Search Engine Optimization

“You got 10,000 Hits this month!” Some of you may remember those old “Hit Counters” that used to be on the bottom of every website.  Ever wonder why Hit Counters went away?  Because it’s not a useful SEO metric!  You should be tracking the number of “Unique Visitors” to your website, not Hits.  That’s because…

“Buy expired domains and point them at your website!” This tactic is frowned upon by the search engines, and Google has vociferously announced their displeasure with this tactic and their plans to change their algorithm to combat it.  The reason it works is because as a website builds history and “trust” with the search engines,…

“I know someone at Google!” Really?  You know someone at Google?  And they feed you proprietary information??  Even though engineers and employees in-the-know at search engine companies sign strict non-disclosure agreements?  And even though they would go to jail for disclosing company trade secrets, they still give you that information??  Wow, what a pal!! True…

“We will get you in all the foreign search engines!” Last week we looked at a common spam email that has been circulating the Internet for years and discussed the fact that Google only has one index.  So if you are in Google in the U.S., you are in Google Spain, Google Germany, etc. This…

“We will get you in all the foreign search engines!” This is a complex topic that requires some extra attention so I am going to break this discussion into two posts.  Here I am going to primarily focus on a spam email that has been making its rounds across the Internet for years.  It is…

“We submit your website to 1000’s of search engines!” Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?  Until you realize there are only a few places you have to submit a new website when it is launched. The major search engines supply most other search engines (e.g., Dogpile, AltaVista, AOL, etc.) with their search results.   For the sake of…

“We’ll have you on the first page of Google in a week!” Companies that promise this are being disingenuous at best.  Typically the way they do this is either by getting you placed in the Google Places (Maps) area, or they put you in the Sponsored Links (Pay-Per-Click) area.  While having your website listed in…

Recently I had a discussion with a few prominent attorneys in the Tampa Bay area.  They were lamenting how the Internet has allowed sub-par, sub-standard attorneys to not only survive, but thrive.  One joked painfully that some attorneys in the area would need directions to the courthouse.  But because they are well positioned online and…