(photo by miss604)

Many people have asked me for help getting better search engine rankings. While I love to help, most have spent too much time researching SEO online and want me to help them change “meta tags” and “anchor text.”

You shouldn’t build your site for search engines; you should build it for users. Filling your site with keywords and obsessing over how many backlinks you have is NOT the way to a good search engine ranking. If you have a compelling site with relevant and updated content that users want, Google will rank you well over time. You need to align your goals with Google’s – providing the content that user’s are looking for.

I call it the 80/20 rule of SEO: 80% of Search Engine Optimization is writing compelling content for your readers. The other 20% is optimizing that content.

SEO is really simple. You follow a few basic SEO tips (have readable permalinks, descriptive titles) and then write original content that people will want to read. If you use Wordpress, most of the SEO tips are already in place, so you just have to focus on writing good content.

Some people might not believe this, and think it’s too simplistic. The rest of this post will be notes from a WordCamp 2009 presentation by Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Web Spam group. I had hoped the video of the talk would be posted (which is why I haven’t posted this sooner), but I don’t want to wait any longer. You can view the slides here: “Straight from Google: What You Need To Know.”

• WordPress already takes care of 80-90% of Search Engine Optimization.
• Don’t obsess about backlinks. Focus on being relevant and reputable.
• Use analytics tools to see what people are searching for on your site (internal) and to get to your site (external). Make this information easy to access ( “Common Questions” on the homepage)
• Some great tools: Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Keyword Tool
• Make sure your URL’s are friendly: http://www.billerickson.net/index.php/wordpress-consulting instead of http://www.billerickson.net/?p=83 . In Wordpress, go to Settings > Permalinks, select custom, and use either /%category%/%postname%/ (what I use) or /%postname%/ (what Matt uses). Use the first option if you’re using multiple post categories. (My original blog had multiple categories, and I’ve left the URL structure this way so the old links don’t change).
• Make your post categories descriptive and good keywords: “apple” instead of “cool-stuff”
• Modify your post’s permalink to remove unnecessary words and reflect alternate keywords for your post. Example: this post is titled “Search Engine Optimization for Wordpress,” and the permalink is “/wordpress-seo/” . When writing the post, directly below the Title box it shows your permalink with an “Edit” button.
• Keep WordPress updated! Many WordPress updates are security updates, which means they fix a hole that makes your site vulnerable to hackers.
• Don’t overuse keywords in the post. Write the post for users.

The overarching SEO tip is “write compelling content for your readers.” All these other tips are secondary.

When I come across an interesting book review or recommendation from a friend, I go straight to Amazon, read a little about it, and if I’m still interested I add it to my wish list. Then when I need some books to read, I go through and see if any on my list are already at the local library. About every three months I buy 5-10 of the one’s that aren’t at the library.

I was looking for an easier way to do my library lookup today. On Twitter, milsyobtaf suggested a Firefox bookmarklet, and after playing around with it I decided to just write a quick script for Ubiquity to do the lookup (Ubiquity is a very cool text-based add-on to firefox).  In case anyone else is interested, here’s how you do it:

1. Install Ubiquity if you don’t already have it.
2. Open Ubiquity (not sure what the default command is, I have mine set to Alt + Space) and type help.
3. Click “Your Commands” at the top
4. Copy/paste this code in there:
   CmdUtils.CreateCommand({
name: "library search",
takes: {"query": noun_arb_text},
execute: function(directObject) {
var url = "https://libcat.tamu.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?&HIST=1&DB=local&SL=none&Search_Arg={QUERY}&Search_Code=GKEY^*&CNT=50"
var query = directObject.text;
var urlString = url.replace("{QUERY}", query);
Utils.openUrlInBrowser(urlString);
}
})
5. Go to your local library’s website, find the catalog search, do a search for something, and then copy the url of the results page. Paste the url above where it says var url = " ... "
6. In the url, change whatever you searched for to {QUERY}. For example, if I searched for Vonnegut, the above url would have in it ...Search_Arg=Vonnegut&... . This is the part that will get replaced when you do a search.

That’s it! Now open Ubiquity (Alt + Space on my computer), start typing “library”, once you see your library search option press space then type your search, hit Enter and it should do a library search for you.

Another way to search Ubiquity is to select text, then open ubiquity and start typing “library.” It will use your selected text as the search query. So, on this page highlight Kurt Vonnegut, then open Ubiquity, type library, and press Enter.

—

If you have a book recommendation, please leave them as a comment or email me.

The one feature that Wordpress doesn’t provide that many businesses request is a contact form. There’s many plugins out there (I used to use cforms2), but for something as simple as this you don’t need to use a plugin.

