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For many marketers involved in SEO, the three letter acronym CMS can sometimes be more like a four letter word. Depending on the CMS and the implementation, there are some serious problems that can impact your SEO efforts. From duplicate content to unfriendly redirects to lack of content optimization, the list can get quite long. The irony is that CMS packages are supposed to make your life easier (and many do), but there are times they can negatively impact your SEO initiatives (and that’s an understatement). There are many types of content management systems on the market. Some are tailored for specific industries, others for running e-commerce shops, and then you have the major players which can run robust and high volume websites. Some packages are more flexible to work with, while others have limits. I’ve mentioned SEO a few times already, but you probably noticed that the title of my post focused on SEM and not just SEO . That’s because I’ve been running into more and more CMS-related SEM problems than I’d like to. Some of the problems can be avoided if they are addressed up front, while others are more difficult to tackle. My goal is to arm you with information that can help you avoid some of the headaches I’ve seen when running SEM campaigns while using a CMS to power a website. And as many of you know, hell hath no fury like an SEM that can’t track his campaigns properly. 
By the way, I am by no means saying that CMS packages in general are problematic for marketing departments. I simply want to explain specific situations where content management systems can be a thorn in your SEM side. But Isn’t SEM Straight Forward? There are times when I’ve been brought in to help companies and clients vet and choose the right CMS packages. Regardless of the size of the client, most of the focus has been on the potential SEO impact. I think many people see paid search as something relatively easy to implement. For example, choose your keywords, build campaigns, point them to your site, and you’re good to go. That’s not necessarily the case. Sure, the SEO implications of choosing the wrong package for your specific situation could be catastrophic, but when many SEM campaigns are heavily judged on ROI, you should be able to give yourself the best shot at success (and that means control). That’s where some CMS packages can be a pain in the neck. I’ve included four categories of problems that you could face when implementing your SEM campaigns while using a CMS. I’ve also included some recommendations and workarounds later in the post. Customizing Content and SEM Landing Pages Meeting visitor expectations in SEM is critically important for increasing conversion. Since you are spending $x per click to drive targeted prospects to your site, you definitely want to make the most of it. So as a smart search marketer, you decide to craft campaign landing pages tailored for each visitor segment. Smart move, but will your CMS cooperate? For example, you probably want to limit the amount of navigation on your SEM landing pages to ensure the focus is on the product or service at hand. I’ve run into circumstances where clients could not remove parts of the navigation (or the entire navigation if that’s what they wanted to do). Your CMS could potentially limit what you can provide, which can have a big impact on the user experience (and on your ROI). Depending on your CMS package and your implementation, some might be able to give you what you need, while others might require additional development. Other smaller CMS packages might not be able to bend at all. An Example of Customizing a Campaign Landing Page: You might also want to tailor content areas on the landing page. CMS packages use templates to render the layout of certain categories of pages. If you didn’t have specific templates created for your marketing landing pages, then you might be extremely limited with what you can tailor. For example, your product detail pages all might be driven from one template. Depending on how detailed you were while setting up your CMS, you might not be able to add new elements so easily. Or, you might have to cut down your requirements and only get some of those elements implemented. Tracking Conversion Web analytics packages have come a long way over the past several years. Most packages enable you to track both macro-conversions (sales, registrations, etc.) as well as micro-conversions (downloading a document, viewing a video, clicking an email address, etc.) However, some CMS packages are not ready to track conversions the way you need them to. The beautiful part of a content management system is that it can make it much easier to update and manage the content on your site. The downside is that it might limit the level of functionality you want to implement for tracking visitor behavior. The problems I have encountered typically deal with micro versus macro-conversions. For example, as long as your macro-conversions are triggered in a standard way (such as submitting a form), you probably won’t have problems tracking them in your CMS. However, tracking micro-conversions in your CMS could be problematic. I’ve provided a quick example below. Let’s say you choose to tag a download link as a pageview to track it as a conversion in Google Analytics. That’s a quick way to see how many visitors from your SEM campaign reached that