September 5, 2008

Friday Recap

Posted by Lisa Barone

It's Friday Recap time! That means it's almost time for the weekend. Huzzah!

Hey, did you know The Wonders Years may be coming back to television? Holy Kevin Arnold!

This isn't really search related but Jonathan Fields asked a very important question this week: What Do You Want To Be Known For? It's inspiring and thought-provoking in that warm and gushy way. Give it a read and then go conquer the world.

The mysterious QualityGirl says all she really needed to know about Internet marketing she learned in pre-school. I'm beginning to think all that money spent on college was a waste. It seems all the education you need in life is over by age four.

After leaking and releasing wonder-browser Google Chrome, Sergey Brin says he definitely doesn't want to reduce FireFox's market share at all. Of course you don't, sweetheart. Of course you don't. Just like Matt wants us to know that Chrome isn't really as evil as we all fear it may be. We totally believe you both.

The Consumerist alerts me to the coolest cell phone ever. It's a giant teddy bear that you get to carry around with you. I know! It's a phone that justifies the carrying of cute and cuddly teddy bears into public by adults. Huzzah again!

If you're a tech worker with a wandering eye, Web Worker Daily gets down and dirty talking about non-disclosure agreements and how they may affect you.

Be sure to cast your vote in The Twitties, the awards for the most interesting tweet on 140 characters. Hurry over and take a look at the list of nominees, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be really happy you weren't at the gynecologist during an earthquake.

YourSEOMentor had a great interview with the always awesome Brandy Eddings, where you get to learn a bit about the lady, the myth and the cowgirl. :)

Over at SEOmoz, Rand Fishkin identifies 10 inexplicable weird Google search results. Rand highlights some good stuff, but the comments are my favorite part. It gets way, way nerdy down there.

And finally, we all get to see what life would be like if Google created the hammer.

Things I Learned On BoingBoing This Week:

• How to live in a school bus. C'mon, like you've never thought about it? I found my kitty Swat living in an abandoned school bus. I should have left her there. Oh what, are you still reading this?
• Some places in the world have seriously awesome fences. Who know?
• I want an anthropomorphic light pillow almost more than I want Susan to disappear. [I'm clearly not firing you enough these days. --Susan]
• A new form of child abuse: Allowing your daughter to think it's "cute" when she puts 25 snails on her face.

Posted on 09/ 5/08 at 4:41 PM | Comments (0)
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Examples of What Makes Good Content

Posted by Lisa Barone

Jane Copland has a bitter post over at SEOmoz arguing that too many bloggers and speakers advise "creating good content" without going into the specifics. Jane calls it a new form of snake oil salesmen, and while I can share her distaste for those who blog without knowing what they're talking about, I find the whole post somewhat unfair.

The trouble with identifying what makes good content and drawing them a roadmap is that "good content" is subjective. It's almost less about the content you create and more about who's reading it and their needs. That's why the "get to know your audience" answer is so popular. It's not someone being lazy, it's simply a necessity. An article on how to properly implement a 301 redirect for a Apache server may be just what you were looking for, or it could be about 2 years late for you. What makes good content is tied to the knowledge level of your audience.

If you're looking for types of content that are popular, that's a bit easier to answer. Some of my favorites are listed below:

• Something No One Else Has: I wrote a post last week on how to use competitive research to find content ideas for your Web site or blog. One of the tips I offered in that post was to go through your competitors' sites and look for glaring content holes, the article or tool or angle that they didn't cover. If you were looking for it and couldn't find it, then chances are someone else was too and that's a gap you can help fill. Giving some props back to SEOmoz, they've been publishing some great for-pay guides recently, including the blogging guide written by Tamar Weinberg. It's unique content that no one else has and I imagine they're seeing a lot of success from those willing to shell out the cash. I think our guide to SEO methodology revealed on our Web_rank page is also an example of content no one really has, at least in that form and that in depth. That's the mark of great content, to me.
• Super Comprehensive Link Magnets: I love informational resources almost as much as I love puppies and cupcakes. It's what the Web was based on and anytime someone comes along and compiles useful information into one stellar resource...I'm instantly smitten. I think one of the best examples of this recently was David Mihm's Local Search Ranking Factors. Seriously. Was anyone not blown when they came across David's article? My thought would be no. It was so comprehensive, insightful and detailed that it became an immediate resource and a resounding example of great content.
• Exposes a Problem/ Asks a Question: Earlier this week Rae Hoffman wrote an awesome post accusing Twitter of "laying down" for Google after they put a nofollow on links contained in the Bio section of users' Twitter profiles. In the post, Rae sheds light on a problem that normal, non-Twitter-addicted folks may not have been aware of by explaining the situation and then offering her opinion as to what happened and why she was against it. Posts like these help keep search marketers in tune with that's happening around them and spark important debates. I think any post or piece of content that opens up a discussion of a larger issue is always needed and great content. We've never been afraid to write those posts in the past and it's something we'll keep doing when we think the industry could use a wakeup call.
• Solves a Problem/ Answers a Question: Okay, who is not in love with Ann Smarty right now? Seriously. Every day she's lighting up Search Engine Journal with content that site owners can use today to improve their site. She breaks stuff down and offers tips in a way that I honestly don't think anyone else is doing right now. And she's doing at an incredible speed. It's great content derived from by honing in on what troubles SEO and site owners are facing and then creating content that specifically addresses these issues and how to fix them.
• Bonus: Something That Entertains: In most cases content won't be valuable on humor alone, but it's definitely one of those things that can make a strong piece of content even stronger. A great example of this is every presentation ever given by Michael Gray. When he speaks people listen because he's offering words and advice that you're not going to get from anyone other than a blunt New Yorker. But his message is even better received because he uses humor and fun exaggerations to make his point. Will being funny equate to good content all on its own? Not unless you're a professional comedian. But it can increase something's overall power.

I can sympathize with Jane's feeling that there's too much of the same information out there. It's the nature of blogs. [and Web sites and conferences and books and movies and...--Susan] And she's right when she says that some of it comes from people who just blatantly have no idea what they're talking but want a voice anyway. However, I think it's a bit unfair to call conference speakers and bloggers "lazy" and "snake oil salesmen" because they offer up general advice.

As much as Jane may roll her eyes at all the speakers and blogs out there, really what more can they do in that type of forum? It's not that they're lazy or boilerplating their answers, it's that they're writing for a large audience not for one person or business. They don't know what business you're in or what you're site is like or what your objectives are. What may be good content for Bruce Clay, Inc. may not work for SEOmoz. If someone was to stand on a panel and give us both an example of what they think is "good content", it may do well on one site and flop on another. You don't read blogs for specific advice for your Web site. You read blogs to learn about what the engines value and then it's up to you, and perhaps your search engine optimization team, to come up with implementable ideas and tactics. If you're going to wait for the Q&A part of a session to quiz a speaker for content ideas, you're doing it wrong. That's a question you have to answer.

Posted on 09/ 5/08 at 12:32 PM | Comments (6)
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Going to SMX East...Don't Forget To Register!

Posted by Lisa Barone

Hey kids, just a friendly reminder that if you've been eyeing SMX East but feeling some commitment anxiety over registering, the Early Bird pricing is valid through Monday, Sept. 8. For those unsure, today is Friday. As in, almost Monday. That means you should go register.

I'll wait here while you go do it.

Back?

The inaugural SMX East is one of those shows we're all really excited about here at BC, as it'll be a great place to increase your SEO skill set and network with the industry's finest. It will be three days filled with more than 50 search sessions, 30 educational classes in the SMX theater, as well as the chance to attend SMX Bootcamp. Of course, the whole thing will end with Bruce Clay, Inc. SMX SEO Training on Oct 9-10, and that's something you definitely don't want to miss.

If you register before Monday you'll be able to take advantage of both the Early Bird discount AND the 20 percent off we can give you with our smx20BCI promo code. That puts the total cost of attending one of the industry's premier search conferences and two extra days of hands on search engine optimization training for less than $1,000. At that price you almost can't afford NOT to go!

Seriously, if you've been considering making the trip to NYC for SMX East, now's the best time to book. They're starting to reveal who'll be speaking on which panels and it's shaping up to be a great mix. Especially noteworthy is the Give It Up: What Hat Edition panel which features some of our favorite white hat SEO ladies like Kate Morris and Kim Krause-Berg and the Ask the SEOs panel with superstars like Bruce Clay, Greg Boser, Rae Hoffman, Todd Friesen and Jill Whalen. You're not going to want to miss them. Guaranteed.

I'm happy to report that we've had a lot of interest in the East Coast SEO training class we'll be hosting after the event, so we're looking forward to seeing some of you guys there. Up until Monday, the cost to attend SMX East alone is $1,195 or $2,990 with Bruce Clay Training. Danny mentioned on the Daily Search Cast today that hotels are going fast, so make sure you book your room. You don't want to be the loser stuck trekking to the convention center from 20 miles away.

And with that, we hope to see you there. :)

Posted on 09/ 5/08 at 9:25 AM | Comments (0)
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September 4, 2008

The Dilemma Over Deep Linking

Posted by Lisa Barone

One of our fine Bruce Clay Account Managers forwarded me an article he stumbled across today and it was like a gift from God. How did he know I needed a good laugh today? Our AMs are always so helpful!

The article is from FindLaw and begins by discussing a case involving a woman who was issued a cease and desist order by her police department for doing something really outrageous and crazy - linking to their Web site. Yes, I know, it's dumb, but that's not where this story ends. It gets worse.

Further down in the article the author starts talking about deep linking and the issues that it raises. Here are some reasons, according to author Anita Ramasastry, why deep linking can cause problems for Web sites and why it should be avoided:

• It diverts traffic away from the home page where all the ads are.
• It confuses visitors who suddenly find themselves "in the middle of a new site"
• Deep links doesn't always fall under "fair use" exception of copyright law.

If you hold real still you can probably feel your brain jerking against your skull while it undergoes some sort of fit from the dumb. Don't worry, it'll pass soon.

