If you can’t view the presentation, here it is over on SlideShare: Using LinkedIn to Build Your Online Resume, Reputation & Connections.

What about you? Do you have any tips for LinkedIn? How do you get the most out of it?

**Quick Update – This presentation was featured on the Slideshare.net Homepage! So that’s nice..

LinkedIn Presentation is a post from: ConversationRate.com | Rick Galan on Conversational Marketing & eCommerce

But that’s not really my point in bringing it up. My point is that I am constantly amazed by the continual quality of work and content that these guys produce online. I mean it really baffles me. They were actually asked how they do it during the summit, and their answers boiled down to two things:

• They make it a priority
• They make sacrifices

These are not uncommon answers for the “how do you find time to blog” question. In fact, they are both things I have heard before. I have been giving it a lot of thought lately though, because my own writing and content creation has been seriously neglected over the last… forever, and it’s about time it stopped. Or started. You know what I mean.

As I said, I have been giving it a lot of thought. So as of about 6 minutes ago, I am instituting a “blog for at least 15 minutes a day” policy in my life. Why? How? Let me break it down for you…

“I don’t have the time” and other such nonsense

A common hurdle to get over when to writing is the “I just don’t have the time to devote to writing” problem. Well I’m solving that one first. I’ll tell you right now, I don’t have the time. I have a full-time job I spend an unholy amount of hours working at, I have a family (including a new born), a house, and a number of side projects that take up all my waking hours, and some of my sleeping ones. But I also know that creating content is important, and it’s a skill I want to improve.

So instead of doing the whole “1000 words”, ”a post a day” or “3 posts a week” or whatever, I am blogging for 15 minutes a day. Now whether I can get something posted in that time frame is not what’s important. What is important is that 15 minutes is something I can plan for, schedule in, and accomplish without being pulled away to something else. You can’t really say “I don’t have the time to do X for 15 minutes every day” because then you are saying that you don’t have 15 minutes free. Which is a lie.

Why it’s not “Write for 15 minutes a day”

If you have ever blogged, you will know that it’s a lot more than writing. There is coming up with ideas, outlining and organizing them, writing, editing, revising, looking for fancy images, creating links, posting, tagging, promoting, etc. If I limited this 15 minutes to just writing, I would still never get anything posted. I would have volumes of unpostable drivel.

Now there will of course be some days that I will want to spend more time than just 15 minutes. For example, I hit the 15 minute mark about 42 seconds ago, but I’m still going. But according to my self-inflicted rules, I don’t have to. I could stop right here (.) and pick it up tomorrow, and post it then. But I happen to find myself with a little extra time tonight, so I will keep at it a bit longer.

I’m hoping that this system I have devised is going to do the trick. What’s the trick you ask? What’s the outcome I am hoping for?

The Endgame

The point of all this is to build the habit. Classical conditioning at work here. Very Pavlovian. I want to create content easier, blog more often, develop my thoughts better, share them with my peers and followers, have conversations and build relationships. All in 15 minutes a day!

I’m joking around a lot, but I am really serious. I am putting in the time. I’m getting out the laptop (not the phone or iPad or netbook or whatever – the workhorse), turning off the distractions that off buttons (Phone, Twitter, Facebook, IM, iPod, Pandora, Hulu, TV, etc.), hiding from the ones that don’t (the wife, the babies, the mom looking for tech support) and putting in 15 solid minutes of straight blogging every day.

So what do you think? I have a few questions I would love for you to answer in the comments:

• How do you find the time to blog? What have you found that works for you?
• Do you think my plan will work? Why or why not?
• Do you want to join me?

If you do want to join me in the 15-a-day plan, let me know. We’ll start an awesome club or something.

15 Minutes to Blogging Awesomeness is a post from: ConversationRate.com | Rick Galan on Conversational Marketing & eCommerce

On September 29th, the State of Utah (where I reside) issued a document setting forth their guidelines for appropriate use of Social Media by the various government agencies. An article on GovTech.com entitled Utah Creates Social Media Guidelines for Employees Who Blog, Tweet, Etc. broke the story to the general masses, and so far there has been a fairly positive response. Why wouldn’t there be? What a progressive thing for a government agency to do, right?

The document entitled State of Utah Social Media Guidelines (pdf) was issued by the Department of Technology Services, and contains information for public officials on when to engage in social media and good advice on how to do so.  And it really is good information.. sections on Transparency and Judicious behavior, as well as being knowledgeable and how to handle mistakes show that the DTS really did their homework.

