This, however, is egregious plagiarism with direct and malicious intent to deceive.  Yet another piece of evidence to justify maligning the notion of outsourcing SEO to India.  Check for unauthorized reproduction of your content using a tool like Copyscape.  I should have been more diligent about doing so.  <slaps own hand>

I was checking the backlinks to my sister’s pet sitting site last night when an odd URL appeared in Yahoo! Site Explorer.  “Huh,” I wondered quietly to myself, “…why is there a link to Welcome Home there?”  Of course, I had to investigate.  The next few minutes found me spinning off into realms of pissed off I don’t experience often.

It seems a young man from India named Naresh Joshi (@seonaresh) opted to steal – not merely scrape, but flat out STEAL – my content and pass it off as his own.  And not just my blog posts, but content from my “static” pages – like my home page, my SEO audit page, my small business website design page…even my contact page, which he edited – replacing my contact information with his own!

You can assess the flagrant thievery for yourself by visiting seonaresh.wordpress.com (though I doubt the site will be up much longer).  Below you’ll find the claim I have prepared for submission to Automattic per the information provided on their DMCA Notice if the content is not removed by 11:59 pm EDT on Monday, 03/14.  You may find it useful in creating your own DMCA claim, should something like this happen to you in the future.  Or you may just find it amusing.  Either way, here it is:

Dear Mr. Schneider,

Please consider this a formal complaint indicating that http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/ is in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). As suggested by Automaticc’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notice, I contacted the blog owner directly and requested the content be immediately removed. I have received no response from the blog owner.

Of the eleven (11) total pages that make up the site (category and feed pages notwithstanding), ten (10) of the pages have been copied directly from my website – http://www.seoaly.com, which is obviously my intellectual property. “Copyright 2011″ and “All Rights Reserved” disclaimers appear in the footer of every page throughout my website. Despite that, several pages have been reproduced without my permission and without proper credit to me, as the originator of the content.

Furthermore, the only page of the site with content not stolen from my site (http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/request-a-quote/) was copied from http://www.lipsum.com/ – the only substantive difference being that the first paragraph, “What Is Lorem Ipsum?”, was not included.  Thus there is not a single page on the offending site that contains original content or content that has not been illegally republished.

The following URLs contain an egregious amount of plagiarized content, having been copied practically verbatim from my site, http://www.seoaly.com, as it appeared in July of 2010:

1. http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/
2. http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/about-me/
3. http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/projects/
4. http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/news-updates/
5. http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/contact-2/
6. http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/p-1/
7. http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/making-friends-and-building-rapport/
8. http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/does-your-website-have-direction-and-purpose/
9. http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/choosing-the-website-audit-that-is-best-for-your-needs/
10. http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/cheap-web-hosting-that-doesn%e2%80%99t-suck/

Here are the corresponding URLs from http://www.seoaly.com – all of which can be verified as original (note posted on & comment dates on blog entries):

1. http://www.seoaly.com/
2. http://www.seoaly.com/seo-specialist-alysson-fergison/
3. http://www.seoaly.com/seo-audit/
4. http://www.seoaly.com/affordable-small-business-website-design/
5. http://www.seoaly.com/contact/
6. http://www.seoaly.com/
7. http://www.seoaly.com/making-friends-building-rapport/
8. http://www.seoaly.com/does-your-website-have-direction-and-purpose/
9. http://www.seoaly.com/website-audit-for-your-needs/
10. http://www.seoaly.com/cheap-web-hosting-that-doesnt-suck/

A VERY small amount of verbiage has been changed on a few of my pages since July of 2010, but the plagiarism is unmistakable.  Not only has the content been stolen directly from http://www.seoaly.com, but the contact information was manually changed by the blog owner with the direct and malicious intent to deceive his visitors.

While much of the information that identifies me as the author has been manually changed by the blog owner, there are still several mentions of my brand, “SEOAly” and my nickname, “Aly”, that appear on various pages of the violating site – including, but not limited to the following pages:

• http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/
• http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/p-1/
• http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/about-me/
• http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/contact-2/

You will also find that the “Small Business Website Design Sample Work…” links that appear on http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/news-updates/ still link to my development subdomains, providing further proof that I am the originator of the content and that the blog owner has maliciously plagiarized it.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Alysson Fergison
[ADDRESS REDACTED]
Jacksonville, FL 32259
PHONE: (510) 473-6259
E-MAIL ADDRESS: aly@seoaly.com

In closing, I (a) believe in good faith that the use of the content that I claim to infringe my copyright is not authorized by law, or by me, the copyright owner; (b) attest the information contained in my Infringement Notice is accurate, and (c) under penalty of perjury, I am the copyright/intellectual property owner.

I request that this site be removed in its entirety.  Thank you for your prompt attention to this blatant violation of the DMCA and I look forward to a swift resolution.

Respectfully,
Alysson Fergison

http://www.seoaly.com – SEO Consulting, Audits and WordPress Website/Blog Design for Small Business
E-mail: aly@seoaly.com | Phone: (510) 473-6259
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Alysson
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssonfergison

Well, there you have it.  If this isn’t an open & shut case, I can’t imagine what would be.  It’s unfortunate that Naresh Joshi has abandoned his Twitter account.  I have a feeling this would be a great deal more fun if he made some public attempt to defend his actions.

