Latest SEO Tips and Updates

6 Ultimate On-Page Search Engine Optimization Tips

These on-page search engine optimization tips will assist you in setting up your pages with the appropriate title and meta tags, headers, text elements and alt attributes.

1. Title Tag

The Title tag is used to define the title of a web page, with the Title tag placed between the and tags in the html of the page. Search engines will recognize the Title tag as the title of the page. Each page should have its own distinct Title tag.
Fundamentals:

• The Title will be displayed within the browser at the top of the browser window or tab.
• When a user searches for a specific word or phrase, Google will return a link to the website, and the Title tag will be displayed as the anchor text for the website link.
• The text in the Title tag is one of the most important relevancy factors influencing search engine ranking algorithms.
• Using your most important keywords or keyphrases in the Title tag will have a dramatic effect upon your page’s ranking for those keywords.

Take Aways: It is recommended that you keep your Title short, preferably between 10 and 64 characters, 70, at most. Over 70 will not contribute any weight as part of the document.
Use of irrelevant words (not found on the page) in your Title will dilute the impact on your targeted keywords. Use of irrelevant words can also trigger the spam filters of the search engines. Place your most targeted keyword phrases as early as possible in the Title. Try to minimize the use of stop words, such as a, an, of, on, etc., as they consume character count and offer no value.

2. Description Meta Tag

Used to provide a brief description of a Web page, the Description meta tag should clearly describe the purpose of the page, for both the user and the search engines.

• The importance of the Description tag as an element of the ranking algorithm has decreased significantly over recent years, but some search engines may still support this tag.
• The search engines will often display the Description along with the Title in the SERPS (search engine results pages).

The maximum length of a displayed description varies between search engines, so wherever possible, try to place your most important keywords early in your Description tag, in case the search engine truncates the results.
Keep your Description between 50 and 149 characters, including spaces, whenever possible. Google will display 154 characters, but other search engines display less. Longer descriptions are of little value, as most search engines place little to no importance on this tag.

In extreme circumstances, the Description can be as long as 200 characters (including spaces), but understand that there is a high probability of truncation. As is the case with the Title, the use of irrelevant words can trigger the search engines’ spam filters. Avoid adding text that is not found within the visible text of the page.

Description Meta tags are not intended for the search engines, they exist for human users. Therefore, the text should be written to attract the user and convert them to a buyer, achieving the best ROI for your SEO efforts.

3. Keywords Meta Tag

This tag lists the words or phrases that are descriptive of, and found within the contents of the page. This tag provides some additional text for crawler-based search engines. However because of frequent attempts to abuse their systems, most search engines now ignore this tag.

Note: Of all the major crawler-based search engines, only Inktomi currently supports the Keywords Meta tag.

Similar to the Meta Description tag, there is a limit to the number of captured characters within the Keywords Meta tag. Keep the tag to between 4 and 8 keywords or keyphrases, separated by commas.
Syntax: Keyword1,Keyword2,Keyword3,Keyword4

All keywords listed in the Keywords Meta Tag should appear at least once in your content (body), or they may be considered to be irrelevant spam. You should also avoid repetitions, to prevent penalization by the search engines for keyword “stuffing”. The most important keywords should be listed first, to increase their prominence for the search engines that still consider this tag in their determination of your pages’ rankings.
Side Note: Approximately a year ago, Yahoo was still considering the keywords meta tag. While that may have changed, it will do no harm to use this tag, provided you don’t abuse it.

Attention! If you are utilizing XHTML+RDFa (which is recommended), you should not use the keywords meta tag. Opt instead, for the implementation of “Common Tags”.

Yahoo! Announces the “Common Tag” and why is it better: Like The Meta Keywords Tag, But Even Better.

4. Heading Tags (H1-H6)

Syntax:

Keyword1 in the Heading

,

Keyword2 in the Heading

, etc.
The “Header tag” is nothing more than a headline of the page, so it should be kept short. 45 characters, including spaces, is a good target.

Each page should have a clearly defined

header tag, to identify the primary subject of the page to both the user and the search engine. Be sure to use the primary search phrase you are targeting within this tag. Note: It is important that the primary keyword is located in the first heading tag on the page, regardless of its type. Placing the keyword early in the header tag will increase its prominence.
Standard rules apply for the structure of HTML pages. Written in a document-like fashion, they should include:

• Title
• Major heading, describing the main purpose of the section.
• Subheadings, highlighting the key points of each subsection.

Many search engines rank the words found in headings higher than the words found in the body text of the document. Some search engines will also incorporate keywords by looking at all the heading tags on a page.
Don’t try to stuff your heading tag with too many keywords, or words that are not relevant to the content in the body. Having multiple

tags on the same page may cause you to be subjected to a penalty by the search engines, as it may be seen in the same light as “keyword stuffing“. It is certainly appropriate to have multiple headlines appearing on a page, like

,

, etc., provided they follow a hierarchical order. The

should be the first heading tag, followed by the

, then the

, and so on.

5. Phrase Elements

Use the semantical tags and tags for targeted keywords within the visible content of your pages, but sparingly. Those tags are alternatives to the and tags, which can also be used, but are for visual presentation purposes only.

6. Alt Attributes

Resist the temptation to stuff your alt. attributes with keywords. Keyword density is no longer as important as it once was, and doing so could subject you to penalties.

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The 4 Hardest Things About Conversion Optimization For Local Search

As I was perusing through some updates on twitter the other day I came across an Alan Bleiweiss article entitled CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION IS THE NEW BLACK. Now, not only did the article have an extremely catchy and trend-a-rific title, but Alan really hit the nail on head by explaining (and I paraphrase and twist) that in the early days of SEO it was all rankings, click-through’s, and bounce rates. But, as SEO’s continue down the path of perfection the industry benchmark is becoming Conversion Optimization and everything else gets to stand on the 2nd place platform.

I ended up having a great comment section conversation with Alan about some issues with Conversion Optimization in the local search sphere and realized that the dialogue needs to be opened to the search community as a whole for discussion.

The list below contains the 4 hardest things about tracking and optimizing conversions for local search. I would love feedback in order to come up with some of the best possible solutions, and hear any more struggles people are having with this process.

1. Most Sales Take Place Off Line and away from any Javascript Code.

How many final sales for restaurants, doctors, or hardware stores take place online? Of course there are tracking phone numbers (we will talk about this later), contact forms that can be “goaled”, etc. But ultimately, they don’t track a sale, the amount each sale is worth, exactly when it the sale took place, or various other forms of information those in the e-commerce industry can figure with a nice snippet of code.

One of the “a-ha” experiences in Internet Marketing I had was in college when I had to track an online sale from keyword to purchase. I remember thinking, “I know what you typed, I know what you looked at, I know what you spent, and I know what I need to do to get more of you suckers to buy my product!” It was a very satisfying feeling and one I wanted to enjoy over and over again.

Well, that feeling isn’t always the case with local search. Continue on to find out why.

2. “How did you hear about us” only comes true in Fairy Tales.

The most popular form of advertising tracking in America today (according to a recent no-brainer from Mike Ramsey) is simply to ask your customers where they found you. The problem is that most organizations have tons of different people that might answer phones, and the way that a possible customer is asked the question largely determines the answer given. For instance, a question started with “Where did you see us?” will result in more people talking about driving by, or seeing it on TV. “Where did you hear about us?” will result in more people saying on the radio or from a friend. Wording is important to ensure total accuracy, and wording is a hard thing for people to get right. Some more issues are that employees might forget to ask the question, they might write the data and lose it, or various other “dog ate my conversion” type happenings.

I do think that if Local SEO’s can stress “pen and pad” customer sales tracking to a company enough, they might make a spreadsheet and implement an exact wording, and exact form for tracking leads + sales and amounts. But, you still don’t see the search terms that the customer typed, or have a clue what they did on the page. Also, my experience with trying to get companies to do their own call tracking goes like this…

1. Train Client
2. Implement System for them to follow
3. Test
4. Leave them to it
5. Find that the system has been tampered with, changed, and is broken
6. Bang head on wall and start at “a”

That is when I change a familiar quote to the following…

“If you give a man a fish you can feed him for a day….If you teach a man to fish then he will just sit on the bank and drink beer unless you are there to keep holding his hand.”

You can come up with the perfect system, but adding people to it somehow ruins the entire process.

3. Call Tracking Numbers + Local Map Optimization = A great idea…just like the Titanic.

The best idea (in theory) to getting a solid idea of how your online campaigns are producing leads+sales is call tracking implemented with web analytics. The data is not dependant on a secretary remembering to ask the “golden question”. You can listen in on phone calls and find out how well the sales team is doing. You can even track individual campaigns with a specific phone number to drill down. Call tracking seems to be the best solution for offline businesses. The only problem is trying to use call tracking with a Google Places listing is like aiming a big boat at the tip of an iceberg without realizing that a big old mamma is under water waiting to sink you. Rankings in maps are built around the quality and quantity of places that a business’s name, address, and phone number are found across the web.

Let me say that again in all caps incased you missed it….

Rankings in maps are built around the quality and quantity of places that a business’s name, address, and phone number are found across the web.

This information needs to match up on every directory, page, and place that search engine spiders visit in order to ensure all the data gets linked to your business profile. Since call tracking numbers are different than the true business phone number, here are the possibilities of what could happen.

