Recently by Ian

“Do you guarantee a top ranking?”

I hear this a lot.

The answer is “If I did, I’d be lying to you.”

Google today published revised guidelines for hiring a search engine optimization firm.

I think the single most valuable quote is:

“No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a ‘special relationship’ with Google, or advertise a ‘priority submit’ to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.”

We can’t guarantee you a ranking. A good SEO consultant can guarantee ethical practices, effort, experience and the ability to build measurable traffic over time.

Keep that in mind as you search for your next SEO firm...

[ Read about Portent’s search engine optimization services here ]

As Tom said last week, you must include search engine optimization in your internet marketing process from day 1. “Day 1” means “the first day you think about building a new web site”.

And that’s not some kind of weird Seattle thing, either. Your web site is part of your campaign. So the planning that goes into it is critical to your marketing goals.

Here’s how and when you should involve the search engine optimization team:

Planning the Project

Ideally, get your SEO vendor involved during project planning. Have them sit down with your design and development folks to figure out when SEO input will help.

Creating the Architecture

Ask your search engine optimization guru to work with the information architect. She’ll have tools to measure keyword competitiveness and relevance, and help the architect figure out what should go where.

Keyword data gives the SEO rare insight into just how your visitors use your site. Capitalize on that.

Then, when the architect is selecting the right tools (shopping cart, content management system, etc.) for your site, the SEO can help weed out the technologies that will bury you in the rankings.

Putting it All Together

As your writers, designers and developers pull the site together, your search engine optimization specialist can help:

• Structure content for the best visitor and SEO impact;
• Design pages that will look good and be search-friendly;
• Program the site so it presents a big ‘come on in!’ sign to search engines.

Ensuring All Is Well

The search engine optimization consultant can check your site for potential problems before you launch. They’ll find broken links, duplicate content and any other unexpected problems.

She can also map out which pages on the old site need to be redirected. Smart redirection will ensure that your site keeps the link authority as you switch over.

After

Once the site launches, the SEO consultant will help you with link building, ongoing optimization and content strategy. What they won’t have to do is backtrack and fix things that you already paid for.

Isn’t that a good thing?

[ You can learn about Portent’s search engine optimization services here. ]

Over the last few months, Comscore has reported declining paid search clicks on Google.com. Hand-wringing pundits have therefore wrung their hands mightily, pointing to this as a sign that the End Is Upon Us.

We found out that the clicks weren’t actually gone. They were just lost for a bit.

Portent Interactive has conducted exhaustive research and discovered that Google’s Adwords click traffic has actually increased month over month for the last six months. The entire kerfuffle is due to a phenomenon known to anyone who does laundry and wonders where those odd socks end up.

After speaking with an unidentified Google search engineer, we confirmed that Google has also been searching for these lost clicks. After installing the new Google SockSearch on 2,000,000 dryers nationwide, the missing clicks have been found. As have 400,000,000 odd socks.

Google confirms that SockSearch is focused purely on aggregate sock data and collects no information about underwear or color/white separation habits.

I just searched tomorrow’s stock results, and Google’s stock is going up tomorrow due in part to the good news about their click volumes, but also because of the estimated street value of 400 million socks.

Today is pi Day, in case you didn’t know. Geeks like us assigned 3/14 as ‘pi day’ because, well, it’s 3.14 and that’s funny. Chuckle chuckle snort.

pi Day is Great. But Why Not e Day?

But I have to stick up for a less known but just as important constant: e.

E is 2.71828 (with lots more numbers after that).

It’s crucial for financial calculations around compound interest, probability, asymptotics and a whole range of other mathematical mind-benders that give me a headache.

Google stated their intent to raise $2,718,281,828 when they filed for their IPO. How geeky is that? Matt, did you have anything to do with the choice of target amount?

We also use e in a lot of Portent’s own tools: Our keyword research tools as well as our keyword quality measurement calculator, to name two.

So let’s give pi a rest. Next year, 2/7 is e Constant Day!

I spoke about search marketing and analytics yesterday, at SEMPDX Searchfest 2008. It was a great conference and a great group!

If you need my slides, here they are:

Just a quick post to let Technorati know that we are indeed who we say we are.

Technorati Profile

Google has introduced a nifty new benchmarking report:

With it, you can see how you measure up against others in your industry. This kind of data is pure gold.

There’s one catch: You have to agree to share your data with Google, so that they can establish the benchmarks.

