Last updated: September 04, 2008

Below is a sort of on going blog (even though I don't blog) on the release of the Lynda.com SEO title - errata, corrections viewer input, and up dates. Please scroll down to the bottom if you'd like to read the latest posting,

Please note: Many viewers of the Lynda.com SEO title have emailed me asking me to include them in any future newsletters I publish and to keep them informed about cool SEO stuff.

If you'd like to receive a FREE SEO Newsletter from me once in a while (I send one out every four months or so) Please visit my News/Newsletter page and sign up for it; it only takes about three minutes to do this.

Also, several people have written and asked to know more about me. Here's a link to my Linkedin (which I'm a big fan of) Public Profile.

- Richard

March 27, 2006

This web page was created for all future corrections and up dates for the Lynda.com Search Engine Optimization video tutorials as well as for the Santa Monica Carousel SEO training web site.

July 26, 2006

A few days a go Andrew from Lynda.com informed me that the Search Engine Optimization title will finally go live! He said it will be available in the Lynda.com online library first, and a few weeks later it will be available on DVD.

This has been one long slow process - over six months from start to finish (kind of like doing SEO for a web site!). Regardless, I'm excited to hear from any viewers who watch the videos, send me emails etc.

July 28, 2006

Andrew and I updated the exercise files bookmarks of all the sites shown in the videos over the last couple of days. This was super important to me so everyone who watches the videos can quickly and easily visit all the web sites I show in the videos.

If all goes well I've been told that today is the day the title goes live in the Lynda.com online library! Yippee! Excited as heck to get my email notice from lynda.com announcing the title!

My Top Ten SEO Lists (four of them) are now complete and can be found here: Richard's SEO Top Ten Lists. You can even copy them to your own site!!!

5:30PM: Andrew has informed me the title is live in the Lynda.com online library! Let the feedback begin!

August 10, 2006

 Removal of all other Santa Monica Carousel Fan Site Home Pages

I removed the duplicate content Home Pages for the keywords: "Santa Monica Pier Carousel, Merry Go Round Santa Monica and Merry Go Round Santa Monica Pier" from the web. This was to avoid anyone or any search engines thinking I was using black hat SEO to achieve an unfair ranking in the SERPs.

August 15, 2006

SEO Title Live for Two Weeks in Lynda.com Online Library

Well its been an interesting two weeks! The SEO videos have been live for over two weeks now and Lynda.com reports there is a lot of interest in them from online subscribers. I’ve also been told the SEO title DVD's will start shipping at the end of August which is great too.

The best part about doing these videos so far is the several nice emails I’ve received from Lynda.com viewers who have told me how much they enjoyed them and how much they have learned.

And unfortunately I’ve received a few emails from people who didn't’ like some aspect of the title and wrote to say so.

I suspect the few people who didn't’t care for the videos were expecting a more advanced title on SEO from Lynda.com. Also, to be honest and up front here, one viewer has pointed out that I was self-promoting my own SEO services and web site too much in the videos and this was not to his liking at all.

Here’s my take on the negative feedback emails about the title; What appears to have happened since Lynda.com has gone live with the title is that two words from my description of the title from the get-go, “Introduction to” SEO appears to have been overlooked by the Lynda.com marketing team and not used in Press Releases about it nor on the Lynda.com web site.

All I can say is the Lynda.com marketing team has their reasons for dropping the ”Introduction to” even though I believe many Lynda.com subscribers to the online library who view the videos may be expecting a more advanced title. I have in fact requested from the powers that be at Lynda.com to put the Introduction to back in - bottom line is it’s up to Lynda.com and not me to do so.

In regards to the viewer (one so far) who felt I was promoting my own SEO services/web site in the videos to much, all I can say to any of you who are reading this and may agree with him is, I sincerely apologize.

It was not my intention to over due showing my own web site or promoting my SEO services. My intention in these videos was to simply use my own web site and the Santa Monica Carousel Fan site as good ethical examples of honest SEO practices.

I tried very hard throughout the videos to “not” overly promote anyone’s site, tools or company. As a counter balance when showing a particular site or set of SEO tools for example, Bruce Clay’s tools, I also showed similar tools from Enquiro. Like wise for KeyWord Tracker’s tools I also demonstrated KeyWord Discovery’s tools.

