We’ve been having a discussion (a vaguely heated discussion)  after reading Rand’s excellent post on VC Funding about which is the better tool; Linkscape or Majestic SEO.

Personally I have not used Majestic much but I know a lot of people like it and I have heard many a positive comment on it. I have however been using Linkscape since it was first born and in conjunction with the other tools on the Moz it provides me with a comprehensive suite to complete most tasks.

However, I’m really interested to see what you, my esteemed peers in the SEO industry think.

• Which do you use?
• Has anyone used both?
• What are the respective strengths and weaknesses of each tool?

Please vote below and comment (or email me) with your thoughts – I’ve got a follow up post brewing and your input will be extremely useful.

Hold the phone! Revelations below.

Internet genius John Dvorak who writes for PC Magazine has written the things no other man dares to say. He alone is forging a path of enlightened truth through the eternal night of the internet.

Read on, if you dare…

Revelation #1
Search engines use tricks to rank websites, then SEOs reverse engineer these tricks to trick the search engines into ranking other sites which SEOs want to rank because they’re so tricky.
(source: Paragraph 2 of the mad ramblings of John Dvorak)

Revelation #2
There are no large SEO firms or agencies, the entire SEO industry is made up of shady individuals who consult for ‘a few’ companies and whisper (shadily) about their tricks in the background.
(source: Paragraph 3 of the mad ramblings of John Dvorak)

Revelation #3
All website selling something are controlled and/or influenced by SEOs. It could in no way, shape or form be an affiliate or genuine company. Fact.
(source: Paragraph 5 of the mad ramblings of John Dvorak)

Revelation #4
PC Magazine is one of the ‘few trusted’ sources for information on, well that doesn’t matter. anything. Coincidentally that is where this man writes – who would have thought?
(source: Paragraph 7 of the mad ramblings of John Dvorak)

Revelation #5
When you click a link and it takes you to another search engine results page you have been tricked. The number of instances of this event tell you how well ’search engine countermeasures’ are ‘doing’. Quite what they are doing and against whom is not specified.
(source: Paragraph 8 of the mad ramblings of John Dvorak)

Final Thought
SEOs are large and vague like fog – no one knows who they are but everyone is reading about SEO (somehow). So we need to er, get ready.

Still don’t believe that the internet is just one big tricksy lie made by search engines tricked by SEOs? Then you are what some people might call mentally retarded.

Rather than list some arbitrary things you should do, see, lick or try in 2010 I’m going to arbitrarily list some lists that I think you should read about 2010 that will enrich your life, that will make you more physically attractive and make you an SEO Voodoo Priest like that guy from Predator 2.

So without further ado, here is my list of top lists about 2010:

SEO LIST ONE:
Mystic Rand rubs his crystals balls and predicts what he thinks will happen in SEO in the big one-oh. Here are his 8 Predictions For SEO in 2010 – will they be true? Bets are still being taken – contact me for details!

SEO LIST TWO:
Over at Holistic Search Pete Young stalks a woman on a beach, as well as compiling a list of Ten People You Should Be Following in 2010. I know you didn’t want to make everyone else look bad which is why I’m not on this list. Right Pete?

Pete?

Ahem.

SEO LIST THREE:
If you couldn’t be bothered to come up with your own, check out this great list of 20 SEO Resolutions for 2010 from SEOptimise. That’s 1.67 resolutions a month – he’s a maniac!

So now that you’ve read those lists you feel better right?

Powerful?

Almost… superhuman…

Happy New Year!

So congratulations to our very own Sarah Goodwin (aka @Yoshimi_S) who is now officially an SEO Chick – woop woop!

Although the competition was anonymous, it was hard to not notice Sarah’s awesome blogging style in her winning post, ironically about trying to blog anonymously. Maybe you should be taking some of your own advice Sarah!

To all LeedsSEO fans, don’t worry, we have Sarah’s word that she won’t be deserting us – we won’t let her go!

So, once again, from all the team here, Congratulations Sarah!

Thanks to the technical skills of @StephenTallamy images and media have now been restored! Huzzah!

Normality has been returned.

S

——————-

Hi One and All,

Apologies for any inconvenience anyone may (or more than likely may not) have experience between 10pm last night and 1.15am ish this morning – LeedsSEO was moving – but not far – and has briefly lost some of it’s prior beauty.

Normal operation will be resolved as quickly as possible and this notepad theme will be gone!

Anyway, nothing to see here… Apart from the usual awesome stuff.

SPT

Give us a brief resume of your life in SEO – including any dramatic highlights!

