al, view virtually all "open" information on the web as freely spiderable. They make lists that everyone else can check twice. Even without formal agreements signed, Google and Yahoo have both made video search of TV show snippets uploaded by fans available on demand. Quotes from the shows be found based on the transcripts of closed captioning broadcasts.

For producers of Web-ready television content, it's no use producing content for mass-distribution over the Internet if you aren't in the new-media version of the TV guide. The problem for both the search-information providers and the content creators is making a profit providing the service. While Google, Yahoo and the major TV networks will, for the most part, be able to rely on current advertisers for revenues, three important factors threaten to challenge the stability of that traditional marketing environment.

The first is the dramatic increase in ease of access to the industry. Making video has never been cheaper or easier and with the proliferation of broadband access (often via the traditional cable TV companies); delivery of product is virtually instant and universal. In other words, consumers no longer have to go to an expensive movie theatre to watch a production that cost a fortune to produce. Access to the market and means of production is literally open to anyone. In the near future, there could even be competition for click-through revenues between traditional commercial driven television production and the increasingly professional but independent amateur productions.

The second factor stems from the proliferation of video entertainment production. If there is a sudden increase in quality and availability of independent productions and those independent producers show credible commercial competition, what is to become of the massive media machines behind the scenes of most network shows? Someone has to pay the bills and the predominantly successful model, (pay per click or in this case, pay per view), might not provide sufficient revenues for the highly expensive network shows against popular independent productions.

The third is the portability of information. Handheld, pocket-sized devices such as Blackberrys and cell phones are increasingly web-capable and can handle video. Content produced for the web must also be available where portable media users are looking for it.

Brightcove thinks it has the answers to these issues. Founded in Cambridge Ma, in 2004 by Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove is "an open Internet TV service that empowers video producers and programmers to build broadband businesses while giving viewers more choices and control over their use of video and television." (source: brightcove.com)

Its preview page shows that Brightcove is working to tie advertisers to video produced by individual users and mainstream networks. It also looks to AOL, ASK and other search related businesses to send traffic in the form of branded user features and video-on-demand services. Distribution is the major factor that places the Web far above other forms of media. Taking a page from Google's early playbook, Brightcove is also working to harness the massive distributive power of the Internet by inviting website owners to inquire about syndicating video content.

The opportunities for small business advertisers and website marketers are enormous. The emergence of the Web as the primary means of delivering video information offers website marketers a new area to present client products and services.

The Internet and the Web, while already remarkably versatile, has become a vital link in distribution for the largest traditional media companies, including the major TV networks. The Web is also absorbing a great deal of the advertising money that was previously spent on print. It even threatens the mainstay revenue generator for most urban newspapers, the classified ads section.

Over the past few weeks, stories about Google Automat, a service procedure Google wrote a patent application for nearly two years ago have emerged. The patent application , which was published in early September of this year, is for "a system and method for providing online user-assisted Web-based advertising." The patent application goes on to describe a service that appears remarkably similar to Google Base.

"Preferably, such an approach would guide a user in the creation of advertisements describing offerings of goods or services, creatives associated with the advertisements, and advertising budgets. Such an approach would also help create and host a Web presence for individual and other advertisers. Such an approach would also facilitate driving Web traffic to hyperlinked advertisements through targeting." (source: Patent Abstract)

The patent shows Google is preparing to enter the collection and distribution of small, personal sized classified ads, like the ones printed in the back of your local newspaper. As Google collects them, many industry analysts expect them to begin distributing them through the online classified sections of those same major newspapers.

This presents another wide-open opportunity for search and website marketers to promote client messages and services. In order to take advantage the new landscape, search and website marketers should take time to learn as much as they can about a number of technologies, techniques and complimentary services.

For instance, a good To Do list would include,

• Lean about FLASH and other video-editing software. Check out pre-established businesses such as SiSTeR.TV to see if their products or services can help.
• Learn about the creation and optimization of files for podcasting. These files can be video based or simple audio streams but the trick is learning how to help search engines find them
• Learn as much about the amorphous catch-phrase Web2.0. Social networking and information recommendation have become important facets in website marketing campaigns.
• Find a way to gently break the news to long-term clients. We all have a lot of work ahead of us.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: New World Wide Web Emerging :: Meet the New Network

Monday, November 21, 2005

The holiday season is well underway with Lycos reporting significant spikes in search traffic for toy and gift related items over the past week. Traditionally merchants expect the shopping spree to begin the week after the US Thanksgiving holiday however electronic shoppers tend to start earlier.

