Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

Everyone at Beanstalk would like to wish you, our valued readers and visitors, a very happy Halloween. While this holiday has historically been associated with pagans and evil spirits I prefer my kids' approach: it's all about the candy, good times and friends.

And so with that we leave our office to head out with various children into the night to retrieve as much chocolate and other assorted sugars as their bags will carry, and then retire to various adult-safe zones to sip wine and relax while our children (hopefully in the basement) burn off all the sugar they've consumed.

And we wish you as happy a holiday as we will be having. :)

While doing my daily rounds of the various SEO resources I feel are worth visiting I ran across an article on the ISEDB website discussing the importance of incoming links and whether the full SEO efforts should be put in this area. The article is written by Ross Dunn, owner of StepForth, and begins with a quote from an email:

"We have been told by an SEO consultant that, once the number of inbound links becomes significant, this rather than any SEO optimisation of the site itself dictates ranking for search terms. How true? If so, it implies that, to make any changes in rankings and search terms, we need to devote effort to links and link text from appropriate sites (authority etc). It implies time spent on adjusting title tags, keyword density etc, is fruitless." Paul C.

Ross goes on to describe extremely well how these two factors come into play and how neither can be ignored. He uses the following analogy:

Are you familiar with two-part epoxies? Essentially they are two chemicals (the Resin and the Catalyst) that when mixed becomes glue. Apart they are nothing but smelly chemicals but together they become powerful. This analogy is very apt for describing the benefits of link building and optimization:

• Link building alone will perhaps get you a competitive ranking but it can take a long time.


• Optimization alone may also get you a ranking but in my experience rankings rarely 'stick' without some popularity thrown in; in fact if your rankings bounce around a lot it is fair to guess that you may not have enough inbound links.

The ultimate solution is to combine the two and make them both work to improve rankings.

I could go into more detail here but why don't you just read the article for yourself. :) You can do so on the ISEDB website at http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1551/.

After having answered the same question repeatedly about Sitelinks I've decided that perhaps this is a good topic for the blog, at least this way I'll be able to direct people to a single location to find all the answers regarding this confusing area. Sitelinks is the name given to the links that appear below the #1 result for some Google queries.

An example of Sitelinks can be seen when we run a search on Google for "microsoft":
Here we can see links to internal pages on the Microsoft website. So how do you get Google to do this for you? The answer, at present is, you don't.

Here is what Matt Cutts wrote about it:

For a small number of sites, we’re not just showing our regular snippets: we try to expose useful links from within a site. In this Berkeley example, Google shows links for Berkeley departments, academics at Berkeley, etc. Pretty neat (and more importantly, useful) stuff.

People who know Google well will go “Cool” and move on. Other folks will ask things like “Are sites or their links selected by hand–can my site get in on this? Is money involved?” And the answer is: it’s all algorithmic. The algorithms pick the sites where this could be helpful. Of course money isn’t involved at all.

So it's an algorithm, much like the ranking algorithm but with more mystery regarding how to get it for your site. Here is the only "for sure", you need to hold a #1 position for a phrase. OK, that's *easy enough* right. ;) Past that there is more myth than fact about what the "secret recipe" is. Guesstimates range anywhere from site age to the internal linking structure in how the list is generated and whether it is at all for a query.

Rather than try to list off points when I'm not 100% sure which pieces of the puzzle are correct and which aren't I think it's more valuable to simply list off some of the better resources on the subject.

• Google's webmaster help center comment on the subject.
• SE Guru Danny Sullivan's blog post on Sitelinks.
• Search Engine Watch forum discussion on it.

Good luck. :)

For those of you who are regular visitors to our blog you'll know that there are some tools we recommend for anyone interested in ranking their websites. These tools range from keyword density analyzers to stats analysis tools. Well one such tool is on sale for 3 days ending on Tuesday the 24th and that tool is PR Prowler.

I'm not going to get into a huge explanation of how this software works as their site does a better job that I could in a short blog post however I will note this, I first purchased the software for the $97 it generally sells for and found it paid for itself on the first run. Due to some "tax issues" the developer is selling it for $37 until Tuesday.

