In the internet marketing world, we use the dating analogy to help new marketers understand that importance of avoiding bragging in their website copy.

Picture this: You are sitting at the dinner table with your date, and all she does is talk about herself. Every conversation you try to bring up turns into it being about her and what she thinks about it. After a while, you will feel un-important and hope one of your boys calls your cell to get you out of this rutt. Flat tire anyone?

Bottom line, nobody likes a bragger. Nobody likes someone that goes on and on about how much they rock, what kind of turbo their car has, and how green their grass is.

These same rules apply when it comes to writing website copy. Your website should not be an giant “about me” page. Sure, you should have a company profile with your qualifications, but telling the visitor on a constant basis why they should pick you is a bit over done.

Rule #1: Your content should point out your visitor’s problems
Rule #2: Your content should provide your visitors with a solution to that problem
Rule #3: Your content should highlight how you can help solve this problem.

Your visitor > Your visitor > Your solution for your visitor.

If your visitor feels you care about them, they are more than likely to contact you. So give a little love and help a brotha out. You will benefit from it.

Posted in Online Marketing | Leave a Comment »

Here is a classic example of SEO in action. When performing Search Engine Optimization on a website, you target keyword terms. Typically you emphasize the big terms, the ones that drive the most traffic, aka the Juicy Head (as I heard Seth Godin say it) of the curve. Your SEO efforts also yield rankings for other minor terms, that maybe only deliver a fraction of the traffic a juicy head term would, but taken collectively with all the minor terms, they may add up to match or exceed the major terms, this is the classic Long Tail.

So I am going to show you an example of the Juicy Head and the Long Tail in action, Here is a snapshot of traffic stats for one of our client websites, Party Ideas and Event Planning website bestpartyever.com. Keep in mind here that Google and Yahoo use different factors to rank websites, and the psychology and demographic of the user of each search engine is different.

Notice over this short period of time, Yahoo delivered more total traffic, spread across almost 3x as many keyword terms (the long tail). Where as Google traffic was more concentrated over 4 main terms (the juicy head). 0$ in PPC was spent over this period. This has a lot to do with how quickly the different search engines index and start ranking websites.. but I think you get the drift. SEO for the Major Terms for a big traffic punch, but don’t forget the minor ones that over time will drive just as much or not more traffic. 

Posted in SEO Articles, The Osearch Blog | Leave a Comment »

What is the value of maintaining a healthy social garden? At some point it will bear fruit.

How many social networks do you belong to? MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Jaiku, Virb, BestPartyEver, Linkedin, Digg, Purevolume, Last.FM, Pownce, Flickr, Threadless… are we tired yet? At one time or another you may have joined one of these or one of the 1000’s of other social networks out there. You built a little group of friends, and then lost interest and moved on. You left that garden to whither and die in cyberspace.

Yet there may be 1 or 2 networks that you use consistently. Here you have created a quality social graph, participate on a semi regular basis, and are making a “name for yourself”: in these networks you maintain a lush garden.

You Reap What You Sow
Linkedin is a great example. I think one could easily draw a semi-straight line between the energy invested in making new contacts on LinkedIn, and the quality and direct benefit to you these new contacts provide. Your social garden bears fruit, as long as you maintain it.

Here is another great example. My wife Sally (BizGirl) is an avid Twitter user. She has invested much time in tending her social garden that has already born fruit. She has created many useful connections with other professionals, landed a interview with Robert Scoble, and opened dialog with a few VC’s (which is a good thing, since she is seeking funding for her startup).

The Green thumb
While some may see time spent on social networks a waste, it really can be a productive endeavour. The name recognition, branding reinforcement, and personal connections you can make can prove valuable in tangible and intrinsic ways down the line. Tending your social garden is as important to business today as the trade show was 15 years ago.

From an SEO perspective it is a vital part for building links. The content that you push to these networks may generate backlinks to your site which in the long run will help your rankings.

Don’t over fertilize

There is a fine but clearly defined line between being a schmuck that spouts noise all day, and gently finessing your contacts with targeted messaging and marketing. Don’t be the guy that twits 400x a day as you will quickly lose your followers, on the flipside though don’t be afraid to share your ideas and things you find helpful with your network. These nuggets that you pass on may be of help to someone who may return the favor later in the form of a new contact, lead, or personal recommendation.

