Details:
Starts at 7:00 pm Mountain Time
About 1 hour long
Use hashtag #seochat

Host: Brett Snyder

About Rachael Gerson

Rachael leads the analytics division at SEER Interactive, a Search Agency based in Philadelphia. Rachael’s work developing tracking recommendations and strategies has always focused on aggressively pursuing the most positive and tangible ROI possible. As a Google Analytics Qualified Individual and consummate educator, Rachael has been named by Google as one of a select group of “Top Contributors” to the Google Analytics product forum.

With an extensive background in search engine optimization and telecommunications prior to switching over to analytics, Rachael has applied her analytical mind to a wide variety of industries over the past 11 years. Clients have run the gamut from finance to healthcare and retail, as well as highly competitive spaces such as coupons and marketing automation. Rachael is also a regular contributor to Mashable and the SEER Interactive blog, where she shares her research on the latest Google Analytics changes and methods to create efficiencies in analytics.

Rachael frequently speaks about the basics of analytics and SEO and the role the two play in the broader spectrum of marketing and advertising.

In your opinion, can Pinterest be a viable marketing strategy for all types of businesses? Why or why not?

For most business, yes. Especially in the fashion, entertainment, and home improvement areas. There are still many areas that could drastically benefit from marketing there, however, there hasn’t been a first mover. Being that the demographics are largely females with a combined income of 100K+, any product catering to them will do well.

@MikeNicklas1: What’s your favorote tools for working remotely with a team?
@colbyalmond: Right now a mixture of phone conversations, base camp, and good ole hard work. Communication is key.

@rjonesx: What about industries like travel, which dont exactly deal in tangible products?
@colbyalmond: The travel industry is a very profitable area that has yet to be exploited. I would absolutely get into that industry.
@mitchmonsen: Seems to me that Pinterest would be excellent for highlighting area-centric photography. Great visual appeal.
@shuey03: Like a beach in san diego or even disneyland
@AlanBleiweiss: Travel would do well on Pinterest b/c u can create visual storyline 2 attract clicks.

@kmullett: Almost any service that gives you an audience with your core audience with the potential of relationships “may” work.
@scott_dodge: If you’re creating stuff using software, of course. Think “before and after” images for something like photoshop.
@shuey03: Do you think you could drive software sales off of pinterest?
@kmullett: It would be a challenge I would accept. lol I think it would be less direct, but cheat sheets, infographics, vids.
@colbyalmond: There is a large “Geek” and “Tech” category that is really undeserved. Right now it’s being spammed with crap.

@lyena: Pinning URLs does not make sense to me. Stick to pictures.
@AlanBleiweiss: Totally agree. pinning URLs fails at the instant visual value of Pinterest.
@kmullett: Share as image (formerly pin a quote) allows pinning text from tweets (for example) which link back to the tweet.
@wrestlingandy: True… I prefer putting links in the photos description. makes more sense to me.
@lyena: Still, why do I want to see a quote? Pictures linking to a blog post are ok.
@kmullett: Well the great thing is, if you don’t want to you don’t have to. I love quotes and so do some others.
@lyena: True. I guess, the best way to go about it is to start testing.
@kmullett: That is exactly what I did. People started repining them so, well I guess they like it. lol.

What types of content seem to get the most pickup and drive the most traffic and why?

Content that is creative and never been seen before. If it’s useful and relative to the client it will be shared. If it applies to the client’s site it increases the chances of conversions and the relevancy of links you will receive.

Here’s an example of an instructo created in March. I haven’t touch it since launch: http://imgur.com/Cyruu , 1K+ daily.

@shuey03: What about different types of content? examples: infographics, product images, instructographics, etc?
@colbyalmond: I tend to stick to instructographics. It is the most successful and once it goes viral, it keeps giving.
@kmullett: Typography, print examples, site designs, I mean…anything that is visual could be repined. Huge craft circles obviously.

@shuey03: Now did you coin the term instructographic?
@colbyalmond: Yes, it came to me back in Feb when I realized I was no longer making true “infographics”. Something new had to be coined. While infographics were still mildly successful, it took a different type of content to go viral on Pinterest.
@AlanBleiweiss: Instructographics are brilliant. by nature, they’d have much longer shelf life than infographics. Instructographics r ideal 4 svc companies. become known as experts in a “blah” industry.

Where do you start when brainstorming content ideas for a Pinterest campaign?

I honestly get inspiration from anywhere. The DIY network on TV, other social networks, flea markets, anywhere honestly. If it’s something clever and creative, I ask myself how to build it and go from there.

