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I pride myself on being pretty blind to online ads. Only once in the last year can I remember actually clicking on an ad of any sort, including PPC ads in search results.
Offline, ads are something to be admired. I enjoy looking at billboard ads, and have been found to take more interest in the marketing materials handed out at NBA games than the games themselves (sorry, just not a big sports fan!) As for commercials, I’m blessed with TiVo so the last time I watched a commercial was… well, actually, a few days ago when I was sick and for the first time in years I actually watched live TV.
I was pretty appalled by what I saw. I don’t know if all commercials were just that bad or if AMC gets the special selection of commercials rejected from the “real” networks.
But let’s get back to online ads. I’m blind to them, mostly, but recently came across some ads that are just absolutely spectacular. So far I’ve only seen these ads on a few sites, but they do a phenomenal job of using up otherwise empty background space.
You know the saying about links, that it’s about quality, not quantity? I believe that. But sometimes, quality be damned, you just need to go out and get a bunch of new links!
I’m not a fan of garbage SEO which includes link building and everything else, but a few months back we were needing a little extra push for a client site. The site had sunk from #3 to #6 for two of its core terms and had been there for over a year. With the busy season approaching the client asked us to do everything we can to push them back up to the top three.
As the debate over paid links continues to wage a lot of innocent business owners get caught in the crossfire. They often hear bits and pieces of information and then have to make decisions based on that information. Rarely is the average business owner as fully informed as the average SEO. Heck, even the average SEO is in the dark much of the time trying to parse statements and warnings made by the search engine representatives.
One of the areas of confusion that many have regarding paid links is knowing when a paid link is really a paid link, and when is a paid link penalized. I think a fair argument can be that a payment doesn’t necessarily always have to be monetary. Any quid pro quo on a link can legitimately be considered a “paid” link.
But not to worry, Google and the other engines don’t work that way. In fact, in their attempt to eliminate all forms of paid links from affecting their natural algorithmic search results Google has left one giant loophole in the paid link witch hunt: paid directory links.
During my webinar last month I received a lot of questions both before and during my presentation on website architecture. I’m trying to answer a handful of questions each week until I get through the whole bunch of them. If you have any questions of your own I’d be happy to answer them. You can either post a comment for me to respond to or email me and I’ll add them to the list here.
Today I have answered questions regarding books for beginners, SEO techniques and how they have changed, pro’s and cons of CSS, different types of architecture and favicons.
(Don't wait for the movie!)
E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing & Marketing Your Website Online
