Clickfire SEO Blog

McDonald’s feels the pain of Atlanta traffic and takes the opportunity to do some clever advertising.

Anyone who lives north of Atlanta and works in the city likely drives in via the Ga. 400 (Georgia 400) toll road. You guessed right if you imagined that driving Ga. 400 home from work at 5:30 on a summer afternoon is not something that most suburban Atlantans look forward too. It’s flat, hot and backed up with traffic–a great time to catch up on your talk radio or get into a mindless conversation with a salesman.

My Mom sent me this news that today, drivers will be able to come home from work via Ga. 400 without having to throw a couple of quarters into the basket at the toll booth from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on June 3 thanks to McDonald’s.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle elaborates:

To mark the launch of its new line of McCafe beverages, the Greater Atlanta McDonald’s Operators Association will treat commuters to free toll payments and free specialty coffees. McDonald’s owner/operators will pick up the tab for drivers passing through Ga. 400 toll booths and will hand out free “Be Our Guest” cards for complementary McCafe coffees at Greater Atlanta McDonald’s Restaurants.

The gift cards are redeemable for a free small hot McCafe coffee or a free medium iced McCafe coffee.

“Just as our new McCafe beverages offer an escape from the daily grind, we’re offering a free pass for commuters eager to get to their destinations Wednesday afternoon,” said John Tamasi, president of the Greater Atlanta McDonald’s Operators Association, in a statement. “We want to thank our guests with free toll payments during those two busy hours on Wednesday and invite these commuters to our hundreds of local restaurants to enjoy an iced or hot McCafe beverage.”

Why the excitement about this? No matter how many bailouts and stimuli the U.S. economy sustains, I’m not so sure I’ll be buying my lattes at fast food restaurants. Never-the-less, I think this is an excellent way to advertise a product. Atlanta drivers can be comforted that there actually will be a positive about the trip home on Ga. 400 today, albeit small. This little McDonald’s freebie might even gain some ground toward replacing the blaring voices from the drive-in window speaker that linger in the mind with a warm feeling inside that transcends expresso.

It is not the job of search engine optimization to make a pig fly. It is the job of the SEO to genetically reengineer the Web site so that it becomes an eagle. — Lisa Barone, Bruceclay.com

SEO is only not seen as rocket science BY THOSE WHO ALREADY KNOW IT. — Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land

SEO’s are the new real estate developers. Our skillset gives us an amazing opportunity to develop an audience on the cheap. — Brian Provost, Scoreboard Media

There are three keys to good SEO: communication, content and backlinks. — SEO Refugee

You can chase whatever keywords and phrases you like, but at the end of the day it’s all about those conversions.
Matt Webb, SEO Honolulu

My rule of thumb is build a site for a user not a spider. — Dave Naylor, DavidNaylor.co.uk (DaveN)

SEO is a noun, verb, and adjective. — Todd Malicoat, Stuntdubl

SEO is fundamentally a set of methodologies that make it easier for search engines to find, include, categorize and rank your web content. — Lee Odden, Online Marketing Blog

Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first. — Wendy Piersall, ProBlogger guest post

SEO is not SPAM. — Matt Cutts

Social media takes place in your Web browser, right? You post a Facebook pic. You Digg your friends’ stories. You tweet your day’s events.

Do you ever get the urge to leave the memes, shouts, and retweets in your browser and join a PC Online Game?

When you entire a PC online game via Steam, Valve’s gaming platform, you need not leave the social behind. Steam offers real time social media engagement that transcends the browser.

For anyone not familiar with action PC games, Valve is the company famous for creating the extremely popular first person action series game called Half Life.

Why Steam?

The first time I arranged a multiplayer PC online game, it was via telephone. Later, game server browsers arrived with built in buddy systems. The Kali.net game browser software is the one I remember best (I see that the site is still live–the domain may be worth more than the product now). You downloaded a software client and browsed hundreds of multiplayer PC games from Doom series FPS to Falcon 4 type flight sims. Playstation and XBox were just a twinkle in some entertainment executive’s eye back then. Soon, every multiplayer PC online game had its own server list from which you could browse and join others playing the game you just bought.  For me, instant messaging became the preferred game arranging communications device among friends. Funny, I no longer own a land line phone.

