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Is Google Giving Your Site RESPECT?

2011-11-17T06:23:00.001-08:00

Is Google giving you the RESPECT you deserve?
Tell us what you think.

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The Impact of Social Media on the Presidential Race

Political candidates are starting to use social media to the fullest extent in an effort to gain more votes. According to Hugh Hewitt, the host of The Hugh Hewitt Show, the ability to utilize this new media will have an even greater impact on the upcoming election as it did during the 2008 election.

To design pages also for Tablets/PDA/Mobiles or wait?

By: NetProwler

The information here averaged over a period of 3 months on a few general topic sites, shows that we have to pay more attention to Google Chrome than we have ever done in the past. Some of our pages don't render well in GC as they do in IE/FF which we will address in due course. (CSS lines, borders and other elements desire different treatment in Chrome). Looks like we are back in the 1990 -era of cross browser compatibility issues.

Our main worry is the growing trend of hand held devices (Tablets/ Mobiles/PDA) and how do we design pages for them ? The screen size varies so much - from large screen LCD TVs running Android, Ipad's 10 inch screen and the minuscule mobiles sporting 3.5 inch screens.

There is no one size which fits all.

My tablets show images all right - only the text needs to be enlarged. What is the general ball park figure in designing pages for the diminutive screen sizes ? Sadly we still carry over some remnants of tabled pages.

Any insights? Or the whole exercise can be shelved for now?

» Post Your Reply...

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

If not, maybe it's your fault.

A lot of people feel that Google is treating them unfairly when it comes to search rankings. If you are one of these people, let me be perfectly blunt. There's a good chance this is your fault. You have to play by Google's rules if you want to have a good chance of being found in Google (and while there are certainly other ways to generate web traffic, Google is obviously a pretty big one). That said, Google will also be the first to tell you that "no algorithm is perfect". Sometimes they don't get it right. But are you doing everything in your own power to darn Google's RESPECT?

Is Google giving you the RESPECT you deserve? Comment here.

Is your site showing up in search results for its targeted keywords? If not, maybe you're not effectively using these keywords. Google is on to keyword stuffing, and content that is purely written for search. Do not over-saturate your content with keywords you wish to rank for. That said, you can use them as they make sense without compromising the flow of your content. Think titles, image labels (alt tags/title tags/captions), etc. It doesn't hurt to keep this stuff in mind as you produce content. Just don't do it in a way that compromises the quality of your page.

Sitelinks

Is Google showing site links for your site when it appears in search results?

Right now, sitelinks are automated, but Google says it may incorproate webmaster input in the future. Frankly, I'd be very surprised if they didn't. Still, there are best practices you can follow. " For example, for your site's internal links, make sure you use anchor text and alt text that's informative, compact, and avoids repetition," Google says.

If Google is showing sitelinks for your site, but you don't like the ones they've chosen to display, you can demote URLs to let Google know which ones you don't think are appropriate. To do this, go to Webmaster Tools, click the site, and go to "sitelinks" under "site configuration". In the "For this search result" box, complete the URL you don't want to appear as a sitelink. In the "demote this sitelink URL" box, complete the URL of the one you don't want to appear. Note that it might take Google a while to reflect this in search results.

The Algorithm Updates

It's not just about what Google has done in terms of algorithm updates. It's about what you should be doing. But perhaps you have been hit by recent algorithm tweaks. If Panda, for example, hit your site, then drastic changes may be needed. Google considers your site to be of low quality. Perhaps a site redesign is in order. Google has a whole list of questions you should be asking yourself about your site in terms of quality.

Included on that list is "Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content." Google said last week that it is testing algorithms that look more at this factor above the fold. Be prepared for that.

Google also just listed ten of its most recent algorithm changes.

Google Is Listening.

If you think you've done everything you need to do to make your site Panda-friendly, and Google is still not giving you the RESPECT you think you deserve, then let them know. The company insists that it is listening. Go to this thread and make your voice heard. Last week, they even said they have an Excel sheet of about 500 sites from this thread (at least, I assume this is the thread they were referring to). There is a person responsible for false positives, they said. You may have a legitimate beef, and Google, at least to some extent, recognizes this.

Are You Expecting Google To Be Perfect?

Google isn't perfect. They know this. In fact, they make this point themselves all the time It's why they constantly tweak their algorithm. They're not launching all of these updates just to mess with webmasters. Google makes over 500 changes to its algorithm over a year's time. They're trying to improve the quality of their search results. It's not in Google's best interest to return results to users that aren't helpful. They don't want to send people to Bing, which is marketing its search engine much more heavily than Google. Whether you think the quality of Google's results have gotten better or not, this is their goal. Google considers Panda a "positive change across all of its known measurements," by the way. I'm sure some of you disagree.

What Are Your Competitors Doing Right?

Still, you might see lesser competitors ranking above you in search results, and that can be very frustrating. For some reason, Google is giving them more RESPECT. Do you think it's going to do you any good to just sit back and complain though? It's your responsibility to analyze your competition. Look at the page that is ranking above yours. Are there some things about that content or page that they are doing better than you? Richer content? A cleaner design? Google has over 200 signals. Keep this in mind. Look for anything positive about that page, and then look at yours and compare and contrast.

What are your thoughts?

Comment Now...

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About the Author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter.
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Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Wednesday is Sharing Day on Facebook” plus 6 more

2011-11-17T06:22:00.001-08:00

Marketing Pilgrim Published: "Wednesday is Sharing Day on Facebook" plus 6 more

Wednesday is Sharing Day on Facebook
The Cure for Your PubCon Hangover
Google's Verbatim Search For A True Exact Match
Social Commerce: Where Do We Go From Here?
YouTube Gets a Google+ Update and Plus Pages Get Ugly
Google Further Personalizes Your Map Experience
Political 404 Pages: From Informative to Irreverent to Boring

Wednesday is Sharing Day on Facebook

Posted: 16 Nov 2011 02:00 AM PST

Wednesday is the most misunderstood day of the week. It's far enough away from last weekend that the fun memories are fading. It's far enough away from next weekend to keep you from getting too excited. And then there's that awful nickname: Hump Day.

Here at Marketing Pilgrim, we say Wednesday deserves a little respect and here's why. Turns out more people share and click on Facebook posts on Wednesday, than any other day of the week. Take that Friday.

Here's a chart from a new study by EdgeRank Checker.

Look at Wednesday, beating the pants off all those other days!

EdgeRank took this one step further, measuring the correlation between clicks and other behavior on Facebook. Here's what they came up with:

§ Avg Clicks Per Like: 3.103

§ Avg Clicks Per Comment: 14.678

§ Avg Clicks Per Impression: 0.005

Frankly, I thought the numbers would be higher. One like for every three people who clicks isn't bad.

Marketing Pilgrim's Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.

EdgeRank's numbers also point to the fact that pages with a large following have benefited most from changes in the news feed. But that was a whole two weeks ago. Since then, Facebook has rejiggered the formula a second time, so there's no telling where everyone is now.

How's Facebook working for you? Have you seen a change in traffic since the news feed redesign? And how do you really feel about Wednesdays?

The Cure for Your PubCon Hangover

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 09:30 PM PST

There's no better way to test your resolution than braving a four day conference like PubCon and returning to a pile of emails and backed-up projects. Whether you're still recovering from PubCon Vegas 2011 (Nov 7-10th) or you just want to prepare for your next post-conference hangover, I have a recipe that might just do the trick.

If you're one of those people who diligently keep up with your work while you're at a conference, I would like to remind you that you don't actually exist.

Answer emails first

Every emergency starts and stops with an email. Take Matt Cutts, who mentioned to an eager crowd gathered for his keynote address, that Google Webmaster tools is going to email you if your WordPress is not the latest version (they do for me now). Ignoring that email could get your site hacked! Check your email first to avoid a major problem.

As an added bonus, answering emails early in your PubCon hangover might just check off a few tasks on projects you're going to have to get to anyways. Knock out your emails first to put out fires and familiarize yourself with the status of your projects.

Approach projects with care

Eventually you're going to have to pour countless hours into those detailed projects you were caught up on before you left. Work has been piling up and there's nothing short of good old fashioned blood, sweat, and tears that is going to fix that.

Early in your hangover it will be hard to find the time to dedicate to intricate projects. Try to at least go through the action items and status of your projects so you're not surprised with a pending deadline you overlooked.

Try to keep project time to a minimum in the beginning so you won't add to your email backlog by dedicating all your time to one or two projects.

Beware of meetings

Meetings are your enemy the first few days back from a conference. Avoid them like the plague, and when cornered, insist they be a phone conference or located at your office (if you can). Travel time, long winded peers and post meeting follow-ups can eat up half a day before you know it.

Limit meetings to one per day and spread them out over the next week. Remind people that you just got back from a conference learning all kinds of cool stuff that will help them. Short of an emergency, they'll be happy to oblige. We've all gone through a conference hangover.

Figure out your business cards

If you're like me, you come back from a conference wondering who the heck all these people are. Go through your stack of cards and look for ones where you wrote on the back. These are the low hanging fruit and will usually contain the clues you need to decide to act or trash.

When you decide to act, maybe consider setting a calendar reminder or task for yourself to respond to the person at a later date. There's no shame in punting a few relationships that you can get back to later.

For cards without writing or from people you don't remember, check out their website. It could be that they had some tool or service you really found interesting. Again, set a reminder or bookmark the site if you like it so you can get back to it later.

Of course, if the business card is about sending you business, you need to contact those people right away! The conference hangover is the opposing force of the "conference high" and can be a quick liberator of cordial feelings expressed across an open bar. Reach out to conference buddies ready to send you money before the good friend you have turns into "some guy I met at a conference".

Do something with your notes

This is often the most heart breaking part of my own conference hangovers. I spend a ton of money on travel, meals, conference passes and lost work time to take pages of notes that sit on my desk and eventually get shuttled away into a drawer. So many great ideas banished under old boxes of business cards and iPhone cables.

Don't let your well paid for information go to waste. Dedicate some time to transcribing your notes into an actionable form like a calendar reminder set for a later date. Set it two weeks from now and maybe then you'll have the time to check out the new tool or technique you picked up in the sessions.

For PubCon specifically, you'll receive a copy of the presentations on a USB drive. If you can't read your chicken scratch or you missed a session you really wanted to attend, you'll get a second chance at the information in a few weeks.

Make sure to stay social

This is a personal decision you'll have to make for every relationship you made at PubCon, but try to lump people into the social network where you feel it's most appropriate to engage with them. Try to limit people you're a fan of to Twitter and maybe Google + (depending on the person). For people you shared a deeper connection with, take the plunge and connect through Facebook or Foursquare.

The key to maximizing your relationships will be connections through social networks. Continue your conversation and watch what they're doing next. Chances are, if you thought the person was smart at the conference, they'll be posting something else just as interesting in the future.

Get this knocked out early on so you can maximize the relationship while the conference memories are still fresh.

Keeping the conference high

Trudging through backed up work can quickly put an end to your conference high. After a few days of catching up, go read blog recaps or watch videos from the conference. Use these visual cues to re-ignite the fire which has been dampened by your return to the real world.

By waiting a few days to relive your conference experience, you'll be able to fully relish in your inspiration, free from the distraction of your new email notification flashing like a strobe light.

Good luck!

Image Credit: Andy Beal Photography

Pilgrim's Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Google's Verbatim Search For A True Exact Match

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 09:29 PM PST

Google continues to refine its search function. This time it feels like they are almost going back in time by allowing users to get search results based on what they actually type: verbatim.

When you go click on more search tools at Google.com you can choose "verbatim search" and the following typical algorithm assists are NOT used according to the Inside Search blog.

§ making automatic spelling corrections

§ personalizing your search by using information such as sites you've visited before

§ including synonyms of your search terms (matching "car" when you search [automotive])

§ finding results that match similar terms to those in your query (finding results related to "floral delivery" when you search [flower shops]

§ searching for words with the same stem like "running" when you've typed [run]

§ making some of your terms optional, like "circa" in [the scarecrow circa 1963]

So in other words, on those occasions when you are looking for that perfect misspelled search you can have it so Google won't go in and do the thinking for you.

I'll be honest, I am not sure when this would be used but Google has to keep making "improvements" to search to look like they are concerned about competition.

Social Commerce: Where Do We Go From Here?

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 03:25 PM PST

Social Commerce is one of those terms you wouldn't have found in the encyclopedia a few years ago but it's currently one of the hottest concepts in online marketing.

Useful Social Media has put together a fun and informative infographic showing the history of social commerce beginning with virtual gift sales on Facebook in 2007.

Here's a small piece of the large chart:

I love the 32% of people who said they'd shop right from Twitter if they could. Count me in, too!

So where do we go from here? Sudha Jamthe, the Social Media Strategist, Social Commerce for Ebay, says we should be on the look out for three "game changers" in the coming year.

First, the gamification of social.

This is a concept we've talked about before and it's growing stronger than ever thanks to mobile apps. It's all about roping in that consumer with an entertaining product that will keep them engaged over a long period of time. A consumer might watch a 3-minute video once, but they'll play Angry Birds for hours, returning day after day to play again and again. Last year, statistics showed that globally, Angry Birds ate up 200 million minutes a day. That's what you call sticky.

