| LED Digest 2454: Google Going Overboard on Links? |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. July 23, 2007 Issue no. 2454 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ======= NEW ===================== --== Google's Guidelines on Linking ==-- ~ Joel Lesser "Is Google dictating how webmasters obtain relevant traffic apart from search returns?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Shake-ups in SEO SERPs? ==-- ~ Jill Whalen "...if you're dependent upon one pet keyword phrase for your rankings..." ~ Michael Martinez "The SEO queries are not bellwether queries." --== The False Economy of Amateur Work ==-- ~ Tom Aman "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." ~ Michael Linehan "Doing more of the same is not the answer." ========== NEW =================================== From: Joel Lesser Subject: New Thread - Google's New Guideline on Link Exchange A brand new webmaster guideline specifically mentioning link exchange has been published over at Google: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer... It states (in part): ---------------- "Examples of link schemes can include: Link exchange and reciprocal links schemes ("Link to me and I'll link to you.") ..." ---------------- I will cautiously presume this guideline is more targeted towards some webmasters who participate in full duplex (fully automated) link schemes where links are obtained in high volume with little to no editorial control. However, I wonder how this will affect those webmasters who sometimes obtain quality links through relevant link exchange while maintaining full editorial control? Is this Google webmaster guideline over-reaching? Will this guideline affect how you link with other sites? Do you think this guideline is fair? Is Google dictating how webmasters obtain relevant traffic apart from search returns? Best Regards, Joel Lesser LinksManager.com http://linksmanager.com ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Jill Whalen Subject: SEO searches > Key in "search engine optimization" and only Bruce Clay appears > on the first page and [Jill] Whalen's is way down the list on the > second page. Also in the past both these sites were way up at > the top of the listings but now new sites including Wikipedia > have grabbed the top positions. - Leon Simmons, LED Digest 2453 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1860/190/ It's like we always tell clients as well as High Rankings Forum members -- rankings are not static! Pages go up, pages go down. That's life in the SEO biz. While the home page of the High Rankings website has been in and out of the top 10 of Google for at least 5 years for the phrase search engine optimization, the top 10 is not a place I or anyone else can own (unfortunately!). However, it's no big deal. Why? Because -- again as I tell clients and forum members -- if you're dependent upon one pet keyword phrase for your rankings, you're making a big mistake. SEO is about optimizing for the hundreds or even thousands of keyword phrases that are relevant to what you offer on your website. While our rankings for that particular keyword phrase may be lower than it was a month or two ago, the traffic from Google to the High Rankings website as a whole is still 50% of its overall traffic. And even on page 2 for the coveted search engine optimization phrase, the site still received 221 visitors in the past month for that phrase. (We measure the traffic, not the rankings.) What's important (and far more interesting) to note, is that the keyword phrase search engine optimization has never been a good converting phrase for our company, regardless of when the website ranked #2 or #15. I wrote about this almost exactly a year ago in my "Say Bye-bye to Rankings and Hello to SEO Success!" article here: http://www.highrankings.com/advisor/byebyerankings/. So yeah, it's certainly nice bragging rights during those times when the High Rankings home page is showing up in the top 10 for such a highly competitive phrase; but it doesn't seem to affect our business either way. Most people who actually want to hire our company have found us through other means than by searching with that phrase in Google. They have either used different keyword phrases and have come up with one of my numerous SEO articles, a forum post, an archived newsletter, or a some other page on our site, or they have already been a newsletter subscriber or forum member for a while and have always known that when they get the opportunity (and/or budget) to hire an SEO that they will be talking to High Rankings first and foremost. Hope this helps! Jill Whalen High Rankings Helping Sites to Be the Best They Can Be! www.highrankings.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: SEO searches The SEO query results change from time to time in Google. They are hypercompetitive expressions and people are constantly jostling for position. But Google Universal Search's algorithm also makes it more likely there will be occasional changes for a variety of reasons. For example, "SEOINC" was recently sold and garnered some news stories and blog posts. And while Google has tacitly admitted to or implied that they give some sort of favorable weighting to Wikipedia, the SEO article was recently given "featured article" status by Wikipedia and as such earned a lot of links and comments. The SEO queries are not bellwether queries. They don't hold any particular significance with respect to showing skill, expertise, or anything. They really aren't even popularity contests any more. Some people target the queries because they get so much commentary and traffic. Most people just ignore them. One might as well ask why Google elected to place links to the Chicago Tribune on the front page of its "pizza" query today. The news stories are not very relevant to the expression, but that's just the way the algorithm works. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ ============ Sponsor Message =========== Want a fresh pizza delivered? Call Domino's. Want some fresh web content? Visit GetWebContent.com. We deliver fresh, we deliver fast and, unlike Domino's, every pizza copy we bake is different. We custom write it to fill your order and then burn the recipe. After that it's all yours to use on one site or 1,000 sites. www.GetWebContent.com/LED fresh, fast and only for you. ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Tom Aman Subject: False economy > I suggest that for most businesses, working on the > website is no different than these other business > activities. After a certain level, it's better to have someone > else do a lot of the work. - Michael Linehan, LED Digest 2452 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1859/190/ Whether you do it yourself or not may depend, as has been said in earlier responses, on what you can afford to pay for. Aside from that, some DIY choices are made just because the person likes to do it. For example, modern printers and a little effort make it fairly easy to do your own printing, something that can be cost effective for some things - very low volume items (probably something like less than 100 pages) that can be set up fairly easily (a brief stint with a word processor or graphics program) and don't require anything too fancy. But having said that, we have a favorite saying around our home: "Just because you can doesn't mean you should". So anytime you figure on doing something yourself, give some real thought as to whether or not you should actually do it, taking into account your time, your resources, and your abilities. Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Michael Linehan Subject: False Economy > ... for some markets SEO is irrelevant because > the website is at its achievable maximum - Maty Matyszak, LED Digest 2453 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1860/190/ Absolutely. No argument here. SEO is not for everyone. Even the search engines, powerful as they are as a marketing tool, are not for everyone. > You also overlook the point that the low barriers to entry on > the web many start-ups are still time-rich and cash poor. > Therefore it makes sense for such businesses to leverage > the major asset they have into learning the trade. Yes, if there's more time than money, that's a good idea. I'm just proposing that there comes a point, fairly early on, where it may be more effective (perhaps enormously so) to switch over and spend a bit of money. > I'd also question that teach-yourself-SEO is exceptional. > In fact it was my understanding that most people in the > SEO business got there in exactly that fashion. True. But I'd still say the gaining high levels of success by DIY is exceptional. In my experience, there are large numbers of people chugging along at the same modest level, year after year. If that is satisfactory for that person, that is totally fine. Who am I to say anything? That person's goals are the critical determining factor. What I am suggesting is that IF someone wants different results 1. Doing more of the same is not the answer. 2. Spending a large amount of time to reach "#1 out of 50 million skills" is not the answer. Imagine Company A making ten times more than Company B. A is not ten times better than B. The edge can be just a little. But at even a moderate level of competitiveness, gaining that edge requires a great deal of effort and knowledge. It can be very much more cost effective to buy some time from a specialist rather than try to figure it out for oneself. Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy www.marketing-alchemy.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by: GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED SEOToolSet.com Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification Join the certified SEO directory: www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/189/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/187/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/201/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work." - Emile Zola |