Tomorrow, Lycos will be releasing its sixth annual list of the season's most popular toys and video games, culled from the weekly Lycos50. While there is often a lot of interesting information in the Lycos50, the annual Holiday shopping search lists are especially fun. This year's list is different from previous ones in that high-tech electronic toys make up half the list with more traditional types of toys pushed off. It also confirms the continued cultural reign of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Who'dathunkit? SpongeBob SquarePants is four times as popular as Thomas the Tank Engine, six times more popular than Elmo and twelve times as popular as Bob the Builder. As a matter of fact, SpongeBob is the only licensed cartoon character to make the Top10 this year.

Absent for the first time is Star Wars themed toys and Lego. Also missing are the Bratz line of dolls and Yu-Gi-Oh cards. They have been replaced by technology.

As for the video game crowd, 2005 marks the first year the Top10 list hasn't mentioned a sports related game. The number one video game related search might surprise readers as well, especially since searchers weren't looking for the game itself but for game-credits to give as gifts.

Over the past week, the biggest jumps in search activity across the board have been for online toy, specialty and department stores. Target has seen a 225% increase in searches, Dicks Sporting Goods is up 205%, Wal-Mart's search traffic has increased 192% and Toys R Us is up 165%. JCrew seems to be the most popular clothing line with coupon searches up 210%.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Lycos reports holiday season search spike

Friday, November 18, 2005

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google and Yahoo Going VC

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Simplest Explanation of "Web 2.0" Yet

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The line it is drawn the curse it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

(Bob Dylan, 1963)

A period of unprecedented change is upon us. From the micro-world of our personal finance and local economy to the macro-world of international development, the way things get done today is fundamentally different from the way things got accomplished even five years ago.

Online marketing and the methods used by marketers are changing. Search marketing has expanded from the humble but mysterious artful science days to be a more professional, precise and predictable service. With so much change on the horizon, it is often a good idea to scope the scenery to see how it is being affected. As we will all soon read about, the global economic shift is no longer eminent, it is in full swing and it is affecting the lives of everyone on Earth, even those not directly involved with the Internet.

Often faster than a phone call and far more practical than a fax machine, the Internet has provided anyone with a digital signal access to the global agora, no matter where they are in the world.

As the Internet has grown, it radically altered a Eurocentric world order that predated the twentieth century. It is wild and remains almost entirely unregulated. It has become the basis of a grassroots global economy and naturally there is international debate over who exactly should control the Internet.

Regardless of who controls the conventions that make it operate, its evolution is virtually dependent on what tools and processes users choose to adopt. Compared to previous eras, the introduction of new tools and processes is relatively easy. This is especially true when you happen to be the most dominant player in the game.

This has been a tremendous week for Google. Monday's introduction of Google Analytics will have a massive impact on its rivals at Yahoo and MSN and likely caused the scaling back of the paid-advertising unit Ask established in August. It will also impact established Analytics firms such as WebTrends and ClickTracks, (a package we continue to use and recommend to clients). To make a long and developing story short, Google Analytics is a website / business management tool that provides a wide variety of statistics and information about how visitors use a website. It also provides webmasters displaying AdWords advertising through AdSense extra support with the aim of making more money by helping advertisers and ad-distributors convert site visitors into billable click-throughs.

Today's beta release of Google Base is the next shoe to drop on a market reeling from recent changes. Google Base has been called the Index of all indices, a reference to the concept that Google is preparing to merge and present information from any variety of sources. According to Google, it is simply another way to get information into the Google search database, especially useful for submitters who don't maintain their own websites. In practical terms, Google Base appears to be a way to submit a list of virtually anything from free information to expensive items. In short, Google Base seems designed to cover all bases.