Now imagine those birds flying by a company logo, over and over, and over. That's brand awareness to the nth degree.

Second on the list is "social shopping scaling up inside Facebook with marketplaces and malls."

This is a tricky one, mostly due to security and payment issues. People just aren't ready to go shopping inside Facebook. They don't trust the site with their personal data, they aren't going to trust it with their credit card numbers.

Finally, says Jamthe, "A lot of experimentation with social data to learn customer's intent to purchase to drive to better merchandising and facilitating shopping."

Experimentation is key. We simply don't have enough data to say for sure what will work and what won't. We do know that recommendations from friends make a difference. We know that humor helps things go viral. We know that as much as people complain about privacy, they gravitate toward personalization.

What we're still working on is how we can use the unique abilities of a tablet to create an exciting, new shopping experience. How we can use our mobile phone to pay for lunch. And yes, how to get people to shop through Twitter.

After that, it's onward to things we can't even imagine at the moment. How cool is that?

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YouTube Gets a Google+ Update and Plus Pages Get Ugly

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 01:49 PM PST

Sometimes there is so much going on that we figure maybe it's a good idea to put a few ideas in one post. This is one of those times.

Last week, Google+ added a YouTube widget to the news stream making it even easier to share videos with your friends. Now, it looks like the reverse is about to happen, as YouTube prepares to add Google+ functionality to its site.

The Next Web broke the story thanks to a tip from someone who has seen the light. The biggest change is a navigation sidebar that will make it easier to find what you're looking for. Like Google+, the sidebar will offer quick links to subscriptions, popular videos and other categories. You'll also find videos recommended by people in your G+ circles.

Overall, it's cleaner, more professional looking and a big step toward becoming an actual social network. All of which, should help you make more money on your videos.

Click here to see the screenshots on TNW.

Google+ Pages Take a Turn for the Worse

On November 8, a Bank of America page opened on Google+. Only, it wasn't created by Bank of America. It was created for the purpose of mocking the bank as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. There were posts about bank executives meeting for a party in a foreclosed home, and the seizure of bank accounts belonging to protestors. It was well thought out and well put together and it might have had a long life had reporters not latched on to the story.

Google's initial response was that they don't comment on individual pages and apparently they don't close them at the drop of a hat. The offending page stayed online for a week before it was shut down.

So where do we go from here? Should Google require some kind of identification when setting up a company page? I set one up for a client and I didn't even need a company email address. I simply picked a name and created the page.

As Google+ becomes more popular, more fake accounts are bound to pop up. Look at Twitter. Even with their verification system, fake celebrity accounts are rampant on the network.

While Google works the kinks out of the system, companies and brands need to be pro-active. If you haven't claimed your name on Google+, do it now before someone else does.

Google Further Personalizes Your Map Experience

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 10:47 AM PST

It's a full time job just keeping up with and understanding the reason behind all the changes that Google makes regularly. The latest is and addition to maps that allows you to see the places you have reviewed on a map along with some Google suggestions. The more I read about these changes the more I realize just how little I go out (don't feel sorry for me because I actually like it that way).

But as with any marketing update in the online space, how I use it doesn't matter a bit. In a post from the Google Lat Long blog comes an explanation of this newest maps feature.

Since the My Places tab was released earlier this summer, you've been able to view all the places you've rated in one manageable list. This list is now being used to personalize your view of Google Maps, enabling you to visualize all the various places you've visited, loved, loathed, and might want to check out right on the map.

Starting today, business labels for locations you've rated with Google Places will be highlighted on the map with your corresponding rating beneath it. Additional places that our system thinks you might enjoy visiting — either to eat, shop, or more — will be highlighted as well. These personalized recommendations are based on the places and ratings you've already shared.

his could be good for the "out and about" set. My question is, how many places does the average person go out to eat at and do they actually forget whether they rated it as being good bad or indifferent? And do they just wander about and look for recommendations to something else in the vicinity?

Anyway, it doesn't matter how I see this. It's how the target market does that counts. Are you one of the targets for this kind of map functionality?

Political 404 Pages: From Informative to Irreverent to Boring

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 09:52 AM PST

OK, let's set the ground rules here. This is a post about the online space but it has to do with politics. I saw a post on Facebook from the Wall Street Journal about political candidates 404 pages. It's an interesting thing to consider as political races are now very dependent on strong online strategy and execution. Based on a survey of this particular website element, it's apparent that the Republicans must fully realize just how bad they got their online butts handed to them in the last presidential election, that's for sure.

So here is a glimpse at the 404 pages of those wanting to get into office. First, out of respect for the office we'll share President Obama's 404 page which opts for the informative route and does a nice job of providing options for the wayward site user to check out. Pretty much what one would expect from an online savvy group like the Obama camp.

Now for the Republican side of the ledger and it looks like the front runners are playing hardball.

Herman Cain's 404 page.

Mitt Romney's 404 page

Now for the rest of the field which looks to be an indication that we may not expect too much from these folks in the way of online irreverence or pizzazz.

Michelle Bachmann's page does give at least some options and good information.

The rest of the pack though? Plain vanilla and done pretty poorly at that. If their 404 efforts are any indication of their ability to help people navigate from a bad place then these are not your guys.

Newt Gingrich

Rick Perry

Ron Paul

In the end this may not seem like much but it's this kind of attention to detail in today's political environment can score big points with voters or cost you votes as well. While we will have to suffer through endless TV ads that are design to denigrate and humiliate an opponent that is no longer the only way to get information about politics……thank God.

What are you looking for from the next year of campaigning that we will all need to suffer through for the next year? WIll it be another Democratic online runaway or do you think the Republicans grasp the importance of this part of their efforts to get to the White House?

Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Two Very Different Online Takes on One Day” plus 4 more

2011-11-17T06:21:00.002-08:00

Marketing Pilgrim Published: "Two Very Different Online Takes on One Day" plus 4 more

Two Very Different Online Takes on One Day
Social Media: You Can't Pretend It's Not Happening
More Teens Twitter but Facebook Still Rules
Klout Caught in Kerfuffle Over Harvested Facebook Data
ShopCity Opts for FTC Over SEO

Two Very Different Online Takes on One Day

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 03:21 AM PST

Last Friday was 11.11.11. It was a rare occurrence indeed and it brought out everything from the ridiculous to the sublime. I took a look back at how two of the major players in online world, Twitter and Google, looked at the day. Twitter, of course looked at the trending of who was talking about the date and when. This video gives a quick visualization from their blog post entitled "Once in a Lifetime".

Cute, I suppose. Looking at the novelty of the day is certainly is one online take and fits Twitter perfectly. It's a world of fleeting trends that come and go like waves hitting the shoreline. They keep coming and we now just expect it to be that way. Whether we pay attention or not is more about our mood than our beliefs.

The flip side of looking at a day came from Google. This day was a rare opportunity to show what was truly important. In this case, a numerical oddity or the other celebration of the day which in the United State was Veterans Day, a holiday that is slowly trying to regain its stature in a society that at times has all but forgotten what sacrifice means.

Google used its capabilities to show another type of trip around the world. Using a tool called tour builder veterans could create a picture of their time in service to their country and where that service took them.

I know which take on 11.11.11 was more significant to me. I also know that it will not be the same for everyone but that's cool because, at its core, social media has something for everyone. What did become apparent in this little exercise, however, was just how limited some tools are in expressing something bigger than a trend. It's not a knock on Twitter at all. It's not built to be deep and reflective and to have a lot of extra capabilities. Google, on the other hand, can have too much information about any subject.

How do you look at the day's events in the new online all the time world that is starting to develop at a rapid pace? Are you looking for a fleeting trend, a meaningful interaction or both? Where do you turn to get what you need? It's actually an important question to answer because what lens you choose to view the world will determine what you see and what you don't see.

Social Media: You Can't Pretend It's Not Happening

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 02:37 AM PST

In a series of posts beginning today, we are excited to have Chris Lorence, the CMO of the Independent Community Bankers of America, an association serving 5,000 members, to share his experience in bringing social media to an industry that has proven reluctant to get involved even in the face of increased scrutiny of banking as a whole. With his members facing the possibility of being targets for any online reputation trouble makers, Chris has been working to help bring his members into the social media age. This series will help you follow this journey and its many ups and downs. it's not unlike many stories our readers have to tell about their own social media quests.

Almost two years ago, our company began the process of integrating social media into our marketing and communication plans. As the Chief Marketing Officer of the largest national trade association for community banks, I heard daily from the membership that we over communicated and sent too much email. Many reported they were deleting without reading the material after the third or fourth email of the day.

Our staff on the other hand was irritated that responses were low; coming to the conclusion that our members were not getting the message. Surely with all the important stuff we've got to say, they were missing the message; turn up the volume and send it again. Stuck in the middle I came to only one conclusion: Let people come and get what they want, save emails for the really important stuff and open a two way dialogue with our membership so we could hear their thoughts. One problem, this meant change.

After attending several conferences on social media, reading countless articles, books, blogs and connecting with many thought leaders on introducing a communication shift that included social media, I introduced the subject to the organization. To say I heard crickets is an understatement. The subject referred to as "that stuff the young people do" by my peers and superiors sounded trendy and fun but would have no traction with our membership. Our members were traditional they explained, they didn't get into all the fancy Internet driven hype. They conducted their business face-to-face with customers who weren't using these things called Twitter or Facebook, much less Yelp and FourSquare. Umm, yeah, I had my work cut out for me that's for sure.

We started by first developing a social media policy for our organization and staff. We slowly began to evaluate the opportunities and determine how social media outlets would enhance and augment our existing communication strategy. The trick was to not get too far ahead of our membership, who were definitely not looking for more ways to communicate with us in their already over burdened and as bankers, over regulated lives.

Our process was calculated and deliberately slow but we were moving forward, leading by example. Consistency and persistence were keys to our success. At every executive staff meeting when asked to give a marketing update I mentioned the increasing numbers of Twitter followers to our corporate account and the multiple "likes" we were seeing from our members on our Facebook page. After months of reporting I took the next bold step: strategizing the reduction of emails via a new push/pull communication strategy. We would now encourage our members to subscribe to things they wanted via social media channels and specialized websites with RSS feed subscriptions instead of forcing anyone with an email address to get everything when we decided.

Over time our members have begun to become more engaged and see social media as something they can no longer ignore. A poll taken in July 2010 indicated that 74% of respondents interacted with a social media outlet in their personal or professional lives. Proof positive that while traditional, our members were not unlike the rest of the world's citizens. Sadly, a subsequent poll in December 2010 indicated that while social media was making inroads, it still had no place in the business of community banking. A full 87% of respondents used firewalls to prevent employee from gaining access to social media websites.

The ice is however starting to thaw as community banks realize that their reputation risk is fully affected by the very outlet they choose to block in their bank. Fear of the unknown and a propensity to focus on the potential for negative feedback from a disgruntled customer weigh heavy on the minds of the community banker. With millions accessed at a moments notice via a mobile device through social media channels, who wouldn't be fearful. Glass half empty? Only if you're the one who's being complained about we tell our members. Dissatisfied customers make the best advocates and evangelists when they find a new bank that meets their needs. I think they're starting to get it after all this Occupy Wall Street, Move Your Money business….now what to do about my own organization?

Look for the next installment in this series to learn more about how an organization and an industry are taking steps to ensure that they are not left behind as the world of marketing, and business in general, becomes more digital while still maintaining connections to those methods that have worked in the past and still work today.

About the author

Chris Lorence is Executive Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer for the Independent Community Bankers of America, headquartered in Washington, DC. His duties include oversight and management of the organizations marketing & communications department, which includes political advocacy, social media integration, press relations, and brand management. Chris is also responsible for the organizations flagship award winning national magazine, Independent Banker® and 4 other strategically aligned membership and industry publications. As a member of the senior executive team, Chris works with management and staff to both create and bring to life the organizations strategic vision and initiatives. The ICBA enterprise consists of both a non-profit trade association with nearly 5000 members and five for-profit subsidiaries, one of which is a national bank. Before coming to ICBA, Chris was Chief Operating Officer of a community based financial organization and has over 15 years of senior management experience within the financial community

More Teens Twitter but Facebook Still Rules

Posted: 14 Nov 2011 02:53 PM PST

The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 16% of online teens used Twitter in the month of July. Not a very big number, but it's doubled since 2009.

Much of the rise is due to the fact that kids are now growing up with social media. I'd bet that there are more birth announcements on Facebook than in every hometown newspaper combined.

The other reason for the jump, is the ease of access. 75% of teens between the ages of 13 and 17 have mobile phones and one in three sends more than 100 text messages a day. Since a Tweet is nothing more than a public text message, it's no wonder Twitter is on the rise.

In addition to age, gender is a big factor in Twitter usage. According to eMarketer, teen girls are twice as likely to Tweet as their male counterparts. This goes along with the Pew study numbers that show girls getting and sending an average of 80 text messages a day while boys land around 30.

