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Announcing the Birth of Sophia Noelle Pitts
2007-12-08 00:00:00
Thursday, December 6, 2007 - 1:34 p.m. - 7lbs. 5ozs. - 20 1/2 inches 10 fingers - 10 toes - full head of hair. I will post pictures and more when we go home (tomorrow at the earliest). Happy, healthy and very coherent!
More About: Sophia , Birth , Anno , Noel

Baby Pittfall Arrives Tomorrow
2007-12-07 00:00:00
I would like to thank all of my friends, family, constituents and readers for their prayers and wishes for the health and well being of my wife Kris and our soon to be born daughter Sophia. Sophia has decided to stay in the comfort of her mother’s womb for 40 weeks, but she will be induced tomorrow and Sophia should join the rest of her new family. I may not be checking SEOpittfall.com over the next few days as I share a hospital room with Kris and Sophia until our release from the hospital. Not to worry, I will be updating as soon as I am able. Pictures should be included too! I am extremely excited to see her little face for the first time. Thanks again for all of your well wishes and blessings! Until then, here is a 3D Image of Sophia at 32 weeks.
More About: Baby , Tomorrow , Morrow , Tomo

Has Technology Created Another Bubble?
2007-12-05 00:00:00
Whether you agree or not, it is a very funny, well thought out video! Enjoy!
More About: Technology , Bubble

Blogs in Plain English Video from Common Craft
2007-12-04 00:00:00
Common Craft has put together another great video with common sense and explaining complex issues with a dash of common sense and a lot of comfort that breaks down the anxiety that can hold people back from trying new things. Enjoy!
More About: Video , Blogs , English , Plain

Google AdWords? Click-to-Call Ending
2007-12-01 00:00:00
If you can recall, last year (around October) Google started a project called Click -to-Call that allowed users to click on an ad and enter their phone number and connect with the advertiser. Google and it?s very profitable AdWords is testing new service Click-to-Call to provide the user with the security to speak to an advertiser without passing vital information (like phone numbers) for companies that work on a call equals a lead. previous post The Click-to-Call service was the first CPA type ad to come from Google’s AdWords Program. CPA stands for Cost Per Action or you only pay when a specific action is taken by the user, in this case a call is made. The way to track such an action is that Google would complete the call. This was similar to a similar service offered by Ingenio called Pay Per Call. The major differences, Google’s program was limited (as in they didn’t show these type of ads frequently) and Google does not provide any information about the caller,...
More About: Google Adwords , Adwords , Ending

A Note on Wikipedia - The Social Encyclopedia
2007-11-28 00:00:00
Once again Wikipedia is getting buzz from educators and marketers alike. Linda O’Connor regards Wikipedia the same way former first lady Nancy Reagan campaigned against drugs. She urges people to “Just Say No.” The Great Meadows (N.J.) Middle School librarian hasn’t been a fan of the online encyclopedia for years. This fall, she decided it was time to make others at her school aware of the Web site’s pitfalls. She put up a sign saying “Just Say ‘No’ to Wikipedia” over the computers in the school library. Specifically the teachers and librarians sited two arguments to the reason for limiting access to and disallow the use as a resource: Errors Not a Primary Resource From (at least one) marketing perspective, it based upon the fact that Wikipedia can (and is) edited by anyone, and that the primary reason for the it’s success is traffic from Google. Wikipedia does rank extremely well in Google SERPs, consistently appearing o...
More About: Social , Note , Encyclopedia

Tis the Season for Giving
2007-11-28 00:00:00
I have not used this blog as a platform to make money only to give my opinion, based upon my own experience and research. There are many places online to look for information related to search engine optimization and marketing, but if you have been in the industry for much time, it can be extremely difficult to find many offline resources that are worth their salt. In full disclosure, I will say that this is NOT a paid endorsement and no other form of compensation has been offered. OK, back on track… Like I said before there are very few offline resources that I would consider consistent enough to endorse, but Search Marketing Standard has proven themselves over their two years in publication. They offer insight from noted experts in the field, from Kim Krause Berg, Chris Boggs, Eric Ward, Jaimie Sirovich, Joe Whyte and many, many others. I have been reading the magazine for well over a year, so why would I start posting about it now? Because they are offering a valuable reso...
More About: Season , Giving

