Gerry McGovern  

Search Engine Optimization

Fixing appalling intranet search
May 19, 2008: Intranet search is appalling because people don't want their content to get found, and the organization does not value the importance of finding. More

Finding is the new advertising
March 31, 2008: Traditional advertising is broken because it charges us time, when time is becoming our most valuable resource. More

Google is good but it's not God
March 17, 2008: Installing Google for your public website or intranet does not replace the need for professional management. More

How to professionally manage search
May 14, 2007: To manage search on your website, don't manage the technology or the content. Manage the task. Success is about finding, not searching. More

Google changes information management
May 07, 2007: The success of Google proves that if you manage content professionally, tremendous value is delivered. More

Cheap at heart: search optimization: part 2
January 29, 2007: If there's one thing that we hold in common as a human race it's that, when we're on the Web, we're cheap. (Even the Swiss are cheap.) More

Words that work: search words versus website words
January 22, 2007: Do people search using basic, simple, old words? But when they arrive at a website are they moved to action by more emotive, sophisticated words? More

Do you really need search on your website?
May 08, 2006: You need to decide whether the value of having search on your website is greater than the cost of making sure that you do it well. More

Search engine optimization: beyond search keywords
May 01, 2006: The words people type into a search box are not always the words they like to read when they click on the search result. Here's why. More

11 search engine optimization tips
April 11, 2005:
The title tag is critical. It’s important not to overcomplicate your design and technical approach with things such as Flash, Java, frames and dynamically built websites. More

It's the content, stupid: search engine optimization
April 04, 2005:
In deciding to rank your website, search engines pay a lot of attention to the actual content they find on your webpages. More

Get linked to get found in search engines: Part 2
March 28, 2005:
Go for quality. Go out and get links, and try to control the words in the links you get. Remember, an easy-to-get link is probably of little value. More

Get linked to get found in search engines
March 21, 2005:
Search optimization is about getting links. The more links you get to your website, the more likely you are to get into the first page of search engine results. More

Search optimization, not search engine optimization
March 14, 2005:
Search optimization focuses on how people search. Search engine optimization focuses on how search engines work. Search optimization sees quality web content as its foundation stone. More

Improving how search works
November 12
, 2001: For too long, for too many people, technology is a false god of productivity. Like incurable addicts, mangers are forever buying technology that will never, and can never, deliver the benefits it espouses. There is no better example of the great technology swindle than in the web search engine industry. More

The fundamentals of quality search, part 2
January 22, 2001
: Last week, I wrote about why a quality search function is so important to your website. This week, I’d like to examine standards for advanced search and for presenting search results. More

The fundamentals of quality search, part 1
January 15, 2001: The following are principles and guidelines for the design of a quality search function on a website. More