Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.
My mother always said "nothing worth doing is easy." Generally good words to live by, but especially practical when it comes to viral marketing. While some of the most talked about viral marketing successes appear to have happened effortlessly, chances are high you'll need to put a lot of time and effort into yours. That's why it's absolutely essential to understand the adage "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again."
I scan hundreds of feeds and read dozens of articles each day so you don't have to. From changes to Google AdWords' Quality Score to hyperlocal search to back to school viral videos, find out the six articles I dubbed as must-read for the small business crowd today.
We all know the viral campaigns that travel the furthest and carry the most impact tend to be the ones that leave the greatest impressions. Viral campaigns are, by their very nature, remarkable. Otherwise they wouldn't carry the emotional impact required to make us pass them on.
Perhaps the biggest misconception about viral marketing is that it's a style of pushing your message. Companies convince themselves it's like launching a blog or running a paid search campaign...it's simply something you decide to do. In this three part series I'll dig beyond the hype of Viral Marketing and look at three key lessons companies need to learn before diving into this style of outreach.
Rachel, Stoney and I are out here in sunny San Jose at Search Engine Strategies this week. While we're soaking up the info and crafting new content to send your way when we get back, I thought I'd provide a daily summary of the best posts recapping yesterday's show.
Yesterday at BarCamp Ohio I sat listening to a conversation among people who were trying to balance the need to be involved in social media outreach with the need to run their businesses. Their frustration was based on the fear that as they finally embraced a social network or site, the masses would move some place new. For a company focused running a business instead of playing in the social media sphere, it's a valid concern.
While my roots rest firmly in the camp of search engine optimization and search engine marketing, I've spent the last year or two leaning more heavily toward the blogging, social media, viral marketing side of things. I'm often struck at the similarities between these methods. For instance, knowing your audience and creating content that makes them happy is generally the key in all four areas. Yesterday, I also realized the similarities in terms of pet peeves.
I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From the difference between building links and building content to principles of influence to a quick and easy keyword research tip, check out a roundup of five posts I classify as "must-read" for the day.
I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From understanding the Google AdWords system to getting your entire team involved in social media efforts, check out a roundup of five posts I classify as "must-read" for the day.
Last night I had the pleasure of meeting up with a couple dozen other Columbus bloggers for a preview of the new Experience Columbus marketing campaign. The campaign was touted as having a heavy social media component and since I'm in the process of promoting Columbus myself with our upcoming Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference, I was excited to see what they had put together. Unfortunately, the night featured quite a few classic social media marketing mistakes.
It's been said the devil is in the details. Unfortunately, I'm not really a details kind of person. I'd like to write it off and say my mental energy goes into creativity; but the truth is, I'm just really forgetful. It's why we have insanely organized people like Rachel and Vickie on staff to keep us organized. That's why yesterday's Columbus Tweetup served as a great reminder of one of the common mistakes small businesses make when it comes to social media.
I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From made up social media profiles to online reputation management to shifting paid search campaigns from Google to Yahoo, check out a roundup of seven posts I classify as "must-read" for the day.
I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From suprise social media usage to keyword copywriting to an ongoing debate around how to be the best company you can be online...check out half a dozen posts I classify as "must-read" for the day.
If you've been thinking about joining us at Small Business Marketing Unleashed this fall, but aren't sure if the content is going to be a good fit for you, here's your chance to find out. I'm about to completely revamp my viral marketing talk, so I've released my old one into the public domain by speaking at Podcamp Ohio. That means you've now got the chance to hear my one hour Viral Marketing talk (and test drive our SBMU content) for free.
One of the questions I hear over and over again when I teach a search marketing boot camp is "How do search engines know which of my words are my keywords." These folks believe Google has a "list" of keywords and they come to your site hunting for them. While I can understand their line of thinking, the idea that search engines dub certain words on your site as your keywords isn't really true.
I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From egommunication to controlling the message online to a great recap of the fundamentals of paid search advertising, check out a roundup of five posts I classify as "must-read" for the day.
I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From more insight into Google's algorithm to the value of links to a reminder of how well Twitter works as a networking tool, check out a roundup of half a dozen posts I classify as "must-read" for the day.
