http://www.johnarobb.com/?p=362

To URLs that look like this:

http://www.johnarobb.com/school-caught-spying-on-students-webcam/2010/02/

Something to keep in mind is that if you can’t tell the subject of a page from the URL neither can a search engine.

There are a number of ways to turn on search engine friendly URLs in WordPress Here is one way:

1. Open the Settings menu
2. Select Permalinks
3. Paste this in the Custom Setting text box – /%postname%/%year%/%monthnum%/
4. Save changes

That’s it, you are done.  From now on your pages will have more search friendly URLs.

Twitter is your “foot in the door”.  If you are trying to make a complex sale it is very easy for a prospect to say no to your sales pitch.  Imagine you call a prospect and ask them to buy your software, it’s easy to image that most people will answer “no thanks” even if they could benefit from what you have to offer.  Now imagine instead of asking to buy the software you simple call and ask if the prospect if they want to do better at what they do.  Who is going to say no to that?  With this small yes ask the prospect if they use any of the micro-blogging tools such as Twitter or LinkedIn.  If they answer yes to that you can now establish your foot in the door by adding them as a Twitter follower.

Here’s how my pitch might go: “Hello John, I know you are  a busy person and don’t have time for a sales presentation but I’m sure you want to make sure you are doing all you can to make your business a success.  I occasionally post helpful tips on Twitter/LinkedIn/Plaxo/Facebook.  Would you like to make sure you are receiving these tips that 100/200/300 other people in your role receive?”   This is not a fullproof script and it won’t get you a 100% success rate but I think you can agree that trying to get the small yes is easier than the big yes.

Once you have a prospect following you on Twitter, this could also work if you had a newsletter, you can take time to establish trust with the prospect.  With your foot in the door your next ask can be bigger.  You might be surprised by the results.

• engage – do something
• enlighten – feel something
• educate – learn something

To engage your followers you need to get them interested in taking some kind of action.  Typically you would be trying to poll your followers or learn something yourself.   Google recently bought Aardvark which is a service that allows you to post questions and get answers.  The answers aren’t always great but they can help point you in certain direction.

Who doesn’t like a good laugh?  Depending on your audience you could substitute Entertain for Enlighten.   A funny joke, a cute picture, a great video.  Those are examples of the kind of tweet that people enjoy reading.  It doesn’t have to be heavy but it shouldn’t be empty.  There has to be something in it for the reader.

It’s much easier to educate your followers in this context that you might think.  All you need to do is share the link to a good story.  Sharing links is a good way to demonstrate domain expertise.  Let someone else do the heavy lifting of writing the story.  All you need to do is point people to it.  I suppose it also means you have to be on the look out for quality stories which isn’t as easy as it sounds.

There are a variety of ways to get a sense of what people are tweeting about.  It is a good idea to look at these resources and get a feel for what your audience might appreciate.

• search.twitter.com
• hashtags.org (a hashtag is a keyword proceeded by #, such as #gps)
• whatthetrend.com

When you are tweeting just remember to always make the tweet interesting to your audience.  If you do that you will have success in keeping your followers.

Slut, kidnapping and death are three words that I included in the three separate subject lines for a weekly email newsletter that I worked on.  These words are definitely sensational and not suitable in a business setting.  This newsletter went out to over 100,000 movie goers.  For this newsletter a 6% increase translates into more than 6000 people.  That is a meaningful number.

A well crafted subject line can lead to an increased open rate.  I picked these sensational words for this post as they allowed me to write a sensational title.   In a business setting something less sensational is required.  Subject lines don’t need to be sensational but they should be provocative.   Give the reader a reason to open the email.

Last fall Mitch Joel released Six Pixels of Separation, Everyone is connected.  Connect your business to everyone.  This book is a compilation of the process, ideas, and methods that Mitch has been sharing on his blog and during his speaking engagements.  The book covered a lot of material that I’ve already learned and put into practice.  It did do one thing for me and that was get me to focus on some social marketing skills and  techniques to help my advance my own business.

