Me

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1420489037&ref=profile

http://www.linkedin.com/myprofile?trk=hb_side_pro

http://twitter.com/God_of_SEO

http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/my.cfm

http://www.google.com/profiles/102640802717741415117

http://www.naymz.com/search/seoforest/co/2500759?preview=true

http://www.plaxo.com/profile/show/163209799949?pk=24fd4207cadd334070798f425055244794ec5ecc

MIchael

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1487648804&ref=profile

http://www.linkedin.com/in/page1solutionsmikegarner

http://www.naymz.com/search/michael/garner/2485955?preview=true

http://www.plaxo.com/profile/show/180389835882?pk=d35b156505b267c68b174188f087c7ce83c460b7

Kristen

http://twitter.com/OptimizeKristen

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=1433565568&ref=profile

http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/my.cfm

http://www.naymz.com/search/optimizer/kristen/2511305

http://www.plaxo.com/profile/show/214750084631?pk=7a2a48e4da70d2f6a820fce6fef844d755891e3f

http://www.google.com/profiles/110870824989080987027

http://www.zoominfo.com/MyAccount/ProfessionalSummary.aspx

Patti

http://www.naymz.com/?messageType=login_success

http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/portal.cfm?c=52357807&CFID=11025172&CFTOKEN=62151455

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1430625365&ref=profile

http://www.plaxo.com/profile/show/176094885811?pk=d3f2e012016681e5d755bd0780ff7dd7d6572e5f

Do you have a profile on Facebook? Do you use Tiwtter? Ask most people these questions and increasingly the answers are Yes, of course!

The popularity of these sites seems to be increasing everyday and many are now wondering aloud if these two social networking sites are the new competitors to Google.

While there is no doubt that Twitter and the even more popular Facebook are driving traffic to sites, will it reach a level where they bring more traffic than Google does especially to big-name sites?

According to comScore, Facebook gets over a third of the number of unique visitors that Google does, if it keeps growing at this rate, the gap between Google and these newcomers could start to close fast. This seems especialy true in the field of online advertising.

While people will continue using Google to search, and advertisers will continue to spend money advertising with them , Facebook’s social ads could grow to a point where they could put a dent into AdWords revenue.

So What Can Businesses Get Out of Facebook and Twitter?
some of the ideas that come to mind:

- A source for Driving Traffic to your website

- A great tool for customer service.

- Interacting with viewers while increasing brand awareness.

- Getting feedback about your business and managing your online reputation.

- Pay-per-click advertising. Facebook provides targeted ads based on user profiles.

With social media sites getting closely networked and regularly introducing new apps the possibilities seem endless.

So does Google need to starting worrying about Facebook and Twitter or does the giant have a few tricks up it’s sleeve that will help it maintain it’s current status as the leader in interent Search and advertsing.

Websites may now have some relief when it comes to Duplicate Content!
Earlier this month, Google, Yahoo! and MSN announced that they would support a new tag designed to help websites that have multiple URLs that display the same content.
When added to different versions of the page, the Canonical URL tag “tells” the SEs that all those URLs are essentially the same page and should be treated as such.
This will allow the search engines to pick the one page among the many that should be listed while ensuring that the link value for all the pages is preserved and combined under one URL.
In order to gain this advantage, webmasters will have to add the new tag to the head section of all versions of a page that has “duplicate ” content.
The tag is part of the HTML header on a web page, and isn’t new, but like nofollow, simply uses a new rel parameter. For example:

This would tell Yahoo!, MSN & Google that the page in question should be treated as though it were a copy of the URL www.page1solutions.com/blog and that all of the link & content metrics the engines apply should technically flow back to that URL.
While, this update from the 3 major SEs will benefit may websites, there are many aspects that still remain unclear and webmasters will have to watch results over the coming months to see the effects of the new tag.
Also, some websites may have no option but to continue using the robots meta tags and robots.txt file to address duplicate content. This is because the new tag addresses the issue of which page should be indexed, but does not resolve the problem that SE robots do not realize that these pages are all the same until after they have been crawled and indexed. This could potentially cause a delay in the indexing of unique content. Also, the new tag will only be viewed as a suggestion by the SEs and not a directive about which page should be finally displayed.
More details about this new tag can be found here:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/canonical-url-tag-the-most-important-advancement-in-seo-practices-since-sitemaps

I was asked once if RSS feeds help with SEO. The basic answer is no, but there are some benefits to RSS feeds if you have a blog.

