Search Engine Optimization

2/1/2010 To 301 or Not to 301, That is the Question By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director Search Engine Optimization In any given month, I conduct between 5-10 SEO campaign audits. What is an SEO campaign audit? An SEO campaign audit assesses the current search-effectiveness of a website. The audit helps identify what needs to be done to improve the SEO campaign and how to prioritize those tasks in order to produce the highest and best use of a company’s investment in the SEO campaign.
12/4/2009 Leave the Old School SEO Behind and Adopt Next Generation SEO By John McCarthy, Director Search Engine Optimization Brands wanting to improve online marketing performance in 2010 must move away from old school SEO and adopt next generation optimization strategies and techniques. Here are three key areas where brands can improve their organic search marketing campaigns in 2010.
12/4/2009 YouTube’s Automated Captioning-A New Way to Look At Videos and Search Engine Optimization With the recent advent of Google’s automatic video captioning service for YouTube, users will now be able to more readily search and access the site’s visual clips and videos. The state-of-the-art voice recognition technology was initially created as a way to make the site’s user-generated content more accessible to those who are hearing impaired and deaf.
10/28/2009 Not So Best SEO Practices By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director of Search Engine Optimization While attending the Direct Marketing Association conference in San Diego, I provided “live” SEO site assessments for a number of companies. A typical live SEO site assessment involves a brief Q&A about the goals of the site with the company followed by 10-15 minutes of targeted SEO research and analysis. My SEO research and analysis examines core on-page and off-page optimization ranking factors including site architecture, page construction, content, link popularity and web server configuration.
10/23/2009 Yahoo Ends its Paid Inclusion Search Program Yahoo has announced it will cancel Yahoo Search Submit Pro (Y!SSP), its popular paid inclusion search program, effective December 31st, 2009. It’s a sudden, but not totally unexpected move, which has left many marketers in need of readjusting their search engine optimization strategies by year’s end.
9/25/2009 An SEO Campaign is Not in Your Best Interest By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director of Search Engine Optimization Although I am a big believer in the value of SEO, sometimes an SEO campaign is not in a client’s best interest – at least initially.
8/24/2009 Defusing a SEO bomb after it goes off By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director SEO - ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE At 3 pm on a Friday I received a phone call from a public relations agency regarding a crisis management issue. Within a few days, the local press would release a negative story about the agency’s client. Apparently, a former employee was going to air some dirty laundry regarding the sales practices for the well-known service company. As it turns out, the less than stellar statements are true. Two years earlier, the company hired a talented young sales manager that was looking to move up quickly.
8/10/2009 Microsoft Yahoo Union Could Already Be Affecting SEO Nobody really knew what to expect when Microsoft launched Bing, but many in the SEO business could foresee that it was potentially the beginning of something very different in the search engine optimization business. Now that Microsoft and Yahoo have officially teamed up, it can be assumed that these ripples will continue to grow. Could this new merger actually stand a chance against Google? Tim Armstrong of Google has stated in a recent interview that the company will continue to focus on business as usual instead of investing too much time investigating what the competition is up to.
6/22/2009 Trust Me – I’m a Professional … SEO By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director SEO - ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE At WebMetro we typically provide SEO Action Plans as part of campaigns. As the name implies, an SEO Action Plan is a strategic plan to achieve the ranking, traffic and return on investment objectives from the SEO campaign. Typically our SEO Action Plans are 90-days in duration, but sometimes shorter or longer depending upon the specific circumstances of the campaign. After 90 days we re-evaluate the progress along with the market at that time and develop a new 90-day plan.
4/16/2009 Building Brands One Non-Branded Keyword at a Time By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director of SEO - ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE I never believed search built brands until recently. To me brands are usually built by basic brand pillars or attributes such as service, quality or innovation, yet often comprise critically important differentiation intangibles such as feelings and experiences. These feelings and experiences are developed and communicated by brand advertisements. Such advertising experiences aid in developing a consumer’s reference to the brand and correspondingly shape one’s feeling of the brand.