1. Using an image based call tracking number like My Next Customer ‘s system on a website would ensure that no search bots found the number and ended up with confused phone call data. But, many people call the numbers found right on the map listing in search results so you wouldn’t truly be tracking all your local search calls.

Description: Picture 4.png

The number on your listing has to be same number distributed throughout the web. If not, then you might end up with duplicate listings as the search engine might think that the phone number represents a totally different business.

2. Switching all numbers you publish online (IYPs, Directories, and Websites) to a single local call tracking number is another option. If you do this, then you might avoid duplicate listings for a while. But all of your internet funnels would fall under one number limiting the amount of specific tracking you can do. Also, offline YellowPage’s that have a different phone number listed in the book might re-add that phone number to their online site and bam, duplicate listing issues.

Description: Picture 5.png

Of course with one add of a column Google Places could fix this faster than a tire change during the Daytona. The column would simply be… “Phone Number you would like to display on your listing”. Then they could still use the real number for data purposes but add the option to use a phone number to track a listing and get some real use from Google Voice. Will this happen? I sure hope as that day I will finally be out of tracking woes and I will do a happy dance for conversions.

4. If you ain’t got the money, honey. I ain’t got the time.

The biggest problem for most small business companies that use local search is they get what they pay for, and they don’t pay for much. If a company is going to hire a local search marketing expert and expect a sweet conversion optimization tracking system, then they are going to have to pay for it. In local search, there are not a ton of small businesses that can afford, or see the true value in rich tracking because it is something they have spent so little time with in their other advertising methods. This is not the case for every small business but seems to be for a vast majority.

I hope that local search will soon see a lot better Conversion Optimization methods come in to practice. But, I also see that “rankings” will still be extremely important and the focus for most small businesses. At this time I don’t think I would sacrifice rankings for the ability to use call tracking and fall off of the map. There are a lot of great platforms that have great conversion optimization abilities, I just look forward to the day we are able to see the same with maps. Until then, make sure you have your pen and pad handy.
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Google Places Removes Yelp Reviews From Search Results

As of right now, Google has removed all Yelp reviews from its Places feature. Even though the local reviews website’s snippets will no longer be appearing in the Google Places results, relevant results can be found in the “more about this place” section – which is the last section on the Places page.

Evelyn Rusli from Tech Crunch conducted an experiment to see whether or not Yelp snippets had really become a fond memory on Pages. She found that every once in awhile a Yelp snippet would appear, but when clicked on the page was there. It seems this is Google’s way of filtering out the content.

A few months ago Yelp was a little perturbed to find that Google was crawling its pages for content to bolster Pages’ results. The two companies have had a pretty rocky relationship since Yelp walked away from the relationship they had with Google, who was paying them for access to their user-created content. However, they are said to be in “talks” to come to some sort of agreement when it comes to Yelp content being used on Google Places.
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New Awesome Ways to Search within Current Site (Using Google)

I am sure you are familiar with (and using regularly) Google’s most useful search operator SITE: – that restricts search results to the domain you specify. I for one have covered multiple tips on:

• How to diagnose your site using Google’s operators (SITE: being the main one);
• How to tell a penalty from non-penalty (also using SITE: operator);
• etc

Obviously, the SITE: operator also turns really useful if you want to quickly find anything within the current domain (but you don’t want to figure how to find the site’s built-in search option). Google’s SITE: search operator makes you smarter, more productive and better equipped for search.
I have listed 3 tools that make Google’s SITE: operator easier to access including: Advanced Dork (not available in FireFox 3.6.8), Search Site (still valid and can be used) and Google site search (runs on Greasemonkey).
Today’s post shares 2 new tools that allow to search within the current domain with one click of a mouse:

1. CyberSearch: Search From URL / Address bar

CyberSearch is a multi-option search addon for FireFox that among other features allows to search within current site.
To do that just type:

>your search term

Right in the address (location) bar. It first suggests you the results from the current domain on the fly (which make it possible to search without SERPs).
After you click {Enter} – it takes you to Google’s search results restricted to the current domain and with >your search term as the search query.
For example, if you want to search for [firefox addons] when browsing SEJ, just type >firefox addon and you are done:

(1)

(2)

2. Milly’s Bookmarklet: Search for the Highlighted Term

The page as a variety of search bookmarklets taking advantage of Google’s search services and operators – one of them is based on SITE: search:
Google Site Search (just drag this link into your browser’s bookmark toolbar)
Compatible with: FireFox (latest version), Netscape, Internet Explorer (4 and above) and Opera
To use it, just highlight any term on a page and click the bookmarklet – you will be instantly taken to Google’s search restricted to the current domain with the term you highlighted:

Steal This Idea: Display Your Brand Name Mentions in Your Blog Sidebar

Are you launching a new viral campaign or link bait? Sharing your results by displaying your brand name recent web mentions will work like wonders. By doing that you can:

• Demonstrate to your visitors how much buzz your site, product or company generates;
• Display live third-party testimonials;
• Engage your visitors in your viral marketing campaign, etc.

1. MyBuzzMonitor

Customization
Sources customization	None
Relevancy

MyBuzzMonitor allows to create a customizable widget to embed at your site or blog. To create the widget, you just need to provide the search term (your brand name) and select the color palette:
Data Source: N/A
+ Bolds the search term in the widget.
- Links to the tool below the widget:

2. SocialMention Widget

The widget displays the latest realtime buzz about you, your blog, brand, product, or company.

Customization
Sources customization
Relevancy

Data Sources: Twitter, Digg, Facebook, Google Blog search, Delicious, Friendfeed, Flickr, Identica, etc.
+ Bolds the search term;
+ Displays the links to social media profiles
The widget allows to customize:

1. The search term (your brand name);
2. The widget title;
3. The widget sources;
4. The widget height
5. The widget look and feel (to display the profile images or not, items per page,

3. RSS Import WordPress Plugin

While there are many similar plugins, RSS Import seems the easiest to use and the most reliable of all.

Customization
Sources customization
Relevancy

With it, you can select the sources yourself, mash up RSS feeds (Twitter with Blog search, etc) and go as creative as you want. You can customize:

• The RSS feed itself;
• The widget title;
• To display the item content;
• To display the item author;
• To display the item date.

Data sources: Any (that has data feed)
+ You have full control of e the data sources.


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New Mobile Ad Format in Google Ad Words

As an Ad Words advertiser, you have the option to create ads that can be delivered on mobile devices. You can even target these ads to certain devices and select mobile carriers if you choose.
Earlier this year Google launched a click to call ad format in Beta that can be location targeted to mobile phones. This is now out of beta and will be available to everyone in the coming weeks. The ads will appear as a banner text ad with a business icon that expands to show your business location on an expandable map.
The ad will also display along with ad creative and a click to call phone number.

According to Google, this is a great value as you’re only charged when a user clicks to call your business or clicks to visit your website, but the prices for these calls were not made available in the press release. In order to participate, the following needs to be set up:

• Ensure your campaigns are opted into the Google Display Network
• Set up location extensions and add your business phone number and address
• Make sure you select the ‘iPhones and other mobile devices with full internet browsers’ setting.

This public release comes just a few months after Google’s announcement that their ‘Tag’ program for the map listings is available nationwide. For advertisers with physical locations, these two new options are at the very least worth testing out. More information on each can be found here and here.

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It’s Alive…ALIVE! How To Create Electrifying SEO Content

Those of us that undertake the daily task of writing for our blog, articles for our clients or newsworthy press releases can sometimes lose the will to live when ideas are sparse. Words are fused together within a weave of conjunctions and contractions that make up an ugly, SEO monster that would terrify even the most experienced reader.
Fortunately, there are ways to become a modern day Frankenstein and create content to make it every bit electrifying as your last creation.

The brains of any content; The Title

As important as a head on shoulders, the title is the brains, the intelligence and determines the success of any SEO content. An attractive title leads the rest of the content and generates exposure online amongst all the other articles, press releases and blog posts out there.

As well as grabbing a reader’s attention, a title spearheads the ideas that will create a piece of writing that will not only establish you as a writer but create exposure and authority for your business. Many writers devise the title last and just write to spill out ideas. Of course, even if it’s a concept, there is still the initial idea that is devised from using six or seven words.

Whether you are passionate about what you’re writing or understand little about a subject, an intriguing and interesting title can give you that burning desire to research and discover more about what you’re expressing to readers, rather than work your fingers to the bone for nothing in return.

Of course, in terms of SEO, the title holds many keys to success. With a clever, key word rich title, the appearance of said text will therefore appear within a search, exposing your business for all it’s worth.
So when creating your content remember, brains over brawn. A snappy, short, intriguing title will turn your writing into something to be admired, not avoided.

Add meat to the bones; the main body

Regardless of how you devise content, writing all starts with a skeleton (idea) that needs padding out with fleshy sentences and muscular description. When it comes to creating the bulk of your article it is better to break down into bite-size chunks rather than sieve through dense ideas.

Neck and torso;

Similar to the head (title), the neck and torso (introduction) hold all of the other ideas together. Whatever is written after this will be a reflection of what was initiated at this stage. How you develop these ideas is up to you, but remember; A limp frame will not be able to support anything that is added on to it causing it to crumble under the weight of under developed ideas. A strong, sturdy start will make for a strong and sturdy article.

SEO is all about gaining exposure making you the best at what you do. Without proving this in everything you do, not only will people not take you seriously, but the search engines aren’t likely to either.

