It’s actually pretty easy…

1. Decide if hiring in-house for SEO + PPC or SEM combined is more feasible in terms of your spend than outsourcing.

I realize it depends on size and revenues… but as soon as you get to a point where you can hire inhouse, you chould. Using an agency initially may give you an idea of the power of SEM (SEO+PPC) assuming you get a decent agency. I recommend contacting Epiar or Clix Marketing in the first instance for SEO and PPC respectively. If their books are full, they will point you in the right direction (North America wide).

As with anything, you pay for what you get. If you want to look for your own agency for SEO or PPC, or combined services – I recommend:

• steering clear of combined unless they are pretty big with a decent size staff
• asking to see their current and past client list
• determining how they charge – if they really know their stuff, they will charge for performance, though most will ask for a % of PPC spend and/or will have a flat rate per page/per site (based on pages escalating) or per unit of SEO (keyword research/title tags/meta data etc) for SEO services. If anyone asks you for more than 10% of spend for PPC…reconsider – even that is pretty high, and again, it depends on the size of your account. The best way to go with SEO is via performance models. In which case you will need to give them your analytics data. MNDAs or simple NDAs are fine, most will have no problem signing. If anyone does – don’t sign…
• Clarify how often they will check your account and analytics, how they will report, and how often along with what tactical refinements they will make – and how often
• The key thing is to know what you want to achieve (realistically) and then shop around to see who can offer you the best bang for your buck – hinging on the BANG
• Go cheap and lose your $. Go with what sounds great but with unproven promises or undisclosed clients, and lose $ – pretty safe to say that. Play safe – especially with your PPC dollars…

2. Know which questions to ask

If you hire a consultant – pleas read this post, if you are hiring an agency, we’ve covered that with the above info and the post, and if you’re hiring in-house, I suggest the following along with a review of the type of questions asked in the post mentioned:

• Have a screening phone call first to find out if you think the person might be a fit for your business based on a predetermined set of questions based on your corporate culture, expectations and the personalities of your existing staff. It may sound a bit daft, but it will save you endless amounts of frustration and possible unnecessary quits during probation.
• Follow up prior to first face-to-face with an SEM based questionnaire – preferably about your own site asking for good points, bad points and top points to address for maximum impact within a time frame and/or budget.
• Face-to-face and decide.
• Offer what they are worth, and if you can’t afford them based on their worth, offer them bonus, shares etc to get them. Check out GlassDoor to get an idea of what people may expect. And don’t think cheap or new is better. If you really want to make a difference in the search engines results – you need a pro, or at least some significant experience with what makes SEO work, and what gives PPC a decent ROAS.

LMK if you have any questions, and good luck!

Follow me on Twitter, and come hear me speak at Pubcon!

1. Which Search Terms to Target

This is somewhat subjective & somewhat objective. It really depends on 4 primary interrelated variables:

i.   the level of competition for the phrase

ii.  the relationship between search query language (phrase), search query intent (expectation/anticipated result), and the relevance of the search phrase to your offering (perceived or real match/deviation)

iii. your search marketing objectives

iv. your resources

Example #1. If the query language is very exploratory (generic; e.g. ‘laptop computers’ = 9.1m searches/mo [US]), the competition is relatively high (46m results), and the expectation is more specific (e.g. ‘small dell laptop’ = 2.5K searches/mo [US]) – then you can assume that your primary target audience is not search savvy, and that it’s going to take some work. So you refer back to your other variables:

- Does achieving a good rank for a generic term fit with your objectives?

- Do you have the resources (time, people, money) to commit to targeting this type of phrase set?

Example #2. If your search marketing objective is to generate brand awareness, then targeting more generic, high volume terms makes sense, assuming you have the resources, but; if your search marketing objective is driven by a purely conversion based metric, and you have limited organic pages (by design/default/intent/limitation/whatever), it may make sense to target a more specific set of phrases.

2. Where to Place your Selected Key-Phrases

Most old-hats will know these points, but to continue with the high-level overview, the first thing you need to do is audit your existing URL structure once you have completed the keyword research:

• Get rid of unnecessary folders e.g.:

- yoursite.com/product1group/product1a/overview/product.htm

• Create meaningful keyword rich folders e.g.:

- yoursite.com/dell-laptop-computers/product.htm

- yoursite.com/hp-laptop-computers/product.htm

• Create meaningful keyword rich files e.g.:

- yoursite.com/dell-laptop-computers/small-dell-laptop.htm

- yoursite.com/hp-laptop-computers/hp-business-laptop.htm

• 301 redirect all old files to the most relevant new file. Depending on objectives this could be to the new file for which you anticipate the highest volume of traffic, or for which you anticipate the highest number of conversions (e.g., based on web analytics of the existing site)

Then place the selected keyphrase per page:

• in the title tag (sticking to 70 characters with spaces) – for SEO. Make the title short and match the anticipated search query language & intent as closely as possible e.g.:
  • HP Business Laptop | HP Laptop Computers 
  • Unless you are a very well known brand name, with a high Net Promoter score, don’t include your brand name unless you really have to.
• in the META description (sticking to 155 characters + spaces) – for usability, click-through and some SEO effect e.g.:
  • Easily compare HP business laptops. 1 year factory warranty + 18 months from yoursite.com. Easy payment terms. We get you started – Fast! Find out more…

