July 18th, 2008 — mainstream media
I just came across this major contradiction by journalist Steven Straus writing, “Get on Google’s Good Side with SEO.”
“…there is in fact a great way to market your business that is not expensive and is very effective. However, it is quite time-consuming. It’s called search engine optimization. SEO gets you noticed, is practically free marketing and increases sales. SEO is the magic bullet.”
“Quite time-consuming” AND “practically free”?? How does that work? Time is money, naturally… whether or not you use your own staffing resources (payroll costs) for search engine optimization (SEO) or you outsource it to an SEO expert.
Warning: MSM at large
But when I consider the source - Strauss is a USA Today columnist - I am not surprised he would make such a misleading statement. What does a veteran of mainstream media (MSM) know about search and Internet marketing?
I suggest that his observations about the cost of SEO be taken with a (very large) grain of salt.
July 15th, 2008 — life
It’s the dog days of summer (what does that mean? Does the season wants its belly rubbed?) - and I tote my MacBook around from home office to hammock to client boardroom and back… all the while dodging my loafing teens and frenetic preteen fighting over access to Facebook and MSN.
I’m a good mom; I scream at my kids to Get Outside and Get Some Freaking Fresh Air Right This Instance! I mean, I have to stay attached to my keyboard; they don’t - so why would they want to? (First sign of generational gap right there.)
Websites to keep your kids busy this summer
See, if I was a really good mom, I’d be recommending websites for them to visit this summer. Such as Funology.com (science, yeah!), GamesfortheBrain.com (ooh, kids love educational play) and Seussville.com … ok wait. I am not going to slam that one - I am as big a Dr. Seuss fan as they come.
Serving up these sites and others for the anklebiters is the advice of an article at Xomba.com - and they should know. Their tagline is ‘Show and Tell Has Never Been So Rewarding,’ nicely evocative of childhood. It actually reflects their business model of users writing articles and commenting/voting and reaping 50% of Xomba’s Google AdSense revenue.
Hmm… maybe I can get some child labour happening around my house this summer (especially my 15-year-old who’s too lazy to put his shirt on and go to a job interview, and my 12-year-old who needs a job like a border collie does, but is too young. Of course, my daughter, 16, is working - the malls are open all summer long): I can get them cranking out articles on Xomba and reaping those Adsense returns!
Just think how impressed their Information Technology teachers will be come September when they write those ubitiquous “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” essays.
July 10th, 2008 — social media
I used to work at a social media agency that advised companies on how to leverage the power of online conversations happening in the world of social networking/sharing.
I came to the job with experience in SEO, and was surprised to see that SEO had virtually no place in their social media consulting work…. to the extent that writing and other aspects were inadvertently counterproductive to SEO at times.
My coworkers at this company were connected online in so many ways it blew my mind: they have accounts on FriendFeed, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Delicious (to name a few), and they maintain an interoffice wiki and multiple blogs - you name it, they do it in the social media realm. But I never understood the snob factor that came along with belonging to an elite inner circle of the social media-savvy.
Social media snobbery
To the owner of that agency, social media ruled the web world; I sensed that she felt SEO wasn’t as “pure” and “noble” as the democratic and open ways of social sharing.
Sadly, I feel that her clients were missing out on leveraging the power of search engine optimization. If you don’t get found online, who’s going to be talking about you in the social media universe?
I could really relate to blogger Jennifer Laycock’s insightful post, “Why the Social Media World NEEDS to Understand SEO” at Search Engine Guide, where she notes that:
“The true potential for massive reward comes when someone who really understands the value of conversation in social media comes together with someone who understands the technical aspects of search engine optimization. Otherwise, we have campaigns that miss their full potential.”
Laycock uses as a case in point a corporation that scored big points on social media but dropped the ball on SEO:
“Lenovo and Ogilvy have gone to the trouble of recruiting 100 different bloggers from more than two dozen countries to cover the Olympics for them. That’s a lot of link potential… Unfortunately, the site was built without search engine optimization in mind and they won’t be able to reap any of the benefits of all those links that could have pointed their way.”
