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30 Nov This post is from from my other blog here One of these days I might make roundup posts of the best things I have read during the month, but then there is always my Stumbleupon account. A good list of high quality posts.
29 Nov This post is from from my other blog here Search-related companies always seem to make newsy announcements when there are industry events going on, and this week is no exception: The Kelsey/SES Local show is going on down in Los Angeles, and there have been a bunch of local search-related announcements. CitySearch is partnering with Merchant Circle, which is no surprise given IAC’s recent investment in MC. (IAC owns CitySearch.) The two companies will be sharing access to each other’s platform and customers. The press release is kinda funny where it says, “MerchantCircle has successfully engaged over 300,000 proactive merchants to build out their profile page, upload photos, create coupons, ...
28 Nov This post is from from my other blog here
The position listed is “Search Engine Optimization Manager.” Yes, that’s my title. No, I’m not leaving. You can read more about the opportunity by going to our open positions search form. Just click the SEARCH button and look for the listing — the listing date is today, November 28. Of particular note is this at the bottom of the listing: Telecommute option available. There’s a lot of HR-speak in there, ...
28 Nov This post is from from my other blog here We spend so much time talking about what your SEO provider should and shouldn’t do, what strategies and tactics the SEO provider may or may not employ on your SEO campaign, what makes a great SEO provider, and so forth. Let’s talk about the other side of the equation: What should the client do? If this were the 1960s, I might say, Ask not what your SEO provider can do for you; ask what you can do for your SEO provider! Okay, cheesiness aside, the question is this: What traits make a great SEO client? There are several things that make a ...
27 Nov This post is from from my other blog here After every trip, whether for business or pleasure, one of the first things I do when I get home is get online and write some reviews. I review the hotels and restaurants I visited. If I used a shuttle service or visited some other service business, I might review them, too. I’ll write my reviews on Yahoo Local, Yelp, sometimes on Travelocity, and more recently, on Open List, which just recently began accepting user reviews. (Disclosure: my employer owns Open List.) What I’m doing is bringing two of a small business’s most powerful marketing tools together: local search and user reviews.
26 Nov
21 Nov This post is from from my other blog here 
November 23, 2006: Happy Thanksgiving
Originally uploaded by Matt McGee
This is what the dinner table looked like for Thanksgiving 2006. It’ll look about the same tomorrow, and I can’t wait. Once we start eating, our Thanksgiving tradition includes the four of us (we have two kids) going one at a time through the alphabet, naming something we’re thankful for with whatever letter we’re on. So, if I start with the letter “A”, my daughter will have to say something she’s thankful for that starts with “B”, and ...
21 Nov This post is from from my other blog here
November 23, 2006: Happy Thanksgiving
Originally uploaded by Matt McGee
This is what the dinner table looked like for Thanksgiving 2006. It’ll look about the same tomorrow, and I can’t wait. Once we start eating, our Thanksgiving tradition includes the four of us (we have two kids) going one at a time through the alphabet, naming something we’re thankful for with whatever letter we’re on. So, if I start with the letter “A”, my daughter will have to say something she’s thankful for that starts with “B”, and ...
20 Nov
20 Nov This post is from from my other blog here There are countless companies that target real estate agencies and individual agents, offering “complete web site packages” and “custom solutions” that always include “search engine optimization” so you can “maximize your traffic and sell more houses.” Barf. You want to see what they’re offering? I got my hands on one of their marketing sheets, and here’s the section on SEO. Have a look: 
That’s 25 “search engines” — using the term loosely! — they submit to. Oh, it’s “just a few” of the places they submit. For real. Let’s ignore the fact that search engine submission is dead and look a little more ...
20 Nov This post is from from my other blog here There are countless companies that target real estate agencies and individual agents, offering “complete web site packages” and “custom solutions” that always include “search engine optimization” so you can “maximize your traffic and sell more houses.” Barf. You want to see what they’re offering? I got my hands on one of their marketing sheets, and here’s the section on SEO. Have a look:
That’s 25 “search engines” — using the term loosely! — they submit to. Oh, it’s “just a few” of the places they submit. For real. Let’s ignore the fact that search engine submission is dead and look a little more ...
19 Nov This post is from from my other blog here On the chance that some of my readers don’t have Karl Ribas’ blog bookmarked (why not?!), let me point you over his way for … We covered a lot of stuff. (That’s a euphemism for I’m a wordy S.O.B.) And the best thing, for me, about doing this kind of thing, is that the Q&A gets my mind racing and now I have ideas for several more blog posts. By the way, Karl also posted the interview to Sphinn. If you like it, let him know.
