Below are photos from SMX West 2012 in San Jose which were taken between February 27 and March 1. They were not uploaded to Flickr until April 21. Do the math. That’s 7 weeks after the conference. OUCH! I started thinking about all the blog posts with tips for preparing for a conference and realized I don’t recall a post about what NOT to do after a conference. Of course, the converse and take away should be, what TO DO after attending a search marketing conference.

1) Don’t wait weeks to upload conference photos.

Get your photos processed and uploaded within 1-2 weeks after attending a conference. Otherwise, the excitement has faded. We all get busy catching up on work and life after travels. Set some time aside to just do it earlier vs. later. Even better, upload them live while at the conference.

2) Don’t post unfavorable photos.

Don’t be afraid of the Delete key. Get ride of photos that show someone’s unfavorable side. We have all taken photos with eyes closed or gut hanging out. If you take such a shot, DO NOT post that photo to Flickr or Facebook. And while you’re at it, remove red eye before uploading!

3) Don’t forget to connect on LinkedIn.

Networking at conferences is key and getting to know other people in the search industry often means you want to connect with them on LinkedIn. You never know that that connection may mean to you down the road or how you may be able to help them land a new gig.

4) Don’t make promises you don’t keep.

We all know how easy it is to make decisions in haste while at the height of emotion and having just met your “new BFF.” Your intentions may be good, sincere, and honorable, but don’t – just DO NOT – say you’ll do something that you later do not do. It’s OK to say, “I’ll do my best to… Please follow-up with me in a week to remind me in case I forget.” Once you’ve opened the door for a reminder, follow through. As Nike says,

“Just do it!”

5) Don’t over-schedule upon return from a conference.

Plan white space. Did you catch that? Plan white space! In other words, plan some down time to to catch up, regroup, process, debrief, review notes, and ensure you do some post-conference follow-up.

Now, with all that said, and #5 being my latest egregious error, here are the shots. They may be late, but memories from SMX West 2012 in San Jose remain in full color! Good times!

Feel free to share any additional post-conference tips or mistakes!

Photos from #SMX West 2012 – 5 Tips on What Not To Do After a Conference by Yo! Yo! SEO . Word-of-Mouth SEO - Optimize your online conversation

The magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico on March 20, 2012 rattled nerves, toppled homes, and shifted the landscape of the search engine results in Google and Bing. The screenshots below show how the Mexico earthquake was felt throughout the SERPs – from real-time search to news.

SERPS After the Earthquake

Web and News SERPs were compared. All times for the screenshots below are Pacific time. Note that the earthquake hit at 11:03 am PDT/12:03 CST local time.

Web Results – 14 Minutes After the Quake

Where are current SERPs for “Mexico earthquake” in Google? The most relevant result was a PPC ad by Bing.

Google Web SERPs: "Mexico earthquake" at 11:17 am on 3/20/12

Bing displayed a result that was 6 minutes old – a tweet an aggregation site that was already indexed.

Bing Web SERPs: "Mexico earthquake" at 11:17 am on 3/20/12

Bing video? It was outdated, at this point.

News Results – 16 Minutes

Google News SERPs still did not show any results about the Mexico earthquake.

Google News SERPs: "Mexico earthquake" at 11:19 am on 3/20/12

Bing news results had 2 stories via the Associated Press and the original tweet. Notice that “Public Updates” began to show on the right. Real-time search kicked in as live tweets streamed.

Bing News SERPs: "Mexico earthquake" at 11:19 am on 3/20/12

Web & News – 17 Minutes

Google’s news and/or freshness algorithms kicked in 17 minutes after the earthquake as shown. One box results for News displayed, and these were the same top 3 SERPs in the News section (no need for another screenshot).

Take a closer look below the news, and what do we see? Google+ real-time SERPs, could it be?

Google Web SERPs: "Mexico earthquake" at 11:21 am on 3/20/12

Bing News results began filling out. Those videos still weren’t fresh, however.

Bing Web SERPs: "Mexico earthquake" at 11:22 am on 3/20/12

Changing SERP Landscape

The most notable changes in the  SERPs during the following hour were:

• Updated news results in Google & Bing, along with more images and current video
• Continued real-time updates from Twitter in Bing
• Google+ results in, you guessed it, Google
• Larger images in Bing News

SERPs – 2:04 after the Quake

Google News showed 1 YouTube video and a couple related images. Bing continued to advertise, enticing searchers to visit Bing.com for “Top News & Pics.”

