Question: “What do Kogi & Twitter have in common?” (I’ll get to that).
But first–this past week, I’ve been collecting my thoughts from the first-ever social media marketing event at UCLA, put on by the awesome team at Gravity Summit. Led by industry notables such as Beverly Macy (Y&M Partners), Rodney Rumford (FaceReviews), David Reis (DEI Worldwide), Tony Adam (Yahoo), Ann Glenn (Sony) & Justin Goldsborough (Sprint), it was an event to remember. Not because of its flawless execution, fun-spirited group and great location, but because of this: Social Media Marketing For Business–In Practice.
The real case studies and incredible success stories from the field, coupled with insider strategies for how to build out campaigns for business, were illuminating, to say the least. Many conferences I’ve attended in the past include a stale, “one-way” PowerPoint presentation–and perhaps some questions at the end. Not here.
The summit was packed with an eager audience–wanting to learn more, of course (myself included)–but also to see the practicioners and interact and, may I say, at levels I’ve not seen in a while.
In speaking to Beverly Macy, she made it clear: “We are different. We attempt to bridge the gap that exists between the business community and the education about social media marketing. We empower the business community.” I couldn’t agree more. It was hands-on stuff and real information you can use. I felt like I was back in school, but with a support team behind me–with a strong business focus, and everybody super engaging.
The day was packed with great information and speakers. Here’s a top-level outline and my reactions:
How Social Media Has Evolved and Why Marketers Need to be Savvy (A+)
Using Facebook and Twitter in Business (A+)
Social Media as a Corporate Productivity Tool (A+)
Social Media and Entertainment Marketing (A+)
Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (A+)
All this, and with the interactive Q&A and experts on scene, I would recommend this event to anybody interested in using SMM for business. (Watch out for the Stanford “social media marketing for business” event May 5 at http://gravitysummitstanford.eventbrite.com).
Here are some of the tips that surfaced: (If you want to join the conference series, see the website above)
Groundswell (book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, two Forrester analysts).
Facebook Pages can message followers (broadcast), but Facebook Groups cannot.
Facebook cannot use a corporate/business name–use only a personal account, and build out Pages for corporation.
Social Media is . . . Media that is Social (pun not intended). It’s about “them,” not “you.”
Twitter is a gold mine of conversation. It’s a “social river”–put up nets to catch the fish; you are panning for gold.
Write blog posts and use Twitter to “shout”–and change your strategy from “what are you doing?” to “what are you thinking?”
Sony pictures–heavy use of social media and “Don’t expect anybody to come to you. Go where ‘they’ are.”
Sprint–learnings from how to build courage. “Management is not scared of social media, they are terrified.”
“Sharing is Caring”–use Twitter to share information that’s useful, unique, valuable. “Give to Get.”
#gravsum on Twitter
Keyword research, always–including competitive research and analysis.
Start by connecting locally, be conversational, be authentic and listen. Create consistency of brand across platforms.
Social Media is not one hour a week; it’s not a “set it and forget it.” Commit resources and time.
Bookmark on Delicious.com–every day.
“80 percent about ‘them,’ 20 percent about ‘your business.’
“Twitter is my drug of choice.”
Measure and Tune.
In closing, a very worthwhile experience. Anything to change? The audio was not always perfect, and sometimes the questions from the audience could not be heard. Organizers recognized that, and they are ready for the next one.
I’ll be expanding this list, but start by following this group:
Now, to the answer from the opening question in this post.
Kogi Taco Truck In Los Angeles. The guys at Kogi have used Twitter in a very innovative way. Folks are lining up to buy their exquisite dining–right off the streets in Los Angeles. See the Newsweek Story. What ideas for your local business can you use? (Note: It starts with the idea; the tools come second, so get to work. If you need more ideas, attend the upcoming Gravity Summit).
Final thoughts (borrowed from Rodney): Lots of folks are scared of joining the “new” conversation and/or don’t think it makes sense or that it cannot possibly yield returns (for a business). Ask the question differently: “What if you don’t join the conversation?” Now, that’s scary.
Next week, I’ll be joining local social media business experts and panelists at the new Gravity Summit at UCLA Faculty Center (Feb 25th) to give my perspective of the event (in a follow-up post).
I’m excited about this.
Social media marketing (SMM) is confusing to many small business owners, but yet its power and reach are recognized as a huge new opportunity by so many.
In my own SEO consulting work, I use social media strategies as an extension to SEO/M. It’s all about PR and developing the “right” exposure for your brand, along with quality content build-outs and positioning.
In a previous post with Brent Csutoras, we clearly can see how brand building using this new media creates opportunities for both networking (people), as well as bringing potentially massive links and traffic.
If you are looking to build business opportunities like these:
New Clients
New Relationships
Brand Extension
Website Traffic
Value and Deeper Reach
… and, if you could:
Understand better how it all works
See the “light” faster, and apply some cool stuff
Build for higher ROI
Learn from experts and industry pundits
Socialize with locals in your town (Los Angeles!)
–would you take a look? I know I am.
A key goal for this conference is that by the time you leave (it’s an all-day’er), you will have a set of best practices, direct action items you can apply to your own business, unique insights, great case studies, trends data, tools and access to new experts in the field.
Have you been thinking about a new website for 2009?
Do you have website concepts and ideas but don’t know how to get that project in motion, besides having a limited (shoestring) budget? You’re not alone–it’s common, especially in a tightening economy.
However, you shouldn’t hold back. It’s possible to do this and significantly slash the often-high costs.
This simple and effective to-do list will get you a brand new, professional looking (WordPress) website in as little time as a week (or slightly more, depending on scope). And it will be search engine-ready, for the most part.
Before you begin, get a hosting account and install WordPress on your domain.
Step 1: New Website Begins. Fast Hiring. Concepts, Creation
Go to odesk.com, elance.com or rentacoder.com. Sign up for a free account to search for a website designer. Query for “website designer,” “graphics designer,” “photoshop designer,” “website developer” and combinations thereof. Look for titles that highly match your search query. Don’t go too broad. Look for history, feedbacks and examples of work. (Tip: Don’t be easily fooled. Ask detailed questions about the projects they show you). Each of these resource sites has a vast group of people who can help you at a competitive cost. When you submit your project, outline the description of job, skill sets and experience. Don’t give all the details yet. Create the project on a fixed price if you are comfortable or set a range from $10 to $25 an hour. Make sure to select options for certifications and site “readiness” where available. Once you locate a few designers you like, interview them. (Skype, IM, etc).
Once you award him/her the project, send a concept. It can be as simple as three to five websites you like, graphics/images you found and further detail and description of your website, business and its overall purpose. Make sure the designer delivers your new site designs in Adobe Photoshop format (PSD). Try to get several designs to choose from before selecting the final one.
Step 2: New Website. Developed
Once the final PSD is sent, go to psdtowordpress.com and get your New WordPress Theme created. ($300 to $400). These guys will have it ready very quickly; fast loading, search-friendly, W3C compliant and ready to load into Step 3.
Step 3: The New Site Goes Live
Now simply upload your new theme (to wp-content/themes) via your FTP utility, log in to WordPress, select the new theme–and bam–your new website structure and design are ready. You may go back to your profiles set up in Step 1 and search for “wordpress developer” and find somebody to help you tweak the site if need be. Last, you want to install a few WordPress plugins (wp-content/plugins), some of which are listed below.
There are many out there, but start with this list to help your new, search engine-friendly website:
With so much information, hype and buzz about social media marketing, where does one begin SMM in the new year? More importantly, where/how can you see results yourself–and quickly? I’m not thinking about resources, skills or time. That comes later.
First, a no-brainer question:
“Where do you, as a business owner, get started with social media? In other words, taking action today, for results tomorrow”?
Before answering that, let me tell you that, for me, it’s been a great year in terms of discovering the power of social media. (For clarification, social media is defined as “A category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, social news sites like Digg or Reddit, and other sites that are centered on user interaction”). (searchenginewatch.com)
I have seen massive traffic increases and wide expansion of brand awareness (i.e. mindshare) using social channels. This has surpassed the more traditional–but also very viable–SEO route. (Note: This is an “it depends,” so as to not offend the SEOs out there).
Communities and communication can be a great equalizer for your small business, and you don’t have to learn anything you don’t already know.
Sure, there are techniques to learn, but I’m not talking about that. I’m purely calling out the fact that you can leverage “you.” Imagine going to a cocktail party for a business event. How and with whom you interact can make a potentially big difference in future business. If you know how to talk, share and listen (in reverse order), you’re on your way.
The companies who have paid attention to social media have been able to build brand loyalty in a big way.
The conversations and interactions create an emotional connection, which makes surfers take action in a much more positive way that also increases conversions. This is the “conversation/inbound marketing” approach, vs. the old way of “interruption marketing.” (This is nothing new, see marketing thought leader Seth Godin’s post from ten years ago).
Social media marketing is using technology platforms as an extension of the already established human connection. People want to do business with people. So getting customers to know you personally will yield advantages for your business. Don’t hide behind your desk or BS corporate infrastructure. It’s not safe anywhere.
You must keep your integrity intact here.
Spamming will serve you poorly. Placing affiliate links everywhere will hurt you. When you consider the power of the “thumbs up/down” voting system on a platform such as Digg.com, you’ll learn how to be cool, very quickly. This speaks to the inherent “rule of social media land”: honesty, integrity and making real friends and business connections are more important than showcasing a huge list of friends on Facebook, for example.
