Posts filed under 'SEO Industry'
Just received an interesting email from Ask offering results based Search Engine Optimisation services as follows:
“
FREE SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION
As an innovative group of professional service companies, we like to keep ahead of the game. There are many SEO and media companies charging large monthly retainers that are not giving their clients results. The ASK Group has transparent pricing across all our divisions, and we do not consider this type of pricing remotely ethical.
Our research tells us you only want to pay on results!”
It is certainly an interesting change in service offering from a search engine company, moving into a frenzied sector - and one lets be honest that is likely to cause some heated discussion particularly following Google’s purchase of Doubleclick, and MSN’s acquisition of AQuantive.
January 30th, 2008
Net Magellan recently wrote a post entitled “SEO Certification - What Is Your View?” tackling the thorny issue of SEO certification in todays Search Marketing industry. This topic of conversation always brings a variety of perspectives and heated debate.
As the head of an Online Marketing organisation, dissecting the wheat from the chaff is often a difficult thing to do, particular within the UK SEO market. I recently had a candidate who came in - who had previously been responsible for campaign where the client operated in a moderately uncompetitive sector - and the client in questions was spending 2K a month on paid linkage. Now - putting in bluntly I would suggest most people with an inch of intelligence would be able to do that, let alone a specialist search engine optimisation specialist.
Having some form of certification one could argue would be useful here - perhaps along the lines of the Google Advertising Professional qualifications, where the examinee is tested on his knowledge of the system, however it is here in my opinion that the grey area in the SEO certification debate exists.
Just what is acceptable SEO. Google has developed a set of guidelines - Paid Links are bad/Content is good. However lets face it - in an industry where the stakes are getting bigger - and the market more competitive -who is going to share valuable knowledge unless they really have to.
Secondly - What constitutes good SEO. There has long been debate around the ethical nature of SEO - and what hat us various SEO experts are - whether it be Black, White or a varying shade of grey. Surely some common ground rules have to be developed before we can develop appropriate and valuable SEO certification - something you can associate with your CV with pride -and know a potential employer (such as E-Gain) is going to appreciate.
I don’t for one minute think certification is a bad idea - however at present I would add it is nothing more than confusing for a market that do not always understand SEO. Lets get the foundations in place and make it something that is going to benefit our industry - rather than do something for somethings sake…
January 27th, 2008
Mike Grehan caused a fair bit of controversy back in 2007 when he wrote his article “SEO Is Dead. Long Live, er, the Other SEO”. At the time it drew some mixed reviews, the usual post-bashers and doom merchants, and those that took the article at face value. So have things changed since the article in question
Old-School “Textbook SEO” has been on the decline for a while. Back in the day (and it wasn’t that long ago in real-time - just an eternity in Online Marketing terms), SEO was as simple as keyword density, well structured contents and a smattering of meta tags thrown in. But things have changed significantly since then. Yahoo is no longer the behemoth it was, and Google now rules the roost, and all the knock on effects that has brought.
Google has introduced a number of features to the search engine results over the course of the last year. The onebox results continue to be refined and further incorporated into the search results pages - sometimes a bit too much in my opinion particular where cross-over with pop (and in particular R&B for some reason) music is concerned.
SEO as Mike stated - has evolved - it is no longer just about simple optimisation of the website. It is about far far more. Whilst many of the fundamentals are similar, the methods of doing so are so different. Content is king they say - a saying I learnt about seven years ago - however it has evolved from simply producing 8000 slightly varying pages of content, to a far more dare I say professional approach - where content is written not only to gauge relevance but to generate linkage -Â its about quality these days - not just quantity.
Maybe this has something to do with a general acceptance from the marketing & advertising world that SEO and search marketing is here, and therefore SEO in particular has taken great strides particularly in 2007. SEO is a massive industry now, and as big a shame as it is - it is now a profession. Long since are the days when the likes of Rand Fishkin, Ammon Johns, Danny Sullivan and my friend Marcia would spend many an hour on the forums - and the likes of me could discuss various aspects of SEOMoz, Sphinn ). It is a shame but symbolic of how far our profession has come in a very short period of time
SEO is evolving - and will continue to do so. One thing is for sure - hang on to your seats there are some very interesting times ahead.
January 26th, 2008
Search engine giant Google has branched further into the ether by announcing a partnership with Japanese electronic giant Panasonic, to manufacture web enabled televisions. According to a report on StrategyEye, the two companies plan to sell flat panel monitors which will enable users to access YouTube videos and view online photo albums from Picasa, the Google-owned online photo service, in the US in late Q1 2008
Such a deal isn’t a first. Software giant Microsoft, has been selling its Windows MCE Internet platform for some time, however sceptics would point to the fact that previous launches of similar products have not exactly set the world alight. Panasonic however are to monitor sales before deciding whether to sell the products in other parts of the world.
