StepForth SEO News Blog - by Ross Dunn and Scott Van Achte

Our Free Server Header Checker
& Other Recommended SEO Tools

StepForth SEO News Blog	>> Subscribe to the SEO Blog News Feed

THE SEO BLOG'S TOP MARKETING TUTORIALS

» How to Optimize Your Web Site for Google Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
» How Glossaries and FAQs Can Improve Search Engine Rankings
» Is Your Website Search Engine Friendly - Your Personal SEO Checklist
»»» More top web marketing tutorials

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Yahoo Search Assist Aids Visibility

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 12:03 PM

Yesterday Danny Sullivan posted an interesting walkthrough on a new technology that Yahoo is currently testing called Yahoo Search Assist. Throughout the following I will give a quick rundown and explain why Search Assist may help sites found in the bottom 5 of the top 10 search results.

What Do I Mean by Search Assist? First Some Background
You may have noticed over the past couple years that whenever you search for an item in Google or Yahoo you were provided with word completion suggestions. For example, if you typed in 'boat' then the suggestions that appeared in a drop-down (which you can select from to complete your search) might be 'boating', 'boat sales', 'boat magazine', 'boating tips'... or something like that. These suggestions came from the search engine's analysis of the most common searches related to what you are typing in. This functionality is useful but Yahoo Search Assist promises a more intelligent search experience.

Yahoo Search Assist takes suggestions to a whole new level by providing related topics. For example, if a searcher were looking for a cement cleaner to get rid of oil stains on his driveway he might start by typing in "cement" at which point he pauses to consider the next word. Yahoo Search Assist will 'notice' his pause and begin suggesting related searches. It will first provide the standard word & phrase stems such as 'cement mixer', 'cement manufacturer' or even 'cement cleanser'. But with Search Assist, Yahoo may also provide related terms or even brand names such as 'Pur-Pwr' or 'Powder 230' which are all products that are related to 'cement'. In this case both of those brands happen to be cement cleansers which a person could immediately click on and see search results (such as links to vendors).

So how does this affect the user experience? According to Danny's article Yahoo usability testing has shown that this enhanced search experience dramatically changed how searchers interacted with results; they spent more time and tended to search the whole page of results rather than simply the top few listings.

Search Assist Might Help Level the Playing Field
Once this technology is formally released I expect Yahoo will suddenly become a hotter commodity for marketers if the bottom 5 of the top 10 rankings suddenly see more traffic than other search properties; since sites like Wikipedia or monster corporations tend to take the top positions in competitive categories. I will believe it when I see it but if we take Yahoo's usability studies as fact, this technology may vastly increase the visibility for sites rankings 'below the fold' (where you have to scroll down to see them).

by Ross Dunn, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: Ross Dunn, SEO, SEO News, SEO Tips, Yahoo

Email this News Post: 2 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 12:03 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Yahoo Search Assist Aids Visibility

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Keyword Research for Organic SEO

Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 4:13 PM

So you have decided to venture out into the world of SEO. The first thing you will need to do is determine the direction of your campaign in relation to the key phrases you are choosing to target. This article will focus on how to find keywords for your organic campaign, as the process is slightly different for PPC.

Many site owners know immediately what phrases they want. If you feel like you know what you want, before you start take a brief step back and assess if this really is the best phrase for your site. Yes, it just may very well be the perfect phrase, but if it isn’t, you could wind up spending a lot of time and money pursuing a ranking that either will never happen, or will provide very little value to your site.

There are a few key areas to look at when choosing a target phrase:

Relevance – Is this phrase even relevant to your site and its content?
Search Frequency – Are people even searching for this phrase?
Competition – How competitive is this field? Is it even a feasible target?

Where to start – Create a List of Phrases
So where do you even start with all this keyword research. Before looking up search frequencies and competition you need to create a list of relevant phrases. Open up an excel sheet and type out all relevant phrases that come to mind, do a little brainstorming as there are no wrong answers at this state.

After you have exhausted your thoughts, move over to your website. Open it up and navigate throughout recording any keyword phrase ideas that spring up checking your title tags and body content. Once this is done, do the same thing with your competition. Visit some sites that you know are in direct competition with you and go through them recording any relevant phrases you see.

By now you should have a long list of potential targets, a list that will grow further as you look into their search frequencies.

Find a Keyword Tool
The next step is to open up your favorite keyword research tool. There are many to choose from, two of the more popular being WordTracker and Keyword Discovery, although many still use the free, Overture tool. It is important to note that no keyword tools give you 100% accurate search figures. In most cases you will get numbers representing a sampling from various search engines. These numbers are best used in comparing one phrase to another to find out which is more popular, rather than determining specifically how much traffic to expect.

