tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:55:08 +0000This blog concentrates on search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM) and web analytics. Despite this desire, if I come across something that I find interesting, you can be sure I'll post something about it.http://www.knecht-it.com/noreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)Blogger151125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-4796794350004378014Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:41:00 +00002009-06-10T13:55:08.406-04:00web analyticssearch engine optimizationsearch engine marketingconferencesFor the past two days, I was totally engrossed in Search Engine Strategies (SES) Toronto show. My hat goes off to this years conference organizers at Incisive truly came through and took all the negative criticism from the past couple of year and turned it around.Change from the Toronto conference centre to the Sheraton Centre was by far the biggest improvement. No longer were attendees and http://www.knecht-it.com/2009/06/search-engine-strategies-toronto.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-882643841451542596Thu, 21 May 2009 17:25:00 +00002009-05-21T13:50:31.275-04:00Since late February I've been involved in an interesting SEO project with a branch of the British Government. In essences, I've been mentoring teams at 3 different institutions on the there SEO efforts as part of a pilot project.The project has the following steps1. Basic SEO Training2. A technical review of their web sites along with recommendations (conducted by me)3. Implementation of any http://www.knecht-it.com/2009/05/interesting-project.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-6048282509575495327Thu, 21 May 2009 17:21:00 +00002009-05-21T13:25:00.462-04:00In just over two weeks it will be time again for this year's Search Engine Strategy (SES) conference here in Toronto (June 8-10). Despite the economy, I expect a good turnout for this event.If you're contemplating going but are a bit unsure keep this in mind. Based on this year's agenda, the majority of the talks will be focused at people just getting involved in search engine marketing to those http://www.knecht-it.com/2009/05/ses-toronto.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-5626722183260434933Thu, 21 May 2009 17:18:00 +00002009-05-21T13:20:52.897-04:00I'm using Blogger as my blogging software and while I haven't posted anything for about 6 weeks, I just noticed that several of last posts starting in late February until early April are all missing.If really isn't appropriate for me to dig through my files and resubmit them, but I'll be keeping a closer eye on these posts to ensure what ever happened doesn't happen again.http://www.knecht-it.com/2009/05/my-appologies.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-5067769337155751302Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:23:00 +00002009-02-24T15:28:08.168-05:00web analyticswebtrendssdcWebTrends announced today the release of a second generation tag builder. The tag builder is used for generating customized SDC (Smart Data Collector) java scripts to be added to web pages for java script based web analytics for both WebTrends OnDemand and installed version of WebTrends.Details of the changes can be found at http://blog.webtrends.com/2009/02/24/http://www.knecht-it.com/2009/02/webtrends-release-new-tag-builder.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-5437774652734085199Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:50:00 +00002009-02-17T10:28:52.587-05:00web analyticstwitterWith the growing acceptance of Twitter into main stream use, the use of services to shorten lengthy URLs is growing. There are many of these free services out there on the web. Popular ones include:tinyurlbit.lyhex.iozi.mais.gdand many moreThe question becomes how do these services affect your web analytic reports? So let's start with the basics.First off, if someone is using a twitter http://www.knecht-it.com/2009/02/shorten-urls-tinyurl.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-8470002769375929902Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:14:00 +00002009-02-12T14:16:16.233-05:00web analyticswebtrendsWebTrends has released an update for those of us who have the software version. This update includes an update of the latest search engine list including Twitter and an update of the browser list.It is simple to download and fast to upgrade.To download or for more information go to:http://www.webtrends.com/support/browser-and-keywords-updater.aspxhttp://www.knecht-it.com/2009/02/webtrends-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-6376979287981660392Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:00:00 +00002009-02-03T14:04:21.229-05:00web analyticssearch engine optimizationsmxsearch engine marketingconferencesAs I mentioned before starting on March 31, 2009 SMX will be holding its first SMX Analytics conference in Toronto Canada. At this time, I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be speaking at this event on March 31 during the "Analyzing & Converting Organic Search Traffic" session.This promises to be a great event and remember that eMetrics will be on at the same time in Toronto as well. Great chance http://www.knecht-it.com/2009/02/smx-analytics.