2/16/2009 SEO 2.0: The Next Generation of Search Engine Optimization The term “Web 2.0” had been circulating widely lately and is growing more popular. Essentially, the term was coined by O’Reilly media in 2004 to simply put a name on the next generation of Web usage. Along with the many new features that this new generation offers, comes many new options for search engine optimization. Social network sites, social bookmarking sites, wikis, blogs, RSS feeds and video feeds each allow the type of user interaction SEO 2.0 is built upon.
2/3/2009 The Cost of Search Engine Optimization as a Post Launch Initiative Since the mid 1990s organizations have been concerning themselves with what is known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO. SEO has become such a science that marketers have questioned whether or not it is important for search engine optimization to be addressed during web development or after a website is up and running.
1/5/2009 The Value of a Professional SEO Company If your business is on the web, it needs professional search engine optimization (SEO) services to be effective. Professional SEO firms help you to rank better in search engines, hence drive traffic and increase sales.
1/4/2009 Online Marketers Look to SEO for Domination In spite of the moving and shaking going on behind the scenes at search engine giants Yahoo, Microsoft and Google, tech-related trends are expected to change. How?
11/6/2008 Obama “Links” His Way to History The online marketing strategy for President-Elect Barack Obama’s seems to be link baby link,” if numbers are anything to go by.
11/4/2008 SERPs and Your Company Image At some time or other, most large companies will be attacked by the press. The problem is, even if the negative press takes quotes out of context, tells flat out lies, or is biased, it can wind up near the top of search engine results, which can cause a company image problems and a headache.
10/31/2008 How to Effectively Outsource Your SEO Campaign Small to medium-sized business owners are usually short on two resources – time and money. After doing everything from dumping the trash to reconciling the books, many entrepreneurs outsource duties as soon as they can afford to. After all, there are only so many hours in the day.
7/30/2008 How SEO Web Design Impacts Search Engines Marrying behind-the-scenes technology to what end-users want is the perfect symbiotic relationship between SEO web design and search engine technology. A well-designed website will have both.
7/28/2008 Former Google Employees Launch Rival Search Engine Cuil Move over Google, there’s a new search engine in town – Cuil. It was launched by former Google employees Anna Patterson and her husband, Tom Costello, along with a few other Google departees.
6/17/2008 How To Protect Your Assets by Optimizing Search By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director of SEO As featured in the 2008 DMNews Essential Guide to Search Engine Marketing Every day, businesses make headlines when their corporate reputation is tarnished due to a declined insurance claim or a lawsuit. While the story may last a few days on TV or in the papers, it lasts forever in the search engines. Corporate leaders are also fair game. Illicit affairs, divorce and stock options often taint a corporate brand. Negative stories damage branding, but also revenue and stock price. All corporate boards should demand an SEO reputation management campaign from their PR or corporate communications staff.
6/6/2008 When Search Engine Optimization Clashes with Other Design Objectives There are times when the search engine optimization (SEO) of a web retailer’s site clashes with other design objectives. To overcome this, Internet marketers must do two things. They must grasp what their customers want, and understand how search engines work
5/22/2008 Experts say Fresh, Unduplicated Content Raises Search Rankings Search engines are constantly crawling sites, looking for new, unduplicated content. Experts say it’s important for web sites to make sure the engines receive new and unique content in order to help rankings.
2/12/2008 How to Correctly Use Link Building to Achieve Higher Search Engine Ranking While most internet marketers recognize that link building is an essential part of any online marketing strategy it is perhaps the least understood aspect of the industry. Hence, it is usually the last option to be explored when results are not as expected.
2/11/2008 Integrating Natural Search into Online Marketing Strategies The internet gets more crowded every day. And, while paid search is the easiest and fastest way to get noticed online, natural search cannot be dismissed any longer.
1/30/2008 Polish Internet market is rapidly advancing The Polish Internet market is rapidly advancing, according to a report published by Internet Standard. The report, "Digital Landscape Poland 2008," provides an overview of the latest research on the Polish Internet.

