June 08, 2009

Google Doesn't Like Nofollows Anymore. Shocker.

posted by Angela Moore in category: Link Building

Recently, Google's Matt Cutts made some hints about nofollow links and their value going down. I have to be honest. I'm not surprised.

Once again, we're seeing something that Google did to try and make link popularity "fair" across the board become a nightmare for them to measure because of many people abusing the original intent of it. What? People trying to abuse a system instead of just doing good work? Unheard of.

This story has been developing for a while and there are some interesting elements at play. The biggest factor is that some sites have abused this link attribute in order to funnel the link value to a few of their internal target pages or for other purposes (of which there are many). The situation is not unlike the paid link debate: while some uses of the tactic are completely valid and ethical (assuming you follow the guidelines put in place), those that overuse and abuse the tactic ruin it for the rest of us. Let's face it, for every really good link builder (meaning ethical, transparent, creative, etc) there are 100 link builders that are only it for a short time and try to figure out a way to game the system instead of creating a long-lasting strategy.

Let's remember that the purpose of link building is not to trick the search engines. The purpose is to provide search engines and users with what they want: relevant results for their keyword queries by providing links to the content and having those links adequately describe what's on that page. Sadly, most people don't know how to do this very well and they begin schemes like link farms, blatantly irrelevant paid link campaigns and other less than savorty tactics to try and push their sites to the top.

Basically, from what I can see happening and what I’ve seen happen in the past few months is this: nofollow links coming from external sites are being followed by the search engines (many of them are showing up in my link reports) as well as affecting the ranking of certain keywords that I monitor. Now, I don’t think they are counting as much as a link without the nofollow attribute, but they are certainly adding some value. In regards to internal links, nofollow links are still valuable for PageRank sculpting and harnessing the values of the links coming in, but for sites that overuse this attribute, the value will not be as great as it once was.

Once again, Google will be trying to take things on a site-by-site basis, but I have not seen them fully succeed at that through the years. Even the algorithm, which was designed for a “site-by-site basis” style of analysis likes to make blanket assumptions on things and we’ve seen the SEO industry get worked up about it before. So what can we expect from this? It could be anything from an announcement from Google introducing a new alternative to nofollow, blanket rules and blanket statements that apply to all nofollow links (which was the original intent anyway: the search engine would not follow the link, but look what has happened), the ability to report “nofollow abuse” directly to Google (much like the paid link report form) and other various methods to try and control the issue.

The bottom line is that if you have an array of tactics and creative approaches to link building, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Nofollowing links (when appropriate) will still have some effect, and how great that effect is will be completely dependent on what the search engines do in the following months.

So, are you prepared for whatever comes your way? If you have a diverse portfolio of skills and tactics and don’t rely heavily on only one thing you should be fine. But if you've been banking on your nofollow strategy, you may be starting to panic.

Google Doesn't Like Nofollows Anymore. Shocker.
Posted by Angela Moore at 07:34 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)
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May 27, 2009

Dafforn First to Discover Google Changes Profile Hop from 302 to 301

posted by John Lustina in category: Organic SEO

I am happy to report I am not the only one so oddly obsessed; money quote:

About three weeks ago, [John Lustina] noted that Google numerical-based URLs were redirecting to custom profiles, but they were using a 302 instead of a preferable 301. Today, however, I'm happy to note that's changed. As of this writing, the 302 has changed to 301.

Mark the time, SEO Friends; Google is listening to our Social World.

And with the step toward doing what they tell us to do, me Google Profile hops another steep up, to 5:

Is this why they wanted to 302 Hop[e], originally?

Dafforn First to Discover Google Changes Profile Hop from 302 to 301
Posted by John Lustina at 08:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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May 20, 2009

Optimized Press Releases - The Engine that Can Drive Qualified Traffic to Your Site

posted by Lisa Santora in category: Online Publicity

Our new optimized press release plans provide companies with a cost-effective and powerful way to stay top of mind with their customers. Recently we syndicated a press release for a client that contained helpful tips on how to prevent and deal with flood damage caused by spring rains. A unique aspect of this press release is the embedded YouTube video that illustrates many of the ideas discussed in the copy so readers can actually see how they can prevent basement flooding and other damage to their homes.

This video demonstrates only one of the many added benefits you can take advantage of with your optimized press release plan. You can think of optimized press releases as an engine to reach your customers. This engine is the driving force that can be built upon with image attachments, embedded videos, PDF attachments, podcasts and more. The increased search visibility, linking value and added benefits of attaching photos, videos and brochures about your products make optimized press releases a great way to keep your company's name in the news.

I'd like to talk to you about our optimized press release writing and distribution plans. It's important to keep your company's name in front of customers; especially now in this difficult economy. Contact me at lisa@intrapromote.com to find out more.

Optimized Press Releases - The Engine that Can Drive Qualified Traffic to Your Site
Posted by Lisa Santora at 12:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
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May 18, 2009

Google Profiles Now Above the Fold?

posted by John Lustina in category: Organic SEO

In spite of that odd numerical URL that persists and 302 hops, my Google Profile has proven to indeed be a climber, for the first time breaking above the fold for the vanity search I have been vainly keeping my own eye on from day one:

Now, as is normally the case with a non-temporary 302--THE problem with a non-temporary 302 you might conclude--I don't know whether to link to http://www.google.com/profiles/John.Lustina or http://www.google.com/profiles/116187582762783426547 when I am referring to it.

Google?

Google Profiles Now Above the Fold?
Posted by John Lustina at 10:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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May 06, 2009

Google Vanity Profiles Buggy on the iPhone

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Google

I wouldn't categorize this under DEFCON 5, but there's a bug with Google Profiles in the iPhone version of Safari.

When you do a vanity search and you've filled out your Google Profile sufficiently, it might show up at the bottom of the first SERP. My profile, for example, does show up correctly on normal browsers.

In an iPhone vanity search, however, something weird happens. Where the profile link would be, there is instead a link to a page called "prose%200", as seen here:

%20 is the escape code for a space, so in reality, the page is called "prose 0". When you click the link in the iPhone, you land here:

I imagine the "pro" in "prose" stands for "profile." As for the "se," I'm not sure. "Search engine," perhaps, although that seems too easy, as well as redundant.

Conclusion: If you have thousands or millions of people searching their iPhones for your Google profile (like I don't), they're not finding you.

Google Vanity Profiles Buggy on the iPhone
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 08:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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May 04, 2009

Google Profiles Doing the 302 Hop?

posted by John Lustina in category: Organic SEO

Continuing in my vainglory of days past, I was surprised today while exploring below the fold to see my Google Profile suddenly appear as a tenth result along with the standard extra bottom result (with smiling picture) for a vanity search:

Even more surprising, if you look at the yellow highlighted rectangle, is that Google choose to show www.google.com/profiles/116187582762783426547 as the URL for the result, rather than the www.google.com/profiles/John.Lustina vanity URL that I selected as my preference, when offered, in the initial setup of my Profile.

