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Track Your Brand Name Across Social Web with SEJ Tools

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:44:56 +0000

Haven’t I told you SEJ Toolset is a one-stop destination when it comes to all types of your web campaigns? This week I’ll show how to monitor your online reputations from the same handy dashboard. Social Media Monitor is a service which lets you track what people are saying about you, your client, or your brand. It aggregates user generated content from across the Internet into a single stream of information. Step 1: Add a search to track social media

Google Will Stop Censoring Search Results in China,

cgseo — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:13:44 +0000

Google has issued an official statement regarding its business operations in China, specifically its Chinese search portal – google.cn. Specifically, Google told Chinese authorities that it will stop censoring search results on the Chinese Google site. And dependeing on how things will turn out, Google might later be foreced to shut down the said site. In a long post at its official blog site, Google gave three recent discoveries/incidents that prompted its decision to stop censoring search results from its Chinese site. The first one being the fact, it was found out that recent attacks on its corporate IT infrastructure originated from China and that those attacks were not just meant for Google alone. Some other business companies were also targeted. Making things worsts is that based on Google’s investigation, it was also found out that the main objective of the attackers was to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Although the attackers were not successful in achieving their target, thanks to Google’s high level of infrastructure security on its products, two Gmail accounts were jeopardized although the activity was limited only to non-essential matters and not the content of the emails. And worst of all has got to be the fact that Google also found out that even accounts of U.S., China and Europe human rights activities were accessed by third parties through malware, phising and other malicious activities. Given these conditions, Google has no recourse but to stop censoring the search results on its Chinese site. But that is of course if Google and the Chinese authorities will agree. If not, then that’s the time when Google will be force to close its Chinese site. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Google Will Stop Censoring Search Results in

Bing Makes Search Healthier

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:14:38 +0000

Bing is enhancing its Health search facility by focusing on enabling users to quickly obtaing relevant information and make better decisions related to their pressing health issues/problems. By providing more content from its new partners, Bing is augmenting instant answers with health data that helps users gain more information when they conduct health-related searches on Bing. So now, when you do a health-related search on Bing, it will cull its library of health resources and pull out relavant documents and presents a brief, informative summary above the regular search results. According to the Bing search blog, the search engine derive this information from analysis of index of medical sources and extraction of meaningful data automaticall. So, you can rest assure that the health information provided by Bing are authoritative. This is of course very important for health related information. This new Bing instant answers covers not only the general type of health queries but specific ones as well. It allows users to quickly explore other point of interest relevant to the health search query. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Bing Makes Search

Cleaning up the SEO Cesspool

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:52:31 +0000

Boy, don’t you just love to hate my article titles? I know this topic has been discussed numerous times. Seriously though – for all the short term talk that happens every time we take a hit from someone who gives our industry a bad rap, we’ve never yet come to a clear consensus as an industry on how to properly deal with the ramifications. I for one think it’s time we find a way to address it. And I have a proposal on how we can work towards such a seemingly impossible goal… The SEO

Bye Bye Baidu : China’s Largest Search Engine Hacked

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:58:18 +0000

The Iranian Cyber Army has done it again. Their clever team of hackers has taken hostage of Baidu.com , China’s largest search engine. Baidu, pronounced “Bidu” is to China what Google is to the rest of the English-speaking world. Sources say those in China trying to log onto Baidu.com are currently being redirected to the Iranian cyber Army’s splash page, while people in other countries are still able to log onto Baidu. Some are speculating the search engine was targeted due to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Although nothing has been confirmed, we are leaning towards the idea that the Iranian cyber Army is an undercover Google coy, in which case Google insiders are having a field day. After all, Baidu has led the way with a market share of over 77% , but perhaps not for long. The breaking news comes after the “Iranian cyber Army” (aka Google hackers) successfully hacked Twitter last week. So who’s next? Read more about Baidu, Google’s biggest competitor in China. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Bye Bye Baidu : China’s Largest Search Engine

