If you are an SEO and you are not aware of Matt Cutts’ strong opposition to buying links, you must have been living under a rock. However, my hunch is that most businesspeople (at least those who don’t live and breathe SEO) are naive to Google’s tough stance — and to the risks! My SEO […]

It’s 2007, so it’s out with the OLD and in with the NEW. What’s old, in terms of SEO? Obsessively watching indexation numbers and rankings on “trophy” keywords (like the one you know the CEO always checks first thing in the morning). Worrying yourself sick over “duplicate content penalties”. Relying on Sitemaps XML files to […]

“Gray hat SEO” is that fuzzy area of search engine optimization between ethical SEO (i.e. “white hat”) and the really naughty stuff that you’ll get banned for if you get caught (i.e. “black hat”). Some say that white hat SEO is idealistic, whereas gray hat SEO is pragmatic, employed by SEOs with keen business acumen. […]

The fifth of in my series of SEO Report Cards for Practical eCommerce magazine led to the “deconstruction” of AirTroductions.com, which is an ecommerce-enabled matchmaking service for road warriors (currently over 17,000 registered). I found it to be a solid website, which, with some tuning, would make for a better ride in the search engines. […]

Finding the right balance between SEO and a usability can sometimes be a challenge. The two strategies can conflict and companies may mistakenly favor one over the other. For example, one company may choose to stuff the same keywords into every alt tag in their navigation graphics. That, of course, detracts from the user experience, […]

A while back I did an information-packed 90-minute webinar for Marketing Profs called “Google in the Real World: How Links Boost Your Ranking”. I obtained permission from MarketingProfs to post an archived version of all the webinars I did for them on my site. I just created a screencast of this webinar on link building […]

Since at least a few people seem to want me to expand on my presentation from the recent Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose, I have put a one-hour screencast together. In addition to covering all the slides in the Powerpoint deck, I also ran through an example of a corporate website that is […]

Google bills the Google Mini as a search appliance that’s able to deliver “the same reliable results you expect from Google web search” to your intranet or public website. I think Google is being misleading here, confusing their customer base into mistakenly believing they will receive the “same results” from the Google Mini as the […]

The fourth of my SEO Report Cards led to the “deconstruction” of online golf equipment retailer Golfgods.com, whose president Jason Mischel was lamenting over the “quality” of the site’s 5000-6000 visitors per day. Their #6 ranking in Google for “golf clubs” wasn’t to be sneezed at, however it wasn’t the hole-in-one they hoped for.  Some […]

As promised, I’ve posted my Powerpoint deck from the session I gave earlier today here at Search Engine Strategies San Jose. I was thinking I might create an extended version of my presentation (like 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes) and make it available as a screencast video, if enough of you folks request it. […]