Google News SERPs: "Mexico earthquake" at 1:07 pm on 3/20/12

Bing displayed a significantly larger image than the normal size as part of its News results inside the Web SERPs. All of the videos were now current – 45 minutes to 1 hour old.

Bing Web SERPs: "Mexico earthquake" at 1:07 pm on 3/20/12

Fresh & Real-Time Results During Crisis

It’s during such catastrophes that many people miss Google’s real-time search. If your head tilts, and you still think to yourself “what is real time search?”, think of it like this:

What happens when an earthquake or tornado wipe out towns or a plane lands in the Hudson River?

People start talking about it on Twitter, Facebook, and in social media – in REAL TIME. Searchers want access, to be able to search, near real time, to find out the latest.

Social Firehose

When Google launched Google+ in July of 2011, guess what license they failed to renew? They no longer paid for an API to the Twitter firehose. This means that all those real-time conversations no longer showed up in the SERPs. (OK, this means the spam didn’t either.)

Bing, however, embraced Twitter and Facebook and created social search. As we’ve seen, they also buy AdWords in Google, so we can still get near real-time relevant results!

Google obviously hedged their bets that people would share on Google+. It’s the closest to “real time” that Google gets. And if you want to be visible in the SERPs during such a crisis, guess where you should post?

For which search engine would you vote for the freshest results during a crisis? If based upon the Mexico earthquake, Bing gets my vote!

How Google & Bing SERPs Shifted During the Mexico Earthquake by Yo! Yo! SEO . Word-of-Mouth SEO - Optimize your online conversation

Yo! You ready to talk some SEO and website migration?

About 150 people attended the “SEO Essentials for Website Migration” panel at SMX West on March 1, 2012. It was a good turnout for the last day of a 3-day conference and a morning session. A large number of attendees where in-house SEOs, and manywere in the midst of a website migration to a CMS or had one upcoming.

A Website Relaunch Takes Planning

Attendees learned that a website migration takes a lot of PLANNING! Just ask Meg Geddes (aka @netmeg).

I opened my presentation by asking the audience to close their eyes and proceeded to tell a true story experienced by “netmeg” a month earlier:

Imagine you’re going into a client meeting and found out they are migrating to a new CMS and will be changing ALL of the URLs…in 3 WEEKS!

They have 2/3s of the site built in Drupal but didn’t think to talk to you, their SEO firm, about it first. There is no content developed, and the Drupal site is broken. The site must stay on the same domain, but a different server… until they get around the broken issues. PLUS! It’s important there is NO SERP loss. It’s a 15-year-old domain with lots of juice and has to be done right.

You explain the importance of redirects, analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, etc.

Your client explains they “had no idea it would be this involved.”

To top it off, the #1 issue is that the client’s representative is 9 months pregnant and due THAT DAY!

How do you handle the situation without making her go into labor?

Now you can understand Meg’s frustration. You either plan details of your site relaunch, or loose rankings and traffic… and kill kittens!

3 Stages to a Website Migration

The following represent the three stages to planning SEO into your website migration:

1. Discovery & Data Collection
2. Planning & Implementation
3. Launch & Clean-up

3 Stages to a Website Migration

Below is a high-level overview of each stage/phase/step, or whatever you want to call it:

Phase 1 of a site migration is to discover the migration variables & collect benchmark data.

• You want to know what’s going to change and what’s not. Capture it ALL!
• Will you redesign now or later?
• Is it just a migration to a new platform?
• URLs?
• IA structure?
• Content & Meta?
• Plugins & functionality?
• And of course, you want to measure performance before & after relaunch. Begin collecting data as early as possible.

Phase 2 includes identifying your assets with a content audit, keyword research and strategy, information architecture and site hierarchy, dealing with those precious URLs.

• Rewrite URLs and redirect page-to-page, 1-to-1, with 301 redirects.
• Make sure those new URLs are friendly to people and search engines.

Phase 3 includes the labor pains leading up to the big launch and the clean-up afterward. Monitor those 404s, update links, and reclaim those external links.

• Remember, a 301 redirect does lose a little bit of PageRank, so you want linking websites to list the correct new URL.
• Keep that link juice flowing to your new baby!

