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Eleven Step Guide to Understanding SEO – Part 2
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Eleven Step Guide to Understanding SEO – Part 2
One piece of ‘new media jargon’ that has got the vast
majority of business leaders confused is SEO (search engine
optimization). Too many people have been charged too much
for either inappropriate or ineffective SEO services, often
because the supplier does not really understand it either.
This two part article is for people who are not experienced
or very knowledgeable when it comes to SEO – defining what
it is and what it can do.
The introduction and first five steps to SEO heaven
discussed how to get a website ready for an SEO campaign.
In part two (steps 6 to 11), we’ll explore the continuous
and competitive process of earning a high search engine
ranking for a SEO prepared website.
Step 6 to SEO Heaven – Web Analytics
As with any marketing, but particularly for online
marketing, where the tools and results are so effective, it
is essential to measure and track results. Market behaviour
is very predictable. Accordingly, the effectiveness of each
part of your campaign can be compared and optimized. The
options for web analytics vary from free services to very
expensive and customizable packages.
Whichever you choose, don’t put it off. Measure your results
from day one and use them to improve your site and your
marketing campaigns. That old statement ‘I know half my
advertising does not work, if I only knew which half was not
working I’d stop spending it’ is not true on the internet.
You can and must know.
Step 7 to SEO Heaven – Content Building
Part of being ‘the best and most relevant’ result is having
the freshest content, and the search engines look for that
by regular visits to your site and reviewing your site’s
progress. They use a formula, not usually a human being,
unless they detect potential fraud.
Actually, good SEO means a website is never done, and the
fact that it has to change and grow over time gives your
customers a better experience. Search engines reward a
‘natural process’ that adjusts to changes in the market
and your normal business growth.
Providing good quality content that is related to what you
do, but not necessarily aimed at selling something directly,
is a powerful, perhaps the the best, opportunity to increase
the traffic to your website and the exposure of your
business. Most people do not link to pages that only serve
the purpose of making a sale.
This leads to the next step in this 11 step process of
successful search engine optimization for your website.
Step 8 to SEO Heaven – Link Building
The internet works through links, it would not be a “net”
without links. A collection of independent pages that are
not connected to each other cannot be found and, for the
most part, that defeats their purpose. People seeing and
clicking on links to your site make effective inbound links
that search engines like to reward with a higher ranking for
your website. They are also vital for SEO.
Inbound links play an important role in virtually every
search engine when it comes to ranking pages in their search
results. In the normal course of business links are added,
and sometimes removed, all the time. This never ending
organic process is monitored and measured by the search
engines as an indicator of importance and relevance – so it
is advisable to be pro-active in acquiring good inbound
links. There are plenty of sites out there that should link
to you, but don’t know you and your content. Help them to
find your content and encourage linking to it.
Step 9 to SEO Heaven – Engagement, Trust and
Community Building
Like it or not social media is a reality whole sections of
society participate in for hours daily and is a fundamental
indicator of relevance and popularity. Don’t allow your
website to exist in an isolated bubble. Talk to people and
allow them to respond and to interact with you.
People will talk about you with or without your permission.
Much better to seize the initiative and become part of the
discussion. Use it to build trust and deeper relationships
with your customers or potential customers. Use it like
research. Listen to what they say and learn about their
wants and their needs. Listen and take note of comments,
especially criticisms, and use them to improve. You can save
the money you might have spent on focus groups and get
feedback free of charge on the internet.
In relation to SEO, social media provides a huge opportunity
to expand your link building. For your business it increases
your brand exposure for a fraction of the cost of traditional,
more intrusive advertising campaigns that are usually less
effective.
Step 10 to SEO Heaven – Ranking and Traffic Analysis
When you begin, or if you have already started, check where
you are today to be able to track and compare with data in
the future. Look for trends and evaluate the progress
towards your goals. You know those goals which we set in the
first paragraph before we began the campaign. The ones you
should specify before you engage in any type of marketing
campaign. Those goals were measurable I hope? If you view
improving your SEO ranking as a measure of your business
success rather than an essential step to achieving business
success, you will maintain a high SEO ranking for the long
term. Why, because the high traffic that comes with it will
drive your business.
Does the change in ranking yield the traffic you expected?
Does this traffic actually convert? Which leads us neatly
to step 11 of SEO heaven.
Step 11 to SEO Heaven – Conversion Analysis
All of this effort matters not one jot unless you make your
profit number (or the equivalent in not for profit
organizations). It all comes down to one critical factor -
what is your bottom line? Did you make profit or did you
lose money. Web Analytics is part of the process of making
this determination. Focus on the things that work and help
your bottom line and stop doing the things that don’t.
Work on the details to increase visitor conversion to sales.
This requires testing. Don’t try anything upfront without
testing it first. The things that work for others might not
work for you and the same is true the other way around.
Many with experience in the SEO game will tell you that
there is another, more important step that would make this
article 12 steps to SEO heaven. That step is to be sure
only to work with people who can really explain SEO in plain
English. To be blunt, small, independent and one-man-band
web designers rarely get SEO fully and their usually well
meaning efforts end up costing you more than they deliver.
They do get part of the story, but they fail you by wasting
both your money and your time.
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Eleven Steps to SEO Heaven – Part 1
Are you fed up with feeling baffled by search engine
optimization (SEO) because of jargon and poor practitioners? Do
you feel you have been charged too much for less than you were
promised? This two part article sets out to explain the process
and put you back in control.
If you have focused objectives and a clear online strategy then
SEO will almost always be a good cost effective addition to the
marketing tool set. The first thing to understand is that search
engine businesses, like Google, Yahoo and Bing, have customers
to satisfy too. Their customers are searching and they expect to
see the ‘best and most relevant’ search results. I expect like
me, you get frustrated if your searches bring irrelevant results
first. No surprise then, that the methods used by the search
engine operators are designed to deliver customer satisfaction.
They work hard to eliminate bogus SEO services that aim to
cheat.
It is possible for you to make your website ‘the best and most
relevant’ for certain searches and to convince the search
engine operator you are just that too. That is SEO. Each of my
11 steps to SEO heaven is necessary. I assume that you will be
committed to a long term marketing strategy, and to measuring
results with a view to adjusting your activity. The steps
include those of preparation as well of those of continuous
repeated activities. The early preparatory steps are perhaps the
most important as errors here will frustrate the effectiveness
of the later ones.
Armed with our clear objectives and online strategy:
Step 1 to SEO Heaven – Keyword Research
A vital first step that should not be undertaken lightly. While
experienced pay-per-click advertisers will know that you can
easily test and change hundreds of keywords in paid search
campaigns, they should understand this not possible for organic
search optimization. It is normally advisable to concentrate on
one to five key phrases for the whole site around a core theme.
Then, for individual pages only one to three phrases. For large
sites with hundreds of pages it is hard to optimize every single
page. The effort and cost of SEO to the full extent produces
diminishing returns.
Step 2 to SEO Heaven – Competitive Intelligence
SEO is competitive. There is only one front page and only one
top slot so it is important to know your competition and perform
better. What are they doing? Where do they rank and for which
keywords? Who is linking to their website and why? The less
competitive your industry is online the easier it is for you to
outperform your competition. This is an important determining
factor in the cost and resources necessary to achieve your
desired SEO outcome.
Step 3 to SEO Heaven – Web Design and Development
Like trying to cable an old building for modern communications
or boosting performance of an obsolete machine, fixing a bad
website design is much tougher than building properly from
scratch. When you create a new website, make sure to consider
search engine friendly design and architecture before and during
the actual development of the website. Almost all template-based
websites are tough to re-engineer for SEO. A good design from
the start will save you a lot of time and money. In most cases
it will put you ahead of a considerable number of your
competitors. In most cases a high performing design for SEO is
also a user friendly design, but occasionally compromise is
necesary.
Step 4 to SEO Heaven – Get Your First Inbound Links
There is no need to pay to submit your website to any search
engine. Just as soon as you create inbound links from other
websites to yours the search engines will find your website.
There are plenty of scam products and services. Avoid them. They
are a waste of your money. No one can guarantee you a number 1
ranking. It must be earned and maintained by being the best and
most relevant.
There are some web directories that are recognized by search
engines and gaining a trade listing there will be a helpful
kick-start to your SEO campaign. Then ask your customers and
suppliers to place a link to your website from theirs. Most will
be pleased for the favor to be returned.
Step 5 to SEO Heaven – Sitemaps
The larger search engines allow webmasters to submit a sitemap
to them via a webmaster console. The search engines also provide
reports and other useful information, such as technical problems
with your websites you might not be aware of via their console.
Even if you decide against the submission of a site map to the
search engines, it is advisable to create an account and
register your website with them, just for the reports and
statistics they provide free of charge and which are invaluable
for your internet marketing efforts.
After completion of the first 5 steps, schedule them for
occasional review. The remaining tasks require regular and
repetitive effort. In Eleven Steps to SEO Heaven (steps 6 to
eleven) we look at taking a website that is a SEO ready site
with a ready to run campaign and look at the steps and work
needed to claim a high search engine ranking.
Google Real Time Search Impact On Small Businesses
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Google Real Time Search Impact On Small Businesses
Google recently introduced us to Real Time Search and this has
been met with a lot of questions. What Tweets will show up in
real time? How will this affect businesses who are, and those who
are not, engaging in social media? How will it affect PPC? Where
will the searches show up? The biggest question is what impact
will this have on small business? Small business owners are
met with limited resources and adding any additional hours into
their day is nearly impossible. But can a small business ignore
real time search?
What is Real Time Search? As per Google
“… new features that bring your search results to life with a
dynamic stream of real-time content from across the web. Now,
immediately after conducting a search, you can see live updates
from people on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as
well as headlines from news and blog posts published just
seconds before. When they are relevant, we’ll rank these latest
results to show the freshest information right on the search
results page.”
In other words, your tweets from Twitter and new blog articles
will be appear as “Latest Results.” The latest results are
featured in 2 ways.
a. On the search results page below the “News Results” (if
there are news results). This appears for very hot topics that
are getting a lot of activity.
b. The “Show Options” menu: click on “Latest” under All Results
and the live search results will appear.
What Does This Mean for Small Businesses?
1. Customer Experience.
Consumers are much more savvy and they are going online for more
information. A quick Google search will provide them possibly
more information about your company than you might have thought.
A business cannot control what a person tweets about. As we see
in the example below, tweets are posted when they mention a
topic, business name, a name, etc.
See: http://www.sitepronews.com/images2/googlerealtime.jpg
Image Courtesy of: Lifehacker.com
(http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/12/is-google-real-time-search-any-good/)
Most tweets, blog entries and company mentions will show up
under “Latest” and not on the main search results page. However,
if a consumer wants to see more information about you, they have
the option at their fingertips.
2. Reputation Management.
Not every business is on Twitter or has a blog, nor do they
necessarily belong. However, ignoring your “Latest” news can
present a problem. If a consumer is singing your praises, or
worse a bad comment is written and you do not respond, you are
adding fuel to the fire. That customer has been given a chance
to continuously go on and on about your company/brand whereas
the praise singer just got deflated with no feedback from you.
Failing to monitor your reputation online could result in some
missed opportunities or a poor company image that leads to
reduced sales.
3. Spam.
Yes there will be spam because spammers are going to jump
on this like ants at a summer picnic. While Google will make
every attempt to try and control spam, the current algorithm for
posting in real time makes that nearly impossible. How will this
affect a small business? Spammers could very well keyword stuff
tweets to get ahead and push your company lower on the tweets
area. This is going to happen. There is no control right now, but
the key is to try and stay ahead of them.
4. Search Engine Optimization.
Will real time search improve page rank? This remains to be
seen. Will keyword laden tweets that are tweeted over and over
from different accounts and push a company to the top of a
searched term make a difference? Will this be seen as spam?
Keyword laden tweets will give great results for a specific
term, especially for those difficult to rank terms, and even
if your company is atop of tweets for a short time, you may reap
some rewards.
Real time search is not just the posting of tweets. It also
posts company mentions from blog articles. So if your company
has a blog, you may want to check out your “Latest” results.
In small business branding we have to consider social media
marketing as an extension of your brand in the same way that we
do traditional advertising. For some businesses, it is a time of
uncertainty. As stated earlier, not every business needs to be
on Twitter. A “crickets” account is worse than no account at
all. But can you still just ignore the social media community?
The good news here is that, if you are able to squeeze in an
extra hour as a small business owner, you can go and see what
terms are popular in your industry, see what is being said
about you, and see if you need to move full steam ahead in 2010.
Most smal businesses will need to do so because social media
marketing has just started to make a big impact and getting in
now will make a world of a difference in a year or so.
SEO Tips: Get More Traffic with These 10 Important Inbound Links
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Friday, August 27, 2010
SEO Tips: Get More Traffic with These 10 Important Inbound Links
Don’t overlook your inbound linking strategy as you think
about search engine optimization for your site. An inbound
link is a hyperlink back to your site from another web site.
The one constant and reliable strategy in search engine
optimization is that sites with a variety of high quality
backlinks rank higher in the search engine results pages.
Why are these links to your site important? They can can…
– bring potential customers to your site when they click
on the link
– increase the number of visitors to your web site
– dramatically improve your search engine rankings
Even though there are software packages on the market that
help automate the linking process, use them sparingly, if at
all. The only way to succeed in linking strategies is (aside
from creating useful content that will encourage inbound
links) by manually creating the links. That’s a hard fact
to swallow, given how I like to automate as much of my
marketing as I can.
Here are the 10 most important inbound links you must have
to your site:
1. Directory Links
Directories are indexes of online sites, typically organized
by category. Links back to your site from directories like
Yahoo Directory and DMOZ.org are very valuable. DMOZ.org is
edited by human editors, and while it’s free, it may take
awhile for your site to be listed. Getting listed in Yahoo’s
Directory costs $299/year.