There are a couple of services launching in the month, however, that allow you to effectively monitor your competitors. Beg for an invite to @pinterly . It’s pretty awesome. I have tested Pinerly and it is going to be a game changer when it’s launched.

@97thfloor will also be launching a service in June to help monitor.

I would also have to say http://www.curalate.com/ is pretty cool as well if anyone has had a chance to check that out.

@scott_dodge: Do you ever do Pinterest outreach, or does awesome content kind of take care of itself?
@colbyalmond: No outreach on my part. Awesome content takes care of itself.

@MikeNicklas1: Besides Pinterest what other venues do you prefer to share infographics on?
@colbyalmond: Stumbleupon, Reddit, and blogs are still effective as always.

@kmullett: Just like blogging, answer the questions you frequently get asked and create things that are popular or unique.

@shuey03: Do you do any competitive analysis to help come up with ideas?
@colbyalmond: At this point in the game most businesses are first movers. If it’s gone viral on Pinterest, I’ve known about it.

@mitchmonsen: Speaking of competition, do you actively police instructographic embeds that don’t send traffic to the intended site?
@colbyalmond: I monitor the popular boards daily for stolen graphics of mine. I kindly ask they adjust the URL, they usually do.

@AlanBleiweiss: Is it true that 97% of pinterest users are women?
@colbyalmond: That’s dropped to about 75% as of this month I believe. The males are making an impact and that needs to be noted.

Once you have your content, when and how should you submit it to maximize visibility?

Any time not during working hours. Sunday nights and weekday nights have become the new “go time” for me. Think of when users, East and West coast are most likely to be relaxing and on the internet. Pictures being EVERYWHERE makes it harder to hide from bosses.

Space it out 6 hours. Pin to different categories. Pin different URLs when possible. Keep track of them in Excel. Your goal should be getting to the “categoriy” sections. That’s where the traffic and repins are, if not, it dies.

@scott_dodge: Do you ever use any of the male-focused Pinterest clones (such as Gentlemint) for your work?
@colbyalmond: No, but that is a great idea. Similarly, Craft Gawker is a great place to launch female focused pieces of content.

What are some KPIs that you monitor to track the success of a Pinterest campaign?

Right now simple Google Analytics and conversions. If Pinterest marketing is perfect, conversions will explode.

This is from a client that has done 3 months on Pinterest. The performance speaks for itself: http://imgur.com/GZ51T . I think a lot has to do with the boost in organic rankings you receive from the links and social side of Pinterest. As Matt Cutts continues to evolve, so should the quality of our content. Pinterest is the perfect avenue to launch content.

Pinterest is still young, just be sure to get in before it’s too late. There’s too many benefits in the network not to.

@kmullett: I am kind of digging http://mapinterest.com/ of all the clones, though gentlemint, sinterest, and other knock offs are funny.

@scott_dodge: Do you ever relaunch content that was extremely successful on Pinterest to social bookmarking sites using the context that it was extremely successful on Pinterest? i.e. the title of the submission being “This infoG got 20k repins”?
@colbyalmond_dodge: Yes. As the site keeps growing, more and more users haven’t seen old SUCCESSFUL content. REPIN ALL THE THINGS!

Details:
Starts at 7:00 pm Mountain Time
About 1 hour long
Use hashtag #seochat

Host: Greg Shuey

About Colby Almond

Colby Almond is the Director of Pinterest Marketing for 97th Floor, a Utah based SEO company that is world renowned for their innovative viral marketing strategies and content. Colby has spent the past 5 years developing an understanding in viral marketing and has worked with clients such as Allstate, Adobe, Angie’s List, and Mozy to name a few.

Colby began his career in 2007 by joining North Carolina based SEO company Virante as the Director of Social Media. Colby was tapped to handle a $250,000 year-long contract with a publicly traded company out of the UK. His task was not simple – build up a network of blogs and propel them to the top of social bookmarking sites. He did just that. By the end of the contract, Colby had earned over 70 Digg Front Pages, had a 66% Front Page Rate and, had acquired over 75,000 links to the sites naturally. Colby’s early work in viral marketing became noted throughout the SEO industry and has been presented in case-studies at Pubcon, SES, SMX and more.

Colby was a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and grew up in the Charlotte area.

How did you use social media to help build your reputation in the SEO world? How could others use it?

First of these answers can apply to anyone in any industry. As a person or company?

First of all… i know WHY i am doing what i do… i follow this (or try to). I know that there’s two things that when I do them, time stops… SEO and MUSIC – do what you LOVE.

Secondly, everything i do is genuine… there is no trickery involved… and i never try to “get” things from others.

