Columns > 100% Organic
100%
Organic covers
SEO
and issues related to being listed in the free, natural or
"organic" listings in search engines. Columnists write about
optimization techniques,
duplicate content and potential
spam issues, how to submit to search engines and more.
The 100% Organic column appears Thursdays at Search Engine
Land.
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Jun. 26, 2008 at 8:28am by Shari Thurow
So, You Think You're A Search Engine Optimization Expert?
A few years ago, I wrote a three-part article series about the different levels of SEO skills: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. I placed copywriters at the beginner level, information architects and interface designers at the intermediate level, and web developers and programmers at the advanced level. At the time,...
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Jun. 12, 2008 at 7:47am by Stephan Spencer
SMX Advanced: Black, Blue, And Read All Over
Learning is a fundamental and highly adaptive function in human beings. More than any other species, humans are designed to be flexible learners and active agents in how we go about acquiring knowledge and skills. Yet much of what people learn happens without any formal instruction. Think about it....
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May. 29, 2008 at 7:55am by Shari Thurow
Meta-Tag Optimization Tips: A Search Usability Perspective
I know. I know. Seasoned search engine optimization (SEO) professionals might yawn and roll their eyes when the subject of meta-tag optimization comes up, as they might think, "Meta-tag optimization is SO 1990s." Personally, I think meta-tag content gets a bad rap because, in the past, many SEO professionals...
See Related Stories In: 100% Organic, SEO: General, SEO: Titles & Descriptions
May. 22, 2008 at 7:52am by Jill Whalen
What You Can Learn From Google's "Site" Operator
Google has a set of advanced search operators that can be accessed either through the advanced search page, or by using specialized commands in conjunction with your query from any Google web search box. One of the most useful for search engine optimization is the "site:" operator. Google's "site:"...
See Related Stories In: 100% Organic, Search Features: Commands
May. 15, 2008 at 8:41am by Stephan Spencer
Supercharge Your URLs For Maximum SEO Impact
When optimizing URLs for high rankings, little attention is given to optimizing the URL for maximum clickthrough. Yet the URL undeniably affects searcher clickthrough rates in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), as demonstrated by MarketingSherpa in their eyetracking study published in the 2008 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide. Specifically,...
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May. 1, 2008 at 11:58am by Shari Thurow
What SEO/SEM Professionals Should Know About Website Usability - Part 2
In part 1 of What SEO/SEM Professionals Should Know About Website Usability, usability experts Peter Morville and Susan Weinschenk answered the question, "What should SEO professionals know about usability?" For this installment, website usability guru Jakob Nielsen and Kim Krause Berg share their observations and perspectives. Enjoy! Jakob Nielsen's...
See Related Stories In: 100% Organic, SEO: Writing & Body Copy
Apr. 24, 2008 at 8:57am by Jill Whalen
Diagnosing The SEO Health Of Your Website
Is your website sick? In many ways, SEO consultants are like doctors, only instead of analyzing your personal health symptoms, we analyze the overall health of your website. It's true we're not working with life or death situations the same way doctors do, but having a website that is...
See Related Stories In: 100% Organic, SEO: General
Apr. 17, 2008 at 11:44am by Stephan Spencer
SEO Is Not Free Traffic
One of the first jobs I have to do as a consultant going into an SEO engagement is to debunk the myth that SEO is "free." SEO has never been, nor will it ever be, free traffic. It takes work, and that comes at a cost. You need to...
See Related Stories In: 100% Organic, SEM Industry: General, SEM Industry: Outsourcing, SEO: General
Apr. 10, 2008 at 2:22pm by Shari Thurow
What SEO/SEM Professionals Should Know About Website Usability
In an effort to differentiate themselves from competitors, many SEO/SEM firms come up with interesting unique selling propositions (USPs). Some SEO/SEM firms emphasize search engine advertising and create quite useful tools to help manage PPC campaigns. Some SEO firms specialize in training, again creating tools that help newbie and...
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Apr. 3, 2008 at 11:27am by Aaron Wall
One Day You’re Optimized, The Next Day You're A Spammer
It is no secret that human review has been playing a bigger role at Google over the past couple years. And we are emotional beings... no matter how logical the guidelines may be, emotions cause human errors. But not all sites that get penalized are penalized in error. Many...