• in the <h> tags; use the specific term in the <h1> and the more generic term in an <h2> where possible – for SEO and usability e.g.:
  • <h1> Looking for Your Next HP Business Laptop?</h1>
  • <h2> Easily Compare & Choose from our Comprehensive Selection of HP Laptop Computers</h2>
• in the ALT attributes and image names; keep your image naming protocol clean, and remember to title your images as well (see ‘Accessibility and ARIA’) – for SEO and usability
• in the content. Many SEO’s say that keyword density is not important. I disagree – with a caveat; keyword density is vitally important – within reason… If the target keyphrase does not appear in the copy more than a few times in relevant areas, then the page may not actually be relevant to the term regardless of being placed in other key areas. I’m not saying there is a keyword density limit – max or min. What I am saying is:
  • write your content thoughtfully bearing in mind your <h> tags and your actual intent, assuming your intent is to arm people with more information around your core targeted phrases
  • never go back and insert keyphrases into copy once it is written
  • never write copy simply to target keyphrases
  • keep it natural, readable, usable and relevant.
  • it’s simple, yet it’s not. Experienced web copy-writers are worth their weight in gold.
• in the navigation and in your internal linking practice. This may cause some ructions with legal/branding/usability, and if you want to find out how you might get around these challenges, come to my session at Pubcon !

3. Optimized Use of Your Keyphrases

I’ll mention Pubcon again, but in the interim… make sure:

• you know what tag-lines are being used by offline marketing, and create pages
• you connect with PR (press release, not page rank – y’sll have a one track mind)
• you connect with social and help with blog posts, asks and answers and with creating pages around key positives or negatives regarding your offering to speak to detractors and support evangelists. More than 20% of search results are now UGC based. Don’t miss out by ignoring commentary, forums and the social space (a topic I have exhausted in previous posts and nearly bored my lovely readers to death – check them out if you missed them)

Come follow me on Twitter! And please come back soon…

~ Laura

It’s hurricane season in the world of online marketing – in terms of stats that is. They’re everywhere, flying fast and furious and changing the landscape:

• Strategies that withstand the deluge of stats are worth continued consideration
• Strategies that do not weather the stat-storms may simply have been built on a poor foundation, or may just simply have been poor.
• Strategies you don’t employ that seem to be appealing to your market (like boarding up your windows¹) also deserve some think-tank time.

I’m going to leap out on a limb here regarding these 5 stats I’ve pulled for your interest and state the following:

1. As far as I know, everyone reading this was actually born
2. Most of us will fall in love, and many of us will at some point get married, for better of worse
3. A whole schwak of folks are educated, and a painful process that was
4. Most of us would like to be gainfully employed, or instant millionaires, but I can only speak to the former
5. All of us have friends, some a few special friends, some a whole swathe of acquaintances. I can count my really good friends on one hand, and my other friends on my other hand and my toes (I regress digress). But I also have a big bunch of folks I like and respect in the social space, and who I may well become friends with in time – apparently I can be a handful, so I’m warning you now before I ask you to follow me on Twitter!

Let’s take a peek at some recent stat releases that on the surface² appear to be worth peeking at, and how they may impact your strategy:

1. We were born: By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers….96% of them have joined a social network

- are you reaching out the Gen Y and iGen folks on the social networks? If not, perhaps you should. If you’re not sure how, I strongly recommend Linda Bustos’ post on ‘Top 10 Web 2.0 Activities for Ecommerce’ as a great guide to what works, and why.

2. We fall in love: 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media

- Do you sell engagement rings, his and her toiletries, flowers, gifts, gift cards… are your ads quick, to the point, targeted to burgeoning relationships of all ages? Romance is universal and timeless.

- Do you host weddings, are you a wedding planner, reception venue? Are you offering deals and coupons, discounts and special treatment for your customers, online and on the social networks?

- Do you have parenting advice, sell baby products, books on how to engage your new wife’s 7 year old son, or gift ideas for your new husbands 10 year old daughter?

- This list is scary long in how what you could offer and how you could engage with the ready and waiting and already engaged market.

- You can take it further to appeal to age groups, family life-cycle status etc

3. We are educated: 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum, and the 2009 US Department of education study revealed that online students out-performed those receiving face-to-face instruction (on average).

- Do you tutor higher-ed students?

- Do you sell academic books (especially curriculum dictated books)

- Do you offer career, advice, stress, relationship, money management etc consultation?

- There is a big market of online higher-ed students out there needing everything a young adult needs, especially one attempting to better themselves, looking for deals, and active in the online space… where are you?

4. We have or would like a job: 80% of companies use Linkedin as a primary tool to find employees.

- Are you looking for a job?

- Are you interested in better career opportunities?

- Are your recruiting costs high?

- Are you interested in expanding your resource pool geographically?

- If your answer to any of these or similar questions is ‘Yes!’, get on Linkedin, or expand your use. Worst case scenario is the initial cost of a monthly membership fee of about $49/month, and you can cancel any time I believe.

5. We have friends: 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, 14% trust advertisements & only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI

- Word of mouth, the most powerful converter known ever has made it’s way online. It is now called peer recommendations – do you have reviews of your products? Do you deal with customer complaints and praise equally fairly, quickly and overtly?