SEO Website Migration Presentation

View my SMX slides for tips with a few checklists and resources:

As mentioned in my post about speaking at SMX West, panel speakers included myself plus:

• Jessica Bowman of SEOinhouse.com
• Rhea Drysdale of Outspoken Media
• Ryan Jones of Team Detroit
• Shari Thurow of Omni Marketing

It was an honor to hear their juicy insights and experiences. <I wish I would have had the opportunity to take notes!>

Live Blog Coverage

Never fear, two of THE best live blogging experts in our search industry, Lisa Barone and Barry Schwartz, were at bat typing away!

• Search Engine Roundtable – SMX Live: SEO Essentials for Migrating Websites
• Outspoken Media – SEO Essentials for Migrating Websites

Thank you, Lisa & Barry! <How you do this so proficiently, I shake my head.>

Migration Resources

Below are a few resources mentioned in my presentation:

SEO Migration Checklists

• SEER Interactive – SEO Website Redesign Checklist: Don’t Mess Up Your Site Traffic
  Not only is this a great checklist, but you’ll reap a lot of data and information to help you avoid migration fallout. For your baseline metrics, follow their tips to track the following metrics, weekly:
• Pages Indexed, Cache Date, Page Rank, Home Page Authority, Domain Authority, Google Webmaster Tools Errors
• SEO Gadget – Surviving a Site Migration [An SEO's Guide]
  Richard Baxter delivers the SEO goods with tips for handling a website migration. This post is a MUST read. Period.
• SEOmoz – Web Site Migration Guide: Tips for SEOs
  This post was not part of my presentation, and I refused to read it prior to avoid adding anything extra that would entice me to go over 12 minutes. It’s huge, a big guide full of tips, tools, and considerations for migrating a website.

Redirects Worksheet – FREE Download by Yo! Yo! SEO

I provided a download of a Redirects Worksheet Template you can use to track your 301s. It can also be used to help with your link-reclamation efforts.

Tools – FREE versions

Get your groove on with webmaster tools before and especially AFTER launch. Keep an eye on those 404 errors, crawl stats, and more. Heck, you can even submit an XML sitemap or two.

• Google Webmaster Tools
• Bing Webmaster Tools

Identify pages with the most links, your top pages:

• Google Webmaster Tools:
  Your site on the web > Internal links > Download CSV
• Open Site Explorer:
  Link Metrics > Top Pages > Download CSV > sort by Inbound Links
• Majestic SEO:
  Site Explorer > Top Pages

Identify what types of content you have on the old site – text, images, PDFs, etc.

• IIS SEO Toolkit:
  Site Analysis > Report > Export All URLs > URLs
  Download a CSV scrape of your site with tons of rows and columns to begin your content audit.

Search-Engine Friendly CMSs

Someone asked about content management systems during Q&A. What’s SEO-friendly? I recommended Pixelsilk CMS. You have nearly full control over your URL structure, which means you could avoid changing URLs if your current site is already optimized.

Live Photos

Photo Credit: Special thanks to Thomas Ballantyne, SEO, photographer & bug guy, extraordinaire for taking pictures of the session!\

So what about you?

Do you have any additional resources or checklists you want to share about ensuring SEO is the foundation of a website relaunch? Tips, tricks, insights?

SEO & Website Migration – Slides & Resources from #SMX West by Yo! Yo! SEO . Word-of-Mouth SEO - Optimize your online conversation

Last week I attended an unusual Conference – EmMeCon put on by Wappow. It stands for Emerging Media Conference. It covered broad topics – Social, Mobile, and Gaming. EmMeCon’s goal was to inspire people, to give the attendees ideas about their business.

EmMeCon 2012 - Tim Ash Speaking

Photo Credit: Jenn Matthews, @SEOGoddess

I came with an open mind. My goal was to walk away with ideas that clients can use today to be best prepared for the future. I wanted revelations that would give the companies I work with some advantage when fighting for online audience.

Below are some of the insights I received and trends businesses can invest in now, to be prepared for the future.

Know Your Audience

General content suitable for anyone does not work anymore. You need to understand your audience, and write for THEM. One of the most important questions to answer is,

“What is driving them to buy from you?”

Do not assume you know the answer. Ask your customers instead, and confirm their answer on your website.

Pay attention to user behavior – what happens when… How do people behave on your website? Make sure you deliver what people expect to see that:

• All underlined text is clickable.
• You have a way to share and rate your posts.
• There are interactive elements on your website.

Focus, Customize, Measure

When you figure out your customer buying habits, focus on the ones that buy from you.