At any rate, Naresh Joshi…if you are an SEO, as you claim to be, you should happen upon this post at some point – perhaps shortly after you realize your WordPress.com blog is no more.  When that day comes, know this:

YOU STOLE CONTENT FROM THE WRONG BITCH!

UPDATE:  About 7 hours after sending the DMCA complaint to Automattic, Naresh Joshi’s WordPress.com blog was removed.  While I expected that to be the ultimate outcome, I certainly didn’t anticipate it happening so quickly.  Big kudos to Automattic for taking such swift action to protect original content from thievery!

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For a limited time, save 50% on my already insanely affordable small business website design service. Or learn more about SEO audit and keyword research services.The post, Plagiarize Me, Will Ya? Tsk-Tsk, Naresh Joshi, originated on SEOAly and may not be republished or reproduced without my written permission.

You Sit There Until I Tell You To Move

Let the rant commence! I know…shocking, right? While the title pretty much sums up my feelings on the issue, with the number of ridiculous link exchange requests I get, I figured it was time I officially out this nonsense as the douchebaggary it is.

As any professional link builder will tell you, HOW you request a link is an exercise in the art of persuasion. You are asking for a favor of sorts…initiating a relationship…trying to build a rapport.

Like a dude in a bar trying to pick up chicks, the “game” matters. If he has no game, or if his game is utterly pathetic, one of two things will happen:

1. he will be ignored and women will talk about his monumental loserdom on their way home that night; or
2. some mean girl will use him to get back at her fat, ugly, “I’ll sleep with anyone” whore of a friend with whom her previous boyfriend cheated.

The same is true of link requests. 99.9% of the time requests like this will be ignored and/or laughed at.  The other .1% of the time someone, like some I know in my fine industry, will start linking to you from questionable sources using less than flattering anchor text – like “SEO scam” or “snake oil SEO”.  And sometimes your egregiously nonsensical e-mails will be ridiculed publicly, as is the case here.

Please, join in the laughter and ridicule…won’t you?

Hello Webmaster,
My name is Ravi Shankar and i am webmaster and i m interested to link exchange with your site and here i have mention my all site details which is SEO , Web Design , Web Hosting related theme , and u can placed my details in your site and confirm me . in return i will add your details in these site http://webresourcelink.blogspot.com/Resource pages. please add my details and conform me with your maximum details .

you Can add my details any where in your site .

[LINKS REMOVED FOR OBVIOUS REASONS]

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Regards
Ravi Shankar

Please…oh, please let me jump at the chance to get a link back to my site from a Blogspot blog’s resources page.  Did I mention that Blogspot blog doesn’t even exist?  Aside from that, I can’t begin to tell you all that’s wrong with that e-mail. The grammatical nightmare alone is enough to make me nauseous. While it may be a request specific to the SEO industry, don’t think for a minute that the e-mails an outsourced Indian company send out as a representative of YOUR brand are any better.  Make no mistake, THIS is what you get when you outsource to a cheap ass sweatshop SEO in India. THIS is what you get for your money. THIS is the impression you make to other website owners within your niche.

Let’s make one thing clear:  I am NOT making fun of people whose native language is not English.  This isn’t discrimination, bigotry or prejudice.  I do not speak Spanish.  I do not speak Japanese.  I do not speak Italian…Hindi…French…Arabic…Punjabi…Swahili – nothing.  I am monolingual.  Thus, I would never approach someone via e-mail or in person and proceed to ask them for something of value while simultaneously butchering their language.  It is disrespectful.  Just as these link requests, particularly when sent to those in the SEO industry, are disrespectful.

And just imagine the quality links that will come from such amazing requests. Before you know it you’ll be linking to and linked to from every Babylonian link exchange whore on the Internet. Don’t fall victim to a “too good to be true” price for outsourced link building offers. The damage done in the long run comes with its own special opportunity cost.

This ends today’s Dumbass 101 rant. As you were…

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For a limited time, save 50% on my already insanely affordable small business website design service. Or learn more about SEO audit and keyword research services.The post, Outsourcing SEO to India – Dumbass 101, originated on SEOAly and may not be republished or reproduced without my written permission.

A new “service” marketed as Verified SEO has been making waves throughout the SEO/SEM industry today. Though I doubt they are the waves its founder, Charles Preston – a self-described “SEO Expert” – had been hoping for. Claiming to have been a search marketing professional since 1999, Mr. Preston has found his reputation and previous anonymity in industry circles coming under fire from search marketing veterans and douchebaggary outers far & wide. Why, you might ask, would the industry be so quick to damn someone whose intentions might seem benevolent and in the best interest of consumers? There are a lot of reasons…

Verified SEO Is Scamtastic

On its face, Verified SEO is an absolutely meaningless display badge provided to those willing to pay $99 a month for the privilege of being endorsed by Mr. Preston and his supposed team of “industry veterans”. Displaying such a badge on their website would merely be an attempt to convince unsuspecting consumers that a particular SEO or SEO company is considered more legitimate than another. In doing so such an SEO would give the illusion of professionalism or effectiveness to consumers who are utterly ignorant of the insubstantial nature of Verified SEO itself.