2. Press Releases
If you’re writing press releases, make sure they are optimized
for keywords that someone would use to find a business like
yours and include links back to your site, as well. Once
written, you can have your press release distributed through
a service like PRWeb.com, which will create links from high
traffic news sites back to your site.
3. Article Directories
Writing and distributing articles through high traffic article
directories, like EzineArticles. com, is a great way to get
valuable inbound links from a high traffic site. By crafting
an effective resource box at the close of your article, you can
drive traffic back to your site!
4. Social Bookmarking
Similar to web browser bookmarks, social bookmarking sites
store individual pages (bookmarks) online and allows users
to tag (with keywords), organize, search, and manage bookmarks
of web resources as well as share them with others. If you
bookmark your own content on these sites (like Digg.com,
Reddit.com, Del.icio.us. com), you get a link from the service.
By producing content that your readers love and then bookmark
to their friends, the link increases in SEO value.
5. Blog Comments
To find blog posts on which to comment, you can use
blog-specific search engines like Google Blog Search. Make sure
these are blogs read by your target market, not your colleagues.
Brand yourself by always using the same name and remember to
link back to your site. Always leave a comment that adds to the
conversation that’s happening within the comments.
6. Social Media
Now, Google also indexes your Twitter updates and your social
networking profiles. Add that to Web 2.0 hubsites like Scribd
or HubPage and you’ve got the option of creating many, many
inbound links in a very short period of time.
7. Blog/Podcast Syndication
Submitting the RSS feed of your blog and podcast to syndication
services will give you a link back to your site. In some cases,
each time you publish a new blog post, the post itself will also
get a link.
8. Video Syndication
YouTube is one of the most visited sites online, and the number
of sites that syndicate videos is growing each day. These sites
often allow you to link to your site either in your video’s
description or on your profile page, or both.
9. .EDU and .GOV Links
Search engines place a great deal of credibility in government
and education web sites, and the links carry a great deal of
weight. Frankly, it isn’t easy to get inbound links from these
sites.
10. Internal Links
Remember, if you have more than one web site, or a web site and
a blog, be sure and link one to the other. You can do this by
linking one article to other related articles, or link to
categories or archives of information.
Creating a sound inbound linking strategy is a key component
of your search engine optimization efforts. Try a few of the
strategies listed above and see how your traffic and rankings
increase.
Advertising is Dead – Long Live Advertising
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Advertising is Dead – Long Live Advertising
Brand leadership through social media
Not so long ago, the relationship that brands had with their
customers was a one-way street. The brand was the boss. They
told their customers what to like and how to like it. The only
say the customer had was the decision to buy. This is no longer
the case. Customers are very publicly talking back and it is
making the management teams of some brands very nervous.
Web-based social networking platforms give customers power never
seen before. Now one voice can be heard by thousands of people.
Brands need to learn to deal with this evolution, so here is a
primer.
First, some background on how the internet has altered consumer
behaviour. The internet, and particularly the rise of social
media, has allowed people with similar interests to connect.
This becomes obvious when one trawls through Twitter, where the
common social network model of simply connecting with people you
know tends to give way to people connecting in groups according
to interest. Indeed, people interested in any topic imaginable
from all areas of the world are connecting. It’s like
subject-based forums on steroids. People are forming tribes.
Humans have always formed tribes. Religion, family, sports and
fashion are all examples of tribal behaviour. The difference now
is that any interest group can form a tribe almost instantly.
Social media has allowed any fringe idea to become the basis of
a tribe and a movement. People want desperately to be connected,
but, even more importantly, they want to be led. We are in a
time of massive change, which is driven by everybody’s desire
to do things in a new way and to be heard.
Barack Obama’s recent landslide victory is a good example of
this. He promised change, he communicated differently and led
with integrity. He connected to his audience through social
media. He started a movement, formed a tribe and then he and his
followers charged to victory. What the world discovered is that
you can now make an ad campaign as slick as you want, but if the
product is poor then it simply doesn’t matter.
So “advertising is dead” in the sense the old methods don’t
work the same way they used to. Obama’s opponents didn’t fully
understand the impact that social networking has had on society.
They continued to use the old and trusted methods of marketing.
These apparently transparent methods are diminishing in
influence as social networking begins to infiltrate every media
touch-point. In two recent articles I wrote for Anthill I talked
about how this is already happening to television and how the
newspaper industry needs to change to avoid becoming
irrelevant.
Social media is much more than a passing phase. Human
civilisation is built around social interaction. It’s what the
people want and this new media is only going to get bigger. It
will eventually become part of everything. Individual social
media companies might fade away (MySpace seems to be in that
category) as better designed products come onto the market, but
the world has spoken and it wants to be connected. Brands that
don’t adapt to this reality will be left behind. They will
become the guy at the party that nobody wants to sit next to
because he just keeps talking about himself.
Tribal Behaviour
Blogs have become socially and commercially influential. From
what started out as individuals chatting on about their lives,
blogs have become business tools and money making ventures. They
influence groups, buying patterns and fashion. They are modern
tribal leaders.
Not so long ago commentators speculated that blogging was simply
a passing fad. What these commentators didn’t realise was that
it was yet to achieve maturation and once it had it would signal
big trouble for the large media organisations. Now anyone with a
camera or a desire to write is ‘the press’. This pattern is
being repeated for micro-blogging, a category in which Twitter
is the current market leader. Some commentators question the
relevance of utilising Twitter to listen to people “drone on
about their lives”. But Twitter, and other micro-blogs, are in
the early stages of their development. They too will mature,
most probably much quicker than the original blogs, and enable
much bigger tribes to develop around even more specific subject
matter.
The tribal leaders of these new social media can be reached and
persuaded to support you, no matter what platform they decide to
use. Unlike the old ‘one way’ approach however, they need to
be interacted with on their own terms. Provided they have a
group of true fans, they can influence hundreds of thousands of
people – in a matter of hours. This is what gives them such
power.
And this is what marketers in the current environment have to
understand. The ‘mass-market’ model is on the decline. What is
needed now is a pattern of marketing to the ‘early adopters’ -
the ones at the front of the bell curve who have a true interest
in what you have to offer – and form a base of evangelists that
will market for you. You no longer have to aim to connect with
everyone. This really leaves the field wide open for the smaller
brands to break through – the ones willing to challenge.
The Age of the Challenger
In marketing speak, a ‘challenger brand’ is code for ‘the
small brand’. A challenger brand is one that is meant to be
fast, flexible and innovative in its communications. But in my
view the word ‘challenger’ should instead be short-hand for
‘emerging leader’.
Emerging leaders challenge the status quo, they challenge
themselves and they connect with others who have similar ideas -
those people who need a leader to show what to do and inspire
them. The market leader wants the status quo to remain just
that. They want to speak and be heard in a mass market. No
discussion thanks. The challenger realises that, in order to
create a movement there needs to be systems in place for
everybody in that tribe to be heard, and they commit to leading
that tribe with everything they’ve got.
Traditional advertising is not about interaction with the
individual. It is predominately a one-way conversation to a mass
audience. But nobody likes to be forced into making decisions.
This is why the traditional advertising model is beginning to
fail. It relies on mass media, and this media is itself being
transformed by social networks.
What can Social Networking do for Your Brand?
All of this may sound a bit scary for brand managers. It’s true
that it does take time and effort to build a community. And to
be truly effective, you have to obey some rules. Even so, it is
not a hard thing to do. It takes far more time and resources to
build that fan base with traditional advertising. Be honest, be
helpful and contribute to the community and you’ll get
supporters fast.
Social networking is far more than having a Facebook profile. It
is any platform that gives the end user an ability to
contribute. Many companies have realised that developing an
internal social media platform can aid in communication but have
yet to work out how it can help shape their brand personality.
A good social media strategy accepts that you can’t do
everything at once. A company can employ a social platform to
perform customer service, to connect directly with customers
(thereby humanising the brand), to obtain demographic
information on individuals to improve the effectiveness of
direct marketing or to harness a mass of surplus cognitive
resources to generate new ideas.
You can’t do everything with social media, but as long as you
are focused you will be able to do much more than you may
expect.
Where to Start
In the coming months, many companies will try to market through
social networks and many will fail. There are, of course, ways
of dramatically upping the chances of success, not least of
which is making sure you hire a company that knows the space
well. Making sure you know the fundamentals will help move
things along quickly.
The first thing any company moving into social networking should
decide is the overall goal. Knowing what you want to achieve and
why you are doing it may seem obvious but is something that is
easily overlooked if you rush into a project too quickly.
As with any good marketing activity, you need to know how your
customers think and behave. Unlike traditional advertising,
marketing online is very data-rich. It is possible to know
exactly what your customers are looking at, how long they spend
doing it and who they then talk to about the experience. Make
sure you know as much of this information as is possible before
you develop a strategy any further.
From there, deciding what channels you wish to utilise becomes a
very important choice. You should know where your target market
is by this stage, so deciding if Facebook, Twitter, Bebo or any
other platform is right should be easy. Deciding to create your
own platform is a bigger step but can be very rewarding if it is
done correctly. Again, make sure you are getting good advice and
a solid strategy and don’t just assume that if you make
something it will get used.
Measurement is important in all areas of business and social
networking is no exception. Developing good metric methods
should be an early priority. Remember that it is possible to
measure everything but not all information has value. Knowing
what you are looking at is vital. If you are hiring a marketing
firm to build you a social networking campaign, it makes sense
to have part of the payment tied to the performance of that
campaign. If you are building a network to get staff talking to
each other and your customers, the quality of the content will
go down if you assign KPIs to ‘platforms usage’ only.
Most importantly, make sure everyone involved knows what your
‘voice’ is. It is wise to develop a policy around social
networking usage, but if that policy is too tight you will lose
support. This is about people. Learn that it is OK to give up
control of your marketing message and become part of the
conversation. Be honest, be objective and be involved. And do
not leave your community. You have made a promise to these
people to listen to them. If you stop participating, they will
abandon you in an instant.
Start Lending
There is no better time to start developing social media
strategies. All market segments are spending a lot more time on
social networks (the time spent on Facebook grew by over 500
percent in the year Dec ’07 to Dec ’08) and in this time of
economic downturn it may be wise to attract new customers from
further afield. In the not-too-distant future, every company
will have a social networking policy, so getting in early will
give you an edge.
Marketing in social networks is not rocket science. It may
involve technology but, at its core, it is what human
civilisation is built upon. If you can hold a conversation you
can market in social media.
So get good advice and get moving. The world is changing and the
challengers are going to come out on top. They will create
movements and lead tribes. They will interact and not be afraid
of change. They will know how to listen and realise the greatest
power they have is to empower their customers.
If you understand that these networks have all been built
because it’s what your customers want, then the challenger, the
leader, can be you.
Is Load-Speed the Ultimate Google Ranking Factor?
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Is Load-Speed the Ultimate Google Ranking Factor?
Last week’s post about load speeds
(http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/
using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking.html)on Google’s Official
Webmaster Central Blog finally confirmed the rumors which have
abounded across the SEO sector for months – that Google now
factors a site’s load-speed when assessing its search ranking.
And while this announcement, which comes as no surprise to those
with their finger on the Google pulse, has drawn a few favorable
responses from blog commenters, the overwhelming majority of
readers have expressed concerns and doubts about the soundness
of Google’s approach. At the forefront of these were questions
primarily regarding the exact magnitude of any negative ranking
impact carried by slow page loading speeds. Alongside these came
a large number of complaints about the fact that Google’s own
Analytics script is a known load-time decelerator, and about the
almost glacially slow rendering times of AdSense code.
When read together, many comments give one the impression that
webmasters are becoming apprehensive to the point of stampeding,
as is usually the case when Google does something new. Indeed,
the overall consensus seems to be that load-speeds are about to
become the ultimate criterion for search ranking performance, and
that this will cause major ranking damage to the average website.
One commenter even went so far as to announce that he/she will
remove all Analytics and AdSense scripts because their slow
performance will now obviously ruin his/her website’s
performance.
But are these worries actually valid, or are they just the latest
manifestation of unfounded Google-noia to hit the SEO sector?
Before I get around to addressing the question, I must admit
that I knew this was coming some time ago. Consequently I was
able to line up a few experiments on two sites from my own stable
in an effort to gauge any real-term ranking impact once Google
started to implement its changes.
What did I personally find?
Despite the fact that both websites are rich in graphics and
content, both have not been updated regularly since late last
year, and neither is what you might call a fast loader, I found
absolutely no detrimental ranking effects for either site during
the past couple of months. In fact, the slower of the two
websites (average load-time 5.3 secs) actually experienced
noticeable SERP improvements in the past week or so, which makes
me wonder if there’s not more to all this than simple load-speeds.
That, however, is another story.
Of course mine is only a limited sample, and a far from
conclusive one. It is, however, one of many indicators one can
find if one looks around. And with that in mind, let’s return to
the question at hand. Are webmasters’ fears justified or
ill-founded?
As usual, and as I’ve touched on already, each and every time
Google does something new, it invariably precipitates a spate
of trepidation and panic among the world’s webmaster and SEO
crowds. Perfect cases in point include the implementation of
the ‘Nofollow’ attribute, and the announcement that buying and
selling links for PR was no longer ok, both of which together
sparked major outcries throughout the online communities. And
from what I’ve seen, the initial knee-jerk reaction that the
Site-Speed announcement will certainly spell the end of the
Internet as we know it is no different.
But seriously, although load-speeds are now a ranking factor,
at least for English-language searches on Google.com, let’s not
forget that it’s still just a single one of over two-hundred
signals Google uses to assess a site’s rankings. And let’s also
remember that Google is first and foremost about delivering
relevant results, just as it always has been.
