Recently Gleb of SeoQuake has been kind enough to offer me a 30-day trial to their rather interesting AdsSpy new service. What that is they’ve built an index of sites and are searching through them by AdSense IDs. So basically if your competitors use AdSense ads on their website you can search and see which other sites they have ads on and basically spy on their different domains and ways of content distribution.

I personally find it really interesting since it gives you an idea as to what channels your competitor uses to spread his message. This is really useful when you want to see if a competitor has more than one site and if that’s true what he’s doing with it. Some of the things you may be missing out on by not knowing this are things like the competitor launching a new offer on a different site (targeted at a specific group of customers) which you may miss since it’s not on the main site. Or perhaps they are making a new site to replace the old one with high end SEO and launching it on a different domain. It’s a useful tool with really a lot of uses which I can’t really think up right now…

It’s a great tool for advertisers as well to see what other sites you could put your ads on if that particular content creator appeals to you. It’s also a great tool if you’re interested in doing a bit of research on making money online, try to see what works and what doesn’t without spending cash on it.

A fair bit of criticism is in order, or you’ll think it’s an ad, and since I’m not a referrer who’s making any cash on this, it’s not The index is still being added to so not all websites will be listed yet (it seems about 15000 sites a day enter the index, mostly the big players. For example, my old blog ( about smashing a nokia :D) isn’t indexed yet and that’s probably because of its few hits. But the index is growing and most serious sites are in the index.

However, there’s a bit of a suggestion here as well. I was thinking this tool probably works by scanning the homepage of websites and looking for AdSense IDs. That’s cool all in all but why not go as far as to search for different identifiers which are a bit more common? I mean stuff like Google Analytics codes (UA-xxxxxxx-n) or any other such identifiers. And then put them all together and really create an index that’s not dependent on that person using AdSense…

Anyway, it’s a great piece of software and well worth the fee if you know what you’re needing it for. It’s a nice toy too (I found an alternate website for the local railroad ticket searching service and it’s a bit more feature-packed than the one everyone uses). So enjoy AdsSpy

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Since I’ve been busy talking about branding this week I though I’d change tracks a bit and post a few tips. Most are reedited from a less up to date (and less precise list), while some are my additions. So, here we go:

