On December 15, 2009, I announced the return of SphinnCon, a small SMX event, to Israel. In just a week, we sold half the tickets.

I am delighted, I think, to say that the event is completely sold out now. On Sunday, January 31st, we sold our last ticket. 200 seats, gone.

We still have over a month until the event - so I apologize if you are just learning about it now and you were unable to get a seat. We did open a waiting list, but I am not sure if that will open up or not.

In any event, we are now finalizing the agenda, placing speakers and so on.

Again, I would like to thank our sponsors, including Jerusalem College of Technology, Compucall, Answers.com, Whired Rhino.

Of course, this would not be possible without the help of my friends in Israel:

• Olivier Amar (@olivier_amar) of WhiteWeb
• Ophir Cohen (@ophirco) of Compucall
• Eli Feldblum (@Feldbum) of RankAbove
• Roi Hildesheimer of Tens Technology
• Charlie Kalech (@charliekalech)of J Town
• Itay Paz (ItayPaz)of Affilicon
• Mayer Reich (@mayerreich) of RankAbove
• Branko Rihtman (@neyne) of WhiteWeb
• Gilad Sasson (@algoholic) of Nekuda

I am also excited about having a few Googlers coming and speaking at the event. I was hoping for some from Bing, but they have zero presence in search in Israel (or so I am told).

Anyway, thanks for making this conference a success so far. Looking forward to seeing you all!

Posted at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

A couple weeks ago, Will Hanke asked me if I would like to speak at a St. Louis based conference named Market St. Louis. I looked up the conference date and information and noticed a bunch of my colleagues in the SEM industry participate in this event. I also noticed it was on April 1st, the day after Passover.

I called my wife and asked if she would like to stay by her parents for the first days of Passover. That would be the only way I could have participated in this event. She said sure, so I told Will I can be part of the event.

As it turns out, I am keynoting. That means, I am the first speaker and it will be a question and answer type of format with the conference head.

So if you are in the mid-west (Chicago, St. Louis, etc.) come out and participate in Market St. Louis!

I typically don't speak at conferences for many reasons. But more recently, I have been speaking here and there - as long as it doesn't require me to prepare a powerpoint presentation. I am also heading up SphinnCon Israel, which would likely require me to prepare a presentation, but that is kind of "my" conference - so - well, you know.

Posted at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (2)

About a week ago, I announced the SMX SphinnCon Israel event. In a week, over half of the available seats have been sold. We now have only 92 seats available and the event doesn't happen until March 7, 2010 - which is over ten weeks away.

So I urge you, do not wait until the last minute. Go register and pay the $50 to be a part of this excellent event. Do it now.

If you are an SEO or SEM in Israel, you really want to be there. The networking alone is worth it. Yea, I know many Israeli's hate to commute more than 20 minutes and coming from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a total of about 45 minutes. I know, I know. Try living in New York or Texas, where a 45 minute commute is considered short.

But if you are an SEO or SEM, supporting the SEM community in Israel is important. The venue, JCT is supporting this event. We have two committed sponsors who feel it is important to support such an event, they include Compucall and Answers.com and Whired Rhino. I have an excellent team of volunteers doing a ton of the leg work in Israel (since I am based in New York) to help support the industry. That team includes (in no specific order):

• Olivier Amar (@olivier_amar) of WhiteWeb
• Michael Barnett of RankAbove
• Ophir Cohen (@ophirco) of Compucall
• Eli Feldblum (@Feldbum) of RankAbove
• Roi Hildesheimer of Tens Technology
• Charlie Kalech (@charliekalech)of J Town
• Itay Paz (ItayPaz)of Affilicon
• Mayer Reich (@mayerreich) of RankAbove
• Branko Rihtman (@neyne) of WhiteWeb
• Gilad Sasson (@algoholic) of Nekuda

The best part of running this conference is the community it brings together.

It is even driving some well known personalities from the U.S. including
Vanessa Fox, Gillian Muessig of SEOmoz, we have word from Google they will be sending a webmaster rep and an Israeli paid search rep.

It is just great to bring everyone into a single room, to learn, network and have fun. And I am honored to be part of that.

So go register today - you won't want to miss it.

Posted at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

I do a lot of writing on search engines but over the past year or so, writing about Yahoo has honestly made me depressed. I think, subconsciously, I avoid writing about Yahoo because they make me depressed. To see Yahoo where it is now, is quiet frankly, sad.

I tweeted my feelings about why this is the case. I figured I screen shot it over at Google, to cheer me up a bit:

Posted at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (4)

I was on the phone, fiddling with my recent search shwag and I noticed that the Google light pen had the Google logo in the middle.

Check it out:

How cool is that?

Posted at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

The other day, I asked a shwag question on which piece of search shwag did not belong in the picture. The answer is the Google Pen:

This pen was not at SES San Jose 2009. Erin Sap was the first to get it right, so I will email Erin to discuss his prize.

Other answers I guess were technically correct, but not the answer I was looking for. SES is not a search engine, so the pen was a bit out of place. Yahoo might not be a search engine more, etc. But the true answer was that the Google pen was not shwag available at the SES show this past week.

Posted at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

At the SES show, I ran through the expo hall, and picked up some pens and stuff. Here is a picture of some of those items.

Let's have a little fun with this....

What item in this picture doesn't belong? Comment below. The first to get it right, will win something (not sure what, just yet). The answer is not that easy.

Posted at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (18)

I often use the search box on this site to find blog posts I have written in the past. I can honestly say, that at least 50% of the time, it doesn't help me find what I am looking for. So I end up using a different search engine. It just happened again, so I figured I show you what I mean.

I was trying to find my post about getting the NY Jets slippers as a gift, to write about how they ripped. So I conduct a search, using the Google Custom Search box on this site. I search for [jet slippers and I find a single result, but not the result I am looking for:

FYI, I am showing a site command search, cause they are the same results you see in the custom search box on this site, just a bit cleaner.

So I then remember, I also wrote about the iHome device I got in the same blog post, so I decide to search for ihome also and it returns the right result this time:

Now why would it not show up for the first query? I mean, it is indexed, it is in the title tag and in the content/ Why not show up????

Yahoo found it, so did Bing, why not Google?

Posted at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

Okay, so I ordered my Google Profile business cards and the only issue is that they don't work. Here is a picture of the card:

Technically, you are now suppose to enter into Google the name Barry Schwartz and then see my Google Profile in the search results. But when I search for that, I don't see a Google Profile, I see search results! Why would I give this card to people if it doesn't work?

Here is a screen capture of the search results. For more screen captures of me unboxing my Google Profile Business Cards, see Flickr.

I actually ordered two, I got two profiles one at google.com/profiles/cartoonbarry and the other at google.com/profiles/barry.schwartz.

Posted at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Category: Business , SEO Tips | Comments (11)

Today I went to a smallish (less than 20 people) SEM meet up we pulled together in two day notice, which Compucall hosted. I wrote up details about the event with What Israeli SEMs Want at Search Engine Land. And Olivier wrote up his notes from the event at the Compucall blog named Barry Schwartz from RustyBrick visits Compucall.

This time, Gilad didn't have to travel to Jerusalem to meet me. Branko was unable to make it, but I did meet him a couple months ago, so hopefully he won't miss me too much.

Here are some pictures (I have more but didn't upload mine):

Barry Schwartz (me), Ophir Cohen (middle) & Olivier Amar (right)

Gilad Sasson (left), Mayer Reich (middle), Me

Itai Levitan

Posted at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (2)

Update: This is simply not a supported command, see here for more info.

I was trying to send a Twitter update in the format of Tips @Username but it wasn't going through. So I went to the old fashion Twitter web site and I tried it there. Twitter returned a response for two seconds and I snapped a screen capture:

Twitter said:

We're no longer supporting this command. Soon it will be received as an update.

Signs of something to come? Give it a try yourself on Twitter.com and if you are not following me, why not? I am at twitter.com/rustybrick.

Posted at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

Yahoo announced that you can now poke on Yahoo via the Facebook SearchMonkey.

Try it by searching for barry schwartz facebook on Yahoo Search. Up comes this:

You can easily Add friend, Poke me, Send message or View friends directly from Yahoo on Facebook.

Posted at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Tonight, I will be on an SEO panel at a SEMPO New York meetup. The details of the meetup are over here, but I believe it is already completely booked with 150 people attending and there is already a big waiting list.

I have never been to one of these meetups, but Sara Holoubek convinced me to come at SMX West. So I am coming and sitting on a panel with Chris Williams of GSI and Chris Hart of Bruce Clay. I assume we are talking about SEO stuff but no preparation is needed.

Anyway, hope to see all you SEMPO New Yorkers there. SEMPO is an outstanding organization and it is about time I made it to one of their local events.

Thanks for the invite Sara and see many of you later!

Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

Here are pictures from the sessions at SMX West 2009.

Hope to get back to blogging here on a normal schedule next week.

Also, check out our live blogging coverage at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Posted at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (2)

If you are a web analytics junkie like me and you use Google Analytics for most of your tracking and you have an iPhone (got that). Then you will love this new app from Michael Jensen named Analytics App. I did a 3 minute video demo of the application. This is really worth the $6, if you meet the above criteria. More discussion on the app can be found at Techmeme.

This is a great app for people like me. Thanks Michael!

Posted at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , iPhone | Comments (3)

As some of you know, I spoke at a small event in Jerusalem. It is a bit funny, cause I saw a few familiar faces - I would mention some names, but I don't want to call anyone out and forget some people. But I do want to mention one person. I get an email from RustyBrick's first real employee - Hillel Coren. He tells me he is in Israel now and he saw I was speaking at these events, that he happens to go to. So he asked to meet up 30 minutes before. So we did. It was nice catching up with him - he worked for us for a long time, before moving to Manhattan and finding a new job. But he was a big part of what RB is today, so it was great seeing him.

Outside of Hillel and the people I met, I got some very interesting questions. Want to thank Charlie for organizing the event and Presentense for hosting it. I was able to wing the quiz they gave me on SEO :) and it was a lot of fun. Just never really talked that long, about two hours straight. So I had a thing of ice cream when I got back to the hotel - best ice cream I ever had. In any event, here are pictures of the event from Facebook.

Posted at 6:13 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (2)

I spoke with Virginia Nussey from BruceClay.com on their SEM Synergy show about some of what I thought stood out in 2008 and what we might expect in 2009. Seems like I am not on until about half way in the show.

FYI, I did a huge write up at the Search Engine Roundtable on this. I wasn't really prepared for the questions Virginia asked me, but I was prepared in my Search Engine Roundtable write up.

Posted at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Can you believe it? I forgot my anniversary, already, after only these short number of years!

Okay, I am not that dumb! I did not forget my wedding anniversary, that goes into my calendar. I did forget the Search Engine Roundtable's fifth anniversary!

I first started blogging about search on December 2, 2003. It has been over five years now, and I have personally written 6,270 articles at the Search Engine Roundtable. We have over 9,000 articles in total!

Anyway, I wrote a really long piece at the Search Engine Roundtable, looking back at 2008 and how it impacted the search industry. The piece is almost 3,000 words, so if you have time, print it out and read it. It really helps to look back at the year and see what really matter, and what didn't make much of a difference.

In fact, I sat down, and then about 3,000 words and two hours later, looked up and I was done.

The article is over here, hope you like it.

Oh, I made sure to add the SER's anniversary to my calendar. Don't want to make that mistake twice, I mean three times.

Posted at 2:58 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Check out the new Search Engine Land design. My favorite feature is that readers can now comment directly at Search Engine Land. Outside of that, the new design takes much more of a news oriented site, which I love.

So check it out and feel free to comment on the design and any of my stories.

Posted at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

Weekly, I do a search news/tips video that is not so unpopular these days. In any event, I always produce a iTunes version and a YouTube version. The iTunes version is always higher quality than YouTube, but now YouTube is giving viewers a way to see videos in higher quality HD.

For example, if you go to my latest video on YouTube directly under the video player on the right it says, "watch in high quality." Clicking on it will give you a better look at my great face. :)

Here is a side by side comparison, I assume you can tell which is the HD version and which is not.

Lucky you! ;-)

Posted at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Itay Paz is running an Israeli conference named Affilicon. The conference is located at Shefayim Hotel, Shefaim, Israel and is taking place on November 24-25, 2008.

I won't be able to go, but it seems like it will be having a great line up of speakers and sessions.

I think it is great to see these conferences in Israel. We ran SphinnCon Israel last year and we hope to announce details for SMX Israel shortly.

If you are interested in SMX Israel, a conference devoted to search topics, based in the middle east, then stay tuned. The dates will likely be the last week or second to last week of January. It will likely be a two day event, in Tel Aviv somewhere. We are finalizing the details now - but it seems like it is going to happen. So stay tuned!

In the meantime, checking out Affilicon is a must for any one in the area in the internet marketing space. Affilicon and SMX in Israel will provide for a solid base of Internet marketing skills and networking for any level of skill sets.

Posted at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

Own your identity and your username or nick or alias or whatever you want to call it.

A new site named usernamecheck.com can do that for you. I actually secured rustybrick a bunch other sites. Note, the site is having issues, so don't kill it by trying over and over again (like I did).

Securing your name is incredibly important for online reputation management. Trust me, this will be huge in the future. So do it now, so you don't regret it later.

Posted at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (3)

Yesterday, I decided to start tracking the online reputation of my bank.

I went to Google News and subscribed via RSS to my banks long name, short name and stock ticker. I am not running to the bank to take out my money and put it under my bed, but I do want to stay informed on the health of the places that holds my money.

You should do the same! Let me show you how, if you don't know how...

