If you’re looking for the latest search engine, SEO, and search marketing news and opinion from industry leaders, look no further than the SEO Blog @ V7N. Featuring internationally respected SEO experts Peter Da Vanzo and John Scott, the SEO Blog @ V7N will keep you in the know about the latest search world happenings. Another great feature of the blog are the occassional interviews with other search industry leaders, which offer great insight. From professional SEOs to the amateur webmaster, there’s something here for everyone. Subscribe to the feed to get all the latest news.
Posted by admin @ 7:45 pm PST
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According to John Scott, and others, PageRank still matters. PageRank has been the subject of discussion as of late, with some SEO types insisting that PageRank no longer matters. PageRank, while it may seem arbitrary and useless, is still indicative of linkage, which is one of the primary factors in determining ranking.
Matt Cutts, a Google Engineer, says:
By the time you see newer PageRanks in the toolbar, those values have already been incorporated in how we score/rank our search results. So while you may be happy to see that the Google Toolbar shows a little more PageRank for a given page, it’s not as if that causes a change in search results at that point. So you won’t see any search engine result page (SERP) changes as a result of this PageRank export–those changes have been gradually baking in since the last PageRank export.
So the little green bar you see on your Google Toolbar might not be quite worth obsessing about every minute of the day, it is indicative of other things going on with your site, mainly backlinks. The higher the number of backlinks, and the more quality sites these are from, the higher your PageRank is likely to be.
Posted by admin @ 7:16 pm PST
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Speaking of web hosting, if you run a large website that is very resource intensive, you’ve likely already found out that shared hosting just won’t work for you. That means it’s time for dedicated web hosting. Dedicated web hosting is where you get your own web server, and have full control over it. This means, if you get a Linux server, you’ll get full root access, or in the case of a Windows-based computer you’ll have administrative access. You don’t actually own the server, but you get full use of it and can do with it what you please (as long as it doesn’t violate the host’s terms of service).
Dedicated web hosting comes in all shapes and sizes, and at varying price levels. The two main kinds of dedicated hosting are managed dedicated hosting, and unmanaged dedicated hosting. Managed dedicated hosting essentially means that your provider takes complete (or nearly complete) care of your server. Unmanaged dedicated servers come with less support and services.
If you’re looking for a good dedicated host, you might want to checkout ServerBeach. They offer several levels of dedicated hosting options, and have datacenters offered in the United States on the East Coast, West Coast, and in the central part of the country.
Posted by admin @ 6:43 pm PST
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The company that you use to host your websites can significantly affect your site in terms of search engine optimization. How so? Well one of the most obvious is that when you host with a low-quality web host that overloads their servers, when the search engine bots make their way to your site, there is a high probability that it will experience slow connection speeds, or not even be able to access the site at all. When the search engine bots cannot access a page within a certain amount of time, they’ll move on to the next link, or worse yet, the next website.
Other factors that can come into play when you’re trying to optimize your site for the search engines are the IP numbers and Class C subnets associated with your hosting. By spreading out your websites over various IPs and Class C subnets, you’ll be able to effectively create your own network of sites that you can use to link to eachother, without the search bots detecting them as being on the same hosting account and devalueing them.
So instead of lumping all your sites on one server, with one host, spread them out. But before you go out and host with just anyone, do your research. Ask other webmasters about their experiences and recommendations, and check out web hosting reviews. Getting a good host is of the utmost importance, and can significantly impact your placement in search engines.
Posted by admin @ 5:52 pm PST
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Forums, or discussion boards, are a great resource for SEO professionals who want to interact with other industry pros and stay on top of the industry. Not only does participating in search engine optimization forums afford you the opportunitiy to discuss issues with other industry pros, but it also is a great way to build relationships with other internet professionals and webmasters who might one day want to use your services. For those SEOers who like to give a little back to the community, you’ll also find SEO forums a rewarding opportunity to help other webmasters figure out some of the basics.
There are a lot of SEO forums out there, but by far the best one that I have come across is the V7N SEO Forums, founded by John Scott. If you’re looking to learn a bit more about SEO, and interact with peers, stop by V7 where you’ll find one of the most friendly and helpful online communities.
Posted by admin @ 5:32 pm PST
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Bob Massa first got into the internet business back in the mid-1990’s, and since then has made himself a name in the SEO world as one of the industry’s leading experts. Bob Massa has spoken at numerous industry conferences around the world, including SEOroadshow, the Internet Marketing Conference, and many others.
Massa first gained international noteriety when he took on Big G, aka Google, back in 2002 when they lowered the PageRank on his SearchKing website. Massa accused Google of intentionally and manually altering the results for SearchKing in order to harm his business. Although he did not win the lawsuit, the attention gained by taking on the search giant brought in more sales than ever. The lawsuit shed some light on Massa’s company and what they did, and people were interested.