1. Open up Google Docs and click New > Form.
2. Fill out all the questions you want. A typical contact form might just include Name, Email, Message.
3. Go back to the spreadsheet and click Share > Set Notification Rules. Check “email me when someone submits a form” and “email me right away”
4. (Option 1) If you like Google’s default form design, click “Embed” and copy the code it provides (an iframe).
5. (Option 2) If you would like to customize the design of the form, go to the spreadsheet and click  Form > View Live Form. Right click on the page, press “View Source,” and copy the code: <form> … </form>.
6. (Simple option). Go to Wordpress, edit your Contact Page, switch to HTML view and paste the code. This will add the form to your page.
7. (More difficult option) If you’re a developer and don’t want clients messing with the form’s code, create a page template, include the code in there, and then set the contact page to that page template.
8. If you chose Option 2 above, you can now use CSS to style the form to match your site.

Here’s an example of the form in action: http://2010.bilconference.com I just used the iframe because I didn’t need to change the look of the form.

Additional feature – If you’d like to share the responses on your site (like the BIL Attendees page), just:

1. Create a new sheet on the spreadsheet (at the bottom, “Add Sheet”).
2. Label the columns you’d like to include at the top.
3. Under the first column, type “=” then switch to the previous sheet and select the first column’s contents. Press Enter. This should give you a formula the duplicates the content (something like =Sheet1!A2). Repeat for each column you’d like to share.
4. Select all the cells of the first row of data, hover over the bottom right corner, click the square and drag down. This will repeat the formula across the lower cells.
5. Click “Share > Publish as a Web Page.” Under Sheets to Publish select “Sheet 2″, and click “Start Publishing”.
6. Under Get a link to the published data, select “HTML to embed in a page” and copy the code.
7. Open Wordpress and paste the code in the page you’d like to share it on.

I just finished reading Effectuation by Saras Sarasvathy. It’s a great look at the non-causal (therefore “effectual”) logic used by entrepreneurs (and everyone else) in the face of an unpredictable future.

Here’s some excerpts and thoughts:

Causation v. Effectuation

• Causal logic is based on the premise: “To the extent we can predict the future, we can control it.”
• Effectual logic is based on the premise: “To the extent we can control the future, we do not need to predict it.”
• Causal problems are problems of decision; effectual problems are problems of design. Causal logic helps us choose; effectual logic helps us construct. Causal strategies are useful when the future is predictable, goals are clear, and the environment is independent of our actions; effectual strategies are useful when the future is unpredictable, goals are unclear, and the environment is driven by human action.
• Causal question: What should I do to achieve this effect?
• Effectual question: What can I do with these means?
• Surprises are usually relegated to error terms in formal models. Effectual logic sees them as source of opportunities for value creation.
• Contractual claims are causal claims on the predictable future; equity provides effectual claims on the unpredictable future.
• The paths to entrepreneurial success expand in the future rather than converge (one-to-many, in contrast to causation’s many-to-one approach towards ‘the goal’)

On the Entrepreneur

• Expert entrepreneurs distrust market research; distrust attempt at predicting the future
• “In commercializing new technologies, entrepreneurs often find that formal market research and expert forecasts, however sophisticated in methods and impeccable in their analyses, fail to predict where the markets will turn out to be or what new markets will come into existence.” Christensen (1997) and Mintzberg (1994)
• Expert entrepreneurs start with three categories of means: their identity, their knowledge base, and their social network.
• Theme of converting initial customers to partners
• Entrepreneurs perceive the world around them as human-made
• “Serial entrepreneurship is a temporal portfolio” – diversified over time rather than concurrently like a traditional investment portfolio

Decision Making

• Pragmatism does not assert a singular truth and declare all else false; rather, it compares truths and tests for differences. If no difference in the consequences of the two truths, they are the same pragmatically.
• What does this truth tell us that we don’t already know?
• Risk involves known distribution of options (1 in 5 chance of winning). Uncertainty involves unknown distribution of options
• “Rational choice involves two guesses, a guess about uncertain future consequences, and a guess about uncertain future preferences.” March (1978) in RAND Journal of Economics
• Human rationality is bounded by cognitive limitations such as physiological constraints on computational capacity, and psychological limitations like biases & fallacies

Principles of Entrepreneurial Expertise:

• Bird-in-hand principle: create something with existing means rather than discovering new ways to achieve goals (”What do I have?” vs “What do I need?”)
• Affordable loss principle: Committing what you’re willing to lose rather than investing based on expected returns
• Crazy quilt principle: Negotiate with all stakeholders willing to commit to a project without worrying about the opportunity costs. The venture (or “quilt”) evolves over time based on interactions of all stakeholders (investors, customers, employees, suppliers…).
• Lemonade principle: Leverage surprises rather than avoiding them
• Pilot in the plane principle: Rely on human agency as prime driver of opportunity rather than technical/economic trends. (Comes from SpaceShipOne putting a pilot in charge of the spaceship instead of a computer. The pilot can think on his feet, while a computer would need every possible contingency pre-programmed.)