If you are having issues with leads and business flow, establish yourself as a leader in your space. You may have already, but expand it with social media marketing.
Earning yourself the love is easy.
… Just talk with people, share something of value, make it useful and unique. (Jon’s note: See the pattern of providing good, quality content here that I’ve talked about before? Users and search engines love it!)
With shrinking budgets and a tightening of pockets everywhere, we now must try to make more with less. Since social media technologies are widely available and growing fast, you can use and build social media systems yourself. (see ning.com). The power of creating personal or business profiles and more at Facebook and Linkedin should be considered. Learning how to use them all for revenue results becomes a higher focus in 2009.
But this is all complex stuff!
Not really. Begin your year with a fun, detailed explanation of the number one social media spot. This will be a game changer for your business, if you do it right.
If you’re a beginner, some of these tools may be a handful at first. However, in truth, they are all chock-full of information and online support, so that shouldn’t hold you back. Pricing varies, but you can watch demos, take free courses and sign up for a trial.
So assuming that you are comfortable with the Adwords web interface by now, you should advance to more productive tools. They will get you to faster profits and save you tons of time.
Please see below a list of Google Adwords Powertools you may not know about:
1. http://www.adwordaccelerator.com/ (recommended). Issues solved:
- get more visitors
- find more affordable keywords
- save tons of time
- learn from your competitors
- slash advertising costs
- boost click-through rates
- make adwords your friend
Sign up and get some killer tips to improve your current campaigns. You can buy it for $37 a month. See the “buy” page here: http://adwordaccelerator.com/buy/. I have used this tool, and it’s pretty awesome. Recommended.
You can sign up to get a free, seven-day e-mail course to help you on the right track. Have not used this, but it comes well recommended. And even though it’s costly, it can save you insane amounts of hours, specifically for larger campaigns.
3. http://www.hexatrack.com/ Issues solved:
- uncover profitable niches–super useful for affiliate work
- legally spy on your competition
- track and understand the top spots, their ad placements
- R & D = Ripoff & Duplicate legally: Get the best money-making ads
- track competitors’ ad copy and let them split test for you
You also get built in keyword research tools, profitability scores, how many ads you are competing against and much more. Here’s a price comparison sheet: http://www.hexatrack.com/comparison-chart-new.php between free and paid.
- faster way to generate profitable campaigns in an hour (or less)
- discover why most advertisers–you included–don’t do ads right
- ads tested to dominate paid rankings for each and every keyword, matched into its own ad group
- simple clicks of the mouse to generate your ads
- uncovers what ads are already generating the highest click-through-rates
- easily customizable; no need to ever write ads from scratch again
- fast testing; find out what works quickly
- incredible time savings
Get your copy to slash your costs, boost your profits and save countless hours of time. (NOTE: Be sure to act fast. You want to be the one using this tool against your competition . . . and not at the other end of the stick. I also beta-tested this tool, and the developers are over the top.)
Lastly, don’t forget to use the free tool from Google, Adwords Editor, and learn the advanced ways in which you can upload and manage your entire campaigns. It’s a desktop power tool, and any serious Adwords manager must have this in his or her tool arsenal. Test these tools and get on the road to productivity today.
From “The Jon Rognerud Elite SEO Interview Series”: Jill Whalen. In this post, learn more about SEO as compared with “common” knowledge. You might be surprised to hear . . .
Jill Whalen has been in the business of search engine optimization for more than 13 years, and certainly for many years more than most of us. The breadth of experience, knowledge and real-world application has been witnessed and run “up close and personal” by Jill herself. I was pleasantly surprised to hear her intriguing answers about SEO and search in general, simpler than that of most notaries in the field, and a very personal approach too. Super refreshing, I’d say–and it’s very easy to understand for non-techie folks.
She really believes there is no magic bullet, but a set of SEO best practices combined with always testing, tracking and staying on top of your work and the (competitive) marketplaces.
She has a deep wealth of knowledge and a true passion. No wonder people quickly sign up for her SEO training classes. She keeps very busy at her High Rankings office outside Boston.
I was really interested to hear more about SEO, training issues, myths and more. What follows is our interview recently.
(Ed.Note: I have organized this interview into three sections: 1. beginners/training, 2. industry standards and 3. SEO myths. You’ll see a BONUS resource section at the end).
Hi Jill.Before we begin, can you tell me a bit about yourself, how you got started and about your company, High Rankings?
Sure, Jon. I started with a parenting website back in 1993. I was trying to figure out how to make sure my site was found on Lycos, Excite, Infoseek. I looked at the search engines’ results for parenting keywords, realized it was the words on the page that was making them show up. I was also doing some web design work for small businesses, and used what I had learned on those sites. By ‘97 I decided to concentrate on SEO, as it was more specialized and I had gained knowledge that nobody else had. By 2000 I started my e-mail newsletter, which helped me to be further known in the industry.
A. TRAINING, LEARNING (1-10)
1. So much information on the net–what can a person trust? How to get the “right” information–and what are good training institutions?
Yes, there is so much info. SEO education is a large part of my business. That’s why I originally started our newsletter (The High Rankings Advisor): to provide free, good advice. And the same with our High Rankings SEO Forum. It’s also why we’ve offered SEO seminars since 2002 and now SEO training classes on a monthly basis.
Part of the problem with knowing whose information to trust is that there are so many ways to do SEO. It doesn’t mean that one way is right and another wrong. That’s why I would recommend reading a variety of stuff and see what makes sense to you. Perhaps one SEO method connects more with you than another. Once you find a method or person that you connect with, stick with [it] and don’t go reading everyone else’s stuff. Too many opposing views can be confusing. Some SEOs play a numbers game and others (like me) use common sense. I don’t look at putting any specific number of words on a page or how much keyword density a page should have or how long a title tag should be. There is no best answer for those things, as every page and every site is different.
Attending industry conferences such as SMX and SES is also a good idea, once you have already established your SEO methods. You can often get some great nuggets of info from the panelists, as well as during the networking events.
2. How do you get buy-off from management to go to SEO training and what works best (off-site, or weekly calls/webinars, etc)?
Every company has different SEO training needs. It really depends on what they’ve already been doing and their current knowledge and skills. Unfortunately, a lot of top management doesn’t understand the value that SEO can bring to the table. They may have tried it in the past and not received any results, so they believe it doesn’t work. Companies that may have their own in-house SEO can also benefit from working with an outside consultant or attending a training class. For larger companies, it often makes sense for them to have someone come in and consult in order to get all the departments on board with the program. Sometimes just bringing IT and marketing together on the same page can help get buy-in from the higher-ups. These folks don’t always understand how much work is involved with SEO. The messaging, content and structure will change, so it is critical to involve everyone who might touch the website.
In the end, the easiest way to sell upper management on SEO is to explain to them that if people (clients) cannot find their website, they’re leaving dollars on the table, and that money is likely going to their competitors. It’s as simple as that.
3. What’s the best way to learn SEO? Reading? By doing? And how to keep current with the constant changes (Google algorithm, for example)?
The best way to learn SEO is, as Nike likes to say, “just do it.” Sure, there are a million conferences, books and classes being pitched everywhere. You can sign up for them all, but if at the end of the day you don’t simply roll up your sleeves and see what works for your site and what doesn’t, then what’s the point?
There are always new things to learn, of course, but once your site is in relatively good shape, there’s no need to sit and tweak it every day. Sure, continue to build / get links, provide good info for your users, but no need to make drastic changes just because you think the search engines might like it.
4. Loaded question: What is the true secret to search engine rankings?
Easy! The secret is to think about what search engines actually want. And that is: the best, most relevant pages to show up for their users–the searchers. They want to show their users pages that answer the searchers’ questions. So if you can figure out what the searchers are asking Google, and then answer those questions on your website, that’s it.
It’s unfortunate when people are only wrapped up in one keyword phrase and ignore the thousands of other phrases that are being typed into the search engines, which may be relevant to their website. Since most websites are more than just one page, it’s important to remember that each page is a gateway to other pages. You should be optimizing for the thousands of phrases that relate to what you offer, not just one or two. But this doesn’t mean you have to shoot for just long tail keywords. You’ll get those naturally by just having good content. My approach involves optimizing for three to five keywords per page, which all have varying degrees of competitiveness.
5. The best way to find quality links? And are directories really useful? For example, submitting to 100 directories?
Finding quality links is always tricky. If you’re dealing with a brand new site, then sure, starting with directory submissions may at least get you started. But don’t expect much traffic from those links. My feeling is that the only good links are those that bring visitors to your site. But those take time to get. You have to have something worth linking to in order to get quality links and, unfortunately, most sites don’t have anything worth linking to. They’re simply the same as every other site selling the same or similar products/services. If you provide unique information on your site and also get the word out about it–you will get natural links that will bring you traffic and help your rankings. Like with my High Rankings site, I have never asked for links; they just come to me because people like what they see. As with everything in SEO, it’s critical to take a long-term approach to gaining links. If you have a great site but don’t have the time to deal with this aspect, then outsourcing to a good linking company is probably a smart idea. People like Debra Mastaler always come up with creative linking strategies for their clients. It’s quite a specialized skill.
