Top 10 SearchRank Posts for 2008

Time for a round up of the best posts put out via this blog in 2008. Posts were selected from a combination of those that received the highest number of backlinks as well as comments , those that went popular on Sphinn and this author’s personal favorites.

10. 7 Gadgets That Are Sure To Enhance the Twitter Experience

Even with all the things Twitter has become useful for, one has to be careful that it does not become a distraction. You know, things like getting actual work done, paying attention to new business opportunities and even spending time with family. Therefore for you Twitteraholics, this post features some gadgets that may help to simplify and enhance the experience of using Twitter. They range from browser plug-ins, desktop applications and even mash-ups that turn the Twitter experience into a three dimensional geographical event.

9. What You Will Find In Our SEO Toolbox

A look at some of the tools we use here at SearchRank. While I firmly believe that you cannot automate the SEO process, there are some great tools available that make the job a lot easier. So with no further ado, here is a list of the tools you will find in our tool box.

8. 7 Reasons Why Mixx Is Better Than Digg

While social news site Mixx is currently only sending a small fraction of the traffic that a popular post on Digg can send, there are several reasons why Mixx is better in my opinion. Not only is the Mixx staff much more friendly to the search marketing community than Digg is, they outscore Digg in several functionality features.

7. SEO Has No Future? Think Again!

In the latest firestorm over the reputation of SEO, Jeremy Shoemaker (Shoemoney) puts out a post entitled “SEO Has No Future.” This was followed by a post published at Marketing Pilgrim by Greg Howlett entitled “SEO a Dying Industry?” Neither of these individuals is a professional SEO (a person who makes their living providing SEO-related services). However in Jeremy’s case, because has a lot of influence, people listened and responded. Greg Howlett I have never heard of before but Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim, where the post was published, no doubt carries a great deal of influence as well.

6. Can Twitter Be Useful For Business? (published at Search Engine Guide)

The micro-blogging platform that few knew about a year ago has now gone mainstream with over 6 million users – a number that is growing daily. Even major news outlets such as Fox News, CNN and others are using Twitter on a daily basis to get viewer reaction and create discussion around breaking stories and issues. This leads me to question whether Twitter can be useful for business or is it simply an outlet to waste time and be counter-productive?

5. Should SMBs Be Worried About Google’s Universal Search?

In May, Google announced that they had begun to roll out “universal search” features, where their search results pages would contain more than just web pages and documents. Additional content would include videos, images, news, maps, books, and even stock quotes. This has some small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) concerned. The feeling is that they will have less opportunity to occupy that coveted first page of real estate due to the fact that they could now face competition from additional forms of media. Do their worries hold any merit? Will universal search really have a negative affect on SMBs and if so what should they do about it?

4. When Submitting to Social News Sites is a Complete Waste of Time

Submitting stories, blog posts and articles to social news sites such as Digg, Mixx, Sphinn and others can be very time-consuming but if done properly, can also have huge payoffs. Why then do so many people shoot themselves in the foot by not following proper etiquette? Is there such a thing as “social bookmarking etiquette?” Certainly there is! This post points out a few things to keep in mind if you want to get the most out of your social bookmarking activities.

3. How To Promote Yourself on Social Sites Without Actually “Promoting Yourself”

“How do you market your company on social news / bookmarking sites without appearing like a spammer?” This is a great question — one that has a pretty straightforward answer but which also requires a lot of work. Why? Because it is easy to sign up for a social bookmarking site and simply submit your own “stuff.” Submitting your own stuff does however not guarantee that your efforts will be successful. There is actually a lot more to it.

2. Common Excuses Companies Use For Not Having a Blog

A recent study conducted by Burson-Marsteller revealed that ONLY 15% of Fortune 500 companies communicate with consumers via blogs. This number was quite lower than I expected, at least as far as Fortune 500 companies go. It is not surprising to me however with regards to businesses in general. While any business that has an online presence should be blogging, a large majority of them are not. This post includes some common excuses they come up with along with reasons why those excuses are invalid.

1. Link Building Via Blog Comments

There is absolutely nothing wrong with earning a link from a blog post you decide to comment on. In fact, if you comment often on blogs, it is a good way to increase the amount of inbound links pointing to your site’s pages. However, there is a “right” way and a “wrong” way to go about accomplishing this.

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This will be the final post on this blog for 2008 and hopefully the final post using Movable Type ass a blogging platform.

We are almost complete with the integration of this blogs 500 plus posts into Wordpress which will feature a much better blogging platform, new blog/site design and comments that will be followed.

Thanks for reading and may 2009 bring you much success and happiness!