For September, 2009

#1333: In the SEO Know? Share the Wealth. Reap Rewards!

Posted: September 29, 2009 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 89 views // View Comments
If you know SEO, there's no sense in trying to keep the best practices a secret.

I’ve learned a very valuable lesson over the past week. If you’re a practitioner of Search Engine Optimization, share your knowledge! Why, you say? It WILL help you not only win business, but keep current business, build trust, and enhance credibility in the eyes of current and potential business partners (and your peers).

Giving Away Competitive Advantage

A lot of SEO’s are guarded when it comes to giving away tidbits of their “super-secret” SEO knowledge. I say this is bullshit, and they might be hiding something.

First off, anybody can learn Search Engine Optimization and the information is right an…

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#1150: SEOs, Luck, Magic, and Fairy Dust

Posted: September 23, 2009 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 157 views // View Comments
SEOs, Luck, Magic, and Fairy Dust
Actually, there is very little luck or magic that goes into a good SEO campaign.

I’ll start right off and say it. SEO is not magic, witchcraft, or anything you can pick up at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There are no Harry Potters, Gandalfs, and definitely no Great and Powerful Oz! As an SEO, do you ever feel like clients want you to pull a rabbit out of a hat? As a client, are your SEO expectations realistic?

My good friend Eric Leslie, with whom I worked at Your Marketing Corner, often told me something…

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#1178: SEO for Large Sites & Companies

Posted: September 18, 2009 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 337 views // View Comments
SEO for Large Sites & Companies
SEO for larger websites often requires flipping the model on how you normally run a campaign - with a focus on sweeping changes that affect many pages rather than small edits.

If you’ve been in the SEO industry for a while, you’ve probably come across some pretty large and challenging websites to optimize. It’s no doubt that a large website can be a very intimidating beast! You absolutely MUST approach it differently than your normal 10-20 page website, or you are absolutely destined to crash and burn.

For our purposes, I’ll define a large site as one that has 100 or more pages (could be dynamic or static). And chances are if you’re working on a site of this proportion, then there is probably a lot of money on the line.…

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#1182: Do Executives Really Understand Social Media?

Posted: September 10, 2009 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 42 views // View Comments
Do Executives Really Understand Social Media?
Sometimes I think not. Most executive-types till don't eat what they sell.

Saw an interesting article from eMarketer today on Executives and Social Media. This led me to some interesting thoughts. Now I am by no means a social media czar as you can tell by the fact that I only have 250 Twitter followers as of today (if you want a couple of social-gurus, check out Nate Riggs or Cheryl Harrison).

The True Value?

However, contrary to some of the statistics…

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#1173: 6 Crawlability Mistakes & How To Cure Them

Posted: September 8, 2009 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 165 views // View Comments
6 Crawlability Mistakes & How To Cure Them
Don't get caught making one of these crawlability mistakes, or your rankings and traffic may suffer the consequences.

So it’s been a couple weeks since you launched that flashy new website, and it’s still not indexed. Pissed off, right? Fire your web provider! Fire your SEO! Fire your marketing company! Fire everyone!

But what if I told you it wasn’t totally their fault? Better yet, the problem might lie on your end. WTF, right! What you may have is a nasty case of poor crawlability.

POOR CRAWLABILITY IS THE #1 KILLER OF SEARCH RANKINGS. IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW PRETTY A WEBSITE IS IF NOBODY CAN FIND IT!

Crawlability refers to the ability of a search engine to…

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#1071: 4 SEO Clients That Drive Me to Drink & How to Cope With Them (Spoof)

Posted: September 3, 2009 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 159 views // View Comments
Is it beer:30 yet?

Disclaimer: I come off as a big-time asshole in this video, and that is not my intention. My intention was to put a bit of a funny and sarcastic spin on a couple different types of SEO clients that drive me crazy. There will be stereotypes, and below there will be solutions on how to handle these types of clients. Please do not take get angry and take the video literally.

There are good SEO clients & bad SEO clients. The good SEO clients work well with you, want to learn about what their investing their time and money in,…

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