Ignoring the ego-fest that ensued last week, some solid posts also made their way to the front page. These are the ones that I feel were important to read.

21st July – Ultimate Guide to Search Marketing (UtahSEOpro)
Josh Dreller continues his “In The Trenches” column as Search Engine Land with more great information on the latest PPC/CPA landscape at the big 3 engines. Dreller’s article covers the basics of campaign optimisation, along with some excellent tips when faced with a variety of campaign situations. It also looks at the constant dilemma of when and whether you should use keyword broad matching on paid search campaigns.
Direct Link: SearchEngineLand

22nd July – The Holy Grail of SEO (ronsansone)
All SEOs have to face the dreaded question, “How much traffic/revenue will I get from SEO?” and everyone has different ways of approaching the question. Not only are accurate (or even near-accurate) search numbers needed for the targeted keywords, the SERP clickthrough rate of each keyword (dependant on ranking) needs to be estimated. Another approach is to use the data of existing clients, although another data source is still required in order to form a benchmark.
Direct Link: SearchEngineWatch

22nd July – FireFox for SEOs: Working with Several FireFox Profiles (DoshDosh)
A great tip from Ann Smarty showing you how to create multiple profiles in Firefox, each with their own plug-ins, bookmarks and settings. This can be extremely helpful for SEOs, who can separate the tools and sites they use for Link Building, testing and private surfing. Some people may not want to give certain companies their toolbar data all of the time, others may have multiple Digg (but not Sphinn ) profiles.
Direct Link: SearchEngineJournal

22nd July – Spam detection using historical factors (vangogh)
Google is looking at you and everything that you do, even if you consider yourself to be a “White Hat” SEO. Dave “theGypsy” takes a look at some of the data that Google is collecting about your sites and how it could be used to identify them as breaching Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Direct Link: Huo Mah

22nd July – Visual Comparison of Search Results: A Censorship Case Study (billslawski)
Bill Slawski points Sphinn members over to a research study from Indiana University, where a tool was made to compare search results between countries. The tool was created to test how search engines may be censoring search results in specific regions of the world. There are of course many other reasons for differences in the results sets, including but not limited to country-specific search behaviour where the search engines adapt results to reflect the way that people in that country interact with the engines.
Direct Link: Indiana University
Hat Tip: Bill Slawski

23rd July – Google In Final Negotiations To Acquire Digg For “Around $200 Million” (DoshDosh)
The big story of the week was Google’s talks with social news site Digg, with a rumoured price tag in the region of $200m. It was later announced that negotiations failed after Google supposedly had issues with technical aspects of the mammoth site.
Direct Link: TechCrunch

24th July – Knol Does Indeed Give Pages A Google Ranking Advantage (northrock)
Google’s Wikipedia, “Knol”, was launched with a fanfare by its creators, with assurances that articles hosted on the new information source would not get unfair ranking or benefit from Google’s domain authority. This post by Danny Sullivan found that 33% of the 30 terms he checked were ranking competitively. It’s far from dominating the search results like Wikipedia so far, although will certainly be a target for many marketers.
Direct Link: SearchEngineLand

I’m trying out a slightly different format for this Sphinn Weekly, based on all of your public and private suggestions. Let me know what you think

15th July – How to track your outbound clicks with onclick in Google Analytics (Gab)
I was happy to see this post by Richard Baxter about click tracking in GA, which is extremely important for SEO as well as analytics and conversion optimisation. I work with many blue-chip companies who have appended variables and used tracking URLs on their website without realisation of the risks. Many analytics packages (which will remain nameless) require variables to be appended onto URLs. This often results in duplicate content issues and the dilution of authority. The implementation of analytics software may seem a trivial action, although the consequences of poorly implemented applications can result in serious SEO issues. The use of “onclick” tracking can avoid spider pollution as implementations such as Google Analytics onclick tracking does not result in the spider following them.
Direct Link: SEOGadget.co.uk
Hat Tip: Yoast.com

15th July – Domain Age: How Important Is It for SEO? (dsnyder)
The fact that Google is an ICANN registrar is a very important point when looking at their interest in domain age and authority. The fact that they have direct access and manipulation of the TLD zone files whilst still registering domain names through 3rd parties such as “Mark Monitor” speaks volumes. I would partly agree with Ann Smarty’s findings in saying that domain age may be a factor in deciding if a website is around for long term, although spam fighting factors such as registrant information and nameservers are much more important to Google.
Direct Link: Search Engine Journal

16th July – Using PPC Marketing Data To Invest Wisely In Domains (DaveDavis)
This post was a real diamond for me, and a great technique for anyone looking to invest in domain names. Why guess a domain’s value, when you can get on Google’s content network (such as Sedo), test a domain’s impressions/CTR and then purchase the domain based on your existing CTR and commission values. Excellent post Dave!
Direct Link: Red Fly Marketing

17th July – Online SEO Tools – the Ultimate Collection (patrickaltoft)
One of the fastest ever growing posts on Sphinn was this week’s round-up of SEO Tools by Ann Smarty. The post researches and compares her favourite tools for the mainstream tasks of an SEO. As a Sphinn Greatest Hit, this is well worth a read to either discover new tools or compare alternatives to those which you already use.
Direct Link: Search Engine Journal

17th July – Vanessa Fox: Search-Friendly Flash? (Harith)
Vanessa drills down into the real aspects of crawling Flash, after Google and Yahoo announced a partnership with Adobe – allowing them to crawl content in .swf files. The announcement resulted in many SEOs getting calls from their clients and managers, requesting confirmation that it’s now OK to re-create their website completely in Flash. Although some Flash elements can be aesthetically pleasing, the format will never replace simple mark-up based code such as HTML, and issues such as pagination remain unsolved. If you happen to be a Flash designer and are reading this, STEP AWAY FROM THE SWF EXPORT!
Direct Link: Vanessa Fox Nude

