Just the confirmation from Google engineers that this sandbox thing does exist is a relief. I’ve been on the “does exist” side for quite some time.
It exists.
Case closed.
Get back to writing content and focusing on making your site great. The search engines will take care of themselves.
Confirmation From Google That The Sandbox Does Exist
I haven’t read this yet. But it’s been well reviewed. This pdf gives some insight into key phrase research… especially for niche key phrases.
Key phrase research is by far the most important part of a search marketing strategy. Any research in this arena is always welcome.
Check it out here:
Oh yeah, and it’s free.
If you have fallen out of Google, here’s the official response as how to get back in:
Matt Cutts: Filing a reinclusion request at Google
“This theory holds that trying to rank high for ‘blue widgets’ with a site registered in 2005 certainly can be done?but it will probably take a few years, if, during those years you?ve been working your butt off creating great content and gathering as many links as you can to your site.”
This is a pretty interesting theory. I would suspect that he’s really on to something here.
“The key is links over time.”
Jim?s SEO Thoughts ? Blog Archive ? I like ?em old.
SEO Still a Tiny Portion of Total Search Marketing Spend — Most companies are pouring money into paid search (pay per click). A far smaller percentage goes to optimizing web pages so that they show up better in the organic search results. The reason? Search optimization is considered too complex and so apparently executives find it easier to ignore SEO. Sounds to me like an opportunity for the SEO firms to improve their marketing messages.
The message definitely needs to be improved. Our positioning is really problematic too. Optimizers are seen as one person shops in some guy’s basement. It doesn’t have a tremendous amount of credibility.
Granted, it would be scarey to get this letter… that you are being removed from Google. But on the other hand, it’s going to be nice to know that it’s happening. It will give you a chance to correct your mistakes.
Their first trial notice is for JavaScript redirects. The next is for hidden text.
I’m intererested to see how this all pans out.
Google Will Notify You That Your Are Being Removed
If you haven’t heard yet, Google has just unveiled, Google blog search. It is a live updating engine. So everything is extremely fresh.
“We look for sites that update pinging services, and then we crawl in real-time so that we can serve up search results that are as fresh as we can,” said Goldman.
You can check out the search engine here:
Google Blog Search
Chris Sherman does a very good overview of Google Blog Search here:
Google Launches Industrial Strength Blog Search
Search Engine Watch has put together a list of blogs talking about the Google Blog Search tool, if you are interested in hearing all the buzz:
Roundup Of Google Blog Search Commentary
Happy blog searching!
I have become quite a fan of Bob Parsons… the owner of Go Daddy. He was a marine, built and sold a wildly successful company - Parsons Technology - and now is running Go Daddy. They were the only people to try something bold as a commercial in last year’s Super Bowl.
He has an interesting blog here:
Hot Points ? A blog by Go Daddy founder and president Bob Parsons
He spends a lot of time on his blog and consequently he has some really inspiring and helpful advice.
His most recent post I’ve found applies to so many areas of life… not the least of which is marketing.
The secret John D. Rockefeller used to build Standard Oil.
He’s talking about tracking. He’s an avid tracker of his business. He writes:
I learned that Mr. Rockefeller was one of the few people in his industry (perhaps the only one) who knew exactly how much it cost to extract, refine and deliver a barrel of oil. In fact, he was entirely aware of all his costs. Knowing this information (and acting on it) gave him a huge competitive advantage. He knew how much he could price a barrel of oil for and still turn a profit.
Tracking is definitely not the most glamorous part of marketing. It’s not going to directly make your phone ring, it isn’t going to give you the nice shiny ad in your trade magazine and it’s not going to get you to the top of the search engines.
But without tracking, all of those actions are probably costing you too much money.
If you are like the majority of businesses, you probably can’t tell someone right away where all of your clients came from. You’ll likely say, most of your business comes from “Referrals”. That could very well be true. But what referrals? Are there people or companines that are generating leads for you more often than others?
It’s really easy to do. In fact, we’ve put together a tracking spreadsheet that you can download here:Marketing Tracking Spreadsheet. It’s in a zip file. Just unzip it and you should be ready to go. It should be pretty straight forward.
This is how the spreadsheet is laid out:
If you spend a little time on this, you are very likely going to be amazed at what you find out. Once you know where your best return on investment is, you can much more easily focus your marketing where it is most effective.
Everything that is watched improves. This is especially true for marketing. Filling out this spreadsheet is going to go a long way in helping you become a much more effective and savvy marketer.
