Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

Today celebrates the 100th show of Webcology for Jim Hedger and I over on WebmasterRadio.fm. Aside from reflecting back on 100 great hours of *fun* Jim and I discussed the situation in Haiti covering the plea for donations, my personal plea to our governments to not forget about the situation there as soon as something new and shiny crosser our collective paths. They were already the poorest country in the western hemisphere with 80% poverty rate earning $2/day (and no - that's NOT a typo ... $2).

We then went on to discuss another light-hearted topic, Google threatening China to provide uncensored search results after attempts to hack information from Google's Gmail system were detected. These efforts are reported to be Chinese government authorized efforts to secure information on humanitarian advocates. It ended up being an interesting debate (and Jim and I often have) with me arguing that Google has no right to provided uncensored results BUT they do have the right to pull out. Basically - while I'm a humanitarian - I wouldn't let a company or government body impose their will on my country and thus, I cannot expect others to do the same. They may be able to run a marijuana cafe in Amsterdam but they can't argue that since it's OK there - they should be able to open on up in downtown Dallas.

I may not agree with what the Chinese government is doing however our actions are limited to UN, Amnesty International, etc. efforts. We can't just disobey the law in a foreign country. And so the argument continued. Basically though we both agree - Google needs to just pull out to protect their data and interests.

After that fun discussion we went on to reflecting back on the highlights of the last 100 shows from our 10-part series with WebProNews on Internet Marketing (which we've decided to update) to the SEO trademark lunacy and much much more. It was a great show and I highly recommend downloading the podcast at http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/webcology/ when it's available later today.

Labels: jim hedger, webcology

Just a quick reminder from me to you - don't forget to update the copyright date on your site.

Also - for a thorough recap of 2009 in review be sure to read Jim Hedger's post on the subject over on the Webmaster Radio blog at http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/blog/webmasterradio-fm-2009-in-review/.

Also - I had the pleasure of chatting with Jim about 2009 (and 2010) during our weekly radio show yesterday which you can download at http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/webcology/2009/search-year-in-review/.

And now I'm off to enjoy the new year. :) I wish the same for you and yours.

Labels: jim hedger, webmaster radio

Today Jim Hedger and I hosted Webcology on WebmasterRadio.fm. Every week we have a great time covering the latest happenings in the search engine and search marketing world but today, rather than amicably discussing the issues - we battled it out over Net Neutrality.

Net Neutrality is a subject that both Jim and I have enjoyed debating over the years. We first did so in front of an audience back at SES San Jose 2008. Jim takes the pro-Net Neutrality side and I take the anti-net neutrality side of the debate. In truth - both of us fall somewhere in the middle but a debate is sure a lot more entertaining to watch than two fence sitters discussing their ambiguous feelings. :)

When I first entered the debate I was pro-Net Neutrality. Now I tend to lean towards an anti-Net Neutrality perspective but with an understanding of the need for consumer protection. The same consumer protection that exists currently and seems to be doing a fine job.

You can listen to the argument by downloading the podcast from the Webmaster Radio site at http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/webcology/2009/fcc-backs-net-neutrality/.

We also discussed the hacking of Jim's Twitter account and how to safeguard your information. Seriously - if it can happen to Jim, a 13 year veteran on the Internet, then it can happen to anyone.

For those of you who head over to the show - enjoy and be sure to listen next Thursday at 2PM EST (11AM Pacific) for another great show. We might even have a great guest or two. :)

Labels: jim hedger, net neutrality, twitter, webmaster radio

Today on Webcology (a show hosted by Jim Hedger and myself on WebmasterRadio.fm every Thursday at 2PM EST) Jim and I discussed the issue of net neutrality legislation with SaveTheInternet's Timothy Carr.

Jim and I had the pleasure of having Timothy on our show previously and it was great to have him on again. When we first had hom on the show both Jim and I were solidly in the net neutrality camp. When I was invited to speak at SES San Jose last week Jim and I took opposing sides in what turned into a debate on the issue. After doing a ton of research into it I found my leaning towards the anti-net neutrality side and so it was a great show with some tough questions and some enlightening info from Tim.

Of course, a lot of you reading this are wondering what a ton of people at the conference were wondering ... What In The World Is Net Neutrality ?!!?

To answer this questions I spent a few days and wrote an article answering just that.

The article, titled "What In The World Is Net Neutrality?" is (in my opinion at least) a good read to understand the core of the issue but I would highly recommend to educate yourself further. There are links in the article to some great resources and of course, you can listen to the Webmaster Radio podcast here.

Labels: jim hedger, net neutrality, timothy carr, webmaster radio

Once again I've been given the great opportunity to speak at SES San Jose. This SES is by far my favorite. New York is great, don't get me wrong but there's something about being a geek in Silicon Valley that's just awesome.

This year I'll be speaking on an extremely important topic and that's Net Neutrality. And best of all, I'll be on stage with my WebmasterRadio.fm co-host Jim Hedger from Metamend and being moderated by the lovely Cindy Krum from Blue Moon Works. You can read more about the session here (Note: link removed as the page no longer exists).

On top of that I'll be meeting up with two very interesting clients and having a meeting with Richard Stokes from AdGooroo. Hopefully I can sneak an interview with him in there.

I hope to see many of you there. If you are - feel free to say hi. if I'm at the Google Dance - you might have to say "hi" again the next day. ;)

Labels: cindy krum, jim hedger, net neutrality, ses sj 2008, webmaster radio

Google Keywords

Google has just started showing the estimated monthly search numbers in their keyword suggestion tool. For the first time in a long while we're now able to see the estimated search numbers on the engine who's results we most want to see the results of.

As a word of warning, after using it and comparing the numbers with the click through volume for a number of phrases, the number appear to be a bit high - that's because it defaults to Broad Match but you can select Exact Match from the drop-down and get the the numbers you're looking for.

You'll find this new feature added to the Google tool here.

A Test Of Links

Also, there was an interesting test run by Johannes Beusand published on the MarketingFan.com site regarding the value of multiple links to a single page on residing on a single page of a website. He basically strives to answer the question, if there are two or more links on a single page of a site and they point to a single page on another site - how are they treated?

I'm not going to be mean and note everything from the site here and steal their traffic. :) You'll find the link to this interesting test here.

