Wingnut SEO

I am pleased to announce the recently registered LLC 10k Things. After being canned from my last job (even after getting a great job 2 hours later) I started to really take things more seriously. The SEM world is always changing and clients come and go – how secure is my new job?

So I did what any Freelancer turned Agency Worker doing side freelance work would do – Took it up a notch with my freelance work. I have always worked with designers and PPC consultants to help with my freelance clients – but now it’s official a company. The launch of the new internet marketing company site, 10kThings.com, should happen later this evening.

It’s pretty cool. We have been working together for a while now and interestingly enough we can do the exact same things any large agency can but for a much lower cost – As we have ZERO overhead.

We will see how things go – we have a few proposals out and a couple clients already signed. Who knows this thing could get huge… here’s to hoping.

To those wondering I will be keeping my full time job - and they were cool that I was working side work when they hired me as they encourage the entrepreneurial spirit. I am really happy where I am with this company and 10k Things will not be a direct competitor with where I am now. The current company I am with is much more large scale than anything 10k Things will be for quite some time.

Right now it’s just a fun project to bring in a little extra money with taking on a few clients and try something new.

Living in Denver and working in Boulder I see a lot of homeless people every day. As an SEO who lives and breathes and dreams search engines I had an interesting thought today inspired by my co-worker Nathan Joynt - What if the homeless needed SEO but just couldn’t afford it? I think it would really be helpful to everyone if I took the time and did my part for the homeless - Free homeless SEO

Lets look at some examples:

Exhibit A

This is the kind of sign that probably worked really well about 10 years ago. This man has been on the streets a long time but has lost touch with what works and doesn’t. He should really consider a redesign as the usability is just horrible, the information is jumbled and the font choices could be better. I’d also suggest that a he write better, less spammy copy - This would not only help usability but he might even be able to get higher SERP positions bringing in more traffic and ad revenue.

Exhibit B

This is a great example of good design but sadly they are not going to get the traffic they deserve. First of all the keyword density is lacking not to mention the fact that “work” and “food” are highly competitive keywords - ranking for these is going to be nearly impossible. With just a little keyword research we see that “Homeless Vet will work 4 food” would be a better choice - You can still get your message across and you find you will get a lot of traffic by putting yourself against less competition.

Another problem with this sign is that it’s out there so much - It’s duplicate content. Just changing the “for” to a “4″ isn’t enough to make the spiders think it is different. I’d suggest adding more words and maybe breaking up the content with bullets and H1’s. Even something as simple as changing “work” to “manual labor” would be helpful.

Exhibit C

Clearly this homeless man has some SEO experience. This man knew that he would get hurt in the SERPs if he used spam tactics or duplicate content. This is a great example of how great content will always be linked to and get a lot of traffic. Not only is this a link baiting sign it is a great example of niche marketing. He knew that ninjas are a big market and by by positioning himself for what people are searching for he gets the traffic. Not only that his copy writing and design skills are great. He gets his point across quickly and makes the reader want to buy.

This AGREEMENT is dated and in effect as of the Month Day, Year, between “Company Name” hereafter referred to as “Consultant” and “Client Name”, hereafter referred to as “Client.” This agreement is with respect to the Search Engine Optimization of Company website, hereinafter referred to as the “Work.” Whereas, Consultant is a professional of Search Engine Optimization of good standing; Whereas, Client wishes Consultant to create certain Work described more fully herein; and Whereas, Consultant wishes to create such Work; Now, therefore, in consideration of the foregoing premises and the mutual covenants hereinafter set forth and other valuable considerations, the parties hereto agree as follows:

CONFIDENTIALITY:

The Client and Consultant may disclose confidential information one to the other to facilitate work under this Agreement. Such information shall be so identified in writing at the time of its transmittal, and shall be safeguarded and not disclosed to third parties by the receiving party. Confidential information shall not include information that:

1. is already known to the party to which it is disclosed;
2. is or becomes part of the public domain without breach of this Agreement;
3. is obtained from third parties, which have no obligations to keep confidential to the parties to this Agreement.

DESCRIPTION OF WORK:

A separate Proposal will describe the Work that is required of Consultant for the Client.

