Who are my sport champions?  They include Micheal Jordan, Tiger Woods, Joe Torre, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Manny Pacquiao, Mohammad Ali   and even movie characters like Tony D-Amato & Rocky Balboa.    When I stopped to reflect on what it takes to be a champion, these people (real and fictional) were the individuals that came to mind.

When I look at my list of champions, I see a combination of god-given talent, hard work, focus on perfection, and mental strength to overcome the obstacles and challenges that other competitors could not.   I will never understand what it took for each of my champions to make it to the top and how it would have felt to ‘walk in their shoes’.

At the same time, no one else will ever understand what it took for me to combine my talents with hard work to fight the ‘good fight’ everyday and strive to be the best I can be at whatever I choose to do.  It is up to me to strive to be a champion just like these individuals that I admired at some point in my life.

All of us need champions that inspire us, drive us, give us someone to look up to.   My champions are sports champions, but your champions could be musical artists, community or church leaders, or simply family members.  Each of us have a picture of what excellence means in our mind and what it takes to achieve it.

Micheal Jordan is considered the best player to ever play the game of basketball. He has won 3 NBA championships and was 5 time NBA most valuable player.   Through out his career, Jordan was focused on becoming the best player he possibly could even after he was ‘undeniably’ the best player in the NBA.  He was great because he pushed himself more than any other player and always found ways to motivate himself to be the best he could be.

Muhammad Ali’s final great fight against Leon Spinks which saw him become the first three-time world champion in heavyweight history. “Champions are not made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision.”

Wayne Gretzky is legendary on the ice. He did not become a legend overnight and had no physical advantages. The critics did not account for hard work, intelligence, knowledge of the game, and vision.  One of my favorite business strategies is Gretzk-esque as he quoted to skate “to where the puck is going, not where it’s been”.

“Manny” Pacquiao is a Filipino professional boxer and politician. He is the first eight-division world champion; having won six world titles, as well as the first to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. He was named “Fighter of the Decade” for the 2000s by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA).  Pacquiao is arguably the best ‘pound for pound’ fighter ever as his speed in the ring sets the rhythm in all of his fights, the power in his punches grows when going up in weight, his stamina is matched by few other boxers, and when you add this to his courage and durability…it combines to make him a rare breed of fighter that only comes along once in a generation.

Joe Torre served as the New York Yankee manager for 12 full seasons, managing 1,942 regular season games (with a won-loss record of 1173–767). and took the team to the post-season playoffs every one of his twelve seasons with the club, winning six American League pennants and four World Series.  Being a great manager is under-appreciated and being a manager of great talent is down right disregarded…but Joe Torre managed the New York Yankees to four World Titles.  Expectations, player superstars, big city media, and the legacy of the Yankees is a lot to carry on your shoulders over a 162 game season and Joe Torre did this for over 15 years.

The Apollo Creed / Rocky Balboa re-match was set for Thanksgiving ’76. The grueling battle was another 15-round war with both Balboa and Creed falling to the canvas after Balboa landed a succession of left hands. Referee Lou Fillipo exercised his 10-count and as both Creed and Balboa struggled to make it to their feet, Creed crumbled back down in exhaustion. Only Rocky was able to get up, getting the better of Creed this time and beating the 10-count, winning the rematch by knockout, thus becoming heavyweight champion of the world.

Woods has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18), and 71 PGA Tour events, third all time behind Sam Snead and Nicklaus. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer does. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour.   In a game that makes all men cry, Tiger has the ability to raise his game when he has to to beat an entire field of the World’s best at his craft.     Tiger has made his mistakes and may never recover the form of his youth, but there is not doubt who the best Golfer in the world was for the 10 years before his fall from the top.

Tony D-Amato – Any Given Sunday (Since this category is called “Just for Fun”)

Because in either game – life or football – the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They’re in every break of the game, every minute, every second.

On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that’s gonna make the difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I’ll tell you this, in any fight it’s the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I’m gonna have any life anymore it’s because I’m still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that’s what living is, the six inches in front of your face.

