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Stoney had a piece over at Search Engine Land that was a fun little (near) rant that could help save more than a few people some hair loss.

SNIPPET - I often feel sorry for small businesses. I do. Too often they don't have the funds, time or resources to investigate things as thoroughly as they should. Unlike larger businesses with deep pockets, small business can't hire first-rate, high-end SEOs to do all the right things for them. All to often they have to rely on the free advice on blogs, forums, and social networking sites—and then do all the worrying themselves.
20 Comments     

Comments

from scottclark 349 days ago #
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I received a call yesterday from a company who had fired their SEM firm because they lost pagerank during the toolbar PR update.   They didn't want to hear what I had to say - but wish I had sent them to your post.   What you say is true!!!

from todd 349 days ago #
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Uh, did I miss something?  The title says "10 Useless SEO Worries", but I only see #'s 6-10... what happened to 1-5?

from AndyBeard 349 days ago #
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That is one of those "Deliver What You Promised In The Title" things.

As I have 2 elbows I will say that the leakage was glossed over far too much.

from Twistermc 349 days ago #
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I see what you see Todd.  Where are the rest?

from Feydakin 348 days ago #
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*I'll finish up next week (you can thank me with lavish praise and links.) We'll keep going down the list until we hit the number one thing that a small business should absolutely never be worried about. Ever. Stay tuned.*

Pretty lazy when you can't finish a 10 list.. It's like me saying I'm going to walk a mile today and not making it past the couch.. 


from theGypsy 348 days ago #
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Maybe Stoney should have done - Top 10 List; Part I ...  he's leaving us hanging now, 'until next time' - much more cun that way no? ha ha h ha....

from Hobo 348 days ago # - show/hide this comment
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@ScottClark

"I received a call yesterday from a company who had fired their SEM firm because they lost pagerank during the toolbar PR update."

The SEM was sounds negligent in educating the client to the actual value of Toolbar PR (or worse, was using it as a metric to evaluate the campaign performance).

from St0n3y 348 days ago #
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Hey guys, Just a heads up, I delivered this post to Chris Sherman as a Part I. My original title got edited and apparently they didn't keep put that back in. Sorry about the confusion.

But hey, there's nothing like a good cliffhanger!

from scottclark 348 days ago #
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@hobo, absolutely, but they've poisoned the soil for new SEMs, even with a silky explanation of how what they've learned is all wrong.  This kind of friction in the process will keep most A-level SEMs from getting involved.  Hmmm there's a blog post idea.

from scottclark 348 days ago #
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@stOn3y:  Cliffhangers are dead in a Web 2.0, RSS, feed based world.

from St0n3y 348 days ago #
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Tough crowd. The cliffhanger bit was a joke. But I know for a fact that once an single article goes too long people zone out. As do I once I hit 1300 words. For everyone's benefit I stopped there and will finishi it up next week.

from LukeyJ 348 days ago #
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I love a good cliff hanger! Isn't it funny how sometimes the 'type' of article can create more discussion than the actual content of the article itself! That said however, I think the list so far is spot on. A day doesn't go by for me without a potential SEO client asking me if we can "Guarantee them number 1 spot on Google"!

I look forward to part 2!

from Halfdeck 348 days ago #
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Thumbs down. St0n3y usually writes quality stuff, but this one I don't find useful at all.

- Don't fixate on #1 rankings.

How many times have I heard that before?

from theGypsy 348 days ago #
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 HA! Heartless heathens! How do you know that YOU were the intended audience there friend?
 

It is only with total humility, and in absolute stillness of mind that we can know what indeed we are. --- Wise men don't judge: they seek to understand


from St0n3y 348 days ago #
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Halfdeck... thumbs up for your honesty! Just remember, this column is meant primarily for small businesses who do tend to focus on #1 rankings.

from Gamermk 348 days ago #
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A nice list so far, but its really annoying to make an article with half a list. This just tells me that they are running out of things to say if they need to extend a top 10 list across two articles.

from dannysullivan 348 days ago #
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Ouch. I doubt he's running out of things to say. But we probably should have put Part 1 in the headlines. I'll make that fix.

from St0n3y 347 days ago #
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Thanks for the fix Danny! It's funny to think that people could read a 1300 words and conclude that I'm running out of things to say... especially when that's only the first half. My wife would draw the opposite conclusion!  ;-)

from AndyBeard 346 days ago #
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Look at it this way

If you have only provided half of the Top10, how are people going to suggest what you may have missed out, especially if you are saving the best until last?

There is very little conversation about the article, because it is difficult to respond to only half a list without looking stupid.


from St0n3y 345 days ago #
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"it is difficult to respond to only half a list without looking stupid."

Uh, Andy, One can always discuss the validity of the points made, can they not? No one would look stupid for that.


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