The local Grand Rapids Press did an article about blogging which featured me and Mike Boyink. They don’t post ‘Flair’ articles to the web, but you can see my picture and the start of the article here for a week.
The latest on web search
A new year, and new news on web search:
Thomas Register is now combining their multitude of Search-EZ sites into one comprehensive site called thomasregisterdirectory.com. They might be reacting to the changes in Google, which buried the EZ sites. The new site still has a PageRank of 0, so they aren’t ahead yet, but give it a little time.
Speaking of Google, someone forwarded a great article on the latest changes in their algorithm. The change brings two new terms to learn:
1. Hilltop–the patented tool that Google is now using to optimize its results.
2. LocalRankings–I’ve been ignoring discussions about this, but this is actually the new tool that Hilltop uses to weed out irrelevant PageRank weighting.
The article says that only about 20% of a page’s ranking is attributable to actual search-optimization, the rest is weighted by Hilltop and the more familiar PageRank. The ranking does, however, of course, depend on the right words still being there. Its just that your power to improve your ranking is limited to 20%.
Action item: Time to go looking for more incoming links from ‘authoritative’ sources.
Top ten posts of 2003
History is always a good teacher. So, before I get too involved in planning what I am going to do in 2004, I re-read all my posts of 2003 and came up with this list. Its also a good way for a new visitor to get to know what this blog is about quickly:
- You are a marketer…your client is not a marketer–so read this:
Six things you should know about marketing to engineers - I suggest a "Daily Sucker" (and the website still isn’t fixed):
My submission makes it to Father Flanders - Thomas Register put on an interesting seminar. Here is some of what I learned:
More about the seminar - B2B telemarketer that called me repeatedly gets caught!
Its a Scam busted! - Watchword for 2004, if you haven’t already blown it in 2003:
Is your product development broken? - We all feel trapped by red tape–do you know how much it costs a salesperson?
Administrative Hassles Hurt Effectiveness - Read the PDF file I put together about using email effectively:
Making the most of email - Be sure to follow the link to another post from this one:
Another reader question about Globalspec - In B2B, sex doesn’t sell, trust does:
A Revolutionary Marketing Strategy …Trust Me - Its always good to laugh at someone else’s ineptitude:
Marketing nitwits
More about some of my ideas for 2004 are coming up next, thanks to a good book.