2/1/2010 To 301 or Not to 301, That is the Question

By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director Search Engine Optimization

In any given month, I conduct between 5-10 SEO campaign audits. What is an SEO campaign audit? An SEO campaign audit assesses the current search-effectiveness of a website. The audit helps identify what needs to be done to improve the SEO campaign and how to prioritize those tasks in order to produce the highest and best use of a company’s investment in the SEO campaign.

12/4/2009 Leave the Old School SEO Behind and Adopt Next Generation SEO

By John McCarthy, Director Search Engine Optimization

Brands wanting to improve online marketing performance in 2010 must move away from old school SEO and adopt next generation optimization strategies and techniques. Here are three key areas where brands can improve their organic search marketing campaigns in 2010.

12/4/2009 YouTube’s Automated Captioning-A New Way to Look At Videos and Search Engine Optimization

With the recent advent of Google’s automatic video captioning service for YouTube, users will now be able to more readily search and access the site’s visual clips and videos. The state-of-the-art voice recognition technology was initially created as a way to make the site’s user-generated content more accessible to those who are hearing impaired and deaf.

10/28/2009 Not So Best SEO Practices

By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director of Search Engine Optimization

While attending the Direct Marketing Association conference in San Diego, I provided “live” SEO site assessments for a number of companies. A typical live SEO site assessment involves a brief Q&A about the goals of the site with the company followed by 10-15 minutes of targeted SEO research and analysis. My SEO research and analysis examines core on-page and off-page optimization ranking factors including site architecture, page construction, content, link popularity and web server configuration.

10/23/2009 Yahoo Ends its Paid Inclusion Search Program

Yahoo has announced it will cancel Yahoo Search Submit Pro (Y!SSP), its popular paid inclusion search program, effective December 31st, 2009. It’s a sudden, but not totally unexpected move, which has left many marketers in need of readjusting their search engine optimization strategies by year’s end.

9/25/2009 An SEO Campaign is Not in Your Best Interest

By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director of Search Engine Optimization

Although I am a big believer in the value of SEO, sometimes an SEO campaign is not in a client’s best interest – at least initially.

8/24/2009 Defusing a SEO bomb after it goes off

By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director SEO - ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE

At 3 pm on a Friday I received a phone call from a public relations agency regarding a crisis management issue. Within a few days, the local press would release a negative story about the agency’s client. Apparently, a former employee was going to air some dirty laundry regarding the sales practices for the well-known service company. As it turns out, the less than stellar statements are true. Two years earlier, the company hired a talented young sales manager that was looking to move up quickly.

8/10/2009 Microsoft Yahoo Union Could Already Be Affecting SEO

Nobody really knew what to expect when Microsoft launched Bing, but many in the SEO business could foresee that it was potentially the beginning of something very different in the search engine optimization business. Now that Microsoft and Yahoo have officially teamed up, it can be assumed that these ripples will continue to grow. Could this new merger actually stand a chance against Google? Tim Armstrong of Google has stated in a recent interview that the company will continue to focus on business as usual instead of investing too much time investigating what the competition is up to.

6/22/2009 Trust Me – I’m a Professional … SEO

By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director SEO - ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE
At WebMetro we typically provide SEO Action Plans as part of campaigns. As the name implies, an SEO Action Plan is a strategic plan to achieve the ranking, traffic and return on investment objectives from the SEO campaign. Typically our SEO Action Plans are 90-days in duration, but sometimes shorter or longer depending upon the specific circumstances of the campaign. After 90 days we re-evaluate the progress along with the market at that time and develop a new 90-day plan.

4/16/2009 Building Brands One Non-Branded Keyword at a Time

By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director of SEO - ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE
I never believed search built brands until recently. To me brands are usually built by basic brand pillars or attributes such as service, quality or innovation, yet often comprise critically important differentiation intangibles such as feelings and experiences. These feelings and experiences are developed and communicated by brand advertisements. Such advertising experiences aid in developing a consumer’s reference to the brand and correspondingly shape one’s feeling of the brand.

