Ok, I have spent a lot of time creating the content for this website myself. None of it is copied from other sources, it's written by me. The topics I cover, including search engine optimization, Internet marketing, web analytics and search engine marketing are all areas of my experience. When I write an article, it comes from my experience, through my brain and then onto my computer at home in Calgary.

As an SEO specialist, I of course try to optimize my own website as much as I can, and as much as time allows, for certain keyword phrases, like Calgary SEO. I'm from Calgary, I live in Calgary, and I provide search engine consulting to companies in Calgary...and well sometimes Vancouver.

Also, as you might expect, I watch my competition in the search engine results pages fairly closely. If you've read my articles then you'll also know that the best way to gain presence in search engines is to create lots of high quality content. Of course, those articles are the bulk of my own content.

Yes, this is leading up to something....

I recently noticed a certain not-to-be-named company (because I don't want to help THEIR search rankings) appear for calgary seo. After looking at their site, a lot of the content as it related to Calgary seemed oddly familiar. A lot of my background is in hotels and hospitality so not surprisingly when I used Copyscape to check to see if any of their content had been ripped off from other websites, it came as no big shock to me to see that yes, in fact, their content as it related to Calgary came DIRECTLY (like copy and paste kind of directly) from Tourism Calgary's website.

And go figure, the company is based in Montreal.

I am all for fair game in search engine optimization, but stealing content is just plain bad form. It's also REALLY bad SEO as it can sometimes (although apparently not this time) result in a duplicate content penalty. I won't mention the name of the company, but if you're dying to know, go to Copyscape and type in www.tourismcalgary.com. The number one bad guy on the list.....

In case you're wondering, I use Copyscape to make sure no one is taking MY content and using it for themselves. Copying content is plagiarism, and if Tourism Calgary was paying more attention, or cared, they could easily go after these websites.

That raises a whole other question. Once someone steals your content, what do you do? Well, you can send them a nasty email, or you can try to take them to court. Be prepared to be able to prove the content is yours, which is much more difficult than it seems. Webserver logs are one of the few ways, but as those can be pretty easily faked it also becomes tough to use these to make your point.

Hopefully Google will catch up with this and be a bit more aggressive in penalties. Until then, please don't copy me! Better yet, ask permission to copy. A link and proper acknowledgement will got a long way!

Labels: calgary, Internet Marketing, search engine optimization, SEO

I recently read this column about the terms Search Engine Specialist versus Search Engine Generalist. The main idea of the article was that Search Engine Generalists are often Web Designers or Web Usability Professionals who understand search engine optimization. A Specialist on the other hand was often a copywriter who often doesn't know how to code but understand how to use words to get the attention of search engines.

I feel completely left out. I'm not either one.

I started in marketing. The regular kind of marketing, back before there was much of an Internet. I designed brochures, made newsletters, did PowerPoint presentations, did a television commercial, media buys, that kind of thing. My job was to get people to buy a product, in whatever way I could. That was the early 90's.

How things change. The Internet then took over. I was forced to move into the digital realm. I proudly report I owned not only the first, but the first AND second laptop ever bought by a large medical manufacturer in Montreal that I worked for in 1996. I proceeded to teach myself HTML and web design. Then I started online advertising and learning everything I could about search engine optimization and Internet marketing. It became a natural extension of what I was doing. When you're a one man marketing department like I was, you have to do it all yourself. So I guess I'm kind of a Search Engine Generalist, but I certainly didn't get my start in marketing by building websites. I did it by making pamphlets and giving product demonstrations to big audiences.

So what am I then? My job is to not only get websites listed higher in Google, but to get people from the search engines, onto your site, and then get them to convert into customers. A high rank means nothing if people don't actually buy what you're selling. Usability changes them from a bounce statistic into a client. (Then I can also design the brochure that they'll be able to download from your site too!)

I need a title. I've always gone with Search Engine Optimization Specialist, but now I'm not sure that totally covers it. My old boss called me an Internet Guru, but I always thought that was a bit cheesy for a professional resume and makes no reference to my traditional marketing background.