I’m sure glad Intel posted almost the exact same thing in May of this year. Behold: the Intel Social Media Guidelines (the work of Bryan Rhoads I believe).

To be fair, in the aforementioned article on GovTech.com, Utah CTO Dave Fletcher did say, “We looked at what other businesses have done, and we looked at the few government entities that had something … We also thought it through from our own perspective.”

Let’s take a look, shall we? Let’s see what Intel created and what the State of Utah added as “their own perspective”:

Intel:

Be transparent. Your honesty—or dishonesty—will be quickly noticed in the social media environment. If you are blogging about your work at Intel, use your real name, identify that you work for Intel, and be clear about your role. If you have a vested interest in something you are discussing, be the first to point it out.

State of Utah:

Transparency. Your honesty will be quickly noticed in the social media environment. If you are blogging about your work at the State, use your real name, identify that you work for the State of Utah, and be clear about your role. If you have a vested interest in something you are discussing, be the first to point it out.

I mean wow. Is that plagiarism? I’m not really sure, but it’s not right. Want another?

Intel:

Write what you know. Make sure you write and post about your areas of expertise, especially as related to Intel and our technology. If you are writing about a topic that Intel is involved with but you are not the Intel expert on the topic, you should make this clear to your readers. And write in the first person. If you publish to a website outside Intel, please use a disclaimer something like this: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Intel’s positions, strategies, or opinions.” Also, please respect brand, trademark, copyright, fair use, trade secrets (including our processes and methodologies), confidentiality, and financial disclosure laws. If you have any questions about these, see your Intel legal representative. Remember, you may be personally responsible for your content.

State of Utah:

Knowledgeable. Make sure you write and post about your areas of expertise, especially as related to the State and your assignments. If you are writing about a topic that the State is involved with but you are not the State expert on the topic, you should make this clear to your readers. Write in the first person. If you publish to a Website outside the State, please use a disclaimer something like this: “The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the State of Utah’s positions, strategies, or opinions.” Respect brand, trademark, copyright, fair use, disclosure of processes and methodologies, confidentiality, and financial disclosure laws. If you have any questions about these, see your agency legal representative. Remember, you are personally responsible for your content.

Seems like the “perspective” that the DTS added was changing the word “Intel” to “State of Utah”. What about the rest of the document? Let’s look just the main topics – in order – for each:

Woo.. they got a little nuts there and changed the order of a few Rules..

For heaven’s sake. It’s like a 10th grader copying their homework out of Wikipedia. Utah DTS, you know what else is a really good guideline you can add to your list? Giving credit where it’s due. It’s one thing to adopt Intel’s fantastic guidelines as policy, but it’s a whole other thing to plagiarize and publish them as your own. Almost word for word. Your high school English teacher would be so disappointed.

Oh, one more thing, Utah DTS. It seems your document has an error, and at the end of page 3 is cut off mid sentence. Let me help you out by pulling what you meant to say from Intel’s guidelines:

Responsibility. What you write is ultimately your responsibility. Participation in social computing on behalf of the State is not a right but an opportunity, so please treat it seriously and with respect..

Lame.

State of Utah’s Social Media Guidelines: A Beginner’s Guide To Plagiarism is a post from: ConversationRate.com | Rick Galan on Conversational Marketing & eCommerce

The terrifying truth of the matter is that we can’t actually do 2 things at once that both require actual thought and focus. A recent article at Innovation Tools states:

“Cognitive research has verified that people are incapable of multi-tasking. Yes, almost anyone can walk and chew gum at the same time. But for any task that takes cognitive function such as thinking, writing, speaking, planning, or designing, we actually switch back and forth between tasks.”

Did you get that? You CANNOT think about 2 different things at the same time. Sure you can perform multiple tasks at once – you can talk on the phone and do the dishes, you can switch back and forth between IM windows, etc. But try writing an email and talking on the phone at the same time. Doesn’t work – you are not paying attention to one of them. We’ve all been that person on the conference call who was busy with something else and got caught.. don’t pretend you haven’t..

A Time Magazine article from 2006 entitled Help! I’ve Lost My Focus! quotes a study that says that interruptions consume an average of 2.1 hours per day, or 28% of the workday. That not only includes the distractions, but the recovery time associated with getting back to work (which is estimated anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes according to a bunch of articles I have read). Scary huh?

