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Happy Birthday Penguin

by Mike     on April 24, 2013 · 0 comments

penguin birthdayOn April 24th, 2012, Google rolled out its new Penguin filter, which it claimed impacted 3.1% of search queries, yet seemingly 47.2% of webmasters immediately shat their pants.

Hard to believe it has only been a year now since Penguin was introduced to us. It seems like it has been around so much longer than that. What a difference Penguin has made in the world of SEO.

Before Penguin was introduced, about the worse thing you could expect from hiring a lousy SEO was to see no movement from their bad links. Since Penguin, that is no longer the case. Bad links can kill a site’s rankings.

Hopefully, before hiring someone to work on your site, you are doing some diligence to understand what they are going to do. You do not need to be an SEO expert, but if they are doing things like blog commenting, forum posting, forum profile links, article submissions, you are probably better off avoiding them in today’s SEO landscape.

Happy Birthday Penguin!

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Panda To Become a Rolling Update

March 14, 2013

Something interesting came out of SMX West last night, as reported by Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Round Table. The Panda algorithm is going to transition to more of a rolling update versus its current form of a manually pushed out update. The updates are going to be less transparent to webmasters and SEOs, which [...]

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Weyerbacher Brewing – Verboten

March 13, 2013

I have yet to have a beer from Weyerbacher that I did not like. This one is no exception. I went to a new local taproom with a few friends last week and saw this one on the list of 40+ beers on tap. Verboten is a Belgian Pale Ale. Belgian pale ales differ from [...]

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Magic Hat – Heart of Darkness

January 30, 2013

It has been awhile since I posted any new beers here. It was not for lack of trying though. I have been having a string of bad luck in finding some new good beers. Had some really awful stuff around the holidays. I did find one though that I was pleasantly surprised with. Why was [...]

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Google The Great Prognosticator?

January 1, 2013

They swear it was not on purpose. It was just the algorithm at work, but yesterday (December 31st, 2012), if you searched Google Finance for the word “sell”, the result was a an Apple stock ticket. Here is a picture of it.   Initially, many thought it was Google playing some kind of trick on [...]

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Google Adds Festivus Pole

December 17, 2012

Who says Google is all business and no fun? Check out what happens when you perform the search “festivus” in the Google search bar. The famous Festivus Pole appears on the left side of the search results in all its plain and boring glory. See it here.  

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Dynamic Meta Descriptions

November 24, 2012

One question I get asked a lot is how to write a good meta description tag for a webpage. You will hear many “guru” IM’ers preach about writing a enticing description that will encourage searchers to click to your website from the search engine results page versus your competitors. A few years ago, that was [...]

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Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome Ale

November 19, 2012

I was looking for a Winter Seasonal brew to put up here and picked this Winter Warmer from Samuel Smith. As I was preparing to write this post, I was appalled to realize that I have never reviewed any of Samuel Smith’s beers on here yet. They are, without a doubt, one of my favorite [...]

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Bad Moon Porter – DuClaw Brewing Company

November 4, 2012

DuClaw Brewing hails just a short jump down route 83 from me in Bel Air, Maryland. They also have 3 other locations in Maryland: BWI Airport, Bowie Town Center, and Arundel Mills where I first discovered DuClaw when I lived in the D.C. area. Recently, much to my delight, local bars and bottle shops have [...]

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Wolaver’s Alta Gracia Coffee Porter

October 3, 2012

Made an amazing discovery a few weeks ago. Now for most you this will seem like no big deal. For anyone that has spent most of their life in Pennsylvania, it is freaking awesome. PA is one of the stricter states when it comes to alcohol sales. All liquor and most wine is sold at [...]

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No More Beer of the Month

October 2, 2012

I’ve decided to end the practice of posting a new beer each month here. Do not worry beer lovers. This is actually going to be a good thing. Instead, I’m going to post a beer whenever I get the urge. Often I come across something new or something old that I forgot about, and I [...]

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Keyword Research For Local SEO

September 24, 2012

Keyword research for local SEO is a lot different than what your typical internet marketer is used to doing for keyword research. I’m not looking for the low hanging fruit or easy keywords to rank for. I’m looking for all the fruit. Here is a video I put together a few weeks ago describing how [...]

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Using Scrapebox For Local SEO

September 16, 2012

I did a quick video on how I use Scrapebox to help with performing local SEO. Scrapebox has a reputation as a spamming tool, but if you understand what it can do and how to use it, it can be used for so much more.

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Tips For Speeding Up SEO SpyGlass Analysis

September 13, 2012

Anytime I’m asked about what my favorite SEO tools are, especially when it pertains to checking backlinks, SEO SpyGlass is always one of the first answers out of my mouth. The amount of data it can provide for you is unequaled among backlink checkers. The one complaint people have about the tool is it can [...]

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August 2012 – AleSmith Speedway Stout

August 20, 2012

If you enjoy good craft beer, here is a tip for you: When you find a bar that likes to bring in a good selection of beer and makes an effort to change it up fairly regularly, become friends with the bartender. It will have benefits. Such is what happened to me one night last [...]

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Google Tests Mobile Icon In Mobile Search

August 7, 2012

Interesting little test that Google is performing. This one is well worth keeping your eye on. My question is if it does go live, will the average smartphone user realize it or even know what it means? I’m going to guess probably not. If they do though, you need to start making your content mobile [...]

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July 2012 – Brouwerij Corsendonk Pater / Abbey Brown Ale

July 30, 2012

This is one of the better beers I have tried this year. I have to admit, I had never heard of this one. Went to a local pizza shop to pick up a pizza and decided to have a look through their beer selection. This particular shop has a bar attached to it and has [...]

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Bing Beats Google To The Punch – Disavow Links Feature Launched

June 29, 2012

While the SEO and webmaster community wait with baited breath for Google to launch its promised Disavow Links feature in Google Webmaster Tools, Bing went ahead and launched a disavow tool of its own. Duane Forrester, head of Bing Webmaster Tools cautions: You can easily export the list as you build it over time. These [...]

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Removing Link Is the New Linkbuilding of 2012?

June 27, 2012

I tell people all the time that I enjoy doing SEO. I like the challenge, the rewards, and being able to help business owners. However, there are times that I really am ashamed and embarrassed for the SEO industry. Believe it or not, Penguin has brought about a lot of good things in Google’s search [...]

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Tired Of Ruining IM’ers Sites – Now It Is Time Destroy Real Businesses

June 16, 2012

He (who shall not be named) has made enough money ruining the websites of internet marketers and sending them into ranking hell. So now He (who shall not be named) has decided to move on to a new market and destroy real local businesses instead. Yep, you can check out His new WSO here. If [...]

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