This is a highly recommended tool to add to your arsenal. It aids in virtually every aspect of link building and dramatically cuts down the time required in this area by maximizing every hour spent on it.

You won't find the deal on the PR Prowler site however there's a special page up at http://www.fromshawn.com/tax_sale.html where it can be purchased at this price.

As many of you may already know, Beanstalk is based out of Victoria, BC, Canada. Victoria is a fairly sleepy city of around 335,000 people (including suburbs, leaving about 74k in the actual metropolitan area) . As such it's always nice to see a local company "make good" and it appears that there's yet another company added into the mix of top tech firms now.

For some reason (probably the fact that Victoria is one of the few Canadian cities that doesn't really get snow in the winter) there seems to be a disproportionate number of geeks here (ironic since we're the ones who spend the least amount of time outside). ;)

While reading the Young Entrepreneur Awards list I ran across the winner for BC which is none other than Neverblue Media Inc. As the writeup describes:

Neverblue Media uses ads placed on websites to capture likely candidates for its clients' services. For each person it sends along who actually completes a transaction, which can be as simple as filling in an application, Neverblue gets a fee ...

As an SEO firm that offers a guarantee we love to see this kind of thing. :)

So kudos to Neverblue on winning the Young Entrepreneurs Award. It a prestigious award and from what I can tell, well deserved. Any business that find success only when their clients do wins top marks with me.

You can read about their services and more about the company at http://www.neverbluemedia.com/.

Other prominent Internet firms out of this tiny town include:

• Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning, Inc. (SEO)
  
• StepForth, Inc. (SEO)
  
• Metamend (SEO)
  
• ACD Systems (Imaging Software)
  
• Just to name a few.

No wonder tech is the second largest sector in the city after tourism (even above government which is amazing given that Victoria is the capital of the province :)

Today launched the second installment of my new "career" as a radio personality on Webmaster Radio. Host Jim Hedger and I went "toe to toe" on a couple issues including the Google/YouTube deal, Yahoo!s third quarter earnings, the Panama update announced by Yahoo! (coincidentally in the same report on the declining earnings in Q3) and some great Firefox extensions for SEO's and web developers.

You can listen to the piece by clicking here. (note: you will only be getting the 15 minutes and 43 seconds I was speaking. If you want the "full meal deal" you'll just have to listen to the show which airs on Webmaster Radio Thursdays at 5PM EST.

Well today we'll be looking at three things, the infamous Google sandbox, a funny video from Google Videos and Webmaster Radio.

The Sandbox
I ran across a great article by veteran SEO Jim Hedger on the sandbox. The article (on the ISEDB website) discussed some great points and provides great links to other articles/opinions on the topic. He brings up the debate as to whether the sandbox exists (anyone familiar with my opinions knows the position I have - it does and is backed up by a patent application by Google from back in 2004). For any who wonder, the patent was files in March 2004 and the first instance of the sandbox being noted was from April of 2004. Coincidence? End of debate. ;)

Rather than get into the entire article here I'll just add it to my "recommended reading" list and advise you to read it on the ISEDB website here.

A Humerous Video
I received a link to a video (found through Google Video by a friend of mine) that I couldn't help but chuckle at. Now perhaps it's that the video is genuinely funny or perhaps it's only funny to those of us that are:

• white
• kinda nerdy
• have read Stephen Hawking
• used to collect comic books
• have seen Monty Python's Holy Grail numerous times
  
• have a side as to whether Captain Kirk or Picard is better

You can be the judge. :)



Webmaster Radio
And just a reminder that on Thursday's at 5Pm EST I will be speaking on Webmaster Radio. Tomorrow I will be going toe-to-toe with Jim Hedger on the YouTube deal, Wikipedia in China, useful SEO tools and other topics of interest to those in the SEO realm.

Set your reminders and visit the Webmaster Radio site tomorrow.

Labels: google sandbox, webmaster radio, wierd al

I was doing some research for a client and while looking into commercial websites I ran across the Mac site which ranked #1 for "commercial". The ranking page was an accumulation of their new ads comparing, in a very humorous and human way, the differences between Macs and PCs. Even as a PC user I like the ads.

