DIYSEO

The Best Small Business Marketing News & Blog Posts of the Week — February 3, 2012

DIYSEO Team — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:23:50 +0000

This post is meant to be helpful for all levels of SEO expertise. You can also find DIYSEO posts classified by level of expertise on the following pages:

Are you surviving? Google’s new privacy policy, algo changes and a few other dramas seemed to keep the SEO and marketing industries buzzing this week. But, whether you were trying to keep up on the latest hoopla, or trying hard to ignore it, it was pretty tough to keep up with all of the interesting posts and news items going live this week and still getting everything done.

Once again, we’ve found a great list of posts you might have missed this week. What topics did they cover? Everything from PPC and ad retargeting, to Google analytics and mobile sites, and all topics we don’t normally include here.

Beginner SEO and Marketing

The Five Social Media Tools You Need : Monitoring Tools — Tools! Shiny, fancy tools! This isn’t a full list of tools, though. This one looks specifically at tools you can use to monitor your favorite social networks and how you can use them effectively. If you’re just getting started with Social Media marketing, or even if you’re just a new business in the online world, have a look at this one. Not only can they save you time and money, but they’re also important for reputation management.

Understanding Google Analytics — Michelle Harrington of Emagine Web Marketing shared some great videos about Google Analytics that she found this week. They’re brilliant and an excellent library of information, if all the graphs, numbers and words are getting a bit confusing.

Google + Optimization VS Community Building : Pros & Cons of Google SPYW — Now that we’ve had some time get a look at Google+, SPYW and how they work, we’re starting to get a pretty good idea of how to use them. Lee Odden has been using it as well and has compiled a great list of pros, cons and tips for the network.

Intermediate SEO, Marketing & Business Tips

Marketing Concept : Words That Work in Headlines — It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing a blog post, an email, a book, or what you’re writing, the headline absolutely has to be spot on. If it isn’t, the rest of the content probably won’t matter because most people won’t read it. This quick post has a great list of words you might like to use in your next headline.

Are PPC Ads Following You ? — Ad retargeting. If you haven’t heard about it before, it’s definitely something you’ll want to know about, as a user and a site owner. There’s even a bit of controversy surrounding this technique for added interest and entertainment. And speaking of PPC, you might want to have a look at Business.com’s5 Must -Haves for Your PPC Optimization Toolkit and Deluxe Small Business Blog’sAmerican Businesses Up the Ante With paid Search.

Learn From the Pros : Mobile Sites You Just Can ‘t Hate — We’ve had tons of posts in our weekly roundups that look at how you should set up or use a mobile site, but we’ve had very few examples of good mobile websites you can use for inspiration and information. We’re rectifying that today with this post from Colleen Corkery of Vertical Response.

Blogger Relations : Push or Pull ? How to Get Bloggers to Mention Your Brand — Blogger outreach programs are a popular way to get links and attention, but it’s not as easy as you’d think. There’s a bit of an art to it, and Lee Odden shared his secrets to help you conquer the blogosphere.

Advanced SEO, Marketing & Business Links

Essential Shifts in Online Marketing : Are You On Board ? Are You Optimized ? — You always hear things like ‘get to the first page in Google’, ‘be seen’, ‘get found’, but is that really what you should be focusing on? On a slightly-related topic, check out Small Business SearchMarketing ‘s SEO : Are you Relevant ? Or , Are You Vital ?

The Results Are In ! Takeaways From VR Email Tests : CTA Edition — If you’ve been considering email marketing, or are doing it already and looking for ways to make it beter, you might find the testing Vertical Response did on some of its emails. Some great ideas and thoughts here that we hope you’ll be able to use in your own campaigns.

How to Improve Results With AdWords & SEO Data — SEO and PPC are both valuable, but what if you could improve the results of both? You can, if you combine the data. Lior Levin of Orange Soda has six ways you can do just that and greatly improve campaigns in both marketing mediums.

Great Posts Published This Week Everyone Should Check Out

Google Makes Business Photos Self -Service — No, Google isn’t moving into the photography market. At least, not quite. They’re connecting photographers with small business owners to help both parties make money and improve their marketing. This week, the search engine opened up the program and made it all self-service, so if you own a brick and mortar store or office, you may want to have a look.

Google ‘s Above -the -Fold Algorithm Change Will Penalize Many Sites — For a while now, Google has been using the number of ads on a page as quality indicator. Now, however, the search giant has taken this one step further by assessing the amount of ad space above the fold. If you missed this announcement, you may want to catch up on the news over at iNeedHits and have a look at your online properties to see if you’ve been affected.

Bing Wants to Become a “Doing ” Search Engine — This week Bing decided that the best way for them to gain some ground on Google in terms of market share is to relaunch as a search engine for ‘doing’, rather than ‘deciding’. Interesting newsy tidbits here, for sure. It will be great to watch them and see what happens.

Google ‘s Panda Updates Explained in Images — The Panda Update certainly isn’t new, but it’s had so many tweaks and updates, it’s virtually impossible to understand what’s going on, if you haven’t been following it closely. To help you understand it all, Rene LeMerle posted what we thought was one of the best infographics (and posts on Panda) we’ve seen. It’s easy to understand and not too bad to look at, either.