Here’s a good write up of yesterday’s meeting of the Cleveland tech community. This was an impressive meeting. I’m pretty confident there has never been a single meeting of so many technology people in one room.
Cleveland Tech Community Rallies to Aid New Orleans
Michael DeAloia wrote to the group yesterday:
Good-Afternoon:
I just wanted to thank everyone who attended the Tech Meeting today as we defined the scope and need of IT support and aid for the New Orleans area. I believe the final numbers were 65+ individuals/groups in the conference room and an additional 35+ on the conference call. Never has there been an outreach like this from the regional tech community and I am very proud and touched by the efforts of all involved. Let me provide for everyone there and who could not attend the action items and things already accomplished:
Website: www.tenthfloor.com/katrinarelief.com (Developed by Tenth Floor ? many thanks Tony.)
All aid and outreach agreed to by local companies will be placed on this website within the next few days. For those of you who could not attend or who did not have the offer form ? I have attached a copy. Please feel free to fax it (216.664.3681) to my attention or send it to me (mdealoia@city.cleveland.oh.us). I will make sure that all data is placed on the site.
Proposed Aid:
The following six categories are what we are willing and able to provide to the New Orleans region immediately:
I. Help Desk: If you would like to coordinate help to this silo please connect with Joe Smucny of Perceptis @ 216.533.3028 or joe.smucny@percpetis.com.
II. Crisis Communication: We have created a team that will aid New Orleans region companies in their communications as well as helping us deploy our message to them. If you would like to coordinate help to this silo please connect with Matt Ziaja of Business Wire @ 216.781.5830 or matt.ziaja@businesswire.com.
III. Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity: If you would like to coordinate help to this silo please connect with Michael Bennett of BlueBridge Networks @ 216.346.0156 or mbennett@bbnllc.com.
IV. Website Infrastructure: If you would like to coordinate help to this silo please connect with Tony Pietrocola of Tenth Floor @ 216.575.1010 or tonyp@tenthfloor.com.
V. Software Deployment: If you would like to coordinate help to this silo please connect with Joe Lamantia of e-Ventus @ 216.643.6840 or jlmantia@e-ventus.com.
VI. Physical Space/Relocation: We are dedicated to getting not just the tech companies but all companies from the affected region up and running as quickly as possible. Cleveland has the capacity and infrastructure to make this happen post haste. To help coordinate any and all efforts here please connect with Brian Lenahan of Colliers @ 216.861.5380 or brian.lenahan@colliers.com.
Contact:
We talked extensively this morning with Mark Lewis, President of the Louisiana Technology Counsel on ways to help. It was decided to help Mark develop a monkey survey that can be sent to over 3,000 business owners, leaders and entrepreneurs in the New Orleans region. Jim Cookinham of NEOSA will be leading this effort. If you would like to help Jim in any way or have some tremendous insights please connect with him at 216.621.3300 or at jimc@neosa.org. The survey should be finished by tomorrow and results will be sent to all parties connected with this email.
Leadership Contacts:
Please feel free to contact the following individuals with comments, questions or ideas:
Jim Cookinham of NEOSA @ 216.621.3300 or jimc@neosa.org.
Michael DeAloia of City of Cleveland @ 216.664.3644 or mdealoia@city.cleveland.oh.us
Cathy Panzica of Thompson Hine @ 216.566.5500 or cathy.panzica@thompsonhine.comOther Action Items:
SUGAR Software: David Moss of the Cleveland Institute of Art is working on getting this software so that we can communicate between our selves better and so we can manage all projects that come through the new website.
Other Points of Contact: PLEASE forward any points of contact in New Orleans that can benefit from this aid/support. Matt Ziaja is researching how to connect with the cell phone carriers so that we can in the future not only send out email blasts but cell phone blasts as well.
I will be coordinating a next meeting after the results of the monkey survey are received.If I missed anything or anyone, please let me know. Again the efforts are fantastic. And what we have here, I believe, is a model that we can now apply to any disaster (God forbid) in the future. Cleveland?s tech community will always be ready to help and now will have the methods to get that support to any region quickly and efficiently. I have never been so proud in my life. Many, many thanks to all of you. PLEASE FORWARD TO ANYONE I MIGHT HAVE MISSED.
This is a very noble effort. And there was no doubt that many people are chomping at the bit to help. There’s a lot of really strong personalities in this group. It is going to take some finesse to get them all moving in the same direction. I think it can be done. But it’s not going to be overly easy.