Search Engine Optimization and Online Marketing Help

Big list of web tools

Posted on September 30th, 2009 by searchgeek

Bryan Eisenberg, a true online marketing pioneer, just dropped a heaping pile of web, seo and usability testing tools on his blog. 69 to be exact, though that number grows as you read through the comments collecting below the post.

Seriously smart guy, so if he’s taken the time to sort through and share this list, you should take the time to review it and see what’ll help you. From checking back links to improving conversions, there’s a tool listed.

So, why aren’t you over there reading now?!

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Presentation for Authors@SEMPO NYC event

Posted on September 15th, 2009 by searchgeek

Here’s the video I prepped for the Authors@SEMPO event on Sept. 16th in New York.

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SEOMoz training seminar

Posted on August 24th, 2009 by searchgeek

While the SEOMOZ Pro Training seminar might seem expensive to some, I’m sitting in here right now thinking what a bargain this is for the advice and insights being shared.

This is “advanced” stuff, but as pointed out early in the first session, much of SEO is repetative and not new. The goal is to really spur you to taking action, and the examples shared can help savvy SEOs skip a lot of testing and zone in on select tactics that have been proven to work.

Lots of great tools being shared, too.

Given we’re early on the first day, I’ll reserve final judgment, but if the rest of the seminar continues to provide usable info like the first three sessions have, it’ll easily be the best investment in SEO training I’ve made in a long time.

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Adsense and offline websites

Posted on August 19th, 2009 by searchgeek

Just a quick note to help folks feel better and not panic when their sites go offline.

So, due to “technical difficulties” my sites were offline for roughly 3 1/2 months. One of these sites, over the past year, was averaging roughly $850/month from Adsense, so seeing the site go offline kinda hurt.

Now that my sites are back online after a last ditch effort by GoDaddy’s help team, I’ve been reviewing the stats in my Adsense account.

Much to my surprise, I received payments for click activity during the months the sites were offline. Knowing tracking can be variable sometimes, I suspect this is because users may have had the site bookmarked, and it was still in their cache. When they “came back”, they clicked on an ad that was showing, and went to the correct advertiser’s page, thus allowing the credit to accrue in my account.

So the next time your site goes down, don’t freak out too much. Google won’t quickly forget who you are.

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…and we’re back - lost some data, lost my mind for a bit, but all good now!

Posted on August 14th, 2009 by searchgeek

Well, my sites are back on line! Amazing.

3+ months ago my server ate a line of code in the Plesk control interface. This essentially meant anyone calling into the server hit a dead end, as the server didn’t know who or what it was anymore. The login didn’t work, so even me as an admin couldn’t access it.

Godaddy’s solution - I needed a new box. The good news is that because I run a dedicated server, they managed to save most of my data, as the backup hard drive was unaffected. The production hard-drive, however, was toasty, crispy, fried… Crow bars appeared, the backup HD was rescued from the smoking hulk of my dead sever and mirrored onto the new server (for a fee, naturally).

So, I got “most” of my content back, but site’s like this one have gaps where I’d been posting for a few months, but not backing up (lesson learned the hard way) frequently. The current plan is 2 backups - one on the server, the other to an external hard drive at home.

In the end, despite 3 months of emailing and calls every week to GoDaddy Customer Support, I figured out the fix on my own. Fitting since on each call they reminded me I don’t pay for a “supported” machine, so they could only send me documentation from their Help area, but couldn’t actually “Help” me, or answer certain questions…

Trouble was, the reps were mostly clueless. One guy responded by throwing the kitchen sink at me - docs completely unrelated to my application and situation. The laughable bit is that one reference to a completely different server control software system jogged my memory about something on my own system. After a bit of hunting around, I found the errant item, swapped it out and BAM, sites back online!

I do offer my thanks to the guy, because as a result of that interaction, this was sorted out. Not because he knew what he was doing, or paid attention to my account details or my own responses to his questions, but still - he da man!

Last night was my last try - I was about to call Liquid Web and simply hand them the login deets to my server and tell them to take the content and get my sites live. The cost is more than my set up at GD, but I *think* I get server support over there for the price, so it might be worth looking into if anyone wants solid hosting (based on reports from others I trust who use them).

