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Wow, finally people noticed.

All it took was Google to supposedly offer $3.5 million to an engineer to not go to Facebook. Now, that is what rational people would call cutting off the nose to spite the face. But these are not rational times. I have been writing about the escalating irrationality in Silicon Valley, which for some odd reason exists detached from the global economic reality.

In past few months, I wrote about three major and potentially troubling signs.

Silicon Valley & the Scent of Money talked about the increased number of startups getting funded and the amount of money being pumped into the startups going up, thanks to hyperactive, always tweeting, angel investors.

Silicon Valley’s Talent Crunch talked about how there was a decline in certain kind of engineering talent and other professionals in the valley, thanks to the breathless hiring from giants like Zynga, Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter.

The media’s focus on investors and not the founders.

There are some excerpts from Fred Wilson’s post I think are worth highlighting.

I think the competition for “hot” deals is making people crazy and I am seeing many more unnatural acts from investors happening. If it were just valuations rising quickly, I’d be a bit less concerned. But we are also seeing large deals ($5mm to $15mm) getting done in a few days with little or no due diligence. Investors are showing up at the first meeting with term sheets. I have never seen phases like this end nicely.

Irrationality often doesn’t seem irrational because it is often labeled as conventional or fashionable thinking. Let’s step back for a minute: if you take what Michael Arrington wrote or what Fred Wilson has to say or my own reporting, we are beginning to see signs of hyper-inflation in the web and startup landscape.

Fred doesn’t want to call it a bubble and he is right, mostly because it is not a classic case of mass hysteria, and instead it is a madness that impacts only a certain genus, the professional investor. The implications of this early stage investment hysteria are going to be felt across the ecosystem.

Let me explain.

Google, worried and perhaps tired of losing its great engineers and talented people to other companies including Facebook, decided to fight back with a weapon it knows can be effective in the short term: money. A ten percent across the board pay hike and generous offers to exceptional and standout employees are a good way to stem the flow of talent. Facebook and others, if they do indeed want these people, now have to spend cold-hard cash to lure people out of their cushy Google gig.

Of course, one could argue that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. The more cash big web companies offer as salaries, the more startups and others are pressed to offer higher salaries to their recruits, which in turn means that startups are going to need more money. More money means that tide might turn against the angels in favor of larger Sand Hill Road firms. A million-dollar angel round isn’t enough when you have to pay $100,000 or more in engineer salaries! In other words, the startup economics are going to change.

This is not good for startup founders either. Inflation means they need to raise more money, which will come at a cost: They will be giving up a bigger portion of their business to investors. Of course, higher valuations would make exits –- still few and far between –- tougher.

I think Wilson’s comment about “investors are showing up at the first meeting with term sheets” is particularly telling and indicative of the irrationality in the market. And the sad part –- it is only going to get worse.

Image courtesy of Flickr user joelogon

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Twitter just announced that starting today, “Twitter are making it even easier for people to share music discoveries with their friends by putting Ping activity, song previews and links to purchase and download music from the iTunes Store right in their Tweets on Twitter.com.”

Ping of course is Apple’s iTunes music social network that has not yet taken off, but this announcement could make a big difference in its adoption.

Apparently you can now easily link your Twitter account on Ping and after which, whenever you Post, Like, Review or share a purchase, not only will it tweet out but it will actually come with a playable song preview and link to purchase info.

So according to the Twitter Blog, when you click on a link that is sent by Ping, you’ll “see the song or album in Twitter’s details pane, with the ability to listen to song previews from iTunes.” All of which is pretty darn cool.

How well Ping is doing overall is a bit unclear, though it did have over a million signups in under 48 hours when it launched. Apple also included a sidebar a few weeks after launch for suggesting friends, but this is going to go leaps and bounds further to making the service more social. Of course, the largest social network out there – Facebook – is still missing, and it is extremely curious to us to see Twitter coming before Facebook, especially as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are thought to be close. Could it be that Facebook isn’t interesting in a music social network because it is thinking of doing one itself? Could be.

