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Excerpt: I was all excited about the sitemaps standard when I first heard about it.  The catch is, it's not clear when everyone will support it.  This URL indicates that the following URL-template:<searchengine_URL>/ping?sitemap=sitemap_urlis used to ping the various search engines to let them know that a sitemap is present, or updated in the sitemaps standard.  I've attempted the following requests (Google's works — http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitema…

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Excerpt: Some of you may have noticed my appearance has been a bit spotty lately.  That's because I'm working feverishly on putting the final finishing touches on my book — chapters 9, 10, 11.  Some material has changed since the first drafts and I now must rewrite it.  This industry moves so quickly.Obviously, this takes time.  No, I haven't abandoned this blog.  But I am looking for guest bloggers.  The perk would be getting involved and getting visibility in …

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Excerpt: Smart search engine marketers like you and me know to write rich content.  This helps to target the the oh-so-famous long tail of user searches.  But some people search for weird stuff; and sometimes Google just doesn't cut it on the relevancy.  In that case, we search engine marketers get a little tail we didn't expect upon analysis!Because I'm such a nice person, and my blog didn't answer the following fine queries adequately, I will quickly try to fulfill them i…

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Excerpt: Most SEO is bullshit.  I'll be the first to agree with Jason.  Yes, I said it — and I'm an SEO.Jason Calacanis states on his blog: "I don't hate SEO folks, and I don't think it's all B.S. — just most of it."Now, let's get this straight.  I'm not an idiot; I don't think those black hat SEOs that rake in 20k+ per month are wooing search engines with "bullshit."  And I certainly don't agree with Jason Calacanis on every i…

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Excerpt: Posting has been a bit erratic.  But I haven't been sleeping much, either.  Guess what I've been editing?  Here's a preview — You: Hybrid Programmer and Search Engine MarketerGoogling for information on the World Wide Web is such a common activity these days, that it is hard to imagine that just a few years ago this verb did not even exist. Search engines are now an integral part of our lifestyle, but this was not always the case. Historically, systems for finding inf…

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Excerpt: This magazine just keeps getting better.  It's now a permanent fixture in the basket within my "WC."  3 installments have now arrived; here's the skinny on the stuff I found interesting in Winter 06/07 edition:1. Eric Ward talks about what to do if an SEO Firm gets you banned in "My SEO Firm Got Me Banned! Now What?"  It's a great how-to, and details something ominous-sounding I didn't notice on Microsoft's re-inclusion page.2. Nacho of iHis…

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Excerpt: No laughing!Everyone has that very first project that got them started in the search engine marketing scene.  For me, it was a little partnership between me and a camera repair shop in New Jersey using a domain name I happened to own.  Unfortunately, today, I have little time for it anymore; and, sadly its rankings have been falling.  Of course I still own the keyword "camera repair," but that's far from what I had in its heyday.  As a college kid I was banking …

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Excerpt: There are many rumors surrounding the venerable IP address as it relates to search engine optimization and web hosting.  So let's talk about it, dispel some myths, and conclude with some information regarding hosting services that provide for hosting on various ranges of IP addresses.It is useful to think of an IP exactly as you do a phone number.  Let's look at a phone number for a random "Mr. Cutts":For this example's sake, let's format the phone number diff…