M/C/C’s Director, Search, Steve Plunkett, is responsible for all aspects of search engine optimization (SEO) and Internet user behavior. Plunkett’s competitive personality makes him a perfect fit in the competitive world of SEO. As a child and a gamer, he worked hard ensuring that it was his initials at the top of every arcade game unit in his neighborhood. Today, he uses SEO to ensure his clients appear at the top of the search engine results – scoring big for those clients. At M/C/C, he offers clients a wide array of results-oriented services including keyword research, website development, blog strategy and planning and social networking consulting in addition to organic SEO.
Conference Speaker Biographies Steve Plunkett
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
SMX Advanced London 2010 Full Agenda Day 1
"Advanced Organic Track
Leveraging Digital Assets For Maximum SEO Impact – When Google introduced Universal Search in 2007, it sent shockwaves through the search marketing community. The typical reaction: 'How can my optimised content rank when local, news, video and images results are pushing it off the SERPs?' The simple answer is to optimise multiple types of 'web assets' in addition to the text on your web pages, and you’ll often get more exposure on search result pages. Though the answer is simple, the SEO techniques to achieve the desired result usually aren’t. This session looks at the state of universal search today, and how to leverage different types of content to gain maximum advantage.
Speakers:
Rob Kerry, Head of Search, Ayima
Steve Plunkett, Dir, Search, M/C/C (see below)
Leveraging Digital Assets For Maximum SEO Impact – When Google introduced Universal Search in 2007, it sent shockwaves through the search marketing community. The typical reaction: 'How can my optimised content rank when local, news, video and images results are pushing it off the SERPs?' The simple answer is to optimise multiple types of 'web assets' in addition to the text on your web pages, and you’ll often get more exposure on search result pages. Though the answer is simple, the SEO techniques to achieve the desired result usually aren’t. This session looks at the state of universal search today, and how to leverage different types of content to gain maximum advantage.
Speakers:
Rob Kerry, Head of Search, Ayima
Steve Plunkett, Dir, Search, M/C/C (see below)
SMX Advanced London 2010 Full Agenda Day 1
(unavailable - time conflict)
(Speaking @SearchExchange on the same day - http://searchexchange.org/agenda/day-1)
Friday, March 19, 2010
The State of Social Marketing Integration
"There are now hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide using social networks, blogs, microblogs, online forums and video-sharing sites, and marketers have followed them there. Social media marketing has gone from experimental to must-have, and that increases the importance of adopting an integrated social strategy."
and every single bit of this can be enhanced or destroyed by SEO.
Monday, March 15, 2010
PubCon South Speakers
"M/C/C's Director, Search, Steve Plunkett, is responsible for Internet marketing with a focus on search engine optimization (SEO), Social Media, Digital Asset Optimization, Online Reputation Management and Internet user behavior.
Prior to joining M/C/C, Plunkett served as the director of sales and marketing for a leading Dallas Web site and advertising firm, where he consulted with clients on SEO and Internet advertising, ensuring that his clients' Internet and advertising strategies were in line with current business practices and branding. Plunkett has more than a decade of experience with online marketing and SEO, including his duties as Web sales manager for an ISP and Web development firm beginning in March 1995."
Prior to joining M/C/C, Plunkett served as the director of sales and marketing for a leading Dallas Web site and advertising firm, where he consulted with clients on SEO and Internet advertising, ensuring that his clients' Internet and advertising strategies were in line with current business practices and branding. Plunkett has more than a decade of experience with online marketing and SEO, including his duties as Web sales manager for an ISP and Web development firm beginning in March 1995."
Friday, December 18, 2009
Search Exchange
We are proud to announce that Charlotte, NC will be the host of the 2010 Search Exchange Conference and Expo. Search Exchange is a 3 day internet marketing conference that will feature the top professionals in the industry.
Join hundreds of business professionals and entrepreneurs from May 17-19th as we learn, network, and share experiences from across the different online marketing segments. The three day conference will consist of keynotes and panel discussions on search engine optimization, social media marketing, pay per click advertising, and web analytics.
Join hundreds of business professionals and entrepreneurs from May 17-19th as we learn, network, and share experiences from across the different online marketing segments. The three day conference will consist of keynotes and panel discussions on search engine optimization, social media marketing, pay per click advertising, and web analytics.
Yes, I'm speaking
So are @leeodden David @szetela and many other very smart business web savvy people, check it out.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Real-Time Advanced Analytics
HitsLink Platinum: Real-Time Advanced Analytics
| Upgrade to real-time advanced analytics with HitsLink Platinum. Get your analytics reports and alerts in real time so you can act quickly on the data. What are the costs of waiting 24 hours or more to see how marketing campaigns are performing? Get real-time reports and alerts so you can identify and correct any email, website or marketing message problems. You'll also be able to optimize on the fly, and maximize your marketing and advertising budget. Now is the best time to upgrade to HitsLink Platinum Web Analytics with real-time data to quickly and easily measure and optimize all of your marketing campaigns and control your costs. HitsLink Platinum features:
NEW CLIENTS CURRENT CLIENTS
PARTNERS
|
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Information Architecture at IMSB - Build it & They will Come | Social Desire
First up was Steve Plunkett:
Steve spoke about Information Architecture and how it affected Search. The three categories that he went into detail about was…
Collected Data Structure
Search Evolved: File Management – DAO ( Digital Asset Optimization )
Conversions and Forms
Collected Data Structure
Domain authority
Directories, flash and filenames (see Digital Asset Optimization)
Activity within record, references, file changes, relocations.
Bounce rate (www/email/groups)
Segmentation
Search Evolved: File Management & Digital Asset Optimization
Steve when into great detail talking about the fact that Search has changed. No longer is it just about optimizing a website, but also other digital assets such as….
PDFs
Spreadsheets
Feeds - RSS Segmentation
Social profiles
employee cost
personality research
Video/flash
Podcasts
Whitepapers
Games/widgets
Images
Analytical challenges
** Steve pointed out that EVERYTHING you do points back to domain name. Name all of your files, images, PDF’s with keywords and domain name.
Conversions and Forms
Conversion paths - users answer questions in a form and then they land on a page that delivers tailored content to their specific answers.
Conversion reporting
Email database
Things to Remember
Help search engines find your site by building your website in a search friendly data structure
Leverage content by optimizing digital assets
All search results are not created equal. Always keep the end in mind (conversions) to provide value for SER
Information Architecture at IMSB - Build it & They will Come | Social Desire
Steve spoke about Information Architecture and how it affected Search. The three categories that he went into detail about was…
Collected Data Structure
Search Evolved: File Management – DAO ( Digital Asset Optimization )
Conversions and Forms
Collected Data Structure
Domain authority
Directories, flash and filenames (see Digital Asset Optimization)
Activity within record, references, file changes, relocations.
Bounce rate (www/email/groups)
Segmentation
Search Evolved: File Management & Digital Asset Optimization
Steve when into great detail talking about the fact that Search has changed. No longer is it just about optimizing a website, but also other digital assets such as….
PDFs
Spreadsheets
Feeds - RSS Segmentation
Social profiles
employee cost
personality research
Video/flash
Podcasts
Whitepapers
Games/widgets
Images
Analytical challenges
** Steve pointed out that EVERYTHING you do points back to domain name. Name all of your files, images, PDF’s with keywords and domain name.
Conversions and Forms
Conversion paths - users answer questions in a form and then they land on a page that delivers tailored content to their specific answers.
