Posts Tagged seo
The Secret to the Best Viral Content
Posted by seo in social media on July 16, 2010
After some technical difficulties, the SEOmoz webinar about viral content was finally underway. When you hear about ‘viral content’, most people think that it’s a weird/outrageous campaign à la the new Old Spice ads. After hearing Rand Fishkin’s presentation of successful case studies, it was interesting to see the real secret behind the most realistic cases of viral content – the content is useful and relevant to their target audience!
Viral success in this case means that the sites are shared and receive linkage from many different domains. Here are some of my favorite examples of viral success that were presented:
Epicurious
This neat interactive site shows a seasonal map of the US. You can click different states and months to find the best seasonal ingredients during any specific time. It’s a simple idea that’s easy to pull off but not that easy to think of. Kudos to Epicurious!
OkCupid
The popular dating site featured a write up dispelling myths about the success of profile pictures. For example, women seem to get the most responses with a flirty, smiley face. Interestingly enough, men who received the most responses from their profile picture were not smiling. This is an interesting and fun article that even got OkCupid a write-up in the New York Times.
Boston
This was one mildly successful example that could’ve been improved. During the presentation, I thought it was great that it was critiqued so that others can learn about formatting and design when thinking of their viral efforts. The site showcases exciting tidbits about how the CIA used magic and trickery in their tactics.
OMS Long Beach ‘10 Overview
Posted by seo in social media event on June 22, 2010
Yesterday, half of the Emarketed team got up bright and early for OMS Long Beach. It was a day filled of learning and we attended 8 back-to-back seminars in all! There was a different mix of attendees: traditional marketers, internet marketers, specialists and others just looking for some more information about the latest in online marketing.
So many speakers, but who was the most memorable? Jeff Hayzlett, former CMO of Kodak , was definitely the most entertaining. He was even available to sign some copies of his new book. Then, there were the many facts that the presenters threw at us. I was surprised by this one from Chris Anthony of Exact Target: regular coupons have a redemption rate of 1% while mobile coupons hover around 5-10%!
Now, on to the different topics. I focused on attending the SEO seminars, so here are some new takeaways that I got from the speakers:
Link Building and SEO Takeaways
Don’t worry, these aren’t lame tips like “write creative content” or “add entertaining pictures”. I hope you learn something new from these takeaways!
- Catfish of Business Online offered a unique idea: Offer free Wordpress themes or embeddable widgets for users with a link back to your site.
- Use a bulk 404 checker for pages and links you might have lost after undergoing a website redesign.
- Arnie Kuenn of Vertical Measures stresses the importance of getting as many different links from many different websites as you possibly can. Some easy ones: 123people, flavors.me, LinkedIn, BusinessWeek and even asking friends and family.
- You can re-purpose old content to make it new again. If you write a lot about a certain topic, you can target different people and write it for their perspective. Example: If you write about social media, tailor it if you write for social media for non profits.
Overall, it was a very educational field trip but we forgot to take a group picture, once again! Next time for sure…
If you’re looking to attend a local social media event of your own this summer, make sure to check out Mashable’s list of upcoming events.
What’s Your Link Building Focus?
Posted by seo in search engine optimization on May 14, 2010
When it comes to link building do you have a particular focus or do you have a diversified plan? Blogs, directories, paid links, reciprocal links – there are so many options!
Pay Attention to Nofollow Links
Did you know that many popular blogs and even Google Sites apply the nofollow feature to links? This prevents spammers and link abuse. Basically, nofollow links tells the search engine crawlers to not count your link. It doesn’t mean that you should avoid nofollow links all together though. These sites are still a great place to be social and join in on the conversation.
Different Types of Directories
Every directory is not the same! The most popular ones are dmoz and ipl2. Generally speaking (and thanks to Rand Fishkin) there are 3 types of directories that you can submit to:
- Specific directories that are categorized by topics or industry. (ThomasNet is the most popular for industrial suppliers.)
- Local directories are helpful and you can find them through your local chamber of commerce or other online neighborhood resource.
- Generic directories. You’ve probably come across worlds-best-internet-director-1000 or something similar. Again, targeted directories are more preferred than these kinds.
Other Sources for Links
- Social bookmarking
- Press releases sites
- Niche forums or communities
- Review sites
- Social media profiles
Blended Search Results Webcast
Attended a Search Marketing Now webcast this morning about SEO and blended search results. Chris Sherman of Search Engine Land talked about the evolution of blended search results. It was an eye opening presentation because really, do you really remember a time before blended search results?
First off, blended search (or universal search) means that results are made up of non- web sources and traditional web search results. If you do a simple search of something like “summer vacation”, you’ll get images and videos along with traditional results (as pictured above). Chris shows stats that 35% of users don’t use vertical search. Vertical search only focuses on one thing. For example, Expedia can be considered a type of vertical search as it concentrates on travel. Google results are considered more universal because they contain all different types of results.