PAYMENT SCHEDULE:

The full length of this contract is as follows:

Starting date is Month Day, Year. and estimated completion Month Day, Year for the total amount of $X per month. Payment is due on the 1^st of every month.

DUE DATES:

Consultant agrees to deliver optimization suggestions on dates as agreed upon in the Proposal. Consultant will make every effort to meet agreed upon due dates. The Client should be aware that failure to submit required information or materials may cause subsequent delays in the production. Client delays could result in significant delays in delivery of finished work. The Client also agrees to make any SEO changes suggested immediately and to not second guess the Consultant. The Client acknowledges the fact that he/she knows nothing about SEO and will keep his/her personal opinions to themselves.

FEES & ADDITIONAL SERVICES:

Changes in client input or direction or excessive changes will be charged at $X an hour for any work the Client wishes Consultant to create, which is not specified in the DESCRIPTION section of this agreement, or in the attached Proposal will be considered an additional service. Such Work shall require a separate Agreement and payment separate from and above that specified in this Agreement. If the Client wishes to do nothing with the suggestions and changes offered but still expects his/her rankings to increase the Client accepts that he/she shall allow the Consultant to punch the Client in the throat.

ASSIGNMENT OF WORK:

Consultant reserves the right to assign other designers or subcontractors to the Work to ensure quality and on-time completion.

RESERVATION OF RIGHTS:

All rights not expressly granted hereunder are reserved to Consultant, including but not limited to all rights in sketches, comps, or other preliminary materials.

PERMISSIONS AND RELEASES:

The Client agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Consultant against any and all claims, costs, and expenses, including attorney’s fees, due to materials included in the Work at the request of the Client for which no copyright permission or previous release was requested or uses which exceed the uses allowed pursuant to a permission or release.

PUBLICATION:

The Client may publish or disclose information regarding the Work and shall acknowledge the support of Consultant in all such publications. The Client will not use the name of Consultant, in any advertising or publicity without the prior written approval from the Consultant. The Consultant will not use the name of Client, in any advertising or publicity without the prior written approval from the Client.

Termination:

Either party may terminate this Agreement by giving 30 days written notice to the other of such termination. In the event that Work is postponed or terminated at the request of the Client, Consultant shall have the right to bill pro rata for work completed through the date of that request, while reserving all rights under this Agreement. If additional payment is due, this shall be payable within thirty days of the Client’s written notification to stop work. In the event of termination, the Client shall also pay any expenses incurred by Consultant and the Consultant shall own all rights to the Work. The Client shall assume responsibility for all collection of legal fees necessitated by default in payment.

The Client and Consultant are independent parties and nothing in this Agreement shall constitute either party as the employer, principal or partner of or joint venture with the other party. Neither the Client nor Consultant has any authority to assume or create any obligation or liability, either express or implied, on behalf of the other.

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of STATE applicable therein.

The undersigned agrees to the terms of this agreement on behalf of his or her organization or business.

On behalf of the Client: _________________________________ Date _____________

On behalf of Consultant: __________________________________ Date ____________

So I have access to a pretty rad team of developers who want to start making some tools for the company I am now working with.  I have a pretty good idea of what I have always wanted in a sweet SEO tool but I thought I’d open up the floor to everyone to chime in and help out with some ideas.  Any tools created will be free to all

So - If you could have your dream SEO/SEM/PPC/Social Media tool - What would it be?  What would it do?  How would it work?  Would it be web-based?  Should you have to download something? Tell me about it… If you have an amazing idea that isn’t already out there I want to know what you would like to see.  I won’t be working with this company forever but I may continue to use the tools long after I’m gone - Free SEO tools help everyone

So don’t be shy - Either leave your dream tool idea in a comment or Email me Dave@DaveWinget.com

So this isn’t what I was going to write about today.  I was going to write a piece on “Social Media Karma and how down voting your friends that you ask to vote you up is a bad idea” so as I do, I go out to find a fun image to edit slightly and then throw up as my little teaser image.  I get on Google and search images for the word “karma” at least 4 of the images that showed up on the first page were porn.  Not just classy stuff either - I’m talking hard core porn.