Now, I was happy to see that it redirected to http://www.google.com/profiles/John.Lustina when clicked, yet wondered why the numerical URL would yet list if the redirect were a 301. My SEO senses tingling, I went to Rex The Answer Man to find this:

Why a 302 temporary redirect? Why not just keep them numerical rather than vain if they are not going to implement a proper 301?

Isn't that what they would have us counsel our clients in a similar scenario?

Google Profiles Doing the 302 Hop?
Posted by John Lustina at 09:10 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
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May 02, 2009

Twitter Bookmarklets: Frame of Reference or Obloquy?

posted by John Lustina in category: Social Media

In my recent search for the perfect Twitter bookmarklet, one that would let me post from page without leaving nasty tracks in my Tweets, I noted a trend that all but BigTweet seemed to sow, in one shade or another; namely, the urge to take over and remake, to rendite, Cheney-like, beyond home:

The blue line above, spanning the horizon, demarcates the framing (or stealing) of the site URL Tweeted. True it is traded for providing the clicking Twit convenience, yet what does the site Tweeted get but a pageview in stats?

A RT, perhaps, but we know from usability that last in line isn't exactly the best place to be. Placement is illustrative in the above, as is color: anyone think the fading is an oversight?

Twitter Bookmarklets: Frame of Reference or Obloquy?
Posted by John Lustina at 02:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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April 28, 2009

Bonfire of the Vanity Search Revisited

posted by John Lustina in category: Google

Not three days later, the Google Profile influence now has ordered the top six:

Note to self: the right column space is pretty important:

Bonfire of the Vanity Search Revisited
Posted by John Lustina at 08:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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April 25, 2009

Bonfire of the Vanity Search

posted by John Lustina in category: Social Media

Although unveiled in the innocuous position last--always, mind you--of the first page for your name, it seems more likely ever-prescient Google has a larger share in mind than the 10th result on a page; namely, a cover page for Socially skitzophrenic above-the-fold situations like the following:

Are they actually after, rather, One Profile to rule them all?

Bonfire of the Vanity Search
Posted by John Lustina at 10:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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February 20, 2009

Optimized Press Releases Keep Your Company's Name in Front of Customers

posted by Lisa Santora in category: Online Publicity

There's plenty going on in Intrapromote's new Press Release Department. We've written and syndicated a new branding and site launch news story for one customer, produced an optimized press release announcing Tahiti honeymoon vacation bargains, and chronicled a customer's charitable partnership efforts.

Intrapromote's 2009 press release writing and distribution plans deliver more ROI than ever before. By developing compelling news stories that highlight our customers' unique selling points and leveraging the syndication capabilities of PR Web we've built a potent and cost-effective marketing tool that drives targeted traffic to your site.

I'd like to talk to you about our optimized press release writing and distribution plans. It's important to keep your company's name in front of customers; especially now in this difficult economy. Contact me at lisa@intrapromote.com to find out more.

Optimized Press Releases Keep Your Company's Name in Front of Customers
Posted by Lisa Santora at 02:46 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
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February 11, 2009

Is Your Industry too Boring for Link Building?

posted by Angela Moore in category: Link Building

So often as I am discussing link building strategies or the concept of link bait, I am faced with the same question:

"Aren't we too boring for all this? Who is going to want to link to us? All we do is (fill in the blank)."

The short answer is no. You are not too boring. Why? Because in every industry, every niche, SOMEONE cares about what you're doing.

The long answer involves discussions around target markets and their demographics, the various services offered, and industry trends. Since it's a bit complicated, let's take a purely hypothetical example.

Let's say we are dealing with a client who sells pens. Not too sexy, right? I mean, they're pens. Everyone can get them and you can pretty much get them anywhere. Even gas stations. Well, let's take it a step further and say that these pens are around $150 each. Why would people want to buy a pen for $150 when they can get 12 pens for around $2? That becomes the source of our link bait and link building campaign.

Asking questions like this is the next step for designing a campaign for a seemingly boring industry. What makes your pen worth $150? Can you write under water with it? Is the quality of the actual shell of the pen magnificent? Does this pen never, ever, in a million years "skip" when you're writing unless it's completely out of ink? Does it have some sort of indicator to let you know when it is about to run out of ink? What about refills? Do customers get them when they initially purchase the pen? How expensive are they? What type of ink is it? Has it been safety tested around kids? Pets? Is it child-proof?

Of course, this is all hypothetical. But when you hit on that one thing that makes this pen stand above the rest, you have your link bait concept. Branching out from there, you need to find the people who would want this pen. Business executives, writers, celebrities who sign a lot of autographs, lawyers... there are people out there who will not only love your product but want to tell others how great it is too. How about people who just plain love pens? Don't think they exist? I beg to differ. So, where do you find them? Blogs, social networks, resource sites, and other authority hubs will be the go-to locations to find these people. Simple queries will tell you where you should start researching. From their, the web of links that you are sure to find will also give you more avenues to pursue.

Now, what do you tell these people when you find them? You can do a myriad of things on your site and show it to your target market. Showing a video of all the amazing things your pen can do would be one option - Blendtec perfected this with their "Will it Blend?" series. How about a contest? An interactive widget? User-generated lists of what people want in their perfect pen? Top 10 lists?

All of these are good options. By really working to match your efforts with your target market, you will see the benefit as people blog about your pen, post links on their sites back to yours and help you spread the word about your magnificent pen.

My point is that no matter what you're selling or trying to promote, someone out there wants to hear about it. Combining elements like quality and differentiators with your target market and a catchy way to grab their attention will generate links before you know it.

Is Your Industry too Boring for Link Building?
Posted by Angela Moore at 07:07 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)
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February 10, 2009

Finally ... John Dvorak Exposes SEO Industry

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: SEO Industry News

PC Mag's John Dvorak has declared SEO to be snake oil. Guess it's time to close up the shop.

Sigh. Not exactly a new theme, but as weak arguments go, Dvorak's is particularly so. I'll sum it up for you in case you don't have the time:

• John gets bad advice about optimizing his blog.
• John's page views decline.
• John equates his bad advice with SEO practice.
• John picks another third-tier technique (tagging) and also equates it with SEO.
• John anecdotally proves that tagging is ineffective.
• John concludes that SEO "simply doesn't work."

But wait! He completes the formula. Don't forget about the final, disclaiming paragraph, designed to hedge himself against any criticism:

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying there's nothing you can do to get more attention. Much of what you can control is structural. If you have a blog full of fancy AJAX code, it's going to be difficult to index, for example. Making your Web site search-engine-friendly is one thing, in other words. But using stupid human tricks such as the long URL and tags to get more attention is folly -- and bad advice, from what I can tell. Beware!

