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This post is in reference to SEO services as a business model, however many of the ideas can be juxtaposed to businesses and their utilization of the method for marketing So much gets said about SEO and its relevance or even legitamacy. Most of this is purely linkbait, and the SEO crowd is all to quick to fall into the trap. The arguements fall into three basic camps. 1.The SEO are scumbags camp, of which Derek Powazek became a member and then quickly left. 2.The SEO is bullshit camp, of which Jason Calacanis is probably the most visible member, but you can find tons of the linkbait here . 3. The SEO is a “dying business” concept, of which Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker is one of the main figure heads, and now Robert Scoble has joined the mix. None of these are 100% right, or for that matter wrong. 1. Some SEOs, like some circus clowns and some grocery baggers are indeed scum bags. But then there are people like, Neil Patel who have gotten rave reviews from savvy web people due to his aid of their web properties. From Quicksprout.com : “Neil has advised TechCrunch for more than two years and been an important part of the growth of the TechCrunch Network by helping us implement SEO best practices. Search engines have grown to be responsible for 1/3 of all TechCrunch traffic, so Neil’s ongoing support is critical to our business.” – Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch 2. Some SEOs offer services that are nothing more than bullshit, every SEO has had to clean up a mess by these types of unscrupulous business people. But there are a ton of proffesionals out their helping people transition to the online space, and thus save their livelihood. 3. Some SEOs have thriving businesses based on there insane prowess, like my bud Dave Naylor , others are feeling the economic crunch. For me, long term, I look at my business ventures and I side with Shoemoney on several points. SEO as a stand alone service offering is a tough long term business plan to feel solid about. The engines are changing too fast to allow anyone doing the service to feel confident about their business over the next 10 years, and everyone should be looking at the current changes in terms of personalization and taking it as a cue to diversify what they do. SEO is a block in the creation of a solid online marketing strategy, it isn’t the entire house. Good SEOs know this. Every site clinic I have ever seen with SEO rockstars like Greg Boser, Todd Freisen, Dave Naylor, Mikkel deMib Svendsen, and countless others always circles back to them spending as much time exploring conversion, usability, and social media as they do the standard SEO practices. To definitively say SEO as a practice or service based business model has lost its legs is a bit premature to say the least. Traditional media is dying quickly, and more businesses are turning to the web to make a new revenue stream. Search is the most logical place to begin for these companies. Also, the top 5% of SEOs out there will be making money as long search engines exist. Again though, search, paid or organic, can only be a piece of the online marketing puzzle. As we look at 2010 we are seeing that brands have cemented their position on the web, building a solid brand, via a mixture of online marketing streams is the only route towards continual prosperity online. Mobile adveritisng, due to the growth of app based mobile OSs, will likely grow from 2009s relatively small $416 million in spend, and acquiring the tools to make this a part of your offering as a service provider will soon become a necessity. Social media has become profitably, and now is a must have for CMOs. And so we start to get this view of online marketing like a machine, one distinct entity, but with sum parts that have little use on their own. What good is 100,000,000 search based visitors if you are only getting .02% conversion, and negative ROI on the money to achieve the paid and organic rankings? How real is a 90% conversion rate if you are only bringing in 2 natural visitors a month? Smart professionals in the space, like my friend Todd Malicoat , are using their talents to offer companies online business consulting services, and utilizing the revenue generated from these services to fund their long term goals. This has been the premise behind Search & Social from Day 1. Why make everyone else money? Utilize the skills and team you have built to build revenue streams beyond services. This site is the most public proof of this concept for us. We are looking at an evolution online, and not a death. The direction the online world is moving favors diversified marketing campaigns, more directly branding based marketing, and savvy service providers will make note and transition. Others will die off. This is the cycle of business in any sector, and not a fact reserved to SEO alone. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . SEO is a Brick not a
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Google gives you plenty of really good tools at the moment to predict the traffic to your website from Google rankings. In this post I will show you how you can make a guestimation of the %age of traffic that a particular rank will give you, this is something that I have been trying to figure out for a long time now, and with Google’s wealth of tools available we can use these to get quite fair estimations (Well I think so anyway.). So what do you need to do this: Google Adwords Keyword Tool Your Analytics Package Daily Rankings Reports Google Insights for Search Firstly some caveats, This is an estimation tool remember this and make no promises based on the results, Results can depend on many other factors other than just this such as how appealing your result looks to the searcher, Results do not take into consideration the number of sponsored listings on the page or local search results and the maps with them, real time search box and Shopping results. Collecting the