- Are you still relying on advertisements alone? Or TV?

- What is your determination of an effective brand messaging and awareness campaign?

- Are you only after short term profits, or are you interested in both short-term profits and long term brand & reputation establishment?

·         “Hi, I’m curious about your work as a web marketing manager and wondered if you had any advice for someone just joining the online advertising sector re where/how to begin one’s job search? Where does such a path eventually lead? How much of the work is mathematical and how much creative (generally speaking)?.. [a bit more].”

Usually I don’t answer these types of contacts, especially from complete strangers, but for some reason this one made me think. I checked out the chap who asked it, and he’s one clever dude – totally out of the remit of internet marketing of any kind, but probably far more intelligent and business savvy than I could ever be. SO I decided to get back to him – with some minor changes and pictures added for fun here.

This is what I wrote, and I thought it would be of interest to folks who have ever been wondering the same thing.

“INTERESTING QUESTIONS! These are some quick thoughts…

1. Where does such a path eventually lead?

Depending on your level of experience and any qualifications you may have in marketing - creative agency project management, content or copywriting, analytics, web design and/or web development (in general) - the web marketing path can both open to you and lead you to a position of Online Marketing Director, Operations Director, Senior Project Manager, Senior Web Analyst, Usability Professional and higher to VP, COO, CMO etc..

As with any career it depends on ability, enthusiasm, dedication and – more than most – on flexibility and willingness to learn fast, adapt to change, and deal with multiple personality types.

2. How much of the work is mathematical and how much creative?

a. If you are more figures based, then getting into project management in a web based company may be a good bet based on any management training – this can lead to operations management if you fit the bill. Alternatively, getting deeper into coding and working with statistical information might open the door to development (code), search engine optimization (SEO) and/or web analytics.

b. if you are a creative, you can silo into design, online advertising (banner and email advertising), social networking or/and PPC (pay per click is the other half of SEM [search engine marketing, which = SEO + PPC + Analytics]

c. If you thrive on research and application, then you can go for usability, analytics, SEM, social or a combination thereof.

It’s a great industry with many applications, facets, opportunities and potential areas of specialization.

3. Where/how to begin one’s job search?

Based on the above (very brief and incomplete) intro, I would suggest you search job boards for positions that may interest you and read the job descriptions and requirements. I recommend checking out YourJobStop.com.

It remains a ‘relatively’ new field, but it is highly competitive and while there are few targeted degrees or qualifications, ability is more important and is easily and quickly seen. Enthusiasm is a must, and in most cases implementation/practical experience will count.

Some additional tid-bits:

1. The best way to really get some basic experience – if it’s totally new to you – is to set up a website, play with basic html and experiment with basic PPC, and SEO, and social while reading as much as you can about the area of the industry that interests you most. If you can add a web site to your CV, even if it’s just a personalized blog, that may help in some cases provided it is well conceived, designed, maintained and has good original content applicable to your new ‘area of interest’.

2. I’m not sure if it’s of interest to you, but I loved maths and statistics (quantitative methods), included both in my BCom., and the latter in my MBA. I love data and the ability to research and apply my learnings, while contributing to usability best practice – and I’m a relatively successful search marketer. Online advertising is a bit different as it targets purchasing flight times on advertiser sites (sometimes a year in advance) utilizing multimedia ads including Flash and driving to campaign dedicated pages that are marked for analytics – and much, much more than I can include in this supposedly short, quick answer.

Concluding thoughts

As with any form of marketing, online marketing (be it advertising or optimization) has the onus upon it to prove success. This is usually in the form of ROAS (return on ad spend), and there is a whole financial/analytical strategic discipline behind determining online marketing goals and their measurement for stake and shareholders. That’s where analytics becomes vital as the measurement tool, and where planning, negotiation, process, management and more raise their heads as vital disciplines.

The origin of marketing hasn’t changed – and we need to be the folks with the real deal, in the front and well ahead of the scammers…

The Whonk

I hope that helps to a certain extent. If I can help you with more specific information on anything that interests you, please let me know…

My very best to you, and God bless – Laura”

BUT! That’s not the end… I got a really nice reply that I’ll include here in part (not all of it due to the fact that some personal info was shared, and yes we are now buds. I think I may have the better end of that deal J)

·         Well Laura,

·         I think you must get a prize for one of the most informative messages! …[]

·         So strangely enough, your great knowledge on this subject steered me quite a bit away from it – in fact, back to   my original line of work, from which I had veered and wanted to explore ecommerce opportunities – from there online advertising had seemed a natural choice, and now I get the same queasy feeling that I did once I discovered what SQL entailed.

·         That was cool of you to advise me on this, I am certain that if this had been my calling, you would have set me in the right direction – you already did by showing that I’m probably better off elsewhere[]. Still glad to have talked and feel fortunate that we met here. []

·         Take care,

Thanks for reading! Please follow me on Twitter and we’d love it if you signed up to our feed for more unlikely gems and insights J…

FIRST, I’ll pull from Google Webmaster guidelines – I’m not considering ‘sneaky JavaScript’ or ‘Doorway Pages’ here, just plain old cloaking.

• ‘Cloaking refers to the practice of presenting different content or URLs to users and search engines. Serving up different results based on user agent may cause your site to be perceived as deceptive and removed from the Google index.’

