The more things change…. Google and Yahoo! gained market share in December compared to November searches while MSN lost ground. Engine Searches Market Share Up / Down Overall 6.7 billion Google 3.2 billion 47.3% .4% Yahoo! 1.9 billion 28.5% .3% MSN 713 million 10.5% -.5%
Here is a new article on the basics of search engine optimization. The article includes several options to get you started.
Levels The Playing Field – Always wanted to take on the big boys/girls? Any business can use Pay Per Click (PPC) and be set up in 15 minutes or in a few days, depending on the search engine. It’s easy to set up and just as simple to turn off. Control – Yes, for all you control freaks out there, search engine marketing is your ultimate weapon of choice. Search engines provide you with a wealth of options to narrow down or expand your target audience, your budget and even your ad content. Return On Investment (ROI)- Tired of guessing ...
Read more Think about it; what more could you ask for? Yellowpages.com’s list of their top 10 category searches for December provides you with an abundance of local clients you should be hitting on. Restaurants Hotels Pizza Florist Dentist Post Office Banks Hospitals Physicians Movie Theaters Search Yellowpages.com for a heading of your choice. Print out the first results page. Check out the advertiser’s website to see if he needs seo help. I just searched dentists in Minneapolis and guess what? The very first listing I tried needs your seo skills!
We are excited to announce (and demand dictates) that the next Search Engine Academy Toronto SEO Training Courses will be held from March 26-30 2007 in Oakville (Toronto) Ontario. Remember, seating is limited to 25 students, our last SEO Course was Sold Out, to avoid disappointment register early. These classes are Workshops not seminars. You will work hands-on, in the class room, with the state of the art SEO techniques, with expert instructors there to guide you and answer all your questions. You can work on your own site(s) applying your new knowledge during the class practice periods. Our course ...
Read more Just before the New Year a head-hunter representing one of Canada’s major ad agencies called me looking for 15 of our Search Engine Academy SEO Workshop graduates to work in Montreal. Already this year, another firm told us they are having a hard time to find qualified individuals to work in Toronto. As suppliers of High Quality Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Training in Montreal and Toronto (we’ve also taught people from Calgary, Winnipeg, the U.S. and England so far) this is good news! For our current and futures graduates it is good news too. It is even good news ...
Read more The more you work at SEO, the more you realize it is not rocket science, as John Tawadros confirmed in his recent article. The reality of SEO is that anyone can do it. You simply have to develop a strategy and commit to the time it takes to build a significant site. Stay tuned, we are going to spell it out for you over the next few weeks.
If you are still hesitating about attending our next workshop; Get With The Program! SEO is not going anywhere. In fact , I believe all media will eventually be search driven. Media companies who want to remain at the forefront of their industries will embrace search in all its formats. They will need your SEO skills. SEO may very well play out to be a standardized commodity. That will only increase demand for employees with SEO skills, especially those of you who have established themselves. Our yellow page background provides Greg and I with a unique perspective on SEO. We have ...
Read more Here is another example of blogging power provided by a recent student. His blog is focused on  selling intangibles (like SEO). He uses a wordpress free blog to get his message out.
One of our Search Engine Academy graduates is using his newly acquired SEO skills to develop a site on Persian cats for sale . He is using a blog as his home page, an interesting idea on how to deliver fresh content on a regular basis.
This time of year you want Fresh Hot Coffee – well in Montreal anyway…a hot sunny July day is another story and that seems far far away. What about the visitors to your site? Many of us SEOs know this… You must offer them new, fresh, and if you can HOT content. Do you expect them to come back to time after time to find nothing new? Do you do it? Many of us SEMs know this too…”Getting fresh content is a daunting task” So many of us do this…”Try to think of what to write about” Well why not ...
Read more How’s that for a catchy title?! There’s tons of talk, and article after article, about the importance that articles play in Internet or Search Engine Marketing. And it is just that. Very important. But isn’t it equally important to have your articles read?! None other than Robin Nobles, of Search Engine Workshops, thinks so and recently wrote “Article marketing is extremely powerful for increasing visibility, name recognition, branding, and more. I’ve been doing it for years.” The title of this post is actually a quote from an article written about one of the contestants on the NBC reality TV show ...
Read more Well we had a great time at the November SEO Workshop in Oakville (Toronto)! Based on the feedback we’ve had, the students found the wealth of information they learned powerful and relevant. They enjoyed the learning experience too. For those of you who attended, we thank you, it was a pleasure meeting you in person and working with you for the week. We look forward to hearing of your successes! The comments are in, here are 2 of them: “Excellent class. Wish I had found you guys 2 years ago!” Ken Bolt – BrantFlorist.com Oakville (Toronto) Graduate ——— “I thought ...