Google Wants YOU to Report Paid Links!
2007-11-24 00:00:00
As reported by Philipp Lenssen, Barry Schwartz, Tamar Weinberg and Loren Baker, Google has updated their Webmaster Help Center question regarding Paid Links : Google and most other search engines use links to determine reputation. A site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to it. Link-based analysis is an extremely useful way of measuring a site’s value, and has greatly improved the quality of web search. Both the quantity and, more importantly, the quality of links count towards this rating. However, some SEOs and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links that pass PageRank, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results. Not all paid links violate our guidelines. Buying and selli...
More About: Report

Happy Thanksgiving
2007-11-23 00:00:00
From SEOpittfall and our family, Hoping you and yours a blessed Thanksgiving to share with friends and family!
More About: Happy , Hank

Microsoft Webmaster Portal is Live in Beta
2007-11-22 00:00:00
MSN Webmaster Portal was announced in August and was to be released into beta in September and be fully accessible by the end of November, however very little has been released since the initial announcement. Until now. The first screenshots of the new platform have been released by Barry at Search Engine Roundtable. Along with screenshots, Barry has included basic setup for a domain and what information is available from the portal on the given domain. Here is what information that is provided by MSN Webmaster Portal: Add a website Validate a website When your domain has been added and verified you have access to additional aspects of your domain via Domain Tools. Domain tools offer six different sections about your domain: Summary Profile Keywords Top Links from Top Links to Sitemap Summary: This is a basic summary of the website: number of pages in the MSN index, last crawl date, blocked? and a new ranking factor called domain rank. Domain rank appears to go from 1 - 5. Along...
More About: Microsoft , Beta , Live

Conspiracy Theory - AT&T Acquires Ingenio to Fight Google
2007-11-22 00:00:00
Monday, AT&T announced that they would acquire Ingenio , the leader in the pay per call marketing technology. To put it simply, a customer enters their phone number and receives a call from the service and is patched through to the advertiser. These advertisements are visible, most notably, on AOL within the sponsored listings. The user clicks on the ad and is transferred to a landing page to find out more information. The advertiser is only charged when a call is completed. This is similar to Google ’s pay per action Click-to-Call, however, the major difference is that Ingenio provides information about the caller that Google retains. “As advertisers add performance-based advertising to their marketing mix, this investment makes sense for our business,” said Ray Wilkins, AT&T group president-Diversified Business. “Ingenio’s technology will allow AT&T to expand our robust service portfolio for print, online and mobile advertisers, and that ...
More About: Fight , Theory , Conspiracy

It?s Official - MSN Webmaster Portal Center is Open for Business
2007-11-22 00:00:00
I have outlined the MSN Webmaster Portal Center over the past few months, and now it is open for everyone: Webmaster Tools: Open for Business This week we’re excited to announce that the Live Search Webmaster Center has moved out of its closed beta and we are now open for a public beta. In conjunction with this release we want to announce the creation of the Live Search Webmaster Center blog. In an effort to serve our webmaster community better we will be sharing information on how to improve your crawlablity and visibility. We want the center and the blog to be a place for two way communication between Live Search and the webmaster community because we understand that SEO’s and webmasters need this kind of information and the tools we are building to keep their sites performing well. In the coming weeks we’ll blog in detail about the improvements that we’ve made. Being a webmaster is what you do best. We want to provide a service that will help make you ...

Google?s Attempt at Ruling Media (ALL MEDIA)
2007-11-22 00:00:00
Everyone reading this is at least aware of the value of Google ’s empire of advertising online, but do you see the areas that they are building? Today, I reviewed one of the messages at the top of my AdWords account announcing Google Television Ads in beta: New! Place Ads on Television You’ve been invited to participate in Google’s TV Ads beta. Reach new customers with TV ads — the perfect complement to your online campaigns. Easily select networks, choose your bids and budget and track your performance all in one online interface. Learn more | Dismiss this message After reviewing the information it sounds extremely exciting for a moderate advertiser with Google to have the opportunity to explore a new medium for our company, advertising on national television. As I looked through the information provided and watched a short video on how easy it is to set up, build your ad and monitor the effectiveness, I wondered “Where is Google not planning on making ...
More About: Media , Ruling , Temp