Here's some I've already knocked off the list:

Spock of Search - Too Star Trek (although I am a closet Trekker)

Superfantastic Search Engine Everthing Expert - Too Disney I think, or maybe too Japanese Anime, not sure yet.

Marketing Marvel - I am not a super hero to anyone but my dog, although it is kind of catchy. (I sure don't look good in tights though.)

Any thoughts? Help me find a new title! Feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to hear your ideas.

Labels: Fun, Internet Marketing, search engine optimization

I have some questions and since I am clearly crazy (see below), and this make take some thinking. Usually I'm the one answering questions, but in this case maybe knowing the questions will be enough to start that thinking. Buying links in directories and portal sites has been a common practice for years. It seems though that Google is increasing their efforts to stomp this practice out as it sees it as an attempt to manipulate rankings.

The general public can now report paid link sites directly to Google for them to investigate here.

Google has yet to be completely clear about the issue though. In this
recent post, they say this form should be used to report "sites buying and selling links for purposes of search engine manipulation".

For those thousands of legitimate websites who sell links as part of a business model, Google suggests this: "If you are selling links for advertising purposes, here are many ways you can designate this, including:
* Adding a rel="nofollow" attribute to the href tag
* Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file"

Ok, so how do you verify whether a site has charged for a link or not. What if they do both? A paid link site might have a blog with unpaid links. This situation could get even more interesting as Yahoo allows paid links in both their directory AND their search results.

What if you pay a blogging company to write and link to you? This is also now quite common practice. What if I buy my buddy a beer (a good Canadian beer, not that watered down stuff) and he puts a link on his site to me? Good luck finding that out.

There are a whole lot of questions here. If you search around the web, there are also a lot of people with a lot of answers, or at least opinions. So what's my 2 cents worth? Glad you asked! Here it is:

Google needs to put less or zero emphasis in it's algorithm on links.

Yes, I'm quite clearly crazy.

The search engine systems have been designed from the beginning to provide relevant results. Systems can of course be manipulated. If I get enough links pointing at my page that all say "sexiest man on earth" in the text, this site will rank for that search. Hey...... anyone want to link to me?

Interesting, but not relevant, result. So what's Google to do? Apparently they want people to tattle on paid link sites. Interesting. I know Google is one of the most sophisticated and technologically advanced companies in the world but I don't think
even they could come up with a beer detection algorithm.

But if they didn't put weight on links, then what would Google judge sites on?

Content. (Did I mention I'm nuts?) In fact in my opinion link strength should be measured on the relevancy of the two sites to each other, but I don't work at Google.

So what should you do? As always, listen to what Google says then do it. Don't buy links, and if you have paid links on your site, use the nofollow tag. It's not worth it. If you run a site that makes money solely on selling PageRank, look into a new career, I hear search engine optimization experts do ok. In the meantime, I'm going
to work on my beer detection.

Labels: Google, Links, search engine optimization

More industry jargon! Great! *sigh* I'll add it to my Internet Marketing Glossary. Check it out for a tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek look at my favorite thing in the world - acronyms!

In this case however, Long Tail search engine optimization is actually a very relevant part of any SEO campaign and should have some close attention paid to it.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Labels: Long Tail, search engine optimization, SEO

Hey everyone!

Thanks for reading. I've just added the Web 2.0 and Google Universal Search article and detailed how these technologies and principles can apply to your search engine optimization efforts.

Check it out here.

Cheers from Calgary!
Dan

Labels: Google, Google Universal Search, search engine optimization, SEO, Web 2.0

Google recently activated the AdWords Radio advertising program. Now AdWords advertisers can purchase radio advertising across the USA in the same auction style bidding manner of the regular AdWords system.

The new system has some very cool features too. You can select stations by geography, demographics or music type. So for example if you want to find a station that does R&B and targets mostly 20-35 year olds, the Google AdWords Radio system can pick it out for you.