After all, what use is serving results from the fastest sites on
the web, if those sites don’t actually contain the information
the user is looking for?
In an interview (http://videos.webpronews.com/2010/04/01/
google-talks-quality-caffeine-spam-buzz-and-push/)less than two
weeks ago, Matt Cutts himself said: “People shouldn’t stress out
too much about Site-Speed, and the reason is that we’re always
going to care first and foremost about quality. How good is a
page for users?”
Addressing Site-Speed’s function in assessing SERPs, he also
said: “Don’t think it’s going to be the largest of the
two-hundred factors.”
These statements are more indicators…
As part of my daily involvement in Google’s Webmaster Help
Forum (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters?hl=en),
I’ve had an opportunity to keep track of developments during the
past five months or so since the Site-Speed topic was first
raised. There, a number of highly enlightening discussions with
the forum’s other Top Contributors and Google staff, along with
the general speculations of a great many visitors, have provided
quite a clear picture of Site-Speed’s role in the overall scheme
of things. It is a role which, as is usually the case, focuses
on a better user experience.
Let’s face it, it’s no great secret that the average visitor’s
attention span is five seconds or less, and that long loading
times do tend to make users hit the back button. And that’s
exactly where Site-Speed comes in. It was never designed to be
the ultimate Google ranking factor; it merely provides a little
extra fine-tuning by casting the deciding vote in cases where
information of identical or similar quality is available on
multiple websites and needs to be ranked with a better user
experience in mind.
As a last word about load-times I would have to say that there
are a large number of reasons to make sure your web pages load
in a sensible amount of time. These should, however, be focused
on your visitors, not orbiting around your Google-noia.
15 Important Web Design Tips
Here are 15 important website design tips that you might not be
aware of or have overlooked. Consider taking advantage of them
if you haven’t already done so…
1. Custom 404 Pages
Create a custom 404 web page, so that any time your website
visitor mistypes or misspells a URL on your site, they will
still be provided with navigation options for your site
(instead of getting nothing but a “Page Not Found” error
message, which is neither friendly or helpful).
2. Redirect Non-www. To www.
Website visitors will often leave out the “www.” portion when
they type a URL or link to your website. Set the website up so
that it automatically redirects any non-www version of your
domain urls (http://domain. com) to the www version
(http://www.domain. com) of your website.
3. Properly Sized Graphics
Size and define all graphics and images on your web pages
properly and correctly. Web pages will load quicker if the
graphics contained on each page are properly defined so they
don’t require the web browser to re-size them. Properly sized
and defined images can reduce the web browser workload and speed
up the page loading time.
4. Favicon
Add a Favicon (favorite icon) to your website, so that your
company or product logo appears in the URL box. This icon will
also show up in a bookmark list, and gives the web site an added
level of professionalism.
5. Include RSS Auto-Discovery
If you offer an RSS feed for any content on your website, be
sure to include auto-discovery code in the header of your
website. This will allow many browsers and RSS readers to
automatically detect the presence of an RSS feed and alert the
visitor that it is available.
6. Alternate Domains
Domain names are relatively inexpensive, so you should register
multiple domain versions and extensions in order to protect your
brand. The varied domains can be parked on the main website,
simply to prevent others from obtaining them. Registering
alternate domain versions will help protect your brand.
7. Consistent Navigation
Navigation should remain consistent on a website. As a website
visitor moves through the website, the navigation bar should
remain in the same place on each page. This will make it easier
for visitors to navigate your website, and become more
comfortable as they move through your site.
8. Home Goes Home
The main graphic, company logo, or “header” at the top of the
site should be included on every page in the site, and should
always return the visitor to the home page of the website. This
has become a web standard, and most visitors now expect to
return to the main page of the site simply by clicking on the
main top graphic from any page within the site.
9. Copyright Notice
Include a copyright notice on the bottom of each page contained
on the website, and keep it current! It may seem trivial, but an
out-of-date copyright notice can send a message to your visitors
that the website and its content may be out-of-date as well.
10. Meaningful File Names
Use meaningful file names for any files, graphics, or web pages.
Many search engines look at file names as part of their search
algorithm, and using keywords in file names may help to improve
search engine rankings.
11. Hyphens vs Underscores
When naming files and webpages, use hyphens
(i.e. web-page.html) rather than underscores (i.e. web_page.html)
for the file names. It is much easier for search engines to
separate and index the keywords when hyphens are used.
12. Alt Tags
Use ALT tags to describe what images represent on web pages. ALT
tags not only assist visually-impaired visitors in knowing what
the images are, but they also help with search engine ranking.
13. Spell Check
Use a spell-check feature on the text of all web pages in a
website. A website that contains mistyped or misspelled words
just shouts “unprofessional”. Take the extra few minutes
necessary to check the spelling of text on each page of your
website.
14. Test
After making changes to a website, test it! Many times, a
webmaster will upload changes, confident in their abilities,
only to later discover that in their attempt to fix one thing,
they have “broken” something somewhere else. Make testing a
habit after making even the most minor changes!
15. Keep It Simple
Simple is good. Remove unnecessary clutter and distractions
from a website and navigation menu.
Landing Pages: What You Need to Explain to your Website Design Company
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Monday, August 23, 2010
Landing Pages: What You Need to Explain to your Website Design Company
The definition of a landing page is simply “the first page
that visitors hit on your site,” so it is not strictly a
certain page but any page that a user “lands” on. All
websites have landing pages, whether they like it or not,
even if it was not specifically designed as such.
Landing pages can have a substantial impact on your e-
commerce website. A poorly-developed one can hasten its
breakdown just as an effective landing page can drive
traffic to your site, respond to calls to action and make
your business website a success.
One vital measure of the effectiveness of your website is
the “bounce rate,” or the percentage of visitors who
immediately leave your site without making any other click.
The bounce rate is inversely proportional to the
effectiveness of the landing page. Basically, this means
that a high bounce rate indicates that your landing page
isn’t compelling enough for the visitor to pursue his
interest or take some other action.
Normally, the home page is the primary landing page of most
typical websites. But more and more, site owners are
designing landing pages outside of the home page, and for
good reason.
Most users prefer to skip information which is irrelevant to
their needs. They want to get directly to their search,
hence the need for a landing page that delivers just that.
They can avoid the delays caused by having to click through
pages and pages of information when they already have
something in mind.
Landing pages serve their purpose when the site owner knows
the kind of visitor they are targeting. This is determined
by knowing what the visitor clicked on to arrive at your
site. A visitor who clicks on an ad for your product would
not want to go through other pages to get the information
about the product. Webinars, other event registrations and
special offers make use of this same principle.
Not all visitors are looking for the same information. One
may click on your link after reading an article you
submitted to a consumer review site while another may arrive
at your site after viewing your infomercial ad.
For each specific visitor, you can design a landing page
that will cater to his needs and contain the information he
is looking for. For example, infomercial viewers can be
directed to www.yoursite.com/infomercial, while visitors who
clicked on your banner ads for this month’s special will be
directed to www.yoursite.com/specials.
These landing pages should be evaluated for their
effectiveness. The bounce rate is a key measurement for
determining the effectiveness of landing pages.
Another measure for landing pages is the success of a “next
action.” It might be purchasing the product, requesting more
information, signing up for a free trial, etc.
Determine your conversion rate by dividing the number of
action takers into the number of visitors. A typical
conversion rate is 3 to 5 percent for lead generation pages
and 1 to 2 percent for e-commerce sites. If your site is
successful, you should be getting twice those numbers.
A concept that is intrinsic in creating effective landing
pages is “alignment.” This is the connection between your
source (where the visitor came from) and your landing page.
The more connected they are, the higher the success of
conversion.
A good example is a banner ad for a specific product from a
beauty products company. Clicking on the banner ad and being
directed to a landing page showing the exact same product
yields a higher conversion rate. If the alignment is not
present, on the other hand, there will be a significant
reduction in conversion rates.
In general, a landing page must stir these positive emotions
in a visitor for it to be effective:
Credibility
Your page must be able to capture the visitor’s trust by
presenting a credible appearance. Remove anything that can
cause a negative effect in the minds of your visitors, such
as a lack of contact information, grammatical errors and
typos, buzzwords, “marketese” and jargon, fuzzy or blocky
graphics and too much use of serif fonts, like Times New
Roman.
Recognition
Your page must provide your visitor a “This is what I’m
looking for!” moment upon landing.
Persuasiveness
Your page must be able to convince visitors that your
product or service can help them achieve their goal. Keep in
mind what attracted the visitor to your product in the first
place so you will understand what he is looking for.
Action
You must highlight an action for the visitor to take while
he is on your landing page.
Techniques to Use with Landing Pages
Here are some major principles to guide you in the process
of developing an effective landing page:
Make the Visitor Feel an Instant Affinity With Your Page.
The top half of the first screen should be effective in
making the visitor feel that he has come to the right place.
The use of the right taglines, images and a position
statement (usually about 12 to 15 words) can help to
establish your declaration and inform your visitor what the
site is about.
Use Specific Headlines and Sub-headings.
Throughout your page, include relevant headings and sub-
headings so that as the visitor skim reads the page they can
see what a particular paragraph or section is all about.
This helps him decide whether he will read the text or which
section he is interested in. The longer the page, the more
you should be using sub-headings. The headline should be
aligned as closely as possible with the banner ad or
whatever the visitor clicked on to arrive on your landing
page.
Focus on a Primary Goal.
A landing page can achieve only one primary goal. Examples
of these goals are a lead capture mechanism, such as a free
demo or product trial, or to lure the visitor to go further
and view your main site. The best results come about when
you focus on your goal. However, a secondary goal is possible
in a landing page. For example, if your primary goal is to
make the visitor purchase your product, your secondary goal
would be to entice them to sign up for newsletters or emails
to receive special offers.
Use Multiple Calls to Action.
Using multiple calls to the same action supports the one
primary goal principle. This holds true on a long landing
page. A page that doesn’t go below the fold may need only
one call to action. Overall, one call to action above the
fold and another at the bottom of the page are good.
Pay Attention to Your Layout and Graphic Design.
To make them easy-to-read, keep text columns narrow – about
80 characters or so wide – and left-aligned, not centered.
Place an image of the product (commonly called the “hero
shot”) and make sure the quality and clarity are good.
Images are attention-getting, so put your key text, such as
your offer, below the product image or other appealing
graphics.
If your offer requires the visitor to fill out a form, it
will be more effective if placed on the landing page rather
than needing a click-through to another page.
Layouts and graphic designs depend on the products and their
market and can be very diverse. In spite of the variety,
however, they can all use the same design principles to help
them be effective in achieving their goal.
Driving traffic to your site will require an investment on
your part, so it is only sensible to maximize the impact of
that traffic for a quicker ROI. Increasing website
conversions is also an important consideration.
Developing effective landing pages for your business website
only requires the simple implementation of changes, yet their
impact is significant to the success of your business and
the user experience of your website.
Google Places (Formerly Local Business Center)
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Google Places (Formerly Local Business Center)
In the early 1990s, when I was first online, very few businesses
had a website. Gradually companies started coming online, but
most of them were those that served a national or global market.
While many local directories also came online, it was rare to
see a strictly local company with a website. There were some
exceptions, like those with professional practices such as
dentists, doctors and lawyers. In fact, professional practice
websites were some of my earliest SEO clients, although they
weren’t in my local area. But even in the mid-2000s, the
typical hair salon, plumber or chiropractor were very rare to
find online.
About 10 years ago I remember looking for a chiropractor in my
area online and could only find one with a website, and it
wasn’t even one in my town. Much to my dismay, I ended up using
the old-fashioned telephone book to make sure that I found all
the nearby chiropractors.
Things are different today. While there are still a surprising
number of small local businesses without websites, they are
easily online thanks to Google’s local search results. Did you
know that, according to Google, one in every five searches is
related to location in some way? It’s no wonder that Google has
put a lot of effort into enhancing their local search listings.
This week I learned through Search Engine Land
(http://searchengineland.com/
google-local-business-center-becomes-google-places-40307) that
Google had changed this feature’s name (http://sites.google.com/
a/pressatgoogle.com/googleplaces/press-release) from Google
Local Business Center to the simpler Google Places. In addition,
they’ve added even more cool things you can do with your Google
Page, once you’ve claimed your listing. For instance, if you’re
located in certain cities, you can purchase an enhanced listing,
which they now call “tags,” for $25 per month.
And if you operate a hotel, restaurant or local store, you can
even apply to have Google photographers come and do a free photo
shoot (http://maps.google.com/help/maps/businessphotos/faq.html)
of the interior of your business!
They’ve also added “QR code,” (http://www.google.com/help/maps/
favoriteplaces/business/barcode.html) which you can have printed
on business cards or anywhere else. The code enables those with
QR readers in their phones or other devices to go directly to
your website.
More useful to the average business owner, however, is the new
ability to post messages to your Place Page. This is great if
you have an event coming up or just any special thing you want
to tell people about. It can be up to 160 characters and it will
show for 30 days unless you delete it sooner. You can post URLs
that will become clickable links, but you can’t use HTML code
(I tried!). For our Place Page, I added the date to our upcoming
SEO Class with a link to the class page. I think it’s a nice
touch.
If you claimed your company’s local listing a long time ago and
haven’t checked it out in a while, you should definitely log on
and revisit your page. And if you’ve never claimed your Place
Page, there’s no better time than the present!
Here’s how to find your Place Page in Google: Head over to
Google Maps and search for your company by name. When you find
it, click the “more info” link. That should take you straight
to your Place Page. If you haven’t claimed your Place Page yet,
click the link that says “Business Owner” and then click the
“Edit my business information” button on the next page. Now
you can fill in all the information on the form.