Viral marketing may be one of the most misunderstood forms of marketing. This gets proven to me over and over when some company calls (or emails) and tells me "we've just created X and we need you to make it go viral." While it's flattering to have people think I'm THAT good at what I do, each and every one of these companies tends to get the same response. "Thanks, but next time you need to call me before you create X." Not long after, I find myself thinking about what makes up a good viral campaign and just how much of that is misunderstood by companies.
As the kids splashed around and I sat on a park bench in the shade with my husband and in-laws, I found myself thinking. We'd come for the free fountains, but had already dropped $75 on lunch at the mall. As I took in the environment and noticed the little "extras" the team at Easton had added to make the fountains more appealing for families, I couldn't help but draw an analogy between what Easton Towne Center was doing and what Web 2.0 allows online businesses to do.
I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From measuring the effectiveness of social media to hiring a search engine optimization firm to getting in the video game, check out a roundup of half a dozen posts I classify as "must-read" for the day.
If you're just getting started with search engine optimization, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the information and all the details getting thrown around on blogs and discussion forums around the web. While good optimization skills take time to build, it's quite simple to get started.
A round up of what Jennifer read and found interesting today on the web. From how questions about Yahoo and Google's algorithms to dropping Technorati rankings to an impressive roundup of thoughts on what makes a social media marketer, check out five posts Jen thought you need to read.
A round up of what Jennifer read and found interesting today on the web. From how Google ranks sites to writing effective blog posts to Twitter Zombie attacks, check out half a dozen posts Jen thought you need to read.
As I find myself drifting further and further from my search engine optimization roots to focus more time and effort on exploring the worlds of social media, blogging and viral marketing, I'm sometimes astonished at the misunderstandings between these two worlds. Search engine marketers look to social media as a vast expanse of link opportunities, almost completely missing the true potential of social media. On the other hand, social media types tend to look at SEO as some type of dirty game of tricks and scams that would tarnish the pure image they hope to build in their social media utopia.
A round up of what Jennifer read and found interesting today on the web. From new data on offline conversion rates to social media via newspapers, check out four posts Jen thought you need to read.
Almost anytime I talk about viral marketing, the subject of offline word of mouth verses online word of mouth comes up. People ask questions like which is more powerful, which has more potential and which leads to higher conversions and purchases. The truth is, it depends on the campaign and the product. Still, two new sets of data have been released about word of mouth marketing that are worth looking at.
A round up of what Jennifer thought was worth sharing today. From the latest numbers on how much businesses spend on search marketing each year to the need to dig deep in analytics to simple reminders of why social media matters, Jen offers up half a dozen articles worth your time.
I think more people are beginning to understand the value of using Twitter during conferences to keep up with the conversation around the event and for meeting people at the show, but I think a lot of people are still failing to grasp the benefits of tying every day Twitter use to post-show networking. After attending Podcamp Ohio this past weekend, I'm reminded of just how useful Twitter is AFTER the show.
A round up of what Jennifer thought was worth sharing today. From her first "Plurkshop" to social media espionage to a couple different viewpoints of creating online content, Jen offers up half a dozen articles worth your time.
When I teach Social Media classes to small businesses, I can always count on someone in the audience to ask a question that goes a little something like this: "I've got limited time to invest in social media, but there seem to be a million sites out there. How do I know which one is worth my time? If I only have time for one, which one should it be?" Well I generally try to weasel out of that question by telling them I'd use both LinkedIn AND Twitter, the truth is if I had to pick just one, LinkedIn would win, hands down. Let me tell you why.
A round-up of interesting posts, resources and articles from around the web today. From a common marketing missteps to the paid search content network to a fantastically creative post on Twitter, find out what stories I thought were interesting enough to share with you today.
When it comes to building links and generating coverage of your web site and products online, there's a skill that often gets overlooked. Relationship building gets a lot of lip service these days, but I sometimes wonder how many small businesses really, truly understand how much work goes into it. Relationships go beyond reading a single blog post or scanning a Facebook page...it means investing time in someone.
A round-up of interesting posts, resources and articles from around the web today. From a super comprehensive post on local search tactics to some common sense copywriting advice, find out what stories I thought were interesting enough to share with you today.
A round-up of interesting posts, resources and articles from around the web today. From site maps to link bait to the Google/Yahoo deal, find out what stories I thought were interesting enough to share with you today.
A round-up of posts, resources and articles from around the web. From a monster list of webmaster blogs for and by women to a satirical warning about misusing social media to a David and Goliath story that will make your blood boil, find out what Jen is reading today and why.
