You Can NEVER Have Enough Backups!

Just a brief post today to say what we’ve all heard so many times. “You can NEVER have enough back ups!”

Recent storms in our area caused us to suffer data loss when lightening ran in on some equipment, burning out both internal and external (backup) hard drives.  I have been working all week just to get back to some form of resemblance of normality, but want to tell you, BACKUP your BACKUPS!

If anyone has sent us any email recently, please resend your mail. I lost ALL email (sent and received) back to August 7th of last year. Long story as to why we didn’t lose it all… but backups on one external drive that I stopped using last August still had all old mail on it… so ALL was not lost. And yes, surge protectors were in place… but most surge protectors will not stop the power of lightening. My office consists of a total of 7 surge protector units, and only the larger, more expensive ones, performed well enough to stop the surge we experienced, and this was not even a direct hit.

Make sure you back up your back ups, and make sure your surge protectors will REALLY protect you, or be prepared to face (someday) what I’ve been dealing with this week.

 

SEO Scams

Okay… I’ve refrained from bashing these idiots for about as long as I possibly could… and forgive me for ranting here… but I’ve had about all of the “SEO PRO LYING” I can stand.

 

Guys (and gals)… please… DO NOT fall prey to the “so-called” SEO Experts who are calling on you… telling you they can get you this ranking and that ranking by “Optimizing Your Web Site”… blah-blah-blah.

 

One of these SEO Idiots just made the mistake of calling me…  (His name withheld to protect his stupidity!)

 

Of course I immediately did my due dilligence on them based on their claims… and could not even find ONE of their own sites in the Top 10 of ANY engine I checked.

 

Sheesh… c’mon!!

 

These guys are “idiots” (yeah, I said it) because the PR4 they say they managed to get from unsuspecting site owners scampering for that coveted PR will be the SAME site owners that can’t maintain the credibility it takes to KEEP a decent PR. So, where’s their PR4 gonna go? Down, down, down baby!

 

If someone calls you and starts telling you they are “Search Engine Optimization Specialists…”  RUN (or hang up) as fast as you can!

 

95% of what these guys are doing today worked 2 years ago… it DOES NOT work today!!

 

Folks, I have spent over $10,000 this year, attending seminars and conferences and listening to the people who KNOW what they are talking about when it comes to SEO work… and trust me when I say… SEO does NOT work today the way it did two years ago.  Hell… it doesn’t even work the way it did 2 months ago any more!

 

Also… FORGET link exchanges!!  THEY DO NOT WORK!!!  Search engines have gotten wise to all that “Link Farming” and Link Exchanging…  it simply carries NO weight with the Big Boys any more!!

 

Reciprocal linking can and will actually PENALIZE you… so DON’T DO IT!!!

 

Okay… now that’s off my chest… I feel much better!  🙂

 

Ed

 

 

 
 

Search Engine Optimization?

Seems that several SEO Companies are starting to “make the rounds” once again in calling and trying to convince some of you that “Search Engine Optimization” is the end all solution to your traffic problems.  So allow me a moment (if you will) to address this topic:
 
I labeled the subject of this post “Search Engine Optimization?” with a question mark, because that’s exactly what it is.  A BIG Question mark!!!

For a good many years, so-called “Search Engine Optimization” companies have done well… and some have actually done something positive for some of their clients.  But for the most part, they are a miserable disaster waiting to happen to your web site.  Let me explain why.
 
Up until November/December 2005, one of the things we offered as a service to our clients was “Search Engine Submission” of your web site each month to the major engines.  We ceased offering that program simply because, “IT NO LONGER WORKS”.
 
Submitting your web site to the search engines USED TO WORK, but not any more.  I have done extensive testing of this.. and have learned from others with much deeper pockets to test than I have.  It just does not work, and in fact, can actually HURT YOU in the rankings.  That’s right… submitting your URL to the search engines on a repetitive basis can (and usually does) HURT your rankings… not help them.  The search engines don’t want anyone TELLING them anything… and that’s what repeated submitting of your site is doing.  You’re telling the search engines… “Hey dummy… I already told you every month for the past 24 that I’m here at this address, and I’m TELLING YOU AGAIN… come visit my site…”
 
Search engines have gotten sick and tired of that… and have stopped listening.  That’s why we STOPPED submitting your sites… it actually does more harm than good.
 
What these “SEO Companies” do when they “SELL YOU” on their services is this.  They go in to your site… and create a TON of “SPAM PAGES”… which are basically just crap pages stocked full of keywords, pages that look like crap to a real person, but SUPPOSEDLY are search engine bait.
 
These so-called “Landing Pages” are then tied to an article they write that gets submitted to the search engines.. and those articles then link back to your specific landing page, which then re-directs the user to some other page at your site.
 
This too USED TO WORK, but the search engines have also gotten wise to this tactic, and it just doesn’t work any more.  Search engines see this as the equivalent to you “Spamming The Engine” with garbage… and Google, Yahoo! and MSN (equivalent to the Big 3 Automakers in the Search Engine World) have all gotten wise to these tactics.
 
