The truth: It’s not “SEO content” a brand or website needs.

So, what do we need?

Rich, informative, compelling high quality content brings users to a website and keeps users responding. It also provides the search engines with value when that content is SEO-friendly. Rather than needing SEO content, we really need quality content that engages users but we cannot forget about what the search engines want, how the engines view content, and the techniques plus finesse required to optimize content.

How Quality Content Can Make an SEO Difference

Look at the New York Times. The publication, known as one of the best newspapers in the world, once turned down the opportunity to buy Google for $1 million because it didn’t consider the internet a part of its business. In 2005, the paper acknowledged the importance of the web, hired a team of SEO experts, trained editorial staff and marketing teams in SEO and started to optimize its entire website for better search engine performance.

Since the inception of the SEO program, the NYT’s referral traffic from the search engines has grown 300%. The site has experienced an average of 60% traffic growth per year and a significant increase in user engagement and time spent on the site.

Want some of that? Keep reading for some how-to tips.

Keyword Research and Intelligence

Developing quality content requires research and analysis of keywords that should be included in your content. There are several free tools for keyword suggestions and research that give considerably less depth than subscription-based services but can still be a helpful starting point. For example, there are free versions of Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker.

A relatively new and less known tool for research is Google’s Wonder Wheel. You’ll find it by doing a Google search for any keyword, clicking on the “Show options” link in the top blue bar of the search results page. A left side bar full of additional search options will open and near the bottom you’ll find a link for the Wonder Wheel. It’s a fantastic tool which allows you to discover a wide range of relevant keywords or extensions which are related to your business and industry.

Too Many Keywords and You Might Get Rejected

Your content should be keyword-rich. It should include targeted keywords that match the theme of your website. But don’t overdo it. Like eating too much at Thanksgiving, you’ll regret stuffing your content with keywords. The search engines will view your content as spammy and potentially block your website from appearing in results.

Furthermore, your readers will notice too. They might not realize content has been keyword-stuffed but they’ll notice your content is not appealing.

Making Your Content Stand Out

While you don’t want your website to stand out for being stuffed with keywords, your site can stand out in other ways and in a positive manner. One of those ways is for your website to have unique, fresh, and informative content. This helps keep clients and/or prospects on your site (stickiness factor) and also increases the likelihood of getting quality links from other relevant and topic-related sites.

Posting fresh topic-related content gets users coming back to your website. It also helps bait the search engines’ spiders to crawl your site.

Theming and Latent Semantic Indexing

You also have to make sure you create content that helps the search engines understand the theme of your website. If your website is about financial advice for small businesses, it should be well-structured around this topic. Include content and pages with relevant keywords and steer clear from off-topic articles about surfing or middle-eastern cuisine (even if you’re a surfing zealot and a known foodie).

The search engines have a sophisticated method called latent semantic indexing (LSI) for indexing and retrieving your web pages. With this technology, they are able to look beyond the direct matches between content and search query text to understand the context of a website’s content. As a result, littering your content with a particular target keyword is not enough and may affect your search engine rankings poorly.

(This post was originally written for and published on Webmetro’s blog)

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Posted via web from Social Media Report

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After attending the Blog World & New Media Expo for the second year in a row, I have to say that I feel enriched (again) in many ways: I made new connections with interesting blogging and social social media aficionados and experts of all sorts, got many new insights about internet marketing, content development, monetization tactics, social media engagement strategies, video blogging, podcasting, online journalism – and much more.

Here are the 7 takeaways I got from this year’s Blog World Expo:

1. It’s all about providing value.
Whether if you’re a blogger or an internet consultant -always think of your audience first. Make an effort and give them something unique and valuable. High-quality content. Unique information. Outstanding service. Fantastic & lasting products.

2. Blogs are the new mainstream media.
Despite old media reports, the blogosphere is not dying or leveling off, but thriving. The stats of Technorati’s report “State Of The Blogosphere” speak for themselves.
Special blog post about Technorati’s SOTB coming up.

3. Social Media is thriving.
I’ve never attended a conference with so many different and fully packed sessions about Social Media. There were over 30 sessions at the Blog World Expo dedicated to the Social Media business. And this year’s conference even set a Guinness Book World Record “for the distribution of the largest mass message through social media” in a 24 hour period.
Special blog posts about the sessions of BWE’s Social Media Business Summit coming up.