In other words, real SEO isn't bad, but bad SEO is bad, but you don't get to know that until you wade through his lesson on why singular techniques, in a vacuum absent an overall strategy, are unhelpful. Come on, John. You're better than this.

Finally ... John Dvorak Exposes SEO Industry
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 07:58 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
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December 19, 2008

Spanish Site SEO Pays Off

posted by Doug Ausbury in category: Organic SEO

In 2007, one of our long term clients launched a Spanish version of their web site. Their site is very content rich and has approximately 1,000 pages. During the course of 2008, we've worked closely with them to optimize these new pages with the goal of significantly increasing search traffic.

Here's a look at the results to date...

Prior to optimization of the Spanish pages, of all search engines, Google Spain was ranked #33 in bringing visits to the site. After optimization, Google Spain is #3 behind just Google and Yahoo.

To make this kind of jump, Google Spain brought just 53 visits per month to the site prior to optimization. Now the site is receiving over 10,000 visits a month from Google Spain. Google Spain now brings more visits than MSN and AOL.

Here's a closer look at the visit numbers before and after optimization:

Search Engine		Monthy Visits Before SEO		Monthly Visits After SEO
Google Spain		53		10,310
Google Mexico		41		6,383
Google Columbia		15		3,207
Google Venezuela		8		3,001
Google Peru		8		2,926
Google Chile		16		2,442
Google Puerto Rico		23		689
Google Portugal		33		137
Total		197		29,095

We expect these monthly visit increases to bring a minimum of 350,000 additional new visits to the site in 2009.

Excelente!!!

Spanish Site SEO Pays Off
Posted by Doug Ausbury at 10:09 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)
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December 17, 2008

What the Economic Times Mean for Link Building

posted by Angela Moore in category: Link Building

So unless you've been living under a rock, you realize that the economy isn't as strong as it used to be. And yes, that is a rather large understatement. Many industries have been pushed into the limelight to discuss their dire situation and ask for help. Many search bloggers are also talking about the economy and what it means for the search industry at large. We're seeing stories about how to get the most out of your search campaigns right now, looking for SEO opportunities in tough economic situations, and big brand SEM strategies.

In the past few months, I have recognized several trends that could ultimately benefit link development.

1. The need for information. If your site is providing information on financial tips or if you have ideas on how your target market can save money within your industry, publish the content. Do some keyword research and find out what exactly people are looking for and create a title and a content piece that will rank in the search engines. Since most people are looking for ways to be more economical right now, you've basically just created some nice link bait.

2. Blog Explosions. Bloggers know that if they publish content that provides timely tips and advice, their traffic will increase exponentially. Reach out to those bloggers and ask how you can help them get the content they need. Every day, new blogs are created on every conceivable topic. Keep an eye out for both the established bloggers and the up-and-coming candidates.

3. Looking for experts. In tough times, many executives tend to hide out. Be up front. Grant some interviews with some bloggers who write about your industry. Be honest about what's going on. Talk about your plans when it's appropriate. Be the face of your company.

4. Now is the time for shake-ups. If you've been sitting #5 or #6 for a particular keyword, a little extra investment into your link development campaign will pay off. Many sites that are sitting #1 and have been there for a long time have relied on that fact without much thought. The companies that are investing in SEO and link development are making big moves and the momentum could keep them there as time goes on.

There are lots of ways to stay afloat in tough times. The biggest need right now is information and hope. When you give that to your consumers, they can often reciprocate with some unsolicited links and a window into your target market.

What the Economic Times Mean for Link Building
Posted by Angela Moore at 07:23 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
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December 16, 2008

Details, Details, Details

posted by Brent Sharp in category: Organic SEO

They say the devil is in the details but in this case it's just Frosty the Snowman. A recent search on behalf of my son returned this little detail that can be a good reminder to double check even the little things like Page Titles.

Remember, Google is making its list and checking it twice....

Details, Details, Details
Posted by Brent Sharp at 11:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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November 27, 2008

Don't Think Like a Student for .edu Links

posted by Angela Moore in category: Link Building

I've written posts before on some tips to fixing existing .edu links and why .edu link acquisition services are typically worthless. But what about when you're trying to get links the old-fashioned way? By providing valuable content to users and then telling Webmasters where to find it? What do you do? Where do you start? How do you go about it?

When you're doing research to gain some much-coveted .edu links, be sure to do your homework. You want to find sites that cater to your target market. But stop and think before you channel the zen of a college student to get your links.

Why not? It's simple. College students don't dictate links on University sites. Professors and staff do. How do I know this? Take a look at any college Web site and find a resources page of sorts for students. These days with so many college kids graduating with excessive debt (and I'm not just talking about student loans) many sites are now putting up a page packed full of resources on how to manage your credit from the start rather than how to fix it (although there are links for that too).

Let's take a look at this sample page from Baldwin-Wallace College on how to manage your finances. Lots of good stuff in here, right? Perfect opportunity to maybe place a link to a well-respected site that offers additional tips and financial information? Want to put a link to a big and flashy Web site that college kids just seem to love? Stop. Read the content again. The thing I heard most in college is "You're an adult now." Colleges are set up to groom promising professionals into upstanding citizens (not to mention that whole education thing). The content on this page is geared towards the students with a parental tone.

"But wait," you might say. "College kids love my big flashy Web site!" True, but they're not the ones who are managing a large university's Web site. Even if they are, a professor is mentoring them and watching their every move. Those links, even if they do get put up, won't last long. The biggest mistake I see in trying to get .edu links is that some link builders think that you are marketing to the students. You're not. You're marketing to their parents. And their professors.

"So what do I do?" I'm so glad you asked. Market to the professors and parents of these students. They're the ones who, ultimately, dictate what types of content goes up. Typically, parents pay the bills to these schools. So, professors and staff answer to them. The staff and teaching professionals are responsible for the education of these young minds. They don't want something as glaring as a junk link on their Web site. Think like an adult when marketing to .edu sites.

The bottom line in all of this? You must provide valuable content to the user to get .edu links. No ifs, ands, or buts. Sure, you can get other .edu links without much effort. But I doubt they'll provide any long-term value for search engine rankings. And in link development, long-term is the way to go.

Oh, and by the way... Happy Thanksgiving!

Don't Think Like a Student for .edu Links
Posted by Angela Moore at 06:53 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
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November 20, 2008

Google Lets Users Promote, Remove, Comment on Listings

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Google

This has been discussed for a few months here and there, but this is the first time I've seen it in the wild. Google SERPs are giving users the ability to "promote," "remove," or "comment" on listings:

Here's a closeup of the three. See if you can figure out which is Promote, Remove, or Comment:

I've only begun to play with them, so I have no idea what the implications are. I suspect that like with most things, Google will harness the data and use it in aggregate to try to improve relevance of results. I'm sure we'll read more about that in the next couple days, along with the imminent speculation about "what it all means," which, in the grand scheme, is usually very little. Still, it's cool.