• Look beyond just final purchase.
• Analyze other ways people interact with your website.
• Find out what drives your newsletter subscribers to give you money.
• Investigate those who leave comments on your blog; find out where they are coming from.

Try to create a customized experience for each user.

• You can show them all their Facebook friends who visited your website.
• Or you can recommend posts for them based on their ranking.
• Whatever it is, try to establish a one-on-one relationship with each visitor.
• Participate in their community – whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Forums, or Google Plus.

Measure the results of your efforts, of course. Your direct and indirect efforts should contribute to higher revenue. People are coming to your website through multiple channels. They use different channels before they finally buy. You need to look at everything together, and then single out the contributions of each effort, of each funnel.

Emerging Technologies

Everything is merging. Web, television, games are accessible from many devices, including mobile. And the whole environment is extremely social.

• We access Facebook from Xbox and watch television and movies on our mobile phones.
• We recommend websites to our friends and are extremely chatty on Twitter.
• We save the day in World Of Warcraft and get married to virtual warrior friends in real life.

Emerging technologies that are here to stay incorporate web, social, and gaming.

• Giftiki will let you pick items you want but cannot afford and friends will contribute. It is almost like fund raising.
• Xobni aggregates all social info of your friends and lets you access it from anywhere.
• Dictionary.com offers interactive games for school kids to test their vocabulary knowledge.

The technology is becoming transparent. It is just a tool to get to the content. It is a way to filter the content you want, in real time, with the ability to share.

Your customers are the people who check in on Foursquare. They are addicted to Facebook and share their opinions on Twitter.

They text, leave comments, blog, slay dragons, save the world – all from their mobile phone.

As a business, you need to stop obsessing about the technology and turn to improving user experience.

• You need to make interactions with your business engaging, entertaining, and fast.
• You have to constantly feed your customers interesting content for them to consume.
• And you must create a community around your brand to encourage comments and sharing.

What Can You Do Now

Mobile

Get your website to work on mobile devices. I do not only mean smart phones and tablets, but gaming devices as well. If applicable, allow development using your APIs, encourage the community to be creative with your content or using your tools.

Create apps and games around your product and your expertise.

Transparency

If your website works “best when viewed in Internet Explorer” or if it requires JavaScript, this is where you start. Your content should be available to your visitors regardless of their computers, browsers, plug-ins, resolution, bandwidth, etc. It should look the same on any device and have the same functionality.

• You need to merge the real and virtual worlds.
• Offer something for check-ins.
• Host real life events for members of your virtual community.

Value

You need to matter. You matter through your content. Know what your value is to your customer and deliver it without fail. Create value not only through your website but through other channels – social, mobile, and gaming.

Get on the same brain wave with your customer and make your company a part of both their real and virtual worlds.

EmMeCon Delivered

I mentioned my goal was to walk away with revelations. EmMeCon provided just that – insights into what businesses need to do now and in the future.

The conference was small and intimate, and my two days in San Francisco with top-notch search and social media marketers was extremely rewarding.

Special thanks to Jen Lopez (aka @jennita) and Keri Morgret (aka @KeriMorgret) for opening the doors to EmMeCon for me. It opened a new mindset for the future.

So what is your business doing to plan for the future? Are you using a combination of social, mobile, and gaming?

Lessons For The Future From EmMeCon by Yo! Yo! SEO . Word-of-Mouth SEO - Optimize your online conversation

Yes! Dana Lookadoo is speaking at SMX West to be held in San Jose from February 28 to March 1, 2012. OK, forget the formal third-person tense of addressing me, myself, and I. Forget the press release… I’m just plain EXCITED to have the opportunity to join a stellar lineup of 130 seasoned speakers seasoned at the conference! Our 5-person panel will focus on SEO and CMS migration. Speakers include myself plus:

• Jessica Bowman of SEOinhouse.com
• Rhea Drysdale of Outspoken Media
• Ryan Jones of Team Detroit
• Shari Thurow of Omni Marketing

• My portion of the session on SEO essentials and website migration will cover real-life lessons and tactical steps for planning, implementing, and dealing with possible fallout. I’ll present a big-picture overview of the key points and pitfalls with primary focus on the importance of SEO. The CMS doesn’t matter. Whether one is moving to Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, or SharePoint, the principles to be shared are the same.
• Jessica will address team and communication issues with tips for getting everyone on board, setting the plan/schedule.
• Rhea will give heady insights into link-related concerns, especially external link IDs, prioritization, and reclamation.
• Ryan and Shari will share some case studies and real-life versions of how all this CMS migration stuff works.

