(EMP) E-Marketing Performance

The Set-It-But-Don’t-Forget-It SEO Strategy

Stoney deGeyter — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:53:09 +0000

Many people think that SEO is a set-it and forget it endeavor. The theory is that once you optimize the site then there really isn’t much more to do after that. This is something that many penny pinchers like to espouse so they can try to “save money”. Others just don’t like the idea that online marketing is a never ending process. We like to have goals and want to see things through a conclusion.

There are certain SEO strategies that are certainly goal oriented where you can get to a definitive end-point, but SEO as a whole is a constant ongoing process. Just like brushing your teeth, you do it ever day so you can keep yourself out from under the dentist’s drill and not walk around with obvious stank breath.

But SEO also isn’t about changing things for the sake of change. We don’t brush our teeth just for the heck of it. Those who think that you always have to be changing your content, titles, and pages in order to keep it “fresh” for the search engines are pursuing a pot of gold on the other side of a rainbow. The truth about SEO is somewhere in between these two elementary schools of thought.

Outfox, Outsmart and Outgrow Your Big-Business Competition

Stoney deGeyter — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:38:26 +0000

I believe that one of the key things that keep small businesses small is that the owners maintain a small business mindset. For many, being small is just fine. They don’t ever want to be anything more than a mom and pop operation. But others dream big and want to see big goal accomplished but continue to struggle to “make it big.” They can’t ever seem to get over that hump that propels them out of small-time territory.

If you don’t want to be a mom and pop operation, or you want to be more than the small business you are, then it’s time to start thinking not like the small business you are but like the bigger business you want to be.

How Small Businesses Can Brand Themselves On the Cheap Online

Stoney deGeyter — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:53:44 +0000

People often associate branding with money. Lots and lots of money. Generally, if you try to run a branding campaign you might see from companies like Target, you most certainly will have to fork over a big chunk of change. But small business owners don’t have that kind of money to brand themselves in similar fashion. Fortunately, there are other ways to brand your small business online.

From my examples in my post Why Branding Matters to Small Businesses, you might conclude that a full-scale SEO or PPC campaign is the only way to brand yourself online. SEO can play a role in branding, but you can engage it strategically so you’re spending less time and less money while still building brand recognition.

Why Branding Matters to Small Businesses

Stoney deGeyter — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:34:38 +0000

Branding is a tricky subject for most small businesses. Historically brand building has been a costly effort that only big businesses could afford. But online marketing has changed that allowing even small business to build a recognizable brand. In fact, when it comes to SEO and website marketing, I see the necessity of helping our client’s brand themselves in the search sphere.

In the past, we often felt that some clients just didn’t need to be branded in the search results. Maybe because they were smaller clients or didn’t have a nationally recognized name. But then how do companies become nationally recognized names? You got it. Branding.

Branding isn’t just for big companies any more. With the internet and search, it has become easier and cheaper to for companies to brand their names in front of their target audience. Good branding efforts will always cost you some time, energy and even money, but it’s not out of reach of the small businesses.

Affording SEO in Tough Economic Times

Stoney deGeyter — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:20:11 +0000

“There will be fat years and there will be lean years. But it is going to rain.”
–Don Draper, Creative Director, Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency

The fictional character on the TV show Mad Men, when speaking to the executives of London Fog, makers of rain coats, made this very astute assessment of their business. In the age of the web, this could easily be reworded, “There will be fat years and there will be lean years. But people are going to search.”

We are currently in a lean economy, and many businesses are feeling the crunch. But millions of people continue to flock to search engines every day to find, learn and purchase. The question then becomes, who will they find, what will they learn, and will they purchase from you or your competition?

Boil that down and you get one glaring question that every small business needs to answer: Can you afford SEO? Or to put it in even starker terms:

An Open Letter to a Client in Search of an SEO Provider

Stoney deGeyter — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:51:08 +0000

The idea for this post has two sources. The first was a post on SEOmoz about someone’s failed attempt to get quotes for SEO. In light of that firestorm, I was asked if I would write a blog post about how potential clients should approach SEO companies they are looking to do business with. A few days later, while reading David Ogilvy’s classic Ogilvy on Advertising, I came across the chapter which is an “open letter to a client in search of an agency.” This post is modeled after (stolen from?) that.

ComScore September 2009 Search Engine Market Share

Stoney deGeyter — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:21:47 +0000

Google
September: 64.9%
August: 64.6%
Change: +0.3

January 2009: 63.0%
Change: +1.9

Yahoo
September: 18.8%
August: 19.3%
Change: -0.5

January 2009: 21.0%
Change: -2.2

MSN / Bing
September: 9.4%
August: 9.3%
Change: +0.1

January 2009: 8.5%
Change: +0.9

ASK
September: 3.9%
August: 3.9%
Change: +0.0

January 2009: 3.7%
Change: +0.2

AOL
September: 3.0%
August: 3.0%
Change: +0.0

January 2009: 3.9%
Change: -0.9

Data scoring techniques tend to change over time making past data inaccurate. As always, information here is for entertainment purposes only.

