Google claims that the sites you visit via their search results most will show up higher up in search results the next time.

It doesn’t work though.

Default personalized search is a myth.

That’s the more than surprising result of my empirical test.

To find out about personalized search or personal search as I prefer to call it for the sake of simplicity I took the searcher’s perspective. I did not yet want to test the SEO consequences of personalized search.

I just wanted to see how much and how quick the results get personalized and whether the actions I’d perform would lead to the personalization I’d expect.

My assumptions where threefold:

1. Clicking a website’s search results repeatedly in a matter of days or weeks will make it climb in my personal Google results.
2. Searching for a particular keyphrase will push the matching result of the site I click significantly upwards.
3. Once the results get personalized in favor of the site I use to click they will stay the way and the results won’t drop significantly.

All three assumptions have been proven wrong by my test. Personalized search used in the way described above is useless and offers no additional value for the searcher.

How did I test?

• I chose one keyphrase, “seo news” (without quotes) and one site to click the search result of, Search Engine Land.
• I chose SEL for several reasons. This is a highly reputable authority site with stable rankings. This way I wanted to ensure that random movements don’t spoil the results of my test. Also Search Engine Land offers SEO news without really ranking for the term correctly. You’d expect SEL to be at least in the Top 10 in Google.com for seo news but it ranked at #15 on the first day of my test.
• To make sure I took I tested with a browser I don’t use normally. A browser that I use only for web development to cross check or some private web browsing. This way I wanted to ensure that the sites I click on in search results usually don’t spoil the results.
• To be certain that Google counts the clicks I did not bounce but stayed on SEL for a while and often read some articles clicking on the respective pages.
• The test took approx. 3 weeks and I took 10 screen shots to document it. I made a mistake once taking a screen shot of the wrong set of results, page one, where the Search Engine Land results can’t be seen.
• I clicked only the SEL result each time. On the first day I mistakenly clicked Search Engine Watch as well but that didn’t happen anymore. I wanted the test to stay as simple as possible. thus I ignored all the results.
• Cookies were enabled with no exception.
• I didn’t log in to Google once during the testing time period.
• I added a date to the file name of the screen shots: It started 20100116 (January 16th, 2010).

On the screen shots I can see how Google highlights different portions of text. On some days articles including the term SEO or news get highlighted while on other not or different ones. My impression is that the on page factors (mentions of the keywords) had a much higher impact on the results than personalization if there was any at all.

The actual results of the personalized Google search of “seo news” (without quotes) and Search Engine Land:

While on the other hand you see any upwards movement of plus 4 in three weeks there was a seemingly complete random drop of minus 20 in the middle of the test. So the rankings were quite unstable for no apparent reason other than maybe the keyword density on the front page.

You could argue now hat the personalization works to some extent as the result I’ve clicked ten times moved upwards albeit slowly.

Imagine the average searcher: Does this kind of personalization really help? Do you have to click more than 10 times in three weeks or over a longer period of tie to see any significant personalization?

My goal was to see Search Engine Land in the top 10. This takes one click in Google SearchWiki.

Does it make sense to take more than clicks in default personalized search to personalize them a bit? No, it simply doesn’t work.

I would be maybe more positive about the results but the huge drop of minus 20 positions rendered all the previous personalization useless if there ever was one.

On that day I really had to check the Google cookies: They were still there and the date of last visited was correct. So they got found and updated. There is no doubt about that.

I’ve proven other Google statements wrong. They’ve indexed “nofollow” links from Twitter for instance before they officially bought the data from Twitter. Also they claim to filter #hashtag spam in Google real time results but I as able to place spammy three hashtags in a row for “hot searches”.

Also remember that Google will discontinue some search features without telling you or only telling you afterwards, like they did with PageRank sculpting support. They have announced it month afterwards they had discontinued it.

Related posts:

1. Yahoo Search Results Total Crap Now
2. Search: 8 Reasons Why Wolfram Alpha is a Waste of Time and no Threat to Google
3. SEO Company, SEO and Search Engine Optimization Google Results Are a Disgrace

Dad and Baby by PedroCancion

Last time I wrote about SEO and parenting I stressed that you need to be proud of what you do to be able to talk with your kids about it. That’s not just about SEO.

