aimClear Search Marketing Blog

photo credit: sinisterbluebox

<rant> I was strolling along the lake towards our lovely Canal Park Office this  morning, when my Blackberry (sonar sound) alerted me to an email. I was consumed noodling on possible blog topics for today and weighing ideas against our team’s imposing schedule. The sound of an email spammer trying to buy doFollow aimClear Blog content links that violate Google’s terms of service, jolted me a bit. Little did I know that some moron was about to make my day. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit  (just fragmented link-juice by 2 links to do the right thing): Mykl Roventine

The most important news to come out of  ‘Advanced 2009 is Google’s blurt-of-a-revelation that they removed the algorithmic benefit from internal page rank sculpting, “about a year ago.” The change also affects how Google handles noFollowed outbound links.

Boiled down, noFollow still prevents the passing of link juice (energy) to the internal or external destination page. However the value is no longer divided up amongst the remaining followed links on the page. Though this 180 degree about-face in what Google had been preaching (literally) to webmasters was poorly handled from a public relations perspective, presumably it was made because the tag was overused, abused and had the potential to skew Google’s rankings.

No worries. We actually think the change will bring some positive changes to the SEO process, though as always there are tradeoffs. Here’s what we’re telling our clients: Read the rest of this entry »

Discover the Power of Linking: Link Building Basics session at SES NY covered a great deal of ground in representing both Search Engine and Search Marketer viewpoints on the subject of links.

The second half of the session comprised of search marketers Kristjan Mar Hauksson, Debra Mastaler, and Peter Van der Graaf, which greatly contrasted the presentations given by the search engine reps.

Overall, it was light on the idealist link concepts, but full of real world applied link building tactics. This post picks up exactly where we left off in the first part of this session’s coverage. Read the rest of this entry »

The undeniable significance of linking within the black box algorithm of the major Search Engines has been the subject of at least half the chatter and controversy in the search marketing world. Remarkable research efforts, branching theories, and “under the hood” tools have sprung from the pure need to demystify the role of links in the SERPs.

Discover the Power of Linking: Link Building Basics at SearchEngineStrategies New York 2009 represented the first major instance of both search marketers and search engine representatives (Live Search, Yahoo!, and Ask.com) converging in one session to give polar perspective on links. Because of this, it was essentially two sessions in one, and aimClear will be breaking coverage up into two parts. Read the rest of this entry »

Many site owners barely understand the basic pathology of links, let alone advanced Dofollow, Nofollow, Pagerank flow-sculpting, and the inherent dangers of link farming. As search marketers, it is incumbent upon us to capitalize on the market’s naivety on behalf of our clients. That’s why they hire us.

The “Fool’s Gold Link Exchange” play is a perfectly ethical tactic we employ surrounding client link-trading activities which results in holistic reciprocal promotion & traffic, happy trading partners, and massive one-way link juice building…for our clients. Read the rest of this entry »

I know SEOs who are scared-yellow. One night, during the early days of Google’s paid link jihad, I personally woke up in Manhattan to a 3AM cold sweat.

It had finally registered that over half of the links we’d procured for clients would, not only cease to have value, but potentially cause penalties. Google was going door to door in a vicious pagerank-killing pogrom.

Gnashing teeth that night, it was clear that our many months of intensity, whilst delving deeper into the social media universe, would pay. I quietly thanked the stars for our team’s social media acumen, planning, and luck. With certainty the golden path was clear. The line between organic search engine optimization and social media is evaporating. Read the rest of this entry »

Many skilled and experienced marketing professionals do not yet understand that the blog structure is the killer SEM enabled content management system. I know first hand what it means to misperceive blogging software. Though aimClear mashes up chunks of blog functionality behind many websites we work with, it took a few years to become personally committed to blogging.

The truth is that bloggers pioneered software and linking methods which socialized the interconnected grid of links and content. Blogging communication tools, laid over the Internet, have helped maximize the social promise of http protocol. Blog-style tools are ubiquitous in nearly all online social communities.

We build blog software hybrids to facilitate feed marketing, content management, hosting community dialog, interactions with social websites, and for blog powered online media rooms. It makes tons of sense. These pockets of functionality are easily available to mash up from open source software like WordPress and integrate easily with traditional website structures. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s seminar tracks included topics about SEO fundamentals, conversion, advanced advertising, contextual ads, and advanced organic optimization. I’m confident that I will remember one session today as the highlight of my SES New York 2007 show. The standing room only crowd for SEO Through Blogs & Feeds was sprinkled with some of the world’s most respected SEO bloggers.

The panel was comprised of some of the finest social media minds in the world: Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media, Stephan Spencer, President, Netconcepts, LLC, Rick Klau , Vice President of Publisher Services FeedBurner, and Sally Falkow, President, Expansion Plus Inc. [Read Full SES Coverage at SEO RoundTable]

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Today I attended an SES NYC 2007 training session taught by Jennifer Laycock, whose Search Engine Guide website is an authority site in the world of organic search. Jennifer is an expert at understanding and analyzing how entire communities have migrated their interactions to the Internet and how to exploit it. Viral link baiting, which focuses on amassing a pool of relevant links to your site from flashy and compelling (sometimes junk) content, can be very useful for the bursts of links it generates. Quality and quantity of inbound links is a crucial measure for Google when determining if a site is popular and deserves to receive top rankings.

Link baiting can be a useful way to generate decent links in large numbers. Viral marketing is different and speaks to a longer term strategy which also generates links but is more prone to result in conversion to a website’s key performance indicators-like sales or information requests. In the continuum of traffic segments, viral marketing to interested communities often results in more engaged traffic which stays on the website longer because of a higher interest level.

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