SEO News

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/google-answer.jpg One of the topics that emerged from Pubcon was “Should SEO’s Focus on Where Google is Heading”, and I’m going to agree with Aaron that focusing on short termalgorithmicholes isn’t a smart thing for most people (churn and burn folks–you keep on keeping on). I agree that most publishers should focus on where Google is going. However, the one thing I think publishers need to be aware of and be wary of is Google’s transition to becoming an answer engine. this represents a clear and present danger to every web publisher…When I refer to Google trying to become an answer engine, what exactly do I mean? I mean th…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/sonos-wireless.jpg Since my last Sonos post a few months ago (see Sonos Review), I’ve really become a big Sonos advocate. I’ve been telling people about it andrecommendingit to anyone who asks. In fact I’ve even added a Sonos S5 to the master Bedroom. So when Sonos asked me if I wanted to review their new Wireless Dock, I was pretty excited. The wireless dock is a dock for your iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch that allows you to connect to your Sonos music system. You plug the unit in to the wall, sync it with your Sonos system and, in less than 2 minutes, you’re ready to start playing music. The best way to use the wireless dock is…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/category-seo.jpg Today’s post is in response to a question that came in via email asking, “How do I optimize a department/category page with a lot of products?” This is a fairly common question, but it has some subtleties and nuances to it. I’ll try to address those issues in this post. The first aspect is how many is “a lot?” Is it 100, 1,000, or 10,000? If you have category pages with fewer than 200 products on them, you can list them all on one page. Yes I know Google recommends no more than 100 links per page, but as long as you don’t have a crazy number of other links in the sidebar/masthead/footer, you’ll be fine (se…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/5-more-customers.jpg Every business will probably agree that customer referrals are awesome! Not only do they have a much lower acquisition cost than customers obtained from traditional marketing efforts, but conversion rates are usually much higher as well. The amount of referral business you have is a good measure of success of your marketing efforts. There are numerous ways to get referrals from your customer base and the sections below will outline a few of them. Satisfy Your Customers It may be a simple idea, but providing a great product or service your customers love will naturally get you referrals. The i…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/website-auditor.jpg Website Auditor is a piece of software from the SEO Power Suite line of tools. I’ve reviewed Rank Tracker and SEO Spyglass before (see Rank Tracker Review and SEO Spyglass Review). Website Auditor is piece of software that attempts to review certain aspects of your website and give your website an overall health check. Again there are two obvious questions, and I’ll address those first. Not only is this a piece of software I use on a regular basis, but it’s one I have paid for. I wasn’t comp’d or given a free version. Secondly, no I don’t think a piece of software can replace a human audit, but software…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/nov-2010.jpg 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. BOTW.org – Get a premier listing in the internet’s oldest directory. Ezilon.com Regional Directory – Check to see if your website is listed! Content Customs – Unique and high quality SEO writing services, providing webmasters with hundreds of SEO articles per week Majestic SEO – To analyze back-links, MajesticSEOs data offers competitive link intelligence from the largest open link map in the world. The award winnin…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/hayden-planetarium.jpg I’ve discussed what to do when you have products that expire. But what do you do when you have services or information that expires? Is there a way to retain and even monetize that traffic? Let’s say your company used to offer a service like computer security scanning or a real world service like car washes in your parking garage. For whatever reason these services weren’t profitable, and you stopped offering them. If your web pages rank and drive traffic, there’s no reason to give that up. Instead, try putting up a page explaining you no longer offer the service and why. If there’s someone else offe…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/multiple-websites.jpg With the proliferation of smart phones of varying screen sizes, flash compatibility, and most recently apple tv and google tv, many website owners are choosing to solve this problem with multiple sites and domains. While this solution can work, there are plenty of ways it can go wrong. In this post I’ll try to help you understand why this is usually not the best choice. First, let’s make sure we are talking about the same issue. When I talk about creating multiple websites I mean having example.com for desktops, having m.example.com for mobile users, and example.tv for tv-based browsers like apple tv …