6. Starting a new website: What are the top ways to start the traffic (thinking SEO, PPC, e-mail marketing, and more)?
Traditional marketing, advertising and public relations. You must be out there and get the word out about your awesome site. Social media can play a big part these days if you truly participate in the communities that target your audience. Look for relevant blogs and forums where you can become a participating member. Twitter is another possibility for getting the word out if that’s somewhere your target market hangs out. (To me, Twitter is really nothing more than an online chat room–only you get to choose those whom you want to listen to.) Just remember that a new website will not be generating traffic overnight–unless you are backed by a huge marketing budget. So keep participating, and have perseverance and patience. Stick true to your original goals. Unfortunately, too many people give up too soon. They want it now, but it doesn’t work that way.
7. Fastest ways to get to first page of Google (within 24 hours) for a brand new site?
There is no way unless you’re talking about some completely obscure keyword phrase. So your best bet would be to do Google AdWords, if 24 hours is your goal. For organic SEO, you first need to get indexed (get your pages into their database), which means you need links–because that’s how Google finds sites. So make sure that someone somewhere is linking to you. But even then, I think there’s still a bit of an aging delay for new domains, so just don’t count on getting to the first page of Google until your site has matured a bit.
8. To outrank the competition, what are the three steps one should take?
I don’t look at how to outrank the competition. I prefer to look at our own website traffic and which phrases convert, and then I try to gain more targeted traffic and convert more of it. You can drive yourself nuts looking too closely at the competition. For one thing, just because they’re ranking well doesn’t mean they’re doing things correctly. I’ve seen people who will just copy what their competition is doing, no matter how dumb it seems or how much it actually ruins their website. There are far better ways to optimize. For example, look at other opportunities, other keyword phrases that you hadn’t previously thought about and optimize for those. Then work on increasing your conversions. Do some conversion testing using tools like GWO (Google Website Optimizer). Just remember that a conversion is not always a sale. It could be folks signing up to your newsletter, someone commenting on your blog, someone filling out a request form, or someone emailing or calling you. Try to measure and test as much as you can, but only after you’ve got your SEO basics in order.
9. Do free press-release services work for rankings?
(Examples: prfree.com, prleap.com, 24-7pressrelease.com, free-press-release.com, etc.)
Are there free ones still around? I think most have gone to paid–only because they were getting so much spam submitted by SEOs who thought keyword-rich releases would be their key to search engine rankings. I don’t personally believe they’re useful for that at all anymore. Press releases should be used for what they were intended to be used for–showcasing important news about your company.
10. Should a company set up a blog? If so, why? Certainly blogs are a good way to add content to a website, as well as to gain a following and build up some sort of community. If the blog actually provides unique info that nobody else provides, it can generate links. But as with everything else, blogs are no magic bullet. You must create a strategy and post on a regular basis, with a long-term commitment. Otherwise, you won’t see any benefit from it.
B. INDUSTRY STANDARDS (1-5)
(Two-For-One): 1. It’s much like a Wild West out there. What is a business to do in trying to find good, trusted SEOs?
2. What standards–if any–exist on the process and other business issues?
There are currently no standards for the industry, nor should there be. It’s fine for organizations such as SEMPO to have standards that their members must abide by, but broadly–as industry–standards are not the answer. Every company can and should have its code of ethics, and its own way of marketing its services, but only organizations can have standards, in my opinion.
3. Pricing for SEO services. How does pricing vs. quality vs. brand fit into this? With SEO, higher prices don’t always mean better quality. There is no magic price point for SEO services, as every company is free to charge whatever the market will bear. That’s the beauty of a capitalistic society. Charge whatever your customers are willing to pay. For those looking to purchase SEO services, they’ll want to look well beyond pricing. Look at years of experience and–even more so–results. Do they bring more targeted traffic to their clients’ websites? Be sure to get references from satisfied clients.
4. What places to get a membership from do you recommend? I’m not big on memberships, although we did just rejoin SEMPO this year after many years away. Some companies use memberships as a way to increase their perceived credibility. That’s fine, but I think that those looking to hire companies should be looking well beyond how many member organizations the company belongs to. That doesn’t tell you anything other than it likes to purchase memberships. Local search marketing organizations are another matter. They often provide great networking opportunities that you don’t get with larger, national organizations. A few years ago I co-founded the Search Engine Marketing New England (SEMNE) organization. It’s been a great way to get to know others in our area. These types of organizations are starting to crop up in many different cities, and I highly recommend them to anyone in the business.
5. Why do search agencies/companies not get together to create a better level of communication on the topic of SEO? Actually, I think our industry does a great job in getting together to share techniques. It’s one of the things that makes me proud to be part of it. (Jon: From my internet marketing company and general online marketing business, we see a lot of “black box”-type conversation, and I don’t believe that hiding what you are doing makes any sense. Keep the conversation open and transparent).
C. SEO MYTHS - JON’S “TOP 20″ LIST (1-20)
1. Dynamic vs. static URLS? How important are usability and static, clean URLs vs. dynamic? If your dynamic URLs are indexed, there’s usually no need to change them. There’s certainly some benefits in terms of the clickability for the friendlier URLs, but there’s not much benefit for rankings–certainly not enough to mess with your current system. Using the site: command at Google to see what URLs it has indexed and help you decide if it’s something worth doing.
2. Keyword density must be in the 3 percent to 5 percent range for good ranking. No such thing as an optimal keyword density. (Jon: Theme density or term weighting?) Jill: I don’t put stock in those things, and generally think many people overanalyze things.
3. TITLE tags cannot be optimized for more than one keyword. (Jon: I checked to see how many allintitle:untitled documents there were in Google–more than 28 million. Don’t users recognize the power of unique, quality titles?)Titles not only can be optimized for more than one keyword phrase, but they almost always should be. Three phrases is great to shoot for in titles. They are definitely one of the most important factors in SEO, so use them to their fullest extent.
4. Having a google webmaster account will help rankings. Hmmm . . . there are some cool things to learn by using the tool, such as discovering 404 errors and such. But when I review sites with it, I find that not everything is accurate. They’ll tell you that your site has duplicate titles when it doesn’t and things like that. So I take it with a grain of salt. In terms of rankings, using the tool won’t help you there.
5. Universal search is easier to rank (video, news, etc.) than standard text/page listings. Wow, I’ve not heard that one. Universal search is still a work in progress. What works today may not work tomorrow; it’s in a constant flux. Experiment with different things to see what might work at any given time with it.
6. Black hat works, but you have to work it harder than ever. (Jon: I heard somewhere that Google handles 1 million requests daily. How is this game played out in the real world?) I couldn’t tell ya–but for the average business, there is no need for it. Perhaps if you are in the Viagra or gambling space, but there’s no need for real companies with real websites to use black hat techniques–it’s just asking for trouble.
7. To rank, just get some links–natural and paid + article marketing. That’s it? Yeah, if you only want long tail traffic that will work. But personally, I like to get my clients traffic from highly searched keyword phrases. So there’s much more to SEO than writing articles and getting a handful of links.
8. SEO in the future is not going to be so much about content, but social media and links. The best SEO of the future will be analysts, not copywriters. No! SEO is not one thing or another. It’s a combo of content, links and site analysis. Also, nobody wants to link to a crappy site–that will always be true.
9. Keyword research is easy: Just use free tools (Google, seobook) and don’t worry about wordtracker and others. The free tools in the past were not so good, but they have been revamped. Google’s latest version of its keyword tool, however, is very good. The paid KW services may be in trouble.
10. You don’t need an XML sitemap to rank. That is correct.
11. Duplicate content filtering is not a big issue anymore (Google) (consider onpage and offpage/syndication issues). No duplicate content penalties exist for the average run-of-the mill duplicate content. Sure, there is filtering but not penalties; some versions of the content simply won’t show in the search results. You don’t have to worry too much about syndication. If you get traffic and credibility by syndicating your articles, then by all means, do it.
12. Fix canonical issues via Google webmaster central only, no need to worry about .htaccess file on the server? Surprisingly, this is not the problem it used to be. The way I check this is to do a search of your page in Google using the non-www version. If Google shows at the top that it is the cached version of www.yoursite.com (as opposed to yoursite.com), then you’ll know they see the www and the non-www as the same. Every single site I’ve checked this way over the past six to nine months was fine. It doesn’t hurt to redirect the non-www version to your www version, however; it’s just not as necessary as it once was.
13. Pagerank is critical to good ranking. Real PageRank is important–Google toolbar PageRank, not so much. Don’t get tricked it into thinking that toolbar PageRank has any correlation to real PageRank. (Jon: yeah, I had a client that said success is if you “move me from PR4 to PR5″ [I told the client no]). Which brings up a good point about increasing toolbar PageRank as not being the end goal of SEO campaign. I’m always amazed at how many people contact me with that as their goal . . . it’s so silly.
14. Since Google now can crawl and index Flash, you can start using this broadly on your sites? I haven’t tested it yet, but they have been saying that for years, so I don’t really have much faith in how well they actually index it. Not to mention that there’s rarely any worthwhile info contained in Flash anyway. Plus, there are still many devices–for example the iPhone–where they don’t even show flash. On the other hand, Flash used sparingly is fine. Just don’t put your entire site in it.
15. It is better to have many links rather than fewer, more quality links. Quality, trusted links are better. They’re harder to get, which is why they count for so much and why people just go for quantity.
16. If you have international presence, just get the country-specific TLDs and you will rank higher. I don’t do a lot of international work, but we have some great information in the international section of our forum.
17. If an existing site is a 10- to 15-page brochure-ware with lots of graphics and flash, the site cannot be ranked. Big myth. Sure you can be ranked. Optimize pages as much as you can, and get enough links with the appropriate anchor text. It can be done, but may be an uphill battle if you don’t have any optimized content.
