Archive for March, 2008
published by Hannah in General | SEO
Last month’s SMX West Search Insights track topic “Is it time for Search Marketing Standards?” sparked a debate not just on SEM standards but also SEO standards. On one side we have Jill Whalen of Search Engine Land telling us that we DO NOT need SEO standards. On the other hand we have Lisa Barone of Bruce Barclay asserting that we DO need SEO standards after all.
Jill’s points:
- There are too many ways of skinning the SEO cat.
- We can’t even agree on the definition of search engine optimization.
- There are already laws to protect people from SEO scam.
- There’s no such thing as “cheating” in SEO.
Lisa’s points:
- We need basic guidelines for the search engine optimization process and to document what it is we actually do.
- It’s something we need for training, for protection and for credibility.
- We need to educate people [SEO clients] so that they are aware of when they’re being scammed.
- For search engine optimization to become a legitimate industry, we need to start treating ourselves as one.
- For us to grow, we have to adopt the official standards that are going to give us the credibility and protection that this industry needs.
While I do agree will Jill that people wouldn’t be using shady SEO techniques if it didn’t work (though watching America’s Dumbest Criminals last night made me wonder if this is really true) and that search engines have a responsibility to enforce their own guidelines, I am more inclined to agree with Lisa that the growth of the SEO industry calls for us to have some sort of official standards. I too would rather have us make our own standards than have some other governing body (that know nothing about SEO) someday decide that the SEO industry does need some standards and then make the rules up themselves.
Where do you stand?
Today is May 15, 2008
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published by Hannah in News
If you weren’t able to come to any of the SES Forums/Trainings/Conferences yet this year here’s a quick list of the other venues for the rest of the year. Go ahead and check which one’s nearest you or which one you can squeeze in during a trip.
SES Denver Search Training May 6, 2008
SES Milan Forum […]
Continue reading “SES Fever”
published by Hannah in Keyword Research | SEO
I have been posting about keyword selection in my last two posts and I thought that this would be a good time to discuss how and why you should factor in user habits when selecting keywords.
First of all I want to emphasise that internet users’ habits evolve rapidly. This is probably both a reason and […]
Continue reading “User Habits and Keyword Selection”
published by Hannah in Keyword Research | SEO
On my last post I discussed how targeting keywords that are related to simple primary keywords are important, especially with the advent of Yahoo! search assist. Even without search assist though you should also give attention to more specialised keywords. Why is this?
As we all know very generic keywords, though they do have a very […]
Continue reading “Keyword Competitiveness”
published by Hannah in Keyword Research | SEO | SEO Tips
Though Yahoo! Search Assist was launched in Yahoo! Search US back in October, Yahoo’s announcement (just a few hours ago!) of search assist being rolled out in other countries made me remember the importance of choosing your keywords.
One of the biggest mistakes you can commit in SEO is choosing only primary keywords that are too […]
Continue reading “Related Keywords and Yahoo! Search Assist”
published by Hannah in Article Writing | Copywriting | General | SEO
I was reading Randfish’s list of common features of spam domains. I was thinking about ticking each feature off and seeing how well we do but this one caught my eye:
“Rarely contains high grade level text content (as measured by metrics like Fleisch-Kincaid Reading Level)”
The geeky part of me fondly remembered my college days when […]
Continue reading “Flesch, Formulas and Highfaluting Fluff”
published by Hannah in Link Strategies | SEO
.EDU and .GOV links are usually prizes in the SEO world because they pass on very good link juice. Here are a few ideas on how to get these types of links.
Advertise or be a sponsor - Look for university and government sites that accept sponsors. You will be doling out cash but then it […]
Continue reading “.EDU and .GOV Links”
published by Hannah in Rep. Management | SEO | Social Media
That is a question each SEO should ask. In this industry, just like in any other industry, your repuation is very important if you want to attract customers. I also believe that it is even more important in SEO and other web-based industries because a lot of times customers learn about you without even getting […]
Continue reading “How’s Your Reputation?”
published by Hannah in News | Wordpress
For those who do not take the time to even glance at the Wordpress Development blog snippets on their Wordpress dashboard I suggest you do take sometime to read their latest post on the upcoming Wordpress 2.5. I wouldn’t be going on any details since you can read everything on the sneak peek. So far […]
Continue reading “Wordpress 2.5 Ready for Beta Testing”
published by Hannah in SEO | SEO Tools
We already know that ALT tags should be used for relevant images (I say relevant because you can skip putting ALT tags for images placed in your page for purely aesthetic and/or organisational purposes such as borders). However, what many neglect to do is to take advantage of Google’s enhanced image search. The enhanced image […]
Continue reading “SEO Your Images: Enhanced Image Search”
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