Source: comScore

7 Worst Things (Bad) SEO Clients Do

Stoney deGeyter — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:35:25 +0000

There are clients SEOs love to have… and then there are those other kind. Every SEO has them and very few SEOs can be so selective as to weed out every client that isn’t the “perfect client” (and those that do generally work only for themselves.)

Being the perfect client may not be attainable, but you can certainly avoid being the bad client nobody wants. Here are seven things bad SEO clients do:

7 Worst Things (Bad) SEO’s Do

Stoney deGeyter — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:03:50 +0000

Some SEOs are better at running a business than they are at doing SEO. Others are fantastic at SEO but have poor business practices. But the really bad SEOs have poor business practices that translates into poor SEO, and therefore poor client results. Not all bad SEOs are crooked, but that doesn’t make you want to hire them anymore.

How do you know that good SEOs from the bad ones? How can you tell those that know what they are doing from those that don’t? It’s not always easy, but there are some tell-tale signs. Here are seven things that bad SEOs do:

7 Best Things (Good) SEO Clients Do

Stoney deGeyter — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:11:41 +0000

It’s amazing how much can get accomplished when you’ve got a good client and a good SEO working together. Unlike many other forms of advertising and marketing, the success of an SEO campaign can often depend on the client, and their involvement/interaction with the SEO. Good SEO clients know what is needed to help the SEO succeed but don’t stand in the way of that success.

Having a successful business and/or marketing campaign doesn’t happen passively. It happens with deliberation and intent. The client cannot completely pass off responsibility for her success onto the SEO, but must take actions to ensure the SEO can be successful for her.

Here are seven things good SEO clients do:

HitWise September 2009 Search Engine Market Share

Stoney deGeyter — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:00:30 +0000

Google
September: 71.08%
August: 70.24%
Change: 0.84

January 2009: 72.09%
Change: -1.01

Yahoo
September: 16.38%
August: 16.96%
Change: -0.58

January 2009: 17.81%
Change: -1.43

Bing
September: 8.96%
August: 9.48%
Change: -0.52

January 2009: 5.44%
Change: +3.52

ASK
September: 2.56%
August: 2.37%
Change: +0.19

January 2008: 3.31%
Change: -0.75

Data scoring techniques tend to change over time making past data inaccurate. As always, information here is for entertainment purposes only.

Source: HitWise

7 Best Things (Good) SEO’s Do

Stoney deGeyter — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:35:18 +0000

SEO is a business that is much more than just implementing of a well-developed website optimization strategy. Anybody can get SEO advice or learn some tips and tricks by reading blogs, attending a conference, or participating in online webinars. If you are an SEO, or you have or will hire an SEO, there is a relationship issue that is part of any good business strategy.

That relationship feeds into the long-term success of your business. How the SEO engages with you–the client–can make or break your success. Everybody wants a good skilled SEO. But you should also want one that’s good at business as well.

Here are seven things that good SEOs will do:

Books I’ve Read Q3, 2009

Stoney deGeyter — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:24:01 +0000

Here are the business books I’ve read over the past three months. I used to post all the other books I’ve read her too, but you’ll have to go to my personal site to get that info now.

Cunningly Clever Marketing
Andrew Wood

I was actually pretty impressed with this book. More so than I would have thought. You can read my full review here.

The Sticking Point Solution: 9 Ways to Move Your Business from Stagnation to Stunning Growth During Tough Economic Times
Jay Abraham

I don’t have much on this one. I read it early in the quarter and nothing stuck. I guess I better start writing up my synopsis immediately after reading!

Ogilvy on Advertising
David Ogilvy

I enjoyed this a lot. Not much here pertained to SEO, though I did get a blog post or two out of it. Regardless of the angle (advertising) there is a lot of information that could easily be transferred over to marketing and even SEO.

My Site is Optimized, My Competitor’s Gain! WTF?

Stoney deGeyter — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:40:05 +0000

The search engine optimizer’s work is almost never done. Only in very rare instances have I seen sites that have been optimized for every possible keyword phrase and is ranking well for all of them. But I also know that websites can reach a point where the vast majority of the optimization work has been done. All the low-hanging fruit has been gathered and the primary keywords have been optimized into the site properly. All that remains is the “upkeep” of the optimization efforts, the tweaking to squeeze out better performance and blazing new ground into the long-tail keywords.

