There is a misnomer in search marketing and SEO that things change all the time. I think I stopped consuming SEO blogs and news sites on a daily basis about 2 or 3 years ago when I decided enter full time consultancy with no one else’s safety net. There was no extra time for anything accept a low information consumption diet. I had to develop unflinching confidence in the work I was doing to execute on various strategies based on my understanding of how search engines have historically worked, and the assumption that they will continue to function in basically the same manner for some time to come.

This is from a conclusion that there have only been a handful of changes that affected how I conducted my business. I learned from both blackhats and search engineers both to come up with a strategy that fit my ethical code while indulging my competitive nature and hunger for success. I am convinced that the cat/mouse dynamic between blackhats and engineers has helped to form the current state of information retrieval based on strong needs to stay relevant in certain areas that were exploited solely for capitalistic monetary gain.

I’ve found some great posts and articles about search history and how search engines have evolved over time, but not many mentions of how search optimizers have changed their strategies over time. There are a few good resources listed below, but none quite summed up the changes that affected what I like to refer to as the “SEO mentality”. I’m hoping to create a fairly comprehensive document for Market Motive Internet Marketing Training (where I’ll be discussing this shortly with legendary SEO’s Greg Boser and Marshall Simmonds, to help add to the increasingly comprehensive body of SEO training we’ve developed over the past two years (Over 40 Videos now!).

I learned what SEO was in about 2002 - shortly after offpage factors started to strongly determine relevance. I spent several years and thousands of hours on forums reading, learning, an interacting and teaching to figure out how search engines worked. When I made the choice to work for myself at home after another great year of learning and consulting at We Build Pages (with Jim Boykin - one of the sharpest SEO’s I’ve ever known), I decided it was time to start doing. I built sites, and strategies for myself, using consulting money to fund development of website projects, and parlaying to thinks like being able to even afford the insane cost of living in the SF Bay area. It was based on the unwritten understanding of the changes that are mentioned below, and not listening to a lot of the SEO garbage that is spewed all over on the interwebs.

When I started doing - I realized that not much changes with SEO in terms of strategic execution. It is a pretty logical art and science of determining risk to reward ratios, and implementing strategies in a sequential fashion following certain established rules based on intended outcome. I’ve developed a playbook and these SEO rulesets by understanding the HISTORICAL GAMECHANGERS in SEO. Feel free to add some on twitter with #seogamechangers

I’ve been taking a mental inventory of these game changes for a few months, and here is what I have them broke down to:

1. Onpage factors (1995 – 1999)
2. Offpage factors (2000)
3. Florida update (2003)
4. Fresh Crawl/ Everflux (2004)
5. Sandbox effect (2005)
6. Duplicate content filtering (2006)
7. Human editorial (2006)
8. Onebox/ Universal Search (2007)
9. Paid linking handling (2007)
10. No follow (2008)
11. User data validation and segmentation (2009)
12. Brand Mentions (update Vince - 2009)

Some of my dates may be a bit off, but for the most part these are the major factors that affect my actionable SEO Strategies. These are the major changes that contribute to the hurdles, filters, and challenges of ranking a site on a search engine.

I’d love to hear from other folks on the things that you think should be included in the list. There are MANY minor things that full under these categories, but after revisiting most and asking twitter, I think this is pretty comprehensive, as things like local search 10 pack, personalization, geotargetting all fall under one of these other areas (even if the dates aren’t exact). Please let me know if you can think of anything I missed. I’ll try to watch the comments on the post closely for once:) Please post any great resources, or suggestions for adding/updating to the list.

Resources

• Brett Tabke
• Danny Sullivan
• Aaron Wall’s extensive writing on SE history
• Jim Boykin
• James Svoboda
• Rand Fishkin
• Mark Knowles
• Funny from Pat

This is a great way to see if you have a chance to rank for a phrase visually. If you are out of balance in any of the six major variables, you will see it here:

The tool incorporates several elements of linkscape including:

• mozrank
• external links
• domains linking
• domain mozrank
• external mozrank
• moz trust

.