Limbs;

Developing your ideas from what you have set out to discuss in your introduction will make your content far easier to write. If you don’t know where you’re going with your ideas, neither will your readers; resulting in people fleeing in horror.

Keep to the point that you set out to make within the title and introduction. Everything attached to your initial idea should follow through and not leave readers disappointed.

Organs:

Your heart should be in what you are writing. People can tell the difference between content that has been written out of choice and a piece that has been forced. Make all your work, work for you and you will reap the rewards in views, comments and tweets.

Your lungs should breathe fresh air into a topic not create a stale atmosphere with rewritten text. Make sure if content has already being covered that your make it your own and take on an angle that makes you piece stand out against other works.

Skin:

Wrap up your monstrous ideas within your conclusion, making it complete and ready to be sprung into life. The conclusion of any writing project should a pull everything together, completing the final piece and showing it in all its glory. All the bits and pieces used to create something new and interesting should all be finalised, anything left hanging around will not only frustrate your readers, but cause the whole piece to fall apart and seem disjointed.

Bringing Your Article To Life: Switch on the power.

Writing an article that is SEO friendly is all well and good, but sitting on your desktop will do nothing for your listings. It’s time to plug in and switch on and get that creation out there moving across the web. Submitting it to industry specific blogs, categories and exposing it on all forms of social media will make all the work worthwhile.

Don’t forget to link back to your website or blog and let readers know the inventor. If you’ve produced exciting and intriguing content, it will only spur you to keep creating and bringing words on a page to life.

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8 Ways Excel Can Help in Search Marketing (SEO & PPC)

Most of us who are into the search marketing industry have our own set of favorite tools that we cannot do without.  While I have never been a big fan of most of those so called SEO tools, there is one tool that I can never get enough of – you guessed it right, MS Excel.
This is probably the only tool that is equally relevant for SEO as well as PPC campaigns and is used in almost all the phases of the campaign. In this article I am trying to list some of the ways Excel can be used for SEO as well as PPC campaigns.
Use of Excel in SEO

1. Keyword Research:  The first step in any SEO campaign is keyword research and the use of  Excel starts right from there. It’s a fantastic tool to list all your keywords, classify them in smaller groups, note their stats ( competition, traffic etc ) and if you would like to calculate KEI (keyword Effectiveness Index) for your keywords, Excel does that too for you.
2. Keyword Mapping: While some SEOs might differ, I find this as an extremely crucial step where we basically plan out the entire campaign in respect to the different pages of the website and each keyword that are targeted to them. Again Excel is a great tool in creating an easy and clear map of the various keywords and the respective pages on website that they will be targeted at.
3. Link Building – No SEO campaign is complete without link building and Excel is probably the best way to build a database of your prospective link opportunities as well as to maintain a systematic list of all the links your site gets. A database of link prospects would probably have information like Website/Page URL, Niche, Page Rank, Outbound Links, Inbound Links, Type ( Directory, Article Directory, Review site, Blogs, Paid etc), Contact information. How detailed you want to make your database would depend entire on you. If you are a professional SEO like me, it is advisable that you maintain these databases with you even after your project gets over because you never know when you land up another project from the same/ related industry. You can then just use a simple Filter on your Excel File and pull out all the links that you have in any particular niche.
   When you are using Excel to keep an inventory of your links, besides the above points, you must include Anchor Text used for link, The URL to which the link goes. Putting them all together in an Excel allows you to check at any point how many links do you actually have for each keyword and to which page they point to.
4. Reporting – For most SEO projects clients insist on a ranking chart for their keywords and Excel here again is your friend. If you have some minimal understanding of Excel you can cook up some really nice charts showing the various keywords and their rankings and this can be further enhanced by retaining the historical data over the period of the campaign and plotting them on a graph. For those of you who are into a more advanced and holistic form of SEO, you would probably like to show some traffic data as well to your clients. Now that Google and most analytics tools offer an “Export to Excel” option, you can use that with some customization to create your own dashboards.

Use of Excel in PPC

1. Keyword Research : Though kind of similar to SEO, there are some major difference in keyword research for a PPC campaign compared to SEO, the first one being volume. PPC campaigns would typically have many more keywords than a SEO campaign and in this case Excel does not only help you to effectively list all the keywords and their statistics, so you can choose the most appropriate ones, but it does an awesome job in helping you segregate the keywords in relevant Campaigns and Ad groups, thereby helping you to plan your campaign structure. Hint: Filter by common seed words.
2. Creating Your Ad Copies: Most search engines have their own formats and character limitations for Ad Copies. While writing an ad copy is an absolutely creative job, it might become a little tedious to keep track of the character count of each and every line of your ad copies, specifically when you are working on bigger accounts with hundreds of ad copies. Use the LEN formula to make Excel count the characters in your ad copy. Also, you can actually use Conditional Formatting in Excel to ensure all ad copies that goes beyond your stipulated character limits gets marked in Red/ or color of your choice.
3. Upload Set up –For those of us managing big paid search accounts it often becomes too difficult to set up an account manually and in most cases you would end up using some tool like Adwords Editor ( For Google). All these tools allow you to create Excel files in specified formats and bulk upload to the search engine through their interface.
4. Performance Reports – Search marketing and particularly PPC provides very detailed information on the campaign performance and these data actually work as the foundation of improving and optimizing your campaigns. While most of these reports can be exported in Excel format for viewing there is much more that you can do with Excel on these. Particularly, Excel can work as a very handy tool when you are trying to combine data from multiple sources (Multiple search engines, DART or other ad serving systems etc ). Pivot tables are also a great help in crunching these data and creating other useful reports as per requirement. To learn more on this you can read my article about how Pivot tables can be used for SEM campaign. It is also often helpful and makes you look more impressive and professional when you serve your client reports with some fancy charts that you can create in Excel in a jiffy.

The points that I wrote above are just the tip of the iceberg, there is no limit to what you can do with Excel. In case some of you are already doing something cool with Excel to help your search marketing campaign, feel free to share with us in the comments. And if you have not yet started using Excel extensively for your campaigns, it is high time, you start using this wonderful search marketing tool.

 

source from:searchenginejournal.com

Latest SEO News and Tips

Social Media Gives Local Brands Home Field Advantage

Big brands have dominated advertising and traditional branding spaces for as long as advertising has existed. Their unthinkable marketing budgets have the ability to reach millions of potential customers in a single ad. But the tide is turning in the marketing world. While these large brands have embraced social media, they still have a distinct disadvantage at the local level.

Local brands have the flexibility to cater their social media campaigns directly to their local customer base, using the same tools that large brands are using to cover a wider audience. In addition, local tools and services are growing in popularity which are increasingly difficult for large brands to monitor and be involved with. Local businesses who take advantage of these tools can easily develop more meaningful customer relationships and create loyal customers and brand evangelists large brands cannot.
Twitter & Facebook

Services like Twitter & Facebook certainly have their appeal for keeping in touch with friends over long distances, but more and more, they’re being used as ways to network and meet up locally. For any local business owner this should be music to your ears!

It’s difficult for big brands to scale their social media efforts on the local level, particularly on Facebook and Twitter. Instead, they generally have one large account with a sometimes intimidating following. Because of this, however, local businesses have the advantage of being able to cater conversations to their local market, network in a much more focused way, and develop more meaningful campaigns that directly appeal to their local customers.

Sure, Starbucks’ may have nearly 12 Million Facebook fans and just short of 1 million followers on twitter, and they do a very good job of interacting with that network; But what they can’t do with these accounts is cater updates, specials, events, and conversations to a local audience. And for a business that relies 100% on local customers, that’s pretty important.
Geo-Local Services like Foursquare

Businesses that rely on local foot traffic who haven’t claimed their foursquare listing yet need to DO IT NOW. The geo-location service creates numerous opportunities for local businesses to connect with loyal customers and provide incentives for new ones to keep coming back. And much like Twitter & Facebook, it’s difficult for larger brands to monitor and customize all of their foursquare locations.

On top of this, for users, being mayor of a national chain isn’t quite as appealing as being mayor of the new local hot-spot everyone is talking about. Where would you rather be seen checking in? Sub-way, or that trendy sandwich shop everyone loves so much? Advantage: local brands.
Yelp & Review sites

Yelp is the most popular local business review site on the web today. But it’s not just about the reviews. They’ve provided a way for business owners to claim their listing and even respond to reviews (publicly or privately). Couple that with the ability to customize the business listing with pictures and compelling descriptions, yelp-like services provide opportunities for local businesses to communicate with customers in ways that most big brands are afraid to.

If you’re a member Yelp or another of one of these services, you already know: it’s not about the big brands. I mean, who bothers to read yelp reviews of McDonald’s or Friday’s? “Familiarity breeds contempt” as one review of a local Friday’s put it. “You do not walk into a chain restaurant expecting something different ” On the other hand: that restaurant that you drive by every day you’ve never been to? Yelp is the perfect place to find out how their food is and what their dining experience is all about. And I’m sure that business owner would jump at the opportunity to take an active role in that conversation. And as a local brand, doing so is that much easier.
Community Involvement

Forget the online community for one minute. I’m talking about local schools, clubs, events, local charities… the list goes on and on! Hosting, sponsoring, or simply participating in local community events is not only a great way to spread a brand locally, but is much easier to incorporate into an online social strategy for the little guys.

