Search Engine Articles & Books Archives

Chris Boggs, our Associate Editor, has a new column at Search Engine Watch. The first article he wrote he named Just One Agency Point of View in the "outsourced" section.

Chris explains:

In this new column, I hope to be able to provide an insight into the world of big agency workflow processes, of course without ever being so specific that I'd get myself in trouble, especially with regards to clients. I imagine I'll get to occasionally brand our successes, but we do leave more of that to our weekly newsletter, Avenue A | Razorfish's Search Marketing Trends.

The article is being discussed at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Good job Chris!

I am not going to give a review of the magazine, that had it's first release in Mid May, Philipp at Google Blogoscoped has his Search Marketing Standard (Review).

If you’re already an SEO expert, much of the advice won’t be new to you, but it’s a great overview for those starting out with SEO, or those experts still trying to expand their horizon.

The Search Marketing Standard second addition is also being discussed in the forums. Cre8asite Forums has positive things to say about the edition;

I recieved my copy several days ago. Although I have not finished reading it, I wanted to say how much I have enjoyed reading it. I love to get away from reading the computer screen and curl up with this magazine. I like holding something printed and reading it at my liesure.

I reviewed it in my blog and had to laugh. My "complaint" is also that its too thin. I love the chance to also curl up and read it. It's much lighter than my laptop, for starters. And way more colorful!

Many folks still not receive the second issue, but I suspect it will come soon.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

A Cre8asite Forum thread asks SEO training- is it worthwhile? There are many ways to train oneself to become an SEO, they include;

• Seminars
• Conferences
• School
• Books
• Forums
• Friends
• Trial & Error

A great way to begin is to pick up a basic book and follow that up with a seminar or conference. Then once you get the core principles down, joining a forum and reading and sharing in the discussion is often very helpful. Make friends and then experiment through trial and error. Finally, go back to the conferences and also read the more technically written books. Rinse and repeat.

Ammon warns;

The one thing I would caution against is if anyone were considering a course being an investment to make them an instant SEO. It won't. The course is merely a fast way to get all the basic principles into your mind so that you can then set off to learn more advanced and specialized skills from there.

Does the order I listed above matter? I don't think it has to be in that order, that is why it is listed in bullet format and not number format.

Join the discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Danny Sullivan has the detailed write up on French Lawsuit Over Google Book Search. Basically, a French publishing group is to sue Google for publishing book excerpts online without permission. But is it without permission? :)

The group's web site, it should be noted, has 919 pages listed in Google, all of which are protected by copyright, all of which Google and other search engines index without explicit permission -- and all of which the group apparently doesn't object to, since it doesn't seem to have banned indexing using a robots.txt file (the site is down, so I can't verify this first hand -- but the pages really are unlikely to be listed if this were the case). But do the same thing with a print book -- copy for indexing purposes rather than reprinting -- and suddenly, that's infringement. Well, the courts will sort it out.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

As Kim reported here back in January 2006, the magazine Search Marketing Standard has finally been sent out. I received my copy over the weekend and just reviewed the topics now. The contents of the fairly thin first edition includes:

• 15 Biggest Myths in Search Marketing Exposed by David Rodnitzky
• An Interview with Perry Marshall by Andrey Milyan
• Measuring SEO Success with Web Analytics by Michael Nguyen
• Managing Your PPC Bids: 4 Most Important Things to Consider by Kevin Gold
• Targeting the Tail: How to Get the Most Out of Every Marketing Dollar by Alexandre Brabant
• Product Review: Dynamic Bid Maximizer Advance 3.0
• Industry Watch
  • Google Insider by Tom Dahm
  • Click Fraud Alert by Boris Mordkovich

They have about 19 advertisers, including WebmasterWorld's PubCon. They sent out, reportedly, over 15,000 of them. They put a free plug for this blog in the magazine, which is appreciated. The magazine seemed a bit thin, but it is the first edition.

Continued forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

You must check out Randfish's Beginner's Guide to SEO. It was slashdotted and all.

Discuss it at Cre8asite Forums.

Sorry for short posts, haven't slept in 35+ hours.

