TopRank Newsroom

As appealing as it may seem, there is no silver bullet for web sites that aspire to improve their organic search engine rankings and traffic. Search engine optimization is a combination of technical and creative skills that need to work together in order to provide both searchers and search engines what they need.

TopRank’s recent article on the “Basics of Improving Search Engine Rankings” was published on BusinessWeek.com offering business owners sage advice to start with the basics:

During the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose where TopRank Online Marketing recently presented,  OBS News reported on the popularity of online news and internet public relations via the “News SEO” session on Tuesday. Moderated by Dana Todd of NewsForce, the News SEO session included Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR, Lisa Buyer of the Buyer Group and TopRank’s Lee Odden.

OBS News interviewed Jarboe and Odden after the session:

“Jarboe praised Odden as an innovative SEO expert who promotes the idea of ‘digital asset optimization’ which suggests extending a search engine optimization approach to all aspects of digital media such as photographs, videos, audio clips, in addition to traditional webpage content.”

TopRank’s story on agencies that outsource their SEO was recently published on WashtingtonPost.com, “Is Your Internet Marketing Agency Delivering Secondhand SEO?”. It’s important for companies to ask the right questions when selecting an internet marketing agency, otherwise there may be surprises when the engagemet “rubber hits the road”. TopRank handles all SEO consulting and execution work with internal employees.

“Many small businesses don’t think twice to ask internet marketing agencies who will actually be performing the implementation work. It’s assumed the SEM strategy, keyword research, copy writing, information architecture analysis, code and server audits, link building and reports will he handled by the same people (or their co-workers at the office) that are selling said services.”

Website Magazine recently published an interview with TopRank CEO Lee Odden on blogging, microblogging and the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose:

TopRank, a Minneapolis, Minnesota search marketing agency is truly one of the best when it comes to natural SEO, social media marketing and new media PR. Website Magazine contributor Dante Monteverde quizzed TopRank’s CEO Lee Odden recently (a sample is below) on the keys to driving blog readership, the efficacy of micro-blogging, and what attendees of SES San Jose can expect from his session titled “SEO Through Blogs & Feeds.”

SFGate, the online compliment to the San Francisco Chronicle, recently published an article by TopRank: “5 Myths About Search Engine Optimization”.

“…it’s amazing the variety of perspectives on what is true about SEO. True, the industry changes as often as consumers change their information search and consumption habits. But the misinformation that persists doesn’t help anyone.”

“Below I’ll outline 5 common myths about search engine optimization that will help small business web site owners make better decisions in their internet marketing.”

1. “SEO is a collection of tricks”
2. “Our prospects aren’t influenced by search engines”

What’s the difference between large scale SEO projects and those implemented for small medium businesses? Plenty. The mechanics of an enterprise search engine optimization program are different when dealing with large amounts of content with different content sources and content management systems. But factor in the organizational complexities of approval processes, stakeholders and communications with a big company and it’s a whole different ballgame.

TopRank Senior Account Manager Jolina Pettice and CEO Lee Odden conspired on an article addressing the challenges and opportunities of energizing an enterprise SEO campaign that was recently published in MediaPost’s Search Insider:

TopRank CEO Lee Odden conducted interviews with Brad Berens, Robert Scoble, Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman, Kevin Ryan, David Berkowitz, Heather Lloyd-Martin and Michael Brito for an article that was recently published as a cover story in iMedia Connection.

“Whether the investment in attending a conference is on the company’s dime or the individual’s, it’s important that conference attendees get the most out of their time at events by setting goals.”

“Depending on the reason for attending a conference, goals may vary. Here are some common goals based on the various reasons for attending marketing conferences: Networking, Knowledge, Content, Knowledge Transfer, Socialize.”

The August issue of Minneapolis based business magazine, Upsize, featured a story on one of TopRank’s long time clients, Innovatech Labs. Reporting record revenue, Innovatech was a participant in the Upsize Growth Challenge for 2008. CEO, Gary Smith attributed the boost to search engine optimization from TopRank.

“Last year was the best year we’ve ever had,” says Gary Smith, CEO of Innovatech Labs. He attributes the boost to … TopRank Online Marketing, a local company that does SEO or search engine optimization, and hosts Innovatech’s Web site and e-mail server. Before the arrangement, “I noticed I was using Google, so I googled us and couldn’t find us,” says Smith, who figured, “If I can’t find me, they probably can’t find me either.”

TopRank Senior Account Manager Jolina Pettice and CEO Lee Odden contributed a recently published article to Penton Media’s Chief Marketer, “The Trick to Making Large Scale SEO Work”. Here is an exceprt:

“Successful enterprise SEO projects require a unique combination of mechanical SEO expertise as well as large company political savvy. Making significant progress in a reasonable amount of time is possible with the right mix of planning, communication and expertise.”

The key is empowering client side contacts responsible for workflow, approval and implementation. To that end, here are five tips on empowering large company SEO projects:

TopRank’s CEO was recently featured in a July 2008 Target Marketing Magazine cover story by Kate DeBevois and Hallie Mummert, “How Friendly Is Your SEM? Take the test: SEO/PPC best practices revealed”

Editors at Target Marketing Magazine reached out to several industry experts on search engine optimization and pay per click marketing to formulate a quiz for readers. TopRank’s Lee Odden, offered advice on Flash/Ajax/JavaScript optimization:

When using Flash, Java or AJAX, optimize search by?
Answer: b) providing text descriptions for all rich media