Webmaster Radio

And today on Webmaster Radio Jim Hedger and I had the pleasure of interviewing Kevin Ryan - the man behind SES. Kevin discussed the show, the organizing of it, and some of the great sessions that'll be held in San Jose.

After that (and some ranting by both Jim and myself about the stupid fees we Canadians are charged for cell phones and specifically web usage on them) we had on Dave Szetela from Clix Marketing discussing the recent changes Google has made to the quality scores for it's AdWords advertisers.

Again, I could repeat the discussion but it was based on a couple posts covered elsewhere here and here.

Labels: adwords, google, jim hedger, keyword activity tool, link building, webmaster radio

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 issues - Google's latest update.

Recently there's been much news about a massive shift on Google named the "Dewey Update". The update itself caused much chaos as SEO's around the world reported huge swings in rankings. The forums have been abuzz and the update, unlike most, took place over weeks with some sites changing positions wildly 3 and even 4 times in a day. The update appeared to have settled late last week with only minor tremors affecting the rankings in what one might conclude to be a new way of adjusting rankings on Google's end - a more fluid approach to rankings.

Tonight however there's been another significant shift however there's a pretty major difference - this one is much more in tune with the updates prior to Dewey which took place on an almost weekly basis,usually starting on Thursday or Friday evening.

A major difference between what we're seeing now and what we saw with Dewey in that the effects and changes appear far more logical whew one can look at the results across numerous sites. The changes seem to take into account adjustments made to the sites and increases in backlinks rather than massive adjustments to the ranking system affecting what can only be described as almost random factors (I'm sure they weren't actually random however it was impossible to get a lock on what was being tested with the changes occurring too often for any proper analysis).

Obviously as an SEO I'm very happy to see this return to stability and as a searcher I appreciate that what I see today is likely going to be similar to what I will see tomorrow. Helps instill in me faith that the results I'm being presented with are actually relevant. Or maybe I prefer it as it reduces the frantic calls from clients asking why they dropped positions from where they were 2 hours earlier and my only reply being, "well - check it again in a couple hours". ;)

Labels: google, google update, jim hedger, webmaster radio

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 interviews to go along with the article. If you've reading this too late to catch the show don't worry - you can download the podcast free of charge on the Webcology page here.

Jim Hedger, aside from being a great friend to me and the entire SEO community, is an SEO consultant for Metamend Web Marketing also out of Victoria, BC, Canada.

Labels: jim hedger, metamend, seo article, webmaster radio, webpronews

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 subject at hand. You can find the article here.

Speaking with me on the show was Ken McGaffin from WordTracker, Richard Stokes from AdGooroo.com and Curtis Dueck from Epiar. Each lent an interesting angle to the keyword research discussion and I thank all of them. You can visit the Webmaster Radio site and download the podcast if you missed it.

And from Google ...

While all SEO seems to involve Google, some news came from them today specifically in the form of their 2007 Q4 earnings. Here's the summary:

Revenue of $4.83 billion
51% increase over Q4 2006
14% increase over Q3 of 2007
Google owned sites $3.12 billion
AdSense sites brought in $1.64 billion (up 30% over Q4 2006)

Revenue from outside the US totaled $2.32 billion (48% of revenue - up 4%)

Now here's where I saw something a bit unexpected. Traffic acquisition costs paid to partners increased from $1.22 billion last quarter to $1.44 billion in Q4. Compare this with $1.45 billion generated last quarter vs $1.64 billion in Q4. That means that the amount paid to partners increased by about 18% while the amount earned only increased by 12%. So Google is paying out as a % of revenue more than they were in Q3. That's assuming we all trust stats. :)

Congrats to Google on yet another great quarter. And ya gotta love investors. With a bunch of positive press out prior to the Q4 earning announcement the stock dropped to a low of $534.29 per share at 10am this morning and then rose to a high of $573.00. Basically, someone made 7% ROI in about 6 hours. More than I get in my saving account that's for sure. :)

Labels: adgooroo, epiar, google, jim hedger, webmaster radio, wordtracker

Beanstalk will be supporting the SEO Noobs SEO Contest with some prizes. We'll be donating 30 minutes of consulting, an announcement on the Webcology Radio show (hosted by Jim Hedger and Beanstalk's Dave Davies Thursdays at 2PM EST) and an announcement on Beanstalk's blog.

Added in with the other great prizes this should be a great contest. It's a bit different than most as the timelines are extremely short. The phrase will be one that doesn't exist yet, the contest will launch on February 4 and the goal is to rank the site by March 4.

You'll be up against the Beanstalk team however, other than the trophy, we'll be donating any prize we might win (if we do) to the highest ranking newbie in the list (i.e. the highest ranking person with less than a year of experience in SEO). And of course, if we get beaten by a newbie I have to fess up and announce it here. :) Pressure's on ...

Also, we're going to be taking this opportunity to test a couple different tactics against each other and see which ones work in such a short timeframe. We'll be keeping you posted here. For information on the specific domains (coming once the contest starts) you can keep posted at our first Yicrosoft directory (SEO) site and our second Yicrosoft directory (Webmaster).

You'll find details on the contest on the SEO Noobs website here. (Note: hyperlink removed as the site's been taken down)

Good luck to all who compete.

Update: the contest is now on for "yicrosoft directory". Entrants will be shooting to compete to rank a site in the top three results of Google within one month for "yicrosoft directory" with a brand new domain (not registered before February 4, 2008). Good luck to all who oppose us. :)

Labels: jim hedger, seo contest, seo noobs, webmaster radio, yicrosoft directory

Today, being Thursday, was the day that Jim Hedger and I host our weekly radio show on Webmaster Radio. it was a great show with a focus on Yahoo! in the news and a great interview with Applied SEO's John Carcutt.

There were two big stories about Yahoo! going on. The first was the introduction of Delicious info into the results. While most of us currently aren't seeing it, a beta rollout of the new feature is live to many. For those who can, below the description in the search engine results Yahoo! is placing information from Delicious including the number of times the page has been bookmarked and it's tags.

This of course lead to a discussion about how useful this could be to a searcher and how abused this could be by SEO's. I liken it to the green bar PageRank. When we didn't see it we didn't focus on it but as soon as it became visible it became the crack of the SEO industry (except more expensive in many cases).

Hopefully Yahoo! has learned from Google's error and we'll see some great controls. You can read a great article about the launch on Search Engine Land at http://searchengineland.com/080121-095345.php.

