Posts by Barry Adams

Back in 1995 Barry Adams famously predicted that the Internet was 'just a fad' and 'would amount to nothing'. He has come far since then. Starting out his career in the '90s in all things online as an intranet content manager, Barry has worked in a wide variety of positions, including corporate webmaster, in-house SEO specialist for a large regional newspaper, and web consultant for SMEs. More articles and bio from Barry Adams
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The Fallacy of the “Don’t Rely on Google” Argument

Google Owns You

Every time Google decides to deliver another collective bitch-slap to the SEO industry in the form of an update named after a cute monochrome animal, we see the usual eruptions of debate and arguments among SEOs about the hows and whys of it all.

One argument that is consistently put forth, usually by smug SEOs whose sites have escaped the sledgehammer of Google’s wrath unscathed, is that “no site should be too reliant on Google’s traffic”.

That particular argument grinds my gears to no end. It really does. In my opinion it’s just not a valid argument. (more…)

Yet Another Way to Reclaim Your (not provided) Data

not-provided-landingpage-list

Since Google started rolling out its SSL search for logged-in users, SEOs have been scrambling to find ways to reclaim some of the lost data. Our industry relies heavily on keyword data gathered by web analytics software. For someone such as myself, who thrives on web analytics data, seeing the accuracy and usefulness of analytics data eroded further causes an almost physical pain.

There have been many very good approaches with custom reports and advanced segments to gain some measure of insight in to the (not provided) traffic. There’s a very good post by Rachael Gerson on SEER Interactive which talks about looking at the landing pages where (not provided) keywords arrived on, and David Harry has a thorough examination of (not provided) on Search News Central.

Today I will add a new approach to (not provided), which I hope will further help undo the damage SSL search has done – and continues to do – to our keyword reports. (more…)

The Source of All SEO Debates

internet-argument-1

SEOs love to argue about our craft. You can barely read two blog posts about SEO that don’t mention or involve some argument about a particular point of contention.

Generally speaking I believe there are two types of arguments that are pervasive in the SEO industry. The first is what I call ‘tactical‘ arguments. In these tactical debates, the finer points of SEO implementation are argued over, from how to best build links to what an optimal title tag looks like.

I think these sorts of arguments are important and valuable, because they help us improve and refine our craft. Without conflict, nothing ever improves.

But there’s another sort of argument that is pervasive to our industry, one that I believe is less constructive. These I’d classify as ‘meta‘ debates, and they involve the nature of SEO, its place in the marketing mix and in the wider world. (more…)

Hype and Hyperbole in SEO: It’s Not Helping Our Cause

No, this is not going to happen to SEO

It seems that at least once a year I need to write a post like this one, just to make sure everyone still has both legs firmly planted on the ground.

Because, yes, once again hype has taken hold of the SEO industry and we’re all running around screaming that everything we do has to radically change because Google farted and the SERPs have been turned on its head and SEO will never be the same and ohmygodwereallgoingtodie!!

Calm down, dear.

Some people seem to forget that this thing of ours is in a continuous state of flux. The specific tactics of how we get more relevant search traffic to a website have always changed. Everything from how we tackle on-site optimisation to the nature of linkbuilding has undergone change from one year to the next, and often quicker than that.

But what we actually do as SEOs, the core essence of our remit in the wider digital marketing mix, that really hasn’t changed at all. It’s still about getting relevant traffic to a site via organic search. That was true 15 years ago and it’s still true now. (more…)

FairSearch.org comes to Europe

fair-search

The American FairSearch.org organisation has been fighting to ‘foster and defend competition in online and mobile search’ for a wee while now. Since its inception in October 2010 by Microsoft and Foundem, many other businesses have joined the FairSearch cause, which is specifically aimed at Google and what FairSearch denounces as Google’s anti-competitive monopolist behaviour.

Now FairSearch has crossed the pond and has started a European-focused branch: FairSearchEurope.org. It has recognised that in Europe Google’s market position is even more dominant than in the USA, boasting market shares in excess of 90% in many European countries, and that there’s a strong case to be made for regulatory intervention to safeguard search neutrality. (more…)

The Unofficial URL Shortener Etiquette

Etiquette

Since I set up my own URL shortener (bada.ms) and one for my company (prc.ms), I’ve been thinking a lot about what the proper use of short URLs is. When is it OK to use your own short URLs and when isn’t it?

There’s no official rulebook on how and when to use short URLs, so I thought I’d compile an unofficial short URL etiquette guide. Below are some basic rules that I think we can all agree on, and I welcome your own thoughts and ideas in the comments: (more…)

TopSEOs: Kill The Hypocrisy, It’s Time To Take a Stand

turn-our-back-1

Disclaimer: Just to make sure there’s no confusion, the opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of State of Search or any of its affiliates, etc etc.

Now, with that out of the way, cue the rage.

Yesterday a press release, uncritically regurgitated by The Drum, made the rounds on various social media platforms. It concerned a company’s “number one UK SEO company” ranking, as awarded by none other than TopSEOs.

Aside from the editorial blunder of publishing this drivel, there are massive levels of fail in evidence here. Anyone in the SEO industry who can rub more than two braincells together knows that TopSEOs is a scam (as should be evident from the links provided later in this post). (more…)

The Division Within SEO: Google is our friend/enemy

SEO - criminal or hero?

Over the weekend there was an interesting post up on SEOmoz which chronicled Rand Fishkin’s discussion with SEO Book’s Aaron Wall about outing web spammers. It’s definitely worth a read and will provide some background information for this blog post.

Basically Rand is in favour of pointing out what he believes are bad SEO practices, specifically web spam, and Aaron is against it. Some other SEOs contributed to the debate, as well as a follow-up discussion I had with Rand and others on Saturday. (more…)

Top 10 Blogs That Are Not About SEO But You Should Be Reading Anyway

reading-list-beach

It’s that time of year again when people fall over one another to publish a list of ‘best blog posts of 2011‘ or ‘blogs to watch in 2012‘ or ‘digital marketing trends that will rock your world next year‘. Even State of Search can’t escape posts like that, because people apparently like to read it.

I figured if such lists get published anyway, I might as well make one of my own – but this time I’ll make one that could actually break the mold and, you know, be useful. So I thought I’d compose a slightly different list. Specifically, a list of blogs that are NOT about SEO – or only mention it in passing – but that you should be reading anyway. Because the stuff that gets published there is, simply put, epically awesome. (more…)

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