SearchRank Blog

SEO Has No Future? Think Again!

2008-05-15T15:50:46Z

I am so weary of non-SEO types who have some measure of influence spouting off their opinion of what SEO is, what it isn't, whether it is growing or declining and the like. It is no different then when celebrities use their clout and status to speak out of some subject like they are some kind of authority on the matter when in all actuality they are not. Following is my response to recent posts that have claimed that SEO has no future and is on a downward spiral. I am so weary of non-SEO types who have some measure of influence spouting off their opinion of what SEO is, what it isn't, whether it is growing or declining and the like. It is no different then when celebrities use their clout and status to speak out of some subject like they are some kind of authority on the matter when in all actuality they are not.

There was Dave Pasternack whose is not a SEO but has a background in paid search. He made the controversial statement that "SEO is not rocket science" in an article he wrote for DMNews back in 2006. Not only did this fuel a war of words, it gave birth to a silly contest that tainted the good name of the famous chef Dave Pasternack's. Then there was Jason Calacanis who stated in a SES keynote that "SEO is bullshit." Again, Jason has no background as a SEO but because he is influential, people listened to what he had to say (even though what he had to say itself was bullshit).

The latest firestorm over the reputation of SEO came last week when Jeremy Shoemaker (Shoemoney) put out a post entitled "SEO Has No Future." This was followed by a post published at Marketing Pilgrim by Greg Howlett entitled "SEO a Dying Industry?" Neither of these individuals is a professional SEO (a person who makes their living providing SEO-related services). However in Jeremy's case, because has a lot of influence, people listened and responded. Greg Howlett I have never heard of before but Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, where the post was published, no doubt carries a great deal of influence as well.

Now, I have the utmost respect for Jeremy as an Internet marketer as well as a person and consider him a friend in the industry. However, I cannot completely agree with what he says in this statement:

My honest answer is there is no future in SEO. From my experiences I am seeing Google SERPS results strongly influenced by Google Toolbar data, Google User history, and Google Analytics data. Google's combination of SEO and social voting via toolbar/history/analytics will continue to sway more in the realm of social voting. I feel this technology will only get better. I don’t think anyone can argue that core SEO has gotten less valuable over the years and I see that trend continuing.

I agree with the fact that search engines are taking social voting into consideration when deciding on how to rank sites in search results. However, traditional SEO is still a foundational piece of the equation, and it always will be. The whole social voting trend is simply another way for one site to link to and vote for another. This piece of the puzzle has always been there but now is in much broader use. In the pre-social media days, those in charge of web sites (webmasters) linked to other web sites. Now with sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Mixx and others, not to mention blogs and sites that allow users to generate content, that power is in the hands of anyone. This will only continue to increase as more people become savvy to it.

Jeremy then goes on to almost stereotype what SEO is when he quotes Matt Cutt's definition of spam and relates it to SEO.

If you read the spam as defined by Matt Cutts (Google Lead Spam Engineer) he says: “Web spam is when somebody tries to cheat or take shortcuts so that their Web site shows up higher [in search results rankings] than it deserves to show up,” That is most SEO at its core. Sure you add title tags and meta descriptions but then you have to incentivize people to link to it.

Wait a minute! When was SEO about cheating and taking shortcuts? I thought it was always about "optimizing" all the various elements search engines look at in a web page - title tags, meta description tags, content, the use of header tags, alt attributes, URL structure, internal linking practices, and anchor text in links to name a few. Sure there are people who "cheat and take shortcuts" but those are spammers, not true and tired SEOs. It is no different than Jason Calcanis saying that all SEOs are snake oil salesman only to later recant, recognizing that very few SEOs actually fit that description.

Now to Jeremy's credit, he does end his post with the following statement:

Please keep in mind I am not a professional SEO and have never claimed to be. My opinions above are purely based on my experiences.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion but keep in mind that not everybody's opinion is correct. ;)

Moving on to Greg's post, he agrees with Shoemoney that SEO is going to continue its death spiral and tries to convince his readers that companies who effectively "brand" themselves will be the ones on top. He does not define what he means by "branding" in this article but to his credit does so in a follow-up article.

Before moving on to the follow-up article, I disagree with Greg's definition of what SEO is in the first place. He uses the term "SEO snake oil salesmen" for those who try to sell him link trading services (even though link building is link building - not SEO). He says search engines "do not want to reward crummy companies that play SEO games–they want to give the top listings to the best companies." He then in error says, "If you want a long term SEO strategy, guess where your focus should be? Yes, your branding." When did branding have anything to do with the practice of SEO? Branding is more about how the public views your products and services or your company as a whole as opposed to optimizing and adjusting web page elements.

In his follow-up article where Greg says branding will replace SEO, he defines what he means by "building your brand."

He tells the reader to "develop a USP (unique selling position)" but does not provide any insight as to how to accomplish that.
He suggests that a company should "improve every part of their business to the point at which customers are loyal and refer others to you. Phone calls, emails, packaging, products, and such are all touchpoints that need to be in a constant state of improvement." Okay, so this helps build loyalty, earn repeat business and gain word of mouth referrals but how does it work to attract customers who do not know you exist or do not know people who know you exist?
Finally he suggests that you "incentivize customers to talk about you and your USP. You can call this viral marketing or word of mouth marketing or any number of things."