You might be concerned at this point that someone else could go
in and change your information or edit it incorrectly… but
don’t worry. Once you’ve filled out the form, nothing will go
live until you verify that you are the true owner of the Place
Page. They do this by sending you a postcard via snail mail that
has a verification code on it that you have to go back later to
enter.
Be sure to do a thorough job filling out the description field
for your website. This is where you want to add your main
keyword phrases where they make sense to do so. Don’t try to
add keywords to your company name, however. The spammers and
scammers have already killed that little trick and it will only
get you in trouble with Google rather than helping.
You can and should add the maximum 5 categories to your listing
because what you choose there can help your site show up when
people are searching using similar words. Note that you don’t
have to stick with the categories Google recommends; you can
make up your own. I suggest doing some Google Maps searches
using the types of phrases you’d want to show up for, and seeing
what some of the sites that are currently showing up are doing.
I also highly recommend that you add photos and videos to your
Place Page if you have them. Be sure that one of the pictures is
your company logo! You can take a look at what we’ve done with
our High Rankings Place Page (http://m1e.net/
c?31787615-FC26SnDI.spIY%405246283-.xm9iPwsHrLMQ) if you’d like
some ideas.
One place we’re lacking at our site is reviews. We’ve been
meaning to solicit some from clients, class attendees, forum
users and newsletter subscribers, but haven’t gotten around to
it. Come to think of it, while I have your attention and while
you’re visiting our Place Page anyway, please feel free to
write a review! Under “Photos & Video,” you’ll see a section
for reviews and a link to write one of your own.
Even if your company is national in scope and doesn’t do much
local business, I strongly suggest claiming and enhancing your
Google Place Page. These local listings are showing in more and
varied ways in the Google search results, well beyond just
Google Maps. I expect them to gain even more prominence, given
all the effort Google has been putting into them lately.
The Google Duplicate Content Penalty: the Truth
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Google Duplicate Content Penalty: the Truth
The truth of the Google duplicate content penalty is quite
simply that there is none! If that confuses you, then you
have been reading too many misinformed forums or blogs where
people get stuck on some popular term that they have no idea
what it means, and then profess to be experts.
The only experts on the Google duplicate content penalty,
and the only people who are qualified to define it, are
Google, and in Google’s own words “There is no such thing as
a duplicate content penalty”. This comes directly from
Google’s Webmaster Central Blog.
That should be the end of this article, at precisely 96
words excluding title as I define my word count. But it is
not. Why? Because even though this blog is operated by
Google, and even though much the same has been stated by
Matt Cutts, Google’s main software engineer, and other
Google experts, people still argue and complain about the
Google ‘duplicate content penalty’.
So here is the truth: you might ask who am I to know the
truth, but I read all the Google blogs and their official
statements, and in applying what I learn, I achieve excellent
results for my web pages on Google search engine listings:
and those of Yahoo, MSN and Bing. So I am coming from a
sound base that my results can prove.
As a professional article writer whose customers trust to
get them the best results from the articles I write, I have
to be very aware of the policies and the way the algorithms
work of each of the major search engines, and so I am as
qualified as anybody to comment on myths such as this.
The Truth of the Google Duplicate Content Penalty
There is no duplicate content penalty. Google’s major search
engine function is to offer a customer the best possible
results for a search, based upon the search term (keywords)
that the customer has used in the Google search box.
Google’s customers are not:
1. You, who use it to get your web pages listed.
2. Adwords advertisers that use Adwords to advertise their
products.
3. Corporations or individuals that use it to have their
web pages listed.
4. Internet marketers who recommend others to use Google
for advertising or searching.
Google’s customers are those seeking information,
whether that is to solve a problem, where to purchase a
product at the cheapest price, find a sports result or to
get directions to a specific location. Everybody that uses
Google uses a search term to find some information that they
need. That search term is what you and I refer to as a
keyword.
If Google detects several web pages offering exactly the
same content, its algorithms will select that which best
offers the information required and list that. It might also
list one or two other pages offering exactly the same content
if there are good reasons for it doing so (e.g. more links to
other relevant websites, more other relevant pages on the
domain, and so on).
So, not all duplicate content pages will be refused a
listing. If these duplicates are articles, then the
algorithms that the spiders carry on their backs will take
the links from these articles into consideration, the
authority of the directory on which it is published, and
other factors, before deciding which should be listed. It
is wrong to believe that this decision has a chronological
factor, but, if you include a link in your article Resource
section to your web page that contains the same article,
then your page is liable to be listed above the others,
partially because of a greater number of links back to it
from the other copies, and partially because your entire
site is liable to be more relevant than these others to
information being sought by Google’s customer.
This is not because yours was created first, but because it
better meets Google’s criterion for authoritative
back-links. However, if the rest of your website is not
equally authoritative, your page might be listed behind
another with the same content or even not listed at all.
All of this is designed by Google so that its customer is
offered the most relevant range of results to the keywords
they used. That is what Google is for, and is its ultimate
objective. Google will not penalize any individual or any
website for publishing what you refer to as ‘duplicate
content’, and it will take your version into consideration
for publication just as any other version.
What counts in the long run is which version Google’s
algorithms believe to be most likely to offer the best
possible information to the person seeking it, and if that
means not publishing a whole host of duplicate information,
then that is only fair, isn’t it? If you used Google to find
some information, you wouldn’t want to find page after page
saying exactly the same thing, would you?
No, and neither does Google. A Google listing comes from its
indexing of billions of web pages that contain the keywords
used by the searcher: both in relation to the entire phrase
and to the individual words used in the search term. If you
want your copy to be different, make some minor changes and
perhaps change the form of the keywords, but most
importantly, change the title and the introductory paragraph
to which the crawlers will take special notice.
You then have a better chance of your version being listed
along with some of the others, but remember: the next time
you use the term ‘duplicate content’ you are using a term
that does not exist in Google’s vocabulary for any reason
than to deny its existence. The Google Duplicate Content
Penalty does not exist: the truth!
18 Effective Search Engine Optimization Techniques
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, August 19, 2010
18 Effective Search Engine Optimization Techniques
Proper Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO, has
quickly become a popular topic of conversation among website
owners and entrepreneurs. The difference between having a
successful website, and hosting a flop, is often the difference
between whether or not you’ve incorporated proper keywords and
phrases into your webpages.
Learning proper SEO techniques can seem like a daunting task,
especially to those who are not familiar with the concept. The
following list offers 18 simple SEO techniques you should keep
in mind when developing and marketing your website.
1. Make sure your website is initially designed with your search
engine optimization needs in mind. Search engines look for text,
not flashy graphics and cool layouts. The trendiest web designs
will mean nothing if no one is able to find your site.
2. Every page of your website should have a title tag with text
describing either your site or what is on the page. Be sure the
text includes SEO-type keywords instead of the name of your
website. Unless you’re incredibly popular, no one is going to be
looking for you by searching for your name. They’ll most likely
search for a product or service and the keywords you use will
lead them to your site.
3. Consider canonicalization, or whether or not your website
address includes or excludes the www prefix. If you choose to
use the www version of your website, make sure the non-www
version directs users back to the one you use. Make sure you use
your preferred version (http://www.mydomain.com or
http://mydomain.com) every time you place a link to your site on
the web. Never use both!
4. When designing your website, be sure to avoid too many
drop-down menus, confusing image maps, and excessive images. If
you must use any of these methods, be sure to include plenty of
text links for the search engine spiders to find and identify.
Without links, the search engines will not pick up your site
information.
5. It does not matter what type of website extension you use
(ie. .html, .htm. .asp, .php). Search engines do not look at the
web extension and it will not have any impact at all on search
results or ranking.
6. Every page on your website should include a link to your home
page and your sitemap. Make sure every link is the same. Home
page links should go directly to your domain
(http://www.mydomain.com). Make sure your internal links do not
include the additional /index.html or .php text as it is not
needed (ie. http://www.mydomain.com/index.html).
7. Are you sharing a server with other websites? If so, you’ll
want to conduct a black-list check to make sure you are not
sharing a proxy with someone who has been banned by search
engines in the past. Being on the same server as a website with
a poor reputation may damage your own.
8. You’ll hear the same phrase over and over again: “Content is
king”. It is imperative that your website have fresh, unique, and
quality content that is updated on a regular basis. Be sure to
include your favorite keyword phrase within the body of the
content!
9. People are more likely to input a phrase instead of a single
word when conducting internet searches. If your business has a
physical location, incorporate the name of your city into the
text as well. For example, you might use “our Philadelphia
location” instead of “our location”. Including your city name
will increase the chances of your site being seen in location
searches.
10. If the information on your company website doesn’t change
regularly, or remains static, you might want to consider
starting a blog. Search engine spiders are always looking for
fresh content. Use your blog as an advertising tool and link
back to your website within each and every post.
11. Write naturally. The worst thing you can do is try to cram
a zillion keywords into your article or blog entry, making it
messy and difficult to read. Search engines are able to determine
whether or not your text is logical and they will ignore content
with ridiculously high keyword density.
12. Building links to your website is essential to its success.
As a matter of fact, links are like the queen to complement your
king’s fresh content. Choose a keyword phrase and network with
other websites, asking them to place links on their pages. Don’t
hurt your ranking by having non-related websites place haphazard
links. While it may seem great to gather 100s of backlinks,
you’re better off limiting your links to related websites. Ten
relevant links stand a better chance than 100 irrelevant links.
13. Links within your own website should be built with keyword
phrases as well. Try to avoid using generic anchor text such as,
“click here”.
14. Don’t place a list of links on your website. Always place a
link within at least two to three lines of related content. The
better your description, the more likely it is someone will click
on the link.
15. Don’t limit your keyword or phrase to text links. You should
also incorporate your keywords into your image alt tag and domain
name, whether it is part of the name itself or contained within
the description.
16. Try to avoid using frames, Ajax, and Flash as much as
possible. None of these functions are keyword or search engine
friendly and will hurt your SEO results.
17. Before your website can be found by the search engine
spiders, it must be indexed. Search engines such as Google have
regular submission forms, but it can take days or weeks for your
form to be processed. Having a highly ranked website place a
link to your site is a sure-fire way to have your site indexed
quickly.
18. No matter what you hear, don’t be overly concerned with the
Google PageRank of your website. A website that is properly
developed and contains good content can outrank a website with
higher PageRank.
Reverse SEO: Restoring Online Reputations
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Reverse SEO: Restoring Online Reputations
Reverse SEO fits seamlessly within the context of your online
reputation management (ORM) program. It is the quickest, most
effective solution for dealing with bad press that has
surfaced on the search engines about you or your company. By
pushing negative listings from the front page of Google,
Yahoo, and Bing, reverse SEO shields you from the damaging
commentary of others.
Negative publicity online has become one of the most
frustrating challenges for companies. It is typically
anonymous. Names are often unattached to forum threads, blog
posts, and even entire websites. Therefore, it is difficult to
track and address the source of the complaint. Moreover, the
growing popularity of social networking platforms has made
it easier than ever for anyone with a mild grievance to give
weight to their grudge. If you or your company have been the
target of bad press online, it may be time to launch a
reverse SEO campaign.
In this article, we’ll clarify how negative publicity gains
traction within the search engines, and how it can lead to a
public relations nightmare. We’ll also provide a working
blueprint for executing a reverse SEO campaign and
controlling the damage.
Controlling Bad Publicity With Reverse Search Engine
Optimization
To appreciate why reverse SEO is effective, you should
understand how negative press takes root within the top
search listings in the first place. Google, Yahoo, and Bing
rank pages based on a large number of criteria. If a website
and its individual pages satisfy the most important of those
criteria, those pages will rank well.
A lot of the bad press that targets companies (possibly even
your own) is placed on websites that meet key ranking
parameters in the search algorithms. That means the negative
publicity can climb into the top positions and gain exposure.
When people search for you or your company, they’ll see the
bad press. That damages your reputation.
Reverse search engine optimization is an ORM strategy that
pushes negative publicity from the top search positions. By
moving the bad press off the first page of listings, reverse
SEO limits its exposure and stifles its impact.
Ingredients For An Effective Reverse SEO Campaign
Like search engine marketing, reverse SEO uses a methodical,
multi-pronged approach to protect your online reputation. The
first step is to identify the sites and pages that contain
negative publicity about your company and that are ranking for
important keywords. Those keywords might include your name,
that of your company, or key employees.
The second step of reverse SEO is to analyze those sites and
pages for their respective ranking authority. That will help
you determine the effort and tools you’ll need to use in
order to move them from the first page of listings within
Google, Yahoo, and Bing. A negative PR blitz that is
spreading across social networking sites is more difficult
to remove than a single blog post that is on a non-authoritative
domain.
The third step is to gather the necessary tools and execute
your reverse SEO campaign. Such tools might include
optimized press releases, a new network of competing sites
and blogs, social media profiles, and a social bookmarking
program. Reverse SEO may also include heavy content
syndication to build high-quality links. A search engine
marketing specialist will have these tools at their
disposal.
Reverse SEO Begins Before Negative Press Emerges
The best time to launch a reverse SEO campaign is before bad
publicity appears in the search engines. This is due to the
way that the pages link. A page will rank well within the
search engines if there are enough thematic links pointing
toward it. However, once it ranks, it will gain exposure.
That exacerbates the problem.
Negative press can spread rapidly as people attach the press
to their own blogs, sites, forums, and social media accounts.
That creates a growing portfolio of links pointing toward the
damaging press, cementing its position in the top listings.
It becomes more difficult to address. By launching a reverse
SEO campaign upfront, you can prevent the negative publicity
from gaining exposure in the first place.
Protect Your Online Reputation With Reverse SEO
Reverse SEO should play a key role in your online reputation
management program. It is far too easy for unsatisfied
customers, resentful employees, lazy journalists, and
malicious competitors to tarnish your name. And when it
happens, it is usually done under the cover of anonymity.