While larger brands may have deeper pockets to buy up the large sponsorship spaces at these events, that’s about as “involved” as they get. Local businesses can once again trump these big brands by showing what true community involvement is. Publicizing, attending (take pictures!), and even talking about an event after the fact will spark conversations, expand local networking efforts, and generally express what the local community means to their business.

A local (Albany, NY) example of this is Price Chopper, a relatively small grocery store brand when compared to a company like WalMart. And while they certainly don’t have the same marketing budget, PC is constantly involved in the local community in ways that WalMart never could…and it works!
Going Local

Local pride is not necessarily an untouched marketing tactic, but it’s certainly a powerful one. So when local business owners turn to the social web as a part of their marketing strategy, it’s a sure-fire way to separate themselves from the big brands that they never dreamed they could compete with….and win!
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4 Useful Twitter Bots for Marketers

The best thing about Twitter is the evolution of the concept. I feel too lucky to enter the Internet Marketing world at the right time – to be able to watch that evolution.
Yes, every (even great) idea can be abused and accompanied with spam: thousands of Twitter bots spamming people by sending them public replies and adding to friends are annoying. This post is not about those.
This post is about useful Twitter bots – it’s about creative approaches to everything, trying to get value from everything that comes to our world. It lists three very different in concept automated Twitter accounts that you, as a marketer, may greatly benefit from:

1. Keyword Position Tracking (in Google): TweetedRanks (new!)

If you are on Twitter 24 hours a day, why not use the tool to get updates about your Google rankings to Twitter?

Official website: Tweeted Ranks
What the bot does: Get a daily DM with your page Google position
Instructions:

• Create a free account
• Follow the bot on Twitter
• Add your keyword, page and the checking interval

Disclaimer: The bot has been developed by me for experimental and educational purposes. The project is non-commercial, feel free to play with the tool!

2. Hot News and Trends: CNN Breaking and MSNBC Breaking

Working all day around it is easy to miss important news – let the trending topics hit your Twitter stream.

What the bots do : Never miss some important news (most of the updates can be timely covered at your blog, especially with the proper angle)
Instructions: Just follow the accounts.
!Tip: if you follow many people and are afraid of missing breaking news, use Tweetdeck, Seesmic or Hootsuite to create a separate column to filter those updates.

3. Twitter Lists Tracking: Listwatcher

Do you want to watch which Twitter lists you are being added to, do you want to discover new communities you are entering and find new friends? Exactly!

What the bot does: the bot send you a DM if someone does something with list you are member of (add, delete, rename).
Instructions: Just follow the account and wait.

4. Event Management: GCal

Do you want to manage your events and meeting right from Twitter?

Official website: Twitter Cal
What the bot does: Record events on your Google Calendar by sending a bot a DM
Instructions:

• Register an account;
• Follow the bot on Twitter
• Grant access to your Google Account (via Google auth)
• Send DMs to a Twitter bot using the following format:

d gcal meeting with fred on monday, 25th of june at 9am

Another event managing bot: Remember The Milk

source from:searchenginejournal.com

Latest SEO News and Tips

Internet Marketing Interviews Galore

Some of the best tips, tricks, strategies, and tactics on the Web come from experts giving away great information in interviews. It is far more likely that an Internet marketing expert is going to give up some of their coveted information in an interview rather than a written blog post.

If you’ve ever been to an Internet marketing conference before then you’ll know that the most knowledge you’ll obtain is talking with and listening to the industry leaders over hearing their rudimentary 10-minute panel presentation.

With that said, I’d like to provide resources to some of the best interviews in the Internet marketing industry in relation to SEO, social media, conversion rate optimization, PR, and more.

Books

Online Marketing Heroes is a great book with interviews from 25 of some of the best Internet marketing experts in the industry.

Web 2.0 Heroes interviews thought leaders on the Web 2.0. With Web 2.0, organizations, marketers, application developers, and communicators must be ready to respond and to innovate or be left behind, and the experts featured in this book are leading the charge.

offers new insights by gathering the collected wisdom of the most influential marketing thinkers of our age, each of whom has given a structured interview. Covering a wide range of issues and illustrating concepts with cases of success and failure, these seminal dialogues offer a rare look at what made each master great – and a glimpse of the marketing future.

Videos

* Social Marketing Interviews – Brian Carter interviews leading social media marketing gurus.
* WebMarketingToday – Videos on Ecommerce and Internet Marketing
* Search Engine Strategies (SES) YouTube Channel – Interviews with SES speakers and experts.
* WebProNews – RSS feed of their interviews from speakers at every major Internet marketing conference.

Podcasts

* WebMasterRadio.FM – Podcast interviews with various Internet marketing industry leaders and topics.
* YourSEOMentor – Monday interviews. Garrett Pierson didn’t keep up with these every Monday but there’s still some oldies but goodies in there.

Articles

* Ruud Hein of Search Engine People – Ruud frequently questions gurus from around the Internet marketing sphere. With an advanced Google query you can find all of them here.
* AimClear – Marty Weintraub and his crew host their interviews here.
* Eric Enge – Some of the best interviews I’ve read have come from Eric Enge at Stone Temple. His most recent interview is here and you can click through all the other interviews on the right-hand sidebar.
* WordStream – Their interview series sheds light on multiple aspects of Internet marketing.
* Gab Goldenberg – Gab has his own category of interviews on his site, SEO ROI.
* SEOmoz – A site search on SEOmoz shows some of the most in-depth interviews around.
* Search Engine Land – Make no mistake that if there’s someone good to interview, SEL has the connections to get a good one from them.

Final Thoughts

These great tidbits usually come with weeding through a lot of fluff and small talk within the conversation though. I’d say it’s worth it to get at least one good takeaway from the conversation.
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Using Excel for SEO – the Grand Collection of Tips

You probably know that I am a big Excel fanatic (though not an expert). To me, Excel has always been the ultimate SEO and productivity tool.

I’ve been collecting Excel tutorials for years and this post lists the most useful (yet, the least geeky) of them: no matter which SEO task you have come across, chances are you’ll find one of the following tutorials handy:
1. Export Any Data to Excel

Any well-known keyword research or traffic analytics tool has the “Export-to-CSV” feature and a CSV file is easy to open in Excel – so converting your data into Excel shouldn’t be a problem.

If you still you need some examples, I did a post quite some time ago listing many ways to export your backlink data to Excel; for instance:

* With Yahoo! SiteExplorer you can export results to TSV file and open it as Excel;
* With Google Analytics you can save the report of referring domains (enhanced with plenty of browsing data per each linking domain: bounce rate, time spent on site; pages per visit, etc).
* You can export any search results that provide RSS feed to Google Spreadsheets using =ImportFeed(“feed URL”) formula and then save as Excel:


2. Excel for Keyword Research: a Pivot Table and a (Conditional) Formatting

1. Create a Pivot Table to easily Re-Arrange the Keywords

This post by Richard Baxter on creating a pivot table and a beautiful chart using Excel offers a step-by-step tutorial on how to re-organize your data to run various types of analysis. In short, the steps are as follows:

* Collect your data and create a Master table (more often than not, so to create your master table, you just need to export the required range of data from the tool you are using and open the file using Excel).
o If you are using several tools, you may want to combine the data in one table – this post on using VLOOKUP query will save your life!
* Create a Pivot Table on a new sheet: “Insert > PivotTable > PivotChart“ and choose your table to serve the basis of the Pivot table;
* Add axis fields, values, column labels and filters: The PivotTable Field List uses drag and drop functionality to enable you to populate those little white squares with values. As you add values, the table on the left begins to form.

A pivot table feature allows for plenty of data manipulation options that consequently offers a wide range of research types. Here’s another post giving a detailed tutorial on creating a pivot table and using it for keyword research – so if you still have any questions, refer to it to make things even clearer.

2. Use “Find and Replace” Feature to Visualize the Keyword Patterns

While a pivot table lets you re-arrange the data and create cool charts, conditional formatting allows you to visualize the data sets using different colors. I did a post once on finding your most frequent modifiers using Excel, and here are the steps:

* Use CTRL+F (“Find and Replace” feature);
* Click “Find and Replace” tab;
* Type the word you think may be frequently used with your core term,
* Click “Options” button;
* Choose to “replace with” format;
* Click “Patterns” tab;
* Choose the color you want to highlight the cell containing the word:
* Click OK and then “Replace All”;
* You should then see how many times the word was used, plus the cells containing it will be highlighted.


Read more: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/using-excel-for-seo-the-grand-collection-of-tips/23077/#ixzz0vkiz3eMA
A pivot table feature allows for plenty of data manipulation options that consequently offers a wide range of research types. Here’s another post giving a detailed tutorial on creating a pivot table and using it for keyword research – so if you still have any questions, refer to it to make things even clearer.

2. Use “Find and Replace” Feature to Visualize the Keyword Patterns

While a pivot table lets you re-arrange the data and create cool charts, conditional formatting allows you to visualize the data sets using different colors. I did a post once on finding your most frequent modifiers using Excel, and here are the steps:

* Use CTRL+F (“Find and Replace” feature);
* Click “Find and Replace” tab;
* Type the word you think may be frequently used with your core term,
* Click “Options” button;
* Choose to “replace with” format;
* Click “Patterns” tab;
* Choose the color you want to highlight the cell containing the word:
* Click OK and then “Replace All”;
* You should then see how many times the word was used, plus the cells containing it will be highlighted.