Now, to go a little further; Google on Google Website Optimizer and cloaking says this:

• ‘…Google doesn’t view the ethical use of multi-variate testing tools such as Website Optimizer as cloaking…We encourage constructive testing — optimizing your web pages benefits advertisers as well as users, by increasing conversions and by presenting the most desired information more efficiently.’

So far no problems… I’ll let you in on a secret – LOTS of folks do multivariate testing. Not all of them use Google Website Optmizer.

so…..So far we’ve had no problems with caching & crawling because we try really hard to stick to the guidelines provided by Google for multivariate testing, but one of the guidelines does make ones eyebrow’s scootch up a bit – I’m not saying any of the below examples pertain to anything I’ve ever worked on, I am saying it’s something I’ve thought about in a personal capacity (most SEO folks have one or a few sites they manage out of hours if they have a job, I’m not saying I’m one), and it’s something I’ve pondered on, especially regarding brands who might find themselves in a brand/business changing position.

I’m not talking about this one as far as raised eyebrows goes – it’s a no-brainer if you’re maintaining whitehat techniques::

• ‘…if we find a site running a single non-original combination at 100% for a number of months, or if a site’s original page is loaded with keywords that don’t relate to the combinations being shown to visitors, we may remove that site from our index.’

I am talking about this one:

• ‘Your variations should uphold the ’spirit’ of your original page’s content — they shouldn’t change its meaning or people’s general perception of it.

Okey dokey then. So let’s go with an example here:
Assume I have a 5 year old home page. I’m doing a redesign based on a usability study and other feedback, and I now have 2 completely different home page designs, with entirely different messaging; one isn’t even brand based.

1. The intent is to ensure that there is a difference in perception of all variables due to the desire to test 2 radically different designs. By definition, the ‘spirit’ part of the requirement just died a horrible death.

2. As to the ‘meaning’ of the page – define meaning please…?

a. Online marketing objective (meaning)
b. Subject content and relevance (meaning)
c. Connotative association and relevance (meaning)
d. Etc

3. Now onto a consideration of people’s ‘perceptions’ of my old page & my new test pages. Is a perception based on:

a. Content
b. Brand
c. Usability
d. Aesthetics
e. Etc

Please explain how a spider (an algorithm; a software program) can determine the perceptions of my very human users. I wonder if this is more a case of (like déjà vu isn’t it?) … Is the perception based on:
a. Coding
b. Compliance
c. Perceived similarity (in terms of content, brand etc)
d. Etc…?

Assumption For the Case of Assumption:

Let’s assume the multivariate testing is comparing entirely new ideas, even brand differences in design and naming – ‘Pizza Hut’ to ‘The Hut’ – for example (that’s real), and lets’ take it further and say the ‘new’ ‘The Hut’ was moving more into schwarma territory while retaining a minor focus on pizza (that’s not real, I needed an example and that worked for this illustration).

So, are we cool? Even if we test the original (for the heck of it) against one completely different version for a full 4-5 months? Tradition holds that 8-12 weeks are enough, but if you’re changing your business model and you are in Alaska (or most parts of Canada  ) you may want to see the reactions of folks in both the hot months and the below zero months which means a longer test.

The Apparent Point
Be careful of being too strict with the rules, be careful of not following the rules, be careful of not changing what you need when you need it, and be careful of which test program you use. Don’t piss of Google et al.

The Reality
Multivariate testing is a bit of blind sport and spot for the engines when it comes to cloaking. Do it if it’s in your remit. It’s worth it. Read the guidelines with a pinch of salt, be careful, but be bold. The learnings you’ll get with a well conceived test plan will probably outweigh any potential penalties you may incur… and I stress MAY. I can tell you that so far I have never had a site banned for MV testing, and I don’t use Google Site Optimizer.

I can also say that I play by the rules, always. Yeah, laugh you black hat millionaires, I’m not as gutsy as you, and I’m also a dedicated rule follower, notoriously honest and I stand by my word. Not that you don’t.  I wish you well

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Disclaimer: nothing I say here may or should be attached to any employer, current or previous. This is my personal blog. The views expressed on this page are mine alone and not those of my employer. But still, follow me on Twitter!

Creating buzz around a product on an external forum or blog can be very effective, especially if the blog is full of relevant links to deep product or service pages on the brand site. But it’s not always easy…

It’s also not hard – just time consuming, and you need to know what you’re doing. Here’s one way that won’t break the bank, or deviate too much from any social presence or initiatives you already have running:

• In order to facilitate and encourage participation in brand related product forums and social networking sites to gain decent anchor text backlinks, you might consider starting an unofficial blog where you provide interesting information about your brand, your direct and indirect competitors and suppliers.

• Include insights and mentions of complimentary and supplementary products and services highlighting faults, advantages, customer service and other relevant feedback from all related forums, social media and industry sites. Nofollow non-prime site external links; there’s no value to sharing out your newly gained link-juice, but there is value to providing those external resources to your knowledgeable, info-seeking visitors. Open those links in a new window.

• Build a solid reputation as an objective industry source of information and pay attention to regular commentary contributors – positive and negative – building a brand game plan to deal with both on the brand site itself.