Anonymity makes the complaint or grievance impossible to
address in private.
Launch your reverse SEO campaign now – before trouble
strikes and the damage begins to gain momentum in the search
engines. In a year’s time, you’ll be glad you did.
How to Hard-Wire Your Site to Google
Until Bing turns into David and slays Goliath, the only search
engine game in town is Google. While the other search engines
can’t be ignored or forgotten, when it comes to online search,
Google will deliver the majority of your quality organic
traffic. For webmasters and especially for online marketers,
having your website virtually hard-wired to Google is a
marketing Must-Do.
We are strictly talking about white hat stuff here. If you’re
seeking the opposite color, look elsewhere. As a full-time
search engine marketer, I have learned a few things over the 10
years or so I have been working on the web. One of the most
significant factors running constantly in the background has
been Google. And, the underlying fact is that the more I
intertwined my sites and content with Google, the more success
I achieved. There seemed to be a direct correlation between the
two, making it a little more than ironic that the original name
for Google was BackRub.
But this is not exactly rocket science territory here. Google is
the biggest entity on the web, especially if you go the free
organic traffic route. There are tons of ways to market online
which don’t involve Google at all, but for the purposes of this
piece, I will be discussing ways any webmaster or marketer can
better connect their site and content with Google. Plus, I’ll
(if it’s not already obvious) also give you some reasons why
this is a smart marketing strategy on your part.
The first technique you must perfect is how to get your new
content into Google’s Index within minutes, if not seconds.
These days with social media sites this can be easily achieved.
It may be as fast as your latest Tweet or Google Buzz
(http://www.google.com/buzz). Google News (http://news.google.com/)
is another easy way to instantly get your content into Google.
Press releases are another immediate way to connect your content
with Google. So too is something as simple as making a video and
posting it on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) which is Google
Owned.
(Note – Google has recently revamped the YouTube system and
provided many ways webmasters can view the linking data and
stats; great source of information for webmasters and marketers.)
Actually Google will index any new site or content fairly
quickly these days so you don’t have to worry about it. One
method I like best is using a free blog from Blogger/Blogspot
(http://www.blogger.com/) [which is also Google owned] and
placing links there to be indexed within minutes. To keep track
of what content Google is indexing, I usually set up Google
Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) for all my main sites and
my main keywords. Whenever a page is indexed in Google related
to my sites or keywords, Google sends me an email. Many savvy
webmasters use these alerts to find and build link partners
since these indexed pages will be thematically related to yours.
Using Google Alerts will make it seem like you’re totally welded
to Google and Google’s indexing system, every second of the day.
Needless to say, keywords rule the web and Google. You must
attach your content to keywords people are using to find stuff
on the web and build top 10 rankings for those keywords in the
search engines, especially Google. Now if you’re new at this,
Google gives you some valuable keyword tools you can use to see
how many searches are made each month for a keyword phrase and
also gives you some idea of the keyword competition you will be
facing. I like using http://google.com/sktool and also
http://labs.google.com/sets. Besides, you must start your Google
courtship off on the right foundation.
Next, you must realize Google is not really a search engine but
a business. The main goal of this business is to supply quality
content to web users so that these users will use Google over
and over again, allowing Google to attach ads and make a profit.
The key to getting and keeping Google’s attention is fulfilling
your part of this “quality equation” with superior content which
surfers want and find helpful. Make this your religion and the
SEO gods, including Google, will smile kindly upon your site.
Now like any religion there are some strict rules you have to
follow. In a recent WebProNews video interview, Matt Cutts said
Google has (200) signals it uses to rank content on the web.
Most webmasters refer to these as ranking factors, but in truth,
they are really signals that your site gives off… provide the
wrong signals and it could spell lower rankings. So if you want
to keep your site in Google’s good graces, you have to follow
some simple SEO on-page rules, such as placing your main keyword
in the Title, in the Heading, in the Body and in the URL. Make
sure your site is easily navigated by your visitors and
especially by the search engine spiders. Keep your linking
structure simple, with no links more than three clicks away from
your index or homepage. In my opinion, getting quality related
one-way backlinks is the most important way to get top rankings
in Google.
In recent years, Google has gone out of its way to help
webmasters understand all these simple SEO basics. And as far as
I am concerned, one resource every webmaster should be using is
Google Webmaster Tools (http://www.google.com/webmasters/). This
is a whole suite of tools and information webmasters can use in
correlation with Google. Recently, in Webmaster Tools Google has
made available Click-Thru data on its search engine results so
that you can find out how many impressions you’re getting for a
certain keyword and your click-thru or conversion rate. Some
webmasters are questioning the accuracy of these numbers, but it
will give you some indication of how well your site and content
is doing in Google.
Perhaps, another just as valuable program is Google Analytics
(http://www.google.com/analytics/), where you’re really giving
Google access to all your site’s information. You can use
Analytics to measure different links/content on your site to
see how well it performs. More importantly you can use it to
fine-tune your conversion rates in order to make more sales. I
also use it to test-out different graphics, different salescopy,
different site layouts… and so on. But a word of caution,
don’t just use Analytics. As an online marketer you want many
sources of information, so regularly study your own traffic logs
and raw site data. Even with Google and probably especially with
Google, you should always cross-reference any data with other
sources on your site and on the web. Lets not get too carried
away with this Google worship thing.
I use both Google Adsense (https://www.google.com/adsense/) and
Google Adwords (http://adwords.google.com/) with most of my
sites. As an online marketer, I know I can get 10 times more
from an affiliate link than from Adsense… but over the years
I have found having both types of links on sites doesn’t
significantly reduce sales. To explain further, I have tested
my pages with and without Adsense, and it doesn’t affect my
affiliate sales even though I know I am losing some sales to
Adsense. Overall, using Adsense adds to the competitiveness of
my pages. If someone is looking for the lowest price and finds
it in a Google ad, they come away happy and will probably visit
my site again or sign-up to my newsletter. Besides, Adsense is a
very quick way to monetize pages which I don’t have ready
affiliate programs for on my sites. In addition, Adsense and
Adwords give you valuable feedback on your content’s performance.
There are several other Google programs which I use to further
connect with Google such as Google Docs (http://docs.google.com/),
Google Knol (http://knol.google.com/) and iGoogle
(http://www.google.com/ig). One must-have program is Google
Accounts (https://www.google.com/accounts/), which basically
connects me with all my different programs within Google. I have
found managing all your Google programs is much easier from this
one location. I also like using Google Profiles
(http://www.google.com/profiles) and Google Buzz
(http://www.google.com/buzz) to get my content quickly into
Google and onto the web. As you have probably guessed already,
Google does have a lot of programs which webmasters can use to
improve their content’s performance. In the process, by using
and intertwining your content with all of the Google programs
highlighted here, you’re really connecting with Google en masse.
While many marketing experts will say it is foolhardy to marry
all your content to just one search engine, I have found over
the years that hard-wiring your site to Google really makes
your content readily accessible in the most dominant presence on
the web. Doing so not only gives your content the attention it
deserves, but it can also help further your own goals. Actively
positioning your site and content firmly within Google’s many
different facets can prove beneficial for any webmaster or
online marketer. Just get that pre-nup agreement in writing
first!
8 Things Bing Won’t Tell You
Every major search engine provides hints and tips about how
to optimize your pages for improved rankings on their
sites. But when you read these guidelines you quickly see
that most of it is just their own wish list. Things like
‘Write for humans not search engine bots – or – do not hide
keywords with a font matching the background color.’ It is
all good advice but kind of general and already well known
(for the past decade.)
But there are always things a search engine will not tell
you. And, of course, these are the things that make all the
difference in your SEO efforts and results. That said; here
are eight things that Bing does not want you to know (or
you can skip to the Magic Formula section at the end):
1.) Your Domain Name Matters – A Lot
Search for just about anything on MSN / Bing and at least
three of the top five matches will have some version of
that keyword as the domain name. For example if you wanted
to optimize for the keyword ‘my domain’ you should try to
get the domain name ‘mydomain.com.’ If that is taken, opt
for ‘my-domain.com.’ If that’s taken try for a name
starting with ‘mydomain’ and ending with a word that is
commonly associated. This is called LSI or Latent Semantic
Indexing. A good example would be ‘mydomainname.com’ or
‘my-domain-name.com.’ BTW, Bing treats dashes as a space so
as long as long as the dashes merely separate words, they
are treated much like the non dash version.
2.) There is No Sandbox
Here’s some great news for anyone just getting started.
Bing does not seem to care about the age of your domain
name. There is no ‘sandbox’ like Google has. Many people,
myself included, have registered brand new domains and had
them ranking in a matter of days.
3.) DotCom Trumps DotNet
Today some search engines like Google will often give .net
and .com virtually the same value, and possibly higher
value for a .org that is for a recognized non-profit
organization. Bing however appears to prefer the .com
version. You can even see instances where a ‘.co.uk’ site
gets high rankings simply because it uses the exact keyword
in the domain name and .co is close enough to .com.
4.) We Like Sub Domains
Most web hosts will let you add sub domains to your
website. On Bing, if you have the sub domain
mydomain.mydomain.com you are in for some potentially great
rankings. The same is true if you have my.domain.com, but
to a slightly lesser degree.
5.) Less is More – Part One
We have been trained by Google to try to have hundreds of
pages of quality content on every website. Bing adheres to
the old policy that they are indexing web ‘pages’ not web
‘sites’ (like Google says they do, but Bing apparently
really means it.) This means each page is treated on its
own merit so a site with one page has the same chances of
being ranked as a site with 100 pages, because each page is
genuinely treated individually.
6.) Less is More – Part Two
The same rule as above goes for on-page text. Pages with
800 to 1,200 words seem to do best on Google but on Bing
the reverse is true, with 250 to 500 words being the magic
number. Just do not overuse your keyword.
7.) Links are Nice But Not Required
Forget about spending your life building an ever growing
number of inbound links for Bing. They do not need them.
Your site, for now at least, is judged by its own merits,
page by page.
8.) Be Bold not Strong
The original SEO method dating back to 1996 was using the
H1 or ‘strong’ heading tags in your HTML. Forget them for
now. Bing gives higher priority to how you would express
importance in a word processor document; larger font and
bolded text as the main markers.
Summary: I build hundreds of Bing (formerly MSN) targeted
mini sites every year using the information above (as it
has evolved) and the results have been consistent top ten
rankings. You can do it too!
Here’s my magic formula for a one hour top ranking:
A.) Get the .com version of a three to four word keyword as
the domain name (dashes are fine.)
B.) Use the domain name as the page heading in a bolded
font, slightly larger than the paragraph text.
C.) Write 400 words of natural sounding text using the
keyword up to five times.
D.) Mention the keyword once in the first sentence and once
in the final sentence of the page – then up to three times
scattered throughout the remainder.
E.) Bold one instance of the keyword. Italicize one
instance of the keyword. Use one instance of the keyword as
a link back to the same page.
F.) Always fill in your Title, Description and Keywords
META tags. That’s it.
Good luck and take care!
PS: This works for Yahoo too.
Choosing and Using the Right Web Host
Your Host is Your Foundation
Online business operators have a tendency to forget that the
company hosting their store is the foundation of their business
and a successful business needs a strong and reliable
foundation. When looking for a web host, remember that finding
the company with the cheapest price is not the goal. Paying a
higher fee for better service and more dependability is
ultimately the smartest decision. Conversely, the most
expensive company is by no means going to be the best either.
When launching a new e-commerce business, finding the best web
host for your needs can be a tremendously daunting task. There
are simply so many web hosts out there and it is a tiresome and
grueling process to separate the good guys from the bad. Many
folks looking to start a website begin by checking out web
hosting review sites and directories. On these sites, you can
read what clients have to say about their current and former web
hosts.
However, there is a bit of a problem with many of these hosting
review sites – bias. The majority of these websites are
actually owned by web hosting companies and most, if not all,
sell advertising space. In theory, if a host has a big
marketing budget then they can buy their way into the
marketplace. A review site is not generally going to give a
negative review to a company that is spending thousands of
marketing dollars with them.
However few and far between they may be, unbiased review sites
do exist. A great place to start when searching for a new web
host is Web Hosting Talk (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/), a
very informative site with great, impartial forums. On this site,
you can gain priceless, valuable insight into the web hosting
and e-commerce industries by discussing, conversing and learning
the opinions of the experts. Another review site that has been
noted for its impartiality is HostJury.com (http://hostjury.com/).
When searching for a host, do not be suckered into buying into
gimmicks. Things like “unlimited” plans may sound appealing, but
there is really no such thing as “unlimited.” When a company
says unlimited, that means that your site will be generally
placed on an overcrowded server where you will be forgotten
about. It’s important to research the history of the company
and find a reliable host with great technical support.
Your Host Dramatically Impacts the Performance of Your Store
There are a variety of major ways that your web host impacts the
performance of your online store including:
1. Uptime and Downtime
2. Technical Support
3. Site Speed and Page Load Times
4. Management of your account including data, email, backups
5. Virus Protection
6. Defense from Hackers and Malware
7. The ability of your hosting to grow with your business (you
should be able to increase hard drive space with one quick,
simple call)
8. Your host should aid with the technical aspects of
accepting credit card orders, including setting up a
payment processing system.
9. Hosts should help you find developers or modules to make
your site function properly.
No Such Thing As Good Downtime
Choosing a reliable web host and the correct plan for the amount
of traffic your site will generate is of the utmost importance
to the success of your online business. Site uptime and
downtime are perhaps the most important components of how web
hosting affects an online store’s performance. Downtime can
really break an online business quickly.
Simply speaking, when your site is down and inaccessible then
customers cannot make purchases and you cannot make money.
