I’m super busy doing the finishing touches (erm writing the entire thing) to my presentations for SMX London this week. So I haven’t got time to write a big post, BUT I came across this HILARIOUS term today (actually one of my clients sent it to me, thanks Gavin!).

It would make such a great t-shirt.

So here goes: What do you call a person that is really good at link baiting?

Obviously the t-shirt is just to demonstrate, but if anyone is intrested in one I will add it to our SEO-Chicks t-shirt shop!

I laughed my head off anyway, does that make me a mega geek?

Thanks Gavin for the heads up, genius!

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but copying your competitors entire site isn’t.  It may seem like they have what you need to rank well but rankings aren’t just about on page content anymore.

Spying on the competition is easy with a plethora of free tools at our disposal.  While this will not help page rankings directly, it could help conversions when the best landing pages are selected for imitation.  The purpose in examining the competition is not to copy them exactly but to use the varied approaches they use as a launching point from where you can build your own site’s identity.  Imitating as well as innovating and building on that imitation to create something unique is key.  Copying any page exactly for conversions won’t improve yours and may diminish them.  Copying the competition could also diminish your site’s perceived value as you become seen as a possible fraud copying another site to steal business.  The customer is savvy – they know when you’re copying and when you’ve created something personal.  You’ll aslo lose out to duplicate content penalties.

Ranking for your desired terms can seem an occult practice.  Obfuscation has made it more difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff and create a personal strategy.  Small to medium sized companies may not have the budget or the trust to hire in outside help and so implementing basic changes inhouse can make huge differences.  Look at the competition, understand what they have done, imitate their positive wins and build on them.  There is more to it than just on page changes but that is the best place to begin.

Site design needs to be distinct and compliment your company’s existing schemes.  Over the years I have worked on businesses in very niche areas.  I have seen sites attempting to exactly replicate their best competitor and yet subtly change the page to steal loyal customers and traffic but escape lawsuits.  This will not improve rankings and may well lose you rankings overall due to duplicate content.  Additionally it is ‘bad karma’ as they say and the lawyers fees just aren’t worth it.  Be unique when you use your competition for inspiration.

I’m currently working with someone tackling the problem of duplicate content.  They lost rankings and have seen some scraper sites ranking better than they are for their own unique content.  They are tackling the duplicate content problem head on by removing all articles already duplicated and changing the code of new ones.  The scraper sites will soon carry links back to the originating site as well as scraping content with adverts in it, making the original site even more money.  The scraper sites are unlikely to notice until their traffic dips and possibly not even then.

Copying exactly another site leaves an inflexibility in place that can be difficult to break.  If you don’t seek to understand what you’ve copied, when rankings are lost you will find it difficult to recover.  If you rely on copied content when it changes or loses rank juice you are back to square one.  Pure copying can be so restrictive as to be impossible to work with.

Imitating the competition is fine and is, in fact, anticipated.  Copying them like a phishing site isn’t cool and customers quickly catch on and your site may lose perceived authority.  Use the competition as inspiration and create something new – don’t just copy them.  And for those of you scraping the content of sites I work on, all your revenue is belong to us

I tend to think that almost every industry would benefit from SEO…but lately I have been realizing that there really are some whose spirit would be quite crushed by something that leads to mass exposure, namely the independent music scene.

Indie music, for instance, IS so fantastic because it’s, well, it’s INDEPENDENT and not mass-produced. There are obviously many benefits to not being on a major label and many artists going this route don’t do so simply out of the inability to secure a major contract; they do so because they don’t fit into mass-market slots and they don’t want to lose their artistic integrity by being shaped and sold as a package. That’s the way I like to see it in any case…so if you think this is untrue keep it to yourself. I like to think that there really are musicians in the world who create without thinking solely about financial rewards.

It’s not just the music itself either; it’s also the clubs that promote these bands. I was pleasantly surprised, after being a bit irritated, that I was unable to easily and quickly find tons of information about indie music in Vegas. A few MySpace results popped up but I don’t like young people so I didn’t click on them, and really there wasn’t much else. It was only by reading about a trashy dive bar in a book that I had that I was able to find a venue that has 5 punk bands on for the Friday night when I’m there for WebMasterWorld. That’s actually pretty cool.

Years ago independent bands were something that seemed to be almost a luxury to find. You’d have to go out to a club and catch an act, or get someone’s crappy cassette tape that would usually give you the idea that the band had driven over it several times after recording it in mono. You’d learn of bands by word of mouth: someone’s older brother would drive an hour away to see a show, you’d hang out in the local record shop and ask a billion questions about new garage bands, and you’d feel like you’d really accomplished something by finding a great new record. I was lucky enough to know two fantastically knowledgable record shop clerks that got me into everything from Scruffy the Cat to Christian Death, and I am still thankful for their influence.