I felt many people watching the videos might want to see how an SEO firm worked behind the scenes so I focused on my own ways of doing things to show real-world examples such as showing the form my client spread sheets are in Excel for instance and keywords on my own site, links etc.

Please note that I have contacted Lynda.com and requested from them to pull any videos that they think I crossed the line on overly promoting my own services or web site, and, or having me re-record any segments that they think are self-serving at my own expense.

Again, my apologies to anyone who feels I did this.

Correction for section #2 - Black Hat SEO/White Hat SEO

In the “What is black hat SEO?” video I talk about a Page Title but mistakenly call it a “meta description tag.” It is in fact a “Page Title,” not a meta description tag.

Up Date for section #7 - SEO Tools: Keyword Research/Project Management

In the “Goggle’s suggest, term tool, and AdWord’s keyword tools” video, the URL to the External Google Keyword Tool URL has changed to: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal from http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox.

If you end up using the old URL you will be automatically redirected to the new URL.

Thanks to lynda.com subscriber, Bo P. for alerting me about this.

August 18, 06

Ten subscribers to Lynda.com's online library so far have emailed me directly to say thank you and tell me how much they enjoyed the videos and how much they've learned. This truly has been wonderful for me to hear because it was my intention all along to help people understand what SEO is all about and empower them by sharing what I know about it.

Santa Monica Carousel: A Fan's Love Story SEO Test Web Site Ranking

As of August 18, 06 the site's rank has improved! For the keywords "Santa Monica Carousel" the rank is now:

Google: Page 1/number 4

Yahoo: Page 1/number 3

MSN: Page 1/number 2

August 31, 06

Andrew from Lynda.com has informed me the SEO title is now available on two CD-ROMS! Yippee! This is great news for viewers who may not be able to access the online library or desire the flexibility to watch them locally on their computer along with having access to the exercise files.

I've received over a dozen positive emails from viewers from all over the world in the last few weeks who have written how much they've learned from the title. This is truly great because, frankly, it gets lonely as heck sitting here in my home/office working on the next title (Pay Per Click / Search Engine Marketing) and it really brightens my day!

If you'd like to drop me a line telling me that you received value from the SEO title please do. If you felt the title wasn't to your liking I'd like to know why so I can improve on the next one for Lynda.com.

Lynda.com also has a Send Us Feedback Link on their Home Page. Your comments will go directly to Lynda.com staff (not me) so if you'd like to contact them directly with positive or negative feedback please do.

Help shape the next title I do for Lynda.com!

I'm currently working on a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Table of Contents (TOC) for my next series of lynda.com videos. What would you like to see me cover in them? Have a burning question or two about how SEM works especially: Shopping comparison sites, Merchant sites, Pay Per Click systems like Google's AdWords, Yahoo (formerly Overture) Search Marketing, Contextual advertising like Google's AdSense program and even Pay Per Call? Please let me know! :-)

September 11, 06

Lynda.com SEO title viewer, Jane S. wrote and reminded me of a super cool tool you may want to check out. Basically what it does is compare web page/site ranking in Google and Yahoo in a very cool visual way. Type in your keywords and see where you or your competitors rank in Yahoo/Google side-by-side. Check it out here.

October 1, 06

Several viewers of the lynda.com videos have written and asked me questions about Search Engine Marketing (SEM), especially Google's AdWords and how one learns it easily and more.

Here's a few things I dig which has helped me a ton to get an easy handle on AdWords and more.

First, Google has a super excellent series of online training videos that a lot of people seem to not know about on AdWords that are really great. Check them out here in Google's AdWords Learning Center. There are I believe around eight hours of videos presented in formerly Macromedia's Breeze presentation tool (Flash) which is now part of Adobe Systems.

Also there are several good books on AdWords but my two favorites I’d like to recommend to you are, "Winning Results with Google AdWords" by Andrew Goodman; and even though this next one is not directly about AdWords it is indispensable and an important part of AdWords now, "Google Analytics" by Mary E. Tyler and Jerri L. Ledford.

I just finished the Google Analytics book last night and boy is there some powerful stuff inside this application to track your SEO, Pay Per Click ad campaigns and tons more. I especially am excited to see how the whole "goals and funnels" stuff works since I put this tracking jazz in place on my own web site last night.