4. Twitter is the new email.
If you ever thought that Wall Street Journal’s article about “The End Of The Email” is ridiculous, go to a gathering of blog and tech nerds. You’ll experience that even two people who are standing next to each other will rather tweet than talk. The coolest thing were the rolling the tweets displayed (in real time) on screens in many of the sessions – as a way to extend the discussion into the twitterverse, and also to figure out evening social plans.

5. Lifestreaming is on the raise, and businesses will have to figure out how to incorporate it into their social media strategies.
I have been fascinated by the Lifestreaming phenoma for quite some time. There were two fantastic sessions about this topic (by Silicon Valley blogger Louis Gray and Edelman’s internet trendscout Steve Rubel - and much more chatter beyond that.
Special blog post about Lifestreaming coming up.

6. Corporate Website will become redundant in 5 years.
Many speakers predicted that more and more companies will shift the focus of their online presence from corporate to the space where customers and prospects are: in the social mediasphere. As a result, corporate websites will become less important. Web Strategist and Social Media expert Jeremiah Owyang even thinks that corporate site will become redundant in 5 – 10 years.
Special blog post about Owyang’s fantastic session about “The Future Of Social Media” coming up.

7. Authenticity and honesty is the new black.
Sleezy sales pitches and suppressing negative buzz is out – honest interaction with customers and listening to criticism is in. Frank Eliason and Scott Monty, the social media gurus at Comcast and Ford, talked in many sessions about this refreshingly new approach – and were only a few of many speakers who confirmed this new trend.
Special blog post coming up.

Here are a few great Blog World summaries from other conference attendees:

- Fast Company Blog: Tips From The Social Media Pros

- SocialMedia.biz: Takeaways from the Blog World Expo

- DavidRisley.com: Blog World 2009 Report

Did you make it to the Blog World Expo this year? What did you take away from it? Let me and everyone else know by posting your comments below.

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I’m very excited to come back to this conference which has given me the opportunity to meet with peers and thought leaders from the blogosphere and the social mediasphere – and learn more about advanced tactics and trends in blogging, microblogging, podcasting, journalism 2.0 and much much more.

In case you’ve never heard of it, here is a quick summary from the organizers:

World & New Media Expo is the first and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference, and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of new media, including: blogging, podcasting, social media, online video, music, TV, radio, gaming, entertainment and communities. (…) It is designed to give participants the crucial strategies, tools and technologies they need to leverage social media for publishing, broadcasting and growing brands and businesses through online presence and community engagement.

I’m especially looking for the the Social Media Business Summit, the exclusive pre-show conference which begins begins on Thursday. Its sessions will be focused on corporate blogging, podcasting, social media and use of new media technology in business environments and will include many “A list” speakers – among others social media “guru” Chris Brogan (whose blog is on my daily must read list).

Other speakers I’m thrilled to see and hear (again): blogging pioneer Robert Scoble, Twitter expert Laura Fitton, Wall Street Journal’s new media journalist Kara Swisher, venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, journalism 2.0 professor Jay Rosen, web strategist Jeremiah Owyang and Ford’s social media ambassador Scott Monty. Needless to say that I could add many more names to the list.

If you’re interested what my impressions were from the Blog World Expo in 2008, check out the related posts below.

I’ll be publishing the highlights of my Blog World schedule in a separate post. Please connect with me if your attending the Blog Word Expo too!

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As I mentioned in my previous post, the thing which surprised me most about my experience at this year’s Blog World Expo in Las Vegas is the fact that all the attendees – including the famous and successful A-Bloggers – were super cool, friendly and willing share many blogging “secrets”.

As a long time fan and avid reader of the infamous blog Problogger, I am especially pleased that Darren was kind enough to give me a couple of minutes of his valuable time, accepted to be “dragged” to a quiet conference room and was willing share his wisdom about blogging in a one on one interview (ca. 5 minutes).

In this interview, I ask him…

1. Why you should start blogging today
2. What his most important advice about maintaining a blog is
3. What his personal biggest rewards of blogging were so far
4. If microblogging (the latest trend) will be becomr bigger than old fashioned blogging
5. What the future of online media is (mainstream media vs. blog networks)
6. If he will still be interested in blogging in 5 years.

For those who don’t know Darren: He is one of the world’s most popular and respected authorities for blogging, the voice behind the no. 1 blog for blogging tips, Problogger, and the Vice President of training and development at B5 Media, one of the largest blog networks on the planet (which he launched with three fellow bloggers in 2005).