This is good advice in a "post click scenario" or in other words, after someone lands on your site. However, how do you get them there in the first place? Branding as Greg defines it is going to accomplish that and replace tried and true SEO techniques? I don't think so.

Enough of picking these three articles apart. I guess it really boils down to what one's definition of SEO is and if they see it as a continually evolving practice. Personally, I view SEO as a "foundation" to online marketing, one that will always be needed no matter how the online world evolves around us. Take title tags for example - they are still the most important "on-page" factor that engines look at and yet I continue to come across sites all the time that are not optimizing these. It is one of the simplest things to adjust and yet very often overlooked.

Let's look at basic HTML which has evolved quite nicely from the mid nineties to what we are able to do with web sites today. We now have Flash, JavaScript, database driven sites, and even AJAX functions that will blow the mind. And yet, the fundamental aspects of html are still there - head tags, body tags, href tags, image tags, table elements or where CSS controls the look of site, div tags. If these are not coded correctly, the html breaks.

How about something offline - home construction. This has most definitely has evolved over time. It is amazing to see some of the environmentally elements that can be built into a house these days not to mention "smart home" features such as automation, security and the like. No matter how advanced the construction of a home, it still has to have a foundation, a frame and some kind of roof. If those elements are not in place, it doesn't matter how "advanced" the rest of the home is as it will not be supported long term.

Traditional SEO is like these examples. You will always have to optimize title tags, make sure content includes key phrases for which you want to rank well for, make sure search engine crawlers can reach all the important pages of the site, make sure graphical images that link to other pages use the alt attribute to describe those pages or in scenarios where images are not hyperlinked, make sure the alt attribute describes the image, make sure anchor text in html links is descriptive of the page it is linking to, make sure URLs are search friendly... I could go on but I think you get the point.

Sure this is not all you have to do anymore to market successfully online. There is social media, mobile and local search, viral marketing, brand building, usability, PR, conversions and so much more that are part of the overall success (or failure) of any online marketing campaign. SEO is a necessary foundation and without a good foundation, all other efforts are a waste for many sites.

Even if Google were to someday award what it considers top recognized brands the top positions, what about all the possibilities for local search - dentists, attorneys, contractors, movers, real estate agents, service professionals, restaurants, etc.? Is "Mike's Moving Company" located in some city, USA going to be a search engine recognized brand name? Searchers looking for a local mover for example are not going to necessarily search for a "brand" name either. Rather they are going to search for "moving" related terms along with their specific geographical region. Branding is not going to help companies gain visibility here, but SEO will.

I have also seen several scenarios over the years where a successful SEO campaign has helped a company earn such great organic search visibility that they eventually became a recognized brand name. Had they not laid their foundation with SEO, they would have remained anonymous.

So, is SEO a dying art? Will it eventually fade from existence? No sir! Just as advertising is not going away; just as basic html lays the foundation for some incredible web applications, just as a microprocessor and some type of storage device is necessary for computing, traditional SEO techniques are here to stay.

So please stop trying to stereotype SEOs as "spammers" and "snake oil" salesmen. Sure there are bad ones but the same could be said for any industry - contractors, auto mechanics, doctors, lawyers, car salesmen and the list goes on. There are bad eggs in every industry- doesn't mean the whole industry is bad.

Furthermore, if you are not a professional SEO, please keep your mouth shut! Sorry but I cannot find any easier way to say it. I could easily write a post saying that the affiliate marketing industry is going to the crapper but I'm not an affiliate marketer. I could put together an article stating that independent companies selling vitamins and supplements online will eventually fall prey to government regulation but I know next to nothing about that subject. I write about what I know because looking stupid is a fear of mine. If you have influence, great. Just watch how you use it. ;)

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Search Marketing Workshop To Be Held in Phoenix, Arizona - June 18, 2008

2008-05-14T16:58:43Z

For the longest time I have wanted to participate in a local seminar in my own community of Phoenix Arizona on the subject of search engine marketing. Now that will be fulfilled in the inaugural event of the National Marketing Academy as they host the Phoenix Search Engine & Internet Marketing Workshop. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, June 18, 2008 from 7:30 am - 5:00 pm and will be held at the Sheraton Phoenix Airport. For the longest time I have wanted to participate in a local seminar in my own community of Phoenix Arizona on the subject of search engine marketing. Now that will be fulfilled in the inaugural event of the National Marketing Academy as they host the Phoenix Search Engine & Internet Marketing Workshop. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, June 18, 2008 from 7:30 am - 5:00 pm and will be held at the Sheraton Phoenix Airport.

The workshop will be divided into four segments - Introduction to Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO Link Building & Website Publicity, and Paid Search & Local Markets. We will wrap everything up with 45 minutes of Site Reviews and Questions & Answers. I will be teaching the "Search Engine Optimization" segment which will pretty much cover everything from laying the foundation with keyword research to actually implementing and managing a SEO campaign. Along with myself, Arnie Kuenn, President of Vertical Measures, Brian Offenberger (RSS Ray), CEO of Biz Growth Search Engine Solutions and Jason Ferrara, COO of Elixir Interactive will be teaching.

Here are some more details from the event web site itself.