Still, it's Facebook that rules for teens and tweens. eMarketer says that 59% of teens only have one social media account and 89% of them go with Facebook. Ah, remember the day when that number would have been Myspace?

Overall, 81% of tweens are using some kind of social media. The number pops up to 90% when you go up to the 18 to 24 bracket. Older teens are also more active in every social media area except one – gaming.

Even for young teens, gaming isn't the powerhouse you'd expect it to be.

As you can see from the chart, teens mostly use social media to stay connected with friends.

Marketers Beware

If your company markets a product of interest to teens, this may sound like great news. But marketing to teens through social media can be tricky. Security and privacy are primary concerns, ones a marketer should take seriously even though networks often break the rules.

The bigger issue is that tweens and teens are more perceptive than people think. They can spot a phony in a second and they won't hesitate to call you on it. Don't lie to them. Don't tell them what's popular and don't ever assume you know more than they do. It's their world and they'll kick you out in a second if you don't play by their rules.

Klout Caught in Kerfuffle Over Harvested Facebook Data

Posted: 14 Nov 2011 12:29 PM PST

Not all of us are social media mavens. Some people visit Facebook on the rare occasion when they have a photo to share or big news to tell. But to Klout and other networks, one visit is as good as an addiction because one visit is all it takes to leave a footprint behind.

The New York Times has a feature story up about Maggie McGary, a mom who makes her living as a social media manager. She was upset when she discovered a Klout profile for her under-aged son. Klout built the profile because the boy was Facebook friends with his mom, which made him fair game. Klout pulled his info and set up a profile without asking for permission and with no regard to the fact that he was a young teen.

Caught, Klout has discontinued that practice but that doesn't mean the social media world is now safe. It's not. It turns out that social media is like a giant game of Crack the Whip. Friending or following a person is like grabbing hold of the person in front of you. then your friends grab on to you and their friends to them and so on. Now, where the head goes, the body and tail go, too, like it or not.

I saw this process first hand over the weekend thanks to my husband. He's a novice social media player with a Facebook account and nothing more. On Sunday, I woke up to him pounding away on his keyboard in frustration. He had forgotten his LinkedIn login information and so he couldn't accept his friend's link request.

Huh. Why do you have a LinkedIn account, I asked. Because people I know keep sending email invites asking me to follow them, he responded. Why do they do that?

Good question. The way people throw around social media invites, you'd think there was a prize for reaching your quota by month's end. A lot of these interactions occur because of that old "suggestibility" gene. They suggest you invite a friend based on your Facebook interactions and so you do. The only "gain" is a hike in your social media worth. More friends and followers on Klout means a higher Klout score. And since some companies use Klout scores to determine the power of a blogger or potential employee, it could be a number worth fighting for.

The moral of this story is that it's not just what you put online, but who you follow that could get you in trouble. We are now in an age where a consumer may or may not decide to hire you based on who and what they see on your social media pages.

If your Uncle Rupert is posting inflammatory remarks on a daily basis, it's time to cut the family ties before his remarks come back to haunt you.

ShopCity Opts for FTC Over SEO

Posted: 14 Nov 2011 09:02 AM PST

Remember over the summer when we asked you, the SEO expert, to be the judge and jury on ShopCity and its complaints regarding Google's alleged mistreatment of the sites? It was one of our most spirited post interactions in quite some time (we love how intense SEO's get when given a challenge).

Essentially the readers of Marketing Pilgrim gave ShopCity A LOT of free SEO advice. It was even a place where ShopCity's CEO, Colin Pape got into the mix. To his credit, he soaked up all the free offerings readily while trying to defend his tenuous position regarding Google's apparent lack of respect for his some 8,000 domains.

At the time his cause was being represented by an antitrust lawyer who made his mark fighting Microsoft. This lawyer now is chasing Silicon Valley ambulances that lead to anyone who has a complaint against Google so ShopCity is his complainer du jour. But don't worry he's probably doing it for the good of us all . Bloomberg reports

As the owner of the world's most popular search engine, Google unfairly used its control of search results to damage ShopCity.com, a website that helps local businesses sell products, and favored its own competing service, according to a complaint ShopCity made Nov. 11 to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

"From the day ShopCity launched its network, the upstart competitor faced the full measure of Google's anticompetitive tactics," Gary Reback, an antitrust lawyer at Carr & Ferrell LLP in Menlo Park, California, wrote to Richard Feinstein, director of the agency's Bureau of Competition.

Gary, Gary, Gary. Don't you read Marketing Pilgrim? Didn't our SEO experts already point out how ShopCity.com and its many sites didn't understand the rules that are known by anyone who is paying attention in SEO like those relating to duplicate content and having the basics, like title tags, up to snuff? Even ShopCity's CEO responded back in July regarding the state of his sites when it came to the basics

I don't think we're stuffing keywords, but we could definitely work to make them more succinct. Thanks for focusing some attention on it.

The merchants themselves enter the product descriptions, so we don't have as much control over it as we would if we were publishing the content. We will try to provide better guidelines for them to follow – what length would you say is optimum?

Just wanted to thank you again for focusing our attention on the title tags, etc. We have updated our title schema for categories to make it more succinct.

Colin

Ahem, you're welcome, Colin.

Now, just about 3 1/2 months later ShopCity has decided that their best way to get Internet riches is not through the hard work and discipline that is SEO but rather by taking their case to the federal government. Heck, 3 1/2 months is plenty of times to rise to the top of the SERP's isn't it (for those missing the sarcasm there that last piece was oozing it).

It's not like Google has simply turned a blind eye or deaf ear or mute algorithm to them either. My source at Google stated

ShopCity twice asked for help on Google's Webmaster Forums – and a Google manager told them how to fix their problems. In February 2011, Google manager John Mueller advised ShopCity to:

Additionally, If you have auto-generated content on the sites (such as imported content from other sites or directories), or pseudo-404 pages ("There are no X listed in this category." or similar pages), then those are things that we'd recommend blocking from indexing (using a noindex robots meta tag for example). Searching for the texts that you use on those pages, it seems that many pages like that are currently indexed from many of your sites.

Finally, as Squibble mentioned, having over thousands of sites targeted to different cities will likely make it hard for our algorithms to get a bigger picture properly. In general, it's probably better to use subdomains or subdirectories – it makes it clearer for our algorithms to determine how the sites are related (and from a marketing point of view, makes it easier for your users to recognize your "brand" of sites).

So once again SEO community, I turn ShopCity and their plight over to you. Have they done anything to make themselves look better in the eyes of Google? What has Google done TO them that you can see? What can they do other than get a lawyer and complain to the government that would improve their situation? Or did you give them enough free advice and maybe they need to do it the old fashioned way and either learn SEO or pay for the services you give to your existing clients?

In your estimation, how much, if any, is Google bending the rules in their own favor? Should we see the government or legal channels as the best resource to get positions in the SERP's?

What's your take on all of this. You are the experts. We ask you, again, to be judge and jury. What say ye?

Pilgrim's Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Marketing Pilgrim Published: “John Deere Uses Social Media to Feed the Hungry” plus 1 more

2011-11-17T06:21:00.001-08:00

Marketing Pilgrim Published: "John Deere Uses Social Media to Feed the Hungry" plus 1 more

John Deere Uses Social Media to Feed the Hungry

Posted: 13 Nov 2011 11:20 PM PST

Here at Marketing Pilgrim we like to give our readers some exposure to unconventional uses of social media. Let's face it, there are so many things that can be done with social media but we often get caught up in what is considered normal. Here's a look a something different.

John Deere is one of the most iconic American brands there is. The green and yellow logo is known by most whether you grew up in the country or the city. It's just one of those brands that gets noticed and remembered. Of course, in the Silicon Valleyized world of social media it's hard to imagine that a company more known for its reputation with farmers is taking advantage of the online space.

The company is relatively new to the social media realm but they have come up with a unique way to promote their brand, do something very different and, ultimately feed people who are struggling. It's called Project Can Do and the company will be constructing a model of a John Deere combine using canned food. While that is certainly different, the end game is that about 300,000 cans of food which will then be used to help stock the River Bend Foodbank in Moline, IL.

We conducted an e-mail interview with Nicole Schneider, project manager, communications for John Deere Agriculture & Turf, and Richard Williamson, project manager, art director, John Deere Agriculture & Turf. They are the Project "CAN DO" leaders.

How long has this idea been in planning?

The idea was generated through a brainstorm around the launch of the new John Deere S-Series Combines in earlier 2011. Coming out of ideation, we realized that this was an opportunity to do much more than promote new equipment; it was a chance to celebrate the important role of the farmer to help meet global food demands and to give back to the community. Celebrating the relationship between us, the farmer, the land, and the community.

What people in the organizations are responsible for various aspects of the project?

We have the responsibility and are supported by many internal and external champions – including more than 450 volunteers – all helping to make this full-sized combine structure come to life.

How are you measuring success from the business side of this?

The primary goal of John Deere Project "CAN DO"is to raise awareness for the essential role farmers and ranchers play in producing safe, healthy and abundant food for a growing world population. It's also a way to generate awareness around hunger and the need to support food banks especially during the holiday season. User engagement is a big part of the campaign. We want fans to create a virtual can and help John Deere donate over 300,000 cans of food to a local food bank. We designed the tab to allow fans to engage in multiple ways. In additon to the "design a can app", fans can watch live video feeds of the build, view photos, learn about the farmer, get to know the combine, share posts and tweet about all of it. We're encouraged by the conversations and support we're seeing surrounding this campaign – it's become the new coffee shop.

Of course, we're also excited to break a Guinness World Record for "the world's largest canned food sculpture."

Are John Deere dealers involved in the promotion of this and if so, how?

John Deere dealers are encouraged to show their support for Project "CAN DO" through involvement in their own communities and through the John Deere Facebook page, but are not directly involved with the program.

How long has John Deere been utilizing social media for brand activities like this?

John Deere as an enterprise has had an active social media presence for more than a year. This is the first campaign of its kind for Deere.

Based on your target market which social media tools works the best and why?

Our agriculture users are very active on Facebook and we are always looking at reaching and engaging our customers in new ways.

Are there other projects like this set for the future?

We will be evaluating all social mediums for future campaigns.

Are there other corporate partners that are involved?

We are more than grateful for the support and enthusiasm we've received from the architectural firm RTKL Associates, HyVee and Canstruction throughout this project.

How is the town of Moline responding?

We're anticipating a growing excitement and buzz as the sculpture is built this week and revealed on November 17. You can check out the build on our live steaming video.

Thank you to the folks of John Deere for sharing their social media efforts with is. You can participate in the the project by going to the John Deere Facebook page and creating your own can. Your few minutes of time will help feed those in need. Not a bad way to start the week huh?

Google Adds More Search Share

Posted: 13 Nov 2011 10:21 PM PST

Ok, ok. According to comScore, Google picked up .3 percent in October. It's not a lot but it's a positive number.

Here is the picture for you.

Here's the real point as brought to light by the Business Insider

Google's share bottomed out in August, and has been rising ever since.

Similarly, combined Yahoo-Bing market share peaked in August. It's been dropping ever since.

If these trends continue, next month Google will be almost back to where it was a year ago, around 66% share. Bing+Yahoo will be lucky to remain above 30%.

Microsoft has spent more than $5 billion on its online business in the last year. That is, it's lost $2.5 billion, on revenues of $2.5 billion. Most of that money is presumably going to R&D on Bing and managing the Yahoo deal.

Look, a degree in rocket science is not necessary to figure out that while Bing keeps trying to make inroads in the search arena what it has gotten really good is losing money in the online space. How much longer will they keep this up. If I were Google I would find a way to get $2.5 billion to Microsoft to encourage them to stick around in the search game. If Bing backs out (and no one is saying they are but let's just pretend) Google has literally no competition and that would be REALLY bad for Google. If that were to happen you might as well hand over the algorithm to the world governments because there will be nothing to even point to as a true competitor to keep Google honest.

Just thinking about that gave me the chills. All we are saying is give Bing a chance (so Google doesn't become government issue).

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Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Google Adds +1 Button for Images” plus 3 more

2011-11-17T06:20:00.001-08:00

Marketing Pilgrim Published: "Google Adds +1 Button for Images" plus 3 more

Google Adds +1 Button for Images
Are Twitter Followers a Company Asset?
A Veterans Day Thank You
Internet Marketing Jobs for Friday 11-11-11

Google Adds +1 Button for Images

Posted: 11 Nov 2011 03:18 PM PST

There's all kinds of research that shows that images up reader engagement on Facebook, so of course, Google+ wants a piece of that pie.

Introducing the +1 button for images.

Start out by searching a word in the images tab. I searched "Crazy Moon," don't ask why. As you hover over the photos, you get a detailed information pop-up and on that is the new +1 button. Click the button and the photo gets a new label. It says "You" on a black band under the pic.

If your Google+ friends +1 a pic, then their name shows up under the photo. Here's the test screenshot from Google's blog.

If you follow me on Google+, you can search "Crazy Moon" and easily find the picture I chose. Exciting, huh?

