I have been letting this blog languish over the past few months for all the typical reasons. One result of this was that almost all of my pages had turned into supplemental results at Google. Or so I thought.

Shoemoney recently had a post about how he experienced these SEO woes, and how he has corrected them. Since I have now assumed my true identity on this blog, I think I owe it to myself to take a look at the current SEO state.

Sadly, it is not good. What to do? Well, I just so happen to be the proud owner of Aaron Wall’s SEOBook. So guess what, I am going to start applying some of those principles directly to this blog, and turn this mother out.

First goal, ensure spider crawlability. I have a sitemap down at Google webmaster tools, but it was out of date and old, so a quick update of that was in order. Next, get a robots.txt going. Then make sure the URLs are nice and friendly. A quick update to the htaccess file and shaboom.

Bring on the Google traffic.

I have been looking at live.com, which is Microsoft’s new look search engine or something. It has some interesting features like a never ending page of results that you slide through. Hurray, everyone is on page one. And there are some nice feature in the image search.

But then I got a referral from live.com in my web analytics reports. Naturally, I was intrigued. Now, ranking for something in Microsoft SERPs is not particularly hard, but I am always glad for a little search engine love. So naturally I drilled into the referring information to see what search phrase brought this particular visitor. Unfortunately, there was no keyword information for that referral. Suddenly my head was filled with ideas of writing a nice how-to piece on getting keyword reporting for live.com in Google Analytics. I always like to write Google Analytics pieces. But as I was doing a wee bit of research it became disturbingly clear that this was not going to be the case. Microsoft wasn’t passing the search phrase in the referrer field. COME ON! This is search engine 101. By having the search phrase in the query string of the referring URL you allow people to understand what keywords and phrases are driving traffic to their site.

Sheesh, come on people get your act together over there.

When I wrote about Ditech using NOSCRIPT tags to put SEO’d content on their pages I used the word unethical a few times. In retrospect, unethical is probably not the best word for it. What a company decides to put on their webpages is not a matter of ethics unless it is breaking some law or something. Obviously, there is a little more water in that well, but I don’t want to get into it. Now, unwise or dumb may be a suitable moniker for what is happening on Ditech.com.

Well, a fellow named Chris commented on my blog asking the question:

Please explain this comment, “If nothing happens eventually the credibility of the organic results will erode.”

While I’m not for “spam” results in natural search please explain how this result, which is 100% relevant to the search term, in anyway hurts the user experience?

Well, Chris works for iCrossing. For those of you who don’t know, iCrossing is a very reputable and large SEO firm. It is also extremely likely that iCrossing is the SEO firm that put those NOSCRIPT tags on the Ditech.com website. (Since GM is a client of iCrossing, and Ditech is a GMAC subsidiary.)

So, what is my response:
I am not for spam in the natural results either Chris. My point was not one about the user experience. I fully believe that the user should have access to the Ditech.com website on page one for “home equity loan”. However, I do maintain that it is shortsighted to place NOSCRIPT tags with siginificant amounts of content on a website that could suffer a lot if Google changes their algorithm to ban methods like that which are clearly already in violation of the Google webmaster guidelines. I personally am not a Google abuse reporter. I don’t report stuff like that, but it is nice to get the attention of such wonderful people as iCrossing to help me promote my blog.

Ditech, iCrossing, Bad SEO, SEO

Well, I am probably more in agreement with stuntdubl and EarlGrey on this whole contest, but I think I found a cause I can support.

The number of results in Google went over a million today, so it looks like we are in for the long haul. I am sure Google is using this as an opportunity to spot potential holes in the algo.

Anyway, I choose to support Gray Wolf. He is donating any winning to St. Judes Medical Center, and I believe the contest organizers have agreed to a direct contribution to the charity so there is no need to fear. Plus every body says the guy is pretty stand-up. SO, without further ado, I confer my link for v7ndotcom elursrebmem to the site that should win v7ndotcom elursrebmem contest. v7ndotcom elursrebmem. Hows that for v7ndotcom elursrebmem keyword stuffing?

v7ndotcom elursrebmem, SEO, Gray Wolf

It seems like everyone is using top 10 lists or top 13 lists or top 8 lists, and rumor has it that this is a good way to get linkbait. So, without further ado, here is my Top 9 sites/blogs I am reading these days.

1. Threadwatch - Threadwatch is a great place to find search news compiled in one place. That is useful to me.
2. Gray Wolf - Gray Wolf is an experienced hand at SEO and I like his take on many of the issues of the day. He could definitely hold his own in a Jim Rome style smack-off on SEO.
3. SEOmoz - Rand Fishkin is kind of like a 5 tool player in baseball. He may not hit 40 homeruns a year but he is an awesome addition to any team. He has a great site, and you can tell he thinks things through pretty well. One of the few people on the internet I have sent fanmail.
4. Guy Kawasaki - First of all, he has an awesome frickin’ name. But more than that it is rare to see someone sit down and start a blog so successfully. Great content. Good ideas.
5. Seth Godin - When Seth Godin says something lots and lots of people listen. We will see how his latest venture, Squidoo, goes. While we are waiting to find out, get over there and make as many lenses as you can get your paws on.
6. IncrediBILL - When reading his blog one word and one word only comes to mind, curmudgeon. I like what he writes.
7. Yahoo Web Analytics Group - This is probably the best place to read about web analytics on the internet. I have tried to convince Eric Peterson to move it to a real forum but he doesn’t want to, oh well.
8. Performancing - These guys are off to a great start with this new venture and they have some very insightful writers giving the rest of us tips on blogging success. Rock, Rock on!
9. Jim Boykin - The guys at We Build Pages have been doing SEO a long long time. For a long time I really didn’t read Jim Boykin’s blog, but I was reading late last week and maybe it was the alcohol, but I was really impressed with the content that he had on there. Don’t get me wrong, I like Stuntdubl too, but this list can only be so long.
10. *BONUS LINK* Click Herder - OK, shameless self promotion here, but I am excited about collaborating with these guys on ClickHerder.com. I guarantee that this blog will be fresh, because we are not educated enough to do it the way that other people have done it before.