• The potential for YouTube exposure is infinite if you offer brand based prizes for (examples) ‘funniest’, ‘weirdest’ or ‘most innovative’ use of your product, or ‘most extensive use’ of your service. The potential is limited only to the brands legal and social responsibility, and your ability and innovativeness as their lead.

ABDUCTION OF THE INFLUENTIALS… This is one of the best vids I’ve ever seen to explain UGC… Just CLICK!

Harness the Power of Social Networks

There are social networks for pretty much everything; Go Green, IT, design, architecture, SEO, electronics, home goods, kids stuff, books – you name it, it’s out there. Find a few really targeted and relevant networks and integrate. Again this can be in the form of both main brand and pseudo-brand.

• Create a FaceBook/MySpace account – invite people via search, and incentivize them with an offer; e.g. a draw; once we reach 1000 we will send 15 random entrants a Starbucks discount… It depends on the brand, your insights, your involvement, and how you handle your SMM. NEVER be in the position where you can be accused of bribing.

• Create a Twitter account – if you’re really big, offer a free software package, but offer daily/weekly tidbits of info to folks who have already purchased it, including updates and engage.engage.engage.

• Digg both detractor and evangelist type articles.

Social networks can be particularly powerful for brand-building. If you are a brand and want to engage the power of consumer feedback, take an active part in those communities that work best for you and link to them from your blog or your prime product page/s.

Enabling your users to find ‘more’ information from their peers via your facilitation might generate a bit of a flux in the social network, but if you have a name in the network, not only can you answer them, you can expect your brand evangelists and followers to take part in dealing with their queries as well, even if it is simply to the point of linking them back to an FAQ or review page.

Problems With UGC And How To Deal With Them

To help site owners manage the potential avalanche of UGC headed their way a number of platforms have been developed which allow companies to add UGC elements to their sites. Ensure that whichever option you choose you stringently evaluate the SPAM management offering. Most CMS enable spam monitoring and blog creation; setting goals, expectations and limitations is up to you. It is advisable if you are unsure to check the full disable functionality of any CMS or blog software.

Spam hurts everyone...

Anonymous commentary or feedback must always be run through a stringent spam detection program which prevents spam blog or review commentary prior to live publication. Simply ensure you have a disclaimer on the page that is very direct and simple indicating that if feedback doesn’t show within a set period of time, to contact you by email and include a link to your spam definition. Never allow profanity, blasphemy, or plain vileness through. Filters sort that, don’t make the mistake of enabling it – it’s in your power; it’s your brand.

Transparency is good, enabling ‘hate’ or plain disrespect and bad manners is not. Make your filters as transparent as possible – that’s what the filter is for, and that’s what the disclaimer supports. You can’t stop what other sites say about you, but you can – to an extent – ensure that your commentary, while transparent, is palatable.

It is absolutely vital to monitor your online presence, and take the initiative wherever possible and/or necessary. For example; if a well known industry blog writes about your product in a less than flattering manner, detecting that mention of your product or brand name quickly is imperative. It allows you to be proactive in two ways:

1. Copy the negative feedback from the blog on your own product site with a link to the blog post, with immediate, genuine company feedback, including a link to the other reviews or UGC (hopefully positive) on your site.
2. On the ‘offending’ blog itself post a comment to the effect that you have seen their post, thank them for their time, and urge them and their other readers to view your full response and other user commentary on your product review page via a link.

While there are numerous online reputation management tools if you are going ‘free’ I personally recommend Google Alerts; if you are prepared to spend money, then TrackUR.com is a paid service, but far superior, and affordable.

Conclusion

The boost of interest in UGC and the need to implement it while watching for on-site spam has intersected very nicely with the desire to monitor both positive and negative commentary around the web. Monitoring what is being said about your business on the net and in the blogosphere also enables businesses to discover what people do and don’t like about their company, brand, product line, specific product, customer service, affiliate, brick and mortar store, and more. It’s a great way for a business to be knowledgeable while at the same time proactive, assuming the strategic ability deal quickly, diplomatically, carefully, and positively with brand detractors and evangelists as they gather insights for R&D and insight and planning.

This is Part 3 of a 3 part series on UGC. Part 2 is UGC and Small Business – What Works & Why and Part 1 is  UGC – Maximize Your Online Exposure with People Power!

Follow Laura on Twitter!

1. How do I make sure UGC is optimized and ranks well?
2. Are there strategies I can use to get the most out of my UGC from an SEO point of view?

The simple answer is that the optimal solution will likely be different for each business and/or site, but in general you should begin by controlling the pages on which the UGC will display, as well as the primary pages within your remit that link directly to them. And remember, your target market may be more tech savvy than you think and ready and willing to start engaging more actively, especially if you have a large loyal return base.

(this is BIG because this is both a really big pain point and a really big stumbling block; funny yet just a smidge tragic if you like)

A common example that comes to mind when thinking about a business and the ways users provide feedback about an online offering are ‘Customer Reviews’. These reviews are enormously important in that they have proven to be the primary medium used to facilitate the transition of the traditionally powerful word-of-mouth referral system from offline to online. The question remains: How best can you make use of the power of reviews on your site?

For product reviews and commentary, there are two main approaches to enable UGC integration on product pages (the most relevant place to put them). One; it is possible to list a few reviews on the page with a link to a full review/feedback page; or, two you could simply include a hyperlink on the product page linking to the reviews. If you choose the former, ensure feedback is provided by registered purchasers if you sell online, or via registration or captcha requirements for non-purchasers.

