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Alan Bleiweiss True SEO Wisdom Shared

Posted in March 7, 2010 ¬ 4:52 amh.Dean Cruddace1 Comment »

Alan Bleiweiss is one i have taken the time to get to know via twitter over a number of months. His guest posts on SEJ and other renown seo blogs have easily marked him in my honest opinion as one who truly knows his direction. His forthright opinion and steadfast views on SEO/SEM mark him as an industry stalwart and old school practitioner.

If you were ever in question of your own seo practices you will not go far wrong with Alan.

The latest posts from Alans blog: Search Marketing Wisdom

Google Labs shares the crack pipe – Living Stories Style - Wed, 17 Feb 2010
Google announced today that they’re going open-source to extend their “Living Stories” project, a platform cooked up in the Google Labs and initially tested in collaboration with writers at the New York Times and Washington Post. The initial effort, rolled out in December, was billed as featuring new ways to interact with news and the quality [...]

Alan Bleiweiss has been an Internet professional since 1995, managing client projects valued at upwards of $2,000,000.00. Just a few of his most notable clients through the years have included PCH.com, WeightWatchers.com, and Starkist.com. Follow him on Twitter @AlanBleiweiss , read his Search Marketing blog at Search Marketing Wisdom, and be sure to read his column at SearchEngineJournal.com the 2nd and 4th Tuesday each month. Google Labs shares the crack pipe – Living Stories Style is a post from: Search Marketing Wisdom All content copyright Alan Bleiweiss unless otherwise attributed by me in the article.

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Google Alerts – Finding Value And Danger In A Crack-house - Sat, 13 Feb 2010
How many times have you signed up to receive Google Alerts on a topic only to have your in-box filled with the most absurd and useless spam, regardless of the topic? It happens to me all the time. It used to be restricted to “news” related to client keyword phrases. Initially, the alerts I had [...]

Alan Bleiweiss has been an Internet professional since 1995, managing client projects valued at upwards of $2,000,000.00. Just a few of his most notable clients through the years have included PCH.com, WeightWatchers.com, and Starkist.com. Follow him on Twitter @AlanBleiweiss , read his Search Marketing blog at Search Marketing Wisdom, and be sure to read his column at SearchEngineJournal.com the 2nd and 4th Tuesday each month. Google Alerts – Finding Value And Danger In A Crack-house is a post from: Search Marketing Wisdom All content copyright Alan Bleiweiss unless otherwise attributed by me in the article.

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Great Twitter Background How-To - Sat, 06 Feb 2010
I am not a graphic designer by trade, though once in a while I’ll pretend I am for my own sites. Usually it involves hours upon hours of research, dozens of trial and error attempts in Photoshop, and quite often completely scrapping what I thought initially was spot on. This past fall I worked on my [...]

Alan Bleiweiss has been an Internet professional since 1995, managing client projects valued at upwards of $2,000,000.00. Just a few of his most notable clients through the years have included PCH.com, WeightWatchers.com, and Starkist.com. Follow him on Twitter @AlanBleiweiss , read his Search Marketing blog at Search Marketing Wisdom, and be sure to read his column at SearchEngineJournal.com the 2nd and 4th Tuesday each month. Great Twitter Background How-To is a post from: Search Marketing Wisdom All content copyright Alan Bleiweiss unless otherwise attributed by me in the article.

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The Danger of Posting Article Teasers - Tue, 02 Feb 2010
I was all set to write a new post blasting the AssHat SEO article that came out this past week in Entrepreneur magazine. I actually wrote the whole article. Sent out a whole bunch of teaser snap-shots through Twitpic. Got a bunch of people all hyped up on my latest lambasting of AssHat nonsense that [...]

Alan Bleiweiss has been an Internet professional since 1995, managing client projects valued at upwards of $2,000,000.00. Just a few of his most notable clients through the years have included PCH.com, WeightWatchers.com, and Starkist.com. Follow him on Twitter @AlanBleiweiss , read his Search Marketing blog at Search Marketing Wisdom, and be sure to read his column at SearchEngineJournal.com the 2nd and 4th Tuesday each month. The Danger of Posting Article Teasers is a post from: Search Marketing Wisdom All content copyright Alan Bleiweiss unless otherwise attributed by me in the article.