We then discussed the massive layoffs over at Yahoo! reported by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and a whole lot more. Will this be the downfall of Yahoo!? Can they keep up if they have less staff? Are they just trimming the fat? The conclusion - we'll have to wait and see. You can read an article on the subject by Jim Hedger as well on the New York Times site.

After a quick break we interviews John Carcutt from Applied SEO on his interesting business model of white label SEO. He works for other firms, as those firms, gives them the credit and collects the paycheck. Not a bad model and a great guy. Thanks again John from the great hat at SES San Jose 2006 !!!

Labels: applied seo, deliscious, jim hedger, social media, webmaster radio, yahoo

ComScore today released their numbers for December 2007 and Google took a bit of a slide. Here's what happened in December:

• Google dropped 0.2% from 58.6% to 58.4% of the market share
• Yahoo! gained ground, up 0.5% from 22.4% to 22.9% market share
• Microsoft heald steady at 9.8%
• Time Warner gained 0.1% market share getting 4.6%
• And Ask (sorry guys) lost ground going from 4.6% to 4.3% of the search market share

Also interesting to note is that overall search volume dropped in December, down 3.9% from November (apparently people feel the need to pry themselves away from their computer and perhaps chat with offline friends over the holidays :)

You can view the full press release on the ComScore site here.

We have updated the numbers used by our free keyword activity tool to reflect these new numbers.

In other news:

Jim Hedger and I have decided that we're going to run a great series of articles and interviews for WebmasterRadio.fm starting next week. Keep watching this space for more information as the topics (great for anyone interested in SEO) are posted. We'll have great guests and great guest writers.

Labels: comscore, jim hedger, market share, webmaster radio

Today on Webmaster Radio Jim Hedger and I had the opportunity to discuss a number of topics. You can download the podcast of the show (recommended) in the next couple days from the Webmaster Radio site. It's also a good idea to visit it as there are many great shows and information for all levels of listener.

In every show Jim and I take some time to discuss the latest goings-on in the search engine world. Here's what we had for our listeners this week:

• ComScore metrics - ComScore released it's totals for the holiday season of 2007 with a 19% increase in sales over 2006 reaching over $28 billion in online sales. On boxing day the total crossed $545 million doubling boxing day sales from last year.
• Danny Sullivan Article - Jim and I discussed one of the best pieced of predictive writing I've ever seen. Danny Sullivan wrote a great piece as a time traveling reporter from 2010 discussing the breakup of Google. While I doubt it'll come true it's an awesome piece that helps give us a small glimpse and one possible future we SEO's and search marketers have in store for us.
  
• Traffic Power and Matt Marlon - Sometimes bad things happen to good people and that's always a sad day. Sometimes bad things happen to bad people and that's ... well ... karma. Matt Marlon, ex-CEO of Traffic Power (an SEO firm that got all their clients banned by Google) was arrested for ... you'll never guess ... fraud. Just like those website owners that he helped scam and get banned with Traffic Power, Matt seems to like kicking people when their down and has taken advantage of a horrible situation and (pardon my French) screwed people out of their homes during the forclosure issues. Personally I'm happy with the outcome and this time I don't think he can try to sue Aaron Wall for reporting on it. ;)
• Aaron Wall's rants - and speaking of Aaron Wall, he's been ranting over the last few days about the state of SEO. I can't do justice to his comments save-to-say ... I agree. THe lines of Walmart coming into the arena devalues the service. Fortunately (unfortunately for clients) they're sure to realize that this isn't the kind of service that can be bulk packages and whipped out at discount prices and still have some reasonable amount of quality control.
  

After a brief commercial break Jim and I came back with WeBuildPages' own Jim Boykin (who I had the pleasure of meeting at SES San Jose last year. Jim has just launched InternetMarketing Ninjas.com where he provides videos from some of the SEO greats and many free tools (if you're willing to pay the $2,995 per year for the videos). I haven't had a chance to view the videos and, as Jim notes, the service is offered more to do-it-yourselfers than SEO's so I likely won't however the names and topics covered are definitely spot-on. Maybe Jim will give me a free sneak-peek (hint hint Jim ;) and I can report on it more thoroughly.

Good luck to Jim and the ninjas !!!

And in other news:

The latest article by Beanstalk is out. I wrote and article that changed considerable from idea to finished product (meaning there's another coming out soon). The article is on finding a good SEO-friendly web designer and can be found on the Beanstalk site here.

Labels: aaron wall, comscore, danny sullivan, google, jim boykin, jim hedger, traffic power, webmaster radio

Well here we are, days later and no posts. I still have dozens of emails sitting in my Inbox waiting to be answered from my week in Chicago (last) but I felt the need to post today. I'm not going to get a chance to get into great detail on the personalization session in Chicago which I was really hoping to but that will take far more time than I have (hours) and so all I will say on that tangent is that I recommend visiting www.seobythesea.com. Great info on patents. You'll also want to review my past article on the subject here.

Alright, now on to other news. Let's begin with today's radio show on Webmaster Radio. Jim and I discussed the Net Neutrality issues that Roger's (a Canadian ISP). Rogers is injecting their own content into pages (such as usage warnings) and was caught doing so on the Google homepage. The content they injected mentions Yahoo! Here's how it looks:

Not cool. Now, who owns the content? Is it Rogers for allowing the data to pass to the user or is it Google for creating the content to begin with? I have a hunch we'll soon find out.

Jim and I also went on to discuss Google DoubleClick and some of their more recent issues. Ahhhhh, will it never end (I hope not - it gives me something to chat about on the radio). :)

One of the points of interest is the filing by liberal consumer parties objecting to Deborah Majoras (Chair of FTC) being involved with the voting on the issue given that her husband (John Majoras) works for the Jones Day law firm which represents Google/Doubleclick.

While the defense of this would be that John is no part of the deal (perhaps but would likely having influence nonetheless) and that Jones Day only appeared before the EU in that battle and that they have nothing to do with the FTC. That could be but I'm not sure why their site would read that Jones Day is representing Google/DoubleClick on, "international and US antitrust and competition law aspects."