Verified SEO’s Lack of Transparency

The shenanigans were outed by an actual industry veteran, Edward Lewis, on Sphinn – after first personally reaching out to Mr. Preston to give him the chance to address concerns about who the “industry veterans” behind the Verified SEO brand were. Charles Preston attempted to defend the intent of the service in an incredibly long comment. And for those of you who know me at all, you know how long a comment must be for ME to point out its length!

Despite Mr. Preston’s efforts to defend the premise behind Verified SEO, we still have no idea who these “industry veterans” set to review the work of SEOs truly are. The marketing-ease of the service may as well be, “WE will give you our stamp of approval for the bargain basement price of just $99 per month. And no, it obviously doesn’t matter who ‘WE’ are…”

Unbridled Hubris, Thy Name Is Charles Preston

SEOs are fine with being judged and evaluated by their clients. We expect that. We welcome that. We encourage that. We don’t, however, accept the audacity of a self-described “SEO Expert” believing he has the authority to judge, evaluate and deem us worthy…and spending $99 a month for the privilege. Even those who might have otherwise supported and encouraged the premise behind some kind of certification process suddenly find themselves saying, “So, who is this Preston guy? Has anyone ever heard of him?” The rest jump straight to, “Who the hell do you think you are, Charles Preston?”

No self-respecting search marketing professional would EVER, under any circumstances, hand their client’s sensitive information over to some schmoe no one in the industry has ever heard of – or to anyone, for that matter. Would you, Charles Preston? I’d venture to say you wouldn’t. And if you would, we have even more reason to question your professionalism. More importantly, so do your clients.

Nothing Says, “Caught Red-Handed” Like Quitting

Look, I’m all for holding SEOs accountable and protecting consumers from scams. Hell, it’s the very reason I started the SEOAly blog to begin with. What I’m NOT all for is some dude no one has ever heard of offering a bullshit paid stamp of approval that will lead consumers to believe being a “Verified SEO” actually means something. It means nothing. And the fact that it’s a service that was started by someone no one in the industry has ever heard of and that there are supposed “industry veterans” involved that still remain nameless just smacks of douchebaggary and shenanigans.

After today’s hail storm of criticism surrounding Verified SEO, it seems Mr. Preston has decided his ill-conceived venture is more a liability than a cash cow. After first trying to spin the entire scenario to cast it in the light of a premature April Fool’s joke or massive industry Rickroll, Mr. Preston has now taken the site down completely, as well as having shut down the @VerfiedSEO Twitter account. Rishi from SEO Bullshit, issued “An Open Challenge” to Verified SEO to prove that the site and service was being offered by industry veterans. Since the site no longer exists, I’d think Rishil can probably pick that gauntlet back up. Way to prove you were right and had the best of intentions there, Charles.

An Unnecessary, Self-Induced ORM Nightmare

The unmitigated disaster that is Verified SEO is indisputable at this point. It was the story of the day among many of the loudest and most outspoken voices in the search marketing industry. Thanks to well-known curmudgeons like Edward Lewis and Alan Bleiweiss (you both know I <3 you and that’s a term of endearment) to snarktastic souls like Aaron Chronister (a.k.a “TheMadHat”) and Tim Nash (a.k.a. “I know who you are and I saw what you did…”), Verified SEO has become a verifiable nightmare for Charles Preston. His poor decision to launch such a venture has come back to bite him in the ass.

A search for “Charles Preston SEO” in Google now brings up his site…and several results eluding to the scamtasticness of Verified SEO and questioning his intent/intelligence/competence. This, ladies & gentlemen, is a perfect case study in what NOT to do. Whether Charles Preston intended it or not, he has opened up a huge can of worms that may tarnish the reputation he’s supposedly been building since 1999.

If Charles Preston were the industry veteran he claims, he’d have foreseen this backlash. He’d have prepared for the character assassination that would result. Regardless of his true motivation, he’d have known exactly how the true veterans and loudest voices in the search marketing industry would react in the face of such arrogance. He didn’t. And that pretty much says it all about his experience in this industry…

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I had a great time at IM Spring Break! Mad props for the pimpin’ good time go out to those handsome bad boys of IM Broadcast. Thanks for the good time, fellas. I can’t take credit for that quote…I was momentarily possessed by Van Wilder. I heard a rumor that there is another IM Broadcast event planned in California in July and then ScarySEO in Atlantic City in the fall. More interesting conversations, great sessions, good food and open bars? Um…count me in!

I really enjoyed meeting everyone. I’m working on a post that will include some of my favorite #IMSB tweets and funny memories from the event. And another one that will actually have some substance from a few of my favorite sessions. Perhaps you should subscribe my RSS feed by clicking the giant RSS button to the right of the screen. :) Stay tuned for a review of Raven Internet Marketing Tools! I have so much work to do to get caught up. I’m sure I’m not alone…

Without further ado, here is SEOAly’s cookie recipe:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar (preferably dark)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (preferably real – not imitation)
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Ghirardelli Milk or Semi-Sweet Chips (or mix the two…)

OPTIONAL: 1 cup nuts (pecans, walnuts, peanuts, macadamias and cashews all work well – preferably pre-roasted)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Combine flour, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in small bowl.