18. How deep is the penetration of SEO in the marketplace? A year ago, Gartner Group research papers didn’t even show the term “SEO.” It’s still under the radar? I don’t have any specific data, but from my own experience with over 13 years in the business, more people and businesses understand what SEO is and that they need it. Plus, there are many more companies out there offering it as a service. I really wish more design companies would understand it more or partner with SEO companies because I see tons of new sites getting developed with absolutely no signs of SEO, which is sad for 2008.
19. You can rank in Google with no (incoming) links, for fairly competitive keywords as well. Typically no, you can’t. There are always some crazy anomalies, though.
20. Google will rank a .com faster than a .org .info or .tv. This is a myth.
BONUS SECTION: RESOURCES
Jill, what are some good blogs and other resources/links to review for a beginner?
The best resource for SEO beginners (if I do say so myself) is the stuff we put out at High Rankings. The SEO newsletter, the SEO forum, our SEO training, etc. It’s all very comprehensive, down-to-earth and easy to understand.
In addition, I also frequently visit Sphinn, as most decent articles and blog posts about SEO get posted there. You do have to filter out some of the noise, however. Search Engine Guide, Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch also have a lot of good articles.
Thanks for your time, Jill. See you at the next conference, perhaps either Pubcon (Las Vegas) or SES Chicago!
(Disclaimer: There is good news here too–but only if you take immediate action. Warning: Some of this is considered “advanced SEO” for my readers).
As part of a recent string of search marketing interviews , I was personally looking forward to this one. Not just because he is an authority and master at the craft of SEO, but for the insights, vision and consistent trusted action he provides in the field of search and more.
Aaron Wall is the author of SEOBOOK a leading blog, community and online training program focused on the search engine marketing space. He also does limited client work with his partner, Scott Smith, through Clientside SEM.
Personally, I must tell you, dear reader of my blog, that SEO (search engine optimization) basics are really dead simple. The steps to get to top rankings and broader search engine visibility are truly straightforward. However, if not followed and not done to ethical SE standards, they can have a serious negative impact on your online efforts. Make note of the final question below and subsequent reference. It could kill your business and–as you’ll see–it actually did!
Get started by establishing your objectives and key results from a business perspective. They should at minimum include keyword strategies, traffic projections, ranking goals and conversion percent metrics. Create your SWOT document (strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and overall marketing approach, or you could face disaster. Time, money and resources wasted–and, potentially, if you are going grey/black hat–even the *dreaded search engine ban from Google.*
Healthy competition can actually be an asset, as you’ll see. It always intends to bring noise to your day (perhaps competitors are even clicking on your own ads and trying to push you down/out with search engine reputation management tactics), but that noise can be turned down in your marketplace. Make sure to study their movements, read this guide and do something a bit more extraordinary in your niche. Don’t be sleazy and copy competitors outright. It’s OK to take ideas and move those to the next level yourself, though.
“Think unique, be different” is what Wall says. On that note, pick up a copy of the Purple Cowfrom internet marketer idea man Seth Godin. A standout idea can bring about massive change for your business and its subscribers, if done correctly. Aaron’s own SEOBOOK and blog certainly have done that, enjoyed by the SEO/M community and beyond.
Here is the common SEO process outline:
Keyword map/Strategy
WebSite Structure/Links
Onpage Optimization/Pages
External Profile development: Link-building, baiting and promo
Metrics, Analytics and Results: Mapping to goals outlined
Rinse, Refine, Repeat
If it’s so straightforward, how come so many cannot seem to “get” the search engine marketing process and online game? The truth is, there are so many moving parts. Your own business is in flux, plus there are changing marketplaces and varying search engine marketing techniques. You should consider this important advice and search marketing insights for your business. Again, don’t take it lightly, or it could mean poor rankings, low traffic or lack of quality conversions.
INTRODUCTION
How did you get started?
I had an existing site and started taking notes on it. It was mostly about formatting/layout and how to create a cleaner look and feel–a better visitor experience, in essence. This was back in 2003. At that time, I met a guy online, a professional photographer from Greece. He ran into my site and wanted to hire me, right over a chat system, in fact. I was amazed, because my grammar and writing were not that great at the time, and I was still learning SEO (that really never ended). He did headshot photography, and after I started helping him–and within a few months–he started getting very good leads. Things grew quickly from there. When the (Google) Florida update happened, I wrote an article about it and it was very well-received. I got my 15 seconds of fame. Over time, from a few leads to a steady flow of them and people calling me almost every day, it got pretty exciting. However, I realized that to scale, I needed to create a hybrid model of SEO and online marketing education versus a straight consulting model–where I didn’t have to do all the work. SEOBOOK.com was formed.
What is most rewarding about working in this marketplace?
I enjoy working on our own mix of sites. However, SEOBOOK is the flagship, and most of my time is spent there. The other sites are doing pretty [well], but are more under the radar, not as visible. It feels good to be a central guy in the community, but I like to grow things naturally and not always aggressively. I enjoy helping others.
If you have no VC money or serious online budgets, competing in a global marketplace can be hard. However, if you have a great idea, it can help immensely to get good exposure if it’s a good fit for the marketplace, with your product or service. The small guy can compete with the bigger guy. (Jon: Wall prefers to be real, not glossy, and he sees that many people have a short attention span: checking earnings every day/hours, checking ad spend, checking forums, building new pages/sites, reading news, twittering: ADD is a real problem online).
More and more people feed each other online. The line on what’s bought/sold versus what’s free is becoming thinner. There is an erosion of (quality) copywriting. It’s harder and harder to maintain a good stance, unless you have a good product/service or lots of interactivity, social trust in the network, people recommendations and a strong brand.
Over the next year or two I plan on working hard to keep building the quality of SEOBOOK and our other sites. I just hired Peter Da Vanzo from Search Engine Blog to be an author for SEOBOOK.
(Ok, thanks - let’s start on my SEO “hardcore” list):
1. LSI/LSA: Are search engines using it, and is this an important focus for rankings? (Keywords: Synonyms, related keywords, ontology, thesaurus, lexfn.com, l3xicon.com, Google sets, keyword relationships, “theme density” versus “keyword density”)
When the Florida update happened, if a page was targeting too aggressively, pages would be stopped and no more ranking. Most commercial sites were gaming the money pages and keywords at that time. Back then, search engines were trying to figure out whether text was natural or not. However, times and SEs (search engines) have changed.
In today’s search engines, (example) if the keyword phrase or term is “computer animated design,” they can tell that the word “CAD” is related to it and will highlight that in the search engines. (Ed note: here are few articles to explain changes and how Google views rankings: 1) Intro to Google Ranking | 2) Technology behind Google Ranking).
SEs are changing from “give me what I said” to “give me what I want.” They are moving to knowing what people are searching for, and it’s an ongoing activity to locate users’ true intent. (”…Google uses a best-in-class spelling suggestion system, an advanced synonyms system and a very strong concept analysis system, a world class localization system. . .”). So is something like latent semantic indexing used? Most certainly! In search queries–you’ll see the “related searches” at top or bottom–in other words, they “know.” Sometimes you can see where they screwed up mathematically. They are testing all the time, and it’s of course all about relevancy.
How about “machine-based learning”? Google’s Peter Norvig talks about “machine learning algos,” but [Google isn't] using those for a number of reasons. One is that the algo currently in place is better than a machine could do it, and they believe a “black swan event” can be catastrophic on real data versus test/training data, and not worth it.
2. Siloing/Theming: Is it true you can structure a site to rank for top keywords without any incoming links? (Jon - examples to study: Virtual/Physical Siloing: http://www.cabelas.com (virtual), http://www.allaboutlawns.com/ (physical))
With no external citation or trust, it gets really hard. We know you can rank pages if you have a lot of links with no page content. We also know you can rank pages with relevant structure and quality content with related keywords on the page. Content and links together are important, but many things are not understood. I mean, you can show on/off factors, but there will be things you still won’t get. (Google reserves that privilege.)
In a Rockstar Show 2006–Oilman and Greg Boser were on a show with Matt Cutts. Matt didn’t say why a particular site was not ranking, but there’s no doubt that old links and site trust, matching of keywords in anchor text and related onpage factors are cornerstones of successful ranking.
Aaron, should you even bother with siloing then?Wall: If the site is totally screwed up, it’s not just about siloing. Find out what are the most competitive phrases and build more link equity. If you have the relationships set up–and top keywords–go after the most important pages. You are distributing link equity, and in proportion to what is needed, to rank.
You need to acquire link juice to make it more valuable. Markets change, language online–they change over time. For example, there was no search volume from the term “seo book.” That was turned over time. I created a brand, and both worked to create volume for it. As more time passed, “seo training” got to be more important, for example.
Keywords are important to go after but can be a moving target. It may make more sense to silo if you are writing about”The history of the Civil War”–keywords are not going to change there. Amazon, for example, is different with its subcategories and niches. Keywords and markets are going to change often. So they have to lift inner pages and work on building links to it.
3. Ah, “Pagerank Sculpting”. Should one bother with it? And, will Google penalize you for being an “SEO”? (Others say that “no-follow” use on a site can easily be tracked, but I say so can analysis of a keyword-rich anchor text linking program). Should you worry about being penalized or “sand-boxed”?