Step 1: Go to Google News
Step 2: Enter your bank's name in the search box (have short names and other names, don't worry, go with one name for now). I'll enter in bank of america as an example.
Step 3: Subscribe to the search results via RSS or Email. To subscribe via RSS, right click on either "RSS" or "Atom" on the left hand column and copy the URL. Then go to your RSS reader and copy it in your add subscription area. If you prefer email, just click on "News Alerts" on the left hand side and follow those steps.
Step 4: Add your bank's other names and stock ticker to Step 2 and repeat Step 2 and 3 again.

I don't think we have to worry about a bank run. But it always makes sense to stay on top of companies you work with and companies that you have money with, even if they are FDIC insured.

Posted at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

The Google Book Search blog announced you can embed Book results into web pages now. So here is an embedded book result, from a book that quotes me a couple times. Just use the search box in the frame under this sentence to search for "barry schwartz."

I also noticed that "Rustybrick" is a type of plant, according to the Standardized Plant Names by American Joint Committee on Horticultural Nomenclature.

Posted at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Many of you already saw the article from the Wall Street Journal named Web Domains Could Expand Broadly Under New Plan.

If not, in short it says, the company that manages the domain names, ICANN, said they will be offering a plan for companies and organizations to purchase their own TLD (top level domain). A told level domain is the .com or .net or .co.il portion of the domain name. So www.cartoonbarry.com's TLD is the .com. Now, I do not own the .com portion, I own the cartoonbarry portion.

ICANN is structuring a way to allow the sale of TLDs. So if IBM wanted their own TLD, they can get .ibm. If New York City wanted their own TLD, they can get .nyc. But it doesn't come cheap. The Wall Street Journal said the "cost somewhere between $100,000 and $500,000."

It isn't a crazy or unreasonable price. I say, we (SEOs & SEMs) pool together funds under an organization (SEMPO?) to purchase .SEO and .SEM (.SMO for socials?). What you think? Worth it? Think Google will ban the .seo TLDs before they even come out? ;-)

Posted at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (7)

This is, in my opinion, understandable to even non SEOs. So, if you want to know what I write about often, this might help you understand it. Matt Cutts: What Google Knows About Spam:

Posted at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

This video tells the story:

Too funny.

Posted at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (3)

I trust the content in my videos are fairly okay but I never really put in any detail into the movie part. I think I bore people when they watch, so this time I put in about an hour of time to adding captions, pictures, screen captures, music and other tidbits - besides for me speaking.

So here is the latest Weekly Search Buzz Roundup video:

Would seriously love your feedback on ways to improve it. Things I got so far include:

- Your head looks like it's getting cut off
- Make sure not to right align the text in the captions (YouTube logo cuts it off)
- Move picture behind me
- Move more (hard to do with built in iSight so maybe ill get a video camera)

That is what I got so far...

Posted at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , SEO Tips | Comments (2)

Ask: The Little Engine That Can’t by Paczkowski sums it up perfectly on video. Watch the first couple minutes:

How awesome is that?

Posted at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Here is another interview with me and Mike. Really enjoy these.

The weather was outstanding. While it was below freezing and rainy in NY. Santa Clara was sunny and 70s.

Posted at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Catch me at 11am (EST) today for the Barry Cast. I will be live via audio and video feed at http://live.yahoo.com/rustybrick.

Tomorrow, I'll probably do it at 11:30am (EST). But the rest of the week, Ill do it at 11am (EST). I am doing it this week as an experiment and since Danny is off on vacation and won't be doing the Daily Search Cast. Next week, we are at SMX, so I doubt I will do this on schedule. But stay tuned.

Here is an embedded version, I am not sure if you can hear audio with this version:

I know it doesn't work in Safari, so try Firefox or IE.

Starting in 10 minutes at http://live.yahoo.com/rustybrick.

Update: Yahoo Live went down a few minutes into the show. Hoping it comes back soon. I am sorry.

It worked finally, sorry about Yahoo's tech issues.

Posted at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Ever wonder what a real blackhat SEO looks like? We hear about them. Some call themselves blackhat SEOs. But we rarely see true ones. ;-)

See the guy on the right with the beard? That is Ralph Tegtmeier, aka Fantomaster.

Lee Odden posted pictures of SES London, where Mike Grehan convinced Ralph Tegtmeier, aka Fantomaster to sit on a panel. Fantomaster is an historic icon in the SEO industry. More about him at this page.

Posted at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (1)

The other day I posted pictures of SphinnCon Israel. I finally had time to upload a two part video of my introduction to the first ever SphinnCon. I had to break up the 17 minute video into two parts, so YouTube would accept it. My Dad took the video, he was in the front row.

As you can see, in the beginning, I was a bit choppy but things went smoothly afterwards. I personally had a great time with it:

Part One: 8 minutes and 51 seconds

Part Two: 8 minutes and 10 seconds

Posted at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (0)

Yesterday was SphinnCon Israel and I have a huge write up on it at the Search Engine Roundtable. Overall, i am very pleased on how it turned out...

Today, they were doing some construction in Kikar Shabbat (probably spelling wrong), off Strauss in Geula, Jerusalem. The traffic was madness, pure madness.

It goes on and on and on.

Posted at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (1)

I am off to SphinnCon Israel soon. The time zone stuff is really weird, 1am in NY and its the morning here. Anyway...

Branko is picking me up. My dad, who is also in for the bar mitzvah, is coming with us. Should be cool.

Things are going well. I am going to meet some of the people at JCT first and then we begin the conference. I'll make sure to post pictures and some of my thoughts.

I hope everything goes smoothly. I am told there is a change to the schedule already. But the best part of SphinnCon's is that they are relaxed. So if we start off with a 30 minute cocktail, and then start the presentations, I am sure no one would mind.

See those of you that are coming soon, others... see you later.

Posted at 1:02 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

I do all the fun reputation management stuff for my personal name and company brands - also for a few clients. But what about in foreign languages?

With SphinnCon Sold Out and a ton of Israeli press coming, might be smart to try to stay on top of my name in hebrew?

So maybe a Google Alert for בארי שוורץ? Of course, blog search results and news results. Also, for Sphinncon Israel searches and maybe RustyBrick but in hebrew?

Some notes for me for later... Need to subscribe to these things in an organized fashion...

Posted at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

Yesterday, we sold out our attendance at 15 above our 150 cap, to 165, for SphinnCon Israel. I was comfortable going with 15 above the 150 cap we set, because about 6 or so of those 15 extra seats will be sitting on the panel and I am sure ten or more will be late or not showing up.

I was also told we can fit a nice amount of people in folding chairs in the back.

Now that we are sold out, there are people asking me to register them. Some claim technical issues when trying to register early. Some I am told were suppose to be registered earlier but something was miscommunicated.

So now I am in a pickle. I don't want to turn people away, but I have been doing so since yesterday. Some people I have no choice but to add. Plus the university hosting the event wants some of their students to access the event. I am told by the university that they can hook up a display and speakers in the lobby for those that show up late, and people can listen in the lobby. So I think we should be okay, but I am a bit worried about it.

On one hand it is good to be sold out but on the other hand, I don't want people to feel like they are packed in like sardines. Overall, for $50, to be packed in like sardines and get the quality of speakers and panelists they are getting - it is well worth it. So maybe I shouldn't worry?

Posted at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Noa Prag, נועה פרג, of The Globes, גלובס, an Israeli Hebrew paper interviewed me the other week for the SphinnCon Israel event. נועה is one of גלובס's technology writers. Earlier last week, she was reporting on the DLD Conference in Germany.

We chatted for about 30 minutes and posted the interview at גלובס. The write up is named מחפשים בע"מ and the first paragraph reads:

בארי שוורץ, נשיא ראסטי-בריק, הוא אחד שיודע איך לדחוף קדימה אתר מסוים באינטרנט, ולא רק בגוגל. בשפה המקצועית קוראים לזה SEO, וזה לא תמיד מסתדר עם תחום ה-SMO, החיפוש ברשתות חברתיות. על אופטימיזציה של מנועי חיפוש, על טרנד המובייל, וגם על מקומה של ישראל בשוק האינטרנט העולמי. ריאיון

בארי שוורץ is my name, Barry Schwartz. נשיא means president. ראסטי-בריק is RustyBrick. It basically says I know stuff about Google and other search engines, including SEO, SMO and we are doing a conference on it in Israel. She then posted the details of the interview.

There are several comments on the article, which I am clueless to as what they mean. I can barely understand the write up - my Hebrew is pretty bad. I can read it, understand some, but not most of it. So if anyone wants to translate the comments, please do so - I am very curious...

In any event, we are a few seats to being sold out and I am so excited for the event. I am told no one wears suits in Israel and that I should come dressed very casual - so I will listen and dress casual. See you there and thanks Noa at the Globes - see you there also!

Posted at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

SphinnCon Israel is just under two weeks away and it is amazing how much work is involved in setting one of these things up. Keep in mind, this is just a half day event, not one of these multiple day events, with lunches, hotels, exhibit halls and so on - all we had to worry about was a half day event.

But things are going very well. We have about 10 tickets remaining before we sell out. I am very happy about that. I wanted to reach out personally and thank those who have helped out both in terms of their time and money.

Contributors: There are a handful of people who have helped make this networking event possible in such a short time span. I cannot list everyone, because I received several dozen emails from advice, requests, support and guidance. But I wanted to name a handful who have been active on a day-to-day basis with the planning of the event.

• Michael Barnett from RankAbove has been extremely active is helping organize the speakers, the hand out and much more. Thank you Michael!
• Eli Feldblum the CEO of RankAbove for helping with the initial set up, daily emails and having three members of his company devoted to this event. Thanks Eli.
• Roi Hildesheimer from Tens Web Marketing for doing a lot of the behind the scenes things!
• Gilad Sasson (algoholic) from nekuda.co.il. Gilad helped around and gave advice from the perspective of a veteran Israeli SEO.
• Mayer Reich RankAbovefor helping coordinate the speakers and panelists and much more.
• Branko Rihtman of Tens Web Marketing (aka neyne) has been helping all over the board, from sponsors to the venue to speakers - Branko has been instrumental in setting this up.

Sponsors: These are the guys who are handing over the cash so that we can pay for printing the handout, banners, and name badges. The also help pay for the food and drinks in the after hours events. Sponsoring the venue and hardware and internet for the presentations. Without their financial contributions, it would be hard to pull off the event, with just the $50 per attendee.

• Play65, an online backgammon site (backgammon is huge in Israel, I think). They have agreed to sponsor the first ever SphinnCon Israel. Thank you so much and make sure to give backgammon a shot, it rocks!

  



• K.co.il, a Hebrew Internet Marketing site and portal. K has a thriving Hebrew SEO forum tons of members and tons of posts and threads. Thank you K!

  



• Compucall, yes, they have an English version. Compucall is a Web marketing company that does SEO, PPC, web analytics, email marketing and much more. The company is lead by Ophir Cohen (his blog), who started the company in 1999 and has been in the SEO industry forever. Thank you!

  

• The Jerusalem College of Technology's Department of Technological Management and Marketing. They have been gracious to host the event for us at their campus, for free. They are giving us a huge lobby and huge class room that will fit 150 people comfortably. Thank you JCT!

  

Panelists & Speakers: And of course, a huge thank you to the speakers and panelists who have been confirmed. Those not mentioned above include Sam Michelson CEO of Five Blocks, Avi Wilensky CEO of Promedia Corp, Itai Levitan the Managing Partner at EasyNet, Alon Sheafer the Founder of Kenshoo, Tal Cohen the Finance and Technology Industry Manager at Google Israel, Michael G. Samet, Ph.D. the CEO, Referral Technology, Inc., Tzvika Avnery aPartner at Tagadam, Roi Carthy of TechCrunch and Lior Hene of Yedda.

Thank you all for making this possible and helping bring SMX to Israel!

Posted at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

Last night I sat down at home and starting to work on my presentation, I guess "keynote," for SphinnCon Israel.

I took this great class in Baruch College, yea a speech 101, but it helped a lot with me prepping for the presentations I have given in the past. Now, I am by far not a professional speaker. I don't mind speaking, but I do not get paid, like some, to go around the world speaking at events. Having said that, this is how I start preparing my presentations.

I first figure out a title for my presentation. After that, I nail down the "general purpose," of the presentation, typically it is three words - in my case, "to introduce." Then I get specific, by writing a full sentence of two about the "specific purpose" on my presentation. In my SphinnCon presentation, it is to introduce the conference and agenda for the afternoon. Then I get into more details, by providing a "central idea," which is a paragraph of the core of the presentations.

Once I nail that down. I work on my introductory "transition" into the first slide. The first transition is actually the first words that comes out of my mouth at the event. I then do a slide and then another transition statement, which leads into a new slide. I repeat this process, so that the transitions flow from one slide to the next. Keep in mind, I may have 5 slides grouped together between two transitions - that is ok.

Last night I put together 8 main sections of my presentation. It is all in outline view in Microsoft Word. After I finalize the outline, that is when I get into doing something in Apple Keynote or PowerPoint - but I am hoping to do Keynote. I also hope to have very little text, or zero text, in my slides - if possible. Should be fun!

Posted at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (0)

It's not enough you scrap my forum posts, my blog posts, my articles and my web site content but you also have to scrap my Twits!

Just kidding... There is this SEO who does reverse Twitter to Blog automatic posting. You got me. Whereas I do Blog to Twitter posts, RKF does Twitter to Blog posts.

His blog is at Created Wonder and you can clearly see, his posts from his twitter alias RFK, is being published to his blog.

Example: He replied to a twitter of mine saying:

@rustybrick I’ve tried replacing batteries, but usually end up with a new UPS. The price is pretty close, look for trade-in rebates

But, check his blog post on that over at this URL.

Too funny.