However I would suggest the impending launch of IPTV services (in the UK) could make the purchase of such products more attractive to potential customers, particularly given the move towards digital later this year.
January 8th, 2008
It seems contrary to an earlier blog post by Andrew Girdwood (from Bigmouthmedia), that SMX London is indeed still on for 2008, however according to Danny Sullivan from SMX
“We will have SMX London in 2008 - just confirming the exact month. News soon 
”
Thats good news for all us UK SEO’s as I was starting to sweat as to which conferences to attend during the latter part of 2008
January 4th, 2008
I am often amazed just how the SEO community has evolved. The evolution of social communities on Facebook and the like has only served to enhance this perspective. For example, on my friends list you will find people like Danny Sullivan, Andrew Girdwood, Jon Myers, Bill Slawski and Gord Hotchkiss - none of whom I have ever met face to face - but people who I have learnt to respect due to their posts and articles on various aspects of search marketing.
In particular, it is this sharing of knowledge that separates Search Marketing from many other industries. I cannot count the number of times I have read one of Bill’s patent application related posts or debated an aspect from one of Gord Hotchkiss’ columns, all of whom are happy to share knowledge and expertise with other members of the community either via the own personal blogs, their corporate blogs, or via the many conferences and seminars that organisations such as SMX organise across the globe.
Whilst I am in no doubt that these individuals do not share all their secrets (well would you?), they do share a hell of a lot, and this is something that keeps many people constantly testing and refining their own theories and concepts which are often then share again and again and again. What other industry can say that?
At the end of the day, with search marketing in its infancy (in comparison to many other sectors), surely this sharing of knowledge is invaluable to the continuing growth of the industry. We are not able to reference text books, we do not have a hundred years of learnings to develop tactics from, and above all - we work within a sector that is changing - from day to day - even hour to hour.
What an exciting place to be ….
October 16th, 2007
I was reading Ian McNerins blog with interest this morning and in particular his post on a ‘new’ line in the SEMPO signup process namely
“Business Conduct. In addition, the applicant agrees to engage
in Search Marketing practices which are not in direction violation of published guidelines from Google, Yahoo!, and other search engine providers.”
My main issue with signing up to bodies such as SEMPO and to a certain extent the IAB has been the fact that I have to pay for the priviledge, and priviledge that neither gives me an advantage nor differs me from any of my unethical SEO friends down the road, nor differs me from a web development only agency ‘that does SEO’.
Whilst in principle I think I am 100% behind an individual body, such a body has to represent the industry as a whole, not just the select few who want to pay the money, particularly if no criteria is associated with membership. Therefore imcorporating such measures into SEMPO membership is a major step in the right direction.
I think Ian says it best - “Heh - maybe I *can* work with these guys. It’s certainly a step in the right direction. There is no indication of any kind of enforcement, so it’s not perfect, but a couple of years ago you would not have seen this, and it would have created a huge controversy if you had. Maybe our little industry really is starting to grow up.”
October 9th, 2007
It appears the previous post regarding the demise of the Overture tool was slightly premature.
We are currently unable to establish exactly what data is being used. Some people have reported it is using May 2007 data, whilst others suggest it is January 2007 data.
Personally we would advise, perhaps it is time to review your toolkit, in case the tool stops working again…
September 24th, 2007
Following AOL’s move of its headquarters to New York, it has announced the introduction of what it has formalled called Platform A. Platform A is an integrated ad buying platform and network that AOL says will have a broader reach than any other ad network currently in the market. AOL have also integrated aspects of recent acquisitions such as Advertising.com, Third Screen Media and behavioural company Tacoda, in order to provide an impressive array of functionality, capable of competing agains competitors such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.
An excert from the release stated:
“The new entity, called Platform A, will offer advertisers access to the most sophisticated targeting and measurement tools available in the marketplace across Platform A’s unmatched network of third-party sites, as well as AOL’s owned and operated sites. Platform A already reaches more than 90% of the domestic online audience, according to comScore Media Metrix. Platform A builds on the success of Advertising.com, which operates the largest third-party display network, and integrates behavioral targeting leader TACODA, Third Screen Media, which operates the largest mobile media network, market leading video ad serving platform Lightningcast, and ADTECH’s global ad serving platform.”
September 18th, 2007
Dave Naylor recently wrote an article on 5 things he would do if he were Google. At the end of his post, he asks what we we do?