You need to have real reasons to work beyond and a work ethos beyond just “working hard”.

It’s what you do and how you do it. Even if you are proud and you know how you do it most people, even other grown ups don’t. A few years ago people would ask whether you work for Google when you said search engine optimization. These days many will rather assume you are one of the dark alley magicians who “manipulate Google search results”.

Working at the computer all day, especially at home is both tough on kids and yourself. You’re there but you can’t play with them. You work but it appears as if you are just sitting around all day.

While SEO is difficult to explain to grown ups, it’s even more difficult to grasp for your children.

I’ve found last time the seemingly perfect solution: I help people to find things on the Internet. Also I help other people to get found there.

Nonetheless yesterday my daughter came up to me and said: I know what you do! You help people find search engines! Probably because I just helped her to use Google. I told her it was somewhat the other way around, more the likes of “I help people using search engines to find websites”. You get the point: It’s still too abstract.

All Done by jayceh

I doubt that kids can even distinguish between search engines and other websites. After all they are even right, almost every site has an internal search engine as well.

1. So how do parents explain SEO to kids?
2. What does daddy do all day?
3. Is he he a crook like the bullies in school say?

In brackets I inserted the translation into SEO terms for grown ups)

Let me give you a few examples you can tell your kids what you do:

• I help parents to find the cheapest toys around so that they can buy more of them. (shopping search, ecommerce)
• I help people to find places to go on vacation so that they can play around on the beach. (travel SEO)
• I help parents to find stuff faster so that they have more time to play with their kids. (SEO, website speed, usability)
• I help people who sell ice to find the kids who want to have some. (local SEO)
• I help people who want to save the trees to tell more people that we have to save the trees. (non profit SEO)

Father & Daughter by albany_tim

You might also want to explain how you do it. These are examples you can use:

• I set up small signs everywhere that say go this way to find the cheapest toys. (link building)
• I write about the most beautiful beaches and show hoy you get there. (content creation)
• I show the toy stores and beaches on images and on maps so you get there faster. (image optimization and universal search)
• I tell the people who sell ice which type of ice cream the kids like best. (market and keyword research)
• I ask the people to help save trees with some money. I try to find th best words for that. (conversion rate optimization).

So you see you can even explain to your kids what you do. there is nothing shady or inexplicable about SEO. It’s just a matter of the words and examples you choose. Parents shouldn’t hide what they do. Even in some difficult to explain trades like ours.

Related posts:

1. 10 Christmas No-Nos for SEO Specialists to Avoid at all Costs
2. Are You Proud of What You Do? I Am. You Should Too.
3. 7 Rules of Ethical SEO You Ignore Probably as a White Hat

Border Collie puppy Tess by hoyasmeg.

As noted before, in 2009 I didn’t spend as much time with my business of blogging as usually because I had to take care of a puppy.

The funny thing is in German (remember, I live in Germany) you say “small business” for pee and “big business” for poo.

So the puppy reminded me of business matters and I actually used the term business much more often than usual. Actually the puppy business needed some attention every hour at the beginning. I was astounded by the similarities between it and the actual business matters. So I collected them.

Here are the 7 business & blogging clues a puppy can teach you

You got the get up early or even stay up at night when the business is young
In fact our puppy was so small, scared and sick when we got her that she was like a human baby, demanding constant attention. When you start a blog or another business it needs constant attention too. When I became self-employed years ago I underestimated that. I did again with the puppy. I got it right with my SEO 2.0 blog back in 2007 though.

Everybody loves a cute young business when it’s actually a young and cute one
Remember when Google was this cute little garage company run by two students? Didn’t we love it back then? Now this probably most powerful transnational corporation as of now is so scary we’re afraid of it. Hopefully it doesn’t bite.

When fed correctly a business grows incredibly fast
Starting a business blog? Consider blogging daily. I did the first 3 months. It grows like a puppy, incredibly fast. A business may double in size every few weeks.

