Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category

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Wake Up CEO’s- Print is Dead

Posted by Brandon on June 30th, 2009

I do not understand why old school CEO’s are still wasting thousands of dollars on print advertising. Did you know some businesses spend between $30,000 and $100,000 just for one print ad page in the Wall Street Journal to run one week? This is insane. You can’t even track the success results or conversion factors from print advertising. CEO’s still do this because they like to see their company name in big papers and they think their target demographic actually reads newspapers. When was the last time you saw someone aged 21-35 actually reading a newspaper? I think it has been months. Everyone I know gets their information, advertising, and news online and in real time. If you want to grow your business, you need to advertise where your clients live online.

To start an internet marketing campaign, every business that is business to consumer based should start with organic search engine optimization. This is the core of any internet marketing campaign. CEO’s and marketing professionals then need to research where their target demographic lives online. What sites do they go to? What times of the day and week are they online? Where do they live? All this stuff is crucial for deciding which sites to advertise on and how to market your company.

There are also some great tools you can use to see if your site is properly optimized for SEO and follows all the search engine guidelines.  The SEO Ranker Tool by IMI is a great one http://internetmarketinginc.com/seo-report or companies like Hubspot have some great software as well.

I encourage all CEO’s to try to run an ROI report on their current print spend.  Take half your print budget and use it online and run the same ROI report.  I am convinced you will never run print again when you complete this task.

-Brandon


SEO Fraud: Small Business Owners Beware

Posted by Brent on June 7th, 2009

Like most industries, the Internet marketing world is fraught with companies and individuals seeking to make a quick buck by ripping people off.  One of the most common is SEO fraud.  There are unfortunately many firms or “consultants” out there preying on the unsuspecting small business owners and selling them SEO “guarantees”. 

Frankly, there are a lot of larger SEO companies doing similar things by charging outrageous prices while spending about 2 hours a week on your project and telling you to “stay the course” and that it takes time.  They use iron clad contracts and by the time you are frustrated by the lack of results and fire them (if you can get out of your contract), they have collected thousands from you.  These days of course that is harder to get away with because do to the economy, companies will price compare more often.

So how do you find the right SEO company? How do you compare the good ones from the not so good ones, and choose a company where you feel confident that the money you invest is in good hands and will generate good returns?  Here are a few tips:

  • Do as much research on basic SEO as you can on your own so you know what questions to ask
  • Choose a few firms and learn as much as you can about them
  • Be careful about the pitch where they show you all the “rankings” they have gotten for their clients – you never know what was involved, what kind of rankings the client had before, or if they are even still a client, etc.
  • Look at the firm’s own rankings and see if they practice what they preach
  • Look at their website:  if they are selling you SEO but don’t even have title tags, descriptions, etc…RUN!
  • Ask them details about their SEO practice, strategy, process, link building efforts, etc.
  • Know who their SEO engineers and project managers are:  chances are your campaign and keyword strategy will only be as good as that individual’s knowledge
  • Check certifications/qualifications
  • Read their blog, if they even have one
  • Ask if they attend the SEO trade shows, seminars, etc. to make sure they are continually learning too:  SEO these days is all about staying current
  • NEVER work with a firm offering ranking “guarantees” because you might be treading closely to black hat SEO and potential penalties

Related Blogs

SEO Link Building and Business Development

Posted by Brent on June 5th, 2009

Search engine optimization (SEO) strategies are constantly changing as we chase the SE’s latest algorithms and try to keep up with what Google wants from us.  As search engine marketers, we have to always be on top of the best practices and guidelines in order to properly serve our clients and ensure that the strategies used are sound. 

The greatest part about SEO these days is that its less about repetitive activity (though that is still a big part of it) and more like business development (in my opinion).  SEO has become more and more natural and it all starts with adding real value to the web by creating a site with good content.  These days good content can and should come in the form of all kinds of media:  blogs, articles, video, podcasts, etc.  The SE’s are giving rankings to sites that really have that “wow” factor when it comes to valuable unique content. 

All of the basic rules still apply and things like having good site structure/site maps, unique content, and solid link building strategies are the foundation of any good SEO effort.  The on-page portion is of course all about continually adding fresh content for your users (content that is relevant and hopefull educational).  The off-page portion has become the mosty important ongoing effort in the form of link building.

Link popularity is about building solid inbound links from relevant websites.  The more quality links you have the more “votes” of assurance Google will notice and the rankings will follow.  The days of link trading and link farms are over as we all know.  Follow those practices or any unnatural method for building links and you could find yourself sitting on the search engine sidelines for a long time. 