Conditional formatting works the similar way but it can be used to highlight the cells while you are creating the spreadsheet. For example, if you are using Excel to create and track your meta tags, conditional formatting can visualize meta tag character count. Simply use Red/Yellow/Green for good length and warning zones. This keeps you in a quick reference just out of the peripheral.

3. Use =VLOOKUP to compare and combine data exported from different sources:

This post on comparing Google Webmaster Tools Data with Google Analytics Data provides a detailed tutorial on how you can merge any type of statistics data: Keyword Rankings and Keyword Volume, Google Rankings data and Traffic data, Backlinks and Traffic Sources, etc:

3. Excel for Link Building: URL Manipulations

I use Excel for link building process tracking as well as for reporting. The basic “sorting” Excel feature (known by everyone, I guess) makes it much easier to re-arrange the data to find links on the same topic, with the same Google PR, etc.

This section looks at a bit more complex hacks: Excel formulas and tutorials for the URL manipulation.

1. Extract All URLs from the List of Linked Words

It happens very often that you have a list of linked words in Excel and you need to see the full address of each link. Extracting each address one by one is tedious. To automate the task, you will need to create a quick macro – don’t worry, here’s an instruction allowing even a very basic newbie to create one:

1. Open Visual Basic Editor (use ALT + F11 shortcut);
2. Navigate Insert -> Module to adds a module
3. Paste the code below
4. Close the Visual Basic Editor (use ALT + Q)

Sub ExtractHL()
Dim HL As Hyperlink
For Each HL In ActiveSheet.Hyperlinks
HL.Range.Offset(0, 1).Value = HL.Address
Next
End Sub

Now use the macro:

* Navigate Tools -> Macro -> Macros (or use ALT + F8 shortcut);
* Make sure “Extract HL” is chosen and click Run
* You are done! The macro will find each hyperlink in a worksheet, extract each one’s URL, and stick that URL in the cell directly to the right of the hyperlink.

2. Make the List of URLs Active

Another common case is: you export tons of data and end up with hundreds of unlinked URLs. You could go double-clicking on each to activate one by one but this will take too much time. Here’s a quick tutorial on how you can do that:

Repeat steps 1 to 4 from the above tip but use this code:

Sub MakeHyperlinks()
Dim cl As Range
For Each cl In Selection
cl.Hyperlinks.Add Anchor:=cl, Address:=cl.Text
Next cl
End Sub

Select the cells you want to turn into clickable links and Run the “MakeHyperlinks” macro (use the further tutorial from the above part).

Or just use this handy tool by SEOAtomatic: Activate Excel Links

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Don’t Put the Cart Before the SEO Horse

A lot of people like to dive into things without having a plan and strategy in place. SEO and Internet Marketing is no different. There are certain aspects of your web strategy that need to happen first before you can move forward with the other aspects. Depending on what it is, it can make or break your SEO and overall marketing efforts.
Start Spending Money/Resources on SEO Before Identifying Your Goals

Probably the most important and fundamental flaw you can have is to start optimizing your site without identifying your overall site/blog goals. You should be able to answer these questions before spending money and resources on your SEO strategy.

* Who are your primary readers/visitors?
* Where does your target audience live?
* What are your primary keywords?
* Who are the primary competitors?
* How will you delegate roles and responsibilities?
* How will you track your SEO efforts?

Focus on Content Creation Before Your Site is Indexable

Before you start spending lots of your time and resources creating awesome content, you need to make sure that content is properly getting indexed by the search engines. Regardless of how good your content is, if the search engines are not indexing it, you are significantly reducing the changes of your content being found.

* Use a search friendly navigation
* Inter-link your posts
* Submit a XML sitemap regularly
* Deep link your content

Building Links Before Creating Good Content

The foundation to building quality links is and always will be creating awesome content that people would want to link to. If you are trying to gain links to a site and the only thing people can find is “Buy Now”, why would someone link to you. Or if you are trying to build links by submitting to thousands of directories and dropping comments in forums, you are just build spammy and low-value links.

Advertisements Before Traffic

Without having traffic, there is no point in cluttering up your blog with lots of banners and advertisements that will just devalue your blog and its content. When your blog is first starting out, you should be focusing on doing everything you can to build credibility and authority. There is lots of debate about when is the appropriate time is to start adding advertisements to your site. Personally I think there will come a time during the life of your blog/site where people are reaching out to you for advice, asking about advertising opportunities, requesting that you guest blog on their site. Once those things start happening, you will have built the initial credibility with your audience and you can start bringing on advertisers.

Tell Success Stories Without Actually Doing Them First

Especially for SEO companies, if you are making up fake success stories and case studies to win business, your clients will quickly see the true colors of your company and fire you! If your product is suppose to fix a problem someone has, you will have nothing but a lot of angry people, if you don’t know for sure that it does what you say it does

Newsletter Sign-Up Before Creating Free Content

Of course you can also add a newsletter sign-up to your site, however why should someone sign-up? If you create a free piece of content like a Whitepaper or downloadable Webinar that you can offer in exchange for a newsletter sign-up, you will be able to build a list much faster.

Quit Your Day Job Before Your Blog is Making Money

Before you quit your day job to pursue your true passions, make sure you are making a steady income. You should have established some steady income from multiple revenue streams. The reason why I say multiple revenue streams is because what if you are gaining all of your sales from one organic phrase in Google? Then Google decides to pull the rug out from under you and you are nowhere to be found. There goes your main source of income! If you have various ways of making money from your blog, you won’t have to depend on just one revenue stream.

Latest SEO News

IM Charity Party at SES is Back!

A lot of things have changed in the search marketing industry over the last few years. With Search Engine Strategies leaving San Jose for San Francisco and the Google dance never coming back, you start to look for some stability a set place to party in August.

Well, IM Charity Party is back! Thanks to our amazing sponsors like Best of the Web, Salesforce CRM and We Build Pages, IM Charity Party will be hosting a rockstar event on August 18th from 8-11pm to benefit Charity Water, which provides potable water in developing regions. In case you aren’t already asking youreself “how can I go to this amazing event!” (which by the way, just donate here to do so) we are counting down the top 10 reasons to attend the event.

1. Networking with 300 of your closest friend is lot more fun than just stalking them on Twitter.
2. Not only does your $50 donation get you three hours of open bar and appetizers, but you are also providing 2 people with potable water for 20 years.
3. If you sign up for IM Charity Party before August 6th and register for SEMNE SF (Search Engine Marketers of San Francisco), you are entered to win a FREE pass to SES San Francisco.
4. You can listen to Greg Boser share battle stories from the early days of SEO and if you are lucky, he will even show you pictures of the cutest dog you’ve ever seen.
5. Learn the fastest way to build forms in WordPress from green marketing maven, Lorna Li.
6. Not only can you expense the donation, but with the largest congregation of search marketing experts speakers in one room, there is a pretty good chance you will learn something.
7. Debating privacy issues with Gray Wolf is more exciting than watching Real Housewives reruns in your hotel room.
8. Finally get to chat with Aaron Wall, Todd Malicoat and Todd Friesen.
9. Get the lowdown on the ultimate list of conversion optimization tools from Bryan Eisenberg and Tim Ash.
10. Did we mention it is one of the only open bar events at any search conference?

Event Details:

Where: Roe Restaurant and Lounge – 651 Howard Street(between 3rd and Hawthorne)

When: Wednesday August 18th from 8-11pm

Why: To raise money for Charity Water

How to get in: Donate $50 to Charity Water here!

Who: Anyone who wants to have a good time ,network and get a tax write off!
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What Makes a Good SEO Proposal?

I work as an in-house SEO for a company that has a good-sized website, just over 150,000 pages and growing. I’m one of few people in the company whose job it is to daily review our web stats, and suggest changes we need to implement. But with a site this big, it’s pretty daunting. After swallowing some pride, I was pleased to hear we had a company to consult with on larger projects so I could stay focused on other tasks.

Everything has been going okay so far, but I was curious as to how this particular company was selected. Luckily, in the process of moving offices, my boss stopped by my desk and dropped off a huge folder of files. As any employee would, I look up at him stunned and before I could say anything he said, “These are all the other consulting companies we considered previously. Take a a look at them and tell me what you think.” Eager to finally get a chance to look at how these were prepared, I agreed. After a few hours of sifting through thirty or so SEO Proposals (SEOPs) I was greatly surprised both in a good and bad way at the same time.

The format of the SEOPs was really similar to the request for proposals (RFPs) I would prepare for grants (I worked for a non-profit for a few years to help raise funds). The structure of your typical grant RFP followed the format below:

* Introduction
o Who are you and what’s your mission statement/purpose?
+ Brief company background info start-up to present.
o Why are you submitting this RFP?
* The Body
o What is your plan?
o How will you implement this?
o Who is involved?
o How will it be measured/evaluated?
* Recommendations
o Any client testimonials?
o Case studies?
o Supporting documents?
+ Research papers, etc.
* The Finances
o What does the budget look like?
o What costs are involved?
o Are there any unforeseen items that may affect these numbers?