The article gets arguably worse once the author starts citing a number of US court cases where judges have actually agreed with this logic and made judgments in favor of crazy people. Last month there was a case with SFX Motor Sports where an injunction was granted because someone deep linked to some live audio casts of motorcycle racing events. SFX claimed they suffered great financial losses as a result of the link. Before that, Ticketmaster sued Tickets.com because they felt a deep link into their site confused customers who weren't sure whom they were buying from or where they were.

The whole article is quite troubling on a number of levels. There are three main problems here, as I see them.

1. People who don't even know the kingdom exists are being given the keys: I find it somewhat outrageous that folks who obviously have very little understanding of the Internet and how it works are being given a public voice to speak out on it and make decisions. However you feel about our government, a judge is a powerful person in the court of public opinion. How are SEOs and search marketers supposed to educate people when rulings like the two above exist? Imagine it: There you are explaining to your SEO client how it's okay for people to deep-link into their Web site and to not enter in from your home page and then they throw this reputable-looking ruling in your face. You've just found yourself in a 30 minute conversation that you may not even win.

   I know it's not the search engines job to have their nose in every court case going on in America, but shouldn't there be someone around to knock sense into people who make uninformed rulings? Or perhaps it's the court's responsibility to reach out when they don't know what the heck they're talking about? I don't know, maybe not, but rulings like these just boggle my mind and do a great disservice to the search engine optimization industry, in my opinion. [In the Legal session at this year's SES San Jose, Eric Goldman said that the real problem is the lawyers who don't do a good job of educating the judges. If you are in a fracas, make sure your lawyer understands the industry and educates the court. Good advice. --Susan]

2. People still don't know how to set up their Web sites: How many cases have we seen now where organizations sue Google simply because the site administrator doesn't know how to do proper site architecture? And how many of these court cases have we seen actually won? Oy.

   When are people going to start taking responsibility for the sites they create and stop blaming Google because they never took the time to learn about proper site architecture? If you don't want people linking to certain parts of your Web site, restrict them from being able to do so. It's that simple. There are plenty of server mechanisms that can be employed to prevent deep linking into areas of a site where you do not want people deep linking. Try using those. It's cheaper than suing, is more effective, and will prevent you from looking like a colossal uninformed moron to the Internetz. It's like when your child starts walking and you'd rather them not fall down the stairs so you put up a gate. Install a gate on your Web site.

3. We still live in a world where the home page is king: Though all the bullet points up top make my brain hurt, it's the second one that really gets me going. The idea that people are supposed to navigate through your site in some kind of order and the thought that it would even be possible or beneficial is crazy-making. By that logic, Google should only be indexing home pages so that visitors could land on the "right" first page and then traverse through a Web site in some tree-like fashion. Yes, an entire search index with nothing but home pages. How exciting! It's like a throwback to the days of directories.

   Obviously it's absurd on a lot of levels. For most people the goal of your Web site is to give users the information they want as quickly as you can in order to push them down the conversion path. Deep linking and getting interior pages indexed aids in this goal. It's one of the reasons while siloing is so important. You don't want only your home page to rank. You want those interior landing pages to climb the SERPs because it's those pages that really answer a user's query. You want your visitors to enter your site on the page most relevant to your query. And 9 times out of 10, that is not your home page. If you silo your site correctly, users won't be "confused" when they land inside your site. Instead, they'll be on the exact page they were looking for.

And that concludes my rant. Until tomorrow when I read about yet another clueless individual suing Google to compensate for their inadequacies as a site owner. Someone get me a cupcake. [Have a cookie. --Susan] Yum yum score!

Posted on 09/ 4/08 at 12:53 PM | Comments (6)
See more entries in SEO, SEO Tips & Tricks, Search Engine Optimization

September 3, 2008

What's Better For Marketing: Sweet or Sour?

Posted by Lisa Barone

Everyone's talking about Google Chrome and the new Twittergate, but I don't want to. So I won't. Instead I'm going to vent some frustrations with Facebook and the way people choose to market themselves in general. I don't promise that anything below is going to make sense.

So, here's the thing. There's yet another media outlet talking about how many of the ads Facebook shows on its Web site are offensive. This time it's the Washington Post making the claim but I'm pretty sure I've read almost the exact article four times over the past few months, all on different sites. If you've been to Facebook you know that some of their ads are, well, not for the sensitive. They'll call you fat, mock you for being single and alone, tell you that your teeth could be whiter, and that you need a better job. It basically induces the same feelings of self doubt and emo-ness that a 20 minute phone call to my mother does, only there's arguably less yelling. (Hi, Mom!)

In her post, Rachel Bechman discusses that she let Facebook in on the big news that she's engaged only to become bombarded with ads telling her how to lose weight and threatening that if she doesn't click the link she'll be a fat bride. Who wants that? You're not driving people to click on that ad; you're emotionally sabotaging them for the day. Don't be a jerk. You know that ad is only going to make her pick a fight with her unsuspecting fiancé later who has no idea why she's upset. It's not right to play with people's domestic bliss like that.

I know that I will never click on one of those ads because I don't like the way it feels. I don't support people who make me feel bad. Period. I don't care if it's a blog post, a tweet, an ad, etc. And I know I'm not the only one turned off by those ads because I've read the blog posts and tweets of people the exact same thing. So I wonder why folks keep writing their ads that way. It doesn't sound like the clickthrough rates are so great either. Why can't marketers (and people) find a better way to stand out?

The more time I spent in the Internet marketing world, the less I get it. I don't see the appeal in being trashy or writing content to appeal to the lowest denominator. It's like flame bloggers who get Internet Famous by being a jerk online. They don't have the talent or intelligence to be interesting on their own so instead they take cheap shots at those who are or make spectacles of themselves in public. It is so damn sad. There are plenty of better ways to get links/authority/respect/customers, so why revert to that? Why make a name for yourself as being a jerk.

What's really interesting to me is the number of big name brands running these ads on Facebook. Big name brands that are calling you fat and telling you have a muffin top. Big name brands mocking you for being in debt. It's like they don't realize that people hold grudges. I am going to remember the name of the dating site that started putting thoughts in my head that I'd be single and alone my entire life simply because I removed my relationship info from my Facebook profile. I didn't change it to single; I simply removed what was there when common sense reminded me that perhaps broadcasting your relationships on the Internet wasn't a necessity in life. Do you really want to be the one to tell an emotionally distraught girl clutching the ice cream container that she's damaged and undateable? That's not a brand association I'd want to be building.

And I don't think Facebook wants users to associate itself with these ads either. They've amended their ad guidelines to try and reduce the number of offended people coming to their site; however, the ads still remain. The marketers going to Facebook somehow think it's a good idea to target people this way. I suppose if you're really dense it could make sense: Attack an insecure person with claims that they're fat and they'll click the ad looking for a way to change. I just don't think that's a good way to market yourself. Isn't it more effective to encourage the soon-to-bride to get in shape to look great in her dress on the big day than to scare her into obsessing over her muffin top? Or is being nice in advertising overrated?

Are ads that scare or "attack" you doing better in terms of clickthroughs or are the marketers on Facebook trying to be "witty" and give people what they think they want? If it's the later, why do marketers think people want to be abused? Is that really the society we live in: Say whatever you need to say to get attention? I sure hope not.

I always believed that, while being mean may make people take notice, they only way you'll get them to act is to be inspire them with goodness. But maybe I'm just a naïve bunny. A naïve bunny who likes rainbows and cupcakes and boys who haven't yet reached age 8. And if so, I'm okay with that.

Posted on 09/ 3/08 at 4:58 PM | Comments (3)
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September 2, 2008

What Are You Doing To Keep Your Best Assets?

Posted by Lisa Barone

I don't care if you're Google, Facebook, Nike, Apple or another one of those brands kids can identify by the age of 5. I don't care how cool your tool is, how unique your service is, or how hot you are in the industry. Without your employees, you're nothing. They're the ones giving you life, making you interesting and keeping you relevant. So what are you doing to keep them happy, interested and on board?

I think I'm getting contemplative in my old blogging age. So much so that I spent some time this weekend going over past blog entries and came across this one entitled Your Employees Are Just Not That Into You. Doing so I realized two things. First, good heavens I was a snarky little punk back then, [Just back then? --Susan] and second, I think this topic is important enough that it needs to be revisited.

Oddly enough, this post also ties into the earlier post about the power of letting your employees create personal brands and how important is to hold on to them once they have created a brand that's getting people's attention. The truth is, all your employees are important and you don't want to lose any of them.

It's common for businesses to get caught up in the money and production side of things. It's about making the sale, making the client happy, growing the company and becoming bigger and better suited to tackle the competition. The trouble is that in that process no one is paying attention to the employees and their well-being. Like I said back in August 2006, sometimes you need to check in and make sure the 30 lbs your programmer has lost is because they just joined a great new gym and not because the chains you're using to keep them to their desk don't quite reach all the way to the lunch room. You want to check in every once in awhile to make sure you're not killing your employees or taking them for granted.

This may be my naïve side coming out, but I think most employees are inherently loyal. They don't want to leave a boss or a job that has treated them well or helped them succeed. But they will if they feel like it's their only way out. In order for you to keep your talent in your organization and away from your competitors, there's a few common sense things you need to do as a savvy business owner:

Respect Their Talent: ZOMG, stop doubting your own staff! Stop thinking they're not smart enough, that they're going to lose your biggest clients, or that they're trying to sabotage you. They're not. Trust that you've hired the right person for the job and then get the heck out of the way. Your micromanaging and needing to be involved in every decision is only going to ruin the process and make your best talent start eyeing the letter opener and your face. If you want happy employees, give them the freedom to experiment, to get things done without you and to lead their own projects. If you've hired the right people they won't take advantage, instead, they'll exceed every expectation you had and be overjoyed doing it. The more control you try to exert, the more stifled your staff is going to be. It's okay to fail; it's not okay to hinder the process.

Challenge Them: The number one reason I would leave a job is because I was bored. Intelligent people (and sometimes even non-intelligent people like myself) need to be challenged and given the opportunity to learn new tasks and try new things. If you don't provide them with that, they're going to find another way to do it. Maybe your SEO thinks it'd be handy to sit with the Design people and see how that works. Maybe your writers should be getting their hands dirty and learning how to really implement SEO in order to become more well-rounded writers. Maybe your SEO Analysts should sit with the Sales people and learn how that process works. Maybe your star needs a new project that they can really dive into. Don't be afraid to let employees switch things up or do it for them. People like learning need skills. They need to; otherwise they'll never grow and you'll be housing a lot of really disgruntled people. Disgruntled people like Susan.

