Great Posts Elsewhere - Link Blog

Excerpt: "These technologies work best when there's lots of competition and lots of choice, and when users are alert and don't trust companies that don't deserve their trust."

Excerpt: "Who really needs another directory that does the same as one that exists already. One person - the owner who spots what he thinks is a gravy train and a chance for an easy pound note..."

Excerpt: "The branding experts said he desperately needed help with his image and message. (He did?) They'd do the job for free. (They would?)"

Excerpt: "The more I think about it the more I realize why Google doesn't like the various flavors of paid links. It has nothing to do with organic search relevancy..."

Excerpt: "Finally Google will better separate paid ads from organic ads and thus I feel that organic listings will start getting a higher click through rate, but what about paid ads?"

Excerpt: "This document represents the collective wisdom of 34 leaders in the world of organic search engine optimization."

SEO Refugee on the "death" of Search Engine Optimization.

Excerpt: "Nobody here does SEO. What we do is run forums and businesses, promote products and services, and provide information and entertainment... Calling ourselves SEOs is a bit like referring to truckers as teamsters in spite of the fact that they’ve never seen a mule team."

Excerpt: "If spam is hosted by Google, ranked by Google, and displays Google ads, then why the need for outsourcing that fault? Why can't we just call those people Google affiliates and leave it at what it is, Google = spam?"

Excerpt: "...the days of the Adsense banner sitting on the top, bottom, left or right hand sides of a web page are over."

Five SEO experts weigh in on link building.

Excerpt: "What follows is over 6600 words of link development experience and theory packaged into one handy dandy document."

The importance of design for blogs, although it really applies to any web site.

Excerpt: "In the world of blogging, content might be king, but design is at least the court jester. And we all know the court jester is really the one keeping things together."

Excerpt: "Ever wondered how some people get more readers than others? Here’s a quick and dirty guide to gaining more readers and growing your blog base."

Lee Odden's advice on marketing with Press Releases.

Excerpt: "...now that online news sites such as Yahoo News and Google News contain such an abundance of press release content and RSS makes it easy to syndicate news, press releases can be effectively used as a direct to consumer communication tool."

Advice on keeping your bandwidth usage in check from Coding Horror.

Excerpt: "After implementing all these changes, I'm very happy with the results. I see a considerable improvement in bandwidth usage, and my page load times have never been snappier."

Shandy King on the benefits of professional design.

Excerpt: "When I stumble upon a business that has chosen to develop their website themselves using one of the “website in a box” service offerings I literally cringe in my chair."

Examples of terrific footer design, one of the most overlooked areas of most websites.

Excerpt: "Some are aesthetically pleasing, some offer atypical forms of navigation and functionality, and some just plain work well."

Interesting article by Igor Mordkoviche about the affect of ad copy on website conversion.

Excerpt: "...many think that getting people to click on the PPC ad and getting them to convert to a sale are completely separate targets. You’ll be surprised how much effect your ad copy has on your conversion rate."

Insight from Darren Rowse about how you don't need to write about complex subjects to find new readers. While it's directed toward blog owners, the advice could be equally relevant to any web site.

Excerpt: "Today it struck me afresh just how many of the visitors coming into my blogs are looking for the answers to incredibly simple questions."

An SEO weighs in on Fluid vs. Fixed-width design.

Excerpt: "While design isn’t specifically SEO, it affects page construction, keyword/content prominence, conversions and ultimately ROI so it’s not something an SEO can afford to ignore."