TwentySix2 Marketing Blog

Here’s a riddle from Google:

“We assume page A has pages T1…Tn which point to it (i.e., are citations). The parameter d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85. There are more details about d in the next section. Also C(A) is defined as the number of links going out of page A. The PageRank of a page A is given as follows:

PageRank or PR(A) can be calculated using a simple iterative algorithm, and corresponds to the principal eigenvector of the normalized link matrix of the web.”

Did you figure it out yet? Well if you did and you have any clue what a principal eigenvector is then you’re probably stumbled upon this blog by accident and I suggest you put your resume in to Google for a job.
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Have you ever been in some remote place, like Africa, Antarctica or the backwoods of Georgia, and wished, “man I really wish I had an Internet connection here.”

Surprise!! Our wishes have been answered. Google is working on something that may just give Internet users that very connection…..well sort of.
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When you have the internet at your fingertips, why would you ever think of investing in an archaic television commercial (well archaic only because the internet is so dynamic)? The above question isn’t even a question for some who are seeking to close the gap in the searchosphere, like Yahoo! and Ask.com. When your competition is Google, you don’t ask questions, you just do it.
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If you have just built a new website using a new domain name, I have some bad news… You are not going to rank well in Google for competitive keyword phrases for at least a year…maybe two. Google penalizes new websites just for being the new kid on the block.

That said, we did some extensive search engine optimization (SEO) work for Kudzu.com back in 2005. Kudzu was a new site then, and despite this ‘new site penalty’ imposed by Google, we were able to get some pretty good traction in Google’s natural search results pretty quickly.

The difference between Kudzu.com and most other sites is that Kudzu is owned by Cox Enterprises. Cox owns a number of large websites, including AutoTrader.com (also a client) and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper site.

Kuzdu.com had an advantage because they had the ability to get these other large sites owned by Cox Enterprises to link to their website. By getting large, credible sites like AutoTrader.com to link to their site, Kudzu.com was able to get decent natural search rankings in Google within a few months - rather than a couple of years. And over time, they were able to dominate the natural search results for many of their top keyword phrases.

If you want to start a new website, count on using pay per click marketing as your primary source of traffic for the first year or so. In the mean time, start building links and content. Or hire an SEO firm to do it for you!

Everyone likes a quick solution to something. In our society, we are consumed with getting desired results with minimal effort. A great example of this is weight loss via diet pills or even fast food. We barely wait on anything anymore. Unfortunately, with this consummation come other, more devastating avenues to get results in the “get rich quick” scheme of things.

With the internet, as with most things, people will find ways to cheat their way to the top. And as clever as thieves can be, their actions are generally prompted by pure monetary greed. One of the most disturbing cases of internet thievery is domain hijacking, where identity theft is used to trick the domain registrar into allowing the hijacker to change the registration information to steal control of an unexpired domain from the legitimate owner.

Ever heard of the Sex.com case, one of the biggest internet rip offs in history?

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I recently found a great study on the latest analysis of the Google algorithm.  It gave some pretty deep insight into how the search engine giant evaluates and ranks websites, so I started to blog about the study and the findings…

Then it occurred to me that our knowledge and expertise is the one thing that differentiates our Atlanta search engine marketing firm from other agencies.  Why would I want to publish this great research?  The answer is - I wouldn’t. 

I subscribe to almost 40 search engine marketing blogs, not to mention the other blogs I read on affiliate marketing, link building and so on.  Why would I put out the best stuff I learn for all to see (including my competitors)?  I wouldn’t. 

Instead, I put the study’s findings in our client only Intranet site.  That way, our clients benefit, and everyone else just has to learn on their own.

Here is the free advice everyone gives about Google:  

• Google ranks sites based on your site’s link popularity
• Page titles are very important
• Description tags are important
• Keyword density and good content help too

Everyone in our business knows this and now you do too!

What everyone doesn’t know is that there are little nuances that make a big difference in how your site ranks.  For example, most SEO gurus will tell you that H1 tags are important.  We have actually found that Google is afraid of sites that have been over optimized, so they like H2 tags and bolded text better than H1 tags.  There you go - some really good, free advice.

The bad news is, this will change in six months and no longer be valid.  So what happens to the average search engine marketing ‘wanna be’?  They read a lot of articles and studies, but much of it is out dated and no longer valid.  They can get you on the bottom of page one (which doesn’t get you much traffic), but they can’t figure out how to get you to position one (not that we do this every time either).  The good news is, these changes in the industry keep our Atlanta search engine optimization firm in business!  Today, social networking sites like Digg help you rank well; tomorrow - not so much.  We get paid to stay on top of things.

When most SEO gurus blog or speak on panels, they keep the really good stuff that separates the experts from the ‘wanna bes’ to themselves. 

Count me in that group too.

The story officially broke today, MSN is in the running with Google’s DoubleClick and Yahoo’s RightMedia with their $6 billion buyout of online advertising company, aQuantive.

MSN has officially spent the most money as well, with DoubleClick costing Google $3.1 billion and RightMedia costing Yahoo! only $680 million.

According to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s Chief Executive, “the advertising industry is evolving and growing at an incredible pace, moving increasingly toward online and IP-served platforms, which dramatically increases the importance of software for this industry.”

Get the whole story at MSN News.

This morning, I read the news about Google’s new universal search option, where all the results from their vertical and horizontal searches are integrated into one big mass.

For instance, searching for “Google universal search” will yield the usual web results but intermixed with those are results from searches done within Google’s news search and Google’s blog search; results like these used to come at the very top of the SERP page, but no one clicked on them because they often lacked relevancy. Now they are put into the results, depending on how pertinent they are to the keyword phrase. This means they are dynamic, changing position constantly with each new search. So the vertical results may be on page 1 or 50, just depending on what the searcher is seeking.

Universal search was forecast in November of last year, but didn’t really seem to catch on anyone’s radar, as it hasn’t been talked about for months. Now, this new product could totally alter how we get search results and also how we view them.

Since universal search launched today, user input has not really been received; however, it will be interesting to see if this really makes or breaks Google. Yahoo! and MSN were on the road to catching up, but this may just put Google at roadrunner pace.

Danny Sullivan wrote a fantastic article that explains in depth the differences in vertical and horizontal search as well as discussing what universal search will bring to the table. I highly suggest reading it for a better appreciation of how Google is once again revolutionizing search.

Kevin Ryan of iMedia Connection beautifully sums up the reason why local search is becoming so important. “The essence of local search lies in the nature of users seeking information about services in which they already have a need.”

Unfortunately, about 70 percent of small and medium sized businesses don’t have websites (Rob Wright, ReachLocal.com). This creates a huge gap between increasing customer demand for local goods and services and an inability for local companies to supply that demand because they don’t have websites. But it also leaves room for phenomenal growth in the local search sector and untapped profit.

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The terms “white hat” and “black hat” are what many search engine marketing firms use to describe the methods used to improve a website’s ranking in search engines.

The origin of the terms translates from computer hackers, the ‘black hat’ hackers being those who abuse the internet for malicious acts, and the ‘white hat’ hackers who use ethics and practical guidelines for hacking, if only to improve the security of certain sites; the darker the hat, the shadier the hacker.

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