Bottom line: dedicate some time every week to tending your social garden, it will mature over time and generate ample fruit to your benefit.

Thoughts? How do you utilize Social Networks?

Posted in SEO Articles, The Osearch Blog | 1 Comment »

Let’s face the facts: Most web designers don’t know a thing about SEO. Many companies don’t understand that a total re-design of their website by a web designer unskilled in the SEO industry most likely will result in a tanking of rankings. Re-designs do not have to equal a ranking tank if you keep your bones in place.

1. CSS is the way to go. Anyone that is getting their website re-built should not do so without CSS being the base of their design. This will cut out tons of back code and will allow the search engines to crawl through the site. Yes, flash may look pretty, but the search engines have no interest in an all flash website. It’s not Marti Gras, so keep your flashing to a minimum.
2. Keep your current bones in tact if at all possible. Creating the re-design off of the old navigational structure will help hold your rankings steady. This only applies if you are re-designing an html site to an html site. Cookies needn’t apply.
3. Any changes in navigational structure should be 301 re-directed to the new page. Don’t let search engines lose sight of your content and site’s structure.
4. Keep your content, keep your headers, keep your meta’s, and keep your anchor text. If your website is ranking for top terms and you are doing a re-design, these are all vital (especially if they have been optimized previously). If you would like to change any of the above, I suggest revisions opposed to a full revamp. If you have content you do not want to share anymore,
5. Send out a press release and include your top terms which in turn link back to your website. The press release can be about why you did the re-design and what your new site provides online users.

With these steps, you should not have a problem keeping your site out of Google’s gutter. Made unaware, you will definitely tank. Having your SEO consultant speak to your web designer prior to the re-build is the best tactic, but will not re-assure they will listen. Having the same company that does your SEO to do your design is your best bet.

Posted in SEO Articles | Leave a Comment »

Blogging is simple. As a blogger, the thought of “what should I talk about today” should not cross your mind. In fact, blogging does not have to be an hour long project that turns into a homework assignment. If you read what’s on the net in regards to your industry (or your clients industry if you blog for clients), then you have material to blog about. It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

Blogs are just a collection of your thoughts regarding a specified subject. Right? You really only have 3 things to work off of:

1. You read something in the industry and disagree with it;
2. You read something and agree with it;
3. You design your own ideas and opinions about something past, present, or future.

#1. Disagreement: You were clicking around and ran across an article. Mid paragraph you pull the BS card and fully disagree, or disagree to an extent of the matter, and you might even make a comment about it in their blog. It’s okay… vent away little blogger. You have your own venting corner on your own blog where you can gripe and call them out. Make sure to prove your points with reliable resources of course. Don’t forget to back track links.

#2. Agreement: You read an article and by golly it was like a hammer hitting a nail in full force. Awesome. Not only have you found a blogger you can relate to, but you also have something to blog about. “But I agree with it. Why would I blog about it?” you might ask yourself. Well, as a human being, you have extra thoughts on the subject. More things you might like to add and point out will be helpful for your readers. Again, back track links.

#3. Epiphany: You are lying in bed about to go to sleep and have an SEO epiphany. Being in the SEO industry, I know your brain doesn’t quit even when you lay down for bed. We eat, sleep, and breathe SEO right? So use these ideas for a blog. Get out a pen, jot down your thoughts, let it play out in your head, and blog about it.

So now that you know the 1-2-3’s of blogging, go update yours before it gets stale.

Posted in SEO Industry Rant | Leave a Comment »

After pondering over a few changes that I’ve seen recently, I’ve come to realize that Yahoo is fun and games, while Google is there to provide you with the most reliable resources to get the job done.

MyYahoo vs iGoogle:

As most of us are aware, Google offers you your own personalized iGoogle homepage once you are logged into your Google account. Just the same, Yahoo offers MyYahoo! personalized homepage once logged into your Yahoo account. Over the past few weeks, Yahoo has made big changes to their MyYahoo page to strongly resemble iGoogle’s features and tools. Seems almost apples to apples at first glance. However, Yahoo seems to have made their layout a little more functional, user friendly, and are working on adding even more social networking capabilities such as message boards.