Conversion reporting
Email database
Things to Remember
Help search engines find your site by building your website in a search friendly data structure
Leverage content by optimizing digital assets
All search results are not created equal. Always keep the end in mind (conversions) to provide value for SER
Information Architecture at IMSB - Build it & They will Come | Social Desire
Monday, April 13, 2009
The Problem with Google’s IP Based Search Results
"So, more and more Google is serving local business results for generic search terms such as Italian Restaurants and using IP location to determine which listings appear. The problem is that your IP is not always located in the same city as your physical location. I am located in Virginia Beach but my IP is based in Chesapeake, VA. So, as I search for a delicious Italian restaurant to have lunch at today (mmm, carbs) I am served a 10 pack of terrific ideas…but they are in Chesapeake!"
SEO BLOG » Blog Archive The (My) Problem with Google’s IP Based Search Results
SEO BLOG » Blog Archive The (My) Problem with Google’s IP Based Search Results
Monday, February 23, 2009
Why it Makes Sense to Target Longtail Keywords First
"When launching a brand new website in a competitive marketplace you have a lot of network effects working against you. Your competition has years of conversion data, an older trusted site, tons of content, and thousands of organic inbound links. Try to beat them right from the start for the most potent high-value keywords and you will likely fail."
SEO Book.com
SEO Book.com
Friday, February 20, 2009
SEO: A Process, NOT a Project
SEO: a Process NOT a Project
by Steve Plunkett
Organic search engine optimization (SEO) is not a one time project, it’s a process. Similar to a garden, you must tend to it. Sometimes you have an existing garden where the weeds have grown over or nothing is growing. Sometimes you just have a section of yard you are going to rope off, till, then plant stuff in. Like a garden, organic SEO takes time and attention. It may be as simple as setting a timer to water or as complex as starting from scratch. Organic SEO is like a garden – if you don’t water it, it dies.
Soil Considerations
What is the history of the things that have been done to your website for SEO purposes?
Do you have pages chock full of links to websites unrelated to your company, where some of the website no longer exist or even some link to an "adult" website? Did someone hide a bunch of keywords the same color as your background at the bottom of the page? Maybe the site you are going to work on has commented out a bunch of keywords in the HTML code?(I know this is 2009, but some company, somewhere, has this on its Web site, right now.)
Sunlight, Rainfall and Other Factors
Traffic Analysis – Are there metrics on the company’s website? What kind of information can you gather from the statistics on what is going on with keywords, referrers, exit pages, entry pages, bounce rate, etc.? What metrics program does your company use?
We always ask our clients to install the website analytics program we use -
http://mcc.Hitslink.com - simply because it provides the measurements we need for our clients and also allows for consistent report formats for all clients.
What Plants shall we put in our garden?
Keyword Research - Gather the keywords out of the client's current website metrics and obtain client input on what they think someone might type to search for them.
We usually use a method that I have used for many, many years. We ask the CEO, (get's them involved at the top), the receptionist, the sales managers, the marketing director, the CFO and the COO (these two help get things done and also make sure you get paid) to provide five to 10 keywords each and not to share them with each other. This becomes statistically significant when you have different people come up with a keyword phrase more than once. Take these and put them into spreadsheets so we know what department wants what traffic and also to refer to later.
This is the primary keyword stage. You can also correlate what keyword terms got the most traffic and the lowest bounce rate to their Web site compared to what the client expects. Now obviously, you must factor in the fact that if the content doesn't exist on their Web site right now, they won't be found for it.
What kind of pesticides would be best to use to combat bugs?
Competitive Analysis – Look at the competitor’s HTML code, what can you observe about the competitor's SEO strategy? Do they have one? What keywords are the competitor's using? How do these differ from what the client gave you? Do they all apply directly to the client? Are the competitors using CMS systems, does the HTML code reflect the presence of another SEO firm?
These are the people your client thinks are their competitors in the business sector, not neccessarily on the web. Sometimes this works in your favor because the people your client thinks are your competitor may not be you, the SEO's competitor, and as such you may rise above them to obtain market share over the competitor’s rather quickly.
What plants grow best in your locality?
Competitive Keyword Research - What keywords are crowded? What keywords are open? Does your client provide a niche service where very few people in the channel are doing SEO? Is your client a start-up, where the market is bare or are you going for terms in real estate or insurance that are very crowded already?
Audience Metrics - What do clients think of when they search? In addition to Web site metrics, what does your client's customer think of them in terms of search? Can you obtain some of your client's customers’ contact info? (say that 3 times fast)
Purchasing your plants
Keyword finalization - With the market up and down so much these days, if you tied your key performance indicators (KPI) to your client's Web site traffic, you are indeed in trouble. While some people say keyword-specific search engine ranking is a poor measurement of SEO success, I would disagree and state that qualified converting keyword rankings ARE important.
If three out of 10 times a certain keyword phrase motivates Web site visitors to fill out your client's contact form, then this is a qualified converting keyword phrase. The fact that you are number one or number 31 for that term is somewhat important to your client and their potential customers.
This is just the beginning of SEO. We haven't even started modifying the Web site yet. Send the final round of keywords to the client for them to sign off on before you do your baseline measurements. Also at this point it’s a good idea to make sure to find out what the company’s “bread and butter” is and what areas it is growing in its organization.
Knowing this will help you pick your first keyword focus point for quick ROI and know what areas you are going to help the company grow in. The client’s expense for SEO should give them at least a triple return on its investment after a year.
Baseline - Where does client rank now in the search results of Google, Yahoo! and MSN for the agreed upon keyword terms and phrases? You can shoot yourself in the foot if you try and measure vague terms. Your best bet is to use what will make the cash register ring and track qualified keywords on a monthly basis to show progress. You might also want to measure the market share against the client's specified keywords and show them a competitive market share baseline.
Landscaping
Planning - What needs to be done and who are the people to be involved client side and agency side? You don’t want everyone watering the plants at the same time.
Prioritization - What needs to be done first? What needs to be done last? This is critical so that there is no wasted effort or wasted expense to client. Is there a new Web site in the future for the company? Make plans so you are not wasting the client’s money.
Garden Upkeep
The biggest misconception in SEO is that you can "do" SEO once on a Web site then you can just walk away. Just like a garden, if there is no water the plants die.
The nature of SEO is simply this: Today's rules or procedures may or may not work tomorrow. Google is usually the target we aim at for SEO, but that target moves quite frequently. Google, in fighting off the "bad people" who spam the listings, will change the way they rank Web sites often. By monitoring results on a weekly and monthly basis you can see which plants need more water or which ones are getting eaten by bugs.
Apply that to keywords that may be on page three of the results but need to move up because they are highly converting keywords. Just like you would get rid of weeds, get rid of bugs or change the angle of the hose for irrigation, there are steps you must take full time to keep your SEO growing.
Linkage and Niche Marketing for a Web Site or Company Channel – submit the Web site to Yahoo! directory, DMOZ and other places on the web where applicable.
Monitoring and Maintanance – observe statistics weekly, water the Web site where it needs it the most.
Baseline reports – Refer to your baseline reports. Did that plant have three leaves last week or two? It was one inch tall two weeks ago, but now it’s four inches. Report this progress to the client.