2/16/2009 SEO 2.0: The Next Generation of Search Engine Optimization

The term “Web 2.0” had been circulating widely lately and is growing more popular. Essentially, the term was coined by O’Reilly media in 2004 to simply put a name on the next generation of Web usage. Along with the many new features that this new generation offers, comes many new options for search engine optimization. Social network sites, social bookmarking sites, wikis, blogs, RSS feeds and video feeds each allow the type of user interaction SEO 2.0 is built upon.

2/3/2009 The Cost of Search Engine Optimization as a Post Launch Initiative

Since the mid 1990s organizations have been concerning themselves with what is known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO. SEO has become such a science that marketers have questioned whether or not it is important for search engine optimization to be addressed during web development or after a website is up and running.

1/5/2009 The Value of a Professional SEO Company

If your business is on the web, it needs professional search engine optimization (SEO) services to be effective. Professional SEO firms help you to rank better in search engines, hence drive traffic and increase sales.

1/4/2009 Online Marketers Look to SEO for Domination

In spite of the moving and shaking going on behind the scenes at search engine giants Yahoo, Microsoft and Google, tech-related trends are expected to change. How?

11/6/2008 Obama “Links” His Way to History

The online marketing strategy for President-Elect Barack Obama’s seems to be link baby link,” if numbers are anything to go by.

11/4/2008 SERPs and Your Company Image

At some time or other, most large companies will be attacked by the press. The problem is, even if the negative press takes quotes out of context, tells flat out lies, or is biased, it can wind up near the top of search engine results, which can cause a company image problems and a headache.

10/31/2008 How to Effectively Outsource Your SEO Campaign

Small to medium-sized business owners are usually short on two resources – time and money. After doing everything from dumping the trash to reconciling the books, many entrepreneurs outsource duties as soon as they can afford to. After all, there are only so many hours in the day.

7/30/2008 How SEO Web Design Impacts Search Engines

Marrying behind-the-scenes technology to what end-users want is the perfect symbiotic relationship between SEO web design and search engine technology. A well-designed website will have both.

7/28/2008 Former Google Employees Launch Rival Search Engine Cuil

Move over Google, there’s a new search engine in town – Cuil. It was launched by former Google employees Anna Patterson and her husband, Tom Costello, along with a few other Google departees.

6/17/2008 How To Protect Your Assets by Optimizing Search

By John McCarthy, WebMetro Director of SEO
As featured in the 2008 DMNews Essential Guide to Search Engine Marketing

Every day, businesses make headlines when their corporate reputation is tarnished due to a declined insurance claim or a lawsuit. While the story may last a few days on TV or in the papers, it lasts forever in the search engines. Corporate leaders are also fair game. Illicit affairs, divorce and stock options often taint a corporate brand. Negative stories damage branding, but also revenue and stock price. All corporate boards should demand an SEO reputation management campaign from their PR or corporate communications staff.

6/6/2008 When Search Engine Optimization Clashes with Other Design Objectives

There are times when the search engine optimization (SEO) of a web retailer’s site clashes with other design objectives. To overcome this, Internet marketers must do two things. They must grasp what their customers want, and understand how search engines work

5/22/2008 Experts say Fresh, Unduplicated Content Raises Search Rankings

Search engines are constantly crawling sites, looking for new, unduplicated content. Experts say it’s important for web sites to make sure the engines receive new and unique content in order to help rankings.

2/12/2008 How to Correctly Use Link Building to Achieve Higher Search Engine Ranking

While most internet marketers recognize that link building is an essential part of any online marketing strategy it is perhaps the least understood aspect of the industry. Hence, it is usually the last option to be explored when results are not as expected.

2/11/2008 Integrating Natural Search into Online Marketing Strategies

The internet gets more crowded every day. And, while paid search is the easiest and fastest way to get noticed online, natural search cannot be dismissed any longer.

1/30/2008 Polish Internet market is rapidly advancing

The Polish Internet market is rapidly advancing, according to a report published by Internet Standard. The report, "Digital Landscape Poland 2008," provides an overview of the latest research on the Polish Internet.

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