I strongly, strongly suggest that you do so. Here’s why:

1. The tradeoff: Google gets some basic analytics data that they could have anyway. You get to compare yourself to the rest of your industry. It’s a no-brainer.
2. The data: While you’re giving Google data like pageviews and visits, and they could potentially share this data with your competitors, guess what? Competitors can already get this kind of information through Compete.com (for free) or Hitwise (for a lot of money).
3. It’s anonymous: Your competitors won’t be able to look up “page views for Portent Interactive”. They’ll only see aggregate data for the entire industry. So, for example, I’ll be able to see how Portent Interactive compares to similar internet marketing agencies.

While the jury’s still out on how effective this new benchmarking tool will be, the potential upside is huge: Accurate, free, anonymous information showing how you’re doing compared to the rest of your industry.

Share your data. Everyone will gain for it.

If you want to learn more about Google Analytics Benchmarking and data sharing, visit the FAQ Google’s posted: Click here.

To read Google’s announcement about the new feature, click here.

Last week I attended SMX West. It was a great event, but one session in particular stood out for me: ‘Search Engine Q & A’.

Lead engineers from Google, Microsoft Live, Yahoo! and Ask all answered audience questions about search engine policies, what’s OK and what’s not, and the future of search.

One attendee asked, "Do you consider search engine optimization a good thing?"

I braced myself for an answer like, "No, we think you’re the scum of the earth".

But, first Google’s Matt Cutts, then every other engineer on stage, all answered that they considered ethical search engine optimization a good thing. No hemming and hawing, no hesitation.

Search Engines Want SEO?!

Yes. Ethical, smart search engine optimization works to:

• Create well-structured, easily-categorized web sites.
• Write great content.
• Make that content accessible to search engines.
• Make sure the search engines find the stuff.

The Market Rules

Great search engine optimization only makes the search engines better. They reciprocate by giving you a higher ranking. It’s a market of sorts, where the content creators have every incentive to deliver the best-quality information on the best-quality sites, and the search engines have every incentive to show that content.

Support the Market, and You’ll Benefit

Hire ethical, smart SEO agencies that will help you make long-term, sustainable improvements to your rankings. Don’t hire so-called miracle workers who promise fast, easy results. If it sounds to good to be true, it is.

The Pitch

Yes, it’s the Portent Interactive blog, so there’s a Portent Interactive pitch.

We’ve been practicing the kind of ‘white hat’ search engine optimization the search engines love for 10 years. You can learn more about our services by clicking any of the links below:

Search Engine Optimization Services
Portent’s $999 SEO Checkup
SEO Packages
Portent’s SEO Code of Ethics

I gave a talk about personas in search engine marketing today at SMX West, and then participated in a panel discussion on the topic.

You can grab the slides, and find links to others’ feelings on the presentation, here.

The father loves to brag about his kids (as I do). The CEO loves to brag about his team. I’ll spare you the kids. But I do want to introduce some of the team, and brag about their accomplishments.

Tracy Beach is our COO and one of our creative leaders. He’s been with Portent since 2000, starting as an HTML developer and designer. On his first day here he had to help move the office. He stayed anyway, and has masterminded projects like GOIAM.ORG, the Tour of California web site and momAgenda. Really, though, he influences every design we do, and makes Portent one of the best at executing internet marketing.

Branden Root is our CTO. He started as an intern in 2001, showing up for work on his first day in a 3-piece suit. I’m not 100% sure what to call his expertise. I strongly suspect he thinks in code. He’s brought Portent the best in tools and techniques and keeps everything working as it should. Branden designed the system behind Bella Sara, and built the multiple-store software that runs Groomstand and its sister stores.

Anna Abraham designed this web site. She rocks!

Chris Furniss made this site a reality with Movable Type and his expertise in the social media world.

Matthew Henry built and continues to refine sophisticated tools for search engine optimization. He also understands regular expressions, which scares me a little.

Jade Ingmire heads up our copywriting team, but also provides creative leadership on all sorts of projects.

Cathy Braun has somehow found a way to introduce real quality assurance in a marketing agency. No small feat.

Our account team includes Ariana Burgess, Matthew Guiste, Stacy Conner, Sarah Mackay and Mike Fitterer. They bring not only project management expertise, but also strong marketing backgrounds. That’s why we call them account strategists. They don’t just hand messages back and forth. They guide marketing strategy.

Christopher Bachmann, Jann VanOver and Andy Schaff are some of our crack developers. They’re regularly called upon to figure out everything from Flash data integration to advanced, web-based printing systems. They’ve never failed to solve complex problems and roll out great software.

Sooo many others, too. I won’t stuff the blog full of my kvelling (Yiddish for bragging about someone’s accomplisments). Suffice it to say that I’m very proud of the folks we’ve gathered at Portent.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system, my future posts will be chock-full of marketing thinking.