Google Lets Users Promote, Remove, Comment on Listings
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 10:32 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
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Google SERPs Showing MySpace + other Videos

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Universal SEO

I'm surely not the first to notice this, but I saw MySpace video thumbnails in Google SERPs for the first time today:

Looking around, G is pulling from multiple sources, including MetaCafe, CollegeHumor, and this example from Spike:

A couple months ago, AccuraCast noticed two video results in a horizontal line, but in that sample, both videos were from Google-owned YouTube.

This is the next logical step in the universality of Universal Search, so to speak. Is it also the beginning of the end of big corporate presence on shared video sites?

Google SERPs Showing MySpace + other Videos
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 06:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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November 13, 2008

Perceived Competition vs. Actual Competition

posted by Angela Moore in category: Link Building

It happens 80% of the time I ask the question. I am talking with a client on the phone and I ask “who do you feel is your direct competition in your industry?” What I then receive is a list of competitors that are prominent in the industry. But how many of these competitors are showing up in the search results? Generally, less than 10% of the competitors that I get from my client are actual competitors in the SERPs.

If my client is a big brand, then I get a list of other big brand companies that have a Web site. These competitors typically are not engaging in SEO nor are they targeting the same keywords that my client is focusing on. These competitors tend to rely on their brand name to draw customers and make online sales. There are times when big brand competitors are showing up in SERPs for broad keyword phrases due to their brand name and domain. For instance, if I’m doing research on the keyword “toys,” it makes sense that Toys R Us shows up at or near the top. “Toys” is in their brand and their domain. Since most people link to Web sites with the brand name, that adds to their ability to rank.

But what about my clients’ actual competition? There is a tremendous amount of value in doing a thorough competitive analysis that focuses on link development. Why? Because a) it shows you what your competition is (or is not) doing in terms of link development, b) it tells you who your actual competition is for specific keywords that are valuable to your SEO efforts, and c) it is a springboard (or smorgasbord of information) into researching potential sites that you can acquire links from.

Big brands aren’t always optimizing their site nor are they engaged in an active (or well designed) link development campaign. More often than not, I find resource sites, niche brands, and other lesser-known players in a particular industry performing the best for these types of keyword phrases. And, surprisingly enough, these smaller sites tend to out-perform the big brand competition in their link development efforts. They have a more varied link portfolio than the bigger companies. Why? Generally because they teach themselves the ins and outs of the industry because they know they are competing with bigger brands. And also because they tend to have a little more time on their hands since they are not managing the daily activities of a multi-million dollar corporation.

There are, of course, exceptions to this. Auto insurance is a great example. Several of the big players in the industry are actively engaged in strategic SEO and link development campaigns. While some are definitely performing better than others, there is quite a bit of evidence that points to the fact that these companies are SEO savvy.

So the next time you think of your competition, think beyond the big players in the industry. Do some queries and find out who is truly at the top. And dig a little deeper to see what more you can be doing.

Perceived Competition vs. Actual Competition
Posted by Angela Moore at 07:43 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
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November 07, 2008

Social Media Reality Check: Facebook vs. MySpace

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Social Media

Submitted without comment:

Social Media Reality Check: Facebook vs. MySpace
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 09:26 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
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Dropping Balls On Facebook

posted by Doug Ausbury in category: Social Media

A die-hard Cleveland Browns fan my entire life, I sat through yet another disappointing game Thursday night. Having watched hundreds of these games since my childhood, now I just laugh and turn off the TV.

So far, this season has been a season of watching Browns receivers drop balls. It's so hard to watch a receiver have a ball go right through their hands or catch a ball and then drop it. I'm not sure who leads the league in dropped balls this season, but I would bet a dollar that it's the Browns.

I have a hard time watching TV without my notebook computer in my lap. As I sat through the familiar misery of another Brown's loss Thursday night, I found someone else dropping balls on Facebook - big time. In fact, let's call this a dropped touchdown pass to win the game.

I have a tip for professional recruiters using Facebook to find job seeking candidates. If you really want to appear professional and find good talent, you should be careful what Groups you join on Facebook. Yes, your potential candidates can see them and I'm certain that most quality job seekers open to being contacted on Facebook by a professional recruiter would be turned off by a recruiter who's a member of several groups that include the name "Whores".

Now that's a dropped ball.

Dropping Balls On Facebook
Posted by Doug Ausbury at 09:19 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
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October 28, 2008

Follow Intrapromote on Twitter

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Social Media

We've been using Twitter as an internal communications tool for a while as a "protected" feed. In the spirit of TwitterGlasnost, however (and because we were surprised that several people found the feed and requested to follow it), we want to open it up.

What's in the stream?

• Links to posts from this blog
  
• Links to other SEO-related posts and articles from Intrapromote staffers
  
• SEO/M "required reading" -- a list of important SEO/SEM-related articles from around the web that our staff members have shared with one another
  
• Any upcoming speaking gigs or seminars we'll be attending
  
• The obligatory, enigmatic "and anything else we can think of..." items
  

So you are cordially invited to follow @intrapromote. No RSVP required.

Follow Intrapromote on Twitter
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 08:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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October 24, 2008

Why .edu Link Acquisition “Services” Don’t Last Long

posted by Angela Moore in category: Link Building

Recently, I had a client send me an email saying they had been approached by a company who could get them some .edu links in an “under the radar” kind of fashion and they asked me what I thought. Needless to say, I’m not crazy about these types of services. There are lots of reasons why, so I’ll hit on a couple of them now.

Many of these services say they will create original content for you on .edu domains and give your site a couple of links. They also put a couple of links to other resource sites like Wikipedia or a government site that provides a lot of value to the user, but is not a direct competitor of yours. Here are the issues with this:

1. The content is not worthwhile for any human to read. It doesn’t provide any value and just reading it tells you that the person who wrote it doesn’t have very good English skills.
2. Because this is the common trend with these types of services, it’s not hard for a search engine (or link development specialist) to figure out what’s going on.
3. Anything that promotes itself as being “under the radar” isn’t something you should engage in as a white link development specialist or firm. That should be the first warning sign.
4. Links are seldom built to these types of pages and when they are, they aren’t relevant nor are they valuable.

To further elaborate my point, I’ve monitored these types of pages and it doesn’t take long for them to get devalued by the search engines. One page I’ve been watching (no link, and for a reason) went from a PageRank 3 to a gray bar within 2 months of being live. They were also stripped from the indices of the search engines in that time period. I monitor lots of pages like this and while some of them (perhaps 5% of the ones I watch) slip past the requirements and provide PageRank value to the pages that it’s linking to, most of them become worthless pretty quickly. And for the price that you pay (I’ve seen as high as $3,000 a month for some of these pages) that’s a lot of wasted money.