The question is, will this make Ping more interesting or will it just be a lot of Ping spam clogging up the Twitter stream? If that does end up being the case, will there be some backlash against both Twitter and Apple (it would be harder for Twitter, we suspect), or is this integration going to be the thing that really jump starts Ping? Also, as iTunes is such a major money maker, is Twitter getting a cut from referrals? We’re guessing that they are, as links go right to the purchase/download screen on iTunes – we’ll email Twitter for comment on that, though we suspect they won’t answer.

So, could this be the first step to making Ping what it could be, or will it continue to flounder even with this integration? Let us know your thoughts below.

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What is natural search engine optimization (SEO)?

Natural, or Organic, Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It's a process of making your site more search engine friendly by optimizing the entire website design and content. Then the site will be visible in SERPs against optimized keywords or Key phrase.

Why is SEO important?

Search engine optimization is important for a number of reasons including:

36% of searchers attribute top organic position with brand quality

60% to 70% of all search traffic comes from organic listings

90% of organic search traffic is driven from the top five listings

62% of searchers view only one page of results before clicking (Jupiter Research)

Having the No. 1 listing in both organic and paid search can increase click rates by three times

How do natural search differ from paid search?

The primary differences are:

Paid search can be launched quickly. Natural search generally takes months to show a return.

Paid search focuses on a large number of keywords. Natural search needs to be focused on a few high-return keywords.

Paid search is highly measurable. Tracking results on natural search is more difficult (although not impossible).

How much time will it take to see SEO result?

Time is most important factor in SEO life cycle. Once your website cached by search engines, it will take at least 2 weeks to update the results.

Can any one guarantee a #1 ranking in Search Engine?

No. No one can guarantee a #1 placement in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages), as there are simply too many factors outside our control. In fact, in Google's Information for Webmasters, they recommend that companies beware SEOs that guarantee results.

We are, however, willing and able to make a guarantee as to our SEO ethics.

Will my website stay at the #1 position once my website is placed there?

Search Engine ranking fluctuate frequently. SEO is an on going process. However if your website is maintained by SEO Specialist month to month then it can be stay in top positions.

How long will it take to see results?

This largely depends upon how old the site is. If the site is new, you shouldn't expect to see significant results from Google until the site has been in Google's index for at least six months. Results for new sites can be seen in Yahoo and MSN, generally less than three months.

For sites that have been in existence for a year or more, results from on-page optimization can generally be seen within a few weeks of being placed online.

Google, is highly dependent upon links in its calculation, and prefers links that have been in existence for a long time. As a result, if the market space is competitive, it may take six months or more to see significant results.

What is SEO Copywriting?

In a webpage where the same keyword is repeated again & again, in a way that makes it very difficult to understand what the page is actually trying to say. This is SEO'ed copy.

SEO copywriting is the creation of website copy that includes heavy usage of keywords in hopes to move a page up the search engine rankings. It is generally written to a particular "keyword density", which will supposedly perform well in the search engines.

For search engines with a heavy reliance on on-page factors, such as MSN, or for particularly uncompetitive keywords, SEO copywriting might work, at least to a certain degree. For keywords with any amount of competition on Google and Yahoo, however, it is rarely effective.

What's more, even if the SEO'ed copy works in a search engine, it is rarely effective for the human beings visiting the site.

In addition, SEO copywriting can be very profitable for the SEO firm, as the search engines regularly change their preferred keyword density. This results in more work for the SEO firm as they rewrite the SEO'ed copy, and up charge the client.

We prefer not to use SEO copywriting. We recommend that the targeted keyword be used in the page's copy, but used in a manner that is natural sounding and effective for readers. Our SEO efforts focus on other on-page factors and most importantly - links.

Does this mean copywriting is not important to SEO?

Copywriting is certainly important in SEO. The copy of a website should always be written to maximize the return on marketing dollars. If the visitors to a website do not convert to leads or sales, then the efforts on SEO are wasted.

