Content Theory

Duct Tape SEO: How To Fix Optimization That Breaks

Posted by Michael Martinez on August 13, 2007 in Content Theory

Here in the United States we like to believe you can fix anything with duct tape. I have personally seen people do things with duct tape that NASA has yet to attempt with its most sophisticated rocket systems. Duct tape is like the handyman’s miracle drug. I think there is a law [...]

The 7-Point Editorial Test For Free Articles

Posted by Michael Martinez on August 11, 2007 in Content Theory

Every now and then I submit an article to ezinearticles.com, which I still read from time to time as they have some interesting stuff there (a lot of fluff, too, in my opinion, but some good writers get through on occasion).
As someone who has reused free articles on a few sites, I am frustrated by [...]

Being relevant in an SEO state of mind

Posted by Michael Martinez on August 10, 2007 in Content Theory

Relevance is determined by context, but the context of which I speak is not created through words on a Web document. We shape the context of relevance through our perspective, the way we see the Web, search engines, and users.
Three ingredients must be brought together to form relevance: a searcher’s query, a search engine’s [...]

The measured nonsense of SEO relevance

Posted by Michael Martinez on August 3, 2007 in Content Theory

Let’s assume for the sake of discussion that we want to quickly estimate how many expressions a document may be relevant to. We have to make some assumptions.
First, we’ll assume that duplication of words doesn’t matter.
Second, we’ll assume that we have to look at word combinations that proceed only in one direction (from beginning [...]

Content Theory: The Hail Mary Pass of SEO

Posted by Michael Martinez on July 23, 2007 in Content Theory

Have you ever had a page that you feel like should rank but it just sort of sits there in a mid-range search results page? A lot of link builders end up that way because they don’t pay enough attention to on-page optimization but even on-page optimization can end up in a mediocre position. [...]

The Long Tail of SEO Theory

Posted by Michael Martinez on July 20, 2007 in Content Theory

There are not many people whom I would regard as “SEO theorists”: real thinkers who do first-line research, formulate their thoughts, and share their conclusions. A fair number of spammers practice the SEO Method (Experiment. Evaluate. Adjust.) but they are more practitioners of applied SEO science than developmental theorists. A lot of spammers [...]

Web Page Naming for Beginners

Posted by Michael Martinez on July 16, 2007 in Content Theory

SEO forums and blogs frequently discuss URL designations. The most often asked question, in my experience, is something along the lines of: “Is it better to use hyphens, underscores, or no break characters in domain names?”
Anyone who asks such a question has been reading too many SEO books, F.A.Q.s, tutorials, or somethings because it’s [...]

Crafting Content: SEO, Pizza, and Britney Spears

Posted by Michael Martinez on July 4, 2007 in Content Theory, Link Theory

You’re not an SEO copywriter until you’re ready to take a serious shot at hypercompetitive keywords like “SEO”, “pizza”, and “Britney Spears”. Whether anyone thinks you have a snowball’s chance of ranking for SEO, pizza, and Britney Spears is irrelevant. The point is that your task is to write copy that can rank [...]

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