Aaron Wall recently posted about a new free keyword tool from WordTracker. It looks like a spiffier version of the Overture Keyword Selector Tool, which has become more and more unstable recently.

If Yahoo! (stupidly) pulls the plug on the Overture tool, which is looking more and more likely, then this new tool could easily help to fill the hole that the Overture tool will leave. It’s a pretty smart move for WordTracker, who could stand to inherit a huge amount of traffic, judging by the widespread use the Overture tool has received over the years.

Update: Search Engine Roundtable has a statement from Yahoo! that the Keyword Selector Tool is indeed on its deathbed, but they are building a new one to take its place.

technorati tags:wordtracker, free, tool, seo

Andy Beal, on his Marketing Pilgrim blog, announced his Campaign to Reduce Wikipedia’s PageRank to Zero.

Now I know that link spam has been an issue on Wikipedia, and yes, some of those links reduce the value of the information on the page. But there has to be a way to give back to the community that made Wikipedia what it is today without making such a sweeping change that devalues the links of valuable contributors who are genuinely trying to make Wikipedia a better resource.

This issue stems from the fact that, while the internet is becoming more and more competitive as a marketplace, it’s still very much influenced by its cooperative roots. As participants in the internet, we’re expected to link out to people and companies that we feel add value to our service or information, and we expect to receive the same in return.

I remember the furor that occurred when rel=nofollow first gained widespread support by the search engines. During the course of this, Jeremy Zawodny wrote a post called Nofollow No Good? in which he talked about how people had stopped commenting and linking without the incentive of receiving a little love from the links such activities invite.

In that light, I think that there’s a very real possibility that Wikipedia could see a fairly significant drop not just in spam, but in relevant edits and links by people who are genuinely trying to help build the resource (in exchange for a little link love). Wikipedia removed a major incentive to participate, and that will have its consequences.

Do I think that that will kill Wikipedia? No. But it does create a (small) opportunity for a competitor who is a little more willing to address the spam issue in a less-sweeping fashion. And as far as my participation in the Campaign to Reduce Wikipedia’s PageRank to Zero is concerned, I’ll join in, just so if anything cool happens, I can say that I was a part of it.

technorati tags:wikipedia, nofollow, marketingpilgrim

Steve Jobs is currently announcing the iPhone, and I’m pretty much geeking out. Good thing my contract with Verizon is up…

technorati tags:iphone, apple, steve, jobs, macworld

Maybe I’m just crazy here, but I swear I’ve never seen this content in these boxes on the login page for Google Analytics before, particularly the case studies box. It looks like Google’s just trying to drive more signups with its case studies, but there are some good lessons about the usefulness of web analytics (along with some ideas about how to structure your metrics processes). Is this new, or have I just been oblivious?

Screenshot

I’ve decided that for the new year I’m going to add a bunch of SEO/SEM blogs to my feedreader to try them out. Among the mix are blogs that I’ve had in my reader in the past, but ditched (maybe they’ve gotten better, or maybe I’ll be more mature) as well as new blogs that I’ve just learned about.

So here’s the plan:
I’m sticking all the new blogs in their own folder, and as time goes on, I’ll be reading them, tossing out the ones that have a high noise to information ratio, and moving the really good ones into my daily must-read folder. I’ll try to give a shout out on the blog to those blogs that make it into my daily reads folder, along with my reasons for placing them there.

In addition, I’ll post when I find a new blog that I’m adding into the experiment group.

Here’s a fairly comprehensive list of the blogs I’ve added. I’ve also thrown my daily must-reads in to the mix to see how they hold up to the rest.

• Search Engine Land
• SERoundtable
• Matt Cutts
• SEO Book
• Graywolf
• Marketing Pilgrim
• Threadwatch
• SE Journal
• Lee Odden
• Bruce Clay, Inc.
• SEO Scoop
• Cre8PC
• Google Blogoscoped
• Copyblogger
• Stuntdubl
• SEOEgghead
• FreshEgg
• Creating Passionate Users
• Dan Thies
• Guy Kawasaki
• Webmaster Central Blog
• ProNet Advertising
• SEO by the Sea
• Jim Boykin
• Tim Converse
• John Battelle
• Yahoo! Search Blog
• Jon Mendez
• TallTroll
• Shoemoney
• SEOPedia
• Eric Enge
• Sugarrae
• DaveN
• JenSense
• Seth Godin
• SEO Researcher
• MindValley Labs
• SEOIdiot
• SEO Black Hat
• Traffick
• Link Building Blog
• PR Squared
• Jeremy Zawodny
• Xan Porter
• Search Engine Lowdown
• Daggle
• IR Thoughts
• Joe Morin
• SEORockstars
• Official Google Blog
• Ask.com Blog
• MSN Search Blog
• ClickZ Blog
• Pearsonified
• Cartoon Barry
• Greg Linden
• Greg Boser
  
• Mike Grehan
• LinkMoses
• Ian McAnerin
• Jarrod & Co.
• Mr. Hooley
• SEW Blog
• Oilman

Enjoy!

technorati tags:blogs, rss, seo

I just read Rand’s latest post over at SEOmoz, in which he bravely posted his company’s financial information. First of all, I was surprised at how little Rand and his crew are making. As (in my mind) one of the top-flight SEM companies out there, it seems like they should have been making a lot more.