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-2184972962086840869Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:32:00 +00002009-01-21T09:36:26.359-05:00Over the past few days I've received about 10 follows from various people in Twitter. I found it strange when reviewing their past Tweets all had the same single tweet. I was getting suspicious and then today I got a follow from someone I knew (and followed), but the Twitter ID looked different.Upon checking out the Twitter account I knew it wasn't him. So I decided I was going to investigate andhttp://www.knecht-it.com/2009/01/twitter-imposters-watch-out.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-3450779232571134705Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:35:00 +00002009-01-09T14:51:49.208-05:00How do people spell your company name when they have only heard the name and have to idea how to spell it? Believe it or not, this is a very common problem relating to search. For example, my company's name is K'nechtology which is pronounced Connectology.On Tuesday, during a series of 10 radio interviews the name of my company was given out and only once was the spelling of the company name http://www.knecht-it.com/2009/01/knechtology-or-connectology.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-5412986063491403869Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:40:00 +00002009-01-06T18:29:22.479-05:00For the best couple of days a virus that I'll call the "google virus" has been slowly spreading. The impact of this virus is that it hijacks your Google search results and redirects you to a spam site.Fortunately, I didn't get hit by this virus but a call from CBC radio here in Toronto alerted me to the virus. For a brief moment it looked like CBC Toronto was being infected. The good news was http://www.knecht-it.com/2009/01/google-virust-good-luck-for-me.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-7393559774242181205Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:26:00 +00002008-12-16T10:35:56.831-05:00In case you're not following me on Twitter, this is a must read new story reported by the BBC today (December 16, 2008).Security experts around the world are recommending that everyone (at least until Microsoft issues and emergency patch) stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer broswer (IE) and switch browsers due to a major security flaw in the browser.Read the full news article at: http://http://www.knecht-it.com/2008/12/serious-security-flaw-found-in-ie.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-3760668886494828210Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:47:00 +00002008-11-26T15:06:56.999-05:00web analyticswebtrendsOne of the biggest questions many of us in web analytics have faced over the years was tracking visitors ow who click on which links that take users to 3rd party websites (external links). This is critical if you run banner ads, sell links, have partner sites etc.Over the years a number of solutions have been developed. Some of these worked reasonably well and have included using third part http://www.knecht-it.com/2008/11/tracking-clicks-on-off-site-links-made.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-5050951526781731494Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:37:00 +00002008-11-25T14:42:30.829-05:00web analyticswebtrendsJust got asked an interesting web analytics question. The client was reviewing the "Referring Domain" report in WebTrends and noticed a lot of direct traffic and that the site itself is listed as a referrer. They wanted to know why.This is a question that I'm frequently asked by users of various web analytic products, and so I thought I'd post my response for others.Direct traffic (as reported byhttp://www.knecht-it.com/2008/11/self-referrer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-7954387311756685206Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:11:00 +00002008-11-24T12:32:26.682-05:00search engine optimizationseogoogleIn case you haven't noticed the change yet in Google you will. Starting last week Google started to rolling out the ability for individuals (who are logged into their Google account) to start customizing their search results and even commenting on them.This is all handled through what is called the "Google Search Wikki". So now you have the ability to move specific results up or down and even http://www.knecht-it.com/2008/11/new-google-interface.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-1689967614705828274Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:19:00 +00002009-01-08T21:45:46.508-05:00twitterAll those who know me, know that I don't jump quickly to the latest and greatest Internet gadgets. This is not to say I am slow to adopt good ideas, I just need someone to show me the practical side of it for business. And this has brought me to my Twitter experiment. If you have never heard of Twitter (www.twitter.com), you are not alone. Yet this simple tool is quickly gaining a foothold amonghttp://www.knecht-it.com/2008/11/my-twitter-experiment.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-8595604637604874582Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:18:00 +00002008-11-13T09:39:05.815-05:00search engine optimizationseoAfter thinking about my session at PubCon yesterday and if we as a group of panelist (Mark Jackson, Lyndsay Walker Blahut, Aaron Wall, myself and our moderator Todd Friesen) had one thing we were trying to stress I cam up with the following. "Get in the project plan!"Once you strip away the advice on how to and why you should use h1 tags, why writing good description meta tags and why using http://www.knecht-it.com/2008/11/getting-seo-right-first-time.