Indie music IS a bit easier to find these days…and I really am glad for that, since I don’t have the same amount of time to search for it. AND, lest he reads this and has a cow, my good friend Gene does his part at attempting to keep me posted on anything good when it comes out. I just think that it’s kind of nice that this is one industry that hasn’t been taken over and SEO’d to the max. All those grungey flannel-shirt adorned bands might not be so happy about this but if they were making tons of money and on the radio constantly, it wouldn’t be the same.

So go search for some new bands…just don’t search online for them. And please, please let me know when you find something good. I actually discovered Sparklehorse by reading a Tom Waits interview where he mentioned them and I liked their name and thought I’d give them a listen. They’re utterly perfect too, the best band I’ve heard in years and years. So take that as a recommendation if you do like non-mainstream music. And yes, I do realize the irony of promoting them on an SEO blog but I’ll think of it more as word of mouth.

I’ve got that warm and fuzzy feeling that usually only my husband evokes.  Something has me all hot and bothered.  I’ve been playing with myself at http://tools.seobook.com/website-health-check/ - and of course by “myself” I mean my websites.  God you people have dirty minds!  My husband is a programmer and he makes fantastically innovative bits of code.  For goodness sake people!  Minds in gutters….

What a fantastic tool!  Why did someone not come up with this sooner – Aaron, you are a god (possibly a Nordic one)!  I can now solve a gazillion phone calls from friends who just need a little bit of advice by pointing them at this tool.

Please everyone with “how to” sites out there – please add a link to this tool with your explanations about tags, duplicate content and the like.  I believe that it might even help the new folk out there who want to hire an SEO firm check their own site so they know what is going on before they walk in to that meeting.  Heck, it’s a great little quick and dirty check on any site!

This fantastic tool drills 1000 pages deep on your website checking for missing title tags, missing descriptions, duplicate tags, duplicate descriptions,  www vs non-www issues that we all know and love, it check the index and home page just in case and checks that the proper error codes are being returned.

I fed it several URLs I have *too many*cough* and it flagged some issues I haven’t been bothered to fix errrrr…. have been so busy I haven’t yet had the chance to fix.  It even flagged up some duplicate title issues I didn’t know about.  It tells you exactly what the description or title that is duplicated is and which pages it appears on.

Fantastic!  Go there, have a play, enjoy yourself, have some fun, mock your competitors and boogie - there needs to be more boogie in our lives.

Always remember the call of the cowboy - “Meta tags?  We don’t need no stinkin’ meta tags!”

Recently SEOmoz has had the pleasure of being caught in several bloggers’ scopes because of the controversy behind Rand’s Google Payola post. While much of the criticism was largely professional and constructive, some of it has been more personal and not constructive. Regardless of the type of criticism, it’s essential to react to it appropriately, especially when the Internet is essentially your workplace.

Before I delve further, let me be the first one to admit that I am a stubborn person (thanks, Kelley genes), and I’ve had my feathers ruffled a few times online. It can be difficult to respond to professionally to criticism, whether it’s constructive or a personal attack. In light of recent events, however, I’ve thought a lot about how to “temper your hubris,” as Rand often puts it, and handle the occasional negative or disagreeing remark thrown your way.

Let’s face it, a huge appeal of the Internet is its seductive anonymity (Rand had a recent Whiteboard Friday about a similar topic). You can say things to someone you wouldn’t dream of uttering in person because you’re hiding behind the warm, soft glow of your monitor. Keep this in mind when you get your feelings hurt and are furiously typing a scathing response—would you say what you’re about to type to that person face-to-face? If so, more power to ya because you’ve got quite the pair on you. If not, it might be a good idea to tone it down a bit and write a response you’d actually give in person. Lots of people avoid unnecessary conflict in person because it’s uncomfortable—keep that in mind when you’re addressing it online. Don’t exacerbate the matter or add fuel the fire if it’s unwarranted.

Someone (I forgot who, so if it was you then let me know and I can credit you) pointed me to this great writeup about how to handle criticism on the web. I recommend giving it a read. One sentence in particular stuck out to me: “The more viewers your work has, the more likely you’ll be to encounter a completely unreasonable opinion.” Indeed, the longer I’ve worked at SEOmoz, the more criticism and backlash I’ve seen directed at both me and the company. When we were the underdog we got a lot more polite encouragement. As SEOmoz became more visible and a rising authority in the industry, more and more people began to scrutinize and criticize our business decisions and blog posts. From a personal standpoint, it is pretty surprising to go from reading comments about how I’m a great addition to SEOmoz to hearing people scoff that I “don’t know anything about SEO.” But, I understand that the more visible you become, the more attention (both good and bad) you get (here is a nifty graph for you visual learners). What matters is how you react to the attention.

