tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-116511402008-05-16T01:06:57.327-05:00Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comBlogger491125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-87836035770669284962008-05-16T00:44:00.003-05:002008-05-16T01:06:57.360-05:00

There's been a lot of shuffling around in the SERPs on Google over the past few days as many of you have undoubtedly noticed. I got my first wind of it 2 days ago from a client who dropped from #4 for his primary phrase to #5 (then to #6 - then back up to #5). Others have witnessed larger moves and this update seems to coincide with a recalculation of PageRank (visible) for many sites. The

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-90674847308061817742008-05-06T02:27:00.003-05:002008-05-06T02:46:09.380-05:00

I will be heading to Seattle to speak at the 2008 SMX Advanced. This will be the closest to home I've had to opportunity to speak at an official SEO event. It would be nice if the organizers who decide to host one of of our home town of Victoria, BC, Canada but for some reason I find that unlikely. :) I'll be speaking to SEO's and SEO company owners of how we can position our firms to best

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-71884937895052308812008-04-24T14:35:00.002-05:002008-04-24T16:30:01.987-05:00

This morning I had brought to my attention (by Daryl Quenet, Beanstalk's Director Of Optimization Services) a trademark application for - of all things - the term "SEO". Jason Gambert has filed for the trademark. After his initial applications were declined he's managed to wear down the fine folks at the trademark office and it's passed the initial stages. As part of the application Jason has

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-18723750920234625082008-04-18T18:32:00.003-05:002008-04-18T18:48:04.315-05:00

Sometimes it takes a few days before I can test new features the engines offer. Such is the case with Google's new benchmarking tool. I got my notification of it's launch back on the 9th but unfortunately it was last night before I could actually do anything about it (darn those "pesky" clients for keep us so busy here :) Then - when I went to look into what other's thought of it I discovered

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-75104208851384896492008-04-17T23:38:00.005-05:002008-04-18T00:09:39.148-05:00

In today's episode of Webcology on WebmasterRadio.fm Jim Hedger and I discusses a couple recent events at Google. Namely the release of their Q1 earnings (SURPRISE - they're up over last quarter) and Yahoo! using Google's paid ads instead of their own. Rather than re-hash "old news" (OK - it was earlier today but you can listen to it all by downloading the podcast here) I'm going to cover a new

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-50601316768101303102008-04-10T12:33:00.002-05:002008-04-10T12:38:16.347-05:00

Step Nine of our 10-step series on SEO is out today. Step nine covers conversion optimization and was written by Rock Tobin, Director of Research at Enquiro Research. Rick is responsible for a lot of the great work and studies that have come out of Enquiro and is regarded as an authority on conversion optimization and study. Rick will also be joining us on WebmasterRadio.fm at 2PM EST today

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-73353987996590358602008-04-03T14:46:00.002-05:002008-04-03T14:51:33.751-05:00

Well it took a heck of a long night and too little sleep but today's article on statistics analysis came out today in combination with our weekly radio show on Webmaster Radio. The article covers the basics of what you should use to gather and analyze your stats and what you should be looking for. It's a great leader to next week's show and article. The article will be written by Rick Tobin

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-10799021416100494702008-04-01T11:47:00.008-05:002008-04-01T12:57:13.108-05:00

In what can only be considered a devastating leak of information from Google HQ in Mountain View, a confirmed but as yet publicly anonymous executive from Google has leaked papers detailing some of the key fundamentals to Google's link value calculation system. The announcement by Google earlier today details some of the contents of this information as they work hard to minimize the effect that

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-22719289417833102142008-03-14T12:17:00.006-05:002008-03-14T13:21:51.853-05:00

Yesterday while talking to a potential client I noticed a new feature that Google had implemented into the SERPs in the US (If your outside of the US add &gl=us to the search URL, or &gl=ca to see how it doesn't work out side of the US). The search term the client was interested in was Used Cars Utah, and various other permutations and themed terms. If you Google the term Used Cars Utah, you

Daryl Quenethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716754684632366876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-78712790439707762952008-03-12T22:27:00.004-05:002008-03-12T22:47:38.807-05:00

The most recent article in the series of ten was published today by Li Evans of Search Marketing Gurus. I first met Li at an SES event some time ago, have interviewed her once for Webmaster Radio (as I will get to again for the accompanying show to this article so be sure to catch it either at 11am PST or download the podcast. Li is definitely an expert on social media - up there with Neil

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-60770014016296505442008-03-10T13:53:00.004-05:002008-03-10T15:09:01.186-05:00

Back on February 13th we reported here that a paid listing on Business.om had killed the Yahoo! results for a client of ours. We had the listing removed from Business.com and I spoke with them and asked that any feeds sent to Yahoo! not include our client. One of the indicators of the issue was that the page was caching at 89k on Yahoo! and was actually redirecting through Business.com when

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-91539463892130369522008-02-28T17:51:00.003-05:002008-03-12T12:03:01.892-05:00

Beanstalk's Daryl Quenet (Director Of Optimization Services) published his latest article today. Titled, "An Introduction To SEO" it covers the general theory behind the SEO basics. While in this article we don't get into too many specific tactics (don't worry - there are some) it covers nicely the ideas behind the tactics. And as we've discussed in our blog previously - understanding the "why

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-16359954845394622012008-02-26T12:41:00.002-05:002008-02-26T13:42:46.146-05:00