An SEO technique? Playing with my mind? Just bored one day? Loves APIs?

Posted at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , SEO Tips | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

We have 99% finalized the speaker list for SphinnCon Israel.

Here it is:

SEO Panel: Paid Links & Penalties
Moderator: Barry Schwartz, SphinnCon Israel Chair
Presenter: Branko Rihtman, SEO Specialist at Tens Technology
Ophir Cohen, CEO of Compucall
Sam Michelson, CEO of Five Blocks
Eyal Chen, Business Development Manager at Google Israel

PPC Panel: Will the PPC Model Hold Up as Click Prices Rise?
Moderator: Barry Schwartz, SphinnCon Israel Chair
Presenter: Itai Levitan, Managing Partner at EasyNet
Avi Wilensky, CEO of Promedia Corp
Alon Sheafer, Founder of Kenshoo
Tal Cohen, Finance and Technology Industry Manager at Google Israel

Social Panel: Should You Social?
Moderator: Barry Schwartz, SphinnCon Israel Chair
Presenter: Eli Feldblum, CEO of RankAbove
Gilad Sasson, Search Marketing Analyst at Nekuda.co.il
Tzvika Avnery, Partner at Tagadam

Like I said before, most of the time will be used for open Q&A and networking. But the presentations will be about 10 minutes each and there will be only one presentation per panel.

I will do a new post later with who the gracious sponsors will be.

Danny just did a post at Search Engine Land on this agenda and some more news!

Posted at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I was just sent the official SphinnCon logo. So we worked up a new banner ad for SphinnCon Israel. What you think of it? The old one can be seen overhere.

Here is a status update on SphinnCon Israel.

The team and I have been working up the speaker and panelist for the agenda. We have some of the biggest and most respected SEO/SEM companies sponsoring. We expect to have representatives from Google Israel, MSN Israel and other companies in the search space come and represent. The panels will be very informal, but they will contain some of the brightest minds in SEO, PPC and Social Media. Many of the panelists will be Israelis, but we do have some who are flying in from the States, because they love Israel.

First and foremost, this is not an official conference. If it was, it would be named SMX Israel. It is SphinnCon Israel, simply because we didn't have time to set up a full day or full two day event in Israel in 2008. So that means the panels will be very informal. I expect to have one 7 minute presentation on the topic and then leave the rest open to Q&A. I also expect the audience to be very savvy, so Q&A will probably be more networking and open style then an official SMX conference. It should be a ton of fun.

Anyway, I hope to post an official list of speakers for the agenda early next week. I also hope to give you information on the sponsors and which search reps are coming soon.

So stay tuned and if you haven't signed up yet, please do quickly - again, we only have 150 seats and many have already been filled.

Posted at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I have to commend Jim Boykin for organizing one of the most comprehensive sets of Search Engine Marketing video education web sites I have seen to-date. The new site is called Internet Marketing Ninjas and has a collection of videos from the top names in our industry.

I first found out of it recently because Jim signed up to promote Internet Marketing Ninjas at the Search Engine Roundtable. That is not why I am writing about it here, I have many sponsors and I rarely mention them here... I am just amazed at the list of names his has put together here.

- Aaron Wall of SEO Book
- Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim
- Bill Slawski of SEO by the Sea
- Christine Churchill of KeyRelevance
- Cameron Olthuis
- Jim Boykin We Build Pages
- Jim Gilbert KeyRelevance
- Jeremy Schoemaker of ShoeMoney
- Jill Whalen of High Rankings
- Lee Odden of TopRank
- Neil Patel of Pronet Advertising
- Todd Malicoat of Stuntdubl

All together, over 15 hours of videos on topics including seo, ppc, link building, social media, affiliate marketing and much more.

It is pretty expensive, but it seems to me to be well worth the price tag.

Great job Jim!

Posted at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (3)

The first SphinnCon event is coming up in about a month. I will be hosting the first ever SphinnCon, a small SMX event, in Israel, during my Israel vacation.

We have 150 seats available in all. Thing is, if you don't register soon, you may be locked out. Again, it takes place February 5, 2008 between noon and 6pm at the Jerusalem College of Technology. If you are in the area or simply just want to meet, please register here, before it is too late.

It only costs $50 and it will be a great networking and educational experience - let alone making history by attending the first ever SphinnCon.

Again, it is my hope that SphinnCon Israel will kick off an SMX Israel in 2009. Let's make this a reality by showing interesting in the 2008 edition!

Posted at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

Debra asked me if I had any predictions for this coming year. I said, I don't do predictions.

Instead... How about you guys give me your predictions?

Comment below and let me know what you think will happen in the search world in 2008.

Thanks!

Posted at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (8)

Yesterday, I wrote a piece named Google's Gmail Reaches 6GB on Christmas. Soon I saw it was submitted to Digg, but it seems like when it started to gain some steam, it was manually removed from the upcoming page. It has been ages since a post on seroundtable.com made it on the Digg home page, in fact, we use to be on the Digg home page often - but it has been months since that has happened. I believe Digg has blacklisted seroundtable.com, because it is unnatural for our content not to be on Digg, at least once a month.

Checking the stats this AM, I noticed Reddit sent us a ton of traffic. Over 7,000 visitors just from Reddit. It made the Reddit home page, so thank you Reddit community!

But why am I blacklisted on Digg? Did I abuse it? Who knows...

Posted at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (4)

In just about five hours after Danny and I announced the Search News for Facebook application, we have 60 users signed up.

I am amazed. Tons of people are away today for the holiday week and 60 users is huge, imo. I am also very excited to finally be able to share with the search industry what Danny and I think the news will be for the day. So now you know, will it be a crazy day or slow day - based on forum post volume and news volume in the search world.

If you haven't signed up, sign up at the Search News for Facebook!

Note, a Google OpenSocial version will be done in a few weeks. I am a bit more excited for that one.

Huge thanks to Danny for pushing me to finally build this out. Thank you Andy for working OT to get this done for us. Thanks to Ronnie and RustyBrick for it also.

Posted at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Did you visit Ask.com today? If not, check it out, they have a crazy theme for the holiday season. Here is a video of it, so its archived forever.

Posted at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

After hoping to start an event in Israel under the SMX brand, we decided to go with a smaller event, still under the Third Door umbrella, but named it SphinnCon Israel.

SphinnCon is basically a smaller SMX event, that is much less formal and has a shorter and more flexible agenda. Due to timing issues, we could not run a full SMX Israel event this coming year, but I hope in January 2009, we can get that going...

The Third Door umbrella, but named it SphinnCon Israel agenda is live. It takes place in Jerusalem on February 5th in the afternoon. We decided to put a fee of $50 on this event, just to make sure those that register are serious about coming. Keep in mind, we have a max capacity of 150 attendees, so register quickly so you don't miss out.

For more information on the event, check out the SphinnCon Israel page.

Hope to see you all there!!!

Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I told you I was bailing on the conferences this month. In hindsight, I should of gone. Why?

(1) When I go to the conference, I can avoid a lot of RustyBrick work. So I can just focus on search stuff. Being at home, makes me do both, while my support staff is away - causing more work for me. My schedule has been crazy this week.

- Up at 5:40am
- 5:40:30am checking and responding to email
- 6:00am leave to pray
- 6:30am get to office
- 6:31am reply to more email
- 6:35am do forum research and blogging while more email
- 8:00am do RSS reading for SELand
- 8:30am organize writer's budget and write at SELand
- 9:00am do RB work
...
mixing up RB work and SEL/SER work
...
posting conference coverage
...
- 4:00pm do SEL/CB recaps
...
more RB/SEL/SER work...
- 7:00pm leave office
- 7:15pm get home and turn computer back on
- 7:16pm reply to emails and check RSS feeds
...
- 7:30pm eat while checking email
...
more of the above
- 9:00pm shower
- 9:30pm work from bed
- 11:30pm turn computer off and watch some TV before falling asleep

I am tired...

(2) I am missing the fun and seeing industry buddies... I do miss you all. I missed the Inaugural Werewolves Search Spam Card Game At PubCon Vegas. Look at all the fun they had!

Andy Beal's picture...

(3) Conference rejuvenate your love for search, I may need an injection of some of that. I guess I'll wait until February.

If I was able to do it again, I would be at one of the conferences. Which one? Honestly, Vegas seems like a lot of fun from what I am reading and hearing.

Posted at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

Just a quick update on SMX Israel.

The planning is going well. I hope to have a page up somewhere at SMX with a registration form, agenda, location and times shortly.

Give me a couple more business days and we should be set!

Posted at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

At first I thought this video was created by Ask.com, but then I looked deeper.

The video is to promote the launch of FTheBigTheThree.com, which takes place December 1st.

But if you look at the title tag, it says, "Social Media Marketing, Social Network Optimization." So now it appears that a Social Media Marketing and Social Network Optimization company owns the name.

The whois information is private, so no hints there.

So anyone know what this site is about?

Here is the video:

Posted at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

As you can see from the icon at the top right (removed icon) of this post, the "Israel" was snuck into an SMX logo by myself. Yes, it is not official just yet. But I would love to make it official. To do that, I need to see real interest from the SEM industry in Israel. Do you guys really want an SMX event?

If so, please vote to have our first SMX Israel this February. If this SMX Israel "Mini" event works out, then we may be able to have larger, full day (or two) conferences in Israel. And who knows, maybe we can convince Danny and Chris to come out.

25 people voted yes for such an event, so what I need now is for you to go to Sphinn and confirm that you have strong interest in attending the event.

Go over here and confirm your interest. If you are not registered with Sphinn yet, then this is a great opportunity to join the Sphinn community. It takes a few minutes, register and then go over here and click "attend."

Don't live in Israel? Love SEO? This is a great opportunity to see some of the most historic and holy sites in the world. Plus, you can write it off! :)

OK, OK, so go ahead and attend.

I am told you cannot submit a preference for day or location. So do so in the comments here. If your comment do not get published, let me know.

We are live: Register for SphinnCon Israel today!

Posted at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

I am planning on visiting Israel in early February, a quasi vacation, business trip (meet two clients), catch up with family and friends and nephew's bar mitzvah. So I figured, heck, why not tack on another thing --- an SEO networking event...

Last time I went to Israel, I received dozens of emails from Israeli SEOs and SEMs to meet up. It was my honeymoon, so it just didn't seem right to do that to my wife. But I do want to say hello to all the SEOs and SEMs out in Israel - so this time, I don't want to miss that opportunity.

I can probably arrange a half day event in Jerusalem while I am in Israel. In fact, I can probably get a sponsor with the help of Third Door Media coordinating the event under an SMX or Sphinn thing. It is very early on, just a concept right now, so no guarantees on that. I am just fishing the idea around.

So if you are an SEO, live in the Israel area and will be around in early February (the first week in February), would you want a half day event in Israel? Have all your Israeli SEO friends come and vote at the poll below. I may post this poll later at Search Engine Land and Search Engine Roundtable to get a wider response, but for now, I want to see who may be interested, if any, via this venue.

Thank you in advance.

Posted at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (7)

Yesterday, if you missed it, Google (in my opinion) sent a message to publishers who sell text ads on their sites. There was a major shake up in the industry that impacted sites worldwide.

In short, Google has a little thing they call PageRank. They show a PageRank score in their Toolbar and it represents how popular a page is. The other night, they dropped the score of hundreds of sites by a lot. Including sites like Forbes, Washington Post and even my site. Because of that, I had some folks in the press call me (I suspect because Danny is on vacation) and ask me some questions.

So I answered a bunch of Andy Greenberg's questions over the phone. Then he called back and I answered more. I honestly thought I wouldn't be quoted or quoted much because this happens too often and ends up not being much. But to my surprise, Andy at Forbes really quoted the heck out of me.

Google Scares The Search Crowd from Andy at Forbes is the article. A ton of the content is from quoting me and I think he did a good job representing what we discussed over the phone.

But Schwartz, who has tracked affected sites and seen no change in traffic, claims that Wednesday's algorithm shift is simply a public relations stunt. "The bottom line is that people are able to manipulate Google's rankings by buying links, and Google has to do something about that," he said. "Today, they sent a huge statement to some of the most popular blogs on the Internet, and particularly those in the search industry."

I wouldn't call it a public relations stunt necessarily. More of one of the only real ways to handle it.

Anyway, wanted to share my quotes from this article with the people who read my personal blog. Plus it is good to document.

Posted at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

If you didn't believe search is an incredibly important piece of your life, the economy, the world and the future - then maybe this will convince you.

Earlier this morning, the reports starting popping up that China began redirecting search related traffic from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to Baidu, the chinese based search engine. So if you tried to search on Google China, while in China, the search would automatically redirect you to Baidu.

People at first started blaming Baidu. But Baidu can't make that happen. The only feasible explanation is an organization powerful enough to control your ISP. I believe the Chinese government.

Why would China do this all of a sudden? Maybe because of the US Award to the Dalai Lama? Heck, heck out the coverage on this news already.

Techmeme has a large list and its only been about 2 hours so far. We have titles such as:

• Cyberwar: China Declares War On Western Search Sites from TechCrunch
• Did Dalai Lama Award Cause China To Redirect Google, Yahoo & Microsoft Search Traffic To Baidu? from Search Engine Land
• China Mad at America, Sends Search Traffic from Google, Yahoo & Microsoft to Baidu from Search Engine Roundtable
• China Blocks Everything But Baidu? from WebProNews
• Made in China: Dodging the Internet Censor from eWeek

And many more.

This is not only a big deal for search, it is a big deal for the economy and diplomacy.

Posted at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Wow, this is awesome news. Practical ECommerce interviewed Jakob Nielsen, one of the most cited people on web topics.