Good search engine optimization has always been about delivering great content to both readers and search engine spiders. Really good search engine optimization is about learning to balance who to keep happy at any point in time and understanding how one change to your site can impact multiple things. Excellent search engine optimization is when you find the "sweet spot." That's when you make a change to your site that results in increased rankings AND increased sales.
Obviously the goal of your copy is to do a little bit of both, but when it comes right down to it, which ones is more important? We all know you need to consider your rankings because they can be a fantastic source of traffic, but it's also true that traffic that doesn't (or won't) convert means almost nothing to the average site owner.
Kudos to Matt Cutts and the team at Google for finally getting around to adding nofollow documentation (and a few other updates) to the Google Webmaster Help Center.
I'm pleased to announce that Anita Campbell, CEO and editor of Small Business Trends will be joining us in Columbus, Ohio this fall to serve as keynote at the second Small Business Marketing Unleashed Conference. If you aren't familiar with Anita, you should be. When it comes to small business, she's one of the most respected sources on the web.
I'm continually amazed at how people go barreling into social media sites like a bull in a china shop and then wonder why they aren't well received. They hear social media is changing the way people do business and they make the mistake of thinking it's changing it to something "new" instead of simply changing it back to the way things used to be. (Yes, I know Twitter is new, I mean in spirit.)
While we're starting to see a shift toward more and more people understanding and embracing the idea of social media, there are still quite a few folks out there that simply don't get it. That's not to say they don't understand what it is, it's that they don't understand why it's so important and how it can impact their business.
Sometimes it's the really simple advice that can have the most impact on how you do business. That's the basis of Tim's advice over at Convert Offline this week. Tim harkens back to his Yellow Pages days and offers up some great suggestions on building a better local search presence. Now some people might find it odd to learn SEO lessons from something as old school as the Yellow Pages, but Tim offers up some good advice on improving your site.
I've read a lot of posts lately tearing down the public relations industry for what a poor job they do when pitching bloggers. I've also read (and written) quite a few posts about what a terrible job companies do relating to bloggers and having conversations with them. While there's no doubt companies and PR firms have a long way to go, a blast from my past reminded me that bloggers need to share some responsibility in all this.
If you missed the first Small Business Marketing Unleashed event in Columbus and have spent the last month kicking yourself, it's ok! We wouldn't be us if we didn't try to do everything we could to take care of you! So, Jen, Rachel, Robert and Vickie have spent the last three weeks with our nose to the grindstone to line up a second, BONUS edition of Small Business Marketing Unleashed this fall in Columbus, Ohio.
One of the most common mistakes I see being made by folks who are new to search engine optimization is a lack of focus on attracting deep links. These people will work hard to gain new links to their sites by submitting to directories, joining organizations and filling out profiles on social networks, but they often fail to focus on getting good quality links to the inner pages of their web sites. But new data released by Jacob Nielsen shows just how important those deep links are.
Yesterday I spent the day at a small conference here in Columbus put on by Ohio Web Leaders. They'd asked me to come and speak about blogging for business and blog marketing to a mix of small business, PR types and in-house marketers. Now I always try to break things down into every day life examples, but thanks to an off handed comment about Nutella, I had a chance for a great object lesson.
When you do what I do for a living, it's a constant battle to remind yourself that not everyone lives and breathes online marketing. The true challenge of small business education isn't really in teaching people what they need to know...it's in convincing them they need to know it. That's why I couldn't resist writing a rebuttal to an article over at Anita Campbell's Small Business Trends site by John Mariotti called "Ten Reasons I Won't Use Social Media Sites."
If you've been reading about search engine marketing for more than, oh...about five minutes, you know you need to pick and target keywords and phrases as part of your campaign. You might even be familiar with some of the popular keyword tools and know about concepts like the keyword long tail. Heck, you might have already picked your phrases, optimized your site and moved along to other projects. No matter what point you're at, you need to read Christine Churchill's latest article over at Search Engine Land about selecting your keywords.
It's no secret consumer generated content is hot. Both McDonald's an Apple have bought the rights to content found on YouTube and turned them into commercials in recent months. Consumer generated content has a "real" feeling to it and can often be purchased for far less than the cost of custom created ads. So I'm wondering, why haven't more small businesses thought of exploring this option?