Where the hell was this when I was 14.  Finding free porn on the internet was a difficult thing… now all you have to do is type in any word on the Google and blam… Plenty of high quality free porn.  There is no “are you 18″ buttons to click, no credit card info to give away…  This has got to be illegal… Right?  Or since there is the preferences section… it isn’t?

On one hand it’s great - Freedom of search of something - things not being censored… On the other hand THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

Maybe there is a way to lock this on your computer… I’m not seeing one.  All a horny teenager has to do is sign up for gmail… sign in… go back to search and he has his own preferences to set.  Good times.  I hear there are some 3rd party things out there that can lock it… but what average parent/gardian is going to know about these, or know even what to search for?

There is some talk about “SEO Fame” going around started off by Lee Odden and then continued today with a post over on SEOmoz by Rand Fishkin - they both seem to be saying the same thing… It’s not an end in and of itself. Well, yeah, duh… But it sure doesn’t hurt… Both Odden and Fishkin are “famous” - How many people do they have reading every word that they write? Well, just looking at subscriber stats 40k+ between the two of them. How much ad money is brought in, how many clients actually find them because they are famous? Sure does make sales a little more simple when people are searching for you by name.

They do make a good point though - Fame is not your end game. So then, why chase it? For me it is not fame I’m seeking but just powerful networking. The fruits of my social media and SEO network labor are already starting to pay off.

Case in point: I was downsized last Monday from my agency job - Two hours later I had a better paying agency job and started Tuesday thanks to my interviewers knowing who I was because they had seen my blog on Sphinn a few times. Awesome. I’m totally famous, well… not really. BUT I AM KNOWN BY SOME. Cool.

Example 2 of my awesome power of networking: I’m looking to buy some kind of rad 4×4 for escapes to back country mountain camp sites. I get on Twitter and ask “Anyone know what car is good to get for offroading? I’m thinking about a Jeep Wrangler” A couple hours later Dan Perry who works SEO and Online Marketing for Cars.com calls me up and gives me a rundown on what’s good and what’s not - Now that is just straight up cool… I’ll be getting an FJ Cruiser, by the way - Thanks Dan

Becoming “famous” is really just a side bonus of networking. The more people you are nice to and know… the more people will be nice to and know you. That’s what SEO fame is good for. It’s so helpful being known by all the other great SEO’s out there - being friends with - friends help friends out - they will answer questions and help you meet other people… Social networkers are social people… social people are generally good to have on your side.

Well, that’s all I have to say about that. Fame would be nice to have - Do I want it? Sure, who doesn’t. If it helps me reach my goal of not being someones grunt and either running my own agency or just being happy doing freelance because I’m known great… You just have to understand what Lee and Rand both said - Fame is not an end game in and of itself, but it’s one hell of a helpful thing for any career.

As we all do on our free time, I was discussing PPC over lunch with someone.  Her claim was that bidding on branded terms was illegal and unethical.  While I respect her opinion as she is highly regarded in the search marketing world - I disagree.

Lets look at the first statement:  Illegal - Nope, Google is not the law… It may be against the GoogleAds TOS, but this does not make it illegal.  Until such time that The Oracle (aka Google) assumes control of the legal system and imposes a curfew and mandatory internet search time - The legality of this is not questioned - It is perfectly legal.  Not only that all it takes to shut down someone bidding on your branded terms is a simple phone call to Google… If you’re not paying attention that’s your companies fault.

Her second point is slightly more ambiguous.  Is bidding on someones branded keywords ethical?  I’m going to have to say it is perfectly ethical - and here’s why:

PPC and SEO are not a game - They are a war.  You are in constant struggle with your competition for top rankings.  Sure, you can play nice and make it a friendly battle… but at the end of the day you are in it to win it.  If you are not in the top of the SERPs you have lost the day - and more importantly -  lost valuable traffic.

You do whatever it takes to drive that traffic to your site.  If that’s pushing the boundaries of SEO or bidding on your competitions branded terms for your PPC campaigns - SO BE IT.

If you don’t look at SEO/PPC as a fierce competition then you are going to lose the war and end up falling behind.

