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You beat us to it Gab, great job. Can't wait to try it out! Excellent strategy for virtual theming.
I agree, just a matter of priorities (notoriety or income, freedom to come and go as we please or structure) which can take on many forms.
Hi Jill:
By the way, I enjoyed your mention in PC world last week, but in regard to the post. In a nutshell in one sense, it boils down to ambition, the amount of time you can commit (building an SEO company takes time and energy as well) as well as what you really get out of the process (offering a service or owning another online property).
Contentment by all means is the objective, I also enjoy sharing SEO techniques but I guess the million dollar question was, is it ethically if SEO's enter a market (to test the waters and cut their teeth) on a site of their own?
That is after all the grandest exercise and acid test for your skill set, so you could offer sound advice to others in the same niche.
Whether if it is leading by example on one side or having the patience to show others the way, each can be mutually rewarding. On the lighter side, this article was really just to pose the question. Do SEO's really need clients? I think not personally and more like clients need SEO's, but to each their own bliss.
Jeffrey Smith
Story: Am I an Advanced SEO?
Yes Tim, you are in fact an Advanced SEO.
After having the chance to meet with you and Wanyne in the UK and hear a fragment of the things you were up to, It left my head reeling for weeks thinking about the implications. The apps and strategies you employ most defnitely fall outside of the norm. But then again, who wants to be normal?
Cheers,
Thanks Kimberly!
So, there is value in not writing 2,500 word white paper / blog posts... From now on (at least for a week or so), quick and to the point posts are in (with references to longer posts) if need be. For example if you perform a search for link building (a post from yesterday is now included in Google blended search for blogs from the Newton's Law and Building Link Momentum post. Combine that with being #2 for seo company and this is a breakthrough weeek...
Yea, you got me Tad...You told me before like 7 months ago, call me stubborn I guess, but yes you were right all along. Thanks for the advice.
Story: Relevance and Appeal
What is the new Sphinn Threshold on older content anyway? Strangley enough, it has the typical quota, yet fails to reach launch velocity...
Story: Relevance and Appeal
Evil Green Monkey, can you shed light on this? This is really weird? No desphins, yet at 26 it is not hot yet?
Story: Relevance and Appeal
I see, thanks for the update and insight behind the parameters. Clever...
Story: Relevance and Appeal
No fear of duplicate content here, I on the contrary use it to rank pages higher, you just have to know how and think about chronology when introducing content through various channels. Spiders are intelligent enough to figure it who was first, even if it takes a few days to recover a ranking.
Just wanted to kick it off into the hot zone! Great Post, Glen...
If you read his work, it is not hard to figure out that Jacob Nielson is a genius. I also took the usability courses offered by Dr. Susan Weinschenk from Human Factors International, all I can say is, retention is the crux of engagement and they have it nailed down to a science.
Without it, SEO is only 50% of what it could be. They are naturally aligned, one drives traffic, the others focus is to retain it. Both are focused on conversion and complement the other well. For more on this topic, here is a post I wrote last week on the subject http://sphinn.com/story.php?id=43214
Enjoy...
Thanks Kimberly:
That was based on a principle of usability about minimizing noise. If you have 20 things bolded for example, then you undermine the value of each time you use it vs. using bold text 2 times to REALLY draw attention, when you need it...
Whew, Glad it was You Annie that snagged the logo, I saw it all go down on analytics yesterday and thought it was a scraper site and I was only waiting for it to surface.
Thanks for the mention...
Take your profiling ability to the next level to drive relevant traffic using these excellent tips and tools to understand the needs and psychographic profile of your target audience...
Now that had me in tears from laughter. They managed to emulate the squeeze page so well, I almost wanted to donate $7 at the bottom because it cracked me up so hard. Thanks Nicky, now that was a good one.
@Querty:
I agree, if the post was elusive, I am referring to was less competitive phrases that still fall into a competitive category, 75K - 250K "results in Google in quotes" for example.
In reference to pushing the phrase a bit more, I optimize for semantic root phrases often so that any range of modifiers are included as a relevant result, but I see your point, but fail to see how the use of the word targeting can be intepreted out of context.
@emanuelh:
I have to disagree with you on this one. So, here we are basing opinions on heuristic trial and error, but to go so far as to make it a personal statement and call it stupid, I simply cannot follow you on that one.