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The Best Small Business Marketing News & Blog Posts of the Week — January 27, 2012

DIYSEO Team — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:22:19 +0000

This post is meant to be helpful for all levels of SEO expertise. You can also find DIYSEO posts classified by level of expertise on the following pages:

Hello you wonderful SEO DIYers! Another week, another roundup filled with fun, fantastic, and of course, informative posts and news items.

Google decided to stir things up a bit by changing its privacy policy. In addition to grumbling and moaning, the move also seems to have inspired people to consider moving away from the search engine’s online products. That wasn’t the only topic covered in the blogosphere this week. Have a look for yourself…

Beginner SEO and Marketing

Maximizing StumbleUpon for Your Content Sharing Strategy — V3′s guest poster Peg Fitzpatrick covered StumbleUpon this week and went into detail about how it can help your content marketing. In it, she says the network can increase your views, but also lengthen the life of your content. She also mentioned it’s a great place to spot other relative content to user on your other social networks. This is a great how-to for Stumble newbies.

7 Unforgivable Sins of Web Design — Ivana Taylor hit a home run on Marketing for Success again this week with her post for those looking to build their first website (or those who have just built their first website and aren’t getting much action out of it). The sins she lists here are ones you’d think are pretty standard, but they’re committed far too often by those lacking experience. Are you committing a web design sin? You’ll just have to read her post and find out.

Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet — If you love infographics, boy are you gonna love what Rene LeMerle served up this week on INeedHits. It doesn’t have every social network you’ll likely use for business, but it has a great list of pros, cons, stats, and tips you can eagerly lap up in one (pretty) juicy infographic.

Intermediate SEO, Marketing & Business Tips

Mobile Marketing: Seven Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Small Business Owners in 2012 — Contrary to what many believe, mobile marketing is nothing like marketing on the ‘regular’ Internet. It comes with its own challenges, needs, and steps that you HAVE to satisfy before you can get anywhere. Otherwise, you’re investing time, energy, and money that just looks really cool on paper.

Is Your Site Mobile Friendly? Google Can Tell You — Do you need to tweak your site for mobile phones, or is it already mobile friendly? And what about on other people’s mobile phones? If you’re not sure how mobile-friendly your website is, visit Google to find the answer. Not sure what we mean? Read Susan Payton’s post this week and find out.

5 Ways to Use Other People’s Content in Your Marketing — You probably don’t have as much time to create content as you’d like. And you can never have enough content. This leaves most site owners and marketers with a problem: How to generate great content, in a fast and affordable manner. Why, you get someone else to create it for you, of course. At least that was John Jantsch’s suggestion in his Monday’s post this week.

How to Customize Your Email Marketing With Little to No Effort — Vertical Response featured a post that originally appeared on iMedia Connection. The subject? Improving conversions in your email campaign through personalization. This post also gives some great examples of subject lines and things you might find useful.

Advanced SEO, Marketing & Business Links

3 Ways to Improve Your Copy in Less Than 60 Minutes — In a hurry, but need some copy? Need to make your content better without wasting too much time fiddling with it? StartupNation’s Melanie Rembrandt has three great tips that will make your writing infinitely better, without taking up a ton of your time.

10 Best Alternatives to Google Analytics — Google’s decision to update their privacy policy and start sharing information between products has upset a number of people. Many now have the urge to go elsewhere for their online software, analytics included. So, if you were fed up with Google, where would you go? iNeedHits’ Courtney Mills had a few suggestions.

Using Google Analytics to Refine Targeting and Marketing Strategies — If you decided to stick with Google Analytics, you might want to consider using it to improve your marketing and targeting, the cornerstones on conversion optimization.

5 Basic SEO Troubleshooting Tips for Content Marketers — Hurry! Quick! Get this free sample of Lee Odden’s new downloadable guide before it’s too late. While I’ve not seen the guide, it’s going to be a fascinating and helpful read, if this post is any indication.

Great Posts Published This Week Everyone Should Check Out

How Google Chooses Your Title Tag for Search Results — Google has a habit of tossing out your suggestions and pretty much just doing what it wants. Previously, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason behind its decisions to replace your title tags, but an explanation from Google’s Pierre Farr may help clear things up. If you want to read a bit more and maybe even walk a little on the geeked-out tinfoil side, have a look at How Classification of Page Elements and Search Results May Influence Alternative Titles and Snippets Displayed in Google from Bill Slawski. Fascinating read.

Google Panda in Plain English (Infographic) — This really needs no explanation. If you want the basics of the many Panda updates Google has made in the last year, go here.

Bing Surpasses Yahoo! to Become 2nd Favorite Search Engine — I think we’ve all been subconsciously waiting for this news for quite some time. Bing finally beat out its adopted sister Yahoo! in terms of market share. But this news item also has some interesting statistics you might find interesting. Go on. Have a look. You know you want to.

Update to Top Search Queries Data — Google has changed the way it determines the average top search position. Not that this will change much outside of Webmaster Tools, but if something looks horribly off, you’ll know why. You can also read more about it on Search Engine Land.

Now Test Your Sitemaps Before Submitting Them to Google — Also on Search Engine Land this week was information about Google’s new test tool. That should eliminate some headaches, particularly for large complex sites.

