Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

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.

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

Google is sponsoring a HUGE contest. The prize: $20 million. The task: To successfully soft land a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon, rove on the lunar surface for a minimum of 500 meters, and transmit a specific set of video, images and data back to the Earth.

Here's a press release from Google:

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go into space and orbit the Earth. Two years later, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space (she orbited the earth 48 times -- take that, Yuri). By the end of the decade, the Apollo teams, rising to President Kennedy's challenge, made Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first human beings to walk on the Moon.

Great things can happen when you reach for the stars. That's why we're thrilled to be sponsoring the Lunar X-PRIZE, which will award a total of $30 million to teams competing around the world to land privately funded spacecraft on the Moon.

Why does Google love space? Well, for one thing, we just think it's cool. More seriously, space exploration has a remarkable history of producing technological breakthroughs, from ablative heat shields and asteroid mining to invisible braces and Tang; the X-PRIZE, too, could lead to important developments in robotic space exploration, a whole host of new space-age materials, precision landing control technology, and who knows what else.

Finally, we hope the contest will help renew public interest in fields like math, engineering and computer science, especially among the young people on whom we'll all be depending to tackle tomorrow's technical challenges, whether they're on the web or among the stars.

As Neil Armstrong famously pointed out, small steps lead to giant leaps. We hope that our sponsorship of the Lunar X-PRIZE is one of those small steps, and we can't wait to see what giant leaps result. By the way, just so the teams can scout locations and plan accordingly, Google Moon just went live. For more information, visit the Google Lunar X-PRIZE site.

Alright Google I gotta say (as a Star Trek fan): that's really cool.

Labels: google, lunar x-prize, seo contest

I received an email inviting me to enter the Rank Race. The Rank Race is an SEO competition that will span over six months. Many of the competition details are a bit vague, likely to keep entrants from getting a jump start on things. I have submitted our application and we will be entering.

I'll be sure to keep you posted on how it goes, who ends up winning, and what tactics we used to get the positions we secure. I'll also post our contest domain here so you can monitor what we're doing though I won't be releasing all the details about why we're doing what we're doing until after the competition is over. I'm not trying to hide anything from you, our valuable blog readers, just the other competitors. :)

You can read more about the competition, who's in it and what it's all about on the Rank Race site.

And if you decide to enter, good luck (but not too much of it ;).

Labels: rank race, seo contest

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