OK, so enough background info – let’s talk about what we do to fix it. From a number of sources, including my own experience working in a busy office and alone from home, I have gathered a number of recommendations for keeping the multitasking monkey off your back. (How’s THAT for a visual..)

• First of all, it’s OK to be distracted. There are times during the day that are not going to require your focus and full attention, so don’t worry at all if you are distracted a bit while plugging through email, catching up on industry news, working on some menial tasks. It’s OK to be social in the office, or to listen to music while you work, etc. You are not stealing company time, so chill out. :)

• When you DO have to focus though, recognize it. I highly recommend keeping a simple task list, and recognizing what tasks are going to require significant time and attention. When you start on one of those tasks, shut everything else you are doing down. I mean close all the other windows, turn off your email, don’t answer your phone, set the IM to “Do not Disturb” and for heaven’s sake shut off the Twitter. Get rid of your self-created distractions.
• Plan your day. Stop letting your email manage your time. Before you start working on tasks, take stock of what you have to do and plan when and how you will do it. Check back with your email periodically throughout the day and reevaluate the rest of your time. Rinse, Repeat.
• If you need to really focus, and you are the type of person that is “pinged” by a lot of different people, I have found that scheduling a time and place to work is a great trick. I mean schedule yourself a conference room, and go in there and shut the door.
• Work on tasks that you can complete in the time you have. If you only have 10 minutes before a meeting, don’t bother starting on something you aren’t going to finish. Work on something you can get done in that time.
• Group your tasks – work on similar tasks in succession. That way you can stay focused on a topic or area. It saves on the ramp up time.
• In meetings in which you really have to participate, don’t do anything but be in the meeting. If you need your laptop to take notes, shut off all your messaging and email. Don’t allow any cell phones in the meeting either – poor crackberries can’t help themselves. Ideally just go in there with pen and paper.
• If you have a conference call, only work on things that you don’t have to think about. Don’t check your email, twitter, IM, etc. Do filing, clean your desk if you have to, but first and foremost be on the call. If you don’t need to pay attention to the call, don’t join! :)
• If you have an “open door” policy, have some rules. You have to shut the door sometimes to focus, so make sure your employees know it.
• If you find that you can’t focus, don’t push too hard. Sometimes you have had too much caffeine, didn’t sleep well enough, or just have too much going on. It doesn’t make sense to keep trying to focus when you can’t – work on simpler tasks until you can dedicate yourself.
• In the example above, sometimes changing the scenery helps - work from home if you can’t focus in the office, head to a coffee shop if you can’t focus at home, etc. It’s amazing what a simple thing like surroundings does to the productivity.
• Lastly, a personal pet peeve – don’t txt or check email on your phone while you are talking to someone face to face! It’s just rude. :)

WebWorkerDaily.com just posted Singletasking: The Next Trend in Web Working? which gives some good tips. They also have an older article, The Art of Meeting Multitasking with some more.

I would love to hear some more ideas for focusing and improving productivity – what do you do? Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter.

Stop Multitasking Like a Chump is a post from: ConversationRate.com | Rick Galan on Conversational Marketing & eCommerce

As I prepare to head to Seattle tomorrow to spend the week in the office and swing by SMX Advanced, I thought it would be fun to show how I pack for a trip such as this. So in the spirit of the recent “What’s in our Bags” series from Lifehacker.com, here is how I am preparing for the week…

Part 1: The Bag

I have been blessed with an abundance of laptop bags, none of which I have paid for. :)

1. Samsonite Wheeled Briefcase/Overnight bag – No idea what it’s really called, but it’s just a good bag if you are just going somewhere overnight and need a change of clothes and your tech gear. Wheels are nice too.
2. Ogio Politan – Complete with branding from a former employer! It’s a great laptop backpack with plenty of pockets, and it’s super comfortable.
3. Generic Dell Backpack – I got this bag with my laptop, and I don’t think I’ve ever used it. It’s ok, but bulky and a bit uncomfortable.
4. Tumi Messenger Bag – I got this at the Omniture Summit in 2008, and although it is really small it’s an awesome bag. I typically use this one when I am just headed around town, and don’t need much with me.
5. Tumi Laptop Briefcase – Got this one at the Omniture Summit in 2009 – it’s an awesome briefcase. Really rigid with plenty of padding.