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The Best Small Business Marketing News & Blog Posts of the Week — January 20, 2012

DIYSEO Team — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:28:41 +0000

This post is meant to be helpful for all levels of SEO expertise. You can also find DIYSEO posts classified by level of expertise on the following pages:

SOPA and PIPA absolutely dominated the Internet this week. It was great to see the government to reconsider these potential laws. But it was also an amazing showing of solidarity and demonstration of how much power the Internet society has over the real world. Now, it’s time to take a break and find out what else was going on in the world of online marketing this week.

Perhaps the most popular topic this week was consumer behaviour and meeting their needs, but there were a ton of other great posts you’ll want to check out. Let’s get started, shall we?

Beginner SEO and Marketing

YouTube Facts, Social Media Marketing — Considering the idea of marketing on YouTube? Looking for some extra information or just have a thing for stats? Buzz Booster published a great infographic this week.

4 Free Online Marketing tools Every Small Business Owner Should Use — If you’re new to the world of online marketing, you’ve likely seen tons of posts on must have tools for small businesses. This one has some different tools you usually don’t find these types of posts. We think you’ll love these fresh new ideas.

The Consumer Needs Every Site Must Meet — Every successful website does one thing and one thing only: it meets the needs of its users. Here, Lisa Barone looks at the needs every website needs to satisfy if it’s ever going to succeed. If you’ve been looking to make your site better, or are getting ready to build a new one, have a read and make sure your site satisfies each of the needs listed here.

7 Insights Every Blogger Should Know — Creating a blog is easy. Creating a great blog takes effort and insight. Do you know what you need to know to create a great blog or content strategy? Entrepreneurs Journey had seven important insights you need to know before moving forward.

Intermediate SEO, Marketing & Business Tips

Mobile Marketing — Rachel Rodriguez guest posted on the Joy of Direct Marketing this week. In her post, she introduced readers to mobile marketing strategy. But the real gems of information hidden in her post were some great ideas and inspirations for integrating mobile, online, and direct marketing. You’ll love it.

5 Ways to Get Your Customers to Create Content for You — Content creation is a constant problem. Not only do you have to find topics and types your audience finds interesting, but you also need to invest time or money to get it. But when you get customers to create the content, it can help with both of these issues. Getting them to do it, however, is another matter. Duct Tape Marketing’s John Jantsch has some fantastic tips for this.

4 Things Lady Gaga Can Teach Us About Social Media PR & Online Influence — Love her or hate her, you can’t argue that Lady Gaga has a knack for marketing. Her career was built on it. This week Ashley Zeckman from TopRank looked at the pop star’s strategy and how you can use those techniques to make your audience go gaga over you.

Advanced SEO, Marketing & Business Links

How to Be a Good B2B Content Cross-Promoter — Cross promoting always runs the risk of failing and causing some nasty side effects. B2B Online Marketing’s Dave Thomas looks at the ups and downs of cross promoting to businesses and how you can get better results out of it.

PPC on Brand Terms: Pros and Cons — Everyone who does PPC will eventually have to decide whether brand terms are worth investing in. Robert Brady looks at the pros and cons of bidding on these terms and makes it easy for you to decide whether this is one investment worth making.

Email Marketing: The Importance of Lead Nurturing in the Complex B2B Sale — Did you know that 73% of all B2B leads are non sales-ready? That means you’ve got a long way to go to make the conversion happen. Jen Doyle has some helpful advice to help you close that gap. She shared some important information with Marketing Sherpa readers on email marketing and improving B2B conversions. To further add to the discussion, head over to Vertical Response and read their post entitled Do Your Email Lists Deliver? The post looks at segmentation and how you can further improve your conversion and click-through rates. A must read for anyone using email marketing to build their business.

30 Recent Google Search Quality Changes — Google has been making a ton of changes lately. This is nothing new; Google is constantly making updates, but you’ll want to have a look at the list iNeedHits has compiled. It will give you a brilliant look at where the search engine is going.

Great Posts Published This Week Everyone Should Check Out

Google Launches “Search Plus Your World” and Twitter Isn’t Happy About It — Twitter used to have its results piped into Google’s search results, but that ended along with the expiration of their contract. Now Google has added Google+ content to its search results and Twitter is quite upset. You can get the details here.

Google Caught Accepting Illegal AdWords Campaigns — Scalping and the illegal sale of tickets has always been a problem with just about any event. But usually when we think of this problem, we think of the people standing outside the event centers trying to sell their wares. This time, however, Google AdWords became the man standing in the shadows after the BBC reported it was selling ads for illegal tickets to the London Olympics.

Touche Google & Yelp! Foursquare Now Has Restaurant Menus — Foursquare had some news of its own this week. It now includes restaurant menus. This is great news for users, but how does it affect Google, Yelp, and others in the local search space? Matt McGee gave his opinion on the matter and some great food for thought this week.

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New Google+ Announcement and How it Impacts Search for SMBs

DIYSEO Team — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:35:54 +0000

Some experts said the Google+ hype would die down after launching last summer. However, with about 90 million users now on Google+ and a new huge announcement from Google, we are seeing that Google+ is here to stay and kicking off 2012 with a bang.

What’s all this Google news about anyway?

Last week Google announced it would be including a significant amount of Google+ data into search results on Google.com. Through Search Plus Your World, Google is providing a more comprehensive search that is more personalized to the end user, based on the relationships and information that the user accumulates through Google+.

