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Intergalactic!

Monday, March 17th, 2008

One of the most challenging things about optimizing a web site for a small business owner is controlling their expectations and tempering their ambitions. For many, a web site is more than just a way to reach their core audience - it’s a blurring of their understanding of who their core audience really is.
Because it’s [...]

Automotive Search

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

Automotive search is a dog-eat-muffler world with many dealerships having presence on many sites.

Flash: It’s Not Just Search

Thursday, July 5th, 2007

The Google Webmaster Blog has a post about uses of Flash in Web pages. Naturally, as one might expect from Google, they focus on the ability of Googlebot or other spiders to ’see’ Flash.
Nothing’s wrong with this, mind you. Flash navigation is bad and needs to not exist.
But there are plenty of good reasons to [...]

Reliability of Online Reviews

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

This one’s for the Funk King of Minneapolis, Paul Jahn.
There’s a Salon blog post today on the reliability of online reviews. Here’s a choice bit:
Online ratings are beset by one main flaw, something pollsters call “response bias.” Because people are more likely to rate products that have moved them in some way — either positively [...]

Prediction: Video Mania

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

Now that Universal Search has been announced, and covered in the mainstream media (Reuters, WSJ, etc. etc.), the next wave of SEO frenzy will be clients coming to their search marketing team or interactive agency agog about video.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I forsee a lot of awkward conversations about video:

Client: We need [...]

Ceding Control & Its Hazards

Friday, April 20th, 2007

I think Aaron Wall of SEOBook wrote a great post this week about Google and the ‘death’ of affiliate marketing. He really focuses on AdSense publishing, but I believe it goes further than that.
He doesn’t mention Google Analytics, but I think GA also factors into Google’s reach for control. There’s some extent to which I [...]

E-mail Subject Lines: Who Converts on This Stuff, Anyway?

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007

Sometimes, I like to go into webmail, which doesn’t have a spam filter, prior to doing a POP download. The subject lines that are coming through are increasingly surreal, like things we would have written in Very Serious Navelgazing Poetry back in college.
Here are some doozies from today’s batch. Note that none of them will [...]

Can Local Search Replace Directories?

Sunday, April 1st, 2007

Understand: I think most major directories, at this point, suck.
Consider:

DMOZ: Mostly broken, and they’ve reached the volunteer organizational size where bizarrities and politics get in the way of either people who want to volunteer, or any of the volunteers being effective.

Yahoo!: Listings are by those who are paying for it. Editorial review is mostly ‘is [...]

Search & Real Estate Online: Ugh

Sunday, March 18th, 2007

I’m preparing to sell my house. Everyone knows that the Interweb is playing a big role in that process these days.
But if you look closely, realty companies are clearly using the Web for brand presence, rather than search presence (save for PPC).
I did some SEO/SEM for a Major Real Estate Company(tm) about, eh, 2-3 [...]