Traffic Flow SEO

Just got an email with Best of the Web's (BOTW) promo discount code for 20% off any of their services in October including:

* Directory Submissions - Discount on both the annually recurring and/or the one-time review fee.
* Blog Directory Submissions - Save on the one-time review fee for blogs.
* Monthly Sponsorship Ads - Save on the monthly rate for all new sponsorship ads.
* Blog Advertising - Discount on all new sponsorship ads in the Blog Directory.
* Local Premium Listings – Save on the already low monthly cost.
* Sponsored Local Listings – Maximum exposure at a great monthly discount.

The promo code you use at checkout is: ZOMBIE

Click here to get started - Best of the Web 20% Off Discount Link

Recently Google changed their guidelines in reference to web directories, especially the Yahoo! Directory and the DMOZ (or Open Directory). These directories have long held a lot of credibility with Google (Google even uses the DMOZ data for its own directory - Google Directory - just reorganizes it based on PageRank), but recently they appear to have lost that credibility. Google has updated the copy within their Webmaster Guidelines.

Below is the before and after as to how the text read and now reads:

Used to say:

* Have other relevant sites link to yours.
* Submit it to Google at http://www.google.co.uk/addurl.html.
* Submit a Sitemap as part of our Google Webmaster Tools. Google uses your Sitemap to learn about the structure of your site and to
increase our coverage of your web pages.
* Make sure that all the sites that should know about your pages
are aware that your site is online.
* Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open
Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.

Now says:

When your site is ready:
* Submit it to Google at http://www.google.com/addurl.html.
* Submit a Sitemap using Google Webmaster Tools. Google uses your Sitemap to learn about the structure of your site and to increase our coverage of your webpages.
* Make sure all the sites that should know about your pages are
aware your site is online.

The interesting part is that on a recent posting in Google Groups - Google Webmaster Help that John Mueller (from Google) posted a reply to this change. His response as to why it was changed is below:

I wouldn't necessarily assume that we're devaluing Yahoo's links, I
just think it's not one of the things we really need to recommend. If
people think that a directory is going to bring them lots of visitors
(I had a visitor from the DMOZ once), then it's obviously fine to get
listed there. It's not something that people have to do though :-).

What do you think - does it make sense? :-)

What else should we change / add / remove?

John

In addition, he later posted to the same thread:

This line was removed because we feel that you should not "force"
other sites to link to yours. Obviously it's good that sites link to
each other, it's fine to encourage that on your sites to link out and
to make it easy for them to link to yours. However, I don't think we
need to make it a part of the guidelines that you should "have other
sites link to yours" -- they should be willing to do that on their
own, it should be their decision not yours.

I hope that makes sense.

John

What does all this mean? Well, it basically boils down to the idea that web directories still have SEO value, but Google is slowly distancing themselves from them as a quality back link source. When will this happen? The reality is that it will not happen anytime in the near future and is really just a long-term strategy for Google. So until then - keep submitting.

Accoona started out in the search marketplace in 2004 with a boom and a lot of promise. Heck, they even had Bill Clinton as their pitchman for the new engine. Today when I went to visit the engine I saw this notice (may have been up for awhile as I don;t visit all that often):

Dear Accoona search users,

Due to an overwhelmingly competitive search market, Accoona.com and Accoona.cn will no longer be active.

We thank you for your previous support.

Sincerely,

Accoona Management

This news saddens me as I believe we need more competition in the search space as Google becomes more and more dominant. While I do not believe that any single upstart search engine may beat Google in the in the near future, I do believe that some of the larger players (i.e. Yahoo!, MSN and Ask.com) could acquire these smaller engines and integrate their best technologies and add their smaller market shares to increase the overall market share of the larger engine.

Not that Accoona ever achieved that much marketshare, it is just representative of a larger trend of search engines with a lot of potential, like WiseNut becoming a casualty in the search engine wars.

To check out Accoona's final goodbye visit the site here - Accoona

This is the best image I was able to find of Google's upcoming 10th anniversary logo.

Happy Birthday Google!

For more information check out this post on Vnunet.com - Google Unveils 10th Anniversary Logo

As unbelievable as it may sound, there is a Google PageRank (PR) 9 Web directory for sale on SitePoint. It is going for $300,000 and the reserve has not been met (yet). It currently, as of today has 29 days left in the auction. This one will be interesting to follow.

Check it out here:
- BrainTrack University Index Hompage
- BrainTrack University Index Auction on SitePoint

I think we have a candidate for next years - People Magazines 'Sexiest Man Alive' contest! Enjoy...:-)

Interesting new research has recently been released from Cone that says:

According to the survey, 93 percent of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media. In fact, 56 percent of American consumers feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.

What does this mean to average businesses? It means that consumers are not requesting, but expecting businesses to communciate and be involved in online communities if they wish to better communciate with them. The winners will be the businesses that best embrace this concept.

A great example of this was recently discussed on National Public Radio (NPR) when a consumer bought an expensive flat screen LCD TV to watch a specific sports game, but when he went to plug it in it would not configure properly to his cable service. It was after hours for customer service, so he jumped on Twitter to deperately ask friends for help and low and behold someone from his cable company responded within minutes and he later had someone show up for onsite installation help. This example of rapid response and being where the customer is, is the future of communciations if your company wants to be a player in the new media world.

Check out the full research report here - Americans Expect Companies to Have a Presence in Social Media

SiteVolume is a free new online service that allows you to enter one to five keywords (or phrases) into its interface and see, with a click of a button how many mentions of that keyword appear on any of these sites:

- Flickr
- Facebook
- MySpace
- Digg
- YouTube

This is a great tool to allow you to easily gather insight into keywords beyond the search engines.

You can check it out here - SiteVolume

Google recently announced a new website that allows you a centralized place to upload your content to Google Web Search, Maps, Product Search and iGoogle. Below is a list of what you are able to currently upload:

- Submit a URL for inclusion in Google's index
- Submit a Sitemap through Webmaster tools
- List your business in the Local Business Center
- Upload your products for sale in Product Search


The site is located here - Submit Your Content Website.

In addition, they have also released a new Blog in conjunction with this new site and it is located here - Content Central Blog

On Tuesday, Yahoo's new board cleared the way for a new round of talks with Time Warner over the future of AOL, potentially restarting negotiations for a combination of the two businesses that stalled out earlier this year.

This combination would make sense for the two as Yahoo is trying to strengthen its display ad platform and AOL has been in trouble and in need of direction for some time. Early indications say that Yahoo shareholders also agree with the possible merger as the stock has been slightly increasing today.

Yahoo Stock Tracking