Posts Tagged ‘seo’

Posted on January 29, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

Google search algorithm changed with more focus on original content

Yesterday Matt Cutts posted that Google has changed their search algorithm to focus more on original content. Below is an excerpt from his post:

My post mentioned that “we’re evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content.” That change was approved at our weekly quality launch meeting last Thursday and launched earlier this week.

This was a pretty targeted launch: slightly over 2% of queries change in some way, but less than half a percent of search results change enough that someone might really notice. The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.

Matt’s post summary is the short version from his post on Google’s offical blog entitled “Google search and search engine spam“. This is great news as it seems like the beginning of Google trying to remain the #1 search enginge and fight off what seems like a series of attacks and competition from new search engines and startups such as Wolframalpha, Blekko and the continue traffic increase of Microsoft Bing.

Note, Matt stated that the Google search algorithm change will only affect 2% of search queries but don’t let the small number fool you. Google is under fire about providing relevant content to the answers of search quires and startups like Quora does.

My recommendation for you is to keep providing good, original content and for Google to keep updating their search algorithm or keep buying startups that are answering the questions that people use to search Google for.

Posted on January 13, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

How Google PageRank works – infographic

Via: zippycart

Posted on September 1, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Raleigh SEO discusses Content Strategy FTW

Last night I attended a SEO meetup in Raleigh, NC led by Phil Buckley (@1918). Some of Phil’s notes were from Kristina Halvorson‘s book and presentations on content strategy. As the session was wrapping up I mentioned how I have live video stream Kristian’s SXSW talk, so I decided to repost it. It’s a great presenation for the experienced or beginner blogger or indiviuals repsonsible for creating a content stratgy for clients. Also for a recap of the SEO meetup read Stacey Alexander‘s (@Stacey_Alex) recap post Creating a Content Strategy for SEO.

Photo by Warren Parsons

Repost:
Content Strategy FTW video & presentation from Kristina Halvorson halvorson presenation at SXSW 2009

During her session I sat on the front row with my Macbook Pro and a usb webcam to live stream her talk. It’s a little shaky but I think well worth a listen if you’re in the content strategy/blogging/writing for the web business. Below is the video and her slides from Content Strategy FTW session at SXSW.

The SXSW Video. FYI it’s via the lap cam.

Also check out Kristian’s book called Content Strategy http://www.contentstrategy.com

Posted on May 27, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

The Location based Services SEO blogging game: google latitude vs foursquare vs whrrl vs brightkite vs mytown vs gowalla vs loopt

By now I’m sure you’re aware of the many location based services available. A few of the popular ones are Google Latitude, Foursquare, Brightkite, Whrrl, Gowalla, Loopt, and MyTown. Locally in NC we have TriOut. In January 2010 I conducted a poll asking users to vote for their favorite location based services application with Foursquare leading the way out of 17 different location based applications. Since then I believe there have been at least 7-10 new platforms launched.

Yesterday while doing some SEO keyword testing as any decent blogger would I decided to compare location based services to see which platform leads in term of keyword searches results. I decided to keep the list to what many would call the top 7 location based services: Here are seven keyword terms I used and their search results:

Keyword – Global Monthly Searches

• Foursquare – 450,000
• Google Latitude – 368,000
• Loopt – 246,000
• Gowalla – 40,500
• Mytown – 27,100
• Brightkite – 22,000
• Whrrl – 4,400

What does this mean? I don’t have the defiant answer but here are my thoughts:

• Foursquare’s popularity is growing like crazy!
• More blogs are blogging about Foursquare because they know people are searching for information on Foursquare
• While Google Latitude may not be a hot topic yet people are searching about it
• Loopt results could vary but from a location based app stand point they’re still relevant being the first location based service to launch
• As for the rest of the location-based apps, some may not have keyword search results like Foursquare but they’re still growing despite not being blogging about or search for as much as the others.

What are you thoughts on the keyword search results and if you’re blogging about location-based services will this data effect your upcoming post?

Posted on September 25, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Friday Fix: 10 random ways to use social media with examples

Photo via: deanmeyersnet

Here’s a list of 10 random ways to use social media.

1. Non-profit:
Raise awareness using a twitter hashtag for social change, example #atlfloods http://www.hopeatl.com

2. Entertainment
Sell music directly to listeners via blog, iTunes, twitter, and social networks – example Radiohead

3. Business to Business ( B2B )
Video blogging web hosting channel to market services to sell cloud server based hosting solutions – example RackSpace / Building43 / Robert Scoble

4. Business to Consumer (B2C)
Starbucks & Dell — need I say more … Customers forum feedback forum (ideastorm)

5. Real-Estate
Using location based social networks like Brightkite and Whrrl to show new house listing to new buyers.

6. Selling T-Shirts inside social networks
Threadless Facebook store http://www.facebook.com/threadless

7. Customer Service:
Using Twitter to respond to complaints about internet & TV service: @comcastcares

8. Recruiting, hiring & looking for jobs
Both @capstrat & @IntegratedAV are accepting resumes and looking for employees via Twitter

9. To sell soft drinks and launch a new brand / flavor
Mountain Dew’s Dew Labs 12 seconds video contesthttp://12seconds.tv/campaign/dewlabs

10. Conference planning:
Social Media Business Forum (plug)
Using Eventbrite, EventBee or Facebook to plan events and RSVP attendees.

There are really endless ways to use social media but you have to remember to start off with a goal and measure the success of your social media efforts. Measuring and establishing content strategy goals are a few services that I provide to my clients.

What are some that you have seen or done?