Expert Articles - WebProNews

July 4th Marketing Ideas

Rohit Bhargava — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:00:57 -0400

This weekend is the celebration of the American Independence Day on July 4th and if you have ever lived or travelled to America on this date, you know that the day is typically celebrated with BBQs and fireworks. Across the nation, people get ready for traditions that have remained largely unchanged. As the big day dawns, though, there are several ways that social media and particularly social media tools on mobile devices could transform the day for the digitally connected - and offer a great promotional idea for the right brand in the process.

Here are a few ideas:

Fireworks Finder Mobile App - A simple map based application that would allow you to search for local destinations that have fireworks to decide where to go. In addition to the location, it would offer useful information like what else is happening, and how long the fireworks in that area are estimated to go for. After all, who doesn't want to see the longest fireworks display? Who This Idea Works For?: Fast Food Restaurant (could show nearby restaurants), Fireworks seller (link to nearby retail spots), Local city governments (to increase tourism and locals who stay close to home)
Fireworks Countdown Timer - One of the biggest questions on the 4th of July as people pack into large cities and gathering areas to watch fireworks is when exactly they will start. Though they are scheduled, often the real start time is different and due to weather or when it actually gets dark enough. This timer could be a mobile app that would be updated in real time with the true start time of the fireworks. It could also count down as the fireworks are running until then end so you know how much time is left. Who This Idea Works For?: Baby/Kids Product Makers (as a useful service for parents to answer impatient kids), Watch/Timekeeping Brand (relates to keeping time), Cell Provider (exclusive download to certain cell networks for subscribers)
Fireworks Photo Tips PDF - During the fireworks, people often can't help taking their point and click cameras and trying to get a shot of the fireworks. Usually, there are some simple things, like zooming in, turning autofocus off and turning the flash off that can make a big difference in the quality of pictures. Giving people a download ahead of time with how to get the best photos from the day could be a great useful printout that people actually offer their email in exchange to download and print to take with them. Who This Idea Works For?: Photographic Equipment Manufacturer (include info on best cameras with night modes), Photo printing services (offer a coupon for discount on uploading and printing your photos afterwards).

Anyone seen any of these ideas being used already? While every retail brand is doing the typical "4th of July sale" - the may be opportunities are out there and waiting for your brand to engage people through social media and stand out from your competitors in the process.

Comments

Easy Digital Marketing Techniques for Lead Generation

Yael K. Penn — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:35:37 -0400

Growing your in-house database should be at the top of every marketers list. Why? When done correctly, it will house your most qualified and responsive prospects. Though organic list growth may take time and effort, you will definitely see a high return on your investment.

Consider the following techniques to acquire new leads and grow your list with success.

Who is your ideal lead and how do you reach them? Create a profile for your best customer(s). This should include things such as age, gender, hobbies, job function, how do they shop (online or at stores), where do they shop, what they read, website do they visit, etc.
Analyze your competition. Take some time to find out what your competitors are doing to generate leads. If they have an e-newsletter, be sure to sign up to receive it. This will help you find out what type of promotions they are running, any marketing alliances they have formed, and how they are positioning their product or service. Then take some time to find out which websites and / or magazines they advertising in, whether they are running PPC campaigns and if so which key words they using, etc. Most of this can be accomplished with simple web searches.
Reach your best customer. Once you’ve created your customer profile(s) and finished your competitive analysis, you are ready to develop your lead generation strategy. Your strategy can include initiatives such as: banner ads on websites that your target audience visits, PPC campaign using relevant key words, direct mail or email campaigns to magazine subscriber opt-in lists, etc. You can also approach other products or service providers for co-promotions or mutually beneficial partners. If you have time to dedicate to creating editorial content, two other great lead generation and PR strategies are starting a blog or an e-newsletter.
Your offer is everything! You must create an intriguing offer that will prompt recipients to willingly give you their information in exchange for something they want. Your offer should be something of great interest to your target audience. For instance, you might send an email introducing your company to a magazine subscriber opt-in list that you believe your target audience reads. By including a free downloadable document such as an industry salary guide, a list of the hottest bars in town, or a best practices whitepaper, you will be able to capture contact and demographic information for many of the recipients. Another approach is to ask them to answer a few short questions in exchange for movie tickets or some other premium. Once you’ve captured their information and they’ve opted-in to your database, you will be able to continue communicating with that lead on an ongoing basis.

Create a landing page. It is extremely important to guide the campaign recipient through the entire process. By creating a landing page on your website that mirrors your campaign’s message / offer both from a design and copy perspective, you will encourage the recipient to follow through and fill out the form. In addition, you should give prospects the option to call you, in case they do not feel comfortable filling out the form.

Use a lead capture form. Your landing page can either link to a lead capture form or you can embed the form in the landing page itself.
1. Since, your prospects will be more prone to fill out a shorter form than fill out a long and drawn out questionnaire, limit the amount of information you are asking them to provide in exchange for their premium. Besides the basic name and email address, think of including one or two other demographic questions. These questions should be well thought out to provide you with information you can leverage for future campaigns.
2. In addition to the demographic questions, your form should include a check box giving people the option to opt-in to receive information about your company and future promotions. According to the CAN-SPAM Act, if people do not explicitly say that they would like to receive emails from you in the future, it is unlawful to send them commercial marketing emails.
3. If you do not currently have a way to capture leads, an easy way to do this is by signing up for a web-based email marketing software. All of them will provide you with both the lead capture form and a database to house the acquired leads. They all provide you with the ability to download your list as well, so you can upload the new leads into your main database. Some are quite inexpensive with a monthly cost as low as $19.99.

Track your efforts. If you track your lead generation efforts, you will be able to pinpoint which initiatives are working the best and focus more of your energy on those. You might decide that others aren’t worth your time. Easy ways to track your initiatives are:
1. Web Analytics: sign up for a free Google Analytics account. This will enable you to track how many people are visiting each page on your site and which campaign they are coming from.
2. In your lead capture form, include one questions asking people how they heard about you with a drop down menu where customers can select from a list of your current marketing initiatives.
3. Landing Pages: make sure you have a separate landing page for each marketing initiative. Each email, banner and PPC ad should have its own landing page so you can track page visits to these dedicated pages with your Analytics account.
4. Dedicated 800 numbers: There are services that will provide you with a range of 800 numbers that redirect to your main phone number. Including a dedicated 800 number on each landing page will enable you to associate each call with a specific campaign.

Remember, even if are accurately targeting your best customer, your campaign will only be a success if you get them to act on your offer and opt-in to your database. Be sure to spend enough time tailoring your message and offer to the people who will receive your campaign.

10 Great Ways To Use Twitter To Your Business's Advantage

Amy Armitage — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:43:53 -0400

Twitter is the latest web-centric communications service to explode onto the scene, and businesses have moved in rapidly. However, a little discretion goes a long way, as the users of "social" sites and services have demonstrated that they will stomach only so much commercialization of what they consider their personal space. As MySpace evolved from an upstart new kid on the block where everyone let everything "hang out" to a part of the Rupert Murdoch media empire, people who'd had enough began looking for other places. This influenced the rise of Facebook. Now that Facebook has begun acting like a "regular old corporation," too, folks are on the search again.

Your company can most definitely benefit from using Twitter. The primary use for it in business is to listen, because, as every top-performing salesman knows, listening is more important than talking most of the time. You want to hear from every customer, vendor, client, industry leader, journalist, activist, colleague and competitor who has anything to say about your product, service or business. Twitter has much in common with old-style networking, like early morning meetings at diners and water-cooler chats, except it's been "virtualized" for 21st century knowledge sharing. With that brief introduction, let's look at 10 great ways to use Twitter to your business's advantage.

#1. Listen more, talk less: If you just think of Twitter as another way to "post" your messages and advertisements, you're missing the whole point and your following will probably be nonexistent. Spend more time listening to what others are "tweeting" (posting) about you and you will gather valuable information. When you do post a message, make it something people want to know, not something you want them to know.

#2. Find your niche: Twitter's uses are limited only by your imagination, or someone else's if you're fresh out of ideas. Don't think of what you can get, but what you can offer and what you can learn. You may want to share knowledge, you may want to obtain it, or you may just want to assure customers, colleagues and others that you are available to them. You will benefit to the extent that you listen and stay engaged, which means referring back to #1 a lot.

#3. Develop a personality (or a few): A number of business bloggers have commented on how well Twitter works to humanize an otherwise impersonal entity like a corporation. A fresh and interesting personality attracts followers, and some successful firms even allow numerous voices to reach out from within the company's offices and cubicles.

#4. Eavesdrop: There are several good tools for monitoring what is being said, starting with Twitter's own search field. Search for your term(s) and when the results are displayed, you will also get a list of the current most-popular searches (to the right) so you always know what's hot at the moment. The site monitter.com, as the name implies, was developed specifically for use with Twitter, to allow simultaneous multiple searches.

#5. Build your audience: The first thing to do is post a few tweets to get a handle on how it all works, of course, and dedicate some study time to see what your competitors and companies in the same industry are doing. Make use of the "Find People" function on the top of the Twitter page to find people in your own company, your current clients and colleagues, old classmates and friends, etc. Use the "@" reply to connect directly with people, to make sure they see your tweet, and discuss matters of interest to them. When they respond with the @ reply, other folks following them may notice you and choose to follow you, too.

#6. Follow the followers: You should find out who else your followers are following, as that can give you fresh insight into the types of people to seek. Use the various search methods (see #4 above) to find subjects that relate to your industry, and pay attention to who's talking about these matters. Don't be a broadcaster, be a conversationalist, and if you do Twitter right, you will build a following daily.

#7. Be human: Too many people, from firms both large and small, represent their firms poorly by appearing to be robots on a fixed schedule. They crank out PR verbiage and automated data and don't offer anything for followers to grab hold of. You have to "throw them a line" or you will sail right by everyone.

#8. Be polite and respectful: This means that the rules for eating Thanksgiving dinner at the neighbor's house are in effect-no politics, no religion, unless you're a politician or a clergyman, of course. These subjects have no place in a business conversation, so leave them out.

#9: Play nice: Don't get emotionally involved or rant about a person, place or product. One marketing blogger called Twitter "a ship we are all traveling on," so it's important to act appropriately-or be forced to "walk the plank."

#10: Stay positive: Don't be pessimistic, and don't whine or complain about what's wrong with this or that industry or the world in general. People will follow people they like, who offer something of value, who are upbeat and who stay on an even keel. Of course, some situations require a serious, even solemn approach, but those are the exceptions and should be handled delicately. Anyone can bellyache, gripe, moan and groan. A leader, on the other hand, offers solutions.

Bottom line? Twitter is a tool, and a good one, for keeping conversations going with stakeholders, potential customers, colleagues and even competitors. It takes real-time management because it's a real-time tool, but when it's done right Twitter can be an important addition to your sales, marketing and business communications arsenal.

How Much is The Prohibition of Online Gambling Costing The Search Engines?

Steve Baldwin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:51:14 -0400

June 10, 2009, was the day when opposing forces clashed over the future of online gambling. First, U.S. authorities froze the online bank accounts belonging to some 27,000 online gamers as part of a general crackdown against illegal gaming and money laundering. Almost at the exact same moment, the European Union accused the U.S. of violating international trade rules by banning online gaming, going so far as demanding compensation for what EU-based gaming outfits claim is a $100 billion loss. At the same time, HR 6870, the Payments System Protection Act, which partially decriminalizes online gaming, was approved by a House committee and appears headed for a vote within days.

What impact would the decriminalization of online gaming have on the search engines, which have banned any paid search ads for several years? Armed with Google’s keyword suggestion tool, which lists approximate monthly keyword volume, average CPCs, I created a list of 200 keywords consisting of those which were obvious choices for online gaming outfits vying for the attention of searchers. My findings follow (you can examine the complete spreadsheet here (link to spreadsheet).

How Much Is This Costing Google?
My list of 200 keywords were hardly exhaustive (many search marketers have keyword lists in the thousands or even hundreds of thousands in order to mine the long tail), but they are instructive in terms of setting a minimum benchmark for what the search engines are leaving on the table. My CPC figures were taken directly from the keyword tool’s listing of average CPC for each keyword/keyword phrase. The sampling period for all of these figures was April of 2009. My assumption was that paid clicks would constitute a 15 percent CTR rate for each gambling oriented SERP, a rate that I believe to be conservative.

Bottom line? In Google’s case, the amount of lost revenue is $9,632,382.62 million per month, or about $115 million per year. Again, I would regard this to be a very conservative estimate, both because my keyword list was very limited and my CTR per SERP rate was at the low end of industry estimates.

How About The Other Engines?
It’s easy enough to extrapolate these results out to Yahoo and Microsoft (Bing), using comScore’s search query rankings for the same period (April 2009). According to comScore, Google’s share was 64.2 percent, Yahoo’s at 20.4, and Microsoft at 8.2, which would put Yahoo’s monthly loss at $3,060,756.77 and Microsoft’s at $1,230,304.32. Ask, with a 3.8 share, is out $570,377.72 and AOL, with a 3.4 share, is out $510,377.97. Collectively, then, the money that all the search engines are leaving on the table each month is $15,004,198.40, or about $180 million per year.

These numbers are very rough approximations and I believe they’re quite conservative. But they’re not exactly chump change, either for the engines or for the offline casino industry which will likely fight hard to keep the old prohibitions in place. Nor is the $180 million annual loss figure really indicative of what the overall online advertising business has lost over the past several years, because display media is typically a preferred medium for online casino owners.

It is not possible to know what the fate of the current efforts to remove restrictions on online gambling will be. But investors placing bets on the fortunes of search engines and the future of the online advertising industry will doubtless be watching these developments with great interest.

The Lazy Man's Way to Link Building

Darren Chow — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:50:29 -0400

Search engine optimization is no longer a big secret. In fact, even the search engines release public information about SEO. There are two components that you need to take note of for your SEO campaign to be successful. The first component involves being a good webmaster. The second component, which is what most marketers don’t do well, is link building. And this is the secret that will help push your rankings to the top. But before that happens, you need to set yourself up for success. Make sure that your website is ready for the search engines. That is the role of the webmaster.

So what does a good webmaster do?

Use static text links. - A good webmaster makes sure that your website is search engine friendly. That happens when the content can easily be found by the search bots. To make it easier for search bots to find and index the content, try as much as you can to use static text links. Avoid using Javascript links or Image links whenever possible.

Use a proper sitemap. – A sitemap is not always necessary. But if you have many pages of content, including a sitemap with links to all the web pages can be useful. That will ensure that nothing is missed out when the bots make a visit to your site. Keep the number of links for each sitemap to about 100 links or so. If there are more than a hundred links, generate a second page for the sitemap.

Avoid posting duplicate content. – Many webmasters are concerned about duplicate content. It is true that the search engines do penalize websites with excessive duplicate content. But if your main intention is to publish quality information for your readers, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. The kind of sites that need to worry about duplicate content are those that scrap texts off other websites using some kind of automated tools.

Some websites have a print friendly version of the articles on their websites. The search engines are smart enough to figure out that there is a need for this feature. So it is completely acceptable for sites to have print friendly articles that have exactly the same content as the original article.

Avoid linking out to unrelated websites. – One of the main goals of the search engines is to determine the overall theme of your website. If you link to a bunch of unrelated sites, the search engines many find it hard to learn more about the theme of your website.

In addition, if you add a ton of unrelated links on your homepage, you may be penalized for selling links. It doesn’t matter if you really did sell links. If there is no reason for an external link to be present, search engines may come to the conclusion that the only reason the links are there is because someone paid money for them to be there.

So far, the discussion has been about on-site optimization. This is the easy part because you have full control over the site, the link structure, and the content. But there is another part to SEO, and that is link building. That is where most marketers fail.

The Right Way to Build Links.

As mentioned earlier, the search bots want to learn more about the content on your site. Besides having good title and Meta tags, you should also make it a habit to build back links to your site. What are back links?

Back links are links pointing to your website from external sites. Do note that not all back links are created equal. Some will be more valuable than others. What is important here is that you need to know the difference between a desirable back link, and a non-desirable back link.

A desirable back link. – A desirable back link is a link from a relevant site. It has your target keyword phrase as the anchor texts. For example, if you are targeting the keyword phrase “article marketing”, your back links will have these words in them. So instead of saying something like “Click Here”, your links will show “article marketing”.

Search bots use anchor texts as a way to determine the type of content on your website. A back link is similar to a vote for your site. So if enough websites “vote” for your site with the anchor texts “article marketing”, your site will eventually rank well in the search results for those keywords.

Non-desirable back links. – In your attempt to acquire links, avoid going to link farms and posting your links on non-related websites. You want quality and authoritative sites to link to your website.

How to Acquire Desirable Back Links.

There are many ways you can acquire desirable back links. One of the most effective methods of building back links quickly is to use article marketing. Article marketing is the process of writing and distributing high quality content to article directories.

There are literally hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of article directories on the Internet. Some have been around for years, and are well established with a solid reader base. For sure, a back link from such well established sites would be most welcome.

However, I can almost hear you groan because the thought of writing articles can be painful for some people. Besides, distributing articles to hundreds of article directories can be a rather time consuming process. Fortunately, there are ways to help you overcome these problems.

Use semi-automated software. – Semi-automated article submission software is a great way to save time. The only drawback for such software is that you need to sit at your computer and select the categories manually.

Fully automated software. – With the evolution of technology, innovative developers have come up with fully automated software. You will be able to launch the software and let it run by itself for a few hours while the submission takes place.

Outsource article submission and writing. – Software can never write quality articles for you. Only human beings can do that. If you don’t have the time to write articles or sit around to wait for the articles to be distributed, you can always outsource all your article marketing activities. When you outsource, everything goes on autopilot. Unique and exclusive articles are written on your behalf, and your articles are being distributed as you sleep.

What Comes After Link Building?

If your website is brand new, you will have to be patient. Wait for the articles to be approved and published. The search engines will pick up the articles and start counting all the links that point to your site. For new sites, be prepared to wait a couple of months before seeing results from the search engines. Existing sites can expect movements in the search rankings within 4 to 6 weeks.

Remember, the more desirable back links you get to your website, the higher your rankings will be. Once you get to the top 5 spots of the search results for your desired keyword, you will be enjoying a steady stream of traffic.

Do Your Customers Trust You?

Peter Da Vanzo — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:03:32 -0400

There is an interview on Open Forum in which Seth Godin interviews Richard Branson. The question is: Why is small business is better than big business?

Branson explains how he structures Virgin so that it is a series of small companies. People know each other by first name. People need to know each others strengths and weakness, and collaborate, and be responsible for the work they do. Branson believes this open small company results in a better service to clients.

Check out this article on Harvard Business:

In the worst economy we've seen in decades, Passlogix, a privately owned 100-person software development company, just received over a million dollars in prepaid commitments for the next three to five years of service....Now, how do you explain that? The bigger companies aren't getting similar deals.....I think it's a trend. And understanding it might just be the difference between failing and thriving in this economy.

The difference, the article goes on to suggest, is the trust factor.

People need to be able to trust companies to deliver. And in the current climate, where big companies are just as likely to go to the wall as small ones, big companies no longer have the advantage of being trusted to deliver by virtue of their size.

Small companies can build trust quickly in ways that big companies cannot.

How To Establish Trust

SEOs and marketers spend a lot of time trying to get traffic to sites. This is a difficult task, but it's a task that only solves half the problem.
The problem is how do you get traffic to you site and get it to do what you want.

If my traffic dropped by 50% tomorrow, I couldn't care less, so long as conversions stayed the same or increased. Traffic, like ranking, is is not a good metric of success, unless you're selling advertising by the page view, and even then it can be seriously misleading. i.e. how many people acted on the ads?

What makes people engage? Underlying all transactions, is that the buyer trusts the seller to deliver.

In order to help establish trust, consider these factors, especially if you're operating in an area where you're looking to sell an ongoing relationship:

Familiarity & Personality

It's never been easier to build a personal, trusted brand. Twitter, social networks, e-mail lists, blogs and other personal communication channels all make it easy for people to see how you think and act before they engage with you.

If you're seen often enough, in the right places, doing good things, people will come to you, because the known feels safe. The unknown is risky.

This is why PR and networking are critical. They help establish familiarity, which leads to trust, especially if the same person customers see writing articles/Twittering/networking is the same person who answers the phone.

Let customers to know you before you know them.

Reputation

Do you have markers on your site that show you have earned a good reputation? Credible media mentions? Recommendations from satisfied customers? Proof you've got customers?

Again, a quick search is likely to reveal the state of your reputation.

Stability

With companies going to the wall left right and center, stability is a major factor for any long term engagement.

Ever worked with a colleague who is inconsistent and unpredictable? Is that trustworthy? Consistency and predictability build trust.

Respond to emails and inquiries promptly. Say what you'll do, do it, and then tell people you've done it. If you've been operating for a while, make a point of saying it - anything that screams "consistency and predictability".

Immediacy

Do you trust that web site with (c) 2004 at the bottom? Is it still going? Google is chock full of outdated search results from companies, that, on face value, show no sign of life. That's not a good look in the current economic climate.

Staying up to date and engaged is important, especially if the real time web becomes more established, which I strongly suspect it will. Customers will expect companies to communicate using the same method and channels they do, and these channels increasingly favor the immediate and frequent over the slow and infrequent.

Transparency

Big companies have long indulged in being secretive, unapproachable and oblique. It isn't very appealing.

Why on earth would a small company follow this model? Plenty of them do, presumably to create the illusion they're just like a big company. But big no longer means better like it used to.

Open people and companies build trust. If a company is transparent in it's operations, people are more likely to trust them. Show people who you are, what you're about, and what problems you can solve for them. It's often a good idea to say if you can't solve someone's problem, you'll tell them, and recommend to them someone who can. By doing so, you'll even build trust with non-customers, and you never know who they'll talk to. Every engagement is an opportunity.

There is nothing worse, from a trust point of view, in a company saying they'll do something, and then not do it.

Big companies often fall into this trap because their sales force are separated from their operations divisions, and the sales people are working on commission. Sales people can promise the world in order to get the signature, knowing they're not the ones who have to deliver. That's some other faceless divisions problem.

Small companies seldom have this problem, a problem Branson also tries to counter by organizing small.

Got any ideas on how to build trust? How have you built trust with your customers?

Comments

Where Is Your Internet Marketing Headed?

Frank Reed — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:36:40 -0400

I just spent the past two days at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Dallas. While I am no expert on social media, I am also not a novice so there was plenty for me to learn. Chris Brogan's New Marketing Labs puts on the event and they did a great job. The roster of speakers spanned nearly every area of Internet Marketing with a strong emphasis on social media which is no surprise whatsoever considering the source.

What was interesting to me was the range of social media experience that was present for the event. There are wide ranges of experience at any event like this and that's good. You always want to be around people who know more than you do so growth can occur.

What was both surprising and encouraging all at once were some of the folks and the companies they represented that obviously had little to no knowledge about how Internet marketing works. I realized at this event that I make way too many assumptions about who knows what about Internet marketing. For some of these folks I have to suspect that social media must have looked like a "dark art' to them since one of the questions asked was "What's an RSS?"

We are all drinking from a fire hose on social media. It changes often and is rife with opinion based on conjecture that may have some actual facts mixed in along the way.

It does, however, offer hope in a time that it is desperately needed. Here's what I mean.

With people being totally new to the medium attending it reminds us that there are many people out there that may end up being customers for others now that are online. This could help move the needle a bit on this economic malaise we live in.
There are people that are actually able to say with all seriousness "What recession?" If you check the history books not everyone became dirt poor during the Great Depression. Many built their fortunes at a time when many others suffered. That's the way it works. The Internet age is no different. For those who are smart enough to find a way to have their best year ever during these times all I can do is tip my hat and wonder what I can do to get there as well.
The Internet offers more opportunity to grow even during tough times. I loved the fact there were people a conference that is put on by arguably the most well known social media "celebrity" in Chris Brogan who had no idea what they were getting into. They did know, however, that they needed to change and grow. All I can do for these folks is tip my cap to them and admire their courage and willingness to start from nothing.
Even with all of the talk of government intervention and takeovers and general meddling with the free market there is an undercurrent of fierce independence in people who embrace the Internet for commercial needs. It's a pioneering spirit that is sorely needed and one that could provide a light for others to follow so we can get out of this.

