Month: March 2010

Freedom Of Information & The Internet …Not In Texas

Posted on by searchology

I have a lot of opinions about the Internet, online advertising, politics, etc. I usually don’t discuss or write about the intersection of Internet and politics. It is a little off topic for me to discuss politics and the Internet. It seems as if Barack Obama solidified how important the Internet can be when it comes to politics and, more importantly the real influence it can wield. Most of my material should stay in the realm of searchology. However,  this was a little to big of a story for me to pass up.

There is no doubt, the Internet is a powerful tool and may become even more powerful than books. You remember books right? Kind of like vinyl, old school and out of style but still cool. I’m sure your asking yourself, how this could be so? The Internet becoming more important than books. The answer is one word. TEXAS. Well really it’s the Texas State Board of Education.

You see, the Texas Sate Board of Education, or as I like to call it Texas State Board of Stupification, is in the process of redefining textbooks which will be widely distributed and read in a classroom near you very soon. Because Texas contains around 7% of the American population and one of the biggest text book buyers. Because of the Texan buying power and the amount of books that will be printed, it is certain that more books will be printed for more than just Texans.

While I would normally say, bulk book buying is a good idea…it’s not. It’s not a good idea when books (purchased and circulated in bulk) are used to teach history, to our future leaders, side on the conserviative left, don’t seperate church and state, and push Christian values. Hey, I’m all about Christian values, and Muslim values, and Hindu values…you get the point. All are create equal.

Future generations of young Texans and school children around the U.S. will need to use the Internet to get the truth about history. Real history, not contrived, and biased history. Sure, history is biased as it is written by the winners. It did seem for a while we were getting closer to a more universal truth including OUR HISTORY as opposed to the winners history.

As long as we can keep the information we find on the Internet free…that should provided the opportunity for young Texas children and kids of the New Texas History of The U.S. 1st Edition, a way to find some truth. Simply put, no one body should be in charge of our text books. It should be a panel or a collective of several cultures, perspectives, and historical facts…not A PANEL FROM TEXAS!

The Internet may provide the type of freedom needed to break free from dis-information, lies, major conservatisim, radical right nut jobs, So, let’s all hope the grand ole’ party dosen’t get a hold of our free-information-internet-freedom…or we may all be in really big trouble.

So, what is your domain name worth?

Posted on by searchology

Recently the Huffington Post posted an article on The 11 Most Expensive Domain Names purchased thus far in our very short world wide web history. I do not find it all that out of whack when you consider the search volumes for terms like;

  • Vodka.com (sold for $3 million) – estimated Google global search volume for “vodka” – 5 million last month
  • Business.com (sold for $7.9 million in 1999) – estimated Google global search volume for “business” – 151 million
  • Toys.com (sold for $5.1 million in 2009) – estimated Google global search volume for “toys” – 124 million
  • Beer.com (sold for $7 million in 2004) – estimated Google global search volume for “beer” – 24.9 million
  • Casino.com (sold for $5.5 million in 2003) – estimated Google global search volume for “casino” – 24 million

While these number are astounding, it is all about the potential traffic and relavancy of the keywords located within the URL. A good domain name can go a long when when trying to reach potential website visitors. When picking a domain name consider critical keywords which you would like to rank well for and see if those domain names are available. Try different variations of your desired domain name and you may get lucky.

My guess is most domain names that have potentially high traffic potential are gone. Domain buying is, I believe, a pretty cool business but an evil business. Domain name buyers hold out on good domain names to make a profit. Pure and simple. Much like waving the golden carrot in front of a potential business owner. If you are willing to pay, you can get the domain name you want [unless it’s not being used].

If you have a domain name you want there are a few tools which can give you an estimation of what it’s worth. Check out EstiBot.com or Valuate.com to find your own domain worth. Who knows, you may sell it one day for ONE BILLION DOLLARS.

Google Is Brining The Hammer Down on QA

Posted on by searchology

I’ve had some new business join my growing client roster recently. This of course is a good thing…however the one of the primary complaints is ads not showing up in Ad Words for poor quality scores. I have a simple formula I’d like to share…and if you have read the Google Ad Words guidelines you will find that what I recommend is not much different than what Google already recommends.

