Yesterday, Text-Link-Ads launched a new service InLinks, that places ads inside the content part of blog posts (full disclosure TLA is an advertiser on this blog). I’ve seen this service in use for a while and it does really good job of not leaving a footprint that is detectable to the external user. New Link Advertising Program InLinks.com from Text Link Ads »

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A few weeks ago during SMX East, one of the subjects that came up was pagerank sculpting and use of nofollow. Most of the panelists didn’t use the practice, and Googler Matt Cutts has said it’s ok but not something he would put a high priority on if you set up your site correctly. Xoogler Vanessa Fox has similar sentiments. So if there’s so many high profile authority figures downplaying it, why are we still having this discussion? The problem is it’s a matter of scale and where you fall on the food chain, on whether or not it’s worth your time. Allow me to make an analogy …

NoFollow and PageRank Sculpting is it Worth the Effort »

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I’ve often chided google for trusting wikipedia so much when Wikipedia says we don’t care about accuracy or truth, just verifiability. It now looks like they’ve taken it a step further and pitched truth out the window with the dodgeball development team. Here’s a screen shot from Sunday afternoon where according to the Google SERP’s Paul Newman died in a plane crash … way to go big G …

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So last week google had a blog post entitled Demystifying the “duplicate content penalty” and if you haven’t read it I’d recommend doing so. However I’m going to disagree with some parts of the post, because IMHO you really can hurt yourself with duplicate content. Yes Virginia You Can Hurt Yourself With Duplicate Content »

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When Google took away the supplemental index last year, they killed one of the key diagnostic tools in the SEO’s toolbox, the ability to identify which parts of a site were unimportant (and being infrequently crawled) in a search engines eyes. However with the use of some structured text and clever searches I’m going to give you back that valuable information. How To Figure Out What Parts of Your Website Aren’t Being Crawled »

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Ok so I’ve run most of my guest posts, I still have two or three to run, but they won’t be going live until after SES San Jose. So what did you think? Like em? Dislike em?

Share your feelings in the comments. Constructive criticism is fine, being a dufus troll is not. if you don’t want to be public feel free to drop me an email.

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The following is a Guest Post from Joe Hall.

The internet is changing the real estate industry on a daily basis. And, not surprisingly, it’s the Web 2.0 innovators that are leading the revolution. Of course this isn’t the first time that new media gurus have redefined an industry. However, this time around old school brands are being left in the dust, while innovative startups are reaping all the benefits.
Why Old School Real Estate Brands are Losing to New Web 2.0 Innovators »

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One of the more common questions I get from people is how do I show my paid context to search engines, but not to non-paying/membership customers, and staying within search engine guidelines. The answer always comes dangerously close or steps over the cloaking line.
Hey Google Can We Get a Clear Cloaking and First Click Free Explanation »

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The following is a Guest Post from Michael Martin.

When performing SEO its best to first implement the KISS strategy, Keep It Simple S…..

Forget about the old school keyword density equations, being completely W3C compliant, creating X amount of content, pages or acquiring X amount of links.

KISS SEO would include, but not limited to:

• Unique TITLE tag for each page that includes your page’s targetted keyword(s) plus the benefit followed by Company/Site name.

 

• Unique META Description tag for each page that should be used to enforce the page’s usefulness and be the marketing pitch to the visitor.

 

• A CSS styled H1 tag centered around the page’s main keyword(s) focus - as a side note when I spoke with Matt Cutts at SMX Advanced he said Google doesn’t weigh the H1 tag any heavier than an H2 or H4, but it shouldn’t be used more than once.

 

• Content that is both informative, unique, and useful by fulfilling a need of your target audience.

 

• URLs in a non-dynamic descriptive format.

 

• A flat site structure with breadcrumb links.

 

• Absolute internal linking.

 

• An html user friendly site map plus the backup parachute of a sitemap.xml file.

 

• Robots.txt file blocking any duplicate content (print pages, etc).

 

• Using 301 sever side redirects to consolidate similar pages and domain changes, including canocalization such as www vs non-www.

SEO can be boiled down to simply good organization of your site’s code and assets plus acquiring quality links natuarally via useful interesting content.

If this were Gene Simmon’s KISS SEO then it would be keyword heavy toward the ASSets.

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Hey Mihai Parparita Google reader has really gotten better at the dupes thing but today … wow this one just went crazy. I’m sure it’s something Wired is doing wrong, but I’m hoping you can be smarter than them and fix it, cause as interesting as it is to know D&D has updated and it’s great I really only need to know once (click to enlarge)

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One of the questions I get asked frequently is “which search conferences should I attend”. Seeing as conferences end up costing you between $3500-$5000 a pop when you include travel, lodging and meals I thought I’d share my experience.

What Search Engine Conferences Should I Attend »

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Ever since my initial SEO plugins for wordpress post almost two years ago, I get asked for an updated list a few times a month. Well since we’re up to wordpress 2.5 I thought the time has come. I’ll also put some of my other favorite plugins at the end, they either enhance wordpress features or just make things easier.