Many site’s reach this point of the optimization campaign while many of their keywords are not quite ranking as they hoped or want. This is the point of diminishing returns in SEO. More work won’t necessarily improve the rankings in proportion to the effort it takes.

HitWise August 2009 Search Engine Market Share

Stoney deGeyter — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:05:33 +0000

For the first time, Google is down from this same month last year. With Bing’s growth it appears that Bing is taking market share from Google rather than Yahoo.

Google
August: 70.24%
July: 71.42%
Change: -1.18

January 2009: 72.09%
Change: -1.85

Yahoo
August: 16.96%
July: 17.18%
Change: -0.22

January 2009: 17.81%
Change: -0.85

Bing
August: 9.48%
July: 8.02%
Change: -1.46

January 2009: 5.44%
Change: +4.04

ASK
August: 2.37%
July: 2.47%
Change: -0.10

January 2008: 3.31%
Change: -0.94

Data scoring techniques tend to change over time making past data inaccurate. As always, information here is for entertainment purposes only.

Source: HitWise

7 Steps to Improving Conversion Rates

Stoney deGeyter — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:23:07 +0000

In the world of marketing and campaign measurement, the web has been a goldmine. Almost every conceivable metric can be measured online. But of all the things you can track, measure, weigh and analyze, the only metric that truly matters is conversions. Click through rates, page views, time spent on site, number of pages read, entrance and exit points, abandonment; all of these metrics are fantastic, but if you’re not using them to improve your conversion rates, then why bother?

Most people look at their website as a whole but in reality it is a collection of many parts. These parts (web pages) are essentially individual steps on a path that should lead your visitors to a specific goal: the conversion. If your site as a whole, and web pages individually, are working properly, you should see an increase in conversion rates and sales. If anything is broken along the way your visitors are led the wrong way at the wrong time and you open the door to having them leave before they’ve reached the conversion goal.

Each entry point of your site (wherever the visitor lands first, not just the home page) needs to be treated as the starting point that will lead your visitors step by step toward the conversion goal. In order to guide your visitors from this starting point to the end point, you need to make sure each step along the way is aligned with the next; in sync and unbroken.

How to Engage Online Marketing in an Offline World

Stoney deGeyter — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:41:38 +0000

A few months ago I exited my local Wal-Mart and found a “gift” wedged between my driver side mirror and the door of my Dodge Dakota pick-up truck. It was a small gray box with a business card sticking out. The card was from Marc Caviglia of Don Weir’s Reno Dodge. What was the gift? A mini tool-box for my truck:

ComScore August 2009 Search Engine Market Share

Stoney deGeyter — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:10:57 +0000

Google
August: 64.6%
July: 64.7%
Change: -0.1

January 2009: 63.0%
Change: +1.6

Yahoo
August: 19.3%
July: 19.3%
Change: +0.0

January 2009: 21.0%
Change: -1.7

MSN / Bing
August: 9.3%
July: 8.9%
Change: +0.4

January 2009: 8.5%
Change: +0.8

ASK
August: 3.9%
July: 3.9%
Change: +0.0

January 2009: 3.7%
Change: +0.2

AOL
August: 3.0%
July: 3.1%
Change: -0.1

January 2009: 3.9%
Change: -0.9

Data scoring techniques tend to change over time making past data inaccurate. As always, information here is for entertainment purposes only.

Source: comScore

Nielsen Search Engine Market Share August 2009

Stoney deGeyter — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:19:31 +0000

Google
August: 64.6%
July: 64.8%
Change: -0.2

January 2009: 62.8%
Change: +1.8

Yahoo
August: 16.0%
July: 17.1%
Change: -1.1

January 2009: 16.2%
Change: -0.2

Bing
August: 10.7%
July: 9.0%
Change: +1.7

January 2009: 11.2%
Change: -0.5

ASK
August: 1.7%
July: 1.7%
Change: +0.0

January 2009: 1.9%
Change: -0.2

AOL
August: 3.1%
July: 3.1%
Change: +0.0

January 2009: 4.0%
Change: -0.9

Data scoring techniques tend to change over time making past data inaccurate. As always, information here is for entertainment purposes only.

Source: Nielsen Online

Damn it Jim, SEO is an Investment, Not an Expense!

Stoney deGeyter — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:32:48 +0000

When performing SEO on a site there are literally an endless number tactics, strategies, changes and combinations that can be implemented to help you achieve search engine rankings. Google alone analyzes hundreds of different factors, all to varying degrees, when determining how it ranks pages in the SERPs. Once you get outside the realm of looking only at achieving search engine rankings, a near infinity of factors come into play as you look for ways to improve traffic, draw targeted visitors and improve conversion rates.

