It’s been awhile. A long while. Yet here sits this crappy website on Page 1 of Google. But no longer in the top spot so let’s see if a post after many years. Especially if we use the words purple widget one time here in this extensive post.


Don’t be alarmed – yes, you are seeing this correctly – a new post on Purple Widget!

I’d like to say that the lack of posts recently (okay, in the last 3 years) is part of the experiment – testing the concept and theory of needing fresh content. Clearly as this blog proves fresh content is not a must for keeping a #1 ranking – at least for an obscure, pointless keyword. Of course most of us in the SEO world are looking to rank for keywords that do actually get searched (even if clients don’t always get that key point) so do we need fresh content to rank for more popular keywords? Probably. But as always in SEO, there is no absolute right answer on this one. Certainly, amazing evergreen content has value – potentially a lot of value. But more often than not fresh content is a necessary element of a quality website that wants to establish good search engine visibility. Ideally you’d have a nice balance of both great evergreen content and a constant flow of new stuff that also kicks ass. (more…)


Believe it or not purplewidget.com is still here. And it still appears we are ranked #1 for the search term purple widget. Which, nobody still searches.


Are you kidding me Bing?

You launch a Scroogled campaign and I get this on your search engine?

I search “Minecraft Lego” on Bing. I get these results on the main SERP, they are barely decent but do include what I’m looking for (the 2 products on the left)

 

 

 

 

 

So I click the shop for minecraft lego link to get the fuller picture:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I click the first box, shows the product I want – $18 and up is a nice price.

I get this, not bad but things are about to very bad. I’m about to get Scroogled by Bing! Bingled? Scringed? Bait and Switch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I (more…)


Yes, PurpleWidget.com is still here! I know, it’s a been a while. I’ve been busy with my real job. That, and lazy.

Interestingly, or not so since it makes the entire original point of this blog – it’s easy to rank #1 for worthless keywords, we still rank #1 for purple widget. Despite no new content in almost 10 months. Either makes my case or speaks poorly of all Google’s freshness related updates. Probably a bit of both.

But I’m not back simply to remind everyone that we still rank – that’s getting old. I am aware.

I’m here to share the SEO slide that wasn’t. For my real job I was working on a PPT on the evolution of search. More specifically the Evolution Personalization Socialization of Search and part of this deck was to talk about the history of search, how search engines started, how they’ve changed, etc… Part of that history was the many pre-Google years when search engines were simply bad. The results they returned provided little to no value. In other words (more…)


I know the first thing you’re thinking – “he’s not dead”

No, I am not dead I’m just really bad at posting to my blog. I think I covered that in some of my early posts – you must stay committed to your blog and post regularly for it to have any value. Do as I say, not as I do.

Now on to the title of this long overdue post. What is SEO?
And I don’t really mean what is SEO – I mean it more like how do you explain to people what you do when they have that strange look on their face following the question “what do you do for a living” and you answer “SEO”. Many people are just polite enough to smile and nod like they have any idea what I just said. And in reality I rarely answer with just “SEO”, I usually answer something more like “I’m in search marketing”, or “digital marketing”. Unfortunately that gets the same bewildered look most of the time so I’m not sure my clever plan of spinning my job to make it easily understandable is not working. Or I’m just not that clever – this (more…)


Google is well known for annual their April Fool’s Jokes – usually more than one and usually pretty funny. Learn more as Wikipedia has chronicled Google Hoax’s over the years.

In 2011 one of a series of videos, and of course a website, was chromercise – workout your fingers to better use the Google browser Chrome. As a big fan of Chrome this exercise regimen was a must for me. So although it seemed that it was nothing more than part of the joke when Google offered a sign up for free finger sweatbands at Chromercise.com I signed up. I had completely forgotten about it, but yesterday in the mail look what I got:

Google Chromercise Finger Sweatbands

Google Chromercise Finger Sweatbands

Did you get your Google Chromercise Finger Sweatbands? Are you ready to get your workout on?


What time does the Super Bowl start?

What time is the SuperBowl?

What time does Super Bowl XLV start?

Super Bowl Kickoff Time

When does the Super Bowl start?

What times does the Super Bowl start in 2011?

Why is this a question being asked on an SEO blog – simple, it’s asked many ways and MANY TIMES on search engines in the days leading up to the big game.

For the past few years, and I’d expect another one this year, Search Engine Land has had an article identifying the huge spike in this term each year. More importantly the fact that nobody was capitalizing on the potential to attract a lot of traffic. That was before Google caught on last year and started showing the answer above the search results. It remains to be seen if Google repeats this practice in 2011.

Now I don’t know about you but for as long as I can remember the game has started at the same time. Certainly it hasn’t always started at 6:20pm ET but in recent memory, it has. But I’m a football fan. (more…)


A googlegasm is unusual excitement and joy from anything Google.

I think I invented this word. I may not have, but I’m pretty sure I never heard it before I started using it. Urban Dictionary disagrees with me.

A few examples:

T-Mobile G1
The first so called “Google Phone” that ran Android – I pre-order site unseen and loved that phone! Googlegasm.

Nexus One
This true “Google Phone” blew away the N1 that I loved. I loved my Nexus One. Googlegasm.

Google Voice
I bought a local number on eBay months before Google released numbers to the public. Googlegasm. Google Voice kicks ass!

Google Maps
Think back 15 years ago to your options for a map. Now thank Google. Googlegasm.

Google Street View
Are you serious. Googlegasm.

Google Earth
How cool is Google Earth! Googlegasm.

Google Analytics
I don’t care what my good friends and respected professional web analysts colleagues say, Google Analytics is awesome for a FREE tool! Googlegasm.

Google Goggles
I’m (more…)


This question was recently posed to me:

If I were to ask you the question “What drives SEO success”, not specific to any client, and I was a CEO, how would you answer me?

Here’s my response:

If you steal it, at least give me some credit 🙂

SEO success is driven by several factors that evolve over time, most of which are well guarded secrets by the search engines. Through years of experience, testing and research search marketers have identified key areas that lead to improved organic search engine visibility. It’s nearly impossible to simplify a very complex puzzle but the corner pieces to the pentagon shaped puzzle are quality keyword research; optimized page titles, meta data, and site navigation; fully optimized images, videos and social media strategies; a well built (search friendly) site with high quality, focused, fresh content – all helping to attract inbound links to a variety of pages throughout the site.



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