SoloSEO

I can’t dig DIGG.

Posted by Aaron R Stewart on December 30th, 2006

Digg… I don’t get it. After attending PubCon, and hearing many refer to Digg this, and Digg that, I figured I better do some digging myself to figure out what the buzz was all about. And yet, a couple months later, I know what Digg is, I understand the traffic it can generate, I have spent time looking over the front pages on occasion, and I am simply not impressed. There is rarely anything on the front page intriguing enough to click, let alone read. So could someone please explain the draw, or is there nothing to it? Could Digg simply be built on a Madonnaesque marketing blitz, with more buzz than substance, more hype than value?

Digg appears to be nothing more than an online popularity contest, where inmates are actually allowed to run the asylum. And the longer these inmates have been in the asylum, the more influence they are given to decide on what the other inmates get to see and read. Additionally, the popularity of a dugg article is seemingly based on a disturbingly narrow (dare I say juvenile) focus, with just a few decent articles thrown up occasionly to keep Digg barely credible and hardly reliable.

These “Diggers” seem to have drastically different view on what I deem to be important, or relevant from the perspective of a business owner, who is over the age of 35. Who are these Diggers anyway? Why do their opinions count? What is their expertise, if they have any at all? Which then begs the question, why should anyone care or trust their opinions? There is no established credibilty. It’s like asking a random stranger on the street for tax advice, I mean they might know more about taxes than I do, but how can I be sure unless I know more about them, their background and their credentials? Despite this obvious lack of credibility, here we have a site where anonymous and potentially uninformed folks attempt to “recommend” to the public what we should spend our time reading. And get a load of what is on the reccommended reading list…

At the time of writing this post the home page of Digg had 2 articles on Mike Tyson’s DUI charge, one on the Nintendo Wii, something about the French space agency’s plans to publish an UFO archive online, an article about 2007 being the year of the Xbox 360, one on music about some “buggy game,” and something on Storm Troopers (Star Wars) being in the Rose Parade. You have got to be kidding. Who in their right mind cares about any of this, and who values their time so little as to waste it by reading any of this stuff?

So, based on what I saw today, to be “Dugg,” I would need create an article to impress an audience of UFO interested, Mike Tyson following, Star Wars loving, gamers… Ummmm… yeah, I think I’ll pass. My potential clients don’t hang out there. I think I’ll put my efforts towards attracting clients who have aspirations of growing their online business, instead of spending time writing an article I hope will drive random traffic to our site in order to see a profitless spike in our Alexa ranking. I prefer and reccommend a more focused, pragmatic approach. Not to mention I also prefer to attract individuals who do not need to rummage through their mom’s purse, or sister’s piggy bank in order to have a little spending money.

I will say this for Digg… If Digg can continue to get Diggers to read (for fun let’s just assume they are actually reading this dribble) instead of gaming all day, then it is certainly an important public service, and Digg should be commended for getting the kids to read something, anything.

For my time, I am going to stick to reading from WSJ.com, FT.com, Economist.com and the blogs of those individuals I respect, with credentials I can view.

I personally expect Digg’s popularity to suffer in 2007, with more folks coming to these same glaring conclusions. Many will realize Digg is to online media, as the The Enquirer is to print media. Popular perhaps, but the readers aren’t the ones you want managing your 401K. Either Digg is going to overhaul itself, and begin to earn trust by displaying the actual credentials of their Diggers, or someone else will eventually come up with a similar service, which relies on a panel of proven experts to rate articles in their areas of expertise, which would then be truly worth the read. Now a service like that would be something we all could really Dig.

10 comments Visited 1447 times December 30th, 2006 Aaron R Stewart

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Check out the Photo Tour of SoloSEO.com

Posted by Michael D Jensen on December 22nd, 2006

A new photo tour of SoloSEO.com helps you to see the interface and many features of SoloSEO.com, even before you sign up for the free trial. The photo tour will take you from the very first page (Dashboard) to all the major components, including the Keyword Manager and tools, Content tracking, Link Building, Reports, and Competition watch.

Several reviews about SoloSEO have mentioned how simple and easy the interface is, and that it is easy to just start exploring to see all that SoloSEO can do.