I love this quote

Google conducted an extensive research study to update its algorithm to promote big brand websites while penalizing large unbranded websites with many website pages. While successfully changing rankings on these targeted websites, many smaller websites both won and lost rankings particularly if they did now have enough quality signals.

Over the next year, Google continued to update and release various Panda updates (10 documented releases through January 18th called Panda 2.3) to continuously improve its core algorithm as well as provide these Panda updates. Throughout all of these updates, the most prominent Panda factors appear to be:

• Website Content: A high % of duplicate content or too much boilerplate content across the website.
• Bounce Rates: High bounce rates or low visit times on the website.
• Low CTR %: Low clickthrough % from Google’s results pages.
• Too Many Ads: A high percentage of Ads, particularly about the fold.
• Over-Optimization: Unnatural language on the page or content (e.g. page titles) that isn’t supported by the content
• No Authority: Low number of quality inbound links or social mentions.

Multiple factors can be thought of as ‘Panda points’ where all the Panda points will be added up until a website crosses ea threshold and then a large number of pages on your site seem to be affected.   When this occurs, I have seen that both the low quality and some high quality pages are affected and these lost rankings led to significant traffic losses usually between 40% – 60% of the overall website traffic.

While every situation is unique, websites hit by Google Panda need strong, directive action in resolving the issues that led to the Panda hit.   An iterative process is recommended since there is no way to know how much work will be required.  Here is what the process might look like:

1. Remove all sections of the website that contains duplicate content.  Duplicate content could exist because of plagarism or syndication, but it has to be addressed no matter if the website is the original author of the content.
2. Remove all thin, or templated content, from the website.    If you can improve the content quickly, then get started immediately and remove the content if you can not.
3. Use Canonical tags to clean up any website issues.  Many websites accidentally publish multiple URLs for the same content and this leads to a large amount of duplicate content.   Here are seven short videos of Google’s Matt Cutts talking about different aspects of implementing rel=canonical.
4. Start producing great content that Google will love.  My formula for great is that it is unique, useful, relevant content that people want to share and link to.  That is a high bar, but developing great content has its rewards.

Google has a 66.2% market share on search and knows that the key to its search and financial success lies in returning the best results for users of its’ search engine.  Google will continue to develop and release algorithm updates that encourage websites to produce high quality content that keep people returning to its’ search engine.  This was true long before Panda and will continue to be the basis of all future Google algorithms that are released whether they have a cute and cuddly name like Panda or not.

Sources for this article include:

• http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html
• http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/03/the-panda-that-hates-farms/all/1
• http://www.seobook.com/learn-seo/infographics/panda.php
• http://www.eduki.com/wiki/seo/blog/google-panda-2-3-update-confirmed/
• http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2151761/Yahoo-Search-Engine-Market-Share-Slips-in-January-2012

Brass Monki, custom sneaker designers, have designed a version of Google sneakers out of Nike sneakers. As you can see from the image above, the sneaker looks pretty neat! I can’t seem to find them in the e-commerce store, so I am not sure if they were pulled due to legal reasons or never posted there – and only available for custom orders. That being said, it appears these sneakers would cost about $550 to buy.

The unusual move comes as several U.S. cities elbow for a spot in Google’s new “Fiber for Communities” program. The Web giant is going to install new Internet connections in unannounced locations, giving those communities Internet speeds 100 times faster than those elsewhere, with data transfer rates faster than 1 gigabit per second.

Can you imagine walking around with this hairdo? The “Chrome Cut” is a haircut and styling that takes the shape and color of the Google Chrome logo. The picture was posted by Mayhem Chaos on Flickr.

Danny Sullivan was at Newport Beach yesterday, on Memorial Day and snapped a picture of a Google Boat at the dock. He posted the picture on his Twitter account for all to see. Danny admitted he had an urge to place a Bing sticker on the boat near the Google logo.

What would you find in Pristina, the largest city of Kosovo? A Google Fashion Store on the retail strip. Of course this is not a real Google store, but someone took the liberty to use Google’s logo for their store. This picture was posted on Flickr by Tony Bowden in June 2010.

