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Evaluating Search Engine Marketing

January 2004

Before I go into the specifics what is really important for the long term success of any website is to obtain topic related quality inbound links. Usually this is done by doing exceptionally good work which makes people think linking to you adds value to their user experience. When you start finding your name pop up places you never knew it would be you know success will soon follow.

Mind you this term is going to be harder to rank well and more manipulated than most search terms, but lets Analyize the top Google page for "search engine marketing." In addition we will also look at Inktomi results to show how much easier it is to optimize for Inktomi.

I have been studying search engines for a good while now. Vice looking to deeply analyze everything I want to find out why some sites are there which I do not know.

Google Search: Search Engine Marketing
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=search+engine+marketing

1. Marketleap - logical positioning given direct partnership with Inktomi. A powerful Inktomi link coupled with their SEO tools give them a real advantage over many SEO websites.
2. also Marketleap - (their popular tools page which has many inbound links)
3. Submit It - Microsoft's search engine marketing page
4. Mannix Marketing - SEO firm
5. Oyster Web - SEO firm
6. Search Engine Guide - highly popular search engine marketing suppository
7. Bruce Clay - frequent speaker at search engine strategies, long time SEO, the SEO who created the SEO ethics standard (smart move to get many inbound links from other SEO firms)
8. Search Engine Watch - considered the #1 interent search engine information resource
9. Search Engine Forums - Jimwold SEO Forums, one of the original and largest SEO forums
10. Highrankings.com - Jill was one of the original SEO copywriters. in addition she recently directed her RankWrite links to her HighRankings website...

While I may have seen the names of Mannix Marketing and Oyster Web before, I believe them to not be as well known as the other sites on this list. I certainly am not nocking them, I am just saying that I am much more aware of the other sites on this list. So I will look at those two sites...Please note that the Google backlinks tool usually shows most, but not all backlinks.

Mannix Marketing shows a PR of 6 and 740 Google backlinks. View the Google Cache

If Google is reranking results based on local interconnectivity then Mannix Marketing has top rankings exclusively out of luck. Their only high ranking SEO related link comes from an ad they are running on LilEngine. Most of their other best links come from sites in the Adirondack which have nothing to do with search engine marketing.

My guess is that their spreading of the keywords, coupled with the power of a couple Adirondack sites, and that one link from LilEngine help make up for the fact that they do not have many links from other SEO area websites. I think the important pieces of the equasion are that

• they have at least some topic specific inbound links
• they have many links from a couple decent sites
• they spread out their keywords
• their linktext is optimized, but they have a variety of link texts. some say "Manix Marketing" some say "Search Engine Positioning"...they vary which minimizes the chance of an overoptimization penalty from kicking in.

 

Oyster Web shows a PR of 6 and 187 Google backlinks View the Google Cache

Most of their link popularity comes from a DMOZ listing and a few web hosts / host directories, but their link popularity is more spread out. If we view the cached copy of the Oyster web page we will be able to see how they are exceptionally well optimized for the term "search engine" and less optimized for the term "marketing." This over / under technique seems to work well with the new Google.

My Yahoo search is showing Inktomi results. You can also get Inktomi results using Hotbot or Pure Search (please note the results may vary slightly depending on the freshness of the index).

1. Internet Marketing Websites - have not heard of them before, has a generic feel about it
2. Search Engine Watch - considered the #1 interent search engine information resource
3. 1a-topranking - page does not even read well, spammy sounding
4. Wilson Web (search engine marketing page) - Dr Wilson is known as a top internet marketer, but not as a search engine marketer. This page is so outdated that it references Direct Hit articles.
5. MarketZone - for the most part it has not been updated in a half year.
6. media works worldwide - another version of the same spammy site at #3. In fact these sites are even cross linked.
7. Mannix Marketing - whie they are a step above most of the sites in red on this list, they still do not have many topic specific inbound links.
8. A Better Search Engine Marketing Company - they also are a step above many of the other red listed websites on this list, but they are not as well known as many other search engine marketing firms.
9. Marketingology - the fact that the page title repeats "search engine marketing" no less than 4 times makes me view this as spam.
10. Marketleap - one of the top SEO firms in the world.

Its hard to define the entire internet by just one example, but this search shows how much easier it is to manipulate Inktomi results over Google results. Generally the artificially high ranking Inktomi results have high keyword density and lots of inbound links from non topic specific websites.

Given these results Inktomi still has some catching up to do. Optimizing for Google and Inktomi

- by Aaron Wall, owner of Search Marketing Info

 

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