It would be, except for two things. First, there's no way to comment on the photo, you either choose it or don't. Second, the click doesn't post to your main stream on Google+. When I'm me, I can see the post under my +1 tab. When I view my profile as someone else, I don't see the post at all. Is it me? A glitch? I don't get it.

Right now, my feeling on this is that it has potential for marketers, but gosh darned if I can figure out what do to with it. Ideas?

Are Twitter Followers a Company Asset?

Posted: 11 Nov 2011 01:35 PM PST

When you leave a company, it's expected that you'll turn in your keys, the password to your computer and any proprietary information you might be carrying around.

But what about your Twitter account? In the case of an employee whose job it is to update the company Twitter, it's an easy call. It's not so easy when you're talking about journalists or other Tweeters who blur the line between business and personal.

Such a case is currently being tested in court, but it's not going so well for either side. The case in question is between PhoneDog and Noah Kravitz, who used to work for them as a reporter. The object of desire is a Twitter account with 17,000 followers formerly known as @PhoneDog_Noah.

When Noah left PhoneDog, he changed the name on the Twitter account and kept on posting for himself. PhoneDog sued, claiming that they own the rights to the account and the password is a "trade secret" which Kravitz was obligated to divulge when he left the company.

The court agrees, sort of. They had an option to dismiss the case outright, but they didn't. Chief Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James declared that both sides of the case had merit and she didn't have enough information to proceed. You can read the legalese here, if you're so inclined.

Before we go any further, let's relish in the fact that ten years ago the only way a judge would say the word Tweet was if it was a case about bird smuggling. Oh, the times they are a changin' and that means the law has some catching up to do. Until it does, business owners need to take steps to protect themselves.

What to do if. . .

If you have employees or contractors who update social media on your behalf, be sure you have not just the passwords to the accounts, but in the case of Facebook, that you're an admin on your pages.

If you have employees that combine personal and work Tweets (as I do on my own account), I'd say you're out of luck. Consider every Tweet they sent about your company a gift and let it go.

On the Tweeter side, it's a tough call. I've been there. I built up a Twitter account that was named for a blog I wrote but didn't own. When the company shut down the blog, I mourned the loss of all those followers and it wasn't until months later that I realized my mistake. I could have (should have?) changed the name on the Twitter and kept those followers for myself. After all, they came because I brought them in, right? Still, it did feel a little like stealing. The only saving grace here was that the company in question had no interest in the Twitter account. I know now that they made a big mistake.

PhoneDog has attempted to quantify their loss by saying that each of Kravitz's followers is worth $2.50 per month, making their claim worth $340,000. Even the court rolled its eyes at the idea that they've been financially injured by the loss. No court is going to award them that much money for a Twitter account.

On the other hand, a healthy Twitter account is a valuable asset. In the end, I'd bet the court is going to make Kravitz hand over the keys. I'd also bet that in another twenty years, social media accounts will be quantifiable assets truly worth fighting over.

A Veterans Day Thank You

Posted: 11 Nov 2011 10:49 AM PST

If you are reading this and have served in the US armed forces, thank you.

If you are reading this and are a family member of someone who has served in the US armed forces, thank you.

If you are reading this and lost a loved one in their service, thank you.

If you are reading this and have made the effort to shake a veteran's hand, thank you.

Today's a day to set politics and ideologies aside. The people who serve do so for bigger reasons. All we can do is say Thank You.

Internet Marketing Jobs for Friday 11-11-11

Posted: 11 Nov 2011 09:22 AM PST

You're winding down another work week. Maybe your job isn't what was promised or what you might have hoped it would be.

Maybe you're getting demoted which we can now refer to as Ba-ZYNGA-d. Maybe you just need a change. Well, don't delay. Check out the Marketing Pilgrim Internet Marketing Job Board. Who knows?

Don't fret employers. For just $27 per listing per month you can reach a strong gathering of Internet and social media marketing talent that is our readers.

Here are a few of the smart folks who are listing their jobs today.

Corporate Director of Loyalty Marketing – Las Vegas Sands Corporate – Las Vegas, NV

Senior Marketing Strategist – Summa Health System – Akron, OH

SEO / Social Media Manager – PC Connection, Inc. – Merrimack, NH

These are just a few of the many jobs available today. Find your new job now! Advertise for that new employee today!

Hey, it's Friday 11-11-11, after all. Live a little!

SiteProNews

2011-11-16T17:32:00.001-08:00

SiteProNews

How to Thrive in Virtual Business
How to Get on Page One of Google
14 Popular SEO Myths Examined

How to Thrive in Virtual Business

Posted: 16 Nov 2011 08:14 AM PST

BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES 2011

Big changes are brewing in how America works right now. The financial threats of lower-priced competition from overseas, the strengthened effectiveness of a virtual business model and a fresh American desire for better quality of life have caused the extreme work shift. Virtual business, remote work, telework, distributed work, virtual staff like executive assistants, virtual teams– call them what you want– are now part of the corporate vocabulary.

I spoke with Alan Blume, author of Your Virtual Success: Finding Profitability in an Online World. Alan’s opinion is that virtual work is altering the very nature of cities and urban centers, how we live and aggregate as people. As more business is done from remote locations, cities are rapidly becoming cultural centers where you find more entertainment than business. We just don’t need to be “at our desks” like we used to. Look no further than the commercial office space real estate ordeal in recent years and you’ll get the point. Companies who don’t adjust won’t be able to entice the best employees or thrive economically, and may soon end up like the newspaper industry. Alan brings out more points and subtleties in his video interview here.

SMALL BUSINESSES IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD

If you operate a virtual business like I do, or are thinking about one, Your Virtual Success is a resource you should pick up. It offers an easy to read, yet content-filled set of actions for you to take to…

· Transform to a virtual business from your normal job
· Launch a virtual business quickly
· Develop niche branding and image
· Sell and market your business virtually
· Qualify and hire virtual talent– from anywhere!
· Test and increase your business

The author Alan Blume “eats his own dog food” as he told me once, in that all the recipes in this book he uses for his own company. I was most captivated by some of the non-traditional sources to find freelance workers; for example, Craig’s List. I thought Craig’s List was a shelter for rip-off artists, criminals and the occasional killer, and unquestionably those folks are out hunting for the unprepared. There’s a lot of talent on Craig’s List too, which I discovered. I found my graphic designer for this business’s logo and discovered my web designer via carefully detailed advertisements on Craig’s List. Lots of other freelance sites are out there as well such as Odesk and Elance. There are always diamonds in the rough that exists online and the instructions in the staffing chapter of how to separate the good from the bad are by themselves worth reading this book.

There are many tools in this work for small business owners to take into account, whether it’s the use of online video that you can now advertise your business much more affordably than ever before, or ways to test new products and services and adjust to the suggestions you receive on the fly, modifying as you go. So many things exist today for you to take advantage of in order to compete with larger companies and lower-priced rivals, and you may soon be obliged to.

When you read a book like this, you begin thinking about work in a different way. The author tells his Tale of Two Nephews and allows the reader decide which version of success he’d like to have; the overworked, overstressed 9 to 7er or the guy working his pajamas. When I read how the author manages his own business I was envious, because I’m not there yet, but I am on my way. This book has many of the same characteristics as the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris, without the concentration on world travel and focused a little more on creating your own virtual venture from a sensible standpoint.

You can get through this book in one sitting, but you should return with a highlighter or ball point pen to some of the key sections and references Alan gives. Bookmark the appendix Rolling Pipeline Report, Prospect Scorecard and Sample Order Confirmations as documents that can form a basis for tracking and managing your virtual business.

Is your business giving you the profits and passion you want? You can use virtual technologies to supercharge your results in a Virtual Mastermind Group forming now and learn more about the Mastermind Process in this FREE Video . Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development firm that helps small to mid-size professional service firms build competitive advantage in an online world of sameness. He is the author of numerous articles and the Smart Blog on leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business, and Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available in the SmartShop.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How to Thrive in Virtual Business

How to Get on Page One of Google

Posted: 16 Nov 2011 08:01 AM PST

I get asked all the time – how do I get my site to the top ranking on Google? If there was an easy and quick solution – we’d all be doing it – and we’d all be at the top page of Google.

But, it doesn’t work that way. It takes knowing what works – and the commitment (plus time and effort) to get the results.

We all want top rankings from Google. Why? As people online are increasingly using the Internet (and most of the time Google) to search for information or resources – top ranked websites in the Google search results are getting the most clicks. How much more traffic and
visibility do the top ranking websites get in the results?

A ton – The top ranking gets more than 50% of the clicks from a search. #2 gets close to 14%. After that you’re in the single digits (not even worth mentioning if you’re not on page one of Google.) More clicks = more traffic = more leads.

So, it’s important to know how Google determines page rank. Page rank represents how important a site is on the Internet. Google figures that when one site links to another site, it is like a vote for the other site. The more votes – the more important the site must be.

But, the importance of the site that is casting the vote also determines how important the vote itself is. Google calculates a site’s importance from the votes cast for it. So, the importance of each vote is also taken into account when determining page rank.

It’s basically Google’s way of deciding a site’s importance. The more important the site, the higher it will appear in the page rankings.

I will break down the 3 most important concepts to increase your page ranking and get on page one of Google.

1. Content. Content is king – more important than anything else. No matter how slick or compelling your website looks – or how many other sites link to it – the content has to got to rock. It must be relevant and keyword rich for the search terms that people are looking for on Google. If you can create killer content and match that to exactly what people are searching for – you’ve reached Google page rank nirvana.

2. Consistency. Now that you’re churning out fresh and relevant content – you must do it consistently. Once a week just doesn’t work anymore. Writing an article for your newsletter once a week is not going to bring you a ton of traffic. Why? Because that content once a week won’t get you on page one of Google (top page rank.) What does? Blogging. You need to be blogging 2-3 times a week (if not more) to consistently put out new content that gets noticed and gets traffic. That will get you on page one of Google. And the blog posts don’t need to be long, drawn out articles (see content point above to ensure you’re putting out the best content.)

3. Compelling. If it’s not interesting to read or worth the time and effort for someone to consume it – don’t bother. Your content (blog posts and articles) literally has to rock the reader’s world. Keep it interesting and the reader will want to share it with others and comment on the relevance. This helps build visibility and back links (which helps your Google page rank.)

There you have it. An SEO lesson on Google page rank and 3 important strategies to ensure your site is up at the top. I look forward to seeing you there with me.

Until next time – Learn It, Love It, Live It!

Derek Fredrickson, Authentic Internet Marketing Specialist, is founder of the Authentic Internet Marketing System, the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to authentically market your business online, in record time; guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. videos and receive his authentic internet marketing articles on attracting more leads and converting more sales online, visit http://www.derekfredrickson.com.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How to Get on Page One of Google

14 Popular SEO Myths Examined

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 09:00 PM PST

With so much misinformation about SEO having been dispensed over the years, it’s hard to know what’s true and isn’t true – making it all the more difficult to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff, as it were. Concerned about the potential harm misinformation about SEO can ultimately cause, I decided to compile an alphabetical listing of the most popular and persistent SEO myths, to either debunk or confirm their factuality.

1. Adwords

Since the arrival of Google Adwords, there has been an ongoing debate over whether or not running an Adwords campaign can improve search engine rankings. Ultimately, only Google knows the answer to that question for sure. However, to my knowledge, there is no credible evidence to support the notion that Adwords can improve your search engine ranking. If there were indeed concrete evidence to the contrary, it stands to reason, everyone would just start an Adwords campaign to boost their rankings.

2. Anchor Text

Although it can be other colors, anchor text is typically the blue, hyperlinked text you see on a web page – the words that you click onto take you to another page. For example:

free marketing tips

Okay, but is anchor text important? Yes, it is because it’s a crucial element in the search engines complex algorithmic formula that helps determine the rankings of websites.

For example, suppose you have a blog that reviews digital camera’s; the more links you have with the words “digital camera reviews” in your anchor text, the greater your chances of increasing your ranking for the keywords digital camera reviews.

3. Alt Tags

Alt tags are used to display a short text description of an image. It gets displayed when you hover your mouse over the graphic. But are Alt tags an important part of SEO?

It depends on whom you ask. Some experts dismiss the importance of Alt tags altogether, while others tout its importance. Personally, I used to lean in the direction of “not important,” until I read a couple of outstanding articles that made me rethink my position.

SEO expert Bill Hartzer makes a strong argument for the use of Alt tags. In his article, Search Engine Optimization: Why Image Alt Tags are Important.

“There is strong evidence that the search engines are now giving more weight to Alt Tags than they are the Title Tag or even an H1 Tag on the page. What?!? Yes, that’s right. You do need to make sure you use proper Title Tags and H1 Tags, but more SEO value for organic search engine rankings can be gained by using proper Alt Tags than using proper Title Tags or H1 Tags.”

And in his article, Why You Need to Stop Ignoring Image Alt Attributes, AJ Wilcox of OrangeSoda.com makes a compelling common sense argument:

“Keyword usage in image alt text is classified as having minimal importance by a consortium of SEO experts, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless. It is yet another opportunity to declare your relevance to your given keyword. The little things add up to big things together, so don’t ignore them.”