We have had a great response since our launch, with new trials and subscribers starting every day. We also have some exciting announcements for the new year! Until then, enjoy your family and your holiday! Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

1 comment Visited 1565 times December 22nd, 2006 Michael D Jensen

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Santa’s Favorite Cookie Rematch, with New Contenders

Posted by Michael D Jensen on December 22nd, 2006

I was called out by Lisa Barone on my experiment to find out what was Santa’s Favorite Cookie, suggesting that Santa’s favorite cookie was not the Chocolate Chip Cookie, but rather the Sugar Cookie. Of course Lisa didn’t run the test as I suggested (or didn’t publish the results), so I thought I would do a once and for all, end all, experimental study on what is truly Santa’s Favorite Cookie.

The contenders will now include Sugar Cookies, Gingerbread Cookies, and Oatmeal Cookies, as well as the previous contenders, Oreos and Chocolate Chip Cookies. The same experiments will be run. All searches will include plural and singular forms of the cookie name, and the highest result will be used for comparison.

On to the experiments…

Experiment 1: I’m Feeling Lucky Result - Google has a feature called “I’m Feeling Lucky” that takes you immediately to the first site listed in their results. To complete this experiment, I simply typed in “What is Santa’s favorite cookie?” and then the cookie named on that page would gain a point.

Results for Experiment 1: Same outcome here, of course. A recipe for “Santa’s Favorite Cookie”, Original Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies.

1 Point for Chocolate Chip Cookies

Experiment 2: Christmas Trend - Google Trends shows the popularity of keywords over time, which helps to see how common a keyword is during the season. For this experiment, the name of the cookies with the most popularity during Christmas time wins.

Results for Experiment 2:

View 2005 Trend
View 2004 Trend

1st place: Sugar Cookies
2nd place: Chocolate Chip Cookies
3rd place: Oatmeal Cookies
4th place: Gingerbread Cookies
5th place: Oreo Cookies

1 Point for Sugar Cookies

Experiment 3: Title Bout - Google has operators that can look for certain features within their database. The “allintitle” search operator shows only results that include the keywords in the title of the page (see the top of your browser). The cookie with the most page results for “santa” and the cookie name in the title wins.

Results for Experiment 3:
Sugar Cookie: 78 results
Chocolate Chip Cookies: 67 results
Gingerbread Cookies: 55 results
Oreo: 38 results
Oatmeal Cookies: 19 results

1 Point for Sugar Cookies

Experiment 4: Link Juice - Links are at the heart of the Internet, and for a link to occur someone had to type it in and put it there. So a link is like a “vote”, and the text that makes up the link (also called anchor text), tells you who (or what) the vote is for. Google has a quick way to search sites based on the link text, using the “allinanchor” search operator. The cookie with the most page results for “santa” and cookie name in the link text wins.

Results for Experiment 4:
Sugar Cookie: 1,430 results
Chocolate Chip Cookie: 1,360 results
Gingerbread Cookie: 1,120 results
Oreo: 1,120 results
Oatmeal Cookie: 1,090 results

1 Point for Sugar Cookies

Experiment 5: Ask the Bloggers - I used Google’s Blog Search to identify which cookie is Santa’s favorite according to the Blogosphere. For this experiment, I searched for “santa’s favorite cookie” along with the cookie name in Google Blog Search.

Results for Experiment 5:
Sugar Cookie: 4,232 results
Chocolate Chip Cookie: 3,014 results
Oreo: 1,287 results
Gingerbread Cookie: 432 results
Oatmeal Cookie: 410 results

1 Point for Sugar Cookies

The New Final Results: Santa’s Favorite Cookie is…

Sugar Cookies!

Sugar cookies wins as Santa’s Favorite Cookie, topping out 4/5 of the experiments in this study. I must admit I am surprised, but sugar cookies definitely wins this one, and I have to hand it to Lisa Barone for questioning my previous study and being right on with her own hypothesis.

My reasoning for leaving the Sugar Cookie out in the first place may have been biased for my own dislike for 95% of all recipes of sugar cookies I have tasted. Too crumbly, too dry, too hard, too much salt, etc. It’s hard to get sugar cookies just the way I like them. I prefer them with frosting anyway. But who really cares what I think, this is about Santa anyway.

