Over the past year, we’ve written more than 100 blog posts. It takes a lot of hard work to constantly create new content, and we want to thank everyone that read our posts over the last year.
We compiled a list of our top 10 blog posts based on the number of views and they represent a diverse group of topics ranging from HTML5 to analytics to ppc to web design.
10. Understanding the “People Are Talking About This” Metric
Publish Date: October 18, 2011 / Author: Robert Abasolo
Facebook made a number of changes to both profile and fan pages and one of the more interesting additions was the creation of a “People Are Talking About This” metric which measures your buzz level on the site. When it was first released people had a hard time understanding what it actually meant, so we created a post that explained how the metric worked. Essentially the number is determined by new likes, event RSVPs, wall posts and check-ins to the physical address.
9. Restaurant Websites: Hold the Flash
Publish Date: August 11, 2011 / Author: Natalie san Luis
Restaurant websites often suffer from serious design flaws whether they are a 4-star bistro or a hole in the wall pizza place. These flaws which often include flash, difficulty finding phone numbers and hours as well as other poor design choices make them some of the most frustrating to navigate. We looked at these common errors and put together some best practices.
8. The 20 Most Expensive PPC Segments
Publish Date: July 27, 2011 / Author: Will Gallahue
This post looked at the 20 most expensive PPC industries and not surprisingly financial and legal services dominated the list.
7. Are Search Engines Breaking State Law by Serving MDPV Ads?
Publish Date: April 19, 2011 / Author: Will Gallahue
MDPV is a chemical similar to methamphetamine that had flown under the radar since it was released as a bath salt type product. When it was discovered it was actually a drug legislators quickly moved to ban chemical but in the process, companies were still selling the chemical through Adwords and their ads were displaying in states that had outlawed the product. Despite fines in the hundreds of millions of dollars for previously allowing ads for foreign pharmacies, Google continued to let companies advertise on MDPV related keywords until late 2011.
I’m still surprised that this post didn’t generate more of an interest. Essentially Google allowed themselves to become a marketplace for narcotics which I thought was newsworthy but despite efforts to promote this piece it didn’t get as much traction as I would have wanted.
6. Selling SEO and Social Media to Baby Boomers and Generation X
Publish Date: February 21, 2011 / Author: Will Gallahue
I wrote this blog post from a point of frustration after looking at how unassuming business owners were being targeted with lies, false promises and distorted facts by SEO scams and how these scam companies changed their perception of legitimate agency services. I think that some of the skepticism regarding online marketing from older Americans is that they have a hard time spending money when there is no associated rate of return. An SEO campaign can take a few months before it starts to pay off and for older Americans it can be difficult to reconcile paying money with no physical or visible product in return beyond traffic and rankings. Thus when they are bombarded with emails promising page 1 rankings for $300/month they don’t understand why you want to charge $3000/month because they assume it’s the same service and an agency is just marking it up. The reality is that they recognize the importance of online marketing but marketers need to clearly explain the concepts and relationships of an online campaign.
5. SEO Tools Review: Optimize Content with InboundWriter
Publish Date: June 8, 2011 / Author: Will Gallahue
In this post we looked at InboundWriter, a tool which scores your content in real time based keywords, keyword density and other factors. We did a test run of the trial version then wrote a review of the software. The post got a comment from one of their team members and was re-tweeted as well.
4. HTML5 and the Evolution of Web Design and Development
Publish Date: March 18, 2011 / Author: N. Biles
This post looked at some of the new tags and standards introduced in HTML5 and how they would change the current web design system. HTML5 is a tremendous and powerful platform for page creation and we look forward to the day when it is the standard.
3. How Long do Google Penalties Last?
Publish Date: February 15, 2011 / Author: Will Gallahue
This post was written after Matt Cutt’s posted a video explaining the different types of penalties (manual, algorithmic) and how long they last. Amazingly this post is ranked number one for “how long do Google penalties last” and we continue to get traffic each month from webmasters looking for answers. One thing to remember is that a sudden drop in rankings does not necessarily indicate a penalty and in fact it could be on-page, site architecture or link related problems.
2. Google Penalizes JC Penney for Using Link Farms
Publish Date: February 14, 2011 / Author: Will Gallahue
This post covered JC Penney’s unprecedented site-wide penalty for using link farms to boost rankings for product pages. While Google had given big penalties to retailers in the past, a penalty of this magnitude for such a well known retailer was something completely unexpected. I personally believed Google wouldn’t touch a big brand site because of possible legal action but in the span of a month JC Penney, Overstock and Forbes received penalties for various infractions. Their rankings were later restored but it serves as a reminder that no one is immune to penalties.
1. Google’s Big Lie About the Impact of Keyword Data
Publish Date: November 3, 2011 / Author: Will Gallahue
In late October Google began to roll out a new user privacy system where searches conducted by people signed into a Google account would have their referring data blocked. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s search quality team, originally stated that the new controls would only have an affect in the single digits. However as the system was rolled out, the number of visits with (not provided) keyword data quickly shot up to around 30 percent for the main Fahrenheit Marketing site. We noticed similar increases from 5 to 20 percent on client sites and decided to voice our anger with this post. The post was shared on Reddit and received comments and mentions on other blogs.
Looking back, it may have been impulsive but marketing agencies like Fahrenheit live on the availability of data to make decisions and without that data it is difficult to make changes, recommendations and assessments for client campaigns. I think that Google will not reverse their decision but it is important to speak up when you feel you are being treated unfairly.