I started at Base One in May 2007 and have had been lucky to see the company double in size in the last 2 years. The search team originally consisted of two people, one of which was me and now we have a team of 5 specialising in a range of search marketing skills. Having basic knowledge of the internet and how it worked I had to learn quickly in order to prove myself.

Having Lisa D Myers, as a tutor, was a highlight in itself as she pushed for me to pick up SEO skills quickly with the aim of taking on my own campaigns and clients. I read everything from beginners’ guides to blogs to articles as well as attending conferences to hear others theories and practices.

At my first conference I met people who inspired me to learn more, telling me some of the cool stuff that they had done for clients, yes I was taking notes on my napkin but who wouldn’t with this priceless and free information…..right?

One of the highlights was having my first blog post posted on SEOchicks which went hot on sphinn. The response I received gave me so much confidence and spurred me on to develop my knowledge further. Although maybe it was this picture that helped?

(That's what I look like under the clothes - SPT)

2 years on and I am now managing a team at Base One and continue to learn daily with the evolving world of search marketing.

Given that you studied English, do you have an unfinished novel lying around somewhere?

Funny you should say that I actually did write a novel, well it was more like a script for a film, but it was starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks as a man obsessed with his hairdresser…… could happen!! I have also just written a short story/blog post about blackberrys. It will be published soon I promise so watch this space.

What made you want to join the mad cap world of search?

Honestly……..? I didn’t. But now I am here I want to stay. It is a mad cap world and the people that are in it are equally as mental. But that is exactly what makes it so fun and appealing. London SEO events are a prime example where lunacy and intellect comes together.

If you could control Matt Cutts for a day, what would you make him do?

Allow me a secret back door to get round ‘no follow’……..

How did you come to work for Base One?

Oh now this is a good story. I was doing a number of temping jobs after University trying to find my way into editing for film or TV which was proving to be difficult. Just met a guy and was invited as his +1 to his best friend’s wedding. When I was there I met a girl who straight away made me feel like one of the gang and we had a laugh all night…… The week when I was temping for a hideous debt collection agency I bumped into the girl on my lunch break and she said that she was looking for a junior SEO. I had no idea what she just said but it had to be better than what I was doing. Little did I know that Lisa D Myers (then Lisa Ditlefsen) was such a figure in this industry and that she would teach me so much…. the rest is history.

Coffee or Tea?

Both…… coffee at work which I am normally in desperate need of around 09:01am, and Tea in the evenings and on Sunday mornings with an old film, dunking chocolate hobnobs.

What is your favourite thing about your job?

Love testing and challenging theories. That when I explain what I do everyone says it sounds so cool. I love my team….. They are all really different and from crazy backgrounds, but that makes conversations interesting. I also love love love my job when you have taken a site with little or no search visibility and managed to create an online presence, with a lot of hard work of course. It is so rewarding.

We share a love of people tripping up – what’s the funniest trip you’ve ever seen? (don’t worry, Jesus doesn’t read this blog)

It is a toss up of two, so I will tell you both….. when I was doing work experience and I was in Swindon (not my home town before any of you start, I live at least 20 mins from there) I was on a lunch break and saw a slightly larger lady, on crutches with arms full of bags literally do the splits and was stuck…… I had to help but I was crying my physical eyes out with laughter. God I am going to hell aren’t I….

2nd best ever trip was in the cinema when a woman tripped up the stairs sending popcorn flying, I could not control my outburst of hysterical laughter with a pointing finger too. There is just something so funny about people tripping up – as long as there is no pain of course

Do you still feel a twinge of guilt about crushing those kid’s dreams?

Have you been talking to Lisa? I thought it was initiative…. for those of you who don’t know the story, when I was younger I was in a talent competition for young musicians. Not being able to play an instrument at the time, I thought I would enter with my Yamaha keyboard. Needless to say I won. Later at a parent/teacher interview my mum was bombarded with praise about my excellence in music, of which she was confused as I had never even had one single lesson.

Ah the absolute geniusness of playing along to the pre installed demo tunes!! *bows and walks off stage right with trophy held high*

Are you a Mac or a PC?
PC enough said…

What’s your favourite social media network?

For my personal stuff I prefer facebook, for client work my favourite is Twitter. Facebook still does what it set out to do, to connect people with friends. Twitter is a great way of reaching mass audiences and to monitor the noise (or lack of) surrounding a brand or product.

And finally, if you weren’t an SEO, what would you be doing right now?

Who knows with keyboard skills like mine I could have been a musician in a band J ….. I have always wanted to do editing for film………But if I really had to choose right now I would be making jewellery on a beach in Bali.

If you want to find out what Beccy is doing right now you can follow her on Twitter.