You can also upload your own existing radio ads or Google has a list of specialists who can help you. Current reports from users indicate they are getting some great exposure for some really low prices. Of course, as competition heats up in the bidding process, I'm sure we can expect prices to rise. But for the early bird, now might be the time to get into the system and take advantage of it.

You can also specify certain dates and times you would like if you're on a time schedule. You won't bid for these, instead you'll pay a specific and no doubt higher fee.

If you're interested, check it out here. Another really cool feature of the system is that Google will supply you with a local or toll free redirect number to put in your ads. This way, you can track phone calls much like you would hits to your website. Talk about trackability! If you combine that with a unique landing URL for your radio commercial you can measure your ROI on your campaing in a much more exact way.

As my background is not only in search engine optimization and search engine marketing, but also includes significant traditional marketing including media ad buying, I can easily see how this system will start to bridge the gap between Internet marketers, SEO's, SEM's and the like across to traditional marketers. The creation of a truly trackable marketing campaign that includes radio is a significant step forward. Finally, Marketing Directors can sit in the board room and actually defend their ad purchasing with real numbers, instead of estimates and generalizations.

Of course, my only problem with the system is that I live in Calgary, Canada and currently Google AdWords Radio only provides stations in the US. Hopefully this system will expand out to the north here soon!

Labels: google adwords, google radio, search engine optimization, Search Engines

I recently read an article about the so-called Web 2.0 and search engine optimization. The writer suggested that while interesting, there's no particular advantage from an SEO perspective to these websites.

I think that's a matter of perspective. In fact, I think she was dead wrong. Blogs, Wikis, social networking sites and all the newest forms of user interaction with various websites are all designed to do one thing. Add content. Hopefully that content is interesting and useful to potential future visitors but for search engine optimization purposes, more content is fantastic.

The reality is if I spend time writing a webpage and Google indexes that webpage, the content that I write adds to my search engine prominence. If however, I have a blog like this one and someone decides to make a comment about something that I say here, then I get my content PLUS your content. Maybe I agree or disagree with what you said, but Google doesn't particularly care about your opinion of this blog.

Google does like seeing more content that has relevant keywords spread throughout.

Of course Google will index what I say AND what you say. There you have it, more content. Best of all, I didn't have to pay you for your comments and you have helped my search engine rankings. Content, for search engine optimization, is king. The more of it, the better. (Feel free to leave a comment about this article!)

So is there an advantage to Web 2.0? You bet! It's free content. There is a balance of course, but type in almost any technical term into the Google search engine and likely the first result you'll get is a Wikipedia entry. Wikipedia is of course completely created by unpaid editors. The most popular sites on the Internet are YouTube, MySpace and Facebook which are all created completely by users.

Should you incorporate Web 2.0 features in your website? Absolutely,as they fit with your particular business. A blog or review section where users can post comments is the most basic and easiest way to get started. If you run a hotel add a place to put reviews (although now you can apparently include TripAdvisor reviews right on your own website!). Start an interesting blog and encourage feedback. Let users upload videos, Youtube style. Start a user group forum if you sell software.

Encouraging participation gets extra content for your website for no charge. This is a huge advantage for search engine optimization. By encouraging participation you also get something even better: an engaged audience. Engaged audiences do something search engines don't do. They actually buy products and services. I'll post a Web 2.0
article soon that will lay out the basics of incorporating the next generation of user interactive experiences to your site.

Labels: search engine optimization, SEO, Web 2.0

Just in case anyone who happened to look at this site using FireFox and wondered what the heck I was doing, I've fixed the problem. Turned out there is an Apache Server issue that required me to alter a .htaccess file for it to work.

Long story short, it seems to be fixed. I love FireFox and I sure wouldn't want my own site to not work. If anyone ever runs into trouble with a CSS sheet not working, ask me. I know how to fix the problem!

Of course, this has nothing to do with search engine optimization, but if humans can't read your site, thats a problem too!

Labels: FireFox, search engine optimization

I know how much my fees are, and if you ask me I'll be happy to tell you. The more research I do and the more postings I see makes me wonder.