Appreciate Them: If you asked ten bosses whether they took their staff for granted, not a single one of them would say yes. But the reality is a lot of them do. Often companies schedule elaborate company dinners or hand out expensive presents as a way of saying "thank you" for their hard word. That's great, but it's probably not what your staff is looking for. They don't need a five course dinner with the whole audience, what they need is know that you're actually paying attention. Raises are nice, but, at least for me, a simple email or a comment about a job well done is worth a heck of a lot more. If you see someone's been putting in some extra hours or doing great things, drop them a short email to say thanks. Sometimes it really does make all the difference.

When's the last time you checked in with your staff to see how they were doing and to thank them for kicking the amount of ass that they do? If you don't know, it may be time to stop in. You don't want to lose your company all stars because you were too busy to realize that they weren't happy. Your employees are your life blood. Treat them right or prepare to lose them.

Posted on 09/ 2/08 at 4:48 PM | Comments (1)
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Brand the Company or the Players?

Posted by Lisa Barone

Something that's always interested me about the SEO community is the number of strongly-defined personal brands we have. From Graywolf to Webguerrilla to Shoemoney to Sugarrae to the measly The Lisa, SEO is bursting with personal brands. Brands that have been so ingrained into the industry that we don't always even realize there's a company behind these folks. Obviously this goes on in other industries as well, but I really think we SEOs take it to a whole new level.

It makes me wonder, is it better idea to brand your company as an expert or to encourage your employees to create their own personal brands that empower you?

If you're the principle of a company, the idea of allowing your employees to establish their own personal brands is probably a scary thing and something you'd rather discourage than encourage. It's the same reason why many in the industry are afraid to take their minions employees to SEO conferences. Sure, the experience may be great for them and they'll learn a lot - but it's almost guaranteed that they're walking out of that show with at least a handful of offers for side jobs and full-time positions. As someone not looking to lose their entire staff and the months you spent training them, it's understandable that you'd rather keep them close and anonymous.

Unfortunately for you, all you can do is take a Xanax for your fears and get over it. Any intelligent employee worth keeping is going to find a way to brand themselves and it's in your business's best interest to help them.

As an employer you need to wake up to the fact that an employee with a personal brand is actually worth more to you than the droid you keep in the closet. (Yes, the closet with the padlock on it and that tiny slit you carved out for feeding time.) When they become more valuable and coveted, it makes your entire company more valuable and coveted.

The dangers of public employees are obvious - they're exposed to poaching, it can be harder to keep them on staff (that's a sign of your failure, not theirs), and it will come as a bigger hit to your company should they ever decided to leave. But the fact is, the value they bring to your company far outweighs any negatives.

For a company, allowing employees to create their own worth, gives them increased motivation to succeed. It makes them more invested in the entire operation. They'll work harder cause there's more at stake. Even with my pitiful little The Lisa brand, I know that every day I have to blog/write/say something that has importance. I can't show up and write low-quality stuff because I know people are watching and it will hurt my brand if I do.

Having team members that are well-branded lightens your own load. Your customers and colleagues another face (and email address!) to go to with problems, concerns, questions or insight. You give your customers another friendly face to associate your company with. Someone to help you publicly carry the brand promise.

I think it also helps your company when you allow your team members to be branded as experts. A lot of companies get this backwards, trying to brand the entire company as a leader instead of the folks that make it up. Personally, I don't think you can do one without the other. They're complementary. I'd argue that making your company more credible and well-rounded by allowing yourself to share the spotlight. As the CEO, people know you've got the goods. They know that you know what you're talking about when they come to you. But wouldn't it be nice if they knew you had a powerful team behind you who was just as smart? If they actually knew the names and faces of the folks they'd be working with before they even came to you? I think it helps you - both your company and your brand.

The person with the name on their door isn't always the face clients will be talking with and working with on their campaign. When you allow your employees to create strong personal brands it makes them more invested in seeing the team succeed, it adds more value to your organization, and it makes them continually challenge themselves and strive for greater things.

[Oh, and to Susan, any time you want to thank me for establishing your personal brand of being a cranky, killjoy of an old lady, just let me know. Or buy me cupcakes. You know the ones I like.] [How about I thank you by not firing you today? --Susan]

Posted on 09/ 2/08 at 4:44 PM | Comments (7)
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August 29, 2008

Friday Recap

Posted by Lisa Barone

Oh, thank heavens, it's Friday. And the Friday before a long weekend. There is a God!

Check it out. Our good friend Adam Audette of LED Digest and Audette Media sent the BC Writer girls some awesome SEO shirts. Aren't we cute?

Totally.

Amit Agarwal shared some Windows Live Search Tricks You May Not Know About this week. Did you know you could search for Web sites that offer RSS feeds? I had no idea. Cool stuff.

Jim Kukral is so excited about the upcoming BlogWorldExpo that he wrote a song about it. It's awesome, assuming you're not interested in things like tone and proper pitch. Give it a listen as you book your trip to BlogWorld.

The Consumerist is getting me all excited for the holidays letting us know that Costco is already decking the halls. In August. Yey for winter holidays and dreams of snow.

Tamar Weinberg and Barry Schwartz did some crack undercover work to discover that SEOs are afraid of getting their sites penalized in Google. Imagine that! Wow, I bet if Barry and Tamar liquored up some SEOs they'd get them to reveal that they like high rankings and increased traffic too. Way to get out those secrets, guys!

Jennifer Slegg had me giggling with her rendition of Dave Naylor's SEO Addiction which chronicles what it's like to be Dave Naylor hours before you're about to give a presentation, only you'll be sober when you're reading it. [My favorite part of her story is the bit about Microsoft Live Search's slingshot frogs. Hee! --Susan] Those really were awesome. Sadly, mine stopped ribbiting. I need another one!

Speaking of conference antics, apparently there were people protesting link sellers at SES San Jose last week. For serious? If that's what you're putting on a sign and speaking out against, I think you need bigger problems.

Bloomberg decided they were tired of talking about Steve Jobs so instead they just ran his obituary and pretended he died. Look for Susan's obit on Monday with imaginary quotes from all her imaginary friends. [In lieu of flowers, please send cupcakes in a jar. --Susan]

Matt Cutts offered up what I considered the three most important tips for company blogging. Smart stuff. Better to learn it from Matt than on your own the hard way.

Rhea Drysdale used Twitter to show us she works for a super smart company. You see, instead of spending thousands of dollars on crap no one will ever use or wear, Less Everything is handing out cards for a free 30 second piggyback ride. That may just be the greatest schwag ever. Well done, guys!

LiquidLife compare Google and Yahoo's driving directions to find out which is superior. Yahoo may take the cake for being more, um, "detailed", but I think Google wins for not causing people to crash their cars while reading lines and lines of the same directions.

Google Blogoscoped asked people to draw the Google home page with their eyes closed and then introduced us to a cat named Google. Cute kitty! I wonder if the kitty has stock options? Or if it gets to eat in the Google cafeteria? Or if it knows Larry and Sergey?

Aaron Sorkin decided he's had enough of creating respectable programs like The West Wing and will now focus his attention on making the Facebook movie. Wow.

Are you a slimy Internet marketer? If you're not sure, you should consult Affiliate Drag's 11 Slimy Internet Marketing Characters list. We promise not to tell anyone.

Things I Learned On BoingBoing This Week.

• It could be worse. My cats could have wings. WINGS! Ew.
• YouTube Comment Snob is the greatest Firefox plugin of all time. It does your brain a favor and hides comments that contain too many spelling mistakes, unneeded capitalization and swearing. It's basically an idiot switch.
• Air Canada has decided that money is more important than keeping people alive. Stellar.
• I'm not sure what this says about me, but seeing 2,000 human skulls tucked away in a case totally makes me want a donut.
• An elderly woman is about to be sent to jail for refusing to return two library books.

Posted on 08/29/08 at 3:11 PM | Comments (2)
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August 28, 2008

SEO Headlines

Posted by Lisa Barone

What Are You Withholding From Your SEO

Aaron Wall had a super awesome article over on Search Engine Land today that asked Are You Giving Your SEO Enough Information To Succeed? Basically, Aaron details the pitfalls that occur when you just tell your SEO that your site is sick and don't offer up any other information that would help with a diagnosis.

If you're going to hire someone to handle your site's search engine optimization or even if you're just bringing them on as a consultant, you have to be completely straightforward about what your issues are (er, your site's issues. You can save your issues for your spouse.). Otherwise you're just wasting everyone's time as you all keep fumbling around in the dark, never getting closer to solving the problem at hand. There's no use bringing in an SEO consultant to give you advice on making your Web site more spiderable or search engine-friendly if you're going to muddle with your robots.txt and accidentally block the entire site or buy links and get yourself penalized. The only way for search engine optimization to be successful is if everyone knows what's going on and everyone's on the same page.

I don't think clients even do it to be deceitful; they just don't realize. Like in the example Aaron gave, it doesn't even occur to them that that reason their site has tanked in the engines is because they failed to upgrade their WordPress and got hacked. It's not up to you to be able to diagnose that on your own. But you absolutely have to hand over all the information you have to your SEO so that he or she can help figure out what's going on. That's why you're paying them.

As a general rule of thumb: Never lie to people who are there to help. Not even in terms of SEO, just don't do it ever.

Sometimes First Isn't All It's Cracked up To Be

Larry Chase starts an interesting discussion over at Web Digest For Marketers saying that Being #1 in Search Results Isn't Everything It's Cracked Up to Be as searchers don't always stick with the first result when searching in both the organic and paid space.

It's really just one of those things you want to keep in mind because he's right. And it makes total sense. For example, say you're interested in buying a new pair of shiny New Balances (I may be in the market...). You go to Google, type in [new balance] and are presented with this:

Chances are you may do some research on NewBalance.com and some of the other retailers - you'll spend some time looking at the different types of shoes, the colors, look at some 360 views, maybe check out the accessories. And then, when you're on Famous Footwear and finally decide that you liked the show you saw up in the first result, you're going to buy right there. You're not going to hit the back button and start redoing your search.