Matt Cutts said that internal sculpting can help you. Think of Pagerank as units of dollar. If you want to know how to spend it best, how would you approach your site/pages? You can spend the dollar more wisely and go after a marketplace to get $300 worth of a link. However, it may make sense for legal reasons, but not for ranking. If you are a large corporation, it may be totally fine. The issue is, if you have small site, with aggressive tactics, content recycled, low-quality external links, broken links everywhere: Google will ask: “could this be spam”? Knowing SEO does not make you a bad person. SEO techniques mimic stuff that happens anyway. Deceive or Dupe? Plausible deniability–powerful SEO tools and affiliate marketers? Ask yourself this: “If you don’t have a large brand, and Google deleted you from the index, would anybody else care?” (Jon: see overpenalization elsewhere)
4. Keyword research: How has this changed over the years, and what tools do you recommend for beginners? How to start? Should a business focus on heads or tails? (Jon: Aaron has a new kick-ass keyword book , which personally is recommended reading ($39), for both new and more advanced alike. Heads=Head/Main keyword, Tail=Long Tail, typically 3 words or more).
Find a word that you can make up to mean something important over time, or find a word that’s already established, like “San Diego Real Estate.” If you are a new SEO, try to rank for “local seo” or “link building” or “web marketing consulting.” Be leader in a niche; don’t start too broad.
The network effects linger on the web. For example, before I was known for SEO, I was known for a guy who wrote the “SEO book.” It’s well known that longer tail terms convert well, but some businesses are head-heavy, others tail-heavy. Other heads are massive in traffic.
Also, I recommend buying a bunch of pay-per-click ads, check for performance, look at the competition and see how their keywords and pages are structured. Use traditional keyword tools (Google Keyword Tool, SEOBOOK Keyword Tool), look at traffic reports (Compete Search Analytics): That’s what the search engines think it’s about. You should also look at keyword difficulty–ad intelligence. Microsoft shares data, and you may want to get the Microsoft 2007 Excel plugin.
You can easily find important site data from SERPS using the tool. Sometimes people are ranking because of a 9-year-old domain, number of links, etc. This tool gives you an ability to look at variances, rather than look at “cold” numbers. Look for a guy that’s “weaker” on the page.
Jon: You can go to page 2 and ask to buy a site or domain and lift it.Wall: Yes, there is no award for starting from scratch, shorten the span, get an edge quickly. (Editor’s note: snapnames.com, droppingdomains.com, pool.com can prove useful to pick up expiring domains or join auctions) Wall: NameJet and TDNam are good, too, but if you are buying for SEO benefit it is better to buy live, active sites rather than expired domains. The first spam domain Google found was a porn site built on an expired domain name, so they don’t like them much.
5. Link building. What are the easiest ways to get links that are “white-hat” for a new website? We know relevancy, quality, trust are important, but how does a newbie figure this out? Also, what is “too fast” (link building). After a backlink report is run, can/should you “fix” the anchor text to be more relevant? What is “too perfect” for link building? Can you be penalized?
Penalization comes from too fast, via automation. If you are new to the web, the odds of getting links too fast is pretty low. If you approach it with one foot in the sand, toe in the water so to speak, you’ll be OK. If you have a big brand and related strategy, they’ll be fine: You’ll probably have more link quality and trust. And if you get tons of links, it will not hurt you. But if you receive 1,000 links for $20 bucks (Jon: you see these bogus linking claims and programs out there; don’t fall for it) then it gets easier to get whacked and removed from Google.
If you are just starting out on the web, if you have friends, business suppliers, in the same industry, etc., ask them for link sources. Then add a couple of general directories, yahoo, business, botw (best of the web), get some more links, and use articles and press releases, too. The key is to look at the SEO Firefox results and get a competitive measure of what people are doing, so you can know what to rank for. Track how the competitors are getting links (Jon: Free backlink tools: Yahoo Site Explorer, Link Diagnosis w/Firefox Plugin, BackLinkAnalyzer). Look at joining industry associations, get links from guys at conferences, review products or think about give-aways of software, tools, something of value to people. If you can take something that is currently for sale, make it better and give it away, then market it aggressively, you’re on your way.
(Oops, cell phone battery dies, we switch to another five minutes later, we’re on a roll now . . . )
If incoming anchor text keywords match domain, that’s great, but mix up keywords naturally. For example, “seobook,” “aaron’s seo book,” “aaron’s seo site” vary the text. For a few links don’t worry. But as you scale, don’t make them the same, because it could affect rankings. Paid links–well, I don’t get into it too much–and certainly not through known networks. We have tried to get many links and got them naturally, creating quality stuff. It doesn’t make sense to now get them for a paid exchange. Certainly, don’t do it right away.
You should look at incremental cost, versus incremental value.
Directories, however, is a great way to start. They are trusted and help out the sites. Some of the smaller ones have a good value, too, not too costly. Organic links are a marketing and advertising function, so you can buy links indirectly by sponsoring events, be seen at conferences and network everywhere. Paid links are a funny thing–for example, people hire people for public relations. They get paid, and you get links and press mentions. Is that against the guidelines? I doubt it (and a big laugh).
6. The top three fastest ways to traffic generation for a site or blog (different strategies)?
Sure, know your market well enough to solve real problems in it, then solve them (with free content or tools).
Link out to the people whom you want to talk about you (and make sure you click on your link a half dozen times or so such that the link shows up in their analytics data). Many leading publishers are egotistical and self-centered, and love reading about themselves. (Jon: I received a cool project with a large, global financial company using this technique).
Be a contrarian or a brown-nose . . . concentrate on whichever fits your personality better.
7. What trends have you seen in the past three years for both SEO & PPC (myths, rising CPC, etc), and where do you see the next three years advancing? For example, we hear often “SEO is dead” and PPC is too expensive. What’s a search marketer to do?
What if Google didn’t exist and people talked about you anyway? You would probably want that “model!” What if you ranked number one or number two for “SEO” versus the eBay CEO saying “he’s the best.” It’s better to have people talk about you, favorable mentions. Give more value, and get people to talk about you. You need to be headed that way. (Jon: Links can perhaps be thought of in a similar way, too. Imagine having a link with the following anchor texts: A) “I know Jon Rognerud,” or B) “Jon Rognerud is a search engine optimization consultant,” or a link where Bill Gates notes: C) “Jon Rognerud is an authority seo consultant.” What provides the highest, most trusted result? Clearly the last example).
If the edges are kind of flaky anyway, not many people will talk about it. For example, one guy blogs every day, one guy has an affiliate marketing program, another is giving away tools, another propels by doing SEO community interviews. Maybe one guy does all of it. With more distribution channels, the better you can do. Like a social network. It’s easier when a space is new, but it will get harder as it matures, so pick areas of what you know and care about. Be really engaged. It’s hard to take it away from you. For example, it would be hard for Google to remove Entrepreneur.com from its index.
Also, success stories online–the ones that make money–are usually when people only give you half the story. A person may have lost $80,000 in his/her first year, but you only hear about the $100,000 positive yearly trend they captured. The ad networks don’t blab about you, nobody is interested in MLM schemes and short-lived money-making ideas, etc. But if you are in a niche in the passion zone, you have the advantage, and hard to take away from you. For example, you could be “SEO for legal” or “SEO for nonprofits.”
8. What is social media to you? And is it really different from SEO and link building/baiting?
I frequently chat with Brent Csutoras about social media stuff. In my opinion the interview you did with him is far better than anything I can say on the topic.
9. Spying on your competitors: What approach and tools do you recommend?
Instead of looking at software tools directly, view your competitors’ sites themselves as tools. Follow their press mentions; use Google Alerts, Blog Search, Blog Pulse. You should know the conversation in the marketplace. If you know that, you are aware of what people are talking about, what they are interested in. Know your marketplace better than anybody else. That’s the ultimate competitive research tool! Look at layout, structure and how they link to various pages. Compete Search Analytics is expensive at $199/month–but it’s totally worth it. Hitwise is also good, it gives you weighting (percentage of traffic); you can see the words that bring traffic. (Jon: I use keycompete.com. I recommend it). Google traffic estimator, the Microsoft online commercial intent tool, shows perceived value.
Google trends for websites is another useful tool. MSN has the ad intelligence tool–with category-related reports, top keywords in category. Sources are free. Take the results and plug them into the various tools for further analysis and strategy development.
10. What blog platform do you recommend for beginners. And what “must-have” (Wordpress) plug-ins for SEO are your “best of choice”?
Yes, I would recommend starting out with Wordpress because it is easy to use and has a large developer community. I use the SEO Title Tag plug-in, and edit my permalink structure to have the posts appear right under the root without a category name or the date in the URL.
11. Keyword to page ratio–let’s end the discussion–what is the “rule”? One to two keywords per page? three to six?
(Wall doesn’t think of it as that specific). Instead, see what people are doing in search results. If it’s really competitive, then perhaps you only use one keyword (to a page). If your competition is niching out a page for each term, it will be hard to beat them, but at least you know what you are up against. But sure, you can get more than one phrase on a page. For example, you may say: “here are my core keywords, and here’s a list of modifiers.” Combine those into the page and focus on building it out. Use Quintura, and hover over the keywords to see more. For example, you could have “dancing shoes” chosen as your target keyword, but it looks like people are searching more for “cheap dancing shoes.” You could build out a term for “discount comfortable dancing shoes on sale” and use sales, discount in H1 tags and related terms sprinkled throughout on your page. You can get a lot of modifiers in there and get a page that will rank for a wide array of terms that are related. Probably 200 words on a page are good for an e-commerce page. For an informational page you would generally want more, but it depends on the topic.