If I can find any missing posts, I’ll repost them - where’s the Wayback machine…?

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In-House Salary Survey update and more…

Posted on October 30th, 2007 by searchgeek

We’ve seen over 600 people complete the SEMPO In-House SEM Salary survey so far! WOW!!!

Massive thanks to everyone who’s participated! We’re wrapping it up after tomorrow, so that’s it - the end of the 31st sees the end of data collecting. Following that you can expect us (SEMPO) to work on getting the results out during November/early December (that’s the current plan, anyway).

Now, for those on the Agency side, fret not, my friends! We’re going to try to get a survey focused on you folks up and running very shortly. Nothing is set in stone on this one, but it only seems right we roll out that side of things to balance the data for everyone in the industry.

Anyway, that’s about it folks - stay tuned for more interesting bits in the coming weeks.

Duane

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SEMPO In-House SEM Salary Survey

Posted on October 4th, 2007 by searchgeek

Well, it’s taken a LOT of months of effort, and a LOT of feedback from folks, but we’re finally ready!

SEMPO’s In-House SEM Salary Survey

For those who may not know it, I’m a co-chair for the SEMPO In-House SEM Committee. Our reason for being is to act as a gathering point for in-house SEMs and offer useful information to the larger group of in-house SEMs scattered around the globe.

So, back in April, the idea occurred to me that we had no real data on salaries and compensation packages for in-house SEMs. Sure, there were discussions in forums, such as this older one at SEW, but everything seemed to be anecdotal - nothing solid that you could, oh, I don’t know - take to HR and say, “Hey, people with my skills are being paid $10,000 (on average) more than I am. What, if anything, can we do about this?”

Now, if your HR Manager is anything like mine, she’d start the discussion by laughing in your face. Then say thanks for the info, she’ll see what she can do. In all seriousness, when I spoke to my HR Manager back it the Spring, she was interested in this data, as it would help her directly understand the value of this skilled, niche position within our company. Finding data on comp packages for Sales Managers, product Managers and Marketing Managers is relatively straight-forward. Finding real data on jobs like Search Managers, PPC Analysts and Directors of Search Marketing, well, that’s still very cloudy.

Regardless, I wanted to know the data - so the survey was born.

Now, lest you get the idea that “Duane this on his own”, I’ll tell you immediately that if it were not for the help and feedback offered by the entire In-House SEM Committee, and the BoD members at SEMPO, this would never have seen the light.

Now, who can use this data?

Well, any in-house SEM can use it. They can use it as a gauge to measure their own value in the industry. Trust me - you are all, everyone, a winner. But those with 6+ years of experience and those with 2 years of experience should occupy very different positions within a given organization.

The businesses themselves will also be able to use this information as a way to judge if they are compensating vital personnel adequately, or if they are in jeopardy of losing them. It’ll also help businesses looking to grow their in-house teams understand the landscape a bit better.

Despite accidentally deleting the survey, and having the awesome and quick-witted staff at www.SurveyMonkey.com save my a$$ by restoring things hours before going live, it’s been mostly boring slogging through details and hundreds of e-mails to pull together what we hope are a relevant list of questions. I’ll tell you, hitting the wrong button and suddenly wondering where everything went is a sure-fire way to raise your heart rate.

So, if you’re in-house, and you see this, please do the following:

1 - fill in the survey (and be honest )
2 - forward the link to anyone you know who are in-house as well

In the end, the info will benefit everyone, so it’s worth participating.

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Managing search needs in-house - excellent article

Posted on October 1st, 2007 by searchgeek

While crushing around this morning, I came across a post today on Mike Moran’s blog. The title is Management by Embarrassment.

Yep - to get folks to do what you need, sometimes you need to embarrass them a bit.

Nothing drastic, but Mike outlines and excellent tactic that every in-house SEM should have in their arsenal. Think of it as Relationship Building - An Advance Course.

After reading it completely through, I stated at the top again and thought carefully of my own situation and how I get things done around the office here. Mike’s suggestions are spot on, no matter how good your internal relationships are.