Event Overview:

Get ready for a jam-packed day. Our sessions will be fast paced and informative. Both a continental breakfast and lunch are included with your conference fee.
This workshop will cover everything you need to know about “natural” or “organic” search engine optimization (SEO) as well as pay-per-click (PPC) marketing.
You will learn the latest ins-and-outs of search engine marketing (SEM) from top experts.
Provides a unique setting to network with fellow marketers and search engine industry professionals and discuss the trends in search engine marketing.
Watch as we evaluate real websites live. Our experts will use all of the information and tactics learned throughout the day and apply them to detailed reviews of sites submitted in advance by the audience.

What You Will Learn:

How search engines list Web sites for free and through paid placements.
How to get free "organic" traffic by building a site that pleases search engines and your visitors.
How to efficiently purchase listings guaranteed to rank your company at the top of search engine results.
How to calculate the ROI of your search marketing efforts by tracking your visitors from the time they hit your site until they buy—and get tips on improving conversion if they don't!
How to build links that generate traffic to your Web site, and how to avoid the penalties of "spamming" the search engines.
How to utilize social media marketing to drive more business.
What's coming next in the constantly evolving world of Web search.

What You Will Receive:

All your meals: a continental breakfast and complete buffet lunch.
A certificate of completion from the National Marketing Academy.
A complete student kit including a binder with all presentations included.
The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet.
Exclusive offers from the event sponsors.

Cost for the full day conference is just $499 which includes access to all workshops, continental breakfast and lunch. If you register by June 11th and take advantage of the early bird rate of just $399. Space is limited so if you are in the Phoenix area and want to learn the ins and outs of search marketing from industry experts, make sure to reserve your spot. Hope to see you there!

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How to Put Your Flickr Photos into Yahoo News & Other Daily Finds for May 8, 2008

2008-05-08T18:10:43Z

Here are some great and newsworthy posts I came across today including how to put your Flickr photos into Yahoo News, 10 reasons why you should monitor your brands across social media sites, and finally, Bill Slawski examines a Microsoft patent that explores the identification of a block within a web page. Here are some great and newsworthy posts I came across today including how to put your Flickr photos into Yahoo News, 10 reasons why you should monitor your brands across social media sites, and finally, Bill Slawski examines a Microsoft patent that explores the identification of a block within a web page.

How to Put Your Flickr Photos into Yahoo News (Small Business SEM)
Matt McGee writes, "It’s not happening quickly, but Yahoo continues to integrate Flickr photo content across its network. This opens up yet another door for any local business with a photographic/visual element to acquire eyeballs, keeping in mind that Yahoo News is the number one news site online."

Top 10 Reasons for Monitoring Brands in Social Media (TopRank Online Marketing Blog)
David Alston writes, "Social media has simplified the art of the soapbox shout. Information is shared with the masses now using easy-to-use Web 2.0 tools and is recorded and cached for infinity. These two points make the non-stop monitoring of social media an important to-do for any brand owner."

Search Engines, Web Page Segmentation, and the Most Important Block (SEO By the Sea)
Bill Slawski examines a Microsoft patent granted in April that explores the identification of a block within a web page that represents the primary topic for that page, and how identifying that block might be helpful in many ways.

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When Submitting to Social News Sites is a Complete Waste of Time

2008-05-08T15:47:38Z

Submitting stories, blog posts and articles to social news sites such as Digg, Mixx, Sphinn and others can be very time-consuming but if done properly, can also have huge payoffs. Why then do so many people shoot themselves in the foot by not following proper etiquette? Is there such a thing as "social bookmarking etiquette?" Certainly there is! Here are a few things to keep in mind if you want to get the most out of your social bookmarking activities. Submitting stories, blog posts and articles to social news sites such as Digg, Mixx, Sphinn and others can be very time-consuming but if done properly, can also have huge payoffs. Why then do so many people shoot themselves in the foot by not following proper etiquette? Is there such a thing as "social bookmarking etiquette?" Certainly there is! Here are a few things to keep in mind if you want to get the most out of your social bookmarking activities.

1. Remove Blog Name and/or Sections From Title

Many blogs are already set up in a manner where only the title of the post or story appears in the title tag. However, an equal number are not and may be formatted something like this:

Story Title | Blog Name

I have even seen examples like the one below which is a Fox News story:

FOXNews.com - California 2-Year-Old Dragged From Yard by Coyote in Third Such Attack in Five Days - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

I have bolded the actual title of the story - all the other stuff is related to the blog and section in which the story is located.

When blog titles and even blog descriptions are left in, it not only takes away from the title of the story, it increases the workload for editors and moderators of the social news site that care about the quality of new submissions. This is not to mention that you minimize the chance that your submission will be voted popular by the community at large. 2. Include Appealing Descriptions (Stay Within Character Limitations)

We all know how important it is to have a catchy title that attracts the attention of the reader, but often neglected is the importance having a good description as well. Typically, people submitting items to social news sites copy and paste the beginning paragraph of the story for their description. When doing this, it is good practice to point out that it is either an excerpt or accredit the description to the author. For example, in this recent Sphinn submission for a post authored by Lee Odden, I copied the opening paragraph but accredited him as writing it.