I rarely every recommend books here, as you know I normally stick with forum coverage and conferences. I finally finished reading John Battelle's book, The Search, and I would feel guilty if i would not recommend to you guys to buy a copy and read it yourself.

I have never felt so strongly towards a book in this industry before. Let me tell you, this book is not about how to rank well in Google (you already know that). It is about how Google got itself to rank so well in the industry. This book, will however, make you as an SEM/SEO think about the future of search in ways you have never imagined.

It is worth the money, it may even change your life.

For more information on the book, visit http://www.battellemedia.com/thesearch/.

P.S. John has no idea I wrote this, he didn't even know that I was reading it.

I missed Andy's blog (SEL) so much and its great to have him back with us at a new URL, http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/.

Here is the story of Andy's Pilgrimage.

Time Magazine, this Sunday, published an article named On the Frontier of Search where it almost scares people into what search features are on the horizon. A Cre8asite Forum thread named The Future of Search is where Bill Slawski actually linked to the technologies available today, discussed in that Time's article.

Some very interesting replies at the The Future of Search Thread.

I had the privilege to review Mike Moran & Bill Hunts book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site and let me tell you this book is filled with so much valuable information. It is written incredibly well, it is organized in a fashion that is unique to the SEM book industry and it gives you information you might not get in other SEM books.

You can find my quote for the book here.

"Search Engine Marketing, Inc. is the ultimate source on how to implement a search marketing campaign. The book provides actionable instructions on topics from how to get the finances within your organization to how to make your pages rank well in search engines. Beyond that, the book explains conversion metrics and projecting your success. For anyone within a large organization, looking to make a difference with the corporate Web site; the book is a 'no-brainer.' For any professional SEO or SEM, the book is a must read. The manner in which Bill Hunt and Mike Moran organized the book is both unique and smart. Both Bill and Mike are also extremely professional public speakers on the topic of Search Marketing. I have been to dozens of search marketing conferences and I can honestly say, I am as impressed with this book as I am with their top presentations."

You can also order it at Amazon.

Todd Mintz wrote an article at Search Engine guide that I thought many of you would like. He named it How To Be A Blogging Idol Instead Of An Idle Blogger.

It goes through the basics; writing good copy, narrowing your focus, write often, and monetize when applicable. And also touches on some advanced topics; pinging, rss, link building and press releases.

Towards the end of the article, he reviews the success story results. There is some weekend reading for you all.

I would like to wish Andy Beal, fellow SEO blogger, best of luck with his most recent blog announcement... Why I've Resigned from WebSourced. Andy is the name behind KeywordRankings. He brought in great talent and names like Mike Grehan and Heather Loyd-Martin.

Andy said his reasoning for leaving the company;

It is clear that my vision for the company’s future does not match-up with its current course. These philosophical differences have led me to conclude that WebSourced’s current path does not align with my own beliefs.

This is very similar to Jason Dowdell's entry on his resignation from websourced just a month ago. Where Jason says;

Well, quite simply, WebSourced and I had differences of opinion and have since parted ways.

Again, I would like to wish Andy all the best. In my opinion, this is a huge lose for Websourced & KeywordRankings.

Update: WebSourced pulled Andy's post.

Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg's book Call To Action: Secret Formulas To Improve Online Results made the Top Sellers Lists of the NY Times, Wall Street Journal & USA Today. I am still reading the book, about half way in, and it offers gem after gem. For only $13.95, it almost makes sense to yell at anyone who doesn't buy it.

A Cre8asite Forum thread started by Kim, named It's the SEO that counts, not user centered design talks about a recent article at C|Net named Is search ruining the Web? Read the article and take a look at the thread for some very good opinion.

You and I spend our days balancing usability & rankings. Often there is a win-win situation, but sometimes you need to make a choice. But when you think about it, the title of the article, "Is search ruining the Web?" Well, in my opinion, sometimes yes. In some cases, where you need to sacrifice usability to ensure your pages are search engine friendly (i.e. duplicate content, breadcrumb string without cookies or sessions, and so on) within budget and without the risk of going against a search engines quality guidelines - the Web user is hurt by search.