I’m not sure where I found this book, but it was most likely a blog post or tweet by Ben Casnocha or Paul Kedrosky. Whoever suggested it, thanks.

How Breakthroughs Happen was by far one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It discusses the process of innovation and how to construct an environment that encourages it. I recommend everyone read this, especially if you’re a business owner or a creative. Random bits of knowledge:

• When we think of the great innovations, our minds typically jump to the inventor hero who redefined or created new industries with his revolutionary idea. However, history shows that most of these were the result of combining existing inventions and ideas in interesting ways, with many people involved in the process.
• Innovation is the result of synthesizing, or bridging, ideas from different domains. E.g., Henry Ford created the assembly line after observing sewing machines, meatpacking, and Campbell soup factories.
• Increase the potential for innovation by expanding the network that links people, ideas, and objects in ways that form effective and lasting communities and technologies.
• “Discovery is seeing what everyone else has seen but thinking what nobody else has thought” – Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who discovered Vitamin C
• Valuable and novel information comes from weak ties; strong ties pass information quickly but it’s usually low value because the constant interactions lead to the same knowledge base (get out of the echo chamber).
• “A researcher builds the future 10 years from now; a technology broker [ or innovator] redistributes the future that is already here.”
• On collective effort: “Nobody is really sure who is the inventor because the inventions emerge in the interactions of the group.”

While reading the book, I saw many of these ideas reflected in coworking spaces like The Creative Space, and events like BIL. We need to ensure these spaces we are constructing connect new people working on different problems in different industries to keep ideas flowing between networks. Cody and I have become more involved in the Bio/Life Sciences arena recently, and have found ways to apply our existing knowledge in new and interesting ways.

Some other great books I’ve read recently:

• Enough – This book can best be summed up by the anecdote from whence it gets its title: “At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, ‘Yes, but I have something he will never have… enough.’ ” It talks about how businesses need to refocus to serve customers, create value and focus on the long term, not short-term speculation. It’s directed towards the finance industry (which needs the most refocusing), but the novel is applicable to all businesses. (This was also the first book I read on my iPhone with the Kindle application. Worked great!)
• Scratch Beginnings – A real-life story of the American Dream. The author shows up to a town with $25, finds the local homeless shelter, and works his way up to a furnished apartment. Beyond the motivational story, it’s a great example of how your attitude and work ethic do more to shape your future than what you start with.
• Clueless in Academe – Describes how our current educational system makes the scholarly, learned life seem more unreachable by adding unnecessary barriers of language and structure. We leave it up to the students to ‘crack the code’ in higher education, and only a few do (hint: it’s all based on arguments; understanding how to properly take apart an assertion and create an argument will help you excel in any graduate or PhD program).
• Still Life with Woodpecker – Beautiful mental floss. Tom Robbins’ creative use of the English language will entertain you almost as much as the story itself.
• The Reasons I Won’t Be Coming – I haven’t finished this yet, but the short stories I have read have been great. The character development and internal dialogue remind me a bit of David Foster Wallace, without his length and ridiculously detailed tangents (see Growing Sentences with David Foster Wallace if you haven’t read any of his novels).

What’s up next in my reading list? My current “to-read” pile includes a bunch of old Vonnegut’s (Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons, Bagombo Snuff Box, and more (I’m trying to read all of his works)), some business books (Animal Spirits, The Age of Unreason…), and some fun ones (The Ethical Slut and Emergence: Contemporary Readings in Philosophy and Science).

(Posted as comment here)

There’s two problems with facebook copying twitter’s design:
1. (what I call the) Mental bandwidth of facebook users; and
2. different content types

Twitter users are used to a stream of data, not trying to see everything but seeing what’s happening in real time. Facebook users don’t want to see everything their friends are doing, just the important things. This is the whole “signal vs noise” problem.

Facebook had been doing a great job of sharing with me what I might think is relevant, but now they’ve dropped relevance for strictly most recent.

Also, twitter has one data type: status messages. Facebook has statuses, photos, videos, links, events… each type is different in importance and how often they are created.

I’m more interested in photos than status updates because photos aren’t put up as often. I’m more interested in an event 5 of my friends are going to in a few days rather than an event someone created today that’s happening two weeks from now.

You’re right, we only need one twitter.