So where are you on this continuum of Internet marketing? Are you so experienced that you are too jaded to care about newcomers? Are you wading into the deep end and experimenting more so you can get more from your Internet marketing efforts? Lastly, are you just coming out of the shadows and making the move to get in the game since it is painfully obvious that the old ways are being redefined which in turn redefines how we must do business to survive?

I am rooting for these folks that are saying that they do not want to be left behind. It takes guts to step out into this expanding frontier of the Internet economy. Keep trying everything and remember that NO ONE has this all figured out. That's why it's fun!

Comments

The Three Types Of Searches

Peter Da Vanzo — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:32:40 -0400

Bill from SEO By The Sea published a good article entitled "Writing Content for Small Businesses Online", in which he talks about search taxonomies.

For those new to the topic, I thought I'd go over it, and show it applies to SEO strategy.

I'm basing this article on the study "A Taxonomy Of Web Search"(PDF), by Andrei Broder. Andrei is VP of Search Advertising at Yahoo, although he wrote this report while he was with AltaVista.

What Is A Search Taxonomy?

In summary, a taxonomy is the practice and science of classification.

In terms of search, we focus on classifying keywords into three distinct classes - navigational, informational and transactional.

If you can determine user intent behind keyword queries, you can better target your keyword strategies. For example, if your aim is to sell goods online, you may choose to focus on transactional queries e.g. "where can I buy an LCD monitor....", as opposed to informational queries e.g. "power requirements of an LCD monitor......".

There is, of course, a lot of cross-over between these three types of queries, which I'll address shortly.

The Three Types Of Searches

In the study, keyword queries are divided into three groups.

Navigational

A navigational query indicates the searcher wants to find a specific site.

For example, a search for "BMW" most likely indicates the the user wants to find BMW.com. Navigational queries usually only have one "right" answer. The user either finds the site they are after, or they do not.

Informational

An informational query indicates the searcher is looking for specific information.

For example, "symptoms of cancer", "San Francisco" or "Scoville heat units". Informational queries tend to be broad. The informational query doesn't tend to be site specific.

Transactional

A transactional query indicates the searcher wants to perform a web-mediated activity. For example, "buy LCD TV online".

If your aim is to sell goods and services online, you might focus more on transactional queries than informational queries. The problem with such classification, of course, is that it is narrow. We can't really determine user intent from just looking at the keyword, however this classification gives us a useful way of thinking about which keyword terms might be the most useful in achieving our goals.

Results Of The Survey

There are some really interesting results in this report.

24.53% of people want to get to a specific website they already have in mind. This is a navigational query

This is why brand, and making your brand memorable, is so important. Searchers often type a site name into a search engine, rather than type http://www....etc into the address bar. Optimizing for the name of your site is imperative if you want to catch navigational queries.

68.41% of people want to find a good site on a particular topic. They don't have a specific site in mind. This is an informational query

A lot of SEO is focused on this type of query.

Why did people conduct their searches?

8.16% were shopping for something to buy on the internet
5.46% of people were shopping to buy an item, but not on the internet
22.55% of people wanted to download a file (i.e. image, music, software, etc)
57.19% None of these reasons

What were people looking for?

14.83% were looking for a collection of links to other sites regarding a particular topic
76.62% The best site regarding this topic

Interesting, huh. Site's like About.com and Mahalo capture both these types of queries.

Eye Tracking Studies

Now, with these figures in mind, check out this eye tracking study.

Although the test data is limited, it is interesting to note that sites targeting a transactional query can be further down the search result set than the informational query and still receive attention, if not a click.

When conducting an informational query, if searchers don't see the information they want in the first search result, they will refine their search. The same goes for navigational queries.

If you're targeting the transactional query, however, the wording of your title tag could give you an advantage over those who rank higher than you. When conducting a transactional query, searchers often hunt further down the result page, or across to the Adwords, to see which listing sounds most interesting to them.

How To Integrate This Knowledge Into Your Strategy

So how do you apply this information?

If you choose to focus on one type of query.....

Know Your Users

There are many cues of relevancy left by the market. All you have to do is look for them.

Look at the ads

Google typically only shows AdWords ads above the organic search results *if* they generate a high clickthrough rate (CTR). And since advertisers using AdWords are paying for every click, you can presume that for expensive keywords many of those ads are matched up with strong user intent.

Tools like SpyFu ad history and KeywordSpy can help show you who has been advertising on those keywords for the longest period of time. Those who have been doing it a long time are typically either optimizing their ad copy OR losing a lot of money.

Where Are They Searching From?

Google's keyword tools, Insights for Search, and Google Trends show where a particular search query is popular (and if there is any interesting news that is driving search queries). In addition to seeing the query breakdown by country (or state, or city), you can view ads from different locations by using the Google ad preview tool and/or the Google Global plug in.

Understanding Search Demographics

Google's Insights for Search categorizes user searches for the broad match version of a particular keyword

Microsoft offers a tool to categorize content.

Google's Ad Planner lets you select pre-defined audiences, websites, and keywords to analyze.

Both Microsoft and Quantcast offer similar functionality on a per website or per keyword basis.

What Did They Recently Search For?

Microsoft offers a search funnels tool which allows you to research keywords they recently searched for prior to searching for a keyword, OR keywords they searched for after they searched for a keyword.

Microsoft also has an entity association tool which can be used to find keywords that were co-occuring in the search or searched for in the same session.

Commercial Intent?

Microsoft's Online Commercial Intent tool estimates if search queries or web pages have a high probability of being informational or commercial in nature.

Who is Getting The Click?

Since Google AdWords factors ad clickthrough rate into their calculations, you can presume that the top advertisers are either getting a decent CTR, or are paying through the nose for clicks.

Compete.com's keyword destination data lets you know the relative click volume sites receive for a particular search query.

Further Analysis

Beyond data from the above tools, you can also infer a lot of data just by putting yourself in the mind of the consumer

Determine which type of search you're targeting - informational, transactional, navigational - and segment the audience accordingly
Align your site to the intent of the user. For example, a searcher who is after information is going to want to see an authoritative looking site. What is an authoritative looking site? It will differ depending on the market you are in, but it is highly unlikely the searcher will react well to a site plastered with advertising. The site will have markers of authority, such as recommendations, perhaps a display of qualifications, and information laid out in an "academic" way (Wikipedia), as opposed to a blatant sales pitch (Multi-Level Marketing). The transaction searcher will want confirmation (e.g. a big logo) s/he has arrived in the right place.
Look for emotional angles and user intent targeting strategies that competing businesses are missing. Is free shipping a big deal? Is everyone trying to sell to a person that is looking to research and compare? Find a compelling way to stand out and differentiate yourself from the competition. Even if you are only targeting 30% of searchers you can still get more traffic being the only person doing that rather than the 8th consecutive similar offer.
Track user behavior to confirm intent. Get people to sign up for more detailed information, note which pages people spend the most time on, which keyword terms lead to conversion, etc. Feed this information back into your strategy

The transactional user is more likely to forgive ads. In fact, they may even welcome them, so long as the advertising is relevant.

Conversely....

Integrate All Three Search Types

One of the problems with the study, as noted in the study, is that it is very difficult to determine intent just by looking at the keyword.

For example, an informational search could end up being a transactional search once the user is satisfied that with the answer to the information they were seeking. For example, "symptoms of flu" might turn into a purchase for a flu remedy.

That's why it can be a good idea to target all types of query, in an integrated way.

Carefully consider how you word your title tags. Integrate brand aspects for the navigational query i.e. "SEOBook.com - SEO Training Made Easy". Convey the information you provide "i.e. SEO Training" and transactional information i.e. the implication is that people can buy "SEO training". This information is also repeated in the snippet, although webmasters often have less control over this aspect.

Keep in mind that transactional doesn't just mean e-commerce. It can relate to any desired action, such as a sign-up to a newsletter, or a request for more information.

One aspect of web marketing that is getting more important is building communities and tribes. People who will return, in other words. You're unlikely to engage a community of people if all you ever offer is transactions. This is why Amazon integrates reviews and other social aspects in order to hook people in on a number of levels, even though the primary aim is to sell goods. Also check out Bill's excellent "Bills Blues" example.

What approach do you take? Do you narrow in on one type of query? Go wide and try to catch all three? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Comments

Dos and Don'ts to Improve Google Ranking: Ranking Factors, Good and Bad

Frederick Townes — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:12:55 -0400

Among SEO professionals, there isn’t always consensus on precisely which and to what degree site factors contribute or detract from rankings on Google because the factors actually vary by industry. There are indeed, a number of contentious issues: markup and content quality, use of title tags, site organization and even arguments that Google Analytics data factors in to site rankings. Not likely (yet), but certainly up for debate among SEO professionals.

However, there are some Google ranking factors that most professionals agree affect site positioning on Google SERPs. However, these are opinions, find out for yourself how these apply to projects you’re working on.

Recommended Steps to Improve Google Ranking

1. Use keywords in HTML title tags. Probably the most significant factor for a site regardless of the competitive landscape, the title tag must be consistent with content in the page for best results. The more keywords in your title, the less effective this factor, be judicious.

2. Create quality anchor text for inbound links. At one time, according to some SEO professionals, quality anchor text was an essential component of a well-ranked site. After all, this is the text the user opted to see by clicking a link on another site. Most SEOs still contend that quality anchor text is a highly significant, positive ranking factor. If not for spiders, for visitors clicking in as well. Obviously the text should be relevant to the destination page for best results; that’s where your on page optimization comes in to play.

3. Increase link popularity. Link popularity takes into account the number of inbound links present. Link authority has less relevance, though it is still a factor depending on the competitive landscape. Link popularity is based on a global count of links from all sites. However, quality links are still critical to creating site authority; authority means ranking for more phrases than you intentionally target.

4. Hang in there. The age of a site is an important positive weighting factor according to many SEO professionals. It’s certainly a reasonable assumption. Failed sites are dropped as soon as the hosting subscription ends. If a site has been around for 10 years, the owners must be dong something right, especially if link popularity is steady developed over the years. Unfortunately for site owners, there’s no way to speed up the aging process – except hanging in there.

5. Increase the popularity of internal links. These links direct visitors to helpful, related content. They’re important in providing visitors with a positive on-site experience. Search engines view on-site link popularity as a sign that visitors like what they see and want to learn more.

7. Build deep links. Deep links are relevant to the topicality of the target page or keyword. The relevance of these inbound links matters to a site’s Google ranking. However, please note point 3. The sheer number of inbound links is a factor as well. Quality deep links carry more weight and add credibility to a site.

8. Connect with sites selling to the same demographic. Create a number of links with sites within your topical community. This helps visitors further their searches – something Google likes very much.

9. Keep old links. Google looks for web stability. The older the link, the more trust it has. It indicates a happy relationship with the site owner linking in who recognizes the value of sending visitors off-site. Google watchers suggest a three to four month time window for spiders to determine that this is a well-established, long-term link that has value to visitors of both sites.

10. Use keywords in body text. Make sure that keywords receive prominent display in headlines, headers, sub-heads. It’s important that the keywords used in HTML text on page match with keywords used in the site’s meta data and title tags.

Not Recommended

1. Don’t use session IDs in URLs. It sounds like a good idea on the surface, an easy way to track customer information, but here’s the problem. Each time a spider crawls the site, a new URL with session ID is created. The spider now has two, or three or more URLs all showing duplicate content. Go back to Go, do not collect $200. Don’t confuse this with pages that may have a couple GET variables in them; avoid that when you can, but just avoid having your pages containing session IDs.

2. Choose a reputable web host. The most potent negative ranking factor is server accessibility. If your server, located in Timbuktu, is inaccessible to spiders, it’s inaccessible to visitors. Down time soon becomes down and out time.

3. Avoid duplicate content. Googlebots employ filters to detect duplicate content. Now, if you opt to post some syndicated articles, you’re providing a service to visitors. However, a bot will recognize that content (it’s already appeared on 400 sites) and you’ll see a drop in traffic rank.

4. Jettison low-quality links. Google assesses the character of your site by the company you keep so keep good company by unlinking from (1) links farms, (2) sites with absolutely no quality content and (3) otherwise low-quality sites; e.g. FFA (free for all) sites.

5. Avoid any kind of links deception. Googlebots aren’t smart, but they can detect some paid links and a variety of links scams, including generated links. If a Googlebot suspects links fraud, your site may be penalized and sent to the basement or banned altogether.

6. Avoid a log-in before visitors and bots access “the good stuff.” Log-ins can easily confuse a bot who won’t be able to access quality content hidden behind a log in. Even though users with Google toolbars will be unknowingly suggesting new URLs to be crawled as they surf about, having teasers for the content your monetizing by subscription will help your SEO.

7. Avoid using frames. Horizontal and vertical framesets <frameset> are commonly used by designers to present more than one page of a site on the screen at the same time. However, frames are also bot traps. They can get in but they can’t get out, making it impossible for them to index a site – at all! Tell your developer to look at using iframes if possible or absolutely necessary.

8. Avoid duplicate title/meta tags. Title/meta tags are a valuable resource for site owners to expand access points to a site. Using title tags ensures that more pages are indexed and listed in Google’s SERPs as distinct links. All good. Unfortunately, too many duplicate title tags on pages in which the content topic hasn’t changed, is redundant and a waste of the bots time. Use tag your pages uniquely and judiciously.

9. Do not keyword stuff. Even though search engines no longer give much weight to keyword tags, keyword stuffing continues. Select 20 to 30 keywords – top-tier and long-tail – and focus on them. Keep keyword density in body text at no more than 3%. The old 5% rule still led to on-site gibberish – obviously these figures vary by competitive landscape.

10. Do not let quality slip – even for a day. Spiders crawl sites with greater frequency and sophistication and index updates are common as changes to a site are implemented. During periods of construction, be sure to keep spiders out of staging areas that have yet to be completed <nofollow> or block with robots. These works-in-progress may cost you points in the ranking sweepstakes.

Google controls 46% of all searches. Doesn’t it make sense to give this search engine exactly what it wants and delete what it doesn’t want?

Rhetorical question.

Does Your Company Practice SEM And SEO?

Mike Banks Valentine — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:37:06 -0400

At the MediaPost Search Insider Summit, I got the opportunity to join a panel on social media and search with Darrin Shamo of Zappos and panel moderator Bob Heyman of MediaSmith (and co-author of the book Digital Engagement). I'm not going to discuss that panel here and will leave that to another post. But an interesting thing came up during my presentation...

The event is pretty heavily weighted toward SEM and I asked what turned out, to those in attendance, to be a bit of a dopey question. I asked "How many here are interested purely in SEM?" then when only a couple of hands were raised, I was encouraged to think it may be more of an SEO crowd, so I asked "How many are interested purely in SEO?" and saw only another sprinkling of raised hands.

So, based on one of my previous experiences at a major company where the team was half SEM and half SEO, and my current position, which is entirely SEO team with no SEM - I assumed a similar situation would be true of most in-house teams at substantially sized companies.

My assumption was apparently skewed. It seems that most do double-duty on in-house teams. When I asked "What's the balance here?" a few people said, (a few with emotion) "Both!"

That surprised me, based on what I knew before asking that question. But now I know that, at least among the crowd attending Search Insider Summit, that the oft joined SEM/SEO label applies to most. Well I suppose that was a gaff then, but...

Later in the day, I overheard a conversation on a shuttle bus which makes me wonder if SEO is being best served by in-house SEM/SEO's. After two strangers from the conference exchanged greetings & pleasantries, the inevitable "What do you do?" came up from one.

The answer, "SEM and I've been tasked with learning SEO for our team." (emphasis mine) Then the response from an ill-informed questioner was short-sighted and probably simplistic thinking from those who THINK they understand SEO - "So you're learning about meta tags and H1's?"

I'd like to argue that the two disciplines should be divided and I'd wager that many SEM's who love what they do will agree. The skill-set is completely different. Both SEM's and SEO's deal with keywords, and target search engine results pages, but that is where the similarity ends.

Having recently worked day-to-day with an SEM team in-house and being separated only by a cubicle wall for 18 months. I recall the SEO team only dealing with the SEM team during our bi-weekly online marketing group meetings.

So if someone who loves SEM is "tasked with learning SEO," (like that overheard conversation I mentioned above) they are not likely to understand or fully invest themselves in truly learning an important aspect of the Search Marketing business. They'll learn a couple of things and not all aspects of the work. They'll continue to do a great job of SEM and start doing a poor job of SEO.

I'll also argue that if that role is reversed and an SEO is "tasked with learning SEM for the team" then they will learn a few things, but not all of the elements of good SEM and not do a complete and thorough job of SEM but will continue to do a good job of SEO.

I recall a couple of job interviews about 5 years ago where in both cases, I was talking with an SEM manager who had convinced their boss that they needed a full-time SEO on staff to handle things they weren't able to continue doing as the company grew. Rather than evenly split SEM and SEO tasks among two staffers, they were dividing the two. That's the smart way to go.

I didn't take either of those jobs, and I'm quite happy about that now. I also walked away from a job that would have required me to significantly sharpen my SEM skills so that I could handle both. I didn't doubt that I could do it, but love SEO and very likely wouldn't have done as well with the SEM piece.

So I'd like to ask the question of those SEM/SEO dual purpose people - are you doing both because you love both or are you doing both because you were "tasked to learn" one of those pieces because your company won't increase the budget enough for a new head on the payroll? Would you rather focus on one or continue doing both?

Comments

Will Twitter Replace Google in Search?

Derek Vaughan — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:08:00 -0400

Has Google's model of spidering and indexing web pages in an ordered list become obsolete? Is the old static model of search about to be replaced? Does a real-time online conversation (a la Twitter) make for a more relevant and compelling search experience? These are the questions that I recently posed to a group of search and Internet experts. To say that these guys know their stuff would be a complete understatement. It's more like these are the professionals that have defined the modern science of search and search marketing. You'll see what I mean when you read the quotes below.

My premise started when I read a UK Techcrunch story about a Google / Twitter mashup. This was in February and there was a major snow event blanketing the UK. But if you were to try to get a satellite image of the snowfall in real time, you couldn't. That's because the cloud cover prevents the satellite from seeing the ground. So this genius named Ben Marsh comes up with the mashup. In brief, the idea was to get the general UK Twitter population to report on the snowfall at their location in the UK. Respondents reported their postcode and then selected a number from 1-10 to rate the snowfall amount. Ben's mashup then graphically displayed the results on a UK Google map. Then it hit me - this Twitter data is yielding superior search results for the amount of snowfall in the UK than any other source. So will this type of real-time data stream become a rival to Google in search?

Daniel Foster is the co-founder of 34SP.com - the website hosting service that kept Ben Marsh's mashup online during peak bandwidth usage during the February snowstorm. I asked Mr. Foster if he thought that Twitter could overtake Google in search, based on his experience with the Ben Marsh mashup site. Mr. Foster replied, "While this use of Twitter was certainly unique at the time and created a superior data set for UK snowfall for that time period, it is still a long way from a true search product. Google clearly has a corporate mission that drives search-related activities. Twitter just asks "What are you doing?". I don't see Twitter search overtaking Google unless the business directives change."

Here is what a few of the other Internet and search experts I contacted had to say in answer to the question: "Will Twitter Replace Google in Search?".

Rand Fishkin is a legend in search marketing. As the founder and CEO of SEOmoz.com, Mr. Fishkin was recently included in Newsweek's list of Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs 2009. His involvement in search marketing began in high school, and he is now generally regarded as one of the world's authorities in search. Mr. Fishkin commented, "No. Twitter is not a search engine and cannot answer the vast majority of queries sent to an engine like Google, Yahoo! or Live. Twitter searches a single stream of user created data in 140 character slices. While searching this database of information can be fascinating and even relevant (particularly for those who are interested in what Twitter users are saying about a particular topic or person), it is not even an attempt to replicate the functionality or application Google provides. Google answers an inherent need that has existed since the web's inception: users must navigate to web sites and pages that contain desired information. Twitter cannot achieve this function and therefore cannot be a replacement for Google in search."

Michael Gray is President of Atlas Web Service, a full service website and Internet marketing company. Michael has worked in website development and marketing for over 10 years, and shares his thoughts regularly on Graywolf's SEO Blog. Mr. Gray opined, "Twitter is never going to replace Google for searches there simply isn't the breadth of information available there. For example say you need to know: "Who was the 3rd Vice President of the United States?". Unless you happen to have a history buff in your stream - very few people are going to know it's Aaron Burr off the top of their heads. It's simple and easier for you and everyone else to type the question into Google and have it spit back the answer. However, if I have a tech related search like: "How do I backup my Firefox profile?" chances are I'll get a few answers from my users. One way that Twitter is better than Google is if I know my followers and trust them. I might not trust Yelp or CitySearch when they tell me what a good seafood restaurant in San Francisco, but if someone who follows me gives me a recomendation, if I know who they are, I'm much more likely to trust their response. The one caveat is the trusted relationship of the person giving the response. 20 people I don't know telling me someplace is good is never going to outweigh the 1 person I really trust telling me it's bad."

Danny Sullivan is often regarded as a true pioneer in search. His seminal 1995 work published as "A Webmaster's Guide To Search Engines" laid the groundwork for his career as an often cited expert in search. Mr. Sullivan he has been quoted in all the major media outlets such as The Wall St. Journal, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, The New Yorker, Newsweek and ABC’s Nightline. Here are Mr. Sullivan's comments, "No, Twitter won't replace Google search because it simply doesn't cover enough of the topics out there. It can be used for question answering, but that's largely limited to the number and quality of your followers. I do think it's an excellent additional search tool, however, http://searchengineland.com/how-we-search-with-twitter-16920 has much more on this."

Andy Beal is an online reputation management consultant, award-winning blogger, and professional speaker. Mr. Beal shares his expertise via his blog at www.andybeal.com, and he is also the founder and editor of Marketing Pilgrim, an award winning news publication that covers internet marketing news and trends. Mr. Beal added, "Twitter's real time data certainly compliments Google's search results, but I don't see it ever replacing it. Twitter's data stream should be looked at in the same way as Google News or Google Blog Search. There's tremendous value in tapping into a fresh, up to the minute content, but people still rely on the structured, ranked data that Google's web index provides."

Neil Patel's email identifies him as a 'professional web surfer'. I know him as an incredibly charismatic, smart and friendly Internet, social marketing and search expert. He has also been named a top 100 blogger by Technorati, and was also one of the top influencers on the web according to the Wall Street Journal. His current company is KISSmetrics, and Mr. Patel shares his insights in his blog - QuickSprout. Mr. Patel offered these thoughts on Twitter overtaking Google in search, "Twitter will not replace Google in search. You can use Twitter to find up to date information, but I doubt you will ever use Twitter to find products to buy or figure out how to fix a technical problem. Just the other day I had to search Google on how to program my router. I don't think I will ever be able to do that on Twitter."

Todd Malicoat is a Marketing Consultant and on the SEO Faculty at MarketMotive.com. Mr. Malicoat is an Internet entrepreneur who has spent "near obsessive amounts of time on Webmasterworld.com, and Threadwatch.org. Here is Mr. Malicoat's response, "I think Twitter definitely has an opportunity to swipe a bit of market share from Google on certain TYPES of terms. Anything very time sensitive, Twitter gives very good results for. I think Google will likely be a suitor, but they likely don't want another youtube over-valuation debacle. Twitter has definitely raised some eyebrows, and what it does do is fill the need for 'guided search' that several companies including trexy.com, mahalo, and even yahoo answers (to an extent), and many others have been trying to do for years. Twitter has done this with a different model of getting the guides first with the critical mass of people, and the organization will come later. Most search results, however, don't NEED a search guide or expert, so for now, Google is perfectly safe, but has the potential to lose out on some niche expert traffic to the new kid on the block."

By way of fairness, I did contact the PR department at Google requesting a comment for this piece. As of the writing of this article, they have not responded.

So there you have it. Practically no one thinks that Twitter will overtake Google in search. At best, in very time sensitive events - perhaps Twitter can be a good companion reference to Google. Of course things can change quickly - and if they do, I'm sure we can all check in with Twitter to learn about them. My thanks to all the experts who participated in this article.

Meaningful Marketing In A Down Economy

Bud Rosenthal — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:25:29 -0400

The nightly news paints a dreary picture. Whether it’s due to a freeze in the credit markets, rising unemployment rates, or just plain nerves, consumers are keeping their wallets closer than ever. At the same time, marketing and advertising budgets are being slashed and executives are demanding measurable, meaningful media from their campaigns. Each marketing dollar must go further. Sales are more valuable than ever. So, what are marketing managers to do to meet such demands?

