Credit: Nike & Yusef Hadi

Don’t Take ‘Search’ Too Literally

SEO’s, here’s my call to you - Don’t take the “search” in Search Engine Optimization too seriously. As SEO’s (novice, intermediate, or advanced) we have a tendency to be deeply involved in our industry happenings, which can sometimes take away focus from the real reason our industry exists. Bringing visibility to clients or self-owned sites requires much diligence and talent, so the majority of your time is better employed at implementing what you already know than reading about new information.

All around good guy and internet marketing guru Matt McGee today announced the launch of the SEMMYs … the search industry’s equivalent of the EMMY’s.

The EMMYs are described as; an annual awards event honoring some of the best articles and blog posts from the search marketing industry, as voted by the industry. We have 127 authors nominated, representing 111 blogs/sites.

There are 15 categories for awards:

• SEO
• PPC
• Small Business
• Local Search
• Google
• Blogs & Blogging
• Link Building
• Social Media
• Analytics
• Search Tech
• Rants

The Scenario:

What will ultimately replace search engines?

This is a question I am asked frequently, and therefore have given considerable thought to. Ultimately, whatever it is, it has to compensate for the weaknesses of search though right? So, what are the weaknesses of search relative to the ideal search solution (he says knowing that we’ll never stop searching for things we need, so search itself will never die, only transform into something more efficient)?

At its core, Delicious is simply a bookmarking system. It’s a place to store all those links that are too much to be in your “Favorites” folder. What makes it so useful is its one of those technologies that has a simple interface. What makes it so compelling is it’s ability to do so much more; keep, discover, share, research and collaborate from any computer.

This week I take a look at Delicious, by the numbers.

The Beginning:

At some level, I’m sure we can all relate to this!

Sometimes, things don’t work out exactly according to expectation… and that’s not always a bad thing, providing untold rewards to the proverbial upside.

Take Viagra for instance… Millions of dollars of research money was devoted to creating the little blue pill as a drug for hypertension. Er, make that, Angina. Er, make that, well, you know…

Ooops number 1. But as the saying goes, when life hands you lemons, make hard lemonade.

And then millions of dollars in marketing money was spent on targeting gentlemen of a certain age until it was discovered that men significantly younger had a much higher incidence of usage. (Those of an age clearly not afraid of drinking and thriving.)

This post is Part II of a III part series on How to Improve Your Digg Profile. The first post in the series focused on ‘How to Make Yourself More Attractive’ from a Digg perspective, to improve your chances of being accepted as a trusted friend on Digg. So, now that you’ve absorbed all that advice, and incorporated the necessary changes, you’re ready to go ‘friending’.

This post will focus specifically on ‘friending’; meaning finding and approaching the ‘Right’ Friends on Digg since its about quality not quantity. Much as you want the right tools for a job, you also want the right people for a job.

Finding and retaining top notch talent is critical to the success of any business. A bad hire could cost you and thousands of dollars in lost productivity, your time (in having to go through the hiring and training process again) and God forbid, mistakes.

On the other hand a Rockstar can propel your agency to the next level. But in a pressurized industry like SEO, how do you hire a Rockstar?

1) Determine in advance what your organization needs.

SEO is too broad a term these days. As the algorithm gets increasingly more complex, more and more SEOs are finding the need to specialize. Here are some questions to consider:

Today is one of those days that I’m glad I’m taking my own advice. I feel really foggy today, as I’m certain most bloggers do at some time or another. I definitely didn’t feel like posting to the blog. Fortunately, I prepared in advance for this eventuality, so its not really the issue it could have been.

So, here are my 3 tips to help avoid last minute scrambles to find a blog topic for the day.

Credit: Derekwin

Every SEO has a strategy that builds the very foundation of optimizing any website’s ranking in the SERPs. Beside the usual gamut of directory submissions, on-page optimization and blog commenting (tactics that *everyone* employs), you’ve got to have a couple of tricks up your sleeve in order to rank for highly competitive terms.

Credit: NYC Comet