The interesting thing about SEO, and even website marketing as a whole, is that making a change or two here or there may not make much, if any, difference. But it’s the combination of changes that often total up to create a meaningful result. Sometimes its about hitting the right combination of changes, other times it’s just a matter of changing a few things that you know tend to work time after time.

Successful SEO requires a tremendous investment of time. To say that SEO is a full time job is a vast understatement. One can spend weeks or months dedicated to learning and employing just the more common aspects of SEO. Add to that the learning curve in credible implementation of copywriting, link building, usability testing, data analysis, and the myriad of social networking opportunities that seem to spring up over night, and you can see why today’s SEO is not just one, but several, full time jobs!

SEO Perfection Costs Extra

Stoney deGeyter — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:38:03 +0000

Years ago, when I was in Jr. High School I remember a guy who worked for my parents. He always used to say “perfect costs extra.” This wasn’t one of those, “that’s as good as you’re gonna get from me” statements, it was more a testament to the expectations that customers have. In everything we do there will be an element of imperfections. If a customer or a client wants perfect, well, that’s a whole other pricing ball park.

Recently I dealt with two clients that have suddenly gotten into “rush” mode. Everything needs to be done and it needs to be done now. Normally, this isn’t a concern for me because I’m the same way about most things. I don’t like to procrastinate, but instead I try to stay ahead of the game.

What makes these two clients unique is that I’ve been working with both of them for several months and they, not I, have been the primary holdup in making progress. Bear with me here, I’m not just passing the blame.

One Simple Step to Building Credibility

Stoney deGeyter — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:50:28 +0000

I’m going to start this article with the conclusion, so if you read no more than this first paragraph you can walk away knowing the most important thing this article has to say. And here it is: Fix your broken links.

That’s it, you’re free to go now. The rest of this article is just stories, opinion and my thoughts that reinforce the point above. But if you need more convincing, read on.

So many times I see businesses investing thousands of dollars building their websites, tinkering with SEO improvements, or increasing/improving their content, only to neglect one of the most basic problems that may be a significant contributing factor in reducing their conversion rates: broken links.

Rankings Change. (Here’s How to) Deal With It! Part III

Stoney deGeyter — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:05:31 +0000

There are three primary things that factor into search engine ranking changes. 1) Your site changes, 2) a competitor’s site changes, or 3) a search engine algorithm changes. I’ve already provided information on the first and third (see links above) so in this final installment of the series I’ll talk about changes made to your competitor’s site and how to deal with the ranking changes they cause.

(How to) Deal with Changes Made to Your Competitor’s Websites

You’re not the only site on the web so don’t be concerned when you suddenly find someone else ranking above you. When it comes to search engine rankings there are hundreds of signals that factor in to how any site ranks. Now consider that every site on the web also has hundreds of signals that are being factored in. On the web the chaos theory reigns supreme. One small change on a website completely unrelated to you can have a dramatic affect on your own search engine rankings.

Everybody wants that coveted first page placement, and many are actively fighting for it. But in reality, there is only so much that you can control. If your rankings drop, it may not be you, it may be them.

Nielsen Search Engine Market Share July 2009

Stoney deGeyter — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:21:43 +0000

Google
July: 64.8%
June: 66.1%
Change: -1.3

January 2009: 62.8%
Change: +2.0

Yahoo
July: 17.1%
June: 16.2%
Change: +0.9

January 2009: 16.2%
Change: +0.9

MSN
July: 9.0%
June: 8.8%
Change: +0.2

January 2009: 11.2%
Change: -2.2

ASK
July: 1.7%
June: 1.8%
Change: -0.1

January 2009: 1.9%
Change: -0.2

AOL
July: 3.1%
June: 3.0%
Change: +0.1

January 2009: 4.0%
Change: -0.9

Data scoring techniques tend to change over time making past data inaccurate. As always, information here is for entertainment purposes only.

Source: Nielsen Online

Rankings Change. (Here’s How to) Deal With It! Part II

Stoney deGeyter — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:36:19 +0000

Search engine rankings are always in flux. In my last post I mentioned three things that can cause your search engine rankings to change. 1) Your site changes, 2) a competitor’s site change, or 3) the search engine algorithm changes. I addressed the third one here and then in the next installment I’ll discuss the second.

(How to) Deal with Changes Made to The Search Algorithms

Search engines are constantly changing. These changes are mostly compromised of small, subtle shifts in how certain on and off page “signals” are interpreted and scored, or by the addition and/or removal of other ranking factors all together. In some instances more extreme algorithm or structural changes are made which can cause more than the usual upheaval of search results.