Here is my formula for higher quality scores with Google Ad Words.

Keywords + ad copy + landing page = higher quality score

Sure its simple and pretty straight forward. However, if you have too many products or services and are trying to push too many paid search keywords through the same page without marketing some type of lading page adjustments your quality score will suffer. Here are some other pointers for higher quality scores.

  • Build a unique landing page for each major ad group or each major PPC campaign
  • If possible try and buy a URL which is relevant to the ad group, keywords, and ad copy
  • Make forms easy to fill out for newsletters, sign ups, etc.
  • Make sure to use some of your primary keywords in your page copy, H tags, and title tags
  • Use keyword insertion option in your ad copy

These should be some good steps to get you headed in the right direction. These tips will help you in Yahoo search marketing as well. Until the BIG Yahoo and BING merge. I do hope that Microsoft takes all of the great work Yahoo has done over the years and keeps the people and the kick butt technology. Only time will tell. But in the meantime, these tips will help on Yahoo Search Marketing. Thanks for reading.

SEO Link Building – The new Pet Rock

Posted on by searchology

Remember the Pet Rock…its back

I’ve been working as an online marketing professional for 8 years and have seen the web change many times over. For those of us deeply involved in providing excellent service to clients in the search engine optimization disciplines and search marketing arenas, online marketing is a constantly moving target. Over the past few years (around 2 to be exact) I’ve noticed search engine optimization has become much less about quality content and more of a popularity contest.

I believe most of us in the search engine optimization line of work would agree link building is one of the most difficult things to do. To some extent, it is almost a necessary evil needed to achieve higher search engine ranking and Google PageRank. I have read tomes of material on link building and its impact on website ranking and I’ve come to the realization that something is just not right with that.

Back in the early days, content was king, the better and more relevant the content of your site and its match to keyword queries, the greater the opportunity to rank well for those terms. The issue turned into too many individuals using black hat techniques to fool the search engines, turning the need for good content into a popularity contest.

You can put this into context by thinking of the 1970’s cultural fad toy, the Pet Rock. Pet Rocks, much like link building, can be left alone and if your content is good enough, the links will follow. Or you can try and build links (feed your Pet Rock) and witness a whole lot of frustration because not all links are equal. Thus, feed your Pet Rock all you like and you will find the rock is still a rock. Feed your website tons of links and it is still what you have originally create (good content or bad content).

The major difference in my potentially pathetic analogy to the Pet Rock is if you feed thousands of links to your site you gain popularity, traffic, and love from the search engines you still have a Pet Rock for a website without good content. With so many Pet Rock websites out there…where is the justification in popularity over well written and useful content? How can so many well written websites be passed over by simple link popularity? How is this fair?

I’ve run across countless websites with little search engine optimization and less than 200 words on a page which have been ranked highly for keywords and Google PageRank scores. With light content and little relevancy to keywords…what are the search engines looking at? Link popularity, like the Pet Rock, has stormed the SEO nation.

Truth be told, I like the Pet Rock. It’s cool, funny, creative, and I think it should be revised and put back on the market. However, awarding higher natural rankings to websites with little content and useful information is unjust. I believe the search engines are going to figure this out as well.

Links do not justify killer rankings. Yes, they should be a factor in overall website ranking but should not play the part as a primary singular deciding factor in the SERPs. Killer content still rules and it should. Those that take the time, effort, and countless revisions to get it just right should be at the top not those digging for every last blog to leave a bogus post.

I do hope that we will return to content as king of SEO. It keeps you on your toes and makes you consider your audience, audience profiles, needs of website visitors, and how really good content can offer really good things to those who are searching. Relevancy is what it is all about.

History teaches us a lot if we pay attention to it. Popularity has, historically, put the wrong individuals in charge of nations and had devastating results. Putting links in charge of website rankings is punishing for both proactive searching individuals and website owners. Links are devastating to those websites who really offer something special and unique to those searching.

I am certain there will be blow back from those who are proficient in link building to my article. Yes, I deserve it to some extent…but I produce well written content and I believe content will make a comeback as it should, just like the Pet Rock.

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