Toronto Affiliate Marketer & SEO Consultant Lorne Fade

Google and Yahoo have compiled their lists of “Top Rising Keyword Searches for 2010” and other social media hubs like Facebook and Twitter have followed suit with thier own trending searches and status’ for 2010.

A great way to think outside the box is to jump on rising social trends, so what better way to expand your campaign portfolio by branching out into new trends like these.

Take a look below:

Google Search Trends for 2010

Yahoo Search Trends for 2010

Twitter Trends for 2010

Facebook Status Trends for 2010

The latest news from the guys that brought you the original tracking 202 and prosper 202 not to mention made millions for affiliate around the world, is that there is a new tracking 202 coming soon.

Its almost ready to be launched public but they will be doing an early invite only beta test to work out any bugs and kinks in the new system.  The new interface is smooth and looks great so be sure to check it out at: http://beta.tracking202.com

They only accepting a small group of users and invitations and it will be on a first-come first-served basis so dont delay and check it out now!

Want to know what makes the New Tracking202 so much better?

There’s a lot to talk about, so let’s start with some highlights:

• Unparalleled Flexibility – Track everything in ways not yet available on any of the tracking systems in the market.
• Lightning Fast Redirects – We all know slow redirects cost you money and conversions, so we’ve optimized the new Tracking202 to serve up redirects in the blink of an eye
• Fully Open and Expandable – We built this from the ground up to allow you to modify and customize the software via the powerful API we expose
• Enhanced Workflow – You shouldn’t have to spend hours setting up your links, and with our new enhanced workflow, you won’t have to. We’re talking bulk uploads and automation galore!
• There’s more to share – Like the new robust offer rotator, impression pixels, path analysis, enhanced reporting, tons more data points tracked so you can slice and dice things just the way you like it, and the list goes on!

So check it out, get your name on the list, and look forward to vast improvements from Wes and the guys @ tracking 202.

So the Google Instant service was launched yesterday and you can now see the live changes if you do a search on Google.com. Now you will no longer have to wait to press Enter while searching, the search results will start to begin updating Instantly as you type. Neat trick huh? Google describes it as a fundamental shift in seach and will apparently allow you to shave 2-5 seconds off of every search.  My productivity is already soaring.

The benefits as listed by Google are as follows:

Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.

Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.
Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way.

Google Instant

The question is will this have any affect on SEO and internet marketing as a whole? And the answer is arguably, yes. While SERP listings may not be affected, the search results are now being updated on the fly, so if you can target a phrase like “buy viag” specifically, would your results appear before the full term and gain traction from users who dont bother to finish typing viagra?

I guess only time will tell, but it will be interesting to see how this gets played out and what type of advantages/disadvantages this will have for marketers.  While this service hasnt rolled out for mobile search quite yet, Google states that it will be available on smart phones this coming fall.

I’d have preferred it if Google had actually spent time improving the search functionality instead because I dont see this change as something that will totally revamp how we search. Despite this change they’re still lagging behind the competition in many areas and this is something that bing has done already since their inception, they just werent using ajax to make it look snazzy.  If you havent seen it yet, check it out, you might save 2-5 seconds of your life.

Coined the “Yahoo and Microsoft Search Alliance”, it looks as if the search engine platform that has been pushed under the carpet by Google is looking to re-emerge. Now marketers will be able to control all their Yahoo! Search Marketing efforts as well as their Microsoft adCenter ads under the same platform as the integration finishes up later today.

No word yet as to whether or not this will be fully functional through the Microsoft adCenter Desktop tool, but my guess is that they will add that functionality shortly, if its not already available. Combining these two search behemoths will no doubt give Google shareholders a stirr but I feel like this is a great thing for internet marketing. It will allow for advertisers to effectively double their search traffic and make for a more valuable media buy for agencies.

How Yahoo! and Microsoft will work together:

• Search ad inventory from Yahoo!, Microsoft and their respective partners will be combined into a new unified search marketplace. Microsoft adCenter will be the platform for all search campaigns.
• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10-year license to certain Yahoo! search technologies.
• Microsoft will manage the technology platforms that deliver the algorithmic and paid search results used by Yahoo!
• Full implementation of the terms of the Search Alliance is expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory clearance.
• Yahoo!’s Sales team will exclusively support high volume advertisers, SEO and SEM agencies, and managed resellers, and Microsoft will support self-service advertisers.

The Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance does not include each company’s display advertising, web properties and products, email, instant messaging, or any other aspect of the companies’ businesses, so rest assured they still want to maintain some of their own value with the network they’ve built. Microsoft is undoubtedbly pleased with the deal as they need all the help they can get making Bing! more socially acceptable, and why not start with the advertisers.

All in all I look forward to testing the new transitioned ad platform and I feel it will be a positive thing for advertisers everywhere. For more info on this change over check out the Yahoo/Microsoft transition page.

Its not always easy to find what your looking for on Google, whether the results are skewed or your just looking for something that isn’t there, it can be frustrating especially if you don’t know which keywords to search for. Well today you are in luck, for I have comprised a list of search techniques that shall take you above and beyond search splendor.

Some of these I use daily, while others I don’t think I’ve ever used, but I hope that they still serve some purpose and are of use to you. If you are a savvy web user these may already be in your arsenal of tools, but for most people these with definitely improve upon your productivity, and if I can make that small difference in the online world my life is complete.

While Google makes it easy for you to search things like images, maps, news, photos and groups…they don’t really help you find specific’s unless you know how to do so correctly.