This is a really great way to checkout where your site needs balance in your ranking equation. The only place the data falters is in incorporating anchor text (which is a computational pain in the ass to collect and process). Great job as always Mozzers. Don’t miss these tools, they’re getting better by the day. Be sure to check out all the tools in the Moz Labs

The updated "How to Train a Link Developer for 2009 Guide"

Teach them why links are important and the basic criteria for establishing their value

1. Overall value of the link theme (use cost per click as a rough metric)
2. Total links
3. Total unique linking domains (find with linkharvester)
4. Anchor text and surrounding text variables
5. Placement on page
6. Check Age (Archive.org)
7. More link value factors

Explain the contradiction of pagerank mattering

1. It is a quick indicator to dismiss low value websites
2. Toolbar pagerank is for entertainment purposes only, and can be spoofed
3. Finding high pagerank (or global link popularity) sites is a great starting point to finding authority links

Show them how to find good starting points
(and WHY this is important)

1. google directory (sorted by PR)
2. keyword combination tool
3. creative queries (soloseo link tool)
4. Competitor backlinks

Explain how to find contact information

1. Page search for name or webmaster
2. Whois.sc or other whois tool
3. Phone number search
4. People search

Explain how to search source code and within the browser to find things quickly on a page

1. Firefox - control+U to view source
2. Control+F to find text
3. Find text on the actual page
4. Open tabs with shift+click or other methods
5. Mouse gestures FF plugin

Explain the 12 different types of links

1. Order of importance
2. How to get each
3. How much time to spend on each type
4. Links is to SEO’s what Snow is to Eskimos.

Explain how to write contact emails (see pickup tips below for more)

1. Explain how to write converting titles to improve open rate
2. Explain how to write an link request

Write some descriptions and anchor text

1. Explain getting content for article links
2. Explain writing titles and description
3. Explain varying anchor text
4. Explain current keyword strategy
5. Co-citation techniques

Demonstrate how to negotiate

1. anchor text or alt text
2. type of link
3. rates
4. term
5. exclusivity

Explain how to tell if a webmaster is cheating or if a site sucks

1. Non-cached pages
2. Linkfarm pages
3. Sneaky redirects
4. Robots.txt
5. Nofollow
6. Buried links pages

Let them go out and get some links

1. Setup a paypal account with limited access
2. Setup a one time credit card with a limited amount
3. Have them verify purchases

Allow tool use for link development

1. Link Harvester
2. Linkscape
3. Hubfinder
4. Local Rank tool in SEObook community
5. Majestic SEO
6. Link Management tools (like Raven SEO Tools, or BuzzStream)
7. FF Quick Searches
8. Other tools?

Explain how to mine a competitors backlinks

1. Linkscape
2. Link Harvester
3. Yahoo Site Explorer
4. Quirk Search Status plugin for FF
5. Hubfinder (in SEObook community, and a few legacy versions)

Start a persona for your website

1. Real or psuedonym (real are much more credible)
2. Be consistent across websites (and interlink within reason)
3. Have picture and bios
4. Make sure you own your brand (in addition to generic personas)- Secure with KnowEm

Explain they are a brand advocate, and their actions represent the company

1. Similar to business development
2. Establish phone etiquette
3. Establish email and IM etiquette rules

How Link Building for SEO is Like Picking Up a Girl

Approach **

1. Learn to get a response (of any type) from a target
2. Use Twitter, IM, Email, Facebook, or any other communication method
3. Overcome approach anxiety and approach sites early and often

Transition

1. Discuss webmastering
2. Discuss content of a similar nature
3. Mention the website you are associated with

Attraction

1. Demonstrate value as a webmaster
2. Demonstrate value as a web user
3. Demonstrate value to the webmaster’s users

Qualification

1. Allow the opportunity to have a webmaster help you in return (ask intelligent questions)
2. Find attractive opportunities to work together (perhaps brainstorming ideas or content trading)

Comfort

1. Discussing opportunities to work together through trading links
2. Discussing advertising opportunities

Seduction

1. Discussing anchor text and surrounding text
2. Discussing ad placement and terms

Relationship

1. Discussing the duration of the contract
2. Discussing renewal terms of the contract
3. Discussing mutual arrangements of the contract
4. Make sure there are no lies (nofollow, robots.txt, javascript redirects)

**Numbered points are from the "Emotional Progression Model"

For more on information on SEO and link development training, check out MarketMotive, or let me know if you need something more custom.

Inspiration:

• Emotional Progression Model
• Original Link Development Training Post
• Link Popularity is like high school popularity

Additional Resources:

• @NinjaJen’s version of Art of getting a link and picking up women
• Advanced Linkbuilding in 2009 from Christoph
• Linkbuilding A-Z
• Big bunch of link dev ideas
• 11 Link Experts Speak Out
• Old Link Hunting tips

Anything I missed? Great Tips? Great Tools? Great Links about Links? Leave ‘em in the comments.

My buddy Brent got a little bit of flack last night for this post, about digg selling links. I’ve also had more than a few conversations defending my friend Rand’s choices for outing sites on more than one occasion (as well as arguing with him about where I disagree with his choices). I figure I’d open it up for a bit of public debate, as well as state for the record where I stand with it, since I helped Brent in this case rather than mentioning it was a bad idea. This of course, got me riled up on a pretty good topic of discussion anyhow, so I figured it was a good time to put it on paper quick and bust out a blog post.