Now all this said, I think it's all silly. Google has every right to the acquisition in my opinion. The reason competition laws were made was to protect the consumer. Google product is free so really, what are we being protected from. Yes yes, if Google has too large a hold on the marketshare they will control the advertising and then they can charge advertisers what they want right? Wrong. Advertisers will pay whatever it takes as long as the money made is higher than the cost paid to provide a product or service. Whether Google controls 55% of the marketshare or 80% this won't change. They could control 100% of the market - I'm still not going to pay them more than I make to advertise my product. And have you seen what the bids are? This isn't about cost per click, it's about scale (they want more clicks) so the consumer won't really be affected and the advertisers will just have more clicks to choose from which may, I would argue, lower the cost they need to pay.

But moving on ...

We had Li Evans on the show to discuss social media and all that it isn't. She was an awesome guest and a joy to chat with in Chicago as well. I couldn't do it justice and so I'll just direct you to read her latest article (it's what the interview was about). You'll find it on her site here. Great post, recommended reading.

So that was the show. I'll give some advanced warning that I'm pretty sure we're in for a bit of a shuffle on Google this weekend. I'm not sure if we'll see one on Yahoo! but we likely should within the next week or two. Both engines have had updates recently and not all the effects were beneficial for the searcher (though in some cases the results improved - I'd have to say that overall they declined which means they will be corrected).

And to take us into the weekend and has nothing to do with Chicago or SES ...

A hilarious video. Sung to the tune of "We Didn't Start The Fire" it suggests that there's a new bubble about to burst. A good way to start your weekend (unless you work as a geek I suppose in which case it's basically poking fun at you ... ummmmmm ... HEY !!!)

Enjoy. :)

Labels: bill slawski, doubleclick, google, jim hedger, li evans, personalization, ses ch 2007, social media, webmaster radio

Well big apologies for not getting a chance to blog about Chicago before now and even this post will be short. I'll save all the details until I'm back and can put up some resources for those who attended my session.

After many delays I arrived in Chicago on Tuesday at 9:30PM and the fun began there. After a couple hours of chatting and chumming with those SEO's that chose Chicago in December rather than Vegas (we call ourselves - the ones who weren't thinking straight :) it was time for rest to be fresh for my speaking on the Personalization panel at 10:15 after which I had the opportunity to host Webcology (a radio show I co-host on Webmaster Radio) . A great show and big thanks to the WMR crew.

After that it was a Blackhawks game (big thanks to David Dalka - an expert in local and mobile search marketing than I had the good fortune of meeting in Chicago) where they were beaten by the Canucks (being from Canada I love hockey and the Canucks so it was a good night) and off for some blues with assorted SEO's and show organizers.

Today, exhausted, I got the pleasure of speaking on the "So You Want To Be A Search Marketer" panel. It's not a panel that's going to drive a lot of business but it's great to help out up-and-comers in the industry avoid some of the mistakes and hurdles we've gone through over the years. Goodness knows we got our share of assistance and advice from those who came before us. :)

And now, with only a few hours before my flight out I'm off to the Art Intitute. My only exposure to it thus far has been in watching Ferris Beuller's Day Off (great movie BTW).

Upon my return I'll be uploading photos, and posting some resources that will supplements my session on personalization. If not before it'll be up by Monday so be sure to check back - there's some interesting stuff coming. :)

Labels: jim hedger, personalization, ses ch 2007, webmaster radio

Well the dust hasn't even settled yet on the three PageRank updates we were graced with in October and Google's launched another volley and a vast number of sites lost some (or more) of those little green pixels.

In our preliminary analysis there appears to be a bit more to it than the gaining or losing of some visual PageRank (mainly losing it appears at this point). In a chat I was having with Jim Hedger earlier when we were comparing notes both of us agreed that we've seen some shifting in the rankings over the past few days and both of us expect to see more in the near future (and by that I mean within the next couple days).

From Jim's observations a lot of the sites affected have had some association with SEO/SEM firms though may not be involved directly in the industry or sell links. I haven't seen that myself as some non-SEO related sites got the hard smack (again?) but an observation worth noting while we seek common trends in what's going on.

Now, lets be clear - what appears in the green bar is not a particularly relevant reflection of the value of a site or it's ability to rank highly (used to be - not anymore). That said, with all these major changes going on one can only assume that this is indicative of other changes in the way sites will be ranked. Or Google's just messing around with us for fun or because the rumors are true and they're going to dump the whole thing altogether and they want us to be thankful for it by the time it happens. :)

To be sure we'll be watching this carefully over the weekend and over the upcoming days and weeks (and months, and years ...) and we'll keep you posted as we have more time for analysis. Some useful reading and placed to keep watching are:

• here of course :)
• AndyBeard.eu - Andy has been following this closely since October and is reporting on it well. He brings up some great points in today's post titled ZERORANK. One of my favorite points is one I've griped about before, that there's no way to request reinclusion to Google without "admitting" that you did something wrong to begin with. Well what if you were actually penalized incorrectly?
• DigitalPoint Forums - A discussion on the subject.

So a thought for Google to close out the blog for the weekend - next time, please wait until our butts have healed from the first spanking before launching into the next round. :)

Labels: andy beard, digitalpoint, google update, jim hedger, pagerank

Today we're going to discuss three things. Links, links and ... well ... links. Where to begin where to begin? I know, let's start with links:

Links
Today Jim Hedger and I hosted our weekly radio show on Webmaster Radio. We covered a variety of topics from Google surpassing $700/share in trading to the battle over advertising and Google's upcoming issues with Facebook (i.e. Facebook stands to provide a TON of relevant search and advertising opportunities and they're going to provide them to Microsoft).

After a brief discussion on those topics we had on patent guru Bill Slawski for the remained of the show to discuss ... you guessed it ... links. Bill definitely knows more than your average bear about search engines and links and was happy to share his wisdom bringing up important points to consider such as the move AWAY from global search results to results tailored more to the individual user's likes and dislikes as defined the the user, their search behavior and the behavior of similar users. If you're interested in this subject (and if rankings are important to you - you should be) you can read more about it in an article I wrote on Personalization as well as on Bill's blog where he lists the important patents related to personalization. To get a full feel for it you've just going to have to visit Webmaster Radio and download the podcast. :)

Links
And so let's move on to topic #2. Links. The link counts are getting messed up at Google again (not that they've ever been particularly reliable. As Jim Hedger points out, whenever we see these sorts of fluctuations going on it usually means there's something bigger about to happen.