Lee Odden writes, "Right along with Facebook, YouTube and blogging, Twitter is one of the most often written about social media communication tools. We’ve run polls about how people use Twitter as well as aggregated tips from the Twitter community on how to get the most productivity out of it. This post shares a few new Twitter tools you may find useful."

In other scenarios, you can copy the opening paragraph but change it up a bit so it better describes to story as I did in this example of a recent post by Danny Sullivan:

Danny Sullivan provides some nifty search tools to check out including a way to quickly search blogs & social media sites all at once, a new video search tool, a study into automatic search queries, an awesome Twitter search tool, a way to track search rankings over time and a compilation of Google help info for site owners, from Google, in PDF form.

One of the things that bugs me the most is when the description is cut off. This often happens because the submitter exceeds the character limits of the social news site. It is pure laziness! If the description you are using exceeds the characters allowed, shorten it. It is not that difficult and can go a long way in attracting readers to actually read the story.

3. Submit to the Most Relevant Category (Avoid Multiples if Allowed)

I love the social news site Mixx. However, one pet peeve I have is that they allow stories to be submitted to multiple categories. It is not that some submissions do not deserve to be in multiple categories but rather that it is often abused. People will submit to as many categories as they possibly can in a feeble attempt to gain more exposure for the story. It actually has quite the opposite effect and turns community members off. They may even vote down your submission or report it as spam.

So, even with sites like Mixx that allow multiple categories for submissions, select the most appropriate and don't abuse the liberty of being able to assign your submission to multiple categories.

4. Stay Within The Topic of the Social News Site

Many social news sites have a specific topic. Sphinn for example is related to the search and social media industries. Small Business Brief is geared towards small businesses. So what does an article on "weight loss" or "laptop batteries" have to do with these sites? And yet I often see submissions such as these showing up in the "recently submitted" sections, at least until an editor or moderator zaps them.

I just don't see the logic here. Do the submitters think that their unrelated stories will stick and even if they do, that they will be voted popular by the community? People who behave in this manner are simply wasting their time. Unfortunately for them, many are too dumb to even realize their folly and often return again and again, repeating the same mistakes until they are finally banished forever.

5. Will Others Find Your Submission of Interest?

Last but certainly not least, try to submit stories that others will be interested in. I have seen some of the dumbest, most boring and uninteresting things submitted to social news sites. Some even go as far as to send out "shouts" or "share" the submission with people they are linked up to. If it is not something of value (i.e, breaking news, resourceful, brilliant, funny), keep it to yourself. No one else cares and if you submit enough boring stuff, it is a sure way to get people to ignore you.

Have I missed anything? I'd love to hear about additional abuses of social news etiquette in the comments section. Who knows, maybe some of those who commonly abuse social news sites will come across this post and be enlightened. ;)

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CNN Adds Mixx To Its Mix of Bookmarking Links & Other Daily Finds for May 6, 2008

2008-05-06T23:54:16Z

Here are some great and newsworthy posts I came across today including Mixx continues to gain exposure as CNN adds "Mixx It" button to every article on its site and a post at Search Engine Guide on how not to waste your time with web analytics. Here are some great and newsworthy posts I came across today including Mixx continues to gain exposure as CNN adds "Mixx It" button to every article on its site and a post at Search Engine Guide on how not to waste your time with web analytics.

CNN Adds Mixx To Its Mix Of Bookmarking Buttons (TechCrunch)
Mixx landed another big distribution deal as CNN.com will be adding a “Mixx It” button after every article on the site. Last March, the Mixx bookmark button was adopted by the New York Times, but only as one of many options. Similarly, when CNN.com readers click on the “share” button, they have the option to send the story to Digg, Facebook, del.icio.us, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. But Mixx will be highlighted as a separate button, apart from the regular share options. As an avid Mixx user, it is great to see the site gain continued exposure.

Wasting Your Time with Web Analytics (Search Engine Guide)
Web Analytics is not easy and can take up much of you time so it's important to concentrate on the things which have the most benefit to your business. Here are some things you shouldn't measure as well as some areas where you could potentially end up wasting time rather than focusing on tactics and metrics which will actually help you to succeed.

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Four Pillars of Social Media Algorithms ... Trust x4 & Other Daily Finds for April 30, 2008

2008-05-01T00:52:25Z

Here are some great and newsworthy posts I came across today including Jeff Quipp writes about the four pillars of social media algorithms, a post by Ann Smarty that looks at the discovery of bad networks of sites, and finally, SEOmoz has a SEO Cheat Sheet for web developers, available in PDF format for easy printing. Here are some great and newsworthy posts I came across today including Jeff Quipp writes about the four pillars of social media algorithms, a post by Ann Smarty that looks at the discovery of bad networks of sites, and finally, SEOmoz has a SEO Cheat Sheet for web developers, available in PDF format for easy printing.

Four Pillars of Social Media Algorithms ... Trust x4 (Search Engine People)
Jeff Quipp writes, "Ever wonder why some Digg submissions go hot at 25, while others don’t at 270+? Same with Stumbleupon … why do some posts do exceptionally well while others with similar numbers of thumbs ups get substantially less traffic? One word - TRUST!"

Looking for ‘Bad Guys’ - Discovering Networks of Sites (Search Engine Journal)
Creating networks of (interlinked) sites is a widespread tactic of PageRank and ranking manipulation. To own a lot of websites is perfectly OK but to own a lot of websites for the sake of “link juice” is not good (per Google at least). The line is not always easy to define algorithmically therefore most often than not Google frowns upon any interlinked network it can spot.