The benefits of universal search is that more results show up than in the traditional format. This helps local businesses as up to 10 companies can show up on first page. This was a question asked on the webcast and an important one that you should ask yourself – can your products/services be found through:
- Videos
- Images
- News or press releases
- Reviews or testimonials
- Social media or blog content
If not, you’ll know that these areas give you a great opportunity to gain more exposure.
So, do you ever wonder why Yahoo is not as popular as Google? One factor can be that Yahoo only delivers limited universal results. Just something to keep in mind as we can see how universal results influences the giants as well as the little guys. As always, Chris reminds us just how important SEO is and how important it will continue to be for your online business success.
Reviewing 3 Twitter Tools
If you like seeing stats displayed by fancy 3D doughnut graphs, this is the tool for you.
It’s useful if you like to see how many of your followers are retweeting your Tweets. You can also enter the Twitter handle of a friend or competitor and see how their stats compare to yours. Things I learned: 78% of our followers are male and 23% of our followers are entrepreneurs.
No need to sign up, so why not try it out?
Sweet. More graphs! But Tweet Stats also shows a tag cloud of your most frequently used phrases. It also gives you a density analysis that gives you a look at the times you Tweet most frequently. It’s easy to use but I definitely think it’s more informative than useful.
First, you need to allow this tool access to your Twitter account. Like Compete, you can compare your profiles with 2 other users of your choice. The graph displays are easy to read and you can even sign up to a weekly update of your progress. You can even go back as far as 3 months and see your stats from there. I think Tweet Stats is my favorite out of the three tools.
Do you have any other handy Twitter analysis sites you like to use?
Intel’s Advertising Overhaul
Posted by seo in Search Marketing, paid search on March 30, 2010
Listened in to a webinar this morning with Corey Carrillo of Intel Corporation and Craig Macdonald of Covario about Paid Search and Big Brand Marketing: How Intel Coordinated Search Into a Global Ad Campaign. Most of the time, I find that big corporate presentations are kind of dry because they only cover really general topics and give broad details.
Anyways, Corey admits that Intel is lacking in their brand power presence when compared to Dell or HP. They began an overhaul of their advertising campaign which portrayed their engineers as “rock stars”. Across video, online, email and other advertising platforms, Intel used the same format with familiar characters. This gave their new image a consistency. I personally like these new ads and how consumers can relate.
Consumers seemed to enjoy these ads and found them entertaining. BUT… when directed to the landing page, customers quickly bounced. Like we’ve talked about before, this landing page looked really cool and was flash based. From the consumer point of view, it was too slow loading and they weren’t finding what they were looking for. After a simpler revamp, Intel’s ad campaign improved. They tested, measured and learned from their mistakes and it’s something we all can learn from.
As Corey reminds us the 3 most important things he considers when it comes to a paid search campaign:
- keyword selection
- ad creative used
- landing page
Lesson learned: Integrating your SEO and PPC campaigns are easier said than done, especially for big corporations.
The Evolution of Blogging and SEO
The History of Blogging
Web + log = Blog. According to Wikipedia, early-blogging dates back to around 1983. What evolved from a personal online diary has become a helpful tool that can be as powerful (or more powerful) than a website. Let’s take a quick look at some interesting tidbits:
- Cameron Barrett compiled the first of blog sites in 1998
- Peter Merholz coined the term “blog” in 1999
- Pyra creates Blogger in 1999
- Twitter introduces the world to microblogging in 2006
What’s Changed?
LiveJournal, Open Diary, Xanga, Blogger. The dot-com bubble paved the way for companies and individuals who wanted to make a name for themselves via blogging. Nowadays, blogggers are more dynamic and it’s more than just detailing the mundane facts of your everyday life. From online marketers to large corporations, blogs are now considered to be a serious for of entertainment, news, and information.
Business Blogging Webinar
This morning’s webinar with Chris Baggot and Duane Forrester was about business blogging and how to apply SEO. They distinguish the difference between how personal blogging has evolved into a more sophisticated form of corporate blogging. Chris shared insight about organizing several different blogs dedicated to specific topics, while Duane talk about the importance of tracking your success. Here are some things to keep in mind as you establish your own blogging strategy and best practices:
- 66% of blog traffic comes from search engines
- Companies that utilize blogs generally get more traffic
- Frequent and recent – successful blogs are updated regularly and contain relevant information
Effective Copywriting for Web 2.0
Posted by seo in Article Optimization, Bloggging, twitter on December 7, 2009
I recently read a magazine article describing the profession of copywriting as “sexy.” After giggling for half a second, it dawned on me that “sexy” was just the right word to use. Copywriters, through the power of the written word, are responsible for “seducing” their audience. They have the fun, yet daunting, task of generating interest and then developing that interest to lead to some sort of fruitful relationship, not unlike the dating world. And, just like the dating game, the rules have changed.