I was already predicting an algorithm update later this week or over the weekend. Could this just be the tremors before the Earthquake. And please dear God let Google haven't learned a valuable lesson from the Florida update of 2003. ;) (and for those of you who were SEO's at the time (white hat at least) you'll shudder at the mere though)

Links
And lastly we're look at links. Well, we won't so much look at links as we will a rap about them. I've gotta say, this is a first for me. :)

Labels: bill slawski, facebook, google, jim hedger, link building, webmaster radio

I gotta say, SES San Jose was awesome. While the sessions themselves are always interesting and there's always something to pick up from them - it's usually the networking and "aside" conversation that you have that are the most memorable. This thought inspired me to post a "the people that you meet" post with some of the more memorable people that I had the pleasure of meeting in San Jose.

Jim Boykin - WeBuildPages.com
It's been a long time that I've wanted to meet my arch nemesis. Jim's site and the Beanstalk site tend to bounce back-and-forth in the rankings and have done so for the last year. If we're not #1 for "seo services" I don't even have to look to see who is.

It was great to finally meet Jim and learn that, aside from being a thorn in my side in the rankings from time-to-time, he's an alround good guy and knows his SEO (I should certainly hope so or I'd have to take it personally that they oust us periodically).

Kristine Schachinger - TravelWorm.com
Kristine was awesome to meet and a ton of fun. She managed to keep up with us SES'ers as far as the partying went but always kept her wits about her.

I also had the opportunity to meet the Travel Worm. This friendly little critter tried to eat my lunch but after a quiet threat to stick him on a hook and drop him into the ocean he let me eat in peace.

Ken Jurina - Epiar.com
Ah Ken, ya gotta love him. I had to give him huge props for this shot. The camera wasn't working properly and he managed to keep my 180 pounds aloft for quite a while. Was it worth it, not so sure.

The truly shocking things about this pic is that we'd each only had a couple beers by this point in the night. ;)

Robert Garcia (rumblepup) - Banler.com
Robert is the guy on the right. If you follow my Flickr posts as well you'll recall that I first met him at SES New York a few months ago.

I spent many hours over the course of the week discussing everything from SEO to politics with Robert and look forward to the next SES to chat with him again. A great guy and, while he won't say so, a very good SEO - even if I did make him wrong once ;)

David Brown (neo) - Neo1SEO.com
Running into David Brown reminded me that he is indeed a nice guy even though he tried to hit on my wife in New York (this is a joke). With forearms as large as my calves and a sense of humor that's even larger I'm now tagging him "the strongest SEO in the world".

In fact, if you're an SEO or blogger I'd truly appreciate if you'd link to http://www.neo1seo.com/about-neo1-seo.htm with the text "the strongest SEO in the world". It's an inside joke but it's a funny one. You can gather from this pic where the name came from and I'll note, he didn't lose an arm wrestle all night even though he was up against people coming in fresh. Nicely done David !!!

Glenn Convey - Metamend.com
Glenn is the President of Metamend, my old arch nemesis before I started competing with WeBuildPages.com. Now I hope Glenn knows it wasn't personal (seeing as how he didn't work there at the time). They're also a Victoria, BC based SEO firm so of course, they had to make my "hit list".

"Unfortunately" I got to know Glenn at this SES event and I learned, well, darn it - he's a nice guy and I look forward to seeing him again at future SES events and hopefully at some local tech functions.

Michael Gray - Wolf-Howl.com
Michael gave what was easily one of the most talked about presentations at SES San Jose 2007. He discussed paid links and basically blasted Google for having the "nerve" to tell webmasters what they can and cannot do on their own websites to monetize them.

While I don't necessarily agree with everything Michael said I do have to agree that it's Google's job, not ours, to find ways to determine whether a link should be considered a vote towards a site. And for you few Google employees who visit our site each day (and you know who you are) please note that Michael in no way paid for the link above. :)

Ken Leonard - Hackersafe.com
Ken hosted a dinner and man, can he pick great food. I had the pleasure of sitting beside Ken and he's both a gentleman and a scholar. A truly enjoyable meal with great company.

Also sitting at the table with me was Christian Wilson (see below), Bryan Eisenberg (author of a book I'm a huge fan of, "Waiting For Your Cat To Bark") - Bryan, it was a true pleasure to meet you, Cresta Pilsbury (also from HackerSafe) and others who were sitting farther away from me and thus, I didn't have the pleasure to get to know.

Christian Wilson - WebsiteMagazine.com
As always it's a pleasure to chat with Christian. I met him at SES San Jose last year, again in New York and once again had the pleasure of his company this year.

Christian is an all around great guy, a credit to his company, and was kind enough to hold on to my bag of geek-toys overnight saving me from having to hit the hotel before heading off to the Google Dance (and with the lineups to get there, that saved me about an hour).

Big thanks to Christian and his fine publication to which I am a subscriber (and you should too, heck - it's free :). Click here to sign up.


Big apologies to the many people that I met who couldn't make the list. There were a couple criteria I had to weed it down to - I needed to have a picture, I needed to have chatted with you for a while, and well - I needed to think that it was great to have met you. Admittedly, the picture issue is the most limiting as I often found myself so interested in the conversations that I didn't stop to get a picture taken such as occurred in my many conversation with Bill Slawski (and if you read this Bill - you really did make me nervous as heck in the personalization session :).

Thanks to everyone who made SES San Jose the great success that it was. Special thanks to Chris Sherman, Danny Sullivan, Incisive Media, Bill Slawski, Jim Hedger, and my wife for creating the environment that I get to share and partake of new and insightful ways to do the job I love so much.

Labels: bill slawski, bryan eisenberg, chris sherman, danny sullivan, david brown, epiar, hackersafe, jim boykin, jim hedger, metamend, michael gray, robert garcia, ses sj 2007, website magazine, webuildpages

My friend and veteran SEO extraordinaire Jim Hedger will be moving on. For the past year Jim has been the Sr. Editor of Jayde Online, helping change the face of SiteProNews.com, the ISEDN.org and keeping us informed with his blog posts, articles and of course, his show "The Alternative" on Webmaster Radio which I had the great pleasure of co-hosting with him.

We all wish Jim the very best of luck as he pursues to advance his SEM consulting firm Markland Media, I know he'll succeed wherever the SEO-world takes him.