Now, lets get to tools…. i’m pretty basic… twitter website, google plus, NO facebook. With twitter, i LISTEN to people… i try to really understand their interests, concerns, questions and what would help them. Not to try and get anything from him… but because I had an EXCITED reaction to the music and wanted to share.

Next, I always made sure to leave intesrting, thoughtful and unique comments on peoples blogs. Yep… quora too! (getting to that, lol). Posts I was genuinly excited about & had an emotional reaction to where the ones I focused on I made sure they knew I commented.

Next would be helping people. When you help someone, make sure you’re not actually anti-helping… what i mean is… give them an answer, not just another ?? For example, if someone reaches out on Twitter and needs help, but you can’t give the answer in a Tweet (not helpful), write a blog post instead with the solution and then send it to them.

A couple quick twitter tips. Been experimenting with “double tweets” – http://screencast.com/t/qU5wc3CJk – works well when you haven’t tweeted in a while. The catch with something like “double tweeting” is it works because its NEW. There’s a diminshing return once everything does it. Trick I got from Wil is to keep a few private lists going of people a bit outside of your “crowd” so you’re getting unique stuff.

With bitly… use chrome scrape plugin to source everyone who’s tweetd your stuff. You may have missed them when they tweeted it, also use the master bitly link (not the one you created).

@RachaelGerson: Any data on clicks from double tweets compared to single?
@dan_shure: Just what I’ve looked at in bitly and observation. it works really well if you’ve been offline for a while.

@scott_dodge: Can’t recomment scraper for chrome enough – I use it to scrape #seochat all the time: http://bit.ly/J15eAW .

How did you use social media to help build your knowledge of SEO?

First of all, I was OBSESSED with learning where ever and whenever. In the car I listened to @RossDunn @JohnCarcutt – http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/seo-101/ on SEO101… good when first learning. Don’t tell the cops, but I used to watch Whiteboard Friday in the CAR while driving to fit it in.

I used Q&A forums to learn by ANSWERING (not asking). I’d pick a question I didn’t know the answer and figure it out.

I paid attention to opportunity to go to events. Because of that I went to both Affilaite Summit East and SESNY free. I noticed a group called SEMNE (shout to @Jehochman @jillwhalen @stonetemple) – which I only knew about because of Twitter. And of course when going to events, especially Affiliate Summit, I’d tweet that I was an SEO who the affilaite could talk to.

Lastly, BIG thank you to @dohertyjf @iPullRank @tomcritchlow @wilreynolds @tedives @justinrbriggs @bill_slawski @randfish. I also used social to ask people questions directly, and they were all there for me at times to help. I think the interactive part of social is huge especially for me because I don’t see any SEOs in real life 90% of the time

To wrap up answer 2, social media as a form of communication is invaluable for someone like me who is not near ppl all the time.

@Scott_dodge: I can’t help but notice that @dan_shure is super close to 1k followers… Anticipation is killing me!
@dan_shure: This is my follower growth since last July – http://t.co/KeqJZLF6. That’s not to brag AT ALL… just to say that if you HUSTLE things can happen!!
@scott_dodge: Also, could you share what tool that is?
@dan_shure: That’s crowdbooster the free version. I like it to follow my personal stuff. Crowdbooster has every single day of follower change since I created the account.

Why should someone looking to break out into the SEO world learn technical SEO?

First to define technical SEO, this is two things.

1. knowing how websites are built
2. knowing how search engines work

Knowing these two things is obvious to doing seo well… but it really shows the community you’re serious and HONOR the craft. Doing SEO for people and sharing my knowledge, progress and learning is about more than ME and knowing your shit helps show that.

Also, if you’re trying to build your reputation, you need to be able to talk to all people in the industry, devs/designers. Knowing html/css/php/sql xpath and all that stuff is just knowing the language of the web, which is synonymous with SEO really.

No matter if you’re more focused on link-building stuff, or content, its invaluable to understand what’s happening technically.

@ryanwats: Any specific recommendations on sources for learning technical SEO in depth? blogs, seminars, training courses?
@dan_shure: Agree! RT @LeydaHernandezV: http://p2pu.org is awesome! & http://w3schools.com is a good place to start.
@scott_dodge: This has also intrigued me quite a bit – good structure, totally free, but, it’s all redditors – http://ureddit.com/

What should someone focus on if they want to learn technical aspects of SEO?