We don’t like to rush things here at LeedsSEO (i.e. from the leather armchair in my lounge) hence why we have been rather slovenly in our posting about one of the greatest conferences known to man, the awesome Think Visibility.

I took the team from Bloom down and also had the pleasure of the company of Yoshimi_S for most of the day. I personally enjoyed the conference immensely. When I was wandering around the Tesco Express on The Boulevard (hunting croissants), I would never have guessed the mental titillation that the day had in store.

View Larger Map

Before we even made it in I met two Davids at the same time – I think I get points for that. (Incidentally both Sarah and I agreed that @lindop somehow looks taller in his thumbnail – how do you do it David?)

There were too many highlights from this conference to name them all but my personal favourites were the Wordpress talk from Joost (who has put together a brilliant write up of his own here collecting all the more expedient people together). Being a Wordpress geek this was a great way to kick off the day!

Judith Lewis opening our eyes to the blended magic of universal search and plying us with delicious sweet treats! I had a mathematical revelation listening to Paul Robinson (of Vagueware) discuss advanced analytics – who would have thought you actually can use all that crazy maths stuff we all ignored at school. Paul, you are the only person ever, to make me excited about maths – congratulations sir.

My final favourite of the day was Rob Manuel discussing the quandry of creating a monster that you don’t quite have the heart to take ‘out back’ (like Old Yeller), in the form of his joke community Sickipedia. Don’t be afraid if you see this however, regulars will surely recognise it.

It was excellent to meet so many people (too many too name here) and talk all things internet (and otherwise) after such a great day. This conference is one to watch, so a final thanks to Dom Hodgson for dedicating so much time and energy to making it such an inspiring day.

Oh yes, and here are some unique Turner photo highlights for you.

The rest was awesome too - but check out this future toilet!

There's something not quite right here...

I have no idea what was in this, but it was delicious.

Awesome view from the City Inn Terrace

Forget the poke, it's all about @

Facebook appear to have slipped this under the (Turner) radar and are slyly robbing Twitter’s functionality bit by bit.

Now you can @ reference anything (almost) in Facebook by typing in the symbol in the share box followed by a name, event, page etc. This is a great idea, which is why it works so well on Twitter. The only problem is it’s hard to sit with Facebook open on your screen all day, so is this function going to add much to the FB mix?

Will this tempt the masses back?  Or are they still bitter about the failed buyout? Have I just sent out some old news?

I just don’t know what’s going on…

So without further ado:

Give us a brief history of you life in SEO/the UK.

In summer 2008 I stepped off the plane in London hoping to land a work visa at Base One Group, a company I was familiar with because I had seen the Head of Search, Lisa Ditlefsen (our charming first SEO.BIO victim), deliver an inspiring talk at SMX London.  I know this sounds crazy – but I’d even told my friends in New York that I was going to be working at Base One when in fact I hadn’t even had a job offer! It was just this gut feeling and I was confident that it would work out for me.  As expected, everything has fallen into place.

I now spend my days working on social media campaigns, monitoring and advising clients on how to improve their online reputations, performing technical SEO evaluations, blogging, managing PPC accounts, the whole sha-bang!  While I love the challenge of pushing a new client with little or no online SM presence, I find the best cases are those clients who have a negative online reputation, and working with them to turn that around so users are praising them from the hills.

I was first hired as Avi Wilensky’s assistant at his boutique SEO firm Promediacorp in NYC; apparently I was hired because 1) I was a girl and 2) I had a blog.  He taught me about PPC and made sure I became well versed in SEO, especially doing site evaluations & coming up with creative link building techniques.  I am forever grateful I landed that job with him.

Before moving to London, I did a brief stint as a PPC manager at an affiliate marketing company in midtown during the first half of 2008.  PPC management is brutally boring when done full time, our office with no windows, and we were forced to dress in “office casual” (that means dry cleaning bills).  The department folded in January 2009, I’ve heard people cheered when they heard it was going down and they’d all loose their jobs.

What would you say is your greatest personal victory in working life so far?

Just one!?!  I have three stand out moments in my career so far:

1. I was recently asked to guest post on Search Engine Journal, which I’ve always regarded at one of my top 5 SEO blogs, it’s truly an honour.
2. When working as a PPC manager I snagged the biggest account in my team of five for a prestigious client spending over $30,000/month; I was new to the company and the youngest member of the department, I was quite chuffed with myself.
3. Cease and Desist Letter. I wrote a great blog post exposing a rip off online marketing company that I went “under cover” to investigate (they current rank #2 for the term “Affordable Website design” oh, the irony!). They wrote me a very silly letter full of legal jargon. My boss at the time made me delete the post, maybe I should republish it on my own site…

What’s the latest random subject you’ve learned about?