• tip one is that if you want to use drop-down menus, now you can Google just announced progress in crawling those, and Yahoo seems to have too, so use them with no fear
• the most important part of any site is content, so make sure you have lots of it, update it often, and use keywords and alternation of keyword phrases in it so you get most search traffic
• get links with decent titles, preferably from related sites (or sites that have at least a bit of relevance to you)
• PR is not the most important factor, but it is really important in comparing to the competition (if you’re PR3 and there’s a PR7 you’re competing with, you should just buy ads, you’ll never beat him in the short run)
• use different titles for every page, optimize them for keywords and use your name to end them (look at my site) - that helps you rank for your own brand/company name
• use linking within your site, using the keywords you want (this gives you an SEO boost and makes random visitors hang around more)
• target long-tailed keywords rather than words or short phrases (the longer the less competition and the more specific the search)
• design your site with SEO in mind if you can (forget about flash, and use images less and alt tag them all)
• use keywords in your domain name, your URL (even folders matter), and alt tags
• make sure which domain you want (www or non-www) and set a 301 redirect for the other version. For example, I use eydryan.com and I tell Google I prefer it as well
• link to absolute pages rather than relative ones; for example if posting a picture on the website write http://eydryan.com/images/1.png rather than ./images/1.png - this is also useful if others steal your content, to have links pointing back to you.
• frames and ajax make for poor SEO since they don’t update the page when new content arrives - use them less, and if possible not at all (at least frames)
• your URL extension doesn’t normally matter (unless someone is looking for it in Google) so don’t bother thinking if php or asp or whatever should be html instead
• quickest way to get indexed is via links, don’t bother submitting to a gazillion websites
• fresh content is always welcome and if the website can’t have that, make a blog and get that to work for you in this matter. Write at least twice a week for bots and people alike
• try to get good links rather than many links (although, as Lenin said, “quantity has a quality of its own”)
• try to keep keyword density within 3-4% if possible in the page and make the text sound natural (as opposed to spammy)
• try to keep links in context (not only link text is important, neighboring sentences are also important)
• make sure your hosting server is not banned from Google, and make sure there aren’t any spammy or porn sites on the same server (if it’s a smaller one)
• try to be as legit in your domain registration info since blocking info may mean you’re a spammer to Google
• four SEO core values are content, links, popularity and reputation
• try to think usability when designing the site since not only it helps people, it also helps Google crawl better
• link to others and others shall link to you. Also, if you have links in an article, Google will take you more seriously about it
• don’t use a splash page. i mean why? give it functionality at least, because neither Google nor users like to have to go one extra step to get to what they want
• paid links aren’t really that important, why not use that money advertising, one link cannot bring you the glory it once did
• get links from .edu and .gov domains, they are heavy in Google - some may want sponsorships for links
• make linkbaiting but do it as conspicuous as possible. it has a name because it works - just don’t overdo it
• for a blog, try to make each post around one keyword phrase, thus you’ll have a killing in the search engines for that. For example, I’m numero uno for Google crawl rate
• use a call to action. this is a marketing term that basically means use a line of text that makes people do what you want them (the most known is “click here“)
• SEO is not a quick process you do once and then ignore it forever. While you may be done in 6 months with the most of the basics, you should really work on it daily
• try to find influential bloggers or websites, or authorities in the field who will link to you. one link on a big website will bring massive traffic
• gain credibility if you can, try to add your address and contact info in plain sight on every page, and give your website a human face
• use a service like feedburner to manage your rss feed
• caption your images, so people know what they are
• think of context when you optimize images too
• submit a sitemap to Google. then make sure your navigation is as close to the top of the page as possible and it’s simple yet comprehensive
• use SMO and try to get good at it. experiment with posts meant to tease your visitors
• if you use videos, add a video sitemap too
• submit web videos not only to youtube, but also to Google Video, Metacafe, Viddler, and Myspace videos (they’re pretty much the top players)
• do with videos what you do with images: captions and context
• use words like “image”, “photo” and “picture” in your alts since so many people add them in searches
• enable enhanced image searching in webmaster tools (it’s under tools)
• try to make viral materials, they’re fun to create and in time you understand how to make really good ones
• when you get a link, see if the page who’s linking is in the Google cache, so you know whether you’ll get some SEO boost from it
• make sure server headers are good, i had this problem once and the site sent 404’s to Google but otherwise the site seemed fine. I lost all search traffic for two weeks.

These have been the tips, I know that if you count them they may add up to less than fifty-something, but I adapted my list from a 55 quick tips list and I found some were either not true or irrelevant (or repetitive) so I scraped them. However, rest assured, all the content here is written by myself, I do not do dodgy copy-pastes.

Hope you enjoyed it, and HAPPY EASTER to those celebrating this coming weekend

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For those following the blog, I’ve attended a conference about branding this Wednesday through the kindness of the people from Landor (actually I think it was Seed Consultants) after they liked my posts on online branding and brand protection.

The only thing I can say is it was really great, I mean the speakers were pros, and you really felt they knew what they were talking about. It was a great event, and there were some nicely done slides (for some colours were off and for some there were some detailed graphs of which you couldn’t really understand anything, but otherwise they were in excellent shape).

I loved the way they spoke, with passion, giving us an introduction in basic, simple notions, but which were really saying something. It was nice and I enjoyed it, although it did feel a bit like an ad for Landor and how awesome they felt they were. There was also a lady from the competition which asked a question which was rather rhetorical (giving her opinion that simple packaging was impossible to make here - which is crap if you ask me) and did not accept any of the answers (of which some were indeed vague) and then proceeded to waltz out of the room annoyed.

However, that was in no case the highlight of the conference, and there were 5 main portions. First we had a lengthy presentation from a man named Andrew who had the most convincing presentation of all because he looked like he had a lot of experience talking to people. He had a flawless presentation which was impeccably timed with the slides, and it was about the position of a Chief Brand Officer (CBO). While this role is rather ubiquitous, the name was chosen this way to represent the fact that the branding consultant (to use a more down to Earth position) is supposed to be a very important person in a company and at the same level if not higher than the CEO. And this is because the CBO should coordinate all the company’s efforts because branding is not a shallow thing, it must be embraced by all the people in the company and come out at all the touch points with the customer. An interesting principle but I’m sure that’s what all the people in the company feel. I’m sure marketing feels they’re the most important, and so does production, PR, sales, and even finance… While I agree there should be a free hand to branding, I don’t agree it should be the oh-so-important part. But they were selling a product so let’s move on.

