Movember #SEOstache – What I Gave & What I learned.

One week into Movember.. less than cool stare.

Well the Movember Mustache is about to come to an end.

What I gave for Movember:

I gave my face. While this may not seem costly to most, I felt very out of place for the past month. I have never grown a beard before. And this is the first mustache I have ever worn. Needless to say, I was more than a little self conscious because of this. I consider this a costly investment.

I gave my voice. Speaking up about why I was not shaving proved much easier. Curious looks and my own discomfort made it easy to speak up and explain why I wore a beard/mustache. Most people had never heard of “No Shave November.” or “Movember”. Speaking up was easy. It was refreshing to share my voice and tell people that simple awareness to issues like prostate cancer can help.

I gave my wallet. Not only did I ask for others to donate, but I gave money myself. Every little bit helps. There is little time left to donate: http://mobro.co/pestcontrol

What I learned this Movember:

How I looked most of the month.

Facial hair is itchy! Having never grown out my facial hair, I had never experienced the itchiness. And after the itch came the tingle. Yes, I could feel the hairs tickle and tingle my skin with a simple smile to a cool breeze. And having discussions with other men about these new found sensations, I also learned that it itches every time you grow it back out.

Prostate cancer will hit 1 out 6 men. ( cancer stats ) Prostate Cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death in American men. 1 out of 36 men will die of prostate cancer.

There are a lot of good people in the world. It was inspiring to be part of the Manta Team which raised about $3000. I was especially impressed with Mike Halvorsen who got Matt Cutts and Duane Forrester on board. Their team “Search for the Cure” raised over $14,000. That is inspiring. Good work men.

My SEOstache

Well I wore a beard for most of the month, but I didn’t want to miss out entirely on the mustache experience, so I busted out the straight mustache for the last few days of the month… wearing it as I type this right now.

Yes… I have a hard time taking myself serious seeing my own mustache. I got a few good laughs, a couple of “I can’t take you serious.” comments, a “Is that real?” comment, and “you would be so cool in the 70’s”. My wife even said that I should have done this in October so that I could’ve used it in my Halloween costume. Although the nickname “Mario”, from Mario Brothers, seems to stick the most.

Movember Mustaches at Internet Summit in Raleigh

It was also cool to run into some great MoBro’s in Raleigh during the Internet Summit. It’s an instant connection. A brotherhood. Good people doing a good thing.

Monica Wright showing off Google+ #movember mustache

I even had the chance to show off my SEOstache in a Google+ hangout with Search Engine Land‘s Danny Sullivan and Monica Wright. Very cool that Google+ had an option to add your own #movember mustache. It actually moved around with your face while you were on screen. Captured this screen shot from my iPhone as the meeting was coming to a close.

… So long dear #SEOstache.

Related articles

• A Tachetastic Movember (distilled.net)
• Movember 2011 in Bristol (bristolculture.wordpress.com)
• Canada’s ‘Mo Bros’ raise more than $32M for Movember (ctv.ca)

Panda 2.2 Update is Live

I believe this about sums up the SEO’s encounter with the Panda.

Son: Dad can we get some more hits please?

Dad: No Google says we already have too much.

Google Panda: And just for asking… Bye-bye SEO shopping cart.

< Smashes the food on your table to oblivion >

Get in line… You never want to meet the Panda.

… Many SEOs and website owners aren’t laughing.

While I may jest about the Panda 2.2 roll out, many companies are struggling to keep afloat with Google’s new algorithm change. Desperately reaching for alternative methods to cope, like improper use of rel=canonical tags, to stop the blood flowing from their site’s life lines. When you put people in desperate situations you get panic and survival mode.

