Long Articles – Another Canonical Tag Use

The canonical tag has a lot of applications, and one of them is helping to simplify duplicate content issues. One of these situations frequently occurs with long pieces of content which have been broken out over several pages to improve usability. This is common for content publishers such as newpapers, but also happens with other types of sites. It’s common to use pagination links such as these ones (from Lester Chan’s WP-Pagenavi plugin) to help users and engines find the rest of your article. 

One great B2B content development strategy can be publishing transcripts of webinars, podcasts or conference calls. These [...]

The Facebook Landrush – Vanity URL Gold

 
As I write this there’s an automated countdown clock in another browser window counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until millions of people will flood the internet in search of the perfect Facebook username.

On June 12th at 12:01 a.m.  EDT Facebook will go crazy. Everyone who was previously assigned a user name made up of random numbers (id=123456789) will be able to obtain a username similar to what LinkedIn offers. (Official announcement here)
I can now shed my previous Facebook identity (120400011) become facebook.com/chris.davies, or if that’s not available perhaps w.chris.davies to match my LinkedIn account.
They’re limiting the potential [...]

Banner Ads on YouTube – 1990 Style

YouTube’s been experimenting with a variety of advertising models. In-video overlays, promoted videos, traditional blocks of adsense….they’ve been testing all sorts of things in the hope of monetizing the most popular video search engine on the planet.
Today it seems we’re going back to the 90’s with a large banner across the top of the homepage.This screenshot was taken on a Canadian IP address without being logged in to YouTube. (For readers outside of Canada, Rogers is a telecom company which just released the Android phones in Canada. They’re also the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in Canada) 

 And when the banner [...]

Why Would Google Acquire Twitter?

It’s possibly one of the fastest moving rumors on the internet (perhaps thanks to Twitter): TechCrunch has reported Google may be in talks to acquire Twitter. Whether it’s just a rumour, or the talks are fairly advanced, it’s worthwhile to take a step back and examine why Google might want to buy a service like Twitter, and what that might mean to either company.
Google Can Do Anything, Why Can’t It Make A Twitter?
Google knows what it’s good at. Like any smart company, they focus on what they’re good at and strategically outsource the rest. They also know that there are [...]

Participate in Our B2B Marketing Survey and Win!

As most of you know, Enquiro Research works tirelessly to put out excellent B2B focused research. Now it’s your chance to be a part of it.
We would like your input in an online survey, in order  to understand more about  your experiences when making business purchase decisions, and/or going through the process of short-listing vendors and business solutions. By completing the survey you’ll be adding valuable insight into an area of business that is undergoing tremendous change.
The survey will take you 15 – 20 minutes to complete and you could win a $25 Starbucks card to thank you for [...]

Free High-Quality Text Links!

One of my favorite posts on linking comes from every SEO’s favorite Googler, Matt Cutts. It tells you how to use Google Webmaster Tools (WMT) to identify 404 pages with incoming links. A link to a page that doesn’t exist is just wasted link juice, and Webmaster Tools is a great way to find broken pages and redirect them to the right page. It’ a great way to do more with what you already have.
Today’s linking tip also comes to us thanks to Google WMT. When you have a page or post on your site which manages to attract [...]

Business.com – What Works for Business Contest

Our friends at Business.com are trying to encourage businesses to share successful business solutions with others in order to generate prosperity in today’s economic decline. Enquiro is proud to be involved with a competition of this nature.
The What Works for Business Contest is designed to help shift the focus from what’s wrong with the economy to what businesses can actually do to survive and thrive in 2009. Business.com wants to reward businesses showing ingenuity and resourcefulness during these uncertain times.  They also want to share business solutions that have worked for others with businesses who are struggling to find answers to tough questions.  
Have you [...]

Static URLs beat Dynamic URLs

Google decided to be helpful on Monday and share a post called Dynamic URLs vs. static URLs. We’ve since received a number of questions from clients about this issue asking “should I change my site?” or “did I just waste thousands of dollars making my engineers implement a rewrite?” The answer is no.
We’ll continue to use properly implemented redirect strategies, where appropriate, as a part of a total search marketing campaign. In competitive verticals a website that correctly rewrites dynamic URLs to short, keyword rich static URLs will outperform those who don’t (ceteris paribus).
The [...]

Dot-Com is so 20th Century

Will the dot-com go the way of the Dodo in the light of ICANN’s decision to open up top-level domain names? Not likely, but it would be entertaining to own ".enquiro".
 

FYI, there are currently 21 top level domains (TLDs) that we’re all used to seeing, including .com, .ca, .gov and .edu.
Important highlights of the ICANN decision:

Applications will be accepted starting in April 2009 and likely cost ~$100,000 to register to help offset ICANN’s cost
 
Top level domains will be available in non-Latin languages such as Arabic and Cyrillic
 
Applicants must “demonstrate their technical capability [...]

#1 on Google is not a global constant

 
After Jody’s excellent article on dealing with search engine algorithm updates we received a number of questions by folks who had noticed that their rankings change depending on where they are. You are likely seeing different results at work than you do at home; the same will often happen when you’re travelling.
Google serves different results in two important ways right now:

Geo-targeting: Enquiro is located in Kelowna, BC, about a 5-hour drive from Vancouver. I get astonishingly different results (both organic and sponsored) between [...]