Alex McArthurengine | Alex McArthur

SES San Jose

Alex — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:30:52 +0000

I found my way to San Jose this morning to attend Search Engine Strategies. My flight departed early so I had to get up at 4:30am…so yeah, I’m kind of in a bad mood.

So far I’ve only attended one session. It was regarding Universal/Blended Search.
Moderator:

Chris Sherman, Co-Chair, SES San Jose

Greg Jarboe, President and Co-Founder, SEO-PR
Sherwood Stranieri, Search Marketing Director, Catalyst online
Bill Slawski, Director of Search Marketing, Commerce360

Q&A Speakers:

Erik Collier, Director of Product Management, Ask.com
David Bailey, Engineer, Google
Tim Mayer, Vice President of Product Management, Yahoo! Search

Mostly, the various search engines discussed how they see the future of blended search evolving. Obviously the engines want to include more and more content (video, images, etc) to keep users in front of their ads.

Google News currently only provides text and images. Video should be available soon.
Google Universal search will begin to shuffle features in the SERPs. For example, (as of 8/20/2007) a search for “Alex McArthur” returns 3 pictures of the actor and 10 standard web results. If a video or blog post about Alex McArthur became popular in the future, then a Google Onebox result may be added to the first SERP page.
Third party videos showing up in blended search results.

Erik Collier, from Ask.com, reported a 30% drop of searchers going to second page as a result of blended search. Also, a 15% drop on searchers performing more than 1 query. According to Erik this means that people are finding what they want quicker.
*2nd page just won’t cut it any more. ;-)

Ban That!

Alex — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:48:37 +0000

Yeah, my widgets are getting out of control, but most of my readers use RSS apps anyway. Aren’t crazy amounts of plugins half the fun of blogging?

My latest site “enhancement” is my Ban That widget you can see on the top of my sidebar. It’s a fun site to tell the world about things you hate and why.

Not so Daily Searchcast

Alex — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:22:02 +0000

I’m a fan of the Daily Searchcast with Danny Sullivan, but I have a gripe. IT’S NOT DAILY!

Oh, and while I’m in the mood to complain please prohibit Bruce Clay from advertising more than once a year on the podcast. Their ads nearly explode my speakers.

Worst search engine ever?

Alex — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 01:00:36 +0000

I’d have to go with Msdewey.com.

I’m sure this site is simply an attempt at link bait. Yes, it worked. I’m a fool.

Google Isn’t Funny

Alex — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 00:14:42 +0000

Does anyone else remember Google’s April Fool’s joke back in 2002? I remember reading it years back and not finding it funny.

You can view it here:
Google’s Pigeonrank, April Fool’s Day Joke

I just spent some time reviewing some things on G’s site. I periodically do this to look for new tools and came across this joke. After reading it years later I decided it still isn’t funny. Now don’t get me wrong…I use google daily, but this attempt at humor doesn’t get better with age.

Demystified

Alex — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 04:06:02 +0000

I picked up Web Analytics Demystified by Eric Peterson the other day. This book came highly recommended and although I have not yet completed it, I strongly advise it to anyone interested in the field. I believe web analytics is a field that is mistakenly overlooked by small and mid-sized companies. Many businesses pay big bucks for search engine marketing. However, they have no plan once a visitor has entered the site. MidScape has recenly added web analytics services and can improve your ROI success.

*More to come on web analytics as I come across topics of interest.

Turkey Day SEO Tips

Alex — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 05:42:40 +0000

Tip – Make sure to take advantage of header tags by loading them with core keywords.
Ex. – Within my H1, H2, or H3 tags I attempt to always include “Alex McArthur” and other category keywords on this site.

Warning – Don’t use links within header tags. Matt Cutts, a google employee, warns against this practive.

Happy Turkey Day. Have a safe holiday.

Need to bump your search engine results?

Alex — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 21:19:22 +0000

Search engine marketing has continued to be a hot topic over the past few years and won’t be slowing anytime soon. I come across tips and discussions constantly on page rank, reciprocal links, and back link strategies. What does it all mean and what should be given precedence?

SEO Misunderstandings

I’ve improved my search engine results and now I can call it a day. Wrong. If you are committed to remaining at the top it is a never ending process. Internet marketing practices must be ever present in your plans for a successful online presence. This means monies should be allocated to your businesses budget and resources/employees assigned to the task.
I can work the system with unapproved techniques. Wrong again. Yes, I’ll admit there are some minds out there that are able to crack the system successfully. You, however, are not one of them. You may be bright. You may even know of a proven black hat technique, but is it really worth it? Your business ethics will reflect upon your continued success and scars are very difficult to remove. Also, the threat of being banned from search engines altogether is real. Just stay away from link farms, spamming, etc.

Practical SEO Techniques

What are the search engine results above you doing to stay ahead? Take a look at the source code of your competitors. Do they have specifice keywords spread more prevalently through their content? How many link backs do they have compared to your site? This research is extremely valuable as they are doing something more effectively than you.
Submit to every directory you come across.
Place your link on websites found in the same category of search engine directories.
Choose your domain name wisely. This actually does not pull as much weight as many think so don’t stress too heavily. Your content and back links are much more important.
Add fresh content frequently. This is key to your positioning. Update news on your industry or new clients. You get the idea.
Don’t give up. Your results will improve with your continued effort.

Contact MidScape in the Utah area if you are looking for professional SEM services. Sorry, I’m forced to solicit our services at any opportunity. The SiteManagement package includes search engine marketing management.