Since I am going for a week, the Overnight bag is a bit much when I already have another suitcase. For this trip, I’m going with the Ogio because it’s really versatile and comfortable, and can carry a lot of stuff.

Part 2: The Gear

I have 3 levels of mobile computing to choose from, depending on where I’m going.

1. Dell Latitude D630 – Obviously since I am heading into the office for a week, it makes sense to take the laptop that my employer provided. Otherwise, how would I get any work done?
2. Acer Aspire One – After I won this netbook, I find it’s a great little computer to have for conferences and local events, where I want to take notes and twitter and such, but don’t want the whole weight of the Dell bringing me down. Sounds like it will be perfect for SMX Advanced, but I only have an Expo Pass so I won’t be sitting or taking notes really, just networking. This one stays home.
3. Verizon HTC Touch Pro – I know, it’s not the iPhone (it’s Windows Mobile). Blah Blah. But I’m on Verizon, and this phone is a workhorse in its own right. Hi-res (640×480) Touch screen, hardware keyboard, 3.2 megapixel camera, 8 GB microSD card, 3G data plan, etc. I use it for everything, even to get my computer online when I don’t have a WiFi network available. It goes where I go. And since I hacked it a little bit to unlock the GPS (suck on THAT Verizon) it tells me where to go too.

Part 3: The Accessories

1. Logitech VX Nano Mouse  – An amazing mouse. See the little USB thing to the top right? That’s the receiver. And it comes with a carrying pouch. A must-have. I also take a mouse pad (not pictured).
2. Accessories for the phone – a hard metal case (I like to keep the phone safe) and a USB charger.
3. USB Accessories – I don’t like to have a ton of cables, so I have a Philips USB Retractable Extension Cable, 2 3-inch usb extensions, a few adapters for the aforementioned so I can use them on any type of device, and a 4-port USB hub.
4. An external USB harddrive – for media items, backup, personal stuff, etc.
5. Phone stuff – Plantronics MX500i headset with USB converter (remember – my cell is my only phone on the road – having the VOIP option is NICE. Noise reduction in the mic is nice too). Also a ghetto Motorola Bluetooth I don’t use much.
6. A network cable and a coupler (to connect multiple cables together). Nice to have whenever I go to a new hotel and the only free internet is wired. Although it’s often faster just to go through the phone.
7. Memory – a thumbdrive sized SD Card reader, microSD and miniSD to SD adapter cards, and a few thumbdrives.
8. The Audio stuff – a 4GB iPod nano & cables, a pair of Sony headphones (that are more comfortable and sound better than the iPod ones), a headphone splitter & the adapter that Delta uses for headphones (so I don’t have to buy one every time).
9. The Power Stuff – a 3 outlet extension cable, a 2-prong to 3-prong adapter, a 2-prong to 3 3-prong adapter and some extra batteries. At a conference, I’m a handy guy to have around, because there are never enough power outlets.
10. An antihistamine and decongestants. I have seasonal allergies. You never know when you land if you are going to be a horrible mess. :)
11. Notebook and pen, just in case. Rarely gets used, but it’s there.
12. Business card case & sunglasses – two things I always forget, so I keep them in the bag.

So that’s pretty much it. A lot of stuff crammed into little bags and pockets and things. There are more items that are not shown, for different types of trips (AC Inverter for the car, GPS for the laptop, other random things) but this is the gear for a week-long trip to Seattle, with networking and conference-going mixed in. So how do you prepare for working away from the cubicle? Leave a comment, or make your own post & link to it.

Oh! If you are going to be at SMX, let’s connect! Methods on the top-right corner of the blog. :)

What’s in the Bag is a post from: ConversationRate.com | Rick Galan on Conversational Marketing & eCommerce

What this post is, is an illustration of how I have been using Twitter since I started in about July ’08. I am not trying to tell you how you should use it. That would be like me telling you how to use the telephone properly. Twitter is a communication tool, and everyone will use communication tools (email, blogs, phones, txt, their mouths…) differently for different situations.

How I have used the platform to date has really worked well for me, and since people ask me about this all the time, I thought it prudent to get it down on paper. Well… you know what I mean. Oh – if you would like to follow, here’s me: @rickgalan. (Ironically, this post about Twitter is a bit long, feel free to scan the bold points for the key thoughts.)