In these times, effective, quantifiable marketing is critical. Marketing managers must find new ways to reach, engage, and persuade wary consumers to buy their products or services. There is less room for error; big gambles on traditional media buys are too risky in this environment and recent budget cuts put large, TV-network ad buys out of reach for many companies. Combine this with more demand for accountability from each marketing dollar spent and it’s no wonder that ad dollars are moving online where a wealth of metrics show customer engagement levels in real-time. However, affordable pay-per-click marketing and banner ads come with a heavy trade-off, as marketing managers soon realize they lack the emotional branding power of TV advertising.

That’s where online video comes in. The new frontier in the advertising landscape, online video offers the same emotional engagement of TV advertising, without the hefty price tag of a thirty-second spot. Video can explain unique product features, bring a hands-on experience to shopping, and put a human face on the corporate brand far better than static text or images.

Low risk and high reward, online video offers a unique opportunity to engage customers, while retaining the measurability of other online marketing options. And, unlike TV advertising that blankets millions of eyes with the same message, online ads can target highly specific groups of people with very particular needs. After all, the Internet is a micro-media world in which millions of niche audiences make up the greater universe.

Understanding the Internet’s ultra-fragmented reality is vital to effective online video. On the Internet generic ads fall on deaf ears. Gimmicky sales pitches are rejected outright. Instead, online ads must deliver relevant information that engages users who choose to hear what you have to say.

Think about it. With millions of options right at customer’s fingertips, having a good product or service is no longer enough. Video that shares compelling stories and resonates with the audience on an emotional level is what works on the Internet, and what convinces consumers to buy even in this economic climate.

Advertisements that feature real people and their stories are proving to be highly effective - whether it’s a designer detailing the passion that goes in to producing the furniture and lighting products of a renowned brand, a pastry chef showing the care that goes into every tart, or a hotel concierge talking about the local highlights of their city. These narrative, documentary-style videos forgo scripts, actors, and stock footage and instead capture authentic, intimate stories told by the very people behind the business.

In addition to meeting the informational needs of viewers, these ads offer an additional benefit in a down economy. Reducing the reliance on sets, actors, and large production crews, narrative video not only lends a more genuine feel to advertising, but also dramatically cuts the costs associated with traditional production. In fact, high quality narrative ads can be produced at costs as low as $2,000-$5,000 per finished video.

This new affordable production model works for the marketing manager facing shrinking advertising budgets. It also enables companies to create multiple, highly-targeted content pieces that resonate with the many niche audiences found online.

While today’s economy is certainly tough for business, Internet video and affordable production models empower companies to make the most of each marketing dollar – combining the accountability of the Internet with the emotional power of television. Yet unlike traditional media, relevance-driven, not campaign-driven, ads find success on the Web and drive potential customers to action.

Writing For Conversions - Testing New Content

Matt Tuens — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:07:12 -0400

Our exploration of utilizing content to increase conversion rates began with analyzing statistics to uncover opportunities for improvement, followed by how to create and implement good content to compel visitors to take action. The natural next step is testing.

Unless you do some sort of controlled, measurable testing, you will never know what changes in copy, titles, calls to action, color schemes, layouts, etc. increase your conversion the best. Simply put, you should test variations of your content elements in different combinations to see what achieves the highest conversion overall.

It may be helpful to picture the structure of journalism, the formula for writing a news story – “who, what, when, where, how and why.” When you are testing new content elements, defining and controlling for the first four W’s (and the H) just might offer you the answer to the last one – “why” your changes get the results they do.

The elements of change

Before we look at the elements individually, you should get a feel for the number of variables involved in this undertaking. First of all, of course, there is the copy itself. You will need to consider not just the individual words in the copy, but its tone, purpose, goal, and of course audience.

If you are a good writer, you can do the writing yourself. If you are not, then get a professional to assist you. Even if you feel you can do it yourself it may profit you more to hire someone else to do it. Not many business owners or employees have an extra 1-2 hours in their day, nevermind 4-6 hours, to write the content needed to succeed. Plus there are large opportunity costs – time spent writing is time stolen from focusing on core business objectives.

There are lot more elements to test than just the copy and more kinds of “copy” (words) than just the main sales message. Besides the main copy you will have title tags, article titles, headlines, subheads, calls to action, etc. Besides the sales message there is informational content to help visitors educate themselves to their decision. A change to any one of these is a separate test.

What you’re testing

Making copy variations might include changing the wording to create more engaging phrasing or language, changing the format from short description to comprehensive information, or changing the tone from hard to soft sell or from technical to layman terms, etc. It depends on your situation and industry. Headline and subhead variations may involve wording, placement, font, even color. With the calls to action, you may be rewriting, or repositioning, tweaking aesthetics, or all the above. If you cannot define what you are testing, you simply cannot test. Determine which elements are relevant to your situation and goals.

After you have defined your points, there is one crucial point to always, always keep in mind: only change and test one thing at a time. If you change more than one thing it is impossible to know which change actually impacted the results.

How now?

You should decide up front whether you are doing open- or closed-end testing, that is, testing that is always ongoing versus testing done for a certain period of time. Although, generally speaking, you always want to be testing and improving, it doesn’t have to be one, long, unending one. You may get better results doing a sequence of short-term tests.

Before you change or test anything you need to establish a control and a baseline. Put together what you feel is a solid page to be your control, then gather statistics on it for a period of time to get a baseline number from which you can judge your progress.

The number of elements and their variations you are testing will help decide which what testing method you use. Let’s take a look at two testing approaches: A/B testing and multivariate testing.

In A/B testing you compare alternate versions of an element against each other to see which one is more effective. If A/B’ing one element you can see which version works best and move forward. If A/B’ing only a few elements with limited variations, combining and testing them against one another is pretty straightforward (e.g. two elements, each having three variations, gives you six possible combinations). If you are testing multiple elements that each have multiple variations, you are going to have a huge number of combinations, so you will have to be very methodical about making one change at a time and tracking the results.

A/B testing is good because you can typically do it in-house with resources you have on hand, and it doesn’t require complicated data analysis, so ease and low expense put it within the reach of most companies. However, testing multiple elements requires diligence and significant time expenditure.

Another way to test multiple elements is multivariate testing. Multivariate testing involves blending multiple variations of multiple elements in various combinations, then collecting and analyzing the data to see which combinations work best. Different elements impact conversions in different ways, so multivariate testing helps you see both which specific elements impact conversions the most and which combinations produce the highest conversion rates overall.

Multivariate testing requires more technical savvy, planning, and upfront work, but can save you time and cover more ground by testing more items in a given testing period. It also gives you a very scientific approach to your conversion improvement and establishes a system for open-ended testing. On the downside, it focuses on one page at a time and doesn’t take into account the pages before or after your test page that may significantly affect conversion rates.

The “who” matters, too

You probably have at least a few demographics, and each demographic contains various subdemographics. Certainly you can test with your visitor population as a whole, but it may benefit you even more to target specific people with specific recipes to see what works best with each particular audience. You can do this using identifying markers, such as IP addresses, referring URLs, unique IDs, etc., or behavioral characteristics, such as frequency of visits, pages viewed, time between return visits, previous purchases, and so forth.

Some visitors you really want to pay attention to are the search engine spiders. When you are doing A/B split testing or multivariate testing you don’t want the search engines to see a different page each time they come by. Be sure your system can identify the different spiders and show them the same consistent page. After you have finalized your changes, remember to channel them to the new page.

The “when” of it

You could do an A/B test of your body copy, with Copy A for a month and Copy B for a month, and accrue and analyze those figures. Or you could set up A/B split testing, whereby Copy A and B are called up on successive page landings. Split testing is efficient because you can run the test in half the time and you lessen the impact of seasonality in the comparison. Whether doing A/B or multivariate testing, you want to make sure you allow enough time to gather sufficient data to draw useful conclusions.

Timing is also important in establishing controls for your testing, particularly when making a succession of changes in A/B testing. Put the best, most creative effort first, which often (but not always) means the new body copy. As you monitor performance over a set amount of time and proceed from change to change, having a regular timing schedule will put you in a better position to tell what change had what effect.

Also, be mindful of any seasonality when it comes to your industry. For example, if you sell flowers, data spikes around Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day will naturally skew your results, so you have adjust for them or avoid those times. On the other hand, if your business can allow for it, you may want to target those days for specialized testing precisely because the high volumes and focused environment give you excellent data.

The “where” factor

It is not just the makeup of your elements that effects conversion rates, but also their position the page. Where is the copy most effective on the page? Do you place your lead form or products above the copy, below it, in the middle, or somewhere along one of the sides? It all depends on your industry, your situation, your audience, and what you want visitors to do. You have to try different formats and layouts to see what works best.

The “where” factor may affect the call to action more than any other element. Whether it is a button to click, a product to buy, a lead form to fill out, or something else, the placement of the call to action and how many times it appears on the page can impact conversion rates tremendously.

Don’t be shy about putting it in several places on the page. The call to action has both incentive and convenience aspects. You want it to be compelling enough to entice people to take action just by viewing it. But you also want it in several places so that no matter where the visitor is on the page they can take action if your copy compels them to do so.

Another “where” is where the test page exists on your site. The pages that visitors saw before they got to the test page will impact your conversion. If the pages pointing to your testing page have misleading messages, no amount of changes on your test page will give you a clear picture, fix your problem, or give you the optimal conversion rates you want.

Summing up

The wildcard in all this is that your visitors are becoming more sophisticated every day, that is, they are constantly changing. You are working with a moving target. In addition to all the other business reasons, this in itself is reason enough to be continuously testing and improving.

There is an art and science to all testing: an art in composing creatives and changes, a science in analyzing the data, and both in making the adjustments. The fact remains that you are dealing with humans and human emotion – how people perceive your pages (and thus your site) and whether they are compelled to follow your call to action. What visitors do may be tracked statistically, but why they are doing it is based on very human factors.

Despite the qualified, quantified results you will get from testing, never overlook your own instincts and insights. Don’t go horoscope on it; just remember that your mind works in more ways than you know. While you are testing, test your own hunches about copy, placement of page elements, title tags, or calls to action. When you consider results, you must also allow yourself the freedom to make unexpected connections among data points, as well as the leeway to challenge preconceived notions about what the results “might have” or “should have” been.

Gather and analyze the hard numbers and facts, but also include the art and psychological side, because it is emotion that drives people to take action (and thus convert). Remember, we are dealing with human beings, not robots, and people are nothing if not unpredictable, fickle, and confounding. Control your tests as closely as you can, identify and define your elements, run clean and clear tests, review the results, analyze the data, but also use your insight and intuition to figure out how to trip those emotional switches in people. Don’t use statistics only to force human emotional response into tidy rows, neat columns and pre-defined boxes. One of the advantages of “thinking outside the box” is that you won’t paint yourself into any corners.

How To Create Good Copywriting For Conversions: Creating the Copy

Matt Tuens — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:46:02 -0400

In Part 1 of our series on Creating Good Copywriting For Conversions, we covered using stats and analytics to research and guide your efforts. In Part 2 we break down steps you can follow to help you develop a personal procedure to create effective copywriting.

You have gone to a lot of trouble to get the right kind of people to your website. You now face the task of informing and persuading them well enough to turn them from a temporary visitor into a customer. Creating the content to do so may take a few minutes or it may take much longer, and you need to cast as wide a net as possible without overreaching. Your goal: Convey a message, primarily with words but not exclusively, that will turn both impulse buyers and discerning shoppers into new (and loyal) customers.

There are copy and conversion experts all over the virtual (and real) landscape, and plenty of good opinions and ideas. Still, the best lessons are from the real world, from approaches that have worked and are working today, rather than a PowerPoint slide or a white paper. You need to accomplish – without the benefit of body language, eye contact or other in-person persuasive techniques – the same thing that a good salesperson accomplishes in a store or any other person-to-person encounter: give the visitor the useful and helpful information they want to help turn them into a buyer.

Persuade and motivate

Think of yourself as a salesman writing copy, not a copywriter making sales. For your website content you have a very simple objective. You want to persuade and motivate. Persuade the readers that your product or service uniquely, distinctively fulfills their practical needs and emotional desires, and motivate them to take the action you want. Naturally there are various approaches, from informational to "hard sell,” but the goal remains the same. Persuade and motivate.

Before you start to write, go through a thorough preparatory regimen. You need to get in the right frame of mind, first of all, and then you must "arm yourself" with the right tools. Besides setting yourself up for efficient copywriting – with your dictionary and thesaurus and perhaps a strong cup of coffee – you need to wrap your head around the project with some strategic thinking.

Before you write

You just can't sit down, cold, and dash off the first clever things that come to your mind. That can work for slogan writing or comedy sketches, but your task is a serious, targeted one. You have to do your research first, defining the product in straightforward terms and finding a way to communicate both features and benefits to potential buyers in a quick, clean fashion. If you don't know the product or service well, don't even think of writing yet. Talk to users if you need to. Evaluate the item as a consumer would. Put yourself in their shoes.

You also need to position the product, both broadly and narrowly, in relation to similar ones. Compare features and benefits and note what makes your product a better one than its competitors. This will help you to define your particular target market (or markets). The strategic thinking you do in your positioning and target market planning will help you tailor your copy to the real-world taste and style of the readers. Are they students, software engineers, or 60+ year-old seniors? Stay-at-home moms, penny-pinching business owners, fashion-conscious young women? Think in terms of your demographics and their specific needs.

Preparing to write

Going through the preceding steps should have resulted in your developing a marketing strategy. Based on your knowledge of the target demographics, you should be able to determine whether to use an informational approach, try "assumptive close" methods, go the hard-sell route, or combine a few different techniques into a customized "hybrid." Of course, you can also use a sequence of different approaches, although that takes a little finesse.

It can be somewhat difficult to reach a decision on the precise length of the copy. Don’t write more words than you need to add “heft” – people don’t have time to waste and fluff makes you look bad – but if you need 500 words to sell the product or service, write 500. But less is more – use as few words as necessary to get your point across. Vigorous writing is concise. Conveying points efficiently displays intelligence and mastery of the subject or industry, increasing trust and faith that you are the best choice.

From the very start, remember that you have to reach people not just in their heads but their hearts, too, and even their souls if it makes sense to do so. Every action/purchase is emotional on some level. You need to connect with the readers and make it both safe and necessary for them to become buyers.

Writing the copy

Don't forget the overarching goal – persuade and motivate. You are not writing an op-ed for the paper or an essay for a class. Use your most natural, unaffected voice, and don't use "two-dollar" words just to impress rather than communicate. Do not write in the passive voice, either. Stay active, use action words, and maintain a good pace without bogging down in detail or detours.

Do not embellish, make false claims, or invent facts or figures. Always be truthful while emphasizing your strong selling points. Stay with demonstrable facts, and be specific with them, too. For instance, don't say your auto air filters work with "most American cars," tell the reader they work with " GM, Ford and Chrysler products."

Keep going forward

When you are organized and prepared to write, things should flow well, and only in one direction, forward. Every paragraph should proceed logically from the first sentence to the appropriate conclusion. Don’t clumsily refer back to a preceding paragraph when repeating a point, just simply repeat the statement if it's important enough to bring up again. Go forward, and take the reader with you.

In fact, you should not be hesitant to repeat yourself. This is one of the easiest, most direct ways to get the reader to remember what you want them to remember. Don't be afraid to do this when it seems the right thing to do. One good technique is to take the good, repeatable selling point and couch it in different ways to reach people in their minds as well as their emotions. In other words, repeat the point but approach the reader from different angles with it. The emotional connection is key. Never forget that.

Clarity and depth

Stylistically, you will want to avoid long sentences and complicated structures. You don't need semi-colons, double dashes and parenthetical phrases. Nice, direct, declaratory sentences punctuated with commas and periods will do nicely. Be yourself, too. If you are not funny, don't try using humor. Your goal is to persuade and motivate, not get people to laugh or like you. Plus, you may come off as disingenuous.

The "depth" of your message means many things, and not just editorial. The page design itself can be key in your copy challenge, so always be prepared to do a new design to accompany new writing. Don’t let your design be a hurdle to getting your message across. The pages in your site are there to grab the reader and not let go, so use all the graphic and editorial techniques available to do that. You can draw in the reader with graphic shapes pointing them where you want them to go just as easily as you can use well-traveled attention-grabbing terms like "Free" or "Stop".

From interest to action

Whatever methods you use, you want to move your reader along. You have their attention, so deliver on the promise. Don't get ahead of yourself and dive in to YOUR product or YOUR business or YOUR autobiography. It's not you that most people are interested in. It's how you can help their own current interest, which usually revolves around themselves.

Now comes the next step, which means motivating the readers to take whatever action you desire. Give them the facts, describe the features and then concentrate on the personal benefits, both practical and emotional. The readers are actually looking for, and hoping to find, reasons to buy the product or service you offer. If the product is going to save them some money, say so, and be specific about how it will do so. If it will save them time, say that. Saving money and time are not just practical but also emotional needs. If your products will make people feel a certain way, appear a certain way or be appreciated by others, feed into that emotional desire and run down those particular benefits. And do it all in regular, person-to-person vocabulary, without sales-y terms like "mega" or "super" or "incredible."

The call to action

You are ideally leading a reader on a short, sweet, helpful journey. You have to tell them what you expect them to do when they reach the destination, whether it's a form or a link or a "Buy" button. Even if the goal is to have them sign up for your newsletter that still requires the same "persuade and motivate" copy that any other sale does. Whatever you do, make the call to action a prominent one (even use multiple calls to action so visitors can take action from several places). Never put obstacles in the way of visitors who want to become buyers. Don't distract them, and don’t make them have to search for what to do.

When you think you're finished writing, you're not. You have simply finished that phase. You have revisions to make now and editing to do. Carve the message down to its basics and get rid of fluff. Then do it again. When you finish a few rounds of rewriting and refining, read the copy out loud and listen to how it flows. Make sure your voice and your tone are consistent throughout the copy, especially if you have a large site and/or you are writing copy over a period of days or weeks. Review your work one last time before you post it, and ensure that it is reaching both the readers' minds and emotions with the message you want them to own. The whole idea is to lead them along and have them think that they are, in fact, discovering you, not the other way around.

How To Create Good Copywriting For Conversions

Matt Tuens — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:58:09 -0400

In the next three articles in our series on Using Copywriting for Better SEO and Marketing we will look at how content increases conversions. Each article will focus on a different aspect of improving conversion: stats, content creation, and testing new content. This first article covers the basics of stats and analytics.

SEO has a crucial role in the success of your Internet venture, but SEO by itself is not the "be all and end all" or only factor in that success (– gasp – the SEO said what??). SEO is an absolute must, but increased rankings and drawing more visitors is only the beginning…

…Now that you have people where you want them, how do you get them to do what you want them to do? How do maximize conversions, turning more visitors into actions?

The plain truth is that it is not any one thing. What you really want to understand and analyze is how well all the various page factors work together to create conversions. Once you see how all the factors work independently and interdependently, you will better see how (and what) tweaks of each can increase your success.

There are the variables you can measure more easily: numbers of visitors, where they come from, where they go, how many pages they view, how long they view each page, etc. But then there are the ones that can remain inscrutable and hard to quantify: the architecture and design of your site and pages, the value of your graphics – and the things about your copywriting that convince people to click through and buy.

When considering how to increase sales from your traffic, you are generally thinking in terms of conversion optimization. To increase conversions you must have a clear understanding of what your site visitors are actually doing – this you can get from statistics. But you also need to see your site from their perspective – this will tell you what those stats are reflecting. Only after you view your site through the eyes of a visitor can you fully assess what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. Then you will have a clearer picture of how to increase those conversions.

What to look for

Your stats are going to be different than anyone else’s, just like the various challenges you face. As you get deeper into your stats and analysis you will discover that certain aspects are more important than others for your specific situation. However, there are some common factors that must be considered by every site owner/operator. A few of those universally applicable measurements that just about everyone should be looking at are:

Keywords: You may know how your site ranks, but to discover what that really means and use it to your continuing advantage you need to dig a bit deeper. Good, easy to digest keyword stats can tell you just how much traffic specific keyword rankings are actually producing. This will both tell you what keywords are the most valuable and expose opportunities for improvement.

Visitors: Naturally you need to know the number of unique (and repeat) visitors you get over a certain period of time, and of course you want to increase it. Unique visitors by itself will not directly assist you to increase conversions, but it is valuable in showing how your rankings and inbound links affect the amount and nature of your traffic. Repeat visitor statistics on the other hand can help increase conversions. For one, return visitors may be returning to buy from you, so their actions and how you are converting them are to be greatly analyzed. Secondly, sites with better content naturally engender a greater visitor return rate due to visitors returning for more good information. People usually don’t just do a search and buy from the first site they land on, they typically visit a number of sites. When they are ready to buy, they often return to the site that gave them the most helpful information. Use your content to turn them into buyers when they come back.

Referrers: Where your traffic comes from is also key. How much traffic is coming from the search engines vs. inbound links vs. ads? Which search engines are sending you the most? These kinds of figures have been called "word of mouse" referrals. Which sources convert the best for you?

Exit Pages: Few statistics are as crucial as this, particularly as you work to increase conversions through the understanding, and potential manipulation of, visitor behavior. When you pin down the pages from which your visitors depart your site, you can then address one of the most serious failings of your site, its architecture, its design – and the copy. Analyze deeply and objectively – why are they leaving from this page??

You are not amassing piles of data just to have it on file. You need to assemble what you are learning in a way that you can then use to improve the copywriting for increased conversions. Don't forget the aim of the whole exercise, and try to keep the information clear, straightforward and, therefore, usable. It's all about making each site component the most effective it can be, and copy is among the most important ones.

Using the data you get

The stats and analytics you are developing (on a continuing basis) need to be mined in different ways to discover different things. Remember that the task before you right now is to create content that will aid in conversions. All the analyses of keywords, traffic, visitor paths, exit pages and so forth should find its way into your new, improved way of creating compelling copy.

You certainly need to check your stats regularly, though you don't need to study them daily. A weekly review, at minimum, will be necessary to keep you abreast of what's going on and fluctuations of where traffic is coming from, where it's going, and whether or not your visitors are doing what you want them to do (answering the call to action).

One of the simplest way use stats to craft better copy for increasing conversions is comparing sites that do both well and poorly in your own industry. While you won’t have access to their nitty-gritty details, it is not difficult to find out the general view of their stats and who is succeeding with conversions, so comparing various approaches can give you some good direction.

There are so many variables, so much to do and keep track of, that you can easily get lost in a maze of numbers and percentages. Remember, you are working on copywriting now, so the first quality you want to study in a successful conversion setting is which copywriting approaches are working and which are not. Tone, style, presentation format, vocabulary level, and interaction with calls to action – these are all highly important variables, and require you actually to go and see sites to discern them. The other data, thankfully, can be accrued using various tools, even free ones.

Tools of the trade

Webalizer & AWstats: Your web hosting provider most likely offers some kind of free stats/analytics program, perhaps Webalizer, AWstats or something similar. Although these statistics programs are somewhat elementary and lack the in-depth information-gathering capabilities of others, they are simple and do not require special training to use. It is either difficult or impossible to customize the information you get and how you see it, but if you are new to stats (the online kind or any other) then these are a good start. The better you get, the better tools you can begin using.

Google Analytics: Called by some "the upgraded Urchin," this program gives you the information collected by Google in a simple, easy-to-read format. As opposed to some other no- and low-cost tools, Google Analytics can customize the data presentation and allows you to establish "targets" to track precisely who is landing on which specific pages. One possible downside, at least at the beginning of your optimization efforts, is that all of your own information is now displayed to Google. It may be wise to get your site "in gear" and moving up the rankings before you decide to share your own stats with the Google universe.

ClickTracks: This is the favorite of a number of analytics people because of the virtually limitless number of ways you can customize it. With its heavyweight features, such as the ability to calculate ROI and generate user-defined reports, it is a solid and valuable tool. Although it is not free, it is priced appropriately for the amount of power it affords. It would be well worth it for anyone to take a test drive with the free, trial version.

You may have to fight the urge to keep digging, keep mining, and keep generating more and more stats and reports. It can get addicting, and if you’re not careful can lead down the path toward white lab coats and mad scientist-ism. You have to balance the information gathering and analysis with taking remedial steps with the copywriting that is of core importance to your site's business. Resist the temptation to overanalyze, and stay focused on the task at hand. One thing no tool or program can do for you is to create an efficient timeline for doing the work and recasting your site's copy to increase conversions. You have to figure that out for yourself. Just remember, these are changes that you want to implement as soon as you can, not study to death.