The next step would be to ensure that you optimize the review pages themselves. Conduct keyword research on the product or brand, targeting words of negative and positive association. For example; this is one way to encompass the issues (in summary):

Scenario: I conducted some preliminary keyword research on iPhone looking at very generic research phrases like ’good iphone’, ‘bad iphone’ [sounds like a puppy in training] ‘great iphone’ and ‘iphone fail’. It generated a number of insights; we’ll look at three (please note, these findings are drawn from an external keyword research tool, and do not reflect the opinion of the magazine, nor those of the author of this article, regarding the iPhone’s ability or lack thereof to send emails, to deal with mobile messaging, or to work ‘overseas’):

1. A common question: ‘is the iPhone good overseas?’
2. Some people are concerned about iPhone email failing
3. iPhones are ‘good’ with mobile messaging

 How might you deal with this information?

1. Create one optimized page for each issue,
2. Link to each page from a hub area on the primary product page.
3. Generate external buzz and links to these pages by monitoring online conversation around the primary topic and answering and linking back using nofollows where warranted.

There are, of course numerous other strategies you can utilize to optimize your UGC including:

· Use featured reviews, where you place the reviews that receive the most ‘votes’ in a defined top area nearer to the fold included by date and possibly subtly. Never place your most positive reviews at the top and your negative reviews at the bottom; users may become wary of manipulation. If you’re getting a lot of bad reviews, think about your offering or the associated service, investigate and rectify. It’s great for R&D, for in-house cleaning and for in-house acknowledgement when individual people get named as ‘stars’!

· Inviting ‘opt-in email’ purchasers to review with a non-monetary incentive to do so

· Ensuring that ‘cleared’ reviews go live immediately. Frequent updating is important to rankings due to the fact that fresh content encourages more ‘frequent’ crawling by the ranking algorithms. Frequent caching has been found to impact positively on search results. Use webmaster tools if you don’t already.

· Minimizing bounce rates; those who surf to a review page are usually more qualified than those who bounced or left somewhere in their visit without clicking to the review page. They have already moved along the pathway in their quest to find a product to satisfy their need or want. Time spent on site is usually greater with reviews than other types of content, and conversion rates are higher than those who only visit the product page.

Consumers want to know what’s great about a product. If positive reviews include objective emotional feedback, the review can ‘speak’ to potential consumers who are looking for the same kind of experience. For example, a book review written by a mother highlighting the positive emotional bonding she experienced sharing the book with her teenager will be a sure hit for many moms trying to connect with their teenage daughters. 68% of consumers trust ‘people like me’ first for product advice. (Edelman Trust Barometer).

Dealing with Questions

· FAQs are an area that can be enhanced by UGC to make your site more usable and more valuable to visitors. Enabling an advanced UGC based FAQ hub can not only provide a more satisfying user experience while facilitating R&D via disclosure, it may also facilitate actual transactions due to easy question-response detection and direction, and decrease product returns. Also, include post sales service UGC as a primary link off the main product page.

· Live Q&A with a tech support member dedicated to all FAQ and other support issues should be enabled, with the option to allow the question and to be published online, incognito, or with some or full disclosure at the users discretion. If you service multiple time-zones, ensure you have staff to deal with the potential service requirement.

Negative vs. Positive Feedback

Don’t silo negative and positive feedback into separate areas. Negative feedback must be included with positive. In most cases, the majority of feedback will be positive, unless it is a really bad product or service in which case you withdraw it from the market, but keep the reviews live as Amazon did with the apparently diabolical HotWheels Slimecano;

· ‘My six year old son bought this with his own money and has already offered to give it away,’ and

· ‘ATTN: Do not buy this toy, even if it is on sale for 5 cents…’ are two relatively mild reviews.

Despite being discontinued, Amazon retains product information along with the more than 170 reviews which most certainly contributed to the Slimecano’s withdrawal from the shelves and halted production.

Bear in mind that negative consumer feedback provides authenticity and an opening for brand evangelists to offer alternative solutions; such as other consumers mentioning to potential iPhone customers that, even though the surface scratches easily, you can simply buy a case – thus providing great feedback for R&D and rebuttal.

This is Part 2 of a three part series on UGC. If you’d like to read part 1, it’s here UGC – Maximize Your Online Exposure with People Power!

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Online UGC is something that has been growing in incidence and importance over the last few years, but it’s only recently that search marketing practitioners have seriously begun to consider the impact of UGC on SEO, and actively tried to harness its power to boost search engine rankings, exposure and enhance site usability. The growing importance of UGC can be seen in the following data:

1. Consumers are relying more on UGC

• 83% of shoppers said online product evaluations and reviews had some level of influence on their purchasing decisions. (Opinion Research Corporation, July 2008)
• As of October 2008, almost half of US online adults read ratings and reviews at least once a month (Forrester)

2. Marketers are relying more on UGC

• In a BazaarVoice Case Study of a major electronics retailer site search visitors landing on user review pages converted 60% more often, spent 50% more time, and viewed 82% more pages than search visitors to other pages.
• The Shop.org State of Retailing Online study, conducted by Forrester Research, found only 26% of the 137 top retailers surveyed offered customer ratings and reviews, but 96% of them ranked customer ratings and reviews as an effective or very effective tactic at driving conversion.