The introduction of Google Analytics and Google Base add a new dimension to Google as the leading global information provider. They also do one other, somewhat unexpected thing. Combined with other features and tools Google uses to narrow or funnel information searches such as Local search, geo-mapping, and comparison-shopping (Froogle), Google is decidedly staking its turf atop this next wave of search facilitated global-commerce.

Search Marketers, like the industry we work in need to evolve along the leading edge and as of this week, Google is it. The next few months should be very busy ones for search marketing firms as they rush to market services based on Google Analytics and Google Base. Current clients of search marketing firms should seriously consider contacting their SEM vendor to arrange time for inclusion of service or product offering at Google Base. They should also think about having their search marketing firm install the Google Analytics script and monitor information to fine-tune marketing campaigns.

Google's innovative good fortune doesn't put rivals Yahoo, MSN and ASK out of the picture as each remains an important component in search marketing and any one of them could introduce a superior product.

Yahoo itself has an amazing product in the Yahoo Publisher Network , which is said to be ready for general release early in 2006. YPN is made for content-publishers and is meant to be a vehicle for Yahoo Search Marketing ads, Yahoo's alternative to AdWords. Yahoo's strategy appears to be centered on the provision of top quality content for YPN members, along with a number of search / information retrieval features such as tagging and stored-search preferences.

What YPN is trying to do is allow its members to create their own content spaces, in short, giving them many of the components necessary to become credible new-media creators and distribution outlets. Yahoo is betting on the commercial side of entertainment and the grassroots nature of the Internet as a means of providing it.

Ultimately, what Google and Yahoo are both doing, is creating information spaces and making it easier for webmasters or search marketers to guide visitors through. That's where the global economy comes into play.

Yesterday I seriously considered the concept of rental property in Turkey . A reader sent in a question about a technique used on his CMS driven website. I answered his question as best I could but also told him I was stunned by the craft that went into the representations of the rental units. There were 3-d floor plans, excellent exterior images and a well-detailed outline of life in Turkey . It had some of the best but simple elements I've ever seen on a real estate related site.

The Internet has opened a vast world of commerce that was previously unavailable in remote regions of the world. Knowledge workers, website designers and search marketers can be located anywhere in the world, as long as they have a means of drawing a pay-cheque. Most of this new commerce happens at a grassroots level but in competition, the grassroots can be surprisingly professional. With the offerings Google made available this week, and the stuff we know to be coming down the pipe from Yahoo in the near future, it is hard to image how the search engine marketing sector will look this time next year.

The Internet has been the primary driver of both corporate and grassroots visions of the emerging global economic and social order. While it has not achieved a level playing field by any reasonable standard of measurement, the Internet, at least thus far, represents the greatest equalizer for growing economies, developing societies, underemployed individuals and small businesses everywhere.

The Internet has become the global networking tool its early proponents were hoping for, a flexible and expandable space where the users themselves actively promote its evolution. That evolution is accelerating.

Everything about the web is accelerating, leaving commentators and observers breathless as they (we) try to figure out exactly what streams, channels, ideas or emerging philosophies to focus on. The only constants seem to be our natural desire to improve our technologies and Moore 's Law basic concept that information processing can double in speed every two years. Brilliance begets brilliance and invention invites innovation. Hold on to your seats John and Jane Doe, the times they are a-changin'.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Changes Blur the Scenery Along the Digital Divide

Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages... We are proud to welcome you to the one, the only, the uniquely meglomartical Yahoo Shoposphere !

Yahoo has introduced an oddly named but equally compelling shopping suggestion site known as Yahoo Shoposphere. The shoposphere, is, on the surface, a wish-list you can share with eighty million of your closest friends.

The environment is organized around Pick Lists, virtual shopping lists made up by the registered users. One such list is, Gifts for a New Zealand Sports Fan . Another is the helpful Ultimate Travel Bag . Once made, lists can be shared with friends and family and displayed on the Shoposphere website.

The shoposphere also works around the Yahoo Shopping search engine with products listed in its database made available in the search results.

Naturally, it is also a space merchants can list items for sale. For instance, Jay presents his list of Nissan 350Z/300ZX Aftermarket Parts as a guide to finding such parts.

