4smartphone.net Sucks
I came into the office today to get caught up on some work. When I logged into Outlook, I discovered that the hosted Exchange service we use for our email has been down since Friday afternoon.
I went to their website to try and get some information on the problem and found this:
Google Adds Theme Selection
When I logged in to my Google home page this morning there was an option to add a theme. I thought it was a neat idea, so after looking through the options I chose the bus stop theme. After selecting it, I entered my zip code and the page changed to match my local weather. Today the weather is cloudy here, so the people at the bus stop are now standing under rain clouds. Now I’m assuming Google is sucking all sorts of local search data from me right? The theme is really cute though. I hate to admit it, but I really like it. I’m sure I’ll get an “oh brother” out of my SEOH. 
Book Review | SEO Book by Aaron Wall
Reading SEO Book by Aaron Wall has brought clarity to many conversations I’ve had with my SEOH over the years. Reading SEO Book has been an “Aha” experience.
SEO Book takes its reader through the Search Industry step by step. It begins with the fundamentals and touches on more advanced topics at the end. Aaron walks you through all the phases from picking a product, picking a domain name, directories, links, PPC, etc. Aaron provides you with many different tools and resources along the way. I particularly liked this because I never felt limited to just reading. I am a hands-on learner and with the tools scattered throughout the book, I was able to test things as I read about them which helped me reinforce what I had learned.
SEO Book should be in the hard drive of every newbie search marketer. It’s an invaluable tool that provides focused direction with a consistent level of support along the way. It’s almost like Aaron knew when I was reading and had a question; he’d stop clarify, give an example. Aaron really has a knack for knowing what his readers need.
Some of the top SEO movers and shakers have contributed to SEO Book and Aaron really knows how to tie all the information together while keeping it fluid. There is really too much information for me to summarize SEO Book, but I will say there are three key things that I will use as the basis of anything I write on or offline.
Keywords
Relevancy
Content
Three very simple pieces to a very complex puzzle. These are the foundation from which most SEO campaigns are built.
The insight provided by Aaron’s detailed descriptions of SEO has given me enough knowledge to apply what I’ve learned in conversations with my SEOH.
If you’re interested here’s a cheesy example:
We were out to dinner on Friday night with some friends. After a few drinks our friend mentions that he needs a website. As always the conversation led to …”Hey, don’t you have something to do with where websites end up in Google? Cuz I’d really like to rank for [insert keyword here].” So we skim the surface of what SEOH does and before I knew it, I was participating in the conversation. We were going back and forth discussing blogging, links, relevancy, PPC, etc. It was really weird, but a very cool moment.
There is still a ton for me to learn, but at the same time I feel I’ve made progress in leaps and bounds from where I was when I started reading SEO Book.
Aaron, the amount of time, effort, blood, sweat and tears that went into SEO Book is obvious to anyone that reads it. Thank you!
New Time Slot for SEO Rockstars
Due to the start of my daughter’s high school softball season, I’m no longer able to commit to being available on Tuesday afternoons to do the Rockstar show. So, we’ve decided to move the show to Fridays at 3:00 pm EST.
Eric Ward (aka Link Moses) will have the honor of being our first guest in our new time slot. It should be a lot of fun. Eric’s been in the game longer than anyone I know. If you have any specific questions you’d like us to ask Eric, feel free to email them to me.
Google Maps and BMW
I just read Danny’s post about Google Maps now being integrated with BMW. Basically, you type in the address information you need into Google Maps, and then send it via the internet to your BMW GPS system. That’s incredible. I guess I’ll have to talk SEOH into buying me a BMW. (Not!)
Anyway, cool feature.