Below are some initial steps to beginning your link building effort:

  • Build a healthy content rich website that adds value to your online community
  • Submit your site to all the top directories
  • Purchase key “paid” links
  • Always SEO optimize your press releases before sending

The rest of your link building effort is where it gets tricking and time consuming.  As stated above, the best link building strategies are natural and well planned.  Use some of the steps below to get started once you have completed the steps above:

  • Run Google searches using your targeted keywords
  • Find sites that are relevant and similar but not competing
  • Call or email the webmaster and formall request that they link to your site
  • Offer reasons and benefits (consider offering to link to them as well but don’t over do the “link trading”)
  • If you have other websites with related material or partner companies, make sure they are linking to your website
  • Use anchor text when setting up the links and try to have the link coming from the home page or other powerful pages on their website
  • Set up a blog and contribute to other people’s blogs – once you are a trusted source you can start throwing some links in as long as they are relevant and the page on your site you are linking to offers additonal value to the reader

The key to these efforts is that you simply have to commit the time to do it.  Google will usually only recognize a fraction of the links you build so make sure you are going after quality, not quantity.

Related Blogs

May 2009 Google PageRank Update

Posted by Steve on June 1st, 2009

Recently, Google made an update to the Google Toolbar page rank algorithm. We saw an increase in our Page rank from a 4 to a 5 over the past couple of days. Internet Marketing Inc. has worked vehemently on meeting the Google guidelines of being a well optimized and relevant site for Google Natural Search, since its inception. Although, you should not solely rely on PageRank as a main factor for your success or failure as a site. You should instead consider PageRank as a possible sign to what you are doing right or wrong as a website.

Google has specifically stated (FAQ: Crawling, indexing & ranking) that page rank is one of over 200 factors in the ranking of website.  When a site begins to meet all the criteria for being a well indexed site in Google, than your success can be reflected in your PageRank. Most good websites all have the following components, great internal site structure, good relevant content, strong external links to the site, and smart seo tagging of their pages. These factors plus PageRank all can equate out to a well indexed site in Google Natural Search.

In conclusion, PageRank is a factor in your ranking and component of website success, but not necessarily everything. Your actual page ranking in Google Natural Search, traffic to your site and conversions on your site are the most important barometers of your success.

Related Blogs

Google Paid Links Debate Over Android Ion Phone Giveaway

Posted by Mike Martin on June 1st, 2009

Michael Gray of GrayWolf has postulated that by Google providing free Android Ion phones at Google I/O is actually a breach of their own paid links guideline.

Michael’s logic is that the phone (valued at approximately $400 – although sold on EBay for nearly $800) is a way of Google “paying” people to generate buzz and thus link to them.

google ion

Michael Gray: @dannysullivan seems like a double standard to me google gives free stuff & links are fine but on viralconversations.com I have to nofollow

Michael Gray: @dannysullivan I jumped thru all sorts of hoops getting Viralconversations.com google complaint and google breaks all those rules today

Michael Gray: @dannysullivan I specifically have to tell ppl to nofollow any links but google nope they dont have to follow those same rules

Michael Gray: @dannysullivan how hard would it have been to put a note with the phone enjoy the phone but please if you link to us use the nofollow tag

Then Michael redirected his wrath to Matt Cutts

Michael Gray: @mattcutts oh so google is judging paid links on intent now … google gonna borrow the term mind meld too to figure that out?

Michael Gray: @mattcutts srsly you cant have everybody else operate under one set of rules with gifts for links and not google #arrogance #aristocracy

Michael Gray: @mattcutts I thought google would have learned from buying links in japan guess not #googlebuyslinksbutyoucant

Matt Cutts: @graywolf google.com is the most-linked-to domain on the web. We don’t need links & aren’t looking for them. We’re looking for developers.

Michael Gray: @mattcutts and just because you dont need links doesnt mean you didnt give away cash in kind gifts to get them

Michael Gray: @mattcutts just remember when celebrities get caught shoplifting its still a crime #googlepaidlinksdoublestandard

Michael Gray: @mattcutts so when are you going to punish google.com for selling links the way you did google.jp or do they get a “bye”

Michael Gray: @mattcutts how hard would it have been to put a note here the phone for free if you link to us please use a nofollow tag #leadbyexample

Michael Gray: @mattcutts the ebay link is proof the gift has cash value or is a cash in kind gift #paysattentioninclass

Michael Gray: hey @mattcutts how those paid links for android.com working out how many of the 57K came from the free phones http://tinyurl.com/mk7mdx

Michael Gray: looks like those phones google gave away and turned into links to android.com have a cash in kind value of $760 http://tinyurl.com/kmy29u

This all started when Michael was recently arguing that TechCrunch should NoFollow the Sponsor links using http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/13/contenture-wants-to-fail-whale-your-ad-network/ as an example.