Check the Search Frequency
Once you’ve opened up a keyword tool, begin entering your keyword phrases and record their noted search frequency. Be sure to scroll through the results recording any additional phrases that are both relevant and have acceptable search frequencies. The exact number of searches required to make a phrase acceptable depends widely on industry, and even the search tool being used. A phrase with only 100 searches per month may be perfect for a secondary target, but in most cases may not be the best bet for a primary phrase.

Sorting Your List
You now should have a very exhaustive list of potential target phrases and their corresponding search frequencies. Sort this list in descending order based on the number of searches, so that the most popular phrase is at the very top. In many industries, the top few phrases may be completely impractical to target due to the competition, but we’ll determine that a bit later.

Check the Competition
The next step is to get a feel for how competitive these phrases are. In the next column in your spreadsheet, place the number of results returned by Google for each individual phrase. The lower the number of competing pages, in most cases, the easier it may be to achieve rankings. (Note: this is not always the case, but it is an indicator).

At this point, you will have a long list sorted by search frequency, along with the number of competing pages. If you are fortunate, you will see one phrase immediately that jumps out – solid searches with low competition. This just may be the most ideal target phrase.

Does this phrase fit well with the theme of your site? If so, go to Google and take a closer look at the ranking websites. Does your site fit in with the general feel of these results? In some cases it may not, as your phrase could have different meanings (especially true if using acronyms). This phrase may represent a completely different part of the world if geographically targeted, or simply may be littered with mega competitors such as eBay, Amazon, WikiPedia, and others. If you can see your site fitting in with these results, it’s time to assess the general feasibility of this phrase.

Take a look at the number of back links, and indexed pages each site has. Do your numbers compare? If you find that the top 10 ranking sites all have back links well into the tens of thousands, and your site has a dozen or so, you may want to consider a different phrase. If the ranking sites are in the high tens, or low hundreds, and your site has a dozen links, then you have something to work with, if you are willing to work on increasing your link counts. The number of pages indexed is less important than links, but if you have a 6 page site and you are planning on competing with thousand page sites, your chances of success will be much lower.

The real key is to try to find a phrase that offers relevance, decent searches, and competition that is not way out of your league.

Pick a Phrase to Drive Qualified Traffic
For organic SEO it is usually best to focus on one primary phrase that best suits your site, while targeting more specific secondary phrases for relevant sections of your site. With organic SEO, how many phrases you should target is somewhat limited by the size of your site, the larger the site, the more phrases you will have the ability to work towards.

The phrase with the most searches is not always the best fit. This is largely true with the real estate market.

Because everyone has free access, I will use the Overture Keyword Selector Tool for an example. The phrase “real estate” saw 3,057,037 searches in January of 07. On the surface this phrase seems like a dream come true, but you have to consider the geographic issues.

If your office serves the Seattle area, is someone searching in Orlando likely to be a qualified visitor to your site? In most cases no. Targeting the phrase “Seattle real estate” with 12,441 searches, seems like a much better choice as it would deliver more qualified traffic. While this phrase is still quite competitive, it is not nearly as difficult as simply “real estate”. Take a look at the big picture and determine not only how likely it is that you may achieve rankings, but whether the traffic generated from such a ranking would actually have a positive impact on sales.

Conclusion
Doing some research to find the best target phrase is the groundwork for your SEO campaign. Without it you’ll be flying blind with no clear direction on goals. Take the time up front to do a little research and determine whether the dream phrase you have in mind is a worthwhile target or not. If it turns out that it’s not, its better to find out before you invest your time and money on an SEO campaign. Knowing the level of competition and search frequencies for a target phrase beforehand will help you make informed decisions and give you the best chances for success.

Labels: Scott Van Achte, SEO Tips, Tutorials

Email this News Post: 5 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Scott Van Achte @ 4:13 PM.

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Canadian Mobile Data Rates Are Appalling

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:05 PM

The Mobile Web is undoubtedly going to grow and grow until a mega industry takes shape; after all, there are simply too many people getting more and more addicted to instant information gratification. This fact is not lost on any country with a mobile network and Canada is no exception. Unfortunately for Canadians we are being suffocated by mobile data rates that are exceedingly more expensive than even a third world country like Rwanda. Unless our data rates come down you can bet that Canada will be left in the dust while the world of mobile commerce skyrockets.

Don't believe me? The chart below dramatically illustrates the appalling impact of a lack of Canadian competition.

