When you engage with an agency for SEO it should be treated as a symbiotic relationship. In that the agency is dependent on the recommendations, site updates, content updates, etc. to be implemented to ensure the success of the program. We still encounter clients who expect the results; however, are unable or are unwilling to make the necessary changes to positively impact the SERP listings thus increasing search engine traffic to their sites.

Many of these sites are still in need of fundamental SEO elements. These might include, keyword rich page content, properly structured meta data, a well structured site map, proper use of anchor text in link, proper linking structure, etc. Without these fundamentals it is unrealistic to think a site will rank well organically.

(more…)

Google is reporting that they are turning nine today. Unfortunately Google has set up Wikipedia as the authority on information such as this, so I hesitated to send out a card and a dancing bear until I confirmed it with Wiki.

Congratulations! It looks like it’s legit. The card and bear are on their way.

Word is traveling around that the Yahoo! Search index is going through an update. Priyank Garg of Yahoo explains at the Yahoo! Search Blog that this update is the most recent since the launch of Dynamic URL Rewriting in Site Explorer. Garg states that millions of URLs have been rewritten and to expect smarter results provided by Yahoo! Slurp (Yahoo’s crawler).

Aaron Wall has also noticed the Yahoo changes and has pointed out several factor adjustments he believes have been affected by the update. In particular, he has noted a botched sitewide 301 direct and increased weight for domain names.

More to follow as it becomes available.

An important facet to any webmaster’s list of considerations is that of managing potential duplicate content issues. Since growing up, the fear of being called a “copycat” has now been outweighed by search engine penalties, page filtering, and entrance into supplemental results.

(more…)

Everyone knows the importance of inbound links in an SEO program, but what about outbound links? Can they help your SEO efforts? The answer is yes. Outbound links are great when they are going to relevant, quality websites. Even though this factor is one of many in the search engine’s algorithm, it is worth considering when implementing an SEO program.

(more…)

What leads people down the purchasing funnel remains one of life’s greatest mysteries. Marketers don’t always agree on whether online activity trumps offline or vice versa. To unravel at least part of the conundrum, TMPDM commissioned comScore networks to study local search and the impact of offline activity on consumer purchasing. (more…)