http://seoroi.com SEO Services For Serious ROI. Blog Posts For Serious SEOs. Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:25:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I knew for a while that I wanted to try out UserTesting.com, based on the referrals from my friends at Closed Loop Marketing and various blogs on usability I read (Future Now, Usability Post), but I never really had the opportunity to go ahead and get on it. A former client ... http://seoroi.com/case-studies/usability-testing-tool-review-usertesting-com/ At SphinnCon 2010 yesterday in Jerusalem, I presented on guest post based link building. The main advantage, in addition to the high quality of links it builds relative to other sorts, is repeatability. View the preso to see what I mean. Goldenberg Gab SphinnCon The Difference Is RepeatabilityView more ... http://seoroi.com/link-building/guest-post-links-the-difference-is-repeatability/ 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. ... http://seoroi.com/seo-roi-quality/buying-text-links-pre-published-vs-post-published/ My friend Marios Alexandrou, an advanced SEO who loves to test ranking factors, worked with my programmer to update the popular Wordpress plugin I had built, Internal Link Building. For those who don't know, Internal Link Building automates your internal linking, so you can rank like Wikipedia without being Wikipedia. ... http://seoroi.com/specialty-services/update-ilb/ Yesterday, I described what I saw as a trend towards content communities becoming commodified. We ended on the question - how do you build a competitive advantage in such a case? One idea that comes to mind courtesy of both Inc magazine's article on Yelp, and from Kyle Lacy is ... http://seoroi.com/case-studies/how-facebook-built-a-competitive-advantage-while-blocking-google/ Ads are increasingly being bought to promote content, rather than to create brand awareness or sell directly. What's interesting to me about this is that it's a trend growing in parallel with a trend amongst large, SEO-driven sites towards building blog-focused communities. These content community sites typically follow this outline, ... http://seoroi.com/seo-roi-quality/trend-content-communities-commodifying-them/ Good copywriting does more than just explain the details of a website's products or services. It needs to speak to a person on an emotional level, giving them hope while getting the point across fast. It also needs to compel a person to take action. The biggest weakness of the average ... http://seoroi.com/case-studies/6-steps-to-more-engaging-copy-that-sells/ Competitive intelligence provides entertainment, an inside-track on industry trend-spotting, and the potential to develop tangential business opportunities before others, or at least catch up quickly. I gluttonously consume information, and thought I'd share some parts of my diet with other competitive intelligence collectors with hearty appetites. 1) Affiliate networks. Ever wonder what ... http://seoroi.com/specialty-services/5-surprising-sources-of-competitive-intelligence/ Let's face it - you're only worth as much as it costs to replace you. Most businesses are going through budget cuts and lay-offs, or have at some point in the last two years, which makes it more important than ever to prove your value to your company or client. They ... http://seoroi.com/seo-roi-quality/how-in-house-seos-can-add-value-beyond-search/ And I'm lucky to have been nominated in two categories! 1. My post, "The 4.5 Personas of My SEO Site," is nominated in the SEO category! If I get into the Finalists round, I'd love for you to vote for me to win! The post has also made it as ... http://seoroi.com/latest-news/im-nominated-for-the-2010-semmy-awards/ Check it out at Wolf Howl: 7 Tips To Make Training Your Web Team Merry http://seoroi.com/people/guest-post-on-training-your-web-team/ Get the scoop at Janet's Search Marketing Sage: "Two Must Have Plugins for Landing Page Testing." The second one you probably never heard of, but Janet makes a great case for :D! http://seoroi.com/analytics/two-highly-valuable-wp-plugins-for-testing-landers/ This is a guest post by Arnold Zafra for TopHost.gr, a hosting company offering shared web hosting plans as well as dedicated servers. The English is a little awkward at points, but Arnold still shares some valuable tips. So, you just snagged a deal with a client. Everything seems to flow ... http://seoroi.com/seo-roi-quality/5-sure-fire-ways-to-win-your-seo-clients-hearts/ It's a weird thing that some of the smartest affiliate marketers are also the dirtiest. 1 - Ever heard of "PPV"? Aka pay-per-view? I wish I was talking about boxing matches on TV. No, the larger ROI-centric affiliates are tending to move into "PPV" or "CPV" traffic, which many of ... http://seoroi.com/blackhat/affiliate-marketing-gets-sluttier-in-time-for-2010/ You all know how strong of a critic I am towards Google, but I thought this user research and testing was pretty unique, cutting edge, and can potentially lead to some great benefits for Sub-Saharan Africans (like finding health info, as mentioned...). http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/designing-useful-mobile-services-for.html http://seoroi.com/latest-news/google-does-something-right-omg-stop-the-presses/ This is a guest post by Mark Ius, on behalf of Red Fly Marketing, a digital marketing agency in Ireland, which includes both a web design company, and an SEO company. It's well known that most SEOs hate link building with a passion. Why? Two reasons. 1. The best quality links ... http://seoroi.com/link-building/cicero-and-link-building/ Until about December 22nd. In the meantime, 2803.fr brings us news on one of the first information products for the iPhone: A consumer reports guide that uses the iPhone camera to scan barcodes and report back its product rating accordingly. (Post is in French, fyi.) http://seoroi.com/latest-news/on-exam-break/ I got the question recently from a friend at a big corporation, in the context of buying reviews. Of course, Google does not make the law (yet), but there are laws restricting misleading marketing. In Canada, the main law in this field would be the Competition Act, whose sections 52 ... http://seoroi.com/link-building/can-buying-reviews-be-illegal-gasp/ I just spent a few hours creating and editing an affiliate PPC campaign with Facebook Ad Manager, a Firefox extension that lets you mass-create, upload and split test ads (including split-testing images) on Facebook. Now, while Facebook Ad Manager saved me a bunch of time, I screwed up with my Prosper ... http://seoroi.com/facebook/affiliate-ppc-tip-for-mixing-facebook-shareasale-prosper-202-tracking/ The following is my favoured reading list when it comes to search marketing, especially on the SEO side. It includes PPC and usability/conversion optimization stuff too, because you can't really become advanced in this field without focusing on the bottom line. Check out my description of each blog to see ... http://seoroi.com/blogroll/advanced-search-marketing-blogs/