If you are a Google AdWords advertiser and rely on Google's conversion feature to help you figure out your campaign budgets, you'll be interested to learn more about some conversion tracking features they put into place last month. John over at PPC Hero has a nice write up on the features and how you can apply them.
As a hobby blogger in the "mom" realm, I often get swamped at conferences by companies looking to market their products to women. These companies have figured out that women are online en masse and they're communicating their likes, dislikes and daily lives with friends and strangers. I applaud their initiative in trying to reach out to women on the web, but sometimes I wish they'd take a step back and think a little harder about how they approach these women.
With so much focus on social media and fostering conversation these days, companies both big and small are trying to figure out the best way to grow communities. Looking around at the number of blogs dedicated to the topic, you'd think there was some complex formula you needed to follow to get one going. Of course George Oates from Flickr would tell you you're wrong.
Two weeks ago, I came home from Small Business Marketing Unleashed to find a note on my laptop. It said "Hey Jen! We need more content! The masses are circling and you're not giving them enough to read!!" Now as someone who used to regularly churn out 6000 words of content a day, I found I could do nothing more than hang my head in shame. After all, what good is Search Engine Guide if we aren't feeding our readers a steady diet of small business marketing articles to keep them happy?
If you've been wanting to get to a Search Engine Strategies event, but haven't been able to escape from your office, you'll be glad to hear that Search Engine Strategies has teamed up with MarketMotive to offer in-depth online training seminars featuring members of the Market Motive staff and popular SES speakers. The sessions are designed to marketers a chance to receive high level training at a lower price and with a small time commitment than attending an entire show.
Ben McConnell has a short little post over at Church of the Customer this week that serves as a perfect example of why keyword research is so essential. McConnell is talking about companies that rely too heavily on jargon in their marketing materials. In the world of search engine optimization, we call that "PR speak."
As personalized search and universal search continue shaking up an industry that used to be dominated by "top ten results," more and more small businesses are learning the value of focusing on the keyword long tail. While there's no doubting the value of bringing in highly targeted traffic, many companies still don't quite get how to target the long tail in their copy. They also don't know that long tail friendly copy is also user friendly copy.
With all the talk about blogging and social media lately, you'd think there was nothing left to do in the world of search engine optimization. I'm guilty of tunnel vision myself. After all, social media is far more fun to talk about than title tags, keyword selection and canonical issues. That said, sometimes the best way to give your site a boost is to go back to basics. Whether it's a refresher or your first shot at optimizing your site, here's a trip down content revitalization lane.
If you've been looking for a way to improve your paid search campaigns, it might not be a bad idea to check out the upcoming PPC Summit events in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In fact, if you're willing to submit your favorite SEO tip by May 8th, you'll have a shot at winning a free pass to one of the shows.
If you're new around here, you've probably never heard of Robert Clough. If you've been around here for years, you've probably decided Robert Clough is my imaginary friend...someone I made up to pin the blame on when things go south. The truth is he's a real person. The folks who attended SBM Unleashed last week know this and thanks to Anita Campbell, the whole world now knows it.
The first ever Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference has come and gone and I've had a full week to unwind and decompress. When we first announced our conference last fall, I had more than one person drop me an email asking if I knew what I was getting us into. I didn't, but I'm glad. If I had, we never would have done it. For those who joined us in Houston, thank you! It was a true pleasure getting to know you last week. For those who didn't make it, read on for a recap of the show.
Last week at the Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference, small business owners (and a handful of marketers) came from around the world (literally) to learn more about marketing themselves online. We decided to open the show with a tag-team panel approach aimed at helping attendees go into the show sessions with the right perspective. Search engine marketing, blogging and social media are wonderful; but if you're a small business doing it all yourself, you need to approach things from a unique angle.
There's just a handful of days left before the Search Engine Guide team takes to the stage in Houston, Texas for our first ever Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference. Our staff and speakers have been busy finishing up last minute details, putting the finishing touches on presentations and getting ready to load tons of great worksheets and guides onto the flash drives we'll be sending attendees home with. If you haven't signed up yet, it's not too late.
I (along with the rest of the marketing world) have been writing more and more about Twitter in the last few months. How to use it, how to leverage it, and why you need to be part of the conversation. While there are now plenty of examples of why Twitter is valuable in terms of networking and driving traffic, David Armano has a great post this week exploring how two companies are using Twitter to interact with customers and to build their brand.