Blogging alone won’t get you heard
As a social media analyst, the only chance I had to bring my SEO skills to the table was the training material I developed to teach a corporation how to blog: I taught them how to keep keywords in mind when writing their blog titles and showed them some free tools for keyword research.
But it was too little info on SEO - and the site design we did of their group blog was not SEO-compatible and the content not search engine optimized. Link building strategies? None.
Why can’t we be friends?
At the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Toronto last month, I attended the “Social Media Successes” workshop - curious to see how social media experts aligned themselves with search engine strategies. They didn’t, on the whole. Rather, I heard the usual social media gushing about the wonders of conversation and transparency and sharing - and nothing about how social media can pragmatically intersect with SEO and SEM. (The only exception was panelist Stephan Spencer and his social media “hacks” for optimizing one’s profile in various social sites to build links back to your own site, which is a vital piece of SEO.)
So now my goal is to be a workshop panelist at next year’s SES conference to speak about the harmonious relationship possible - and preferable - between SEO and social media. I’ll call it: “Why Can’t We be Friends?” It’s just good business for us to get along.
July 3rd, 2008 — strategy
I came across an article the other day that nicely spells out the 10 Commandments of Search Engine Optimization. The ‘commandments’ are all good and true and well-tested by time… but there’s a very important edict missing:
#11. Thou Shalt Not Cease SEO
Without the ongoing commitment of SEO work, the Google juice that your web pages receive dries up - and you are no longer assured Page 1 rankings for your website. You’ve got to keep squeezing the SEO fruit!
Some fundamentals that must go on (forever) to keep your web presence top-of-mind for searchers:
- Link Building: Article marketing, directory submissions, blogger outreach… it takes time and smarts to get those quality inbound links to your site from other authority sites.
- Keywords: Gotta stay on top of search terms being used by your prospects; are they changing? did you get the best ones?
- Content addition: blog posts, case studies, whitepapers, press releases, product specials, etc. appearing on your site with regularity - and written with those latest keywords you’ve found.
Too busy to do all this, week after week? Fortunately, SEO experts can save you time and get it right the first time - no wasted efforts, and maximum results in page rankings.
Fail to follow the 11th Commandment - Thy Shalt Not Cease SEO - and your greatest sin will occur: sliding off page 1 of Google search results!
July 1st, 2008 — video
Blended search (aka “universal search“) means that the search engines take video, photos and news items and throws them into the mix alongside traditional text sites when ranking organic results. Better for the searcher? Possibly. But what about for businesses?
At the Search Engine Strategies Toronto conference a couple of weeks ago, the marketing manager of a multinational corporation sat on a B2B panel discussing SEO/SEM tactics. Jim Beretta happily reported that ATS Automation Tooling Systems does very well in its page rankings in Google thanks to his SEO diligence.
But Beretta doesn’t like what he sees happening of late with Blended Search. “It’s pushing us downpage,” he complains of his organic page rankings appearing beneath videos and images he doesn’t consider related.
Prank video outranks global brand leader
For example, one week, Google chose a YouTube video of some college guy’s “MIT Dorm Automation System Party Mode Activation” as more search-worthy than ATS, a corporation that has made more than more than 10,000 automation systems and employs 3,500 people at two dozen locations across three continents!
C’mon, Google… really!
(The top-of-page one ranking really served the MIT kid well: his homemade, 47-second video has garnered more than 642,000 views to date!)
Serving up Google’s favorite desserts
It doesn’t escape Beretta’s attention that it was a YouTube result that Google favored for the automation” term - and that YouTube is owned by Google.
“We have to watch what Google channels are opening up, and offer something to those,” he says. “We need to help Google serve up their favorite desserts.”
Now there’s a slice of reality pie in the new world of blended search.
June 25th, 2008 — events
Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference and Expo in Toronto last week was a delightful immersion in my chosen fields of expertise - Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimization.
I dashed from one workshop to the next - from a clinic where participants offered up their sites to be dissected “live” by experts, to link building and B2B search panels. (Plus caught all that coffee break/after-party buzz.)