Furthermore, potential customers cannot peruse your site. Let’s
face it – people shop online to save time and money. If your
site is continuously down, then you will not be able to make it
in the competitive marketplace of the Internet.
The industry standard for web hosts regarding downtime is a
99.9% uptime guarantee. Never sign up for a hosting package that
does not guarantee at least 99.9% uptime because this will
surely negatively impact the performance of your store. To put
it in more practical terms, with 99.9% uptime, your site should
never encounter more than around 45 minutes of total downtime
per month.
Sometimes there might be a situation where your server has a
critical error and your site may not be online for 99.9% of the
month. In any such case, it is your host’s responsibility to
credit your account with the pro-rated amount you owe for that
month’s charges.
Quality Support is a Must
Reliability and good technical support go hand in hand. When
choosing a new host, make sure that they have an excellent
support staff. When you first call them, go with your gut
instinct. Do they sound knowledgeable and easy to understand?
Are they polite? Ask detailed questions and make sure you get
well-informed responses. You want to have the comfort of knowing
that in any instances of malfunction your issues will be
resolved quickly and correctly. A solid web host will have
email and phone support available 24/7/365.
Looking, feeling and operating professionally are critical
components to running an e-commerce business. Having a sub par
web host will toss professionalism out the window rather
quickly. It is imperative to establish trust between you and
your customers in order to successfully sell online. Customers
will not feel safe spending their money with a site that seems
unprofessional in any manner.
A Speedy Site is Essential
Another manner in which your web host can impact your store’s
performance is your page load times. This can even affect your
ranking within Google and the other search engines as they begin
using site speed as a factor to determine page rank on the
results pages. Having fast load times is imperative not only
for the sake of ranking well with search engines but to make
your customers happy. No customers like a slow site and
chances are that if your site is not performing well, they might
just click on over to your competition.
A Solid Web Host + A Good Business Model = Happy Customers +
Success
Unsatisfactory web hosting can directly impact the customers of
your store. Therefore, it is imperative that you choose a
quality web host that will not play a part in your store
functioning inadequately. Studies have shown that approximately
fifty percent of consumers will leave a preferred site if they
are experiencing technical problems. All it takes is one
unhappy customer to begin the process of bringing down your
business. If a customer is not happy, the following results
could occur:
1. They may never return to your store as a shopper again (this
is especially traumatic to your business if they are repeat
customers)
2. Word of mouth is a big deal. Unhappy customers have big
mouths and they will most likely vent their frustrations with
others.
3. A dissatisfied customer may leave a negative review regarding
your business on a forum, message board or review site. One
bad review can stick with you and your business forever so
you must go to all lengths to avoid them.
If it does happen, be proactive about it and try to squash
it as soon as possible. Try to explain your side and apologize
to the customer (remember, the customer is always right).
Offer the person a discount or their money back to appease
them. With today’s social networks, news travels fast. One
tweet could go viral and your brand and image can be quickly
tarnished.
10 Tips for Launching your Business Blog
Are you thinking about launching your business blog? You’re not
alone. A recent study by GuideWireGroup revealed that
approximately 89 percent of businesses polled use blogs as a way
to communicate with their customers. In another survey,
Burson-Marsteller found that 15% of Fortune 500 companies have
blogs. A successful business blog can generate tens of
thousands of dollars in revenue each year, with figures for
large corporations typically much higher.
So, business blogging is becoming a mainstream marketing tool.
That does not mean, however, that blogging comes easily or
naturally for many companies, their owners and employees.
Blogging, like any form of content, is a commitment of time and
resources – namely, you have to know how to write (or have access
to good writers) and you have to maintain your blogs with fresh,
original and insightful new material on a regular basis.
This should not scare you away. It should, though, inspire you
to learn the basics of business blogging before you turn your
baby loose on the world. Planning out your blogging strategy
first is a wise move, because it gives your blog a greater
chance of success. Here are 10 tips for launching your business
blog:
1. Identify your readers.
Before you start writing anything, make sure you understand
who your target market is. This is also known as your “buyer
persona”, which marketing guru David Meerman Scott defines as
“…a distinct group potential customers, an archetypal person
whom you want your marketing to reach.” Basically, you want
to tailor your topics to the groups of people who are most
interested in your company. Otherwise, you’re missing the mark
and losing out on potential leads and sales. To identify these
buyer personas, there are 3 questions you should ask yourself–
Where do your customers come from?
What type of content will be useful to them?
Where do your customers hang out online?
2. Create social media accounts.
If you haven’t already done this, register accounts with
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Start with these and
expand later. This is important because you need places to post
links to each new blog, so that your groups, fans, and followers
can read them. Posting on social media also encourages people to
subscribe to your RSS feed, another great way to promote your
blog.
3. Establish your social media presence.
Lay the groundwork for later blog promotion by establishing
relationships with your target markets. One of the best ways to
do this is through social media. Now that you have accounts
started, you can go in and join forums, listen to conversations
and hear what people are saying about your industry. Add
thoughtful and insightful comments whenever possible. Hire
employees to do this if you don’t have time, but try to
contribute every once in a while if you can.
4. Determine where to place your blog.
You can either put your blog on a page within your website or
give it its own domain. Your choice depends largely on your
goals. Do you want the blog to be part of your site, and linked
to it directly? Or do you have plans to use your blog for other
purposes, such as to make money through ads or creating a
secondary business from it?
A blog can help your website to rank higher, and it can also
rank highly on its own. So, think about your long-term
objectives when deciding where to place it.
5. Use the right keywords.
If you’re placing your business blog on a page within your site,
most likely you’ll be using the same keywords for your blog that
you are using for your site. If you’ve done good keyword
research, then these are the keywords that reflect your business
and are the search terms that people are using to find you. If
your blog is separate, consider if any keyword changes need to
be made. You may want to take your blog site in a different
direction from your site. Again, this depends on your goals for
your blog.
Incidentally, if your blog does have its own domain, you’ll want
the domain name to be brandable, easy for consumers to recognize
and search engine-friendly.
6. Choose a blogging platform.
You have options (http://ezinearticles.com/
?The-Best-Free-Blogging-Platforms&id=4180416) here. WordPress is
the most popular blogging platform, but you can also check out
Joomla, Blogger, TypePad and others.
7. Plan your posts.
Think about the direction you want your blog posts to go in. A
good way to stay on track is to start with one main topic and
draft a few blogs in advance. Post them on a regular schedule
and you’ll have a supply of targeted blogs that add fresh
content to your site and point back to your company each week.
Coming up with topics can be a challenge, but there are a lot of
helpful resources (http://mark-hayward.com/2008/12/29/
31-blog-post-ideas-for-small-businesses/) on the Web if you get
stuck.
8. Network with influencers.
Once you’ve got your blog started, it’s a good idea to look
around at other bloggers in your industry. See what they’re
doing, what they have to say, and leave insightful comments on
their blogs. This kind of web networking will help you establish
relationships with these people, which in turn will prompt them
to help spread the word about your blog and your company. This
kind of free advertising is invaluable. It connects you to
credible and respected individuals within the blogosphere and
markets your business for you.
9. Promote your blog.
As mentioned earlier, offering a blog subscription through an
RSS feed is an effective way to promote your blog. There are
other ways to get the word out, as well. Write an optimized
press release (http://www.prwebdirect.com/pressreleasetips.php),
submit articles to directories that link to your blog page,
submit your blogs to social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon
and Digg (or set up an account with Ping.fm and have it done
automatically). Make sure that you link to your blogs in your
social media posts.
10. Measure results.
If you’re going to take the time to blog for marketing purposes,
you’ll want to know how well you’re doing, right? Since it relies
primarily on the building of human relationships over time, blog
ROI can be tricky to measure. But, you do have many tools at your
disposal to help you determine how much or how little your blog
is contributing to the bottom line.
Free online tools like Google Analytics
(http://www.google.com/analytics/) and Google Alerts
(http://www.google.com/alerts) provide you with information
about how your customers are finding you online, and can tell
you a lot about your blog page, in particular. Facebook
Insights (http://www.facebook.com/help/?search=insights) is a
way to track activity on your Facebook account. Other tools are
available, so look into them.
Launching your business blog is, like any project, all about
preparation. If you do your homework and lay a solid
foundation, your blog will produce results. Keep in mind that
blogging is a form of content marketing and, as such, is
primarily about building relationships with customers. So, be
patient, follow these tips, and watch your business grow!
DIY SEO with a Foolproof Twist
As the founder of an independent SEO firm I am asked almost
daily “What is the easiest way to optimize a web site?” It
is harder to answer than you might think. It depends on who
is asking and what their knowledge or experience level is.
But last week I read an article written by the person who
taught me search engine optimization ten years ago, and I
now have an answer… Learn the secret recipe, then use it.
There is no magic bullet that works on every web page like
so many SEO ‘miracle’ books and programs would have us
believe. Each page has its own unique ‘secret recipe’ that
has to be discovered and then applied because every single
page it is trying to outrank, is unique. If this seems
confusing, just remember my new favorite quote that I
borrowed from that author’s website: “Think about it.
Anyone could bake Mrs. Fields famous cookies – possibly
better than Mrs. Fields herself – with the secret recipe.
And that’s all SEO is; knowing the secret recipe for any
given web page.”
And it really is that simple. We will look at how to
discover the secret recipe in a moment, but first there is
one crucial thing to understand about search engine
optimization before you go any further:
SEO means making a web page as highly visible as
possible to search engines… for a given keyword.
Just about everyone knows the first part; but too many
people forget the second.
Remember that your soon to be visitor types in very
specific keywords (search terms) on search engines like
Google, because they are looking for something very
specific.
If you know your most important keyword that is great! If
not, do not waste your money on expensive keyword software
that SEO professionals use. Use a free keyword tool like
Google’s, found at:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Just enter in the keywords that you think people are
searching for to find your product or service and then
check the search numbers for those and related keyword
suggestions.
So what about the secret recipe? Once you know your main
keyword or keywords you need to see how well your site is
optimized for that term already. This is called getting
your SEO Quality Score.
What you do is make a list of the most important
optimization aspects of a webpage, for the search engine of
your choice (because Google looks for different things than
Yahoo or Bing.)
Here are ten critical factors for Google, but there are
nearly 140 to be aware of…
* Keyword use in document title
* Keyword use in body text
* Link texts of inbound links
* Global link popularity of web site
* Keyword density
* Keyword position and proximity
* Number of words
* Readability level of web page
* Keyword use in H1 headline texts
* HTML validation of web page to W3C standards
Once you have all of this information for your webpage, you
need to get it for the pages currently occupying the top
ten positions for that keyword and then see how your page
compares.
You can buy software that does a lot of this for you but it
generally costs $500 to $2,500 for the ones that really
work and even then you might need to buy an hour of an SEO
consultant’s time to help you really understand it.
Doing it yourself is very educational. You will be an SEO
pro after a couple of these. So if you have the time, I
would not hesitate.
In my case I did not have the time – or let’s be honest,
the patience – to invest what would be 20 plus hours doing
this manually and not really understanding what I was
looking for. At the time I was a lawn sprinkler installer
looking to optimize my company webpage and knew nothing
about SEO, except that it was too expensive for me to hire
someone else to do it. So I went the cheap and easy route
paying a company called DotCom Pirates (at
http://www.dotcompirates.com) $50 for something they
called their SEO To Go package that reviewed my site for
all 140 SEO factors and provided plain English instructions
to fix every aspect of it. I did most of them and hit
number two on Google.
Here’s my dirty little secret… Realizing this was much
easier than breaking my back in irrigation, I picked up a
couple local shops as SEO customers, ordered reports for
those sites, followed the directions and my SEO business
was born. I no longer need their help, but it made for some
easy success when I needed it most.
Knowing the secret recipe is the foolproof answer to DIY
SEO. Once you have the secret recipe it’s easier than you
ever thought possible and you’ll be laughing all the way to
the bank with the money you saved.
Top 10 Tips for Using Twitter
When it comes to social media, no one “gets it” as well
as Twitter. According to Econsultancy, as of Jan 2010,
Twitter has 75 million user accounts, with about 15
million of that total being active users. See
http://tinyurl.com/yetgcru . That’s a lot of people
sending a lot of Tweets. This micro-blogging service
makes it easy for small businesses and entrepreneurs
to stay in touch with those who choose to follow them,
and stay updated on new products, services, special
offers, industry news and more. It’s a win-win for
both the Tweeter, and their followers.
When it comes to using Twitter, there’s a right way and
a wrong way to use it. Your messages must be kept short,
under 140 characters, and they need to be helpful or
informative. Don’t carry on about what you ate for
breakfast, or the fact that you just brushed your teeth.
People will unfollow you faster than they can hit
the button, even if you do have good oral habits.
I’ve been using Twitter for a long time now and here’s
what I’ve found works best when participating in this
close knit community of few words.
1) Regular Postings: Now I’m not saying you need to post
every day, although that would be nice. You do need to
make an appearance on a regular basis. It’s like school -
you need to show up to pass. Be a contributor that your
followers get to really know and look forward to your
Tweets. If you’re the type of person who needs to plan
ahead, you can always use a service that allows you to
schedule tweets in advance, such as
http://www.socialoomph.com/
2) Retweet: If you see Tweets posted by other users that
you think your followers would like, then retweet them. It
only takes one click, and you’ll also be creating goodwill
with other Twitter users at the same time. If you’d like,
you can add a personal thought or comment before sending
it. Also, make it easy for others to retweet your posts
by adding RT buttons to your website or blog. It’s easy
with http://tweetmeme.com/about/retweet_button
3) Be Helpful: Keep in mind Twitter is a form of social
Media, so social interaction is key. It’s not all about
you. Whenever an opportunity arises to answer a question,
participate in a survey, or help solve a problem, do so.
