I love SEO tools. They are tasty, crunchy little morsels that make for delightful morning snacks. I had a case of the munchies this morning and so I’ll share my masticating thoughts on a recently announced SEO tool. Actually, I’m just going to make fun of it. You see, a while back I was dancing and singing down the Yellow Brick Road — well, actually, I was browsing SEO Blog, which is a pretty cool SEO blog aggregator site (disclaimer: SEO Theory is one of the blogs included in their feeds). I Click to continue […]
Author: Michael Martinez
Confused Over Web Design Basics? You Should Be
UPDATE: I have disabled the experimental ad described in this article because the Javascript conflicts with the theme design.I released an eBook over the weekend. You can read about it on SEO Theory. It’s called SELECTIONS FROM THE SEO THEORY PREMIUM NEWSLETTER, VOLUME 1 and if you follow that link you will be able to read all about it. But here’s the thing. Although I’ll need to promote the book more aggressively, after spending a lot of time working on that project I decided to experiment Click to continue […]
My Take on Google’s 100% Implementation of Secure Search
We have now officially entered the NOT PROVIDED AGE, where Web marketers can no longer expect to see Google’s keyword referral data in their analytics unless they are part of the AdWords program and connect their AdWords account to their Google Analytics account. This change has been a long time coming. Google has always promoted “(Not provided)” as a user-oriented policy that protects user search terms from marketers. Of course, Google excluded its own AdWords customers from that “consumer Click to continue […]
Creative Marketing is all about Finding the Next Problem to Solve
Whenever I need inspiration for a new blog post I put on my headphones and listen to Classic Yes’ “Tales from Topographic Oceans”. The music inspires me although the words are kind of freaky. I listen to music when I need to be creative because I have a problem with creativity: I’m not the most creative guy on Earth. In fact, most of the time what I create can be boiled down to “crap”, “mediocrity”, and “rehashed aphorisms”. Or maybe I just spend a lot of time quoting my favorite books and movies Click to continue […]
The Search Engine is Not Your Customer
As Web marketers step back and reassess their “best practices” for attracting search referral traffic, I think one of the most important points has yet to be raised: that a search engine neither buys nor recommends your products. We seek out bloggers because they can recommend our products and services to other people. We seek out customers because they buy our products and services. But all we ask of search engines is that they send people to visit our Websites. The average marketing profile Click to continue […]
How Did We End Up In This Bad Link Neighborhood?
One or two years ago Randy Ray and I were looking at one of our blogs from the admin panel. I noticed there were a lot of unmoderated comments that the assigned editor had not reviewed (the blog had been inactive for a while). Before I could start scanning the page for legitimate comments Randy clicked on “EMPTY SPAM” and said, “Well, that problem is handled.” I still laugh at my reaction. I was astounded, befuddled, and beside myself. “But–but, what if there was a legitimate comment in there?” Click to continue […]
Why I Choose Not to Link to Your Website
Web marketers have all sorts of theories about why people will link to their Websites. They also have theories about what they can get away with in terms of user tolerance. One well-known social media expert, for example, proudly boasts on his Website that he boosts email subscriptions by using a plugin that puts a form in your face as soon as you land on his Website. I would link to the article except that I don’t link to Websites that use popup ads. If earning links is important to you and Click to continue […]
Link Building for the Reflective Marketer
OMG, Batgirl! Link building is, like, so dead you’ll never want to place your own links again. Whatever is a Web marketer to do? We’re not sure but we believe that some people may now be afraid to link out to other Websites. This whole “links are dead” frenzy appears to be picking up momentum (except on black hat SEO forums, where link placement is Business As usual). Web Spammers are not the brightest monkeys in the jungle but they can be a hard-working lot who persevere (as a group), whereas Click to continue […]
How Google Is Secretly Managing Your Website Traffic
The other day a reader wrote in to ask us an interesting question: Michael and Randy, Do you think it’s possible that Google is really playing us for fools? I was looking at my Analytics report the other day and saw something really disturbing. I was hoping you could take a look and see if you come to the same conclusion I did. We don’t normally do pro bono SEO analyses but this particular reader had recently been in the news for saving a woman from being hit by a taxi. We figured we could do Click to continue […]
Content Marketing Myths That Threaten to Unseat the King
Content is King but most people in the digital marketing world don’t seem to have a clue as to why. I can only make that observation based on what I read on their blogs and in their forums. The content marketing that everyone talks about these days is just spam. All you’re doing is publishing articles for the sake of attracting links and increasing advertising page views. Real content marketing creates demand. What demand are you creating when you “publish high quality content to become an Click to continue […]
How Google’s Disavow Tool Works with the Penguin Algorithm
[ Update 2023 ]Google changed the Penguin algorithm’s behavior in September 2016. Instead of punishing sites for violating link spam policies, Google began ignoring the paid links. The disavow tool became almost unnecessary from that time forward. This post is preserved for historical purposes and no longer provides useful guidance. More than a year after Google announced its Penguin anti-spam algorithm (in April 2012), many search marketing bloggers continue to misidentify manual spam actions Click to continue […]
Use Blogger Communications to Reflect the Story You Want to Tell
There is a growing experimental industry that is cultivating networks of bloggers who want to be notified about interesting Websites and stories. The image of the “Citizen Journalist” has inspired a few companies to create blogger outreach channels that are just used for pitching or announcing stories the bloggers might want to write about. What’s in it for the bloggers? They are presented with ideas that may inspire them to write some great content. In some cases they may also be presented Click to continue […]