Just something to keep in mind as you kill yourself trying to rank number one for your keywords. Sometimes, especially if you're a retailer, ranking a little lower can actually play to your advantage. This type of search engine positioning is extremely valuable for businesses.

Interestingly enough, Bruce recorded an interview with Ralph Wilson last week while at SES and they talked about why soon rankings won't be a metric at all. It's worth a watch.

Help Microsoft Fix What's Broken

If you were at the How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department To Get Stuff Done session last week in San Jose, you may remember that a few digs were taken at Microsoft for not being so SEO-friendly.

Nathan Buggia is asking SEOs for feedback on how to make Microsoft's development offerings SEO-friendly by default. If you've been frustrated with Microsoft in the past, now you're chance to get some stuff improved. Speak up.

Fun Finds

Stephan Miller alerts me to the launch of Bloghology, a new print magazine totally devoted to blogging. It's old media covering new media. Clever. I like it.

While we're talking about blogging I'll also mention that I'll (very excitedly) be attending BlogWorldExpo on Sept. 20-21. The show was an absolute blast last year and I can't wait to head back. So if you're not registered, I'd get on that. I'll see you there.

Posted on 08/28/08 at 4:46 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in MSN Search, Microsoft, SEO, SEO Tips & Tricks, Search Engine Optimization

Meet BackType: Fun New Reputation Management Tool

Posted by Lisa Barone

While it's not quite Trackur, have you played with BackType yet?

I'm not usually one to hype things immediately after launch, but I've been playing with BackType over the past 24 hours and I have to say I'm liking it in a big way. If you missed yesterday's TechMeme crazy, BackType is a cool new blog comment aggregation service that grabs what commenters are saying from across the Interwebz and places them into one keyword-focused, Twitter-like stream. By putting them in one place it then makes them searchable so that bloggers, readers and savvy corporations can easily track conversations. It's an online reputation management dream!

BackType describes itself as follows:

"BackType is a service that lets you find, follow and share comments from across the web. Whenever you write a comment with a link to your website, BackType attributes it to you. We give comment authors a profile featuring all the comments they've written on the Internet."

Also neat is that BackType lets you follow other members to better track thought leaders and discussions, while also linking people's identities to a particular blog URL so you get a better understanding of who they are online. It's a great, great service.

If you're about ready to comment and tell me how BackType is similar to coComments and that Disqus is an equally cool comment service, I hear you, but I don't agree. I think BackType has the ability to form the community that coComments never quite did, and unlike Disqus, BackType doesn't require that you do anything to use the service. You don't have to register, there's nothing to download, you don't have to sign in, nothing. The first step to getting people to use something is to get the heck out of their way and let them use it. BackType does that.

Right out of the gate, BackType is powerful. Having one source for comment aggregation is incredibly useful in the age of online reputation management. In an instant you can find out what people are saying about you, your company's executives, your brand, or just what conversations are going on around your keywords. One search and it's all visible from one stream. You can even subscribe to an RSS feed to have the comments delivered to you that way.

For companies, this is a great way to find out where the conversations are and who's participating in them. I'm particularly fond of being able to track thought leaders and have instant access to their feed to see what they're saying across the Web.

And if brands start using the BackType platform...think about it. Imagine you're Zappos -- you're active in the blogosphere and have learned to work social media to make you look like the most caring corporation on the planet. Now you have this record of comments tied to your brand name. A history that customers can call back on to see how much you care about them and how much interaction you've had. That's powerful stuff. That's the kind of behavior that makes customers want to do business with you.

Or on the flip side, say you're a business and you find that there's one customer who continually is trashing your brand throughout the Web and leaving negative comments every time your brand is mentioned. This gives you the power to really address this person head on. You can find out where their blog is and what blogs they read, and try to better that relationship. Or, maybe it tells you that this person bashes every company they've ever dealt with online and they're not worth the hassle of dealing with.

And like I said, this is just what the tool can do out of the gate. In the future, it wouldn't surprise me to see BackType take on a more Technorati approach - allowing you to tie someone's actions on the Web down to one URL. It's awesome and just a bit dangerous.

It's funny that people are already getting themselves hot and bothered claiming that BackType is scraping content. Get over yourself and give me a break. Welcome to the new Web and the world of social media. Today's Web users want to access information on their terms, the way they want to, to interact with it in whatever way best suits them. The days of you being able to dictate how people use your Web site are over. The quicker you get over that, the less gray hairs you're going to find sprouting up in the morning.

Though just a Web baby, I'd say BackType looks to be a very promising new community due to its ability to quickly track conversations and tie them to individuals. If you want to turn your company from reactive to proactive, this would be a good place to start.

Posted on 08/28/08 at 3:00 PM | Comments (4)
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August 27, 2008

Using Competitive Research to Find Content Ideas

Posted by Lisa Barone

The hardest part of my job, other than resisting the urge to smack Susan in the face with a laptop (I'm kidding!), is coming up with content ideas. Whether I'm writing a blog post, an article for the SEO Newsletter, or site copy for a client, the mere thought of copywriting is often daunting enough to send me to Bangerang's cupcakes in a jar Web site 87 times a day for relief. It's a problem.

To keep the continuous flow of content coming (and my dress size out of the double digits), I've learned to find content ideas in all sorts of places. One of the best ways to fill content holes on your Web site or blog is to do some competitive research to see what others in your industry are writing about. You want to see what they're doing right, where they're missing the mark, and what you could add to your site that they haven't even thought of yet.

If you don't know who your top competitors are, it's time to find out. Bruce Clay has a great tool in our SEOToolSet call the Competition Ranking Report that will take a look at the top 10 sites ranking for your keywords and give you information about them. There are other tools on the Web that you can find which will do very similar things, but I'm obviously most familiar with (and partial to) ours. If you don't want to spend the money on a ToolSet subscription, you can often do the same kind of competitive research by hand; it's just going to take a bit longer. And 4 out of 5 doctors say it may lead to carpal tunnel and ugly children. It's your call.

When you go through your competitors' sites you're essentially looking for anything they have that gives them an advantage - any special content that appeals only to a certain sector or that is attracting links. Obviously you're not using their site as a blueprint to copy, but there's something about venturing off your own Web site and seeing things from a visitor's eye that can alert you to holes you would have missed otherwise. Maybe it's because we're all secretly in high school and judgmental, but it works. For the best results, give your nephew $10 and ask him what information he wants that isn't on your competitors' Web site.

What you're looking for is going to depend on your content needs. If you're looking to beef up the number of pages on your site, you want to look at what your competitors are offering, how they're marketing themselves and find ways to differentiate yourself. As Bruce often says during SEO training, you want to make yourself equal before you can set yourself apart. Make sure you match what they offer in your own way and then provide content that explains why you're unique, more trustworthy, and overall, just better-rounded to fit the visitor's needs.

Doing competitive research can also be a good way to think up new tools, tricks or toys to add to your Web site to attract links. Often you'll find that your competitors are writing confusing How-To articles that would make a much better video or have an article explaining the latest baby names that could easily be turned into a fun tool - take the initiative and make it. Users love interacting with fun content. You want to be continuously looking for creative ways to make yourself more interesting and more useful to your visitors.

I know that when I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas for our SEO Newsletter, I'll often navigate through our own archives or through our competitions to see what we've obviously forgotten to talk about. What search engine optimization technique have we skipped over because we assumed it was too "basic"? What theory did one of our competitors explain that we think we can get across better? What's a better SEO strategy to get things done than the one they're advocating?

The truth is, as much content as there is on the Web, a lot of it can be improved on. It can be written to be clearer, updated to be more interesting or tweaked to allow users to interact with it in a fresh way. That's what you're looking for.

So much of successful search engine optimization is about your ability to product useful content that users will be interested in. And while it's no easy task, sometimes the best content ideas are sitting right there beside you in the SERPs. As a savvy SEO or copywriter, you want to always be on the lookout for content holes that you can plug on your own site. And competitive research is often where the most useful resources come from.

Posted on 08/27/08 at 2:23 PM | Comments (0)
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August 26, 2008

Google To Push Its Search Suggestions

Posted by Lisa Barone

The fun news from Google is that Google Search Suggest has graduated from Google Labs and will be rolled out to Google.com sometime this week. Kind of neat and exciting, right? Of course Yahoo, Live and Ask already offer this functionality but it's more noteworthy now that Google's doing it since Google owns virtually the entire search market and it will be in front of eyeballs all over the Interwebz.

It seems silly and frivolous to pay so much attention to one feature's Google Lab's graduation, but this one actually is pretty important. It has the potential to really change the way users search and it may even affect the way SEOs optimize their Web sites and run campaigns.

For users, gone are the days of racking your head trying to come up with the correct spelling of "Pennsylvania" or, even worse, "analytics". (Well, assuming users take advantage of Google Suggest and don't start massacring words when the correct spelling is staring them in the face.) It will also help them to search smarter, as Google is probably way better suited to decipher what users "meant to type" as opposed to what they actually asked for. And perhaps even better, users get to ward off carpal tunnel by allowing Google to auto-complete their searching. Huzzah for usable wrists at the age of 30!

For SEOs, a mainstream Google Suggest feature is interesting for an entirely different set of reasons. Many SEOs have long used Google Suggest as a keyword research tool, taking advantage of the popularity metrics it reports for the terms and related terms users type in. And now it won't be just SEOs using Google Search to find popular searches, users will be using it as well. Users who will then take Google's lead and conduct searches on the phrases Google has told them best match what they're looking for. Can you imagine the traffic that comes along with ranking well for a Google-created query?

And can you imagine how many SEOs will now be focusing on these terms with their PPC efforts as they try and bring more eyeballs to their ad? Yeah, hello bidding wars on the Google-approved queries related to your keywords. And what do bidding wars create? PPC backlash and a renewed motivation to rank organically. Yey search engine optimization! It's fun when things come full circle.