Beat together butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl – cream well.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Stir in chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 8 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

About that “cool completely” craziness…that’s just part of the original recipe. I don’t condone or encourage such nonsense. Pour a cold glass of milk and enjoy! :)

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For a limited time, save 50% on my already insanely affordable small business website design service. Or learn more about SEO audit and keyword research services.The post, SEOAly's Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe from IM Spring Break, originated on SEOAly and may not be republished or reproduced without my written permission.

photo credit: www.ericcastro.biz

I read a post recently that made me laugh, but not for the right reasons. On the other hand, it also made me think about how easy it is for someone who is new to Twitter and the Social Media sphere in general to make a huge mistake and alienate a lot of people who could have shortened the learning curve for a n00b significantly.

In a few keystrokes the potential to build a rapport and some quality online relationships is lost. Not only that, it’s also pretty easy to make yourself look like an ignorant tool.  I’m not picking on people who are new to Twitter. Twitter is so new that it hasn’t been long since EVERYONE was a rookie.

That said, there are some who navigate the learning curve really quickly and others that don’t. There’s nothing wrong with being among the latter, provided that you recognize you’re still learning and don’t make the mistake of pretending that you’re not. The blog post that amused, as well as sincerely disappointed me, was entitled “Stop Twitter Spam PLEASE!“.

I detest Twitter spammers, so I was excited that someone decided to take a shot at them. Excited, that is, until I reached sentence 4 of the post and realized this poor, misguided soul had no idea what he was talking about. I hesitated to name the post specifically – but in the end, I had no choice. I can’t really illustrate my point without referencing the original post and giving people the opportunity to read it for themselves. In order to put things into perspective here, let’s take a quick look at what a Twitter spammer’s profile actually looks like:

If you compare that to the screenshot used as an example of a “spammer” at the post on iThoughts, you will see some significant differences. Actually, you’ll see absolutely no similarity whatsoever between the image I have included above and Gerald Weber‘s Twitter profile. None. Zip. Zero. Nada. To put it simply, that’s because @the_gman is NOT a Twitter spammer…not by a long shot.

I loathe “Twitter rules” posts. I’ve said it numerous times. There are as many ways to use Twitter as there are Twitter users. There are some common sense approaches to using Twitter effectively – like making sure your profile has a bio and a picture, but if someone is stupid enough to want to keep the ugly default avatar and tell people nothing useful about themselves, who am I to judge? Some people will tell you that “don’t curse” is a Twitter rule. To that I say, “Eat shit – I’ll cuss if I want to…” If you don’t like it, don’t follow me. The end.

No one is a Twitter expert – no one. If they tell you they are it’s because they’ve got an e-book they want to sell you about how to use Twitter to make money. Blah. It’s all a bunch of crap. On the other hand, some people have more experience using Twitter than others. So, if you’ve been using Twitter for a couple weeks and are so unfamiliar with it that you don’t even know there is a setting that allows you to control which @replies appear within your Twitterstream and which don’t, I would encourage you to refrain from writing a rant-like post throwing around accusations of spamming.

You’ll piss off the people who can help you learn. You’ll make yourself seem ignorant. You’ll alienate those who might help you to promote worthwhile content in Social Media circles at some point in the future. You’ll cause people, perhaps inaccurately, to come to the conclusion that you’re not all that bright and don’t understand the very definition of the term “spam”. The moral of the story, don’t be a tool. As in real life, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

Related posts:

1. Reciprocal and Auto-Following on Twitter = Bad Idea

For a limited time, save 50% on my already insanely affordable small business website design service. Or learn more about SEO audit and keyword research services.The post, Use Twitter As A Tool – Don't Be One, originated on SEOAly and may not be republished or reproduced without my written permission.

The advice he was given, particularly with regard to the permalink structure of the URLs of his blog, was absolutely CORRECT. The problem lies, not with the suggestion his unnamed “SEO Maven” friend offered, but that this individual gave him only part of the information necessary in order to make the changes properly. Mr. Dvorak elected to run with this partial information and tackle the task of changing the URL structure of his blog without fully understanding the appropriate process for doing so, nor the necessary steps required to do it properly.

Therein lies the problem with search engine optimization: do-it-yourselfers armed with partial information and the over-reaching egos that lead them to believe a massive undertaking – like changing the URL structure of an entire site or blog – can be properly carried out based on the limited information provided during an IM conversation.  I’d really encourage those who want to learn a little more about SEO to start with the basics – like, say…META tags.  Here’s a good overview from my friend, Josh:  ”META Tags and SEO“.  See, part of the problem with many who know something about SEO is that they neglect to understand that sharing tidbits of information, like “…you should be using long URLs…” (which, if quoted by Mr. Dvorak correctly is NOT the appropriate explanation), doesn’t provide whomever they’re speaking to with a realistic picture of what is involved in making such a massive change to an existing site or blog.

What Mr. Dvorak’s SEO pal neglected to mention was that before even considering making such a change, he should think long and hard about what the new URLs should be and that simply changing the URL structure in the permalinks settings of WordPress would not be enough. Nor was he properly advised to use the custom permalink structure /%postname%/, as to include only the title of the post in the URL – not the date.

Furthermore, Mr. Dvorak also neglected to edit the individual permalinks to include only the most pertinent information regarding the post’s topic and the applicable keywords. Like this post, for instance, whose URL is not http://www.seoaly.com/ignorant-do-it-yourselfers-and-their-seo-fiascoes-the-real-trouble-with-search-engine-optimization, but the more search engine friendly and user-friendly http://www.seoaly.com/real-trouble-with-search-engine-optimization instead.