Then a woman named Lori came with her presentation called Brand Engagement. And while the term is again one of those terms that make you go huh?, it basically means that all the people and processes in the company must be involved in branding. A great example they gave was that for people from the lower hierarchical level to embrace the new brand they gave them new uniforms (they were in petroleum mining). She talked about decision cards (basically a pamphlet which has a bit of advice for managers from the company as to how to take decisions in order to strengthen the brand - and not create a bad image in any way) and about brand books, and about brand values and about how basically people are what makes the brand and that they are the first to be convinced. And it’s true, people do make the brand, but as Andrew said, we must be careful that the CEO (or any other one person I think) not become the brand itself. Because then, if they leave, you’re screwed…

On we go and we had Alex who had a very very interesting presentation about design and the importance of symbols. I enjoyed it the most since I love design and it was exactly like a TED presentation (for those not knowing, go to TED.com and watch, you will be amazed…). It was a walk through history and into the meaning of signs and how symbols are so important and full of impact to us. He explained that just by using the heart symbol, a company saves a lot of money which it should’ve spent if wanting to convey the meaning of love otherwise. It was very interesting and ended with four clips about the future (one was Microsoft’s Surface table, one was that interactive bar you all know about, one was something I can’t remember and the coolest by far was something that he said was made by Intel and was a vision of the future of parties - there was instant iphone invites and videochat and everyone was connected, dancing in the street with headphones and to the outside world the party was silent - if you have any idea, please tell me because it was amazing).

And then there was Florian, who told us about brand names and packaging and going green and it was a really nice presentation but a bit less focused than the ones before. It was interesting and featured eye-tracking and the fact that on a package you can’t have more than two elements or people will get confused. It was also an interesting presentation, but you could see he was a bit less focused and experience than the rest at presenting.

The last part was Allen who was an american guy who didn’t even bother to come to the conference and just basically told us what was in the book they gave us.

All in all it was a really great conference, and I’m not doing it justice here, but it was really a western-styled conference with real pros talking about a hot subject which was really interesting and they really seemed to like it.

However, if there’s one thing I have to say against it, it’s that after it was all over, it felt like one big ad really, where they talked about how cool branding is and how necessary branding is, and how they have made cool branding, but without going into really specific items… And the videoconference was really one big ad for the book, which we already had so that was useless… I don’t know, I would feel ok if this were a free thing, they’re getting clients in exchange for their time, but for a conference with a rather large entry fee, I feel they said far too little about branding itself. It felt like something you write on a blog to get people to hire you but not at a premium priced thing. I shouldn’t be complaining since my entry was free, but still, otherwise the whole article would be too much of an ad, and I’m not that easy a sellout

I really loved it, and if you want me to go deeper into the specifics of the conference drop me an email, otherwise tomorrow there’s fifty-something tips about really good SEO and coming soon a case study about a customer who just didn’t get it… Hope you enjoyed the article and until next time, enjoy

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This week (April 23rd) there’s a really professional business conference at the J.W. Marriott in Bucharest and I wanted to go the moment I saw it was being held. There was this really teaser-like commercial on TV (which I rarely watch) about a branding conference and I was really interested in what it really wanted to say. I checked the website and it looked like a great thing to attend, but alas at a cost that was a bit high for my budget.

So I wrote a few articles on branding the other week, since I’m convinced that branding is to the online medium like advertising is to TV, something that fits the medium so well on so many levels. I sent them the articles (and nagged them with them a bit :)) and this morning I was thrilled to open my inbox and find an invite to the event free of charge. These guys are great. And since they deserve a bit of ad time they’re called Landor and they’re this big international branding firm that has supported some serious projects. Their website is Landor.com and the event’s website is BrandSimple.ro just in case you’re interested.

And, since they are really really great people they’re giving my friends and business associates a 10% discount for the conference. So if you’re in Bucharest, be sure to drop by the conference this Wednesday and get in for 10% less than the normal price.

The event is really great, featuring Landor execs from London, Hamburg and New York, and I’m simply thrilled to be able to attend. Especially after last week’s conference. I can’t wait to finally see what an international conference is really like, I’m thinking it will be like TED, but who knows.

And if anyone from Landor is reading this, thanks a lot guys, you’re great!

As for everyone else, I’ll let you know how the conference went on Wednesday, until then I don’t really know whether I have the time to write anything, got a bunch of projects lining up. Anyway, I promise you an SEO related post by Friday the latest.

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