SearchInfluence

This post is republished here since the site on which it was originally published is now offline. Originally published. Many of the examples are no longer valid, but I hope the screenshots are still useful.

Small business owners are generally a frugal lot.

Of course there are some who’ve got the budget to invest heavily as long as they see a return, but what about those who don’t?A long time ago someone coined the phrase “Parasite SEO” talking about the abuse of Blogger and WordPress.com to get better search term positioning.  I love the term, but “parasite” is just so ugly sounding.  I prefer “Barnacle SEO”.

Honestly, I never even knew the original Google SEO guide existed. If I did I would have blown away the boss during my interview with my vast knowledge of the SEO world. Well, it would have been a little out of date considering it was originally released in 2008.

On September 28, they released a new version with clues that help us better understand the updated algorithm and a glossary of terms (something desperately needed in the original). It covers everything from SEO basics to effectively promoting your site on the web. Plus you get to stare at a cute little robot with sod for hair, flowers for a right hand and missing the left one that he no doubt lost in an epic lightsaber battle with his creator.

Plastic Surgery Internet References Benchmark for December Shows Overall Decline of Less Than 17% from Spring – The Busiest Season of The Year

We work with a number of plastic surgeons and have the opportunity to really get a sense for their zeitgeist. Right now many of them are feeling a pinch – our review had, to this point, been anecdotal rather than analytical. Suffice it to say we knew there was a problem but didn’t know if it was a lack of traffic, or a lack of conversion (window shopping but no buying).

Local SEO consultant and Portland, OR web designer David Mihm has just published his second annual Local Search Ranking Factors Survey and for the second year running, Search Influence has been chosen to participate.

This is the definitive document on Local Search Ranking.

The study asked participants to rate 49 factors on their impact on Google and Yahoo Local’s universal search algorithms, calculating their positive or  negative impact on ranking as well as the level of agreement the participants had on each issue. The following are some of the highlights of the survey:

I have come to love delicious.com ...

First things first: this post is a bit of inside baseball – it may be conceptually interesting but it likely won’t help you market your business.

Metcalfe's Law And The Network Effect

What’s interesting to me about the recent Nielsen data regarding “Twitter Quitters” is that it makes a prediction based on current data without looking at how this technology is like others before it.  Surely Nielsen

doesn’t have data on adoption of all technologies since the beginning of time, but if they thought a little harder they might find some similarities.  Or perhaps they just want the attention of controversy.