Digital PR

How Does that Page at Bruce Clay Rank So Well?

Someone mentioned to me today that Bruce Clay has done a great job of optimizing his site over the past year, and reclaimed some of those top positions for broad level SEO terms. One of these is search engine optimization, where Bruce ranks in the 2nd spot: ...

Trouble Between Drinkbait & Hatbait and the IP Issues Involved

An ugly situation recently arose out of Chris Hooley's "drinkbait" campaign at Pubcon (which was not only a great idea, but a well-executed one, to boot). Liana Evans developed a remarkably similar campaign called "hatbait" that she began at SES Chicago. Until tonight, when I read Chris' post on the subject...

Are We Doling Out Bad Advice?

Aaron had a brilliant post yesterday on on Bad Advice that Sounds Good. He noted a few "white lies" of the SEO world that we continue to perpetuate. I agree with some of them wholeheartedly: Create quality content. Why do I hate it? If you don't hav...

Cliches in the SEO World

Alright, this one's just for fun. We were batting around some cliches in the industry (at conferences, on blog posts, in forums) and thought that a few were worth sharing. Black Hats are BritishMore specifically, it seems they all have some relationship to Leeds (born there, live there, from "around there"). Maybe there's something in the wate...

All The Female Bloggers Say Heyyyy!...Hello? Ladies?

Kim Krause Berg recently raised a stink on her Cr8pc blog, criticizing the utter absence of female bloggers interviewed for Google Blogoscoped's Popular Blog Posts entry. In her blog, she protested that female bloggers have a lot more to juggle than a couple unique blog entries ...

The funny little thing called TRUST

Understanding and managing trust is an essential skill in search engine business. In terms of sociology, trust is the willing acceptance of one's power to affect another - allowing actions that otherwise would not be possible. Trust is a mighty tool when it comes to signing up new clients, achieving credentials and referrers or building a (social) network...

When Search Marketing Firms Turn Clients Away

Thanks to a small team and a lot of publicity, SEOmoz turns away a significant amount of work - sending folks to specific references or our recommended list or, occassionally, recommending they hire in-house SEO help. We're lucky in that we get to picky about the folks we choose to work with - some of the reasons for turning away busi...

SEO Salaries - How Much Should You Make (updated Jan. 2011)

This is going to be a tough and contentious issue and one that isn't easy for me to write about. Along with the obvious internal conflicts of interest in disclosing salary numbers, there's bound to be a lot of companies and individuals who will come away feeling that my numbers are wrong (or that their employers are cheating them). That said, it's a topic that needs to be addressed and if my ex...

InfoSearch Media & ContentLogic - Purveyors of Falsehoods

I spent some time on the phone today with William Stinson from InfoSearch Media (link condom applied). They had cold called an old client (and friend) of mine who referred them to us. I spent a good 20 minutes chatting with William to attempt to understand their business model and their services. I took a few ...

Apparently Black Hats Can't Reform Their Evil Ways

Via Slashdot, I came across this entertaining article at ZDNet called "Do Former Black Hats Make Good Hires?" It asks the brain-busting question of whether black hats should be hired for legit positions. The article approaches the question as if it has the same moral weight of "Shuld We Treet Coloreds...

What's the ROI on an MBA When You're in the SEO Industry?

Although I've had my Bachelor's degree for less than a year, I've already begun considering going back to school for a Master's degree. Working in the SEO industry has sparked an interest in getting an MBA (a Master's in Business Administration for you initialism-inept readers). My desire to get an MBA doesn't stem from the notion that more degrees = better pay (though it does); rather, in this in...

MarketingSherpa States That SEM Clients Aren't Multiplying Like Wet Gremlins

Via Threadwatch, I came across MarketingSherpa's report on the SEM industry's growth over the past two years. While it appears that SEM is on the up and up--staffing for top SEM firms has increased 75% from 2005, and "six firms [reported] more than $10 million in SEM revenue...