Content also has different purposes. Some content helps with conversion, others a public relations vehicle, and some content is backfill to monetize ads. Depending on your keyword/content strategy, it may take 10 minutes to write one article/page, or 12 articles/pages to support another. The best ideas should get the most of the time. It’s good to link off to trusted, authority sites and don’t try to be everything to everybody. Stuff to make things really special will just mean more time.
12. Do SEs really consider “over-optimization”? Can you be penalized for that?
Many pages end up getting filtered out of the search results if the backlinks, page title and page content are too precisely aligned against a particular keyword. Variation is key.
13. Restructuring an existing site that is “messy”: What is your approach? mod_rewrites, 301s or “start over”?
When possible, I like to keep the URLs where they are. But if I have to move some around, I make sure I keep the link equity flowing where it needs to by 301 redirecting the old URLs to their equivalent new locations.
14. When you see a new website for the first time, what are your criteria for determining if the site even has a “chance” to make it and–even more so–”survive” in the long term?
SEO for Firefox gives you baseline for links, popularity. Look at anchor text; it’s a website health checker. Check to see how rounded the site is. If the competing sites or other site has more links, balance it out, go after similar links.
15. What mix of links and content should a site have? For example, some sites go heavily after links both natural and paid, and have ranking success. What percentage blend do you prefer? For example, Starbucks ranks for first page for “coffee,” but no keywords on that (landing) page. Also, if you had a 100 incoming links, what should be the percentage of “keyword rich anchor text” (term you want to rank for) versus “brand name” or “alternate phrase”? Is index (page) penetration more important than more links?
It depends. One person could have many links already; another person is doing tools for linkbait, etc. It comes down to what are your strengths? It’s weighted to what you are really good at. You could be really visible online and doing socializing and getting links. You could be ranking for everything or ranked on page two for things. You could then write a really interesting report that people will link to, and you could be on page one for 5 percent for certain queries or page two and three for everything else. Look at results, look at strengths and balance out weaknesses. Yes, you could go out and ask people to change external anchor text, but webmasters will not likely change. I would not typically do it–perhaps it even was an accident that they added you–and they might even remove a link. When you feel there might be a risk, build new ones instead.
16. Ranking, traffic, conversion: Which area do you like to focus on first, and which provides the best long term strategic value?
If you get something that converts really well, then you can afford to buy PPC, for example. Conversion to me is an important thing to focus on, but in some competitive saturated industries you need “brand” and people talking about you to convert. Make sure to have community participation, and differentiate. Conversion is key, more than simply ranking.
17. On-page factors: In your recent Wordtracker “Kick Ass” Keyword Book you show the example of: <title>Free Online Poker Room Reviews</title>
<meta description=”Play free video poker online. We have rated the 10 best live poker websites offering you over $1,000 in free bonus credits.”/>
<h1>Best Poker Websites Ratings</h1>
<h2>Poker Sites With the Biggest Sign-up Credit Bonuses</h2> (related phrases site and website, singular/plural use of “credit,” mixed up order of keywords)
What is the optimum way to position and concentrate keywords on the page (metas + copy)?
It’s like I mentioned before: If something is “too good,” “too fast” or “too perfect,” it’s not preferred. So make it really good and natural. Think users, then search engines. Even if you make sales-oriented pages, make them really high quality. Average and below average are not recommended.
18. How can you test pages for conversion on a “live” organic page? Using a javascript to A/B test landing pages is close to “cloaking,” no?
If you are testing layouts and formats, search engines don’t view A/B testing with inclusion of javascript is spam or cloaking. However, if you turned off javascript in your browser and suddenly your “hidden” 2,000 words appeared on a page, that would not be good. Minor page changes are OK and related to your theme.
19. What are recommended books for online business, the “must reads” and “what you are reading now”?
Favorite books: “Clay Shirky,” “Here comes everybody,” “Purple Cow.” The “Cluetrain Manifesto” is something to read also. The web is becoming more like a “people talking medium,” in a social way.
20. What about Flash and recent announcements of Google spidering/indexing Flash content. What to do?
I still think most publishers using Flash should embed Flash into pages and have plenty of text in the raw HTML code of those pages.
21. Purchasing old domains with keywords in domain? Bother or no bother? Where is the best place to find used/expiring domains?
NameJet, SnapNames, and TDNam are the best spots to buy expired names. As far as keyword rich domains, I am a big fan of them for the time being. And so are a couple of the search engines–Google and Microsoft Live Search.
22. Google’s “secret ranking algo”: How has it changed over the years? We know that links are key, onpage content with keywords, but how about “traffic, behavior, clickstreams”? Google is followed closely in the press for privacy issues. What thoughts do you have? Clearly Cuil.com didn’t win the masses just because of touting its differentiators: size of index and the “privacy” issue.
You are right. And on the privacy issue, if government was using data for their own purposes, or if competition’s business models were dying off because of Google, that’s not cool–but I don’t think it’s becoming a big deal. Uh, most people don’t care much.
23. Universal search? Very few are embracing opportunities to be listed multiple times on the home page of Google. I see this all the time in my internet marketing firm.
I think it depends on the vertical, but most people selling stuff can do well with sales videos and tutorials on sites like YouTube. Some of my videos ( like this one ) have more than 50,000 views, with most of the views coming from YouTube Search and Google Search. That is a lot of exposure for something that took me a half an hour to make.
24. How important is usability (navigation, interaction), accessibility (special needs, mobile browsers, etc.)?
For every guru there are a hundred or a thousand people new to the field. And the people who are most likely to buy information (from you, from affiliate ads, from contextual ads and from traditional ads) are people new to the field.
Being accessible and having good usability is important for turning many new visitors into repeat visitors.
25. Black Hat, white hat–where do you draw the line? Paid links? Scrapers, ranking tools?
I think stealing someone else’s content and/or intentionally causing harm to someone else’s website is pretty crappy. I am not against tracking rankings or renting a few links if they are needed to get the job done.
26. Can you tell us what SEOBOOK provides, what you are doing next and how readers can benefit? What are some other great resources on SEO? What other tools outside of Firefox SEO, Rankchecker, Backlink Analyzer do you have in store?
Some of my favorite SEO blogs are Johnon.com, SEOBlackHat.com, Shoemoney, Sugarrae, SEOmoz, Wolf Howl, Stuntdubl, SERoundtable, and Search Engine Land.
I don’t use Google Reader much, but I do use iGoogle.
I have a few more tool ideas (some will probably be bad while others are good), but it doesn’t make sense to mention them or launch them until we are well along the way of making them.
27. Do supplemental results still exist? How do know if you are in the “2nd index”?
Haven’t tested recently; it’s been a while. One way to find out is to look at how many pages are on your site. Then look at analytics, and find out how many pages are driving traffic. Example, if 150 of these 200 are good, and these other 1,400 pages do nothing, you have a problem to fix.
28th and final question: What is the most frequently asked question about SEO that you get on a daily basis? Or the most ignorant question about SEO?
Simple. It is this: “Is Black Hat SEO ethical?”
OK, cool exit point. We’ve captured a lot! (Wall’s dog starts to bark more now, perhaps somehow knowing where this conversation is going; the phones are ringing; and his wife is in a nearby room. I realize that after the good hour or so on this hot August day, it is time to bid adieu).
*P.S.*
On the question of “is black hat ethical” above, see this reference on Google’s Matt Cutts blog: CEO in Jail. (This is really bad news, and you should make up your own mind on which side of the fence you want to live.)
August could be crowned the month of search in California. Central to the search industry sits the popular, highly attended Search Engine Strategies conference with this year’s fashionable “Glow In The Dark”-themed Google Dance in San Jose, California.
It’s one of the largest conferences in the biz, and attendees can get a private, onsite visit with a big fun factor added: Walk freely (more or less, until you try to access any computer that is not monitored!) on Google campus, socialize with your friends, make new ones, drink and eat to your guts’ content–and ask any questions of the Google engineers. All this right on the Google campus in Moutain View, California. Pretty cool. See some SES campus pictures from Google itself. Lee Odden’s TopRankBlog has some cool SES 2008 pix too. Good to meet/greet these people.
I attended two days of the show (had to get back to my search marketing firm dealing with SEO business in Los Angeles).
I made some key textual summaries below, including a short video that I used Adobe Premier to create, with John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change.”
Packed sessions were on the topics of local search, mobile applications/use, landing page optimization (Tim Ash), A/B testing, multivariate testing and search trends (blended search). Traditional SEO and paid search are still the backbone and platform for so many, but extending your knowledge into more niche-oriented tactics, both from a marketplace and technology perspective, is considered a highly valuable move.
Local search, for example, is not just about searching for (example) a dentist in your neighborhood, but more about “finding and discovering” in a new world. (A cool local application for the iPhone, which is receiving some notoriety and user acceptance, is the the “shake” application UrbanSpoon). Mobile search at this level is not about ranking top of Google with incoming links, but rather using new, cool-plus-useful mobile technology coupled with “time and location” parameters and GPS.
Say you are searching for pizza during the day. As a general guideline, the results will differ from what they would return at night. (Nighttime discoveries may reveal more alcohol-centric establishments, leaning toward a more mature, less family-oriented audience). Geographic movements will change results as well. Most of the top panelists consider mobile and local search to be THE real internet killer applications. These are still early-stage, and not with deep user penetration. Hence, there is a lot of opportunity.
Google’s Matt Cutts got asked about “Black Hat SEO,” and this private video captured some of his comments:
Search Engine Land captured more detail in its SES day-by-day play:
First, I present a test. Please answer truthfully.