5 comments Visited 1981 times December 22nd, 2006 Michael D Jensen

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Google Reveals Santa’s Favorite Cookie

Posted by Michael D Jensen on December 21st, 2006

My 5-year old son asked me this year, “What is Santa’s favorite cookie”? Like most questions that I can’t officially answer, I turned to Google. Before I reveal Santa’s Favorite Cookie (no peeking down below!) let me share the 5 experiments I carried out using Google to identify Santa’s favorite cookie, along with each experiment’s results. The rules: the winner of each experiment gets one point, and the cookie with the most points is deemed “Santa’s Favorite Cookie”. These experiments were fully defined before being actually carried out, but I did have my eyes open so it is not a blind study.

First I narrowed it down to two contenders, Oreos and Chocolate Chip Cookies. Sure there could be other options, but there’s no doubt these are the two most popular cookies, at least in North America. Feel free to do your own experimental study with Peanut Butter Cookies, Gingerbread Cookies, Sugar Cookies, or whatever else you like, and report your findings in your own blog.

And now the experiments…

Experiment 1: I’m Feeling Lucky Result - Google has a feature called “I’m Feeling Lucky” that takes you immediately to the first site listed in their results. To complete this experiment, I simply typed in “What is Santa’s favorite cookie?” and then the cookie named on that page would gain a point.

Results for Experiment 1: A recipe for “Santa’s Favorite Cookie”, Original Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. 1 Point for Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Experiment 2: Christmas Trend - Google Trends shows the popularity of keywords over time, which helps to see how common a keyword is during the season. For this experiment, the name of the cookies with the most popularity during Christmas time wins.

Results for Experiment 2: View the comparison graph here. It is obvious that in 2004 and 2006 “chocolate chip cookies” was a more popular search. However, it’s looking like a tight race for 2006. 1 point for Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Experiment 3: Title Bout - For all you search marketers out there, the “allintitle” search operator shows only results that include the keywords in the title of the page (see the top of your browser). The cookie with the most page results wins, using the following searches: allintitle:santa oreo or allintitle:santa chocolate chip cookies

Results for Experiment 3: Oreo came in with 41 results, and Chocolate Chip Cookies with 67 results. 1 point Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Experiment 4: Link Juice - Links are at the heart of the Internet, and for a link to occur someone had to type it in and put it there. So a link is like a “vote”, and the text that makes up the link (also called anchor text), tells you who (or what) the vote is for. Google has a quick way to search sites based on the link text, using the “allinanchor” search operator. The cookie with the most page results wins, using the following searches: allinanchor:santa oreos or allinanchor:santa chocolate chip cookies.

Results for Experiment 4: This one was a tight race. Oreo comes in at 1,110 results, and Chocolate Chip Cookies at 1,240. 1 point Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Experiment 5: Ask the Bloggers - I used Google’s Blog Search to identify which cookie is Santa’s favorite according to the Blogosphere. For this experiment, I searched for santa’s favorite cookie oreo and santa’s favorite cookie chocolate chip cookies.

Results for Experiment 5: The bloggers have spoken. Oreo comes in at 1,277 results, and Chocolate Chip Cookies at 1,888. 1 point Chocolate Chip Cookies.

The Final Results: Santa’s Favorite Cookie is…

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

By unanimous results (5/5), Chocolate Chip Cookies must be Santa’s favorite cookie. Sorry Oreo! And if you need a recipe, I happen to have the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever.

As a side note, I did buy a ten-pack of Oreos at Sam’s Club before running this experiment, so the results are surprising and require me to do some baking this weekend.

UPDATE: SEE THE SANTA’S FAVORITE COOKIE REMATCH

3 comments Visited 3456 times December 21st, 2006 Michael D Jensen

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Do-It-Yourself SEO for Small Businesses

Posted by Aaron R Stewart on December 19th, 2006

I am sure we are all aware of the do-it-yourself craze. HGTV has decorating, remodeling and home improvement programs non-stop, and are unbelievably popular right now. My mom watches HGTV more than any other channel, which is great for HGTV, but not so hot for my kids who want to watch Cars every free second. Or how about The Home Depot with it’s “you can do it, we can help” tag line, do-it-yourself opportunities are raging.

