Yahoo lays off hundreds, the librarian wins again.

With the news breaking this morning that Yahoo will reportedly layoff hundreds in an effort at retaining profitability. WOW. What caused this, in an industry that is generating a stagggering increase year after year in advertising revenue? How can you have layoffs in such a great environment?

Here’s my take:

This is a CLASSIC example of a large company losing focus. I mean sure, we are a search engine, but we are a portal, I mean, but we are free email, I mean  but we are all about connecting people. WHAT?? They didn’t really WIN at any of those other things before attempting to expand.

Meanwhile, the librarian (Google), has focused primarily on being a search engine. Look at their website. (Yeah, that’s all Google is is a website…but they have become a VERB…you Google something.) Their interface is clean and simple. Want something? Google it. We’ll give it to you FASTER and MORE RELEVANT. Spot on what you need and when you need it.

Meanwhile Yahoo has been beleiving the hype of their own marketing campaigns that 2nd place is good enough. It isn’t in today’s internet.

But you say, well…Google has added many other companies as well (YouTube, etc.). They puchased DOMINANT entities that have created VALUE that have SYNERGY with their MAIN focus –being a search engine. Subtle, but critical difference.

FOCUS is the key. Google, as librarian to the world has succeeded in providing the best and most relevant answers to Title, Subject and Author related queries and has won the hearts and minds of consumers in the process.

Yahoo is neither a great librarian, nor a great email platform, etc, etc…Jack of all trades and master of none.

There’s a lesson to be learned there with online marketing. Focus. Focus. Focus. Find a niche and DOMINATE it. Just my opinion.

Thanks for a great time at Pubcon…

I am sitting here at the airport with a three hour wait before my plane takes off…yeah, I know I should be doing something else. Maybe putting up some of the ideas from some of the classes. Or better yet maybe posting updates like I said I would. (grin)

Instead of doing that though, I thought it appropriate to say thanks for a great conference. Sometimes I think we need to do more of that, so let me be the first.

• Bramlett–It was great to meet you in person (finally!) and I truly enjoyed getting to you and Wes even better. You are a good example of how real estate is done on the web.
• Jim Olenbush–Likewise.
• Ki. Likewise.
• Ken Smith–fun hanging out with you!
• Jay– Likewise, my friend.
• Glen, Charles, et al… I enjoyed meeting you as well.
• cK -I really was looking forward to actually meeting you. Enjoyed it! Here’s to a great 2008 for Webosis.
• Stephan Spencer-I thought your presentation about WP blogs was spot on . While there may be something that I disagree with you on about how to set a blog up, I’d be hard pressed to find it. I enjoyed the chance that we had to talk right before the Google Engineer reception. You are in my opinion a good example of solid SEO practice. I will post a link up here on the blog when I get home to your presentation…folks who are trying to set up a Word Press blog the right way NEED to hear what you have to say.
• Bill Slawski–My first time meeting you in person as well! I have read SEO by the Sea for years and consider it a reference on Google patents. I enjoyed the conversation and look forward to more in the future.

There are a ton of other folks (too numberous to mention…) that I was happy to meet and / or  I was impressed by what they presented. Kudos to Webasterworld and Brett Tabke for a job well done.

Time to write another post for another blog…and then get on the plane.

The Focus of Your Blog- Search Engine Tunnel vision or not?

I have recently been inspired by two friends who consistently strive to keep the focus of their sites on CONTENT and RELEVANCE rather than Search Engine Optimization...David Smith and Morgan Carey. Both have very different online sites and presences. The key to it is that they both have noticed the trend and are trying to buck it in an increasingly Search Engine obsessed world.

If you are looking for Morgan’s thought on it, you can find it in the BLOGS board of his forum. David’s post about the SEO cult was solid work and recommended reading.

I purposely did NOT link to their specific post because I think you would benefit from reading some of their handiwork. One is a forum and social networking site for REALTORS and the other is a blog that serves as a lab and a great information source for those learning the craft.

Hmmm…craft vs business…There’s a useful distinction as well.

Are you generating content or are you writing a post?

Are you conveying thoughts and feelings or are you stuffing keywords?

Is what you write AUTHENTICALLY you?

I lived in Korea as a missionary for 2 years about 20 years ago…As I had the opportunity to view other missionaries during the last few months of them being in Korea before going home, one of the things that I figured out was that if they wanted the time to go fast, it did not. By the same token if they were enjoying their time and wanted it to go slow, it would not! No getting around it. It was what it was.

There is no way for me to diagnose 100% what SEO tunnel vision is, but I have created a self diagnosis test!

SEO Tunnel Vision Self Diagnosis Kit

If you ask me if you have it…THEN YOU HAVE IT.

If you ask me as an SEO consultant how many keywords you should put per hundred words of text in this post, THEN YOU HAVE IT.

If you are looking for the edges of the algorithm to find where the limits are, then you are not blogging. You are generating content. AND YOU HAVE IT.

Do you FEEL what you are writing? Does it SPEAK to you? If not, YOU HAVE IT.

Wierd, huh? and this coming from a guy doing search engine optimization! (but doing it right and building a long term asset and not just a site–that’s the key.)

If you try to blend too much science into your art, you can end up with a work of art that is GENERATED and HAS NO SOUL. Your blogs and sites and forums and communities must have SOUL in order to convert the traffic that Search Engines generate into RELATIONSHIPS and then into CLIENTS.

Thoughts?

The “Secrets” to Search Engine Optimization-ummm..relationships and authenticity

I have about had it with people looking for SEO techniques and e-commerce gimmicks. When you don’t know them, you tend to think that there are some magical potions that you can drink to take you to the top. Much like every other venture in life, these fables of gimmicks often lead people to die of old age searching for the fountain of youth…

Everyone wants the “easy way” when the “right way” is, well, right in front of our noses…

IT (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION) IS NOT ABOUT LINKS! It is about the relationships behind those links. To TRULY succeed on the net, you need to be willing to be creative, develop long lasting relationships in your industry, and to work HARD to protect your online reputation–or pay someone to do it for you. It is that simple. Really.

SEO guys can teach you principles in doing that effectively and efficiently, but I swear that is how it works.

IT is ALSO NOT ABOUT GIMMICKS  ! It is about you being authentically YOU. If your online persona and your offline persona are in synch,  (and assuming that you do quality work), it will show and you will drive business. If people think you are a poser in real life then they will think you are a poser online.

Good search engine marketing doesn’t change who you are. It just promotes it in a very efficient and near real time manner.

Here’s to being who you are, working hard, being creative and getting ahead! (Some things never change…even with new media!)

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