Read more Google, MSN and Yahoo! agree to work together on SiteMaps! The big three announced SiteMaps.org, where you can review the latest SiteMaps version and instructions for adhering to it. CBRonline has the whole story.
Today the Advanced students joined those who just participated in the 2-Day Basic Essentials SEO Workshop. Among them is a whole row from WSI! Earlier this morning John Alexander showed the group the secrets to finding incredibly hot keywords using Word Tracker. The group is now working on their laptops to identify keywords of their own…can you say “new revenue stream?”
In fact as the 2-Day Basic Essentials SEO Training Workshop comes to an end, we are looking forward to the 3-Day Advanced SEO Course that begins tomorrow. Right now the Students are diligently working away on their Group Project applying the strategies and techniques they have learned over the past 2 days of classroom presentations, discussions and in class hands-on work. We are thrilled with the level of participation and interest of the students these past 2 days.
Here is a great article on LSI that explains the concept and an LSI tool that facilitates the process.
Don’t miss this powerful strategy to gain new SEO clients Greg and I will be discussing in our online chat at the World Resource Center this Friday morning. I discussed the strategy with a former workshop student a few weeks ago. He blew it off at first but after 2 weeks of research, he circled back to the info we provided on our SEO Yellow Page Resource Page. Now, he loves yellow pages, not for the advertising but for the leads they provide for his SEO business. In the chat, Greg and I will be using a recent example of how we convinced ...
Read more I don’t know how times I have heard someone say search engines are looking for FRESH content without explaining their concept. Here is my take on it: F is for frequent. Add content in some form to your site on a consistent, frequent basis. Preferably 3-5 times a week. R is for relevant. Relevant content helps you in many ways. You’ll get better search results and a happier audience. E is for engaging. Engage your readers so they will feel that they are a part of what you are doing. S is for simple. Keep it simple, keep it simple, ...
Read more Building relationships is key. We can get caught up in article writing, press releases, directories or blogs. Pick up the phone and complement someone on their work, have a breakfast meeting with an agency lacking your skills or visit a current client to better understand their business. The return on investment will be well worth your time.
I received the following query today… THE QUESTION: Greg, I am attending the Nov 13/06, 5 day SEO training seminar in Oakville, so I assume you (or Barry) will be touching on this then… But something in your last [Free SEO Tip of the Day] email caught my eye. “Not that you want to use tables…” Are tables bad for SEO? I am curious because we’re still relying quite heavily on tables. We are coming up to speed on CSS [Cascading Style Sheets] though – is that the better way to go? MY ANSWER: Yes, we will be dealing with this at the ...
Read more In Part 2 of this article, Barry continues to walk a Dentist through the (painless) process of SEO of his web site. Topics include choosing Keyword Phrases, using Robin Nobels’ “Idea Motivator Blog”, Outsourcing Article Writing, Title Tags tips from Jerry West, and a powerful SEO Tip from John Alexander who will be teaching at the SEO Workshops with us in Toronto Nov 13-17/06. Here is the link to the Internet Marketing Article – No Google For You – Part 2
We receive emails recommending webinars on a daily basis. This terrific presentation by Dave Taylor on blogging at the affiliate summit caught my attention this week. I usually listen while I am rowing (indoor) in the mornings but Dave’s session literally made me stand up and take notes.
Yahoo! jumps feet-first into the blogosphere. “It represents a huge first step in providing solutions to the marketing challenges you face now, and those you’ll face as media continues to evolve.”
Create a Google Alert and receive a daily email of updates on relavant topics based on the search queries that interest you. Â
Google Sitemaps is a great tool that allows site owners to feed it pages they’d like to have included in Google’s index. The service is free and Searchenginewatch has a terrific article that walks you throught the process.
COMSCORE, the firm that researches consumer online behavior stunned the participantcs at a recent Search Engine Strategies – Local conference. Their announcement indicated that that the vast majority of Internet users (68%) had searched for a local business in July and that was a 43% increase over the prior year. Dick Larkin spoke at the conference and he has the whole story.
Just start typing in each letter of your search request and Google Suggest will show you the most popular requests for that term and how how many times people have searched for that specific term over a period of time. The time frame of the search values is debatable but try it out; you will be surprised by the search terms you haven’t thought about for your industry
In yesterday’s Internet Marketing Blog post by Barry entitled Which Engine Should You Optimize For (about the level of spending of advertisers on the big 3 search engines) we see yet another example of Google’s number one ranking. Indeed, estimates declare that 50% to 80% of all searches on Search Engines are made on Google. Barry also pointed out yesterday “All the more reason, if you want to be a player in the seosphere, you have to produce Google results.†  Well if Google is so important when was the last time YOU reviewed Google’s Webmaster Guidelines? They have at ...