Another thing not taken into account when Mr. Dvorak changed his URLs was: what will happen to any existing links to the old post URLs? You see, when permalinks are changed it will break the existing links to the old URL. Someone who fully understands SEO, rather than thinking they can glean all of the information needed from a brief IM conversation, would have understood that installing a plugin – like Redirection – would be necessary in order create a 301 redirect and to prevent any existing links from breaking as a result of the changes to the post URLs. Immediately creating a new sitemap and submitting it to Google would help to make them aware of the changes to the URL structure of the blog, as well – but I doubt that step was taken into consideration either.

Again, having a partial understanding of the process and not being aware of all that occurs when a post URL is changed was your undoing, Mr. Dvorak – not the advice that adjustments to the URLs would increase the optimization of the individual posts on your blog. This is no “trick”, as you claim – this is an accepted and effective SEO strategy that is not only employed by reputable SEOs, but actually recommended by Google and documented at the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog. Here are two of the many posts that give some insight into Google’s recommendations for URL structure: Dynamic URLs vs. Static URLs and Google’s SEO Starter Guide.

A further claim was made that making changes to the URLs “…does nothing” and that “…long URLs are crap and stupid.” Again, I question the use of the term “long URLs” and tend to believe the use of this improper terminology as further proof that he was not provided with the appropriate information initially. Nevertheless, this claim is based purely on ignorance, rather than being based in fact. Creating URLs that contain keywords, rather than simply the domain and “?p=3100″, as is the WordPress default format for URLs, DOES – in fact – have an impact on the ranking of the post in the search results. In much the same way that having a keyword in the domain itself helps to improve ranking, so does having the post’s main keywords in the URL string of the individual page or post. This is a fact and it is undisputed, as illustrated by the aforementioned posts at Google’s official webmaster blog.

You see, Mr. Dvorak, search engine optimization and learning all that is involved with it is a full time undertaking. Those of us involved in the industry do this all day, every day and – unlike you – have a complete understanding of the far-reaching implications and potential problems with changing the URL structure of a blog. Unlike you, we understand the big picture of the overall optimization of a site or blog. SEO is not something that should be tackled by just anyone completing task after task on a universal checklist. Your claim that SEO is snake oil speaks more to your ignorance than to fact. Making such a claim is the imbecilic equivalent of diagnosing someone with Appendicitis and attempting to remove their appendix based on the information available at WebMD, then proceeding to hold WebMD accountable when the patient dies on the table.

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For a limited time, save 50% on my already insanely affordable small business website design service. Or learn more about SEO audit and keyword research services.The post, Ignorant Do-It-Yourselfers & Their SEO Fiascoes: The Real Trouble With Search Engine Optimization, originated on SEOAly and may not be republished or reproduced without my written permission.

News of The Economist’s plagiarism will begin circulating and perhaps taint their reputation in the eyes of like-minded people.  The least they could do was give credit where credit is due.  And why go through the trouble of creating their own app in the first place?  Why not simply do a review of the original and link to it?  The purpose of the original project, I’m guessing, is to get an idea of the world’s consensus on the issue…at least from an Internet user’s perspective, that is.  Nice job, Economist…way to damage your own reputation and accomplish absolutely nothing constructive in the process.

Spread the word that plagiarism isn’t acceptable…even when the plagiarist is The Economist!  This just serves as further illustration of the importance of the 2008 Presidential election.  Hopefully we can restore the sense of right vs. wrong that used to result in plagiarists being labeled as the bottom-feeders they are.  If you’re as saddened and outraged by this as I am, feel free to cast some votes for the story on Digg and spread the word!  Digg the original.  Don’t forget to Digg the plagiarism story, too!

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The biggest difference between kwippy and other microblogging apps is that it integrates IM statuses into the time line.  While I’ve not yet taken the time to play around with this feature because I don’t change im IM status much during the day, that integration appears to be one of the most notable differences between kwippy and the other microblogging platforms like Twitter.  I invited my Twitter following to join the fun at kwippy and look forward to playing around with it more!  You can learn more about kwippy and what sets it apart from other microbloggers by checking out…what else…their blog!

By the way – THANKS, KWIPPY!  Glad you liked my kwip…

08/29 UPDATE: There is also now a Facebook application available that allows you to update your Facebook status through your kwips.  Seems pretty cool.  They’ve got some work to do making it seamless with the Twitter Facebook app’s automatic updating of your Facebook status, but they’re on the right track…

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I was introduced to the terms SEO and Search Engine Optimization for the first time in late 2006 when I began working as a Customer Retention Agent at a small business website company.  The timing could not have been better, as my best friend and I had recently launched a small pet sitting venture.  I quickly learned that that there is A LOT of information…and even more misinformation…out there about SEO.

Ah…Sometimes I Long For Blissful Ignorance

Until earlier this year my understanding of SEO was pretty basic.  By “pretty basic” I mean I knew enough to do an acceptable good job of optimizing for our pet sitting site.  I thought I knew a lot.  I actually chuckled out loud to myself as I typed that…really, I did.  Since January I’ve really been much more focused on SEO.  I miss the blissful ignorance that accompanied not knowing how many theories there are to test.  I’ve learned a lot over the past several months.