The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet (SEOmoz)
Need a cheat sheet that covers most of the SEO tasks that go into your web development projects? This guide from SEOmoz covers just about all of the basics...and then some. It is in PDF format so it can be printed out but the post reveals several screenshots of what's inside.

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SBM Unleashed: Trip Report and Shout Outs

2008-04-26T00:17:25Z

I'm two days back from the first Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference and I have to say that this was probably one of the best conference I have ever been to. The conference attracted right around 50 paid attendees which made for a very intimate setting. Speakers and those of who were live blogging were able to spend some real quality time with attendees. The information that was presented in sessions and workshops was of the highest quality and the food served up set the bar high for any other conference to follow. I'm two days back from the first Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference and I have to say that this was probably one of the best conference I have ever been to. The conference attracted right around 50 paid attendees which made for a very intimate setting. Speakers and those of who were live blogging were able to spend some real quality time with attendees. The information that was presented in sessions and workshops was of the highest quality and the food served up set the bar high for any other conference to follow.

I had the privilege of live blogging sessions and workshops presented by Stoney deGeyter, Wendy Piersal, Christine Churchill, Debra O'Neil Mastaler, Matt McGee and Matt Bailey. There was also plenty of ample time to network and hang out with a charity networking event held prior to conference, a Mexican fiesta dinner generously sponsored by Search Influence, great lunches held in the conference center's "The Log Inn," and on the final night, food brought in from Robert Clough's favorite Italian restaurant.

One of the more interesting elements about this conference was the location it was held in - Northwest Forest Conference Center, located just outside Houston in Cypress, Texas. It is settled on 80 gorgeous rural acres and provides a unique balance of rustic charm, natural beauty and first-class amenities. Their one-of-a-kind facilities and stunning scenery make for the perfect location to blend business with relaxation. The sessions and workshops themselves were held in an authentic replica of the historic Alamo.

The feedback that I received from those who had paid to attend this event was that it was first class and that they had learned a wealth of practical information that they were looking forward to implementing into their businesses. I can't wait for the next one (yes there will be more) which I hope Robert and Jennifer will not wait another year to hold.

Besides reuniting with many friends I have known for years, I'd like to shout out to some new friends and colleagues I was privileged to meet. This list includes Will Scott of Search Influence, Chad Everett of Everitz Consulting, Kelsey Ruger of Pop Labs, Christine Novosielski of Web Tech Tools, Ryan Freeman of Strider, Scott Allen of Hybrid 6 Studios and last but not least, Karen Lea Stebbins of Brainwaves, who by the way was on the same plane with me as I flew back to Phoenix.

To see photos from the event, be sure to check out my Flickr feed entitled "Small Business Marketing Unleashed 2008."

So, if you are a small business owner looking to get an edge over your competition in the area of online marketing, I highly recommend the next SBM Unleashed conference. I'm not sure where it will be held but I do know for certain that one will be held. Keep an eye on the Small Business Marketing Unleashed site for future announcements.

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Tools For Engaging In Social Media & Other Daily Finds for April 24, 2008

2008-04-24T23:17:37Z

Here are some great and newsworthy posts I came across today including Brent Csutoras goes through each of the major social communities that he uses and outlines some of the best tools to help you manage and maintain your accounts, Eric Papczun reviews EveryZing - a turn-key, hosted solution to gain natural search engine visibility for your video and audio content, and finally, Dogpile.com has come out the other end with an updated search algorithm, design and new partner content. Here are some great and newsworthy posts I came across today including Brent Csutoras goes through each of the major social communities that he uses and outlines some of the best tools to help you manage and maintain your accounts, Eric Papczun reviews EveryZing - a turn-key, hosted solution to gain natural search engine visibility for your video and audio content, and finally, Dogpile.com has come out the other end with an updated search algorithm, design and new partner content.

Tools For Engaging In Social Media (Search Engine Land)
"We all know Social Media Marketing can be pretty time consuming. There are numerous social media communities, each requiring you to sign up, make a profile, and participate, in order to have any success with them. So it is only natural that you would like to have some helpful tools to short cut the process wherever possible." Brent Csutoras goes through each of the major social communities that he uses and outlines some of the best tools to help you manage and maintain your accounts.

A Closer Look At EveryZing (Search Engine Land)
Eric Papczun reviews EveryZing - "For those of you in need of a turn-key, hosted solution to gain natural search engine visibility for your video and audio content, the company EveryZing says they’re the ticket. The products are designed to provide users with a powerful multimedia search tool, publishers with the metrics and editorial controls, and search engines with crawlable text-based fodder they reward with higher rankings."

Dogpile.com Updates Search Algorithm, Design and Content (Search Engine watch)
Dogpile.com has been doing a little spring cleaning and has come out the other end with an updated search algorithm, design and new partner content. Don’t worry. Arfie, the cute spotted Dogpile mascot, still greets you on the homepage.

