SEO ROI

SEO Services For Serious ROI. Blog Posts For Serious SEOs.

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Want To Test The Text Link Broker Waters, Without Boiling Over?

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, August 26, 2010

I recently spent $200+ testing out a text link ad broker who promised a big network of blogs, without footprints. This link broker sells on a monthly membership basis that ended up auto-renewing for a few months, partly because I was too busy to test immediately when I bought it. Lesson #1: Avoid buying on impulse. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


When Does Reputation Management Grow The Bottom Line?

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, July 25, 2010

A: When you rank for coupon terms plus your brand. A guest post by yours truly at my friend Dean Chew’s site, Chewie.co.uk .

Some other recent guest posts of mine: (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


30 Second Tip For Phone Number Integrity In Local SEO Listings

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, June 17, 2010

Reading the curiosity-arousing article on SEL, “The Phone, Calling,” I noticed that the use and presence of call tracking numbers, toll-free numbers and other non-main-line phone numbers could cause trouble for search engines.

“First, these numbers throw a monkey wrench in business identification. Second, they could expire, inadvertently creating a dead-end for a consumer. Publishers today struggle with how to accurately identify an actual business when many phone numbers are involved.”

The easiest solution, imho, is (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Sneaky Link Tactics: Removing Credit Where It’s Not Due

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, April 29, 2010

The situation: Your competitors have inbound links that are broken because of typos, changes in URL structures etc.

The common link building commentary: Most SEOs who’ve been around the link building block will tell you that it’s an opportunity to ‘build links’ for free – to pick low hanging fruit. Just drop the site owner a little email and voila – good as new. More juice for you! (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Buying Text Links – Pre-Published vs. Post-Published

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, February 15, 2010

This is a guest post by Brandon Hopkins, a freelance Fresno website designer who blogs at Brandon-Hopkins.com

The most common way to buy links is to find a site that shows up in Google’s index, then contact the owner asking them to add your link in exchange for monetary compensation. What is often not considered is that published pages don’t change very often. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


How To Find Competitors’ Best PPC Ads

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, November 5, 2009

If you could find out your competitors’ top converting ads when you enter a market, you’d save a lot of time optimizing campaigns, wouldn’t you?

It would be like knowing where the jelly is in a jelly donut – you’d bite right into the good stuff and skip the mostly-dough areas. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Find Competitors’ Conversion Rates

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, November 3, 2009

If you could find out what competitors’ conversion rates are and you can estimate the traffic value to your competition? Surely the PPC pros could use that conversion data…

Well, it turns out you can get a pretty good idea about competitors’ conversion rates. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Twitter Grayhat Tip: Fake It Till You Make It

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, October 21, 2009

As my friend Mike Gray pointed out at SMX Advanced, RTing is a great way to get people’s attention and build a relationship with them. The difficulty is getting people’s attention when they write a really popular post that gets RTed 100+ times.

So here’s the greyhat solution. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Should You Buy Links And Video Embeds For YouTube SEO?

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, September 30, 2009

Paid links

SMX West’s video SEO panel taught me that the number of embeds your video gets is important to having it rank better at Youtube, and potentially in Google’s universal search results. So why not speed things up by buying a few installs and links for your video?

If more embeds means better SEO, there seems to be an argument for buying installs, just as there is for buying links in normal SEO. An embed is when someone copy-pastes the html code from Youtube to put a video on their site. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


How I Cloaked My Way To LOWER Rankings

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, May 13, 2009

Actually, this post should be titled: “How did I cloak my way to lower rankings?!” Because the truth is that it was completely unintentional – as evidenced by it causing my traffic to drop like a rock. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


The 3-Step, 2-For-1 Link Building Technique

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, April 24, 2009

I’ve seen variations on this link building trick, but it’s the first time I see it producing additional links beyond the value you already have. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Should I Disclose Paid Link Risks To Potential Link Sellers?

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, February 23, 2009

greyhat

Gray Hat Hacking - The Ethical Hacker's Handbook

Attribution-ShareAlike License by Trond Viggo Håpnes

Should I disclose the risk for potential penalties in Google to people who I’m approaching to buy links? This is something that’s been bothering me, since I’ve started buying links.

I’m not concerned about “competitive differentiation” as an “ethical whitehat” – that’s a stupid notion that confuses search engine guidelines with moral codes… particularly dangerous considering the search engine guidelines are motivated by profit. I’m a grey hat, and proud of it – it means I can think outside the box and get creative.

My concern is that I may be treating the potential link sellers in an unfair way, and my personal happiness depends on being able to see myself as a fundamentally ethical guy.

(more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


How Navigation Peekaboo Converts SEO Traffic Better

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, December 22, 2008

Standard conversion advice says remove navigation from the landing page (at least for lead generation landers). Standard SEO says use links. The next best thing would be to put the navigation out of sight, in the footer, and have your calls to action above that so visitors won’t use your navigation to leave your page.

But if you put the nav in the footer, it might get less search engine trust, precisely because folks don’t use footer navigation. What’s a conversion minded SEO to do? Here are 4 options to play navigation peekaboo with search engines and humans to convert your SEO traffic better. Blackhats use some forms of this, but I think I’ve also thought of original twists too. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Link Buying Services – Free :)

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, November 26, 2008

Update: These are no longer being offered; I got an immediate response and booked all the spots. Link building inquiries with budgets for the service are still welcome, however.