Why .edu Link Acquisition “Services” Don’t Last Long
Posted by Angela Moore at 07:45 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
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October 20, 2008

Error in Google's robots.txt Docs

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Crawling and Indexing

Update: This was fixed rapidly; see Riona's comment.

I don't want to get too deep into the complexities of robots.txt parsing (if you want that, try this, this or this), but I found something odd at the bottom of this page, one of Google Webmaster Help's many pages on robots.txt.

The page says:

URLs are case-sensitive. For instance, Disallow: /private_file.asp would block http://www.example.com/junk_file.asp, but would allow http://www.example.com/Junk_file1.asp.

Here's a picture just so you trust me:

This is wrong in a lot of different ways. Let's look at them with my comments following in bold.

URLs are case-sensitive.

So far, so good.

For instance, Disallow: /private_file.asp would block http://www.example.com/junk_file.asp

It would? How?

..., but would allow http://www.example.com/Junk_file1.asp.

I suppose Disallow: /private_file.asp would allow /Junk_file1.asp, but not because of capitalization style. It's because /Junk_file1.asp has nothing to do with the excluded file, /private_file.asp

So what did they mean? If they're anything like me, this was a paragraph started, edited a few times, and never really finished. It appears to try to cover a variety of the issues covered on the page, including cap style, pattern matching, and wildcard characters. Here are a couple alternatives I'd suggest:

URLs are case-sensitive. For instance, Disallow: /private_file.asp would block http://www.example.com/private_file.asp, but would allow http://www.example.com/Private_file.asp.

or, to continue along the pattern-matching theme also discussed on the page, this would work:

URLs are case-sensitive. For instance, Disallow: /private_file*.asp would block http://www.example.com/private_file.asp, but would also block http://www.example.com/private_file1.asp. It would not, however, block /Private_file1.asp.

This is a pretty minor detail at the bottom of an esoteric page, but if you're looking for specific information on cap style and robots.txt, it could cause some head-scratching.

Error in Google's robots.txt Docs
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 07:30 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
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October 08, 2008

10 Tips for Doing Link Development Research

posted by Angela Moore in category: Link Building

When you are hunting for links for your site or for a client’s site, there are lots of avenues that you could pursue. Some work, some don’t. That’s just the nature of the business. There are a couple of things I have gleaned along the way that have helped me when I’m doing that sometimes tedious research for link development.

So here are my 10 favorite tips for doing link research:

1. Be a user first, link developer second. If your link is not going to provide value, why bother? Think like a user and make sure that the link makes sense before you post it or submit it.

2. Keep hunting for the contact info. This is something that Eric Ward has talked about and the extra effort can go a long way. If all you’re finding is the webmaster@domain.com email, keep hunting. Check the site map, About page, staff page, etc. until you find an actual person to contact.

3. Check more than the PageRank. PageRank is good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not the end all – be all of a site’s value. It’s a snapshot. Check who’s linking to them, how many pages are being indexed in both Yahoo and Google (major discrepancies here can send up a red flag), and the overall quality of the site.

4. Check partner sites. Even if the site that you want doesn’t take links or turns you down, find out who else is linking to them or has links on their site. If the relevancy and quality factors are there, send the email.

5. Evaluate who is linking to the competition. While some link developers say you shouldn’t do this because you’re always chasing the competition’s coat tails, I disagree. If the competition is on a page, why should users only have that option? They should have the option to choose the site you’re working on.

6. Let randomness take over. I tend to have a bit of ADD, which actually helps in my line of work. I roam the net, clicking what interests me and let the user in me take charge (yes, this relates back to #1). Chances are other users will surf in a similar fashion. I keep track of all the pages that I find that may work for a link request.

7. Use Google blog search. Or other social media monitoring tools. If people are talking about the site you’re evaluating, that’s a good sign. But make sure it’s not all negative. A mix of both positive and negative comments and posts regarding these sites make it legit to request a link from them.

8. Document everything. Inevitably, you’ll find yourself at a point where you’re wondering “where did I see that information…” and it will be lost. Be sure to document any pages you stumble across that may be helpful in later work.

9. Check the authority site. Let’s say you’re doing link work for a health site dealing with breast cancer. What are the online authorities for this? Obviously, the Komen Foundation and BreastCancer.org. Who is linking to them? Dig in and see what opportunities are there.

10. Investigate some forums. I’m not advocating SPAM here. But people who are passionate enough to talk about the content of what is on your site will have a long list of sites they regularly visit that may be relevant to what you’re looking for. Ask questions, check out discussions, and view user’s profiles for interesting leads.

10 Tips for Doing Link Development Research
Posted by Angela Moore at 07:31 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)
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September 30, 2008

5 Things to Consider When Hiring a Social Media Consultant and/or Company

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

Here's my take regarding the 5 things a company should look for when trying to hire a social media consultant and/or company:

1 - Company Credibility

How long has the company and/or consultant you are looking at been around? Are they new to this industry or do they have a significant, quality experience under their belts? Who are their current clients? Do they have a list of referrals for clients that have utilized their social media services in the past?

In addition to asking these important questions, you should also get acclimated to what is being said about that consultant within the social media realm to see if there are any negative connotations associated with their name. You will want to ensure you are working with a social media consultant who has a credible name online since his or her reputation will affect yours once he or she begins working on behalf of your company.

2 - Past Projects

Can you view some of their past work? This will give you a good idea as to whether or not they have the creative experience necessary to help you achieve your goals. Seeing what one has done for others will give you a very good understanding of what is possible regarding your endeavors. Has this consultant worked with small, medium, or large clientele? The answer to that question can sway your thinking because your brand may be larger and need someone who has dealt with major companies to truly create synergy for your social media objectives. Lastly, ask questions related to if this consultant has worked with other clients in your particular vertical market? Utilizing a consultant who already has knowledge about your industry can save your social media campaigns an enormous amount of time because a good deal of the learning curve on their end will already have been established.

3 - Strategy Best Practices

Have them define their strategy without asking them to give away the bank. A reputable social media consultant should have no problems letting you know how they conduct business and what they think are the best practices within the social media industry.

Additionally, you should consider the following: How will they interact with community members among social media hubs online? What approach will they take to get community members excited about your brand without looking like he or she is trying to utilize marketing tactics? How many hours will they spend in the “trenches” on your behalf each month? How are they going to measure the buzz being generated about your brand online? What are their SOP’s regarding making their clients aware of reputation management issues surrounding their brands online? Lastly, how have they handled reputation management issues for clients in the past?

