26 December 2008
Open letter to GOOGLE
Chairman and CEO: Eric E. Schmidt
Co-Founder and President, Products: Larry Page
President, Technology and Director: Sergey Brin
SVP Product Management: Jonathan Rosenberg
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Gentlemen:
I find myself posing questions about Google PageRank to various web experts and link brokers and decided it was only fair to ask you directly about it here. After all, Google PageRank does kind of cut to the heart of everything we’re doing, or trying to do, on places like SEO Shootout–a site which, btw, my Google toolbars in both Firefox and IE currently indicate as having a PageRank of 3.
I myself labor…
JEFF COTRUPE
I just launched a new site for my business. Same domain, http://marketpowerLLC.com, but anyone who saw the old site may not even recognize us as the same company today. In planning the launch I realized one of the first things I look for as a site visitor is a search capability. Not of the whole web; I can get to Google or Yahoo! via my own bookmarks, thank you, and I never understand companies who provide web search but no search of their own site. Or, as is still the case at a surprising number of sites: No search at all.…
Naming a website is an exercise in branding. I used to think you wanted to go with a contraction of your organization’s name to make typing a URL quicker for visitors. But I was mistaken. Branding – using your activity’s full name (unless it’s too long) in the URL (a la CaribouCoffee.com) - is what it’s about. I’m convinced of that after reading Dante Monteverde’s “F.R.E.S.H. Perspectives on SEO” in the November Website magazine. The article needs to be read a couple of times – even though a bit clumsily written, it’s a highly informative, at times inspiring, review of SEO and…
We’ve been talking about why it’s important to think of search engine optimization /search engine marketing (SEO/M) and Web 2.0 not as the be-all and end-all of your communications universe but as key ingredients in a complete, balanced diet. Of course what we mean when we say “Web 2.0″ breaks out into three areas:
- Rich Internet applications (RIA) including AJAX and Flash
- Broadcast media such as streaming, RSS and mobile SMS
- Consumer-generated media (CGM) like consumer reviews, wiikis, blogs and participation in forums
All of us who post here on SEO Shootout want to talk about best practices, but today is show-and-tell: I’m going to show…
See? I got your attention with some words which a search engine wouldn’t know where to start with. Whether it’s on the light side (i.e., digestible by non-professional marketers/SEOs) at How Design, or more intense at Sphinn, I’m seeing a lot of good discussion out there about the importance of writing for people rather than [just] search engines. There are a million angles on why/how/when/where to make your writing work best, but the underlying point is tremendously important: people need to read — and be moved by — what you write for it to matter at all. So, brief and compelling.
- -…
It’s pretty sad watching SEOs battle the pros (Search Engine Journal) and cons (Learning SEO Basics) of using SEO to combat complaint sites that can rank highly and spread negative information/experiences about a product, company, or brand.
Why is it sad? Because it’s so much more effective to add well written, well-thought out responses to complaints and offer solutions and follow up THAT YOU ACTUALLY DO PERFORM AND DOCUMENT.
Dell had that nightmare trying to bully people into removing pictures of flaming laptops…other companies’ fun and contrite response letters have gone viral and done wonders to repair damage to the brand. Your choice in 2008?…
A lot of human energy is spent trying to figure out what Google is doing at any given time, so as to be in synch with SEO efforts. I don’t think you’ll ever be able to achieve true insight into the operations over there until you acquaint yourself with the cuisine. Sure, the most recent photo is from June 2007, but this year-and-a-half’s record of Google cafe dishes (free to employees) gets you on the vibe.
The blog attracted 339,806 views, and many comments including a few from some very wet blankets:
All I can think is that, with the time associated…
The other day a friend who works for Google in Internationalization was in town, and because her schedule was full of meetings we ended up having lunch at the cafeteria in the Google Engineering building in Seattle’s Fremont district. I missed the opportunity to snap a few photos, which is a shame. The salt and pepper grinders on the tables were colorful lucite in Google colors, and the chairs were colored plastic, too. I loved that the decor made you feel like you were on a Google Web page.
I learned a little about what she’s doing, which was interesting, too:…
There’s a new form of marketing in town, and if you’re prepared to do some work, a lot of doors will open for you.
[enter social media marketing stage left]
Wikipedia defines social media in its broadest form as “an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.” In essence, social media - or ‘new media,’ as it is often called - encompasses various methods of communication that go beyond the age-old standard of a marketing team talking to potential customers by adding conversation, fluidity, and collaboration into the equation.
Social media…
FordVehicles.com
Much like a Michael Bay film, FordVehicles.com is all flash and zero substance. An encyclopedia of information on each car, truck and SUV is easily accessible and superbly organized. The vehicle pages offer a 360 degree view of each product inside and out as well as detailed information on technology, design specs, safety features and environmental benefits. However, wading through this information is about as much fun as reading a stock prospectus under a magnifying glass. It’s almost as if each piece of information was designated a binary value of positive or negative - and any real world interaction between…