In this way you’re participating in the community. This
also will help your brand and image when others know
they can count on you for support or feedback.
4) Don’t Be A Follow CopyCat: Don’t follow everyone who
follows you. This is probably my biggest pet peeve when
it comes to Twitter. So many people turn this feature on
to auto follow those who follow them. Why would you
want to do this? I’d prefer that those I follow are
people and topics I’ve hand-selected that interest me,
and not a mish-mash of followers who may be ranting
about things I have no interest in. Be selective in
who you follow or your Twitter stream could quickly
fill up with junk or spam. For quality people to
follow, see – http://followontwitterlists.com/
5) What to Tweet: Make sure that the tweets you post
are helpful and/or informative. Late breaking news
pertaining to your industry, as well as any specials or sales
you may have going on are always good topics. If you
find something you think your followers would like,
especially if it’s free or a bargain, share the love.
Plus, if your tweets are good, it will encourage others
to retweet them. For ideas see -
http://www.artbizblog.com/2009/07/what-to-tweet.html
6) Comment: Particpate in the community by commenting
on other people’s tweets. If you can answer a question,
do so. It never hurts and people really will appreciate
it when you take the time to comment on what they have
to say. It lets them know that others are actually
listening to what they have to say in the “Twitterverse”.
7) Say Thank You: When someone takes the time to retweet
one of your tweets, make sure to reply to them with a
“thank you”. Manners rule online as well as off, and
they’ll like the fact that you noticed the retweet
and took the time to show some gratitude. It may even
inspire them to retweet more of your tweets in the
future.
Be Personal: Again, I don’t need to know what you
ate for dinner, but every now and then you should show
your human side with a creative thought, quote, or
other statement. Let people know you’re “real” and
not just a lean mean business machine. You want to
tread lightly in this area. Too personal is overkill,
but a little can help in establishing a connection with
your followers.
9) Post Pictures/Video: Remember, Twitter is not just
for text. It’s easy to post short videos, and pictures
too. It’s nice to mix it up a little and share content
in other formats as well. Here are some resources
http://freenuts.com/video-sharing-websites-for-twitter/
10) Talk About More Than Yourself: It’s not all about
you, so please don’t make all your tweets one big marketing
message, such as only tweeting about your latest press
release, blog posting, or article that was published. No one
will want to follow you if you’re one big commercial. Yes,
some of this is fine in moderation, but you need to walk
a fine line and mix it up with other helpful, interesting
topics.
Now it’s time to start putting these tips into action.
Social media is all about participating and listening
to what others have to say. It’s all about creating and
sharing information and becoming part of the community.
If you approach Twitter in this fashion, you’ll not
only have a lot more fun, but your followers will like
and respect you – and if that doesn’t strengthen your
brand, nothing will.
HTML5 – The Future of the Web
Steve Jobs was recently quoted as saying “No one will be using
Flash. The world is moving to HTML5″ igniting interest in HTML5
and sparking numerous debates online in blogs and forums.
Jobs’ prediction that flash is dead invokes memories of the
famous Mark Twain quote “reports of my death are greatly
exaggerated”. While the debate rages on over the future of
Flash, HTML5′s destiny is assured.
It’s not just Apple pointing to HTML5 as an internet revolution,
Microsoft, Google, Opera, Mozilla, W3C and even Adobe themselves
agree. In fact HTML5 may become historic for that very reason.
It is arguably the only time Google, Microsoft and Apple have
ever agreed on anything.
How HTML5 evolved was largely due to a disagreement with the W3C
over Error Handling and the failure to embrace modern Internet
applications. In 1997, W3C announced it would no longer extend
HTML4 and saw XML and XHTML as the future. Draconian Error
Handling, (Draco was the Greek leader that issued death
penalties for minor offences), instructed that browsers were to
treat all errors in XML as fatal. With 99% of web pages showing
minor errors, and the lack of new features in XML, many
webmasters ignored the new standard or continued to serve their
websites as HTML, even when adopting XHTML.
In 2004, a group of developers and browser vendors including
Apple, Opera and Mozilla gave a presentation to the W3C on
evolving HTML4 to include new features for modern web
applications. The W3C rejected their proposal of extending HTML
and CSS. Those interested in evolving HTML4 rebelled and broke
away from the W3C, forming their own working group called WHATWG
(Web Hypertext Applications Technology Working Group). At the
core of the WHATWG beliefs was backwards compatibility and
forgiving error handling. WHATWG’s vision was to extend HTML
features including form handling while ensuring that it would
degrade gracefully in older browsers. While the W3C wanted the
world to move to a new standard XML, WHATWG planned to evolve
existing HTML to support a modern Internet.
In 2006, Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the W3C, recognized
that the rebels at WHATWG had gained momentum and announced that
the W3C would work together with WHATWG to evolve HTML. The W3C
HTML Working Group was formed, working with HTML in conjunction
with XHTML. HTML5 was officially born. In October 2009, W3C shut
down XHTML2 making HTML5 the future of the Internet. The pirates
had taken over the ship.
HTML5 marks a change in attitude from the W3C and seeks to
support the diversity of HTML rather than just enforcement of
web standards. It is an incredible achievement that HTML5 is
backward compatible, meaning most of HTML5 can be used straight
away albeit with some JavaScript hacks on semantics for IE.
Ideas from W3C, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, Opera and
many other experts combine to pull the best bits out of HTML and
browsers past into an exciting upgrade of the HTML language that
promotes inclusion not exclusion.
In many ways HTML5 simplifies web pages, taking laborious tasks
such as form validation away from web authoring and into the
browser. The idea of making the browser do the work probably
stems back to IE3, where Microsoft provided the first browser to
build in CSS support. HTML5 introduces new tags for page
structure and semantics of documents.
New markets in Typography are opening up with the implementation
of “@font-face”, meaning designers at last can transfer the visual
appeal of print to the web thanks to advances in CSS and HTML5.
Large JavaScript libraries such as MooTools and JQuery can be
slimmed down as HTML5 transfers many common tasks directly into
the browser. Client side storage, session storage and client
side posting are set to change how we communicate on the web.
Web applications such as video are embedded by HTML without the
need of JavaScript. Sites will begin to move away from Flash to
deliver their video and onto HTML5, especially when current
codec concerns with Mozilla Firefox are resolved.
New HTML5 API’s, such as drag and drop, are reverse engineered
from Microsoft, ensuring that they are supported from the start
by IE. What developers of HTML5 such as Ian Hickson (Opera) have
done is to view the modern web and say, “OK that’s what people
are trying to do, how can HTML5 support that”.
Unlike previous web standards based releases such as XHTML 1.1
and the never finished XHTML 2.0, HTML5 is backward compatible
and is here to stay. With the involvement of people that have
been critical of the W3C, HTML5 brings a standard based upgrade
of HTML that is fully supported throughout the industry. HTML5
will genuinely future proof your site without the danger of your
markup depreciating in a couple of years.
HTML5 timetable for completion is in 2022, which has left many
webmasters confused as to its relevance now. However, any
website can begin using the new specification immediately by
simply changing the doc type to “<!DOCTYPE html>”, the lowest
number of characters required to trigger standards mode in IE.
Currently, only beta versions of browsers IE9, Chrome, Safari,
Firefox and Opera support advanced HTML5 elements. However,
typography “@font-face” is fully supported in current
browsers. For more information have a look at Ethan Dunham’s
“FontSquirrel.com” and Jeffrey Veen’s “Typekit.com”. Other
HTML5 features such as “Drag and Drop” and “ContentEditable”
are also currently supported. You can follow the implementation
of HTML5 in modern browsers at “HTML5Readiness.com” and
“Caniuse.com”.
Further information:
http://www.whatwg.org/
http://diveintohtml5.org/
http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html
An Informal Look at Writing Online Content
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, August 7, 2010
An Informal Look at Writing Online Content
I get many questions about my job as a copywriter and SEO
practitioner, and for the most part they follow a similar
theme- ‘what do you do?’ and ‘could I do it?’ In an attempt
to address these questions once and for all and possibly
also give an insight into the life of an internet marketer
I’ve put together an article: this article.
A large portion of my day is spent writing. From articles
to press releases, website content to blogs: countless
hours are spent staring at a blank page, frantically
scrambling for inspiration or that perfectly sculpted
sentence. The phrase ‘writer’s block’ is an often derided
cliche, but there is no denying that sometimes you
just can’t quite work out exactly what you’re trying to
say, or even more infuriatingly, the best way to say it.
Some will go for a walk to clear their mind, others to
their cigarette packet or porcelain throne in an attempt to
find clarity.
In the realm of content writing and SEO based copywriting
in general there is a very simple reason why these personal
catalysts are turned to with persistent regularity: it can
be boring. There, I said it and to emphasise my conviction
will say it again: Writing For Seo Purposes Can Be Boring.
Now hopefully you’ll grant me enough time to justify this
outburst before reporting me to the various authorities,
oh, and please forgive my reliance on personal experience
in portraying a more universal point.
I go into work every day knowing that I am required to
write intelligently and enthusiastically on topics which I
may have very limited previous knowledge of, and due to
what I assume to be some sort of genetic defect: utterly
love it. It is my love of writing that stops me from
finding it boring. I am fully aware that the majority of
people wouldn’t revel in this challenge, which is great for
me as it reduces my competition. Consequently, the odds are
that you’re reading this purely to find out a little more
about writing on just one broad topic: and to make another
assumption, I expect that your writing on this topic is to
promote your own website. It is to you non-reveller, single
broad topic focussed, committed website owner that I level
my ‘it can be boring’ battle-cry as an explanation for your
writer’s block and seek to show how you can get round it.
You have passion for your chosen topic, well, I sincerely
hope you do (if you aren’t enthusiastic about your
product/website/company/field of operation then it won’t be
poorly written content that jeopardizes your company’s
longevity and more importantly in this instance: my whole
argument rests on it). It is this passion and the resulting
knowledge you have amassed on the subject that is key to
your success in writing copy, articles and press releases
for your website. No amount of literary flair, cunning word
play or EXCESSIVE USE OF formatting Tools is ever going to
appeal to your target reader more than the sound advice and
authoritative content that you, the expert on this subject
are capable of providing. Equally important is the very
fact that if you’re passionate about something then surely
you aren’t going to find it boring.
Having established that you are more than qualified to
advise others on your chosen subject and have enough
interest in it to apply yourself to the time consuming task
of writing accurately about it, all I can really do is give
you a few pointers and tips on converting your knowledge
into something which others can benefit from and in doing
so raise the profile and credibility of your website. To
avoid taking up too much of your time, I’ll keep it brief:
1. Provide Original Content.
Whether you’re writing the content for your homepage or an
article explaining the finer points of your industry and
associated benefits, you must ensure that what you’re
saying isn’t said elsewhere. Inevitably there will be
others who have said something vaguely similar, but focus
upon being better and different. You will get no credit
from search engines for duplicating someone else’s work and
gain no customers by rehashing a competitor’s article.
2. Research Tone and Style.
We all write differently depending on the context. A blog
on celebrity gossip will read very differently to a
governmental department’s homepage and the way you
construct a text message to a friend will differ to the
structure of an email you send to a business associate.
It’s well worth researching the homepage content of similar
websites when writing your own in order to judge which
style you find most effective, relevant and credible. It is
more than likely that the style you find most suitable will
be the style your prospective visitors will find most
suitable: so copy it (NOT THE CONTENT…just the tone and
style). Once you’ve established this starting point then
write in a way you find comfortable but adhering loosely to
the tone you’ve chosen to emulate. The words should come
naturally, don’t worry if it doesn’t sound quite right you
can always come back and edit the text.
3. Double Check Grammar and Spelling.
Having spent hours crafting your text, there is nothing
more irritating than publishing the piece to discover an
abundance of easily avoided errors. Get others to read your
copy with a critical eye before making it live, they may
well spot something you’ve missed. Having taken onboard any
amendments: read it again…and again before committing it
to the archives of internet history.
4. Enjoy It.
I know, I know…easier said than done, but if you care
about the subject matter and the benefits the content will
have for your business then I’m sure you won’t find it that
hard.
This post was supposed to be brief but I got a little
carried away, I just hope it provided a little guidance to
those hovering on the precipice of a first foray into
writing online content. If you republish this, then please
include the resource box- a vast number of my more
conventional and less formal articles have been ‘stolen’ in
the past and put on websites in the guise of original
content.
Google’s Local Business Center: A Major Update & A New Name – ‘Places’
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Friday, August 6, 2010
Google’s Local Business Center: A Major Update & A New Name – ‘Places’
If you have a brick and mortar store, and rely on walk-in
traffic for your survival, you may be wondering
what the Internet can do for your business. Believe
it or not, a lot – and you don’t even need a website.
In the “old days”, the bulk of businesses relied on
the Yellow Pages to get the phone ringing. The majority
of marketing dollars were spent getting listed in this
ten pound paperweight. With the popularity of the Net,
less people let “their fingers do the walking” when they
need something, and more are letting their mouse do
the talking.
Online search has gone mainstream when it comes to
searching for local businesses. Google states that
73% of searches are done for local content. Another
study by BIA/Kelsey and Constat report that 97% of
consumers use online resources when doing research
for products/services in their local area. See
http://www.kelseygroup.com/press/pr100310.asp
Google has always understood the power of local search,
and years ago launched its Local Business Center where
any business can get a listing for free. Recently,
they’ve done a major overhaul and have re-launched with a
new name of “Google Places”, showcasing a host of new features.
http://google.com/places . The name change was done
to tie in with Google’s Place Pages which were launched
over a year ago and include over 50 million places
worldwide. http://tinyurl.com/yc56vx9
If you want customers to be able to find you, and haven’t
listed your offline store here yet, you need to get with
the program. You are missing out on the opportunity to
reach millions of Google users, including Google Map users,
Google’s 800 Voice Directory Search and even Google Earth.
