Articles by David Portney
David Portney // 18 Nov, 2014
My (Insanely Large) List of SEO Tools & Other Useful Resources
I’m just about to reach the 5 year mark working in the online marketing industry, and one thing that I’ve always found remarkable is how open and sharing people in this line of work tend to be. Whether it’s strategies, tactics, updates, techniques or tools – folks in this space do a lot of sharing,… Read More
David Portney // 10 Dec, 2013
Google Authorship: 1 Completely Unscientific Experiment + 13 Killer Resources
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I wonder who writes up the documentation for Google. When they first announced the rel=author tag and Authorship configuration procedure on one of Google’s 11 blogs that I subscribe to, I jumped right on it and devoured the information and the process they described. Then I read it… Read More
David Portney // 4 Nov, 2013
SEO Makeover for 2014: A Practical Guide for Businesses
SEO is about attracting non-paid search traffic to your website. The idea is that a person searches the Web using Bing or Google, etc. and your site comes up in the non-paid search results. To that end, it’s important to make sure your website is easily understood by both people and machines. People = your… Read More
David Portney // 15 Aug, 2013
3 Surprising Ways to Instantly Improve Your Public Speaking Skills
Most people hate public speaking, don’t they? Anecdotally, we hear that people would rather die than have to get up in front of a group of other human beings and make a presentation. I sure can relate to that! People who know me now might not believe this, but I grew up very shy and… Read More
David Portney // 25 Apr, 2013
What Programming Is Teaching Me About SEO and Life
Even if you have zero interest in programming or SEO, I’m convinced you’re going to be glad you decided to read this blog post. And to make it a total no-brainer for you, I’m offering a 100% money back guarantee. Sound good? Keep reading. Hello, I’m David and I’m a wanna-be geek Sometime around Y2K,… Read More
David Portney // 2 Apr, 2013
5 Ways SEO is Like the Rolling Stones
In the summer of 2012, the Rolling Stones celebrated the 50th anniversary of their first gig at the Marquee Club in London. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the original bad boys of rock and roll have endured for a half century despite drug and alcohol problems, several changes to the band’s line-up, and occasional rumors… Read More
David Portney // 12 Feb, 2013
The Basics of International SEO – a Brief Best Practices Checklist
Recently, Team Portent has been writing a lot about local SEO best practices for US markets. And with good reason; mobile device usage is on the rise. Think about how often you reach for your smartphone or tablet to get directions to a local business, check their phone number, look at reviews or menus, or… Read More
David Portney // 13 Dec, 2012
Portent Staff Survey: “What’s your biggest question(s) about SEO?”
Recently I did a survey of our staff here at Portent to see if anyone had any questions about SEO they wanted answered. I made the survey anonymous using Survey Monkey, because sometimes people feel more comfortable asking a question without their identity being revealed. In the spirit of sharing and transparency, we decided to… Read More
David Portney // 5 Dec, 2012
Google Tricks For SEOs to Avoid at All Costs
I’m going to play mind-reader for a moment. Here’s what you think about SEO: You think search engine optimization is a closely-guarded secret bag of tricks You think SEO means beating Google at their own game You equate SEO with “buckets of cash” which would be pouring into your bank account if only you knew… Read More
David Portney // 28 Aug, 2012
3 SEO Deal Killers You Need To Fix Right Now
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” -Proverb attributed to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, if you can believe Wikipedia When the world wide interwebs came along, I was instantly intrigued. That was largely because when I was a (gullible) little kid I thought there was a book called “The Everything Book” that contained… Read More
David Portney // 5 Apr, 2012
SEO is Dead: A Fun Romp through the “Death of SEO” Graveyard
Pin It “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” -Mark Twain It’s been said that SEO is dead. It’s been said a lot, actually. But no, this is not another dumb, disguised, fake controversy “death of SEO” linkbait article. No. This is a fun, full-disclosure, zero-controversy death of SEO linkbait article. Now that you’re done… Read More
David Portney // 8 Mar, 2012
Networking at Search Marketing Conferences: 3 Tips for the Painfully Shy
‘Tis the season… for search marketing conferences, that is. I have several colleagues who just returned from SMX West (and learned some lessons in search marketing). I myself just returned from SEMpdx’s SearchFest 2012, and there are many more conferences coming up this year – so many that I won’t even try to list… Read More