SoloSEO

Merry Christmas From SoloSEO

Posted by Michael D Jensen on December 25th, 2007

From the folks at SEO to you and yours, Merry Christmas. It’s a time to not only remember what the reason for the season is, but to make a change in ourselves for the better. Be a better father, mother, husband, wife, sibling, and friend. More time for family and what matters most. Be kind, show love, give service, and do good.

Add comment Visited 2156 times December 25th, 2007 Michael D Jensen

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Paid Links are Bad, No Good, No Bad…

Posted by Aaron R Stewart on December 13th, 2007

Michael Gray doesn’t know who I am, I don’t expect him to. We sat next to each other one day at lunch during Pubcon, he is a polite, engaging guy, with obviously tons of knowledge in SEO/SEM field. I enjoyed Michael’s many interviews on Local search, and learned much from his posts. He has earned a great deal of respect for his knowledge in this industry, no bones about it. (And here comes the but). But in his latest rant concerning Google and paid links, which was in response to Matt Cutts’ blog post about paid links, I think Michael’s perspective of the situation is just a bit too simplified. Now, I am not what anyone should consider a SEO, I am more of a SEO theorist at best. I have been learning SEO to selfishly help our businesses grow online, so I analyze SEO related, and most business related situations through my experience as a small business owner and based on basic economic principles. These lenses are the only ones I feel comfortable using when analyzing interesting business issues, just so we have established my perspective.

Michael Gray has a problem, as do many, with the apparent hypocrisy within Google. On one hand Google asks us to not buy or sell links, and to report sites which do one or both. Google tells us this will allow them to adjust a site’s rank, and relevance calculations accordingly, which needs to be done because links currently influence a site’s rank. So, in a paid linkless world, Google, in theory, would only be serving up the most relevant sites for each of our search queries. This of course is a preposterous dream, but we will leave this a discussion on another post, it still remains the stated purpose of Google’s actions.

Now to the other hand, while Google publicly denounces and punishes those dealing in paid links, they turn around and make piles of cash selling links for placement on their SERPS, as well as on other sites participating in their ad delivery system. On the surface there is definitely some cause for concern, and the appearance of impropriety is nothing short of glaring. It is this apparent conflict of interest which has Michael Gray and SEO minions riled up. “Why can Google sell links on their site, but we can’t sell them on our site?”, is their united cry. It is a good question, it is a fair question, and one I don’t think Google has quite answered completely or eloquently enough, which possibly increases the ire even more.

So from a simpleton’s business perspective, let me provide Google with a little defense fodder to this whole selling links dealio. I do not come at this as a dyed-in-the-wool Google Kool-Aid drinker, although I do use them as my primary search engine. Nor do I do this because Matt Cutts was genuinely cool to Michael Jensen and myself as we left PubCon one night. (Matt: we sincerely hope you are using and enjoying the SoloSEO swag item in good listening health.) We all enjoyed a few minutes crossing a busy street together, which in Vegas is a bonding moment, as is any other near-death experience.

The simple reason Google is trying to manage the paid link situation in this heavy-handed manner, is they are protecting their core business, that’s it… That’s the answer, nothing more to see here, move along. Now Gray suggests in his post that Google had in fact created the paid link mess, but this isn’t totally correct. Links have always been a good measure of a site’s popularity, many of us will remember all the early sites, which proudly displayed a “Links” page, I used those “referral” pages all the time. Links to companies, from companies I already trusted, made a difference to me, as I am sure they did to many. Even today, links out from trusted sites are a good referral, and lend credibility to that site. So not including the incoming links as a measure of a site’s quality would be a huge mistake for any search engine. Links must to be measured by all serious search engines attempting to deliver relevant results. And because links are beneficial to our site in terms of traffic and sales, some are willing to pay for them, that is why paid links abounds. So Google didn’t create the paid link mess, but by profiting the most through the selling of links, they definitely have the appearance of being holier than thou in their current stance. Perhaps Google and their billions don’t particularly care what we think, but I don’t think that is the base motivation behind their actions.