goal. But, you found out that your CMS doesn’t allow tagging of links (due to several reasons). That might sound ridiculous, but I have run into this issue a few times. For example, you might not be allowed to add JavaScript to links in a CMS template. Another example would be if you decided to use event tracking to analyze your flash video files . Maybe you want to know how many campaign visitors are watching each video, if they reach certain points in the video, and if they click a call to action in the video player. That’s cool, but what if you find out that you can’t include the necessary code or files to implement this correctly? Your solution might be to custom develop a tracking mechanism for your CMS, but that costs money and can take time. Destination URL’s The CMS-related URL problems I have seen are more like little gremlins versus major issues. But these little gremlins can still cause big problems. In some CMS packages, URL’s are tied to fields for product name or SKU. So, if the product name or SKU changes, the URL also changes. I’m sure many SEO’s reading this post just had adrenaline shoot through their veins since they understand how big of a problem this can be SEO-wise . But, this can also be an equally big problem for SEM. If one of your destination URL’s changes but nobody tells you, then you’ll be driving traffic to a 404. That’s right, you’ll still be spending money, but with absolutely no chance of converting visitors. That’s until you (or Google) realizes what’s going on, which depending on the size of the account, could be hours or could be days. Think about it, you could have hundreds of ad groups running in a larger account. If even five of your destination URL’s change, you could potentially lose thousands of dollars per day (depending on the size your budget). I have also seen some weird tracking issues with URL’s in certain CMS packages. For example, destination URL’s that work flawlessly when you click through your ads sometimes don’t track properly in your analytics package. I haven’t seen this problem as much as others mentioned in this post, but it still could be an issue. The most serious impact is that you cannot effectively track campaign performance if your destination URL’s aren’t picked up by your analytics solution. The problems that I encountered were the result of how the CMS implemented URL rewriting. For example, the original URL might have querystring parameters, product id’s, etc. and the CMS is rewriting the URL to be descriptive. I would keep this in mind while testing your campaigns. Just because the link works and the page renders doesn’t mean it’s being tracked properly. Double check your reporting to ensure all of your campaigns and ad groups are being tracked. Landing Page Optimization I mentioned earlier that SEM landing pages were critically important. Once you map out your campaign landing pages, you might choose to utilize A/B split testing or multivariate testing to increase conversion. Unfortunately, you might run into some problems while implementing testing with your CMS. In order to implement testing, you will need to add code to your landing pages and conversion pages in your test. You also might need to tag “sections” of your page if you want to test multiple versions of each element and their impact on conversion. To understand what’s working and what’s not, you also might need to tag micro-conversions as your success metrics (as mentioned earlier in my post). Unfortunately, if you don’t have the ability to add the necessary code or tag certain actions as conversion, you might have a hard time effectively optimizing your landing pages. It’s important to speak with your CMS vendor to ensure this can be accomplished BEFORE you launch your campaigns. Will Your CMS Enable You To Add Code For Testing? Recommendations and Workarounds I have provided some recommendations below that can help you while choosing the right CMS package for your site, as well how to manage certain situations if you already have a CMS in place. Vet CMS Vendors and Packages The first and most obvious recommendation is to thoroughly vet potential CMS vendors and packages. Ask vendors about both SEO and SEM, and how their packages hold up under the conditions mentioned in this post. Ask to see examples of the CMS in action with regard to SEM landing pages, multivariate testing, analytics and tracking, etc. Bring up some of the latest SEO and SEM advancements to see if the package supports them (or if it has plans to support them in future releases). Also ask to speak with a few clients that are using their CMS with paid search. If Needed, Take It Outside the CMS If you are already using a CMS and cannot implement landing pages or effectively track your SEM efforts, then you might want to build static pages that can reside outside of your CMS. Then you can have more flexibility in developing custom landing pages, tracking what you need, adding code where you need to, etc. Yes, this defeats the purpose of a CMS, but you will only be doing this for your SEM campaigns. I’ve had several clients go down this path with success. Hacks Are Sometimes Needed… If you are already tied to a CMS and cannot do what you need SEM-wise (and you cannot build pages outside the CMS), then you might have to use some hacks to get what you want. For those of you not familiar, a hack is simply a way to get a system to do something that it wasn’t meant to