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.
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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
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