If so, Adam Audette has you covered. He has put together an exceptional (and incredibly comprehensive) post called "The Fundamentals of Link Building" over at his blog. The post is about a month old, but if you haven't already spotted it, it's well worth a read. Adam breaks link building down by topic and includes dozens of links to tools and resources aimed at helping you through the process.
Yes, you read that right. Seventy-five years ago a team of brilliant marketing professionals offered up the type of advice you can use to get more out of your paid search campaigns. They may not have known sites like Google and Yahoo would pop up decades later, but the concepts and techniques they used and taught are timeless. Alan Rimm-Kaufman takes a look at this advice and how you can apply it in his Paid Search column at Search Engine Land today.
Over the past few weeks, I've seen multiple instances of companies using spite and or attacks to try and push themselves ahead of their competitors. I imagine in their minds, painting the competition in a poor light makes their own products and services look that much better. Unfortunately for them, they've missed a key lesson in both life and marketing. If you have to make someone else look bad in order to make yourself look or feel good, you've got a long way to go.
If you're using the free Google Analytics as your stats solution, you probably already know that AdWords integrates into Google Analytics pretty seamlessly. If you're running campaigns on Yahoo or MSN, it takes a little more effort. Lucky for you, the folks at The Adventures of PPC Hero have created handy primers on how to get things rolling.
I've been using Twitter for roughly five months now and I'm finding more and more reasons to include it on my must-use list of social media sites. I go to thinking about my little love affair this week when Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends asked fifteen small business owners what their favorite social media site was and why. I was interviewed for the piece, as were Unleashed speakers Matt McGee and Wendy Piersall. The more I thought about it, the more I realized Twitter just might be the best all-around social network for small business owners.
On the heels of this morning's article about the need to inject a little humanity into your small business marketing, I ran across a great post by Mike Moran over at Biznology that asks if you can handle a little professional embarrassment. After all, if you're going to inject humanity via social media experimentation, there's a good chance you're going to make a fool of yourself.
One of the biggest challenges facing small businesses on the web is how to differentiate themselves from the competition. Yes, a unique domain name or site design can help. Great products and good prices makes a difference as well. But sometimes, it really is the little things that can push you over the top. In fact, for just sixty cents (give or take a nickel), one small business in DeKalb, Illinois cemented it's brand in my "gift shopping" bookmarks and sparked a post on this blog that will reach hundreds of thousands of potential customers.
If someone told you only there was a place where people might talk about your product and 23 percent of the people who saw that conversation would be more likely to buy your product...would you think that was a good thing? I would. In fact, I'd very much want to find a way to get in front of that audience. That's why, I'm a little confused to hear some people claiming the 23% number isn't significant.
If you run an ecommerce site selling products that can also be found elsewhere, putting your price in your paid search ad could go a long way toward improving your conversion rates. That's the point Jennifer Slegg makes in a post on pay per click conversion rates and ROI at her blog today. Jennifer reminds readers that while many companies spend their time focusing on driving clicks, they would be better served looking at ROI and considering how the information in their ad impacts both click through rates and conversion rates.
While search engines are pretty good at finding web sites and getting their content indexed, many site owners have no idea their web sites can be created in a way that looks good to people, but can't be read by search engines. If your site is built entirely in Flash, relies too heavily on Javascript or uses drop down boxes and forms to let people find your content, the search engines may be missing out on your content.
Sean D'Souza at Copyblogger calls them "a few measly words." I like to refer to it as "Thesaurus surfing." Either way, Sean offers up a couple of fantastic examples of how adding a target and some adjectives to your article titles can go a long way toward tightening up your content and enticing readers to click through and follow you along for the literary ride.
Earlier this week I wrote a post reminding small businesses why it's so important to consider launching a blog to go with their web site. At the time, I pointed out the benefit of ever-changing content. Today, i ran across a great post over at ProBlogger exploring nearly two dozen types of static pages you should consider building into your blog. While the idea of creating static pages on a blog may sound counterintuitive, it's actually an important part of blog creation many people miss.
If you're a marketer and you put content online...you want data. Data is what tells us our ideas our working. Data is also what tells us our ideas are falling short. It's what tells us who came, where they came from, how long they hung around and if they actually did anything during their visit. The problem data loving marketers are facing these days is how to reconcile new sources of traffic and exposure with an extreme lack of insight into how people are interacting with our content.