However, when it comes to business related do-it-yourself options, we are talking about a more serious proposition than a home makeover project. Deciding to paint a room some crazy color of fuchsia is one thing, but deciding how to create and run your own company is far more vital. The home improvement project is easily fixed, privately, in a few hours if it doesn’t work out, while mistakes or oversight in your business planning and management are usually public, and can be potentially damaging to your company’s reputation, and future viability for years to come. When doing-it-yourself in business, you must use the very best tools available, in order to be as efficient and effective as possible, because you are all you got, and getting it right the first time is critical.

Small business owners are naturally at a disadvantage when facing the day to day challenges of business. In the big business world, medium and large corporations, with considerably more financial resources, can choose to hire high-priced specialist/consultants to solve or address the issues facing the firm. From HR, to accounting, from legal, to marketing, experts can be bought, and results delivered. However, small business owners need to single-handedly wear a number of hats to get a company off the ground and keep it running, all while avoiding common pitfalls which can easily tank a start-up. I hope everyone, with even the very thought of starting a new business, takes the time to read Paul Graham’s post entitled “18 Mistakes that Kill Start-Ups.” (If you haven’t, please get over there quickly), it is an excellent resource. The multi-tasking strain to get a business launched and profitable can drive even the strongest of people to the very brink of insanity, especially the first time around. However, once the unrealistic dreams fade, and with time, these start up pressures become less disruptive to the small business cycle, and small business owners become better at juggling the necessary evils/responsibilities of business ownership.

Within a few months to a year, one should be able to organize a business, should have a website, and will be attempting to do it all, and do it as right as possible, with hopes of making this opportunity a resounding, long-term success. In my own mind, when someone has made it to this point, they are “living the dream,” and should be deeply proud. They should be recognized rightfully as one of the few too smart or stubborn to quit, which is a wonderful accomplishment. But it also at this point where some wonder what the next stop should be. We begin to wonder what needs to be done to keep us moving forward, and keep us ahead of the competition. Our nagging inner voice reminds us that we need to constantly be preparing to compete more efficiently with those that are either already in the marketplace, or will quickly follow when they become aware of our success. This is where I think business owners need to learn the importance of SEO, and where getting started with SEO needs to occur. Others might disagree, but they would be wrong. Getting the company’s foundation established first is paramount. Once we feel somewhat established, our system in place, then is the proper time to be concerned about our online position and future online strategy of the business. SEO has to be considered tops on the “tier two” must do list. At SoloSEO, we are pleased to provide do-it-yourself tools to assist the small business owner. SoloSEO first offers reports which show what competitors are up to online, but then also provide the tools required to optimize sites, all in one place. So not only can you can see what your competitors are doing, your can immediately use SoloSEO to do something about it, right now. Once the SEO process begins, we can track the competitive results of your SEO work over time against your competitors SEO moves, always keeping you up to date with the latest competitive data, it is very powerful. We have been encouraged that SoloSEO’s has been well received in our infancy by many SEO experts and business people alike, please take a look at these reviews on our Testimonials page to see what is being said.

Like all else you have learned in business, becoming a “SoloSEO” will take some time to master, and the process isn’t an easy one for everyone, but SEO will likely be the biggest bang for your marketing dollar, and will probably out pace even the Optimistic Pro Forma sales numbers in your outdated business plan. If you frankly don’t feel like you have the time to become a SoloSEO yourself, then perhaps paying someone to use the SoloSEO’s tools to analyze your competitors and optimize your site is the way to go. Obviously you can’t do it all forever, your kids are starting to wonder if you still live at home. The final SEO option is to hire a seasoned “SEO pro” (consultant) for some help and direction. While this can prove to be a bit more costly, it is preferable to doing nothing at all, and will move more quickly as they know what they are doing. Here is a list of a few SEO pros we feel are very good at what they do: Todd Malicoat, had a chance to sit down with him at PubCon, he was very personable, professional, and incredibly knowledgeable. Aaron Wall and Scott Smith, also met Aaron at PubCon, and heard a couple of his presentations. He was innovative and thought provoking in his analysis and suggestions. Michael Gray, we got to speak with Michael briefly at PubCon, good guy, and well respected by other SEO pros. Rand Fishkin, he wears bright colored shoes, not sure why, heard him speak a few times at PubCon. William Slawski. We met with William at PubCon, he is a great person, warm, down to earth, caring and very easy to work with, even though his background is in law :). And while discussing William, we must complement him on the new site design, it looks fantastic! We suggest taking some time to read these pro’s blogs, you can get a good feel about them from their postings, and it becomes easier to see how they would “fit” with your specific business style and expectations.