18th July – Google Continues To Test A Search Interface That Looks More Like Digg Every Day (hugoguzman)
A great insight from Michael Arrington from TechCrunch regarding Google’s dabblings with user participation and personalisation. It’s already thought that Google’s current click-tracking influences the position of natural results in some circumstances; just like with paid search listings. So Digg-style voting on search results is logically the next step. Hopefully this doesn’t result in complacency at Google, as many SEOs are already experimenting with organic search click-bots, and auto-voting would not be much harder to achieve.
Direct Link: TechCrunch

The inaugural Sphinn Weekly has arrived, rounding up the last 7 days in Sphinnworld (not the same as Discworld, for legal reasons). Here are the best submissions of the week, according to an evil green monkey

12 Tips on Creating Content for Social Media – 07/07/08 (MattMcGee)
I know that a lot of SEOs won’t like the first story of this round-up being an <insert number> Tips/Ways/Lessons post about Social Media, although this is one of the few posts of its nature that I’ve enjoyed. Sphinn Moderator, Matt McGee, gives some very useful tips to the social late-starters amongst us. Even if you have no interest in spamming posting on Digg, these tips easily apply to starting a blog and creating your own micro-community. How many times have you disagreed with something another blogger has written? Did you follow-up and post about it?

Google trying patent “FriendRank” (a.k.a. Network Node Ad Targeting) – 07/07/08 (hugoguzman)
Google has taken out a patent that makes use of existing networks of friends, fans and followers, by finding influencers in the group and getting them to host Google’s advertising. The methodology laid out seems similar to Ask’s method of identifying “Hub” sites, although on a much more granular level. The patent specifically mentions social networks as a target for finding influential people, with the prospect of financially rewarding popular member profiles that host their advertising (i.e. AdSense).

The End of Paid Links is Near – 08/07/08 (rjonesx)
A very interesting concept of how Google could target paid links more effectively has been posted over at theGoogleCache. Although just a scenario (the screenshot had me fooled for a while), the post states how Google could allow website owners (via Webmaster Tools) to state which links on their site are paid for without the advertiser knowing. This would allow the publisher to avoid paid links penalties, whilst Google could footprint and isolate link buyers more effectively. The post suggests informing Google of the CSS id’s wrapping the paid links, although HTML could also be specified using a WYSIWYG interface. Hopefully Mr. Cutts didn’t see that post

Google’s Keyword Tool Now Showing Search Volume Numbers – 08/07/08 (Makakman)
Probably one of the biggest moves this year for all those interested in Search, Google is now releasing search volume numbers. In the past SEOs and PPC peeps had to rely on inaccurate and weighted numbers from 3rd party data collection companies. With other search engines barely registering in market share in many countries, Google’s volume numbers are as close as you can get to accurate traffic estimates. It will be interesting to see how the likes of HitWise, Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery react to this move, with their offering now reliant on keyword expansion, data analysis and search numbers for countries that Google has yet to conquer. Either way, a fantastic move by Google for advertisers and data junkies!

15 Internet Sites That Can Make or Break Your Brand – 08/07/08 (toddmintz)
Some websites hold the kind of power that can influence the minds of hundreds of thousands just in a single blog post, comment or review. These sites could make your brand the next big thing, or the laughing stock of the dub dub dub. Todd takes you through the top 15 sites to keep your eye on, and potentially market towards.

Reputation Crises Management: 8 SEO Triage Tips – 10/07/08 (northrock)
Following on from Todd’s submission for reputation building, Marty posts a very intelligent guide on what to do when it all goes wrong. Fixing a brand’s reputation needs a carefully thought out and rapid strategy, people don’t wait around before forming opinions. These 8 tips should put your brand or client on the right track.

Happy 1st Birthday, Sphinn! – 10/07/08 (MattMcGee)
Matt McGee gets in first with a Happy 1st Birthday message for Sphinn. Thanks to everyone who has helped to make Sphinn such a great community, whether you’re a moderator, Sphinn addict or super-hero bug fixing Sphinnmaster

The Ultimate Guide to the Google Search Parameters – 11/07/08 (annie7)
So you think you know how to search on Google? Peter Wailes publishes the ultimate guide for Google addicts, link builders and data crunchers alike in his YOUmoz post.  I know what you’re thinking, “I already know them all”… think again!

So what were your favourite stories from last week?

Hi Everybody (Hi Dr. Nick!).

Anyway… welcome to the Sphinn blog! Danny, Michelle and I have been chatting about the idea of moving Sphinn announcements away from the main site for quite some time, which has resulted in the launch of this shiny (and slightly sparkly) new blog. We’d also like to chat a lot more about Sphinn and what’s going on in the community, which has been hard to manage in the past, without cluttering up Sphinn’s homepage with submissions about… Sphinn.

As well as Sphinn accouncements and discussions, I will also be launching a weekly round-up post, cunningly named “Sphinn Weekly”. The post will highlight Sphinn submissions from the past week that I feel are worth a mention, whilst also giving some of my own views on matters, where appropriate of course.

The plan is to post each week’s round-up on Monday – yes, I said Monday. The reasons why are:

1. Everyone else does weekly round-ups on Friday which few people read until Monday
2. I’m usually out in London for a small glass of Sherry on Fridays (you don’t want me posting whilst drunk). and…
3. I can write the post on Sunday, which is the day I have the most free time.

Hopefully you’ll all add us to your RSS readers and make use of the open commenting.

Speak to you all soon,

Rob Kerry
evilgreenmonkey [Sphinn Profile]
Sphinn Editor