While I’ve been doing online marketing for a while now, I’ve had little to do with the link buying aspects of link building so far. That isn’t to say I haven’t read about it or even shared some new ideas on disguising text link ads … but my clients to date and my own sites have been able to rank using Google-approved tactics. Not to say I haven’t done it on my own test sites, but I’m admittedly short on experience here. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Two Videos: On Buying Sites and SEOmoz’s Give It Up

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, June 15, 2008

Have a look – yours truly is in a Web Pro News video on buying sites, and at SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday, where I shared some local search stuff!

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


30+ Weird, Educational and Stupid Search Screenshots

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, May 14, 2008

One of my favourite things to do when browsing the web is take screenshots of interesting things I notice, particularly in the SERPs, but also on other sites. It’s an easier way of taking notes and learning from others. Featured below are some sites you know, like DoshDosh, Treatment Search, Sphinn and others.

There’s also the genuinely stupid Stupid.com, some much more intelligent Sphinn spammers who’ve carefully observed what tips us off to spam, and more. In the interest of load times, I’ve linked to some pictures rather than post them here. Enjoy! (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Buying Sites? Use Trusts To Avoid Google Domain Demolitions

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, May 9, 2008

At the Domain Roundtable, Matt Cutts said that Google will cut down any sites that get sold back to zero ranking value. So after a site has built up SEO strength for a few years, the asset could be worthless on the search market because Google – which controls the overwhelming majority of North American and most Western search – makes the rules.

This is clearly unfair to webmasters. Not to mention that the Fortune 500 are again on a different playing field, because their purchases are just mergers and acquisitions, not “site purchases”… (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Would You Attend a Greyhat SEO Panel?

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, May 7, 2008

I’d love to hear your thoughts and I’ll bet that conference organizers would too. So go share your thoughts at Sphinn (and feel free to sphinn the discussion ;) ) on whether you’d attend a greyhat SEO panel at SMX/SES/Sphinncon/Pubcon/SEM Canada etc. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


How Legal Fictions Can Break Google’s Paradigms on Greyhat SEO

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, May 6, 2008

Legal fictions can be used by greyhat SEOs to overcome Google’s nearsighted paradigms on buying websites and buying links. While Google is trying to pass off its guidelines as law – and is succeeding in convincing some people of that fact* – the facts are otherwise, and my two-post series on the topic will show that the law can actually enable people to skirt Google’s techniques and expose its faults. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


How to Find Competitors’ Keywords For Your SEO & PPC

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, May 2, 2008

Want to find out competitors’ keywords? Here’s how to find what keywords competitors use on their sites – and protect your own!

(more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Google Slaughters Wall & Inman, But Amazon Survives

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, April 17, 2008

Google killed former SEOmoz CTO Matt Inman’s widgetbait because some Guardian reporter didn’t like it and wrote his negative opinion up. Then Aaron Wall was unlucky enough to trust a jerk who asked Matt Cutts about Aaron’s affiliate program based linkbuilding.

The question is: Will Amazon get a beat-down too? For their (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


The Sneakiest Text Link Ad Disguise Or How To Pass Any/All Human Reviews

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, March 19, 2008

Google AdSense Here’s another Greyhat SEO idea for you, ladies and gents. The sneakiest text link ad disguise ever! It’s a true Sherlock Holmes who’ll see through this disguise. If you enjoy this post, there’s plenty more where it came from (i.e. the greyhat, idea and linkbuilding archives), so do subscribe ;) . Update: Many people reading this want to hide their link destination using javascript. See here.

Google AdSense unit image courtesy of Frank O’Dwyer.

Steps:

  1. Put Adsense on the page from which you want to sell/buy a text link.
  2. Take a screenshot (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


The Independent Webmaster’s Manifesto

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, March 7, 2008

  • If knowledge is power;
  • If information is knowledge;
  • And if Google is organizing – and, more importantly, distributing – the world’s information;

Then isn’t Google the single most powerful organization in the world?

(more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Editorial Calendar: Lotsa Goodies Coming Soon!

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, March 2, 2008

Hey gang,

I’m back from SMX West – the best three days of my life EVER – and have got some great material to share with you guys. Here are some highlights of what’s coming: (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Winston Churchill Would Have Been a Grey Hat SEO

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, February 13, 2008

Sir Winston Churchill in Black Bowler Hat“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”
- Sir Winston Churchill (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Link Buying, Anchor Grams, UGC, Persuasive Influences and Linking Oot n Aboot – Scratchpad

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, February 2, 2008

Today’s scratchpad is going to cover some new how to ideas in link building, the ROI on Google’s user generated content (UGC) properties, influence and then do some linking oot n aboot. If you enjoy this, please subscribe. (more…)

The ROI on SEO | Gab Goldenberg | Click to see all blog posts, not just feature pieces | Consultations | Press Coverage


Cloning Expired Sites: Blackhat Tactics and Whitehat Strategies Don’t Mix, But Greyhats Eat the Cake

Author: Gabriel Goldenberg, December 28, 2007

Eli wrote about desert scraping, which is the practice of digging around expired sites on archive.org, grabbing their content and reposting it on your own sites. Cloning expired sites is a similar idea that (more…)