When a business grows older, people get used to it and stop noticing it
When this blog was young everybody seemed to love it for no apparent reason, now it’s far more difficult to get attention. An established business is expected to innovate and become better than previously to get noticed. So I have to come up with something truly remarkable to get people to link to me or vote on social media. They notice a new post but they won’t support it automatically. Likewise a bigger dog will get noticed from afar but unless s/he does something unusual nobody will care.

The questions clients ask are in 99% of cases the same
In the early days everybody kept on asking the same questions: What dog race is it? How old is s/he? Do you sell it? It’s the sme with business: Clients ask the same questions over and over: How much? How long does it take? Do you do PPC and SEO? So you better come up with answers you can reuse. Also an FAQ is a must have in many cases. This way you are prepared and you don’t waste time formulating answers each time from scratch.

When a client contacts you and you do not attend you lose him or her
My puppy didn’t wait for me. Either I listened to her when she was ready for business or she did the business without me. That’s exactly how most potential clients act. Either you are quick to serve them or they move. Also business ideas can’t wait. You have a great idea for a blog? Set it up as quick as you can. Or else someone else will. Also soon enough the topic might not be of interest anymore. Do you think I could succeed with SEO 2.0 now the way I did in 2007? The “2.0″ hype is over. People would yawn these days.

Even when everybody does it wrong in your business line you can do right
Many people in the SEO industry don’t care for ethics or clean best practices. The “what works is fine” kind of ethics often prevails. Sometimes I hate myself for being too righteous. Why the hell can’t I cheat like others do?
Sometimes these people even outrank me. It’s the same with dogs in Berlin. People let their dogs shit all over the place so if you walk a lot and don’t look where you’re stepping you will certainly step in such a “land mine” as we call it here. Rarely do people pick their dog dirt up. It’s even not easy to get dog dirt bags. Also they are quite expensive due to the low demand. I think we pay something like 50 Euros a month just for the bags. I don’t care though. I use them. Even if I am the only one to do so. It makes me feel superior. My success proves me right. By now I’m of the “100 most influential online marketers world wide”! I don’t even work for Google or something. I’m just a regular guy with a blog.

So you see a dog can teach you a lot about business, blogging, business blogging or life at large.

I don’t want to live without a dog anymore. Life offers lessons everywhere on your path. You just have to notice them. Did you learn something about business from your daily life adventures? Tell me about it!

Related posts:

1. What Easter Can Teach Us About Web 2.0, Social Media and Blogging
2. 10 Commandments of Business Blogging
3. Blog vs Dog 0:1

My dog by armaggesin.

You might have wondered why SEO 2.0 has been so silent over 2009. I’ve promised much but couldn’t make it all happen. That’s life.

I got a puppy in early 2009 and that has changed my life.

During the first two months I had to go on a walk each hour and still the dog’s pee or poo ended up on the floor, in many cases stinking in my room for a while before I discovered it entering the room.

On the other hand a dog makes you move.

The stationary lifestyle of a geeky SEO blogger doesn’t make much sense for your body.

A dog is the healthiest choice you can make.

My dog is now one year old and instead of having to go for a walk every hour, every two or three hours I only have to go out 3 times a day, only once during business hours. So, as you can imagine, I have more time to blog again. The blog vs dog game starts anew. In 2010 the blog will probably win.

My mind hasn’t been completely off business blogging. In September I’ve almost managed to get a full fledged sponsor for the blog. I wanted to make it more popular again before I make my final offer but failed to spare enough time to do so. Two well known SEO companies were willing to sponsor me though. Maybe I manage this year.

I’ve considered 3 other ways to finance this blog so that I can keep blogging here without having to work more for money on other projects.

1. crowdfunding/microfinance
2. additional services
3. paid content/premium features

As you might know I blog at 3 other business blogs for clients, two German ones not related to SEO (one about gadgets, one about cycling) and of course the fabulous Oxford SEO company SEOptimise. So I’m still learning more and more on how to blog for money and so that money gets earned, both for me and the clients. It works quite well for all 3 of them.

I’d like to share more insights on how profitable business blogging works in future. I know I have promised it last year already but then I still did not know yet that I would become a dog owner. In fact I had been wary of dogs for years during my youth and

at 20 I have even been bitten by a small black dog.

