Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

There's a great article posted earlier today on the SiteProNews.com site. The article, written by Bill Platt, discussed the recent controversy surrounding paid links and some comments on them made by Matt Cutts. While you may not gain great insight into the buying or selling of paid links (it's not that kind of article) it does lend some interesting analysis of the issue and how the engines (mainly Google) are addressing it.

The article also provides some great links to forums posts discussions of the topic including forums that Matt himself is commenting in. You can read the article on the SiteProNews.com site here. I'd put this article in the "recommended but not mandatory" category of reading. There aren't any "how to's" but if you're engaging in paid links as a buyer or a seller it's always good to know what the feelings of the engines are and what they can and cannot do.

Three hours later ...

Well well well, I just had the great fortune of reading a very interesting article on the WebProNews.com site. It discusses Cutts' recent silence on t he topic of paid links AND (this is the fun part) the fact that VP of Advertising for Google, Mr. Tim Armstrong himself co-founded the company Associated Content, which pays writers to produce sontent (200,000+ pages and growing at a rate of 2,000 pages/day) for the AdSense ad revenue AND (wait for it, wait for it ...) BUYS LINKS. Oh ya gotta love the irony.

You can read the article on the WebProNews.com site here.

Labels: google, matt cutts, paid links, sitepronews, webpronews

The most recent article by Beanstalk staff was published today. Titled, "Personalization And The Death Of SEO" it covers some of the changes that the SEO industry is about to experience, how the industry/efforts need to be adjusted and details some of the main areas indicated in the patents as critical to help you as the website owner/SEO adapt to those changes and, if done right, profit from these changes before your competitors even know they're happening.

You can read the article on the Beanstalk website here.

Labels: google, personalization, seo article

I've always found Google shareholders to be funny animals and yesterday provided yet another example of the curiosity that is their buying/selling patterns. The big story being covered right now is the purchase of display advertising giant DoubleClick by Google for 3.1 billion (that's right ... billion) dollars. This is the largest purchase by Google to date in terms of sale price.

As Jim Hedger from SiteProNews.com points out in his article on the DoubleClick purchase, Google's paid 20 times DoubleClick's annual revenue. This is well above the standard for the purchase on online properties. Even so, Google is looking at it not as a normal acquisition but rather a means to propel themselves into the display advertising space years ahead of when they otherwise could. And of course, that they've once again trumped both Yahoo! and Microsoft (both of whom were interested in DoubleClick as well) has got to be an added bonus.

Here are some important links on the deal:

• Google's press release - hear it from the source.
• Jim Hedger's article - a great summary
• Donna Bogatin's article on ZDNet - a great eye-opener on some of the questionable sides of the deal. Of course, I've loved Donna since her article on Click Fraud.
• Bill Slawski's post on seobythesea.com - A brilliant analysis by a brilliant patent analyst (don't forget, Google gets all their patents too).
• WebmasterWorld forums - a place to read discussions and discuss the deal yourself.

So why does all this make me call Google shareholders strange animals? Because Google shares actually dropped yesterday in after-hours trading. This reminds me of the drop their shares took after their Q4 earnings report where they announced an increase in revenue but still noted a decline in share values because the increase wasn't as high as anticipated (though still in the double-digits). Sometimes it appears that good news for Google's overall health aren't properly received by shareholders who sell too quickly and miss out on the true value.

Take my advice shareholders, the DoubleClick deal is a good one for Google. While it might not look great on paper from a pure trade based on the dollar value of the company purchased, the technology and the leaps ahead this will give Google over it's competitors is well worth the investment. And hey, even $3.1 billion lighter, Google will still report net gains this year. :)

But what about this makes me

Labels: bill slawski, donna bogatin, doubleclick, google, jim hedger, press release, sitepronews, webmasterworld, zdnet

Today was an exciting day at SES NY 2007. I haven't had the time to attend a session yet (that's right, 3 days in and still no sessions). On the plus side, I've had the opportunity to interview many of the people who's sessions I'd have most wanted to attend and ask them my own questions. :)