Salute to All Veterans
2007-11-22 00:00:00
Whether you agree or disagree with what is going on in Iraq, Afghanistan or even if you protested Vietnam, don’t forget to respect the sacrifices that others have made and are still willing to make to allow each and every one of us a voice. Semper Fidelis!
More About: Veterans , Salute

Do Not Track List?
2007-11-08 00:00:00
AdAge.com announced that privacy groups are proposing the creation of an Internet do-not-track list: In addition to the list, the proposal calls for a requirement that advertisers, as part of their online ads, instantaneously disclose details of what they intend to track. According to a media alert announcing the news conference, the groups behind the proposal include the Center for Democracy and Technology, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, among others. In the same article, interesting regarding online advertising: According to a Forrester report on consumer attitudes toward advertising from November 2006, there are three main sources of advertising irritation to consumers: ads are too numerous, disruptive and irrelevant. AOL has already preempted possible legislation by allowing users to opt out of behavioral tracking: AOL Will Let Consumers Opt Out of Targeted Ads from the Wall Street Journal reports that AOL will announce to...
More About: List , Track

DoFollow Plugin
2007-11-03 00:00:00
For all bloggers that appreciate their comments and building a community around their websites, the idea of not giving at least a little link love sounds preposterous. Even though WordPress is widely considered as the best blogging platform available, it comes with a few things that you might want more control over, like adding a “nofollow” relationship to all of your comments. Now you won’t have to worry… Greg Boser has been working on the DoFollow OPML project and is offering a WebGuerrilla Version (download) of a plugin called DoFollow for WordPress. This is a great plugin that gives you more control over your comments and trackbacks than ever before. We?ve had a lot of great response to our DoFollow OPML project. While we work on compiling the list, I thought I would go ahead and release a new DoFollow plugin. We have been playing with several different plugins lately. Of all the ones we could find, we like the original by Kimmo Souminen the best. However...
More About: Plugin

Happy Halloween from SEOpittfall
2007-11-03 00:00:00
hApPy HaLlOwEeN! pittfall’s Jack-o-Lantern - Tiki Jack
More About: Happy , Halloween , Allo

MSN Jumps on the Analytics Train - Project Gatineau in beta
2007-10-31 00:00:00
From the adCenter Blog: We are happy to announce that Project Gatineau , Microsoft?s new, free web analytics service, is ready for beta testing and the first invitations are now being sent to customers. To manage Project Gatineau?s growth and give customers the best web analytics service possible, the beta is by invitation for US advertisers only for the moment. All advertisers can request an invitation here: http://advertising.microsoft.com/microsof t-adcenter-gatineau Project Gatineau?s web analytics are useful to sites of all sizes ? from smaller sites that can?t afford an expensive web analytics solution to larger sites looking for a boost in their web analytics capabilities. So, what’s the big deal? Microsoft has been promoting the project for some time now, as noted by Tamar at 10e20 back in January, and again in March during a review of low cost analytics: With Gatineau around the corner (and we can still anticipate its launch), there are other free analytics applicat...
More About: Beta , Train , Analytics

Google Says Boo! and SEOs Run to Hide
2007-10-30 00:00:00
OK, this week has been a rocky one in the social arenas surrounding the SEO communities. Why? Google has made a BIG statement by updating the PageRank visible from the Google Toolbar. It all started on Wednesday when many notable websites dropped 2 to 3 points in the little green bar. Much speculation ensued and alarm around the blogosphere trying to figure out what it all meant. It was paid links became the consensus. A couple of weeks ago, Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land announced that buying or selling links may negatively affect your PageRank and/or rankings in Google. Here are a couple of posts that put things into perspective: Toolbar Hysteria 8 Things We Learned About Google PageRank Google Scares the Search Crowd So, as everything started settling down, all of the Sphinns started getting hot, carrying the PageRank debate into the conversations into Thursday and still on Friday. Now, rather yesterday, I noticed that the PageRank (that to this point had remained unchange...
More About: Hide

The Day the Music Died
2007-10-30 00:00:00
Well, the music didn’t die, but the music industry, as we currently know it, might just be giving up the ghost. Strike One - Radiohead released their most recent album “In Rainbows” via a band controlled download and an interesting marketing maneuver by allowing everyone to name their own price (even $0.00). Strike Two - Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails announced on the band blog that they are free agents: Hello everyone. I’ve waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate. Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008. Strike Three - Madonna, along...
More About: Music , Died , The Music

