Search Engine Optimization

Most Used and Commonly Used Search Engines

The most used search engine is Google.

Commonly used search engines:

• Yahoo!
• MSN (Live.com)
• Ask.com
• Alexa

Search Engine Market Share

Search engine market share for 2008:

[click for larger image]

How Many People Search?

Do You Have an Email? Everyone Does. Search has become second most popular activity on the web after e-mail. Your colleagues, friends, family members and clients – all have an e-mail. Odds are – they use search.

According to Pew Internet & American Life Project research study, 91% of internet users use email and 90% use search engines. Some of the searching activities include:

• Get travel info
• Research product/service (including local)
• Buy Products
• Buy or make travel reservations
• Look up phone/addresses
• Do banking
• Pay bills
• Research for school/training
• Get maps or directions

For you as a company this means new customers, as product and service look-up is one of the top activities on search engines.

According to internetworldstats.com there are 238,015,529 Internet users in North America.

90% of 237,168,545 is 213,451,690 million search engine users across North America.

According to ComScore(internet statistics company) there were 10 billion searches in January 2008, in United States alone. If calculated, considering that 90% of people use search engines, this gives an average of 51 search per person, in January 2008.

So what does all this data mean?

If you have a business it is time to jump on the ride. Google made $5.19 billion with $1.31 billion net profit in 2008 first quarter. That’s $30,034(thousand) dollars per second!!

tick…tick..tick…

Search engine optimization and search engine marketing is a must for any business both small and large.

Pay Per Click

Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites/blogs, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser’s website. Advertisers bid on keywords they predict their target market will use as search terms when they are looking for a product or service. When a user types a keyword query matching the advertiser’s keyword list, or views a page with relevant content, the advertiser’s ad may be shown. These ads are called a “Sponsored link” or “sponsored ads” and appear next to or above the “natural” or organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a webmaster/blogger chooses on a content page. - Wikipedia

Example:

This is how search engines make money. Whenever you search, on the top, sides and bottom you can see “Sponsored Links.” Each time you click one, search engines charge advertisers for the clicks. Costs per click start a $0.01 and go well over $20 dollars.

The benefit of course is in the relevancy. When people search for “toronto lawyer” they want to hire a lawyer in Toronto. If 10 people clicked and you paid $3.00 for each click(total of $30) and got 1 new customer who paid you $2000 for the services - you made a great profit not closely available with newspapers or radio commercials. This is why Google and other search engines are so successful. They drive customer who want to do business. You pay a little and get those customers.

Find out more about pay per click programs:

• Google Adwords
• Yahoo Search Marketing
• Microsoft Adcenter
• Ask.com Sponsored Listings

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. - Wikipedia

Example:

What are the benefits?

Research found that around 70% of all clicks go to natural search results, meaning that whenever people search with “toronto lawyer” about 30% click to PPC advertisement(described above) and 70% click to natural search results. The benefit is like with pay per click - targeted customers who are interested in your products and services. They are interested because they took the initiative to use a computer, open a browser, get to a search engine, type in keywords and click on your website instead of others. At that point all you need to do is show them what customers want to see. This can be your products, services, papers, etc.

A company like ours specializes in placing website to the best spots on leading search engines Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask,com.

This is achieved with multiple steps. You find out more by exploring our homepage or by visiting following service pages:

• Keyword Research
• SEO Copywriting
• Website Development
• Website Analysis
• Link Popularity Service
• Search Engine Submission

Google PageRank PR update April 2008.

Google updated it’s pagerank yet again. This time it seems big, as all SEOs are picking it up:

April 2008 Pagerank update topics

Webmaster World Forums

Digital Point Forums

SEO Chat Forums

Barry of Search Engine Roundtable also reported on his blog and on search engine land.

Celebration!

As mentioned before, Google awarded us +1 pagerank. Our new Pagerank is 6!

Thats right, Google updated the page rank yesterday and exported the data to its tool bar! We are proud to announce Google has given us a PR 6. We are going to have a party today at the office….. more soon….

I have 4 RSS feeds set up from Google News targetting:

• Mortgages Canada
• Mortgage Canada
• Mortgage Canada (canadian results)
• Mortgages Canada (canadian results)

Of course I have a load of other feeds, but they are separate from those feeds and I do not use Google reader at all.

