A friend of mine on Facebook today (and yesterday) shared a photo of a huge blister on his toe. It was about the size of a grape, in fact. Of course, he got lots of sympathy and plenty of requests from his friends to visit a doctor. He also had one person unfriend him. This might not be a big deal for some folks, but for someone who has hung out a billboard as a web marketing professional, it’s the kind of dumb mistake that can lose you a lot of credibility. It was also the inspiration for Click to continue […]
You’ll Never Believe the Message We Got from Google…
This morning I received an email from “Link Removal” with the subject line “You’ll never believe the message we got from Google…” Needless to say, I was intrigued. It turns out that the sender wants me to remove some links to a site. I always enjoyed critiquing link request emails in one of my other SEO blogs, but now it looks like I can start critiquing link removal requests. Here’s the text of the email, with the identifying stuff removed: Hi, Google has complained to us about some of Click to continue […]
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 […]
How to Get Search Engine Visitors without Building Links
One reason I enjoy reading Michael Martinez’s articles about search engine optimization is that he’s an SEO who hasn’t drunk the “it’s all about link building” Kool-Aid. He’s pointed out in multiple blog posts (How to Get Traffic to Your Website for Free is one of my favorites of these) that link building isn’t even necessary to build traffic. All that’s really necessary is the willingness and the ability to publish interesting content on a regular basis. Earlier this year, I tested this approach Click to continue […]
How to Increase the Value of Your Website
Not everyone wants to sell their website. But if you’re planning an exit strategy, maximize the amount of money your site sells for. This post offers some practical suggestions for increasing your site’s value. Invest in a premium domain name. In real estate, a house in a good location is more valuable that a house in a less desirable location. The same is true on the Internet. A site on a premium domain is worth more than the same site on a less desirable domain. For example, “hotels.com” is 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 […]