Both books are great but pretty thick reads with trials and errors, meaning, you'll want to try stuff out in the AdWords and AdWords Analytics programs from the books and then go back to the books to learn if you did it right or screwed everything up! ;-)

I'm using the goals and funnels tracking stuff to see if searchers (not you guys and gals who are reading this) who are searching for "SEO training" click on my future (not in place yet) Google ads. I'm hoping to drive some search traffic to my web site to sell some lynda.com SEO "CDs" (not the lynda.com online SEO training) which I'm allowed to sell at a small discount since I'm the author of them.

In short, Adwords and along with Google Analytics appears to me to be killer stuff for tracking my SEO pursuits and obtaining good stats and metrics for my web site overall.

Santa Monica Carousel: A Fan's Love Story SEO Test Web Site Ranking

Quick check of the Santa Monica Carousel SEO training site today shows it has:

Google: Page 1/number 3 (moved up from 4 to 3!)

Yahoo: (disappeared from the Yahoo SERPS!)

MSN: Page 1/number 2 (no change)

Why has it disappeared from Yahoo, or at least from the fist ten pages or so of Yahoo's SERPs? Frankly, I have no idea. Stay tuned, I'll look into it and report back soon!

News Flash!

The Lynda.com SEO training videos (on CDs) are now available on Amazon.com! Do a search on Amazon.com for "Search Engine Optimization" or "Richard John Jenkins" and there they are! :-)

If you have an Amazon account and would take a moment out and rate the series and leave some feedback for potential Amazon purchasers of the CDs, I would be very appreciative of this kind gesture. Here's a direct link to the Lynda.com SEO CDs on Amazon. Scroll to the bottom of the page and add your input in the Customer Review section.

November 8, 2006

Quick check of the Santa Monica carousel fan site ranking:

Google: Page 1/number 2 (moved up from 3 to 2!)

Yahoo: (It's here but way, way down. So far down I couldn't locate it)

MSN: Page 1/number 2 (no change)

I must go on record here by saying that I've fallen in love with the coolest tool I now use daily for client's SEO & SEM keyword research.

The tool is Mindjet's MindManager 7. This mind mapping tool is totally visual and is the perfect compliment to get the juices following "before" you start doing keyword research in the Yahoo term tool or something like WordTracker. You can even view what you create as an outline, export the data to all the MS Office products, Acrobat .PDFs, and in several other cool ways.

You might be wondering, is Richard an affiliate for Mindjet? Do I make money by telling you about this tool?

Nope, I just think this tool is terrific and you should give it a test run if you're doing any kind of SEO/SEM research because it will make your work life easier and clients really dig it too.

December 4, 2006

Andrew from Lynda.com has approved my Table of Contents (TOC) for my next title with Lynda.com on Pay Per Click search engines and the world of Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

As far as I know there is nothing like what it is going to be here on the web; somewhere around 9-12 hours of online/CD-ROM training on all the top PPC systems like MSN AdCenter, Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture), Google AdSense/Adwords and tons more.

I'll be showing in a step-by-step fashion how to set up these types of web advertising/marketing accounts, how to avoid making costly mistakes, writing powerful ad copy, bidding, creating ad campaigns, ad groups and a lot more.

Feedback Request

If you have a moment or two I'd really appreciate your thoughts & ideas!

On my web site I have a web page called Search Engine Optimization Training Movies. On this page I offer free SEO/SEM training videos. Work, family and more has prevented me from adding videos to this page for ages now so I'm asking for your help, a bit of feedback from you if you will to help me get my butt in gear to make these videos a reality - and for free for you.

What I'd like to know is this: After watching the Lynda.com SEO series what questions are still burning in your mind? What did I not cover enough of that you'd like more information about? What aspect of SEO/SEM would you like to see more stuff about?
What demo would you like to see more of or on something I didn't do in the SEO series?

One video idea I was thinking about doing to kick these new free videos off with is how I use MindJet's MindManager tool to perform my client's SEO keyword research - would anyone here be interested in seeing a free video on this or?

Please email me and let me know your thoughts and ideas! Thanks in advance!

 

December 8, 2006

SEO videos viewer Clara has discovered that Enquiro is no longer offering their SEI reports tool. I cover this cool ranking tool in one of the tool videos and I'm sad to see it no longer offered. :-(

December 21, 2006

Wow! I've received emails from several viewers of the SEO series this week and all of them have reported that since they watched the series and implemented the SEO techniques I cover in the series their web pages are now achieving terrific rankings in the SERPs!

