Comments on: Small Businesses Skip PageRank Roller Coaster Ride

By: October ‘07: Best Search/Marketing Posts

October ‘07: Best Search/Marketing Posts — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:17:22 +0000

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By: Small Business - All 2008 Nominees » SEMMYS.org

Small Business - All 2008 Nominees » SEMMYS.org — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:40:18 +0000

[...] Small Businesses Skip PageRank Roller Coaster Ride Miriam Ellis, SEO Igloo | 10/27/07 [...]

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SEMMYS — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:52:57 +0000

[...] Small Businesses Skip PageRank Roller Coaster Ride Miriam Ellis, SEO Igloo | 10/27/07 [...]

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SEO Igloo Blog » We’ve Been Nominated For The SEMMYs! — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 06:59:03 +0000

[...] Category: Small Business Articles: Small Businesses Skip Page Rank Rollercoaster Ride Thinking of Leaving eBay and Getting a Professional Website? Look Before You Leap! [...]

By: Help Me Judge The SEMMYs!

Help Me Judge The SEMMYs! — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:54:44 +0000

[...] Small Businesses Skip PageRank Roller Coaster Ride Miriam Ellis, SEO Igloo | 10/27/07 [...]

By: admin

admin — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:46:41 +0000

Hi David,
I missed your comments for a couple of days over the weekend. That’s good to hear you’ve been seeing some thing go up. We’ve seen a few new jumps in the SERPs as well, but these were striking me as the direct result of recent work we’d been doing on the sites in question.

Yes, Google still does reward basic SEO. It’s when you get into that upper level that big risks are being taken for big rewards. I think I’d get insomnia if we engaged in link buying!

RSS is great. It helps so much. I just love being able to zip on down the line, checking out my favorite blogs. It’s a good lesson for us to see how the big blogs survived this temporary wobble because they’ve got all those readers in place.

Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Miriam

By: David Mihm

David Mihm — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 00:24:03 +0000

Sorry, I should have read the comments first — I LOVE your point about RSS feeds being “defensible” traffic. I’m starting to get more and more into feeds, as I mentioned to you a couple of months ago, and it’s absolutely true, I never search for the sites that I visit on a regular basis. Even if they were to be banned from every engine, it wouldn’t make a shred of difference.

By: David Mihm

David Mihm — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 00:21:23 +0000

Miriam, I meant to comment on this post last week but somehow time just slipped away. You’re absolutely right about small business clients. The only “paid” links most of my clients buy are supporting local non-profits who of course are often more than happy to return a link in exchange for a donation. The day that Google starts cracking down on these will be a dark one indeed!

30% of my clients’ sites, as well as sites that I run, stayed the same, and 70% actually GAINED a point of PR. But more importantly, every client has gained a significant number of places in the SERPs in the last three weeks, typically 3-4 spots (on the first page) for some of their most competitive terms…I wondered why that was, since I do very little SEO on retainer, but now it seems to make sense. Google DOES reward good behavior (and legitimate, quality SEO).

By: October ‘07: Best Search/Marketing Posts » Small Business SEM

October ‘07: Best Search/Marketing Posts » Small Business SEM — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 05:40:33 +0000

[...] Miriam/SEO Igloo: Small Businesses Skip PageRank Roller Coaster Ride [...]

By: admin

admin — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:03:16 +0000

Hi Christina,
Your point is an excellent one, and I think so many people feel this way – that they have to think before they link to a legitimate, sensible resource for their readers. My gut feeling on this is that, at the level reasonable reciprocal linking happens, Google is not going to care. After all, if the NY Times links to a blogger, who in their right mind is not going to blog about the publicity: “Hey, I’m in the NY Times!”

There is nothing wrong or artificial about this, and I can’t imagine Google taking issue with this. But it’s the fact you have to wonder about it at all that quickly shows up the flaws in the links-based algorithm and the uncertainty of Google’s policies.

The rule of thumb I use is to link out whenever it makes sense. I’m not taking money for any of it, so there is no reason to nofollow my links, and I’d be really silly to link out to anything I didn’t trust, right? That wouldn’t serve my readers very well.

One of the most interesting features of this latest PR update is the response from those who were hit saying, “Who cares? I’ve got 10,000 RSS feed subscribers.” For the past year or so, people have been talking about this strategy, calling it ‘defensible traffic’. It’s not dependent on Google or any other search engine. Developing that loyal user base is something we need to keep working on so that weird fluctuations like these don’t have the power to devastate business!

Thanks for the link, Christina! I appreciate it!
Miriam