I LOVE random subjects!  I went to the library last weekend and ended up learning about the history of whaling in Japan.  Today, my neighbor was teaching me about the dangers the community laundry pole poses to his 5 year old, which apparently almost “fell” on the son so he took it down without consulting anyone.  Quite frankly, I think my neighbor should be more worried about his son running into inanimate objects.

You made a classic list of ‘You know you work in search when…‘ facts – have you managed to add any more to the list?

I’ve got tons more, be sure to stay tuned for additions!  The list is currently part of a scholarship competition I expect to win, so if you like the list (or just like me?) you’re free to pass it on to all your friends (with different IP addresses seeing as it’s measured on unique visitors)!

When I wrote the post, I figured that all of the other entrees would be “How To …” or “Top Ten Tips…” so I decided to do something a little more entertaining that actually had a chance at going viral.  Plus, with a list like this readers can get involved by adding their own funny ideas (I’ve had some great tweets, emails, & comments); and those conversations with people interacting – to me that’s the highlight of being a marketer.

What was it about studying history that made you want to join the new media revolution?

As a student of history, I’ve always loved researching, looking at events through a variety of lenses, and sucking resources dry on a subject matter. The beauty of search is that as long as engines are changing algorithms there will be more for us marketers to research, look at through different perspectives, and experiment on.

You currently work at Base One – what is the third thing you do when you arrive at work?

Say hi to Tony, our security guard. We usually asses my hair and outfit together in the mirror while I wait for the elevator.

If you could be anything other than a search consultant, what would you be (you still have to be a human though)?

Cowgirl. I would love to run a ranch in Wyoming and go horseback riding, kayaking, and hiking all summer, then have the Rockies to ski in during the winter.

What the hell inspired this avatar:?

LOL!  Stuart, no need to be shy.  If you like it that much I can make a few calls to get you one too!

You worked on the Howard Stern show (awesome!) – surely you have an anecdote you would love to share with us

You mean one that isn’t rated XXX?  Ok, how about this:

We had a competition to pick the most desperate virgin out there, and I think the winning contestant was actually submitted by his mom.  Anyways, the prize was a strip tease and hand job from a porn star.  Guess who got to hold the boom mic over the hotel bed as it happened, so it could be heard live on air?

Who do you prefer, Bill Murray or Dan Ackroyd?

I’m a big Wes Anderson fan, so we’ll have to go with Bill Murray.

And finally, what’s the most inspiring, insightful fact you can give to the lovely Leeds SEO readership?

Isn’t this the part where I talk about the future of search?  How we’re moving to a mobile search so get ready for a gigantic shift. And how our greatest opportunities to succeed as marketers is in listening to all the users at the bottom of the pyramid and building up client brands based on that insight?

Ok, 1 fact: Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

-Fin-

Thanks for taking the time out to talk to me Chelsea, if you would like to follow the adventures of Miss Blacker check her out on Twitter or at her very own blog.

So I go on the O2 site this morning to check the news and I notice they have taken a step back in time and launched a virutal help assistant called Lucy on there for some unknown reason. Like talking to a virtual person is in some way better than reading an FAQ.

So I asked ‘Lucy’ (apparently “Asking Lucy is the easiest way to get help online”) if there was any further news on the Palm release and here’s what I got:

Well she provided a response, which is technically answering...

Aside from that being a complete lie (unless she’s got a Second Life account) it’s also complete bollocks. I don’t have anything against this kind of thing per se, it’s a bit cliched and tacky but at least take the time to make it useful before slapping it on your site. Schoolboy error.

I’d love to see some more Ask Lucy responses down here if anyone has any – especially if she answers your question correctly!

Update! Getting To Know Lucy – My Quest For A Virtual Date

I regularly scour the internet for girlfriends so getting to know Lucy seemed to be an ideal opportunity. Since she knows so little about O2 I thought I’d try a different line of enquiry…

Who Is Your Fiance?

As she already told me she was engaged (apparently happily but I don’t believe it) I pressed her for more details about her other half. She was tight lipped other than his name:

Paul eh?

Do you have a dog?

I seemed to hit a frosty silence with other Paul questions so I changed tack – pets! A great conversation started…

Progress!

After warming her up with those romantic overtures I decided to go in for the kill:

Let’s Mate?

You damn tease!

Can I have your number?

Maybe that was a bit strong, I toned it down a little to see if I’d have more success.

That's her real number - dammit!

Needless to say this did not leave me pleased, I resorted to insulting her before leaving, dignity intact:

F*ck you Lucy

I can’t believe she could resist but somehow she has, as well. The search continues…