A few people have mentioned they achieved a page 1 ranking right out of the gate.

This is great news for me; my intention all along with this series was to help people do exactly this. :-)

January 14, 2007

Wow again! After many months of no decent ranking what-so-ever in the Yahoo SERPs for our Santa Monica Carousel tutorial site it has suddenly shown up on Page 1/ Rank 5!

What gives? I'm not sure but I did resubmit the tutorial's home page again to Yahoo's free URL submit page about a week or so a go; maybe this is all Yahoo's spider needed - maybe it missed the page somehow in an earlier crawl. Bottom line is the site is on P1 of all three major search engines again! :-)

NEWS FLASH!

Our tutorial site is now on Page 1 Rank 1 in the Google SERPs! Without knowing it I discovered that I submitted the tutorial web pages exactly one year a go today! :-P

February 15, 2007

I'm pleased to announce that I have completed the video recordings for my next title for lynda.com - Search Engine Marketing! The unedited videos came in at seventeen and a half hours! It was pretty dang exhausting to do and took me many months to put together with lynda.com staff. I'm proud of what I created and hope you will check the series out; should be out in a few months from now.

The famous Overture "View Bids" tool is no more. Yahoo Search Marketing (formally Overture) took it down last week. When YSM moved to the new interface for its PPC system they no longer wanted users to see what YSM advertisers actually bid for on their system and replaced the tool with the new ad "Quality Index" bar graph instead.

They do have a new bid range aspect in the new interface but it's nothing like this cool tool which I will dearly miss. :-(

March 28, 2007

Several viewers of the lynda.com SEO videos have written me and shared their frustration about submitting their web site to Dmoz (Open Directory Project) and after many months have passed by they still have not seen their submission listed in the directory.

In my own case I submitted this very web site to Dmoz over two years ago and it has never been listed.

My take on Dmoz since I made the videos for lynda.com - forget about it. I truly don't think Dmoz is worth the effort nor do I think getting your site listed in it counts for much today - years ago, yes, today no.

Ask yourself this; when was the last time you searched for something on the internet you were interested in within the Dmoz directory? If you answered months ago or never I would say you like most searchers don't use Dmoz period.

Why then is Dmoz important? Mainly because Google uses it for its very own directory (yes, Google in fact has a directory just like Yahoo), but again ask yourself this - when did you last search inside of Google's directory? Most likely never!

Do note that Bruce Clay of Bruce Clay Inc. has recently removed Dmoz from his search engine relationship chart. When ever Bruce adds or deletes something on
this famous chart everyone in the SEO world takes notice.

SEM videos update - I've been told that my next video title will be out sometime next month ( April 2007). Watch for it and let me know what you think.

Catherine Seda of Seda Communications has just published her most recent SEM book called: How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders. Cat was my first ever SEO mentor
in this biz and has shared with me some top notch SEM advise over the years. I'd encouarge any one interested in SEO & SEM to check out her excellent books. She included one of my SEO clients (Paradise Ranch.net) in this new book as one of the success stories.

April 22, 2007

I've been aware of the whole world called affiliate marketing for sometime but never explored it until now. The reason is I always wondered if the web sites who put affiliate links, banners, and such on their sites truly liked or used the products or services they promoted as an affiliate or did so simply to make some extra bucks.

I truly believe on some level as a site owner you should stand behind the product or service you are helping promote the same as resellers have to give people their money back if they're not a 100% satisfied.

Having stated my thoughts about the whole affiliate thing for all the world to read, here is my first ever affiliate promotion that I recommend whole heartedly, use myself daily; and if you click on the link below and enter this sign up code (WebSearchEngineer), I too will make a few bucks and be able to buy my three kids an outfit or two for their iffy college education! :-)

BaseCamp Project Collaboration Tool simply rocks. I use it for all my SEO client projects, it's super simple to use, incredibly powerful and remarkably inexpensive for the cost. If you manage any kind of project, a web site, freelancers, or clients this tool is a winner all the way. This is the same tool I demo in the tools section of the SEO videos so check it out.

May 01, 2007

SEO title viewer Lori W.(thanks Lori!) has pointed out to me a few things that have changed recently on the web in regards to the SEO title videos:

The way cool (and sadly missed) A9 "walk down the street" level maps appear to be no more. This was simply awesome stuff and it appears there isn't even an explanation why A9 removed this cool search technology from their search engine.

