This post is part of an ongoing series: How Search Really Works.
Last week: Keyword Links.

Left to their own devices, people will assign keywords (tag or link) as they please.

They paint a rich picture of the linked content.

Keyword stuffing is the unnatural repetitive use of a specific word or phrase.

In your content….

..or your links…

source: www.blaugh.com

Credit: Bocavelhma

Yahoo! Because We’ve Got You Too

Yahoo answers is a great resource for Q&A when you just can’t seem to find the information you’re looking for. Aside from authority sites such as Wikipedia or dedicated niche forums, where else can you find out how to make falafel the egyptian way? Obscure perhaps, but potent? Surely! When used appropriately Yahoo Answers can be the hub of piggybacking long tail searches to your own niche site.

The Requirements

1. Thy site must have quality content and reasonably attractive/usable design

Oh oh. Changes are afoot when it comes to Google Local Listings, and while I haven’t had an opportunity to employ and thus take advantage of relative keywords, I’m wondering if anyone else has and if they’ve noticed any changes in conversion?

To wit: Google has recently and sporadically introduced clumps of ten (10) local listing results complete with business name, address, URL and phone number, no less. (See and click below.)

00:00 - Digg goes down for maintenance. When it comes back, something has changed…

01:00  - The Digg Algorithm has Changed

"Digg went down today for a short time.  The results may be that many diggers will go down for a long time."

12:15 - Two Diggs One Cup

"Digg has pretty much taken a crap in a cup, and asked everyone, including even the top diggers, to partake in the offering. It now takes (barring a miracle, or a massive, collective pre-planned quick-strike diggfest), around 200 diggs to go popular, which leaves many (including me) to wonder… is Digg TRYING to drive away users, and if so, why?"

Update available here

If the Blu-ray copyright issue is any indication, a storm is a brewing over at Digg.

A storm that has users up in arms.

In the course of an hour, during which Digg went offline on Wednesday (Jan. 23), Digg has strengthened changes which make it harder for a story to go popular.

Used to be 100 Diggs could get you front page. No more. For some power users it can now take up to 200 Diggs before going popular.

Google a été très, très occupé ces derniers temps faisant de la dévaluation de classement de page, pénalisant ceux qui vendent et paient les liens et ceux qui font PayPerPost. Je pense que dans une tentative de justification de leurs actions, nous pouvons tous spéculer que Google agit dans son meilleur intérêt…and dans son droit aussi. Ceci dit, l’hostilité ressentie à l’égard de Google semble rampante et grandissante.

Alors, qui a raison, et pourquoi est-ce que Google a choisi le chemin qu’il semble suivre en ce moment?

Affiliate Marketing today is so much more than what it used to be, when simply having someone place your banner on their website to drive traffic was the norm.  Back in the day, your banner would catch someones eye, they would click on it, and you would pay the person displaying your banner for each click that came through to your site from theirs.  (Not so different from Pay Per Click on the search engines today).

Cartoon Courtesy of: http://www.marketingmentor.net

Just a very quick post today, about a quick and simple technique to increase quality traffic to a site, while appeasing everyone in the social media space … the content creator, the social media themselves, and search engines.

This technique will:
a) generate more traffic for social media sites
b) make search results more user friendly
c) drive more ‘quality’ traffic to content creator sites … ie producers of quality content!

What you say … how can this be possible? Win-Win-Win scenarios are never possible, especially where social media and content creators are concerned … ask Marty?. Its almost a truism that social media converts extremely poorly. Surely you gest?

Groupthink is fairly common in the board room but more and more I’m starting to see it in social media too.

Groupthink is defined as “a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas.”

Basically what this means is that people will avoid putting forth opinions or viewpoints that are not likely to be popular with the group.

Groupthink has been thought to be the cause of such major disasters such as the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster and the Bay of Pigs Invasion.