He will be missed as the voice of Jayde Online, but I have a hunch we'll still be hearing from him often (call it a hunch).

Labels: jim hedger, sitepronews, webmaster radio

And so we end another week and bring in another weekend. This weekend is more fun than most for those of us (guys) with children as it's Father's Day. Ah, Father's Day ... a day dedicated to dad when we get to get up especially early, spend the day doing stuff our kids want to do "for dad" such as play at parks and go to kid movies. ;)

And so in celebration of this fine fine day I have a link to help you lighten up and separate yourselves from the trials and tribulations of day-to-day life. I'm found some very humorous videos on a site aptly named "Very Funny Ads". The funnies ads created and some of them truly bring a chuckle. So if you're a dad, this will help bring a humerus end to your work week and get you ready for the fun awaiting you on Sunday morning (bright and early) and for those without children or if you are among the 51.3% of the population that's female (you know, the ones who actually had to go through all the pain of giving us these bundles of joy) then this is purely for your enjoyment.

So turn down your speakers or plug in your headphones, make sure the boss isn't watching (or make sure the boss reads Beanstalk's blog so you know what they'll be doing ;) and enjoy. You'll find the site at http://www.veryfunnyads.com/.

And now for some real SEO news:

A couple weeks back on Webmaster Radio Jim Hedger and I discussed the launch of Google Universal. Well-known freelance writer Claudia Bruemmer has written an interesting article on how to optimize your site for this new search function which is published on the ISEDB.com website. The article gives tips and advice on how to rank over multiple formats for keyword phrases now that Google is drawing results from their verticals into the general search results.

A very good read that will give you food-for-thought as you head into the weekend. As a note, read this BEFORE watching the ads noted above. You might as well get the work-part out of the way before enjoying yourself. :) You'll find the article on the ISEDB website here.

Another interesting article that is worth read was published by Stoney deGeyter a couple months ago but which I just read again recently and forwarded to a client who's site violated more than one of the rules. Stoney wrote 10 tips to quickly increase site conversions. While this article doesn't get into advanced conversion optimization it does cover many of the most common mistakes website owners make. This too is a good read. Even if you have good conversion it's good to get a refresher on the basics and Stoney covers them well. You'll find this article here.

Labels: claudia bruemmer, conversion optimization, fathers day, google universal, jim hedger, stoney degeyter, very funny ads, webmaster radio

On today's Webmaster Radio show I had the pleasure of chatting with Frederick Townes of W3 EDGE Web Design (they're the folks who designed our site for us) as well as Jeff Quipp from Search Engine People. Jim and I had out usual banter for the first 20 minutes however rather than bouncing through a few topics we discussed Google Universal quite extensively. The show is definitely worth a listen if only to get a better understanding of this interesting twist on search and the challenges it presents for search marketers.

But that's not what the title's about now is it?

While he was on our show Jeff discussed an interesting SEO competition that they have running. Top rankings for an interesting phrase? Nope. Who can get a site into the top 10 fastest for a competitive phrase? Not even close. No, the fine folks at Search Engine People got a bit creative and are having a "write the best SEO song" competition. That's right, if you can write the best song about SEO you win their $1000 prize.

An interesting notion and I wish them luck. I assume the primary purpose of the contest is as link bait and I wish them the best of luck. it seems to be working well 'cuz here's a link to the contest. :)

Labels: jim hedger, link bait, search engine people, seo contest, w3 edge, webmaster radio

Tomorrow on Webmaster Radio Jim Hedger and I will be speaking to a couple of great guests. Dan Thies will be joining us to discuss a new project that will include a free offering for you (and me :). I won't get into more details but the free offering is worth the listen.

Also on the show tomorrow is Aaron Wall. We'll discuss paid links, the trends in SEO and probably a bunch of other topics I can't even predict (the great interviews always end up WAY off topic).

Be sure to join us at 5PM EST at WebmasterRadio.fm. You won't be disappointed.

Labels: aaron wall, dan thies, jim hedger, webmaster radio

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

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

As Jim Hedger and I discussed on our weekly radio show on Webmaster Radio today, Abdel Kareem Nabil has just been sentenced to 4 year in prison, 3 of these years are for insulting Islam and inciting sectarian strife and one year for insulting President Mubarak.

As Jim mentioned on the SiteProNews blog, here is what he was charged for:

Nabil wrote about riots in which a Coptic Christian church was attacked by Muslim worshipers over a play deemed offensive to Islam. "Muslims revealed their true ugly face and appeared to all the world that they are full of brutality, barbarism and inhumanity," he wrote, calling Muhammad and his early followers, “spillers of blood” for their teachings on the use of violence.

Now, I'm definitely not going to step in and make this any sort of religious post, we've all been less than perfect at one time or another and there are enough "spillers of blood" to go around BUT what's a key issue here is the man's right to be heard (or read as the case may be).

As we noted on the show, I would call on any and all bloggers to bring this point up and, as Jim asked, to avoid vacations to Egypt until such time as these sorts of things don't occur and there is freedom of speech applied to those who may disagree with the status-quo. Right or wrong, every voice deserves the right to be heard.

Labels: abdel kareem nabil, freedom of speech, jim hedger, sitepronews, webmaster radio

I love RSS and I love the Firefox Extension RSS Ticker. Firefox is an excellent browser and combined, these two make it easy to keep updated on the latest going-on effortlessly by scrolling my favorite RSS feeds across the bottom of my browser window. And that's how I found this latest tid-bit of info on the Marketing Pilgrim blog.

For those who have blogs through Blogger (like this one) and who have converted to the new system recently, take a look at your code. It appears that there are some *minor* issues. Actually, just one but wow - is it a doozy.

Blogger blogs, by default, include the following generic code: <$BlogMetaData$>

Well this doesn't look so bad. It tells Blogger to insert the meta data specified for the site through the Blogger control panel, how helpful. The control panel allows you to set your blog as listed or unlisted. If it's listed then it will be crawlable, if it's unlisted then it will not be. Unfortunately for some unfortunates who have recently switched, this tag is producing the following:

<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true">
<meta name="generator" content="Blogger">
<link rel="service.feed" type="application/atom+xml" title="DanoTestMule" href="http://testmule.blogspot.com/atom.xml">
<link rel="service.post" type="application/atom+xml" title="DanoTestMule" href="http://www.blogger.com/atom/6602135">
<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://www.blogger.com/rsd.pyra?blogID=6602135">
<meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW">

Hmmm, looks OK, looks OK, WAIT!!! <meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW"> Huston, we have a problem.

