Things are starting to get spooky around here… With the blue team pitted against the gold team in an office “spooking” (decorating) competition, it’s bound to be a good week next week. Page 1 Solutions is well known ’round these parts for being the most fun at holidays.

October 27th is our official “dress up” day, and I’ve made it my own personal mission to get the whole SEO team to dress as a pack of ninjas, obviously. If anyone feels persuaded to peer pressure them with me, please don’t hold back!

And onto the link love!

Patti:
Search Engine Roundtable offered an excellent piece of advice this week: remember to submit a reconsideration request when buying a used domain. This article was particularly timely for me, since I have a few clients looking to do this.

BONUS!
The SEO Ninjas are also known lovingly as the Droid Cult around here, since most of us have Motorola Droid phones (a combo of original Droids and the Droid X), and we like to explain how awesome Droids are to everyone around. So much so, that we’ve assimilated other Page 1 employees, including our awesome CEO, Dan. So, for anyone else who is a part of the (An)Droid cult out there, we have good news! Angry Birds is available for free on Android phones.

John:
Meet the newest Google metric, Webmaster Happiness. Apparently the folks over in Mountain View are maintaining another measurable factor that keeps track of how “happy” webmasters are with Google’s constant updates and everything they are up to. I’m going to keep an eye on this…

Becky:
We all get pretty frustrated with duplicate listings in local search, especially when we delete them only to watch them pop right back up again. Luckily, Search Engine Journal’s Mike Ramsey is on our side, detailing for us everything we need to know about duplicate listings and their causes.

I was also impressed with Whitney Wilding’s post, Are Your Sales Pages Leaving $10,000 on the Table? It drops tasty morsels, like how 80% of website viewing time happens above the fold.

And of course, there’s Halloween. Lindsay Wassell of Keyphraseology has posted some geektacular SEO-themed costume ideas. My favorite is, of course, the Link Ninja.

I’ll take the intro space this week for a small announcement: I am no longer going to be an SEO ninja. But before the wailing and keening begins, I’m still going to be here – I’ll just be a Data Analysis ninja instead! I should still be posting awesome stuff about the SEO industry, but they’ll probably be a little more about analytics and conversion rate optimization than before. This also means that we’ll be taking on a new SEO ninja apprentice. If you’re in the Denver/Golden area and want in on the action, check out our ad on Craigslist.

On to the links!

Patti:
I was amused this week by the list of words banned from Google Instant. Most of them are pretty predictable, but I guess women rapping and Pamela Anderson are just not safe for our children’s eyes!

Becky:
Since I’m going to be more involved with conversion rate optimization in my new role, I’ve been paying extra close attention to CRO-oriented blog posts. Posts that drop 5 ways to get free conversion rate advice are sure to get my attention. Plus, it’s written by Tom Critchlow, who I met briefly in Seattle and quickly determined to be made of awesome.

Lesa:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-3-major-causes-of-duplicate-listings-in-local-search/24478/
I like this article because it discusses having a call tracking number and the potential (negative) impact that number can have on Google Local listings.  This just goes to prove that you cannot out smart the Search Engines and there is value to doing your research and setting up local listings correctly from the start.  The bottom line: The search engines don’t like duplication.

It’s been a crazy week here at the ninja lair. The bosses decided to rearrange us, and now we’re all sitting in new cubicles, adjusting to new neighbors and new surroundings. I suppose it’s good to always keep your ninjas on their toes, eh? Now that I’m all settled into my new digs (I have a window!) it’s time to get this week’s link love flowing. (more…)

As an SEO ninja, I follow a lot of industry blogs. I mean A LOT of industry blogs. At last count, there were over 100 in my Reader. Don’t be intimidated by the number! I’m definitely not reading every article every day. Just skimming headlines is a good way to get a feel for what the industry is buzzing about on any given day, and I readily admit to cherrypicking articles to read based on their headlines. (Note to blog authors: If you want me to read your post, make the headline compelling!) The list is in constant flux, but here’s the big, massive, crazy list of SEOs and other stuff that I’m following right now. I’m warning you, it’s long.