I didn’t get hurt but this in a way confirmed my aversion to dogs. Now guess what color and size my dog is?

A few months ago I have even started to write a post called “7 Business of Blogging Clues a Puppy Can Teach You” but never finished it due to my manifold obligations. I guess I will finish it now.

In case you ask yourself whether I will introduce one of my three blog financing models I favor #1 and #2. I won’t make you pay for straight blog content. I might find a way to offer you something you might want o pay for though. I might start by crowdfunding an ebook.

What do you think: Would you pay a few dollars for an upcoming SEO 2.0 ebook? I’d prefer to keep free or rather donation based instead of selling it afterwards for a fixed amount of money.

I can’t follow in the footsteps of SEOMoz or SEO Book though. I won’t offer tools or forums. I have to come up with my own model that will fit me personally best.

Related posts:

1. The Right Blog at the Right Time – 1 Year SEO 2.0
2. In 2009 SEO 3.0 Arrives!
3. 7 Business & Blogging Clues a Puppy Can Teach You

Update December, 15th 2009: Try it with http://l.gog.is/hkcMjRm.

Moreover Google has launched it’s own official Google URL shortener yesterday: goo.gl
Thanks Brandon Diaz for the heads up in the comments.

Sadly goo.gl is only available to Google Toolbar and Feedburner users as of now. I don’t recommend the Google Toolbar for its spyware issues. I use Feedburner on this blog though.

Also many thanks to the man behind gog.is who introduced the “I’m feeling lucky” search results forwarding. This works like the “I’m feeling lucky” button on the actual Google search page. It redirects you to the first search result. This is still the best way to optimize for personal search. See below. Example: http://l.gog.is/seo+2.0

Post as originally published on December 9, 2009:

My first idea to deal with the new personal/ized Google search was: You have to make people click your search results, that is those you appear on in Google. We must do that in order to make Google save your URL as one that has been clicked by the user and thus will be found better next time.

Then there is the issue with unreliability of common URL shorteners. Just think of:

• tinyurl.com – often down for undisclosed reasons
• bit.ly – .ly stands for Libya, remember Lockerbie?
• tr.im – almost closed down, now often down for server issues
• poprl.com – disappeared altogether
• zi.ma – owner got imprisoned, hoster took it down for a while

Also I asked myself  “why does Google not offer an URL shortener?” It could easily. So I came up with the idea of feeding two birds with one crumb (I don’t kill birds with stones!) and to make Google work as an URL shortener.

How is that possible? Just think what the URL shorteners do. They create a random combination of letters like hkcMjRm add it as a new URL to their own domain and then redirect the traffic.

Thinks of what Google does. In case you’re too lazy to type in all that http-www stuff you just type in your keyword or website name and get redirected to the first result. We’ll do the same thing. [ Edit: After a few minutes this doesn't seem to work yet. You still have to click the search result manually.]

1. We create a random combination of letters, 7 of them, here it’s hkcMjRm. We can use a pasword creator for that task. I did that in Keepass but  you can do that online as well using a password generator like this.
2. Then we check Google results whether hkcMjRm already exists in search index. In case it doesn’t we can use it. Most 7 letters combinations don’t exist yet. I tried a few. 6 letters combinations often have one or a few results already.
3. Now we copy and paste hkcMjRm into the URL bar and voila: We get redirected to the right destination but Google remembers that we used search for it. Or test it yourself just searching for it: hkcMjRm

There are of course downsides to this: For instance people may outrank you for your id URL using the same one but it will take a while. There is also another pro to this approach: You quickly see who uses your content or where it appears.

To make sure it works I used the hkcMjRm id both in the headline as well as inside the text but I guess a line like “Google short URL: hkcMjRm.” will be enough for it to work long enough for people via Twitter using it.

Of course you don’t even have to use cryptic random letters. You can just take the headline or parts of it like I did yesterday with google.com? I got outranked by tweetmeme already a day later.

This is quick and dirty but I’m sure some people can make it work for them. I guess Google will sooner or later present their own URL shortening service anyways. Until then you might want to try this. At least this way it works for better ranking personal search until of course many people abuse this technique and Google stops it.

