MVP Seminars - Business Training Speakers

Client Spotlight – MVP Seminars

At WebRanking we believe that our success is best measured by the success of our clients.  In my 8 years with the company, I have had the privilege of working with a diverse range of amazing clients, and I am happy to say that we have played a small role in helping many find online success.

For our first Client Spotlight post, we are extremely lucky to speak with Dr. Ron Marquardt, co-owner of MVP Seminars.  Ron has been a client with WebRanking since September of 2004. Read the rest of this entry »

Bing Winter Olympics Homepage - February 25th 2010

I really didn’t think these Olympic games would draw me in… but they did. And Wow, what a finale!

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Back to business as usual at Bing?

 
That’s exactly what Bing is doing. Well, sort of…

Oops, not quite business as usual for Bing after the 2010 Winter Olympics coverage.

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Ignite Portland #8

WebRanking is a proud sponsor of Ignite Portland 8, which is being held on Wednesday March 3^rd at 7 PM at the Bagdad Theater. 

For those unfamiliar with Ignite, this geek friendly event gives 20 speakers 5 minutes on stage with 20 slides that auto advance after 15 seconds.  The speakers for this event were selected from over 75 entries and the topics vary from funny, to serious to the downright obscure.  A complete list of the speaker topics can be found at the Ignite Portland website.

The Ignite events are free and the doors open at 5:30 PM.  This is an extremely popular event, so if you want to attend make sure you get there early.  It fills up quick.

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Well this has to be a first! It now appears that Google is showing their special Holiday and Event logos in their search engine result pages in a very similar manner to how Bing has been for almost a year.

Here are a few screen captures that show the new SERP’s.

Google Logo in SERP's

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Yesterday on their official blog, Yelp.com announced that they have launched new categories for business owners.  The expansion is quite thorough and allows the niche business to separate themselves from some of the more general category listings.  From “Disc Golf”, “Tattoo Removal”, “Window Installation”, “Lasik” and “Cosmetic Dentists”, there are now specific categories to match up with more specific user searches (see the complete list of 70 new categories below).

If you have not yet claimed your business listing on Yelp…well, what are you waiting for?  Yelp is a fantastic way for local businesses to promote themselves to their community and allows business owners to gauge the pulse of how they are being received by their customers.  Smart business owners will see definite benefits when they monitor their reviews, respond professionally to negative reviews, and interact positively with their current client base that utilizes Yelp.

If you find a reoccurring theme in your reviews, like your receptionist is frequently rude, your valet parking prices are too high, or cleanliness does not appear to be a priority, then these are all areas that can be addressed internally and if rectified will create a positive buzz and better customer experience.  And most importantly…better reviews.

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There have been many reports and rumors about the forthcoming Open Directory Project overhaul, dubbed DMOZ 2.0, from as far back as March 2008. Recent info has hinted at the End of Q1. But just yesterday (Thu. Feb. 11th 2010), there was a strong rumor of a dmoz.org launch that might set one of the last days of March as the Full Launch date.

 
So what exactly is going to change with the launch of Dmoz 2.0?

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I love you. 

No, scratch that. I hate you. 

Wait, please don’t unfollow me.  I didn’t really mean that.  I’m sorry. I was…drunk, yeah that’s it. I wasn’t thinking straight. Really, it’s not you…it’s me. 

I really do love you…but to be honest, I think I might hate you at the same time.

Social Media is Breaking My Heart

We have been seeing each other casually now for quite some time, but I have to wonder where this is going?  I remember the early days of our relationship, when you were just an occasional blog post, or we would slum around together on SixDegrees & Friendster. 

Boy, the times sure have changed and you are more popular then ever before.  Everyone is talking about you and seems to want a piece of you.  Maybe it is out of jealousy, but it  hurts to hear my friends and Search colleagues talk about how you “put out” great results when they are with you. 

Personally, I don’t like to tweet and tell.

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With Christmas only a few days away, those last minute acts of kindness probably aren’t going to be enough to get your name scratched off the naughty list and penciled into the nice one.  Sure, you might hope to slip by this year on some clerical error or a loophole in the revised 2009 Naughty and Nice Code of Ethics, but remember Santa is supposedly checking them twice (which makes me wonder if he has a Naughty & Nice app for his iPhone yet, or is still doing it by hand?). 

Yet whether your stocking this year will be filled with lumps of coal or gifts of joy, you are not alone.  We have sent out a request to our colleagues, associates and some talented search elves up north to come up with our First Annual Not Quite Definitive List of Who’s Been Naughty and Who’s Been Nice in Search for 2009.   

Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.

* Google gets lots of gifts for attempting to innovate search with real-time results, social search, and more.

* StumbleUpon.com gets lots of gifts this Holiday season for leaving the hands off of eBay, listening to its community, and implementing changes around their desires.

- Jordan Kasteler

* Bing goes on this list for bringing more seriousness in competition to the search landscape. They’ve got a long way to go, but it’s the first positive step in a long, long time.

- Rand Fishkin

* Google Adwords new ad formats. This was a long-time coming in my opinion.  I am curious to see if Yahoo and MSN try to follow Google, or, wait until their platform merger.

* Google Analytics upgrades since October….specifically, more “Goals” and “Alert” system. 

* Google Webmaster Tools upgrades….specifically, their “Parameter Handling”.

- Clint Danks

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SEMpdx’s fourth annual SearchFest event is only a few month’s away. If it’s anything like last year’s event it will be worth your time to attend, SEMpdx did a great job. There were many well known industry speakers and attendees at last years event, keynote speaker was Danny Sullivan and Rand Fishkin was a session panelist.
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The Search Engine War against Paid Link Builders

Buying and selling links to directly influence search engine ranking algorithms has been a hot button in the SEO community for several years. The topic first started to really heat up back in 2005 when Google began taking stronger action against publishers and advertisers who bought and sold keyword targeted text links.

Today the search engine war against paid link profiteers still rages on, but with the majority of buyers and sellers going underground, the battle has become more of a guerrilla style conflict that is being fought through site by site skirmishes (penalties), media intimidation (education) and threat of treason (de-indexing).

Because of the problematic nature of purchasing links, it amazes me when I encounter new creative openly promoting links in the form of a commodity. Such was the case few days ago when I was deleting a bunch of spam from an old email account that I no longer use and noticed the following email that was just sent the day before.

Fortunately, due to some great partnerships this holiday season, we’ve been able to form what we call a MegaLink Package. This MegaLink Package includes 150,000 links plus 1,000 Twitter followers for a special rate of $1650 per month!!!

Here’s what is included:
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Bing.com Homepage - Veterans Day, November 11th, 2009

The entire staff at WebRanking would like to take a moment to wish all of our Family, Friends and Clients a happy and safe Veterans Day. We want to express our heartfelt appreciation to the men and women who have served and protected our great country throughout its history.  It is because of your dedication, sacrifice and commitment that we are able to enjoy freedom and our way of life.

Thank you for the selfless work you have done for us, as on this day and everyday we want you to how much your sacrifice has meant to us all. Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Halloween! In honor of the frightful night, as has been a hallowed tradition for the past 11 years, Google created a special logo that was only displayed on October 31st.

Google's Halloween Themed Homepage 2009

Here are several of the past Google Halloween Logos from as far back as 1999, the year that I got my start in SEO. I can remember seeing the first one in ‘99 and thinking: “Gee, they can do better than that”. We’ll I must say that they have indeed become more creative throughout the years. Kudos to the logo design team!
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6 Frightening Tales from Paid Search

Paid Search. Nothing seems to strike fear into the heart of a client quicker then the mention of those two horrifying words.

Bring up Search Engine Optimization? No worries; they all want their sites to show up organically.

Link Building? With a little explanation on the intricacies, most see the value these important links play in gaining online exposure.

Social Media? Of course they are interested, it’s the new rage…and if all the cool kids are doing it, they don’t want to miss out on the action.

But the moment you mention Paid Search, a surprisingly large percentage react like you just asked them to sign their soul over to Beelzebub, the dark lord himself. No other Search Marketing medium gets the types of horrified reactions that Paid Search does. This is especially true for small businesses and local clients that have little experience in marketing their businesses online.

But why is that? Why do so many run away screaming like frightened little school kids from this effective and proven form of online advertising? Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, Google Analytics made an update to their Goal Conversion Tracking system that allows you to rearrange and change the position of your goals by simply selecting a different spot in a dropdown menu. At first glance earlier today, this new feature seemed to be an easy way to rearrange your goals to your preference so that you can see the goals that you want, where you them. But after testing it further I realized that is has a major flaw that you need to be wary of: Loss Corruption/Confusion of Goal History Data. 
 

Reordering your Analytic Conversion Goals became too simple…

Change your Analytics Goal Positions easily by selecting another dropdown menu option

 
Why this is significant

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