USA Today Article on Danny Sullivan with Special Guest Rand Fishkin
Excellent build-up to Search Engine Strategies San Jose as USA Today looks deep into the mysterious life of Search Engine Watch’s Danny Sullivan. Danny, the Elvis of Search Engine Industry Journalism, has found the secret of balance in his everyday life between living in the English countryside and taking advantage of the US/UK time difference to work in the evenings (after supper); which also work best for yours truly and other American publishers living abroad whom I have discussed such a lifestyle with.
When the world he writes about arrives at work in Silicon Valley, Sullivan has just finished dinner with his wife and two boys. He then retires to his den, parks himself in front of three computer monitors and spends the remaining evening hours trying to decipher the mystery of how online search engines rank listings.
The [Search Engine Watch] website takes up much of Sullivan’s time. But his biggest income producer is the Search Engine Strategies conference (SES), which he stages six times a year. The next one opens in Silicon Valley’s San Jose, Calif., on Monday. The conferences attract 1,500 to 6,000 attendees who pay nearly $2,000 each to hear tips about how to get websites to the top of search queries.
Wait a second, this article is not just about Danny. Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz gets some of the glory too with a basic SEO oriented insert; WAYS TO ATTRACT ATTENTION:
Descriptive title “tags.” Instead of calling a Web page, “Law offices of Mike Smith,” write something more likely to be found, such as: “Seattle patent attorney Mike Smith,” says Rand Fishkin, CEO of consultant SEOmoz.org.
Clean URLs. Instead of gibberish such as “www.patentlawyer.com/%20=30.html,” use words that are likely to be understood, such as www.patentlawyer.com/mikesmith.html.
Lots of links. When people talk about your site or link to it you will be rewarded, Fishkin says. Links are easier to get than most people realize. The hypothetical lawyer could join groups such as attorney associations or the Better Business Bureau all of which offer links.
A good light read on Danny, his life and his business from USA Today.
