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For years the SEO world has been using some old AOL click through data to suppose just what kinds of click-through rates certain organic page 1 positions  might fetch. It was limited, old, and certainly out-of-date – but it was all we had. Until now.

In what might be the most useful bit of data Google has ever exposed to webmasters, within Google’s Webmaster Tools you can now see organic impression, click-through and click-through rate data on as many search queries as have impressions.

For me, this is like a really awesome birthday present you never expected. From out of nowhere you get this amazing gift, and it’s up to you to make the most of it. That’s what this post is all about; how to get the most out of this new (amazing) information. More »

Ah, the content inventory. Such a fun, yet maddening exercise. There really is no other way to become an authority all the stuff hiding on your website – but wow – it can be one amazingly dull process.

For the uninitiated, the content inventory is an information architecture and design tool used to index the pages of a website. This index is then analyzed for improvement opportunities, content additions/removal, etc. It’s basically a big spreadsheet outlining each page of your website and a number of associated attributes, such as the URL, page title, type of content, etc. You create one, you guessed it, by starting at the homepage of a website, clicking through all the links – all of them – and documenting the attributes of each page. More »

The decision has been made – Google is no longer willing to to censor its search results in China.

Pinning the decision on the cyber attacks they announced on January 12, and “attempts over the last year to further limit free speech on the web…” Chinese Google users will now be redirected from Google.cn to Google.com.hk – which displays uncensored search results in simplified Chinese. David Drummond. Google’s SVP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, notes this move “is entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China.”

That is, of course, until the Chinese government just pulls the plug on the whole deal. More »

Much like a beehive or beaver dam, PPC account success almost always hinges on the structure of things. I remember back in the good ‘ol days when all you needed was a metric ton of keywords and half a brain to direct a firehouse of traffic to your website.

Those days, sadly, are long gone. More »

How do you perfect on-page optimization? Tough question. There’s no canned answer to that, but there are some pretty clearly defined best practices that allow us to check off the critical bits and, naturally, adjust individual efforts from there. What does perfect optimization look like? More »

The web is massive. Probably a lot bigger and complex than Al Gore ever thought possible. It’s a gigantic, complex organism that only gets more bigger and complexer with every passing day. As the web has grown and permeated each of our personal and professional lives it has also become more important. For many of us it’s not “the internet” anymore so much as “my life.”

If you’re involved in running any kind of business the web presents a couple powerful opportunities; marketing with near endless reach and business intelligence on an unprecedented scale. Unfortunately there’s a caveat to all this – knowing how to take advantage of it at all. More »

What comes to mind when you see the word ’spam’? The iconic can of smeat (specks of meat)? Unwanted email? Hawaiian food?

To me, spam means search engine results which have been manipulated by tactics the search engines don’t approve of.

An old school example of spam is automating comment submission to Wordpress blogs with a bot. These comments then link back to a website you want to rank in search engines. Another would be dynamically inserting unauthorized links into a website you don’t own via hacking.

According to Aaron Wall, one new school approach to spamming can be seen over at Mahalo.com. More »

Pay per click marketing has gone from a niche marketing tactic to a staple of any organization’s marketing efforts. And for good reason – super trackable results, data falling out your ears, no more faith based marketing, virtually real time feedback – I know many companies who spend 100% of their marketing budgets on PPC marketing alone (although longer term thinkers will certainly incorporate SEO efforts as well.)

With all the data it products managing PPC can seem pretty daunting. Which metrics are the best for your business – Click through rate? Impressions? Conversion rate? Some unknown uber metric? More »

As Patrick Altoft recently pointed out, Google has rolled out an astonishing number of search products in the past 90 days. 40 to be exact. Releasing just a handful of new products over the course of a year would be enough for most companies to pat themselves on the back – but what Google is accomplishing here is almost frightening.
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Search engine optimization is, fundamentally, a process. Understanding all of the challenges and opportunities facing your website (and tactical changes one can implement) is rooted in the all-powerful website review.

The importance of SEO site reviews
Consider building a house. If you wanted to create your dream home you’d need to know a little about the plot it would be built on, the availability and cost of materials, your mortgage and financing options, the most efficient construction schedule, how to negotiate a construction contract, etc. before you ever stepped into the world of building a home. More »