Latest Articles
Namechk: Great Tool For Checking Social Media For Usernames
April 29, 2009 By Webposition SEO Team
By Scott Goodyear
As you explore the various opportunities to market your company, products, to blog, to post videos, and more, you probably want to do so with a recognizable name. There is a great tool over at namechk.com which allows you to pop in potential user names and check a variety of social media sites for your desired name, in one go. While this might seem like a site that you would use only once or twice, like when you are registering yourself or a client, this can also be a great tool for researching a bit about what your competitors are doing across these networks.
Depressed Server, Great 404 Link Bait / Viral Marketing Example
April 8, 2009 By Webposition SEO Team
By Scott Goodyear
If you’ve read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or if you’ve seen the movie, you know that Marvin The Paranoid Android is funny in it’s own depressing way. What if your web server had the same dejected outlook? Check out this 404 error page. This is a great example of something that can go “viral” and add new visitors, links, and attention to a site.
Every time some one hits the wrong URL or mistypes when visiting the Wikimaniacs site, they come across a great 404 page. While it is probably a rare occurrence to hit this page, if the site lasts a few years, it wouldn’t surprise me to see their 404 page submitted to the various social bookmark sites over and over again as visitors re-”discover” this 404 page. This is one of the ways in which viral marketing works best… The reason why I found this page? It hit the front page of a social bookmark site called “Reddit“.
It could be that some one associated with Wikimaniacs submitted the page to Reddit, or that with their recent brush with popularity via social bookmark site Digg, a new visitor came across this error page, loved it, and subsequently decided to submit an error URL to Reddit (and perhaps other places as well). Either way, it helps them to gain more visibility and potentially improve their rankings. As I mentioned a few months ago, a 360 degree take on visitor experience and attention to little details like 404 pages can be quite positive toward marketing a site.
(Photo by Prince Heathen)
Update: Wikimaniacs is no longer available – check out these fun 404 error pages instead:
Best 404 Error Pages EVER: 17 Awesome ‘Page Not Found’ Messages
WDL – 404 error pages for your viewing pleasure
Adobe Launches SEO / Flash Developer Area
April 1, 2009 By Webposition SEO Team
By Scott Goodyear
I’ve mentioned before that there are various ways that you can make your site’s flash content more search engine friendly. However by and large, it is pretty hit and miss as to what an engine actually indexes from a site’s flash content. If your site is big on flash, you might want to check out Adobe’s new Search Engine Optimization Technology Center.
If you are on Twitter, you can also keep tabs on their SEO and Flash initiatives via their FlashSEO account. And speaking of Twitter, hat tip to Andy Beal.