FIRST. Build a website from scratch with html and css. doesn’t matter if its 5 pages and ugly. I use text wrangler, MAMP (or WAMP for windows) and a browser to build websites by hand. The O’Reily Books are fantastic if you learn well with a hard copy.

http://t.co/INPJZHmL – that’s an archive of one of a website for one of my dad’s business, which I took it upon myself to rebuild by hand. It has a lot of flaws – pretty basic in a lot of ways (and I’m clearly not a designer) but here it is now http://www.giustgallery.com.

Point is, you learn technical SEO by DOING it… building a site from top down and understanding how it works mechanically. I was very proud of figuring out how to configure the .htaccess for all the URL rewrites – http://screencast.com/t/yvSN4VA2605l.

NEXT, after you build some sites by hand… build a bunch of wordpress sites because you can get to the actual SEO much faster. Then study the Google Documentation – http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769 webmaster guidlines. I know alot of this is basic but sometimes we complicate things so much and forget the basics.

Google webmaster videos – I’ve watched every single one at least once – http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp/videos . participate in Quora’s SEO group – http://www.quora.com/Search-Engine-Optimization-SEO/group. And of course the Moz Q&A – http://www.seomoz.org/q .

Lastly, you learn by teaching. find someone who knows less than you and teach them anything you just learned!

@AlanBleiweiss: Want 2 learn key aspects of technical SEO that matter most? Learn fundamental house building architecture.

What other skills do you feel are important to breaking out into the SEO world?

Writing gives you a unique voice! I have homework for you all. Try NOT using the word “great” at all. To get better at writing and expanding my vocabulary always keep a thesaurus near bye. FIND a better word than “great”.

To “break out” into the industry, you need to know traditional marketing. I consider myself a marketer first, SEO second. Read this – http://www.heathbrothers.com/madetostick/ . Watch this – http://www.artandcopyfilm.com/. And study people like @ramit because he’s a genius marketer and copywriter – http://youtu.be/2tsJ_-yINxs.

Details:
Starts at 7:00 pm Mountain Time
About 1 hour long
Use hashtag #seochat

Host: Becky Jutzi

Dan Shure of Evolving SEO

Dan Shure (@dan_shure) is Owner of Evolving SEO in Central Massachusetts. His obsessive love for SEO began after building and optimizing websites for some small businesses in 2007, and it took off from there. Evolving SEO has been officially operating since 2011, and Dan is also an SEOmoz Associate.

I’m always interested to see data on how people behave on the Web. This infographic zeroes in on some very interesting behaviors when it comes to search. Most people don’t go beyond the first page of search results before they click on a link. And if they don’t find what they want in the first search, 41% will refine their search query or switch search engines rather than click through to the second or third page of results. That’s interesting because it indicates that people are making decisions about whether websites have the info they want before they even get to the site. If your page titles and meta-descriptions aren’t reflecting the actual content on your site, people are less likely to click through, even if the content they want might actually be there. Even an artfully designed site will suffer from lack of attention to the details.

What’s even more interesting in this graphic is the fact that over three-fourths of users ignore the paid search links and focus on the organic listings. People know that the paid links aren’t getting them where they want to go, so they’re taking pains to avoid them and go straight to the organic results. Just that behavior alone makes it startlingly clear that the content and services of your site are the foundation for any other optimization that’s taking place.

It’s no wonder that a good portion of the infographic talks about the frequency with which experts recommend redesigning a site. Google changes its algorithm, trends in each industry shift, economic forces push users in different directions — the rest of the world is evolving. Why shouldn’t your site?

About SEO.com

SEO.com is an internet marketing firm who specializes in Search Engine Optimization. SEO.com helps clients achieve top search engine placement and grow their revenue through holistic SEO strategies. For more information about SEO.com, visit their site or check out their search engine marketing strategies blog today!

@GarrettFrench: is founder of Citation Labs (http://t.co/nC4lAjU9), a linkbuilding toolshop/prospecting agency. He writes articles for SEWatch (http://t.co/y2ypAC2a) and works to perfect his link prospecting tool (http://t.co/tIuEH3ES). If you want to learn a little more about the tool check out this review on http://t.co/uWRdzhLs http://t.co/90NWFZW9 .

What is the first step to get started with any link prospecting campaign?

Awesome question. So there are basically two first steps that have to happen at the same time. You conduct a linkable asset survey to see what you have that people will link or share http://t.co/fxzcFM73 . All while determining if there are enough publishers in the market to support the tactic in question.

That linkable asset survey I mentioned – it could be as simple as: “do you have time and expertise to write guest posts”. Or as complex as backlink analysis to see what’s gotten links on your site and finding more similar potential linkers. But don’t skip the “prospect pool depth analysis” to determine if there’s really enough ops to warrant a given tactic.