do out of the box. For example, you might be able to use on-site search to get the right products and content on your landing page. You might be able to hide the navigation via a CSS hack or use product-based URL’s for tracking purposes. Hacks work, but they typically aren’t pretty. I would use them as a last resort. Testing Is Critically Important Create a system where campaigns can be easily and thoroughly tested. For example, ensure your analytics solution is tracking campaigns accurately. Make sure your destination URL’s are working properly. By analyzing key metrics in your reporting, you can pick up signs that problems are brewing. For example, if AdWords shows you that a specific ad group had 450 clicks yesterday, but your analytics package shows a fraction of that (or none at all), then you might have a CMS/SEM gremlin causing problems. Summary and Takeaways I hope this post introduced some potential CMS-related problems that could inhibit the success of your paid search campaigns. In a perfect world, you would address these concerns before choosing a package. That said, the reality is that many companies have already implemented a CMS package and need to make the most of it. Content management systems can be extremely powerful for your business, but just make sure the one you choose can track your marketing campaigns effectively. And a quick note to CMS vendors. You can give your CMS a serious competitive advantage if it’s SEM, SEO, and Analytics friendly. Please feel free to reach out to me with information about your CMS if you feel it already is. I’d love to take a look. Glenn Gabe is an online marketing consultant at G-Squared Interactive and focuses heavily on SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, Viral Marketing and Web Analytics. You can read more of Glenn’s posts on his blog, The Internet Marketing Driver and you can follow him on Twitter to keep up with his latest projects, news, and updates. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Will Your CMS Cause Paid Search
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The San Diego based search marketing services and software firm, Covario , has acquired NetConcepts, the SEO agency which was founded by Stephen Spencer . Many in the Search Marketing industry know Spencer from either his speaking engagements, his contribution to the Art of SEO and his endless supply of Wordpress SEO plugins. Stephan Spencer is good people. Covario are good people. We’re very happy to hear this news for both NetConcepts and Covario, as two companies Search & Social highly respects. And now for the press release : Covario’s acquisition strengthens its industry leading position providing SEO solutions to the world’s largest advertisers. The combined company will have nearly 100 customers in key industries such as high tech, financial services, ecommerce, retail, consumer electronics, media, life sciences, and consumer packaged goods. Covario will leverage the acquisition by integrating Netconcepts’ GravityStream™ technology into Covario’s SEO consulting practice and Organic Search Insight™ software. Netconcepts, founded in 1995, is the leader in driving online sales for the retail and ecommerce space through management of natural search engine rankings using its GravityStream technology. Key clients include Cabela’s, Northern Tool, Ann Taylor, Deckers, Woolrich, and Builder’s Square. The merger will help these retail clients, and other clients, gain access to Covario’s software and team of service experts to better synchronize their paid and natural/organic search efforts to create efficiencies, improve results for both channels, and ultimately improve their return on investment (ROI). The technology is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) web content management solution that allows an advertiser to deploy SEO strategies in a scalable and cost effective way. “With the acquisition of Netconcepts and the GravityStream technology, Covario is bringing a unique solution to advertisers to help them accelerate their ability to present their brands on all the major search engines globally,” said Russ Mann, Chief Executive Officer of Covario. “By coupling Covario’s Organic Search Insight with NetConcepts’ GravityStream technology, advertisers will be able to identify the SEO actions that drive better rankings, and also deploy those strategies quickly, and in a highly scalable way to achieve their ROI goals.” The growing importance of SEO in advertising is a key factor behind Covario’s acquisition of Netconcepts. According to Forrester Research, advertisers would spend approximately $2.5 billion on SEO in the U.S. alone in 2009, and this is estimated to double to $5.0 billion by 2014 [Forrester’s July 2009 US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2009-2014]. “Marketers looking for clicks at a cost much lower than paid search are joining those who return to SEO after mastering paid search programs,” according to Shar VanBoskirk, an analyst for Forrester. “Nearly two-thirds of all marketing spend to manage search programs is for advanced technologies or outsourced partners — an indication that search programs are gaining maturity and investment.” Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Covario Acquires
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social,