I was eating lunch with Matt Cutts & MG Siegler of TechCrunch along with Danny Sullivan so it presented the perfect opportunity to get to the bottom of Michael Gray’s concern.

matt cutts michael martin mg siegler

Michael Gray: @googleandblog good I hope @mattcutts mentioned this post too http://tinyurl.com/opkmun #sponsoredposts

MG stated he wasn’t aware of it and when Matt looked at the offending page he said he didn’t have an issue with it since it wasn’t within MG’s control.

Michael Gray: @googleandblog sorry I call BS its an advertorial

This whole time Danny was fighting back to stay out of the fray.

Andy Beard even chimed in with this post.

Do you think Michael Gray is getting carried away or does he have a point in either or both paid link concerns?

I was going to ask Sergey Brin about this but instead asked about his thoughts on Microsoft constantly changing search engine names as it relaunches officially at SMX Advanced in Seattle next week.

Danny Sullivan: @googleandblog asks sergey what he thinks, bing or kumo? sergey doesn’t answer but says “we been happy with google”

There was laughter throughout the room when Sergey responded that he is happy with the name Google which was picked up on several sites including TechCrunch.

sergey brin michael martin

I was invited to cover Google I/O since I run a popular Android site as Google’s Android platform for mobile devices was front and center at this Google Developer Conference.

At the conclusion I got on my flight home to San Diego with my Ion phone ready to present at SMX Advanced on Tuesday June 2nd, 2009 in Seattle representing Internet Marketing Inc – please come say hi if you are attending.

Related Blogs

Online Video Viewing and Sharing is now Bigger than Ever!

Posted by Steve on May 28th, 2009

In a time of economic downturn and an ever changing online universe,  the end consumer has always dictated what the future holds for businesses and technologies alike.  According to some recent Nielsen ratings and Lightspeed research, video is becoming the hottest social medium on the web.  With over 116 million consumers watching and interacting with online video, you can now say that online video viewership is comparable to television viewership.

US Online Video Viewer Metrics, April 2008 & April 2009

Consumers are now not only watching videos but sharing them with others.  According to Lightspeed research the most popular methods consumers are using to share videos include : email to friends (50%) , Send to a social network friend (23%) and Instant message a video clip to a friend or colleague (21%)

Methods Used by US Online Video Viewers to Share Online Videos, January 2009 (% of respondents)

In conclusion, if your watching videos online your interacting with them more than ever. If your an online business or product online without video optimization and distribution you are definitely missing the picture or should I say online video!


Don’t Forget to Optimize Your Social Media Profiles

Posted by Brent on May 26th, 2009

We have talked before about how social media strategies can be a great compliment to any SEO strategy.  Social media can be a great way to build quality inbound links and develop solid off-page content.  Naturally, all the basic SEO rules apply:  content, keywords, user value, and quality inbound links. 

So what about your social media profile pages?

If you haven’t already noticed, social media profile pages are starting to rank regulary for search terms.  For example, if a person has a Facebook.com and Twitter.com profile and then Google their own name, these profile pages will usually come up first,  or at least very near the top.  The reason of course is because these websites themselves are already highly regarded by Google.  They have millions of pages, great user-generated content, etc.

So when looking for a great compliment to your SEO strategy for your website, consider optimizing your social media profile pages as well.  Great SEO pratice according to Google’s latest algorithms suggest that it is best to optimize all possible online assets including websites, videos, social media profile pages, press releases, pod casts, images, etc.  When considering optimization for your social media profile pages don’t forget the following:

  • If you don’t have a Twitter and Facebook page (any other networks of course) for your brand, create one
  • Flood your BIO and pages with keywords, but do it in a reader-friendly natural way
  • Use keywords in your profile name if possible
  • Add other great content such as videos
  • Build good inbound links

Remeber also that when building a following for your profile pages such as Twitter and Facebook, one of the best ways is to actually drive external traffic to these pages (as opposed to just networking within the social community).  Make sure to have links to your social media pages from your main website, email signatures, newsletters, print media, etc.   Some companies have considered using social media profiles as their main websites do to their searchability, cost effectiveness (FREE), and great functionalities. 