Reasons for Starting & Goals for Using Twitter

There are a few key reasons I got started tweeting. Originally I was just curious about the platform, and what all the hubub was about – that only lasted about 5 tweets before I was bored and left for a few months. I came back though, and here are the key reasons I started and continue to use Twitter:

• To Not Be Lonely: When I first started, I was between jobs – that’s a lonely time for someone who is used to being in the thick of it all the time. The new job I started was a telecommuting gig too, so I am still alone all day in my basement (or wherever I am working for the day). It was a serious adjustment, and the virtual water-cooler environment of Twitter helped me adjust to that a lot. Still helps.
• Making Friends: There are a lot of great people that I have met over the years at conferences and events. Some of them I am friends with, but with some the connection turned into a business card in an ever-growing stack. I wanted to interact with some of these people and build a real relationship, because frankly they are awesome. I actually didn’t have any good friends on Twitter when I started, but now it’s an easy way to communicate with them as well.
• Connecting With Influentials: There are some more well-known people out there in the online world that I have never had the chance to interact with. Twitter gives me the opportunity to connect and build a rapport before I ever meet them (which really helps when I finally do).
• Learning Stuff: Believe it or not, I actually have a lot of interests that are outside of the niche that I work in. Twitter is a great way to connect to people outside my typical circle, and learn about other parts of marketing and broader topics. I learn things every day without having to really even try, and that’s fantastic.
• Getting Involved Locally: I hadn’t had the opportunity to really get involved in the local tech community in Salt Lake, and since I bought a house and it’s official that I am staying for a while, I wanted to. I wanted to meet local marketers and professionals, and learn and make friends. Enter the Tweetup.
• Getting My Name Out There: Lame as this may be, I really wanted to become better known in the online marketing & tech world. I have never had the budget for 6-10 conferences a year, and blogging is still a challenge for me to do regularly. Twitter lets me connect to people on a personal as well as public level, and allows me to drive conversation and interest in my content and contributions.

Guidelines

Yes, I have guidelines for myself, and no, they are not hard and set rules. These are things that I have learned I like in the people I follow, and have really tried to apply to my own tweeting. Guiding principles, so to speak.

• No Spamming: By spamming I don’t mean omega watches and ED drugs. I mean the automatic tweeting of random junk from other services and applications. I tolerate the auto-tweeting of blog posts, but really don’t prefer it. If I want to know about your blog posts in an automated way, I have this magical tool called Google Reader. I don’t even dig it when people merge their status updates from Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Personal preference here, so don’t take offense if you do it. If I didn’t value your real content, I wouldn’t follow you. :)
• Easy on the Self-Promotion: It’s not cool in real life, and it’s not cool on Twitter. You have to toot your own horn every now and again, but yeah. Don’t be a wank.
• Keep a Professional Demeanor: My Twitter is public of course, and it’s something I actively encourage people to read. It’s linked to from all my web profiles and such. I need to make sure that I represent myself and my current, past and future employers appropriately. Oh, and my mom can see it too.
• Reply to All @s and DMs: I know I always appreciate it when I get a response back to my personal communications. It’s just polite. I try to respond to all that I get within reason (not bots or whatnot).

Methodology

So I’ve got goals, I’ve got ground rules.. now let’s see what I actually do with it.

• Follow People I Know or Want to Know: Initially when I started on the service, I was using it to follow people I already knew, had met at conferences, etc. That list was pretty small, so I branched out to people that I wanted to know – industry types that I had read & seen speak.
• Follow People that Interest Me: I still do the above, but have branched out to include people that simply interest me. I don’t automatically follow everyone that follows me. Sorry – have to have some filters. But I look at every profile and a page or two worth of tweets. If the person seems like someone I would want to get to know, I follow.
• Retweet – Spread the Love: When someone puts a link or a post that I find particularly interesting, compelling, funny, etc. I make it a point to retweet. I always appreciate it when people retweet my content, so I feel it’s my duty to do the same.
• Shut It Down: I think a big part of using Twitter is knowing when to NOT use it. It’s addictive! When I am getting on the phone, I shut it down. I think it’s only fair to the people I’m having a conversation with. I have also found it prudent not to Twitter while spending time with my family & friends. It’s disrespectful.
• Only Tweet What I Would Actually Tell People: I decided long ago to only Tweet things that I would actually say. It’s amazing how many “brushing my teeth” updates this cuts out. If it’s not important enough to say, it’s not important enough to tweet.