3. Offline sales are influenced by UGC

• According to eMarketer (a 2007 study), for every $1 in online sales, the Internet influenced $3.45 of store sales.
• More than 75% of review users in nearly every category reported that the review had a significant influence on their purchase, with hotels ranking the highest (87%). (comScore/The Kelsey Group, October 2007)

From a purely SEO point of view, a telling statistic is that 26% of search results link to user generated content (Nielsen Buzz Metrics). The fact that users are increasingly turning to UGC is compounded by evidence that the engines are displaying this information. It is vital that online marketers actively and proactively investigate and integrate user generated content into their online mix.

If you think your site might be ready to benefit from UGC (and almost any site can), then its time to consider how UGC can best fit your online offering. You need to determine which of the multitude types of UGC will most effectively and efficiently complement, supplement and/or push your online SEO initiative including:

· product reviews (e.g. Amazon.com)

· service reviews (e.g. Google Local),

· seller reviews (e.g. eBay),

· blog comments,

· news comments,

· forum posts or comments,

· video/audio and photo sharing sites (e.g. YouTube and Flickr),

· social networking sites comments or posts (e.g. Twitter, SecondLife, Facebook, MySpace),

· wikis and composite review sites (e.g. ConsumerReport.org)

Targeting for Acquisition

Once you have determined where and what UGC you wish to employ, it is vital that optimization be applied to reap the full benefit.

Optimization can take many forms; UGC help you rank higher in search engines, particularly through manipulation of the long tail according to a recent Search Engine Land post. There is also the fact that effective navigation and internal linking based on a UGC acquisition and inclusion initiative will make your UGC both more visible on your site and more useful (or applicable) to visitors. The two are not mutually exclusive, and working together they can increase your visibility in the SERPs and rocket your conversion rate and ROI.

What is important is that you don’t mess with the actual UGC itself. In other words you target optimization efforts at the review page’s URL, Title, META description and header. Then let the UGC flow freely, within reason.

User generated content – it’s all about YOU!

It wasn’t a documentary by any manner of means, it was a light-hearted comedy called ‘Confessions of a Shop-a-holic’, and I actually learned something. No, not about my shoe shopping … urm… never mind, about how it can work if you appeal to different every-day people on a very every-day level.

I reckon I’m an every-day person (with a mild shoe, bag and hat thingey going on…), so I wanted to give it a try with a brief touch on accountants, lawyers, PR folks, customers and shareholders. Let me know how you think I did…

Accountants – who want to make a profit online

‘Something for Every-one’ means great web profits, which means a great income statement and a good-looking balance sheet.

… – who want to make a loss online

Objective: to mess with Something-for-everyone

Hire a poor search optimizer and watch your web income fall. Follow up with a really inept sponsored search person and make a bigger loss pretty damn fast. In fact the more money you give them, the more they’ll lose. Tidy it up and it’s a great way to lose money ‘legitimately’ but you still need to show some kind of business case – though that’s not your fault, the VPF should have that nicely in-hand, and he in-turn can blame the COO and CEO and the Prez – and so on… You’ll likely miss a jail term – maybe.

Lawyers

‘Something for Every-One’ means you can ensure you get your legal speak in the right place, and where people can find your terms and conditions, privacy policies and more on the web.

You even get a step up because if you work with the ‘real SEO’ team and the web devs, you can make sure the bits you don’t want the public to see are still there for the right people, but not for the general public. An intranet is best of course, but there is always more. (I did a measly three years of undergrad law, and those three years left me knowing that from a legal stand point, there is ALWAYS more – it’s pretty much 100% guaranteed.)

General Admin

This is a pearl in obeisance to the ocean of general admin ‘stuff’ that makes up the day of the people who actually make the economy run (hat-tip).

SEOs (the ‘something for everyone’ folks) give you a new, different type of person to hire, a new type of training to employ, a different salary range to decipher and apply, and a different personality in entirety to deal with from an HR perspective and a general admin perspective. Define what you need (not what you want) well ahead of time because I have yet (after some years) to find any SEO that fits any stereotype, pigeonhole or preconceived idea of what an SEO should be, do and become.

Public Relations – Interested in positive PR

Utilize the SEOs (the actual search optimizers and something for everyone folks) for the benefit of your online press releases, include them in your PR drive to enable their creation of new pages around new taglines. Even better, assist them in their drive to write what they fondly call ‘link-bait’, and work with them in the social networks to create a PR/SEO optimized (not redundant, and yet somewhat) approach to dealing with detractors and supporting evangelists in real time.

… – Interested in negative PR

Go head-to-head against everything mentioned above. It will work. Even better, strive to pee-off the social networks as fast as you can. Again, 100% Guaranteed.

Customers

SEO (something for everyone) means they can find what they need when they’re already pre-qualified in terms of intent. The level of intent may vary, but that’s where really good SEOs (the optimizing type) have worked with design and dev to ensure a quick, effective targeted conversion funnel.

Customers find what they want and need, and get to buy it online in a usable, friendly, approachable, non-threatening, secure manner. Something for everyone hits the masses right there!

