Shut My Link Mouth

Greetings from Breckenridge Colorado! Nope, didn't move out of Williamsburg, I'm here with the family combining a business and vacation trip!

We had some down time today after our big white-water rafting trip on the Arkansas River so I went through email and played catch-up reading. (note - apologies to everyone who's written or commented in the last 3 weeks, I will answer) .

As I was reading through a number of the SMX wrap-up blog posts, I was struck by something Tamar Weinberg from SEORoundtable reported on from the You& With Matt Cutts session:

Question: Speaking of link schemes, I came across an ad looking for a SEO manager and they were looking for "expertise in buying links." What would you say about this?

Matt: When people advertise for that, you have no idea how many people write to Google and say they are offended. We get those job descriptions forwarded to us. I wouldn't be surprised that we have something like this in the Webmaster Console in the future, just like we had the Spam Report form (which we had since November of 2001). We try to approach things algorithmically and also take people into account. We consider buying links to be outside of our guidelines and we might take strong actions on that in the future. If people want to ignore that, we as a search engine might take action on that because we want a high-quality index.

First off, this comment from a Google Engineer should stop the persistent question always being asked at search conferences on whether (or not) clients should link to their SEO's. I always thought it was a silly question to start with but now we have some scary stuff to quote which should put an end to it once and for all.

Second - as soon as I get home I'm hanging link garlic on my front door to keep the slaying squealers at bay. No more talking about paid links from this link witch, (as in Glenda the Good) and any mention or use of the word "paid" is coming off my site.

Third - I hope there is some exemption in place for any old post or web page out there hosting something I've written on paid links, I shouldn't be dinged for something I've done in the past. I was younger and thinner then, goodness knows I shouldn't be held responsible.

So for all you SEO's out there with form-filling-time-on-your-hands, I've seen the light. You can take your wooden stakes away from my website and go home.

Busted By The Wikipedia Police

In a recent post on Search Engine Land's Link Week I got a less-than-enthusiastic comment/rebuttal from a Wiki supporter after I suggested looking to the Wikipedia as a link resource.

Here’s the comment I got:

Deb, please have a look at Wikipedia's conflict of interest guideline. I believe that webmasters should be able to do whatever they want with their own sites, but when they visit somebody else's Web 2.0 site, they need to follow house rules. Breaking the rules when you are a guest in somebody else's house is rude.

Link building is great, but you need to keep reputation management in mind. Wikipedia's rules strongly discourage self-serving edits. If you get caught, you and your client could suffer public embarrassment. We all know how well Wikipedia pages rank. Before taking this risk, I recommend reading this essay.

That comment was made in response to what I said here:

I also recommend you take the time to submit to the Open Directory Project, pay for a Yahoo! Directory listing (especially if the site is new) and look for submission opportunities at Wikipedia. Yes I know the Wikipedia uses nofollow on their links rendering them virtually useless from a link popularity standpoint, but—the traffic you'd get from those links is worth it. If you can find an opportunity to add your site where it will make a useful contribution, do it.

Bold is mine. At first I was surprised given the Wikipedia disclaimer in my post - “add your site where it will make a useful contribution” but, after thinking about it, looking through Wikipedia and the link the poster provided, I decided to step back and try to see things from his perspective instead of being automatically defensive. To do that I knew I had to spend a good bit of time reading through Wikipedia with more of an editors mind than a link builder.

Which shouldn’t have been hard for me since I spent many years as a DMOZ editor. But the two entities are very different so I found that didn’t help much in the end.

To get started, I clicked the conflict of interest link the poster provided and read through the page, then subsequent pages and even more pages after that. After all the reading and link skipping I came away with two conclusions: There isn’t a page in the guidelines and the site itself that doesn’t warn (in some fashion) about spamming. Every page mentions it so unless you’re a total idiot, that should be clear .

Second, after it was all read and done, I still don’t agree with the logic behind the posters comments -or- understand how my comments could be construed as a conflict of interest. Even the conflict of interest guidelinepage I was pointed to had an exception " Merely participating in or having professional expertise in a subject is not, by itself, a conflict of interest"

So I ask sincerely- where’s the correlation between “useful contribution” and conflict of interest? And where is this "don't submit your/client's information clause"? Would a public library turn down a book I authored simply because I wrote it?

I say "sincerely" because based on what I read, the guidelines provide a lot of positive encouragement and suggest editors approach the submission process with an assumption of good faith. The idea of submitting with a neutral point of view comes up over and over as does the issue of respect and consensus. All positive and constructive guidelines, and all related to my suggestion of making a “useful contribution”.

