We Do Search Engine Optimization.

Misleading linkbait title aside, the real title of this video is “Can you benefit from content scraped from your website”. The premise is that if some content is copied automatically from your site, presumably this will include links back to you.

So when you prepare content make sure it includes a lot of intra-site links, and even links using your full URL. So instead of linking to /seo you should link to http://www.netpaths.net/seo to have links picked up on other sites. This is also important for your blog, which may likely be read in a 3rd party feed reader.

Im very impressed that Mr. Cutts took such a bold public stance on content scraping, and here are possible meanings:

1. Google is tired of people including them in lawsuits over content scraping. Google is effectively saying there are some (possibly negligble) value to content scraping, so please don’t make us defend ourselves while you sue your competitor.
2. Dulplicate content is such a big problem, Google is waving the white flag and giving up on trying to control blackhat spammers. They are effectively saying: go ahead and scrape, the legitimate sites will always win. Generally this is true, as the authoritative site being copied generally has a higher trust ranking than the copier.
3. Google is trying to appease newspapers (and the AP specifically) and educate them about the web. Any large news event will have thousands of articles written about it, with the majority of the articles being repurposed content. Google is telling the major newspapers and news bureaus that they should not be afraid of having their good content distributed, as they get links back as a reward for sharing and this will help them build their online authority.

Matt Cutts is the webspam god of Google, and what he says goes. He is the head PR person that interacts with search engine optimization firms In person he is a very kind and fair man, someone you would enjoy sitting down to have a beer with and discuss gadgets, code and algorithms. It is essential to listen to everything he says if you want good search engine rankings, and even more important to read between the lines to understand how the search engine functions.

Using photos is on of the most underrated method of search engine optimization I have seen. Lots of good quality images not only help sell products to customers, they also will get you more search engine traffic.

Image search engines, particularly Google’s, send some of my sites 50% of all traffic. So imagine if you had no images on your website, you would be loosing 50% of potential visitors.

For SEO it really isn’t important how you organize images, set alt tags or place them in pages. It is important to link each image – either to a larger version or a specific page. Images get much higher weight if they are linked.

For e-commerce stores, images will set you apart from the competition.
Show the back & sides of the product so I can see the connections for electronics, and so I can see if the furniture is hollow or solid, or the pattern is continued on the back. Newegg.com is a leader in this field.

Show how large (or small) the product really is. Display a product in its actual environment or placed next to another object of known size for scale. (We used to do this in geology field classes all the time, without an object in a photograph rocks can seem impossibly large)

Display the side view to relate the product’s “heft.” Show me the top of the monitor and I can see if it’s made of thin plastic and will fit in my TV cabinet. Show me how thick the sole of the shoe is and how it will affect my height.

Does the electronic product have rubber feet? Is it a gloss or matte finish? How many buttons does it have? Is the on screen menu easy to see and use? Will the remote fit easily in my hand?

Show the item in action, either with video or through action shots, and how it will interact in my home. Create an image of the single coat paint covering an old wall in one smooth paintbrush stroke.

Pictures and product videos are important because they quickly answer customers questions and concerns through visual images. These action shots will reduce uncertainty and remove barriers to purchases.

The more pictures you show, the more your customers will show you the money.

Read more about optimizing photographs at Grok.

Are you happy? Ever wanted to find the blueprint to happiness? A great flowchart to analyze the path to being happy.

If you aren’t happy, hopefully there are small things you can change to improve your mood.

Image credit to H34.

Resources to submit press releases have been around since the age of the internet, but they are no less important. News sites and industry publications still rely on press releases to acquire new information and maintain corporate communications.

Some of these PR distributors are free, many require a payment.

Good PR distribution sites

PRweb.com –PR Web is not free but it is the largest and best press release distribution outlet available. PRweb packages start at $40 and are definitely worth it. If you take the time to write an interesting and helpful press release, your 40 bucks will go a long way.

1888PressRelease.com – Free distribution, paid services gives you better placement and permanent archiving.

24-7PressRelease.com – Free release distribution with ad-support

ClickPress.com – Distributs to sites like Google News and Topix.net, Gold level will also get you to sites like LexisNexis.

EcommWire.com – Focuses on ecommerece and requires you include an image, 3 keywords and links.

Express-Press-Release.com – Free distribution company with offices in 12 states.

Free-Press-Release.com – Easy press release distribution for free, more features for paid accounts.

Free-Press-Release-Center.info – Distributes your release, offers a web page with one keyword link to your site. Pro upgrade will give you three links, permanent archiving and more.

I-Newswire.com – Allows for free distribution to sites and search engines, premium membership differs only slightly in adding in graphics.

NewswireToday.com – All the usual free distribution tools, premium service includes logo, product picture and more.

PR.com – Not only will they distribute your press releases, but you can also set up a full company profile.

PR9.net – Ad supported press distribution site.

PR-Inside.com – European-based free press release distribution site.

PRBuzz.com – Completely free distribution to search engines, news sites, and blogs.

PRCompass.com – Distribute your press release with a free or paid version, others can vote it up ala Digg style.

PRUrgent.com – Not only distributes your release, but attempts to teach you how to write one, and even offers downloadbale samples for you to work with.

Press-Base.com – Submit your release for free and get on their front page and the category of your choice.

PressAbout.com – A free press release service formatted as a blog.

PressMethod.com – Free press release distribution no matter what, but extra services based on the size of your contribution.

PRLeap.com – Free distribution to search engines, newswires, and RSS feeds. Fee based bumps get you better placement.

Pressreleasepoint.com – free press release distribution and submission to topical news aggregators.

PRLog.org – Free pr distribution to Google News and other other search engines.

TheOpenPress.com – Free distribution for plain formatted releases, fees for HTML-coded releases.

Inspired by the Mashable list of Press Release Distribution Sites

Have a good PR site that is not on this list?

Every time you do a Google search, each ad spot is auctioned in real time.

This is an amazing amount of calculations: up to 11 ad spots are auctioned off simultaneously, just in time to show up on the results page. This is why if you refresh the search results page the ads will change.

Here’s how Google’s auction based advertising system works

1. create bid – you select chosen keywords and receive an estimated minimum bid. the highest bid doesn’t guarantee an ad will appear at the top of page.
2. assess quality score – Google creates a quality score for your ad based on a scale of 1 to 10. Quality score is based on relevance (how well the ad matches a user’s query), the quality of the landing page that the ad links to (content and load time), and the ad’s past clickthrough rate (if it’s new, the rate of a similar ad).
3. calculate ad position – order in which the ads will be displayed is determined by this formula: Rank = bid x quality score.
4. set price for the ad – cost of each ad is tied to the bid of the advertiser ranked below them. The final price is determined by the math formula below:

The next time you do a search on Google, checkout the ads on the page and try to guess how much each advertiser is paying per click. Then think of the amazing server infrastructure that must be used to perform these millions of calculations per day to create real time ad auctions for all web searches.

Read more about the Google Adwords real time PPC auctions at Wired.