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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

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Introduction Video

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Graywolf’s SEO Video Blog March 17th

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Graywolf’s SEO Video Blog March 17th

Why 99% of the SEO bloggers need to step away from the keyboard and stop wasting time

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

SEO Bloggers Step Away From the Keyboard

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SEO Bloggers Step Away From the Keyboard

A quick and simple experiment on how to optimize your youtube Video with “the money shot”

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

YouTube Video Optimization

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YouTube Video Optimization

I’d like to say thanks to the people who sponsored the blog this month, without them there wouldn’t be regular posts here.

Text Link Ads – New customers can get $100 in free text links.

CrazyEgg.com – Supplement your analytics with action information from click tracking heat maps.

Efficiently manage your SEO and Social Media campaigns with Raven’s powerful suite of Internet Marketing Tools

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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Thanks to this Months Sponsors – September 2009

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Thanks to this Months Sponsors – September 2009

With the impending arrival of Google OS I’ve been spending more time in Google Chrome, and figuring out how to customize things to my liking. Here’s a tip on how to turn off personalized search in Google Chrome.

First thing you want to do is click the wrench icon on the Google Chrome toolbar and select options, when the dialog box pops up, select the manage button next to search engine listings

When the list of search engine pops up choose Google, you’ll see there are three values listed the third one is the one you’re concerned with copy and paste it to your favorite text editor

You should have a text line that looks like this

{google:baseURL}search{google:RLZ}{google:acceptedSuggestion}{google:originalQueryForSuggestion}
sourceid=chrome&ie={inputEncoding}&q=%s

That’s the code that google uses to form your search query. To turn off personalized search you need to add the following parameter on to the end

&pws=0

close one dialog box and click “add” a new box will pop up, name your new search engine differently than any of the others (the checkbox will turn green when you do) and paste the code with the [&pws=0] on the end into the bottom box

I prefer all of my searches to be non personalized so I made it my default, but that’s up to you. Execute a search and check for the [&pws=0] parameter and you’re good to go.

photo credit: extranoise

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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

How to Turn Off Personalized Search in Google Chrome

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How to Turn Off Personalized Search in Google Chrome

I’d like to say thanks to the people who sponsored the blog this month, without them there wouldn’t be regular posts here.

Text Link Ads – New customers can get $100 in free text links.

CrazyEgg.com – Supplement your analytics with action information from click tracking heat maps.

Clasione Directory – Quality directory for listing your business

Interested in seeing your message here? There are banner and RSS advertising options available find out more information.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Thanks to this Months Sponsors – June 2009

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Thanks to this Months Sponsors – June 2009

Photo by David Cox via Creative Commons

SMX Advanced was a whole week ago but that doesn’t mean we’re done with the controversy. Today, the SEO community is buzzing about how Matt Cutts sat up on that stage and, in Lisa Barone’s words, “openly stated that Google profiles SEOs like common criminals.” I’ll be honest, that sentence shocked me to the core — Matt Cutts stated anything openly? It must have been a pod person.

Clearly we need to get to the bottom of this. Our fearless leader, Bruce Clay, was also in the audience that day, making like the livebloggers and getting awesome notes. I asked Bruce what happened to cause this shocking statement. Why on earth would Matt stop being vague long enough to call a room full of SEO professionals criminal?

What did Matt say exactly?

Well, first off, that’s not what Matt said. (You already knew that was coming.) It’s actually what Michael Gray asked. Matt’s reply was:

The closer you get to money and the closer you get to people who are doing it deliberately for links — and there’s a certain segment of people who are doing whatever they can just to get those links — that’s a higher risk endeavor in our opinion.

You know, even though what Matt said was rather mild and nothing we haven’t heard before, there’s a couple good lessons here for SEOs to remember.

On Twitter, when this all started, I casually stated that I could sum this whole thing up in one sentence. (I still could. Brevity is the soul of wit, but not of blog posts.)

Here’s my one-sentence blog post:

Yes, SEOs are held to a higher standard than mom and pop shops; SEOs are professionals.

See, sometimes people get really good at something and then they start selling that something and making a lot of money doing it. Other people might learn to do the same thing but it isn’t their job and they don’t want it to be.

For example, Lois Lane is an ace reporter for the Daily Planet. Sometimes when she’s on a story, she’ll take pictures to go with it. But everyone knows that Lois isn’t a photographer — that’s Jimmy Olsen. If Lois takes a bad picture for the paper, oh well, that’s not really her job, even though it’s related to her story. If Jimmy takes a bad picture, people are going to judge that more harshly.

SEOs and webmasters are pretty much the same. SEOs are Jimmy Olsen, sent out there to get the shot, make it awesome, and win that Pulitzer for photography. Webmasters are Lois Lane; they’re just supposed to get some kind of picture that will go with their stories.

Photo by Scott/adjustafresh via Creative Commons

But wait! It’s not just about webmasters taking bad pictures (or making bad sites). It’s about how they get away with stuff that SEOs can’t, like giving away pizza and getting back thousands of backlinks. And that’s not fair! That’s a good point.

Let’s look at Lois and Jimmy’s friend Superman. He stands for truth, justice and the American way. He can outrun trains, stop bullets, blah blah blah, you know the story. His job is to do the right thing all the time. If Superman starts breaking the law, no one will put up with it. He’s supposed to uphold the law, help the innocent, play by the rules.

But what about Google?

All right, I’m done with the superhero analogy for a minute. What about Google not holding itself to the same standard? They know the rules too and they’re ignoring them. How come Google can give away brand new Android phones but Michael Gray can’t do the same without warning the recipients that they can’t link back without a nofollow attribute?