I've always tried to provide a fair service for a fair price. Some recent articles have lead me to believe not everyone is doing the same thing. Is an in-house Search Engine Optimization person for your company worth 250 000 per year?

I know someone is going to argue with me, but I would say no. Most of us are specialists to be sure, but we're mostly self taught. Many SEO's don't even have a solid grasp and still rely on META tags which they probably generated with a free online tool. (I swear if I see another "revisit-after" tag I'm going to scream.. ok I do scream somewhat regularly.)

Now of course, I'm as big of a fan of getting paid more as anyone else. Fair is fair though, and you can learn as much or more about SEO as I know by listening to Google, doing research online and visiting search engine forums. The reality is that the basics of SEO like good page design, proper tagging, quality tagging and reputable inbound links have not changed. How search engines detect pages which are designed to fool them has definitely gotten more sophisticated but a quality interesting page has always ranked well in Google and probably will for quite some time.

If you're researching either my company, Get Clicked SEO, or another SEO company, get some background information first. Do some basic research on search engine optimization so you can at least understand what services you're getting for your money. Feel free to start here with my SEO articles. I certainly don't believe that the cheapest is the best, but I am fan of value for your investment. With some basic knowledge about what you're buying, you're far less likely to get ripped off.

Labels: search engine optimization, SEO

A couple of ongoing topics I've ran into lately...

Recently Google Analytics launched their new and upgraded interface. After a few minutes of playing around with it, I've found everything I've used in the past. A great deal of attention in group forums though has been focused on the disappearance of visitor statics by the hour. It now appears that Google either forgot or ignored it but thanks to user outcry, they are now working on putting it back in.

The hourly traffic analysis is interesting on a few levels, but also raises many questions. Should you target
AdWords advertising during your low hours to boost traffic? Or is there bigger bang for your buck to advertise during your busiest hours to attract the largest possible interested audience?

If you're an e-commerce website, particularly a regionally targeted e-commerce website, this could be really good information. If you're a flower shop selling flowers only to people in a specific city, you will probably get hits at specific times of day, and then it may be good advice to use Google AdWords to boost this trend (attract visitors when they are looking).

Here's hoping the hourly report comes back soon!

Another interesting topic I've seen around lately is the length of URL title for search engine optimization purposes. Now there are two arguments here. One is that a description URL, like...www.calgary.com/downtown_calgary_flower_delivery.html is great from an SEO point of view. The counter argument is that no one will
remember that or type it in themselves. Compared to www.calgary.com/flowers which someone might actually recall from other advertising (radio, tv, or whatever) and type in themselves.

My theory is do both. I've used this strategy successfully for search engine optimization purposes AND advertising simplicity. All you need to do is create both pages, and then redirect the simpler, easier to remember address to the more complex one. Don't put any text on it or duplicate the page as you might be penalized for having duplicate content. A simple meta-refresh tag will do the trick. Also make sure
there is a text link on your main page or site map so Google can find and index the page easily.

Voila, a great search engine optimization URL plus a great advertising campaign. Google sees and indexes only one page with appropriate content. For more on SEO, check out my SEO Articles.

Good news for me and my fellow Calgary walkers and bikers, the weather is finally warming up!

Labels: google adwords, google analytics, search engine optimization, SEO

Well, I recently took the plunge and installed Windows Vista on my PC. I won't go on at length here about what an incredible pain in the you know where it was, but it did bring something to the forefront for me.

The initial security settings are such that I had to manually accept cookies that websites download into Internet browsers. What I had no idea of though was exactly how many there are.

Any website with a tracking program, including this one, uses tracking cookies to see how users move through and interact with a website. If however, you choose to visit a website with an ad on it, then you get two. One from the site, the other from the ad. If the site has multiple ads, you get a new one from each ad company that is represented.

One site I visited, I counted no less than 8 cookies. On the first page.

I realize that for some features it is quite useful to track your presence on. Others not so much. I'm not a big fan of giving out my IP address to every ad company on the planet.