There maybe a few sections here and there that differ and the order may vary, but surprisingly the two are similar. When I noticed this, I went back through a few of them again and started to separate the good proposals from the not-so-good ones. Here is what I found that tells a good SEOP from a bad one:
The Introduction

The Bad:

These SEOPs started off with explaining what SEO is and how it is useful to websites, which is fine if you’re talking to someone who has never heard of SEO. When it comes to sending a proposal to a company that has reached out to you about using your SEO services, they are already aware of what it is and its usefulness. There is no need to explain what it is to them.

The Good:

These SEOPs explained who the company is, stated their mission and explained their philosophy in regards to SEO. They did not explain SEO, they expressed their own opinions as to how it should be used and implemented. The philosophy of a company is huge to me. If I’m looking to hire a company to help me, our ideals on SEO should be similar. I’m not saying we will agree all the time, but knowing where a company stands on this is a big selling point. Sure, a company could lie just to get the client, but just like when a non-profit lies and the grant is taken away, consulting firms can be fired.
The Body

The Bad:

This is the trickiest part of the proposal for consulting firms. They’ve, hopefully, looked over the site and have some ideas on what to implement but they don’t want to give any “free advice” anyway. This is completely understandable. However, these proposals essentially transcribed a phone conversation. There needs to be some risk with this section. Not to say in detail what to do, but to say here is how your website is currently behaving. These sections were pretty vague, safe and lacked effort. Again I understand why not much detail is given, but if no risk is taken how will the potential client know you’re serious?

As a side note, I do think it is okay to reference articles that explain how certain processes work, i.e. domain changes. But when you do this I’d make sure you aren’t referencing an employee of your competition whose biography and place of employment is included in the article. Essentially you’ve just given a recommendation to a competitor.

The Good:

These companies. took. risk. They actually ran a few keyword ranking reports for terms we wanted to rank for, were ranking for and ones we needed to rank for that hadn’t been discussed. This showed a lot of work on their part and it also showed they were behaving in the manner that we were going to hire them anyway. I also got a sense of their work ethic from these good examples. Going above and beyond when no definitive contract had been signed conveyed they were serious about getting our business. Is it possible to get a client without taking this type of ”risk”? It absolutely is, but without risk the rewards are minimal at best.
Recommendations

The Bad:

If your only quotes from clients say, “They provided great service”, I’d either go look for more quotes or question how great your service really is. This is probably my own preference, but a quote like that is similar to that of a blog comment that says, “Great Post”. A statement like that doesn’t really make me want to call the company back and say “You’re hired!”. On top of that, the “case studies” are really nothing more than a one page document that states, “We did keyword research for client XYZ, analyzed their website and now their traffic has increased.”. Neither of these were really persuading me to want to hire or continue communication with this company.

The Good:

What I really liked wasn’t the fact that real names and companies were used (though that did help), but that the quotes were descriptive and you could tell thought had been put into it. These were quotes that were memorable and did not blend in with the rest. The case studies provided by these companies explained the condition of the site before hand and provided detail on how they went about analyzing the site. Lastly, rather than comment on the increased amount of traffic, a mention on the increase in conversions/sales was used.
Financials

The Bad:

The only way this section was messed up was when the companies gave no actual dollar amount and were very vague as to what the client would be paying for. Now, I’m not saying your prices should be listed like a menu from Burger King, but you should be able to let people know what they are getting for a rough estimate. If there are any extra services you provide that weren’t discussed list them here as well so everyone is aware. Nothing can taint the relationship like an unknown cost appearing out of nowhere.

The Good:

This section was kept simple and explained what the client was getting and what else was available for an estimated cost.
Overall

The Bad:

These SEOPs seemed pretty cut and paste. I’d imagine if you compared two proposals for different clients in different industries, they would read the same. So my question is, if no two websites are marketed the same why would the proposals be the same? During the initial call there should have been enough time to identify what the client’s concerns were and how they would be addressed.

The Good:

Unique, original and memorable are three words I’d use to describe these proposals. If these were cut and paste, then I was fooled, though I doubt it. To me it was pretty clear these companies took time to listen to the potential clients and tailored the SEOP to fit them. The impressive part was the company’s who not only listed the customer’s wants, but the ones that listed (in a polite manner) what the customer needs were.

There wasn’t a single company that hit every single area perfectly. What I believe it comes down to is the client. It’s about optimizing the SEOP to fit their needs and to persuade them to become a client. Think of it the same way your company optimizes websites. It isn’t about you, it’s about attracting them and getting the conversion.

I’d love to hear some thoughts on this from companies that send out SEOPs and those who have gotten them. What areas are more important to you and which are of least importance? Thanks for reading.
------------------------------------
AOL Overruled : Advertise.com vs. Advertising.com


Today a U.S. federal appeals court ruled that AOL Inc cannot stop Advertise.com Inc (known to many in the search industry as ABCSearch) from using a brand name similar to Advertising.com, an AOL property and decade old ad network.

This is a pretty interesting ruling, not only in the world of competitive advertising, as Advertise.com positions itself to be like Advertising.com, and the room for confusion is very wide. But also in the world of domaining and trademarks, as the ruling states that “Advertising.com” mark is generic enough not to warrant protection. Speaking from experience, it’s very tough to land a trademark ruling for a generic term (like “advertising” or “search engine journal”) as opposed to a unique name or brand (like “Ruffles” or “Google”).

More from Jonathan Stempel @ Reuters / Yahoo :

The term Advertising.com conveys “only the generic nature” of the services offered and that it is “certainly highly unlikely that consumer surveys or other evidence might ultimately demonstrate that AOL’s mark is valid and protectable.”

Have you ever gotten Advertising.com and Advertise.com mixed up?

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How to Win With Your SEM Agency

Hire an agency? Take it in-house? What’s the best way to ensure a successful approach to improve the online presence of your company? These decisions can be tough, and there isn’t just one right answer. Of course, coming from an agency myself, I would love to be able to say that agency relationships are always successful. Unfortunately they aren’t. Unsuccessful engagements can happen for a number of reasons, but a good agency understands that their success relies solely on your business and website’s success.

It goes without saying that there are tons of sketchy and inept SEO/SEM agencies out there. Some rely on black hat tactics that could result in penalties down the road, some try to intimidate their clients with technical jargon in order to avoid accountability, some don’t understand your business and some simply overcharge for their services. In addition, technology and binding contracts can keep clients feeling as if they’re being held hostage by their agency.

With that said, there are just as many competent and ethical agencies willing and able to help. But in order to provide top notch service and deliver results, there are a few things that can be done on the client side to ensure a successful relationship.

A Few Tips

1. Communicate Objectives: besides increasing traffic, what do you really need? Have you identified your key performance indicators (KPIs)? It sounds obvious, but more visits aren’t necessarily going to impact your bottom line. What are the specific actions (conversions) you want visitors to take once they get to your site? What are the conversions that are most profitable? What is your lifetime customer value? What are your goals in terms of cost per acquisition?
2. Understand Resource Limitations: realistically, what are the resource limitations you are likely to face in undergoing optimization efforts? It’s important to understand what you’re up against so expectations can be set internally. From my experience, higher-ups are always eager to know if SEO “really works” but if it’s not communicated that additional resources will need to be applied, you might face disappointment and frustration within your organization. These limitations typically fall into three categories
–
1. Technical: will your CMS or ecommerce database impede the ability to implement SEO best practices?

2. Human: do you have people to write content, make site changes, champion results, etc?

3. Financial: do you have the financial resources to dedicate to paid search? To transition to a new CMS? To hire new folks?

3. Provide Data: I know you have it somewhere. SEO’s love data. Almost everything in the online world can be measured and tied to ROI, so provide all relevant revenue data. Even offering offline data to better understand if a dip in online revenue is due to a site performance issue or if this is a larger, company or industry wide problem or trend.

4. Personality Fit: make sure you like the people you’re going to work with. It’s critical to be on the same page with both the agency (think corporate values) but also with your account manager (communication style, for example). Furthermore, choosing an agency with that additional value add in terms of strategic partnerships and ability to connect with prospective customers, press coverage and speaking opportunities will help to further a successful engagement beyond the realm of SEO related progress.

5. Educate Yourself: don’t just take your agency’s word for it. Attend webinars and conferences, read industry blogs, and informational articles on sites such as SEOmoz, etc. Developing a deeper understanding of how specific practices will impact your business will take your efforts to the next level.

source from:searchenginejournal.com

Latest SEO Tips and guide

How to Win With Your SEM Agency

Hire an agency? Take it in-house? What’s the best way to ensure a successful approach to improve the online presence of your company? These decisions can be tough, and there isn’t just one right answer. Of course, coming from an agency myself, I would love to be able to say that agency relationships are always successful. Unfortunately they aren’t. Unsuccessful engagements can happen for a number of reasons, but a good agency understands that their success relies solely on your business and website’s success.

It goes without saying that there are tons of sketchy and inept SEO/SEM agencies out there. Some rely on black hat tactics that could result in penalties down the road, some try to intimidate their clients with technical jargon in order to avoid accountability, some don’t understand your business and some simply overcharge for their services. In addition, technology and binding contracts can keep clients feeling as if they’re being held hostage by their agency.

With that said, there are just as many competent and ethical agencies willing and able to help. But in order to provide top notch service and deliver results, there are a few things that can be done on the client side to ensure a successful relationship.

