Hey, you’re new. We like you already! You obviously have great taste! If you like what you read here you’ll probably want to subscribe to our RSS feed (or the audio RSS feed). Stick around and be sure to speak up and post a comment or two! Last week after Yahoo’s Chief Financial Office Susan […]

There are many reasons why users may try to access a page on your website that does not exist. No matter how hard you try to prevent it there will always be internal and external links to pages that no longer or do not exist.
Web pages are often deleted from websites as they become […]

In light of Google’s new policy to censor results with Chinese engine google.cn, Google has removed an interesting line from one of their main webmaster info pages.
Specifically, the page on URL removals, used to say:
We’re committed to providing thorough and unbiased search results for our users; therefore, we cannot participate in the practice of […]

Ford has been experiencing a decline in minivan sales over the past couple years and has now unveiled a new “people mover” vehicle which they hope will revitalize their auto sales. From what I’m seeing, Ford just doesn’t get it! Mini vans are as popular as ever, even considering the competition from SUVs. People are […]

To create a fully search engine friendly website there are many elements of the site that need to be in place. Most of these elements are design issues that should have already been accounted for, yet often times are missed.
Site map
Site maps are a great way to ensure that the search engines can easily find […]

Yes, you heard it, there will be a new Search Engine Marketing magazine coming out in May and will be a quarterly publication.
“Their first issue will hold about 40 pages, and would be the first magazine devoted solely to search marketing. Publisher Boris Mordkovich commented that, ‘The goal of the magazine is to bring all […]

Code validation is the process in which you make your web page coding conform to the industry recognized professional standards. These standards are set by the World Wide Web Consortium or W3C, which is a professional organization that sets the specifications and guidelines for HTML and other web technologies. You can check your pages for […]

I’ve heard some interesting news from a well respected source that Yahoo is no longer going to pursue the marketshare that Google has acheived in regard to search. I suppose that yahoo figures they have other products and solutions to give more attention to. Perhaps dropping intense search development will free up expenditures […]

Apparently, the techno-world is ready for “Web 2.0“.
What is Web 2.0?
“Like a child progressing into adolescence, the Web has entered a new era of sophistication. We used to spend most of our time just surfing the Internet–reading and downloading whatever we could find. Nowadays we’re more likely to create waves ourselves by sharing our […]

Removing code bloat is an important part of the total optimization process, yet one that is often overlooked by many professional SEOs. While search engines strive to be extremely forgiving in the code structure, I strongly believe that search engines do consider elements beyond simple textual and link relevance when determining the value of a […]

Google has agreed to censor their search result in China in exchange for better access to the rapidly growing Chinese market. Both Yahoo and MSN have already made similar concessions for access as well, but what makes Google’s deal considerably more interesting is Google’s own stated motto and mission.
Don’t Be Evil
From the beginning Google has […]

One thing I like about Google is the personalized home page. On mine, I have the “Quote of the Day”, “Reuters Oddly Enough” movie show times, the weather both in Reno, NV and Portland, OR and the “Word of the Day” (today’s word is predilection).
I also have a “‘How to’ of the Day”. One of […]

Flash Content
While flash files can now be optimized for the search engines it’s still a good idea not to place optimized text within flash content. Search engines are getting better about reading flash text, but you still lose out on usage of many of the important text weighting elements when using any kind of text […]

So this whole Google search records thing has gotten a lot of media attention lately.
Basically, the government is asking Google for search records because they want to retry at a child porn law that got struck down two years ago by the Supreme Court on free speech grounds. Google, however, refuses to hand it over […]

Running a web-based business has many significant advantages over a brick and mortar shop, but it’s not, as many suspect, the holy grail of business success. Brick and mortar stores have been around for millennia vs. an online market place which is barely over a decade old. Unfortunately, many online businesses plunge ahead in the […]

Text in images is invisible to the search engines. Text can be placed in the “alt” attribute in the tag, however alt text is largely ignored and/or devalued by most search engines. Using text as an image can have benefits as well as negatives. The one thing you should keep in mind is that […]

If you already have great or professionally written content which is un-optimized for your targeted keyword phrases, don’t be afraid to re-write the content as necessary. Websites that are under strict control of the marketing department generally have trouble letting go of the content allowing it to be properly optimized. The reasoning here is understood, […]

Netratings has released search engine marketshare for Nov. 2005
Google: 46.3%
Yahoo: 23.4%
MSN: 11.4%
AOL: 6.9%
My Way Search: 2.5%
Ask: 2.3%
Compared to Oct. ‘05, here is the change for each:
Google: - 1.4%
Yahoo: + 1.6%
MSN: + 0.1%
AOL: -0.3%
ASK: -0.3%
What I find most interesting is that ASK has fallen to the #6 engine, slightly overtaken by My Way Search. […]

In a case involving child pornography, Google has refused to comply with a subpoena requesting search records for any one-week period.
Google’s privacy guidlines state that they will comply with any “enforceable government request” or to “protect against imminent harm to the rights… [of Google’s] users or the public.
We have a good faith belief that access, […]

Jill Whalen has become one of the most respected (and possibly controversial) figures in search engine marketing. She’s been around since the early days so she’s seen first hand how SEM has evolved over the years. If you read Jill’s newsletter you know she has never been afraid to speak her mind. This, along with […]

I recently read an interesting article about Google. This article was entitled “Unified Theory of Google“. What happened was:
“Recently, the StepForth research team took a long, hard look at Google and made some well-educated assumptions about what we saw. Our findings, though absolutely unscientific have been labeled the Unified Theory of Google, an expansion on […]

According to a recent poll that I found in an E-Marketing book, 86% of the people surveyed are extremely concerned or at least very concerned with the security of online credit card transactions. Such concerns have been obviously inhibiting the true potential of e-commerce as a whole. So my question is, will a […]

Ideally, writing for the user is the only consideration you need to make, however when keyword targeting, you also have to write for the search engines, meaning that you need to ensure that your targeted keywords are utilized on the page properly. If your keywords are themed and selected properly, a good writer will be […]

How many different ways are there to say the same thing? In some industries quite a lot. Let’s look at the SEM industry. When researching industry related keywords we found quite a few keyword themes that mean relatively the same thing to the common searcher: internet marketing, website marketing, online marketing, website promotion, search engine […]

The most important thing you can do with your body content is to write for the reader. All other considerations are secondary.
Use a professional writer to work in natural usages and variations of your keyword phrases in a way that ensures proper readability. What you don’t want is a website that reads as if […]