In the nascent days of multiplayer gaming, if you wanted to update to the latest version of a game, you downloaded the latest “patch”  from a FTP site. Get a new PC? You needed to break out the discs and reinstall. Want to buy a new game? You visited your local electronic entertainment store.

Today, how does someone who has suddenly fallen in love with a new PC game meet, play and maintain a relationship with others who are engaged in the same game?

Steam accomplishes the following:

• Portable account - one account
• Game Launcher - a bunch of current games, many genres
• Software client updater - it’s automatic
• Product ratings
• Ecommerce - you can see what new games your friends are playing and buy it
• Social networking - profiles, add friends, join groups, stats
• Advertising engine

Who says social media can’t be monetized? I’ll just say that Steam does all of the above very well. It’s the quintessential one-stop gaming platform that allows users to have fun and companies to reap revenue. The convenience of being able to instantly download and play a game that you see your friends playing is very attractive.

What Could Go Wrong?

“Where did you get that game? I didn’t see you buy it?” — Wife to gamer husband

“I downloaded it on Steam.” — Husband to disgruntled wife

The ecommerce side of Steam does actually feel a bit like a Web browser. True game addicts can get what they need when they need it. But, the convenience of buying and downloading a new game for immediate play has its downside. Steam’s Achilles heel? The refund policy. The subscriber agreement states:

All steam fees are payable in advance and are not refundable in whole or in part.

I had a chance to test first-hand the we break it, you bought it policy. I purchased Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X for $49 and had problems getting it to work. I finally got it off the ground in single player mode, but never was able to join multiplayer. 

Ubisoft, the title’s publisher, admitted to me:

This issue is currently under investigation by the development team, and is expected to be corrected in the next patch.

I just wanted it to work. When it didn’t, I asked Steam for a refund and was told:

As with most software products, we will not offer refunds or exchanges for purchases made online as outlined in the software license - please review Section 4 of the Steam Subscriber Agreement for more information.

Steam cancelled my account after I disputed the charge for H.A.W.X on my credit card. That means that all games I had purchased through Steam would no longer work until such time as I would drop the dispute and pay Steam for the H.A.W.X. game that didn’t work.

So what was I to do? Pay the Steam tax and get my account with all my games back? Nope. Instead, I disputed credit card charges for all recently purchased games attached to my account since all are now unplayable due to my Steam ID being revoked. Steam’s attempt to force me to keep software that admitedly didn’t work means multiple charge backs for all the other games I purchased via Steam. Dumb I say. Dumb on my part for not buying the good old boxed version. Dumb on Steam’s part for enforcing a revenue-losing policy.

The cardholder will need to close the dispute and have the funds returned to Steam. If the cardholder is unable or unwilling to drop the dispute and let the credit card company know that the purchase is valid; and in turn have the funds returned to Steam then we will not be able to reactivate the account.

All games on your account are locked to the account and can not be transferred to a different account.

I’ve added a nofollow attribute to the Steam link to punish them for this cruel act :)

Even though games can be purchased easily, the ecommerce side of the Steam engine remains suckily broken. The refund policies need revamping. Processes for dealing with returns for defective products need to exist. Yeah, yeah, I know a patch will fix it one day, but still.

Steam Screen Shots

Steam’s info and rating of the game HAWX by Tom Clancy.
 

Intalling a game after purchase is insanely easy. Who needs that pretty box?

Look at the profile of my nemesis, Clapper with that smug look on his face that says “frag me!”

  More of this blog post »

Philosophers have pondered the secret of happiness for centuries. The pursuit of happiness is set forth in the United States Declaration of Independance. Now a company out of Brea, California has discovered the details of what happiness actually is: web hosting.