RSS means “Rich Site Summary” or “Really Simple Syndication.” This is a feed that is read by a feedreader. Other feeds include Atom and RDF. These feeds are a content publication that is readable by a machine and they are updated often. Feedreaders read these feeds and note if there is a new post to a blog. If there is a new post, the feadreader dispalys the post with a link to it. There is usually an small excerpt from the post along with the link. It is helpful to have a feadreader to check if the blogs you enjoy visiting have new posts. This way, you don’t have to constantly visit the blogs. You get an update automatically when something new has been published. WordPress explains feeds and feadreaders well in their Introduction to Blogging.

Blogs usually come with feeds. You can access these feed addresses and submit them to the three major search engines, directories, or other sites that accept feeds in order to get your blog visible. This helps with SEO in a sense because you are getting your blog out there for people to see. I have experience with WordPress and Blogger. So, I will explain how to get the feed URLs for these two hosting companies. Hopefully this information will help anyone who has a blog hosted elsewhere.

WordPress

WordPress has an article to help you find your feed URL. There are four options for the feed URL of your blog and you can access these four options in two different ways. So, that’s eight options. It might be confusing. Sorry about that. Below are the four options and any of these options works for your feed URL:

1. http://example.com/wp-rss.php

2. http://example.com/wp-rss2.php

3. http://example.com/wp-rdf.php

4. http://example.com/wp-atom.php

You can also use the following versions of these URLs:

1. http://example.com/?feed=rss

2. http://example.com/?feed=rss2

3. http://example.com/?feed=rdf

4. http://example.com/?feed=atom

Just for fun, here are the first four options of this blog’s feed URLs:

1. http://seo101blog.com/?feed=rss

2. http://seo101blog.com/?feed=rss2

3. http://seo101blog.com/?feed=rdf

4. http://seo101blog.com/?feed=atom

Please feel free to add it to your feedreader. We update it regularly.

Blogger

Once you are in your blog on Blogger, you can go into the Settings tab and then click on the Site Feed option in the top navigation under the Settings tab. You are givien the Site Feed URL at the top, which is your blog address. Next, you are given the Site Feed Filename, which is atom.xml.

As an example, Dr. Bray is a Los Angeles Plastic Surgeon who updates his plastic surgery blog regularly with valuable information. He has subscribers to his blog that are interested in updated news about procedures and his practice. He pulls his blog into his site so the blog has the same design as the site. His site feed URL is http://www.drbray.com/atom.xml.

As you can see, Dr. Brays Site Feed URL is http://www.drbray.com and his Site Feed Filename is atom.xml.

Submitting Your Site Feed

Okay, so you have your site feed URL… now what? You can find directories that accept site feeds that are in your area of interest. For example, Dr. Bray would submit his site feed to directories about plastic surgery. Just do a search for directories that are in your area of interest, check them out to make sure they are worth while, and then submit your feed to them.

You can submit your site feed to Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

Submitting to Google’s add feed is a little trickier than submitting to Yahoo! or MSN. First, you need an account. So, create an account with Google if you don’t already have one. Once logged in, go to your account by clicking on the “My Account” link at the top right hand corner of your browser. When you are there, go to where it says “iGoogle” in the list of My Products. Next to this link is a link to “Add Content.” Click there and look for the “Add feed or gadget” link at the bottom of the list of links on the left hand side. Enter your site feed URL and submit. I hope that makes sense. Good Luck!

Google also offers some other tools to help reach more users. Check out Google’s Tools to help you submit your content. There is a Media section, which you may find super useful.

For Yahoo!, go to the Yahoo! submit page to submit your site feed.