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Everything in life that is worth anything takes a lot of effort and action. When I was in High School my Dad bought me an old 66’ Ford Mustang that was really beat up. For three years I worked on that old car and made it look like a million bucks. Because I worked hard and took action the car was amazing and it meant a lot to me, a lot more that if my Dad would have just bought me a new car. The point is you have to ACT to receive what it is you want. Link Building is no different. If you want links (which you should) then you have to take some specific actions to get links. If you think they are just going to come because you have a cool website, then I am afraid you will be very disappointed. Link Building in regards to Search Engine Optimization is not going away anytime soon, and for this very reason if you don’t have a strategy it will be very hard for you to rank for the keywords/phrases that you so desire. Below you will find some specific actions you must take to build up your link juice. These items are not the only steps you need to take (there are hundreds – even thousands) but they will tell you what actions you need to take today to start your Link Building campaign. A.C.T. stands for Ask, Content, and Timing. You must A.C.T. to build links effectively. A –
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Keyword Research is an obvious first step in researching a niche for yourself or for a client. Keywords, and their results, make up the terrain of search marketing – and knowing the terrain (and who else is playing in it) helps us navigate up the mountain (and determine when the mountain is maybe too crowded to climb). Google’s AdWords Keywords tool isn’t a bad place to start, but if you’re operating in a competitive niche there isn’t much of an advantage there – even my grandma uses it (not really, my grandma still has a rotary phone, but you get the idea). Your real advantage comes from looking in places where your competitors aren’t to identify “under the radar” keywords. Here are 10 sources of keyword data that are often overlooked in the course of everyday keyword research. 1) Misspelling
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Congratulations! You’re hired… It’s a huge step in your SEO career to be hired for an in-house SEO department. Now it’s time to plan your in-house SEO strategy carefully, so you can secure your position and give your company what they’re looking for: tangible results from your SEO expertise. What your average workday will look like will depend on several factors: Are you a one-person team, or are you part of a team? Do you work for an average-sized company or a big brand? If you are a one-person team you will likely find yourself with a huge workload as you struggle to get results that will be noticed in the shortest time possible. Unfortunately for many businesses SEO still has to ‘prove’ itself. If you’re part of a team your workload will be lighter, but possibly not any easier. It’s a fact that for most companies SEO has to prove itself in order to earn the right to stay. Sadly, too many half-baked SEOs who mistake what they do for Blackhat have created enough doubt and double standards that we are still not considered as important as we should be in many circles. For now we’ll assume that you’re a one-person team and that you’re working for the average business. Let’s take a quick look at all the tasks that will fall to you: Keyword research : do this properly. Monitor where your pages stand for all presently used keywords and keep a record, together with your record of all new keywords you introduce Competitive analysis : you need to know exactly who you’re up against and what kind of steps you need to take to get ahead of them in search Correcting canonicalization : make sure that as far as Google is concerned, there is only one version of each page of your company website. Correcting site structure (excellent article on the subject by Dave Snyder) Creating an internal linking structure Creating an incoming-links strategy Optimizing HTML Make sure you use a good meta-description tag for each page plus a carefully crafted page title (must be different for each page of your site) Checking site navigation Arranging for appropriate quality content that matches chosen keywords for each page Scanning for any issues that might be perceived as black hat by the search engines (such as inadvertent hidden text and so on) Monitoring pagerank and pagerank flow Your Initial In-House SEO Strategy… The best thing you can do off the bat is make friends with the people in the IT or web development department, and if there are in-house copywriters get to know them too. The structure will differ from company to company, but basically you need to be on very good terms with anyone who will have anything to do with your end of the job. Your task will be so much easier if they are your friends instead of enemies. This is especially so if, as is normally the case, you will need to ask for changes to be made in what they do. If you build enough bridges you may even be able to delegate some of your huge workload to them. After making friends and influencing people, the next most important thing is to get your web tracking applications in place , assuming they aren’t already there. In order to prove your own worth you need to be able to prove where the company was in terms of search engine estimation, and where it is going as a result of your expertise. In all likelihood you will be responsible for the social media strategy as well as SEO. What you do in this regard is especially important if your company has any reputation management issues. For a quick rundown on why you need a social media strategy, I can’t do better than refer to this excellent post on Mashable When General Motors put together their social media strategy, they had some specific objectives they wanted to accomplish. Christopher Barger , director of global social media at General Motors, outlined the following: A. Become more responsive to people/consumer audiences B. Incorporate audience/consumer feedback into your organization more quickly and effectively than has happened traditionally C. Make your brand a little more “human” to the outside world, and show people the smarts, personality and passion of the people behind your logo D. Increase awareness of the strength of your current product lineup, and provide perspective/accurate information about your company You’ll be asking ‘isn’t this for the PR people or a social media person?’ Technically speaking, yes it is. But a good social media strategy is simply one of the finest things you can do to get your SEO strategy showing gains in the shortest time –if you do it right. The points outlined above should give you ammo for when someone above you asks ‘whaddya think you’re doing…’ Patricia Skinner is an SEO consultant , social media coach & reputation management expert. She is also community leader at the nascent SEO Self Regulation Community . She can be reached any time through her SEO website . Why not follow her on Twitter & her LinkedIn profile. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Advice for the Newbie In-House
