SEO - Search Engine Optimization

There is an interesting conversation on Twitter around SEOs asking and obtaining access log files from their clients. It seems like many SEOs do prefer to have access to the raw log files from the site but many are unable to obtain it.I wanted to open it up to way more SEOs than just those who see that Twitter thread. I assume, I can be wrong, that most SEOs don't even bother asking for the log files. But I suspect many do and many are unable to get what they asked for. So I made a poll asking you anonymously if you ask for it and if you get them.Please take the poll and ask your friends and colleagues to take the poll as well:For SEO Jobs: Do You Get Log Files?Of course, log files can show you a lot more detail about crawling issues than other reports. Plus there are many other gems in the log files that you likely won't get in analytics tools.Forum discussion at Twitter. … [Read more...] about Poll: Do You Request & Get Log Files For Your SEO Jobs?

SEOs seem split on the question of is black hat SEO dying. That is a poll we ran in July and we have over 870 responses thus far. It seems like most think black hat SEO is not dying, it is either alive and well or adapting into new forms of black hat SEO - but not dead. Only 25% of those who completed the poll think black hat SEO is dying. While 13% said they really don't know, I assume they have no experience with it.But overall, 62% of SEOs who took this poll think black hat SEO is not dying. Here is the pie chart:Of course with any of our polls, read my poll disclaimer.Forum discussion continued at Black Hat World.This post was scheduled to go live today but was written earlier - I am currently offline today. … [Read more...] about Poll: Black Hat SEO Not Dead Yet

A few weeks ago, I conducted a poll asking SEOs how they do their job with or without log files. I discussed how log files can be an awesome way to uncover SEO issues including crawling, indexing, and even some ranking issues.The poll showed that most SEOs, 68%, are doing their SEO services without looking at log files. We had over 350 responses and even with my poll disclaimer, the results are pretty revealing.Almost 30% of SEOs actually said they do not need log files to do their job and an additional 38% said they would use them if they got them, but they "rarely" are able to get the log files. Only 15% said they always get the log files and 18% said they often get them.Here are the results of the poll:Here are some reactions from the poll:Forum discussion at Twitter.This post was scheduled to go live today but was written earlier - I am currently offline today. … [Read more...] about 68% Of SEOs Do Their Work Without Log File Analysis

Minutes ago, I had someone ask me how they can make their "personalized duplicate content" search engine friendly. How can they SEO their duplicate content that is personalized to users. I found it somewhat funny and wanted to share the term with you.Here is the post on Twitter:This can mean a lot of things, of course, but at the essence - this is what Google does not want you to do.Is this talking about taking someone else's content and changing it slightly to rank? Is it talking about taking your own content and tweaking it slightly for long tail searches? Is it talking about embedding related content under your main content (if so that last case is fine). Anyway, the term "personalized duplicate content" was something too fun, I had to share with you all.Forum discussion at Twitter. … [Read more...] about Personalized Duplicate Content