Articles by Marianne Sweeny
Marianne Sweeny // 12 Mar, 2014
UX is the New SEO
Unlike Orange is the New Black or 60 is the new 40, this adage is true. UX is the new way to optimize sites for search engines because Google said so. Yes, that benign search giant has decided that links are no longer as important as they once thought. Out of deep concern for its… Read More
Marianne Sweeny // 24 Oct, 2013
Link Juice est Mort
One of my favorite comedy bits is Lewis Black educating us on the difference between milk and water. Black tells us that there is no such thing as soy milk because soy beans do not have breasts (from which milk comes). Soy milk is a made-up name to sell a product. “Link juice” – a… Read More
Marianne Sweeny // 5 Oct, 2013
Save Time, Money and Bloodshed with Soft System Discovery [VIDEO WEBINAR]
This webinar was given September 19. Transcript: Interviewer: Hello. And welcome, everyone, to the next installment of the Portent Webinar Series. My name is Ariana, and I will be your moderator for today’s webinar, which is breaking down barriers to drive success with Marianne Sweeny, our very own senior search strategist here at Portent. We… Read More
Marianne Sweeny // 21 Aug, 2013
Get Out Your Hand Sanitizer: The SEO You’ve Come to Love is No More
The days of sanitary SEO are on the wane. Oh sure, there will always be tools to hide behind and technology barriers to raise. As long as site speed is a factor, we will be able to amuse ourselves in the solitary pursuits of caching, minifying, and optimizing consolidated JS and CSS files and images.… Read More
Marianne Sweeny // 15 May, 2013
3 Google Algorithms We Know About & 200 We Don’t
When I meet with clients or present at conferences, I am always asked: “How do I rank high on Google for (insert keyword-phrase-du-jour)?” I give the standard answer: “Only the search engineers and Google can tell you and they aren’t talking.” Inevitably, the questioner looks dejected, mutters a slur on my credentials, and walks away. … Read More
Marianne Sweeny // 4 Apr, 2013
Get Found, Make Money: Optimizing Apps for Search
State of App Search: Needle in a Haystack Have you ever tried to meet someone at Grand Central Station or some other incredibly crowded venue? It sounds so doable and yet it is so not. There are too many people, too many distractions and too much stuff in the way. App (tablet and phone… Read More
Marianne Sweeny // 21 Mar, 2013
The Evolution of Advanced Keyword Research
Keyword research used to be so easy. You picked terms that the client wanted to rank high for, stuffed them onto the page, shake, bake and voila, the site is ranking in the top 3 search results for query. Bad SEOs stuffed keywords in all of the wrong places, all over the page, and… Read More
Marianne Sweeny // 19 Dec, 2012
What the Duck? DuckDuckGo Takes on the Big G
It’s hard to pinpoint when some of us fell out of love with Google. Maybe it was when they went from geeky Stanford students out to “not be evil” to the kinda creepy boyfriend who orders for us at restaurants because “that’s what we always have.” Like it or not, we were trapped. Over the… Read More
Marianne Sweeny // 6 Aug, 2012
SEO: Trading Tactics for Craft
I just finished 3 intensive days at MozCon 2012. Not for intellectual sissies or social introverts, the days were spent listening to presentations, demonstrations and exhortations from a list of luminaries. There was something for everyone: link building is the road to perdition, how-tos on link building, agile all over the place, data modeling, crunching,… Read More
Marianne Sweeny // 3 Jul, 2012
Predatory Online Advertising…and not from Google for a Change
I learned something the hard way awhile ago. There is a big difference between search engine advertising and social site advertising and just because someone looks up front and helpful does not mean that they are. Search engine advertising is affordable, configurable, reports a return on investment, can be turned on and off quickly, is… Read More
Marianne Sweeny // 15 May, 2012
Wanted: Enterprise Search Gods
Lately, I’ve been feeling like a grade schooler punished along with the rest of the class for one student’s bad behavior. With Google’s Pandas, Penguins and other pandemonium-producing updates yet to come, we’re all Bart Simpson being forced to write on the SEO chalkboard, “I will not outsource link building to third-world countries that spam… Read More