Why SEO will ruin the web (or make it better)

With companies like Demand Media (with their sub-par content sites like Ehow.com) and other SEO based content sites, the web is now filled with total nonsense all in the name of money. No longer does Google actually find the best content–instead what is often found are the best optimized sites.

SEO has become a huge game like Monopoly. Google has an algorithm and vast companies work every day to game it. And it is being done over and over again. Instead of taking a second look at poor content sites like Ehow and pushing them down, Google is given a vote of confidence to them. Every time some unknowing person clicks on the url to see one of their pages Google hands them a vote. These are poor pages that are optimized for Google to rank and for us to click. And it works great.

I hate SEO from both a professional online executive perspective and from a users perspective. And I hate that search has become a game that users have to play as well. What also makes SEO and Google’s way of ranking pages frustrating is that many urls basically own search regardless of the topic–which in the end continues to become an embarrassment of riches to that particular site. Look up just about any topic and Wikipedia will show up in the top five nearly every time. If you create a topic today it’ll show up within the next week. And yet other legitimate content sites and pages about the same topic may never show up in search–let alone the first page.

Google’s vote of confidence to sites like Ehow and Wikipedia make trying to grow organically for small mom and pops nearly impossible. Because it only takes a page on one of a few sites to destroy your organic ranking. Their only hope is often resorting to Google AdWords. Bonus for Google. Not so much for the user or small company.

So how does it get fixed? I don’t have an answer to that question. I’m starting to think that directories weren’t such a bad thing. We’ve used directories for centuries and they have held up well. It’s a shame Yahoo dumped them in favor of trying to go after Google. Another option might be a better way to drill down in a search–Google sort of has this with Wonder Wheel–too bad its so hidden. The answer may not be so obvious, but what is obvious is that people are gaming Google. And they are doing it with poor content and making huge profits. Google continues to reward these companies which is surprising. Something has to change. SEO shouldn’t be as much a bigger industry than creating great content.

Read More

Virgin gets creative with hilarious website

Yes the website is pretty novel, but awkwardfamilyphotos.com is hilarious. I have no idea what it has to do with Virgin Airlines and why they are giving away tickets to the most awkward photo–but I’m glad they are otherwise I would have never heard of it. For some reason the awkward office photo makes me laugh every time. Now peopleofwalmart.com have some real competition!

Read More

Godaddy Coupon for 25% — get the code

Got an email from Godaddy today for 25% off. Great. I don’t need it. But maybe some of you will. Enjoy:
Code is valid on purchases over $100.
Here is the code: gda943s

Read More

Google Voice gets figured out

Mashable had a great post today on how to actually utilized Google Voice to your advantage. Sometimes the most obvious things are right in front of your face–they just need to be presented in a different way. Google isn’t always good about putting things in layman’s terms. Mashable offers a better guide.

Read More

The Brilliance of Paris

Paris is an amazing city. But for nothing more than the politeness–or expected level of politeness. Every where you go, no matter if its the subway, museum, security guard or whatever, everyone always says “Bonjour.” The fact that everyone greets you with a hello is quite nice. Perhaps the French take it for granted–but I found it to always be nice to have such a warm greeting.

When is the last time you had a security guard say “hello” or a really polite cab driver or subway worker? It can even be rare to walk into a store and be greeted with a “hello” in America–rather than an abrupt “what can I get you?” I find it interesting that after getting back to the States the first thing anyone asks is: “aren’t the French rude to Americans?” And my answer is: “Not if you go there and are polite.”

It was a great lesson to learn in France and one I’ll write about over the next few weeks. Not just lessons that lend themselves to business, but to life. Paris is easily one of my favorite places in the world. Not simply because of its beauty and history, but because of the people. And it doesn’t hurt that the food is amazing.

Read More

MediaTemple’s Database exploit and why I’m Glad I left

I had been a huge advocate of MediaTemple, even sent clients there to host their sites on their servers. But recently when it came time to renew my virtual server I shopped around and found an amazing deal with GoDaddy. Four times the server for the price I was paying with MediaTemple. I could have a 4 GB server for cheaper than what I was paying for a 1 GB server on Media Temple. And because my need was for only 2 GB it was like a birthday present to save $64 a month and still have 1 GB more RAM than before. Not to mention a new version of Plesk and cheaper backups.

