Cleaning up the SEO Cesspool

Boy, don’t you just love to hate my article titles?  I know this topic has been discussed numerous times. Seriously though – for all the short term talk that happens every time we take a hit from someone who gives our industry a bad rap, we’ve never yet come to a clear consensus as an industry on how to properly deal with the ramifications.  I for one think it’s time we find a way to address it.  And I have a proposal on how we can work towards such a seemingly impossible goal… The SEO

5 Reasons to Learn Social Media

Have you ever noticed how many bloggers and social media marketers just tell people that they should go out try social media? How you shouldn’t worry about learning social it? That you’ll learn it on the fly and everything will be fine. Well, I’m not one of those. It’s absolutely in your best interest to learn the basics of social media before risking your time and money. Jumping into social media without at least learning the basics could be a major disaster. It probably won’t ruin your company. It probably won’t ruin you. But it will be a waste of time. Why do I say that? Well an understanding of social media theory and fundamentals makes your strategy better. How, you ask? Well… 1. It Helps You Create a Starting and End Point Taking the time to learn social media fundamentals gives you a starting point. It helps you decide where you are and hopefully where you should go. If you don’t learn what the marketing technique is, how will you know what it’s capable of? How can you create goals and work towards them? Taking the time to explore social media and soak up as much information as possible gives you a better understanding of what social media can do and how to create a plan. 2. Knowledge Leads to Fewer Mistakes On social media, a misstep can spread just as fast as a good campaign and consumers can be less than forgiving. Learning how to interact and promote a business shouldn’t endanger the brand. Start with baby steps. Minimize the likelihood of something to go wrong. Learn as much as you can about web culture and online customer service. Online consumers expect something much different than offline customers. You should know how to deliver it. 3. Experience Comes With Time – Who Has the Time? Remember the common phrase, “don’t reinvent the wheel?” – Well don’t do it. Marketers have been testing and exploring social media theories and sharing them online. Why would you want to go through that powerful information and have to learn it on your own? You can test and explore and research your content, but we know that more often than not list posts go viral. There’s no need for you to take the time to test and explore that. Take advantage of other’s experiences to bolster your marketing. Don’t try to recreate or “re-find” what others have already shown works. Save your time for actual marketing. 4. Learning Keeps You From Getting Frustrated Think back to your childhood. If you’re anything like me, than math class was a horror. I’d sit there trying to do a problem and just not knowing how. After a few minutes of trying, I’d get frustrated and give up. It wasn’t until someone taught me what to do and explained to me why it is that way that I began to enjoy math. Social media is the same way. There are fundamentals and there are strategies that you should know and understand. Don’t allow frustration lead to you giving up. We know social media is a powerful marketing tool. Don’t let it go. 5. How Are You Investing In Something You Know Little About? It all comes down to money. How are you supposed to decide how much to invest in social media if you don’t know what it can do? Learn what you’ll need to invest, both time and money, before throwing resources at it. Have a plan and create a budget. This will help increase the likelihood of success. Information is key. To have a positive social media strategy you need to know as much as possible. That means both in regards to social media knowledge as well as strategies and fundamentals. How are others in your industry doing? Why did their campaigns work? How can you recreate their success without copying them verbatim? Is social media for you? If you don’t understand these fundamentals or have this information you’re marketing with a disadvantage. I’d love to know what you think. How are you learning social media? Where do you go for research and strategies? Are you learning from example or creating your own ideas? Check out Samir Balwani’s new social media guide at Training Social , a resource for anyone interested in learning social media marketing. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . 5 Reasons to Learn Social