Shareholders

These guys are sometimes likened to the accountants who ‘don’t want a profit’ – but rarely. Most investors are short term, want a fast profit, don’t want undue risk, and have less than a million dollars.

Question:

How can we make their shareholding work for them short-term to encourage them to stay for a longer term?

Answer:

Where possible, offer them a track record of growth, something tangible apart from FS (Financial Statements), invite their feedback on the web-tangible to engage them (unlikely to have any feedback but the perception of involvement is created), show them proof of online sales performance and improvement (hello SEOptimizers* and other online marketing folks) via summary analytics data, and show them the potential for growth in the online arena via research. It’s there, even in these down times. It has a track record of outperforming traditional methods in terms of ROA.

The asterisk (*) above is to testify to the fact that for most well defined and optimized online businesses or web sites, the organic traffic nearly always outperforms any other form of online advertising, including PPC in terms of both pure traffic and conversions, naturally resulting in the lowest cost per conversion apart from email, which is generally far more targeted, and limited in scope…

 ‘Something for EveryOne’ – It’s SEO, it works, it’s undeniable, it’s cheaper than almost any other form of online exposure, and it can be tailored to support every on and offline marketing initiative.

…

Something for EveryOne? …. It’s SEO…

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SEO is Misunderstood

Background

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a term that was coined in July 1997, where it was used publicly in what was perceived to be a spam message, hardly an auspicious beginning. Over the years, the term ‘search engine optimization’ has become synonymous in the eyes of the general public with spamming techniques, and with the deliberate manipulation of the SERPs (search engine results pages) to reflect less than optimal results via ‘black-hat’  or spamdexing techniques.

Regardless, the SEO industry has grown and continues to grow as many marketers, web developers and planners have realized that SEO can legitimately - effectively and efficiently - assist their online brand exposure, sales and other marketing objectives.

So What is SEO?

It’s a multifaceted discipline and is the practice of the following 4 summary points, and more:

·         Understanding a website’s primary online objective and how that fits in with the businesses overarching marketing objective, which in turn should be supportive of the business model and corporate strategy. How? By understanding the client, and the economic and industry landscape at a bare minimum.

·         Conducting online competitive and market research on behalf of the client. This is not simply limited to keyword research; this is about understanding the search query language and intent of the online target market, their search patterns and behaviors, their demographics and personality types (grouped averages), how they interact with the web, where their sticky and stumbling points are (what your users like, and what they will leave) and much more.

·         Analyzing the client web site’s onpage elements in terms of the research findings and best practice SEO. The objective being to assess how usable and navigable the site is to human uses and spiders, as well as how well the site answers the interest and likely search behavior intent of the client’s target market.

This is analyzed in terms of onpage content relevance and includes a remit of other variables that require some nifty foot-work; there are usually some brand or legal requirements, some usability issues to contend with, friction with creatives and marketing, difficulties with CMS or other backend database limitations, unclear expectations, unreasonable goals, and on-and-on so the wheel turns.

·         Understanding the importance of effective backlinking strategy, integrated social media strategy and the ability to work effectively with public relations and social via innovative and best practice strategy to boost buzz in the blogosphere via the social networks. This in turn is all about creating or enhancing the Trust and PageRank of a site via efficient backlinking from trusted, related, authority resources.

The Challenge?

Personally, I’m really, really tired of the uninformed or the simply ignorantly arrogant stating with utter conviction that SEO is a ‘waste of time’ and that it is conducted only by ‘snake-oil salesmen’.

Actually, effective SEO is pretty hard work, it’s not that easy, and it is a big deal. In my books, SEO remains misunderstood by the masses and I’m fast turning into Ms. Cranky-Pants when it comes to answering these detractors.

SEO is Under-utilized

Background

Search engine optimization has never really had a home. SEOs float between being considered web developers, content writers and online marketers; a jack-of all trades but master-of-none apart from the mystical ability to ‘work’ the search engines.

So Where Should SEO be Aligned?

To be honest, it depends entirely on the seniority of the position and the requirements of the role – much as with most other jobs. But my summary take will consider an SEO lead/management position, and it is this; an SEO lead should be able to:

·         effectively project manage a team of SEM folks (both organics and PPC)

·         work hand in glove with IA, design, copy/content writers and development

·         understand as much as we know we can about search engine optimization without hands-on the actual algorithms themselves

·         have a good understanding of client/in-house brand integrity, design philosophy, content methodology and legal requirements

·         be able to hand code html and have a sound understanding of most web development techniques, and popular CMS and analytics programs

·         train best practice SEO based on discipline functions from a very high level down (that’s not as easy as it sounds)

·         work with other online and offline marketing leads to ensure that SEO is aware of – and if necessary included in –  all marketing initiatives to ensure that there are targeted pages created for tag-lines used in billboards or TV ads (e.g.)

·         ensure full integration with public relations to contribute to all online press releases as well as to have a heads-up on all offline releases to facilitate on-site answer and speak to targeted search query follow up

·         work with social, R&D and XD (experience design) when social and keyword research provides insights to new opportunities or threats, or identifies competitive strengths or weaknesses.

The Challenge?

Being an effective SEO manager or lead requires patience, dedication, tenacity, humility, credibility, diplomacy and so much more that that topic alone deserves a post of its own.

Hopefully I’ve covered some points worthy of highlighting here, but I’d love to hear what you have to say!

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