(more…)

It seems like the entire Internet world has changed this week. SEOmoz introduced us to a keyword/content relevancy tool which has many in the SEO and IR communities in an uproar and turned “LDA” into an SEO buzz word. Google Instant rolled out, possibly upending several search marketing conventions. And here at the secret ninja lair, we’ve watched breathlessly as our blog traffic skyrocketed unexpectedly and everyone is getting new cubicle and office assignments. Internally and externally, everything has been shaken up – and hopefully for the better! Here’s the weekly round up of our favorite posts.

Becky’s Links:
It’s impossible for me not to talk about SEOmoz’s new LDA tool. Heck, we did our own post about it here after it was announced at the Mozinar in Seattle, and another one here after we realized what a controversy it was turning out to be. Rand Fishkin explains it quite well in his article, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Google’s Rankings are Remarkably Well Correlated. While there has been a lot of heated debate over nearly every aspect of the tool (which is still just in Labs), including methodology, the meaning of “well correlated” and the tool’s user-friendliness or lack thereof, we’re excited about having a new tool in our arsenal.

I’m also going to throw some love at two other posts: Scott Brinker’s thoughts about effective microsites, a strategy we rather like for many of our clients with more diversified services, and David Kauzlaric’s article, Google Analytics + Heat Map Analytics + Good Designer = Sexy Conversions. I love heatmapping, and combining it with analytics data just pushes me over the edge!

Debby’s Link:
Google Instant- What Now
Much needed advice in the time of  confusion. I agree with the writer – we need to wait and get more information about the  effects of Google Instant.

John’s Link:
As conversion rate optimization becomes more and more a plurality with SEO, I would like to give a nod to SEOmoz’s Dr. Pete with his post “Priceless CRO Advice for $224.” I really like the first two options, which allow for cheap yet effective analysis of your company’s or client’s website. Review things like brand recognition, goal conversion and all sorts of visitor behavior.

Becky:
Rob Ousbey noticed something fascinating and troubling this week: Google is testing live updating search results. Why does this make me nervous? Because of the implications it would have on long-tail search. Let’s say you’re searching for Chicago Lasik Surgery. By the time you’ve managed to type Chicago Lasik, you’re already looking at relevant SERPs and so you stop typing. This turns Chicago Lasik into the best converting search phrase, and the rankings for Chicago Lasik Surgery would matter much less since they won’t convert as well with fewer people seeing them. This would definitely put a lot more emphasis on shorter, more efficient keyword phrases. But it’s only a test, so I’m not truly worried yet.

On a lighter note, I’ll throw some link love over to the SEOmoz PRO Training Series 2010. I’ll be there, and I’m excited to meet people and soak up all of their search marketing insights! I’m hoping to post at least once while I’m in Seattle, so stay tuned!

John:
This week I wanted to point out an interesting eye tracking study to see how searchers view search results. It measured how the eye fixated on certain elements of a SERP and then discussed the meaning to SEOs. Check out Study: Meta Descriptions Very Important Search Results Click Through Rates ( I know, wierd title).

If you are a Droid user like many of us here at the SEO team, take the time to put down your new Froyo OS and read our link love. And then comment. And then return to your Droid.

John’s Link:
This week I really was interested in Rand’s I’m Getting More Worried About the Effectiveness of Webspam. This is a topic that is thrown around a lot by our clients who are trying to get the best rankings, but without caring about the consequences.  It’s frustrating to explain to those outside of SEO that Google will come down hard on these web spammers, even though for the time being they are in that #1 organic spot. Google, please  back up your guidelines and the information that you repeatedly feed us, even though you forget to follow through.

Becky’s Link:
What are the implications for SMBS of Google Integrated Local Search Result Tests?
As soon as news of Google’s integrated local search tests hit the blogs, we were asking ourselves what it would all mean for SEO. Mike at Blumenthal’s has a lot of great thoughts on the subject.

