10 ways big data changes everything May 9, 2012
Posted by Edwin Ritter in Cloud Computing, E-Commerce, SEO, Trends.Tags: analytics, big data, data mining, internet, metrics, SEO, Social Media, Trends, web metrics
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A yottabyte isn’t what happens when the Jedi master starts gnawing on your leg. It’s the information equivalent of one quadrillion gigabytes, and is enough digital data to fill the states of Delaware and Rhode Island with a million data centers, according to Backblaze. While the world hasn’t yet seen many yottabytes, industries like Internet search, genomics, climate research, and business analytics are starting to create massive data sets — in the peta- and exabyte range — that are requiring an entirely new set of big data tools to manage.
Ruminations on optimum SEO April 24, 2012
Posted by Edwin Ritter in SEO.Tags: google, optimize, over-optimize, penalty, search, search engine, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEOmoz_org
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Let’s agree first off that you can never fully optimize a web site. As the site changes, revising the search engine ‘spider-food‘ occurs at the same time and is always a good thing. Second, let’s also acknowledge that every so often, google makes changes to its’ search algorithm. Keeping your site visible to the search engines and aligned to the latest algorithm is all for the good.
But, you don’t want too much of a good thing. As the search algorithm changes and sites are re-indexed using the new criteria, having an over-optimized site may not provide the results you had in the past, or, want going forward. In fact, sites that are not changed may see a penalty.
I recently found this video from SEOmoz* that lists 6 ways to avoid over optimizing a site for SEO :
- Be authentic – simple and easy but not always common.
- Manipulative internal links – don’t do that.
- Link filled footers – don’t do that either.
- Text blocks aimed at search engines – yeah, don’t and what a bad user experience.
- Back links from non-reputable sources – another black hat technique**
- Large amounts of pages targeting similar links – keep it simple.
*SEOmoz is a great resource for organic SEO tips, tools and best practices. Each week, they post a video in their ‘White Board Friday (WBF)’ series.
**Black Hat SEO involves the worst practices and techniques frowned on by the search engines. White Hat SEO is good and rewarded. Always wear a white hat while practicing SEO. And, goggles.
Avoid the penalty. Put on your White hat and check if your site(s) are over-optimized.
Search Basics for Images October 18, 2010
Posted by Edwin Ritter in Trends.Tags: image, search, SEO
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Baby steps here on ways to improve SEO results with images. I have ruminated before on communicating sans words. Improving search result with your images can be achieved by adding a few meta terms.
Here is a recent post from SEOMoz on somebasic ways to improve search results for images. The video clip talks about the following SEO topics:
- File Name – descriptive
- Duration – specify how long the video is
- Alt Text – variation summary
- Surrounding text – brief overview about the piece
Metrics can be collected on each of the topics above. Also, you can collect data on various forms of engagement
- # watched only the beginning
- # watched to the middle
- # watched entire clip
While not a great embedd, as an alternative to the above link, you can use the link to watch the White Board Friday video :
Using YouTube for SEO research October 8, 2010
Posted by Edwin Ritter in Trends.Tags: research, search, SEO, YouTube
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Interesting take on using a well known resource in ways you may not think of. Turns out that YouTube can be a great source for SEO keyword research. With so much information posted to YouTube every day, it actually makes sense to use as a keyword rich resource. Here is article that walks through the process. Note that it was posted on SEOMoz by a member, not one of the staff.
Clearly thinking outside the box here to use a great resource in another way. I like the way the research can also be used to define the site hieararchy. Here is a tangible benefit of the research so clients can understand the benefit or keyword research.
Also, it’s fun to say to your boss “I’m doing research while watching Youtube”.
Manage your local business listing to improve SEO October 7, 2010
Posted by Edwin Ritter in Trends.Tags: search, SEO
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When it comes to boosting your local search results, having an active business listing is easily overlooked. Business owners can use these ‘interactive yellow pages’ to improve customer awareness. This can be a great word of mouth (WOM) referral for new business. Here is a recent article from SEJ that talks about what to do after you list your business.
For the small business owner, managing your business search results is protecting your interests. Make sure it is on your SEO to do list. If you don’t have the time or experience, hire someone to assist you.
Google Instant Search – It’s new and it’s improved. Is it different? September 17, 2010
Posted by Edwin Ritter in Trends.Tags: google, google instant, search, SEO
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Any time google does something, people notice. And, people talk about it. True to form, when google instant recently started a phased release, the digerati posted numerous articles about it. One amusing aspect from these is the reaction people have to this enhanced search capability. I’m sure you have seen or heard some of the exaggerations:
- It’s a game changer!
- It will end search as we know it!
- There is no need to do SEO anymore!
Easy, now. This is not that big of a change. While the search experience using google instant is improved, it is not a quantum change. In fact, it is more of the same, only faster.
shot of google instant
One benefit with google instant that I like is the predictive set of results shown while typing. While some results are laughable, many are close, if not exactly the term sought. This is how your time is saved while searching. For searchers, the speed increase is the biggest impact – it decreases the time spent on search by a lot. But, the actual results and mechanics involved on how to get ranked for SEO terms does not change.
I think google instant will improve our search habits. It will encourage us to be more selective in terms used and symbiotically this will lead to improved results shown. We will be smarter in use of search and so will the google search index.
I saw this article that succinctly talks about the impact and what it really means for businesses going forward. Check it out and share it the next time you hear someone say google instant means we don’t have to do SEO anymore.
Currently, google provides the option to dis-able using instant. So search can be the same as it ever was. I suspect that once you get used to the increased speed, you will always use instant. And, when using other search engines, showing the results will seem s-l-o-w-e-r, zzzzzz.
Connecting Twitter with SEO March 5, 2010
Posted by Edwin Ritter in Trends.Tags: Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEOmoz_org, Trends, Twitter
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I just came across an interesting vlog that talks about using twitter with Search Engine Optmization (SEO) efforts. It is very timely and the vlog is fairly short. This is what makes working in this space so interesting and fun The vlog talks about using twitter as a research tool for SEO and is included in a series titled ‘White Board Friday’ by the SEOMoz group. As the title implies, each week, there is a video on a specific SEO topic. This week’s entry caught my attention as I use twitter and have been working on organic SEO for some time now. Watch the video here.
Video on using twitter for SEO Research
The main message is how to use information from twitter such as trending topics to determine the proper timing for your blog posts. The key is to post in the right window -not too soon, not too late. Another takeaway is in leveraging a Google algorithm based on content freshness. By posting within the window, you take advantage of the spike in real time search for a popular topic such that your blog post will be found using their Query Deserves Freshenss (QDF) algorithm. As that content is fresh and trending, your chances for getting indexed are higher and will be found sooner. Brilliant! Part of the same storm lifting all boats, to use an old phrase.
I have used twitter for quite a while and was aware of the trending topics shown on Twitter. Until watching this video, I did not make the connection on how to use this information.
What other tools can we use in combination to gain further insights into web traffic and behavior? Have any favorites you’d care to share?