4 - Guidance

A company should have the consultant they are looking at hiring give them feedback as to what type of social media campaign can be conducted with their current multi-media resources. It is also imperative to have the consultant give you a taste of what you will get from having them conduct social media consulting on your behalf. They don’t have to create a major social media strategy before starting the relationship, but it is good to see what’s under the hood before you embark on a business relationship with this person. Have them take a look at your current social media assets and walk you through a micro-strategy that could be used to enhance a small area of your business. This will give you the chance to see how this consultant thinks and really how creative they can be with your brand. It also shows that this consultant is willing to invest some energy to get your business--both parties win in this type of relationship!

5 - Like-ability

It all comes down to the amount of trust the social media consultant has created for you up to this point. Your questions have been answered and you have seen their work, now what? Do a gut check and review all of the facts that have been presented by the potential social media consultant. Generally you will have a feeling one way or the other and it’s your responsibility to ensure your company works with a consultant that can be trusted. If you have questions about the information that has been presented to you, then bring them up to the consultant for further clarification. After receiving his or her feedback you should present this information to other members of your company to see if they have questions to be answered. The main point here is to seek insight from others to be sure you are making the right decision by creating a strategic business alliance with this consultant.
Finding the right social media consultant to work with does not have to be a daunting task.

By conducting all of the activities mentioned above, you will be ready to make an educated decision as to whether or not it will benefit your company to work with this potential social media consultant.

5 Things to Consider When Hiring a Social Media Consultant and/or Company
Posted by Brett Lane at 11:28 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
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September 29, 2008

Branded Phrases, Sites & Conversions

posted by Doug Ausbury in category:

A recent comScore study for the Pharmaceutical industry analyzed the brand awareness and conversion impact of search marketing and visits to a brand web site.

The conclusion? "Branded Websites Are the Most Effective Online Marketing Tactic"

For those of us in the Search Engine Marketing industry, digging into the study provided some new conversion rate data for brand sites:

"Getting a patient to visit a branded Web site is the most effective form of online pharmaceutical marketing, with an incremental patient adherence rate nearly 20 percentage points higher than among those who did not visit the Web site...."

As search marketers, there is no revelation in these numbers. We know that search engine traffic from branded phrases often brings higher conversion rates.

However, this is a good reminder and does provide us with another study and statistic that shows the importance of an ongoing strategy to have your brand's web site above the fold at search engines for your branded search phrases.

Branded Phrases, Sites & Conversions
Posted by Doug Ausbury at 09:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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September 19, 2008

Linking External and Internal Search Terms in Google Analytics

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: User Behavior

Have you ever wanted to match up internal search terms (i.e., terms that people searched for from your site's internal search feature) with their corresponding external search terms (i.e., terms that people used to find your site in the first place)?

In Google Analytics you can, and while finding the information is not particularly intuitive the first time, it's pretty quick once you know how to do it.

First, of course, you have to set up Site Search, which simply amounts to identifying your site's specific search parameter for Google Analytics so it can scrape the query terms out of your site's search results URLs. Once you've done that (and have begun to gather data for a little while), you're ready to go.

First, drill down to the Content | Site Search | Search Terms report, as shown here:

This shows you all the terms that people searched for on your site, from within your own internal search feature, in the given time period. Pick a term and click it, as shown here:

The resulting screen is the Search Term Overview, which tells you how many people searched for that term, etc. From the Dimension drop-down list, select Keyword, as shown below. This tells Google Analytics to report which external keyword was used by the visitor(s) who eventually searched for "404 redirect" (or whatever search term you selected).

The resulting screen will list the keyword that the user searched for at a search engine to first arrive at your site. In this case, the user searched for "seo using 404 301," as shown here:

If you have a popular search term on your site, the image above would likely be populated with several different external search terms. In this example, however, only one person searched for "404 redirect" on the site in the time period, so there's only one external search phrase that drove the traffic. To find the referring engine, select Source instead of Keyword from the Dimension drop-down.

Exactly what to do with this data is the topic for a separate post, which I hope to have ready soon.

Linking External and Internal Search Terms in Google Analytics
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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September 16, 2008

Local and Links: A Match Made in Heaven?

posted by Angela Moore in category: Link Building

A good friend of mine, Adam, suggested that I do a post on How can local information, events, news, and other local fodder help your link development campaign? Oh, let me count the ways. Local search is a huge marketing push right now online. From Google maps to your local radio station’s Web site, the opportunities are endless for link development.

Of course, this is taking into account a couple of factors. First of all, that you are, in fact, local. If you have a brick and mortar location, you have the opportunity to be listed in the local search engines of Google, Yahoo, and the like. You can also get submitted to other Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs) and Local Directories like Best of the Web’s.

But there’s more to it than that. There is a world of opportunity when you look at your community and what is currently happening in it. Of course, the second assumption I am making is that you are active in your community. Whether it be community service, local festivals, or other popular events that you are participating in, you can make a name for yourself (and get some links) by doing some selfless service.

1. Sponsoring community organizations or events – Do you faithfully sponsor a local race, fundraiser, hospital or charity every year? Ask for a link from their Web site to yours if you don’t already have one. If you do have one, check to see if the link says what you want it to say. If the link is actually a hyperlinked image, make sure an ALT tag is included.

2. Receiving awards from local organizations – Ask if the organization has a page on their Web site for past recipients and see if a link has been included by your name. If not, a gentle suggestion may be a good idea. But, of course, don’t be pushy. It’s their site, they can do what they want. Additionally, ask if you can do an online press release about the award. Ask for a quote and syndicate it to an online service. Include a link to the organization as well as to your own site. If they are planning on doing their own, ask them to include a link to your site as well.

3. Current events – is your community going through some rough times and they need your expert advice? Create content that is specifically geared towards the current state of affairs and give tips on what the community can do. Then reach out to your local newspaper’s site and let them know the resource is available on your site.

4. Local Business Organizations and the Chamber of Commerce – Are you a member of a local group that is affiliated with the professional community or your particular industry? See if your terms of membership include a link from their Web site to yours.

If you’re not currently doing any of these things, get active. If you can make a positive impact on your community, you’re sure to be rewarded. Of course, I’m hoping that links are not your only motivation for doing good things for those around you. But, getting active in your community and staying on top of the needs of your potential client base will pay dividends in the long run.