I agree with AJ. A lot of little things in combination do indeed add up to big things.

4. FFA Pages

FFA is an acronym for “Free-For All.” Here’s an example of an FFA page:

In a nutshell, FFAs are basically web pages of worthless links where anyone can submit their website’s URL for free (hence the term Free-For-All). One of the biggest and oldest SEO myths is, if you post your website’s URL on FFA pages, you will get massive traffic, as well increase your link popularity and search engine ranking. Here’s the truth: People who visit FFA pages do so only to post their own ads – not look at someone else’s. And any traffic you do get will be completely worthless!

In addition, FFA pages are considered both spammy and scammy, and posting on them could adversely affect your website’s reputation with the search engines – which could in fact hurt your ranking – or even get you banned. Why? Because in essence, FFA pages are nothing but link farms – and you know what Google thinks of link farms.

My advice: RUN, DON’T WALK away from FFA pages!

5. Header Tags

Header tags, for example H1, H2 are standard HTML elements used to define headings and subheadings on a web page.

Are they important? To my knowledge, there is no credible evidence to suggest that header tags have an effect on search engine rankings one way or the other. My advice: If you’re currently using header tags, continue using them if you wish. If you’re not using them, don’t worry about it.

6. Keyword Density

Question: What is the correct density of keywords on a web page?

Answer: There isn’t one.

Yes, I know this topic has been debated back and forth, but personally, I don’t think keyword density even exists as a calculable numeric constant. In other words, don’t worry about the correct keyword density. And don’t worry about counting keywords. Just create your web pages naturally, without trying to force or stuff keywords where they don’t belong. Then, let the proverbial chips fall where they may.

7. Keywords in Domain Name

Do keywords in a domain name help your ranking?

Based on my own personal experience, yes, having your primary keywords in your domain name does help with your ranking. To what degree, however, only Google knows the answer to that. But since Google uses over 200 signals to determine the ranking of websites, I can’t imagine keywords in your domain name not carrying some amount of weight.

8. Meta-Tags

A meta-tag is the HTML coding that describes the contents of a web page.

Opinions vary on the importance of meta-tags, but in my opinion, they’re not nearly as important as they once were. They don’t have a significant impact on your rankings one way or the other. That being said, if you want to use them, it certainly won’t hurt anything – provided you don’t abuse them (i.e., keyword stuffing).

9. Nofollow Links

As you already know, Google doesn’t count “Nofollow” links, right? Wrong. Google looks suspiciously at sites that have an unbalanced ratio of Dofollow links to Nofollow. Why? Because it’s an unnatural linking pattern that’s why. It’s also a huge red flag! Google prefers a healthy combination of both Dofollow and Nofollow links. So contrary to popular belief, Nofollow links do add to a site’s overall link profile, and has the ability to rank for keyword phrases. And while Nofollow doesn’t influence PageRank or pass link juice, it does contribute to your overall search engine ranking.

10. PageRank (PR)

Is PageRank important? One of the most controversial, misunderstood, confusing and debated topics in the SEO universe is the importance of PageRank.

However, in my not-so-humble opinion, Google’s 0-10 logarithmic toolbar PageRank is nothing more than a “superficial beauty contest” vanity tool – very much out-of-date, and does NOT have a direct impact on a site’s ranking. That fact was established long ago.

I’m going to say this as succinctly as I possibly can: Toolbar Pagerank Is Not An Accurate Representation Of A Website’s True Reputation With Google. In fact, if you do a little research, you’ll discover lower-PR URL’s consistently rank higher than higher-PR URL’s in Google’s SERP’s (search engine results pages). Therefore, the only page rank you should be concerned about that has any significant importance, is where your web pages rank in Google’s SERP’s.

Does toolbar PageRank have any importance at all? Yes, it has some…just not as much as many perceive it to have.

11. Reciprocal Links

Yes, reciprocal linking is an important part of SEO, but all links are not created equal. Achieving a high search engine ranking depends not only on the number, but also the quality of inbound links you have pointing to your site. For example, if your website does movie reviews, exchanging links with Betty’s Homemade Fudge won’t do you nearly as much good as exchanging links with a site that is thematically related to yours. So if you exchange links with other sites, be sure to keep relevancy in mind.

12. Site Maps

A sitemap is a collection of hyperlinks that outlines a website’s structure. These links make it easier for visitors to navigate their way around your site, as well as make it easier for search engine spiders to crawl your site.

But do they have any SEO importance? Not really. A few years back, I thought they did. But recent experience has taught me sitemaps have no direct impact on search engine rankings.

13. The Open Directory Project (DMOZ)

Is getting a backlink from DMOZ still important? With the arrival of mega-popular social media sites, as well other types of high quality websites and blogs, DMOZ is not nearly as important or respected as it once was. Personally, I think your time would be better served trying to acquire high-quality backlinks from other sources.

Does that mean you shouldn’t waste your time submitting to DMOZ? No, it doesn’t. Since it only takes a few minutes to submit your site, I see no harm in submitting to DMOZ. But be advised, it can take up to a year or more to get your site approved – and it might not get approved at all. So I wouldn’t lose any sleep worrying about getting your site listed in DMOZ.

My advice: Simply submit your site and forget it!

14. Title Tag

The title tag is a critically important factor in achieving high search engine rankings. For those of you who don’t know what a title tag is, it’s the words displayed at the very top of your browser. It is also used as the title of your website in the SERP’s (search engine results pages). Therefore, you should put plenty of thought into writing your title tag – to make sure it’s as effective as possible. Your title-tag should also contain specific keyword phrases, in addition to the name of your company.

David Jackson is a marketing consultant, and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com – Powerful, free marketing tips to help grow your business! http://free-marketing-tips-blog.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

14 Popular SEO Myths Examined

SiteProNews

2011-11-15T17:07:00.001-08:00

SiteProNews

How to Build a Strong and Powerful Business During a Recession

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 12:32 PM PST

If you are watching the news, you are seeing daily stories about how another government institution is in financial trouble.

And while I despise the phrase “too big to fail,” it is true that governments are actually, “too important to fail.”

At home and in business, we don’t have the luxury to be “too big” or “too important” to fail, so we must be more responsible and either reduce spending or increase revenue. Unfortunately, most politicians feel like they are exempt from having to reduce spending, so they are inclined to always seek methods to increase revenue, which makes our jobs harder when managing our personal or business budgets.

While politicians tend to put too much focus on increasing revenue, small business owners tend to put too much focus on reducing spending.

Bring Balance To The Force, Young Skywalkeryes

During a recession, most business owners pull the reins on advertising budgets, fearful of what tomorrow might bring…

Those who remain fearful have forgotten what made them the success they are today. They have forgotten that they have a God-given talent to overcome the incredible obstacles in their paths.

Some of the largest companies formed in the history of man owe their success to HOW they adapted to the economy during a recession. They reduced unnecessary expenses and focused completely on those things that made them the most money!

Examples of large, successful companies that launched during a recession include:

* Burger King – Started during a recession in 1954.

* FedEx (Federal Express) – Started during the 1973 recession, a recession that resulted from the 1973-1974 oil embargo.

* GE (General Electric) – Started in 1876, by Thomas Edison during the Panic of 1873.

* HP (Hewlett-Packard) – Founded in 1939 at the end of the Great Depression.

* CNN – Started during the recession of 1980, at the tail-end of the Carter administration, when the economy had been struggling for nearly a decade.

* Hyatt Corporation – Opened its first hotel in 1957, during the Eisenhower recession (1957-1958).

* IHOP – Also started during the Eisenhower recession.

* LexisNexis – Launched as a computerized legal research service in 1973, during the 1973-74 oil embargo.

* Microsoft – Started in 1975, during the recession created by the 1973 oil crisis.

* MTV Networks – Launched during the economic slump of 1981.

* Sports Illustrated – Was launched at the tail-end of the 1953-1954 recession.

These companies illustrate that a bad economy will not prevent success, but rather offer opportunities to grow fast and strong.

Studies have shown that rather than to reduce advertising during a recession, the wisest business persons will increase the advertising budget during the recession.

It Seems Counter-Intuitive, Doesn’t It?

The truth of the matter is that recessions bring consumer volatility, which means people are primed to change their spending habits.

Most consumers buy goods and services based on habitual behavior. This is the reason that Bing is having such a difficult time taking market share away from Google.

If you have used both, most people agree that Bing consistently delivers more relevant results. But consumers are habituated to using Google, because they believe that “Google provides the best search results…”

Since the summer of 2009, Bing has been the clear winner in the quality contest. In fact, the quality was so good when Bing was launched that Google raced to upgrade its own search algorithms. In a record time, about six months, Google completely rebuilt its search engine from the ground up.

Lucky for Google, its users never noticed how much better Bing was, because they had been drinking the Google Kool-Aid, forever believing that Google was “the best.”

During the fall of 2009, Google released the Beta-version of its new search engine, and then in Jan 2010, Google took its new search engine public with the Google Caffeine Update.

Once Google’s new search engine had been released, I imagine that its owners and managers sighed a collective sigh of relief. They had managed to return from the quality-underdog to an almost equal search engine, without losing any market share!

Your Competition Wants You To Drink The Recession Kool-Aid

During a recession, your competitors are weakened, because their customer base is also looking for cheaper or better alternatives.

If you tightened the noose on your marketing department, then you will have given your competitors the breathing room they needed to retain their market share, the same as Bing seemed to have done with Google.

Lessons From Failures and Successes

Bing did not tighten the purse strings on its new search engine, but opened the flood gates of spending. And in the end, Bing’s campaign floundered, because they did not clearly define for the global audience what made them better than Google.

Bing had the best opportunity in the history of Google to steal market share from Google. And they blew their opportunity to win market share!

Let Bing’s experience be a lesson to you. Open the taps for your marketing and advertising budget, but also be aware of the message you are trying to send to consumers.

Don’t leave consumers wondering why they should test their money at your company.

Be clear, concise and forceful that your product or service is better. And tell consumers how they can find you.

When the recession finally ends, consumers will fall back into the habits they had before the recession began, unless they have adopted new habits in the meantime.

You absolutely have to convince consumers to give you a chance, and while they are taking their chance on you, convince them that you should be their new, favorite habit to keep!

Burger King did it; CNN did it; IHOP did it, and Microsoft did it!

And if you are clever, you can do it too!

Recessions are an opportunity for the business-savvy to win new customers and market share. Are you going to accept the challenge before you, or let this opportunity pass you by?

If you are not competing for new customers on the Internet, you are making it easy for your competitors to crush you!! Your future customers are on the Internet NOW, looking for new merchants in your local area to serve their needs. Will those people find and choose your competitors or YOU? If you need help with your Local SEO and Local Marketing, then make it a point to find us at: http://MysticMountainMedia.com/ Author: Trey McMartin.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How to Build a Strong and Powerful Business During a Recession

DIY: Backlinking Strategy

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 12:09 PM PST

When it comes to getting backlinks there are a lot of methods to consider. Matter of fact you might want to take into consideration all the methods that are available to you. I am not referring to black hat tactics, but legitimate methods of backlinking.

What some people do is rely on one “magic method”, but when it comes to getting backlinks to your site, there really is not one “magic method.” There are better methods, but there is no longer one method for backlinking. Depending on how hard it is to rank for a specific keyword, you will need to step up your game and implement several backlinking strategies.

First and foremost, unless your article, web page, or whatever you’re trying to rank for is optimized and contains great content, you won’t make it very far, and it won’t stay on the top page of search engines for very long.

Creating great content is the best method for backlinking. When others share your content, then you have a winning solution for any post, article, or webpage. So if you want a 100% whitehat backlinking strategy, then make sure it involves great content, great onsite optimization, and allowing others to link back to your site.

One way to get your site out in front of people is by utilizing basic RSS strategies and bookmarking. This is what I will cover in this article. I will show you how I do this.

However Be Warned: Some backlinking strategies can be aggressive, and in some cases will not be considered playing nice by Google. Remember that Google doesn’t like it when you try to build links with the purpose of getting higher rankings.

If you look around the internet and see some of the backlinking strategies outlined by people, you will see that they are not considered whitehat by Google, and they do carry some degree of risk. For instance, if you see an ad that says One Billion backlinks for a dollar, you might want to think twice about plopping down that dollar.

SEO experts will tell you that backlinks cannot hurt you, and while that is probably true in 99% of cases, it is wise to know that anything that you do in backlinking for the sole purpose of getting better rankings in Google carries some degree of risk. The risk is also strongly proportional to how aggressive you get with your backlinking strategies, the overall quality of your site, and your promotional endeavors.

Just know that whitehat backlinking strategies are generally considered more long term and sustainable, while greyhat or blackhat promotion aims to take advantage of current loopholes, and is much more likely to see traffic dry up or websites banned in the long term. You need to weigh the risks and rewards carefully.

So now that I have scared you, let me show you how to get backlinks to your site using a completely whitehat method. You can use this with any keywords and any site you may be trying to boost in readership.

