Growth

Google’s Anatomy

by jiyanwei • September 20, 2012

This was originally published on Search Engine Watch (September 2012) In what has become a meme, CEO Larry Page referred to Google+ as the company’s “social spine” in an earnings call earlier this year. As Page explains, the role of Google+ is to connect a host of products across Google’s platform. The “social spine” metaphor […]


Getting started with semantic SEO

by jiyanwei • August 21, 2012

Originally published in Search Engine Watch (August 2012)  When search engines begin making fundamental platform changes, a somewhat consistent causal chain ensues: The first phase: This is normally marked by experimentation and discourse as innovators and professionals with vested interest dabble in the space and discuss their findings (in places like Search Engine Watch). The […]


The rumors of E-mail’s death have been greatly exaggerated

by Jiyan • March 12, 2012

Ragan recently commented on Vocus’ acquisition of iContact in an article entitled, Is email still necessary? As a former Vocus product manager (and ardent supporter of the company), my first impression was “Wow, that was a big acquisition.” My second thought was that it makes a lot of sense and here is why: 1. E-mail […]


Increasing time-on-page

by jiyanwei • December 9, 2011

Originally published on Moz (December 2011) In 2011, “quality” certainly seems to have become the soupe du jour. With the release of Panda, Google affirmed their stance that quality was something that could be algorithmically determined and the determination of quality would be a key factor in determining search rankings. Many (including Rand) concluded that […]


How startups should think about PR

by Jiyan • November 9, 2011

If you start a company, you have about a 50% chance of being around in five years, which is the same survival rate as if you were just diagnosed with colon cancer.  Now let’s talk about PR. When you start a business, you also start a timer that is counting down the days until your […]