Twitter Toolbelt

The following is a list of tools that I use to make my Twitter experience more enjoyable. This is not a comprehensive list – there are lots of tools I have used in the past, but these are a few I keep coming back to.

• Twitter Search: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Twitter Search. It’s the most powerful use of Twitter’s platform, in my opinion.
• Tweetdeck: I don’t know how anyone uses the web interface. Have to have a client, and I like Tweetdeck the best.
• PockeTwit: I don’t have an iPhone. I know. PockeTwit is the best Twitter client for Windows Mobile that I have found. TinyTwitter is a good one too. For mobile use without an app, I recommend Dabr.co.uk.
• SocialToo: There is a lot of functionality that SocialToo provides, but I primarily use it for it’s nightly emails telling me who followed and unfollowed me that day. It’s the most reliable service for this I have used.
• Twubble:   I used this more when I was just starting out, but Twubble looks at who you are following, and who they are following. Then it provides recommendations on who you could follow. Mr. Tweet is another, more well-known service that does the same.
• FriendOrFollow: This is a very handy little tool that shows me who I’m following that’s not following me back, and who follows me that I’m not following. FriendOrFollow is great for building the network or cleaning house.
• TweetFriends: Also handy for building the network, TweetFriends shows you who you and one other person follow in common.

Successes

That’s pretty much it. I personally feel like I’ve had great success using Twitter, both professionally and personally. Among other things, it has led me directly to the following wins:

• A guest post on a great eCommerce blog – GetElastic.com
• Being recognized on that same blog as an eCommerce Guru (lol)
• A free netbook from MarketingPilgrim (found out about the contest on Twitter)
• A free pass to Affiliate Summit West from CopyBlogger (again – found out about the contest on Twitter)
• A few job offers & consulting requests – always nice to get those
• Increased traffic & subscribers for ConversationRate.com
• Better public awareness of the personal brand (anecdotally)
• Better use of conferences – more learned through backchannel & more networking through tweetups
• Lastly and most importantly, the great real life friends & contacts that I have made.

So there you have it. I have felt that my Twitter experience so far has been very positive, both in business and on a personal level. There are still a few things I hope to leverage the platform better for in the future. I would like to have better engagement with my friends and followers – I don’t always get responses to questions. I would love to get more feedback from my network on blog posts, projects, etc. And of course there are still some great people I would love to meet. :) I would love to hear how you use Twitter (or why you don’t) and what successes you have had – leave a comment here or @ me!

How To Use Twitter If You Are Exactly Like Me is a post from: ConversationRate.com | Rick Galan on Conversational Marketing & eCommerce

Now that all the freaking out about change has died down (Holy crap! Google changed the color of their wallpaper! Quick, let’s all write 300,000 blog posts about it!), I wanted to share my thoughts on this development (go 300,001).

I’m not going to go into the technical details here. There are plenty of other blogs that have covered the announcement sufficiently. At a high level, the tag allows you to add a line in the header of the page that tells the search engines it should be looking (and applying the associated link credit) to a different URL. It’s a way to indicate to the engines that the page they are on is a copy or slight alteration of the “master” page, and to head on over to that page instead.

If you haven’t started thinking about how this should effect your site, you really need to get on the ball. This is a big deal, and if Google really follows what they are saying, this can make a very large impact on the way that your pages are ranked.

For eCommerce or Shopping sites, this solves a rather large problem that almost every reasonably complex site has encountered. Take a look at the two URLs below:

• http://www3.shopping.com/xDN-clothing–ap_gender_age_men-ap_types_pants-brand_adidas-price_range_40_50
• http://www3.shopping.com/xDN-clothing–ap_gender_age_men-ap_types_pants-price_range_40_50-brand_adidas

Both of these pages on Shopping.com are exactly the same except for 2 things – the URL and the Breadcrumbs.

The reason duplicate pages such as this exist is because of the navigation or filtering system that the many shopping sites are adopting. It allows the customers to browse in the way they want, or filter their search results using the criteria that is important to them.