But the last straw came when we found out a few of our clients sites had been infected by hackers. MediaTemple seems to want to blame WordPress and hackers figuring out passwords–I can only tell you that I use a password software and 12 digit passwords with special characters and numbers. And if WordPress was exploitable why haven’t the 20 sites I host on GoDaddy infected too? Or on anyone else’s servers. This was a MediaTemple exploit. Hackers somehow infiltrated the gridservers on MediaTemple’s servers and were able to access databases. That is very scary.

So, if you end up seeing this code in your WordPress hosted site on MediaTemple: http://ao.euuaw.com/9
You better get it off. Immediately. And then switch hosting providers. Sorry, but I went from huge MediaTemple fan to detractor. No matter what people say about GoDaddy, their virtual server is rock solid and outperforms MediaTemple’s hands down. I’m far from a GoDaddy advocate–but this time they’ve got a solid product.

Read More

Redbox Coupons

Usually Redbox scores with smart emails about upcoming rentals and interesting tidbits about movies. But I thought the latest email was a bit odd: Rent 8 movies in August and get one rental free. It’s not that free isn’t a good thing, especially if you will already rent 8 movies over 31 days, its that you are only saving $1 while spending $8. That seems like a lot of work to rent and watch 8 movies to get one for free.

So I did a quick search and found a website dedicated to Redbox codes. So why wait on Redbox to give you a discount when someone already figured it out.

Read More

Social Media for Credit Unions

In September I’ll be presenting to credit unions from all over the state at an annual conference. The topic is social media. It’s a hot topic no doubt. This will make it a half-dozen speeches I’ve made on this topic alone. And each one has to be unique to the industry.

Social media for credit unions or banks, for that matter, is interesting. If I was in the market for a loan or a new bank it would be interesting to gauge the personality of that credit union or bank. It would also be great to follow along with them on social media for possible deals. Sometimes the best deals come when you aren’t necessarily looking for them. If you are flexible then you can get great deals, and are ready to pounce, you often win.

One recent example of this is my upcoming trip to France. We were following Trip Advisor for deals on flights to multiple cities. One day I got an alert that airfare was half-off. The catch: it had to be on a specific day and for 7 days. It was too good to pass up and now I’m heading to Paris. Credit Unions could really win using a similar concept.

Read More

How to make WordPress 3 multiuser

You’d think that the WordPress team would be all over touting the power of the new WordPress multiuser. It’s a huge bonus to anyone who uses WordPress. It’s amazing. It’s not documented.

So want to know how to do it?
Here are the steps:
1. Jump into the wp-config.php file and add the following code to the end of your code:
/** Enable or disable Worpress Multi-site features **/
define(‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true);

2. Now, jump into your dashboard and go to Tools and then go to Network. Just follow the instructions on there.

3. One important thing is to find out if your host provider will allow for you to place a wildcard (*) DNS for your subdomains. If you can’t then just use directories which is easy enough.

4. You will need to make sure your .htaccess file is writeable or nothing will work.

5. Enjoy!

Read More

Google SKtool can help with adWords and SEO

Have you ever used Google’s SKTool? It’s simple to use and extremely useful when you want to know what words you should be bidding on or what words are showing up for your site via search.

What Google says about SKTool: “The Search-based Keyword Tool generates keyword and landing page ideas highly relevant and specific to your website. In doing so, the tool helps you identify additional advertising opportunities that aren’t currently being used in your AdWords ad campaigns. The tool goes one step further by tailoring the keywords and other data (such as the amount of competition for the keyword, the suggested bid, and more) based on your language or country/territory settings.”

It’s important to know that this tool does a few very interesting things:
1. It Displays a list of relevant search queries that have occurred on Google.com and are keyword ideas that are relevant to your site, but aren’t necessarily based on your site.

2. The tool compiles a list of search queries relevant to your website that don’t already appear in your AdWords campaigns.

3. Offers keywords potential customers are using when they search Google for your products in your language or region, you may have a better chance of reaching your target audience.

So how do you take advantage? It’s all really simple:
1. Go to: http://www.google.com/sktool/
2. Put in your (or your clients) url
3. You can put in keywords or phrases you’d like to show up for or leave this blank. I often leave it blank first to see what I get.
4. Even if you think you know keywords and put some in you might not help yourself–instead you might end up with a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you put in a bad keyword then Google will focus on that–good or bad. So leave it blank unless you are 100% sure–and even then leave it blank the first time.
5. Export the terms you deem closest to keywords that you’d associate with your site.
6. If you are using keywords for AdWords you now know some great keywords to use and a suggested bid price
7. If you are using keywords for SEO then start writing articles based around these keywords.

Read More