I’m probably going to need lots of blog posts about my SES experiences, but here is my attempt at rounding up my best takeaways from the show:
Always be testing
That’s the name of a new book - subtitle: “The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer”) - by Bryan Eisenberg of FutureNow. He was schilling it as a SES keynote speaker (in place of decent new information, methinks.) Testing was a big theme at SES ‘08, including workshops on A/B testing, multivariate testing, and at booths within the SES Expo - including (natch) Google with its Website Optimizer (kinks worked out, they said).
Local and universal search
The learning tizzy included Local Search, Universal/Blended Search; Video Search; Vertical Search… Local search is a relatively new area of expertise but, being tenacious folk, we SEO are cracking it!
Social media: honest conversation or covert branding?
As important as the trend of social sharing (photos, videos, bookmarks, contents, etc.) clearly is, how and why businesses exploit social media for its own purposes is up for debate.
Fellow social media panelists at SES couldn’t agree, for example, on whether a “character blog” (the made-up stories of a brand character, say Tony the Tiger) is more ethical than a “flog” (fake blog) wherein a company pays, or makes up, happy customers of their brand. Just typing this clarifies the confusion…!
SEO experts throw their white/black hats in the ring
Panelists at more than one session were against - or for - various techniques, especially around link building. Thumbs up and down were flashed for reciprocal links and link buying. Generally, white hats prevailed over black hats during the conference (at least the day I was there). There was, however, a soft ‘boo’ emitted at one web marketer panelist who advocated seeding a site with your own and friends’ comments!
B2B lacks instant gratification like B2C
Search Engine Optimization for B2B is just as important as it is for B2C, but if the SES conference was any indication, B2B still lags behind in SEO/SEM efforts. The sparsely attended “What’s Different About B2B?” workshop was testament to that; a shame - it contained great best practices. One B2B vendor, ATS Automation Tooling Systems, shared its organic search success. (Not much to look at as a site, but trying Googling their product names!)
Sea of female faces… for a change
There are many women in the SEM/SEO field,” observed Motoko Hunt of AJPR. (Her Connecticut-based firm specializes in Japanese-language SEO for US companies.) Maybe that’s because SEO/SEM isn’t just about technology, it’s about conversation - something women excel at!
More highlights and learnings from Search Engine Strategies to come!
June 24th, 2008 — budget
As much as I like to bill clients extra fees, I also shudder when I know perfectly well - and have told the client - that the extra cost is unnecessary.
Let me elaborate: I tell a client, “let’s do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) from the very concept of design right through to site launch and well beyond.”
The client says they don’t have enough money to do SEO now; “let’s just put up a nice-looking site.”
The client comes back to me, a few months later and says, “we aren’t getting found online; can you go back in and change the site so it meets SEO requirements?” [Read: restructure/redesign, conduct keyword research, rewrite all the content.]
Pay now or pay (more) later
We comply, and suggest they invest in ongoing SEO work, on a monthly basis, to keep the rankings high by hiring us to build links, add fresh content regularly, and tweak keywords.
The client tells us, no thanks, we don’t have the money for ongoing SEO work.
A short while later, their site is dropping out of page one in Google; they want us to scramble and play catch up by building links, etc.
Same end result - but late to the party
They end up having the Search Engine Optimized site that we suggested from the start - only they lost valuable time (competitors moving up the page rankings ahead of them) and spent extra, unnecessary fees getting there!
SEO is a time-consuming enough process when it’s done right (i.e. well planned and integrated with short and long-term business objectives).
When it’s done wrong - patching together a site with disparate additions like some kind of e-Frankenstein - SEO project time mounts. My time is money… your money.
Hmmm… maybe that longer-term, organic SEO strategy isn’t looking like such a bad idea after all!
June 23rd, 2008 — ethics
At Search Engine Strategies last week, I heard the sad story of a small business owner who handed over his website to a shady SEO service company. He shared the following incidents that were warning signals of dealing with a “black hat” SEO provider:
- They wouldn’t reveal how they were building links for him.