Well, that went pretty well. I hope that you enjoy. Let me know who else I should be reading in the area of web analytics and SEO.

SEO, search engine optimization, web analytics, blogging, reading list

Turns out I am not the only one thinking about unethical SEO. On the same day as my post about Bad SEO habits, there were some other notable posts around the internet.

• Threadwatch recalled some Other Unnamed Editorial Fouls.
• Stuntdubl has a post about the editorial guidelines that SEs publish amongst other things.
• And Finally, Jill Whalen made this topic her forum thread of the week.

Frankly, this issue will probably not go away, but it is always a surprise to learn that some major corporations see fit to take the low road like this. Ahh, innocence, how fleeting.

Occasionally, I will highlight company’s web sites that are doing things well, but usually it is a lot more fun to highlight a corporation that is doing things wrong. Wrong might be right sometimes, but here is what Google calls a bad idea:

• Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
• Don’t employ cloaking or sneaky redirects.
• Don’t send automated queries to Google.
• Don’t load pages with irrelevant words.
• Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
• Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

The thing to keep in mind is that there are some really really competitive areas of search on the internet. Generally, that competition only gets fiercer the more money is involved. For this reason, Banking and finance terms like “second mortgage” are extremely costly keywords averaging between five and seven dollars on Yahoo Search Marketing. With acquisition costs that high you had better spend some money on organic optimization.

Well, Ditech.com did spend some time and perhaps money. The problem is they came up with a search engine no no in the process. If you did a Google search for home equity loan they are the 3rd result and 2nd company. Great Right? Well, not really, because they are engaging in some questionable optimization practices. If you disable JavaScript (I prefer to use the Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox) in your browser suddenly you will see a paragraph of text that is not visible when you normally visit the page.

Home Loans - Home Equity Loans

Home Equity Loans

Home Loans: ditech.com is known as being a leader in the direct home equity loans industry.

If you are looking for home loans Ditech can help you. We specialize in home equity loans.

Ditech makes home equity loans quick and easy to understand. You won’t get any surprises with our home loans.

Well, how about that? They managed to mention the phrases “home equity loans” five times and “home loans” four times all without the casual web site visitor being able to see this sad excuse for copy. Not to mention, there is an H1 tag and H2 tag a link back to Ditech with the anchor text “home equity loans”. I guarantee that this was done by an SEO. Unfortunately, for Ditech and their SEO they are doing things wrong and eventually they will get axed because of it. (Most likely they will get deranked for a while till they fix what is wrong.) Or maybe nothing will happen and they will continue to enjoy high rankings with less than desirable tactics.

Certainly, things like click fraud are a big concern to companies, but unethical SEO tactics are just as bad as the spam that floods our email inboxes. If nothing happens eventually the credibility of the organic results will erode.

SEO, Blackhat SEO, Search Engine Optimization, home equity loans

Is this the end? As you are probably already aware that Google and AOL recently agreed to a huge business deal. All the details are still being ironed out but AOL is going to get to place ads on Google’s pages and Google is going to attempt to legitimize AOL’s business. I can’t help but think that what we might end up with is a bunch of crappy banner ads and a new set of google coasters. Earlier today Marissa Mayer went on the interview circuit here and here. It appears that AOL ads are gonna be slapped up on Google image search and Google video. Additionally, there is talk of putting more AOL content in the various OneBoxes that Google uses.
This whole thing smells corporate. Frankly, I think it will take Google further than they want to go and stay there longer than they want to stay.

Battelle Media is hosting some random crap right now. I wonder who tripped over a power cord out there.

Battelle Watch begins here. :)

Update: It seems that all is well with Battelle Media. I had the redirect cached in my browser all day, but honestly there was a problem. Seriously.
See here and here.

It is Wednesday so, of course, Google felt compelled to release a new feature. For those of us using search history, we can know see trends such as a graph of which hour of the day is the most searchy. Did I just coin a phrase?

Additionally, it displays your top searches over the time period. It is a nice feature and one that most probably wouldn’t want to share with their boss. Search is critical to productivity between 1 and 5 pm apparently.

Naturally, there is a post about this in the Google Blog.

I think there is a certain sense of naivete over at Google about the fact that people get freaked out when someone has a hold of information like that. When will we have the first subpoena for google search history? This type of data has already been used in court, now you don’t even have to have the browser cache. If the end is near why am I still smiling.