Featured Posts

How to Use Coupon Codes to Promote your business

If you are an run an online ecommerce program, it’s very likely that you have come up against the coupon code dilemma. You offer a deal that allows customers to use a coupon code for a free item, free shipping, or to get a discount. However, what do you do when the promotion ends? If you leave the box open, … [Continue reading How to Use Coupon Codes to Promote your business]

Why Google Doesn’t Like to Talk About Updates

One of the recurring themes I’ve been seeing in the past few months, comes from web publishers trying to confirm when and where Google updates actually happen. This type of thing has been going on for years and it’s not a new topic, what is new is that Google is now confirming that there is a lot of contradictory information … [Continue reading Why Google Doesn’t Like to Talk About Updates]

How to Build an Affiliate Website Google Doesn’t Hate

In over a decade of working on websites I’ve see a lot of affiliate websites. Some were good but a lot were very bad. In this post, I’ll share my experiences about what I think Google is looking for and the common traits of things I’ve seen fail.

How To Silo Your Website: The Footer

This post is part of a series on How to Silo Your Website. The other parts in the series are: How to Silo Your Website: The Masthead, How to Silo Your Website, The Breadcrumb , How to Silo Your Website: The Content, and How to Silo Your Website: The Sidebar. For this last part, we’ll be looking at the footer.

How To Silo Your Website:The Sidebar

The following post is part of a series on How to Silo Your Website. You should review, How to Silo Your Website the Masthead, How to Silo Your Website the Breadcrumb, How to Silo Your Website the Content. For this part, we’ll be taking a look at the sidebar.

How to Silo Your Website: The Content

The following is part of the series How To Silo Your Website. Be sure you have read parts one and two: How To Silo Your Website: The Masthead and How to Silo Your Website: The Breeadcrumb. In this part, we will be taking a look at the content area.

Recent Posts

How to Build an Affiliate Website Google Doesn’t Hate

In over a decade of working on websites I’ve see a lot of affiliate websites. Some were good but a lot were very bad. In this post, I’ll share my experiences about what I think Google is looking for and the common traits of things I’ve seen fail.

How To Silo Your Website: The Footer

This post is part of a series on How to Silo Your Website. The other parts in the series are: How to Silo Your Website: The Masthead, How to Silo Your Website, The Breadcrumb , How to Silo Your Website: The Content, and How to Silo Your Website: The Sidebar. For this last part, we’ll be looking at the footer.

How To Silo Your Website:The Sidebar

The following post is part of a series on How to Silo Your Website. You should review, How to Silo Your Website the Masthead, How to Silo Your Website the Breadcrumb, How to Silo Your Website the Content. For this part, we’ll be taking a look at the sidebar.

How to Silo Your Website: The Content

The following is part of the series How To Silo Your Website. Be sure you have read parts one and two: How To Silo Your Website: The Masthead and How to Silo Your Website: The Breeadcrumb. In this part, we will be taking a look at the content area.

Forbes Article

I’m mentioned in a Forbes article about Google along with Aaron Wall and Jim Boykin

$5 million spent on a domain? Here’s why.

Recently Slots.com sold for 5.5 million dollars, when the general public looks at a domain sale of six to seven figures it erupts feelings of envy, mysticism, curiosity and plain head scratching disbelief. Much to the delight of companies such as Godaddy.com people go out in droves registering hundreds to thousands of domains treating the url’s like virtual lottery tickets. … [Continue reading $5 million spent on a domain? Here’s why.]

Outbound Linking Can Boost Rankings

Many of the poorly ranking websites that I am asked to fix share a common problem – they do not link out to any websites.  Apparently, some people still think this is a terrible idea and go to extremes to never link out to anyone. Taking any idea to an extreme is generally never a good plan.  By changing the … [Continue reading Outbound Linking Can Boost Rankings]

How To Silo Your Website: The Masthead

One of the more powerful tools an SEO can use when setting up or fixing an existing website is siloing or themeing. However, when I mention this to beginner or intermediate SEO’s, they are often confused about how and where to start. In this multi-part series, I’ll be giving you some examples of how I use the technique.

Why You Should Care About AT&T’s iPhone Data Plans Even If You Don’t Own an iPhone

While a lot of the attention on AT&T and Apple in the past few weeks has been focused on the release of the iPad and new iPhone,  the elimination of unlimited data plans is an equally important development, especially for website owners and publishers.

Dave Pasternack of Did-it.com Spamming MyBloglog

I got a tip that our friend Dave Pasternack has taken to spamming MyBloglog now. Pretty nice, one community is his own bio page at Did-it, the other is Did-it.com main site and the third is his CafePress shop. Which is particularly funny because they left out the Did-it.com actual blog, way to go for relevancy there guys! Almost as … [Continue reading Dave Pasternack of Did-it.com Spamming MyBloglog]

Optimizing WordPress Page Titles, Post Titles and Page Slugs

While wordpress is one of my favorite CMS platforms, out of the box it isn’t search engine optimized. Combine this with people who aren’t SEO aware, and publish a blog, and you almost always end up with an implementation that’s sub-optimal. Here are some tips to help you get things on track and moving in the right direction.

Why You Should Avoid Numbers in Your URL

While linkbait posts aren’t as popular as they once were, top 10 lists have been popular ever since Moses came down from the mount with his top 10 list of “thou shalt nots.” Magazines like Rolling Stone will always have top 500 playlists and AFI will always publish top 100 movies lists. However, as a responsible publisher, marketer, and SEO … [Continue reading Why You Should Avoid Numbers in Your URL]

Using Images for Better Linkbait

The following is part of a series on image optimization. In this post, we’re going to be talking about images for increasing the success of linkbait.