Besides Problogger, he also blogs at Digital Photography School, a blog with tips and product reviews around digital photography. According to Wikipedia, these two blogs get around 15,000-20,000 page views a day and over $20,000 in total ad revenue a month. (Impressive numbers, I have to say!)

If you’re interested to get more of Darren’s useful blogging tips, I highly recommend that you read his (and co-author Chris Garrett’s) recently published book “Problogger: Secrets Blogging to A Six-Figure Income”. It’s contains a wealth of valuable information how to start a blog, increase your readershop and make money with it. (Darren himself became a Six-Figure Blogger in September 2005)

Another tip: Follow Darren on Twitter (@problogger) and to check out his online activities on Friendfeed. It’s worth it!

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The first site was pushed using old school SEO practices, including paid and reciprocal links, content development, doorway pages, etc.

The second site was build in a more ‘organic way’ focussing on unique content, with no paid links or doorway pages, but with a blog, videos, blogs, RSS feeds and Twitter integration.

Guess which one is earning money and getting quality Google traffic? You got it, the “SEO’ed Site.”  

The forum member wrote:

Site 1 (AKA “SEO’ed Site”): after just 3 months it was skyrocketing past some pretty hefty competition with traffic increasing well each month. The site was making £10,000+ a month for the last six months we had it and just sold for a rather nice figure.
Site 2 (AKA “Quality Site”): has struggled to rank anywhere, even for it’s own name, and traffic has been stagnant since the outset – it made a loss for the first 8 months and made just under £3000 in it’s best month which was last month.

My two cents: Although the results of this case study are quite interesting (depressing for a white hat SEO), I am not convinced that we can draw any conclusions of this. I believe that, depending on the industry and the degree of competition, you can be successful with a less aggressive/more organic SEO campaign. Additionally, I would not not include reciprocal linking with any random site and true doorway pages as part of “regular SEO practices”, as described in the thread.

I recommend to read all the details in the forum thread.

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I went to the 33rd Geek Dinner in L.A. which was held January 17th at the restaurant uWink located in the Hollywood & Highland Center. It’s a cool place (they call it an “interactive entertainment and dining experience”) where you can order through a touch-screen computer located on every table. The event had pretty good turn out. I chatted with many interesting people, and Heather Schlegel, the hostess-with-the-mostess, was working the room with her usual great enthusiasm.

For those who live in the Los Angeles area and are yet to join, you can check all the news on their website, the group page on Facebook – or get all the updates directly in your email inbox by signing up via  la-subscribe@geekdinner.org. And if you have a web service or your own event to promote, Geek Dinner allows you announce it to the crowd at the end of the event.

The next L.A. Geek Dinner will be this upcoming Tuesday, February 17, at the same location. You get get more info and RSVP on Upcoming.

Please spread it around and bring your geeky friends. As Anita wrote:

You know that the geek dinner is the gateway L.A. geek event. Once you start – you’ll just go hardcore on to Barcamp, Mixergy, Twiistup or one of Mahalo’s Movie Nights…

P.S. See more of my pictures I took at the Geek Dinner on Flickr.

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Opposite to previous years, I started the new year by making three resolutions:

• To be dedicated to help people to make most out of the internet and grow my business
• To expand my professional network
• To learn something new every day.

Since I was curious what kind of resolutions other internet professionals made, I browsed through the web for some great thoughts. Here are my favorite resolutions for 2009:

1. Canadian Marketing Blog:

I resolve to be optimistic that businesses will remember the golden rule: You have to spend money to make money – especially in tough times. Stay top of mind with your best customers and they’ll remain loyal.

 2. Copywriters Roundtable:

- Around the clock, make curiosity a habit.  Ask questions.
- Every morning, read one piece of direct mail.
- Every day, have a set time for writing.  Never deviate from it.
- Always seek out your critics.  They’ll teach you much more than your fans ever could.

3. Growthink: Top 10 new year’s resolutions for entrepreneurs. Number 5:

Keep Launching, Innovating and Growing! While the economy may be in for a bumpy ride, make sure you keep it in perspective.  Don’t let all the negative news stop you from moving forward with your entrepreneurial initiatives.