Even though Yahoo's Search Assist feature is still arguably the better keyword tool for users, it's going to be interesting to watch Google Suggest grow and see what impact it has on SEO and users searching behavior.

Will confused users ignore the feature or will they take to it, ultimately giving more traffic to a smaller set of pre-defined queries? What about the long tail? Are we going to see more searchers using shorter, pre-defined search queries? Will search marketers start targeting campaigns around the queries that Google suggests instead of the terms most relevant for their clients' Web sites? It's going to be interesting to watch.

Posted on 08/26/08 at 2:16 PM | Comments (2)
See more entries in SEO, Search Engine Optimization

Displaying Your SEO Ethics

Posted by Lisa Barone

It's been interesting to see the recent chatter about SEO ethics over the last couple of days. Twitter was all aflutter during the weekend and then Harith brought the conversation to Sphinn asking, "should a SEO company declare its 'SEO Code of Ethics'. It's a topic worth discussing.

I'll start off by saying that while I don't think it's necessary for an SEO company to declare on its Web site what rules they adhere to, I do think it can be an important differentiator for those visiting your site. You have to see the value in letting potential clients know from the very first interaction what they can expect from your company. What better way to start building trust with a client than to lay it all on the table from the very beginning and let them know what the type of search engine optimization and tactics you'll use to improve their Web site?

That has always been the thinking behind our SEO Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct. It's never been about policing the search community or trying to impose rules. It's our way of letting clients and other SEOs know from the start what we believe in. It's also our small way of helping to spread ethical search engine optimization, since we allow likeminded SEOs to take the crest and put it on their own Web site.

Our Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct also helps to set our reputation as an ethical SEO company who puts clients first.

If you were at SES San Jose last week you probably met a search engine jackass or two. Someone who clearly was out to promote themselves. Someone who made claims we all know they can't back up. Someone who acted like a royal jerk in the middle of sessions and whose main agenda seemed to be causing a scene. That's not the kind of behavior we engage in and we want clients to know that from the beginning. We may not be able to promise you a number one Google ranking for every keyword on the planet, but we can promise you ethical SEO and a professional demeanor.

Search-Mojo had a post last week that really resonated with me called Reputation Is Not Absolute - You Must Learn It. In that post, author Catherine Pots writes:

"Is it really worth it to damage what could be a great reputation for playing the game fairly or are you OK with having that crowd of doubters who think (and maybe know) that you cheated to get where you are? I'm not. So I keep it white hat. Mind your reputation, it WILL follow you and if respect is a word that means something in your life, you need to be cautious."

Amen!

Love it. The entire bit of it. That's why we do the type of search engine optimization that we do. Our reputation means a lot to us. We're not going to jeopardize the kind of work we do because a client wants quick rankings. If you want an SEO vendor that's going to dabble in black hat, there are plenty out there that will. We're going to protect our reputations and the reputations of our clients by playing inbounds and doing things the right way.

And that's what our Code of Ethic really means to us. Catherine really hit the nail on the head when she said it's about not risking your reputation. We adhere to the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct we set out because we think it helps show people what we're about - white hat search engine optimization that puts the client first. That's the reputation and the promise we've created for ourselves and it's something we stick to.

So while I don't think it's necessary for every SEO to put a Code of Ethics on our Web site, I'd encourage you to have a page that shows your clients who you are as a company. For us, that's how our Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct is. If you've never taken the time to read it over, you may be interested in it. And if you agree with what you find there, feel free to sport that crest on your own site. You'd be in good company.

Posted on 08/26/08 at 11:03 AM | Comments (7)
See more entries in SEM Industry, SEO, Search Engine Optimization

August 25, 2008

Where My White Hat Ladies At?

Posted by Lisa Barone

Hey, hey, party kids. SMX East is officially accepting speaker pitches for the big October show in New York City. If you have some search smarts in a particular area and you want to speak, submit your idea and let Danny know you're interested.

There are lots of great sessions still up for grabs but my eyes are focused in on one - The Give It Up: White Hat Edition panel.

There was just a touch of controversy after SMX Advanced and the last Give It Up panel so I think it's really important for this one to knock it out of the park, the right way. It's time to show conference attendees that advanced search engine optimization is not, and has never been, about black hat techniques and that we have way more stuff up our sleeves than just social media spamming. The experience level at SMX East has the potential to be a bit more beginner than at Advanced, so that fact becomes even more important. Conference speakers have a duty to unleash trusted information.

Something else totally lacking on the last Give It Up panel were the ladies. Seriously, six speaking slots and not a single female brain? Total oversight. I think we can do better than that. Not being a real SEO, I don't consider myself qualified to step up to the plate, but if you're a woman with some mad white hat search engine optimization skills, please consider joining the crazy and let Danny know you're out there. We can't let the boys have all the fun.

I'm really excited to head to SMX East, both for the show itself and the Bruce Clay East Coast SEO training session that will be taking place immediately after. It's going to provide a great venue for SEOs to share their smarts and make powerful connections, so make sure you're there.

So here's my plea: If you're a rocking, butt-kicking white hat SEO lady, considering "giving it up" in New York. I promise to be there cheering you on.

Posted on 08/25/08 at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in SEM Events, SEO, Search Engine Optimization

August 21, 2008

Searching For Jobs In Search

Posted by Lisa Barone

Dana Todd is moderating the last session of the day with Frank Watson (Kangmurra Media), Katie Donovan (SEMPO) and Ken Clark (Onward Search).

I was chatting with Frank before the session and he said there are 3 slides and lots of chatter going down in this one. Let's hope these fingers still have some juice left in them.

Dana says the demand is still very high in search. Even though there are massive layoffs everywhere (California has an unemployment rate of 7 percent), there's a huge demand to hire search people. Search also pays pretty well. Because of how awesome we are.

Hiring Criteria/Skills

In terms of hiring, what are the criteria? What are people looking for?

Ken: In our business we're dealing with a lot of companies across the country. The biggest trend is that companies are now focused on what is your experience within the industry or the segment that they operate in. As opposed to are you just a good search marketing or good at SEM? If you're interviewing with an Internet retailer, what they're looking for is proven success within that niche, not just someone who's good overall. It's a natural evolution since there are now people with certain experience in specific niches.

Katie: Companies want to make sure everyone is on the same level of knowledge. It's about evening out knowledge. A lot of people are self-taught and there are holes that need to be filled in. Some people are really strong with understanding keywords but not good with copywriting. In link building, people need the ability not to interact just over email, but over the phone, as well. They see lots of people lacking people skills.

Frank: He looks for someone who's going to be outgoing. You need to have a certain level of confidence. If something is going to put something in your hands, you have to know that they're not just staring into space. You want to look outside of knowing that there's an algorithm or that there's analytics. A the entry level you can always train people, you want to look for people with those other skills - like confidence, who can write, someone will bring a different marketing dynamic.

What do you think is more valuable - PPC or SEO?

Frank: Depends on the market.

Ken: You're looking for people who are left-brained and right-brained. You need someone that has the creative skill set but is also able to deal with analytics. When we talk to employers, that's the term that they use.

How do you determine that?

Ken: There's no test for that. They train their recruiters to go through a lot of due diligence and thorough phone interviews where they're asking a lot of questions that will help identify those traits.

Frank: If you find out that they're musicians, they're usually really good with analytics.

What are employers looking for?

Katie: They're looking for the sales and account managers. Someone to keep the clients happy.

When you're working on a train wreck, are you more valuable as someone who specializes in SEO organic type things or something that has a more shallow knowledge in a lot of different areas?

Frank: You're not going to get hired to cover all of it. People usually have a spot to fill - an Organic spot, an Analytics spot, etc. If you come in with certain skills, you may fit into one of their holes.

Kate: You can look at what's going to pay you the most, but you have the best opportunity right now to decide where you're going to be happiest.

What is your feeling about technical people in this arena?

Frank: You have a skill set that stands out. You can talk to people and understand the technical side and what's going on with your CSS. That's valuable. If you can sit in the middle and get the technical people and the creative people on the same page, that's incredibly in demand.

Ken: I don't think there's a perfect background to be a search marketer. Whether or not you see five other IT folks that went into the business, I wouldn't look at it as a disadvantage.

Are employers looking to see if you've gone through SEO training?

Katie: More and more companies are starting to do their own traditional training classes on-site to make sure everyone is on the same level. They are looking for the go-getter who got training on their own. Those people stand out. You do need to do the work and get some kind of hands-on experience.

Ken: From an employer's perspective, I do think having gone through training gives them an advantage in the marketplace. If you're new in the industry and you're just getting introduced to it, being able to demonstrate some hands on experience is definitely an advantage, even if it's a small project.

Breaking In/Finding Jobs

Where can you find a job?

Frank: Get involved in the forums. There are ads on Craigslist. The more that you end up in places like SES and you network with people, you'll meet people who can help you in the future. It's all about exposure.

Ken: You have to take an active role in managing your brand online. Recruiters do their research. Be on LinkedIn and build out your profile. They use job boards but 75 percent of their candidates come from their networking or their research.

I've been in the industry for 5 years. Where are the jobs for experienced, more advanced positions? How flexible do you have to be? Is there a point breaking into SEO blogging?

Frank: Don't write about SEO. Write about what you have passion in. Create some niche site. It shows initiative.

What about lateral moves? How do you keep your advancement going?

Ken: They see a lot of jobs all the time. A lot of these jobs are everything from SEO Manager to Director of SEO to VP of Search. There is an executive trail.

Frank: You have to be willing to move. You're not going to find a high paying job in Illinois.

Kate: If there are companies you want to target yourself, start networking there.

Search Marketing Training

You talked about training course. What do you think about the Google Training Center?

Dana says it's awesome.

Kate: It makes sense to be certified in Google AdWords because that's what your employers are going to be using. You're going to be more confident.

Yahoo and Microsoft also have certification - is it good to have those?

Ken: It's nice to have. He thinks there are lots of good training programs out there. We have another 2-3 years before the market decides which are the most valuable certifications. There's not a clear message in the community yet as to which one is the gold standard.