Use this link to submit to MSN.

Another good thing to do with site feeds is having some on your site. They don’t help your search engine results, but it helps your visitors know that you stay up-to-date and offer up-to-date knowledge. This helps with site stickiness. If a visitor can come to your site to see what you offer and see news, it saves them a trip to multiple sites.

Google Maps is now starting to crack down on MapSpam. The current strategies that are now being used to dominate the local search results are being monitored and limited. What does this mean for you? This means you must represent you business exactly as it appears in real life. Google will no longer permit use of keyword-rich search phrases as your business name. According to Google, businesses must are now required to use their actual names.

By implementing the new rules, Google wants to eliminate multiple listings for a single business. For example, Jan Dils & Jim Leach Attorneys at Law, PLLC could previously use this tactic to rank well in Google maps, by using keywords such as, West Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer, West Virginia Medical Malpractice Attorney, and so forth could be added to the companies’ keyword criteria to rank high. This strategy enabled one business to achieve multiple listings for a variety of different phrases.

With the new rules, Google wants these keywords to be placed within your description and custom attributes fields. For example, if you are advertising plastic surgery, you can create an attribute called Brands Carried (and put in the types of breast implants such as saline and silicone breast implants). Then to the right you’ll list various brands you carry. We recommend you consider placing your most important keywords OFFICIALLY into the title of your business.

Please Note: Claim your listing!

Spammers have recently started to hijack unclaimed listings of business and making them into their own. Spammers are hijacking majority of the top ranked businesses, which they have now started to direct traffic to their affiliate sites. Now the hijackers are earning commissions from your Google Maps listing. By not claiming your site, you’ll never be alerted by phone because the thief has changed “you” phone number to their own. There is a good chance that you will never notice the hijacking took place unless you happen to notice the incorrect information. Google has created a form to claim your business listing. If you do not claim your listing now do not say you were not warned.

Google Maps has also added an enhancement to their Mobile Search service. This new service can now track your location to give you listings of what you are looking for in your area. This may freak you out that there is someone tracking you, by Google is going through great lengths to assure us our location is never associated with personal information, even if you are logged into your Google account. Along with this new feature, Google has recently released Street View which will make it easier for consumers to find what they are looking for.

What Google is saying, marketers who are prepared to precisely segment their target audience, and efficiently match offers to customer locations, will be raking in the big bucks? Start preparing today because when the changes come, I believe that they will happen quickly.

This feature was developed with the user in mind. It is meant for you to be able to organize your search results and make comments. First, you have to be logged in to your Google account. They stress the point that you can see if you are logged in by looking in the upper right corner of your browser and see your login name. If you don’t see your name, you need to log in. Once logged in, when you search for keywords that you will often search for, like SEO Blogs because you want to say up to date on techniques and news, you can organize your list with your favorite sites by clicking the arrow in the upper right section of the listing. If you don’t like the result, you can click the delete button next to the arrow and the listing goes up in clouds. Pretty cool? Once you have tagged a listing that you want to go the top, the arrow is green so you know you like that one.

This is good because you can move a listing you like from page 2 or 5 to the first page. But why not just use bookmarks? I have a list of SEO blogs in a folder in my bookmarks tab that I like to frequent, this being one of them! I don’t constantly search for SEO blogs. If I want to see other blogs to add to my list, I don’t want to see the ones I like, since I know I all ready like them.

The good part about this feature is that you can comment on why you like the listing. There is a comment bubble near the “Cached” and “Similar Pages” links at the bottom of the listings. This is where you can say that you like this blog listing because it has up-to-date information about SEO or that it is really funny and informative. If you have a super long list of sites you like and your memory isn’t so good, you can use SearchWiki to keep those listings at the top of the search for the exact search phrase you used and make detailed comments about them. These comments, be warned, are public. You can view other people’s comments about listings and they can view yours.