The end result is what search expert Danny Sullivan refers to as “the most radical transformation ever” to search results. As they say, with great change comes great opportunity! Since the rules have changed, small businesses have no choice but to create and actively manage their business profiles in Google+.

What’s In it for me?

Google Search Plus Your World predicts what you’re looking for by finding businesses, people, and topics based on your Google+ social profile, posts, communities, preferences, and your sharing. In other words, no search page is alike when you look for something or someone in Google. The new integrated search feature in Google can be turned off and on by an icon that is at the top of your browser.

Google explains about the recent integration, “We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships. We began this transformation with Social Search, and today we’re taking another big step in this direction.”

Where to go from here?

It’s important to begin using Google+ right now and integrate it into your business. Here are three next steps:

Create a Google+ profile if you haven’t done so yet. DIYSEO members can log into DIYSEO to get started.
Start exploring and becoming active on Google+, as an individual and as your business by filling in your circles and making connections.
If you’re sharing any blog posts or content in Twitter and/or Facebook, start to do the same in Google+. We know it’s more work, but you really don’t have a choice if you care about ranking in Google!

You could also test out various searches in Google. These practices will help you not only learn about the new Google search results, but it will also lead you ahead of competitors and produce a more relevant exposure for your SMB. The more you know, the more you’re able to take advantage of what Google+ has to offer your business and your clients.

We look forward to the opportunities that Google’s announcement will have on SEO and small businesses in 2012! DIYSEO is here to help our clients, so stay tuned for more information as it comes along this year.

Hey, if Lady Gaga joined Google+ this week because of this expansion announcement, why shouldn’t you?

Visit these selections below for more information on all things Google+.

Check out this quick YouTube video covering Google’s Search, plus Your World
Here’s a great article by CopyBlogger specificly targeted to SMBs
View this easy to understand slideshow by WashingtonPost.
Check out this informative blog post by TopRankBlog
Log into DIYSEO for step-by-step instructions to create your business’s Google+ page.
Check out our Google+ page, and add DIYSEO to one of your circles!
View previous DIYSEO blog posts for more information:

Google+ Now Features Business Pages! – Nov 2011
Google+ Influence on Small Business SEO – July 2011

The Best Small Business Marketing News & Blog Posts of the Week — January 13, 2011

DIYSEO Team — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:28:14 +0000

This post is meant to be helpful for all levels of SEO expertise. You can also find DIYSEO posts classified by level of expertise on the following pages:

Most of the Web seemed to be working hard again this week. They really seem to be taking a big bite of their 2012 pie and digging right in to this year’s marketing plans. We know we were. It’s a great feeling to begin a new year with your eyes to the future and tons of potential on the road ahead of you. And, as usual, we’ve been keeping our eyes on the blogosphere as well and have gathered a great list of posts published this week that you’re not going to want to miss.

This week, you’ll find our round up is filled with some excellent posts on topics we don’t normally cover. Those new to the industry can learn a bit about affiliate marketing and what goes into ‘authority’. Readers who have been around a while can get some interesting facts on bloggers and take time to improve their post-sale marketing skills. Finally, visitors who’ve been in the industry a bit longer than “a while” will be tickled with the discussions on referral data, retargeting, and on finding new customers. It’s good stuff!

Beginner SEO and Marketing

Successful Affiliate Marketing Strategies You Can Apply Today — Affiliate marketing can be a bit scary if you’re a new website owner or new to the business. But if you’re looking for some extra cash and new income streams, it may be just the thing you were looking for. Corin Zander had a great introduction to the space this week.

Web Marketing Influence: Authority — We all hear about ‘authority’ and ‘influence’ and how important they are, but what are they really? And how do you get more of it? The Flyte blog did a fantastic job of attempting to answer these questions this week. This one on authority is just one in a full series they’ve published on the topic. The South Park image was pretty great, too, we thought.

Intermediate SEO, Marketing & Business Tips

Marketing Between the Sale and Delivery — “It’s cheaper to sell to existing clients than it is to find new ones.” This statement might have been popular years ago, but it still rings true today. And part of keeping existing customers is providing good customer care and making sure everyone gets what they expect. This piece from Rebar Business Builders did an excellent job of looking at how you can handle these situations.

Blogosphere Facts — Can You Handle the Truth? — You have to understand your audience and know whom it is you’re working with, and this goes for bloggers, too. And the more you know, the easier it will be to work with them. So, whether you’re executing an outreach program, selling to them, using them to expand your content network, or working with them to get the word out about your company, you’ll want to have a look at these statistics.

Advanced SEO, Marketing & Business Links

5 Steps for Finding New Customers — Finding new customers is vital to a successful business in any industry. This week, Preation had a brilliant post on the five important steps for identifying audiences who need the products and services you have to offer. And what we really loved about this one is that it’s valuable to everyone, no matter where you are in the marketing process or how long you’ve been in business.

Retargeting in 2012: Will You Annoy Your Past Customers? — Retargeting has been a hot topic among businesses and marketers for quite some. This year will be no exception. After all, what better way to bring people back to the site and help rekindle the love affair between you and previous clients? Marketing for Success’ Amanda DiSilvestro had a great look at the practice and how you can avoid irritating customers this year.