Chris Henry Rashomon’d By Google Real Time Search

“I mean, what are they gonna say about him, when he’s gone, huh? What are they gonna say? Are they gonna say “he was a kind man”? “He was a wise man”? “He had plans”; “He had wisdom”? Bullsh**, man! What are they gonna do when he’s gone? … Am I gonna set them straight, NO…” Dennis Hopper, Apocalypse Now I first heard about the really sad news concerning Chris Henry from Twitter and like a billion other people, googled his name to find out the latest news about him. Sure enough, Google was featuring real time results on Chris Henry SERPS since this qualified as a hot “Breaking News Story”. Now plenty of folks in our industry such as Lisa Barone , Rae Hoffman & Michael Gray were pretty down on this latest Google Initiative…I didn’t necessarily agree but I also hadn’t paid as much attention to the issue as them. However, when the Chris Henry tragedy hit, I really had a chance to evaluate Google’s offering in “optimum” conditions. I have to say that I was impressed… No, I wasn’t just a little impressed…I was impressed to the level as if I were seeing John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Leroy Vinnegar & Buddy Rich jamming together on the same celestial bandstand in the sky. I’ve scarcely seen anything more impressive online than what I viewed (and I suspect the real time results will only to get better). Google’s Real Time SERPS brought the immense disjointed conversation surrounding the Chris Henry story into an easily digestible extremely compelling flow that anyone could follow just by watching them scroll…and that is one heck of an accomplishment. In the relatively brief time I monitored the Real Time SERPS, here are some of the things that I saw: Major News Sources like CNN, ESPN & TMZ reporting the breaking news (of which the details weren’t always consistent). Local News Sources & Football Blogs also reporting the news. Fake News Sources reporting erroneous news (and real news sources exposing the fakes). Teammate Chad OchoCinco tweeting multiple times in anguish and other athletes like Nick Barnett who learned of the news on Twitter expressing their sadness. Expressions of sorrow from random people in the Twitterverse. Multiple people attempting to compare Henry to Tiger Woods in some manner…usually via lame attempts at humor. Friends @topheratl commenting on the story & @dr_pete answering one of my tweets about Google’s SERPS. Some spam but not enough to detract from the flow of information. The spam was no more noticeable than the ripples made by skipping a stone across a pond…slightly visible for a brief moment before vanishing for good. Each entry in the Real Time SERPS contained a different perspective on the Chris Henry story and taken together brought forth a flow of information that was as close to the “ultimate truth” as we could possibly get at that moment in time. You see, it wasn’t that long ago that I wrote a post titled “ Search as a Narrative ” (which was a rewrite of another post ) where I argued that the act of using a search engine and examining the results it returns is, in effect, creating a narrative in the mind of the searcher based upon the information shown and how that information is perceived. Google’s Real Time SERPS algorithmically brought a narrative of the story directly to the searcher without the searcher doing any work…all they needed to do is sit and watch the results scroll by (clicking on any results if they wished) and perceive the story in their own personal way. Kurosawa’s Rashomon offers the lesson that relationship of a person telling a story to its action can greatly impact that person’s current perspective and future communication of the story. To best approach the actuality of “ultimate truth”, all available perspectives must be brought together as seamlessly as possible. Google’s Real Time Search gives searchers a super-mega-amphetamine Rashomon-like perspective of breaking news…a seemingly infinite number of viewpoints culled down to representative views from trusted sources reflective of the whole. These real-time SERPS show amazingly vibrancy compared to their static counterparts. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Chris Henry Rashomon’d By Google Real Time

Do You Have “Linkable Content”?

You know the great thing about Antiques Roadshow? Aside from finding out that grandma’s ugly ceramic cat collection can actually bankroll a Caribbean cruise. It’s the idea that maybe; just maybe somewhere in our lives there are things that, with a little bit of lemon pledge and a new coat of paint, could actually become highly valuable. The same thing might be true of your website. The idea of creating great content for links isn’t new; Eric Ward was defining linkable content 8 years ago. More recently, Garrett French made a killer blue print for how to conceive, create and promote linkable content . Moreover, on Search Engine Journal, Loren Baker has educated readers on the importance of building natural links to interesting and relevant content & Ann Smarty has written about attracting links with HOW TO content . So why are there so many sites that still aren’t buying in? Maybe the idea of creating a library or searchable database is too daunting? Maybe in-depth research coupled with the time and effort required to create and market great content just seems like too much work. But unless a site features a billion-dollar brand name, funny pictures of cats or the contents of Lindsey’s Lohan’s trash, people probably aren’t throwing links at it.  So what’s a small commercial site to do? I say, grab a dust rag, head into the basement and see what you already have that, with a few creative modifications, can be turned into something brand new. 1. Product

Weekly Search & Social News: 12/15/09

Welcome to another edition of ‘ 7 Days of Search and Social ‘ – Well, maybe it’s the holidays or maybe it was SES, but the world was a little quieter than usual last week. But that’s no problem as the behemoth that is Google put out (yet another?) big announcement/roll-out with Real Time Search. That was enough to feed the savages on its own. Other than that, it was busiest in the Local SEO world and well… if you aren’t on your game with local… Get on it! Enough rambling, let’s get to it.

Three Pages from the Same Domain in Google SERPs?