Why You Need to Be Concerned About Sloppy CSS

If you follow me on twitter chances are you seen more than one rant on bad web design, bad CSS, and bad/sloppy coding. Sure I’m a reformed CSS Zealot who used write XHTML 1.1 valid code for kicks. I may have returned to slightly more normal life, but I still believe there’s value in writing clean code. I was migrating … [Continue reading Why You Need to Be Concerned About Sloppy CSS]

Link Building – Creating Exceptional Content for Boring Topics

Whenever you’re at a conference and you speak to a Google Engineer about link building, they will almost always default back to “create exceptional content that is linkworthy” or some similar concept. I’ve been speaking with people at conferences, both clients and potential clients, and mentioning the same thing for years. The response I often get back is, “We’re selling … [Continue reading Link Building – Creating Exceptional Content for Boring Topics]

Building a Mobile Website Should be Your #1 IT Project

If I had the ability to reach through the screen, grab you by the shoulders, look you in the eye, and tell you that building a mobile version of your website should be your number one IT project this year, I would. While I may be on the bleeding edge of mobile consumption, the adoption of smart phones, tablets, and … [Continue reading Building a Mobile Website Should be Your #1 IT Project]

Upgrade Your Hosting and Save Some Cash with TigerTech

If you’re like most people at the beginning of each year, you’ll review your business, look at where you are spending money, and look for things to cut or ways to save a few bucks. That’s why I’m going to bring up something we all have to deal with: web hosting. In all the time I’ve been building websites, I’ve probably tried … [Continue reading Upgrade Your Hosting and Save Some Cash with TigerTech]

Book Review: The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

The Shallows by Nicholas Carr proposes the following: that the Internet and all of the its shallow content is actually rewiring our brains and how we process information.

Stuntdubl Interview

Lee Oden from Online Marketing Blog got an interview with my buddy Todd (aka Stuntdubl) that’s well worth the read. (» Interview with Todd Malicoat aka Stuntdubl of We Build Pages) In the interview I read something that gave me an idea I’ll never get around to doing, so I’ll throw it out there:

Creating Better Auto-Generated Text

Over the past two weeks we’ve taken a look at different aspects of copywriting, including aspects such as the value of good copy, outsourcing your content, and tools to make your content better. To round out the series I thought I’d touch on auto-generated content and how to make it better.

Favorite Posts

13 Ways to Promote your Local Business for Free

Many local businesses struggle to find ways to promote themselves, get links, rank in search engines, and ultimately drive traffic to their websites. Most small businesses also have limited budgets making the task more difficult. For those businesses here are 13 ways you can promote your business online for free.

How To Silo Your Website: The Masthead

One of the more powerful tools an SEO can use when setting up or fixing an existing website is siloing or themeing. However, when I mention this to beginner or intermediate SEO’s, they are often confused about how and where to start. In this multi-part series, I’ll be giving you some examples of how I use the technique.

Is Having a High Exit Rate Bad

Is having a high exit rate bad? In pursuit determining whether Google is using analytics data to ranks SERPS, many marketers put undue focus and weight on factors like bounce rate and exit rate instead of taking a more holistic look at the statistics in relation to one another and what they really mean.

Why Google Thinks SPYW is a Good Idea and You Probably Don’t

In a recent statement Larry Page said if you don’t get SPYW then maybe you shouldn’t work at Google. To understand why he thinks this is such a good idea–and why the rest of the world thinks it isn’t–we need to revisit the concept of filter bubbles and why they are such a bad idea.

SEO 101: Getting the Right URL Structure

On my list of top 5 problems I encounter when doing client work, the number one problem is poor URL structure. In this post I’ll go over the basics, how to get it right, what are the most common problems, and how to fix them.

How to Handle Old Directory Listings, Links and off Topic Traffic

Today’s post is another answer to a question–this time from Nathan Schubert, who wants to know what you should do with old links from directories and websites that still drive traffic if you’ve changed the content on your website.

Content Ideas – Creating an Ongoing Series

One of the problems that website owners and bloggers encounter on a regular basis is coming up with ideas for posts. One of the tactics that I like to employ is creating a regular ongoing post series.

Is a High Bounce Rate Bad?

Is having a high bounce rate bad? It depends. In this post, we will be looking at bounce rate in association with other factors to help you spot a bad high bounce rate from a high bounce rate you don’t need to be worried about.

How to Speed Up Your WordPress Website

Right now, wordpress is running on over 10 million websites, or just over 18% of the websites currently on the internet. While wordpress isn’t without its problems, there’s no denying it’s a popular, easy to set up, and easy to use CMS. However, despite what many will tell you, “out of the box” wordpress is neither SEO friendly or configured … [Continue reading How to Speed Up Your WordPress Website]

Creating Head & Tail Content

Although I have mentioned head & tail content on this blog a few times, I haven’t devoted an entire post to it, which is probably an oversight on my part.

Is There Any Value in Getting Links From Directories

Today’s post is answer to a question from Curedream: Is there really any value in getting links from the Yahoo directory I’m going to move that up a bit and tackle directories in general.  In my opinion, yes, there is value in getting your website listed in some directories–but not all. The trick is figuring out which ones matter most. … [Continue reading Is There Any Value in Getting Links From Directories]

Adding Revenue Streams Into Your Website or Blog

One of my more popular posts from 2010 was about How to Integrate Advertising into Your Blog. In this post, I’m going to expand on that from a strategic point of view and talk about ways to add revenue streams into your website or blog.