Had a great time at SMX West last year and am happy to report that I will be speaking there again this year. This time I’ll be talking about Mobile search apps and their effect on SEO and SEM. Great topic among many and I’m happy to be a part of it.
If you’re kicking around [...]

The Golden Globes are tonight, but geeks like me are more interested in the SEMMYs.
Thanks to the judges for nominating a post of mine again this year:
http://www.semmys.org/2010/analytics-all-2010-nominees/

Big changes coming for this blog in 2010.  Stay tuned for more details.

For those of you who are interested in optimizing mobile apps and/or residents of the great city of Chicago, Search Engine Strategies will be in town again next week, and I’ll be speaking on how to optimize mobile apps for search.

If you’re planning to attend, please stop by after the session and say hello.

Wasn’t planning on having a Chicago SEO Meetup next month since Q4 is a bear for marketers in general, but I’m happy to announce that November’s Meetup will be a Google Analytics demonstration hosted by Google and SEMPO Chicago. Details and RSVP at the Chicago SEO Meetup site:
http://www.meetup.com/chicago-seo/calendar/11732725/
Thanks to Bob Tripathi and SEMPO Chicago for [...]

Nearly two years ago, Google Analytics was noticeably absent from my review of available mobile analytics packages. It was still possible to use Google Analytics to track smartphones, to some extent, but my unscientific test showed their solution wasn’t as accurate as mobile analytics packages that didn’t rely on JavaScript for tracking. Omniture and Coremetrics [...]

It’s been my pleasure to be the new co-host of Mobile Presence on Webmaster Radio. I was actually a guest on the first program a while ago, and now host a weekly half-hour show with Cindy Krum where we discuss the latest happenings in mobile marketing and interview important mobile movers of the day. It [...]

Google’s mobile keyword tool becomes part of their new AdWords keyword tool. Read more.

Hiring an SEO Coordinator in Chicago. Read the job description and apply here for a great opportunity for a smart person with limited SEO experience.

As some of you know, I had a new addition to the family a week ago when our son Casey joined us. As a result of that and continued dedication to client work I haven’t had much time to update my personal blog or write for other publications. This light posting will be short-lived, as [...]

The interesting thing about the mythical “year of mobile” is that it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If site owners believe in the year of mobile enough to create content, they expand the reach of mobile, the lack of which is what most pundits use to determine whether or not this is the year of mobile. The problem is, many site owners are waiting until the “year of mobile” is unquestionably here before they create content, ensuring that said “year” will take even longer to arrive. The only way that we can ever reach the year of mobile is if we create mobile content now. This will expand the reach of mobile, and cause brand advertisers to feel that they can reach a large enough audience to justify their ad spend.

That said, there are some companies who should have started creating mobile content years ago, and are extremely late to the party. I mentioned a few of these in my SES Chicago presentation on Monetizing Mobile Search late last year. To find out if your brand should be investing heavily in mobile today, or simply creating a basic mobile user experience, use these three free tools.

Having specialized in mobile SEO for about as long as people have been talking about it, I have seen many experts say many things about the practice of making content accessible to and optimized for mobile users. Not all of these things make sense. There are two things specifically that I want to call out today that have somehow persisted as mobile SEO best practices, even though following them could actually make you less visible to mobile users. There may have been a time and place for making these recommendations in mobile SEO, as the landscape has changed dramatically even in the last five years. But if you hear them brought up in 2009 and beyond, check the speaker’s business card, as they may be your competitor trying to sabotage you in mobile search. More likely they’re well-intentioned, but not considering all aspects of the issue. To be safe, take time to educate yourself on how and why to avoid these two worst practices.

Got your attention, didn’t I?
Actually, Matt hasn’t yet discussed mobile search ranking factors to my knowledge, though he has discussed the mobile search opportunity in 2009 many times in various interviews. This can change, however, if democracy is not against me, and if you also want to see him speak about SEO for mobile users [...]

Google’s mobile keyword tool moved with the AdWords redesign. When I was looking for it the other day I wondered for a minute if Google had eliminated it from the new version of AdWords. I was happy to find that this wasn’t the case.
I’m thinking many of you may have the same concerns, as I’m [...]

I wanted to make sure that everyone interested in mobile search and mobile SEO had a chance to see this presentation from last month’s Searchology 2009, or at least to review the transcript. It’s important for marketers who are interested in mobile because it confirms that Google is returning optimized mobile web sites ahead of [...]

I’m a big fan of the Google Webmaster Central Channel on YouTube, which is really a great training resource for both beginner and experienced SEOs and webmasters. Yesterday I stumbled across this video and presentation from Google’s Ankit Gupta from Google SearchMasters India conference on Building Mobile Friendly Web Sites.

Not all of it is relevant [...]