I’m not gonna point out names, but you know who you are, and where you stand.

When is it okay to out a site’s SEO techniques? Here’s the spectrum of types of people I would categorize people into. "Outing" a site includes doing a spam report or blogging about it, which are essentially different methods to do the same thing.

Old School Affiliate SEO/ Competitive Webmaster

It’s never okay to out a site. EVER. EVER. EVER. Google Japan buying links MAY qualify as an exception, but probably not. They’ll definitely talk about spammy techniques in the bar (and you’ll learn a helluva lot), and swear you to secrecy, or have you know that secrecy in these matters is always implied. I respect this code the most, and only disagree with it in a very few rare instances.

I think Rae sums it up nicely, “back in the days when we used to have Omerta and anyone with a name earned it - kinda like television before reality TV”

Basically - the rule is “keep your mouth shut unless you have been granted permission to speak about it” on anything outside of a conference presentation (especially if you heard it in a smokey pub at 1 am).

SEO Consultant/ Blogger (aka me)

It’s okay to out ultra large sites on very rare occasions with proper justification and research, knowing that they are large enough that there will be no penalization instituted because of the hypocrisy of search engines. Outing these sites is mainly to piss them off a bit (get their attention), or demonstrate the hypocrisy of search engines. I didn’t get this, until I saw some of my favorite OG SEO folks discussing Colgate, BMW, and other large brands that ultimately got a tiny slap that amounted to nearly nothing more than probably a link monkey getting a scolding from their boss. In cases of big brands being the new black hat

Personally, I still wouldn’t out these, but I can at least find a rational reason why a journalist/practioner (see below) might when they discover and seo company or consultant that totally sucks at what they do and does it for a giant dumb corporation. Again - not my thing (and I would never do it since I respect the OG affiliate competitive webmaster code far too much), but I can at least understand their logic, unlike some of the other following types of people.

This being said, on at least one occasion, I’ve ACCIDENTLY outed things that I didn’t mean to (and still feel bad about it JS:) Tough lessons to learn, so I always try to err on the side of STFU

"I’m curious who the genius is that told Experian buying a straight link on Digg was a good idea. Pretty fuckin clueless." - Greg Boser on Twitter

Oh - one other time it’s probably okay to do a spam report - if you’re searching for blues clues and get beastiality pr0n

Weak (and cowardly) SEO

People who do spam reports and outings because they’re not competitive enough to play the game. I probably have the least amount of respect for these people than anyone. They hope that by reporting others, their rankings will improve. I learn from my competitors, and it pisses me off when someone acheives higher rankings than I with a bogus OLD technique. It still NEVER justifies reporting them in my opinion/code.

Journalist

For people whose business model is based on news, hype, ratings, and traffic - they’re going to out as much stuff as they can to get the traffic. Just the same as traditional media, they are not active practicioners of SEO. The trouble becomes when you are an active practicioner of SEO and don’t respect your craft enough to have a solid code.

Pointy White Hat "Ethical" SEO.

These folks have spam report bookmarklets in their tool bar, and pride themselves on making the web a better place (by ruining other people’s livelihoods) because they think google will make a rather benovelent dictatorship. Kind of the equivalent of the religious right, and often get outed themselves with something equally as morally ambiguous like Jimmy Swaggert or Larry Craig.

Search Engine Engineer

Always okay. It’s they’re job, and at least their consistent in what they do. Even google japan deserves a penalty for buying links. I respect consistency.

It’s very difficult to be respected by both sides of the fence, but in order to do it you have to have a level of respect for both sides of those playing the SEO game.

So the question becomes - when is it okay to "out" a site, and where do you see yourself on the spectrum? Anything I missed?

It’s been almost 2.5 years since v. 1.0 of the stuntrain seo manifesto, so I figured it was time for an update. I’ve always seen SEO as my philosophy on marketing and success, so the manifesto was ready for a dab of 2.0 polish. The new thought process and goals are in black, and the old ones are in red.

Stunt Train Search and Social Marketing Manifesto 2.0

1 SEO is executing on content and link development strategy for higher ranking, traffic, and ROI. (SEO is not software packages for reciprocal linking and blogspam).

1. SEO is a marketing school of thought…not a process.

2. Plan websites, don’t retrofit them (and don’t break sites that already work in search engines)

2. It’s much easier to plan a website than to retrofit it.

3. Every form of media increasingly impacts search.

3. Search increasingly impacts every form of media.

4. Link building and traffic acquisition through social media is the new brand building. Generic keywords are the new brands.