Information R/evolution
2007-10-23 00:00:00
Digital Ethnography has another thought provoking video post called Information R/evolution This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively. The ways in which we access information has been dramatically adjusted with the advent of the world wide web, but the glue that binds it and the fuel that maintains it is you, me and everyone else that chooses to interact, react and basically be involved with information online. It is easily visible that the way of the web is not just commercial in nature, it is becoming everything that we want/need it to be: information interaction entertainment shopping religion voice purpose The Internet has become the platform for those without a voice throughout the world! That is why i...
More About: Evolution

BlogRush Keeps on Creating a Buzz
2007-10-23 00:00:00
Since the launch of BlogRush (still in beta) just over a month ago, there has been buzz all over the blogosphere touting, questioning and now cursing it’s purpose. Even a simple search for BlogRush at Sphinn returns 2 pages of results with 8 posts that have “gone hot” regarding the topic. Now that there has been so much buzz, that was a bit unfounded, as there have been many holes in the service. Now they have offended many bloggers by automatically dismissing them. I can understand if they have guidelines, but they seem to be using this with the same reckless abandonment that they did when accepting all of the blogs in the initial launch. Here is some of the most recent news (this is from an email announcing the updates for those blogs that “passed“): Congratulations! You are receiving this update because your blog has passed our strict Quality Guidelines and criteria — we believe you have a high-quality blog and we are happy you’re a membe...
More About: Buzz , Creating

What Does College Football have in Common with SERPs?
2007-10-19 00:00:00
It is college football season, if you haven’t noticed. Everyone is wearing their Alma Mater colors’ and talking up their team?s successes and being quiet after losses. There have been some real differences this season as opposed to many from the last 10+ years. Namely, the teams that were expected to be dominating on the field have come up short in the win column. The playing field seems to be more level and we all have heard the old adage “any given Sunday” (or Saturday for college football). What this means is that any team on any given day can show up to play and dominate or squeak out a victory over any other team. So, what does this have to do with search engine results (SERPs)? Here is a breakdown of the top 5 polls that are used in college football rankings: BCS AP USA Today Harris Poll Master Coaches Poll Unique Teams 1. Ohio State 1. Ohio State 1. Ohio State 1. Ohio State 1. Ohio State 1 2. South Florida 2. South Florida 2. Boston Coll ege 2....
More About: Football , College Football , Common

Google?s Sitelinks Become More Transparent
2007-10-19 00:00:00
Today, over at Google Webmaster Central, Search Quality made an announcement about webmasters providing feedback about what sitelinks they provide to users for your website and which links you may want to remove. Now, Webmaster Tools lets you view potential sitelinks for your site and block the ones you don’t want to appear in Google search results. Because sitelinks are extremely useful in helping users navigate your site, we don’t typically recommend blocking them. However, occasionally you might want to exclude a page from your sitelinks, for example: a page that has become outdated or unavailable, or a page that contains information you don’t want emphasized to users. Once you block a page, it won’t appear as a sitelink for 90 days unless you choose to unblock it sooner. It may take a week or so to remove a page from your sitelinks, but we are working on making this process faster. If you log into your account for sitemaps, you can now see if Google SERPs...
More About: Transparent , Spar , Elinks , Parent

Google Joins the Market Elite and Will Fold Because of Weaknesses
2007-10-10 00:00:00
Tonight from Market Place was a great story about Google ’s movement into the top 6 stocks on the NYSE. Prior to today, there were only five stocks on the New York Stock Exchange that were above $600 per share, Google has joined to make it six. Instead of focusing on the upswing on the stock, Kai Ryssdal (host pictured above) and Brian Cooley (from CNet) looked at what Google’s strengths and weaknesses are. Here are some juicy tidbits from the story: Brian Cooley Search is the core business, they do it really well and they really revolutionized it. And secondly… they sold against it really well. There is nothing in their revenue picture that I know of that casts a dark cloud. Google… finding what I want and then interacting with it is their whole base. Right now, they are the taste maker for the sector they occupy. Kai Ryssdal Let’s get to the down side though, and elaborate on that for me, for a minute. What’s it going to be that’s going to ...
More About: Elite , The Mark , Fold

