I’ve just come from an interesting post on FuelMyBlog’s blog entitled: SEO wins gold, silver and bronze. It’s an interesting post that compares SEO to the Olympics and The Guinness Book of Records. Here’s a snippet from the post:

A lot of SEO technology is used to make sure weaker content makes it to the top. Some SEO techniques are allowed, some are not, some are dirt evil and some evil performance-enhancing techniques are still not being detected …

I find the post particular interesting because in my mind there’s a big distinction between making your website more readable/indexable by search engines and trying to figure out how search engines work so that you get ranked before other sites which may be more valuable for the reader.

For example, let’s say I’m looking for information about a clothing company called Nautica. Assuming there are no other companies with that name, search engines should be able to tell me straight away about websites that can give me that information. However, if someone tries to elevate that keyword because they are selling, say Nautica watches, that page may have a high SERP for that keyword. Was that useful to me as a consumer? Does all this fighting for position really benefit the searcher?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not calling anyone who works in SEO a snake-oil merchant, however I think it’s only fair that they set their client’s expectations of what can be achieved. I’m sick and tired of receiving spam from people claiming to be able to make my websites rank first on search engines. At the end of the day, I’m sure decent search engines (that only really includes Google at the moment) can figure out what is relevant and what isn’t; and provide me with exactly what I’m searching for.

The interesting news today was the launch of Cuil (pronounced cool), a search engine that boasts having a larger number of pages that Google in it’s index. While this may sound like a good thing, in theory Google does a great job of filtering out duplicate pages and spam sites; so if Cuil has a large number of these, it’s not going to help it’s cause.

Response seems to be mixed, from people claiming it’s a great new search engine, to others who feel there’s still some way to go. Thing is, the number of people trying it out has meant some serious scaling issues have come to light, but this is to be expected out of something in it’s infancy. As some points say: everyone loves a Google killer, but the initial inability to cope with people giving it a try could end up driving away the early adopters that can make the project successful.

At the end of the day, I think the measure of Cuil’s success will be whether it manages to persuade people it can do a better job that Google. I still remember the first time I tried Google, and the fact that it enabled me to find what I want was an immediate deal-clincher for me. Cuil needs to be able to do something similar, to stand out from the crowd. At the moment, the only search engine that does this in my mind is SearchMe, giving a visual representation of what you’re looking for. I’m not quite sure how useful it is to me yet, but it’s immediately apparent that it’s “different”

Ok, here’s what I think is the major flaw in this plan. Microsoft is trying to attract more traffic to it’s search engine, but this scheme will only attract people with purchasing intent who are out to try and get a bargain. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but this is really only a small portion of search engine traffic. Also, while some retailers are interested in bargain hunters, there are not a segment you can build a relationship with, so it’s a very short sighted strategy. Microsoft probably thinks that they can “earn someone’s loyalty” by rewarding them for purchase behaviour, but at the end of the day relevance is still King, so I’m not swayed. Advertisers though, may see this as an interesting proposition, especially as it’s tied to a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) model.

Personally, if you want to earn something while searching, I would still recommend MySearchFunds. I’ve made almost £15 in a few days without changing my bahaviour, and I haven’t actually purchased anything online. I personally feel Microsoft may get some traction with this (similar to what we saw with the Live Search Club), but I don’t think it has long term potential. However, as always, time will tell!

This feature is particularly useful, for example,? if you’re searching for someone using their name as a search term. If the name is uncommon (like mine), you have a high chance of finding the individual straight away. If not, Clusty helps by grouping together search results by topic, which helps you identify which is the particular individual you are after.

Obviously, there’s other areas where this clustered search can be useful, so just try it out; you may be pleasantly surprised.

The main question on everyone’s lips is whether the changes will enable Ask.com to get more market share. It certainly looks great, however they are realy following in Google’s footsteps here and the results they are showing are based on their old search results anyway. My friend Rory spent a week using Ask instead of Google to see whether he could live with it and ended up very very frustrated. Seems like Ask doesn’t have anywhere near the same size of data, processing power or relevance that Google has. Until this is addressed, I’m afraid Ask is just a lame duck!

The report contains the following:

• An overview of the UK market (including market valuation and trends)
• A write-up of the key points emerging from the discussion
• New statistics
• Useful resources

It includes the following topics:

• Yahoo!’s launch of Panama platform
• Landing page optimisation
• Bid management technology
• Quality of traffic on content networks
• Budget allocation and resourcing

Check it out

This is just what Productivity501 is doing down at their iPod Shuffle Giveaway. Bloggers all around the world are being encouraged to write a review of their website and they will be entered into a draw where they could win an iPod Shuffle!

So, what are the mechanics behind this. Well they are asking for a 300 word review about their website, containing a minimum of 4 links back to the website, one to the main page, one to the contest and 2 to any articles posted on the blog. They are asking for fair opinions on their blog which could be positive or negative which is nice. At least they aren’t asking for any bias in the reviews. Bloggers are then to post a comment on the page pointing at their review and they will be added into the competition.

So how this compare to other ways or promoting your site online. Obviously there’s the cost of he prize; but this is meagre in return to the positive benefits they are looking for. They will run the competition until they have 150 blogs pointing at their site and this can be invaluable as far as Search Engine ranking can go. Just to put things in perspective, getting listed on Yahoo!’s Directory costs US$299 and then you’re not even guaranteed a place. Getting a total of 600 links from all over the blogosphere is more valuable than that in my opinion.

Interesting advertising model. I might try it sometime.

Home Run Pizza
903 W Alameda St
Santa Fe, NM 87501
5059848494

Gah! Don’t you just hate it when you search for something local on your favourite search engine and you get directed some something on the other side of the globe. Luckily most of the major engines are putting together targeted offerings that lets users select exactly WHERE they want to search for something. These Local Search facilities are great because they let you zoom into a relevant business which can answer your needs. I love the way search engines can even show you a map of your area with your search results superimposed to show your proximity to the advertiser.

So next time you look up a pizza delivery shop, at least you know that they’ll be able to deliver it warm!

• Make a List of Targeted Keyword Phrases
• Create an Optimized Page for Each Keyword Phrase on Your List
• Obtain Quality Backlinks to Each of Your Pages

The first two are quite easy to implement, but the third can entail some work. However, there’s some real benefits in getting this one right, as this is what determines the relevance of your pages.

Follow these tips for increased search engine traffic. Good luck!