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-8609594363811937544Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:04:00 +00002008-11-13T03:12:25.503-05:00search engine optimizationseopubconAt a evening networking event at PubCon I had the chance to chat with Matt Cutts about some rumors I was hearing about things under development at Google. He was able to proved a clear and precise answer. So here are my questions Matt's answers:1. What's with the indexing of Flash, what works and doesn't work? Matt was able to confirm what I had hear from Adobe last month, but that Adobe wasn't http://www.knecht-it.com/2008/11/2-minutes-with-matt-cutts.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-6600335792744260428Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:34:00 +00002008-11-19T11:46:07.158-05:00seopubconDay 2 at PubCon turned out to be another inspiring day. It all started around 9:00 am with an truly inspiring keynote by George Wright from Blendtec. His keynote focused on how he took a $50 branding budget to purchase a few items video tape the owner of the company testing the company's blenders.While it the story may sound simple, the video went viral and before they knew it this small blender http://www.knecht-it.com/2008/11/pubcon-day-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-3645115247796498710Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:33:00 +00002008-11-12T11:38:13.757-05:00Why Page Rank is meaninglessWhile at PubCon, I attended a session where Bruce Clay was speaking. As part of his address he stated something that I've been saying for years, "A page's rank in the search results is meaningless".He went on to point out that the search engines are changing how they decided which page to rank. Most of us already know about how they adjust the results based on the http://www.knecht-it.com/2008/11/why-serp-rank-is-meaningless.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-13106892593424073Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:05:00 +00002008-11-11T08:16:19.478-05:00seopubcontwitter.It's still the early hours here in Las Vegas and just a few hours before the start of PubCon, but I've already learned something. While in London last week for SMX, many people kept asking me if I'm twitting. To which I had to say no.Given that numbers I realized that Twitter was starting to come to age and I better start Twitting. So I set-up my Twitter account and loaded my Blackberry with http://www.knecht-it.com/2008/11/pubcon-day-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-4569329015231102627Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:38:00 +00002008-11-10T09:45:14.474-05:00seosearch engine marketingconferencesWell it's been a few days since I got home from SMX London and had a chance to reflect on the whole event. I must say that I was completely impressed with the sessions and the speakers.Two sessions (beyond my own) really standout and both occurred on the second day. The first was SEO and Web 2.0. While the session didn't provide me with much new information, it was the way the information was http://www.knecht-it.com/2008/11/smx-wrap-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-4454268688528959310Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:33:00 +00002008-11-05T03:40:35.043-05:00search engine optimizationseosmxconferencesWe are just about to start day 2 here in London of SMX. Yesterday's turnout was about what I expected, but perhaps a bit smaller. However, organizers were pleased with the turnout.From the people I chatted most were very familar with the concepts of SEO and PPC and appeared to be more focused on the advanced tracks.My session with Offir Cohen, Richard Gregory and Kelly Gillease went very well http://www.knecht-it.com/2008/11/smx-london-day-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-410265120856473810Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:57:00 +00002008-10-14T16:09:16.725-04:00It's the next day and I've had some time to reflect on my brief stay at Web Builder 2.0.In my previous post I mentioned that I was disappointed with the turnout and had hoped for maybe 20 people to attend my session. As it turned out, a mere 5 people turned out. Fortunately these people were well focused and receptive to the ideas and concepts I was presenting.With a turnout like this, its hard http://www.knecht-it.com/2008/10/final-thoughts-on-web-builder.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28490691.post-7122984733654840072Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:48:00 +00002008-10-13T12:06:19.894-04:00webbuilderweb builderweb coferenceWell it's day 1 for Web Builder 2.0 and I'm a bit dissapointed but also pleased.Turns out that there were a mere 100 or so attendees registered for this unique web conference, this is the only conference that bring the entire web team (developers, managers, programmers etc.) to a single conference. The number of attendees is disappointing but the fact that the conference was allowed to proceed ishttp://www.knecht-it.com/2008/10/web-builder-20-day-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Alan K'necht)0