One thing Google knows is that I search:

SEO, Search engine Optimization, etc on daily basis.

This morning checking mortgage news I was very surprised that Google mixed a very relevant news story that has no relation to mortgages whatsoever( has “mortgages” in the copy though, once):

• Search Engine Strategies Toronto 2008
  

Cudos to Googlers.

This is a sign that Google is slowly but surely incorporating usage data into its results and probably into ranking criteria in the very close future. Though that news story has “mortgage” in it once, Google knows that I want SEO based on my usage data, hence if mortgages and SEO cross Google serves it to me, knowing I will probably be interested.

SEO referred to as search engine optimization is a practice of gaining best spots on leading search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Live.com, Ask.com, AOL and others.

Ontario SEO services allow your business to drive targeted customers to your website located in Canada, Ontario and major Ontario cities such as Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa and others.

Why SEO Works

When people search they have a clear intention in their mind which is expressed with keywords. For example, it is likely you are looking for an SEO company located in Ontario, hence you found our website through search engines. We have services you require and you are currently seeking or researching them. We simply show up at the right moment at the right spot and you may become our client.

Same concept works with your customers.

When they are actively looking for your products and services you simply show on best search engine spots and stand a chance of gaining their business.

When performing Ontario search engine optimization we can target potential customers in the following cities

• Toronto
• Kingston
• Ottawa
• Hamilton
• Niagara Falls
• St. Catharines
• Hearst
• Kenora
• Moosonee
• North Bay
• Sault Ste. Marie
• Sudbury
• Thunder Bay
• Timmins
• Kincardine
• Kitchener-Waterloo
• London
• Windsor

The way this achieved is through keywords. For example - you are a lawyer located in Montreal. The best way for you to get customers is to target Google.ca for keywords: “montreal lawyer”, “lawyer in montreal”, “quebec lawyer” and so on. This way customers actively seeking legal assistance will find your website and become customers.

SEO Expert is a Canadian search engine optimization company, holding leading search spots on Google.ca

Explore our:

HomePage | Services

Here is a list of internet marketing resources from industry leaders.

Internet Marketing Resources

• UseIt.com

A resource focused on web usability. Web usability closely relates to internet marketing since poor usability directly affects conversion rates. Good information structure allows visitors to quickly find information and get answers to their questions. UseIt.com are also pioneers of eye tracking studies that show what parts of the page people pay attention to once they visit a website.

• Online Copywriting Tips 101
• Online Copywriting Tips 101 part 2

A copywriting marketingresource from authors of the book Persuasive Online Copywriting. What do people do on the internet? They read. Online copywriting can retain traffic, convert it and it can lose traffic. It can affect search rankings and get links. Online marketing gurus share their resources with everyday man!

• Do You Want to Inform or Persuade?

Internet marketing tips from the co-author of “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark“. When people read your website copy they have questions, A good copy should pass benefits to the reader and at the same time inform, answering their questions. Sometimes answers can be in forms of links that lead to other pages specifically designed to answer the question, sometimes it can be achieved with proper side navigation. Key here is to “inform & Persuade”

• Top Experts Dish with their Best Kept Marketing Secrets

A internet marketing resource that compiled marketing gurus and asked them one question. Share one secret with us?

• Map Scent Trails That Lead to Better Conversion

The theory is that people are like bloodhounds who sniff a scent trail. That trail is represented with certain words or images that must be present on your website. If your website page ranks for “first mortgage” on Google, visitor will want to see the exact phrase “first mortgage”. If visitors search with “mortgage”, but really intend on getting a first mortgage and end up on your homepage, they will intuitively seek for the phrase or a link ““first mortgage” even though they searched with a different term.

• 3 Reasons Your Visitors Don’t Convert to Leads

A marketing resource on the basic steps that need to be taken in order for a website to convert better. Visitors fail to convert for 3 primary reasons:

1. Visitors don’t understand what value they get in exchange for giving their information.

2. They are informationally challenged and collect too little, too much, or incorrect information.

3. You haven’t established trust and set proper expectations of what to expect when doing business with you.

• Making Personas Sparkle Like Diamonds, Part 1
• Making Personas Sparkle Like Diamonds, Part 2

From industry expert an internet marketing resource on developing your customer personas. There 4 primary buying modes identified: The Competitive, Spontaneous, Humanistic and Methodical. All four modes should be addressed within website architecture at some point to maximize conversion. Author goes further and explains how to develop imaginary customers called personas that can be used to simulate buying a website visiting process.

