It’s been a crazy week. Between attending Search Engine Strategies Toronto, “DemoCamp Toronto”:http://barcamp.org/TorCampDemoCamp5 (thanks again for the invite “Ken”:http://www.onedegree.ca/category/ken-schafer) and the “Sympatico MSN Digital Ad Summit 06”:http://www.digitaladsummit.com, I’ve learned and seen too much to digest.
One of the moments that is still nibbling at me is the power of reciprocated links in relation to Google Juice. At Search Engine Strategies Toronto, there was a Link Strategies panel that included Rae Hoffman of “Sugarrae”:http://www.sugarrae.com/. Hoffman is superb at getting links and clearly knows much more about the topic than I do. Hoffman asserted that reciprocated links are all but irrelevant to the smarter search engines. I posted in more details the chain of events here: “Rae Hoffman On Links At Search Engine Strategies Toronto”:http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/000550.html along with her full (and unedited) response here: “Rae Hoffman Responds”:http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/000551.html.
It turns out that understanding linking or even how search engines rank results is harder than breaking The Da Vinci Code.
In less than three days since my initial posting, it has secured the number three position in Google when you search for the term “rae hoffman” (no quote marks needed). It appears ahead of her core domain site. I’m stumped.
Category: SEO
_Hugh Thompson is the publisher and owner of “Digital Home Canada”:http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/. He is a consultant with over 10 years of online experience working for advertising agencies, vendors and consulting directly with clients on maximizing ROI from web marketing and e-commerce initiatives. As a voice for the Canadian electronic consumer, Hugh is a frequent guest on radio and television programs across the country discussing the latest in consumer electronics and the business of convergence in the digital home._
*One Degree: Why did you start Digital Home Canada?*
Some guys like cars but my passion has always been computers and consumer electronics so I decided to create a website about the convergence of technology in the home.
*One Degree: Did you intend it to be money making venture and did you ever expect that it would become your full-time job?*
When I first created Digital Home, it was for my own enjoyment. Once Digital Home was up and running, I considered trying to turn it into a moneymaker however since it was just after 9/11 and the dot com bust, I decided against it!
For several years, Digital Home simply became a neglected hobby while I went about the business of earning a living and raising a young family.
During that time I actually shut the site down for a short period of time, however so many people emailed asking me to reconsider that finally in the Fall of 2004, I hooked up with “24/7 Canada”:http://www.247canada.com/ who agreed to provide advertising representation for Digital Home.
With advertising representation secure, I “re-launched” the site with new technology, new servers and a new approach.
In November 2004, Digital Home became a full-time endeavour for me.
*One Degree: How do people find out about your site – is most of your traffic from searchers or from regular community members?*