[David Temple is in the audience and chimes in to clarify that Google and the search engines only offer "certification" in their tools. He mentions that Bruce Clay is the only training course that offers a certification, because it's for our own ToolSet. The other courses don't "certify" you as an SEO or as a PPC expert, they just give you a certificate to say you completed their course. Good points by David.]

Advancing Your Career

How do you advance your career?

Frank: If you want to advance your career, you have to become more known in the space. Get a moderator job in the forums. You have to get known. He says it worked for him.

Ken: The first thing he would suggest is to ask yourself where you want to be in five years. That will dictate your decisions. You have to say, "do I want to be a generalist or a specialist?" Do you want to be agency or in-house? Do you want to be a manger or an invisible contributor? Those are the first things you have to decide. Once you do that you have to map the job opportunities to where you want to go.

Kate: Tell people what you're doing. That you started a blog. That you attended a conference.

Do you see a lot of burnout?

Kate: We're all going to have 7 careers in our lives, so we're all going to change.

Ken: It's almost cliché to say that search changes every day but it really is changing. Diverse experience is accepted. It's not a negative.

Frank: A lot of times when you're getting the highest-end money, you are the generalist. You're the person overseeing the team.

Is there a 100K opportunity for a sales guy in search?

Everyone says ZOMG YES.

And on that high note...we're out! We hope you enjoyed our SES San Jose coverage. We're off to go catch a plane. See you back in Simi. :)

Posted on 08/21/08 at 3:46 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in SEO Tips & Tricks, SES San Jose 2008, liveblog

Post-Click Marketing: Converting Search Engine Traffic

Posted by Susan Esparza

Whose idea what it to have just a little snack break instead of lunch? I can't work like this. And by like this I mean covered in chocolate from my delicious ice cream sandwich.

This session the moderator is Anna Maria Virzi (ClickZ) and panelists are Carrie Hill (Blizzard Internet Marketing), Laura Wilson (New England Journal of Medicine), Scott Brinker (ion interactive) and Tom Leung (Google).

Our first speaker is going to be Carrie Hill. She thought she was going to have to bribe us with alcohol to get people to this session instead of SEO secrets. The real secret is knowing that Lisa's over there liveblogging it; it's just like being there!

Qualified traffic is the key to good post-click marketing. Buyers know what they want and that's what they'll search for. Use segments to deliver language and interface on those pages that will appeal to your shoppers. Use your trigger words. Buyer use words they relate to in their queries. If they use a word in their search, you should use those words on your page in order for them to see relevance. It should show up in the SERP and on the page.

Example: Free shipping-- Apple doesn't have free shipping prominently on their page so it's easy to over look. Zappos makes it obvious that they have free shipping.

Make sure that your visitors are landing on the right page. The home page is not right for every query. If they're using a word, give them a page that's relevant to it. Give your traffic the trigger word that they're looking for. If they do land on the home page, let them segment themselves.

Carry the message through the segmented path. IF they travel down the 'free' trigger word path, repeat that message.

Remember each piece of PCM can lead to more revenue from your site. Many pieces work dependent upon each other. Remember that halfway is only halfway but every little bit helps. Use Web site optimizer, do tests, let the users design their experience through self-selection.

Laura Wilson is going to present a case study on how this worked for the New England Journal of Medicine.

The Five Key Ingredients of Their Success:
1. Know what the audience is looking for
2. Engage and Convert visitors with relevant content and offers
3. Give the visitors a reason to come back to the site: Videos, beta site, free weekly audio summary and more.
4. Deepen relationships with the audiences: newsletters and subscriptions, information about updates to the site.
5. Optimize conversions through testing

Tactics:
1. Navigation links with calls to action: both home page navigation and global navigation
2. Offers on Sign In Pages -- offers that are relevant to visitor based on the content they're trying to reach.
3. Free trial upsell on the registration confirmation page -- after registering for the newsletter, they offer them a trial to the online version of the journal.
4. Offer in authentication string message -- offers based on level of access.
5. Targeted emails -- welcome e-mail series and a "new features" e-mails. Free trial member will also be getting an email series with a countdown on time left.
6. Promotions in Weekly NEJM E-mail table of contents.
7. Banner ads throughout the site
8. A/B testing, multiple tests

Scott Brinker is discussing segmenting. That's been the big thing this conference that I've noticed.

Two Takeaways:
1. To increase conversions have more specific landing pages.

A/B testing -- for your respondents, it's still just one page. You need to understand who your respondents ARE. Some might think that one thing is more important than others. What you need is more than one landing page to reach more than one audience.

2. Self-segmentation after the click

Some keywords won't give you intent. Have two step landing pages in those cases: "Dinner" -- do you mean "hamburger" or "pasta". You'll speak differently to small businesses than enterprise level pages. Tailor your second landing page to that self-selected audience.

Don't ask them to do too much work though or they'll bounce.

Figure out which ads attract which segment. Then see how well you're converting those segments.

5 reasons that 2 clicks are better than 1:

1. Easy Engagement - makes it easy for them to move forward
2. Self Identification - we respond to self-identification cues, more accurate than forms, sets expectation
3. More focused content - contextually relevant content sells better
4. Signaling - Investment reflects commitment. "If you target me, you much think I'd be a good fit..."
5. Market research - which ads attract which segments? Which segments convert best? How do prospects think of themselves?

Last to speak is Tom Leung from Google's Website Optimizer

In the old days, you just implemented stuff and hoped for the best. Or you listened to the "HiPPO" the highest paid person in the organization. If you were a little more advanced, you'd do a before and after test but that wasn't that enlightening.

Website Optimizers allows you to test different variations of a page to see which version is most effective at achieving results.

This puts power into the visitors and they'll tell you what they like best. Sites can be a living laboratory.

[He quickly goes through how to do testing with Website Optimizer.]

The only opinions that matter are the opinions of the people who go to your site.

Don't assume, make sure that your revisions aren't going to HURT your site. You have to test with a control. Your interesting idea might not work.

Basic questions:

• Does it look legit?
• Is it intelligible with partial attention?
• Is it simple to convert?

Advanced questions:

• Is it compelling?
• Does it handle top objection elegantly?
• Does it provide all the essential information?

If you're thinking about outsourcing:

• How many experiments have you run?
• Referrals? -- screenshots and contacts
• Can you justify ROI?
• What was the average lift?
• Can they work with your IT department?
• Are they willing to tie their payment to performance? (not required)
• Do they have marketing, proj management?

Ask yourself if it really makes sense to show ads on your landing page. Tell people what you're about.

He likes the Netflix landing page: It's clean, legit, informative and not too complex.

Q&A

How do you get buy in?

Laura: We present data and do projections on what the impact could be.
Carrie: We had to do a little bit of free work to show them how to make the lift. Sometimes one test isn't enough. But once you can show them the difference that a little work does, it's not that hard to convince them to do more.
Scott: It comes down to two things: Make the argument about conversion rate. Also web site optimization is a huge task. Landing page optimization is smaller and easier.
Tom: Agrees with Scott. Don't make it a huge plan, just do the simple A/B test and show them the results and the lift. People find it hard to disagree with more conversions for the same money.

How do you use Website Optimizer on your home page?

Tom: Put the goal tags in multiple places and all those are considered conversion OR they'll do a time on page test and consider that a conversion.

How long should a test run?

Tom: Never shorter than one or two weeks. Have about a 100 conversions per combination.

Is it possible to use optimizer against a segmentation page?

Tom: I've seen people run tests where A is the regular landing page and B is the segmentation page.
Scott: It's hard to answer that without sounding like a sales pitch but yeah, that's what our tools do. It's possible to do even with just a simple test. You can at least take a first step in that direction.

[Skipping an asked and answered question and a very specific question.]

[I don't know what his questions was but he said statistically relevance about ten times. I think it involved math. Tom's answer was all complicated and technical too. I'm sorry, I can't even begin to interpret. HOWEVER: Green = high confidence, Yellow: mid level confidence, Red = low confidence loser]

How do I test on low volume keywords?

Tom: Keep it simple. Just do an A/B test. Also, change your conversion metric. Make it time on page instead, so that you can take that as a leading indicator to conversion.

Scott: There's nothing wrong with A/B testing. It works.

Carrie: Don't get sucked into the idea that a conversion is 'they bought something'. It can be moving to the next step. You're testing a path sometimes.

Tom: I'd agree about the power of A/B testing. At the end of the day, people get the best results from very small tests. Small tests make you focus. Multivariate tests can make you lose your focus.

Posted on 08/21/08 at 2:31 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Analytics, Google, Pay-Per-Click, SEO Tools, SES San Jose 2008, Search Engine Optimization, liveblog

Best Kept Secrets To Search

Posted by Lisa Barone

Back from my ice cream sandwich lunch and we're in the home stretch. This time it's Dana Todd moderating Katee Crawford (California Chamber of Commerce), Eric Enge (Stone Temple Consulting) and Richard Zwicky (Enquisite).

Dana coins a new term called "red hat SEO" which refers to SEO revenge strategies. Heh. Dana, FTW.

Up first is Katee Crawford.

The California Chamber of Commerce is the largest business advocate influencing government actions affecting California business. They provide affordable and easy-to-use compliance products and services. Products include CA employment and labor law compliance, among others.

Their current marketing methods: SEO, PPC, Fall and Spring catalog mailings, direct mail and email campaigns.

7 Lessons to Improve ROI

1. Educate your SEM company on all your marketing materials: The CalChamber provided their SEO company with all their marketing materials, samples of all products, etc.
2. Joint Efforts Produce Better Results: They do all PPC, email and direct mail campaigns at the same time. They've seen a 36 percent decrease in cost per order. Use similar artwork for branding. House email campaign increased their revenue by over 10 percent.
3. Rethink the Norm: Integrated marketing with promotional products moves products. PPC and email campaigns for RNK increased revenue by about 5 percent over direct mail. The conversion rate increased by 3 percent.
4. The "I Deserve It" Tactic Works: An A/B split test was performed through an email and PPC campaign. Two offers were given - get a 10 dollar Starbucks card or 15 percent off. The customers will not always prefer the highest cost savings in a promotion. Everyone picked Starbucks even though it was the lesser value. Good way to save your company money.
5. Action vs Read
6. Track Often and Evaluation Often: Audit your online marketing revenue to test validity.
7. PPC Insider Tips: Don't change your bid more than once ever couple of days. Test special characters in your ad creative. Exact match all combinations of exact matched terms. Test no spaces between words in a multiple word phrase. Test placing phone number in ad. Test adding ".com" to the end of some of your keywords.