The copy of a page should focus primarily on effectiveness and conversion rate. Simply use the page's keywords in a natural manner, and optimize the other on-page factors and links.

Also, landing pages can be created to address specific keyword needs that cannot be found on other parts of the site. Each such page must have substantially unique content and not employ deceptive techniques such as redirects, or run the risk of receiving penalties from the search engines.

We offer a full range of copywriting services which can be used in conjunction with either our paid or natural search services.

Do you engage in unethical SEO?

We tend to not see SEO in ethical terms. Notwithstanding potential issues of deception, the way one structures one's webpage is not a concept that should inspire discussions of morality.

There are, however, issues of risk management and tolerance with SEO. Certain techniques might run the risk of being blacklisted by one or more of the search engines. Typically, the more competitive a space is, the more risky the needed techniques are.

As SMO Solutions Search does not work with companies in the truly hypercompetitive space (e.g. gambling and pornography), we have never needed to resort to risky techniques to achieve the rankings our clients demand.

One aspect of SEO that can raise ethical questions is the communication between the SEO firm and the client. Some firms engage in risky techniques without informing the client. That is certainly unethical.

Another area of potentially unethical behavior can be found in firms that provide "SEO" services by building a network of their own sites that drive traffic to the client's site. These are often sold on a per click basis. While this is a viable marketing model, many clients do not realize that the moment they stop paying, the "SEO" they've been buying goes away. In fact, many SEO firms will then turn around and sell this traffic to the former client's competitors.

Apogee Search's SEO practice is built around achieving superior results in the natural listings of the search engines. Baring an algorithm change in the search engine, the traffic does not go away if a client does not continue to engage with Apogee Search (although listings do tend to degrade over time if continue SEO efforts are not made).

Do you offer search engine submission services?

We'll let you in on a secret, assuming a page can be read and indexed by a search engine's search bots; all that is needed to submit to the search engines is a link from a page on another site that is in the Google index.

The automated submission services that you receive constant email spam for are, at best, a waste of money. In many cases, they can actually hurt your site's performance in the search engines, as repetitive submitting of the same site can cause the search engines to invoke a penalty.

How do you select keywords?

Ideally, keywords for natural search are selected by using data from a properly configured and managed paid search campaign. This way, keywords that generate leads and/or sales are certain to be focused on.

Alternatively, detailed analysis can be made on a group of potential keywords to measure their relative search volume and competitiveness, but this data is greatly strengthened with the addition of conversion data from a paid search campaign.

Will you make the changes on my website?

We are not a web design firm, and don't manage the actual pages of your site ourselves. We do, however, make specific, detailed suggestions of changes. And, if you do not have the staff to make the changes yourself, we have a number of web design firms that can do this for you.

What about link rental or purchase?

One of the dirty little secrets of the SEO industry is that many of the people at the top of Google bought their way there through paid links.

Many links can either be bought on a one time basis, or rented month to month. One of the biggest advantages of this is the ability to configure the link exactly how you want it for maximum SEO benefit (begged links often have to be accepted "as is").

Competitive market spaces are likely going to require paid links. We typically recommend either purchasing permanent links or budgeting link rental for at least six months (preferably eight or nine months). Links must "age" before Google allocates them their full benefit.

How do we track the results?

Many SEO firms create their own fuzzy metrics, generally around the idea of "visibility". If a particular key phrase improves from a ranking of 100 to a ranking of 20, they call that a 500% visibility. Rarely do you see such firms concerned about the traffic the rankings bring to your site.

While we certainly monitor rankings in the search engines for our targeted keywords, we are much more concerned with the traffic those rankings generate. And, we are happy to work with you to connect the traffic generated by the search engines to specific leads and sales.

Shankar soma is an experienced SEO, SEM and SMM consultant. He has authored several marketing manuals for small business owners and ecommerce agents. He is a contributing author to several websites and offers advice on dominating Google search results at http://www.shankarsoma.wordpress.com

http://www.shankarsoma.wordpress.com

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