If you have seen the Kung Fu Panda 2.2 strike then you are not alone:

Reuben Yau with Manta.com

Panda 2.2 Resources

Here are a few good resources to check out:

Panda 2.2 Results In Casualties & Some Recoveries

Slide Deck & Notes from Alan Bleiweiss SMX Advanced Google Survivor Preso

Barry Schwartz – Official: Google Panda Update 2.2 Is Live

Review of Danny Sullivan’s AZIMA presentation

Danny Sullivan put on quite a good show at #AZIMA. He began by echoing his Search Engine Land post about Google not dying off and that they are still growing despite a possible 1% shift in market share.  http://searchengineland.com/when-losers-are-winners-how-google-can-lose-search-share-still-stomp-yahoo-41779

Arguing  that Bing is only making small headway from their offline TV marketing ads push and that when the ads stop this won’t really equate to a trending market shift. Ultimately Bing is only claiming a definitive 2nd place since they bought out Yahoo the other 2nd place contender. Google will be around for a long time… “they’ve been dying for a long time!” So with a dash of good humor Danny debunks the idea that Google is yesterdays news and shows his slight affection for the “Google world.”

Danny made some good points on how Facebook has social down and that Google and Facebook really shouldn’t be fighting each other. Poll of audience and those that are spending on both, only one resp0nded that she pulled some of their Google budget to place ads on Facebook. Most people are willing to spend on both as they are different marketing machines.

Most notable of last nights audience feedback questions. How many of you like Google instant? How many of you hate Google instant?

More hands raised for hating Google instant.

And noteworthy, By raise of hands, Who in here trusts Google?

Most of the audience trusts Google, over a few that do not trust Google.

PEST CONTROL GUY’S TWEET NOTES FROM EVENT

@schachin #Finally! RT @Thos003: #AZIMA @dannysullivan People want this battle between facebook and google but they do different things.
@dannysullivan I think it will be hard for google to compete with facebook on a social network level.

RT @Thos003: #AZIMA @dannysullivan Google has face recognition but they just don’t implement it.

#AZIMA is the #SEO going to change away from links? … @dannysullivan Well why don’t they update my TV? It works.

#AZIMA @dannysullivan Rep from adwords keyword tool says … Uh yeah it’s a bug… we are getting that resolved.

 

Danny, Fionn, and Thomas the pest control guy... Lucky me!

 

#AZIMA @dannysullivan it’s hard to answer that question without knowing your feelings on google suggest..@fionnd  #sarcasm

#AZIMA From Audience… “google suggest… They say it’s on search volume. They are lying. Currently being sued for this statement” @fionnd http://technologyexpert.blogspot.com/2010/09/google-ceo-schmidt-convicted-of.html

#AZIMA @dannysullivan people will say Google has a monopoly.. People are choosing to use google …  that’s different. It’s a monoply by choice.

#AZIMA @dannysullivan Yelp says that 27% of yelp search is done on mobile devices.

#AZIMA @dannysullivan who would of thought that I would go to a computer and ask advice rather than a friend?

Scary? – RT @abbygilmore: “You tell Google things you wouldn’t tell your friends, and its worked out well for you” -@dannysullivan #AZIMA

#AZIMA @dannysullivan …connected to @mattcutts via digg but perhaps not very long if digg dies.

#AZIMA @dannysullivan Asked audience how many just trust Google? … More positive response than negative from audience.

#AZIMA @dannysullivan OH from Google Employee… “we will get it by hook or crook” #socialmediadata

#AZIMA @dannysullivan is down playing the impact of Facebook and social on search and Internet marketing.

AZIMA @dannysullivan problems with social networks .. How do you filter true friends.

RT @Thos003: #AZIMA so… Google instant is cheating?… More people in audience don’t like google instant.

RT @Thos003: #AZIMA @dannysullivan No one really has real time down. No not even Google.

#AZIMA @dannysullivan Twitter and brand watching is down… But responding to customer isn’t good marketing it’s customer service. #exactly

#AZIMA @dannysullivan Bing will become #2 in mindshare eventually market share. (that happens when you take out Yahoo)

#AZIMA of course Google now counts instant search after each 3 second pause. #seo

#AZIMA @dannysullivan Bing is inflating numbers b/c they are counting clicks on images on homepage to more info.

And Congrats on the Can Food Drive!

 

Spam Can! Would you expect anything less from a SEO can food drive?

 

Danny Sullivan’s Slide Share of the presentation:

http://www.slideshare.net/dannysullivan/trends-in-search-marketing-oct-2010

Abby Gilmore ask’s Danny Sullivan what’s the future of search in less than 1 minute.

http://www.joinazima.org/blog/danny-sullivan-explains-the-future-of-search-in-under-a-minute/