Entries Tagged 'Foo' ↓

Stay with me, I’m not just pulling your leg. If you would like to write a reasoned rebuttal, by all means do so via the comments or trackback!

Anyone who’s been on the ‘Net for any length of time knows that SEOs have a bad reputation. The reasons ‘everyone else’ (Web designers, Diggers, everyday Web users) don’t like us are valid, and many:

• Irrelevant or low-quality search results are often the work of SEOs
• Blog comment spam and trackback spam is often the work of SEOs
• Spam on social media sites such as Digg or Del.icio.us is often the work of SEOs

Now, I hear some white hat SEOs whining: but it wasn’t us! It was our black hat SEO cousins! To that I say: bugger off. Yes, we come in different shades and colors and types, but none of us wants to rank ‘correctly’, we all want to rank ‘as high as possible’, so stop pretending you’re on Google’s ’side’. We are a (highly dysfunctional) family. And even if you disown your ornery, toothless, black hat country cousin, everyone on the outside is going to associate you with him. Bottom line: we SEOs are in it together.

Anyway, it’s pretty clear that there are a lot of inconveniences and annoyances that everyday web users have to put up with because of us SEOs, and, in general, those everyday users don’t differentiate between white hats, black hats, gray hats or green hats. Thus we SEOs, in the aggregate, have a bad reputation among the Internet plebs (and patricians).

I would like to point out, however, that SEOs have actually done a lot of good for everyday users on the Web.

• SEOs have helped along the march to higher accessibility. Now, very few SEOs have preached about the overlap of accessibility and SEO (ahem). But even if most SEOs aren’t aware of it, many “on page” SEO best practices overlap heavily with accessibility. In many instances, it is hard to make the business case for high accessibility to the site owner. (”How many blind people even want to use our site, anyhow?”) Good thing SEOs have their own reasons for using alt attributes on images! Any SEO who reads and understands Google’s Guidelines and the like can’t help but further accessibility on the Web. And every little bit helps.
• SEOs often make search results more relevant. OK, for instance: if there is one single tactic that every single SEO nearly always pays attention to, it is writing a unique, relevant title tag. In many cases the designer, webmaster or site owner would have otherwise ignored the issue were it not for the SEO’s insistence. Now, SEOs care about the title tag because it can help rankings, but unique and relevant titles are also a huge usability boon. Without us, many more pages in the SERPs would have irrelevant or non-unique titles, and the search results would be less relevant and useful to everyday users in this respect. This is just one example; SEOs also ensure that Google includes many high quality Web pages which otherwise wouldn’t have been included, by tweaking site architecture and correcting indexing issues. In both of these cases (and with many similar website elements), SEO has made it profitable to improve the usability, spiderability, and quality of Web pages. We may not have done it altruistically, but the end result is countless Web pages (and SERPs) which are more usable, high quality and relevant as a side effect to our work.
• SEOs have helped revolutionary Web applications such as Google and Digg reach the tipping point. SEOs tend to be early adopters and have wide online social circles, so when we seize onto something, we can help it spread faster than it otherwise would have. In the case of Google, the search engine’s administrators arguably purposefully appealed to SEOs by showing PageRank in the toolbar, which of course couldn’t help but fascinate every SEO. This led to a (perhaps unhealthy) obsession in the SEO industry; this obsession led to branding, coverage, and more user adoption. In the case of Digg, I admit that it had hit it big before SEOs infiltrated, but certainly a lot of the mainstream media and blogosphere attention centered on the SEO issues: power users, ‘the big Digg rig’, link baiting, etc. The ‘friction’ that SEOs cause brings attention, coverage and new users to the application. Now, the flipside of this is that once SEOs latch onto something, they often–initially–pollute it profusely, and lower its usefulness to everyday users. (This happened with both Google and Digg.) But I would argue this is a natural growing pain for any Web ecosystem, and when the administrators deal with the pollution the system usually ends up stronger and better as a result. Meanwhile, having helped solidify the application’s staying power, many SEOs stick around and become very productive users in the system.

Now, believe me I am not looking for a Nobel peace prize here. I just wanted to point out that SEOs have done a lot of good, as a group, for the Web. So, designers, Diggers, searchers: the next time you want to bash SEOs for all the Web’s woes… don’t.

OK this post idea was straight ripped from Brian Provost, so thanks buddy

I’ll get to the chase: I buy affiliate websites. If you have anything you might like to unload, email me at andyhagans [AT] G Mail [DOT] com and give me some details (approx. traffic, revenue, profit), background, etc. on the site.

Don’t worry about how big or small the site is: I like smaller sites with potential, and conversely I have some very well financed partners and friends, so the sky is the limit.

OK a couple refinements please read these before emailing me!

1. I am not interested in anything where Adsense is the primary revenue stream
2. I am not interested in domains less than a year old, or with multiple hyphens
3. Any niche is fine, except: pr0n, pills, casino, or celebrity *update: OK I have a contact who is buying adult sites so feel free to email those and I will forward them on

Obviously I don’t buy everything, but there’s a decent chance I or one of my partners would be interested in buying your site, so if you think you might want to cash in, shoot me an email!

Guys, you know I pretend to not like to toot my own horn, but every once in a while, you just can’t hold it inside. I found this article in my referrers and I can’t even begin to express how happy it made me, on several levels.

SEOs: the New Pornographers of the Web

If that’s not pure gaming of the system, I don’t know what is. There are entire guides on how to properly linkbait, such as Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and Social Media Marketing. Read it. I did, and now I feel like I just walked through a sewer.

