Archive: September, 2007

There has been a recent resurgence in discussion about ethics in the SEO/SEM industry. The topic, which comes up from time to time, has been relatively dormant for the past year. A few years ago however, debate raged across forums, blogs, and over beers at search marketing conventions. Generally, the outcome is the same every time. Most SEOs agree a code of ethics the industry could universally endorse would be an important step forward but nobody wants to be the one to write it.

Most premier SEO shops do follow in-house ethical guidelines. Metamend has a rather long one I wanted to revisit in light of the recent discussion. Similarly, I would like to invite other SEO shops to post links to their codes of ethics in the coming weeks.

Metamend’s Code of SEO Ethics

Metamend will subscribe to the de facto SEO and SEM ethical standards as recognized by the various industry providers and associations, providing open, clear communication channels between the company, the client, and reputable industry leaders, in order to promote the highest level of SEO and SEM services.

Google has introduced a new method of placing AdWords paid search ads on private websites that might re-revolutionize search advertising. Google Gadget Ads are widgets in which dynamic, rich media advertising can be displayed. Unlike traditional text-link AdWords, Google Gadget ads could include audio, maps, HTML, JS, video or Flash animation, often in the same space.

The Google AdWords Gadget Ads page calls gadget ads, “Websites within Websites”. Basically, a gadget contains a small website within an application that appears on relevant websites in the AdWords content network. The use of Gadget Ads greatly increases versatility and flexibility for both AdWords advertisers and webmasters displaying the ads.

Google revolutionized search advertising in the early part of this decade by innovating (and improving) on the Overture Pay per Click model and by providing the largest distribution system in human history to its advertisers. The introduction of Google Gadget Ads opens the door for other ad-networks to come up with similar competing advertising opportunities.

Another outcome of Google Gadget Ads is easier inclusion of graphic display ads as served up by Google’s greatest pending acquisition, DoubleClick. Gadget Ads create an instant, global distribution network for banner and display advertising. Perhaps this is Google’s way of merging the two advertising markets. Check out the Gadget Ad sizing example page Google provided to make your own judgment.

For the first time in over thirty years, the currencies of the US and Canada have reached parity. One dollar CDN is now equal to one dollar US. The rapid rise of the CDN dollar over the past twenty four months has come as a shock to web services firms on the northern side of the 49th parallel. Two years ago, the Canadian dollar was worth approximately $0.85 US, a value that worked well for companies selling their services across the border.

Long used to offering slightly lower prices than our American colleagues or enjoying a 10 – 20% premium when converting US billings to CDN currency, Canadian web services firms find themselves in an odd position. Though consumer and business supplies are suddenly much cheaper, Canadian firms have to work harder to simply maintain consistency in monthly revenue streams.

Fees for virtually all web services in North America are charged in American currency. It’s been that way since the earliest days of the web. US clients expected to be charged in their own currency and given the slight advantage of having a weaker dollar, Canadian companies were only too happy to comply. When the CDN dollar rested in the $0.85 range, a $10,000 (US) contract would translate into approximately $11,500 (CDN).

A java based application called TouchGraph uses Google’s database of related sites to map out connections between websites and web documents.

The map takes the form of clusters of web documents that are somehow related to the domain name entered in ToughGraphic’s search-box. Each URL or web document is represented by an icon within a coloured circle. Lines leading to and from each icon represent links.

Placing your cursor over one of the icons brings up a small text-box with the name and URL of the site. Clicking on that box will make it the center of the graph and force more links to form from that point.

The tool allows SEOs to easily view the connections Google has made between sites and documents, often with surprising results. Links from long ago are still present on the web, hence the presence of Vivisimo, Northern Lights and AltaVista in the graphic of a search conducted under Metamend.com

The tool is free for use but might take a few seconds to run.