Is the search engine optimization consultant to blame? Absolutely not. It is the search engine that is to blame. But to be fair, the search engines do not want there to be an SEO Industry. They would prefer to allow people to build Web sites and not think about SEO. Then the search engines would be smart enough to rank pages no matter what types of unintentional issues occur with the pages being search friendly. Unfortunately for the search engines and fortunately for the search engine optimization industry, I can not see search engines achieving this milestone any time in the next five to ten years, or more.

Two weeks ago I read a book by Boris & Eugene Mordkovich named Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing Handbook. The book has a tremendous amount of advice, strategies and even future opinion on Pay Per Click engines. The beginning of the book talks about the history of PPC, which is nice but not really meant for someone who wants to simply improve or get started with his or her PPC campaign. After you get past the intro pages, you get to the meat of the goodies. Of course the book delves deep into Google AdWords and Yahoo!'s Search Marketing (Overture), but it also goes into the 2nd and 3rd tier PPC engines and contextual components of PPC.

As you read through the book, you learn a great deal about the pros and cons of each PPC engine. They also provide detailed reviews of pay per click tools; management tools, tracking tools and research tools. This book is a no-brainer for anyone seriously using the PPC engines. For under $20, the coupons you get alone make it worthwhile.

For more information on this book, visit http://www.ppcbook.info/.

Being actively involved in many SEM/SEO forums, I see all kinds of questions, from very basic to very advanced. Often, if people really want to learn about a subject, a book can be a great place to start. I have read and reviewed many SEO/SEM books over the years. This past month, I have received four new books that people would like me to review, and I assume, blog about. So what do I recommend?

If you are starting out with SEO and you are clueless about the basics, I strongly recommend you buy and read Search Engine Visibility by Shari Thurow. It is an outstanding book for beginners, it lays down pretty much all the basics and explains the core principle concepts of search engine optimization in a manner where virtually anyone can understand. Shari Thurow is one of the most well known SEOs out there, she has been on the Search Engine Strategies conference ticket since its inception (I believe). Of course she is a "white hat" and some would disagree with aspect of the book. However, I still strongly feel everyone serious about getting into the SEO industry, should read this book.

After you finish that book, you are not done. Dan Thies has just released a new book with SitePoint named the Search Engine Marketing Kit. I strongly recommend you read this book as soon as you finish Shari Thurow's book. This book gets deeper into the aspects of SEO and PPC, allowing you to take the core principles you learned from Shari's book and apply them in expert fashion on your site. I have read the bulk of the Search Engine Marketing Kit (skipped over the resources section) and I can honestly say that Dan Thies is way more then a keyword research expert. He not only goes over intermediate SEO tactics, he also discusses the PPC aspect of SEM. But even more so, he has a whole chapter on "Running a Search Engine Marketing Business." This kit also has a detailed CD with Sample SEM Proposal, Client Assessment Form, Keyword Analysis Worksheet, Directory Planning Worksheet, Sample SEO Presentation, Process Flowchart, Sample SEM Services Agreement, and Site Review Checklist. The book has immense value and can easily make you a qualified search engine marketing professional.

Finally, if you really want to get advanced and learn how the search engine work, then you need to talk to the person who talks to the people. That is right, you need to get Mike Grehan's Search Engine Marketing Book. It explains how the search engine algorithms work, why they do what they do, and has exclusive, and priceless interviews with search engine representatives. Also, if you buy the book, you get a free upgrade to the 3rd edition, which is due out some time soon.

There are many other valuable SEO/SEM books out there, and I apologize if I did not include yours. I can not possibly list them all. But do a search in Google for seo book or SEM book and you should fine a nice collection. It is my feeling that those three books, read in that order will give you the knowledge you need to become an SEO Professional. The rest is up to how you practice SEM, but at least those books will give you your best shot.

For other thoughts on this topic, visit the High Rankings Forum thread named SEO Books For Starting A Career In This Field, Which are the best ones?.

A funny but sometimes true article named The Ancient Art of Gardening: Or How to Write an SEO Article starts off:

With so many articles out there describing how to get to the top of the SERPs, you all probably know by now just how to stick it to your competition. However, with every Tom, Dick and Poindexter cranking out SEO articles, the quality of the optimization self-help industry has suffered a bit. This is a guide to aspiring gurus who can't seem to get the knack to write their own revenue-generating marketing-hype, disguised as helpful SEO tips.