Google’s [Not Provided]: Assessing 2.5 Months of Analytics Damage — When Google changed it’s mind about passing on keyword referral data from users who were signed in and using encrypted search, it caused a huge outcry from site owners. Now that things have had a chance to relax a bit, Matt McGee provided some insight into how the change has changed analytics. Be sure to check out the comments to see what others have noticed and leave your own findings.

Great Posts Published This Week Everyone Should Check Out

Google Search Plus Is Shaking Things Up a Bit — The integration of Google + into the search results really shook things up this week. John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing took a good look at it and how it might affect site owners.

And if you’d like to learn a bit more, check out Buzz Booster’s Google plus Search Your World and Your Business and TopRank’s post on the topic: What Google Personalized Search plus Your World Means for Marketing – SEO Tips. You might also want to go back and read Google’s official announcement on the launch of the rel=author tag.

Google Caught Buying Paid Links — Penalizes Their Own Website — Usually, we hear about some big company getting caught by the search engines for paid links, but this week, it was Google who got caught in its own web. That’s right. They caught themselves buying paid links for Chrome, and before we knew it, Chrome wasn’t appearing on searches for [browser].

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The Best Small Business Marketing News & Blog Posts of the Week — January 6, 2012

DIYSEO Team — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:11:02 +0000

This post is meant to be helpful for all levels of SEO expertise. You can also find DIYSEO posts classified by level of expertise on the following pages:

Welcome to 2012! We hope the year has treated you well so far! We know there were a ton of resolution posts, newsy tidbits, and announcements on tons of the blogs we frequent this week. You’ll be happy (or sad) to know we didn’t include any of these in our round up. We simply didn’t have room with all the other great posts that were published this week. Have a look for yourself!

Beginner SEO and Marketing

Blogging Tip: Making Time for a Commercially Successful Blog — Business owners (and even non-business owners) often avoid blogging because of the sheer amount of time they need. And Jim knows this too. This week, he explained why shying away from blogging is a bad business decision.

Here’s Why Not to Buy Facebook Followers — Whether you’re new to Facebook marketing, or you’ve been trying it for a while and haven’t been experiencing the level of success you’d like to have. Either way, buying Facebook followers can be tempting. After all, it’s a quick and easy way to get things off the ground and moving forward, right? RIGHT? Maybe not. Matt McGee explains why here.

Social Media Helps Small Business Boost Sales, Keep Customers — Along the same vein as McGee’s post, this one from Lee Odden and TopRank explains the real benefits of using social media. But this isn’t the same old benefit post. If you’re fairly new to the world of online business and marketing, you’ll want to read this piece and find out what kind of advice Odden had for a small business owner recently. Duct Tape Marketing covered the important topic of selling and social media as well, and so did iNeedHits and Bing.

Intermediate SEO, Marketing & Business Tips

Autoresponders: Lessons in Power Leverage — If you’re ready to give your marketing a bit of a boost, Corin Zander suggests autoresponders might be just what you were looking for. As well as giving reasons why you’d want to use one, Corin also gave three great ways to use them. You might also want to check out Startup Nation’s 5 Tips for Using Email Marketing to Boost Your Business and Small Business Trend’s The Power of Permission in Using Email Marketing by Deborah Shane.

5 Questions and 5 Reasons Your Customers Want the Answers — Everyone seems to have their own ideas about what kinds of information and keywords they should be using on their websites. But let’s face it: the only opinion that really matters is the customer’s. Jamillah Warner knows this. That’s why this week he looked at the questions customers have and why they want to know. Does your website and content answer their questions?

7 Ways to Get More Blog Comments — Just because you blog regularly (and if you don’t, go back and read the first link in this week’s round up) doesn’t guarantee you’re going to get interaction and comments. Convincing visitors to leave a comment is an art form that takes practice and special steps to accomplish. This week, Digital Labz shares some of its big, dark secrets on how get people talking on your blog.

3 Ways to Optimize Images: Search, Social Media & User Experience — Site owners often think search and SEO are the only reasons to optimize an image. And they’re right, but not completely. Ashley Zeckman shared a few other reasons why you should take a few extra minutes the next time you upload a photo. We particularly like how she broke them down. See for yourself.

Advanced SEO, Marketing & Business Links

WordPress, Technorati and…Where’d All the Blog Directories Go? — Years ago, directories were all the rage. Why? They were a quick, easy, and cheap way to get some links and hopefully get some extra traffic. But in recent years, the practice has been slowly dying off because the links don’t have the same amount of Google juice they used to. Or, do they? Where are the good ones?

Creating Engaging Tabs for Facebook Fan Pages — Creating your own Facebook page is just like building a website — you have to have a purpose/goal before you can start. You also need to stay focused on how/why you’re using these techniques. Deluxe Small Business Blog’s dsbiz shared some fantastic tips that you’ll find extremely helpful when starting a page.

What Does Google’s Freshness Update Means for your site? — V3 touched on a topic that really got a bunch of site owners, marketers, and SEOs wound up this week: Google’s new algo update. Find out what they had to say on the subject and be sure to leave your opinions too.

Great Posts Published This Week Everyone Should Check Out

Google’s Advice for Testing Your Website — There are so many myths and stories out there when it comes to building a great website. But now, the search giant is doing its best to dispel the myths and help site owners create more effective websites. They released some important help and information on its Webmaster Central Blog and iNeedHits was quick to cover it on its blog. Looking for a bit more help? Try The 2012 Successful Website Checklist by Rene LeMerle for list of items you need to add to your task list.

