I joined the U.S. Navy in the fall of 1984, arriving at boot camp in April of the next year.  Shortly after getting settled into the barracks, there was a pretty common joke that I heard from a lot of my fellow recruits;  “How do you know when your recruiter is lying to you?  His lips are moving!”

I’m growing concerned that pretty soon people will be thinking the same thing about SEOs.

What if you were number 1 and nobody searched for you? Are you still number 1?

A while ago, I wrote about how to hire an SEO, and more recently about what questions you should be asking about your web measurements.  Both of those should help you become a more intelligent SEO shopper.  I’ve stumbled upon the site of Austin SEO company that made me realize there is still more you need to know in order to protect yourself from the snake oil salesmen. more…

With SEO, like life, it’s about the questions you ask, not the answers you get.

Not long ago, I was dropping some shirts off at the cleaners.  I had noticed that a few of my buttons were cracked and broken.  I asked the young woman working the counter if they repaired buttons.  She simply replied “No, we don’t.”  I was puzzled, I thought all cleaners did this – now I would have to either find a new cleaner, or repair them myself.  But then, possibly sensing the building frustration on my face, she added; “We can replace the broken ones if you’d like.”  What? I was dumb founded.  How could this woman be so clueless as to not understand that is what I had meant?  It seemed fairly obvious to me that I didn’t actually expect them to be sitting back there with a tube of crazy glue repairing the buttons.  Then it occurred to me, I had asked the wrong question.  Even worse, I had expected them to interpret what I asked into what I meant.

What’s your reason for asking the question?

Before you ask any questions, you have to have a qoal – or two, or 10.  What is it you want your Web site to do?  Guess what? Tony Robbins and all the other self-help dorks have something to teach us about SEO.  If you can’t measure it, it’s not a goal.  It might be interesting, but it’s not a goal. more…

You want your WordPress powered site to rank well, right? Like most site owners you have probably read dozens of blogs, and more “Top 10 SEO tips for WordPress”, or perhaps “Must Have WordPress Plugins” posts than you care to remember. The only problem is that many of these articles just say you have to install the plugins, not how to use them. I’ll admit that I am as much at fault as anyone else. Here’s the problem; while some plugins require little or no configuration, and even less on-going attention – All in one SEO pack is not one of them. Miss a check box or ignore a field and you could be doing more harm than good – your site rankings could drop faster than Wile E. Coyote holding an Acme umbrella.

This post will be updated from time-to-time when there are significant updates to the plugin.  Items that are new to this post will be bolded.  Additionally, I’ll mark items that could be detrimental to your rankings with a  caution sign .

Updated on 12/14/2009 – The version currently being covered is 1.6.8.2.

Version 1.6.8.2 contains some unknown updates so that it will be ready for WordPress.2.9, also the developer has made a “pro” version available for purchase.  As far as I can see the there are no functional differences between the two versions.  The pro version is intended for use by hosting companies and consultants who do not want the donation request displayed on the configuration page of their clients.
Visit the SEO pack creator’s page for a complete change log.

All in one SEO Pack Configuration – site settings

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It’s November again, that means it’s time for another tasty, chocolate treat for Sherry’s birthday.  This is a very, VERY chocolaty, very rich and yummy Torte – if you are not a true chocolate lover, this may be a bit much for you.  However, if you are a true chocolate lover, I am sure you’ll soon be making noises normally only heard through cheap motel walls.  The torte must refrigerate for at least 4 hours, so I made it the night before her birthday dinner.

Ingredients:

• Unsweetened cocoa powder (for dusting)
• Confectioners’ sugar (for dusting)
• 15 Ounces of bittersweet chocolate, broken into small pieces (you’ll be tempted to use 16, don’t do it)
• 18 Tbsp (2 1/4 sticks) of unsalted butter, cut into small pieces. (for cooking)
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter (for greasing the pan)
• 7 egg yolks
• 5 egg whites
• 9 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp Brandy
• 3Tbsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1Tbsp of hot water
• 1 1/2 Tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 2 cups fresh raspberries (These can sometimes be hard to find – Cherry pie filling makes a nice substitute)
• whipped cream
• 1 jar raspberry preserves (optional for sauce)

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To borrow a phrase from Lisa Barone; I’d rather stick a pen in my eye than read another story about some company doing a good job of customer service on Twitter.  Ever since Comcast went viral with “Frank’s” ability to solve problems the people on the phones couldn’t, it seems every company under the sun has been getting their support teams on Twitter and attempting to solve problems that way.  A Google search for “customer service twitter” returns only about 150 million results.

I’d say that horse is dead, can we stop beating it now?  Customer support reps are SUPPOSED to provide great service…it’s like, their job, right?

Who should we be talking about?  The people who earn their living doing something else, but still step up and try to help when they sense frustration directed at or about the company they work for.  I recently had such an experience (Guess you figured that was coming) more…