Internet Guru Matt Cutts Talks Sock Puppet Marketing

Last week Google’s Internet marketing Guru Matt Cutts posted a new video in their Webmaster Central Channel on YouTube.  I love these videos because they are short and to the post and without any pitch or longwinded verbiage cluttering the real message.   The video that caught my eye was Matt Cutts’ discussion on Sock Puppet Marketing.   Yes you read that correctly.  Mr. Cutts is talking openly about puppets. Puppets aside, the discussion was in relation to an individual or company creating fake Internet personas for marketing purposes.  While Matt did not go into how Google would Read more

Google and Twitter Make Social Search a Reality

Last week Google officially announced their newly formed partnership with Twitter.  The officially statement indicates this partnership will allow social media updates on Twitter to appear in Google’s search results.  Google also demonstrated their new Social Search feature at the Web 2.0 conference to really get Internet marketing consultants excited.  Although this new feature isn’t live yet, Social Search will be launching soon on Google Experimental and Google Labs. What does Social Search mean to you? If you use Twitter for business, it means you’ve just had your world expand Read more

Google Degrades PageRank

Much to the surprise of many Internet marketing consultants, Google recently removed PageRank information from their Webmaster Tools.  In a response to a posting on Google’s Webmaster Central forum, Susan Moskwa stated “We've been telling people for a long time that they shouldn't focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it's the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.” Ms. Moskwa then points Read more

Google Officially Announces Meta Keywords Are Dead

Google, and in particular Internet guru Matt Cutts, formally end SEO consultant chatter and announce Google’s policy of keyword utilization by posting a video on Google’s Webmaster Blog. In the very direct posting, Matt said Google no longer uses meta based keywords for primary organic search, but quantified this statement by also stating Google does still use meta keywords for the search appliance. What does this mean? For some SEO consultants, it means meta keywords can be completely ignored. I consider this the lazy approach. For me, this means I will take note and simply not place Read more

Blogger Turns Ten and Still Dominates Competitors

Blogger is a Google application that is used by millions of people each month to produce and host personal and business-related blogs. Last month the application turned ten years old, which is rather old for Web2.0 applications. My first blog was hosted on Blogger and remnants of it still exist there today. While I’ve used Blogger in the past, I personally, have officially defected to WordPress, as I quickly outgrew Blogger’s functional capabilities. This little birthday celebration led me to wonder if Blogger is as popular as it once was years ago. I also wonder how it fairs Read more

How Long Does it Really Take to Get Indexed by Google?

It seems like just a few years ago it took Google forever to index a new URL and website. Well maybe not, but for anyone working on Internet marketing it felt like it took Google forever to index a new URL. Things have changed and Google is different these days. Remember the Six Million Dollar Man intro? “We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was before. Better. Stronger.” That’s what I think of Google. Google is better. Okay I may have just dated myself with the analogy, but Google reminds me of the TV show intro. Google is better, Read more

July brings a Boohoo for Yahoo and Pal Bing

July 2009 Search Volume

Search volume inched up from June to July, but this change didn’t benefit everyone. Both Yahoo and Bing lost paid referral traffic in July, while Google rose slightly. After all the fanfare and money Microsoft threw on Bing’s arrival, the search engine gossip and hall chatter only lasted for a short time. The newness factor appears to be disappearing. This Internet marketer projected this, as I felt Bing was a complete bust. And while I do like Yahoo better than Bing, I still cannot see how either company is going to catch rival Google. I would like to say the pay-per-click Read more

Google Insights for Search is an SEO Consultant’s Dream

I love Internet marketing because each day I learn something new and discover more SEO tools that make my job easier. As an avid Internet user and passionate online consultant, I try to forward these tips onto others. Today my tip is Google Insights for Search. As usual, Google continues to provide free and valuable tools to webmasters and online marketers. Their Google Insights for Search tool allows users to view search volumes, geographical hot spots, and search volume increases. For my example search, I selected “marketing”. Internet marketing scored fourth with online Read more

Why SEO Experts Think Google is Googlelicious

You don’t have to be an SEO expert to know Google rocks. In fact, with the exception of exiled black hat consultants, most search engine optimization companies will give very positive feedback on Google’s search results and overall service offering. And this isn’t because we are fearful of Google. It is because Google makes it easy for companies to market their products and services via the Internet and Google wants companies to succeed in their marketing efforts. If we succeed at optimizing websites properly and by the rules set forth by Google, Google’s results will be more Read more

Google Releases Beta of New Search Functionality

It is an Internet junky’s dream – faster search AND a Google feedback request all in one day. Yes you heard that correctly, Google is developing next-generation architecture for their already incredibly popular web search feature. Should we expect anything less from Google? According to Google’s Webmaster Central Blog the new search technology is supposed to improve the search engine’s ability to process large chunks of data, increase indexing speed, heighten the accuracy of search results, and provide a greater level of overall comprehensiveness. After reviewing the web Read more