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Google AdWords Contact Forms – A Bad Idea - Wed, 06 Jan 2010
I caught a tweet this morning from @ClicksIM’s Jami Broom where she stated “Adwords is trying out contact forms as an extension of an ad – pretty cool, I think.” The link was to a news brief over at SearchEngineLand.com, which provided a short overview of a more detailed review can be found over at [...]

Alan Bleiweiss has been an Internet professional since 1995, managing client projects valued at upwards of $2,000,000.00. Just a few of his most notable clients through the years have included PCH.com, WeightWatchers.com, and Starkist.com. Follow him on Twitter @AlanBleiweiss , read his Search Marketing blog at Search Marketing Wisdom, and be sure to read his column at SearchEngineJournal.com the 2nd and 4th Tuesday each month. Google AdWords Contact Forms – A Bad Idea is a post from: Search Marketing Wisdom All content copyright Alan Bleiweiss unless otherwise attributed by me in the article.

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Please be aware that this is an RSS feed fetched from Alan`s blog, if you would like to respond to the posts as they appear here simply click on any of the post titles.

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104 seo characters to get you started on twitter

Posted in February 4, 2010 ¬ 6:06 pmh.Dean CruddaceNo Comments »

I am not one accustomed to building huge lists, so here is a huge list. Why? 1. coz i can and 2. because they have all helped me in one way or another to develop a better understanding of what i am supposed to be doing and 3. because we all needed another list.

Should i categorize and pigeon hole all of these? I believe i should not, that would be wrong, nobody should be, they all offer relatively similar knowledge but from different angles, which helps to shape my focus on the direction and goals that i have, yours may be different. A big thankyou to Richard Shove for helping me put this list together in a less stressful way .

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SEO 2010

Posted in January 20, 2010 ¬ 11:16 amh.Dean Cruddace1 Comment »

Such a random title for an seo post but 2010 holds so much for those brand new to seo. I will be giving every single one of you access to all of the tools of the trade plus a complete A to Z of SEO and what it means to you as a business owner. If you are already in the seo trade you will already be dissecting what i am offering. Thats cool to.

What i have learned in my my brief skit in seo (10+ years) is that you get to know nothing without a good read of the seo industry posts of thought leaders and those i have chose to feature on seo begin are by far and away amongst those that are at the cutting edge of what we do.

I would love to put a scientific post together about how great i was for achieving a ranking about a specific keyphrase, but that would defeat the object of what i do.

SEO truly is a game, don`t get me wrong .. all of those in the seo industry will share a lot of method, but we will never give the exact method, thats ours for the keeping. If we shared the exact methodology for exact rankings for your keyphrase.. we would truly give away our advantage. Don`t get me wrong, SEO is such a generic term that every man and his dog is using it to sell you his wares, but only those who know what the hell they are doing will deliver the results you are looking for.

2010 holds a different kind of prospect for seo, we are always at the mercy of the G algo change, the latest being the caffeine update for which us in the UK will not see ant kind of change until early 2010. Early analyltical data suggests that if your campaigns have been solid then you have no worries, i was fortunate enough to try out the sandbox before this new release went live and it basically suggested that solid linking and rankings would remain the same. If you were one of those practising the black art for 2010 you are buggered, plain and simple, you are buggered.. why bother trying to cheat and representing shite when in essence offering your visitors true value for the products you seem to be ranking for.

There is a huge short cut for SEO for 2010!!!

It does not get much simpler than this: ON site SEO

Use the keywords you are targeting in the title tags
Use the keywords you are targeting in the page URL
For gods sake use the keywords you are targeting within the content you have just created, don`t get creative about keyword density.. sooner or later you will begin to rank. Why? plainly because you were natural about what you wrote about.