I’ve sold a tactic (guest posting) and then later found there weren’t enough ops in the space to support what I sold. Shifting gears is part of the game, but now I pre-prospect to ensure that there are enough ops to support a tactic. And I generally assume we’ll have low conversions. For BLB (Broken Link Building) about 1-3% and guest posting 8-15%.

With those conversion rates in mind I know whether we’ll need 100 prospects + outreach to fulfill a contract or 1000 and usally it’s a whole lot closer to 1000+ solid prospects a month It always depends on the market, the tactic and what we’re pitching.

@shuey03: How you handle a “low return” linkable assets inventory? What do you do when you request assets & the client says “that’s what I pay you for”?
@GarrettFrench: I’m fortunate that people come to me for LB only… so I can pitch tactics upfront and build prices in.

@victorpan: What are the expected conversion rates for some other tactics? You mentioned BLB and guest posts. Infographics?
@GarrettFrench: I outsource infographics – I can’t answer on conversions there.

@ashbuckles: You reach out to 1000 guest bloggers per month? Is that correct?
@GarrettFrench: Don’t outreach to 1000 bloggers for guest posting a month… 100 is usually enough for the scale of GPs I’m placing. 1000 a month is more for BLB.
@shuey03: I’m guessing you are able to do that volume (100 guest blogs) due to the amazing tools you build?
@GarrettFrench: I’ve maxed out at about 20 GPs a month nothing insane – BLB is the real prospect hog… but there are more prospects there. But I COULD place 100 GPs a month with my tools, yes. And BLB’s cousin, link equity salvage http://t.co/5R3EvD1q found 40k ref domains for client this way. To qualify it was an amazing publisher – great content and a site that’s probably 20 yrs old. BLB is NOT scalable for every client! at least, not the way I do it

@gemwebb: IS there a good resource on Broken Link Building?
@CaptainSpaceman: http://t.co/TT5HTh3i.

What are the core methods of link prospecting and what link building tactics do they support?

I believe there are 6 methods of link prospecting… (could be more/less depending how you slice).

1. Query google at scale for link prospects – this is the most flexible method of building prospect list http://t.co/aAA2yTJE . Queries can support most tactics, but you often have to run 100s of queries, systematically (plug): http://t.co/CPfGJgCX . Here’s my best guide to link prospecting so far: http://t.co/sgzxwClT
2. Find and scrape lists of blogs so long as you’re in large verticals with active curators http://t.co/C1d8ljoP . If lists exist in your space they are often lists of blogs, maybe local chapters of pro organizations with resource pages.
3. Find dead pages that still have links and ask 4 link to your similar content (broken link building) http://t.co/pPirVruZ . You have to have high-grade content for this to work, and a vast library of existing content helps too.
4. Competitive co-citation analysis – I find this approach inflexible because it doesn’t allow for scale or tactic shifts.
5. Buy targeted email lists – this is one I heard from @debramastaler but have never tried. @debramastaler email is mentioned here: http://t.co/iakZaR4a .
6. Lastly I read of folks scraping twitter. Makes sense, haven’t tried it though. Twitter for link building: http://t.co/WpnO3tKu http://t.co/TRiEJ0vB .

I need a method for every client at any scale and queries have always provided that for me.

@MirandaM_EComm: I think @garrettfrench is being modest with “best link prospecting resource” recomm, his own book is killer! http://t.co/04lONTWt .

How important is competitive research as part of your link prospecting?

I rarely use direct competitors as a starting point for link prospecting. I will on occasion look for footprints of especially prolific guest posters though. Their name for example, or if they have a repeated phrase in the author bio. I have looked at a backlink profile to try and discover tactical approaches to adopt (aka steal). And that will certainly impact link prospecting directions and methods selected.

For my purposes, more important than competitive research is just plain old market-language research. Namely, what terms are used in the market to describe the market and its segments. This makes a HUGE difference in the productivity of prospecting in Google.

Use the tilde to quickly find productive language variations: [~KW]. Try [~horse] for example. sometimes [~horse -horse] can help as well.

Careful attention to language usage is one of the fundamentals of productive, efficient link prospecting with queries.

@scott_dodge:: The Link Prospector’s Guide to the Tilde – http://t.co/Tpr6FRf0 .

@jonknep: What are you doing aside from switching GP names (maybe) to make it harder for peeps to snoop in on you?
@GarrettFrench: I’m not currently doing a good job of hiding my GP tracks… it’s tough because I need persona “history” to get placements.

How valuable are advanced search operators for link prospecting and what are some of your favorites?