This is a great whitehat method of getting instant backlinks to anything you place on the internet. It takes some upfront work but once you have it all put together, it runs on autopilot.

Automatic Backlink Formula.

First thing you need to do is get a Ping.fm account.

Next you need to look at all the platforms that Ping submits to and then sign up for those platforms. This is where your backlinks will come from automatically.

Once you have those accounts set up, you then connect them all together. In other words, every time Ping gets info on your post or article, you want it to send to all the social networks you signed up for. So post once, and have that posted to several social networks in one go. The downside to all this is that you have to log into ping.fm to do it each time.

One way around this is by creating a Hootsuite account, which takes RSS feeds that can be fed to Ping. So you send your RSS feed (such as the RSS Feed from your website), and connect Hootsuite to Ping. Now every time you post on your site, it goes to ping.fm (via Hootsuite).

The beauty is that now you are getting automatic backlinks and exposure from these social networks. There are more sites you can auto-post to other than those listed in Ping. You can look at Hellotxt, PixelPipe, and other sites that do this as well. So you go sign up to those sites individually and add your RSS Feed. Now every time you post you get backlinks and exposure from these sites too, all automatically.

Another thing to do is create a free account with Onlywire. This account gets connected straight to
my blog. So with every post, I get a crazy amount of backlinks right off the bat.

But you are not only getting instant backlinks with this strategy!

If you are doing appropriate linking strategies within your posts or articles, you want to have a link about every 120 words. If you do this, then when all these places crawl and bookmark your site, or link to it, then all your links are getting crawled and indexed as well.

That means they are now following those links to the pages you linked. This builds authority and strength in these backlinks. SO…what you want to do is find a way to bookmark all the places and articles you create, so that you are getting links to links.

I hope this one tip will help you with getting the organic backlinks you need for your site.

Phillip Longmire has been doing internet marketing full time since 2008. He is a speaker, writer, and business owner. He works with business owners teaching them how to get more traffic to their sites. All his articles, advice, and know how comes from the front lines. http://philliplongmire.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

DIY: Backlinking Strategy

How to Be Present for Your Business

2011-11-15T09:25:00.001-08:00

Attention is one of the scarcest resources these days.
Guarding it to remain mindful is now a requirement.

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The ability, some might say attempt, to multitask is a curse of sorts. While working on ten things at once may seem efficient, each of those things gets roughly 10% of our greatness while we’re doing it.

That may actually be fine for, say, deleting emails, but is that enough for writing a note to a client, creating an action plan for a product launch or determining the fee you plan to charge for a project? Probably not.

Attention is one of our scarcest resources these days and guarding it in a way that allows us to work with intention requires the ability to remain present and mindful in the midst of the storm raging all around us. (Otherwise known as your business)

In fact, it not only requires us to be as present as possible for the daily tasks we tackle, it also requires us to be continually mindful of where we are going and why we are going there and that requires a process of its own.

Planned Mindfulness

It’s one thing to conduct annual strategic planning sessions and quite another to live the intention of those sessions after the white boards are erased.

I believe that you need to create a daily routine that involves revisiting your greatest goals and objectives and developing what I’ve come to call a passion mantra that upon seeing, hearing or reading energizes you and snaps you back into a state of mindfulness.

Creating your passion mantra may require time sitting and writing about what matters most to you, what drives you, what motivates you, what scares you and what excites you, but if you can create a simple statement that helps hold you accountable for what you intend to do, you’ll have a tool that consistently inspires right action and keeps you out of the act of wallowing in self-pity and doubt.

I’ve shared my own personal passion mantra before and I’ll share it here, but know that these are merely words and their real power if the feeling I attach to them.

My mantra is: My life is an amazing adventure; my business is an amazing adventure.

Witness Your Thoughts

Another habit that you may need to form in order to work steadily towards the intention of your business is to actually start to pay attention to your thoughts and reactions throughout the day.

Frankly, this can be exhausting work, but if you can begin to step back and analyze how your mind unconsciously processes everything that happens throughout the day, you might start to get a glimpse into some of the negative and limiting ways we view things as either good or bad.

The problem with most of reactions to things is they don’t always serve our overall objectives. If your intention is to be a business that provides incredible value by helping your customers achieve their goals, you’ll find that giving more than you take is the surest path to success. However, if your first thought in most relationships is what’s in it for me, or I’ve got to watch my back, you’ve got some powerful forces working against you.

How we view things is simply a choice, but that choice can become so ingrained that we no longer even make it, it simply occurs out of habit. When we start to slow down and observe these choices as they are happening, we gain the power to make or not make them in accordance with our driving intention.

Present Actfullness

Our intentions drive our thoughts and our thoughts form our actions. That’s what makes planning, goal setting and mindful thinking so powerful. However, there are armies lined up and waiting to derail you from your path to success – some come in the form of your own thoughts and others come in the form of an evil printer that won’t work as advertised.

In addition to witnessing how your thoughts create and form your reality, you must develop habits that help you change your physical state and bring it intentionally into being present along with your thoughts.

This is the easy part. Develop routines that require you to stop your work hourly and do ten pushups or take a lap around your office building. Fill up a jug of water and empty it hourly. Take a fifteen-minute afternoon nap. Write a handwritten thank you note several times a day.

What you do physically isn’t as important as the act of stopping and bringing your awareness back into the room by removing your attention from all the tasking at hand. I find that the simplest of planned physical mindfulness, even intentional breathing has the power to center me.

Present for Customers

So, really the point of all of this mindfulness is to help you build a better business that delivers value to world and less stress to you in the process, but the practical side is that it will allow you to be present for your customers and that will pay off immediately.

We all like to think we have our customers needs and desires in mind at all times, but quite often we get caught up in attempts to appear to have all the answers, in stating our case rather than listening, or in feigning care when our real motivation is the sale.

You can’t be fully present in every client interaction, but occasionally, maybe systematically, you need to look your clients in the eye, in a way that lets them feel you are listening, and ask them how you could help them more – and then shut up and listen without judgment. My guess is you will find this incredibly rewarding.

Present for Staff

In the midst of the day-to-day rush of projects, tasks, questions and actions the real development of the people that work all around you can get lost.

» Read the rest of this article.

About the Author:
John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, award winning social media publisher and author Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System and Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network that trains and licenses small business marketing consultants around the world.

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SiteProNews

2011-11-14T17:53:00.001-08:00

SiteProNews

10 Steps to a Successful Article
Web Site Leverage
How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh? – A SPN Exclusive Article

10 Steps to a Successful Article

Posted: 14 Nov 2011 09:20 AM PST

If you are an online business owner and are not yet active in article marketing, you need to get started as soon as possible.

Why write articles?

Article writing and marketing is one of the most powerful ways to boost your traffic and sales. Articles will build your reputation and credibility. Articles will allow you to make more contacts and establish more connections. Articles will improve your ranking and bring you more traffic. Articles will improve your online presence. Article marketing is free!

Writing an article is not as hard as most people think. You are not writing a dissertation but a simple and informative article.

Below are ten steps to help you write a more successful article.

Step 1: The Title

Be sure you choose a title that will grab people’s attention and catch their interest. Most people will decide to read an article or not just by the title. Be specific in what your article is about.

For example: How to Grow Vegetables vs. 5 Ways to Healthier More Delicious Vegetables

Which article would you read? I know I would read the second one.

Step 2: Topic of Interest

Be sure to choose topics that people will want to know about. Do some research to see what questions people are asking. Visit forums, groups, social sites and see what needs to be addressed. See what the buzz is about and write your article accordingly.

Step 3: Easy to Understand

There is no need to write a college dissertation. Use short, easy to understand sentences. Use 5th grade level words to be sure everyone who reads your article will understand what you are talking about.

Step 4: Easy to Read

Going along with the short easy to understand sentences, keep your paragraphs short but informative. Leave plenty of white space so reading your article is not hard on the eyes.

Step 5: Relevant Keywords

Research keywords when writing your article. Try to use some of the most popular search phrases that deal with your article subject. A good program to use is Google’s keyword search tool. But once you find the relevant keywords be sure not to overstuff your article with them. If you use them too many times your article will be too repetitive and will not do well in the search engines.

Step 6: Writing

When writing your article, write it as if you were explaining it to a friend. Don’t make it sound like a seminar or lecture. Add personal experiences when possible so your readers can identify with you and feel a bond and/or connection. Let your personality shine through and write from your heart!

Step 7: Lists

If you are including any kind of list in your article, be sure to write it in a bulleted or numbered list style. This will attract the reader’s eye and increase the chances of it being read through.

Step 8: Article Body

The first paragraph should be an introduction to what type of information your article will contain. Use it as a lead-in to the main body of the article. When writing the main body, be sure your writing flows from point to point and doesn’t jump around aimlessly. The last paragraph should sum up what the article meant and what points were made.

Step 9: Proofread

This step cannot be stressed enough. Read over your article several times to be sure all spelling, punctuation and grammar is correct. Things can be missed in just one or two goings over so do it several times to be sure.

Step 10: Resource Box

Your resource box is very important so you want it to be effective in getting people to click on your link and take you up on whatever you offer. Don’t try to sell anything in your resource box. Offer something free if possible.

For example:

John Doe is an expert in the SEO field. He can help you get your site to the top of the search engines. Click here to get his free step by step report.

Article writing is not as intimidating as it sounds. You do not need to know big fancy words. You do not have to be a scholar and you do not have to be a professional author to write a quality article with helpful information.

Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

10 Steps to a Successful Article

Web Site Leverage

Posted: 14 Nov 2011 09:11 AM PST

Ever go to a web site and find that after poking around a few pages you just click off and go to another site? Of course. It happens millions of times a day on the web. Why? Good question!

If you can’t get people to stick around your site and eventually contact you, your website is just taking up cyberspace.

What does a results-producing website need? Let’s start with quality design, clear formatting and substantial content on every page. And you need to answer the “What’s in it for me?” question every step of the way. But that’s just the beginning.

Even sites that have all the bases covered often miss the key to turning visitors into clients. It’s the difference between a website that “just sits there” and one that gets a prospect to give you a call or send an email saying, “Can you help me?”

And that big key is called the “Call-to-Action.” And you don’t just use it once, but over and over throughout your site. Here are some important calls-to-action that you can easily add to your site:

1. At the bottom of every page tell people where to go next.

Then include a link that points there. If you don’t, your visitors will scratch their heads thinking, “Where do I go next?” and then scroll up to the navigation bar to figure it out. Don’t make them think. Make it obvious where they should go next.

Your directions might say something like: “Now that you have a better idea of the kind of clients we work with, click here to learn about the results you can expect to receive from our services.”

2. A “Contact us” link, also at the bottom of every page.

Who knows when the inspiration will strike to contact you? Have you ever been on a website and wanted to contact the company but couldn’t find an email address or a phone number? Bye, bye business. And make that Contact Us page more than a phone number, email and address. Tell them what will happen when they contact you. Make it easy to do business with you.

3. A response form at the bottom of every services page.

Take an extra step here. Insert a small form that they can fill out to request even more information about that service. Get their name, email, company name and the answers to a few questions about their needs. Yes, people do fill out these forms. But keep them simple!

4. Have them do something that will get them involved.

This is the psychology behind the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes. It would be easier to just have people mail back the form. But they found that the more involvement, the better the response. You might try a survey of some kind.

5. Have prospects apply to be your client.

When I promote my high-end groups I decided instead of a “payment link” at the end of the description of the groups, to put in an application form. This way I can screen applicants, since I don’t accept everyone. Then I send an acceptance email to those I feel will get the most from the group with a payment link. The conversion rate is still very high. When I accepted individual clients, I used a similar application form.

6. Capture their name and email address.

This is really the number one purpose of a website. Offer a pithy article or report, plus an email newsletter (in that order) in exchange for their contact information. Once you have them on your eZine list, the marketing really starts. I call it “keep-in-touch marketing.”

7. Offer ongoing calls-to-action in your eZine.

I generate much more business from the eZine than from new visitors to the website. Think of the web as the place where you introduce yourself to your prospects. And think of the eZine as the place they get to know you. Then invite them to explore your services in more depth (by sending them back to the website). Now go back to your site and start inserting all these calls-to-action. I promise you’ll start getting better results!

The More Clients Bottom Line: Every single marketing activity needs to include a call-to-action. But the website is a “call-to-action machine” that moves people step-by-step through the marketing process. And this is true marketing leverage, because you don’t even have to be there to do it.

Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing has been helping Independent Professionals attract more clients since 1984. Robert is the author of the online bestsellers, the InfoGuru Marketing Manual and the WebSite ToolKit. Robert’s site is a great resource for any self-employed professional. Get Robert’s free report, “The 5 Key Strategies to Attracting More High-End Clients.” http://actionplan.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Web Site Leverage

How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh? – A SPN Exclusive Article

Posted: 13 Nov 2011 09:00 PM PST

It’s been an extremely busy year for the good folks at Google, not only did they roll out the game-changing Panda Updates, but now they have increased the stakes by implementing Google Fresh. This recent algorithm update is based on the Caffeine architecture introduced by Google a year ago and supposedly makes Google’s listings much fresher.

