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Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

At Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization we know that knowledge is power. That's the reason we started this SEO blog. We know that the better informed our visitors are, the better the decisions they will make for their websites and their online businesses. We hope you enjoy your stay and find the SEO news contained within this blog useful.

January 3, 2008

Google Breakup, ComScore, Traffic Power, Aaron Wall & Ninjas

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.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 3:00 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: aaron wall, comscore, danny sullivan, google, jim boykin, jim hedger, traffic power, webmaster radio —

Google Breakup, ComScore, Traffic Power, Aaron Wall & Ninjas

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.

Good luck to Jim and the ninjas !!!

And in other news:

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 3:00 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: aaron wall, comscore, danny sullivan, google, jim boykin, jim hedger, traffic power, webmaster radio —

December 13, 2007

A Bunch Of Stuff

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:

Rogers injects content onto Google homepage.

Image found with a story on he subject on Wired.com here.

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.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 6:39 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: bill slawski, doubleclick, google, jim hedger, li evans, personalization, ses ch 2007, social media, webmaster radio —

December 6, 2007

Live From Chicago

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.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 1:00 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: jim hedger, personalization, ses ch 2007, webmaster radio —

November 1, 2007

Links Links and … well … Links

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.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC3UNewnA5g]

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 2:55 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: bill slawski, facebook, google, jim hedger, link building, webmaster radio —

August 31, 2007

Farewell Jim

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).

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 1:18 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: jim hedger, sitepronews, webmaster radio —

June 15, 2007

TGIF

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.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 11:58 am

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: claudia bruemmer, conversion optimization, fathers day, google universal, jim hedger, stoney degeyter, very funny ads, webmaster radio —

May 31, 2007

A Change Of Plans

Earlier today I made mention of the fact that on our weekly Webmaster Radio show Jim and I would be interviewing Neil Patel, Presellpageman and Eric Ward. Unfortunately Eric had to cancel at the last minute due to a prior engagement. Fortunately Rebecca Kelly from SEOMoz came to our rescue and more than filled the shoes left empty.

A huge thanks to Rebecca and the SEOMoz team for coming to our rescue on such short notice (5 minutes to be specific). And what’s more – she was great and added huge value to a show dedicated to link building.

Rebecca, next SES I owe you a beer (at least).

Oh, and to top off our show Presellpageman held a contest for 3 months of hosted content (that’s a page dedicated to your content complete with a backlink to your site) on one of his 20+ year old .edu domains. And he did this for 3 lucky winners. Just another reason to listen to The Alternatives on Thursday at 5 EST.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 11:48 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: eric ward, neil patel, presellpageman, rebecca kelly, seomoz, webmaster radio —

Link Building On Webmaster Radio

No, this blog post isn’t about how to get a link on Webmaster Radio. The show today is on link building and we’ve got ourselves a lineup of some of the best-of-the-best in the industry to discuss how it’s done.

We’ll be starting off with none other than Eric Ward. Eric is one of the worlds top link builders. We’ll of course have MUCH to discuss there.

After Eric we’ll be chatting with presellpageman on hosted content, paid links and more.

After presellpageman we’ll be chatting with our good friend Neil Patel about the future of link building, social media and more.

It’s going to be an excellent show so be sure to listen in at 5PM PST or download the show tomorrow from here.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 12:47 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: eric ward, link building, neil patel, presellpageman, webmaster radio —

May 24, 2007

An Interesting SEO Competition

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.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 9:08 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: jim hedger, link bait, search engine people, seo contest, w3 edge, webmaster radio —

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