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Video of SEMPO President Sara Holoubek

On May 30, 2010, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) President, Sara Holoubek was recently interviewed at this year’s Search Engine Strategies conference. SEMPO has just released their 6th annual state of search report and the numbers are impressive for this year.
Check out the video and interview with SEMPO’s Sara Holoubek:

For those who might be worried about what is [...]

SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) President, Sara Holoubek was recently interviewed at this year’s Search Engine Strategies conference. SEMPO has just released their 6th annual state of search report and the numbers are impressive for this year.

Check out the video and interview with SEMPO’s Sara Holoubek:

For those who might be worried about what is happening with the industry and where it is going SEMPO’s report outlines that search spending amongst many companies is set to have double digit increases for 2010. After a year of strange ups and downs across the entire business community these types of growth numbers are great to see, helping to keep moral high across the search engine marketing industry. There is no doubt that more and more companies are leaving behind direct marketing practices and quickly moving into the digital landscape. With cost cutting budget changes still in effect there is no comparison in moving a company’s marketing efforts into the online search engine marketing space.

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Is Google Censoring Climategate? Google Says No.

On December 7, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

A Google Web Search Help thread I have been tracking since November has an interesting history. In short, some searchers are suspecting that Google is censoring the search term [climategate] from the search results.

On November 28th, Richard Sharpe asked if Google was censoring the term:

If I use Google to search for pages about ClimateGate, it does not put up any search suggestions after I have entered “Cli” however, Bing offers many terms, with “ClimateGate” at the top of the list.

In addition, google says there are about 10M pages that match my search, Bing says there are as many as 50M.

If Google is going to censor the pages I can search for, then I am switching to Bing.

Then on December 2nd a different member noticed Google started showing search suggestions, such as “climate-gate” and “climate gate scandal” on Google Suggest. In fact, a Googler named Jem confirmed this saying:

Thanks for voicing your concerns. We haven’t made any adjustments to our suggestions to limit the appearance of [ climategate ] in Google Suggest. So you know, it’s totally normal for a suggestion to take time to appear consistently in our query suggestions (it’s even normal for it to appear in some but not all cases).

So why wasn’t it showing before? Well, she explained that before it wasn’t such a popular topic and now it is. She added:

Since [ climategate ] is a growing search trend, it’s likely to start appearing more and more consistently over time. I can’t promise, though — suggestions are generated automatically, and Internet fame can be fleeting :)

If you’re interested, below I’m linking to some Google Insights for Search data about [ climategate ].

So why today is it no longer showing up in Google Suggest? Isn’t today the big climate conference? Looking at the search data does show it is still very popular.

Danny Sullivan has a ton of details, with pictures and additional analysis at Search Engine Land, he concludes:

Overall, there’s no doubt that Climategate is a popular topic, no doubt. However, those who want to demonstrate how popular would be better advised to use Google Trends, rather than the far less dependable web search results counts.

As for Google, I’ll wish again that they’d provide better results counts. I’d also hope for more consistency on how, when and why it shows suggested terms. Finally, I’m still hoping that Google will show precisely what it searched for when it looks for more than the word you’ve entered. Last year, Google grew more transparent about how it customizes results but failed to deal with broad searching as part of that. Clearly, that type of disclosure is overdue.

I am just shocked it was removed ‘automatically’ a few days after it came up, especially after Googler’s Jem response.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.



A Google Web Search Help thread I have been tracking since November has an interesting history. In short, some searchers are suspecting that Google is censoring the search term [climategate] from the search results.

On November 28th, Richard Sharpe asked if Google was censoring the term:

If I use Google to search for pages about ClimateGate, it does not put up any search suggestions after I have entered “Cli” however, Bing offers many terms, with “ClimateGate” at the top of the list.

In addition, google says there are about 10M pages that match my search, Bing says there are as many as 50M.

If Google is going to censor the pages I can search for, then I am switching to Bing.

Then on December 2nd a different member noticed Google started showing search suggestions, such as “climate-gate” and “climate gate scandal” on Google Suggest. In fact, a Googler named Jem confirmed this saying:

Thanks for voicing your concerns. We haven’t made any adjustments to our suggestions to limit the appearance of [ climategate ] in Google Suggest. So you know, it’s totally normal for a suggestion to take time to appear consistently in our query suggestions (it’s even normal for it to appear in some but not all cases).

