Once a day SEO: May 2007

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The Mind of the Entrepreneur

This is a quote from this Tropical SEO article about entrepreneurship:

Back to that Fortune 500 company which sent me a 20 page contract, a non-disclosure agreement, and demanded to pay on net-60 terms. At that point, my business had gotten slightly off the ground, and I wasn’t exactly starving (well, if you’ve seen me, you know that I’m never starving, but I mean starving for cash

), so I asked myself, do I really want to deal with this horsesh*t? The answer was no. I replied to them: I don’t sign contracts (I know, that’s ghetto, but I didn’t want to pay for a lawyer to review it considering it was a smaller project), and I required payment upfront. I figured they would blow me off, but their response was, OK,

I like his stuff, always entertaining.

Using Log Files to Analyze Internal PR Flow

This extends a basic idea i touched on a couple of weeks ago, using our server log files for mining incoming link data and also using it for internal linking structure. Basically you create a matrix using data for a long period of time to build a 'picture' of your internal and external linking structure, then use the to optimize PR flow within the site. Pretty cool.

Google Maps Street View

Another amazing Google feature. Go to Google Maps. Zoom in on San Francisco. Zoom close enough to pick out a specific street. In the top right there is a link 'Street View', click it and move the little guy that pops up around on the map. Going to the Golden Gate Bridge is really cool, views all along the bridge. Feels like youre there.

Google Working Toward Facial Search

This is some really cool stuff. Google is using facial recognition software in their image search. With a filter tag on the end of a give image search you can search faces alone. Check out these two searches, one image search of Britney Spears, and the other of Britney Spears with face filter.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Google and Click Counts for Rankings

There is a small discussion going on about clicks effecting rankings on Google. While this is an old topic, Google does admit they use click numbers for quality control. This brings up some interesting thoughts in that our site through looking at third party data is clearly dominant in search rankings and traffic in the US. Could a small smattering of across the board click data be calculated in for authoritative sites?

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Yahoo's Top 20 Misspellings

Friday, May 25, 2007

Massive Search Engine List

Comprehensive list of 300 reviewed Search Engines.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Google Result That Includes Google Games

Thought this was interesting. Google search on US proxy for 'Online Poker'. Top Sponsor Links result is Google themselves.

Another Big Step for Google

I didnt think the translated search was going to happen for a bit but here it is in beta and its very cool. Shows SERPs side by side in both languages. Seems to be some sort of mix of a search on Google's country specific sites.

Universal Search Example

'Coke Mentos', notice the video results mixed into the page with thumbnails. Google's own results to boot.

Mystery Solved

For months I have been watching and speculating on Google Mobile Search. It does not mirror any given Google Datacenter and may even be a predictor of future SERPs. I don't know why I never thought of this before, but here is the answer.

More on Google Universal Search

This is probably the biggest piece of news to hit the search world in a while. Google says it is their biggest change in the past 5 years. I mentioned this some time last week, but waited to approach it a bit more in depth until there was a bit more info out there. It is impossible not to think about how dramatic an impact this will have not only on SEO but the user experience.

The short of it is that likely to be sucessful, more elements will need to be integrated into page design, images, video, news, etc.

This is the best piece I've found yet on the topic to provide a good overview, Danny Sullivan and it is a long article.

I've yet to see any impact or changes to Poker related search.

Yahoo Caught Cloaking

This is entertaining.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

New Yahoo PPC Conversion Data

Yahoo has added a new category in PPC data called an Assist. Basically what it means is if I search for 'Poker' first and click on the ad, then search 'Poker Tip', click on that ad then convert, the first 'Poker' search counts as an Assist for the keyword 'Poker'.

Germany Study on Google Search Ranking Factors

These guys actually took a random sample of 10,000 keywords and analyzed the top 100 Google Rankings for factors that influence ranking. See a summary or go to the German study summary translated.

Yahoo Search Algo Update - Good To Us!

Search Engine Land posted last night that Yahoo said they were doing an update. It has been kind to us. Big Movement, SERPs: 'Poker' up to 17, 'Online Poker' up to 4, 'Play Poker Online' up to 1, 'Online Poker Room' up to 3. None were first page except, 'Play Poker Online'!!

Google Hot Trends and the Google Tool Bar

When you type in a URL in Google Tool Bar and the URL is down, you are directed to Google Search. This is resulting in some of the terms popping up in Hot Trends. Neat way to mine for New Topics?

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Long Tail

Google says that 20 to 25% of all queries that they see in a given day are queries that have never been seen before (SEOBook)

New Feature for Google Trends

Google Trends has added a daily Hot Trends feature. At the bottom of the daily trends you can also view a broader list of 100 top daily trends. Click on the term itself and you are shown term specific details. You can also search back historically.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

More About The Latest Google Update?

I found another piece of anecdotal evidence that what we are seeing in this latest Google update is something related to devaluing blogs. This post to the Google Webmaster Forum is about a site, http://www.travellerspoint.com/, that saw a recent drop in rankings across the board. Their content is primarily driven by a compilation of travelers who start their own travel blogs on the site. But the key is that most of their backlinks come from blogs.

Google Searchology

Highlights of Google's Big Day yesterday, with a look at search things to come. Some points, admitting they will be blending results, news, local, etc, new interface examples, blending of language results with automatic translation.