They asked Mr. Nielsen to identify his favorite blogs. Of the four blogs he identified, one was Search Engine Land. The blog Danny, Greg, Chris and I manage on a day to day basis. He said:

Extremely detailed coverage of search and search engines. In fact, it’s too detailed, because they obsess over the smallest detail, which can be too much. I wish this site would abandon the linear blog format and use a more prioritized layout and information architecture to make it easier to focus on important stories and those columnists that interest me the most. Still, this is the place to go for info on the most important channel for reaching new prospects on the web — the search engines.

OK, so it wasn't all positive, but positive enough. We will take from that, maybe adapt the site a bit to make it easier to use and find content.

But it is really nice knowing that something you put so much into (over 40% of the posts on Search Engine Land are mine, but I know Danny's articles make people read there), is appreciate not by just people in your direct industry, but people who are outside your industry. Especially people as well known, cited and respected as Jakob Nielsen.

Posted at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , SEO Tips | Comments (3)

Here is a simple SEO Tip for some of you paid search guys. Please make a clean title tag for your blog posts, please! I beg you.

Ok, I'll call two paid search guys out and one person who travels so much that he needs to sit down and modify his blog software before he gets on his next boat.

Let's start with someone I know can take it. Andrew Goodman, your Traffick site needs some nice titles. Let's look at your latest post on My Lack of Privacy is Now Official. Forget about Andrew crying about people knowing who he is, since everyone knows how to track him down already... Look at this title tag:

<title>Traffick: My Lack of Privacy is Now Official: Search Engine Enlightenment | Grab the feed: traffick.com/atom.xml</title>

Now, why can't you just put your title of your post in your title? It can look something like this:

<title>My Lack of Privacy is Now Official</title>

Ok, so you may want your blog name in the title, so stick it at the end, like this:

<title>My Lack of Privacy is Now Official, Traffick</title>

This is what your title tag looks in the title of my browser:

If it was my decision, go with <title>My Lack of Privacy is Now Official</title> format please.

Ok, now that I am done with Andrew, let's move on to my PPC Hero.

A recent post is named Why You May Not Be Able to Use Google Adwords Campaign Optimizer but hey, your title tag reads a hell of a lot more than that.

<title>The Adventures of PPC Hero - Heroic Feats of Pay Per Click Management : Why You May Not Be Able to Use Google Adwords Campaign Optimizer</title>

Cut it down, and make it look like this please:

<title>Why You May Not Be Able to Use Google Adwords Campaign Optimizer</title>

Why? Well not only does it look like this in my browser bar:

It looks like this in the search results listings:

Tisk, tisk, tisk - that should be a unique title tag. Otherwise, your site: command search looks extremely repetitive and your CTR from the search results will be lower than you may want.

Ok, next victim is an old time buddy, Mr. Mike Grehan. Yes, I know, you are never at your desk to modify your blog template. But please, please, sit down, get into the code and give yourself a title tag. We know it is your blog and you don't need to tell us that "Mike Grehan says..." in every single title of your post.

I am not sure what the title of his most recent post is suppose to be. site:www.mikegrehan.com...

Mike, favor, please give me some titles to link to, please.

My rant is now done.

Posted at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

It seems like every day a new SEO blog is created. Now, I can't possibly subscribe to each one... well maybe I can. But why don't you help me.

If you want me to subscribe to your blog and I have not yet, then please comment below with your blog URL. In fact, if you want to make it faster for me, just include the add blog URL for Google Reader....

If I see your blog, it has a better chance to get covered at Search Engine Land and be included in the SearchCap at Search Engine Land.

So, please help me - help you. I think that is the slogan.

How do you know if I read your blog already? Well, if it is in my link farm, then I do read it. If it is not, I still may read it, but not have updated the link farm - but feel free to submit it just in case below.

Only SEO blogs please.

I believe all links in comments are nofollowed, not that the nofollow will prevent comment spam. :)

Posted at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , SEO Tips | Comments (18)

Yahoo has been beta testing a new featured called Search Assist. Danny has a great overview of it at Search Engine Land.

To my surprise, this morning, I did a search at Yahoo and now I see the beta UI. Here is a video of it in action:

Posted at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Danny Sullivan, a want to own iPhone individual, organized the first Sphinn Meetup while at SES.

So Matt Cutts and I, the two cool people who own iPhones, came to the meetup.

Danny quickly felt threatened by his phone-hood and decided to challenge the iPhone'rs to a browser challenge. So Danny and Vanessa Fox who had primitive phones challenged Matt and myself to a war.

Matt had 99% of the page rendered before any of us, I was a bit delayed because they started the contest while I was replying to an email. Vanessa, I think, came in second. But Danny didn't want to fess up that although Matt's iPhone had the page visible, since parts of the page may have been still loading (i.e. pixels for ads or something), that Vanessa's phone actually won.

There is a picture provided by Lee Odden.

In any event, I find it funny that Danny's Sphinn Meetup turned into this makeshift iPhone Meetup.

Posted at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , iPhone | Comments (8)

So, Chris, Ben and I do a live radio show weekly (we were off for the summer), Tuesday nights at 5pm (EST).

We decided to kick things off for the new season at SES San Jose. We did it live in the exhibit hall during the networking reception.

This is what it looks like to do a radio show on WebmasterRadio.FM

Chris Boggs, Barry Schwartz & Tamar Weinberg during live airing of The Pulse

I get a bit distracted keeping track of topics to discuss, talking, IMing, checking email and blogging, all while getting this picture taken.

I think the show went well, hard to tell.

If you want to hear the show, more details on that at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Posted at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

The folks over at SuperPages.com have sent me schwag already!

Even before the SES conference started. Pretty neat.

Here is the package:

Basically, it is suppose to contain items that will help you do well at SES.

Here are the two cool items in the package:

Posted at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (5)

I am sure many of you heard of the Tornado Hits Brooklyn report from the New York Times.

The tornado set off by the storm raged through Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, ripping the roofs off five brick rowhouses, yanking thick trees out by their roots, turning cars sideways and shattering countless windows.

This natural disaster set a tornado of traffic onto this blog.

Microsoft's Live Search ranked this blog number one for a vary of keyword search related to new york tornado.

All because I was paranoid one day about a New York Tornado Watch in Rockland County.

Figure it sent me about 500-600 visits yesterday.

Now, Google, what is wrong with you! I am number 30! Obviously, Microsoft is a better search engine. ;-)

Posted at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

Robert Scriva created Dashalytics, a Google Analytics Mac dashboard widget. It is pretty sweet...

It shows you time frames from one day, one week, one month, 3 month, 6 month and one year. You get visitor traffic overviews, details on visitors, pageviews, bounce rates, averages, time on site, new visit percentages, browser types, connection speeds, top pages, referring sources in percentages and actual sources, top keywords and much more.

Here is one screen capture of stats from this site:

Here is the Apple Site download page.

Spotted first at Googlified.

Posted at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , SEO Tips | Comments (1)

It is enough already!

My blog is being hit by tons of comment spam pointing at the WashingtonPost.com. These links go to pages like these.

Then there are Google ads on this page, yes Google is profiting from this. In addition, there is a text ad pointing to http://buygenericviagr.forumlivre.com/.

Here is a screen capture:

The good news is that it looks like Google has not yet indexed this page as of yet.

Yes, they are targeting "biagra," because the "b" and the "v" keys are right next to each other.

But the comment spam is just so annoying!

WashingtonPost, please stop these pages from being generated!

Posted at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I just got off a phone call with this lady.

She called me while I was out and asked me to call her back in regards to some research she was doing. I thought I would help the lady out with her research and give her a call back.

I quickly learned that this research was to help this individual help her individual client. So in reality, she had a client that had questions. She didn't know the answers to those questions. She called me and others to get the answers. She then probably billed her client for the time she spent getting those answers.

I was nice, I think. I spent almost 20 minutes on the phone with her, giving her answers. I went through some history, some new examples, etc... Showing her how these things work. She then got more specific and I tried my best to help.

After I was done, she then asked if I knew anyone else who can help her. I said I do. But I felt bad giving out the names of these people because it would not help the masses. I explained... Typically a reporter or researcher will call me or others... They would ask us dozens of questions. We answer to the best of our ability. They write it up and publish the knowledge for everyone to see.

In her case, she is getting all this information and keeping it to herself. I said, if this information would help the masses, then great. But she admitted, it would only be used for her consulting project with this client.

So based on that information, I did not offer any additional people she can ask these questions to. I even suggested she research the wonderful amount of free and educational information available on the web. If she had questions, I told her about discussion forums and how everyone can benefit from the exchange of questions and answers.

Am I wrong for not handing out the names of my peers to this person?

Am I wrong about helping the masses versus just helping an individual profit off her client?

Posted at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (4)

Wikipedia recently featured the SEO article on their home page.

Today, I was reviewing the SEO article and noticed I am listed in the history section, as a "notable SEO." Cool. :)

To reduce the impact of link schemes, as of 2007, search engines consider a wide range of undisclosed factors for their ranking algorithms. Google says it ranks sites using more than 200 different signals. ^[8] The three leading search engines, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's Live Search, do not disclose the algorithms they use to rank pages. Notable SEOs, such as Rand Fishkin, Barry Schwartz, Aaron Wall and Jill Whalen, have studied different approaches to search engine optimization, and have published their opinions in online forums and blogs.^[9][10] SEO practitioners may also study patents held by various search engines to gain insight into the algorithms.^[11]

So, us "notable SEOs" names are hyperlinked to our Wiki pages. My empty'ish page is Barry Schwartz the "technologist."

Posted at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (5)

Remember, this Friday I posted My Condo For Sale in Monsey - Home For Sale?

There I said, I was hoping to achieve top rankings in Google for terms like [condo for sale in monsey], [monsey condo], [apartment for sale in monsey], [monsey home for sale] and so on.

Well, I checked Saturday night, and I am doing pretty well.

- condo for sale in monsey

Notice the Flickr results are mine also, so I have three of the top four results for that search.

- monsey condo

Top four listings here

- apartment for sale in monsey

That is Tamar mocking me moving to a house, which links to my post.

- monsey home for sale

#2, not bad.

Will it last? I doubt it. Since this is fresh content, Google will give it some love for some time. Hopefully by then, I would have sold.

So step one, complete. I will send any leads to my agent.

Step two, is to sell.

Posted at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Homey , SEO Tips | Comments (5)

I was chatting with Caydel and he commented that he noticed the Search Engine Roundtable doesn't get as many comments has he would have expected. We get about 10 - 20 comments per day, which is a nice amount, but not like some other blogs - even like this one, that can get 10 or 20 comments on a single blog post.

We have a section that shows the most recent comments, it looks like this:

But to address his question, why don't we get a ton of comments? I believe the main reason is because since day one, I didn't want the forum owners and moderators to feel that I am poaching on their communities. The whole premise behind the Search Engine Roundtable is to report on the most interesting and popular search marketing threads. We did not want to take away from that discussion, but rather point people to it.

Virtually all our articles start with a link to the forum thread and then end with "Forum discussion at [Forum Name Goes Here]." The last piece of advice we give, is go to the forum thread, read it and debate the topic there. Of course, we have comments open at the Search Engine Roundtable, but we do not want to take away from the discussion at the original forum thread.

I hope that clarifies that question a bit. Does it?

Posted at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I just booked flights and hotel reservations for SES San Jose for Tamar and I.

My wife came last year, but she was terribly bored, so she won't be coming again.

I tried to get a companion fare ticket with my AMEX card, but no luck again. This time, I used AMEX points to pay for the tickets. I also reserved the rooms at the San Jose Marriott, because I rather be early than late with that.

I hate this flight. It is long. And yes, we are taking a red eye back from San Jose to New York. I always say, never again, when it comes to red eyes, but I never listen to myself.

So not looking forward to the traveling, but I always enjoy the San Jose conference.

Posted at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (1)

I was looking at my stats and noticed I received a significant number of traffic referrals from http://www.aftoo.com/. The specific page is over here.

If you look, it is almost an exact copy of this page on the Search Engine Roundtable but instead, they have replaced the ad spots with AdSense ads.

The AdSense publisher ID is pub-3471105644541750 and they even use a special channel 3107190893 to track the ads.

Time to submit a Infringement Notification for AdSense via http://www.google.com/adsense_dmca.html? This is the first time I am doing this, and I know tons of people "borrow" my content on a daily basis. But right now, I have a bit of time.

Here is a screen shot of the URL and my site within it, and the AdSense ads on left.

Here is a picture of the source code, showing the publisher ID.

Submission will proceed, let's see how long it takes to get a response.

Posted at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

As many of you know, I track hundreds of search blogs, forums, and resources. Today, Google added a feature that automatically adds the sites you link to on a page, to your custom search engine.

So I decided it may be helpful to me, and possibly others, to add this feature to my resources page. Now with this search box, you can search all the resources link to on that page.

Pretty neat and easy! I also added the search box directly on the resources page. There appears to be some minor rendering issues. But I have to run to a meeting, I'll look into it later.

Posted at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I live by my custom search engine for the SER search. I made it using Google's Custom Search Engine, and I really love the results I get from it. In fact, I use it several times a day.

Others have told me they love it as well. Some people don't use it, but email me questions. I respond after using the search feature and then inform them, they could have easily found the answer by using that search feature as well.

By popular request, I have created a method to add the search feature directly to your browser's search bar. To do so, just go here and click on the browser that you are using. It will prompt you to see if you want to add this search feature, and you say OK or yes or add.

What does it look like?

If selected, it sill look like this in your search box. You then simply type in your query, such as big blue pineapple chair, that looks like this:

Then you get sent directly to the search results page for your query.

I already received feedback from one user:

I love the search bar plugin. I love having the answer to all my questions one click away. Just how Google was before spam.... YAY!