You know who else walks through sewers? TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES… BAM!!!!

Although SEOs pay lip service to the quality of the content, it’s clear that the focus is on one thing, and one thing only: naked, raw greed.

So Mr. Atwood also has a deep understanding of the underlying principles behind the Lazy SEO Manifesto.

When you focus on SEO, you’re focusing on money and connections. If that’s your goal, then have at it. But don’t be surprised when people see through you for what you really are.

Money and connections?? Codswallop! I’m in this business for the fame! I’m in it for the honor! Really I just do it to make the children smile, that makes it all worthwhile! Fluffy Pink Unicorn Rose Blossom Rainbows, let’s all hold hands!

First, he pwns our favorite wanker.

Then, umm… just look.

Try not to let that get burned into your mind, you will have some weird dreams.

Two years ago…

• I was attending a class (no, seriously) called “Women & Islam”.
• Aaron Wall was selling 2 ebooks a day and making ends meet.
• Rand Fishkin was notable for his SOCEngine directory.
• Rich McIver was studying for the LSAT.
• Brian Clark was an assistant manager at Burger King (well, something like that )
• Neil Patel was going through puberty.
• Chris Pearson was selling cell phones.

I love the Internet.

P.S. I am aware that there were many more in the Class of ‘06 but I didn’t know everyone’s former job so I couldn’t list you… please fill us in in the comments!

Yes, I personally took this picture, at a public park in Shanghai, China. I know it’s bad to laugh–and my Chinese is certainly much worse than this English–but I just can’t help it.

People who ride skill is not adept look before you leap!

Greg’s running a trust meme, aren’t we tired of memes yet? Oh well I got trusted so here it is…

Greg Niland
trusts
Rae Hoffman
trusts
Michael Gray
trusts
Todd Malicoat
trusts
Andy Hagans
trusts
Princess …no wait Princess is being a little sh** and won’t play along… so instead, he trusts
Cameron Olthuis
trusts
?????

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post with the intention to brand Neil Patel as “the Princess“.

Why? No particular reason. I guess you could say I like Princess, and I also like to torture/tease my friends

Well (as expected) he took it all in good stride and even offered me a friendly wager–which, if I win, has the potential to make me a ton of money; and, if I lose, will humiliate me. To win, I need to rank the post for his name in the top three within 30 days (I have about two weeks left).

Never one to back down from a wager, I enlisted the help of SEO friends who rose to the challenge and linked to the post with accurate and helpful anchor text. (Keep in mind this site has few backlinks and is only a few months old.)

Well, the good news for me is, the original post is now ranking #4 for “Neil Patel”.

The bad news is that it’s going to be hard to overtake #3 (or somehow neutralize the double listing). So if anyone wants to help me out with a link, it’d be most appreciated.

Meanwhile, even if I lose, I’m pretty happy with the reputation management issue I’ve given Neil:

• A page titled “Exclusive!!! Neil Patel is a Princess” ranking top five when potential venture capitalists Google him
• A Threadwatch story trying mightily to brand him as “Princess” to the regulars
• Other prominent SEOs–such as Rebecca from SEOmoz–are now referring to him with the chosen nick

Whether I win or lose is immaterial. The important thing is that Neil gets a nickname he’ll never be able to shake, whether in the SERPs, or in the PubCon bar

This meme has been spreading pretty quickly (reminder: we’re all dorks). AWall just tagged me so here goes.

1. One of my longest-running websites is the (now quasi-abandoned) Pope Blog, which was featured by CNN and MSNBC during the Conclave. Yes, of course it ranks top 10 for “pope” or my name’s not Andy Hagans.
2. I lived in China for a semester and can hack basic Mandarin.
3. I play the bagpipes.
4. I’m a (volunteer, part-time) staff member of the Uganda Conflict Action Network, working to end civil war and child soldiering in Northern Uganda. Yes we accept donations and yes it’s 501(c)3 and fully tax deductible
5. I once starred in, directed and produced a “Pacumentary” (which is definied as being ‘a documentary about Pac-Man’). It is 6 minutes long and is laughably terrible, so if you click over, you’ve been warned.

I tag Fangirl, Scoreboard, Pankaj, John and Debra.

Hey readers–all four of you–I’m trying to start a new meme. Since, as I said, I only have four readers, each of your participation will be crucial.

To participate, please include this picture in a blog post tomorrow. Shouldn’t be hard to work it in in a relevant place.

The theory is, everyone in SEO is associated with one keyword.

• Kim Krause Berg = usability
• Andy Hagans = link building
• Aaron Wall = SEO book
• Dan Thies = keywords

At the end of the week, let’s make sure Neil Patel = princess in the back of every Threadwatcher’s mind…

Your cooperation is appreciated.

*Update: If you link to this post, we can also rank it for his name. The title of the post will show up in the SERPs when potential venture capitalists Google him. But maybe now I’m just getting greedy.

*Update2: Kim did her part. Keep ‘em coming.

*Update3: Stunty, thanks for playing. Reader 3 and reader 4, ball’s in your court.

*Update4: Neil and I now have a high-stakes bet on whether or not this post will rank top 3 for “Neil Patel” in 30 days. I won’t go into the raunchy details, but suffice it to say, I need to win.

*Update5: Thanks to all the help I’ve gotten, I’m now ranking #11 for “Neil Patel” and climbing