The Rest Of Yesterday:
After yesterday's blog post I had the pleasure of chatting with presellpageman (he doesn't want his actual name posted). We discussed links, the changes in how the engines treat different kinds of links, and what's coming up. We covered recip links, directories, paid links, articles, blog and forum commenting and of course, hosted content (his specialty). This was interview one of three I'm hoping to get on link building and how the strategies are and/or will be changing over the next year. I won't get into too much detail here as the interviews are for an article I'll be writing. I'll just post a link to it when it's completed so be sure to visit again for more details.

After the day was complete it was off to a fantastic dinner and pub crawl hosted by Efficient Frontier. A HUGE thanks to Chris Zacharias for an awesome night, a great dinner, and some fantastic company. We stayed up too late but it was worth it. :)

And Then It Was Today:
After a bit of a sleep-in (there was nothing pressing to do pre-noon so getting there at 10 seemed OK) the majority of my time was spent networking, research and hosting our weekly radio show live from New York.

We had a slough of great guests on today. I found that it's easier to interview when you've got a desk to jot notes on but with the guests we had it went smoothly. We had Kim from Cre8asite Forums, Li Evans from SEO Roundtable, Tim Daly from iMediaConnection, and Lori Weisman from Click Forensics. After that we just hit the crowd to ask a few questions.

I'll post a link to the show's podcast once it's online.

And Tonight:
Tonight we'll be off to Search Bash, a party hosted here are the Hilton NY by Webmaster Radio, LookSmart and Bruce Clay. But you'll read more about that tomorrow.

Labels: click forensics, creatasite forums, efficint frontier, hosted content, link building, lori weisman, presellpageman, seo roundtable, time daly, webmaster radio

Well it appears that I'm just not going to be going to any sessions, and that's a good thing. :) Today has been spent networking and interviewing some excellent guests. Let's cover the interviews first:

Rand Fishkin From SEOMoz.com:
Anyone involved in SEO either does or should know the name Rand Fishkin. Whether it's as one of the most notable SEO's in the industry or as the man who ruined it for the rest of us by proposing to his fiance in arguable one of the most romantic manners every (come on Rand ... how can us mere mortals top that?) his name has become synonymous with Internet Marketing.

For those who don't already know, Rand purchased some commercial time on Veronica Mars (his fiance's favorite show. Here it is:

Want to know how she reacted (gee, is there even a doubt whether she said yes? ;)

See? Now how the heck do we compete with THAT??!!!???

Congratulations Rand. :)

Other than a little lecture on toning it down a bit Rand and I discussed a number of SEO issues. We discussed the movement by Google towards personalization, the benefits this has for some searchers and the issues it's causing (such as when you're referring to a resource by it's position in the results ("just enter "blue widgets" into Google and click on the first result" ... "no, not that site" .... "ugh, OK - what do you see in position 4?" ... and so on). it's also an issue for SEO's who send ranking reports for the same reason.

Rand and I also discussed Google's 0.02% claim regarding click fraud (we agree, that's a bit low ;) Rand is also friends with a number of the fine folks from the major engines, I just had to ask him how he can openly state that purchasing links is alright when it is in clear violation on the engine's guidelines. The the client is your client, not the engines. Again, we agree. :)

Of course we covered more. I was supposed to try to keep the interview to 5 to 7 minutes at the request of Webmaster Radio but it likely lasted closer to 15 to 20. Rand, you're a great interview and thank you very much.

I'll post the podcast as soon as it becomes available.

John Marshall From ClickTracks:
After Rand I had another great pleasure in chatting with John Marshall from ClickTracks. Despite being sick he was a trooper, showed up, and was great to chat with.

John and I discussed the future of analytics and some of the enhancements that were likely to come over the next year to ClickTracks and other analytics tools. The main point here was beginning to track individuals differently using scripts so repeat visitors and monitored and (I'l inferring here) patterns among types of users will be tracked.