I was doing a little light domain research and happen to come across a domain registered through the DreamHost Proxy service. DreamHost’s web hosting service received a respectable 4 out of 5 star rating by our reviewer a while back. I guess I’d forgotten that DreamHost was an official ICANN registrar. Having spent probably too much of my life starring at domain registration records, I couldn’t help but notice a few unorthodox lines in a DreamHost customer’s proxy record. This first one appears in the name field:

A Happy Dreamhost Customer

In case you don’t know, when you register a domain, your personal contact information is listed in the public record for anyone to view. Many people, myself included, don’t like having their name, address, and email address plopped right in front of spammers and anyone else who gets curious. In order to deal with this problem, registrars often offer a proxy service wherein their address is listed in place of the customer. Email’s received can be forwarded to the customer. Registrars can charge for this service like Godaddy or offer it free like 1&1.

I thought it was funny that instead of listing DreamHost in the customer name field, they made the statement that this anonymous domain owner was “happy.” This may be true in many cases but if you’ve worked with any domain registrar for very long, you are probably aware of issues that can make customers unhappy like:

• Private information mistakenly being published on the WHOIS record
• Domain transfer problems
• Domain theft

Here’s a screen cap of John Doe, The Happy’s WHOIS record. Do you see anything else interesting?

Advertising in WHOIS Records

I didn’t know whether to applaud DreamHost for their cleverness or slam them for spamming when I saw that they were advertising their hosting service right there in the official WHOIS record! I’m no stranger to alternate forms of web host advertising, but this one took me by surprise. WHOIS records are not supposed to be harvested for marketing purposes, but exist for public informational use as DreamHost’s legal caveat states:

The information in DreamHost’s whois database is to be used for informational purposes only, and to obtain information on a domain name registration. DreamHost does not guarantee its accuracy.

Well, what about WHOIS record marketing? Hmm… Apparently every one of the hundreds of thousands of domain records registered through DreamHost lists the advertisement at the bottom for their low cost web hosting plan and free domain registration complete with a promotional code that gives an additional discount and provides tracking. I can’t help but wonder how many sales conversions have come in from WHOIS records.

Is this good marketing or SPAM?

You’ve seen the SEO Bailout; now check out the HostGator Stimulus Plan ad:

I thought this HostGator Google AdSense ad making fun of the recent U.S. government stimulus plan was an entertaining way of communicating the company’s desire to win customers through their low cost web hosting plans. I think this HostGator ad is more attractive than the previous Hostgator advertisement I spotted and fitting for this age where spending the funds of others is considered “bold.”

“See how we aren’t waiting for congress to save you money”

Shopping for web hosting is a lot like shopping for coffee. “This one is $X for 33 ounces, but this one is $Y for 35 ounces, and oh, this one over here is…” What happens next? Many people get so bogged down in the numbers that they finally throw up their hands and say “Fine – I’ll just take this one and get it over with.”

But what about the actual taste of the coffee? While choosing a web host is undeniably a numbers game, here are 7 questions you should ask to get the best brew for your bucks:

1. Will I be a chicken – or a pig? As they say (who is this “they,” anyway?), the chicken is involved in breakfast, but the pig is committed. Does that drool-worthy monthly hosting price come with a truly hoggish contractual commitment for you? A cheap host isn’t so cheap if you have to bail three months into a year-long contract.
2. What’s it going to cost me if I luck out and hit the Digg front page this month? Forget overnight – your data transfer totals can spike way over your allotted bandwidth in only hours. I know it’s a problem you’d like to have, but humor me.
3. Will you hold my hand? If a host’s tech support pages remind you of SNL’s Nick Burns (Your Company’s Computer Guy), you can bet you won’t get much better when you call.
4. Will you hold my hand without reaching for my wallet with your other hand? Yes, hosting company margins are probably skinnier than a MacBook Air. Yes, knowledge comes at a price. No, you shouldn’t pay through the nose to find out how to set up Joomla on your server.
5. Do you have shopping carts available? Or will I have to make do with one of those little basket thingies from Yahoo! Stores? You may not need ecommerce capability now, but it might cost you if you don’t have access to it down the road.
6. Will you remember me tomorrow? Check into your proposed host’s backup frequency, methods, and so on. Many hosts back up nightly, but not all do.
7. What’s in it for me if I set my sister up with you? Affiliate programs and referral kickbacks are a near-effortless way to defray your hosting costs or even add to your bottom line.