So I started blocking them. It doesn't really affect functionality unless your buying something from that site. I couldn't believe the amount of people trying to collect my information.

That being said, don't block my cookie on this site. I use it only to track how people move through my site so I can make improvements to site navigation etc.

Search engine optimization can be greatly assisted by the information that tracking software generates, with the help of cookies. But it can also go overboard.

Or you can do what most people do and turn off the alerts so you never know who's watching what you do online... (cue big brother theme music here)..

Labels: search engine optimization

Well, that was interesting news. Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo. Considering MSN's complete lack of market share in the search engine space it's not totally surprising that the would want to buy the #2 rated Yahoo. With Yahoo's paid inclusion scheme meaning their "organic" search engine results are now being altered invisibly with advertising, they're a perfect match for the poor results of MSN's Live Search.

Of course, Yahoo is the number one website in the world hands down. So there are more factors than just search, but the real bucks online is in advertising. Naturally I'm more curious as to the search engine optimization ramifications that might come up. I guess we'll see but in my mind crappy search plus paid inclusion strategies does not equal beating Google.

Of course if Microsoft wants a piece of the online advertising pie, they need to do something. They should have made a pass at Google instead.

Labels: search engine optimization, Search Engines

Hi everyone,

The page isn't quite up yet, but I'm starting to offer free search engine optimization website evaluations. These are totally automated, and have limited information, but free is free right? Contact me today! I'll keep doing as many free ones as I can until I get overwhelmed.

Click on the link to the left of this column for more info!

Cheers from Calgary!
Dan

Labels: search engine optimization

I've just uploaded an Email Marketing Article and a Internet Marketing and Press Releases article in the other articles section.

The main Search Engine Optimization Article has also been updated with new information.

If you have any questions about these topics feel free to get in touch or leave a comment on this board.

The Calgary weather is finally warming up so I may spend more time on my bike but I will get back to anyone who contacts me.

Thanks everyone!
Dan

Labels: calgary, email marketing, search engine optimization, Search Engines

For various reasons, the topic of communication has recently been on my mind. Open and honest communication. Now, I don't want to sound like a therapist here, I'm a search engine optimization specialist. That being said, I'm starting to find a lot of the same rules apply.

If you're open and honest with Google, and provide a good level of regular communication, you'll be rewarded with a satisfying rank. If you try to deceive them, they'll punish you by banning.

Sounds like a divorce to me, and cheating in search engine optimization is called Black Hat. (I stick to White Hat methods, and living in Calgary the white hat is something of a legend).

I find the same reward / punishment system applies to our personal relationships. Be open and honest, keep the content clear and communicate in a straight forward manner, and usually you'll be rewarded.

Sometimes, clear communication over the Internet isn't the easiest thing. If you've ever had someone misinterpret one of your emails, you'll know what I mean. There is no body language or tone to read. I've since learned that sticking to the simplest language that can convey your message is the best way to go.

And also gives the highest ROI, in relationships or in search engine optimization!

Labels: search engine optimization

Well, I spend a lot of my day researching search engine optimization, search engine marketing, analytics and all sorts of related things.

Once in a while, even I get surprised.


Ask.com (formally askjeeves.com)is advertising in the London tube. Check out this picture.

I think Ask.com is just being bitter, I mean c'mon. At least Google SEEMS to do most things fairly. And really, why would Ask be worried about it, everyone has access to everything on the Internet, including them. If they were better at indexing, maybe they would be more popular with users.

But they aren't. Google is currently providing what is seen by the vast majority of the population as the most relevant search results. Shockingly, most people use Google.

Go figure.

As a dedicated SEO guy, I've spent a lot of time getting to know the in's and outs of Google and other search engines. While I don't always agree with everything they do, I have to admit Google seems to be doing the best job so far.

So why the smear campaign Ask.com? Here's a thought. Make a better search engine and compete with them, instead of trying to get politicians to regulate something which can't be regulated anyway.

Ah good times indeed.

Labels: search engine optimization, Search Engines, SEO