Even more so, Yahoo allows you to customize both the color of your page (or theme if you wish), column layout of your page, and a feature to add further pages. As I am aware Google has all but one of these features, Yahoo seems to push the envelope with their design and easy to find “share this page” buttons. Yahoo earns 1 up on the fun factor here.

iGoogle focuses on a clean layout, few theme selections, and allows you to get down to business with what you want on your page. The tools are mostly provided by outside sources. You can integrate your Google calendar, news, and other various categories. Just looking at the popular categories to select from, we can tell the tools are for a more mature audience. Google earns 1 up on the Business factor.

Yahoo Features vs Google Features

Yahoo focuses more and more on the kids and teens (elementary/junior high)

- Yahoo 360
- Yahoo Games
- Yahoo Music
- Yahoo Kids (Yahooligans)

Google pulls in the older crowd (high school/college) with features such as:

- Scholar search
- Book Search
- News Search

Yahoo ask’s the audience, while Google gathers the facts from reliable resources. As much as reliability outweighs ‘he said she said’ answers, Yahoo answers has grown amazingly large and comes to the top for searches dealing with the question being asked.

So what have we learned today? Yahoo is fun and Google gets the job done.

How can we use this information to help out SEO/SEM?

SEO should be focused towards the target audience, and as we understand, each  search engine targets a specific audience. Have a client that is selling children’s toys? Get them set up with a PPC campaign through Yahoo. Have a client wanting to obtaining leads for car sells? Google is the way to go.

Posted in SEO Industry Rant | 1 Comment »

All websites should serve the purpose of either selling services/products, or informing their users. No matter what your business plan is, the user always comes first. To have a successful online marketing campaign, you have to corner your niche and target your audience.

There are an abundant amount of online marketers that push clicks and traffic as being a buying factor into their services. The line I use all too often is that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink. Horses are one thing, but when you start leading animals down to the watering hole that don’t naturally drink from them, conversions are 99 times harder to come by. This is why target marketing is so important in todays online industry.

Not only will target marketing be the soul driving factor of the search engines in the near future (I suspect within the next 3 years), it is also the easiest way to grab your audience and sell them on your purpose.

Social networks such as Facebook and Myspace are making it easier than ever before to create our own little sections and leach off it’s pre-defined juice (or users rather).

Recently I created a Mypsace profile for BestPartyEver.com to bring in targeted traffic. With BPE being it’s own social network for party goers, vendors, and event planners; what better audience to target than those already apart of a social network?

With this in mind, I also thought about the possibilities that Myspace already offers. Myspace has groups for users interested in different areas. Groups are probably one of the easiest places to scrounge around and dig up potential traffic. Since BPE is for parties, we can focus on the groups planning weddings, baby showers, army wifes, food vendors, and party/event planners.

Taking it a step beyond adding friends to our newly created Myspace, I added a list of services that we offered. This is to funnel the Myspace visitors to our BestPartyEver.com page.

Of course after users are so kindly to add us to their Myspace page, I have to thank them. What a better way than to create “comment stickers” or banners to lay out the basics of what BPE can provide to them as an individual. All comment stickers should focus on our groups for a more personal touch. Those planning a wedding will get “Plan your wedding with BPE,” and those holding a baby shower will get “Celebrate the birth of your baby using BPE” and the like.

Putting in the extra care to market a target audience per the individual’s wants and needs is a surefire way to not only increase your traffic, but your conversions as well.

Posted in SEO Industry Rant, SEO Articles | Leave a Comment »

SEO for many years has moved from one level to the next. In the mid to late 90s, SEO was all about meta tags, keywords, and backlinks. Spam central hit the net as website owners grew brighter and took note on what worked. Don’t kid yourself, you know you did it too (at least to some point). It was an “if you can’t beat em, join em” scenario. Venturing into mid 2000’s, we discovered that not only did we have to have backlinks, but they had to be relevant. We also noticed that “content is king” and to be on top of your game, you must have relevant content on your website that related to your backlinks. Meta’s were still important, but the keyword tag nearly lots all meaning.

