May 3, 2006
In This Issue:
1. New Rules for 2006
2. In the News - Amazon Drops Google, Sullivan's
10 Years, Yahoo Local Listings
3. More News Headlines
4. Wrapping It Up
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(100th newsletter ... amazing!)
New Rules for 2006
The latest installment of the "SEO in 2006"
articles I'm writing is now available on OWTweb.com.
This is part three, and the title is "New
Rules of Online Marketing." I point out the
title for an important reason: It's about online
marketing these days, not just high rankings in
search engines. If you're putting all your eggs
into the organic search rankings basket, or into
basic SEO, you're making a serious mistake.
This is the most hands-on of the three articles
so far. Where the first two were backgrounders
talking about how competitive search engine marketing
has become, and what search engines have done
to thwart spammers, this one addresses several
ideas that you -- the web site owner and business
owner -- can be doing to improve your online marketing
efforts. I hope you find it valuable. There's
one final article to come after this....
SEO
in 2006, Part 3: New Rules of Online Marketing
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In The News
Amazon Drops Google
Not the biggest news on earth for the end-user,
since A9.com and Alexa are far from household
tools. Both are owned by Amazon, and they represent
Amazon's current search focus. (Yes, Amazon is
interested in much more than retail. Search is
where it's at.) For a long time, both A9.com and
Alexa were powered by Google's search index. No
more. Both have switched to MSN Search -- an odd
choice, given the poor state of MSN Search, but
a change nonetheless. Add Amazon to the growing
list of companies no longer interested in being
friendly with Google.
Danny Sullivan's 10 Years
If you don't know who Danny Sullivan is, he's
... well ... he's the Babe Ruth of search engine
reporting. Danny started writing about search
engines and search visibility ten years ago, when
Yahoo was just a baby and Google wasn't even a
gleam in Brin's and Page's eyes. Well, Danny has
written some personal thoughts on 10 years of
doing what he does, and he includes a long snippet
of one of his earliest "how to rank"
articles: amazingly, much of what he wrote then
still makes sense today.
Clickz.com: My
Decade of Writing About Search Engines
Yahoo Local adds Featured Listings
This is pretty important if you're a small / regionally-oriented
business. You can now buy flat-rate advertising
on Yahoo Local. Prices depend on the business
category and geographic region where you're advertising.
If you're a Kennewick plumber, you can pay to
have your business show up when someone uses Yahoo
Local to search for "kennewick plumber"
or "plumber in Kennewick", etc.
Yahoo
Local Listings
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More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time
to read. These are just some of the headlines
we've posted to OWTweb.com in recent days.
Microsoft
mulled Yahoo pact to fight Google: report
May 03, 2006 - Reuters
Does
textbook SEO really work anymore?, redux
May 01, 2006 - ClickZ.com
What should we not waste time doing? SEO must
go beyond "tweaking tags."
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
Wrapping it Up
That's all for this week. Hope online business
is treating you well!
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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