Bob Massa has helped numerous other SEOers learn the basics of the industry, and has gone out of his way to share his knowledge with the masses. In fact, the V7 Network even hosts one such piece of educational material entitled “The Basic Concepts of SEO” by Bob Massa. It’s a few years old, but a good portion of it still holds true today. V7’s John Scott also did a nice interview with Bob Massa. If you’re interested in learning more about Bob Massa, his work, and his thoughts on search engine marketing, check out his website at bobmassa.com.
Posted by admin @ 5:04 pm PST
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If you’re looking to submit your website to quality web directories, be sure to check out RubberStamped. RubberStamped is a well-known, highly respected web directory that those in the industry recommend. The directory features one of the cleanest, most clutter-free designs that I have ever come across on a directory.
Each submission to RubberStamped is hand-reviewed, and if accepted, is placed within 48 hours. The submission fees are low, at just $29.95 for a regular listing. You don’t have to pay yearly to keep your listing either; the submission fee is only required once.
The directory features a high PageRank of 5 on the main index, with category and sub-category pages having PR4s and PR3s. Browsing through the directory, it looks like RubberStamped’s reviewers have done an excellent job - I don’t see any spam sites or listings, which is great for potential submitters.
Posted by admin @ 12:15 pm PST
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If you’re in the SEO business and you don’t yet know who Danny Sullivan is, then you’re either a complete newbie or living in some kind of fantasy world. Danny Sullivan is, for all intensive purposes, the godfather of search engine optimization, having been in the business long before SEO became mainstream.
In 1995, after having helped a friend get his website “seen” by the search engines, Danny took the knowledge that he gained and began further investigating how search engines worked. The results of his studies were published online as “A Webmaster’s Guide to Search Engines”. The results received such a positive reaction that Danny decided to expand on the guide and create an entire website dedicated to the topic. Thus was the birth of Search Engine Watch in 1996.
In his years at SEW, Danny saw a great deal of success, having been featured in reknowned publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, New York Times, and others. In the late 1990’s, Sullivan sold Search Engine Watch to MecklerMedia (now Jupiter Media) for an undisclosed sum. He stayed on with SEW as editor-in-chief until 2006. SEW watch was recently sold by JupiterMedia to Incisive Media for $43 million dollars.
Not only did the website achieve a great amount of success, but Search Engine Watch also began conducting a series of trade shows dubbed “Search Engine Strategies”, or SES for short. Thousands of SEO & SEM professionals, executives, and other top businessmen attend the trade shows each year, paying upwards of $2,000 to attend. The conference has also gained major corporate sponsorships and exhibitions, which start at about $5,000.
Danny Sullivan left Search Engine Watch in late 2006, and at the SES Chicago show rumors of his plans for the future began to emerge. Danny wasn’t getting out of the business altogether, he was just going to start up a new site and business by the name of Search Engine Land.
Search Engine Land has been for only a short period of time, but because of Danny’s reputation as a search leader, it has already gained a huge following. Search Engine Land is also set to have their first conference this summer - Search Marketing Expo - in Seattle, WA on June 4-5. For Danny Sullivan, the future looks very bright.
Posted by admin @ 10:31 am PST
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Jakob Nielsen holds a Ph.D from the University of Denmark in Copenhagen, and undisputedly the world’s foremost expert on website usability. He is a User Advocate, and co-founder with Donald A. Norman of the Nielsen Norman Group. Through 1998, Nielsen was a Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer.
Nielsen is often credited with founding the discount usability engineering movement, which advocated fast and cheap improvement of user interfaces. He has also invested several usability methods, including heuristic evaluation. His work is not just studying and coming up with theories; he also holds 79 US patents, which focus mainly on ways of making the internet easier for us to use.
He also has some advice for SEO professionals regarding the use of language on their sites. He says that simple English is good SEO practice:
It’s tempting to coin new terms because you can own the positioning if the term catches on. But, more likely, people will continue to use their old terminology. It’s long been a usability guideline to avoid made-up words in navigation menus, because users scan them for words they know. In full-text content, you can include new words for effect, but make sure to supplement them with legacy words – that is, words that your customers know and use in everyday business practice.
Dr. Nielsen has other great words of wisdom for the SEO world, and everyone else, to listen to. Check out this awesome interview Jakob Nielsen did with John Scott to learn more advice on how to make your website more usable and SEO-friendly.
Posted by admin @ 6:47 pm PST
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Looking to stay up-to-date on the latest SEO industry news, events, and happenings? Then don’t forget to check out SEO Herald. The SEO Herald is written by industry insiders, and features the best of the latest SEO news.
Another cool feature of SEO Herald are the links to latest SEO forum discussions. Discussions are a great way to share your knowledge of SEO with others, and through these we can all learn something new. So head on over to SEO Herald today and check it out!
Posted by admin @ 4:29 pm PST
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