The shoposphere is a cool shopping application that really could make the Holiday season simpler for many people, especially for long-distance gift giving.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Christmas Tips, courtesy of the Shoposphere...Yahoo!

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Analytics :: Branding and Packaging Results

Monday, November 14, 2005

Has the Google Jagger update broken the backs of black-hat practitioners? Probably not but when the support structures fail and the roof comes caving in it's vaguely understandable to think for a short moment that the sky must be falling on them. That's the impression I got reading blog entries and search marketing forums over the past few weeks. Google's recent algorithm update appears to have shaken a few trees and made a number of people who profess to practice what has been termed "black-hat" techniques sort of nervous.

Since Google introduced its latest three-part Jagger update in early October, there has been a good deal of hand wringing and second-guessing from the "black-hat" side of the SEM spectrum. A sudden loss of ranking translated into a sudden dip in revenues. The Jagger update appears to have targeted search marketing tactics that were based on exploiting blogs, link networks and Google's AdWords distribution program, AdSense.

For the most part, sites that use basic, common sense SEO and conservative, relevant linking policies have fared well though some took a deep dive in the earlier portions of the update. In some cases, time and experience has taught that clean SEO works best and in others, the impact of the Jagger update seems to be scaring them straight.

The final phase of the update is now likely complete and listings are again changing at Google. A reference site many are using to see how results are expected to shake out after Jagger is fully finished can be at http://216.239.57.105.

In the meantime, here are a few references for your reading enjoyment.

"A Whiter Shade of Black" by Gord Hotchkiss - Search Engine Guide (Nov 14)
"Black Hats Going White?" by Danny Sullivan - Search Engine Watch Blog (Nov 11)
"Is SEO Getting More Gray" discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Black-hat techniques broken by Jagger?

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Have you ever wondered why we call software or hardware errors "bugs"? What a strange word to describe a mistake. Insects, though some may find them repellent, are among the most complex and perfectly adapted creatures on this planet. How can something that doesn't work be compared with things that actually function better than most living organisms on Earth? The term has never made much sense to me even though I use it in one way or another at least once a week.

When I was a youngster in the 70's, I imagined a horde of beetles eating their way through boxes of cardboard punch cards. As it turns out, my uninformed assumption wasn't that far from the truth.

In the first of a three part series examining computer and software bugs, Wired Magazine contributor, Simson Garfinkel uncovers the first known computer bug, which technically speaking was actually a moth.

"... the ranks of the buggy computer -- a club that began in 1945 when engineers found a moth in Panel F, Relay #70 of the Harvard Mark II system. The computer was running a test of its multiplier and adder when the engineers noticed something was wrong. The moth was trapped, removed and taped into the computer's logbook with the words: "first actual case of a bug being found.'"

So there you go. Next time you are at a cocktail party and run out of things to say, the story of the moth and the Mark II is bound to impress and entertain.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Why are Bugs Called Bugs?

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

The searchable universe has expanded enormously over the past year. From the doubling or tripling of the size of search engine indexes to the evolution of several engines with unique focuses, the amount of data accessible by search engine users has grown faster this year than any other since the dawn of the public, commercial Internet.

The growth of search over the past twelve months presents advertisers and search engine marketers with several options when planning their search marketing efforts. With so many avenues opening for search marketing, it is much easier to envision and facilitate several different multi-channel advertising campaigns for a single client, product or service.

The major search engines can now spider and index information from virtually any type of common file format. While the extraction of useful information from some file formats such as Flash still presents challenges, we have seen tremendous advancement in the power and scope of the search engine sector.

While these advancements have opened the sector to newcomers, the two largest search businesses, Google and Yahoo continue lead though both appear to be taking slightly different directions. Whenever the giants move into uncharted territories, they create a technical and cultural wake that pulls others along with them. This trend, combined with the innovative minds populating the search industry has fostered the emerging web-marketing environment.

For some, online marketing campaigns are about to become a lot more challenging and, hopefully, a lot more fun. Technology and innovation have given advertisers a wide array of options when it comes to phrasing their messages. Subsequently, website planning and design is much more complex today than in previous years. One positive evolution seen in the search engine optimization sector is the trend to consult with search marketers before embarking on site construction or alterations.

