A few things went through my mind and I wondered if they lacked either the closing tag to the TITLE element or if the structure was fine, but some bad code got into the element’s content.

Here’s what the source view of the page found in the SERP:

You can see that it was indeed some actual code got in between the opening and closing tag of the element. A possible bad case of copy and paste. Messy, messy!

I only clicked on result because I was curious to know what caused the markup farce. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m an HTML geek, I would have either been confused by it and/or thought the result was a phony Kellogg’s impostor (thankfully it should some accreditation because it was the kelloggs.com domain). Both the confusion and slight lack of trust would have made me skip over this result and never giving Kellogg’s an opportunity to convert me in any SEO fashion.

The take away from this lesson: Make sure that your code is clean. Clean code = Cleaner result on a SERP. Cleaner result = higher visitor rate. All that is left is optimizing the page title, description, and URL so it shows for your targeted keywords, other than “Kellogg’s” and “Special K”.

Oh, if their selection was clean, I still would not have clicked. Their description is not an exact match for me. I’m looking for healthy alternative cereal recipes for making Special K Bars not their actual product line of Special K Protein Bars.

The cheat sheet covers:

• Set-up
• Link tagging
• Filters
• Goals and goal tracking
• Tracking 404 errors
• Nerdy ninja tricks
• Blogs and tools you’ll need

Get your analytics cheat sheet in both link friendly or print friendly formats.

Wondering what will happen tomorrow? I’ve got some ideas formulating. Stay tuned!

• Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
  by Jennifer Grappon & Gradiva Couzin.

I’ve read the first edition of SEO: An Hour a Day almost a year ago and found it to be really useful. I’m excited to see what is new in the second edition. Other books that arrived today include the following.

• Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions
  by Tim Ash
• Email Marketing: An Hour a Day
  by Jeanniey Mullen & David Daniels
• Web Analytics: An Hour a Day
  by Avinash Kaushnik
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly
  by David Meerman Scott

Although I’ve been doing some of the latest trends SEO, e-mail marketing, web analytics, and inbound marketing for about three years now (the length of time I have been at Enercon), you might think of why did I get these books if I have already been practicing what I will read. To answer, its because I’d rather read/learn as much as I can so I know I’m proficient in what I am essentially learning by doing, and to stay with or even ahead of the curve. Self-educating is as simple as reading [(e)books, blogs, articles], watching online videos, and practicing all that I learn. That’s even how I became wicked in (X)HTML, CSS and DOM-Scripting; self-education!

I’ll let you know of my reviews when I have completed each book. In the mean time, do you have any books (topic of your choice) you’d like to recommend?