There is one area in this paid search mess which does concern me a bit… Google’s position on why buying links from them is ok, is based on the fact that when we buy from them, they know who we are, and they know not to pass page rank from those links, in order to keep their rankings systems pure. Here is the tricky part, if Google is squeaky clean, then the relevance and popularity of any paying client’s site should not be improved or effected, even though they are paying clients. We can only hope Google is ethical, and this is how it is handled, otherwise Google is no better than Tyco, WorldComm and Enron. Unfortunately, I know of some who now buy ads with Google, not only because they hope to get more traffic through SERPs, but also because they believe it potentially improves their organic positioning on the SERPs. So, in an odd way, Google actually profits from the appearance of a possible impropriety, most likely based on the current corporate climate, in which many of us just assume big businesses are greedy, lying, cheating, crooks. Pretty sad.

Ultimately we may never know if there is a benefit to a site’s ranking through advertising with Google, this is a part of Google’s “secret sauce” and protected as proprietary. So unless someone from the Google inside commits corporate hara-kiri, and tells the world how it all works, we will never know. So, in a perfect search world, paid links to Google would not have an effect on a site’s organic position within Google’s SERP, this practice, in principle, would be going against their core business model of providing the most relevant, naturally occurring search results for every search query.

For me personally, I understand why Google sells advertising… Because they can, and because it makes them loads of the green. We all would do the same if we could, in this regard the Google haters are being a bit ingenuous. I also understand why Google tries to manage the paid links conundrum, in a sense, to protect and improve their ability to provide their clients with the best search experience possible. We can only hope Google is being responsible in keeping the two practices mutually exclusive, and not influencing results based on their paying client list. It is also easy to understand why many are suspect of Google, there have been so many instances of corporate greed in the past, that many are cynical, rightly so. But not to worry, history has shown us again and again that business is the survival of the fittest. And the fittest companies are the ones that do things ethically and honestly for the long term. Eventually the law, or competition puts the fakers/takers in jail, or out of business. It has always been that way, it doesn’t matter the market, it doesn’t matter the product or service, and it doesn’t matter the company, eventually time runs out. We will know at some point in the future if Google is doing what they claim to be doing, or if they are truly are as slimy as some believe them to be. In the meantime, while Google carries their big stick, we might want to think twice before buying links, not everyone at Google is as pleasant as we found Matt to be.

9 comments Visited 3784 times December 13th, 2007 Aaron R Stewart

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What I learned from PubCon 2007

Posted by Michael D Jensen on December 12th, 2007

You can read all about the PubCon sessions, but you may not have enough time to go through each session. Plus, just by reading the recaps it’s tough to find the gems, the nuggets of knowledge, that were shared. So…I thought it would be helpful to share with you what stood out to me as new, interesting, and insightful. Watch out for my rant in the middle.

- Social Media – Todd Malicoat discussed how in Social Media you need to not only attract the audience, but attract the webmasters (people who can actually link to you) of that audience. Without links you don’t get the residual affect from a social media surge.

- Local Search – For Local Businesses, Google Local (and probably others) lets you have a downloadable coupon, which is probably one of the easiest ways to track online to offline customers.

- Domaining – Use a 14-12-12 font size for best readability of parking pages, and make a simple but appealing logo.

- General/Rant – When speaking at PubCon, don’t give us a 15 minute commercial of your product (getmobile). It makes us despise you. WMW needs a new logo. (No offense Brett, just being honest.) It’s not cool to try to compliment someone but put them down by doing so because you have a huge ego (no link or specifics on purpose). Don’t leave the bathroom without washing your hands; you have a name tag on and there are still 2 days left of the conference for us to be around you. Large concrete rooms with poor acoustics are not designed for keynotes (Sorry Craig Newmark, but we left after 2 minutes of your keynote because all we heard from the back was garbled sounds). An Internet Marketing conference should have good, reliable, in every room and hall, and “free” Internet (from our conference fees or a sponsor), starting on the first day.

