How did Google become #1? Was it Larry and Sergei’s massive brainpower? Perhaps it was the plentiful free food provided to employees? Of course, there are many reasons that explain why Google is Google, Yahoo is Yahoo, and AOL is Google, I mean, AOL. Here’s my brief list of the seven most important strategic decisions and idiotic blunders that have defined the search industry as we know it. The Good: Super-Smart Decisions 1. Google’s partnership with Yahoo Search: June 26, 2000 – a day that will live in … Continue reading →

Once upon a time, you could make thousands of dollars a month in search engine marketing simply by finding the “long tail” keywords that your competitors had overlooked. This usually meant one of three things: 1. Misspellings: “mortage rates” 2. Run-ons: “mortgagerates” 3. Multi-word phrases: “san mateo county bad credit mortgage rate loan offers” These words were veritable goldmines. While your competitors fought tooth and nail just to show up on the first page of search results for “mortgage rates”, you often found yourself alone (and with a … Continue reading →

Ah, SES week. A week filled with parties, free lunches, colorful business cards and the always interesting Google Dance. I learned a lot of interesting things this week – some of which I’ll share today, others of which may merit a full column a bit later on. In no particular order though, here are some of my observations about SES: 1. A Standing Ovation at Google: When you entered the Google Dance this year, you wear greeted by dozens of Googlers (mostly temp-to-perm client service reps) who gave … Continue reading →