Was 2011 the Year Facebook Killed Google — We’ll admit that we usually skip killer posts, but this one by Lee Odden isn’t one you’ll want to miss. Not only is it packed full of vital information, but it also struck up some pretty great conversation you might enjoy. It might just change the way you do business online.

How Microsoft Used Triggered Emails for Post-Purchase Support — We know we mentioned email marketing and autoresponders earlier, but this post looks specifically at one way Microsoft used the medium. We hope it will inspire your marketing and maybe convince you to try a bit of email marketing yourself.

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The Best Small Business Marketing News & Blog Posts of the Week — December 30, 2011

DIYSEO Team — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:30:41 +0000

This post is meant to be helpful for all levels of SEO expertise. You can also find DIYSEO posts classified by level of expertise on the following pages:

There wasn’t much happening this week, with Christmas, New Years, and the various holiday traditions and celebrations going on. But we wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a happy holiday and a new year full of promise and opportunity. We also wanted you to know that the extra turkey and treats haven’t slowed us down. We’re still here to keep you informed of all the good stuff that came out this week.

Beginner SEO and Marketing

A Social Media Crisis Plan. Yes, You Need One — We all hate to think of something bad happening, but the truth is that it does. “Something bad” is inevitable. Smart business owners know this and they plan for it. V3 talked about crisis plans this week, following it’s big post on AAA’s potentially disastrous social campaign.

Use This Dot-Point Easy System to Write Your Killer 2012 Business Plan — We know we’ve given you a ton of links on creating a business plan, but we do it because we know it’s not easy. It can be extremely difficult to create an effective business plan. That’s why we included Nacie Carson’s advice on the topic here.

Intermediate SEO, Marketing & Business Tips

B2B Marketing Content Better Be Relevant or… — This piece starts off with a great sentence: “While the messenger is important, it is the message at the end of the day that determines whether your target audience will do business with you.” And you can’t get more accurate than that.

Top Three Email Marketing Tactics of 2011 — Email marketing was quite a struggle for a large number of business owners this year. But if you watched those who did it right, you’ll notice there were three popular marketing tactics that really seemed to work. You may have read about them earlier this year, but they’re so important, they’re worth mentioning again.

Advanced SEO, Marketing & Business Links

Brands Continue to Incorporate Google+ Into Their Social Media Campaigns — If you’ve been watching Google+ for a while and wondering if it should be in your marketing plans, you’ve likely been wondering what the early adopters and bigger brands have been doing. Deluxe Blog for Small Business looked at just that, and how businesses are using the new social network.

Which Is More: Claimed Google Place Pages or Businesses With Facebook Pages — If you’ve been working in the local search space a lot, you’ve likely been running into this one a lot. What do you think? Matt McGee weighed in on it this week.

Great Posts Published This Week Everyone Should Check Out

20 Content Marketing Ideas for 2012 — Content marketing isn’t easy, especially if you’ve been doing it for a while. Lisa Barone has some great ideas to get your content marketing started off right this year. Thanks for the gift of these brilliant ideas, Lisa.

Facebook Gears Up for 2012 With High Ad Sales, Mobile Marketing, and a New Couponing Scheme — If you missed Facebook’s big news recently, head over to Deluxe Blog for Small Business where you can read dsbiz’s views on it. And if you’ve been marketing on Facebook, or thinking about it, you’ll want to make sure you are in the know with this one.

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The Best Small Business Marketing News & Blog Posts of the Week — December 16, 2011

DIYSEO Team — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:38:42 +0000

This post is meant to be helpful for all levels of SEO expertise. You can also find DIYSEO posts classified by level of expertise on the following pages:

For many of us, the peace and quiet is over. Many of the kids will be out of school for the next couple of weeks, and with the many seasonal activities coming up, there won’t be much spare time. Don’t worry though, we’ll do our best to keep you informed and in the loop.

Meanwhile, this week, there was a lot of strategy, sales, and a wealth of chatter about preparing for next year. There were also a number of news items this week. So pour yourself some eggnog or a cup of hot chocolate, and dig into the SEO goodness.

Beginner SEO and Marketing

4 Step Content Marketing Framework for Start-Ups — Content marketing can be overwhelming to start with, but it can seem almost impossible for new businesses to sort out and kick off. But in this post, Lee Odden shares his secrets for making things much easier.

5 Tips for Writing Your 2012 Marketing Plan — Businesses are scurrying to put the final touches on their marketing and business plans for the New Year. But if you haven’t done one up yet, or if you’re worried about it, you might want to see what Startup Nation had to say on the subject.

6 Quick Tips to Optimize Your Website Using Social Media — While big changes can often make the biggest difference, don’t forget that quick tweaks and changes can help too. Want to try a few? Small Biz Bee has a few suggestions you can use to boost your website conversions by using social media.

Make Money Online for Free: Speed Sales (Fire Sales)– If you’ve been marketing for awhile, you’re likely getting tired of running the same old sales and using the same old techniques. If so, visit Ask Jinger for the answers…

Intermediate SEO, Marketing & Business Tips

6 Marketing Lessons from Santa Claus — We thought this post from Fortune Marketing Company was a great way to welcome the holidays. It also has some helpful concepts worth thinking about. Are you marketing like Santa?