It gets simpler still: OFF site SEO

It`s all about the links, yep links… no not those ones that link from your YouFace account (i`am taking the piss) i am talking about those links that are editorial, those links that are attracted through the genuine content that you are offering, if it is worth linking to, they will. Which is where it gets a little tricky. OK so this post is worth linking to as a basic seo for 2010, that is all it is meant to be, i know though sheer volume that this post will be skim read to such a degree that it will attract basic links, those links that will link to it just for the basis of association to a relevant theme and i know it will attract about 200 comments which Askimet will block, this i could not give 2 fucks about because i know they are shite, but maybe you are starting to get my drift.

Link Quality matters

If there is a single bloke i respect in the link building world it is Eric Ward, he knows his turmoil inside out and standing on his head, Debra Mastaler is another who takes link analysis to another level.

These guys are absolute nailed on fact dedicated to dissolving links to the inc degree and are masters in the art of unearthing the hardiest of perrenials, i respect these time traveled librarians of internet global architecture and by god they fit into that methodology that we as ultimately link builders that we all aspire to.

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Twitter Real Time Search

Posted in December 9, 2009 ¬ 7:43 pmh.Dean Cruddace2 Comments »

So Twitter Real Time Search in the SERP`s is now live, a potential PR/Spam nightmare or great for SEO? I am not the only one who has a view on this and there is a plethora of other opinions on the subject.

MySpace Launches New Set Of Realtime APIs With Google, OneRiot And …
Why Real Time Search Should Interest SEOs
Search Goes Real-Time With Scoopler. Twitter Dominates Results.
Watch Out Twitter! Facebook Launches Realtime Search
Discovering the Power of Twitter’s Real-Time Search

A good or a bad thing? well much like sidewiki it is another weapon in the spammers arsenal but in my humble opinion it presents real reputation management issues for brands.

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Malcolm Coles Gets Personal

Posted in November 18, 2009 ¬ 2:00 pmh.Dean CruddaceNo Comments »

Malcom Coles is as honest as the day is long, question asking, answer giving all round helpful SEO. In Malcolms words;

“It’s mostly about reviews (good and bad), SEO, Wordpress, newspapers, how to do things and the internet in general.”

I found Malcolm through twitter and i have enjoyed reading his posts so much i thought it was only right and proper that you guys get to see his posts via rss as well.

(more…)

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When NOT to Tweet

Posted in November 10, 2009 ¬ 10:06 pmh.Dean Cruddace2 Comments »

When is it best not to tweet?

There are more than enough awkward times not to tweet.
(more…)

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Google knows what clothes i am wearing via SideWiki

Posted in September 24, 2009 ¬ 3:59 pmh.Dean Cruddace1 Comment »

Well we are yet not 24 hours into the launch of the product and we are looking for vulnerabilities, how could it be gamed to turn it to the advantage of the spammers. Well in all honesty it took Michael Gray not very long at all.
(more…)

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SEO and the Wonder Wheel

Posted in August 12, 2009 ¬ 5:44 pmh.Dean Cruddace3 Comments »

How far has Google come in terms of understanding search patterns and related terms? Well a long way would be one way of putting it, but after playing about with the Wonder Wheel (not my voice or vid) for a few months now i wanted to see how far i could stretch the term SEO to see where i ended up and although a lot of people have us seo`s pigeon holed much like your own industry ,the results are very suprising.
(more…)

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Posted in August 12, 2009 ¬ 1:26 pmh.Dean Cruddace2 Comments »

Revamped Foursquare for iPhone Hits the App Store - Thu, 11 Mar 2010

Last week, an App Store error got the latest version of Foursquare for the iPhone into a few users hands a little bit early.

That hiccup resulted in the app briefly disappearing from the App Store before finally returning early yesterday. Now the newly designed version of the app is in the App Store and available for everyone to check out.

Foursquare 1.7 features a new design, faster checkins and shouts, plus an easy way to view your checkin history. The app also features pull-to-refresh, a la Tweetie 2 for the iPhone. The app is a lot more responsive in our tests and the new interface is a big enhancement.