On the Official Google Blog where this new Update was announced, Amit Singhal states:

“We completed our Caffeine web indexing system last year, which allows us to crawl and index the web for fresh content quickly on an enormous scale. Building upon the momentum from Caffeine, today we’re making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness.”

However, in an update, Singhal explains this measurement of 35% only applies to where at least one result was affected by the changes. In reality, this update only “noticeably” impacts 6 to 10% of searches.

“Update 11/7/11: To clarify, when we say this algorithm impacted 35% of searches, we mean at least one result on the page was affected, as opposed to when we’ve said noticeably impacted in the past, which means changes that are significant enough that an average user would notice. Using that same scale, this change noticeably impacts 6 – 10% of searches, depending on the language and domain you’re searching on.”

Regardless, Google Fresh will be influencing what sites/pages get listed in the top spots in Google. Already, these fresher listings are popping up for keyword searches where products or services are constantly changing or evolving such as in consumer electronics.

How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh?

For the average webmaster or business site owner, this Update will probably mean they will have to examine how often their content is updated. Adding new fresh content has definitely become more important to your site and to your overall marketing strategy.

However, for the small business owner with limited resources, constantly adding new content is not really feasible. These small sites won’t be able to compete with major websites which have hundreds of writers or content contributors. Keeping up will simply be too costly or too time consuming for many small business site owners.

Create Blogs and Forums

Hiring someone or outsourcing your content creation is one option, but in many cases this content is not of the highest quality, which sort of defeats the whole intention. Many SEO experts are already suggesting one way to keep offering up fresh quality content is to run a blog and/or a forum on your site.

Blogs are excellent sources of fresh content and with their RSS feeds broadcasting your news means it is fast and immediate. Blogs are also very search engine friendly so tagging and indexing your content is already built-in and ready to go. They also create a Timestamp with your content so that it can be easily dated and assessed by the search engines.

Having a membership forum or site, where members contribute fresh content, is another viable option for web owners. Appointing moderators to oversee this content is probably a good idea to ensure quality standards and to cut down on spam.

Create Active Online Communities

Along those same lines, another good idea is to create an active online community around your blog, site or any one of the social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or perhaps Google+. Announcing fresh content to these communities, especially if they are large and active, will get your content noticed by Google.

These social networks are designed to quickly pass fresh news or information along to all concerned and can be a great way to get your message out quickly and easily. Google+ has now opened up their service to accept brands, so you can have an account for your site or business.

Create a Current Sitemap

Any webmaster, no matter how small their site, can create a simple XML Sitemap of their site and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools. Make sure when you create any new content or pages, the new URLs are placed on your sitemap. This can be done manually or you can set up a server-side application or program which does this automatically. If you want help creating a sitemap try here:

Google Sitemaps Explained.

Do Press Releases

With the introduction of Google Fresh, having your site or business regularly do press releases is a given. These releases are immediately picked up by Google and indexed. These releases can also be very SEO friendly so you can optimize them for your site’s targeted keywords. Places like PRWeb are extremely professional but they are expensive. There are also free press releases sites or services which you can use to get your fresh content out there.

Don’t Forget Google News Sites

You may or may not be aware that Google keeps a list of hand-picked news sites which they regularly crawl and index. These sites have passed Google’s standards and requirements, so they are excellent places to submit your content. Especially if you have a new site, getting Google to index and crawl your content will take some time, so placing your content and links on any of these Google News Sites may be worth the extra effort since it will help speed up the whole indexing process.

List of Google News Sites

Give Google What Google Wants

Finally, don’t forget to keep adding fresh quality content to your own site on a regular basis. Regardless of your field, industry or subject matter, there is usually a constant flow of news associated with your topic, so placing a “news” section on your site may also help with Google Fresh. Time and time again, those sites and webmasters who give Google what Google wants, reap the biggest rewards.

All views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, Titus Hoskins, who is a full time search engine marketer. He earns his living by ranking high in the search engines for lucrative keywords. His main site offers Free Guides on everything associated with running a business from Corporate Business Gifts to Online Fax Providers to Internet Marketing Tools.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh? – A SPN Exclusive Article

How To Merchandise Your Blog Content

2011-11-13T10:40:00.001-08:00

How To Merchandise Your Blog Content
November 13, 2011
http://www.SmallBusinessNewz.com

How To Merchandise Your Blog Content
By: Arik Hanson

When it comes to blogging, we put a whole lot of emphasis on creating content that gets clicked. And, eventually content that fosters loyalty (return visits), behavior change (digging deeper into the site) and action (purchase).

We put time into developing editorial calendars, interviewing subject matter experts and taking photos for blog posts. We research hot and relevant topics. Find links to insert into posts. And, work hard to tag our posts so they're easily searchable by keywords for months and years to come.

But, what we don't usually do is put a lot of time and effort into thinking: What happens AFTER we make the post?

And that's what I want to talk about today.

Because what you do AFTER the post can often be just as important as what you've done leading up to the post.

Here are four ideas to get you thinking about how to merchandise your blog content AFTER the post.

NBA Star Rick Fox: Online Media Is the Future
Check Out the Video Now

Share selectively via DMs and private messages

Yes, you want followers/fans/customers to share your posts "organically" online. But, it doesn't hurt to do a little pre-promotion to seed a few potential shares, too. So, why not create a few lists of Twitter followers to share your posts with via DM as soon as you post. Could be a list of your best customers. A list of key business partners. Or, maybe it's a list of employees you know are on Twitter. Whatever the case, sharing your post via DM creates a more personal connection between brand and key audience and gives you a better chance for sharing success (and remember, you can replicate this process on other networks, like LinkedIn, too).

Look for syndication opportunities

What do I mean by "syndication opportunities?" Are there Web sites or blogs in your niche that gather other industry blogs and re-post under their own blog (check Alltop)? Are there e-newsletters that use other blog posts to share relevant industry news in your niche (think Sarah Evans #Commentz e-newsletter in our industry)? Seek out those opportunities via some simple research, approach these folks and see if there's interest on an ongoing basis on them syndicating your blog content. Nice opportunity to reach a whole new audience within your specific niche.

Seek additional curation opportunities

Now, think about how YOU can curate your existing content in different formats for different audiences. For example, do you have a number of "list" posts you can curate into an e-book you can share with key customers? Or, what about using a group of posts with data points and key stats and reformatting that information into an inforgraphic for your blog (or, that you can also pitch to other blogs)? Or, what about simply curating a few particular posts around one particular topic and making a new post with a list of those former posts? Again, just think about how you can repackage your existing content in different ways to pique the interest of customers and potential customers.

Repackage posts as earned media pitches

Here's an approach I've been using with one client of mine-taking an existing post (or series of posts) and repackaging them as an earned media pitch. For example, what if you worked in the craft beer business (big surprise-I'm talking about craft beer!), and you wrote a post about a new brewing process that's becoming popular among craft brewers. In the post, you featured a number of brewers from across the country, as well as your brewery. Couldn't you simply take that post, write a very short note to a local outlet or trade publication and link to your post for more information? Easy way to pique media interest-and you've already done a lot of the legwork, theoretically, so you don't have to run down spokespeople and examples (they're already baked into the post).

Those are thoughts and ideas I've executed in the last few months/year. What about you? How have you made your blog content work for you AFTER the post?

Comment here.

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2011-11-12T04:11:00.001-08:00

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SiteProNews

2011-11-11T18:01:00.001-08:00

SiteProNews

Local Business Online Visibility Tips – Use What You Do Every Day
How to Get the Most Out of Your Email Marketing
6 Quick Ways to Stabilize Your Business with Multiple Revenue Streams
SEO Lessons from Local Businesses
3 Onsite SEO Touchups – A SPN Exclusive Article

Local Business Online Visibility Tips – Use What You Do Every Day

Posted: 11 Nov 2011 09:50 AM PST

When you think about online visibility for your local business it’s so easy to get wrapped up and overloaded with what you should be doing on the internet to promote your website. Yet, small changes to your every day business routine can make a big difference.

Often, business owners think about being visible online as a way of reaching people whom you have had no contact with at all. That’s true in many cases. Sometimes, online visibility is as simple as making sure that people you interact with (even briefly) as part of your usual business routines are aware of your online presence.

Not everyone wants to pick up the phone or call in to your premises to find out basic information like your opening hours or who to contact. Sometimes people just want to find out a bit more about you and your company.

In this day and age of always being plugged in to the Internet, your website is the first point of call. That is especially true outside of usual business hours. Make it easy for those brief contacts to find you, don’t make them search when they don’t need to!

5 Simple Offline to Online Visibility Tips

1. Your Business Card

Obvious isn’t it? Well maybe not. I have a mountain of business cards that have little more than an address, phone and email on them. Why force people’s hands and make them search for more information about you? Give them your online details upfront and include:

* Your website address.
* Your active social media profiles such as LinkedIn, FaceBook page and Twitter.
* Why not try a QR Code?

QR Codes can be as simple as a vCard with all your contact details, including your address, phone, email and website to store directly on the phone. You can also redirect to your website, Facebook Page or even Google Places review page. The possibilities are almost endless.

2. Your Business Stationery

Invoices, receipts, compliment slips, info leaflets, headed notepaper… How many of these have your online details displayed? Again, do not just include your email address, but also your website and active social profiles too.

3. Your Vehicle

You may not have the budget for a full designed vehicle wrap, but you can put your details on a decal or sunscreen strip.

4. Print Ads

Whether it’s the local paper or Yellow Pages, always include your online details when you advertise. Make it effective by giving people a reason to visit your website – and capture their email address in return for your offer!

5. Promotional Gifts

We’ve all done it at some point – trade shows, seminars, demonstration or open days give out what seems to be a ton of pens, badges, balloons, key rings, mugs – the whole she-bang all nicely printed with a business name. Make them work harder for you and at least include your website address too.

The great thing about directing people back to your website is it can be easily tracked when you implement it correctly. You’ll get a good picture of where people have come from, what works and what doesn’t.

Before you place the order to re-print your stationery or ads, think “online visibility” – your website is open 24/7 waiting for that 2am inspirational or emergency visit.

Want to know more about getting the word out about your local business online? Help yourself to my “Getting Started Online” guides – they’re free => http://www.mylocalbusinessonline.co.uk/started-online

Jan Kearney specializes in helping local businesses take advantage of the worldwide web to grow their business. You are invited to read Jan’s blog at http://www.mylocalbusinessonline.co.uk

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Local Business Online Visibility Tips – Use What You Do Every Day

How to Get the Most Out of Your Email Marketing

Posted: 11 Nov 2011 09:41 AM PST

One of the main reasons small businesses fail is that they don’t follow up with their leads. Usually it takes up to seven contacts with a prospect before they are ready to buy. Most people give up after one or two contacts. If you are not doing your follow up you, are leaving money on the table. Staying in touch with your prospects builds trust and keeps you fresh in their minds so that when they are ready to buy, they’ll come to you.

Email marketing is a great, inexpensive way to keep in contact with the people on your list and to form and nurture a relationship with them. If you do this correctly, you will get more business than the Average Joe and you will not have to do anything else to get clients to buy. It is therefore important to set this up correctly. Once you have done this, you can pretty much just leave it. Then you can concentrate on building traffic to your website because the system to capture leads and nurture the relationship with them is done for you automatically.

Here are a couple of ways you can improve your email marketing:

First, you have to worry about your prospects opening your emails. If you are not yet tracking your email open rates, you need to start doing so straight away. You need a good email marketing provider like Aweber (or mailchimp if you are in New Zealand). Not using a provider will give you too much work, as well as the possibility of you getting banned by your Internet Service Provider for sending bulk mail. Bulk mail just ends up in the spam folder just because it is bulk mail.

Once you have a provider, you can then set up your emails, set the frequency that they are sent as well as track the click through rates, open rates and bounce rates. You then have something to work from.

Once you have this information you’ll want to improve your messages so that it doesn’t happen again. Here are some reasons why your emails may not get through to your prospects’ inbox:

Spam Words

Some words are triggers for the spam filter. These include: “special offer, free, discount, cheap, home business, %, work-from-home, limited time, click here, coupon”. The chance that your prospects are getting your emails if these words are present are slim. Spam filters are becoming more sophisticated, and your email can be removed before it even hits the inbox. A good email marketing provider like AWeber will be able to pick up if you have any spam words in your messages, and will alert you before you send them.

Subject Lines

The next thing you need to worry about is getting your readers to open your email. This should not be a problem if they signed up because they want to read what you have to say. However, if you have a boring headline they may want to skip reading it because they have many other emails or they are busy. Make sure they know it is from you, and have a proactive title so that they want to open it. If your emails are interesting, and give them more information related to the reason they signed up in the first place, they should look forward to it, and open it. Avoid subject lines that are full of hype or make outrageous claims. If it sounds unbelievable, you will lose credibility with your prospect. Make sure your subject lines are real, convincing and a bit mysterious.

You need to put your name or your company name in the “from” field so that the prospect recognizes you. “Noreply” or “Systems” addresses are less likely to be opened.