Covario Acquires NetConcepts

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:36:18 +0000

The San Diego based search marketing services and software firm, Covario , has acquired NetConcepts, the SEO agency which was founded by Stephen Spencer . Many in the Search Marketing industry know Spencer from either his speaking engagements, his contribution to the Art of SEO and his endless supply of WordPress SEO plugins. Stephan Spencer is good people. Covario are good people. We’re very happy to hear this news for both NetConcepts and Covario, as two companies Search & Social highly respects. And now for the press release : Covario’s acquisition strengthens its industry leading position providing SEO solutions to the world’s largest advertisers. The combined company will have nearly 100 customers in key industries such as high tech, financial services, ecommerce, retail, consumer electronics, media, life sciences, and consumer packaged goods. Covario will leverage the acquisition by integrating Netconcepts’ GravityStream™ technology into Covario’s SEO consulting practice and Organic Search Insight™ software. Netconcepts, founded in 1995, is the leader in driving online sales for the retail and ecommerce space through management of natural search engine rankings using its GravityStream technology. Key clients include Cabela’s, Northern Tool, Ann Taylor, Deckers, Woolrich, and Builder’s Square. The merger will help these retail clients, and other clients, gain access to Covario’s software and team of service experts to better synchronize their paid and natural/organic search efforts to create efficiencies, improve results for both channels, and ultimately improve their return on investment (ROI). The technology is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) web content management solution that allows an advertiser to deploy SEO strategies in a scalable and cost effective way. “With the acquisition of Netconcepts and the GravityStream technology, Covario is bringing a unique solution to advertisers to help them accelerate their ability to present their brands on all the major search engines globally,” said Russ Mann, Chief Executive Officer of Covario. “By coupling Covario’s Organic Search Insight with NetConcepts’ GravityStream technology, advertisers will be able to identify the SEO actions that drive better rankings, and also deploy those strategies quickly, and in a highly scalable way to achieve their ROI goals.” The growing importance of SEO in advertising is a key factor behind Covario’s acquisition of Netconcepts. According to Forrester Research, advertisers would spend approximately $2.5 billion on SEO in the U.S. alone in 2009, and this is estimated to double to $5.0 billion by 2014 [Forrester’s July 2009 US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2009-2014]. “Marketers looking for clicks at a cost much lower than paid search are joining those who return to SEO after mastering paid search programs,” according to Shar VanBoskirk, an analyst for Forrester. “Nearly two-thirds of all marketing spend to manage search programs is for advanced technologies or outsourced partners — an indication that search programs are gaining maturity and investment.” Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Covario Acquires

Weekly Search & Social News: 01/12/2010

cgseo — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:32:42 +0000

Welcome to another edition of ‘ 7 Days of Search and Social ‘ – We’re all back in the swing of things after the holidays, although I am still getting caught up over here…sigh. Anyway, it was a pretty good week out in the blogosphere and somewhat drama-free, (always a good thing). While there were plenty of interesting blog posts, the rest of the search geek world was still somewhat sleepy (other than some interesting patents). Without further adieu, the best from the week that was;