The best Facebook and Twitter strategies use the profile pages as key communication platforms where they announce all value propositions, special offerings, incentives, coupons, etc.  Imagine of these pages are also apearing in the SERPs for relevant keywords how impactful that would be!


Related Blogs

Anytime, anywhere, videos on Twitter

Posted by Yashar on May 22nd, 2009

Receiving information via television is so 2000 Late! If you want to view your favorite TV shows, movies, trailers, etc, you can do it by going to Hulu.com, download them from your iTunes account, PS3 video store, Amazon video, YouTube, and now you can even view videos through Twitter. Social Media is becoming more than anyone ever imagined!

There is a new site called twitmatic that allows you to search for any search term you want. It then performs a search from all tweets posted with a video link and presents them to you in a nice legible format. If you type in Star Wars for example, you are presented with trailers, spoofs, Star Trek vs Star Wars video, and much more. This is why Social Media for businesses are becoming so vital.

Business who have not embraced Social Media yet, need to know that everyone else is embracing it. If your business has a video online, it is important that it is a compelling video you want to showcase to the world. If you want it to be found via YouTube, ot in this case via twitmatic from posted tweets – it needs to be compelling.

Social Media is here to stay. It has been embraced by radio stations, newscasters, celebrities, and pretty soon everyone else around you.

Twitmatic

Successful Real Estate Companies Are Online!

Posted by Brent on May 21st, 2009

The real estate market has seen some dramatic shifts recently and two things have happened.  The market crashed and real estate professionals and companies are taking their businesses online!  The online process began before the bubble burst, but the stormy housing market further proved the need for more targeted and cost effective real estate marketing.

istock_000001767763xsmallcroppedTo succeed in today’s real estate industry, you have to be actively engaging the online community.  The days of thinking that your buyers or renters are not online or that your “demographic” doesn’t use the web to find a home are OVER.  Here are some important facts from the 2008 NAR Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers:

87% of homebuyers used the Internet as an information source

77% of Internet homebuyers drove by or viewed a home they saw online

32% of buyers first found their home on the Internet

25% of FSBOs used the Internet to help sell their home

So how do real estate companies large and small answer this direct need to be egaging potential buyers and renters online?  The answer is through comprehensive integrated Internet marketing strategies.  This may sounds more complicated than it really is.  It all starts with the website which is the foundation of any sound online marketing plan.  You must have an interesting and informative user experience by offering loads of unique content, rich media like video and virtual tours, blogs, forums, etc.  Real estate, like most other businesses, have the need to embrace the Web 2.0 world of customer interaction. 

Once the website is in order and you have a great interactive platform, you need to make sure people can find you.  Yes, your buyers and renters are online looking for you (as stated in the facts above)!  Of course, organic search engine optimization (SEO) is the best long term investment you can make in your real estate company.  Homebuilders and apartment development/management companies across the country are making this investment and saving tons of money in other marketing mediums.  Let’s face it…print isn’t going to get the job done anymore.  Sure, its important for branding and can be effctive for promoting grand openings but its not interactive, nor is it cost effective or measurable. 

People want the facts and they want them fast.  Buyers and renters are online because its convenient anf there is a wealth of transparent information out there.  Consumers can do weeks of research and make informed decisions before ever picking up the phone to call a property or speak to an agent (though the important role of an agent or leasing representative will never be obsolete!).  Having first page organic rankings for your relevant keywords will drive higher volumes of quality traffic to your real estaet site than most other outlets.  Real estate is very competitive online so it must be viewed as a long term investment.  Once you have the rankings, then investment will pay off tenfold.

In the short term, pay per click advertising (PPC) (when managed properly) is a great way to drive targeted traffic to your pages.  Google Adwords has developed over the past year and their algorithms are now more sophisticated.  You must approach paid search campaigns in similar ways you do with basic SEO – you must have a thoughtful keyword strategy with good title and descriptions, and use solid landing pages with unique conent.  Google now uses what they call “Quality Score” to ensure that campaigns are well managed and providing value to the user.  The Quality Score process ranks your campaigns from 0 to 10 (10 being the best) and makes judgements based on title, descriptions, and landing page quality.  Google will also now take into account the overall value your website has to offer.  This is were many real estate sites can hit a road block. So many sites out there now just aggregate MSL listings and property listings from all over the web without providing unique content and information.  Without offering the user unique content found nowhere else on the web, Google may not give a good Quality Score when running PPC campaigns.  So now its not just about outbidding competitors for terms, its about value. 

