Fionn Downhill – Digital Shenanigans

OMS 23 city tour kicked off in Denver today.  The tour had kicked off in Phoenix on the 19th of May unofficially but today was the offical start.  Hopefully Phoenix a test city this year will be  a permanent fixture on the schedule next year.  Although given the fact that it is 107 degrees here today and forecast for 110 tomorrow  I think being a few weeks ahead of everybody else will be a permanent feature.

Elixir Interactive  will participate in New York, Atlanta & Charlotte as a sponsor, speaker and vendor.  We will also be running an SEO lab in New York where our team of experts will be providing free 15 minutes consultations on your SEO efforts.  We will provide each participant with three key takeways about their current campaings or advice on how to get started.  We will also be showing how SEO tools can streamline the SEO process and free up valuable time to spend on strategy and client relationships.  It will be nice to get out of the baking hot desert for a few weeks and cool off.

Matt Cutts gives us an update on the “MAYDAY” algorithm that has been the buzz in SEO and internet marketing circles.  It is believed to be the cause of long tail traffic losses in late April and early May.

Matt Cutts is the official head of Google’s Webspam team.

Rand Fiskin of SEOMOZ has created an excellent well researched post on the ranking factors for Bing and Google.   No real surprises for those of us in SEO except perhaps the role that content plays.  Of Course without content you will find it very difficult to get those great links which are still a huge ranking factor for both search engines.  Nice to hear that both engines are similar.  Rand deferred to optimizing for both engines who ever had time for that?

You can read the complete very long but well worth reading post here.

In a press release issued today by Hearst Corp Hearst has announced its acquisition of digital marketing agencyiCrossing.  What a remarkable and well deserved end to the iCrossing story.  When I first came into the industry many moons ago iCrossing were not nearly as big as they are now.  Their growth and their continued focus on their core competency of search was very interesting.  They won many major clients and budgets which would never normally go to a search agency but would end up with an Agency of record with minimal amounts being spent in the online space.  Having struggled with growing a business myself and been completely baffled by some of the pain of growing my hat is off to iCrossing for their success.  iCrossing is based here in Scottsdale and I have had the pleasure of working with many former and current employees over the years particularly former President Jeff Pruett now CEO ofTallwave. 

Maybe if I go over and stand outside their building a million dollars might fall on my head.  Congratulations to the iCrossing team past and present for a remarkable journey.