Google Analytics 101 from O?Reilly
2007-10-07 00:00:00
Have you ever wondered how to adjust analytics to be fully functional without having to sell the farm to get what you need to be able to improve your websites? Google Anal ytics is the answer, right? Google Analytics has long been the thrifty marketers answered prayers when it comes to a robust analytics package that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. The only problem with this free service from Google is that it can be extremely difficult to implement this with all of the bells and whistles you hear about, unless you are a true web developer. Don’t get me wrong, as a SEO, I have a great understanding for all of the capabilities for web development, but I don’t code websites. I am fortunate to work hand in hand with a seasoned web developer with an understanding of SEO. This is our advantage. OK, back on topic. So, I have been researching the benefits of different analytics packages for a few months and have been astounded by the cost associated with the mainstream pro...
More About: Reilly

Wired Magazine?s Geekipedia Explores SEO
2007-10-07 00:00:00
Wow! I thought, pulling an additional insert in my recent Wired Magazine called “Geekipedia” and thought that it might come in handy. I spend most of my time at work with my marketing and SEO hats fully fixed on my head and much of my free time researching the aspects of the latter that keep me sharp and inspired. In other words, “I don’t get out much!” So, leafing through and trying to keep my geekdom in check (testing myself along the way), I noticed SEO as an entry (just below Robert Scoble), and thought it would be interesting to see what other “geeks” think of the art, dare I say craft, that is search engine optimization. To my dismay I found what I would consider a Jason Calacanis inspired observation of SEO: SEO Search engine optimization services are the Wile E. Coyotes of the Internet economy: doomed to stalk prey that repeatedly slips away just as it’s captured. SEO consulting ? fine-tuning client pages to land them atop sear...

More Information from Microsoft on Webmaster Portal Beta
2007-10-07 00:00:00
Today I received more information about the new Webmaster Portal Beta coming soon: Live Search Webmaster Portal Beta Thank you for filling out the survey for the Live Search Webmaster Portal Beta program! In order to provide the highest level of service to our Beta Partners, we have started off the beta program with our first group of participants. As the program is rolled out in phases, we will incrementally increase the number of participants until all applicants have been accepted by late November. The information you provided us thru the registration survey will help us determine when the right timeframe is to bring you into the beta program and ensure that our participants represent the widest range of industries and company sizes. Live Search Webmaster Tools Team I will have to be honest, I am ready to get this underway and see what offerings they will be bringing to fellow webmasters. If you want to know more about MSN Webmaster Portal Beta you can find it in previous post...
More About: Information , Microsoft

Will RSS Go the Way of Reciprocal Linking? SEO Laziness 101
2007-10-07 00:00:00
Today a well known blogger propositioned a new “link scheme” calling it Link Exchange 2.0. The idea came from CopyBlogger back in 2006 when writing about effective ways to get more subscribers to your feeds: Find a blogger that publishes related, but non-competitive content. Work out a deal where you both promote each other in your RSS feeds, using Feedvertising. If one blog has way more subscribers than the other, work out a ratio deal. Since Feedvertising allows you to create up to six rotating links, the smaller blog would promote the other blog continuously, while the larger blog would reserve one slot for the smaller blog, and use the other slots for other cross-promotion deals, affiliate links, or sponsor ads. Similar to the BlogRush widgets that have been appearing in the blogosphere, it is another tactic to simplify the hard work of building a reputation and getting a chance to gain exposure to a new audience. All of this after Google adjusted their webmaster gu...
More About: Linking , Linkin , Reci , Reciprocal

The New MSN Live Search is Ready
2007-10-07 00:00:00
MSN has launched the “new” Live Search portal to address four main areas of concern: Relevance (why you use the search product) Speed (patience is a virtue, but not what users really want in search query results) Streamlining Concept (better usability) High-Interest Content (universal search product anyone?) The MSN team claim that this is the biggest update since the launch of Live Search in 2005: This week we?re excited to launch a major update to Live Search that?s relevant, faster and easier to use. Hundreds of us rolled up our sleeves and dug deep. We pored over your feedback, analyzed the data and talked to thousands of users. How major is this? It’s our biggest update since our debut in January 2005. What have they done that will really affect your experience with Live Search: Sitelinks-like addition to the first result for major search terms (see more about Sitelinks here, here and here) Related Searches in the right sidebar, above Sponsored Sites St...
More About: Ready