Stephan Spencer | |
---|---|
![]() Stephan at Pubcon 2014, Las Vegas |
Stephan Spencer is a three-time author under the O'Reilly Media brand, search engine optimization (SEO) expert, inventor, podcaster, speaker, and founder of Netconcepts.
Spencer holds an M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In his PhD study, he worked in the Institute for Molecular Virology and Department of Biochemistry where he developed improved visual representations of biological viruses. [1] [2] Spencer served as research assistant on a project researching ways to improve communication about virology on the World Wide Web. [3] [4] He presented a paper on this topic at the Second International Worldwide Web Conference, where he met some of the team from Netscape and got interested in web development. In 1994, while still in graduate school, Spencer developed his first website. [5] Spencer left his PhD study to pursue a career in Internet marketing. [6]
Spencer founded WritersNet in 1994 while a graduate student. WritersNet was acquired by CrowdGather in June 2011. [7] [8] In January 2008, a lawsuit was filed against Spencer as the founder of WritersNet by literary agent Barbara Bauer, who simultaneously filed suit against the Wikimedia Foundation, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Inc, and over a dozen other parties on the legal claims of defamation, conspiracy, and tortious interference. Wikimedia Foundation was removed from the suit in May 2008, [9] and the suit itself was dismissed in November 2010. [10] [11]
Spencer also founded InnSite while a grad student in 1994. [12] InnSite was an early implementer of real-time updatable user-generated content, and was featured in the book Special Edition: Using CGI published by Que in 1996. [13] InnSite was named "Best Inn Directory of 1998" by Yahoo! Internet Life magazine. [14] InnSite was acquired by an undisclosed party in 2010. [15]
In 1995, Spencer founded web design agency Netconcepts on a bootstrap budget in Madison, Wisconsin. [16] [17] The agency provided Internet consulting, [18] an ecommerce platform called GravityMarket and an email marketing platform GravityMail with automated spam scoring. [19] However, over time it grew to specialize in search engine optimization. [20] [21]
In 2000, Spencer moved to New Zealand to set up a second Netconcepts branch in Auckland. He acted as managing director from a smaller office in Christchurch while the Wisconsin office continued to operate as headquarters. The company used an internal intranet to collaborate between offices. [22] Netconcepts grew to over 40 employees between the two offices, with yearly revenue of over $5 million, making it one of the largest SEO firms in New Zealand. However, clients were typically US-based, and included corporations such as Verizon, Home Shopping Network, and REI. The firm received recognition for its flexible hours and employee-centric working environment, including from the New Zealand Government. [23] [24] [25] [26] His operation in New Zealand had notably high staff retention rates. [27] Spencer moved from New Zealand back to the US in 2007. [28]
Netconcepts was acquired by Covario in 2010. [29] Spencer worked as Vice President of SEO Strategies at Covario in 2010 for less than a year after the acquisition was finalized. [30]
Spencer is the inventor of the pay-for-performance SEO technology platform GravityStream, [31] was included in the acquisition of Covario and now part of Rio SEO's toolset. [32] [33]
Spencer now works as an SEO and internet marketing consultant and has worked with clients such as Zappos, Chanel, and Sony. [34]
Spencer is on the advisory board to CrowdGather, [35] and board member to Impact Network, a charity that builds and operates schools in Zambia. [36] In 2008, Spencer worked with Jimmy Carter's humanitarian organization, The Carter Center, to set up a successful blog. [37]
In 2009, Spencer co-authored The Art of SEO, with Rand Fishkin, Eric Enge, and Jessie Stricchiola. [38] Published by O'Reilly, the book was named Search Engine Land's Best SEO Book of 2009. [39] Spencer and his co-authors came out with the second edition of The Art of SEO in 2012, and the third edition in 2015. Spencer is author of Google Power Search, an advanced Google search manual, published in 2011 by O'Reilly. [40] Spencer co-authored Social eCommerce with Jimmy Harding and Jennifer Sheahan which was published in 2014 by O'Reilly. [41]
Spencer is a contributor to a number of marketing journals and blogs. He has been published in Practical Ecommerce, [42] MarketingProfs, [43] Search Engine Land, [44] Multichannel Merchant, [45] The Huffington Post, [46] and CNET, [47] among others.
Spencer has been speaking at Internet marketing conferences for over 20 years, including covering SEO and digital marketing topics [48] for the American Marketing Association (AMA), [49] Shop.org, [50] Internet Retailer, [51] SMX, Search Engine Strategies, [52] O'Reilly/TechWeb, [53] PubCon, [54] NEMOA, Etail, WordCamp, [55] ACCM, [56] among others.
Spencer is the host of two podcasts, Marketing Speak and The Optimized Geek. Both have appeared on iTunes New and Noteworthy [57] [58] and In 2016, Spencer made multiple live television appearances on local affiliates of ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, [59] speaking about the geek lifestyle [60] and raising awareness for children in foster care. [61]
Spencer encouraged his oldest daughter at the age of 14 to start a blog, neopetsfanatic.com. He advised her on using AdSense to monetize the site, earnings were up to $1,100 per month. [62] [63] [64] Spencer and Chloe have co presented at conferences DMA08 and BlogPaws. Chloe has spoken on her own as well, including BlogHer, DMA, YPulse, SMX West, BlogWorld, SMOC, and SES, and has appeared live on Denver 9News and the Bay Area's ABC7 News. BlogPaws has appeared on live TV as well. [65] [66] [67] Spencer and Chloe have appeared on interviews such as blogtalkradio, [68] as well as Chloe has appeared alone on WebProNews, [69] [70] ClickZ, [71] ReelSEO, and Blogger Stories. [72] In addition to encouraging Chloe to blog on her own site, he encouraged her to blog for The Huffington Post and, on his recommendation to Arianna Huffington, Chloe became a Huffington Post blogger at the age of 16 in 2008. [73]
Spamdexing is the deliberate manipulation of search engine indexes. It involves a number of methods, such as link building and repeating unrelated phrases, to manipulate the relevance or prominence of resources indexed in a manner inconsistent with the purpose of the indexing system.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic rather than direct traffic or paid traffic. Unpaid traffic may originate from different kinds of searches, including image search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages to enhance pay per click (PPC) listings and increase the Call to action (CTA) on the website.
