Welcome to Natural Search Blog
Natural Search Blog provides articles on search engine optimization including keyword reasearch, on-page factors, link-building, social media optimization, local search optimization, image search optimization, and mobile SEO.
In addition to natural search optimization topics, we also cover internet marketing, ecommerce, web design, usability, and technology.
Recent Entries
Retailers Recession Proofing Through Optimizing Internet Retail Sites
Overall economic fears are causing many retailers and other businesses to step up their games in terms of promotion. While some retailers are cutting back on advertising or paring down on their inventory, there are compelling reasons to increase the intensity in marketing efforts in order to offset the expected reduction in average customer spending. If your competitors are cutting back on efforts, not only could you have a chance to dominate in your sector, but you could even increase profits at the expense of your competition’s market share.
The internet is a prime area to focus in this period, since the net reduces distance barriers and the difficulty of locating products for buyers, and efforts to increase sales through this medium can be accomplished at lower costs than many other options. One of the most cost-effective areas for internet promotion is via increasing your “natural” traffic referred to your site from search engines.
Many internet retailers haven’t connected the dots sufficiently (more…)
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 02/14/2008
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Filed under: Dynamic Sites, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO Ecommerce, GravityStream, Internet Retailers, Recession, Search Engine Optimization, SEO
Origins of the Google Logo
Wired today has an article on the preliminary Google logo designs – something that aspiring internet commercial artists should check out.
One of the designs is obviously referencing Op Art to give a modernistic feel. Another treats the second “O” as a sort of loose metaphor for the web or to symbolize multidimensionality. Yet another uses a magnifying glass for the second “O” — a much more literal representation for a search engine which we used to see really frequently in the earlier years of the internet (remember stuff like the old WebCrawler logo?).
I think the version they ultimately used is the best/strongest one, even though I think it likely owes something to eBay’s playful/colorful logo.
The original designer of the Google logo was Ruth Kedar, an assistant professor at Stanford at the time. She noted, “I had no idea at the time that Google would become as ubiquitous as it is today, or that their success would be of such magnitude”.
Ubiquitous it is indeed. As I noted two months ago, the frequency of use of the Google logo and its familiarity within the popular culture have been growing to the point of actually being a little bit of a danger from the viewpoint of being able to protect the marks as intellectual property.
The Google name is on everyone’s lips.
Copyright Silver Smith 2007. All rights reserved.
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 02/12/2008
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Filed under: Design, Google Commercial Art, Google, Google-Logo, Graphic Design, Logo, Logos
Independent Contractors Excluded from Google Maps
My article on How To Get On Google Maps Without An Address pubbed today on Search Engine Land – it outlines one of the top most frustrating issues facing some small businessmen who need to have listings in directories without including their street addresses. Google Maps, by policy, does not display listings for those who do not have street addresses, so smaller providers who might actually provide the best quality service work are left out in the cold when users perform local searches. Independent contractors (like plumbers, electricians, building contractors, etc) are the most affected by this issue, but some other businesses are also impacted.
My perception is that this lack of what is something of a standard among traditional yellow pages directories is due to Google’s desire to provide best user-experience. In a map search display, does it make sense to display items which can’t be pinpointed to the map?
My opinion is that it does make sense to do so, (more…)
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 02/11/2008
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Filed under: Google, Local Search, Local Search Optimization, Maps, Online Directories, Yellow Pages directories, Google-Maps, independent contractors, Local Search, Yellow Pages
Hello from New Zealand
I’m in New Zealand for this week and the next, working with our fantastic Kiwi development team at our Netconcepts offices in Browns Bay, at the northernly end of Auckland’s metro area. (We’re working on more innovative SEO features for our GravityStream product, but Shhhhhhh)
I’m still adjusting to the radical time zone twist from over here — it’s currently about 2:20 pm Tuesday here at the office, while it’s about 7:20 pm Monday back in the Central time zone in the US. So, I’m responding to emails and such a bit later in the day than I normally do.
If you want to see some of the beautiful sites I’ve been seeing while over here, keep checking back at my Flickr New Zealand Photos album which I’ll be updating consistently.
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 02/11/2008
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Filed under: General Auckland, GravityStream, Netconcepts, New Zealand
Blog SEO Tip: Hop On A Media Feeding Frenzy
For bloggers wishing to improve their traffic, hopping onto a media feeding frenzy can give a nice burst in traffic which can translate into increases in longterm traffic.