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SBM Unleashed: Usability and Conversion Workshop With Matt Bailey

2008-04-22T17:57:17Z

If you've ever tried to find the spare toilet paper in someone else's bathroom, you've experienced a usability issue. Just like the owner of that bathroom, we sometimes get so used to our own sites, we can't see what needs to be fixed. In this workshop, Matt Bailey, Founder of Site Logic Marketing will walk you through common problems that can make your site a hassle for visitors to use. Find out how even the smallest change can make a dramatic impact on your site's conversion rates. If you've ever tried to find the spare toilet paper in someone else's bathroom, you've experienced a usability issue. Just like the owner of that bathroom, we sometimes get so used to our own sites, we can't see what needs to be fixed. In this workshop, Matt Bailey, Founder of Site Logic Marketing will walk you through common problems that can make your site a hassle for visitors to use. Find out how even the smallest change can make a dramatic impact on your site's conversion rates.

The number one rule of usability is to call things what they are. The second rule in usability is if they don't see it, it is not there. Usability rule number three is to write for users, not for search engines. This and many other great tips were part of the session "Usability and Conversion Workshop" given by Matt Bailey at the Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Houston Texas. You can read the post in its entirety at Search Engine Guide.

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SBM Unleashed: Local Search Workshop With Matt McGee

2008-04-22T13:50:53Z

The days of flipping through a big fat yellow book to find a local business are quickly coming to a close. After all, why settle for a simple phone number when an online search can also net you menus, pricing, hours and consumer reviews? In this workshop, Matt McGee, SEO Manager at Marchex will walk attendees through the most popular local search engines and will show you the best ways to leverage them to promote your business online. The days of flipping through a big fat yellow book to find a local business are quickly coming to a close. After all, why settle for a simple phone number when an online search can also net you menus, pricing, hours and consumer reviews? In this workshop, Matt McGee, SEO Manager at Marchex will walk attendees through the most popular local search engines and will show you the best ways to leverage them to promote your business online.

Matt divides this workshop up into four areas - who are the local search players, the local search algorithm, SEO and PPC techniques to help local search optimization and finally shows some practical ways of how to actually obtain local customers. I have provided a complete summary of this workshop which was presented at the Small Business Unleashed conference in Houston, Texas at Search Engine Guide.

One juicy thing that Matt provided was a list of all the major local search providers that you should make sure you are listed on. That list is below but also be sure to check my notes on the entire workshop. Business Database Providers:

Yellow Pages:

Local Directories:

CitySearch
Search for your business. If listed, click "Own this business?" link to claim free listing. If not listed, only way to be added is paid advertising.
InsiderPages
Kudzu
This site began in Atlanta and has its deepest coverage there, but is working to expand to cover other major cities. Free submission is available through 2008.
Local.com
OpenList
WCities.com
This site provides city guides and other (mostly travel) related business information. Use the Contact Us link and choose "Add a Listing" from the drop-down menu.
Yelp
To add a new business to yelp, you must write a review at the same time you add the business listing.

Local Events Directories:

Eventful
Meetup
Upcoming.org (owned by Yahoo!)
Zvents

Local Coupon Sites:

ValPak
Zixxo

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SBM Unleashed: Link Building

2008-04-21T22:57:24Z

Session Summary: Need links? Of course you do! In order to rank well and successfully promote your online business, you need an effective link building program as part of your over-all SEO strategy. Link guru Debra O'Neil Mastaler, Owner of Alliance Link walks attendees through the world of links. Find out why search engines rely so heavily on links, where to find links and why a good link can send sales through the roof. Session Summary: Need links? Of course you do! In order to rank well and successfully promote your online business, you need an effective link building program as part of your over-all SEO strategy. Link guru Debra O'Neil Mastaler, Owner of Alliance Link walks attendees through the world of links. Find out why search engines rely so heavily on links, where to find links and why a good link can send sales through the roof.

In this session Debra is going to discuss why links are valuable, ranking influences, tools to help you and some actual tactics. She emphasises that gaining authority links is probably one of the best link building tactics right now but also taks about several tactics and tols tat will help build your site's link popularity.

Want all the details? I have provided full coverage of this session which was presented at Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Houston, Texas on Search Engine Guide.

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SBM Unleashed: Paid Search Advertising

2008-04-21T18:48:42Z

While pay per click advertising can be a quick and easy way to drive traffic to your web site, it can also be a quick and easy way to drain your bank account. Christine Churchill, President of KeyRelevance reveals how to get the most bang for your buck from each of the major paid search engines by choosing the right keywords, writing relevant ads and optimizing your landing pages. She will share the simple tweaks you can make to dramatically cut your average cost per click while increasing your sales so you have the best chance against companies with much deeper pockets. While pay per click advertising can be a quick and easy way to drive traffic to your web site, it can also be a quick and easy way to drain your bank account. Christine Churchill, President of KeyRelevance reveals how to get the most bang for your buck from each of the major paid search engines by choosing the right keywords, writing relevant ads and optimizing your landing pages. She will share the simple tweaks you can make to dramatically cut your average cost per click while increasing your sales so you have the best chance against companies with much deeper pockets.

In this session, Christine does and excellent job describing what paid search (PPC) is and compares it to organic search (SEO) showing both the benefits and downfalls. She reveals many of the things she learned by trial and error. Finally, she goes into actual detail of how to optimize a PPC campaign, both in its set-up and ongoing maintenance.