Be there!

Why is  Search Marketing Expo a big deal?

That’s all I have to say about it for now. Hurry! SMX West Early-Bird rates expire Saturday, 1/28/2012. Register. Save. Be there!

Do make sure to join our session for tons of insights about what many dread – website migration. We’ll show you how to keep it SEO-friendly!

Lookadoo is Speaking at SMX West 2012 on SEO CMS Migration by Yo! Yo! SEO . Word-of-Mouth SEO - Optimize your online conversation

Lyena Solomon has joined team Yo! Yo! SEO as Web Optimization Analyst. That’s right! We’re shouting out a loud Yo!

Lyena is in da house!

It’s official. She even has business cards, so that makes it double official!

Lyena Solomon - Web Optimization Analyst, Yo! Yo! SEO

Dana Lookadoo, Founder of Yo! Yo! SEO, exclaimed:

I couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with Lyena Solomon. Not only do we work well together and have a ton of fun, but her attention to detail and focus on data-driven decision making is a total value add!

The addition of Lyena Solomon to the team is a result of an ongoing effort to provide clients with the best hands-on service possible.  Lyena has expertise in Web development, analytics, usability, and conversion, on top of SEO and PPC. She will be a key asset in helping clients understand how to integrate and prioritize online marketing strategies while focusing on avenues that have the highest potential for revenue.

Dana coerced Lyena to make a statement about coming on board:

“I am extremely excited to join Yo! Yo! SEO. The approach to SEO and training is effective, results-oriented, and always improving. It is an honor to be part of such a knowledgeable and successful team. I am looking forward to taking customer satisfaction to a higher level.”

Join us in welcoming Lyena to da house!

Learn more about Lyena Solomon. (Yes, she even has a bio page.)

Team Yo! Yo! SEO at PubCon

You’ll find Lyena Solomon and Dana Lookadoo “tag teaming” PubCon sessions in Las Vegas the week of November 7. They’ll be networking and having a great time as team Yo! Yo! SEO while spending the week with fellow Internet Marketers.

If you’re going to be at PubCon, make sure to get one of Lyena’s new business cards!

Dana’s Panel Schedule

You’ll also find Dana on 3 panels at PubCon:

• SEO Design & Organic Site Structure – Speaking
• Interactive Organic Site Reviews – Reviewing & Auditing
• Crowd Sourcing – Moderating

<Dana may carry a few of Lyena’s cards as well!>

Please stop by to shout out a Yo! to both. For those of you not making it to Vegas, send us a shout via Twitter:

• @lyena
• @lookadoo

Most of all…

Please welcome Lyena to da house!

Lyena Solomon is in Da Yo! Yo! SEO House by Yo! Yo! SEO . Word-of-Mouth SEO - Optimize your online conversation

Yo! WireDoo and MC Hammer! Here are some tips to get found in organic and social search.

Below is a mini site review/SEO audit with tips for maximizing search marketing as the cornerstone of your brand and launch of your relationship-driven search engine –  WireDoo.com later this year. You’ll build relationships with your prospective users, generate buzz, and optimize your site for search engine visibility. To break it down, you need to…

• Put on your entertainer’s hat and get the audience excited about WireDoo’s upcoming release!
• Optimize the heck out of your online presence.
• Build a strong memorable brand that people want to share, link to, ANDto talk about!

It’s Hammer time!  

You cannot turn back the clock of your initial footprint. Your WireDoo Announcement at Web 2.0 Summit on October 19, 2011 got good press. But visits to your website and Twitter profile left one feeling deflated and confused. It’s been 2 weeks since your big announcement, and there just isn’t much going on with your online presence.

Topsy shows only 128 tweets mentioning your Wiredoo.com (your one-page website):

128 tweets about Wiredoo.com on Twitter in 2 weeks

Notice the hashtags associated with those tweets. Why #fail?

Consider the following SEO and branding tips to turn this into a success…

Launch with a Bang

My Mom always said,

“There’s no second chance to make a good first impression.”

I, like many, visited your website and Twitter profile and found NOTHING exciting to read, look at, share, connect with, or even understand. They are essentially null and void.