The fastest growing marketing phenomenon is social media.  All types of companies in all kinds of industries are embracing the ability to interact with their customers in an open transparent forum.  Social media is actually very simple (though it can take a lot of time and energy to run a successful campaign).  Its about finding your target audience in social networks, blogs, forums, etc. and listening to what they have to say.  Once you have a loyal following and are offering value to the community (Free information, advice, knowledge, etc.) you can start communicating your more “commercial” messages.  From a real estate perspective this is very important.  Buyers and renters are seeking value and real information now more than ever.  Additionally, once you have a robust online presence in the social media world, you can simply use it as a communication platform – announce grand openings, share videos, pictures, special incentives, etc.  Always remember though, you should lean more heavily to the “value” offering to maintain a trusting and loyal following.

One very simple and effective compliment to both SEO and social media, is regular blogging.  Blogging used to be quite foreign to real estate professionals and now it is very mainstream.  You just have to find the time to do it!  To use blogging effective for real estate, it should be approached in two ways.  (1) Have a blog on your own website and write on it regularly.  Send out links to your articles through your social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.  (2) Get out there and write blogs on other sites.  Once you become a regular on some sites you can start providing links back to your site.  This is a great way to get traffic and very powerful for your inbound link building campaign (the most crucial element to orgainc SEO).

Regardless of the economy, people still need homes and they are looking for them online.  Make sure you are where they are looking!

Related Blogs

Don’t Underestimate the Power of the Press Release

Posted by Brent on May 12th, 2009

Many companies forget how powerful having a press release strategy can be.  Yes, I said press release “strategy”.  Most companies understand why press releases are important and how to send them out, but many still don’t understand what a powerful compliment this can be to your Internet marketing strategy.  Press releases are important for many reasons but essentially it is a free or inexpensive way to get valuable content about your company out on the web.  These is no sales pitch and the information must be newsworthy and well-written so you are usually ensured that you will be providing some kind of value for the reader.  As a component of an Internet marketing effort, press releases can provide great value.

Three Key Benefits to Press Releases:

  1. A press release is a great way to blast valuable information about a company and its products, services, promotions, new hires, charitible donations, etc.  It is essentially free publicity.  Many PR firms do this for clients but most fall short in a few areas on the strategy (by no optimizing the content for search engine purposes, explained below).  As a PR element, a press release is free information for the consumer without the annoying sales pitch.  Sounds kind of like social media doesn’t it.
  2. This is also a great way to gain further credibility and provide your audience with subtle messages about how great your company/product/service is.  A well-written press release will have all of the basic components including a good captivating introduction that echoes the message in the title, support paragraphs, quotes from executives or happy clients, and an “About” paragraph explaining the company mission/history.
  3. The third and most important benefit is the impact it can have on search results (search engine optimization).  The impact is two fold:  First, a well optimized press release can appear in the SERPs for related search terms and in Google News results for similar keywords related to the content.  I will explain how to optimize a press release later, but once you have this done, you can use resources like PRWeb.com to blast your release out to many different news channels.  When the relase is picked up and distributed to other news sites it can be a great way to receive powerful inbound links to your website.  The more quality inbound links your site has, the more likely you are to achieve better rankings (assuming your website is well-optimized).

Three Tips for Creating a Good Press Release Strategy:

  1. Make a committment to writing regular press releases, optimizing them, and sending them out through PR distribution channels on the web.  This is also great content to post on your website as well. Create a news section and upload the releases there as well.  The difficult part in doing regular press releases is that you have to find something newsworthy to write about each time…so get creative.  You will quickly find out what will be accepted and what won’t by the distribution channels such as PRWeb.com
  2. Optimize the press release buy including important keywords in the content.  Take a couple keywords and use them as anchor text to hyper link back to key pages on your site.  Write a proper title and description for the release as well.  Sites like PRWeb.com have the tools to accomplish this.  Once the press release has been uploaded and optimized, then you submit it for review.  The editors will either approve the release and schedule it for distruibution, or they will deny it and tell you what needs to be fixed.  Usually, to send an optimized release there is now a small fee but it can be well worth the benefit.
  3. The third tip as mentioned above is to add the press release content to your website as well in a News or Resources section.  Make sure to proof read all content of course.  You would be surprized how many press release still have typos and poor grammatical structure.


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