Want to see all the details? I have provided full coverage of this session which was presented at Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Houston, Texas on Search Engine Guide.

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SBM Unleashed: Building a Community

2008-04-21T18:16:17Z

There's no doubt the best endorsements come from happy and loyal customers. So what if there was a way to build a community around your web site? A community that helped keep your content fresh, your ideas flowing and the links 'a coming. Turns out, there is. Find out the best ways to build up a loyal readership and how to get your visitors more involved from the queen of community herself, Wendy Piersall, Founder of Sparkplugging.com. Session Summary: There's no doubt the best endorsements come from happy and loyal customers. So what if there was a way to build a community around your web site? A community that helped keep your content fresh, your ideas flowing and the links 'a coming. Turns out, there is. Find out the best ways to build up a loyal readership and how to get your visitors more involved from the queen of community herself, Wendy Piersall, Founder of Sparkplugging.com.

What started out as a hobby turned into a thriving business for Wendy. Her blog is geared towards parents who work at home. In September of 2007, she combined 7 blogs into one blog network. One of the things she recently did was to rebrand from being a site that seemed to target "moms" to a much broader range of people. Thus the name change from "eMoms at Home" to "SparkPlugging.com." The community had grown beyond moms and even dads. Now under the new brand name, the community is expanding.

Want to see more? I have provided full coverage of this session which was presented at Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Houston, Texas on Search Engine Guide.

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SBM Unleashed: Site Architecture

2008-04-21T17:00:55Z

You may have heard it said that having a search engine friendly site is key to success on the web. That's fine and dandy, but what in the world is a search engine friendly site? Find out how to code your site to make a difference in how well you rank in the search engines. Learn what tags and attributes are essential to gaining those top rankings. Even if you know nothing about HTML, this session will arm you with the knowledge to help your programming team get your site in shape. Stoney deGeyter, President, Pole Position Marketing is the speaker for this session. Summary: You may have heard it said that having a search engine friendly site is key to success on the web. That's fine and dandy, but what in the world is a search engine friendly site? Find out how to code your site to make a difference in how well you rank in the search engines. Learn what tags and attributes are essential to gaining those top rankings. Even if you know nothing about HTML, this session will arm you with the knowledge to help your programming team get your site in shape.

This session is being presented by Stoney deGeyter, President, Pole Position Marketing. If your web site architecture is "jacked-up" you aren't going anywhere (shows a car on jack stands with no tires). Good architecture helps search and users to think less. Poor architecture stops spiders and hinders usability. Ultimately poor web site architecture can decrease conversions.

Duplicate content can plague you like a virus. For one thing, it will slow the spiders down and may even cause them to leave before indexing everything you'd like them to index. Regarding domain names, keep them short, make them memorable and use keywords if possible. Don't forget about alternate domains - misspellings, abbreviated, phonetically similar, various top level domains, etc. Redirect all domains to your primary domain to avoid duplicate content issues. Stoney also talks about Favicons, pointing out that it helps with branding and draws attention to your domain.

Next he talks about search engine friendly URLs. Like domains, keep them short and use keywords if possible. On whether to show the 'www' or not, Stoney recommends that redirects be set up to flip to one or the other so you do not get duplicate content issues. He also recommends not to redirect main domain to sub-page (i.e., mydomain.com/home.php). Another duplicate content issue is when you have secure and non-secure pages. He recommends that you disallow search engines to index secure pages (https). In an e-commerce environment, don't secure the process until they are ready to check out. Many sites secure the shopping cart but many times users go back to the shopping experience after adding items to their carts.

Different navigational products can present duplicate content issues. This happens when you have different URLs for essentially the same page. It is okay to have various ways to navigate to a product or brand page but either make sure the landing page is a consistent URL or make sure you have unique content for each different URL.

On using underscores or hyphens, Stoney recommends hyphens. One thing I will point out here not mentioned in the presentation is that when words in the URL are separated with underscores, search engines see them as one word whereas if you separate them with hyphens, they will see them as tow or multiple worlds.

Make sure you have a custom 404 error page so users don't see the default "Not Found" page.

Stoney points out that a flat directory structure is better. What this essentially means is to make sure all pages are able to be reached with one or two clicks. If you are going to have multiple pages for each section of your site, locate them in specific folders.

Next Stoney is going to move on from domains and cover document structure. In site hierarchy, make sure there is a natural flow of topics and subjects. Make sure title tags are unique for each page. This seems to be so elementary but there are still so many scenarios where I see duplicate or even worse no title tags throughout a site. One will have to decide whether they want to place page descriptive first or brand first in title tag. I prefer keyword descriptive first followed by pipe symbol and then brand name. Regarding meta descriptions, if targeting long tail keywords, he recommends not having a meta description so engine will be forced to pull snippets from content. Keyword meta tag = uselessness.

Regarding content, make sure each page has unique content, avoiding duplicate content issues. Also take advantage to link to other pages as much as possible within the content of your site. This allows the use of keyword rich anchor text to describe the pages you are linking to. Be careful to heading tags in an outline style of format. Eliminate what Stoney calls "code bloat" - excessive tables, on-page JavaScript, on-page CSS, etc. CSS for example can handle all your page style attributes so that you do not have that repeated on each html page itself. CSS also allows you to reposition important content towards the top of the html code so engines can find it first. Use alt attributes to describe images. This helps search engines understand either what the image is or if it links to another page or site, the subject matter of what the image is linking to.