Read more  A Bizreport.com article indicates that Google is expected to report U.S. advertising revenues of $4 billion in 2006; the entire U.S. online ad spend is expected to be $16 billion. For Google, this is a 65% jump from the numbers reported in 2005 and marks a continued pull away from Yahoo, their closest competitor. “These growth numbers establish Google as the unrivaled king of online advertising universe, leaving Yahoo, with its greater advertising diversity and years of media experience, struggling in second place,” David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst (via MarketWatch) said. All the more reason, if you want to be ...
Read more Every day, I get an email from a site owner asking me about the latest seo shortcut. “Top Google Rankings in the blink of an eye for only $10.00†or, “We’ll add you to 5,000 directories overnight!†It reminds me of all the weight loss programs you see on TV infomercials. There are literally thousands of ways to lose 20 pounds in an instant! They make it look so easy. Yet the reality is that you have to work at it. SEO is no different. The truth is you have to work at seo to make it work for you. ...
Read more The next Search Engine Academy SEO Workshop is in Toronto Ontario November 13-17, 2006. The $100 Early Bird Discount Ends: October 20, 2006 SEO Training Registration Deadline: November 3, 2006 Seating is limited to: 20 persons  Want to Improve Top SEO Ranking Skills for the big 3 major Search Engines? Learn SEO Fast from Industry Leaders John Alexander, Dave Barry, Greg Mate and Barry Byers.  Learn more in days than otherwise possible after many months. The 2, 3 & 5 Day SEO Workshops feature personalized, in-class, hands on SEO training.  This is state of the art SEO ...
Read more YP Talk News states that One of the key themes echoed throughout a recent yellow page conference and was noted by nearly every keynote speaker is that print yellow pages is far from dead. But, the key to the print products future, and in many ways the industry’s future success, is in the performance of the publishers local sales force. Hellooooooo!!!! I have been saying this for the past few years. Only those advertisers with hefty margins on their products or services receive a substantial return on investment (ROI) from print yellow pages. Print yellow page advertisers like doctors, lawyers or ...
Read more “…and get it Better.” Richard S. Tedlow wrote a great essay on Andy Grove for Fortune Magazine back in December 2005. CNNmoney has the full article but this one line struck a chord with me. If you are waiting to get your site just right, you will be waiting forever. Set up your site, engage the search engines and plan after you see where your efforts have taken you. It will only get better. Â
Dave Barry brought siloing (silo-ing) or theming your website to get better rankings on your most common and targeted keywords to our attention last year. Lisa Barone (no relation to Ray Barone) wrote a great article on this important topic. Don’t worry if you have to read through the article more than once to understand the concept, it is well worth your time.
We interviewed a dozen Canadian SEO firms from across the country over the past month for clients in the process of engaging in search engine optimization. Although the upfront fees and the period in which the work would be completed varied, 24K per year per site was a consistent theme throughout the process. If you would like Greg or I to interview a firm on your behalf, email us and we will work with you to hire a reliable seo firm.
Here are brief descriptions and links to articles: 12 GOOD Reasons to Sign Up for the Free SEO Tip of the Day : Why you should accept the Search Engine Academy.ca offer to send you a brief daily email containing SEO and SEM techniques tips. No Google for You! (Without SEO Training) : A Dentist learns what common mistakes were made in his Web site design and some solutions his site developer followed (surely Jerry Sinfeld has read this one). Small Business Marketing Tips : The title says it all, apply these to your business as part of a ...
Read more Debbie McGrath of HR.COM was the highlight of a recent workshop Canadian Business Press was kind enough to provide in Toronto this week. Eric Morris of Google Canada gave the audience a 45 minute overview of Google’s Adwords and Adsense programs and Don Lange of Cornerstone Group added an additional 30 minutes discussing his approach to search engine optimization and marketing. Debbie spoke for only 10 minutes but in that time she included advanced SEO strategies that have her site ranked #1 for HR. If you were at the workshop, GET DEBBIE’s PRESENTATION.
This is the inaugural post which I have the honor to write…Heads I win! As a Search Engine Academy educator I will maintain this Web Log (blog) to detail Internet Marketing Training, Tips, Techniques, Articles, Information and News designed for people with little or no previous SEO experience as well as for current SEOs. I have dedicated over 15 years maximizing our clients’ ROI. At our SEO Workshops, in addition to Search Engine Marketing expertise, we also share from our accumulation of business and marketing tips. Don’t miss the upcoming SEO Training Workshop Nov 13-18, 2006 in Toronto, Ontario About ...
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