Conclusion (and a new beginning)

This is the conclusion to this article only, not the conclusion to the process in which you will be continuously engaged for the duration of your site's life. Here we may have covered all of 1 or 2% of what could be said about using statistical information to refine and empower your website copy so that it leads to more sales. Again, there are various components of your site that will participate in this effort – architecture, layout, graphics, etc. – but you want to make your copy do its job by compelling your site visitors to take the actions you want them to take.

Statistics are one essential tool, among many, to understanding how your site functions and how to make the most of that knowledge. Stats are, without question, key to maximizing your ROI from your website, and thus need to be reviewed on a continuing basis. There is a lot of help available in online articles, user forums, and the support documents that accompany the stats programs that you are (or will be) using. Still, if you run out of time or patience, or feel that you are in over your head, there are plenty of professionals, reputable and cost-effective, to help you create good copywriting to increase your conversions from on the stats you assemble about your site.

Next Week

Next week we'll be releasing Part Four of the series: Writing For Conversions, Part 2 – Content Creation.

How To Write For Search Engines

Matt Tuens — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:41:25 -0500

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) writing, as a distinct style, was born in the Internet era and has matured before our very eyes in a relatively short span of time. Although it is evolving and maturing still, and will continuously do so, we can define some of the tried and tested steps of content optimization to help unique pages place at or near the top of search engine rankings.

Some experts go on to say that the goal of SEO is two-fold, with the first objective to put out the appropriate "bait" for search engine spiders and the second to serve up useful information to people who want and need it. Debates about priorities continue among SEO professionals, but it is never a good idea to devalue the human factors in any success formula. The singular goal, then, would be to develop, position and refine content in such a way as to satisfy all visitors to the page and/or site, both human and bot alike.

Rethinking search engine content terms

"Content is king," goes the old saying – and not only is good content king, it is becoming more important with every passing day. But the term content is best taken in its broadest sense. Content is not simply the written copy placed in a document, assembled on a page, or aggregated at a site. It includes all this, of course, but content actually comprises titles, headings, tags, intra-site links and external links, as well.

All of these components need to work together and form an interconnected whole so that both search engines and humans find the right things, come to the right conclusions and, most importantly, make the right decisions. Good writing is always targeted to the audience, and you are writing for an audience of two readers, human and software. Remember these two components of the audience and find creative ways to reach both of them at the same time.

First things first

Titles are critically important – they are usually the first thing read by both real and virtual visitors. A title is the "primary topical identifier" and, as such, has an invaluable function – again, a dual-purpose one. It must contain keyword targets at the individual word level while stoking interest in potential readers at the phrase level.

When a person performs a search, the title is both their first indication of your relevance to their needs and your first opportunity to compel them to click through. Search engines, more clinical and objective, give the title importance because they see it as an indicator of the page’s main idea.

Yet many pages on the Internet have no title at all, or share "Home" and "Untitled" with several million others. There is no excuse for this oversight. The ignorant cousin of these mistakes, making the company name by itself the title of every page, is just as bad. Keywords relevant to the page should be part of every page's title.

Heading tags carry some importance too. Simply put, heading tags define the headings and subheadings of your article to both readers and spiders. By default they appear larger than normal text and are bolded. While not a magic ranking bullet, they are looked at with more importance than average text and are an opportunity to show spiders the themes of your content and what keywords you wish to rank for.

The H1 tag is the main heading of your article and carries the most importance, like a headline in a newspaper article. It should clearly convey the article’s topic to the reader and main keywords to the search engines. H2 tags are one level down in importance and structure. Use them to define subtopics under your main topic, and again use keywords where descriptive and useful. If you needed to break down your article to sub-sub-headings, you would use the H3 tags, and so forth.

For both human and robotic readers, it is vital to keep page content focused. The "one topic per page" rule is an unwritten one, certainly, and it's followed by most professional content developers. This has less to do with the intelligence of the readers (either kind) than it does with several other considerations. For one thing, search engine "crawlers" have algorithms that tend to work best on one concept at a time, and most humans work best this way, too.

In addition, limiting the focus eases the task of placing keywords in the meta descriptions, page title, body copy, tags and links. Finally, dealing with more than one topic necessarily means using more verbiage, which dilutes the potency of a site-wide SEO program and may negatively impact ranking. Better to give these other topics their own content, strengthening your site’s overall informational authority.

SEO copywriting balance

Much ink has been spilled and many pixels propagated in discussing SEO techniques, analyzing strategies, teaching "web content" writing, and chasing changing algorithms. Mentioned less but encompassing everything is that SEO copywriting, like all SEO, is about balance.

While articles such as this one can be helpful, it is important to understand that SEO will always evolve, change, adapt and improve. Study and implement tested techniques, but remain flexible and nimble. Writing for search engines and people at the same time is tricky and challenging at best, and can be frustrating and time-consuming, too. Approach the challenges in a businesslike fashion.

SEO content writing at its best balances art with science, blending the craft of engaging the reader with the dispassionate analysis of keywords on a page. Follow best practices, but fill each article to the brim with information useful to your demographic.

In simultaneously targeting a subject, an audience, and an algorithm, a great deal of creativity must take place to get effective SEO results. And, of course, it all has to happen in an environment that encourages short attention spans and constantly tries to lure people elsewhere. It is a major challenge to craft article titles and copy so compelling as to make people stop and read – or, better yet, stop and then click where you want them to.

Basics, opportunities, and consistency

The basic approach to writing for such a dynamic, ever-changing environment is to get to the point quickly. The "USA Today" news style – which relies on short headlines, descriptive sub-headlines and a few concise paragraphs – is perhaps the best analogy for good SEO writing. The important points (keywords) should appear early and often, and within a short period of time the human readers should know what they are supposed to do, while the search engines should be able to tell what the page is about from a consistency between your page structure and your body copy.

In the eyes of the search engines, everything that it can possibly see counts. That is, using image alt-text not only helps blind readers and people using phone- or text-based browsers, it also gives you another opportunity to add more descriptive strength to the overall page for the search engines. Do not miss any opportunity to further empower and refine your content.

And always remember when writing for search engines – keep writing. Write write write. Search engine bots gorge on new information, and if you consistently update your site with fresh content they will come around more often. While this gives you more opportunities to display your value, more importantly it builds the foundation of information that obviates it.

There's a lot to do, and it all needs to be done well. Use your numbers, metrics and analytics to point you in the right direction for creating more content. That’s some science. Your creativity and amount of useful information, on the other hand, will point site visitors and search engines in the right direction. That’s a touch of art. When both aspects of your SEO program are firing on all cylinders, you should soon be marching up the search engine rankings.

Next Week

Next week we'll be releasing Part Three of the series – Writing For Conversions.

Future Proof Your SEO

David Harry — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:23:00 -0500

When you’re working on your optimization programs, are you thinking ahead? Do you watch industry trends to see what may be on the horizon? If not, then it’s time you did. Business planning is all about not only today, but tomorrow as well. Search engine optimization programs are no different – they need to be future-proofed.

Future proofing your SEO means that you operate with one eye on where the industry is going as to ensure your efforts hold up over time. This is a wise move not only from stability reasoning but from a financial one as well. That is to say, there is a cost consideration when we have to go back and adapt entire websites with new tactics that we really should have seen coming. Your SEO efforts should always stand the test of time.

Two main types of future-proof SEO approaches;

The safety element - this means we use tactics that we’re fairly certain will work tomorrow and tread lightly on the ones that aren’t. One thing is certain in SEO is that there are fine lines that we cross from what is an acceptable practice, to those we know could get us in hot water. What is border-line today is often against the TOS tomorrow.

This means that tactics you’re employing now might actually harm a website in the near future. Stay well away from the edge my friends… it’s a long we down.

Some common areas include;

Widget links – we’ve seen an increasing disdain for these and it’s only a matter of time before they are devalued to a point where the exercise has a low ROI on resources invested.

Tag stuffing – if you’re stuffing image tags, video or even meta-tags… stop it. It really isn’t worth doing and search engines (much like the KW tag) are likely to continue to de-value the weight given these. It will be a waste of time ultimately (IMHO of course).

Sponsored Templates – another link building tactic that, like widgets, is likely to go the way of the Dodo as search engines crack down on link spam.

Keyword density (stuffing) – if you’re still doing this, it might be time to give it a rest. Search engine understand people search in 2-3 word phrases. They also understand page themes and concepts are better than linear KW approaches.

Site-wide links – as search engines get better at page segmentation, links in the footer, header and even side panel positions are likely to be devalued further

Reciprocal links – while these are still acceptable within reason, the ultimate value given these signals is likely to continue to deteriorate. I wouldn’t actively pursue these, at least in the traditional sense (think content promotion instead).
Java-script spamming – if you’re using JS to circumvent spam detection, your days are numbered. Search engines are (finally) processing java-script these days.. you have been warned.

… and so forth, you get the idea.

The predictive element – this means having a keen understanding of the search industry and capitalizing on trends before they happen. This means you use your keen sense fortune-telling to try and establish where search engines are going and make sure your optimization programs are positioned for best effect.

Some current areas of interest at the moment are;

Personalization – we all know that personalization is going to increase in importance which means you need to understand how it works, who’s doing what and how much it affects search rankings.

Page segmentation – search engine are getting better at page segmentation which means new implications for content creation/organization and link building as well.
Phrase relations and semantics – understanding how to develop strong themes for pages (onsite and offsite) will be more and more important in SEO moving forward.

Behavioural – (implicit and explicit) – from explicit signals such as voting buttons and favourites to implicit signals such as behavioural, geographic and demographic targeting will also increase in importance and should be understood.
Geo-targeting – from personalized search to universal and mobile, geo-targeting is going to be a must for the SEOs of the future.

Universal (vertical) search – having content creation programs that best utilize the various types of vertical search (images, video, blog search etc..) is another area that you should be considering today – it’s only going to become more ubiquitous in the years ahead.

Google Suggest – search engines are getting more and more inclined to various recommendations engine elements. A strong understanding of how this works is something every search optimizer should have.

Common hacking points – an important area of SEO these days is ensuring you don’t get hacked and have nasty links added to your site. In the future, security audits will be an integral part of SEO. Start working with the developers to ensure there is a plan in place.

Once more, it requires that we’re paying attention to what’s going on out there. It doesn’t mean heavily modifying your tactics as much as thinking ahead as to how each will hold up. Planning for a strong ROI on your activities doesn’t end at the end of each month… there is long term ROI to be considered as well. Money invested in borderline tactics could mean a total loss in a a year from now on that investment – or at east a devaluation.

Become a fortune teller

We all know that Gypsies know all about fortune telling so we’d be the place to start. How does one go about future proofing their SEO? Ultimately it will take a more intrinsic sense of where things are headed and we can put ourselves in this mindset by;

Staying on top industry news
Follow closely statements from the major engines
Patents from the big 3 (at very least)
Test things so that you understand signal weights (and changes)
Stay abreast of the latest research papers from the IR community

Truly, the main point here is that you should always be thinking about strategies that will stand the test of time. This will ultimately save resources (time and money) that could be expended cleaning up problems or wasted on now ineffective link building.The next time you stumble on a new ‘trick’ and think, “I can’t believe this actually works” it would be wise to consider the future.
At very least it may be nullified, at worse penalized.

Playing it safe may not be sexy, but we’re here for the long term. Viability and ROI on search optimization efforts requires forward thinking… will you be ready?

/end

Comments

SEO Copywriting: How To Write For Publication

Matt Tuens — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:13:41 -0500

Many metaphors have been offered up to describe or explain the Internet, but calling it "an ocean of words" is as accurate as any other. In 1998 the first Google index counted 26 million pages, by 2000 it had reached the billion mark and by 2002 it had more than tripled again to over 3 billion. In July 2008 the company's Web Search Infrastructure Team announced that it had counted 1 trillion unique URLs on the web at once. At an average 1000 words per page, that means the web contains an astonishing 1 quadrillion words. That's 15 zero's.

Obviously, writing for publication on the Internet and standing out from all the rest of the verbiage presents a seemingly insurmountable challenge. Yet web professionals know from the ever-improving metrics and analytics that certain articles and specific kinds of writing do, in fact, perform better at their assigned tasks.

And make no mistake – writing for publication means setting (and hitting) targets, not crafting a follow-up to The Great Gatsby or concocting clever rhymes. In fact, fiction and poetry together account for only some 15% of web writing, which means the overwhelming majority of articles in cyberspace are non-fiction, imparting knowledge to educate the world.

Intentions and aims of writing for publication

There are many reasons to write for publication, and the reader can be served well no matter what your motivations. You may want to "get your name out there," or that of your company, for increased exposure. You may wish to establish yourself or your firm as the leading expert in a certain field.

You can easily load up your own domains with scores of great articles, injecting them with the authority of your knowledge of your vertical. The positive side of this is the creation and positioning of your own site as the informational go-to resource for your industry. The risk is that since you are writing for your own site, no matter how good the information is people may wonder if it is self serving, and you could be perceived as essentially "blowing your own horn."

Another good option is placing an article on a popular blog, or in an e-zine that has attained a certain level of respect within a certain industry, or even in a popular print magazine. This third-party publishing can dramatically boost your perceived authority. You want to avoid appearing as a self-promoting windbag, and one way to do that is to have other sites and publications promote you instead.

Conversely, you will want to avoid certain venues, as well, to safeguard your reputation. Investigate the various "post your article" sites and avoid the ones that do not have excellent content up front, as people will generally not waste much time looking for something good on a mediocre site. For "good" content they will likely gravitate to sites they see as having "good" information.

How to stand out from the crowd of content

The overarching goal for writing web content is to be informative, entertaining, task-oriented, clear – and above all, useful to the demographic. Rankings in the search engines are a by-product of good, focused content, and should not be the goal. Frankly, it is entirely possible to serve a niche audience, and do it quite effectively with a high level of satisfaction, without setting any ranking records. But typically when you write an authoritative article full of information useful to your demographic, people will naturally cite it as good and link to it, thus helping your article move up the natural listings. Consistently write helpful, informative articles, and the effects of these citations will not just add up, they will multiply. But, again, this happens if your focus and goal is to reach and affect a target group, small or large, with well-written, concise and usable information.

Most people think of fiction when they hear the term "creative writing," but writers know very well that writing for publication on non-fiction topics requires tremendous creativity. You do not simply "do research" in preparation for writing an article. Rather, you immerse yourself in the subject, study it from all possible angles, take it apart to understand how it truly works, then put it back together again and explain it to others in your own, unique way. The first step (of many) in learning to write content that reads well is "owning the topic" – knowing the subject inside and out. There is no other way to write with authority than to have, in fact, that authority.

Reaching the reader

Just as important as knowing the subject matter is knowing your audience. Not only do you have to understand the target reader's point of view, of course, but you also need to speak in a common vocabulary. Equally as important as the content is the tone in which it is presented. A motivated reader, eager to learn, does not respond particularly well to condescension, and certainly does not want to be "talked at" or scolded.

In addition to speaking in their vocabulary, you have to choose the words that will motivate them to the goal of the article. Want them to walk away with knowledge that will help them? Choose language that will intrigue them to read more, and word your concepts so their brains soak them up like a sponge. Want them to buy something? Choose words and language that will elicit the emotional buying response. If you want to accomplish your goal, you not only have to use language they will understand, you also have to use language they will connect to.

In a sense, the reader should feel that you are working with them, approaching the material together. This is one of the most powerful ways to get the reader "invested" in the article and lead them, without seeming to, toward any possible call to action you might have at the conclusion.

You will find that you need to write various articles for various purposes, and although you may develop an identifiable style, on a practical level your writing will be meant to accomplish different things at different times. If you are writing to entertain, then keep it light and fun, and don't lecture. If you are writing to educate, don't bother with a "Sunday magazine feature" story introduction, but get right to the lessons. However, whether it's for fun or for some other goal, being informative is not a side effect or a bonus – it is the very foundation of your writing.

The ultimate aims of publishing your writing

With the information you impart, you are seeking to change what readers think or how they perceive something. For the reader, it should be a journey, a process of discovery that proceeds deliberately and convincingly. Columbus did not make any side trips on the way to the New World, and you must avoid the temptation to digress, embellish or confuse matters. Do not pile on words, especially of the "10¢ variety," in an attempt to impress (or increase arbitrary word count). Persuasive writing is lean without being mean, vigorous without being aggressive, concise without being dry and informative without being a mere list of factoids.

Yes, there is a lot to crafting a persuasive piece of writing for publication. It is both art and craft, requiring both creativity and skill. Every word must earn its place, do its job and contribute to the overall effect and meaning, or it should be deleted. If you can say a lot with a little, do so. Vigorous writing is concise. If you have done your best and still have a long article, just ensure the reader comes away with copious amounts of usable information.

Read and consider all feedback you get on your writing, as the only definition of success that counts is the reader reaction. The more you write, the better you will become, if you pay attention to what your audiences are telling you. Writing is a process, not a product, and is a tool for you as regards your business endeavors.

A note to non-writers

Even if you don't write yourself, you should know how to assess writers who are working for you, since their output will represent you and your firm to the world. In fact, in this day and age, work-for-hire arrangements may result in your putting your name on an article you paid someone to write. This makes quality control even more important.

Next Week

Next week we'll be releasing Part Two of the series – Writing For Search Engines.

How Multiple Online Marketing Efforts Can Succeed

Michael Murray — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:10:58 -0500

If business owners want to gain a competitive edge online in 2009, a comprehensive strategy is the way to go.

Businesses of any size will succeed with online marketing – and blow past the competition – by focusing on multiple fronts at one time to deliver the most favorable ROI.

The Internet offers a dizzyingly array of services, everything from search engine optimization and link building to paid search, banner advertising and video marketing. Each has merit and can improve profits.

How could it make any sense to let them operate as silos?

We tie these and other services together in what we call the Battle Plan. To get the best results, you need to hit your target market with everything you have available.

Regardless of what you call it, a Battle Plan approach requires a good deal of coordination that can become a way of life with practice.

Here are 8 tips to help you get started:

1. Cultivate Teams.

A plan on paper won’t work in reality if the people involved can’t cooperate. Long before our Battle Plan took shape, we made sure to involve the entire staff in team building exercises, contests and social outings. We also have regular staff meetings and hold internal mini workshops so each service line can let everyone else get a sense of what they do.

2. Nail Down Processes.

Yes, it can be tedious, but only good things can happen when everyone follows the same system.

3. Achieve Excellence.

It’s not always easy to define quality, but you need to continually provide exceptional service in each area. Our Battle Plan would suffer enormously if one service dropped the ball. In the military, for example, ground troops would fail more often without air support.

4. Think ROI.

At the end of the day, it’s about leads and sales. Time and time again, we’ve managed through SEO to achieve high rankings and traffic. Unfortunately, the website we inherit sometimes lacks clear Calls to Action. Adding a well placed, unique phone number or a special offer can work wonders.

5. Track and Adapt Conversion Opportunities.

Calls to Action can appear just about anywhere. With the basic website design, you may have any number of response forms or buy/call signals. Similar or different ones may be developed for paid search or video marketing campaigns. In our case, we learn from what each area is doing and adapt or repeat their Calls to Action. In other words, lead forms that work for video may perform as well or better in paid search.

6. A Central Project Manager Is Essential.

Obviously, plenty of work must happen behind the scenes. Yet, it’s also critical to have a project manager in place for each program to keep the lines of communication open. The project manager is in a good position to make sure everyone – from internal staff to clients – is on the same page and up to speed.

7. Share Data.

I’ve hinted at it already, but shared information is paramount to a comprehensive approach that crosses multiple disciplines. For example, when a SEO specialist gets a top ranking on Google, that information must get in the hands of a paid search expert who can help decide if an ad should be paused or continued depending on whether branding or conversion objectives are being met. You can exchange data from many areas – paid search ads, landing pages, banner ads, meta descriptions, inbound link anchor text, video marketing campaigns and much more.

8. Reinforce Efforts.

You have to find ways to stay in touch with prospects. For us, one of the easiest is an opt-in e-mail marketing system. I’m dumbfounded by the number of companies that I hear about that don’t consistently use structured emails to follow up with different types of leads. Sometimes businesses do send emails, but it’s not always well planned. Why not craft automated messages for designated dates, such as 7 days, 30 days and 60 days out from the first point of contact?

In today’s economy, at the moment in time someone is searching for what you offer, how fiercely are you competing to be found?

Putting Behavioural Metrics In Perspective

David Harry — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:40:12 -0500

So here’s the question; are behavioural metrics being used in modern search? You do remember them right? Those warm and fuzzy little signals such as bounce rates that there all the rage in late 2008 in the search engine optimization world? Sure you do… but let’s take one last look.

Although bounce rates received the biggest attention, we would be remiss not to start by quickly listing some signals commonly looked at by information retrieval folks. The two elements include implicit and explicit data (actions and interactions) – examples can include;

Implicit signals

Query history (search history)
SERP interaction (revisions, selections and bounce rates)
User document behaviour (time on page/site, scrolling behaviour);
Surfing habits (frequency and time of day)
Interactions with advertising
Demographic and geographic
Data from different application (application focus – IM, email, reader);
and closing a window.

Explicit signals

Adding to favourites
Voting (a la Search Wiki or toolbar)
Printing of page
Emailing a page to a friend (from site)

Now that we’re past that let’s get a little geeky so those information retrievers don’t shake their heads to hard at us – the terminology. I am as guilty as the next Gypsy of flinging the term ‘behavioural metrics’ about over the last year or so, even performance metrics. If you want to research this more, start by using the term; implicit/explicit user feedback signals – because that’s what we’re talking about.

and thanks to Steve Gerencser for sending the pic

Follow the bouncing timeline

While you can trace the timeline back in the search (blogging/reporting) world many years, it really came home when Search Engine Watch mentioned it (Oct.2008) followed a few months later in a Search Engine Land post. Being the venerable publications that they are, grumblings around the SEO world soon followed. If you go and do some buzz monitoring and searching (which I have), much of the talk began after that. The cracks in the damn began to fissure and this Gypsy was left without enough chewing gum.

So what can we do? Where does one start to truly look for answers as to the potential of such methods being implemented by top public access search engines? It would stand to reason that we begin looking at the information retrieval world itself. Over the last month I have given the benefit of the doubt to the community and gone deeper to find some type of more definitive answer, (list of research papers at the end).

Inherent problems with implicit signals

One thing that became obvious real fast is that the IR world is still not entirely sure of the value for implicit feedback signals as far as how to infer engagement and satisfaction. While there are a long list of problematic areas let’s consider;

You save the link for later and continue my search (in Doc let's say)
You found what u needed on the page and went looking for more information
You walk away from my browser and leave the window on a page for an hour
Multiple users in your home during a given session
Open a listing in a new window (when further tracking is unavailable)
You found the information in a SERP snippet and selected nothing
You were unsatisfied with the page selected and dug 3 pages deeper (unsatisfied, not engaged)
Queries from automated tools (like a rank checker) which adds noise to overall data
SERP bias – do peeps simply click the top x results regardless of relevance?
Different users having different understanding of the relevance of a document (result)

…and on and on. Think about it, some situations can tell the search engine you’re pleased with the results and other times such signals mean nothing. You see, the essential motive is to attempt to assign an emotional evaluation of engagement with the search results. Unfortunately there are too many noisy elements which make this a very difficult task to do effectively.

Noise and confused

It’s widely felt that ‘implicit feedback is more difficult to interpret and potentially noisy’ as noted in - Evaluating the Accuracy of Implicit Feedback from Clicks and Query Reformulations in Web Search (partially funded via grant from Google) – in looking at click behaviour there was indeed a clicking bias based on a few elements;

“….First, we show that there is a “trust bias” which leads to more clicks on links ranked highly by Google, even if those abstracts are less relevant than other abstracts the user viewed.

Second, there is a “quality-of-context bias”: the users’ clicking decision is not only influenced by the relevance of the clicked link, but also by the overall quality of the
other abstracts in the ranking.”

Other research (on click data) looked at how users actually interact with search results as far as bias is concerned. People are often consistent in clicking patterns (clicking top result, second, third) regardless of the underlying data. This means the entire data set can be skewed as not clicking on the 8th result may no necessarily be a vote against the link in the result, but more of an ingrained habit on the part of the searcher.