The more information that technology makes readily available to consumers, the less time these consumers have to spend on any one particular product, service or idea. The attention span of the average web user has steadily decreased as the barrage of online information continues to overwhelm human senses. With this in mind, the web copywriter must truly embrace the concept of “less is more.” Relevance and credibility are still important principles to keep in mind when writing content, but Web 2.0 consumers now want relevance and credibility…in cliff notes format. A great example of this trend is the micro-blogging phenom, Twitter. Twitter’s popularity and success is a smack-in-the-face realization that web users’ tolerance for information has been Mini-Me-ed down to 140 characters!
With that said, here are some key guidelines for downsizing a seven-course meal of content into a snack-size bar without losing the essentials:
1. Listen to data: Conduct A/B testing on different versions of headlines to determine which works best.
2. Waste not, fluff not: Don’t make claims you can’t support. Consumers can smell a phony sales pitch a mile away!
3. Forget “short and sweet”: Just keep it short. Jargon, hype, gimmicks are all unnecessary sugar-coating. Give them what they want to know.
4. Know your audience: This one seems obvious, but is worth repeating. Write copy that speaks in a voice that your target market, not only understands, but listens to.
5. Format for easy reading: Use headlines, sub headlines, short paragraphs, lists, and an eighth-grade reading level. Have your 13-year-old read the copy. If he/she doesn’t “get it” by the time their attention is lost to a new YouTube video, it’s time to rewrite!
One Keyword Per Page
Posted by seo in Article Optimization, Search Marketing, search engine optimization, seo design tips on July 8, 2009
It’s expensive to create and optimize pages for search, so why not try to jam as many keywords onto one page as possible? Unfortunately this scattershot approach won’t increase your ranking, instead only diluting your results. The best number of organic search keywords to target per page is one.
It is important to have one primary focus on the page, one concept that the page is about.
Now of course you can have more than one word on the page, or target two words that mean basically the same thing. For example optimizing the same page for “certified public accountant” and “CPA” makes perfect sense. However, you should resist the temptation to use the same page as the search landing page for “CPA”, “certified public accountant”, “tax accountant”, and “tax services”. Although all of these words are related, you won’t end up with a number one Google result this way.
The bad news is, this means lots of landing pages. Sure it’s more work, but doing something right usually is. The more concepts you try to cram on a page, the more you confuse the search engine, so keep it simple. Just start with pages for your best keywords, and add a few more every week. Over time you will see much better results for the effort.
Not everyone agrees with this strategy, and it is possible to get a number one rank for multiple keywords when they are less competitive, but in a competitive environment, it is important to specialize and be clear with your seo strategy. Keeping your target keywords as close to one as possible will keep you from spreading yourself too thin and losing out on valuable traffic.
Organic SEO vs. PPC
Posted by seo in on April 16, 2009
The ongoing debate between organic SEO and PPC has continued to be a hot topic among many website creators. The debate between using organic SEO or Pay Per Click continues to be hot with ups and downs to both of them. Which one is best? Some experts say that both organic and paid searches are important. They are both important for the success of a website and business advertising on the web. Organic SEO is accomplished by optimizing your webpage and using link popularity by acquiring links that direct people to your site and the optimization gives the site higher rankings based on your chosen keywords and popularity based on its links.
PPC advertising is when you actually buy clicks or visitors from a search engine. PPC is a market place and you are buying clients and selling then a product at a profit that hopefully lets you dominate the marketplace .The keywords are bid for or you are buying them. Anytime you are making money organically it is a good idea to try it on the PPC side. One of the most important things to think about is the time in which the results are needed. One of the downfalls of organic or natural marketing is that it takes time to see the impact of linking and other organic SEO techniques. Every site would benefit from organic SEO and traffic is great from all businesses. In terms of putting resources into organic SEO, the kind of sites that can benefit from this type of campaign are those who need a large audience and a larger body of traffic. Organic SEO is seen as more trustworthy and be more sincere than PPC.
Professionals recommend that both organic optimization and PPC advertising be used together. It is very important to know how to stay in front of the competition. One good way to see if your SEO is working by looking at Google’s quality search ranking for how useful and good any particular website is. Further, websites that rank high organically are also most likely to be less expensive for pay per click campaigns.
PPC is great if you are starting a new site and you believe in the product it is a faster way to get a greater audience as opposed to natural SEO. In the meantime it would be wise to get the organic SEO campaign on track drawing from the data that the PPC advertising results have given you. PPC search results are easier to predict in terms of ROI and can provide immediate results and traffic, and possibly revenue. Paid placement search is also evolving. Which sites does PPC or SEO work best for? SEO works great for blogs while hardly anyone tries to use PPC on a blog. Ecommerce stores, for instance probably spend 99% on PPC advertising. Sites not necessarily focused on selling a product are probably better off sticking to SEO. In conclusion both SEO and PPC offer great tools to webmasters looking to promote their sites. Keep posted for more articles to come!
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