Okay… Seriously.  I am tired of looking at sites when people want SEO and seeing this… so just stop doing it… Hey web-designers - STOP BEING RETARDED

• www/no-www - Pick one or the other and do it when you set up your hosting - from the start NOT HARD
• Descriptions ARE NOT OPTIONAL - Sure they technically might be, if you ride the short bus.  Descriptions not only help with your ranking for specific keywords THEY ARE SEEN BY EVERYONE WHO FINDS YOU ON A SEARCH ENGINE
• <title> - STOP BEING A SELF CENTERED JERK AND JUST PUTTING IN “mywebsite.com” - These are also seen by everyone who finds you on a search engine.  Oh AND it’s a huge factor in where you rank for keywords
  • Sidenote - Also stop being a spammy McSpamson and just stuffing keywords, make them human readable - SO HUMANS CAN READ AND KNOW WHAT THE PAGE IS ABOUT

Actually… I take it all back… keep doing what you have been doing - I like having an easy job.

</End Rant>

2007 marked the rise to god-like popularity for social networks. Starting in late ’06 with a deal ranging in the billions of dollars when Google acquired YouTube to the hundreds of million’s invested into Facebook just a few months ago – it is clear that being social is big business.  Social networks are so popular that even the porn industry has gotten in on the action with Penthouse dropping $500 million into acquiring several dating social networks. These absurd amounts of money have caused the world to take notice.

 Social sites are popping up everywhere.  You can find them for just about every niche group there is.  There are social networks for music junkies, car enthusiasts, bargain hunters, tech people, book lovers, marketers, religions, and everything else.

 This, in turn, has and will continue to cause a radical shift in how online marketing and search in general is done now and in the future.  As little as just five years ago there were only a handful of well known ways to go about promoting a website and gaining traffic – SEO, PPC, link buying/banner placement, and the infancy of the social networks – forums and personal blogs. 

With the rise in modern social networks, however, it has opened the lines of communication from marketers to consumers and consumers to marketers in never before seen proportions.  This has unleashed an array of viral marketing campaigns, corporate blogs, and link baiting tactics that would have been nearly impossible in the past.

These new practices have caused online marketers to build reputations on networks such as Digg or StumbleUpon for the sole purpose of being popular enough to send thousands of unique visitors to a website with the single click of a button or a few lines of a written review.  This is no easy power to obtain but there is obvious value for companies to have people like this on their side.

Further changes to the state of search and the rise of social media in the near future include sites like Mahalo that continue to gain popularity and more users each day.  These sites are giving the power of search results to the people, by letting them submit like, find useful or think should rank more highly.

As this trend in social networks and social search continue the general population may one day inevitably turn away from the faceless Googles and Yahoos in favor of more reliable search from the people they or their friends trust. 

In essence that is what all the social networks are about - trust.  Something that the major search engines are losing as the general population starts to understand what sponsored links are and how easy it is to game the system to place a spam site at the top of the search results pages.  At the same time people are growing more wary of the search engines tendency to data-base everything they do for unknown (potentially sinister?) purposes.

In 2008 social networks will continue to gain steam with the general populace and with them more corporations will see the value in being a part of the social world through blogging and/or hiring people to become leaders in various social networks.

What the end result of these social networking and search trends will mean to the SEO and online marketing world is, as of now, uncertain. One thing you can count on, however, is that it will be very interesting to watch how the major search engines react to this fundamental change in how people find content online.  

It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything (he says as he declares RSS bankruptcy after a long holiday and can finally breath again.)

Here I am sitting in front of a computer after a long break, staring at the screen trying to figure out what I’m doing. What great posts did I miss? What sites can’t I live without? What book marks should I get rid of? What the hell has the SEM world done in the last year - how it is going to change in the next 12 months? What sites should I be parking for 2008?

I look forward to the year ahead - but at the same time it is terrifying. Looking at the mountain of work that sits in front of me… praying one of my hair-brained web ideas that I have been half-cooking will go huge and I can just sit and do nothing… except maybe two chicks at the same time.

To make things less scary one needs a plan. My plan for this new year is in the works - It involves actually following through on great ideas that I am too lazy to do anything about.

Take things one day at a time - do what you love - and the rest will all fall into place.

Happy New Years everyone - I promise to write something less personal with more useful information next time - And hopefully a couple of the bad links I put in will become real pages very soon.