They summarized;

“Our results show that click behaviour does not vary systematically with the quality of search results. However, click behaviour does vary significantly between individual users, and between search topics. This suggests that using direct click behaviour—click rank and click frequency—to infer the quality of the underlying search system is problematic.”

And also;

“Analysis of our user click data further showed that the action of clicking is not strongly correlated with relevance —only 52% of clicks in a search result list led to a document that the user actually found to be relevant. Attempts to use clicks as an implicit indication of relevance should therefore be treated with caution.” From - Using Clicks as Implicit Judgments: Expectations Versus Observations

Beyond that many of the papers have various elements of implicit user feedback that they felt warranted more study. In short, there is no consensus in the IR community about the validity of these signals – they’re not ready for prime time.

ok.

The Spam connection

And this my friends, as they say, is the proverbial fly in the ointment. While there is a ton of research and even patents on behavioural metrics, dealing with click-spam has not been addressed in any detail to this point. Many of the papers openly admit they are light in the spam detection area and more research is needed.

“A natural question that arises in this setting is the tolerance of this method to noise in the training data, particularly should users click in malicious ways. While we used noisy real-world data, we plan to explicitly study the effect of noise, words with two meanings, and click-spam on ourapproach.” From - Query Chains: Learning to Rank from Implicit Feedback

And that’s just one; it was a common theme among the papers on the topic. This for me goes a long way into understanding that it is premature to suggest search engines that we optimize for are using such signals. There is hope as some tests, as ran by Microsoft, concluded;

“ranking accuracy decreases indeed when more documents are spammed, but the decrease is within a small range. When only a small number of documents are spammed per query, ranking accuracy is only slightly affected even if a large number of queries are spammed.” From- Are click-through data adequate for learning web search rankings?

They felt that such a large percentage of queries are long tail queries that it would be more difficult to effectively disrupt the majority of query spaces (I hear Ralph rumbling some where with that one). But once more, there seems to be a lot more work to be done in this area to effectively combat spam in such a system. To this we add thoughts from a Cornell paper;

“… it might also be possible to explore mechanisms that make the algorithm robust against “spamming”. It is currently not clear in how far a single user could maliciously influence the ranking function by repeatedly clicking on particular links.” From - Optimizing Search Engines using Click through Data – Cornell (pdf)

For me, there simply isn’t enough research or hard data to suggest that the spam issues related to implicit user feedback and click data have been solved. This is a crucial element to the case of them being used today by Google or anyone else.

Not enough, then also try this recent post by your friend and mine, CJ, on Clickstream spam detection or Fantomaster’s Behavioral Metrics and the Birth of SEO Surfbot Nets – let us get to then now shall we?

Getting beyond the geeky; looking to the future

Are we getting somewhere yet? Great… but it’s not all doom and gloom, no need to call the corner just yet. You see, for the most part researchers have been finding some great improvements in search performance; they simply haven’t worked out all the values of such signals nor the spam concerns. In an enterprise environment, where manipulation/spam is far less likely, implicit feedback can be a more useful tool. It is the larger public access environment where spam is far more prevalent that the nut has yet to be cracked.

I stand on my original assertion that this type of approach is best served in a personalized environment. This would be huge in dealing with the apparent issues surrounding spam related issues as it is kinda’ hard to spam ones self you see. This makes personalized a likely candidate for user feedback signals. Either way, it simply hasn’t been solved yet

So what are we left with?? Some noisy signals that are spammable… hmmm… where have we heard that before?

And so now I leave all of this in your capable hands my weary web warriors. If you can go through the research papers listed below (or elsewhere) and find me strong evidence of how they deal with noise reduction and click-spam, then we can discuss it further. That is my challenge to you; because from what is out there, it is not yet viable in a large scale environment.

I submit to you, my enthusiastic optimizers, that bounce rates and it’s implicit feedback brethren are simply not likely to be in Google’s (nor any major search engine's) current ranking schemes. It is a novelty item at best with potential in a personalized environment.

Care to dispute this? I am more than happy to review any research to the contrary.

Want to know what I think is causing us to see what we believe this to be? You’re just going to have to wait until next week.

/story..

Comments

Keyword Suggestion Tools From Google And SEOBook

AdGooroo — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:51:18 -0500

Key Differences Among the Most Commonly Used Keyword Suggestion Tools - Part Two

The 800-Pound Gorilla and the New Kid on the Block: Google and SEOBook

In our last article covering the similarities, differences, and uses of the most commonly used keyword suggestion tools we focused on comparing the usage, operation models, and results of Wordtracker, KeywordDiscovery, and NicheBot. For Part Two we will be covering the tools Google brings to the table and SEOBook’s Keyword Suggestion Tool.

Google rising

With the way the company has exploded in the last decade, especially over the last five years or so, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Google was taking over the world, not just the Internet. The fact is, they are growing, changing, expanding and refining all of their diverse operations with such velocity that some bloggers and “industry analysts” make a full-time out of tracking Google.

They track Google while Google tracks everything net-related, so you can avail yourself of some of Google’s powerful tools. Some are free, some used to be free – like its Adwords API (Application Programming Interface) – and others cost you in various ways, from money to time to learning curves. But there is no way to do your work, if you work in web marketing, without the Google tools.

The basic Google tools

Google Suggest is good place to start accumulating your list of words and phrases to be researched. It is a fast (some would say “quick and dirty”) way of identifying common word combinations and how many pages are relevant to them. When you start typing your search into Google’s search box, a dropdown box opens listing terms that start with those letters and the number of pages that would come up in a search for each term. What this basically gives you is a very quick way to get a snapshot of related terms and their relative competitive landscape.

If you were to type in "fly," Google Suggest would potentially give you such extrapolations as "fly fishing" or "fly larvae," taking you off on your chosen tangent. Typing in parts of words, like "prob," might show extrapolations such as "probation," "probability," "problem child," or "probono." This tool is particularly helpful in building out your first keyword lists, letting you then focus on terms you deem most worthy of further research.

Google Trends lets you assess the popularity of particular terms and phrases against one other, and even supplies a history of the “most searched” terms from 2004 through the present. The particular search terms’ popularity is expressed as a proportion of the total search volume, which is calculated for different regions of the world, even in a variety of languages.

You can also compare the volume of searches among multiple terms, and can display news associated with search terms on charts displaying the effect of the news on term popularity and presence. This can help you make snap decisions about whether to concentrate on one set of keywords or some other. If you want to get a handle on how searches are affected by regional anomalies and external factors, this is a good tool for that.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Until late 2006 the features in the AdWords tool kit were free. Then Google began to charge for the API portion of the tool, with a 25-per-thousand fee that sounded low until big users started adding it up. The controversy has abated greatly, but it did leave a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths.

Google responded with a free External Tool outside of AdWords for those that desired keyword help but did not have an AdWords account. It was truly a tool that suggested keywords only, returning a great number of keywords related to the term you entered but offering no search quantity numbers to show how often people actually searched for each term daily or monthly.

More recently Google added the search metrics that a lot of marketers and business owners have been craving. Their External Tool now shows how many times the keywords you are researching were searched last month on Google related properties, as well as a twelve-month average for the terms. It also features a measurement that shows you the advertiser competition for each.

For AdWords accounts holders the AdWords Keyword Tool is tightly “Google integrated” of course, and not only helps you estimate your AdWords campaign cost but provides information on the competition levels among your chosen, targeted keywords and terms.

The AdWords Traffic Estimator is another tool that can provide data on total potential clicks for each ad, each day, for each keyword, but they are merely approximates. It also estimates potential cost so you have an idea what your daily spend would be for those terms. For natural search research it is helpful in compiling an initial list for further, detailed research, which is the point at which you would bring other keyword analytics tools into the process.

As with all of the free and fee-based tools, they are best seen as an “information buffet,” a range of tools and tests from which you can assemble the best toolkit for your particular project. Your needs may change from one task to the next, from one product to the next, so you need the greatest amount of flexibility you can get. Some people are now saying that SEOBook’s Keyword Suggestion Tool is the best “anchor program” on which to hang other specialized tools.

The up-and-comer

SEO industry stalwart Aaron Wall developed the Keyword Suggestion Tool for SEOBook, and it is popular for not reinventing the wheel, essentially. That is, it aggregates the most successful and effective suggestion tools on the Internet –Google tools, the “visual tool” Quintura (with its “word clouds”), Wordtracker and even Yahoo metrics, back when there were some.

Its proponents say that SEOBook’s tool is the right one for anyone, any time, because of its components. By combining results, it does save time, but some professional traffic mongers prefer to set the tools against each other for comparison, rather than aggregation, purposes.

Still, features of the tool are legion. It can estimate certain keyword traffic in Google, Yahoo and MSN independently, or add it together for average total daily traffic. It links up to the Google Trends data for the targeted keyword(s) and employs the Google Traffic Estimator to determine the daily cost for advertising the subject terms.

The SEOBook tool also allows you to get an idea of your competitors’ numbers by interfacing with Google, Wordtracker and the UK’s Overture. It also makes use of the GoRank SEO Tools and Ontology Finder, and checks the top 1000 Google results for your terms by running queries on related words. It would be a good idea to look at GoRank’s new link popularity analyzer, which is just now being made ready for beta testing (as of September 20). It's completely free and supports up to 30 backlinks. Once beta testing is complete, it will have the capability to analyze up to 1000 backlinks.

At the bottom of the SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool page is a list of potential searches you can perform on a “vertical database” – for news, blogs, directories, tags, thesauruses, dictionaries, encyclopedias, classified ad listings, audio, video, competitive, groups and other tangents.

Who, what, how and why

There are still differences among keyword analysis tools and keyword suggestion tool, but as they continue to aggregate each others’ functions and link to various other third-party programs, there is bound to be some “convergence.” There is a great deal of “shakeout” still to come in this sector, and following Yahoo’s almost-ignominious retreat from this arena the winnowing process would appear to be gaining some momentum.

Using any or all of the available suggestion tools can be a very nerve-wracking experience. There is always the chance that you will start taking the results and suggestions as gospel, and making sweeping changes based on data that changes by the nanosecond. It takes patience to make these tools perform their best, and there is no substitute for the human brain. It is the ultimate analytical tool.

Whatever tools you use, in whatever manner, it is wise to maintain a healthy skepticism about the results. Various industry analysts have run tests that show a wide discrepancy between what some of the tools report, and what they actually do. This is not to say there is misrepresentation (sometimes called “lying”) going on. It is more a function of the transient nature of knowledge and the rapid turnover of data sets in Internet-related enterprises. Use the tools, certainly, but use your head, primarily.

Blog Optimization Is An Ongoing Process

Lee Odden — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:08:35 -0500

Yesterday I posted “3 Reasons Why Blog SEO Fails” to help readers avoid the pitfalls of starting a business or corporate blog purely for SEO reasons only to end up wasting time and energy. Without proper planning, oversight and passion for the topic, blogs implemented purely for SEO objectives are doomed to fail. Additionally, social media referrals and recommendations are becoming a notable competitor to search traffic which can place SEO as a secondary promotional effort in some situations.

Here are five tips for successful business blog optimization benefits in the long run:

1. Find a practical purpose for starting a blog. There are many reasons why companies would benefit from starting and publishing a blog. Some might use blog software as a content management system for an online newsroom or to archive newsletters to the web.

Other blog applications include: aggregating industry news, publishing ongoing product development information, improving customer relations, building thought leadership or improving onlne marketing and sales. Identifying a specific business goal that can be facilitated by the creation, publishing and promotion of blog content should be the first step.

Whether the goal is to better connect with existing customers and reduce support costs or to attract more media coverage to improve indusry reputation, there should be a specific business goal for the blog. SEO can be used to further that objective through improved search visibility.

2. Optimize templates initially and content on an ongoing basis. As dynamically generated web sites, blogs take information stored to a database and push that information through templates which generate the web pages or blog posts we read in a web browser.

Optimization of a blog at the template level will pass on benefits to all pages of the blog. For example, the use of blog post titles in the URLs rather than an id number. Or posting distinct title tags separate from the on page titles.

Blog content optimization means leveraging a keyword glossary to allow company bloggers to make informed choices about what phrases to use in titles, categories, body copy, anchor text links, tags, image alt text and others. This is an activity that often gets diluted if there isn’t a quality assurance effort, oversight editorially or persistent attention to SEO.

3. Plan editorial and source content. Unlike traditional publications, blogs do not typically have editorial calendars but why not? Use categories as an indication for the topics the blog should be posting about. Category keywords should support the business goals defined in the blog’s objectives.

Here are some simple steps for managing blog content, long term: Create a keyword glossary, much like you would for a website SEO project. Identify an editorial guide as well as post types and key topics. Assign a blog champion, someone that “owns” the success/failure of the blog. The blog champion will provide content and editorial oversight as well as recruit other contributors.

The blog champion performs another important function, feedback to the contributors. This goes beyond a simple “thank you” but may also include reporting on the number of comments on posts contributed, inbound links, increases in RSS subscribers and mentions of the blog post on other blogs. Providing individual as well as overall feedback to contributors helps them see what impact their efforts are making.

4. Socialize.

Blogs are a big part of what makes up social media, so it’s important that bloggers are social for a successful blogging effort. A few of the ways blogs can be social include:

Comments - be sure to respond to commments on your blog quickly
Links out to other blogs - Blog software like Wordpress will notify the blog owner when others link in. Besides providing readers a link to a useful resource, getting the attention of a prominent and/or influential blogger by linking to them can result in being mentioned in a post with a link back.
Trackbacks are the mutual link exchange that can happen when one blog links to another.
Widgets and polls/surveys can be effective social tools for a blog, because they allow interaction and direct feedback.
Reading and commenting on other blogs is very important for the success of a blog to connect with other influential information sources on your topic. Bloggers are also more keen to network with each other than they are with non-bloggers.
Social networking tools like Facebook and communication tools like Twitter can be effectively used to socialize a blog by crowdsourcing the network for content as well as a channel for promoting new content. Recognizing contributors and aggregating resources is a win for everyone.

5. Measure and promote blog success - In order for a blogging effort of any kind to be successful, there needs to be an objective. Ideally an objective that helps reach a particular business goal. Once that goal for the blog is indentified, it’s important to take a benchmark measurement to understand where you are starting from.

Monitoring mentions of the blog in real time with basic tools like Google Alerts and TweetBeep can be effective discovery tools in finding fans of your blog. Trackur is a low cost social media monitoring tool that can be quite helpful. More robust monitoring tools such as BuzzLogic, Techrigy or Radian6 can be helpful for monitoring multiple social media channels.

Discovering trending of keywords within blogs or services like Twitter can present opportunistic content marketing situations. If a term is observed as becoming increasingly popular, the blog conducting the monitoring can choose to create more content and engage in link building to encourage high ranking for those terms.

Besides monitoring, it’s important measure the specific goals set out for the blog using web analytics.

As the data and success metrics are collected, be sure to package the information for reporting upstream in the organization. ROI on social media marketing efforts, including blogging, can be challenging. However, if the blog is attracting any kind of popular keyword phrase traffic from organic search, it can be compared to the costs to achieve those same positions and visitors with pay per click. The resulting comparison should offer an estimated a dollar value of organic search traffic.

Another valuation method for blogs is when the blog facilitates media coverage, including other blogs. If a company hires a public relations firm to conduct blogger and media relations, it costs money and that investment can be boiled down to a value per pickup. If publishing content on the blog results in being cited, linked or mentioned by a popular blog or publication, it should be tracked and a dollar value assigned. Such ROI associations from blogging can vary depending on the purpose of the blog ranging from lowering customer service costs to saving recruiter fees for attracting new employees.

The other type of reporting that is important for the longevity of a blog and the ongoing optimization effort is feedback to those that make it happen. A blog SEO effort cannot be successful if there is no one to write posts. Therefore, it’s important to keep contributors motivated by keeping them informed on the progress of the blog in reaching overall goals as well as the effect ofo their individual contributions.

Wrap up:

For a successful business blogging effort that leverages search engine optimization, it’s important that the blog serves a functional purpose intented to help the business reach a particular goal. SEO is involved in order to extend the reach and “discoverability” of the blog.

Blog optimization is both a one time event with the templates but is also an ongoing process involving keyword glossaries that help determine post level keyword usage, internal anchor text and off site anchor text. Running out of ideas and people to contribute to the blog can mean certain death, so be creative with content sourcing and formats. Listen to what blog readers respond to and give feedback on to guide editorial.

Blog software offers many social features. Use them! Grow a network that leverages the blog as resource and as a way to recognize contributors. Monitor real time content opportunities as well as blog analytics so you can offer the kind of feedback that motivates continued contributions both from the C-Suite in the form of funding and from the B-Suite in the form of content and comments.

Comments

Do You Have A Mission Statement?

Frank Reed — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:05:49 -0500

Today I had an epiphany of sorts. A revelation, if you will. The result of these great new truths in my life were the following; a panic attack, followed by a hypochondriac-type list of symptoms that can be attributed only to that harshest of all diagnoses: reality.

It was one of those days when you hear something in the morning that seems really important and almost random. Then you hear it mid-morning from another source that was unexpected. You start to suspect there might really be something to this but you shrug it off as mere coincidence. When you hear it again around lunch time, you really pay attention and consider that a higher power is work. Then it hits you like a fastball right off your melon--that this thing really is important and you have not given it the time it deserves.

What am I talking about? It's a mission statement. Mission statements apply to all areas of our lives but let's talk about it regarding business and, in particular, your Web presence. "What?" you say. You don't think that having a mission statement for your Web site or blog is necessary? You think that your site is for information purposes only, so what's that have to do with mission? You think that the "plan" that you follow is sufficient? Well, let me put it to you as gently as possible considering the time of year we are in: you are wrong.

I say this only because I realized even though my blog has a theme and I have plans about what to write, I have never truly established a distinct mission for the blog (other than helping the SMB market understand search marketing a little better, which sounds admirable, but is woefully under-developed). As a result, I can derail very quickly and have a case of "blogger's block" because I am too wide open with my blog. Flexibility is a good thing, but being too flexible is a dangerous thing.

I have learned in the past that the best organizations each have clearly a defined mission that is the measuring stick for all actions they undertake. Sure, this is not anything new, but it is one of those things that can be overlooked due to being too busy and other things that happen daily. If everyone did this, we would see a lot of stronger companies that would not be in such dire straits even during the current economic climate.

So back to you Web site or blog. What is the mission? Is it to generate leads? Is it to sell product? Is it to brand you or your product? Is it a mixture of these elements? Whatever it is you need to clearly articulate it to everyone who touches your site, be it Web designers, developers, marketers, business owners and on down the line. They all need to know that unless every word, image, and call to action does not literally stink of your mission, then it will not be tolerated.

Why is this important? Think about it for a short second and you will get it. Who rewards a Web site that is focused, targeted, intentional and helps end users get the results they desire? Google. It's pretty simple. Of course there are techniques that can overcome having a less than targeted presence including link building etc etc. Truth is, though, that the best way to attract link partners is to be a site with a mission around what you do best. A site that is clearly thought-out and laser-targeted is one that is useful. Google wants your site to have a mission, and you to be on that mission at all times. Rewards will follow.

I am going to be putting some serious thought into my mission. I want to emulate the businesses that I have seen that measure everything they do against their missions. These businesses then make decisions based on whether proposed action accomplishes their mission or at least moves them closer to it.

These businesses don't get distracted by shiny objects or go down rabbit trails. They just succeed. Thankfully, after today it all seems so much clearer now and I can.

Comments

Blogs Are For More Than Just SEO

Lee Odden — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:21:20 -0500

There are many benefits to publishing a business blog and improved search engine visibility is one of the most popular. It’s pretty common advice to hear: start a blog and the fresh content will attract links, improving your search results. Such tactical advice can be very effective.

Unfortunately, the advice gets filtered and distorted, not unlike what happens in the game “telephone” kids play. Pretty soon one or more blogs are implemented for the sole purpose and expectation of improving search engine visibility and nothing else. At least nothing else that’s accountable.

What’s wrong with this picture? Blogs started solely for SEO objectives will inevitably fail.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. Lack of planning and oversight - After the honeymoon of starting a blog wears off, those tasked with writing content often get distracted by their other responsibilities. Bit by bit, posts look less and less like keyword optimized web pages and sink back to the familiar writing styles common to public relations and corporate marketing. Gone are the keywords that consumers are searching on. Gone is the traffic that used to come from search engines.

If SEO efforts persist, they can get sloppy without ongoing oversight either by an outsite SEO consultant or an internal blog champion (more about that in our next post). Keyword usage in blog posts can become disparate or worse, evolve into a keyword stuffing exercise.

2. No passion for the topic - With over 100 million blogs indexed by Technorati, it’s a wonder what happened to the 90% or more than have been abandoned or that don’t post more often than every 4 months. It takes commitment, thought out ideas and a sincere interest in a topic to be able to blog about it on an ongoing basis over the long term.

Can you imagine watching a 30 minute TV show or 2 hour movie you’re not interested in? How long does that last? How about a job you’re not interested in? Do you really excel at it? Do you do the best job possible and and do you stick with it? No, no and no.

As a result, bloggers who are not personally interested in a topic will encounter blogger’s block quickly and with a shallow level of knowledge on what’s being blogged about, readers lose interest quickly and do not return, subscribe or link.

3. SEO as we’ve known it is a dying breed - The loophole based SEO tactics of yore that brought incremental ranking advantages are being efficiently dealt with by search engines. So are paid links. SEO will always have value of course, because as long as content can be searched on it can be optimized.

However, when it comes to blogs, consumer information discovery trends are involving social networks and social media at an increasing rate. Recommendations are competing with search. When looking at the web analytics of our blog and client blogs, social media traffic is in the top 5 referring sources of traffic. Blogs are social and social media sources will become increasingly important for many business blogging efforts in the coming year.

So, what can a company do to build upon and benefit from, the compounding equity that grows with long term blogging and SEO efforts? I’ll be answering that question specifically in tomorrow’s post on 5 Tips for Successful Blog Optimization efforts.

In the meantime, have you started a blog only to lose interest or stop contributing to it? What was your reason? What would you do differently?

Comments

It's Not Mojo: How to Take the Guesswork Out of Keyword Selection

Michael Murray — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:46:34 -0500

Gut instinct and superficial analysis just can't cut it anymore when choosing keywords, a hallmark of search engine optimization (SEO).

The stakes are high for sophisticated marketers who need to give an SEO program the best shot at success in a competitive marketplace. It can take months to secure premium organic rankings for some relevant words that can bring traffic to clients' sites. If they pick the wrong keywords, they're going to waste a lot of everyone's time and cash.

Fathom SEO, facing today's challenges, developed the Keyword Refinery, a proprietary keyword selection decision support tool. The algorithm weighs 15-plus attributes for each keyword or phrase.

To be as effective as possible, marketers must find ways to find and evaluate huge numbers of keywords. Skilled marketers tear into a business and learn the target markets inside and out.

It's daunting enough to find keywords given the numerous internal and third party tools that can produce hundreds if not thousands of keywords. Selecting the right ones is essential if a marketer aspires to improve a company's bottom line.

Amazingly, our industry has struggled to produce a solution that handles massive numbers of keywords at one time. Some solutions have made headway but fallen short, looking only at a handful of variables and providing results for only one keyword at a time.

Much has been discovered, shared and debated about keyword research sources, including Keyword Discovery, the Google Keyword Tool, SpyFu, social networks and competitors.

When you have all of that data in hand, then what? How do you choose?

Paid search is the easier path. You can quickly gather keywords and then carefully test them out against some ads and existing or custom landing pages. With paid search, you have the added advantage of managing keywords and phrases you didn't even anticipate (given the countless possibilities encouraged by broad and phrase match).

It's tougher for SEO keyword selection.

You can't just enter a bid and be No. 1 or No. 2 in a flash. Website age, content, inbound links and other factors come into play. How viable is the website? How do you know whether a keyword will resonate with website's given its standing among the search engines?

Could Google develop rankings for millions of sites across millions of keywords without the support of their algorithm? Choosing keywords should be no different.

Subjectivity and anectodotal data don't paint an honest or complete picture. Is there room for human intervention with a keyword selection tool? You bet. Scoring methods will never be dead on for every possible term, but they're clearly reliable. We've found that it's usually not the weights and measures that throw off an occasional score. It's more a matter of how the tool is used, including a judgment on keyword relevancy.

Here's a closer look at some of the factors - small and large - that we've baked into our method:

We examine keyword criteria and group them by popularity, strength and quality. Based on the tool's scores, we pick keywords with highest potential to yield relevant search traffic over a reasonable time period.