Before venturing into the “SEO in practice” pool, I knew more than enough to help small business owners begin to understand how to take the first steps toward improving the on-page SEO of their sites…like optimizing titles, descriptions, headings, content, internal linking, etc. – and that’s more than what was expected of me.  I’m doing more “hands-on” SEO these days…and learning that testing ideas isn’t just about trying the ideas, it’s also about trying my patience.

My Learning Curve

I’ve done some testing using a few new sites and started blogging for the very first time.  Before going any further, I have to say this about blogging:  I LOVE IT!  You may not have noticed, but I have a tendency to ramble.  It’s okay…don’t feel bad for me.  The first step to getting help is admitting I have a problem.  “My name is SEOAly, and I’m a rambler…”.  In a blog, I can just go on and on…and when people get tired of reading, they can stop.  If they have some extra time to kill, they can read keep reading.  Those who agree can comment…those who don’t agree can comment.  I just love the idea of one of my rants or raves sparking an online conversation.  I’ve been known to drop tiny pearls of wisdom in among the rambling…you never know where they may be hiding.  Has anyone else noticed a resemblance between the words “blogging” and “babbling”?  Maybe it’s just me…I digress…

In addition to launching this blog, I recently began participating in discussions and commenting on existing blogs.  I submitted a post to Sphinn…I’ve been hanging out more at Twitter…I’ve been actively trying to participate a bit more in the world of SEO.  Over these weeks I’ve discovered something very important about the search marketing industry and it’s community – it’s awesome!  No sooner do I ask myself the question, than I find the answer…either in a previously written blog post or in the midst of Twitter conversations I digitally eavesdrop on throughout the day.

Being An SEO Rookie

The support and encouragement I’ve received as one of many “new kids on the block” in the SEO world has been…well – surprising, to say the least.  People in the search marketing industry seem unusually open, honest and willing to share their knowledge and expertise with anyone ready to ask the right questions.  Those I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with are more than happy to point me toward the right information and/or steer me away when I’ve taken a turn down the wrong path.

The very first SEO I met, Josh Garner (a.k.a. “SEOFactor”), has always answered any question I could come up with.  At first I thought it was because we worked for the same company and the more I knew, the less chance I would send him stupid requests.  He kept answering my questions (and still does, despite the fact that we no longer work for the same company), so I quickly had to set aside the idea that he had something to gain by sharing his knowledge.  For a while I thought he was just nice.  In getting to know Josh a bit better, as well as getting to know those that know Josh a bit better, the “nice” theory didn’t hold up to the test of time either.  Just kidding, Josh…HAHA!

I now realize that what I know about SEO isn’t what is important – it’s what I do with that knowledge.  Josh knew, as do many of those I’ve had the pleasure of meeting online over the past several weeks, that for me to benefit in any real way from the information provided, I actually have to DO something.  Experts sharing the right information is really the only way to put a stop to those intent upon taking advantage of people’s ignorance.  I’ve discovered that the collaborative efforts put forth by the strongest members of the search marketing community are the basis for its overall success.

What’s The Appeal?

I love the blank stare I get when I answer the question, “What do you do?”.  Is that wrong?  I think that’s part of the appeal.  It’s one of few professions that people often can’t even pretend to know anything about…or even know that “SEO” is an acronym.  I used to think I enjoyed answering, “I’m a photographer…”, but I think I like “I’m an SEO…” even better.  When people answer, “I’m a doctor…”, “I’m a lawyer…”, or even “I’m a rocket scientist…”, people have at least some idea what that profession entails.  SEO, on the other hand, no one knows…even the people that think they know, don’t usually know.

I love SEO.  Seriously.  I find it refreshing that organic search marketing isn’t tied directly to the checkbooks of businesses that can afford to advertise.  There are a lot of crappy companies out there with big bank accounts…and many of them built their empires by writing big checks for traditional marketing and advertising, rather than actually creating a quality product and providing it at a fair price.  SEO helps to level the playing field for small businesses and gives them an unprecedented opportunity to expose their products, services and ideas to a national or international audience without investing so much financial captial to do it.

Creating A Market For “The Little Guy”

Thanks in large part to search marketing, an inventor in Topeka can sell his new purse light to a socialite in Beverly Hills without ever speaking to her personally.  Exposure in the search results can be generated for little more than the opportunity cost of learning SEO and catching the social media wave.  Internet marketing provides that opportunity to everyone equally and without bias or prejudice…and most importantly for many small businesses, without the large financial investment that kind of exposure would have cost 20 years ago.

Traditional marketing, and the potentially enormous price tags that come along with it, often excluded many small businesses because of the large initial investment required just to get the ball rolling.  These days, an individual with the “best thing since sliced bread” no longer has to rely on word of mouth, direct mail, etc. to promote a new product in their local community.  Instead, entrepreneurs can use their “take the bull by the horns” attitudes to take control of their own search marketing campaigns.

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Small business owners and/or their defensive webmasters tend to reap very little benefit from SEO consultation, nor do they see much ROI.  The limitations of the value of SEO consultation can be vast.  I’ve spoken to hundreds of website owners – the majority of whom listened closely to my recommendations throughout the call and then never invested more than a few minutes actually implementing the suggested strategy.  INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING.

