Stephan Spencer

Articles by: Stephan Spencer

Stephan Spencer

Stephan Spencer is co-author of "The Art of SEO," the founder of Netconcepts, and the inventor GravityStream, an automated pay-for-performance natural search technology platform.

Stephan is a frequent conference speaker on SEO and other online marketing topics for the Direct Marketing Association, American Marketing Association, Shop.org, Internet Retailer, SMX, IncisiveMedia (Search Engine Strategies), O'Reilly/TechWeb, PubCon, ECMOD, IQPC, and IIR.

His hundreds of speaking gigs have taken him around the globe — from Berlin, London, Toronto, Santiago, and Auckland, to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and places in between.

He is host of two popular podcasts, "The Optimized Geek" and "Marketing Speak."

SEO
The Essential Component of Viral Videos

October 26, 2017 • Stephan Spencer

Hundreds of hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. As marketers, we often wonder why only a tiny percentage of those uploads go viral. We lament why it ...
SEO
How to Check Your Website’s SEO Health

June 27, 2011 • Stephan Spencer

There’s no reason, really, why ecommerce merchants cannot improve the search engine visibility of their websites. That’s because there are many free tools to gauge the search-engine-optimization health of those sites, and suggest SEO corrections to them. In this screencast below, I’ll...
SEO
Search Engines Love Blogs; 3 Benefits

May 12, 2011 • Stephan Spencer

Search engines love blogs. They provide original, updated content that contribute to highly ranked sites. But how do merchants optimize blogs for search engines and how do they incorporate the blogs into their ecommerce sites? I'll discuss optimizing blogs for search engine performance ...
SEO
How to Waste Time on SEO Activities

March 4, 2011 • Stephan Spencer

As a general rule, search engine optimization consultants are activity-focused. They typically suggest a huge laundry list of various activities to perform. Perhaps the list is prioritized, but nonetheless it is frequently chock full of action items. Unfortunately, many of these activit...
SEO
SEO Report Card: 877MyJuicer.com

November 17, 2010 • Stephan Spencer

Andrew Casey, founder and CEO of 877MyJuicer.com, asked for an "SEO Report Card" for his site. As always, I’m happy to oblige. Andrew started this business in 2004 by selling juicers on eBay. Over the past 6 years, he has grown his startup into a million dollar company with its own e...
SEO
SEO Report Card: AxisLabs.net

October 4, 2010 • Stephan Spencer

In this month's “SEO Report Card,” I'll look at the website for Axis Labs, a company that produces and sells nutritional supplements. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, this private company went international in 2006 and now distributes to six of the seven continents. Axis Labs curren...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Woot.com

July 23, 2010 • Stephan Spencer

For this month’s “SEO Report Card,” I thought I would do something different and review a site that didn’t request it. The site I chose, Woot.com, is near and dear ...
SEO
SEO Report Card: United States Golf Association, Photo Store Website

June 16, 2010 • Stephan Spencer

This month in “SEO Report Card,” I’ll be reviewing the photo store for the United States Golf Association Museum website. This was at the request of Robert Sabin, the president ...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Springbok-Puzzles.com

May 10, 2010 • Stephan Spencer

In this installment of "SEO Report Card," we'll be looking at Springbok-Puzzles.com. Springbok is a well-known brand among jigsaw puzzle aficionados. Allied Products is behind the Springbok Puzzles brand, having acquired the rights in 2002 from Hallmark, who used to sell the brand exclu...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Hybrid-racing.com Combines WordPress, Magento

March 23, 2010 • Stephan Spencer

The co-owner of Hybrid-racing.com, Will Davidson, requested a search-engine-optimization site review. I'm happy to oblige. The first thing that struck me was that WordPress was the main "wrapper" for the site, powering the home page, tech articles, gallery, blog, and product informatio...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Juggle.com “Not a Traditional eCommerce Site”

February 11, 2010 • Stephan Spencer

I'm proud to say that this is my first report card as a vice president of Covario. The company I founded in 1995, Netconcepts, was acquired last month by Covario, a search-engine-marketing and search-engine-optimization software and services company for large online retailers. This mon...
SEO
SEO Report Card: BabyGiftIdea.com

December 17, 2009 • Stephan Spencer

For this month, I am reviewing BabyGiftIdea.com, at co-owner Pat Laws' request. Pat and her husband bought the business from the original owner in May 2008. The site has been online for about nine years, so it definitely has some history and credibility in the eyes of Google. Pat shar...
SEO
SEO Report Card: WisconsinMade.com Needs Quick Tweaks for the Holidays

November 10, 2009 • Stephan Spencer

As we enter into the holiday shopping season, it's all hands on deck for merchants selling gift baskets. The Wisconsin specialist e-tailer Wisconsin Made is no exception. The challenge is to make an impact in what little time is left in the year. Search engine optimization (SEO) isn't i...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Moodswingsonthenet.com Offers Retro Fashion, Retro SEO

October 21, 2009 • Stephan Spencer

Our "SEO Report Card" for this month is Moodswingsonthenet.com. The CEO of Moodswings, Elizabeth Bighorse, requested this review, and she told us that the company has just finished a re-launch of its "multiple sales channel" site. Moodswings focuses on urban, rockabilly, tattoo and alt...
SEO
SEO Report Card: PhotoWeights.com