- Brent (weirdasianews.com)

Hope you all enjoy it as much as Brent. And if you have an SEO or search question, give the search feature a try!

Posted at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Many of the readers of this blog are involved in search, in some way. So you may find this interesting. But even if you're not interested in search, I would like you to read this.

Yesterday, I was talking to my tech-savvy (but not search-focused) brother-in-law while on a flight together. One of the things that came up, after loaning him a pen with an Ask.com logo on it, was the new The Algorithm campaigns. I asked him what he thoughts on some of the controversial ones, but he said he didn't really see the billboards. He mentioned how he saw the commercials on TV for "The Algorithm."

He then asked me about Google's algorithm and if it is really the best. I gave him my thoughts and then brought the conversation back on the commercials. I explained that Ask.com leaked Edison, the code-name for the new algorithm that sparked a new visual approach and behind the scenes approach for Ask.com. I explained how the billboards planted the seeds to the commercials. Which planted the seeds for the new Ask.com look.

He then said something to the effect of...

Wait... The commercials are for Ask.com and not Google? I thought "The Algorithm" was about Google?

I was stunned, taken back and then regained my composure.

Are other people, normal people, non-search geeks, seeing these ads and feeling they are for Google? Are you? Would love to see comments from non-search folks...

Posted at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

Before Urchin (Google Analytics) had goal funnels, I did a review of the product back in 2004. I then asked for Goal Based Funnel Analysis to be added to the product. They have added it soon after with Urchin 6.0 (not Google Analytics). Let me show you a simple overview of how it works.

When people come to my forums, I would like them to become a registered member, if they are not one as of yet. To do that, they need to click on the "Register" link in the top black bar under "Search Engine Roundtable Forums" header. Then they have to go through several pages to become a member. Those pages include a terms of service agreement, a form, a confirmation form, and so on.

So I set up a funnel to analyze if I am losing any of those people along the way. Meaning, do I lose someone who is interested in becoming a member when they are at any stage of the registration process.

I picked a specific time frame that I want to look at and then look at the goal funnel report.

This graphic shows that of the 1,513 people who came to the forum in this time frame, 24 of them moved on to click on the register link. So that is about a 2% conversion rate on that goal.

From the register terms page, which is where the register link takes you, those 24 users then have to proceed to the registration form by accepting the terms of service on that page. How many of the 24 users did that?

As you can see, all of them.

From there, it asks them to confirm the information and press submit. Do people fall off from there and leave?

Not these 24 users.

From there, they must verify that they have registered. They do that by checking their email and clicking on a link to prove they are a real user. Did everyone do that?

Yup.

That page once again thanks those people for verifying, so all 24 should get those verifications...

As you can see they do.

Finally, this is the last step in the process. 27 people have gone to the thank you for registering page. Wait, 27 people? What happened to the 24? Where did the 3 extra people come from? Well, they must of clicked on a link from that email once again, which knew they were registered. So it added to the 24.

Overall, a conversion rate of 1.78%.

One more quick example.

I have an advertiser information page, where prospective advertisers can learn about placing ads on my blog.

In a specific time frame, 42 people visited the page. Of those people, only 10 people (24%) went to the contact us form to ask for more information.

So while only 10 went to the contact form, an other 10 exited the site, 5 of those people went to the home page<, 1 person viewed a specific article, 1 person went to the subscribe page and the last person went to the recent comments page.

Now, as a marketer, one would want to see how they can influence more of those people to click on the contact page. To note, they may have used the email address on that page to contact us, which I currently do not track.

Posted at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Here is a short interview of me by Mike at WebProNews on Duplicate Content issues with search.

Here is an interview of me by Andy Beal on finding golden nuggets at search forums...

Click To Play

Posted at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

The last session of SMX is named Give it Up. The deal is, no one is allowed to blog the session until a month has elapsed.

Anyway, see the front row?

Well, those are some of the live bloggers.

Start with Tamar on the left in pink, then Matt McGee, then Lisa Barone, then skip, then Vintage Tub guy, then Matt Cutts, then Chris Sherman and then Vanessa Fox (hiding behind projector).

If you click on the picture, I added notes to the image, so you can mouse over it to play with those notes. Feel free to add to the image.

Posted at 7:28 PM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , SEO Tips | Comments (0)

There has been a lot of buzz over at the SMX conference that SES (the big conference) is going to set up exclusivity requirements from the speakers.

So if you want to speak at SES, you cannot speak at SMX.

Those rumors, sparked recently by Rand, have been shot down by Search Engine Watch, sister-site to SES.

Let me assure you that Incisive Media (parent to both SEW and SES) has no such plans. There have not been, nor will there be any plans to institute any kind of exclusivity agreement for speakers at any of our events.

Hopefully, this will dispel any rumors, and put the idea to rest.

Update: Well, maybe it is true. I just wrote a more researched article on this at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Posted at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (6)

Typically, at SEO/SEM conference, Matt Cutts of Google is swarmed with SEOs and SEMs. They have been named Cuttletts, for Matt's groupies.

Here is a picture from Danny's personal blog showing a typical swarm of the Cuttletts.

But at today's SMX Conference I spotted Matt with only two Cuttletts around him before lunch.

Now, where did all the Cuttletts go? Well, Vanessa Fox of Google just got off a panel and she was swarmed with her own form of Cuttletts. Hmmm.. should we propose a name for her groupies? I won't dare, but you can.

Posted at 4:59 PM | Permalink | Category: Buddies , SEO Tips | Comments (9)

Benjamin Pfeiffer of RankSmart.com and the Senior Editor of the Search Engine Roundtable, and co-host of the Search Pulse has come to New York to visit us.

That is a picture of us. Yea, I know, I look bad. But I didn't have time to shave in the past three days. Sad, but true.

What are we doing? Well, we do some business on the side, outside of the blog. So we are discussing those things.

Posted at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , Buddies , RustyBrick , SEO Tips | Comments (5)

Ben, Chris and I have been doing this podcast named The Pulse for a while now. I think it has been about ten months now and we have completed 31 shows so far, 31!

You can find them all at the search pulse archive.

We are now up for a little poll at Lee's blog.

So please go to http://www.toprankblog.com/2007/05/seo-podcasts/ and vote for "The Pulse." Takes a sec.

Thanks!

Posted at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Sad but true. I was looking at my stats for this blog and noticed it was dominated by pornography keywords. Here they are in order of most traffic:

• cartoon porn
• comcast plays porn instead of cartoon on disney channel
• porn cartoon
• disney porn movies
• porn cartoons
• porn
• cartoon porno
• pornographic pictures
• porn disney
• porno cartoon
• disney cartoon porn
• disney porn
• disney porno
• disney cartoon sex
• porno disney
• cartoon porn

Kinda sad, but supposedly, I should be making lots of money if I rank well for these keywords. I made $17.21 with Google AdSense on this blog over the past 7 days. So I guess I need better ways to monetize it? Kidding.

Seriously, why am I ranking so well for these keywords?

Remember my post named Comcast Plays Porn Instead of Cartoon on Disney Channel which now has over a 100 comments? It was on the front page of Digg for a long time and has almost 3,000 diggs now. So because of all the comment, the recency of the post and the links pointing to the blog post (mostly because of the visibility of the post from Digg), I rank well for these keywords.

No, I won't be monetizing them more than AdSense.

Posted at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

Friends, Family, and non SEO's - you should read this as well...

Google will never be the same.

As many of you know, Google is not just a web search engine. You use Google to find web pages, but you also use it to find a local pizza store, to find a phone number, to get driving directions, stock prices, images, and so on.

Danny Sullivan wrote back in 2003 while at Search Engine Watch Searching With Invisible Tabs to demonstrate how the "tabs" you see at the top of the search box at Google, will have to eventually go away. Today, is that day.

Here is the image Danny used to convey the message that the tabs must go away:

Yes, the tabs over run us.

Today, Google 2.0: Google Universal Search from Danny at Search Engine Land describes how Google is finally taking a full invisible tab approach.

Do a search for something local, like new york dental school and you will get local results right in place of the organic search results. Here is a screen capture:

You see, the local map in the middle. That is what I am talking about. Also note, the top "tab" links include web, images, news, maps and more - well those are being moved more out of the way also. Danny has examples here of that.

So people, this is the new Google. As a searcher, it will impact your daily searches. For an SEO, well - I'll quote Danny.

The skilled search engine marketer's most important asset is understanding how search engines get various types of listings, then helping their clients enter the appropriate databases.

~ Danny

Posted at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Kevin Gibbons tagged me asking me, what was the first keyword phrase I was able to get a number one listing in Google for.

Great question.

Honest answer: I have no idea. No clue. I wish I do. I just don't remember. I am sorry. :)

I suspect I always ranked with for rustybrick in Google. Although at times, Yahoo did not rank me well for rustybrick.

Sorry to disappoint.

Also, I won't tag anyone else, since I could not answer the tag properly.

Posted at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

Remember my post on Why I Blog? The main reason was to potentially help people. Well, I think I may have helped one person.

Patrick Sexton (aka feedthebot) has wrote a touchy story about how he became an SEO.

He describes how he had no money except for $20 from selling "paintings on the street" earlier in the day. He then took that $20 and put it into a "video poker machine," where he won $750. That night he flew to Honolulu where he burned through the rest of his money while staying in Waikiki.

In Waikiki he had a few days left for his room at the hostel he was staying at and spotted a "sign that said that you could work for a few hours a week instead of paying rent." So he did that.

In the hostel was a computer, which he used frequently during his stay. He spent a lot of time there learning about making web sites and how search engines work. Here is the kicker for me..

Okay, I wasn’t even aware of the term SEO yet, but by goly, I had an honest to goodness website to play with now. I began researching SEO heavily, very very heavily. The first thing I did was read every page of Barry’s RustyBrick.com . My first two memories of SEO were his tool page and an image that showed the inter-relationship of search engines that I am not sure if it was on his site or not, but I remember that image.

That was my first SEO research which led to me discovering an enormous amount of resources that were out there. The website of the hostel was eventually redesigned and has enjoyed top ranking for years, and I made some good money out of it. That was my first SEO “job”

So Barry, thanks and I look forward to meeting you and saying hello at SMX.

A true touching story. Thank you Pat, thank you for sharing that with me.

Truly made my day.

And I hope to see you at SMX as well!

Posted at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , Buddies , SEO Tips | Comments (1)

Here are my three favorite images from this week's Search in Pictures column I wrote at Search Engine Land.

A 404 page on a web site, means page not found. For Yahoo! to put an ad near the 404 line on a baseball field, is not too bright, but yet pretty funny.

Does this top Yahoo!'s ad? Maybe... This is a promotion in disguise by Ask.com. Where is the ad found? By a urinal.

What is so funny about a snail? Nothing much. But Laura Lippay of Yahoo! took a picture of it and wrote, "these litle guys are always hanging out by the door to greet the early arrivers." Now, that is something I would blog about!

Posted at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

What is a search blogger to do? Danny just released most of the conferences dates for SMX and there are many other major conferences taking place. Don't get me wrong, I am more likely to go to an SMX over an SES these days for many reasons. But let's just take a look at the line up.

June:
- SMX Advanced: Seattle, June 4-5, 2007 √
- SES Toronto: Toronto, June 12–13, 2007 X
- SES Latino Search: Miami, June 18–19, 2007 X

July:
- SES Travel: Seattle, July 26-27, 2007 X

August:
- SES San Jose: San Jose, Aug 20–23, 2007 √

October:
- SMX Local & Mobile: Denver, Oct. 1-2, 2007 X
- SMX Social Media: New York, Oct. 16-17, 2007 √
- SMX Stockholm: Stockholm, Oct. 31 & Nov. 1, 2007 X

November:
- SMX Travel@PhoCusWright: Orlando, Nov. 12-13, 2007 √
- SMX London: London, Nov. 15-16, 2007 ?
- SES Paris: France, Nov 27–28, 2007 X

December:
- SES Chicago: Dec 3–6, 2007 ?
- PubCon: Las Vegas, Dec 4-7, 2007 ?

February:
- SES London: England, Feb 19–21, 2008 ?
- SMX West: Santa Clara, California: Feb. 26-28, 2008 √

The ones with green √ I most likely will go to.
The ones with red X I most likely will not go to.
The ones with yellow ? I do not know yet.

Obviously, these are subject to change.

Posted at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , SEO Tips | Comments (6)

Yesterday, Brian Mark made this site popular. How you say? Well, he submitted my post named Comcast Plays Porn Instead of Cartoon on Disney Channel to Digg.

Then someone told me it became popular. I had no idea he submitted it until it became popular. What I mean by "became popular" is that it was promoted to the Digg.com home page. Then it took off.

Today it has these many Diggs:

That is a lot of Diggs.

Yesterday I received over 45,000 unique visitors from Digg from it. Which lead to about 90 comments.

Not only did it make the home page, but made the "Top 10 in All Topics" section, which is big.

So thank you Brian for making this blog popular. I normally get about 600 uniques per day, so that is a 44,400 increase. :)

Posted at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

This afternoon, I wrote about how Volkswagen was spamming Google.

Now it was funny, because Danny and I were chatting on the Daily Search Cast and we were talking about how the Google Enterprise blog featured Volkswagen's web site as using their search service smack in the middle of their site.

Deal is, while Danny was chatting, he noticed that Volkswagen was spamming Google by hiding text. Basically, the Volkswagen site did not show text that was found within the site code. I.e. Only Google saw the text but me or you as a human did not.

This clearly goes against Google's quality guidelines and can result in a site being banned from their index.

Avoid hidden text or hidden links.

