There has been a lot of talk about the new Sphinn.com network. After looking around and researching its platform, you will discover that there are top SEO professionals and SEO newcomer’s alike sharing ideas and debates over important matters involving everything from search engine optimization, to website usability.

Many will argue that Sphinn is just another popularity contest since it’s platform is much like digg. I was taken aback by reading so many complaints regarding this “popularity contest.” Isn’t SEO in itself a popularity contest?

A Sphinn user, Ciaran, argues that Sphinn is a popularity contest because Rand Fishkin (the head honcho on the site) gets more sphinn’s (votes) due to the sole reason he is already well known. “Not simply because people recognize Rand’s name, but because his position as chief blogger on SEOmoz puts everything that he writes in front of a much larger audience than anything I or other lesser known bloggers would get on our own sites…”

Well I partially agree with Ciaran’s statement, but isn’t that the way it goes with any networking site? Look at Tom on Myspace. Obviously he has gained trust through his audience simply by being known as the owner; the head honcho. Rand Fishkin is the mac daddy of the Sphinn, as obu is the dilly of Arizona SEO.

Rand answers back saying “I disagree that Sphinn is a popularity contest - it’s a “value” contest. People appear to be voting on what they find “valuable” from sites both big and small. I was actually impressed that there were several blogs and sites on here I’d never seen or heard of before.”

Right on the money Rand. But doesn’t popularity equal value? Rand also states “I disagree that a popularity contest is necessarily a bad thing - so long as it coincides with value.” Doesn’t being branded have more trust value than the generic guy? Regardless of how you want to define popularity, Sphinn allows those with value to become more popular. There’s nothing unusual about that.

Think back to high school and what made the popular kids popular. They were the ones that looked the best, presented themselves the best, provided the most entertainment, and were in the in crowd. Rand won that hand’s down through hard work and dedication; being in the game longer than the others. You can’t knock greatness for being great. You must earn it.

We are all trying to achieve this same goal online: To be the most popular (aka valuable) in our niche. Every link we get is a step towards winning that popularity contest. Every successful article written and “dugg” brings us 1 step closer to being successful in this online marketing game.

Everyone wants to hang out with the cool kids, but secretly wants to know what the outsiders are pondering in the corner. Sphinn gives us the best of both worlds.

Posted in The Osearch Blog | 2 Comments »

Some interesting stuff has been going on in the SEO world of late. Here is a quick run down of items of interest.

• Sphinn.com launches: a “digg” for SEO content.
• Get all your SEO questions answered over dinner by winning Hooley’s contest.
• Todd Malicoat has a great post about Online Reputation Management.
• A good list here of Social Media sites to push your content too.
• Another good list for Product SEO.
• An interesting look at whether Yahoo is selling space in thier SERPS

Posted in SEO Industry News, The Osearch Blog | 1 Comment »

Well about a year ago we were holding stable around number #15 for the term, but fell off for a while.. now to our delight, we seem to be solidly placed at #8 on Yahoo for “web design”

Have a look here. That is #8 of 1.3 Billion results. Our traffic has spiked for that term to about 45 visits a day.  Not bad considering Yahoo only has about a 25% share of the search market.

Some other Yahoo rankings of note.

#1 for this, and this. These two combined add another 60 or so visits a day to our website.

So what does it take to get rankings like these? Time, effort, and a sound knowledge of SEO. Give us a call today at 480.248.3874 and we’ll be happy to work with you in gaining similiar high value rankings for your company. Obu Web is the Arizona SEO company.

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This past week we have gone through some changes with both Google and Yahoo. It seems as though the shifts of Google and Yahoo algorithms are back to back. As Google does it’s thing, and rankings shift, you will notice Yahoo results hold steady. While Yahoo does their thing, Google results will stay the same.

This theory holds true this time around as well. After nearly a 2 week wait, I noticed Yahoo’s June Algorithm settle in. Now it’s time for Google to shake things up. Many SEO experts are noticing Google shaking the forms as some clients are rising; meaning others are falling. If you are experiencing a climb in rankings be aware they may sift to place in the next few weeks.

So as we analyze the new algorithm by comparing the sites who came up and those that dropped in Google, we have come up with the possible changes Google is looking at this time around:

Domain Age

This update is proving that Google is giving a higher weight to websites with an older domain age. Their reason for this is simply trust factor. A domain that has been around longer is more likely to provide better information than one that is new to the scenes.

Of course as the internet grows so rapidly, new website owners are quick to disagree with this reasoning. I disagree as well. I feel domain name age should hold some precedence, but not a high amount.

Backlinks

It seems as though backlinks are being looked at as ‘good’ no matter which type of site they are placed on. This used to be the way Google played the field back in the day. The website with the most links wins!

Now I am not saying go out and spam up all websites with your links. I have a gut feeling they are doing this for a reason. Stay within your focused directories no matter how tempting it is. There has to be a reason they are opening the door for websites to spam. In a few weeks they may decide to flip it back around and your website could be penalized. This is only my opinion.

PageRank

With this recent update, PR has seems to have lost some of its oomph. This is a good thing! Over-focusing on the PR value a website has does not reflect the value of the website as a whole. As Google continues to develop it’s TrustFactor, we hope to see PageRank disintegrate.

What we Gather

In the next few days you should expect to see additional shifts in your Google search engine placement as they try to correct issues the new algorithm change. This is normal with any update.

In all other circumstances, keep focusing on building links with relevant directories and promoting articles on relevant websites. The likelihood that Google is going to keep the current way it is positioning SERPs with non-relevant backlinks is slim to none.

So keep your eyes peeled these next 2 weeks and expect fluctuations as Google does it’s thing. If you jump to the #1 slot when you were previously #20, don’t expect it to stick. Everything should sift and even out soon enough.

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We at obu web, a Scottsdale SEO agency are happy to announce the launch of a new website dedicated to helping the business owner get up to speed on Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. Browse through the 5 part SEO/SEM guide and get the information you need to make an informed decision on whether SEO and SEM is right for your business.

Stay tuned to this blog and don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed to get insightful tips and up to date information on promoting your business online.

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