8 Video Marketing Strategies for Small Business — Videos can be extremely profitable, but just like other types of marketing, you need to plan out your videos and create a strategy that will help you meet a specific set of goals. Small Biz Bee has some great strategies here that should give you an idea of what you can do with your company’s strategy.

Advanced SEO, Marketing & Business Links

How to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment — This is no easier to handle online as it is in a brick-and-mortar store. It’s frustrating! They obviously wanted the product bad enough that they put the item in their cart, but something changed their mind in the meantime, and it had to be bad. Figuring out what that ‘thing’ is, however, isn’t quite so easy.

Google on Trust and SEO — Google’s Matt Cutts is always full of valuable information for site owners, and this post is no different. If you’re wondering how you can become one of the search giant’s trusted sites, watch this. Another good one from Cutts this week was Google’s Matt Cutts: Good Content Trumps SEO, available on ReadWriteWeb.

It Should Be Harder to Rank in Google’s Universal Results Than This — Matt McGee had questions, and you can guarantee when he has questions, they’re going to get answered. If you’ve been wondering about ranking in Google’s universal results, have a read here and see what McGee discovered.

Great Posts Published This Week Everyone Should Check Out

YouTube Acquires Copyright Management Firm RightsFlow – Blog Herald had the details on this surprise announcement by YouTube. There’s lots of speculation surrounding this one. What do you think of this latest move by the video giant?

Facebook Subscribe Button to Be Available for Websites — Facebook took another step toward taking over the Internet this week. Users can now get the latest information from your website, right in Facebook. Like to try a Facebook Subscribe button to your website? This post tells you how.

Glitch in Google AdWords Keyword Tool Shows Zero Results — If you’ve been swearing at AdWords lately, this post might have some good news in it for you. (If you just haven’t been making enough money out of AdWords, we’re afraid this post likely won’t help you, but you’ll definitely find it interesting.

Good Password = Good Idea — This is nothing new. People have been choosing bad passwords for as long as the internet has existed. That being said, you’ll love reading this year’s list of the worst possible password choices. Oh yeah, and give yourself a Christmas gift this year and change your passwords!

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The Best Small Business Marketing News & Blog Posts of the Week — December 9, 2011

DIYSEO Team — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:00:56 +0000

This post is meant to be helpful for all levels of SEO expertise. You can also find DIYSEO posts classified by level of expertise on the following pages:

It’s been yet another week packed with holiday preparations, end-of-the-year chores, planning and strategizing for next year, and the many other tasks that come with the end of one year and the beginning of another.

And you just have to look around to see that everyone is feeling the pinch. Everywhere we look there are last minute pitches, people putting the final touches on their January plans, and excitement as the holiday season fast approaches.

Even when you look at the posts in this week’s post roundup, you’ll see that a majority of the posts look at how to fine tune your marketing and strategies. Hopefully this helps as we head into the New Year.

Beginner SEO and Marketing

9 Essential Steps to Successfully Build Customer Loyalty and Profits — Before you can worry too much about being successful or selling anything, you need to have a solid foundation in place that will help attract and keep customers. Ivana Taylor looked at how you can build your community and take other steps to get this going and get your site off on the right step.

5 Email Marketing Tips for Increased Open Rates — Email marketing can be a great way to generate leads and sales, but you have to get them to open the email first. Ashley Zeckman of TopRank has some simple tips to get you started.

Marketing Concept: Storytelling for Business — Everyone likes a good story, so if you can get it to sell for you, why not? Do It Marketing has a great infographic and helpful tips to help you do just that.

Intermediate SEO, Marketing & Business Tips

Copywriting Makeover: How I Optimized the Onward Studios Squeeze Page — You can’t just throw words on a page and expect them to sell. Creating successful landing pages takes time, testing, practice, and patience to do well. Leevi Romanik has some great tips to share with you. And these are the usual ‘do as I say, not as I do things’. Leevi walks you through the steps that made the Onward Studios page so successful.

Crafting the Perfect Mobile Email — Deluxe Blog for Small Business hit on a topic this week that we don’t think about too often: mobile email marketing. But if you think you can handle these the same as you would a regular email marketing campaign, think again. Dsbiz has the details for you.

Advanced SEO, Marketing & Business Links

Customer Life Cycle & Content Marketing – Where Do You Stand? — One of the biggest experts on the web when it comes to creating a content marketing strategy, Lee Odden knows how to tailor a content strategy to match a constantly changing market. Here, he tells you how to gauge your market, where it’s at in the life cycle, and how you can structure content to match it.

New Eye-Tracking Study Shows What Matters on Facebook Pages — Facebook Pages have the potential to do amazing things for small businesses, but getting them right isn’t exactly easy. Those who frequent the social network tend to use the Web a little differently than those from other sites. This eye-tracking study has some great hints as to how people use Pages and how you might be able to use that to your advantage.

Great Posts Published This Week Everyone Should Check Out

Google Unveils New Bar, Drop-Down Menu; Enhances User Experience — Google has been working diligently to give all its services a clean, minimalistic look and better usability. It’s search page has merely been the most recent victim of this new makeover. Was it a good move on Google’s part?