Related posts:

1. 12 Effects Google Personal Search Will Have on SEO, Blogging, Social Media and the Web as Whole
2. SEO Company, SEO and Search Engine Optimization Google Results Are a Disgrace
3. Top 7 Google Suggest Effects on SEO, Search Usage and Business Predictions

Image: Trust by notsogoodphotography

The new by default personalized search by Google is a big paradigm shift in SEO. Yesterday I wrote about the changes personal search will bring for blogging, social media, SEO etc. I prefer to call it personal search as “personalized” is such a cumbersome word.

Of course personal search is nothing new. It has been added step by step over the years. David Harry has made an excellent overview of these types of personalization. So often we don’t have to change everything but just to focus on things we’ve already done in the past. These blogging, social media and SEO tactics must become standard for everybody dealing with the new challenge of personal search SEO.

So most of the tactics listed below aren’t revolutionary. You just have to step up efforts in these directions.

Overall personal search means sites being subjectively regarded as authority sites, whether they are or not (for instance Wikipedia is awful if you ask me), will win.

So at the end of the day you mostly need to make sure your site is viewed by as many peope as possible as an authority site. These people will then click on your search results because they know and trust you already. This way they will basically implicitly subscribe to your SERPS as it was the case with SearchWiki or the Google Web History already.

1. Link to search results, actually link to those SERPS you rank at 1 with a page that makes sense. Don’t make it useless though. Blog about Google search rankings for a particular query for instance.
2. Ask people to push you up on SearchWiki (you know, the green buttons on the search results). There is nothing wrong to ask your supports to support you on  new platform or in a new environment. You ask them to follow you on Twitter, ask them to move you in their search results as well. Please click the upwards arrow on this blog when searching for SEO blog or SEO 2.0 in case you are logged in to your Google account.
3. Optimize for subscribers and returning visitors to gain trust and thus for people to click your search results because they trust you. How to optimize for regular visitors not the causal search and social media visitor? More substance less screaming headlines, more follow ups and in depth articles.
4. Bundle your online activities. Instead of setting ob a network of blogs invest time and money into one single flagship blog with one URL and brand.
5. Establish a presence on highly authoritative UGC sites, where people usually click but make sure for them not to outrank you. Be wary of Wikipedia e.g. They ma outrank you and then some autistic Wikipedia geek might rewrite the item to fit the 90% male, white, nerd American agenda.
6. Work together with peers to create Wikis, group blogs, Ning communities and other online social circles that can compete with renown brands, professional blogs and media outlets for attention through it’s sheer people power.
7. Cut down on provocations. Sadly people love the lowest common denominator. In case you disagree with the status quo they will cease to trust you and won’t click on your weirdo website again while searching. A dose of healthy opportunism secures your success n personal search.
8. Write for mass appeal not solely a niche. Advanced SEO is great but most people don’t even get basic SEO let alone know the meaning of the acronym. Attract larger audiences by content and postings with mass appeal. That is don’t sell out b posting cat images but rely on niche relevant mainstream topics. Don’t write solely about SEO
9. Join larger business platforms like Linkedin, Ebay or Etsy. It’s a good idea but never forget that you can’t rela on those. Build your brand and reroute your customers to your own online real estate.
10. Don’t use generic names or keywords like another-no-name-seo-blog.blogspot.com to get some cheap long tail SEO traffic but rely on personal and other name branding. My name for instance is difficult to read and remember, thus I came up with onreact, SEO 2.0, Tad Chef as terms you can find me at.

Btw. at the same time Google gets personal it also rolls out realtime search results. So in future you’ll have to be

• blogging timely
• get mentioned on Twitter
• added to a Google Wave

etc. to circumvent the need to rank as an authority site in personal search.

Either you get through as an authority or as widely referred to site.

The second way may be easier as people refer to crap as well just to point out how bad it is or how much they disagree.

Still in case you’re into long term sustainble SEO 2.0 you probably will prefer the tactics above.