Popularity

Unfortunately, it's common for marketers to choose keywords based on the estimated search frequency (whether that's over 30 days or a year). However, search volume should be only one factor. Keyword selection emphasizing this approach is flawed because it misses other key components and subtle distinctions. For example, 1,000 searches can mean two different things in if you are evaluating a national B2C term vs. a local B2C phrase.

A marketer who understands the dynamics of a client's marketplace can easily adjust out tool to properly interpret relative popularity of the hundreds of candidates being evaluated.

Let's pretend you want to rank well for "airline tickets," which people search for 2.7 million times a month on average across Google and its search network. The website ranking #1 has 168,000 indexed pages and files. Not many websites can compete with that enterprise.

Relevance

Automated tools can't determine whether a keyword or phrase is relevant. The data sources simply provide actual searches people conducted. Seasoned marketers must make logical choices based on this question: what is the likelihood that the searcher will convert into a lead or a customer after reaching the website? Relevance often is tied to the specificity of a keyword phrase. The more closely a search term is aligned to a client's business, the higher it will score. For example, if you rank for "sports uniforms" and only sell soccer apparel, you might turn off visitors.

Strength

Strength is the X factor that most marketers in today's search world don't consider. It's hard enough to make a selection while looking at both Popularity and Relevance. Even then, marketers still make mistakes by going after the most popular and relevant phrases when their client doesn't have a chance off competing for those terms. In other words, they overshoot and fail to pick search terms that could actually benefit a client's company within a reasonable timeframe. Strength reflects the degree to which a business can compete for popular and relevant terms relative to their online competitors.

Here are some of the strength factors that come into play:

·    inbound links
·    keywords in a domain name
·    website analytics
·    website age
·    rankings (in view of competitors)
·    indexed pages/files

If a business website is older, has more inbound links, and has more page depth, it may be in a stronger position to compete for highly relevant and popular terms.

Your ability to settle on a sound set of keywords depends on how well you gather and interpret diverse data sets, including paid search market and conversion indicators. Algorithm-based scoring, ensuring that many variables get due attention, makes that job easier.

At the end of the day, you want to select the ideal keywords. As your SEO tactics kick in, you'll know soon enough whether you're making keyword ranking headway. If not, you may struggle to correct a bungled keyword selection effort that could have gone better.

Link Building With Articles

Dave Davies — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:27:05 -0500

There are many different ways that a link can be built. One that is often overlooked but which can have huge rewards is writing and submitting articles. The reason article writing and submission is arguably one of the best of the link building methods is that it not only functions as a link building exercise but also a traffic source. Honestly, can you think of a better use of your online marketing time than a tactic that provides for traffic and which can help improve your search engine visibility? Neither can I.

That being said, simply whipping off an article and putting it up on your site is not going to do it. There are a few crucial steps to making the most of your efforts. It may take a bit longer to do it right but the rewards will be much higher as well. Here are the basic steps to writing an effective article that gets well picked up and can provide you with some solid traffic and links.

Pick A Topic

Picking a topic for your article can often be harder than it sounds. When you're selecting a topic you can't simply write about the first thing that pops into your head. There are two questions you need to ask yourself when you're selecting your topic:

Will the editors care? If the editors of related websites aren't going to care about your topic then it's not going to get published. If it's not going to get published then you can probably find better uses for your time – like golf or shopping for blue widgets online.

Will bloggers care? The second questions is whether other online publishers will be interested in the content. If an editor publishes your content and other link to it, that makes the like to you on the publisher site all the stronger.

Something I've found handy is reading through your FAQ's. If clients and site visitors regularly ask you the same questions, these are likely good topics for your article (though an article on your shipping policies probably won't get picked up too widely). Another great place to start when thinking of a topic to write about is your own brain. Are there questions you've asked that took a ton of time or research to answer? If so – answer the question for others and cover the research and you're likely to get well picked-up.

Write The Article

While picking a topic can be hard, constructing the article can be all the more difficult. An article needs to have a specific point and must provide the reader with a means to understanding why you're making that point.

Let's take this article for example; once I knew I wanted to write an article on how to use article writing as a link building method I knew what the tone would be: instructional. After that it was a matter of deciding what I wanted to cover in the article (picking a topic, writing the article, testing the article and article syndication). After I'm done writing this article I'll have it proof-read by a couple people who aren't involved with our site and then I'll syndicate it in hopes of developing some solid, highly-relevant links and secure some equally relevant traffic.

If I were writing an article on a different topic (choosing a life insurance provider for example) I may divide my article into sections such as: calculating what you need, analyzing the various options, selecting providers, choosing between an insurance company and an insurance broker). Either way you'll want to decide ahead of time what you need to cover. You also need to decide on an article length ahead of time. As a general rule, an article between 1000 and 1200 words is good. Shorter likely won't cover everything and longer tends to lose some people. To this end, I'll move on to part three (testing the article) to keep things conceise.

Testing

Admittedly I don't have a ton to say on this topic. Get people to proof-read your article. Ideally you'll find people from inside and outside your industry to proof the article to make sure it makes sense to experts as well as laymen.

Also, watch the pickup rates on your different articles by searching for it after submission. Pay attention to the types that get picked up and where and focus future articles for the best outcome (whether that's links or traffic or both – you'll have to decide based on the statistics generated by each articles)

Article Syndication

And now for the entire purpose of the article – the syndication. There are two main avenues you can look down (and should) when looking to syndicate your articles. You can find an article syndication service for submissions (very good for a large number of article directories) and you can seek topic-specific sites that will accept your articles.

As I am affiliated with an article syndication company I won't list your options there for fear of a conflict of interest and thus diminish the article. Instead I'll focus on finding specific sites to submit your article to and will assume you will select your own large distribution options.

To find sites to submit your articles to you may need to think outside the box. You'll need to run a number of searches for related phrases that will yield the best results. For example, if I worked for a web design company I might search for places that accept articles that are related to web design, hosting, SEO, small businesses and anything else I could think of. For example, I would begin my search on Google with “web design article submit” and extend it from there.

A helpful tool for this is SEO Quake. If you list your results in sets of 100 you can order them by PageRank or backlinks and go for the higher valued sites first.

Once you've got a solid list you can complete your submissions to it. Don't forget to document your submissions as well as any account information for future reference as you'll likely want to submit another article down the road. Also, you'll want to add a few sites each submission so you've got a constantly evolving list with more and more backlinking domains.

Conclusion

Of course, you'll likely discover more for yourself as you write and syndicate your own articles. Just don't give up the first time and learn from every submission. It may take a bit to figure out what works best but article syndication is one of the single more effective link building tactics available.

Making Your Internet Business Eco-Friendly

Dave Davies — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:12:07 -0500

The growth of the Internet world as a means for producing revenue and gainful employment has provided those in it a unique opportunity. Rare is it to find an industry where one can produce little in the way of non-recycleable garbage and can easily and painlessly offset the negative impact they have on the world. Can those involved with the oil industry claim to be eco-friendly? Certainly not (though nothing against them – like it or not we need oil to keep our society running … for now). Can even the food industry with the chemicals they use and the methane they produce claim to be eco-friendly? For the most part … no (though again, no problems here with the people who produce our food).

The Internet world however has opened up new doors where one can reduce their footprint significantly and offset that which cannot be eliminated. As we at Beanstalk have constantly strived to reduce our footprint and have just recently purchased carbon offsets to “zero out” that which we cannot eliminate, I thought it well-timed to write an article on the ease and relative low cost of doing this in hopes that other businesses would follow suit.

First, let's take a look at a problem.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that global warming is an issue. In case you need more information on this you simply need to watch the news. But that's not the problem, that's the symptom – the problem is pollution and the rapid production of greenhouse gases. Or is that a symptom too? I would present to you that perhaps the production of greenhouse gases is in itself a symptom of another problem, a problem we all succumb to too often – the problem being that the issues seem to large to fix.

When one looks at the issue of global warming one can't help but think of the issue as too large to be tackled. The problem is similar to recycling (also important). What difference is one little scrap of paper going to make in the garbage can? When 7 billion people do it, quite a bit is the answer.

Second, let's take a look at a solution.

I've got to tip my hat to Google and other massive companies that put up solar panels and invest millions of dollars to reduce their impact on the world. Unfortunately Beanstalk is not as blessed as the fine folks at Google and we just don't have those kinds of resources to “go green”. So what can we do?

Here are some steps that Internet companies can take to help further reduce and/or offset their impact on the world around them. Before I get into that I'd like to extend a big thanks to Erik Blachford over at TerraPass for answering some questions for me and providing additional information for this article and how we can all help out.

1. Reduce paper consumption – One of the easiest things we did at Beanstalk was to reduce our paper consumption. We print double-sided when possible, we use the reverse side of paper for note paper when we can and we always make sure to reuse any paper possible.

2. Recycle whatever possible – There's the recyclables that we all know about and can recycle conveniently on the curb. The papers and aluminum and plastics. There are recycling programs available however for a ton of other products that we often don't think of. From soft plastics (all those plastic bags and even the plastic covers on the CD sleeves your hardware drivers come on) to Styrofoam – most everything can be recycled. Even your old computers and the batteries that power your wireless devices. It might cost a bit to drop off or have picked up but how much is your planet worth?

3. Offset your impact – Companies such as TerraPass enable others to offset the carbon emissions they produce through transportation, heating and electricity and create clean energy in an amount that will reduce future carbon dioxide emissions by an equal amount. Basically, this enables you to zero out your impact. Of course, producing less pollution and carbon dioxide is the best option but you're running an Internet business – you need power (if for nothing else than for your web hosting). Now we can offset this impact in a positive way.

For years we at Beanstalk have sought to fulfill the first two items in this list. This year we have added in the third and would invite others to do the same. The more we do now, the better the world we leave for those coming after.

Rather than babble on further about all you can do, I'm going to simply put some of the better Q&A information I got from Erik at TerraPass and provide some resources to help those of you who would like to make their office (even if it's a home office) a greener place.

Q&A With Erik Blachford:

Q - What can businesses do to help reduce their emissions?

A - The first step is to measure emissions, which most of our Carbon Balanced Business customers do using our website calculator (www.terrapass.com/business). For most businesses, the main sources of emissions are from things like office or manufacturing energy usage, employee travel and commuting, data centers, and the like. Once businesses have done the calculations, they are in a great position to understand where they make reductions. For example a company whose employees travel often can look for opportunities to combine multiple trips into one, saving on plane rides (saves the company money as well), or skip trips altogether. And a surprising number of companies can save energy in obvious ways such as turning the lights off at night (if the janitorial staff comes through at night, perhaps they can be rescheduled to come during the day). Another popular idea is to provide employees incentives, monetary or otherwise, to take public transportation, ride bikes or walk to work. Quite often companies are already providing subsidies for employee parking, so this again can be a way for businesses to save both the environment and some money.

Q - Internet businesses tend to produce far less waste than most other industries in the form of paper and other waste products. Is electricity really that big a source of pollution?

A - Yes it is, especially for companies that run data centers, though it depends on where the companies and data centers are located. Companies in Quebec, Canada for example are likely getting virtually all of their power from Hydro Quebec, so would have a very low carbon footprint, whereas those in a US state like West Virginia get virtually all of their power from coal-fired power plants, so have very high carbon footprints for their energy use. Electricity is about 79.5% of carbon emissions from commercial energy consumption. Author's Note: This is not to say that people in Quebec should waste energy. That which they don't use can be used elsewhere thus reducing the footprint of other areas. In fact, this is one of the fundamentals of carbon offsets. That which can be created cleanly should be used to offset that which cannot.

Q - What is a carbon offset?

A - I would say “a carbon offset represents an independently verified permanent registered reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in an amount equal to the emissions that are being offset.

Other Important Resources For A Green Office

Tip For A Greener Office – An article by the Environmental Defense Fund with some great tips for a more environmental office. We try to follow as many of these tips as possible ourselves. I recommend that you do the same (and it's pretty easy – they're all common sense).

Going Green At Work – Discovery Channel's Planet Green offers these ten tips for going green in the office. Again, common sense but then – the right thing usually is.

Differences Between the Most Commonly Used Keyword Suggestion Tools

AdGooroo — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:01:22 -0500

Rigid, unchanging procedures threaten any business activity. With Internet-enabled and -related enterprises, keeping up with technological progress is absolutely essential to survival. As opposed to static (unchanging) websites that are not looking to strengthen or increase their industry share, any dynamic (changing) website will have new copy, even new strategies, on an ongoing basis. Regular, extensive, ongoing keyword research is not a luxury, but a basic survival tactic.

Understanding how people actually use words, and the relationships these words have in the context of an Internet search, is key to threading these words and phrases through the fabric of your site. Because the Internet is so very dynamic, with word relationships changing seemingly by the minute, this is a huge and growing challenge for more and more people and companies. After all, the Internet is growing into the major commercial and communication hub of the world. Accurate and useful keyword suggestion tools – and their intelligent implantation into business and marketing strategy, are a major part of the solution.

There are a plethora of keyword suggestion tools available, from free to cost-based, including NicheBot, Wordtracker, KeywordDiscovery, SEOBook, and the various Google keyword tools. In this two-part article, we will consider these tools and the differences among them. Part one will cover the first three on the list, while part two will cover the Google tools and SEOBook’s Keyword Suggestion Tool.

Most importantly, perhaps, these tools help you estimate the relative (rather than absolute) size of the search referral "market" produced by particular words and phrases. You will develop a better understanding of what terms appear how often in search queries, and what other terms are correlated with them, and how many times they are searched compared to those other terms. The analytics you develop with the tools will also give you a good idea of how their suggestions will fare, and provide a means of understanding "competition levels" for specific words and phrases.

Naturally, there are differences both large and small among these keyword analysis/suggestion tools. Google, of course, compiles its tool data from its own search network of sites and offers tremendous functionality at low or no cost. The subscription-based services, such as Wordtracker and KeywordDiscovery, take advantage of databases of multiple sites and data that can be assembled, broken down, repurposed and presented in myriad ways.

Specific tool functionality

Wordtracker aggregates its keyword data from the leading meta search engines, primarily Dogpile but with input from MetaCrawler and others. In Wordtracker’s attempts to mine keyword gold, it will discover how many times a certain term or phrase shows up in its database of over 316 million words. This is quite a trick in itself, as English (according to linguists) has between 600,000 and two million words, depending upon how we define a "word." It is clear that Wordtracker leaves no permutation or word-form uncounted, which is a distinct benefit.

Wordtracker’s brain trust asserts that metacrawlers process the queries of the leading search engines with some precision, and that the software robots that continuously check site rankings and such do not interfere with the count. In a different approach, KeywordDiscovery relies on its global "premium database" of some 4.5 billion searches based solely on user data, thus diminishing the distortions inherent in some other strategies.

If you are considering which tool to use, you can still get free trials of most tools, except that you usually need to provide contact information, with phone numbers and e-mail addresses required. There are few ways to use and compare the tools anonymously, so the next best approach is "meta-analysis," in which we look at various published third-party reports on the actual use of these tools.

In a study published last year, one technology writer performed keyword forecasts for "dog food" with KeywordDiscovery, Wordtracker and several other programs. Despite using different original data sets, all of these tools try to supply reliable estimates of the available search referral traffic without "data inflation." There are numerous ways to analyze and present the results.

On average, KeywordDiscovery predicted there would be some 1,088 searches for "dog food" daily, while Wordtracker calculated the probable search referral market for "dog food" to be about double that. KeywordDiscovery does have a unique and quite useful algorithm that considers "seasonality" in its results, letting you review the seasonality of terms historically, as monthly estimates or even as a component of annual trends. Search engine market share is developed, as well.

KeywordDiscovery and Wordtracker results can both be repurposed to estimate just Google referral traffic or that of any other major engine. In the tech columnist’s example, the Wordtracker daily estimate for Google's "dog food" search was 1,043, or almost half of all the "Daily Prediction" information. KeywordDiscovery had Google accounting for 67 percent of its "Average Daily" results, thus suggesting that 738 "dog food" searches would be made in Google every day.

Perhaps this does not seem to be much of an absolute difference, but when considered over a 30-day period, the difference scaled up considerably in this particular test. KeywordDiscovery estimated some 22,000+ "dog food" searches that month, but Wordtracker projected over 31,000 "dog food" searches for that same period.

A ‘niche’ player

Nichebot came on the scene with some degree of fanfare. It is a complex program, with a tightly specified methodology that lacks flexibility in some important ways. On the other hand, it gathers data from more sources than Wordtracker – leveraging the results from KeywordDiscovery and Google – and provides a great selection of explanatory videos, instructive screenshots and excellent "Help" functions.

However, Nichebot recommends a five-step system, which can be time-consuming and confusing, even for veterans. There are, of course, some free "quick-dig" tools, including, oddly enough, Wordtracker and its thesaurus. While it is free to search Wordtracker via Nichebot, you get only basic counts, and must pay for a premium search if you wish to see competition data and the Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI).

You can dig a bit "deeper" without additional cost by clicking on a term or phrase in the results, which provides a list of associated phrases. One savvy forum poster declared that the primary purpose for using Nichebot is "to find as many keywords from multiple sources to cover as much territory for the maximum traffic for your website." In practice, he explained, one can start "from a broad search and just keep refining, merging, narrowing in."

The proliferation of "niche" tools and functions would seem to be a sensible development given Nichebot’s name, but the added functionality comes at a price. For instance, you can get the addresses of the sites that have the greatest number of backlinks for a particular term, but the learning curve involved with this program makes the more arcane data difficult to develop.

Generally speaking, Nichebot results are excellent, and it allows better organization of projects and searches via its folder hierarchy. Further, the program checks your site for keyword density "red flags" that Google may note (and disapprove of). As premium search charges kick in a bit early compared to others, the question for users has to be, Do the premium charges return enough value to offset the time and money spent to obtain it?

Time and tide

While meta-analysis of user comments at a random selection of forums discloses that they don’t find Nichebot particularly intuitive, it is considered an impressive software achievement.

Even its appearance gives Nichebot the impression that using it takes time and discipline. While KeywordDiscovery and Wordtracker can be used in a stream-of-consciousness manner at times, Nichebot does not lend itself to brainstorming or "fluid" search styles. This is a direct result, of course, of its having the power it does. Despite that power, it does have a number of anomalies that are commonly reported. For one thing, it applies its vaunted "Jackpot" rating to keywords for which it finds no competition, even if that is the case because of error or anomaly.

Finally, a number of users report that advanced searches can get stuck in a "holding pattern" (in a queue) and take from 15-20 minutes to generate results. With the tide of the Internet forever washing new waves onto the shore, time is of the essence. Even though advanced keyword research searches can return valuable data, it is no stretch to say that many marketers might consider 20 minutes per keyword tool inquiry to be a barrier to frequent or consistent use.

Rating the tools

Wordtracker is easier to use for most people, but the possibilities are certainly expanded with Nichebot. Doing random or unassociated searches "by the seat of your pants" is among Wordtracker’s great strengths, but Nichebot works well to focus your work and helps you take a step-by-step, measured approach. It can be said that Nichebot can not only return search terms and numbers, but can actually sub as your defacto keyword research process. As one user commented at a KEI forum, Nichebot "takes a lot of the guesswork out [but] getting there is somewhat painful."

KeywordDiscovery’s "9-in-1 tool" approach (check their site, it’s even divided up this way) is popular with many users. It goes some 10,000 keywords deep and the more you pay the deeper you can go. Nichebot does provide more information, but it has that steep learning curve and much harder to learn than the more "friendly" Wordtracker and KeywordDiscovery.

What works best for you will most likely be a product of trial and error – and for many will be a combination of the tools. Because you have to give up more and more personal data to get the "free trials," however, you may want to let other people’s fingers "do the walking" and continue to do meta-analyses of others’ results. Thee is a lot of wisdom to be gleaned from multiple opinions, yet there is nothing like running your own research your own way. Trust the judgment of tech columnists and meta-analysts, or acquiesce to giving up some personal information to see for yourself.

Remember, because of the many search engines and the multitudes of sources the keyword tools get their numbers from, all of the results are relative. For starters, check out the most important, relevant and highly "trafficked" keywords and terms already associated with your site's content. As we move to Part Two and consider the Google tools and SEOBook’s program, don’t forget that ongoing study, research and testing are the most fruitful ways to stay abreast of an ever-changing universe of words – and all their relatives, too.

Change Your SEO Campaign

Frank Reed — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:28:10 -0500

We are still in the wake of the historic election and the most prominent word that seems to be on everyone's mind is change. Now, for change to come from Washington we all can safely say, regardless of party affiliation, that it will take quite a while. In other words, don't hold your breath unless you are ready to pass out from lack of oxygen. There is one area, however, where you can enact change and possibly have an effect on your business before the Inauguration in January. That area is your search engine optimization efforts.

To keep it simple, let's look at some areas that you can change very quickly:

     1. Change your title and meta descriptions for the main pages on your site. If you have never looked at them before, then this is even more important. Not only do the engines consider the title tag one of the last of the on-page factors that are still relevant, your marketing message might have changed and your site could be behind the times. I tell folks to review these areas on a quarterly basis and make sure that your messaging is on point relative to your business goals.

   2. Change your level of involvement. If you are one of those folks who is completely on top of their Web site's search marketing, then more power to you. I can safely say, however, that the overwhelming majority of site owners in the SMB space have not looked at their most important SEO factors in a very long time. SEO requires regular attention by someone in the know. It is not a "one and done" practice. Be sure you are ALWAYS involved in building new one-way inbound link partners. If your SEO efforts have been inconsistent, then it is likely that your reputation with the search engines has suffered.

   3. Change your agency. Wow. I can't believe I just said that but it is something that should be considered often. There are many client-agency relationships that slip into a catatonic state, sapping the essential creativity needed for SEO success. You have the right to demand that your agency do what YOU need for success and not get caught up in a monthly set of deliverables that are routinely spit out to meet lax contractual obligations. If you are paying for creativity, then demand it or tell your current provider to pack their bags and take a hike.

   4. Change your clients. For you agency folks this may come as a shock but there are bad clients out there that drain your resources and turn unprofitable after some time. If that is the case, fire the client. What? Yup, you read that correctly. Fire the client. Agency relationships that are on auto pilot hurt both client and agency alike. If your client has been unresponsive, or unwilling to invest the resources for success, then guess who is at fault when the client complains about results. The agency will always be wrong. Avoid that by cleaning house of bad clients and looking to do good business with those who value your knowledge and time.

   5. Change your attitude. This is the big one. We are in uncertain times but your attitude toward your SEO efforts should correlate directly to the level of success you have. Search engine optimization is extremely attractive in an economic downturn. Efficiency and measurability make for very wise marketing budget spending. If you go for broke now, you stand to be in or near the front of the pack when things pick back up. Expect to win.

So it's time for change. Take control. Make some money. Smile a little. Change can be good.

Comments

Search Marketing Has Two Sides

Frank Reed — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:16:29 -0500

Search marketing has two distinct faces. One is a purely technical side that deals with percentages and code and all things geeky. The other is the reason why you do it: to do more business via the Internet. I have seen these two sides face off and claim that the mere existence of the other makes life impossible for them. I have seen these two not communicate at all. I have also seen these two sides cooperate. In the end though, this is all behind the scenes stuff. How we look to the business world should be on everyone's mind.
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I bring this point up because I love search marketing. I love the potential that it has for making an average business much, much more than that. I love the "A-HA!" moments that occur when an SMB (small medium business) owner or marketer (or both) see the light and start to truly understand the value of search marketing. I love the fact that there is no other marketing vehicle, in my opinion, that allows the seller to be in front of the buyer at the exact time that the buyer expresses their greatest need. I love the directness of the medium and how it connects people so that things can happen whether it's a purchase of a product or sharing of information. I mean really, as a marketer, what's not to love?

Now all of those things are the front facing business application excitement of search marketing. I have passion around this because it can actually improve someone's life to a certain degree. It's impactful. Here's where the collision I spoke of earlier occurs though. Unless there is that rare breed of search marketer who is completely tech savvy (not halfway or even 75% of the way, I mean a "knows their stuff" kind of person) and can do all of the behind the scenes stuff AND understands the business application the meeting or collision of these two sides most often is a conundrum, wrapped in a puzzle and gift wrapped with a question.