Sneak Peek: Google+ in Google Places — While this likely doesn’t come as much surprise, iNeedHits found evidence (discovered by Mike Blumenthal) of Google+ in Google Places. Have a look and let us know what you think. Is this a good thing?

New .XXX Domains for Sale; Should You Buy Your Company’s Name? — The arrival of .XXX domains certainly isn’t news, but the recent trend of companies snapping up their brand domains to protect their name is. Even universities have done it. Should you buy your brand name .XXX domains and prevent future reputation management disasters? See what V3 had to say.

Microsoft Signs Yahoo NDA — Will We See a Takeover Soon? — This has probably been one of the longest, most dragged out and dramatic takeovers in the search space to this point. Things seemed to move a little closer this week, however, when Microsoft finally signed an NDA. iNeedHits covered the news.

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The Best Small Business Marketing News & Blog Posts of the Week — December 2, 2011

DIYSEO Team — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:30:46 +0000

This post is meant to be helpful for all levels of SEO expertise. You can also find DIYSEO posts classified by level of expertise on the following pages:

Well friends, we’re in the home stretch. Before you know it, we’ll be stretched out on the couch, watching sports and bad Christmas movies, while drinking eggnog and visiting with family and friends. Unfortunately, before we get there and before we can even start thinking about Old St. Nick, we have to push to finish off the task list for this year.

And since you’ve been busy with that, we’ve collected together a great set of resources for the week. Content and strategy were the hot topics this week, so we’re sure you’ll find it extremely informative.

Beginner SEO and Marketing

4 Steps to Crafting the Perfect Twitter Bio — Most Twitter articles that have been hitting the Internet lately have looked purely at how you should and shouldn’t interact with others on the network. But, before you can even get that far, you need to craft a bio that grabs their attention and convinces them to follow you. Small Business Trends has some great hints.

3 Steps to Mastering Good Blogger Outreach — Blogger outreach programs can have a number of valuable benefits, but if you do it wrong, you can actually do some serious harm to your business and your reputation. Lisa Barone has some excellent tips for you to make sure your outreach program stays on the right track.

Why Likes Aren’t an Effective Way of Gauging Facebook Success — How exactly are you measuring your success on the network? If you’ve simply been counting likes, you might want to stop. Find out what Deluxe Small Business Blog had to say. And if you think this kind of measurement is a waste of time, just ask the 96% of users who admitted to using Facebook as their preferred social media platform.

Intermediate SEO, Marketing & Business Tips

The 5 Dirty Secrets to Writing a Great Review — Consumers want to know what others think about a product before they buy. And reviews are a great way to do that, but unfortunately, too many people using the same technique. This means you’re going to have to write a quality review if you’re going to generate some interest and have the desired effect. Small Biz Bee has some priceless tips you’ll find helpful when creating reviews and writing other content pieces.

How to Be an Effective Link builder in the Google Panda Era — The search landscape has changed drastically since the Panda updates, and many business owners are still reeling. If everything you found that worked is now so bad, what do you do to build links? Digital Labz has some ideas to get you going and get your site back on the right track.

Advanced SEO, Marketing & Business Links

The Best & Worst of Black Friday & Cyber Monday Emails — While Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be over, there’s no reason why we should be ignoring the important lessons coming out of it. This piece from Vertical Response has some excellent headlines you may want to take a look at. 5 Ways to Make an Email Newsletter Your Best Sales Tool from Duct Tape marketing was also excellent this week.

Marketing Strategy — Channels vs. Function — You can’t just start a number of marketing ideas and hope something sticks. Well, you can, but it isn’t the wisest way to go. You need a strategy, and therefore, you need to understand the difference between channels and function. And while we’re on the topic of strategy basics, you might also want to check out The Dynamic Duo of Business Blog Marketing: Optimize & Socialize.

It’s Official: Static, Brochure-Ware Websites Are Dead — It’s no secret that Google has been making some drastic changes and moving towards quality-rich results. Matt McGee of Small Business SEM has taken a really good look at these changes and what you need to know about them.

Give Your AdWords Listings a Boost With Google Social Extensions — If you’ve been playing around with Google+ pages for businesses and trying to get more out of them, have a look at some of these features Matthew Elshaw covered in his iNeedHits piece.

Email Research: The 5 Best Email Variables to Test — Multivariate and split testing are the only solutions out there, if you want to get more from your email marketing, but sadly, too many people fall into the trap of only ever testing subject lines, for example. Marketing Sherpa has a fantastic bunch of stats here that will have you digging a lot deeper and getting much better results.

Great Posts Published This Week Everyone Should Check Out

How to Use Your Website’s Data to Expand Your Online Business — Also on the topic of testing and data analysis, this piece from Small Biz Bee is an excellent resource if you’ve been wondering what you can do with the data you’ve collected.

Do’s and Don’ts of Conquering Chaos in Your Home Office — This is one type of article we normally don’t feature in our roundup, but with so many of our readers working from home, we thought you might find it to be a welcome and interesting change. We hope you enjoy it. We sure did!

Google Testing 3rd Party Tools to Manage Google+ Pages — If you’ve been playing around with Google+. You might have noticed some interesting tests the search giant has been doing recently. You can find out more about in on iNeedHits. The site also covered the launch of Google Music, if you’re interested.