Other good resources to pick up SEO knowledge and trends is from the following blogs: Danny Sullivan, Jim Boykin, Andy Hagans, Lee Odden, Barry Schwartz, and our good friend Andy Beal. While these guys don’t take on clients as SEO providers per se, they do offer up frequent pearls of SEO wisdom, and everyone listed above are at the top of the SEO industry. I try to scan these blogs once or twice a week just to keep up on it all.

To fellow small business owners, the bottom line is this, you have come this far, you have worked hard, slept little, worried much, and you have created a business, it is an amazing accomplishment. But now overlooking the potential benefit, and possible loss of not getting your website SEO’d properly, in order to drive the traffic you deserve/desire, would be a tragedy. At SoloSEO, we are committed to providing small business owners the most efficient and effective do-it-yourself SEO tools all in one place.

1 comment Visited 1831 times December 19th, 2006 Aaron R Stewart

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How to Get Your Web 2.0 Brand Past the “Did you Mean” in Search

Posted by Michael D Jensen on December 19th, 2006

We’ve all typed something in a search engine and the first thing we see is “did you mean…” and then an alternative to what we typed. Obviously it can be helpful, unless of course it gets in the way of your branding.

If you type in “soloseo” in Google, the suggestion is “colosseo” (that’s Italian for Colosseum). I’ve been to the “Colosseo” before, and it is impressive, but what about my site? Clearly there is a domain that matches the exact spelling. With Web 2.0 naming “conventions”, we have lots of misspellings, or words that are offshoots of other words (create your own). For example, “Digg”, “Odeo”, “Clusty”, “Etsy”, “Goowy”, “Listal”, “Squidoo”, and “Topix”. None of these are real words, and some of these could easily be misspelled from other words (Dig, Rodeo, Clumsy, Itsy, Gooey, List all, Squid [eww], and Toe Picks [j/k]). But search for these on Google…no “did you mean” suggestions.

What’s different about our brand, SoloSEO, compared to these (besides the obvious of extreme popularity)?

Here are my notions as to what may contribute:

1. Presence
When you outmatch the total results for the “did you mean”, that may be a definite pass. Compare “dig” to “digg”, and interestingly “digg” has more results. Perhaps though, this is because “dig” is so general and “digg” is not, so they actually include all content that points to “digg” but only the “top” few million content/links that use the word “dig”. “Topic” wins out in results over “Topix”, as do all the others from the example above, so “digg” may be just special. Could it be there is some threshold of “presence”, even if it doesn’t outnumber the “did you mean”?

2. Link Juice
If you have enough links to your site with the “branded” name included, this may set you free. The majority of links coming to SoloSEO right now (mostly from our launch) is with the anchor text “SoloSEO”, so it hasn’t worked yet, but maybe it will later.

3. Content and Topic
Obviously your own content (and thus topic) includes your name, but what about those who link to you? My guess would be that the aggregate power of those who link to you within the same topic would produce an effect that would be able to overpower the “did you mean” syndrome.

4. Popularity and keyword searches
Google (et al.) knows when people are coming to your site, and what keywords it takes to get there. Give it time and traffic, and my guess is you’ll overcome the “did you mean” virus. If people start typing “soloseo” and then click on “soloseo.com” instead of the “colosseo” link, my guess is we will be closer to removing that. Search engines are the new “interface”, we don’t even have to remember domains anymore, just search what you think and you should find it.

To sum it up, I don’t know. But my guess is… 1) Presence, 2) Links with your brand in anchor text, 3) Topic/Content group linking to you, and 4) Traffic from keywords.

How do you get past it? Have a better product that naturally produces online word of mouth, increase your link building, produce great content (even Web 2.0 user-generated content), and use other marketing (online and off) strategies to pull in traffic and search queries. Nothing too new, but it is certainly important to remember all of these components.