• Conversion Funnel Folly, Part 1
• Conversion Funnel Folly, Part 2

Same on the persuasion architecture as above links. This time he talks more theoretically rather then practically about: Driving points, Funnel points, Resolution points, Waypoints, Conversion beacons, Conversion point. It’s more of a theory then practical advice, so if you’re more of a hand on person I recommend above articles. If, however, you are “methodical” this may the thing for you.

• Using keyword commands to get into the Brains of your Customers

Our post earlier this month on keyword research and its relation to what people want to see on your website. How to research keywords using Google Tool and WordTracker. Deep keywords can help you create content and structure a website that answer questions your visitor have before becoming customers. We also recommend industry report from Compete.com for this purpose.

According to bloomberg article, Google was accused by republicans for manipulation of FCC rules.

According to Fred Upton, Google bid enough on the C wireless spectrum block to trigger open access rules, after which it walked away in victory.

“Google was successful in gaming the system,” Upton said. The rules were a “social engineering” experiment by the Federal Communications Commission that prevented the spectrum swath, known as the C-block, from raising billions of dollars more, he said.

Google bid $4.71 billion on the wireless C block - enough to trigger open access rules by FCC after which Verizon won the auction with $4.74 billion offer.

According to Google public policy blog: “Google’s top priority heading into the auction was to make sure that bidding on the so-called “C Block” reached the $4.6 billion reserve price that would trigger the important “open applications” and “open handsets” license conditions.”

So yes, they’ve admitted it on the own blog. It makes sense though. If your goal is have an open access network, why pay for it when you can achieve the same results with some effort and no money? The “duped” part is more of a media spin since it’s a sharks game in Washington and if we use “duped” to describe Google’s moves then we can use “killed”, “buried” and ”
destroyed” to describe every day actions of American government towards the people.

Open Access.

With open access block any phone can be used on the network giving Google more advertising space. The new block is to be equipped with 3rd gen by Verizon, meaning that broadband cellular access is very close. Whether it’s paid or free is up to the Verizon, but Google ensured that Android powered phones will not have any obstacles operating on the network.

Search engine optimization is a technique of promoting a website on leading search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com and others. Richmond has over 174,461 residents with large portion connected to the internet. Whenever a person in Richmond, BC searches for a product or service, that person wants to find a business actually located in Richmond, BC.

For Example:

If your website shows on major search engines when people search for: “Richmond BC auto service” or “Richmond real estate agent” – you can get new customers and clients, by showing up in best search spots.

Search Engine Optimization for Richmond is all about getting best spots on search engines and attracting new customers that search for your products or services.

Richmond Search Engine Optimization Services

SEO Expert services include promotion of your website on major search engines for keywords that reflect your business. We find keywords ourselves. You can also do your own research using:

• Google Keyword Research Tool
• Wordtracker Keyword Research Tool

Our Richmond SEO services go for local keywords first such as: “Richmond lawyer” or “Richmond car dealership”. We also ensure you are featured in local mapping services, so when customers need directions or want to find a local business, you are prominently positioned on:

• Google Maps
• Yahoo Maps
• Live Maps(MSN, Microsoft)
• Ask.com Maps

Once you are featured in local search results, we go for provinces such as British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, etc.

Our Richmond SEO services can also go for national and international markets, depending on your unique requirements.

Explore our main website to find out more about Richmond search engine optimization!

In previous article we mentioned some basic ways of getting into corporate SEO. In this one let’s touch the architecture of the website.

One thing you notice after looking at a couple of industry leaders with most corporate SEO and PPC accounts – their sites are quite empty. Not to say they do not have content, it is just their content is not too remarkable(except 1 site, you figure out which one!). Website copies for the most part have regular corporate babble like: “we are committed”, “cutting edge” and other pre determined phrases of the corporate speak.

But there’s 1 big difference that sets them apart though – the expertise. Most industry leaders stick it out to the face.

• Coverage by respected publications
• Big clients
• Research papers

As opposed to talking links and keywords, they show their expertice with big names. Just look at 5 top big SEO companies; you will see what I mean.