While catching up on my RSS feeds today, I came across a post at Matt McGee's Small Business SEM that's a few days old, but well worth mentioning. The post dives into the issue of Alexa rankings and explains why they should not be used as a gauge of how successful a web site is.
No doubt some of you looked at your calendars last week and realized you'd missed the $850 early bird price for our upcoming Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Houston. Don't sweat it, we've got you covered. We've spent the last six months building the perfect conference for you. We know how busy you are. Do you think we'd let you miss out on this great show just because you forget to set an alert on your calendar?
While social media is still the topic du jour at major search conferences, I'm still hearing a lot of buzz about blogs. While Technorati is tracking more than 121 million blogs these days, we're still no where near the saturation point. The issue now is convincing small businesses of the need to consider launching a blog. That's what Grant Griffiths is aiming to do over at Home Office Warrior with his great list of 12 Ways a Blog Can Benefit Your Business.
If you've been looking for more control over who sees the ads you run via Google AdWords, here's your chance. Google began beta testing demographic bidding back in January and opened the program up to all AdWords advertisers last Friday. Granted, when they say all AdWords advertisers, they mean all the ones utilizing the content network, but this new feature still gives small business owners far more control than they've ever had over who sees their AdWords ads.
If you read technology and marketing blogs or follow Twitter, chances are good you've heard some of the fuss about Sarah Lacy's interview of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at yesterday's South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin. I spent the afternoon watching Twitter users unleash an absolute tirade against Lacy during the interview, which left me wondering what was going on. After having read numerous blog posts, news stories and watching several video clips, I realized what the fuss was all about. As always, there's something to be learned from failure.
Quite a bit! After a trek across the pond and some time spent in a pub in Northeastern England, Site Logic Marketing's Matt Bailey offers up an excellent article this week that draws a poignant analogy between social media marketing and the traditional English Pub.
We've always been pretty open here at Search Engine Guide about how we do things. Partly because that's just who we are, but mostly because we like the challenge of doing things on a budget (like our readers) and ending up with examples that can help inspire them in their own marketing goals.
If you haven't heard, the teams from Best of the Web and the Internet Marketers of New York are throwing their third charity party later this month during Search Engine Strategies New York. This time around, they've decided to let the Internet marketing community decide which charity the event should benefit. They asked four industry folks to back a charity and they're asking YOU to cast your vote. I'm one of the four and as you can imagine, I'm pushing for the event to benefit the HMBANA Milk Banks.
I remember when there was this nice lull between December and April where I didn't have to book flights, write presentations or find someone to watch my kids. These days, it feels like one conference blends into the next. On the plus side, that means you have tons of options to choose from if you're looking to attend a search marketing or online marketing conference.
Up until now, the series has mostly focused on how you can use Twitter to directly communicate with other members. I've shared insight into how you can expand your networking skills, use Twitter to meet up with people in person and set links on the viral path with "retweets." While each and every one of those uses adds value to the Twitter service, it was the use of Twitter as a news source for that first caught my interest.
By now I'm hoping you've either signed up for Twitter and started playing around to see what you can learn or are at least giving it some thought. Of course if you already have enough friends or never leave your house, I probably haven't convinced you to give it a go yet. I'll aim to change that today by convincing you of the power of Twitter in terms of driving traffic and launching viral buzz.
To some, it sounds incredibly simple. To others, it's somewhat mind boggling. Search marketers toss around lingo like "keywords" and "keyword phrases" as if they're part of everyone's vocabulary. While it's true the words are nothing special, the concept can be foreign to someone new to the industry. This article offers up a quick and simple primer on the concept of keywords and keyword phrases in regards to organic search engine optimization.
Matt McGee offers up a post over at Small Business SEM that makes it pretty clear Google Maps is on the way up in terms of usage. Despite my love of Yelp for local reviews, I find myself turning to Google Maps more and more often for brick and mortar business info. It's the integrated option on my iPhone and the simple navigation on the web version of the site let's me find specific types of stores near certain locations.
Listen to any commercial from a warehouse style store and they'll tell you all about how you have to "cut out the middleman." The middleman is bad, bad, bad. He mucks things up, he makes them more expensive and he keeps you from getting the absolute best deal on your appliances, mattresses and even your insurance. In the world of social media marketing however, the middleman is your friend. In fact, he or she could become one of your most valuable assets.