Regarding cookies, don't force users to accept them. Why? Because search engines do not eat cookies. Therefore they will not see the pages.

Finally, Stoney will talk about link structure. Back on the 'www' or no 'www' - pick one or the other when linking to pages. He also recommends using absolute URLs, especially if you have secure (https) pages. In linking to the home page, always link back to main domain. Keep in mind that if linking to products for example using JavaScript, engines will not follow those links. Breadcrumbs allow users to know where they are in the navigation process. It also helps engines to make sure they are finding all your pages. Site maps are also very useful for both users and search engines. Use robots.txt to block access to pages you don't want to show up in the organic results of search engines. Use the nofollow attribute to control the flow of link juice so you do not waste it on pages that are not important (i.e., privacy policies, legal statements, contact us, etc.)

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Note: These are raw notes taken while live-blogging sessions at the Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Houston, Texas. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors.

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SBM Unleashed: A Common Sense Approach to Online Marketing

2008-04-21T14:51:15Z

While it's easy to get overwhelmed about going up against big businesses in marketing realms like search engine optimization, blogging, viral marketing, community building and analytics, a good dose of common sense can really level the playing field. This panel aims to set the stage for the rest of the show by helping you change your perspective on competing with the big boys. Speaking on this panel is Matt McGee, Wendy Piersall and Matt Bailey. Summary: While it's easy to get overwhelmed about going up against big businesses in marketing realms like search engine optimization, blogging, viral marketing, community building and analytics, a good dose of common sense can really level the playing field. This panel aims to set the stage for the rest of the show by helping you change your perspective on competing with the big boys.

Matt McGee, SEO Manager at Marchex is up first. He is going to present his SEO Success Pyramid which is a pictorial overview of the SEO process. In introducing himself, Matt points out that he has been around small business all his life - his dad is a small business owner, his wife owns a small business, etc. He also points out that the pyramid is not a one by one process but rather a level by level.

Foundational elements have nothing to do with one's web site but rather the individual or company itself. It all starts with commitment. The team needs to be committed as one person can sabotage a marketing plan. Planning is another key element to the process. What are your goals? What is needed to reach them? How will you determine success? Third element is product and/or service. A great search marketing campaign will not hide the fact that you have a lousy product or service. Therefore your SEM campaign will be more successful if your product and/or service is great. Next, education is crucial - having access to current, intelligent information. Finally on the lower level of the pyramid is patience. Unless Oprah is pimping your product, you will have to have a lot of patience.

The second level of the pyramid does deal with the web site itself. Design and usability is first. Providing a great user experience should be an essential part of your marketing plan. Keyword research is the foundation of your SEM campaign. You need to understand what keywords and phrases your potential customers are searching for. The next step of the process is analytics. This allows you to learn successes and failures. Finally on this second level of the pyramid is tools. Access to good tools can give you an edge over competition.

The third level is the "nuts and bolts" of an SEM campaign. It all begins with crawlability. If a search engine cannot access your interior pages, they cannot rank them. Content is next. Users want it - search engines need it - search marketing success demands it. Finally on the third level is links. Links work like votes not only telling search engines what your site is about but showing them how popular or authorities your site is.

Fourth level deals with external web sites. Social/local findability is first. It related to engaging your customers via social media (e.g., blogs, social news, local sites). Next is reputation management - what others say about you matters. Being proactive on this is better than waiting for a bad reputation issue to attack you.

The very top spot of the pyramid is trust. Trust from users and search engines is imperative for long term success.

Wendy Piersall, Founder of Sparkplugging.com is up next. One of the ways she has brought attention to her site is by reaching out via speaking engagements. Another thing that really helped her is getting the attention of prominent bloggers who will give you exposure. It is about building relationships via email, commenting on blogs, Twitter, etc. The main idea is to "get yourself out there" some way, some how.

She points out that the little things can make a big difference. Things like putting a "subscribe to comments" link or placing links in a certain area of the page can have a huge impact on your online success.

Matt Bailey, Founder of Site Logic Marketing is up next. He starts out by saying that the larger conferences are like a dump truck dumping all sorts of information on you, giving you information overload. He then compares that to this conference being a more sequenced format that can actually help you with your sites.

Matt points out that a lot of the information out there is dated and quite antiquated. So, one should find out when articles were written and take that into consideration. Reason for this is that SEM in 1999 was totally different than it is today. Don't drive yourself crazy with very fine SEO tuning techniques. Matt compares what a NASCAR pit crew deals with compared to him working on his 1964 Bug. The very smallest element in NASCAR can make a difference whereas with an antique bug, it is a much simpler process. As a small business, making the basic, essential adjustments is going to provide big pay-offs.

Next Matt talks about analytics which he is absolutely passionate about. Analytics have brought about 900% to 1,200 ROI for sites.

Finally, Matt talks about usability. It can be as easy as getting your mother to sit down and use your web site. If someone who is a web novice cannot use your site, then it is not very usability friendly. If someone cannot accomplish something on your web site, it is your problem - not theirs.

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Note: These are raw notes taken while live-blogging sessions at the Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Houston, Texas. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors.

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