Where do you place primary focus in your online work on a daily basis?
Please select in order of importance of workload:
A. Search Engine Rankings & Monitoring (___ %)
B. Web Traffic Building/Link Acquisition (___%)
C. Website Usability Study and Updates (___%)
D. User Behavior Tracking and Strategy (___%)
E. Brand Reach/Social Media Expansion (___%)
F. Conversion Testing and Profit Tracking (___%)
I certainly hope flavors of all six, but I’m guessing that F, the last one, grabs the smallest attention in your day-to-day? It’s very common, and I see it all the time.
The truth is: You don’t have to spend all that time and work trying to get more traffic or rankings with detailed user click-stream tracking, link building in order to add potentially significant *bottom-line dollars* to your existing business.
All right then: How can you create “big revenue into your business” today?
With existing traffic (assuming “big enough” data rate!) and the overall movement to your website, you should be able to double–and triple–conversions by making just some small changes (some more drastic, perhaps), but overall, pretty easy to implement.
You could try to build more traffic, but it’s generally harder to raise traffic that you need to meet your conversion goals, versus just tweaking your existing page(s) to simply get more customers to buy more of your stuff.
There are many ways to do this. But today, I’ll show you examples from a design team that I have been working with lately, with some amazing results. We’ve seen outstanding success, and extracts from case studies are presented below.
Below are extracts from its top 10 secrets list, but five overall landing pages design strategies are presented here:
EXAMPLE #1: Keep your opt-in above the fold.
Number 2: Do whatever you can to look professional.
Number 3: Don’t waste space and keep your message simple.
Number 4: Use “eye candy” around the opt-in form.
Number 5: How much “flare” can you use?
To get the complete list of landing page design secrets–with many more examples–please download it here.
In my next post, I will discuss advanced testing via software-enabled tools. This will include how to take the very important human creative inputs and test them via A/B landing page testing and multi-variate, sectional testing recipes. This can all be done in an SEO search-friendly way.
I recently had the distinct pleasure of speaking to one of the Masters of Social Media, Brent Csutoras. He’s a leading internet marketing consultant who primarily specializes in social media, viral and search engine marketing strategies.
Not only does he enjoy speaking on the topic, but he has a deep understanding and provides a mountain of great information you can use. I felt like that good hour we spent could have easily turned into days. I have attempted to distill our conversation about social media marketing into key learning points and some things you can do to get started today.
I should add that Brent is not only a tactician (”eats his own dog food”) but believes in good planning and sound strategies before starting any campaign online, whether SEO, PPC or social media.
Social media is *not* about just bookmarking your sites all over the place and joining Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, and posting some “pitchy” links. I hope that’s not what you’re doing. Social media marketing (SMM) is serious business, and you must have the same attitude about everything you do.
I asked him about “how to go viral,” but it became evident quickly that it’s not just a checklist thing, but rather deep understanding of your marketplace, people and community strategies, and a lot of work. Brent works 12 to 14 hours every day, 365 days a year. (He gets a “break” when he speaks at search marketing conferences such as SES.)
He not only researches and tests all the models and tools but provides services to a number of high-profile clients (whom he will not, understandably, reveal). Brent has a massive passion for this field, wants to give back to the community and is considered one of the best.
J: What is social media?
B: Social media definitions exist. However, I say it’s what people think of last: “links.” I think of social media as modern day link building. As you do your research, think about how to acquire quality links. While many social networks, tools and blogs have “no-follow” tags applied, there are “do-follows” out there. For example, at current time, Reddit follows links. That’s powerful. However, while links and early links are important, there is a phased approach to this. I call this the “wave model.” The first wave is all about the social community penetration and expansion into your community. The second wave is about the “links that really matter.” These are the page rank 8 to 9 links that most would sell their car for! I explain this further under “Social Media Builds Traffic” below.
J: Can you give me some background on how you got started and how social media impacted you?
B: I began in SEO, worked for a company in the health-care section and did the online marketing for about 50 to 60 clients. I listened to Webmaster Radio almost every day for a period. SEO Rockstars Todd Friesen, Greg Boser are top guys, and they seeded the right thoughts in my head; they got me wanting to be an internet marketer. I would listen, write down the information, study and learn every day–even in my car. That hasn’t stopped. It was at PubCon 2006 when I received a faster ramp-up when I met BOTW guys Greg and Brian Prince, and later in 2007 with additional network support in Todd Malicoat (SEO), Chris Winfield (SMM) and Neil Patel (SEO/SMM). Danny Sullivan invited me to speak as well. I was impressed with their credentials, but my personal style and approach [are] to be humble, and I listened and watched carefully. The interesting thing is that real world networking helped me before social media did. I often say that the rules of social media are very similar if not the same as the real world. You must conduct and act the same in order to succeed. Quality information prospers, however, just like anything on the net. I was accepted and so does Google, apparently (search for “brent” in Google).
J: How does a brand new person start with social media?
B: OK, assuming you have a plan with clearly defined objectives and goals (you must!)–consider social media, but also PPC, SEO. Include these as a whole picture, not just in parts. All activities need focused and ongoing attention, i.e., it never stops, and you must consider expenditures (people, resources, etc.) versus return. Social media can have high returns, but you must bring all of the tracks back to your original plan and measure it along the way. SM is not something you do on the side: You must dedicate an employee 100 percent or get a new one hired in, or outsource to an established expert.
Here’s a high-level starter plan you can use for social media:
Phase One: Write good, quality content! After strategy signoff, start by participating in the communities. Provide real and useful comments, no spam obviously. Do not try to game this; build your presence online over time. You might benefit looking at the smaller communities, befriend some of the (top) profiles there, and start looking at how you can provide good content for that community. Then, start pushing: “Butter the network,” as I call it.
Phase Two: Make your site social media-friendly. No funky popups or hard to read/use sites. Blogs are commonly used, but make sure it’s professionally designed. Lately, I’ve found that authoritative sites can and will do better–and even commercial sites. Think about this: “Where do you want to be sourced from?” Even unique content on a crappy site will not get the respect it deserves.
Phase Three: Continue researching and networking. Continue to build quality content for your own sites and the communities. This can take a long time, but the results are worth it!
J: Generally speaking, what do you consider “must-have” sites/profiles to establish?
B: Depending on your business, you might consider Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Sphinn, Propeller, StumbleUpon, but this is the order of importance at current time: Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Propeller, Sphinn and LinkedIn, listed last because it is just a static resume, not a wide network reach.
J: How much time should a person spend on social media?
B: Let me answer it this way: What is your dedication? Have you made a firm to decision to proceed? If you only have an hour or so per day, don’t even try Digg or Reddit–you’d be better off spending some time on Sphinn, StumbleUpon or bookmarking services only. However, make sure to set up complete profiles for your company or brand on the sites you target. You will not get a lot of traffic or brand recognition at first, but you must/should start today.
However, as with any marketplace online, it depends on your niche. In any case, you do want to become the top dog in your industry, which will take time, as I mentioned. You may find yourself in six months of full-time, dedicated work, trial and error, until something sticks. What works for one will work differently for another. I see 99 percent success, and most of the time, but you never know when an administrator on an important network gives you a thumbs down, and you’re gone!
You must always be researching while online, look at the competition and find the sites with best-result-opportunities ratios. Then, you must discover the community that supports your business, and find the topics within it.
A tip to find out what people are talking about within your niche, do this: Go to Google and type ‘site: “digg.com” keyphrase.’ You can also go to most social media news sites and sort by most popular, etc. Your end goal in research is this: What has been successful? Then, build on that.
J: Word on the street says that social media builds traffic, but does not provide good ROI.
B: I don’t agree. Link building, which is the most important aspect to social, has an ROI. You can test your landing page to tune up the conversions, always–and you should. The people in SMM are not typically in a hot buy mode, true. However, the conversion is there, but it’s long term–certainly not gained in the first tier of traffic. However, as you build, you would hope to get the highest, best portion of the linkerati : the top bloggers, the central journalists for your niche, etc.
Let me explain how social media traffic works, in a tiered model. It builds on the “social media wave model” mentioned at the top.
First Tier Traffic - ‘Wave 1′: This is people who are not in your niche and not likely to be interested in anything more than the single article they have landed on. This is not the traffic or movement you want, but it is necessary and you don’t get to the 2nd tier without it. Google wants links and content. You can be ranked for a number of days short term and be visible across the board – but it can sometimes drop off. People providing blog posts, video posts, etc – will get you social community site links, but you need to look for natural links. That comes next.
Second Tier Traffic - ‘Wave 2′: RSS Feeds, bloggers, journalists – those that go back and write about you a few days or a week later, or even those who are looking for current stories to write about for their deadline in a few hours. The highly sought after PageRank 8-9 can be attained this way. These are the highly trusted links with the quality and authority that you want. (Jon: This is big, I missed this myself until I spoke to Brent).
As an example, imagine you hit the front page of Digg about your Dog business – having a unique and different story listed, pointing back to your blog about Dogs. If a major pet company picks up the story, and they link to you, you’ll receive potentially massive traffic and it will be highly targeted. You will be ranking well for your keywords for a longer time and as you continue building, more and more success will be created from your trust within the communities and search engines. If you have good quality content, people will naturally link to you. If you sell something, try to build focused, single keywords to promote. Build content around that.
J: How can I write viral content around boring products? For example, if I was a sink company, how would I drive massive traffic and build authority around it?