Here are some Organizational Charts from AMZN, GOOG, MSFT , Facebook, AAPL, and ORCL.

What do you like best about that idea – The fact that it’s unethical or the near certainty of getting caught?

Google +1 Website Button To Launch Tomorrow
Website owners will be busy tomorrow, as Danny Sullivan has confirmed that Google will be launching their +1 button for websites tomorrow. No doubt this will be the topic of discussion throughout the cyber world, Google’s ‘Like’ or ‘Tweet This’ button will be a hot implementation as social factors have been shown to impact search result rankings.

Twitter Introduces the Follow Button
The button lets the user follow her favorite writers, brands and more–without ever leaving the web page she’s currently on. Fifty sites, including The Hufington Post and AOL.com, have partnered with Twitter to launch the Follow Button

The techniques used by all three methods are designed to accomplish the same goal, which is to improve the search engine rankings of client web sites and specific web pages. The major difference is in the way companies use these techniques to achieve this goal. These SEO strategies have come to be known as “White Hat”, “Black Hat” and “Grey Hat”. Search engine optimization (SEO) companies utilize one or more of these approaches with varying levels of success.

Black Hat SEO is typically made up of shady, unethical and manipulative methods for obtaining search rankings. Whether you agree with them or not, there is no arguing with the fact that Black Hat methods involve a higher level of risk, but can also yield rewards, although not in an ethical fashion. Since Black Hat techniques tend to negatively impact the quality of search engine results and the search engine business model is to deliver high quality search results to users, web sites that employ these methods can net short term rewards, but run the risk of being penalized by search engines and possibly even de-indexed.

A few Black Hat SEO techniques are listed below:

• Redirecting search engine “spiders” or “crawlers”
• Mass-posting comments to blogs, forums and article sites
• Including keywords in a very small font at the bottom of web pages
• Burying searchable content in web site code
• Stuffing keywords into the invisible META data of web pages
• Improper use of META keywords and descriptions

White Hat SEO is considered by search engines, such as Google, to be ethical SEO that adheres to guidelines set forth by the search engine. White Hat SEO sometimes requires more work and can be somewhat more time-consuming, but in the long run will have a positive effect on your sites’ search rankings and hopefully avoid the risk associated with Black Hat methods.

Some White Hat SEO methods are listed below:

• Provide unique, relevant useful, keyword-optimized content
• Well written copy that encourages users to link to
• Clean code and script that runs fast
  
• Optimization of META tags – particularly the page title, but don’t over-optimize
  
• Using the correct keywords in URLs and not in strange places
• Submitting pages to directories and blogs; be sure to read Google quality guidelines
  
• Creating sitemaps to help “spider” navigation
• Providing links and being linked to from quality, related sites
• Using anchor text properly containing key words

Gray Hat SEO is exactly what you think it is. It consists of borderline SEO techniques that most likely won’t get your site de-indexed or banned from search results, but could pose a risk of getting your site penalized.

Some Gray Hat SEO techniques are listed below:

• Including keywords in odd places so that your content scores well for SEO
  
• Posting the same article to multiple sites using multiple versions
  
• Recruiting bloggers to write about your company on their blog
• Trading links with another websites to build links

Although using Black Hat and Gray Hat SEO techniques can sometimes yield quick results, in the long run, search engine marketing companies that effectively use White Hat techniques will provide you with the best chance of achieving higher search rankings and consistently maintaining them. White Hat techniques will definitely help your longevity in SEO, because having integrity and being trustworthy are never a bad business practices.

1. Ask to see previous work and speak to previous and existing customers. This will give you some idea of what kind of track record the company has and the quality of work they turn in. If the company is hesitant to show you past work or allow you to speak with customers then beware.

2. Ask them how much experience they have in your particular industry. You want an SEO that has some idea about what drives traffic in your particular market.

3. Ask if they already represent a competitor in the same industry. This doesn’t mean that there will be a problem or conflict. Just make sure that the company has guidelines and principals in place to prevent the inadvertent exposure of your strategy to another competitor.

