PageRank: Caught in the paid-link crossfire
October 29th, 2007 @ Hamlet Batista // 25 Comments
Last week the blogosphere was abuzz when Google decided to ‘update’ the PageRank numbers they display on the toolbar. It seems Google has made real on its threat to demote sites engaged in buying and selling links for search rankings. The problem is that they caught some innocent ones in the crossfire. A couple of [...]
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Eyes Wide Shut — Don’t Outpace Yourself to Reach Your Goals
October 23rd, 2007 @ Hamlet Batista // 10 Comments
If you observe successful people you notice that success, both online and off, requires setting far-reaching goals and working hard enough and consistently enough to achieve them. What are less obvious to observe from these winners are the steps and pacing necessary to reach a goal. Let me illustrate this with a favorite allegory of [...]
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Up Against the Walls — Using your head to succeed in marketing
October 19th, 2007 @ Hamlet Batista // 7 Comments
I’m not sure where I saw this video, but it left a permanent impression in my memory. Two burglars are holding up a corner store at gunpoint. The clerk instinctively pushes a button and protective doors and screens fall swiftly to protect him and the cash machine. The alarm sound is unbearable. The burglars are [...]
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The Smartest Sphinn It! FeedFlare — Now with comments counter
October 17th, 2007 @ Hamlet Batista // 6 Comments
I was looking at my search engine referrals for this blog and I noticed some people looking for the Sphinn FeedFlare. I am glad I checked the page again, because I realized that I had forgotten to move it to the new server. After the move, I finally found the time to add a comment [...]
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Revealing your Competitor’s FULL External Relevance Profile – One of my best kept secrets
October 17th, 2007 @ Hamlet Batista // 45 Comments
Most SEOs know that winning the battle for top search terms is in the links. They regularly check the back links of top rankings sites to get a clear picture of the “external relevance profile” of those sites. From this they learn: How many incoming links the site has The source of such links The [...]
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Like Flies to Project Honeypot: Revisiting the CGI proxy hijack problem
October 11th, 2007 @ Hamlet Batista // 16 Comments
CGI proxy hijacking appears to be getting worse. I am pretty sure that Google is well aware of it by now, but it seems they have other things higher on their priority list. If you are not familiar with the problem, take a look at these for some background information: Dan Thies take and [...]
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Advanced Keyword Research — The power of understanding your visitors
October 8th, 2007 @ Hamlet Batista // 44 Comments
As search marketers, I think sometimes we underestimate the power of understanding our visitors. One way we can do this most effectively is through keyword research. Essential keyword research not only helps determine the success or failure of your whole search marketing campaign, but it can also provide a way of understanding your visitors and [...]
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Winning the (right) race
October 5th, 2007 @ Hamlet Batista // 15 Comments
In every race there are winners and losers. Sometimes though, winning is about choosing the right race. Recently there was a Youmoz post asking if the A-list was closed. Apparently the author feels that he has written some great content but has not received any mention or “link love” from the big boys. I am [...]
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Are your paid links passing the test?
October 1st, 2007 @ Hamlet Batista // 8 Comments
As Google continues its propaganda to discourage the buying and selling of text links for SEO purposes, many sites will lose their ability to pass PageRank and Anchor Text. Many sellers will still want to sell such links, and link buyers will need to find ways to determine if the links pass link juice or [...]
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A Google Allegory
October 1st, 2007 @ Hamlet Batista // 42 Comments
When John Chow’s rankings dropped a few months ago, a lot of SEOs believed, and continue to believe, that Google banned him for selling links and wanted to set an example. It seems that many ignored his review for a link back campaign, which was clearly designed to game Google. It was also the main [...]
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