David Harry - Trail of the Fire Horse

A world beyond links

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:59:02 +0100

Understanding Ranking Signals in a Modern Search WorldI was reading a post from Dave Naylor the other day in which he was musing over what hes seen as a shift in ranking signals and weights (http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/maybe-links-arent-important-anymore.html) over at Google. In short, he seems to be noticing movement in the dominance of links as a ranking factor. Why do they do it?One of the more important things to consider is that for a (nodal) link centric search engine aspects such as spam detection are often easier. What I mean is that if we valuate links heavily, it effectively funnels spammers down the path of link spam to ultimately rank. This means that it is exponentially easier than if we used a more balanced set of factors which could be manipulated.The balance that one would need to weigh is between search quality and web spam control. Certainly not a task I envy....

Spam detection using historical factors

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:19:33 +0100

A Google guide to spam detection We all know your friend an mine Matt Cutts, over at the Google Web Spam team but how exactly do they go about detecting and curtailing web spam? While there are a wide variety of tools at their disposal, historical factors are easily one of the more powerful methods. In the last offering in our series on historical ranking factors, were going to look at some ways they are used to detect spam. Now, this isnt an education for spammers in as much as I wanted to give everyone some knowledge in hopes they arent needlessly flagged for earnest efforts.

Search Marketing Round Up July 18

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:29:33 +0100

Latest Search Marketing News from the SEM Room on FriendFeed (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/sem) Scour - a new social search engine (http://socialcmsbuzz.com/scour-the-social-search-engine-launches-13072008/) - Social CMS Why The Google Keyword Tool Is Useless For SEO, Even With Exact Numbers (http://smackdown.blogsblogsblogs.com/2008/07/15/why-the-google-keyword-tool-is-useless-for-seo-even-with-exact-numbers/) - SmackDown .Me and .Pro Domains to Go on Sale (http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080716-115602) - Search Engine Watch 7 Ways to Lower Your Home Page Bounce Rate (http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2008/07/7-ways-to-lower-your-home-page-bounce-rate.htm) - Conversation Marketing Video Optimization and Analytics: A closer look at YouTube Insight (http://www.10e20.com/blog/2008/07/15/video-optimization-and-analytics-a-closer-look-at-youtube-insight/) - 10e20 Yahoo Directory bug lets you see your competitors clients (http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/yahoo-directory-bug-lets-you-see-your-competitors-clients/) - Blog Storm Conversion and PPC: Can you start small? (http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2008/07/13/conversion-ppc-start-small/) - Luna Metrics Google playing with voting buttons again (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/16/is-this-the-future-of-search/)- TechCrunch The fallacy of SEO celebrity (http://www.toprankblog.com/2008/02/the-fallacy-of-seo-celebrity/) - Top Rank SEO Feasability - when it's a good idea and isn't (http://hamletbatista.com/2008/07/17/the-seo-feasibility-report-when-seo-is-a-good-idea-and-when-it-isnt/)- Hamlet Batista Blog Latest SEO news from the Learn SEO Room...

Regrets I have a few

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:28:12 +0100

.... but too few to mention. For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught. To say the things he truly feels; And not the words of one who kneels. The record shows I took the blows - And did it my way! ..I'm just sayin'

SEO Tools for all occasions

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:39:38 +0100

It's about the pool player, not the cue This morning the most wondrous Ann Smarty posted a exceedingly groovy list of tools that rock! (http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-tools/7299/) Not to be left out I thought I would take this opportunity to mention we have a pretty good list here on the trail as well. See our SEO Tools section (http://www.huomah.com/Tools/Search/Search-Marketing-Tools.html)for more (80+ tools in total). It is important to note that tools are only as good as the practitioner using them. What that means is your methods and theories of SEO dictate which tools and how you use them. A tool alone cannot make your programs better that is up to you. I would also note that I advise using more than one tool for any part of your research and development as trusting a single source for data is often a recipe for failure now go...

Social Media Cash Grab

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:57:51 +0100

Do they care about those that help build them? (I wasn't going to post this, but thanks to Li Evans first step (http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com/search_marketing_gurus/2008/07/social-news---i.html) , and the support of others - the die is cast)I took a day away from the world of social to spend some long needed time with my family. It seemed some retrospective evaluation was needed, emotionally and financially. In the end analysis there is every reason to wonder why I play in Social Media at all (and I mean media not networking)? A few things are for certain;I dont actually care for power user popularity (only real peeps liking me)I have never made a dime for my efforts - so no financial gain The management of these websites are less than appreciative (this is the big one)In my musings and ranting over the last couple days, more than a few folks told me that these websites...