Operation Camouflage: If you can identify your top competitors and their location, set up dummy campaigns so they don't see your winning ads and you can hide from your competition.

In 2009 they plan to bid more aggressively on lead generator keywords and on keywords associated with the products feature in campaigns. They'll also focus more on what works and do less experimenting. They'll make every dollar count, printing more catalogs. Optimize ecommerce site for hard hitting sales. Leverage PR campaigns with integrated marketing efforst. And look more into social media.

Eric Enge is up.

Fix Quick Tips

1. Using Syndicated Content to Get Links Can Backfire

The good - it's a great way to get links, lots of Web sites are starved for content, you get to present yourself as an expert and many times you can even specify the anchor text.

The bad - The search engines see duplicate content and they only want one copy.

The ugly - The usually show up as the original author.

The solution - Pay a different writer to cover the same topic. Guide them with key points to include. You will get a very different result. It may cost you 40 or 50 bucks but it buys you "safe syndication".

2. How to Provide Accurate Data to Local Search Engines

Search Engine Challenge: The search engines have a big problem obtaining accurate data. They use many sources like yellow page sites, syndicators such as LocalEze, local review sites and information you provide them correctly. The data provided is often inaccurate or out of date.

Give Them Data Correctly: All three major engines provide you a way to give them authenticated data directly. Give them accurate data because these sources carry the most weight.

The Google Local Business Center lets you submit by location. Feed is useful for large numbers of location.

Keyhole Markup Language: Language for geographic annotation. Search engines find the location of your KML file using your sitemaps file. The means it is authenticated.

Last notes on Local: You want to be listed in many places. Increase data accuracy problem. Invest the time and effort to get this data right. Services like LocalEze helps with this but cost money.

3. Free Links Using Google Webmaster Tools

If you don't have a GWT account, get one. Looking at the Not Found Report in the Web Crawl Errors section, hunt for malformed URLs, an instance where someone has linked to you using the incorrect URL. Then, add to your .htaccess file a 301 redirect from the incorrect o the right one.

Find "lost links". Instances where the media wrote out your links instead of really linking to you. Contact these people and ask them to make it a eral link. Let Yahoo tell you who they are.

Benefit for his site: 2,042 potential links from people who have already endorsed him but just didn't link right.

4. MSN Search Funnels -- Outgoing

Tells you the terms your visitors search on after they searched for you. Get some good insight. You can also go the other way and see what they searched for before your keyword.

How to use search funnels: use to determine search intent and to isolate problems on your Web site.

Richard Zwicky is up.

[Disclaimer from Dana: This is not white or black. It's red hat.]

Page 1 v. 2 and What to Do: A really easy way to improve meaningful traffic - use conversion data to get the full benefit. Over 90 percent of search referral traffic comes from page 1. Identity which Web pages are driving Page 2 traffic. If 95 percent of referral track comes from page one and 2.2 comes from page two, if you can move a page to Page 1, you can increase traffic considerably.

Conversions v. Actions: Do you know the difference? Are you tracking them?

Links - Google

related: Help you to identify sites that are most connected with your own and your competition
intext: Find people who talk about you but don't link.

Links - MSN

linkfromdomain: see all the domains that a given domain has links out to
Regional links: figure out where your links come from and where you have opportunities for growth.

The "trick": learn, learn and learn more. There is no magic. Your competitors are probably lazier than you are.

Reputation Management

[Okay, this is where we get into the "red hat" territory. Proceed at your own risk.]

When to consider going black. Richard says he doesn't do any black hat but he has found that anyone who is really good at search engine optimization knows inside out what black hat is. They know how to do it, and how they should implement it if they did going into it.

Someone is going out and slandering you. They do so anonymously so you don't know who to go after. What do you do?

Getting Rid Of A Bad Site

Use at your own risk. If you do any of this wrong, it will come back to hurt you.

1. Starting off down the path:
   1. Buy a domain: Don't do anything to your own Web site. Don't use your own name. Get a UPS mailbox near your opponent.
   2. Go buy another domain: Again, don't use your own name. Put their address on your site. Go to UPS and get a change of address to make your address theirs.
   3. Go buy yet another domain: Use their mail info as yours but with a different name. Go to the post off and pay for a mail redirect to your UPS mailbox.
   4. Do it again.

2. Do it Again: Try being more sneaky. Host the sites all over the place. Try hosting some where your opponent does.
3. Build Some Good Links : Get some good link going to these sites. Point some random links out to authority sites in your opponents neighborhood. Be nice, don't point to anyone you like. Don't link any of your sites together.
4. Link to your opponent: Ask them for a link, after you link to them. Do not under any circumstance link to your site Get indexed. Start showing up for terms relevant to your site and optimize for your opponents site.
5. Add More Content: Reprint PR from within the industry. Get cheap content.
6. Sitemap: Have a bunch of orphaned pages in your sitemap.
7. Try out every black hat trick you can find. It's okay. It won't hurt you real site, unless you get caught. Copy your opponent's content and build a bot that constantly indexes their site looking for new content.
8. Sitemap: After a while, copy your opponents sitemap into your own ones. Append it to your own. Remember you "look" like them, according to your registration info on one site, address on another. Hmmm, who owns this site?
9. Try Hard to Get Your Site Banned: It's okay. It won't hurt you.
10. Just Before You're Banned: Redirect the URL to your opponent. The bad juice with flow to them.

Result: They'll Get Their Site Reviewed to see if they did anything bad. What did they get caught for? Something you did or something they did? And if they mess up in the future, the threshold for how far they're allowed to go before they banned is really low. It forces them to clean up their action. And now you're playing on a level playing field.

I has no comment on the tactics revealed above.

Posted on 08/21/08 at 2:28 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in SES San Jose 2008, liveblog

How to Choose a Search Vendor

Posted by Virginia Nussey

Moderator Jonathan Allen, Search Marketing Specialist, VNUnet.com, starts off this session by asking who in the audience is from an agency, who is on the client side, and who is looking to market their own product. It's about five, five and one. This session will be covering the yin and yang of the search for an SEO vendor, as the first presenter is from a search agency and the second presenter is from a company who uses a search agency.

Eric Papczun, Director of Natural Search, DoubleClick Performics is going to use the small group that's showed up as an opportunity to really get to the heart of the issues important to audience members.

Eric is from an agency and will be taking that view for looking for an SEO vendor. He says there are eight factors to look at.

1. Understanding: They should listen to you, understand you, and be patient with you. Stay away from any canned solutions. It should focus on your industry and your goals.
2. Aligned: They should be aligned with what you're trying to do in the coming years.
3. Project managers: The vendor should have the skills of a consultant. That foundation makes them much more effective in their jobs. You want your agency to push you like a task master.
4. Equipped: What you want is make sure the whole team is equipped to represent you and includes a variety of skill sets.
5. Sound methodologies: You might be sold by the sales cycle, but at the end of the day you're working with another team. You want to make sure the thing you were sold on is the same as what you'll be getting.
6. Leaders: You're hiring an advocate for your goals. The agency world has an advantage because they are new to your leadership. When a new voice that you're paying for enters the room, people will often pay more attention.
7. Educators: Competent agencies don't hide. They know there's always something to teach and should be proactively sharing via training sessions and materials. It should be done in a simple manner that can speak to a variety of audiences.
8. Trustworthy: You're hiring a partner that's going to work alongside you. Honesty is important. If anytime you feel they have overstated, oversold or fabricated anything, try to trip them up and call them out. Get referrals and find out what work they have done.

When choosing a paid search vendor, a well-developed paid program requires a custom approach that targets specific consumer segments based on precise and reliable analytics. The right RFP questions ask vendors about three things:

1. People: No generalists, you need an agency with specialists in bid, keyword, copy and landing page management; expertise and experience across all verticals.
2. Technology: Robust technology with direct API engine integration and in-depth real-time reporting and analysis to assist account manager s in making informed decisions.
3. Methodology: Comprehensive campaign management process, including strategic planning, meticulous execution and targeted growth.

A holistic approach to search marketing identifies ways to create synergies between paid and natural search programs to maximize ROI. One vendor for both SEO and SEM who uses a holistic strategy will allow you to:

• Know how paid and natural campaigns perform versus best practices.
• Identify opportunities that can improve performance.
• Optimize ROI across all search channels.
• Combine campaign metrics and reporting.

Now Jeannie Moran, E-commerce Marketing Director, AutoNation, will come at vendor selection from the client side. She's going to share what's worked for her company. In the auto business they are experiencing the perfect storm: the housing crisis, the economic downturn, and the energy crisis.

To set the stage, she's going to start with some general rules of what to look for in a vendor. She says you can't settle for any less. Hiring a vendor is finding a partner. There are five fundamentals to remember

1. Sign a pre-nup: Establish mutual respect.
2. Don't disrespect the family: Is this someone you can bring back to mom and dad?
3. Build trust: Set reasonable expectations. Meet deadlines on your side and demonstrate your behavior as a fair, responsible partner.
4. Be honest about dating others: Working with multiple partners can become dicey. Avoid vendor conflicts. Be honest upfront. If there are other partners, let them know.
5. Keep everyone happy: Make sure it's worth the vendors time and worth your while.

The groundwork for success will be based on several things. Understand what you are buying. Ask the right questions to separate the professionals from the amateurs.

There are several purchasing considerations.

• Never meet with the sales team only.
• Make sure technology is compatible with the applications the vendor uses.
• Confirm capabilities. Does the tool work with all tier one search engines as well as tiers two and three? Does it support a range of products (banners, email, etc.)
• Get all promised capabilities in writing.
• Negotiate a trial period (test pilot).
• Find out if there are hidden costs.

As for the technology issue, ensure that only one application is ultimately utilized for reporting/tracking so that data isn't being duplicated or inflated. Ask if the product works with foreign languages and foreign currency. Verify API status to ensure that fees are included in contract and are not additional. Understand the methodology for measurement. And as for support, there should be a dedicated support team or an 800 general support line.

