Firefox is the SEO’s browser of choice. Okay, we don’t actually know that for sure, but with all the SEO related plugins, shortcuts, Greasemonkey, Firebug, etc. how could it not be? One thing I love about Firefox is the ability to create customized shortcuts. A customized shortcut allows you to perform many search-related tasks quickly, without even going to the site you want to search on. Confused? Let me give you an example:

By typing “gg laser hair removal” into Firefox’s location bar, I can perform a google search for the term “laser hair removal.” In fact, if you have Firefox, this is already programmed in but with the shortcut “google” instead of “gg.” Try it now - type “google locksmith” into your location bar and watch the magic happen.

This is a simple example, but the possibilities are endless. I have shortcuts set up to do reverse phone number lookups by simply entering the area code and number “801 555-5555,” for example. The number “801″ is actually my shortcut and whatever is entered after it becomes my search query.

This is particularly useful for SEO because of the large number of queries you are running on a regular basis. Here are some examples of good search shortcuts that many SEOs might find useful:

• ld + URL (Yahoo site explorer for the URL specified)
• gl + URL (Link search on Google)
• gs + URL (Google site search)
• ait + searchterm (Google allintitle search)
• su + searchterm (Google term search + “submit url”)

You get the idea. These shortcuts do not come pre-programmed into Firefox (a few do, but not these ones). So if you would like to create your own, like the ones I just mentioned, here is how to do it. We’ll use the first example (ld + URL) as an example.

1. Perform the search you want to make a shortcut for

Go to yahoo.com and type in “linkdomain:google.com” - you can type in any URL, it doesn’t matter. You will be forwarded to site explorer.

Now the important piece of information you want to grab here is the URL. It should look something like this:

Go ahead and highlight the entire URL and copy it (CTRL+C or CMD+C).

2. Add the bookmark

While still in Firefox, click on the Bookmarks menu and select “organize bookmarks.” Older versions of Firefox might say “manage bookmarks.” A window will pop up with all your bookmarks. Click on “new bookmark…”

You’ll see a little window that looks like this:

So let’s go ahead and fill out the information to create our “ld + URL” shortcut. The name can be any arbitrary name, we’ll put “Yahoo Linkdomain Search.” For the location, paste in the URL you copied earlier. The keyword is the shortcut you are going to use to call up this bookmark, in our case we’ll enter “ld” for “linkdomain.” In the description write a short usage example. Here’s what it should look like when you’re all done:

Don’t hit “OK” just yet, we’re not quite done.

3. Customize Shortcut

Right now, if we typed “ld” into the location bar and hit enter, it would take us to our linkdomain yahoo search for google.com. We want to customize it so we can enter our own query each time. So go back up to the entry for location and find the part that shows the URL we searched for (http://www.boostengine.com/spacer.gif).

We’re going to erase everything after “p=” and before the “&” at the end of the URL and replace it with Firefox’s shortcut operator “%s”.

Wherever you put “%s” in the URL will be replace by whatever you type into the location bar after the shortcut. In this case, we would type in “ld somesite.com” and %s would be replace with “somesite.com” and we would be taken to a site explorer results page for that query.

You’re all done!

More shortcut ideas:

• dic + word (Dictionary word lookup)
• cddb + artist/album/song (Gracenote search)
• di + name (go directly to a dodgeit.com inbox)
• wi + IP address (whois lookup)

Pleas leave any other good ideas in the comments!

Check out this screen shot from a comment thread on Slashdot:

Note that links with the no-follow tag are crossed out in my browser view. The first commenter has his link no-followed while the second poster doesn’t.

I’ll have to look into this more, but it looks like Slashdot is granting users good links probably based on their overall karma (Slashdot’s rating of your usefulness).

Some people try really hard not to be found online. They think it’s some cultural status symbol if you can’t be found via google. This is like saying you’re part of the cultural elite because you don’t have an email address or phone number. It certainly makes you different, but not elite.

It’s best to “own” your name on Google. With you in control of the results that come up when people search for your name, you can make sure that potential employers, coworkers, and friends see what you want them to see. Here are some tips for making sure you own yourself on Google and other search engines.

1. Start a blog.

I know this seems simple, but starting a blog can really help your reputation management efforts. Make sure that your byline uses your full name (this is an option in Wordpress, for example) not a handle or nickname.

It’s best to write at least three entries a week on your blog. Don’t write about anything you don’t want connected with your name.

2. Own your domain

If you haven’t bought yourname.com, get it now before someone else does! If you can’t get .com, then go for .net, .org, .info, etc (in that order). If you have a popular name, then come up with a good variation that still includes as much of your name as possible. For example, if michaelsmith.com is taken, add you middle initial and make it michaelpsmith.

You don’t want to type in yourname.com one day and find a porn or spam site (we’ve seen this happen!) So just fork out the $8/year and own it.