The infamous (because it often doesn't work) Overture/Yahoo keyword tool is still around and you can find it here. The Yahoo view bids tools is no more as I have mentioned in an earlier post - just wanted to clarify this.

The name for the neato back link tool has now been changed to Backlink and Anchor Text Tool at: webuildpages.com. Also, many of these tools are no longer free. :-(

Google's Site Map/WebMasters Tools URL has changed. It now is here. Make note of it in your browser.

March 2, 2008

Wow! Just a few weeks shy of two years since I authored this SEO title for Lynda.com. So what what is the #1 question I get emailed to me from you guys and gals about this title two years later? "Is the title still relevant now that it is a few years or so old?"

My answer is YES!

SEO moves like a snail traveling through super glue on vacation. Nothing much has changed at all for years and years and I predict it won't change for years to come.

Search engines are getting smarter that's for sure, and they are now including other kinds of media (like photos and videos) in their web search, but for the most part it's search as usual.

While some of the links in the title I mentioned (including the bookmark file for Lynda.com premium members) no longer work, and some of the tools are not free anymore, pretty much everything is as relevant as it was when I recorded it two years ago.

One recent Lynda.com SEO title viewer asked me, "Since creating your videos have search engines changed the way they crawl and index the sites on the net and should designers be applying additional procedures that are not addressed in the video?"

My answer is I do think they have changed somewhat in how the crawl and index stuff but I don't think this has impacted SEO techniques as a whole and how sites should be optimized the way I discuss it in the Lynda.com SEO title. Search engines evolve like everything else but fundamentally I think little has changed from the get-go (relevant text, text, text!).

Another question that comes up often is "What happened to the free Yahoo Keyword Tool?" It's still around but finicky as ever! It times out a LOT and takes forever but on occasion l still use it once in a while (link below).

Free Yahoo Keyword Tool:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Two more things... I ended up not doing the SEM title for Lynda.com. Why? Timing. Life got in the way and it just didn't work out for them or for me. Hopefully Lynda.com will still do a title on SEM (Goggle AdWords & Yahoo Search Marketing) because people really, really need help with these deep and weekly evolving programs.

If you peeked at my LInkedin profile recently you'd see Adobe Systems at the top of it Why? I now work for Adobe Systems. My freelance SEO business was up many times, and frankly down many times. I needed something more stable to manage my growing family and family finances.

I worked at Macromedia for a few years (acquired by Adobe) and loved it so knocking on Adobe's door was the wise career move for me. What do I do at Adobe? I'm a Systems Engineer for K12 Education which means I evangelize and train K12 educators: teachers, IT staff, administrators, and even K12 students on how to use Adobe's amazing software tools. Look for me at a big U.S. K12 focused trade show or conference like: NECC, FETC, or TCEA. I will most likely be in the Adobe System's booth along with members of Adobe's K12 education sales team.

I'm still doing limited freelance SEO and PPC on occasion time permitting. Drop me a line if seriously interested.

Santa Monica Carousel: A Fan's Love Story web site rank up date as of March 02, 2008 (two years later).

Google: Page 1/number 2 (no change for many months now).

Yahoo: Page 1/number 4! ( It was way down and now on page one! YAHOOOOOO!!!).

MSN: Page 1/number 4 (dropped in rank by two since last check - no big deal).

Bye for now!

- Richard

September 04, 2008

A few things... People email me asking if the Lynda. com SEO title (now over two years old) is still relevant. My answer is YES! YES! YES!. While a few of the links, web pages, services and tools demonstrated within the title are no more or now have a charge for them instead of being free, SEO as a whole is has not changed a bit.

People also ask me about the free Yahoo Search term tool a lot. Alas that tool never worked well in the first place and it is gone totally from the web from what I understand. Use the free Google AdWords Tool instead which works just fine and is free, free, free! Search in Google for, "google adwords keyword tool" or click here.

Due to my work for Adobe Systems (see March 2nd 2008 post above) I'm not taking on any new SEO or PPC clients. Also, due to this new gig I apologize up front if you email or call me and I don't get back to you right away or not at all. My SEO & PPC work is slowly being fazed out by me for the work I do at Adobe.

I I sincerely do appreciate your support, watching the SEO title and more so thank you very, very much!

Lynda.com's
Search Engine Optimization with Richard John Jenkins - Errata, Corrections and Up Dates