A Few Tips

1. Communicate Objectives: besides increasing traffic, what do you really need? Have you identified your key performance indicators (KPIs)? It sounds obvious, but more visits aren’t necessarily going to impact your bottom line. What are the specific actions (conversions) you want visitors to take once they get to your site? What are the conversions that are most profitable? What is your lifetime customer value? What are your goals in terms of cost per acquisition?
2. Understand Resource Limitations: realistically, what are the resource limitations you are likely to face in undergoing optimization efforts? It’s important to understand what you’re up against so expectations can be set internally. From my experience, higher-ups are always eager to know if SEO “really works” but if it’s not communicated that additional resources will need to be applied, you might face disappointment and frustration within your organization. These limitations typically fall into three categories –
1. Technical: will your CMS or ecommerce database impede the ability to implement SEO best practices?

2. Human: do you have people to write content, make site changes, champion results, etc?

3. Financial: do you have the financial resources to dedicate to paid search? To transition to a new CMS? To hire new folks?
3. Provide Data: I know you have it somewhere. SEO’s love data. Almost everything in the online world can be measured and tied to ROI, so provide all relevant revenue data. Even offering offline data to better understand if a dip in online revenue is due to a site performance issue or if this is a larger, company or industry wide problem or trend.

4. Personality Fit: make sure you like the people you’re going to work with. It’s critical to be on the same page with both the agency (think corporate values) but also with your account manager (communication style, for example). Furthermore, choosing an agency with that additional value add in terms of strategic partnerships and ability to connect with prospective customers, press coverage and speaking opportunities will help to further a successful engagement beyond the realm of SEO related progress.

5. Educate Yourself: don’t just take your agency’s word for it. Attend webinars and conferences, read industry blogs, and informational articles on sites such as SEOmoz, etc. Developing a deeper understanding of how specific practices will impact your business will take your efforts to the next level.
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How To: Use Social Media to Get a Job

I graduated from college about two months ago. With unemployment rates through the roof, I was scared to be out in the real world. But thanks to social media, I landed a job in no time. If you’re utilizing social media to brand yourself (and you should be!), follow these tips to ensure success in your job search.
Tweet, Tweet, Tweet

Twitter is a great resource for job searches, not only because of the great keyword search functionality, but also because you can easily form connections with others in your industry across the world. The first thing you must do is complete your profile. Make sure you have a photo, link to your blog or another social networking site (perhaps LinkedIn) and a bio.

Then comes the fun part! Connect with friends and others in your niche. Do a Twitter search for keywords that pertain to the industry you are looking to work on. There are many job recruiters on Twitter who post jobs daily, so follow and converse with them. Also, if you tweet about your job search, you may come up in others’ searches for certain keywords. The people who find your tweets may be able to help you out!
Take Advantage of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional social network that gives you the opportunity to put your resume online. Your profile is searchable by recruiters and companies, and then those people are able to message you to inquire more information. More and more companies are beginning to use LinkedIn to search for future employees.

To get the best results, be sure to request recommendations from previous employers and people you have worked with. This is a surefire way for prospective employers to know what kind of worker you are. Also, there are many niche groups you can join on LinkedIn that will post job opportunities available in the field.
Fix up your Facebook

Facebook is undoubtedly the largest social network in the world. If you have a Facebook profile, make sure you do not have anything on there that you wouldn’t want a future employer to see. If you have photos that could be considered inappropriate, you should take them off your profile. But there is more than just censoring your photos to making your Facebook profile foolproof. An online recruitment site posted their top ten turn-offs found on social networking sites, which include:

1. References to drug abuse
2. Extremist / intolerant views, including racism, sexism
3. Criminal activity
4. Evidence of excessive alcohol consumption
5. Inappropriate pictures, including nudity
6. Foul language
7. Links to unsuitable websites
8. Lewd jokes
9. Silly email addresses
10. Membership of pointless / silly groups

Begin a Blog

Setting up a blog and discussing topics in your niche will not only help you connect with others interested in the same topics, but it can help you get noticed by industry experts. Show your readers that you care about what is going on in your industry by carefully researching topics and writing thoughtful posts. Also, you can add a page on your blog dedicated to your resume with contact information and even a photo.

Once you’re up and posting, research other blogs in the industry you’re looking to work in and actively participate. Start up a conversation by submitting a comment about a post that interests you. Also, if other blogs you read allow contributors offer to write a post about something you are an expert to further brand your name.

What tips do you have for using social media to find a job?

SEO Tips and Guide

6 Ways to Increase Your Influence and Persuasion

Working in today’s niche markets, we all want to know if there’s a magic bullet. Is there a way to influence your buyers, clients, fans and/or Twitter followers to do what you want them to do? With so many tools to use, decisions have to be made about which shortcuts to take. However, several studies resulted in somewhat unusual findings on what persuades people to act.
The Art of Online Persuasion in 5 Easy Steps

1. Give, give, then give some more.

It should be no surprise that people are more likely to do something for you if you’ve done something for them first. Think about this in your everyday life. Aren’t you more willing to help your neighbor with moving some shrubs if they helped you with your yard work previously? How about when someone asks you to RT or Like something on your Twitter feed or Facebook? It’s human nature.

We all want to be liked and will do nice things to help our fellow man, but we all want our fellow man to do something nice for us, too. Give a lot, and get at least a little back. When you make a request, however, personalize it. Personalized requests are the most persuasive and bring the best response.

2. Offer fewer options.

Too many choices scare people; not everyone is a cut-and-dry decision maker. I’m guilty of giving too many choices, but have learned to curb my offers. The truth of the matter is if you give too many choices people get confused, frustrated and eventually give up; they can’t make up their minds. Offering fewer choices lessens the frustration of trying to figure out which option is best. Studies show that companies offering fewer choices have better conversion rates that those with a large number of options.

3. Build social proof.

Although we say, “don’t talk about yourself”, social proof is not the same. Social proof is a conglomerate of information. For instance, consider your reaction when you see someone with 10,000 Twitter follower, 1500 blog subscribers, 100,000 YouTube views, etc. Our initial response to these numbers is “Wow! They’re hot stuff!” We go look – because we want to know what it is about these people that makes them “hot stuff”.

So, build social proof. Create value for others; write guest posts, share information, interview industry authors, etc. Concentrate on the social media users running in your own arena; these individuals will help you build the most social proof.

4. Build trust.

Social networking – it’s about the people you’re networking with, not you. People need to trust that you aren’t looking for self-promotion. A compliment is always better – and more believable – coming from clients and friends rather than yourself. Otherwise, it just sounds like bragging. Trust is critical to persuading people to act.

How do you build trust? First and foremost, be honest. Now, this doesn’t mean you spill the whole history of your product or service from back in the day. What it does mean, however, is that you share a small flaw in yourself, your product or business. Immediately after, follow with your best strengths.

5. Share the benefits – sort of.

Rather than tell them what they’ll get if they buy your product or service, talk to your audience about what they may lose. Studies have shown that one of the best ways of persuading people to act is by causing them to miss the product/service before they even pay for it.

6. Give them a goal to reach.

Turn your offer into an attainable goal, and then help them on the way to attaining it. For instance, “Introduce 10 friends to our online magazine and get a free subscription – we’ll start you off with two credits, so you only have 8 to go!”

The art of persuasion is a science, capable of being studied, quantified and qualified. This means that pretty much anyone can be persuasive if they study the formula and rules. Learning the formula and following the rules can help you become more persuasive and influential.
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The Top 11 SEO Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them) …AKA STOP THE MADNESS!

I know, I know, it’s all been said and done, but I went the extra mile and am giving you not just 10 mistakes but 11 mistakes! Mistakes that people are making every single day, over and over again. It’s worth repeating until we stop the madness.

Here we go…

Mistake Number One: Not optimizing your site

Solution: Optimize your site! J I know it’s pretty basic but it’s amazing how many people say “Why am I not ranked on top of the engines” and when you start asking questions you find out they never optimized their site or worked on link building. People seem to resent having to pay for SEO (don’t get me wrong, if you have skills and time you can most definitely do it yourself – but you can’t fool yourself – you have to really have the knowledge and skills and make the time). But you have to remember, building a site and not promoting it (through SEO, social media, PPC and all the various methods out there) is the same as opening a store on a street no one ever walks or drives down and then keeping the lights off, not having a sign and putting paper over the windows. No one knows it’s there.

Mistake Number Two: Not doing proper keyword research and ignoring longtail opportunities.

Solution: Be thorough in your research, don’t just do it once and forget it. Use as many tools as you can get your hands on – look at web stats and look at the logs for the search feature on your site – get a feel for what people are looking for. The keywords you choose are the foundation of your campaign and will determine your success. If your phrases are all way too competitive, it’ll take too long to get results and you’ll struggle in the interim. If your phrases are all too generic, you aren’t going to have good conversions. You want a balance of phrases that cover totally targeted to a little broader (check out my article on SearchEngineJournal for more details on keyword research: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-foundation-of-a-success-seo-campaign-keyword-research/22770/ )

Mistake Number Three: Ignoring local. You’re loco if you don’t do local!

Solution: Make sure your site is listed in the relevant local engines/directories. Make sure your site is optimized for mobile!

In April, comScore reported that mobile searches had skyrocketed by 90%.

Compete’s first-quarter 2010 study finds that consumers rely more and more on their smartphone devices (iPhone, Droid, Blackberry etc) to search for retailers and other local businesses.