A microsite is an individual web page or a small cluster of pages which are meant to function as a discrete entity within an existing website or to complement an offline activity. The microsite's main landing page can have its own domain name or subdomain.
The Sandbox effect is a theory about the way Google ranks web pages in its index. It is the subject of much debate—its existence has been written about since 2004, but not confirmed, with several statements to the contrary.
nofollow is a setting on a web page hyperlink that directs search engines not to use the link for page ranking calculations. It is specified in the page as a type of link relation; that is: <a rel="nofollow" ...>
. Because search engines often calculate a site's importance according to the number of hyperlinks from other sites, the nofollow
setting allows website authors to indicate that the presence of a link is not an endorsement of the target site's importance.
Danny Sullivan is an American technologist, journalist, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Search Engine Watch in 1997, one of the earliest online publications about search engine marketing. He also launched Search Engine Strategies, one of the earliest search marketing trade shows. After selling both companies in 2006, he co-founded Search Engine Land, another search marketing publication. In 2017, he joined Google as an adviser at the search division of the company.
Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of a number of outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product, service brand or event. Types of social media involved include RSS feeds, social news, bookmarking sites, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, video sharing websites, and blogging sites. SMO is similar to search engine optimization (SEO) in that the goal is to generate web traffic and increase awareness for a website. SMO's focal point is on gaining organic links to social media content. In contrast, SEO's core is about reaching the top of the search engine hierarchy. In general, social media optimization refers to optimizing a website and its content to encourage more users to use and share links to the website across social media and networking sites.
A Website content writer or web content writer is a person who specializes in providing content for websites. Every website has a specific target audience and requires the most relevant content to attract business. Content should contain keywords aimed towards improving a website's SEO. A website content writer who also has knowledge of the SEO process is referred to as an SEO Content Writer.
Netconcepts was a web marketing and web development agency founded by Stephan Spencer and headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. Netconcepts specialized in SEO for Fortune 500 ecommerce companies and major media brands. Netconcepts was acquired in January 2010 by Covario, which was then the nation's largest independent SEM and SEO solutions provider, offering both software and marketing services for paid and organic search management. Covario was itself acquired in 2014 by Dentsu Aegis, a multinational media and digital marketing communications company.
In the field of search engine optimization (SEO), link building describes actions aimed at increasing the number and quality of inbound links to a webpage with the goal of increasing the search engine rankings of that page or website. Briefly, link building is the process of establishing relevant hyperlinks to a website from external sites. Link building can increase the number of high-quality links pointing to a website, in turn increasing the likelihood of the website ranking highly in search engine results. Link building is also a proven marketing tactic for increasing brand awareness.
SWFObject is an unmaintained open-source JavaScript library used to embed Adobe Flash content onto Web pages and to protect the flash game against piracy, which is supplied as one small JavaScript file. The library can also detect the installed Adobe Flash Player plug-in in all major web browsers, on all major operating systems (OS), and can redirect the visitor to another webpage or show alternate HTML content if the installed plug-in is not suitable.
Online presence management is the process of creating and promoting traffic to a personal or professional brand online. This process combines web design, development, blogging, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, reputation management, directory listings, social media, link sharing, and other avenues to create a long-term positive presence for a person, organization, or product in search engines and on the web in general.
Covario, Inc. was an American search marketing agency and technology firm based in San Diego, California. The company specialized in international search engine marketing services and provided software tools for SEO, paid search, social media marketing, analytics, and local search optimization. Its customer base included technology, consumer electronics, financial services, retail, ecommerce, media, entertainment, publishing, and consumer packaged goods organizations. Covario was acquired by the Dentsu Aegis Network in September 2014, and combined with iProspect, the network's performance marketing arm, in early 2015.
Google Search, offered by Google, is the most widely used search engine on the World Wide Web as of 2023, with over eight billion searches a day. This page covers key events in the history of Google's search service.
Content writing services is a category of work that first surfaced in the early 1990s, due to an exponential rise in online activities. Content writing services are firms, companies or group of writers that provide services such as blog writing for websites, web content writing, marketing material content, white papers, research articles, proof reading services, infographic content, social media content, press releases, product descriptions, copywriting services, proofreading and editing and many more.
Phil Singleton is an American author, web designer and Internet marketing consultant who assists small businesses. He is the co-author of SEO for Growth and The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Local Lead Generation.
Joost de Valk is an entrepreneur and application software developer from Wijchen, Netherlands who is best known for Yoast SEO. De Valk started out as a consultant and blogger in 2004 before developing Yoast, one of the most successful plug-ins for WordPress.
Semrush Holdings, Inc. is an American public company that has a SaaS platform known as Semrush. The platform is used for keyword research, competitive analysis, site audits, backlink tracking, and comprehensive online visibility insights. The keyword research tool provides various data points on each keyword. The platform also collects information about online keywords gathered from Google and Bing search engines. It was released by Boston-based company Semrush Inc, founded by Oleg Shchegolev and Dmitri Melnikov.
A SEO specialist is a professional focused on optimizing websites to improve their visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). The primary objective is to increase organic traffic to a website by employing various strategies and techniques to align the website's content and structure with search engine algorithms.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)