I’ve been getting emails from people complaining that I haven’t been blogging much lately. So I told myself that I would devote all of Friday to the blog. My plan was to scour the web looking for important stories that were begging for my commentary.

But then I realized that Friday was St. Patrick’s Day.

I also realized that:

A) St. Patrick’s Day is Dax’s absolute most favorite holiday of the year,

and

B) We haven’t actually had a “Beer Friday” in 2006.

The combination of those two points has resulted in me:

A) Giving up the idea of blogging anything meaningful

and

B) Consuming some strange alcoholic drink with way too much green food coloring in it.

But that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on the idea of blogging today. It just means I need to blog something that doesn’t require a great deal of thought. So I surfed on over to PRWeb and did some searches for “SEO.”

After reading through all the results, it became quite clear to me why so many people consider a SEM consultant to be on the same level as a used car salesman. Apparently, there are a lot of dumbass people in our business who spend a great deal of time thinking about how they can pump out yet another stupid press release talking about something that no one who actually works in the industry would consider news.

Here are just a few examples of the crap I found with one simple search:

Search Engine Optimization Inc. Joins OMMA Hollywood Conference & Expo in Universal City, CA

Garry Grant (CEO, SEO Inc.) will be speaking on March 28th about the "Ethics Debate in Search". The session is part of the conference’s Online Content Track. This year’s OMMA conference reflects the increasing prominence of search marketing with 25% of the Online Content Track devoted to search.

"Companies need to understand there is a fine line between ethical and effective search engine optimization," said Garry Grant, President and CEO of SEO Inc. "This session will help companies understand what guidelines they need to follow."

Kind of funny when you consider SEO Inc. used to dominate the SERPS for all the cool SEO phrases, but now they have a PR0, all their pages are in the Supplemental index, and they don’t even show up for their own name.

Maybe the title of his presentation will be “Do as I say, not as I do?”

Build backlinks the Easy Way With Pyramid Linking

A new free to use website called http://www.pyramidlinking.com is poised to make link building easy once again. In 2006 it’s not often that a genuinely new idea appears on the internet but Pyramid Linking looks to be one of the big new sites of the year.

With over 500 links exchanged between 100 users within hours of the sites unofficial launch its clear that webmasters are as keen as ever to build links.

Each website that signs up is given a list of sites to link to. Once the links have been validated the site is added to the link queue and will receive twice as many links as it donated.

The links obtained using the site are one-way static links in plain html so there are no scripts to install or tracking code to leave a footprint for search engines to detect. The links obtained are all relevant and, due to the nature of the program, are all of a higher PageRank than the links donated.

I guess they missed Matt’s post about how his team loves to read press releases…..

Sesame Communications Recognized as Leaders in Search Engine Marketing for Orthodontists According to WebPosition Analytic Reports

In a nationwide study utilizing WebPosition(R) 4 Professional software from WebTrends Inc., the search rankings of orthodontic practices in over 40 primary and secondary geographic markets across the nation were measured on 18 leading search engines. The results show unequivocally that web sites designed by Sesame Communications and Sesame Design as well as those using the Ortho Sesame(TM) online communications solution consistently rank higher in natural search visibility than leading industry competitors and, as a result, are more visible to consumers searching for orthodontic services online.

A press release talking about a WebPosition report? Are you fuckin’ kidding me?

New SEO Company Reveals the Secret to Search Engine Success

Miami, FL (PRWEB) March 3, 2006 — Search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN can provide a massive amount of traffic. But to the business owner who wants to find clients, a search engine friendly site is the only way of getting a huge increase in traffic.

That’s all changed with a new type of SEO company. Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a new service that helps small businesses find new customers through these same search engines.

“The hardest obstacle is for business owners to understand that on the Internet the only thing that matters are the terms or keywords that people use when searching for your product or service,” says Santiago Caicedo, owner of SellwithSEO www.sellwithseo.com a Miami-based SEO firm that specializes in helping small, medium and large businesses increase leads and sales through search engines.

Caicedo’s SEO company specifically helps businesses get results with search engines. The basis of his program is revealed in five easy steps: 1) find the right key words for your firm, 2) put those key words in the right places, 3) get links from relevant web sites, 4) let Google, Yahoo and MSN find your web pages and 5) watch your sales grow.

I’ve been at this for 10 years now. Thank God someone has finally come forward and explained how it all works. Maybe now, I can earn enough to support my family?

Contest Shatters Google Sandbox Myth

(This one is so funny, I have to include the entire release).

Search engine optimization contest proves that new sites are not penalized by Google just because they’re new, but rather because they don’t follow Google’s guidelines.
Waterloo, Ontario (PRWEB) February 15, 2006 — Webmasters and search engine optimizers (SEOs) have long suspected that Google penalizes new sites by keeping them out of its search results. A contest being run by SEOlogs.com proves that this notion is wrong and that the only thing keeping new sites out of Google’s index is failing to follow Google’s own webmaster guidelines.