According to Compete, 1 out of 3 smartphone users have been led to a local business after finding in through local mobile search. Danielle Nohe, director, technology and entertainment for Compete, is calling on local businesses to optimize their sites for mobile/smartphone users.

Mistake Number Four: Spamming, keyword stuffing, setting up link farms and all other forms of nefarious Blackhat deeds.

Solution: While adding a bunch of keywords to a page may have gotten rankings way back in the day, that is no longer the case. The engines don’t like blatant keywords stuffing; site visitors don’t like blatant keyword stuffing in articles or site pages. I don’t like blatant keyword stuffing in articles or site content. Blatant keyword stuffing is not something you should do, because blatant keyword stuffing is bad. You may notice when you write pages that have blatant keyword stuffing, your pages don’t read well. So notice to all the blatant keyword stuffers – blatant keyword stuffing doesn’t work so please stop all blatant keyword stuffing immediately! J (If that didn’t disturb you to read, your Black hat is probably on a little too tight – try removing it and reading again, you’ll notice it was horrendous) There are various other forms of evil Black Hattery other than just blatant keyword stuffing – my best advice to you is avoid it all. Focus on adding good content that naturally uses your keywords, focus on adding new content and attracting links to that content and also focus on social media to spread content and drive traffic and links – do all that and you’ll be just fine.

Mistake Number Five: Template websites, Site Builders, Freebie websites that are already optimized .

Solution: While I certainly understand that not everyone is a web designer and not everyone has the budget to hire a jazzy web designer, getting a site that is a template and inherently not friendly to the search engines isn’t saving you anything. You may have paid very little to get it, but you aren’t going to be able to drive traffic to it. (Of course I am assuming that aforementioned traffic is the goal of the site. If you want a site you are manually driving traffic to via other ads and marketing campaigns, and not one that you need optimized so you can tap into all the “street” traffic out there then a template site would be fine). If you need a low cost solution, search for templates that are SEO friendly, or better yet, just go with a WordPress Blog – once you get it installed you can work with adding content and images and won’t need a web designer.

Mistake Number Six: Not adding unique content

Solution: If you want to create a site that is rich in content and a popular resource amongst internet surfers, then adding quality, unique content is a must. Sure, the search engines like it too. It shows them your site is worthy of being ranked because it’s actively growing with information related to the theme of your site. Please note I said a couple important words: quality and unique. Don’t get me wrong, reposting other people’s content (with the appropriate link and credit to them) is a great way to share information with your site visitors and I’m all for it. But if your site is nothing but aggregated content from other sources, you won’t do as well. If you do post other people’s content, start or end it with your take on the info. Offer some insight and opinion and feedback. It makes it much more interesting for the site visitors and it creates a reason for them to come back to your site – they should be waiting with baited breath to see what you are going to say next.

Mistake Number Seven: Going cheap!

Solution: “You get what you pay for” is a phrase that has lasted the ages for a reason. It’s true! So often I see people falling for cheaper SEO services or even worse: mass submissions to hundreds of sites and they are so happy because they are paying so little. But in most cases, that small monthly fee adds up over time and you really aren’t getting any results from it, so you may as well burn that money. Spending wisely and price shopping is never bad but going cheap rarely pays off. My suggestion: be frugal but wise.

Mistake Number Eight: Using mass submission software.

Solution: I alluded to this in number seven but it’s worth repeating. Mass submission to hundreds or thousands of engines will NOT get your site on top. ‘Nuff said.

Mistake Number Nine: Ignoring social media/networking (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blog etc)

Solution: SEO and social media are interconnected in a way that many people don’t want to admit or acknowledge. Social media is not just a passing trend that is a distraction from “real work” – social media does impact SEO and it can increase exposure and traffic for your site. You don’t have to like it, but you do have to do it (if you care about keeping your site on the forefront). If it’s overwhelming, start with getting a killer Facebook Fan Page up and work on building fans, and then introduce Twitter and then move on to YouTube. It’s OK to do it in stages, just make sure you are working towards social media mastery.

Mistake Number Ten: Not staying current on changes in the industry.

Solution: Search engines and social media sites make changes often. Staying current is important for many reasons: you want to be sure your site is cutting edge and taking advantage of all strategies and techniques that are proven to work, you also want to make sure you aren’t wasting your time on old school stuff that doesn’t work. SearchEngineJournal is a great place to stay current and hear all the latest and greatest!

Mistake Number Eleven: Jumping on the bandwagon of every single trend that crops up.

SEO is really pretty basic and simple – stick to the evergreen and you are good to go.

Solution: I know, I know, first I said stay current, new strategies are good and then I said don’t jump on every new trends that pops up. So lemme clarify….staying current and hearing about the trends is important but using your intelligence and common sense to determine which of the new strategies are worth trying is vitally important. Always question the reason behind a new strategy. If it seems based in trickery and not something that will likely last, you probably want to avoid it.

There are actually so many more mistakes but I’m going to see what you guys have to say for now and I’ll be back with more soon! Be sure to share your questions and comments and add the mistakes you see people making. Together we can stop the madness!
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What to Look For in a Link Builder

What kinds of people make the best link builders? Well, that’s as hard to define as what kinds of people make the best leaders or parents or circus clowns. Because really, that answer is going to depend entirely on who you talk to and what kind of link building you want done.

I’m sure there are people who prefer semi-lobotomized drones that can cut and paste, and don’t ask questions. But I respectfully disagree with that philosophy. I believe the great link builders are motivated by the thrill of the hunt and the rush of the score. They find honest satisfaction in getting quality links for a site, knowing that the work they have done will make a difference. Everything else is just dangling carrots.

The idea for this post was actually inspired from a comment on last month’s column asking what I recommend looking for in link builders. Trying to answer the question in one paragraph was tough, so I decided to give it an entire article.
SEO Vs Marketer

I am certainly not the first to delve into this topic. A long time ago I read a post from Rae Hoffman, and in it she says “I don’t hire link developers… I hire Marketing Specialists in the rough.” I love that. If you are looking to hire link builders this is must-read. Even more recently, here on SEJ Ben McKay gives “Homage to the business of link building” asking the only question older than the chicken or the egg quandary: are link builders SEOs? For me, I think the answer is somewhere in the middle.

Link building is part of a bigger SEO machine and also part of a marketing campaign. That sort of departmental ambiguity makes it hard for people to determine exactly where to place their link builders. The problem is if you think only about links from a technical perspective, you are really missing the point. Links are votes; you want to be voted prom queen because people like you, not because you stuffed the ballot box. Of course if you completely neglect the technical aspects of link building you can miss opportunities to leverage your links into something really powerful. I often find that my favorite link builders are those that manage to find a balance of both.
SEO + Marketer = :)

That’s why I think the most important thing to look for in a link builder is someone who understands the big picture. I know that’s kind of vague. But the best link builders truly “get” how links fit into helping a website on all levels. In a heart beat, they can distinguish a great link from a mediocre link. They ignore the easy ones that will only serve to pollute a link profile. They know how to turn a no into a yes, how far to go and when to cut their losses. Link builders of this breed have an understanding of why links are or aren’t given. It’s that insight that drives them to just “know” what fits where and how to appeal to people. Your link builder should find perpetual inspiration in their cyber-travels. If you have a link builder who seems to be constantly saying the words “I have an idea” unless the next words have something to do with training goats to drive go-carts, then you’ve probably got a keeper.

Here is a short list of some of the other skills I find make for particularly strong link builders:

Creativity – People who are creative see unique angles, and possibilities. A link builder who can innovate on the spot is a real asset.

Resourcefulness – It’s nice to have little link building MacGyver’s running around. They’re the guys who can make links out of two nail files and a pair of salad tongs. It’s always beneficial to have someone on staff that is bounding over obstacles and creating windows when the doors are bolted.

Keyword/computer skills – This is just straight up logistics. People that can type fast, know their keyboard short-cuts and can maneuver around the screen at a rapid pace are generally strong contenders for any computer based jobs. Link building is no different. It also helps if someone can scan a web page quickly, whether it’s written content or search results. Oh and smart searching skills are pretty handy too.

Personality – Do you really MEAN that winky face or is it just perfunctory? Sometimes it shows. To me, this is another major area that separates the best from the bots. Ingratiating yourself to someone over the web is a challenge. People with bigger than life personalities can’t help but have that spill over into everything they do, including talking to people about links.

Communication Skills – Speaking of talking to people about links, communication skills are among the most important talents a link builder can have. If someone can write well and speak articulately, you have a winner. Sometimes sheer quality of writing can make the difference between no links and all the links you’ll ever need.

An instinct for reading people – Link building is the sort of a job where the ability to “read” people, even through a computer screen, is a highly valuable skill. A link builder who “just knows” how to approach someone, what to pitch them and how to develop the relationship, is pretty much priceless.

There are a ton of other qualities that can be valuable, like patience, adaptability and a thick skin. But what is the ultimate link building skill?

Leadership. – Imagine having someone who has all of the skills above AND the ability to train and bring out the best in others. Give them a cookie. Give them a raise. Give them a summer house in Cabo, but whatever you do, don’t let them go.

Finding the best link builders really does come down to the results you want and the kinds of people you value. Personally, I like thinkers, because it’s the thinkers that are changing the world and revolutionizing the industry every day. Someone who is smart and really “gets” both the SEO and the marketing sides of link building is truly unstoppable.

source from:searchenginejournal.com