Professional SEO Specialist - janet bartoli roussos

Ok, I know there are people out there who believe in MSN, not sure why, but they are in the top 3 of those search engines we report results on. So why don’t they read a 301 or accept an XML sitemap yet? I just wish they would really try harder to be a little more - or hell just buy Yahoo already, let’s change up the playing field somehow.

A 301 redirect typically tells a search engine that page A (old URL) moved permanently to page B (a new URL). A search engine will see that 301 status code and log that the new URL is in a new location. Over time, a search engine would replace the original URL with the new URL in the search results, as well as transfer all or most of the links and signals associated with the original URL to the new URL. Google is fast with this, Yahoo picks up on this and although Ask.com is slow, they eventually get it as well. So, what up with MSN you ask? Great question.

MSN’s answer is they simply can not handle a 301 redirect at this time. Sorry folks!

This is one of the reasons why I personally like Google so much more than the others. It is not because of its many gadgets or its huge popularity, or that they are becoming the monolith that Microsoft has become. Very simply I appreciate a big huge company like Google with scruples - yes, a ton of money garnered from the society with which we live, doing smart things i.e. Google.org.

This past week Google announced that its charity organization (Google.org) will be working on five different initiatives to “combat climate change, global poverty and emerging threats such as pandemic disease.” While the news is being received well by many individuals who are glad that Google is stepping it up a notch, others are obviously skeptical of the approach. Take it for what it is, a genuine human gesture.

In this ever changing political season, when you hear things about big corporations and their fat cat CEOs making millions and billions, its really refreshing to see a large corporation like Google actually get it and with any luck if we learn something good from this, all the better.

This is really a blessing of humanity that arch rivals Microsoft and Google do have a same goal - to help mankind.

Thanks Google!

Ever thought what direction you should take your SEO career? Work directly for a marketing agency or for yourself as a consultant? 

I’d like to share some ideas that you may or may not have thought of. While I have had experiences with both working for myself as an Internet Consultant with small to medium sized businesses and currently working within an interactive marketing agency - I have to say that both have their pros and cons.  

There are several SEOs out there who think “why would you want to work for the man when you can bring in $10k a month for just one client?”  Nice thought of course and it does happen, but my quick answer is “you like sales and virtually going door to door to find that 10K?”  If you don’t have any professional contacts that’s exactly what your left to doing. You could join your local Business Networking International or Chamber of Commerce, but do you have any idea of the small business landscape out there? There are great small business owners who do the local community a tremendous service with what they offer, but sadly they don’t (I am speaking in general terms here) quite get the big internet marketing picture. This SEO stuff is very valuable to their websites (if indeed they even have one - and that’s another story for another time ;). I have literally gone within the tri-state (NY, NJ, PA) educating business owners on the fundamentals of a good solid SEO built site, regular marketing of it and how this could impact their bottom line tremendously.

 Needless to say, I have met many good people, but couldn‘t quite grasp where to get the funds for this. I suppose paying $500 per month on billboards is still their way of thinking.

The plus side of consulting offers many flexible ways to grow your career such as attending any and all SEO related functions, directing my team of analysts to do the nitty gritty work while I further myself educationally and professionally. Of course the obvious - being my own boss.

Agency life has its positives such as getting a regular paycheck whether I found a client or not this week, benefits like a 401K that matches dollar for dollar, health care insurance (until we have national health care plan that will help our entrepreneurs they have nothing), working within a team of other intelligent and like minded SEOs, working with a variety of Fortune 500 clients is a huge advantage. I have learned a great deal over the course of my 18+ months at the agency I work for. While there are some out there simply reading online about what works and what doesn‘t or how to do xyz  in SEO, or attending “seo classes” the only true way to learn is on the job.

The negatives - well like most agencies or other places you work, it can get very stressful and there can be bureaucratic things you have zero control over simply because there are executives or higher ups who don’t take what you actually do into consideration when the business planning takes place – largely because they don’t understand the complete picture – SEO process, etc.

All in all you have to do what’s right for you and your career. Working as both a consultant and within an agency are great experiences that can serve you no matter what direction you choose. Having both experiences certainly has made me a great deal more well rounded in my career than I had ever expected.

Good Luck in your SEO endeavors!