Before I start, though, I will just add some thoughts on Dave’s comments, particularly those relating to pagerank.
1) Completely agree with him on his point ‘Stop displaying Pagerank it only drives link buying and selling’. Personally think many SEO’s (probably the more junior SEO’s) get very hung up on pagerank at the detriment of their SEO. Doing something like this may encourage better linkage with people focussing more on relevancy, and research as part of their linkbuilding.
2) Show showing site:… Got to say I slightly disagree with this. I can understand (and agree with the points he raises at the end of this point) - however in my opinion there are a alot of instances where having such a command is very useful. For example, if I were doing some initial research on a client, this would be one of my first ports of call in terms of establishing the current website from an SEO perspective.
3) Regarding redirects - Completely agree
4) Subdomains - To a certain degree agree here - however in certain instances I do condone the use of subdomains and as such, perhaps such a ‘hardhitting’ solution would be a step too far.
5) Displaying adsense on non indexed pages - Again probably needs some further thoughts - i can see where hes coming from - but I have in my head certain reasons - as to why I wouldn’t want a page indexed but would want adsense on it.
Anyhow enough of adressing Dave Naylors point’s, its only fair I provide some of my own points (and let Dave have a bash at mine)
1) More open long term strategy. Mentioned this on my previous post regarding Paid Links - however currently Google is addressing Paid Linkage, before it was Recipricol Linkage. There is only one type of link building tactic left - free, however since it is the intention Google is interested in (ie artificially affecting SERPS by link building for SEO purposes), it probably is only a matter of time before this is targetted. However by the mere fact linkage is part of the algorithm and there is potential ROI to be acquired online (and thus visibility on search engines important), then the business sector will always be interested in ensuring they are as high as possible in the search engines.
In my eyes (and maybe in my eyes only), perhaps rather than looking at origin and intention - focus on better link building - ie relevancy. I can’t help thinking that by targeting the quality and relevancy of the linkage rather than how it was sourced, would improve this scenario and surely this would be more in line with Googles mindset and quality driven approach.
2) Closer interaction with Search engine marketing specialists
Please note search engine marketing specialists not just seo specialists. I am not by any means saying this should be a howto session on influencing algorithms, just perhaps closer intergration with the industry, perhaps looking down a quality driven approach. I can’t help thinking that the search engines have a part to play in developing the perception of search marketing. At the end of the day, there is no getting away from the fact that Search Marketing and SEO are here to stay (in real terms- is it realistic that Google think that every company is going to have someone specifically designated to working on their own sites - surely not and at the end of the day SEO’s are just outsourced search marketing specialists.)
If we can work on the quality however of the people within the industry - not so much the top tier - more the small organisations. I personally have read a number of ‘my seo did this, my seo did that and it got me banned” type stories from new clients, which then affect how I work with them. We personally look at a holistic approach to our online marketing and as such, a client coming in from SEO may be cross-sold Paid Search (PPC) or Affiliate Marketing services as well depending on their requirements/targets.
Therefore the initial negative perceptions they have of SEO could affect how they perceive search marketing as a whole. Anyhow back on track - Google’s accreditation of such activity (along the lines maybe of their analytics experts ‘accreditation’) surely would give clients more confidence of not only who they are working with but search marketing as a whole.
3) Link: Really is this worth keeping. A snapshot of inbound linkage to your site. Personally can’t think of the last time I used it - and I would suggest it confuses things from a client perspective rather than helps. Either improve (ala site explorer and incorporate into WebMaster Tools) or do away. (PS maybe webmaster tools could get more advanced features based on above accreditation - ala adwords)
4) Expansion of webmaster tools - Potentially such a good tool from a search marketing perspective. OK this isn’t likely to make them money by adding to it - but surely they could offer Google Webmaster Tools Gold - which gives you increased functionality/reporting/analysis etc. Functionality then such as expanding SERP positioning, link reporting etc could then be incorporated with a ROI for Google.
5) Noindex/Nofollow and Robots.txt - Again mentioned this before - but perhaps this does need review. Noindex and Nofollow were great for Backrub but surely Google 2007 is a long way from that model. Nofollow for the use of paid links surely is not right symantically never mind anything else, so perhaps such functionality needs to be reviewed. This possibly is a conversation bigger than merely a quick refence on a post - but further though and discussion regarding robots use for search engine purposes is required particularly given the advances in web related technology over the last couple of years
Just a couple of thoughts, feel free to give me some feedback on the above.
PS. Dave N - if you do read this - are you going to the SEO Manchester do
September 12th, 2007
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