Traffic Flow SEO

While wandering the great wide web I ran into this great free online resources for semi-automatic directory submissions. While I have seen many services like this before, this one was much better. It has a large, updated list of directories and really is easy to submit and track your submissions on an ongoing basis by website.

Below is a tutorial for the site (which you probably will not need as it is easy and intuitive to use, but here nevertheless):



Check it out today here - Easy Submits

Google recently revealed, via their YouTube video site some insights into their AdWords auction PPC system. This was done with a 9 minute video by their Chief Economist, Hal Varian. This video is well worth your time if you are new to the PPC world or consider yourself a veteran. Check it out below:



* Wouldn't you think Google would have sprung for a smart board for their Chief Economist? I do have to say I love the low tech, low budget approach which gives the appearance that Google is just like you and me, but a couple of billion dollars richer...:-)

Found this one at - SEO Ranking Guru

I just found the coolest local search engine listing checker and submission website. It has a great interface and is easy to use. The site, GetListed.org is relatively new with a launch date of January 20, 2009.

The basic interface from the homepage asks you for your business name and zip code and then runs a quick analysis against Google, Yahoo, BOTW Local and Live Search with an overall ranking and links to submission pages if you are not currently listed (all are free except BOTW Local).

What really is cool about this site (if you needed any more reason to use it) is the 'Enhance Your Listing Section'. This section contains some additional local paid inclusion services, but there are also a lot of free ones if you scroll down a bit.

Some interesting facts from the site are:

Today there are well over 10 billion unique searches done each month, and that's just in the United States! Of those searches,

* 40% of queries have Local intent (1)
* 5% use the city and/or state name
* 2% use informal terms, like neighborhoods
* 0.5% use zip codes

Check it out today for free at - GetListed.org

Well now you do. Check it out below, maybe he will link to you too...:-)

President Obama's Linkedin Profile

Load Impact is a new service that can check your website to see what stress your website can handle because slow or non-responsive websites can mean lost customers and/or revenues. This service allows you to be proactive and find out the performance limits of your website before you get the chance (hopefully) to learn it the hard way. Load Impact is an online load testing service that lets you load test your website with just a few mouse clicks (as the sites says).

The 'Light' version of their service allows you to run a low load level test and store up to five (5) test results. Additional versions of their service are available at additional expense,

Check it out for free here - Load Impact

What? You have never heard of Entire Web search engine? It has more traffic than Google and Yahoo put together and looks better than Ask and the new Live Search (two of the better looking search interfaces). Basically, it is the biggest and best search engine on the planet!

Okay, delusions aside, Entire Web is a nice little search engine that has been around for coming up on 9 years. As a comparison, Google has only been around a little over 10 years. While Entire Web has never, and probably never will become as popular as Google you do not need to be the biggest or the best to have a good search engine and make a living.

So, enough kidding and history what I wanted to share was some innovations that I recently noticed at Entire Web that I thought I might share with you. The first is their new 'skinning' technology. I really love the images that are available in their gallery, but would also love to add my own (are you listening Entire Web?). This is very similar to Ask's skinning option which is one of my favorite new features becoming popular within the search engine world. Even though Ask's 'skinning' technology is far superior (and less annoying) then Entire Web's I am seeing the trend to more personalized search as not personalized in the results, but more personalized within the experience (take note Google and Yahoo). I think that is where the new MSN Live search or KUMO as it may be called is also heading.

In addition to the new 'skinning' technology I also found some fun and somewhat useful tools and resources within the 'Services' section of the site which are listed below with their associated descriptions direct from the site:

- SpeedySpy - Want to see what the world is searching for? Try our SpeedySpy! Results are shown in real time on each refresh of your browser.

- Polls - All the polls that have appeared in the Entireweb Newsletter. Check out the opinions of your fellow webmasters!

- Entireweb Newsletter - Our world-class newsletter about search engine optimization and website promotion!

Last, but not least, if your site is not listed within their database you can submit to it for free here:

Free Submission - Use this option to add your site to Entireweb's queue of sites to index. Waiting time before indexing is at least 8-12 weeks.

To check out the search engine click here - Entire Web Search Engine

I wish Entire Web the best of luck in the future and look forward to some of the new innovations they may bring to the table.