Here’s another example from Zappos’s new beta (or “Zeta”) site:

• http://zeta.zappos.com/search/Shoes/filter/gender/%22Mens%22/productTypeFacet/%22Shoes%22/categoryFacet/%22Shoes%22/size/%2212%22
• http://zeta.zappos.com/search/Shoes/filter/gender/%22Mens%22/productTypeFacet/%22Shoes%22/size/%2212%22/categoryFacet/%22Shoes%22

The problem occurs because the customers can get to the same destination using different paths. I can search by brand first, then filter by size and then color. Or I can search on size first, then brand, then color. Depending on how complex your filterable features are, the number of possible pages with exactly the same products can be monstrous.

There are ways to get around this issue. The best way is to design your site architecture in such a way that this is never an issue. It requires a significant amount of logic so that your dynamic URLs are always built in the right, predefined order. You can attempt to change your existing logic, but that’s a lot to take on. There are even companies and products out there such as GravityStream by NetConcepts that help solve this issue through the use of proxies and URL translators. But now we have a method that may enable us to edit our existing pages without doing terrible things to our back-end logic or .htaccess files.

Don’t get me wrong, if you have a medium to large eCommerce site, there is still some serious thought and work that should be put into defining the proper URLs to tag each page with. If your URLs contain natural language attributes, do the keyword research and choose the order that puts your best keywords earlier in the URL. The color is not as important as the Brand, so by putting the brand earlier in the URL you are giving more weight for the brand keywords. That one is easy, but what about the category vs. the brand? Do the research.

If your URLs are not natural language, but are more like /?catid=1&brandid=54&color=2… then you should probably stop reading this and go fix that right now. Much more important.

Before coming up with your strategy and rolling it out site-wide, keep in mind that no one really knows how well this is going to work. Google has themselves said that it’s a “hint” not a “directive” (fancy search-engine talk for “We might listen to you, we might not. So there.”) I would choose a mid-tier section of your site, and do some SEO benchmarking. Find out what pages in that category are in the index, what keywords they are ranking for, how high, etc. Then implement your fancy new tag, and watch the results like a hawk for a few weeks. Then tell me how it worked! We all want to know. :)

Duplicate content has been a difficult-to-solve problem for search engine algorithms pretty much since day 1, and I applaud the engine’s for putting some control of that back into the webmasters’ hands.

There are lots of other uses for this tag (affiliate links, session IDs, tracking and discount codes, etc), so do your homework and see what works best for your site.

Here are a few more quick resources to learn about this tag:

• http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/canonical-link-tag/
• http://searchengineland.com/cleaning-up-the-retail-site-navigating-mess-14684
• http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/02/on-site-duplicate-content-no-more-canonical-url-tag.html
• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/canonical-url-tag-the-most-important-advancement-in-seo-practices-since-sitemaps
• http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html
• http://www.getelastic.com/canonical-url-tag/

So has anyone seen this used in the wild yet, or have other ideas on how this can be leveraged for eCommerce? Leave a comment!

Canonical URLs & eCommerce is a post from: ConversationRate.com | Rick Galan on Conversational Marketing & eCommerce

It’s very likely that you already know this,  but the web is becoming an increasingly fragmented space. Gone are the days of “browsing” the web – it’s “searching” the web at this point. When is the last time you used a web directory like DMOZ for anything other than building links? There is simply too much out there.

“Sure,” you think. “Of course it means that we have to rank well on Google.” Well that has even changed too in the last few years. Google (or Yahoo or MSN or whatever) is no longer just a list of results to your search – it’s the definitive source of information about your brand. Consumers, users, prospective employers, girlfriends, everyone is searching for you, and the results say a terrible lot about you, for better or worse (especially the first page of results). People aren’t just going to your website by typing in the url anymore, Google is working very hard to ensure that your starting point for using the web is a search. Google Toolbar, Chrome, Personalized Search, SearchWiki – all these products are geared towards getting you on Google first. And why shouldn’t they? That’s where their ad revenue comes from.

Another major change still unfolding is in the way people communicate and interact online. The social networking in which we all participate is leading to new types of connections with brands as well as friends & family. Blogs, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, etc are not just about connecting to the people we care about, but also with the brands, media, products, and ideas we care about as well.

The great thing is that Google knows that these connections are important to us.

A fantastic example of this is a search for Barack Obama. A brand so many people care about, absolutely everyone is writing about, Google has over a hundred million results for (as of this writing), and 3 of the top 5 results (excluding the News) are MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. (OK, now that I am getting ready to post this – after the inauguration – Google has shuffled the results a bit. You can see last night’s results below, but the three Social Networks are still on the first page, with a list of blogs and along-side some pretty authoritative sites).