Search Modifiers

Search modifiers help you narrow down your search from the bazillion websites that come up for your search query. Here’s some of the modifiers I use the most, and how they can help you refine your searches.

• inanchor: <keyword> — Returns pages where your keyword was used in the anchor text of other sites linking to that page.
• allinanchor: <keyword> — Returns exact results for your search query if it was used in the anchor text of other sites linking in.
• intitle: <keyword> — Returns pages where your keyword was used in the title.
• allintitle: <keyword> — Returns pages where your exact keyword(s) were used in the title.
• inurl: <keyword> — Shows pages where your <keyword> is contained within the url itself.
• allinurl: <keyword> — Shows pages where all your <keyword(s)> are used within the url itself.
• site: <website> — Returns pages from a specific website. Conversely -site will remove pages from a certain site.
• link: <website> — Shows sites linking to your search query.
• cache: <website> — Will give you the web cache of your search query.
• movie: <movie name> — Will give you information/movie times.
• stocks: <stock symbol> — On the fly stock market information. ex. stocks:GOOG
• related: <keyword>– Will return related queries for your keyword.
• time <place> — Similar to a world clock at your fingertips, just enter the place and you will be given their time of day.
• weather <place> — Same as time only for weather.
• define: <word> — Works like a dictionary to give you the definition of your search term.
• filetype: <file extension> — Will return files of a certain extension.

There are plenty more that I may have missed but these are the most used queries that I feel serve the most purpose.  For an extremely comprehensive listing check out Michael Gray‘s list.

Finding Filetypes

This is probably the most underused, but most useful searches you can do on Google. Just doing a quick search for pdf documents brings me up a massive selection of books whether relevant or not.  If I were to type in “ebook filetype:pdf” for example, I would get a comprehensive listing of ebooks in .pdf format, ready to download and read on a whim.  Obviously you may not find what your looking for by using the term “ebook” so you can type niching it down to actual titles of books.

The great thing about the “filetype:” search modifier is that you can search for practically ANY filetype you are looking for.  Whether its a pdf, mp3, avi, ppt, doc, 3gp, and the list goes on and on.  This is a very powerful tool at your disposal and most people dont even know about it.

Search Tricks for SEO

While all those are fine and dandy, what if you are looking for a certain website for SEO purposes or to do some background checks on your competition, you will find that most of those search tricks don’t really help at all.  What you need is a little ingenuity.
If you are for example looking for wordpress blogs you may search:

<niche> blog “Powered by wordpress”
or
<niche> “Remember my personal information” “Notify me of follow-up comments”

With a little thinking outside the box it is possible to find pretty much anything you want. Combine this with inline search results using something like SEO for firefox and you will be blowing away your competition in no time.

If you wanted to find educational sites and didnt feel like using the scholarly search you could always use this search query in Google: site:.edu blog or take it a step further and add site:.edu <niche> + blog to find a specific genre.  Obviously these are all fully customizable and will deliver different results for everyone but the method is still the same. If you have any other search queries I missed or just want to add your own feel free to leave a comment below.

While most SEO’s already know the ins and outs of off-site search engine optimization, but what often gets overlooked is the actual on-site SEO which may be a key reason as to why you are not at the top of the SERP’s. I’ve compiled a list of things the beginner SEO can do to make sure his or her site is fully optimized for the search engines.

1. The Title Tag – Single handedly the most crucial element of on-site optimization. Make sure you have your main keywords in here. A useful plug-in for this if your using WordPress is optimal title.
2. The H1/H2 Text – Are also extremely important because they show the search engine the main subjects and “table of contents” for your sites content. These should be targeted towards the keywords you want to rank for, and should be indicative of your title tag.
3. First sentence of body text – In terms of advanced SEO tactics, the first sentence for the body for every page on your site will be picked up by the SE’s and more importantly are picked up by Google’s LSI algorithm.
4. Meta Keywords, Description and Robots Tag — The site’s meta tags are always used to place your site in the rankings. As well your sitemap.xml will be looked at by Google on a regular basis so keep it updated.
5. The Body Text – Try to keep your focused body text in bold as this will be more emphatic to the search engines.
6. The URL — The subdirectory folder and page of content should be optimized. A useful way to do this with wordpress is through permalinks. (Settings -> Permalinks -> Custom Structure, and then use “/%category%/%postname%/”) So for http://site.com/SEO-optimization-in-toronto.html would rank higher for a page devoted to “SEO optimization in Toronto” simply due to this structure.
7. Same Site Link Texts — Make sure all your pages of your site are inter-linked or have some type of navigation whereas your main pages you are trying to rank for are linked. Make sense? Having your targeted keywords linked to other relevant pages can go a long way for a little higher rankings.
8. Same-Site Link URLs — Don’t just use keywords to describe pages inside your site, those URLs you link to should include SEO URLs as well. (eg: http://site.com/your-keyword.html)
9. Keyword Density — While this topic is generally up for debate, the general consensus is to have anywhere between 5-8% of your total text. So for a 500 word article you should have anywhere between 25-40 of those words as some sort of derivative of the keyword you are trying to rank for. While this isn’t THAT important for rankings, it should still be considered.
10. Image ALT Tags — Lastly you should always make sure to have your images optimized for keywords you wish to rank for. It wouldn’t hurt to go as far as to change the names of the images to be keyword-rich as well.

By using these simple methods, you can get a jump start on your off-site SEO so that you can focus more on getting inbound, authority backlinks from relevant sites. Then all you can do from there is write viral content and link build like a madman. I will be doing a follow up post on off-site SEO methods so stay tuned.