So for you as an SEO the task is to gain “respect”. Respect in the eyes of corporate officers with your client list, research and awards.

Client List

If you do not have at least one big recognizable brand that you can feature on the homepage, try getting one with offline methods. If you did have one, place the logo on the homepage. It is going to be juicy.

Awards

By I awards we are talking “Forrester”, “IDC, etc. The awards people know. If you are an SMX speaker, or got an award from search engine watch, rarely will anyone care. Key here is again – recognition. (feature them too though :D)

Media Coverage

Same old story – respect. They will want to see “Wall Street”, “NY Times”, “CNBC” etc. Those publications are “respected”, but like all big media are bought out, so if you have a budget, buy a couple of articles.

If you write for SEM industry respected sites such:

• Search Engine Land
• Search Engine Watch
• Clickz
• SEO Chat

Feature your articles in a column: “our professionals write for the most respected search engine marketing media publications such as …” etc with “blank” links to the source.

Another good way of getting more corporate SEO is having good unique selling proposition.

The Information Structure

The actual content has to be first for the C-level guys, who could not care less for links, keywords and rankings. The writing has to be focused on benefits that your services brings: such as increase in customer traffic, more conversions due to targeted nature of SEO(link to another page and explain), reduced cost per acquisition of customers, etc… The regular marketing stuff taught in every class: forget the features and talk about benefits. Also explain briefly how it is achieved. The detail is not necessary but it has to make sense. If you are full of pops they’ll take notice.

For every person involved in the decision making process, there has to be a number of pages. In corporate SEO it is the CEO, marketing head, IT head(not always), CFO and some lower ranks who do the manual labour of checking all the strings, so prepare for a lot of pages and a lot of writing.

The page length has to be short for each page. I aim for 300 – 400 words. This is because they are in a hurry. A brief article, full of benefits and easy explanation of how those benefits are achieved, with links to other sections within content will do it. It is very important to forget navigation and rely on content links. Navigation is important, but focus on content funnel and then do the navigation to the juiciest pages.

If you explore SEO leaders and guys who get it, you will notice some of them do not have many pages. Don’t try to copy them. If you do not have those “respect” builders in abundance, do heavy writings and site structuring.

Another thing you will notice is that all SEO leaders have case studies. Those are 400 – 700 word articles, showing what they did for clients. Some of them are convincing, some seem phoney. Case studies show what was achieved in perspective and are powerful is you feature a big name and $ values. Study some of them on the net, there are plenty. Don’t sound fake though, as there are some.

To find out more about architecture, read some more of our articles:

• · Architecture for Revenues
• · Website Architecture
• · Website Architecture Part 4
• · Answering Anticipated Questions
• · Increase Website Conversion by Testing

How much Google makes?

Google announced earnings today. How much are your clicks worth?

$5.19 billion with $1.31 billion net profit.

If we cut it down by days that’s $43.250.000 million per day. Care for hours? $1.802.083 per hour or $30.034 per second.

tick…tick…..tick…

What would you do with that cash? Assuming you were a sole share owner? Hmm… I’d buy a nice car That leaves me with… another $1.31 billion! Tough work spending all that money. A jet, a yacht, big house, some islands? At that level its all about the game. I’d probably feed some kids, in Africa and not with 50 bags of rice for $3000 and $3 million media promotion, but the real stuff before “black SUVs with tinted windows” started following

“As of March 31st, Google employees 19,156 full-time employees” - SE Land

Growing bigger. Last time I did an article they were at 16.000. That’s 3000 + over a couple month? Gets the wow.

The question is for how long Google is going to keep the momentum going. Can’t be forever can it? Google is best no question, but the innovation at that level is tough! How long before GooglePlex becomes a de spirited place? Will it? Who knows. maybe one day we will see Google Brain!

Out for today. Promised Architecture Tomorrow morning!

Corporate SEO accounts are the juiciest. Contracts starting at $50.000 and going well into hundreds.

How do I get some?

All SEOs want to know how to. There is nothing secret in doing corporate SEO.

After some of research we found there are many ways of getting more corporate SEO accounts in the back ride of your Lexus.

All is required is dedication and of course your interest.

Trade Shows

Trade Shows, Seminars, Marketing Venues. Places where contracts are stamped, where marketers swirl for some hot “unknown” advantages, CFOs for financial happiness and CEOs… well… for more profits!