Related posts:

1. 12 Effects Google Personal Search Will Have on SEO, Blogging, Social Media and the Web as Whole
2. What Easter Can Teach Us About Web 2.0, Social Media and Blogging
3. Top 10 Most Awesomely Amazing Creative & Funny Reasons Why Blogging for Social Media Sucks

Image: Personal Preference by Kevin Dooley.

Google gets personal: Now everybody will get personalized search results based on their search habits in the past unless they opt out in a tedious process. So most people won’t opt out or even notice at all, at least at first.

1. The rich will get richer, that is the attention rich. Those sites that have a brand and/or audience already will profit from Google personal search results. The sites people already click most often will rank on top. Wikipedia will dominate even more.
2. People will get confused. “Yesterday it was there when I checked it at home!” might become a common exclamation in the near future. People switching computers (home/mobile/work) will face different results unless they use all of them in a highly similar manner.
3. SEOs will finally focus on conversions and ROI. Lazy SEOs still stick to rankings no matter how profitable they are. Checking rankings will become even more pointless from now on. Conversions and ROI are key to measuring success now more than ever.
4. John Doe bloggers will end up ghettoized. You have below 50 subscribers? These people will find you on Google. The others won’t anymore as Wikipedia, NYT, CNN, BBC and Yahoo Answers a well as Huntington Post, TechCrunch and Engadget etc. will push you further down.
5. Social Media sites will get more user generated content (UGC) as people will try to get some traffic from the few remaining behemoth sites lucky enough to get clicked in search results often enough to get a push.
6. The Web will become boring. People will visit more and more of the same sites. It will become more and more difficult to find new things, original sources and small time publishers.
7. SEO Noobs will try to convince you that SEO is dead. SEO is dead all the time. Even I said so, but I meant a different thing than the people who have no clue about SEO. I meant that SEO has changed in a way that you wouldn’t recognize it as the SEO we’re accustomed to. The “SEO is dead” bunch assumes that personal search results can’t get optimized. Of course they can.
8. More group blogs will emerge to make sure to get at least the same attention as some big name bloggers and news outlets.
9. Old and new social filters might re/appear. As people will want to rely on crowdsourcing rather than their own limited search habits they’ll look after ways to determine what’s good and what not with a little help of their friends.
10. Google will gain even more power and your privacy will become a thing of the past. Google knows what you are searching for but now it will tell your family, flat mates or coworkers. So make sure not to use Google for that xxx stuff in case you want to keep your deviations private.
11. The sheer number of people ranking a site on top will push it for others as well. Finally click through data will become the new Google PageRank. When 1000 people click your link repeatedly in the search results you can’t be wrong can you?
12. You will have to optimize your blog for returning visitors in order to get search traffic, even first timers. This contradiction will lead to some new hitherto unknown SEO tactics.

Btw. Danny Sullivan expected this to happen since 2001. In an article called “Google May get Personal” he also explains why one of the personal search results startups failed though:

People “were afraid to miss something”.

My head is already buzzing with ideas on how to optimize for Google personal search (even if it’s still just called Google). That’s the great thing about SEO. It never gets stale. You always have to come up with new things to please Google and search users. Also most people don’t get it and thus SEO will live forever.

What tactics do you plan to employ to attract Google personal search visitors?

Suggestions in the comments might get used in my next blog post either here or on SEOptimise. That means a link to the source.

Related posts:

1. 10 New Google Personal Search Blogging, Social Media & SEO Tactics
2. Top 7 Google Suggest Effects on SEO, Search Usage and Business Predictions
3. What Easter Can Teach Us About Web 2.0, Social Media and Blogging

Just yesterday I published a post that bluntly criticizes the many shortcomings of StumbleUpon. A few hours ago I got the first reaction by StumbleUpon staff. No, they didn’t ask me how they can help me, a self proclaimed StumbleUpon engineer send me a death threat.

Death threats on StumbleUpon have been pretty common over the years but now we know why they never tackled the issue, they send out death threats themselves.

Also this person, who uses only a pseudonym “benadamx”, and who obviously never has heard of me before, calls me a “spammer” and “SEO scammer”.

Here is what he wrote [sic!]:

.. dead to spammers and SEO scammers, anyway.