So why wasn’t it showing before? Well, she explained that before it wasn’t such a popular topic and now it is. She added:

Since [ climategate ] is a growing search trend, it’s likely to start appearing more and more consistently over time. I can’t promise, though — suggestions are generated automatically, and Internet fame can be fleeting :)

If you’re interested, below I’m linking to some Google Insights for Search data about [ climategate ].

So why today is it no longer showing up in Google Suggest? Isn’t today the big climate conference? Looking at the search data does show it is still very popular.

Danny Sullivan has a ton of details, with pictures and additional analysis at Search Engine Land, he concludes:

Overall, there’s no doubt that Climategate is a popular topic, no doubt. However, those who want to demonstrate how popular would be better advised to use Google Trends, rather than the far less dependable web search results counts.

As for Google, I’ll wish again that they’d provide better results counts. I’d also hope for more consistency on how, when and why it shows suggested terms. Finally, I’m still hoping that Google will show precisely what it searched for when it looks for more than the word you’ve entered. Last year, Google grew more transparent about how it customizes results but failed to deal with broad searching as part of that. Clearly, that type of disclosure is overdue.

I am just shocked it was removed ‘automatically’ a few days after it came up, especially after Googler’s Jem response.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.



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Will Bing Marry News Corp?

On November 23, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

Rupert Murdoch is reported as saying that he plans to de-index his web properties from Google and go to an all-paid subscription format.
In case you never got a chance to see this interview, here it is:

Now, the talk is that Bing.com has had discussions with News Corp about offering exclusive content through its search [...]

Rupert Murdoch is reported as saying that he plans to de-index his web properties from Google and go to an all-paid subscription format.

In case you never got a chance to see this interview, here it is:

Now, the talk is that Bing.com has had discussions with News Corp about offering exclusive content through its search engine. According to a Financial Times article, Microsoft, the owner of Bing.com, has approached other publishers with a similar deal.

TechCrunch gives a little bit of insight into how this might play out in the long run and who is ultimately behind the coup that seems to be developing right before our very eyes.

The interesting thing I find about all of this is this: If Microsoft did strike a deal with News Corp – and with the top 5 other media publishers as Jason Calacanis suggests – then that would definitely take a bite size chunk out of Google’s search share. No doubt about it. But it would have to happen on a larger scale than what Rupert Murdoch is suggesting. He doing it alone would not work. He would have to get the other media companies to go in with him at the same time.

In other words, a paid indexing deal between Bing.com and News Corp would be like a rock ding on an old Pontiac. A small dent. Nothing more. But if the top 5 media companies at the same time struck the same deal then that would be more like a boulder smashing the top of the Pontiac and flattening it. Google would still be alive, but searchers looking for news content would have to – they’d have no choice – use Bing.com. Google’s search share would plummet within a year.

Another thing that would happen is a bidding war for content indexing. It’s possible that anyone who wants to be indexed at any search engine would then have to pay to be in the index. Once Google lost share it would have no choice but to approach other large publishers to offer an exclusive deal in order to give consumers a reason to use it instead. They could even offer better deals to News Corp and other publishers who were being bought by Microsoft. This would completely change the way webmasters perform search engine marketing. Instead of discouraging paid links, Google would then almost be forced to encourage paid links. The web as we know it today would disappear and the search engine marketing game would change completely.

Is this even possible? Are all these people dreaming or is there really a coup d’etat in the works involving the wealthy media elite and the third most popular search engine? And where is Yahoo! in this mix? Anyone?

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In the SEO World 2009 is Almost 1999!

On November 11, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

There’s no doubt that the practice and industry of search engine optimization has undergone some changes in the last ten years. What was important in 1999 is not necessarily still important today. Though, in many respects, the basics that are important for on site optimization, still remain just as important today.

In 1999, meta tags were [...]

There’s no doubt that the practice and industry of search engine optimization has undergone some changes in the last ten years. What was important in 1999 is not necessarily still important today. Though, in many respects, the basics that are important for on site optimization, still remain just as important today.

In 1999, meta tags were extremely important. Today, they’re only moderately so. Keywords in your URL fluctuate from a point of major importance to minor importance from year to year. But keyword positioning in the title of your page has grown in importance from moderately high to very high. With link building, link exchanges and Google page rank chasing used to be all of the craze in the SEO world, but it is not effective these days. Still, can we say definitively that there is one aspect of on site optimziation that is of supreme importance in SEO and should not be left out? I think so!