I not need to explain that right trade shows are full of fat fish. For you, SEOs looking for corporate blood there are 3 choices on trade shows:

Booths

Booths costs around $3.000-$10.000 per both. Price per both (PPB :)) depends on size, audience and quality of the trade show. Also keep in mind equipment, some promotional items (cups, pens, etc.).

The biggest problem - you may not be allowed to have a both, due to industry differences. Try it out though. Various organizers allow in a small portion of related companies. If thats the case, another problem is to explain what in the hell SEO is!

If you’re lucky enough to be the only SEO with a booth on trade show(say financial) and present your offer properly, prepare for the green.

Speak in Front of the Audience

Let them know why SEO is sexy. The problem is getting on the stage, which requires heavy credentials and is by invitation in most cases. Try finding some ways though, as I haven’t looked it into. Never know. Maybe you know people.

Visit

Can try up-selling person to person if you’re good. Also a lunch, cigarette or a coffee might spark you deal. There’s less impact though.

—

The biggest SEM trade show is SES. I never attended one (going this summer) so I can’t say how good it is. My personal choice would a more conservative show, with less knowledgeable people in SEM sector, since in my opinion SES has more SEOs then anyone else. (That may be false, we’ll find out when it arrives to Toronto).

White Papers & Targeted Media Buying

If you are passionate or interested about a field, a white paper may produce leads if it falls into the right hands. The trick is making it fabulous, miraculous and astonishing, because good & relevant content does not get distributed online.

Media buying is more safe in my opinion, since you don’t rely on outside linkage. Getting some good ads in targeted publications read by marketers is probably the best move, though we haven’t looked into as much.

Will touch webste architecture adjustment in the next article.

Compete.com Keyword Data and Competitive Analysis

Compete.com is a competitive analysis tool with a motto: “Track your rivals. Then eat their lunch.” The tool is used by SEOs and online marketers to spot keywords and consumer search behavior.

Spy on Competitor Keywords

In “Search Analytics Section” you can “Find out which keywords are sending traffic to a website or category:”

Competitor: Enter web address of your competition and Compete.com will produce keywords that send traffic to their website. The amount of keywords can reach 500+.

Category Analysis: Chose category you are interested in and Compete will produce a keyword list for you. As example I selected “Home Loan Financing” and Compete offered me 13,890 terms! Pretty Impressive!

Compete also provides information such as:

• Category Share (Site Share)

  Percentage of all search referral to a category / site

• Keyword Engagement

  Represents average amount of time people spent on the site after entering it with a specific keyword from search results, PPC ads or a link. Measured 0 to 100

• Keyword Effectiveness

  Total amount of people sent to a website with a keyword and time people spent on that site. Measured 0 to 100

If category share is high for a specific website, it is likely that site is holding top spots on search engines for that keyword. Category share is also useful in finding out reach of keyword in a specific industry.

Keyword Engagement and Keyword Effectiveness are very unstable measurements, at least for broad keywords(excluding brand search), since the time spent on a website largely depends on page lander, architecture and copywriting on that site. As keywords get long tail, expect the engagement and effectiveness to go up and get more accurate, since people are more refined in their intention.

Site Traffic Analytics

Similar to Alexa.com in the interface, featuring:

• People count
• Rank
• Visitors
• Attention
• Average Stay
• Growth

and more information. Traffic analytics is very inaccurate from both Compete and Alexa.com, so do not place much faith in it.

The real value of compete is keyword research. It seems that keyword analysis is shifting to the new phase from regular search to a competitive based approach.

There are 2 alternative to Compete.com - Quantcast, and Keyword Spy.

Compete.com was acquired for $150 million.

The Big Pac Man is about to swallow smaller guys was the phrase from one site I can’t remember in regards to the pie chart representing search engine market share. It is exactly on the point:

Source search engine land

Barry of SE Roundtable reported a recent Google slap discussed on WMW.

“There are a few early reports that some Google AdWords advertisers received what is called a Google Slap, basically a spike in their minimum CPCs due to Google’s quality score. A WebmasterWorld thread has two confirmed reports over the weekend that their cost-per-click (CPC) prices have skyrocketed overnight. Here are quotes of the two reports:”

Well, I got around 8,000 keywords with a bid of $10.00 today, which most where on $0.15 and $0.30.