The contest revolves around a made-up keyphrase. The winner of the contest — which runs for 62 days and ends on March 3, 2006 — is the site that ranks first in Google’s index for the phrase "redscowl bluesingsky". To ensure fairness, and to test the Google "sandbox" theory, only domains registered after December 25, 2005, are eligible for this contest, ensuring that only new sites take part. Predictably, a number of domains incorporating either or both of the "redscowl" and "bluesingsky" keywords were quickly registered and entered into the contest, since key
word-based domains generally rank well in any search engine.

To the surprise of those who believe in the Google sandbox, the search results for "redscowl bluesingsky" were immediately dominated by these new domains. Other sites, such as http://www.cluelessabout.com/redscowl%20bluesingsky.html, were also able to place highly without relying on a keyword-based domain, relying instead on simple yet proven search engine optimization techniques based on including keywords:

* in the body text;
* in the page title;
* in the page address; and
* in links to the page.

In other words, a good SEO is a good copywriter. Instead of using "black hat" techniques that get their sites banned from Google (like BMW’s German site recently), site owners should instead follow Google’s own webmaster guidelines (http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html) to create pages that contain useful and relevant content.

Google doesn’t sandbox new sites just because they’re new, but because they don’t follow their guidelines.

This contest was won by ShoeMoney (a guy I have a ton of respect for)

ShoeMoney is a smart dude. From what I’ve been told, he registered a new domain, and then 301′ed a shit load of links from an old domain to the new one. I didn’t hear anyone mention ShoeMoney’s copyrighting skills. So how is it he won and “Eric the Great” didn’t? Could it be that Google has some basic flaws that trump “quality content?”

Search Engine Optimization Inc. Announces Optimized Press Release Service

“Our optimized press release service gets your press releases ranking at top of news search engines like Google News” said Garry Grant, CEO of SEO Inc. “We also track the coverage and syndication of your press release to help you reach your specific target audience. It’s all about getting your company in front of potential customers and journalists.”

(It’s not really nice to pick on SEO Inc. twice in one post, but It’s just too hard to resist.)

It’s nice to see SEO Inc. diversifying, since their link network got torched, and they can no longer help clients buy their way to the top, maybe they can help control the flood of dumbass press releases that are polluting the web?

Scottie Claiborne to Speak at CAP Spring Break 2006

Fountain Valley, CA (PRWEB) February 28, 2006 — CAP Spring Break, a unique networking event presented by CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com “CAP” is excited to announce that search engine optimization and online marketing guru Scottie Claiborne will speak at CAP Spring Break 2006 in Miami Beach, Florida May 20-23, 2006. Ms. Claiborne is the owner and operator of Right Click Web Consulting, an SEO and marketing firm. She is also an established speaker, author and seminar leader.

“Organic search placement and successful online marketing tactics are always top of mind for every affiliate,” said Lou Fabiano, founder of CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com and CAP Spring Break. “Ms. Claiborne impressive background and real world solutions will help all attendees succeed in the competitive world of SEO.”

OK, this is a tough one, because I really like Scottie. I like Scottie because she is the coolest “white-hat, pure-as-the-driven-snow” SEO I know. There are a ton of topics that Scottie would be perfectly qualified to talk about.

But Casino affiliate SEO?….. I don’t think so.

OK, I can’t really type much more, so here’s my final selection.

Google Turns Blind Eye to Hidden Text on U.S. Brand-Name Web Sites

Medford continued, "One would think that BMW’s removal — albeit short-lived — would have sent a very clear message to corporate giants the world over that attempts to manipulate rankings would not be tolerated. However, this is clearly not the case. Of the 12 brand-name Web sites featured in my December, 2005 report, two have removed their hidden text, nine have made no discernible changes, and one has placed additional hidden text on their home page," said Medford.

OK, this one’s going to take a bit of effort to follow. Apparently, MR. Medford has been using press releases to rat out U.S. companies he feels are violating Google guidelines. Unfortunately, it sounds like no one from Google has been paying attention. (That seems a bit odd, since Matt said he reads SEO press releases?)

I feel bad that Robert wasted so much time and money trying to get Google’s attention, (Didn’t Matt say he read press releases?) so I thought I’d give him some advice on how to out spammers:

1. Subscribe to Matt’s RSS Feed

2. Check for new posts every 5 minutes.

3. Wait for a post that has nothing to do with search engines or web spam to appear.

4. When you find the perfect off-topic post, (like Matt talking about his sick cat) post a comment containing all the information about the spammers you want removed.

That’s it. The only cost involved with that strategy is being labeled a Cuttlet.