Sanka or Starbucks? Depends on your website, but if you don’t ask the right questions, all you’re going to get is a cup full of headaches.

Oh, and you’re welcome.

I normally take New Year’s resolutions with a particle of salt substitute. I see my fellow bloggers posting their personal resolutions and it got me to dwelling on the question of  what would my SEO New Year’s resolution look like if I were to make one? Given the times we live in, what would be the single item in my repertoire that I could change to bring about the greatest value to my Website initiatives? Or to look at it unselfishly, what would be the best action I could take to improve the visitor experience of my site? I considered these 5 things:

1. It’s 2009. The algorithmic loopholes of SEO are disappearing. No matter how hard you promote a site, you cannot make Google think its great if it ain’t. The lipstick eventually wears off and you face the pig of reality. You have probably read about all the “blackhat SEO’s” who have come clean over the years. Google is pushing everyone toward quality, even the paid search crowd (you know, the people who look at you funny in the elevator and ask “What is it you do again, now, something specialized right?”).
2. The methods for making pages perform well in search engines today are very different from what they were in the 1990’s. The size of search engine indices has increased. More competition. Well, it’s, um… harder.
3. What’s the point in doing anything if you don’t do it with excellence? Whether its Seth Godin’s purple cow or your own infared woolly mammoth, you’ll feel better if you create something that no one else has done before. Colossians 3:23 (Amplified Bible) sums up my feelings as a Christian on this point:
   

   Whatever may be your task, work at it heartily (from the soul), as [something done] for the Lord and not for men,

My SEO New Year’s Resolution:

I resolve to publish extraordinary content.

There must be no “I better post something just to let them know I’m still alive” content. Whatever content goes up on Clickfire, whether written by me or any guest author, must be excellent, high quality and engaging.

What are some properties of extraordinary content?

• The content needs to help someone solve a problem, be remarkably interesting or significantly entertaining to visitors.
• The voice and copy should be unique. Extraordinary content doesn’t echo.
• Every post is developed around a group of researched primary and secondary keywords.

It’s not 2009 yet, so this post doesn’t count :)

Have you ever left a comment and then felt a strange sensation in your gut that made you wish you hadn’t pressed the submit button?  If you are planning on entering content into someone’s blog that they have likely worked hard to develop, take it seriously. The guy on the other side of the comment box certainly does. Take it from a long time commentor and commentee, here is how not to comment on this or dare I say any other blog.  Most of this is common sense etiquette that fall into the “do unto others” category. Yet, every day, I see comments on Clickfire that defy these “don’ts.” So here it is, spelled out in detail.

1. Don’t post affiliate referral codes in comment posts to try and get commissions. This seems obvious etiquette but I am amazed at how much this goes on.
2. Don’t copy and paste a comment post that you or someone else has previously posted to another blog or forum.
3. Don’t make trite comments like “Great article.” If you read it, say why it was great.
4. Don’t use incorrect grammar or mispellings. Doing this makes the blog look like a low quality blog. Or the blogger has to spend time correcting the errors.
5. Don’t post links or signatures to promote a site. If you post a link, make sure it offers value to the readers.
6. Don’t post off-topic comments. Let the price of tomatoes in China be debated in China.
7. Don’t lie in your comments. This has been said before by a greater authority than myself. Trust me, someone will bust you.
8. Don’t post profanity. It seemed cool in elementary school. Some readers relate to coarse language, others are offended by it.
9. Don’t use someone else’s blog as an outlet to post legal complaints you have with a service. Especially, don’t post someone else’s private emails as a comment. You may have a legitimate beef, but it usually doesn’t serve a blogging audience to read private legal correspondence.
10. Don’t issue personal attacks or insults. Be a lady. Be a gentleman. Fake it if you have to.

