Archive for the 'Other Search Engines' Category

Gary Price from Search Engine Watch, is now Gary Price from IAC/Ask Jeeves. Barry Schwartz (Rustybrick), is moving in as the new news correspondent for Search Engine Watch.

See Danny’s summary with links to more details on those moves here.

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Great move by IAC to get such a knowledgeable mind on their team such as Gary’s.

Barry, Congrats! Don’t know how you do all you do, but you do it all great!

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Barry also just did a nice post on the SEW Blog with a run down of the Nielsen//NetRatings stats that show a 55% increase in searches from 2004 to 2005. Barry also points out that Google continues to gain ground - now at 48.8% of all searches, where Yahoo’s at 21.7%, and MSN at 10.9%.

Read Barry’s whole article here at the SES Blog. 

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Technorati Tags: ask jeeves, IAC, Barry Diller, SEO, SEM, Search engine optimization, search engine marketing

Greatings from Vegas.

 SEO is like a Game of Chess

Jim’s definition of SEO:
SEO is the art of using techniques whereby one does things to, or around, a website to try to increase it’s rankings in the search engines.

By definition, anyone who even knows the term SEO, is an SEO. Even the simplest arts of SEO of performing keyword research, or even "knowingly" adding keywords to even your TITLE tag, implies that you are trying to "SEO" your site for the search engines.

For several years "SEOing the search engines" was done mostly via on page factors with a focus on meta tags and keyword density. Then Google and PageRank came along, and now we’re dealing with something at a higher level (Google Today, and what Yahoo is closing in on, and MSN is working on).

The SEO games you can play can be varied based on your knowledge and resources of SEO. The more you learn, the more your game starts turning into a game of "SEO Chess".

Content is still King….and that just the way it should be….but in the SEO Chess of today, the Queen is your Linking techniques, and so is the Castle, Horse, Bishop, and Pawns.  The more resources you have, the more pieces in the game you have, and the more knowledge you have, the better you tend to make your moves.

What you’re up against is the top 10. In order to displace any of these top 10 opponents, you’ve got to look at the pieces they have (Content and Links), and look at the resources you have (for pieces to your chess set), and have the knowledge and ability to move your pieces to try to win.

I’ve had a few people tell me about their great content on brand new site, and I’d like to say, "Tell that to Google".  The sandbox is a bitch, and a reality. Having a new site with only content is like playing SEO Chess with only a King.  (Oh but hey,did I tell you that in Google’s game of chess, you can only play with pawns until your Time is up (out of the sandbox).

I had a guy tonight tell me that the sandbox is only 4 months long. Then he tells me that his SEO says she can get his new site out of the sandbox in a few months. He then misunderstood Matt, for he told me that Matt said that "the sandbox doesn’t exist." (I spoke of links over time and gave a very white hat, (Matt, you’d be proud) explanation of creating the best site in the world and doing good things (free content, articles, tools, yada yada) and writing great related sites and contacting related sites owners letting them know about this great resource as being his only "chance" of getting out of the sandbox anytime under a year, and even then, his chances were slim.  (I know of other SEO methods (to get of of the sandbox), but don’t normally do those on client sites (as they tend to be "shadier")).

So I ask my readers.
Let the truth be told. Have YOU ever had a site get out of the sandbox early for a 2 word Really competitive phrase? What did you do? and the big question - how long do you Really think the sandbox is?