4. Wired: 10 new year’s resolutions for geeks. Number six:

I will follow @stephenfry, @JohnCleese, @wilw, @hodgman, @greggrunberg, @donttrythis (Adam Savage), @levarburton, @nasa, and @thinkgeek on Twitter. If I am not using Twitter I will finally realize what I’ve been missing and sign up right away.

5. @drhilarius:

Stay away from the internet 20% a day, increase productivity by 400%.

What are you new year’s resolutions?

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I browsed through the web and collected the most interesting Internet related predictions for the upcoming year:

- Mediapost: Digital Will Impact Five Key Areas Next Year
Great list on ‘Marketing Daily’. My favorites:

• Conversation is king in 2009 because Web presence alone no longer is enough for individuals or brand.
• The Semantic Web will create more sophisticated, intuitive, refined ways to filter information and services.
• Savvy companies and brand marketers are starting to trust consumers and enlist their assistance in product design and development.
• Another notable trend is the transmission effect, or the speed with which conversations and content spread everywhere like rapid-fire– beyond the reach of editorial controls, sites or institutions.

- Junta42: 42+ Social Media and Content Marketing Predictions for 2009
Interesting predictions of the Junta42 community. Among others:

• Twitter will be officially mainstream, but here will be a backlash against company Twitter accounts.
• Social Media Marketing will become a more mainstream approach.
• Combining traditional media with electronic media will increase.
• More brands will developing a personality or a persona to represent the core values of the company. 2009 will be the year of the personality.
• Americans are showing more and more interest in RSS.
• There will be a “gold rush” for social media as new frontier marketing platform.

- Emarketer: Predictions for 2009
Great statistical insights by Senior Analyst David Hallermann and several collegues:

• Search marketing spending will grow by 14.9% in 2009, to $12.3 billion. (Good news: Search marketing is not recession-proof, but it is recession-resistant.)
• Video ad spending will run counter to overall economic developments, rising by 45% in 2009 to reach $850 million.
• Total US Internet ad spending will increase to $25.7 billion in 2009, an 8.9% growth rate.
• Multicultural marketing will gain intensity online. More African-Americans and Hispanics are going online, through their PCs and their mobile phones, and marketers will follow.
• Online retail sales (excluding travel) will grow by only 4% in 2009—the first full year to feel the impact of the economic crisis.
• E-commerce will be a growing revenue stream for social network sites. Expect both MySpace and Facebook to enhance their self-serve advertising systems to allow consumers and businesses to buy and sell real-world goods and services.
• Advertising in the traditional media will continue to decline in the new year more than any other medium. Industry-wide cutbacks will continue, and there will be some consolidation.

- Search Insider: Search Trends To Watch in 2009
Great thoughts by the sharp mind of David Berkovitz. Three predictions which stood out for me:

• More and more consumers reach marketers through intermediary properties, likeblogs, social networks, photo sharing sites, Twitter, Wikipedia, and countless other social sites. As a result, marketers have to shift their mindset from optimizing their Web site to optimizing their Web presence.
• This fall, YouTube surpassed Yahoo as the second-largest search engine. Marketers have to adapt their strategies to n these nontraditional search sources.
• Search will shift even more beyond the PC. This includes not only mobile devices, but also television models (delivering a hybrid TV-Web experience) and GPS systems in the car (with inbuilt restaurant, attraction etc. search function). Marketers need to reach the target audience on these devices.

Other articles and blog posts with predictions for the upcoming year:

- FolioMag: 117 Magazine And Media Predictions for 2009

- ReadWriteWeb: Social Media in 2009: Our Predictions And Desires

- Fast Company: 8 Experts Predict How Web 2.0 Will Evolve In 2009

- Vator News: Consumer Internet Predictions for 2009

- Peter Kim: Social Media Predictions for 2009

- CSM Watch: Technology Predictions for 2009

- Web Video Unleashed: 9 Online Video Predictions for 2009

- Appirio: Top 10 Cloud Computing Predictions for 2009

Plus: On Twitter you’ll find a great list of Enterprise 2.0 predictions. They are aggregated via the hashtag #e20predictions. Add your own prediction!

If you’re interested in general what will happen with the web not only in 2009, but in next 10 or 20 years, you need to read the report “The Future Of The Internet III” by the Pew Internet & American Life Project” (PDF version). Three interesting takeaways:

• The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020.
• Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020.
• The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations.

Any thoughts on this? Or did you find any other great posts or articles with internet related predictions which should be added to this list? Let me know!

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