So why is it not right to add a site you own/are passionate about or add to a discussion and cite a resource you are associated with? Not everyone is trying to game Wikipedia. I can’t speak for others or what’s happened in the past but I do feel suggesting that someone is being rude or could suffer public embarrassment by contributing usefully totally goes against what they talk about here in common sense: “Being too wrapped up in rules can cause you to lose perspective”.

I totally get the idea they need rules and guidelines, any publically edited encyclopedia would but - to tell the public they can't contribute affiliated material because it's a conflict of interest just seems - well - undemocratic to me. The public reading the info doesn't know who submitted it, nor do they care. They just want good information. Can the Wikipedia honestly say they have all the quality information on subjects listed? Probably not. If you publically put a dampner on the idea you can't submit good information because you're the author or tied to the materials , there's a chance you'll never get quality information. Now who suffers?

One last thing.

I stand by what I recommended in my post today, getting links from credible sources such as the DMOZ, Yahoo! Directory and Wikipedia work to build your foundational link and business reputation. With the Wikipedia's all around visibility that just makes business and community sense. If you have good content that the world would benefit by knowing about, find the right category and participate by offering your information.

Don't spam and

Read the guidelines before you submit anywhere.

Hopefully I've covered all the disclaimers needed this time!

Artificial Playboy Links

Artificial world meets artificial world.

Seems like the perfect fit doesn't it?


Naturally!

Being TattleTails & Paid Links

Over on SearchMarketingGurus Liana posted the results of an informal survey she took from a handful of SEO's on paid links.

Can't say I was surprised at any of the responses save one -but- was surprised at the number of questions and "what if" scenarios the group posed in return.

Typically questions are asked when situations aren't clear or full information presented so I hope Google and the other engines takes this into consideration the next time they drop an important issue like this one in their official or unofficial blogs.

I Saw The Queen! I Saw The Queen!

After pulling the kids out of school




and waiting over four hours in the rain, we saw the Queen!!!

I never thought I'd hear myself say something like
this but - I really liked her hat. It was a gorgeous
shade of hot pink.

We also saw the back of Sandra Day O'Connor's head.

I know, I know - these aren't the greatest photos but -
as the Queen drew closer people pushed up against
the barracades where we were standing and
I kept getting bumped. Note to self: Get photography
tips from Mike .

Alright - back to link building posts.

The Queen Is Coming! The Queen Is Coming!

Tomarrow marks the summer long kick-off of America's 400th Annivesary Celebration of Jamestown with a visit from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

Moderate chaos is everywhere as local officials prepare for their arrival. I say moderate because we tend to get a lot of dignitaries, politicans, and celebrities here, not to mention several million 'regular' visitors each year. Historic Williamsburg is a rite of passage for family vacations and student field trips, I can't tell you how many times I've heard "oh I went there with my parents as a kid" or "took a bus trip there with my 5th grade class" when I tell people where I live.

Anyway - this isn't the Queens first visit to Jamestown, she was here exactly 50 years ago to open the original Jamestown Festival Park. Over on the official Jamestown 2007 website people who had seen her in 1957 were encouraged to share memories and photographs. It's an interesting step back in time when Polaroids were high-tech and people dressed up to travel:

I really enjoyed the Queens visit. They had a scrapbook made up without the photos. They took prearranged photos of her with a Polaroid camera, put them in the album and presented it to her at the end of the tour in the fort. She was amazed. I was picked up with others to go out to the Governor’s Palace at night where the Queen was to have dinner. We were lined up at the rear of the Palace where the Queen walked between us and under our raised pikes to a cart for cocktails. The Lord Mayor of London came by us, shook our hands and gave the sergeant a five-dollar bill and said to buy them a bottle. He knew we where in the Army. I could not believe he did that. Then after telling the Queen they arranged for us to have ten minutes at the bar after they went inside. Unbelievable. Hey you can’t make this stuff up. We never did find out what the Sergeant did with the five bucks.

I'm pretty sure today's Lord Mayor of London won't be handing out $5 bills for 'refreshments'. (Might have to be more like $20 if he did).

Seems the custom of class trips started way back when...

