Google seems to be ramping up its aggression towards spammy search results as it has now moved to make the spam reporting feature a permanent part of the search experience, reports eWeek. Previously, this was relegated to a browser extension for Chrome, but is now rolling out as part of all search results. Just how the Google team will use what is reported is a mystery, so we can only hope that justice will prevail.
-
Stephan Spencer at SearchEngineLand penned a pair of articles about a year ago that addressed 72 SEO (search engine optimization) myths. Who knew there were 72 things not true about SEO? In any technical marketing situation, there are a lot of people who claim they know what they are doing, with few who actual do. This creates many problems both for the industry, and for the client, who is given misinformation or worse yet, poor results from their financial investment.
Stephan makes a very strong point – the less you put in, the less you get. Meaning that “you get what you pay for”. If you approach SEO by hiring someone with a year of experience who “claims” they know what they are doing, you’re not going to get a lot of value – especially if you have them doing other stuff.
The bottom line is that if you haven’t been too SEO-savvy, you’ll have some catch up to do and some training of your web team. And please note, most technical web teams do not know SEO! It’s not a given! Use these two articles as a checklist when interviewing your SEO employee or agency. If they know that these are myths, then you are in good hands. If not, keep looking!
The first 36:
http://searchengineland.com/36-seo-myths-that-wont-die-but-need-to-40076The 2nd 36:
http://searchengineland.com/36-more-seo-myths-that-wont-die-but-need-to-41999 -
Mahalo’s Google rankings are starting to dip. Hopefully this is just the beginning of what is to come… content farms being pushed out of business in favor of real, high quality content, made by experts.
Allen Stern reports the details at CenterNetworks.com: http://www.centernetworks.com/mahalo-reduces-headcount-google-algo-change
-
This week Google updated it’s search algorithm to enable users to provide feedback that helps Google refine search results by potentially lowering the value of content farm and other crappy sites.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=145733
My concern is that unscrupulous business people (the same ones who create the content farms and do keyword stuffing, etc.) will now flag genuine sites of their competitors to try to game Google into lowering legit sites.
-
Josh Nason writes a concise 5-pointer on what you should do if you feel your email results are diminishing.
My sixth point to add to this list is this… The bottom line is that email marketing is always evolving. If you don’t believe me, then you are doing it wrong, and possibly out of date. There are always new things to think of – be it social media integration, mobile-readiness, conversions, tracking, etc. So, keep up to date with technology by researching constantly.
-
Here’s a great example of what not to do if you are a business…
A few years ago, Macy’s converted my store credit card (which was probably a Visa or MasterCard) into an American Express card. I didn’t ask for this, they just did it. I of course could have cancelled the account at that time, but figure this was harmless.
When they converted the account, they fraudulently added “credit card protection” to my account. I’m not an idiot. No sane person would every authorize such a ridiculous thing.
I noticed a small charge on my account after I made a purchase. The charge was $3.34.
I called customer service and explained that I had not authorized this and politely requested that the charge be reversed.
Here’s where it gets interesting. In a normal case, if there’s a fraudulent charge, the credit card company will dispute it for you. But this charge was by a company that Macy’s is affiliated with. So, the rep said she would not reverse the charge and that I didn’t have all the facts. After reiterating that I did not authorize this charge, she said that I didn’t have all the information and there’s proof I authorized the charge.
I’m sure there is no proof folks. How do I know this? Because I never authorized the service – Macy’s did when they converted the account over.
So, I said, “I will cancel my account if you don’t reverse the charge.” She did not, and I cancelled the account.
How stupid is Macy’s? They lost a customer over their mistake, and their mistake was only $3.34.
My only choice was to cancel on sheer principle alone.
Lesson: listen to your customers. Especially your good customers, with a good customer history who are reasonable people.
Lesson 2: Don’t offer products that are built upon false information or scams. No one needs “credit protection service”. If I told you that for 1% of your bank balance every month, I would ensure that your money was safe, would you pay that? No, you are not an idiot. But Macy’s thinks we all must be idiots.
Here’s the real twist. I called the credit protection vendor and had the charge reversed. They admitted on the phone that it was a mistake.
Dan Soschin 