Recent content by watson.johe86

LOL. I have been watching Google since 1999, and even have one of the earliest Google towels as a gift for being an early AdWords advertiser to prove it. I keep a keen sense of humor and skepticism about Google's announcements… It's a little like the war on drugs. People are out there doing...

Domain forwarding does not help SEO. This is a common rumor, but empty domains that just 'point' at others have little to zero SEO value. What you need is keyword heavy, robust domains with lots of inbound links.

OK, as we explained in class, you REVERSE ENGINEER a competitor with a tool like OPEN SITE EXPLORER to see who links to them. Then identify possible targets that link to your competitor who might also link to you; also think of categories (e.g., blogs, catalogs, directores) that might link to...

Yes, shortened links as on bit.ly are just 301 redirects and "pass" the "link juice." So they are just as good as the "real" URL's that the represent. This goes for Twitter shares in particular.

In the Social Media Toolbook, under the MONITORING tab you will find a few tools that aggregate your social media profiles. These are more for monitoring than managing, but they can show you how you are performing on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc., if I understand your question correctly.

Creating SEO friendly CONTENT is important. I do find you can outsource some of this, but you have to a) know your target keywords, b) blog correctly about them, and c) insert those structurally in the right positions. So blogging is the No. 1 way to use 'fresh content' to stay at the top of...

his issue is very, very, very important. The TITLE tag that you see at the TOP OF THE BROWSER of your home page, or if you do a VIEW SOURCE, in the <TITLE> tag position is the MOST IMPORTANT tag on the entire website. It tells Google what the whole website is. So for SEO, make sure that your...

Few domains are penalized in a really pro-active way. But if you piss Google off - usually by buying links or participating in link schemes - here's how you would know. First and foremost, you'd go to Google and type in site: your domain as in site:jm-seo.org and you would see ZERO results. That...

Great question! These are not mutually exclusive. The TITLE tag has a number of important objectives. FIRST, get to the top of Google. How? Include the target search query keywords. SECOND, get the HUMAN user to click. So write it in a pithy, zingy way - include the keywords but have some...

YES. As per the GOOGLE DOCUMENT, all pages should have unique, accurate TITLE tags - Accurately describe the page's content choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page using default or vague titles like "Untitled" or "New Page 1" Create unique title tags for each page...

The left column has disappeared but the functions have not. RELATED searches and what not are now located at the TOP of the search screen and not the left, as they used to be. Click on SEARCH TOOLS and then you'll see the new pull downs.

Non-profits have specific SEO needs, so specific SEO tips apply for Non-profits. One thing that's unusual - Non-profits usually have two distinct audiences: a) target users, people whom you are trying to reach or help (e.g., kindergarteners, HIV victims, cancer survivors), and then b) donors or...

Google Trends allows you to see trends in seach terms - such as seasonality. The 'embed' function allows you to 'embed' a trend / graph on your website, much as you can 'embed' a YouTube video on a page.

Absolutely! When is the best time to plan out your kitchen? Before you even start cooking! When is the best time to plan out your search engine optimization strategy? Before you even create the website! I would say that 70% of the people that take our classes have websites that are badly set...

Okay let's look at this issue of the right keyword. I like to use the example of fish were the fish are. Should you try to catch a large quantity of fish or a high-value fish that is unless quantity? Would you like to eat a bunch a car which are easy to catch or a bass which is difficult to...