The important thing to remember is to not take criticism personally. Remember that constructive criticism, though it may hurt, is meant to help you, whether to be a better person, run a better business, implement a better business strategy, etc. Personal attacks are juvenile and are meant to hurt you, so don’t give those people the satisfaction of knowing they got to you and upset you. Don’t dismiss criticism, however—ignoring constructive criticism ensures you’ll make the same mistakes over and over again and run the risk of alienating those who are trying to help you, while you can take negative criticism and decide to avoid or not to do business with the offenders.

In my opinion, if you have any sort of visibility online and are sensitive to everything negative you read about you, you won’t last long in that role. Though it may sting, if you’re looking to have a positive brand and be successful on the Internet, it’s a good idea to remember when to swallow your pride and thicken up your skin.

Apparently the Facebook group “1,000,000 Strong for Stephen T Colbert” is the fastest-growing Facebook ever (if you believe the hype, and I’m gullible so yes, I do.) This is only slightly more impressive than the SEO Chicks Facebook group reaching 69 members in close to 6 months. However, we have not (yet) threatened to crush the state of Georgia so that’s most likely why we’re not seeing such a massive spike.

The Colbert group and all the other groups that involve a drumming up of support for his Presidential bid are doing an amazing job of basically conducting a massive free focus group session. This is an absolutely brilliant use of social media. It’s funny and innovative enough that it gets the attention of interested people, which automatically makes it at least as valid a study as one run by those pesky teenagers who accost you at the mall when you unknowingly come around a corner without having your weapon drawn.

Focus groups, especially properly run ones, can cost quite a bit of money. They can also easily fail to give you any usable information. There are a variety of reasons for this, ranging from the simple “god I want to get out of here so I can get another Cinnabon” to the more complex “my lithium supply is low and I need more now.” Sometimes people simply want to tell you whatever they can in order to be relieved of their duty. I’ve pretended to be a Satanist before, simply to get some Jehovah’s Witnesses to leave me the hell alone. Word of warning here: that simply eggs them on so just pull out a gun or something.

If you’ve ever been desperate for money and the plasma donation center was closed due to a health department crackdown, you may have agreed to be a part of a focus group. Sitting in a room with other jury-duty-avoiding citizens may not seem nearly as bad when you’re asked to do it…until you sit there and watch an inane video for 45 minutes and then have to answer questions about it when you spent the whole time wondering what you were going to wear tomorrow and how come your dog still stinks like ass even though he’s been bathed 5 times in the past week. A Facebook group, unless it’s been really poorly planned, doesn’t usually come with all of this baggage. At minimum, you don’t have to actually sit near anyone else who may or may not have indulged in the same ritual daily shower that you did this morning.

It’s not just the lack of a need for physical presence that makes something like a Facebook group a great way to gauge an opinion on something, either. Did I mention the whole free factor? There’s no cost for a well-ventilated room anywhere, no equipment to buy and maintain, and no budget for Cheezits and apple juice. In something as volatile as online marketing, spending tons of money on something that takes lots of time as well is not a really great idea. By the time you’ve spent a fortune to discover that yes, this idea is good but this one sucks, you may have missed your chance anyway. Why not do a quick Facebook test and save yourself a lot of trouble?

Obviously this is not an idea that everyone could use. In the spirit of simply giving you something to think about, I’m also oversimplifying things. I personally don’t have much need of testing anything other than “are my nun jokes really that offensive?” or “who likes Gary Numan?” Still, at times, even though I utterly despise politics, that sector leads the way in many aspects of our culture. With the Colbert group’s attempt to determine how much support he could indeed potentially get if he ran for President in the U.S., they’ve opened up the possibility of finding a great new way to identify popular opinion without clipboards and bored yet earnest teenagers. This could be seriously invaluable information in many industries.

Last night I attended the B2B Marketing Awards in London, and it was an awesome night. All dressed up like cindafuckinrella =) The agency I work for, Base One, was nominated in quite a few categories and won “B2B Agency of the Year”. And as Julie mentioned I was nominated and WON “B2B Newcomer of the Year“. I was going to be all modest and not blow my own trumpet, but heck sod it, I’m estatic, and also possibly a little drunk still

The awards were amazing and took place in The Brewery in London (yeah I know, how English, an award cermony in a brewery), but it was a truly amazing venue. It felt like the Oscars. Round tables, stage and the whole shhhbang.