Ok, so chances are good quite a few of you have Twitter accounts already. At some point, you wondered what the hype was all about, went and signed up and followed a few people. Then you got bored, asked yourself why you were wasting your time on this "crazy Twitter stuff" and left your account for greener pastures. For some of you, it was a good choice. After all, you DO have a business to run. For others...well, maybe you just need a little perspective on when and how Twitter comes in handy.
There's no denying that opening up a Twitter account is easy stuff. Five minutes out of your day and you're ready to be up and running. There's also no denying that Twitter is a lonely, lonely place if you don't have any friends. Today, we'll dive into the Twitter "followers/following" system and learn how you can really use Twitter to communicate with people.
SEO contests are nothing new. Every few months someone pops up with some randomly generated phrase and a pile of prizes so aspiring search engine optimizers can go head to head in a race for top rankings. But when Donna Fontenot (DazzlinDonna) approached me about her latest idea for an SEO contest, I couldn't resist. This time around, Donna has recruited about a dozen search marketers to go head to head in a two-month, live blogged weight loss competition a la' "The Biggest Loser." The cool part? It's all about raising money for charities.
I've spent the last month playing around with Twitter. Now that I've had time to really dive into the service, experiement with it and learn some of the finer details, I figured it's about time I wrote a Seach Engine Guide style guide to the service. This multi-part series will cover everything from how to get an account and get people following you to the finer points of twitter marketing and networking. It's not a service that will be worth the time to everyone, but it's certainly proven itself to have practical application for me.
How does a big stodgy business with a fairly boring product leverage social media? Easy. They create a new and growing social community of entrepreneurs. Ideablob is that community. Launched byAdvanta, one of the largest providers of business credit cards to small businesses, Ideablob is a great example of how B2B companies are leveraging social media to build a vibrant community of followers all while boosting the Advanta brands to their target audience.
Word is out that 30 second spots during this year's SuperBowl are going for a cool $3 million. That's unattainable cash for most small businesses. Even still, I have to wonder if it's a worthwhile investment for the companies that CAN afford it. Surely there's a better way to leverage $3 million to deliver a solid return and ongoing return.
I've spent years working with small businesses to help them improve their online marketing efforts. In that time, I've seeing companies falling into one of two traps. They either begin to obsessively focus on the latest and greatest or they go into panic mode and avoid trying anything new for fear of making a mistake. That's a point Mike Moran addresses beautifully in his latest post over at Biznology.
The folks over at PPC Hero are doing a new series this week on paid search advertising called "Learn to Think and Search Like Your Customers." Their goal is to break down the different areas of paid search campaigns and to help you learn how taking the time to really consider your customer can help you position your product to be THE answer to their search.
You would think that in 2008, it would be hard for a mainstream retail outlet to ignore the potential impact of blogs. You would think that, but you would be wrong. I caught Jim Tobin's tweet about Target's decision not to interact with "non-traditional media" and found myself just shaking my head at the news.
Maki thinks so. He's put together a great post sharing seventeen different uses he's found for Twitter. It's a good post for those of you who have looked at Twitter with (justifiable) skepticism and wondered what it had to offer you. Some of you will find your skepticism confirmed, but others will spot some practical application that makes a little experimenting with Twitter worthwhile. Thus far, I fall into the latter group.
Every now and then you have to get back to the basics. You may be learning the ropes and turning in some pretty good results with your search engine marketing efforts. You might be seeing higher rankings, more traffic and tons of links. Of course you might not be seeing an increase in sales. If that's the case, there's a good chance you've made one of three common mistakes with your search marketing campaign.
If you've spent any time reading online marketing blogs or sites like this one, you're probably either blogging or thinking about blogging. Of course you also might be wondering about more traditional online marketing options like the ever popular email newsletter. But if your time is limited, which one should you get your focus? That's the question being answered by Rich Brooks at the Flyte Blog today.
With all the talk about link these days, it's no wonder folks get confused about what types of links they should go after. From reciprocal links to directories to the Google nofollow controversy, it's getting tough for the average web site owners to know what makes up a solid link building plan. With that in mind, Debra Mastaler offers up a great post at Search Engine Land called "There's No Such Thing as a Worthless Link."