A media feeding frenzy is when a subject or thing that’s happened suddenly becomes a top headliner story for journalists. News organizations have a well-developed radar for which stories of the day are going to be the most interesting for their audience, and they avidly push to provide articles quickly to satisfy the public’s sudden thirst. As more journalists glom onto the subject, it suddenly seems that everyone is reporting on some variation of the same subject, and this is a media feeding frenzy.
Bloggers can hop onto these feeding frenzies, and ride the wave of traffic associated with them. (more…)
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 02/04/2008
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Filed under: Blog Optimization, News, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Tricks Blog Optimization, blog promotion, blog search engine optimization, blog seo
Biz Profile Article Awarded the SEMMY for Local Search
My article, “Anatomy & Optimization of a Local Business Profile” was just awarded a SEMMY in the Local Search category for 2008.
Many thanks to all of you who voted for it! (more…)
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 02/01/2008
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Filed under: Blog Optimization, General, Local Search, Local Search Optimization, Yellow Pages Blog Awards, Search Engine Marketing Awards, SEMMYs
Google’s I’m Feeling Lucky Button Enabling Spam
Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” functionality is apparently enabling a lot of email spam to bypass filters.
When you use the button by entering a keyword phrase and hitting the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button, Google sends you straight to the very first webpage in their results that matches that phrase.
Spammers have apparently found that they can embed links like this one for Natural Search Blog to the Google I’m Feeling Lucky functionality, and their emails will bypass filters that would automatically catch lots of blacklisted and spammy-looking URLs. Email filters allow links to search engine results through because many people may genuinely send such links to one another.
It was just the day before yesterday that I wrote about how a guy was using the I’m Feeling Lucky button to enable some cool linkbait involving Chuck Norris. That was a benign use of the application, whereas using it to obscure links to evil spammy sites would definitely be unethical/black-hat.
So, how will this get fixed? I’d expect that Google may have to lock down their “I’m feeling lucky” functionality so that it only works for users referred directly from the Google homepage, and from the Google Toolbar (if the user has enabled the I’m Feeling Lucky button on the toolbar).
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 01/30/2008
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Filed under: Google, Security Google, I'm feeling lucky, Security, spam
Do CueCats Have 9 Lives?!? Google Resurrects a Bad Idea
For those of us who’ve been around the internet biz for a while, there’s often a feeling of deja vu or “been there, done that!” Thus we have that sensation today when we see this article from Silicon Alley Insider which seems to gush just a bit in its praise of these cute, “new” barcodes that Google is resurrecting in some print ads that can be scanned camera phones so people can easily connect up instantaneously to associated websites.
The article fails to mention the last time this sad concept was foisted on the world. Remember the company, Digital Convergence, with their various “CueCat” devices that allowed people to do this exact same thing?
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 01/29/2008
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Filed under: Advertising, Google, technology CueCat, Digital Convergence, Google, Google Adwords
Mahalo now associates user profiles
Mahalo has begun allowing users to associate their profiles with their user profiles at MySpace, StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, Flicker, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pownce.
This is pretty cool for people who would like to start getting their various social media efforts coordinated, and who wish to promote their work across multiple sites.
I previously mentioned Spock, a service that does something similar, only Spock is coordinating results and information without asking permission to create combined user profiles on people – something that some have found a bit creepy. Mahalo’s opt-in format is in contrast the noncreepy way to go about doing this sort of thing.
This looks like a useful self-promotion tool to me, and another service to keep in mind when doing social media optimization (“SMO”).
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 01/28/2008
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Filed under: Social Media Optimization Mahalo, Social Media Optimization, spock
Fantastic Linkbait: Google doesn’t need to find Chuck Norris for you!
This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while – I saw this mentioned on John Battelle’s blog. Type “find Chuck Norris” into Google’s search form, and then hit the “I’m feeling lucky” button, and you’ll get this:
The result is a Google search results page with no listings and the message at the top states:
“Google won’t search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don’t find Chuck Norris, he finds you.”
But wait! This result page is actually a hoax, only pretending to be from Google! It’s actually produced by Arran Scholsberg. Arran is a student at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and is a web designer and photographer. (more…)
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 01/28/2008
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Filed under: Google, Link Building, Marketing, Searching, Tricks Chuck Norris facts, Google, hoaxes, linkbait