[This was originally a comment on Riding on the Wire. I expanded on it a bit more here]

I read a great post about how in this economy, we’re all entrepreneurs. Our educational system is built to print out mass quantities of specific “student templates,” like Accounting major, Finance major… and restock the large institutions.  While this works in a growing economy, when the Big 4 just hire all the Accounting majors, it doesn’t prepare them for a competitive job market. For the most part, graduating students have been commoditized. How do they compete with all the other Accounting majors when they are exactly the same in all relevant respects?

What our educational process needs is a dose of entrepreneurship. It needs to teach students to sell themselves, find a unique niche in the organization to serve (NOT a mass-produced, interchangeable cog), and establish a personal brand (or unique identity if you think the phrase “personal brand” belongs to those with scents). But most of all, students need to pursue something in which they’re interested. Too many have gone the Accounting/Finance track because it’s well defined  and makes good money (see Brittany’s post).

Those who followed the easy path straight into a career they didn’t really enjoy will most likely be the first to get cut. They aren’t passionate about their work, and don’t provide more value than they cost to the firm in the downturn.

Those who follow what they love make a job for themselves, either by working for themselves (startup, freelancing or consulting) or by convincing others to create a job at a company for them. When a company creates a job for you, you get to do exactly what you’re passionate about (by design), and there’s no competition for that position – who is more qualified at being you than you?

While the financial organizations might be “too big to fail,” the individuals at those organizations aren’t. When you work for someone else, there’s not much you can do to prevent yourself from getting fired – it’s mostly out of your hands.

Howard Lindzon came up with the term “too small to fail.” When you’re self-employed, you can’t fire yourself. If you need more money, you work harder or find different things to work on.

This is the entrepreneurial spirit, and a lot more people are going to need to find it if they want to succeed in this environment.

(Posted as a comment here.)

The corollary to “surround yourself with those that are better than you” is “if you’re the best at what you do in your circle, expand your circle.”

When you’re the best, you stop improving. I found this back when I did web/print design. 6 or so years ago I worked at a print firm and I was the best at web design (because no one else did it). What I produced was simply accepted at face value, and I was never really pushed to get better. But when I began connecting with others online who were in the web design field and who were orders of magnitude greater than me, I started getting better.

It’s along the same lines as that saying “the more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know.”

Whenever I start to think I’m good at something, I reach a plateau. It’s then time to expand my circle – which could mean finding more people in a field, or expanding to a different field – and start sucking again.

The Boston Globe recently published an article, How the City Hurts Your Brain… and what you can do about it, which describes the depleting effect a city has on your brain.

While people have searched high and low for ways to improve cognitive performance, from doping themselves with Red Bull to redesigning the layout of offices, it appears that few of these treatments are as effective as simply taking a walk in a natural place.

This definitely rings true to me. My personal escape is gardening and cooking. There’s something about interacting with nature, watching your fruits and vegetables grow and then eating them, that just excites me.

My garden isn’t too big, but it does take up over half of my (very) small backyard. It’s small enough to enjoy but not worry about. I’ll probably have to start over when I get back from London next week – snow, cold weather, and no one watching it for a month will have hurt most of the garden. But now I’ll have something to work on for my last semester of college.

How do you relax and recharge?

(found article via Ben Casnocha)

I just finished reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Timequake. It was mostly biographical and a summary of his past work, so I would only recommend it to those who have read a lot of his past novels (new readers should start with Slaughterhouse-Five or Welcome to the Monkey House).

It had a great premise: there was a “timequake” and we had to relive the past 10 years. Everything you did last time, you had to do this time (no free will). You know exactly what’s going to happen but have to say and do it all over.

People got used to being on autopilot, and disaster struck when the timequake ended and free will returned. People just sat in their cars as they crashed into walls, not knowing they were in control. Everyone had to be “woken up” from their daze and start living.

I’m always amazed at how many people are living their lives as a timequake. They have the exact same weekly schedule, never seeking randomness or new experiences. If a timequake hit, they wouldn’t know because they are already on autopilot.

2008 was a great year for me because of randomness. My friend Todd Huffman inspired me to be more open to randomness, and so much good has come from it. When I’m traveling, I post to twitter “I’m in [some city], anyone want to meet up?” – and I’ve met so many interesting people this way. I’ve also increased my traveling; any time I’m not in school (and sometimes when I should be) I’m usually flying or driving somewhere.

I encourage everyone to give randomness a try. If you’re invited to some event or gathering, don’t find a reason not to go; find a way to fit it in your schedule. You never know what great things will happen.

(By the way, the above photo was from a Robot fight put on by Cody Marx Bailey to launch Youth Inspired Robots. These are the kind of random events I’m always looking for.)