Advanced operators are very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very valuable. Advanced operators enable prospectors to better segment that insanely massive index of Google’s. This segmentation via operators ultimately creates domain diversity among your prospects.

Because G only cares about the top 3-10 results, going beyond is rarely productive for prospecting. This means you have to force segments up from the index to keep harvesting those awesome top 10-20 results. For example, compare the top results for [horses (https://t.co/sEgPHSfX)] and [intitle:horses (https://t.co/wRA2fUVW)]. Quite different domains in the top 10 and all are worth investigating if I were building a list of horse sites. Some overlap is not a bad thing – it can help show the sites that are strongest in the SERPs.

Enough theory – I have several favorite advanced operators.

• intitle: finds pages by conscientious and/or SEO-minded webmasters… it means KW MUST be in the title.
• inurl: KW MUST be in the URL
• site: I mostly use this for forcing results from specific TLDs eg: site:.ac.uk for British university sites.
• ~(tilde): I only recently discovered this one and now eternally owe @wiep for suggesting I test http://t.co/Z0MlHRYv .
• -(minus): I mostly use this one with tildes, but @rosshudgens wrote a boss article on its usage here: http://t.co/ZsYaueIK .

@Abbott_Shea: what about the OR???
@GarrettFrench: I don’t use it much – I like to run LOTS of queries instead of lump concepts/KWs together in 1 SERP. I’d love to read an article on how you use OR for link prospecting though!
@OptimizePrime: I’m talkin consumer linguistics @OptimizePrime you’re saying you search: (myocardial infarction OR heart attack) right?
@GarrettFrench: You will dig my http://t.co/CPfGJgCX then cause we have that built in.
@garyjmag: I use OR alot, but separate makes sense, since ur judging site strength by presence/position across multiple SERPs.
@GarrettFrench: I like to have narrow-as-possible SERPs… I honestly don’t know the OR well enough to opine. haven’t tested enough.
@scott_dodge: Here’s my personal review of @GarrettFrench’s Link Prospecting tool – http://t.co/EGrcSsvb .

@TheGonzoSEO: Oldie but I still use it. 21 Link Builders Share Advanced Link Building Queries http://t.co/P6VYCVBL by @garrettfrench

You’ve written about the “Footprint” as it pertains to linkbuilding. What is the footprint & how does it affect link prospecting?

Simply put, footprints are the key to getting targeted prospects at scale. I tried defining the footprint in this article here: http://t.co/sgzxwClT . You can read them defined well here as well: http://t.co/2YM2MmrF . The footprint is part of a link building query, usually appended to the research phrase.

Footprints are typically tactic-specific, so you need to know your tactic before prospecting with google. The research or category phrase could be something like [law]. If you’re looking for guest post prospects you could use a footprint like ["guest post"]. Putting the two together: [law "guest post"] = prospects (https://t.co/LBiDGyyU) .

I mentioned careful attention to language usage earlier. That also pertains to WHERE language is used… and advanced operators can help with this. Eg: [law intitle:"guest post"] (https://t.co/C4Tw92xw).

More recently been using footprints to find websites of local chapters of a national organization. All local chapters had org’s name in them. So we’d do: [*http://t.co/7T8YEfkd] and [orgsname*.org] and scrape down to 1000 using custom preset on http://t.co/CPfGJgCX .

I sometimes use the term footprint and advanced operator interchangeably. But note that the advanced operator can’t do it’s incredible job without a great footprint.

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]]> http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/summary-fundamentals-large-scale-linkbuilding-seochat-garrett-french-garrettfrench/feed/ 2 http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/summary-fundamentals-large-scale-linkbuilding-seochat-garrett-french-garrettfrench/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/smweekly/~3/1TL6OpHmcuY/ http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/fundamentals-large-scale-linkbuilding-garrett-french-garrettfrench-seochat/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:48:30 +0000 brettasnyder http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/?p=1254 On Thursday April 19, 2012 Search Marketing Weekly will be hosting an #seochat on Twitter.  Garrett French will be our guest answering questions about large scale linkbuilding

Details:
Starts at 7:00 pm Mountain Time
About 1 hour long
Use hashtag #seochat

Host: Brett Snyder

About Garrett French

Garrett French is the founder of Citation Labs, a link building tool shop and prospecting + outreach agency. He writes link prospecting articles for Search Engine Watch and loves learning and talking about ways to use his new Link Prospector tool at ever increasing scale. To learn more about the Link Prospecting tool, check out this review on SEObook.com.

