Here are a few notes from a recent cross-country flight. I'm not sure what I was reading at the time ("The Lean Startup?"), but it's sound advice. Any really good accountant will tell you that the numbers should inform your decisions, not make them. Analytics work best when chasing incremental … [Read more...] about The Religion of Analytics
Media Enters the Age of (Statistical) Reason
The media is finally figuring out figures. The coverage of Nate Silver's tremendous success at statistical analysis has shown both that sophisticated data analysis can be newsworthy -- and have tremendous real-world impact. According to the New Republic, on Nov 5th, Silver's 538 blog garnered over … [Read more...] about Media Enters the Age of (Statistical) Reason
The Most Important SEO Tool In the World
Often forgotten in the development rush, regularly updated XML sitemaps are essential in guaranteeing that search engines crawl all your content. Here is Google on the subject: Sitemaps are a way to tell Google about pages on your site we might not otherwise discover. In its simplest terms, a XML … [Read more...] about The Most Important SEO Tool In the World
Google Trends Eats Google Insights, Also “Celine Dion or Torture?”
Google Insights is no more. It has been absorbed by Google Trends. Both Trends and Insights have been useful tools for writers and editors looking to improve their articles' SEO. Google Trends also lends itself nicely to a game I call "Celine Dion or Torture?" where you put in phrases until you find … [Read more...] about Google Trends Eats Google Insights, Also “Celine Dion or Torture?”
Search Engine Land’s “Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors”
Danny Sullivan's "Search Engine Land" is always a great source of info on the dark continent of search engine optimization. They've just released an infographic that covers both factors that are under the control of site owners and those more nebulous elements as "authority," and "reputation." It's … [Read more...] about Search Engine Land’s “Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors”
There Are Only Three Digital Growth Strategies
It may seem self-evident, but, by definition, there are only three paths to digital growth: More new visitors More visits per visitor More page views/engagement per visit That’s it. If you don't have focused strategies around each path, you can't sustain growth. Examples … [Read more...] about There Are Only Three Digital Growth Strategies
Why Search Engine Optimization is Important
I've worked with most of the major SEO firms and have attended many, many presentations, seminars, conferences and staff meetings about search engine optimization. I've heard from almost everyone that SEO is the 'secret sauce' of audience development. It is actionable, quantifiable, and other *able … [Read more...] about Why Search Engine Optimization is Important
Search Engines Love Great Writing
Above all, the search engines love high-quality writing. The folks at Google explicitly state that their goal is to connect users with "useful, information-rich site(s)" containing pages that "clearly and accurately describe your content." And, in fact, most of the advancements in search over the … [Read more...] about Search Engines Love Great Writing