Now that the generalized rules are out of the way, she'll go into the specifics.

SEO vendor considerations

1. Strong keyword research strategy
2. Strong copywriting and link building
3. Optimization plan for organic pages
4. Measure organic conversion and ROI
5. Proven results (failure/success/referral)

Paid search vendor considerations

1. PPC programs in Google, Yahoo and MSN
2. Web traffic measurement tool to measure your precise return on investment
3. A/B testing of PPC ads and landing pages to identify the most effective campaigns.
4. Account managers that are Google AdWords Certified and Yahoo Ambassadors.

Social media vendor considerations

1. What channels are you currently active in for clients? (StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, etc.)
2. Give examples of how channels might be used to bolster the overall SEM effort
3. Ask for proven results (failure/success/referral).

Take aways

1. Educate yourself to ask the right questions.
2. Invest time to find the right partner.
3. Agree and document the billing model.
4. Start small; test the vendor on a small scale.
5. Monitor, measure and optimize.

Posted on 08/21/08 at 2:13 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in SES San Jose 2008, liveblog

Fast, Free, and Easy Tools To Get You Going

Posted by Lisa Barone

Time to talk SEO tools. Jennifer Laycock will moderate this one with speakers Matt McGee (KeyRelevance), Scott Allen (Hybrid6 Studios) and Joe Abraham (SageRock). This should be fun, let's do it.

Up first is Matt McGee. He's like a cute teddy bear. I just want to take him home and place him on my coffee table or something. He's also one of the most personable speakers on the planet. Okay, I'll stop gushing now.

SEO Tools: Firefox and Friends

(Only 10 people in the audience admit to NOT using FireFox.)

• Firefox Web Browser: There are all kinds of add-ons; that's why Matt likes it. It makes it powerful.
• SEO for Firefox: When you're using Google or Yahoo, instead of just getting the plain ten listings, you get all sorts of extra data like the PageRank, domain age, how many links Yahoo reports pointing to that domain, if it has DMOZ listing, etc.
• Search Status: Exists at the bottom of your browser and a pop up comes up when you click o nit. It offers a lot of the same data as SEO for Firefox, but it provides the data as you're looking at an individual link page, not on the SERP.
• SEO Quake: Lots of people like it, but it slows down Matt's browsers.

Keyword Research Tools

• Keyword Discovery: His tool of choice for keyword research. You give it a search term and it spits back all the data that it has on that search term.
• SEO Book Tool: Many search engine optimization agencies swear by this. It provides tons and tons of data about any query you give it. You can compare daily search estimates across search engines.

Backlink Tools: Tools to help you analyze links to your site or to a competitor site.

• Yahoo Site Explorer: The ultimate backlink tool.
• Link Diagnosis: Takes the Yahoo data and rearranges it and adds to it. Will show you the links, the anchor text used, if it's a nofollow link, etc.

Link Building Tools

• Hub Finder: You give it a keyword and it spits back the top ranking sites for that keyword. It then goes out and analyzes the sites that link to those high ranking Web sites.
• Traffic Marks: It has a free and a paid version. It presents the same data as Hub Finder. Matt says the interface is a little cleaner and easier to use.

PPC Tools

• Local Keyword List: Free. You provide a zip code, radius, and a bunch of keywords. It takes the data you gave it, looks that up against a zip code database, and then spits back all the city and town names and adds them to yours.

Domain Tools

• DomainTools: Provides WHOIS info. You give it a domain and it tells you the page title, the Meta description, how many link it finds, additional data like if its listed in DMOZ, what category it's in, what the description is.

Spider Tools

• SEO Browser

Wow, that was a lot of info. Up next is Scott Allen.

Competitive Research Tools:

Compete: Collects data from ISPs and other sources and then gives you info on your competition. You can start with their free tools which let you compare traffic on different Web sites. From there, they also provide premium tools which give you really in-depth tools. Even though the best data isn't free, it's still an important site to put on your radar.

Google Trends for Websites: It's similar to some of Compete's tools but it's less in-depth. You can get what regions visitors are from, other sites they've visited, the keywords other sites' visitors have search for and derive who your competitors are.

Spyfu: Excellent PPC data for competitors. You can find data by domain or keyword. You can see what competitors are spending on PPC campaign and see ad data. Find out what keywords they are bidding on. Gives you the ability to drill down and download data for further analysis. Spyfu UK also recently launched.

Google Insights For Search: Google provides data specifically for marketing based on what people are searching for. Use it to decipher trends. Locate appropriate regional markets.

Competitious: Store data about competitors. Create matrix to compare competitor features/attributes. Pulls in RSS feed and search results. You can click and save anything that looks interesting from search or blog feeds, Setup different profiles.

Using WordPress as an SEO Tool

WordPress is one of the most popular blog platforms out there. It's really well-suited for search engine optimization, especially with a few modifications. One of the great things about WordPress is the great developmental community around it. There are tons of plug-ins around to expand its functionality. It can be used by experts or beginners.

WordPress Search Engine Optimization Benefits: Helps users create basic optimized content even with little SEO knowledge. Once setup, all you have to do is write (for best results 2-5 times a week). You can use it to build links and awareness. Great for social media marketing

Recommended WordPress Settings:

• Search Engine Friendly URLs: Go into Settings -- Permalinks -- Month and Name.
• Indexable by Search Engines: Settings -- Privacy -- Blog Visibility - I would like my blog to be visible.
• Communication with other blogsL Setting - Discussions...

Wordpress Plugins:

All in One SEO Pack: Helps you with your on-page SEO. It helps you will your Title tags. It prevents a lot of duplicate content issues on the site. It generates your Meta description tags automatically.

WordPress Related Posts: Internal Linking Plugin. It's very important to improve internal linking throughout blog. It helps expose users to other content and improves search engine rankings.

Sociable: Good social media plug-in. It makes it easy for visitors to submit your content to social media sites.

RSS Footer: RSS Feeds are published but rarely optimized with out of the box blog factor. RSS Footer adds a copyright notice and a link to your Web site.

WP Super Cache: Caching plug-in. Traffic spikes can cause server to buckle under the load. If your site is unavailable for long periods of time your rankings can suffer.

Joe Abraham is next.

Google Keyword Suggestion: Now gives you the approximate search volume. Lets you search by specific term. You can just type in a URL and see what Google thinks it's about. Do it to your own site, as well.

WordTracker: Good tool but don't go by the search volume numbers.

Microsoft adCenter Labs: Free Demographic tools. Input a URL on a list of phrases and get back predicted demographics. He mentions both the demographic predictions tool and the keyword forecast tool. Type in any URL and get the make up for who's visiting that Web site - gender, age ranges, etc.

XML Sitemaps: An XML file lists all the URLs on your Web site or all the ones that you want indexed. List relative importance of pages. Allows the engines an easy way to find pages. Does not guarantee inclusion. Google, Yahoo and MSN all support this protocol.

SitemapDoc.com: If you have under 500 pages on your site, this will generate all the code you need for an XML Sitemap. You just copy and past the code into a text document and save it as an XML file.

Google Webmaster Central: Once you have all this info created, you can submit your sitemap through Google Webmaster Central. Once verified, you gain access to some Google Data o your site like content analysis, top search queries, and Web crawl stats. Can be added to iGoogle.

You can double check your robots.txt file in Google Webmaster Tools.

CrazyEgg: Heatmapping tool. Creates different visual overlays of site with statistics. Creates a heat map, using color to indicate activity.

Posted on 08/21/08 at 12:36 PM | Comments (2)
See more entries in SEO Tips & Tricks, SEO Tools, SES San Jose 2008, liveblog

Special Kelsey Group Presentation: The 3G iPhone: Local Search Demos

Posted by Virginia Nussey

Once upon a time there was a conference blogger. Before she got to the conference she had the schedule of the sessions she would attend all sorted out. At the conference, the organizers handed out a schedule of all the sessions and the rooms they would be in. Since she didn't have the room numbers on her personal schedule, she transferred her scheduled sessions onto the new schedule. Unfortunately, she forgot one.

On the morning of the last day, she was packing and preparing for one more day of blogging. She came across her original schedule and found the session that she had forgotten. It was in ten minutes. She speedily finished packing and made it to the session, but she had been thoroughly thrown off her game.

She went into the wrong room during the next session and ended up covering the same presentation a fellow blogger was already blogging. Her shirt was a button off and she looked like a slob. Her battery was on the verge of death and no one was about to give up a power outlet. It was a very rough morning.

Wasn't that a sad story? I know a happier subject to talk about next. The iPhone! I love my iPhone! Do you?

Moderator Michael Boland, Senior Analyst, The Kelsey Group, says that mobile and local are tied together. Mobile phones are conducive to searching for things locally. It hasn't really panned out before now because the technology wasn't great and there was no mass market appeal. All that is changing and Apple is doing a lot to open that up.

Third party application could do a lot for search, and can be compared to what iTunes has done for consumer music. The speakers today have developed applications and will share that with the audience. Hopefully it will spark some ideas for marketers. Those with a Web brand or site may be able to develop an app that can drive traffic.

Ryan Sarver, Director of Consumer Products, Skyhook Wireless, starts first with his view of the operations behind the scene in developing location-based services. At its heart, the app determines the latitude and longitude. Skyhook uses wireless access points for referencing locations. The key areas are urban areas with a lot of wireless overlap. He sees "consumer ready location" (indoors, urban areas, and time to fix) as the boost behind location-based services. The iPhone is really the first phone to drive the desire for location-based services and GPS isn't the only way to do it.

The rest of the presentations are going to be demos of cool applications. Ethan Lowry, Co-founder, UrbanSpoon, asks how many SEOs working on applications are developing a mobile application as well? He says that UrbanSpoon was a restaurant search site that was giving users reviews and details about restaurants in certain areas. They were successful on the site and are up to 70 cities. But on the mobile side they weren't doing as well.

The challenge was getting traffic on the phone without spending a lot of money. Then along came the iPhone. Location awareness was finally accessible and the app store is still a small enough pool to get noticed, with only