Local and Links: A Match Made in Heaven?
Posted by Angela Moore at 05:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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September 12, 2008

Video Social Network Recruiting: uBoast

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

For job seekers looking for work on the East Coast who have exhausted all normal online job sites there is a new recruiting platform offered by uBoast. This new recruiting platform allows account holders to create video resumes to showcase their skills to a new breed of recruiters willing to use cutting edge technology to find job candidates. uBoast is able to partner with local Universities to help students excel their careers by providing them with interview tips and best practices in order to develop confidence that will develop compelling video resumes. They reach out to recruiting agencies and employers to find out what they are looking for in an employee to better help their candidates align themselves with the right employers. uBoast also offers services related to video creation coaching, filming & editing, and hosting of account users video resumes from within their professional Web site.

uBoast describes their video resume services as a means of allowing job seekers to "show off their mannerism, energy, confidence, professionalism, and communication abilities." The company also makes its services available to recruiters and describes those services as "helping employers establish a more complete overall impression of the applicant (Applicant's personal page will include their video resume, paper resume, answers to interview questions, endorsements, references, Google links, and portfolio docs) all on one screen."

This type of service will make it easier for employees to provide a better impression to hiring companies as well as give recruiters the best depiction of each candidate looking for work. The site and services are pretty new but should look promising to individuals seeking to use technology to the fullest extent when trying to find employment. Social media is now changing the way everyone looks at finding jobs as well as candidates online. I have a feeling more sites like this will be hitting the market to meet the needs of social media adopters looking for work online.

Video Social Network Recruiting: uBoast
Posted by Brett Lane at 03:26 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)
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September 11, 2008

How to Evaluate a Link Development Firm

posted by Angela Moore in category: Link Building

So, you’ve embarked on an SEO campaign and now you want to get more links. Welcome to my world! You understand it’s critical to your optimization efforts and you’re evaluating a firm that offers link development services. For many in the industry, link development is the thorn in the side. Very few people actually like doing it (present company excluded) and I’ve seen that some companies’ approach to the process is indicative of how they feel about it.

Here’s how to tell if you’re getting a good deal whether you’re hiring them only for link development or it’s part of the SEO campaign they are executing for you.

1.Tactics – does the firm offer only tactic (ie directory submissions) or are their campaigns more diversified? The more white hat options that a firm offers, the more keen they are as to how link development works. If a content development strategy is a part of the puzzle, even better.

2.Communication – how often will they be talking to you about your campaign? Regardless of whether it’s by phone or email, regular and thorough communication will make you feel more comfortable about what’s going on behind the scenes.

3.Reporting – how often you get reports and what is detailed in them is important. Are you only getting bare bones information? Like how many links are pointing to your site? Or are they telling you where those links are coming from, what pages on your site those links are pointing to, and what anchor text they used? The more data that is incorporated into a report for you, the more that firm actually cares about your project.

4.Competitive Information – this goes back to tactics, but if a firm is telling you what the competition is doing (something more substantial than “they have more links than you do”) they’ve taken the extra step to dive deep into what’s happening online on your behalf.

5.Analytics – does the firm jump into the analytics fray and tell you what’s going on beyond just how many links you’ve gotten? Do they talk about site referrals, type in traffic metrics, increases or decreases in brand-related searches? All of these and more would tell me that a firm is in tune with all the benefits of link development, not just rankings.

This is just a small sampling of what you can look at in regards to a link development firm and how they will handle your campaign. Other things can include what advanced strategies they offer, results of brainstorm sessions (if they are having them), and industry trend information being sent your way. Be sure you are spending your money (and your time) wisely by choosing a firm that not only does a good job, but actually cares about your links.

How to Evaluate a Link Development Firm
Posted by Angela Moore at 05:33 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
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September 08, 2008

iWidgets Soon to Syndicate Full CBS Episodes Online

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

iWidgets, a Social Syndication Platform has announced that it will soon be distributing its first major client's (CBS Interactive) video content tomorrow September 9th, 2008 at 3pm PST at the Sheraton Hotel in San Diego, CA. The demo will showcase iWidgets Social Syndication Platform that will enable CBS’ audience to watch full episodes of television programming directly within popular social networks, and to socially engage the viewers with engaging such features as sharing, polls, ratings, and contests. iWidgets Social Syndication Platform makes it easy for widget creators to build and syndicate their applications with ease in a user friendly widget environment. There are plenty of widget building Web sites (Sprout Builder) that offer site users a general ability to build widgets but rarely offer the customization features of iWidgets. Now that iWidgets has a large client like CBS Interactive to showcase its widget syndication services I wouldn't be surprised to see other major content providers take their system for a test drive.

iWidgets Soon to Syndicate Full CBS Episodes Online
Posted by Brett Lane at 10:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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September 05, 2008

Micro-blogging Tracker with Eye Candy

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

I had the opportunity to check out a neat micro-blogging tracker site today called Dipity. It offers users a pretty cool way to keep track of what's being said about many topics, as well as what others are following via the Social Media space in a very nice visual layout. There are many ways to follow others in their system whether you use RSS, Twitter, Flickr, and a host of other ways to integrate mainstream Social Media platforms into their system. The main premise behind Dipity is to present information about users of multiple Social Media applications from a visually stunning platform. The concept of bringing together many Social Media sources into one location isn't new but the idea of enhancing the visual display of such content in the manner they have chosen is pretty impressive.

Micro-blogging Tracker with Eye Candy
Posted by Brett Lane at 04:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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September 04, 2008

Underwhelmed by Chrome? Tweak Firefox for More Speed

posted by Lisa Santora in category: Browser news

Over the last few days I have felt like I was back in the 90's during the old browser wars. After I listened to Google's webcast announcement about Chrome I dashed to Google Gears and downloaded the much ballyhooed browser.

To be honest, I'm underwhelmed. Yes it's cool to be able to arrange your tabs but browsing for me is all about speed. I've tweaked Firefox so much that it just screams and Chrome hangs and hangs...and hangs. So, if you're a dedicated Firefox user, try Fasterfox to upgrade your speed.

Recent competition in the browser arena even had me conduct my own mini browser war. A really pleasant surprise is the 9.52 version from Opera; which I have been using more often as it is relatively fast (especially loading large images better than it used to). If you like to play with widgets, access to popular Opera widgets like the T-Online Newsticker and Pandora's Music Widget is easy from the Opera toolbar.

So for now, I can't say I'm a huge Chrome fan. Especially for business use I need to be able to zip from web page to web page at top speed. Firefox still is the speed king for me.

Please comment on your recent browser experiences. Are you enjoying the new browser wars, and do you have any cool browser tweaks you'd like to share?

Underwhelmed by Chrome? Tweak Firefox for More Speed
Posted by Lisa Santora at 02:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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September 02, 2008

Link Development Vocabulary

posted by Angela Moore in category: Link Building

First, I want to say thank you to the entire Intrapromote team for the warm welcome and another big thanks to Erik for his introduction on this blog.

Now, onto the thing that I love to talk about: Link Development. There are a lot of misconceptions out there about link development. A lot. So, it's probably a good idea to start with some basics and clarify some of the lingo we use in the industry.