Last Monday we reported that Google was in a state of flux. There was some minor stabalization late last week (i.e. there was still some up-and-downs but things were mainly quiet) and now we're seeing an odd bag of results. As we're located up in the "Great White North" (an ironic name given that Beanstalk is in Victoria, BC and we had all of 5 flakes of snow this winter) we're used to putting

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-45674297829101008762008-02-20T20:38:00.003-05:002008-02-20T21:00:08.825-05:00

As part of our ongoing series on optimization, Jim Hedger published part 4 in the series - content optimization. It's a lengthy read (with a topic such as content optimization, how could it be otherwise). This article is released in conjunction with a special on Webcology (a Webmaster Radio show hosted by Jim and myself). Be sure to tune in on Thursday at 2PM EST to listen to some great

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-77547518416190138602008-02-18T18:47:00.002-05:002008-02-18T18:50:58.583-05:00

Just thought I'd give all our readers a head's up that Google is showing VERY mixed and ever-changing results at the moment. This is expected on Fridays and over the weekends but here we have it on a Monday. This first came to my attention when a client of ours was seeing their site on the first page of Google and I saw them on page 2. I then logged into our server in California and saw a

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-575046698000039182008-02-13T15:42:00.003-05:002008-02-13T15:53:48.442-05:00

The fine folks over at SaveTheInternet.com are at it again. Thanks to Rep. Ed Markey the Net Neutrality issue is back on the table. For those of you who don't know the net neutrality issue, you can ignore this unless you have a website or an Internet connection. I'm not going to get into a lesson on net neutrality - it's a huge topic that's been better covered by others. Here are some links to

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-58826974718297879752008-02-13T14:04:00.004-05:002008-02-13T14:43:03.417-05:00

We have a client. Alright, we have more than one but there's one client specifically that I'll be writing about here - let's call him Bruce. Bruce decided one day to purchase a Featured Listing on Business.com. Now, by itself this isn't a bad idea. In fact, in many cases it might even be a good one - but not for poor Bruce. We noticed that overnight Bruce's Yahoo! results tanked going from

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-71709319803283226022008-02-12T16:15:00.000-05:002008-02-12T16:41:01.544-05:00

With rumors of a layoff spree in the not-too-distant future, it appears that the future is really here at Yahoo! Reinforcing the "noone is safe" aspect of what we've been told by Yahoo!, VP of Marketing Todd Daum is rumored to have been laid off earlier today. I first head of this layoff over at ValleyWag.com. They're also providing some links to other related reading so worth the read. You

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-62475664751993440902008-02-12T12:44:00.001-05:002008-02-12T12:57:51.676-05:00

I received an email the other day from someone who needed help. Now, this happens on a daily basis in regards to sites we see that aren't ranking well ("they could sure use our help") but every now and then I see something I just have to get my hands into. The issue started when the gentleman received an email from Google. The email informed him that he had malware on his site and that he was

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-49408093216391277412008-02-11T17:51:00.001-05:002008-02-11T17:56:22.985-05:00

The latest article to come out of the Beanstalk workshop was just published today. The most recent article has an odd spin, it's for our would-be competitors. The article, titled "Starting An SEO Company" describes some of the considerations a would-be SEO needs to make when deciding whether to launch an SEO company. The angle it takes is basically how to grow your business when you're

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-66654069156427269902008-02-06T20:06:00.000-05:002008-02-07T12:35:00.773-05:00

The most recent article in the series of ten was published today by Ross Dunn of StepForth Web Marketing. I've been impressed by many of the articles Ross has written on the topic which is precisely why we invited him to write this section of the ten part series. And after reading it, it was only reinforced that we made the right call. While we personally use different tools and techniques I

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-76546972977123480492008-02-04T15:30:00.000-05:002008-02-04T20:06:44.593-05:00

Well the fine folks over at Google have come up with a response to Friday's bid by Microsoft for Yahoo! Now, believe me - I understand that business is business and that Google has to respond with a negative spin against their competitors but the blog post and press release they put out made me smirk more than think. The official line, put forth by David Drummond, Senior Vice President,

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-54336796926677278392008-02-01T13:49:00.000-05:002008-02-06T00:20:29.432-05:00

In a move that oddly seemed to surprise many, Microsoft made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! today. How much? - only $44.6 billion dollars. This would pay investors $31/share - a 62% premium over the previous day's close. Steve Ballmer is confident that this is the right move for Microsoft. He's also confident that it's the right move for Yahoo! But is he right? Based on the discussed layoff of a

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-84351644926164514512008-02-01T12:28:00.000-05:002008-02-01T13:33:40.434-05:00

Many people have likely noticed over the past while that the Overture keyword tools is extremely unreliable. Setting aside the numbers it provides (equal to or better than other options to be sure) one can rarely even connect to it. Well we've found a quasi-successful workaround. For some reason (perhaps coincidence) it seems to work better in IE then Firefox. That's not the workaround

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11651140.post-11462381334962172008-01-31T16:48:00.000-05:002008-01-31T18:09:48.493-05:00

Today on Webmaster Radio I had to host the show solo. Our sympathies go out to Jim Hedger who had the unenviable task of heading to Toronto for a funeral. Our hearts go out to Jim and his family. Todays show however was a great one. We launched our 10-show series on SEO with a show dedicated entirely to keyword research. We're also supplementing each show in the series with an article on the

Dave Davies, CEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10990136068142211775noreply@blogger.com