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Welcome to another edition of ‘ 7 Days of Search and Social ‘ – We’re all back in the swing of things after the holidays, although I am still getting caught up over here…sigh. Anyway, it was a pretty good week out in the blogosphere and somewhat drama-free, (always a good thing). While there were plenty of interesting blog posts, the rest of the search geek world was still somewhat sleepy (other than some interesting patents). Without further adieu, the best from the week that was;
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microsoft,
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social
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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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search,
seo,
social,
Social Media,
space
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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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If you are like me, you have all your major working materials stored online: I organize useful links with Google bookmarks and Delicious, store email and IM conversation with Gmail, have most of my important (collaboration) docs at Google Docs, have multiple resource collections on Wordpress and Blogger, etc. Backing up this massive amount if highly important information is actually a smart idea because the services are not owned by me, hosted by God knows who and thus having a local copy and updating it regularly would be wise. Backupify is a nice (free until January 31) web-based tool that allows to download content from a number of popular online services including: Gmail Twitter Google Docs Flickr Facebook Basecamp Wordpress Delicious Photobucket Blogger FriendFeed Here’s how it works: after signing up you will be offered the list of social media sites “to manage”: Here are a few examples : Allow the tool to access your Twitter account by Twitter auth; Login to Delicious using your login information; Connect to Flickr account by Flickr auth; Connect to Photobucket account by Photobucket auth, etc When you are done adding your social media accounts, set up the back-up frequency (daily or weekly) and delivery options: Email me every time a backup is performed Email me a once daily digest of all backup activity Email me a once weekly digest of all backup activity Do not notify me via email of any backups You can also access the archives of your backups at Backupify from any computer. The only possible excuse for not trying the tool out is the privacy concerns, here’s an extract from the service privacy policy (remember: your privacy is up to you): What information is collected about me? We only collect data you provide us at sign-up. We do not ask for any other personal information. We do not collect data without your knowledge. How do you use collected information? We don’t use it at all. The only thing we collect and monitor is general patterns of storage and service usage so that we can make sure our architecture is optimized for speed and scalability. What security measures do you use to protect my privacy? Any information we have about you is stored with strong encryption. The tool was reviewed under SEJ policy . Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . How to Back up Your Social Media
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archives,
flickr,
knowledge,
personal,
search-engine,
social,
tool,
twitter
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When the clock struck midnight on January 1st, I began running. It was a 5k run in Philadelphia, along the Schuylkill River, to be more specific. During this run, I passed a homeless man. Rather than running past him, I stopped. I gave him $100. Later that day, I stopped to think in greater detail about that incident. What was it that compelled me to engage him? I think the answer to that question, in this case, should be fairly obvious. The night was cold and rainy. No person should be outside and homeless, regardless of how they got there. How does this story relate to my thoughts on many folks on Twitter? Before I continue, please understand I am in no way making light of the homeless. I’m simply offering background as to what inspired the following thought: Many individuals all around the social media world are simply asking for handouts. Think about that for a second. How many people do their best to be placed prominently in front of you, but really do very little to offer a value proposition? How many individuals clamor daily about social media strategies, and the need for engagement, yet fail to offer an answer to the simple question of why you should contribute to their success? I find more and more redundancy invading my personal space. Less substance, less value, less originality, more noise. While there is overwhelming concern about those that are not participating in social media ‘correctly’, there is a disproportionate lack of concern for those that are considered social media ‘geniuses’ and really offer minimal value. If you’re going to be successful long term using social media, you must be certain that your product can back up your mouth. With that in mind, follow along and below you’ll find a small list with tips to help you, or your product, offer a compelling value proposition. 10 Ways to Translate Social Media Success into Real World
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virtual,
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