Just stumbled on a great little free web resources to help you with your search engine marketing efforts without having to remember a lot of different search engine commands. The site is called Advanced Google Searches and it allows you to search Google in a lot of different and uniquely useful ways using their easy to use interface.

You can check it out here - Advanced Google Searches Website

Google and Yahoo have both made recent announcements about there respective content networks (also inclusive of Yahoo's search engine). These announcements basically try to make their respective content networks viable again (if they ever actually were). I have been using these networks for years as more of an awareness vehicle, but with the latest announcements there may be new hope (and unique opportunities) within these networks to provide additional value to a campaign.

Some of the updates include some impressive features like:

- Ads triggered based on interest, not just contextual matching (Google)
- Ads targeted by demographic targeting (Yahoo)
- Ads targeted by zip level geo-targeting (Yahoo)

To learn more, check out posts an read all about the news from the respective search engine blogs:

Google Update - New Ways to Reach the Right Audience on the Google Content Network

Yahoo Update - Target: Three New Ways to Help You Reach the People You Want

After all the wait and all the confusion (they said it was only an internal name), it appears that MSN/Live search is going to be rebranded - KUMO. What does this mean to users, well I am not sure as it appears to look a lot like their current Live Search homepage (see below for reference).


From all the rumblings in the search community no one is quite sure how much different KUMO will be from Live Search. The thoughts (and associated screenshots) appear to show a tighter integration with the Powerset technology Microsoft previously acquired. I guess what I am most disappointed in is that Microsoft is missing the bigger picture with this update. What people want is a good search engine, but they are also looking towards more 'real time searching' capabilities - like Twitter Search. I hate to see Microsoft always trying to play catch-up and/or add features that do not actually win over new users. I hope there are additional updates before the final release or I suspect this will be a lot of hype and little substance - kinda like the almost dead Cuil search engine (please die already).

Google Play Dirty - Another Twist

I have noticed some changes within Google. A couple of days ago when I typed 'KUMO' into the search engine, a post on this blog was the 7th result for that term (and article discussing the possible name change from November of 2008) while almost all the other results were news or posts on Microsoft and the possible KUMO name change, and now when I search in Google for 'KUMO' the results are completely different. What do I mean by that, well look below and notice how Google managed to move the results around to focus the results around to favor a restaurant names KUMO (which I am sure is not more popular on the web) and many listings for 'Kuhmo Tires'. Pretty sneaky and pretty crappy if you ask me. Look below for yourself (this is an exact cut and paste from the results in Google for the term 'KUMO' minus destination URLs:


Kumo Japanese Restaurant
NOW OPEN ! - - - - Our newest location - - - 7 Elm Street ( on the Corner of State Street ) in New Haven. www.kumojapaneserestaurant.com. Telephone ...
Show map of 218 Skiff St, Hamden, CT 06473

Microsoft To Rebrand Search. Will It Be Kumo?
Microsoft will relaunch Windows Live Search under a new brand sometime early next year, says a source within the company. What we don't ...

Would you 'Kumo' it? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
Microsoft takes control of Kumo.com domain – watch out for the . ... Microsoft is apparently considering rebranding its search engine ‘Kumo’ having taken ...

See results for: kumho tires

1. Kumho Tire USA, Inc.

Kumho Tire USA, headquarters for Korean based tire manufacturer, provides
passenger, performance, light truck, competition and commercial tire products.

2. Kumho Tires Available at Tire Rack

Kumho Tires at the Tire Rack. Choose from top Kumho tires have them shipped quickly to an Installer near you.

3. Kumho Tires for Sale

buy Kumho tires online at discounted prices from the Kumho Tire retailer
1010tires.com. Find Kumho tires for your vehicle online.

Kumo
Kumo Restaurant, located on a prime block of Melrose Avenue, is West Hollywood's newest destination for fine Japanese cuisine in a chic all-white setting ...

Kumo
Nov 17, 1999 ... A web-based proof assistant. It assists with proofs in first order hidden logic, using OBJ3 as a reduction engine.

Windows Live Search to be rebranded Kumo? | Microsoft - CNET News
Microsoft has taken control of the domain name, according to reports, and directing internal traffic to the test site. In Japanese, the word means 'cloud' ...
First screenshot of Microsoft's Kumo | Beyond Binary - CNET News
CNET News has a look at the new search engine, which will be available to testers inside Microsoft later this week Read this blog post by Ina Fried on ...