4. If you plan to market your site internationally make sure they have some experience with the culture(s) and language(s) that you plan on marketing your site to. You want to be able to maximize your exposure without offending your prospective users. You also want your keywords to be specific to your target audience so that your site shows up in their search results.

5. The level and method of communication about your campaign is also very important. Ask when and how you will be informed of changes to your account and as to the progress and effectiveness of the campaign.

6. Develop a clear understanding of how you will be able to measure the success of your marketing campaign. You need to determine how you will know that the SEO campaign is actually performing for you.

7. You will also need to know in what timeframe you can expect to see results. Depending on your situation, it might be better to go with a company that expects results in 6 months rather than a company that projects results in 2 years.

8. Beware of SEO or marketing companies that send you unsolicited email or other marketing materials. If you receive advertisements out of the blue make sure you research the company very thoroughly.

9. SEO companies cannot guarantee a number 1 ranking on a search engine. These rankings fluctuate depending on many factors, so beware of companies making grandiose guarantees.

10. Be wary of SEOs that will list your links on thousands of search engines or that use terms like “link popularity”, “free links”, or “link spamming”. Most of the time these types of campaigns don’t increase your page ranking.

There are many ways to determine if an SEO company is the right one for you. Mostly, it’s just a matter of personal taste, how the SEO lines up with your specific goals, and good old common sense. If an SEO is making promises that are too good to be true then most of the time they are. Just keep your eyes open and do your homework.

If you’re using an SEO company from the beginning of your design they can give you advice on things like the use of certain technologies. Some web technologies are more SEO friendly than others. Flash, Silverlight, and AJAX are all technologies that greatly aid in the usability and enhance the appearance of your website. However, these technologies are not very SEO friendly because they hide the content that is used by search engine crawlers to index your pages. So, the use of these technologies is certainly a plus, but an experienced SEO company can provide you with guidance as to when and how to use them in order to maximize the visibility of your pages to search engine crawlers.

An SEO company can also provide many other services that will help to make a new website a success as well as breathing life into existing sites. Often they are experts at researching keywords and content development. They might also have special expertise in certain market areas. SEO companies can also provide technical expertise on hosting and domain structuring to help you maximize your public exposure. If you want to maximize the amount of traffic to your site then hiring an SEO company is a very positive step in the right direction.

1. When formatting links you should try to include keywords that pertain to your site as often as possible. You should also include as much descriptive text surrounding the keyword as you can in order to catch any keyword phrase searches. Most users search for specific phrases rather than single keywords.

2. Link to other sites and get them to reciprocate. Linking to other sites can drive traffic through your website. A user might be following a link through your website, but if your content and design is good it might catch their eye and they might stop to visit your site along their journey.

3. Use links in javascript menus and dropdowns. This will provide clear text that a visiting web crawler can read.

4. Try to construct a collection of quality back links. You don’t want just any site linking to you. If you have disreputable sites linking back to you it might damage the reputation of your site by association.

5. Add keyword phrases to your links in order to help drive local search traffic to your site. For example, if you have a commerce site that sells baseball uniforms try including your location in the keyword phrase of your link such as “Tuscaloosa Baseball Equipment” instead of just “baseball uniforms”. This will help attract searchers looking for specific topics relative to their area.

6. Make sure that you don’t have specific pages inside your site included as part of your domain name. For example, http://www.mydomain.com/home.html should not be part of your domain name. Leave off the home.html and setup your web server to automatically use this as the start page. By using the page title in the domain name you’re splitting your links and degrading your page rank.

7. The quickest way to get a spider to visit your site is to get links to your site included on another reputable site. If those sites are being indexed then the spider will eventually follow those links to your site and index your pages. This is much faster than going through the lengthy search engine application process. You shouldn’t count on this method as an alternative to the search engine application processes, but you should use this method in conjunction with it to go ahead and get the ball rolling while you’re going through the application process.

The use of links is one of the most important SEO strategies. Internal, external, back, and forward links are all important in how they’re formatted and where they go to and come from. By using your SEO savvy to construct your links you’ll be rewarded with the page rank you’re seeking.