For those of you that are not aware www.seonoobs.com started an seo contest on the 4th of February where a search result that returns 0 results was given to entrants. This term was “Yicrosoft Directory” – presumably because of the buzz around Microsoft bidding for Yahoo.

The keyword phrase was given at around 2am GMT (which I had no intention to stay up for). I will just break down what my initial process was; which might provide insight for some and be a gentle read for experienced seoers.

I initially looked for a domain with the keywords “Yicrosoft Directory” included, as predicted all .com’s .net’s etc had been taken. I finally settled with the domain www.yicrosoft-directory-online.com which is easy to remember and contains the important keywords.

Unfortunately the day I did this, my server was compromised and all my sites went down for 72 hours. Undeterred by this I decided to register a “free” domain from Wordpress. I created a nice looking blog, posted around 8 posts based on the keyword, generated some links etc – the gods seemed against me however and Wordpress deleted all “Yicrosoft Directory” additions, including mine. Disheartened by this I decided to drop out of the contest, bowing down gracefully.

More than anything it was a nice opportunity to look at how Google reacts to different seo techniques from the start, instead of working on a site that already ranks or returns around 12 million indexed results.

Then last week I decided to look at Google’s rankings of my previous competitors – to my surprise my original .com was ranked around number 15, not bad considering I had done absolutely nothing. The domain name itself appeared to carry a lot of weight!

Anyway, I have been link building and I made one post, installed a Wordpress blog, chose a design, optimised it best I could and sat back. There is around one week left and I am now ranked 3rd overall, out of about 24 contestants, if I win I will be surprised as other contestants have had a good 14 day head start over me. I will also post an in depth process of how I tackled this contest when the competition ends, good luck the other contestants, home stretch now!

Visit my Yicrosoft Directory entry

This is something that has been on my mind for quite some time now and I wasn’t sure 100% if it was true or not, until now.

For those of you that know me I love StumbleUpon, it provides great on going traffic if you setup and maintain your profile correctly – see my post “Unofficial StumbleUpon guide”. Occasionally my blog posts would get stumbled by someone else for whatever reason but I considered SU a means of letting people know when I have a new post out, in case people have not subscribed via RSS.

Last month, one morning I typically wrote a post and used my usual means of promotion, or so I thought. Later that day I checked to see if any reviews had been made on the submission and to my surprise there was no listing visible. I thought perhaps there had been a mistake when I submitted, so I tried a different technique and looked on my profile again, still no submission – so what am I dong wrong? – Nothing at all is the answer here.

When I now try and submit my own blog content the process appears to work, when you later check it returns this result:

So why has this happened?

I suppose it’s to stop people gaming the system, which I don’t really consider it doing as the content is different each time. I have had friends get URL’s band in Digg before simply because they submitted the same domain too many times so I’m quite glad that the domains don’t get banned entirely.

If anyone else has started to have this problem too please use the poll below, it will be interesting to see the results:

I have been looking closely at the relation between new blog posts along side my primary targeted keywords, even if they are not directly related. It’s safe to say that if you right about a subject i.e. “Page Rank” then for a week or two you might see some temporary search engine position increase for that keyword.

What I have seen over the last few weeks is that if you write a popular blog piece then non direct related keyword phrases can also achieve a boost. On the 4th of February I wrote a successful piece of link bait – 25 websites all SEO’s should know. I received plenty of additional backlinks and got around 8k unique visitors as a result.

The week that followed I naturally saw an increase of organic traffic as a result of the post, but surprisingly I found myself at position 6 on Google for the phrase “SEM blog”. Since that discovery the position has since moved down a bit (to the second or third page). In that time frame I received around 600 unique visitors for that term alone. That phrase is not mentioned at all in the original post and the backlinks I received did not use the phrase as an anchor – so why an increase in a keyword phrase that has not been targeted?

As well as an increase in backlinks and blog posts the post was heavily visible on social networks, bookmarking sites, which lead to an overall increase in my blog traffic. By writing a post on a related (although not directly associated) topic can lead to your blog/website achieving an overall increase in search positions. My total organic traffic increased by around 30% for a period of 2 weeks.

To me this just adds to my argument that websites in 2008 should use the blog platform more than ever to help with organic listings.

I just came across a stumble that lead me to Marketing Pilgrim where I saw an attractive piece of possible link bait. New Contest - Win an iPod touch - obviously I was expecting the standard “post a link” strategy but Andy has created something a bit different and interesting here.

What you have to do is subscribe to their RSS feed or email feed, and then between now and March 1st a secret word will be posted and only visible on these platforms. When we see the word, we will apparently know and a winner will be picked out of a hat. It’s a nice tactic because it will keep people reading Andy’s posts all month, looking for the word.

Wait, where are the links?

Well using his noggin he’s offered upgrades on the prize if a link is posted - kudus Andy (fingers crossed!)

Social media and social engagement is becoming more widely known to search marketers. Terms like “Power Users” and “Whales” are also part of the new age “lingo”. But what makes these top users any different from you and me? How much time is invested to get this status? An angle I don’t think many have explored for social activity is the amount benefits being at this level can bring you. Such as links to sites that are associated with you and interviews conducted by webmasters.

I have interviewed some of the most powerful users across the board, especially Stumbleupon, Digg, Mixx and Sphinn. I have asked:

Jansie SilentJay74 TheNanny612 Jeff Quipp Spostareduro

The 5 I have asked are top users in one or more of the four social sites I have listed, lets hear what they have to say:

Question 1 - How many hours a day do you spend on each social bookmarking website?