Bounce Rate and On-site Modifications - If you notice one of your plants is doing really well, give it some more space, more room to grow or more soil to spread out into. In other words, you can be number one out of 380,000,000 results on Google, but if being number one doesn’t bring the company business, you want to adjust your strategy. Change your focus to the keywords that convert, remove the weeds that are growing in your garden and prune the keywords on a page to come to a bounce rate of zero percent. Organic SEO, like a garden, needs to be tended. It’s a process not a project.
by Steve Plunkett
Organic search engine optimization (SEO) is not a one time project, it’s a process. Similar to a garden, you must tend to it. Sometimes you have an existing garden where the weeds have grown over or nothing is growing. Sometimes you just have a section of yard you are going to rope off, till, then plant stuff in. Like a garden, organic SEO takes time and attention. It may be as simple as setting a timer to water or as complex as starting from scratch. Organic SEO is like a garden – if you don’t water it, it dies.
Soil Considerations
What is the history of the things that have been done to your website for SEO purposes?
Do you have pages chock full of links to websites unrelated to your company, where some of the website no longer exist or even some link to an "adult" website? Did someone hide a bunch of keywords the same color as your background at the bottom of the page? Maybe the site you are going to work on has commented out a bunch of keywords in the HTML code?(I know this is 2009, but some company, somewhere, has this on its Web site, right now.)
Sunlight, Rainfall and Other Factors
Traffic Analysis – Are there metrics on the company’s website? What kind of information can you gather from the statistics on what is going on with keywords, referrers, exit pages, entry pages, bounce rate, etc.? What metrics program does your company use?
We always ask our clients to install the website analytics program we use -
http://mcc.Hitslink.com - simply because it provides the measurements we need for our clients and also allows for consistent report formats for all clients.
What Plants shall we put in our garden?
Keyword Research - Gather the keywords out of the client's current website metrics and obtain client input on what they think someone might type to search for them.
We usually use a method that I have used for many, many years. We ask the CEO, (get's them involved at the top), the receptionist, the sales managers, the marketing director, the CFO and the COO (these two help get things done and also make sure you get paid) to provide five to 10 keywords each and not to share them with each other. This becomes statistically significant when you have different people come up with a keyword phrase more than once. Take these and put them into spreadsheets so we know what department wants what traffic and also to refer to later.
This is the primary keyword stage. You can also correlate what keyword terms got the most traffic and the lowest bounce rate to their Web site compared to what the client expects. Now obviously, you must factor in the fact that if the content doesn't exist on their Web site right now, they won't be found for it.
What kind of pesticides would be best to use to combat bugs?
Competitive Analysis – Look at the competitor’s HTML code, what can you observe about the competitor's SEO strategy? Do they have one? What keywords are the competitor's using? How do these differ from what the client gave you? Do they all apply directly to the client? Are the competitors using CMS systems, does the HTML code reflect the presence of another SEO firm?
These are the people your client thinks are their competitors in the business sector, not neccessarily on the web. Sometimes this works in your favor because the people your client thinks are your competitor may not be you, the SEO's competitor, and as such you may rise above them to obtain market share over the competitor’s rather quickly.
What plants grow best in your locality?
Competitive Keyword Research - What keywords are crowded? What keywords are open? Does your client provide a niche service where very few people in the channel are doing SEO? Is your client a start-up, where the market is bare or are you going for terms in real estate or insurance that are very crowded already?
Audience Metrics - What do clients think of when they search? In addition to Web site metrics, what does your client's customer think of them in terms of search? Can you obtain some of your client's customers’ contact info? (say that 3 times fast)
Purchasing your plants
Keyword finalization - With the market up and down so much these days, if you tied your key performance indicators (KPI) to your client's Web site traffic, you are indeed in trouble. While some people say keyword-specific search engine ranking is a poor measurement of SEO success, I would disagree and state that qualified converting keyword rankings ARE important.
If three out of 10 times a certain keyword phrase motivates Web site visitors to fill out your client's contact form, then this is a qualified converting keyword phrase. The fact that you are number one or number 31 for that term is somewhat important to your client and their potential customers.
This is just the beginning of SEO. We haven't even started modifying the Web site yet. Send the final round of keywords to the client for them to sign off on before you do your baseline measurements. Also at this point it’s a good idea to make sure to find out what the company’s “bread and butter” is and what areas it is growing in its organization.
Knowing this will help you pick your first keyword focus point for quick ROI and know what areas you are going to help the company grow in. The client’s expense for SEO should give them at least a triple return on its investment after a year.
Baseline - Where does client rank now in the search results of Google, Yahoo! and MSN for the agreed upon keyword terms and phrases? You can shoot yourself in the foot if you try and measure vague terms. Your best bet is to use what will make the cash register ring and track qualified keywords on a monthly basis to show progress. You might also want to measure the market share against the client's specified keywords and show them a competitive market share baseline.
Landscaping
Planning - What needs to be done and who are the people to be involved client side and agency side? You don’t want everyone watering the plants at the same time.
Prioritization - What needs to be done first? What needs to be done last? This is critical so that there is no wasted effort or wasted expense to client. Is there a new Web site in the future for the company? Make plans so you are not wasting the client’s money.
Garden Upkeep
The biggest misconception in SEO is that you can "do" SEO once on a Web site then you can just walk away. Just like a garden, if there is no water the plants die.
The nature of SEO is simply this: Today's rules or procedures may or may not work tomorrow. Google is usually the target we aim at for SEO, but that target moves quite frequently. Google, in fighting off the "bad people" who spam the listings, will change the way they rank Web sites often. By monitoring results on a weekly and monthly basis you can see which plants need more water or which ones are getting eaten by bugs.
Apply that to keywords that may be on page three of the results but need to move up because they are highly converting keywords. Just like you would get rid of weeds, get rid of bugs or change the angle of the hose for irrigation, there are steps you must take full time to keep your SEO growing.
Linkage and Niche Marketing for a Web Site or Company Channel – submit the Web site to Yahoo! directory, DMOZ and other places on the web where applicable.
Monitoring and Maintanance – observe statistics weekly, water the Web site where it needs it the most.
Baseline reports – Refer to your baseline reports. Did that plant have three leaves last week or two? It was one inch tall two weeks ago, but now it’s four inches. Report this progress to the client.
Bounce Rate and On-site Modifications - If you notice one of your plants is doing really well, give it some more space, more room to grow or more soil to spread out into. In other words, you can be number one out of 380,000,000 results on Google, but if being number one doesn’t bring the company business, you want to adjust your strategy. Change your focus to the keywords that convert, remove the weeds that are growing in your garden and prune the keywords on a page to come to a bounce rate of zero percent. Organic SEO, like a garden, needs to be tended. It’s a process not a project.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
An Interview with Steve Plunkett: SEO Experimentation Done Right
"Steve Plunkett is a well known for his SEO insights. You can follow him on Twitter or view his online resume at LinkedIn. Check out this interview by Ann Smarty on Search Engine Journal"
An Interview with Steve Plunkett: SEO Experimentation Done Right
Read more: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/an-interview-with-steve-plunkett-seo-experimentation-done-right/8302/#ixzz0yqoUxOsA
An Interview with Steve Plunkett: SEO Experimentation Done Right
Steve Plunkett is a well known for his SEO insights. You can follow him on Twitter or view his online resume at LinkedIn. And now enjoy an interview with Steve:
How long have you been in SEO and how did you start?
I got on the “Internet” in 1994.. (at 2600kbps) I was doing mac tech support for AOL and also moderating a chat room and bulletin postings (kinda sounds like Social Media a bit, no?), and if we count making sure my bulletin postings ranked first.. if you want to count ranking first for channels on IRC, then 1995. Otherwise, Brian was starting webcrawler and Jerry was starting Yahoo! Directory in 1995 while i was a webmaster/sys admin in the Univeristy of Texas System and I was experimenting with spam controls for webcrawler (I accidentally got all the first 30 listings for about 10 terms), and would modify my website and they would recompile to see if the filters worked.. then I started up a web design component to the ISP I was working at in late 1995 and ranking websites kinda just was part of our service. Back then charging $150/month for hosting a website was still kind of expensive.. We just bundled SEO in with hosting.. but since we designed the websites we kinda just did SEO from the first step.