A chart titled "The Travesty of Canadian Mobile Data Rates"

This chart and story was originally posted in April by a blogger by the name of Tom Purves. I came across it and I was struck dumb by the price gouging that this beautiful country is allowing (here are more stats courtesy of Tom). As a result, I thought I would do a little digging into the past of the CRTC (Canadian Radio and Telecommunication Commission) to see how they have handled this marketplace in the past. Unfortunately few answers were obtained... just more shock and outrage on my part. What I "loved" the most was this horrendous quotation from a 1994 announcement from the CRTC that they were opting out of regulating wireless rates:

Citing a "sufficient" level of competition in all of these markets, the agency said it will continue to oversee the setting of rates only in the case of wireless services provided directly by the nation's telephone companies. Otherwise, wireless services "are sufficiently competitive not to warrant regulation," it said. However, the CRTC also said it is "prepared to forbear from exercising some of its regulatory powers" over mobile wireless services provided directly by the telephone companies if they can show evidence of "the establishment of sufficient costing and marketing safeguards."

Although this quote is from 1994 it seems to be still in sync with the current CRTC Fact Sheet on Cellular (Wireless) Telephone Services. So what can I, as a Canadian, do now? I suppose I can only make a lot of noise by writing articles like this and furthering the message from Tom's original article.

One thing seems for sure... if Canada does not dramatically decrease its mobile data rates then us Canucks are going to enjoy fewer benefits of the growing Mobile Web.

Here is another current article on this subject: "Mobile Web Canada"

Labels: Mobile, Other News, Ross Dunn

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:05 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Canadian Mobile Data Rates Are Appalling

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Digg Signs Three Year Advertising Deal with Microsoft

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:00 PM

Today Microsoft earned a win that made me look twice by convincing Digg to sign a 3 year deal where Microsoft Ads will be the "exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising on Digg" (see press release). Having previously used Google Adsense to serve ads (according to Barry Schwartz's breaking article) it is a huge win for Microsoft to peg this contract. This immensity of this win became especially clear when I compared a few of the top social media voting sites side by side at Compete.com. As you can see below Digg pulverizes the competition with a reach of approximately 22.5 million visitors per month in comparison to Reddit (976,882), and StumbleUpon (731,424).

Charts or no charts, however you look at this agreement advertising with Microsoft Ads has just become a lot more tantalizing.

Labels: Microsoft, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:00 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Digg Signs Three Year Advertising Deal with Microsoft

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Friday, July 20, 2007

Google Down and Microsoft Up in Online Searches

Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 10:13 AM

The latest figures from comScore are in and Microsoft is picking up speed.

While long standing search leader Google continues to dominate by a large margin, comScore reports Google losing some ground in June, while MSN saw a noticeable increase.

Latest figures for Google show a drop to 49.5%, down 1.2% from May. Yahoo also saw a decline of a little over a percentage point down 1.3 to 25.1%. Meanwhile Microsoft had a significant gain, up from its low 10.3 to a higher low of 13.2%. Ask remains unchanged at 5%.

In June Americans performed 8.0 billion online searches, which are up 6 percent from May, and up 26 percent from June 2006.

Interestingly enough, while both Google and Yahoo both saw a decrease in their percentage share for the month of June both search engines actually saw an increase in the actual number of searches conducted. With Microsoft's nearly 3% jump, along with an increase in American searches, Microsoft experienced a spike in search volume up 36% over May, a substantial increase by any means.

Microsoft’s increase is partially credited to the introduction of the Live Search Club launched in late May, a program created to reward users of Live Search. Using their Windows Live ID and logging in to play games, and completing puzzles that involve searches users earn tickets which can then be redeemed for rewards.

Labels: Google, Microsoft, Scott Van Achte

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Scott Van Achte @ 10:13 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Down and Microsoft Up in Online Searches

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Yahoo Invests in Tyroo Media

Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 10:10 AM

According to InfoWorld, Yahoo announced Wednesday that it has purchased a 35 percent stake in Tyroo Media, an India based PPC internet advertising company which places ads on a network of around 1200 websites.

"Yahoo India has bought more than 35 but less than 50 percent stake in Tyroo for a significant amount and the tie up would help us cater to our international clients who want to advertise in India," Yahoo India Managing Director George Zacharias told reporters.”

India offers a huge marketplace and its online presence is growing rapidly. It only makes sense for Yahoo to further tap into this market.

“Yahoo started its search-based advertising business in India about eight months ago and so far has a few thousand small advertisers, Zacharias said. There are millions of potential advertisers in India, which all the search companies and advertising networks are chasing, he added.”

While remaining independent, Tyroo and Yahoo will open up their back end systems so that advertisers will have access both networks.

Labels: Scott Van Achte, Yahoo

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Scott Van Achte @ 10:10 AM.