So Google actually acknowledge Volkswagen's wrong doing;

Barry Schwartz over at Search Engine Land pointed out that the VW of America site that I previously blogged about was including site keywords in an invisible div layer on site pages, which is not in keeping with Google site quality guidelines. I reached out to the technical director of VW's creative agency and found out that they were including the keywords in this manner to increase the amount of content crawled by the Google Search Appliance for the Flash-based pages of the site. Once alerted to this, VW switched to including relevant keywords in the META data in the of the web pages on the site, an approach that is in keeping with Google quality guidelines. Thanks to Barry for pointing this out and to VW for being so responsive to the issue.

Nice, so Volkswagen gets personalized Google support for this and will not be deindexed from Google. Nice to know people in high places, I guess. :)

In any event, I am happy Google responded to this report. I am not really to thank for this, Danny is. He spotted it and asked me to write about it. But I don't mind taking the credit. Thanks Danny!

Posted at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (21) | TrackBacks (2)

The other day, I told you WebProNews published my interview. I had one complaint, that they said I was from the "Cartoon Barry Blog" as opposed to my main site, the Search Engine Roundtable.

Good man, Mike McDonald, explained it was a mistake and it would get fixed. And it was!

Thank you Mike!

If you want to see the video, here it is again!

Posted at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

Well, not really. But I want free stuff from Google and apparently, if you say Google Sucks on your blog, you may get a freebee from Google.

Yesterday I reported that Google Transit Sends Upset User Superman Cape. Yes, they did!

One guy almost died trying to cross over an eight-lane highway on foot, based on Google Transit's suggestion. OK, fine, he didn't almost die because he was smart enough not to attempt crossing an eight-lane highway on his tricycle. But he blogged that Google told him to. And guess what it got him? A Super Man Cape from a Googler.

Well, did I once tell you that I used Google Maps to drive back from SES Toronto. I got to the USA / Canadian border and they arrested me!

Well not really. They asked me a billion questions and the border, then asked me to drive my car into this small garage. Then they asked me and my friend to step out of the car and wait in a small room. Then after checking some things about me and the car, they said I can go.

So I almost got put in jail for life because of Google Maps! Who knows, maybe, just maybe, I could have been sentenced to death! Maybe!

To make things worse, after I got back on the highway. Within 1 minute, I truck picked up a rock from it's back wheel and it hit my windshield and cracked it. As I drove the 6 hours or so back, the tiny crack grew to cover the whole windshield of the car. Good thing insurance covered it but I almost fell out of the car while driving because the windshield could have fallen of the car. Yes, I blame Google Maps!

Google Sucks until I get something free from them. ;-)

Posted at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (71)

That is Mike McDonald from WebProNews interviewing me at SES NY a few weeks ago on Ask.com's Edison project and the new auto-discover on Sitemaps.

One complaint, whoever posted the video doesn't know I am from the Search Engine Roundtable. :)

Posted at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (4)

So I have been doing this weekly column at Search Engine Land named Search in Pictures. Basically, over the course of the week, I collect images that are related to Google, Ask.com, Yahoo and Live.com and write an article through them. I try to make it read like a story. In any event, my last column; Search In Pictures: Easter; Search Fun, Google Power, Art & Signs, is now up, but here are my three favorite pictures from it.

#1:

Whoever played this prank is hilarious!

#2:

Bike riding in your office, and look at the color of that bike - Google colors.

#3:

These are the talk of the town, from Ask.com.

Posted at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (3)

You know that Ask.com bought Teoma way back. You know who invented Teoma? This man, Apostolos Gerasoulis. Also known as AG. He recently was featured in several Ask.com commercials.

More about that at http://blog.ask.com/2006/05/who_is_apostolo.html.

Now I am officially cool!

Just a note: I rarely take pictures search folks, but this is a keeper.

Posted at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I logged in to check my web statistics for the Search Engine Roundtable and noticed I received about 7,000 visitors from Google on the April Fools day theme. Here are some of the top keyword phrases:

• google april fools
• april fools google
• google april fools jokes
• google april fools joke
• april fools jokes
• google prank
• google pranks
• google's april fools
• etc.

It pretty much came from only Google.

So thank you Google for the unexpected Sunday traffic!

Posted at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Like I noted at Search Engine Land this morning, I now have the potential to become a billionaire over night. Did I get your attention? Ok so with being approved for PPA, I now can place ads where I can make a flat fee for each desired action taken. So since there are very few restrictions on the Google referral products, I am going to tell a story using Google Pay Per Action referral ads. Now please, I encourage you to click on the ads (because I can encourage you to do so).

A lot of you are search marketers and you know I don't need to tell you that you need serious help with your SEM and PPC skills. So please seek help with:

I know you will need to somehow get to this seminar. And that may require driving. If so, you will need insurance. Because if you crash on the way there, g-d forbid, and you blame me and lose your house, wife and job because of it - I will feel personally responsible. So, make sure you have good auto insurance, if not - try these guys:

And yes, you need to bring a notebook, laptop and a bunch of Google Pens with you to this seminar. Where do you expect to put all this stuff! Do you think you can carry it all in your hands! NO! You will need a bag and a good bag from these guys:

So you have a long day at this seminar and you get sleepy. What are you going to do? Drive home? I hope not. It is best you stay in a hotel or motel near the event and drive back the next day. Find a place to stay with these fine folks:

I know I talked about getting into an accident. But what if it is not your fault, what if some nut drives you off the road. You better find a good car accident lawyer:

We all know lawyers cost a lot, and because of that you may go into debt. Not saying you will go into debt, but it is possible. To get out of debt, use these guys:

But Barry, how do I call a lawyer with out a phone? I hear ya and don't worry, I got you covered with this cell phone ad:

You call the lawyer and he/she asks, why did you crash? Later on, they slap it on you because you forgot to bring you eye classes and you couldn't see the telephone poll in front of you. So you slammed into it. The judge orders you to click on my ad below for contact lenses!

All this hype and crazyness makes you a pop star and ABC News wants to interview you but wait a sec, you need promotional T-shirt to show off your new personal brand. Is there any better way to show off your new dot com then a customized t-shirt?

But now it is in style for stars to take pictures of their fans. So you need the latest digital camera... Yea, I got you covered:

I am going to stop here with the storiy. I know I am only up to letter "D" in the alphabet, but this is a long story that I may want to break up over multiple days.

Tune in next time!

Posted at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (11)

I have been quoted many places since beginning my coverage on search, in fact I stopped keeping track - which is kind of a shame...

Today, I had two calls, one with a smaller publisher and one with Forbes. I spoke with both about twenty-minutes on different topics in search.

The Forbes call went something like this....

Reporter: Hi, can I ask you some questions on X, Y and Z?
Barry: Ummmm... Sure

Reporter: So Search Company X launched Product Y today, and I had questions on it. I saw you wrote about it at blog Z.
Barry: Ummmm.. Yea.

Reporter: Can you tell me what you think of their implementation of it?
Barry: Sure, well, since it is so new, I don't have full access to it yet, but as far as I know, it would work like this. I then explain how I envision it would work. I explain how it differs from others and where it can improve or change.

Reporter: Do you think people can take it this way? (Trying to get me to say something that goes against the product, even if I don't feel that way).
Barry: Well no. Since they launched it this way, it won't be used for that - at least not the way it works now. But technically, if it was implemented a different way, people can abuse it in the fashion you said. But not currently.

Reporter: But if they did implement it that way, would you say it can be used in a bad way?
Barry: Yes but they didn't implement it like that.

Reporter: Asks the same Q another way...
Barry: I give examples again of products that are similar and explain that this product was not launched in that fashion - so it won't be used in that way. If that changed, then yes, it can be used in that way....

Don't get me wrong... I love these calls. But it is funny. They call you with a story in mind and try to make the story by having you agree with them. I guess that is how it works... I really don't know.

Some calls are pure opinion and further explanation on the topic. Those are fine and dandy.

Do I get quoted and linked to? Not likely... I would say at best, 10% of the calls I get from these publishers (Forbes, Business Week, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, eWeek, and so on) end up quoting me. 90% of those do not, but they may use the ideas we talked about it. Is it a waste of my time? Never, I enjoy the calls and it is worth it for me to try to get that quote.

But what really upset me was a call from the smaller publisher. About two months ago, I answered about 30 minutes worth of questions, she sent me the report today. I reviewed it, and it didn't contain my name or any other names from her sources. I asked her about it and she said we do not cite names for privacy reasons. I am like, thanks for telling me. But that call was fun too. Would I do it again? Honestly, I probably would because I like helping people. Should I? I doubt I should. I would think if I spent that time writing a blog post at Search Engine Roundtable or Search Engine Land, it would help a lot more people than the case above with the smaller publisher.

Posted at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , Daily Grind , SEO Tips | Comments (0)

So now the I have sidekick I am better able to verify a few things. I have been giving "thumbs up" via StumbleUpon pretty much for every article I publish. In fact, I added a SU feedflare that makes it easier to stumble without the toolbar.

I asked Tamar where these stumbles show up, because I keep submitting and they don't show up in my profile. Yes, I am logged in. Yes, I tried both the link method (FeedFlare) and using the Firefox toolbar and neither work.

I asked Tamar to use both methods and the submissions show up in her profile right away.

So I am thinking, that maybe I am banned from StumbleUpon for submitting too often?

I never heard of a StumbleUpon ban, have you?

Posted at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , SEO Tips | Comments (16)

I love Neil Young, mostly because I grew up listening to it while at my childhood friend's house - his dad was a big fan. Since then, I have been to several Neil Young concerts and CSNY concerts. In any event, I also am a big fan of SEO and some marketing. One blog I skim (but not read too deeply) is the popular Seth Godin.

He wrote a blog post named Lessons from Neil Young where Live at Massey Hall by Neil Young. He made two observations that lead to a marketing concept. The two observations were:

(1) Listeners like to hear what they heard before. Seth adds that even if a song, at the time was not popular but became popular later, the audience back then was not as enthusiastic with the song, as they were with songs they have heard before.

(2) Songs that did not work so well in front of his listeners, Neil Young tried to play better but it still didn't work. Why? Because they were not common songs.

Seth concludes that "It's what you say, most of the time, not how you say it."

Interesting thought. If you think about it, does this work the same with search engine optimization?

There are many ways to think of it:

(1) It is what you link to most, not what you say in the content (link vs. content debate).
(2) It is quantity over quality (very debatable).
(3) It is the link anchor text, and not the content (kinda stretching it there).

Honestly, not sure if you can apply it to SEO here. Seems like it doesn't work too well.

Posted at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Category: Music , SEO Tips | Comments (5)

This afternoon, one of my articles made it to the Digg home page for about 10 minutes. It was then buried. I am not sure, but this is the first Digg Burial I have noticed, on the Search Engine Roundtable.

The digg is at http://digg.com/tech_news/Is_Google_the_Next_Small_Business_Killer

You can see it has a nice number of Diggs, it got enough to be made popular. But once it hit the home page, it was then buried.

How do I know?

A search for seroundtable.com articles returns no results at the time I write this. So you check off the "Include Buried Stories" and then you see up comes that article.

Why did I get buried? Honestly, no idea. It can be a ton of reasons, so I won't guess.

Danny Sullivan has an excellent article named Monitoring Buries At Digg at Search Engine Land.

It is one thing to read the article by Danny, it is another thing to experience it.

Posted at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

I was chatting with some search geeks about the upcoming conferences. Up come the month of June and I realized, I won't be home that month.

Here is the line up for June (that I currently am aware of):

• SMX Seattle: June 4-5, 2007
• SES Toronto: June 12–13, 2007
• SES Latino: June 18–19, 2007

FYI, the Latino conference is based in Miami. The good thing is that these are two day conferences each. Next month is the huge SES NYC between April 10–13, 2007, I will be missing the first day (Tuesday) because it is the last day of Passover.

I am extremely excited for Danny's first new conference, SMX... If you are signing up, use my affiliate link so I can earn some side cash. ;-) But I am really looking forward to it.

I assume the wife will come with me to SES Toronto? But the others, I doubt it?

Posted at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (4)

It has been a while since I last uploaded a screen cast. But I decided to do one for the new Ask City features, that I blogged about at Search Engine Land.

In this screen cast, I explain some of the new features.

Take a look:

Pretty neat feature!

Oh, I use Snapz Pro X on my Mac to make these screen caps happen.

Posted at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

Danny Sullivan taught me to link my < ahref="http://www.flickr.com/">Flickr images to my posts. I decided to take a look at what type of traffic Flickr has sent to this specific blog year to date. I counted 91 referrals from Flickr. The top 5 Flickr referrals came from these pictures:

• MacBook Pro Shot with 37 referrals
• Matt Cutts Google Checkout Donation with 18 referrals
• My Car Stuck in Snow with 6 referrals
• Sprint Phone Cell Phone 09 Hoax with 5 referrals
• Yahoo Party at Hugh Hefner's Sky Villa Set with 4 referrals

Now, I know this isn't a ton of traffic, but it is nice. So how does this work?

If you go to a picture you upload and click directly under the image, a text box will appear. It looks like this:

Just enter in your html and links, etc. and presto, it can look like:

You see, the links turn into hyperlinks and people do actually click over.

Are they indexed and count as links towards your search rankings?

I checked Google Webmaster Central's link tool, found several flickr.com links in the export file. I then checked this specific image, we see it is indexed and it also has a cache link within Google. I do not see any nofollow attributes in the source code, but I do see the static link to cartoonbarry.com in the source code. So it looks like these links count somewhat.

So traffic and links from Flickr. Nice.

But uploading images directly to your site enables you to get traffic from Google Image search and other image search engines. Otherwise, you send that traffic to Flickr and hope for the click through. So which way to go, which way to go? :)

Posted at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

I got a link from Apple.com the other day. How nice of them... I believe these links are crawled and indexed by Google, so I guess it helps on that front.