As you can imagine, each tip makes you laugh as you read them. We have all seen articles that fit this description, and we have all spoken to those "newbies" who have believed them. Forum discussion on this article is at Cre8asite Forums.

I was strongly considering building a Wiki for SEO topics for several months but never got around to it. ResearchBuzz reports about a Wiki for SEO at http://www.organicseo.org/.

The outline of the Wiki covers everything from the why of SEO to SEO terminology to URL rewriting to submitting your site to search engines to what not to do. It does not yet appear to be very filled out.

Hopefully the Wiki will grow quickly in Wiki fashion.

One of the original Search Engine Blogs, it actually has the domain name searchengineblog.com, is taking a break for a couple of month. Peter DaVanzo, the well known Search Engine Blogger will be traveling, he said:

I'll be winding my way (slowly) from the bottom of New Zealand to London, and places in between. I dare say I'll visit a few pubs along the way.

But he will be posting non search related events about his trip at the blog. Here is Peter's Last Post on Search. See you in a couple Peter and have a safe and enjoyable trip!

Dan Thies, the Godfather of Grunge (for the SEM community - bet you never heard that title before), along with SitePoint has finally released The Search Engine Marketing Kit. I just received my copy yesterday and hope to review it over the weekend. It is huge and I know Dan has been working on this for a really long time, I believe well over a year. As many of you know, I greatly respect Dan for his outstanding contributions to the SEM community, specifically in the area of keyword research. Dan runs a successful company named SEO Research Labs and offers low cost but high value Keyword Research Reports and SEO Training for the SEM community.

I expect the book will be outstanding and I hope to share my thoughts as soon as I read through the whole "kit".

Patrick Gavin, informed me that he just released a free 11 page PDF document named, The Definitive Guide to Link Buying.

I reviewed an early draft, some nice points in the document. This published version is much prettier.

This article was contributed by Alan Webb from ABAKUS Internet Marketing, a long time friend of mine in this industry with a unique grasp of the International Search Marketing Industry.

A buzz phrase for some time now in SEO circles has been 'Link Popularity'. Rightly so as well. Google were the first to include link popularity into their ranking criteria in the form of PageRank and were closely follow by inktomi driven search engines as well as others that had the capability to factor in link popularity.

Then came the inevitable. If the ranking criteria could be manipulated, then you can bet it would be. Link spam became a plague first on guestbooks, then forums and finally blogs. Also of course, there were a great number of link farm schemes and huge link networks. Google reacted well it has to be said, and eventually discounted a large majority of the guestbook link spam, some forum and a lot of the linkfarm and organised link network shenanigans. Also my research has shown that Google now counts multiple links from a single domain as just one link when it comes to PageRank and for the ranking algorithm. Hence a sitewide link is no better than a single link on a homepage.

Therefore it is not the number of inbound links that are important, but the number of different domains that link to you.

It is very important to remember that. Especially if you are using Google for your backward link checking.
I am fairly confident I can pronounce

"Link Popularity" is dead, long live "Domain Popularity"!

Continue reading "Domain Popularity By Alan Webb"

Jill Whalen, owner of HighRankings, publishes a wildly read newsletter named the High Rankings Advisor. In her most recent newsletter, Jill writes an entry named Black Hat/White Hat, which discusses her view on the labels used as well as the techniques performed. I will not comment on an opinionated level here, I rather not get into it now. :)

However, there is a very interesting thread going on at the HighRanking Forum under the title Black Hat/white Hat Article, High Ranking Newsleter, makes for very interesting reading. Enjoy!

Link building is a huge component of the SEO world. It is for that reason, that I tried to explain what Web links are in this new article I wrote named Web Links from the Search Engine's Perspective. I wrote this while on the plane from Sweden, so I hope I got everything right. :)

By the end of this short article you should be able to understand:

• What Web links are
  
• The difference between incoming links and outgoing links
  
• The different terminology used in the SEO community to describe some links
  
• How search engines view links
  
• and what links represent to the search engines (natural vs. unnatural linking).
  

So go ahead and read Web Links from the Search Engine's Perspective and feel free to comment here.