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

How to Ethically Update Wikipedia

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 1:04 PM

An article was published today on Search Engine Land called "SEO Tips & Tactics From a Wikipedia Insider" and it has to be one of the most interesting and best written articles I have seen in a while. The article was written by a lady by the name of Durova who is "a Wikipedia administrator who confronts some of the site's most disruptive editors. She uses a pen name to avoid harassment in real life." (this is a snippet from the bio at the bottom of the article)

The article is about how, in some cases, a marketer can work with Wikipedia in an ethical manner while still emphasizing an online presence. The tips are great and obviously well thought out but I found the most fascinating to be Durova's examples of how underestimating Wikipedia can be a dangerous business. In her examples she notes how the transparent nature of Wikipedia has caught anonymous users on government-based IP addresses editing political Wikipedia profiles to delete unflattering content.

For example, Durova cites how the Wikipedia listing of Tennessee state politicians Matthew Hill and David Davis was edited to remove the information that they had both accepted contributions from pharmaceutical companies. According to Durova, the IP address used to make the edits came from a congressional computer. The best part of Wikipedia is that, much to the chagrin of the illicit editor, each of these edits are publicly available - transparent indeed! Here are the official edit pages: Matthew Hill edit 1, Matthew Hill edit 2, David Davis edit 1, David Davis edit 2. In each case, Durova noted, "none of those inappropriate edits remained in Wikipedia's live version very long. Site volunteers reverted most of them one minute after implementation; the longest endured for nineteen minutes."

The example above is a great example why being ethical with Wikipedia is really the only way to go - anything less is likely to come right back at you.

If you plan on editing on Wikipedia at all be sure to read the full article at Search Engine Land and take note of Durova's great tips for working with, rather than against Wikipedia.

Labels: Reputation Management, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Email this News Post: 11 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 1:04 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: How to Ethically Update Wikipedia

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Monday, July 16, 2007

Increase Your Visibility in Local Search

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:33 AM

This morning I came across a great article by Sujan Patel at Search Engine Journal called "5 Quick Ways to Optimize for Local Search". I highly recommend reading this article!

The following is a summary of the main points with an added Canadian perspective for those who want to add/edit their business listing in Canada:

1) Make sure to list your business in the following local sections of these sites:

Google Maps
Yahoo! Local - here is the link to Yahoo Local Canada
MSN Live Local
SuperPages here is the link to SuperPages Canada
YellowPages - SuperPages and YellowPages have the same listings in Canada so just use the SuperPages Canada link above.
Switchboard - this directory does not appear to have a Canadian version. Even if it did it would be populated by YellowPages information which you can edit using SuperPages Canada.
CitySearch - it appears that Toronto is the only Canadian region covered.

2) Make sure your address information is present within your website; a great place is the footer of every page.

3) Ensure your domain is registered with your business address. Use a WHOIS tool to verify the address is correct in your domain.

4) If you want to take your local Internet presence to a more competitive level try getting backlinks to your website with geographical references. For example, StepForth might look for "web marketing, Victoria, BC" or "SEO services, Victoria, BC"

5) Cell phone and PDA users are turning to fast local searches using their mobile devices. In order to tap this marketplace create a mobile version of your website with geographical references including nearby popular spots/businesses. You would also benefit from trading links or acquiring links from businesses in your area. Read "Stake Your Claim on the Mobile Web" to get an introduction into Mobile device marketing or read our other articles and posts on mobile.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: Local Search, Mobile, Ross Dunn, SEO News, SEO Tips

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:33 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Increase Your Visibility in Local Search

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Friday, July 13, 2007

Google Adds Additional Control for Webmasters

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:10 PM

Today at the Search Engine Marketing New England conference Google employee Dan Crow confirmed his crawl systems team is working on a new tag that will allow webmasters to remove a page from Google's search results at a predetermined time.

The tag will appear as Unavailable_after and is a perfect addition for those who wish to expire web pages that may have time-limited sales or pages that have content that is free for a limited time.

Thanks to Jill Whalen for posting this valuable SEO news from the event.

We will let you all know when this new tag becomes available for use.

Labels: Google, Ross Dunn, SEO News

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:10 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Adds Additional Control for Webmasters

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Google to Challenge Skype

Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 4:37 PM

Last week Google made its move against eBay owned Skype, an online person-to-person internet telephony company, with the purchase of startup company, GrandCentral Communications.

On Monday, Google product manager Wesley Chan posted confirmation of the deal in the official Google Blog:

"We're pleased to announce that we have acquired GrandCentral Communications, a company that provides services for managing your voice communications. GrandCentral is an innovative service that lets users integrate all of their existing phone numbers and voice mailboxes into one account, which can be accessed from the web. We think GrandCentral's technology fits well into Google's efforts to provide services that enhance the collaborative exchange of information between our users."