September 11, 2009 • Stephan Spencer

This month’s site up for review is PhotoWeights.com. Owned by Susan Eaton, PhotoWeights.com sells personalized, do-it-yourself paperweight kits from family photos and other artwork. Eaton requested this "SEO Report Card" review. Home Page First things first, the home page has some maj...
SEO
SEO Report Card: OnlyHangers.com Has a Good Home Page, Bad Product Pages

July 23, 2009 • Stephan Spencer

This month fortune smiles on OnlyHangers.com for a free site review. We received the request from the company's owner, Ron Maier. In a way, OnlyHangers.com is in an enviable position because it is in such a niche market; so the known universe of relevant search terms is relatively small...
SEO
SEO Report Card: SimpleFamilyLiving.com a “Train Wreck”

June 23, 2009 • Stephan Spencer

This month's "SEO Report Card" victim, er, volunteer, SimpleFamilyLiving.com, is quite simply, an SEO train wreck. The mission of the online business (to provide eco-friendly products that reduce landfill waste) is laudable, but its execution is seriously flawed. Putting aside the fac...
SEO
SEO Report Card: eHobbies.com “Uncommonly Sophisticated”

May 11, 2009 • Stephan Spencer

This month eHobbies.com is up for review. Ken Kikkawa, CEO of eHobbies, submitted the site for grading. I have to say I was impressed. Chief executive officers of companies that large - #364 on the Internet Retailer 500 list for eHobbies - are usually too high level to concern themselve...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Poor SEO Choices Cost Worthy Charity

April 1, 2009 • Stephan Spencer

Although you might not think of nonprofits as having ecommerce sites, they do. They accept donations via secure transactions. Rarely will they have a shopping cart, but nonetheless, nonprofits suffer from a number of the same search engine optimization ills that plague traditional ecomm...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Gosatellite.com

March 5, 2009 • Stephan Spencer

I took a long hiatus from "SEO Report Card" when my capable colleague Jeff Muendel filled-in for me. But now I'm happy to report, “I'm baaaack.” Our lucky contestant this month is Gosatellite.com. Steven Hutt, echannels director with that company, requested this site grade. Home Pa...
SEO
Video: SEO Update

November 8, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

In February 2006, Contributor Stephan Spencer, founder and CEO of search-firm Netconcepts, critiqued the search engine optimization efforts of Discountflies.com, following a request from that company. In this SEO Report Card critique, Spencer issued a C- for an overall SEO grade. In ...
SEO
Video: SEO Website Update

October 29, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

In January 2006, Contributor Stephan Spencer, founder and CEO of search-firm Netconcepts, critiqued the search engine optimization efforts of Balancedlifeproducts.com, following a request from that company. In this SEO Report Card critique, Spencer issued a D+ for an overall SEO grade....
SEO
SEO Report Card: Beachaudio.com

September 12, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

Ranked 359 in the Internet Retailer 500, and boasting over 45,000 products in its catalog and 151,000 pages in Google, Beach Audio has a lot of grunt. According to Troy McKinnon, their director of ecommerce, Beach Audio did a complete search engine optimization overhaul using in-house s...
SEO
Search Engine Optimization And Web 2.0

September 6, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

That well-used buzzword "Web 2.0" encompasses a number of technologies, including blogs, RSS feeds, wikis, tagging/folksonomies, podcasts, widgets, AJAX and Flash. Some of these technologies are a net positive for your search engine visibility and some are a net negative.  Blogs and RSS...
SEO
SEO: Heads or (Long) Tails?

August 29, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

Search engine optimizing for the "Long Tail" is fundamentally different from optimizing for the head. Therefore, it’s important to initially point out that the strategies and tactics for “Long Tail” SEO are more automated and extensible than for traditional SEO. What is "Long Tail?" ...
SEO
SEO Report Card: VeganStore.com

August 15, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

Veganstore.com, operated by Pangea Vegan Products, is a site after my own heart. As a recently turned vegetarian (as of a year ago), I'm definitely in the target market. Too bad it's unlikely I would have discovered the site. That's because I'm not strictly vegan, and the site isn't ta...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Republicatrading.com

August 6, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

Founder Rafael Jimenez of NYC-based Latino and multi-ethnic men's streetwear brand Republica Trading Co. volunteered to have his site reviewed. That was a good call because the site misses the mark when it comes to SEO in some key areas. Before even loading the home page, I uncovered...
SEO
SEO: Is Your Site Holiday-ready?

August 1, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

Those of you with school-age children may have been preoccupied with back-to-school, but now it’s time to start preparing your site for the holidays. The holiday shopping season is not that far off, so get on with implementing these traffic-building tips in order to achieve maximum sear...
SEO
SEO: Metrics That Matter

June 17, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

Out with the old, in with the new. In terms of SEO, what’s falling by the wayside? Obsessively watching indexation numbers and rankings on “trophy” keywords (like the one you know the CEO always checks first thing in the morning). Worrying yourself sick over “duplicate content penalt...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Change Home Page Links

June 12, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

This month's selectee, Millcraftfurniture.com, is an outdoor furniture manufacturer operating a small (less than 100 pages) MIVA Merchant-powered ecommerce site. Its rankings are in the doldrums. The store does not appear in the first 100 listings in Google for critical terms "Adirondac...