Based on my years of SEO and internet marketing experience (and of course, many other SEO folks in the industry would agree!) The most important aspect of on site optimization is the same as it was today as it was in 1999…drum roll, please! CONTENT! You guessed it, good quality, goal and user focused content is the king of all SEO efforts. If you content is not well written with your goals in mind, without call to actions, without a clear direction any visitors that you happen to achieve through your SEO and search engine marketing efforts are wasted. The bottom line is write your content for humans, your visitors coming to your website and optimize it naturally and you should be in good shape!

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User Initiated Content – Worth The Hassle?

On October 24, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

You’ve no doubt heard of user generated content (UGC). It’s content that users generate for you in the form of blog comments, forum postings, wiki information, etc. If a user can log in to your site and post information that you publish then it’s user generated content.
But what about user initiated content? This is content [...]

You’ve no doubt heard of user generated content (UGC). It’s content that users generate for you in the form of blog comments, forum postings, wiki information, etc. If a user can log in to your site and post information that you publish then it’s user generated content.

But what about user initiated content? This is content that you generate based on user input. For instance, a user requests that you write about a certain topic. But more often than not, a blogger will write a post about a topic because a user posted a question or left a comment and the blogger thought the comment deserved more than a response in the comments. It’s called user initiated content.

The great thing about user initiated content is you know it is content that at least some of your users are concerned about. Chances are, if one person mentioned it then there are at least ten or more other people thinking the same thing but not verbalizing it.

User initiated content is also easier to get started on. You don’t have to brainstorm for ideas. The idea is right in front of you. And if it’s something you can write about without researching then it will save you time and engery. And it still has all the same on site search engine optimization benefits as user generated content or any other type of content. In the end, user initiated content is a big plus. Just don’t do it too often, unless you really get some excellent topics from your visitors!

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Twitter for Small Business – Only 9%

On October 23, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

Here’s an interesting number – 9%. Are you a part of it?
According to Small Business Newz, only 9% of small businesses are using Twitter for marketing. But, 32% more are planning to incorporate social media into their marketing plans. Twitter will no doubt be included in that. You should consider it too.

There are more reasons [...]

Here’s an interesting number – 9%. Are you a part of it?

According to Small Business Newz, only 9% of small businesses are using Twitter for marketing. But, 32% more are planning to incorporate social media into their marketing plans. Twitter will no doubt be included in that. You should consider it too.

There are more reasons than meet the eye that a small business owner would want to use Twitter in their marketing plans. One very good reason is for search engine optimization purposes. And, no, I’m not talking about some new link building scheme. I AM talking about a new way of getting ranked in the search engines for your important content.

As noted yesterday, both Bing and Google are in discussions with Twitter and Facebook about including updates in search results. Once that happens, and it’s already started to happen, then you’ll have one more way to land on page 1 of the search results for the keywords that you are targeting. While traffic will not be routed directly to your website from the search results, it will be routed indirectly through Twitter, which is fast becoming one of the web’s most important tools for marketing for small businesses. Capture an audience on Twitter and you will surely see your visitors, brand and sales rise.

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Bing Is Revolutionizing Search of Twitter

On October 22, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

We’ve discussed before the importance of Twitter for search and for the search engine optimization industry. Bing is ranking tweets and is in discussions with Facebook to incorporate its social media content in search results. No doubt that Google will follow this act. But the interesting thing about how Bing is ranking tweets is that [...]

We’ve discussed before the importance of Twitter for search and for the search engine optimization industry. Bing is ranking tweets and is in discussions with Facebook to incorporate its social media content in search results. No doubt that Google will follow this act. But the interesting thing about how Bing is ranking tweets is that your Twitter followers can be a ranking factor. This from WebProNews:

The answer is: Bing weighs tweets by follower counts. “If someone has a lot of followers, his/her Tweet may get ranked higher,” says Bing. “If a tweet is exactly the same as other Tweets, it will get ranked lower.”

Can you say Twitter follower spam?

This really does look like a search gaming haven for some people and it provides a great user experience for people searching within Bing. Choose a keyword and tweet it, but first make sure you’ve got 500,000 followers so you can rank the highest for that tweet. There will definitely need to be some tweaks to that Bing Twitter search algorithm and my bet is that Google will approach the whole Twitter search ranking question with a lot more better in the very near future.

Are you prepared for the next iteration of search wars?

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