Ever since the beginning of 2004, after the Florida update in November 2003, there has been discussion of the hilltop paper and "theming" a site's pages. In fact, read some of the past entries on the topic written here named:
- Dan Thies Writes on the New Google
- Webby's Back - Topic Austin Theory
- Authority Can't Do it Alone - Bring Out the Hub
- True Meaning of Themed Sites & The Level of Importance in the Ranking Algorithms

A topic over at WebmasterWorld named Anyone besides me not swallowed the "Hilltop" magic pill yet?, started by moderator BakedJake, discusses this topic. It is true, in my opinion, that page ranking at Google has nothing to do with themeing your pages in your site. I have spoken with experts who tell me this is the case and even Google Reps hinted at this.

The question is, "When you play chess you try to anticpate your opponents most likely next move(s), and make make your move accordingly. So planning today for hilltop tommorow, isn't a bad idea." That is for a different thread. :)

Found this way of a good thread at SEW forums. According to a JupiterResearch search engine marketing survey, marketers are widely "unsophisticated" when it comes to marketing campaigns. Don't know if I really follow all of what they findings say, like how do you really qualify an "unsophisticated marketer"? Some of what they said does appear to be true. The survey goes on to say that "Most search marketers aren't doing their homework", which should be good news for those that do. Their homework relates to the marketers ability to research keywords, bid, track, and report campaigns, a big part of measuring the success of the campaign. Many just put campaigns on auto-pilot, or pay someone to do the work for them. The article did mention that what was found was that "sophisticates have total marketing budgets that exceed $1 million", and tend to be larger companies. Well, probably common sense since they probably have the funds to hire someone to watch these campaigns daily.

Another interesting part I wanted to bring up, was that possibly search engines could use this "unsophistication" to help sell SEM to their prospective clients. Recently I was contacted by a Google Adwords rep about increasing my campaign and using a service called Jumpstart. The basis of jumpstart is for moderate to larger spending advertisers who will have their campaigns created for them and all ad groups written and organized neatly. Pretty nice huh? Give Google the links and they do it all for you with the promise you will spend a lot (base is $200-$300 a day), not exactly heavy spending, but not necessarily affordable for every "unsophisticate" out there. So Google appears to be targeting the "unsophisticate" crowd, and if the article is correct there sure is 3/4 more of a chance of finding one.

A little self-promotion here, and some for Wiley the publishing company for those Dummies books. They quotes a bunch of us SEO/SEM guys in Chapter 17 named "Ten SEM and SEO Tips from the Pros".

Check out the yellow book if you like.

A thread at Cre8asite asks Which SEO Ebook Would You Buy? Respected SEO professionals such as Peter Da Vanzo and Ammon Jones suggested two books but explained the differences between the two.

The first book is named Winning the Search Engine Wars by Planet Ocean. Ammon Jones said this book is great "if you simply intend to tinker with your rankings as a webmaster, then "Winning the Search Engine War" is a good book with many instantly applicable ideas."

However Ammon strongly recommends Mike Grehen's Books Search Engine Marketing: The Essential Best Practice Guide. He recommends it because "Mike Grehan went and actually interviewed the people who researched and wrote the actual search algorithms. As the quote goes: they didn't tell him the algorithm, but they talked happily, and in detail, about the ingredients. You'll be very unlikely to find this info anywhere else." He continues to say, "Mike Grehan's book takes the other approach, and the one I myself work to. It doesn't just look at what works, it looks at why. It tracks the trajectory of the search algorithms so that you can predict its probable position in a month, or three, or six."

Fredrick Marckini, from iProspect, publishes article on his presentation at the SES NYC conference. At the Future of SEM track, he shared his thoughts on how an SEM company should work. Great angle and it needed to be said.

Read the article here.

Newsweek released an article this week named All Eyes on Google. It makes for good reading.

Also make sure to check out the survey that asks Do other search engines stand a chance against Google?.

In Mike Grehan's latest article published at SearchEngineWatch.com named Google PageRank Lunacy, he discusses his experience with link building through spamming other sites (blogs and guest books).

I recommend reading it. Most of you know that Mike is one of the leading authoritative figures in link building and strategies.