I got it by submitting my Google Reader Dashboard Widget that I launched last week to Apple's Dashboard Widget site.

The widget was soon added over here and as you can see, they linked to RustyBrick, my company, with a nice clean and visible link.

Widgets are often a good way to build links. Why?

(1) You get links from Apple and others
(2) You get people using your tools
(3) Others may enhance it and link to yo
(4) Users may love you for it and blog about it

So that is how I got my link from Apple.

Posted at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

This is a question I get every now and then. For some background, my search blog, Search Engine Roundtable, reports on the "pulse of the search marketing community." What that means is we try our best to find our article stories directly from the search community, within search forums.

People often wonder how I and the crew find our threads. Well, I am not going to give away all my secrets but I will tell you some basics.

Every morning, normally between 6:45am and 7:45am (EST) I do my "forum research." This includes a bunch of things.

How Do I Find Good Search Marketing Threads:

(1) I go to my preferred forums first; they include:

• Search Engine Roundtable Forums
• Cre8asite Forums
• DigitalPoint Forums
• Search Engine Watch Forums
• WebmasterWorld

(2) I scan all new posts from the last time I visited the forum. I try to spot quality signals from these posts. Quality posts have certain signals:

• Descriptive titles
• Nice number of responses relative to post data and forum membership numbers
• Thread creator is long time contributor
• Thread commenter(s), those that reply, are long time contributors
• The thread views are high, relative to data and membership
• A search representative participated in the thread

Don't get me wrong, these signals are just that, signals and they do not work 100% of the time. So some times you got to go with your gut and dig deeper yourself.

(3) If content is low, I then go to my secondary search forums list and do the same in step two.

(4) I then have some tricks to find some really hot threads, but I cannot share those tricks.

(5) I rarely ever get people submitting a thread to me. I wish I did. But people rarely use the submit a thread form to inform me of good posts. And I rarely ever get notifications from forum moderators or administrators of quality threads. So this is an open invitation... Please use the submit a thread form to send us quality threads - don't worry if you are unsure - we won't yell at you. But if we do use your submission, then you are likely to get link credit...

That is how I find some of the threads I post at the Search Engine Roundtable. Again, I didn't list my secrets, and I doubt I ever will, but there is some information for you.

Posted at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind , SEO Tips | Comments (7)

Last week I wrote about a late night Digg and explained that it sent me about 3,500 visitors or so, it actually turned out to be a few thousand more the next day. But let me tell you, a late afternoon Digg sends a hell of a lot more traffic than a midnight Digg.

Yesterday I wrote a story named Google Sending Out More Google Coolers To AdWords Advertisers. Later I saw it was Digged by some user, so I dugg it myself. Then early afternoon it was made popular, and forget about it. Here a screen shot of the Digg at this point in time.

Digg sent me over 17,000 visitors just yesterday from an late afternoon home page Digg placement.

Worthless traffic? Probably... But I bet the advertises like the extra eye balls on their ads...

Posted at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Search Engine Roundtable (SER) http://www.seroundtable.com/ 1706 subscribers The Pulse of the Search Marketing Community Please click on the icon on the left to subscribe to my Google Coop! Don't make me beg. All you need is a Google Account. Or just click here to subscribe. Thank you! Barry

Posted at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

More networking widgets spotted, this time via Techcrunch...

That is my LinkedIn profile in a box, more info at http://www.linkedinabox.com/users/941832.

Posted at 9:50 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I was messing around with FeedBurner and noticed a Publicize tool named SpringWidgets.

So I quickly created a custom SpringWidget for the Search Engine Roundtable. Here it is:

I think Windows users can then add this as a "widget" in their OS.

Ok, Windows user's download it here and then plug in the feed into the RSS section.

Posted at 9:16 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Last night I launched a redesign for the Search Engine Roundtable, my blog on search stuff. I have information on most of the changes over here, if you are interested.

Old Version:

New Version:

We are working on a few tweaks with some things, based on the many helpful comments and emails. If you see something that is off, please let me know.

Thanks!

Posted at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

I was lazy, but I finally got around to replacing the Technorati search feature on the right side bar with a Google Custom Search Engine.

I search this blog all the time, but I find myself never finding what I need to with the Technorati engine. I then see myself going to Google and doing a search by site:www.cartoonbarry.com, to restrict the search to search on pages on this site.

Well, now, I saved myself a step by including the same search on the right hand side.

Yes there are ads, because I can only turn off ads for nonprofit sites. Ignore them if you will.

Update: And they just added supplemental results, which I think, but not sure, is a good thing. I really love the results from the Google CSEs.

Posted at 8:56 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

So as some of you know Google Reader Reporting Subscriber Numbers (official announcement) and of course, the awesome FeedBurner announced they will begin showing the subscriber statistics Saturday.

So I login to check out the numbers and I was blown away. At what point did Bloglines, the most popular Web based RSS reader, get blown away by Google's personalized home page and Google Reader?

The chart above is from one of my two RSS feeds I manage at FeedBurner for the Search Engine Roundtable. You can see that my number one RSS subscriber base comes from Google Feedfetcher.

Feedfetcher is how Google grabs RSS or Atom feeds when users subscribe to them in Google Reader or the Google Personalized Homepage. Subscriber counts include Google Reader and the Google Personalized Homepage. Feedfetcher collects and periodically refreshes these user-initiated feeds, but does not index them in Blog Search or Google's other search services

So Feedfetcher combines both Google Reader and the personalized home page. I would love to see them broken out. But anyway...

Bloglines is only 19% of the share. So Google has 19 point higher share of my RSS readers. Wow.

What also surprises me is that 9% of my RSS subscribers prefer email notifications. FeedBlitz is the RSS to Email service I use to enable people to easy request email subscriptions over RSS subscriptions. That is the third most popular way to subscribe to the blog. Outside of reading the site at the main web page, people opt for Google, then Bloglines and then email.

Again, this is looking at one of my feeds, I have two - but this is the more popular one.

I did not yet switch from Bloglines to Google Reader, I don't think I will any time soon. Main reason, I am on a Mac browser and Google Reader really kills the browser with all the JavaScript and AJAX stuff. I am also not on a slow Mac, I am on a MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM and a nice dual processor.

I am still kind of blown away by these numbers. Google, Bloglines, then Email. Wow.

But yes, I will say it again, RSS has changed my life.

Posted at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (3)

Yesterday, I decided to submit one of my stories to Digg. The story is named Google Maps Hijack Caused By Google Algorithm: Google Adds Report Map Feature. I then asked all my buddies to digg it, and I got about 22 or so diggs within the first few hours. I then gave up.

OgleTree sent me a screen capture of the Digg home page last night, showing me at midnight (EST), my article was the first item on the Digg home page.

It received 72 Diggs at that point. Over night it earned well over 250 diggs and remained on the home page until about 9am (EST). It is now on the second page.

So how much traffic did I get from the late night Digg home page appearance? Not even as close to as much as one would get from a mid-day Digg home page listing.

I received about 3,500 unique visitors from it, at this point in time. Still not a bad amount of visitors.

If you didn't digg it, you can by clicking on the Digg icon below...

Based on this, I am trying to get Google Checkout Button on Google.com Take Over Page Real Estate on the home page but I doubt it will make it. It currently has:

So digg that also and Ill share the data with you.

Oh, historically, I think this is the second or third story that I have submitted to digg that made it to the home page. I did have plenty of other stories make it to Digg's home page, that I did not submit myself.

Thanks to all you who have helped out!

Posted at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Every now and then, I get notified via RSS that I have a comment on one or more of my pictures, that I have uploaded to my Flickr account.

Just a few minutes ago, I received an update that I had a comment on the image on the right. The comment was very sales oriented, tell me to contact him to basically earn more than I can with AdSense.

To spam Flickr is not that easy. You have to register a Yahoo! account, find the images you want, and then comment.

I guess you can easily use the Flickr API to locate images you would like to spam with your commercial message and then send out a bot to comment at those images.

I don't think that those comments are nofollowed. But I did not dig deep to see if search engines can technically crawl the comments of Flickr images.

Posted at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

This site named SEOData.com seems to be scrapping tons of sites. I know I produce a full RSS feed, including comments, but it is not there for people to take my whole post and comments and place them on their own site. Common. Most people just steal the normal (short feed), and I tend not to call them out on it.

But seriously man. Not only are you taking my content (one and two examples), you are taking others.

To make it worse, you are selling a product that helps others do the same thing.

Not good.

Posted at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (7)

On Friday, I noticed that the Search Engine Roundtable earned some Google sitelinks. A search on search engine roundtable or se roundtable or s e roundtable, etc. returns four sublinks under the main result. Here is a screen capture:

Sitelinks were first named Sitelinks on September 8, 2006 by Google. Before that, I thought they may have been named Web categories.

Nice to have those sitelinks, and I would say the four most important links were covered well by Google. More details on Google Sitelinks if you want them.

Posted at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (1)

Last night I attended my first Internet Marketers of New York. Greg Niland aka GoodROI is our leader over there, but Frank Watson aka AussieWebmaster sat in the center chair (and rightly so).

The 18 of us went to Abigaels on Broadway. My second time there, it is a nice kosher place, a steak house - and I think it was OK. I appreciate going kosher this time - thanks Greg!

I missed the first two meetings. Honestly, the first one I totally forgot about. The second one, I was in Israel for. But the third one, I made and happy I did so. For the first 90 minutes, a bunch of us sat at a table and drank beer - well, I didn't, I was the only one who drove to the event. But the rest continued to constantly drink beer - at one point the place ran out of cold beers but they recovered quickly. We ordered steaks and chicken and the rest of the stuff. I got some of the kosher jokes - why don't they serve this or that. All in good humor.

Let me give you the before and after...

Before I left, my wife asked me if I am going to shave. I said no, it is an informal meeting of just people who have similar interests. So I went off to the event looking like a wolf. Not sure if that insulted anyone. :-)

When I got back, my wife asked me:

Wife: So what is this thing.
Me: I told her it is a bunch of SEOs getting together to eat.

Wife: So do you do business?
Me: No, not really. Business is not the focus of this, it is just to get together.

Wife: You get together to do what?
Me: To ear and drink.

Me: Oh, and I am the founding member of this organization.

Wife: So you are a founding member of an organization about eating and drinking?
Me: Um, yea, I guess so.

Posted at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (6)

Like I reported this morning, Google Webmaster Central Adds Link Analysis Tool and I shared the most linked to articles at the Search Engine Roundtable. But I figured I share the most linked to posts at this site, via the Google tool.

1. Which Search Blogs Am I Most Likely To Read In More Detail? with 87 links.
2. How Much is Link Bait Worth? with 61 links.
3. Cartoon Barry Growing So Quickly: 2006 Stats with 56 links.
4. To Get the TiVO Series 3 Or Not? with 53 links.
5. Washington Post Text Links, GoogleWifi, Google Update, Levi Checkout, GOOG Sales, Google More or MSN No Links with 44 links.
6. Pulse 13, Ask X, ODP, AdSense Referrals, Quality Score Updates, Social Links, Google Checkout & Searches in Court with 39 links.
7. My Feelings On SEJ's Best Search Blogger Award with 39 links.
8. Digg, Google, AdWords Rep, AdSense Images, Reader Trends, Calendars, Askville, YouTube & Tips Down with 38 links.
9. If You Like Me, Please Vote For Me :) with 35 links.

You may notice that the tool has been pulled at the moment, but Google will add it back. Because there was a loophole where you can get data from other sites, that are not yours.

But when it comes back, Google should the index stats page to link the link command advice to the new tab.

Cool stuff Google. Of course, Yahoo! had a link tool for a while, named Site Explorer.

Posted at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I was checking my statistics for this blog a few minutes ago and I noticed I received a surge of traffic on Sunday, a day where I typically get no traffic.

Here is the data:

##################################
# Report: cartoonbarry.com
# Report Name: Search Terms
# Date Range: 02/04/2007 - 02/04/2007
##################################
superbowl marriage proposal 152
superbowl wedding proposal 72
super bowl marriage proposal 51
super bowl wedding proposal 18
marriage proposal super bowl 11
chicago bears cartoons 8
superbowl marriage proposal ad 6
`super bowl marriage proposal` 6
super bowl marriage proposal ad 6
2007 superbowl marriage proposal 5

Most of those search referrals came from Google. Pretty amazing that a post I wrote about on January 3rd can drive that much traffic in one day.

Total Pageviews on that page yesterday: 580.

Posted at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

So, the other week, I told you that Ask.com added me as an RSS Smart Answer. I was hoping they add this blog, my personal blog, to the list of other blogs that came up for a search on barry schwartz. Today they did!

You know what that means? A search on cartoon barry blog brings up this blog as an RSS Smart Answer (I am told "cartoon barry" as a search will work next week).

Thanks Ask.com and Gary!

Posted at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Category: Buddies , SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I had a dream last night, I don't remember it 100%, but I do remember the theme. Matt Cutts was leaving Google in my dream. It was weird. It seemed to be based in a camp setting, like a camp with wood lodging, but a camp for kids - but adults were there.

For some reason, Matt decided to cook up a storm, even though the camp had cooks. He made this weird egg thing, but a ton of it, enough to feed the camp - but only he ate it.

Then Matt went on a quick trip, I don't remember where.

But when he got back, he crossed out a big sign that had his plans on it, his future plans. It showed that Matt would be leaving Google.

I got serious issues: (1) Dreaming about search stuff. (2) Dreaming about an other man.

Why do I share this? Well, he did take an extended vacation and this time, unlike last time, Google's relevancy wasn't doomed. So does my What If Matt Cutts Left Google? article still apply?

Based on my dream - not as much.