SEO is a Brick not a House

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:50:26 +0000

This post is in reference to SEO services as a business model, however many of the ideas can be juxtaposed to businesses and their utilization of the method for marketing So much gets said about SEO and its relevance or even legitamacy. Most of this is purely linkbait, and the SEO crowd is all to quick to fall into the trap. The arguements fall into three basic camps. 1.The SEO are scumbags camp, of which Derek Powazek became a member and then quickly left. 2.The SEO is bullshit camp, of which Jason Calacanis is probably the most visible member, but you can find tons of the linkbait here . 3. The SEO is a “dying business” concept, of which Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker is one of the main figure heads, and now Robert Scoble has joined the mix. None of these are 100% right, or for that matter wrong. 1. Some SEOs, like some circus clowns and some grocery baggers are indeed scum bags. But then there are people like, Neil Patel who have gotten rave reviews from savvy web people due to his aid of their web properties. From Quicksprout.com : “Neil has advised TechCrunch for more than two years and been an important part of the growth of the TechCrunch Network by helping us implement SEO best practices. Search engines have grown to be responsible for 1/3 of all TechCrunch traffic, so Neil’s ongoing support is critical to our business.” – Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch 2. Some SEOs offer services that are nothing more than bullshit, every SEO has had to clean up a mess by these types of unscrupulous business people. But there are a ton of proffesionals out their helping people transition to the online space, and thus save their livelihood. 3. Some SEOs have thriving businesses based on there insane prowess, like my bud Dave Naylor , others are feeling the economic crunch. For me, long term, I look at my business ventures and I side with Shoemoney on several points. SEO as a stand alone service offering is a tough long term business plan to feel solid about. The engines are changing too fast to allow anyone doing the service to feel confident about their business over the next 10 years, and everyone should be looking at the current changes in terms of personalization and taking it as a cue to diversify what they do. SEO is a block in the creation of a solid online marketing strategy, it isn’t the entire house. Good SEOs know this. Every site clinic I have ever seen with SEO rockstars like Greg Boser, Todd Freisen, Dave Naylor, Mikkel deMib Svendsen, and countless others always circles back to them spending as much time exploring conversion, usability, and social media as they do the standard SEO practices. To definitively say SEO as a practice or service based business model has lost its legs is a bit premature to say the least. Traditional media is dying quickly, and more businesses are turning to the web to make a new revenue stream. Search is the most logical place to begin for these companies. Also, the top 5% of SEOs out there will be making money as long search engines exist. Again though, search, paid or organic, can only be a piece of the online marketing puzzle. As we look at 2010 we are seeing that brands have cemented their position on the web, building a solid brand, via a mixture of online marketing streams is the only route towards continual prosperity online. Mobile adveritisng, due to the growth of app based mobile OSs, will likely grow from 2009s relatively small $416 million in spend, and acquiring the tools to make this a part of your offering as a service provider will soon become a necessity. Social media has become profitably, and now is a must have for CMOs. And so we start to get this view of online marketing like a machine, one distinct entity, but with sum parts that have little use on their own. What good is 100,000,000 search based visitors if you are only getting .02% conversion, and negative ROI on the money to achieve the paid and organic rankings? How real is a 90% conversion rate if you are only bringing in 2 natural visitors a month? Smart professionals in the space, like my friend Todd Malicoat , are using their talents to offer companies online business consulting services, and utilizing the revenue generated from these services to fund their long term goals. This has been the premise behind Search & Social from Day 1. Why make everyone else money? Utilize the skills and team you have built to build revenue streams beyond services. This site is the most public proof of this concept for us. We are looking at an evolution online, and not a death. The direction the online world is moving favors diversified marketing campaigns, more directly branding based marketing, and savvy service providers will make note and transition. Others will die off. This is the cycle of business in any sector, and not a fact reserved to SEO alone. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . SEO is a Brick not a

How to Predict Traffic from Google

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:43:34 +0000

Google gives you plenty of really good tools at the moment to predict the traffic to your website from Google rankings. In this post I will show you how you can make a guestimation of the %age of traffic that a particular rank will give you, this is something that I have been trying to figure out for a long time now, and with Google’s wealth of tools available we can use these to get quite fair estimations (Well I think so anyway.). So what do you need to do this: Google Adwords Keyword Tool Your Analytics Package Daily Rankings Reports Google Insights for Search Firstly some caveats, This is an estimation tool remember this and make no promises based on the results, Results can depend on many other factors other than just this such as how appealing your result looks to the searcher, Results do not take into consideration the number of sponsored listings on the page or local search results and the maps with them, real time search box and Shopping results. Collecting the

Link Building Strategies: Time to ACT

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:18:43 +0000

Everything in life that is worth anything takes a lot of effort and action. When I was in High School my Dad bought me an old 66’ Ford Mustang that was really beat up. For three years I worked on that old car and made it look like a million bucks. Because I worked hard and took action the car was amazing and it meant a lot to me, a lot more that if my Dad would have just bought me a new car. The point is you have to ACT to receive what it is you want. Link Building is no different. If you want links (which you should) then you have to take some specific actions to get links. If you think they are just going to come because you have a cool website, then I am afraid you will be very disappointed. Link Building in regards to Search Engine Optimization is not going away anytime soon, and for this very reason if you don’t have a strategy it will be very hard for you to rank for the keywords/phrases that you so desire. Below you will find some specific actions you must take to build up your link juice. These items are not the only steps you need to take (there are hundreds – even thousands) but they will tell you what actions you need to take today to start your Link Building campaign. A.C.T. stands for Ask, Content, and Timing. You must A.C.T. to build links effectively. A –