A well-planned and properly executed search marketing campaign can help these reach the eyes of millions more people than ever before. Websites are now being built combining the best elements of video, audio, text and image in ways that, while possible two years ago, would have been impractical from a search marketing perspective. Today, video and audio files can be created with relative ease and multicast in several search-spider friendly formats. Spiders can now drill deep into most databases to extract product or item specific data. Search engine users not only have a widening number of information sources to choose from, they have a growing number of search providers to find it on.

The following example is purely hypothetical but, in the full spectrum world of advanced search marketing, entirely possible. Imagine the thrill of managing a complex online marketing campaign for travel and tourism in the breathtakingly beautiful city of Victoria , British Columbia .

Victoria is arguably the nicest city in the world. Perched on the southern tip of a very large island off the Pacific coast of Canada , Victoria is blessed with what most Canucks consider a very mild climate. It is the capital city of BC and has some of the most outstanding neo-colonial architecture in a city that once saw itself as solidly British as the Queen it was named for.

For any number of reasons, tourism is the major industry in Victoria and therefore extremely important to all who live here. We have a very well funded tourism bureau which has a very well designed website. Not only does the town benefit from the tourism bureau, a provincial government ministry is assigned specifically to travel and tourism. Victoria also serves as a day-trip destination for tourists visiting Vancouver and Seattle, enjoying the close proximity to both urban centers. In short, there is a lot of resources to work with it's a pity no-one has bothered to string them all together. Here's the synopsis of the dream promotion.

The first stage of this hypothetical promotion is to begin a full optimization overhaul of the website of the tourism bureau. This process does not begin in the source-code. It begins in the boardroom.

As mentioned before, there are several natural partners in the search marketing of tourism to Victoria. The tourism bureaus of Victoria, Vancouver and Seattle all have a stake in the success of the industry in this small city. The provincial and municipal governments also have a stake, so much so that each has dedicated civil servants working to coordinate and facilitate opportunities. The largest group of stakeholders is made up of the businesses that serve tourists. There are literally thousands of tourism-based businesses in this city and surrounding areas. There are also online tourism-marketing businesses promoting accommodation and entertainment options under travel friendly domains.

A well-planned search marketing campaign requires input from all these groups as each has specific and useful items to add to the mix. By inviting the various stakeholders to participate to one degree or another, a much more powerful campaign can be organized.

The first step is information gathering. Who has what to offer? Which businesses compliment which? Are there any package deals that involve the services of multiple businesses? Chances are, the answers to most initial questions have already been researched. The tourism bureau certainly keeps a running inventory of tourism related resources in its files and what it doesn't have can be filled in by other stakeholders in the initial meeting.

The goal is to set up as multi-faceted a marketing campaign as possible. Here's what we would be looking for from tourism site owners at the initial meeting and on the site of the tourism bureau (which is assumed to be the client).

Basics

Good Content

Assuming the domain already exists and common sense technical issues are addressed, all good search engine promotions begin with good content. Content is more than simple body text. There is some content search engines tend to like better than others so learning to layer content on the site is an important tip.

Search engines continue to prefer body text to any other means of communicating. Text is easy to read and easy to assess. The basis of any website should be well written body text, even if you have the most amazing animations or videos to share.

Smart Site Architecture
Search engine spiders like to follow simple paths. The way a site is initially constructed influences the development of future paths as new content is added to the site. By advocating the simplest site architecture possible (depending on the tools or techniques used to build the site), we would hope to start fashioning a network of similarly themed, well-constructed sites.

External Linking Strategies
Assuming the tourism bureau was our client, we would want all member businesses of that bureau to link back to it. In turn, we would also make recommendations on what would otherwise be called a planned link-exchange between local businesses relevant to each other, who wanted to get involved in the greater promotion.

Advanced

RSS Feeds

The first advanced advice we would give all local businesses (including our client) would be to add an RSS feed to their sites. It can be as simple as a basic XML sitemap but it should cover every page in the site. This will become important when considering the use of new and/or improved features available via the search engines such as Froogle, Blog search (and tagging), and podcasts.