This is a nice improvement from the old release and a fitting first-birthday gift of sorts as the app is arriving just before SXSW 2010 — where the app made its first big splash last year — begins.

What do you think of the new Foursquare app? Let us know!

Tags: foursquare, foursquare iphone, iphone apps

Share Your Latest Purchases With Scordit - Thu, 11 Mar 2010

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Scordit

Quick Pitch: A social site where you share the stuff you’ve bought or want to get, and win prizes by doing it!

Genius Idea: It’s nice to share your new purchases or “scores” with friends or to let people know what stuff you really want to score in the future. Likewise, it’s fun to see what your friends are scoring or adding to their wishlists. Scordit handles both tasks, plus integrates with Facebook and Twitter, making sharing and wishlisting easy.

Similar services to Scordit exist — we covered one called Hollrr last month — but Scordit is a little bit different in that you can browse or search for items (and it can poll places like Amazon.com for images or product names) you both have and items you want.

Scordit also issues users points for doing certain tasks — like adding scores or wishes to your profile, inviting a friend to the service, or discussing products you already have. Each point gets you a chance to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card each week and towards a bigger prize each month. The prize this month, for example is an iPad.

In the future Scordit will also let you earn coupons and discounts on items in your wishlist, based on the points you a have earned.

We like that Scordit supports account creation with both Twitter and Facebook and that you can selectively tweet or share your scores or wishes on those services.

Like Hollrr, we do wish that there was a bookmarklet that could make adding items to your scores or wishes even faster. These sorts of sharing sites have a lot of potential but being accessible from outside the main app is something we really want to see.

How do you share your scores with friends? Let us know!

Disclosure: Scordit is founded by Shane Snow, who has contributed to Mashable.

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”

Tags: getglue, hollrr, product sharing, scordit

The Truth About the Average Twitter User [STATS] - Thu, 11 Mar 2010

A new study from security firm Barracuda Labs provides some interesting insights into the state of the Twitterverse. Unfortunately for the microblogging startup, the stats say that most of its users aren’t very active.

The study looked at around 19 million Twitter accounts (PDF) in order to figure out how people are using Twitter. It started with one assumption: an active or “True” Twitter user has at least 10 followers, follows at least 10 people, and had tweeted at least 10 times. By that definition though, only 21% of Twitter users are active users.

There’s a great deal of interesting data in the breakdown. Only 26% of Twitter users had 10 followers or more by December 2009, while only 40% were following 10 people or more (in fact, a majority of Twitter users, 51%, were following less than five people).

In terms of tweets, the report estimates that 34% of Twitter users hadn’t tweeted even once, while a whopping 73% of Twitter’s users tweeted less than 10 times. That means nearly all of the tweets on the social network were coming from about 1/4 of the userbase. Power users dominate.

Barracuda Labs also analyzed Twitter’s growth over time, and the numbers are consistent with previous reports that show while Twitter grew like wildfire in early 2009, it has dramatically slowed down in recent months. Going back further to early 2008, the report estimates that the microblogging tool grew by just 0.31%. However, with the quick rise of media coverage and the influx of celebrities such as Oprah and Shaq, Twitter use grew by 20% in April 2009 before dropping off to 0.34% growth in December 2009.

While the news isn’t stellar, it isn’t all bad for Twitter — these metrics are moving in the right direction. A full 79% of users had less than ten tweets in June 2009, but that number dropped to 73% by December. 80% of users had less than 10 followers in June 2009, but that percentage dropped to 74% by December. If that trend continues, you’ll hopefully see a more diverse and active Twitterverse going forward.

[via MediaMemo]

Tags: Barracuda Labs, followers, stats, twitter

15 Famous Tech Titans Hit Forbes’ Billionaire List - Thu, 11 Mar 2010

Forbes has released its annual list of the world’s billionaires and when it comes to technology, the list includes many of the same faces we see year after year.

After regaining the throne last year, Bill Gates has once again been displaced as the world’s richest man — this time by Carlos Slim (who held that post back in 2007), but he remains the richest man in tech by a wide margin with an estimated net worth of $53 billion.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who fell off the list last year, has rejoined, tied with 20 others at #212 with an estimated net worth of $4 billion.

