Bo Cakmak

When I first started practicing SEO one of the most tedious tasks was checking my rankings and seeing how much progress I made along with relating that progress to recent changes. This was back when rank checking software was much harder to come by and reliable rank checking software was almost impossible. That was life until I found IBP.
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Google is taking search to a whole new level with the Google Local Voice Search or otherwise referred to as Google Free 411.  I am absolutely astonished at how well the service works and was able to recognize my request.  I even tried to muffle my voice along with trying the service with a LOT of background noise (NYC Traffic) and the system was still able to recognize my request, provide me with an address, and redirect my call directly to the listing that I wanted.  Overall I would highly recommend the service and a HUGE round of applause to Google! Continue Reading »

Tags: 411, Directory Assistance, Google, Local, Voice

This is going to be a short post for the most part but I thought I would share an interesting discover on how to tell if Google Indexing has picked up your changes yet.  While checking on my results over the past few months (I do a lot of manual checking) I noticed something that I hadn’t over the past few years.  I don’t know how many people do this (I imagine quite a few) but when checking search engine ranking results I will first do a search on the domain and click the link so that it is easier for me to scan pages indexed by Google and determine if the listing is mine or someone else’s.  What I noticed was that every few weeks my links would go back to the original blue color and I hadn’t been clearing my history on my browser. Continue Reading »

I am never really a large fan of saying anything negative in general but I am reaching a threshold of frustration.  Everywhere site I go to for research on any new SEO strategies and tactics I just keep finding the same search engine optimization tips.  I completely understand the importance of authors doing posts on the same topic but with a slightly different perspective but seriously….how many different ways can you tell someone about how to write an Appropriate SEO Title? Continue Reading »

I stumbled upon the oddest discovery earlier today when monitoring the success of a press release that I had just published.  Apparently not only is Google distinguishing between singular and plural keyword searches but it is also (at least in the Google News search) distinguishing between upper and lower case.  When practicing SEO and when giving advice I have never thought to even contemplate whether case should be considered outside of not making a page title using all upper case or case that is not consistent.  Continue Reading »

So this morning I am performing my daily check on the 50ish domains I am working on and as I log into Google Webmaster Tools I get completely taken aback by the new Interface.  My first reaction to the new Google Webmaster Tools interface was to be somewhat disappointed as when I get used to things I have a tendency (like most people) to not immediately appreciate change.  However, I managed to get over that rather quickly once I realized that the new interface is much more user friendly along with providing a new feature that I thought was absolutely wonderful. Continue Reading »

I get asked this question A LOT so I thought it would be worthwhile to do a post regarding the answer.  I have been optimizing websites for about 5 years now and from my experience there is no simple answer to this question but there are a few elements to be considered when trying to answer it. Continue Reading »

There are many people and SEOs out there that have debated over whether or not it makes a difference if you create layouts in CSS and with external style sheets as opposed to using tables and in-line styles.  My personal experience has shown me that it does indeed make a difference and can be the distinguishing factor between being ranked on page three of the engines and being ranked in position three.  I have noticed that using this form of search engine optimization makes a particularly strong difference with both MSN and Yahoo. Continue Reading »

This is something that I had stumbled upon while doing some keyword research and it just struck me as very interesting.  Apparently there are an extreme number of internet users (at least according to Google and Overture) that are searching for a Michigan SEO Consultant.  There are in fact more users searching for Michigan SEO Consultant than for SEO Optimization, SEO Web Design, SEO Firm, SEO Expert and a lot of other terms that I would have thought would be getting a lot more searches.  I have a few theories as to why this may be and hopefully writing this blog post will help me root out which one is the most accurate. Continue Reading »

I have been reading a lot of articles lately regarding the writing of effective SEO copy and I must say that I am not all that impressed. Too many articles focus on tactics that are borderline keyword stuffing for their SEO copy and to me that is not an effective method. One of the prime rules of optimization is to optimize for the user and not the search engines and I stand by that rule whole heartedly when writing copy. No one wants to read copy that has nothing but a set of three keywords constantly repeated in every sentence. Continue Reading »