We are now approaching the end of 2007, and boy are times changing. There are enough online social networks, blogs, and user feedback sites to make your head spin. You can no longer just be “on” the internet; you have to be “in” the internet. Many markets are falling behind, as the ones that jumped on board when the internet first started or soon there after, and kept abreast of the changing online market, are striving to the top.

Within the last 6-7 months alone, SEO services took a leap up the ladder. No longer can an SEO specialist manage 50 accounts, we are cut down to10 max to give each client the understanding and dedication they deserve for their services. SEO/SEM packaged contracts dwindled down and we now must customize them per clients need. Prices have gone up as more time is needed to receive well rounded desired results, and hourly pricing is necessary to keep businesses afloat. Now we must focus on details details details. There is always more to come, so sit tight and keep focused on your target market, your niche, what they use, and who you are. That is the key, has been the key, and will always be the key, to online success.

Posted in SEO Industry News | Leave a Comment »

When will the search engines start to realize that it’s not the anchor text that counts so much as the text surrounding it? There are billions of great link backs out there from online newspapers, online journals, and respected online communities that point back to web pages using URL’s. Because these back links are straight URL’s, they aren’t getting the weight and credit they are worth.

How about also taking into consideration plain text URL’s that lack the link? There are billions of those lying around the internet giving back no creditability what so ever. These plain text links would be easy to detect with adding a small algorithm to their “spiders”. How hard can it possibly be to pick up on http:// and www and recognize that it is being a reference, or has importance, to the article?

As website owners, we don’t have much say so in how our website is being referenced. Great back links are being left out of the mix because online newspapers and journals are not here to feed your websites food to the search engines. Sometimes if you ask kind enough, high authority sites will allow you to pick your anchor text. Other than that, you are losing out on some great juice you naturally earned.

All I’m saying is give all links, even the little ones, a chance to make an impression for website rankings. There’s a lot of lost juice out there!

Posted in SEO Industry Rant | 2 Comments »

I kick myself to this day when I think about the start of the internet and how much potential for earning some extra cash I would have in my pocket right now if I knew better. Investments rather.

3 letter domain names go for hundreds and thousands of dollars. A domain name! If I jumped on this when domain names first started, I would be swimming in cash. The good ones are being eaten up faster than I can type this. Domain names are huge when it comes to marketing and branding a company. Are domain names important? They sure the hell are. It’s the final stamp on your branding endeavor.

So yesterday I began to ponder something. Myspace is huge right? More and more companies are joining this online social network to build a reputation and clientele. You sometimes see commercials with a URL at the bottom of the screen telling you to visit their Myspace URL (i.e. myspace.com/companyname). We have also heard DJs on the radio spout off to listeners asking to friend them on their Myspace. Small companies keep their client base going, while also expanding it, by using Myspace to run contest and give away prizes (http://myspace.com/tshirthell). Bands, mainstream and underground, both use Myspace to expand and connect. Large companies advertise movies on Myspace as well (http://myspace.com/spiderman, http://myspace.com/simpsonsmovie)

Alright that’s enough explaining to get down to my final point:

Are Myspace URL’s going to be worth something in the future? Think about it. You can make your Myspace URL whatever you’d like. There’s really no limit.

Here are the top taken Myspace URL’s that I discovered while brainstorming:

http://myspace.com/cocacola
http://myspace.com/sprite
http://myspace.com/ford
http://myspace.com/toyota
http://myspace.com/ipod
http://myspace.com/apple
http://myspace.com/iphone
http://myspace.com/realestate
http://myspace.com/superbowl
http://myspace.com/doritos
http://myspace.com/pepsi

Smart guys who got in early:

http://myspace.com/microsoft
http://myspace.com/spiderman
http://myspace.com/simpsonsmovie
http://myspace.com/mattcutts

Let me know if you find anyone else on the smart guy list. I could be here all day searching for top names. So what I’m wondering is if these goobers we are seeing on these Myspace pages are our future domain name selling “thousand-airs.”

I don’t know about you, but I think I could be on to something.

Posted in The Osearch Blog | 4 Comments »