I would love to see some cooperation in the industry on this. I envision groups of like-minded professionals from both sides of this ledger sitting down and laying it out on the table. It would be cool for me to hear a real tech savvy guy lay out the logic for not being able to do something that appears easy to me from my non tech side of the tracks. I would love to have a chance to explain why in the world someone would want to do something that is not "standard practice" or needs to have something that is completely customized. I would also love the chance to explain what it requires to build relationships and trust with clients and just how fragile that can be.

Business is not clean. In fact, it is messy. So many variables are at play for each individual case that it is impossible to apply the same technique to everyone across the board and have success. Add to that mix that search marketing is an evolving discipline that can look different on a daily basis while other things in business stay the same for years. (Last time I checked debits and credits work the same now as they did in the Dark Ages, right?)

So are there folks out there on the tech side who would like someone to talk to them about the business side without looking down their nose at you? Are there sales or business application folks out there who would like to talk about the technical side of search marketing without being treated like that SNL character, Nick Burns, who just hates anyone who knows more numbers than 1's and 0's? Tell me your thoughts on bridging this gap so that we can all just get along and make our industry even better for those who depend on us to deliver the goods.

Comments

Microsoft Recommending Link Exchange Schemes?

Navneet Kaushal — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:18:27 -0500

Most of the SEOs were amazed by reading the article written by Skip Chilcott, Sr. Product Manager of Microsoft. He openly asked the entire webmasters to participate in Link Exchange program as it results in providing a boost to their ranks in search engines. His statement contradicts with Google’s Webmaster and Microsoft’s guidelines.

Google has been seen saying following words about participating in the link schemes:

“…there are some webmasters who get involved in link exchange programs and other build partner pages just for the purpose of cross linking and disregarding the quality of links. This leaves a long term impact on their sites. But the strategy totally violate the set guidelines of Google Webmaster and can also have negative affect on search engine ranking results..”

When the Google is seen stating this, Microsoft is not left supporting its competitor:

“…use of techniques like Live Search index might affect the ranking of your website or even get your website removed from the search index. Settling down for link farms techniques can artificially increase the number of links to the webpage, but it is not genuine…”

Yahoo also believes that sites those are cross linked excessively are consider unwanted and thus, face lack of ranking problems.

Now the question arises, why would Skip Chilcott publicly recommend Link exchange scheme that is a semi black hat technique? Along with this, he would also endorse certain firms/ softwares to help you with adopting link exchange scheme.

Why Should we Discourage Link Exchange Schemes?

We have seen search engines becoming more competitive as well as useful for SEOs and even common researchers. All of us depend on these search engines to find relevant information. The reason why search engines have gained so much credibility is because they offer maximum information in quickly. As so many people have started gaming the search engines, this is resulting in more spam and less quality results. In order to stop receiving spam, we have to ensure that attributed like low quality links should not be taken into consideration by search engines. Google is one of the preferred search engines, which has not only discounted the bad links from counting but has also taken strict actions in order to prevent webmasters from googling the search ranking with shady SEO techniques.

It is true that reciprocal linking or participation in automated link exchange program however does not completely benefit users. These are only beneficial for the webmasters who game the whole system. And if despite of abiding to some strict rules, search engines are still gamed, they will lose their usefulness.

When a top notch employee of Microsoft gives a shady advice like semi black hat SEO, it clarifies the doubt that why Live search has yet not been successful in producing good results.

After identifying the mistake made by him in first post, Skip Chilcott came out with another post. For this, he took advice from colleagues over at Live Search. He made them share some expert advice about linking best practices.

Possible White Hat, which are Link Exchange

The links that assist users in finding more relevant information about particular subject.
Links, which are not meant for promotion or do not give link juice to a site that has spammy nature.
Links that are meant for traffic and not at all for better search engine ranking.
Links that you would also recommend to search engines due to the quality and highly informative details they offer.

There are some natural link building techniques referred by many Search Experts. These are:

Should I Avoid Link Exchange / Link Trading Hubs? by Aaron Wall of SEObook.com
8 Ways to Buy Links without Buying Links written by Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz.org
101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website written by Aaron Wall working for SEOBook.com
The definitive link building strategy offered by Web Credible
Five Link Building Strategies That Work by Brian Clark of Copyblogger
Link Building Tutorial - A Complete Walkthrough written by Saad Kamal

Comments

Dr. Larry Cornett on Universal & Blended Search

Manoj Jasra — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:06:28 -0500

One of the most interesting sessions at this upcoming Search Engine Strategies in Chicago is going to be Universal & Blended Search. Dr. Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search is one of the top experts in the world on this subject and is also a panelist at this session in SES Chicago. Last week I had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Cornett to get his insight on blended search and to get a better understanding of Yahoo's future in this area.

[Manoj]: As with textual search, Universal search will continue to improve amongst the search engines. Are there specific things Yahoo wants to address in regards to the user experience with its search offering?

[Larry Cornett]: Yahoo! is committed to providing the best search experience to our users. We are constantly looking at new ways of incorporating different types of content into our search results. A great example is Yahoo! SearchMonkey, which lets any publisher enhance their search results. This technology can be implemented by multimedia publishers who wish to have specifically stylized search results, which showcase the Yahoo! Search engine results page.

In addition to SearchMonkey, Yahoo! Search has also introduced multimedia integration including video, audio and photos (see below) directly into the search results, allowing consumers to get their answer -- whether it's a Web link, photo, video or music clip -- without leaving the page.

[Manoj]: Do users interact with one type of blended search element (i.e: images or video or text or news) better than others, if so why?

[Larry Cornett]: We have already seen good user interaction with our SearchMonkey enhanced listings. Our tests uncovered that users found this blending of structured data to be useful. In fact, in some cases, we saw a lift in click-through rate of as high as 15 percent. We believe that this enriched search experience helps users get directly to the answer they're seeking.

[Manoj]: What did you think of Ask.com's search interface before they changed it back to more of a common search results pages. We thought the uniqueness might help attract more searches.

[Larry Cornett]: I don’t want to comment specifically on what our competitors are doing, but what I will say is that we are entering a period of massive change to enable search engines to handle more complex content on the Web as content continues to grow, change, diversify and fragment. At the same time, users are performing increasingly sophisticated and open-ended tasks online, connecting broadly to content and services across the Web. Given these changes, all search engines are becoming more sophisticated and the simple search result page of ten blue text links is evolving to help address these complex tasks. At Yahoo! our aim is to define the intent of the consumer when they are in search.

From a SERP interface perspective we are doing this through Yahoo! SearchMonkey, as I described earlier, which lets publishers creates more useful and visually appealing Yahoo! Search results which will drive more relevant traffic to their sites. For a user’s perspective instead of just seeing a Wikipedia link and a snippet, you could call back to Wikipedia and show a photo, get more context about the article, maybe even present some of the external links or the edit history, whatever the publisher wants to do to enhance the result. A Yahoo! Local business listing could put structured information about itself as part of the result, like a photo of the store front and its main line number. Yahoo! SearchMonkey empowers publishers to customize the search experience to help user find what they want easily and the increased relevance of the result can drive traffic to publishers sites.

In addition Yahoo! is differentiating our search experience by providing a safe search experience for our users with SearchScan. The SearchScan feature from Yahoo! Search provides a seamless way for users to search the web with confidence by reducing the risk of visiting dangerous sites on the Web with no download or fee required. It works by filtering out or alerts users to sites with possible spyware downloads, hacking risks, or sites that generate email spam.

[Manoj]: According to comScore, Google has continued to get stronger in search market share in the last year. What do the other engines have to do in order to maintain and grow their own markets?

[Larry Cornett]: Yahoo! is committed to providing an open, relevant search experience that understands the users’ intent. That said, we have recently launched a service called Yahoo! Search BOSS – an open Web services platform that offers developers and companies the chance to create and launch Web-scale search products by utilizing the same infrastructure, technology and index that powers Yahoo! Search. BOSS fosters search innovation by enabling developers and companies to disrupt the search landscape by building their own world-class search experiences.

Yahoo! is looking to fragment the search market, create an equal opportunity for all players, and expand the Y! Search advertising network through unprecedented access to our search infrastructure. By creating this new ecosystem for search, we may see changes in our market share, but largely at our competitors’ expense.

With BOSS, you can build your own search engine – one that recognizes the difference between blogs, user reviews, news and shopping sites, and clusters results accordingly. Developers and companies can use BOSS to create a more social search engine, in which rankings are determined by a users’ social graph and combined with newsfeed results, or conduct a visual search to present thumbnails of the Web pages instead of links, making it more user-friendly for non-savvy searchers. Essentially, BOSS will enable a range of fundamentally different search experiences for companies big and small.

[Manoj]: How is the search experience at Yahoo different than Google?

[Larry Cornett]: Yahoo! has spent a lot of time and research creating a new search experience for our users. One of the things we know from our research is that our users struggle when they are searching on an unfamiliar topic. They often don’t even know how to start their search. So in October 2007, we launched a significant new feature roll-out, which includes Yahoo! Search Assist and enhanced Yahoo! Shortcuts.

Search Assist (see below) essentially helps users overcome one of their key pain points, which is how to craft an effective query. As they begin to type their query or their keyword into the box, it suggests other keywords that might be related to what they’re typing. It also provides them the correct spelling of those keywords. And after they’ve conducted their initial search, Search Assist actually suggests related concepts based on their query to help them follow the right path to get the job done.

We know from our research that another pain point for users is that search engines often don’t provide the ultimate answer. They only help them down the path of finding the answer. And what we want to do at Yahoo! is actually start to begin to deliver what they really need within the search experience. So we’re not just focused on the process of searching but really on the act of finding. And to that end, we have also introduced enhanced Yahoo! Shortcuts (see below) that actually deliver the most relevant information that our users are seeking for particular types of searches.

So for example, if you type in the name of a movie at the very top of the search results page you get a link to a video trailer. You get local show times in your area, a link to a deeper description of that movie as well as reviews from critics and other Yahoo! users, right there at the top of the search results page. We’re trying to deliver the most relevant information to our users immediately following their search to help make their job easier.

We know that this is resonating with users, as Yahoo! was voted No. 1 in Search Assistance & Suggestions, according to a Dec. 2007 Keynote Systems study, “Keynote Customer Experience Rankings: Search”.

=========================================================

Dr. Larry Cornett is the vice president of the Yahoo! Search consumer products division. In this capacity, he is primarily responsible for the Yahoo! web search experience and heads up a multinational team of product managers, designers, and developers focused on creating a world-class search experience.

Comments

Pubcon: SEO Strategies Various Companies Have Employed

Navneet Kaushal — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:42:38 -0500

This session had the various speakers highlighting the SEO/SEM strategy their companies have employed, the challenges they have faced in the field as well as the areas that need to be worked upon.

Moderator:

Joseph Morin

Speakers:

Melanie Mitchell, Vice President of Marketing, Foliofn Investments, Inc
Dave Roth, Director of Search Engine Marketing, Yahoo! Inc
Derrick Wheeler, Senior Search Engine Optmization Architect, Microsoft
Maile Ohye, Senior Support Engineer, Google

Melanie Mitchell, who worked first at AOL sometime earlier this year, was the first speaker. Search, she said was good, because it made the consumer in control of content. She emphasized that search is only one part of SEO. A few case studies were presented to show how offline marketing may affect online sales.

Dave Roth spoke next. He started out by asserting that Yahoo is involved in marketing because of its tremendous marketing potential. They do paid search, organic search and affiliate search. He pointed out that while working with SEO, they interact with search product managers but are hampered by the fact that do not speak to the engineers. As a result, they are not knowledgeable about the algorithms used, particularly CTR by position algorithms.

SEM in Yahoo has a lot of properties which makes it challenging. First of all there is the sheer variety of businesses- subscriptions, downloads, some are e-commerce, some are lead gens and some are display ad revenue.

He spoke about Life Time Value metric, which helps them measure these businesses. It enables them to calculate the value of a conversion for a subscription, referral, CPC/CPM, etc. and to determine the net present value of their lifetime revenue stream.

To figure out what opportunity Yahoo has in SEM, the company created a predictive model, based on click and search data. This enabled Yahoo to determine its position vis-a-vis the competition. The model told the company how much a click was worth for it. Yahoo was able to clearly see the competitive gap and thus direct its SEO/SEM strategy.

Instead of adopting a fix-it strategy, Yahoo decided to make SEO part of the product/website development process. They came up with 6 different check points for the process.
He however commented that Paid Search Execution is easier. The decisions involve choosing between house versus outsource, build or buy, etc. Usually, Yahoo wants a slice of each pie.

The company standardizes a seemingly complicated workflow document. Subsequently, they come up with a marketing scorecard for all their businesses. This provides them with the information needed to decide where to move money. Done weekly, this process enables them to keep an eye on all businesses. Further, they make use of an SEO dashboard track workings at the VP level.

Derrick Wheeler was the next speaker. He mentioned that although he is lower down in the SEO hierarchy, he is involved in and familiar with the entire process.
Microsoft, he said is not a single site but comprises of hundreds of individual web sites. Besides Windows, Microsoft has to look after micro sites and directories such as microsoft.com/australia. Optimization is carried out on a site by site basis, which however brings problems. They currently have 9 CMSs.

While they have been consistently working to make their sites search engine friendly, the work is made challenging by the fact that they have 100 billion plus URLs to deal with. The fact that Google and Yahoo have fewer pages than Microsoft, has structural issues they need to fix.

Three levels of SEO:

Sitewide SEO initiative
SEO at the level of individual web sites
Page level SEO.

Surprisingly, Microsoft does not know how much traffic it owes to organic and paid search separately. Besides determining this, the company is attempting to make the metrics they use uniform for all sites. Besides carrying out training worldwide, Microsoft has had to build internal tools as some standard SEO tools aren't compatible with Microsoft.

Microsoft's SEO strategy has focused on :

Reduction of undesirable pages (big issue for Microsoft)
Minimizing use of redirects
Incorrect error handling
Unorganized structure of subsidiary content
Inferior quality page titles and meta tags

The speaker vehemently asserted that SEO should focus on structure, content and authority. Microsoft has made its own spider which is being used to crawl its website in order to zero in on the problems their search engine is currently facing.

He went on to throw light on the 6 Site Level SEO steps Microsoft has taken:

Business Outcomes and Metrics.
Keyword Research.
Carrying out a structural and technical audit.
Content editing for keyword incorporation.
Link building tactics.
Focusing on outgoing optimization.

Maile Ohye from Google was the last speaker. He praised YouTube for its SEO, bringing out the fact that gives each video a unique URL, a different title and a relevant description. Ohye also commented on its excellent navigation features and search effectiveness.
Subsequently, he spoke about an SEO starter guide, Google had come up with. This is the guide internally used by the company, and it has recently been made available to the world at large.

Ohye concluded the speech and the session by advising SEO sites to act responsibly and concentrate on value.

Comments

Pubcon: Brett Tabke's 26 Steps To 15k a Day

Navneet Kaushal — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:38:26 -0500

There's no need to introduce Brett Tabke's '26 Steps To 15k a Day'. The page, that was posted almost seven years ago, has had nearly 29 million page views and 15 million unique visitors. It has also been used as a training manual by numerous Fortune 100 companies. In this interactive session, Brett gives an insight at the controversial issues that the post had raised and how the relevance of this webpage posted in 2002 transcends to present times.

Moderator:

Brett Tabke

Speakers:

Brett Tabke,
CEO,
WebmasterWorld.com

Brett started out with some stats on the famous '26 Steps' Webpage. Some of his Webpage's achievements:

29 million page views.
5 million uniques.
200 copies over the web.
290 cease and desists have been issued so far.
It is the first chapter in Google Hacks. The post is owned by O'reily now.
Total income generated is $500 paid by O'reily for Google Hacks Book.
The webpage features 10,000 thousands back links.

One by one, Brett went over all of the points he wrote in the webpage back in 2002 and discussed over the same with the audience. Back then, Brett had written that it was enough for the initial document to have 100 pages. However, he said, now the number should be around 500.

The posts are not really supposed to be about SEO, but more about content, traffic and building a sustainable website. On asking the audience regarding their experience with website having less that 100 pages, most say that they (the experiences) haven't been satisfactory.

Regarding the domain name, Brett said that the domain name game is now much more complicated than ever and one can have a TLD (Top Level Domain) of his own.

About Site design, Brett stated that the criteria was and still is that the simpler the better. The advent of the iPhone has further confirmed on the notion. It is imperative that now every website is designed keeping the compatibility with mobile devices in mind. One has to adapt all current designs to iPhones.

Static sites are seemingly going extinct and there's simply no point in building up sites in HTML. But the most important thing was, is and will continue to be content. Content should have its purpose and not be there just for the sake of existence. Quality content cannot be substituted.

Matt Tuens added here that content was the main reason that Search Engines were created. One should ensure a certain degree of stickiness in their websites since people are too busy to go to twenty different sites. You can do the same by simply creating one site that could be the 'go to' site.

Brett moved on to the topic of user generated content. The reliance on UCG is a thing of past now. Back in 2002, outbound links were considered a delicate issue since each site was as good as to the ones they were linked to. Even now, Search Engines judge on the same criterion. One could practice cross linking to boost up PageRank on lesser value pages.

Shared hosting is unthinkable now for the simple fact that costs have dropped drastically and everyone can have a server of their own. About regular log tracking softwares, Brett stated that his team uses one they have created on their own and displayed the wide variation it shows from the results of other packages.

Many CMS (Content Management Systems) are still not spider friendly and this can be a major bottleneck in your SEO objectives. Ensuring that you are in the right directories is still a good way to enhance traffic. With the users becoming more web savvy than ever, gimmicks are still a hit. People tend to negate the importance of options, such as 'e-mail a friend'. These are still as valuable as they were earlier.

Targeted content is the key now. Smart content can get your business places. Matt Tuens goes on to elaborate on 'smart content'. You have to understand that everyone is trying to criticize and judge your content. Give information that your demography is looking for instead of irrelevant garbage just to get a good ranking, otherwise you will incur losses on sales, credibility and overall business in spite of a good ranking.

Comments

Linking Out Can Be A Valuable Marketing Strategy

Peter Da Vanzo — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:22:26 -0500

Linking out is a valuable marketing strategy on a number of levels.

It increases the utility of your site. People will see you as being helpful. People will see you as non-partisan i.e. not always favoring your own stuff. Webmasters may see your inbound link in their logs and follow them back to you. Links are, at the most fundamental level, a connection between people.

If you've read something about the HITS algorithm (.pdf), you may have noticed that HITS looks for, and evaluates, both authority and hub pages. i.e. pages that contain multiple links out to authority pages. HITS stands for "hypertext induced topic selection", and, like PageRank, is concerned with link graph analysis.

HITS uses two values for each page, the authority value and the hub value.

"Hubs and authorities exhibit what could be called a mutually reinforcing relationship: a good hub is a page that points to many good authorities; a good authority is a page that is pointed to by many good hubs...An authority value is computed as the sum of the scaled hub values that point to that page. A hub value is the sum of the scaled authority values of the pages it points to. Relevance of the linked pages is also considered in some implementations."

How much is HITS being used? Mike Grehan, a noted world authority on search marketing, and girly drinker of Merlot (Hi Mike! - hows NY?), had this to say after interviewing Daniel Dulitz from Google:

Simply for this reason (and these are purely my own thoughts and opinions): I believe that PageRank has always been flawed. I believe that Kleinberg's HITS algorithm (and the variations on it), being closer to subject specific, provides more relevant results. A few years ago when Teoma was launched, there were lots of comparisons made about Jon Kleinberg's HITS algorithm. What many people didn't realise was, Kleinberg's algorithm had suffered its own problems: Namely "topic drift" and "run time analysis" delays. Monica Henzinger, now head of research at Google, played a major role in developing solutions to the "topic drift" problem (curiously enough by introducing a little element of PageRank in the recipe). But the "run time analysis" problem remained. In simple terms, the results from the HITS algorithm were more relevant, but they took an eternity (in web search expectation time) to compute.

Has Google rolled hub analysis into Google? Who knows. Whilst it is generally agreed that linking out currently doesn't have direct ranking advantages, linking out provides a number of marketing benefits that can, in turn, lead to higher rankings.

Some people fear that by linking out, there is less PageRank available to spread amongst your own internal pages. Whilst this may be the case, link hoarding is unlikely to win you many friends. Unless you're running an established brand, or you buy all your links, you're going to need friends to link to you in the first place.

Let's look at ten linking out marketing strategies.

1. Hey, I'm Here!

By linking out to a site, you you announce your presence to the owner of that site. Webmasters often follow back links to see who is linking to them. Simple enough, right.

Take it a step further.

When you link out, give the person a good reason to link back to you. Think about ways to add value to their site when they link sites to yours. This could be in the form of a great review, or praise, or a quote.

2. Become A Hub

Google is the ultimate hub.

Google has made a fortune by sending people away from Google. It's counter intuitive, but it works because if you provide sufficient utility, people will bookmark you and keep coming back.

No one person has all the answers. If you provide people with answers, even if those answers aren't on your site, people will still see that you provide value. Time spent on your site may actually increase as people bounce back and forth to find more information.

You may also be perceived as an authority, in a wider sense, even if you lack the content, simply by helping people find the answers they seek.

Consistency matters. Blogs that create new posts regularly will more likely be considered hubs, at very least by their readers, whilst dead blogs - not so much.

3. The Contrarian

Is everyone in you niche saying the same thing? Try going against the grain. Stand out.

"SEO sucks! It's useless! It does not work, and everyone who practicies it is clearly an idiot!".

Contrarian, right. At very least, you should create some lively debate!

Being contraian works because, by definition, it stands out. If you link out to individuals whilst being contrarian, you invite them to counter your arguments. Often, they'll do so by commenting and linking back. Google doesn't care if a link is negative or positive. A link is a link.

4. Praise Be

People love being praised.

It's one of those simple human connections. It also invokes a feeling of reciprocation.

Do so using links.

5. Give Forward

Try to give forward well in advance of when/if you need to ask a favor, otherwise reciprocation becomes a straight swap, and may be evaluated purely in terms of relative advantage.

Build up the link karma. One step at a time.

6. Ego

People look for their names. They ego search.

They also may see their names in links if they are evaluating keywords in the link text pointing to their site. Who wouldn't be curious to see that not only is their name being mentioned, but that name is also mentioned in the link?

7. Flame

Nothing sells like controversy, especially when it becomes personal, so it can be worthwhile, in terms of link development, to flame people. Be very careful, though. You risk damaging your reputation and credibility, and you'll certainly burn bridges.

Best to only flame people who truly deserve it :)

8. Deep Research

By linking to deep, academic research, you are more likely to be perceived as an authority by association.

Always be on the lookout for obscure academic research. This type of content isn't often marketed, as commercialization was not a primary consideration. Also, this research might not show up at all, because it exists in the deep web, beyond the reach of spiders. Not only do you increase utility to your visitors, and become a valuable hub, you may also be seen in search results for queries concerning that unreachable document.

Combining multiple deep citations, and/or formatting the information for easier consumption, can help make people want to cite you.

For example, "Hey I saw your great post about x and I made this image to help me better understand the concepts...do you think this is ok?"

9 Non-Typical

If you graphed the web, the link graph does not look like a group of planets, floating isolated in space. It looks like a blur of interlinked sites. Typically, a site will have a number of links pointing to it, and a number of links pointing out.

Sites that don't link out appear "exceptional" on these graphs, and probably not in a good sense. Ideally, you want to be seen as both and authority and a hub, with lots of links flowing in both directions.

10. Temporarily Extend Your Site

Linking out allows you to temporarily extend your site. You could start off with, say, a directory of resources, then look to house similar but better content on your own site later on. This way, you provide utility and start building up karma immediately, with very little effort involved.

The Open Source movement works well because it is easy for people to contribute to - so many people do! Likewise, if you do not link out, you may not become insular and disconnected. You may miss opportunities to leverage off, connect with, and build upon, the work of others.

Not linking out goes against the nature of the web, and ultimately becomes self-defeating.

Comments

Getting More Out Of Marketing Conferences

Lee Odden — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:29:38 -0500

Now, more than ever, marketing companies and consultants need to get competitive for client dollars and what better way than advancing your knowledge and your network?

There are many options for companies and agencies to train digital marketing teams and to keep tenured employees up to date including conferences such as: this week's WebmasterWorld Pubcon, Search Engine Strategies, Search Marketing Expo, numerous regional and niche events and an increasing number of web based offerings including SEMPO Institute and the DMA Search Engine Marketing Certification program. I would be remiss not to mention the upcoming "Social Media Smarts" workshop in NYC covering all aspects of social media marketing including a strategy exercise and tips on building a business case for a social media effort in your organization.