During the transition Google will issue a limited number of invitations for users to register for a GrandCentral Beta account. Currently use is limited to users with a US based telephone number. Previous users will continue to have uninterrupted access to this service.

While terms of the deal have not yet been revealed, according to TechCrunch, they are speculating that Google forked over around $50 million for the acquisition. While on the surface, this may seem like a considerable sum, when compared to recent purchases such as YouTube ($1.65 Billion), and DoubleClick ($3.1 Billion), this is really pocket change for the internet search giant.

Competitor Skpye was purchased by auction giant eBay for $2.6 Billion back in 2005, and has been a fixture on the web since it was founded back in 2002. Compared to the $2.6 Billion paid by eBay, the suspected $50 Million for Google’s GrandCentral purchase sounds like a huge bargain. GrandCentral’s beta version was originally just released in September of 2006.

It will be interesting to see how Google integrates GrandCentral into its existing products as it is certainly the natural progression for GTalk, Google's instant messenger.

Email this News Post: 1 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Scott Van Achte @ 4:37 PM.

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

An Uncensored Peak into Google

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 3:54 PM

On June 24th an anonymous blogger posted an interview he did with an ex Google employee called "Life at Google - The Microsoftie Perspective". Due to the required anonymity of the interview (Google is probably not happy about it) it cannot be verified for its authenticity but the post has caused a ton of noise over the past month and I found it a very intriguing read. To many this is a very old story but if you missed it I think you will really enjoy it. I sensed it was credible because it smacked of truth but the ultimate decision is yours - whether to believe it or not.

The rest of this post is a snippet from the interview in a Q&A format as shown in the original post:

1. What is the culture really like? How many hours are people actually working? What are the least amount of hours you can work before you are looked down upon?

The culture at Google is very much like the old culture at Microsoft – back when the company felt like most employees were in their mid 20’s. These kids don’t have a life yet so they spend all of their time at work. Google provides nearly everything these people need from clothes (new T-shirts are placed in bins for people to grab *twice* a week!) to food – three, free, all-you-can-eat meals a day. Plus on-site health care, dental care, laundry service, gym, etc. Imagine going from college to this environment and you can see how much everyone works. People are generally in the building between 10am and about 6pm every day, but nearly everyone is on e-mail 24/7 and most people spend most of their evenings working from home.

This culture changes a bit with more experienced folks. They generally work 10a – 6pm like the new hires, and most of them are on email until around midnight. It’s pretty common for them to be working most of the evening, too.

Labels: Google, Microsoft, Ross Dunn

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 3:54 PM.

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Banned from Yahoo? Just Pay to Get Back In

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 12:36 PM

According to a thread at the Search Engine Watch forums it is possible to get back into Yahoo Search after being banned by paying for reinclusion using Yahoo Search Submit. This news was released by a forum participant who noted that after being banned by Yahoo Search they made some changes to their website (to address the issues) and were denied reinclusion. In response they chose to try using Yahoo Search Submit after which they were pleasantly surprised to see they were miraculously reincluded into Yahoo's organic results. Is it really this easy to buy a spot in Yahoo?

First Things First - What is Search Submit?
Yahoo Search Submit is Yahoo's controversial paid inclusion program which guarantees a website will be reviewed and if approved, rapidly included into Yahoo Search's database. Additionally, sites within Search Submit are guaranteed a high frequency of indexing by Yahoo and have the ability to submit custom meta data.

Exploring the Issue
Considering that the site is 'reviewed' does that mean the Yahoo Search Submit reviewer has no idea of the submitters prior record of being banned? This example could all point to a rare miscommunication between Yahoo departments or a fundamental loophole that adds credence to Jim Lanzone's (CEO of Ask) opinion that Yahoo's paid inclusion is hypocritical.

Unfortunately, the fact is we don't know exactly what happened behind the scenes that allowed this previously banned website to get reincluded into Yahoo's index. For all we know the reviewer may have known the submitters prior history but took a closer look at noted the SPAM (or whatever got the person dropped) was rectified and allowed reinclusion. At this time there is no formal comment from Yahoo.

Special thanks to Barry @ Search Engine Round Table for documenting this interesting piece of Yahoo goodness!