We also discussed some of the recent enhancements to ClickTracks which I haven't had the chance to install yet. The goal is to make reports easier to read for the layman. From the sounds of it, mission accomplished but most of our clients have no problems reading the current set. :)

We went on to discuss a variety of other issues (sorry WMR team, I just can't keep it to 5 to 7 minutes when I'm interviewing people like this). You'll have to wait for the podcast to hear it all. I'll post a link as soon as it's available.

Jon Kelly From SureHits.com:
Jon and I had some fun chatting about SureHits.com, and insurance and loans focused CPC agency. We discussed Click Fraud (it's a CPC engine after all - I couldn't resist), the processes they have in place for detecting it (I have to admit, they're pretty good) and the hurdles they face as tey try to expand into the UK market with different regulations in their industries.

I'll post a link to the podcast as soon as it becomes available.


The Party:
Last night I didn't get to attend the party, I did however get to ride the bus to-and-fro (I'll post pics as soon as I get them off my camera) complete with the Bruce Clay team, the Google Webmaster Tools presentation team (very nice folks though I couldn't get a card out of them :)

After the party ended (that I only got to ride the bus to) I had the opportunity to hop back on it to head to a night club (Club 320 if you care) and then on for more resulting in a 4:30am bedtime and a sigh of relief in the morning that I switched to water at around 2am and stuck with that decision for the remainder of the night.

A picture is worth a thousand words an these pics might be worth more. The bus was amazing with TV's, laser lights, music, beer of many varieties and great company. I had a great time with the host of the bus Ken Jurina and Epiar. Thanks Ken - it's awesome and I'm glad I had a chance to chat with you and your team through the night.


So, that's "it" thus far aside from business development and networking issues that don't really need to be blogged about. :)

But stay tuned, there are more great interviews and parties to come. We're only half-way through day 2 of 4. ;)

Labels: clicktracks, cpc, epiar, google click fraud, john marshall, jon kelly, paid links, rand fishkin, seomoz, ses ny 2007, statistics stats, surehits

Well here we are, 3 interviews later. Haven't had a chance to go to a session yet but I did have the opportunity to interview Mike Moran from IBM, Michael and Mikhail from ClickFacts.com and Stephanie Krebs from DominionEnterprises.com. Here's what we talked about.

With Mike From IBM:
Mike and I discussed the launch of a free search engine Omnifind Yahoo! Edition. While I haven't had a chance to put it through it's paces yet he describes it as easy to install, light on technology and resources provided you have a dedicated server at your disposal. Some of the features that tey provide such as symantic search functionality are impressive and I will definitely be giving it a peek when I get back from the convention.

One thing I didn't enjoy finding out was that the product was launched back in December. What disappoints me about this is not finding out about it until now. At first I thought that perhaps it just slipped past me but after asking a number of well-informed SEO's I discovered that we were all in the same boat. And so my big advice for the day is to Yahoo! and IBM. When you have great launches like this ... LET US KNOW ABOUT IT !!!

Mike and I also had a chance to chat about a book that he an Bill Hunt wrote on SEO. An interesting read I'm sure as it covers SEO from it's general standpoint but also notes some of the difference when you're dealing with enterprise-sized websites. The book it SEM Inc.

I will be posting a link to the full podcast of the interview as soon as it is available.

With Mike and Mikhail From ClickFacts.com:

Jim Hedger and I had the opportunity to discuss web analytics with Mike an Mikhail. Where it is, Google's 0.02% figure an where it's going. This interview would be tough to describe so I'll just post the link to the podcast when it becomes available.

With Stephanie Krebs From DominionEnterprises.com:
The lovely Stephanie Krebs and I had the opportunity to discuss print media and the migration of Dominion Enterprises from traditionally print to dominantly online. While you may not know the name Dominion Enterprises you've likely seen their work with such publications as Boat Trader, Real Estate Trader, etc. (know you know them right?)