And all of this exposure won’t cost you a dime. It’s totally
free.
Now that I have your attention, let’s go over the steps
for inclusion. As with all things Google, you’ll need
to sign into Google Places with your Google Account.
Up to 100 single locations can be added but, if
you have more than ten to list you’ll need to use
their “Bulk Upload Tool”.
There is a verification process that must be done
to prove you’re the owner of the business being listed.
The choice is yours, it’s by phone or mail. Once
this is done, your listing goes live.
Now in case you’re thinking all that’s included in
a listing is an address and phone number, hold onto
your hat. Here are some of the listing options.
1) Show the geographic area you service.
2) Photos: Upload your own, up to ten images per
listing, in JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP. A professional
photo shoot can also be requested for your business.
3) Place Page Posts: You can post real time updates
here, up to 160 characters, announcing special sales,
events, and new products. One post appears at a time.
4) Custom QR Codes: For use with smart phones to
take users to your mobile website.
5) Advertise: They do have a “Tags Program” in
select cities for $25.00 a month where your business
will be highlighted on Google.com and Google Maps.
6) List your operating hours. Biz description
and even reviews.
7) Post Videos: Up to five videos can be posted,
but you’ll need to publish them to YouTube first,
then include the URL’s on your Place Page.
Payment Types Taken
9) Coupons: Create online coupons to give people
incentive to visit your site. There’s a separate
“coupon tab” that appears on your listing page.
10) Privacy: If you work from home and have no
storefront you can choose to make your address
private in your listing.
At this point you should be realizing how important
being listed in Google Places is to your business.
If you’d like to see what your listing looks like
to a searcher, log into Google Places and click on
“see your listing on Google Maps”.
Now remember, search results are based on relevance
and “geographic distance”, so you can’t buy your
way to the top of the list as with pay-per-click
advertising. As previously mentioned, the “tags
program”, if available in your area, can be utilized
for having your business show up highlighted for
$25.00 a month.
If you’re interested in paying for your links to show
up on the Google Maps search results page, if related
to the search terms and location searched, that can
be done using Google’s Adwords program with what’s
called “Local Targeted Ads”. http://google.com/adwords
By the way, Google also includes a “Reporting Dashboard”
that will tell you how people find you, and what keywords
they used to search. It’s powerful stuff that can also
be used in your local search engine optimization work.
Do yourself a favor – if you’re not listed with “Google
Places”, do it today. It’s targeted, free traffic. Now
where else can you say that when it comes to marketing
on the Internet. People are looking for your business
online and with Google Places you can make it easier
for them to find you. Website or not – it simply doesn’t
matter – but getting people in the door does, and Google is
there to help.
Web Marketing Ideas You Can Use
The Web is full of information, articles, videos, white papers,
e-books and all matter of research and information. Some of it
is very, very good, and some of it is misleading and irrelevant.
Somewhere in the middle, falling squarely in the category of
spectacularly mediocre, is the vast majority of the rest of it.
If you’re like me, always trying to improve, learn, and grow
your business, then you’ve probably been frustrated in your
search for truly useful information that you can actually use
to improve your marketing, branding, and sales efforts.
There seems to be a wide choice of articles dedicated to
surefire courses on do-it-yourself marketing that will make
you a Web-Media-Mogul overnight (usually available for a mere
three payments of twenty-nine, ninety-five) and of course,
there’s always lots of stuff on how you just got to get
onboard with the next big social networking fad. Excuse me
while I delete another email about an absolutely fabulous
linking strategy I just can’t live without.
It’s all too familiar and for the most part, a waste of time.
If this nonsense were really the answer to growing your
business, then you’d already be rich, sitting on some
Bora Bora beach sipping pina coladas, and not hunched over
your computer trying to find something useful that will
actually help.
In One Word Or Less
When it comes to marketing, it really doesn’t matter what
venue, method, or media you employ; marketing is simply a
matter of effective ‘communication,’ easy to say, not so
easy to do.
Your ability to communicate is the key to marketing success,
or conversely, your inability to communicate effectively
is what is holding you back. So the time has come to grapple
with the real problem, and that is, how do you communicate
your marketing message in the most effective manner to your
audience; how do you tell your brand story so people pay
attention, and care.
The first thing to understand about marketing communication
is that text messaging, Twitter and all other limited, one
dimensional solutions, stifle the very thing that’s necessary
to implement effective marketing communication: the nuance,
depth of understanding, and emotional value inherent in what
you offer – the very thing your audience needs to know about
what you sell. The key being ‘why they need what you
offer’ not ‘what.’
Communication Is A Complex Process
The second thing to understand about marketing communication
is that it involves five critical elements in order to be
effective: the Message, the Method, the Messenger, the
Audience, and the Venue.
Ask yourself, why are you on the Web at all? If it’s because
everyone else is on the Web, then you’re never going to have
the marketing breakthrough you crave; but if it’s because you
have something to say, a story to tell, a reason for people to
say, “I need some of that!” then it’s time to get serious about
developing the right message, delivered by the right messenger,
sent to the right audience, and employing the Web venue’s best
method of multidimensional communication – Video.
This is nothing new. Web Video is now accepted as the most
effective communication tool available to Web businesses, so
what is the difference between Web Videos that are an utter
waste of time, and worse, counter productive, and Web Videos
that turn companies into marketing phenoms?
Unlike one-dimensional forms of communication, Web Video
delivers your message by accessing multiple senses using visual
and auditory techniques. Just by adding a human being as
presenter goes a long way to making an impact.
Because video communicates by accessing multiple senses on both
a subliminal and direct level, it demands knowledge and
expertise in concept creation, writing, casting, graphic and
motion design, video production and editing, audio, music and
sound design, as well as the ability to get it all to work
together in an effective presentation delivered on time and for
an affordable investment.
But all of this expertise and skill can be wasted if your video
campaign lacks an identifiable emotionally relevant conceptual
design. One of the hardest marketing concepts for bottom-line
oriented business executives to accept is that the value of
their offering is found in the emotional satisfaction their
product or service provides. Telling people what a company
does alone is not marketing, telling them why they need what you
do is. Companies that focus on ‘the what’ turn their products
and services into commodities and products that are
indistinguishable from the competition, but companies that
focus on the emotional value they provide, deliver the answer
to the question, why people buy from one company and
not from another.
Effective Marketing Communication is Concept Based
All good marketing is based on an emotionally based concept.
This is especially true on the Web, where content and attention
span go hand-in-hand. If your Web marketing is not interesting,
informative, and entertaining, it will never be memorable; it
will never have the lasting impact you need to meet your sales
and marketing objectives. Effective marketing communication
starts with an emotionally charged concept, one that can be
spun-out into a long-term presentation strategy, a concept
with legs.
Coming up with an appropriate concept that will work for your
product or service takes a bit of creative thinking, but it
really isn’t as hard as you think. One caveat that often escapes
clients, when they come to us with their ideas is that the
concept must be executable for the available budget. Anybody
can come up with fantastic ideas that are impossible to
implement or cost prohibitive. The trick is to develop a
concept that can be implemented on time and on budget.
Executable Brand Video Campaign Concepts
One method we use to develop affordable brand video campaign
concepts for clients is to combine the emotional value
proposition the client offers with a recognizable presentation
trope.
Tropes are metaphorical expressions, or in this case,
storytelling-scenarios that audiences recognize and accept in
terms of their implied expectations and implications. Used
properly within the context of a Web Video presentation,
tropes can simplify and shorten a complex message, and provide
cover for what would otherwise be a boring, blatant sales pitch,
or desperate plea for business.
Human beings are all programmed for pattern recognition, it is
a basic skill needed for survival, and it’s been hardwired
into our DNA. Our very survival as a species is dependent on
our ability to recognize danger and opportunity. Business and
marketing is no different. And that is what makes communication
tropes effective. This intrinsic aspect of our nature allows
professional video marketing experts to tap into the
motivational triggers that govern our subliminal decision-making
responses, the kind of responses that get people to buy
what you sell.
10 Business Blogging Tips to Improve Your Blog Performance
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, August 1, 2010
10 Business Blogging Tips to Improve Your Blog Performance
Business blogging is a different kettle of fish to blogging for
money and that, in turn, is entirely different to blogging
socially. The type of blog you manage will determine the voice,
design, and style of your blog as well as the efforts you’re
likely to put into promoting it.
A business blog needs to be professional as well as appear it.
Regular posting on topics that your readers will genuinely find
interesting can promote you as an expert in your field. A blog
can keep the line of communication between you and potential
customers open. It enables you to post relevant, keyword rich
postings that encourage new traffic and help increase your
client base.
It’s far from an exhaustive list but below are ten tips to
remember when blogging for business:
1 – Set Your Goals Early
In just about every guide you ever read it says “set your
goals”; it might be a clich� but it’s true. With a business blog
your most likely goal is to increase sales but other worthy
goals can include:
o Communicating with your existing or potential clients
o Relaying company news
o Answering queries and questions
o Providing guides for current customers
o Providing a portal to everything useful related to your
industry
The design of your site, type of content to include, whether or
not to include ads, and numerous other decisions will be
governed by the reason that you start blogging. The sooner you
realize what it is that you want to achieve, the sooner you’ll
achieve it.
2 – Use SEO Friendly URLs and SEO Plugins
WordPress is an invaluable SEO tool. It is a dedicated Content
Management System but, more than that, it has a team of
frighteningly dedicated users that create themes, plugins,
widgets, and more and then provide them free of charge to
other users. Among these tools are a great number of SEO related
tools that can be used to determine your meta description and
title tags.
A simple but potentially effective SEO fix is to change the
format of permalinks or URLs so that they dispense with the
default page id to be replaced with an easier to read and
keyword optimized page URL. You can do this through the
Wordpress dashboard.
3 – Consider Your Media Placement
Adding photos and illustrations, logos, videos, and other forms
of media are great for reader engagement, but you should consider
each of your blog assets and place the most valuable and useful
in the most prominent position. The quicker you can grab a
reader’s attention, the more likely you will be to keep it for
longer.
Certain themes allow you to easily embed video and slideshows
into the sidebar of your blog and this can be a very useful tool
to make your pages appear more attractive while relaying
genuinely useful information.
4 – Consider Your Ad Placement
The primary target of a business blog is not usually to make
money directly through the blog itself. Therefore, the placing
of third party ads is not necessarily a good choice. However,
you can add ads for your own company or service as well as
partner websites. You can even add banners to specific
categories, tags, or pages in your blog. Don’t overdo the number
of banner ads and other distracting advertisements though and
try to keep the interface clean and professional.
5 – Offer Your Readers the Chance to Pass You Around
Add me, share this, retweet, and email this functions should be
provided to your users. When you post something useful and one
of your readers shares it, it has the potential to go viral and
create a lot of exposure for your blog and therefore your
website and your business. This works especially well with
highly unique content and can be text, audio, video…
Some themes have these functionalities built into them, but do
ensure that they’re enabled. Alternatively find a sidebar widget
or a social bookmarking plug-in that offers the same features
and install this. Many blog readers read a number of blogs
regularly and by enabling them to add you to social bookmarking
and social networking sites you may well develop a long term
relationship with them while also letting them inform others of
what you offer.
6 – Keep Quality Content Coming
Try to set yourself a regular schedule but remember that it can
be broken and it can be added to when necessary. If news breaks,
then post your own commentary on it. If you intersperse product
reviews and articles that relate to your own business then try
to schedule these. Make sure you post regularly, at the very
least once a week, and spend some time getting involved in the
community that builds up around your blog.
7 – Not Every Post Need Be an Advert
As long as you fill your blog with relevant, interesting, and
well written posts then visitors will take the time to look
around, read a few posts, and even click the ads to your own
site in order to see exactly what you have to offer. Not every
single post needs to include multiple links to your website
pages.
You can download plugins that increase the likelihood of users
reading more posts. Some add a list of related posts to the
bottom of each entry while many themes provide the chance to
show “most popular” and “most commented” posts to further direct
the flow of traffic around your blog.
8 – Respond Where Responses are Expected or Deserved
Managing a blog is more than posting a missive of the week’s
news every Friday. No matter how often you post you should spend
some time interacting with the community that develops around
your blog. Answer questions and queries, offer insight, and
provide a response where one is requested.
A business blog should always be professional, which means
keeping posts and messages that are too personal away.
Similarly, spam comments can prove extremely damaging for your
SEO as well as the trust your readers place in your business.
There’s decent spam settings in WordPress and you can further
extend these.
9 – Stuck for Inspiration? Immerse Yourself in Web 2.0
More specifically read forums and blogs, wikis and news sites
related to your own industry. Look for those news stories,
articles, and videos that you like the most and are relevant to
your blog and write about them. Read the comments in your own
blog and look through your analytics to determine the pages that
are most popular with readers.
Look at emerging keywords and news topics and try to act
quickly. Slant the resulting article in favor of your business,
if possible, and then post this to your blog too. There’s plenty
of online portals and sites for news in your industry and you
can use email updates, RSS readers, and browser or home page
plugins to display them regularly and in an orderly and
comprehensible way.
10 – Blogging is Great for Business But Business is Also Great
for Business
Getting stuck into a blog and truly developing your blog
community can be a great way to build traffic to your website
and develop clients for your business. Reading related blogs and
becoming an active member in social networks can help you find
out what your readers want and deliver it frequently.
Blogging and Web 2.0 in general can quickly become addictive. It
should be treated as a tool to assist in managing your online
business, which means that you need to concentrate on the other
aspects of your business. Outsource your blog development and
content creation if necessary and enjoy the results.
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