Tools for site visitors

One of the common things all web marketers tell their clients is to try to foster loyalty in their site visitors. On the Internet, the best visitor is one who keeps coming back. They are more likely to purchase a service and cost a lot less per visit than new visitors do. Give them stuff to make that visit worthwhile.

As the active example is tourism, a currency converter and distance estimator are two obvious (and likely pre-existing) basic tools to add to the site. A more advanced tool would find accommodation and help tourists plan their itineraries. Such tools could be promoted as a feature of the site and under keyword related phrases in organic and PPC formats.

Blogs
At the initial meeting, a full hour could easily be devoted to the use of blogs as a promotional tool. A Victoria BC tourism blog could mention the weather (even in the dead of winter it is relatively warm here), local events, featured businesses and a multitude of other items of interest to tourists. Now if every, or even most, local tourism related businesses could be convinced to keep a blog, the networking power would be incredible. One of the best features of Blogs is their versatility and inherent cross-link capability. I am not suggesting weaving a mess of links for search engine ranking manipulation but instead as a means of referring readers to other local, complementary businesses.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a kin to a radio or television show except they are recorded as audio or video presentations and distributed online. Users access them over the web or download them into their ipods for future viewing or listening.

An innovative use of podcasting was reported today in Wired magazine where a tourism business in Venice Italy is using podcasts to guide visitors to parts of the ancient city that are not often frequented by travelers. Podcasts are searchable documents.

External Linking Strategies
As mentioned before in relation to individual websites, a large link network could be fashioned out of the membership of the local tourism bureau. This network is built using links that are highly relevant to each other and excluding irrelevant links as much as possible. In helping reorganize the external linking policies of businesses who are members of the local tourism bureau, we would hope to serve two purposes. The first is obviously to drive the most relevant links possible to our client's website. The second is to improve the link-history or footprints in the local industry and for our client overall. Such opportunities are difficult to otherwise imagine.

Sharing and Permissions

The last thing we would be looking for at the initial meeting would be the willingness to share and cross-reference content. For example, a local golf course might have a video that could be linked to or shown at various accommodation websites. The governments could pitch in with RSS-driven information applets such as ferry schedules and road conditions.

The simple statement, "the more things change, the more they stay the same", will again prove true in the coming year. The newly emerging web-marketing environment will look and feel a lot like the old one. Think about the evolution of the city you live in. Chances are it was founded a few years back and some areas of the town have changed dramatically. New buildings have replaced old ones over the years and new shops open in spaces that have been previously occupied by several others. The streets however tend to remain the same. New ones get built but they always connect to and are directly affected by the street pattern the city sprang from.

While the advances in search technology are huge, the ways we use common tools, even new ones, is more often than not, formed by how we used the old ones. In other words, while search might be bigger and better, our methods of marketing will continue to rely on fairly predictable but now enhanced human and search-spider abilities and behaviours.

The use of RSS will allow video, shopping, blog and podcast search engines to find materials on the site they otherwise might miss. The addition of an XML sitemap allows webmasters and search marketers to tell Google, Yahoo and other search tools exactly where to look for information and when to expect updates.

As for improving the fortunes of the tourism bureau and its members, along with pleasing the provincial and municipal bureaucrats involved, another old saying comes to mind. A rising tide lifts all ships, or in this case, shops. By improving on a pre-existing network and utilizing marketing resources developed by members of that network, the local tourism bureau can build a better tourist trap, or at least make entry into the one we call home much easier.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Planning and Networking Key to Marketing Success

Monday, November 07, 2005

Yahoo and TiVo today announced a partnership between the two firms that, as of Monday will allow users to program their TiVo recorders via the search portal.

The new feature places a "Record to my TiVo" button on Yahoo TV pages and likely on other TV related content found in the Yahoo network. When a TiVo user (who also has a Yahoo membership) clicks the button, a signal is sent to their TiVo unit. Users are cautioned to expect a one hour lag time if their TiVo is connected with broadband and a 36-hour lag if they use dial-up. TiVo is said to be in discussions with other search firms as well.