The Perception of SEO Consultation

I would much prefer to do the work myself oftentimes, but when a client chooses “SEO Consultation” from a host of services, they’re not hiring someone to optimize the site for them – they’re hiring someone to give expert advice as to how to optimize a website.  Many less than savvy small business owners invest in “consulting” because it is seemingly less expensive initially.  What they often overlook is the very meaning of the word “consulting”, as well as what is included with the consultation itself.  As defined by the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, consulting is defined as follows:

Main Entry:  con·sult·ing

Pronunciation:  kən-ˈsəl-tiŋ

That said, one of the questions many clients ask during the course of their initial consultation is, “Yeah…but isn’t this stuff what I’m paying YOU GUYS for…”?  The short answer is, “No, you’re not…not at all…”.  During an SEO consultation I’ll gladly tell site owners or their webmasters absolutely everything I can about what needs to be done to optimize the site for the search engines…with no concern whatsoever that doing so has a negative impact on the “do-it-for-me” SEO side of the business.  I know that very, very few of them will never make an even half-hearted attempt to complete step one of the strategy I suggest.

The Standalone Value of SEO Consultation – $0

SEO consultation is worthless unless it results in the strategy being implemented.  Here’s the thing, it can take a lot of consultation to get a small business owner or their webmaster to the point of being able to SEO a page successfully – and even more to optimize a whole site.  Not to mention that there is an entire world of off-page SEO to explore once the site itself has been modified to be more “search engine friendly”.  Understanding SEO is essential, not only for carrying out the present strategy, but to be able to create strategies for other pages or sites in the future.  A worthwhile and valuable SEO consultation should lead to a better understanding of SEO as it relates to the client’s industry…not just “change [this] to [this]…and don’t forget to…”.

Let’s say a fat farm cooks and serves every meal during a person’s stay.  Will she lose weight?  Sure…WHILE SHE’S THERE!  Once she leaves, there won’t be anyone to cook her meals and say, “eat this…don’t eat that…go workout…”.  Without learning how, what and why to eat, she’ll just gain it all back upon returning home.  The same is true of SEO.  Simply making the changes because “a consultant told me to…” without understanding WHY serves little purpose.

Unless a site owner intends to pay for hours of step-by-step SEO consultation every time a new page or new site needs to be optimized, there won’t be a consultant on the phone next time saying, “change the title of this page to…”, “create additional text for this page…”, “link this page to that page using this word…” or “go to this blog and participate in the discussion…”.  It’s one of those, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day…teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime…” kind of deals.

Do-It-Yourself SEO Isn’t Necessarily Any Cheaper

Make no mistake, SEO consultation typically involves nothing more than providing advice to the client or client’s designer as to what should be done – not actually doing it.  So, whether website owners realize it or not, hiring an SEO consultant means they ARE a “do-it-yourselfer”.  The consultant may be holding their hand along the way a bit, but the site owner is ultimately responsible for actually doing all of the work that will be required to make the site perform better in the search results.

It may take hours of consultation for the average small business owner or website designer to grasp the basics of on-page SEO alone.  Once an understanding of the basics is achieved, actually doing the work often takes more time and effort than most website owners are willing (or able) to commit to addressing even the basic on-page SEO issues.  Site owners should really stop and do the math…between the time & effort required to learn SEO and the time & effort required to carry out a successful strategy, most of them would be better off hiring someone to do it for them in the first place.

Scams Make Business Owners Avoid SEO Like The Plague

For some site owners…those with enough common sense to realize they can’t learn SEO in their “spare time” and expect to succeed…it isn’t usually long before the lightning bolt of reality strikes.  Alas, there are many who VASTLY underestimate the time and effort that will be required to do the work themselves.  Those site owners invariably opt for consultation, thereby heaping the responsibility of learning SEO, as well as understanding and carrying out an SEO strategy, squarely on their own shoulders.  When desired results aren’t achieved, it’s almost always the consultant that is blamed.

Therein lies the inherent flaw of the SEO consultation itself – having to rely on the site owner to carry out the plan…and with the exception of the consultations, that site owner is completely unengaged with the field of SEO.  This creates a dilemma in and of itself – breaking each basic best practice of on-page and off-page SEO down their simplest forms.  Making the endeavor that much more difficult is the need to help site owners or webmasters understand that these are concepts…understanding why is just as important as understanding what and how.

The concept of SEO can’t be dumbed down too far – doing so creates a “checklist” of seemingly unrelated tasks and never leads to a full understanding of what is being done and why.  Most site owners don’t (and won’t) even try to understand why the “why” is important.  Because of the reluctance to do what it takes to understand SEO, many site owners have been so taken advantage of by industry charlatans they will never even CONSIDER venturing back into the realm of SEO – often to their own demise.

SEO Consultation IS Valuable…

…just not for anyone and everyone.  There are two important things to keep in mind when it comes to SEO Consultation – the person providing the consultation and and the person receiving it.  Not all good SEOs are good SEO consultants…it takes someone not only with the technical knowledge of SEO, but most importantly – as it pertains to the consultation – the ability to explain those technicalities in a manner that someone else can understand.  That’s no easy task.  If the person receiving the consultation “just doesn’t get it”, that’s not necessarily as much a reflection on the consultant as it is on the person receiving the consultation.

