Pedro Sttau

Like someone stated before, for a blog that holds in its title “SEO experiments”, there is not a lot of that happening here lately.

So I feel it’s time to announce my plans for this particular content area for the rest of the year.

The publication of these Papers/studies will be conducted in a slight different manner then the content of a post. Since I am going to invest a lot of time on research and testing, I am going to take a more “institutional” approach when publishing my conclusions.

By this, I mean that I will be posting the methods that I used to reach the conclusions, as well as the. I have seen this methology used in a couple of SEO experiment websites, and I feel they do such a good job in clarifying issues that otherwise are just talked without real evidence backing them up.

I will be creating a separate section in sidebar, to mark a clear distinction between them and the regular post categories.

Realistically, with my shortage of time it was imperative that I limited the number of “papers” to be published until the end of the year, so here are the topics:

• Dissecting Page Rank
• Impact of Outbound Links
• Orthography as a ranking criteria

If you have a subject that you would like me to analyze, please don’t hesitate to contact me, I am more then open to all suggestions.

Now this really surprised me. Media Wiz reached an agreement with Shoemoney and his business partner Dillsmack to sell the recently launched AuctionAds platform.

Full Story: Media Whiz Aquires AuctionAds

I’m not really surprised by the sale itself but by the fact that the product hadn’t reached it’s adolescence let alone maturity.

One of the things I really like about Jeremy is that he is a Man that is not afraid of publicly stating his weaknesses. It’s not a very common trait to find these days, and only people who are truly confident on their abilities are able to do this without a twitch.

I never saw Shoe as a “Project maintenance” kind of guy, so when first talked about the Auction Ads project I always wondered how he would do in the support side of things. Just as I thought, not only was it something that he hated doing, but it was also something that he wasn’t particularly happy to do either.

All in all I think it was a good deal for both parties (although I am yet to confirm the figures of the deal) since it’s a product with great potential, and also it’s something that Shoe wouldn’t be too happy to be involved in with the passing of time.

Now for something different. Jonathan Harris is releasing a new project called “Universe” that promises to explore the web through a different scope. The idea is very similar the concept applied on “We Feel Fine” but it almost scratches the surface of the Search industry as it is a more global project. Very interesting new way to approach the Information Technology.

I know this isn’t new, but I just read the story on the NYTimes regarding he lawsuit against Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly having stolen the design, concept and even the Business Plan from a University based Social Network - Connectu.com - while he worked there as a programmer.

Now here is where the story starts to piss me off. I have heard countless times of stories of people accusing others of stealing ideas after those ideas are put into practice and have proven to be successful.

The way I see it, there is no property over ideas that are not patented. Even if he did base Facebook on something that was mainly thought by Connectu, why didn’t Connectu act on the idea on the first place?

This World is packed with thinkers and Sayers that don’t really contribute to progress in any way because they spend the entire day thinking, chatting and whining.

An idea is worthless if no one acts on it.

Thank god there are still action orientated people out there who make use of other peoples ideas.

For all of you that are wondering why Google needs our Search History data, the obvious is now slowly becoming reality.

Adwords is begging to serve ads that are influenced by he user’s history search data.

I first read this on a post by Barry Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land
Personalized AdWords Google Ads You See Influenced By Previous Searches that explains how this is being implemented.

The idea is pretty simple, you do a search on Holidays, and then do a search for Portugal, the next time you search for Holidays you will be served ads of holidays in Portugal.

Very slick, and this is wonderful news for advertisers since it will increase the contextuality of the ads, and consequently the conversion rates.

Google has integrated a way for webmasters to be notified of eventual problems with the websites they own. I’m guessing the concept is similar to the one implemented in adsense.

This might be very useful if Google actually uses the system to notify website owners of problems before they act on them.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=61504&hl=en

On a recent post at Shoemoney Blog I took some abuse because of my admitted prejudice regarding working with minors.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against young blood in any way, so try to keep the content of this post in context please.

First of all hiring minors is illegal unless one obtains a Parent/School Authorization Form legal considerations aside, I quite simply chose not to Outsource my work to minors at a professional level, because I feel it’s prejudicial to my business.

Every single time that I hired young students to work for me things went sour. Either they completely disappeared, couldn’t handle constructive criticism or just weren’t able to handle the pressure.

The way I see it you are not a professional until you depend on a certain activity for your livelihood. Doesn’t mean that you aren’t good at what you do, just means that you are still a couple of steps away from a more serious commitment that in the end will give me, as an employer, more assurance that you will be held accountable for your actions during the time we are working together. I like working with professionals, they know how my business operates and they understand the importance of accountablilty and communication.

Professionals have more to lose then an amateur, as everything that happens will have a direct impact on their career.

A Professional: Someone engaging in a given activity as a source of livelihood or as a career: a professional writer.

Livelihood…think about that for a minute, ah yes, livelihood! House mortage, bills, taxes, Adult life!