In 1957, I was 12 years old and in the sixth grade at John Marshall Elementary School in Portsmouth, VA. Our teacher, Miss Evelyn Brooks, was very much interested in the 350th anniversary. She made us listen to and memorize a little song about the "three small ships." I can still say the names--the Godspeed, the Discovery and the Susan Constant. She also took our class on a field trip to Jamestown. While there in the Gift Shop, I bought two souvenirs. One was a funny little decorative pot which said on it, "Captin John Smith, his jug," and the other was a wooden crucifix. I still have both.

One more...

My mother and father took me to the ceremonies in 1957 at the Festival Park in which the Queen participated. I remember my Dad hoisting me on to his shoulders so that I could see Her Majesty. He told me it was important for me to see her because the Queen was a living link to our past history both here in Virginia and in England and that it was a very unique moment in time. I remember she was so elegant and petite.

A group of girlfriends and I are planning to pull our kids out of school early tomarrow and head down to Colonial Williamsburg to catch a glimpse of the Queen. With Elvis dead this is probably the best shot I'll have at seeing royalty up close so we're going.

If you have a chance to visit Williamsburg - do. Busch is debuting a new roller coaster, Jamestown has their anniversary and Casa Mastaler should have a new pool. It's going to be a great summer!

VASEM Group

Simon Heseltine (searchenginetigers) graciously volunteered to organize a SEO/SEM group for Virginia.

He's working out first meeting details and will post them on MeetUp soon so if you're interested in knowing more, throw this link into your reader http://www.meetup.com/rss/g/seo/72/new/
for updates and pop over to MeetUp and sign up.

SMO - Good For Nothing Or Some Links?

Today on SEL I wrote about finding linking opportunities in the social media sites and associations. I'm a big believer in finding an established demographic and working it for links and contacts.

Overall the social media sites aren't good for much else when it comes to linking. Places like MySpace and Friendster allow a clean link in your profile or through their blogs but other than that, link opportunities don't exist. The power behind those sites comes in the community and networking and quite frankly, that takes way more time than I have.

Yes, you can build 50 MySpace profiles and each will have a clean outbound link but then again you have to BUILD them, and get others to link to them for those profiles to amount to any kind of link juice. Otherwise all you're doing to wasting time building a handful of MySpace pages no one will see.

Building profiles, lenses, pages or whatever you want to call them takes time, energy and resources few of us have. If you have a person solely dedicated to building your presence in the ever growing social space, forums, groups, webrings or whatever else is out there then power to you!! But if you're like the rest of us and don't have that kind of time, what do you do?

If you want to play in this space you need to pick a social community that's going to give you the biggest bang for your buck and work it. For example, if you think a weight loss site like LosingIt has the demographic you're targeting, get involved. Budget a couple hours a week to posting and going through the site until you can find an opportunity to build links. They're there , you just have to look.

And what about using Digg? It's been my experience that Digging articles and stories doesn't amount to much on the average. Yes, a ton of traffic will ensue but solid one-way links from credible sites doesn't happen often. The article gets added to scrapers or picked up on budding blogs but overall -I don't see credible news sites or business owners pick up what they find on Digg.

Does that mean you should skip Digg altogether? No. Every little bit helps but I wouldn't count on sites like Digg as your only linking tactic. Add the Digg effect to your linking arsenal but work the social media sites that can influence your sales for maximum, long term results.

Virginia Tech

We've been glued to the television and the Internet for the last couple of days watching the tragedy unfold in Blacksburg. Luckily everyone we know with children enrolled in Virginia Tech tell us they're safe and home now. We feel for our friends and their children for what they've gone through and can only imagine their pain.

Our local paper inserted a VT flag in today's edition, our's is hanging on the front door. Driving through town I noticed almost every house doing the same, it's an awesome show of support.

My nephew is a graduate of Tech but other than that, we have no ties to the school. I guess it doesn't really matter, we're Virginians and that makes us Hokies at heart.

Why I Blog MeMe For YouYou

I was tagged by DazzlinDonna in a blog meme called “Why I Blog”, which shouldn't be confused with the other meme that circled around called "Why I Started Blogging".

Since I'm quite sure no one gives a rats ass why I blog or why I started blogging, and since I'm not in the mood to come up with five cute, memorable, heart wrenching or somehow engaging tidbits that may or may not enlighten you further into my psyche, I'll forgo that crap and just say this:

I started blogging because I felt compelled to keep up with the SEO Joneses and because my writing skills suck and I need the practice.

With the exception of the word bingo, this post has all my favorite words in it. Bingo Bingo Bingo.

Have a nice day.

AndyH, Justilien, Eric, MikeG, and BillS you've been tagged and Stephen, you've been linked back to!