Mori @ Work

Bing goes the internet? Free Marketing Win or Fail?

moriendi — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:28:36 +0000

Microsoft Bing has some interesting ideas about marketing. A couple of weeks ago they started advertising for a Bing Jingle, asking people to record their jingles and upload them to youtube (which is still owned by google, right?). Anyways, they picked a winner… and it’s weird.
Sounding somewhat like Weird Al in the Beatles era here it is in all it’s glory:

On one hand, this little marketing effort cost Microsoft nothing, except a $500 American Express Gift Card. On the other hand I wonder if this was really the best entry. While I admit that it’s somewhat of an earworm (I have the melody stuck in my head… doh!) I don’t really see it as being a successful marketing tool unless they get some major artist to cover it (u2 anyone?) and show bing search results for bono’s pants or something.
What do you think?

Finally! Something Creative…Social Media Icon Frenzy

moriendi — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:33:29 +0000

So with the launch of our new site design we’ve been ramping up our social media efforts as well. I wanted to make an image that showcased our shiny new image as well as all of the social media outlets we are a part of.
Viola!

Thanks for the great icon list here.
What do you think?

Time to Add BING to your “Optimize for” SEO list?

moriendi — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:40:45 +0000

Well just as my company is getting ready to roll out its brand spankin new sparkly website, it’s finally happened. Microsoft and Yahoo have made a deal. Basically Yahoo and Microsoft will maintain seperate identites but share technologies. Most importantly, Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search for Yahoo! sites. So that mean’s it’s time to start looking at how to optimize SEO for Bing.

A google search turned up the following useful front-page articles with “bing seo” as the search term.

Bing SEO tips

Bing SEO- How does it differ from google?

I also found that Bing’s Webmaster Center has thrown us a bone with this article. But most of it is stuff that SEO’s should already know and be doing.

The same search in bing turned up the following useful front-page articles.

Bing SEO- How to get top 10 rankings in bing

Now there were, of course, lots of front-page results in both Google and Bing, but I listed only the articles I felt were relevant and of use. The search results that came up on Bing appeard at first glance more relevant than the ones on google, I was excited! But as I examined each of their content, this was not always the case.

What I noticed- which is consistent with the articles written on it thus far, is that Bing seems to really like:

Search-term/keyword dense titles
Search terms/keywords in the URL
The age of a domain- the older the better- seems more important than in Google
On page SEO optimization trumps backlinks
Relevant anchor text

So what do you guys think? Has anyone noticed any other SEO trends in Bing? Know any good articles on Bing SEO? Comment them below!

moriendi — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:11:57 +0000

Has just signed up for Ping.fm > Do it.

The Vectors shall be Mine!

moriendi — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:52:57 +0000

I use a lot of stock imagery in my job, and more and more I’m using a lot of Vector graphics. Sadly, although I know quite a bit about Photoshop, Lightroom and even remember a fair amount about Fireworks, I know next to nothing about Illustrator. So I’ve decided to remedy this by trying to do at least two tutorials a week (and actually start making use of the huge list of tutorials I have saved in my delicious!).

I started with this tutorial from the great people over at Spoon Graphics. I thought it would be a good one to start with since it uses basic shapes, rather than any sort of free hand drawing.
All in all it was well written and easy enough to follow. I did have some trouble finding a few of the palettes and figuring out how to apply strokes and fills to separate objects, but I managed. The biggest frustration was learning that Illustrator won’t let you “align stroke” on a group of objects- the options will appear grayed out and un-selectable if you have more than one selected. Also be sure to check your scaling of stroke effects like they suggest- it’s a life saver!

Here’s my finished project. Because the only thing scarier than a ninja is a ninja Mom!

Turning Off Google Personalized Search Results For Accurate SEO Search Ranking

moriendi — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:31:12 +0000

I work for a small online retailer doing internet marketing and SEO type stuff. I also happen to be a Google Junkie- that is I use g-mail, g-talk and anything else in the g-suite religiously. This is a problem for doing SEO research in that if you don’t log out of your google account it will display your personalized search results rather than “pure” data. This can create a problem in that your site may rank high while you are logged into your account because Google knows you like it. However, it may really rank as much as a page or two behind.

Logging in and out of Google all day is a hassle so I was looking for a fix when I came across this post at SEObook. For those who don’t want to click, just add “&pws=0″ to the end of your query.

OMG! I haz a blog!

moriendi — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:29:45 +0000

Heh. Hello everyone and welcome to Mori @ Work. I anticipate using this blog to discuss, rant, and question various work related topics including design, SEO, Internet Marketing & E-mail marketing, and the occasional snarky comment or hillarious web comic. I will be updating the widgets and messing with the theme as well. Enjoy! And if you aren’t already follow me on twitter @moriendi!

Hello world!

moriatwork — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:16:06 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!