I am sorry if this post is offensive, and I understand that there are a lof of mature youngsters out there that have gone through a lot in their lives, and I am sure many of them have a life experience equivalent to a 40 year old, but its strictly a business choice.

My friend Nikesh talks about the Internet as a Global Economical revolution at the Institute of Directors 2007 annual convention.

One of the things he said that I really found curious is that all of the new successful Internet start ups always come about with two founders, Google, Youtube, Myspace, Skype, Facebook, etc…

Being in an Internet start-up myself with a partner with whom I identify myself a great deal, I can totally related to that and understand how this collaboration could be beneficial to a business concept and growth.

Maybe most of you use something similar or even better, but I have found a little tool that generates Google Maps (with the embed HTML) from inputing the desired adress.

Very handy when you want to generate Maps for your clients in a flash.

Google Map Generator

Looks like sony is getting another bite on the social Networking cake having announced the purchase of Gouper for $65 million.

In all honesty I had never heard of the website before, so decided to check it out after my friend Rui Avelar mailed me the news item.
So do you want to see how a 65 Million website looks like?

Here you go boys and gals…

Just the other day I was recalling the infamous David Pasternak affair with a friend of mine that pretty much agrees with his points of view.

In every industry there are fundamental basic procedures that are easy to follow and that don’t necessarily require a lot of technical know-how in order to get them done.

SEO isn’t an exception to this. If you implement a couple of simple steps in your line of development, you will be alright, but you won’t do well.

However, you must not forget that we are dealing within an industry that is in constant movement, reacting to every social, economic and financial change. Like no other media, what is today isn’t necessarily and most likely what is tomorrow.

So what is this 5% of grey matter that I am referring to?

This is where the professionals gain the real leverage. 5% refers to information acquired by extensive testing or privileged sources that help you gain a substantial advantage over your competitors.

Now, anyone who states that SEO is a one time process that can be integrated in a line of work has never optimized a site in his life.

SEO is an ongoing process. There is no way around this.

If you are running a any type of website, your content will have to be constantly analyzed and subject to change in order to adapt to the Search Engine criteria’s that will give it more exposure.

Your content order of importance will also necessarily change over time, and even the keywords that you are investing in might change taking into consideration that the market/search trends are constantly changing.

Inbound links. Do you really think that the high ranking commercial websites have not undergone precise aggressive link building campaigns? Of course they have! And like every other component on SEO, it is an ongoing process.

The value of links change, some of them are eliminated, others simply loose their weight and value, and all of this will have a direct impact on how well you will do.

So if you’re not an SEO professional, do you have time to keep up with the pace and run your business on the side? And do you want to?

Give that one a thought.

I love these Ted videos! If your interested in design, new trends and how new emerging technologies are impacting structural design, you will love this video.

Today I got my second email since I have started this blog asking me about my credentials.

Well, I think actions speak louder then words, so here are some of my results.

Note thatthe keywords are…how can I put it, fairly competitive within my market.

Keyword: Web Marketing
Site: http://www.easylogics.com
Rank: #2
www.google.pt

Keyword: Web Design
Site: http://www.easylogics.com
Rank: #5
www.google.pt

Keyword: Marketing Afiliado (affiliate Marketing)
Site: http://www.easylogics.com
Rank: #3 and #4
www.google.pt

Keyword: Lojas electrónicas (Ecommerce Shops)
Site: http://www.easylogics.com
Rank: #3 and #4
www.google.pt

Keyword: Flores (Flowers)
Site: http://www.flores.pt
Rank: #1 (ignore wiki)
www.google.pt

Keyword: Encomenda de Flores (Order Flowers)
Site: http://www.lojadasflores.pt
Rank: #1 and #2
www.google.pt

Keyword: Rosas (Roses)
Site: http://www.flores.pt
Rank: #3
www.google.pt

Keyword: Rosas (Bouquets)
Site: http://www.lojadasflores.pt
Rank: #3
www.google.pt

There is more, so if anyone want’s to know I will gladly send out the rest of my “Results porfolio” by email or post it here.

I don’t really know what business you’re in, but all I expect out of a phone is to be able to make and receive phone calls, if possible with high quality sound reception, other then that it’s not a phone it’s a palmtop, Blueberry, an Ipod or whatever you wish to call it.

What about this design mumbo jumbo? For Christ’s sake, it’s a phone! I can understand that aesthetics also play a role in technology, but it should not be a fundamental aspect.

I feel the reason most people are purchasing this piece of technology is because of the mean looking design.

Isn’t it supposed to be a phone?

Very interesting interview where Eric Schmit is confrotned with current law Suite Viacom against Google regarding Copyright.

I was a bit surprised to see Eric Schmit persistently dodge from answering direct questions regarding Intellectual Property.

Another thing that I found hilarious was Walt Mossberg asking why Google didn’t recruit Human editors to take care of specific search queries? Oh dear!