Using KW research to diversify link profiles

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:49:23 +0100

Your guide to creating natural link profiles Using your keyword research when crafting link profiles is extremely important for both internal and external tagging. Crafting link profiles is all about related diversity. What I mean by that is we want to have a diversified link text collection that is made of up related phrasings and creates a theme in the eyes of a search engine. A full featured link profile for a given page or website should be diverse in links texts as well as timing of the links. Search engines look for anomalies in these areas and can discount or devalue your links if it believes them to be artificially crafted. I would say the thresholds are likely reasonably high (for major link spammers) but it is still an area of interest and potentially concern.Beyond the fact that there is the potential for running afoul of the search engines,...

Search Marketing Round Up July 11

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:45:48 +0100

Search Marketing news; from the SEM Room (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/sem) on FriendFeedMe.dium Launches Real Time Social Search (http://searchengineland.com/080710-000001.php) Search Engine Land Top-Down and Bottom-Up Semantics (http://altsearchengines.com/2008/07/08/top-down-and-bottom-up-semantics/) - Alt Search EnginesReputation Crises Management: 8 SEO Triage Tips (http://www.aimclearblog.com/2008/07/08/reputation-crises-managment-8-seo-triage-tips/) - Aim ClearB2B SEO/SEM: Interview with Fred Yee of ActiveConversion and FoundPages (http://adwordsconsultant.blogspot.com/2008/07/interview-mp3-with-fred-yee-of.html#) - Brian CarterYou and A with Matt Cutts Video (from SMX) (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5725413130407531172&hl=en) - Google VideoRevisiting Content-Phobia In Paid Search (http://searchengineland.com/080707-110341.php) - Search Engine LandHow to Analyze and Improve the Bounce Rate for Your Website (http://www.doshdosh.com/how-to-analyze-and-improve-your-bounce-rate/) - sub by Garrett Pierson (http://friendfeed.com/yourseomentor) Latest SEO news; from the Learn SEO Room (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/learnseo) on FriendFeedAre .co.uk Domains Having an Increased Influence in Google UK Algorithm? (http://blog.seoptimise.com/2008/07/are-couk-domains-having-an-increased-influence-in-google-uk-algorithm.html)- SEOptimize (sub Andy Roberts (http://friendfeed.com/andyroberts) ) Post by Aaron Wall on the dying SEO Consulting Services (http://www.seobook.com/seo-consulting-services) - Sub by Garrett Pierson (http://friendfeed.com/yourseomentor) Recip links - SEO's long standing contradiction (http://www.searchenginejournal.com/reciprocal-linking-seos-longstanding-contradiction/7194/) - Search Enine JournalTrade You...

Your SEO is weak my foolish friends

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:45:48 +0100

Another rant to all those SEO Jokers You know what?. I feel a rant coming on, either run screaming now, or hold on for the ride. Ok. Now listen up my little SEO apostles, stop looking for the secret sauce and the magic bullet. I am getting so damn tired of reading so called tips of how you can get a leg up on the competition. I am talking everything from black hat to (so-called) keyword sniping and the LSI bandwagon. Stop creating garbage sites with the hope of monetizing it with some crappy thin affiliate schemes, PPC arbitrage or whatever the get-rich-quick flavour of the day is. Cease and desist with the 3 way links and arrest the development of your satellite sites. Just give it a break!I am so tired of people posing as marketing professionals writing about how to game the system to make a few bucks....

5 ways to improve rankings through content management

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:12:09 +0100

Understanding historical ranking factors for content creation/management plans Does your content creation and management plan consist of merely a fire-and-forget-it perspective? Then you may be missing out on ways to not only strengthen existing rankings but bolstering new ones. You may be making costly mistakes without even knowing it. Today, were going to look at how historical ranking factors can come into play with your content plans. A while ago I discussed historical ranking factors for link builders and at the time felt there was more within these patents to be discussed. So lets jump right in and look at how some of these factors can be mined for content development and management perspectives.