Do you believe SEO is evolving and getting “more white” so to say (no paid links, no spamming, etc)? Do you think Google will ever be able to win the war with Black hat SEO?
That depends.. the only links I have ever “bought” were Yahoo! directory once they started charging for it.. and free website listings I would get from buying ads in print publications or by being a member of this community organization or that professional organization. Because I was working at an ISP/Web Dev., and kind of an “anti-spam” editor @ yahoo while I was an higher up category editor for ODP/DMOZ I hated spam. So I never really did anything other than follow the “Golden Rule of SEO” – provide unique content specifically relevant to the search query. I’ve always been very vocal about not using links and following Google’s implied rules to the letter, it’s not only my client’s website, it’s my career for the past 14 years.
Back in 96 I remember the big thing was domain shadowing.. you would buy a domain and point it to a subdirectory of a website so a website with 7 subdirectories might be listed under 7 domains.. I never really did this for SEO, but I sure hated it when I would find the same site submitted to Yahoo! or DMOZ like 14 times (each URL could be listed in 2 categories), and have to hunt them down and remove them.
Honestly I think there are many things that are a bit black hat in how Google utilizes them to rank websites, but if you understand the basic premise of Google you can do good SEO. If you want to serve up completely unique and relevant content edited for humans’ search queries, then you should do well. I think SEO is evolving in the terms that there are more people doing it. Hence more people, more tactics, more qualified population per query.
You seem to Twitter a lot. What are you using the tool for?
Networking, i’ve met some cool people like @karlrove is following me now… @mchammer is a die hard raiders fan (Raiders 4 Life!~)
Twitter/FaceBook/Myspace has replaced Yahoo! IM – it’s also a good barometer of people, those that consistently push out negativity on twitter are people I don’t want to work with.. nor follow, etc.. I like the shiny happy people.. It’s similar to moderating an online chat room. I also use it for experimentation collaboration.
Are there any other social networking tools you use more or less often?
Myspace is good for the entertainment and fashion industry. FaceBook is a good local social networking site. LinkedIn is the premier business networking website. I stumble a bit.. I’m actually doing a lot of experimentation with RSS feeds and music, and different types of searching patterns on different music blogging websites. It’s part of my job to test everything so I have tried almost everything, ranking for podcasts, (HINT: It’s totally like ranking bulletins on AOL). Video search, Image Search, book search are all different search types that I deal with for varied clients.
I know you are quite active at SEOmoz. What other SEO communitites do you frequent and why?
I was active with SEOmoz and I would credit my professional membership there with a lot of my contacts on the web.
SEOMoz was the first SEO community I really got into because at first it was nice and clean. I met some people who didn’t really need to hear themselves speak, but wanted to learn and collaborate, which was what Iwould want in an SEO community.
I personally dont’ think there is a better website for people to read about SEO and i still read their blog from time to time.
You once mentioned you very often deal with SEO experiments. Could you list most important rules one should follow when running an SEO experiment?
My actually job title should be “SEO Scientist” instead of “Director of Internet Marketing”, every day I sit in my office and turn up the music and experiment all the time. I am running about 70+ experiments right now. Using blogs, social media websites and several other websites I have access to. (HINT: A good reason to donate some time to a non-profit) And of course just modifications on some Organic SEO clients I have, and documenting the progress after I have tested on non-client websites then pushed the tactics to client’s websites.
RULES:
a. NEVER do an un-tested experiment on a client’s website. (never done it, it’s just common sense)
b. Document ALL the factors prior to conducting the experiment, add additional factors at baseline, first measure, secondary measure and tertiary measurement points.
c. Always allow for variances among subject and properly validate any outlying factors and account for them.
d. Re-evaluate your hypotheses at each stage of the experiment.
e. ALWAYS allow for statistical regression analysis.
f. Perform the same experiment 3 times before coming to a conclusion.
G. Either re-test or modify experiment if additional variables introduce themselves prior to experiment completion.
b. Document ALL the factors prior to conducting the experiment, add additional factors at baseline, first measure, secondary measure and tertiary measurement points.
c. Always allow for variances among subject and properly validate any outlying factors and account for them.
d. Re-evaluate your hypotheses at each stage of the experiment.
e. ALWAYS allow for statistical regression analysis.
f. Perform the same experiment 3 times before coming to a conclusion.
G. Either re-test or modify experiment if additional variables introduce themselves prior to experiment completion.
I know you’ve been conducting your own experiment on some issue I described in one of the recent post on internal anchor text over-optimization. Could you share your experience?
Well, I read the experiment but never saw the website, so my mind went to about 200 variables. So i re-created the test (my version of it, because I didn’t have all the factors the first person did, I guess?) on 2 brand new websites where there was no domain age, inbound links, etc. I tried in 2 ways, one standard top nav, sitewide, modifying one anchor tag sitewide.
Version 1: this worked positively and I am still #1 for the term.
Version 2: I modified the top nav on 8 different sub-sections to include the original anchor but NOT any of the global navigation elements. (still testing)
What are most common mistakes people make when condusting an SEO experiment?
Version 2: I modified the top nav on 8 different sub-sections to include the original anchor but NOT any of the global navigation elements. (still testing)
What are most common mistakes people make when condusting an SEO experiment?
1. Coming to a pre-mature conclusion.
2. Incorrectly diagnosing all the variables in an experiment.
3. Removing one variable from one of two competing subject groups
4. Not testing in a vacuum (running proper controls)
2. Incorrectly diagnosing all the variables in an experiment.
3. Removing one variable from one of two competing subject groups
4. Not testing in a vacuum (running proper controls)
What are your plans for 2009? Any new projects in mind?
I started 8 different experiments right before I left the office for 2 weeks prior to NYE, the basics, title tags, ALT tags, anchor tags, etc. I did this to see what if any different weighting factors might be applied to on-site optimization as the year changed and also as a control group for newer sites i am launching this week. That experiment is on-going and by making slight modifications to certain variables, we have been able to bring some members of the control group to #1.
I think I am speaking @ IMSpringBreak (Apr. 2-4th, 2009) on IED (information environment design) – contact @davesnyder for more info about a good IM conference. It’s kind of like a spring break version of the ScarySeo conference in Ft. Lauderdale.
Read more: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/an-interview-with-steve-plunkett-seo-experimentation-done-right/8302/#ixzz0yqoUxOsA
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Who is Steve Plunkett?
STEVE PLUNKETT
DIRECTOR, INTERNET MARKETING, M/C/C
M/C/C's Director of Internet Marketing, Steve Plunkett, is responsible for all aspects of Internet marketing with a focus on search engine optimization (SEO), Social Media, Digital Asset Optimization, Online Reputation Management and Internet user behavior. Plunkett's competitive personality makes him a perfect fit in the competitive world of SEO. As a child and a gamer, he worked hard ensuring that it was his initials at the top of every arcade game unit in his neighborhood. Today, he uses SEO to ensure his clients appear at the top of the search engine results – scoring big for those clients. At M/C/C, he offers clients a wide array of results-oriented services including keyword research, website development, blog strategy and planning and social networking consulting in addition to organic SEO.