Now, care to leave a comment?

I’ve been thinking l deeply and for a long time about the future of the term “webmaster” and wanted to express some thoughts. Most people recognize “webmaster” as a term from earlier Internet history that describes the activities of the person responsible for Web site. I’ve previously defined it this way:

One responsible for designing, developing, and managing all aspects of a website’s content, connectivity and human resources.

I’ve always thought of myself as a webmaster, despite the unattractiveness of the term. Today, we don’t usually call ourselves “masters” of anything. Perhaps this is due to humility. Perhaps political correctness. I don’t know. I left any discomfort I had with the word back in the nineties.

On the positive side:
Google has chosen to continue using the term in products like “Google Webmaster Central” and “Google Webmaster Tools.” They are still calling the sacred SEO document the Google Webmaster Guidelines. If Google does it, it must be cool, right?

Causing me concerns:
Webmaster.org recently sold for $50,000, yet sites having “webmaster” in the domain don’t seem to be as popular as they once were. The approximate average monthly search volume according to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool for “webmaster” on exact match is reported at only 33,100.

With the advent of 3G and smartphones, the webmaster is no longer the mysterious guy behind a desktop or in an air-conditioned datacenter pulling switches. He’s at the coffee shop.

Blog software is another factor. The fact that anyone can get a WordPress or Blogger weblog up and running in minutes with a really nice looking pre-made theme makes coding and maintenance less of an issue. Most bloggers probably don’t think of themselves as webmasters.

What about the social media user? He doesn’t have to design, develop or manage anything except relationships. If he happens to be a poweruser, he may control a lot more traffic than the average webmaster.

These are some random entertaining comments I picked up from Digg users that show some insight into their view of the word:

Who still uses the term “webmaster”?

I remember the first time I read some “webmaster” complaining that Firefoxe’s [sic] rising popularity was making more work for them, and “breaking” all their pages. (Fake tear dabbed from my eye.) I almost burst a blood vessel. Firefox isn’t Netscape 4.7, people.

I haven’t used the “webmaster” term in years.

Well the term “Webmaster” died in 1998 so web developers had to come up with something legit sounding.

Does anyone else absolutely abhor the term “webmaster”?

…that’s what they called you 8 years ago if you knew HTML.

Any web guy that calls himself a “webmaster” probably isn’t a master of anything. The term “webmaster” has become a translation for the word “amateur.” The web has diversified into so many different realms that webmaster is no longer meaningful (was it ever though?)

The term “webmaster” just makes me cringe. “Look Ma, I’ve mastered the web!”

Never call yourself a webmaster. Why people still insist on using that terrible term is beyond all comprehension.

I thought webmasters were extinct.

You can tell Syria is behind in Internet technology when they use terms like “webmaster.” In the US we stopped using that term when they realized it made them sound like Spider-Man villains.

…the fact that he calls people that code and design for a living “webmaster”, proves that he is out of touch. he should go back to being a dungeon master like he was prior to writing this.

Dugg for use of the ancient term webmaster.

I don’t know what is going to become of the term “webmaster,” but I have an uneasy feeling about its future.

The Problem

SEO industry professionals have lost the will to link to each other. They are hoarding valuable PageRank capital. Unless action is taken to free up links, firms are expected to report losses in search engine rankings.

The Solution

Congress must act to pass SEO bailout legislation with these components:

• 700 link rescue plan for failed search engine strategies
• Fresh infusion of links from .gov domains
• Buyout of defunct Web directories

This SEO bailout must go into effect immediately. Otherwise, search engine marketing firms could risk going belly up. Once the bill has passed, the president must appoint a SEO Czar.

Arguments Against

How will Americans react to the idea of creating a link pool to help an industry that engaged in risky linking practices? Is the U.S. government manufacturing of PageRank essentially the same as printing currency?

What you can do to Help

Help secure the future of search engine marketing by writing your congressman and demanding that the SEO bailout legislation be passed without delay.