Check out how some other tech heavyweights weighed in:

Larry Ellison: $28 Billion

The Oracle founder and CEO is the sixth richest person in the world this year, sitting pretty with $28 billion as his estimated net worth.

Sergey Brin & Larry Page: $17.5 Billion Each

The two Google co-founders both place 24th on the list with $17.5 billion in estimated net worth.

Steve Ballmer: $14.5 Billion

Thanks to a rise in Microsoft’s stock price, Ballmer saw his net worth rise and he sits at #33 on the overall list.

Paul Allen and Michael Dell: $13.5 Billion

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen might appear to spend money like its water, but he’s still ranked at #37 on the list, tied with Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell.

Jeff Bezos: $12.3 Billion

The Amazon founder and CEO is ranked #43 with $12.3 billion in estimated net worth. That’s a lot of eBooks!

Eric Schmidt: $6.3 Billion

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is ranked #117 this year, tied with News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Steve Jobs: $5.5 Billion

Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs has watch his company’s stock price soar over the last twelve months. He’s ranked #136 with an estimated $5.5 Billion.

Pierre Omidyar: $5.2 Billion

The eBay founder is ranked #148 on the list.

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg: $3 Billion each

While most filmmakers don’t necessarily fall into the category of technology players, I think we can make an exception for the guy who gave us Jaws, E.T. and Minority Report and the guy that gave us Star Wars and Howard The Duck. Both directors are tied at #316.

Jerry Yang: $1.3 Billion

Hey, being ousted wasn’t the worst thing to happen to Yang — Yahoo’s stock was up 26% in the last year, buoying the co-founders net worth along with it.

Reviews: Facebook, Google

Tags: bill gates, billionaires, mark zuckerberg, steve jobs

Twitter’s Website Now Attaches Location to Tweets [PICS] - Thu, 11 Mar 2010

Twitter has just flipped the switch on geolocation within Twitter.com. Now at least some users can pull up location-based information from individual tweets on the microblogging website.

While attaching locations to tweets has been possible for several months now through third party apps, Twitter.com itself hasn’t done much geolocation until today. It was first noticed yesterday, but the full rollout seems to be happening today.

It’s a simple integration: with any tweet that has a location attached to it (mostly via apps that support it, such as Foursquare and Tweetie), a small location icon will appear at the end of the byline of that tweet. Clicking on it will bring up a Google Map showing the location where that tweet was sent.

Here’s a screenshot:

It’s a simple integration, but it’s important to the future of Twitter. Location has become this year’s big trend, and with Facebook set to launch location features next month, the company can’t afford to be left behind.

What do you think: is this an important market for Twitter to command? What location features should it launch next? Let us know in the comments.

Reviews: Foursquare, Twitter, tweetie

Tags: geolocation, twitter

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UK Travel Agents and Airlines on Twitter

Posted in July 16, 2009 ¬ 5:28 pmh.Dean CruddaceNo Comments »

I have not found too many UK travel agents and airlines on Twitter and i would be very grateful for more recommendations!! What i have managed to find so far.

@lowcostsunshine (www.lowcostsunshine.co.uk/)
@lastminute_com (www.lastminute.com/)
@netflights (http://www.netflights.com/)
@pleasantholiday (http://www.pleasantholidays.com/)
@jet2com (www.jet2.com/)
@holidayextras (http://www.holidayextras.com/)
@holidaydeals (http://www.holidaydeals4you.co.uk/)
@fizzholidays (http://www.fizzholidays.co.uk/)
@cheapholidaysuk (http://www.cheapholidays.com/)
@onthebeachuk (http://www.otbeach.com/)
@sunstop (http://www.sunstop.co.uk/)
@globalholidays (http://www.globalholidays.co.uk/)

Ok a huge update to Travel Agents on Twitter, all of the hard work has already been done by Matt Parsons over at his site Travel Agents on Twitter. Enjoy!!

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