4. It’s all about the links (but also about the exposure, rankings, conversation, and conversion)

5. Any change WILL affect your search rankings (you only get better or worse, you never stay the same)

5. Any marketing decision impacts search engine rankings - and vice versa

6. Markets are conversations. Hyperlinks still subvert heirarchy. Refrain from maintaining mainstream marketing. Create conversations and inspire links.

6. Creating a “purple” idea is much easier than begging for links

7. Social media is being optimized while you read this. If you’re not participating in the conversation, someone else is controlling it.

7. Social media can be optimized

8. Be defensible and sustainable - You can’t sell 15 mb of fame or vaporware.

8. Top rankings won’t fix a shitty product

9. There are no hats. Only goals. Talking keeps you from doing.

9. Blackhat is lying to clients, customers, partners, or vendors.

10. Lose to win. Conversion rate is a metric for failure that only tells us about our unrealized victories.

10. It’s all about the results

I also thought I’d reorganize them a bit.

Feel free to repost:

• 1. Markets are still conversations. Hyperlinks still subvert heirarchy. Refrain from maintaining mainstream marketing. Create conversations, and inspire links.
  
• 2. Plan websites, don’t retrofit them (and don’t break sites that already rank and sell.)
  
• 3. SEO is executing on content and link development strategy for higher ranking, traffic, and ROI. (SEO is not software packages for reciprocal linking and blogspam).
  
• 4. Link building and traffic acquisition through social media is the new brand building. Generic keywords are the new brands.
  
• 5. Every form of media increasingly impacts search.
  
• 6. Any change WILL affect your search rankings (you only get better or worse, you never stay the same)
  
• 7. Be defensible and sustainable - You can’t sell 15 mb of fame or vaporware.
  
• 8. Social media is being optimized while you read this. If you’re not creating and participating your conversation, someone else is.
  
• 9. There are no hats. Only goals. Talking keeps you from doing.
  
• 10. Lose to win. Conversion rate is a metric for failure that only tells us about our unrealized victories.

Hmmm…I think I have a pretty solid next 2 year strategy for my corkboard.

Inspiration:

• Cool home offices
• twitter host
• Wasting Pagerank
• Social media narcissists

Now we’ve always known that big brands get treated a bit differently, and can embrace a bit more aggressive strategy, but now they get a “branding bump bailout”? Hardly seems fair. It seems like adwords wasn’t enough though - that big brands are now able to rank easily for their generic terms. Big brands seem to suck at search engine optimization. I guess it follows the current American way that we should give them more search traffic.

More on the Big Brand Bump Bailout:

• Sphinn discussion
• Is google giving more brand authority in the serps? - WMW
• Aaron on Google’s branding changes
• Lisa’s outspoken about brands

I think the most important questions were asked by Michael Gray (of Wolf-Howl SEO) and Marty Weintraub (Aimclear Marketing) - What are the signals associated with determining brand dominance over a generic keyword? (IE - How can *I* get a big brand bump bailout too?:)

Hey Everyone - it’s that time again, where I beg for your help (why do you hate children?!?). We’re throwing a Charity Party for SMX West which will be hosted at Yahoo! Here’s what you can do to help (if you’re willing):

• Spread the word - Blogposts and banners would be AWESOME - twitters too! We’ve got a couple banners up at http://www.imcharityparty.com/help-promote/
• Send this post to a friend or associate.
• Come to the party! We’d love to have you there - it’s only $40, and it’s for a good cause
• Raffle Prizes - Really - giving away a freebie helps you and us. Let us know what you can donate as a prize ASAP, and we’ll get it on the list
• We still really need a few premium sponsors to help cover the costs - if you know someone, or your company can do it - it would be a HUGE help. It’s a great write-off, and You’ll also be gaining good will with a lot of fine marketing folks.
• Help us with the event! If you’d like to sponsor, donate a prize, plan, or just hang banners for this event or future ones, let myself, Lauren Vaccarello, or Jon Kelly know. We’ll be happy to put you to work:)

Just an update - the group is working on 501.3c status, and raised nearly $100,000 to date! This could be just the tip of the iceberg with all the great marketing minds we have behind this.

Fortunately, my imposter has been deleted, but I’ve had LOTS of smart people wondering if it really was me. This tells me that the spam is probably pretty believable, and likely needs to be stopped (I even had one person congratulate me on my spamming - Note: I am not a spammer - and don’t encourage this behaviour). The email you receive looks fairly convincing, as you don’t notice the underscore (see below)

Below is an example of a twitter underscore spammer squatting on Rand’s name. Don’t let it happen to you, and don’t fall for it either.

This has been a twitter public service announcement:) Thanks again to everyone who let me know right away what was happening.