Attending conferences is not cheap when you factor the increasing price of travel and hotels as well as pre/post and conference training fees, meals and taxi. Attendees and their companies are paying $2500 - $5000 per person per conference as well as the cost of time away from the office performing billable work. It's easy to see why webinars are on the increase and why those who are fortunate to attend these events need to get the most out of them.

The most important thing that conference attendees can do to get the most out of their time at events is to set goals. Managers sending individuals to conferences should be clear about expectations. Company staff should be sure to talk with others within the organization or team that have attended the same or similar events to gain their insight.

Depending on the purpose for attending a conference, goals may vary. Here are some common goals based on the various reasons for attending any kind of marketing conference:

Knowledge - How many sessions will you attend and how will you capture the information? Notes, photos, video (where allowed) When meeting new people, discuss the sessions with them. Compare notes with other attendees, it's a great way to network and to get other opinions. Before the conference, make a grid or a plan for which specific sessions you'll be attending. Often times, there is not much time between sessions and the difference between getting a good seat and standing room only can be a matter of minutes.

Networking - How many qualified prospects, marketing partners, vendors to outsource to and job candidates will you meeting? Each day, tally them up and plan how you will follow up.

Content - how will you leverage your conference experience to create new content for your company blog, articles, or process documentation? Set goals for how many youâ€™ll create each day. The content you capture and create can supply a company blog with numerous posts and show clients, staff and prospective clients that you are on top of what's happening in the industry. At TopRank, our staff are required to publish at least 3 blog posts for each day of conference attended. Set goals for how many blog posts, articles or other types of content will be created each day of the conference. It doesn't have to be all text, you can take photos of people, and presentation slides. Take videos where allowed.

Knowledge transfer - How will you pass on the information youâ've acquired to the rest of the team? At TopRank Online Marketing, our staff take the highlights and any specific tactics of use and create presentations which they share with the rest of the TopRank team. Knowing you will be required to present the information you are gaining with the team back at the office helps focus on takeaways and practical interpretations of the new information.

Socialize - Where there's a conference, there's a party. After hours events are exceptional opportunities for conference attendees to relax, network and share information. Make no mistake, post session networking can be an art form. Make a point to relax and have fun, but be clear about objectives and make a goal of attending a dinner each night of the event if possible. Some dinners are a tradition amongst long time friends, some are sponsored by vendors and some are at hoc events that occur as a result of like minded individuals wanting to continue the day's discussion.

As you can see, there are many more opportunities to get value from marketing conference participation than keeping up to date with an industry. Pre conference goal setting and planning, well defined processes as well as follow up and post event knowledge sharing can all multiple the value organizations realize by sending employees to educational events.

Not all organizations are positioned to take full advantage of these insights, but through simple analysis, it can become clear pretty quickly how much is being left on the table or to competitors who are sending the same numbers of people and incurring the same costs.

Understand the conference offerings, set goals and make the time to pre-plan conference involvement. Leverage content creation, networking, recruiting, competitive intelligence as well as prospecting opportunities and industry conferences can move pretty quickly from an expense with an uncertain effect to an investment with multiples of return.

Comments

Using Social Media To Help Your Business Grow

Scott Clark — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:05:05 -0500

First let me say that I'm 100% against any form of spamming or overt promotion of products or services on Yahoo! answers or any other network. This article is about adding real value to those networks before anything else.

Goal: Connecting Your Expertise With Those Who Need It - Fast and Without Noise.

When an expert provides solid, authentic responses as answers in Q&A networks such as Yahoo! Answers, LinkedIN answers, Experts Exchange and similar sites, they can enhance their reputation, drive visitors a site or blog, produce content, build a brand and ultimately drive real sales.

A Little Bit About Q/A Social Sites

Being one of the first two answers to any relevant question can substantially improve the chances of being voted a "best answer" and being read by more interested people. So fast is good.

If your answer is good (duh!) fewer will bother to answer the question, and you'll have a better chance of being the "best" answer everyone reads.
Few people read more than a couple of answers + the best answer. Being at the top means you'll get the attention.
People are more likely to vote you up because you're above the fold, and plainly, the best answer :-)

TIP: On Yahoo! Answers you can answer quickly, and then "edit" your answer to fill in the details. As of this writing that will secure your position in the answers.

Flipping The Funnel

Answering consumer questions is a solid investment of time, but there are ways to make technology work for you and reduce the amount of work it requires to monitor your particular niche. This post is about using such technology to isolate just those consumers who need you and eliminate the other noise.

Keep in mind that answering questions does not just speak to the single person who asked the question, but also for the dozens or hundreds of people who will encounter the response sooner or later. You are using your answers as precision authentic content and offering it to people online.

Cutting Through The Noise

Yahoo! Answers is a horrribly "noisy" environment at times. You'll see questions like these all the time: "Where can I get a free _______" and "I need a cheap or free ______" and they are often out-of-category. Manually monitoring Yahoo! answers is tedious and often makes one lose faith in the human race :-) - so we'll filter that stuff out and lift you above your competition.

So we will use several services to slice, dice, and deliver only the Yahoo! answers you care about to the destination of your choice, 24×7, without your intervention. You can then skim this distilled list and answer the questions.

The Tools

In this example, I will utilize three services (and one optional add-on.)

Yahoo! Answers to find the questions (this could be any Q/A site with RSS)
ZapTXT and their awesome new version to send you notifications via SMS (text message) or email.
(You can use other similar services if you choose, such as Google alerts, etc.)
Vertical Response Email Marketing
Twitter for ping marketing.
Google Talk Instant Messaging (Any IM works)
My mobile phone (to get SMS messages)

Let's get Started!

1. Set up a Yahoo! Account (if you don't already have one) - you'll need it for Yahoo! Answers and Yahoo! Pipes. Make sure to save your username and password - Yahoo! is hard to recover. I recommend you consider setting your business name as your yahoo account (and for other social profiles too) in this case.

2. Set up an email list. In the case of my client, the subject matter was related to horse wounds, so they should set up an email list called "This Week in Equine First Aid" or "What's New in Horse Wound Care." This list will be the touch point over time that keeps your brand in the consumer's mind. Vertical Response email marketing tool is excellent for this purpose.

3. Set up a custom landing page on your website for Yahoo! Answer Traffic. The goal of this page is twofold. One, get people on your email list and two, offer them your product. Ideally the page would also have a "share with friend" and some amazingly good content. If the visitor leaves without buying anything or signing up for your mailing list, you probably won't see them again.

You can use an existing web page for this but I don't recommend it. A purpose built page will work twice as well!

TIP: Don't forget Twitter! You can ask them for their twitter id or simply to follow your business. Then you can draw attention to new questions being answered through that channel as well.

4. Visit http://answers.yahoo.com and drill-down (using the Categories) to the closest niche to your business. For my example, I'm going to use a client in the equine industry, WoundAde, who sells a product that increases the speed of healing for horse wounds.

Once you've landed on the proper category, scroll down and RIGHT CLICK "RSS" and select "copy link" or "copy link location" - this puts the RSS address in your clipboard. You're going to need that shortly.

5. Visit ZapTXT.com and click on "Get Started"Zaptxt is an awesome cool new service that monitors, filters, and triggers alerts all from RSS feeds. It then intelligently sends alerts to whatever device is available or according to your specific times. ZapTxt works with almost all IM clients (MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, GTalk and Skype) - I personally like using it with Gtalk because it also runs on the iphone/Blackberry.

6. Set up a "ZapTask"
Add the keywords you want to search for (just use one for now)
I entered: "wound" (for now)
Paste the URL for the Yahoo RSS feed into the "Website/Feed to monitor"
I pasted http://answers.yahoo.com/rss/catq?sid=2115500432

8. Click on "next step"

9. Name your filter
I used "Yahoo Answers - Horse Wounds" as the name - remember you may add more sources later.

10. Set up your FilterNow we're going to expand the set of keywords that will be filtered from the feed. We started out with "wound" but that was just a temporary measure. Using the ‘advanced search' on ZapTXT, you will enter your full set of words. This set may expand or contract later.

Select "Advanced Search"
Enter the keywords to filter for in the "with at least one of these words" section.
I used "wound skin flesh infection scrape cuts cut gash sores wounds"
Enter any "negative" phrases in the "without the words" section.
I used "cutting cutter" (a type of horse)

11. Adjust your notification settings
This will depend on how you want to be notified. Remember, timing is everything, so I recommend instant message or SMS.

12: Optional/Recommended: Grab Your Filtered Stream as RSS If you use an RSS reader such as iGoogle + RSS Gadget, Bloglines, Google Reader, or Klipfolio, you can get a feed for the FILTERED stream coming from Yahoo! answers delivered as a regular RSS feed. This is great if you want to share the feed with others or possibly even re-publish it! Back on the ZapTasks list, just choose the zaptask that you want to get over RSS, Just click on the RSS logo and voila!:

13. WHEW!!!!

Okay, now you will begin to receive notifications of Yahoo! Questions that include the keywords you consider yourself an expert on. When these come in, you can visit Yahoo! Answers and begin to establish yourself as the "person who knows everything about ____________" online. People will wonder if you spend all day inside of Yahoo Answers :-)

14. NOW… Get To Answering Questions

Your answers on Yahoo! should be well thought out, researched, and posted rather quickly. You should include, on every post, a link to the "custom" web page we referred to earlier. But the "feeling" of every question should be more like "word of mouth" wisdom than a canned corporate answer. Be yourself, be helpful, authentic and transparent - don't get dragged down into unproductive time sinks.) If you're lucky, you'll get asked to participate in articles and blog posts that are relevant to your own business (we filtered, remember!)

Optional TIP: If your domain is lame, use a custom domain name for this page (most registrars will let you forward a domain to any web page.) Example: If you are answering questions about 57 Chevys, consider registering "57ChevyAnswers.com", forwarding it to your landing page, and using that in your Yahoo! Answers link.

15. Use your growing asset to grow your bottom line!

Soon, you'll start to notice traffic on that page, and people signing up for your emails. After your email list gets 40-50 people, you can start your weekly newsletter. This becomes a great way to increase traffic, blog readership, and sales TIP: Google Alerts or RSS is your best friend for getting newsletter content.

CAUTION: Sadly, here's where a lot of people will go wrong. They get impatient. They'll start sending out spammy offers and the customers will start unsubscribing. You must not do this. The information to sales ratio of the email campaigns should be 8:1 or 10:1.

Digital Marketing and ROI - Attract, Retain and Convert

Jim Hedger — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:04:15 -0500

“psst… Hey buddy, ya wanna chant a mantra?”

I have a simple three word mantra that cuts to the heart of successful website promotion. If you are ever asked to describe the essence of digital marketing in three words, use these ones. Attract, Retain, Convert.

The search and Internet marketing sector has been a defining presence in the digital marketing space for over a decade. Most search marketing firms of note have been around long enough to understand the digitalization of all things media. For advertisers, the media is the medium in that its the places advertisers spread their messages.

What used to be the media; billboards, handbills, newspapers, radio and television is now (or soon to be), every surface imaginable. Four years ago, my father treated me to a Blue Jays game at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Our first-base line tickets gave us a great view of the left-field outfield fence in which a series of massive screens scrolled through ads. These screens were embedded in the outfield fence and built to take the punishment of a 225lb athlete running headlong into them in pursuit of a long fly ball. Even more interesting, the ads tended not to repeat themselves. They were being drawn from what must have been a massive database of digital messages.

We are rapidly moving towards the digital personalization of advertising, much like Google and Yahoo! serve text ads based on user behaviours. A few years from now when you are waiting for a bus, the digital access device you’re using might be fed ads generated by your personal proximity to that particular bus stop. Imagine if those screens at Rogers Centre could be programmed that way. Now, imagine if the ads in the bus or on the subway changed based on the proximity of unique observers. The proximity of web-capable devices sending specific consumer information to the database of ads. Heck, if Google can do it for web surfing, why can’t the digital signal providers do it for subscribers? They can and in some baby-step ways they already are. Digital advertising is increasingly relying on the laws of proximate attraction.

Attraction, Digital Marketing and ROI
The first law of digital marketing is the law of attraction. Because digital marketers know far more about their prospective audience than traditional marketers did, it is far easier to put messages in front of consumers who are truly interested in the product being advertised. It is also far easier for those consumers to find information about products through search engines and social media.

In traditional media channels, the onus was on the advertisers to create compelling images and copy to attract the attention of consumers. That part of the equation has not changed. What has changed is the number of channels or venues available to marketers in a digital age, and how marketers are better able to use consumer information to push messages to consumers.

On the Internet, well designed websites, social media campaign and destination pages are essential to providing an attractive, compelling and generally helpful environment for the consumer to visit. Online advertisers have a larger tool chest available to them to craft and deliver their messages. The art of attraction is actually easier today than ever before though the number of attractive options for advertisers can appear to be overwhelming. Because digital marketing is far less expensive than traditional marketing, a lower investment of hard dollars is required for entry thus making a return on that investment simpler to realize.

Retention and ROI in Digital Marketing
Attraction is one thing, retention is quite another. Digital marketers have one major disadvantage not faced by their traditional media predecessors. In a digital age, the attention span of consumers has declined precipitously. Internet consumers have become conditioned to receiving the information they are looking for instantly and have no problem moving from one website to another to find it.

For digital marketers, this presents design and layout concerns in that we have less time to get the meat of a message to the consumer than in print or even on television. Retention of that attention span is incredibly important.

Have you ever noticed the increasing number of simple games appearing in banner ads or on websites? How about flashy video, moving avatars or audio ads triggered by a page visit? These are all methods used to capture and retain a site visitor’s attention. If you can keep them for five seconds (as the common thinking goes), you can keep them for minutes at a time. Minutes of undivided attention, however rare that might be, is not what we’re aiming at. What we want is for site visitors to find reasons to keep coming back to our clients’ sites. Unique visitor retention is a key to changing a visitor into a convert, someone who performs a useful task (like buying something) on a website.

Conversion and ROI
There are three parts to a typical sale; the opening, the offer and the close. In a digital environment, attraction is the opening, retention is the offer and conversion is the close. What constitutes a “conversion” is unique to the goals of any given website but the general definition is, “… making a website visitor perform specific tasks.” Those tasks might be the purchase of an item, a sign-up for a program, the offer of their email address or even clicking through to view another message. Whatever the goals, it is the job of digital marketers to motivate the site visitor to take the action that creates the conversion.

Good search and Internet marketers understand that design and usability are key components in creating conversions. Offering attractive information is great but less than useful if there is no compelling Call to Action present on the page or if those calls to action are not seen by site visitors. Experienced digital marketers are very good at crafting clever calls to action and designing web documents to feature those calls as prominently as possible. In a digital environment, conversions are the bottom line, the part of the equation in which a true return on investment is realized.

Attract, Retain, Convert
Digital marketing is the way it is. In the coming years, what we see as traditional advertising channels will be fed by digital databases. Given the difficult economic conditions faced by businesses around the world at this time, finding methods of communicating with consumers that offer easily measured and highly accurate analytics is the key to seeing actual returns on dollars invested in advertising. Search and Internet marketing are the fastest growing advertising channels for a reason. Because the entry costs are low and the consumers businesses want to reach are using digital devices more than traditional media (print, radio and television), online advertisers using search and social media are finding far stronger returns on investment.

All media is now digital. To sum up; we see the future and it is us.

Digital Marketing and ROI - Digital Marketing Choices

Jim Hedger — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:25:30 -0500

“I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half.”, John Wanamaker 1838 - 1922, founder of the first American department stores and 35th US Postmaster General.

John Wanamaker lived in a gilded age that many think was much simpler than ours today. For a person of Wanamaker’s talents and ambitions however, the late 1800’s and early 1900’s would have presented challenges and difficulties left far behind in the age of digital marketing. The memorable quote attributed to him opening this post illustrates problems posed by traditional print, radio and television advertising.

It’s all about moving messages. Momentum in and of itself is the answer. The real question advertisers must ask is; “Who get’s it?” There is only one group of modern marketers who can give a true and thorough response to that question, digital marketers.

By and large, there are three ways to get information to large groups of people. Traditional advertising channels (print, radio and television) resemble a burst of grapeshot from a cannon in which an enormous number of projectiles are used to hit as many targets as possible on a broad field. Some projectiles will hit targets while most others will miss entirely. The shotgun effect.

A second means of passing information is person to person; mouth to ear to mouth to ear. Ideas can spread throughout a community like a virus, hence the name Viral Marketing. This is an especially effective method for moving simple, compact ideas but at some point messages break down to gibberish, just as they do in the “telephone game”.

A third method, digital marketing, has emerged over the past decade. Using the Internet and World Wide Web as their medium, digital marketing combines the best of the traditional and viral marketing while overcoming their shortcomings. Because each individual’s online activities can be tracked, marketers and advertisers are now able to directly target specific groups and unique consumers while keeping the integrity of their messaging intact. Digital marketing is a series of laser beams. Digital marketers who know how to focus those beams can do so with uncanny accuracy.

As illustrated in part one of this series, the digital age has rewritten the rules of marketing. Businesses of all sizes are moving vast ad-spends away from print, radio and television and repositioning their efforts towards the Internet. This is the reason the quality of your daily newspaper is receding and why television now relies so heavily on reality type productions instead of professionally produced programming. It’s is also why Google reported revenues of $5.54 billion in the third quarter of 2008.

Business owners know they need to use the Internet as an effective advertising and marketing tool. Entry and campaign costs are radically lower and more easily sustained, professional digital marketers can ensure messages are seen by truly interested eyeballs, and at the end of each day; analytic and reporting tools provide clear answers to Wanamaker’s ad-spend quandary. Digital marketers know exactly which parts of an ad-spend budget are effective and which are not. They can quickly move to eliminate non-effective efforts and re-purpose that energy to draw bang from every buck.

It is easy to suggest someone focus their advertising energies online. A much harder trick is advising them on how to best focus those energies. There are a lot of digital marketing channels to choose from and each business has its own unique set of needs and circumstances. This is where the studied advice of experienced digital marketers becomes crucial.

Just over a month ago, Minnesotan public relations expert Lee Odden wrote a poll asking professional digital marketers which internet marketing tactics they thought would be emphasized most in the next six months. The survey listed 41 digital marketing tactics and prompted respondents to choose the three they felt their firms would put the most energy into.

Unsurprisingly, Search Engine Optimization came in first place with 36% of respondents indicating SEO was likely to be the most important online advertising channel. Blogging came a close second at 33% and Pay per Click (PPC) advertising came third with 26%. These three marketing channels, which are the mainstay services offered by search marketing firms, tend to offer the strongest returns on monies invested by the advertiser.

Search engine optimization is a fairly broad title for a marketing channel made up of several niche tasks. SEO primarily involves taking a preexisting website (or creating a website) and making improvements on it to better its rankings in search engine results. SEO also involves improving the look and feel of the website in a bid to increase the number of successful user-interactions or conversions realized by that website. More clicks equals more site visitors. Attention to the wants of those visitors, as demonstrated by their on-page behaviours, tends to equal far stronger conversions which always equals far stronger ROI.

Blogging is the art of doing exactly what you are reading now. Blogging is content creation and content creation is an important part of SEO but it’s a bit more than that as well. Bloggers are often the public face of the companies they work for. Many corporate bloggers develop followings, readers who begin to subscribe to their blogs in order to read their writing. Blogging is, by far, the most effective and flexible method of keeping lines of communications constantly open between businesses and large numbers of consumers.

Pay per Click (PPC) marketing is the scientific art of creating and bidding on those text-based ads which appear alongside search engine results or on contextually relevant web-documents. In Q3-08, Google’s pay per click advertising and ad-distribution program, AdWords, accounted for almost 99% of their reported $5.54 Billion in quarterly revenues. PPC is an incredibly cost-effective marketing channel in that advertisers only pay when their text-ads are clicked on. Because each click can be tracked and the behaviours of all site-visitors analyzed, non-converting clicks become learning experiences for savvy digital marketers. Over a short period of time, professional digital marketers can deliver increasingly stronger ROI.

The fourth place result, Email marketing (22%) is at first glance somewhat surprising given the abysmally low open-rates email marketers report and the relatively high chance of offending consumers with advertisements that could easily be considered spam. It makes more sense when one considers how mindbogglingly inexpensive it

Digital Marketing and ROI - The Rules Rewritten

Jim Hedger — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:14:55 -0400

All media is now digital. Holdouts which have not yet converted are desperately trying to figure out how to make the transition happen. As of February 2009, television signals will only be broadcast digitally; a leap necessitated by the immutable laws of physics, economics and government.

For similar reasons, all advertising is going digital. Even the billboards. All great advertising of this age has a digital element. It has to. Advertising is after all, the primary motivating force behind (and often in front of) all media.

Digital media is amazing. It is relatively easy to produce and even easier to share. Search engines and social media networks have opened a world of experience to approximately 1/3 of the world’s population. That’s a surreal number of people sharing a daily digital environment. The most interesting thing about them, from a digital advertiser’s perspective is; each click can be tracked, analyzed and evaluated. We are learning exactly how to target ads to specific consumers and thus have a far higher chance of converting those consumers than previous generations of marketers did.

The rules of media are being rewritten.

The first and most important rules of any media are, write for your audience and present where the audience actually is. People are increasingly finding their information and entertainment online. Though subscriptions to newspapers are declining, visitor numbers at online newspapers are growing rapidly. Similarly, more than 50% of US television viewers now use their computers or monitors as their primary access point to their television shows. In August, YouTube drove more search traffic than Yahoo! did.

The second rules of media involve getting your messages to as wide an interested audience as possible. Using online advertising channels, businesses can reach far more people at a far lower cost. It is much easier to create and “transmit” a website, a flash animation, or even an A/V file. The growing audience is easier able to find information specific to their interests and needs due to the very nature of digital media. Digital media tends to enable (and rely on) user-choice interactions. At search engines, users input keywords and phrases to find information. In social media, users push and receive information to and from their personal networks. This interaction makes it simpler for advertisers to put information in places people who are interested (those who entered a specific search term or are part of a greater network) can easily access it such as beside or within search results. Digital interaction enormously lowers costs.

Lastly, the third rules of media involve the rules of evolution. The media adapts to the medium. The Internet has become the backbone of communication. Media is about communications. Adaptation is necessary to prevent decapitation as the two examples below demonstrate.

Earlier today the founder of Craigslist, Craig Newmark, was interviewed on WebmasterRadio.fm. His speaking voice is surprisingly slow and mellow, very unlike the frantic dot-com luminary I was expecting to hear. A man of many accomplishments, Craig Newmark’s greatest one (to date) has led to the unintended destruction of the local daily newspaper. As a result, Craigslist has, more than any other entity on the digital landscape, rewritten the rules of personal or classified advertising.

Later on this week, I will be speaking with Shuman Ghosemajumder, the “click quality czar” at Google AdWords in another WebmasterRadio interview. Another surprisingly slow speaker, Shuman is a thoughtful and analytic person. He helps run the greatest advertising marketspace in the world. Google AdWords is the program which places three-line text ads beside search engine results, in your Gmail and serves those same text-ads to web sites that contain content similar to the focus of each unique advertisement. Last week, Google reported that 99% of it’s $5.7something billion in Q3 revenues came from AdWords. Billions of dollars in advertising revenues in a three month period! Guess where that enormous ad-spend came from? Small to large businesses that formerly spent their advertising monies in print, terrestrial radio or television. More than any other entity on the digital landscape, Google has rewritten the rules of business advertising.

Craigslist and Google are arguably the two largest disrupting entities in advertising today. Both are digital and both have exercised virtually incalculable influence over the trajectory of communications in the earliest years of the 21st century. They have been so incredibly successful because they present exactly what their audience wants at a fraction of the cost of their non-digital predecessors. Imagine the aggregate costs of all the newspapers, phone books, community directories, TV guides, encyclopedias, TV shows, books and libraries to get a sense of the disruptive cost-savings presented by Google. In doing so, they have made the world’s information highway easier to navigate than the real-world often is.

The return on investment for advertisers in the digital world is both obvious and easy to improve on. Because search and digital marketers have so much information about on-site and general user behaviors, we can target client messages with far greater efficiency. Regardless of economic conditions, search and digital marketing will continue to deliver stronger bang for each buck than any other form of advertising. The simplicity of that statement is actively being written into the rules.