I thought I would share some photos with you all (mostly of me looking very excited):

The Base One bunch huddling in for a photo after getting “B2B Agency of the Year”

Me, nearly crying when they called out my name (and they pronounced my name right!!)

Accepting the Award - Looking absolutely terrified (and slightly drunk)

Newcomer of the Year or Crack head of the year? Very happy though!

Bring on the champagne!

Champagne + Awards = Happy faces!

From left: Sarah Simpson, Myself, Jennifer Handbury, John Williams and Base One MD Richard Bush.

Now this might be a little cheesy, but I would really like to thank some people (and didn’t get to do it on the night). I would really like to thank one of my clients, Paul Lees (from Powwownow) for getting me really “in to” SEO when I first started. He kept on asking questions I couldn’t answer lol, and managed to inspire me to learn more. Might sounds weird but that’s how this crazy obsession with my job all started I would also like to thank my excellent MD, Richard Bush, who always believes in me and listens to all my crazy ideas and lets me talk “AT” him for hours. Richard, you are a true inspiration and an excellent motivater!

I would also like to thank the fantastic people I work with at Base One (in particularly John Bottom who wrote my wicked entry for the nomination). And lastly, but by no means least, I would like to thank all the SEO-Chicks, our readers and all the wonderful people in the SEO industry!!

SEO ROCKS!

Um, not really…but close!

Since everyone’s favorite Norwegian is very modest, I thought I’d quickly write something to let you all know that Lisa won the B2B Marketing Newcomer of the Year Award last night. Since I could go on and on and on about why she deserves it and why I love her so much, I will take this time to be concise and just say how proud the SEO Chicks are of our fearless leader.

And don’t worry…I’ve told her that she owes us a post about it so hopefully we’ll all hear more soon.

So Lisa, serious congratulations to you. We all knew you’d win!

The battle lines have been drawn.  The weapons readied.  The battlefield, full of the milling throngs of social network users, stills briefly as the combatants take the field.  This is the new front in Google’s attempt to force themselves into every facet of the web.  Google has entered in to the fray of social networking.

Since the news broke at the Virtual Worlds Forum about Google working with partners around the globe on a new virtual world, the pieces have begun falling in to place and more leaks have sprung.  It seems Google is no longer simply helping us find what we need and selling ad space, it also wants a piece of the Yahoo! action by actively courting the social network scene.

TechCrunch announced that Google was going to confront Facebook’s dominance head on.  Google is apparently at war with Facebook and their dominant position within social networks.  What, there isn’t room for another large, global-reach company outside the Google empire?  If it was a Yahoo! property, would it still be such a threat or is it the “loose cannon” nature of a company not controlled by one of the big search companies too much for Google to handle?  Facebook has suddenly become the target of a company seeking to own the web.

It smacks of petty schoolyard antics.  The geeks got cool and people crowded around them.  Suddenly another group of geeks got cool and they gathered a crowd.  The geeks at the centre of the older, larger grouping are now getting jealous and trying to make the other geek group change or shrink or something.  I can just hear them all chanting “join us” as the leaders at the centre lay a series of elaborate traps designed to try and show how cool they are and how not cool the other geeks are.

People - please can we all just stop drinking the damn kool aid (acid laced or poison laced), down some jelly shots and all be friends.  I like the green ones please.  And there is no such thing as too much vodka.  Seriously this is starting to look a bit like Google wants to be the biggest and best around and have all the press.  This upstart grabbing some of their precious headlines must be stopped at all costs.

Google is a facilitator, and what TechCrunch suggested was about to be unveiled could be a brilliant bit of facilitating.  The drawback is that they will open and facilitate sharing between a limited number of websites picked by them so just creating another “club”.  Google trying to launch itself more in to the social sphere with virtual worlds and social networking facilitation seems like a step too far and one likely doomed to failure.  Orkut will never achieve the standing of Facebook without massing investment of time, money and effort and I don’t see that forthcoming.

There are many reasons that Facebook is the social network of choice besides the ease of signup and use.  Facebook lets me list my upcoming.org events, my twitter feed, my flickr photos, my techcrunch feed, my stumbleupon feed, and lots more.  It enables me to segment my social communications away from my work ones and gives me a 10-minute break from my day withoug having to walk away from the office.  It helps me find help when I need it, keep up on friends activities, and lets me broadcast to the world how chuffed I am that MY KID SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED!  Facebook has already enabled me to centralise my social networks in a single place and while I haven’t been able to port my friends yet, I don’t necessarily want everyone I friended on upcoming to be my facebook friend.

I think Facebook might yet prove itself to be the next Google.  A handful of formet Google-ers seem to think so.  What remains to be seen is how much Facebook open up to virtual worlds and how integrated in to our lives Facebook can become.