WireDoo.com Website

Wiredoo.com Website - Nearly null and void

• The logo is 1990ish in design and nothing worth gracing the cover of a gold album or a cutting-edge search engine. I wasn’t sure how to word it yet found the following sentiment by someone I don’t know:

Tweet about quality of WireDoo Logo

• The words “search engine” are not found anywhere on the site. Actually, there is NO explanation about who you are or what you will be.
• There are no links to learn more, no graphics and links to your social media presence, pretty much nothing other than a generic sign-up without mention of a privacy policy.

@WireDoo on Twitter

When I first visited @WireDoo on October 20, there were no tweets and 3 followers. A few days later there were 10. Four days later you had 19 followers, 5 of them search marketers. As of this writing, you lost one of the search marketers and have 18 followers.

@WireDoo on Twitter

NOTE: Search marketers (top-notch SEOs) keeping an eye on you via Twitter are @AlanBleiweiss, @StevePlunkett, and myself (@lookadoo & @YoYoSEO). Feel free to reach out to us for advice and testing. We want to see your deep search engine succeed!

[ ] TASK:  Tweet. Share. Give us more!

Optimize WireDoo.com

Optimize your website’s titles, tags, text and links. Below are some high-level SEO audit points:

Display Your Home Page

The home page, wiredoo.com, has a meta refresh to redirect users to your sign-up page - wiredoo.com/global/signup.html.

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://wiredoo.com/global/signup.html">

Why? You WANT your home page (/) to display!

Google treats a Meta-refresh of 0 as a 301 Permanent Redirect, which means the authority and strength of the home page are being diluted and passed onto your Sign Up page. Plus, Google discourages use of the meta-refresh redirects, because they cause confusion for website visitors and for search engine crawlers.

You have people linking to http://wiredoo.com/global/signup.html, when you want the majority of your links going to http://wiredoo.com/, the home page.

It may sound all technical, but ask yourself.

Which page do I want to have the authority and to show up in the search engines?

[ ] TASK: Get rid of the meta refresh, and put up a real home page ASAP.

Remove Duplicate Content

Two versions of your Sign Up page display. One with www and one without:

http://www.wiredoo.com/global/signup.html

http://wiredoo.com/global/signup.html

You want only one version to display in the browser. This is duplicate content to the search engines. Plus, you DO NOT want people linking to both www and non-www versions.

[ ] TASK: Decide if you are going to display www.wiredoo.com or wiredoo.com - without the www. Once that decision is made, redirect the other version to the root (canonical) version.

Look at what the competition doing to help you decide. Both Google and Bing are redirecting all versions of their home page to their www version:

• http://www.google.com/
• http://www.bing.com/

NOTE: You’re website is on a Linux server running Apache, which makes it super easy to implement 301 redirects.

[ ] TASK: Have your IT people fix the duplicate content issue. If you want to display as http://www.wiredoo.com/, here’s your task:

1. Turn on Apache Rewrite Module.
2. Create a blank text file, and name it “.htaccess“.
3. Once done, load it to the root of your server.
4. Create the following code:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^wiredoo.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.wiredoo.com/$1 [L,R=301]

Load the .htaccess files to the root of your server.

[ ] TASK: Get rid of your Apache Tomcat page, http://wiredoo.com/index.jsp.

WireDoo Tomcat Page - index.jsp

Add the following lines to the redirect above to redirect this page to your home page (/):

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*/index.jsp
RewriteRule ^(.*)index.php$ http://www.wiredoo.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Optimize Your Title Tags

Optimize what many SEOs believe is THE most important tag (element) on your website – your title tag. Title tag text displays in the user’s browser window, is saved as their bookmark text, and it’s the display in the SERPs. It’s the first thing people see:

WireDoo SERP display

The title tag on your Sign-up page leaves one wondering what a “wiredoo” is:

<title>Wiredoo: Are you one?</title>

TIP: Keep the title tag under 60 characters to optimize for both Google and Bing. Put your most important (and memorable) keyword phrases at the beginning. Think of it like the name of a song that captures attention.

[ ] TASK: Write quality title tags for your home and sign-up pages and for new pages as they are launched.

Create Meta Descriptions

Most search engines use meta descriptions as part of your site summary in the SERPs (shown above). Facebook uses this when someone shares page. A good description can make or break click through rate, meaning if searchers decide to click on your listing.

[ ] TASK: Create compelling meta descriptions for each page, like a miniature ads. Convey benefit, and include a call to action when applicable.

TIP: You’ll want to remove the refresh/redirect from the home page first before you can work on the home page title tag.