The major search engines are all investing heavily in video with Yahoo and Google leading the pack. In August, Yahoo signed deals with CNN and ABC News, expanding the content offered through Yahoo TV.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Yahoo and TiVo (film @ 11, or whenever)

Friday, November 04, 2005

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Dot-Com Monopoly, the 2000 Edition

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: New Google Patent - User profiling to influence organic results

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

The second Internet revolution has clearly started to take shape. Remember the massive changes forecast by hundreds of tech-writers, including myself, for the past two years? While slower in coming than expected, the last critical stage for their mass adoption of these changes, their introduction, appears to have begun. Welcome to Revolution 2.1.

Revolution, according to one definition offered by Princeton University's WordNet is, " a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving."

Revolutions come in stages, generally brewing for long periods before overwhelming the traditional order with the weight of massive social adoption of new ideas, tools and methods. They almost always stem from increased social or technical knowledge and require the support of a prosperous middle-class majority to fully succeed.

In this case, that majority is the Internet users themselves. The search engines are providing the tools forged by in-house and third party software developers whose creativity formed the framework for the coming changes. Underpinning the revolution is the virtually universal access to broadband, high-speed connectivity in North America and most of Western Europe, Oceania and Asia .

The last thing a successful revolution requires is the need to have one in the first place. Unless a society or economy is horribly oppressed, revolution really is a lot of bother and hard work. Why go to the trouble of establishing a new way of doing things if the old one works?

The current Internet economy works just fine, at least for those who can exploit opportunities in or around it. A vast improvement on personal empowerment from the socio-economic order of the post WW2 corporate-economies, the Internet has provided tens of millions of people the essential tools to become entrepreneurs and add value to their lives and their communities.

Add the emergence of two billion new users and developers from India and China to the mix, along with the hundreds of millions in other parts of Africa, Asia and South America who are also finding easier access to the Internet and the need to alter our traditions becomes that much more apparent. Issues ranging from language and translation support to the legal differences between jurisdictional areas are suddenly on the table.

The Internet as we know it today is actually a massive hodgepodge of applications, common and conflicting protocols, and clunky client-side software strung together by an amazingly versatile and efficient routing system. The ability to collaborate between artificial and human driven intelligences is phenomenal but, as originators such as Vint Cerf and Bill Gates have said, what we see today is only the tip of the iceberg.

Yesterday's quiet but deliberate unveiling of Microsoft's Windows Live marked the true beginning of a new phase in Internet development as the software giant follows rival Google in presenting a host of online services and server side software for registered users. One giant following another through a virgin forest will certainly open a very wide path for others to follow.

In a nutshell, Windows Live has copied Google's personalized search portal ( google.com/ig ) though its layout and functionality is very much different. Oddly enough, the release and functionality of Windows Live is not in itself an important milestone. Their contribution to Revolution 2.1 is the adoption of a user and/or group influenced personalization of information retrieval by the major search entities. Being the second to offer registered users the ability to create their own info-portal home page, Microsoft is pretty much ensuring that, assuming users go for it; others will follow the model in the future.

Microsoft also released OfficeLive , a major and important step forward in Revolution 2.1. OfficeLive marks a renewed mission for Microsoft in the development and distribution of server-side software. According to Microsoft chief technical officer Ozzie Smith, 'Internet users have come to expect services that are fast, easy-to-use - and, in many cases, free. Access to personal information from any PC or mobile device is becoming expected, making more users willing to store their personal information on the servers of companies such as Google than their own PCs."

Google has supported the development of much of the software that will power the coming changes. Over the years, the alliance between Google and the open source community has been widely known. Soon, Google is expected to be involved with the release of Open Office as server-side software on demand.

Google and Microsoft are not alone in their contributions to Revolution 2.1. The largest tech-driver of the coming changes is the ability to feed user-created information via RSS or Real Simple Syndication.

Yahoo recently took a radically different but equally revolutionary path with the citizen-publisher focused Yahoo Publisher Network.