See Related Stories In: 100% Organic, Google: SEO, SEM Industry: Organizations, SEO: Spamming
Mar. 27, 2008 at 8:00am by Jill Whalen
We Don't Need SEO Standards!
Last month I attended the SMX West session in Santa Clara entitled Is it Time for Search Marketing Standards? It was an interesting session, but I wasn't really sure where I stood on the issue at the time. Now that I've had a few weeks to think about it,...
See Related Stories In: 100% Organic, SEM Industry: Community, SEM Industry: Organizations, SEM Industry: Outsourcing, SEO: Spamming
Mar. 20, 2008 at 7:44am by Stephan Spencer
Being Off-Topic, Off-Message, Or Off-Brand Can Be Good For Your SEO!
Ok, perhaps I'm being a bit provocative here, but sometimes it's the off-topic, off-message, or off-brand content that earns you the most valuable links—links that you wouldn't have otherwise gotten. Those links can really pay the bills, in terms of the extra search traffic and resulting sales. The brand...
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Mar. 13, 2008 at 8:54am by Aaron Wall
Reputation Monitoring Made Easy, And Free!
A wide array of paid and free tools make it both cheap and easy to track your online reputation. The first point of contact is typically via customer emails, comments on your own site, or web analytics data. But not everyone who complains about you brings the complaints directly...
See Related Stories In: 100% Organic, Search Marketing: Public Relations
Mar. 6, 2008 at 8:34am by Shari Thurow
You'd Be Wise To "NoFollow" This Dubious SEO Advice
For the past few months, I have been listening to some of my colleagues talk about the nofollow attribute and how to use it to sculpt a page's PageRank. I heard this SEO advice first at SMX in Stockholm and most recently at SMX in Santa Clara. Stephan Spencer...
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Feb. 28, 2008 at 7:59am by Jill Whalen
Is Your Website Copy Crystal Clear?
Pretend you don't know anything about what your company offers and you stumbled onto it somehow. Can you tell immediately what it's all about? Can the search engines? Do this exercise with each inner page of the site as well. Is what each page has to offer truly crystal...
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Feb. 21, 2008 at 8:04am by Stephan Spencer
How to Write a Killer RFP (Request for Proposal) For Hiring An SEO Firm
Over the years I've seen quite a few Requests for Proposal from companies seeking to buy SEO services. If your RFP is not written well, it hinders the SEO firm's ability to understand and define your needs and to scope and price your project. This in turn leads to...
See Related Stories In: 100% Organic, SEM Industry: Outsourcing
Feb. 14, 2008 at 8:00am by Aaron Wall
The Inconvienent Truth About Social Media Marketing
Social media is hot. Everyone wants to be on Digg's home page. Link baiting, especially using things like numbered lists, imperative rules, or controversial hooks is the SEM strategy du jour. There's just one -- major -- problem with spending so much time and effort on capturing the eyeballs...
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Feb. 7, 2008 at 8:25am by Shari Thurow
SEO & SEM Outside The U.S.—Tips & Advice
As many SEO/SEM professionals already know, marketing to people outside of the United States presents many challenges. Search usability is quite different due to language nuances, variations in color psychology, and allocation of screen real estate, among other things. Where are the best places for a search engine optimizer...
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Jan. 31, 2008 at 7:12am by Jill Whalen
5 Reasons Why Rankings Are A Poor Measure Of Success
Are you still measuring your SEO success by the rankings you obtain? If so, you need to stop—right now! Here's why:...
See Related Stories In: 100% Organic, SEM Tools: Web Analytics, SEO: General
Jan. 24, 2008 at 8:08am by Stephan Spencer
Think You're Successfully Flying Under Google's Radar? Think Again.
Have you been trying to "fly under the radar," engaging in activities outside of Google's guidelines but subtly so as not to get caught? More and more SEOs are moving into this dangerous territory as the guidelines continue to broaden (prime examples of which being the expanded definition of...
See Related Stories In: 100% Organic, SEO: Spamming
Jan. 17, 2008 at 8:39am by Aaron Wall
Four Reasons To Avoid Using Dates In URLs
Everything you do has a chance to provide a clean or dirty signal of relevancy to search engines and searchers. While a date in the URL may provide a signal of relevancy to some searchers looking for archived information, many people who are explicitly looking for old information will...