I’m putting this thinking into practice today. You should consider it, too.

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Vannesa Fox COULD replace Vanna White - and other thoughts on search celebrity

Posted on September 27th, 2007 by searchgeek

Celebrity is defined as:

ceâ€¢lebâ€¢riâ€¢ty - [suh-leb-ri-tee] â€“ noun, plural -ties

1 - a famous or well-known person
2 â€“ fame; renown

Now, very few people are born as celebrities. Those who are usually come from families with well established names in the entertainment world, though some transcend this rule of thumb.

Witness Paris Hilton. Her family name started with a string of low-cost motels. Today, thanks largely to her familyâ€™s money, she is a celebrity. Obviously she puts a lot of work into being a celebrity, what, with the parties, the drinking, the jail-time, the driving nice cars, the reaching out to actual celebs to try to form friendships â€“ itâ€™s a lot of work, no doubt.

So, we can see that sheâ€™s a celebrity by virtue of money and effort, not because of any real talent or skill.

This brings me to the world of search.

Our world, across its many facets, has spawned a LOT of wealth. Google alone has spawned over 1,000 new millionaires. (Old info in this article from 2004, but you get the idea.) So, with all those flush folks pootling around in their new Ferraris, Porsches and Prii (Priuses?), why are there not more celebrities among them?

Paris proved that having money and partying can make anyone a celebrity, so why havenâ€™t more individuals started building a â€œlifestyleâ€ for themselves thatâ€™ll guarantee notoriety? Search geeks often have money, and I KNOW they like to party.

I mean, letâ€™s take Vanessa Fox as an example. She, late of Google, is an intelligent, attractive and talented person No doubt sheâ€™s done OK at Google. Surely well enough to skip the line at some of the best clubs in town, at least, if she were the sort to flash-the-cash (which doesnâ€™t strike me as her style).

And if youâ€™ve ever met Vanessa youâ€™ll know sheâ€™s the total package, so hanginâ€™ with the beautiful people isnâ€™t a problem.

But looks alone doesnâ€™t explain it. Letâ€™s take Serge or Larry for example. Both billionaires; who wouldnâ€™t want them hanging at their club? â€¦and forget about them waiting in line. They look like guys I work with, yet no doubt the ladies would flock to those boys, where my coworkers would be left sweeping up feathersâ€¦

Letâ€™s head back to Vanessa and Paris for a moment. Maybe it comes down to perceived intelligence? Iâ€™m not trying to say that one person is a brainiac and the other a dolt. I really donâ€™t know. Maybe Paris is fighting off the paparazzi with her left hand and MENSA with her right â€“ could beâ€¦you never know.

Perhaps there is a level of maturity that is the cut off point. Specifically, maybe a lack of maturity leads rich people to become celebrities. Those well off donâ€™t necessarily seek fame if theyâ€™ve had to work for their money, or developed normally and matured as adults normally do. Letâ€™s face it â€“ if you have to work for a buck, you know the value of the buck. If itâ€™s been handed to you all your life, itâ€™s not about the bucks â€“ itâ€™s about the things bucks bring to you â€“ vast difference here.

I really donâ€™t know the answers, but I do know that the search industry doesnâ€™t have any readily recognizable celebrities. Sure, WE all know who Danny Sullivan is, but outside the world of search, is he a well known commodity?

Perhaps itâ€™s time to start a â€œReplace Vanna with Vanessaâ€ campaign â€“ surely Vanna White is due to retire (sheâ€™s 50, can you believe it?), and I think Vanessa Fox would look great on stage. Fittingly, Vanessa, would thus be appearing on â€œWheel of Fortuneâ€ â€“ seems appropriate somehow.

Now, if this developed into a trend, maybe weâ€™d see Matt Cutts leading a revival of Front Page Challenge? Or maybe head lining a docudrama on Star Trek villains and whatever became of themâ€¦

â€¦and I could easily envision Chris Boggs snagging the lead role in a revamped version of Bizarreâ€¦

Yep, the time is nigh â€“ Search Needs Celebrities â€“ call Paris, TomKat and the Olsen twins â€“ weâ€™ve got some BFFs waiting in the wings here!

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