Watching them brought me to two very interesting thoughts:

1. They are a "must watch" when you have a few minutes to kill and are in need of a chuckle, and
2. A lot of what Mike Margolin had to say in San Jose on the Honda campaign applies to Mac and is reinforce with my activities on their site.

Mike discussed a campaign in which they targeted a wide array of phrases (some completely unrelated but very cheap to bid on) and landed the searchers at a game. They found that through interaction with this game the searchers spent many minutes on the site and became aware of the brand and it's advantages. He asserted that this resulted in increased sales.

While I was convinced that he was correct in this (he had his client (Honda) there so they were certainly happy with the results) it wasn't until I was watching these ads that it really hit home. They made me want to buy a Mac, they made me want to be the young and fun guy and not the stuffy old workhorse and they got across that Macs can now run Windows and Windows applications.

So starting from a search for a client they got me interested in looking into Macs, and from a phrase totally unrelated to their product. How? By entertaining me. What does this tell us? There is a lot to be taken from this however one of the key points is this: if you're targeting generic phrases, make sure that landing page will grab the searchers attention and keep it through entertainment, interaction or some other similar means.

I may not be switching to a Mac today but they definitely got their message across and into my consciousness. So beware, only watch the Mac ads here if you're willing to risk wanting a new computer. :)

Well today was the first day I had the opportunity to speak on Webmaster Radio. The topics we covered today included the importance of the alternative engines (to watch upcoming technologies and for traffic), the YouTube/Google deal, and Yahoo! announcing they're now respecting the noodp meta tag.

You can listen to the piece by clicking here. (note: you will only be getting the 8 minutes and 29 seconds I was speaking. If you want the "full meal deal" you'll just have to listen to the show which airs on Webmaster Radio Thursdays at 5PM EST.

Today I received a phone call from veteran SEO and search engine expert Jim Hedger with a very interesting question:

"Would I be interested in co-hosting a show on Webmaster Radio?"

Hey Jim, why not just ask me if I'd like a chance to sit down and have a one-on-one chat with Matt Cutts over a beer? ;)

The show will be aired on Webmaster Radio every Thursday (beginning tomorrow!!!) at 5PM EST. The topic of the show, alternative search engines. You know, those engines that focus on specific technologies or niches. Those engines that are generally ignored by SEO's and website owners unless they're bought by one of the "Big Three".

Jim put it well when he wrote in the SiteProNews blog:

"I suspect there is a treasure trove of opportunity to be found looking into and past the enormous shadows cast by the major search entities. There are a lot of interesting people who are not associated with Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft working on search applications that are rarely heard from. I'll bet most webmasters and online entrepreneurs are leaving money on the table by ignoring alternative search tools.

It is obviously time to go exploring and earlier today I was offered the use of a perfect vehicle for this sort of long and difficult expedition."

As I'm sure you can gather, I accepted and look forward to going toe-to-toe with Jim weekly on Webmaster Radio. Listen in to keep updated on interesting developments, acquisitions and news on this increasingly important area.

For those of you who visit our blog regularly you'll recall that back on October 5th I announced the latest article publication by Beanstalk, titled "How To Win Links & Influence Engines". A few days have passed since then and I decided to do a quick check and see where it might be published (knowing full well that the list would be pretty limited as a weekend doesn't result in a lot of posts). It was then that I realized an "oops".

In searching for "how to win links" on Google I discovered an article series published by SearchEngineGuides.com's Jennifer Laycock titled, "How To Win Links And Influence People". Oops. Both Jennifer and I obviously have the same respect for Dale Carnegie and appear to have a fairly similar train of thought regarding titling articles but nonetheless I can't help but feel a bit bad given the significant respect I have for Jennifer who's articles I've reference in past blog posts including her analysis of MSN's paid search service and an absurd lawsuit against Google.

I will be sending Jennifer an email shortly apologizing for not looking into this title earlier. An unfortunately coincidence but then, great minds think alike. You can read her article on the SearchEngineGuide.com website here. As I've now discovered, it's a very good read.

