February 2008

Why SEO pundits can’t explain search algorithms

Posted by Michael Martinez on February 21, 2008 in Advanced SEO

NOTE: Some edits have been made several days after this article was originally published.
There are people in the search engine optimization industry who don’t understand what an “algorithm” is. Technically, there are many definitions for ‘algorithm’ but the most universally useful definition could be phrased as “a set of rules to define how to [...]

Feedburner SmartFeed added

Posted by admin on February 20, 2008 in General

We have added a link to the FeedBurner SmartFeed (look at the lower right-hand margin, below the BlogRoll).  Comments and feedback if there are problems should be posted in response to this message.
 We do not plan to publish a full text feed at this time.

The Thoughtful SEO’s manifesto

Posted by Michael Martinez on February 20, 2008 in SEO Theory

For many people, a manifesto is something to think about. For some people it defines a way of life. For a very few people it may become an object to be feared, disputed, and opposed. Like art, a good manifesto evokes some sort of reaction in people. You need to shape [...]

The new link spam raises its ugly head

Posted by Michael Martinez on February 19, 2008 in Web spam

I’ve been receiving an increasing number of inquiries both here at 1st Query and through my private contact form on Xenite.Org from people wanting to buy links. I don’t sell links and I’m pretty sure I have stated that publicly in many places but I suppose what I say may seem like a smoke [...]

Offline for Presidents Day

Posted by Michael Martinez on February 18, 2008 in General

We took this day off as a company holiday. I’ll be back to work tomorrow.

Developing Web friends and allies

Posted by Michael Martinez on February 15, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

Every now and then you get a link from an obscure Web site you’ve never heard of. Someone came to your site, found what you have done appeals to them, and went back to their site and provided a link to yours.
We often find these natural links by scouring our referral data to see [...]

SEO Metrics - Search engine marketing metrics

Posted by Michael Martinez on February 14, 2008 in Competitive Analysis, SEO Metrics

Metrics matter most when you don’t have them.
There are many ways in which to measure success, failure, and stallout. No one really has the right solution for measuring SEO campaign activity because we have no industry standards.
I occasionally point out that (my research over the past couple of years has indicated that) somewhere between [...]

Four critical components for Web site success

Posted by Michael Martinez on February 13, 2008 in Web spam

Web spam works well when it’s done right. Most spammers don’t do it right. Most SEOs don’t realize when they are doing it.
Take Topix, for example. This well-known news and discussion community resource has been around for years but it has all the hallmarks of a traditional made-for-advertising site: it republishes content [...]

Google refreshes misleading Supplemental Index spin post

Posted by Michael Martinez on February 12, 2008 in General

Disclaimer: The following post is my own personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of my employer or anyone else.
So I was checking out the latest Google Webmaster Central blog post and I found this bit of hyperbole:
The supplemental index
The “supplemental index” was a big topic of conversation in 2007, and it seems [...]

Almost nearly all about link incongruity

Posted by Michael Martinez on February 12, 2008 in Link Theory

In The Relevant Link Myth I wrote that “it is virtually impossible to acquire an irrelevant link.” Yesterday I wrote in Link Analysis Done Right:
Relevance is not very important if you’re just looking for crawling, PageRank, or anchor text but it sure helps if you want to maximize the value of your link building [...]

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