However, I think that some of the reasons for this surprising lack of cash are why I admire the hell outta Rand. First, he’s hired several new employees this year, some of them with little or no SEO experience. His rationale for doing this? It’s easier to find and train a good employee who is smart and fits well with the rest of the team than it is to find an experienced SEO who fits the same requirements. So far it seems to be working for him.

Second, apparently he has chosen to turn away far more clients than he took (took 25, referred around 300 to his recommended list). He acknowledges that he could have done a better job of monetizing those potential clients. I’m sure that he could have taken the time he uses to post to his blog, write articles, and speak at conferences to work on more clients.

Third, it seems that Rand has chosen to put the money back into the company in order to fuel continued growth rather than writing fat bonus checks.

Now for the interesting part.

He announced that in order to better compensate SEOmozzers, he’s going to start offering paid content on SEOmoz.

We’ll NEVER shut down the free material we provide via the blog, themany articles and the tools (in fact, we intend to expand all ofthese), but we are going to be wrapping some of our best advice intocomprehensive, digestable packages and providing some special featureson the site to paid members.

I, for one, will be exteremely interested to see how much this costs. Provided the price tag isn’t TOO prohibitive, (see SEOBlackhat Forums) I’m pretty sure I’ll subscribe.

technorati tags:seomoz, financials, seo

I’ve been having problems with Firefox 2 freezing on my MacBook Pro. I finally found a solution for the problem, so I figured I’d post it to make it a little more accessible, as Mozilla hasn’t put anything on their site regarding this problem.

Apparently the Google Toolbar is what causes FF2 to hang. While before I removed the toolbar Firefox was crashing every ten minutes or so, after I removed the toolbar, I haven’t had Firefox 2 freeze since.

Google has been apprised of the situation and is working on a fix. Until then, ditch the toolbar. Here’s instructions on how to do so:

1. Go to Tools>Add-ons
2. Click the “Extensions” tab
3. Click the Google Toolbar add-on and click “uninstall”
4. Enjoy freeze-free Firefox2!

I’ve come to realize over the past little while, that while I understand a few things about how SEO works, I’m lacking a lot (translation: virtually all) of the skills that I need to make things happen. So in my spare time, I’ve been trying to learn as much as possible, but it’s become a frustrating experience. I feel like I’m just flailing around without any clear purpose. So, after stewing over this for a few days, I’ve decided to consult my betters. I’ve posted some questions on a few forums I read, and I’ve contacted some of the SEOs I respect the most with the following question:

What skills are the most important to SEO? Programming, and if so, which language? Or design using CSS? Or another skill I haven’t even thought of yet? And in what order should I learn these skills?

Anyway, if you have any ideas about this topic, feel free to comment on this post. I’m completely open to ideas. And for the sake of posterity, I’ll post my findings on this blog.

This is going to be a blog about SEO. I don’t plan on writing a lot about my personal life, or my musings about politics, school, or society. If you’re looking for that, you can check out Towering Intellect. This blog is going to be pure SEO.

I used to play jazz trumpet, and I learned a few things about what it takes to play jazz. You come into it with a plan. Are you going to play the blues? Bop? Maybe some fusion, if you’re real edgy. Then you have to pick the key. The key will determine the sound, but it also determines the difficulty. Then you throw down a melody, whether it’s one you’ve heard a million times like “Take The ‘A’ Train” or something you come up with right before the session. At this point, you’re free to let creativity fly. Arrange the piece. Solo on the changes. Play with the rhythm and changes. Create spontaneously and create something new, that’s never been heard before and will never be heard again. Ultimately, once you’ve had your time to lay out your soul in the music, you’ve left an indelible impression upon your audience that they’ll reflect upon for years to come.

It seems to me that brilliant SEO is a lot like jazz. You come to a project or site with specific needs, and you make specific plans to address those needs. Do you go white hat? Black hat? Or maybe you bust out your gray hat. Also, at some point, you have to determine the keywords you’re going to use. The right keywords will create great traffic, but the right keyword could also be highly competitive. The keyword determines success as well as difficulty. At this point, you let creativity fly. You can focus on creating link-worthy content. You can refine the site’s ideas and design to better appeal to the engines and to the site’s visitors. Do they need some linkbuilding and SEO-friendly URLs? And how do you combine them? Every site’s different, and you’ll never approach an identical situation again. And in the end, hopefully, you’ll be able to create a solid site that will appear in the tops of the SERPs for a long time to come.

Picking up jazz took a lot of effort and dedication, and I don’t see why really good SEO should be any different. This blog will chronicle my journey to become a true top-notch SEO. I hope you enjoy the ride along with me, and maybe we’ll both come away with something as a result of this blog.