Am I prophet? LOL - no. But how crazy would it be if Matt announced his retirement this month?

Posted at 7:03 AM | Permalink | Category: Buddies , SEO Tips | Comments (7)

Yesterday I shared Which FeedBurner FeedFlares Do I Have Set Up and I had an interesting comment soon after from Matt Cutts who said that he didn't even notice that the Search Engine Roundtable had FeedFlares.

I'm torn. All that flare may pay off for you, but I have developed flare-blindness on SE Roundtable (and SEL), and the sheer number of flare things makes it a real pain when I'm reading SER/SEL posts on my phone in Google Reader.

That is an excellent point, in fact, I offered some sage advice to Danny Sullivan yesterday. I told him to add FeedBurner's FeedFlares to the Search Engine Land site, not just the feed. You know what he told me? They are already there. Doh! And I write there and I was blind to them also. Yes, he told me he will work on making them more visible.

Which got me thinking. How visible is too visible? What is the right level.

On the Search Engine Roundtable, I hide the FeedFlares, which I call "Social Flares" on the entry pages, well under the post, they are easily missed, if you are not seeking them out. Here is a screen capture...

On the home page, they are directly under the "rustybrick in Google AdWords at 8:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) " line. But I assume, they are still often missed.

As a blogger, I do not want anything to distract from the content. Some people don't even realize that the Search Engine Roundtable has banner ads on them... Many people don't notice the flares either. But do I want to put the ads or flares more in your face. No way!

I think I will be keeping my implementation of the Social Flares (FeedFlares) as is for now.

So that begs the question, should new blogs add it if no one sees them? If so, how much effort should they use to put them in your face?

For example, techipedia uses icons, as shown here:

But FeedFlare doesn't allow you to currently use icons... I like the icon implementation.

You see, I am stuck also. How visible should one make it?

What should a blogger do?

Posted at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

Badges and seals seem to be the big thing again. I was wondering if you guys forgot that I offer Search Engine Roundtable Seals? I have not received a request in a really long time, maybe a month or so, for a seal. So here is a reminder...

Sad, but true... I forgot about them also and they are my seals. I added one to my blog, on the right. Looks pretty good, if you ask me. ;-)

• Author Seal - for all recognized and active authors at the Search Engine Roundtable Blog.
• Super Moderator Seal - for all recognized and active super moderators at the Search Engine Roundtable Forums.
• Moderator Seal - for all recognized and active moderators at the Search Engine Roundtable Forums.
• Member Seal - for all recognized and active members at the Search Engine Roundtable Forums.
• Contributor Seal - for all individuals that have submitted ten or more threads to the Search Engine Roundtable blog authors.
• Fan Seal - for any recognized fan of the Search Engine Roundtable. You can email me at the email address below to become a "verified" fan or just take the logo from this page. Any reader or forum lurker can be a fan, there are no requirements. :)

The seals looks like:



But a verified live seal looks like:

Comment below with a request or submit the request at our forums. Please make sure to specify the type of logo you would like and the name you would like to be present in the verification page.

Posted at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

Monday, I told you who I ping via the Search Engine Roundtable, when I update my blog entries. Today, I figured I share a bit more, by telling you which FeedFlares I opt to use via FeedBurner on my feeds.

First, was is FeedBurner? FeedBurner is the company I use to manage the RSS feeds for the Search Engine Roundtable. They not only do they provide the rss feeds and host them, they provide detailed stats on the feeds, they manage my RSS ads (and pay well) and they give me the ability to add FeedFlares easily.

What are FeedFlares? FeedFlares is FeedBurner's name for the ability to add links to 3rd party tools that help build communication and interactivity into your content. For example, I have a del.icio.us link on my blog entries at the Search Engine Roundtable. del.icio.us is basically a online bookmarking service. New entries automatically have this link, via a FeedFlare, that enable my readers to easily, with one click, bookmark the blog entries I write.

You see, above is a picture of the del.icio.us feedflare on my site. If you click on the "Save to del.icio.us" link, it will automatically fill in the blog entry's URL, description (uses the title) and then lets you enter in tags and notes, if you like. After you save the bookmark at del.icio.us, it then takes you back to the blog entry. It speeds things up for my readers and also shows you blog entries that have been tagged, as you can see from the image directly below the top one.

So which FeedFlares do I use?

On my feeds, I use:

• Email this
• Digg This!
• Add to Technorati Favorites!
• Advertise Here
• Save to del.icio.us
• Stumble It! - Danny just created the StumbleUpon FeedFlare

On my site, I use the follow FeedFlares (yes, FeedBurner allows you to add it to both your feed and your site):

• Email this
• Digg This!
• Subscribe to this feed
• Save to del.icio.us
• Stumble It!

FeedBurner really rocks!

Posted at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (3)

The folks over at Play65.com (not sure if I can or should mention names) sent me a sweet backgammon set while I was away on my honeymoon. When I got back, it was waiting for me in my office. I used to play backgammon a lot when I spent a school year in Israel - I think Israeli's like the game. In any event, I printed out the game rules and I hope to play with my wife this weekend. I used to love this game. Here are pictures:

Thank you guys!

Posted at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Category: Buddies , SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (2)

Most blog software automatically supports methods of pinging different blog services. Pinging, in the blog world, means to send a blog search engine a notification that your blog has been updated. It is like when you ping a server, to make sure it is live. Here you are pinging a search engine or other service, to let them know of something new - a new blog entry.

So which services do I currently ping at my various blogs?

• blo.gs
• weblogs.com
• technorati.com
• http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
• http://ping.feedburner.com
• http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
• http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
• http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

Plus, all my blogs are pinging Movable Type's software.

Posted at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Aaron Krane emailed me notifying me that my post named Google TV Hoax - No DNS Information Found at the Search Engine Roundtable was featured on Technorati's Buzz TV. The video post can be found here, but I have embedded the video for you right here.

Click To Play

Posted at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

As of yesterday, some time, a search at Ask.com on barry schwartz returns an RSS Smart Answer. What is an RSS Smart answer

Now, when you conduct a web search for many of your favorite blogs, RSS feeds, or news sites, it's likely that at the top of the web results list, you'll find the last three posts from that site’s feed. New items appear very quickly after the publisher hits the publish key. Of course, you'll also find a direct link to the blog or news source to see the entire post.

When Ask.com first introduced it, I was lucky that they included the Search Engine Roundtable in the RSS Smart Answers. But now, I am even luckier that my name returns the Smart Answer.

Just kinda hoping they add next to "Other Matches: Search Engine Land" also this blog. Hint, Hint....

Thank you Ask.com, The Smart Answers Team and I suspect Gary Price.

Posted at 7:14 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Today was the first day I spotted a Google AdSense Flash ad on Cartoon Barry. I noticed a little X box at the top right, when I moused over it, it said "close". So I decided to document the whole process.

The H&R Block TaxCut Google AdSense Flash Ad During Animation:

The H&R Block TaxCut Google AdSense Flash Ad After Animation:

Mousing Over the X Box on the Top Right of the Google Ad:

Clicking Close Actually Made the Ad Disappear:

It came back after I refreshed a few times, but I honestly thought it wouldn't close out the ad, I thought it would take me to the AdSense Feedback Form, I guess I was wrong.

Posted at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I received a comment spam like I do every now and then, but this one was weird...

It actually had the attribute, nofollow, appended to the link.

Here is the exact comment added to Google Personalized Home Page Adds Expand & Collapse Per Post:

Very nice. <a href="http://www.aesistech.com" rel="nofollow">Aesis</a>

That is the first time I have seen that...

More details on what is the nofollow attribute here.

Posted at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird , SEO Tips | Comments (2)

The latest SEM contest is out, Chris Boggs is running it, and he posted the details at his blog; New SEM Contest: Quit Tobacco.

I don't smoke, never did, so I can't join this contest, but maybe you can?

Rules? Well, who knows, since it is based on the honor system.

Good luck guys and good luck Chris!

Posted at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

I just got this package from Microsoft, they sent me a black fleece, with the Windows Live logo on it. Here is a bad picture of it, my camera is in the shop...

Thank you Microsoft!

Posted at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

Since Yahoo bought MyBlogLogs, I decided to give it a try.

I am happy I can test things out here, before deciding to give it a try at the Search Engine Roundtable.

So I added the tracking code yesterday and I just added the readers widget to the sidebar now.

It looks like:

I will watch it over the next week or so and see if it would be cool to add to the Search Engine Roundtable.

If you think it would be cool to add, vote here:

Posted at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Category: Polls , SEO Tips | Comments (2)

If you have been to any SES conference in the past year or so, you probably recognize Ramez Naam's face, he sits next to Matt Cutts, Tim Mayer and one of the few people who Ask.com sends to the conferences.

I was watching PBS's 22nd Century show last night, because it had a piece on cochlear implants, that my wife is very involved with in her job.

Ramez was one of the expert guests who talked about 'cyborg' technology within this very interesting show.

You can read Ramez's PBS Interview here.

Ramez's wikipedia entry is here and he is well known for his book named More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement.

Very cool Ramez!

Posted at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)

A week and a half ago, I created my own wikipedia entry. Shortly after, it was up for deletion. Well, today, I noticed, it is officially a KEEP as a wikipedia entry.

Wknight94, Wikipedia administrator, at 02:14, 13 January 2007 (UTC), wrote;

The result was Keep. Sure there were SPA's but JzG voted twice so which is worse? (No I didn't really factor that in, JzG, but tsk tsk).

Cool!

Check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Schwartz_%28technologist%29.

Thanks for everyone's help! I did mail out one bag for the person who created the entry (I created one and someone else did also).

Thank you.

Posted at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (4)

As I wrote at Search Engine Roundtable, I am completely delighted we won the Best Search Engine Marketing Blog Award from Search Engine Journal. I am also honored that Search Engine Watch (the site I wrote at all year) and Search Engine Roundtable have come in first and second place for Best Search Engine News Blog of 2006, it really meant a lot to see our hard work appreciated by the community.

I can't be greedy, but I honestly wanted to win the Best SEO Blog of 2006 but Rand's SEOMoz took that, and we took second place - after thinking about it, they do deserve it. The quality, advice, transparency and honesty of Rand and company's posts at SEOMoz go unprecedented in the SEO Blog community, they deserve it!

Now to the Best Search Blogger of 2006...

Honestly, coming in third place kinda upset me a bit. I know, I know, I came in third to Danny Sullivan (the non-disputted leader of the search community industry) and Matt Cutts (the face of Google to the SEO community). But counting my posts, I often write about 20 blog posts per day, most on search (i.e. 15+) at two of the most popular search sites out there. I lose a ton of sleep and other personal things to give this effort to the community.

Now that is how I felt initially. But then I stepped back and looked at who I lost to. Danny Sullivan, heck, he has been giving his life to the search community for about 6 more years than I have. He definitely deserve the award more than I.

Matt Cutts, well, between fighting spam at Google, being an engineer, going to tons of meetings at Google, responding to forum posts, reading thousands of blog posts per day, and responding to a nice number of them, emailing worried webmasters, answering PR (press) questions and then writing some of the most useful and insightful blog posts at his persona blog... He probably sleeps less than me and Danny put together. So he should win this contest.

So overall, I am privileged and honored to have come in the third spot for that award and to win some and come close to winning some of the Search Engine Journal awards.

Congrats to all the winners and those who were nominated.

I hope people don't think I am a selfish and thankless individual from this post. I honestly, deeply, am very grateful for everything you guys have done for me. I am privileged to be in the position I am in. The least I can do is keep doing what I do and not complain about it.

Why did I post this? Well, I thought some people would like to see what goes through my mind with these contests. I bet it doesn't phase Matt, Danny, Rand or the others - but I use them as a meter to see if the content we are producing is useful to the community. And from what I have seen, we are doing an OK job. So thank you and I hope this post isn't taken the wrong way.

Posted at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Category: Rambling , SEO Tips | Comments (2)

A few months ago, there was no entry at Wikipedia for Barry Schwartz but now there is and it is for the famous psychologist. I kinda want one also. Danny Sullivan, the technologist, has one - but it does need to be updated. Matt Cutts got one and Gary Price also has one.

I tried writing Wikipedia entries in the past but no luck.

So here is the deal. The person that gets me a listing at the Wikipedia, will get a free RustyBrick Bag with Search Engine Roundtable Yo Yos.

You can get most of my details at my linked in profile and in the about me page. For a picture of me, there are many here.

You just need to send me proof that you made the entry, I guess take screen captures of your contribution list and the page you submitted to Wikiepdia.

Well, I made a wiki entry for myself here.

Posted at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (9)

I finally took the time to update my LinkedIn profile and I see they added some new features since I originally signed up, I think it was a few years ago. So I added a bunch of positions and asked for some recommendations, handed out some recommendations and updated some other things.

In addition, I set up a public profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/rustybrick, so I secured rustybrick, which is nice.

I wish they let me sort "my positions," since RustyBrick should be number one...

Anyway, its cool, normally, I ignore all the invites I get to "connect" but I will try not to in the future.

Oh, I added a button to it on About Cartoon Barry, next to my amazon wish list.

Posted at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2)

The day after the last day of $20 Google checkout discount it seems that Buy.com has removed Google Checkout as a payment option. Since then, I have tried to see if I can buy a product on Buy.com using Google Checkout, but I can't seem to be able to pull it off.

Am I missing something? Or did Buy.com use Google for the promotion and drop them cold turkey after the discount was over?

I mean, Google reportedly spent $20 million on this promotion...

Update: I was told it is still there, they just moved it to a later page and it is harder to find. I am pretty sure it was not in that spot yesterday... Anyway, you can still order with Google Checkout and Paypal.

Posted at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0)