Create a Content Strategy

Not only will content keep us interested, but you’ll be building relevance for search engine optimization (SEO) and capturing places in Google & Bing.

[ ] TASK: Put together a content strategy that tells us about your features, how you plan to add value to search results, what we can expect in those results, and why our lives will be enhanced.

Optimize Your Twitter Profile

Give us something to devour, connect with, retweet, and share!

Create an Avatar

Brand out that Twitter profile! Get rid of the default egg!!

Wiredoo Avatar - default "egg"

[ ] TASK:  Put your logo into a square image (300×300 pixels). Twitter will scale it down as needed.

Write a Bio

Your social media profiles need a bio about who you are – Wiredoo, the deep relational search engine.

Twitter bios show up in search results. As a brand and for online reputation management, you want your social profile to show up for a search for “wiredoo.” You need to get started with your Twitter profile ASAP.

[ ] TASK: Create a bio that is 160 characters in length.

• Use words (keywords) for which you want to be found and show up in search results.
• Put most important phrases at the front of your Twitter bio.

Design a Twitter Background

Here’s your chance to look like an album cover and some life to your Twitter party!

[ ] TASK:  Create a background image that measures 1635 x 1288 pixels. Add some photos or information about WireDoo, etc. Read this post, 4 Ways to Optimize Your Twitter Background, for more tips on rocking out your Twitter profile.

Tweet

No elaboration needed.

Start tweeting!

[ ] TASK:  Get some tweets flowing! Share the hype. Share articles. Retweet what people say about you. Tease us with upcoming release information and features.

HAT TIP: Nice to see that you tweeted a link to How Brands Should Do SEO on State of Search. Pay attention to some of those tips, especially this insight:

You may be competing with Google and Bing, but you also want your website and your social profiles to show up in search results. It’s time to ramp up your social media and SEO efforts to create a cohesive brand. And you should ASAP.

Secure Your Brand Name in Social Media

WireDoo is easily mispronounced and spelled as “wireddoo.” Your brand is already “diluted” and knocked-off. Someone bought WiredDoo.com on October 19 to put up a parody site.

wireddoo.com - Knock-off Parody Site

Someone also secured the Twitter profile, @WiredDoo.

• The knock-off website at least mentions “search,” even though it only goes to one of MC Hammer’s videos.
• The knock-off Twitter profile has 119 followers.
• The parody website even got a link from the WashingtonPost article - MC Hammer’s great idea — WireDoo, the new Google. OUCH!

[ ] TASK:  STOP the parodies and knock-offs! Read below.

Use KnowEm to Secure Your User Name

KnowEm UserName Check* is THE way to ensure your brand is secure and prevent social cyber squatting.
*Shameless affiliate link, because I used them and have seen them help save reputations!

You have not secured “wiredoo” across the key social networks. Below is a screen shot showing a search for your user name:

Knowem UserName Check for "WireDoo"

[ ] TASK:  Go to KnowEm to check availability of your user name or vanity URL on 120 popular Social Media websites.

OR

[ ] TASK: Go to each social media website to see if your user name is available.

TIP: They offer a subscription service that will automatically secure your name as new social networks pop up.

[ ] TASK:  Secure common misspellings as well.

“Case” your Brand

Be consistent in your brand name across properties with use of title case. This means, always use the same combination of capital letters and non-capital letters. Make sure every use of your name represents the brand. You currently use 3 versions of your name:

• Your logo – WIREDoo (sounds like “wired oo”")
• Your website title tag – Wiredoo (sounds like “why re do”)
• Your Twitter profile – WireDoo (sounds like “wire do”)

Drip Your Marketing

We signed up and heard nothing from you!

Engage those who sign up for WireDoo’s search engine beta by sending us a thank you email, additional emails giving us the inside scoop, keeping us interested, and more. Engage us in dialogue.

Learn more from Marketo. Their drip marketing blog post states:

Using drip marketing is a valuable way of keeping your prospects engaged and creating credibility as a resource.  By sending regular targeted email messages, you keep your company at the top of your buyer’s mind.

Shout out a Yo!

Yo! Go ahead and shout it out!

Put target keyword phrases into your content, conversations, and your digital assets. We call it Word-of-Mouth SEO.

Know that search marketers and SEOs want to join in your conversation. Open the doors. We’ll be there.

Yo! @MCHammer – Break Down These SEO Tips to Launch @WireDoo Search Engine by Yo! Yo! SEO . Word-of-Mouth SEO - Optimize your online conversation