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kw-qqDCSCEEaU8YIv8Ru8GYmkek/0/di</img>http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kw-qqDCSCEEaU8YIv8Ru8GYmkek/1/di</img> First off, what are todays Social Media campaign trends? What makes a social media campaign? Even better, what is a social media campaign? Very often, when somebody decides to market their product online, be it a FMCG product or an online service, they start to think about online marketing like your regular marketing efforts. Which is to put in your money, milk your resources, push your product to as much people as you can in the earliest possible time period. Is this a wrong approach? Hell no. How could it b…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/press-worthy.jpg Since search engines aren’t fond of paid linking and social network voting websites are on the decline, publishers have to look for new ways to get attention and links. While it may seem at first glance to be a bit old school, doing things that are “press worthy” are still an effective, legitimate method of getting links. When I talk about being press worthy, what am I actually talking about? There are a few different options which I’ll take a look at. Research and Whitepapers This is probably one of the oldest but still effective methods for getting attention and links. The problem is that doing go…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/press-release-tips.jpg This is the third time were speaking with Merrick Lozano of PRLeap, so lets dive right in. The last time we talked here was 2007 when we spoke about local search. Whats new in the area of press releases that people should know about? Thank you for having me back Michael. When we last spoke in 2007 the press release had just celebrated its 100th birthday. It had evolved into an effective tool for increasing a brands search visibility. You can use an online press release to reach customers and writers who are searching for the type of information you are writing about. With the emergence of socia…

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/B0BWao7i-NWWigv_Mm6Oh3vqWVE/0/di</img>http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/B0BWao7i-NWWigv_Mm6Oh3vqWVE/1/di</img> And now that the geek world is craving for just one thing – Facebook Message Invites, somebody had to write this. Facebook Message Service is supposed to go live soon, and you can apply for an early invite from this page. If you don’t want to wait for an invite, you can even buy a Facebook Message invite. Looks like some one is already selling it on EBay. Here’s what the seller promises. http://imgur.com/fAQZs.png Want to access Facebook’s new messaging product: Social Inbox. We have decided to auct…

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/g3auqsegV0ps2ItZl2HAJZiah7E/0/di</img>http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/g3auqsegV0ps2ItZl2HAJZiah7E/1/di</img> The latest video to hit the internet is a heartbreaking one, where an iPhone 4, a Windows 7 mobile and an Android is seen grilled, catching fire and eventually succumbing to high temperature ! In the various attempts made my companies like BlendTec to tie their products to the tech buzz (and possibly get the mileage out of it), this is the latest offering. (We’ve seen BlendTec blending almost anything it can find with their ruthless blenders.) The Grill company however, fails to command a real “recall value”…

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/4qv06s_GMAloQjVtnhw-GandTM8/0/di</img>http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/4qv06s_GMAloQjVtnhw-GandTM8/1/di</img> Sounds like the perfect job, isnt it ? Two benefits. One You work for the most reputed, revolutionary tech company in the world. Two You get to do what youre best at trying out applications for Mac. Well, Apple has posted on its job board, about vacancies for Application testers in their office in Santa Clara Valley. Its a full time position and the job profile is as interesting as ever ! http://www.dailybloggr.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/image16.png Mac Application Reviewer Apple Worldwide Deve…

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sacRx5GZmAj_VHkJD9NQQjn_z1k/0/di</img>http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sacRx5GZmAj_VHkJD9NQQjn_z1k/1/di</img> Many of us have already noticed the new Google Instant Preview feature on Google search engine results page. Its a simple addition to the Google Instant makeover, where you get to see the preview of a website, while hovering the mouse over a search result. http://www.dailybloggr.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/googleinstantpreview.jpg It is the next step in bringing value to Googles Instant game where the search engine result page forms the dashboard to a lot of things that wouldve otherwise been avail…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/foursquare-tips.jpg While some people consider Foursquare to be nothing more than the latest shiny cat toy for social media gurus and badge collectors, I’ve recently found a few uses for both business and pleasure. I recently took a trip to Disney World in Florida. After checking in at the Orlando Airport, I got a pop up from Rae Hoffman about the expert travel lane. Foursquare’s assumption is that I am more likely to trust information that comes from people I trust and who are my friends. As I traveled around Disney World that week, I got tips from Chris Brogran, Jennifer Laycock and others and, in most cases, I found the…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/blog-categories.jpg In this post we’re going to be looking at blog categories, why they matter, and how to use them most effectively as publisher.To be honest, I get asked about date, category, and tag archives fairly regularly. It creates a lot of potential for duplicate content, which is why so many people have things set up incorrectly and do more damage than good. In my opinion as a publisher the most important pages on your website are the single page or single post. Any of the archive pages are secondary in value. Your most effective strategy is to conserve your link equity and have your category pages act as a pass …