Prior to joining M/C/C, Plunkett served as the director of sales and marketing for a leading Dallas Web site and advertising firm, where he consulted with clients on SEO and Internet advertising, ensuring that his clients' Internet and advertising strategies were in line with current business practices and branding. Plunkett has more than a decade of experience with online marketing and SEO, including his duties as Web sales manager for an ISP and Web development firm beginning in March 1995. He was heavily involved with the search engines Yahoo! and WebCrawler in their early days, serving as an alpha tester. Plunkett was an early editor for both Yahoo! Directory and Netscape's Open Directory Project in 1998. In that position, he created and consulted on the Ontology for the Regional/US/Texas, Society/Law/Law Firms and Health categories, assisted in the creation of Web site criteria for removal and assisted in the removal of fraudulent or abusive submissions. Over the years, Plunkett has been involved in the design and implementation of more than 500 Web sites, ranging from smaller sites to multimillion dollar ventures.
Plunkett is now serving for his seventh year as a judge in the global WebAward competition and has formerly served as a judge for the American Advertising Federation's Addy's competition. He also has several affiliations with Web-related groups; he has served as the HIPAA Internet expert for the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce CIO/CTO Forum, as a chairman for the Techscape marketing arm for the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce and on the board of directors for the Dallas Ad League. Plunkett has also served as the Internet chairman for the Tyler Chamber of Commerce, as the president of the East Texas Advertising Federation and as the Internet privacy advisor for the 10th district of the American Advertising Federation.
DIRECTOR, INTERNET MARKETING, M/C/C
M/C/C's Director of Internet Marketing, Steve Plunkett, is responsible for all aspects of Internet marketing with a focus on search engine optimization (SEO), Social Media, Digital Asset Optimization, Online Reputation Management and Internet user behavior. Plunkett's competitive personality makes him a perfect fit in the competitive world of SEO. As a child and a gamer, he worked hard ensuring that it was his initials at the top of every arcade game unit in his neighborhood. Today, he uses SEO to ensure his clients appear at the top of the search engine results – scoring big for those clients. At M/C/C, he offers clients a wide array of results-oriented services including keyword research, website development, blog strategy and planning and social networking consulting in addition to organic SEO.
Prior to joining M/C/C, Plunkett served as the director of sales and marketing for a leading Dallas Web site and advertising firm, where he consulted with clients on SEO and Internet advertising, ensuring that his clients' Internet and advertising strategies were in line with current business practices and branding. Plunkett has more than a decade of experience with online marketing and SEO, including his duties as Web sales manager for an ISP and Web development firm beginning in March 1995. He was heavily involved with the search engines Yahoo! and WebCrawler in their early days, serving as an alpha tester. Plunkett was an early editor for both Yahoo! Directory and Netscape's Open Directory Project in 1998. In that position, he created and consulted on the Ontology for the Regional/US/Texas, Society/Law/Law Firms and Health categories, assisted in the creation of Web site criteria for removal and assisted in the removal of fraudulent or abusive submissions. Over the years, Plunkett has been involved in the design and implementation of more than 500 Web sites, ranging from smaller sites to multimillion dollar ventures.
Plunkett is now serving for his seventh year as a judge in the global WebAward competition and has formerly served as a judge for the American Advertising Federation's Addy's competition. He also has several affiliations with Web-related groups; he has served as the HIPAA Internet expert for the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce CIO/CTO Forum, as a chairman for the Techscape marketing arm for the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce and on the board of directors for the Dallas Ad League. Plunkett has also served as the Internet chairman for the Tyler Chamber of Commerce, as the president of the East Texas Advertising Federation and as the Internet privacy advisor for the 10th district of the American Advertising Federation.
My Articles
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/July2007/article_3.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/January2005/article_3.htm
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/May2007/article_3.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/January2007/article_3.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/November2006/article_2.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/September2006/article_2.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/July2006/article_2.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/March2006/article_1.html
http://www.fueledcom.com/plunkett_internet_news.html
http://www.fueledcom.com/internet_specialist_news.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/January2005/article_3.htm
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/May2007/article_3.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/January2007/article_3.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/November2006/article_2.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/September2006/article_2.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/July2006/article_2.html
http://www.mccom.com/technique/archives/March2006/article_1.html
http://www.fueledcom.com/plunkett_internet_news.html
http://www.fueledcom.com/internet_specialist_news.html
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Mobile Caller ID
Launched today, the innovative Privus Mobile service from I D YOU, LLC can tell users who is calling by displaying the incoming caller's name and number on the screen. It's the world's first and only real Caller ID for your mobile phone.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Save Trestles, the TRUTH about the toll road
Save Trestles, the TRUTH about the toll road: "Foothill Transportation Corridor South (FTC-South)"
NO!!!!!!
People of California VOTE NO!
for Foothill Transportation Corridor South (FTC-South)
NO!!!!!!
People of California VOTE NO!
for Foothill Transportation Corridor South (FTC-South)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
SEO... what to do?
i've tried saving this for mostly articles i write... however the information i have complied on my other blog is hard to argue with. Plus i don't really feel like updating this one too.. under FUELED.. because that's just not gonna happen. So i do have my domain which is prolly going to end up here... so.. i tried... but it ain't gonna happen. my SEO BLOG about an SEO in DALLAS is here. So.. this blog is going to change... cya.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Best Practices for moving your website.
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Best practices when moving your site: "Planning on moving your site to a new domain? Lots of webmasters find this a scary process. How do you do it without hurting your site's performance in Google search results?"
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Leadership Development DVD - 2 Hour House
Dallas - Wednesday, March 19, 2008. Amazon’s #1 Best Selling Authors, Brian Conaway and Jose Feliciano describe the process whereby Conaway and 800 plus volunteers built the impossible: a 2,249 square foot house in less than three hours. Setting a world record, helping six charities, and disproving skeptics turned out to be their smallest feats. Achieving these goals is transforming how America is building… everything.
Two years of planning went into the 2 Hour House project with each construction step allotted a specific amount of time. The traditional concrete slab takes three days to cure, the quick cure formula, perfected by Transit Mix, was allocated 30 minutes but took just 22. Installing the garage door, a project that frequently takes a full day was allocated ten minutes and took only three. Revolutionary procedures in personnel management and building techniques enabled Conaway and his volunteers to build the entire home to code in two hours, fifty-two minutes, and twenty-nine seconds.
Teaching others time and process management, leadership skills, performance enhancement, and efficiency techniques forms the basis of 2 Hour House, the company started by Brian Conaway and Jose Feliciano. The ultimate vision-building resource for entrepreneurs and civic leaders, 2 Hour House provides tools and support to leaders building their own seemingly impossible visions. “We’ve provided leaders with the most powerful tool they need:” notes Jose, “a vision-building method anyone can follow that begins with the end in mind.”
The 2 Hour House phenomena is sweeping the nation, reigniting what has always been America’s greatest strength: a belief that anything is possible and innovation makes anything possible. The results: sensational change, one impossible at a time.
The Texas Department of Transportation now uses the quick-drying concrete formula to expedite highway repairs. Ruben Gonzales, inspired by the 2 Hour House video, is performing his own impossible by preparing to compete in four Winter Olympic Games, each in a different decade. Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup books, notes that the 2 Hour House experience demonstrates “what happens when a committed team of people pays no attention to what they have been told is impossible.” View a three minute clip of this incredible event at http://www.2hourhouse.com/.
###
For additional information on this release, please contact Jeannie McLaughlin, CEOIQ, Jeannie@ceoiq.com, 972-983-4258.