Patti’s Link:
Oh, I got a great chuckle out of this one: Foursquare Experiences Record Signups After Launch of Facebook Places. A lot of folks were speculating what may happen to Foursquare with the official launch of Facebook Places. Would Facebook kill Foursquare? Clearly, that is not the case. Another win for Foursquare.

It’s Friday the 13th! This is definitely not the sort of day in which you pick up pennies that aren’t heads up. Be sure to avoid even touching any mirrors so you can’t be saddled with the bad luck if they’re broken, and forget walking under ladders! Some of us have a soft spot for the black kitties, though, so be sure to let us know if you see any so we can say, “Where? WHERE?” and then scoop them up for some ear scritches. (We found this awesome scaredy cat at ICanHazCheezburger.) Luckily, sharing the Link Love doesn’t qualify as a superstition.

Becky:
Marc Lyne’s post, 9 SEO Realities for Small Businesses, has some great insights to ponder, covering a broad range of SEO topics including Google MayDay effects, footer links, microformats and more. Though it looks like yet another basic SEO list on the surface, it is high on practical, useful information and devoid of junk. It’s sparked some ideas on my end, so thank you Marc!

John:
Eric Enge of Search Engine Watch does a great job in reminding us that the difference between appropriate optimization and overdone optimization is quite thin. While search engines provide guidelines that give us a little insight, every market and every product require different approaches to see which work best. He offers great advice about how competitive research can provide clues into what works and what is pushing the envelope a little too far.

This week we are thrilled to announce that we have a new team member! Who is actually an old team member in another secret ninja department. Lesa comes to us from our account management team and is our new Director of Internet Marketing. That’s kinda like being the Charlie to our Angels. We adore Lesa and we’re looking forward to the occasional blog post from her here.

On to the Link Love!

Becky:
We’ve been keeping tabs on the SEO and conversion benefits of online video for quite awhile since we have our own completely awesome video crew, so it comes as no surprise to us that Shmulik Weller is saying that video is now a must-have for competitive SEO. We absolutely agree!

John:
While CNN.com needs my link love like a billionaire needs a quarter, alas I have no choice. In an article that is special to CNN, Al Franken writes that Net Neutrality is the foremost free speech issue of our time. I have always been an adamant Al Franken fan (and I’m pretty fond of the 1st Amendment as well), and above all this is an issue that has been stinging my side as of late. The internet should remain open to all users, not just those that pay more for faster access and usage (pointing to you, corporate America).

Patti:
This week, we bid adieu to our old friend, Google Wave. I wrote about Wave just a little under a year ago, and now she’s gone. Search Engine Land took this opportunity to celebrate some of Google’s Best Failures, which reminds us all, that even the seemingly perfect fail sometimes.

This week we only have a few links that we want to send our love, not due to a lack of interesting content from the week, but we all have been pretty busy over here at the end of the month. Let us know what you think, or provide your own link of love in the comment section. Have a great weekend!

John:
I actually have two short posts this week that I would like to shed some light upon. First off is the hilarious fact that Yahoo Japan is Switching to Google as Search Provider. Yahoo Japan is not entirely owned by Yahoo, and they decided to turn the tide and go with… the better search option. Kudos! Secondly, I think that Google’s new Webmaster Tool that Detects an increase in Crawl Errors is great for us SEOers. Maybe it’s Bing’s new SEO-friendly Webmaster Center that is putting a tad of pressure on Google to release new and helpful tools, or maybe I’m somewhat hoping for some competition.

Becky:
I don’t always agree with Jill Whalen since her approach can seem a bit minimalist and too black and white for my taste, but she makes some interesting comments about meta tags in general this week. I’m particularly fascinated that she doesn’t use meta descriptions since that’s something I can’t imagine ever not wanting to control as tightly as possible. It just goes to show that there is no one correct way to do on page SEO.

Kristen:
What do the search engines consider “Quality Content?” Since there are content farms out, quality is going to play more of a role in setting one apart from the next. Low-quality content will inspire higher quality competition.