So, if you've recently converted to the new version of Blogger, be sure to check your code. You might find something a bit, well, let's use the word "hindering" shall we?

As an additional note, and on an unrelated topic, please accept my apologies for the lack of posts of late. I've been busy ransacking and preparing to write about Google Personalization which involves tearing through 6 patents (now THAT's fun reading) and then taking the time to understand what they actually mean. SiteProNews editor Jim Hedger and I will be publishing a white paper in the next couple weeks on the subject. I will be posting some patent info in the next couple days on this blog so keep watching.

And to be fair to the source of the Blogger info, here's your link Andy. :)

Labels: blog, blogger, google, jim hedger, nofollow, noindex, personalization, white paper

After yesterday's post on Google launching their personalization feature I received plenty of emails regarding the patents this feature is based on. I will soon be publishing an article covering the subject so I won't fine-tooth the details here (you'll just have to come back regularly for the article :) however I'd like to include a few links you're likely interested in. And they are:

The Patents
These are the patents this new feature is based on

• Systems and methods for analyzing a user's web history
• Systems and methods for modifying search results based on a user's history
• Systems and methods for providing a graphical display of search activity
• Systems and methods for managing multiple user accounts
• Systems and methods for combining sets of favorites
• Systems and methods for providing subscription-based personalization

The Feedback
Here are links to some great articles, blog posts and feedback on the subject (there's a lot more out there than this - I've just picked what I believe to be the best of the info

• Google Ramps Up Personalized Search - Danny Sullivan on Search Engine Land.com
  
• Personally speaking - The announcement of the launch of personalization on Google's official blog
• Google's Personalized Results - Jim Hedger on SiteProNews.com (it's on their homepage - I'll try to remember to change the link when it goes to a permanent location)

And just a reminder - keep watching our blog. We'll be posting an announcement of one of the most researched articles I've ever done on what is arguably the biggest change in search in years.

Labels: danny sullivan, google, jim hedger, patents, personalization, sitepronews

Let's begin our post here with an update on Google PageRank. There is an update underway. Now, before any of you panic that your PR has just dropped, take a peek at your competitors.

During the last toolbar update I noticed a TON of sites making huge gains. While I'm always pleased to see my clients jump up a couple PR points, in the last update a lot of it didn't make sense. I had clients I would have predicted to jump to a PR4 from the 3 they were at but when they jumped straight to PR5, well it didn't make sense. At lost the current update hits and the client I'm thinking of dropped to a PR4 - right where they should be with my understanding of the way the world works. :)

If you noticed drops in your PageRank value it may well be due to the current corrections going on. Think back a few months, were you celebrating a little too hard with a huge jump? Now it's time for sobriety. :)

And BotNets ...

There's a great article that appears to support my 2007 prediction on Webmaster Radio regarding Google developing a diskless computer (or at least working with manufacturers to do so). Well in an article on the BBC website titled, Criminals 'may overwhelm the web', the first signs of it are appearing though you need to read between the lines.

Vint Cerf, Google employee and one of the developers of the TCP/IP protocol (if you don't know what TCP/IP is, it's the "language" that the web and most networks function on) referred to the proliferation of botnets as a pandemic and noted the following:

"Of the 600 million computers currently on the Internet, between 100 and 150 million were already part of these botnets."

That paints a pretty bleak picture. How can we combat this pandemic? Is there even a solution?
Fortunately Michael Dell (founder of Dell computers) offered the following:

"The future might bring "disposable virtual PCs", accessed through the Internet, that would minimise the threat of a persistent virus infection."

My prediction for 2007 (or perhaps 2008 but that we would at least hear confirmation this year) was that Google would develop a cheap home system that would connect to a network and network storage rather than a hard drive. Everything would happen online. It appears that's the "solution".

Am I the only one that finds it an odd coincidence that Google points out the significant threats that are present (and make no mistake, they are threats) and that Dell bring forth the solution of a dummy machine that is centrally administered and thus, more easily secured and managed? Oh, and need I remind you that in June of 2006 Dell and Google signed a distribution deal?

Hmmmmmmmmm. Methinks my predictions for 2007 might be in the makings. :)

With all this said, botnets are a HUGE security and web issue. While I like to point out that Google and Dell and likely positioning themselves for the launch of this new computer system that does not make the issue any less real. There is a quote, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you." Just because major corporations may take advantage and seek gains from this issue doesn't mean it's not real and that it doesn't threaten the very nature and function of the Internet. The article is worth reading and, if you have the time, researching. You can read the article on the BBC website here. You can also listen to Jim Hedger and I speak with Ryan Sherstobitoff from Panda Technology on just this subject on Webmaster Radio here (this is from December 21st). (Note: hyperlink to WMR removed as the page is no longer there)

Labels: botnets, google, jim hedger, pagerank, webmaster radio

As it's Thursday I once again had the privilege of speaking with veteran SEO and all-round great guy Jim Hedger on Webmaster Radio. Today we had the opportunity to discuss some news including the reopening of DMOZ for submissions. A great piece of news for the SEO industry. We also discussed an interesting competition being held by Microsoft and AMD to "celebrate" the launch of Windows Vista. The competition is solving some puzzles (difficult) but more interesting than that is the top prize: a trip into space. How awesome is that?

You can register at http://www.vanishingpointgame.com/. Since it costs absolutely nothing to make this request I will: When you do so I'd like to ask that you fill in dave@beanstalk-inc.com in the referrer field. I'll get an extra 20 points if you do (to a maximum of 200 points). This doesn't reduce your chances of winning, it just increases mine. :) I'd really like a trip into space (how cool would my kids think I am then ... might even make up for working on a computer all day ;)


Even better than the contest were our guests today though. On the show we had Jeffrey Rohrs, author of The Sausage Manifesto. I first discussed this work back on January 4th when I found an article about it on the SearchEngineWatch.com website. Today I had the privilege of speaking with it's author and what a great discussion it was. He discussed the hurdles the engines are up against in combating click fraud, how one of the biggest areas they need to address is customer service, and a number of other great point. The link to the episode will follow at the bottom of the post so you can give it a listen. Before doing so I highly recommend reading it at http://www.sausagemanifesto.com/.

