Daily Obsessive Google Rank Check:
Pool Cues: #2
Pool Cue: #2

Well, those wacky kids over at Google have managed to shuffle me out of my beloved #1 ranking for both pool cue and pool cues.  Drag.  I get why PoolDawg and Ozone keep flip flopping between #1 and #2, but for Google to put a cue manufacturer site up at #1 for pool cues just doesn’t make much sense at all.  Especially for a site that is competely unusable with Firefox and Chrome.  Kudos to McDermott though for nabbing the top spot.

Yiddish Word of the Moment:

Schlameal and Schlamozel (they always go together)
Definition:  Simply put, the schalmeal is the guy who spills the soup on someone and the schlamozel is the guy who gets the soup spilled on him

Daily Obsessive Google Rank Check:
Pool Cues: #1
Pool Cue: #2

Its funny.  The term billiards is probably the most competitive SEO term in our industry, it doesn’t convert well, but it continues to be a thorn in my side purely from a pride perspective.  The reality is that the term is pretty much a complete waste of time as all it does is bring a bunch of tire kickers to the site, but even so, I still feel like we should be on Page 1 (since that is what we do).  The last couple of weeks, I’ve been starting to focus on that term again (as well as working on getting pool cue back to #1).  I’ve got us up to #21 so far, but we’ll see how far I can take it.

In other news, Central Michigan choked last night, bringing my bowl record to 3-5.  Today I’m taking UNC +1.5 over West Virginia, Wisconsin +6 over Florida State and Miami +10 over Cal.

Daily Obsessive Google Rank Check:
Pool Cues: #1
Pool Cue: #2

It might just be the stupid in me, but I’m taking Notre Dame -2 over Hawaii today.  Hawaii isn’t that good and I just refuse to believe that Notre Dame is as bad as they seem to be.  With last night’s cover, I pushed my 2008 Bowl record to an unimpressive 2-4.

On to other news.  Just in time for the holidays, Matt Cutts plays the harbinger of doom with this interview at Pubcon.

Really interesting 10 minute interview where among other things, the SEO face of Google discusses how rankings aren’t going to matter as much in 2009.  It sounds like there’s going to be a heavier focus on localizing search as well as pushing search results based on each individual searcher’s history.  I guess we’re finally starting to understand how that sneaky Google Desktop program is going to work its way into your search results.

From a consumer perspective, I get why they’re doing this.  From an SEO perspective though, its really going to force companies to revisit their search marketing strategies.  In my opinion, this is just another way that Google is going to force companies to spend more on Adwords.  When this happens, the result will be that any company who wants to be above the fold guaranteed for every searcher will have to bid (and bid strong) on their keywords of choice.