3. Create an online business card

Create a simple static page somewhere with whatever information about yourself you want to be publicly available. This could include your full name, contact information, a picture, and your resume. It doesn’t have to be fancy.

Avoid using your myspace page or any other social profile for your business card. Create the page and host it somewhere where you can control everything about it. You don’t want your friends leaving comments on your Myspace-business card talking about how crazy you were last weekend.

Use TEXT for all of your information (except maybe your email address). Don’t just make an image of a business card and publish it online. Wrap your name in H1 tags and put it in the META title tag.

3. Link to yourself

Link to yourself from wherever you can. When you link to yourself, use your full name as the anchor text (the actual text of the link). Link to the business card page you created or your blog. You can link to yourself from any online profiles you might have (myspace, squidoo, etc.), in a forum signature, etc. When you leave comments on people’s blogs, use your full name and link to your business card if it asks for a URL.

If you have any friends with blogs or websites, ask them to link to you using your name. The more links you have to your blog or business card site, the more likely it is to come up when people search for you.

4. Use a pseudonym

If you do want to have a blog talking about smoking weed, making bombs, your time in prison, etc. don’t use your full name anywhere on the blog. Use “Mike” instead of “Michael Smith” or just make up a screen-name like “potsmoker2837.”

If you do have a blog like this, then separate your professional and non-professional online personalities by using different names.

5. Manage your reputation

Do a search for yourself on Google. If the first result is a news article about the time you held up the Kwik-E-Mart then you’ll want to consider doing some reputation management.

You don’t want to do anything to the negative page, simply promote other content about you that is positive by linking to it. If you have a big problem with a negative reputation, you may need to get your name out onto several bigger sites that are likely to come up higher than whatever you’re trying to bury. Link to the pages you create. If other people are saying good things about you, link to them using your name as the anchor text.

With a little work you can promote positive content to the top and get the negative content to the bottom or to the second page.

6. Write tips

Write tips to your favorite blogs or news sites. When you send the tip, give them your URL too. If your tip gets published, they will often give you a credit link for the tip.

7. Own image search

Google’s image search is much less competitive and easier to rank on than the natural listings. You can own image search by using your name in the “alt” tags on your images, linking directly to your images, and by using good descriptive keyword around your images.

Site Map Also be aware of the filename you use for your image. This can help rankings as well.

8. Be an expert in your field

Write some good content about something you’re good at. Submit it to sites and blogs that might be interested. Try to get them to link to you. Offer to guest blog on sites related to your industry, and again, always link back to yourself.

9. Don’t spam

This should go without saying, but when you’re trying to rank on your name and manage your online reputation, don’t spam blogs and forums to get links. Only post if you have something valid and useful to say.

10. Have realistic expectations

If your name is Michael Jackson and you’re not the king of pop, don’t expect an easy time trying to rank on your name. Come up with a good nickname and promote that instead.

With a little bit of energy you can be ranking #1 for your name in no time (okay, depending on your name).

It seems interesting that MySpace of all places would have a problem with split pagerank. Sure enough, PR8 on www.myspace.com and PR7 on myspace.com.

I can’t think of any reason not to 301 redirect to the www version. It would probably make them a PR9. I guess someone needs to teach Tom about .htaccess?

A little birdie just told me about a new (and admittedly interesting) search engine marketing tactic.

A new site called Writer Fly is allowing anyone to come and write articles. Now, I know what you’re thinking - article marketing is old news. Well this is a bit different. First of all, it uses Wordpress, not an e-zine article engine. It is designed not to allow duplicate content.

The idea behind this is that with many people writing original content, the site will easily gain popularity - this becoming even more valuable as time goes on. It’s a community effort, designed to disallow really spammy SEO techniques while letting legitimate SEOs get some good in-bound link juice.

We’ll see how it goes. If it catches on it could prove to be a valuable source for quality inbound links.

I find it useful when running a marketing campaign to use a pseudonym for all my marketing activities on that project. By using a name that does not come up with any results in google, I can roughly track the extent of work I have done by watching when that name appears.

Here’s an example.

For this example I am going to use the name “Demas Faraday.” You have to get a little creative to find a name that comes up with no results, but with a little searching, it shouldn’t be too hard. At the time of writing, Damas Farady came up with zero results (be sure to use quotes so you can get really specific).

As you do your marketing campaign, use your new name with every activity you do. If you write an article, use it as a pen name. If you start a blog, put it in the byline. Over time you will begin to see how many pages that name appears on, and therefore how many pages you have created for your marketing campaign. You can even see if anyone is citing you anywhere.

Of course, this isn’t a completely accurate metric by which to measure the effectiveness of your work, but it is yet another metric to show clients and gauge where your marketing efforts are going.  As your efforts catch wind, you will see the number of hits on your pseudonym increase.