Andy Beal tweeted yesterday how he saw an interesting find. Google displaying THREE subpages in the SERPs. For as long as I can recall, Google had a rule that they wouldn’t ever display more than two pages out of fairness. So when I read Andy’s tweet, I went right to Google and sure enough, I found the same thing. but only when I put in a brand along with an additional keyword. I haven’t been able to replicate this with any generic phrases after several attempts, only when it’s with a brand. If that’s the case, will this lead to another uproar about unfair treatment of brands over other sites? Or is it a portent to an expansion of results to non-brand sites? And if so, what will the criteria be then? Rob Enriquez then chimed in on Twitter that he saw this back in October, for a city hall search . Wow. October? Where’s the buzz in our industry on this? With what seems to now be rapid-fire changes to the results, (most recently the site hierarchy update ) it’s a whole new ballgame for SEO. Snippets, Breadcrumbs, Microformats, and now this, as yet to be announced or fully understood triple hit in the SERPs for brands. Alan Bleiweiss has been an Internet professional since 1995. Just a few of his earliest clients included PCH.com, WeightWatchers.com and Starkist.com. Follow him on Twitter @AlanBleiweiss , read his blog at Search Marketing Wisdom . Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Three Pages from the Same Domain in Google

Marketing Your Business on the Internet

by Ethan O. Tanner This constitutes a super complex question to reply to as on that point are numerous complex elements involved. Specifically the methods you apply in your World Wide Web merchandising campaign in addition to the finishing of these methods can check whether or not World Wide Web merchandising will work for your business enterprise. In addition, the likeliness of your objective audience using the World Wide Web and responding to your merchandising campaigns should also be looked at. Prior to reaching the decision to market on the World Wide Web you should cautiously consider your objective audience. The World Wide Web is employed widely around the world but whether or not members of your objective audience are expected to employ the use of the World Wide Web to search or purchase the products or services you trade isn’t assured. This is important because investment of a good deal of time, effort and revenue into World Wide Web marketing when your objective audience isn’t expected to respond to these attempts isn’t worthwhile. Conducting marketing research could answer a lot to assist you in determining whether or not you ought to invest in an World Wide Web marketing campaign for your business enterprise. This step is very crucial for it will afford you a practical indication of whether or not you should even commence marketing your business enterprise on the World Wide Web. Engaging a business firm specializing in marketing research is advisable as they can conduct this research rapidly and with efficiency and will in all probability acquire a good deal of important data as a consequence of their research efforts. If they ascertain your business enterprise can profit from an World Wide Web merchandising campaign, it’s time to begin thinking about how you would like to advertise your business on the World Wide Web. Once more, looking for the aid of professionals* could constitute an exceptionally worthwhile investment. If you are not well informed in the industry of web selling, engaging a business concern firm with a lot of expertise in this industry can constitute helpfulness. They can assist you by consulting with you to find out which selling strategies will represent most effective, designing ads for your campaign, helping you to co-ordinate your web selling campaign and evaluating the final result* of selling attempts to see which strategies are functioning and which are not. The potential for success with an Internet marketing campaign is virtually limitless. The success you enjoy is only limited by your ability to promote your products and services and execute effective marketing strategies. Some of the advertising strategies you may wish to employ may include optimizing your website for relevant search terms, placing links to your website judiciously on the Internet, writing and publishing e-newsletters and utilizing affiliates to promote your website. Search engine optimization (SEO) is among the most important aspects of any World Wide Web marketing campaign. Search engine optimization is so crucial because it prescribes the ranking of your internet site on popular SEs. World Wide Web users appreciate these results and are not likely to try out websites which don’t rank well with SEs. Conversely, high ranking internet site* can enjoy a good deal of increased internet site traffic as a result of these rankings. Inward links to your internet site are also significant in World Wide Web marketing. Inward links are links on other internet site* which direct users to your internet site. These links are significant in an World Wide Web marketing campaign. First of all many SEs factor inward links into their ranking algorithms which signifies inbound links can consequence in upper SEs rankings. Also, these links can comprise use directly by internet site users to access your internet site. This means you are able to gain traffic directly from these links. Additional way to enjoy a prosperous World Wide Web marketing operation is to direct an associate merchandising campaign. Associates are fundamentally internet site owners who place a streamer AD on their internet site to direct traffic to your internet site. Usually, associates are only compensated when the advertisement on their internet site brings forth a desired effect such as enticing the users to click through the advertizement, resulting in a sales event or resulting in another action specified filling out a survey or registering with your internet site. Associate merchandising can not only be extremely effective but it’s also cost-efficient because you only pay the associates when they produce results. About the Author: Writer Ethan O. Tanner explains the different ways of Merchandising online for your business internet helps for success with your enterprise. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

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Marketing Your Business on the Internet