B: The “Top 10” type of lists work very well. People online often don’t read the entire article – they scan. Fun, controversial and useful tips and lists work all the time. You could create the “Top 10 most expensive sinks – ever”, or “How to unclog any sink in less than 10 seconds”. Make sure to get your keyword or phrase in the title. You may consider videos and images to complement your article. But, before you start crafting that killer piece, participate in the communities related to your topic. Research the commentaries, what type of content and write quality copy. All of social media is a huge time commitment, and you should have 100’s of people in your network, be recommended by others, seen as an active participant and add value and involved in the site - continually.
J: What are some of the tools of trade?
B: This is human intensive. And why not – it’s all about the communities and the people! To use automation tools and try to software-enable this will not work. There are however, some resources and tools that can help on the basics. You may consider creating some internal tools for yourself to help organize.
I wrote an article for Search Engine Land: “Tools for engaging in Social Media”, start with that. (Brent’s Social Media Tool List)
Here are some tools that I use:
Digg alerter – must use
StumbleUpon
Propeller
ShareAholic – powerful
J: Thanks, Brent – and in closing can you tell me what you will be speaking about at the SES show in San Jose?
B: I will cover things like a) what is social media, b) what is it good for, c) what sites give you the biggest bang and the all important d) “I get it, but why is it good?”
Dear Reader, as you have come to understand,social media is a lot work if you do want to get to the mountain top for your business. So, don’t just do what you must, but develop your plan, take complete action and go full force!
I recently began interviewing the illuminati of search engine marketing, SEO (search engine optimization) and social media marketing. In fact, you will see more detailed interviews over the coming weeks, leading up to the Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose, California (August 18).
My first “victim” was a very courteous, direct and knowledgeable SEO guru –family man Nathan Anderson. What follows is a recent interview talking about SEO myths, some controversial topics and what he’s up to with his highly respected SEO Club.
I met Nathan virtually last year through the Stomper Network (Andy Jenkins and Brad Fallon, creators) and recently via social media marketer Allejandro Reyes @ successfool.tv.
Nathan also has a uStream.tv show: fun, informative and with always-useful tips. I was reminded how knowledgeable and confident Nathan is about this space. He uses a rare technique amongst SEOs today: Not only does he test and validate his own work for clients and members of his popular SEO Club, but also massive amounts of research and raw statistics (proprietary software/mining tools). This includes all total possible metrics for SEO–from every on-page to off-page factor (content, code, structure, links), and these are constantly updated, reviewed and tested.
J: Nathan, can you tell me a bit about yourself and how you got started in SEO?
N: I live in Colorado with my family and run my own business. For SEO, I really got started in 1997 building websites. With every project launched, I noticed that I was getting traffic but didn’t fully understand why. Being a detail-oriented and curious person, I wanted to find out more. I got started in earnest in 1999 and started formulating the approach for what would later become SEO Club, which I officially opened the doors for in 2003. I launched some other successful software products at that time that helped my users make millions of dollars online. I knew I was on a good track and that I had found my passion.
J: What is SEO Club, and how can users benefit? N: SEO Club is a members-only club, an exclusive network of businesspeople. I provide ebooks, a large library of training, and years of research and valuable data points, among other things. We have a conference call every other Thursday–and as necessary–to share SEO and online marketing-related discussions among the members. Some of the best minds in SEO are available, and this is information that you would not find in any forum. I also provide links to software and tools worth owning, and discounts to these via my network. All members also receive free access to all seminars that I speak at and the deep SEO-specific data analytics. In other words, an exclusive network of professionals [who] focus on driving their business to the top, using search. Additionally, as I create and push out new products, members get firsthand chance to test and validate in a team setting.
Statistical data is the heart of SEO Club, and all this data is free and available to members. It’s also a safe haven for members to invest into their businesses online. Like-minded individuals can hang out and talk, and whatever you say stays there: We have tough policies on this. Go with SEO Club if you want the hard-core data, not hype. We have competitive niche markets with tons of pages, but virtually no back-links–ranking to the top in Google. So many in the industry think that on-page factors don’t matter as much as links, but they do! Also, a new beta product is coming out later this year that will help you construct pages and websites to our own standard and search engine’s liking.
J: What are the SEO secrets in your mind? N: I don’t think anything is secret per se, but I do have some perhaps controversial SEO tips; is that OK? (J: Sure!). OK, keywords in URL outside of domain is not beneficial. Keywords early in title is good, and early in keyword-rich domain, for example. Keywords need to be sprinkled naturally throughout, and LSI (latent semantic indexing) and LSA (latent semantic analysis). Relevancy in copy is more important–keyword density is out. For example, a recent look at 15,000 sites in a competitive ranking study had no defined or patterned keyword density in it. You should also only use one (1) keyword per page, and use keyword-rich anchor text in the navigation. I recommend blogs; they are great for link baiting, easily updatable and pretty search engine-friendly. Lastly, H1 tags have come and gone, but it seems to change, i.e., not static. Search engines look for behavior and data freshness, so posting quality content with regular frequency is good. Also, testing pages is important and multi-variate testing can be such a way; it will not hurt search rankings.
J: What does the future of SEO hold? N: SEO as a standalone is destined to disappear. If you are going to survive as an SEO in the future, you will not–unless you become much more search engine commerce-centric. It’s not enough to know search engines, but you must expand yourself and include a complete wholistic view to online marketing. To think more about conversion theories, bottom-line strategies, retention, etc. will become necessary. The reputation of the site you’re working on, as related to others, is important.
It’s not about keyword density–in fact, we don’t talk about that anymore. And the future of an SEO needs to focus on website analytics and understand that not only do search engines also factor data freshness, user behavior and click streams, but so must you. It’s a mistake to not count detailed study of your own user’s clicks and necessary changes to sites and pages to accomodate their needs. Everything in the ecosystem benefits: users, search engines and the pocketbook!
J: Any other issues, tips or comments? N: Well, for paid links (highly controversial), do not use those. I have personally not used those since 2004, and I have much success from my own sites and members of SEO Club. Also, never use Flash-only sites. Search engines are still having issues reading and translating those into anything useful in the true sense of SEO.
Lastly, the best data about SEO is not found outside “closed doors.” SEO can be dangerous if not done right, and open forums are scary places to learn SEO. Private and members forums will provide the best information, and hopefully highest yield on all your efforts.
Nathan, thanks for a great interview! I can tell you that I am personally favoring on-page factors with good quality content. There is too much focus on “just get some links, and you’ll be ranked.” Create good quality content that is useful, unique and valuable–the (most important) links will follow.
Boy, the learning never stops, and trying to beat the search engines never does, either. I can see Nathan is a lot closer to it than me…
When outsourcing your SEO, know what questions to ask–before you sign.
I recently wrote up a seven-page SEO official hiring guide for the OPEN forum. (It has a lot of other useful info, too.) The pages talk about the challenges of hiring a search engine optimization firm, and what you should ask before committing. I recap the highlights below, and you can reference the Hiring an SEM firm site here.
Knowing where to turn once you’ve decided to outsource your search engine marketing campaign can be daunting. While it’s not necessary to be an expert, it’s important to know what to look for in a quality search engine marketing firm. Just as with any other vendor, knowledge base, cost efficiency and results are among the most important factors when selecting a company to trust with this piece of your business. And as the search engines are continuously updating their own methods of providing accurate search results, it’s even more important to find a search marketing agency that’s up-to-date on the latest strategies.
What does an ‘SEO’ do?
SEO consists of ongoing changes to websites with keyword rich, user-centric, quality content and links, both on your site and off. Therefore, this list provides questions you should ask any search firm you are considering and some of the answers to look for related to this model and other business issues.
Top list of questions to ask your potential SEO company: (see the answers here)
Do you guarantee top search engine rankings?
Will my website need to change?
What is your process for keyword research?
What is your pricing, and when can I expect (ranking) results?
How will I be able to gauge progress, and what level of communication should I expect?
Are you visible in the industry? Where can I find you?
Describe your firm’s general SEO experience and a few client references.
How long will our agreement (contract) last?
What should my SEO agreement include?
Who are your competitors, and why are you better for us?
How long do clients typically stay with you?
How does my team work with yours?
I have a CMS (Content Management System) . How does that affect the SEO work?
Will you make recommendations on my site’s copy/content?
What do you need from me during the engagement?
What are my options if I’m not satisfied with the results?
What things do you look for in a search-engine-friendly site?
What steps do you take in optimizing a website?
What is your overall approach to back linking?
How can I ensure that you will operate ethically?
These questions should cover you pretty well. Read the angles/answers and understand them too; there are many moving parts here.
Make sure the firm you choose understands your business, and is well versed in the online space–not just the technical or programming parts. Also, remember that there are some really creative salespeople out there, genuine enough but not always well trained in the online or, especially, the SEO space. We buy on emotion, and we buy from people we like. Make sure that it’s more than just the salesperson you like!
Training is an important aspect, and it includes you. You should consider taking an SEO class through Sempo Institute or MarketMotive. (I took a class at BruceClay.com–he’s great, too). Make some time to participate in the process and you’ll have a partnership for success.
Where to start? Of course, if you’d like to see how you stand from a technical/marketplace standpoint, there are complimentary website reviews that have no commitment other than revealing potentially problematic issues with your site and space.
Get more free information and download software, tools and e-books from Jon’s Search Marketing Resource Center on topics like how to drive tons of traffic, convert visitors from landing pages and make lots of money online.
(search for “brent” in Google).
ULTIMATE Guide to Search Engine Optimization