You need to understand something here.  Google (and I suspect Yahoo! and MSN have as well) is hiring some of the most highly trained and intelligent people on the face of the earth to come to work for them… and most have PhD’s and Doctorates in Science, Computers, and other technology related fields.  These people are not stupid.. and they are on a mission.  The mission is.. “CLEAN UP THE SEARCH RESULTS!”  And that means… a lot of sites are being de-indexed, many are losing their ranking.. and others are moving up.
 
So what is it they want, and why?
 
Simple.  The engines are all concerned with one thing, and one thing only.  Delivering the best search results to their visitors they possibly can.
 
Let’s face it… if you continually go to Google, or Yahoo!, or MSN, and all you get are junk pages, or pages that make you continue to search for what you went there for, eventually, you’ll look someplace else to find the results you want.  Therefore, these guys are on a mission to clean out the garbage and deliver good content results to their site visitors.
 
Now, if you’re lured and tempted by one of these SEO Companies and promised all these great “Top 10 Rankings” for keywords in your market, and you want to just throw away several thousand dollars to find out what I’m telling you here (FOR FREE) doesn’t work, then I can send you several charities that would benefit more by you sending them your money.
 
The simple fact of the matter is… search engine optimization is a WASTE OF MONEY, and in MOST CASES, (in the long run) will HURT your rankings, NOT help them.
 
The ONLY thing I’ve found (in the past 14 to 18 months) that continues to work consistently at improving your search engine ranking is, BLOGGING!
 
Search engines love content.  They love continuously updated pertinent content.  They love content that is information people want…  and blogging delivers ALL of these variables.
 
Static web sites that never change… and only contain spotty content (at best sometimes) is NOT what they want to deliver to their users.  Therefore, many of these Search Engine Optimized sites are falling in the ranks, because the engines are “Cleaning Up Their Act” in what they deliver to their users.
 
This is the WHOLE REASON our “Blogs for Your Business” idea was born, cultivated, tested, and delivered to market.  It works. Plain and simple.
 
If you have already signed up for our BlogsForYourBusiness, you’ve already taken the best step you could take towards “SEO for Your Site”.
 
Another thing that DOES continue to work, (but SEO companies only seem to have half of the equation figured out) is the writing of GOOD articles, and submitting these to the major Article Directories.
 
Who has time to sit down and write articles?
 
Not many of us.  In consideration of the fact that articles do make good search engine fuel, I am HIRING an article writer FOR YOU!   That’s right.  For those of you who subscribed to our Blog Service when we launched it…  I have decided to hire a professional writer to write articles for you.  NOT FOR YOUR BLOG… but articles that I will be submitting FOR YOU to the major article directories.  Articles that will have YOUR name, NOT MINE, not the author’s, on the article as a resource back to your web site.
 
This is an added bonus I have decided to throw in for Blog Subscribers (at no additional cost).  Not only will we be adding fresh content to your blog on a continuous basis…  but now… we will be submitting articles to the web with YOUR NAME and YOUR web address linked there… which could stay in circulation forever!
 
You see… many web site owners and bloggers are STARVING for content.  Especially bloggers.  Everyone has been convinced of the importance of having a Blog, but suddenly, people are realizing, “They’ve got to add new content to that blog!”  … so they turn to article directories to find this content.  They get fresh articles from these directories, add them to their web site, which in turn, links back to your site (as the author), and gives you one more of the hot search engine starved ingredients… and that is… “One Way Back Links.”
 
Link farms and directories USED TO WORK by you exchanging (reciprocal) links with other sites.  Now… Google (and many of the others are following suit) is putting FAR MORE weight and relevancy on “One Way Back Links” versus link reciprocity.  So, we’ve STOPPED doing reciprocal links, and the best way I know of to get what the engines like to see (other than and in addition to your blog) (the one way links leading TO YOUR SITE) (versus links coming in and going right back out) is to have you publishing articles with links to your web site.
 
I know none of you have time (or the desire) to write articles…  So, as an added bonus (that you didn’t know you were going to be getting), I’m hiring a writer to take care of this for you!!
 
If you did not sign up for a Blog for Your Business, I’m sorry, this article bonus will not be added to your site linking structure.  And I’m also sorry, as we are not accepting any new orders for Blogs at this time.
 
These articles will be added to the Article Directories very slowly over the next 6 months.  Going in and just plastering the directories with a ton of new articles will not work, it has to be done slowly (like a good bar-b-cue) over a long period of time…  and trust me… I have learned the formula and the pace at which this works best.
 
So, in summary, let me encourage ALL of you…  If an SEO Company calls on you… no matter how good the pitch… no matter what great search engine results they promise you… resist the urge to say “yes.”  They will not only take your money… they will hurt whatever ranking you have now.
 
If you signed up for the Blog Service, be patient.  Give the blog a chance to do what it is designed and intended to do.   There is a method to what you see with your blog when it is brand new, and there is also a method behind the things you’ll see coming down the road that gets added to your blog.  Just be patient and watch.
 
More later this week…
 
Ed