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: Paid Inclusion, Ross Dunn, SEO News, SEO Tips, Yahoo

Email this News Post: 1 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 12:36 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Banned from Yahoo? Just Pay to Get Back In

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Facebook IPO Coming Soon

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 10:55 AM

As Paul Kedrosky noted today in his blog it appears undeniable that Facebook is positioning itself for an initial public offering (IPO). When? Who knows but their newly available job position for a "Stock Administration Manager" with "strong knowledge of SEC, FASB, and IRS rules and regulations relating to stock plans and insider trading..." is a good tip off that one will be coming within a year. With Facebook seemingly on the lips of every 20-30 something person I know (both in the tech sector and not), I would say this will be one very lucrative windfall for the current shareholders.

Labels: Other News, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 10:55 AM.

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Ready.Mobi Releases Major Upgrade

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 8:10 AM

Today James Pearce at .Mobi announced that their mobile website review tool (ready.mobi) has been upgraded to offer a site wide mobile-ready analysis. Previously users could only verify their site's mobile page compatibility one page at a time so this upgrade is indeed newsworthy.

If you are unfamiliar with the advantages of the mobile web or just why it is worthwhile learning about then I invite you to read the following:

All-in-all I strongly recommend keeping an eye on the mobile marketplace. The mobile web is still very much in its infancy but as you may know these 'infant' technologies have a way of sneaking up on us all. It also helps that I am certain the mobile web is the way of the future; though definitely with a far more pleasant user experience. I liken mobile search now to that of the first color tv's... clunky, unpredictable, and a limited content base. But just look at TVs now!

Labels: Mobile, New Tech, Ross Dunn

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 8:10 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Ready.Mobi Releases Major Upgrade

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Monday, July 09, 2007

A Peak at the Future of Social Media

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:14 AM

This post at Search Engine Journal references a social media project at Carnegie Mellon called Socialstream which, among other things, was created to "rethink and reinvent social networking". Of even more interest is this capstone project is Google-sponsored which means many of these features are likely to be utilized in a future Google property.

Socialstream is based on a unified social networking concept in that it interfaces with a wide array of social media accounts to make networking simpler and more interactive. The Quicktime Demo of Socialstream's functionality revealed some incredibly useful tools that simplify networking a large number of people. The Socialstream features page does show highlights of the program but actually seeing the product at work in the demo was far more revealing.

These are the most intriguing features of Socialstream:

Timelines: in a single, very clear report, the timeline provides the Socialstream user with an overview of the new content added by all of their contacts. This snapshot of networking activity is a crucial concept for the proper administration of multiple networking accounts. What I found most interesting was how the titles for each piece of content in the timeline drove the user's activity.
Multimedia Sharing: in the demo the user sees that a friend posted a new image from a trip he went on. The user then decided that she wanted to share her own image. All she had to do was open a dialog, browse for the picture she wanted to share and post it with a note to her friend. The picture was then posted directly to Flickr seamlessly in a manner that was very Apple-esque in its simplicity.

Expect to see this kind of functionality on other unified social networking (USN) platforms rolling out within the year. For example I predict a rumored program at Yahoo called Mosh (that is currently password access only) is going to be a USN as well; after all, the word Mosh definitely works well with the concept.

For now the only one I am aware of that is available is Fidgt.com which is more like a unified address book; created from multiple accounts. If you know of another active USN please let me know.

Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Placement Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: Google, New Tech, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing, Yahoo

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:14 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: A Peak at the Future of Social Media

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Friday, July 06, 2007

How Much is Your Blog Worth?

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:58 PM

Well I have no idea how this algorithm based on Technorati's API is but according to this nifty widget created by Dane Carlson, StepForth's SEO Blog is currently worth $83,551 buckaroos. Hmm, now if we could just get that kind of money from our blog :-)

My blog is worth $83,551.92.
How much is your blog worth?

Labels: Blogs, Fun, Ross Dunn, StepForth

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:58 PM.

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Damaging a Competitor's Ranking is Possible

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 12:34 PM

A June 28th article by Forbes magazine called "The Saboteurs of Search" discusses "negative SEO" which is best described as purposely disrupting competitor rankings. The article has caused waves in the SEO industry as marketers debate the effectiveness of the noted tactics.

From my point of view and experience these tactics are employed and I know there is a serious market for negative SEO because I have personally been asked to offer the service many times in the past. StepForth, however, does not offer negative SEO services with the exception of Google Insulation noted below; which we have previously use to help clients defend themselves against negative publicity appearing in rankings.

What are the Tactics of Negative SEO?
There were several tactics mentioned: Google Bowling, Tattling, Google Insulation, Copyright Takedown Notices, Copied Content, Denial of Service, and Click Fraud.