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As we all know, unless you are fortunate enough to have content on a client site go viral due to its sheer brilliance, link building is a time intense activity. Positioning yourself in a niche, building great content, approaching a webmaster for a link– these things don’t happen in the blink of an eye. But I’ve established an excellent way to work on link building campaigns that takes less time than it would to do all the work alone. The answer is simple – university students. These anxious young minds are jumping for work experience, and link building is a relatively simple task where their success can be easily measured as you give them a head start in the marketing industry. University students are Internet savvy, decent writers, and cheap in comparison to link-building companies and consultants. The saying “you get what you pay for” does spring to mind, but they aren’t hard to train – they’re used to learning new material. It’s important to note that especially in this economy, university students are having a harder time finding work experience – which can work to our link-building agenda’s advantage. Step 1: Find the Career Office of a Local University Universities are eager to reach out to local businesses in order to connect their student with opportunities. Take advantage of this! Most schools have intra-net job sites, where you can post your “Link Building Trainee” opening at no cost. Step 2: Explain Link Building to Your New Charge Once I’ve selected Link Builder, I email them link building resources and explain that links from reputable sources are a significant part of a search engine’s algorithm. The more they understand what an important part of SEO links are, the more empowered they’ll feel to do their job well. Step 3: Identify Linkable Content The student must understand what parts of the site make for strong content and to whom they appeal. Have them write a quick line or two about which target audiences are interested in the content they have identified and why. Step 4: Proposed Websites Depending on how much control you want to exercise, it may be a good idea to have your student draw up a list of websites they propose to contact BEFORE they do it. If the student has understood the target audiences, this step should be easier for them to get the hang of. Step 5: Email Template or Phone Script If you’re going straight for the kill and contacting webmasters directly, show your student examples of past emails you’ve sent when link building. Naturally, they should be to the point, personalized, and demonstrate your site’s involvement/relevancy enough to convince a webmaster. If your student is phoning the website, run over with them who they should speak to and how they should present the content – it’s worth writing a script to ensure there is no confusion. Step 6: A Log It is important your student keep a log of their communication with different bloggers and webmasters. Be sure this data is in YOUR control, so if the student leaves for summer holiday or gets ill, you know who they’ve conversed with. Before I end this, I must say a word about student salary. While cheap, be fair and compensate university students for their time; at the very least reimburse them for travel and lunch when they come into the office. That said, go find yourself an aspiring Link Builder – while freeing up your time to focus on more important tasks, your Builder will be gaining valuable employment experience. Chelsea Blacker is a London based search consultant currently working at Base One Search With a background in SEO & PPC cultivated at Promediacorp in NYC, Chelsea focuses on engaging B2B brands in social media and online PR. If you want to further procrastinate from getting on with your real work, check out her current Marketing Pilgrim post You Know You Work in Search When… or say hi to her on twitter @ChelseaBlacker Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . How to Hire a University Student for Link
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We know your New Year’s celebration may not be or should not be over yet. Most of us are still probably recuperating from last night’s revelry. So, what come’s after New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations, bowl games and lots and lots of food? How about starting to plan the things that we want to do this year? The bad habits that we’ve been trying to break, or the things that we’ve always wanted to do. You know what I’m driving at – it’s time to make our New Year’s resolution. So, what’s it going to be this year? What are the New Year’s Resolutions that you are going to break this year? More link love, comments and retweets to SEJ posts perhaps? If you have not idea yet what would be on your list or if this is the first time that you’re going to make a New Year’s Resolution, you might want to check out this New Year’s Resolution Guide which also features professional advice from University of Maryland experts. Another good guide is this guide on How to Make a New Year’s Resolution and Keep It . It might help you fulfill your New Year’s resolution in 2010. If after reading those guides and you still couldn’t start writing your list, here are some good examples of specific New Year’s resolution which seems feasible, practical and doable. 12 Social Media New Year’s Resolutions for 2010 by our friends at Search Engine Land would be most useful for social media companies and gives advices such as spending more of traditional ad budget improvment of customer service, to training and educating of works, among others. Five New Year’s Resolution for SMBs – tips that can serve as sample resolutions that can guide SMB’s social media and online strategies Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions – gives practical New Year’s Resolution which are geared for personal improvement. Popular New Year’s Resolution – if you’re interested to find out what other people are putting on their New Year’s Resolution, here are the most popular ones. And while you’re at it, you might want to check out some New Year’s quotes from the QuoteGarden . So, there you go some resources that can help you find New Year’s Resolutions online. You might also want to check out the top 10 tools sticking to your New Year’s resolution. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Find New Year’s Resolutions
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