SEO Plugins for Wordpress Part II »

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When you view satellite images in Google Maps you can see the building, however I just noticed you can also see the building outlines in standard view. For example here’s the Long Beach Westin Hotel where SMX local was held. Look at the building behind the letter A. You can see a curved building which is exactly the way the Westin hotel is shaped. (click to enlarge)

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Now Shoemoney is a friend of mine, but regarding his post SEO Has No Future today, I am forced to disagree with him. Not only does SEO have a future but judging by the number of SEO clients I am turning away, and the number of job offers I am receiving on weekly basis to take on in house positions, all during a shrinking economy and a recession, the future is looking pretty bright for SEO …

Yes Shoemoney SEO Does Have a Future »

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In my early days I played a bit more in the darker side of the game. I fully admit that I built and ran more than 1 or 2 scrapers, aggregators, and MFA style sites, but as a business model those type of sites are really on the decline, and not something I’d ever recommend to a beginner or intermediate level person. Why SEO Can’t Be Your Only Value Add »

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While I was off doing some work Jill and Lisa engaged in a debate over whether or not we need SEO standards. Even though I’m a day late and a dollar short I’m still going to throw my 2 cents in. No Optimizer Left Behind »

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One of the things that makes me happy is when people email or come up to me at a conference and say “hey I read your blog about so and so went and tried it on my site and it worked great”, it gives me that warm fuzzy pay it forward feeling. It mekes me even happier when someone takes one of my ideas, runs with it, and then gives back sharing with the community. A few weeks ago I made a suggestions on how to improve the Yahoo plugin. Markus took the ball and came up with the Photo Dropper Plugin.

Wordpress Add Photos Plugin »

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Building of of Sugarrae’s Creating Firefox Quick Search Bookmarks here are a few of mine feel free to use them. To make it easy just click the link and drag to your toolbar or bookmark folder.

Header Checker: gives you the status code of the page you are on 200, 404, etc

Link Forward: Uses MS link forward command for the domain you are currently on

Dupe Content Search: I LOVE this one, grab a bit of text (for best results select around punctuation) and search google for the exact text in quotes

If you’re new round here check out stuntdubl’s bookmarklets (best not to wake sleeping giants).

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Since the writers have been on strike now for ever, and they’ve managed to all but eliminate anything interesting from TV (except of course American Gladiators and Gossip Girl) what can you do to keep yourself occupied on winter nights … check out the Semmy Awards!

The Semmys 2008 - Why I Want to Win »

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While wordpress is one of my favorite CMS platforms, out of the box it isn’t search engine optimized. Combine this with people who aren’t SEO aware, and publish a blog, and you almost always end up with an implementation that’s sub-optimal. Here are some tips to help you get things on track and moving in the right direction.

Optimizing Wordpress Page Titles, Post Titles and Page Slugs »

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I was notified about this post via email and have to say if it’s true I do find it somewhat disturbing. Ted Murphy of Izea (formerly Pay Per Post) sat down with Matt Cutts at Pubcon and had a discussion about links in sponsored posts. According to Ted here’s what was said …

I explained to Matt that in SocialSpark all links required by an advertiser would carry the no-follow tag. I thought this would be a great thing. Matt commended the decision, but then added ALL links inside of any sponsored post should carry the no-follow tag period, regardless of whether they are required, not required or even link to the advertiser paying for the post. That means if Nikon pays me to review a camera and I link off to a site about photography that link needs to be no-follow, along with the link to the blog of my buddy the photographer. His reasoning was that the sponsored post wouldn’t exist without the sponsor paying for it, therefore all the content is commercial and should be no-follow.

If that statement is true (and yes Matt it would be nice if you clarified it) boiling that down to it’s barest components any page, post or content that was commercially motivated should have all of the links no followed.

Matt Cutts Says Financial Arrangements Should Affect All Links Within a Post »

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i live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20006 yay

my favorite president is george washington who lives in richmond virginia in a nice home

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The folks who publish Search Marketing Standard approached me with a special offer for you readers. If you subscribe between now and December 10 2007 you can get a 1 year subscrption for $4.95 (yep that’s $5) if you use the following code when you subscribe:

coupon code: HOLIDAY67

In addition for every person who does subscribe with that code they will donate $1 to Toy for Tots.

When I first heard about the magazine before it came out I didn’t think there was going to be much there for me, but it is one of the 4 remaining print magazines I read (the other three are non search related). This month has articles from people like Chris Boggs, David Temple, Eric Ward, Jessica Bowman, Kim Krause Berg, Joe Whyte, an interview with Chris Winfield, and whole bunch of other people who are going to totally hate me at Pubcon next week for not linking to them.

So if you aren’t a subscriber already why not give it a shot, and subscribe today

Disclosure: There are no affiliate links contained in this post, but I do receive a subscription free of charge. However the folks at Search Marketing Standard totally agreed to buy me a Saleen S7 (red of course), 60″ flat screen plasma TV, Learjet, and private island in the south pacific … ok maybe I made that last sentence up, but a guy can hope right?

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Hey are you guys going to update your plugins? Custom Query String - UTW Edition and SEO Title Tag 2.0 aren’t wordpress 2.3 compatible? Now that wordpress 2.3 has entered nag mode with the 2.3.1 release, I’m reminded I still haven’t migrated 80% of the blogs I manage/run.

Puuuuuhhhhleeeeeze … I’ll be your best friend … for life …

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Since I did a less than stellar job explaning what I meant by keeping your ancillary pages out of Googles index when I reviewed Mahalo last week, I thought I’d try and correct that error.

Do You Want Your Ancillary Pages in Googles Index »

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Ok so Jason Calacanis is talking smack about bad SEO’s again and I think it’s time to clear the air. First of all if you want to talk to SEO’s and good one’s go to an SEO conference not a web 2.0 conference. I don’t know who spoke there and really don’t care, but if you want the best advice go to the best conference you can. I’d especially recommend Pubcon or any of the SMX series. Want to see some really helpful sessions try sitting in on a site audit session you’ll really get a much better understanding of what people in the real world have to go through. Now to prove my point I’ll do a little mini review of Mahalo for you, free of charge no $199.95 or call me later at the office tricks …

Jason Calacanis Please Stop Bad Mouthing SEO’s Because You Won’t Take the Time to Work With Good One’s »

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I came across Website Grader via Guy Kawasaki’s website today and I have to say this is one of the worst ideas I have ever seen, worse than that it’s downright dangerous in the w