Google Bowling: XYZ is dropped off the search engines because their competitor framed them for breaking Google's guidelines in an extreme manner. An example would be to create, overnight, a 1000% more links for a competitor (than they already have). The key would be to produce so many links at once that Google's spam trigger would have no choice but to catch it. There are various ways to increase the chances of this happening but I would rather not describe them - after all this is not a tutorial.
Tattling: Is XYZ (the competitor) doing well because they purchased links? If so, and it is something you can prove, then it is entirely within your right to tell Google using their spam report form.

But will this work? It is touch and go whether your complaint will actually do anything in the short term because Google often collects these complaints and then upgrades its algorithm (if possible) to clean out other offenders using the same techniques; a more efficient process. That said, as Matt Cutts said in this video about link buying Google is not above occasionally using manual methods to clean out spam so you might get lucky and see an immediate result.
Google Insulation: Is there negative press in the top 10 about your service? Perhaps you have a competitor that just won't budge out of a top position? In either case a Google Insulation strategy is designed to raise the rankings of other websites that positively discuss your company/services/products in order to oust competitors out of the top 10 rankings. In its raw concept I believe this tactic is ethical because it is smart competitive marketing and a great tactic for reputation management (a hot topic these days).
Copyright Takedown Notices: If a person desperately needed to drop a competitor out of a top position it could engage in a legal action that requires Google to drop the ranking for a period of time based on copyright infringement. The problem here, of course, is that this tactic exposes the perpetrator so that they can be sued by the offended company if the accusation is baseless. Here is where you can submit a copyright infringement notice to Google.
Copied Content: Due to the fallible nature of Google's algorithm it is possible to 'steal' away the traffic to a competitor's particular content (say an article just published) by publishing it on your own site IF your site is more entrenched than the competitor's.

You see if Google is presented with two websites which have the same content it will be forced to choose which site is the original creator. The website with the longer history and/or the highest reputation will often win out and the loser will often find their content ranks lower (if at all).
Denial of Service: This is the most evil and clearly illegal tactic for removing a competitor. Denial of service attacks (DoS) are conducted by sending a large number requests to a competitor's web server at one time. The result is the competitor's server will either be too jammed with requests to function properly or it will simply crash from the burden of so many requests - effectively taking the competitor's website offline. Evil indeed.
Click Fraud: Click fraud is no different than stealing money from a competitor. This is how it works: people maliciously click on ads to purposely eat away at a competitor's ad budget; even on a small scale this can be damaging to a competitor. The most aggressive click fraud is when a network of computers with specially created software is used to maliciously click on a competitor's pay per click advertisements in order to waste their money and destroy their advertising campaign.

Should You Be Worried this is Happening to You?
It is highly unlikely that the negative SEO techniques above have been or ever will be used against you. If, however, it does appear to be happening to you then contact us or another reputable web marketing company. At StepForth we will see what we can do about reversing the effects by contacting the proper people or conducting a negating clean-up campaign.

Additional Notes on Click Fraud
The one issue that you could very likely suffer from is click fraud but not in the way you might imagine. You see click fraud appears to happen indiscriminately so just about anyone can have it happen to them; in my experience it is not often a targeted action. As a result, you should be keeping an eye out for it you are actively using pay per click marketing.

So how can you detect click fraud? The best way for me to answer this is to tell you what we use to monitor campaigns and detect click fraud: ClickTracks Professional. ClickTracks Professional is a website analytics program that (among other amazing things) compares the data it collects from visitors on your website with the data you get from your pay per click campaign and does a pretty good job of identifying suspicious click-through behavior.

If ClickTracks Professional determines there is a high probability of click fraud in your campaign you will be presented with a detailed report you can take to your agent at the search engine you are marketing with. If your search engine agent determines there is validity to the evidence it is likely you will get a refund or credit to your account.

Now for a little plug, I liked ClickTracks Professional so much that in 2003 StepForth purchased our own copy and we offer website accounts for as little as $150 per month which is 50% cheaper than the service that ClickTracks.com provides. If you are interested just check out http://stats.stepforth.com where we provide more detail and a service comparison chart.

NOTE: I had to think long and hard before publishing this post because I find many of the methods of damaging a competitor's rankings horrifically unethical. That said, I believe that understanding these tactics is important in order to identify their use if they are applied against you.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Placement Inc.
Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

Labels: Click Fraud, Google, Ross Dunn, SEO, Social Marketing

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 12:34 PM.

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Apple Patent Application for Multi-Touch Mouse

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 9:09 AM

In a story totally unrelated to SEO but just geeky enough that I HAD to post it - Apple's patent application surfaced today for a mouse that has a built-in multi-touch surface similar to the screen on the Apple iPhone.

This peek at an advanced mouse from Apple gives some insight into the company's incredible imagination and impressive research and development department.