Viva StumbleUpon!

Now this is what I call customer service! They never replied when I complained about death threats unless I suggested to write an article about it for Mashable. Now we know why.

Related posts:

1. StumbleUpon Adds SEO Category
2. StumbleUpon Traffic Stopped
3. The Most Important Thing on StumbleUpon: Do Not Pose as, Be a Legit User

Dead End is a Creative Commons image by Benny Lin

StumbleUpon is dead. Read my story first and then the 12 reasons.

It was long ago, probably a year or more, that I have stopped recommending StumbleUpon for business users or “getting traffic”, at least when using means actively participating on the site and using the toolbar. It doesn’t work that way if it ever has.

Unlike on Twitter neither self submission nor friends’ votes count on SU so it’s even better not to join or to engage with others on the site in order not to render your and their votes worthless.

StumbleUpon only sends stumblers your way when a random complete stranger having no connection to you whatsoever votes for you.

This is how the system works.

Now I’m a man of habit. I just get used to things. Also I like sharing so I still used StumbleUpon privately for discovering and sharing things. I liked the idea of being able to share environmental, artistic or self improvement finds with a lot of subscribers (I have over 800 of them) plus automatically with the followers of my followers. At least this is the way StumbleUpon was meant to work. It doesn’t.

After the new design has been introduced SU started to display how many views your stumbles get. I noticed that most of my discoveries get only one view, yes, that’s a “1″. That made me kind of sad as I discover stuff quite often and I wanted to make it known and support the respective activists, artists or bloggers. Instead I basically sabotaged their sites as they never got any visitors from SU after I discovered them.

At first I assumed that I did something wrong, like writing not enough reviews or not including images or discovering the wrong content or topics. I changed everything in trial and error and even tried some highly popular stuff from elsewhere, to no avail. Most of my submissions get just 1 view.

Why should I waste my time submitting stuff to a site that does not send any of the stuff to my followers at the same time penalizing webmasters for being submitted to it?

Then I suspected a penalty on my profile due to being a writer for a SEO blog as the topic SEO is still considered “evil” on StumbleUpon even after the introduction of an SEO category earlier this year. Everybody writing about SEO is a suspected spammer according to this misguided opinion. Also I have been very vocal in the fight against the omnipresent content theft on StumbleUpon. SU is full of stolen images, indeed stolen images tend to be the most popular discoveries on SU. Maybe the many content thieves I thumbed down and gave a bad review flagged me or something?

So I kept checking other people’s profiles and looking at how many views their discoveries get. I was surprised to find out that most people who have many views on their discoveries rarely discover anything. The more you discover the less visitors your discoveries get it seems. Plus the number of stumbles or friends has no positive impact on the power to reach people. I have 17k stumbles and 800+ subscribers but nobody ever sees my dsicoveries. It’s the other way around, the more friends you got the less other non-related strangers are there to push your discovery. In some niches there aren’t many at all so subscribing to most of them means Stumble suicide.

1. Most discoveries get buried by the system and won’t get seen anybody beside yourself – “1 View” phenomenon
2. In a bizarre logic the more friends you have the less traffic your discoveries get, only votes by strangers count
3. Content theft abounds and gets most popular while the sites of the original artists or photographers get no credit or traffic
4. Business usage is officially banned in the TOS, as a business owner you are only allowed to advertise not
5. Sites you like the most get the least traction as submitting the same source more than once gets your vote devalued
6. You actually hurt people by discovering their sites or blogs as they can’t get any traffic in most cases
7. For inspiration there are far better sites like image bookmarking services FFFOUND! and Dropular
8. For business use and to spread the message Twitter is by far the better choice for sharing Tumblr is far better than SU
9. Old, completely outdated posts often get pushed by the SU system while new ones get ignored, hoaxes from 2003 for example
10. You can’t block the infamous StumbleUpon trolls via htaccess anymore as everybody uses the same home URL now
11. You can’t browser stumbles by categories anymore, I used to browse the architecture stumbles but now I can’t even find them
12. The SU categories are broken. A wrong categorization means in most cases the death of a submission though

This is not a post to whine about StumbleUpon treating me bad or something. It’s just a post that warns you not to follow my advice from 2007 and early 2008 when I hailed SU as the new messiah of the Web.