Two years of planning went into the 2 Hour House project with each construction step allotted a specific amount of time. The traditional concrete slab takes three days to cure, the quick cure formula, perfected by Transit Mix, was allocated 30 minutes but took just 22. Installing the garage door, a project that frequently takes a full day was allocated ten minutes and took only three. Revolutionary procedures in personnel management and building techniques enabled Conaway and his volunteers to build the entire home to code in two hours, fifty-two minutes, and twenty-nine seconds.
Teaching others time and process management, leadership skills, performance enhancement, and efficiency techniques forms the basis of 2 Hour House, the company started by Brian Conaway and Jose Feliciano. The ultimate vision-building resource for entrepreneurs and civic leaders, 2 Hour House provides tools and support to leaders building their own seemingly impossible visions. “We’ve provided leaders with the most powerful tool they need:” notes Jose, “a vision-building method anyone can follow that begins with the end in mind.”
The 2 Hour House phenomena is sweeping the nation, reigniting what has always been America’s greatest strength: a belief that anything is possible and innovation makes anything possible. The results: sensational change, one impossible at a time.
The Texas Department of Transportation now uses the quick-drying concrete formula to expedite highway repairs. Ruben Gonzales, inspired by the 2 Hour House video, is performing his own impossible by preparing to compete in four Winter Olympic Games, each in a different decade. Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup books, notes that the 2 Hour House experience demonstrates “what happens when a committed team of people pays no attention to what they have been told is impossible.” View a three minute clip of this incredible event at http://www.2hourhouse.com/.
###
For additional information on this release, please contact Jeannie McLaughlin, CEOIQ, Jeannie@ceoiq.com, 972-983-4258.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Search Engine Bias - Search Engine Optimization
Due to search engines’ automated operations, people often
assume that search engines display search results neutrally
and without bias. However, this perception is mistaken.
Like any other media company, search engines affirmatively
control their users’ experiences, which has the consequence
of skewing search results (a phenomenon called “search
engine bias”).
Some commentators believe that search
engine bias is a defect requiring legislative correction.
Instead, this Essay argues that search engine bias is the
beneficial consequence of search engines optimizing content
for their users.
The Essay further argues that the most
problematic aspect of search engine bias, the “winner-takeall”
effect caused by top placement in search results, will be
mooted by emerging personalized search technology.
click for search engine bias essay
assume that search engines display search results neutrally
and without bias. However, this perception is mistaken.
Like any other media company, search engines affirmatively
control their users’ experiences, which has the consequence
of skewing search results (a phenomenon called “search
engine bias”).
Some commentators believe that search
engine bias is a defect requiring legislative correction.
Instead, this Essay argues that search engine bias is the
beneficial consequence of search engines optimizing content
for their users.
The Essay further argues that the most
problematic aspect of search engine bias, the “winner-takeall”
effect caused by top placement in search results, will be
mooted by emerging personalized search technology.
click for search engine bias essay
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
10 Search Engines You Don't Know About
"We've got some big news for you. Brace yourself. There are search options beyond Google--and we're not talking about Yahoo! and MSN. Vertical search is on the rise, and whether you're looking for business products, services or information, or a new place to advertise, vertical search sites can benefit your company. Market research firm Outsell predicts that the vertical search market will reach $1 billion by 2009. While Google gets around 65 percent of search traffic today, it doesn't mean it's always the best place for your search."
10 Search Engines You Don't Know About - Entrepreneur.com - MSNBC.com
10 Search Engines You Don't Know About - Entrepreneur.com - MSNBC.com
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
Are Search Ads a Waste of Money?
"NEW YORK New research by Microsoft suggests a big chunk of search ad spending is wasted because advertisers pay top dollar for high ad placements clicked by consumers who are en route to their sites anyway. Listings tied to such 'branded' keywords, typically a company's name or products, eat up about half of search budgets, Atlas estimates."
Are Search Ads a Waste of Money?
Are Search Ads a Waste of Money?
Friday, July 13, 2007
Hay in a Needle Stack By Steve Plunkett
If you Google “advertising,” how come M/C/C isn’t #1?
That sounds like a reasonable question, doesn’t it? We are a full-service advertising agency. And how about the phrase “public relations firm?” Shouldn’t we come up on the first page for that?
We are a PR firm, after all. And we do have industry-leading expertise in search engine optimization. So why isn’t M/C/C #1 across the board for all advertising-related searches?
Because making M/C/C #1 in those overly broad searches would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. It’s just not worth the effort.
For starters, the M/C/C website does come up first in searches for “dallas texas advertising agencies and PR firms,” “creative print advertising” and “Dallas ad agency creative magazine layouts” … I could go on and on and on and on. This phenomenon has been called the “long tail of search,” meaning that a website owner has chosen not to spend its resources coming up in overly broad searches for terms like “advertising” or even for a phrase such as “advertising agency.” Instead, relying on the long tail of search, an organization generates more traffic to its website by optimizing its website based on variations of certain relevant keywords, potentially creating thousands of search-friendly phrases. In other words, the haystack is replaced by a needle stack.
Let me explain.
Lesson #1: Optimize for your specialty.
On the Internet, if users don’t know who you are, they will look up what you do. At M/C/C, we specialize in marketing for a number of business sectors, technology products being one of them. We can and do provide advertising services to high-tech clients in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, California, etc., so when prospects around the world search for the best “technology advertising agency,” we make sure we rank high in Google, Yahoo! and MSN for that keyword phrase. The thinking here is simple. When we promise to be effective marketers in the technology industry, we’d better well know how to reach people in the technology business, right?
So when prospects see M/C/C ranked first (out of millions of search returns) we’ve already made a positive impression. And that’s before visitors have even clicked on our website.
Google “Technology Advertising.” The first return is a blog on new technologies in advertising. For a select group of users, it’s a valid result for those search terms. However, if someone is looking for an advertising agency specializing in the technology field, the second return is exactly what they need, our website.You may ask how we get our website ranked in the top five or even on the front page of 267,000,000 results for those terms. The nitty-gritty is complicated, but the strategy is simple. We target our website optimization according to our specialties. You should, too. And you should use the terminology that your prospects use for those specialties.
Lesson #2: Speak your prospects’ language.
Do you have statistics on your website visitors? If not, please go to http://mcc.hitslink.com/ and start gathering invaluable information on your website traffic. Odds are, many of your visitors reach your website by searching for your company’s name. But what about prospective clients that have never heard of you or don’t know your name? Using http://mcc.hitslink.com/, you can find out how they found you, then optimize your website according to the search terms that they’re using. Again using the M/C/C site as an example, the second-most frequently searched term for visitors is “advertising layout.” Now, there’s no telling for sure, but logic and experience suggest to us that most visitors who search “advertising layout” are looking for samples of good advertising work, which they can find in the portfolio section of our website. Logic also dictates that many of these visitors are prospective clients looking for a new ad agency. If so, we’ve beaten our competition to the punch simply by learning the language of our prospects and optimizing our website accordingly. Logical enough, right?
Lesson #3: Get local.
Real estate agents say that it’s all about location, location, location. For the most part, that’s true for search engines, too. Oftentimes, when searchers have difficulty getting the right information from broad search terms, they get local. They add their state or city name to their previous search terms. That makes localization, or “GeoTargeting,” as Google calls it, one of the best variables to improve your optimization strategy. In the case of the M/C/C website, we rank second in the results for “technology advertising.” By simply adding “Dallas” to their phrase, searchers will find us in the #1 spot. That’s a big deal considering how much “real estate” goes for on Google’s first page.