We also had on Becky Ryan speaking about MyBlogLog.com. A great service and networking resource to help professional meet and exchange information quickly and easily. I've recently become a member (December 13th) but have really only started using it over the past couple days. If any of you join feel free to add user "beanstalk" to your community. :) Hope to see you there.

And for those of you interested in listening to the full news and interviews, today's episode should be up on the WebmasterRadio site tomorrow.

Labels: dmoz, jim hedger, sausage manifesto, vanishing point game, webmaster radio

As our regular readers will know, I host a show every Thursday with Jim Hedger on Webmaster Radio. Today we discussed a few alternative engines that I like including:

• Everyclick.com - they give 50% of all their prifits to charity and are the fastest growing engine in the UK.
• WhoToTalkTo.com - an interesting take on job search engines that require people looking for job to post one they know about before they can search.
• Wize.com - a very interesting shopping engine with a great product ranking system.
• Cranky.com - A search engine for people 50-100. This is the only engine where you'll find "jobs after retirement" as the #2 most searched phrase and "sex" at #10.

We then discussed the new proposed Internet Freedom Preservation Act which helps protect net neutrality. This is important news for anyone with a website. This cross-party act seeks to protect us from having the major Telcos offer competitive advantages to those with bigger wallets regarding how all those 1's and 0's move around the 'net.

And Then Mark Joyner

It was after our news segment that Jim and I had the privalege of chatting with Mark Joyner, Internet Marketing guru and, as we found out, all-round good guy.

While I expected and prepped for an interview based more on the functional aspects of Internet Marketing and his rise to the top, we spent more time discussing how to better your life and the lives of those around you, him military past and some new offering he's providing to help him fund his philanthropic endeavors.

His new course (free) offers a variety of tips on how to be more effective. As I discovered in watching the first couple lessons: a lot of it istuff you do or should know - you've just learned to ignore the obvious (I know, I do too).

A lot of what he says makes a lot of sense and while every person's opinion is just that (their opinion) the free courses are definitely worth the time to watch (and hey, at that price all you stand to lose is an hour of your life and that's if you watch them all).

Here are some links from My. Joyner:

• Mark's blog
• Simplocity 101
  (note, there are some paid options but you get some good courses on the free ones)

So it was a big show. I would highly recommend giving it a listen (it will be posted on the Webmaster Radio site sometime tomorrow).

As an aside:

And in other news, there has been a Google update for existing sites (sites with PR0 will not find increases). This appears to be an updating of internal pages more than a full-blown update. We have not noticed much in the way of ranking changes.

Labels: cranky, everyclick, internet freedom preservation act, jim hedger, mark joyner, net neutrality, simpleology, simplology 101, whototalkto, wize

Well here we are at the end of a great year for SEO's, Internet Marketers and of course, Beanstalk. It's been a true pleasure to attend my first Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose and I look forward already to speaking at the New York conference in April. It was also a pleasure to make it through yet another year with our guarantees in tact without a requirement to pay back any clients due to missing them.

We would like to genuinely thank each and every one of you, clients or just visitors to our blog, for the part you played in making 2006 such a great success for Beanstalk. We look forward to serving you through 2007.

And now, let's get on with it shall we? Below you'll find some great links with info from 2006 and predictions for 2007.

Webmaster Radio - Yesterday on Webmaster Radio, Jim Hedger and I discussed some of our predictions for 2007. Give it a listen. In may cases we disagree so you'll have to decide for yourself who's right. (Hint: It's me ;)

101 Biggest Stories In Search - Chris Winfield of 10e20.com posted a list of his top 101 stories in search for 2006. There's some genuine info and some humerus tid-bits. Well worth the read. He includes links to a ton of great info as well.

Jim Hedger's predictions for 2007 - Jim Hedger lists his top predictions for 2007 as it relates to search (and Duke Forever). I've had to link to the printer-friendly version as SitePro still hasn't taken my advice and isn't posting their homepage content in a secondary (permanent) location.

Rand Fishkin's Predictions - Rand Fishkin posts on SEOMoz his predictions for the Web in 2007. He's always worth paying attention to.


And here are just some of my predictions for 2007:

1 - Google will launch or at the very least we'll start hearing some serious rumors that they are going to launch their own network-based computer system. They will work with manufacturers to provide an extremely low cost PC that doesn't have a hard drive but rather boots from Google's servers, provides free of charge Google's apps, is based on the Firefox browser. The only major hurdle they will face is allowing for the installation of programs. They will get around this by having a large online gaming area (fee based) and allowing for either an external hard drive or other memory source.

2 - MSN will gain ground in search. There are many who will disagree. This is based more on a hunch than anything else so we're just have to wait and see.

3 - Social media will continue to gain ground. SEO firms will need to add divisions to accommodate this growing area of Internet Marketing.

4 - Ask.com will throw at least 5 huge parties in 2007 winning the hearts and minds of SEO's everywhere. Already looking forward to seeing them in NY. :)

5 - Enquisite will become much more influential as a provider of search referral data.

6 - BJ & Tyler will win the Amazing Race 11 (assuming they're racing together in it). Season 11 will be a "best of" and I'm already anxious to see my fav AR duo head for the finish line.


And that's about it for this entry. I hop that you've all had a great holiday season thus far and look forward to serving you further through our services, blog, articles and emails through 2007.

Thanks again and HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Labels: enquisite, jim hedger, predictions 2007 seo search engine, rand fishkin, webmaster radio

An article published today by veteran SEO Jim Hedger (wow ... that's twice in one week he's been mentioned in Beanstalk's SEO blog :) covers well a topic of interest to all SEO's and which should be of interest to all business owners and those who manage websites - the statistics behind current search engine trends.

The article is a great compilation of links to some of the best and most revealing search engine and search usage trends reports to date as well as providing a solid analysis of what they mean.

For those of you interested in getting a better idea of not just where we are today in the search engine world but where we're potentially heading and how to better position your website both in rankings and in usability, then this article, published on the ISEDB website is a must-read. And I'm assuming from the fact that you're visiting our SEO blog that these issues are important to you.

You can read the full article at http://www.isedb.com/news/article/1219 (Note: link removed as the page no longer exists at this location).

Labels: jim hedger, seo article