Michael’s got a point, and it’s a different one than Lisa’s. Why does Google get to manipulate their SERPs with giveaways that would have any SEO on the planet slapped for suspicious intent? Unfortunately, the answer here sucks because it’s that life isn’t fair. Google isn’t the government (yet) so they don’t care about the First Amendment. You don’t have a right to free speech and if you want into their clubhouse, you have to play by their rules.

These are the hard truths:

1. It’s Google’s index, they set barrier to entry wherever they want to.
2. Google gets to play by its own rules, like with the Android phones giveaway.
3. Google gets to change the rules when it wants in order to improve its SERP quality, not to make SEOs’ lives easier.

But come on, we know all this. We’ve always known this. This same conversation has been going on since before I got into the industry four and a half years ago and it’s never ever going to change. So relax, because in the end, it doesn’t matter.

Forget fighting Google. Make good sites.

Look, if Google really thought that SEOs were common criminals, that they hated the whole industry, that SEOing a Web site was a show of bad faith, why would optimized sites be ranking well? Maybe this is a chicken and egg question but it really does baffle me. It’s not like it’s hard to tell if a site has been touched by the sticky fingers of SEO. Heck, I’m just a writer and I can tell when a site has been optimized. I’m sure the big brains at Google can do it if I can.

Photo by Andrew Magill via Creative Commons

If SEOs are making sites that rank and are following guidelines that Google considers “good for users”, why would Google hate that? Google wants things to be good for their users because that’s what makes them money. They’re a multi-billion dollar company that relies on their search engine to keep customers coming back and clicking on those oh-so-important text ads on the right rail. They don’t do it with flashy branding or look-at-me gimmicks. They do it by consistently delivering results that their customers are happy with. Make sites that make customers happy and you’re on the right track.

Now go forth and optimize. Oh, and don’t forget — there are other engines out there too. Maybe give them some love.

More here:
I Don’t Like Conflict (But Google Doesn’t Think SEOs are Criminals)

Friday night I danced, bounced and sang to my heart’s content at the 311 concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl. I walked away with great memories, an adrenaline rush and, unexpectedly, a bit of fodder for the blog. Tucked inside the pages of the SB Bowl’s concert program was a page dedicated to getting people involved with their online communities.

I see three great lessons we can take from the Bowl’s online marketing approach, and one looming question for our industry to contemplate.

1. An Integrated Strategy that Speaks to the Audience

Photo by altemark via Creative Commons

First and foremost, big props go to the SB Bowl for utilizing online communities popular among their audience. They’re working to drive community involvement online and you gotta love that! On the SB Bowl Twitter account they’re providing useful info like traffic issues and responding to people’s questions about venue rules, as well as letting people know about last-minute special events. They’re encouraging people to review the venue on Yelp and to sign up for their email newsletter. They’ve also got a program with Yahoo and Internet Explorer where users can get the first word about announced shows or tickets that are on sale. And, wisely, they’ve got groups in YouTube and Flickr, although both are severely underutilized and there might be a good reason why. More on that later.

2. Using an Event to Drive Interest Online

Photo by gothopotam via Creative Commons

The next thing that stands out is the Bowl’s strategy of using what awareness people already have to get them to learn more. While the Bowl has a captive audience, they’re using the opportunity to drive more potential interest. Think about it. You’re in the stands, twiddling around on your BlackBerry for lack of something better to do. You notice the brochure in the seat next to you, so you flip through, looking for something to catch your eye. People involved in social media seem to be very interested in info about their trusted networks. (Consider how many stories about Twitter get spread around the microblogging site.) So chances are, the Twitter or Flickr logos on the page will capture interest among readers. It’s a tactic we can see being practiced by mammoth brands like Google and Microsoft following the Wave and Bing media blitzes. If people are looking to you for any reason, see if you can get them to stick around a while longer.

3. No Attempts to Control the Conversation

Photo by Aud1073cH via Creative Commons

Finally, I’m happy to see that the Santa Barbara Bowl isn’t falling into a common newbie trap of online marketing: the desire to control the content. Sure there are a few big brands that can manage large-scale content control, with the help of a very happy legal team. NBC, for instance, retains control of their video content by policing the Web and hosting the videos on their own video site. But not everyone has the intimidating resources to enforce content ownership. If the Santa Barbara Bowl were to say any video filmed at the venue had to be posted to SBBowl.com, everyone would still be posting their videos to YouTube. Uh… maybe.

So… is the naïve pretense necessary?

I say “maybe” because, as it turns out, no one has posted a video to the SB Bowl’s YouTube group. And while I’m not sure why this is the case, there’s a good chance it has something to do with the big question we’re left with. Why has the Santa Barbara Bowl gone through the trouble of feigning disapproval with photos and videos taken at the venue?

As you can see in the image, the SB Bowl YouTube and Flickr communities are shared with a bit of a disclaimer. The “we know you’d never do it, but if you did…” message leaves me with a question mark hanging over my head. Sure, it’s kind of funny, but is the humor enough to get the audience over the concern that what they’re doing is frowned upon? And if it does, does the humor create more of a positive response than would be driven with a straight-forward call to post pics and vids here? Maybe I’m missing a piece of the puzzle, but it seems like the Bowl is moving in the right direction while the mixed message may be forcing them backward. You tell me. Am I missing something, or is the Bowl?

Continued here: 
A Look at One Brick and Mortar’s Online Marketing Efforts