19 Nov This post is from from my other blog here On the chance that some of my readers don’t have Karl Ribas’ blog bookmarked (why not?!), let me point you over his way for … We covered a lot of stuff. (That’s a euphemism for I’m a wordy S.O.B.) And the best thing, for me, about doing this kind of thing, is that the Q&A gets my mind racing and now I have ideas for several more blog posts. By the way, Karl also posted the interview to Sphinn. If you like it, let him know.
18 Nov This post is from from my other blog here Time for another “five questions” post, where I toss out a handful of items and call on the collective wisdom of SBS readers to provide answers for the benefit of all (but mainly me!).
Okay, here we go: 1. Very often, the AdSense block in the left column of this blog looks like the image at right: Just one ad, from Text Link Ads. Is that happening because Google is having trouble targeting ads here (and can only find one to match), or is it because Text Link Ads ...
18 Nov This post is from from my other blog here Time for another “five questions” post, where I toss out a handful of items and call on the collective wisdom of SBS readers to provide answers for the benefit of all (but mainly me!).
Okay, here we go: 1. Very often, the AdSense block in the left column of this blog looks like the image at right: Just one ad, from Text Link Ads. Is that happening because Google is having trouble targeting ads here (and can only find one to match), or is it because Text Link Ads ...
18 Nov This post is from from my other blog here
Al Scillitani is this week’s winner of $500 in AdWords spending. Dan London earned the same honor last week. Congrats to both Al and Dan for great contributions to Gooruze. There’s still $8,500 in AdWords spending up for grabs, $500 per week, so if you haven’t tried Gooruze yet, why not get started today? And finally, I’ve posted the third article in my SEO Basics series: SEO Basics: Page Titles. Get on over and read it, and feel free to add to the nine comments already added to the article.
18 Nov This post is from from my other blog here
Al Scillitani is this week’s winner of $500 in AdWords spending. Dan London earned the same honor last week. Congrats to both Al and Dan for great contributions to Gooruze. There’s still $8,500 in AdWords spending up for grabs, $500 per week, so if you haven’t tried Gooruze yet, why not get started today? And finally, I’ve posted the third article in my SEO Basics series: SEO Basics: Page Titles. Get on over and read it, and feel free to add to the nine comments already added to the article.
17 Nov This post is from from my other blog here For those of you who are new SBS readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month. Scroll to the end to see previous Flashbacks.
Don’t Miss: SBS Flashback: October 2006 SBS Flashback: September 2006 SBS Flashback: August 2006 SBS Flashback: July 2006 SBS Flashback: June 2006 SBS Flashback: May 2006
17 Nov This post is from from my other blog here For those of you who are new SBS readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month. Scroll to the end to see previous Flashbacks.
Don’t Miss: SBS Flashback: October 2006 SBS Flashback: September 2006 SBS Flashback: August 2006 SBS Flashback: July 2006 SBS Flashback: June 2006 SBS Flashback: May 2006
15 Nov
15 Nov This post is from from my other blog here
Small Business Marketing Unleashed Get it? “Unleashed”? The puppy mascot? It’ll happen April 21-22 in Houston at a conference center that has a full-scale replica of The Alamo. Attendance will be limited and the cost is only $850 before March 1st, $975 after. I suppose I should mention that I’ll be speaking for an hour-and-a-half on Local Search. (Yikes.) If you’re a small ...
15 Nov This post is from from my other blog here
Small Business Marketing Unleashed Get it? “Unleashed”? The puppy mascot? It’ll happen April 21-22 in Houston at a conference center that has a full-scale replica of The Alamo. Attendance will be limited and the cost is only $850 before March 1st, $975 after. I suppose I should mention that I’ll be speaking for an hour-and-a-half on Local Search. (Yikes.) If you’re a small ...
14 Nov This post is from from my other blog here s_jenkins, who I assume is a new SBS reader, left his/her first comment late last night and included a couple questions that I think deserve more attention than a reply in that 14-month-old thread. The questions were in reference to my old post, Linkbaiting for Small Businesses (or, What I Learned Last Week), in which I detailed how I wrote and linkbaited (is that a word?) an earlier post, the original Top 21 Signs You Need a Break from SEO. s_jenkins asked: Do you think that ‘baiting’ gives the term ‘linkbaiting’ a bad precedence? It seems that some people think that ‘linkbaiting’ automatically ...