An increase from $0.30 to $10.00 is quite big. More info on forums. On saturday we noticed Google Adwords Outage message in SERPs. Could the increase in CPC be the result of the outage glitch/adjustment by Google?

If you search “Adwords” This is Google’s Message

Google WebMaster Central Blog - Crawling and Indexing Team

"In the past few months we have been exploring some HTML forms to try to discover new web pages and URLs that we otherwise couldn’t find and index for users who search on Google. Specifically, when we encounter a <FORM> element on a high-quality site, we might choose to do a small number of queries using the form. For text boxes, our computers automatically choose words from the site that has the form; for select menus, check boxes, and radio buttons on the form, we choose from among the values of the HTML. Having chosen the values for each input, we generate and then try to crawl URLs that correspond to a possible query a user may have made. If we ascertain that the web page resulting from our query is valid, interesting, and includes content not in our index, we may include it in our index much as we would include any other web page. "

——–

"The web pages we discover in our enhanced crawl do not come at the expense of regular web pages that are already part of the crawl, so this change doesn’t reduce PageRank for your other pages. As such it should only increase the exposure of your site in Google. This change also does not affect the crawling, ranking, or selection of other web pages in any significant way."

Yahoo - potential deal with AOL, outsourced ads to Google.

Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL are closing in on a deal to combine their Internet operations, a move aimed at thwarting Microsoft Corp.’s effort to acquire Yahoo, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday. – WSJ

“Yahoo has confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that it will be testing Google’s paid search ads alongside its own for the next two weeks and involving no more than 3 percent of Yahoo’s search pages in the United States. From the Yahoo statement” – Search Engine Land

“But Microsoft is recrafting its assault plan by talking with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, about mounting a joint bid for Yahoo, people familiar with the matter said.” – WSJ

Scaring Microsoft Into Raising its Bid?

Earlier Yahoo said it is not against Microsoft takeover, just give them a sweeter deal. Microsoft said the offer stays in tact and Yahoo has 3 weeks before in enters into proxy fight, lowering the bid.

Could late developments be a masquerade by Yahoo to get a sweeter deal? It seems logical.

• MS needs Yahoo strategically. Yahoo knows this. MS will have no shot at search if they let Yahoo pass.
• No one beat Microsoft in per share value if the deal goes through, making Yahoo board happy.
• Google will own 90% of advertising market if the deal strikes – MS’s nightmare scenario

Microsoft quickly played the antitrust card on the Google-Yahoo ad partnership, but Search Engine Land notes that Overture controlled 90% of search ad market in the past, when Google was a small player.

Wallstreet states: “many analysts and investors believe Microsoft will ultimately win out.”

It is logical for Yahoo to take steps and show Microsoft they can successfully fend off the deal, leaving them with no search share. Microsoft failed at search, everyone agrees, but lets look back at what Steve Balmer said:

“I’m going to fu***** bury that guy(Eric Schmidt), I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to fu***** kill Google.” – on the departure of Microsoft engineer to Google.

“So it may be my last breath at Microsoft, but we’re going to be there, working away, building share.” - MIX08 online technology conference

For Microsoft Yahoo is the only opportunity to effectively gain search market share. Balmer won’t let it slip. I believe that Microsoft will be forced to raise the bid and that Jerry is simply playing very smart. He’s got most of the aces and kings and it’s a matter of keeping empire in tact for Microsoft.

There’s a nice 3D diagram which shows the order in which elements are stacked on top of each other showing beginners how padding, border and margin work together in order to improve their CSS skills. As you see margin comes first, then background-color, then background-image, then padding, then border, and the content comes last. This image that I found from this site http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/boxmodel/ helped me to better understand the exact order of elements to consider while creating style sheet.

Yahoo announced it will acquire Index Tools – web analytics software.

Google was the first of the big 3 to offer traffic analytics free of charge with Google Analytics. In November 2007 Microsoft launched Gatineau - a competitor to Google Analytics and now Yahoo is catching up.

Details were not announced.

Yahoo is not giving up?

My guess is – if you are going to get purchased very soon why bother with analytics? Microsoft got it. Looks like a move to make Microsoft heads more nervous or a step towards independence. I may be wrong, but it doesn’t seem logical.