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]]> http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/fundamentals-large-scale-linkbuilding-garrett-french-garrettfrench-seochat/feed/ 0 http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/fundamentals-large-scale-linkbuilding-garrett-french-garrettfrench-seochat/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/smweekly/~3/ChkwimLnsYs/ http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/summary-content-strategies-seochat-mattmcgee/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:11:25 +0000 Lyena Solomon http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/?p=1240 Guest: @mattmcgee. @mattmcgee has been in the online marketing game since the late nineties with a specialty in SEO and blogging/social media. @mattmcgee is an independent online marketing consultant. And @mattmcgee is also the Executive News Editor for @sengineland and @marketingland.

@shuey03: What is one thing about you that none of your co-workers know?
@mattmcgee: Hmmmm. I don’t think they know that I was an extra in “Thelma & Louise.” woot! Completely serious! Can’t see my face, but I walk right behind Geena Davis in bar scene at beginning.

How do you go about brainstorming topics for your content generation

For me, reading is the first thing that helps generate content ideas. It helps to be really curious about others’ content. As you read more and more, you discover what writers/bloggers you like. Study those people. Why does their content work? Other idea sources: your analytics (what are people searching for?), Q&A sites, your readers, keyword research, etc.

I did a series last summer on this –> Series: 5 Ways To Find New Blog Content http://t.co/cALAQoys . One more thing. You know those studies we write about on @sengineland & @Marketingland? Lots of great info nuggets in there. Download those studies and look for under-reported details, or find things to question/disagree with, etc. So many of them. The Pew studies, the Exact Target studies, Hitwise, comScore, etc. So much data to draw from.

@KeriMorgret: Some of our most popular posts on @SEOmoz have come from seeing the same question asked over and over in Q&A.

@AlanBleiweiss: I read other peoples content to help give me ideas, but mostly because I like stalking people.

@AnnieCushing: Google Insights is also a great resource for content brainstorming. I did a post about it: http://t.co/W5ASiSwl .

@ThunderSEO: We love this content strategy generator tool from @seogadget. Great for checking out the landscape https://t.co/wTZF4XIK .

@jonhyne: Is “KW Unavailable” impacting your content research/ideas & strategy?
@mattmcgee: It’s a pain in the arse, but not affecting my content development/writing, no.

@jasonmun: Would you also look at what’s trending in the social media space to generate content ideas?
@mattmcgee: No, I normally don’t write to the trends. But we do report on daily news/trends at SEL and ML.
@MikeNicklas1: I think that’s a great idea..that way you can amplify your results because there is an immediate demand for your content.

Once you have a topic idea, how do you go about building a headline that will catch people’s attention?

Headline depends on goal of the article. Sometimes I write with SEO in mind – to rank highly. Example: http://t.co/8eoXNIex . Headline depends on goal of the article. Sometimes I write with SEO in mind – to rank highly. Example: http://t.co/8eoXNIex . You should see an old article ranking highly for “small business reputation management.” That was a goal back then. So I wrote the headline accordingly for that purpose.

For others, I try to think what headline will work better socially. Very recent example –> http://t.co/wo9LcaGh . Again, study other great writers. Which headlines get YOU to click? Also, this from @copyblogger –> http://t.co/AopRJIln .

@dan_shure: I did a little post on @SEOmoz about writing titles / headlines http://t.co/gAdzsKv5 .

@jasonmun: Are there any “power” words in headlines that you have found to have higher CTR?
@bryanphelps: For headlines, just put “BREAKING:” in front of it, regardless of how non-newsworthy it is.
@mattmcgee: I haven’t studied certain words vs. other words. But I like what @bryanphelps just said.
@dan_shure: Power words – killer, astonishing, unbelievable, mistakes, free, missing, 7 ways to__, astonishing, mind-blowing, irresistible.
@mattmcgee: I actually find myself skipping past a lot of those words/headlines. Too overused. Like, if you ever find me using “killer” in a headline on my own SEO blog, you have permission to shoot on sight. Unless I’m saying “Google killer” or something like that.
@MirandaM_EComm: Anticipating Matt’s next blog post, 10 Astonishingly Killer Tips for Massive, Unbelievable Traffic.
@mattmcgee: ROFL! God forbid…..

@lyena: Don’t you think that the reason those words are overused is because they work?
@mattmcgee: Use the words that you think your audience will respond to.

