Apollo Hosting- Company Blog

I believe the idea of a publication, especially a quarterly publication, devoted to "Search Engine Optimization", was met with some skepticism in the "community" when it was first revealed. SEO? In Print? SEO is the ultra-fluid, fast-paced world where information is bleeding-edge, up-to-the-second and only available to those who scour at least 10 different forums every day for the latest wild, wholly unproven rumor. You simply can't publish a magazine about it. Ah, how I enjoy hyperbole.

Well, the folks at Search Marketing Standard decided to give it a shot, and what they came up with is a handy little mag that does not even attempt to provide those "bleeding-edge" tips about the algorithm for which many of us hunger. It's for the best, as such an attempt might render the magazine obsolete before the post office even got their first copy. Instead there's an examination of larger issues that face SEOs on a regular basis, both for natural and paid results.

The Winter 06/07 issue I received included articles on duplicate content issues, being banned by an SEO firm, and the developing area of social search. There was no grandstanding "top tips to the top of Google", just a collection of useful insights on a range of topics that would be of interest whether your concentration is natural or paid search. There's even an article on click fraud.

I think there's a international zoning ordinance or something that requires articles, blogs, and forum posts on click fraud be published at least once an hour, until the sun expands and destroys the solar system. This, may, in fact, be caused by click fraud. I'm sure someone is working on that theory.

I jest... slightly. Interspersed around the click fraud article is a lot of useful information about things other than click fraud. For instance, I found out WordTracker actually has competition other than the aging "Overture" tool, and how to minimize the possibility search engines will think you have duplicate content. Google still hasn't quite got a handle on the fact that "example.com" and "www.example.com" are the same damn website, after all.

The issue features a lot of "well known" SEOs. Yes, I used quotes. And yes, the contributors are well known in the SEO community and respected, but let's not go confusing them with celebrities. That being said, the accumulated talent behind this issue is impressive, including Garrett French, Chris Boggs, and Rand Fishkin, among others. Always enjoyed Mr. Fishkin's work, and the fact he shares his first name with a character from Robotech.

Yes, it's fairly sad when the first thing you think you read someone's name is, "Hey, that's from Robotech."

I seem to have digressed a bit again. In any case, I can recommend Search Marketing Standard to anyone interested in SEO, beginner or advanced. Certainly won't take the place of combing through forums hoping to be the first exploit the "next big thing", but from time to time it's good to slow down and read some more in-depth analysis. That's what you get here, and that's what makes the publication useful, instead of a waste of paper before it even hits your mailbox.

Dedicated to the Ecommerce Season

Considering the calendar date, I suppose I need to keep some focus here on matters financial. Granted, considering how quickly the decorations go up at the local malls these days, I should have been doing it since right after Halloween. I suppose at some point Christmas will swallow Halloween too, but for now the venerable costume festival is holding its own. I guess it'll be more insidious than a direct takeover. As soon as you see kids starting to wear Santa costumes on Halloween, then you know it's just a matter of time.

Time is the name of the game, as the December promo is on our new Control Series of Dedicated Servers. For December we're dropping the setup fees on all servers, large and small. I'll refrain from using the cliche "act now", but some expeditious decision making may well be called for.

Dedicated is the way to go if you're running a big store that getting a lot of traffic. Carts and traffic are the "magic" combination that really taxes a server, basically because that nice, easy-to-use shopping cart system you have on your hosting account can be a bit of a resource hog. All that "behind-the-scenes" magic you never see going on when a catalog page is loaded takes more effort from the server than your average, run-of-the-mill static HTML page. Databases are queried, text and images are formatted and loaded, and everything is knit together in one final HTML package all before that page shows up on your browser.

Dedicated servers keep this process moving at a faster clip, as you are not competing for resources from your fellows on a shared server. Customers expect results when they click that "add to cart" button, not a minute or two of the server working out how to accomplish that action then getting around to telling the customer it was successful. So, consider moving up to dedicated and giving your store a major tune up for the holidays.

Oh, and finally, and here's the obligatory Wikipedia link that should make the blog title a little easier to digest: CYMK.