Advanced SEO Tips From Hamlet Batista

To be or not to be. The Hamlet who serves as the subject of this ReviewMe request has nothing to do with poor Yorick’s skull. Instead, Hamlet Batista prides himself in being an expert Internet marketer, dishing out all sorts of advanced search engine marketing tips.

Who is Hamlet Batista?

Good question. We’re going international, because Hamlet Batista was born and currently resides in the Dominican Republic. He has a very sound background in all sorts of computer and Internet-related industries, having worked at several companies in a variety of capacities.

Sifting through the About page, we learn that his credentials include education in Telecommunications Engineering, as well as experience in Windows C++ development and Unix/Linux system administration. After that, he took the position of IT Director with a “small team of highly talented individuals at an online marketing firm.”

Hamlet already knew affiliate marketing quite well, but only from a programming standpoint. It was after running into “one of the top online marketers” at his job that he started to explore affiliate and Internet marketing from a business perspective. Hearing about “pay-per-click, Viagra, and the almighty dollar… was enough to get Hamlet started.”

Clean Wordpress Layout

In terms of layout, Hamlet Batista dot Com is very easy on the eyes. He’s made good use of blue — everyone’s favorite (web) color — and it’s very clear where one post ends and another begins. I also appreciate his use of a two-column layout, because I personally find three-column templates to be a little too busy.

Remember when John Chow was still running the MistyLook theme? By the time most people came across this blog, his header image was a pair of Pagani Zonda supercars. Hamlet is taking a similar approach with his header, featuring a beautiful yacht. The header has a little more style than a simple photograph, seeing how it chops in the world wide web on the left and some strange 3D rendering on the right. I think it works. I’m not a fan of the two colors for the tabs, however. I’d stick with just the blue.

You’ll also notice that the main page is very long, with twenty posts stretching out the length considerably. They’ll all truncated posts with “read more” links. I’d bring this number down. Keeping the “read more” would be a good idea, because the posts tend to be very lengthy. Look at What marketers can learn from strategy games, for example. Given their word count, it is perfectly acceptable that Hamlet doesn’t blog daily either.

As is the rage with so many blogs these days, Hamlet Batista dot Com has a fat footer too. I don’t think the About is necessary, because it just links to the About page anyways.

Advanced SEO Techniques?

SEO is a very popular topic. You can’t take two steps to the left without bumping into another SEO blog. Where Hamlet Batista hopes to set himself apart is by providing tips and techniques that are a little more unconventional. He doesn’t want to teach you traditional ideas; instead, his blog provides “advanced search engine marketing tips and techniques that give you an edge over your competitors.”

It’s clear that Batista wants to talk a stroll off the beaten path. Here are a few of his most recent posts that caught my eye:

• The Year of the Widgets: OpenSocial and the big potential for search engine marketers
• PageRank: Caught in the paid-link crossfire
• Revealing your Competitor’s FULL External Relevance Profile – One of my best kept secrets
• Winning the (right) race

One post that I thought was particularly interesting was A Google Allegory, and it’s not just because he mentions John Chow. In this post, he talks about how the PageRank of John Chow dot Com has been adversely affected by the PR update, but he says that it’s not because John sells paid links. It’s because of John’s “link back campaign, which was clearly designed to game Google.” Remember the whole ‘make money online’ promo? I guess people should stop running contests asking for links using specific anchor text.

A Solid Search Engine Optimization Blog

Hamlet Batista has a good thing going with his SEO blog. The posts, although aimed at providing more advanced tips and information, are easy enough to read for beginners. The layout is easy on the eyes and everything just makes sense. My biggest recommendation would be to reduce the number of posts on the main page, because it is far too long as it stands.

Curiously, there isn’t any obvious blog monetization on Hamlet Batista dot Com. This is, presumably, because Batista is using his blog as a promotional tool for his own company, which is currently developing an SEO software program. Clever.