Kumo? K'mon! - PC World
It appears Microsoft is snapping up this domain name; we track the reference into the cloud.

A Sneak Peek Look at Microsoft’s New Kumo: A Spidery Cloud? A ...
Here are three screenshots of Microsoft's internal test of a new search product called Kumo. The long expected upgrade to Live Search from Microsoft is ...

Japanese Restaurant, Kumo Knightsbridge, Japanese cocktail bar and ...
Kumo Knightsbridge is a stylish Japanese Bar and Restaurant, available for venue hire and corporate events.

News results for kumo

Microsoft considers new name for search: Kumo - Mar 8, 2009
Microsoft's search team posted a screen shot of a redesigned search site, called Kumo, on its blog last week. A leaked memo from the team's technical leader ...


ALL I CAN SAY IS BAD GOOGLE, BAD GOOGLE! (isn't your motto, do no evil?)


For more information check out the links below:

CNET Article - Microsoft to start testing 'Kumo' search service

Shore Blog Post - Microsoft's Kumo Prototype Wrestles Powerset Search Features into Live Search

Silicon Alley Insider Blog Post - Microsoft: No 'Real Time Search' In Kumo (MSFT)

My FAVORITE, and one of the most respected Web Directories on the Internet, Best of the Web (BOTW) is offering a savings code for the month of March!

Just visit this link - Best of the Web Directory Savings Link

And use this code - SAVE25 - and save 25% off your submission costs!

Happy Submitting!!!

It may sound unbelievable, but Sears (you remember Sears, don't you - the big retailer) just bought their own search engine! Well, more of a social search engine, but a search engine nonetheless.

Here is the news from Sears:

The acquisition fits in with Sears' policy to get into online services. As part of the retailer's restructuring in early 2008, it reoragnized into five relatively independent units: operating businesses, support, brands, e-commerce, and real estate. Sears chairman Edward Lampert is the owner of hedge fund ESL Investments Inc., which controls the company.

Information from Globes Online - Israeli start-up Delver acquired by Sears

Information from TechCrunch - Delver Gets Acquired by Sears


So what next, the K-Mart social network? Stay tuned.....

I like to give all new search engines a chance. Most of them disappoint me as they provide nothing new, but every once in a while I see something new and exciting and want to share it with the world. Well, Cuil is not one of them. Usually I would not write a negative review on a bad search engine, but this one is so bad that I felt compelled to do so as a warning for others.

Instead of rambling on and on I decided to create a list of all the reasons Cuil sucks and share them with the world (in case you did not already know):

- There relevancy algorithm is terrible
- There results formatting is very confusing (in addition to be terrible)
- There support is nonexistent (you can leave an email or voicemail, but no one really wants to talk with you)
- There follow-up is nonexistent (I tested this by sending multiple emails over a two month period asking questions about the search engine never getting a response)

I am not sure why or how they remain in business, but I do not hold out much hope for them as a search engine if they continue in their current direction. My bet is that they will not be around in the next 12-24 months. Just my 2 cents.....

While surfing through the Web on my endless quest for the lastest and great in search marketing information, insight and tools, I found this great Web 2.0 user name checker. What is great about it is that it can really show you at a glance if your user name is going to work across a lot of social media web sites, which may or may not make a difference when picking one. Currently the list covers a whopping 104 social media sites and returns results back in less than 30 seconds (as my tests have shown).

Check it out to today at - CheckUserNames.com

SearchMe (my favorite 'newer' search engine) has made an incredible free offer to the first 500 people advertisers who want to try out their new PPC ad system.

Here are the details from their site:

Searchme AdView combines the best of search marketing and branded display ads in a pay-per-click model.

As with other paid search platforms, you provide keywords associated with ads, but instead of showing up as a text ad on the top or right side of the page, your ad is displayed right in the flow of our search results with a picture of your destination URL.

Now your customers can see what they are getting, driving more qualified clients to your site through visual search.

So, my suggestion is to give it a try and see what you think because as the search engine world starts to consolidate (including ad sharing) it is good to have additional ad opportunities. Also, I tend to find that the smaller search engines, even with less traffic tend to convert better at a cheaper cost.

Click here for more information or to sign-up now - Free SearchMe AdView Beta Campaign

Company Information - SearchMe CrunchBase Information