Michael Gray
Michael Gray has been involved in developing and marketing websites since 1998. He currently is the president of his own consulting firm, where he publishes his own sites and work with clients on improving their search engine optimization and social media strategies. He is a frequent speaker and can be seen regularly at Pubcon, Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, and Affiliate Summit conferences throughout the year. Below is a collection of articles he has written.
You can connect with Michael on his Twitter, Facebook or Google+ profile.
Michael has written 874 articles for Graywolf's SEO Blog.
In a recent statement Larry Page said if you don’t get SPYW then maybe you shouldn’t work at Google. To understand why he thinks this is such a good idea–and why the rest of the world thinks it isn’t–we need to revisit the concept of filter bubbles and why they are such a bad idea.
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When you run a corporate blog sometimes it’s difficult to come up with interesting topics on a regular basis. In the past I’ve spoken about a few options like creating a series, how to posts and evergreen content. In this article I’d like to tackle another option, blogging to your existing customers, and turning them [...]
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Whenever you are involved in an ORM (Online Reputation Management) campaign, your goal is to displace negative results in the search engines with positive results. In a previous post we looked at creating microsites. In this post, we are going to look at leveraging social media profiles.
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Generally speaking, Using Microsites is a bad idea. However, Using Microsites is a good idea is when you are conducting an ORM campaign (Online Reputation Management) and are looking to displace some negative or unfavorable results. In this post, I’ll cover the basic theory, give some tips on how to use them, and show you [...]
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When you are looking to build links and drive traffic, one of the time tested methods that continues to work is creating “how to” style posts. In this article, we’ll look at some examples and discuss how to get the most out of the tactic, how to take advantage of seasonal search/traffic volume, and some [...]
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At the dawn of the internet websites were created without much thought as to what changes, if any, would need be made in the future. To keep your website relevant, gaining new links, keeping users satisfied and getting traffic from search engines, you need to have a maintenance plan. As with any maintenance plan small [...]
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Whenever Ajax enter the conversation for an SEO or internet marketer, chances are good there will always be a deep sigh or an “ugh” face. While it is true that search engines are getting better at indexing this type of content, we still aren’t at the point that you can realistically rely on them to [...]
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Microsites are often abused and looked down on as a tactic in the SEO world. They get used for the wrong situations, the wrong reasons, and to solve the wrong types of problems. In this post, I’ll talk about some of the bad ways Microsites get used and some of the ways you could use [...]
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When I talk with people who aren’t involved with internet marketing about Google, I’m surprised by the amount of trust they put in Google and how they feel Google is making the world a better place … for truly altruistic reasons. It’s not until I point out how Google will gladly provide all the services [...]
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If you’ve spent any time on the internet, chances are you’ve seen silly, funny, or just plain insane custom 404 error pages. However, this article isn’t about creating one of those types of custom 404 pages; this is about creating a better 404 page that is not only helpful to your users but solves technical [...]
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Who are you writing your blog posts for … people or search engines? Depending on your intended audience your posts can and should be radically different in tone and style. This concept is related to my my post on how to choose keywords for your blog posts. When you write a post or article on [...]
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Is having a high exit rate bad? In pursuit determining whether Google is using analytics data to ranks SERPS, many marketers put undue focus and weight on factors like bounce rate and exit rate instead of taking a more holistic look at the statistics in relation to one another and what they really mean.
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While linkbait posts aren’t as popular as they once were, top 10 lists have been popular ever since Moses came down from the mount with his top 10 list of “thou shalt nots.” Magazines like Rolling Stone will always have top 500 playlists and AFI will always have top 100 movies lists. However, as a [...]
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How to mask affiliate links is one of the most common questions new affiliates often ask. In this post, we will take a look at the hows and whys of why you should mask affiliate links and how to do it effectively, with an eye towards maintaining long term low maintenance.
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In the last few weeks, Google has announced its support of Google Author Profiles. While the rollout and acceptance has been limited, for those of us who have been around the block a few times, it’s easy to see that this will become the next big spam tactic like link exchanges, article directories, guest posts, [...]
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Is having a high bounce rate bad? It depends. In this post, we will be looking at bounce rate in association with other factors to help you spot a bad high bounce rate from a high bounce rate you don’t need to be worried about.
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While many webmasters and publishers use Google analytics without a second thought, smart publishers, marketers, and SEOs are left to speculate… Is Google using this data? What might they use it for? And am I doing myself more harm than good using it?
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Ever since the early days of SEO, the ideal title length has been the subject of much debate. Back then, it was important to use keywords that search engines would use to rank your pages near the top of the SERPS. Then you made the title as click enticing as possible so, when it appeared [...]
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How to choose keywords for your blog? If you’ve ever seen me at a conference, giving a presentation, or ranting on any of the social media hangouts, chances are good that you’ve heard me pick on bloggers for not choosing their keywords properly when writing their posts. In this article, I’ll explain what I see [...]
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Having a verified author profile picture appear next to your articles that show up in search results is a new feature Google recently added. In this post, I’m going to show you how to add the functionality to your thesis theme in WordPress.
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