The Yahoo Publisher Network is a massive initiative in grassroots publishing that Yahoo hopes will be adopted by citizen journalists and commercial publishers. YPN is an amalgam of what will eventually be dozens of Yahoo features and services with the ability to create and mass-distribute blogs. Yahoo leads the search field in the provision of in-house and user generated content for bloggers through the YPN. It also offers advertising distribution incentives similar to Google AdSense for YPN publishers.

Over the past ten years, two general types of information have emerged from the Internet. One type is academic or social in focus and the other is commercial or politically focused. The first wants to learn and share, the second to lead and sell. Up until this point, both have existed in tandem, pretty much treated equally by search engines and Internet protocols. Quite often, at least in the realm of general search, the commercial side has exploited this equality, (SEOs and SEMs can insert a polite but self-effacing cough here), sometimes pushing quality but non-commercial information lower in search results than it ought to be.

Concurrently, a new generation of software engineers grew up. Unlike previous generations, this new bunch has always had computers and the Internet as functioning parts of their lives. These teen and early 20-somethings relate to the Internet differently than their parents and even their older peers do. Like 30-something Gen-X'ers and their love-hate relationship with PR, mass marketing and advertising, today's younger net-user doesn't necessarily trust everything he or she sees online. Unlike previous generations however, this young set can immediately do something about it.

Necessity is the mother of invention and frustration is often the muse of innovation. The Internet gave these teen and 20-something innovators the platform to build better mousetraps on and the ability to do so almost instantly. That's what the hype surrounding Web2.0 is all about.

What they have created is a set of extremely interesting social networking and communication devices that rely on the input and acceptance of Internet users. On the academic front, the Wikipedia provides one of the best examples. Built upon articles and entries written by registered users, the Wikipedia has rapidly become the unofficial encyclopaedia of the Internet. Quality control is an ongoing issue however the size and attention of the community contributing to the project makes the editorial project virtually organic. In the commercial realm, the newsletter or publication this article is written in could stand as basic but rapidly evolving example.

As technology and the wealth necessary to use it has advanced so rapidly over the past decade, tools that make information distribution and retrieval simpler have emerged. In other words, some clever inventors have found ways to make search simpler. At the same time, advances and innovations in grassroots technologies (such as RSS enabled blogs mixed with a/v production to host podcasts) push the search industry to broaden the horizons available to users. The major search engines didn't start the revolution. Their function is to popularize it as they exploit emerging revenue streams.

The changes I've dubbed Revolution 2.1 will have an enormous impact on Internet and search marketing.

The first thing we SEOs and SEMs need to realize is that the search sector is expanding rapidly to include specialized, regionalized, and personalized search tools. Each of the major search engines and literally dozens of smaller search tools offer a widening array of search options. Learning the new methods of treating and feeding information to search engines is critical for continued success in the search marketing field. For instance, we recently had an opportunity to perform SEO services on a podcast a client in a highly competitive field wanted to produce. We took a pass on the project as we felt we didn't have the skills or tools necessary to do the job. Having been alerted to a gap in what will be a growing field, we hope to be able to service such requests in the future. Our survival literally depends on it.

Next, we need to understand and help our clients understand social and business communication tools such as RSS feed readers, photo-sharing applications, and group-networking sites such as Friendster , Tribe.net , MySpace , XuQa and LinkedIn .

Lastly, we need to start adding features such as Yahoo's MyWeb button or Google XML sitemaps to client sites to aid in their transition to the new web being weaved in Revolution 2.1.

The funny thing about revolutions, especially ones that get played out without a coherent plan that has the full consent of the people, is that unexpected developments happen. The Internet as we know it today is a prime example. Back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, nobody could have predicted the massive social and economic changes brought about by the rise of the public Internet.

Flash ahead thirty years to today. Anything can happen and the web that comes from today's changes will be far more functional. It will incorporate traditional media such as TV and newspapers and allow users access to tools used to create traditional programming. The revolution has been brewing over the past two years. Ever since a functioning business model based on paid-advertising turned tiny contextually delivered three-line ads into pure profit, software designers have been churning out a series of "killer apps" hoping the suddenly super-wealthy search engines would buy them or futures-hungry venture capitalists would fund them. For those who were successful in the development and those of us about to benefit from their success, the next Internet revolution has begun.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Revolution 2.1