Today I received a recip link request from a gentleman who has recently started an SEO blog. While I have no problems with reciprocal links per-se we've never used them on the Beanstalk site as we've focused our link building efforts on other areas (such as articles which are great for traffic AND links). When we link out to another site it is purely for the reason that we believe our visitors will find the content we're linking to either useful or, in some cases, entertaining.

I decided to take a look at the blog I was sent however and I discovered something, it's actually pretty good. :) Run by Dutch blogger Bas van Westrenen it doesn't just cover SEO but also seems to be covering other search engine news. And so rather than trading links with him I'll do what I always do, link to a resource I believe might be of interest to you, my valuable readers. The blog is new so there aren't that many back posts but if he keeps up the way he's started this may be one to add to your bookmarks. The blog can be found at SEO-Update.com.

Happy reading and have a great weekend !!!

As any SEO will tell you, reading Matt Cutts' blog is a great way to spend the time you'd otherwise waste just eating. Well I spent my lunch "break" today doing just that and am certainly glad I did. The post I found most useful from the past couple days was on the PageRank update that's currently underway. I was a bit surprised to realize that the datacenters I'm seeing were a bit behind and the update was first detected back on the second.

At any rate, on his blog Matt discusses this update and PageRank in general. While there's not a lot of new info there (he does work for Google after all, exactly how much do we expect him to give away ;) there are some great answers to many of the most commonly asked questions, and all in one place. :)

And as one commenter noted: a post like this one is a great example of link baiting (as read about in our previous post on Andy Hagans article on the subject. And like that example, Matt's efforts here too will be rewarded with a link as this is highly recommended reading for the novice and a good reminder and clarification for the experts out there. You can read what Matt Cutts has to say about PageRank here.

Beanstalk's Dave Davies published an article titled, "How To Win Links & Influence Engines". The article covers various methods for link building (both reciprocal and non-reciprocal) that will help insure that the links you're establishing are quality links and will help increase your rankings on the search engines.

The article covers recip link building, articles, press releases, paid links, directory submissions and more. You can read the article in it's full glory here.

As an aside, this blog post will push down an important post from earlier today on the recent Google PageRank update. Be sure to scroll down and read that post too.

There is currently a Google PageRank update underway. While the PageRank value itself is updated on-the-fly in regards to Google's calculation of rankings, about once every 3 months they push the new values to the toolbar to let us all take a peek. Today is that day.

As of this writing the new values seem to be visible only to those on the west coast. In chatting with a business partner (Frederick Townes from W3 EDGE Web Design in Boston) he was unable to see the new values whereas I can see them here in Canada and they are also visible off a server we run in California.

So watch you values over the next day or so.

What this also means is that there should be an algorithm update some time in the next week-or-so. Generally Google does an algorithm update shortly after the PageRank push. There have been exceptions but this is the general timeline. Usually in these updates the aging delays on sites and links are lightened (read: the links you've built gain in value due to history) plus other aspects which only Google knows until they're out.

Keep watching the Beanstalk blog for more news on this update as it occurs.

Add on info:

Because there are many on the East Coast who still can't see the new PageRank numbers I went on a bit of a hunt and re-found a neat tool (now added to my Bookmarks :) that searches multiple datacenters and draws the PageRank's they are showing. If you visit the site, enter in your URL you'll see how far the new numbers have spread.

If you see some with your current PR and others with a different number, well - obviously it's the new ones that are propagating.

You can find this neat tool at http://oy-oy.eu/google/pr/.

For those of you who visit the Beanstalk blog regularly to keep posted on the latest SEO news will remember that back on September 14th, 2006 we were honored to make PromotionWorld's Top 10 Best SEO Companies list for September (making that the third month in a row). We just received October's list and it appears that we have not only been included again but we've moved up to position 6 from position 7.

From their site they note that, "The Top 10 SEO Company Awards are based on the offered services, package diversity, value, customer service, feedback and website popularity of the selected companies."

Once again we would like to extend our sincere appreciation to PromotionWorld for this great honor. As we noted when we first received this award:

It's definitely great to be recognized by anyone as a reputable firm but it's expecially nice when it's a company you hold in high regards such as PromotionWorld.