If you have more suggestions, please comment below. And, if you have found some interesting “did you mean” cases, I’d love to hear about those too.

In thinking about this I rounded up some other search engine fun with our name. If you go to Alexa and search for soloseo.com, the suggestion is… “solosexo com”. I’m not sure what that means, but it doesn’t sound like any suggestion my company wants to give out!

BONUS FUN - Have some fun for a minute and search Google for “gooogle” (yes, 3 o’s). You’ll see Google suggests “google”. If you go to Yahoo you have to get up to “gooooogle” before they give you a suggestion. Live.com gives you a suggestion with “gooogle” but not anything further. Back on Google, start with “gooogle” then keep adding o’s and you’ll see different points where you get a suggestion (3, 4, not 5 or 6, 7 and 8 [suggests 6], 9 and 10 [suggests 11], not 11 or 12, 13 [suggest 12], and so on).

4 comments Visited 2506 times December 19th, 2006 Michael D Jensen

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5 Things You Didn’t Know About Michael Jensen

Posted by Michael D Jensen on December 16th, 2006

While I didn’t originate the blog tag, I did create the blog tag tree. It has been a lot of fun to see it being so useful. I like how it (1) helps you know who’s been tagged or not, (2) lets you see who knows who, (3) and makes it real easy to get to know fellow SEOs and others by reading their 5 things.

I’ve been tagged twice, by Eric Enge and Joe Dolson. I am from the Graywolf clan.

Now for the 5 things about me that you didn’t know…

1. Ice cream cone shaped birthmark. On my left wrist I have a small (and now quite faint) birthmark in the shape of an ice cream cone. I am quite fond of my birthmark because I love ice cream (anything chocolate (no nuts), peppermint (homemade, ask me for the recipe), and dark cherry (mmmmmm).

2. Investor. I love trading stocks and ETFs. I love reading books about investing. My dream job is to day trade for an hour a day, then spend the rest of the day with my wife and kids (3), and reading good books.

3. Religion Teacher. I teach a religion class for high school kids every day during the school year at 6:15 AM.

4. I love to cook. One of my favorite recipes is for “Chicken Scampi”, similar to the Olive Garden. Another are these to-die-for Chicken Quesadillas but instead of tortilla it is a yummy flat bread. I have a fantastic shish-ka-bob recipe for the grill too. I also love sweets (cookies, ice cream, you name it). But I do exercise (running and racquetball) to counterbalance my love for sweets.

5. Eagle Scout. I enjoyed the Boy Scouts and worked hard at it and became an Eagle Scout. I love camping, hiking, the outdoors, and learning to do new things, and a lot of my exposure to these things was because of Scouts. I want to do a Pinewood Derby race again, those were a blast.

My turn to tag now. I know quite well who’s been tagged or not, so I’ll be sure to not duplicate.

1. Roger Montti (Martinibuster) - his talk at PubCon was fabulous, and when he does post on his blog, it’s great.

2. Brett Tabke - Surprisingly he wasn’t tagged, but then I did notice that he doesn’t have an ordinary blog, he uses his robots.txt file that he calls “the bot blog”.

3. Paul Allen (the lesser) - No, not the Microsoft Paul Allen. This Paul Allen has a fantastic blog as he is one of the most networked and “in the know” bloggers out there. He is an amazing entrepeneur, and even started MyFamily.com.

4. Hawaii SEO - I’ve never met you, but I’ve seen you comment around. I love Hawaii too, been there thrice.

5. Heather Lloyd-Martin - I heard her speak at PubCon also; she gave a great talk on writing content. I’d love to see her blog expand to a once a week post and get inside that brain of hers. Time to fire up the blog again Heather, you’ve got fans awaiting.

And for those tagged, or others who have been tagged, don’t forget to pass on the blog tag tree to help in deciding who to tag and to learn more about our fellow SEOs.

7 comments Visited 3423 times December 16th, 2006 Michael D Jensen

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The Blog Tag Tree

Posted by Michael D Jensen on December 15th, 2006

Blog Tag, A Game for a Virtual Cocktail Party was started by Jeff Pulver on December 10th, and has spread quickly and massively. Today I noticed it hit the SEO world with GrayWolf, then Lisa Barone and Rebecca and Rand.