Make Sure You Send Relevant, Interesting And Valuable Content

Make sure that the content of your email is valuable. When I sign up for something because I am interested in it and then get an email that says nothing or wastes my time, I unsubscribe on the spot. Most people will do the same. Make sure you deliver on the promise you gave when they signed up.

You should only send your emails to those who asked for it. Don’t use lists from somewhere else that you bought or lists that are out dated. This will just invite complaints.

Make sure your emails are interesting. Don’t copy from somewhere, be yourself. You should know how you are different from your competition. This will ensure that you stand out from the crowd.

Your content should guide your customers toward a sale. Every email you write should help your prospect get answers to their problems, clarify their misconceptions on the subject, climb over stumbling blocks they may encounter, and help them arrive at your product or service, ready to buy. I use again the example of the nutritionist who uses a different illness in every email, usually related to the digestive system. She describes it in graphic detail so that you feel with the sufferer. Then she offers her special diet as a solution. In every email she also has a testimonial from someone who used to suffer this illness, but is now cured thanks to the diet. This is powerful stuff. Think of how you can offer your prospect a solution to their problem. Find all the problems, misconceptions, stumbling blocks and objections they may have and solve them one by one.

Frequency

If you send out emails daily, you will be seen as a severe nuisance before long. This will get your messages deleted or result in unsubscribes. On the other hand, waiting too long between emails will make your prospects forget you. I send one email per week with good content. This ensures a list that looks forward to my emails. The only way to know for sure would be to ask your prospects. Take a survey and find out.

Adhering to these guidelines will ensure successful email marketing. Once this system is in place, you can concentrate on building traffic to your website.

Article by Hannah Du Plessis. For more information on setting up a Lead Generation System for your Business visit Attraction Marketing today. http://masterattractionmarketing.net

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How to Get the Most Out of Your Email Marketing

6 Quick Ways to Stabilize Your Business with Multiple Revenue Streams

Posted: 11 Nov 2011 09:26 AM PST

The old adage, “Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket,” is especially true in today’s economic climate for any business. Just as you would never let all of your income be derived from one or two clients, creating a diversified business where you have multiple streams of income is the key to success with an online service business. If one income stream tapers off for a time, you are adequately covered by the others. I have been doing this very successfully in my business for the last 8 years.

Where things become confusing for your prospective clients is if you have income streams that are all over the map and serve different target markets, like a career coach who buys, renovates, and flips homes on the side. It’s quite challenging to run a business like this because you’re actually running two different businesses in this example and the streams don’t relate well to each other at all. I recently experienced a situation where a career coach I’ve been following emailed his list about real estate development, which really annoyed me. I’m not interested in real estate development, nor do I expect to hear from that person on that topic.

The easiest way to create multiple streams of revenue in a service business is to create off-shoots of what you’re already doing serving the same target market in your core business. This has been referred to as “going deep” with your customers and providing them with additional products and services rather than “going wide” into other markets. In this way, you can create a great client transition process that would provide multiple ways to serve the same clients. Believe me, it’s easier to continue to sell to people who’ve already purchased from you than to try and cultivate new clients.

Here are 6 quick ways to stabilize your business with multiple streams of income:

1. Consulting/Coaching. Can you work with clients in a more in-depth fashion than you do currently? If so, you may want to add consulting or coaching to your income stream mix. Or, if you can help colleagues in the same industry grow their businesses, coaching or consulting in your own industry may provide the additional revenue stream you have been seeking.

2. Done for You Services. If you’re a coach or a consultant, adding done-for-you-services are a great option for members of your target market who don’t want any part of doing something themselves. So, if you’re a career coach who routinely helps clients polish their resumes, perhaps you could add a done-for-you resume service where you create a polished resume for your clients.

3. Affiliate Marketing. I love making money from recommending products and services that I already use in my business. This is an easy sale for me, as I’m an affiliate only for products and services that I have used or that have come highly recommended from a colleague that I respect. There’s nothing sweeter than getting my monthly PayPal notifications of payments from various affiliate
programs to which I belong.

4. Membership/Continuity programs. If you have a great deal of content lying around in your hard drive, a membership site or continuity program may be in your future. This is an effective way to create a recurring stream of income in your business.

5. Teaching/Training/Speaking. Are others interested in learning the “how-to” of what you do? Then adding teaching, training, or speaking to your revenue stream in the form of teleclasses, live events, or webinars will add a healthy income stream to your business.

6. Information Products. Whether you have developed your own or sell PLR (Private Label Rights) products, the sale of information products can be a lucrative revenue addition to your business. Developing products that are sold at different price points serve as a reasonable price alternative to help your target market solve a problem if they aren’t able to hire you for 1:1 assistance.

Take some time to determine how you can “go deep” with your target market and add additional revenue streams that complement what you’re already doing. You’ll soon discover a sense of relief to have the extra income should circumstances cause your income to drop in another part of your business.

Article by Donna Gunter. Discover other unique ways to stop the client chase and create an online service business drives traffic to your
web site with free instant access to this ebook, Turbocharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

You’ll get 7 proven internet marketing strategies that
separate the top 1% of online businesses from the rest.

From Donna Gunter, the Internet Marketing Coach for
Introverts

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

6 Quick Ways to Stabilize Your Business with Multiple Revenue Streams

SEO Lessons from Local Businesses

Posted: 11 Nov 2011 08:58 AM PST

More than once in the six years that I have been providing SEO services for websites, I have had the opportunity to discuss with individual business owners their search engine optimization needs.

Now and again, I run across an individual business owner who is quick to say that SEO is absolutely worthless. When confronted with such an absolute statement, I like to press for details.

It has been my experience that people who speak in negative absolutes will have a horror story to share.

In this article, I am going to detail some of the stories I’ve heard, which frequently tells more about some of the people in our industry, than it does about the effectiveness of search engine marketing.

Problem Number 1 – “I rank number one in Google, and yet, I have never earned a dime from my website…”

When I first heard this story, I was very surprised. After all, if your SEO company did good keyword research, there is no reason why you should not be getting traffic and a few sales from a top ranking in Google.

I pressed for more details. I learned that the company who built the website also did the search engine optimization.

It only took a couple of minutes to learn that the website design company optimized this fellow’s website for the name of his company. There was no other optimization performed on that website.

Lesson 1 – It is rather pointless to optimize a website for the name of the company. The only consumers who will be searching for the name of your company are existing customers.

But, if your company is unknown to the general public, then the people who would like to buy your products or services will not be able to find you among your competitors.

If you sell widgets in Tulsa Oklahoma, your future customers will be typing “Tulsa Oklahoma widgets” into their favorite search engines, trying to find your business. And if your prospective customers cannot find your business, your business does not exist in their minds.

Problem #2 – “I had a company build a website for my business, but I have never received a single customer for my business, through my website…”

Are you sure?

Asking this question is not meant to offend you, but rather to get more details as to how you track incoming business.

If you are the average off-line business owner, who has built a website to promote an off-line business, chances are real good that you probably have never received a single customer from your website.

However, if your website does not request your prospective customers to let you know how they found out about your business, then chances are that people who did find you through your website would never tell you that.

If more than one person answers the phone at your business, chances are just as good that someone may have mentioned finding you on a website, but no one conveyed that information to you.

In your business, you should have systems in place to track and record where new customers have found your business. To do otherwise is like driving your car in the fast lane during rush-hour traffic with a blindfold over your eyes.

Lesson 2 – If you are not asking your customers how they found your business, you will never know what kind of advertising is producing profits for your business, and which advertising is sucking the wind out of your business.

Problem #3 – “I spend a great deal of money on PPC listings (pay-per-click) to get my business in front of search engine
users, because after spending tens of thousands of dollars on SEO, I could not rank in the search engines at all…”

What keywords were you trying to rank for in the search engines?

“Travel. I have a travel business based in Oklahoma City OK that caters to business professionals…”

Have you ever noticed the caliber of companies who rank on page 1 in Google for the keyword: travel?

Those are companies who spend millions of dollars per year to market their businesses online and off-line. Do you have a marketing budget that will allow you to effectively compete with Travelocity, Expedia or Priceline?

Besides that, where do the majority of your customers work and reside?

“Oklahoma City of course.”

If that is the case, why would you spend your limited marketing budget to target consumers who would never buy from you, because they are outside your local marketing area?

“I never really thought about it in that way…”

Most of your competitors are making the same mistakes that you are. That is to your advantage, because when you start to market your business in a more realistic and cost-effective manner, then you will be able to compete with your competitors, while spending far less money than your competitors are spending.

Lesson 3 - If you operate a local or regional business, do yourself a favor, and stop trying to compete in the national marketplace.

Final Thoughts…

Listed inside this article are three lessons that could potentially help your off-line business to find new customers and to generate new sales, as a result of your online advertising.

Depending on the average ticket price of purchases in your store or service business, how much could an extra 20, 50 or 100 new customers bring into your business each month? You do the math.

You could spend the next ten years learning what we have learned to maximize the effectiveness of your online advertising… Or you could employ us to work on your behalf to support your local business in your local marketplace.

More consumers are ignoring their phone books and searching for products and services online. If you don’t want to compete for those consumers, your competitors will thank you. We primarily provide Local SEO Services to businesses in Oklahoma and Texas. But we are happy to serve any brick-and-mortar business in the United States. Author: Trey McMartin. http://MysticMountainMedia.com/

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

SEO Lessons from Local Businesses

3 Onsite SEO Touchups – A SPN Exclusive Article

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:00 PM PST

“SEO is never done” is a phrase that is thrown around a lot, mostly because it’s true! However, when most people talk about the continuation of a SEO campaign, they are usually referring to offsite link building. SEO is about more than developing inbound links! Without a well optimized link to send traffic to, all your hard work offsite is just going to waste. Don’t let your onsite SEO go years before you revisit it. Here are 3 quick onsite SEO touchups you can do today to make sure your site is in top SEO shape:

Replace Old Whitepapers With Updated Versions

All industries change with time, some just evolve faster than others. If you want your website to become a trusted source of information for your target audience, you have got to make sure you are giving them the most up-to-date and relevant information at all times. That’s simple enough to do on a business blog; as long as you are publishing new content on a regular basis, the blog will stay fresh and useful. However, many site owners forget to treat their website’s resource section with the same care.

As part of a well-rounded content marketing strategy, you should be creating whitepapers, articles, videos and other forms of informational content for your target audience. However, these whitepapers/ articles are not forever current. As your industry evolves the information in them becomes obsolete. Unlike your business blog, which may get updated every day with the latest and greatest industry news, these whitepapers can sit for years on your site, waiting to be downloaded. When was the last time you read through those whitepapers? How much of that information is still applicable today?

Writing an entirely new whitepaper is going to take a lot of time, research and effort. If you just can’t fit that into your schedule, why not just update your existing whitepapers? Some of the core information might still be relevant, but you can add or delete sections as needed. You can re-promote them as your 2012 version and give them a second chance at life!

Revisit Your Keyword Research on Poorly Converting Pages

Every page of your website has the potential to be a landing page for a visitor. This is because the search engines rank individual pages, not websites as a whole. It’s important to conduct keyword research on a page-by-page basis for that exact reason. The keywords you select should be an accurate reflection of each page of content. Many websites fail to convert because they target the wrong keywords, meaning they attract the wrong visitor.

Using your website’s analytics, determine which pages of your site are under-performing in terms of converting. Reread the content with fresh eyes and make sure the keywords you are targeting make sense. Did you miss the mark the first time around? The more you know about your target audience the more you can understand their intent when searching. For instance, “BPM” could mean “beats per minute” or it could mean “business process management.” The same search phrase is applicable in multiple situations! Is your website taking that into account?

It could also mean you missed out on important keyword variations your target audience is using. For instance, I run a SEO company. It could also be called a SEO firm, SEO agency, search engine optimization company, SEO services firm and so forth. People are going to search for the same thing using different terms. If your website only focuses on one of these variations, you’re alienating a large segment of your target audience.

Incorporate New Call-To-Actions

You have to make it very clear to visitors to your site about what you want them to do. Should they call your office? Fill out a lead form? Download a free trial? Spell it out for them and then repeat those call-to-actions throughout your site. Every visitor to your site is going to have different motivations driving them, so you can try to appeal to those motivations by incorporating different call-to-actions throughout your site.

For instance, an e-commerce site could use call-to-actions like “Buy now and guaranteed delivery in 3 days” to appeal to last minutes shoppers or “Spend $50 today and receive 10% back as a gift card for future purchases” to go after shoppers looking for a deal. The goal is all the same, to get shoppers to buy now, but each call-to-action focuses on a specific benefit that appeals to particular shoppers.

Nick Stamoulis is the President of Brick Marketing, a SEO services and social media marketing company based in Boston, MA. With over 12 years of industry experience, Nick Stamoulis share his knowledge by posting daily SEO tips to his blog, the Search Engine Optimization Journal, and publishing the Brick Marketing SEO Newsletter, read by over 150,000 opt-in subscribers. Contact Nick Stamoulis at 781-999-1222 or nick@brickmarketing.com.

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3 Onsite SEO Touchups – A SPN Exclusive Article