Yearly Archives: 2009
Tom Schmitz11 Jun, 2009
Nofollow frenzy: Google Makes Major Policy Reversal on PageRank Sculpting
On June 2, 2009 Google reversed itself when it announced that the nofollow attribute (rel=”nofollow”) can no longer be used to redirect PageRank. Google’s Matt Cutts stated that nofollow tags would now evaporate PageRank. This is a major policy change by Google’s, one that impact advanced search engine optimization. I want to discuss What is… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie10 Jun, 2009
Aggregation Aggravation, Part 3: Clickability
This is part 3 of a 5-part series on the changing face of search. See the links at the bottom to read Parts 1 and 2 In a world of aggregators, you can still get visitors to your web site. It’s all about clickability. But before I get to the details, I have to say…… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie9 Jun, 2009
Aggregation Aggravation, Part 2: What Goes Where
This is part 2 of my series on SEO in the world of aggregation. You can read part 1 here. In today’s installment, I’ll give you my best educated guess as to how search engines (particularly Bing) decide what appears where in the search results, and how to control what they publish. This matters a… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie8 Jun, 2009
Aggregation Aggravation: Part 1
Search engines are changing from web indexes to content aggregators. Remember the good old days, when a higher ranking meant more traffic from a search engine? Well, those days may soon be gone. Search engines are scraping content from your sites and embedding it in their own search results (aggregating). And they’re doing it more… Read More
SEO Ian Lurie8 Jun, 2009
Bing: Ugliest HTML on the planet?
I’m starting to warm up to Bing a bit. The marketing is awful, but the search engine has a certain quirky charm. Never mind that neither Google nor Bing show up in the top 10 in the Bing rankings for ‘search engine’. If Microsoft can ever come up with an algorithm that works, Bing could… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie5 Jun, 2009
4 Signs an SEO Firm is a Fraud
This post started as a detailed roast of a couple of SEO firms here in Seattle. I use the term ‘firms’ very loosely. But I have my limits of meanness, and decided that they may simply not know any better. This post gives them a chance to withdraw any claim of search engine optimization expertise… Read More
PPC Elizabeth Marsten5 Jun, 2009
Writing Killer Ad Copy…and not getting arrested
As promised, my presentation from the SMX Advanced session Writing Killer Ad Copy. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. And you’ll completely re-think how you write ads. Keep in mind that this presentation was created for advanced paid search specialists. The purpose of the session was to get people thinking “outside the box.” My job was to… Read More
Random Ian Lurie4 Jun, 2009
The 5 S’s: How Portent Works
I’ve been writing about the 5 S’s quite a bit of late. They’re 5 different kinds of optimization – story, search, strategy, spend, site – and they’re the core of our internet marketing philosophy. They also tie our services together. We have a long list of skills inhouse here at Portent, but really what we… Read More
Ian Lurie4 Jun, 2009
Improve your writing in 15 minutes a day
Writing is my most favoritest thing. I like to write, always have. In elementary school I got in trouble when the teacher asked me a question I didn’t hear, because I was too busy writing about science stuff. I got beat up a lot in elementary school. Cough. ANYWAY, writing uses a part of your… Read More
SEO Ian Lurie2 Jun, 2009
Google will still eat you when it grows up
Awwww, who’s a cute widdle puddy tat. Yes you are. Yes you are you widdle cutie puddy tat… Slash. Bite. Garrrgghhhhhh… (insert death rattle here) This gratuitous cuteness, followed by horrific violence, is brought to you by Google. Virginia Nussey of Bruce Clay pointed out a statement by Matt Cutts at SMX Advanced today that… Read More
Portent Staff2 Jun, 2009
We’ve got High Tweets – We got High Tweets
Become instantly cool with High Tweets! You thank your lucky stars.
Featured Ian Lurie1 Jun, 2009
New Tool: Twitter Trends Analysis
I’m a hypocrite. Yes, a year ago I heaped scorn on the idea of me writing about Twitter. Now, I’ve not only written about it, but I just spent 3 days building a tool that analyzes trending topics. Check it out at HighTweets.com. How HighTweets works Every 5 minutes, HighTweets grabs the latest trending topics… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie29 May, 2009
Bing Goes Bonk: Lessons in Marketing from the Search Wars
So, Microsoft announces Bing. The world is about to change, the pundits say! This time our renamed technology will win, cries Ballmer! We’re spending $80 billion to make this thing win, dammit! 24 hours later, let’s take a look at the hottest terms on Twitter: Wha? How did this happen (in my best Elmer Fudd… Read More
Elizabeth Marsten28 May, 2009
Writing Killer Ad Copy: SMX Advanced Seattle Speaker
That’s right, yours truly is on one of many SMX Advanced panels this June 2 and 3rd in Seattle, dedicated to organic, paid search and internet marketing tactics. In particular my panel is on the paid search track for “Writing Killer Ad Copy- The Interactive Edition.” After the conference, I’ll post my presentation here (or… Read More
Tom Schmitz28 May, 2009
The Future of Search – Bing It On
Sometimes when I walk through book stores I read the titles on spines and imagine what the story is about. I’ll develop characters and elaborate plots which could make quite convincing stories. Except, usually my story is nothing like the story in the book. I mention this because I watched Microsoft’s Bing video today. Supposedly,… Read More