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ts5UHF09voMW2ctLV7bMuI0e28o/0/di</img>http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ts5UHF09voMW2ctLV7bMuI0e28o/1/di</img> Google just made some new improvements to Google News mobile making it easier to browse, with less scrolling, quick loading and an easier reading experience. They expanded the story space to make tapping on articles easier and more accurate. Tapping anywhere on an article headline or snippet opens it up, and clicking on a section heading opens up that topic section on your screen. In addition, the default view of stories is now collapsed which reduces scrolling time. You can ‘expand’ a story by tapping o…

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_LZKGxnKak0EBYFkyubDGVC5gCQ/0/di</img>http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_LZKGxnKak0EBYFkyubDGVC5gCQ/1/di</img> In our daily quest for information on the internet, you use Google so much and come across so much of junk, that you wish if you could clear them off the index. There are always those one or two websites that are irrelevant and shouldnt be on the first page results. But would Google listen to you ? Definitely yes. Google, tries to give the most relevant information on its search engine results page, but admits that there might be certain websites that slipped through, for they might be either technically…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/seo-power-suite.jpg SEO Power Suite is a series of tools I have been using for years. I have reviewed the individual products such as SEO SpyGlass and Rank Tracker. They are now offering an exclusive 7 day trial of all the enterprise software. This is something that’s never been offered anywhere before on the web. The registration information below will work from November 8th 2010 throughNovember14th 2010. These are tools that I use on a regular basis and have paid for. Rank Tracker Registered By: Wolf Howl Registration Key: RT-2aRMtgFc67YaaD66 Website Auditor Registered By: Wolf Howl Registration Key: WA-2aXr5CI1Fk…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/rank-tracker.jpg Rank Tracker is a program from the SEO Power Suite of tools and, obviously enough, is used to track the ranks of one or more keywords and phrases for multiple websites. I’ll get the two obvious questions out of the way first. This is a piece of software I have been using for years and paid full price for. Since we’re being completely honest, I’m even using the enterprise level. The second question is, in an age of personalized and localized SERP’s, is there even a need to run and use ranking reports? IMHO the answer is yes. You have to realize that it’s impossible to run a report that will tell exactly …

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ePHKell16mVUf4vuPuV4w7I-pG8/0/di</img>http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ePHKell16mVUf4vuPuV4w7I-pG8/1/di</img> Seth Godin is a great personality, I admire him. Not every time, do you come across such a person with sensible ideas and thoughts. If youve been following Seth, you wouldnt have missed this video from Open Forum where he answered a question about social networking for business. The question was: Social networking for business: Is it valuable for business ? Yes/No. If yes, for what types of businesses ? Asked by Michael Silverman CEO, Duo Consulting To which Seths answer is: If youre on face…

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/P25ceTDydKmg9nDKQPuNjbjOU4M/0/di</img>http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/P25ceTDydKmg9nDKQPuNjbjOU4M/1/di</img> All these ads were published either online or offline, and had one thing in common. All of them had obvious, glaring Photoshop mistakes. These Ad-agencies clearly need to hire better Photoshop experts. 1. Aishwaryas misplaced shoulder http://www.dailybloggr.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/image.png 2. Somethings missing http://www.dailybloggr.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/image1.png 3. Clue: Avrils right arm http://www.dailybloggr.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/image2.png…

http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/flash-seo.jpg Perhaps it’s related to Apple not installing flash on the newest air macs, but there’s been more talk than usual about flash & SEO in the past few weeks. My position on flash and SEO is as follows: I’d prefer to not use it, but I do understand that there are some circumstances in which flash makes a better user experienceIf you do use flash, putting it anywhere along the mission critical path or main navigation is dangerousIf you do put put it in the mission critical path, you are going to have to maintain a separate HTML version for bots and the 20 million+ iphone and iPad usersPersonally, I’m lazy. …

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Us3ckv_lYTGKrxo9GkZQtvWGdvA/0/di</img>http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Us3ckv_lYTGKrxo9GkZQtvWGdvA/1/di</img> When it comes to search engine optimization for large websites, things get so complicated that you need to bring out all your tactics in all its glory. I find it interesting that optimizing large websites for search engines is a real test of how well you know SEO. How is optimizing large websites different from smaller ones ? So, first off, is there really a difference between the optimization procedures ? Technically no, if you think about it from the grass root level. But if you think from a…