There are good SEO consultants and bad SEO consultants.  Just like there are good doctors and bad doctors.  The difference is that the general public doesn’t study some information on WebMD and make the ridiculous assumption that they can remove their loved one’s appendix.  Unfortunately, the same isn’t true of SEO.  People are so ignorant of what is involved with optimizing a site, they think a few hours of consultation will give them all the information they need to do their own.  Frankly, that’s a bit insulting…and site owners with such unrealistic expectations often get precisely what they deserve.

Furthermore, many site owners think they can pick and choose what recommendations to follow – again due to nothing more than ignorance.  A doctor prescribing four medications with explicit details of why, when and how much of each to take would expect that his instructions will be followed.  If the patient blatently ignores his instructions and doesn’t get the desired result, does that mean the doctor is guilty of malpractice?  I’d say not…

When To Consider SEO Consultation

For consultations to truly have any value, “the student” must actually be willing and able to grasp the concepts behind SEO.  There are some do-it-yourselfers out there that can benefit a great deal from consultants – and they’ll likely save themselves a considerable chunk of money doing the work themselves. That said, having a basic understanding of the Internet and website design is a necessity – period.  One can’t exactly grasp the concept of SEO if they’re still typing URLs into the search field by mistake and/or don’t know what a description META tag is.

When considering SEO consultation, one should as themselves:  do I know the difference between the address bar and a search field…do I know what headings are…do I know what ALT attributes are?  If the answers are, “no…”, do-it-yourself SEO is probably NOT, I repeat NOT, something that should even be entertained.  For most small business owners it is a better investment to hire a reputable SEO to optimize the site.  It may cost more initially, but at least there is an opportunity to generate a return on the investment – and the site owner won’t throw good money after bad in a futile attempt to get a site to page one of Google for “iPods”.

SEO Is For PEOPLE – Not Search Engines

To properly optimize a site it is important to understand why certain things are important…like internal linking, for instance.  While there’s no doubt that text navigation helps search engines index all of a site’s pages more efficiently, the concept of internal linking and it’s impact on a site’s ranking is due to the increase in usability for visitors.

Most people tend not to realize that the original intent of search engine algorithms was to provide search users with the most relevant and useful information within the database – not to sell crap.  That goal hasn’t really changed…there’s just a great deal more revenue involved in the process.  Search engines still want the best, most useful, most popular and most relevant sites to appear first.  The manner in which a website proves those things to the search engines, though, has changed a great deal.

That’s why it’s important for anyone with the goal of having a site found in the search results to either put forth the effort it takes to understand SEO themselves or hire someone that does.  Just for the record, when I say “hire someone”, I DO NOT mean pay some big company that doesn’t know anything about SEO a monthly fee to provide “30 minutes of consultation per month…” and “submit the site to hundreds of search engines…” – both of which are a complete waste of money.  Submissions are SEO circa 1999.  No discussion.  As for the 30 minutes of consultation a month, well…you should know enough about SEO to properly optimize a site in roughly 10 years or so…good luck with that.

Hidden Benefits of SEO Consultation

Providing worthwhile and valuable SEO consultation helps website owners understand the scope of what optimizing a website really entails.  If nothing else, it may help them understand that they can’t or aren’t willing to do the work necessary to improve a site’s ranking.  For ethical and reputable consultants, that often means being hired to provide SEO services, rather than just consultation.  The sad reality is that once a site owner feels as though they’ve “been had” by one of the many scammers that are ruining the industry reputation, they’ll likely never trust anyone with regard to SEO again.

Personally, I’d much prefer that clients “get it” based on consulting with me.  Having to cover the same thing time and time again, page after page can be irritating.  Rather than having them keep coming back page after page, site after site to review the same principles over and over and over again, I’d prefer being able to move on to the next step of the strategy…but that isn’t always the reality of consultation.  While I suppose it provides a certain amount of job security for me, covering the same topic for the sixth time with the same person…well, it’s enough to drive a person bonkers – and for some of us that’s a shorter drive than others!

SEO Isn’t For Everyone

What consulting has helped me to realize is that some people are just completely incapable of grasping the concept of SEO as a whole.  Explaining “why” a title should contain target search terms doesn’t mean they are going to be able to write the next page title themselves…because they just don’t get it.  And that’s okay!  If a mechanic told me step by step what to do to rebuild an engine, could I do it?  I’ve never tried, but I’m guessing not!  There’s nothing wrong with that…just like there is nothing wrong with someone “not getting” SEO.

There is a lot involved with implementing an SEO strategy based on consultation.  Even when the initial strategy is carried out successfully, keeping up with what’s necessary to maintain a site’s ranking can be just as involved.  Oftentimes that’s just more than many site owners are capable of or willing to do.  Unfortunately many are so gun-shy after a bad experience with a con artist or snake oil SEO company that they’re unwilling to even dip a toe in the SEO pool again.  That’s right…companies, and large publicly traded companies – and supposedly reputable ones, at that.  Sam’s Club ring a bell?  Yeah…no kidding.

While I can’t blame site owners for being leary of SEO to a certain extent, the reality is that their refusal to seek out a reputable and experienced SEO only dooms the site to fail.  Marketing costs money – Internet marketing is no exception…monthly subscriptions for “SEO Consultation” will almost NEVER provide the desired results.  Sorry if I’ve busted the bubbles of some small business owners out there.  Wouldn’t you rather know now…before you waste another penny on consultations you won’t benefit from or go bankrupt?

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