And again being #1 for your prospects’ searches enhances your branding and makes a great impression BEFORE visitors even start reading your marketing copy. It’s tough to beat credibility like that.
Lesson #4: Explore all viable options.
So far in 2007, visitors have used 5,060 different search terms to reach our website from search engine results. To illustrate the variety of their searches and the value of optimizing your site to match these searches, the following is a small selection of those terms and how we rank within those searches. Remember, rankings in search results may vary from week to week. The rankings below were accurate as of July 13, 2007.
Dallas Advertising Agency and PR Firm#1 out of 2,190,000 results
Dallas Technology Advertising Agency#1 out of 2,210,000 results
Dallas Technology Public Relations Firm#1 out of 2,400,000 results
Technology Industry Public Relations#4 out of 124,000,000 results
Public Relations for Technology Companies#2 out of 156,000,000 results
Public Relations Firm in Dallas Texas#5 out of 2,080,000 results
Public Relations Companies Dallas Texas#3 out of 2,030,000 results
Media Relations for Technology Companies#5 out of 58,000,00 results
I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. Website visitors could be reaching your site 5,000 different ways. If they’re not, perhaps you should talk to someone who can make that happen.
You can start by Googling “Dallas Advertising Agency and PR Firm.” We’re pretty sure the agency in the first non-sponsored spot can do a bang-up job. You know, the one right under the map?
E-mail the author: Steve Plunkett
That sounds like a reasonable question, doesn’t it? We are a full-service advertising agency. And how about the phrase “public relations firm?” Shouldn’t we come up on the first page for that?
We are a PR firm, after all. And we do have industry-leading expertise in search engine optimization. So why isn’t M/C/C #1 across the board for all advertising-related searches?
Because making M/C/C #1 in those overly broad searches would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. It’s just not worth the effort.
For starters, the M/C/C website does come up first in searches for “dallas texas advertising agencies and PR firms,” “creative print advertising” and “Dallas ad agency creative magazine layouts” … I could go on and on and on and on. This phenomenon has been called the “long tail of search,” meaning that a website owner has chosen not to spend its resources coming up in overly broad searches for terms like “advertising” or even for a phrase such as “advertising agency.” Instead, relying on the long tail of search, an organization generates more traffic to its website by optimizing its website based on variations of certain relevant keywords, potentially creating thousands of search-friendly phrases. In other words, the haystack is replaced by a needle stack.
Let me explain.
Lesson #1: Optimize for your specialty.
On the Internet, if users don’t know who you are, they will look up what you do. At M/C/C, we specialize in marketing for a number of business sectors, technology products being one of them. We can and do provide advertising services to high-tech clients in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, California, etc., so when prospects around the world search for the best “technology advertising agency,” we make sure we rank high in Google, Yahoo! and MSN for that keyword phrase. The thinking here is simple. When we promise to be effective marketers in the technology industry, we’d better well know how to reach people in the technology business, right?
So when prospects see M/C/C ranked first (out of millions of search returns) we’ve already made a positive impression. And that’s before visitors have even clicked on our website.
Google “Technology Advertising.” The first return is a blog on new technologies in advertising. For a select group of users, it’s a valid result for those search terms. However, if someone is looking for an advertising agency specializing in the technology field, the second return is exactly what they need, our website.You may ask how we get our website ranked in the top five or even on the front page of 267,000,000 results for those terms. The nitty-gritty is complicated, but the strategy is simple. We target our website optimization according to our specialties. You should, too. And you should use the terminology that your prospects use for those specialties.
Lesson #2: Speak your prospects’ language.
Do you have statistics on your website visitors? If not, please go to http://mcc.hitslink.com/ and start gathering invaluable information on your website traffic. Odds are, many of your visitors reach your website by searching for your company’s name. But what about prospective clients that have never heard of you or don’t know your name? Using http://mcc.hitslink.com/, you can find out how they found you, then optimize your website according to the search terms that they’re using. Again using the M/C/C site as an example, the second-most frequently searched term for visitors is “advertising layout.” Now, there’s no telling for sure, but logic and experience suggest to us that most visitors who search “advertising layout” are looking for samples of good advertising work, which they can find in the portfolio section of our website. Logic also dictates that many of these visitors are prospective clients looking for a new ad agency. If so, we’ve beaten our competition to the punch simply by learning the language of our prospects and optimizing our website accordingly. Logical enough, right?
Lesson #3: Get local.
Real estate agents say that it’s all about location, location, location. For the most part, that’s true for search engines, too. Oftentimes, when searchers have difficulty getting the right information from broad search terms, they get local. They add their state or city name to their previous search terms. That makes localization, or “GeoTargeting,” as Google calls it, one of the best variables to improve your optimization strategy. In the case of the M/C/C website, we rank second in the results for “technology advertising.” By simply adding “Dallas” to their phrase, searchers will find us in the #1 spot. That’s a big deal considering how much “real estate” goes for on Google’s first page.
And again being #1 for your prospects’ searches enhances your branding and makes a great impression BEFORE visitors even start reading your marketing copy. It’s tough to beat credibility like that.
Lesson #4: Explore all viable options.
So far in 2007, visitors have used 5,060 different search terms to reach our website from search engine results. To illustrate the variety of their searches and the value of optimizing your site to match these searches, the following is a small selection of those terms and how we rank within those searches. Remember, rankings in search results may vary from week to week. The rankings below were accurate as of July 13, 2007.
Dallas Advertising Agency and PR Firm#1 out of 2,190,000 results
Dallas Technology Advertising Agency#1 out of 2,210,000 results
Dallas Technology Public Relations Firm#1 out of 2,400,000 results
Technology Industry Public Relations#4 out of 124,000,000 results
Public Relations for Technology Companies#2 out of 156,000,000 results
Public Relations Firm in Dallas Texas#5 out of 2,080,000 results
Public Relations Companies Dallas Texas#3 out of 2,030,000 results
Media Relations for Technology Companies#5 out of 58,000,00 results
I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. Website visitors could be reaching your site 5,000 different ways. If they’re not, perhaps you should talk to someone who can make that happen.
You can start by Googling “Dallas Advertising Agency and PR Firm.” We’re pretty sure the agency in the first non-sponsored spot can do a bang-up job. You know, the one right under the map?
E-mail the author: Steve Plunkett
Friday, June 15, 2007
Search Engine Ranking Factors
This document represents the collective wisdom of 37 leaders in the world of organic search engine optimization. Together, they have voted on the various factors that are estimated to comprise Google's ranking algorithm (the method by which the search engine orders results). The result is a resource of incredible value - although not every one of the estimated 200+ ranking elements are included, it is my opinion that 90-95% of the knowledge required about Google's algorithm is contained below.
- Rand Fishkin, CEO & Jeff Pollard, Web Developer Launched on April 2, 2007
- Rand Fishkin, CEO & Jeff Pollard, Web Developer Launched on April 2, 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Google, Yahoo gain share in U.S. Web search market
CNET News.com: "Google has increased its share of the U.S. Web search market to 47.4 percent with a gain of 0.4 percent during December, while No. 2 ranked Yahoo also edged higher, a survey said Monday.
Web audience measurement firm comScore Networks said No. 3-ranked Microsoft's share slid 0.5 percent to 10.5 percent of U.S. Web searches while InterActiveCorp's Ask.com's share dipped 0.1 percent to 5.4 percent.