- Said they would do SEO for his main competitor when he terminated the contract.
This small business owner clearly learned from this bad SEO experience, and he attended the “site clinic” workshop at SES to have his site analyzed live by real SEO experts - of the white-hat kind.
The proof in is the practice
For folks not in the SEO indusry, the whole “white hat/black hat” issue can be pretty confusing. In a nutsell, White Hats (good guys/gals) …
- Are completely transparent about all aspects of their work for the client
- Don’t make empty promises about “guarantees” of page rankings
- Integrate SEO strategy with your specific business goals and objectives
- Clearly outline client and service provider expectations
- Don’t buy, or trade for, bad links (from spam sites)
- Don’t reuse the SEO work they did for you on your competitor’s site
- Don’t get into keyword stuffing or other practices that Google no longer tolerates.
No SEO standards or certification
Lately the idea of having standards for SEO has come up - an idea that I personally favor. As Ron Jones writes in Search Engine Watch:
“If we have standards in place, we can knock out those folks who want to make a quick buck at the expense of the industry, leaving a sour taste in the mouth of every improperly-treated client, and every person they talk to, when they might actually benefit from a true and proper SEO campaign.”
With any luck, that website owner at I met at Search Engine Strategies will get himself a true and proper SEO provider and reap the benefits of ethical, methodical work: great page ranking and great customer service.
June 23rd, 2008 — strategy
A little bit doesn’t always go a long way… and ’semi’ SEO is a good example.
A retailer hired me to do Search Engine Optimization on 2 new pages for their site; I researched keywords, edited the content, wrote metacontent, and built links for the pages - all about 2 new products they want to become brand leaders in.
The goal is brand leadership
No part of their site was getting found online - their best showing was on page 7 of Google search results - but the company owners said they didn’t have the budget to get SEO across the entire site… just those 2 pages.
Glowing new SEO pages outshine the rest
I love what my daughter said when I told her about the semi-SEO job: “But you can’t get just one leg tanned!” (Leave it to a teen to use an analogy involving cosmetic improvement!) But she makes a good point..
The few pages that got my SEO services look awesome, especially in comparison to the site’s other pages of circa-2004 style web writing (read “electronic brochure). My sparkling new SEO pages feature:
A good tan takes maintenance, or it fades away
If you think that once you get a good tan, you’re done… think again. Constant attention and effort must be paid or your glow will fade away.
SEO is a neverending story. Use it or lose it [good rankings].
June 14th, 2008 — design
Here’s a spin on the 
“what do you feed a 500-lb. gorilla?” joke…
Q: What do you pay a designer who builds Search Engine Optimized sites?
A: Whatever he wants!!
That’s because a designer/web developer whose coding, site hierarchy and other practices are search engine optimized is just that rare - and just that important to your success getting found online.
Search engine-friendy design is one of the 10 Commandments of SEO, as per this BrowserTech blog edict:
“A search and visitor friendly design is a must for any successful website. Your website should be compelling enough for repeat visits by search engines and potential customers. Make sure you have search engine friendly URLs and avoid those long URLs with query strings.”
Yup, but there’s a whole lot more to SEO-friendly design than URLs - and it’s pretty darn technical stuff. Things like:
- Good code-to-content ratio (no ‘code bloat’)
- Clean HTML
- Hierarchical design
- No hacking
- CSS [Cascading Style Sheets]-controlled elements
- Compliant with World Wide Web Consortium standards
Our designers were trained by the best in SEO
Most of the team of immensely talented web designers at writingSEO was trained at the same Internet publishing company as I was - a place where SEO was ingrained into our everyday practice.
One of our designers, C.K., sums up the balancing act he walks between designing pages that get ranked well in search engines and feature the interactive, audio/visual bells and whistles that people expect today:
Designs can be as fancy as they want, and there is no stipulation that states that a graphically or multimedia-saturated site cannot rank as high as any other text-based CSS-only site. It’s all about content accessibility and SEO-driven content…
There you have it, SEO writing and design: more than just a pretty face… a pretty face that people actually get a chance to see!