This multi-touch technology is also expected to debut over the next year by Microsoft code named 'Milan'. Coined as "surface computing," Microsoft's Milan computing interface is extremely impressive. Scott Van Achte wrote about surface computing a month ago, but here is a direct link to a preview of this very cool new technology.

Labels: Apple, Microsoft, New Tech, Ross Dunn

Email this News Post: 2 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 9:09 AM.

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

How to Properly Redirect Domains

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:38 PM

I just finished adding a new tutorial to StepForth's web marketing knowledgebase based on redirecting domains in two different ways that are both search engine friendly and completely ethical:

THE NEW ONE: Redirecting http://www.yourolddomain.com to http://www.yournewdomain.com is not very difficult you just need to know how. I explain this in the free tutorial I just put online today: how to properly redirect an old domain to a new domain.
Redirecting http://yourdomain.com to http://www.yourdomain.com is a great way to capture link popularity that you have already earned but never properly benefited from. This might be confusing but consider that many people mistakenly link to your website forgetting the "www" in the URL. This mistake seems somewhat anticlimactic to them since they get you to your site either way. Unfortunately for you, however, Google and the other search engines consider these two versions of your domain as entirely different websites. As a result, that valuable link popularity you received is being sent nowhere very useful. By redirecting non-www traffic to the www version of your domain you can actually turn this all around and benefit from that link popularity!

These tutorials are only the beginning of many the StepForth crew plan to provide over the next few months. If you want to see more of our tutorials please visit our FAQ which is now more formally called our Web Marketing Knowledgebase.

PS. For all of those subscribed to our SEO newsletter please note we will not be sending out a newsletter this week. We are a bit shorthanded due to staff vacations and since many of our readers are off celebrating their July 4th this seemed like a smart move. We will be back next week with more SEO tips and search engine news. I hope the weather is as beautiful where you are as it is here! Now I am off to enjoy what is left of the sun.

Labels: Ross Dunn, SEO Tips, Tutorials

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:38 PM.

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Social Media News of the Day

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 12:16 PM

A new social media website called Thoof has recently come out of beta. Thoof is similar to Digg but features a couple of interesting differences:

Titles and Descriptions for content added to Thoof can be updated by users to make them more useful. This is particularly handy since some titles and descriptions are horridly written despite the excellent source content.
Thoof uses an algorithm to 'learn' what you like and don't like which ultimately drives the type of content that appears on your personalized Thoof home page.

Read/WriteWeb posted a great review on Thoof detailing the pros and cons of this social media startup.

CNet's Michael Kanellos wrote a hilarious and very true article ribbing review websites. The gist? Despite review sites having a rightful place in the web world reviewers are getting carried away and the result is a lot of obsessively detailed, over-written content.

"Does anyone use Facebook other than 15 to 25 year olds and the techcrunch 50,000?" This question was posed by the "VC" blog yesterday and was followed up with some interesting stats on the age spectrum of Connecticut College Facebook users as well as data from MIT. The result was fairly predictable in my opinion since it was a college-based poll: Facebook use drops off dramatically with users 30 years and over.

Labels: Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 12:16 PM.

ADD TO:

Blink

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl

Y! MyWeb

| Back to Top | Email Us Your Question |

FeedBurner is Now Totally FREE

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:29 AM

FeedBurner's previously for-fee services are now free after its relatively recent acquisition by Google. This is great news for the blogging community which is probably why it is getting some serious publicity (#1 story on TechMeme).

So what is all this bruhaha all about? Two features, Total Stats PRO and MyBrand PRO have been opened up to the masses:

Total Stats PRO: this service used to cost about $5 per blog per month and provided stats on the posts that got the most interest along with information on uncommon uses, which feed readers are being used and live user reporting. The information is fairly valuable for people with heavily used blogs because, among other things it can provide insight into which blog postings appear to be getting the most interest; which might just spark you to write a follow up.

MyBrand PRO: FeedBurner feeds are normally located on feedburner.com. For example, our feed is at http://feeds.feedburner.com/search-engine-optimization-blog. With MyBrand Pro, however, you can configure the FeedBurner to use your own domain. Why is this useful? Some companies do not like the idea that their feed address is located on a domain they do not own. FeedBurner aptly calls it "the ultimate in feed-serving transparency."

FeedBurner Rocks
If you haven't made the move to use FeedBurner for your blog then maybe these new features will be enough to entice you. Even before these features were free I felt FeedBurner was a fantastic service because it made subscribing to StepForth's SEO Blog simple for any online news reader. In addition, I like that FeedBurner automatically pings the major news websites for us whenever we post something new - one great way to promote our blog without much effort.

Labels: Blogs, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Email this News Post: 0 Comments for this Post
This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:29 AM.