[Update] I thought GrayWolf was the top but Avinash Kaushik seemed to start the SEO tree growing with a link out to several in the SEO blogosphere.

I’m into Family History and thought it would be fun to see all this in a “family tree” format. Of course I get way over my head into things like this, but it is fun to see the blogger circles. It’s a work in progress, so if you see a post that has gone up that I haven’t put up yet, leave it in the comments section. Enjoy!

68 comments Visited 11700 times December 15th, 2006 Michael D Jensen

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Google Insider: Google’s click fraud rate less than 2%

Posted by Michael D Jensen on December 11th, 2006

Andy Beal over at MarketingPilgrim.com picked up an “inside” scoop during SES Chicago from Google’s Shuman Ghosemajumder (business product manager). Shuman sat down with Andy and revealed an “inside Google only” presentation about click fraud rate, showing that Google’s click fraud rate is less than 2%, much much less than the 20% that other reports claim. Andy’s full story is an excellent read, and he has some pretty pictures!

Add comment Visited 2352 times December 11th, 2006 Michael D Jensen

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Globalization and SEO

Posted by Aaron R Stewart on December 9th, 2006

The launch of SoloSEO.com has been quite an amazing thing to witness, not only the shear numbers of those that understand the importance of SEO and their sites, but also by the number of countries represented in those sign ups.

I graduated with a MBA in International Business from Thunderbird, and my first job out of school was working for a mineral company headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT. I was put in charge of the international sales and marketing efforts outside of the U.S. This meant traveling to roughly 25 countries per year, to visit distributors and customers in an attempt to keep them happy and increase their orders. It was grueling, interesting, educational, and humbling, or in other words, it was one of those million-dollar experiences you wouldn’t pay a dime to do again. I was essentially a professional kiss-up, and had to figure out how to kiss-up differently based on the culture of the country I was visiting. For years these international travels were what my personal definition of international business was based upon, and now these views are outdated, as times have changed, and the Internet is making the world a smaller place.

For example, my last PowerBook was ordered online, I chose some additional upgrades, etc. and clicked submit, I didn’t even have to go to China to do any of this. Somewhere in China my order was received, and my “customized” computer was built, and then drop shipped directly from the Chinese manufacturing facility the next day directly to me, truly amazing. The next morning I went to FedEx’s website to track it, and was able to confirmed my new computer had already left China and in route. The world is becoming a simpler place to find cheaper inputs to the manufacturing process, which lowers costs… Which begs the question, if Apple is manufacturing these computers in China and drop shipping them from there, why aren’t the prices on Apple computers coming down? Well now we could get into the benefits of a proprietary OS, and monopoly pricing strategies, but I digress.

So what kind of an affect does this globalization have on SEO? Well it means with increased technologies and improved transportation options, global competitiveness is going to continue to increase, and sites, which depend on online traffic, better be in a position to insure they can continue to capture the attention of potential clients who use search engines to find what they need. Additionally as more companies find cheaper manufacturing options overseas, and are able to benefit from simply drop shipping from these facilities, the savings created by lower overhead, should further increase competition and force prices lower. But it also means companies outside the domestic market can more effectively compete for all clients world-wide, without having a presence in every country. For example, if relatively the same product is drop shipped from China anyway, why would it matter if you didn’t order from a domestic company if you can save 20%?
I think we can safely predict that it won’t.

This line of logic should frighten business marketers to the core, and SEO should be on the minds of everyone who expects to remain, or climb to the top of their industry. I think SEO will be the difference in many industries between success and failure, and market share will be determined by how quickly business have embraced sound SEO practices, and committed to long-term SEO strategies. I believe SEO professionals should be using this line of logic to better convince potential clients to the future face, and the increased importance of being where clients can find them, namely on the first page of the search engines.

The growth and importance of SEO is still in its infancy, just getting ready to really grab the attention of business leaders. As you know, we business minded folks can be a bit slow to grasp new trends, especially in things we don’t understand, but once we do, the money flows and the industry explodes. I think SEO is getting ready to become something very, very big and those prepared for the ride are going to do very, very well.

Add comment Visited 4623 times December 9th, 2006 Aaron R Stewart

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