14 Nov This post is from from my other blog here s_jenkins, who I assume is a new SBS reader, left his/her first comment late last night and included a couple questions that I think deserve more attention than a reply in that 14-month-old thread. The questions were in reference to my old post, Linkbaiting for Small Businesses (or, What I Learned Last Week), in which I detailed how I wrote and linkbaited (is that a word?) an earlier post, the original Top 21 Signs You Need a Break from SEO. s_jenkins asked: Do you think that ‘baiting’ gives the term ‘linkbaiting’ a bad precedence? It seems that some people think that ‘linkbaiting’ automatically ...
14 Nov This post is from from my other blog here Many of the best search marketers own or work for small businesses. They share great advice and articles about SEO, PPC, social media, local search, and more. But these folks also share a lot of great advice for small businesses indirectly — by the things they do in their own businesses. Here are eight pieces of small business advice (in no particular order) from some of my fellow search marketers. 1.) It’s easier to be found when you make yourself visible.
Stoney deGeyter of Pole Position Marketing is a great example of this. He’s one of the most prolific writers in ...
14 Nov This post is from from my other blog here Many of the best search marketers own or work for small businesses. They share great advice and articles about SEO, PPC, social media, local search, and more. But these folks also share a lot of great advice for small businesses indirectly — by the things they do in their own businesses. Here are eight pieces of small business advice (in no particular order) from some of my fellow search marketers. 1.) It’s easier to be found when you make yourself visible.
Stoney deGeyter of Pole Position Marketing is a great example of this. He’s one of the most prolific writers in ...
12 Nov
11 Nov This post is from from my other blog here About three months ago, I shared some holiday SEO tips on Search Engine Land — and since SEO is not a quick-fix, immediate return kind of thing, August is when you need to be thinking about holiday SEO tactics. On the PPC side, you don’t need such an early start. A great PPC campaign can bring immediate results. So, with that in mind, small businesses who are looking for some holiday PPC hints may want to check out this webinar Yahoo is hosting on Wednesday: Holiday Trends and Best Practices for Sponsored Search Yahoo tells me the webinar is “specifically for small businesses, ...
11 Nov This post is from from my other blog here About three months ago, I shared some holiday SEO tips on Search Engine Land — and since SEO is not a quick-fix, immediate return kind of thing, August is when you need to be thinking about holiday SEO tactics. On the PPC side, you don’t need such an early start. A great PPC campaign can bring immediate results. So, with that in mind, small businesses who are looking for some holiday PPC hints may want to check out this webinar Yahoo is hosting on Wednesday: Holiday Trends and Best Practices for Sponsored Search Yahoo tells me the webinar is “specifically for small businesses, ...
11 Nov This post is from from my other blog here I’m a bit behind the game on these, but want to make sure to get a couple links out there and add some content to my SEO Tools category. I wouldn’t classify either of these tools as earth-shattering, but they both provide helpful information — and, to me at least, they give me quicker and more convenient access to information that would otherwise take a while to pull together. Index Rank from Solo SEOIndexRank is a tool that gives you quick access to seeing how many pages Google has indexed over various periods of time. You can provide multiple URLs, ...
10 Nov This post is from from my other blog here
08 Nov
08 Nov This post is from from my other blog here Wow, a rare lunchtime post on SBS… No, not their stock price - that’s still getting bigger. I’m talking about Google’s index. There are a couple sites I’ve been monitoring regularly since September to see how many pages are in Google’s index. Have a look at the data: site:citysearch.com September 18, 2007: 13,000,000+ pages indexed October 24, 2007: 11,000,000+ ” ” November 5, 2007: 835,000 ” ” November 8, 2007: 759,000 ” ” (From 13 million down to 759,000? Ouch.) site:yelp.com September 18, 2007: 525,000+ pages indexed November 5, 2007: 303,000 ” ” November 8, 2007: 307,000 ” ” Here are some other snapshots of pages indexed on sites I haven’t been ...
07 Nov This post is from from my other blog here
As usual, I think it’s not. 1a.) According to the story, the Maps display will show local businesses and landmarks chosen by the gas station owner. “Eventually” the hope is that a motorist can just type in an address and get directions. So, if all I can do now is see the gas station owner’s favorite restaurants and fishing holes, this product is ...
06 Nov This post is from from my other blog here
05 Nov
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by 
This is a brief interruption to our regular SBS programming to let you know that my employer is hiring! Haven’t you always thought it would be cool to work with me? 
For background purposes, you can read 
Couple quick notes to pass along about Gooruze:
This is pretty cool. The gang at Search Engine Guide, fresh off their re-launch of 
You’ve probably seen a lot of talk this week about