We also discussed how ad purchasing works and how the small business owner can get involved without breaking the bank (and not just through her properties). Dominion Enterprises also provides SEM services for their clients. Stephanie and I discussed SEO and the difficulties in being an SEO firm that provides services to multiple companies in the same sector, in the same region.

Like the others, I'll post a link to the full interview when it becomes available.


And Tomorrow:
Tomorrow you'll definitely want to mark your schedules to check back on our blog. I'll be interviewing Rand Fishkin from SEOMoz and John Marshall, CEO of ClickTracks. As well as reporting on the events of the night.

Labels: clickfacts, clicktracks, dominion enterprises, mike moran, omnifind, rand fishkin, ses ny 2007

Well in my home town of Victoria, BC a *rush* job for business cards would be next day at best. Not in New York. The fine folks at FedEx Kinkos (we don't have one in Victoria) had me processed within 15 minutes including proofing the first set and will have 200 cards done and ready to be picked up at noon, about an hour after I dropped them off.

Now, to those of you from New York this may seem pretty normal but for a *bumpkin* like me this is incredible. And so I need to give some props and kudos to the fine folks at Kinkos on 52nd. The staff was pleasant and great to deal with and your service was second to none. Anyone else needing printing in New York during SES? You know where to go.

So now the show really begins for me. Fortunately there wasn't much in the morning sessions I was interested in (not to say they weren't good, just that if I had to miss a couple sessions - these were good ones to miss although I would have loved to hear Danny speak at the SEM Fundamentals session. Oh well, he'll be speaking again tomorrow and I'll be there for it.

So lunch is about to start and that's where the real fun begins (at least until the evening parties). networking and chatting with some of the bigger names at SES. I'll be there and reporting shortly thereafter. :)

Labels: ses ny 2007

Well it's 9:38am on the first day of the conference. So far so good, got my Webmaster Radio Press pass, have toured the floor(s) checking out where everything is so I don't find myself scrambling later and will be attending sessions shortly.

The only thing I seem to have forgotten is my business cards. Hmmmmmmm. Well they're just a *little bit* important at a NETWORKING FUNCTION!!! Fortunately this is New York. I have been told that getting a rush job shouldn't be too hard. Thank goodness for the dozen I had already in my jacket.

Alright, now just to hunt down Jim Hedger and the Webmaster Radio crew and and get to the sessions. I'll report later on what's going on.

Labels: jim hedger, ses ny 2007, webmaster radio

Just wanted to put up a quick post to apologize to all our regular visitors that there haven't been any posts this week. Things have been pretty hectic with SES NY coming up and I haven't had much time for posting.

That said, we'll be more than making up for it next week when we're ...


When I'm not interviewing for Webmaster Radio or attending one of the awesome parties planned I'll be attending sessions and blogging (likely from the sessions). So add us to your favorites, bookmark us on your favorite social bookmarking site or subscribe to our RSS feed as there's going to be lots of news.

And speaking of news, I'd recommend downloading and giving a listen to yesterday's Webmaster Radio show. Some interesting news and some very interesting guests. You can listen to it here.

Labels: ses ny 2007, webmaster radio

Google today announced that they will be providing free broadband access. TiSP, still in Beta, provides extremely high speed access and comes to your door as a free kit that includes everything you need to get your 8MBPS (10x faster than standard DSL) free.

Google recommends using it as a wireless Internet connection source and provides everything you'll need to get up-and-running wirelessly. You can read the press release on this huge leap in how we will surf the web here, the discussion group here, and the product info here.

As an SEO this is a very exciting leap forward. While I'm not 100% how they will monetize this service (I don't have my installation kit yet) you can be sure they'll find a way - likely through advertising of course).

So how can you get involved? How do you too get your free Internet access? Wait until it's not April Fool's Day and ask me again. :)

You can read more about this year's Google April Fool's Day joke at http://www.google.com/tisp/ and about their previous stunts on this year's error page at http://www.google.com/tisp/notfound.html.

Labels: april fools day, google, internet access