Jansie - Mixx.com, all day, as time permits, with breaks in-between work, as the mails come in, or if I find something interesting to post.
SilentJay74 - I would say I only spend in total about 3 hours a day off and on. I usually haunt Mixx.com. That is where I am most well known.
TheNanny612 - Well, I don’t have an allotted time I spend on each social bookmarking site. But, I do keep windows open constantly of my favorite social bookmarking websites that I frequent. And, since I spend around 19-20 hours online a day…. I guess I could be spending that much time on them.
Jeff Quipp- a) Digg (2 hours)
b) Stumbleupon (2 hours)
c) Sphinn (1.5 hours)
d) Reddit (10 minutes)
e) Mixx (1/2 hour)
Spostareduro – This is a funny question. Can I actually boil it down to a set amount of hours out of 24? Hmm..I’d have to say 23.59. It’s likely I’ll divorce before marriage.

Question 2 -Which is your most visited social bookmarking website?

Jansie - Mixx
SilentJay74 - I usually haunt Mixx.com. That is where I am most well known. I have been Social Bookmarking for over a year or so. I am also the co-host of Social Blend. It is a podcast about Social Media and Social Bookmarking. We also talk about Mixx.com a lot on the podcast.
TheNanny612 - My favorite Social Bookmarking website is Stumble Upon. It is the one I spend the most time on.
Jeff Quipp- No question, Stumbleupon. It holds the most potential for the vast majority of Clients, large or small. I also use Stumbleupon to help me keep track of everything my friends think is important in the industry that day. Lastly, I’ve reduced my TV time, and now dedicate that time to following my interests on Stumble.
Spostareduro – Oh, this is simple. Stumbleupon. I love the variation of personalities and interests there. Which can be found everywhere, but SU makes others seem more tangible, not just virtual. A home away from home (I’m a real nerd) If Sphinn were considered a bookmarking site, I’d say Sphinn because it’s there that I’ve gotten most of my niche education.

Question 3 - How long have you been using social bookmarking?

Jansie - My addiction started in 2007. I’m seeing someone about it though…
SilentJay74 – No Answer
TheNanny612 - Since July of 2007
Jeff Quipp- I set up my first account on Digg almost 2 years ago, but really only got into it seriously in the last 8 months. In the last 8 months though, its been a full-time job!
Spostareduro – I’ve been actively involved with social bookmarking for probably a solid 2 months now. (give or take a week or 2) I opened a few profiles a few months back, but didn’t pursue them at that time.
Question 4 - Do you have a preferred choice of content to submit?

Jansie - Yup, SEO stuff, totally off the wall comic stuff, self-submissions, for shameless link-building.
SilentJay74 - My preferred choice of content is tech news and crazy videos.
TheNanny612 - Depends on the social bookmarking site I am on at the time. They all have different content that works well on them. Any niche will do well on StumbleUpon as long as long as the content is good. Sphinn, another of my favorite social bookmarking site, is a social bookmarking site for SEO, Marketing and Social Media….. so of course that is the content I submit there. The community members of Sphinn are major players in SEO and marketing, so the content you submit there has to be excellent otherwise it won’t do well.
Jeff Quipp - I’m a science and technology junkie, so I love to read and submit about that stuff. These topics also have a relatively large following on social media sites, and really good potential to go `hot’.
Spostareduro – At first I began submitting mostly SEO/M articles. Because I was trying to keep up with SEO education for my site. (Learning SEO Basics) Then as I hung out in Sphinn which has a vast amount of SEO/M as well as Social Media news, I began obsessing over SM. Now I’ve expanded into allowing it to be more of a multipurpose zone. A place where I can express my human side..laughter, art, love of music, poetry, fellow bloggers, environmental concerns and sometimes even pain.

Question 5 - Are there any social bookmarking sites you don’t like and why?

Jansie - Not really. Not like is too strong.
SilentJay74 - . Right now I would have to say my least preferred Social Bookmarking site is Digg.com. A ton of things have been happening at Digg and they have been banning well known users who also happen to be friends of mine. What some Social Bookmarking sites don’t realize is that there is a sense of community, and you don’t want to hurt your community or make changes without consulting them and getting community feedback. Mixx however understands this and is extremely involved with their community. I guess that is why I appreciate Mixx so much.
TheNanny612 - Not really. I don’t participate in all of them…. I just can’t. I don’t have the time in the day to enjoy them all. I have a few favorites and stick with them. I can’t say that I don’t like one or the other. I seem to stick with my favorites because I don’t have the time for others at this point.
Jeff Quipp - Reddit … the user interface seems juvenile and uninspiring. Its not designed for ease of use. While I like the people there … its designed for machines, not people.
Spostareduro – I have a difficult time finding enjoyment in Reddit.

Question 6- Have you ever been banned from any social bookmarking sites and why?

Jansie - Well, there was this one time when I got flamed. It’s almost as bad as a ban. I promise!
SilentJay74 – No Answer
TheNanny612 - Nope.
Jeff Quipp - Yes … not necessarily because we were engaging in anything blackhat, but we wanted to test the constraints. IT WAS INTENTIONAL! People learn in two ways; (1) by failing, or (2) vicariously by watching others. We didn’t have the time to watch and learn.
Spostareduro – Why would someone wan to risk that?

Thanks for all who took part, some interesting answers there.