- Finding something online is easy. Reading the minds of people who find things online is not. I had no idea how many different ways people can come up with to search for, say, "cheap running shoes".
- Along the same lines, I did not realise that many people, including myself, talk to search engines in very strange ways. Why, when correct usage is "buy cheap running shoes" do we search for "shoes running cheap buy?"
- The plagiarism speeches throughout college weren't just good for your character. They weren't just good for avoiding expulsion and lawsuits. They exist because Google says "no" to Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V.
- Spelling eludes a large percentage of the population. Actually, this is out of place. This, I already knew.
- What I really didn't know is that because spelling eludes a large percentage of the population, you have the opportunity to learn scores of different words' misspellings. Does anyone need cheep running shoes? Apparently, they do.
- Basic HTML is not scary. You do not need to copy and paste whenever you have to write something that begins with <a href...
- My interview-stage blog submission was too long and essay-like. So was Scott's.
- Some links are Benjamins. Some are Washingtons. Some are pennies that, even after a year, a whole collection of them will only get you a couple of bucks at CoinStar. It isn't hard to tell the difference.
- The client is always right, until the client is wrong, and then Matt gets mad.
- It was a thoroughly good idea to reply to a Craigslist posting titled "Do You Use Your Powers for Good... Or for Awesome?"
By: Jane Copland
The Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know
Moz News
The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
Oh, perspective. It's a fantastic human characteristic that, among other things, lets us compare how we once felt with how we feel now. When I began working at SEOmoz, I was aware that, in comparison to many people, I knew "a lot" about the series of tubes some call the internet, but far less than I'd soon know. Here are some of the lighter-hearted things I've learned since September 18, 2006.
Oh god, #9 is my new mantra :P Sometimes I want to reach through the intarweb tubes and shake a customer silly, especially when they don't understand why we, as a 2 person start up, can't sign off on a 24/7 SLA.
Great article, Jane! Your SEO Kung Fu is strong. :)
As for No. 9, who can't relate to that? My favorite is when a client comes to me and says, "Well I read this one blog that said..."
Really? You read one blog? One WHOLE blog? And now you're an SEO expert? Oh, sweet! Which blog was it because I've been doing this for a lot longer and now I'm little upset that I've wasted so much time reading dozens of blogs, paying thousands of dollars attending SEO and SEM conferences, and countless hours networking and all this time I could've just read just ONE blog post?!
Yeah ... sorry about that, just had to vent a little. :)
As for my SEO Kung Fu, well, to quote Po the Panda from the upcoming animated movie Kung Fu Panda with Jack Black, "Well, I just ate and I'm still digesting, so my kung fu might not be as good as ... later on."
To make it worse, you sometimes hear people say, "well I read on the Internet that..."
Not even in a blog post. Just "on the Internet." It's incredible the number of people who still think that if it's published online, it's as valid as if it were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Apparently Dr. Phil, when he fell for Dax Herrera's brilliant marketing stunt, made the assertion that Dax's alter-ego must be real, because he has a website. Wow.
That's great Jane. Thanks for reminding me of Matt's rant. I recently told a client I wouldn't be able to help him unless he agreed to take the music off his site first. Home page silence is music to my ears.
I love #9 - and let's not forget that our old friends the blink and marquee are still supported by IE and Firefox. Nothing like the blink/scroll combo request. And who doesn't love the 30 second intro Flash movie with sound?
Hilarious! But sometimes the client is DEFINITELY wrong. :)
Got to this post a little late...loved it!
Haha, thanks! Glad you liked it.
This was a great read. I can relate as I've been working at my search marketing firm since November.
Yea indeed, that were some of the things that I really didn’t know. Nice one. # 2 is so true and that made me laugh as well. It’s my first visit today on SEOmoz blog and happens to be your birthday as well so here’s wishing you a very Happy Birthday Jane. Have a blast.
Just too funny... probably because I could identify with too much of it. I have actually done the keyword research on cheap running shoes and #6 just stings. Well done.
haha, that's brilliant..
(are some links pesos?)
Yeah, those are the "we'll submit your site to FIVE THOUSAND search engines!!!"
That's a great way of saying it. I'm going to start using that to talk with clients. Maybe then they'll understand better.
Darn, I knew I should have trademarked that one before you got your sticky paws on it ;P
You didn't work for my former employer, did you?
My first week at a Search Marketing company, I had a training meeting so someone could show me a good website to look up every day so I could copy and paste "<a href".
Uh, thanks. I've been coding links since 1995. Actually, I said, "Is it really that hard to remember five letters?" Somehow she became my friend in spite of that comment.
I copied and pasted it for about two minutes, until I thought, "I am a relatively intelligent person. I can remember this, even thought it involves characters not found in the 26-letter alphabet!"
Hells yeah it was!
Well said. If only the rest of the world would pay attention. Great post Jane!
People who love the human mind and psicoanalysis will love search marketing. It's a really interesting field that lets you get inside people's minds.
Keep in mind that most people write fast and make spelling errors because of that. Sure, lots are just dumb too :)
That's why you read over what you've written. Edits take five minutes, but sloppy writing is noticed in an instant.
I think this is down to two things: 1) refining a previous query. People starting off with something that was too generic, and then tagging words on to the end to make it go more vertical 2) listing words in order of relevance. I've no idea what effect this has on listings. I'd guess it may well have some, but I'd need to play around
It's interesting though. And you tend to notice it more with people who use search engines more. We follow the "mimic nature" theory (that something will tend towards using a series of interchanging variables, rather than fixed points (to allow for greater power and flexibility) if left to evolve over time).
So a normal user might type in "where buy cheap running shoes in london", where as we might type "london running shoes cheap"
Also, in terms of structure, people tend to reverse the basic grammar rule of adjective -> noun to instead be noun -> adjective. People are weird, basically.
These searches can end up being hilarious. They can sound like the ramblings of a crazy person, and I'm sure I've composed a few of them. What does that say about me, I wonder?!
It's almost a crime to capitalize on peoples' misspellings. almost.
Oh, it's not a crime. It's wonderful!
People should have separate landing and check-out pages for misspellings. You can use your imagination for the rest.
We could go far with this...
I know. We might need to take this offline. Oh, I forgot the whole open community/dialogue thing going on here.
Maybe this is another day and different blog post idea.