- Content – When creating content be sure to address these 4 items: (1) Independent Value, (2) Headline and a Hook, (3) Scannable Structure, and (4) What’s the Story. (Brian Clark)

- Content – It’s tough to get someone to link to a sales page, so make it a “pre-sell” page. Pre-sell pages have these elements: (1) Opening, (2) Empathy, (3) Solution, and (4) Call to Action. (Brian Clark, again)

- Competitive Intelligence – Andy Beal mentioned our IndexRank as a tool for competitive intelligence. (Okay, I knew that, just thought I’d mention where we were mentioned. )

- Competitive Intelligence – Jake Baillie is a great animated speaker, very fun. One of the take-homes was look for unnatural traffic, like allinanchor: or link: searches. Then serve those visitors up something fun (error page, etc.).

- SEO Tools – Google Sets can be an interesting tool for keyword research. (Todd Malicoat; he also mentioned our tools in his presentation)

What did you learn from PubCon 2007?

2 comments Visited 3515 times December 12th, 2007 Michael D Jensen

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Best PubCon 2007 Swag

Posted by Michael D Jensen on December 7th, 2007

We had a great time at PubCon and I got several great gems and tips for SEO and SEO tools. Many of you conference goers know there is always lots of swag (freebies, promos, giveaways) given out at these shows, so it is good to have a backpack or bag. I thought it would be fun to show off the best swag from this year. I made sure to hit every booth and grab some swag if they had it.

Here it is, the best PubCon swag, in order of how much I liked it (not necessarily the overall swag score I give):

Digital Dice: I believe this came from a Public Relations company’s booth, but I am not sure. It has MSNBC.com on it, nothing else, and I’m pretty sure MSNBC.com didn’t have a booth at PubCon. I had never seen digital dice before, but it is pretty cool. Now I only wish I had one more for games that require two die.

Practical – 8 (we all play some sort of game requiring dice)
Easy to Carry – 10
Branding – 4 (dice aren’t used every day)
Overall Swag Score: 7.3/10

The Tangler: This one at first seems pretty gimmicky, but Bruce Clay’s Tangler swag is pretty fun (Great to finally meet you Lisa!). I have to admit the Tangler went straight to my kids, but I did play with it quite a bit before I passed it along. It moves every which way and you can have it turn in on itself and come out just fine.

Practical – 5 (great for getting your mind off of a long blog post)
Easy to Carry – 10
Branding – 6 (if you keep it around your desk as a de-stresser)
Overall Swag Score: 7/10

Yo-Yo: Google was giving away Yo-Yos that light up (kind of) when you play with them. Very traditional swag, but they did well finding a decent quality Yo-Yo (it actually works more than once). I again admit, this went to the kids after a few minutes of playing with it.

Practical – 8 (great fun)
Easy to Carry – 8 (doesn’t quite fit in your pocket)
Branding – 5 (probably won’t get a ton of use).
Overall Swag Score: 7/10

Mouse Pad: Another traditional swag item, from UserPlane.com, but done better than any other mouse pad design and quality I’ve seen. I only use laptops and the built-in mouse, but for those who like the external mouse, you’ll love this swag item.

Practical – 8
Easy to Carry – 7 (thin, but obviously still wide, can’t roll up)
Branding – 9 (always in front of you while you work)
Overall Swag Score: 8/10

Glowing Dome: This item from Internet Marketing Ninjas is very cute and a bit mesmerizing. If I worked in a dark office I might have put this on my desk. It went to my little girl instead, and she’s been carrying it around all morning and yelling “PINK!” when it gets to the pink color.

Practical – 6
Easy to Carry – 7
Branding – 6
Overall Swag Score: 6.3/10

Many of you hopefully found us at PubCon and got some free swag. If not, I’m still not going to tell you what it is because we decided to bring it to SMX West too because of how much everyone loved it. I may be biased, but I would honestly give our swag an overall swag score of 10/10. Many people said, “sweet, this is exactly what I’ve been needing!” and other similar comments. See you at SMX West!

3 comments Visited 5982 times December 7th, 2007 Michael D Jensen

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