Jerry knows that Microsoft’s needs Yahoo to battle Google. There’s no other alternative for them, as their search market share are crunches from the floor. Microsoft will be using dirty tricks to get what they want, but Yahoo is doing the right thing for not giving up so fast.

Let them sweat, bribe and infiltrate.

Yahoo board members would be foolish to accept the bribes from Microsoft blinded by green dollars and their own greed, unable to see above their noses.

Microsoft is desperate. It’s not about money it’s about long term survival and dominance strategy and they need Yahoo for that. It’s a like key elevation in the battle. If you fail to capture it you lose the battle. Yahoo needs to make a big brick wall and tell MS to go take a big hike until they double that cash offer. MS needs them that bad and if Yahoo plays it smart they will be happier billionaires..

Jerry knows this, so let the man gamble a bit. Its all a big fun game.

Aaron Wall is the author of SEO Book, professional search engine optimizer, marketer and entrepreneur. Aaron is one of the top voices in SEO world who was kind enough to answer some questions on his tight schedule.

Lets shoot with routine =)))

How long have u been in SEO game, what do you think of it and what do you think of the community?

I have been in the SEO field for about 5 years now. I think it is largely fun, exciting and challenging.

I think the community contains many great people, I would not be as successful as I became if there were not a lot of great people in the industry. But the SEO field also contains a few rotten apples. For instance, one person who recently praised in public and said that my site is the one must read SEO blog also stabbed me in the back and outed one of my sites directly to Google’s Matt Cutts. You basically learn not to trust people one at a time after they screw you over.

One other thing that is a bit frustrating about the field of SEO is that almost nobody that is well known and public facing has much of a backbone, and we let some sleazy self-promotional snake oil salesmen like Jason Calacanis and Steve Rubel shape public opinion of our industry to promote themselves, in spite of the fact that some of their projects like the fake Wal Mart blogs and Mahalo are spammier and less ethical than what most SEOs do.

As the field of SEO gets tarnished as a whole it creates a market for lemons effect. And virtually nobody seems to care.

How do you select project? Is it the ROI, fun, field or something else?

I generally like to work on things that I am interested in. My wife tends to be more profit oriented than I am. For our group projects we like large liquid markets where we feel we can gain a strong sustainable competitive advantage through SEO and internet marketing strategy.

What is your approach on starting a new project? Do you create content first(or applications) and then start building links, get social and marketed about it or you wait until project is finished?

I try to get a great domain name right away. Then I try to decide if I want a really loud launch or a quite one. If I want a quiet one I end up putting up like a 10 page holder site and throwing a few links at it, then coming back to work on it a few months later. If I want a loud launch then I start participating in the marketplace right away to develop relationships such that people will help me promote it when I launch.

SEO companies

What do you think is the best way of marketing SEO to corporate crowds, getting larger contracts and breaking walls of marketing departments?

I think speaking at conferences is the easiest way to pick up big leads. I have worked for some of the largest brands on the web, and most of those types of clients have found me at conferences. Two other strategies are to build a strong online presence or create a niche report that is focused on a specific market.

There seems to be an SEO company for every street all over the world. Do you think it is as hard to find quality as it used to be?

I think the bigger issue is that market for lemons effect I mentioned earlier. If I can do $50,000 of consulting work and add $10,000,000 to your business is that an equitable relationship? And the thing is…most SEOs do not attract the really good clients that I sometimes get.

On the flip side of the coin we have sites that make $5,000 or $10,000 a month that require no upkeep or maintenance, but could gain marketshare rapidly if we spent our time marketing them. Many of the best SEOs just work on their own site because it is more profitable than doing client services.

In the last year and a half my wife went from just starting out to making more than SEO Book does…and she does not work as much on those sites as I do on SEO Book. Her ROI is much greater, especially considering she is new to the market.

Paid Links

Do you think Google can tell if you are buying links by looking at the link profile?

Most link buys are quite obvious in nature, but I have bought and sold some links that I know Google would have no way of knowing that they were paid links.

Where do you think link buying be in 2 years? Do you think all directories and link venues will be slowly phased out of the formula by Google?

I think link buying keeps moving to more of an indirect model…where rather than buying links directly you do public relations to gain market awareness and market exposure, aggressively promote those ideas with public relations, and hope that leads to links.

What is your advice for all link buyers?

