Mike McDonald took some time during SMX West to talk to Matt Cutts to get a recap on the session he contributed to, as well as to give us an update on relevant search questions Matt Recaps “Ask the Search Engines” sessionGoogle Caffine: Rolled it out to only one data center and soon to roll out to most or all data centers. Blocking Javascript or Let Search Engines Crawl It:  The answer is to let search engines crawl it. No-Follow Links:  Only worry about no-following outbound links that you are not sure if they can be trusted. Page Rank Sculpting:  Don’t really use it. ...

The landscape and ranking factors of SEO are always changing and evolving.  In 2010, we are starting to see a fundamental shift in the way search engines are rankings sites.  With the evolution of social media, video, and rich media, the organic SERPs are becoming much more than just typical websites.  New communication methods like Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, Digg, Reddit, etc… are becoming the new way of spreading content. With that being said, here are some SEO factors that do and don’t matter. 5 SEO Factors That DON’T MatterDON’T: H and Meta Keywords Tags DON’T:...

Link Bait is simply creating a piece of viral content that people will want to link to and share across the web, typically through forms of social media.  There are a number of differ formats that link bait comes in, however they all have one thing in common.  People WANT to share it!  In order for something to be considered “Link Bait” it must have one or all of these qualities ~ Original, Viral, Compelling, Comprehensive, Conceptual/State of the Art, Highest Quality, Controversial, Funny, Breaking News…and the list goes on.  The point is that it cannot just be any ordinary...

There are a number of SEO tools out there that will let you analyze a site for a number of different factors.  There are link analysis tools, competitive research tools, keyword analysis tools, domain info tools, social bookmarking tools, etc… So instead of using a different tool, why not find a tool that will perform multiple functions with one click of a button.  Here is a list of complete website analysis tools that will analyze a number of factors that go into a well optimized website. Website Grader Probably the most popular and used website analysis tool out there, Website Grader...

Have you ever wondered what a normal day is like for a SEO?  Well, I don’t think there is such a thing.  Depending on if you are working In-House, an Agency or are a Freelancer, your role and responsibilities will vary. However I have noticed a pattern and similarities for people in the industry.  Based on my work schedule and feedback I have gathered from others, this is a good example of the daily routine for an SEO. 8:00am – 8:30am: Check/Reply to E-mails 8:30am – 9:30am: Read/Browse/Comment on Industry Blogs, News, Tweets 9:30am – 10:00am: Start a New Blog Post 10:00am...

This post was written by guest blogger Alex Stetson, a Boston SEO specialist. Multi-search engines deliver results from a number of different search engines at once; this is meant to streamline the manual search process that users normally follow. So what do certain multi-search engines have to offer both the SEO and the common internet searcher?  What are the positives and negatives of each?  Keep reading for the multi-search engine low-down. Monster CrawlerMonster Crawler is a multi-search engine that pulls results from Google, Yahoo, and Bing all in one click.  This tool uses InfoSpace...

If you have visited a news site or blog recently, you have probably seen social media buttons throughout their content.  This makes it easy for a user to share and spread the word about content they like, by using their favorite social networks.  A blog post or news article can go viral extremely fast because of how easy it is to share content across these social media sites. There is starting to become a shift in how and where people go for content.  Social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Delicious; Twitter search engines like Tweetmeme and Topsy; social networking sites...

Ten years ago, hiring a good search engine optimization firm was enough to get great search engine rankings and relevant traffic.  Since then, the internet has evolved and become saturated with millions of websites.  Everybody now fighting for the 1st page of Google, trying to either move above their competitors or maintain their high organic rankings. From a paid placement standpoint, their are more advertisers than ever before, all trying to outbid each other for top ad positions.  For a keyword that use to have a max CPC of $ .80 is now $3.40.  For an industry that had 8 PPC advertisers,...

At the beginning of the week I thought it would be a good idea to create an anonymous poll for other SEOs and Internet Marketers, to find out a little more about their current clients and processes.   The survey includes questions about the client sales cycle, monthly budgets, marketing strategies, client communication, managing SEO clients, and reporting. Below are the results.

Have you ever heard of Conversion Rate Optimization?  I hope most of you are already aware of it but for those who don’t. Here is its simple definition - Conversion rate optimization is a process intended to increase the percentage of visitors who are converting in to customers by enhancing the website’s capability to pursue its visitors. Few years back, nobody used to pay any attention to Conversion rate optimization. Getting large amounts of traffic to the website was the only aim of almost all online marketers.  Companies used to spend huge chunk of their marketing budget in PPC and SEO...