Category Archives: keyword research

February 2014 Summary of Search:
Do as I say, not as I do

“Do as I say, not as I do” Sometimes Google does things it warns others not to do: 1. Don’t be top heavy Google just updated it’s “Top heavy” algorithm. For sites that show many ads at the top, or make users scroll to see content, penalties can apply. 2. Don’t scrape content from other […]

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Spam-Fighting Always Continues – December 2013 Summary of Search

Spam-Fighting Always Continues Google’s Matt Cutts promised a month free of major updates, but added that “spam-fighting always continues.” Indeed, there were some complaints from webmasters around the 17th and 19th that could have been Google taking out another link network. This month, Google made an example out of Rap Genius. The site was offering […]

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Summary of Search, September 2013

Google announced that it rewrote pretty much it’s entire algorithm last month in that “unnamed update.” It’s the biggest change since 2001. Seventy percent of the Search Engine Results Pages were affected! Compare that to Penguin, in which something like 3 percent of SERPs were affected. The new Google algorithm is code-named “Hummingbird.” Many of […]

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Summary of Search, August 2013

Summary of Search Is Google backward compatible? The previous advice from Google, given in their 2008 Starter Guide for SEO, is now “out the window.” Google previously recommended that the underlined text of a link (aka “anchortext”) contained keywords, but now finds that somewhat spammy. The new Google direction is all about authority link building, […]

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Summary of Search, July 2013

Remember those tactics that worked so well? And what about the old recommendations in the webmaster guidelines? Well, it’s time to take another look at all of those tactics with the new Google! Google released a “multi-week update” that continued into July, but the “Panda Recovery Update” got far more interest. Google Panda has been […]

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Summary of Search Engine Optimization, June 2013

The world of SEO is still reeling from Google’s latest Penguin update, and many are questioning Google’s new guidelines. Having a well-known worldwide brand wasn’t enough for the Salvation Army – nor was it enough for Dish! We added on two more link building techniques Penguin 2.0 seems to penalize, for a total of 7 […]

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Summary of Search, May 2013

Around May 22nd, there was an update to Google’s search algorithms. It’s being called Penguin 2.0 (or sometimes Penguin 4) and is a major update. Matt Cutts said in a recent video that compared to the original Penguin update, this one does go much deeper. While the impact is supposed to be 2.3% of English […]

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Summary of Search, February 2013

Some SEOs speculated a Panda update was in the works a couple of weeks ago, but none has been confirmed by Google. It’s actually been a pretty calm month in the world of Organic SEO. What does Google want these days?! Overall trends and our collaboration with other SEOs reveal four important trends: 1. Google […]

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Summary of Search, January 2013

Summary of Search, January 2013 It’s almost been 2 years since the first Google Panda update, and it looks like there is a new update about every 4 weeks now. Update 24 was released on Jan 22nd, impacting 1.2% of English queries. Branding and Content Other updates have included a “brand signal update” on the […]

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Search Marketing Standard: Read it twice

I’m still getting two copies of Search Marketing Standard magazine, but I’m not reporting it. First off, it’s so good that I don’t want to possibly miss an issue by having anyone mess with my subscription. With other magazines, I’ve found that fulfillment centers sometimes get confused, and it’s usually months before I realize a […]

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