SearchWiki does not affect other users results. Just because you don’t like a listing and delete it from your search doesn’t mean that other users won’t see it in their results. So, you can’t go around deleting your competitors from search results. You will be the only one benefiting from not seeing them.  The only part about SearchWiki that will affect other users’ searches are the comments. Those are universal. I guess this means you can write anything you want, including that you don’t like the site and why…

Google seems to be trying to enter the realm of Web 2.0 with the somewhat voting system they have in place reminiscent of Digg. They are trying to be more interactive. What happened to the simple Google with a search bar, two buttons, and the results you are looking for?

I am confident that, once you look at this tool, you will figure out a good use for it on your own, even if it’s to ignore it.

Last month, Google published an official statement about linking out to other websites. 

Linking out to relevant websites can help provide readers in-depth information about similar topics and additional resources. This gives your viewers confidence in your expertise on the subject. Good links to other websites can make visitors want to come back for more analysis on future topics. Another positive effect of outbound linking is that it helps build relationships with other domain experts which turm builds a mutually beneficial networking system.

According to Google, unmonitored  links and undisclosed paid advertising outbound links can reduce your website’s credibility. To ensure your site doesn’t lose credibility, make sure that user-generated comments are moderated and/or add the rel=”nofollow attribute to user generated links.

Google doesn’t like paid links. If you are receiving payment for outbound links, add the rel=”nofollow” attribute to the link. Google recommends not having too many links per web page as this may confuse viewers and is not considered user-friendly. Google makes it very clear that you shouldn’t worry about the PageRank of a website as long the site is relevant to your website.

Another important piece of information is that a website will not automatically get a ranking boost on Google if it has links from .edu or .gov domains.
Links from .edu and .gov domains have no special value.
[If you get an .edu link and no one is linking to that .edu page, you're not going to get any PageRank at all because that .edu page doesn't have any PageRank. [...] We generally treat all links the same – be it from .gov or .edu or .info sites.”]

By using the above guidelines, webmasters can ensure that their outbound linking strategies are bringing in stronger credibility and higher rankings for their sites.

Recently, a couple of clients received emails, seemingly from Google, saying that their billing info needed to be updated. This kind of email is called “phishing” because the perpetrator is phishing for your personal/financial information. This email is currently targeting clients that have campaigns with Google AdWords, but whether you have an AdWords account or not any emails asking you for sensitive information should be suspect.

Here is an image of the email being sent out (although different variations could be circulating):

When using Firefox, if the link in the email is clicked, a message will pop up like the one below:

This warning came up in the Firefox browser, but these kinds of warnings might not popup every time. So if you have received an email like this or any other kind asking for you to follow a link and enter in personal and/or financial information DO NOT click on the link. Instead, open up a new browser window and type in the URL that you usually use to login. If you suspect that you have received an email scam please notify the company that your account is with as well as the Federal Trade Commission. However, if you recently recieved a similair email and filled out credit card information, call your credit card company immediately and make sure that you have not been victimized by this scam.

If you would like more information about “Phishing” or how to report a scam, the following link will take you to the government site dedicated to online fraud:

http://www.onguardonline.gov/phishing.html

Recently, a couple of clients received emails, seemingly from Google, saying that their billing info needed to be updated. This kind of email is called “phishing” because the perpetrator is phishing for your personal/financial information. This email is currently targeting clients that have campaigns with Google AdWords, but whether you have an AdWords account or not any emails asking you for sensitive information should be suspect.

Here is an image of the email being sent out (although different variations could be circulating):

When using Firefox, if the link in the email is clicked, a message will pop up like the one below:

This warning came up in the Firefox browser, but these kinds of warnings might not popup every time. So if you have received an email like this or any other kind asking for you to follow a link and enter in personal and/or financial information DO NOT click on the link. Instead, open up a new browser window and type in the URL that you usually use to login. If you suspect that you have received an email scam please notify the company that your account is with as well as the Federal Trade Commission. However, if you recently recieved a similair email and filled out credit card information, call your credit card company immediately and make sure that you have not been victimized by this scam.

If you would like more information about “Phishing” or how to report a scam, the following link will take you to the government site dedicated to online fraud:

http://www.onguardonline.gov/phishing.html