That’s huge! Google thinks there is almost no better result for the President than the networks we use to connect and follow each other. And you know what? Google is right.

So how do we make sure and capitalize on these changes in the way people are finding you? When you have a new brand to establish online, it’s no longer enough to register the domain name on .com, .org & .net. There are a number of other web properties where you need to stake your claim. If you don’t grab up that MySpace page or Twitter username early, it’s pretty much guaranteed that someone else will. Make sure that you own your brand everywhere someone may go to find it.

A great tool to help you do this is UserNameCheck.com – it lets you search a whole pile of sites/networks/services for a username, and lets you know where your brand is available, and where you are going to have to pay someone or beg to get it back. Obviously not every result here is appropriate for every brand, but it really is not too difficult to get out there and create a profile, thus letting you keep control. Even if you don’t think you will use the YouTube account, snatch it up anyway. Better you than someone else.

Also important to remember is that the more sites you control your brand for, the more search results for your brand name you will control. And as we’ve seen, these social networks are highly visible in searches. Having these profiles on the first page instead of someone’s else’s blog with what may be negative comments about you is a huge part of actively managing your brand.

You have to optimize your brand wherever it appears – both on and off your site. And everything that is searchable is optimizable.

The Domain is Not Enough is a post from: ConversationRate.com | Rick Galan on Conversational Marketing & eCommerce

Incidentally, I have been on a roll lately with winning contests online. I won a sweet little Netbook from Andy Beal and Trackur, and now a ticket to Affiliate Summit. If you know of any other contest to enter, let me know. I’m a sure thing!

Hope to see you out at the Summit!

Affiliate Summit West! W00t! is a post from: ConversationRate.com | Rick Galan on Conversational Marketing & eCommerce

The Name is Weird

The name is really odd – “Google Insights for Search” seems to indicate to me that there will be “Google Insights for …” Video? Blogging? Pictures? News? Shopping? I’m not sure. It just seems like Google is positioning the service to be one of many. Even the URL (http://www.google.com/insights/search/) seems to indicate there will be more coming. Should be interesting to see what happens.

So.. Google Trends?

What exactly is the difference between Google Insights and Google Trends? As far as I can tell, the interface was improved in insights, and that’s about it. I thought maybe that Insights was replacing Trends, but the Google Labs page still doesn’t even list Insights, so I guess that’s not true.

Meh.

The last thought I had was simply meh. Neat tool, useful for targeted SEO keyword research (does chiropractor or chiropractic get more search volume?) but there are significantly better tools out there for that. It’s interesting to see the news results and how that ties into search results, but it’s just interesting, not all that exciting or useful.

Man was I wrong.

Not about the name being weird, or that Google Trends is the same thing, but about Insight’s usefulness. I was playing with it a few days ago and discovered the absolutely right way to look at it:

Google Insights is a great tool for answering the question, “what do consumers want?” – IF you know the right questions to ask.

Take, for example, the question: “Are consumers really looking for more deals this year, and if so, when did it start?” That’s a pretty specific question. To answer it, I ran 3 different searches on Insights, and compared the results year over year:

• Coupons
• Deals
• Free Shipping

The following is the result for “Free Shipping” – Blue is 2008, Red is 2007, etc…

Amazing the difference between the trend this year compared with previous years. If you didn’t have Free Shipping as part of your promotional schedule this year, you have seriously missed out.

But look way back in August – the difference was already starting to become apparent.  By October it should have been obvious that consumers are looking for this more this year than ever before.

Look at that second peak we are currently experiencing. Consumers are looking for free shipping even on expedited deadlines.

Google Insights provides exactly that – insights.

This data is a great starting point for planning promotions and understanding consumer behavior on a very high level. Even (or maybe especially) looking at historical data there is much that can be learned.

In no way should it replace hard analysis and understanding of your business though. Just because consumers are looking for free shipping should you throw caution and margin analysis to the wind and push the promotion live? But knowing this about December might affect what you put in place for January.

What do you think?

What are your thoughts? Have you found Google Insights useful? What have you used it for? Please leave a comment, or ping me on Twitter.

Google Insights for Promotional Planning is a post from: ConversationRate.com | Rick Galan on Conversational Marketing & eCommerce