You can spend moderately off the start, but if you want to build something sustainable and growing, ask yourself if your site offers anything unique or any reason that people would want to link at it. Link buying works well for filling in the gaps when you are close to the top, but is much harder when you are reliant entirely upon them.

Social

I’m a little slow on getting social with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, etc. Do you think it’s worth the time spending efforts on those networks?

I think as a marketer they are worth looking at and understanding because they may help shape the web. If you ignore them and your competitors become stars on them then you are going to have a harder time competing against them.

The networks are not for everyone, but it is worth at least giving them a try before giving up on them.

I’ve seen a little flash on facebook – CIA connection. Considering no private life in London away from cameras, DNA sampling, new IDs being pushed and our society resembling pages of Orwell’s 1984 more and more, do you think facebook is just a front for collecting data on people, a good idea or something else? Give us your thoughts Aaron =).

Can I say all of the above? It seems most large web platforms are run by companies desiring to become ad networks. The more they know about you the more precise they can target ads. Google even has a patent for monitoring how you play online video games and targeting ads at you that exploit your mental weaknesses

Google looks at social profile of a company/site. Do you think it will be putting more weight on it with time?

I think as more and more people game links that Google may incorporate usage data a lot more in their algorithms. They can slowly roll it in a little bit at a time, and few people would even realize that they are doing it.

Blogging for SEO is quite challenging, since the amount of SEO bloggers probably surpass number of SEOs. It seems all SEO niches are filled in. What is your advice to SEO bloggers on topics and recycling the same old?

If I were new to the SEO field and just starting out today I do not think I would call myself an SEO. I would start with a fresh word that was not so over saturated and tarnished.

Search Industry

Do you think Yahoo has a chance of survival?

Google has them beat on search. And Yahoo! is just so bloated and sloppy that it is hard to think of how they can win. But they could be a solid #2 option for people dissatisfied with Google.

How do you envision Microhoo vs Google battle? Predictions? I personally think Microsoft is an evil dead horse that will only destroy search, do you think they have a good shot with Yahoo combined? Tell us your thoughts on the overall deal.

If they get Yahoo! they win ad market share which is important for monetization and developing ad syndication partnerships, and it gives them a platform to experiment on. Like Yahoo!, I think Microsoft is too bloated to compete. The only thing that would really allow them to compete would be a quality search product baked right into a free operating system.

BTW….Microsoft is seen by many as evil, but Google is no better on the whole. On many issues (like respect for copyright) Google scores way worse than Microsoft does.

How the merger affect the SEO game? Will SEOs be forced to do Microhoo(optimize for it)? Do you think clients will start demanding Microhoo on their list?

I think Yahoo! search is stale and sloppy. Yahoo! is easy to game with social media stuff and parasitic SEO. Microsoft search tends to be much quicker at updating and gives smaller players more of a chance in the market.

How do you think US recession / dollar collapse will affect SEO?

Other than creating opportunity for those who stay focused and aggressively invest in growth through it, I do not think it will have much of an affect.

Personal

Being a guru and SEO superstar how is your work life? How many hours a day you sprint working? How are your eyes from so much work=)?

I work about 15 hours a day. Way too much! I have been legally blind (or at least very close to such a rating) since I first found out my vision was bad…half way through high school. I did not realize how bad my eyes were until 10th grade! But other than that I am well. I used to be an inventory manager and would count all the stuff in stores like Lowes…and that would destroy my eyes. Being a nuclear reactor operator on a submarine full of pollutants was also quite bad on my eyes.

Care for hinting on your future developments ?

I plan on adding more SEO tools to our site and working on expanding our SEO training program. Beyond that I plan on helping my wife work on making her sites clear market leaders in the spaces she operate.

I see you got a recent membership project rolling. How’s that doing for you? How many members you plan on having? What are the benefits for a guy/girl interested in SEO? Why should I participate in your forums and not just head to Web Master World?

It is going well so far. We have well over 600 members and hope to cap it out at 1,000. The biggest benefit to our forums are

- they are small enough that you will get direct time with me and other top SEOs (rather than being drowned out like on some of the public forums

- they have much less noise than the public forums

Share a 1 good and effective SEO technique with us Aaron.

Pay close attention to conversation in your marketplace. Many of the best keywords and business models stem from market conversation.

Visit Aaron SEO Book and Search Marketing Info websites.