One of the things this new focus allowed me to do was to reach out to an author whom I admire.  I read Made to Stick by the brothers Chip and Dan Heath.  I really like this book.  I follow their blog in my RSS reader and noticed that they moved to a new URL and blog that runs on Wordpress.   In looking at the new site I noticed a couple of configuration options that could help make the site more search friendly.  I dropped Dan and email letting him know that updating his permalinks to be human readable and using tags and categories would both help his search engine optimization but also help his users better navigate the site.  A couple of emails later and the Heath Brother’s blog was in much better shape.

So what did taking Mitch’s and Jim’s advice do for me?  For starters, it got me and advance copy of Switch.  That wasn’t my goal but I am looking forward to reading it.  Does this one act immediately translate into more business?  No, but that wasn’t the point.  I wanted to help Dan, that’s all.  I’ve created some goodwill that I might be able to use in the future.  That goodwill translates into value for my personal brand.

Social media sites can be loosely grouped into three types: broadcasting, narrowcasting and filtering. There is naturally a little overlap from each to the other. This overlap is the social glue that gives social media the personal connection.

How do you know a site is a social site? If there is any kind of a member or user or some other kind of identity then the site is social.

Social Media Types Defined

Broadcasting – any site where the primary purpose is to broadcast content to the widest possible audience. Social interactions are not the primary focus. For instance the primary purpose of YouTube is to broadcast video. YouTube also has user profiles and channels where like minded users can subscribe to content they like.

Narrowcasting – any site that has in some way limited either the size of the audience or what the audience has access too. Any site that has a limited profile can be classed as narrowcasting. Social interactions are expected on these sites. Access to a member’s content is in some way limited. The primary purpose of Facebook is to provide ambient intimacy for people that know each other. Some of the content shared on Facebook becomes public but not all.

Filtering – these are sites that either group, limit, or provide some other means of filtering content. Yahoo started out as a filtering site. When launched it was a hand edited bookmark list. This was of great value. There are social sites now that allow their users to create lists and links to content they like. These lists act as filters either based on the personality of the list creator or on a specific subject that grouped together via an internal search mechanism.

Examples of Social Media Sites

If you understand nothing about SEO you should come to understand this – SEO cannot create demand. The best you can hope for is that you get found in the places that people are already going. This can be a search engine or the search tool in a social media site. Search only helps you find people that are already searching. That’s one of the great things about search marketing. You are marketing to people that are predisposed to your message.

I’ve never liked describing myself as a search consultant. It is certainly what I do and it is what my prospective clients understand but I do more than that. The work I do to help a site get found in a search engine can and will help drive traffic that wasn’t necessarily participating in a search. I might get my client mentioned in an article that drives visits from people there were not looking to solve a problem. You can’t get the kind of traffic by simply stuffing keywords into content that has already been produced.

In order to maximize the return when you hire a search consultant you need to engage the consultant before you build your site or even before you think of your website strategy.   Your search strategy should be the foundation of your website not the window dressing.

The following is a simple comparison between the two services.  Some of the functionality on Flickr is available after you’ve uploaded the picture.

I might have missed a feature or two.  Feel free to let me know if I have.

Fullsize
Comments
Tags
Email to Twitter
Friends
Submit to Groups
Editable Title
Editable Description
Long Descriptions
HTML in Descriptions
Image Editing
Enhanced Stats	(pro version)

The variation in search engine results pages meant that you couldn’t be sure how well your site was being ranked. I never subscribed to the “be number one for your keyword” mentality. Sure it’s important to rank well but I”d rather focus helping you generate more sales by getting more qualified visitors to your site. Yes, sometimes that means ranking well for a popular search term but your ranking in the SERPs does indicate how well your site is doing.

Up until a few days ago if you wanted to wanted to see the results without customizations you simply logged out of your Google account. That is no longer the case. Google now customizes searches for everyone regardless of whether you are signed in or not. You can still see the search results without customizations by clicking on the “view customizations” link. From that page you can view “without these improvements”.

view customizations

Search marketing just got a bit harder. It will be more difficult for you to overcome the inertia created by the the preferences of your client if you are not already well placed in the SERP. Once your client finds the site they like unseating the incumbent will be much harder. It might be time to invest in Google Adwords in order to get your ad in front of your clients.