If the writer's strike has left you feeling like you're missing the best of awards season, Matt McGee is here to rescue you. He's announced the launch of the SEMMYs, a new award that aims to honor the best online marketing posts of the year in more than a dozen categories. The initial list of nominees was compiled by Matt, but more than two dozen industry types (myself included) will be working to narrow the field before Matt opens it up to votes.
I've written quite a few articles about companies who have trouble dealing with the way social media has changed conversation. Big, old school companies and organizations who are used to "controlling the message" tend to have a hard time letting go of that control. Unfortunately for them, social media is pushing the conversation forward whether they want it to or not. That's why I was surprised, but really not surprised at the NCAA's new blogging policies.
Wendy Piersall offers up an excellent post about blog ad networks this week over at eMoms at Home. Whether you're looking for a network to join or one to buy ads through, this post is a worthwhile read.
Last year brought about quite shake-up to the way many sites were used to building links. Google's decision to take on link buyers left quite a few folks feeling a little paranoid about both seeking links and linking out. With that in mind, Justilien Gaspard tackles the Top 5 SEO and Link Building Challenges for 2008 in a column at Search Engine Watch today.
Robots.txt files are often mentioned as being an important foundation of a search friendly web site. To site owners and small businesses who are new to search marketing, the robots.txt file can sound daunting. In reality, it's one of the fastest, simplest ways to make your site just a little more search engine friendly.
Everyone knows that if you want to build something big, you have to have a strong foundation. That holds true whether you're putting up a skyscraper or creating an online marketing plan. While you may think it's all about links and keywords, solid search and online marketing encompasses so much more. That's why anyone looking to start marketing their business online should print out and study Matt McGee's new SEO Success Pyramid.
It's the new year and registrations are starting to roll in for Search Engine Guide's upcoming Small Business Marketing Unleashed event. If you've been thinking about joining us in Houston this April, you may want to think about reserving your spot son. Registration is limited and there aren't many on site rooms left.
On the heels of my own post about the social media time sink, I ran across one by Chris Winfield over at Search Engine Land offering up some advice on the best use of your time when it comes to social media.
Here's the problem with social media: it takes a lot of time. There are only so many hours in the day and if you're a small business owner, you need to spend most of them working. The challenge for any small business owner when it comes to social media is figuring out how to leverage it without letting it destroy your productivity. That's why it's essential to stop worrying so much about missing something and start focusing more on using what works for you.
Every now and then, your company makes a decision that has a pretty big impact on your customers. Sometimes that impact is positive, sometimes it does a pretty good job of ticking those customers off. How that decision is received can make a big difference in the ongoing success of your business. If you aren't watching the Internet to gauge the reaction to these decisions, you're making a big mistake.
Search Engine Guide blogger Manoj Jasra just dropped me a note to let me know about the launch of a new "global marketing" blog that aims to offer up some specific advice for marketers reaching out in ten different countries. Knowing we have quite a few non-U.S. readers, I thought this was something worth passing along.
We've seen a couple of posts popping up in our Small Business Ideas forums asking if links from a specific site are being nofollowed or not. With that in mind, I thought a quick tutorial on how to find out if a link is nofollowed might be handy for some of our readers.
As we head into the new year, small businesses across the web will be looking to boost their presence by sparking conversation, attracting links and driving new sales. If you're looking for to walk the path to viral success, consider two statements made by popular marketing bloggers this week.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks for many small business sites (well, any site, really) when it comes to search engine optimization is the lack of text on their web sites. After all, it's well known among SEO's that search engines cannot read the text in an image. Or can they? Bill Slawski walks us through a few new Google patent filings today that may point to a change in this long standing rule of SEO.
While many small business owners are flocking to social media and social networking sites, others are scratching their heads and wondering why they should waste their time. Those head scratchers might want to take a look at an article out today over at eWeek that explores the trend of small businesses using social networks as sounding boards and referral services.
If you've been wondering about adding AdSense to your blog or web site to boost your revenue, but haven't been quite sure how to get started, you might want to check out "Newbie Central." Designed to help site owners get a better understanding of how the AdSense publishing system works, Newbie Central was introduced yesterday on the Inside AdSense blog.
Last fall, the paid links debate was raging across the Internet as nearly every industry blog and forum focused in on what Google was demanding and how it would impact everyone's bottom line. I wrote a