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Google Results Suck Hard… so does my SEO

I’ve always tried to stay out of SEO/SEM discussions as I’ve invested very little time into understanding the dynamics of search algorithms and the practicalities of SEO. As a content site owner, however, I’m starting to understand that its not just a traffic booster, but fundamental to the survival of my site (upcomingdiscs.com).

UpcomingDiscs has a great crew of reviewers cranking out quality dvd reviews - that Google can’t find. Here’s an example: take a look at the results for “planet terror dvd review” - seems like a natural enough search, right? UpcomingDiscs has a good review of “Planet Terror” - quality, original content.

1. The #1 result from Google is a Netscape/Propeller page with one vote.
2. The #6 result from Google is a Digg page with two votes.
3. UpcomingDiscs doesn’t appear in the index. Rather, I only looked to page 10 of results, but we weren’t there.
4. The first 10 pages are a mish mash of review indexes, reviews, newspaper stories about the movie, and so on.

So - what conclusions can I draw from this little experiment?

1. Google’s algorithm is damaged. Propeller and Digg in first and sixth place are not right.
2. UpcomingDiscs needs some radical SEO.

The first of these I have little control over; the second, I have lots. I figured that producing an XML sitemap pointing to original content with clean URL’s would suffice; apparently not.

google, search, sem seo

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#1 Deconstructing the TC40: Clickable

In this series of articles, I’m going to share my take on as many of the TC40 as I can stand (or find info on), based on the list provided by Paul Boutin.

First Up: Clickable.

Summary: Looks good. Buy rating.

The Proposition: Its an account management aggregator for search engine marketing. i.e.: Clickable lets you manage your campaigns for Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft through a unified interface.

Value Add: Streamlined administration for individual advertisers and agencies. Highly configurable alerts to maximize responsiveness. A single view across all search properties allows for superior evaluation of ad spend effectiveness.

Business Model: Unknown - subscription fees? A percentage of spend?

Prognosis: Seems to me to be a natural evolution; as the volume and complexity of campaigns online increases, the space for “middle-men” grows - Clickable fits in nicely offering advertisers a valuable streamlining management service, reducing the overhead of conducting ad business online. Industry knowledge and workflow integration provide barriers to entry to competitors.

Warning Bells: Clickable I assume is API dependent, meaning its dependent on the continuing benevolence of Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Similarly, Clickable’s value proposition is vulnerable to improvements in G/M/Y’s tools, particularly Google’s, given their dominance of this space.

adwords, clickable, google, sem, seo, tc20 tc40

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Merchants of Death: FuneralHomes.com, or “everything has a vertical”

Here’s a pretty uninspired vertical, that looks to be built for search engine rankings: FuneralHomes.com. Say what you will about “directory” sites of this type, FuneralHomes.com does have a surprisingly comprehensive list of funeral homes, though their resources are sparse. Oddly enough, the site seems to have a real advertising model, as opposed to the endemic AdSense placements.

Anyway, the point of this post is that “everything has a vertical.” Its a strange quirk of search engine algorithms that has created this republishing ecosystem; whether its in consumers best interests is a matter of perspective - a vertical like FuneralHomes.com may quickly connect users to relevant listings — but lacks the true credibility of purely organic search results or the agnosticism of phonebook listings.

Earlier today I was rambling on about the ability of Recommendation and Discovery services to supplant search engines; if that indeed came to pass many verticals would be cut out of the new search ecosystem.

sem, seo vertical

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Corrected: DNHour.com - Digg for Domain Name News

DNHour.com is a community driven news site for the SEO domain name industry. IMHO this is a great vertical to target - the domain industry (and somewhat-related SEO industry) has a very high noise-to-signal ratio, and a good community (and algorithm) would go a long way to sorting some of the wheat from the chaff. Though its currently a little sparse on the community interaction side, its brand new, and I’m willing to give it a chance. I’m adding the DNHour feed to my reader. [found via Press Release]

From the press release:

DNHour.com is founded by a Malaysian-based domainer and serial entrepreneur, Koay Al Vin. After missing out on some big domain name purchases, he decided to keep in the know by tediously scouring domain forums and listing sites for what is available. He founded DNHour.com to ease the process and today, all domainers can help each other by sharing those important news and events at DNHour.com.

Other Coverage:

Net Monetization says get into DNHour early.

CORRECTION: Koay Al Vin contacted me to indicate that the site is focused specifically on Domain Name news & finds - not SEO as I assumed. Thanks for the correction!

digg, dnhour, domain+names, domaining, domains, marketing, optimization, search, sem seo

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