August 2010 Archives : Bruce Clay Blog
August 31, 2010Who Are You Up Against? Sizing Up the Competition
While Bing-Yahoo! and Google battle it out to win the hearts of searchers around the world, businesses everywhere are locked in a similar struggle for your attention and dollars. But before you dedicate resources to beating the competition, it’s important to be sure of whom your competition is. With an environment like the World Wide Web, your SEO competition can be anyone and everyone, and can change daily. It helps to know simple tasks that can be performed about once a month if you’re in a very competitive space. So, when tackling the question of who your worthy opponents are, the process may go a little something like this.
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SEO Hot Tub – 20th August 2010
The SEO Hot Tub is not just a way for us to talk about the latest and most important search engine optimisation (SEO) articles, but also a way to share our SEO knowledge and client learning’s. Reading articles from other SEO sources not only keeps you updated with what is going on in the industry, [...]
August 30, 2010
Search Engine Marketing Blog Lessons: Tales from the Blogging Trenches
The advice that business should blog is great and all, but the more pressing question, by far, is how. When I’ve sat down with clients to start them on the track to business blogging, there are many questions and much uncertainty, of the creative and technical nature. As the author of a search engine marketing blog, it’s kinda my thing to think about both sides of the coin: the SEO benefit as well as the creative and community building aspects of blogging. Here are some things to keep in mind if you’re staring at a sparse screen, looking to leverage the benefits of a blog.
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August 27, 2010
Friday Recap: Cheeseburger Edition
Can I get a hallelujah for Friday? Here are some fun and interesting stories to get you to your weekend.
First, how about a trip in the time machine? Employee orientation videos from Wendy’s make a good point. People learn better when instructions are rapped, with belting riffs and glamour shot lighting. [I feel like I’m ready for an exciting career in fast food. –Susan]
At least Wendy’s was trying to reach their team in a popular medium of the time. Knowing your audience and their interests is an important part of building community. Ben Huh, founder of Cheezburger Network, knows a thing or two about online community management. He was my guest on this week’s SEM Synergy and I couldn’t share this with you earlier, as I was in video editing purgatory, but now I can!
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The Rewards of Quality Information Architecture
With the extensive range of online marketing tools available today, it’s easy enough to target a market, write some content and throw up a site on any CMS. Many newbies to search engine optimisation, and sometimes even professionals, often overlook one of the most important aspects of operating a website that does what they want [...]
August 26, 2010
Please Don’t Go No. 2 on SEO Copywriting
I’m at the grocery store the other day and the cashier asks me what I do for a living. I tell him I’m a writer.
Him: “Oh, really? What genre?”
(Looks like he just met a celebrity. I chuckle.)
Me: “Not that kind.”
Then I thought to myself, Why should I laugh? Copywriting is certainly an art, and when you add SEO copywriting into the mix, I might as well be Pablo Neruda (a little overboard?).
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August 25, 2010
The Danger of Dismissing Social Media’s Value
I know I’m preaching to the choir, but there is business value in social media marketing.
How’s that for a news flash, guys?
Not like I’ve never said it before. So why again now? Well, the idea that social is a waste of time caused quite a stir on Hacker News today as Spencer Fry’s Down With Social made its way to the top. Fry makes a strong argument, however, we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Why Fry thinks social media has no business value:
- Skills needed for community managers are present throughout the organization. Devoting a full-time person to the job is a waste of resources.
- Social media is not a fit for every business. Some sites are better served without social features.
- Social media marketing can’t be measured effectively. Spending without knowing the return on investment is throwing money away.
So here’s where I beg to differ.
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August 24, 2010
Non-Profit SEO Corner: Starting Out
Did you know that in Niger, the world’s poorest nation, the lack of access to clean water causes blindness, disease and social inequity?
68% of people in rural Niger drink contaminated water.
1 in 4 children die before the age of 5.
85% of women in Niger are illiterate.
And all those issues can be helped by providing the simple life necessity of clean water.
On Saturday I started a project with a charity group to promote the cause of Wells Bring Hope online. It’s an exciting proposition: take the organization’s current site and social media presence and see how far you can take it. The all volunteer team is crafting a communications strategy, more or less, from the ground up. Like many SEOs and social media marketers starting a client project, we aren’t starting from scratch, but are working with the platforms already established.
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Facebook Marketing – Facebook Page Optimisation
This blog post will cover what social media optimisation is and how to optimise a Facebook Page both for search engines and user engagement. Hope it will be an eye opener for you. Overview of Social Media Optimisation (SMO) Social media has been growing at an amazing pace and Bruce Clay has been looking into [...]
August 23, 2010
Search and Social News Bites
Is it just me or did anyone else find it tough to stay up on search industry news with SES San Francisco flying by? Now, going through my feed reader, a number of important news bites are jumping out. Thought these might be worth sharing.
Google Streaming Search Test
Evidence of a test within Google search engine results shows the displayed results changing as a query is entered into the search box. One user reports that the Google home page automatically shifts from a search box on the predominantly white page to a results page with ads as a query is entered. Such instant preview search technology is also called “incremental search.”
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