In 2009 Twitter has become both the most important social sites and source of traffic, StumbleUpon is a dinosaur.

SU hates busiess users and has an algorithm that effectively stifles both sharing and socializing. StumbleUpon is dead and I personally switched to Twitter for business usage more than a year ago while I switched last week to Tumblr for

• inspiration
• community
• social discovery
• and sharing.

I won’t make the same mistake again using Tumblr for business so that my account there will remain completely private.

Now you might say: I still get traffic from SU by the thousands. Me too, but it doesn’t have anything to do with me. Just last week I got 1k visitors to a post with just 2 thumbs up by complete strangers. On the other hand most of my friends waste their time and votes when they vote for me on SU.

This post is not a pull a Calacanis type of linkbait. Who am I baiting, Stumblers? LOL. It’s just a warning to my readers and followers. Also I ask you to follow me elsewhere:

1. Twitter
2. FriendFeed
3. Delicious
4. LinkedIn
5. Browzmi

You still want the social browsing experience with me? Use Browzmi! It has been largely deserted but it still gets your more views than the “1″ from SU. Btw. I could have come up with more than 12 reasons to abandon StumbleUpon but I don’t want waste any more time with it.

Read my other posts on the broken categories on StumbleUpon which still haven’t been fixed, content theft and other SU annoyances. Also make sure you know how to use Twitter instead.

Does SU still work you for business or private use? In case you aren’t in the most awesomely amazing creative content theft business tell me how you do use it.

Many other former fellow stumblers and other long time users tend to agree with me:

• Has StumbleUpon Jumped the Shark?
• StumbleUpon Can Kiss My Ass
• StumbleUpon Sucks
• i hate stumbleupon right now
• StumbleUpon – The Art of Alienating Users

Last but not least: I apologize all the green activists, bloggers, artist and designers for discovering their stuff and basically banning these pages on SU. Mea culpa! StumbleUpon is dead. In short: I’m simply sick and tired of all tha content theft crap and discovering stuff nobody ever sees.

Related posts:

1. 12 Reasons Why Browzmi is the Best of StumbleUpon, Twitter & Mixx Combined +++
2. StumbleUpon: 21 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Submitting
3. How (Not) to Pitch Me on StumbleUpon

Twitter added lists to its Web interface. Twitter clients like Seesmic already follow suit by adding Twitter lists support.

Everybody uses lists as if they were the best thing since slice bread.

The SEO community is as always on the forefront of early adopting. Twitter lists is SEO 2.0 at it’s best. Let’s dive in the Twitter list game. This is my concise Twitter lists for SEO How to:

• Make lists public. This may seem obvious but just to remind you: private lists won’t get seen by others or indexed by Google
• Don’t add just everybody to a list, be choosy. I won’t follow a list that makes me add 200 or more new followers. I rather subscribe to a list of 40 “best of” Twitter users
• Use keywords or rather keyphrases e.g “x seo” instead of just “seo” as list names. Lists can show up in search results, check of this result for arizona seo twitter, the Twitter list by Matt Siltala comes up first
• Add yourself to your own lists, this way people who subscribe to your list can subscribe to you as well
• List others to get listed yourself. I often check who puts me on their Twitter lists and list the people who do on the corresponding list of mine Twitter lists are
• Tweet your lists and blog your lists. Twitter lists are not just internal Twitter features, they have real URLs you can refer to. You should do that.
• ask others whether they want to be added to your list. For instance I seek more people for my SEO 2.0 list and for my SEO companies list.

That said Twitter lists are still a very new feature or medium. we will see in a few minutes whether they really add value to in this case I’m optimistic.

I’m often wary of feature creep etc but Twitter lists appear as the most natural and logical extension to Twitter you could imagine so I doubt you can go wrong with adopting them.

Related posts:

1. 7 Must Read End of Year Lists for Internet Power Users
2. Who to Follow on Twitter?
3. Hey Marketers on Twitter: It’s not a Link List