Google has gained share in 16 of the last 17 months in the United States, the world's largest Internet market, according to comScore data. "
Web audience measurement firm comScore Networks said No. 3-ranked Microsoft's share slid 0.5 percent to 10.5 percent of U.S. Web searches while InterActiveCorp's Ask.com's share dipped 0.1 percent to 5.4 percent.
Google has gained share in 16 of the last 17 months in the United States, the world's largest Internet market, according to comScore data. "
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Search Engine Market Share
To say there is a search engine market share war is like saying the pet goldfish has a chance against the great white shark. Google has increased its leadership role from a total of 67.39% usage market share to start 2006 to a total of 76.10% market share to start 2007. The market share losers:
Yahoo! has dropped from 13.02% to 10.61%.
MSN has fallen behind (far behind) Google UK.
AOL has fallen into the "Others" category - barely half of Google Canada - and, didn't break into the top 6 this year.
So what can the other search engines do to stop the great white shark? Stop acting like pet goldfish, and start acting like a school of piranha. If someone with resources would start providing better search results with no click fraud loving sites that are purely ads with no real content, people would use it!
Search Engine Market Share Statistics for 2007 vs. 2006
As of 1/1/2007
52.02% Google
10.61% Yahoo!
8.40% Google UK
5.04% MSN
4.39% Google AdSense
3.26% Google Canada
16.19% Other
As of 1/1/2006
48.09% Google
13.02% Yahoo!
9.18% MSN
7.45% Google UK
3.23% Google Canada
2.93% AOL
16.06% Other
Yahoo! has dropped from 13.02% to 10.61%.
MSN has fallen behind (far behind) Google UK.
AOL has fallen into the "Others" category - barely half of Google Canada - and, didn't break into the top 6 this year.
So what can the other search engines do to stop the great white shark? Stop acting like pet goldfish, and start acting like a school of piranha. If someone with resources would start providing better search results with no click fraud loving sites that are purely ads with no real content, people would use it!
Search Engine Market Share Statistics for 2007 vs. 2006
As of 1/1/2007
52.02% Google
10.61% Yahoo!
8.40% Google UK
5.04% MSN
4.39% Google AdSense
3.26% Google Canada
16.19% Other
As of 1/1/2006
48.09% Google
13.02% Yahoo!
9.18% MSN
7.45% Google UK
3.23% Google Canada
2.93% AOL
16.06% Other
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Can “You” Damage Your Company’s Reputation?
Can “You” Damage Your Company’s Reputation?
By Steve Plunkett
While it’s true that a large portion of the population still gets the bulk of its news from traditional media outlets like the television news and newspapers, there are other members of the population that have expanded the scope of where they get their news. They were the “You” of TIME Magazine’s famed “Person of the Year” for 2006. By choosing “You,” the magazine was talking about people that ingest, filter and re-supply hundreds, if not thousands, of bits of information via a variety of news sources in a sort of new electronic version of word of mouth. The term du jour is “citizen journalist,” and it’s important to know what makes these influencers tick – because, while they sometimes say good things about your company, there’s an awful lot of negative information being posted on the Web by these people. Your company needs to be aware of what’s going on so you can protect yourself from “You.”
To demonstrate the power of citizen journalism and its influence, consider the following example: Last year, I was unhappy about my treatment at a particular auto dealership so I blogged about it. To this day, if you put the name of the automobile dealership into a search engine, one of the first results that comes up is my blog entry, which recounts my experience from a factual perspective. While I won’t go into great detail here, let’s just say that all of the potential customers that click on my blog before clicking the auto dealer’s website link may think twice before heading over to that dealership.
It’s important to remember that “You” can work fast to report on a product or service. How fast? Well, all it takes for “You” to be an instant media outlet is Internet access and a camera phone, which are both plentiful these days. If your company releases a product, “You” can be the first to purchase it then publish a video and review of it on a blog and/or YouTube within minutes. If the original blog has a downstream blog feed enabled, that blog post shows up on someone else’s blog (or several blogs). By sending out a MySpace bulletin or posting a comment with a link, “You” can touch even more people. “You” may then stop over at CNet and drop some comments about the original blog entry. Reuters and the Washington Post have blogs that allow users to leave comments, too. Oops, I almost forgot to mention that hundreds of TV stations, radio stations, newspapers and magazines have blogs that will allow users to post comments.
Within minutes, that original review of your company’s product will be linked to on websites and posted in the comments sections of blogs all over the Web. Before long, it will begin creeping its way toward the top of the search engine results. That means that when someone types in the name of your product in a search engine, that original blog post may come up as one of the top results. You may be thinking, “Wow! That’s great free publicity!” But what if the original blog post is a slam of your new product, or what if that customer bought a defective unit or is using your product ineffectively or improperly and, for millions of people, the first impression of your product is a negative one?
How can your company avoid this? Work with a knowledgeable Search Engine Optimization (SEO) provider. It’s a simple solution that can help to make sure your company website comes up first – ahead of “non-official” websites – in the search engine results for searches on your company’s name and product. That way, people get your official company information instead of what “You” had to say.
By Steve Plunkett
While it’s true that a large portion of the population still gets the bulk of its news from traditional media outlets like the television news and newspapers, there are other members of the population that have expanded the scope of where they get their news. They were the “You” of TIME Magazine’s famed “Person of the Year” for 2006. By choosing “You,” the magazine was talking about people that ingest, filter and re-supply hundreds, if not thousands, of bits of information via a variety of news sources in a sort of new electronic version of word of mouth. The term du jour is “citizen journalist,” and it’s important to know what makes these influencers tick – because, while they sometimes say good things about your company, there’s an awful lot of negative information being posted on the Web by these people. Your company needs to be aware of what’s going on so you can protect yourself from “You.”
To demonstrate the power of citizen journalism and its influence, consider the following example: Last year, I was unhappy about my treatment at a particular auto dealership so I blogged about it. To this day, if you put the name of the automobile dealership into a search engine, one of the first results that comes up is my blog entry, which recounts my experience from a factual perspective. While I won’t go into great detail here, let’s just say that all of the potential customers that click on my blog before clicking the auto dealer’s website link may think twice before heading over to that dealership.
It’s important to remember that “You” can work fast to report on a product or service. How fast? Well, all it takes for “You” to be an instant media outlet is Internet access and a camera phone, which are both plentiful these days. If your company releases a product, “You” can be the first to purchase it then publish a video and review of it on a blog and/or YouTube within minutes. If the original blog has a downstream blog feed enabled, that blog post shows up on someone else’s blog (or several blogs). By sending out a MySpace bulletin or posting a comment with a link, “You” can touch even more people. “You” may then stop over at CNet and drop some comments about the original blog entry. Reuters and the Washington Post have blogs that allow users to leave comments, too. Oops, I almost forgot to mention that hundreds of TV stations, radio stations, newspapers and magazines have blogs that will allow users to post comments.
Within minutes, that original review of your company’s product will be linked to on websites and posted in the comments sections of blogs all over the Web. Before long, it will begin creeping its way toward the top of the search engine results. That means that when someone types in the name of your product in a search engine, that original blog post may come up as one of the top results. You may be thinking, “Wow! That’s great free publicity!” But what if the original blog post is a slam of your new product, or what if that customer bought a defective unit or is using your product ineffectively or improperly and, for millions of people, the first impression of your product is a negative one?
How can your company avoid this? Work with a knowledgeable Search Engine Optimization (SEO) provider. It’s a simple solution that can help to make sure your company website comes up first – ahead of “non-official” websites – in the search engine results for searches on your company’s name and product. That way, people get your official company information instead of what “You” had to say.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)