@shuey03: Can you get the best of both worlds? social and seo value?
@mattmcgee: Sure! The big “home run” posts can be written with both SEO and social in mind.
@scottkrager: I use Topical Brainstorm. It almost feels like cheating http://t.co/skq4neqN .
@ThunderSEO: We use tools like @socialmention & @topsy to see how our audience is using the topic in convo. @quora q&as are also useful.
@scott_dodge: All great tools! I wrote about them (for use in a different purpose) here: http://t.co/ZZdGnIqw .
@kmullett: Anyone else just start doing some google operator searches for inspirational titles and subjects? No? Just me?
@jasonmun: Speaking of tools, don’t forget Zemanta http://t.co/kLvDBLLD .

What are the key things to remember when building and structuring your content?

Hmmm. First, remember who you’re writing for & what your goal is for each piece of content. Write what you know. No BS. Unless you’re writing to learn from readers, which also works when done right. Re: structure, I’ve really come around to believing in short sentences and SHORT PARAGRAPHS, especially. Twitter effect. Also, break up longer pieces with plenty of sub-headings, bullet lists, etc. Content HAS to be easy to read.

@shuey03: @mattmcgee what do you mean by “to learn from your readers“?
@mattmcgee: Sometimes on my own blog, I’ve done posts that are questions/topics I want to learn about.
@shuey03: so to glean info from other, more educated peeps in the comments…

@ThunderSEO: 1) who is your audience 2) what should they take away from your content 3) how does this relate to your business goals.

@mitchmonsen: Most important point here; people get caught up writing on the topic that they forget to write so readers do something.

@KeriMorgret: Know where you’re going with the post. Don’t make the reader read it three times to figure it out.

@shuey03: In your opinion how many words should an ideal post be? what’s too long?
@mattmcgee: I have a stock answer for that one. Articles should be as many words as it takes to say what needs to be said, not one word longer. http://t.co/OtJBJ920 .

What steps should you take to optimize your content for the search engines? (what’s over doing it?)

If just starting out, I think you have to write more with SEO in mind. What keywords do you want associated w/your blog? It’s like you’re training the spiders at the beginning. Trying to earn trust and create authority with great, topical content. After you’ve earned trust (via links & social mentions, etc.), you have more freedom and can worry less about SEO, I think. I love what @graywolf said here: http://t.co/Dg3mNEdj “Once you are trusted…you are living in the land of milk and honey.”

@KeriMorgret: Don’t write for the search engines, but do a quick read and make sure you’ve at least included your keywords.

@debbiemaddox: So history of content affects spiders too? or is it overall quantity that you can’t get being new?
@mattmcgee: I definitely believe in history as part of a site’s overall quality profile. Some sites have such a solid history, they can rank for almost anything. (see: Mashable).

How do you build authenticity and thought leadership in your content?

By giving your knowledge away. No other way that I know of, at least none that work as well. In our industry (SEO), you pretty much have to blog. Ask @mblumenthal what blogging did for his thought leadership. Write great, smart, shareable stuff. Share it w/people who might share it w/others. Connect via smart blog comments, Twitter… If you’re not willing to give your knowledge (thoughts) away, you can’t be a thought leader.

@dan_shure: Also by not coming across as having an alternative motive – like selling something or wanting to be popular.
@mattmcgee: Also, be visible where your industry/audience is. Heck, even the Dalai Lama is on Twitter, right? Wallflowers are generally not thought leaders. Stick your neck out. I got a kick in the butt about that in 2006 from @stuntdubl – changed my life.

@victorpan: What sort of content works the best to garner authenticity?
@mattmcgee: Probably depends on your industry/audience. But helpful content often wins the day. Tips, advice, etc.

@shuey03: Any final words of wisdom for us tonight?
@mattmcgee: Hmmmm. All of my favorite words of wisdom come from John Wooden. Read one of his books.

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]]> http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/summary-content-strategies-seochat-mattmcgee/feed/ 3 http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/summary-content-strategies-seochat-mattmcgee/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/smweekly/~3/IaQm5MKTV4Q/ http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/content-strategies-2012-matt-mcgee-mattmcgee-seochat/#comments Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:21:30 +0000 Greg Shuey http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/?p=1234 On Thursday April 12, 2012 Search Marketing Weekly will be hosting an #seochat on Twitter. Matt McGee will be our guest answering questions about building solid content strategies.

Details:
Starts at 7:00 pm Mountain Time
About 1 hour long
Use hashtag #seochat

Host: Greg Shuey

About Matt McGee

Matt McGee has been helping businesses of all sizes succeed online since the late 1990s, with a specialty in SEO, local search marketing, and blogging/social media. He has consulted for companies as big as Target.com and as small as a mom and pop selling handcrafted wooden pens from their garage. Matt is an independent online marking consultant and also the Executive News Editor for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land.

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