Throughout the process of optimization, optimizing for anything less than top 10 placement is a waste. I know that I started building links in April of 07 for our site and we are ranking quite nicely. So, if you can rank for the one word "SEO" in one year (like we have) then we can talk about throwing the word stupid and top 10 rankings around in the same sentence.
The gist was competition, relevance and trust which was also mentioned...
Emanuelh:
First or all. Check your stats, www.seodesignsolutions.com DOES rank in the top 100 in www.google.com between to 40s and the 70's in Google for "SEO" in the US, in the 30's -40 for additional modifiers SEO Expert, SEO Consulting, SEO Company, Top 10 for SEO Web Design, Etc. The point here is, here we have one person who wants to pick apart a blog post (YOU), why I have no idea. Frankly if that is your thing, then by all means enjoy it, personally I find your comments way out of left field anyway.
First comment from you: "The process could take up to a year? Really? And what if the website now at # 10 gains relevance score at a pace that is higher than the pace at which your site, already at # 11, is gaining relevance score? You'll obviously never catch up".
My reply: "Talking about relevance and relevance score, if you were at #11 then obviously you have already optimized the content, then just giving the links, allinanchor, allintitle and allintext time to pass their respective litmus tests would suggest to add a link from the top 10 or just give it time to break the barrier to entry and hit the top 10.
Assumption#1 from you: Obviously the level of competitiveness of each search query is determined by the relevance score gap between your page at # 11
This is your argument? Seriously, if this is your point, maybe it is you who should not be throwing the word stupid and SEO around so much. You take one component out of hundreds and dare to pick it apart to make this your theory of the day?
Seriously, spare me your sarcasm, it is a blog post. If it bothers you that much, then just don't read it. There are far more constructive ways to enjoy a Monday morning.
I am aware of relevance score, so then what you are saying is that competition for a keyword has nothing to do with ranking.
What you fail to realize is the context of what you are arguing. Let's just go back to basics. I challenge you to pick a competitive phrase with over 1MM competing pages (referencing allinanchor results) and hit the top 10 starting from scratch, that was the context.
So I suppose having a top 5 position in Yahoo UK for the root keyword SEO is nothing to take note of either (for a site barely over 1 year old), surely there is nobody in the UK targeting that phrase right? Don't be krass!
Emanuelh, your argument is petty, show me your site so I can shoot holes in it or rather see the gems of your expert SEO strategy. Either that or come down off your soap box and quit talking down to people like they are your subjects.
This entire contingent harboring on word choice and mere descepencies in volcabulary and definition. Can you read between the lines or is everything you read broken asunder in bite sized chunks so you can piece it back together just to gain satisfaction?
Seriously, before you go spouting about SEO's not knowing their techniques from a hole in the ground. You should have a stable foundation yourself. I have heard you now in an insulting tone state the same thing. We understand what relevance is, but do you? and how this applies to the post in question? at this point, I firmly doubt it, but I do know that you the type of personality that likes to have the last word and something this ridiculous count drag out indefinitely.
Let's just agree to disagree and call it a wrap. Otherwise your personal statements you throw around so loosely could be taken as insulting. Which unfortunately would be a shame over stating that competition for a keyword has an affect on rankings.
What you propose is accounted for in the strategies we utlize to optimize. We understand that is is about engagement, relevance, link popularity, thematic site structure, consistent updates but all to what end? The end result of our stratgies are to gain authority, which is one metric that is not as easy to put finger on. I do not assume that the competition is going to hand over the keys to to their keywords.
Budget is one consideration, but not the crowning achievement. You make a good point in the last comment, but the statement was not saying that an exact time frame as a blanket statement. It was designed to indicate that it is hard work and don't just expect competitive keywords to fall in line just because you want them.
It's like the 10 page website that wants to rank for terms that are barely on the page. The page is merely a guidepost of what business owners should prepare themselves for. A battle, not just with competition but more importantly with the algorithm to give it what it needs to preclude the other several million competing websites.
Sure thing Dave...I know we are the new kids on the block around here and have to earn some stripes, I do thank you for the kind words and will continue to publish additional content as suggested.
Story: New SEO Plugin for Wordpress: Internal Link Building