Link Popularity: First and foremost, it's a metric. Why do we care? Because Google says it's important, so all professional SEOs and Google-wannabes have followed suit. This measures both the quantity and quality of the links coming into all the pages on a site. Link Popularity is more than just how many links are coming into a page / site. It also measures how good the linking sites are by looking at things like how many links are pointing to that site, the quality of the content, the history of the site online, PageRank, and how often that site is updated, among others. The better the site, the more valuable the link. And these links play into the ever-elusive algorithm of how Google returns search results for keyword searches.

Link Building: In a nutshell, this refers to "getting" more links either through solicitation, submitting to directories, or other various methods. It focuses on only getting new links. In fancier terms it can also called "Link Acquisition." I prefer the latter when referring to this type of link work. It sounds prettier.

Link Development: This is more holistic in its approach. Not only are you building links and getting new links to a site or page, but you are also looking at the links that already exist and identifying ways to improve them. There are lots of ways to do this and it's most often referred to as "Link Reclamation" or reclaiming the links that already exist. It is also called "Link Sculpting." This is what we focus on at Intrapromote.

I'm sure we'll get more into a lot of this as these blog posts continue to roll in, but for now I think that's a good start. Again, I'm excited to be a part of the Intrapromote team and I'm looking forward to the exciting conversations ahead.

Link Development Vocabulary
Posted by Angela Moore at 01:32 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)
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August 29, 2008

Google Search Suggestions Is Just Dumb

posted by Sean Bolton in category: Google

As many of you may already know, Google has officially launched its keyword suggestion tool as of yesterday. The keyword phrase suggestion tool acts very similar to what people are accustomed to seeing for over 13 months at Yahoo! where as you type in phrases in the search box, down drops keyword phrase suggestions that allow you as a user to select a targeted phrase from the list as opposed to typing in all the phrases for the search. Pretty cool, right?

Well, I think Google is just dumb with the deployment of this new feature. Why you ask? The keyword phrase suggestion tool ONLY WORKS ONCE at the homepage of Google. In other words, once you have pulled up a set of results from your initial search @ Google's homepage, you never see the suggestions box again if you conduct another search from the resulting search results page. To me, that doesn't make any sense especially taking into account the fact this search feature has been in Beta/testing mode for over 3 years. You would think Google would have figured out this 'bug" prior to taking the feature out of Beta and in to the mainstream.

Perhaps Google is just "testing" the new feature at the homepage level to see how people are using it before they roll it out entirely? Time will tell I suppose.

Google Search Suggestions Is Just Dumb
Posted by Sean Bolton at 09:07 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
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August 23, 2008

Intrapromote Welcomes Angela Moore as Director of Link Development

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Link Building

I wanted to let everyone know how happy we are with a new addition to our staff. Angela Moore has joined us as Director of Link Development, a position that we built around her significant experience and skills. She'll be managing a team and will really broaden the scope of our link building services. We have already seen great things and expect that to continue.

Here's the release. Angela is also a mod at SEW Forums and is already a veteran blogger, so keep an eye on our link-building category (& feed). Welcome, Angela.

Intrapromote Welcomes Angela Moore as Director of Link Development
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 08:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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August 18, 2008

Twitter and the "Black Box" of Reputation Management

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Social Media

I keep reading stories about social media sites like Twitter and how they're revolutionizing customer service. Comcast. H&R Block. Southwest Airlines. On and on. (The organic tie-in here is that for many companies, pages like Twitter profiles -- as well as the news stories that discuss them -- are already showing up on SERPs for company names, and that's going to continue for a while.)

All this is great, of course. But at the same time, it reminds me of an old joke I'm sure you've heard. If an airplane's "black box" is the single, indestructible element of the plane that is nearly always recoverable after a crash, why don't they just make the whole plane out of black box?

Silly, I know. But similarly, if using something like Twitter is the perfect, efficacious form of customer service we've all been waiting for, why is it the exception instead of the rule? Why do companies frequently use social media to apologize for more traditional forms of customer service that garner complaints, instead of propagating these rapid-response techniques across their traditional customer service and support environments? It's a cynical perspective, but I think one reason that Twitter users get quick reaction and kid-glove treatment is that their complaints "have legs." In other words, they're being broadcast to the world, not just to the company. If a company doesn't respond to your forum post or answer your email, yet they respond to your Tweet in 12 minutes, part of you should be happy, and part of you should be angry. You're being addressed because your method of complaint has the most potential to harm them.

If a company had a queue set up so that any 800 call or support forum post that languished unanswered for 24 hours was re-broadcast as a press release, now THAT would be some accountability.

Twitter and the "Black Box" of Reputation Management
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 03:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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August 08, 2008

The Difference Between Crawling and Indexing

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Crawling and Indexing

I talk a lot about crawling and indexing (to the point that we have a dedicated category), but I think it's worthwhile to back up and describe some of what's going on.

The terms crawling and indexing (and indexing's cousin, caching) are frequently used together, but you should not consider them synonyms.

Exact definitions probably differ from person to person, but following is how I explain the processes:

Crawling is the process of an engine requesting -- and successfully downloading -- a unique URL. Obstacles to crawling include no links to a URL, server downtime, robots exclusion, or using links (such as some JavaScript links) from which bots cannot find a valid URL.

Indexing is the result of successful crawling. I consider a URL to be indexed (by Google) when an info: or cache: query produces a result, signifying the URL's presence in the Google index. Obstacles to indexing can include duplication (the engine might decide to index only one version of content for which it finds many nearly identical URLs), unreliable server delivery (the engine may decide to not index a page that it can access during only one-third of its attempts), and so on.

What's the difference between crawling and indexing, in terms of time? Here's a recent example. I recently watched a newly introduced URL to see when it would be indexed. I monitored the text cache query of the URL every four hours starting when the URL went live on July 2. (This URL was one of a number of URLs linked to on a new site map.)

On July 17, the text cache showed results and finally stopped saying "Your search - cache:[URL] - did not match any documents." But what was interesting is that the cached file showed the results of the URL "as retrieved on 8 Jul 08." So make special note that the URL was crawled and cached over a week before it appeared in the index.

A better, more comprehensive test would be to watch server logs and see how many times the file was requested, and with what frequency, between the original request date and date at which the cache query showed results. Additional testing would try to detect ways to shorten that time by increasing the number (and prominence) of incoming links and so on.

The Difference Between Crawling and Indexing
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 12:04 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)
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July 29, 2008

What We're Reading: Summer 2008

posted by Doug Ausbury in category: Organic SEO

Here at Intrapromote, we are constantly reading industry articles and books and discussing them as a team.

Here are a handful of books (plus one) we are currently reading:

• Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web
• The Power of Persuasion: How We're Bought and Sold
• Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
• Now Is Gone: A Primer on New Media
• The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media
• Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online

Stay tuned for staff book reviews!

What We're Reading: Summer 2008
Posted by Doug Ausbury at 08:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
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